#which is textually very juicy

[bigboobshaunt]

I do believe Karin is homophobic and a lesbian. It has to be said.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

This is a bigger problem in the fanfic realm as well, because I have recently frequently been running into the problem of being drawn in by shippy fanfics that involve things like captivity, enslavement, and other scenarios that inherently constitute reduced autonomy and thus dubious (at best) consent, but actively refuse to engage with those implications.

And it's frustrating, because these are scenarios that I find compelling, and that have the potential for very rich emotional work. I like the juxtaposition of physical pleasure or emotional fulfillment with feelings of fear and violation, and the shame and self-blame that those feelings bring about. And I like digging into an experience of love and desire that is frighteningly selfish in its negligence towards the personhood of its object.

But I see so many of these fics that are explicitly framed as seeking to avoid these story elements - they'll have an author's note or something at the beginning with something like "I know this is problematic, but I've tried to mitigate the dubcon elements as much as I can!" And I find this... deeply frustrating! Because it's seeking to ameliorate the very dynamics that make this sort of story interesting to me!

And by the refusal to engage with the inherently nonconsensual aspects of these premises, I'm not necessarily referring to fantasy romance plot scenarios in which the characters overcome the violence of their initial dynamic to live happily ever after in a more egalitarian relationship. I can understand that these plots are living inside a sort of non-diegetic BDSM fantasy bubble, and they are still engaging with and deriving their initial eroticism and intimacy from violence implicit in their premises, while using the fantasy aspect to mitigate the actual "realistic" consequences of that violence. (I read some danmei novels that did this in ways I found really enjoyable; I think Hannigram also arguably fits into this mold in certain ways, especially considering that it is a fantasy about the parts of abuse that can feel intensely thrilling and that can make you feel recognized and known in ways no one else can.) What I'm referring to is, well, a refusal to engage at all with that violence and violation; an implementation of these premises that feels like just another pretext for introducing the characters and getting them into a relationship, without attentiveness to the implications of the specific pretext in play.

And there's something worth probing at with these kinds of authors' notes in the sense that... there's a lot of concern in fandom nowadays about "romanticizing" rape and abuse, and the seeming necessity of portraying perfect negotiation and consent in fanfic. And yet these sorts of paratextual framings seem to me to be dangerously mistaken about what consent even is - to be conceiving of it as a magic script with no interpersonal or situational antecedents, one that intrinsically smooths over systemic power differentials or lack of personal trust.

I wonder also if that's actually related to the simplistic approach to textual criticism that I sometimes call "checklist criticism" - the idea that a text can be deemed harmful or not, problematic or not, -ist or not, simply by going through a list of "is x present? check yes or no" bullet points, rather than taking a more holistic approach to the relationship between textual production and broader systems of power, being attentive to the specific premises and genre/stylistic aims of a text, etc. Possibly that's too much of a reach for what is ultimately a complaint about the difficulty of finding really juicy darkfic, but it's worth considering.

[madhogthymaster]

This is Not a Review of In Stars and Time

Let us set the stage.

An entity known as The King has cast a horrible curse upon the land, freezing people in time. It's up to the Chosen One and her friends to save the day. After a long journey, the party arrives at the final town right before the final battle with the final boss. He awaits the heroes at the final castle which was once the house of worship to Change Themselves.

You, the player, are the second to last party member (who joined right before the cute mascot character) and you find yourself "blessed" with the symbolically relevant ability to loop in time - which you discovered after being suddenly crushed to death by a big rock with a sense for dramatic irony. Now, admittedly, the prospect of dealing with Groundhog Day related shenanigans might seem daunting, at first. Dare I say, it might even be emotionally and psychologically taxing, in the long run. However, do not panic! A volunteering social worker has already been sent to "assist" you with your predicament. You can trust them completely.

Now that we have dispensed with the formalities, let's get down to business to defeat The King. Use your newfound powers to help your friends navigate the castle, climb the floors, overcome the obstacles. Be ready to repeat all that several more times. You know the drill. Perhaps, if you do everything right, your buff boyfriend will finally confess his feelings to you.

Wouldn't that be swell?

Wouldn't it?

It would be nice.

It sure would.

...

There will be no additional plot synopsis, at this time.

As I type these few words of appetizing anticipation, I find myself in a predicament of my own: I played In Stars and Time and now I have to talk about it. I have many emotions swirling, dancing incoherently within the very fabric of my being. Feelings that I must convey to you before The Moment passes, you see. I'm not sure I can, though. I'm not sure I can steel my trembling hands for long enough to wax poetically about this being, without hyperbole, one of the best games I played in the past decade. A masterpiece with many juicy layers waiting to be peeled back, one by one. I don't have the energy to write the monstrous essay it deserves for all I want to do is sit in a corner and weep quietly for a few hours, trying to process it all. I'm sad not because it's over but because I can't experience it for the first time ever again. Which is an ironic statement considering the nature of this game, I realize. Allow me to try this again.

Let us set the stage.

In Stars and Time is is a cleverly designed title. The time loop structure works both as a gameplay and thematic device, a means to (purposefully) emphasize the monotonous nature of the RPG grind in relation to the protagonist's deteriorating state, cycle after cycle, play after play. You have your classic meta-textual musings about video games as well as a legitimately gripping tale filled with many twists and turns, good use of symbolism, salient points to make about Trauma and its effect on one's memory, the Fear of Change versus the necessity of it, and Depression. It all comes together by the end in a subjectively satisfying manner and...

...

And...

...

...I have to stop myself.

I'm reducing this deeply personal experience to a mere "review" and that's not what I'm here to do.

I don't know what I'm here to do.

Frankly, there are themes in this game I am not equipped to discuss, such as its intensely felt (and horrifyingly topical) commentary about Diaspora, the shared trauma of cultural displacement, a people fading away from memory like stars in the sky. That kind of analysis would be too much for a simple "review." if this were to be one, I would praise the game for being the best possible version of itself, the best version of a Time Loop story. One that perfectly applies the narrative tropes of the genre to its gameplay, plot, all that jazz. I would also state that it didn't reinvent the wheel of "Indie Gaming" and I could feel inclined to make obligatory comparisons to That One Game because that's the unfair standard by which everything MUST abide! No, I shall not do that. I need to rethink my approach. I am going to take a small break. In the meantime, please enjoy these unrelated GIF files of Christopher Lloyd from Toonstruck that I have lying around on the floor.

I had dinner with the family. It was a small, daily reminder that I am loved unconditionally. That I deserve it. Something that is immensely easy to forget. The meal was tastier than usual.

...

Back to it.

This is the brutally simple truth of the matter: there is a lot to love about In Stars and Time, with its writing, design choices, characters, nuances, big feelings. It has the potential to be a massive crowd pleaser and it would be well-deserved. It's got explicitly gay lore, as well! In case I didn't make it abundantly clear, this game is 100% queer. Every aspect of it, from the characters and the world they inhabit to the culture and its history, is built from the ground up as a queer utopia. You might recall, all the way to the first paragraph of this long-winded, amorphous ramble, I mentioned something about Change with a capital C. That is because the very concept of Change has been deified, becoming the base of a whole religion: an extremely inclusive, open-minded, progressive community that celebrates life in all its multi-faceted forms. A significant portion of its foundation is the magical technique of "Body Craft" which allows the user to literally transform their physical appearance into their preferred shape, one that better reflects who they are. Children are given many names, both male and female, for the purpose of facilitating their own change, should it occur. Literal and figurative transience lies at the heart of this belief system, meaning that about half the population is trans/non-binary, and queerness is normalcy. As a side note, I want to live in this world. Change is viewed as positive, in other words. In light of that, the arrival of a hostile entity with the power to simply stop all of existence from ever progressing by freezing everyone in place might seem like an easy metaphor to read. I assure you, the game is eager for you to make that assumption.

As I mentioned earlier, this story tackles Depression and it doesn't pull its punches when it comes to portray the more "inconvenient" aspects of living with crippling self-esteem issues. That's when the game became a masterpiece to me. I resonated with Siffrin (He/They), the protagonist. That's you!

Their struggle to navigate the constant torment of the loop is paralleled with their increasing mental and emotional instability. Intrusive thoughts overpowering their head, saying he will never be loved, that he's toxic and manipulative. There's the all too familiar frustration of not being understood by others despite not having tried to explain how you really feel to them, trapped as you are in your own head. Big issues are equated to "small" issues. I relate with most of this. Through the Time Loop allegory, In Stars and Time captures the Kafkian Horror of existing as a neurodivergent person who gets in the way of their own happiness. It's isolating, drives a barrier between your loved ones, makes you lose touch with reality. Sometimes you have good days, sometimes you have bad days. Everything eventually blends together in a sickening routine until you either drown or you start swimming furiously.

Then the cycle repeats.

It's too much.

You cannot do it alone.

You are not alone.

Let them in.

Let yourself be loved.

That is, in essence, the reason why I think so highly of this title. I related with the story and characters. Yes, it all comes down to the most obvious thesis statement in the universe. Yes, I probably didn't need to write so much about it but, regardless, I'm glad I did. I poured my feelings towards an Object D'Art onto figurative paper as I was processing them, doing away with any pseudo-intellectual vernacular in order to get to the soul of the matter. I expressed my emotions and I feel better for having done so. Now, I can move on. All that is left to do is to recommend the game.

...

Go play In Stars and Time, I recommend it. It's good.

...

That's about it.

...

You're still here.

...

......

..............

Go away, stupid!

---

A/N:

Thank you for reading this rather personal piece. The article was extrapolated from a thread I wrote down on the subject. You can read that here. I also typed about the official prologue to the game, Start Again, which you can view here.

As a reminder, I have a YouTube channel.

In Stars and Time was developed by Adrienne Bazir. Follow them on Twitter, Tumblr and Itch.io.

Tell the people in your life how much they mean to you, and have a good day.

[toushindai]

Seeing your thoughts on Rauru, I am now curious: how do you approach Ganondorf as a character? How does that compare or contrast with how you think about Rauru?

Thank you for the ask and all your thoughtful comments!! I've really appreciated them.

