#you can tell from all the trailers and teasers there was so much love and care put into this project so no matter how it turns out im just

[pixiecaps]

very excited for gen loss today!! its crazy to finally be able to see this project come to fruition after so long. having been there when ranboo first came up with the idea is so wild to look back at! i remember a time when nobody believed ranboo would actually finish this project😭(people were BLUNT lol) so its cool that after such a long ride its finally here! i don’t have any expectations going into the stream so we’ll see what happens in a couple hrs:D all i really hope is that gen loss is everything ranboo hoped for and more!!!

[gil-galadhwen]

Elrond X Reader (gender neutral)

After seeing a stunning floppy haired, battle midst Elrond in the new Rings of Power teaser trailer, I got inspired to respond to an ancient request in my inbox which has since myseriously disppeared?!

Anyway, the prompt was Tell Me What You Want from this list

Summary & Warnings: Elrond returns from the battle haunted and desperate to tell you how he feels about you… (closed door spice)

Word Count: 900+

Tell Me What You Want

Elrond and the others returned to camp in the dead of night. You weren't asleep of course. It was impossible when not only did the fate of your kind hang in the balance, but the fate of your greatest love did too. 

Elrond didn't know how you feel about him. You'd kept the desires of your heart hidden for years, holding it close as you watched him ready for a battle he may not return from.

Except he had returned.

You peer through the gap in your tent as the warriors are celebrated in their triumphant homecoming. Their smiles are bright and gleaming against their filthy armour. You scour the crowd in the dim firelight until you see him standing off to the side with his helmet tucked under his arm. His hair has grown longer over the many months, dark curls falling into eyes both familiar and haunted by something you don't recognise. 

Elrond smiles at every well wisher who passes him. Shaking hands, embracing and gripping the steel shoulders plates of his comrades until they crunched. You want to go to him, but you're somehow locked in place. Even as his eyes dart around the camp as though looking for something, for someone.

Looking for you.

You chide yourself for thinking such ridiculous thoughts. He's not looking for you at all. Why would he? You're barely acquaintances, nevermind friends. You’d certainly collaborated on projects for the king in the past and often sat together during formal dinners and gatherings. Even sharing a bed once when travelling back to Lindon after completing a quest for the king. You’d stopped at an inn that only had one bed, yet Elrond was ever the gentleman, ensuring you were comfortable with him there and never giving you more than a friendly glance. 

Except for the night he left for battle. 

As the soldiers prepared to leave, he’d sought you out and then wordlessly lifted your hand to his lips, pressing them to your knuckles. You’d been too surprised to speak as he held you there, suspended in a moment you thought would never come. Perhaps it was his way of saying goodbye, yet you watch him now, with a flicker of hope igniting in your chest that it had meant so much more.

***

The fires are banked and the once loud cheers and cajoling have quietened to a murmur as you finally emerge from your tent. The scent of burning cedar and honey mead lingers in the air as you meander through the thinning crowd of elves squeezing as much out of the festivities as possible before the sun rose on a new day, bringing with it new challenges, as is the nature of war. 

As a Scribe to King Gil-galad, you're free to move anywhere within the camp. You feel a strange mix of peace and anticipation when you reach the row of tents reserved for the king's most revered soldiers, but it occurs to you that you have no idea which is Elrond's. Then suddenly he’s there, standing in front of you with an expression of such pure relief on his face that your eyes start to sting.

“You are well, my lord?” you ask, cringing at how formal you sound.

“As well as can be.” Elrond smiles weakly in return. “And you?”

He sounds different. As though the usually reassuring tone of his voice has been stripped away, leaving behind a weariness you find almost overwhelming to witness. He takes a step towards you and you reach for him, wrapping your arms tightly around his neck as his own wind firmly around you, holding you close. You feel his lips press to the exposed skin of your shoulder where your robe has slipped down. You hear the words he whispers into your skin like a litany… 

I missed you. I missed you. I missed you…Meleth nîn…

My love.

You pull back to look at him. He’s removed his armour and bathed, his wavy hair still damp and mussed.

“I missed you too,” you say, taking his hand in your own. “Which tent is yours?”

***

As soon as the flaps close on Elrond’s private tent, you come together as though magnetised. The kisses are hotter than the flames of the campfires. They burn deliciously, branding your skin so that they feel permanent. Like invisible tattoos. 

You fall together onto the low bed and you release a giggle when you find yourself straddling Elrond, but then you stop when you see the way he’s looking at you. Has he always looked at you this way, you wonder. It’s everything you've ever wanted, but what of him? He’s always been so sweet and polite.

And alone.

Has he wanted you all this time, like you’ve wanted him?

“Tell me what you want,” you say, breathless and willing. “I’ll give you anything.”

Elrond’s eyes glitter as he slowly tugs on the tie holding your robe closed.  The fabric pools around your waist and you feel your skin warm at the exposure. At the vulnerability of being like this in front of him.

“I want you just like this,” he says. Tilting his hips so that you feel him beneath you, hard and wanting. 

“I want us to join and then never be parted–” the words become caught in a net of emotion and he looks away.

Tears begin to well as you bring your hand to Elrond’s cheek in a caress. You do not speak again, but an understanding passes between you as you give the revered soldier everything he wants.

You like this.

[btstulip]

Are You Sure?!

NO! I am not!!! What did I just watch?!? And I am not even talking about the episodes yet!

Yes, I believe Jimin and Jungkook are very close, and in my opinion, likely have a romantic relationship. So I was very excited when their travel show was announced because I love some Jikook content. But all I wanted and expected from this show was to watch Jimin and Jungkook having fun together before their military enlistment. Of course I figured there would be cute and sus moments, but I expected it to be no different from In The Soop or some Run BTS episodes. That was my belief right up until they started showing us the promo teasers...

Wait. What?!

I had already raised an eyebrow at the mention of GCF Tokyo. That already had me feeling delulu as hell.

I 100% expected Are You Sure?! to be a "bro" show, and everything we had seen initially fit that expectation. NEVER, in a million years, did I expect the official trailers for the show to look romantic as hell. I was NOT prepared!!! This was the first teaser that full on broke me. They showed so much couple looking content... I mean they freaking showed them brushing teeth together in matching PJS! And that was just the start of it. This is not what you would do if you're trying to play this off as just good friends traveling together. So what the hell are they doing officially promoting the show this way?!

I was seriously confused by that trailer. Like my brain broke. I just could not understand how this was the official trailer. That is what lead to this theory:

And the rest of the teasers just solidified that theory for me because they obviously went with "couple" over "bro" vibe.

@stormblessed95 talks about the AYS trailers:

@kanmom51 talks about Are you sure? main trailer:

If Jimin and Jungkook aren't together, someone needs to tell Bighit!

Honestly though, I still thought this would end up looking like fan service and maybe the most couple looking moments were cut into the trailers to make the show look tame in comparison. And then I watched the first two episodes. WTAF?!?!

I seriously can not believe the stuff they put in the show. But that's another post.

Here are some of my favorite prerelease Are You Sure?! related posts:

💜 Post about youth and romance by @haedalkoo

💜 Post about Jikook headed to Tokyo by @kookmin-curious

💜 @stormblessed95 post with Jikook theory during and after Japan trip

💜 @kanmom51 has a fun post about Jikook sitting together and Jimin hugs inspired by trailer clips

💜 Another cute Jikook sitting together post by @seoul-bros

💜 @stormblessed95 discovers the likely reason Jikook were laughing about beds

💜 @stormblessed95 shared an incorrect quote that killed me!

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition): 2x5

Not only is this one going to have spoilers for all the aired episodes plus any teasers (including the trailer for episode 6), it will also have book spoilers through book 14: A Memory of Light.

An interesting change from the books is Suroth calling Loial a slave -- in the books, the Ogier of the elite guard are very specifically not enslaved (I wonder if they got as badly jacked up by the Longing as the ones in the Westlands but their 'solution' ended up involving the Empress and the Crystal Throne somehow?). Since this exception is never explained in the books, I don't have any issue with it being changed.

2. I also think we are getting some really good set-up here for a potential fracture in the Seanchan once we get deeper into the series -- a fulfillment of the narrative promise that Jordan set up in books 2-9 but then backed away from once we hit Crossroads of Twilight & Knife of Dreams. I'm hopeful that we're actually going to get the Seanchan civil war that the books never gave us but that they desperately needed in order for Mat's characterization to make any damn sense in CoT & KoD.

3. The idea that Ishamael is being something akin to Suroth's Truthspeaker makes a lot of sense (I think only the Imperial family has Truthspeakers in the books? but it makes sense to expand them outward).

4. That Fain plays the game so well with Turak here can serve as a hint that he's playing the subservience game with Ishamael as well (who killed the Fade? in other words).

5. The saa in Lanfear's eyes! I love that we're getting a super-charged look at the True Power this early on. I definitely approve of the change of the Forsaken getting brought back with the True Power rather than being put in new bodies -- that can work in a book, but in a show, you want to keep your actors. Especially when they're so good!

6. The Elyas scene does feel like Elyas is essentially doing triple-duty this season: he's himself (Wolfbrother lore dump); he's Hurin (sniffer who leads them after Fain); he's Noam (completely detached from his previous human life).

7. I do like how Elyas feels... somewhat amoral (not immoral!) -- he cares about his fellow wolves (including Perrin) and only his fellow wolves. Obviously, part of the reason that's there is so that viewers will wonder if Ishamael (the Father of Lies) was telling the truth about Perrin becoming closer to the Shadow the closer he gets to the wolves but that's... a good thing, I think, for Perrin's narrative arc. It gives him a grounded reason to try to avoid embracing the wolves. The show has done a really good job in giving characters believable motivations for their behavior.

Show: has Elyas diss every human that Perrin cares about because he's trying to tell Perrin that he belongs with the wolves and not the humans.

Some Book Readers: Ah-ha! Laila wasn't his pack? Darkfriend!

It was just so clear to me, in watching the episode, that Elyas mentioning Perrin's wife was the last straw that made Perrin push him away. It was not meant as a Darkfriend hint of any kind! Elyas did not know Laila as a person! He does not care about Laila as a person! It's pretty clear that he only cares about Perrin (because he's a fellow Wolfbrother). That's why he only saved Perrin from the caravan; that's why he led Perrin eastward instead of west. He has zero interest in putting himself in danger to help humans; he does not identity with humans.

