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#hold on that might just be a quote from a tv show. which one was it. a woman saying it to someone about someone else

astroismypassion · 8 months

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Astrology observations 🟢🟢🟢

Credit goes to @astroismypassion

🟢I noticed high number of people that like the idea of saving yourself for marriage have Scorpio over the 8th house, but also often Capricorn Vesta, Vesta at 22 degree or Vesta in the 10th house.

🟢People with Pisces Vesta might have rather low libido. They really enjoy things that are more metaphysical and they are often very detached from their own body, not very in tune with it. They might do just well by watching films, TV series and indulging into their favourite movie snack. They are really fine with being on their own.

🟢Aquarius Ceres people had a mother that emphasized that their identity, personality and body are very unique. These are the people that will always tell you you're one of a kind, special and unique. This placement is very much "No one is you and that is your superpower" quote!

🟢Additionally, on Ceres note, your Ceres sign serves like the 2nd Moon sign. Ceres also shows how you perceived your mother's nurturing. So you could have a Virgo Moon, but Aquarius Ceres. And you might actually more relate to Aquarius Ceres when it comes to your relationship with your mother. Similarly, you can have Aries Moon, but your Ceres is in Pisces. But often times Moon and Ceres are compatible and connected.

🟢Scorpio Ceres doesn't want to think about money, although throughout their lifetime their life revolves A LOT around money. Either in form of debt, financial issues, help others with their money etc. Money for them is a veryy emotional topic. When they receive money they might actually tear up a little. When they give or lend money it's often an investment for them and they might have regrets connected with it or hold resentment later on for giving someone their money. Sometimes they make purchases that they not only regret, but might feel a bit ashamed that they even made this purchase in the first place. Also, this is very much the person to mix sex with money. Or they spend money on the person they are physically intimate with (sexually involved).

🟢Having Venus in someone's 10th house in a romantic Synastry is such an interesting overlay I notice. Often times one person really supports other's career and long-term goals to the point they help the other person set up a business. But I noticed that often that also become a weakness later in the partnership. So they continue the successful business, but the partnership dissolves.

🟢Ruler of the 7th house in the 5th house often has a crush on blond/light-haired people or those that have golden highlights.

🟢I'm not saying always, but most often in particular people who have Gemini over the 7th house often assume or very early on when meeting someone assume they the person is interested in them romantically. With Sagittarius over the 1st house (which points to an exaggerated sense of self and ego) they persistently think someone likes them despite clear evidence to the contrary. And Gemini Descendants even more so, they sometimes tend to believe they can "convince" someone if they put enough effort or try hard enough, even when the person verbally expressed that they are not interested in them. Even this Sagittarius Gemini axis can sometimes deal with delusion much like Pisces Virgo axis.

🟢Libra or Taurus over the 10th house: people at your workplace, random co-workers, even your boss will be very interested in your relationship status. Those around you will often speculate whether you have a partner or ask you if you are single. Also, if you have one of these two signs, be mindful with who you are connecting yourself with, because people around you might often make assumptions or jump to fast conclusions to who you are dating, even if the two of you are just friends! They could see you talking with someone and they might already assume you two have something going on.

🟢People with Scorpio Jupiter often go for Capricorn Sun as their spouse or committed partner. If you have Scorpio Jupiter in your Natal chart you are likely to attract a rather controlling partner.

🟢People with Pisces and Aries over the 4th house felt like they had to raise themselves. They are also really late bloomers. They might start raising themselves and working on themselves in late 20s, 30s.

🟢When you have Scorpio over the 7th house or Pluto in the 7th house in your Solar Return chart you will feel like don't receive help from anyone and it will be the year of many rejections, either in your love life, career or you will feel rejected by your loved ones.

🟢Composite Leo Mars in the 7th house make the two of you much more indecisive when together than independently/when you are apart. You often swing from "You choose, I don't mind anything" to "I don't know". When you are together you seem to make a decision much slower and it's harder to even pick to which restaurant you want to go eat. With the sign of Leo, you might have power struggles over making your choice as the final mutual decision. You will both want things to go your own way, not how the other person wants.

🟢Ruler of the 7th house in the 5th house are the biggest flirts that tend to be non-committal, because they value their independence a little too much, but also because they have the enough charming, charismatic confidence that they can get anyone.

Credit goes to @astroismypassion

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vagabond-umlaut · 1 year

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⁙ tv taught me how to feel; now real life has no appeal

jjk boys and men as k-drama boyfriend archetypes, ft. yuuji, suguru, megumi, kento, satoru and sukuna.

▸ seperate character x gn! reader headcanons and/or scenarios; 4.3k wc; use of gn! nicknames; fluff [the tooth-rotting, butterfly-inducing kind]; implied smut in case of suguru & sukuna; implied war in case of satoru.

▸ my shoulders are hurting from typing for so long, ow, ow, ow!!!! got the inspiration for this from so many posts floating on my dash and 'for you' page; though i'm pretty sure this kind of post has never been done before. ▸ also, the author [blehhh, that's me!] knows very little to almost nothing on the k-dramas quoted in the link used for reference [this], apart from what info's on the wiki page. so this piece of writing might bear similarities to the original k-drama plot; it might bear differences to it. please don't be mad or upset with me! 🥰 ▸ anyways, the title's from the song 'oh no!' by marina. neither the characters nor the image nor the divider used are mine. [the divider is by @benkeibear.] please don't plagiarize or translate or repost this. enjoy reading! ❤️

itadori yuuji as 'the above-average country guy'

[c'mon, are you really surprised?]

the day you leave the city life for the tiny town your grandpa lives in, because your mom loses her job, you think that's exactly when everything good in your life reaches its end.

the school is far and you've got to walk to it; the students are weird and kind of old-fashioned; the town is sooo boring... ugh.

or was, before you meet the grandson of one of your grandpa's old friends. itadori yuuji - or yuuji-kun, as the boy insists you call him.

studying in the same year as you, your new friend acquaintance is nothing less than an angel, a pure beam of sunshine.

from greeting everyone - even you, the titled snob of the school - with a grin so wide, it dimples his cheeks;

to assisting those needing help - be it getting your cat off the tree or sharing the pretty heavy load of notebooks you are originally tasked to carry back to the class [while ignoring your protests the entire duration];

to accompanying you to the school and back home after one off-handed remark of yours of you missing travelling with your friends...

you're more than a little surprised, why's the supposed golden boy of the town being kind and friendly with a grump like you?

however... what's more surprising than his cordial manner with you is... as you spend more time in his company, you find the way you perceive the world changing, bit by bit.

the walk to school is no longer strenuous and dreaded, thanks to yuuji's constant chatter and not-so-funny-as-silly jokes.

your classmates too seem to be more open and welcoming of you, and you find yourself smiling more and more with them and slowly getting involved in many of their shenanigans. [gosh! who the hell ever said village people are boring? they're so freaking fun!]

and guess what? even the town slowly grows brighter in your eyes.

thanks to your best friend [yes, now you accept him as so] showing you so many 'awesome' places in the town!!

the ice cream shop which supposedly sells the best ice cream in the world [the claim isn't really wrong, you guess];

the scariest haunted mansion on the far end of the town [it isn't scary; but you don't tell him that. you act scared just so yuuji'll hold your hand throughout the tour];

the tallest tree in the woods nearby, perched on a branch of which, you can get a clear view of your idyllic little town below and of the tiny twinkling stars above [you fall in love with the spot the second you experience the sheer beauty of the sights from it].

[you reckon, your feelings for your companion too solidify into 'something more' the second you tear your eyes away from the visual feast before, to the boy beside, only to find his gaze not on the scenery but on you, a soft smile in place of his usual boisterous grin — yet you don't say anything.]

[not 'cause you feel insecure or worried, he might not return your affection; but 'cause you realize yuuji does. the look on his face tells you enough... that, and the way he silently asks for permission, shy gaze darting between your eyes and lips – a permission you're all too eager to grant with a nod and a meek smile of your own.]

geto suguru as 'the k-pop star'

attractiveness = 100. singing skills = 100. attitude = 0.

[or, maybe, 10. the group's visual - wtf is his name? oh, yes, sukuna. that guy's getting get a solid zero in this.] [anyways–]

the first time you meet geto is when you're accompanying your elder brother, satoru to the auditions.

you're simply standing there, trying to cheer your brother up before his number is called [he might appear to be unafraid but you know your nii-chan better than that], when a smooth voice interrupts you followed by a sharp angular face appearing with even sharper eyes, glancing at you for a beat before falling on satoru.

that's the first time you meet him and that's the last time you view him in a light which isn't tinted with hatred.

you reckon it begins the evening of the party celebrating satoru's selection into the band. [it isn't a big matter; kind of small, in fact, given it's just you, your brother, your best friend shoko and satoru's new teammates - bubbly haibara, serious nanami, irritating sukuna and fucking bastard geto.]

to be more precise, it begins the moment satoru dozes off after his fifth glass of beer [you wonder, how, being your brother, he is such a lightweight] and sukuna, sensing the sliver of opportunity, starts flirting with you — a situation, annoying, yes, but one you're more than capable of handling — if only not for that long-haired bastard 'new best friend' of your brother.

the said asshole strolls in with a condenscending smirk, saying how one must never go for someone like you, so plain and boring.

now, generally, you don't let other's opinions of you get to yourself, but when it's from a guy you might've got a mild crush on... it's so infuriating, you can really feel your blood boiling within your veins.

and to your greatest chagrin, you find your blood boiling so many more times in the future, you think it's a miracle you haven't turned into a pressure cooker yet.

from an informal get-together to a launch party to an award show, geto never fails to get under your skin. sometimes, it's a concealed smirk; sometimes, a fleeting touch; sometimes, a lilting whisper - and you're left, fuming and flustered.

yet, just like everything good and bad, this hatred of yours towards the leader of your brother's band too reaches an end — yet not the way you might have expected it to be – with an apology [certainly not by you, but to you] and a clinking of two wine glasses.

it reaches an end with the two of you in a dimly-lit corridor, away from the crowd of the party, your hands grabbing on geto's coat lapels for dear life while his hands roam over your back, leaving a scorching feeling in their wake.

a thought rushes to the forefront of your mind and you break the kiss, panting. geto's brows furrow a tad from behind his mussed up hair; silencing the voice calling him cute, you ask, "so what's next? hate sex?"

a bright blush floods into his cheeks, you observe, as he opens his mouth to answer, then falters. "hate sex?" he gapes at you, "why on earth would it be hate sex?"

"'cause you and i hate each other...?" the answer leaves you, less as a statement and more as a question; you watch geto take a second to let it sink in before a chuckle erupts from him. "oh, sweetheart," he croons, placing a warm palm on your cheek, "i don't hate you. i never have. what made you-"

"you once told sukuna i'm plain and boring, and that no one should date me," you cut him off, feeling irritated again. [what the hell? is he gaslighting you??]

a short beat passes, wherein you glare up at him while he simply peers down at you, before a contrite smile flits onto his lips. voice dropping to a mere whisper, he says, "i'm sorry i made you feel that way, but i swear, that wasn't my intention. i was simply lying to get sukuna off your back. i was scared he might get you to fall in love with him, before i ever got a chance. i'm so very sorry."

this time, a long beat passes and ultimately, a loud whoosh of air leaves you.

you don't know whether it's the glimmer of sincerity in his feline eyes or your feelings for him which you've filed away for so long, which prompts you; whatever it is, you find yourself saying, "hmph, okay. that's stupid in a twisted way, but still, okay. however..."

you narrow your eyes at him.

geto blinks back at you, attentive and patient.

you let the anger melt away a bit from your expression. "don't expect me to forgive you after a couple of sorry's. i need a lot more than them to forgive you entirely."

"and a lot more, i promise to give you, oh divine being from above," geto responds with a cheeky smile and a kiss to your knuckles, "starting with some real nice loving tonight."

you beam back at him - not upset but kind of happy, for the very first time in your life, with the flutters in your chest elicited by that your smooth bastard.

fushiguro megumi as 'the supportive co-worker'

[you might've seen a grumpy x sunshine couple; but have you ever seen a grumpy-and-sunshine person? no?? well, continue reading!]

first impression: rude.

the only response the boy gives you, when you greet your cute new co-worker at the coffee shop you just joined, is a nod. no name, no 'welcome', not even a single 'hi'. just. a. small. nod. [huh?]

second impression: quiet.

you strike out your 1st impression of fushiguro megumi [thank god, name tags exist; anyways-] with your 2nd impression of him.

a week or two after you join, yuuta and maki call you into the break room after your shift ends and ask if you can decorate the room, since it's toge's birthday today. they explain they want to help you, but with the sudden rush of the customers, it's nearly impossible to leave the counter.

being the polite person you're, you obviously say yes, without even considering for a beat, just how much you might have to decorate.

and this is where you form your second impression of megumi.

ten minutes might have passed since you started working, before the boy strolls into the room, the ever-present frown on his face, gives the room one long look and joins in decorating, wordlessly.

you're astonished, to say the least; yet you don't breathe a word in return.

some help is better than no help, and if we're being honest here, you're more than a bit pissed at the boy.

thus, this is the way the two of you continue working, silently, and before long, you find your work done, the room prettily decorated.

a smile on your face, you twist – to find megumi hurrying out the room, soon followed by your other two co-workers entering it, confusion etched on their faces.

"megumi didn't leave for his baseball practice yet?" yuuta inquires, gaze darting from the door to you. your brows furrow. "baseball?"

"yeah," maki hums, "the kid's got some important match tomorrow morning, because of which we did not even consider asking him for help. plus, with how reluctant he always is in these matters..."

"the boy always makes an excuse to worm his way out of these parties and stuff," finsihing for her with a chuckle, yuuta throws you a curious look. "did you ask him for help?"

"nope!" comes the instant reply from you. the two colleagues share a knowing smile between them, you observe - however, before you get a second to process it, both of them sling an arm around your shoulders and thanking you for your efforts, drag you to the front of the now-empty coffee shop, where you see nobara and yuuji enter, carrying a large rectangular box.

a call of your name breaks your focus on the bickering duo and you turn to find yuuta smiling down at you. "megumi is actually a sweet boy, deep inside. give him a chance, please."

"more like a sweet coward," maki pipes in from the other side with a grin, "but, yeah, giving him a chance won't hurt you."

at that point of time, you wonder why the fuck your two seniors are blabbering this nonsense to you — yet now...

after weeks during which you silently watch the boy open up to you, first with a smile to you greeting him [you initially don't want to talk to him, but something the other two said leaves a mark and you find yourself treating him the same way you treat others]...

... which slowly grows into a smile and a question on your day, which grows into a smile, a question and lessons for the bumbling newbie you, on the ins-and-outs of working in a café, often paired with a pretty long, refreshing conversation...

... which slowly but steadily furthers beyond the confines of the coffee shop and your shared working hours...

..into now, the present moment, where you find megumi dressed to a tee, a shy smile on his lips and a lovely bouquet of roses in his hands, waiting to take you out on your first date—

yeah, now you realize why they were 'blabbering' to you that day, something you'll always be thankful to yuuta and maki for.

nanami kento as 'the hardworking entrepreneur'

your ken-chan has always been the best in your eyes.

the best in studies, the best in sports, the best neighbour, the best friend to you – one you're desperate to stay in touch with when you shift abroad for your higher studies.

time, however, is unforgiving and despite your wish, the weekly-thrice phone calls and emails dwindle down to weekly-once, then monthly-once, then to customary e-mails on special occasions like birthdays.

so, imagine your surprise [and joy, obviously] when one morning - a good eight years since you left for the states and a good month since you returned home - you open your laptop to find an e-mail from a nanami kento waiting in your inbox, the subject being 'let's meet up? :)'.

meet him, you do – except for the fact your ken-chan is no longer your ken-chan, yet is so much your ken-chan. [confusing, isn't it? you too feel really confused on meeting him after ages.]

the cute boy you knew has grown into a fine man - more than fine, if you're speaking the truth, given the way his facial features are sharper, shoulders broader, voice deeper – but with the same old personality as in high school.

frowning, solemn, no-nonsense – just, this time, your friend isn't discussing the science project but an idea to start a new company.

with him. the two of you. right from scratch.

you reckon you've never said 'yes' faster in your life!

and how can you not actually?

your ken-chan's genius has always awed you... and now that you're getting an opportunity to view it in all its glory, again, after so many years - how on earth can you not agree in an instant?

within a pretty short time [wow, efficient!], your company is set up and good to go; and you begin to witness a... not-really-new but... let's say, a better side of your friend.

kento has always been extremely sincere and hard-working since your school days together; yet now, as you watch him do overtime, day after day after day – inspite of his claimed vehement hatred for it – you realize the intensity of his dedication towards his work.

then, add to that, his communication skills.

utterly flawless.

you've worked with many amazing companies before and you're being unbiased here [no joke] but this man's got some insane skills in communication.

be it securing a deal with the clients or addressing a problem with the employees, there's nothing kento can't handle in perfect poise.

however, what steals the show for you, is neither of these but your ken-chan's golden heart.

the company goes through more than its fair share of troubles – yet, you don't see him, not even once, compromise with any ideals or ethics of his. be it with the clients, or with the employees, or with you - his company's co-founder whom he agrees to give a respectable exit, with a decent pay, when the company is passing a particularly rough patch – he never deviates an inch from his moral code.

needless to say, you deny his request firmly in an instant.

a decision you know you'll always be proud of – not for the fact the company is now one of the largest in the country and making huge profits regularly; it was a given the company will be successful with kento at it's head [the man says you deserve the equal amount of credit as him, but being who you are, you're wont to shush him; anyways-]

– but because you will never have forgiven yourself for abandoning an angel-like person like him in his time of need; something you deem kento never deserves after years of being a wonderful friend to you.

though... now, as you watch him approach you with a tiny smile and two bags of take-out for a late dinner [meetings, ugh]... you can't help but hope he'll become a friend plus someone else to you in the future...

'cause, after all, your ken-chan has always been the best in your eyes.

the best in studies, the best in sports, the best neighbour, the best friend, the best colleague - and the best person ever, you know you can entrust your heart to.

gojo satoru as 'the brave soldier'

[*sigh* where should i even begin...]

the first meeting the two of you have is less than ideal.

it's less of a meeting and more of a crash, to be honest — and i ain't even being metaphorical here.

you're on your morning jog for the day, smiling and listening to the song you're currently obsessed with, when out of thin air, a bicycle appears and comes careening down the slope you're at the base of, right into you — not giving you the time to react, or at the very least, process what the fuck just happened.

the deities above must have been pleased with you that day, you guess, 'cause you're discharged from the hospital with merely a wrist sprain and a few scratches on your arms and legs.

though... you reckon they must have been harbouring a grudge on you too... for if they aren't, why is the cause behind your injury such an annoying, obstinate, dumb manchild, hm?

a sigh leaves you, the umpteenth time in the last hour, as you limp back to your home. the whining from the broken bicycle beside you doesn't stop one bit.

"c'mon, sweetheart-" "don't call me that-" "fine, c'mon, babe-" "ew, don't call me that either-" "ooh, playing hard to get, are-" "fuck off!"

reaching an abrupt stop, you whirl on your feet, face contorted in a furious scowl. the stranger takes a step back from you, shrinking; you know you must school your features a bit, this is a public place for heaven's sake—

utterly uncaring, you begin, "listen, mister. i've been telling you for a good half an hour, from the hospital till now, that i don't wanna go on an apology date with you. it was an accident for fuck's sake," your voice grows louder with wilder hand gestures.

the man keeps staring at you in response, rooted to the spot. you don't even stop to breathe, "just say sorry for it and get on with your goddamn life. why the hell you ain't leaving me alone, man? don't you understand the meaning of 'no'? single word – n, o?"

a long beat passes in silence after your tirade, post which the man recedes, shrugging, with a mumbled apology and nothing more, leaving you confused and a little contrite(??).

whatever!

with time and tide and the woes and worries of your daily life, that odd little encounter slips to the back of your mind before it resurfaces, two years later, while you're posted in a foreign country.

"sweetheart!" the endearment rings through the military camp. the cameraman beside you stifles a shocked gasp; sharing a confused look with him, you send your interviewee a small smile before turning your gaze in search of the source of the noise.

the same white-haired goggles-wearing man from long before rushes tumbling down the dirt track, you watch, appalled, bringing unpleasant flashbacks to your mind, then stops, a good distance from you.

brows a tad pinched, you see him brush his bangs away from his forehead and open his mouth to speak; but another person beats him to it. you twist back to face your interviewee.

geto gives you a harmless grin. "aha! so you're the mystery person gojo here fell in love with, huh?" a series of indignant sputters and coughs sound from behind you, accompanied by giggles from next to you. you seriously consider elbowing yuuji.

the black-haired man, meanwhile, continues with a request, "hey, can you please rethink your decision of not wanting go on a date with him? please- it's just one date," he adds in a hurry when you open your mouth with a glare, his grin falling to a helpless look. you close your mouth, willing your glare to go away and return a neutral expression.

"satoru's my best friend and brother-in-arms but at times, at night especially, when he starts lamenting over how he scared you off... y'know, at those times, i just wanna kill him, frankly speaking," the man pleads guilty.

a sigh escapes you as you cast a glance at gojo, noting the poorly hidden apprehension in his eyes. yet another sigh escapes you-

"of course," yuuji's energetic voice pipes in.

you stamp his foot pretty hard; that idiot, undeterred, proceeds to rattle, "this person here too wouldn't shut up after that incident. on how one should be more polite, more considerate, more tolerant, more forgiving. even going as far as to say that one date would've been fine; it was just a date that, that poor man asked for— isn't it so?"

"really?" gojo's voice wafts over to your ears; you squeeze your eyes shut and open them, cheeks feeling awfully warm.

"yes," you grit out, pinning your alleged admirer down with a glare, which softens when you catch the spark of happiness in his eyes. you decide to relent.

"if the two of us survive this, let's go to that patisserie you were speaking of that day. how does this sound to you?"

said man rewards you a dazzling beam with a thumbs-up. "sounds like the perfect way to waltz into my heart, sweetness."

ryomen sukuna as 'the cold chaebol'

[c'mon, are you really surprised?]

utterly cold, utterly ruthless, utterly a monster – is what one might- nope! one 'will' call sukuna.

and they aren't really wrong, you muse as you watch the man in question talk business with two executives from another company, the latter looking one step away from fainting.

you muffle your expression beneath the guise of a cough, earning you two startled looks and a frown. a polite smile flits onto your lips as a soft apology leaves them, and you return to your silence–

which lasts till the second you step out of the room, accompanying the pair of men and one of them turns to you, sheer terror in his eyes.

"take this," he mumbles, pressing something into your palm; you look down to find it's a business card. forehead creasing into lines, you look back up at him.

the other man sighs. "listen, kid, that man sukuna ain't good news. before anything wrong happens, just quit this job and come to our company. we'll pay you well... okay, maybe not as well as they pay you here, but at the very least, an axe won't be hanging over your neck every minute of your working hours there."

you blink, then press the button to the elevator.

gratitude floods your expression. "thank you. i'll keep your words in mind," you say, bidding them goodbye.

the men give you a smile, then with one last petrified look at the closed doors of the ceo's room, file into the elevator and shut it in an instant, too scared to spend even a millisecond more here than what's required of them.

your secretarial smile burns away into a majestic scowl.

"again?"

you click your tongue, closing the doors you opened behind you and go and plop on the sofa. a sigh sounds from next to you, soon followed by the weight of a heavy head on your shoulder. "what do we do?"

