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variousqueerthings · 8 months

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okay I watched good omens s2 yesterday with my partner, and I was genuinely very surprised -- I think if you've grown up through superwholock/merlin/the 100/teen wolf type shows where (with the exception periodically of doctor who) you kind of had to make up the good show that something could have been in your head, that colours a lot of your viewing, and to be honest I thought season 1 of good omens was a fine little piece, honoured the book while modernising it somewhat, it was a nice, fun, low stakes time, with a couple of things I might have wanted a tad different but nothing overall awful.

so I was seeing all this meta and gifsets and discussion, while I was waiting to give s2 a watch with my partner and thought "ah, people have made up the good show in their heads again" not that I assumed s2 was going to be a bad show, but that people were taking extra deep plunges into possibilities, the way fandom does, and that was fine. I knew there was a big ol kiss, I had a sense of some kind of argument at the end, and that it was setting up a s3

I also knew that mainstream reviews were calling it (politely) self-indulgent and dependent on whether or not you enjoy david tennant and michael sheen having a good time for just under 6 hours

all in all, expectations of a somewhat mainstream show without too much to think about, a nice, fun low stakes time, moving on...

(EDIT: AND THEN I WROTE A LOT OF WORDS SO YOU CAN IMAGINE THAT MY REACTION WAS QUITE DIFFERENT)

as it turns out it seems these things that were being written on tumblr were discussing the actual text of the show and not things you could extrapolate if you squinted and tilted your head a little to the left as I'm so used to doing, so in fact there is much to think about!

and my first thought was "this is like when you read early discworld books that ask a question like a joke, only to find that over time the answer to that question becomes very serious (and also can be funny at times of course)." how terry pratchett would pick and pick at tropes and notions and social ideas and go "oh now hold on, this seems strange..." starting way back when he thought it was odd that women warriors always seemed to be dressed in metal bikinis and then realising he hadn't done a good enough job of subverting the trope, simply by depicting it and calling it a bit silly

why do goblins always get treated as the villains? what's with this divine succession of kings business? where are the female dwarfs? who do we treat as disposable?

good omens season one went: "haha what if heaven and hell were intensely incapable, bureaucratic, corrupt, and uncaring of the work they did, and we took an angel and a demon and had them actually care? wouldn't that be... a bit silly?" (and it was)

good omens season two went: "what are the consequences for caring when the people who have power over you are incapable, bureaucratic, corrupt, and uncaring? what are the forces that supersede systems built on fear, ignorance, and violent conformity? can people change and break out of/challenge/break down these structures by caring?"

and this was set up with a neat little sleight of hand (to reference aziraphale's switch-and-bait in the episode with the nazi zombies), because the majority of season 2 does feel a bit indulgent: hey, remember those two wacky angel-and-demon characters? watch some more wacky things they did through the ages, watch them take a sojourn through 1827 Edinburgh and do a magic show during the Blitz, and... stop the death of Job's and Sitis' children (actually maybe that whole segment ought to have been what they call "A Clue")

see them try to figure out a kooky mystery, all the while setting up a cute little same-gender romance on their street. watch as everything points towards a happy ending that's all about the two of them realising what they've been to one another all these thousands and thousands (and thousands and thousands) of years- but hold on. lest we forget - and the show has made this point over and over - there are powerful people who control them, who hurt them, and who plan on hurting others, throughout the whole season, and as it turns out they know what they've been to one another for far far longer, and know how to pull their strings...

season 2 then, has to show us these things, not because they're indulgent (well, maybe occasionally, but the apology dance is still important), but because in order to make the ending a tragedy, we first need to understand, properly, the impact that they have had on each other. we need to understand that Aziraphale relied heavily on Crowley to be his moral compass and leaned on black-and-white thinking in order to deal with things, because if it's all grey then where does he fit and what has it all meant and heaven has to be the good guys, even as Job's and Sitis' children are ordered to be killed, it's all he ever had...

and Crowley was always an anchor, needed to trust that Aziraphale was different, needed to bend to every whim that Aziraphale has, because otherwise what's his worth in all this? After having been already deemed worthless by the heaven that Aziraphale needs to believe in?

and that, simplistically described, is the narrative that we're seeing in s2, and alongside that the ways that the changes they have upon each other are noticed, and monitored, and placed under suspicion, and finally... broken up, not by the clumsy, brute force that's been attempted over and over again, but by a promise to return into a violent, controlling system and to "make it better from within"

and all of this is wrapped up in two queer relationships + a third queered-within-the-text relationship that creates the inverse of how it ends for Aziraphale and Crowley (so far). queer love -- whatever shape that has -- is explicitly the shape of non-conformity within this narrative, including within the symbolism of angel-and-demon love of Gabriel and Beelzebub, which in the context of the systems created is considered queer (and one can argue till the cats come home about casting cis actors, about angel-and-demon notions of gender/romance/sexuality, but the "queerness" comes from building something non-conforming to the systems they exist in), and enforced by the explicitly our-world-definition-of queer romance that Nina and Maggie have going on (which, while less high stakes, still contains the background controlling relationship that Nina initially is in)

all of this to say, that I disagree that s2 meanders, or that plotlines happen for the sake of showcasing Aziraphale and Crowley without purpose, or that characters get sidelined (I'd say it sets up a whole host of interesting characters to further get into actually), or that it's strictly mainstream easy-access narrative that's just an excuse for the main creators and actors to get back together.

the love is the point, and this show takes its time to show the love (and the unequal boundary-setting, and the fact that one of them has an undiscussed tragic backstory, and the desperation to belong again, and the fear instilled by oppressive systems, and and and), so that we understand why those last 15 minutes happen the way that they do

it's sleight of hand, and like all good magic, you don't notice until it's happened

#good omens #go2 #good omens season 2 #neil gaiman #david tennant #michael sheen

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thesmollestsnek · 11 months

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Death echoes

So a while ago, i found this dp x dc post that had a really interesting lore headcanon for Danny’s ghostly wail. Idk if I’ll be able to find it again, I’ll link it here if I do, but essentially it posited that every ghost has something called a “death echo”, which is an ability unique to them based heavily on their deaths. These echoes are the most powerful move in a ghost’s moveset, but they’re also extremely volatile and draining, typically damaging the ghost in some way when used, with Danny’s being his Wail because he died screaming. The original post then went on to some really cool halfa!Jason ideas based on these death echoes, but for this lil snippet with an extremely long intro I’d like to focus on Danny a bit more.

Edit: Apparently I may have extrapolated a lot of the actual lore behind these death echos myself? The inspiration post was a lot longer in my memories. Or I might've mushed multiple posts into one mental box and then forgot lol. So a lot of the actual detail from this point on is seemingly mostly original material? I think? Idk man, sometimes my brain spits out information without giving me any clues as to where it got that information. Anyway, this post got kinda long and since I'm... decently sure this is where I shifted from summarizing @ailithnight's post to writing all my own thoughts I figured here would be a good place to throw the cut lol.

