#beyond this existence: counterpoint
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It's actually quite curious that I've never found a sskk fic where Atsushi was jealous of the attentions Akutagwa gives Dazai
IMHO, I think it’s bc jealousy like that would mean Atsushi wanted Akutagawa to feel about him the way Akutagawa feels about Dazai, and I don’t think that’s the kind of connection Atsushi would envy anyone having with anyone
That's... A very good point
#I didn't think about it. It makes a lot of sense#atsushi nakajima#ryūnosuke akutagawa#sskk#osamu dazai#bsd#people asks me stuff#Like one possible counterpoint I can think is that jealousy is irrational and wouldn't look at the nature of the attention–#beyond the simple fact that such attention direct to another person exists#But then again I hate jealousy tropes in general so it's really not an issue with me pfftt#It's just that. In t/pn I used to hate them because it didn't make any sense.#All the characters grew up with 30+ siblings you CAN'T grow up to be a jealous person when you were raised in that environment#Besides to me jealousy is inherently toxic and... t/pn ships aren't toxic. The slightest.#Like yeah nothing is perfectly pure everything is problematic etc etc but t/pn sure goes as close as being pure as you can get#But ss/kk IS toxic. Or at least a big component of it is. So I guess... It might happen?#But really I don't like the trope either way so I won't dwell on it further.#It was just a random thought and Anon is making a good counterpoint
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did john decide which of his friends would be the necromancer and which would be the cavs when he brought them back from the dead, or was that random?
I wish we knew for sure! John's friends ending up 50/50 adepts vs. non-necromancers is obviously one of TM's premises and was done for doylistic reasons first and foremost, but I don't think we have enough elements to conclusively interpret it as intentional in-universe.
Putting aside any kind of authorial intentions, this is what we know:
» The rate of necromancers as part of the population hovers around 30%. John's core group being 50% adepts is way off from that, and could point to manipulation, but also we're working with a very small sample size. Think about how it's very possible to get head five times in a row when flipping coins; probabilities are much less accurate on a smaller scale. I don't believe it's out of the realm of possibilities that a group of 10 people had exactly 5 necromancers in it.
» Harrow's birth. The Reverend Parents made sure she would be a necromancer by manipulating the embryo with thanergy. It's clearly not a known practice among the Houses at large, and John calls it "a sort of Resurrection" — implying that he could be able to do the same with thalergy. However, this doesn't confirm that he actually DID.
In the same conversation, John says, "This was all different before we discovered the scientific principles," which I think is also worth noting. The fact that he understands NOW how you could get an embryo to grow into a necromancer doesn't mean that he had that knowledge at the time of the Resurrection. It also doesn't mean that the same identical process would apply to making formerly-dead-people into necromancers as they got brought back to life.
It could very well be that necromancy was a generalised side-effect of the Resurrection that affected some people more than others; or it could be that John DID do something different when bringing back some people that conferred them necromantic aptitude. Even if it's the latter, I don't think we can take for granted that 1) it was intentional and 2) he fully knew what the side effects would be.
» Ulysses and Titania. Counterpoint! It's also worth noting that John's "test cases" turned out to be one (1) adept and one (1) non-adept. Like I said above, this could still be a random bi-product of the Resurrection... but given Ulysses and Titania's whole everything, their dichotomy reeks of control group. They are a big point in favour of the "John did it on purpose" column.
Still: I still don't think we can tell for sure that John knew from the moment of Resurrection that he was giving some people death powers, and how that'd turn out in the long run. Like I said above, he could have done something different when resurrecting Ulysses vs. Titania, but it doesn't mean that he knew what would happen.
(Obviously, this argument only makes sense if we assume that Ulysses and Titania were among the very first batch of resurrected. I personally think they were, but obviously it's not confirmed)
» The inner circle. From NtN
I could only trust the inner circle. My scientists, my engineer, my detective, my lawyer, my artist, my nun, my hedge fund manager. My diehards. The ones keeping the lights on.
Putting aside the fact that Lyctors exist the way they are because Tamsyn needed them to exist, and looking at the Canaan House necro/cav pairings from John's point of view: why not give ALL his friends magical powers? That's something I struggle to wrap my head around, for about half a dozen different reasons.
Mind, I don't think John picking and choosing who gets to be a necromancer is that far-fetched, but from a #character point I find it less likely than the alternative (he didn't do it on purpose but turned it to his own advantage). IF it turns out to be canon, I'd be really curious about what the watsonian reasoning for it, beyond "this needed to happen."
Most meta posts I've seen that take for granted John picked and chose his future necromancers ascribe him a level of foresight, knowledge, and long-term planning that I simply don't think he'd have had at the time (not to mention the mental lucidity). To quote HtN John again, "[he] had never been God" before. I truly think he was winging it at least 60% of the time.
#Anonymous#ask#tldr: I think it's possible this is the angle Taz is going with but I don't think it's a given with the elements we have so far#I think if it turns out to HAVE been intentional on John's part#it's gonna be one of these plot points that exists because the book needed them to exist and everything else took shape around it#like how everyone on the Ninth stopped making babies after Harrow was born although there was a whole generation of childbearing age#tlt thoughts#tlt theories#ejg#elle tlt posting#tlt
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Voiceless | The Unheard Language of Love
Tommy Shelby x Reader
In the heart of Small Heath, where shadows whispered tales of intrigue, a new chapter unfolded for Y/N. The Shelby family, recognizing her proficiency with numbers, extended a silent invitation—she became an integral part of the Shelby betting shop.
Adjusting to her new environment, Y/N seamlessly wove through the intricate world of odds and bets. The numbers, once silent in their complexity, danced to her command, and the betting shop found a silent conductor in the woman who spoke through calculations rather than words.
As the typewriter keys clicked in rhythmic harmony, Arthur, with his brash demeanor, found himself intrigued by the silent efficiency that Y/N brought to the establishment. He would hover around her desk, occasionally throwing a comment about the day's bets or the city's relentless rhythm. Despite his gruff exterior, a silent camaraderie developed between them, each understanding the other in the unspoken language of their shared world.
John, with his easygoing nature, became a frequent companion during lunch breaks. The two would exchange smiles and laughter, their interactions a testament to the bonds that formed beyond spoken words. A shared understanding blossomed, fostering a connection that transcended the need for verbal communication.
Polly, the matriarch of the Shelby family, observed Y/N with a keen eye. The betting shop, once a domain dominated by numbers and coded messages, now embraced a new facet—a woman who wielded her own silent power. In the quiet corners of their interactions, a mutual respect bloomed, an acknowledgment of the strength that existed in the unspoken.
Amidst the clatter of keys and the rustle of ledger sheets, even Tommy, the stoic leader of the Shelby family, couldn't resist the allure of Y/N's silent world. A quiet understanding passed between them, each interaction a nuanced dance of shared glances and subtle gestures.
The Shelby family, recognizing her proficiency with numbers, extended a silent invitation—she became an integral part of the Shelby betting shop.
As the rhythmic clatter of typewriter keys echoed through the establishment, a meeting convened in Tommy's office. The air crackled with a mixture of coded conversations and the unspoken camaraderie that defined the Shelby family.
Around the polished wooden table, Tommy, Arthur, John, Polly, and Y/N gathered. Ledger sheets and notes sprawled across the surface, each document a silent participant in the strategic discussions that unfolded.
Amidst the serious matters at hand, Arthur, John, and Polly found themselves in a friendly disagreement. The topic? A new shipment of goods. Arthur, with his bold ideas, argued passionately. John, with a skeptical expression, offered counterpoints, while Polly, the voice of reason, attempted to mediate.