"you're the boss here. you tell me."

sukuna makes a noise of disapproval in his throat before nestling a little closer to you. you open your arms a bit, oddly reminded of an overgrown kitten, then bite back your words. the teasing can be for later.

an annoyed grunt reaches you in response. "as the boss, i'm asking you. c'mon, tell me. what do we do?"

the answer arrives from your end within a fraction of an instant.

"we cut our ties with them, obviously," you say. "anyone who can be so insolent as to think they can steal me away from you can do just almost anything. too bold for my liking," you tsk.

"oh, you don't like someone bold, kitten?" a crimson eye opens at you, mischief shining in its depths. your nose wrinkles in distaste.

you shove him away. "firstly- ew, never call me kitten; secondly- careful, mr. ceo or people might think we're fucking."

a deep chuckle with an 'okay' are the only response sukuna gives you as he drags you close to himself and you let him; letting your thoughts too to drown you in them.

yeah, sukuna is the utterly cold, utterly ruthless, utterly monstrous person everyone makes him to be.

yet, what they overlook is that the man's got a leash, one held by the demure personal assistant always at his side–

the assistant being none other than 'you'.

the fearsome businessman's other half in every sense of the term except the fact the two of you have never shared a bed.

[though... you think... if you decide to listen to uraume's advice to get your shit together and make a move on their master – one whose gaze, you note, has been fixed on your lips for a duration too long now to be decent – you reckon the unfulfilled criterion will be fulfilled way before tomorrow.]

▸ masterlist

▸ taglist: @afortoru, @guccirosegold, @heresan, @luckimoon, @megu-meow, @nanamikentoseyebags, @pupkashi, @ritsatoru, @softsatoru, @sweetdreamssatoru, @nkogneatho, @sugies, @poe-daydreams, @sukustar. :))

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redvelvettecakes1 · 10 months

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⚠️ SPOILERS + THEORY FOR THE NEW WELCOME HOME UPDATE ⚠️

hello! this is my first post on tumblr, so I’m not sure how exactly to use this app very well but, just a note before I get started, I also have a YouTube channel, where I posted this theory on, i do not want to give away my channel on here though! If that’s okay!

. . .

I’m unsure if I’m overanalysing things, but hopefully you guys understand this theory and it makes sense to you! again, I could just be overanalysing, but these are genuinely just my personal thoughts!

first off, info on where I found the 2nd, 3rd and 4th photo from, basically if you go to the website and go to the “the playfellow exhibition” section, scroll till you see the bundle of photos and keep scrolling until you find the “welcome home Worksheet” image with a picture of Wally on it, then click on the image and either if you’re on laptop it’ll come up on the right side (I think) or if you’re on phone It’ll show up at the bottom, you then click the line that looks like an answer box and then it takes you to something that looks like a vault, click one of the buttons and it’ll ask you to enter a password, the password is BSPJW, then you should be taken to the place I’ll be talking about in this post! ✨

. . .

anyways, onto the theory I’ve made!

so, I’ve come up with a theory that wally might actually be the victim and it’s the re-searchers that are trying to uncover welcome home that are the bad people, like Amanda the adventurer and Hameln, people believe that Amanda is evil when really it was the company that was evil!

and this theory is basically going to be a bit like that, what if the re-searchers are actually the bad people? what if home and Wally are actually completely innocent and it’s just the re-searchers? as it seems to appear that welcome home was an ‘old TV show’ that nobody remembers apart from these so called ‘re-searchers’, the proof is mainly in photo 3, I believe the person who wrote that is one of the re-searchers, “maybe that’s why nobody has ever heard of WH”, this confirms that people don’t seem to remember welcome home apart from this re-searcher.

. . .

moving onto photo 2, the highlighted words, now I cant put my finger between if this is wally saying this or if it’s the re-searcher, because I mainly believe the other highlighted words are indeed wally, as photo 5 says “- wally darling” which appears to make it sound like wally, before I explain why I think it’s Wally, if you guys cannot read what it says in photo 2, i tried to read what it says, and it says . . .

“everything is so disgusting to touch, sometimes the mail doesn’t come for weeks, I want to rip into everything I have. my head feels so muddled too. ever since I opened that envelope.” . . .

. . .

now on quote “sometimes the mail doesn’t come for weeks” I have a feeling this is implying that something has happened to Eddie, since he is known as the “mailman”.

now anyways, back to why i believe this could be wally, basically in photo 4 it seems as if the re-searchers have found a wally puppet, now I have a feeling that the wally puppet could secretly be alive and it is actually wally but wally is playing d3@d due to the fact that the re-searchers might be dangerous people, I also think this is how wally gets onto the website and tries to contact the viewer, because if the owners of the website have the real wally, then wally must be able to sneak around and get a hold of the website, which is why it seems to appear that wally is the ONLY puppet in welcome home that seems to be able to interact with the viewer.

I also believe that wally trying to contact the viewer means he is crying for help, he is trying to hint that something awful has happened and he needs help with something, but it seems as if he has to keep it subtle, because if he gets caught, he could put himself in danger., this could also be why wally keeps repeatedly saying things like “can you see me?” “I can see you” etc, because he is trying to control the website and get possible help, and he believes the only way to get help is to try and hide secrets within the website to contact the viewer and try to speak with whoever is viewing the page.

. . .

but the question is, what happened to the other neighbors? where are they? and simply, I don’t quite know but I do remember this one welcome home theory I had seen on YouTube a while back, where the person stated that If you go into the “neighbourhood!” page and click on all the characters, it talks about ALL the characters in the past tense apart from wally, for example, it would say “wally IS” and for the others it would say something like “barnaby WAS”, and it literally talks about everyone in the past tense apart from wally.

why I think this is happening? because I believe that they are talking in the past tense for the other characters is because they haven’t FOUND them yet, in photo 4 it appears that the re-searchers have found wally, which is why they most likely talk in the present tense for ONLY wally, so I believe that the other characters are missing, either they’re just missing or something bad has happened to them, and the re-searchers have not found them yet, meaning this could be why they are making it sound like the other neighbors ‘no-longer’ exist.

. . .

In summery, I basically think that wally is alive and he is controlling part of the website— while the re-searchers are putting information into the website, wally is sneakily going on and hiding secrets, trying to warn the viewer and make the viewer realise that he needs help and that welcome home is not just a ‘sweet little neighbourhood’ that’s completely ‘safe’. and like I’ve also mentioned, I believe that the other neighbors are currently missing and the re-searchers are trying to hunt them down and find them, as that’s the re-searchers purpose, they’re trying to find the missing pieces of welcome home so they can ‘prove’ to people that welcome home was a ‘real’ TV show.

. . .

anyways, this is just a theory of course and I’m not in any way trying to say that this is canon or is true, it is just my thoughts and opinions and what these things look like to me, as there are many theories already, and although I feel like wally could be a victim, there is also a lot of proof that wally could be evil too.

but anyways, I hope this post made sense to you and you guys enjoy my theory! 💗

#welcome home #barnaby b beagle #wally darling #poppy partridge #howdy pillar #sally starlet #julie joyful #eddie dear #frank frankly #welcome home theory

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celestivlgvlvxy · 4 months

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Four Pearls

This is a sort of continuation of this post where I talked about the changes regarding the solstice deadline, but this time I want to speculate a bit about the pearls and how I feel it will effect the larger storyline.

If you have read the original book, you would know that Percy originally only received three pearls from the nereid and Poseidon. The show gives him four. Let's talk about it.

So spoilers for PJO TV and the original PJO books! It's a long one.

There's a lot of speculation about what this means for Sally and "You will fail to save what matters most in the end." I still think they're going to fail to save Sally.

The prophecy: I have a hard time seeing the thing that matters most is not Sally. I have doubts that Percy's going to save her.

The preview: The preview for episode 7 shows Percy and Grover arguing:

Percy: "After we get the bolt, you guys are leaving…with my mom." Grover: "What about you? What about you?" … Percy: "Hold fast, Mom."

Based on how this line is delivered, I think this might be Percy telling Grover and Annabeth to leave thee Underworld with Sally. He pauses before he says "with my mom", which makes me feel like that hesitation means that Percy is relunctantly doing something once again. The way Grover reacts makes it seem like Percy is staying behind and he doesn't have a plan to get out.

He tells Sally to "hold fast" which we know is something that she tells Percy. The last time we hear this quote is when Sally leaves to distract the Minotaur and they're separated. I think Percy is telling Sally to hold on just a little longer because he can't save her.

The nereid: If you pay attention to what the nereid is telling Percy, you'd notice something a little odd.

Percy: "There's four of them." Nereid: "Save the world. And then go save your mother."

I don't think it's a mistake that she tells Percy to save the world first. She doesn't even tell Percy what the pearls are for, that's how the episode ends. If the intention of giving him the pearls was really about saving Sally, the emphasis would have gone on "save your mother."

So if the pearls aren't for Sally, what are they for?

I think they're testing Percy.

In my previous post, I talked a lot about how many, if not all, of the trio's major failures during their quest was because of the gods' interference. We are not meant to like the gods—they're setting it up so that down the line, we are more sympathetic to Luke's cause.

More importantly, it sets up Percy to be moree sympathetic to Luke's cause.

But Poseidon gives Percy four pearls. Poseidon actually waited for Percy to show up himself. With each episode, we are given little details to make us think that Poseidon is the god to be rooting for.

However, if you look a little deeper into his actions, Poseidon is not the perfect parent. Percy said it himself, Poseidon didn't acknowledge him until he needed something from Percy.

I believe Poseidon / the gods are testing Percy. The gifts from the gods don't come free.

Asking for Athena's assistance came at the cost of the Chimera.

Getting (relunctant) help from Ares nearly killed Percy if Annabeth didn't change Hephaestus' mind.

Seeking out Hermes for transportation caused them to miss the deadline.

What will these pearls cost?

Don't forget this quote from the book either:

When I reached the beach, my clothes dried instantly. I told Grover and Annabeth what had happened, and showed them the pearls. Annabeth grimaced. “No gift comes without a price.” “They were free.” “No.” She shook her head. “‘There is no such thing as a free lunch.’ That’s an ancient Greek saying that translated pretty well into American. There will be a price. You wait.” (The Lightning Thief, "We Shop for Waterbeds")

I think Poseidon knows he will fail and he's not telling Percy. It's a test of his fatal flaw: personal loyalty.

Who will Percy choose? Annabeth and Grover or his mom? The world?

The entire quest, Percy had little to no agency in the big decisions. He does not want to go on this quest. Annabeth is in charge, Athena, Ares, Hades, Zeus, and Hephaestus all nearly killed him. Hermes stalls them.

The deadline has passed and they failed. But Percy chooses to move forward. He chooses his mom, he chooses to continue. Percy is taking matters into his own hands.

The price is Sally Jackson and Percy is not going to be happy about it.

In the long run, I think Percy is going to be facing a lot of difficult choices. Choices that will justify him being bitter towards the gods. Choices that will justify him becoming like Luke, the same way Annabeth could've been Medusa in another life.

And isn't that kind of the point?

Percy is not Luke. He's not like them. He has every single reason to turn his back on the gods. He has every single reason to overthrow them. But he doesn't. Every single day, every single decision, Percy chooses to not be like Luke. But he gets it. He understands why Luke did what he did.

The writers are writing the show with the knowledge of what is to come. Percy's bitter, but he's not Luke.

He's going to be given reasons to be bitter and it starts with the pearls. But what will make Percy different? What will make him better?

#percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo tv show #percy series #annabeth chase #grover underwood #sally jackson #luke castellan #pjo spoilers #poseidon #pjo poseidon #media analysis

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pappydaddy · 1 year

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i'm yours (j.m.)

tv show/movie: outer banks | pairing: jj maybank x fem!reader *cis!female anatomical parts mentioned

requested by another lovely anon as part of my 800 follower celebration

synopsis: not having labels muddles things up. luckily, they don't need labels to know they are mad about each other. though, labels might not hurt - might even save some noses.

warnings: spicy, spicy, spicy. dry humping. dirty. reader is horny. blood. broken nose. punching. fluff (if you squint) 18+ please and thank you. characters are aged up as per usual!

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- not my gif -

It was as if the stars aligned just the right way, because there she stood, the girl that had been consuming JJ’s mind twenty-four-seven lately. The moonlight rained down on her like a glowing spotlight, pointing her out to him as if he needed any help finding her in a crowd. And then, the stars must have shifted because as the dancing crowd moved just right, it revealed someone unpleasant standing beside her - talking her ear off, Topper. With his stupid shorts and polo top matched with his stupid boat shoes.

Bitterness swirled in JJ’s stomach as his face twisted into a scowl, his heart lurched, almost as if it wanted to jump out of his chest and strangle Topper. He knew what her opinion on Topper and other Kooks were - she hated him, but she doesn’t like making scenes so she suffers through conversations. She was too nice (or shy, he wasn’t too sure which yet) to tell him to piss off, but JJ wasn’t. However, something did hold him back. They weren’t official yet. And that was completely on him. He was the one dragging his feet on this one, but now he realized his mistake.

He’s taken it slow with her. She was too perfect and too innocent for him, so he was scared of either ruining her and her life or scaring her off with all of his baggage. Her friend’s opinions of him didn’t help his self-doubt. He knew they hated him. He knew they were telling her to move on, to forget him. But she didn’t listen. Even if there wasn’t a label, it was clear to both of them that this thing was more than just fooling around. They had feelings for each other. It was obvious when he kissed her and her first reaction is always to blush or do that cute little panicked hand flap as if she was surprised he would kiss her before her body melted into him.

“Screw it.” JJ’s eyes zeroed in on Topper as he inched closer to Y/N, obviously flirting despite Y/N clearly wanting out of the situation. He was a large guy, standing at six feet and having a decent amount of muscle, so it didn’t surprise him when he reached the pair quickly, but it did surprise him that he reached them in what felt like five seconds - he stumbled a bit, feeling like he was transported there instead of walking.

Y/N spotted him first, those beautiful eyes JJ loved looking into so much, catching his and widening as if asking him for help, which was exactly what he planned to do. “What do you want, Pogue?” Topper’s snarl made JJ look over at him, blue eyes cold and hard, as if he was aiming to kill him.

“I was coming over here to ask what the hell you’re doing flirting with someone who is clearly not yours to flirt with.” JJ squared his shoulders, stepping up to Topper, showing the slight but noticeable height difference between them when JJ pulls to his full height. Y/N’s mouth fell open, eyes watching JJ as he puffed his chest out slightly. ‘Hot damn!’ She thought, eyes flicking all over his body before looking back at the tense stare off.

“Last I checked, she was single.” Topper gestured toward Y/N, shooting her a wink, but JJ shifted to hide her from him, scoffing at this.

“Oh, news to me, because I don’t think what we’ve been doing screams ‘just friends’,” JJ put air quotes around the phrase, looking back at her with his jaw set in a way that made her want to drop to her knees right there. “What do you think, Sweets?” He asked her, his voice deep and dark, almost as if it was strained. The nickname. The voice. The look. The protectiveness. It all went right between her legs.

“Definitely not.” She confirmed, bottom lip being sucked between her teeth as she crossed her legs as discreetly as she could while standing, squeezing. She had to admit, she was already hot and bothered from watching from across the party all night, and now it was like someone opened the floodgates. She could jump him right then and there, but Topper just won’t let go.

“Still single, man,” Topper shook his head with his stupid smirk, making JJ whirl his head back around at such a rate it startled both Y/N and Topper. For a moment, Y/N was concerned that he had hurt his neck, but didn’t realize since he was hyped up on a mix of one beer, testosterone, and adrenaline. “She’s fair game for the rest of us-”

Topper didn’t get to finish his sentence before JJ’s fist met his nose, a sickening crack sounding as a loudly hissed ‘Fuck!’ left Topper’s mouth, his hands flying up to his nose which must have been broken from the amount of pain, blood, and the sound. “Hey, you saw he was disrespecting her, right?” JJ looked over to the group of people who were standing around, trying not to look like they were listening from the jump.

They all nodded furiously. “One of you put your information in my phone.” Y/N pulled her phone out, unlocking it and opening contacts, handing it to the group. After graduating, JJ learned his lesson - always have a witness or two to confirm his story (true or not). Y/N usually was the one who got a witness' contact information to keep in case they needed it. With Topper, they would definitely need it, he’s pressed charges before.

Glancing over at Topper, she saw a mass of people around him, someone holding their discarded shirt to his nose to stem the bleeding. Over the balled up fabric, he was glaring at the two of them, saying something but they couldn’t hear through the shirt and over the loud nose. Eyes flicking over to JJ, she looked up at him, his back still turned towards her, heaving. His fists were still clenched, almost as if he was ready for someone to come try to avenge Topper or Topper to come flying at them.

“Here you go, we put her number in.” A shaky voice pulled her eyes away from JJ. A boy held her phone out to her, his hand and whole body shaking slightly, eyes pleading with her to take the phone before JJ turned around. He was scared of JJ. He was intimidating, probably, she assumed since all she saw was a guy with such a large heart and an urge to protect anything he cares about with all his might.

“Thank you,” She took the phone, locking and pocketing it. “JJ, we should leave.” She shuffled the rest of the way over to JJ, her toes getting buried in the sand despite her sandals. For the first time since the punch, JJ looked over at her as she gripped his arm. As soon as his eyes met hers, they softened, but seemed to get darker. His chest rested, no longer heaving, and his fists relaxed, one arm snaking around her waist to pull her against him.

____

When she suggested they leave, she was more concerned about the possibility of cops showing up to bust the party since there was a strong possibility of someone snitching after that punch was thrown. She didn’t even think this could happen. She didn’t think he would want to. Part of her even thought he would be mad that she let Topper flirt with her, but as he muttered into her neck not long ago, he knew she didn’t want him. Didn’t want him the way she wanted JJ. Didn’t want him talking to her. Didn’t want him anywhere near her. He knew that.

Really, they barely even left the party since they managed to make it to the Twinkie and that was as far as they went. In all fairness, JJ was the one who brought it since everyone else had drives already. So the van was all theirs according to him. Imagine her shock when JJ’s lips landed on hers, lips moving against hers with such passion she kind of thought it was a dream. She had expected a fight. Maybe that was her own messed up trauma coming forth, but she least expected to have his tongue in her mouth and his hands roaming around her body.

She hummed into his mouth as he gently started to guide her down on her back. ‘God bless the Twinkie’s lack of seats.’ She thought once her back met the floor of the van, JJ’s weight shifting as he settled between her legs, his body pressing against her in just the right way. She could feel everything. From the heat radiating off of him to every single dip and ridge of his muscled abdomen.

Her eyes opened when JJ pulled his mouth away, catching a glimpse of the dark interior. JJ had parked in a rather secluded spot. With trees hanging over the van, all planted in a row behind the van, they were perfectly hidden. A bit of moonlight slipped through the leaves, illuminated the inside so softly. Her eyes shifted, looking at JJ’s body pressed against her. The way the soft lighting surrounded him, it made him look pure and soft - just like she always pictured him. “You got quiet,” JJ muttered against her skin as he kissed along her neck and shoulders. “What’s going on in there?” He asked, pulling away to look at her for a moment.

A ray of moonlight hit his eyes, making them sparkle like two ocean blue gems. “Just thinking about how beautiful you are.” She uttered, her hands sliding up from where they rested on his sides to cup his face. Pulling his lips back to hers, he let her lead the kiss. Soft. Loving. Tender. JJ felt like they were in one of those romance movies she loves to watch. She took a deep breath in, lips pulling back only enough to do so as if she was trying to breath him in.

Eyes fluttering open again, her eyes stared up at him - big and darkened with want and need. Looking into those eyes was all it took for JJ to snap. Instantly, his lips were on hers again, but only for a moment until they trailed down to the spot he knew so well - sucking. Harshly.

Y/N’s eyes nearly rolled back into her head, mouth opening and head falling back as she moaned. She always responded like that and JJ knew it. She also knew he knew by the feeling of his smirk against her now widely exposed neck. “JJ, careful-“ She panted, back arching off the floor as he slid his hands under her, dragging against the smooth skin of her back. “What if-“ As his hands hit the thin strap resting on her back that was holding her bikini closed, it was like she couldn’t speak in full sentences. “Someone sees the mark.”

She warned, but she knew it was futile since his attack seemed to have shifted from that spot and was now inching down to her collarbones as he pulled on the string of her bathing suit. “So what,” He muttered against her skin, the vibrations tickling her slightly but she was too turned on to pay anything but the need for friction any mind. “That way everyone will know you’re mine and I’m yours.”

His words went right to two places. Her heart, but mostly her vagina. Maybe like one percent to the heart. More will go later, after he rails her in the back of his best friend's van. “I’m yours, JJ. In every way.”

Too overcome with the need for some sort of relief, her hips rolled against JJ’s. A synchronous moan filled the air. She didn’t stop the movement, making JJ still his merciless teasing. She wanted to open her eyes to look at him, to see why he was frozen as she continued to rub herself against his still body. Thankfully, he was a strong guy with good endurance so even with her trapped under him, she could rub against him and get herself off. She was well on her merry way to doing just that.

Moans spilling out from both of them, her movements quickened and became sloppier. She was squirming now, face screwed up. Before she met JJ, she was sure this was an orgasm. She couldn’t understand how it could get any better than this, but then JJ showed her just what she was missing and she was proven wrong.

That’s why she sobbed when one of JJ’s hands freed themselves from where they had a death grip on her bathing suit and gripped her hip, stopping her movements. “JJ!” She cried desperately, panting as she tried to roll her hips again.

“Gorgeous, if you keep doing that, this is gonna be over way too quick, and neither of us want that.” He practically growled and she gasped. Partially from the shock that ran through her, feeding her beating heart and also feeding her pooling wetness. Also from the fact that with a yank of his hand her top was untied and with another, her top was off and thrown elsewhere. “Now, let me savor everything my girlfriend has to offer.” His voice was deep, in a dark and an arousing way.

But what really got her was how his blue eyes remained locked with hers as he dragged his lips down her body. A trail of goosebumps and tingles were left, marking the path he took. From the base of her throat, down the valley of her breasts (where there was a brief pit stop to nip and suck - knowing she loved it), down her stomach, and stopping at the top of her jean shorts. Their eye contact was unbreakable and somehow he managed to make it a form of sexual teasing. He didn’t even look as he unbuttoned her shorts, pulling them and her bathing suit bottoms down together. Those too were thrown carelessly. He only broke their eye contact for a second, if you could even count it as a full second, to look down at her bare core. “My girlfriend is all sprawled out here looking like a whole-ass buffet. All you can eat, I hope.” He winked before dipping down, hands pushing her legs apart. The last thing she saw was that damn smirk before his lips disappeared and she gasped out a sudden moan. Eyes closing, legs widening before trying to snap shut around his head (his hands already placed to stop her), and her back arching off the floor with her head flying back.

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yukidragon · 1 year

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What happens if Jack was friendzoned by MC, believing that he wouldnt any lewd things or adult stuff because he's a child friendly character, more so by his personality?

That is an interesting idea that MC might avoid thinking about Jack in a sexual or even romantic way on the basis that he's a character from a TV show made to educate young kids. It could be because MC feels that it's "wrong" to think about that sort of character in that way. It could be because they assume that Jack would have no concept of anything not G-rated due to his commitment to the bit and how he talks like he's still in a children's show. He does genuinely seem to believe that he's Sunny Day Jack after all.