So! with all of the context-for-the-context out of the way, let’s move on to the actual context for what I’m writing cause I can’t be bothered with writing an intro XD

Essentially, this is an au where Danny is an established member of the Justice League, or maybe one of the teen hero teams? I’m a slut for eternal teenager Danny, but maybe he’s enough of a powerhouse to be on the main team despite him both looking and acting like the dumbass fourteen year old he died as. Either way, he’s on a League/League-sanctioned mission and things go bad. Like, everyone-almost-dies bad. And so as a final desperation attack, Danny uses his Wail, a power he’s never told anyone on the league he even has. And it works, and they make it out, but after the fact everyone has. Questions. And because in this au death echoes are deeply personal, Danny dodges those questions, but the league coughbatmancough isn’t satisfied with that. So they push for answers. Answers Danny’s not willing to give, because. In my mind death echoes aren’t just based on how a person died, but also their experience of that death. What their last thoughts were. When Danny died the only thing that he could process beyond just an all-encompassing painpainpainpainpain was the sound of someone screaming. His screaming. And so his death echo is the sound of a fourteen year old child screaming in deathly pain and terror weaponized, which definitely gave the league Even More Questions than they would’ve had already. Which finally brings us to the actual snippet, which is a conversation between John Constantine, who was brought in for his experience with the supernatural once it became clear Danny wasn’t going to talk, and Danny himself.

~~~~~~~

“So, kid. Batsy tells me you’ve been hiding some of your abilities, wanna tell me what's up with that? Call it an occultist's intuition, but somethin’ tells me you’re not just being stubborn for the hell of it.”

“It’s... complicated. And not anyone’s business, either!”

“Kid...”

“Why does it even matter?! It’s not something I want to or am even able to do on a regular basis! I saved the mission, can’t they just accept that and move on???”

Sighing, Constantine reached up to start massaging his brow. “Kid, you and I both know that ain’t gonna be enough. Now I know that some things are better left alone, but the rest of these idiots? They can’t accept that, Batsy especially. That man’s never left bloody well enough alone in his life”

He looked up just in time to see the otherworldly teen shrink into himself, looking every bit the child he was. “I know but... why? Why do they need to keep asking questions? And why do they only ask the ones that hurt to answer?”

A sharp glance. “The fuck kinda questions are they asking? Batman was speaking in more grunt than word, so I didn’t really catch all the details of what this power you’re supposedly hiding even is.”

Phantom shrinks even more into himself at that, and responds in a voice so small it’s more sigh than speech. “I... I can scream. And it breaks things and pushes people back. But it, it sounds. Bad. And it brings up bad memories and I don’t like to do it or listentoitoreventhinkaboutitandtheywon’tletmeforgetand-”

“Breathe kid. I know you don’t need to but just take a deep breath with me. Don’t you go getting lost in your own head on me now., Constantine reassured the kid automatically, the sheer hopelessness prompting action long before the words themselves could be understood. Then the rest of him caught up, and he had to pause. Looked up at the kid, saw just how distressed he was. A picture was starting to form in the back of his head, and Constantine didn’t like what he saw one bit. A last-resort power that the normally open Phantom was strangely reticent about. A scream so horrible sounding the rest of the league would not to stop asking questions about it. Terrible memories to match said scream. And one truly miserable child who couldn’t bear to even think about any of it.

“Phantom... is that your Echo? Screaming?”

A miserable nod is his only response, the tears that had been welling up in the kid’s eyes finally starting to fall. Cursing softly to himself, Constantine stood to leave, bracing himself for the Bat’s inevitable questioning. “Well then you just take all the time you need love, and leave the rest to me. I’ll make sure the rest of those idiots know not to ask you about this ever again.” And with that Constantine turned and strode towards the door, leaving the quietly sobbing child to collect himself in privacy.

~~~~~

I had a whole-ass lore dump conversation between Constantine and Batman planned here, explaining how death echoes are deeply personal, and asking about one is a taboo on par with, potentially even worse than, asking a ghost about their death outright. Because they are formed from an amalgamation of how a ghost died, their last thoughts, and their final emotions, in some ways asking a ghost about their Echo is like asking them to describe their death in painstaking detail. But uhhh... inspiration bug left. So yea. Side note, I’d like to apologize if my depiction of Constantine’s accent was Bad, I’m but a lowly USAmerican whose only exposure to British accents is through tv ^-^’

#did some minor edits to fix typos and make things flow better when i went back in to add the hyperlink #that being said dont expect too much i wrote this in a bit of an inspiration frenzy lol #and barely edited it after the fact #the snek rambles #the snek writes #snippit #dp x dc #danny phantom #john constantine #idk wtf else to tag this #dc x dp #dpxdc #dcxdp #crossover

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lenaellsi · 8 months

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i've mentioned this before and it's a Hot Take maybe but. i don't think it's fair at all to characterize crowley's "you and me, what do you say?" speech from s2 as being equivalent to "fuck the earth run away with me to the stars right now" a la season 1

i guess i can see why it might come off that way, with gabriel and beelzebub having just left and crowley drawing the comparison to them, but a lot of people have sort of extrapolated from that this dichotomy where suddenly aziraphale is the one who cares about saving the world and crowley only cares about himself and aziraphale. and while i think crowley certainly prioritizes their mutual safety and is more likely to get spooked when faced with threats from heaven (i wonder why) crowley also loves earth?? he talks about it all the time.

the last time there was an apocalypse, crowley was the one who proposed saving the world, and he had to talk aziraphale into it. and like...he was planning breakfast at the ritz, wasn't he? he didn't want to leave. obviously "you can't leave this bookshop" meant "you can't leave me," but it also LITTLE bit meant the bookshop, and earth.

the circumstances of s1 were very different than the end of s2. crowley only wanted to run in s1 when 1) the end was about 4 hours away, 2) from his POV he and aziraphale had no idea where the antichrist was, so they wouldn't be able to stop anything even if they did stay to die with the humans, 3) aziraphale was about to Talk To Heaven the same way crowley tried to before the Fall, 4) demons were actively pursuing him for purposes of torture and annihilation. and in the end, he STILL stayed.

idk. if we're going to give aziraphale the benefit of the doubt for the Many Things he said in that convo, then i think we can afford to give crowley the benefit of the doubt that "we need to get away from them" and "go off together" might mean something more along the lines of "please don't go back to heaven, stay with me, it can be the two of us against them all." THAT was what crowley's emotional arc this season was leading to, with the flashbacks and his big revelation in ep 5, the same way aziraphale's was leading to leaving. every single one of the flashbacks had crowley choosing to help someone else at great personal risk--why would that lead to the conclusion that he actually wants to leave without trying to help? (of course, he did want to abandon gabriel. but I don't think that was even a little bit irrational after aziraphale's failed execution. walking away from the heavenly host who has done nothing but hurt both of them is not the same as walking away from earth. it's still a problem--ignoring heaven and hell will not, ultimately, fix anything--but again, it's not the same as abandoning humanity on a whim.)

TL;DR I don't think it's a fair reading to say that crowley's proposed solution to The Heaven And Hell Problem is "fuck humanity, let's give up." i think he was proposing working together against heaven and hell with the option of an exit strategy if everything went wrong, which is what he ALWAYS tries to do. (see: arrangement + holy water.) his need for an escape route and his tendency to prepare for the worst is something that is definitely hindering him in, for example, his relationship with aziraphale, but it also makes sense. because, you know. the last time he tried doing anything about heaven he got his wings lit on fire. so.

#good omens #good omens season 2 #gos2 spoilers #crowley #good omens meta #call me a crowley stan but it's not fair to him to say that he doesn't care about anything but himself and aziraphale. he cares so much.#he didn't have to help job's kids. he didn't have to help elspeth. but he did #even though hell punished him for it when he got caught in edinburgh #he went back up and continued to do things his own way #but he also asked aziraphale for insurance. that's how crowley operates #push and push and push until you cross the line #and then run like hell to try to get out of the fire

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marie-mcd · 2 months

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There's a specific concept from Good Omens that I really like (amongst many others), that I was chuffed to also find in a Sandman and a Discworld story!

I love that in Good Omens (both book and TV), Heaven and Hell are presented as mostly redundant and ineffectual when it comes to human morality - and that Hell in particular find some of the things humans do to be pretty shocking, and/or instructive.

Opportunities for humour aside, this idea flies in the face of the common belief that the world's worst ills are the result of outside forces influencing people to do evil (ie the devil. Or ... lizard people etc? I digress). And it's unlike other stories out there that are like, "World War II was actually caused by xyz characters!" or similar. Good Omens doesn't rewrite history like that, or let us - humanity - off the hook when it comes to the big stuff, when it could so easily have done so in a universe where Heaven and Hell are literally real.

