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#they're equals by the end of season 3
runawaymarbles · 8 months
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top five reasons people should be watching black sails
1. It is a four season story arc that ended when the writers thought it should end, and didn't get dragged out or cut off though season 4 should have been longer.
2. It sticks to its fucking themes all the way through so that when it circles back to them in finale it feels like a concluding paragraph and not a last minute grab for meaning.
3. The character arcs are beautifully consistent and all the main characters get a complete story, regardless of where that story ends. They're also informed but not exclusively characterized by their demographics in a way I appreciate-- no one is there to be The Gay or The Black Guy or The Woman, and no one "just happens to be X": their experiences of being gay and/or Black and/or women impact how they see and interact with the world in ways that are unique to each character's personal experiences.
4. The women have varied and complex relationships with each other as friends and lovers and rivals and mentors (supportive) and mentors (derogatory) and enemies and allies, and those relationships are key to huge swaths of the plot. Even the character archetypes that are traditionally Smurfetted (the #girlboss, the One Of The Guys) are just. Surrounded by other women. It's great. Especially since Treasure Island has no women on purpose.
5. They show boobs but they also show dicks and that's equality.
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nonstoplover · 9 months
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sleep without you ~ charles leclerc (cl16)
my masterlist | my f1 masterlist
pairing: charles leclerc x fem!reader
song inspiration: sleep without you ~ brett young
summary: charles struggles to function properly without her by his side, or a story of a night without his girlfriend.
words: 2.1K
warnings: nothing, just fluff and a slightly clingy charles baby <3
a/n: idk why but this song honestly screams charles to me whenever i hear it, so i just had to make it happen. also this was supposed to be posted on my one year f1-aversary as celebration (well technically it should be more if counting my childhood f1 years but anyway), but i was so caught up in another wip that i couldn't do it. so happy anniversary to me and f1 (two weeks late) with this lil ficlet <3 thankful for all that f1 gave me.
big thanks to the amazing lovely silverstonesainz for helping me make this better and to the equally awesome monzabee for making me much less anxious with her words. love you sm queens!!
please, don't be a ghost reader, leave a comment or rb!
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Charles spends a whole afternoon trying to convince her to have a night out with her friends. Just because they're in a relationship doesn't mean they can't have fun without the other as well from time to time. There are still a couple of weeks left of winter break, plenty of opportunity to spend time just the two of them before the season starts again. So the usual point of view, the usual reasoning doesn't stand a chance – that they should spend as much time together as they can, before he's back to travelling all around the world.
"Go to a club, grab some drinks, dance and laugh the night away", he tells her. The usual bestie coffee dates or walks in the park that she usually raises as argument are not the same as a night out, and she hasn't done that for so long now. Definitely not since he's been back home, and he knows just how much she enjoys dancing her heart out.
(y/n) agrees after a short while, accepting his reasons, knowing full well that he's right, and after a few phone calls she starts getting ready, soon walking out the front door, dressed all pretty and dolled up.
Doesn't take long before Charles realises what he's done. A feeling tingles in his chest, one he recognises swiftly. He's miserable. Solely because she's not there by his side, as he makes dinner, eats it – all by himself –, before settling on the couch to occupy himself with a movie. It doesn't matter though, he doesn't pay any attention to it. He doesn't even know what's going on, he hasn't heard a single line, too busy thinking about her.
When the credits start to roll, he switches the TV off with a surprised look in his eyes – how did it already end? He doesn't even remember the first scene ending. Then he moves into the bathroom to do his night routine, from taking a shower to putting on some skincare products, all the while wondering how long she will be out for? Will she come home soon? Hope tingles in his chest that the answer to his question is yes.
Having finished with everything, Charles lies down in bed, trying to read a book, then scrolling on social media, doing anything to keep his mind from straying over and over again back to her. He knows this is stupid, he was the one telling her to go out, why is he like this now? Lying awake on his side of the bed, the fingers on his right hand tracing figures onto the sheet where her body usually rests.
This is pathetic, Charles thinks. He never thought he would be like this, so miserable and impatient just because she's not at home, with him. He's tossing around, unable to find a comfortable position for himself – it seems like he forgot how to sleep without her. No matter how many times he's had to do just that, in hotel rooms all around the world. The past few weeks erased all those nights from his mind.
The delicious scent of her shampoo fills his lungs when his face lands just a bit too close to her pillow, and all of a sudden it's like he's burying his nose in her hair. It only makes him miss her more. Sleeping is impossible, he knows it now. He's only daydreaming, not actually dreaming, of her arriving home and being in his arms again.
Charles imagines the way she dances in the middle of the floor, her hands in the air, shouting the lyrics loudly to the song currently playing – most probably something she knows and loves –, and he can't help but smile fondly. Just the thought of her having fun is enough to make him happier, even in his misery.
He pictures a scene where a random guy tries to get too close to her, as it has happened so many times, whenever he leaves her alone for a few minutes at any club they've been to. It doesn't matter where they are, doesn't matter if they spent the night so far together, all over each other, someone comes into the picture immediately when he leaves, either to grab a drink for the two of them, or to go to the restrooms.
It's not like he doesn't understand those guys. She's simply gorgeous, and radiates such a vibrant aura that everyone is drawn to her. He honestly just finds it funny at this point. Nothing makes these men back off more effectively than her. Oh, the amount of times he bit back laughter watching the scene unfold from a distance. Seeing men crumble and disappear looking all ashamed, what a sight that is. And he doesn't have to do anything.
He wonders how many times she's had to fight off guys so far tonight, with him not even in the club, and he finds he can't wait to hear all her stories of the newest victims. Pierre never understood why Charles found it so amusing, he didn't seem to get it. The trust they have in each other. Knowing that it's him she'll come home to at the end of the night is enough to make him only feel entertained by each instance, and not irritated at the slightest bit.
But thinking about (y/n) fighting off men is only good enough entertainment for a limited amount of time, and soon the smile fades back into a miserable pout on his lips, as his thoughts turn back into ones of impatience, trying to make time move faster with short little prayers falling as mumbles from his lips.
With a sigh, he eventually sits up, looking around to find something he can do. At last he decides on grabbing a drink himself, maybe it will help stop the flow of thoughts racing in his head. A little welcomed dullness.
He takes a seat at the kitchen table, sipping on the liquid in his glass, enjoying the feeling of the light alcohol gently burning his throat on the way down, numbing his tongue along the way. His fingers stay restless, now drumming on the wooden surface. A few minutes later he realises they play a song, soundless except the soft thud of his fingertips with the occasional louder tap or little scratch of his nails when a finger finds a different angle to hit the table with.
A melody appears in his mind as he watches his fingers move, imagining how it would sound if it was his piano instead of the kitchen table. He would go sit at the beautiful, white instrument and try it, but he doesn't want to be so loud at such a late hour. And anyway, he's way too comfortable sitting where he is to stand up and go somewhere else.
He looks out the window, catching sight of the moon – almost full, just a tiny bit of it missing, and Charles examines the craters that are visible to the naked eye, though only as spots of a darker shade on the round shape.
Maybe he'll name this new musical piece that's being born in his head right now after her – well, if he ever finishes it. He'll keep the usual format, three letters of a city name and a date, only this time putting the time and place of when they first met. Or should it be the time and place of when he first asked her out? Or their first date? Or when she agreed to move in with him? God, there are way too many options to choose from. He decides to put this problem aside for now, he's not in a rush to name a song not even written yet.
As the clock on the oven changes all four numbers to display 2am, the action rouses his attention and makes him tear his eyes away from the moon and look at the numbers instead.
He would've never ever thought that he'd be like this.
Raising his glass he notices that there's only a small sip left in it, which he downs in a short moment. His tongue darts out to gather all the minuscule drops that might rest on his lips still, not wanting to waste even that much of the delicious drink. Then he stands up, placing the glass down into the sink, making a mental note to clean it in the morning before (y/n) wakes up.
Just as he ponders putting another movie on, maybe only as background noise if nothing else, his phone buzzes in the pocket of his pants. Taking his time, Charles pulls the device out, expecting nothing more than a useless notification from a social media app he shouldn't spend so much time on anyway.
Instead what he finds is a text. From her.
in a cab, be home soon &lt;3
Charles lets out a relieved sigh, his lips involuntarily curving into a smile, one that you could almost call giddy. It's not just the thought that she's going to be here soon, but the fact that she remembered to text him to let him know. He's in her mind, just like she's in his, even though she's been out with friends, having fun, drinking, while he's only been at home, all alone with his misery.
Now he can move back to bed happily, knowing that shortly she will join him.
It truly doesn't take long until Charles hears the front door creak as it opens, then the familiar jingle of her keys hitting the drawer in the hall, and his heart flutters with happiness. Finally. The high heels she chose to wear hit the floor with a soft thud as she presumably removes them, and the growing anticipation in his body seems to eat him whole.
Her steps grow louder and louder as she moves closer to the bedroom, and time slows for Charles. He watches in slow motion as she appears in the doorframe, being propped up on his elbows to have a better view, a lazy smile curling onto his face, and his eyes lidded with drowsiness.
"You're still awake?" (y/n) giggles, pausing in her steps for a second as her eyes take in the view he provides lying there. His lack of reply to her text made her think he's already fallen asleep.
"Of course," he mumbles. "Come to bed."
