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pharawee · 7 months

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I've been meaning to make a list of spooky (Thai - because negl that's 99% of what I watch) BL series and movies and what better time to post this than in October?

Spooky BL are my favourite flavour of BL. Turns out, there's actually a lot of them (maybe because Thailand does horror so well). These are only the ones I've watched (and enjoyed) so this list isn't complete.

*On another note: horror doesn't faze me at all so I can't really accurately say how scary some of these are. If you have squicks or triggers like jump scares, gore or bad endings please feel free to ask and I will do my best to give you a heads-up.

✨Spooky Thai BL✨

He's Coming To Me | Probably one of the first series everyone will think of. Not that spooky but a solid ghost(love) story with a murder mystery at its core.

Hidden Love | This is a budget show filmed under serious constraints during the worst of the covid pandemic. It's clichéd. It's over the top. But it's also got its charms. It comes with a tragic ghost (love) story that completely overshadows everything else with its many flashbacks and plot twists. If you manage to get over the camp. I warned you.

Dear Doctor I'm Coming For Soul | This one has reapers and ghosts and lots of bittersweetness. It's not that creepy since the supernatural elements are very matter-of-fact. It will make you cry though, sorry. :(

Ghost Host, Ghost House | Spooky with incredible chemistry between the leads and a cast of characters that you will immediately fall in love with.

He She It | A three-episode miniseries with a haunting soundtrack and a nice plot twist. This will make you miss JeffGameplay. :(

Low Frequency | Not spooky at all, and a bit slow and empty at times, but it has ghosts (in a way) and a sweet enough couple.

Make a Wish | Unfortunately, this has never had an inter release. There's inofficial subs floating around on grey sites but as of yet the series hasn't been fully translated. Which is a pity because it's a cute show about angels and spirit possession and (some) murder mystery.

Midnight Museum | I'm stubbornly putting this under BL. This show has everything and everyone. It's genuinely spooky at times but mostly draws on folklore, the mystical and an absolutely stellar cast.

On Cloud Nine | Short and beautiful. An indie production that's more ethereal than genuinely spooky.

🎞️Red Wine in the Dark Night | The oldest entry in this list. Admittedly, not very spooky (and instead rather surreal and sad), but it has one (1) vampire and Fluke Natouch in a role that's more grounded than we're used to nowadays.

Something in my Room | A spooky show with ghosts, mystery and romance that hides a lot of commentary behind metaphors and allegory. Criminally underrated because it didn't have a wide enough release. If you want to binge something fun and spooky for Halloween then this is the series to go. Prepare tissues.

✨Not a BL but hey, I know that actor!✨

Enigma | Win Metawin (and surprise guest!) in an incredibly well done 4-episode series about the occult with interesting worldbuilding and the promise of a second season.

🎞️Ghost Lab | Tor Thanapob and Ice Paris in a genuinely gruesome, shocking and scary horror movie. You've been warned.

Girl From Nowhere | One of the best things tv has to offer, and genuinely dark as well. Up Poompat, Pepo Nutchapan and James Teeradon feature in some of the loosely-connected episodes.

🎞️Hoon Payon | Phuwin Tangsakyuen, Up Poompat and Bank Nuttawat in a classic spiritual ghost story. More shocking than scary.

🎞️Inhuman Kiss | Oab Oabnithi and Great Sapol (sadly, not as a couple) in a sad and romantic take on a classic Thai legend.

Let's Fight Ghost | A Thai remake of a fun and somewhat spooky kdrama with spiritual themes. And Saint Suppapong.

🎞️Pee Nak 1, 2, 3 (and soon 4) | I'm biased because I really like this movie series. It's spooky but in a fun way. It has queer characters (as comedic relief - but not in a degrading way) and can get surprisingly deep. Watch this if you want to see (baby!) Tar Atiwat grow up on screen (because he's in all four movies). The third movie rewards you with some surprisingly sweet MeanPlan that might continue into the fourth movie.

School Tales | A Thai horror anthology centred around students at various schools. This series has Fiat Patchata, Kay Lertsittichai, Pepo Nutchapan, Mark Siwat and, most prominently, Saint Suppapong and Chimon Wachirawit in well-paced 50-minute episodes.

The Stranded | One of my favourite series ever. If you watched LOST then you know what to expect. This has 3 QL couples (Perth Tanapon & Mark Siwat, Win Pawin & Tanthai Tatchapol, Ticha Wongtipkanon & Chaleeda Gilbert) but don't expect any of them to get a happy ending. Sadly, this series ended on a cliffhanger and won't get a second season due to the lead actor's tragic passing and Nadao's dissolution.

✨Upcoming Spooky BL✨

7 Days Before Valentine | Death Note but make it even more of a BL. Patrick Rangsimant originally wrote this so I'm really excited. Plus, it will begin airing in November which is almost as good as October.

🎞️After Sundown | A period ghost movie that hit Thai cinemas this summer to great success. There's currently no news on an international release.

🎞️Death Is All Around | Saint Suppapong coming through with another spooky production - this one about death and the afterlife. This also has Seng Wichai, Bas Suradej and Dun Romchumpa (presumably as a couple).

The Hell Guards | Chains of Heart but make it spooky. Oh, I am so excited for this!

My Imaginary Boyfriend | Based on another one of Pat Rangsimant's novels (my favourite, atually). This one is more grounded, and spooky in a more psychological sense.

Mystique in the Mirror | Another one of Pat Rangsimant's novels (and psychological horror too, by the looks of it). This one started filming back in early summer so it should be airing soon.

Shadow | This series will air its first seven episodes on Halloween and that should tell you everything you need to know. It's a suspenseful (ghost?) story set in a Catholic private school.

Spirit Reborn | This has the potential to be very spooky, with curses and spirits and past lives.

SunsetxVibes | This is going to be messy and spicy but the short pilot trailer did have spooky undertones and possible spiritual themes.

The Whisperer | More psychological horror but this time not penned by Pat. Apparently, this has been in production for a while so hopefully we'll get some news soon.

Zomvivor | The only zombie series on this list has entered pre-production and is slated to be released in 2024 (hopefully before October). Will it have BL? I don't know, but it stars pretty much all of domundi's acting couples (and more).

1000 Years Old | Will it be spooky? No idea, but it does have vampires and sometimes that's enough.

#thai bl #thai drama #thai movie #bl series #bl movie #spooky bl #jane watches stuff #bl meta #idk what else to tag this #also this is not a complete list #if you have recommendations or additions please let me know 💜#i'm always on the lookout for more spookiness

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presumenothing · 9 months

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so we all know the drill, yeah? my keyboard slipped etc etc and thus i present: 吉祥纹莲花楼 aka LOTUS CASEBOOK (the novel) CHAPTER ONE: TASTER EDITION further aka "the first chapter, but minus the Case Exposition bit because wow noooope". note also that this is not as serious nor thoroughly-edited as some of my other TLs (nif fandom alumni may remember me from known, unknown aka this absolute unit/research spiral of a post-canon fic; this is Not That and also, hi!!). and now with that out of the way, enjoy! ETA: fixed some missing bits that got eaten while posting to tumblr + only maybe 30% on-topic footnotes over here

PART THE FIRST: A GHOST, MURDER, IN THE GREEN GAUZE WINDOW

Changzhou City, Xiaomian Inn.

The seventeenth of the sixth month, just around midnight.

It had been two days since Cheng Yunhe, the head convoy of Hexing Convoy Company, started escorting these sixteen boxes of precious goods. Though all had been well so far, he felt tight-strung with exhaustion, and despite having fallen asleep he woke up without quite knowing why.

Silence permeated the dark room.

Outside the window… there was singing.

Faint waves of sound, barely discernible, as if someone was singing; and apparently quite in earnest, too, but in an incredibly odd tone… just as if… someone was singing with their tongue cut out.

He opened his eyes, and looked at the window directly across from his bed.

Amidst the darkness, green flecks flickered dim and sudden across that window, now far then near, and only on this one window across from him.

Outside the window, the faraway song continued, that broken tongue singing a tragic melody that no-one living could possibly understand…

He’d already practised almost forty years of martial arts, and though his hearing and sight might not be the top in the jianghu, it could hardly be weak either, but he… could not make out the sound of anything human.

As the wind whistled through the slightly-ajar window, he stared at that window with its flickering green shadows – and for the very first time in his life, he thought of a word – ghosts?

–

ONE: LUCKY PATTERN LOTUS PARLOUR

The broad daylight of a sunny day.

Bingshan Town was not a remarkable place by any means; it had neither rare treasure nor great legends, and just like the vast majority of places in the jianghu, its denizens were a little boring, its crops a tad skinny, its rivers a tinge dirty, and its post-meal conversational topics a touch lacking… far too lacking, actually, so whenever there was something everyone had to delight in it for the longest time – not to mention how that recent happening was an odd one indeed.

The tale so far: on this day, the eighteenth of the month, when the people of Bingshan Town opened their doors to sweep their stoops, they abruptly found that their only-too-familiar main street had suddenly sprouted a two-storey wooden building. This building was hardly a short one, either, fully capable of housing people inside, and in spacious lodgings no less; it was made fully of wood, and engraved with patterns unusually fine and ornate, that even a blind person could recognise by touch – none other than lotus flowers and auspicious clouds.

After a good half-day’s worth of discussion, some eagle-eyed people recognised at last how this building had “suddenly appeared”: though its structure was that of a building, it turned out that it was not connected to the ground… at any rate, this building had been pulled by someone with a cart, here to the main street of their Bingshan Town, and put it there. Everyone expressed their amazement at this, but nobody could comprehend why anyone would bother dragging over such a large building in the dead of night just to leave it on the street, or what it could possibly be for. Perhaps as a shrine for their town god? Though speaking of which, their local shrine had indeed fallen into disrepair and gone unworshipped for many years now…

Such debate continued for three days straight, up until an express convoy working at some company who happened to be coming home was struck dumbfounded upon seeing it, screeched “The Lucky Parlour!” and there and then turned to run madly away without even returning home, still yelling “Lucky Parlour!” along the way – and thus the building abruptly became a haunted house, that would drive anyone who saw it right mad.

Only seven days later, when that express convoy suddenly brought the entire convoy company back to Bingshan Town, did the masses discover that said building was not in fact some haunted house.

Not only was it not a haunted house, it was actually an auspicious building, a super-duper auspicious building.

The “Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour” was a medical clinic.

Its master was of surname Li, named Lianhua.

What kind of a person was Li Lianhua? As a matter of fact, nobody in the jianghu knew either. Whether his master, his background, the level of his martial arts, his age, or even the matter of his looks: all of it was unknown. Six years had passed since this person appeared in the jianghu, and in total he’d done only two things, but just these two things alone had been enough to turn the “Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour” into the single most fascinating legend in the jianghu.

The two things Li Lianhua had done: the first was bringing back to life the martial scholar “Lifelong Learner” Shi Wenjue, who’d been buried for many days after dying from major injuries after a decisive duel. The second was bringing back to life “Ironflute Hero” He Lantie, who’d also been buried for many days with all his bones broken after dying from a cliff fall.

Just these two incidents alone had already made Li Lianhua the one figure in the jianghu that people most wanted to acquaint themselves with, but there was also the matter of his strange house that he always brought along with him – this only made Li Lianhua more of a legend amongst legends.

The head convoy of Hexing Convoy Company led every last one of his men on swift horseback to Bingshan Town, and after three days of clean baths and devout incense, finally delivered on great tenterhooks a letter of greeting to that building carved of precious softwood: Cheng Yunhe of Hexing Convoy Company wishes to consult on an important matter.

Said letter was pushed in via a window gap.

All forty-odd men of the company waited alongside Cheng Yunhe, as if it was the King of Hell inside of that building, passing judgement––

Soon after, that building that had been so silent as to seem unoccupied let out the faintest of creaking sounds. All of Hexing Convoy held their breath, and even the rubbernecking passers-by caught theirs, too, widening their eyes to better await whatever creature could possibly emerge from this building.

The door swung swiftly open, and not in the slow swing of everyone’s imagination.

A large cloud of dust burst forth with a bang, blowing all over Cheng Yunhe, and the figure in the door made a sound of dismay, saying with great apology: “I was tidying up odds and ends, and didn’t even realise I had guests, my apologies, apologies indeed.”

All of Hexing Convoy, now covered in dust and sawdust, stared in astonishment at the one who’d opened the door with a broom in one hand; the very same broom where that bright red greeting letter was now stuck on. He looked very young, no older than twenty-seven or twenty-eight, and perhaps even a little younger than that if not for the much-mended grey robes he was wearing; his skin was fair and his looks refined, but neither was he so beautifully handsome as to be unforgettable from a glance. He held the broom in his right hand and a dustpan in his left, and looked out at the dozens-strong line outside his door with a face full of apology.