The story, of course, also credits human cleverness to humans, and celebrates the things we should be proud of, like art, music, delicious food, craftmanship, invention, etc. And it credits humans for having a propensity for compassion and goodness.

"[Crowley] did his best to make their short lives miserable, because that was his job, but nothing he could think up was half as bad as the stuff they thought up themselves. […] And just when you'd think they were more malignant than ever Hell could be, they could occasionally show more grace than Heaven ever dreamed of. Often the same individual was involved."

I love this concept because I see it as an uncoupling of religion and morality. They can both exist together, but the former isn't necessary for the latter. (This isn't the only possible interpretation; the more literal reading might be more about free will, but this is where I extrapolated it to).

From Sandman: Season of Mists Episode 2 (plot context stripped out to avoid spoilers, but skip ahead to black text if you want absolutely nothing spoiled if you want to read it).

Lucifer: "And the mortals! I ask you - why? […] Why do they blame me for all their little failings? They use my name as if I spend my entire day sitting on their shoulders, forcing them to commit acts they would otherwise find repulsive. 'The devil made me do it.' I have never made one of them do anything. Never. They live their own tiny lives. I do not live their lives for them."

And from Eric, a Discworld book (this one's related to Hell learning from humans, more than morality/free will... I won't spoil the funny by elaborating!):

"Earl Beezlemoth rubbed one of his three noses.

'And humans somewhere thought this up all by themselves?' he said. 'We didn't give them any, you know, hints?' […]

The earl stared into infinity. 'I thought we were supposed to be the ghastly ones,' he said, his voice filled with awe."

Another commonality between these two stories that isn't directly shared by Good Omens (yet...? still have another season coming …) but that I like enough to point out, is the idea that Hell is a place where people end up if they believe they deserve to go there. I like this because a lot of people are influenced to feel guilty about "sins" that are innocuous parts of normal human behaviour, so it's pretty brutal to fear going to Hell over them. There's comfort in this idea, to me. (granted, the following Sandman quote states this less explicitly but I take the same meaning from it … but lmk if I've done a reading incomprehension; I also haven't read all the books yet).

From Sandman:

Lucifer: "And then [the mortals] die, and they come here (having transgressed against what they believed to be right), and expect us to fulfill their desire for pain and retribution. I don't make them come here."

From Eric (partial footnote near the beginning):

"Interestingly enough, the gods of the Disc have never bothered much about judging the souls of the dead, and so people only go to hell if that's where they believe, in their deepest heart, that they deserve to go."

Eric also really leans into the idea of Hell being a bureaucratic, corporate, boring nightmare, also familiar to Good Omens fans, and the demons are so over it. The tone (you could probably guess) is very different from Sandman, and it's one of the earlier, less-serious Discworld books; it's a very fun, absurd ride of a read!

There are a few other Discworld books I'll talk about in a future post, that may also be of interest to certain Good Omens fans (I'm gearing these posts toward the fans who came to Good Omens from the TV show and haven't had the pleasure of discovering Neil's and Terry's other work yet); the ones I have in mind examine religious extremism, and the uncoupling of religion and morality too. A couple of them also have queer themes, if that is also your jam! (Less shipping opportunities but I assume some fans, like me, like the rest of the material in GO in addition to the love story).

I'll end this with a quote from a footnote from Eric that has nothing to do with anything in this post, but which took me by surprise and had me laughing days later whenever it came to mind. It's referring to books in a section of the library:

"Just erotic. Nothing kinky. It's the difference between using a feather and using a chicken."

And another bonus one that I found while looking for the first:

"Rincewind had been told that death was just like going into another room. The difference is, when you shout, 'Where's my clean socks?', no one answers."

I hope this made sense and is maybe interesting to someone ... I had fun talking about this at least!

#good omens #good omens meta #good omens 2 #sandman #discworld #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #gnu terry pratchett #crowley #eric #eric faust #rincewind #p

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hollowed-theory-hall · 21 days

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what's the one harry potter pairing u like that u mentioned in the tags of your hinny post?

Anonymous: Can I ask who that minor character you ship with Harry is? For some absurd reason my mind jumped to Stan Shunpike lol but it's probably not him.... Or is it?

Okay, so this is kind of a funny story. Like, my pipeline through hp pairings was a weird one. Like, I used to read a lot of Harry pairings, still do on occasion (some make more sense than others). None of them were ones I would point at and say: "that should've happened in the books"

One day, I was innocently writing a fic (canon divergence of GoF), and it was just for me, for funnsies, never posted it anywhere and not planning to. And I planned to pair Harry with someone there (honestly, I don't remember who because I didn't write the plan down) but when writing, Harry ended up with a different character. And it was so strange to me because that never happened.

Like, how do you write a ship accidentally?

But I did. I wrote Harry into a ship by accident. So I went back to the books to try and figure out why the hell would my subconscious decide that's the way to go.

I'll also preface it by all this being my subjective opinion and I do read other Harry ships in fics, this one just quickly became my favorite to write (and the only one I write). Also, I don't actually think this is a pairing that should've happened in the books, it's place is in fic and that's where I like it.

So, the character I accidentally shipped with Harry is... *drumroll*

Stan Shunpike!

Not really, it's:

Theodore Nott

Now, you might look at the name and go: "Who the fuck is that?"

And you'll be correct. Theo has 0 speaking lines in the entire book series. His name appears twice. He, himself, as a person, only appeared on page, like, 3 times in the background. The scene that gives the most information about him is other characters talking about him. He isn't even present.

That being said, I'm very good at extrapolating a lot of information from very little evidence. So allow me, to walk you through who is Theodore Nott and why I ship him with Harry.

Basic Information

So, let's start with the most basic overview before I pull out the quotes and go any deeper.

We know Theo is a Slytherin student in Harry's year. So he likely shares a dorm with Draco, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle.

Theo's father is both at the graveyard at the end of GoF and in the Department of Mysteries at the end of OotP, so we know he is a Death Eater. We also know Thoe's father was one of the first and closest Death Eaters to Voldemort, who waited for him during his interview with Dumbledore in 1967:

“Then if I were to go to the Hog’s Head tonight, I would not find a group of them — Nott, Rosier, Mulciber, Dolohov — awaiting your return? Devoted friends indeed...”

(HBP, page 444)

We also know the Nott family is "as pure-blooded as the Malfoys" according to JKR in an interview. We also know Theo's great-grandfather (maybe? the family relation isn't clear), Cantankerus Nott, is suspected to be the one who wrote the Pure-Blood Dictionary, the book that coined the term "Sacred 28" and made that list (which the Nott family are on).

The name Nott is potentially to be derived from the name Nótt, which is the personification of the night in Norse Mythology. So it has been theorized the Nott family have a Nordic origin. Possible, but it doesn't really matter for this post.

What does, is that he comes from a dark, Death Eater, blood-purist family similar to the Malfoys. Even so, Theo never took the Dark Mark and never joined Voldemort in the books.

Now, that we have the basic information out of the way, let's look at Theodore as a person.

All the details I could gather from the books

Alright, now we get to the fun part. That is, me going through all the relevant scenes that mention Theodore Nott and actually creating a character psychoanalysis out of basically nothing.

So, the quotes aren't organized in a particular order. I'm just going to explain Theo and then explain why all this makes me ship him with Harry.

“Well, I pity Slughorn’s taste. Maybe he’s going a bit senile. Shame, my father always said he was a good wizard in his day. My father used to be a bit of a favorite of his. Slughorn probably hasn’t heard I’m on the train, or —” “I wouldn’t bank on an invitation,” said Zabini. “He asked me about Nott’s father when I first arrived. They used to be old friends, apparently, but when he heard he’d been caught at the Ministry he didn’t look happy, and Nott didn’t get an invitation, did he? I don’t think Slughorn’s interested in Death Eaters.” Malfoy looked angry, but forced out a singularly humorless laugh.