His voice is whiny and he behaves like an actual child, he knows, but he can't help it. He wants to sleep, and he wants to sleep beside her, feeling her warmth against his skin. That's the only way he can.
"Let me get changed first," she starts towards the closet, when a grunt of pure displeasure sounds from him along with the thump of his back as he falls into a lying position once more, making her glance back at her boyfriend. "What, can't wait a single minute?"
"No," he protests, pouting . "I've been waiting for hours."
His accent comes forth stronger when he's sleepy, and she can't help but smile adoringly upon hearing it. He's just so cute.
"Okay, fine, you'll get one kiss," she gives in. Charles resembles a lost puppy and she's sure he knows that's her weakness. She can't ever say no to anything when he looks like that.
So that's how she finds herself crawling into bed, trying to get as close as possible to the boy without causing damage to her dress. He grins, as much as his tired facial muscles allow, awaiting her lips touching his own. His pout becomes even more apparent, right until the moment he finally gets what he wants. His goodnight kiss. It's soft, slow and just so full of love it makes both their hearts flutter.
Then she caresses his cheek gently, whispering a barely audible good night, sleep tight to him, before moving back off the bed to disappear in the closet, leaving Charles to think about how he'd happily convince her again of going out if it means she'll come home to him, looking so radiant, properly buzzing with energy, eyes shining, hair messy but still looking so breathtaking. It's obvious how much it meant to her that she had this night out. He made her happy with telling her to go out with her friends, and he didn't regret it, despite all the miserable hours.
By the time she finishes her night routine and walks back into the bedroom once more, he's fast asleep, quiet snores filling the silence of the room. She bites into her bottom lip to keep in the giggle threatening to burst out, and with a heart full of adoration and a head slightly dizzy from the drinks she's had, she gets in bed beside him, snuggling up close to him, revelling in the feeling of his arms instinctively finding their way around her body even when he's sleeping.
He truly only waited for her to come home and give him a goodnight kiss to finally be able to fall asleep.
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fellthemarvelous · 4 months
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Holy forking shirtballs
I'm choosing violence today. I started this on Twitter, but I'm going to finish my thoughts here like I always do.
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But what really blows my mind the most is the way that people look at Aziraphale's "choice" at the end, as if he had one to fucking begin with.
I'm sorry, but Aziraphale knows how messed up Heaven is. He told The Metatron, more than once, that he did not want to go back to Heaven! We can debate what each of us means by "choice" all night because my "choice" and your "choice" might be two different concepts. He could have been strong armed by The Metatron or he could have looked at where things were headed and realized he had no choice but to intervene himself.
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You need to ask yourself what Aziraphale has a moral imperative to do.
What do we owe to each other?
Seriously, if you have not watched The Good Place, I recommend you go and watch it, because it absolutely shaped how I've viewed Good Omens 2 since its release.
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My levels of frustration with the bad faith mischaracterizations of Aziraphale are off the charts. If you are blaming him for everything, implying that he should have to grovel and that Crowley has a right to hurt him back, you have missed the point of Good Omens entirely.
I defend Aziraphale, but I don't think one of them is more right or wrong than the other. They're equals. They're a group of the two of them, acting and reacting to each other throughout history. They're Alpha Centauri.
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I cannot even begin to explain how fucking devastated I felt when Crowley said these words, knowing he was fighting a losing battle. What he said took a lot of courage because he's finally admitting something they've both been too scared to publicly define for 6,000 years. Crowley has had to spend so long with a rough outer shell because he fell and had to hide all of his softness.
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The look on his face was one of pure joy when he created that nebula, but I think the fact that he got to share that moment with Aziraphale is what has always stuck with him.
So yeah, seeing Crowley with a broken heart at the end of "Every Day" was sad for me as well.
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My brain still lives here!!
But Neil has said that Good Omens 3 is not quiet, gentle, or romantic. I imagine it's going to be more like the the first season in which they are not central to the plot. GO2 will help us make sense of how they ended up where they are when we see the bigger picture with all the other major players involved with GO3.
Aziraphale was still a soldier and accidentally got himself discorporated in his own magic circle in season one. He had a platoon waiting on him to start Armageddon, and he deserted them to go save the world with Crowley instead. Aziraphale is a deserter. I need everyone to remember that. He yeeted himself out of Heaven and sought out Crowley before even locating a body just to warn him about what was happening so they could try to save the world together.
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I can't help but think of 1941 and that magician who had been arrested for being a deserter.
Aziraphale disobeyed orders. That took courage but it branded him as a traitor against Heaven. They tried to destroy him for it the same way Hell tried to destroy Crowley for his part in stopping the war.
Aziraphale and Job are the only characters we have seen interacting with God directly. Aziraphale has spoken to God before and he is determined to do so again.
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Aziraphale knows Heaven is flawed, but he also knows it's supposed to be good. He wants it to be good. He does not like the way the system works and he wants to make a difference. (And I'm pretty sure he's also determined to talk to God without being intercepted by The Metatron.)
Since when is that a bad thing? I don't get it. And I've had this discussion before.
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If you need to change the system by burning the old one to the ground, it's still change, and we don't know what Aziraphale has planned.
It seems to me that people just want to see Aziraphale fail because it would punish him for returning to Heaven instead of running off with Crowley.
Some of y'all take everything Aziraphale says or does and twist those things into malicious anti-Crowley actions because you think the only reason Aziraphale exists is to make Crowley happy, and if he isn't thinking only about Crowley then he's doing something wrong.
Aziraphale does not exist as a plot device to further Crowley's character. They come as a pair. They've been learning from each other for 6,000 years. Crowley challenges Aziraphale just as much as Aziraphale challenges him.
You can be mad at Aziraphale all you want, but villainizing him is gross. Defending Crowley does not mean you have to tear down and mischaracterize Aziraphale anymore than defending Aziraphale means you have to tear down Crowley (but I don't see that happen on nearly the same level it happens to Aziraphale). Stop painting Aziraphale as an abusive partner, for fuck sake.
Aziraphale knows there are flaws in the system. He wants to make a difference, and since he has seen that Gabriel can change, then maybe the whole system can. He has to at least try, and if he can succeed then maybe he and Crowley can stop hiding and finally be together without having to look over their shoulders all the time.
Why is that a bad thing? He's just as protective of Crowley as Crowley is of him!
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But don't forget that Aziraphale's wing was covering Adam and Eve too. As much as a wants to protect Crowley, he has a moral imperative to keep humanity safe as well.
He sent Adam and Eve into the unknown with a flaming sword so they could protect themselves.
As much as he wants to be with Crowley, there are 8 billion people on Earth heading toward the Second Coming and Judgment Day. They'll work together to fight alongside humanity in the end. Aziraphale should not have to humiliate himself just to earn Crowley's forgiveness. That's a rancid notion.
The Resurrectionist was a whole ass moral dilemma for Aziraphale, which is why I brought up The Good Place earlier, but that's a post for a different time.
Aziraphale has his own motivations and they're just as important as Crowley's, and they don't have to be chalked up to Aziraphale being the bad guy. Weird, I know, but shades of grey.
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"To the world."
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skamenglishsubs · 26 days
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Subtext and Culture, Young Royals, Season 3, Episode 5
Episode 5 starts sometime after August dropped the bombshell about Erik at the end of last episode, and Wilhelm decides for some reason to visit the party palace, in order to make himself feel extra shit? I don't know what's going on here.
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Blink and you miss it: Hey, that's one of the clown masks they used for Wilhelm's initiation back in season 1.
Blink and you miss it: Henry and Valter are doing a class presentation on rhetorical analysis, and for some reason they chose former US president George W. Bush as their subject, which is pretty hilarious given that he was a notoriously bad public speaker.
Blink and you miss it: Instead of asking Wilhelm, who is sitting right next to Simon, how he's feeling, he writes the question in his notebook and slides it over.
Subtext: Gotta keep up that facade and bottle all the negative feelings inside!
Lost in translation: Vincent uses the word "nyanländ", "newly arrived", which is the current politically correct way of saying immigrant.
Subtext: ...but in typical bully fashion he asks the target of the racist "joke" if it was funny, and Marwan obviously lies about it as to not upset Vincent.
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Subtext: Felice tries to play it off as no big deal, but she actually wants this opportunity to spend time with Sara without her other friends, in order to rebuild the friendship.
Subtext: Sara is right to be suspicious of her dad, because he is a lot more energetic than usual, and excuses his behaviour by him simply being in a good mood. It's probably his new medication that kicked in, though.
Subtext: Speaking of having a hard time showing weakness, that's exactly what Wilhelm's been struggling with by not telling Simon how upset he is about having learned that Erik took part in the gay porn initiation.
Subtext: So the whole subplot of the past four episodes was that the school locked up all the phones, and Wilhelm joined the little strike to get them back, pissing Simon off in the meantime, and now that they have their phones back he's not picking up when Simon is calling him? Not cool.
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Culture: The choir is practising "En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt", a Swedish hymnal with text from 1889, but this version of the melody is from the 1930's and composed by Waldemar Åhlén. It's a very well-known summer song that pretty much every Swedish schoolkid has sung at some end-of-schoolyear summer assembly.
Cinematography: We're in the cursed music room, and this time the lighting is harsh and sharp, Wilhelm is in stark contrast to the rest of the room, there's no soft golden light smoothing things out, so we're gonna have an argument!