8. Ooo, I wonder if we're going to see Perrin's wolf name visualized at some point by the wolves -- Young Bull with his axe that is also his horns, strong and protective. Again, the show has done such a good job in showing us the Perrin that I think Jordan wanted us to see but that he didn't quite manage -- pretty much every show-only reactor sees Perrin as genuinely considerate and empathetic and believes that he has a good heart and wouldn't leave people to suffer.

9. Brilliant choice to have Aviendha introduced here and be part of Perrin's storyline. I do really like how Elayne, Aviendha, and Min have all been part of another main character's plotline before anything implied romantic between them and Rand happens. Hopefully, the show does the same thing with Tuon in the season when she gets introduced. I'm going to guess that (rather than going along with Perrin because of Faile) Bain and Chiad are going to help Aviendha meet her toh towards Perrin once she's told that she needs to become a Wise One apprentice and Bain and Chiad will travel with him to the Two Rivers. I suspect that Gaul will be introduced next season as well.

10. I also really like the way they set up Dain and Perrin's future dynamic here as well -- Dain realizes that Perrin is from the Two Rivers, so that gives him a reason to go there after he (mistakenly?) thinks that Perrin has killed his father. I do wonder whether or not Fain will go to the Two Rivers at all. It's kinda... crowded over there, since we know that Slayer was cast (I think). There isn't, imo, any real need for Fain to corrupt the Whitecloaks in the show -- I feel like they can corrupt themselves just fine. (I kinda feel that way about Elaida too) -- and it might be good to tie Fain back into Rand and/or Mat's plotlines.

11. The Seanchan and the Whitecloaks both have a 'evil but not the evil of the Dark One' situation going on, and we kinda get that here, with the (new) innkeeper being even more unhappy with being occupied by Whitecloaks than by the Seanchan. I actually like that they have the new innkeeper here selfishly being okay with the Seanchan -- the issue that I had with various plotlines in CoT & KoD wasn't "it's unrealistic for anyone to be collaborators with the slavers", of course some/many people are selfish enough that it doesn't matter to them that some people get enslaved as long as it isn't them; it was an issue with specific characters turning collaborator without there being anywhere near enough work in the characterization or narrative to justify it. That was the issue that I had.

Especially since this same conversation does illustrate how selfish this man's PoV is, if you pay attention to the dialogue. The old innkeeper's granddaughter was kidnapped by the Seanchan -- SHE would not agree with him that they're totally chill if you only just swear the oaths.

12. Seeing Lady Suroth like this, 'dressed down', as it were, gave me quite a start. She looks almost naked without the super-long nails and the helmet and with me being able to see that she has no eyebrows. Like, it gives her a big 'pathetic and vulnerable' vibe even though she's been just as awful as she was in her introduction.

And it makes me wonder... are people who are sympathetic to Tuon in Crossroads of Twilight and Knife of Dreams also more likely to be good at visualization when they read? Because, personally, I don't see pictures in my head when I read books. I think it's part of the reason why I can so easily accept adaptations in the first place -- there's no prior image that I need to override. I had no firm mental image of how 'Rand' or 'Nynaeve' or anyone looked in the books, so the actors can easily become that person for me. It's all just... words in my head for me. The most that I ever visualize is something akin to black and white abstract sketches.

How this relates to Tuon: one of the deeply frustrating things about CoT+ Mat to me is how he behaves like Tuon is 'not like the other Seanchan' even though her behavior on the page is just as rancid and terrible as any other Blood. But, in her descriptions in CoT & KoD, she doesn't visually resemble other Seanchan anymore -- her hair is growing out, she's in Westlands clothing instead of Seanchan High Blood clothing. But as someone who doesn't visualize characters and scenes when I'm reading a book, the clothes that a character is wearing has little to no impact on my perception of them as a character.

Is it different if you do/can visualize how differently Tuon looks when she's traveling with Mat vs how she looked when she was embedded in the Seanchan power structure? Because it really does genuinely confuse me when I see people repeat what Mat says about her being different from the other Seanchan because her behavior is just... identical to all the other Seanchan Blood from what I've seen in the books -- intensely political and manipulative; firmly supports and believes in slavery; gets off on torture and abuses her slaves even while believing that she's the bestest and kindest slave owner in the world; thinks of herself as inherently better because she's Of The Blood, etc. I remember when Mat places her in the same 'better than other nobles' category as Talmanes in KoD, my brain just bluescreened because he's consistently been shown on the page that she's still just as awful as the others (the chapter where she literally collars and tortures three of his allies is certainly never anything I'm forgetting, even if Mat 'goldfish' Cauthon forgot about it five minutes after it happened). But, yeah, if you visualize characters and scenes when reading books, do those visuals have an impact on how you think of the characters?

(on a character level, I understand why Mat would lie to himself about Tuon if he genuinely believes himself to be trapped in a marriage with her -- the issue with that is two-fold though: a. with Mat's other lies to himself, we are given outside context with other PoVs and behavior from other characters to see that he's lying while in CoT and KoD, we're pretty firmly locked into Mat's warped perspective, and b. Jordan did a shit job of showing why Mat gave up so quickly and just believed that he's doomed to be married to Tuon without him making ANY attempts at fighting the prophecy)

13. Looking forward to the future... I do suspect that we'll still get Semirhage trying to shape and mold Tuon (unless we don't get enough seasons), but I think in the end (exploring @sixth-light's idea about having a split Seanchan Empire instead of having the Sharans), we may end up with Suroth in charge of one half of the Seanchan (who will fight for the Shadow) and one half led by Tuon (who will fight for the Light) and that we will, hopefully, be getting a Tuon who actually has to confront what being a sul'dam means and that the Seanchan will fracture on the issue of slavery (which would make their American accents even more apt) instead of the Westlands characters becoming friends and lovers with gleefully cruel slavers. Having Tuon's 'stubbornness' and pushback against Semirhage actually lead to her questioning the established order would be so much more powerful than her stubbornness being used as an excuse for her dodging and avoiding any character growth for the entire time that she hangs around.

14. I hope that Aviendha's amusement here over Perrin's protectiveness is perhaps going to be more of the vibe we get with Rand & the Maidens once that relationship gets going. Rand really doesn't have the same reasons (so far) to be as unreasoningly overprotective of them as he is in the books, since the Two Rivers in the show aren't Weird about women in danger the way that the books are. It's very much a Perrin hangup because of his wife and we've seen it develop over time. And if Rand feels some protectiveness, I'd like it to be tied more towards him feeling like he doesn't want to lose any of his newfound family.

15. It feels clear that Moiraine is absolutely still bound by the Three Oaths. She obviously WANTS to lie in the scene where she's introducing Rand to Anvaere and Barthanes, but she isn't able to. It's played very much the same way as when she was caught in the Oath last season (one of the funniest moments in S1 is when she wants to tell the Two Rivers' kids that she trusts them now but she absolutely doesn't trust them and can't say the words).

16. So, who in this scene is a Darkfriend. I suspect that Barthanes is and I suspect that Anvaere is not. Anvaere's information session with Moiraine last episode completely destroyed the Shadow's plans for Rand -- it could be the Shadow tripping over itself but I suspect it's just that Anvaere is what she seems to be -- a very political but non-Shadow-aligned person.

17. I wonder if the end of the next episode is going to timeskip us the few weeks to the wedding (thus making it so that Egwene spends several weeks in 'training') -- or maybe we'll timeskip between episodes 6&7. From the preview, it looks like we're going to spend some serious time showing how horrible and dehumanizing the damane 'training' is. What they might do is show us the initial beginning of it -- and then we jump forward and see how things are after several weeks? The mention of the wedding just feels... potentially significant, since it's not from the books. This would give Perrin time to travel to Falme with Aviendha; Mat and Min would have time to get to Cairhien; Elayne and Nynaeve would have time to bond; and Siuan would also have time to get to Cairhien, since we know she goes there at some point. And it might mean that, along with Egwene getting her 'training' from Renna, we might also get Rand getting some training from Logain and potentially Lan as well.

18. I love Verin kickstarting the Black Ajah Hunt so much. I already talked about this a lot in my earlier post about Darkfriends, so I won't get into it here but: fantastic choice. It does imply to me that we don't really need the Wondergirls to go back to the Tower next season to get their Black Ajah Hunting instructions, since there's already a Hunt started by full Sisters. Which I would be fine with -- they literally spend less than a week in the White Tower in book 3. They dip in for Egwene & Elayne's tests, to get more instructions from Siuan, and then dip out again. I feel like the show could easily have them decide to hunt the Black Ajah of their own accord (Nynaeve in particular has a reason to want to go after Liandrin).

19. I do not think that Sheriam knows that Verin is 'Black Ajah' or that Liandrin is (more genuinely) Black Ajah. She and Liandrin were at odds too much earlier in the season over Nynaeve imo. Joiya, otoh, I think might know that Liandrin is also Black Ajah, because she immediately backed Liandrin up in the big group discussion.

20. "We respect the One Power so much that we don't believe that anyone should wield it by accident of birth". I've seen other people (reactors on youtube) wondering if this conversation means that the Seanchan already know that sul'dam are learners, since they talk about training the sul'dam for years and them earning the right to use the One Power, but this line in particular makes me feel like they don't know. Because sul'dam are only sul'dam because of an 'accident of birth' as well. I'm sure that we'll find out, because the realization of the sul'dam secret was a pretty huge moment with Egwene in the books (even if Min & Nynaeve appeared to have completely forgotten the information when they were spending time with Rand later in the series) so it will definitely stand out if it gets played differently and Renna doesn't get that horror of realizing that she, too, is marath'damane.

21. I've also seen people wonder why the damane & sul'dam didn't catch on that Liandrin was channeling to wake the girls and free Nynaeve, but she was channeling that entire time (to hold open the Waygate) so her tiny weave would have been masked by the larger one.

22. Aviendha's attitude towards obligation and honor is going to be such an interesting contrast to how weighed down Rand is by his obligations. Looking forward to them getting some good scenes together in s3.

23. I hope Egwene gets to hit Renna over the head in this version too. And collar her to the wall. I can already tell that this is going to be painful and intense. I did notice that a lot of show-only reactors have NOT picked up on how terrifying and awful the damane slavery is yet, but I feel like the show is going to make it very clear in the next episode. (I don't know how you can look at Egwene in pain here and not already understand but... next week should make things crystal clear).