Cheng Yunhe gave a heavy cough, and saluted in greeting: “I, “Thousand-Mile Crane” Cheng Yunhe, humbly greet Li-xiansheng of the Lucky Parlour; may I perhaps request that you pass a message to him that there is a matter I wish to consult him on?”

“Ah,” said the grey-robed young man. “A message?”

Cheng Yunhe spoke gravely: “I fear we must meet with Li Lianhua, Li-xiansheng himself, for there is crucial business to discuss.”

The young man set down the broom. “I am indeed Li Lianhua.”

Cheng Yunhe’s eyes widened abruptly, mouth falling open, and in that moment every last bystander wanted nothing more than to toss three or five eggs into his mouth. Very swiftly he shut it again, and gave another heavy cough. “Your good reputation precedes you, Li-xiansheng…”

And then he found himself at a loss on how to continue, for he had already detailed the ins and outs of the matter on the greeting letter, but that same letter was now stuck on Li Lianhua’s broom.

Li Lianhua said: “Apologies, apologies… my residence is covered in clutter at the moment…”

He raised a hand to invite Cheng Yunhe inside.

The Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour was indeed covered in assorted junk; from nails to hammer, saw to axe, dustcloths to broom, sawdust and dust everywhere, and a few boxes holding who-knew-what. The front room held only one table and chair each, both made of bamboo and not worth even twenty bronze coins. Cheng Yunhe felt heavy doubt in his heart, but what with the sheer reputation of the Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour, and this grey-robed man to be sitting in it, he dared not to suspect him to be a fake, either; and thus he was left with no choice but to sit respectfully across from Li Lianhua and recount every part of those fearsome events he’d encountered a half-month ago.

[––CASE EXPOSITION CUT FOR SANITY––]

Such was the tale of the “Green Window Ghost Murder” that had thrown the martial world into heated debate over the last half a month. Yu Mulan, heartbroken over the senseless death of his beloved daughter, flew into a rage and commanded the death of all the swordsmen who had been escorting Yu Qiushuang that night, alongside a kill order for the entirety of Hexing Convoy Company. Cheng Yunhe, pushed to his wits’ end, had been about to bring his family and disband the company for a scattered escape when he heard the news of the Lucky Parlour.

Li Lianhua could bring the dead back to life – and so Cheng Yunhe suddenly thought: if Li Lianhua could resurrect Yu Qiushuang, wouldn’t that resolve everything? Resurrection was not something he would have ever believed in, just a half-month ago, but with matters the way they were now he could only work with what he had, dead or otherwise, and since the heavens had seen fit to let him come across Li Lianhua, why not give it a try? After all… if the legends were true, all could not but be well.

But even until he’d finished recounting the “Green Window Ghost Murder” incident, he hadn’t heard any startling insights out of Li Lianhua, only an ah and a nod of his head.

After finishing his tea, Cheng Yunhe had no choice but to leave. He truly could not think of any good reason to remain any longer in that empty building of Li Lianhua’s, full of assorted junk and Li Lianhua’s expression full of gentle incomprehension.

Cheng Yunhe departed.

From the second storey of the Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour, someone said, leisurely: “Even five years later, you’re still plenty famous, aren’t you…”

Li Lianhua sat on the chair, drinking tea. “Ah…”

Who even knew what he was ah-ing about.

“Actually I’ve never been able to figure it out.” That figure descended slowly from the second storey. He was thin and pale, all skin and bones, and perhaps if he gained twenty pounds he’d be a elegantly beautiful young man, but as it stood he mostly just resembled a victim of starvation. Yet this particular hungry corpse also happened to be wearing a set of rich white robes of particularly meticulous workmanship, with the tassel and jade ornaments favoured only by those fine young masters untouched by worldly troubles, and a long sword with an unusually elegant shape to its hilt. “How could anyone in this world possibly believe in something like resurrection? It’s been five whole years, and yet nobody has forgotten those two scandals of yours…”

“Because none of them are as smart as you.” Li Lianhua smiled faintly, stood up to stretch, then picked up his broom and resumed sweeping the floor.

“Can you not sweep the floor?” The hungry corpse from the upper storey suddenly glared. “How can you possibly keep sweeping when I, the great Fang-dagongzi, am here right in front of you? Do you realise that if Cheng Yunhe had known I was in here just now, he’d definitely kneel down and beg me too ask that old geezer Yu not to slaughter his entire family? You have a young master of my handsome looks and eminent status in front of you, and yet you’ve been doing nothing but sweep the floor?"

“I can’t.” Li Lianhua said: “I haven’t cleaned and repaired this building in too long. It’s very dirty, and leaks when it rains, too.”

The white-robed corpse kept up the wide-eyed glaring for many moments longer, before suddenly letting out a sigh. “Someone like you who can’t fight and can’t treat diseases, who doesn’t plant crops or commit theft either – how have you even managed to survive all these years in such fame? I really don’t get it.”

This white-robed hungry corpse was “Melancholic Young Master” Fang Duobing, the eldest son of the of the Fang martial family. He’d known Li Lianhua for an entire six years, long enough that he even knew exactly how this same person had come to fame – Shi Wenjue had suffered major injuries in his duel and used the Turtle’s Breath method to close his qi and recover, the local villagers had taken him for dead and buried him, Li Lianhua had gone to dig him up, and thus Shi Wenjue had naturally come back to life; He Lantie, on the other hand, had staged an entire cliff jump after failing in his pursuit of a wife, played dead and buried himself in the ground, and Li Lianhua who’d just happened to be passing by dug him out yet again. The whole world was wondering how Li Lianhua had managed to bring the dead back to life, while all Fang Duobing wanted to know was how he knew where on earth (or under it) there’d be a live person to dig up.

“I did still have some silver coins, a while ago.” Li Lianhua carefully swept the front room, then put away the dustpan. “As long as you plan well, you can still make do.”

Fang Duobing rolled his eyes. “And how much silver do you have now?”

“Fifty taels.” Li Lianhua smiled faintly. “That’s enough to use for a lifetime, to me.”

Fang Duobing tsked. “To think that there’s losers like you in the martial world, who only plan to spend fifty taels in their whole life, it’s practically a shame upon the jianghu. Had Cheng Yunhe known what kind of person you are, I’d like to see whether he still would’ve come asking for help… heh, asking a ‘miracle doctor’ who doesn’t know a drop of medicine and has to go everywhere with his house on his back because he’s too stingy to stay in an inn, to go treat the dead, I can’t believe he thought of that.” Fang Duobing rolled his eyes again for good measure, and eyed Li Lianhua up and down. “Though I can’t actually tell whether you are going to help him go treat the dead or not.”

Li Lianhua sat on the chair, fingers still meticulously fiddling away with the interlocking joint on that squeaky bamboo table of his, and gave a small smile upon hearing this. “Why wouldn’t I go? After all, I don’t know how to plant crops, or sell vegetables, and I’m not in want of coin. Wouldn’t life be incredibly boring if I didn’t have something to do?”

“When that old geezer Yu finds out that you’re a fake miracle doctor and decides to kill your entire family, Fang-dagongzi is absolutely not going to save you,” Fang Duobing said, leisurely. “Go on then, don’t expect this young master here to see you off.”

And so it was that Li Lianhua spent a whole three days tidying up inside the Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour, packing who-knows-what into that small parcel of his, and after meticulously writing a lengthy missive temporarily entrusting the parlour to the care of “Lifelong Learner” Shi Wenjue, he set off at last.

He was headed to Yu Fortress, to see the corpse of Yu Qiushuang.

#mysterious lotus casebook #��花楼 #li lianhua #fang duobing #mine #long post #might add some footnotes tomorrow but it is also 三更 here so later it is #+ feel free to give a shout (reply or rb tag) if you'd like a ping if/when i crosspost to ao3!#(haven't actually decided if i'll do that for archival reasons. bluh)#(who's tidying up in this house? nobody definitely not me)#(.......note to self i should probably also archive that zs interview somewhere at some point)#li lianhua: *sweeping the floor* fang duobing: IN FRONT?? OF MY SALAD?????

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strangestcase · 5 months

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My ideas for a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen theatrical musical which will never come to reality:

-based off the movie (if loosely) because the comics would be a pain to adapt

-also the songs would really help hiding the writing issues

-Mina’s actress wears a secret contraption that stretches into bat wings on command, and special makeup that highlights her features under certain types of light- thus allowing her to go Dracula mode onstage. She also gets costumes she can take off in one piece so that as her character develops she gradually ditches a more traditional Victorian getup for a modern, goth outfit.

-the Invisible Man is played by an actor in a bodysuit wearing a removable mask and moving puppet arms around (which represent face makeup and gloves respectively). To become invisible he simply drops them and moves around the stage, as other actors pretend they can’t see him.

-Hyde is a large stage puppet maneuvered by various actors, with Jekyll’s actor moving his face and providing his voice. The transformations consist of Jekyll simply entering or leaving his place in the puppet, the other puppeteers building it up around him or removing key pieces. And the mirror scenes are done with projections and pre-recorded audio.

-Lots of Puppets just. So Many Many Puppets. For the Nautilus for the Phantom’s men for Dante for all that sea life etc

As for the music:

-cheesy intro number on the line of “deviation from the norm will be punished unless its exploitable”

-We need at least one (1) sad song about Mina’s tragic backstory, or rather how she feels about it. Not very good this is.

-she also is given the role of protagonist back

-Jekyll is going to be framed as her love interest through and through btw. Same as Dorian. Tom already has his getting adopted by Allan arc. Literally a YA love triangle but they’re all goth middle aged queens.

-listen this is my idea so I make the rules

-EPIC NEMO THEME -the hunt for Hyde becomes a short but catchy dance sequence.

-The Nautilus is introduced with a HUGE high level song worthy of a Bollywood musical with the aforementioned sea life puppets. Please ignore how incredibly dark the lyrics are.

-YES I KNOW THOSE MOMENTS ARE LITERALLY BACK TO BACK IN THE MOVIE. I’LL FIND A WAY TO SPACE THEM OUT.

-Mina and Dorian MUST have a duet that makes it into Lovers To Enemies To Lovers To Enemies playlists I SWEAR TO GOD.

-Confrontation 2

-Jekyll and Hyde literally have Confrontation 2

-Captain Nemo is going to get a solo song about his past and his motivations and here he should figure out M first, like in the comics (Allan has more of a mentor role / common thread between the other characters)

-Dorian Gray villain song complete with a little dance! A jaunty little gothic vaudeville song that uses his motif (which will sound whenever he’s onstage)

-Moriarty doesn’t dance because he thinks he’s above dancing but he does sing. He also has a villain song but it’s way more serious than Dorian’s

-Allan doesn’t sing a single line until the last song (as he’s dying)

the musical ends with Mina becoming the new leader of the League and getting her final costume change which will include a question mark motif as a nod to the original comics

And then intro number reprise but with a more tongue in cheek cynical tint and a final hopeful note. I need people to come out of the theater as full blown anarchists.

#the league of extraordinary gentlemen #lxg #loeg

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stem-sister-scuffle · 4 months

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STEM SISTER SCUFFLE: ROUND 1 MASHUP 1

Shion Usuki (Xenosaga) vs Jadzia Dax (Star Trek Deep Space 9)

Shion Uzuki is a Computer Scientist and Roboticist!

Jadzia Dax is an Astrophysicist and Xenobiologist!

Why you should vote for each contestant:

Shion Uzuki:

"OK SO. Shion makes me very deranged so sorry for the 1.7k word essay in your inbox but also you asked for it and im not sorry. Right so on the science side, she and her Tragically Dead lover built KOS-MOS(a robot girl she has lesbian subtext with), who is designed to fight the eldritch abominations from space. She later has to rebuild KOS-MOS by herself and does so. She is very good at her job and the head and Chief Engineer of the KOS-MOS Project at the start of the game (at age 22).

Like this a 00s Main Character who is a woman in STEM who is single during the games themselves and gets to be Complicated. That in of itself is pretty subversive(so subversive there is a large contingent of dudebros who hate her to this day) and awesome, but the real kicker is how she is written.

She is also an extremely well written and developed character (ESPECIALLY for a 00s character)who has one of the most realistic depictions of complex-ptsd in media I have seen to this day. Very few characters come close or top her in my eyes. She is one of the best written characters in the 'xeno' metaseries imo, and that is VERY stiff competition if you have ever watched LPs or played those games.

I feel she should get best woman in STEM more because of how incredible of a character she is than anything else (though she is super smart and good at her job, its just the focus of the games is on her character development over her work).