Approaching Ganondorf has been a different, more conscious process from how I approached Rauru; when I sat down to start brainstorming "A Sense of Entitlement" there was very much a moment where I had to ask myself "well, what am I trying to communicate about Ganondorf here?" I felt like, because I was putting all this mental work into complicating Rauru, I owed it to Ganondorf to complicate him as well, but I don't think the game presents quite as many juicy contradictions in Ganondorf's character. The game doesn't really seem interested in a well-rounded Ganondorf, a Ganondorf who has a point in resisting Hyrule's formation. Which sucks! Thank god we've all invented fanfiction and can do whatever we want forever.

It took me a little while to pin down the exact shape of him, but what I did decide on very early was that he is just deeply unhappy, the way a bottomless pit is unhappy. Nothing can fill him up besides being in control and exerting that control cruelly. Trace that backwards a bit--back further than he is willing to trace it, because there could be weakness at its source--and there is a paranoia, an inability to trust: only force and domination can be trusted to be real, anything else will be toppled when a strong enough force comes along. Any ally who does not fall 100% in line must be brought into line or self-evidently cannot be trusted. And then peel that feeling back a little more and I see alienation and a hideous, howling loneliness. A how-do-you-survive-this loneliness. And that's the feeling I place at his core--though it's well and truly obliterated from his conscious awareness.

I like writing about alienation? Not realizing that you're queer and autistic until you're in your twenties will do that to you, eh. The alienation from his people that I see in Ganondorf I do honestly read as a bit of a queer one, specifically, given that he is the only person in his culture who is going to exist in his gender category for the entire length of his lifespan. I think that has to feel pretty weird! I think it has to feel alienating, even if the form the alienation takes is that of putting him on a pedestal as king (but also, I have to assume--I will take the liberty of assuming--still being suspicious of other voe in a way that would be obviously visible to Ganondorf). In the fic I have him speaking of the Eighth Heroine, and while when I originally wanted that to be something he learned from Twinrova to inspire him to take pride in himself and the people he would one day lead, I uh. I had to nix that idea because the story of the Eighth Heroine doesn't accomplish that. It is not a story that would make a male Gerudo feel welcome among his people OR reassure him of his people's power! (It is frankly a bad story.) So instead it's something he found when he was--as a much younger man--searching for any evidence that a voe might have a place integrated into Gerudo society. The answer he found was "lmao not even if you save our entire ass 😌." He does not like this story. But to acknowledge how rejected it made him feel would be to look at something he believes is weakness, so instead he focuses on his disgust that even the Seven Heroines needed the strength of an outsider to conquer their enemy.

He has no place in his culture but he has an inescapably prescriptive place in his culture. He was raised knowing that he would be king, that everything he desired would be given to him because he is male. It is impossible to say textually what Twinrova wanted for him because they are. easter eggs. and so I just had to make it up: and what I decided was that they wanted him to be a conqueror, to lead the Gerudo and take over the rest of the land (solidified at some point during his lifespan into the kingdom of Hyrule). They wanted him to rule the Gerudo and the Gerudo to rule the world; but when Ganondorf lost his faith in his kinswomen he also lost interest in being an arm of the Gerudo and instead just wanted power for power's sake. I said this in a comment response but if the game is not going to give me a Ganondorf who is resisting Hyrule for the sake of his people--if it is going to give me a Ganondorf who, upon ascension to the form of the Demon King, seemingly abandons his Gerudo soldiers (Gerudo soldiers who were on board with his attacks on Hyrule! COME BACK THAT WAS INTERESTING) to go joyriding with a bunch of monsters and a rather cool horse instead--then I am going to make that a part of the tragedy of his character. It is a tragedy that he is so disconnected from his people. It is an enormous gaping hole inside him, this lack of connection with anyone.

But to acknowledge that, to feel it, would be to feel weak, and he cannot ever allow that. So he converts it all into cruelty and hatred and misery. He looks at people who have allied with each other and judges them weak for loving peace, for joining together instead of tearing each other apart. (In the Japanese, I am told, he explicitly hates the Zonai for accelerating this process.) He looks at any subordinate--or frankly at any other Gerudo--who does not fall in line with his agenda of unflinching conquest and scorns them for disloyalty and softheartedness. He hates whatever he sees and that hatred would be all-consuming if he were not so strong, so deliberately in control of himself. NOT to toot my own horn but I'm damn proud of this sentence:

Each movement is almost a meditation on his rage, fostering a measured alliance with the disgust and hatred he feels.

I think that is how he experiences just about every waking second. He has cut off all his access to happiness that does not come from dominating and taking away the power and happiness of others, and he has walked so far down this path--each step taking him further away from holistic contentment, each step taking him closer to the ability to dominate all he sees--that he could never turn back now.

Urbosa could've fixed him. imo. when he was much younger. (I'm saying this like a joke but I mean it.)

WAit I forgot to get into how he contrasts with Rauru. The thing between them is that both of them want power, want to have power over others; but Rauru hides this from himself because he thinks the desire for power is evil and he wants to think himself good, whereas Ganondorf... I think is probably comfortable thinking of himself as evil, or at least as what others term evil. And his comfort with his desire for power allows him to wield it much more effectively than Rauru does. We've got a bit of a hard power/soft power contrast going on. Ganondorf believes in power and physical force but Rauru's power lies in diplomacy and civility. In the trappings of social niceties. Ganondorf subjects himself to this framework by swearing his false fealty to Hyrule and finds it more ensnaring than he enjoys (he enjoys it zero), but once he has the opportunity to actually act in his own element by seizing Sonia's secret stone, the social niceties are powerless against his brute force.

[rifki16]

At 25:00, in Akasaka Episode Nine Review

Juicy, spicy dumplings

This episode still has the same problems about which I have been shouting textually. However, as this is the pen-finale episode, I think some of the frustrating unexplained behaviors of the main characters finally can and will be slowly explained further in next week’s finale episode. I don’t think that as it stands now, how we can fully understand Shirasaki Yuki, however I dearly hope that I’m proven wrong by the episode.

Before moving into the analysis, I have to commend the episode for doing one job really well: representing consent. I will talk more about Shirasaki’s and Hayama’s characters developments further, however, it was very refreshing to see Hayama stopping his and Shirasaki’s foreplay because he just decided to; Shirasaki then respected Hayama’s decision. Regardless of the flawed plot and character development, that scene, when Shirasaki stopped as Hayama stopped, was still very moving. I hope that more of Japanese BL Live Action showrunners can take this show as an example that consent – something which the plot writers will have plenty of space to be creative about – does not ruin the passion and love of the supposed paramours of the story.

On Shirasaki’s Standing

This is my fervent belief, right: Shirasaki is a very self-assured person and actor, even as he grew up just as a little-known stage and TV actor, he still possesses this quality. He is that in the manga, and I hope that it can be brought on to the LA because I think it lines up perfectly with the plot. When the LA introduced Shirasaki as this very unsure, unconfident, low in self-worth or self-esteem of a person, I went along because maybe some of the plotlines from the manga will be changed in accommodating this change of a personality. The LA sadly still uses a similar plotline with the manga but with a diametrically opposite, character-wise, Shirasaki.

I think it has some good that the LA showed us in episode eight, how tenacious Shirasaki could be in his university years, because it showed us, well at least me, that Shirasaki has some backbone in him. It was then shown effectively in this episode.

We were cut off at the last episode with Shirasaki asking, drunkenly, Hayama to have sex with him. In this episode, of course, Hayama said no. Hayama pointed out that Shirasaki was drunk, too drunk to ask the question. Side note: well, done in teaching the viewers about the inability of inebriated people to give consent. Shirasaki then insisted that he was not that drunk and kept asking Hayama to have sex with him. Hayama refused, said goodbye, and was at the foyer when Shirasaki hugged him from the behind and pleaded to him to have sex with him. Hayama then asked, “what do you mean by that?”. Jenga, bitch. Of course not, he wanted to have sex with you, I really don’t know why he asked what Shirasaki meant by asking him to have sex with Shirasaki-san. Hayama then said that he wanted to really know how to fake having sex for acting.

My first point is this is the confident Shirasaki manifesting, finally, in this episode. The show still hasn’t really told us, explicitly, what happened in between his graduation and the current time. However, I think this scene really told us that Shirasaki can still be an assertive person and actor. You can argue that the first manifestation happened during the time Shirasaki asked to go on fake dates with Hayama, however, I don’t think that it was as bold as this one. I don’t know why his confident self needed the crush/love to Hayama to come out, but I’m glad that we can see the, rational to the plot, self-confident Shirasaki.

Secondly, I don’t get the LA’s over reliance on this acting lesson trope. I mean, I think it’s because the show I Became the Main Role of A BL Drama only had 3 episodes in them, I did not really think too deeply about said trope use. It was annoying that Yuichiro kept avoiding Hajime and kept dodging his fondness of Hajime. I don’t think that the show transitioned well from showing Yuichiro as with wishy-washy behavior in showing his likeness to Hajime to the confident, I’m-ready-to-die-together Yuichiro. My point is: this trope is quite hard to let go of so that a true romantic relationship between the two love interests can finally come out. Hence, why are we dragging this trope until the pen-finale episode? I don’t know how Hayama will finally come out of his shell in the finale and assert to Shirasaki that he just doesn’t see him only as a coworker but also as a lover.

My perspective on a somewhat healthy coworkers-turned-to-lovers trope is entirely based on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I mean, I still think that forcing Amy to go on a date with Jake was regrettable, however the trope was done well in the show. The point is the show taught me that in executing the trope, one thing is essential: the two lovers must have some form of acknowledgment of where they are as two people, and how their relationship change can affect their position, socially, in their environment. This was also replicated in Abbott’s Elementary.

That crucial conversation was never done in this series. Shirasaki never asked Hayama what it would be like to date a coworker or whether he would like to do it, and Hayama never hinted his willingness/affront in dating coworkers. I mean, at least in I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama, Hajime talked a lot about doing acting lessons with his coworker to the point of kissing together and was asking around whether that kind of lesson was normal or whether it was OK for the acting lesson to make you feel feelings; this never happened here. So, forgive me for saying that this show cannot save itself from the unsatisfiable trope of acting lesson, because it has never begun to resolve the coworkers-turned-to-lovers trope, no matter how good the finale episode might be.