The preview did show us how... earnest (ugh) Renna is going to be in her 'training' of Egwene. The way she called the damane kennels "your new home" and the (horrifying) sincerity in her voice.

I'm actually wondering if Egwene is going to be freed in episode 7, before Rand gets to Falme, since Perrin and Aviendha are headed in the direction of Falme and it's Perrin who is attached to the Ingtar and Horn storylines and not Rand (who didn't even find out that the Horn is a thing that exists until 2x3). Because Rand isn't actually involved in her rescue in the books iirc -- that was Elayne and Egwene (with Min tagging along). He spots her and seeing her is why he refuses to leave, but since he's going there for his own purposes unrelated to the Horn in this version (I assume), then he doesn't need that extra push to stay. From the preview for episode 6, it kinda sounds like Loial & co are going to try to help her be freed but I'm not sure if it'll work that soon.

Expecting next episode to be extremely rough, emotionally.

Additional spoilers/speculation based on imdb listings (which may not be entirely accurate):

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The actress who played Maigan in S1 is listed as being in the next three episodes (6, 7, 8). She was planning to go west to investigate the rumors. She has not been seen in the White Tower this season. The actress who is playing Ryma is only listed for episodes 5 & 6. Renna is listed for all the remaining episodes; Seta is listed for the final two episodes. That just all seems like interesting information to me, though again, imdb.

Complete side note, episode 7 is the episode that Hayley Mills is listed for. I wonder if she's the Queen of Cairhien that Barthanes is marrying.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 - ANOTHER commercial teaser!? Analysis & EP5 Theories

Lord, I have places to be in the morning, but AMC thinks it's cute to release multiple teasers in a day. 😭

This is a SPICY one for Louis, too! 👀

We start with the familiar "Me n' you; you n' me" from Louis, but we see a teensy bit more of his fallout with Claudia:

Claudia's head is being pushed down into something as she screams.

And thanks to the teaser we got earlier today, we can assume Lou's in the burlap sack the (the night the Theatre jumps him, Claud & Madz).

They jump from Claudia yelling at Louis, to Louis yelling "YOU left ME!" I NEED to know who Louis is talking to--it's a hard cut from Claudia to Louis, but I bet he's talking to someone else.

Cuz of the cut to Armand looking concerned as he calls Lou's name (Merrick?), now I'm thinking about the books, where we know Armand left Louis (in IWTV) for Daniel (in QotD). So is that a Loumand argument? 👀 Cuz I'm telling y'all, I don't trust them in Dubai, and the goat Carol Cutshall already threw shade their way, with the "so-called love of his life" line. I'm side-eying them HEAVY.

And good grief, poor Louis' going THROUGH IT in his dark room.

But the REAL reason I'm posting all this is cuz of this juicy morsel:

😳 LOUSTAT KISSING IN EPISODE 5 FOOTAGE. 😳

AMC, what in heaven's name is HAPPENING!?

Neither Louis nor Lestat are injured here, so does this clip happen:

1) In 1931, right before Claudia came home?

2) Or even earlier, back in 1923, when Loustat was arguing about Claudia's "hunger strike"? Cuz we know Louis wore the same blue sweater TWICE in Ep5.

3) OR, this is legit from the Ep5 fight, while they were upstairs, during the parts we didn't see while they were in the coffin/bedroom?

Was it "over" cuz Louis was desperately tryna kiss and make up? Did it not work, cuz Lestat knew/convinced himself that Lou was playing him--"maybe it's the gin, my love"? Cuz Les is the one to push Louis through the wall.

I dunno, I need sleep. 😫

[EDIT] I'm dead wrong (and blind).

Thank you so much @loustat-0 -- yup, I just saw @squirrellypoo's post explaining that you have to really crank up the lighting to be able to tell that this is Louis' jean jacket from Hallucination!Lestat we've seen in 1000 other trailers, NOT the blue sweater from EP5.

Thank GOD, cuz I went to bed just DREADING what people would start saying about Ep5. 🤦

[nalyra-dreaming]

you said to an anon yesterday that lestat would probably feel relieved that louis is with armand as it means that louis will be protected. what did you mean by that?:) how does armand protect him in the books and in the show as well?

i’ve only read iwtv so i only know that much really. i’m sorry if this makes it a silly question, i just don’t absorb books very well or show material as my brain gets muddled. also, this isn’t armand hate, i adore him:)

All good. :)

Armand is a very complicated character, and he often does things that he thinks are right, even though others may see it... differently. :)

Lestat goes to Armand to ask for blood in the book, but also tells him about Louis (and Claudia), in a desperate attempt to save their lives. Because he knows of the old rules, he knows Armand. When Armand falls for Louis there it means that he will not kill Louis. That is an aspect of that in (the) IWTV (book).

Later on there is a phase where Louis lives with Armand in New York, at Trinity Gate. It's after Lestat has let the "ever-multiplying" vampires drive him from NOLA... because he is loathe to kill them. Armand had roused him in his coma once to get rid of the riff raff, but later, after Merrick Lestat does not like going after them anymore:

This is from "Prince Lestat" (which Rolin has already stated to take from):

The mavericks multiplying everywhere were causing trouble for one another, and their gang fights and brawls have made life ugly for the rest of us. And they think nothing of trying to burn with re or decapitate any other blood drinker who gets in their way. It is chaos. But who am I to police these preternatural nincompoops? When have I ever been on the side of law and order? I’m supposed to be the rebellious one, l’enfant terrible. So I let them drive me away out of the cities, and even from New Orleans, I let them drive me away. My beloved Louis de Pointe du Lac left soon after, and from that time on lived in New York with Armand. Armand keeps the island of Manhattan safe for them—Louis, Armand, and two young blood drinkers, Benjamin and Sybelle, and whoever else joins them in their palatial digs on the Upper East Side. No surprises there. Armand has always been skilled at destroying those who offend him. He was after all for hundreds of years the coven master of the old Children of Satan in Paris, and he’d burn to ashes any blood drinker who didn’t obey the vicious old rules of those miserable religious fanatics. He’s autocratic, ruthless. Well, he can have that mission."

Armand protects Louis. Armand keeps New York "safe". I think we are looking at a mix of Merrick and PL era with the show's Dubai penthouse.

Armand protects Louis, even "from himself", too, as was stated rather plainly in season 1. It was also already said by Assad and the others (and I mean it's been clear now through the trailers and teasers) that Armand has at least influenced Louis' memories... probably to keep him from (fatally) painful ones. Armand is a big spell and mind gift user after all :)

I honestly think that all Armand has done/will be shown to have done to/with Louis was to protect him - in the way he saw fit.

That is how Armand, as a centuries old coven master operates - he deals with things as he sees fit.

Loving Louis... means Armand won't kill him. Will protect him, too.

Unfortunately (for Claudia, and others) it is as simple as that. Because Armand could not love her.

[coulsons-fullmetal-cellist]

A Dieter Thing Happened on the Way to the Colosseum

(Dieter x horror loving female)

Words: 1, 347

Summary: thanks to a certain trailer, you have some inspiration to bring back to Dieter

Warnings: saucy suggestions, mild swearing, Ancient Roman history, talk of roleplay, Dieter being Dieter in a Roman costume

Check out masterlist here

Arms wrapped around you as soon as you got out of the car. Very soft inviting arms.

“Hi Dieter.”

“Hello, my beautiful almost wife. In less than three months I can say hello to my beautiful wife.”

He did this every time, and it was still adorable.

“I have stuff to get out of the car,” he wasn’t letting go quite yet. “I picked up your wedding suit.”

That got him excited. He grabbed everything that was in the trunk of your car and skipped inside.

You couldn’t help but smile; you never knew anyone as excited as your fiancé for your upcoming wedding. He took delight in picking out his wedding suit. Dieter decided on a navy-blue suit with an inlay of dusty pink imprinted with roses.

“Uh, honey cakes, this isn’t my suit,” he walked out holding up something that wasn’t his wedding suit. It was a costume an actor playing a Roman general would wear in an epic historical film. You just stood there dumbfounded.

“This isn’t for the wedding, is it?” You shook your head. “Wait, is this a roleplay thing?”

You managed to squeak out a maybe.

Dieter stared at you in amazed confusion. “You’ve never expressed any interest in Ancient Rome before. My horror film knowledge is very limited but I’m pretty sure there isn’t one.”

“There should be one. It would be amazing, like Prey.”

“Alright, what’s happened?”

“It was the trailer.”

“What trailer?”

“Trailer for Gladiator 2.”

“They made a sequel to that?”

You nodded, “I wasn’t that interested, but it was all anyone talked about at work, so I watched it and…”

“And…?”

“It was hot.”

“Come on, no trailer could be that hot.”

Cue one slightly historically inaccurate teaser trailer later…

“Okay, that was pretty hot.”

“I told you.”

“Hang on,” he gave you that classic cheeky look. “You just want me to show off my knees.”

“Well, you have nice knees. They’re much cuter than mine.”

“I love your knees. Especially when I have them over my shoulders,” he grabbed said knees and draped them over his legs which caused you to slump against his chest.

He nuzzled close, “So, what did you have in mind for roleplay?”

“I have no idea. I don’t remember much from high school history.”

“Well, we only need to know the basics. Obviously, I’ll be a Roman general and you can be my Roman wife.”

“So far, so good.”

“I could be coming back from a battle and then you could help me wash off in our pretend Roman bath.”

“I’d love to have a bath,” you already imagined soaking in the hot water.

“You can help wash off the dirt from my battle.”

“Then we’d have slow-motion sex like in that Zack Snyder film?” you were trying to decide which bath salts you’d like in your bath.

“Almost, but the Battle of Thermopylae was in 480 BC and the Colosseum wasn’t built until around 80 AD.”

“You’re such a nerd.”

“I know.”

You couldn’t help but kiss his nose, “It’s very sexy.”

“So should I role around in some dirt?”

“Don’t you have some fake dirt?”

“It won’t wash off that easily.”

“I can pretend I had a pre-wash before soaking in our Ancient Roman bath.”

“Oh, speaking of Rome; pizza.”

“Pizza?”

“Please tell me they had pizza in Ancient Rome.”

