#yeah idk if this is interesting or anything

[sieglinde-freud]

lowkey the more i revisit three houses the more boring azure moon becomes to me. like i like dimitri and everything but everytime i see that route im j like “thats it?” and sometimes i feel crazy bc everyones like “isnt this the best fire emblem story in the history of fire emblem and isnt dimitri the best character ever” and im like well. well i. i dont. if you say so…

[lexirosewrites]

(lol here's my weird omegaverse body post, enjoy my rambling)

Ok so this is no hate to any of the worldbuilding that people have done previously. Ultimately omegaverse is ~handwavey~ so we all kind of suspend our disbelief. But i've noticed in fics, there's 2 options. either characters are born their designation, or their body changes during puberty and they become a designation. Both are totally valid! But like, if you go with the second option, then you're telling me a person could live 12-13 years (approx) with female sex organs and be socialized as a girl, and then wake up one day with completely different genitalia. like their clit and vulva are just gone and now they have a dick and testicles. I just think that's a little too extreme of a change for the body to do.

So i thought, what if it's not as extreme? Like everyone is born with a modified set of genitals. like "boys" are born with essentially a micropenis and nothing else. "Girls" are born with a urethra and a slit. No extraneous labia and it's not a deep hole. Everyone is born with nipples like human beings. It's expected that "boys" become alphas and male betas and "girls" become female betas or omegas. So this allows for some of that delicious in-universe angst when you get female alphas and male omegas, if you choose to do that. That would mean that there could be totally different gender expectations for kids, because while you'll probably go a certain way based on your genitals, female alphas and male omegas are rare, but not unheard of. This allows for a nonsexual childhood and possibly less rigid gender roles because the primary genders are so nebulously different.

Then when you go through puberty, your body changes to fit your designation. Alphas get a larger penis with a knot and testicles, betas get the "normal" human genitals that coincide with their primary gender, and omegas get a clit, vulva, and vagina. Beta women and omega's breasts grow, with females having larger overall to coincide with their primary gender. Alpha females would have breasts as well, but maybe no ability to produce milk, maybe just like larger pecs? And like male omegas wouldn't have breasts per se, maybe just larger pecs with milk producing capabilities as well? idk let them have tits, everybody likes tits. But yeah, i just thought it was interesting. That as a child you almost have no gender until you get older. Like how would that shape our understanding of what it means to be a male or female or an alpha versus an omega? (also if at any point this gets a little too terfy or gender essentialist, i 100% don't mean it that way. if anything i'm leaning towards a gender utopia)

my favorite part of omegaverse discussions are the breaking down of societal views/expectations of gender and how blurry the lines get when there are no guarantees from birth. what a wonderful flowy concept! of course we still find ways to make drama and inequality, but why not treat pups like pups and not simply as girls and boys with rigid gender norms!!

[rookflower]

it's annoying because you can never have a nuanced discussion about those two (brambleclaw and squirrelflight) yes, brambleclaw does, within the text, have noble qualities and is capable of caring for squirrelflight, which is part of why she stays with him. but it is important to take into account the power imbalance within them that existed since the beginning of their relationship, and how squirrelflight's wrongdoings in the relationship are never as personal or reprehensible as bramble's. a lot of people see marriage/romantic love as some all-powerful, moral entity, but i think it's what makes them most interesting as a couple to show that even while he's capable of loving her, it doesn't lessen the fact that he has the capability to hurt her and how that has affected her. i feel like you can be fascinated with them as a couple without necessarily endorsing that dynamic irl idk.