As they're little disagreement reached its peak, the trio turned to Y/N, curious about her take on the matter. With a subtle smirk, she glanced at each of them, a silent challenge in her eyes.
Tommy, leaning back in his chair, observed with an amused glint in his eyes. He knew that smirk—a silent proclamation that the ideas being tossed around were far from practical. Without uttering a word, he continued to peruse the papers on his desk.
Confused by Y/N's smirk, the trio turned to Tommy, seeking clarification. With a nonchalant expression, he looked at them and declared, "It's because your ideas are stupid."
Arthur or John, intrigued by Tommy's understanding, questioned, "How did you know what the smirk meant?"
Tommy, maintaining his composed demeanor, replied, "I just knew."
The room fell into a momentary silence before all eyes turned to Y/N, who was now quietly laughing in her seat. The silent laughter served as the final verdict—Tommy's intuition had once again deciphered the unspoken language of their interactions.
In the intricate dance of Small Heath's betting shop, where numbers spoke louder than words, Y/N discovered the unheard language of love—a language woven into the interactions with Tommy, transcending the barriers of speech and echoing through the gritty corners of Birmingham.
Masterlist | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
#tommy shelby x reader#tommy shelby imagine#peaky blinders imagine#thomas shelby imagine#tommy shelby imagines#cillian murphy#peaky blinders imagines#thomas shelby imagines#peaky blinders#tommy shelby#tommy shelby fanfic#tommy shelby x you#thomas shelby x reader#thomas shelby fanfic#thomas shelby#cillian murphy x reader#cillian murphy imagine#cillian murphy fanfiction#cillian x fem!reader
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Top is Boring & He Didn't Have to Be
tldr: I'm stanning Top outta spite b/c the show won't develop him beyond being Mew's True Love
Hear me out, I have been on the "Top's a fuckboi" train since ep01 and while I don't think that anymore I do miss when Top had a freaking personality.
There's a separate post to make about what I consider mid writing in regards to Top and Mew's romantic relationship, but I ain't getting into all~~ that in this post. The point is, during their relationship both post and pre breakup, Mew under goes change, and is the focal character in that entire story. He's an active participant in that plot and has subplots with Boston and Ray.
Top doesn't. Top exists only to be Mew's True Love at this point. He has no story outside of that. He wanted to get with Mew for selfish reasons initially, somewhere along the line fell in love (which was majority from Mew's POV), and now just wants to win Mew back.
As a character his story has become stagnant: Top starts the series pursuing Mew, post inciting incident he's still pursuing Mew. Nothing's really changed for him as a character he's doing the same shit.
What does Top want outside of being with Mew? We don't know! It doesn't matter. That's his only motivation: to win Mew back. He character begins and ends there.
He hasn't even been given a scene to like, talk about why he loves Mew so much. Or for us as an audience to understand why he loves Mew; let's look at a counterpoint: Sand & Ray.
Textually Ray has said Sand makes him incredibly happy, we've also seen them bond over common interests like music, Sand has been a foundation for Ray's rehabilitation. We've also learned things about them via them opening up to each other. Ray has opened up to Sand about his mother, Sand has talked about his father, he's shared his dream of traveling to music festivals with Ray. I have my issues with Sand and Ray as a couple, but the narrative has made clear why they like each other at least. And been sure to have them both take an active interest in the other (even if Ray was poor touring for a bit).
We've only seen one scene where we see that Mew provided Top with a sense of comfort (with his insomnia), and then like, nothing outside of that. Everything else is from Mew's pov. Their various dates have always had Mew as the focal point, and none of them had Top opening up to Mew or Mew taking an active interest in Top as a person. So we learn nothing about Top by extension. He's just The Ideal.
I originally thought this was intentional, but apparently it was not and just meant to be viewed as straightforwardly romantic. Because they broke up and we still haven't learned anything about Top outside of: he's in love with Mew, he wants to be with Mew.
Hell during their silent dance date I woulda taken Top saying he wanted to be a disco dancer but is pursuing business instead for stability like something! Top also did coke to cope but that was dropped too and even that ended up being more about Mew than Top. We don't see Top bringing up his past coke usage even as a warning for Mew, or cautionary tale, or even like "remember when you told me to stop doing coke and now you're doing coke what the fuck happened Mew??"
All the other characters at least have interests. We know Top draws, but the show hasn't even given him a like "lemme draw Mew like one of my french girls" scene. Or a scene where he like, shows Mew his drawings of his family and talks about them.
Did Top start drawing as an outlet after the fire? Does his family support his art? Does he have any interest in like, exploring art museums, does he want to open his own art exhibit, or travel to see a specific piece or work or anything??
There coulda been a parallel with Boston/Nick where Top's other boyfriends never took an active interest in his art but Mew validates it making it hurt all the more when Mew burns it in front of him later.
Other characters are allowed interests and backstory to enrich them. Nick has an interest in tech, okay now he's interning at an animation/film studio. Ray has his alcoholism recovery storyline, Sand loves music and wants to travel festivals. Boston likes photography. They've all talked about their families at some point and we've met all of their parents at this point (including Mew's even!).
Does Top have parents/guardians or was he an egg? Is he bl baby jesus?
What does Top want? Who is he as a character?
The narrative may have no empathy for Boston as a character, but at least Boston is a fully realized one. He has motivations, a home life, he has interests, he's going to New York, he's selfish, impulsive and genuinely can be a decent person. He's got relationships with various characters that aren't about his relationship with Nick, nor is that all he discusses with them.
Top talks to Cheum, well it's about Mew. Top talks with Ray, well that's also about Mew. Top talks with Boston (post breakup), yeah, that's about Mew too. Even his conversations with Boeing are about Mew. Heck his convos with Sand are about Boeing and Mew so I guess there's at least a little variety there.
I was hoping for Top and Boeing to have like, A Conversation. Clearly Top feels safe enough to rely on Boeing to help him sleep, that would require a certain level of trust right? Or does Top have a rotating list of ex's he asks for help with this? Or not? We don't know he never discusses it! What was Top and Boeing's relationship like post-breakup? Boeing seems bitter, and yet he's also helping Top out with something super personal at the same time?
Does Top have any friends? People he can open up to about, ya know, himself?
I know that people (shippers) probably would've disliked it but I think there coulda been something if Top and Boston actually became friends post-fucked-up-hook-up.
Their consent was violated after all, what if they got to, ya know, actually talk about that? What if at the party Boston and Top didn't talk about just Mew and after Boston's bitchy comments they had a real conversation? We learned something about Top and how he's feeling outside of sad-mew-dumped-him. What if he told Boston about how he can't sleep, so he's been drawing more, and Boston sees Top as like, A Person, rather than a conquest (lord knows Boston needs new friends who won't call him a whore and say he should've never been born).
Or hell Nick?? Maybe Nick could've reached out to Top and been like "sorry I recorded you having sex without your consent bro" and Top could again, talk about what happened to him and how it effected him outside of Mew?? Nick is good at making friends, he's a good listener, he's genuinely sorry about what he did so why not? Nick could've talked to Top at the party, and it would have opened up a chance to get Top's pov on what happened. Top could've made a friend!!!
But nope! Top's only motivations is just to exist for Mew and it's so frustrating. There's a lot of opportunity to explore and expand on his character and the show hasn't given it. Top went from being fun, messy, interesting, to being dull and boring and it's so sad.
