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neo--queen--serenity · 1 month

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Flowers are often used as a metaphor for the female characters in the Apothecary Diaries. And for the first time, we, the viewer, are given the direct comparison to which flower is meant to represent Maomao: wood sorrel (also known as “cat’s foot”).

It’s a flower that can treat poisons. A flower that is used to enhance the beauty of the courtesans by painting their nails. A flower with a name associated with cats. A flower that, in hanakotoba, represents maternal tenderness. It’s also one of the flowers that Lakan specifically associates with Fengxian, and by extension, Maomao herself.

In the first opening—aptly titled, “Be A Flower”—the wood sorrel is the only flower that gets special attention. The other flowers are shown together with other varieties, but only the wood sorrel is shown by itself, and more than once.

We see it again in the second opening, with an infant being held by a parent, while flitting between images of Lakan and Fengxian’s backstory.

It’s such a simple flower, too. Small, unassuming, but full of diverse uses and qualities, be they medicinal or ordinary. A very fitting flower for Maomao, and what she brings to the story.

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soundsfaebutokay · 2 years

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It's so interesting to me that Fair and Marbles, The Amazing Devil's two most unabashedly romantic songs, have some of most straightforward lyrics in all three albums. TAD songs about love gone wrong speak of mythologies, soldiers and battles, even monsters at the door. But when writing about long-lasting love, they're as plainspoken as they ever get, reaching for imagery grounded in the familiarity of daily life. There's something really lovely about that.

#Fair #Marbles #The Amazing Devil #Joey Batey #Madeleine Hyland #music #my faves #my TAD obsession #TAD meta

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0dde11eth · 2 years

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In "blossoms" they have the lyrics

as i make myself acquainted with the saint of never getting it right

And in Farewell wanderlust they have lyrics like:

I'm the hardest goodbye that you'll ever have to say

I'm the cupid of things That you just didn't get, that you struggled to say

I'm the saint of the paint that was left in the pot

I'm your angel ellipsis, your devil of dots

Every time that you fumble, I'm the laugh from the back

When you think about him, my wings start to flap

When you make a mistake, my feet lift from the floor

And when you lie there awake, every night, love, I soar

I'm the heartbreak that aches far too much to be shunned

All those letters unsent and that garden ungrown

I'm the captain of courage that you've eternally lacked

I'm the Jesus of wishing to Christ he'll come back

I'm the face that stares back when the screen goes to black

When your mum says, "You look healthy"

But you know she means you got fat

I'm the tales that the guests will applaud and believe

I'm the child that you just didn't have time to conceive

Whenever I listen to Farewell wanderlust I always think these lyrics are describing "The Saint of never getting it right".

They are the embodiment of all those things in your life you didnt quite get right.

#my nonsense #tad lyrics #tad meta #tad #farewell wanderlust #blossoms

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kingthunder · 1 year

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The Calling and how it’s possibly related to Secret Worlds and Chords

So let’s talk about Ruin (again) and one possible interpretation of The Calling and how it’s related to both Secret Worlds and Chords.

In Secret Worlds, we have two people (the lover (Joey) and the daughter (Madeleine)) being young and wild. Fire imagery is repeated constantly, especially in relation to the daughter. The lover asks for a light, and she gives him her fire—not a literal flame, but her essence, the life burning inside her. “Just watch me burn,” she says.

At the end of the song, the instrumentation moves seamlessly into the intro of The Calling, the first indication that these two songs are linked. Right away we meet a woman who used to be “dauntless” and “burn so bright,” who’s coming to the river to wring the last of her embers out—this is the daughter from Secret Worlds. Only something has happened, there’s “something changed” (the line from Secret Worlds where they’re fearful about the future). But what is it? We’re wondering that, and so is she, as she looks at herself in the water. “Who’s this? What changed?”

It becomes clear that there’s a relationship in The Calling that caused a lot of pain and brought the daughter to this place of desolation. Initially I wondered if it was the romance begun in Secret Worlds, but there are some other lines here that make me suspect something different is going on.

I think it’s about a woman who was emotionally abused (whether intentionally or not) by her mother. And here’s why:

First, looking at her face and seeing an “unwanted daughter.” Then the line, “You’ll never get your dinner if you don’t learn how to get along”—I don’t think she’s saying this to someone, I think this is her parroting back a line that was said to her, over and over, something a controlling parent would say to her feisty (firey) daughter. And one of the kickers to me: “And when I think I’m fine you’ll visit, And then you happen to me, you happen to me all over again.” Why would an ex visit, and not just once, but multiple times as this line seems to indicate? Because it’s not an ex, it’s her mother, who feels entitled to drop by whenever she wants, whether her daughter wants it or not.

So, what form did this abuse take, and what has it done to her?

If the daughter is fire, the mother is water. The mother has been trying to dictate her daughter’s life and force her onto a path that she doesn’t want. And the daughter tried to please her mother, she “really fucking tried,” but all that’s happened is that she’s managed to twist herself into someone she doesn’t even recognize anymore and doesn’t want to be. Her fire is being put out.