All of this could have really been avoided had the LA just used the manga characteristics. I mean, in the manga, they never really left the acting lesson trope as well, because Shirasaki was that bitch, after the finale episode taping, he rode his pole, then he skedaddled. He knew that Hayama has his eyes on someone else, he accepted it, he graciously thanked Shirasaki for all the private pole sessions, as well as the acting lessons which we were never really showed. Hayama then did something that broke the coworkers-turned-to-lovers trope, he came over to Shirasaki’s and asked why he left after, finally, having penetrative sex with him. Then they explained to each other on the misunderstanding then Hayama fell asleep. That was neat right? No unnecessary meaningless back-and-forth contemplations of whether Hayama liked him back or something.

Yeah, well, we can’t have everything I suppose.

Hayama as this standing, sage, old, wise tree

I’m not writing more on this trope. Except for two things, why did Hayama just stand there as Shirasaki was having this whole speech about saying goodbye. What was that? Huh?

Secondly, I really hope to anything above, that we will be shown as to what happened in Hayama’s head that he stopped Shirasaki from going out after he cleaned out his stuff from Hayama’s place.

Fun fact, in the manga, it was Hayama’s drunk self, in the beginning, that who the non-penetrative sex with Shirasaki. It’s kinda weird seeing the roles reversed.

This is not connected to the show at all, but the generic yet sentimental goodbye speech of Shirasaki was quite moving. Saying goodbye is hard, moving on and venturing to new areas is quite frightening, but sometimes, you just have to do it. I have actually been writing my manuscript again, and I think I’m finally starting to be able to face facts that I’m going to graduate from my university and start a new chapter in my life.

I’m not holding out hope that the finale episode will save the series, vis-à-vis their plotline logic. However, I think the show is worth in seeing right until the end.

[maskofenigma]

another fallen london essay ramble whoo boy (i dont plan these btw) (spoilers for firmament and light fingers in particular plus general spoilers)

ok so do yall remember that one line in Firmament Chapter three where Summer drinks moon milk and looks directly at the player character and nothing happens? if not i get it, that section was pretty hard to follow and it was ultimately inconsequential and also optional so here it is

(from the fallen london wiki - Suggest Summer do it instead)

anyone whos played Light Fingers or is familiar with that plotline knows that this makes zero sense. even normal moon milk has extreme effect if ingested. and unless we're going to have some kind of toxic romance arc with Summer (which would be great but given the lack of foreshadowing and other aforementioned reasons is highly unlikely) we can chalk this up to sloppy writing and unfamiliarity with that ambition on whoever wrote this. such frustration seems to be the consensus on this chapter, at least on here

But! ive been following some liveblogging of early Light Fingers, reminiscing etc etc, when i remembered one other odd tie in to moon milk, in the cave of the nadir. now analyzing the nadir is similarly difficult to zenith because its very vauge and theres a lot of disconnected elements in there all in service of making a place thats confusing and dangerous and unknowable and whatever so take this with a grain of zalt. im sure theres some juicy deeplore in there but what i want to focus on is this

(from the fallen london wiki - "It was the milk... it was the milk, wasn't it?")

this is a weird callout, right? afaik thats one of the very few connections to an ambition in the nadir, alongside whatever the frost moth does in nemesis (havent gotten there yet). so like what gives? its not an especially rewarding action, and it doesnt progress the ambition or anything. its possible, given this comes after the orphanage section, that these two are like escapees of the orphanage after the fire / riot, but it could also be some disconnected memory its all very difficult to discern. and even if that is the case it doesnt really tell us much except maybe foreshadowing for Hephesta's situation. the best i can say is that, taken in context with the other options on that card, maybe its a parallel to Clarabelle's situation, with the references to eggs? there has to be some reason behind this reference, and if there isnt one, than at least let me headcanon this

i think the two instances above tell us very little on their own, but taken in together have fascinating implications. irrigo and violant are thematically opposed colors, forgetting vs remembering, and zenith / the nadir are explicitly connected both textually and in their names (zenith means the highest point of a space or object, nadir means the lowest), so that they both reference moon milk is interesting to say the least. I think this could be telling us that moon milk has different effects when under these two neathbow colors. Moon milk induced obsession seems to be resistant to the psyche destroying affects of the nadir, persisting for the two people in a place where memory is actively unravelled. the woman, even as she tells her companion to forget her, still clearly recalls the affect of the moon milk and her newfound obsessions. maybe this is somehow due to the milk's affect of overwhelming the victims previous life, in essence forcing them to forget what was previously important to them. or maybe, given irrigo's connection with lack of perception and drawing inward, the idea is that when the victim has nothing else to cling to in the nadir, the love instilled by the moon milk persists as a sort of internal source of comfort. in zenith, the violant light seems to dull or entirely nullify the milk's effects if that moment with Summer is to be believed. its stated that the violant forces the player character to be aware of every detail at once, able to perceive even distant objects with total clarity, splitting your attention everywhere at once. the way moon milk works is just an extreme version of a classic love potion: a victim falls deeply in love specifically with the first thing they see. maybe, because one perceives everything at the same time, the moon milk cannot properly take effect. or maybe the violant is just too oppressive, preventing the milk from occupying a victims thoughts as they are overwhelmed by the light.

whatever the case may be this is a very odd pairing. for a section so filled with moon misers, firmament has very little by way of references to Light Fingers, odd given thats one of the main places one would encounter a moon miser. no comment. and that moment in the nadir has always struck me as peculiar, if only for it being seemingly out of nowhere and disconnected to everything else. but moon misers are linked to apocyanic light with some degree of regularity, so i dont think its too great a stretch to connect them to other neathbow colors as well. one wonders how everyones favorite roof beetles might be affected by the other colors of the neath. even if im totally off base and disproven by some text in the high sancta or sunless skies or whatever there has to be something here im sure of it. or maybe ive lost it who knows certainly not me okay bye

[polutrope]

ok who IS the canon character whom you hc as Maglor’s husband I have been thinking about this all day and I’m dying to know actually!!

Hehehe. Okay, well, at the risk of upsetting both textual ghost enthusiasts (I have real guilt about this) and OTP shippers of two hugely popular fandom ships... it's Glorfindel.

The entire reason is that I fell in love with their dynamic in Healing wounds by @ettelene and the Remix of that fic, Come Tomorrow (You Won’t Find Me Here) by @maglors-anion-gap, in which they get together in the third age.

In Ettelene's fic, she has Glorfindel crushing on Maglor back in Valinor and I was like, "Okay but what if it was reciprocated?" I was already tinkering with a Maglor's husband OC and Glorfindel found his way into the role. 

It's pretty random, I confess, but there is a certain appeal to it, which I will demonstrate below the cut:  

Aesthetically impeccable. Maglor appreciates beauty, okay?

A son of Fëanor getting with a half-Vanya (as I hc Glorfindel to be) is juicy (Fëanor does support it, by the way; Fingolfin finds that pretty rich).  

I like that it provides opportunity to explore Maglor’s non-musical interests. I mean, we don’t know what Glorfindel was into, but both of them do later become badass warriors and I think a bit of that trait, if not the actual activity, was in them before Beleriand. 

I hc Glorfindel as a cousin of Elenwë and old friend of Turgon. So, that friendship came first. This is so drama for a Glorfindel/Maglor marriage. (I might write it one day, so I won’t tell the whole story, but in brief: their estrangement starts pre-Darkening, Glorfindel ditches him post-kinslaying, and officially dumps him – as nicely as he can manage – at Mithrim. I do love making Maglor’s no good very bad time even worse.)

Angst of Glorfindel just disappearing to Gondolin, only for Maglor to a) learn ~450 years later that he died or b) never learn that he died. 

Opportunity for awkward encounter (and reconciliation?) with beach hermit Maglor in the second or third age.

For those concerned, the endgame is still Daemags and Glorthelion here. With room for others in between. (Or if I’m in a fix-it mood it’s all four of them in post-canon Valinor.) 

The only existing fic that explicitly incorporates this headcanon is a fun post-canon Daemags that Ettelene wrote for me, A contest. But in Laughing All the Way, Turgon calls out young Maglor for having a crush on him.

[creativenicocorner]

⭐️ :D

Thank you so much @verdigrispatina!

It's practically Hogswatch so lets ramble about the Sto Helit family!!!

Despite how dormant my Discworld writing is atm Im always full of Thoughts, and much like with Moist von Lipwig, if I sit and think too long about the Sto Helits and Death family I just find myself emotionally compromised

They're so needlessly wacky and dysfunctional I swear!!

Anyways one of these days within the ♬ﾟThe Sto Helit Family ♪♪♪♪ [snap snap] series I'm going to write several 'little' fics exploring Ysabell and Lady Sybil's friendship - I'm convinced they were at least penpals (and that they met during Ysabell and Mort's wedding) And with that leads to so many IMPLICATIONS and juicy tidbits to discover

Like...were they at Sybil and Vimes's wedding? Were they there?!?! Was it them that suggested to Death to try and be more approachable (causing him to try doing knock knock jokes of all things??)

Textually we don't know, obviously, there is only one small throw away line in Men at Arms that hints to Lady Sybil's friendship with the Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit (when she's telling Sam she knows a nice young couple in search of a new captain of the guard)

But in my little sand box world we are taking that line and Firmly Grasping It haha

Also, because I think it would be absolutely uncomfortably hilarious, I would LOVE to find the time to write Dinner Party Fic - in which Ysabell and Mort attend a fancy dinner party (either hosted by them, or at the Ramkin estate) where there's a death at the party which turns into a very quirky Who Done It. Cue Vimes considering Mort as suspect number 1, much to Sybil's chagrin, and Death finding this very interesting indeed. Spoiler, it wasn't Mort lol I don't know still who the real perpetrator will be...tempted to make it natural causes hahaha

Anyways here's a little snippet:

Vimes observed this so called Duke, he had been to many of his wife’s dinner parties and felt that he Knew The Type - yet this Duke didn’t seem very, well, Duke-y. That is to say, the Duke of Sto Helit didn’t fill out the first imagined picture that would pop into his head when he thought Duke. Instead the picture was more ‘flying by the seat of my pants’-esque. Vimes grinned. This was interesting. Sure the Duke of Sto Helit occasionally looked around like he was searching for a handbook on how to be a nob, but ever so often he would give a Look. Not like the sort Assasins would give which was calculating how much it would cost to get you killed, but something all together different. The cost didn’t matter it was bound to happen eventually.