Subtext: Yeah, no, Wilhelm, sweetie, that's projection, that's what you are thinking about your brother. Simon isn't doing anything wrong here, he's just concerned about you being a moody asshole.
Cinematography: To illustrate how the relationship is going south, the music room which used to be full of instruments, is just getting emptier and emptier, and Simon is left standing alone at the piano.
Subtext: No, he's not feeling ok, and no, he's not interested in making up with Sara right now, because he's still angry at her.
Subtext: There are different kinds of homophobia, for example, there are people who talk loudly about how accepting they are of The Gays, but who react negatively when someone close to them comes out, because they were only fine with it at a distance. And then there are people who are ignorantly homophobic in general, but who turn out to be supportive of anyone close to them who comes out, because they know that that person isn't like The Other Gays. Shitty, but less shitty than the first group, and I think that's how Erik would have reacted had he known about Wilhelm.
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Culture: In Sweden, you do the practical driving test in a car provided by the testing centre to make it fair and equal for everyone. These cars all have a red sticker saying they're for driving tests.
Subtext: Micke is failing exactly how he described it in an earlier episode. He's on new medication, it made him feel good and like he was in control, so he thought he could take just one beer with his friends.
Subtext: No, it fits horribly, and you can clearly see that it was on sale and that the price tag is still on it. But this is what Linda can afford.
Lost in translation: Simon actually says "jag vet", "I know", when Sara tells him that their dad let her down and that she is sad and upset about it.
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Subtext: Unlike Simon who got a cheap suit on sale, Wilhelm just has his perfectly tailored suit delivered to him by his bodyguards.
Subtext: Last episode Wilhelm picked a sport charity or something that he doesn't actually care about, because he thought it would best fit the narrative the royal court is going for. So now his internal homophobia is screaming at him to remove the nail polish, because it doesn't fit that image.
I don't know what this is: This has got to be an editing goof? This sequence of events doesn't work. Everyone else is up and about, preparing the third year's dinner with the teachers and they're even cooking the food with a chef, but it's early morning and Wilhelm is still sleeping in? Anyway, the whole thing is yet another example of how the school teaches hierarchy. As a younger student you service the older students, and when it's your turn to graduate, someone younger will service you.
Throwback: Aww, Simon made Wilhelm a sandwich, just like Wilhelm made one for Simon a bunch of times in previous seasons.
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Culture: Man, early summer in Sweden is beautiful, isn't it? This was shot at Åkeshofs Slott in Stockholm, and if you do a 180 turn on that path, you'll see the subway station Åkeshov, and if you go through the tunnel under the road and then up to your right, you'll end up at a sports centre where I went twice a week as a kid for fencing training!
This tumblr is now about French school fencing! Doublé! Riposte!
Subtext: Time and time again the show has shown us how much August loves this shit, and that he wasn't lying when he said he knew everyone, because clearly he does!
Subtext: And to show how much Wilhelm dislikes this shit, he is so stiff when talking to the invited kids who are actually benefitting from his charity foundation, while August just immediately jokes around with them and is much more comfortable.
Culture: I've seen how a lot of fans think that the flower Wilhelm is wearing is a green carnation, which is a symbol for being gay, popularized by Oscar Wilde. I don't think so, that's not a thing in Sweden as far as I know. Instead, I think it's an alternate version of a Majblomma, which is an actual Swedish charity thing, where you can buy these plastic lapel flowers from schoolkids to show your support around this time of year.
Subtext: Even though Simon is there, he's being shoved to the back, because his presence doesn't fit the narrative. If Wilhelm instead had chosen to start some kind of LGBT charity, Simon would have had a much more prominent role. Oh, and poison or not, that Princess Cake looks delicious!
Subtext: Farima is expertly letting August down, who of course pretends that he's not the least bit disappointed at being excluded from having dinner at the royal palace.
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Blink and you miss it: IT'S LISA! HI LISA!
Culture: Kalle Stropp och Grodan Boll are two characters from a radio show for kids from the 1940's, but they've also been featured in books, comic books, a live action movie, and animated cartoons. It's about the two titular characters, a cricket and a frog, and their adventures. The last movie was made in the 1990's though, so I'm not so sure kids these days knows who these characters are. Personally, I can't hear this song without hearing their silly character voices.
Subtext: The Queen is still keeping up appearances and lying through her teeth about how she's actually feeling.
Culture: In real world Sweden, Victoriadagen is celebrated in mid July when Crown Princess Victoria has her birthday, she hands out a sports award, there's a concert, some charity stuff, and you can sort of meet the royals or sing her happy birthday or something.
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Subtext: August is repeating the excuse Farima used on him as to why he didn't attend the birthday dinner.
Blink and you miss it: That's a Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II. It's only about $10,000 and change.
Subtext: Simon, sweetie, I don't think the royals have any clue as to what "the usual" means when you're describing how regular people celebrate birthdays.
Culture: Simon actually says Laserdome, which is a company in Sweden that has been running laser tag arenas since the 1990's. I had no idea they still existed!
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Culture: They're singing Lambo, a drinking song for students. It's a challenge song, so while the rest of the table sings, the target has to finish their glass, correctly sing the response lines, and turn the glass upside down over their head. If you fail, like August does in this scene, you have to do a penalty round and chug another glass.
Subtext: ...before her parents heaped all of their family's expectations on her. But maybe if Felice can break free she could pursue her actual dreams?
Throwback: Remember the scene in S1E3 when Simon is practising the Hillerska song in the music room?
Subtext: Queenie, sweetie, you're not looking Wilhelm in the eyes, you're not engaging in the discussion, and the only thing you do is to talk about Erik every chance you get. No wonder Wilhelm has had enough and explodes at his parents.
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Blink and you miss it: Vincent won the "Daddy pays" award. Pappa betalar.
Subtext: In this context the award just means that he's the image of a bad boy, a player. But throughout the season, August has been struggling with whether or not he's actually a bad person, which is why he's not exactly happy with the award.
Cinematography: Fuck me that's a pretty shot of a typical summer sunset. In late May in the Stockholm area, sunset happens at around 9:30 in the evenings.
Subtext: One more explanation for August's body dysmorphia is that he got bullied for being weak and scrawny when he first started at Hillerska, so he decided to start working out more.
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Blink and you miss it: The reason Fredrika is outside and happens to see Sara and August kiss, is because she's trying to sneak away the bottle of wine she stole earlier from the kitchen.
Subtext: And the reason Felice looks upset when Fredrika tells her what she saw is because she truly thought Sara was over August, and that's a condition of them reconciling.
Blink and you miss it: Wilhelm plays the first few notes of the original Hillerska song.
Subtext: And to cap off this terrible no-good horrible cliffhanger episode, Simon breaks up with Wilhelm by repeating the words his mom said to him earlier in the episode.
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hattersarts · 10 months
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gomens s2 thoughts, all spoilers!
I spent 10 hours talking to my housemate about the season after we binged the whole thing in the morning but here are the highlights and the biggest takeaways from the season.
okay i did love the ending, i love that we get the conformation of love AND going into the divorce arc next season (if they're not properly together by the end of season 3 however, i am rioting) they're slow burn and a whole season of them getting to the final 10mins was tasty.
HOWEVER. it was an extremely clunky season when it comes to writing, lots of either set ups missed OR set ups repeated 4 times that they're drilled into out heads. there was also lots of dialogue that really needed to be tightened up. the lesbians were so poorly written i thought they might have needed to be cut BUT they just needed to have more bearing on the rest of the plot AND say things like real people would say things and LITERALLY SHOW ONE SINGLE REASON WHY THEY WOULD LIKE EACH OTHER WITHIN THE FIRST EPISODE.
gabe/bulz romance was the one that should have been cut, have them do more of a oh-my-god-my-boss-sucks kind of thing, lean into them complaining about having to avert a civil war after armageddon stopped and touch on the "structural problems" the angels mention later. Have gabe/bulz be super punished for working together which puts huge fear into az and crowley about what happens if you try to team up as an angel/demon pair (but an extra reason why az takes the job at the end so he and crowley can be the same)
imo it works more if the only mirror of their romance is the HUMANS which should lean into themes to season 3 of how they need to team up with humans (re:"us vs them" line at the end of season 1) to actually achieve their happy ending.