But she’s had enough! She’s ready to take her life back. To “shoulder the sky” and “open her [those] eyes” and see “how much she [you] can be.” But to do that, she first has to metaphorically drown that twisted reflection of herself that she’s become. “Do you like my dress? It’s got pockets,” she says, bitter amusement creeping into her voice, alluding to Virginia Woolf who went to the river to drown herself by putting rocks in her pockets. And then we “watch that woman drown” as her voice just absolutely soars—she’s finally cast off the person her mother wanted her to be, made her into. And how does this relate to Chords?

I think that Chords is the situation from the mother’s perspective.

The entire song is about a mother singing about how she fucked everything up while her partner assures her that hey it wasn’t that bad. But we see so many admissions from her—the “days she [I] couldn’t cope,” the drinks she needed, how her kids think she’s a “nightmare” and she “pushed them all” and had “no notion what to do,” and that she “raged so much (you did) but so did they.”

Then we get into the explicit: Go tell them how we failed you And gift to us all your blame Cos we’ll be all that you hate about yourself

and

Tell them that we never cared Go tell them how we fucked you up And oh my god it’s so unfair

And the mother (and her partner) tries to make herself feel better by saying it all came from a place of love and that the kids will be fine, but as we saw in The Calling, the daughter is Not Fine. She does blame her mother, she hates things about herself that are a direct result of her mother’s influence, she does feel fucked up.

“They are my rascals I can’t let them walk away,” the mother sings in Chords. In Secret Worlds, the daughter referred to herself as a “dirty rascal,” internalizing that derogatory term in a way that maybe her mother didn’t intend, but that did real harm anyway. The mother doesn’t want her kids to walk away—she drops by to “visit” her daughter (”when I think I’m fine you’ll visit”), smothering, not letting her daughter have enough space. And all the imagery in Chords is water—oceans, waves—in direct opposition to the daughter’s fire. The mother never understood her, this was doomed from the start.

“But Chords is about letting your kids go!” you might say. Well, yes, that’s what the parents are saying. But to me the entire thing reads as apologia for the parents, the mother and father sugarcoating their actions to downplay the family disharmony. “We let you move out to make it on your own!” they say, “Look what a good job we did!” But meanwhile dear old mom is dropping in on the kids whenever she damn well feels like it.

Whew!

(obviously this is only one possible interpretation of any of these songs, and particularly Chords, which is incredibly layered and nuanced and I could write another essay about)

Join me next time when I try to link “Pick your chords well, loves, but sing your notes off-key” (Chords) to “I play our song to see if it’s in tune” (Ruin) and then we see if this entire arc could possibly be read as some kind of trans narrative.

#the amazing devil #TAD #TAD meta #the amazing devil meta #joey batey #madeleine hyland #ruin #secret worlds #the calling #chords #i went on a spiral on discord last night ok #this is me trying to put it together #this whole album is just #*pterodactyl noises*#it makes me want to chew the drywall

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chaoticfandomthot · 1 year

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The connections between Little Miss Why So and Two Minutes (to me)

! Long Post ahead, I can't figure out how to do the cut thing, my bad !

[Disclaimer : this is just one of my many theories about TAD's songs, I do not claim to think that this is true or right and it is not a very strong analysis. Music is subjective, if you don't like the idea just scroll past, thank you.]

In this theory, Joey's character in Little Miss Why So and Joey's character in Two Minutes are the same person.

It places Two Minutes inside the narrative of Little Miss, towards the end, either right before or right after the breakup. I imagine Two Minutes to be his attempt at coping as he's trying to pull himself back together after he's tried everything.

"It’s like all the wallpaper inside my heart

Is slowly, slowly peeling off

And I’m showing

All the stains and things

They wrote on the wall before"

So as we start, we have Joey's character who is unravelling. He feels like he's being stripped bare and it starts to pull at him and old issues / trauma start to ressurface.

This resonates with Little Miss Why So to me because it's exactly how it feels to try to pull someone out from the depth only to realise you can't, and you've started to sink as well.

At this point there is the question of characterization, in LMWS, Joey's character is desperate, but feels detached (not the right word but you get it) and maybe even resentful, while in Two Minutes he is raw and deeply hurt.

To me this makes sense because LMWS is how Madeleine's character perceives him and she feels like a burden to him, while Two Minutes is his own thoughts and he feels like he tried so hard and for nothing.

"We’ve left all the blinking lights and shouting behind us now and I’ll stare at you,

As you stare, as you stare right back at the sky"

So the first half talks about shouting, which gave me a bit of hesitation because Madeleine's character is silent, and that's the problem in LMWS. Luckily for me, it doesn't say they're both shouting and Joey's character is metaphorically (literally ?) shouting at her to wake up the entire song, so I'll use that.

It also goes to show that he doesn't ask anymore, he's done. He's tried and tried but she just stares at the sky and he can't help but stare at her as she does, maybe hoping she'll glance his way. She doesn't.

This also directly ties in to this verse from LMWS;

"I'll make a hundred paper planes

To decorate our tiny room

I've even learned to cook

Just stop staring at the moon

That's why I put up fairy lights, just to distract you"

The next verse is when we get the chorus.