Heck, my own MC, Alice, makes the same mistaken assumption in chapter 6 of Sunshine in Hell. Little does she know that even as she thinks that very misconception, Jack is off doing something that is definitely meant for Adults Only.

Who would have ever imagined the wholesome Sunny Day Jack would ever masturbate in a public space so openly? Imagine the scandal! I'm sure reporters like Dan would've killed to unearth something like this back in the day.

Anyway, this would be a bit of a tricky situation for Jack, understandably. He wants to get closer to MC, be more important to them. He loves them and he desires them. Sex also seems to be something he closely associates with love and being closer to someone. Not to mention it provides MC with something they want, even something just as basic as sexual gratification.

At the same time, sex is out of character for Sunny Day Jack. There's no way sex would even be hinted at in a show for young kids, especially in the early 80's. I'd imagine the unmistakable fact that he has these sexual desires would be a strain against that characterization that Jack has used to hold onto his sanity and some faint sense of self while his soul was trapped in the VHS.

Jack spent 40 years in a place he described as hell, a place that was cold where he couldn't sleep. He forgot who he was and only remembered being the character he played because of that place. It's entirely possible that it was impossible for him to feel physical desire or pleasure while he was suffering. While I don't think he forgot what sex is, he might have forgotten that he ever experienced sexual desires when he buried his memories of being Joseph. It might even have been a shock to him that he was capable of having these desires once he was released, which would create a dissonance that would probably fuel his yandere instability.

Like with any cognitive dissonance, the mind needs a way to settle it. Adult stuff like swearing is something Sunny Day Jack can't do, but... sex makes babies, and babies still exist even in the technicolor world of children's television. Making babies is only natural, right? What's that classic saying when explaining where babies come from? "When a man and woman love each other very much..." That's the phrase often used to very young kids to avoid teaching them sex education. I heard it quite often when growing up, and even quoted in media I watched.

So that's the way Jack could settle the dissonance. What Jack is feeling is just love. Sexual desire - even if not intended to make babies - is just another facet of love, one he only feels for his sunshine because he loves them. That's why Sunny Day Jack never experienced these desires before. MC is special. What the two of them have is special, so this is a special exception to his squeaky clean G-rated persona.

Being "friendzoned" would then be something of a complication for Jack. He wants to be MC's friend, he needs to be. He needs them to need him. They're the most important person in his life and he needs them to need him just as badly as he needs them. Being MC's friend - their extra special best friend - is what he wants... but he knows he wants more than platonic friendship. He wants and needs their love. He loves them so badly, and he wants to show it in every way that they'll allow...

While I think Jack would be fine with an asexual MC who doesn't want to have sex with him, he would probably need reassurance that they love him in other ways. He needs to feel like he's the most important person to MC, because they're the most important person to him, and his survival depends on them needing him.

If it's a question of an asexual or even aromantic nature in MC... I'm pretty sure Jack would be okay with that. Sure, it'll no doubt be a disappointment to him, but he wants to support his sunshine. As long as he's the most important person to them and they never let him go, he'll be okay with it, I'd imagine.

However, as the game shows, MC feels at least some level of romantic and sexual desire, even if they might be on the asexual/aromantic spectrum. Ian used to be the person they were in a romantic and sexual relationship with. He was closest to them and most dear to them. Jack would want to be in that spot that Ian vacated, especially before someone else might work their way into it and take his sunshine away from him...

So then it comes back to the misconception MC might have that Jack is an entirely child-friendly and G-rated character who "shouldn't" be thought of as a romantic or sexual partner. If the issue is that MC assumes he simply doesn't have those desires and as such it would be inappropriate to think about him that way, I imagine he would pick up on this and try to subtly correct his sunshine's misconception.

Moments of closeness between them, sexual tension... Jack could draw them in closer, do "innocent" things to show off his body so that they would see him as a sexual being and desire him. A good example of this would be him removing his shirt when putting his jacket on MC and lying down next to them, giving them a very good look at his half-naked body.

We see Jack subtly flirting in the game, getting touchy when he can. He rubs MC's shoulder, take their hand, holds them close, has them sit snuggly in his lap when they cuddle on the couch, shares a bed with them... I'm sure that he's been trying to encourage their desire for him in a very non-platonic way the entire time they've been together.

The talk about what love is fits with Jack trying to get out of the "friendzone" as it were. He needs to encourage MC to think about him not just as a platonic friend, but as a romantic partner, someone who would be the most dear to them.

This reflects in the kiss and hug routes. When MC chooses to hug Jack instead of kiss him, I think he's aware that the thought of kissing him crossed their mind, but they didn't want to "make it weird" between them. They're hesitant to cross the line from friends to something more, which is no doubt why he felt so vulnerable/scared/sad that they would keep pushing him away no matter what he tried, thus leading into that conversation about how there's multiple ways to be with someone. I believe he was trying to encourage MC to think about him romantically rather than platonically.

Naturally, in the kiss route, MC chooses to cross the line and Jack takes full advantage. It's not just a chaste kiss on the lips, it's a full on French kiss complete with tongue, as suggested by this steamy CG from the game.

What a first kiss, am I right?

Even with screencaps from the game, I want to make sure to credit Sauce for their steamy artwork, along with the rest of the team at SnaccPop Studios.

It's an unmistakably sensual kiss, one meant for adults and not a sweet peck intended to remain G-rated. He follows this up with touches, huskily breathing their name, and kissing their neck, all of which is definitely not kid-friendly affection.

I believe Jack has been trying to guide MC into making romantic and even sexual advances with him all along. That's why he guides them in to the kiss and why they feel more mentored than anything. I'm sure that he's been trying to break out of the friendzone as it were for quite a while now. The kiss would be finally crossing that line, and he's elated... even though he's understandably frustrated when work obligations force an abrupt end to the progress they've made. Still, progress was made between them, a line has been crossed, and I'm sure Jack couldn't be happier about that.

For as much as Jack wants to cultivate his persona as a G-rated, squeaky clean kids show host, he also wants to be alluring to MC, sensual. Joseph seems to have a bigger sexual appetite than Sunny Day Jack, as we've seen from hints so far, and that influences his characterization of Jack when he made the character his persona.

Jack wants MC and needs to draw them in. They're his special exception. He's never felt this way before, as he's claimed in Sleepy Time Jack, because he forgot that he ever was even capable of desiring anyone else. That dissonance and most of Jack's problems in general, including his tenuous hold on the world and being an actual entity in it... it all depends on love, his sunshine's love. It's more reason for him to be yandere for them since they are so important to his very essence.

Sooooo... yeah, Jack isn't going to stay in the friendzone with his sunshine if he can help it. He's definitely going to do his best to make sure that MC won't mistake him for someone incapable of X-rated desires, at least when it comes to to his sunshine. He loves and needs them, and he's going to do whatever it takes to make sure they love and need him just as much.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur

#Sunny Day Jack #Something's Wrong With Sunny Day Jack #SunnyDayJack #sdj #swwsdj #Headcanon Ramblings #Ask #Sauce-y Art

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bettsfic · 6 months

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Betts,

Would you be comfortable in showing us what your messy first drafts look like? Not for a whole story but maybe an excerpt and noting how it changed in revisions. I’ve been looking for first drafts by writers and either found they look almost identical to finish printed version or I can’t find them at all.

i can show you what a messy first draft looks like but i don't think it'll be very illuminating. for me, the down draft is mostly about developmental work. i'll write ten scenes and the final draft will be chunks from six of them. so on a small scale it looks like i don't do much editing, but big picture i write over twice as much as i end up keeping, and what i keep has usually been completely rewritten. so if i do a side by side comparison of a scene, what you're not seeing is the stuff that didn't make the cut, or all the ways i wrote in the wrong direction for a long time, or the hours of research i had to do for a single detail (an example of which you'll see below).

i wrote an issue of my newsletter about my drafting process, so that might be more helpful. i also answered an ask recently about ways to develop a scene if you're stuck.

unfortunately i don't have the brainwidth to do all the research here, but the new yorker published an early draft of raymond carver's "what we talk about when we talk about love" which as originally called "beginners," and somewhere there's a detailed comparison of the two and the changes his editor, gordon lish, made.

but! you asked to see a draft comparison. so here's a draft comparison.

so this got a little crazy and i ended up making a gdoc for scene 2 so you could see them together. see link at the bottom. conclusion: comparing drafts is very hard and i don't think this probably helps at all but i tried.

"final" draft

these are the first two scenes of a short story i wrote called The Group W Bench. we begin in 1970 and then move into present day-ish. i've bolded the small things that were actually big things, and i'll explain why they were big things at the end.

"final" is in quotes because there is a different final draft of this story that goes in a completely different book.

scene 1: past

They didn’t hand out 4-Fs in St. Louis. Supposedly it was the worst draft office in the country. I didn’t know anyone who’d gotten out of it, but in my hometown they didn’t seem to want to. Most everyone was proud and eager to get shipped off.

My number was 66 and it’d been pulled just after I turned nineteen. On the bus to the induction center, I tried to come up with a plan. My only options seemed to be mutilating myself or flat-out running. I was too much of a coward for the former and I couldn’t wrap my head around the latter. There were only a dozen of us on the bus and I had my whole seat to myself. Out the window, cornfields blurred past; it was August and the stalks were head-high. I tried to imagine myself out in the jungle holding an M16, but I couldn’t. I’d graduated high school with a C-average, only kissed one girl one time, was raised by parents who’d had no parents of their own. My mother grew up in an orphanage. My father rode the rails. They fucked up my brother Tommy, did a little better with Wyatt, but by the time I came along, they’d given up. Sometimes I felt feral, raised by wolves.

Across the aisle, a guy was playing the harmonica. He had shaggy black hair and stubble around his jaw, big nose bent at the bridge. He caught me staring at him and I looked away quickly. He crossed the aisle and sat beside me.

“You look like you don’t want to be here,” he said.

He didn’t sound like he was from Missouri. He sounded like an actor on TV, all hard Rs and round vowels. I didn’t respond to him. For all I knew he was a plant, some kind of spy trained to sniff out potential defectors.

He ran his thumb over the shiny surface of the harmonica. The movement reflected the sun into my eyes. “Buddy of mine got his arm blown off.”

“My brother died,” I told him. I’d been the one to answer the door that day. I was only sixteen and the boy who delivered the telegram couldn’t have been much older. He handed it over, touched the brim of his hat, and said, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

There were no remains. Nothing to bury. Just a bit of yellow cardstock telling me Tommy was dead.

“Sorry to hear that, man.” He held out his hand. “Jack Ward.”

I shook it. “Birdie Mills.”

Jack smiled, a deep dimple carved into each cheek. “Hell of a name, Birdie Mills. Where you from?”

“Here. Couple hours north.”

“California. Riverside.”

“What’re you doing here?”

“Just got out of film school. Can’t get student deferment anymore. So I started bouncing around, you know, changing my address. They finally pinned me down.”

I hadn’t thought of that, transferring draft centers, delaying as long as possible hoping the war would finally end. It was a relief to meet someone as reluctant to go as I was. I felt crazy sometimes, surrounded by men who wanted nothing more than to die for their country. I couldn’t imagine loving anything so much I’d be willing to give my life for it.

“You have a plan?” I asked.

“Nope.” We turned into the induction center lot. “I’m gonna wing it.”

early draft

according to my document, i wrote this on november 8, 2022, so almost exactly a year ago. at that time, this was one chapter of a novel that had alternating POVs in third person. i had about 90k of this novel written. which turned into a short story. which turned into a different novel.

scene 1

Birdie’s number was 257 and it was pulled shortly after he turned nineteen. His draft office was in St. Louis, notoriously one of the worst in the country. There were no 4-Fs in St. Louis. He didn’t know a single man who’d gotten out of it, but then again, they didn’t want to. Most everyone in his town was eager and proud to get shipped off.

On the bus to the induction center, he tried to come up with a plan, but nothing came to him. Out the window, cornfields blurred past; it was August and the stalks were head-high. He tried to imagine himself out in the jungle holding an M16, but he was just a coward from Missouri who graduated high school with a C-average, who had only kissed one girl one time, who was raised by parents who’d had no parents of their own. His mother grew up in an orphanage. His father rode the rails. They fucked up Tommy, did a little better with Wyatt, but by the time Birdie came along, they’d given up. Sometimes he felt feral, raised by wolves.

Across the aisle, a guy was playing the harmonica. Birdie couldn’t pull his eyes away from him. He had shaggy black hair and stubble around his jaw, big nose bent at the bridge. He caught Birdie staring at him and kept his gaze, some recognition in his eyes, and a moment later he was slotting the harmonica into his jacket pocket and coming to sit next to Birdie.

“You look like you don’t want to be here,” the guy said.

Birdie didn’t say anything. For all he knew, the man could be some kind of spy trying to sniff out defectors.

“Buddy of mine got his arm shot off.”

“My brother died,” Birdie admitted.

“Sorry to hear that, man.” He held out his hand. “Jack Ward.”

Birdie shook it. “Birdie Mills.”

Jack smiled, a deep dimple carved into each cheek. “Quite a name, Birdie Mills. Where you from?”

“Here,” Birdie said. “Couple hours north.”

“California. Riverside,” Jack offered.

“What are you doing here?”

“Just got out of film school. Can’t get student deferment anymore. So I started bouncing around, you know, changing my address. They finally pinned me down.”

Birdie hadn’t thought of that, transferring draft centers, delaying as long as possible hoping the war would finally end. It was a relief to meet someone as reluctant to go as he was. He felt crazy sometimes, surrounded by men who wanted nothing more than to die for their country.

“You have a plan?” Birdie asked.

“Nope,” Jack said, pulling his harmonica back out. They were turning into the induction center lot. “I’m gonna wing it.”

changes and why i made them

lotto number 257 was pulled in 1970 but only numbers under 125 were drafted. it took an entire afternoon to figure out how the selective service lotto even worked.

turning this into a short story, the sentence "They didn’t hand out 4-Fs in St. Louis" was a stronger opening.

as a chapter in a book, at this point the reader is familiar with birdie and knows him only as a scoundrel-type character seen from the perspective of his son who despises him, and his daughter who reveres him. so in the old version, it was satisfying (or intended to be) to get to his POV and see him from his own perspective. as a short story, i tried to organize the opening in such a way that you get grounded pretty quickly and see birdie as a scared kid before you get to the scoundrel days (see below).

the brief "my brother died" flashback was the first part i wrote in his POV, and that was back when the structure of the narrative was a series of short, titled vignettes. so on one hand i was glad i got to keep it but sad i had to shoehorn it into a different scene instead of allowing it to open the piece.

the novel was written in third person but when i tackled it as a short story i decided to change it to first person because i like first person better, and birdie is a very fun narrator.

the "I couldn't imagine..." sentence was added in the short story version because in the present timeline, birdie's about to get shot to save his daughter while they're robbing a bank together. so in one sentence, i managed to condense an arc that before took a VERY long time to establish.

this got kind of out of hand. i tried to do the same thing with scene 2 but it was hard in the text window so i did it side by side in a google document. if you want, you can add comments asking why i did certain things and i'll answer you there. i'm sure i missed stuff.

sorry if this isn't helpful!

#writing advice #bk #rabbit's blood #revision

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 19 days

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I finally decided to listen to the Perfect Brains podcast, did all four episodes that are out so far in the last couple of days. And, okay, I wasn’t going to say this because I didn’t want to be pointlessly negative about something people enjoy – but now that I no longer hold this opinion, I can say, I was pretty skeptical when this was first announced. It felt like a weirdly manufactured pairing, since as far as I knew Sam Campbell and Lucy Beaumont had nothing to do with each other before Taskmaster, and it’s not even like they clicked with each other especially well during Taskmaster.

It felt like one of those things where people on Reddit (or, to be fair, Tumblr) see two people on a panel show and say “Oh my God, they should have a sitcom!” And then Avalon just gave them a sitcom podcast, not because there were any artistic reasons to believe that would actually work, but just because fans thought it would be a funny concept. This seemed especially true since they didn’t even have a format when they launched, just said “Okay you guys liked these two on Taskmaster, well here, subscribe to this then.”

And I wasn’t convinced it would work. Sam and Lucy don’t have anything that would make them work well together except that they’re both weird, and they’re not even the same type of weird, or particularly compatible types of weird. Zany characters can be very funny on their own, but when bouncing off someone else, the “straight man” role exists for a reason. The weird one has to be paired with someone who’s been tailored to fit with them.

I can say all those now because it turns out my concerns were unfounded – this shit’s hilarious. It still seems like a bit of a cynical idea that might have just got lucky, but it really works. Possibly because I didn’t need to be worried about the lack of a straight man. They have a “straight man” in the podcast, and his name is Sam Campbell. And it turns out it’s amazingly funny to listen to Sam Campbell playing the straight man. He’s surprisingly good at it.

There’s a kid at the autism centre where I work who speaks almost entirely in “scripts”, in which he’s repeating things he’s heard elsewhere (songs, TV shows), mostly talking to himself, sometimes he can be persuaded to answer a question but only if it’s a very simple one and he can answer with something from his repertoire of quotes. By last week, I’d spent probably 50 hours with him one-on-one in various sessions over several months, and I was very used to his voice. But then we introduced a new program that he didn’t like, and when I started doing it, he suddenly said “All done all done!” in a completely different voice that I had never heard before. It was significantly higher-pitched. He normally mumbles a lot but this was clearly enunciated. If I heard that voice out of context I’d never have guessed it was him. It was shocking to realize I’d heard him say thousands of words and this was the first time I’d ever heard his “real” voice. How he sounds when he’s talking as himself, and not scripting from other things he’s heard. (Not relevant to the story but just to be clear: I didn’t finish the program after he said that. I do not torture children for a living.)

That’s what I thought of the first time I heard Sam Campbell respond to one of Lucy Beaumont’s most absurd statements. Sam stays in character on everything, even situations where most comedians break character (Taskmaster podcast, Off Menu), so the first time Lucy caught him so off guard that he just gave a genuine surprise response, his answer shocked me almost more than her statement. I had that same moment of “Oh shit, I’ve heard you say a lot of words before but I think I’ve just heard your real voice for the first time.” It’s not constant or anything, Sam’s still mostly in character throughout this. But every once in a while Lucy will throw him right off and it’s delightful. Her mother had him unable to keep up any persona for pretty much the whole time he was on, I think he nearly forgot he was meant to be acting and just enjoy the stories. (Please note: That moment of “Oh shit, you became a different person for a moment there and I think that’s the real one” is as far as this analogy goes, I feel the need to clarify because I know the internet is full of speculation about Sam being somewhere on some spectrum or other and that’s not the point I’m making here. I have no theories as to what spectrum Sam Campbell may or may not be on. But I do have views on how funny it is when someone gets emotionally pushed to the point of suddenly turning into the “real” person, my view is: not particularly funny if it’s a child confronted with a therapy program they don’t want and you should probably back off, but very funny if it’s a comedian who’s too confused by another comedian’s mother’s holiday anecdote to remember to do his inflection.)

The biggest downside to this podcast is I just can’t imagine anything living up to that guest episode. Tim Key was so good that by the time his segment finished, I felt bad for Lucy and her mother trying to live up to that. But I needn’t have, as by the time Lucy’s mother was done, I felt bad for Tim having given his time to that podcast only to be comedically upstaged by someone who isn’t actually a comedian (although Lucy’s mother is a playwright, and she sure crafted some theatre in that episode).

I’ve gone through various phases in my assumptions about Lucy Beaumont. It started with – well obviously that’s a character, it’s funny. Then – she is committing to that bit really hard, is there any chance she’s just actually like that and has lucked into her career? Then – oh that was some shitty misogyny of me to even consider that, no one wonders whether someone like Sam Campbell is a character act, obviously Lucy Beaumont also has a differently-pitched voice of a completely different person that she uses in real life, she just never lets it come out in a performance. Then I listened to her on the Comedian’s Comedian podcast where she started talking about how all famous literature was written by ghosts, and Stuart Goldsmith gave her so many opportunities to clarify herself, he kept saying that’s an interesting idea but she means it metaphorically of course, and she kept saying “No I mean it completely literally, I think people are possessed by spirits”, and you could hear the moment when it clicked to Stuart that he wasn’t going to get her to admit she’s doing a bit because she’s not, and he finally said “Are you pulling my leg, Lucy?” and she said no, and then he hurried off the topic. And after that I stopped feeling bad about wondering whether Lucy Beaumont might be actually just like that, not some carefully crafted character. I mean, obviously some of it is crafted. Obviously she couldn’t get where she is if she didn’t know what she was doing and understand that some of her absurd thoughts are funny, and funnier if she plays into that. But I think she does mean this stuff.

Hearing her mother on that podcast has broadened my view of Lucy Beaumont further, to thinking – oh, she might be the normal one. She might be genuinely like this but only because that’s her compromise between the normal she was taught and objective reality. And she, being very intelligent (and you can’t have as successful a career as Lucy Beaumont with having lots of intelligence, even if that someone goes alongside the belief that 1984 was written by an angry spirit), figured out where to find the humour in that compromise and in the gaps, and it’s worked out great. That’s my current working theory. I’ll let you all know how it evolves in another ten or so episodes.

The guests were great, but the three episodes with just the two of them have been funny too. Sam Campbell obviously brings a lot to the table, I’ve had the theme song stuck in my head for 48 hours straight, so fuck him for that, and Paul Williams too for good measure. It is fun to listen to them pass the brain cell back and forth, jockey for which one gets to be the weird one, and Sam Campbell normally loses, which is funny. But he still gets to be the weirder one often enough for that to also be very funny. Four episodes in and I'm sold.

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wigster07 · 6 months

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Never Not Commenting Fic Recs:

Today's fics read and commented on. If any of these strike your fancy, please check them out and maybe let the author know a favorite line or moment that happened! As with any fic rec, please note the tags and determine if the fic is for you before reading.

lights out, candles out - Geek_and_Nina - Willow (TV 2022) [Archive of Our Own]

Rated M / Summary: kit is left frustrated, high and dry when Jade hears a noise and has to go check it out... right at the good part

Part 3 of the Show Don't Tell series that Nina has blown our minds with! This one comes with a bit of sexy, a bit of terror, a bit of hero Jade, a bit of tender wound care, and then back to the sexy.

Budding Nightmares - Geek_and_Nina - Willow (TV 2022) [Archive of Our Own]

Rated E / Summary: N/A

Jade has a nightmare and Kit comes out swinging with all the things to take care of Jade. We've got hot tea, we've got hot touches, and we've got some hot smut to finish it all out.

Whispers of Nockmaar - KitsKat18 - Willow (TV 2022) [Archive of Our Own]

Rated E / Summary: Boorman takes the crew to a mansion which might or might not be haunted.

This is just one chapter but I can see this one getting continued if the writer chooses to. It has very Scooby Doo vibes as this dynamic group is spending the night in a haunted mansion. It's rated E, and they may intend for future chapters to dig more into that rating, but I would say this chapter is more T for those that consider ratings for which fics they would like to read. We've got the "We're just friends" moment between Kit/Jade and both these goobers liking each other. We got some lovely Kit & Elora sister ribbing vibes and adventurous rough Boorman getting the group into this situation.

Let's take a knife and cut the world in two - spybrarian - Willow (TV 2022) [Archive of Our Own]

Rated M / Summary: Kit and Jade in a world growing darker and more infected by the year, but love is the most powerful force in the universe... right?