!!SPOILERS FOR A EXTREMELY PLOT HEAVY GAME SERIES BELOW SERIOUS SPOILERS!! Also uh content warnings for abuse and trauma and stuff.

The majority of this is gonna be on how amazing of a character she is, more than anything so sorry if that wasnt what you were looking for. Promise shes doing science in the games and stuff. So Shion has got that PTSD, and her character arc is the continual chronic trauma piling up until her (not very good) coping mechanisms no longer work and she breaks down and hits rock bottom. It is here with the help of her friends that she finds the resolve to push through just a little bit longer and still find hope in the world. She ends the series on a hopeful (yet bittersweet) note. What is so good about her character arc is that its so realistic. She doesnt get stronger in the face of overwhelming trauma, she breaks down and begs for it all to stop already, and its only through others stepping in to help her despite her best efforts does she find the strength to have hope again at the end. People rarely get better in the face of The Horrors, they break or get worse. People don't expect this of characters and its rare to see, but characters that break are so important IMO, because trauma DOES THAT.

Shions life is a horror show and responsible for At Least Half the content warnings this game has(there is a lot), she even keeps getting goddamn EMAILS all through the first game while actively in the middle of a crisis, and yet she still pulls through. Its cathartic and wonderful to see a character stumble into a happy ending, not really heroically as much as teeth-grit dragging herself across the finish line, but getting it all the same.

They wrote that ptsd amazingly- so much so that long before you get to the specific trauma later games reveal, she displays traits that function as foreshadowing that you can pick up and guess. Her every action and reaction is informed by her trauma and its incredible how much thought went into it.

Early in the first game she has a seemingly hypocritical reaction to not removing the remote self-destruct sequence in the sapient robot people in the setting when she otherwise is very strongly for equal rights for them, until its revealed that she was there as a child during an incident when a whole bunch of them went berserk (because god melts people's brains and that virally infected them all- its this whole Thing) and killed a whole ton of people, including family in front of her. After this incident it was required to have this self destruct switch to prevent that from ever happening again.

This incident is also why she got into robotics and programming, because she didn't want to be scared of them and learned to see them as people in a way many others in the world don't. Her short temper is very clearly emotional disregulation characteristic of ptsd from her life of unresolved and untreated chronic trauma going back to her childhood. In the first game, she is still deeply in mourning (because her lover -named Kevin- got brutally murdered in front of her a few years previous) and still mostly running on the programming Kevin instilled(Kevin is also later revealed as a manipulative abusive dickbag), but over time she starts shaking it off- just in time for the plot to hit her over the head again (but we will get to that).

One thing people forget about ptsd is that it can make you just so ANGRY, and its nice to see a character that has that ptsd expression. That isnt the perfect 'good survivor' in response that people like. She makes bad decisions, she pushes people away, she gets snappy because she is running at the end of her rope by the third game and shaking her kneejerk fawn response. She is in a world where so much just keeps happening beyond her control and its horrible, and well, when you are in a situation like that you lash out just to control *something*. The narrative takes the time to be sympathetic to her even when she does this, and it means a lot to me to see that. And now we get to Kevin.

Shion is just starting to get better somewhat. Things are still terrible, but she is starting to have some progress on unpacking trauma and everything... Until a resurrected Kevin shows up and RUINS EVERYTHING.

See as stated before, Kevin is an abusive manipulative sack of dicks. When we see him at first in games one and two and up until his reveal, the red flags are all glossed over and barely noticeable because we are seeing things from Shion's unreliable memories and perspective. Kevin was well-liked, so people have good things to say about him too, which reinforces this. Shion very much behaves, if you know what to look for, like someone whos been through some specific emotional abuse, even as early as the first couple hours of the first game.

But then he shows up (clearly working for the bad guys) and ruins all the progress made. Then asks Shion to join him.

And after some time, Shion agrees, and goes back to her abuser. When people write abuse victims in media, the always make what people tend to consider is 'the right decision'. Very rarely, if ever, do they go back to their abusers the way people often do in real life. A lot of people don't leave their abusers, or they may leave but they go back later. Shion just wants to be happy and not in pain, and at least with Kevin she knows there will be nice things sometimes, instead of the horrorshow that is currently happening. She knows he is using her, that he WILL hurt her again, but she doesnt care because in the moment it feels like the decision that will keep her happiest and most safe.

She feels in the moment -especially critical to this- its the decision that will keep all of her friends the most safe. She is protecting them from Kevin by giving herself up and begging them to stand down. I feel that is something most people dont catch. She is playing peacemaker with her abuser to protect the party, and it doesnt work, but she tried. They never directly say that she has done this kind of thing before, but the very quick way Shion tries to smooth things over implies that this is something she has done in the past and she is trying to make it work again.

When you have been in a relationship like that, sometimes the abuser feels safer(better the devil you know, etc), and when Shion is mostly running on the basest of instincts to survive because trauma DOES THAT to people, yeah is incredibly realistic she went back. Its incredibly well written and agonizing to see.

After this, the party does convince her to leave again, but not before you are forced to fight her in one of the most emotionally painful boss fights in the series.

Key to convincing her to finally leave him is KOS-MOS, who all this time Shion was treating as a person until she became one. KOS-MOS and this other guy named Allen whos sort of her love interest but they never get together on screen give a dramatic speech and she decides that its time to give up on Kevin because her friends wont give up on her.

So we get to loop this back around to her job again! Yes- her being in STEM caused KOS-MOS to exist which saved the world and also her. Her being in STEM and good at it caused Allen to meet her and gain a big fat crush on her that Also saves the world despite him never actually being in the party (thats the power of a workwife!). Science wins!

All of this is also ignoring the actual batshit plot of xenosaga btw, which is a space opera that involves multiple bible figures, psudeo-time travel, the fact that the internet is built on everyones collective subconscious and you can therefore literally hack into someone's brain, a political faction clusterfuck, an immortal evil guy voiced by Crispin Freeman, and eldritch abomination god (who is trapped in what amounts to an infinite battery) trying to cause the apocalypse because a little girl begged for help.

Listen I know xenosaga isnt popular on here so she is probably gonna have a hard time, but that me blorbo she means a lot to me."

"super smart and pretty, loves her job and made a whole sentient humanoid robot, is an accurate representation of a mentally ill woman. play Xenosaga"

"Space lesbian. Made an android that's the reincarnation of her wife from a lifetime ago (who happens to be Mary Magdalene don't worry about that part). Trans gender."

"She's so mentally ill and loves her robot creation"

"She literally took the project her dead boyfriend was working on, which was a cyborg KOS-MOS, and managed to create a version where KOS-MOS doesn't go berserk and murder and slay. She is also captain of VECTOR. Robotics/cyborgs are her special interest. We stan a girlboss. shes gay af"

"She built her robot girlfriend and managed to creat a version of her where she doesn’t kill innocent people"

"Gay for the robotic war machine she created <3 Girlboss, sad-girl, mad scientist, mecha pilot. She really has it all."

"She made a billion dollar government funded battle android into her wife, with the help of lesbian space destiny of course. She’s simply #nyasome"

"She built herself a robot girlfriend and also her and the gf are reincarnated versions of mary magdelene and her fellower. Thanks!"

"She's autistic, traumatized and made her own girlfriend, "

"She’s the chief of an android development project AND she has a special interest in providing psychological support for artificial humans! She likes women your honor"

"Helped to create anandroid named Kos-Mos who would save the universe. Was the Head and Chief Engineer of the KOS-MOS Project and lead a small group of people to help fine tune Kos-Mos. Also she's just super cool and overcomes any obstacles she may face, despite all the trauma she's been put through. Shion is great and I love her."

"She is a mentally ill legend, she will stay up past midnight programming and working on her android gf instead of going to therapy, and I just think that's really sexy and cool of her. She's the best xeno game protagonist and I will fight on this"

"made a battle robot mary magdalene. fell in love with robot mary. is a reincarnation of a girly who was in love with the OG mary thousands of years ago. whenever robot mary acts like a robot she freaks out. almost dies to get robot mary functioning at 100% several times"

"Shion joined the huge corporate conglomerate Vector Industries when she was just 18 and became head of the KOS-MOS project (her girlfriend battle android) at age 22. Shion��s character growth throughout the series is amazing as she has to deal with her childhood trauma, facing her abuser, and moving on from the past by making steps towards the future. At the end of Episode III Shion finally stops being passively strung along the plot and begins to take steps on her own, embodying the themes of making your own ripples and seizing the future. Also Shion is very gay and is the wife of Mary Magdalene. Not kidding! LESBIAN SHION THE WORLD SHION/KOS-MOS NUMERO UNO CAMPÃO DO MUNDO

"She is the best woman in STEM because she is a very deep character who has an amazingly hard hitting story. She has realistically written PTSD, and is heavily implied to have BPD as well. She shows some very ugly symptoms, and even goes through no character development in the first third of the series which shows how deeply depressed and hurt she is. However, in episode II she begins to show signs of healing. Episode III absolutely goes haywire with her recovery process. She has many ups and downs, and even turns to her abuser, but in the end she overcomes him with the help of her friends AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, her android wife that she made with her own two hands.

So like. Robot wife. Awesome. But what if this robot wife was someone you deeply loved and looked up to in your previous life? So much so that you were called her Maiden. What if you died in her arms? And then, completely unbeknownst to you, after 6000 years, she reincarnated as an android that you programmed. How crazy would that be...

KOS-MOS (the android), starts off as your typical robot without emotions. But as time goes on, she grows more and more warm. And it's all thanks to Shion.

They embrace a ton of times, with KOS-MOS even bridal carrying Shion multiple times AND riding with her in her space motorcycle. Shion is also awesome because she's Japanese and hell yeah she's not White Woman Number 4050. Win.

Um. Also she eventually rebuilt her android's frame and gave her bigger boobs. HAPPY PRIDE.

timestamp 3:30 to end of the video, witness some lesbians :) hope you enjoy if you choose to watch https://youtu.be/eY6kPp-wcKg?t=210"

Jadzia Dax:

"She does a lot of science in space — like xenobiology and physics — but is also the ranking science officer, so she covers a lot of fields. she is an expert in many scientific fields, leads a lot of other scientists, and is a badass starfleet officer who can f you UP in a fight. her alien species is a symbiotic set of species, so Jadzia’s got a worm named Dax in her and has access to all of Dax’s past hosts’ memories & knowledge, part of why she’s an expert in so many fields! but Jadzia, the host, also got multiple degrees in different fields before she was “joined” with her symbiote."

"She is a star trek science officer, so mostly space anomalies and stuff 😄 She is self assured and takes up space and just a joy to watch. All the bi girls love her 💜"

"First F/F kiss on TV"

"IMMORTAL WORM ALIEN WOMAN who has lived EIGHT LIVES and is GENDERFLUID but is CURRENTLY A WOMAN! She's great"

"She is the lead science officer on her space station! Got four degrees in astrophysics, exoarchaeology, exobiology and zoology. She is an amazing researcher! Jadzia is a Joined Trill, host to the Dax symbiont which has lived 300 years. Jadzia became a Starfleet officer and pursued her science studies before then becoming Joined, which means she also has the wealth of knowledge from Dax's multiple lives. She is an amazing scientist and also loves to have fun, and she's a genderfluid pansexual ICON."

#stem sister scuffle #round 1 #shion uzuki #xenosaga #jadzia dax #ds9 jadzia #star trek ds9

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petersthree · 9 months

Text

Created for @singledarkshade's Dream TV Show Challenge.

Presenting RECURSION, a new three-season time travel series.

RECURSION follows six ordinary individuals stuck in the monotony of their charming, but boring towns. That is, until some of them begin to notice things...out of place, causing them to question their lives and sense of reality.

TW: suicide and other death mentions in the story arc. Under the cut you'll find the:

Cast

Series synopses

Soundtrack + scenes

Extra details and easter eggs

Two brief dialogue scenes

CAST LIST:

DANIELLE PINNOCK AS GABRIELLE WILLIAMS

Gabrielle will tell you who she is when she's well and ready.

STEVE MARTIN AS GEORGE RAYMOND GOLDBLATT

George Raymond Goldblatt used to be a fairly well-known physicist who decided to retire to his childhood town. Now, he is struggling with three things: his recent dementia diagnosis, his new grandchild, and the eerie feeling that he's been through this day before.

BELLA RAMSEY AS PARKER LIVINGSTON (ALSO FEATURING: ELLIOT PAGE AS FUTURE PARKER LIVINGSTON)

Parker is a nonbinary teenager on the cusp of adulthood, living a boring but average life - until their parents tragically die and they are sent to live with their grandfather in a dead-end town. They are quiet and may seem standoffish to the unobservant, but they’re shy and still figuring out where they fit in this world. Parker is also incredibly observant, often noticing what other people wish they wouldn’t - including when they notice their grandfather beginning to act stranger than ever.