"Give me two damn minutes and I’ll be fine

Give me two damn minutes and I’ll be fine

These hands are growing cold

They’re running out of things to hold

Give me two damn minutes and I’ll be fine"

I'll ignore the repeated chorus for now to focus on the cold hands imagery.

It feels like a call back to the fact that he can never reach her in LMWS, how he can't feel her warmth because she is also getting so cold. How lonely it makes him.

There's also this from LMWS

"You don't see daylight any more

Something's sucking out your core and it's so boring"

Which gives me the empty cold of depression and makes me think that even if he could reach her, he couldn't hold her without freezing.

"If there was one place I could be right now, I’d be standing there between you and him

And I’ll fight you both, fight you both for the rest of my life long days"

This (to me, for this theory) refers to this verse from LMWS.

"Why won't you let me follow in your footsteps

As you trek into that underground world?

What's that hold that the big dark king of nothing

Has got on you, my girl ?'

At first, he wants to fight the 'big dark king of nothing', he wants her back and is willing to go far for it. Alas, by the time he sings Two Minutes, he's realised that he can't fight one without the other.

Madeleine's character doesn't feel like she can come out of the cave, she's trapped so deeply that to try and tear her away is to fight her as well.

It's a testament to how dedicated he was to fighting off her sadness, even though he never understood it, and how at the end of the day, it turned them against each other.

How Madeleine's character wishes that he understood that she can't just stop, and how he can't accept it.

By fighting the king of nothing, he's hurting her as well.

"But today we ripped it off, we ripped it off, we showed the world that we exist

Never really liked the pattern that much on the wallpaper so anyway"

This one I'm honestly not so sure about, so I'll skip over it slightly and just talk about the recurring wallpaper imagery.

It feels like however much he wishes he could fight them for the rest of his days, he's realising that it is ripping him apart, ripping away his wallpaper.

Now about the 'give me two damn minutes and I'll be fine'. This to me means something different towards the beginning versus towards the end.

At the beginning I interpret it as him asking for more time, 'I'll be fine, I just need two minutes, I'll figure it out, it's okay.'

"I can hear the children calling as though across the bar

I can hear the children calling"

This is when I think he made the decision of leaving. He can hear his own exit, a bit like when you're surfacing in a pool and the sounds get clearer.

"If I’m good will you come back

If I’m good will you come back

To us"

The rest of the song is him wondering if there's any chance left, if there is any other way to bring her back.

The ending of LMWS answers that question.

Why so, why so sad?

Stop asking why I'm sad (If I'm good, will you come back?)

Just know, it's enough to know I'm sad (If I'm good, will you come back?)

Yeah, but why?

Yeah, but why? (For Christ's sake, just say something)

He says, said"

You can hear him ask her, beg her to say something, anything.

Is there still a chance ? Can they fix this ? Can she come back ?

"Wish I'd said

'Cause if I'd said then maybe

You'd still be snuggled here in my bed

Watching Netflix

And now I can't

'Cause you changed the password

When you left"

They can't.

The last 'give me two damn minutes and I'll be fine' is the acceptance. The concession that he can't help her, and that he chooses himself.

Thanks to @dandelight and @podcastenthusiast for the nudge I needed to actually write it down and post it !💕

#aiden originals #long post #little miss why so #two minutes #the amazing devil #tad #tadpole #song analysis #tad meta

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whaliiwatching · 9 months

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diagnoses u with fanfic tags

yeah i caved. welcome spideysona

their universe is 1990s san francisco. by day they work as a struggling writer for the bugle, sort of following in the footsteps of (movie-adjacent) eddie brock; by night they’re spider-scrawl, fighting systemic injustice, writers’ block, and the occasional mad scientist invention. his world is less rife with supernatural evils than most, but he’s also fucking with the government and corporations and all, so it balances out

their unique thing is that they have, like, shitty meta clairvoyance in the form of inherently understanding tropes, clichés, story structure, etc. like if cinemasins/wins were a superhero. they were approached to join the society because miguel thought they’d be chill or even helpful with canon events—unfortunately scribble here is not whatsoever into following rigid plot structure for the sake of unnecessary thematic suffering, saw the plot twist a miles away, and peaced. but not before snagging a day pass so they could watch atsv in person

they never take off their mask, and no one knows their name—he says it’s because he doesn’t want to lose his identity in a sea of spider-people, leading most to theorize that san-fran-spidey is some flavor of peter parker, but who’s to say for sure? the doylist reason, which he is in fact aware of, is that i don’t know either lol

#spider man: across the spiderverse #spidersona #spider scrawl #spider punk #spider noir #hobie brown #noirpunk #just a tad ;)#brass tacks means facts!#haha do you get it miles like a mile away but miles was the one wh—#so anyway sona shit #eddie in their universe has left the bugle for better things (read: got fired movie style)#still a bangin journalist tho and scrawl aspires to be like him #their deadpool is just as meta as them. they’re buddies #usually i’m not one for sonas but this was fun #static and colors inspired by that can u ever forgive me movie from 2018 #scrawl puts on the mask to feel more confident about fighting the system #hopin & prayin it’ll do the same for me :’)

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noose-lion · 2 years

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Just got smacked in the face with a vivid image of Dazai finding out that Fukuzawa is the Silver Wolf Mori used to talk insistently about.