OH yeah, absolutely. Brambleclaw is a really frustrating character to me because I see the intrigue there- intentionally or not, he's very flawed in a way which is fairly consistent and that I would genuinely enjoy as a part of the story, if it has a sense of intentionality or if the books had him face literally any consequences for his actions, but at the end of the day he is ALWAYS framed as a good or understandable person, is never humbled or forced to change, and his actions are never reflected on much past when they happen. I don't think he is intentionally abusive to squirrelflight, I think he is ambitious and self centered and very insecure, and his dynamic with her as older and more responsible -> deputy and warrior -> leader and deputy, combined with squirrelflight 's defiance and tendency to do what she feels is right over his authority makes him treat her like absolute shit. Yes I think he has a *reason* to be furious about her lying about the kits, but I don't think that he has the moral high ground about it especially when you mirror it with the hawkfrost shit in tnp which also involved lying to your partner about a wrongdoing in favour of your sibling. He never tells her about all that, does he.

The reason why I find "they're both as bad as each other" or "squirrelflight is worse" or "squirrelflight is morally grey" or whatever so fucking annoying is because that's what the books ALREADY DO to avoid framing bramblestar as in the wrong for literally anything and I think it is sexist as fuck and lazy cowardly writing. and I also think it is blatantly not true because any time she undermines his authority or lies to him I think she is sympathetic and/or genuinely right in doing so, which I can't say the same about most of his failings LOL.

TLDR I could like brambleclaw if he faced consequences for his actions towards squirrelflight or the text acknowledged his abuse for what it is, but he doesn't and it won't. I think bramblesquirrel is kind of fascinating in its unhealthiness and instability and it's a crucial part of both characters. It's just uh (gestures around to warrior cats misogyny moments that change it from being a tumultuous long term abusive and dysfunctional relationship into a wholesome nostalgic classic couple where they "just bicker a lot" but are perfect for each other)

[pharawee]

Late last year I started adding a monthly calendar to my BL watchlist posts that included all Thai BL series and movies (except for the most indie and/or vertical productions so it's probably not 100% complete). I thought it would a nice overview to post all calendars for 2024 in one post, just to get a better picture of what aired when and which months were the busiest.

At first glance, the late summer/early autumn months look to be the busiest, with December following close behind (but only because I added two GLs with BL side couples and several double episodes).

I don't know if this is helpful or interesting to anyone else but yay, data is beautiful!

Feel free to do with these as you please. Credit is appreciated but not necessary.

[videogamelover99]

Alex Hirsch going "I'd be interested in exploring Bill confronting all of his lies" during the Seattle book signing and him going "This is my child. Please be kind to him. He doesn't deserve it though." during the San Diego book signing...

It makes me incredibly happy that he's just as obsessed with this problem triangle as we are.

[thetardisisnotourdivision]

Ok we have another one to add to the list!!!!!!

So I've seen a lot of people arguing about the whole "but Marinette made the decision for him!" thing in Werepapas, and honestly I think it's another Lady Macbeth/Baby It's Cold Outside scenario.

So the argument here, if you don't know it, is whether Lady Macbeth pressured Macbeth into killing the King, or whether she saw that it was what he wanted to do, and encouraged him because his conscience was getting in the way of something he clearly wanted to do. I can't be arsed to explain Baby It's Cold Outside but you get the gist.

So, the argument here is - Adrien still doesn't get to make his own decision. But did Marinette make the decision for him, or did she encourage him towards the decision he was always going to make? To me, the part where Adrien said he didn't know what he wanted was VERY in character. It read very much as him not wanting to offend anyone or cause another fight (like the one they literally JUST went through). But, really, was he ever going to make a different decision? He was choosing between Nathalie, who from the flashbacks and *gestures* the Rest Of The Series clearly cares about him, he knows her well, she loves him. Or a couple of strangers he just met that day. Adrien clearly, throughout the episode, expresses that he wants to stay in Paris, with Nathalie, and he is repeatedly ignored. To me, this moment is not Marinette making the decision for him - it's her standing up for him and saying to him that he can speak his mind. Remember, Adrien's spent his whole life under his father's thumb. He never could say what he wanted for fear of retaliation.

