fionna's world being represented by a dandelion makes so much sense ... they're weeds. yet people make wishes through them, changing their whole meaning from something meant to be destroyed to something hopeful.
dandelions are also resilient and it makes sense that something associated with them would. you know. perservere despite the destruction caused by the scarab.
but ultimately i think what REALLY made me tear up over this is that dandelions are really boring plants. when you're a kid you blow on them and make your wish but they're not eyecatching or anything but still, fionna's final wish was for her old world to still exist as it was when she left it (> plain and simple. boring even).
like the moment she realized she would lose her friends, and that her friends might forget each other if the world got its magic back, she immediately decided she didn't want it and I think that ties back to the dandelion metaphor so well... like, do you really need magic to be real to find it everywhere? or can you turn something boring into something magical?
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Listen when people say they want Percy to go on a villain arc most times I see it as they want him to go dark, want him to start murdering, maiming, going full Luke, etc. And I support that. If anyone deserves to kill people it's this kid.
However, let us be realistic for a moment, because I quite like the other alternative. Villain arc Percy usually entails "he's finally had enough of the Gods bullshit & will do things his own way". Let us think on this. What would Percy most likely do in this situation? Would it really be murder right off the bat?
I think he'd be the pettiest, annoying little shit there is. And because one can't usually threaten the Gods in a way that truly matters, but they can make them sweat really hard.
This goes beyond ignoring their calls and leaving them on read. He refuses to give food offerings unless it's the nastiest shit known to man. Bribes the cyclops into hucking huge objects up Mount Olympus before they all scurry off. Finds the olive tree Athena gave to Athens, and while he wouldn't have the heart to destroy it, he'd for sure rip off a branch & mail it to her (Annabeth nearly had to put them in witness protection).
Eventually it gets to the point he has Nico on speed-dial and offers him a shit ton of fast food & a 'get out of Percy's quest bullshit free' pass if he could hop into the Underworld and yoink up some annoying spirits or dead monsters to piss off the Gods. When the Gods get pissed at him Percy just silently pulls out some safe-for-demigods phone like "hang on I wanna see how many happy meals I owe Nico for bringing Typhon back up". They know he is not bluffing.
Could the Gods counteract him? Yeah, sure, Hera gave him amnesia and it was like 90% effective for a while. However, he kind of went off the rails, everyone else went off the rails, and then they had even more Roman nonsense to deal with. If anything it both solved but also made even more problems. And a much angrier Percy. So, frankly, they're very confident it could work, but they're a little worried about what the aftermath would be.
Ares suggests just killing him. Poseidon takes offense to this. Artemis scoffs and says even Ares couldn't beat him. Everyone stops for a moment. The question is not asked verbally. But it is seen in the darting eyes and shifting seats.
Can they kill Percy Jackson?
Well, sure, they must be able to. He's a powerful kid, no doubt, with powerful allies, but they are Gods. Of course they can kill him. So that's not the real question, they wouldn't dare really entertain such a thing to ever confirm if it was true, but this is rather the layer of frosting hiding the real atrocity of a cake underneath it.
What will they lose trying to kill Percy Jackson?
What will remain standing in the face of some 18-year-old who lived one of the hardest knocks of life, loves so much it makes them sick, is so completely unaware of his own strength not even they know its full extent, and currently has absolutely zero fucks to give about the end of a reign longer than he will ever understand?
They decide to quietly shut the lid on that whole fiasco and let Percy do whatever he wants.
Unfortunately, they can't exactly ignore everyone else. And everyone else is who Percy cares about the most. So, think of it more like leaving a grenade in a locked box in the attic. Just hope and pray you've moved out before something gets curious and starts rummaging around up there.
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Today was the last sunny day before several days of rain so I decided it would be a productive day and I would get lots of work done in the pasture. I wanted to start my autumn cleaning, gather all the manure and then spread it over my now-dismantled vegetable garden, and also work on the fence and prepare a few more crossbars if I had time.
It’s always when you’re ready to work and full of projects and motivation that one of your children comes up to you like “I have something to show you but first, promise you won’t get mad”
... Pirlouit somehow managed to get a PVC pipe stuck around his pastern (I discovered this English word just now! In French it’s pâturon.) The people who came to install a septic tank two years ago used these pipes and I later found some pieces they’d cut in the grass near my house, and used them to collect spring water into my new barrel. So I guess an even smaller piece of pipe they’d left behind rolled down all the way into the pasture :/ But the mystery is how Pirlouit got it stuck on his foot—because it was completely impossible to slip it past his hoof when I tried to pull on it. How was it large enough to fit in one direction but too narrow in the other...??
At least Pirou let me halter him without a fuss. He looked sheepish but also fairly confident that I could remove that thing. He was all but placing his foot in my lap like “Here.”
I went to fetch the large bolt-cutter that I use to cut barbed wire, and also my phone to take pictures of my donkey and shame him on the internet (but mostly because I knew this process would now involve some waiting. Every time I introduce him to a new object Pirlouit needs a good long period of sniffing and gingerly observing before you can touch him with it.)
Baby Poldine came to show solidarity by also running a security check on the New Thing.
Pampérigouste came to show solidarity by eating the treat I had prepared to comfort Pirlouit after his ordeal.
“I’m running a security check on this muesli.”
If anyone needs an ankle monitor it’s you, Pampe. Don’t push your luck.
(But her ankles are too slender for her to take the threat seriously.)
I put what was left of the muesli on the other side of the fence where it would be safe, then started attacking the pipe with the bolt-cutter. Every time I cut a centimetre of pipe it would make a clack sound that scared Pirlouit and I would have to put the cutter down and wait for him to stop dancing about nervously. He always appreciates singing in scary situations so I sang him a song about a donkey and a pipe to the tune of La Marseillaise (le tuyau sanglant est enlevé) to make him feel like a brave little soldier and it seemed to help.
Then I heard a different clickety-click sound behind me and I turned around and realised muesli can never really be safe anywhere around here.
When the chickens were done, Morille (who is scared of them) came to lick the bottom of the bowl to make sure every last atom of muesli had been stolen through admirable teamwork. Poor Pirlouit.
Anyway, little clack by little clack I managed to cut all the way down.
We took another break before removing the bracelet because my first attempt failed (the thing was harder to ‘open’ than I thought it’d be and it sort of snapped shut) which made Pirlouit skittish again. I took the opportunity to go and pick a small apple from the nearby tree to replace the stolen muesli.
Pirou accepted the apple looking gently melancholy, like “nothing can replace this stolen muesli in my heart but okay <3”
Victory!
It’s always heartwarming when I have to do something to Pirlouit that clearly stresses him out and after I free him from his halter, he doesn’t run away to sulk (as he used to when I first bought him!) but continues hanging out with me like “I still like you”
He even bravely examined the slain enemy.
I had to keep Pandolf in the barn the whole time because he’s too exuberant to be a soothing presence for stressed animals, but afterwards he & I went on an inspection tour in the pasture to see if there were any other bits of pipe. We didn’t find any (and there’s hardly any grass left so they should be easy to spot), so I hope that was the only one. I’m not sure how Pirlouit managed to step on the one small piece of pipe that had made its way into the pasture and then slip it around his ankle! Either very poor luck or a deliberate attempt at stylishness or maybe some secret third donkey thing.
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