Nina and maggies best scene was their last one telling crowley he needed to talk to az but i think that was one that needed to be cut, it would have been far more satisfying to have crowely work out it out himself that he loves az and wants to tell him (still via maggie and nina but more subtle rather than them telling him to his face AND via spending more time with az in the season)
flashbacks were all pretty good, loved the jobe one and that final "lonely" scene. the nazi one needed some trimming the most (why did all three come back to earth, it made scenes too crowed, have them fight to be a zombie)
shax was disappointing, she was kind of just incompetent the whole way through which didnt make the stakes very exciting, (that whole scene of her talking to the legion was unfunny and pointless) i wanted crowley to mentor her more like when he gave her advice in the first few meetings we saw (kind of in a very non-demonic way, not expecting anything in return) and her to then meet him on equal footing in the finale. would have been a little accidental taste for Crowley to have his good deeds come back to haunt him while showing he's different to demons.
speaking of the finale fight, that halo had NO set up, it was sick as hell but ??? the fuck did that come from. the fight should have been won by az and crowley performing another HUGE miracle together, discorporating the demons (which then would alert heaven and hell something was up in the bookshop and the final scene can happen)
az taking the job from metatron was very good, its consistent with his character where he still hasn't let go of his faith in good/god, he's only been upset by the angels running heaven and still has faith in the system while crowley has realised none of it works and it's only them together that matters. it was nice to show he still hasn't truly accepted crowley for who he is now (tho imo he knows he loves him, he just hasn't quite unrepressed himself) and him not turning down the job after crowley confesses to him shows he still thinks he can fix it. Crowley on the other hand thinks he's now lost him, az has broken he the trust he had in him, he's going to be in big depression mode
few thoughts of good directions for S3:
finally delivering on what crowley said at the end of S1 I think is the most satisfying. the final showdown should be humans Vs heaven/hell with Crowley and az on the human side, helping them win the conflict. there would be suggestions that this is actually god's ineffable plan, this is a conflict she wants to happen and the things that Crowley and az went through are what make them perfect ambassadors to help the humans.
the set up for az in S3 to finally work out he and Crowley can't work out within the unfair rules of the system and for him to abandon heaven (tho not I think, becoming a demon) is good. a sucky ending imo for season 3 is if az somehow "fixes" heaven and via bureaucracy and not via blowing it all up.
growth moments for Crowley in S3 might be having more contact with humans since he's already abandoned hell and it would put az & crowley on similar footing (as az very much loves humans already) when they decided to side with humans for a humans Vs heaven/hell conflict.
anyway, gay people
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mournings-stars · 2 months
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nothing changes
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final and part 3 of the prelude to my orpheus and eurydice angst fic "doubt comes in" parts two and three (if you would like to read chronologically these come first) part five/finale (a semi-alt ending)
includes: heaven lucifer ofc, a little lore, some blending of greek mythology, still a little, if not more ambiguous than before, luci is still a hopeless romantic but a little unreliable in the narration aspect, the fluff is basically over I gave yall a warning on the last part but here's my formal apology... especially since lucifer calls you humility
tags: @lxkeee @viannasthings @majonla @sapphirecaelis
Suddenly, Lucifer was holding the world in his arms. 
A Virtue, asleep in his bed, held to his chest. The very same Virtue he’d admired for so long, sleeping soundly in his embrace as if it were the greatest comfort. 
The night of the Celebration, you left after a single dance, going to his home for dinner, where he had the bouquet you gave him on display in his dining room. It was a fight to leave, Lucifer suggesting you stay as he reluctantly walked you toward the door, eventually relenting and letting you kiss him goodbye when you said you’d see him the next day. 
And the next, and the next, and so on and so forth, nearly every day being spent together now that you both knew how you felt. You never ran out of things to talk about, and getting to see him was the highlight of your day. Especially when he came to Earth to help you work. 
The more time he spent with you, the more he wanted to move with haste and plan an immortal future together; marriage, children, living together, but he had to stop himself, remind himself that you had all the time in the world to move as slowly as you wanted, and a single kiss wasn’t grounds to take off from. For all he knew, you kissed him because you were drunk and only cared for him as a friend. 
Which was enough. He’d take whatever care you were willing to give — and this, a night together, was more than enough. 
But his loud thoughts woke you up, feeling that he was awake and mumbling, “sleep, Luci.” 
He smiled at the way you sleepily said his name, forgetting half of it. He leaned down and kissed the top of your head, your wings stretching before wrapping around him and gently draping over him as you pressed a gentle kiss to his chest, right above his heart. 
How soon was too soon in deciding you’d fallen in love?
He’d asked Sera, who’d lifted his ban from the seasons changing the moment he came to the meeting room to announce that he would tell you depending on her answer… one day. “I’ll wait a hundred years.” To beings like you, that was nothing but a blink of an eye, making her laugh. 
“You may want to tread carefully,” Sera warned. “You know how Virtues are; sometimes, they abandon you.” Everyone knew the stories of Chastity, Kindness, Charity, or Patience, leaving someone broken-hearted. “They can’t love one thing more than another — and they’ll never love a soul more than they love the Earth. It’s what they were made for.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” he said, shaking his head. “We have free will. Virtues, even if they're born for a purpose, have it, too.”
“Yes, but that free will will never come before their duty,” she said simply. “I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t love Humility — Do it. Love and be loved.” He nodded, warm mood returning to him with Sera’s heartfelt blessing. “But don’t put all of yourself into that love, Lu. You could end up with nothing, while Humility takes it and moves on.” At his silence, she continued, “Have you ever seen the way nature itself fights for a Virtue’s attention?” He thought back, the way animals came to you despite a predator or prey being near. Plants blossomed brighter as you walked by. Winds sang, and the sun beamed while rivers rushed and dived to a fall, a pool of water at your feet. “You have it now, but Humility loves it all equally. You will be loved just the same. Not more or less, but equal; equal to that flower you wear, to a hare she finds needing her help, to the grass and dirt that hare walks across… You can’t expect more.”
“I don’t,” he said quickly, easily. 
“And you can never hurt Humility — I’m warning you to respect a Virtue’s duty, to not expect what one can’t give you—“ Lucifer could argue with that, but he held his tongue. “—and I’m also giving my blessing.”
He smiled. “Thank you.”
Perhaps, he never should’ve headed her warning. 
He swore to himself that he wouldn’t, but a warning like that could only do one thing; doubt comes in, planting a small seed in his mind that he couldn’t shake, thinking of Sera’s warning every time he was with you and wondering how you truly felt about him. It was to the point that even you noticed. 
You’d asked him to come down to Earth with you, taking him to a large pond at the base of a waterfall where a pair of ducks circled. He had been happy to see them, realizing you’d taken notice of a golden duck he had on display despite him never showing you. 
“Is everything alright, Luci?” You’d made it a habit of calling him that, first doing it as a joke after he teased you about it, but the joke seemed to stick. 
He smiled, huffing a laugh. “You're perceptive.” You shrugged. “Can I ask you something?” You nodded, waiting for him to continue, but there was a beat of silence. You placed a gentle hand on his, but he took it away. Then he quickly took your hand again, making you chuckle. 
“You don’t have to hold my hand if you don’t want to.”
“I know.” He gave a reassuring smile, then sighed. “Is it true? Virtues love every living thing equally?”
“Ah,” you laughed, “you spoke to Sera.” He nodded. “The other Virtues didn’t leave the angels they loved because we love everything equally — it’s because they expected something they couldn’t give.” You pursed your lips, unsure of whether this would soothe him or push him away. “Yes, it’s in our nature to love all living things equally, but we don’t love them the same. I could never love a soul the same way I love a river,” you said like it was ridiculous to think so. “Or an animal the way I love another angel. It may, theoretically, be equal, but is an angel equal to the wind?” He shook his head, threading his fingers through yours. “So, I may be sinful in saying this,” you joked, “but that would mean I love you more.”
He took it as an explanation rather than a confession of your feelings, a relieved smile coming to his face before he brought the back of your hand to his lips to kiss gently. 
When it came time to transition spring into summer, you let Lucifer help, singing the melody together and flying over Earth as you watched it change. Flowers blossomed and gave you ripe fruits to taste, greenery grew bigger and fuller, and animals basked in the sun as you sang. 
All of Heaven could hear your harmony, reveling in how beautiful it was, and how as you sang it, they could feel your warmth — your love. 
A love so bright and warm it could burn for eons. A song, so beautiful, that when you sang it the world came into tune. 
The song of love.
That was what they began calling it. Hundreds of summers, hundreds of winters. Autumns and springs. For hundreds of years, the two of you sang the song in harmony and Sera’s warning began to mean less and less to Lucifer. 
But doubt comes in. 
Hundreds of years, and your relationship stayed the same. Hundreds of years, and you never told him you loved him. Hundreds of years, and at the back of his mind he knew why. 
Hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of years, and humans were brought to the Earth. 
The Earth began to change. Your song was hardly needed, and you frequented less and less. Your animals were hunted and your plants were cut down. You could feel every death, every life leaving the Earth. Your power weakened, and your will to do anything about it weakened with it. 
“It’s how the world must be,” Sera told you when your grief caused rain on Earth at times where it should’ve been calm. “It’s a part of life, Humility.”
“I understand that, just…” You couldn’t articulate your feelings, giving her the perfect opportunity to tell you,
“As a Virtue, you should love and feel for these humans as much as you do for the life you create and care for.”
“You’re right…” All the other Virtues understand, so why couldn’t you? 
Lucifer said it was because Earth was more than just your job. You cared for the mortal world like no other angel did, and that was what he loved about you. It’s why you were so good at what you did. 
And as he told you this, he took you to a garden in Heaven. Plants you’d created and cared for lived endlessly, and most importantly, the animals you felt leave the mortal world were immortalized there. They recognized you, coming to you like they had on Earth and making you happier than he’d seen you since things began changing. 
Lucifer watched the sullen mood you’d been in wash away, and slowly, you began to spend all of your time in this garden.
And doubt comes in. 
To him, you didn’t seem to care whether or not he was with you in the garden, so he left you alone. Day and night, you spent it alone in the garden and he spent it alone in your shared home, falling asleep and waking up without you. 
He busied himself with unnatural creations, spending time in his office, working the days away like he used to. You’d come throughout the day, hoping to see him. You’d make lunch and call out to him, but he never seemed to notice. You spent the days alone, opting to go to the garden he showed you and wishing he were there with you. 