Like at this point I'ma stan b/c he deserves better as a character rip
#only friends the series#chaos pikachu speaks#it's been 11 episodes and what the fuck do we know about top outside of:#he's hot rich prefers polos has trauma with fire & can't sleep and used to sleep around a lot#oh and he's in love with mew#for reasons#god this got so long jfc#chaos pikachu metas
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I'll never get enough of the AUs where Murtagh in some way, at some point ends up in Carvahall instead of Uru'baen. There are so many potential variations of how he gets there and who he stays with and even the little differences have some really fun effects. I'm especially intrigued by the idea of Murtagh growing up there while still clearly remembering Morzan and his dragon and where he came from. I think it makes for an interesting counterpoint to canon where Murtagh can't escape his past and his father's legacy because that's what everyone sees in him. Instead, in Carvahall, his past becomes such a dangerous taboo that it can't even be acknowledged, much less focused on. Rather than his past restricting him in its grasp, it keeps sliding out of his own grasp, defying all his efforts to understand what it means for him and what everyone else might feel about it. Black and blue eyes and gleaming red scales haunt his dreams, but he has to swallow those memories down every time.
Assuming Murtagh grows up with Garrow and Marian, when he first arrives with all his fear, he's determined to never breath a word about any of that. But he gets older and starts to second guess that resolve- Eragon aches to know who his father is and Murtagh hates lying to him. He deserves to eventually know the truth (what Murtagh thinks is true, that is), even if it's painful. And it gnaws at Murtagh's own heart to wonder if his family would accept him if they knew, or if the only thing perpetuating his acceptance is their ignorance. At night, he tosses and turns wondering if he's turning out just like his father, a question he can never answer because he has no reference of Morzan beyond his own dim, scattered memories.
One of my favorite AUs like this that exist inside my brain follows that track and actually stays very close to canon. Murtagh grows up alongside Eragon, and plans to tell him about his past when he turns 16, but before that, the Ra'zac arrive and he's tortured as well as Garrow. He pulls through only to discover Eragon vanished with Brom and he goes to track them down, eventually saving them when they're the ones at the Ra'zac's mercy. Then when he's kidnapped and enslaved, there's so much more heartbreak and guilt because he's pitted against everyone he grew up with and cares for. And maybe Brom gets to live so there can be a reckoning when Murtagh does tell Eragon what he believes about their parentage, following him as he struggles for the courage to face his son and tries to find any way to help his step son, before it's all too late.
For something that goes quite differently, I've been thinking through an AU where both Selena and Morzan live. Selena fakes Murtagh's death to disguise her stealing him away and she and Brom raise him and Eragon in Carvahall. They love and protect them fiercely and the boys grow up safe and happy, but whenever Murtagh tries to ask about the things that happened before, they swiftly shut him down and dissuade him from ever mentioning it out of their own fear of the past. It leaves him feeling out of place and fragmentary. And that comes at a cost when Morzan appears, under orders to search for the egg. Murtagh has to hurriedly figure out what he was never able to, now with so much danger hanging in the balance, because no matter how Morzan could want to treat him, that might not matter against the king's orders. And Selena and Brom have to confront their own snarled relationships with Morzan that were never truly laid to rest. (It also caters to my desire to jerry rig the three of them into a very messy and emotionally charged polycule.)
In that one, I build something more redeemable into Morzan's character (soon I definitely plan to elaborate on why I find that a fascinating angle to take with him). I don't know if anyone would want it, but I wrote a drabble for that AU when Murtagh first sees Morzan again, and I could brush it up and post it. [EDIT: here's the fic] I just love the idea of small town farm boy Murtagh who's peaceful and amiable and also just a little bit off. Like maybe sending the guy who dreams each night about blood red swords and dragon's snapping fangs to go plow fields won't last forever.
#lemme know if you want that drabble i guess#eragon#inheritance cycle#murtagh#morzan#and others#im just rambling today#a lot of similar aus have murtagh become a rider also on the vardens side#which is fun#but i like the idea of him still being dragged into the empire and the far different emotional strife it would cause#or not having thorn at all during that time and having to navigate himself by himself
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Again, cool response to the last question, so I'll let you pick from these options:
And there are things I have fan-fixed in my head to the point that I have to remind myself that the fix-it isn’t part of the actual canon: favourite one of these?
Or
Your/a favourite part of actual canon. Like, maybe something little but it's just so lovely and fitting to you and you're just happy that it exists?
I’ve been a little down on Trek lately, so I’m going to type as fast as I can to brain-dump, in show order, the first things that pop into my mind that I absolutely love in Trek canon:
Kirk calling Nomad his son, the doctor
Christine Chapel’s snark to Roger Korby about schtupping the androids
Mark Leonard’s performance in Balance of Terror
the Horta (a great mama)
“Edith Keeler must die.”
Captain John Christopher, United States Air Force. Serial number 4857932.
Tribbles
the lesson of The Cloud Minders that we must have empathy and listen to others when they tell us about their lived experience in an environment unlike our own
the cheap-ass animation of TAS
Q
Bynars and Minuet
Beverly Crusher’s frustration in Arsenal of Freedom (and the episode’s Good Ship Lollipop joke)
Picard shooting the other version of himself in Time Squared (to clarify: out of respect for those times when we have to stop ourselves from getting caught in loops/doing stupid stuff and we summon up the courage to break a bad cycle and move forward)
K'Ehleyr
Picard out-lawyering the Sheliak
Rachel Garrett; Yar and Castillo
Lal (but I can’t watch the end anymore, it hurts too much)
the Shakespeare and “Set a course for Betazed. Warp 9.” comedy in Ménage a Troi
Best of Both Worlds, I and II (Shelby inclusive)
every conference table discussion in all of TNG
Beverly’s jump in Remember Me (such a damn good episode)
the reveal in Future Imperfect (which one? all of them)
The Dancing Doctor tap dancing with Data
Darmok. And Jalad. At Tenagra.
Ro Laren
Troi saying, “You could have easily been right” to Ro in Disaster
Hugh, Third of Five
the fact that The Next Phase has so many plotholes and they’re forgivable because the episode is so fun and great
Scotty on the holodeck version of the TOS bridge and Picard joining him
Rascals!
Deanna’s “Ancient West” outfit
the Jefferies tube music and make out session in Lessons
Attached. Oh, my heart.
the Enterprise with three nacelles … and that absolutely perfect last shot of the series
“You exist here.”
Sisko’s casual, everyday affection for Jake
“Old Man”
Rejoined. Lenara Khan. The love. That kiss. The emotional stakes. All of it.
the three Ferengi hitting their own heads to try to fix their universal translators so the 20th century Earth military people mimic the movement to try to communicate
every second of Trials and Tribble-ations including Sisko working overtime to stop fuckmaster Dax, tossing the tribbles, Sisko meeting Kirk, “We do not discuss it with outsiders,” and so much more
Kira blaming Bashir for putting the baby inside her when … you know … behind the scenes
The Sons of Mogh helping with the harvest in Children of Time
Far Beyond the Stars — some of the best if not the best science fiction I have ever seen
the monster fakeout (and kindness) in The Sound of Her Voice, even though the end makes me cry
“Computer, erase that entire personal log.”
Solok
Sisko and Kassidy discussing their comfort levels about a simulation in which the reality was segregation
Janeway waterfalling off the sofa to be closer to Mark on the screen
“Warp particles!”
the lizard babies
the two Janeways in Deadlock
Remember (a painfully good Holocaust episode that doesn’t get enough credit and, yes, I know the path the script took and I’m glad it ended up as a B’Elanna episode)
“I don't know what I'm seeking.” “Then I believe you are ready to begin.”