Also ALSO imagine after Ysabell and Mort's death, in which Sybil tries to reach out to Susan OOF I don't think that would be easy.

Yet through it all, I think it would be funny if Vimes doesn't fully Get that the Sto Helits have a literal connection to Death, like yeah there's rumors and a little blurb in Twerps Peerage we know textually exists due to Hogfather - but would Vimes even want to know? Or care?? Despite Vimes and Death's continuous 'near Vimes experiences'?? I haven't decided yet! We'll figure that out together I suppose haha

in OTHER news... here's a The Runaway's Gamble spoiler presented with little to no context!

«You know in my previous incarnation I was once a rain god?» "What does that have to do with messages?" asked Susan. «Not too much I suppose. Not a lot of writing on rain drops.» The joke fell flat before Susan's deadpan. The deity pressed on, unfazed: «There is of course, some sort of symbology in it. A message of well, crops growing, life continuing etc etc…then an explosion happened and, well, old god new tricks, turned into the moisture of caves, promise of running water - lot of life symbology in water.» "And?" «Well things certainly get quite chthonic in a cave - one thing led to another, and BAM part of the chthonic subsection B under paragraph 34-7 depicting the chthonic agreement.» "I'm starting to loose my patience here," said Susan quite levelly, "what does this have to do with you having a letter from my mother?" Once Rain God now Messenger, among a load of other things, Fedecks beamed and spaked thusly: «Psychopomp. Messenger and Psychopomp.» "Oh."

AaAAaAaAaaAnd tada! I'm sorry for always teasing things with this fic, I promise I'm working on it!! It's one of my 2024 goals to actually finish it haha

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗Thank you so much for your question!! Happy Hogswatch! ˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

[bestworstcase]

hwsasdlfj I did not mean to get you off on a shipping tangent with that question lmao but thank you so much for the thorough response. Even as someone who enjoys engaging with the ship occasionally I do not understand why so much of the discussion around ruby and oscar's dynamic (romantic or otherwise) trends shallow when it's not like there's a complete lack of substance in the text itself.

SALUTES

i do not control the tangents either they just spill out. uncontrollably. hrghfhr i read a tremendous amount of shipping meta for being very much not a shipper (<- morbidly fascinating) and being me this has the side effect of generating a big pile of “if you’re going to argue this argue it RIGHT RARGH” mental commentary so if the opportunity presents itself—lmao.

but yeah the ruby/oscar fanon is so funny to me because on the one hand i get the impression of a forever war over canonicity with the ruby/weiss people which YOU WOULD THINK? would correlate to more a more textually grounded approach to the ship. but the reality is more i read ruby/oscar meta and i think “these are the moonvarian people” which is deeply unkind of me but also, holy moly. they do have interesting and narratively juicy things going for them so naturally the shippers Ignore All That to talk about, like, the deep symbolic importance of street lamps in oscar’s general vicinity this one time.

(<- real.)

i really am convinced it’s rooted in distaste for ozlem—the textual underpinning for canonical ruby/oscar is the ozlem reunion (and of course the ozlem reunion is crucial for getting ozma out of oscar, which is, um, obviously prerequisite for ruby/oscar to eventuate) and if you try to, as a lot of ruby/oscar people seem to do, put forward ruby/oscar as a narrative refutation of ozlem (a la ‘the generation that does it right’ or in ickier forms just straight up framing of ruby as the wholesome rebound) you kind of do have to cherry-pick things very carefully. and the type of person who seethes over ozlem is probably inclined to be sanding down the edges of their preferred ships anyway. so

[llycaons]

honestly that kiss looked really bad so i'm dreading it

and it was. but besides that very bad kiss scene, I thought the acting here from dt was really gripping. and while aziraphale's decision to suddenly see heaven as the good guys again doesn't really make sense given his character development in s1, if you put that aside the drama is insanely juicy and I'm kind of living for it because part of me still loves dumb schlocky romantic tragedy and we KNOW a season 3 is coming because neilman knows he can milk this forever

and nina and maggie rule and I love muriel. more details + meandering thoughts under the cut

first off I hate this stupid ooc bullshit romance that's SO bad-het-romance coded despite them being technically nonbinary I hope they never come back and also NONE of this affected beelzebub's behavior at all??? this wasn't even a twist, it was a random event that bore no connection to anything at all and came completely out of nowhere. there was a lot in this finale that was actually decent writing, but this wasn't it

in a broader sense, not that most of this season was GOOD but at least it was bad in a fun way. this is like nails on a chalkboard to me

muriel should be their kid or something she's so cute

nina talking to crowley like he and aziraphale are tropes on an ao3 page is so fucking funny because that's exactly what they are

SAY THAT. I'm really glad they don't get together honestly nina's relationship stuff was too much and you can't play with people's lives like that. obviously!

the acting here was genuinely so harrowing I shan't hear a word against DT for this. his voice is shaking, he's jittery, he's nervous. perfect tragic confession scene he looks about to start crying

SUSPICIOUS

so it seems like he took this job for crowley but then later he tells crowley it's bc heaven are the good guys so it seems like he hadn't broken out of his mindset even after 4 years...dude...

also I guess jesus is coming back next season lmao

TELL HIM CROWLEY. they ARE toxic and you SHOULD run away together

LIKE??!!!! you DON'T BELIEVE THAT REALLY DO YOU!!!

aww muriel

like I said above, the kiss was truly so bad. I don't like surprise kisses anyway in fiction bc I think they're unpleasant but this was also just really bad. clearly neither of them having a good time, very sexless and awkward despite being desperate, and went on for WAY too long. I had to cover my eyes for a bit of it im sorry

I read a fic once where crowley hooked up with the wife of his late lover and I gotta say. I KNOW that he's never so much as held hands with anyone else. so of course it's bad but that's no excuse for a bad watching experience. come on, neilman. the people want to be fed schlocky forbidden romance and you have DT do THIS?! more of a disappointment than az's decision here if I'm being honest

the relief of having them textually confirmed as romantic actually came before the kiss when he was comparing them to beelzebub and gabriel....like the confession was kind of enough for me....but do I think that only because I KNEW a kiss was coming? if they hadn't kissed, would I still be angry about it being gaybait?

also I thought the acting afterwards was weird. why did aziraphale look so, idk, horrified? that more than anything else would convince me that he's also super inexperienced which is stupid because in MY head aziraphale's been off having gay sex for ages....and "I forgive you' UGH. sometimes canonizing the bait just makes it awkward and smashes your dearly held hcs huh. actually this is why I've settled into accepting that cql is censored and the story shows as much as it can because my headcanons are so elaborate and precious to me and sometimes even just a line trying to support the romance shakes them in their foundations...the letter last year was really cute though I'm glad we got that. ALSO WHY DIDN'T THEY GET TOGETHER AFTER S1. STILL NO EXPLANATION

in any case, aziraphale's decision doesn't make a whole lot of sense since crowley isn't even coming with him/refused his offer to restore him and it's not like aziraphale has any concrete plan for reforming heaven. also how could he offer that anyway, doesn't he know crowley at all?

ah the music was so lovely anyway

mixed feelings on this one. really excited to see some things, not super thrilled about the rest. will be watching s3 so I guess neilman won but I had a kick out of this season so I don't regret watching it

ep6 notes

I expect this one to be the worst, which is a bit of a shame because ep5 was genuinely quite fun

first half: honestly not bad except for the one part that was really bad but I skipped through it

on second thought from last episode, making that guest unable to directly discuss sex work was because all the characters have to talk like jane austen characters...which kind of makes sense if you're strictly talking about the actual books, but it's not like sex work didn't exist in jane austens time, and the audience is not guaranteed to know that 'seamstress' was a euphemism for sex work in terry pratchetts books

aziraphale doesn't even understand jane austen be cause the love stories are NEVER as simple as he seems to think they are

crowley in heaven is really fun

this is the ugliest he's ever looked. I am so happy

he's walking so stupidly

"i'm done being scared I'm brave now" is such a dumb character development. no buildup no struggle she just decided. reminiscent of the thin and cliche writing of s1

gabriel's purple eyes are so fucking ugly

gabriel is ooc here. this is NOT who was in s1

LMAO

love this line LOVE it

this moment was so cute? I love seeing crowley relaxed with being nice

HIS HALO?!

this plotline is so stupid. THEY WOULD NOT SAY THAT

dang I hope the actress was actually busy and they didn't recast them just because they wanted someone prettier

I skipped the flashback because I'm so fundamentally opposed to this idea, but gabriel at least is funny in his self-absorption. beelzebub has like. no personality tho. just random lines

YOU BITCHES WILL NEVER BE AZCROW. how do they have so little repression they're the top-ranked guys of their places

okay this was funny

aziraphale ringing the bell was also funny

[skyeventide]

situation in which feanor is right: the renaming of Amrod. even in cultures where names don't have such a strong cultural and prophetic meaning, giving a kid a "bad" name is a weird move. most people would lowkey think that the parent is like, a bit of an ass. but in cultures where names bear a lot of weight, are considered prophetic and genuinely that important (like among elves, but also in actual real life cultures), a "bad" name is a genuinely awful move. and frankly, Tolkien is a bit weird with twins, where either they embody two antitheses (elrond and elros) or they're virtually indistinguishable (elured and elurin, even possibly elladan and elrohir), and with amrod and amras a tension with regard to this comes to the surface: they call each other ambarussa, so do other people, they're alike in mood and face, and in most texts they act in unison; except, if you dig enough, they are quite different at their core (for example, in his one attempt to distinguish them, Tolkien has one of them regret the kinslaying. the other? not even close.) all this is to say, both narratively and on the character level, amrod and amras struggle to be distinguished — and yet a personal identity strives to come to the surface of the text. they are alike, but actually not really. they perceive themselves as a single-named unit, but actually feel very differently at key moments. this problem of textual identity is juicy, because it's very in line with what might happen when two people, two twins are named the same by their own mother (which brings the level of the character to the level of the text, in-the-story matched by the outside-story metanarrative). a personhood that must, should be, and is there is denied at its origin (by the mother, by other people, by the writing) but develops as their paths fork. psychologically, this original denial is a shit move. their father is correct in begging for a different name (begging is the actual verb used in text). and going from the same-naming to giving one a "bad" name is a worse move than the first. it's petty and even more psychologically damaging, and there isn't even a single reason why their father shouldn't have changed that to something different, better both for the child and culturally speaking. the spiritual and prophetic importance of it goes on top of the personal impact, and it's a little weird to treat this name change like it's absurd. I feel sometimes people tend to make up stuff about characters (and sometimes Feanor in particular) so that a given situation fits their existing concept of who that character is: in this case, confirmation bias makes it so that a perfectly valid move is instead read as unreasonable or overbearing.