This is Exorcist Jade and it's going to rip your heart out, spit it out, and then stomp on it and you'll say thank you, may I have another. Be mindful of the warnings/tags. There's some religious trauma in this one and lots of delicious demonic happenings. This one hurts but I'm holding out for the tender wound care and emotional healing that will come in the future. Ali just out here wringing my feelings out with glee.

Check this out if they strike your fancy and leave kudos if you liked it. If you want to leave a comment but commenting feels scary that's okay. A simple "I loved this" makes a writers day (I speak from experience). You can quote back a line or moment that you loved! Or ask questions that you thought of when reading. You will make a writers day, I promise you!

But most importantly, get out there and enjoy some fic. There are some wonderful ones in the fandom.

#Tanthamoretober #Tanthamore #willow series #fanfic #never not commenting november #writer appreciation #never not commenting

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chattingwiththelightkeeper · 2 years

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Seeing Something And Speaking My Mind

Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot. - DH Lawrence

I dislike, heck, I despise drama and the internet is full of it and so is the real-life world but there is a difference between someone who is dishing drama and someone who has found the courage to speak up and share their truth, even if it might be unpopular in certain circles, cause them to be disparaged, or much worse. There have been some events recently in these parts where some brave folks found their voices and decided to tell their experiences with someone who holds themselves as a community leader.

When all of this first started bubbling up, I was going to make some popcorn and if I needed a break from the stresses of the day head over for a little “reality TV on Tumblr” however three things have happened that caused me to change my mind.

First is my own experience. I could be off with the year but it was in BC Time (Before Covid), perhaps 2016/17. At that time I considered BG72 a friend however that all blew up when I shared my passionate belief that a d-type who is married and cheating should never earn a person’s submission. I argued that the community needed to call these people out because they are predators just like those scum bums who are often unmasked by the so-called tribe. For me, how can someone who is supposed to lead a relationship where honesty is a cornerstone head up a partnership that has dishonesty built right in? I was shocked at how quickly spite was slung my way and the minions of 144 who were once friendly suddenly refused to speak to me and/or chose to hurl insults. These indignities always came “anonymously” to my ask box which looking back makes me think of the quote “McKinley has no more backbone than a chocolate éclair”. I have since learned that my offense was not that I shared a passionate opinion with vigor but their tribal leader was one of those people I was speaking up and out about because at the time they were married, unfaithful, and dishonest. Turns out the T.R. adorer is a McKinley rather than the big stick they claim to be. One of the blessings of growing up “geek” is that I knew the bullying directed at me would slack off once the clan found a new target of opportunity. Just keep my head down, keep doing my thing, ignore that clique, and I will be left alone.

Fast forward present day and two things happened that upon rumination, added weight to my desire to share my thoughts while absorbing another round of name-calling, sticks, stones, and whatever else these bullies can send my way.

The first act that stirred my mind to think about using my voice was BG72’s post that one of the women speaking up, according to her conversations with the marble-man 144, was having a mental health crisis, lashing out, and in need of prayers. I believe everyone has or will have mental health issues at some point in their lives. When I saw that BG along with 144 were trying to weaponize mental health it made me see them as dishonest, corrupt, and unethical. Especially since both of these individuals always tried to make the world think they gave a rat’s butt about the mental health of others but my truth is if two individuals truly care about mental health, they both know better than use it to throw bombs. It is shameful to attack someone sharing their truth by saying what amounts to nothing to see here other than the rantings of an unwell woman. It is twisted, sick, and bigoted.

The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back leading you to see these words, is the screenshots showing 144 talking about one of the women who has stood up and spoken up. You see he had helped relocate them from an abusive and unsafe situation. While this sounds so noble, I feel that when a person offers to step in to help a cause, situation, or person the assistance is given because it is the right thing to do, rather than for personal gain. 144’s own words show that his “help” is not offered because it is the proper and noble thing but for his selfish gain.

Hell, I financed her escape from an abusive situation in __ and got her back home to __, I think she owed me a little bit.

I intentionally left the locations out as I believe it is not for me to share that information and while this is out in public view, I feel it is not my place to include it.

So I am writing today not because I am a saint, above reproach but due to the fact I am a flawed human who has f’d up a billion times. Some of my screw-ups may make me an asshat to some, yet with that said, it does not change that I believe those who pursue and choose to set themselves up as community leaders should never bully, use mental (or physical) health as a weapon, and finally if you are going to lead anything, when you extend your hand to help someone up, it should not be followed by holding out your other hand out for some sort of payment or repayment.

If someone reading this should be a member of the “tribe” or is considering following that clique, I want to end this with one of my Mom’s most popular words of wisdom, ”You are who your friends are” and from what I have seen out of this crew’s leader and top minion, with friends like those, you will not need any enemies.

Finally, thank you to @flamingdumpsterkittn and @accidental-muse for stepping forward to share their truths.

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scottpetersen · 8 months

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Daisy Duck As A Host For The Predator

Ok. Here I’ll be going over why I think Daisy Duck from the DuckTales (2017) TV series, would make a fitting host for The Predator, the entity of love and what might happen if Daisy were to become The Predator’s host. This post was also partly inspired by Explained With Bad Doodles’s How DuckTales just FIXED the Donald/Daisy Relationship YouTube video. Also, Spoiler Alert for the DuckTales (2017) TV series and the Green Lantern comics. With that out of the way, let’s dive right in.

First, I’ll be going over why The Predator might choose Daisy Duck as their host. As shown in Green Lantern Vol 4 #57, The Predator chooses host who are in love, or at the very least, infatuated with someone. And as shown in the episode ‘Louie’s Eleven!’, Daisy fell in love with Donald Duck. And I think that compared to the other versions of Daisy Duck, the one from the DuckTales (2017) TV series stands out among the rest in that regard. As the YouTuber Explained With Bad Doodles explained in their How DuckTales just FIXED the Donald/Daisy Relationship YouTube video, most of the other versions of Daisy Duck were terrible girlfriends since in most of her iterations, and I quote, “she constantly puts Donald down, berated him for things that are beyond his control, is hardly supportive during his legitimate grievances and just doesn’t give as much to the relationship as she takes” whereas the version of Daisy Duck from the DuckTales (2017) TV series had equal reciprocity with Donald which means that Daisy as well as Donald gave just as much to the relationship as they received. After all, as also pointed out by Explained With Bad Doodles in their aforementioned YouTube video and as shown in the episode ‘Louie’s Eleven!’, Daisy understood what Donald was saying despite his speech impediment and was also able to help him with his insecurities about how no one understands him while Donald helped Daisy stand up to her boss who tried to pin the blame on her for the attempted robbery that ensued moments earlier. This all means that Daisy’s love for Donald in the DuckTales (2017) TV series is stronger than it was in most of the other versions of her character since, in the DuckTales (2017) TV series, Daisy gave just as much to Donald as she received and vice versa unlike most of the other versions of their relationship. Plus, a symbiotic and healthy relationship like that would also make it easier to hold onto love since the love someone shows for their partner would probably further increase that partner’s love for them and vice versa.

Next, I’ll be going over how I think Daisy would react to The Predator. As stated in Green Lantern Vol 4 #57, the reason why The Predator went on a rampage with their host is because the host didn’t quite understand love and, as a result, the host corrupted The Predator rather than the other way around like it was with how Parallax, the entity of fear, corrupted their host, Hal Jordan, as revealed in Green Lantern Rebirth #3, was corrupted by Parallax. So, in order for Daisy to keep control of herself while being a host to The Predator, she has to understand love. And I think that she does. After all, as shown in the episode ‘Louie’s Eleven!’ and as Explained With Bad Doodles pointed out in their How DuckTales just FIXED the Donald/Daisy Relationship video, the Daisy and Donald in the DuckTales (2017) TV series had a healthy relationship and empathized with each other’s insecurities. I think that means that they saw each other as equals. And I also think that treating each other as equals makes for a healthy relationship. After all, someone looking up to a person too much in a romantic relationship could not only lead to infatuation rather than love but it could also cause their expectations for them to get too high and thus pave the way for disappointment to ensue when those expectations aren’t met just like how someone looking down on a person too much could cause their expectations for them to get too low and thus pave the way for distrust to ensue as a result of believing that they can’t do anything right. But treating each other as equals can avoid those 2 extremes and just see each other as people. So, given all that, Daisy does understand what love is and might be able to keep both herself and The Predator under control.

Now, I’ll be going over how powerful I think Daisy would become as a host for The Predator. As shown in Green Lantern Vol 4 #57, The Predator gives their host powers that are just like those of the Star Sapphire Rings which are powered by love. By that logic, Daisy would probably become extremely powerful as The Predator’s host since, as shown in the episode ‘New Gods On The Block!’, Daisy was willing to face off against a Titan in order to save Donald. I think that speaks to how strong her love for him is. Also, as Explained With Bad Doodles pointed out and as I explained in my previous points, Daisy had a healthy relationship with Donald. I think that would make Daisy’s love even stronger since that means it’s also very pure. So, Daisy would make an extremely powerful host for The Predator.

Finally, I’ll be going over what might happen after Daisy becomes a host for The Predator. As I explained in one of my previous points, Daisy should be able to keep control of herself even while she’s a host for The Predator. So, while the Star Sapphire Corps might come after The Predator worrying that The Predator might make Daisy go on a rampage just like The Predator did to their host in Green Lantern Vol 4 #57, they might see that Daisy is able to maintain control of herself despite The Predator’s influence. That might also make them think that Daisy is a worthy host for The Predator. Also, I think that the Indigo Tribe, a Lantern Corps powered by compassion, might see the exact type of love Daisy has for Donald and form some sort of partnership with the Star Sapphire Corps. After all, as Explained With Bad Doodles explained in their How DuckTales just FIXED the Donald/Daisy Relationship video, one of the reasons why the DuckTales (2017) versions of Daisy and Donald loved each other is because they were able to empathize with each other. And I’m pretty sure that empathy is a part of compassion, the thing that powers the Indigo Tribe since both compassion and empathy both involve thinking and caring about others. So, the Indigo Tribe might see how Daisy’s empathy for Donald helped spark her love for him and that might make them think that compassion and love can accomplish a lot together.

Well, that’s all for this post.

See you all next time.

#disney #ducktales #ducktales (2017)#daisy duck #dc #dc comics #green lantern #dc the predator #the predator #spoilers

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artsyjesseblue · 2 years

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Decoding Voltron’s Rosetta Stone

Paladins, I think it is time we had a discussion

For some time, I’ve had this theory about VLD floating in my mind (it has to do with Lotor’s story arc) and I’ve been itching to write it out. I noticed some recurring themes (I’ll refer to them as leitmotifs) that are sprinkled around strategically, both in the TV show and in the VLD comics, and they always made me think that they mean more than just entertaining, silly subjects for cute kids’ stories.

Disclaimer: this theory I am proposing does not claim to hold the absolute truth and I might be proven otherwise if some day we’ll get the #realVLDS8, but it’s nevertheless fun to explore. It comes out of a place of love for Voltron and its talented creators. It explores the complexity of the scripts, the amazing creativity that lies within them, and touches on what could have been, if these allegorical stories were allowed to fully manifest in S8.

Also, some parts of what I am about to present have been discussed either in the general fandom, or written as metas, and I will quote and attach links to each of the sources. If I might have missed any references, please let me know and I will add them.

Buckle up, as this is not short, but it is FULL of symbol reveals. If you’re not ready to read the full article, bookmark it for later, but don’t skip parts, as they are all related to each other.

—> In the TV series, we are blessed with a few of what you would consider… filler episodes. Think “Monsters and Mana”, “The Depths” (yes, that one with the mermaids), “The Voltron Show” (the one where Coran-the-showman gets a brain worm)”, “The Feud” (the Garfle-Warfle Snick show).

—> The VLD comics are basically fillers in their own right, in that they do not affect the main plot in any way. I’ll briefly go over the symbolism from the main show episodes and then dive into a deep analysis of the comics.

There are several types of leitmotifs floating around in these ‘filler’ parts and they are tied to specific (and symbolic) entities. In no particular order, here are a few that stood out to me:

- the show-runner

- the dragon / monster enemy

- the witch

- the food source for the monster

- the oppressed people of a certain planet / realm / village

- the brain-controlling beings (brain worms, mushrooms, mind-swishing aquatic plants)

- certain colors and color schemes.

(You might wonder by now why I don’t use the word “trope” instead of “leitmotif”, which seems a bit academic and antiquated. Trope also refers to a recurring theme, but, imo, it’s a more recognizable topic, it makes you quickly understand where it comes from and what it hints at, whereas these leitmotifs I’ll be discussing are embedded into the story in a very subtle way. Surely, you can say that the Dragon is a trope for the Big Bad Guys, but peel off that layer and you’re entering into a whole new level of meta. “It’s super meta, it’s like inverse meta” - is something that one of the Voltron Executive Producers mentioned in an interview, referring to certain episodes of S8. I’d say there are many other places where they apply the “super meta”, as I’ll further analyze. Layer upon layer of meta. Especially the dragons and monsters. Just like snakes shed their skin, these dragons will start shedding their scales meta-layers and… reveal to us something else.)

These mysterious repeating themes make me seriously think about the foreshadowing role they play. Because moving around the same idea, so many times, embedded in various story formulas, gives me the impression that someone is trying to say “shhh, watch out, there’s more than meets the eye.”

And to quote Pidge in one of the comics… “Stupid symbolism!!” (in the same scene, she also remarks: “The whole place is a map”). Hmmm… Are these ‘filler episodes’ some sort of actual clues, ‘stupid’ symbols for something that was to be revealed? (but we never fully got, and that’s another story). The irony of the word ‘stupid’ is not lost on me and I’ll circle back at some point to the subject of Socratic irony in VLD, because I think it’s also really important and intimately linked to these subtle leitmotifs.

Before I begin, one more thing I’d like to point out about comics illustration and animation, in general. Almost nothing that is used in the process of animation is random. It is calculated within the resources given: you have a certain amount of airtime and a certain budget, so you have to use them wisely. A full team of story writers, producers, concept artists won’t make a character say something that has little meaning, and pay a team of animators to work for an entire week, just for a useless piece of conversation. Sure, there are parts that are meant just with small roles, of tying together different scenes, for creating a comic moment, etc, but when a character says something that sounds out of the ordinary, do pay attention to that. With that in mind, let’s focus on the following adventures of our Paladins: MONSTERS AND MANA So I’ll start with the easiest and most obvious one, because this was discussed and analyzed already: S6E3 “Monsters and Mana”. This is a slam-dunk, as you can probably already imagine.

And since I’m lazy enough to not start talking again about something that has already been dissected in great detail, here’s the most relevant stuff from the Voltron wiki page:

“This entire episode uses the trope of having a tabletop Dungeons & Dragons-like game predict future events in the real world. Key elements include:

The Innkeeper (Dakin) to whom Pidge and Hunk bring their crystal represents Lotor and his use of the trans-reality comet. The Innkeeper's betrayal foretells that of Lotor, as also his using of the heroes' energy represents his harvesting of Altean's quintessence. Shiro's dying and being reborn as an identical Paladin foretells the revelation that he himself is one of many clones. The Innkeeper's transformation from fast-moving sorcerer into Coranic Dragon foreshadows the forming of the Sincline Beast which has a similar appearance complete with tail. Use of the Blazing Sword foreshadows the reappearance of Voltron's flaming sword, just as its destroying the Coranic Dragon by fire foreshadows Sincline’s being defeated by quintessence overload.”

Adding my own note to the above:

At the end of the episode, Coran tells Shiro: “The game isn’t over yet. Wait until you find out who Dakin was working for. Maybe you’ll finally be able to avenge your master.”

So the game is not over yet, after they destroyed the Coranic Dragon (the Sincline). Just like in the real story, where even after defeating Lotor, they still had one more enemy - Honerva. Wait until you find out who Dakin (Lotor) was working for (i.e. who had power over him/what he was really up to/what were his real intentions, etc).

Something that intrigued me is the fact that the Coranic Dragon monster has a sort of bathelm similar to Honerva’s (including the color scheme). We might not see only a battle with the Sincline, but this might suggest another layer of meta: the final battle with Honerva.

You might think I’m seeing too much in this, but another intriguing part is the flying unicorn that Shiro Gyro rides in the end, which, yeah, has the color scheme of Atlas, a purple horn (uh-oh!), purple hooves (oops) and an orange mustache on its chest. A Coranic unicorn?

THE DEPTHS

Another good example of foreshadowing is S2E2 “The Depths”, which was thoroughly analyzed by @leakinghate, in this article.

To summarize the episode: Lance and Hunk find themselves in the underwater world of a very friendly Queen Mermaid, called Luxia (symbolic for Lotor), who invites them to eat food from the Baku gardens.

After watching some mermaid dances, Hunk and Lance fall into some sort of hypnosis. Lance is later abducted by a secret group of mermaids who claim they have a theory about how Luxia is able to control people’s minds - they think it’s through her voice and eyes and by training her people to use hypnotic dances (which sounds quite credible, since Lance remembers a dancer that apparently caused him to fall under the spell). This secret mermaid group is symbolic of Romelle, Keith and Krolia and their conjectures about Lotor.

We (the watchers) find out that the queen indeed brainwashed mind-swished her people and she is secretly killing some of her subjects by sending them to “take a swim in the gardens.” (parallel to how we find out from Romelle that Lotor has been ‘harvesting innocent Alteans’). Florona is one of the victims, and, as explained in detail in the aforementioned meta, she bears resemblance to Bandor: red-haired and with a similar color scheme of her clothes. Another similarity is between Plaxum (the lead mermaid from the secret group) and Romelle (same color scheme of clothes and also wearing two ponytail-like projections similar to Romelle’s hairstyle).

Ultimately, we find out that the real enemy was not Luxia (Lotor), but a sort of sea dragon (note that it resembles a dragon) that lives in the Baku gardens, using the food as a mind-control weapon to lure people into its gardens to eat them. As Luxia explains in the end, “The Baku has been harvesting us all. We are its food source”. And according to Lance, “the queen was the first one to be mind-controlled.”

Which leads us to the conclusion: are we (the watchers) really seeing the truth through Romelle’s eyes, or are we being deceived? Because it turns out that Plaxum’s theory about Luxia using voice hypnosis was false, which Plaxum actually acknowledges: “Well, I did say they were theories. Mer-science isn’t always about getting the right answer.” So then, it stands to reason that Lotor was not the bad guy after all, as we were lead to think, but there’s something more dark and devious lurking out there - which there was, indeed, it was Honerva and the Dark Entity she was possessed by. Unfortunately, the part where Lotor (Luxia) gets redeemed was blatantly skipped in Lotor’s case. Also, to this day, the Altean Colony is still a mystery (“an empty facility”, according to Kolivan); but we could infer parts of the truth from all these foreshadowings).

—> The really interesting detail in Hate’s meta was the “red herring” theory - which was actually the spark that turned my attention back to the comics.

As quoted from Wikipedia, “A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion.” Florona is… a fish mermaid with red hair. Both Bandor and Florona have red hair… and we, the readers, are led to believe what Bandor has said: “Lotor… the other colony… It’s all a lie.” And, wait, I just remembered. Guess who brings Romelle to Allura’s castle: Keith… the Red Paladin. (OK, I’ll probably get side-eyed for this one, but I’m just saying: what if red herring Keith was wrong about Lotor, and through him, we were all deceived?).

And this is where I started to see more… red in a purple world.

Every time I got to see a red-colored character, I had to question it a little bit and dig deeper. (including Coran - well, his hair is not red-red, it’s more orangey, but you could traditionally call him a red-haired guy if you saw him on the street, right?). And guess what Coran said at the end of “Monsters and Mana”: “I also made it all up, Shiro. That’s the magic of Monsters and Mana.” Well, so Coran acknowledges (to us, the public?) that he’s a bit of a fabricator… “I’m Coran-Coran, the non-truth telling man”, says the little Coranic head popping out of the Whac-a-mole console, in the “Clear Day” episode. And now go back to the flying unicorn and see that it has a red mane.

“The Voltron Show” and “The Feud” don’t really pertain to the subject of this article, except there is a detail that falls into the category of the mind-controlling leitmotif: the brain worm that infects Coran, enslaving him to the will of that tiny creature. Which proves that the writers had a clear inclination towards this dear subject: something small that can take over your mind and incapacitate you, against your will (so far we’ve had the food in the Baku gardens and the brain worm. But there’s more to come.)

Let’s just have a little pause and look back at what I presented so far: the general conclusion I got from all these episodes is that not everything we see at a first glance turns out to be true.

THE COMICS

Alright, now that I discussed the subject of the VLD episodes, I’ll move on to the less evident pieces of the puzzle: the comics. Weeee!!!

Written by show head writers Tim Hedrick and Mitch Iverson, the comics are part of the canon (some bits and pieces from the comics are actually mentioned in certain episodes, like the Yalexian pearl and some other stuff I can’t remember now).

Although the comics seem to be created as entertaining adventure stories with lots of monsters, so that kids can get a little more action kick out of the show, I see more than that. I see leitmotif after leitmotif, singing a long song about foreshadowing.

There are going to be monsters and dragons, princesses, brain-infecting entities (again), witches, food sources, populations that are oppressed by certain monsters, and I think I pretty much enumerated the most important recurrent themes. And red. Lots of red. (I am adding orange to this category, because… you’ll see).

The story plots in the comics do not seem to parallel the main storyline as neatly as they metaphorically did in “Monsters and Mana” or “The Depths”. Nevertheless, the recurring themes are there, scrambled in no apparent order. And the big, final conclusions will be the same: nothing is what it seems, watch out for red herrings.

So let’s start with Volume One of the VLD comics. Spoiler alert: I’ll loosely describe the plot at times, to better understand the succession of events.

The Paladins and Coran head off to some training grounds (I won’t enter into details with alien names and such, unless I’ll find it significant). Coran meets this guy who takes him hostage due to unpaid debt, and in order to free him, the Paladins must bring him the “Yalexian pearl”.

First adventure is on a planet where they find a bug-looking monster - which they assume is the Yalex - and by forming Voltron, they rush to kill it...

… only to find out that the monster was actually protecting the inhabitants of the planet from another monster, called Abomination…

How ironic - what kind of monsters are the Paladins?

This is where it becomes interesting. In order to get protected, the planet dwellers explained that they would feed the Guardian monster a giant bowl of their food and a few of their people. (“sacrificed a few to preserve the future for millions” sounds familiar?). But now that the Guardian monster was gone, they were left without protection in the face of the Abomination.

Wait. Time out. So… who exactly did Lotor call an “abomination” in S6? Oh, that’s right, Honerva!

In the main story, Honerva simply walks into an Altean colony of peaceful, naive people, without any opposition, deceiving them into following her plans. So they were basically left unprotected, because their defender (*cough* Lotor-the-bug-monster) was gone. (Also, remember what Romelle said about him: “Lotor is a monster.” Um… a Guardian monster?)

And let’s take a closer look at the Abomination creature from the comic, then look at the rift monster, and Honerva’s mecha:

What did Lotor whisper in Allura’s ear, in her vision from “Clear Day”?… “If you can become one with the Entity…” So, yes, it’s canonically established that “becoming one” with that rift entity is a thing. Not only that, but they also show us that robots can fuse with each other: Honerva’s mech with the Sincline, Atlas with Votron. Honerva/Haggar and the Rift Monster (aka The Dark Entity) are melded into One entity, the Abomination.