“The child you spoke of, the girl. Her favorite color was red.” Also, Tuvok’s meditation lamp in the window for Kes.
hot damn, Counterpoint, yaaas
everything in Relativity
“The Yankees, in six games.”
Janeway going after Seven in The Voyager Conspiracy
“This is Lieutenant Reginald Barclay at Starfleet Command.” “It's good to hear your voice, Lieutenant. We've been waiting a long time for this moment.” “The feeling is mutual. Unfortunately, the micro-wormhole is collapsing. We have only a few moments.” “Understood. We are transmitting our ship's logs, crew reports, and navigational records to you now.” “Acknowledged. And we're sending you data on some new hyper-subspace technology. We're hoping eventually to use it to keep in regular contact, and we're including some recommended modifications for your comm system.” “We'll implement them as soon as possible.” “There's someone else here who would also like to say something.” “This is Admiral Paris.” “Hello, sir.” “How are your people holding up?” “Very well. They're an exemplary crew, your son included.” “Tell him, tell him I miss him. And I'm proud of him.” “He heard you, Admiral.” “The wormhole is collapsing.” “I want you all to know we're doing everything we can to bring you home.” “We appreciate it, sir. Keep a docking bay open for us.”
“Nice hair.” (Live Fast and Prosper)
Janeway and Jaffen in Workforce
the spot-on legal concerns of Author, Author
“Set a course. For home.”
(Nothing from Enterprise or Prodigy only because I haven’t watched enough of Enterprise or any of Prodigy)
Burnham and Georgiou forming the delta with their footsteps
the CGI on only the shields protecting Burnham from space
“Are we in session? Because I didn't know you were practicing again. Because if I have your undivided attention for fifty minutes, I can think of a whole bunch of other things we could be doing.”
“That's as depressing a trait as I've ever heard.” “I don't give a damn … I still don't give a damn.”
Cornwell beaming in, phaser aimed, taking command of Discovery
Cornwell phasering the fortune cookies
Cornwell’s voice breaking: “So my Gabriel is dead.”
Detmer’s little bounce when Emperor-as-Captain Georgiou takes command
Pike beaming aboard and instantly being all like MOJAVE to prove to the audience he’s the guy from The Cage
New Eden. Everything. Oh my God (pun intended). The visuals. Owo’s backstory. Pollard patching Pike up after he’s shot. The light at the end. Oh my God, yes. That episode. Yes.
Number freaking One beaming aboard and having her lunch briefing with Pike (Chris and Una’s decades-long friendship wasn’t canon yet, but it shows here so beautifully)
Gabrielle Burnham
“In case the shit hit the fan.”
Michael Burnham on truth serum
Book
Laira Rillak, everyone!
Q&A
season 1 Raffi Musiker
Fleet Admiral and Commander-in-Chief Kirsten Clancy
“You owe me a ship, Picard.”
“You need a feather in your hat.”
Riker greeting Picard
Hugh greeting Picard
the separate trio of Raffi, Clancy, and Deanna all telling Picard he’s shit
Rios singing in Spanish
President Annika Hansen
everybody finding each other in the Confederation Universe
Liam Shaw — a character with incredible highs and lows
Majel Barrett as the computer voice when the crew gets to the Enterprise D
“Somehow I figured you might.”
everything in Ghosts of Illyria
Spock and La’an’s mind meld
Spock and T’Pring in Spock Amok
“You cannot resign. The loss to Enterprise would be unimaginable. To me.”
“If you’re going to steal a starship, do it correctly.”
Neera Ketoul
La’an normalizing needing to eat all the time as a teenager (especially important for girls to hear)
Pike and Una visually checking in with each other so often that it’s in their cartoon versions (that whole episode, actually, including, “Riker!”)
That’s scrolling through episode titles and jotting down stuff I love off the top of my head, fam.✨
Thank you so much for this ask, anon! ❤️ I needed this positive energy in my life.
#i love asks#things i love in trek canon#an incomplete list#i’m sure i’ll think of something else the minute i post#thank you so so much for leading my thoughts this way#anon
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Pspspsps wolf
You know how Terry never got to meet Alfred in Batman Beyond? What if we could change that 💃✨️ how? Time travel shenanigans~
What if a villain wanted to play around with time travel and mess with the batman, choosing to do so by capturing Robin (Damian) in the present, and switching him with the future Robin, Matt (Terry's little brother or my personal OC, if you ever want to hear about her 👀). This causes a whole lot of drama and stress for both batfams of the past and future, but are determined to return things to normal asap.
Terry can't stand Damian when he was younger and full of angry smol energy, and Damian, while trying to find a way back home, is struggling to understand how Terry, a complete outsider to the batfam, became worthy of being batman above anyone else. This also becomes a brief hot topic of debate in the past with the other batfam and future Robin, who is making their existence there everyone else's problem.
Eventually, Terry gets along with young Damian, and Bruce works efficiently with future Robin (whoever they are), that they find their ways back to each other and beat up the bad guy. They all officially meet, and due to a time travel cool down, chill in the past inside Wayne Manor. Where they can all share Intel and some peace after the hectic event they went through. Terry answers vague questions about the future, and gets to meet Alfred for the first time, and he is happy that his Bruce had him in his life for so long. Near the end, I imagine he asks Alfred for a scone recipe that was lost, and makes it for his Bruce in the future. The end.
Aaah, I was typing and lost the main reason I was writing this ask in the first place, but here is my midnight rambling ✨️
I ADORE time travel shenanigans! And Terry is such a perfect person to travel through time to see these different, younger versions of the people he knows (and meet some people like Alfred that he had only ever heard about through stories).
I imagine Terry is a little weirded out by some of their younger counterpoints, and I definitely agree that Damian is probably the strangest for him to see, especially since Damian would be close to Matt's age.
I bet he is surprised by just how much Alfred does for the family and the influence he has on them (mainly Bruce). Terry and Alfred get along great, both stubborn with a take no shit attitude, though Terry cannot understand his need to stick to his butler role. Alfred for his part probably listens well. Terry might feel more comfortable talking about certain things (while talking around spoilers for the future) since it's a bit weird with the others. (it could be so sweet!)
And Terry making scones for future Bruce 😭😭😭
It would be such a good bonding experience for them. And it could be fun for Terry to realize that Bruce knows certain things due to the time travel mix ups. It would be so sweet!
Thanks for the ask! I love this!
#ask me whatever you want y'all#terry mcginnis#alfred pennyworth#batman#batman beyond#time travel is one of my favorite tropes#and Terry is perfect for this#the rest of the bats are flailing because who even is this kid?#but eventually they all come to care about him
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hey melliot ! is jason anywhere on the aroace spectrum ?? idk if i’m reading into it too much, but as someone on the aroace spectrum, i don’t know seemed very aroace spectrum-y to me lols
Hi! Thank you for the question- I'm glad you connected to Jason through that lens and his story resonated with you!
This is a common reading of Jason's arc, and I want to reiterate what I've said on this blog before about death of the author and our intentions with the work not making fan headcanons "wrong" or "inaccurate"- your readings and connections to the material give it life and meaning beyond what we could have possibly dreamed of on our own!
The short answer is that I didn't intend for Jason to read as somewhere on the aro/ace spectrum when I wrote his arc. The long answer is below the cut!