[dennona]

Let's talk about lighting and its symbolic use in Moon Knight

Specifically, I mostly wanna talk about the use of coloured lighting. I've been doing a lot of (video) editing with Moon Knight recently, and through that I've picked up on a few major reoccurring lighting choices that I think hold a lot of meaning.

first (and perhaps foremost): orange lighting.

I've seen a lot of people talk about how Moon Knight subverts colour symbolism's most basic uses and meanings (like in this great post), and I think the use of orange lighting absolutely falls into this category. Orange is mostly associated with optimism, positivity, and emotional warmth but this meaning is flipped on its head in the show, instead representing danger and feelings of wrongness (for lack of a better word lol). I won't mention every occurrence of this, but here are some key textual examples...

The bathroom jackal scene (ep1):

It's a bit more subtle than other examples, but this is basically our introduction to the warm / orange lighting motif. This is probably the most scared steven has been in his life, and it's certainly the most danger he personally has ever faced. It's a pretty basic example, but significant nonetheless as it sets up our expectations for the rest of the series.

The Steven vs jackal fight (ep2):

This may not be the best screenshot I could have grabbed, but this scene is very much dominated by orange / warm lighting. Once again, Steven finds himself in an uncharacteristic amount of danger - hence the orange lighting. What makes this more interesting, however, is considering how the threat of the jackal is subjective and changes based on whos fronting, and how the lighting corresponds to this. While Steven, at this point, can't quite take down the jackal himself, it's really no problem for Marc. We see this more literally in Marc's swift and effective neutralisation of the threat, but then also in the way he literally changes the setting.

Marc physically removes himself from the orange lighting and into a darker, cool-toned atmosphere which we could consider to be more his 'domain' (this is something I'll expand on later). In this way, Marc both awards himself power by moving into a setting he's more aligned with, but also hints to the audience that his success in this fight is inevitable (whereas for Steven, in his orange lighting, triumph would be more up-for-debate and dangerous to achieve).

The Cairo hotel room (ep2):

There's a lot of debate on whether it's Marc or Jake fronting in this clip, but regardless I think the reason this is one of the most orange-saturated scenes in the show is to signpost Marc's self-destructive tendencies and the danger he poses to himself. Even if it is Jake that we are literally seeing in this moment, I firmly believe that the damage and destruction we see (the bleeding hand, depleated bottle, destroyed furniture and glass shards) is a direct result of Marc's relapse into self-destruction as a coping mechanism. It makes sense that Marc may turn to this kind of dangerous emotional outlet after everything we see in the first two episodes: Harrow gets the scarab, Marc is forced to confront Layla for the first time in months and see her be put in danger after painfully leaving their marriage in the name of protection, and the walls between himself and Steven crumble further (consequently putting Steven in danger too). So, then, the vivid orange lighting in this clip serves to show us the heightened danger Marc poses to himself, rather than a danger posed by some outside force like before.

Wendy Spector

Oh boy, now this is where it gets juicy. Like the colour orange, Wendy -as a mother- is supposed to be warm, compassionate, and a positive force in Marc's life. Instead, Wendy becomes the embodiment of fear and danger for young Marc. Notably, we're introduced to Wendy Spector before she chooses abusive behaviours in the face of grief. We meet Wendy while she's still kind and loving as a mother - or any parent - should be. Also notably, we see this version of Marc's mom in natural (uncoloured) lighting, unbiased and untained. This becomes significant since after Randall's death, she is only ever depicted in orange and warm lighting. This dramatic and total shift in the lighting Wendy is associated with and seen in illustrates just how dangerous she becomes to the people around her, dangerous enough that she's associated with similar lighting to massive supernatural threats such as Harrow and Ammit.

Darker and cool-toned lighting

Darker and cool-toned lighting is visually the antithesis of the warm lighting we see above, so it makes sense that it is ultimately aligned with power and success (specifically for Marc but also the other protagonists as well). It also makes sense that this would be the case since Marc takes up the role of Moon Knight and serves Khonshu, who is (funny enough) god of the moon and night. Consequently, dark lighting comes to signpost and symbolize the system's power and success. I've already talked briefly about Marc moving away from the orange and into the darker lighting that is more his 'domain,' so the only additional example I'll supply for this one is the final Harrow/Ammit fight scene:

While scenes including Harrow and Ammit before were mostly saturated with orange (symbolising threat and danger), the climactic final fight features very little orange lighting. The presence of some warmer lighting, however, shows us how the danger hasn't entirely disappeared. Yet still, the much more dominant shadows and cool tones also show us that our protagonists are poised to win, and the threat of Ammit and Harrow is far less now. I think this shift is directly related to Steven and Marc's time in the Duat, which allowed them to begin down a road of healing and teamwork (and consiquentally made them more effective than when they were constantly at eachother's throats).

I've also got some fun ideas about how purple colouring / lighting is used - especially how it's consistently coupled with Harrow but also Layla and the Duat which i find so interesting. Alas, that is a post for another time cause this is already long enough lol.

[overwatch-does-stuff]

Okay, it’s time for some deep nerdery to speculate about Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 has 30+ characters. That’s one hell of a large ensemble. If Blizzard had any brain cells, they would probably try and take a similar approach to how Marvel handled their large cast in Avengers: Infinity War.

Remember Infinity War? It functioned as a movie by keeping its groups of characters small (at most five people per group) but also by choosing ‘main characters’ that it focused most of its emotional energy on (most notably, Ironman, Dr. Strange, Vision, Thor, Thanos, and Gamora). The main characters were the ones with emotional arcs and therefore had the most screentime. The rest of the cast was quite static. Also, characters in different groups rarely, if ever got to interact with any characters outside of their group, with the rare exception of a quip or two.

My suspicion is that Overwatch 2 is going to do a VERY similar thing. This means that the roster of Overwatch heroes are going to be divided up into groups and assigned either main character or side character status.

So who’s going to be in each group? That I can’t tell you. As Marvel has shown, characters are grouped up not based on character compatibility, or even arc potential, but instead on what would best make the plot go forward. (For example, raise your hand if you predicted that Ironman, Spiderman, and Dr. Strange would team up with Starlord, Mantis, and Drax for the climax. No one? That’s what I thought.)

What I can predict, however, is whether each Overwatch hero is going to be given main character status or not. My predictions are going to be based on lore importance and current emotional arcs that have been set up the Overwatch continuity. Unfortunately, fan favoritism or previous screen time is not a good indicator (again, as shown in Infinity War.: raise your hand if you predicted that Captain F*cking America would have less than fifteen minutes screentime?) and therefore will not be counted in my evaluation.

NOTE: It is assumed that the plot of Overwatch 2 will be the plot that was introduced in the Zero Hour short, along with the gameplay trailer.

I’ll go tank/damage/support, alphabetically through each section.

D.va- Oh, poor D.va. Unfortunately, I think she’s just going to be a side character. Being so unconnected with the rest of the cast is a death sentence for plot importance. The only way I can see her being a major player is in an indirect way- if Blizzard decides to focus on the “Omnic From the Sea” they teased at in the short Shooting Star.

Orisa- Orisa is not so cleanly cut. Given that she was created to defeat Doomfist, she has potential to be the one who takes him down. They’re narrative and thematic rivals (an analysis of which could be a whole other post) which made me finally decide that she’ll be main character status. I know that seems like a cop-out, but given how Doomfist is the main face of villainy, her connection with him makes her important.

Reinhardt- I’m going to be massacred for this, but I don’t see any universe where Reinhardt is a main character. His character is static, his connection with old Overwatch is the most flimsy out of the oldies, and most of his backstory has already been explored. He’s going to be a side character, relegated to a mentor to Brigitte.

Roadhog- Nope. Side character. He and Junkrat fall into the same boat. Not being a part of Overwatch and having no connections to any characters in Overwatch makes more than passing screentime impossible.

Sigma- OUR BOY SIGMA is going to get no screentime, calling it right now. He’s going to be firmly relegated to side character status. Why? Although he might be a serious fan favorite, his lore and the conflict it introduces (the cosmic horror of the universe) doesn’t really apply to the rest of Overwatch. We know he’s affiliated with Talon, but more like a weapon than a character. He’s got serious redemption potential, but the arc would be very. . . simple. As soon as he gets to Overwatch the arc would be over. 

Winston- MAIN CHARACTER. Our mans is currently the driving force behind the majority of the plot (that isn’t whatever Talon’s doing). He’s the one who recalled Overwatch. Enough said. If he doesn’t get an arc about learning how to be a leader, I am going to be shocked.

Wrecking Ball- lol side character. Given how Blizzard hasn’t made any attempt to treat him more than a walking gimmick, he’s going to be such a side character that he might blend into the background.

Zarya- This is another character that makes me hesitate. At first glance, she’s in the same boat as D.va in that she has no personal connections with the lore or the main cast. HOWVER, she’s directly involved in the conflict of Overwatch 2 because she is currently fighting Omnics in Russia AND has been trying to track down Talon on her own for a while now. Plus, she also has a very juicy potential character arc: she’s racist towards Omnics. Her comic touched on the fact that she has the potential to outgrow her prejudice. This leads me to believe that Zarya is going to be one of the main characters, if a more minor one than the rest.