“They weren’t as fancy as today’s pizza but yes they did.”

“I really want some pizza.”

“And would that be before or after the roleplay?”

You made a noise like you were starting to get a headache, “I don’t know, my brain don’t work. I’ve been problem solving all day and now it’s just,” you then made a noise like a splat.

“Oh, you’re poor brain.”

“I’m sorry I’m not being helpful here.”

He kissed that spot between your eyebrows which calmed your mind. “Just tell me what it is you’d like to do.”

“All I want is to soak in the bath, have pizza and you in sexy Roman outfit.”

“And that’s all you want?”

You nodded, snuggling further into his softness.

You must have dozed off because the next thing you knew, Dieter was gently waking you up.

“Hey,” he spoke softly. “Pizza is going to be here in five minutes.”

Rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, you stretched as you asked, “You ordered pizza?”

“Yup, you should run yourself a hot bath.” Before you could question him, he kissed your cheek. “You deserve a hot bath.”

“I do,” and you wandered off to the bathroom.

The hot water was the perfect thing for a long day. You closed your eyes and took a long breath of the rose scented bath salts.

“Thy pizza, my lady.”

You opened your eyes: before you was Dieter dressed as a Roman general kneeling down with a box of pizza.

“This is what you wanted wasn’t it?” he seemed uncertain.

“Me in a hot bath with you in a sexy Roman outfit and pizza?” you let out an adoring whimper. “It’s everything I wanted!”

“I’m glad,” he opened the box. “I should start wearing skirts, show off my knees.”

“It does suit you.” He took some time to admire his figure in his costume.

“Dieter, I love you and I cannot wait to be married but…”

“But pizza?”

“Pizza!”

He took out a slice and held it out to you. You took as big a bite as you could manage without burning your mouth but with pizza it was always going to happen. Thankfully, your experience with cheese helped prevent such burns.

“Fuck, hot,” Dieter not so much. Once he recovered from pizza cheese burns, he took a stool and sat down. You noticed he was rather lacking in a certain something.

“Dieter, are you not wearing underwear?”

“Well I can’t go wearing a loincloth can I?” he waggled his eyebrows and took another bite of pizza. “So you think I should I be in a horror film set in Ancient Rome?”

“You know I’d watch it.”

“Something like a Roman troop come across some ancient aliens? Please those so-called historians?”

You hummed in thought after another bite of pizza, “I think something like vampires or werewolves would work better.”

“Werewolves could work. There’s the myth that Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, and they were raised by a wolf so, I don’t know, there could be some cult or something that turns out to be werewolves.”

“Please, someone write that film so you can be in it.”

“And you can do the werewolf makeup.”

“I’d love to do an Ancient Roman werewolf!” you shifted your legs seductively in the bath. “So, are you going to join me?”

“I’d love to but I’m keeping this on for a while.”

“Oh?”

“For starters, I look good in it. Secondly, it was a bit fiddly to get on. Got some weird looks from the pizza guy.”

“I can help you take it off.” The rose scent was getting to you.

“You will eventually. But just think of me as a Roman general, just back from battle missing his beautiful Roman wife. He’s not going to waste time taking off his armour before making passionate love.”

“Can you move in that?”

“I can move the important parts.”

“I like those important parts,” you had enough of pizza. You leaned out of the bath and Dieter offered you more pizza, but you took his face in your hands and kissed him deeply. He gladly leaned in.

“I can’t wait until we’re married,” said Dieter. “Then I can carry my actual wife to bed rather than my pretend Roman wife.”

“The pretend stuff is nice until then.”

“At least the sex is real.” He stood up and held out his hand. “Now, let’s get those sexy knees over my shoulders.”

“Your shoulders are so broad in that outfit.”

You stood up as if to step out of the bath, but your eager fiancé scooped you up in his arms.

“Dieter, I haven’t dried off.”

“Don’t worry, I put towels down on the bed.”

Lovingly tagging @boliv-jenta @simpingcowboy @ellenmunn @o-sacra-virgo-laudes-tibi @chaithetics @myloveistoolittle @cevans-is-classic @glshmbl @cupcakehp @gswizzsstuff @grogusmum

[thatguythatdrawsalot]

Ruby - Atlas Design Critique.

I'm ending things off with a post about Ruby, now I do love making these kinds of posts but I don’t want to make it a top priority because, of course, I wanna draw other things especially since I start college around the corner. These posts tend to take more creative juices from my small brain. Until then, just consider critiques/redesign posts on a hiatus. 

RWBY Archives

I’m glad you guys were able to see me talk about outfits in a negative, negative, neutral-positive, and now POSITIVE way, mainly due to being biased. The archives say pretty much the obvious in her having a new style and being more cutting-edge with the look aka more stylish. I think they nailed it as she looks more mature and better yet her corset is way more reminiscent of Pyrrha. You know? The friend Ruby wants to honor since she saw her die right before her eyes- I can keep gushing about how cool she looks but uh, again I’m being biased, she’s cool-looking but not… practical. As in this outfit isn’t necessarily good to wear in Atlas, or rather the tundras. I wouldn’t mind this if she was solely stuck in Atlas/Mantle but she goes on outside missions, why on earth is she wearing a mesh? If anything this outfit would serve better if she was in Vacuo. The outfit had an alternative version of No Sleeves and even her presumed Volume 10 outfit looks so identical to her Atlas design.

Amazing how even the best outfit in Team RWBY still doesn’t make her look warm for the climate.

Hair

Remember back in my Blake Critique post on how I said I hated the ‘Spitting-Image of Parent' trope in fiction? They could’ve given Ruby a ponytail to look similar to once again; Summer, but they didn’t they got Ruby’s messy bang out of her field of vision and swooped it to the left! She looks 100% cuter and combat ready and while everyone was excited at her for looking more like Qrow, I was excited cause her hair looked more like Taiyang’s hair in being swooshed to the left. Though I wish they gave a reason as to why Ruby changed her hair all of a sudden, when characters change hairstyles it’s usually to show a display of growth with a ‘Show Don’t Tell’ reason but I’ll be biased and assume Ruby just wanted to look more mature ever since stood her ground in Argus for a reason I don’t wanna rant about.

Primary Color - Red!

Ruby doesn’t fail in representing her color of Red. The long red cape already does the job well plus her red skirt, she’s a gold star for being a red-themed character. But when it comes to her sleeves, blegh. I’m sure people have noticed this by now but Ruby’s sleeves are light gray which is so similar to her skin tone, which puts more emphasis on her arms. I swear the first time I saw the teaser trailer and saw Ruby’s model, I thought they decided to ditch the sleeves but no. The sleeves are just super light like her skin. I think it would’ve helped the design if they either made Ruby tan like her sister or made the sleeves a darker gray.

Negatives?

I do love Ruby’s Atlas look but as I said I can’t be biased. As cool and cute as she looks it isn’t a proper outfit for the cold environment she’s in, she even shivers in the show canon. The sleeves matching her skin look weird. An open skirt is silly and what’s sillier is a belt holding it in place. I also really hate how Ruby’s cape was just… replaced. Back then I thought her cape had significance as she continued to wear it even when it was withered and tethered, but even back then I thought her Vale cape held more significance- but anyways it was just replaced. Whatever I guess- oh my god it’s the same cape with lazy fabric around her neck. They couldn’t give her a different styled cape? One where it’s held together by a string? Buttons? Pins? No?...

Redesign

Okay, I know it’s crazy, but I ditched the cape and emblem. I know, I know! I just used the canon logic and since the cape didn’t mean anything to Ruby for it to be replaced, she could just ditch it for now. I know the cape is an iconic element but I couldn’t find a way to incorporate it. I also ditched the metal emblem, I know it’s a ‘mother’s promise’ and her mom’s emblem but uh… she didn’t wear it in Volume 2, I didn’t think she would care to wear it now. I wanted the look to be different but I think I just made Ruby unrecognizable now. I know the formula is to have Ruby wear a cape and the metal emblem but I just… couldn’t. I’ll confess to you guys about something, the main inspiration for this outfit was Ruby’s Ice Queendom design. I love it and wanted to try to get Ruby with that similar vibe, but I can understand if everyone may not like this. No cape, no metal emblem, and looks a little more childish when Ruby is supposed to be mature. I get it, but I wanted to show you guys that you shouldn’t be afraid of drastic changes to designs. It can sometimes work and sometimes not. 

Conclusion

Ruby’s outfit is still arguably the best amongst her team even when it’s not climate-appropriate, as much as I nag about her sleeves being too close to her skin color and the decision of her cape being repaired I still do love it. It isn’t perfect I can admit that but she is on the top best Atlas designs for me. If this outfit was instead held off for Vacuo or a return to Vale, it’d be top fifteen at the very least in all of the designs we’ve seen across the show. 

But of course it’s just my opinion. If you love this design or hate the design, please share your opinion. I’d love to hear it! :D

[bigtittiecomitte]

Episode 7 predictions since it’s 2024

1. N and Uzi kiss scene

This one’s pretty simple, I really want to see them kiss, you want to see them kiss, everyone wants to see them kiss

2. Nori and Yeva flashback scene

I really do think that teaser that Glitch posted is a flashback with Nori and Yeva trying to find the cure too, it would make sense for them too especially with their connection to the Absolute Solver and the camp

The theories are nice but I don’t think that Nori and Yeva would just show up out of the blue randomly especially when they’re supposed to be dead, it made sort of sense with Doll but doesn’t make sense with those two cause why the hell did it take that long to come back, just seems like a flashback to me, also this would be good for some content on what not only were they like but also hopefully mention of Khan and Uzi from Nori’s mouth cause we still have no idea if Nori is even a good guy

3. Separation

It seems like from the trailer that N, Uzi and Tessa are going to be seperated. This would be good for some good sweet character development and how they handle things alone, Tessa might be looking at the dorms? Lockers? Idk what they are but of the patients especially Nori’s and hers might have something deeply puzzling Tessa because she full on slammed the door lol

4. Nuzi confession scene

Should’ve probably put this in first but I’m HOPING that N and Uzi confess their feelings, especially with the fact that they might die I’d be happy if they at least confessed before Episode 8 (the last episode) so we can see them being happy with each other before the angst