He started to think, to doubt; It wasn’t that the other Virtues couldn’t give the angels they loved enough, it was that they had all the time in the world to do so, to have them wait while they provided and cared for the Earth. They may have loved them more, but that love could be stretched endlessly.  
Before, time was endless on Earth. It was why the seasons needed you, why you never feared the loss of your creations, and why you could say you would love him more. Now, there was a cycle, an order of things, and a hierarchy. All living things you cared for would one day manifest with you in Heaven, where time was once again endless — His immortal life was endless, and he’d always be there for you. You could stretch your love for him as long as he’d let you, while you tended to the garden he showed you. 
So no, he wasn’t equal to the wind, but now he was equal to, if not less to you than, a manifested soul. 
You could never love him more. How could he expect you to?
And Lucifer went down to Earth, in hopes to feel what you felt, to understand how you could feel plants and animals dying. To see how much it changed. 
But he came across someone — a woman. Sera told him she was named Lilith after the beautiful flowers you made bloom, in hopes to lift your resentment of what she and the other elders created. 
He left before she could see him, taking a lily with him. 
He made his way to the garden, finding you there and tending to the plants. 
He cleared his throat to get your attention, making you turn. The smile you gave him made his heart race and wings flutter, you looked so undeniably happy that he was there. He should’ve just come to you like he usually did, he thought regretfully. He had no reason to doubt you when you looked at him that way.
“I brought you something.” He held the flower out to you, watching you take it with so much care. “I went down to Earth today… It hasn’t changed as much as you thought.”
“Really?” You asked hopefully. 
“New life comes every spring,” he told you. “It feels more alive than ever… Though it could use your touch.” He watched your smile grow as you looked down at the flower, twirling it in your fingers. 
“Maybe we can go down together next time.”
“I’d like that.”
How could he have convinced himself to doubt you so heavily? Why would he, so easily, trust the doubt in his mind more than you?
“I was hoping you’d come here,” you told him after a moment. “I — well — I was hoping I’d get to thank you for showing it to me. I know you’ve been busy with work, but I wanted to tell you: this place helped me feel connected to nature again.” There was a moment of pause before you joked, “I can’t say I’m not glad you didn’t see how weak I was, though…” He’d never heard you speak so quiet and unconfidently, masking it with a flat joke as you refused to look him in the eye, but he heard every word, feeling even worse for what his mind began to tell him. “I understand why you left after you showed me this place… If you want to be alone after the way I reacted—“
He cut you off, quickly bringing you into his embrace. His wings wrapped around you and his head tucked into your shoulder. “I’ve missed you so much.” You sighed, hugging him back and dropping the flower to the ground. “I thought you wanted to be alone.”
You laughed, shaking your head. “I’d rather be alone with you.” 
You spent the night together in your home, preparing dinner and enjoying the night like you used to, and the next morning he went with you to the garden. Only to find that an animal had eaten part of the lily you dropped on the garden floor. It looked weak, too sick to even move. 
“They’re poisonous?” You asked him, in shock that you didn’t know the changes that happened to your own flowers. You went to the animal to try to use your abilities to heal it, hoping those hadn’t changed, too. 
“I didn’t know…” He tried to say, but you didn’t respond. “I can help—“ he reached for the animal and you turned away, wings flaring to put distance between you. He took a shocked step back, scrambling to explain himself, “I didn’t mean to bring… poison into your garden, Humility—”
“I know,” you said weakly, doubting. 
“It’ll be okay,” he told you. It was already dead, he couldn’t remind you.
Again, “I know.” You knew, and that was why it was so upsetting. Not even in death could a soul escape suffering. How was that fair?
“Let me help. Please.” But he was met with silence, not even a response of you shaking your head. 
Instead, a gentle breeze began to blow, a song flowing through the garden. The same song you’d sung for hundreds of years. As it continued, the winds got stronger, flowers bloomed brighter, plants got taller, and the little animal in front of you perked up and scurried away. 
There it was again. 
He wondered if Sera was right, if he truly did distract you. If you’d done nothing but tend to the garden and your power had recovered more than he ever could’ve helped you to do, there was no doubt. 
“Why are they changing everything I create?” But he didn’t hear your frustrated question. “Can everything I care for now be hurt?” He didn’t hear your voice break as you begged for an answer, hoping that he, as a Seraph, would know and tell you if he did. 
But he didn’t hear anything over his own doubtful thoughts. All he saw was you get up and walk away from him, wings wrapped around yourself to bring yourself comfort as if he’d purposely brought poison into your garden. 
He took what was left of the flower and left the garden, once again going to earth. He’d find you something else, he decided. He’d make sure you knew he didn’t bring you a poisonous flower on purpose. He’d make sure you didn’t resent him, like you resented the humans and the way the Earth changed. 
He’d make sure he knew every change that was made and make sure it couldn’t upset you. He’d make sure you never pushed him away like that again—
“What a beautiful flower.” He paused, looking ahead of him to see that same woman once again. “It’s poisonous, you know?” Lucifer looked down at it. He knew now. “It can be hard to tell, but I can show you the ones that aren’t — though, I thought angels would know.”
“A lot has changed,” he muttered, surprised she was speaking to him. 
And perhaps that was where it started, where he began to learn about this new Earth through her, under the guise of relaying the information to you.
But he never did. 
Instead, he kept coming back. He didn’t retrieve anything for you, but he spoke to her every time. He listened to her cry and comforted her if he could. 
He found a friend in this woman; in Lilith… And then he found something more. 
He showed her his creations, something he’d never shown you, and he beamed at the way she appreciated them, eyes full of wonder. He spent the night with her in The Garden and showed her the warmth of the moss covered cave, where they sat and talked just as you’d done. Only she lied next to him where you sat so far away. 
And then she told him she loved him. 
Something you never said. 
But you didn’t have to. You showed it;
in the way you stayed up and waited, waited to apologize for pushing him away, for walking away and getting so upset. In the way you fell asleep in an armchair in the living room and woke up when he came home in the morning, not even noticing you and going up to his study. In the way you greeted him warmly when he came down, though he didn’t give you time to apologize. In the way you held him like he was what you treasured most, like he was something you didn’t want to lose. In the way you asked to see what he was working on. In the way you let him leave. 
In the way you let him tell you he was in love with someone else. 
“I didn’t realize it until now — all I wanted was to get more knowledge of the Earth, to bring to you; to show you I cared,” he gave explanation after explanation as you stood in the garden he showed you, and you thought you should’ve questioned why you were spending the evening together. 
But he suddenly stopped, shutting his mouth and pausing to look over you. 
He’d never seen you cry. Not once. He’d seen you upset, he’d seen you overjoyed, he’d seen you devastated just months ago, but he’d never seen you cry — and to think, the first time he did, it was because he was making you cry. Because he hurt you. 
He tried to reach out, and this time you didn’t push him away. It was worse. Your arms hugged your shoulders and your wings wrapped around yourself as you stared at the ground, taking a cowering step away from him. He wished you’d turn your back on him, spare him from seeing what he’d done, but you didn’t. 
There was a long silence as you urged yourself to calm down, breathing slowly. 
Finally, you said, “I don’t fault you for falling in love.” His throat tightened as you finally turned away from him. He was wrong. That wasn’t what he wanted at all. Not like this. “I want you to be happy. If this is what makes you happy then… Then, I’m happy for you.” 
“But I did give you a chance to leave,” you wanted to remind him, but he spoke before you could, “Don’t lie to me,” he said, begging and sounding completely defeated. You’d never lied to him before, but he knew you were now. “I know you—”
Instead you reminded him, “Then you know that I love you. I always have… I should’ve said it more than I did, I know, but I never thought you’d doubt me.”
And he could hear it over and over; your reassurance, and your confession. You told him long before he ever told you. 
“But,” you mocked his silence, resentment he knew you would eventually feel for him seeping into your voice as you said, “you know how Virtues are.”
Sometimes, they abandon you.
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stagefoureddiediaz · 17 days
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ugh this is horrible news tommy is still around, hope to god he's gone in the finale. v
Maybe in your world Nonnie, but not in mine and I'm not entirely sure why you felt the need to come and complain about it on my blog, but here we are!
It makes perfect Narrative sense for Tommy to still be around in the back end of the season, and even possibly into the start of season 8. The show is telling a story of Bucks bisexuality, so why woould they get rid of Tommy so quickly? To do so would do a disservice to that story - a massive disservice. I'm guessing you're hating on this relationship becasue you see it getting in the way of Buddie, rather than viewing it as a vital step on the route to Buddie.
Lets put it into simple terms - Buck figures out he's bi and then begins to explore that newly discovered aspect of himself. The show has also taken the time to move Buck from someone who didn't really do relationships (of the long term variety), into someone who is looking for love and looking for forever. But in amongst all of that, he hasn't really had a healthy long term relationship, the closest he had to that was with Ali and that one didn't last especially long and she wasn't around for most of it
Buck isn't ready for an endgame queer relationship right now - he is still to immature from a relationship perspective - especially a queer relationship perspective. If Eddie was available and he and Buck got together - as they are as characters right now, they wouldn't last - they're not in a position to do so successfully. And this isn't me suggesting that they need to have figured everything out before they get together - to have fully healed etc, because thats neither realistic or something I would want to see - what it means is that they both need to get to a point where they are in a healthy enough place to put in the work together, understand each others flaws, and their own flaws and proactively work towards overcoming those things together and as of right now, neither of them are - they are getting their and moving rapidly in the right direction, but Buck needs to learn a bit more, and in many ways learn how to be with a man, before he will be ready to start anything with Eddie.