The rift entity craves for more Quintessence. It is its food, its life source (it hails from the Quinessence field, right?). “Quintessence is life” whispers a very sick Honerva, before she became Haggar. Both Zarkon and Haggar become obsessed with obtaining more Quintessence, after they fall prey to (become one with) the rift creatures.

How did Voltron defeat the Abomination monster in the comics? By feeding it with some good food that Hunk prepared. It becomes docile if it’s being fed. Food//Quintessence is life. Little unsettling detail: they added the dead Guardian monster to the pot of food.

Wasn’t Honerva ‘eating away’ the life of other beings by dissolving them in her dark magic spells? Remember how she went to Kral Zera and killed all the Galra generals:

(My theory about why Kolivan didn’t find anything at the second Colony - yet with no hard evidence - is that Haggar melted everything and everyone in that purple magic mandala of spells, to gain their power and knowledge. We know from canon she did that also to the old paladins. She also did it to the Sages of Oriande! (she basically cheated her way through the lessons in Altean alchemy). If the Alteans on the second colony had some sort of knowledge or power, she would surely want to gain it. Plus, they're not NAIVE, like the main colony. They know who she is and what she's capable of, as I will later discuss, so they WOULDN'T HAVE FREELY GIVEN HER THEIR SECRETS. She FORCEFULLY took them. If Kolivan said he found an empty facility… that would make sense. She does not… leave traces.)

*********

Back to the comic book analysis: we’re on to a new adventure. They’re still after that Yalexian pearl, but now they have to ask princess Malocoti where they could find it. But the princess is held captive by a dragon… Here comes the dragon metaphor again, and it’s very very red, and orange.

And the princess appears to be trapped inside the castle:

But wait, what do you know? The Paladins figure out that the real princess is not the purple lady in the castle, because she’s actually a witch, casting spells and controlling the red herring dragon.

Look who also controls a certain prince trapped inside a "dragon":

Finally defeating the witch, the red dragon transforms into a beautiful princess Malocoti, who has the same red-orange (vermilion) hair color, with orange and yellow clothes. And she says this: "But somehow, even though I was just an enraged, screaming monster, you could see who I really was, deep down inside."

Mmmmkayyy… So princess Malocoti, while under the witch’s spell, was an “enraged, screaming monster.” Let’s see how the Sincline faired, while under Honerva’s spell... Talk about an enraged monster! (and… about the screaming part… go back to the rift battle from S6)

And Merla actually figured it out, too, because she realized Lotor’s extreme violence was very uncharacteristic to him. She yells at her fellow acolyte to “get out of there, now!” The real Lotor is there, inside that beastly dragon, underneath the layers of spells cast by the Entity/Honerva, and you can see the dark magic glowing in Sincline’s purple eyes.

But wait, you might say:

- That dragon is very vermilion. The Sincline is blue-violet. Colors that are at the opposite sides of the color wheel - the first one is on the hottest side of the spectrum, the other on the coolest (shh, complementary colors)!

- Also, the dragon turns into a lady. The Sincline hosts a guy. Opposites again.

- Well, look closer at the Sincline, around the neckline and elbow lines. And take any picture of Lotor, in his intricately designed suit. Look at the collar. And around his elbows, where the vambraces end. What color do you see? Orange. The kind of orange that sometimes turns vermilion, sometimes looks more yellow, depending on the scene, the lights… Anyway, it’s the color of Malocoti, isn’t it?…

I’m about to make an outrageous statement, haha, but I propose the theory (don’t hate me, I might be wrong) that Lotor’s body garment, underneath the main suit, is actually orange (or red-orange, vermilion, however you want to call it - the complementary color of his purple-and-blue suit). What if that collar is not decorative or some kind of detachable neck band, but it’s actually a hint at what he’s wearing underneath? I mean, the paladins’ suits feature dark gray turtlenecks, and guess what color their body garments are?

Wait, did I just say that Lotor is a vermilion herring? (Grape boi with orange peel omg what…) Haha, well, he did distract us from the ultimate enemy - Honerva. Add to that the fact that Dakin from “Monsters and Mana” is also red-haired. Oh. Boy.

- Also, because in the comic book, Lance couldn’t save a prince from a castle, they had to use the trope of saving the princess (moreover, it was all written with a lot of humor (and irony) at Lance’s pick-up artistry).

Plus, allegories are not supposed to be too evident. Being too literal would spoil it.

Another way you could look at this is that Malocoti’s vermilion is a complementary color to Lotor’s blue-violet color palette, just as Allura and Lotor complement each other. The colors have been flipped, just like the roles were supposed to be flipped in the VLD story: the princess was to save the prince; exactly the opposite of Lance’s dream of saving the princess - both in the comic story and in the TV show (which were treated, by the way, with quite a lot of irony). Again - flipping the story… Did I say that too many times? Here it is, one more time, from Hunk breaking the fourth wall at the audience (S3E3):

As a matter of fact, in the comic story, Pidge is the one who makes the final blow, defeating the witch, while Lance… is just screaming. (Although my suspicion is that (in the unaltered S8) Lance actually played a big role in helping Allura save Lotor - and I won’t go into details because I’d lose myself into a whole new meta.)

The bad news is… we never got to see Lotor’s ‘metamorphosis’ back into a good guy, as foretold in the comic, due to inter-dimensional meddling. At least I know now, from these precious foreshadowing parts, what we should have gotten:

A prince that wanted to save his dear people by dedicating his life to protect them from the Abomination. A prince that fell under the spell of an Entity, later controlled by a Witch. A prince that was (supposed to be) saved by a princess and her Voltron team, restored to his original physical state, and who ultimately helped the Paladins defeat the common enemy (foreshadowed by Malocoti helping Voltron in its next adventure). Also, let’s remember what he tells Allura in her vision: “You and I desire the same thing. We both seek to destroy Haggar.”

*****

The next adventure in this first comic book is an interesting mixture of leitmotifs: it brings us the story of a Sphinx that transforms out of a ziggurat pyramid, testing the Paladins through mind controlling mushroom spores (I told you there’s going to be more mind-swishing stuff), chess games and riddles. This part of the book is evocative of the Oriande pyramid and the trials of the White Lion (Coran calls the Sphinx a “a Lion thingy” - the Sphinx is part lion, according to mythology.)

Sphinxes are mythical creatures regarded as guardians; also, stemming from the Greek myth of Oedipus, we have the story of the Riddle of the Sphinx.

The Sphinx/Pyramid says: “I am a repository for great research.” That’s what Allura and Lotor did at Oriande - they researched ancient Altean alchemy. This time it’s Pidge who has to go through the trials.

Here are the brain-controlling mushrooms.

The resemblance with the Dark Entity is fascinating:

Other than this vague parallel with the Oriande trials, there isn’t much of a resemblance with anything I can think of, that we haven’t already seen in VLD. And that’s because, in my opinion, this part foreshadows something that was completely cut out. I might be wrong, I’m entering into a speculative area, but I think this might be related to one of the most overlooked parts of the show’s finale, in S8E12, “The Zenith”: the one where the Voltron-Atlas mecha chases Honerva through collapsing realities, while Coran, Slav and Holt (the three scientists) pilot the Oriande pyramid left behind by Honerva, trying to maintain the rift stability. Both are accompanied by footages of Coran’s and Keith’s shocked expressions, as they realize they won’t make it.

From what we see, it’s clear as daylight that both parties find their tragic end, while Honerva continues her journey through realities. She finally finds her son, who rejects her (again). And then, behold, Voltron-Atlas reappears in the skies, coming from, um… out of nowhere. Where exactly did they come from? How did that happen? Why did they waste animation time to have Voltron-Atlas get annihilated, and then miraculously show up again?? They could have saved weeks of animation work by not creating that scene, because it makes zero sense in this context. Well, it would have made sense if we’d seen what happened to them in the zone beyond realities. After all, there are three scientists piloting a pyramid that used to hold the ancient knowledge of Altea. And there used to be a White Lion, that looked like a Sphinx. Pidge is the scientist of the Paladins, and the comics put her through three distinct trials:

First is to test her body fitness by fighting against mind-controlled Paladins.

Next is to test her intelligence against herself in a game of chess with her own mind.

Last test is about finding the answer to a riddle: “What can be totally broken apart and yet reform stronger than ever?” - and the answer is not Voltron, it is HOPE.

Perhaps the three scientists also go through some trials.

And looking at the tests, I believe each test is actually fit to hit exactly the Achilles’ heel of the three men:

Coran: never good at body combat. Actually, feeble would be an appropriate word for him.

Holt: smart, but how smart compared to his own offspring, Pidge?

Slav: obsessed with calculating probabilities, but HOPE beats ALL odds.

Well, hope, my friends, is what makes the team of Paladins get up and try to continue their fight. In the actual VLD episode, before they lose to the collapsing reality, Keith gives a moving speech … “we need to get up”… and the message he gives everyone is to keep trying, keep going. That implies they need to have hope. In the end, the Sphinx is forced to admit that both answers are correct. Voltron was totally broken apart by falling into nothingness, yet the hope of the Paladins will resurrect it (and most likely some extra help from the three science men). I believe the three men in the Pyramid play a really big role in helping the Paladins survive and continue their chase across realities. Besides, that would be the last time we see Coran and Allura in the same life dimension, before she dies/transcends. He never had a chance to say goodbye to her, like the Paladins did. And he is basically her adoptive father, her custodian. Why would he not deserve a proper goodbye? And there is a symbolic meaning to it, as well: three scientists, number “three”, a powerful number, as we'll see towards the end of my meta.

Taking a little break from the foreshadowing analysis, I just want to emphasize how awesome this part is in describing the real Pidge, who: keeps a dossier on each of her friends; knows each of their strengths and weaknesses; figures out even how to defeat herself at a chess game. And she genuinely admits: “It’s my nature.” Through Pidge’s dossier, we also get a very nice insight into each Paladin’s character. In a way, this comic issue is the reader’s private research repository for the Voltron show, opening a window into their personalities.

While I don’t see a flow of events in the comics that would mirror the exact succession of episodes in the show, the pieces of repeating themes and stories are there, in a scrambled order. Some of them clearly foreshadow things to come, while others, in my opinion, foreshadow things that were supposed to come, but they were later deleted (remember, this comic book was released in 2016, while the last episode of VLD aired at the end of 2018).

********

The last issue of this book sends us to the most secret place of all, the final destination in their adventure, where they are to recover the Yalexian Pearl…

Grab yourself a drink; we’re about to get into some very, very interesting territories.

They land on a moon… (oh, a moon, how interesting!)

…and they meet a camel-like alien wearing steampunk Burning Man goggles, a gas mask (for harsh desert conditions on a moon with methane atmosphere) and a red skirt-cape; he speaks in pompous, cryptic phrases, which Lance dismisses as “looney-tooney”.

As a High Priest, he brings them to the “temple of the Yalex”, which is a sort of a grain processing facility, where other camel-looking creatures sit around the room, ruminating.

Since I think this contains too much symbolism, I’ll type out the most relevant portion of the dialogue, below. The bolded words are the ones I consider to bear most metaphorical weight:

Camel Priest: “This is the Temple of the Yalex.”

Shiro: “There don’t seem to be enough of you here to grow all this grain.”

Camel Priest: “Oh, we did not do it alone. The rest of our people left the moon and returned to Krell after the growing season [Krell is the main planet - where princess Malocoti and the Sphinx live]. Only the High Priests remain. We will stay here and devote our remaining days to bring about the Yalex.

Keith: “Why are they chewing up the grain and spitting it in those jars?”

Camel Priest: “Here we dry the grain, then masticate it and preserve it in the cuspidors[a cuspidor is a spittoon - a receptacle for spitting into] . When they are full, we carry them to the Eye of the Evershadow and pour them in.

Hunk: “Ewww. Why?”

Camel Priest: “To feed the Spirit of the Moon. To strengthen him.

Lance: “Okay, this guy is looney-tooney.”

Pidge: “Wait! Is that the Pearl?”

Camel Priest: “Yes…”

Pidge: “I knew it! The whole place is a map. Score one for Pidge!”

Camel Priest: “…the Pearl, the Moon, the Eye, Time, Life, all are the circle. Never ending, never broken.”

Pidge: “Aw. Stupid symbolism.”

Lance: “OK, this guy is definitely looney-tooney. Let’s go look for the Yalex.”

Camel Priest: “You do not need to look for it. Can you not see the calendar? The Yalex comes soon.”

Shiro: “Who told you this?”

Keith: “How do you know when it’s coming?”

Camel Priest: “We follow the ways of the Haruspex” [a haruspex in ancient Rome was a person trained in reading the omens from the entrails of sacrificed animals - see more details here] “She tells us of the end times. Come, let us feed the Moon Spirit.”

Shiro: “So, this Yalex, what is it?”

Camel Priest: “None living have seen the Yalex. Seeing the Yalex means death. The Yalex is the end of days.”

Hunk: “That doesn’t sound good.”

Camel Priest: “Of course it is good. Our lives here are lived in ignorance. When we die, all is revealed, and we continue our journey under the watchful eye of the Conqueror.”

Lance: “But what about the Pearl?”

Camel Priest: “The Yalex is the Pearl.”

Lance: “It is?”

Camel Priest: “The Pearl of Wisdom that comes at the end of time. The Yalex is Creator and Destroyer, Treasure and Terror, Redeemer and Annihilator, Savior and Executioner, One is All, the Fire in the Dark, the eye that is blind is most prized!”

Lance: “Looney. Tooney.”

Hunk: “Are you sure the Moon Spirit likes camel spit?”

Shiro: “Your Holiness, we mean no disrespect to your customs, but we have a friend who is going to die unless we can find a Yalexian Pearl, and…”

Rummmble…

Camel Priest: “At last! The birth that is death has begun!”

[the Yalex beast hatches out of the shell of the moon, destroying it and blowing everyone into space, as confirmed by Hunk: “I’m alive, but “Okay” got blown up with that moon.”]

The following exposition will probably put me in the looney-tooney category as well, yet I insist on displaying my crazy crack theory to the world. So, here we go.

Some of you might have inferred already. It is indeed time we had a discussion about the second Altean colony.

My theory is that here lies the truth about what exactly the Alteans on the second colony (the moon colony) were doing, and with what purpose.

Overall, this story seems to revolve around the leitmotif of preparing food for the Spirit of the Moon. Food that is made of grains, chewed (ruminated) by camels and spat into collecting cuspidors.

—-> What are camels in our real world? They are special animals in the pseudo-ruminant category (cattle are ruminants - with four-chambered stomachs; camels are pseudo, because they have three-chambered stomachs). Without entering into a million anatomical details about camels (which you can find out quickly by doing a wiki search - it’s actually fascinating, truly!), I can say with much astonishment that camels are a wonder of nature, adapted to the very harsh conditions of the desert, travelers capable of resisting without water for a week; their bodies are designed to avoid overheating through some truly amazing (almost magical) internal adaptations.

Top that information with a bit of symbolism about camels, collected from various cultures. This animal is emblematic for endurance, sacrifice, forbearance, toughness. These resilient guys can tolerate a lot of crap and sacrifice themselves for their masters.

Now let’s go back to the book narrative and what the Camel Priest says about the other people in the Temple: “Only the High Priests remain. We will stay here and devote our remaining days to bring about the Yalex.” Only the High Priests… Devote…

—> Who exactly did Lotor allow to go to the second colony? According to Romelle, they were “viable candidates”, who were given a “series of tests”. “Those who were fit for the journey were loaded onto a cargo ship and taken to the second colony. It was considered the highest honor.” From what we infer from her story, the chosen ones were quite freely and happily choosing to go. Again, citing Romelle, they had an “unquestioning devotion”.

“…devote our remaining days” - here, I sense that it’s implied they’ll die after completing their task - correct me if I’m wrong. I initially thought it might also mean “our remaining days on this moon”, but I don’t think so.

“…to bring about the Yalex.” - to cause the Yalex happen, to create the Yalex - I’ll get back to this one in a bit.

In the comic, the story explains that “the rest of the people”, who are not high priests, returned to Krell.

—> In the Altean story, there were these sentries that Lotor used, mainly as support personnel, and who had access to both colonies. Lotor “travels there all the time”, Romelle tells us. Surely, he travels there with his sentries. Could these be the non-magical guys that return to the mother planet when not needed? They might even travel outside of the Quantum Abyss - most likely they are the ones transporting those mysterious cargoes with pure Quintessence. Across the show, they seem to appear to be some sort of scientists, or even medics, as they pop up in various episodes. @violethowler has a thought-provoking meta regarding the timing of events around the Altean Colony and neatly postulates the role of these medics/sentries:

Alright, moving on to the weird part where the Priest explains what they are doing there… They masticate the grains and mix them with their saliva (ewww), and then they collect the yucky product (some sort of cud) into these spittoons that look like camel humps, carrying them to the Eye of the Evershadow, to feed the Spirit of the Moon. Welcome to a very spitty description of what Altean alchemy looks like - metaphorically speaking, of course. The very product of their bodies (their saliva) is mixed in with the harvest of that season (the dried grains), collected in cuspidors, and then it is used as a food source for the Spirit of the Moon.

Where did we see something similar? In S1E10 (Collection and Extraction), where a Druid stands in front of a giant sphere. A coiled tube passes inside the sphere, and raw (yellow) Quintessence flows inside the tube. The Druid then spews out these flashing purple energies out of their body, mixing their energy with the yellow raw material. The result is collected into a small vat underneath, and it looks like bright purple Quintessence, which is the refined result from the raw material.

We also have a verbal explanation from a very nice robot sentry hacked by Pidge:

“The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe. […] Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements.”

So let’s demystify the puzzle. This is how I see it:

— The dried grains are the raw quintessence (accidentally or not, grains also have a yellow tint).

— The camel spit is the Altean energy - basically a product / a secretion of their body, right?

— The mix of the spit with the grains is the refined Quintessence (light purple glow in the case of the Druidic product, but on the Altean side it would have a light blue glow).

— The refined Quintessence is poured into those cuspidors and then all the vessels are poured into a larger container of some sort, to feed the ‘Spirit of the Moon’ -later hatching out of the moon as Yalex. As far as I can tell, these High Priest Camels don’t seem to be incapacitated, or chained, or tied up and forced to work, or placed in energy-syphoning pods. It looks like a very liberal environment. Nobody watching them, no one pointing weapons at them.

—> Which brings up a statement that Hunk makes in “Monsters and Mana”: “maybe those villagers liked being turned into stone?“ - and again, remember, in animation they usually don’t waste airtime pointlessly.

Traditionally, the pearl is a symbol of wisdom, especially gained through experience. (A pearl is produced by adding layer upon layer of secretions produced by an oyster - umm… or camel spit, anyone?) And guess what the Priest says: “The Yalex is the Pearl. The Pearl of Wisdom that comes at the end of time.”

Ta-daa.

OK, still confused?

—> Let’s take a look at what Lotor tells Allura before their tragic battle in S6: “Many Alteans perished in my quest to unlock the mysteries of Quintessence.” “Allura, you must understand I’ve given everything I have to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge, to unlock the mysteries of Oriande.” Umm… wisdom… knowledge… unlock mysteries… It pretty much looks to me like the Camel Temple is the equivalent of a Research Facility, a secret military operation, where Alteans were giving, willingly, freely, out of devotion to their master, everything they had, to unlock the mysteries of the… Pearl of Wisdom. Which resembles a vat of pure Quintessence, doesn’t it? Same milky opalescent white.

I know this would contradict a previous theory, that the Alteans were not producing pure Quintessence, and that the mysterious vats of pure Quintessence traveling through unmarked ships were actually coming from Voltron (from when the Komar weapon extracted it). I cannot deny or confirm either theory at this point, I’m simply following what I’m finding, as I try to be as unbiased as I can.

In any case, what I am seeing here is not comparable to what Keith, Krolia and Romelle saw. I don’t see Alteans suspended in pods, life being sucked out of them without consent, but I see active people freely giving their energy away. Like the Alteans on Atlas, gathered around the ship’s crystal, in S8E11, or the Alteans and Balmerans gathered on the Balmera asteroids.

And here comes Lance’s first teasing at the apparently incredible scene from inside the Temple: “Looney-tooney.”

In contrast to Lance’s ignorance (which is actually inserted not just to simply show off the comedic side of Lance, and I’ll circle back to that in a minute), Pidge figures out that the Pearl is hanging from the ceiling of the Temple and she also adds: “The whole place is a map. Score one for Pidge!”

Whoops! A map is a guide. It plots, it outlines the directions to a place, a story… Is this little story THE MAP to Voltron’s secret treasures??

Wait, I’m not done.

There’s waaay more looney-tooney stuff to explore, and it will blow your mind. I went into this analysis with a general idea based on little clues I observed, but as I peeled off more and more layers, I discovered really unexpected things.

Notice again how even Pidge becomes disgruntled as she doesn’t understand all the cryptic language and she remarks: “Stupid symbolism!”, while Lance goes on and on about the Priest being batshit crazy.

Well, VLD is notorious for using this kind of technique that tricks the audience into taking the information with a pinch of humor or even dismissing it as unimportant. If we laugh at it, it must be of lesser value, right? Let’s take a look at an example from the TV series, and watch how Lotor’s words are met with derision by Lance and Hunk:

S5E6: Standing in front of the white hole at Oriande, Lotor recites a poem:

Lotor: “The wise stand back from the fire,/ fools are burned on the pyre./ The mystic becomes one with the flame,/ the embers and he are the same.”

Lance: “Is that, like, a song you’re working on? ‘Cause it sucks.”

Lotor: “It’s a poem by an ancient Altean alchemist. I discovered it carved next to a cave painting of a fiery sphere. I never realized until now that it describes the route to Oriande. We must go into the white hole.”

Hunk [raising his hand, goofy soundtrack in the background]: “Are you guys serious? Are we navigating by cave poetry?”

We found out quite quickly that Lotor was right. And this is not the only place where he was right. Coran was sure Oriande was a fairy tale for kids; Lance agreed with Coran…

I could give countless other examples in the show where characters laugh at, or scorn others, only to be proven wrong later.

From a writers’ perspective, this is called Socratic irony. Quoting The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, a Socratic irony is "Socrates's irritating tendency to praise his hearers while undermining them, or to disparage his own superior abilities while manifesting them." In a very subtle, ironic way, the writers are addressing the audience’s intelligence. They’re using the characters to ridicule a scene, only to later prove otherwise. So… when Lance repeatedly says “looney-tooney” about someone, then rest assured… his intended target is quite the opposite, my friends. And if Pidge says… “stupid symbolism”, awww… how smart that stupid part must be! Not only that, but she actually hands out the word “symbolism” freely, as if to say: ‘Here, take it. This comic book is all symbols. Now get your lazy brain cells moving and decode it.’

Which brings me to the most weird parts of the conversation with the Camel Priest, that really, really sound incomprehensible, at a first glance.

Alright, here comes the heavy stuff. We’re about to get philosophical:

“…the Pearl, the Moon, the Eye, Time, Life, all are the circle. Never ending, never broken.”

“The Yalex is Creator and Destroyer, Treasure and Terror, Redeemer and Annihilator, Savior and Executioner, One is All, the Fire in the Dark, the eye that is blind is most prized!”

Gosh, I feel like decrypting a David Lynch movie. Have you guys watched the latest (2017) Twin Peaks? Omg, what a trip.

Let’s start with the easiest ones:

The circle - a simple geometric shape. A pearl, a moon, an eye, they all have circular (spherical) shapes. Duh.