(HBP, page 150)

This is a part of the conversation between Draco, Pansy, and Blaise, Harry overhears when he is hiding in their compartment at the beginning of HBP. I have a few things to note regarding this scene.

Firstly, throughout this conversation, Pansy, Blaise, and Draco all call each other by their first name. This shows closeness, they are all friendly and familiar enough to use their first names with each other. Theo, though, is referred to as "Nott" by all three in the compartment.

He doesn't actually sit in their compartment which is in itself a sign about how he isn't really friendly with Draco's group. Considering the group is most of his year from his house, Theo is likely very lonely, and it will be apparent from other scenes I bring up later.

Secondly, Theo's father is in Azkaban. We know Draco is bothered about his own father's predicament. He mentions it to Harry and bothers him over it, Theo doesn't though. Theo doesn't seem to be bothered by Harry or his father's incarceration.

The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the relationship between Theo and his father is not a good one.

(I know some fics like to have Lucius be abusive towards Draco, for some reason. But the books really don't back this up. Lucius loves Draco and Draco adores his father)

Theo, though, Theo seems to be the one with a very strained relationship with his father. Strained enough that he isn't bothered the man is in Azkaban. What I'm saying is that Theo's father likely abuses or mistreats him in some capacity.

If anything more was needed to complete Harry’s happiness, it was Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle’s reactions. He saw them with their heads together later that afternoon in the library, together with a weedy-looking boy Hermione whispered was called Theodore Nott. They looked around at Harry as he browsed the shelves for the book he needed on Partial Vanishment, and Goyle cracked his knuckles threateningly and Malfoy whispered something undoubtedly malevolent to Crabbe. Harry knew perfectly well why they were acting like this: He had named all of their fathers as Death Eaters

(OotP, page 583)

This is a scene at the end of OotP after Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Theo's fathers were caught at the ministry and sent to Azkaban because they are Death Eaters. There are a few important notes about this scene.

The first, Hermione knows Theo, while Harry and Ron don't really. This means she likely knows him from the classes she takes and Harry and Ron don't — Arithmancy and/or Ancient Runes.

The second, he is sitting with other Death Eater children, but I don't think it's by choice. I mentioned in the previous quote how he isn't close to Draco and his crew. He sits with them here mostly because he doesn't have another choice. Theo doesn't seem to really have any friends, so he sits with the closest people he has to friends — kids he has known since he was young because their fathers were in the same circle.

The other note about this is that Crabbe, Goyle, and Draco are all mentioned as being threatening and malicious towards Harry because they don't like that their fathers are in Azkaban. Theo, though, Theo doesn't threaten Harry, he isn't part of their whisperings. As I mentioned above, he's likely happy his father is in Azkaban.

A pair of blank, white, shining eyes were growing larger through the gloom and a moment later the dragonish face, neck, and then skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness. It looked around at the class for a few seconds, swishing its long black tail, then bowed its head and began to tear flesh from the dead cow with its pointed fangs. A great wave of relief broke over Harry. Here at last was proof that he had not imagined these creatures, that they were real: Hagrid knew about them too. He looked eagerly at Ron, but Ron was still staring around into the trees and after a few seconds he whispered, “Why doesn’t Hagrid call again?” Most of the rest of the class were wearing expressions as confused and nervously expectant as Ron’s and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse standing feet from them. There were only two other people who seemed to be able to see them: a stringy Slytherin boy standing just behind Goyle was watching the horse eating with an expression of great distaste on his face, and Neville, whose eyes were following the swishing progress of the long black tail.

(OotP, page 445)

“The only people who can see thestrals,” she said, “are people who have seen death.”

(OotP, page 446)

The stringy Slytherin boy mentioned here is Theo. This scene proves that:

He takes Care of Magical Creatures

He saw someone die

Let's explore the second one for a moment. The fact Theo can see Thestrals means he watched someone die and was old enough to comprehend what he was seeing. We also know Theo's mother is dead. So it's likely the person he watched die was his mother.

I also want to draw attention to Theo's distaste towards Thestrals. He could likely see them carrying the carriages every year since 2nd year, it's not his first time seeing them. But it doesn't stop his displeasure with their sight from showing. Which says something about him. It means he likely recalls his mother and her death whenever he looks at the Thestrals. and these are memories Theo rather not experience.

We don't know how his mother died, but I'd hazard a guess it wasn't natural. After all, wizards have long life spans, they are more durable to illness and injury, and don't usually die from accidents unless very extreme or magical. And there was no epidemic of dragonpox (a disease that does tend to kill wizards) in the time since 1980 and the books. So, she was more likely killed at some point between 1985(ish) and 1991.

“No, I don’t think so, sir. I’m Muggle-born, you see.” Harry saw Malfoy lean close to Nott and whisper something; both of them sniggered, but Slughorn showed no dismay; on the contrary, he beamed and looked from Hermione to Harry, who was sitting next to her.

(HBP, pages 185-186)

First, Theo is an O student in potions since he is in the potions NEWT class, and was probably meant to be there even if Snape was the teacher.

Second, again, Theo doesn't really have friends. He sits next to Draco as the only other Slytherin in the class. Also, they share the circumstances of being sons of Death Eaters currently in Azkaban. Although both of them seem to deal with it quite differently.

Third, Theo joins Draco in making fun of Hermione's blood status, but he does not initiate it. Considering the environment he was raised in and is in, it makes sense he would make fun of it. Whether he's a blood-purist or not, he would want to keep his image considering he doesn't have many allies. Hanging out with Draco is survival, not friendship. They aren't even on a first-name basis with each other.

“Amortentia doesn’t really create love, of course. It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love. No, this will simply cause a powerful infatuation or obsession. It is probably the most dangerous and powerful potion in this room — oh yes,” he said, nodding gravely at Malfoy and Nott, both of whom were smirking skeptically. “When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love. . . .

(HBP, page 186)

The final quote I have about Theo is from the same potions class as above. Both he and Draco are portrayed here as underestimating amortentia and its potential damage. It makes sense for their upbringing in the Wizarding World, which has no real laws or regulations regarding love potions that are seen as harmless fun more often than not.

I'll add Theo likely didn't witness a healthy romantic relationship. Considering his father is a Death Eater who is likely abusive and may or may not have killed his mother. With this as his reference to a marriage, it's clear why he'd look down on love and love potions.

Why I think Theo and Harry have potential

Okay, so now that we know who Theodore Nott is, let's talk about why I ship him with Harry.

I think Harry, in general, would get along best with a clever partner with the ability to be ruthless (Slytherins or Ron fall into this category). Because Harry isn't some golden savior; he casts unforgivables, and is very willing to poison Umbridge or Crocio Snape if he could get away with it. He needs a partner that won't be horrified by these thoughts.

Also, Theo literally never speaks on page. Even when spoken to, his reactions are silent. I think this quiet and no need to talk, the ability to be comfortable in silence, is something that would be comfortable for Harry. Harry in the books finds himself annoyed with Ron and Hermione's constant banter on occasion, so I think it fits well.

Theo would also be comfortable around Harry without a need to play a certain part. Because Harry wouldn't care about that. He would honestly rather Theo forgo the pure-blood Slytherin act.

I feel like Harry and Theo, have a good potential to understand each other. Theo lost his mother and likely experiences abuse from his father. It makes them very likely to trauma bond over their crap life and shared experience. Two out of three only ones who could see the Thestrals in the entire class.

The other thing I feel they could connect over is being lonely. Harry spent all his childhood until Hogwarts basically being on his own. Theo stayed on his own. Draco at least has his parents, he has other students he's closer to, not that he shares everything with them, but he has some support network. Theo has none. And this is something Harry knows well.

Theo, I think, wouldn't expect anything specific from Harry. He doesn't even interact with him, not to mock him, and not to idolize him, he doesn't care at all. And we know how much Harry appreciates being thought of as Harry and not as the Boy-Who-Lived. Theo would allow Harry to be himself without some mold he wants him to fit in.