---

Ashe- Side character. Her connection to McCree ensures that she’ll get some juicy interactions, but not enough to be considered a main character. More than likely she’ll be contacted to help out with the plot conflict, but she’s not going to have any sort of arc or emotional connection with other characters beyond snarky one-liners.

Bastion- . . . I hate this, but I don’t trust Blizzard to give Bastion the relevance they deserve as a character. Don’t get me wrong, I think Bastion will be important to the plot of stopping the rogue Omnics, but I think Bastion themselves will be treated as a McGuffin. They’re mute and prone to acting naively, which is not conducive to character agency. I’m going treat McGuffin as a third category to my predictions.

Doomfist- literally the Thanos of this conflict. He’s going to be a main character, but I doubt he’ll get any character development, because that’s what Reaper is for.

Echo- Main character. It’s pretty much guaranteed by the fact that McCree sought her out in his animated short and that she was once the payload of Route 66. The Overwatch narrative also treats her as the “sPeCiAl OmNiC” that’s somehow more advanced/better/more sentient than the rest of the Omnic cast. As much as I think the role that they’re going to give her would be better suited for Bastion or Zenyatta, I just know that Blizzard is going to give her the full main character treatment. She’s going to be the magical bridge between Omnics and humans. Count me mad about it.

Genji- I love our ninja boy, and he’s an honorary mascot of the game, but as far as arcs go he just finished his. He’s finally found inner peace. That’s not a good sign for main-character-ism. However, he has tons and tons of connections to the rest of the cast and the lore. . . but I don’t think it’s enough. I think he’s going to end up as the character that other characters are able to bounce off of. Everybody knows him, so they’ll be talking to him a lot, but he isn’t going to drive the plot with his own struggles. He’s a side character. His brother, however. . .

Hanzo- As one of the two people in the Overwatch roster actively undergoing a serious life crisis, I suspect that Hanzo is going to be a main character. The fact that he and his goals are not connected to Talon or Overwatch is a detractor, but his emotional turmoil as established in the short Dragons is too important too ignore. His decisions, however reckless and hot-headed they will be, will significantly impact the plot. Why? Because his potential for redemption is such juicy story bait. Also, he could bring in an entire other faction, the Shimada Clan, into the plot, and that could be a game-changer.

Junkrat- Side character. The same reasoning for Roadhog applies here. He’s not connected in any way to the cast. The only potential mystery about him is the ‘treasure’ that’s been alluded to over and over again. If he has this story bait, why am I calling him a side character? Unfortunately, it’s because his ‘treasure’, whatever it is, is going to be a McGuffin. Junkrat’s going to be lucky if he avoids the same status.

McCree- A side character, but an important one. This decision was a difficult one. He’s got the lore and the connections to the other characters but not the internal character arc. He was an active player in unleashing Echo, but it’s also hinted at that he isn’t going to join the recalled Overwatch, instead striking out to do his own thing. That’s not conducive to being a major player in the story. However, his connections and conversations with other characters might, in the same way I’ve predicted Genji’s might, motivate other characters to drive the plot forward.

Mei- Side character. Nothing much else to say. Her focus on climate science isn’t going to be super relevant to the Omnic plot. She’s got only a very loose connection with other characters in the form of her Overwatch membership.

Pharah- I hate this, I hate this, I hate this, but she’s going to be a side character, calling it right now. She’s got so much potential because of her relationship with her mom, but that’s about it. Ana is her only connection to the rest of the cast. It’s important that they reconcile, but their reconciliation has nothing to do with any other plot point. It’s isolated. That’s not a good sign for her screen time, especially considering that she’s not looking for Ana and Ana is not looking for her.

Reaper- MAIN CHARACTER. You should have seen this coming. As the primary instigator of the plot (aka the reason Winston recalled Overwatch,) it should be meta-textually obvious why he’s going to have a lot of screentime. He’s directly responsible for a significant chunk of the unresolved lore conflict within old Overwatch. In order to resolve it, we’re going to be seeing him, a lot.

Soldier 76- Main character, for exactly the reasons listed above. As Reaper’s foil and the person who’s hunting him down, Soldier is going to be pretty important in concluding that unresolved conflict. It’s destiny. Like in a murder-soulmates kinda way.

Sombra- Tricky, tricky, tricky. . . it’s difficult to say. It all depends, I think, on the amount of emphasis Blizzard places on her conspiracy. If she’s the only character who knows exactly what’s going on, that could set her up to be very plot relevant. However, her relationship with other characters and to the rest of the Overwatch lore is shaky at best. I’m going to leave this one blank. There’s just too much we don’t know.

Symmetra- Here we have the other person in the Overwatch roster that is actively undergoing a serious life crisis that I alluded to. Symmetra might at first seem unrelated to everything- the lore, the characters, etc, but Blizzard has set up a surefire redemption arc for her that needs to be resolved. She is going to realize that Vishkar and Talon are connected, and she is going to make the decision to either go full villain (unlikely) or to turn over all the information she knows to Overwatch. Either way, she’s going to get involved, and she’s going to grow as a character. Main character material.

Torbjorn- Torbjorn, oh Torbjorn. Here’s a case that makes me upset. For all intents and purposes, he should be a main character. He’s the one who helped develop the Omnics, and he’s got an active character arc where he’s trying to undo the damage Omnics have caused. This ties him pretty damn directly to what we know of the plot of Overwatch 2. However, Blizzard lately has refused to treat him with respect, reducing him to a joke character because of his height and accent. Not only that, but they diminished his importance in the lore with the invention of Mina Liao and Echo. I could write and entire post about how the Mina Liao/Echo introduction was made to replace Torbjorn and Bastion’s importance in the potential plot, but all of three people would read it.

Tracer- As the literal face of Overwatch it’s pretty damn obvious that she’s going to be a main character. If you need a reminder, look at the London Calling comics and then the cover art for your copy of Overwatch.

Widowmaker- Widowmaker has literally zero character agency and only very very very loose connections with the lore/characters. HOWEVER, she does have the potential to be redeemed by death (I could make a whole other post on this) but it’s not enough to bring her into major character territory. Side character.

---

Ana- Side character. Given that she’s avoiding her potential emotional arc by avoiding Pharah and the rest of recalled Overwatch, she’s flat out of luck for main-character-ism. She’s going to be very important to Soldier 76 and Reaper but she won’t be the one instigating any plot points. Unfortunate.

Baptiste- Another tally for the side characters. The fact that it took him a year to even get voice interactions with the rest of the cast reflects this. His arc of leaving Talon is already done, the idea of Mauga being added to the game is history by now, and he has few connections with the current cast and plot. Big F, my dude.

Brigitte- With both her dad and her mentor being important former Overwatch members, it makes sense that she should be a main character, right? Right? Unfortunately, I think she falls into the same pitfalls as Reinhardt. Her backstory is already mostly explored and her dad is better at any plot-relevant mechanics that might be needed. She’ll help her dad, no doubt, but she’s a side character.

Lucio- I really want Lucio to be a main, really, I do, but he’s a side character. He suffers the same exact problem that D.va does. He has very little to involve him with the rest of the main caste. He’ll join Overwatch, sure, but I think it’ll be more of a decorative declaration than anything. His connection with Symmetra is his only saving grace, but even that just relegates him as a side character in her emotional arc.

Mercy- I think she’s going to be a side character, because all of her current content has her separated from everyone else and unsure about going back to recalled Overwatch. I don’t see the narrative following her inner emotional turmoil about this decision very much. She also doesn’t add anything to the potential plot.

Moira- Okay, Moira is tricky, so hear me out: her lore importance is off the CHARTS, and she’s a lot like Doomfist in the aspect that she is quite clearly villainous. She brainwashed Widowmaker. She turned Reaper into what he is today (physically, mind you,) and she probably has something to do with manipulating Sigma. But is being a villain enough? She’s not the one directly orchestrating Talon’s plan, like Doomfist is. And she’s not so directly connected to the fall of Overwatch like Reaper is. I hesitate to call her a main. Narratively, she’s going to get her comeuppance, but. . . (I’m going to leave this one blank.)

Zenyatta- The only true wild card on this list. Sure, I’ve left Sombra and Moira blank, but Zenny boy? He’s literally got nothing. There’s nothing to base predictions off of. No lore to speak of. We know that he mentored Genji. We know that he knew Mondatta. We know that he defends Omnics’ rights to exist. However, I doubt Blizzard has the nuance to tackle his perspective on the impending Omnic war in Overwatch 2. He could be a seriously major player if he was treated with the respect that his character deserves, though! He could potentially have an active role in trying to figure out what’s making the Omnic uprising occur and stopping it in its tracks! There is so much potential there! It’s all in Blizzard’s hands. It’s all about how Blizzard chooses to finally flesh out his character. . . IF they flesh out his character at all.

---

Total tally out of 32

Main characters: 11

Side characters: 17

Undecided: 3

McGuffin: 1 (poor Bastion)

And that’s the results! It’s important to note that I am far from infallible and that these are just my opinions/speculations on the future. Please please please argue with me in the tags/reblogs. That would make my day.

[saturatedsinset]

Hey, so I read all your mattkenny stuff and I wanted to know if you have any fic recs or author recs for the ship?

hello! honestly not a lot of people are watering my mattkenny crops but here are a few that i have really enjoyed. most of them are from ao3 user Quinntessentially because i infected her with the mattkenny brain worms and now she keeps writing it in a very good way. here we are:

Miami Vices by quantumdot and ectocooler - unfinished, 115k (so far) - listen. this is a very long fic. not a lot of it is mattkenny. mostly it’s adam/kenny along with a bunch of other pairings, but there is some juicy mattkenny in there. also, this universe is EXTREMELY cool. miami sits over a hellmouth, and all sorts of magical creatures gravitate there. also features trans man kenny (thank you i love you) and trans man mox (hell YEAH). it’s divided into chapters which makes it feel a lot shorter than it is. the style may not be 100% your thing if you’re into what i write - i’ll be honest, it’s not 100% my thing. but i love the worldbuilding here so much that i keep reading it. also i think the matt, kenny, and nick characterisations are spot-on. ok sorry for writing a whole paragraph about this one

Earth to Sky by quinntessentially - 6k - okay. look. this is ALSO not a mattkenny fic. it is also an adam/kenny fic. but consider the following: the mattkenny vibes are unmatched, except for the other fics quinn wrote that match them. it’s from adam’s point of view so you don’t actually get a ton of textual mattkenny but the VIBES are there. even if you don’t like owc you should read this fic. the tension! the heat (by which i mean the desert vibes)! the magic! i left a very long comment on this fic detailing my thoughts about it but. yes. very good. i love it.