Note: Future Parker is seen in a few episodes (recurring in seasons 2-3). They are still quiet, but there's clear confidence in them. They interact with the other cast with reserved familiarity.

KENNETH CHOI AS KEVIN KO

Kevin is preparing to be spontaneous. An incredibly serious and melancholy person ("uptight broodster" as the love of his life, Vidya, likes to tease him), after a life-threatening accident, Kevin is now trying to be lighter, spontaneous, and enjoy life to the fullest. Which is why when he got the opportunity to move, he took it...even if the town is in the middle of nowhere and he feels more downtrodden and restricted than ever.

RANI MUKERJI AS VIDYA DEVGAN

Vidya is a bright, bubbly woman who loves her long-time partner and was all in on quitting their high-profile jobs and moving to a new town. Kevin tells her that she's adjusted to the town perfectly, not knowing that Vidya is spiraling, been second-guessing their decision to move the second they came, and has a secret that she desperately doesn't want Kevin to find out.

OSCAR ISAAC AS MICHAEL COSTELLO

Michael always lived an average life, up until the point he met his wife Sarah. Thrust from a middle-class life to one where he's rich beyond his wildest dreams is an adjustment for him, one that he thinks he's never going to quite get used to. Michael doesn't have family or even any real friends - besides Sarah - but he always tells her that she's more than enough.

SARAH SNOOK AS SARAH MITCHELL

Sarah is a lawyer tortured by the outcome of her most recent case when a client she was attached to ended up killing himself. She lives with her husband Michael in an upscale penthouse - something that used to fill Sarah with pride but now nags at her. She is smart, calculating, and pragmatic, but her usual confidence has been shaken by this case.

Each season has its own theme and tone - season one is more of a psychological thriller/mystery, season two centers on themes of horror and love, and season three on grief and hope.

SEASON RUNTHROUGH:

SEASON ONE (six episodes): This is a dual-setting season, where George and Michael separately begin to notice abnormalities in their day. Michael wonders if it is the monotony of being stuck in his apartment, while George wonders if it is symptoms of his dementia rapidly progressing. By the finale, the two end up getting out of their time loops in the climax of the episode, and end up meeting each other - but not quite in the way that you would think.

EPISODE ONE: TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN. The opening song to the series plays, and shots of the town are shown (more details can be found under soundtrack). We are introduced to Parker, George, Vidya, and Kevin. The middle of the episode introduces Michael and Sarah, a husband and wife duo in the city. They skirt around each other - there's clear affection, but whenever the two try to leave the apartment the other reminds them that they can't, for reasons yet unknown to the audience. The episode also introduces the time loop - but only to the audience. The conversations are different (ex. George remembers Parker's name this time, so their conversation never happens, but breakfast still burns) but there are little hints - such as their morning clothes being the same every day, and a focus on the newspaper on George's table being labeled June 1, 2022, etc., while George is mainly unsettled by things disappearing before his eyes.

END SCENE -- George notices a dark silhouette in the yard, staring at the house, the music grows more ominous to the point of being overwhelming. George sees the figure walk towards the run-down museum in town and follows after them. Michael hears something drop in the room over and gets out of bed to investigate. He opens the door to see that something has dropped in front of a painting, Michael can't help but feel like something is unsettling - the paperweight that was in the middle of the table is now halfway across the room. Just as George reaches the door to the museum and Michael goes to pick up the paperweight, the clock hits twelve, and it cuts to them waking up in bed respectively, realizing that something very wrong has just happened.

EPISODE TWO: STEFANESCHI TRIPTYCH George and Michael realize that they're stuck in a time loop. We follow the two as they try to figure out how this happened. George attempts to bond with Parker, and we explore flashbacks of George with his son (Parker's father) and their eventual estrangement. George also takes a visit to the art museum.

EPISODE THREE: MATRYOSHKA George has decided to stick with Kevin in this episode, while Michael keeps a closer eye on Sarah, convinced that she's hiding something.

EPISODE FOUR: ROMANESCO BROCCOLI George switches tactics and spends the day at Mickey's Diner with Vidya, hoping to find more clues. Michael tries to leave the apartment.

EPISODE FIVE: SPIEGEL IM SPIEGEL Michael feels lost and reflects on what's led him to this point. George tries to prove the time loop to Parker with dire consequences. This episode gets significantly darker, as George and Michael get more reckless in their time loops (even dying multiple times), knowing it will all reset. At the end, George ends up dying in front of Parker in this time loop - however, instead of waking up with George, the camera stays on Parker, who sits with the body, traumatized.

EPISODE SIX: MISE EN ABYME Vowing to not traumatize Parker further, George keeps the rest of his findings to himself. Michael hyperfixates on the paperweight. By the end of the episode, George heads off to the art museum for a final clue, while Michael comes close to cracking the case. The scene is further expanded under soundtracks, but in short, George and Michael finally find the source of the time loop. Their scenes are shown cut between each other, and they find themselves in a place out of time, with Gabrielle (Danielle Pinnock) in front of them. She addresses them both, the camera focusing on one person at a time, and it is revealed that this scene is not happening at the same time when she introduces Michael to her boss - George, who greets Michael and says they have a lot of work to do.

SEASON TWO (ten episodes). This season has a horror and romance theme prevalent, and focuses largely on Kevin and Vidya. We delve into the trauma that brought them to the town, flashbacks on how they met, and learn that their time loop is no longer sustainable.

EPISODE ONE: THE LEIDENFROST EFFECT This confirms that George and Michael were in two different time loops, at different points in time. George explains that from time to time, the universe folds in on itself, and that they follow two theories - the Droste Effect and the Leidenfrost Effect. Time loops can continue on forever in theory, but in reality, it's only so much as the resolution (the universe) allows. The time commission was able to condense time loops into small areas (a portion of the town, the apartment) that hover over reality rather than actually making contact, so that when the loop eventually fails and implodes, the damage is minimal. George reveals that the town's time loop is breaking down and that he needs Michael's help getting Vidya and Kevin out, and that in turn, he, Parker, and Gabrielle will help get Sarah out.

EPISODE TWO: MICHAEL STROGOFF, COURIER OF THE CZAR Gabrielle, Parker, and Michael try to enter the time loop to get Vidya and Kevin out. We learn a little bit more about Gabrielle - she's funny but gets the job done, and she seems maternally protective of Parker (something Michael initially finds odd, as Parker is played by Elliot Page in this scene and the two seem the same age). Parker is familiar with Michael - which Michael also questions, and Parker explains that while they can't go into detail, time travel makes it so that their relationships don't follow a straight line - Michael doesn't get the implication: it's Michael's first time meeting Parker, but Parker already has a dynamic with him.

EPISODE THREE: THE UPSIDE DOWN, PT I: Time loop day, Kevin's perspective + flashbacks.

EPISODE FOUR: THE UPSIDE DOWN, PT II: Time loop day, Vidya's perspective + flashbacks.

EPISODE FIVE: PRINT GALLERY Older Parker and George inform Michael that they are needed at a different event, but when he questions how they'll help him with Sarah, they say they'll see him again soon. Young Parker and George learn about the time commission, and how there are people assigned to specific things per department (time loops, paradoxes, anomalies, etc.). Parker wants to try and save their parents but is told it isn't allowed. The two end up teaming up again with Michael and Gabrielle by the end (though to them this is the first time meeting them).

EPISODE SIX: WHO YA GONNA CALL? The group struggles to work together and deal with the time rules that they still don't fully understand. Gabrielle takes the lead.

EPISODE SEVEN: THE GOOD PLACE This episode ends with Sarah revealing that she knows that she's in a time loop, and that she doesn't want to leave. She feels guilt over how the trial ended and thinks this should be her punishment.

EPISODE EIGHT: GROUNDHOG DAY Kevin and Vidya's universe gets worse. This episode goes all in on the horror vibes, with their memories fading in and out of reality, settings changing abruptly - Kevin and Vidya themselves disappearing from time to time. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, as they try to find the way out but discover that the museum has disappeared.

EPISODE NINE: DROSTE Michael tries one last time to convince Sarah to leave the time loop. This is a bottle episode entirely focused on Sarah and Michael's relationship, and by the end of the episode Sarah acknowledges that she doesn't want to die but still believes she deserves it, and Michael says that he'll stay with her, whichever choice she makes. The episode ends with them sitting on the floor of their completely dark penthouse, Michael holding out his hand to Sarah, who hesitates. The episode ends as we see Sarah hold his hand, without knowing what their choice is.

EPISODE TEN: MINI MYTH MAYHEM Kevin and Vidya try to escape before it's too late. In this episode, Sarah has already escape the loop and is with the others helping to get Kevin and Vidya out. In the finale, they all get out, but Sarah and young Parker slip off to an unknown, different time loop.

SEASON THREE (twelve episodes): This season goes into trying to find Sarah and Parker. Sarah is trying to self-impose punishment and Parker wants to find a way to bide time so they can figure out how to save their parents. Parker and Sarah move from time loop to time loop as the group tries to find them. Each episode takes place in a different time loop, and some of the people stuck are helped, and in some episodes, they tragically get erased when the loop implodes.

This season also goes into more depth on Gabrielle and provides her full length backstory, as well as shows more fleshed out interactions between all of our mains now that they're free from and aware of time loops. Vidya and Gabrielle spend time with each other and meet up with Parker and Sarah at one point, helping them through a particularly difficult time loop. Standout episodes:

EPISODE FOUR: HOW IT FEELS TO FLOAT Full Gabrielle backstory episode leading up to and after joining the commission. The episode works with color -- Gabrielle's life is surrounded by color but it's muted and desaturated, but in the commission, despite the cool tones and bland setting, the saturation is back, reflecting how Gabrielle feels more fulfilled.

EPISODE TEN: OUR LIVING FUNERAL Parker tries to save their parents and it doesn't end well. Each time Parker attempts to save them, their parents die, and Parker accidentally creates a time loop centered on their parent's death. Parker eventually comes to the conclusion that they're condemning their parents in the attempt to save them, and breaks the loop by letting their story play out. Young and Future Parker are both featured heavily in this episode, and the episode focuses heavily on grief, trusting in yourself, and letting go.

EPISODE TWELVE: INVERSION Series finale. Sarah is brought back by the entire family, with the knowledge that they can't change their pasts but hope that they can build a better future. We see the team finally close their loop when Michael and George enter a remnant of their loops. George knocks off a paperweight and Michael leads loop-George back to the museum, ensuring their fates. The team decides they want to break more of these time loops and help others instead of continuing the commission's goal to simply condense the areas.

SOUNDTRACK (soundtrack found here):

LONESOME TOWN BY RICKY NELSON: Opening shot of the show; dust town scenes are pictured. There's a bus that stops at the bus stop before driving away, the windows covered with dust, too dirty to actually see through. There's a shot of a diner with nobody in it except for VIDYA and KEVIN, their backs turned to the camera. VIDYA pours coffee and gently puts it in front of KEVIN, and you see them lean in for a kiss, and Vidya smiles and boops his nose. She moves away to put the coffee pot back, her smile slowly fading, and there's a close-up of the coffee machine next to a DROSTE COCOA CAN. The next camera shot stays on the pot, but the hand that pulls out the coffee is an older, white hand, and we see that we have moved into GEORGE RAYMOND GOLDBLATT'S home. He's pouring his coffee and trying to fix breakfast, but he hesitates before pouring the second cup and grabs the DROSTE COCOA CAN instead. We see something sizzling on the frying pan behind him. Pan to the radio in the kitchen. As the song goes into the final "I can learn to forget-" a younger hand reaches and turns the knob off, stopping the song before it ends. PARKER is there, and the dialogue begins.

THE FUNERAL BY YUNGBLUD plays on Parker's headphones in a scene in season one.

THE DRAMA BY KESHA: Closing scene of the first season, when George and Michael break their loops. The beginning of the song corresponds with Parker following George, who's sneaking out of the house and heading towards the museum. Meanwhile, Michael is looking around the penthouse trying to figure out the answer. As the music ramps up (:40-:46 sec, then cuts to the build me up line at 1:52 and plays until 2:55), he looks at the door where he first heard the sound. Michael and George enter their respective room/building and search for the answer. Sarah follows Michael into the room, but unlike Parker, who continues moving into the museum, Sarah shakes her head and sighs, leaving the room and Michael alone. On oh, the drama of it all, both men notice have noticed paintings that seem out of place. On the second all, when the music ramps up, both men have reached out and made contact with the painting. The time loop breaks for them, we intersperse between them both in the same room (close-up shots of both of them). Gabrielle is introduced, seemingly introducing herself to both of them, but then moves, introducing George (in a different outfit), who says he's excited to see Michael (are we having fun yet? plays after he says this as the shot lingers on George's face). Episode ends, the remainder of the song plays over the credits.