The growth we're getting to watch Buck go through right now - in the aftermath of the lightening strike, his reckoning with his mortality etc and the fact he's now off the hamster wheel and moving forward - in a healthy and faster way than we've ever seen from him, speaks volumes.
Tommy is also a far better developed love interest than any other love interest we've seen Buck (or indeed Eddie) with (Abby excepted but she was a main, so had her own purpose on the show)- I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling like I know Tommy more after 3 episodes plus what we got from the begins episodes he was in, than I managed to ascertain about Taylor or Ana or Nataila etc!
Not to mention, him figuring out he's in Love with Eddie as part of this process is going to be fun to watch. The show has made no bones about re-enforcing at every. Single. Opportunity how close, how entwined and how important Buck and Eddie are to one another - the show has quite literally been prioritising that over anything else Buck and Eddie related - Buck was there front and centre - placed very much on an equal footing with Shannon and even Eddie himself in 7x01, and then Eddie was the centre of Bucks bi arc in 7x04 and in his coming out in 7x05. They are literally moving chess pieces into place to tell an amazing story of queer love in later life and creating an epic slow burn for the ages.
And finally, Eddie is, as far as we know at this point in time, still in a relationship with Marisol - why shouldn't Buck get to explore who he is and what he want's within a relationship rather than sitting pining on the sidelines - that isn't healthy in any way shape or form. Eddie still has stuff to figure out about himself.
Even Tim and Oliver have stated in interviews that this is about a happy and joyful queer experience of figuring out bisexuality and therefore within that is giving the narrative a romcom vibe. But they have also stated that Tommy isn't going to be around for that long - that he is very much a narrative device.
It is worth pointing out that timelines on various aspects of the narrative may have been shifted because of the season 8 renewal - but that is only going to help tell the story because now it doesn't have to be rushed. I'm still fully expecting some form of feeling realisation from one of them by the end of the season (my money is on Buck), setting up for season 8 and Buddie going canon either 8a finale or early into 8b.
You have every right to dislike Tommy if thats you jam - have at it, but don't come to my blog and expect me to agree with you. I'm not a multi shipper by any means - I'm a one ship kind of gal and I will be a Buddie shipper until the end of time, but within that, I am here for amazing storytelling and amazing queer storytelling - the like of which I've not had the privilege to watch on my screen before - especially one that hits so close to home. Its a really important story to tell and I'd rather it not be rushed.
And if you had to pick - I'm pretty sure you'd rather have Tommy around for a bit longer that Marisol!!!!
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stellaluna33 · 2 months
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The thing with Jess saying, "I need the music on to sleep," is that there could be any number of reasons for that, and we're never given a definitive answer in canon. So... Is it tragic? Or is it something more innocuous? The fact is that we really don't know! Is it that he's used to living in a noisy city and can't sleep in the silence of Stars Hollow? (That's definitely a Thing, and we do see him sleeping without music in Season 3) Is it that he has a neurodivergent brain that needs stimulation at all times? (ASP does tend to write very neurodivergent-seeming characters, probably without doing so intentionally. We still exist as observable types of people, even if you don't label us.) Is it trauma from horrible past experiences? (We've heard all sorts of worrisome tidbits about the way Liz has been living) Honestly, ANY (or all) of these explanations would be equally plausible, given what we DO know, but there's really no definitive right or wrong answer, and there's no way of knowing for sure!
It's fun (or potentially depressing, haha) to speculate about or to explore in fanfiction! But I also think it's important to remember that, at the end of the day, ALL of these explanations are personal headcanons or fanon, and if someone else has a theory that differs from our personal favorite, that doesn't mean they're WRONG, haha!
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niobiumao3 · 2 months
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So another of my tin foil hat theories is, it's not just Omega who can take midichlorian donation--it's all of the Batch. Grab the Reynold's Wrap and some Thin Mints!
At the end of S1 when Nala Se arrives at Tantiss she says to Hemlock 'what the Emperor wants isn't possible'. So, she already knows what Hemlock is up to.
In Season 2, Lama Su suggests grabbing Omega as leverage, because Nala Se has been rotting in a cell, refusing to cooperate. Hemlock snags Crosshair, uses him to bait the Batch, gets Omega. As we know from S3, Nala Se instantly starts blackholing Omega's test results. We find out why in episode 3 when Omega and Crosshair are spared death because due to a series of unfortunate events, one of Omega's samples gets through and is positive for the ability to accept a donation of midichlorians. I.e., Omega can get More Stronger at wielding the Force, which the Emperor naturally would want for himself, for cloned bodies for him to jump into (Rise of Skywalker), etc.
Now, Nala Se immediately began deleting Omega's samples, and per S1, she already knew what this project was about--so she knew that she had accomplished what the Emperor wanted, she was just gaslighting gatekeeping girlbossing her way through 'WOW SCIENCE IS HARD' and while Hemlock suspects her he can't do this without her so he's kinda stuck.
Where the rest of the Batch come into this is part meta and part S1.
In Season 1, Lama Su indicates he doesn't care who out of the Batch they can get back as long as they can get one. This is highly relevant because we're initially lead to believe it's only Omega they want, because Omega is a pure copy of Jango, and thus a source of DNA for them to keep using since Boba is long gone, as is Jango. (This doesn't make sense scientifically but, you know, whatever.)
As we find out, though, she's not. Furthermore, Omega isn't just an experimental clone, she's the first experimental clone. She was made before the Batch, suggesting they might even be derived from her, or, at a minimum share numerous of her traits. For example, the ability to accept midichlorians.
Nala Se's comment to Hemlock implies she knows about the desire for this process which in turn suggests the Kaminoans themselves were already trying to do it (maybe even in conjunction with Hemlock, who later left; he and Nala Se clearly know one another quite well). But the Kaminoans may have undertaken it as a selling point to the Republic. Hey, Jedi numbers low? No problem! Force sensitive clones WITH inhibitor chips so they do anything you want!
But the Emperor doesn't want that, he wants to make himself a new fresh body to live in forever. So they blow Tipoca City to pieces and kidnap Nala Se, wanting her to finish the project. Except she already has, and the results are in the wind. Except...for Crosshair.
Now, Hemlock says Crosshair was ruled out long ago. As we saw, Nala Se was destroying Omega's samples. ...was she also destroying Crosshair's? She might have been; we have no way of knowing, having never seen him be tested. Nala Se may have bided her time, deleting Cross' samples until Hemlock gives up on him and chucks him in with the others to be made into a Clone X. Whew! Bullet dodged. Except then Omega is captured. Fuck! Back at it again.
Meta-reason: when asked about the new seasonal posters, someone noted that there's a red underlight glow on Omega and the original Batch members, i.e. not on Echo. And on no one else. If this is danger, what danger are they all equally in which Echo isn't? Well...Echo isn't derived from Omega...
Final fold for this particular hat: since Cross and Omega have escaped we've been given no insight into what's happening in Tantiss. This isn't, IMO, on accident; it's likely Hemlock got all this information out of Nala Se one way or another. And that could be why CX-1 said 'they're coming for all of you'. He may have meant all of the Batch, since he was talking to Crosshair.
Did Rex and Howzer look at the rest of those targets on the list? Omega is the primary one, obviously, because she can be leveraged against Nala Se, who tbh couldn't give a shit about the rest of the Batch. But as Lama Su said: any one will do.
This works much, much better than Omega being the most specialist girl protected by her younger brothers. That's tired. Instead it becomes 'family created for one purpose decide to do literally anything else with their lives, against all odds'. Vastly more interesting.
And one last thing which is less tinfoil-hat-making and more pondering: those medical records on Nala Se's datapad. They're going to be relevant. Perhaps there's locked or hidden information in there which, once Tech re-surfaces, they can get into. We'll see.
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angel-and-serpent · 9 months
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That Kiss scene
Since none of us will be able to get that scene out of our heads until season 3 is released, here's something to think about.
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Aziraphale and Crowley will always complement each other's natures and actions, no matter what. They're the perfect counterpart in all situations, including moments of self-sabotage, unfortunately.
So when Crowley planted that kiss on Aziraphale, it was the parallel of Aziraphale taking off his halo.
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Both were trying to protect innocent parties from danger that they inadvertently brought down upon themselves.
Aziraphale was trying to protect Nina & Maggie, after she accidentally invited the demons to come over the boundary. She had good intentions, and wanted to look brave in front of her potential love interest, but had no idea of the disaster she'd caused until it was too late. With no other moves left, Aziraphale had no choice left but to reluctantly use his precious books reveal his halo in order to eliminate the threat against them. By doing so, he made an open declaration of war upon Hell, and invoked the Wrath of The Powers that Be, both from above and below. Just as Maggie hadn't intended to summon the demons into the bookshop, Aziraphale hadn't meant to draw them in, either. It was the only ace left up his sleeve, and we've all seen how well he practices magic.
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Likewise, Crowley had also revealed himself to be a (once) powerful angel to others, under equal duress. First Hell thought they had the right to invade the bookshop, now Heaven thought they had the right to invade their new lives. They were an open threat to Their Side, and had wormed their way through to Aziraphale, appealing to his benevolence. One thing Crowley knows, is that sometimes the most difficult thing that he has to save Aziraphale from is Aziraphale himself. The offer from the Metatron is a classic case of Divide & Conquer, and he managed to do just that by swaying Aziraphale into returning to Heaven with a promotion, no less. What else could Crowley do? Therefore, by him giving Aziraphale that kiss, and revealing his feelings for him - something he'd also kept hidden in plain sight for a millenia - Crowley, declared war on Heaven in return.