The fact Theo never becomes a Death Eater, even though he was in Draco's year and his father was a Death Eater before Lucius (and in better standing than Lucius with Voldemort) is so interesting. It's somewhat surprising Theo wasn't marked. It means he didn't want to be. It means that Theo Nott didn't want to torture and kill muggleborns or blood traitors, or anyone really. And he didn't want to swear his allegiance to Voldemort. This is just a fascinating fact to me and something I enjoy considering. What life experience made him come to that conclusion? Was it just his dislike of his father that pushed him away? Could he have been another Sirius Black (Gryffindor in a Slytherin family) under slightly different circumstances? I mean, Voldemort likely wouldn't force him to become a Death Eater, but would his father? I don't know what at all went down there, but I like that potential story.

We also know he wasn't part of Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad, even though some minor Slytherins were mentioned to be part of it. He just seems to be an actually decent guy (I don't care what Cursed Child says about him, I know he's there but I avoided almost anything to do with Cursed Child so I barely know the plot).

Finally, this is a character Harry doesn't have as much drama to get over with. Yes, sometimes I want to read overcoming drama between characters before it becomes a romance, but sometimes I want something chiller than that. And Theo is a really chill, safe, Slytherin option for Harry.

#harry potter #harry potter thoughts #hollowedtheory #hollowedheadcanon #hp #hp thoughts #harry james potter #asks #anon asks #anonymous #theodore nott #theo nott #nottpott

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leconcombrerit · 2 months

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Phee is lying

I mentioned a theory of mine a few times (or is it hopeful thinking ?) and I decided I could share the big outline. I don't feel very legitimate making this post given that I'm one episode and a half behind, but then again I'm pretty sure I'd earn my clown costume either way.

Phee and Non's relationship : a carefully rushed framing

The cute montage at the beginning of episode 6 never sat well with me. DFF knows how to take its time ; how to develop characters, hint at dynamics without having to spell it out. And suddenly one of the most important relationships in the series is summed up in a five minutes montage ? Are you kidding me ? After that we get one scene (the bracelet one by the river) before their relationship starts to crumble upon the weight pressuring Non.

In other words, we get nothing. Most of my attachment for this couple stemmed from a) boundless joy at finally seeing someone, anyone on Non's side and b) Ta and Barcode eating ever single one of their scenes. Aside from this cute beginning, it's just Phee trying to help Non and Non not being mentally nor emotionally available for anything.

They could have done better. They could have shown us more. But they didn't. I know a common conception is that a montage with the occasional slo-mo fits the "first and naïve love" theme buuuuut I don't like it because I don't like it, sue me.

Let's see what they did show us first ; when you give so little, there's no room for triviality. And then I have just a few details I picked up on (or excavated and extrapolized like a mad scientist) that come feed my "Phee is a lying liar that lies" theory. But first, here goes a montage breakdown.

One : first in person meeting

There are several interesting points here. Phee is standing and bending to Non's level, Non is acting cute and waving his hand like a child would ; the groundwork of their relationship is laid down. Phee is the one taking care of Non. But what I found truly noteworthy is this :

"Do you wanna meet up ?"

Phee is taken aback by Non's suggestion. He clearly didn't expect him to do that. Except you don't have expectations for strangers or vague acquaintances. By that point, Phee and Non have been messaging for long enough for Phee to know Non quite well and for the both of them to smile like idiots upon meeting. How long exactly ? Nobody knows.

Two : perfect date and the start of a series of promises

Three or four shots of a traditional, happy date, what more could we ask for. Genuinely. Sad Non, abused Non, crying Non is brought back to a softer world. He earned this level of cliché and happiness. There's also the pinky finger promise ; that's what interests me the most, not as a singular instance but as the start of a pattern. Promises are a running theme in Phee and Non's relationship. As willing as Phee is to take oaths, he's quick to fail them -hell, just one episode prior he wasn't here for Non and it resulted in a suicide attempt. The situation with Keng isn't Phee's first failure.

Three : Non's home

Here Non is letting Phee in his home, his room -his life. And he does so with glee. We've seen beforehow Non tends to keepto himself. Jin has to try a lot and try hard to get him to open up a bit, so whatever happens here is meaningful.

Phee taking his manga from Non could be read as them not sharing common interests (unlike Jin, my imaginary public argues with a nod). I personally saw it as them being comfortable enough to do their own thing while sharing space, until Phee got bored. Or horny. Or both. No sex scenes are shown, which has to be intentional. Phee gets a graphic sex scene with Jin, Non gets a graphic sex scene with Keng -but none for Pheenon. There's enough suggestion that the audience will get the idea, and I haven't pinpointed what lies behind that choice, but it's definitely there. They go back and forth between tooth-rottingly cute and buying a house in the bone-zone.

Four : being each other's whole world

They're both giddy and running to find each other. Their families don't understand because they haven't told ; it's their own little world (and in Non's case probably his only happy place with no worries).

Five : the kiss scenes

The sensual aura that built up in all previous scenes reaches its peak here. Once again nothing is shown in terms of sex, yet you can feel the physical attraction just as well. I might be getting off the rails by saying that while they're honest, they also virtually keep things private. They show us the truth, but an amputated, rushed one.

Just like I suppose Phee gives Jin an amputated and rushed version of what happened.

Six : The river

Ah, yes, the river scene. I won't be talking about the longer one with the bracelet yet cause it's separate from the little glimpses we got so far (it has dialogue, for one). But this ? This is gold to my brain.

An apple. Not only are they both biting it, but Non's eyes are open and staring right at Phee, while Phee's are closed. Non is holding it too. Now I know the apple symbolism is a Chrisitian one and we're in Thailand, but that little detail struck me as odd when Phee and "Tan" were introduced :

We're entering full clown territory cause the cross was probably hung there like the curtains are probably just goddamn blue, but I added a badly drawn plan of how our brains read images, starting from top left corner (where the cross is) to skim over the middle in a downward axis to the bottom left (Fluke, Jin, the more innocent ones actually I just realized) and then to the bottom right. The cross is what we see first.

And then, wouldn't you know, our lovely apple comes back as New and Phee are discussing the boys -and where New is out to get them, Phee is already giving even Por the benefit of doubt. He's also keeping his left hand behind his back. I'll get back to Phee's left hand, but the apple comes first.

If the cross is any indication, and that we get two apples, then the first one that's set in the past, a flashback in a flashback, could be the Old Testament version, a fall from heaven ; and the second one that Phee is eating by himself, not blindly this time, could be the New Testament version as redemption from the original sin. Not to mention the greenery around them, almost like a garden.

"But then doesn't it mean that Phee, after falling for Non, starts to get redemption for failing him by saving the boys from New ?"

You know what, MAYHAPS. It could work, I guess. But same as the manga reading scene, it could go many ways. I personally think the redemption he longs for is redemption for having let Non down so badly. Besides, I don't think New is ready to kill people yet in that scene. He's just trying to gather evidence for now, and Phee knows it. So why defend those boys ? Jin I could understand, but Por ? And protect them from what, exactly ? Getting justice served and truth exposed for something they actually did ? If they're innocent, what's the rush in getting New to let go ?

Why wouldn't Phee be trying to keep New safe ?

Look it's not that far-fetched I swear. First I'm going with the fact that Phee knows Non is alive and got in contact with him somehow. One because I stand by my words, this is a face that calls for murder.

And two, the ring tattoo. I don't think it's a continuity error. And he just so happens to keep his arm hidden behind his back when trying to stir New into giving up on his search. As a sign he's actually carrying on Non's wish ? I'd love that.

Then someone in the group has to be in contact with the masked man, the ninth person, or else they wouldn't have known when to expect the group. Unless they literally live in those woods, which is also possible.