5. N shirtless

6. More Tessa scenes

I know girlie is really suspicious at the moment and I absolutely despise her for the whole kill Uzi thing but I actually really like Tessa she’s so quirky and so unaware of things it’s kinda funny

I love you Australian woman I still hate you for the kill Uzi thing tho

7. Fluff moments

As you know I hate angst, it makes me sad ☹️

8. Merch

I hope there’s more merch of characters that never got the chance to have some merch, as much as I love the N and Uzi merch there is not a lot of merch with the other characters like J, Tessa, Cyn, etc

Even V, I don’t want her to be in the episode but I think that she’s gotten at least 5 pieces of merch? Can’t really tell but I hope that J fans do get that plushie

I hope they make more keychains and stickers too, posters would be nice as well or even mats. Just some new pieces of merch instead of plushies, pins and Animatez (as much as I love them, I do hope that’s not all of it)

9. The absolute solver fucks off

I hate the absolute solver my girl could die because of it grrrraahhhhhh 😡🤬

That’s it, like share and subscribe for more content 😎

[meraki-yao]

Hi correct me if I’m wrong but I thought I saw you mention that the same intimacy coordinator who worked on rwrb also worked on m&g, if that’s so, why was the intimacy approached differently, it seems rwrb was really toned down and alex and henry are a very passionate couple in the books and nich and taylor can definitely deliver passion and intimacy and it was rated-r so why do you think rwrb was approached differently and rather toned down, I mean what we got was great I’m still so attached to this movie 3 months later and that doesn’t happen often unless I absolutely love the movie or show but I feel like they were holding back and it becomes the question of why, was it n&t choice or matthew and intimacy coordinator or everything was done in how they wanted to tell the story, idk to me you can’t help but notice after the release of the trailer/teaser for m&g, I know it’s a different story and it’s more a drama based on a true story but very different in how they approached intimacy and affection

Okay so this turned into an essay.

I’m gonna dissect your ask into two parts, feel free to send me another ask if I missed something

Q1: Why was the intimacy in RWRB approached differently and less intense than M&G

Q2: Why was the intimacy in RWRB toned down from the book even with an R rating and with Taylor & Nick clearly capable of delivering passion and intimacy, and who was responsible for that

Firstly, yes, Robbie Taylor Hunt was the intimacy coordinator for both RWRB and M&G

Secondly, a little bit of background for M&G to aid my explanation later: While M&G isn’t out yet, I did read George Villiers’ Wikipedia page (Thanks Henry), listen to Nick talk a bit about him from a podcast episode, and watch the trailer. To summarize quickly, King James I has a list of male lovers, Mary Villiers realized her son had potential, so she more or less moulded him into a figure that the King would immensely like. Sex with the King was all for political power: George has sex with the King, and the King enjoys the pleasure he brings and lavishes him with treasures and political power in return. Historical records seem to indicate that the King really did love George as a partner, as odd (and in our modern times, toxic and maybe even “grooming”, George was 21 and the King was 48 when they met) as their relationship was. But the truth is George gained a lot from the King: he ended up one of the highest-ranking members of the court, and the only duke who wasn’t from the royal family.

So to answer your questions:

A1:

It’s mainly because since these are two different stories, the meaning of intimacy is different in each context.

RWRB is a love story. It is about the growth of the romantic relationship between Alex and Henry. Granted, they started with a friends-with-benefits arrangement but from the moment Henry kissed Alex on New Year's they both held mutual, genuine affection towards each other which later grew into love and devotion. This affection doesn’t have an underlying hidden purpose. Their intimacy is a reflection of their genuine feelings towards each other, which is why Paris is so gentle, quiet and soft. That’s the slow comfort of falling in love. Note that in the Paris scene, while it is clear what they’re physically doing, the focus is on their faces. You don’t see much below their waist. Matthew made that choice deliberately: this was an emotional experience for them as much as it was a physical experience. The sex in RWRB shows growing love.

Sex means something entirely different in M&G. To put it in a crude way, George Villiers, under his mother’s order/guidance/manipulation, fucked his way to power. Is there real affection and love between him and any or all of his partners, the King included? We honestly can’t know, because history only records what Geroge wanted to show, but it is incredibly unlikely that he did. Remember how I said there isn't an underlying hidden purpose in Alex and Henry’s affection? That’s not true for George: the hidden purpose is that he wants political power. Sex isn’t love in M&G, it’s entirely power play. And power play is violent and rough and messy, so the sex, as a reflection of that, is portrayed as such as well. Note that in the trailer, we see a lot of the body, but if you look at their faces, which isn’t the focus, he… kinda looks in pain?

A way I see it is in RWRB, Alex and Henry are both giving each other pleasure, as well as their heart. It’s slow, it’s gentle, and it’s respectful: Henry guides Alex in, Alex pays attention to each change on Henry’s face, and only moves when Henry consents, and even then, he moves slowly and the speed later builds up

Now look at the M&G trailer, it’s more like George’s partners are taking pleasure from him. It, at the very least, looks far less mutual than what Alex and Henry have. Geroge gives others pleasure, and in return, he gets political power.

TLDR: RWRB’s intimacy was less intense than that of M&G because intimacy has a different meaning/ symbolism in each story.

A2:

Part of this is because of the limitations of movie storytelling.

A book doesn’t have time limits, a movie does.

If you look at the book, at the beginning of Alex and Henry’s relationship, a lot of the sex was kind of repetitive in a way. Paris and MET for Alex’s birthday were covered in three pages. And both of those Alex compartmentalized as “friendship with benefits”. Aside from the internal monologue of him observing Henry sleeping which can’t be delivered on screen effectively, it’s mostly reiterating the same sentiment from the polo match: they use their international events as escapades to have sex with each other. But put that in the movie and it would take up the limited movie time, time that needs to be used for effective storytelling. The time used for Alex and Henry’s walk in the Paris garden could be used for a montage of all of their kinky sexual shenanigans instead, but if the polo hook-up can establish the intensity of their hooks up in the same way, then that time is better used exploring Henry’s baggage. TLDR: not enough time in regard to the number of times they have sex compared to the book.

The other part is by Matthew’s design.

I don’t remember where I saw/heard it from, either a podcast or an article, where Matthew half-jokingly said people will get bored if it’s just smut all the time. Yes, Alex and Henry are a very passionate couple, as shown by their first hook-up in the movie and the polo scene, but because gay sex in media is mostly portrayed as this wild, sexy frenzy, Matthew also wanted to show that gay sex can be emotionally vulnerable, which is why Paris was so focused on their faces, ergo, their emotions. Matthew wanted it to be something gentle and emotion-focused, so that was his priority in designing the scene.

Also there’s the fact that they’re older in the movie, thus more mature and a little less… hormonal. I think they get to the emotional connection a little earlier than their book counterparts.

A thing to note is that the movie wasn’t aiming for an R rating. In a really good podcast episode with Matthew and Tommy Didario, he even expressed disappointment in MAP for rating the movie R, saying that if it was a straight couple, it most likely wouldn’t have gotten an R rating, and even if we ignore latent homophobia, there’s are films much more violent than RWRB is sexually explicit, yet those films are PG 13.

I agree that if needed, Nick and Taylor can deliver something more intense. They’re clearly comfortable with each other, as seen from the bloopers of Paris morning and the fact that Robbie wasn’t there when they shot the lake scene, yet they were comfortable enough with touching each other and gentle kisses. They’ve also both done more explicit things: Taylor with Minx, Nick with M&G (granted that came later).

But the thing is, the RWRB movie doesn’t exactly… need more, from the storytelling perspective. I might say putting a sexy montage in between Polo and Paris might clarify the timeline a little, but that would still just be little clips of what we’ve already seen in the previous two scenes. And just from what I’ve seen, people who have read the book (myself included) would think it’s toned down, but some YouTube reaction videos from people who haven’t read the book find it really spicy. We book readers just have a comparison.

TLDR: In the movie's story, we didn't really need more sex scenes

Wow, I didn’t intend this to be so long, but I haven’t written a RWRB essay in a hot minute. This was a lot of fun, so thank you for the ask, and I hope I could answer you!

[purple-dragon-queen]

You said when you were watching the Descendants rise of red teaser trailer you didn't get to pause and look for details since it was a quick watch but assuming you've watched it fully now, can I get your thoughts and opinions?

⚠️ KINDA LONG POST⚠️

I will be sharing MY thoughts and opinions on The new teaser trailer for rise of red, so if that bothers you it's time to ski dazzle off of My post 💋

Feel free to Reblog with your ideas aswell. Would love to see em

Okay so the first thing I thought of when kylie(red) pulled out all the spray paint and start doing her thing, was Mal. Like Disney bae it's giving Mal dupe.

Second and this one got me cracking was The Merlin Academy. Like My brain totally disregarded it as in I FORGOT ABOUT IT, so imagine to my horror when red is spray painting I see them BLAM! Plastered on the wall in all their Evil Glory.

Okay so I found this picture on Instagram where someone got a close up and other than Ulyanna, Maleficent, Hades and Hook, I don't know who the others are ( sorry not sorry) Now underneath the picture we can see on a plaque the words "vk students" now this made me realize why the title vk was so accepting when the core four came to aruadon, Because it wasnt the first time the title had been given/used.

Now look at this close up of teen Maleficent all I have to say is Wtf is that.

If those things at the side of her head are supposed to be horns, respectfully she needs to chop them tf off?? And is she wearing a ponytail??? Now I haven't seen Maleficent in a long time but isn't she supposed to have brown hair? Now idc if they give her a different hair color but the outfit and those HORNS especially are not giving!!!.

Like I saw someone do a redesign of this descendantofthesparrow I think and it was jaw dropping absolutely gorgeous, like mam what's your major? Anyways yeah I've seen this person done a ton of redesign and rewrites that when I watch descendants I'm like "oh yeah, this is Canon and the good stuff is fanfic"

Now this whole time travel thing doesn't make sense to Me because am I really supposed to believe that Hades who's older Than all of them by thousands of years went to school with them? Like what.

I'm going to assume Ulyanna is the Leader of the gang because she's in the middle and everyone else is in the back and from what we've seen the Leader is always in the middle.

Now I have a feeling rise of red will be pushing to make Hades and Maleficent a thing so we can see how Mal became a thing, just an assumption. Respectfully If they try to make hook and ulyanna a thing I will jump tf off. There was something else I wanted to say about Hades and Maleficent but I forgot and will most likely reblog this post when I remember.

now this is the Queen of Hearts and once again Descendants isn't following Canon because I'm pretty sure Carlos mentioned at one point that he used to drive his mom to the queen of hearts castle.