Like let's pretend for a moment Dazai just hasn't put two and two together and stumbles across a file while snooping (say, a year into his job at the Ada.)

He learns who Fukuzawa is, the Silver Wolf, a man Mori talked about in high esteem and with borderline respect. Instant celebrity like status in Dazai's funky little mind.

Dazai ambushes Fukuzawa in his office, shoves a random cat in his lap and demands a story of grandeur, note pad in hand, awe sparkling in his eyes. Fukuzawa, still waking up, only a sip of caffeine in his system just strokes the newfound lap cat and tells him a slightly embellished story of some job or another.

Dazai is further awed, and Fukuzawa earns a new story companion, one that will not think of him differently (negatively) after hearing his stories.

#sometimes my ideas are a tad ooc #anyway #my stuff #screaming into the void #and the void screams back #bsd #bungou stray dogs #soukoku #bungou gay dogs #bsd dazai #dazai osamu #fukuzawa yukichi #fukuzawa my beloved #bsd fukuzawa #president fukuzawa #bsd headcanons #bsd analysis #jester thinks #bsd meta

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pyjamacryptid · 8 months

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Guinevere & Morgana

BBC MERLIN | S3 x E10 QUEEN OF HEARTS

Quote from Winter Landscape, With Rooks by Sylvia Plath

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waitmyturtles · 7 months

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TW: addiction, drugs, cocaine

I've got a little noodling thought for the Ephemerality Squad (cc @ranchthoughts @chickenstrangers @lurkingshan @neuroticbookworm @twig-tea @distant-screaming @clara-maybe-ontheroad @slayerkitty) and for the Only Friends meta fandom, what up, friendos!:

Ranch and @wen-kexing-apologist both know that I LOVED THAT MOMENT when Ray picks up his phone at the end of episode 5, when he's laying in bed with Sand after the whole Boston fight debacle. I've heard the theories that Ray may have seen Top's Instagram post of Top and Mew, or that Ray was looking for someone to text to decompress after the fight, and realized that he had no one to text with (credits to Ranch and WKA for sharing those theories with me!).

But what I'm thinking about that moment is what's inherent in the story of addiction: we are all addicted to our phones, including certainly the OF quartet, Ray included. Our phones give us the tiniest dopamine bump, and then we keep scrolling. Scroll, bump, scroll, like a virtual whippet. We saw Ray hit the bottle after the fight, but he likely checked his phone for another kind of hit as well, even while Sand was laying next to him, in embarrassment and sadness.

So there's the quickest hit, the ephemerality of the fast high. BUT: if you are an addict, and you don't address your addiction, then -- addiction is permanent. It's sticky, and it sticks with you -- that's the inherent meaning of the word.

I really like this play against the fleeting nature of the hit, and the permanence of unaddressed addiction. It reminds me of other comparative plays against the fleeting of time vs. what's permanent in the lives of the quartet, including the impact of intergenerational trauma on Ray and his experiences with his late mother. It's like -- what we're watching is this quartet (along with Sand and Nick) unknowingly existing in their aloof lives, thinking they have total control over every aspect of their lives, while they are dragging these invisible boulders behind them.

(Whenever I think of intergenerational trauma, I think of PatPran, and how those two took their intergenerational traumas by the gullets and addressed the traumas in their own unique way -- in order to be together and move on with their lives. The quartet in OF? They're not even close to being there yet, emotionally unto themselves and/or with anyone else. They haven't even identified their traumas yet -- and, whoa, they are OLDER than PatPran were when PatPran were in college in Bad Buddy.)

I've been thinking of how Only Friends compares to Gay OK Bangkok, and I think it's still too early in the OF run to go completely on an OF/GOKB comparative analysis (I think I really need to wait until OF ends, because GOKB had an open-ended ending that hit just perfectly for where each character was landing in their lives at that particular moment). I'm kind of hoping for the same sort of ending for OF (I know, I'm going against the grain of the kinds of endings most folks are hoping for for OF), for a couple reasons. Remember: GOKB gave us a viewpoint into a group of queer men in Bangkok, an almost-identical set-up to OF.

First: I think Aof Noppharnach and Jojo Tichakorn were absolutely brilliant with their open-ended endings of GOKB as extremely AUTHENTIC to where each character was landing throughout the course of the series. Growth happens over a lifetime -- not always over the course of an episodic series.

But also, in regards to OF: OF is introducing to us a set of problems and perspectives that in real life, would take YEARS to address, like addiction. I talked about the behavioral stages of change in my last meta on episode 5, and I think this slice of ephemerality falls right into this category. By the end of Only Friends: do we think Ray (and Top, even) will concretely drop their addictions? Is that something WE want as an audience? Is that something that we think -- maybe even condescendingly, let alone fearfully -- is "good" for these young men? Do we think that their ending their addictions is realistic for the course of this specific episodic series?

I am OBSESSED that Only Friends is forcing us to reckon with these inherent biases we may have about these permanence-problems that the OF characters carry. I saw some hand-wringing about Top doing coke in episode 4, and I admit that I was actually pleased by Jojo depicting a VERY real slice of urban queer life (and also, just everyday life for millions of people) in that moment.