There's also a long post I'd started about how the show always plays by the rules, not even trying to be surprising in the decision it takes (A guy dying early on in a slasher, Phee being Non's boyfriend, Tan being New, both of them being part of the scheme) but pulling the rug off under our feet in the execution (no one else of importane having died after Por, quiet Tan being the one to murder people while decisive Phee is crying about, etc). Which gives me the feeling that it will be the same here and that Phee is much more of a mastermind than he's been whining on to Jin.

Speaking of Jin, it would also explain why Phee has been investigating him specifically. They might have been trying to determine if he'd done anything, had leaked the video or not. When push came to shove, Phee played the honesty card to get him to confess. And. He. Did.

Not to say Phee doesn't have genuine feelings for Jin, and that it doesn't make him feel torn and confused. But the fact that they banged right after Jin reminded him of Non more strongly also isn't something I'd ignore.

Anyway, I'm getting tired, short version :

Tl;dr :

I think Phee and Non's relationship was actually much stronger than we've been shown, that Phee knows Non is alive because he's the only person Non would have contacted and works with him. He was tasked with keeping New away from all this because Non doesn't want him to get hurt, but also doesn't trust him enough to tell him anything (remember that New was defined by his absence prior to Non's disappearance, only there to serve as a hurtful point of comparison, and that he wasn't close at all to Non to begin with, regardless of how much he regrets now ; I don't think Non factored New would go that far for him in his plan). The revenge plot is already underway for Non, and Phee is trying to keep things going the way they should.

Here it is. It was itching my brain and I slept very badly because of it, but I AM NOW FREE.

#dead friend forever #I don't know it was running in circles in my head #especially after seeing so many people boo Phee after ep 10 #It got my brain going 'hmmmm ain't that just too easy'#cause everyone seemed to think it was too easy indeed #it could just be Phee being a little stoopid yes but come. on.#what am I supposed to do with my braincells if I stop at that #dff the series

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destinysbounty · 5 months

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Not sure if this counts, but how do you explain the ninjas ages? How are they teachers but also like 16? I always love hearing people's thoughts on this

For a while now I've been entertaining a headcanon that I think would perfectly explain this in a way that makes sense. Note that this is just a circumstantial theory with no explicit basis in canon, so feel free to take it or leave it as you see fit.

Okay, so. To understand the teacher situation (as well as my theories for why Ninjago's education system is fucked to hell and back), we first have to talk about the Serpentine War for a sec. Bare with me, I promise this will make sense.

This seems like a no-brainer, but a war requires people to actually, yknow, fight in it. Which means large demographics of people have to leave their homes, families, jobs, and communities. Naturally, this forces the ones they've left behind to compensate for the economic deficit caused by their absence. Anyone familiar with American history could tell you that this happened to the US during WWII - as swathes of men shipped off overseas to fight in the war, women back home had to take charge of the economy and participate more actively in the workforce.

I think it goes without saying that this kind of situation probably happened to Ninjago during the Serpentine War. But the thing is, we know women fought in the war stood at the front lines alongside the men - we've seen them. So if that's the case, then who stepped up to help run the economy while Mommy and Daddy were away?

I think you can guess where I'm going with this.

That's right. With so many people leaving to fight in the War (and also dying from Serpentine raids), I don't think it's unreasonable to conclude that some subset of kids and teens had to step up to the plate and take up some of the vacancies their parents had left behind. Obviously I'm not saying all the adults were gone, but it was enough to warrant kids entering the workforce prematurely.

And of course, if kids are getting jobs at younger ages, then I think it's valid to extrapolate that to teacher positions as well.

As you can imagine, this shift created a few new social precedents: 1) expectations for kids, especially teens, to get jobs and become mature at younger ages was normalized; and 2) requirements for certain careers, including education, became much more lenient.

This labor expectation imposed on older kids and teens would actually explain a lot more than just the s3 teacher situation, when you think about it.

Not only are unqualified teens allowed to become teachers, but also undead skeleton warriors from the Underworld (see s1ep4). I'm sorry, but you can't convince me that Kruncha and Nuckal are licensed educators.

The existence of Darkley's, and how it was able to exist for so long without any kind of administrative intervention. The education system is in shambles, and it's because Ninjago's infrastructure never fully recovered from the Serpentine War.

Disparities and gaps in people's historical/world knowledge. No one knows shit about anything. Because again, the education system in in shambles. (If you doubt the validity of this point, let me just remind you I'm from the US. I once met a college student who didn't know what 'north' was.)

The existence of the Paper Boys - how they can devote what seem to be entire workdays to an extremely dangerous job, with minimal adult oversight (if any).

The entirety of Ninjago society seems totally chill with the fact that their saviors are a bunch of kids. To them this isn't cause for concern or even distrust in the ninjas' capability, it's just the norm!

In s15, Lloyd was able to get a job, presumably without a high school diploma or GED of some kind. Or, yknow, any formal education past grade 3 (although we know from supplemental material that he did get some kind of tutoring from the ninja, so this point is debatable).

If some kind of in-universe CPS equivalent exists, then they certainly don't do anything. No one has ever reported or raised issue with Lloyd being homeless, Cole also being homeless for a while, the ninja not being in school, Kai and Nya being parent-free since the ages of ~6 and 3 respectively, and other such things that would ordinarily be cause for alarm.

While there is canon evidence that Kai and Nya received some degree of aid from their community, especially when they were younger, this seems to be completely absent by the time the series begins. Perhaps the community's assistance began to withdraw over time as the siblings faced increasing expectations to become self-sufficient despite still being children. Like, "you're 10 years old now, Kai, it's time for you to start pulling your weight and taking care of the shop by yourself. You need to grow up."

If we approach Ninjago's worldbuilding from this context, suddenly the teacher arc becomes less of a plothole and more...depressing, tbh.

And in a weird way, this interpretation actually fits in nicely with Ninjago's themes of generational trauma. Think about it. Society was damaged by the Serpentine War. And because they never really healed from what happened, the kids of future generations continue to face the normalization of their childhoods gradually being ripped away from them before they're ready. Kinda like kids in a broken home taking on adult responsibilities to cover the slack. Kinda like Cole handling house chores while his father grieved away from home. Kina like Kai and Nya running the shop while their parents were gone.

And everyone is just...used to it. The only times in all 15 seasons that anyone stakes a complaint about this system are in seasons 1-2 when Lloyd was a little child, in season 8 when Harumi was ridiculing the ninja, and in season 15 when Wu refused to lead the Paper Boys into battle.

(I do think it's worth noting that young children are still regarded as kids, of course, as seen with how the ninja were treated when they got de-aged. But this isn't really a refutation of my argument, as much as it is a clue to help us identify society's cutoff for childhood innocence.)

Again, it's more of a circumstantial theory than anything based in fact. So you're free to dispute it as you like. But you have to admit it would explain a lot, wouldn't it?

Anyway, that was...a lot longer than I was expecting it to be. Damn. I'm beginning to think that's gonna be a running theme with these theory posts.

Thanks for the ask! <3

#ninjago #long post #destiny post

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cosmicjoke · 6 months

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Alright, so, I wanted to write a little here about the new story from Isayama coming out, and address a few things. Before I get to that though, I want to say how special I think this is. Unlike some of the complaints I'm hearing about regarding the story being about Levi, and it being "unnecessary" because we supposedly already know about Levi's childhood, well, no, we don't. We don't actually know a whole hell of a lot about Levi's childhood. People don't realize that, in the main canon, we never actually get a real look at Levi's childhood Underground except through a handful of panels, all of which aren't from Levi's perspective at all, but from Kenny's. We get no insight whatsoever into Levi's mental or emotional state, into what he's actually thinking or feeling. Again, it's all from Kenny's POV, not Levi's. So how anyone could say that 'we already have Levi's backstory, we don't need more', blah, blah, blah, is beyond me. You're wrong if you think that. We're finally going to get a look at Levi's life growing up and finally get a look at how those events actually shaped him and affected him. We could only engage in extrapolation before, based off what little we did know. Levi's voice here is important to acknowledge and hear, because it's the voice of a child growing up in extreme poverty and violence. Levi was a victim of social indifference and disenfranchisement. He was a victim of persecution and poverty and violence. And we've never, before now, gotten the chance to hear him, or hear what those experiences did to him. We've only gotten to see the end result. So anyone saying 'we don't need' to know more about Levi's childhood, again, you're dead wrong. You might as well say that it's not important or necessary to hear the voice of any child who's suffered the things Levi has simply because you know the basic outline or generalized facts of that child's life. Get the hell outta' here. Yes we do. I can scarcely think of anything more important.