Now if I didn't know already that this is the queen of hearts and u shoved this pic in my fave and was like "girly who do you think this is?" I WOULD NOT SAY THE QUEEN OF HEARTS, I MEAN JUST LOOK AT HER SHE'S RED! Where are the other colors??? There's no white, no black just RED. Now as a theatre kid we've done better, with less money!!!. Disney I hope you are ashamed because you should be.

Now descendants brandy Cinderella has blue hair which doesn't make any damn sense so I'm guessing that's why Chole has blur hair. I really wish there outfits were better because with the og 4 we could tell what their main colors were without it being to much but now It's Def too much. I've got a few more things to add because I feel like I haven't said everything I wanted to so maybe I'll reblog with more later. Who knows

[d3f3n3str4t10n]

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley Progress Updates!

Okay I had a feeling I missed one of these LMAO.

Never! These updates haven't been huge, so it seems I didn't miss too much besides some more development issues.

Despite what this lovely graphic showed us last time, it seems that development has stalled a bit, thanks to the new roadmap for how the chapters are split up now.

What I find interesting is that they single out Chapter 3A, implying Chapter 3B doesn't have the same story transitioning issues with Chapter 4 that Chapter 3A does... if 3B even leads into 4 anymore, that is.

I think this is the most genuine disdain I've ever seen in her eyes...

Regardless, I'm optimistic that Nemlei will figure it out eventually :) Besides, we have a new teaser trailer to watch! And it's... probably the heaviest one so far.

Maybe it's just me and my own experiences with this subject, but this one hit pretty hard. We see a scene with Andrew and Julia, in their college years, in her dorm. Julia convinces Andrew to listen to the phone calls Ashley leaves for her. From the way the narrator calls Andrew "He" and "Him" instead of "You" we can tell that this scene is from Julia's perspective.

Andrew is very dismissive, claiming that it being Ashley is simply not possible... despite having seemingly been much more alarmed regarding the messages yesterday.

He shuts down any attempts Julia makes to figure out the situation, and when Julia tries to bring up how... 'close' the two can get, he... I don't want to say 'lashes out' at her, but he gets very frustrated at the least.

Julia steps back, frightened, and Andrew tries to calm her down... but he seems to be half-assing it pretty much, not hiding his own frustrations with her very well at all. Julia is crying in the corner meanwhile it feels like Andrew is just trying to get her to shut up.

Even in their apology, he's just trying to shut her down. The way he says the line above just reminds me more of his relationship with Ashley. How frustrating she is for him, and yet, how he sticks around her regardless. Pretty heavy shit. Gives a lot more depth to Andrew and Julia's relationship than we had. We already knew that he was pretty dismissive of Ashley's treatment towards her, despite him still being upset that Julia broke things off in the start of the game, but we see the full brunt of it in this scene, it seems. Andrew was... not the best listener, it seems. We know that Ashley is a pretty big psycho already, but Andrew getting called out on his own behavior by someone who is actually a good person (AKA not Ashley or Renee) is something we've been needing for a while. Reminds us that while Andrew can act as the voice of 'reason' with Ashley, he himself is not all that reasonable, and has his own fat list of flaws he needs to address. Given that this is almost certainly a flashback scene, I wonder what event in the game will trigger it to play... Anywho, thanks for reading! See y'all next time~!

[eliaca]

Saskia Reeves Breaks Down Jackson Lamb’s Shocking Betrayal

TheWrap: At first, Catherine is very touched that Lamb has come to her rescue. And then he tells her that her late boss was a traitor who was setting her up to take the fall for him. That’s a huge, huge betrayal.

Saskia Reeves: Yeah. It’s a shocking moment for her. Which is why I think she says, if you don’t mind my French, “F,U. Jackson Lamb, f—k the lot of you.” I think she’s just had it, that’s it. She’s had enough. And Catherine never swears. Jackson Lamb swears all the time, but she never swears. So that was quite a big thing for her to do that.

So of all the things that Lamb says to Catherine, what do you think was the most hurtful?

That Charles was only keeping her close because she was a drunk. [Lamb] helped her go to rehab. He helped her, she thought, recover. And I think after Charles Partner was killed, or when he committed suicide, as she thinks, she fell off the wagon a few times.

Lamb tells her, doesn’t he, in the end of Season 1 that he gave Charles Partner the gun. But she always blamed herself for his death. And she falls off the wagon, and then gets back on it because otherwise she’d probably kill herself.

And that’s when Lamb picks her up and says, “Okay, I’m going to offer you a job.” I imagine her self-esteem is very low. It’s a job that she can do incredibly well. She hasn’t sunk to the bottom like all the other [agents in Slough House].

She really gets a chance to shine this season as she gains the trust of her kidnappers and mines them for information.

I don’t know if anybody would have quite approached it the way she did. Knowing what she knows, and getting sort of caught up in their emotional reason why they need the information that they need. You have to remember she’s not a spy. She’s a secretary, a very, very good secretary.

Do you think Lamb is actually fond of her?

Yes. They’ve been part of MI5 since before the [Berlin] wall came down, they’ve been through so much together. They know the same people from before. And they’re both more analog than digital. She knows [he used to be an] exemplary member of MI5. And he knows her to be an incredibly experienced supporter of the head of MI5. I think he respects her, but he’s also a frightful bully and, and in some areas, a coward who doesn’t want to face his own alcoholism.

So he pushes her, he keeps pushing her to see how far she’ll go, to test her. I think she interprets that as, “He’s trying to break me. He’s trying to push me off the wagon, and I refuse to be pushed off the wagon.” And the longer she stays sober, the stronger she gets. And I love how strong she is. She’s very smart. And she’s kind but she’s f—ked up. Which is what holds them all together, isn’t it?

He has one one big secret left: As the viewers already know, he was the one who killed Charles.

Right. That hasn’t come out yet. Which is why when she asks him, “Do we kill our own?,” she’s not aware of how close she is to the truth.

I haven’t read the books but I assume that does come out at some point.

It does come out, but I can’t remember which book it happens in. I’ve read them all a few times.

Actually, it’s a conversation I want to have with the showrunner Will Smith. What are we going to do with this piece of humming knowledge, this thing that won’t go away? This thing that Jackson did, but he did it under the umbrella of David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce). And that relationship will be unfolded in Season 4.

We get a few glimpses of Catherine in the Season 4 teaser trailer. Will we see her back at Slough House?

I can’t say anything!

Source: Sharon Knolle - The Wrap

[postguiltypleasures]

Betty La Fea La Historia Continua -Trailer breakdowns and Speculation

As you may have guessed from other posts hears, I am so excited for this series. Been watching the various promo videos and pictures. I decided to to a breakdown based what I have gleaned from all of them.

But first, embedding the videos I am talking about:

Red carpet announcement:

Teaser scene with date:

The Trailer:

The Names:

I am going to use the first teaser as a guide and information I have gleaned from subsequent ones.

The read carpet teaser starts with Marcela, who soon accompanied by Patricia, vamping towards the camera. Patricia knocks into Marcela and they laugh.

It is kind of negates the way that they were threatening moments before. I also want to highlight that in the subsequent promos they are rarely together. Instead Patricia is with Nicolas and Marcela seems to mostly confide in Nacho. 

These two are followed by Mario, who is notably alone.

There are rumors that in this version he will be more overtly villainous than in the original, and it seems in the promotions department is keeping this close to the vest. He is also alone in the names promo

(possibly taking a fake phone call like Nicolás frequently did in the original) and he doesn’t have any dialogue in either date announcement scene, nor the official trailer, though he appears in both of those.

He seems to be Armando’s friend again, but how close they are and if Mario continues to manipulate Armando in any way, the reasons are unclear.

Which brings me to the next grouping, the first group of all new characters. These ones are the members of Gen Z and they are Betty and Armando’s daughter Mila, Marcela’s protege Nacho, and Jeff, who from later appearances seems to work directly with Hugo.

(I think What We Do in the Shadows ruined the name Jeff for me.) I have a lot of questions about Jeff’s relationship with Hugo, starting with is this some kind apprentice ship? Does Ecomoda have lines that are now designed by someone other than Hugo?  I guess we will find these things out soon enough… Mila and Jeff seem to be romantically involved,

but where does Nacho fit in?

The next group is who I’m going to call the New Love Interests for the Old Love Triangle:

I only landed on calling them this after the Names teaser where we get this interaction:

Other than that, Pascual, who I sincerely believe is Marcela’s new love interest, is mostly not in these promotional videos. Note how Pascual gestures as to keep the attention on Majo and Esteban. Also note what a vamp Majo is!

As a love interest for Armando, she is something of a regression. Flaunting her sexiness and using PDA to establish control.

Her appearance makes us wonder is Armando really is capable of being in relationships unlike most of the one he had the original? (Despite the fact that he really wants to be with Betty). While watching these and preparing to write I thought of how different a “not Armando” love interest for Betty and Marcela is. Both need someone they don’t associate with the hurt they feel from Armando, but Marcela needs to learn new ways to be in a relationship, someone who is good a de-escalating and of course has minimal interaction with how the Mendoza/Valencia family/business dynamic. Betty needs someone she can have fun with, Marcela needs a whole new definition of fun. I can’t tell if Esteban is any kind of fun, but he is handsome and he and Betty are intrigued by each other.

Next appears Gutierez. He is mostly alone in the promotional material, a sign of Ecomoda not changing much over the years. (Though I do need to mention that in the main trailer, he appears to be reintroducing Freddy to Ecomoda, which implies that Freddy has left, but returns in some manner.) Honestly, he looks weirdly good in the cast returns video. Every other appearance he makes is a reminder of how much Ecomoda doesn’t care about being a healthy work environment. 

The next group is what I’m calling El Cuartel +.

We have three members of the original Cuartel, minus Ines, Sofia and Mariana. Plus Freddy and new cast member Carmen. When it came out I assume that the new member, Carmen would be a secretary, like most of the members. But later footage reveals that she is clearly Hugo’s current “modelo de tallaje”/ fit model.