And I'm also just very curious to see what the show does by way of reckoning with the time it takes for young people like the OF quartet to wrangle with these long-standing issues in their lives. So much of this show hews very close to a number of realities -- and growing up vis à vis the emotional and physiological boulders we carry is an extremely real story to tell.

#only friends #only friends meta #only friends the series #this was a tad of a ramble i hope it made sense #but the way jojo and team are playing with TIME in this show continues to just fascinate me #tw: addiction #tw: drugs #tw: cocaine #ephemerality squad

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backtothefuturefan88 · 1 year

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So would you say you're glad Quackerjack ended up different in the series than Tad Stones originally envisioned him?

I am absolutely happy that Quackerjack turned out totally different than what Tad Stones wanted him to be.

I mean full respect to Tad Stones, but I don’t think having QuackerJack’s personality be more like The Joker’s would have been that great of a choice.

You see, while he does have his more serious moments, Quackerjack is more so the goofy/“whatever happens, happens” type of character. And I love that about him.

And he kinda explains his own personality in the episode, “The Haunting of Mr Banana Brain” where he says to the possessed Mr Banana Brain/Paddywhack: “But Mr Banana Brain, you know Darkwing Duck always ruins things. It’s no big deal, it’s just part of the game.”.

By this quote Quackerjack tells us that to him what he does is just a fun game. He does actively try to succeed in whatever he does, he’ll even gets upset if he doesn’t win, but at the end of the day it’s just a game. And that is what I love about Quackerjack so much. He’s all about fun, it’s not that serious to him, even if the fun is a little harmful.

If Quackerjack had been what Tad Stones originally envisioned him to be like, I honestly don’t think he would have been anywhere near a favorite character of mine.

So yes. I am thrilled that Quackerjack’s personality got changed.

#darkwing duck #darkwing duck 1991 #disney #ducktales #dwd #dwd91 #meta #darkwing duck meta #quackerjack #tad stones #thoughts #my thoughts #ask #answered ask #character analysis #short character analysis #mini analysis #character thoughts

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koskela-knights · 3 months

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Their heritage

It's clear the Koskela brothers have Finnish heritage and roots. They have Finnish names and it doesn't seem they needed to or wanted to 'Americanize" them to gain social status. Then again, Watery was founded by Finnish immigrants so it's logical the community likes to stay connected to their roots and uphold their culture and customs. I wonder if the Koskelas feel connected to "American" culture, or well the more stereotypical version of American culture 🤔

In the commercial VO Ilmo does, he seems to adopt a slightly more American commercial voice. His (drunk af sounding) Deerfest introduction also sounds more American with less of a Finnish accent.

I know other people with mixed nationalities often feel disconnected or have trouble identifying or claiming their identities (like Asian-Americans feeling inferior and not "American" or not "Asian", etc. enough.)

Probably a random thought, but I thought about it becos I'm Chinese-Dutch & sometimes I have that identity struggle. But since I'm an adoptee, my experience is vastly different than people who are born/raised in a place where both cultures are present/even encouraged. I have like no connections to my Chinese heritage nor can I speak it 😪

#my ramblings #my posts #wow i actually write something that isn't thirst in days #alan wake 2 #koskela brothers #jaakko koskela #ilmo koskela #not me getting a tad too personal on the last paragraph lol #my meta

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orangechickenpillow · 5 days

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Hello, fellow enjoyer of BG3/Prospect/Arcane/The Ghoul Boys/TAD/WWDITS/probably other things I've yet to discover because you clearly have stellar taste in media! ✨

I wanted to throw an idea at you that has been rotting my brain: TAD songs for BG3 characters.

"Inkpot Gods" simply IS Wyll and Karlach. "The Old Witch Sleep and The Good Man Grace" might seem the obvious choice for Astarion but I would like to make an argument that "Farewell Wanderlust" is even better. "The Horror and The Wild" is Karlach's all on her own. "Elsa's Song" is giving Gale for some reason? Unsure why.

Anyway, sorry for the random long-ish ask. But what do you think? :D

Ahhhh thank you so much. I've seen you in my notifs and am happy to report that we're officially best friends now <3

Thank you so much for throwing this idea at me holy shit???? I went back and listened to all three TAD albums specifically to answer this, so.... yeah, we're definitely best friends.

I'm loving what you've got so far -- Inkpot Gods works so perfectly for the Avernus duo, and honestly could be the theme song for bg3 in general. Jesus christ, what a song, am I right. Farewell wanderlust is sooooo Astarion I'm going to lose my mind about it I mean be totally normal. Also I feel like it fits Lae'zel really well too. I actually found that a lot of songs I liked for Astarion worked for Lae just as well. Interesting. Anyway, during my trillionth re-listen to the TAD albums here are the notes I took on my phone lmao:

Love Run for Wyll. The wholesome, strong, hopefulness this song radiates fits him so well. It's also really fucking romantic, and so is he.

I also think that Two Minutes is fitting for him. That whole vibe of an abandoned child, of someone who is so tired and beaten down by life but still manages to keep going despite it all. I really adore Wyll, and the more romantic TAD songs fit him perfectly.