I didn't intend to code Jason as asexual/aromantic when I was writing Princes, partially because I did think about coding Jason as autistic and wanted to avoid the stereotypical "autistic and asexual" character archetype. I think ace readings of Jason tend to read Jason's autism-coded interactions towards Maya (which I wrote more about here; moments like "don't you think it's weird you've never seen my body?" "well I'm seeing it now, aren't I?") as lack of interest in romance/sex in general. When I was writing it, I intended for Maya's female gender presentation to affect Jason's attitude towards romance and sex when he's dating her, but these interactions are not supposed to be representative of Jason's attitude towards romance and sex in general (similarly with reading 'I Don't Know' as about asexuality or aromanticism; Jason's arc isn't done yet, and what he says he feels in 'I Don't Know' -- which I intended to be "I guess I'm not in love with this objectively attractive female-presenting person" -- is only one piece to the puzzle. "I Don't Know" was in many ways the predecessor of "I Love You, I Swear" -- except in the latter, the character is already fully conscious of his attraction to men.) Jason is not interested in romance/sex with Maya because he is not attracted to women (which, Maya's gender stuff nonwithstanding, is how Jason perceives her) -- but I intended him to read as very much attracted to Louis and wanting to have a romantic relationship with him (and enjoying that romantic relationship, once it begins).
I think another reason my intention for Jason to be explicitly attracted to men doesn't always get across is that Jason's arc, more than anyone else's, was conceived of as a narrative about internalized homophobia, which by necessity requires some sense of homophobia existing -- not always a given in the Princes world. The expectations for straight people in the palace aren't as fleshed out simply because everyone but Jason is already, publicly or privately, part of the queer counterculture. Unlike anyone else in the main 5, Jason is still really trying to be the Perfect Straight Guy, inside and out. He has to overcome his internalized homophobia and reject the privilege of being perceived as straight in order to admit his love for Louis- no small task, and one that sends him into a spiral of despair when he realizes simply performing love for a woman isn't enough for her or for him. I tried to leave hints of this throughout -- his flustered aside about Louis' outfit during Talk About It With You, the musical and lyrical contrast between I Don't Know and If I Knew You Then, his verse during Love and Everything -- but it's not given much screentime simply because he isn't the main character. His struggles with how to reject power that comes with a terrible cost provide a counterpoint to Louis', and therefore didn't need as much nuance as Louis' does.
To get a little personal, I have been thinking about how common this reading is for a while, actually. Without going into too much detail, when I was quite young, my lack of interest in a bad romantic partner lead me to conclude that I was asexual. Subsequently, I dated a series of women, both because I was expected to due to my gender presentation, and because I figured if I was asexual either way, not being attracted to them wouldn't be a problem. I got a bit older and discovered I was in fact attracted to men- those emotions and desires simply hadn't existed earlier because of my age and inexperience. (I want to make explicitly clear that for some people those desires never exist, and that is awesome! And that being allo is in no way "better" than being ace- it just wasn't the right label for me, and that mismatch was causing me distress the same way I imagine it does for ace people trying to be allo.) Finally allowing myself to admit that I was attracted to men as a man was such a relief that I wanted to explore this experience in the figure of a gay man dealing with compulsory heterosexuality in Princes, which was written shortly after I had this realization in the first place.
If I were to psychoanalyze the script, I think this personal experience I had is why some parts of Jason's arc resonate so strongly with the ace community- like me, he goes through a period of believing himself to be something like asexual and aromantic, so reading "I Don't Know" that way isn't totally antithetical to the intentions of the script. On a broader level, however, I think ace people connecting to Jason reflects a wonderful moment of queer solidarity- how it is a common queer experience, regardless of your specific orientation, to come up against where society's romantic and sexual expectations for you differ from what you really want. Having to navigate that struggle is something we'll all be dealing with as long as there is an assumed cisgender, heterosexual, allosexual default, and if my art helps another queer person get the confidence to say "screw you" to those norms and pursue what they want for themself, I'm completely happy.
~Mel
P.S. I used "ace" as a catchall term here for "asexual and aromantic," but I know they're very different! I'd say in my opinion that there's a stronger argument for Jason being asexual (in the text) than aromantic (in the text), since the text deals with Jason's desire for a romantic relationship with Louis more than his physical desire for him. I can see a very fun reading where Jason and Louis are both asexual and in a happy romantic marriage at the end, which would also tie into Louis' discomfort with the pressure to perform sexually for his previous partners. I'm also not trying to say that no reading of Jason as somewhere on the ace/aro spectrum is compatible with the text as written- for example, we never see him try to date men other than Louis, so he isn't explicitly not demisexual. I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't thinking of him that way when I wrote his arc, so ace readings are more of a happy accident.
#answered#msreporter#asks#jason bartok#the art of pleasing princes#taopp#this one is more personal so I'm going to make it unable to be reblogged. sorry gang#but thank you for asking!
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Unveiling the Power of Sound Healing in Tampa: A Guide to Understanding How it Works
In the realm of alternative medicine and holistic wellness, there exists a practice that transcends conventional understanding—the art of sound healing. Rooted in ancient traditions and embraced by modern practitioners, sound healing harnesses the power of sound frequencies to promote physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. But what exactly is sound healing, and how does it work? Read more to learn about Sound Healing in Tampa, FL.
The Essence of Sound Healing In Tampa, FL
Sound healing is a therapeutic practice that utilizes the vibrations of sound to restore harmony and balance within the body, mind, and spirit. This ancient healing modality traces its origins to various cultures across the globe, including ancient Egypt, Greece, India, and indigenous societies.
At its core, sound healing operates on the principle that everything in the universe, including our bodies, is in a state of vibration. When these vibrations become imbalanced or disrupted, it can lead to disharmony and dis-ease. Sound healing aims to realign these vibrations, allowing for a return to a state of equilibrium and wellness.
The Mechanisms Behind Sound Healing
1. Resonance and Entrainment
One of the fundamental mechanisms of sound healing is resonance—the phenomenon where a vibrating object causes another object to vibrate at the same frequency. When a sound frequency is introduced to the body, organs, cells, and even individual molecules resonate in response. This resonance facilitates the release of stagnant energy, promoting relaxation and healing.
Entrainment is another crucial concept in sound healing, referring to the tendency of rhythmic vibrations to synchronize with an external source. When exposed to specific frequencies, such as those produced by singing bowls, tuning forks, or vocal toning, the body and brain naturally synchronize to match these frequencies. This synchronization induces a state of coherence and balance, promoting a sense of well-being.
2. Neurological and Physiological Effects
Sound waves have a profound impact on the brain and nervous system. Studies have shown that certain frequencies can stimulate the release of neurotransmitters and hormones associated with relaxation and stress reduction, such as serotonin and dopamine. Additionally, sound therapy has been found to lower heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels, thereby promoting overall cardiovascular health and stress management.
3. Emotional and Energetic Healing
Beyond its physical effects, sound healing also holds profound implications for emotional and energetic well-being. The vibrations of sound have the ability to penetrate deep into the subconscious mind, releasing emotional blockages and promoting emotional release and catharsis. Many practitioners believe that specific frequencies and musical intervals correspond to different emotional states, offering a means to address and transform negative emotions.
Exploring Sound Healing Modalities
Sound healing encompasses a diverse array of modalities, each employing different instruments and techniques to achieve therapeutic outcomes:
Singing Bowls: Used for centuries in Tibetan and Himalayan cultures, singing bowls produce rich harmonic tones that resonate throughout the body.
Tuning Forks: Tuning forks emit precise frequencies that can be applied directly to the body or placed in the surrounding environment to create a healing resonance.
Voice and Vocal Toning: Vocal techniques, such as chanting, toning, and overtone singing, harness the power of the human voice to create therapeutic vibrations.
Gongs: With their deep, reverberating tones, gongs produce a wide spectrum of frequencies that facilitate deep relaxation and meditation.