Cratered by quinntessentially - 4k - this one IS a mattkenny. finally, you might say. continues in the vein of magical realism and also the kind of unrequited that i like to write. in a lot of ways i think quinn’s style is the, like. better version of my style. i don’t say this to self-deprecate (i think my writing is also good)! but once again he vibes are immaculate! we also get a hopeful ending, which is kinder than anything you get from me. the atmosphere in this one is also incredible. there’s a palpable tension-heat-thrumming that you can really feel. i think a lot of it comes from the setting (rights for arizona) and the style (obviously) but it really does take this fic from “good” to “Experience.” please read it

I Beg for Invisible Fire by quinntessentially - 3k - touch-averse matt really literalises a lot of the tensions that i think are integral to the kind of mattkenny dynamic quinn and i write. the way kenny’s love language is clearly touch and presence and matt can’t stand it. this is the shortest one on the list but i think it made me Feel the most. if you only read one fic from this list, read this one. but at least read all of quinn’s.

i hope this helps <3 i have some stuff in the pipeline and i’m, like. 80% sure quinn does too so you should have Contént soon!!

[noshitshakespeare]

I’m currently acting in a scene from Measure for Measure, but I’m finding it difficult to understand Isabella. What do you think is her exact relationship with God? Also from a moral perspective it seems odd to me that she abhors the idea of sex yet allows Mariana to get roped into having sex with Angelo without a second thought. Even her deception of Angelo with the bed trick seems religiously incorrect. Overall any information you can give me to help me understand her would be much appreciated

I feel you. Isabella is a very difficult character; she’s at least part of the reason Measure for Measure is often classed as a problem play. 

I don’t think you can doubt Isabella’s relationship with God. She’s about the most devout character in all of Shakespeare’s works (I mean it), and there’s a determination in her desire to become a nun that speaks for itself. But generally speaking, her relationship with God is fundamentally self-centred. This is part of the problem with going into a life of worship (something which was abolished during the Reformation in England), because while you can pray for the world, you do essentially remove yourself from that world for your own spiritual progress. As in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, sometimes the path to spirituality means even abandoning your family and friends, and Isabella does by favouring her own spiritual salvation over her erstwhile friend Juliet and her brother Claudio. When she first enters she’s in the middle of a conversation with another nun, and she says that she wants ‘a more strict restraint / Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare’ (1.4.4-5). Isabella clearly wants to remove herself from the world, and knows what temptation is, and how the world is not an easy place to be in, or she wouldn’t be looking to remove herself from it, or be seeking restraint. After all, if she didn’t have passions, why would she need restraint? She’s not necessarily a bad person, after all, she has the desire to make herself better, but she certainly doesn’t exhibit much of the self-sacrificial part of the Christian spirit. All in all, I think it’s not wrong to say that she’s more concerned with her own spiritual salvation than that of others (I’m not saying all Christians are like this, but I think there’s enough grounds to think Isabella is; maybe it’s her youth too). 

One way of looking at her desire to remove herself from the world though, is to consider what she must be like. Her brother Claudio says that 

in her youthThere is a prone and speechless dialectSuch as move men; beside, she hath prosperous artWhen she will play with reason and discourse,And well she can persuade. (1.2.172-76)

The suggestion is that she’s a pretty and attractive young girl. She doesn’t need to speak to have an effect on men. She’s also intelligent. The fact that she’s entering an all-female order that will bar all access to men suggests perhaps that there’s a reason she wants to remove herself from male society and their attention. Although it’s not fully textually stated, there’s some grounds for thinking that perhaps she is used to getting unwanted attention from men. This is even demonstrated when Lucio first addresses her, saying ‘Hail virgin, if you be – as those cheek-roses / Proclaim you are no less’ (1.4.16-17). Her sexual status shouldn’t matter since she’s a novice nun; Lucio doesn’t exactly hit on her, but does insist on seeing her in sexual terms. 

So there you have one reason for Isabella’s feeling of disgust towards Angelo’s desire to have sex with her. The situation with the bed trick is also complicated because it involves numerous legal issues. One of the reasons that Angelo’s offer is abhorrent to her (and it is objectively abhorrent) is that he makes no secret of the fact that what he wants is sex and nothing more; it’s not like he offers to marry her. What he wants is for her to ‘lay down the treasures of your body’ (2.4.96). This is very different to the situation between Claudio and Juliet, who are engaged to be married. Even Isabella initially sees no problem with the crime her brother is accused of: ‘ O, let him marry her! ‘ (1.4.49). In early modern England, marriage wasn’t quite as formal an affair, so that a couple could be considered ‘married’ socially as long as they proclaimed their desire to be together in front of a witness. For this reason a betrothal is a more serious situation, because by promising marriage you are pretty much married already. It’s only after Isabella has to defend her brother’s actions formally as ‘fornication’ that it becomes a difficulty, because it’s only so in a legal sense, but put that way, she can’t be seen to defend it and calls it 

a vice that most I do abhor,And most desire should meet the blow of justice;For which I would not plead, but that I must;For which I must not plead, but that I amAt war ‘twixt will and will not. (2.2.29-33)

As far as Mariana is concerned though, this means that because Angelo has formally promised to marry her, she’s in a similar situation to Claudio and Isabella. In the more casual way the majority of the characters operate in this play Mariana’s consummation of her marriage with Angelo is more like the situation between Claudio and Juliet than between Isabella and Angelo, because Angelo is essentially treating Isabella like a prostitute. 

The other thing is her family relationship with Claudio. The idea that she should have to sell her body for her brother’s life repels Isabella because, as she says, ‘Is’t not a kind of incest, to take life / From thine own sister’s shame?’ (3.1.138-39). In her mind it’s like she’s giving life to her borther by haing sex, and the immediate relief of having that role played by another who actually wants it and who’s not a blood-relation is an appealing prospect for Isabella. 

I don’t think you can get away from the fact that there is always going to be some hypocrisy involved in Isabella’s position, but the world of Measure for Measure is so irrevocably sexually tainted that no one can quite escape it. Human beings are inconsistent, and one of the wonders of Shakespeare is that he doesn’t force consistency onto his characters by making them unified and complete the way that characters are often treated to be in more modern literature (think of how much backstory there always is, as if all traits need to have a believable origin). Humans often have traits they don’t know the origin of, and do things that they don’t believe in, or which they would say disgusts them if anyone asked them about it, and part of understanding Isabella is to see that her flaws don’t make her a bad person, that she’s a young novice nun caught in a horrible situation; one that her moral codes have not prepared her for. She grasps at what seems the most expedient way to save her brother without hurting people partly because it seems to come from a senior religious person she should be able to trust. 

I hope this helps! Good luck with the performance, and do enjoy Isabella: she’s a juicy character for sure.

[tatticstudio55]

ARYA STARK: OF WHALES, SHELLS AND DRAGONS

In a previous post (“The scrub”), I briefly mentioned that Arya’s story arc in ACOK (and ASOS, to some extent) had some Noah’s arch elements to it. I won’t dig too far into it since others discussed this before. However, I’d like to expand on another biblical myth perhaps found in Arya’s storyline – this time in Braavos (then I’ll get to the dragon stuff).

Arya’s POV in AFFC opens with her aboard the Titan’s Daughter, as they approach the Isles of Braavos and must pass beneath the giant statue of the Titan of Braavos:

"The Braavosi feed him on the juicy pink flesh of little highborn girls," Nan would end, and Sansa would give a stupid squeak. But Maester Luwin said the Titan was only a statue, and Old Nan's stories were only stories.

(…)

"I hope your Titan isn't hungry," Arya told him.

"Hungry?" Denyo said, confused.

"It takes no matter." Even if the Titan did eat juicy pink girl flesh, Arya would not fear him. She was a scrawny thing, no proper meal for a giant, and almost eleven, practically a woman grown

(…)

Wind and wave had the Titan's Daughter hard in hand now, driving her swiftly toward the channel. Her double bank of oars stroked smoothly, lashing the sea to white foam as the Titan's shadow fell upon them. For a moment it seemed as though they must surely smash up against the stones beneath his legs. Huddled by Denyo at the prow, Arya could taste salt where the spray had touched her face. She had to look straight up to see the Titan's head. "The Braavosi feed him on the juicy pink flesh of little highborn girls," she heard Old Nan say again, but she was not a little girl, and she would not be frightened of a stupid statue. - Arya, AFFC

Arya keeps remembering Old Nan’s tale about the Titan’s eating “habits”, and even after they’ve sailed behind it, the danger of being “devoured” still linger:

"The Arsenal of Braavos," Denyo named it, as proud as if he'd built it. "They can build a war galley there in a day." Arya could see dozens of galleys tied up at quays and perched on launching slips. The painted prows of others poked from innumerable wooden sheds along the stony shores, like hounds in a kennel, lean and mean and hungry, waiting for a hunter's horn to call them forth.

(…)

The mouths of lesser canals opened to either side, and others still smaller off of those. - Arya, AFFC

That’s because Arya really is being (symbolically) swallowed by something here. The parallels with “Jonah and the whale” become a bit more apparent with these:

The galleys passed to either side of them, so close that she could hear the muffled sound of drums from within their purple hulls, bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom, like the beat of living hearts.