FIND SOMEONE LIKE YOU BY SNOH AALEGRA: Plays during a montage for Vidya/Kevin and Michael/Sarah during season two.

PRETTY & AFRAID BY JIDENNA: Plays during Kevin's time loop episode in season two. The song twists and turns and gets distorted the more Kevin's loop starts to unfold.

WISHFUL THINKING BY LEON: Plays in the background for Kevin and Vidya in 2x08 as they try to break their loop together. They go to the museum to find the painting that will get them out, and the music gets an ominous tone to it as they realize that it's gone and glitched out.

RUIN BY THE AMAZING DEVIL: Plays in the final scene of 2x09 as Michael waits with Sarah in a collapsing loop.

ONE LAST TIME BY LP: Plays in the finale as Kevin and Vidya break their loop.

OK ON YOUR OWN BY MXMTMOON & CARLY RAE JEPSON: Closing scene of the season two finale when Sarah and Parker leave.

JOSHUA TREE BY ROZZI: Sung by Gabrielle in a flashback scene that opens up season three. The song cuts off before the end as Gabrielle wakes up.

STARCHILD BY GHOST QUARTET: Plays in 3x03, focuses mainly on Sarah, Parker (both), and Gabrielle. Includes a visual effect that shows them older and younger, includes hints to Gabrielle's past.

DAYDREAM BELIEVER BY THE MONKEES: Opening to 3x09. The lighting is bright and saturated, and we follow a man (Jeremy Strong) as he gets up, picks out his clothes, eats breakfast, etc. He walks to the roof of his apartment and closes his eyes, ready to jump, before the music abruptly cuts off with a record scratch and we hear Sarah's voice, making a sarcastic comment about how many times she's seen him jump since she's gotten there. He startles and falls, and the opening credits play. The next scene picks up with him at the next loop getting to actually talk to Sarah.

BLACK MUD BY LAYLA: Plays in 3x11 in a Sarah-focused scene.

ANCIENT DREAMS IN A MODERN LAND BY MARINA: A slowed down version of this song plays in the final scene, as the group goes into other time loops, ready to help other people escape their own loops.

The remaining songs are songs that play throughout the series, particularly in season three for other loops. In some special episodes, the group is in very old time loops, allowing for classic songs from the time period to be played.

DETAILS/EASTER EGGS/NOTES:

There are Droste cocoa tins that repeatedly appear in the series, particularly season one. Different recursive examples show up in the series.

The dual settings in season one take place in different years - the dust town with George/Parker/Vidya/Kevin takes place in 2022, while Sarah and Michael's takes place in 2020. Some hints: Parker listening to a song that came out in 2022, Sarah and Michael insisting they can't leave their apartment, etc.

Character arcs: Parker: their grief and struggling to come into their own, Michael: relationship/love can't be the solution for problems, Sarah: guilt and depression, Vidya: allows herself to be angry and acknowledge the negative parts of her life, Kevin: becomes more comfortable in who he is instead of trying to force an image, Gabrielle: finds fulfillment in doing something she enjoys with people she enjoys, George: previously struggled with how much time he has left and felt trapped, now has the ability to experience more during that time.

Every grouping in this show has interactions with each other, but some prominent dynamics that grow and develop are: Parker & Sarah in their time loop jumps, Michael/Kevin, and Vidya/Sarah.

Time isn't linear in this series, and these characters grow and develop their relationship with each other in a unique way as they may see each other in different points through time. Future Parker/George recur throughout the series, and in one episode in season three, Vidya talks to Sarah and lets her slip away. When Sarah mentions it to Vidya, Vidya looks confused before moving on, indicating that it may have been a future version of her.

Parker's relationships with the adults is of parental figures/child. Almost all the characters meet each other at some point by season two and various duos or trios are shown throughout season three. The series explores how the love between our main couples are strong and real, but may rely too much on romantic love fixing their problems (Michael trying to get Sarah to leave her time loops for him, for example). Each time loop has to be broken by an individual, and our characters go through that journey on their own with the knowledge that there's family waiting on the other side.

Canonically mentioned: Gabrielle - lesbian, Michael & Sarah - bisexual. Vidya and Kevin's sexualities aren't specified, but we see hints that there's a polyamorous relationship in the group that develops at some point, though who it involves is up to the viewer.

The episode where Sarah interacts with a person who doesn't want to leave their time loop will have Jeremy Strong as the featured guest. Because I say so.

Vidya's secret is only ever alluded to, not revealed. Viewers are free to guess her secret through the details provided, but the secret is Vidya’s to share. In the season 2 finale, Kevin reveals to Vidya that he knows Vidya's secret and doesn't care (beyond how it affects her). This knowledge helps the two of them break out of their loop definitively.

There is a musical special between seasons 2 and 3.

Season one's episode titles are all based off of different recursive examples. Season two is a mix of different recursive/leidenfrost & pop culture references - the finale episode is both, referring to a Myth Busters episode that explores the effect. Season three has a different book title for each episode, and viewers can see the books (either front and center or hidden in the background) in each episode!

SCENES:

After Parker turns off the song in the first scene:

GEORGE: Oh hello, ah, - [he falters, suddenly uncertain of their name]. Breakfast is on the stove. I wasn't sure if you drank coffee, but there's hot cocoa if you want. PARKER: Coffee's fine. [The two pause, the awkward silence creeping up between them. They have only known each other for a few days and have nothing to really talk about besides what has brought them together, which Parker thinks would be immensely depressing. Parker clears their throat and tries an olive branch.] PARKER: My mom always tried to give me decaf and I always complained, but you know dad. One day he said Parker, if you think you're grown up enough for coffee then you're getting real coffee. [they smile, lost in a memory] I think he thought I would hate the taste of it, but I loved it. GEORGE: [George has noticed how Parker stressed their name, and he shoots them a sheepish, but fond smile for reminding him without embarrassing him.] He was like that, even as a little boy. Always - [He turns as he speaks, ready to re-cap the cocoa tin and trails off as he sees that it's missing, and that there's no lid in his hand. He frowns but pours a second cup of coffee.] Where did I put that? Anyway. Carson. Whenever he got something in his head, he'd convince himself it was going to work out. And it would always fail. [His smile fades as they remember the context of his death, and George sets the coffee cups on the table. The breakfast burns, and George rushes to salvage it. By the end of the scene, Parker has announced they're going to get food from the diner. They head out and the camera pans, briefly showing the cocoa tin is back on the counter.]

2x09 end scene:

[RUIN plays as the penthouse turns dark, darker than it ever has, with the moonlight that generally shines through the scenes dimming. Items shake throughout the apartment, ever so slightly. SARAH has sunk to the floor, tired, and MICHAEL looks on, concerned.] SARAH: He was so good. He trusted me. I looked into his eyes and I told him that it would all be okay and it - [her voice breaks and she looks away, overcome with emotion. She sighs, and looks up at MICHAEL, though she avoids his eyes. Tears are prevalent in her eyes but she refuses to cry.] You know, at first I thought this was Hell? I thought this is my punishment, being stuck here. But I realized it wasn't, you know why? [She looks MICHAEL in the eyes this time.] You were there. You were there, going through every day with me, loving me, trying to help me, every day. And Hell could never have you. Never. And I thought, maybe I could make the best of things. Maybe if I just - maybe if I could sit here and work on myself, work on the numbness, this heavy, unbearable numbness, that I could break this, that I could get you out, that I could help you the way I couldn't help him. [At this, a tear leaks out, and she wipes it away roughly. She composes herself, and looks away from MICHAEL again.] But I couldn't. I tried so many times, and one day I realized that I could never help you. I could never help you, or myself, or anyone. And then you woke up and you realized the same. You realized something was wrong. With our lives, with the day, with me. And I was happy, Michael I was so happy when you left, because even if this isn't Hell it's one for me and I deserve to be here but you don't. You can't convince me that I don't deserve this. I love you, but I can't. I can't.

[the piano in the song plays, and at that the items in the apartment begin to dislodge, but instead of falling, they slowly start to float upwards. MICHAEL looks at the items in wonder while SARAH stares at the floor, not noticing - or caring - how the world is collapsing. He looks at SARAH for a long time, and looks down at her wedding ring. SARAH'S hand (wedding ring visible) is on the floor. As the male portion of the song starts, MICHAEL speaks, softly.] MICHAEL: Here's the thing. I kind of promised something ten years ago, a major vow. I believe they included for richer or poorer, in sickness, in health, in time loops and worlds collapsing. [SARAH chuckles, but doesn't interrupt, and MICHAEL's smile fades into a small half-smile.] And it ended with till death do us part. I didn't know I'd end up leaving, I thought I'd be getting us both out of here. I know you believe you deserve this but you don't, Sarah. You don't. You're emphatic, you're kind, you love so much. What happened was horrible but [The female voice sings "I'll sing silence" as the camera close-ups on SARAH's face] it's not your fault. You don't need to punish yourself. But if you do...[MICHAEL sits down, and places his own hand on the floor, his wedding ring parallel to SARAH'S, their hands close but not touching. SARAH looks at him, surprise clear on her face.] I don't agree, Sarah. I don't think this is what he would have wanted. I don't think self-imposed punishment is the answer. You opened up my life when we met, you changed everything for me. Everything. I know there's more that you can do. I think if you let us, we can fix this. We can make this work. The two of us, we can do anything together. I know it. I know it. And if you don't believe in yourself right now, I believe in you. I believe in us. And I wish, I hope it means you'll get up and go with me, but if not, that's fine too. Because I also know we'll make it through anything. Anything. We can make it through the entire universe imploding if we need to. Whatever you choose, I choose. Just whatever you choose... [He flips his hand, still not coming near SARAH'S hand but keeping it open.] Whatever it is, I'll hold your hand through it.

[SARAH looks back down at his hand, the uncertainty clear on her face and the genuine emotion clear on MICHAEL'S. She looks up, as if noticing the broken world around them for the first time, and we see shots of the items that have floated high to the ceiling at this rate, including a close-up the ring that belonged to SARAH's client. The ceiling is slowly crumbling away, and the pieces move upwards as well, into a darkness. SARAH looks back down at MICHAEL'S hand, and we see her finger twitch. The camera moves to a pan of them sitting in the deconstructing room, slowly panning out, and in the darkness, we see SARAH reach for his hand right before the episode ends.]

#rcabl dream show #dream show challenge #janie writes stuff #glitching tw

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cuntstable · 8 months

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I'm sorry if this is a strange question to ask but what are your thoughts on the fat Yuyuko headcanon? I personally like it (as I do with any hc that gives more body diversity to the touhou cast) but I know its origins are questionable/fatphobic. I'm sorry if this is unwelcome or if I'm overthinking things or if it turns out this headcanon is only a thing in the part of the fanbase that i interact with (<-my biggest fear in writing this)

On a similar note would it be bad to draw Urumi as plus sized? I personally hc her to be bc of the people she reminds me of but im scared of the connotations that some parts of her design have (Her species, the cowprint) (But yeah I'm sorry for the long ask I tried googling this and instead i got some gross reddit threads)

no dw ive thought about this too over the years!! like ive been into touhou since i was about 11 and the hc about yuyuko being fat was around online even back then! but like u also said it did originate mostly through jokes about her eating all the time and being a glutton, so there was often an element of fatphobia to it. but that being said i always felt attached to the headcanon anyway since you know. as a kid i liked the idea of my favourite touhou character being similar to me in some way. and i actually often used the fact that she IS a glutton and lazy to justify the idea when people made fun of it, even if i had to rely on fatphobic stereotypes.

so like its a bit complicated right, because while the hc is more widely accepted it still plays into negative stereotypes. but that being said i did always like the idea that even while being a fat woman yuyuko was widely held as incredibly beautiful in story, and ethereal and a princess and a tragic complex character and whatever else. like her being those things while fat always overpowerd the negatives in my mind.

so like im not the authority on fat headcanons lol and certainly not fatphobia but i think that generally you can headcanon any character as fat, as long as they have positive traits too that the hc would further highlight (ie yuyuko being a serious character and also being considered insanely pretty even while fat!), AND maybe even more crucially, you dont only hc gluttonous and lazy and comedic characters as fat. same with urumi in my opinion, like its completely fine to hc her as fat as long as she and yuyuko arent the only characters you do that with. then it would feel a bit stereotypical in my opinion, but otherwise i think its not really an issue! :)

#omg I HOPE that made sense aahhhhhhhhh #also sorry that you tried looking it up on reddit….. i shant imagine the horrors :(#touhou