Expand that to the concept of Life and Time. When time goes in circles, well… it means it’s… cyclical. Does that make sense? Never ending, never broken. History repeats itself. Or… multiple realities, where history repeats within its own iteration. Oh man, heavy stuff. Was this show for 7-year old kids?

What else looks like a circle/rosetta and can pierce through time and realities? Is there an eye shape in the middle?

Does the Yalex ⬆️ have similar ‘rosetta wings’? Is there an ‘eye’ in the middle? - the most prized (confirmed by Shiro, in the comic, who figured out that specific part of the riddle). The Pearl of Wisdom? Btw, the eye is also a symbol of wisdom, in various religions.

This… this… is also round-shaped, and has… four spidery legs - and as you’ll see below, this is the key to understanding the whole VLD vocabulary:

“Creator and Destroyer” —> remember Allura’s words to Honerva at the end of the show? “I can change the Quintessence within your vessel. Your son helped me learn how to transform it from a destructive force to a life-giving force.”

“Treasure and Terror, Redeemer and Annihilator, Savior and Executioner” —> two sides of the same coin: quintessence can be used peacefully, as Alfor (and later Lotor) intended to, providing unlimited clean energy for the Universe; or it can be employed as a violent, horrid form of terror, as demonstrated by Zarkon and Honerva. They annihilated entire planets, executing innocent people. In contrast, Allura redeemed/saved Zarkon and Honerva, also through the power of the Quintessence.

It all depends on who uses it. Hard to believe? Listen carefully to some voices from the show, which send us direct, unfiltered messages:

S6E4:

Shiro: “Zarkon fell prey to his own evil instincts.The Quintessence field didn’t create them, it revealed them.”

[later on, after Allura and Lotor enter the rift] Allura: “In the hands of the wrong person, this power could easily corrupt.”

Lotor: “Together, we’ll see it never does.”

Aside from Shiro and Allura’s statements, notice that Lotor says “together” (and he says it again, some time later: “Allura, we were meant to be together.” Also, from a previous conversation: “I cannot do this without you.”) When they were apart, they both fell prey to their raging instincts, as demonstrated in the dramatic ending of S6. That is one big reason why I believe, in the end (in the #realS8), Allura and Lotor made the final cut of the show, together. As a standing proof that unity provides power against losing yourself to your worse side. They help and lift each other, rising above the flaws of their parents. It is the central moral of the story. Defeating the evil through unity. That’s the ultimate spirit of Voltron. Unity. Sure, it is about family, as Coran says in his final toast, but above that, it’s about Unity. And… “True unity can only be born of love,” says one of the old paladins to Hunk, while inside Honerva’s mind.

Moving on to more looney-tooneys:

“One is All” —> Again, here comes the idea of Unity. This one’s got a slightly different angle, and I’ve discussed it partially before (scroll up to where I talk about the “becoming one with the Entity.”) The way I see it, the rift monster is One, but it is also a sum of its parts, All the small Entities. I believe this whole string of descriptors (one is all, creator and destroyer, bla-bla) is pointing not only to the properties of Quintessence, but to the Entity as well.

Whew, this last one is a really philosophical concept, intersecting with theology, as well. Again, not for 7-year old boys and dads that want toys. Just for the fun of it, look up “unity” in your preferred search engine and dive into an extremely complex and abstract realm of Greek philosophy, leading up to the most modern interpretations.

How I like to think of it is that once the Entity enters one’s body, a symbiotic relationship is formed.

So then, the question rises: is the Yalex…

- the Quintessence energy

- the Rift Entity

- or a Mecha that can pierce through space and time?

I believe it can be all in the same time.

As confirmed by the Camel High Priest, the Yalex itself is the Pearl (Quintessence), but I propose it is actually more than that. It is the carrier of the Pearl - the Vessel, and together, they become One. You might think Allura said “vessel” just in reference to Honerva’s space-ship. That is one meaning, according to the Oxford Dictionary (“a ship or a large boat”). But vessel also means “a hollow container, especially one used to hold liquid, such as a bowl or cask.” In addition, in religious terms, a vessel is one’s own body.

Here’s a detail from one of the official VLD posters. Notice how Honerva’s acolytes carry… vessels with some sort of offerings, food of some sort. Um… Quintessence in a vessel?

For example, Honerva’s body is the Vessel, the receptacle for the Entity, along with the Quintessence she accumulated (she does accumulate a LOT of it, in the final season - from Oriande, the Alteans, the Balmerans, etc). Her own body then goes inside the mecha, and she almost becomes a robeast, One with the machine. The machine is then, the Vessel. And depending on how she decides to manipulate it, it can be destructive or life-giving. (Allura also let herself be possessed by the Entity, yet she did not turn evil. On the contrary, she became a vector of good.)

Want more proof of this concept? The Yalex itself is a receptacle for the Pearl - refer back to the image of the Yalex hatching out of the moon. The Pearl sits inside the Yalex, nested in the middle of that whole wing-eye contraption.

“Fire in the Dark” —> didn’t we just have Lotor give us a some cave poetry lessons earlier? “The wise stand back from the fire,/ fools are burned on the pyre./ The mystic becomes one with the flame,/ the embers and he are the same.” I invite you to apply some of your school skills on literary analysis and scoop out some precious, meaningful embers from this one. Note again the repeating theme of “becoming one” with something. Also, the motif of the sphere: Lotor “discovered it carved next to a cave painting of a fiery sphere”. The fire can be both a destructive force and a useful, powerful tool, in the right hands.

King Alfor says, in S8E10: “Allura, please listen to me. Alteans are life-givers. The entity you possess is a dark, ancient evil. It’s not the key to winning this war.” Meeeeep - Wrong!! King Alfor was a great alchemist, but he got some stuff completely wrong, and it’s proven by Allura, in her reply to him:

“I understand your concern. But the entity granted us access to Honerva’s mind. Without it, your spirit would still be cursed.” Yeee, big applause, Allura, you’ve done it! The Entity, under Allura’s alchemic prowess, becomes a tool for good.

I could search for more proof that the Entity can also be good, for example in Allura’s hallucinations, when she hears Lance saying: “It won’t do you any harm. The entity will help you. It will save all of us.” And so on and so forth. It’s all sprinkled throughout the series, and we can scoop it all out, once we know what to look for. Once we learn the vocabulary.

Is this too much? It is a complex show, first of all. This is not the kind of 80’s show where, in each episode, they fight another robot/monster and save the day. The plot is sinuous and full of unexpected. Things mentioned in S3 resurface in S8 (like the Dark Entity), and so on and so forth. That is one reason why, in my view, this show was not for little kids.

I’m still not done with the analysis. Don’t fall under the game table, please, like when Shiro wanted to be a Paladin again!

Let’s talk about the Calendar and the Haruspex.

A calendar speaks of something that is cyclical… There are seasons that repeat, which means this process of producing Quintessence to feed the Yalex is a seasonal activity. The whole ceiling of the temple looks like an ancient celestial map (concentrical circles), or some sort of astrological chart, and the High Priest says: “Can you not see the calendar? […] We follow the ways of the Haruspex.” and then… this thing:

Initially, I didn’t notice it. But then… I saw the the Haruspex. And it looks exactly like… Haggar, holding the sphere of dark energy in her hands. In ancient Rome, the Haruspex was a diviner who interpreted the future based on the entrails of sacrificial animals. A sort of a magical person. Borderline witchcraft. Definitely capital punishment under medieval Inquisition.

If they had a Haruspex, that means they also had… sacrificial animals (camels/Alteans?). That would confirm that some Alteans indeed were martyred.

Maybe there were autopsies performed? By some sort of medics? I might be completely wrong. I’m entering some dark territories here.

Anyways, they definitely “follow the ways of the Haruspex”, which might mean that, in some way or another, whatever they are doing there is being dictated by some instructions from the Haggarspex. What are they doing? Refining Quintessence. Who else is doing that? The Druids in the Empire. And Haggar has… omg… Haggar has the specs!! Haggarspex! I kid you not, I just discovered this right now, as I am writing and playing with words. Talk about puns in Voltron!!

It would make total sense that they follow exactly the same technical principles that Haggar uses, because Lotor, even before becoming emperor, must have had access to some of her stuff (or stolen them - it’s not like he hadn’t stolen stuff from the empire before, see the teludav episode -S3E6). He’s using all the resources he has (and he’s got lots of Galra tech at his disposal), in search of the Pearl of Wisdom, aka the secrets of King Alfor. Alas, he’s going the wrong way about it, because he lacks the Oriande knowledge.

OK, maybe we’ll scratch the part about autopsies, but sacrifices were made. It is, after all, confirmed by Lotor…: “Were some lives lost in the process? Yes. But they were martyrs to a noble cause. I sacrificed a few to preserve the future for millions.”

Where exactly were the sacrifices made? I don’t know yet. I have some suspicions, but let’s keep going.

“She tells us of the end times. […] None living have seen the Yalex. Seeing the Yalex means death. The Yalex is the end of days.”

Wow, so once you see the Yalex, you’re out of the game. And because you’re toast, there’s no one left to tell how the Yalex looks like. It is the end of days for you.

That means the Yalex is a really dangerous and powerful being. Well, it’s represented as a sort of a giant spider that hatches out of the moon, fed and grown with pure Quintessence from the camels.

Then Hunk says: “That doesn’t sound good.”

And the Camel Priest replies: “Of course it is good. Our lives here are lived in ignorance. When we die, all is revealed, and we continue our journey under the watchful eye of the Conqueror.”

What kind of nutty stuff is this?

First of all, let’s turn upside down what Hunk is saying, for the sake of the reversed irony: That sounds very good - exactly what the priest said. Why is it good? Because they believe that through death, they finally achieve the ultimate wisdom. They are so willing to learn the mysteries of Quintessence, that they consider death the ultimate honor. Isn’t that a martyr’s belief system? Self-sacrifice is the ultimate enlightenment, for the sake of a noble cause. And you can tell that the priest feels confident about his convictions, in the way he formulates it: “of course it is good.”

And then he says something that lit up a lot of light bulbs in my humble brain cells: “Our lives here are lived in ignorance.” Oh boy. Where should I start with this one? Firstly, isn’t this what scientists quietly profess? The more you learn, the less you feel like you know. We are all ignorants in the face of the vastness of the science. Then, what is ignorance if not the opposite of… enlightenment? Merriam-Webster says enlightened means: “freed from ignorance and misinformation”.

“That is the future enlightenment brings us.” - guess who said that - guess some more —> Lotor (when talking about his ultimate plans - to get into the rift and extract unlimited Quintessence for the empire).

There’s one more Easter egg in this paragraph. “the watchful eye of the Conqueror.”

Who is the Conqueror? You might think initially it is Zarkon or the Galra Empire. But this is about a so-called afterlife, another dimension, a higher plane. I theorize it is, again, about the Entity.

“This Entity holds the power you seek. It is an ancient form of energy that predates time itself. It hails from the Quintessence Field. Entities like this gave Haggar the ability to conquer worlds and control the universe for then thousand years.”

This Entity is able to bypass time and space at its own will, and gives someone the ability to conquer worlds. In my opinion, this is the true, transcendental Conqueror and, probably, the Second Colony Alteans and Lotor believed they could reach the ultimate enlightenment by trying to manipulate it… just like Haggar did.

Sounds weird? Lotor himself had the entity - confirmed by the Galra doctors that detected the strange readings in him when newly born. Why wouldn’t he try to use its powers against Haggar? And I strongly believe that this is true, also supported by the EP’s statements about Lotor, in an AfterBuzz interview about S5:

Interviewer: “And then we have weird Quintessence necromancy happening. So how did that affect [baby] Lotor?”

JDS: It’s pretty safe to say that Lotor’s got that Daywalker kind of thing going on.

Interviewer: Little Vampire.

LM: Being in…in her womb, as [Honerva] was being exposed to all of this quintessence - it’s part of his DNA. It almost puts him on a level with Allura, pretty much how her quintessence is a part of her DNA. So it’s interesting to see.

[…]

LM: I think all Galra are kinda space vampires.

JDS: They’re kinda space vampires, yeah. Safe to say. You’re getting instead of blood, you’re getting like…planet juice."

Well, ain’t that something… Lotor is a Daywalker.

What is a Daywalker? It’s a vampire that can go out in the sunlight, part human - part vampire. I find the comparison with vampire Princess Miyu a little unsettling (quoted from Wikipedia):

“This is because she is technically a Daywalker, having one human parent and one vampire. She needs to drink blood to survive and she chooses her 'victims' carefully since she apparently cannot take blood from others unless they actually give it to her willingly. So, Miyu picks people whom she believes to be "lovely" (either in looks or personality) who have usually suffered a tragic loss, and offers them their greatest wish – to be with their lost loved ones, at least in their dreams – in exchange for their blood. These people live in an endless dream state.”

Lotor doesn’t lie about any of the things he tells Allura and the Paladins. So he does walk into the light of truth, indeed. LM and JDS confirm it, too, in the same aforementioned interview:

LM: I think… when we discussed Lotor, we wanted to make sure that everything he said had an element of like, genuine quality to it—”

JDS: “Like genuine nature to it, yeah. I mean, he hasn’t really done anything to make you believe he wanted to continue on the path of Zarkon. Even in the time before. He just has his own way about, you know, about these things. So yeah, I think the bigger sort of Lotor story point, or character point was that, you know - one - he means things genuinely, whether he’s playing somebody or not, he sort of follows up with everything that he does. So there’s no real… lie to it, I guess?

LM: I think when all is said and done we’ll be able to look back and realize that he’s been telling the truth this whole time. It’s just a matter of - where does it go from here?

JDS: Where does the truth go from here?

Well, all is said and done. The show has been over for so many years, and yet we’re still looking back and digging for the truth, because the truth about Lotor was, unfortunately, buried.

So let’s dig deeper, haha.

The Camel Priest ultimately says: “At last! The birth that is death has begun!”

I think this ties pretty neatly with what happened to Zarkon and Honerva, who, under the influence of the Entity, transfigured into something else. And here’s another snippet from the interview, where LM points to that:

Interviewer: I was just wondering if maybe that’s why Zarkon was so intent on saving Honerva, not only because he loved her but because she was pregnant.”

LM: Yeah, I think…

JDS: Combination, maybe?

LM: Yeah, I think there’s also a little bit of him that’s… was maybe… had other motives as well. The dude’s kind of dead inside…”

We saw them resurrect after dying in the rift, didn’t we? With purple evil glowing eyes. Yet they were, apparently, dead inside.

So what that means is that when the Camel Priest announces that the birth-death thingy is going to happen, and the Yalex emerges from the moon, they are all going to be possessed by the Yalex, the All is One, Fire in the Dark, the Eye. They ‘die’ inside by letting the Entity take a part of their soul and instead give them the Enlightenment. They continue their journey under the watchful eye of the Conqueror. Oh man…! Heavy stuff.

So the Alteans… willingly let themselves be possessed by the Entity, following Lotor’s demi-vampire plans to save the universe and defeat Haggar (or at least, DEFEND from Haggar - especially defend the Main Colony). You don’t think so?? We have a precedent! (Though I wouldn’t say it happened before, time-wise speaking. It actually happened after - when Honerva went to the Altean colony and created her mechs and her acolytes.) Were they not infected with the Entity?? Did Allura not scoop one out from Tavo?? Were their eyes not glowy-glowy? And they were all on board with Honerva’s plans from the get-go, so I would logically assume they also agreed with being infected with the Entity.

I’d say at this point Lotor is a good vampire, with good and transparently laid out intentions but still with vampire methods, because that’s the only way he knows how to operate - victory or death - although he is desperate to find out the true path, the Oriande path. He’s given all he had to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge.

“Lotor may have been misguided, but ultimately, he wanted to preserve life.” As much as I don’t like this sentence from Allura’s final speech to Honerva, I think it has heavy relevance to what I just unfolded here. I honestly was not expecting to reveal this. My initial impressions were going towards a slightly different direction. That’s why I never rely only on initial impressions.

The final image in this comic book is Voltron carrying the Yalexian pearl, through a solar system that looks very similar to the Quantum Abyss solar system. The top image is a screen-cap from the episode “Clear Day”, where Allura has a vision of the red planet from the Quantum Abyss, surrounded by the moons. The bottom image is from the comics, with the red planet being planet Krell.

And guess where Voltron is bringing the Pearl? To rescue Coran from a guy who keeps him hostage. But we soon find out that Coran was lying this whole time!! He was not really hostage, he was just friends with the big guy, and he made Voltron retrieve the Pearl just like Lotor had them retrieve the trans-reality comet. Well-well… Maybe Lotor 'retreived' some ‘Pearls’ (Quintessence) from Voltron as well? (maybe from the Komar weapon?)

And there’s still more to discuss.

**rolling up sleeves**

One specific property that the Entity possesses is the ability to make sudden jumps and appear/disappear.

Very… jittery. Remember how it bounces inside that tube?

Who else could appear and disappear at will? Haggar and the Druids. Also… Kosmo (that wolf is, btw, such a mystery. I posit that he’s a result of some colony experiments on animals, using the Entity.)

—-> But, more importantly, there’s a fairly obscure group of characters that only show up in one episode… and they can also teleport (it all happens so fast that it’s so easy to miss, but watch S6E2 “Razor’s Edge” when Keith and Krolia enter the Abyss and get attacked). They weren’t given any name, but they seem to be quite powerful and they are part of the big mystery of the Quantum Abyss.

I present you the four-legged white creatures that attack Keith and Krolia’s ship.

Does it not have a ‘pearl’ that looks just like an ‘eye’ in the middle? Also, look closely at the shape of the creature, and compare it with the Entity… Why do they look so similar? Those four legs… copy and paste, change color to white…

And go back and look again at the Yalex hatching out of the moon - four-legged, spider legs, as well.

Do they all have an Eye in the middle?

And, because I like to watch things in slow-motion sometimes, I just discovered an amazing detail about the white-legged creature: after it teleported inside the cockpit, there is a light blue glow coming out of it, turning into motes of light-blue energy. Altean Quintesseeence!!!

In the pictures above, the Yalex seems to have grown an additional two legs. Well, I’ll be damned if the Dark Entity doesn’t sometimes have six legs (see above). This seems to be the aggressive pose.

What if… the white-legged creatures in the Quantum Abyss are the Yalexes? They are the Pearls, the white Entities, the ‘positive’ side of the Entity (the saviors), fed by righteous Altean energy. They are the defenders of the Abyss. There are many of them, and the many create One. And they all protect the Quantum from Haggar or any other intruders, including Keith and Krolia, Ranveig, etc…

We are led to believe that these creatures are also responsible for tearing apart the unmarked ships transporting the pure quintessence through the Abyss, but if my predictions are correct, that would actually not be true, because it wouldn’t make sense narratively for Lotor’s own defenders to attack ships containing his own Quintessence transports. I believe the creature that attacked and ravaged those unmarked ships was Ranveig’s superweapon, which actually has a name we know, and I have multiple reasons to prove my theory. I will come back to this subject - keep a pin in it.

These Yalexes (I’ll start calling them Yalexes, alright?) protect Lotor’s research facility and the main Colony. He hopes to unlock the mysteries of the Entity and of the Quintessence. We know, canonically, that Haggar stalked Lotor around the universe and he was always cautious about getting rid of trackers and spies. It’s logical he would want to protect the Quantum Abyss, and we know for sure that there is a history of attempted intrusions - like Ranveig, who’s probes had been destroyed and never recovered, as recounted by Krolia. Maybe these white guys are Lotor’s own ‘druids’. They definitely showed up right at the beginning of Keith and Krolia’s journey in the Abyss, so they were standing at the gates, ready to filter out intruders.

And if we want to talk about defending, let’s go to Allura’s mystifying vision in S8E8 - “Clear Day”, where she sees her mother telling her she’s arrived just in time to save them (to save Altea, implied by the Altean castle in the background). She then goes on to say “Only you can protect us.”

“In time” - ah, maybe I’m interpreting too much - but time is a word that is used as a symbol in the Camel Priest’s dialogue. Also, Krolia tells Keith that the Quantum Abyss is a place where “unusual effects” happen to “space-time itself”. So maybe her mother is actually telling her “you’ve arrived just at the right place, in the Quantum Abyss.”

Also, in Allura’s dream, she is to save them, protect them… Only she can protect them, because of the powers she gained through the Entity = the Savior.

Allura then pilots a Komar mecha, extracting the Quintessence from Altean soil and channeling it towards Galra ships, destroying them. But, in the process, she also destroys the planet, leaving it barren, dry, lifeless, and her mother turns from a living being into a dissipating stone statue, who’s last words are: “I’m so proud of you”. As if she would say: I sacrifice myself, proudly, gladly, so that you can defend Altea.

Why a stone statue? Similar to the villagers that ‘liked’ being turned into stone, in Monsters and Mana?

The way I see this, it’s an insight into how the Quantum Abyss defense system worked. Everyone (represented in the dream by the Altean soil itself, the juniberries, the statue) put their energy together to feed these Yalexes, to defend themselves from intruders. In the end, they were all drained of their vitality, because they did not have the Oriande alchemy knowledge of how to properly infuse an ore (and the ore was not from a comet). So they would wither and die, or almost die…

Remember how exhausted the Alteans on Atlas were, after channeling their energy into the Atlas crystal? Honerva tells them to give her all their energy, because “their lives will be sacrificed for their savior.” Merla knows the consequences and interrupts the process, in order to rescue them.

And this ⬆️ is where I turn my eyes to the emaciated, scarred Alteans floating in the so-called Quintessence draining pods from the Second Colony, as described by Romelle and Keith in S6E4.

In my opinion, they were not being sucked of their energy in those pods. They were actually exhausted after working their butts off to feed Yalexes with refined Quintessence through a process learned from Haggar’s specs (the unrefined Q was, as described in the comic, a crop, a grain harvest, so raw energy either directly from them or extracted from another source, even from the native natural environment or maybe even brought from the empire. Allura sees juniberries and grass being pulverized in her vision, so it is possible that they used every energy source available - and that would explain also why there’s a wolf that has alchemic powers in the Abyss, just like I mentioned earlier - due to the experiments they applied on everything available in their environment).

And then, in the stasis chambers facility, they were actually being refueled with whatever they had available, and that was the inexpensive, easily available, purple Galra Quintessence. Here are the reasons why I believe that:

1) Because Altean energy is not purple, it is blue. Whatever would come out of their bodies would be blue. I know, I know, the Alteans in the Komar mechas exuded purple energy, but that’s because Haggar infused them with her evil magic and the corrupted Dark Entity, which she manipulated as she wished. I doubt Lotor’s Alteans were giving off purple energy.

2) As seen in S1E10 “Collection and Extraction”, the purple Quintessence is a refined form of fuel, obtained from yellow Quintessence. One would not directly extract purple quintessence from a living being.

3) We’ve been presented so many times with regeneration pods in the show… First Allura and Coran were in stasis pods, then Lance, Keith… It’s like a repeating song - regeneration pods, regeneration pods… Foreshadowing?

4) There are no tubes coming in and out of the pod itself, just a vat on top of the pod, filled with purple Quintessence, similar to how Zarkon wore his canisters on the back of his suit.

5) The foreshadowings from the comic do not speak about incapacitated donors, but about free-willing, dedicated, sentient beings.

6) Lotor says he doesn’t want to resort to the barbarism of the Komar, which was basically extracting Quintessence out of every living being without their accord. Well, if those people were indeed forcefully drained of energy in those pods, it would have been barbaric.