Conclusion: The Symphony of Healing
In a world where stress and discord often reign, sound healing offers a harmonious counterpoint—a melody of healing vibrations that resonate deep within our being. Through resonance, entrainment, and neurological modulation, sound healing holds the potential to restore balance and vitality to the body, mind, and spirit. As we continue to explore the depths of this ancient practice, may we rediscover the profound healing potential that lies within the symphony of sound.
To learn more about sound healing and book your private session, contact Mindful Bliss Tribe at www.mindfulblisstribe.com/book-online.
#sound healing tampa#sound bath#meditation#energy healing#mindfulness#spiritual#gratitude#presence#intuition#reikihealing#healing#sound healing#spiritual awakening#spiritual healing#holisticliving#holisticwellness
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I really like your take on Levi, and now I wanna hear what was your Marxist critique on Levi.
Levi being transfem is interesting, though I can't really detach from Levi being tranmasc because the brainrot said so. I am aware there are trans men who also crossdress so it would seem like an interesting idea to have Levi dress in a feminine manner (probably courtesy of Marina) as a way as to not only distant himself from his past but also help him understand that he doesn't need to conform to society's standard of what a man should be. Wouldn't be surprised he initially accepted conscription because he tried to live up to that standard.
transmasc levi is a perfectly valid interpretation as well! if a character speaks to you in some way that makes you connect deeper w them, then kudos rock n roll my dude :3
anyway, k so basically the Marxist critique was like “levi’s suffering as a child soldier is somewhat presented as a depressing, unchanging ‘fact’ of reality is kind of disingenuous and peddles the harmful idea that everything awful in this world is ultimately unchangeable, and any attempts to change it is ultimately pointless.
‘because the funger world has the old gods who (though they have supposedly left) hold ultimate dominion over every event, then everything levi and to an extent all characters suffer is merely a machination of their existence. because the old gods exist, there is a sort of “reason,” the series posits.
‘and yeah, this is somewhat true to our reality because the systems that govern our world are quite intricate, vast, and unknowable—like a god beyond our comprehension— but it’s just that, a system, not a rule like the old gods of funger.
‘basically, Funger does this thing that i hate with most series where deeply bad shit happens and says “well, that’s just the way things are” to some extent—most attempts by people to break out of the cycle just repeat it once more, as per design.
‘levi—and every character’s suffering—may be resolved on an individual level (as they are in my interpretations bc i’m a whiny pissbaby who likes happy endings), but that still doesn’t really aid in addressing the root issue, does it? because that “root issue” is often ultimately presented as a result of otherworldly influences, beyond comprehension.
‘another Marxist critique is how the narratives of history have been ritualized, the world is ultimately controlled by the “Great Men” of history who decide how the next century should proceed. that’s literally how the New Gods operate, and though it’s mostly to emphasize how history continues to repeat itself, Funger doesn’t really acknowledge how humans have made real change. not through some kind of “great man” who was just Better than every other Guy around to cause any sort of change but
‘in a sense (and a potential counterpoint to my critique), you can interpret the ending A of Termina as a Marxist revolution—a collective movement of the people to unite as one and overturn the previous regime. the characters who get absorbed into Logic describe the process as something warm, like sleep, as they become something infinitesimally greater than themselves. the events of the festival can be metaphorically interpreted as a set of workers being pushed to their breaking point—individuals who have been largely cast out of their society and isolated from their work who now have “nothing to lose but your chains.” but i’d have to see where Mr. Haverinen takes Logic bc this interpretation is already super shoe-horny.”
But I didn’t go with this “opinion” mainly bc it doesn’t really address Levi too much and also bc I don’t really like presenting this opinion as something holistic. Like, this isn’t how the Funger-franchise is meant to be interpreted, and it’s point of view on suffering is less of a critique on class, power structures, the narrative of history, etc and more a reflection on a basic human condition: life sucks. Sometimes, you can’t do anything about it, but you persevere anyway. Here’s how you can use it for the better. But ultimately, this shit sucks, and sometimes that’s just the way it is.
It’s less concerned with solving problems and more focused on sympathy, suffering as empowerment, learning from it, that kind of thing. And I’m okay with just interpreting it as that bc that still is meaningful in its own way, and I think you get the most meaning out of a work of you view it from the perspective of how it’s meant to be interpreted.
Not to say that critiques or different POVs are completely irrelevant—the contrary actually. They reveal the deeper complexities abt the work or provide a fun reinterpretation for the sake of it. But ultimately, I didn’t think I’d be giving a genuine analysis if I analyzed Levi with this heuristic.
tldr; not everything needs to be disco elysium, unfortunately
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My first full-length poetry collection, Toska is out now from Deep Vellum! The gorgeous cover art is by Katy Horan.
You can find it at the following places:
Deep Vellum
Bookshop.org
City Lights
Open Books
Barnes & Noble
Target
Amazon
your favorite local bookstore, if you ask!
If you’d like an inscribed copy, please get in touch with me here.
These are poems about the untranslatable but essential concepts that form us, and Alina Pleskova is the interpreter of their simultaneous hold and flight: “What you call me in the dark / isn’t what I am / & that helps me float / above the moment.” Toska is a book of the immigrant daughter in her not-quite-own world, and a book of contempt for striving and capitalism—but the centripetal force that powers these poems is the nameless part of the self, “ruthlessly / down for whatever,” the locked room that nobody can open even while you long for a breach. Pleskova, generous and funny and modern, is a poet of forthright intimacy. —NIINA POLLARI, author of Path of Totality
Alina Pleskova’s debut collection is into grabbing things by the neck, & not always gently: eros in the ancient bedroom & the age of apps; transcendence & complacency & spirituality under capitalism. Pleskova’s poetics is deliciously generous, even in its moments of ambivalence; reading Toska is like chatting with your best friend about pursuing & evading pleasure while the American project unravels. These poems don’t just see to the heart of queer & immigrant subjectivities; they enact them. I sank with this book, was buoyed by this book—how it, like so many of us in America, experiences perpetual attempt, failed translation, the feeling that we are always missing something just beyond our reach. If only we could tighten our grip, want wanting itself, we might unearth language for identity & desire language, of course, being ephemeral, timeless, fleeting, & stunning, all at once. —RAENA SHIRALI, author of summonings and GILT
Alina Pleskova's Toska bears the burden of the eponymous longing melancholy of living even as it phases into the burn of real threats to human-and humane-existence. Writing from "The country where I live- / its surveillance of us surveilled by the country I'm from-" she counterpoints the impersonal gaze of the state and algorithms that follow our movements with the poet's infinitely careful attention to the flow of the everyday: "Made it this far / without mentioning the rain. // Here it is; it's perfect." Solace is found in community, the imperative to "Daydream what mutual care could do," the vast motions astrology tracks, ancient poet gossip. Overwhelmingly, too, in the mysteries of queer desire and its dream of transcendence, the desire to desire unbounded by intolerance, or worse-murder. These poems telegraph in a seductive whisper that keeping each other alive is enough-it's everything, because "I want the class wars to start, but everyone's so tired." The poet asks, "What song was playing when my heart's chambers I got thrown open to let these breezes in?" This book is the song, its frequencies coming through the voices of friends, lovers, family, the poets of the past, and Pleskova's tender plaint that would "Mourn the redwoods, fireflies, platypuses, permafrost, all else that deserves to outlive us & won't ..." In her hands, poetry is the hack for our earthly hangover, toska / saudade its secret sauce in whose ingredients hide the seeds of a new world. We'll be together there,' "covered in each other's hair." —ANA BOZICEVIC, author of New Life
Reading Toska was a spiritual and whole-body experience. I laughed, I screamed, I teared up, I nearly bought a one-way ticket back to Moldova, I called my mom. No one captures the poetics of eros and diasporic longing amid our late-stage capitalist hellscape like Alina Pleskova. 'Assuring various robots / that I'm not a robot several times daily' does not prevent our speaker from 'stockpil[ing] intimacies almost too ephemeral to clock.' And what a gift this book of intimacies is. Toska is a tender and wry instruction manual for navigating desire and the void. I will follow Alina Pleskova anywhere. —RUTH MADIEVSKY, author of All-Night Pharmacy
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Hybrid Class Review: Bloodrager part 5
(art by YasenStoilov on DeviantArt)
Conclusions
We’ve gone through a whole week of tackling the bloodrager, and I hope you can see why it’s one of my favorites of the ten hybrid classes.