There IS a theme of other people making decisions for Adrien, obviously with the grandparents, but also with Nathalie herself. I will defend her until the ends of the Earth, but she did decide on her own that Adrien would be better off with biological family - granted, there's CLEARLY something influencing this feeling, plus the grandparents talking about how she's not family and has no right to look after Adrien, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some kind of backstory there - but once again, even though she thinks it's for the best, and the best thing for Adrien even if it hurts her (which it clearly does), she's still making a decision for Adrien. She's blinded by the fact that she's obviously at some point been told that she's not his family and never will be (the guilt from being Mayura and aiding and abetting his father is probably coming into play too) and so she makes a decision that ultimately, Adrien should have had a say in. And Marinette, like she did in the Special, puts her foot down and says, actually, you are his family, or the closest thing left, so listen to him when he says you are. I also found it very funny when Marinette literally tells Nathalie "you're an adult", and follows it up with basically "so do something about this". But you get my gist - ALL of the characters are making decisions for Adrien, and Marinette SEES this, and encourages Adrien to make the decision HE wants, and not the one that will please his grandparents.

[sunnibits]

potentially hot take but this is a pet peeve of mine

[gwandas]

Let's play the did SJM forget her own lore game again

Is Eris actually the heir to the autumn court or is the magic still undecided because if the magic chooses the High Lord and the heir is always apparent, why, exactly, would he need Night's support to oust Beron?

[thechibilitwick]

bored

[a-bottle-of-tyelenol]

Speaking of how Odysseus sees Eurylochus (could be seen as a part two to this post), I often think about this video Jorge made about Eurylochus where he talks about how Eury almost seems lost and like he can’t find his way due to how inconsistent his instrumental is.

I think it also implies something super interesting from Odysseus’ perspective too.

Eurylochus, as far as I can tell, only really has his Luck Runs Out motif that we almost exclusively hear paired with the rest of the crew. It’s something that he leads on, yes, but there is a moment where the crew uses it on their own (in Mutiny, when Perimedes stabs Odysseus) and therefore it feels like something much more dedicated to the crew as a whole. This could be something showing how much Eurylochus puts into the crew and how much of his life is dedicated to them, or it could also be something that shows how much more similar he is to the crew than to Odysseus (lumping himself in with them and further leading to the separation between Ody and the crew that I talk about in this post— can you tell I yap a lot about Eurylochus?).

But I think it’s interesting to look at it in a more meta way. EPIC is primarily told from Odysseus’ point of view, only changing after Eurylochus dies. So, every moment we have with him is strictly from Odysseus’ perspective and, therefore, the lack of distinction in Eurylochus’ music could easily be attributed to that.

Most of Eurylochus’ arc is implied— specifically when it comes to how he changes from Circe’s island to Mutiny and that’s led to a lot of interpretations from people that aren’t necessarily wrong due to the fact that nothing about him is very clear. And I don’t just mean people who view him as a selfish hypocrite, I also mean opinions that I hold too.

I, for example, strongly believe that there’s a real possibility Eurylochus wasn’t the only one who opened the windbag. He was definitely there and probably apart of it, but there are real implications in the show that he might not have done it alone and simply took responsibility out of guilt. It doesn’t absolve him of all wrongdoing, but it is something to consider when it comes to the discussions about his self-preserving nature versus how he prioritizes the wellbeing of the crew. That being said, these implications aren’t what’s directly in the text, through lyrics or music, so I could be totally wrong.

And that’s exactly my point; there isn’t a whole lot to Eurylochus to decipher, musically. Jorge likes to use the music to give the audience background information on characters (like how he uses Athena’s ensemble in Warrior of the Mind to tell us that Athena is amused by Odysseus fangirling over her or how we can sometimes hear Circe’s motif in regards to Scylla, both things he’s revealed on TikTok). This is the type of information that Odysseus might not necessarily know but that we get told through the music.

Eurylochus doesn’t seem to have anything like that.

Unlike pretty much every other character that has some level of distinction to them and how they interact with our primary perspective, Odysseus doesn’t have anything to connect with Eurylochus other than the rest of the crew. There’s nothing that is specifically tied to him and this carries on throughout the entire show, where he takes on other melodies and instruments depending on the context. While perhaps not intentional, Eurylochus being musically lost not only leaves a lot of his actions and motivations up to interpretation for the audience, but it also highlights just how out of sync he is with Odysseus.