Such a pity that Aziraphale didn't see it that way...
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But I have the utmost faith in these silly sods to work things out and get back together. Not just out of fan service, or even out of plot formula (this is the Bandstand all over again, folks). No, it's because of the undeniable chemistry and deeper loyalty that they have to one another. Aziraphale has made a deal with the Devil Metatron, but his intentions were hardly self-centred. The kiss that Crowley gave him was not a last hurrah, but a last ditch effort of assurance. Both of them wants to protect the other out of love, even if it means subjecting themselves through pain and humiliation. Even at the very end, as heartbroken and betrayed as Crowley felt, he still let Aziraphale walk away to do as he wished, despite not agreeing with his reasoning. Aziraphale did the same in return, with both probably still determined to continue protecting the other, albeit from afar. Is there any greater show of love than such selflessness? They're still in love, even if the big daft babies don't know how to put their Big Feelings into words (or dance) yet.
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lesbianabril · 4 months
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My S6 BTVS rewrite
I know this season has a lot of haters but I actually love season 6, I don't mind the depressing parts (meaning: most of the season) because I think it all makes sense for where the characters are at, and I think that after fighting a literal God having a season where the villain is Life really works storytelling-wise.
Having said that, though, I think that a lot of things could have been handled better and since all I have are correct opinions I'm gonna tell you what those are.
1. Willow's magic addiction
Basically I think they went too far when the magic became drugs in the most basic sense, when they start acting like she's "taking a hit" every time she uses it.
I think all of the important plot points could have been kept while making willow's addiction to magic about her need to be in control of everything (and everyone). Up to Tabula Rasa I wouldn't change anything, her use of magic is wrong because she starts using it to bend the world at her will, empowered by having successfully brought Buffy back to life.
After Tara leaves her she starts using even more magic while being reckless with it, she injures Dawn and she commits to stop using it because she realizes it wasn't healthy for her or for the people she loves.
I would eliminate Rack and his stupid crack house hide out, and everything that has to do with the physical withdrawal of going "cold turkey".
I think this also makes Willow responsible for her actions, while making magic = literal heroin absolves her of the blame, in the end. The fallout of having to deal with her dependence of it would also be way more compelling.
2. Spike's attempted r4pe
I would keep their toxic relationship and everything that led up to that god-awful bathroom scene, my only change is that I would make it so Spike is trying to turn her instead.
Hear me out. It would make a lot of narrative sense because all through the season he's trying to convince her she's a dark being just like him, he wants them to be equals because he doesn't think himself worthy of her so he's trying to lower her to his level. So, after Buffy rejects him again he's not thinking clearly and, in his desperation, tries the only thing he swore himself he wouldn't do since he loves Buffy because of her goodness.
After it happens, Buffy feels betrayed, Spike leaves and decides to try to get to her level, to truly change himself instead of trying to change her.
This is a minor thing too but in this rewrite after Spike leaves we don't know where he went and we don't see him again until the start of s7 when he already has his soul. I know this couldn't be done because of James Marsters' contract but in my dream s6 we don't know what happened to him so when we see him again everything about his sudden disappearence and current mental state is a mystery and we find out along with Buffy.
3. Xander dies instead of Tara
Ok maybe this one is based on my dislike of Xander and my love of Tara but I think this would work really well:
Willow and Tara haven't gotten together yet, Willow is working on her more controlling tendencies and they're just friends right now. When Warren shows up Buffy is in the garden with Dawn and Xander went up to Willow's room to talk to her, so both Buffy and Xander get shot, Dawn takes Buffy to the hospital and dark Willow is born after she's not able to revive Xander.
After that things are mostly the same, only this time we get a grieving Buffy trying to deal with the sudden loss of both of her best friends. She's devastated and a part of her says that yes, Warren deserves to die.
After everything happens and Willow is close to destroying the world, Tara is the one who shows up, she appeals to Willow's humanity and, through her love and compassion, saves the world.
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ceruleanwhore · 4 months
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As I've been working on outlining the shit out of my Winx rewrite, I've been thinking a lot about how all the villains in the series desperately need to be treated like actual characters and given real motives. I know everyone loves Valtor and the Trix and the wizards of the black circle, but they're all equally boring as fuck because they're all just generically, black-and-white evil for no real reason. As such, I've started to come up with some potential backstories/motives for all of them, and I thought I'd share since I'd also love some feedback.
Something I think the series set up like it was going to do something with is the idea of the Trix having some sort of connection to the Ancestral Witches. If we keep what seems like the most canon timeline they appear to have settled on in the show, that the fall of Domino and everything happened about 18 years prior to season 3, then it wouldn't be unreasonable for the Trix to be the witches' granddaughters. I like the idea of that connection to the Ancestral Witches being the main thing that originally brought them together into their coven and that, as soon as they discover Bloom's true identity, their primary goal is killing her to finish what the witches started. With this, of course, would be the omission of bullshit rivalry between fairies and witches, though their ongoing conflict with the Winx could still start with Stella's ring, like in the original.
With Valtor, I would want him to be a person rather than a physical manifestation of the dragon flame that was made by the Ancestral Witches. I just think it would make him more interesting for him to have an origin story as a human, living in the world, that leads to his eventual corruption rather than him just being made evil by evil for evil. I have this vision of him coming from some country that was an ally of Domino but when something happened and they needed Domino's help, their allies turned their backs on them, inspiring Valtor's blossoming hatred for them as he personally suffered and watched the fallout of that betrayal. This all would've happened with the previous king and queen before Oritel and Marion btw, but it would take him a hot minute to learn the dark arts in order to pursue his revenge.
What I'd love to see is Valtor actually learning dark magic from Darkar, since I do also think Darkar should be a bigger deal than he was in canon. By learning from the Shadow Phoenix, who is the opposite of the Great Dragon, I feel like his magic would be both better suited to going against the dragon flame and more vulnerable to it. That would also bring back in some sort of dragon flame element without Valtor being a spark of the flame itself like in canon. So Valtor would gather the witches and attack Domino for personal revenge, with his focus being on ending the royal family, hence the way it all turned out with Daphne being a ghost, Oritel being a statue, Marion being sealed in his sword(?), and Bloom getting dumped out of a portal to spare her from the culling.
As for the wizards, I want them to be from Earth and for all their beef to be with Tir Na Og instead of just... all fairies, for no real reason. What I'm thinking is that Tir Na Og is the bridge between the Magic Dimension and Earth, so I take that to mean that Earth doesn't have any real magic of its own and what they have all comes from through Tir Na Og. Because of this imbalance that's so different from how the Magic Dimension is, that could put Earth-dwelling magic users in a position of power over non-magical people, and perhaps that all really starts with and is encouraged/exacerbated by the king and queen of the Earth fairies. I'm thinking it would be the sort of thing where they would've convinced all the non-magical people of Earth that they are deities of some kind and then abuse the shit out of the power and trust that gives them.
The wizards would've seen all the problems that would come with this abuse of power and would seek to destroy it. Knowing that all magic on Earth comes from Tir Na Og's connection to the Magic Dimension, they would decide to target Tir Na Og and take away the magic of all the magic users there before sealing the kingdom off from the Magic Dimension entirely. Their mission when they show up in s4 then becomes keeping Roxy from reconnecting Earth and the Magic Dimension and bringing back all the issues they originally sought to end.
Lastly, just to touch on Darkar, my main thing with him is that it really should be all about how he's the opposite of the dragon, so where the dragon flame creates, Darkar's shadows can only either mimic what already exists or destroy. Just as much as the creative nature of the dragon flame contributes to the dragon's desire to create, the nature of Darkar's powers contribute to his own desires to deceive and to destroy. It's not just that he's evil for the sake of it, he's evil to us because of the inherent nature of his magical abilities and how he himself is the living embodiment of what his powers represent, which I think adds sufficient depth for him to stop being so fucking boring. Also, Relix wouldn't just be the home of some McGuffin he's been chasing the whole time, I think it would actually be the resting place of the Great Dragon and his main goal would be the absolute destruction of everything (including himself) that could only be achieved by killing the dragon.
Thoughts? Feelings? Opinions? Should I go on and also dither on about villains from later seasons?
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the5n00k · 4 months
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An observation about TGAMM The End
Big big spoilers ahead, click away if you aren't caught up
This is also my first NEGATIVE TGAMM analysis post! Wowie! So if you don't want to see me bitch, also click off now
The End and how Molly McGee's character was disrespected
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The End is. An episode. I have many MANY thoughts about it but it would be far too long to put in one post so I'm going to explore one of my more reoccurring opinions. This episode recontextualized a lot of things but I'm going to talk about how it recontextualized Molly as a character. Most importantly as a MAIN character. A TITLE character. A character with her own past and personality and feelings. All of which this episode completely stomped all over, handed her the check, and said "figure it out"
I want to apologize to my friend who called this so SO much earlier into the series and that he had to listen to me watch this show on lethal amounts of copium. You were right but I knew neither of us wanted you to be.
Now let's get into the meat of it, shall we?