We’ve all felt angry now and again, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for not so good reasons. There is a certain catharsis to be had in just letting out your fury in a safe way, such as what the barbarian and bloodrager classes offer.
However, in a lot of fiction these days, many characters with powers tied to their emotions, have moments where just the reaction of being angry has real consequences on the character’s environment, with or without the character’s active choices. Generating so much excess heat that soft metals nearby melt, for example, or transforming into a very angry bear. More than a few of us no doubt have silently wished for our fury to have such extraordinary consequences, perhaps out of a desire for our anger to exist beyond ourselves, or out of a desire for the universe to feel the consequences of the frustrations that it thrusts upon us.
Indeed, that is what the bloodrager class can offer in terms of theming, whether you characterize them as being anger-fueled badasses, someone in possession of a “superpowered evil side” or someone struggling to accept the fury in their heart.
Indeed, a lot of bloodrager stories are likely about struggling to accept oneself, or to be accepted by others, since being able to call down lightning when you get pissed off tends to make others give you a wide berth. If they do find acceptance, they might instead be a story about being an counterpoint to someone who is still struggling with themselves.
Mechanically, the bloodrager can be a lot of fun too, since their various bloodline magics and spells can give you a bit more leeway than you come to expect from the barbarian, either doubling down on the aggressive nature of the two classes with offensive buffs and blasting, or load up on defensive buffs and long-range attacks to become an uncanny defensive tank that also hits like a Mack truck. Most likely you’ll do a bit of both, though. Limited spell slots and spells known means that diversity and reliability are key.
I doubt that bloodrager will make a return in 2e given how the system is set up, with the ability to just blend mage classes with barbarian since only spells with verbal components have the concentrate keyword. Doubly so if barbarian ever gets a feat that creates an exception for spellcasting while raging. If it doesn’t, there might just be a chance.
In any case, that does it for this week, thanks for reading, and tune in next week for more archetypes!
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If you were in charge of an adaption of the Black Swordsman, Conviction, and so on arcs and you could make whatever additions or cuts you wanted, what stuff would be added or cut?
Thanks for the ask!
Immediate thought: Cut Moonbaby. Change the fetus into some kind of fucked up puppy looking thing which just exists to symbolize Guts' own pathetic inner darkness as a more objective counterpoint to the Beast of Darkness (which is what I think the fetus' original role was before Miura went ham with the baby shit). During the Conviction arc it doesn't save Casca a bunch of times, rather Casca is endangered less often and escapes from the occasional danger in ways that don't require magic.
No werebaby plot, if the Casca kidnapping turns out to be vital in some way and not something easily changeable into something else then Griffith shows up to kidnap her for other made up reasons, like, say, he needs someone with the brand of sacrifice to do some kind of magic thing, or something. If the Casca kidnapping plot turns out to be little more than an excuse to get Guts to Falconia then Guts just goes to Falconia to try to fight Griffith once Casca turns out to not be a good distraction.
Oh and of course there's no ambiguity wrt Griffith's feelings - we see inside his head at the Hill of Swords, he's going 'oh shit my heart's fluttering again,' and that's the last we get of NGriff's point of view. I feel like that would make his subsequent placidity with occasional hints of emotion even more fun.
I'd adapt the Black Swordsman arc very faithfully otherwise, including opening with the demon sex scene because I don't care, I think it's a fantastic opener, it would set that Verhoeven-esque tone I love perfectly. Guts blows her head off with a quip, cut to credits, cut back to Guts' more somber and haunted glance back at the corpse as he walks away, boom, perfect Berserk opening.
Also with the start of the Millenium Falcon arc I'd reframe Farnese as the point of view character and put Guts at a bit more of a mysterious distance, to mimic how his followers see him, and also to kind of underline his emotional ambiguity. I think canonically he's repressing his complicated feelings, and I think making his feelings kind of unknown but hinting that he's not taking Casca to Elfhelm solely for love would convey that complicated feelings vibe more overtly. Plus Griffith parallels. Make the last time we're in Guts' head for a whole arc like, the scene where he assaults Casca (which I would keep, if we're keeping the Eclipse rape) and we'd leave him on a very dark note and also suggest that he may have a strong emotional reaction to his own actions there, without showing exactly what that reaction is beyond hiring a babysitter lol. It would help fix the impression in canon that Guts just doesn't even have much of a reaction to it.
Oh and if we're centering Farnese more then I think she should have a longer arc of reconciling her religious black and white thinking with her new perspective, rather than a single fucking montage lol. This should be a process throughout the whole Millenium Falcon arc, so I guess I'd add some scenes where she still acts like a spoiled brat, maybe it takes her longer to treat Casca with decency and she has a revelation about protecting her that changes her attitude, still treating Serpico like a servant in an obnoxious way, either denying responsibility or being overly consumed by catholic-y guilt at points, etc. The whole point should be watching her slowly grow, not 180ing her personality.
Also Isidro goes home after the troll shit. Old Village Dude shows him the error of his ways. And consequently Puck is fun again.
Anyway yeah I think that's it. This was fun, ty!
If you're interested I've written a long answer to a similar question that includes the Golden Age here.
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i think a lot of the handwringing about venat is like. cus the core thing of ew was “you have to find an answer to meteion and the lost worlds in order to solve the problem at its root”/this is what the entire hearthinkfeel shit was about & a lot of fans are really attached to the ancients as a faction and believe their destruction to be pure senseless cruelty when it’s part of a more symbolic storyline and the sundered are meant to be a direct continuation of them and not a lol great replacement. i see a lot of counterpoints being like “well they should have imprisoned/executed/manipulated hermes to keep him in the dark while everyone else was in the know so that he could help kill meteion” (dont know where to even start impossible anyways because ancients cant easily lie to each other once suspicion exists), “well they should have created another mega entelechy being that can only feel joy can only obey the command of the ancients and could kill meteion” (most insane fucking suggestion by far for multiple reasons that would shit entirely on ew’s themes far more than the sundering), “they should have only sundered a voluntary faction only to give them the mechanical ability to fight and kill meteion” “they should have just made a Stronger Zodiark that could have killed meteion with raw aetherical force”. LIKE DO YOU SEE THE. METEION IS NOT supposed to be a single invididual villain entity, like the head of a beast you have to cut off. she’s a representation of something that has existed far before her and far beyond her. the fact that every other alternate solution revolves around “how can we kill meteion instead of answer to her” (on the basis that she’s an irredeemable individual with volition and autonomy who’s just morally corrupt and/or nothing but a completely literal apocalypse bringer, like maybe a plague, so simply just too big of an issue to exist so she should just be killed and offered no compassion). i guess the line here is blurred because all characters in a story represent something but some people dont see that meteion is more metaphor than not and think she is just another “representation of a person” like most fictional person shaped characters. the very question “why didn’t venat just help kill meteion” is so like. i dont know hideously ugly way to parse the story to me which sets me so far from the line where ppl are like It’s hideously ugly that venat “gave up” on her people and genocided them or whatever
#sorry. i googled venat to find the short story and found a thread that im reading now and it’s like#oh dude you guys just. cared about the ancients more than anything else#which ok but.#i saw someone say it was fine for like#the ancients to make the ‘beast tribes’ for the purpose of sacrifice saying that it was like#less suffering for them to live as subservient beings to the ancients whod rule them as#‘benevolent gods’ who simply had the dictation of whether or not they could live#…#DO YOU SEE. THE
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tonks/remus 🤭
hate it:)) it's blatant comp het. but i'm going to rant a bit bcs you asked for it
this pairing is the best case of the assh0le author panicking bcs of how queer-coded those two characters are. not only that but her misogyny as well. Tonks was reduced to a wide-eyed, pure lady swooning over a man ten years older than her, suddenly interested in starting a family, immediately getting pregnant amidst war.