As the previous series’ fit model was Jenny, a baby-talking-sadist often in conflict with the cuartel. It makes one wonder, what exactly is her relationship with the group? As a corollary, does the fact that Aura Maria is in the made to be promos footage, but no trailers made from actual footage, should we infer that she no longer works for Ecomoda? At least directly? I hope she and Betty are still friends, they have one of the most interesting dynamics in the Cuartel . And how about Freddy, their relationship, and his professional connection to Ecomoda?

The next entrance is for Hermes Pinzón and Nicolás Mora.

This is the most familiarly delightful interaction since Marcela and Patricia. They still have that the more things change, the more they stay they same thing with Hermes as the old fashioned patriarch, and Nicolás as the unofficial son, with all the complications that involved. It just also makes me miss Julia. Mario Duarte looks really good out of his Nicolás costume.

Then Hugo, walks the red carpet alone.

While later promos for that Jeff and Carmen now work in his studio, they didn’t hint at that at all here which could because they’re more interested in how those characters interact with the groups they were paired with and/or because any indication of what’s going on in that studio is too spoilery for the plot.

In any case I doubt Hugo gets along that well with his new colleagues. Not only does he have a history of being verbally abusive, but both the main trailer and the later names trailer it appears he has started venerating his late aide from the first series, Ines.

This is nice for nostalgic fans, but could be a pain to work with for new characters who just can’t live up to it. In the names promo Hugo’s Ines-branded poncho effectively covers Jeff and Carmen’s appearances.

Will this be explicit in the text?

Finally, there are Betty and Armando. It’s their story that we’re continuing to follow.

They both wear t-shirts which Ana Maria Orozco’ face getting into her Betty makeup printed on it. The come from different directions, quickly link arms and head down the read carpet.

Betty trips a bit and they laugh it off. I am sure that for whatever estrangement they have, this is a story of remarriage. They have a lot to renegotiate, but their connection is real, if also with a really messed up beginning.

So some further thoughts on the promos:

I am excited to find out what happened to Daniel. Is he dead? In prison? In any case I think his shares in Ecomoda went to his sisters and that was part of how Marcela was able to force Betty out.

But did Betty or Armando have anything to do with Daniel’s demise? Or was Marcela just taking it out on someone who she never liked? In any case I am speculating that Don Roberto’s divisions of share in his will is some attempt to even the playing field after realizing all the destructive power plays going on in that generation. Trying to get the best out everyone through manipulation. Classic Don Roberto. 

There is a cut in the trailer from Betty’s shocked face to Marcella’s angry face and I always have to do a double take on who I am looking at, because when the both have the straight, long black hair like that, it makes them look similar. It makes me wonder if one of the reasons for Betty bringing back parts of her old look is to separate herself from Marcela? Or feeling like Marcela once did regarding Armando.

There were famous fantasy sequences in the the original, which makes me wonder if their will be any in the new one and if so is anything we see in the trailers actually part of a fantasy sequence?  How many flashbacks to pre estrangement Betty and Armando do we get?

Has Nicolás been at Ecomoda this whole time? How long have Marcela and Patricia been back? While Nicolás and Patricia’s story feels like one of the more abruptly ended one in the original, how will the passage of decade affect picking this up?

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition): 2x2

Additional thoughts that had too many spoilers to go into my earlier post will be found here. Spoilers for all the teasers and trailers, plus through book 13: A Memory of Light.

So one of the big questions that I have is: how much is Lanfear acting with Ishamael's knowledge and how much is she going her own way? Ishamael said in the Darkfriend social scene that he is still looking for Rand. If he's being truthful there (and he's talking to his minions, so there's really no point in lying), then Lanfear has not told him that she located Lews Therin.

2. I hadn't thought about this on my first watch, but @ladyofpembroke noted that Lanfear is probably in Rand's final dream in the next episode, so it seems possible that she actually has a hand in all his dreams. Constantly reminding him that he could kill his friends if he sees them again is a good way to make him want to stay where he is (with her) and not try to reconnect with his past life. Like any effective manipulator, she's keeping him isolated from his friends and family as much as she can.

3. otoh, we know from the books that being able to locate someone's dreams doesn't mean that you know where they are in the physical world, so this might be an Ishamael-influenced dream (I note that while Rand's visions of his friends has them wearing their S1 outfits, Ishamael is wearing his s2 outfit, which Rand hasn't seen), so this might be an Ishamael-influenced dream since he figures he might as well torment Rand in the dream if he can't find him irl.

4. Given that Rand is already hearing whispers, I wonder when the show plans to re-introduce Lews Therin to us in his own form. It might even be this season, if they wanted to make sure to keep a lock on the actor (or we might get another Age of Legends cold open -- though I note that we only had one cold open in this set of three episodes, though that might be because Rafe & co were aware that they would likely all air the same night so that might have affected their choices there - I'd love an AoL cold open where we get to see Lanfear and Lews Therin together).

5. So, did Rand find his way to Cairhien first and then Lanfear set up an inn in the Foregate to entice him to her, or did she set up her inn before he arrived and she figured out a way to lure him in? Either way, she's doing a much better job than the Lanfear in the books. She's much less suspicious than "random noblewoman who managed to appear in an unpopulated parallel world so that Rand could save her" and she's more subtle too. While the cringefail Forsaken in the books can be amusing, the threat level of the villains also helps tell you how seriously to take your protagonists, so I'm glad that they beefed up her threat level by actually making her effective. Right now, Lanfear is #winning on every possible level.

6. I love Errol because he serves several story purposes -- he's reminding us that Rand looks "like an Aiel"; he's serving Hurin's purpose in the story of giving Rand someone to look after and be protective of; he's teaching Rand sword forms because he was a blademaster; and he's giving us a bit of history about "the Aiel war". And the actor is quite charming. Plus he's used to show us both Rand's compassion and his need/desire to find mentors to help teach him the skills he needs. At this point in time, Rand does believe that he's defeated the Dark One and his nightmares are just nightmares but he does still want to learn how to protect himself and how to control himself.

7. We mostly hear indistinct whispers until Rand is walking down the hallway (it's the shot from the trailer) and it resolves into "Do you hear me? You are mine, Rand al'Thor." Which is very interesting. Our first inkling of Lews Therin? If so, it shows a greater awareness of Rand as a person than LTT's voice showed in the earlier books when it appeared in his head. I've speculated that this might happen, so I wonder if we're going to get more genuine back-and-forth between Rand and LTT than we really got in the books as a way of letting us into Rand's internal narration without him needing to pour out his heart to any of the characters around him.

8. I am actually loving Perrin getting Rand's plotline here -- it's working really well for him, being used to show us how Perrin can smell what happened in places so vividly that he's re-experiencing the past. I feel like if I didn't know this was Rand's original plotline, I wouldn't have guessed. It suits how they're exploring Perrin's character so well. I do wonder... Elyas speaks of Perrin experiencing a 'vision' -- I wonder if they're going to make the mystical side of being a Wolfbrother more distinct from what Dreamers do in this show version. Because it really was kinda... weird in the books how Perrin and Egwene are doing all this training in the same dreamworld but Perrin never runs across her or any of the Aiel Dreamwalkers, even once they're spending more time in the wetlands side of things.

9. The nailed-up Fade is used in the books to mark when Fain 'takes control' of the Darkfriends & Trollocs. I wonder here if it's meant to mark the moment when the dagger owns him more strongly than the Dark One does. Because the people of Shadar Logoth were not darkfriends -- and they focused on this in s1, too, because dagger!Mat is not a fan of the Fade that he meets in the farmhouse.

10. Love foreshadowing of Errol talking about "Aielman among us and no one bats an eyelash in the entire place" -- Rand is going to be bringing a lot of Aiel to the wetlands. I bet we're going to get to see some of these sword forms in the finale!

11. Liandrin does seem like she's becoming genuinely invested in Nynaeve. I like that (almost) everyone gets their own personal Darkfriend -- Nynaeve has Liandrin, Mat also has Liandrin (she's a hard worker!), Rand has Lanfear, Perrin has (remorseful) Ingtar, Moiraine has (double agent) Verin, Lan has (repentant) Tomas, and even Egwene gets a scene with Sheriam (who will get to be Her Darkfriend Among Us later on, if we're able to follow the books that closely when we get there), though she's not really the focus of Sheriam's attention. Everyone gets a little personal attention from the Shadow!

I like that Nynaeve gets rushed forward to the test for Accepted due to Liandrin wanting to teach her so badly. It seems more realistic reasoning than we get in the books.

12. Another big lie from Liandrin here about how Mat is here because they are "only observing" that the effects of the dagger are out of his system, which Mat immediately calls bullshit on. He's locked in a cell and only Liandrin is around -- that is not an official observation by any means. That's a prison. It's been six months. So I would put Liandrin's official lie count at two. Notably, she's only lying to Mat so far, who is both kept well away from other people and also doesn't really know as much about Aes Sedai (we know from Egwene and Moiraine's conversation in the woods in s1 that the people of the Two Rivers do not have the Aes Sedai oaths memorized).

13. My dearest, my darling, my deepest love is finally here! At the end of my reread, when I was ranking my favorite characters, Elayne was my number one favorite. Ceara is doing such a good job with her and the writing is also excellent. I love how many different sides of her we get to see in just these two episodes -- sheltered noble, awkward girl who grew up with no friends, someone familiar with the Tower but not familiar being a novice in the Tower, but a tinkerer (!!! so excited that they put this in so early) at heart and incredibly loyal and compassionate. I just adored her so much in these two episodes and I am looking forward to seeing more of her. I do really hope that, in the midst of all the chaos, that the show does manage to give her something of a meet-cute with Rand, even if it's less obviously romantic than the one in the books. But I'm really looking forward to more of her interacting with Egwene and Nynaeve, and hopefully meeting Aviendha and/or Min and/or Mat in the finale or before it.

14. I have zero issue with Sheriam not being a redhead. I think it's a good idea for the show to cut down on the number of redheads, given that Jordan says it's rare but then keeps giving us random redheads. Limiting the on-screen ones to the Aiel and the royal house of Andor seems like a good idea to me.

15. So first we got Perrin's letters last episode. Now, in this episode, Elyas tells Perrin that the soldiers he's with right now "are not your pack". While he could be talking about the wolves, of course, I feel like, as a viewer, that makes me think of the EF5 and how that's who Perrin belongs with right now. Especially after Perrin's letter talking about how he feels 'exposed' without the others around. Again, it gives me the hope that we'll get more moments of reconnection between the EF5 over the course of the show.