(Where we get the impression that Arya’s inside some giant living creature)

&

A harbor was visible off to her right, a tangle of piers and quays crowded with big-bellied whales whalers out of Ibben - Arya, AFFC

It’s interesting, because Arya’s POV chapters in ACOK open with her wishing that King’s Landing would flood. During her travels in the Riverlands with Gendry, Lommy and Hot Pie, the rain pours nonstop, effectively causing a flood. In AFFC, she finds herself in the flooded city of Braavos –

Another harbor, more distant, was off to her left, beyond a sinking point of land where the tops of half-drowned buildings thrust themselves above the water. Arya had never seen so many big buildings all together in one place. King's Landing had the Red Keep and the Great Sept of Baelor and the Dragonpit - Arya, AFFC

– only this time, her life jacket isn’t a boat (Noah’s arch), it’s a whale’s belly.

The thing with being inside a “whale’s belly” is, it allows Arya to go unseen. The myth itself is generally considered a metaphor of rebirth (which I’ll get to in a moment), but the whale’s belly also provides safety and secrecy while traveling. When Cat of the canals start selling oysters, clams and cockles, she can go anywhere she wants:

"Oysters, clams, and cockles" were Cat's magic words, and like all good magic words they could take her almost anywhere. She had boarded ships from Lys and Oldtown and the Port of Ibben and sold her oysters right on deck. (…) One time, when Brea took to her bed with her moon blood, Cat had pushed her barrow to the Purple Harbor to sell crabs and prawns to oarsmen off the Sealord's pleasure barge, covered stem to stern with laughing faces. Other days she followed the sweetwater river to the Moon Pool. (…) But she always returned to the Ragman's Harbor. - Cat of the canals, AFFC

We see here that the “whale’s belly” can take other forms; i.e., a bivalve’s shell (hiding in a belly vs hiding in a shell). Indeed, there’s some textual clues here and there linking Cat to what’s inside said shell(s):

Farther down the docks she came on Tagganaro sitting with his back against a piling, next to Casso, King of Seals. He bought some mussels from her, and Casso barked and let her shake his flipper. "You come work with me, Cat," urged Tagganaro as he was sucking mussels from their shells. He had been looking for a new partner ever since the Drunken Daughter put her knife through Little Narbo's hand. "I give you more than Brusco, and you would not smell like fish."

(…)

"Which one was this, now? The Queen o' Cockles, was it?"

"The Black Pearl," she told them. Merry claimed the Black Pearl was the most famous courtesan of all. "She's descended from the dragons, that one," the woman had told Cat. - Cat of the canals, AFFC

In the first citation, we have Tagganaro trying to “slurp” Cat from her shell, same as he’s doing with his mussels, and in the second, the “Queen o’Cokles” (a courtesan, but it could also be applied to Cat, oddly, especially since moments before Cat was asked by another sailor how much she wanted for the “cockle between her legs”), named after what’s found inside cockles (pearls). The “Black Pearl”, actually, symbolizes Arya Cat very well here, because that’s essentially what she is (a black pearl hidden inside a shell/a princess hidden inside a whale’s belly).

Which brings me to my third tinfoil word cake: any other “black pearl” inside its shell in asoiaf? How about Drogon’s egg?

She chewed on her lip, hoping. If I had wings I could fly back to Winterfell and see for myself. And if it was true, I’d just fly away, fly up past the moon and the shining stars, and see all the things in Old Nan’s stories, dragons and sea monsters and the Titan of Braavos, and maybe I wouldn’t ever fly back unless I wanted to. – Arya, ACOK

I’ve mentioned before that the story of Jonas and the whale was generally accepted as a metaphor for rebirth. In “The scrub”, I talked about the parallels between the hatching of Dany’s dragons, Dany’s metaphorical rebirth, and Arya’s rebirth beneath the burning shed. I think Arya is a dragon-like figure: she’s dangerous, deadly and magical. And she hasn’t hatched yet.

Let’s admit right off the bat that there’s something witchy about Arya, even if we disregard the whole faceless man thing: in AGOT, she has this thing with a black cat. In Harrenhal, ACOK, she practices sword fighting with a broomstick. Eats worm. Think of herself as the “ghost of Harrenhal”. Mingles with brews and potions (starting with the conspicuous “weasel soup” in Harrenhal, then at the House of Black and White with the waif). Does most of her “mischiefs” at night. In ADWD, the waif gives her a face with a wart that sprouts black hairs.

And shaves her head, too, like a certain someone named “Egg”.

Then there’s some interesting references to dragons (or water dragons, as Arya is more a creature of water than fire):

Slender boats slid in and out among them, wrought in the shapes of water serpents with painted heads and upraised tails. Those were not rowed but poled, she saw, by men who stood at their sterns in cloaks of grey and brown and deep moss green. – Arya, ACOK

The men wear cloaks of “grey”, “brown and deep moss green” – Arya’s colors. Grey is a color of house Stark. Arya thinks of herself as an “oak tree” in ASOS after being garbed in brown socking and a green dress (and seems to associate with trees in general). Back in the Riverlands, she tries to find her way North by the “way” the moss grows on trees. Several times.

 The mists gave way before them, ragged grey curtains parted by their prow. The Titan's Daughter cleaved through the grey-green waters on billowing purple wings.

(…)

Two galleys had come out to meet them. They seemed to skim upon the water like dragonflies, their pale oars flashing. - Arya, AFFC

Arya’s “Needle”: in ACOK, Rhaegal’s teeth are compared to needles:

Beneath Dany's gentle fingers, green Rhaegal stared at the stranger with eyes of molten gold. When his mouth opened, his teeth gleamed like black needles. – Daenerys, ACOK

But as we said, that part of Arya remains dormant for now. In AGOT, we get Doreah’s story about the origins of dragons: the moon was an egg, it came too close to the sun, cracked open, and dragons poured from it. Fast forward to Arya’s POV chapters in AFFC, where the moon is omnipresent:

That is the Temple of the Moonsingers."

It was one of those that Arya had spied from the lagoon, a mighty mass of snow-white marble topped by a huge silvered dome whose milk glass windows showed all the phases of the moon. A pair of marble maidens flanked its gates, tall as the Sealords, supporting a crescent-shaped lintel. - Arya, AFFC

(…)

"All men must serve." And so she did, three days of every thirty. When the moon was black she was no one, a servant of the Many-Faced God in a robe of black and white. She walked beside the kindly man through the fragrant darkness, carrying her iron lantern. She washed the dead, went through their clothes, and counted out their coins. Some days she still helped Umma cook, chopping big white mushrooms and boning fish. But only when the moon was black.

(…)

One time, when Brea took to her bed with her moon blood, Cat had pushed her barrow to the Purple Harbor to sell crabs and prawns to oarsmen off the Sealord's pleasure barge, covered stem to stern with laughing faces. Other days she followed the sweetwater river to the Moon Pool. - Cat of the canals, AFFC

And speaking of menstrual blood, it’s brought up again later in Cat’s chapter:

The other whores said that the Sailor's Wife visited the Isle of the Gods on the days when her flower was in bloom, and knew all the gods who lived there, even the ones that Braavos had forgotten. - Cat of the canals, AFFC

The moon is obviously linked with feminity and fertility here: as the kindly man tells Arya when she first sets foot in the House of Black and White, “Many have served Him of Many Faces through the centuries, but only a few of His servants have been women. Women bring life into the world. We bring the gift of death.” (Arya, AFFC) Hence, Arya only returns there when the moon is black (when her feminity “disappears”). Cat’s life at the canals revolves around the moon’s cycle: Brea’s moon blood brings Cat at Purple Harbor and to the Moon Pool. The black moon brings her to the House of Black and White. Notice that Cat doesn’t sell clams and oysters and cockles in Purple Harbor. She sells the bigger, fancier fish, the kind that doesn’t hide inside shells. Each time the moon “bleeds”, Cat gets a bit closer to hatching. Then, around the end of the chapter, we get this:

The swollen red sun hung in the sky behind the row of masts when Cat took her leave of the Happy Port, with a plump purse of coins and a barrow empty but for salt and seaweed. - Cat of the canals, AFFC

Maybe it’s just me overthinking it, but “swollen red sun” reminds me awfully of a pregnant woman’s belly, one that’s nearly full to burst, like the “plump purse of coins” Cat carries. We also had an “injured” (swollen/bruised), blood red sun in AGOT, the night Daenerys miscarried Rhaego:

Outside, the sun was low on the horizon, the sky a bruised red. – Daenerys, AGOT

And this would’ve been the moment where Daenerys and Arya slipped. Daenerys’s mistake was believing that she was sacrificing a horse in exchange for her husband’s life. Arya’s mistake was killing Dareon:

"Dareon is dead. The black singer who was sleeping at the Happy Port. He was really a deserter from the Night's Watch. Someone slit his throat and pushed him into a canal, but they kept his boots."

"Good boots are hard to find."

"Just so." She tried to keep her face still.

"Who could have done this thing, I wonder?"

"Arya of House Stark." She watched his eyes, his mouth, the muscles of his jaw. - Cat of the canals, AFFC

Daenerys and Arya are both given a bitter, milky beverage to drink:

She tasted sour milk, and something else, something thick and bitter. – Daenerys, AGOT

On her way across the city Arya had wondered what the kindly man would say when she told him about Dareon. Maybe he would be angry with her, or maybe he would be pleased that she had given the singer the gift of the Many-Faced God. She had played this talk out in her head half a hundred times, like a mummer in a show. But she had never thought warm milk.

When the milk came, Arya drank it down. It smelled a little burnt and had a bitter aftertaste. – Cat of the canals, AFFC

Basically, this is Arya’s first “failed” hatching. Milk is a liquid strongly linked to motherhood. Here, the milk is spoiled, which may or may not indicate a failed attempt at giving birth.

Overall, where Daenerys is a mother figure, Arya is the child, the dragon hatchling looking for her mother:

It was the other dream she hated, the one where she had two feet instead of four. In that one she was always looking for her mother, stumbling through a wasted land of mud and blood and fire. It was always raining in that dream, and she could hear her mother screaming, but a monster with a dog's head would not let her go save her. – Arya, AFFC

Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Dany and Drogon are separated from each other around roughly the same time where Arya dreams of her mother at the Red Wedding. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Arya’s looking for her mother in a “wasted land of mud and blood and fire”, whereas Drogon was born in blood, fire, and right by the Red Waste. This is all very intriguing. But anyway, I’ll conclude for now with a quote from our favorite witches and wizards’ story:

"Never tickle a sleeping dragon"