I love Wild Blue Yonder for Karlach. It's silly but heartfelt, and so full of yearning. It has a light approach to life while still acknowledging how hard things can be, and that's just so Karlach. Also, "We don't know what's out there -- could be ghosts or monsters, or a robot vampire, I don't know" sounds like something she would say lol

You're so right about The Horror and the Wild. That's just. Karlach and Gortash. "Give me back my heart you wingless thing" are you fucking kidding me right now, I'm going to pull a Karlach and explode.

Also I think The Horror and the Wild fits Astarion equally well. I'll always yammer on about how Astarion and Karlach are two sides of the same coin, and this song is a great representation of that. "You passed your fingers through my hair and called me child -- witness me, old man, I am the wild" -- Astarion and Cazador. Please send help, I am ill over this and will not be recovering.

"Think of all the horrors that I promised you I'd bring" Karlach. Astarion. Shadowheart. Lae'zel. Literally help me.

Blossoms for Gale. It's a very intense song, but it's also weary. It's strong but desperate, yet determined. I also think it fits him as the one who would be leading the group if Tav wasn't around. It's a somber and dramatic song, but it's ultimately fueled by tender love. Sound like anyone else we know?

Similarly to you pairing him with Elsa's Song (which I love btw), I think The Rockrose and the Thistle is VERY Gale (and, dare I say, bloodweave? The singer begging to die and the other person "sewing" them back together??? Hello?????) Just like the more romantic songs fit Wyll, the quieter, more subdued songs fit Gale. I think those songs really capture desperation in its most potent form, and Gale is kind of like the human version of that (sorry Gale)

Okay, New York Torch Song could be any of the ladies. Literally any of them. It's perfect. This one also makes me think of Karlach and Wyll.

I adore That Unwanted Animal for Astarion. The helplessness paired with the subtle sense of revenge and violence. The sexual tones throughout. The lack of romance.

I like The Old Witch Sleep and the Good Man Grace for Astarion, and I also really like it for Lae'zel. Her whole being raised by a cult thing really aligns with the vibe of the song -- being told that you're one thing and having to fight to be anything else, the desperation of feeling like you have no purpose. Fighting it all and coming out on top anyway. The steady increase in the intensity of the song representing getting your power back. It's so herrrrrr

King fits her well too. This song is so badass. I think it represents the soldier archetype well. It's cool, she's cool, it's perfect.

Pray makes me think of Shadowheart. Obviously the religious tone of the song fits her well, but also its pure spite. It's really giving "abandoned daughter" vibes, which is perfect for her. Also, "honey I'm no man, I'm what's left when children go to war" are you fucking kidding me.

Anywayyyyy, this was long, yikes. I have a lot of Thoughts as you can see. Thank you SO much for letting me yap about two of the things I love very much and might be obsessed with, who knows. I'll end by officially asking for your hand in marriage <3

#just kidding #unless....#anyway ily thank you for this ask and if you ever want to chat some more feel free to send another one or even message me <3 #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 companions #baldurs queue #tad #the amazing devil #ask box #ask response #bg3 meta

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soundsfaebutokay · 1 year

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Will I ever get over the way that Blossoms hits you with these verses of heightened figurative language only for the syntax to suddenly drop into devastating simplicity? It's as if there's no more room for poetry and metaphor, just the stark, bare truth of betrayal. Of heartbreak.

The answer is no. No, I will never be over it.

#Blossoms #The Amazing Devil #Joey Batey #Madeleine Hyland #music #my faves #TAD meta #my TAD obsession

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galaxymagitech · 4 months

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In Nightwing (1996) there’s a character named Tad Ryerstad who actually bears a startling amount of similarity to Jason Todd; it’s like DC took a crack at the Red Hood arc several years early. And I find it interesting, because I have very different opinions on the two characters but on the surface level, it’s really difficult to spot the difference.

Tad actually has two backstories. The first one given is that he was abandoned as a baby/young child and the kids in a group home named him Tadpole, which is where he got the Tad from. The second backstory is given in a later comic. He was raised in poverty and his father was abusive to his mother and possibly him. (Jason’s father is often portrayed as abusive in fanon). Tad’s father was a criminal. When Tad’s father was killed by a drug lord he betrayed, Tad’s mother was arrested and he was sent to foster care. (Willis Todd was a criminal killed by Two-Face, the guy he worked for. Jason was left orphaned at a young age.) He was possibly abused there and ran away and had difficulty surviving on the streets. (Jason Todd also ran away and was homeless.)

But Tad wasn’t picked up by Batman. Instead, he became a vigilante of a sort on his own. He beat up bad guys and then took their money for himself to survive. He started small, but eventually develops a superhero identity of “Nite-Wing” and starts going after the big fishes of Blüdhaven. He’s angry and hurt by his past. He thinks that superheroes are bleeding hearts and jail in Blüdhaven is a revolving door. So, convinced that they’re irredeemably evil, he kills the criminals he fights, putting him into conflict with Nightwing. Sound familiar?