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whumpshaped · 10 months

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The Got Under Your Skin stuff is some of the most creative and original whump I’ve ever seen. Also like really flexible/versatile? Like at times it feels incredibly poetic and tragic, and at other times it feels like pure indulgence in whump, and the balance is so perfect. I hope I’ll be able to write half as well as you do someday! 💛

WEEPING. of course its versatile its crack whump /lh fr tho thats the point of me writing crack whump. i will NEVER stop singing the praises of the genre(?) bc its FUN and its FLEXIBLE and its INDULGENT. literally decadent. hedonistic. i do what i want and i dont care abt lore and shit. if i contradict myself who cares its crack whump. its like mistakes dont matter but the joy i get from the notes is the same. its like a cheat code. ppl should write more crack whump i think. like im so serious when i say i write these just sitting outside when i have an hour, or half-asleep in my bed just hoping it doesnt have That Many typos. on my phone too. and phone writing hits different. it brings back memories of careless 17 yr old me typing out demon fics between classes (and this is a demon fic too so its extra nostalgic...) OK SORRY U DIDNT ASK FOR ANY OF THIS

THANK U SO MUCH !!!!!!!! and honestly if i write well its only bc ive been doing it for decades. so literally dont worry for a single moment, if u do it enough and read enough itll just come to u :)

#speaking of i NEEEEED to read more #which im trying to do this summer #i also need to read more in my native bc im literally losing so much vocab #anyway this is so sweet im goibg insane that i dont have a happy tag #ive been getting such nice messages #im gonna go back and invent one i swear #asks #joyshaped

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icarusignite · 1 year

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Hey author, how are you? I hope your exams went well ☺️👍! I wanted to ask you who is your favorite character in House of the dragon? I can't quite decide. I love Daemon and Rhaenyra. But then there are also viserys and the sweet Luce (aka. Sweet boy) so I wanted to ask who your favorite character in House of the dragon is. What would also interest me is: if you could choose your parents in House of the dragon, who would it be? I would choose Daemon and Rhaenyra directly, I just love them, and I would have cool brothers, half brothers and half sisters....

I tried to send it to you yesterday, but I wasn't sure if it worked because the app crashed the whole time. So if you've already received this from me, I'm sorry

Heyyyy, absolutely love your asks. And you never need to apologize, love, it's all good 💙💙

My exams went lol. We don't talk about how they went, they just went 💀💀. Your exams were in May, right? Best of luck bestie, I hope they go well!!

Hmm, my fav character from House of the Dragon. I find all the characters so incredibly complex and layered that I actually love them all so much. I think my all-time favourite is definitely Rhaenyra. She is just so fascinating and she's been through so much and I just adore her with all my heart. Like I'm aware she's not perfect and that she does questionable things in both the books and show but I just love her so much lol. I support women's rights, but most of all I support women's wrongs, and Imma support ALL that woman's wrongs 🤭🤭

I also find Alicent so fascinating. Young show Alicent is so young and she goes through so so much and my heart aches for her, and even though I don't love all the choices adult Alicent makes, I can't hate her either because she is just a product of her environment and an accumulation of her tragic experiences. It makes sense for her to be the way she is and honestly, I can understand her resentment for Rhaenyra. I mean if I went through what she did, and then I see someone I grew up with get to do whatever she wants without consequences while I have to put up with my shitty 100+ yr old rotting husband while she has like 2 of the hottest dudes in the kingdom, I'd be pretty jealous and resentful too. So yea I just find her so fascinating and I love doing like character analyses on her.

Honourable mentions go to Harwin, we love a king who supports his princess without wanting anything for it. The parallels he draws with Ser Criston Cole (I rlly hate him lol) are so immaculate. Crispy Cole has a huge hissy fit when Rhaenyra doesn't drop the crown and goes to sell oranges with him or something, while Harwin is perfectly content being her side piece. But like on a serious note, his love for Rhaenyra is enough for him and he doesn't need to be formally acknowledged as his boys' father or Rhaenyra's baby daddy. He is just content with the little pieces of her that he gets to have and I think its so tragically beautiful. Also Daemon, my fav war criminal 🫶 I know he's done atrocious things, and he will continue to do so and I will not defend him saying that he didn't do anything wrong lol. I just vibe with him cuz he's incredibly loyal to his family and we love a family man devoted to his wife (I pretend the choking scene did not happen, I'm delulu like that 🤡). Also love Rhaenyra's kiddos. They're so wholesome and sweet. Sweet sweet Luke and responsible Jace. I have so much to say about them oh gosh I've rambled here enough, you asked me my fav character and I went on like 3 different tangents on all my fav characters. But yea, every single one of these characters have such a special place in my heart, i love them all for various reasons, tea black and green both (I fkn hate Otto and Crisoy Cole tho).

Also omg parents, I want Daemon and Rhaenyra tooo for sure. First of all so I can have Jace, Luke, and Joffrey as my brothers cuz that would be soo nice but also can you imagine having Daemon targaryen as your fkn dad. Gosh the power you would hold. I wanna be Daemon and Rhaenyra's babygirl 😭😭 And that entire family unit is so cool, all their kids/half-kids/step-kids are so cool and it would be amazing to be part of that family. Also i think they're a relatively happy family (until the war lol). Like I def wouldn't wanna be Alicent+Viserys's kid lol. Not because I have anything against them (I have issues with Vizzy T but thats a matter for another time), but they're just so dysfunctional lol. That's mommy issues + daddy issues + all sorts of issues waiting to happen lmfao.

Anyways thank you so much for your ask, feel free to send in more, I love rambling about my fav characters and I'd love to hear more from you too. Why do you like your favourite characters? Also I am currently working on your Daeron request so expect that to be out sometime in the next 2 weeks. I started a new job so it got kinda busy rip.

Cheers love 🫶

#house of the dragon #aemond targaryen #alicent hightower #jacaerys velaryon #rhaenyra targaryen #daemon targaryen #game of thrones #hotd #viserys targaryen #helaena targaryen #baela targaryen #rhaena targaryen #otto hightower #criston cole #harwin strong #hotd meta #lucerys velaryon #icarus ignite asks #icarus ignite rambles

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skelezomperman · 1 year

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Have you ever considered part of the reason that Altena's writing is rather garbage is that she is part of an oppressed group (Thracians) and all the stops are pulled to make the oppressors (the Northern houses) look to be as equal or even good in the narrative?

FE4's narration straight up says that the people of Thracia WANT to be ruled by the Leonster houses AGAIN (implying this was the case before), when we know this not to be true and very unlikely for Thracians to want this. We are never shown what New Thracia looks like aside from the people being unified. But it's worth asking ourselves, unified under whose terms? Arion steps down, and Leif gets to be King. I don't think Leif would be a bad king for Thracians, but it's hard for an oppressed people to simply accept the same oppressors willingly even if they had a change of heart.

FEH Altena focuses more on her Leonster identity and simply calls out Travant for his "savage" nature. Travant, despite his flaws, is engaged in a war of liberation against his oppressors. His cause is just, and that is quite literally all that matters. The Aed Massacre and every single act of violence Thracians perform against the North, while tragic, is nothing compared to the mundane violence Thracians undergo every minute of every day for the past few decades now. If not for how incredibly loaded the word is, I'd be pressed to say it is a genocide.

Altena's character in FE4/5 exists as it does because she's "one of the good ones" and serves as a collaborator to make us forget the righteous cause of the Thracian people in favor for a nebulous negative peace where Thracians and Northerners just sit down and get along rather than any real restorative justice.

First of all, I want to compliment you on being willing to ask tough questions about the Jugdral games. I don't entirely agree with your assessment but I'm happy that people are willing to look at it with a critical eye. It's necessary to be willing to do this in order to be honest. For the rest of the answer I'll go through each of your points individually.

I actually have an unreleased essay about viewing Jugdral through an ethnographic lens which I'm planning to release later this year as part of a larger work. I won't summarize the entire essay but I don't personally think the developers intended to make a serious effort to portray prejudices in the Jugdral games. FE5 sheds more light on the relationship between the North and South of Thracia, but in FE4 I feel like there wasn't much thought put into portraying Southern Thracians as "oppressed."

Moving on, there seems to be an inconsistency here. FE4 Chapter 8 says that "the people" wish to be unified under Leonster, but FE4 Chapter 9 says that "[Southern] Thracia's people hardly offer Seliph an eager welcome." I wonder if Chapter 8 is referring to the Munster District rather than the peninsula as a whole but I couldn't find anything to support that theory of mine. I do agree that Leif's ending is not "happily ever after" and he will have difficulties unifying Thracia even with the Thracian-raised Altena being an asset to his effort. That said, I don't want to single out Leif or even FE4/FE5 for this. Most games just say "the lord ruled happily ever after" and don't go in-depth into postgame worldbuilding issues that may crop up (e.g., Marth needing to consolidate power after every other ruler in Archanea abdicates). I do see Altena as someone who would advocate for the Southerners under a unified Thracia and help cater to them rather than someone who imposes the North's rule, but I admit that's headcanon. I'd also note that FE5 does go out of its way to have August teach Leif about the suffering the Thracians go through - to me, this leads to the idea that Leif will make good on the mistakes of his father and grandfather.

It definitely does look bad that Altena calls Travant "savage" in FEH, I'll agree there. I do want to make a point that Travant is the only non-generic Thracian who really does this "savage" behavior (not counting generic bosses like Coulter). Arion does continue to fight Seliph after his father's death but that's because of him being stubborn and indecisive more than any wish to harm innocents. In FE5, Arion also acts as a sort of white knight to save Tarrah from being captured by the Empire. Then we have Dean and Eda who outright join Leif's army with Arion's consent no less. The brutality of the Kingdom of Thracia is more about Travant personally than it is about the nation at large in my opinion. I don't think the game really shows all Thracians as being bad. If my memory serves me right, the only person who says prejudiced things about Thracians as a people is Quan with the "hyenas" comment - not Leif, not Dryas, not August, not Lewyn, not even Finn.

Let me finish at your central point which is that the games look over an oppression by the Munster District and goes out of its way to make Thracia look bad. I can't say I agree with this point; in fact, I think the game does quite the opposite. Even in FE4, Lewyn delivers a lecture in Chapter 8 to mention the poverty that Thracia suffers. FE5 goes out of its way to create more worldbuilding to add justification to their animosity towards the North with the food embargos. The point of Travant is that the player is supposed to feel bad for him while still rejecting his brutality. FE4 is very on the nose with that narrative. I think it's fair to think that he isn't a complete villain; he still wants what is best for his people more than anything else. But I can't just say "he was justified because of what the North did" and leave it as that because that erases the central conflict behind Travant as a character. The player is supposed to ask whether his senseless violence is justified and it's supposed to be an open question. You can't make Travant out to be a bloodthirsty villain nor can you say that he was in the right because Quan was worse; you must retain that complexity behind Travant in order for the character to work. And that complexity does exist! It's simplistic, maybe, but FE4 and FE5 at least make an effort there to show both sides of this question. Maybe you could argue it shouldn't be pushing one answer but at least it goes more in-depth there.

As for Altena, I personally have a much bigger problem with the perceived lack of agency with regards to Arion than with her participation in the Thracian worldbuilding. The worldbuilding could be perfect but I'd still have a problem if the relationship with Arion was the same. But thank you for providing me the opportunity to answer.

#fe4 #fe5 #travant #altena #arion #jugdral #thracia

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lilythdaemon · 1 year

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Great time, great monkey

Ok, I already lost this post twice while I was writing it. BUT THIRD TIME IS A CHARM. (no pun intended)

Finished watching Lupin Zero. Holy fuck what a great experience, and I'm gonna share some thoughts about the last three episodes. SPOILERS, of course. Here we go:

EP 4

Just a love note for Lupin shenanigans.

Jigen and Lupin start a fight bc Jigen don't want Lupin to put his life at risk, incredible. Shippers absolutely fucking died when they started to fight like a newly married couple.

In a more serious note, such a goofy plot with the right touch of political commentary. Just chef kiss content. I love seeing how the relationship between those 2 has grown in a short amount of time, the team behind it definitely nailed it.

EP 5

Poor baby monkey boy. He did nothing wrong. He just wanted to give the necklace to his first love and has massacreated by a grown man out of nowhere. Poor, poor baby.

I know that this ep was the beginning of the end, but I just found the passing a little weird. Idk.

AND ALSO, MY BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH THE FINALE. ok, its not a problem, it's just bc it got me confused.

Who the fuck is Gaucho a reference for?

Bc, Gaucho (or at least that is how the wiki shows his name) in portuguese, specifically in Brazil, is how u call someone who is from a specific state, Rio Grande do Sul. And it made me think that maybe he was a south american. AND THEN, I entered a rabbit whole bc I started to noticed that the characters kind resembles Che Guevara, not just in personality but also in looks. And if it somehow, the team behind really is trying to reference him...good, I guess, really weird to reference a dictator, but who am I to say anything else.