Secondly, for anyone whining about the story being about him and not about one of the other vets, you have to understand, Levi is to the vets trio as Eren is to the EMA trio. He's the focal point. He's more than just a side-character, or a supporting character. Levi is, in many ways, an embodiment of some of the most core themes of SnK. He's representative within the story of some of its most essential messages. He's just as vital to the story as Mikasa, or Armin, or even Eren, in terms of understanding its thematic thrust. He's as much of a main character as Mikasa or Armin, in many ways. So a greater exploration of Levi's childhood, through Levi's perspective, is vital and important, I think, to further understanding the whole of SnK.

Anyway, with that out of the way, like I said, I think this is really special. I think it's amazing that we're getting more background on Levi, when for all intents and purposes, it seemed Isayama was done with SnK. People should be grateful, instead of whining as usual because they didn't get exactly what they wanted. Jesus. If the story had been about anyone else, I wouldn't have complained. But Levi is a special character. There's a reason he's so popular. And it isn't because he's "the strongest" or a bad-ass, or "cool". It's because he's an incredibly deep, layered and complex person, a character that connects with so many people because there's something intrinsically real about him. He is, in many ways, what we all wish we could be. He's a genuine hero. Someone who's suffered immensely, but who, despite that suffering, not because of it, is still a deeply good and kind man. He's someone who didn't let the cruelty of the world ruin him, or corrupt him, despite him personally experiencing more of that cruelty than really any other character in the story. And so Levi is in many ways representative of the story's hope. Of how goodness and kindness can still exist, even in the face of such overwhelming darkness. Even in defiance of that darkness. Levi overcomes in a way no other character in SnK does. He experienced and lived through the worst humanity had to offer and still came out the other side as the best humanity has to offer.

So that's why it's important for this story to be told. Seeing Levi live through the horror of his childhood, but within the context of knowing him to be a genuinely good and kind man, of him being a genuine hero, will drive that theme home. That the world's cruelty and the cruelty of other people doesn't have to end with us ourselves also becoming cruel.

Anyway, I don't care what anyone says. I can't wait. And I know the vast majority of fans can't wait either. If you're disappointed the story isn't about some other character, fine, fair enough, but don't shit on other people's excitement, and don't shit on Isayama because of it. We're lucky to be getting anything extra from him at all. Also, I don't know why anyone would be surprised that the story is about Levi, since Isayama said months and months ago, after he was asked if he had any plans to continue AoT, that he had a story specifically about Levi that he wanted to tell. This isn't out of nowhere, and this isn't just to capitalize on Levi's popularity. This is something Isayama wanted to do.

#Levi Ackerman #Bad Boy #hajime isayama #attack on titan #shingkei no kyojin

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sokkastyles · 5 months

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What are your thoughts on Pakku going to the SWT and he and Kanna becoming a couple again? Personally, it always felt really rushed/out of nowhere to me. Not that Pakku would go to the South to help rebuild, but that Kanna would accept him back into her life romantically or that it would take so little time for her to decide to do so.

It is rushed, and pretty questionable storytelling wise, and there's no real reason for it to happen. What is especially jarring about it, though, is how little Kanna gets a voice in this storyline.

I mean, forget for a minute the questionable choice of having a woman who went across a continent to flee an arranged marriage just get back together with that person after decades. Even if we accepted this as a choice the writers made, the problem is that we have no idea how Kanna felt at any time about any of it.

It seems like there was an attempt at character development there, but a lot of it is actually assumed by the fandom to fill in the gaps. All we're actually told in the series is that Kanna left because she didn't want to marry Pakku. I have seen some fans extrapolate that Kanna did love Pakku, but that what she wanted was a choice, and that's why she agrees to marry Pakku in the end, after Katara taught him How to Respect Women (another problematic trope that this series has a problem with in general). But even if we assume those things, all of that is still fanon. We aren't told any of this, how Kanna felt or why her feelings changed. Katara actually says that Kanna didn't love Pakku, and while Katara could have been incorrect, the problem is that we never actually get to hear from Kanna about it, at any point. Even when they get back together, we don't know why. All we hear is that Pakku says he made a new betrothal necklace for her.

It would have been very easy to fix this problem by just adding a few lines of dialogue to make Kanna's feelings more clear and present in the story. Maybe Pakku tells Katara how Kanna gave him an ultimatum and said that she would not be another man's prize. And then when the group sees Pakku again with the White Lotus, Pakku tells Katara how her bravery in standing up to him made him realize how he had lost Kanna through his own pigheadedness, and he proposed to her anew if only she would have him. In just a few lines of dialogue, we get a lot more of Kanna's agency and we see that Pakku has actually changed as a person. It's still problematic, but a lot more palatable.

Hell, you could even add in a line of dialogue about how Kanna is helping Pakku open up a school for female waterbenders now, and that would give us some sense of character development that would have helped us understand how their relationship developed. It also brings things nicely full circle from Kanna watching Hama and the other waterbenders from her village being taken away, and solves the exceptionalism issue that is part of the problem with that whole subplot, because we don't get so much of a sense that Pakku has actually learned to respect women vs learning to respect Katara because she is tough or because she is Kanna's granddaughter.

What's even more confusing is how the necklace came to symbolize what it does for Katara, and how that fits with the Pakku thing. It's my personal headcanon that Kanna passed it on to her daughter as a symbol of what she had overcome, of her own determination to be free, and Kya did the same thing with her daughter. Katara had to get her feminism from somewhere. But then that's hard to reconcile with a Kanna who was secretly pining for her lost love all these years and who would accept another necklace from the same dude.

The show just didn't bother to give Kanna a voice here, and that's the biggest problem.

#pakku #kanna #katara #atla criticism

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archaiclumina · 9 days

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日傘モモ

I've been writing a scene in the blorbette's backstory with Momo over the past couple of evenings. Momo is great! She's not actually a person, she's a parasol. It's right there in her name! 日傘 Higasa (Parasol) モモ Momo (Peach).

I will probs never get to play Momo in the game, because one can't have too many alts you know? They take up a lot of time c': BUT. With the power of crimes I can still take screenshots of her!

More about Momo under the cut for those interested c:

For those who don't know much about the Blorbette's backstory, aside from being trapped in a forever cycle of fixing and ruining each other, Ren and Oli are operatives of Zancefer's super secret organization. CARGO or the Curio and Relic Guardianship Operation. Essentially, Zan likes to keep tabs on powerful and interesting things that crop up in the game and generally, keep them out of Sharlayan hands so those old coots at the Forum don't just lock up all the cool shit. The Slanted Shelves is the sanctioned part of this organization. But, Zan has never really been one to ignore something just because it's unsactioned. So as a result, he gets Ren and Oli (and Cal and Leon) to poke their noses into all sorts of things they probably shouldn't be.

And that's how they met Momo! Momo is a living, breathing part of Uncle Zan's collection!

She's a character who features in a pretty large portion of the Blorbette's backstory. I based her on Japanese tsukumogami folkore. I extrapolated the idea of her from the Kutsutsura – the shoes which can take either a human form or an animal form. (In human form, they look like a court noble wearing a shoe as a hat. In animal form, they appear as a round, fuzzy thing with a fur boot for a nose.) Momo is, as her name suggests, a parasol. After her original owner was killed during the fall of Doma to the Garleans, Momo was abandoned to rot. However, thanks to her having been cared for by her former owners through generations, she acquired a spirit soon after the death of her mistress, whom she had loved dearly. Swearing vengeance, she made it her mission to murder as many Garlean soldiers as possible! And she was really good at it! (Especially if it was raining!)