Now here’s the thing. From Tad’s first appearance I hated him. Because very early on, he gets it wrong. He sees a Black guy following two white children and assumes that he’s a pervert attempting to kidnap them. He attacks and kills the man and leaves, without ever realizing that the guy is the kids’ uncle. That may have been racial profiling, but given Tad’s characterization it honestly may not have been, because he destroys a neonazi group and in a later comic, he sees a white guy waiting in the snow and randomly grills him about what he’s dealing. The guy insists that he’s not selling anything and is just waiting for his brother, but Tad thinks the guy’s trying to trick him. There is literally no reason for Tad to think the guy’s dealing anything just like he had no reason to think the guy with the kids was a pervert, but he kills him. After Tad leaves, the guy’s brother shows up. Now, Tad has a very simplistic mindset and doesn’t seem entirely sane. He assumes the worst of everyone because of his past. Tad genuinely doesn’t know that he’s making mistakes.

But I’m left wondering, is that all that separates him from Red Hood? The fact that Jason hasn’t gotten the wrong person but Tad has? Because their motivations are so similar: anger, a troubled past, hatred for people who do the wrong thing, disillusionment with people propped up as heroes (Batman for Jason and cops for Tad), and a belief that jail isn’t permanent enough. I don’t think one character being good and another character being evil can be separated by a mistake, right? Jason can’t be morally better because he’s smarter.

And yet, I like Jason Todd. Tad is pretty easy to hate; he could easily be an allegory for police violence if Dick wasn’t simultaneously training to become a cop. But I like Jason Todd and I can’t figure out what the huge difference is. Is it just that he’s more correct about identifying criminals? Or that he is snarkier? Or he just seems more interesting so I like him more? I think maybe this is why the Batman writers thought Jason would be hateable, because DC Batman-related comics pulled off “angry vigilante guy who kills criminals because jail isn’t secure and he doesn’t trust authority” as evil before and figured it would be easy to do it again.

I don’t know. Maybe Jason’s motivations are actually different and more complex. Or maybe I should actually hate both of them. I try to constantly question my perception of things and this really got me thinking.

#batman #nightwing #dcu #jason todd #tad ryerstad #vigilante #meta #philosophy #text post #morality

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fluffypotatey · 6 months

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thinking about how mei could contain the samadhi fire again. like yeah sure it could just be bc of her dragon ancestry like nezha said (its like pokemon logic, dragon type beats fire type). but also what if it's not. what if it's some other reason.

in the s4 openings, mei takes a way more prominent role than she did in the s1-s3 openings, fighting alongside mk. almost like she's gonna have a bigger role in this whole arc or something. mei contained the uncontainable flame and was able to use and withstand it without destroying the world. and now the jade emperor's power doesn't have a vessel, and nezha's seal won't hold forever. are u picking up what im putting down (<- high on copium)

GOOD MORNING AND WELCOME TO "Fluffy's Long Answer Responses," AND TODAY WE WILL BEGIN WITH THIS BEAUTIFUL ONE RIGHT HERE :)

Mei and the Samadhi Fire

aka, something i think about a lot & am hoping to see her wield once more T^T

so, I honestly will be super disappointed if the reason why we don't see the Samadhi Fire anymore is because her dragon abilities "canceled out" the fire (which would diminish the Grand Power™️ of the fire since it's supposed to be an end all be all power that can and will extinguish reality).

HOWEVER! while reading the lmk wiki (something i tend to do if i want to make sure i'm not just pulling stuff out of my ass for nothing) i found this:

The Rings of Samadhi are three special rings that were created by Tang Sanzang to seal away the Samadhi Fire. After the Samadhi Fire was reforged, the rings often acted as Mei's weapon of choice, being one of the ways she can utilize the Samadhi Fire

and

Pyrokinesis - After Season 3, Mei was able to create common green flames, which succeeded her powers to control the Samadhi Fire, which she, according to Master Subodhi, could no longer wield

and

Samadhi Fire - At first, Mei had difficulty controlling the fire because of her fear of hurting someone with it. In "Embrace Your Destiny", Mei eventually learned how to surpass her doubts about controlling the Samadhi Fire by being trained by Red Son, and used it to destroy Lady Bone Demon. Because of her dragon heritage, Mei can't be harmed by the fire, but still has to control it through controlling her emotions

so....what the fuck is this?

i am so glad you asked, deary >:)

we were already made aware that Mei's miraculous ability to avoid earning irreplaceable burn scars from the reality breaking fire is no thanks to her dragon heritage despite being mortal. this is most likely why Ao Lie was able to withstand the flames that first time thanks to his scales, BUT dragon scales can only do so much. the fire will still fight against it's vessel (host? body?) unless they are able to commune with it and "embrace" the fires.

as Red Son said, Mei is "strong enough to contain" the fire, but with training and meditation, she could be able to wield it. it's similar but also different to when Mei first got her dragon sword. even without its special abilities, anybody could pick up the sword and claim it as their own, BUT only a chosen few are deemed "worthy" of fully wielding the sword in it purposes (protecting one's family and home).

so, yeah, thank you dragon ancestry for preventing mei from burning herself and the wold into a crisp. the rest of what Mei does, that's all her. and i want to focus on something else the wiki says: "the rings often acted as Mei's weapon of choice, being one of the ways she can utilize the Samadhi Fire."

hey what the fuck????