EP 6

What a banger of a finale. The action was AMAZING. It made me compare it so much to part 6 action, and reafarm my hate for part 6, great:3

Lupin standing up for what he wants to become versus what his family wants for him, so cute. Little monkey is growing and becaming Big monkey man. He and Jigen, just agreaing to do shit all over the world for the sake of excitment and having fun, like...AAAAAAHHH.

HE USED THE JACKET, IT LOOKS SO BIG FOR HIM! AAHHH.

The final confict was great, Gaucho killing himself insted of letting Lupin shot him...kind of a killer move:3 (PUN INTENDED).

But when Yoko decided that she coulnd't keep on living without the first person who saved her. Heartbroken. Also, knowing that Lupin's first love killed herself for another man is such a tragic backstory for him. I kind would like to this event being referenced in other pieces of Lupin media, like how it effected his view on romantic pursue, etc. (TMS FOR FUCKING GODS SAKE, I DONT WANT A CONTINUATION, I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE TRIES TO CONTINUE A LUPIN STORY, PART 6 I'M TALINK ABOUT U)

Overall, really enjoy it. Will not be watching the new content streaming on amazon bc it looks ugly as fuck, and I hope we get more passion projects like this in the future:3

#lupin iii #lupin zero #review #cheguevaraishereiguess #jigen

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sarahtheflutist · 1 year

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Brahms began composing his last symphonic masterpiece at a mountain retreat in 1884, about a year after completing the Third Symphony. Brahmsians often label it as the composer’s “magnum opus,” although the German Requiem competes for that designation. It was composed specifically for the Meiningen Court Orchestra, led by his friend Hans von Bülow, rather than for Vienna. Brahms was concerned from the outset about the work’s accessibility, but audiences responded enthusiastically. It is quite serious and even tragic. Although the third movement competes with the finale of the Second Symphony for sheer exuberance, this only emphasizes through contrast the severity and strictness of the finale. The chains of thirds introduced in the first movement, as well as the emphasis on the note C in all four movements, characterize the symphony. Bülow, only half-jokingly, remarked after the first movement was played on two pianos at a private gathering, “For the whole movement I had the feeling that I was being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people.”

It is the only one of Brahms’s symphonic first movements to avoid repeating the exposition, although the development begins with the first theme in its original form. The second movement is known for its suggestions of the Phrygian mode. The first two movements also have notably unusual final cadences. The only third movement in the symphonies that actually sounds like a scherzo is paradoxically the only one to avoid the three-part scherzo-like form. The introduction of the triangle is the only time in the symphonies that a percussion instrument other than timpani is used. Although it seems anomalous, the movement does have clear references to the other three, even suggesting the theme of the finale’s variations in the alternating high and low chords in the coda.

The extraordinary finale is a passacaglia or chaconne (Brahms used the latter term), a form common in the early eighteenth century. It is a series of 30 continuous variations on an eight-bar stepwise rising theme. Said to be derived from a Bach cantata (specifically Cantata #150), Brahms gives the theme its essential character by making the fifth note and its harmonies chromatic (outside the E-minor scale). The variations can be split into four sections roughly corresponding to the first theme group, second theme group, development, and recapitulation of sonata form (used in all three of the other movements). The brief coda ends the symphony with a powerful impact.

Though intellectually and emotionally somewhat challenging, the symphony’s greatness was already acknowledged by Brahms’s death a decade later. The orchestra is of standard size, with double woodwind, four horns, two trumpets, and timpani. Contrabassoon, piccolo, and triangle are used in the third movement. Three trombones (and contrabassoon) are used in the fourth movement.

#brahms #brahms 4 #johannes brahms

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kanadaetavisum · 1 year

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The Most Popular OG Strains on the Earth - Top OG Strains in 2022

One of the most popular cannabis strains in the world is OG. OG strains are a group of cannabis types, like Kush varieties. Although many individuals think OG means "Original Gangster," actually signifies "Ocean Grown." A large portion of these is California strains, grown by the Pacific Ocean.

These hybrid strains are generally potent and have a high THC content. Numerous OG strains have between 20 and 25% THC. Because of their intensity, OG strains have numerous medical and recreational benefits. In addition to the fact that it flaunts new, incredible aromas and flavors with traces of citrus, zing, and all that pleasant, however the high is likewise extreme and euphoric, both intellectually and genuinely, because of OG's high THC and low CBD rate.

The top OG strains are known for their belongings. They will quite often be cerebral, elevating, and euphoric. Individuals who need to add a flash of imagination could likewise partake in these strains. For medical users, these strains are viable for dealing with the side effects of serious circumstances like disease and chronic pain.

Origin of OG Strain

The expression "OG" originates from many stories, one of which is "Ocean Grown." It is a sort of marijuana strain that is supposed to be grown outdoors, with California coastal roots.

One more would be that it originated from the expression "Original Gangster," advocated and achieved by Los Angeles hip-bounce craftsmen like Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and more in the last part of the 1980s or mid-1990s.

Despite the numerous hypotheses, the top and best class of this is, in fact, the OG strain, which was first grown for quite some time during the 1990s. This Californian root gave OG strains the strength, smell, and taste that are particular to different strains.

Best OG Strains on Earth to Try

Certain strains become renowned, which is as it should be. The OG family of strains is known for their extraordinary buzz, earthy, homegrown smell, and one-of-a-kind history. The best OG strain has a solid mix of these characteristics.

Tragically, there are so many OG strains that picking the best is difficult. Be that as it may, these are most certainly at the top of any list of OG strains.

OG Kush

OG Kush is the grandfather of thousands of cannabis strains. It's likewise important for the Kush and OG family. The explanations behind it being the best change, however, predominantly highlight the high THC content of the strain and how it assists users and smokers with adapting to stress and pain.

This indica-dominant hybrid has extremely high THC levels, regularly going between 20 and 26%. Its parent strains are Hindu Kush and Chemdawg. With myrcene as its primary terpene, it will truly give you the "body high" kick that you've been searching for.

It has the equivalent earthiness with inconspicuous citrus notes that emit an invigorating smidgen of pine and lemon. It's of high interest for its strong, euphoric high and, additionally, for its societal position.

This strain is for the most part prescribed to medical users or individuals who are encountering mild to severe pain, muscle spasms, and other comparable circumstances.

Fire OG

Another famous OG strain is Fire OG. It's a staggering cross between OG Kush and San Fernando Valley OG. Since it's named Fire OG, that doesn't mean it's fiery. It has gotten its name from what it looks like, having a lively, blazing, and gleaming appearance.

Fire OG is one of the most powerful OG strains. It's an indica-dominant hybrid that contains 20–25% THC. This strain also has a low CBD content. The significant consequences settle on it as a strong decision for the day's end.

Its sweet, earthy flavor will divert you. Unlike many other types of marijuana strains, the Fire OG is one of the best for creativity and innovation.

After use, individuals report feeling euphoric, blissful, and totally settled. Certain individuals likewise experience an expansion of imagination. Attempt this strain for chronic pain, insomnia, and neuropathy.

Skywalker OG

The original Skywalker is up next. This indica-dominant hybrid has around 85% indica and 15% sativa.

With THC levels that can reach 26%, it keeps some long-term users blissful while being sufficiently dominant to forestall nervousness. Having high THC levels is all that could possibly be needed to assist you with reducing tension, stress, and nervousness.

The Skywalker OG was created by combining and crossing Blueberry Strains and Mazar. It has an overwhelming citrusy zing.

It is strong, serious, and very successful in giving you those anti-stress and anti-anxiety properties. Others use Skywalker OG for their arthritis, muscle spasms, and PTSD. This strain is best enjoyed before going to bed because it will most likely relax you.

Banana OG

One of the less popular OG strains, Banana OG, is still well-deserving of the OG strain name. The Banana OG is an extraordinary strain in the event that you're searching for an option in contrast to the classic OG Kush.

It is a strongly scented, highly potent strain that has around 25% THC levels. Because of its sweet, fruity-like taste and tropical aroma, many users stated that it is effective in easing mood swings and keeping them engrossed.

On top of the citrus and spice aroma that is common to OG strains, Banana OG obviously tastes and smells very much like bananas. The flavor matches the sharp smell, with an additional note of incense from the OG genetics.

Larry OG

You could consider Larry OG unusual due to its name, but it's really outstanding and one of the top choices of most recreational and medical users. Also known as "Sour Larry" or "Lemon Larry."

There are also gritty notes in the flavor, which balances it to a truly OG strain. Larry OG is a one-of-a-kind and distinct hybrid of the SFV OG Kush and the half-breed OG Kush, liable for a soothing, quieting effect with a creative edge. THC levels can reach as high as 23%.

It causes individuals to feel euphoric, hungry, loose, and blissful. Certain individuals likewise report feeling an increase in energy. Larry OG is used to stimulate appetite or to treat wounds such as back pain. Likewise, it's powerful for those with fibromyalgia, ADHD, and PTSD. This is one of the most amazing medical strains that anyone could hope to find.

Final Words

There are mixed opinions about what the best and top OG strains are, especially when new mixes and hybrid strains are considered. Be that as it may, this year, the accompanying OG strains were viewed as the best by recreational and medical users.

Regardless of where you reside, you've probably heard of at least one OG strain. Its appeal and tenacious ubiquity make it one, even if it is not the most well-known class of cannabis strains on the planet.

#og kush #skywalker og #fire og #cannabis og strains #og strains

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the-hot-zone · 3 years

Text

Too Old To Play With Toys: The Sad Truth Behind Sokka's Boomerang

This is Sokka’s boomerang:

[ID: a screenshot of Sokka’s boomerang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. It has just been thrown, and it whips through the air in a rapid, whirling motion. End ID.]

And as we all know, it always comes back. This characteristic makes Sokka’s boomerang a returning boomerang, rather than a hunting boomerang. This is an important distinction to make, and it’s where the heart of this headcanon lays. Let me explain.

Accuracy: What’s the Difference Between Hunting and Throwing Boomerangs?

There are three types of boomerangs: the hunting boomerang, the returning boomerang, and the cross boomerang. We’re only going to be discussing hunting and throwing boomerangs, but feel free to learn about cross boomerangs and their construction--they’re really cool. As a general note: the following sources and information pertain to Aboriginal Australian cultures. Boomerangs were used elsewhere, but mainly as throwing sticks, not returning boomerangs.

So, hunting boomerangs, also known as throwing sticks or kylies, have this basic shape:

[ID: a black silhouette of a hunting boomerang. It is shaped like a skinny tear drop, with a slight curve along its form, and it widens asymmetrically at its ends. End ID.]

[ID: an overhead shot of three hunting boomerangs. They are carved from glossy, light-brown wood. End ID.]

Artist: Aboriginal Elder, Joe Skeen Snr. Buy here.

The hunting boomerang is straighter, larger, longer, and deadlier than the returning boomerang. “With it,” states the Britannica, “animals were maimed and killed, while in warfare it caused serious injuries and death.” This is due to its shape, which allows it to travel in a relatively straight line. With its capability for distance and force, the hunting boomerang is a very powerful tool.

According to Boomerang: Behind an Australian Icon by Philip Jones, a hunting boomerang can travel around 100 meters. If the boomerang is heavy enough, and the throw forceful enough, large prey, like kangaroos, can be killed. If you want to see a hunting boomerang in action, watch sections of this Youtube video. The range and accuracy of this tool are amazing.

The returning boomerang, which was used in eastern and western parts of Australia, is very different:

[ID: a black silhouette of a returning boomerang. It has two arms that widen towards the middle and connect, forming an angled shape, like a triangle with two sides. End ID.]

[ID: a painted returning boomerang. The base is formed from a smooth, light-colored wood. Designs are painted at the end of its wings, in the middle of its wings, and towards its center. At the center is a stylized turtle. End ID.]

Artist: unknown, but sold by Aboriginal-owned business Murra Wolka. Website here.

As you can see, the returning boomerang is shorter, smaller, and angled sharply. The shape of it allows it to trace an elliptical path, thus returning to the thrower. But this property is not without its drawbacks:

“A hunting boomerang needs to fly well and nearly straight to strike prey some 200 metres away. The trouble is that the best-flying boomerangs tend to return, rarely departing beyond fifty metres from the thrower. With the returning form ‘there is no certainty of hitting the mark. It may come back too quickly and may hit your own friends standing near you.’ While recognising that the best-flying boomerangs do return, Aborigines defined a technological problem. They needed to strike a compromise between flying ability and hunting requirements...” (Australian Museum).