and sure, a counterpoint could be 'it all happened behind the curtains', bcs it's harry's pov so we cant assume she never had any of those feelings and what not, but Tonks is set up to be spirited, adventurous, and youthful. like how are we just expected to believe she apparently has been wanting to be a mother right as the war is at its peak. and that her development with remus all happened after sirius died. strange coincidence.
then theres the whole molly pressuring the two of them together. it really rubs me off the wrong way how molly is, first of all, meddling so hard. like im p sure theres a line where you can play matchmaker and what shes doing is beyond that line. she doesnt strike me as tonks or remus' bestfriend so..
and maybe the author just sucks at writing (intentional) romance.
as for remus im simply on the side of r/s. completely biased lol.
but ok even if he moved on from sirius' death (impossible) i think the only way i can see this pairing come to be is, to go back to my first point, a comphet, in other words, a mistake. tonks or maybe both of them were desperate to find comfort and found it from each other. (weird). either way it would be nothing serious, like starting-a-family-together-serious.
i actually love the idea that tonks reminds remus of sirius so much. OR that tonks is an amazing friend to remus. just as remus is for tonks. and the bridge(?) is sirius. like it's bcs of how similar sirius and tonks are.
and yes, im an angst reader and writer so i can excuse/tolerate this pairing only for the angst. either way it should end with them not getting together:))
ps. this is why i have a hard time with teddy's existence
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Could we just talk about for a second about the dichotomy in The Sparrow of the comic attitude of focusing on life and the every day vs. the tragic, or perhaps religiously redemptive, attitude of death, of focusing on the irreversible loss as if it is the only thing there is. But as Emilio realizes there is a flip side to each attitude depending on if God is present. The comic attitude, the choice of life, without God’s existence, providing you are a person who still acts as if God exists, becomes a farce - life is life and it is all there is, yet people still persist on their pathetic actions giving away everything for the belief in something that doesn’t even exist. And the flip side of the tragic narrative with God present is the martyrdom narrative, where the person is still utterly destroyed rather than moderating the intensity of their life and continuing to live, and yet the ending of destruction is ultimate bliss and reunion with God rather than “just” death. But the tragic narrative without God, unlike the comic narrative without Him, though it comes from before a time of widespread belief in an omniscient, benevolent God, calling back to the Greek tragedies (thus how Emilio compares himself to Aeschylus’s Clytemnestra), does not presume as the comic/farcical narrative does that no such force exists. Instead, it is given its tragic weight by believing greater forces do exist and they are merciless to humanity. Whether that be a pantheon of gods and fate as in Greek tragedy or the same God as in Abrahamic religions, but malevolent, as Emilio sees things in the end.
When he still feels in contact with God, he favors the martyrdom narrative over the comical (with God present) one, in contrast to the others in his party, expressed also in his celibacy; giving up the full celebration of life in favor of a goal beyond it. Meanwhile Sofia’s Jewish perspective on religion contrasts with Emilio’s Christian one, leading her to follow the maxim of always choosing life, both in her backstory of becoming a child prostitute to survive rather than die for insistence of sexual purity (unlike Christian attitudes that often went that it is better to die than sacrifice that purity no matter how much you are victimized or forced to do it), and later represented by her being the one who marries and is going to have a child on the new planet, Emilio losing his chance to due to his celibacy. Marc is a Christian himself but nonetheless has the comic attitude, seeing his continued life as a blessing and relating to God in terms of the life he was given instead of a redemptive death, he thus sees God in the life shown in nature or women he is attracted to. And there is great appeal to choosing life; it answers the question of why God would let this life exist in the first place rather than send everyone straight to some paradise; surely there must be meaning in the world as it is that should not be rejected. The typical Christian perspective alienates Sofia because it is too drastic, too inhumane, the religious counterpoint to the tragic narrative which I’ve seen another post on Tumblr describing as being profound precisely because the protagonist reaches a cold completion in utter destruction, the death mask set in, and thus a transcendence beyond the little subtleties and farcical oscillating failures and successes and just ordinariness of humanity. She thus talks Emilio down from being completely lost in grief following Anne and D. W’s deaths as if nothing else matters and the grief is all he will ever be; one must move on, one must choose life! Anne dislikes it for the same reasons, as shown when she talks about how vows like vows of celibacy, in their claims of utter completion and surety, are inhuman and ignore the little ways that people change into different person throughout their life; no one ever really reaches that ideal of tragic completion as a person, so it’s silly to make vows that pretend they do.
But then the narrative, after showing the arguments for favoring the comic narrative, also shows the horror inherent to the embrace of life. Because it also begs the question; if life is so important, if life is all there is, why is this life so inadequate? Surely there must be something else, some unknown factor beyond this life to shift the balance of good and bad so you can once again believe a benevolent God made this world? Life of course means nature, having sex, the birth of new children; things people tend to think of as happy things. Yet nature is not constant rejoicing, but the constant brutality of predator and prey, which shapes the relationship between the Runa and Jana’ata despite their civilized veneer. The very indulgence in the birth of new life that the newcomers bring is what makes inevitable the cycle of cruelty and horror, it is this happy time of new birth that brings their doom. And the as the final expression of how horrific the embrace of life is without anything greater and beyond the cycles of Darwinian nature is underneath its deceptive beauty, we have rape being turned into a beautiful song, motivated by the idea that this is the purest embrace of life from someone who is denied it and faced with sterility.
When he feels betrayed by God, Emilio embraces the tragic narrative over the farcical one, as he says he MUST embrace the tragic narrative to avoid the farcical one, just as he embraced the martyrdom/celibacy narrative over the comic one when he still saw God embedded in both. Or at least he supposedly did; in the end, as the people questioning him point out, he didn’t have it in him to be a martyr who gives up any hope of something in this world (leading to their frustration with how this is enough to break him when so many other Jesuits had continued their mission up until death), he still believed the proof of God’s existence was something within this life; the languages he learned, the beauty of the planet, the connections he made with alien species. In the end, faced with a horrifically exaggerated version of the archetypical Jewish dilemma of whether to eat to survive when the food is forbidden, to which the Jewish perspective that Sofia follows answers that it is allowed, it was Emilio who chose life and all of the degradations that followed and Marc who refused and became a martyr.
There is horror in both narratives, and neither on its own inherently explains why the world is like it is if an omniscient, benevolent God exists. Perhaps they both can explain it together.
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