7) And in the spirit of what the Executive Producers said about Lotor, that he actually tells THE TRUTH every damn time, let’s revisit what he replies to Pidge, in S6E4, when she accuses him of being a murderer: “You know nothing about what you speak!” Sorry, I had to highlight this one. It is the ultimate truth, because he Does. Not. Lie. And to tell Pidge something like this… Pidge, who is THE SMARTEST, the most rational, the most inquisitive, the one who solves all the puzzles and mysteries, defeats her own self at chess, hacks into any Galra tech… Wow, that is the ultimate insult. Do not think for a minute that they chose Pidge randomly for this one. They could have picked Keith, Shiro, Lance, anyone else. No, the writers chose HER. Pidge, you’re an ignorant (sorry, Pidge stans), and with her, we ALL are, because she ultimately is the voice of all of us who might have believed what the story appeared to tell us. We RUSHED to conclusions. And Allura rushed to yeet him, believing Romelle. Keith jumped the gun on making judgements right away, although Shiro had taught him better, to never rush, because patience yields focus. That quote, my friends, has a very clear role in this show.

Look again at the Alteans in the pods. Look at their bodies, their faces. Those wider lines on the skin might actually be battle scars. Because Keith and Krolia, after working with the Blades, and fighting in many battles, seem to have similar markings on their faces. Another possibility is that those are burn scars, similar to when an electrical discharge burns through an object, because from that we have seen, the Druid and the Altean energies look like an electric arc. One thing that makes me think so is the fact that the scars are symmetrical.

Some of them might have been energy donors for feeding the Yalexes, others - pilots.

Pilots of what? - you might ask.

Of Yalexes.

But you might say… those white-legged creatures are too small to accommodate an Altean inside. At least from how they look in the show, they’re pretty small. Maybe, but remember the Alteans are chameleonic people that can change size and color. If Allura was able to grow in size, why not shrink as well?

The reason why I think those Yalexes were piloted, is because the working principle for all these mechas (including Voltron, Sincline, the Komar mechas, the robeasts) is to have a pilot inside. You can’t have the Entity simply inhabit a machine - it needs a living being to operate. (That’s one good reason to believe that Lotor was not completely dead inside Sincline in S8, because that robot was moving, damn it! He was the Malocoti dragon, under the spell of the evil witch, but he was moving. Through what turn of events did he end up dead - like afterlife-dead - at the end of the show? Can someone explain it to me?).

These Yalexes look like machines to me, honestly. Not some sort of organic or energy-based creature. Infused with Altean energy. And I bet they suck out a crap-ton of Altean energy in order to efficiently defend the Quantum Abyss. I don’t think they are unmanned. Because, again, the Camel Priest also says that they ‘die’ / ‘are being reborn’ through the Yalex, so there must be some sort of symbiosis going on there.

Being a Quantum Abyss defender is no easy task, in a place where all the shearing forces are tearing apart the fabric of space-time. Some of them fall into the neutron star gravity, like the ones Keith and Krolia shook off. How many of them must have been lost in the fights with the Galra?

Returning to the pin about Ranveig’s super-weapon. Remember that creature? Oh, it’s a good-looking beast, one that Keith and Krolia were after (that’s how Keith met his mom, while on a mission to destroy the super-weapon). Here are some quotes from the show, to refresh your memory:

S5E5: “Warlord Ranveig intercepted an undocumented shipment of quintessence traveling through his territory. He took it for his own and began experimenting with it. It’s more powerful than any quintessence we’ve received from the empire, and it has some very unexpected effects.”

S6E2: Krolia: “I was with Ranveig when an unmarked cargo ship passed into his region. When we checked it out, there was no crew aboard. The ship had been nearly torn to pieces, but inside, a single vat of quintessence remained. It was unlike any other quintessence we’d seen.”

Keith: “Were there navigation records aboard?”

Krolia: “No, but I analyzed the ship personally. The radiation signature indicated it had passed through the quantum abyss.”

S8E3: Keith: “Ranveig found the creature in the Quantum Abyss and experimented on it with Lotor’s quintessence. He trained it to take out his Galra enemies, but he couldn’t control it. The beast couldn’t differentiate between adversaries and allies.”

And this is the lovely beast:

They never gave a name to that super-weapon creature (I wonder why), but I’m gonna call it… Narti. The reason why I call it Narti can be found here.

I have some reasons, as well, to believe that:

- Narti uses mind-control by touching someone’s back of their head with her palm. The creature speaks to Keith by holding the head of a robot sentry in its hand.

- body similarities (as described in the linked article as well)

- The creature is highly intelligent, understands language, is capable of operating computers and… and… wait for it… capable of ERASING MEMORIES.

And here lies my biggest proof, and it’s connected to the entire story about the clandestine vats of Quintessence, as I will expand below:

My theory is that the injured Narti ended up somewhere just beyond the entrance of the Quantum Abyss (where Ranveig later found her), because Lotor most likely ordered his trusted Galra sentries to rescue her and take her to a “black site” (to mirror the title of the episode, because I believe it wasn’t only about the interrogation of Throk).

Think of it: they were all hunted down by Zarkon. Lotor was the main target, but the other sentries were not spared of animosity. Where would be the best place to run and hide, that they knew well? Hm? Wasn’t the Quantum Abyss part of their routine routes, as they worked under Lotor? And they would be protected by the all-powerful Yalexes and by the intrinsically dangerous environment of the place. Who knew well the paths that were relatively unaffected by the space-time distortions? Yes, that’s right, Lotor’s dear Galra fellows, secret workers, the ones that show up everywhere around him when he’s at the colonies. The guys that operate the moon facilities, the unmarked cargo ships, the cruisers, the ones that also built his Sincline ships!

The way Haggar operated on Narti and spied on Lotor was through the dark entity inside Kova (that cat, in my opinion, definitely had the entity inside; it’s been implied since when Alfor asked Honerva how old the cat was).

You don’t believe Kova was the actual tracker? Here’s what Acxa told the Atlas crew, in S8E5 “The Grudge”:

“I never had a creature companion, but one of my partners, Narti, was bonded to an immortal cat named Kova. That cat gave her the ability to experience the world. […] Until Lotor killed Narti and we had to abandon the animal on our destroyed ship so we could escape without being tracked.” (You think that whole discussion about pets, among Atlas crew members, was a useless scene? I honestly completely forgot about that part, it was complete fluff. )

But Lotor, instead of slaying Kova, went for Narti. There are several possible reasons why. Maybe because he would have released the dark entity from the cat and possibly risked infecting someone else? Or maybe he would have released a ginormous amount of energy and it would have ended up being a suicide move? Or maybe sentimental attachment to the cat? Or maybe the cat was too fast/ too small? Anyway, he got Narti. I’m sure it was a very hard decision to make, but he had to save everyone else. It was either that or continue to be tracked by Haggar. But I believe he didn’t want to let her die.

So, while Lotor was on the run along with his remaining, frightened generals, he secretly ordered his scuttling Galra squadrons to take Narti to a “black site”, to somehow try to heal her and, maybe, interrogate her to find out how this could have happened. Maybe the wound was bad enough that it needed a desperate measure, and they resorted to the pure Quintessence they had at hand. Maybe Narti was already dead and the Entity resurrected her, just like it did with Zarkon and Honerva. We don’t know all the details, but the canon definitely tells us that the beast got indiscriminately violent after exposure to pure quintessence.

As we know, pure quintessence causes all sorts of terrible problems, it’s basically like an overdose of meds, and, as Krolia stated, it had some unexpected results. Narti’s deepest resentment against the Galra became her ultimate obsession of killing Galra-only. We don’t know her backstory, but from what Acxa told Veronica in S8, they were all treated as pariah in the empire: “I was an outcast, born and bred in war. The only way I survived was to become worse than my enemies.” I’m sure Narti had a lot of vexation against the Galra, since she was a ‘half-breed’ as well, so turning into a beast that wanted to kill Galra-only makes total sense. It also explains why the beast totally ignored Lance and Hunk and went after Keith and Lahn.

The one thing that solidified my belief that Narti was the one who ravaged the unmarked cargo ship (the one that had passed through the Quantum Abyss, where Krolia said she found that single vat of quintessence, and there was no crew aboard) was the fact that there were no navigation records left on it. And, again, I’m reminding everyone that in animation they don’t waste airtime. Why would they make Keith ask Krolia if there were any navigation records left? Just to waste some airtime budget?

What is one of Narti’s famous talents? Erasing memories!! Manipulating minds. Isn’t that why Haggar was frustrated about being incapable of probing Throk’s mind? Oh, how satisfied Lotor was! Remember his smirk? Again, that was not a pointless scene. They even made Haggar say “no one can completely wipe a memory away” while they torture Throk, just to prove that she was baffled by the situation. Yup, someone CAN, actually, wipe a memory away. And that is Narti. Here’s Lotor enjoying himself while Haggar tortures Throk. Narti also mind-controls the king of planet Puig, remember that?

To put a bigger stamp on my proof, here’s Pidge, in S8E3, “The Prisonner’s Dilemma”, when trying to access the ship’s file directory, while the creature was roaming freely through the corridors. Pidge says, regarding the file: “It appears to be corrupted.” Minutes later, we see the creature operating the computer terminal with her palm fully touching the panel, (see one of previous screen-caps) interrupting Pidge’s transmission to Keith, in which she tries to warn him that there is something out there. During the fight with the creature, Pidge attempts to open some doors, only to scream seconds later: “That thing overrode my protocol!”

The creature also had a plan of how to attract more Galra into her trap: she set up a distress beacon (yordam bering exus). She’s not dumb at all!!

That is Narti, my friends.

She is basically the living PROOF of what pure Quintessence can do to someone. It literally turns you into a monster. And that was supposed to be a LEARNING POINT for the teens watching the show, that TOO MUCH of anything can make you lose your mind, your soul, your body. Parallel that to how BOTH Allura and Lotor lost their minds fighting each other, after accessing the rift, and now you get the bigger picture. There is also a bigger role that she carries in closing the arcs of Lotor’s generals, discussed in the TPL article that I linked.

An interesting feature this creature has is the ability to move extremely fast, almost close to teleportation skills (you can still see a trail of its movement, and that is exactly what Pidge tried to figure out, when she decrypted the video footage of the monster in the aforementioned episode). And… we’re back to the Entity and its marvelous property of being extremely fast, jittery, teleportation-capable. Which convinces me now (I wasn’t sure before) that Narti actually not only got an overdose of pure Quintessence, but also a gulp of Entity.

Which would make sense, because the Entity is capable of resurrecting people (see Zarkon and Honerva), and if she were dead or close to death, the medics must have employed some last resort methods. It also explains why the resulting beast is so enraged.

I believe Narti is the one who accidentally interrupted some important transports that were going into/out of the Quantum Abyss. When Keith, Romelle and Krolia arrived at the moon facility, it looked abandoned and full of dust. Which means those Galra sentries/scientists/medics that were supposed to get there, taking care of the operations, they did not make it. Those ravaged ships that Krolia found, with nobody on board… those were Narti’s doing.

Who was hunting Galra and only Galra? Narti, the enraged girl!

So Lotor, under the pressure of being spied by Haggar and hunted down by Zarkon, shot himself in the foot, big time. By injuring Narti, he set in motion a chain of events that cascaded down to the biggest misunderstanding of his 10k years of life.

IF there had been sentries at the moon colony, to properly operate the facility, Keith, Krolia and Romelle would have found out the truth directly from them. Not by forming an impression based on their biases.

And I just can’t hold it back, now that I have an idea about Kosmo as well. What if he was supposed to be used as a story moral that the Entity can be a tool for good, under the right handler? Kosmo can teleport, thus he must possess the Entity. Remember, he was a puppy when he fell out of the sky and became Keith’s pet. So Keith raised him, into a GOOD boy.

There are some plot holes that I’d like to discuss at this point.

1 - Bandor saying “Lotor… The other colony… It’s all a lie.”

A lie in reference to what?

What we are tempted immediately to gather from Bandor’s discombobulated phrases is that Lotor lied about the other colony. Yet he does not say exactly that. He utters the beginning of three unfinished sentences. Pay attention to the punctuation. I copied it exactly as displayed in the subtitles. Near their death, people usually are incoherent and cannot finish their words.

Let me give you an example of how I could finish these sentences and get a completely different meaning:

- Lotor never told us, but…

- The other colony holds the truth.

- It’s all a lie (here).

[and then Bandor gives his last breath]

Hm? Would this be so far away from the truth? After all, the main colony did look like a big, fake Paradise, blatantly resembling the Hobbits’ Shire on Middle-earth. Even the serene soundtrack that goes with it in every episode (S6E2, S6E2, S8E2) is meant to suggest an ethereal environment. Look at the pastel color palette of the landscapes. A cloudy frame envelops the pictures. And we know from canon it was actually a simulation inside a spaceship. A simulation is, according to the dictionary, a deception.

And we know Lotor wanted to keep them inside this big deception, because as soon as he discovers Bandor’s crashed shuttle, he tells his men: “Clean up the wreckage. Leave no evidence this ever happened.” The reason why he keeps them in a bubble is absolutely in good will, and out of compassion for them, because the’ve been hunted by the Galra for so long. He doesn’t want them to experience the horrors and terror of their ancestors. They are too precious to him to be exposed to that again. They are his pearls, carefully hidden inside the Abyss.

Notwithstanding, everything there was a big lie, because they were kept away from the scary world outside, and Bandor, who was born in that climate of eternal harmony, bucolic hills and never-ending joy, was shocked to learn that the world outside was cruel and extremely dangerous. And because he was too immature to understand Lotor’s profound reasons for doing this, he decided, with his last strands of energy, to fly back and warn the others, potentially spreading panic and destabilizing the community. To tell everyone that their world is in danger, that dark forces are lurking out there while they sit and do nothing. That some day, an evil witch might come and take their souls away.

And I invite the DotU experts here to see any similarities with the original character, for which I cannot comment since I’m not proficient in DotU.

I’m circling back to what the EP’s have said about Lotor, that he doesn’t lie. Sure, he omits to say certain things, purposefully (Lie by omission. But is it an evil lie or out of pure intentions?). Whatever he does say is true. If I were to compare who knew more about the truth - the main colony or the second colony - I’d be more confident to say that the second colony knew much more about the truth.

So… it’s all a lie, huh?

2 - Where were the unmarked shipments of pure Quintessence headed? Into the Quantum Abyss or out of it?

There are two schools of thought regarding this one.

- the pure Quintessence was coming out of the Abyss, from the second Altean colony, after being extracted from the Alteans in those purple pods. This is basically what the official canon lets us believe.That Lotor harnessed their life source for his own personal gain. And this theory was left, quietly, as the official stance, dubiously at odds with the rushed, one-phrase redemption Allura gives him at the end.

- the other theory (sorry I can’t find the reference link!) is that the pure Quintessence was actually headed towards the second colony, coming from the empire, more specifically from what was collected after Haggar used the Komar weapon on Voltron, in S1E13. Haggar even exclaims “It’s pure quintessence!”

If all these looney-tooney symbols I decoded are actually a thing, with the Yalex and Haruspex and all that batshit-crazy camel spit allegory, then I’d say neither of the above two theories is completely true. If the Alteans are actually capable of purifying Quintessence, following the specs from the Druid refinery, and obtaining close to 100% purity (gosh, let’s talk Breaking Bad), then they wouldn’t need any external shipments from the empire and Lotor could easily fuel his comet ore ships with Q coming from the Abyss. Albeit, not from Alteans in stasis pods, but from a refinery. (I feel the sudden urge to give Q an atomic number and find its spot in the periodic table).

On the other hand, it made sense narratively to have Q coming from the Komar weapon, since Lotor is a master at stealing stuff from under his parents’ nose; otherwise, what was the point of that entire story? Just to prove how badass Haggar was? One speculative solution would be to have both sources: one in the Abyss to fuel the Yalexes and one source in the empire to fuel the comet ships, although this theory is a bit too stretched.

—->>> Another option, more in line with a Breaking Bad scenario, would be that Lotor got his hands on some pure Q from the Komar - and - he stole the specs from Haggar’s refinery. Brought them to the scientists alchemists at the colony and said: “make me this pure Q, following these instructions”.

And that would explain why, in the comic, there’s already a Yalex pearl in the ceiling, because it’s the manufacturer’s ISO Quality Standard.

It would also justify having to use the word Haruspex - not just for the pun - but because Haruspex basically means someone who inspects something and analyzes it. You could say that the pure Q of Komar is an extract from Voltron, ‘the entrails’ of Voltron.

So, listen: they got the pure Q from the Komar, analyzed it, took the specs from Haggar’s refinery, followed the guidelines, and produced their own refined Q. For feeding Yalexes, for fueling Lotor’s comet ships, for medical purposes gone wild - like turning Narti into a monster… Eh? How does this sound? More like it? Did I write good fiction?

At this point, the Altean alchemists can be safely called the little Walter Whites of the show, while Lotor is both Heisenberg - the mastermind and Jesse Pinkman - the smuggler. Oh, boy, what mess did I get into?

Quintessence can be easily compared with meth. It does make someone go crazy, doesn’t it? And it gives them sooo much energy… Just google its side effects (if you don’t already know them). Ahem… first one is - a higher libido (for further enrichment about this particular Q aspect, refer to a certain rift tag in ao3); - intense feelings of pleasure; - excessive talking; - rapid heart rate; - confusion, paranoia, agitation; - aggressive behavior / sexually aggressive behavior (I wonder how Zarkon & Haggar spent their private time); - long term depression, anxiety, paranoia; - long term difficulty of feeling any pleasure. I skipped some of them here, but you get the picture.

Does any of this make any sense, Jesse??…

~~I dunno, b!tch, I’m just here for the Q~~

On a serious note though - wasn’t I talking earlier about one of the morals of the story - how too much of something can be bad for you? Addiction, anyone? And it’s already been discussed in the fandom, it’s not like I’m the first one to open this subject. Honerva and Zarkon basically fell prey to substance abuse and it’s not really hard to spot the signs from their backstories. And Lotor told Allura straight to her face: “The Galra Empire is completely reliant on quintessence.”

(I’m still thinking about making Q an element in the periodic table. Place it somewhere after the last element, so it’d have to have an atomic number above 118. Radioactive, most likely. And, unfortunately, highly unstable. Lol. Btw, there’s no known element name that starts with Q, so there you go, we’re creating it now.)

One more look back at the Camel Priest: it wears a red cape-skirt. Red, again. Red herring. And it talks in poetic, cryptic, elaborate figures of speech. And has a sort of an unconventional, victorian-punk outfit. Lance and Hunk poke fun at him.

Well who’s our closest character that sums up all of these ‘qualities’?

L.O.T.O.R.

******

The next two comic books, in my opinion, are not so heavily loaded with symbolism, with a few exceptions, which I’ll briefly discuss.

There are some really fun moments, like Lance’s guide to romance + his best pick-up lines and Hunk’s fear of getting married.

Hunk’s sensitivity and nurturing nature is being emphasized in a story about a monster that - we eventually learn - is very angry because she is missing her baby - hints at Honerva’s desperate attempts to find her son in a perfect reality.

Another parallel worthy to mention comes in the form of a “wolfie” that, honestly, looks just like the White Lion (which, imo, also looks like a wolf, but that’s another story, haha). Except this guy is blue, but he does talk about being a warden of some sacred grounds, and he fights with the only paladin that is a half-galra, Keith. According to this creature, “only the chosen may enter the sacred hunting grounds.” This foreshadows Lotor’s battle with the White Lion at Oriande, and his struggle to become “chosen”, according to Altean standards.

Eventually, the wolfie is defeated by Coran, who is sick with the Nomo virus (parallel with the Entity). By coughing into the beast’s mouth, he releases “millions, billions, trillions” of “aggressive little creatures”. Coran flying a kotka dragon is just so in character, by the way.

The third and last comics volume brings some interesting references to the leitmotif of the showman, and the idea that TV can manipulate people’s minds, clearly stated by Coran and Allura, after being guests in a green alien’s TV show:

Yup, these are from the official VLD comic, I kid you not. Recognize the leitmotif of the green guy - the showman? Look for him in S7E4 “The Feud” as well. Why green, you’d say? It’s the unofficial color of money, at least this ~$$$~ kind of currency )

Lotor also states the same thing, first episode we meet him on screen, in S3E1: “The masses are easily manipulated.” After pulling so much meta out of these innocent, lovable comics, I believe this was meant intentionally, as a direct message to us, to not trust everything that we’ll see. Example: If Bandor says “Lotor… It’s all a lie”, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Lotor lies. "That guy with the stupid show? He doesn't speak for everyone." The green guy (symbol of the TV and media deceivers) doesn’t speak for everyone. Which means there are people who will get the real message of the show, despite all the censorship.

So here’s a quick recap of the most important symbols. These were all deduced after noticing various leitmotifs spread throughout the series.

Lotor is:

-Dakin; the Coranic dragon.

-Queen Luxia.

-The green Guardian monster.

-The red dragon; Princess Malocoti.

-The red-caped Camel Priest.

The Alteans with alchemic powers (the martyrs) are:

-The villagers turned into stone.

-Florona and other sacrificial mermaids.

-A select number of ant-looking aliens who were offered as sacrifice to the green monster

-The camels who willingly give themselves to the rebirth through the Yalex

The Entity is:

-(skipped in Monsters and Mana, only mentioned by Coran as “wait to see who Dakin was working for)

-The underwater dragon / the mind-swishing aquatic food

-The brain-worm

-The Abomination

-The mushrooms

-The Yalex monster

Anyone who becomes One with the entity: Honerva, Lotor, Zarkon, the possessed Alteans, even Allura. Remember, the Entity can be good, or bad, depending on who uses it.

As you noticed, everything I’ve analyzed has been collected and put together from all throughout VLD, including the comics. I actually stated this in the beginning, too: “the recurring themes are there, scrambled in no apparent order.” And look at what the EP’s have said in a Syfy interview:

LM: We’ve chosen to kind of selectively release little bits about our villains, like - along the way. We didn’t really have one episode where you expose everything there is to know. A lot of it is kind of underlying, for people to kind of - if they’re willing to look for it - they’ll find it. […]

JDS: I think that - in our minds, and in the writers’ room - you know, there’s a full, fleshed-out backstory that goes back to… who-knows-when. Um, yeah, it’s all there, it’s all a matter of…, the viewers are gonna, like, find it, and… [motioning his fingers to suggest keyboard typing]

Interviewer: …sift through it.

JDS: Yeah.

Are you still there? Just a little bit left. One more sip of coffee.

At this final point, I’d like to recap Lotor’s arc, from his inception to what was supposed to be his redemption.

So he’s born from two parents who were ‘dead inside’, high on Quintessence and infected with the Entity. He himself has the Entity and (most likely) learns how to deal with it from a young age, or his body naturally creates a symbiotic relationship with it (as opposed to the parasitic relation it has with Honerva and Zarkon’s bodies). He grows up basically raised by another mother, Dayak. He tries to get close to his father, but he constantly gets pushed away, marginalized, because he has “impurities”.

His inquisitive spirit starts digging up the truth about Altea. He starts to track down the survivors and establishes a secret colony for them in the Quantum Abyss.

After Zarkon destroys the planet where he worked along the denizens, he finds refuge in researching his Altean heritage, its ancient history and traditions.The colony he’d secretly established in the Quantum Abyss is thriving.