Their primary conflict revolves around their inability to understand one another and it’s very clear that they both have views on the other that is incorrect. Odysseus believes Eurylochus to be too ruthless and yet too cautious to actually effectively use the philosophy and Eurylochus sees Odysseus as too arrogant, playing foolish games with the gods that will only get the crew killed. They’re both right, to a degree, but their inability to understand or even empathize with the other’s position is really what destroys them— something we see even in the very beginning. There is no musical tie to them and nothing musically surrounding Eurylochus to signal any other meanings to the audience— Eurylochus is just his Luck Runs Out melody, that again is intrinsically tied to the rest of the crew which makes it less distinctive to him as a character than, say, Open Arms for Polites.

And then comes Mutiny— where Eurylochus is the most musically distinct and yet, none of it is truly his. In the beginning, he hijacks Odysseus’ electric guitar (possibly a hint that he understands Odysseus more than Odysseus has, thus far, understood him) and, in the second half, the melody he sings is that of Survive— which was potentially the first time he truly doubted his captain in ten years— to a beat of The Horse and The Infant (that’s what my friend and I hear, anyways)— which is mostly just a tool used for foreshadowing Thunder Bringer. Then, the script flips and Odysseus is in Eurylochus’ position for the Luck Runs Out melody, possibly signaling that he’s finally beginning to understand Eurylochus for the first time since the start of the story. And, instead of going back to the lyrics of Luck Runs Out, Eurylochus turns to the specific use of the word ‘suffering’.

Because Eurylochus is so vague in his instrumentals, prioritizing the crew over his own well-being and identity, the times where he does falter into other melodies, particularly ones involving Odysseus, are very loaded with implications that you can interpret— like how Odysseus uses the concept of suffering as a motivator, associating it with Penelope and her ability to make everything worth it. Eurylochus, on the other hand, associates it with his loss of the will to survive, which is why I think it follows that song’s melody too.

But even then, Eurylochus is still followed by the voices of the crew with a melody that has never been his alone because Eurylochus, as a character, is defined by what he does for other people and, since Odysseus simply cannot understand being in that position, Eury’s music reflects that.

I just find it interesting that the character with the second most screen time has little to show for it musically, and I think that’s a good thing for showing Odysseus’ inability to see things outside of his perspective (or outside of a magical perspective; as in, he can’t relate to regular men), especially given that this is a flaw Eurylochus has as well. It could’ve been really easy to give Eurylochus a bass— which is known for being paired with guitars— or maybe a specific drum and call it a day, symbolically, but Jorge chose to keep him as only the voice of the crew with one mention of a bass and snare in Luck Runs Out.

Something about that intrigues me idk

[xitsensunmoon]

The content with Sun that I'm seeing from help wanted 2 actually changes my perception of him so much I🧍‍♀️ Bro is not just a pathetic loser chihuahua bro is a PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE pathetic loser chihuahua!!!!

[akemiiya]

i think in a celebrity au isabeau/mirabelle could be a singer duo while sif ghostwrites the lyrics for their songs

[aimfor-theheart]

men love to try and tee me up for their next relationship while they’re still dating their current gf and i am never interested. NEVER.

[skunkes]

i loooove when ocs unrealized development makes them feel like real people like no i dont know whether talon is genuinely attracted to women after years of both clinging to them for safety and years of putting them onto that untouchable idealized Perfect Protector Pedestal that must remain untainted by any bad experiences, so he doesn't even try to Be With any. He doesn't know either

[cimacally]

I'm not my best friend's best friend and it really pisses me tf off

[faunandfloraas]

Seungmin saying they changed song by so it would be easier for people to watch and listen and then me seeing people going "Yes! It's good it's on tiktok and shorts now" and I'm like. Oh. You're all so fucking stupid <3