Now, the returning boomerang could still be used to hunt, but not to kill or maim prey. Its application was craftier:

“When hunting ducks, for example, nets were set up at either ends of a creek or river. A boomerang was then thrown out over the ducks which gave them a scare so that they took off up the river and flew directly into the nets. From there they were collected. At other times during the hunting of birds the returning boomerang was thrown horizontally along the ground into a flock, and, as they took off the boomerang would follow them into the air. This may or may not kill the bird and a harder way to hunt” (murruppi.com).

Still, this wasn’t the main application of the returning boomerang. In actuality, it was used as a toy:

“The returning boomerang was not primarily designed for hunting as it is too light and wouldn't guarantee a kill. Rather, it was designed as a toy for young aboriginal boys. The toy would allow a youngster to practice throwing skills but still make it fun” (murrippi.com).

So, Sokka’s boomerang? A plaything.

Let’s Bring It Back to ATLA: What Does This Mean?

With the above information, Sokka’s use of his boomerang in canon becomes almost tragic. His boomerang was probably given to him by Hakoda when he was very young. He used it to learn how to throw; one day, when he was older, he would have carved his own throwing stick, and used it to hunt alongside his dad and the other adults of his tribe.

Instead, Sokka’s boomerang is another aspect of his childhood that was twisted by the war. His boomerang is--should have been--nothing more than a toy. He shouldn’t have had to use it to fend off Zuko, attack Azula, and defeat Combustion Man. Regardless, it did become a tool he used to help defeat the Fire Nation, and that’s pretty fitting when it comes to ATLA’s ideas of childhood and war: Sokka spent years acting as his tribe’s protector; Katara spent longer acting as a mother. Thus, his use of his boomerang throughout the show displays how Sokka was forced into a war-torn world at an incredibly, unfairly young age. As a result, he was forced to adapt in ways that took from him.

And we’ve all seen Sokka’s boomerang in action. Here’s a video of his greatest hits--literally. His accuracy is insane, and he catches his boomerang every time. He’s more than ready to have a hunting boomerang, yet we see him use his returning boomerang throughout the show, and long after he earns his ice dodging mark. Tbh? I think that Sokka didn’t want to carve a hunting boomerang without his dad guiding his hands.

So, you might be wondering, what happens post-war?

Eventually, I think Sokka retires his returning boomerang and carves his own hunting boomerang, but the shape of it is particular:

“Some scientists argue that a throwing-stick, commonly used by indigenous hunters around the world, is the precursor of the boomerang... Through trial-and-error the boomerang was refined to a point where the most desirable size, proportions and curvature were established. This refinement brought one serious problem: any improvement in flying resulted in a tendency to return. There is little doubt that indigenous hunters brought this experiment to its ultimate conclusion, by producing the perfect returning boomerang” (Australian Museum).

In short, making a good hunting boomerang is hard. Lots of trial and error, and still, hunting boomerangs come in a wide array of shapes. Thus, I headcanon that Sokka carves his hunting boomerang differently, as compared to the other members of his tribe--it’s more curved. This would show that although he's grown up and is in a post-war world, he's changed in some ways that can't be completely undone.

In other words, Sokka eventually moves on, but the way he throws and uses his boomerang is going to be a little different.

Conclusion

TL;DR: Sokka’s boomerang is a plaything, and this has sad implications. But also? He never should have had one in the first place. Firstly, boomerangs were traditionally made from green hardwood, which I don’t believe can be found in the South Pole. I on god can’t find any authentic sources for bone or metal boomerangs. To be more accurate and still keep with the trend of throwing weapons, I would’ve given Sokka a nuqaq and darts or a bola.

Also, as far as I can tell, Sokka’s boomerang is the only aspect of Aboriginal Australian culture Bryke used in ATLA (I can’t get a confirmation on Hakoda’s name). This is cherry-picking to the max, and it perpetuates the harmful ideas of pan-indigeneity wrt one large, singular culture.

So, if you enjoyed this, please consider supporting aboriginal artists and charities. You can buy aboriginal art from murrippi.com and Murra Wolka. This article here provides a list of charities as well as active GoFundMe’s for families affected by police brutality against Aboriginal Australians. Thank you.

Sources

“Hunting Boomerang - Extreme Range - The Aboriginal Karli” by Throwsticks Channel

“Boomerang Information“ by Murruppi, Djirrbal/Ngadjonji Tribe

“Boomerang” by the Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors for the Encyclopaedia Britannica

“It Comes Back ... What a Nuisance!“ by Stan Florek for Australian Museum

Boomerang: Behind an Australian Icon by Philip Jones from Wikipedia

Murra Wolka

Gonna tag @atlaculture because I think this is of your interest. <3

#atla #avatar the last airbender #sokka #atla meta #atla headcanons #atla hc #YES this is angsty shhhhhhh #am I doing meta right?

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therealvinelle · 3 years

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I know this is like taking a bat to the beehive but... I really wanna hear your opinions on the whole... Imprinting thing

(Note before we go any further: this meta is written purely about the shapeshifting aspect of the Quileute characters, I don’t at all get into the racism in Twilight or any kind of social commentary. This is a purely watsonian meta. Others in this fandom have already addressed the racial dynamics at play, far more eloquently and knowledgeably than me. If I say something in here that’s in any way offensive, that’s not my intention and I’m open to criticism.)

Ooh imprinting.

I touch upon it here, basically I hate it.

The imprinting is part of this theme where the shapeshifters lose their free will and autonomy, and I find it tragic, cruel, and unnecessary.

First of, the fact that they have to phase at all.

They’re made warriors to protect their tribe. There’s no choice involved, only genetics and magic irrevocably changing their lives, and at a ridiculously young age, too. Sam is the oldest of them, and he is 19.

Violence is an inherent part of what they become. Their purpose is to protect the tribe, by fighting vampires. Not only is this insanely dangerous (we see Jake get so injured by a single vampire that he’s bedridden for weeks), but if they succeed, they will have killed. In the singularly brutal manner of tearing apart and burning someone who looks a lot like a human, who talks and might beg for their life, at that. And I remind you, most of these shapeshifters are literal children. They might not see vampires as people, but all the same, killing one can’t be good for their mental wellbeing. (Thought: Perhaps an argument can be made for Laurent’s death having a part in the turn Jake’s personality took? Some, though not many, of the symptoms for PTSD do fit. I don’t know enough about PTSD to pursue this train of thought, but it occurred to me just now, in particular he becomes quite aggressive and prone to outbursts after that incident, so into a parenthesis it goes)

Not to mention how inhumane that responsibility is. Vampires in the Twilight-verse are terrifying, and the shapeshifters might have the power to fight them. But (and this is where I plug one of my all-time favorite animes, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, as it asks the question “Is it okay to sacrifice yourself for others?” because that’s... well there’s a parallel to be made to the shapeshifters. It’s on Netflix!) does that mean they should? Is it really their responsibility? Again- they’re kids!

Then there’s the time Sam lost control, and accidentally mauled the girl he loved. And it’s so cruel to both him and Emily. Sam never chose to have to control himself in the first place, he never chose shapeshifting. He didn’t choose to imprint on Emily either, and he didn’t choose to lose control that day. At no point in the series of events that led to Emily being mauled did Sam have any real choice, and yet he will shoulder the guilt for what happened for the rest of his life.

These kids get superpowers, and several of them seem to enjoy being shapeshifters, but the fact remains that they now carry this huge responsibility to protect their families and homes, doing so is incredibly dangerous, they lose out on their regular lives, and they can’t opt out of it.

This all sucks, but then we get to the fact that they are deprived of their free will, as their alpha can issue an order they physically can’t break. The alpha becomes alpha because of bloodlines, not because of a democratic election. Jake got a mockery of a choice in that he could choose to become alpha himself, or let Sam continue, which was really just choosing between a rock and a hard place. There is no limitation to what this order can be, from “don’t say X to person Y” to “let’s kill someone you love”. Jake has to struggle to break that last one, and he’s only successful because of the bloodline thing letting him become his own alpha.

Oh, and there’s the massive invasion of privacy when they have a hive mind. Cool concept, less cool to have it be reality. Leah is the poster child for how a hive mind can backfire, and they can’t opt out of this.

I’m not good at gifs, but the shapeshifters just make me think of that gif of someone flicking a lightswitch on and off, “WELCOME TO HELL!”. Of course, Twilight in general is a pit of despair for everybody, so I suppose that gif really is... well it sums up all of canon.

So, we have these kids aged 19 or younger, as of Breaking Dawn they skew as young as thirteen, their lives are turned upside down by something they can’t opt out of, they must shoulder this huge responsibility to protect their homes and families from the terrifying threat of vampires, and on top of all of that, they must obey orders that are so irresistible, they can compel them to harm someone they care for.

With all of that in mind, you’d think that the shapeshifters had enough on their plate. That through all of this they would at least retain their selves, and be able to look forward to a future where they could stop phasing, and go on to live normal, human, lives.

Yeah, NOT IF THEY IMPRINT.

I’ll just quote Jake’s description:

Everything inside me came undone as I stared at the tiny porcelain face of the halfvampire, half-human baby. All the lines that held me to my life were sliced apart in swift cuts, like clipping the strings to a bunch of balloons. Everything that made me who I was—my love for the dead girl upstairs, my love for my father, my loyalty to my new pack, the love for my other brothers, my hatred for my enemies, my home, my name, my self—disconnected from me in that second—snip, snip, snip—and floated up into space.

I was not left drifting. A new string held me where I was.

Not one string, but a million. Not strings, but steel cables. A million steel cables all tying me to one thing—to the very center of the universe.

I could see that now—how the universe swirled around this one point. I’d never seen the symmetry of the universe before, but now it was plain.

The gravity of the earth no longer tied me to the place where I stood. (Breaking Dawn, page 237)

Everything that made me who I was disconnected from me.

Jake’s love for his father, his home, his very own self, it’s all gone now. And while I have thoughts on the authenticity of this imprint, whether it was organic, the description above is apparently how imprinting feels. It’s along the lines of what Sam, Jared, and Paul all describe.

I don’t think I can put into words just how devastating I find imprinting, I think the above quotation speaks for itself. And as with all other shapeshifter things, there is no choice involved.

We see its devastating effects in the Emily, Sam, and Leah debacle. Sam and Leah were serious together, so much so that they were engaged. Sam had fallen for and chosen to be with Leah. Perhaps they would have broken up eventually, but Leah was still the choice he made. Then he imprints on Emily, and all that is for naught. He had to break up with Leah, who if she hadn’t phased never would have learned why, Emily and Leah’s relationship is ruined, and Emily must forever live with the knowledge that if Sam had his free will intact he would be with another woman.

Then there’s Jared and Kim. Kim crushed on Jared, but Jared never noticed her. The fact that they were in the same class is damning: if a boy is attracted to a girl, he's gonna notice her. Jared never did.

Quil imprints on Claire, who is a toddler. That’s just a recipe for misery and disaster all around.

And I’ve only touched the shapeshifter side of things. They lose their autonomy and freedom, but the imprintées draw the short straw too. They’re now responsible for this other person’s happiness. Sure, having someone who’ll be whatever you need them to be sounds nice (well, it sounds horrifying, but I’m playing ball) on paper, but you can’t opt out of them being like that. The imprintée can’t say “Sorry, not interested,” and she certainly can’t shut the imprinter out of her life, not without irrevocably ruining the imprinter’s life. The imprinter needs her. She’s the center of his earth now, but she didn’t choose to be.

Imprinting is a liferuiner for everyone involved.

Then we have the question of what imprinting is even for. I’m afraid I agree with Billy, that it’s for procreation. We see Sam, who was dating a woman about to phase (even if Leah isn’t infertile, she’s a warrior now. She can’t run in the woods and fight vampires, and gestate and nurse a child at the same time) conveniently imprint on her cousin, who as cousin to Leah is from a shifter bloodline. Claire, as Emily’s cousin, has those same genetics. Paul imprints on a woman from the Black family line. Jake is the outlier, but either Renesmée’s gift helped that imprinting along, or he imprinted because of the offspring they could potentially have (I firmly believe it’s the former because the latter... NOPE. Also, I can’t imagine whatever magic drives imprinting would want vampiric progeny for the future generations. Regardless of Renesmée’s person, her biology is wired to desire human blood. That’s exactly what Jake is supposed to protect people from. Bad match.).

I just.... ughhh. God, I hate imprinting so much, and on every level.

To me, everything about the shapeshifters is about free will, autonomy, and the loss thereof. And it would have been beautiful if their story was about reclaiming that, but it isn’t. None of this, with the exception of the alpha orders, is even acknowledged.

So, in summation, yes I hate imprinting, but it’s only the horror cherry on top of a very sad and problematic cake.

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