AYO???? EMBRACE YOUR DESTINY WTF?????

YOU'RE JUST GONNA DROP THAT AND NEVER COME BACK TO IT???? I THINK THE FUCK NOT!

*coughs* anyway....where was i?

right, so, in helping Mei wield the fire (because i'm assuming just raw-dogging it would be suicidal for any beginner trying to use the Samadhi Fire), she converts their original purpose of containing (since they are no longer the ones that need to hold on to it) and reverse engineers them to help her current the fires to her will???

at least that's what it looks like to me. also, lmk we should absolutely bring this back. Mei with the 3 rings hovering over her whenever she summons the flames. can you hear me lmk, are you listening, can you hear me breathing down your necks as i plead-

but then, after s3....it's like the fire left her??? or is more dormant than before. HOWEVER (i love this word btw) as @gumy-shark said, Mei shows up in the lmk intro more often. so, let's do a comparison, yeah? of s3 and s4's intro (just to show how Mei is being inserted into a more prominent role in the intro itself starting now lol)

ok, ignoring the beautiful paused piece of MK's smushed face, these 2 pictures occur at the same place in their intros. MK flying into the TEA car, and MK and Mei flying into an ancient Chinese towers while in the scroll. and in the next two,

their placement ALSO happens at the same time (also the lighting is very similar....huh, i wonder why?). what do we notice? no Mei on the left side of the first pair, and no MK on the left side of the second pair. just MK, our lovely main character (also, has anyone else gotten a kick out of MK being a letter away from MC? no? just me....that's fair) and just Mei, our beloved dragon girl. because while Mei's story was also important in s3, the main plot focused on MK trying to regain his powers and defeat LBD. HOWEVER, in s4, we have both Mei and MK in the scroll trying to save their friends, and when they split up, BOTH characters meet someone important to their past (Subodhi being swk's mentor so like MK's mentor grandpa??? and Mei meeting her literal ancestor, Ao Lie) and BOTH come to learn something new about themselves.

HOWEVER >:) while Mei's encounter leaves her more self-assured and solid about her place and identity, MK's encounter leave shim with more questions, some denial, trauma, and the works (hooray!)

anyway, what can this tell us about the upcoming season? well, firstly, i believe Gumy is right! this is sort of like lmk's "subtle" way of showing that Mei's role will become more important to the narrative. they're telling us, "hey, don't forget about her. don't ignore her storyline just yet." and yeah, we should not :)

we still don't know the whole story on why Mei doesn't wield the Samadhi Fire in s4 (is she scared of it? did she decide it was better to only train and meditate with it? is she even aware that she can still use it? or did she give the 3 rings (now her rings bc she reconfigured them) to Nezha for safe keeping and hope for the best? WE DON'T KNOW!) and that is a pretty significant event to just ignore.

like, yeah, sure, it's brought up by Master Subodhi but all he says is, "as someone who once wielded the Samadhi Fire," WHICH GIVES ME NOTHING! he also mentions that Mei has the potential to be even powerful if she just took a minute to think before letting her impulses rule her, but i'm not mad over that. but, that does give the hope that Mei in the following season will have an arc where she attempts to slow herself down and think about the consequences (and she's done it before!! her actually thinking about how "Wukong knew the risks")

so yeah, i am in agreement. and my theory is, at the end of s5 is when she "reawakens"/summons the Fire once again, now that she is more confident in her powers and strengths and takes the time to consider her options on how to defeat something big (i wonder who 👀)

#ok so this may be all over the place sorry #i tried to keep it together and stick to the points you brought up T^T but i made have veered off a tad 👉👈#anyway #lmk #lego monkie kid #lmk analysis #lmk meta #lmk mei #lmk long xiaojiao #asks #if there are any typos i apologize T^T tried my best

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jackieapologist · 8 months

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my friend was watching the yellowjackets finale and months after watching it myself i have THOUGHTS again—and I realize each death in the show was the result of some sort of rebellion against the “wilderness”

Laura Lee trying to leave (“it didnt want him to leave”), Jackie being the only one to acknowledge/call out doomcoming, Javi trying to save Nat from the queen card fate, and Nat refusing to sacrifice another innocent life (lisa) for the wilderness that wants blood.

and I feel like the “wilderness” is an allegory for the uglier side of human nature (“it was just us!”/“does it matter?”) and humans ARE flawed but it’s beautiful the way we still fight against it and strive to be *good* every day for the people we love

BUT since its yellowjackets the deaths of these characters (who i think best reps “goodness”) poses the questions: what if we can’t escape the ugliness?? what if the wilderness is always going to be a part of us?? and what if death is the only way out??

and that is TERRIFYING to me but it fits the show’s tone incredibly well!

#dont come for me but jackie was always kind its just that much of what we see in the show is of her understandibly spiralling #plus the rest of her character post mortem is Shauna’s admittedly biased perspective of jackie #laura lee and javi is obvious #nat was really the only one to confront what they’ve done #dont get me wrong i love the rest of the girls dearly theyre just a tad bit more messed up lol #yellowjackets meta #yellowjackets

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