16. This moment with Verin is such a great one to look at knowing the truth of her situation. "Even oaths have loopholes one can exploit". She's the expert at it. Oaths are a bit of a minor theme in this episode and the next -- the loopholes and also, next episode, we're introduced to the Seanchan oaths where Perrin is, I assume, going to take the very reasonable position that a forced oath is not binding (which is the same position that Mat had in Winter's Heart but inexplicably abandoned in Crossroads of Twilight when he decided his accidental wedding vows were binding).

Oh! I knew I remembered hearing the words "Toman Head" in these three episodes but hadn't remembered it was Verin mentioning it! I thought it was noted as part of the Dark Prophecies but it's mentioned here as mainline prophecy. But the name is out there now. And this conversation also confirms "sword of flame" and "battle in the sky" for the finale, most likely, and a mention of a "branded hand" which feels like it confirms the herons. I wonder if Rand is going to use the same weave on his dad's sword that we saw Verin using at the end of the last episode for Tomas's sword. This may also mean that it's using that weave that burns the herons into Rand's palms?

17. The Rand and Lanfear scenes. Wow! But, yeah, I wonder how much her non-reaction to his bloody knuckles struck show-onlys. She doesn't ask him what happened, who he beat up. She just kisses his bloody knuckles and sweet-talks him into bed.

18. So far, we've heard/seen three separate form of violent teaching in the White Tower -- the unnamed woman who beat Moiraine to make her channel (likely Elaida); Liandrin's behavior with Nynaeve; and Sheriam telling Elayne that she'll be switched. Both Liandrin and Sheriam, of course, are Black Ajah. But from Egwene's reaction here, it doesn't seem like being ordered to be switched is anything close to the common punishment that it seemed to be in the books. But we'll see!

19. It does occur to me that Gawyn (maybe Galad too) might already have been in training with the Warders even if Elayne wasn't a novice yet -- Elayne has been spending her summers in the Tower and it's entirely possible that Gawyn's training to protect her meant he was sent off early to start learning from the best. We don't get any hints in this episode or the next about her brothers, but we're pretty focused on her developing friendship with Egwene.

20. "Min is in Tar Valon" and "Min and Mat share a plotline" were my two most hoped-for options for Min's storyline for this season, so I'm happy about that. I do wish that Min had been given a chance to bond with Elayne or Egwene but, hopefully, there will be time for that later. But I really love the set-up we've been given where we are going to explore Elayne with Egwene and Nynaeve; Min being more fully-explored with Mat; and then Aviendha when she enters Perrin's storyline. All of them are getting fleshed out as individual characters before any of them get romantically involved with Rand. I am feeling pretty hopeful that we're going to get our polycule (and a genuine polycule, not a harem) in the upcoming seasons. They've been putting in a lot of "poly relationships are valid and complex" groundwork in and it looks like they are going to be making sure that all of the characters involved get to be full characters who have their own agendas and their own arcs.

Some people on reddit are still pretty disappointed that Min isn't the male-gaze fantasy that she is in the later books but I have been thrilled with the changes that the show has done so far with her. We also maybe get a hint here that Min is going to be canonically bisexual by the way she jokes about Liandrin, so I will cross my fingers on that.

20. Min's viewing! I do love that they're massively cutting down on the number of Min's viewings to focus on ones that are interesting and relevant. This one is particularly interesting because there's nothing like it in the books. Mat stabbing Rand, then cradling him as he falls.

Theory #1: this is a flicker-flicker world (maybe we only get one big one?) and it's not Our Mat stabbing Our Rand but an alternate one.

Theory #2: Rand asks Mat to fulfill his promise to keep Rand from going mad and that's why Mat stabs him.

Theory #3: Rand loses control of himself (like Lady Amalisa in 1x8) and Mat stabs him to try to get him to lose his hold on the One Power.

Theory #4: Mat gets placed under compulsion (which would be another reason for him to want protection from Aes Sedai and channeling).

Theory #5: Mat gets The Dagger again and he's the one who gives Rand the wound in his side, while under its influence.

Theory #6: It's metaphorical and Mat takes the place of Alivia and helps Rand 'die' at the end of the series (seems unlikely but I'll throw it out there).

And probably lots of other things I haven't thought of. But it definitely shakes Min to see it.

I wonder if she only agreed to help Liandrin after this moment or if she'd already agreed and this is just additional incentive. I don't think she's told Liandrin anything about Rand. She was able to keep that secret from Moiraine even under blackmail so I think she kept it from Liandrin too.

But I do love that we get a viewing that connects Mat and Rand together, even if it's through a traumatic encounter. I am a simple soul who finds messiness intriguing.

21. Lanfear! Talking about her broken heart to the man who broke it and who she is, even now, doing her best to groom back into the man that she wants. The layers in this conversation are exquisite. When she tells him that he can't hurt her, she also can say that because she has a strong grasp of what she can do with the Power while he's still stumbling in the dark. Ooof, but Rand was (unknowingly) on risky ground when he confirmed that he does sometimes think of his past when he's with her.

Also, talking about how "no one else" could ever have power over her heart now that her previous lover is gone... when she's literally talking to his reincarnation. The conversation is just so rich and so sharp and there's so much of it that is going over Rand's head because he doesn't have the necessary information to even begin to put the pieces together. "What's left to hurt if he still has my whole heart?" she says, to the guy in question. "When I'm with you, I can pretend you're him." YEAH. I BET YOU CAN.

22. So I wonder if Moiraine's threat here to Lan, that she would let Alanna take his bond if he didn't let her leave on her own, is going to be the extent of the "Myrelle" plot point that Alanna absorbs and it won't actually happen in fact. But now it's out there as an idea that Warders can be forcibly bonded so that when Alanna forcibly bonds someone else down the road, the idea isn't coming out of nowhere.

23. I was so shocked when the Seanchan attacked in episode two. I was thinking this would happen in episode five. But once I sat down and thought about it, I realizes that Perrin has already hit all the main points of the Hunt for the Horn storyline on his side of things (and even partly on what Rand would have been doing). We've found the traitor and had Ingtar reveal his sympathy towards said traitor; we've found the Fade and the moment when Fain started playing by his own rules; and we've even been exploring Perrin and his senses. This does mean that we're going to have a lot of potential time to explore the Seanchan invasion and culture.

24. I don't have any issues with Ishamael openly being Suroth's advisor vs someone covertly giving Suroth her marching orders. High Lady Suroth is a Darkfriend and always was. We're just taking it out of the shadows and showing it openly to the viewers (and Perrin).

I do wonder if Perrin specifically seeing the Shadow and the Seanchan so entwined will have an impact on his later storylines. That I wonder about. But the later books were, tbh, really weird about how low-impact the Falme encounter ended up being in the long run for pretty much everyone except Egwene. Min basically forgets she knows anything about the Seanchan even when that information could help Rand, everyone forgets about the environment of paranoia and fear that the Seanchan created in Falme, etc. There's a lot of weird forgetfulness going around, especially in CoT & KoD, when Jordan wanted to sell us on his slaver romance.

(the way that the show has been improving characters like Min and relationships like Rand/Lanfear does give me a lot of hope in how they will handle Tuon and the Mat & Tuon 'romance' and that they'll make it better than the poorly-written dumpster fire that it is in CoT & KoD)

[sarabencze]

I saw a lot of discourse around Seventeen using AI in their comeback trailer, and I thought I'd share my take on it.

If you're interested, keep reading, it's a lot 😅

Also, please excuse any grammar mistakes, it's almost 2 am lmao

BUT once I watched the teaser as a whole a few more times and slowed it down to really look at each scene, I'd like to think that I understood the artistic vision behind it.

So, do I like them using AI? I don't know, not really if I'm being honest. I'm not a big fan of people using AI for commercial purposes, so I was a bit thrown off at first.

From my interpretation, it's their way of saying how much AI harms the arts.

First of all, let me bring out the line in the very beginning of the video that goes

"In our current reality where anything can be created with AI, who's the real maestro?"

It kind of highlights the fact to me that with music creation becoming more and more "accessible" to people - even those who have literally zero musical sensibility - with the help of AI, being "good" at creating music slowly loses its uniqueness and creditability. People won't look up to others who are good at writing lyrics or creating beats and they won't "idolise" them because they can have it with just a click of a button. It highlights that if we keep going down the route of using AI to create music, people could get credited with little to no music skills, and those who are actually skilled could lose their jobs.

It would also be hard to tell if the songs are actually created by living-breathing musicians with the help of human minds and emotions, or they're just a cheap AI copy that STEALS and uses already existing pieces of art to create something else.

Next, I'd like to talk about the trailer itself.

If you slow down the trailer to the slowest setting and just pay attention to the video, you can see a scene for a fraction of a second where Hoshi is kneeling with his hands tied in the middle of a bunch of robot looking soldiers(?) with their rifles pointed at him.

It's just one scene I distinctly remember, but most of the cuts looked like they were all somehow "controlled" by various types of electronic devices(?).

There are also AI created scenes in between some actual scenes of the guys themselves showcasing robots making music, also somewhat symbolising that people creating music with AI is just like as if it was robots creating it and it has zero human emotions involved whatsoever.

I also saw people saying that "since they used AI, they could've used something better quality so it doesn't look this ass" and all I can say to that is I think that was part of the point they're trying to make?

Like it's kind of symbolising that AI can never truly be as good as a piece of art created from human emotions BY a human? Idk that's just my opinion honestly.

In conclusion, all I can say is that I hope they only used AI for this one trailer alone, or like we'd only get a few seconds of AI in the MV AT MAX.

I'm not really fond of the idea of AI being used for commercial purposes, so I hope they only used it just for this one trailer to make a point.

I mean, we've seen many K-pop groups have trailers to music videos that had literally nothing to do with what was in the actual music video, so I'm hoping it's one of those cases.

I hope it's like a "prologue" to set the scene/tone for the MV itself.

Anyways, if anyone read the whole thing, thank you, I really appreciate you.

I'd also love to hear your thoughts in the comments/reblogs, it's an interesting topic to talk about.

I might also follow up with some new thoughts in a reblog if I remember something else.