Eventually, her existence became known to Zancefer. So, because he's a very busy man, he got Cyfrenne to look into it for him. This was what a large portion of her time in Othard was actually spent doing, and it's why she was living over there instead of going back to the Studium and studying for an Archonship like she was supposed to. Instead, she was trying to work out what the hell Momo was. But she did, eventually, and Ren, who has quite pale morals to begin with, became friends with the murderous parasol and somehow convinced her uncle to employ her as his retainer in Othard. The mystery of Momo was actually only solved shortly before Ren returned to Eorzea, currently, she lives in Ren's old apartment in Shirogane, and is strictly sworn off killing Garleans ( :c )

Momo is sweet, but not actually being human, she doesn’t have a very firm grasp on what’s right and wrong, and precious little care for social norms. As a result, she takes a lot of guidance from Ren and Oli on how she should behave, but she doesn't always pull it off. Anyway, I love her and I don't get to talk about the other characters that make up the Blorbette's backstory much, and I will probably be finished up with the arc she features prominently in soon, and I am sentimental about it lol. So please enjoy this random Momo lore c:

#I just wanted to talk about Momo because she is fun c:#lorebending #cargo stuff

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cringefailvox · 18 days

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Picture some fancy ball or something the overlords are invited too and Velvette of course designs her and her boys outfits but everyone shows up with dates and someone asks her who her date is and she just is like...TF? I'm here with my boys. And the others don't bat an eye the three aren't subtle and this is hell. Who cares about some of the sinners being poly? And the three split into two a lot for some dances with the third mingles and then somehow the three all manage to dance together at the same time? And everyone is kind of surprised by how much trust and affection is between the three?

imagining carmilla in the corner pinching the bridge of her nose and groaning so loud seeing the vees walk in because they're always a nightmare to socialize with, and it's because they spend the whole time hanging off of each other and making thinly-veiled snide comments about all the other overlords. i definitely think val & vel don't give a shit if they're messy and touchy in public, but vox is obsessive about his reputation & has limits wrt pda, and he gets pissy if the other two embarrass him, so he treads the line of just calling them his "partners" and letting people extrapolate whatever they want from that, while val and velvette are both like "vox seriously we're in hell who gives a shit if we're fucking". they have a lot more fun back at v tower after the party ends is all i'm saying

#vox #valentino #velvette #hazbin hotel #vees #voxval #voxvel #velval #the vees

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lily-orchard · 1 year

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I'm not even a Belos enjoyer but finale was pretty dissapointing. It felt like Dana just saw that fans hate Belos and decided to not even show a proper flashback for him and kill him in a lame way. Sure fandom loved that he got stomped by Eda King and Raine (for some reason), but I feel like it should've been more like Luz tells Belos that he lost everything because of his inability to change and now he turned into a monster that nobody will remember after he dies or sth and Belos dies while seeing visions of Caleb Evelyn and everyone he's ever killed that don't even look at him so he dies scared with realization that Luz was right. Cuz that "huehue look we are not like the other cartoons our villain is lame and underdeveloped and died by being stomped by Luz's friends huehue AREN'T WE QUIRKY AND NOT LIKE THE OTHER GIRLS CARTOONS" felt lame and cringe like make defeat of a fashist actually worth it bruh

I mean I don't like the Not Like Other Girls'ing of the writing, but I'll be honest I think you're just mad that the Caleb and Evelyn red herrings didn't amount to anything. Those are things that were always afterthoughts and should have been scrapped. Phillip didn't need a secret Cain and Abel backstory to explain his genocide against witches. He was already from a deeply racist and fundamentalist time period.

There's a lot of people who wanted to Caleb to matter and for Evelyn to be a Clawthorne, and the truth is... they don't matter... at all.

I think it would have been worse if they harped on that shit. The time spent particle effect-ing and anime-framerating should have been spent on the main characters, not on the fan theories.

I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but if you really wanted to just drive the spike through Phillip as a last word, what they would have done would have been for Camilla to take Luz by the shoulder and guide her away from him as he rots in the boiling rain, Phillip starts ranting about how the witches aren't people and will doom humanity with their filth, and then Camilla turns her head back and says "Yeah, I've heard that one before."

Because the thing about Belos is that he is fundamentally an invader. He's an invader of the Demon Realm, but he's also a white Christian British man living in America in the 1600's. He's an invader back in the Human Realm too. He came to the Demon Realm at the HEIGHT of his own previous invasion.

His profession is Witch Hunter. His job was never to hunt witches. It was to hunt women and native people and escaped slaves.

Belos' genocide of the witches on the Boiling Isles directly mirror the Salem witch trials, which were little more than a thin veil to persecute women who didn't conform to Christian morals. And they knew this. They knew magic wasn't real. They all of this.

Let's be honest here. Let's be brutally honest here. Why does Belos want to genocide everyone on the Boiling Isles?

He's mad about his brother's hot new gf

They do magic and therefore it is sinful

It is an integrated society that knows neither colorism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia?

It's the third one. Because to a white christian man 1600's US Colonies, that very notion is profane to him.

Hell when he tries to play the whole "I only care about humanity!" spiel to Luz, Luz looks at him like

Luz knows that were they in the Human realm, she would have been the target of Belos' ire in the place of the witches.

Honestly with that kind of background behind Belos that you can easily extrapolate just by knowing what he is and where he comes from, it was always fucking sad that they backpedaled like fucking crazy and pulled this stupid Cain and Abel bullshit in the first place. Like, you had the best foundation for a villain, you didn't have to add all this fandom bullshit.

But that's the Adventure Fantasy death spiral, isn't it? They start with something actually very biting and edgy, the genius of The Owl House in it's early seasons was that it didn't pull it's punches, and then walks most of it back to replace it with safe, santizied fandom mysteries about secret families and hidden identities and conspiracy mongering. Because you can't really pack hidden mysteries in like a pretentious weeby jackass if your bad guy is just a racist white guy.

Because racist white guys are just pretty straightforward.

Honestly, I think Luz just fucking standing there watching him burn away in the boiling rain, lacking any sympathy for him or his bullshit, silently gloating at the fact that she has completely and utterly destroyed his 400 years of work to undo the Boiling Isles and is content to watch him die like the cowardly, snivelling rat he is to be a and extremely powerful and poignant image

A far more meaningful moment than... whatever the fuck you were talking about.

You want the defeat of a fascist to be worth it, making him practically beg for the mercy of a woman who (were they not currently in a place with magic in it) would have been on his hit list and who he only tried to appeal to because she was the closest thing to a kindred spirit for parsecs, and having her look down at him like he is literally muck on her shoe IS WORTH IT.

What you're suggesting just puts the stupid red herring fandom shit at the forefront. Nobody cares about reading Belos a "reason you suck speech." Nobody cares about Caleb. Nobody cares about Evelyn. Nobody cares about any of that shit.

This is the closest thing we get to payoff for all that dragged out angst in the last 7 episodes, Luz getting to watch this man who fucked with her head and manipulated her good nature die begging at her feet, and you want to center the stupid Roundtable fan theories?

That's ultimately my problem with this entire genre. Because even when we get a really good moment like this, there's people like you saying that it should have been different and presenting ideas that all follow the same templates, and are written by TVTropes, and suck, and position white background characters as more important, and suck, and primarily exist for theory youtubers, and suck, and mimic your favourite anime, and suck, and suck, and SUCK SO FUCKING HARD!

What you said should have been done instead... would be shit. It would just be shit. It would be garbage.

I have complaints about Season 3, but this?

This is beautiful.

#the owl house #the owl house discourse #fandom rot #fandom racism #tw - racism #tw - religious violence

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