Somewhere along the many millennia of his life, due to constant harassment from Haggar, who lurks around him at every corner, he decides to step up the Colony protection. He realizes that nothing can keep the witch at bay, except something equally powerful: the Entity itself. Haggar has been, for millennia, quite frustrated that she couldn’t control his mind the same way she influenced Zarkon, through the Entity. (Remember, Lotor tells Zarkon this “You’ve become nothing more than one of the witch’s monsters. Does she control you as well?”) It never worked with Lotor - as we find out, when she remembers Lotor is her son, in S5E2. In her vision, she sees him first as a child, then adolescent, then adult, with glowing eyes, just like her. The adolescent Lotor turns and runs away from her, and she can’t keep up with him - a clear hint at the fact that he managed to escape her spells.

The second colony is established. He tells them the truth about the dangers they face, how Haggar and Zarkon conquer world after world using the Entity, and if they don’t do something, their society would also be on the line. The Alteans are fully on board with his plans, they establish a military base and a research facility to study the Entity and the Quintessence. They most likely run into numerous failed attempts to figure out how to create a defense system against Haggar. Probably many Alteans perish during experiments. Martyrs. Quite a different word than “killed”, as stated by Romelle, or “murdered”, as in Pidge.

Lotor continues his archeology research around the Universe, discovering scattered information about Voltron, King Alfor, alchemy, Oriande. He tries to put it all together, to figure out the secrets of Voltron. That’s why he says he gave all he had to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge. He most likely needs that, desperately, to defend the Colony.

Knowing historical facts about the existence of a rift, he develops his own political convictions and agenda, about bringing unlimited Quintessence to the Universe, in order to stop the Galra madness. He believes that by feeding that monster that is lurking in the dark corners of the Universe, and by making Q a cheap fuel for the Empire, the greed for it will vanish and peace will be restored again - “a complete paradigm shift, a new dawn for the old empire.” Maybe somewhere in the back of his mind, he is rooting for an Altean ruling, somewhere in the future, through the power of rift Quintessence fueling his unbeatable weapons (The blown out of proportions version of this dream is seen when he loses his mind at the rift battle: “Once I wipe out Voltron, I’m going to start a new Altea. An Altea that will never know of Princess Allura or King Alfor.”)

When Voltron gets drained of energy from the Komar, Lotor makes his first contact with the real deal: pure Quintessence. He’d never seen anything like that before. Only Haggar and Zarkon knew about it, because they’d been in the rift.

He manages to get his hands on some pure Quintessence and steals (or he’d already stolen) Haggar’s specs for Quintessence purification, and begins creating his own pure Q in the second colony. It is used to feed Entity-possessed Alteans piloting Yalexes. The white mechs are not made out of a comet ore, so they suck a lot of energy from the alchemists. It is also, possibly, used to carry out his experiments at the Rift, as discussed below.

Though not established well in time, somewhere recently probably, he also starts the construction of the Rift Gate (most likely with undercover Altean workforce, due to its blue glow and juniberry-shaped entrance). He might need a lot of pure Quintessence for the construction. He hides it in that underwater, very old Galra station, where Kolivan and Keith first discover its existence. Lotor wants to go into the rift to get pure Quintessence. Much easier than having to exhaust Altean alchemists to purify it from raw materials.

Haggar continues to harass him and stalk him. Galra generals that rule over the territories surrounding the Quantum Abyss try sending probes in there. The Yalexes effectively defend against intruders.

And then he figures out that Voltron was made out of a comet ore. He discovers one comet stuck between realities, he attempts to retrieve it, but fails miserably (as stated by Ezor, who recalls how unhappy his pilots were). Eventually, he uses Voltron to get it, which adds up to the already established mistrust.

He’s now almost 100% positive that by infusing his comet ships with pure Quintessence, he’ll be able to pierce the reality barrier. “According to his calculations”, they should be successful.

Zarkon and Honerva figure out he’s got his hands on a trans-reality comet and start hunting him. Left without his main cruiser, having to kill one of his generals, he attempts his masterful plan, of entering the rift. He fails lamentably, realizing he’s missing a piece of information. The generals betray him, but he escapes; he gets chased by Zarkon through solar flares, he escapes him too; then jumps right in the middle of the action to save the Paladins and the Coalition at Naxzela.

After being a prisoner for a while in Allura’s castle, feeding them intel to gain their trust, he finally makes a breakthrough, by killing Zarkon and lighting the flame at Kral Zera. He becomes the Emperor and things are good for him for a while. Together with Allura, he makes revolutionary discoveries; they visit Oriande and Allura helps him by infusing his ships with Quintessence, the right way, as she learned from Oriande. During this time spent together with her, something unexpected happens to him. He falls in love. And then the painful part of the Voltron story unfolds. Romelle shows up and things go sideways completely. Even though the mind-controlled Shiro clone delivers him to Haggar, she still has no power over him. While she basically tries to excuse herself for not being a good mother, he completely rejects her - a big blow in her newly-awakened motherly instincts.

Returning to the rift to try to talk to Allura, he finds her in a deep state of rage against him (most likely fueled by the big dose of Q received in the rift). There is basically no way to reason with her, although he tries. He really does. He even orders his generals to hold their fire. Acxa is worried about him. Most likely because she figured out that he’s in love with her, and she sees that as his weak spot. The spark that lights up the evil flame of the Entity inside him is Allura’s spiteful, unreasoned comparison with Zarkon. The one thing he hated most, his weakest spot - being compared to his father - coming from the lips of the woman he loves. That completely ruins him inside. He ends up exactly as the Malocoti dragon. He loses his reason as well, uttering threats about a new Altea that will never know about Princess Allura and King Alfor. And then he loses the battle in the rift, and remains trapped there until Honerva pulls him out.

And this is where S8 left us with lots of question marks. What we got is basically nothing. We only see a suggestion of a melted corpse (but with motes of Quintessence coming out of his body). And then, a quick redemption sentence from Allura and a bitter “he deserved better” from his mother.

But the comics tell us something else. The first comic book was released in 2016, just at the beginning of the show. And that was the map, the Rosetta Stone of Voltron.

The comics tell us that Lotor was saved from the spell of the witch.

This is what I think really happened: Honerva pulls him from the rift. At this point, his body is pretty much done for, but I assume his consciousness is trapped inside the Sincline (in a similar fashion to how Shiro’s mind was trapped inside the Black Lion). Honerva knows a trick or two of how to ‘resurrect' people, and she infuses him with high doses of her evil Entity powers and with Quintessence (that’s why we see motes of purple Quintessence coming out of his body). He’s become a full vampire robeast. Being basically “dead inside”, the high-on-Q, full-vampire Lotor behaves extremely violent, killing indiscriminately everyone around him (foreshadowed by the Narti monster, who cannot distinguish enemies from allies). The only thing that seemed to make the Sincline pause and not shoot was… Allura -oops. Otherwise, he is Honerva’s puppet, just like the Malocoti dragon.

Allura has a vision where she sees Lotor explaining what the Entity is, and that she should become One with it in order to defeat Honerva. We don’t know exactly who encouraged that Entity to come visit her. It might be the Entity itself, or it might be Lotor’s own telepathic work, channeled through the mycelial network of Entities - the final station being the Entity trapped inside that vacuum tube. We don’t know for sure. All we know is that it seems to be a force for good.

Eventually giving in and taking the Entity inside herself, Allura travels through Honerva’s mind along with her friends and they free the Old Paladins. After exiting Honerva’s mind, the Paladins wake up, except Allura, who is fallen into some sort of deep sleep or coma. This trip is something she needs to see through on her own.

There are missing parts here, as I analyzed in this meta. I believe one full episode just for this adventure.

Allura travels out of Honerva’s mind, guided by the Entity, and she arrives inside the Sincline’s memory space, where she meets Lotor’s consciousness. The Old Paladins might be with her as well (because Lotor needs to reconcile with his father, too). There are two possibilities here: either Lotor is already a peaceful ghost (like Shiro), who will reveal to her, in a nice conversation, the whole truth about the Alteans, Honerva, bla-bla. Or… Lotor’s ghost is as dark and violent as the Old Paladins were, because Honerva’s spell reaches even inside Sincline’s memory space. This would make the encounter more dramatic, probably a fight with him ensues, the Old Paladins help Allura restrain him, and eventually she releases him from the spell. The whole nine yards. And then he tells his side of the story, makes peace with his father, the Old Paladins say their farewell, and Allura is left to decide with him the next steps.

After waking up, she has a discussion with Lance, who finally understands Allura’s heart belongs somewhere else. A mature Lance vows to help her retrieve Lotor from Honerva.

There are some episodes that are completely missing, but I believe they would mirror the story of Princess Malocoti being freed from the ‘dragon’ (Sincline). Allura would retrieve his soul from the mecha and put it back inside his body, just like she did with Shiro. She would resurrect his body the Altean way, not Honerva’s pitiful way. Like the old oak tree that blooms again, bursting with Quintessence under Lance’s eyes, we would see Lotor’s shriveled body regain its beauty and vitality. And Lance might be there to witness it.

Following the leads from the now famous article Seek Truth in Darkness by @leakinghate, it’s clear that the last few episodes edited Lotor out. He is there, helping the Paladins defeat Honerva. There are now seven Paladins, just as Kolivan predicted in his weird ‘interview’ in S8E7 (which totally looks like wasted airtime if you don’t understand the symbolism). The bringing back to life of all realities comes in the form of a juniberry flower - three petals - three almighty powers: Honerva, Allura and Lotor. He did say that “all life began with a single juniberry flower”, in case anyone wondered why he spoke again in looney-tooney ‘cave poetry’. It wasn’t just Allura and Honerva. Lotor was there as well, because, as Leakinghate mentioned, this is his path to understanding his Altean side, which is Sacrifice (martyrdom, if we want to be more specific), the path to passing the Oriande trials.

If the martyred villagers were turned into stone, the saviors that sacrificed themselves also get their own stone statues. We get to see Allura’s, but Lotor had a statue as well, in the colony, and it might find its final spot either on Altea, or on Daibazaal, we don’t know. We might see one for Honerva, as well. The Great Restoration of all realities is accomplished by a flipped-gender Trinity, challenging stereotypes: The Mother, The Daughter and The Son (just like the princess saving the prince is a flipped script). They most likely become higher beings in an upper plane, guiding, watching over, and probably, also making contact with the mortals, from time to time. This kind of story with the ascension of the main character into the skies, into a higher dimension is not uncommon, actually, in the classic Japanese animated series from the 80’s, and it would be the Grande Finale’s nod to that tradition.

You see, my friends, there are so many threads that were left loose in this show. They were meant to close into beautiful arcs, monumental teaching points for children, teens and adults as well. The writers and EP’s intended to finish these arcs. But… “this is show business”, no matter what the “right thing to do” is.

This analysis is based on comparisons, symbolic interpretation, semantics and speculations. As I stated in the beginning, I might have gotten some things wrong, but overall, I believe this is what we should have seen.

If some of these might prove incorrect at a later date, I always welcome improvements.

Thank you to all the good people of the Lotura Discord, who constantly inspire me through thought-provoking discussions and awesome sources of knowledge!

To conclude my very, very long peroration, I believe Lotor is the type of character that stands right on the edge of black and white, good and evil. He lives on the Razor’s Edge, just like the episode title suggests (a Sanskrit concept that passing over a sharp edge is difficult, thus the path to salvation is hard). He wants nothing but to be the good leader his parents never were, yet his environment and upbringing constantly try to push him off the edge. Like an acrobat that walks on a tightrope, he needs to make it to the other side.

Did he ever make it?

#lotor #voltron #lotor deserved better #vld meta #vld comics meta #lotura

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heronoegg · 10 months

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YOOOO MOMO'S IN THE BAKUSQUAD! 🤩

What would their dynamic be like?

Bakusquad memeber: Momo

Bakugo nickname: Ponytail

Position: Shopper friend (will literally take the everyone out or buy something for them online)

Bad point: Emotional support

Jirou introduced her to the idea of being part of th squad so im not gonna include her it's about the other members

Bakugo- I feel like at first Bakugo didn't really care that she was quote un quote in their squad but i've read a couple of stories where i've seen Bakugo and Momo as really good and close friends it just takes Bakugo a minute to get used to her (as with other people) Bakugo can easily lift Momo emotionally cause Momo is like Deku in some ways where she lets things slide that shouldn't unfair treatment is not something Bakugo stands for and will defend her on every matter as will she be there to let Bakugo rant to her if Bakugo needs to

(It could kinda also go the other way but i feel like Momo doesn't rant she more of bottles everythiing up and says its fine when it's not and needs to be told she deserves to be treated correctly on any matter)

I also think Momo would go out of her way to do things differently for Bakugo cause i headcanon Bakugo needs hearing aids so she would rephrase instead of repeat what she says and if its super important stuff that Bakugo really appreciates but would never say so

Kirishima- Never really thought of how they could be friends but since he's the one who started the squad shes going to hold a high respect for him and consider him the leader even though it's called the Bakusquad i feel with his lacking intellect Momo would have a field day with Kirishima trying to understand why he does the things he does over all i feel like if she could get close to Bakugo she could get close to Kirishima too

I feel like when she finds out about Kirishima's depression she say "Does this offend you?" or "If i do this would that offend you?" alot and Kirishima would assure her it's find she doesn't have to ask everytime and if something is bothering him he'll let her know but she rather know in advance as to avoid even offending or hurting his feeling cause she has that Iida in her

I feel like she could relate to alot of things with Kirishima and they would talk all night long about what they think their doing wrong and how they could be better heroes and people in general they are both golden retriever friend

Kaminari - if Bakugo isn't busy helping Kirishima i feel they would alternate between being the study buddies of these two but Momo would usually end up with Kaminari and helping him out

the more time she spends with Kaminari and notices little things Kaminari does Momo would come to it by herself that she believes Kaminari has ADHD and she ask and Kaminari's like "Yeah i have ADHD" and shes like why didn't you tell me? the answer of all time "You never asked :p"

Momo absolutely loves to give Kaminari things so she buys alot of things for Kami like "I thought you might like this" or "This reminds me of you so i bought i hope you like it"

One of the funnier things is i feel like Kaminari can get away with bullying Momo into doing things she doesn't wanna do sometimes like when they can drive Kaminari will lock her in the car until she makes one of those disabled people things to hang int he car so they don't have to pay for parking and Jirou's so on board and just lets him do it and shes like "Yall are evil" or lock her in the closet until she makes something they could just go to the store and buy from her point of view

it's all in good fun (maybe not for Momo but its funny)

Kaminari would invite her to sit in front of the TV all day and watch stuff like regular show which she would find vulgar but sit through at least 3 eps before not wanting to watch it anymore where Kirishima or Sero would go until they they wanted to do something else like 10 eps in

Sero - Im honestly not sure but the only interactions i can see between them is when Sero said that the way her quirk works is like poop but i feel like they would be really chill

i headcanon Sero Latino and Momo British so maybe they could talk about food together but i feel like Sero would say the stuff Momo likes to taste bland and Momo would be like "You know Jirou said you would say that"

#izumiyumi #bakusquad #momo yaoyorozu #bnha headcannons

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faithandfairies · 2 years

Text

Law & Order SVU Season 23 Finale; I Hope the Barson Ship Will Finally Sail

Okay, so I just finished that Law & Order SVU season 23 finale and Oooooooh.

It pretty much covered everything I’ve been saying and thinking about this show.

Well, about Benson, I guess.

I also don’t think I’ve ever seen her this self-aware before.

But, you know, that’s necessary when you actually want to move forward.

There’s this quote that says something like “It’s fun to be cool and aloof until you realize that if you want love you’re going to have to make a fool of yourself and ask for it.”

And Lord, is that true.

Anyway,

I get why Benson is angry. I think she sees Barba going against her wishes as a boundary overstepped. And he has always been the one who she could trust not to do that. So that’s fair.

And it’s also that a friend and someone she loves defended a murderer when he didn’t have to which in itself is an act she hates.

And then on top of that the murderer almost personally hurt her by hurting Elliot through killing Kathy.

But then again, the fact that Barba did go against her wishes in this case to me only underlines how much he loves her and that she can trust him to do what’s best for her. Even if she doesn’t want other people making those decisions for her, she does deserve someone who has her best interests at heart even when she doesn’t.

The fact that she’s angry about it, very angry in fact, and not indifferent to me is another sign that she loves him.

But I think that part of the reason she might be so angry at him is because she didn’t expect what she sees as betrayal. With Elliot I would say she’s used to his nonsense and enables it. With Barba she isn’t so she holds him to a higher standard, which I think is good. Good for the both of them and will be good if they decide to pursue a romantic relationship.

But honestly, I think if you pull back all the layers, the other reason she’s so angry at him is because it’s getting harder for her to ignore his feelings for her. Because with him blatantly telling her he only defended Wheatley to protect her, it doesn’t take a genius to deduce that the reason he would do that is because he loves her. Why else? And she isn’t stupid, far from it, so you know she got the message even though she’s trying to ignore it.

I think it’s probably even more frustrating because she actually loves him. He’s the only person aside from maybe Rollins, that she’s clearly let into her life as far as she has. And she has definitely let him into her heart. She’s been deliberately vulnerable with him in ways I’ve rarely seen her be with others if at all.

And it just, it brings me back to ADA Stone because with Stone, he too was in love with her but made it easy for her to ignore it until he couldn’t anymore. The difference being that I couldn’t see her pursuing anything with Stone and Stone knew it too.

And you know, when Barba and Benson first started working together I watched those episodes and I completely missed the signs initially like I did with Stone. And then I re-watched Barba and Benson’s journey and it was just so obvious, the amount of times he asked her out for drinks before she even said yes, but he never gave up, the way he was always trying to brighten up her day and make her smile.

Even when they first met you could see her reputation preceded her and he was a bit in awe.

The fact that he mentioned her to his mother to the point his mother recognized her name when they met.

The way he looked completely hurt and at his wit’s end when he realized she got into a relationship with Tucker while he was right there. This is when I really and truly knew he was irrevocably in love with her and it actually took me by surprise because he looked like his world was ending when he found out about Tucker.

Barba kind of reminds me of Castle in the Castle TV show where he pursued Beckett, who I always felt was initially based on Benson, for years before she saw him, actually saw him and finally admitted to herself and him that she loved and wanted him.

I feel like Barba is Benson’s Castle. I never thought I’d see the day, but the man has been by her side quietly waiting for her to see him and recognize how much he loves her and actually allow him to love her properly for ages.

Through drinks and conversations and just showing up for her and being a shoulder for her to cry on when she needed one.

And now not only has he told her he was only protecting her through doing the thing that pissed her off at him,

he has legitimately now also told her that he

- misses her

- loves her unconditionally

- will wait for her until she’s ready

(x)

He has also straight up called Elliot a bully, which, the man is spitting facts but in the same breath he has also validated her feelings for Elliot. Barba’s a real one.

Barba, he’s no longer allowing Benson to ignore his feelings for her.

He’s literally telling her he loves her and is asking her to love him back when she’s ready. The man has literally bared his soul to her which in itself is incredibly hard to do but opposite someone who isn’t in a state to receive anything you have to say and might never be again, astronomically hard. But he did it anyway because she’s worth it and he’d be damned if he didn’t paint a full picture for her in what might be his last chance to do so.

Stone told her how he felt and then walked away, not asking her for anything and not waiting for any kind of response because he knew what it was going to be.

But Barba, he knows. He knows her. And so he knows. And he sees a future with her and is willing to wait for it. Wait for her. To be ready.

He’s a man who adores her and would literally do anything for her, but still manages to keep his job and integrity even so, I mean, what more could you want?

I feel like I’m rambling but I just really want this for the both of them. I want him to come back in a more consistent capacity and for them to rebuild their relationship and get together romantically.

And I don’t know that it’s necessary for her to pursue something with Elliot first.

This finale episode it felt like the battered victim was meant to parallel Benson. Where I think she said herself that that woman’s husband kept upending her life by coming back into it. Even more interesting is that this woman kept calling this man who was bad for her back into her life herself expecting him to put the pieces of it back together when he was the one who broke her in the first place.

And I think pursuing something with Elliot would do that to Benson, upend her life.

And she finally, finally has a good stable life.

I just don’t want what, 10+ years of her own hard work putting her life back together after Elliot walked out of it to go down the drain.

Barba brings her peace. Elliot brings chaos.

Look at them. These two dorks belong together and I need them to make it happen for the good of themselves and humankind.

(She said she misses him too so we’re one third of the way there.)

(x)

After thinking about it I have decided to take a step away from this show until it decides who Benson ends up with because I won’t be baited by a straight show. I just won’t do it. Life’s too short.

#law and order svu #svu #barson #benson and barba #rambly post because I have a lot of feelings and I want them to be happy because it's what they deserve #benson #barba

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yoyo-inspace · 2 years

Text

I, for one, am loving everything they’re doing with Alicent Hightower.

Look, I love a “villainous woman who’s just allowed to be evil” as much as anyone, but I also love examining how ambition isn’t created in a vacuum, especially not in a story that’s interested in exploring character depth. I honestly cannot agree with the idea that feeling sympathy for her now would be “bad storytelling”. I mean, each to their own, but I’ve seen several posts about it now and it just baffles me.

Over three episodes, we’ve seen Alicent go from anxious pawn who’s just doing what she’s told, to making her own power plays already because she realises she can. Seeing her come into her own is fascinating, and while I can see the road ahead, I feel such sympathy for her - that’s not a bad thing. We’ve seen her relationship with Rhaenyra be close, fracture and start to break apart - even as she tries to hold on to it. I think changing her age is a brilliant move for a tv adaption. Is it the only move they could’ve done? Of course not. But it tells a different story than what I know of F&B, and that’s fascinating. I think allowing a character who many might end up perceiving as backstabbing or ambitious or villainous or evil, have an understandable backstory to make the audience realise to that point isn’t excusing them or making them toothless (to quote Rhaenyra), but rather, it shows on taking the audience seriously. This is the story they’ve chosen to tell, among many adaptations they could’ve gone with, and I’m in for the ride.

I get being annoyed at say, giving every female villain a backstory of “sexual trauma” or “screwed over by the patriarchy” (even if the latter, depending on the setting, is very often true, even if they’re using the patriarchy), I really do. I don’t know if I agree that that’s what they’ve done to Alicent. Nervous and anxious tick to have good visual storytelling. Being young and not having found yourself. I think all of that’s fair enough.

The original text is still there, after all. Bringing it to tv though, I’m far more interested in a story of all grey, which is what they seem to be aiming for here. I’ll paraphrase Emma and Olivia when they were talking about their characters relationships, but there has to be some love there to set fire to. There has to be a relationship. Visually, I think that’s the right choice, because it’s more interesting, it gives us more character drama, and I don’t think at all its a detriment to the character.

Of course everyone’s allowed to be annoyed by whatever adaptational choices they want to. I know I would be, for the smallest insignificant things. But I was seeing so many TakesTM about how Alicent’s character is ruined by the changes, that I felt I had to just give a quick change of perspective. Granted, I’m a show only watcher. I know some details of the book, but I haven’t read it. But personally, I think that I’d rather watch this story play out. I can always go and read the book. And also, a lot of viewers do understand nuance. I’ve seen a lot of takes (mainly on Twitter) suggesting otherwise.

#house of the dragon #hotd #alicent hightower #fire & blood spoilers #fire and blood spoilers #ish #hotd spoilers #house of the dragon spoilers

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