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All throughout season 1, Molly's history and relationship with the concept of friends is always treated with complete sincerity and the emotional pause it needs to sink in with the audience that she's been through it. Moving away and leaving friends is why she put so much importance on the "forever home" in the first place because she's had to leave so many people she loved. She had a rocky beginning with Scratch during the early season but quickly became on equal footing with him as they began to understand each other and their boundaries. Because she genuinely cares about him. Similarly, season 2 explores the boundaries of their friendship and shows Scratch more willing to participate in whatever Molly is doing, even begging sometimes to be included. And Molly is very patient and kind with him all throughout trying to help him regain memories of his past. And Scratch actually reciprocated a few times like helping her learn Thai and working with Libby to set her up with Ollie. They're the closest they've ever been and something I can confidently call true best friends, possibly the closest and healthiest friendship I've seen portrayed in media. Season 2 showcases how far either of them are willing to go to help each other.
Then The End happened.
Molly is the same understanding and supportive friend as she had been all season, almost to a fault. She encourages scratch to go back to his life, knowing the risks that come with it. Why did there need to be the risk of forgetting her when his spirit didn't immediately forget his living life? Don't know. Something to do with an unreleased episode although I doubt the rest of season 3 would have sweetened my opinion of this episode. Only she knew he was about to do this, she didn't talk to any of his other friends or family before he went out to Todd's house. They only found out after the fact and the next morning is when he left. None of them had any time to process that they just lost a family member, especially not Molly.
The scene where he's talking to her on the bench breaks my heart. Knowing your friend is no longer there and is replaced with this stranger. So much of this episode would have been fixed to just let him keep his memories. Considering how hard it was to pull his living memories out of his spirit, it's very likely that even the small fragments of her he remembers will slowly fade away. She had to do the one thing she never wanted to do again and repeat the same pain that's plagued her for the entire series. And it sucks! Why doesn't she get a happy ending? Hell, I'm not even convinced this was a "happy ending" for scratch since he can't remember any of the people he just spent the last two years with.
The biggest slap to the face is when Libby, Geoff, and the McGees come up behind Molly and just act like all of this is fine? They're treating scratch like this wild animal that deserved to be released into the wild because he could never fit in with society when he was PERFECTLY HAPPY with the McGees. He proudly displayed to the entire ghost world that he was an "honorary McGee" and told a ghost hunter to his face that him and Molly would do anything for each other despite their differences. Was all of that completely pointless? Because it sure feels that way. He had this entire new "life" he just completely abandoned because oh I guess I'm not really dead. Guess I better go reconnect with my childhood friend I haven't seen in person or had any meaningful conversations with in decades!!! See ya, chumps, hope you weren't attached to me or anything!
It's so disrespectful to the audience's investment in Molly and Scratch's friendship, the themes of friendship overcoming all odds and lasting forever, and Molly as a character. And to a lesser degree, it's even disrespectful to Scratch since most of the season he spent brooding over the fact that he didn't remember his past! Now he's forgotten a large portion of his "life" all over again. Now he's going to have to live with this nagging itch at the back of his mind that he's forgetting something until he manages to completely repress it too. And to rub salt in the wound, the credits don't have near sight nor mention of Molly McGee outside of a painted portrait of her and (spirit) scratch. All this does is tell me a LONG time has passed and neither of them have managed to successfully contact each other. The dream team is gone, this is a story about a girl and a ghost and none of it meant anything.
"he'll remember when he dies again!" Where does it say that
"he didn't forget, he said Moll! That means something!" The longer he spends away from the McGees and Brighton, the more likely he is to completely forget them altogether. The vague memories will eventually fade away and every "forever memory" will be worthless.
"it doesn't matter, this is Scratch's story" then why isn't it called 'scratch and the human girl'? Or 'the scratch show'? Why is Molly a title character if she's nothing but a plot device for his character development.
"Molly had to learn how to say goodbye." No she didn't. She's been doing that her entire life. She's pretty well aware of how to say goodbye. Making her relive 13 years of trauma from the other side of the vehicle doors is not a useful life skill. Pain is not necessary to grow up.
I don't care what the excuse is. This was a terrible ending for both characters and no amount of "he's happy now!" coping from both the fans and the writers is going to get me to see this any other way. If you enjoy the episode, great! I'm happy for you, there's a lot to love in the music and voice acting and breathtaking animation. But none of that could save me from this abysmal attempt at a series finale. I was so viscerally disgusting by this as a finale that I spent a good two days completely nauseous thinking about it. What a disaster. The sad part is I like the story potential! Him reuniting with Adia is what I've wanted for him all season so he could get closure. Molly and Scratch having to say goodbye is heartbreaking but understandable, a lot of shows nowadays end that way and I half expected it. But him completely forgetting the girl he owes his new lease on life to? My gosh it's just a deal breaker. It is such a cruel end for these characters and I cannot wrap my head around why they thought it was a good idea outside of cheap angst.
I wanted to like this episode and I still do. But they just did so much wrong when one thing could change and it would have completely flipped my opinion on the episode and series in general. But what do I know, I'm just a negative nancy.
Anyway idk how to end this off, justice for Molly McGee, Scratch deserved to be called Scratch McGee, kill Todd Mortenson, peace out
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Demon Slayer Characters and if I Think They Can Walk in Heels
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I SWEAR IM NOT DEAD
Now that I’ve moved into my new place, I’m just trying to get some stuff sorted out so apologies for the delay, I swear I’m working on your requests T_T
In the meantime, here’s this post that I finished a few days ago that I started during finals season
Enjoy!
Word count: 1.4k~
Part 1 (you're here!), Part 2 (coming soon), Part 3 (coming soon)
Modern au-ish...
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Mitsuri Kanroji
She doesn't really wear heels unless she's going out somewhere
Mitsuri will wear heels if you take her to a club, a date, a restaurant, and any other nicer event
But honestly, she prefers running shoes!
They're convenient, comfortable, and they tend to match their outfits more often than not
Do not get me wrong, Mitsuri can definitely rock a pair of heels
I would say that the highest she can go is six inch heels and that's it
Anymore than that and she's wobbling
Mitsuri's favourite pair of heels is a knee high gladiator sandal that's all gold, and maube about 4-5 inches high?
It pairs lovely with her favourite dresses and skirts, especially when she's going out of her way to turn a few heads
I also think that she's the most graceful out of everyone here
Overall 9/10 she absolutely slays this
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Obanai Iguro
He thinks it's stupid that he needs to clarify this at all
Can Obanai walk in heels? Without a doubt
Your next question should be if Obanai chooses to wear heels
And shockingly, he does
I think that Obanai will sometimes wear a two inch loafer heel just for some added height
Hella confident in them too, look at him go
Obanai will totally wear them to work, class, or anywhere he feels like putting on a little bit of effort into what he's wearing
I think on more fancier occasions, like a high end date or club, he might wear some pointed toe stilettos with a nice pair of slacks
Honestly he's not really one to exclude heels from his wardrobe, he's just weirded out by how fascinated people are on this topic
8/10, nailed it
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Tengen Uzui
Do I think Tengen can wear heels? I know for a fact he can
But I just think that he never does because he can never find any in his size
Poor guy
To be fair, this man is fucking huge
I even have problems finding boots that fit my calves, deep down in my heart I know that Tengen has it so much worse
Cause even if he manages to find something that fits his foot, it might not fit the rest of his leg
He's actyally really devestated about it
All he wants is a nice pair of pumps to match Hina, Suma and Makio
And maybe a pair of lobster claws...
3/10, a slay in theory but not in practice
I WILL GIVE HIM THIS, if he manages to pay for a custom pair of heels, he will probably rival with Mitsuri in who looks the best in heels
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Sanemi Shinazugawa
He says he can walk in heels
But I assure you, he cannot
I think that Sanemi is lowkey intimidated by the results of the other Hashira on this list and now he's in too deep to back down
So when asked if he can wear heels, he will lie to your face
"Obviously, you think I'm gonna allow a pair of shoes to get the best of me?"
Sanemi, you've got a big storm coming
All his machoness goes away the second that he puts them on
Why is he walking with his knees out...
He's not even wearing stilettos, no
Sanemi's wearing three inch cork wedges
They don't really suit his style so he'll never go out of his way to wear them
I think after embarassing himself like this, he's never going to want to learn how to walk in them
-2/10 Sanemi you fucked around and found out huh
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Shinobu Kocho
Can absolutely strut in six inch heels no problem
I think that Shinobu wears heels often, especially if she's going to be out in public where she is certain she's going to encounter someone she knows
But I don't think she enjoys wearing them
In some way I think Shinobu wears heels on a semi-daily basis to compensate for her short stature
She wants to be on equal standing with others and in a way, this is her way fo tring to achieve that
Two inch boots aren't going to stop her from being taken seriously
She does try to find some light in her circimustance though
Her favourite pair are these cute mary janes, and she has another pair with a platform sole
So even if you see her wearing heels, please don't mistake that she finds them powerful to wear
It's more of a social thing really
7/10, I wish she had a better experience :/
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Kyojuro Rengoku
I am going to say this as nicely as I can
Please be patient with him, he's learning T_T
He can still get to where he needs to go, he just looks a little unstable???
Kyojuro would really appreciate if you held his hand a little
Though I will say, he is enthusiastic about learning!
In a few months he can probably walk just fine in them
I don't think that he would wear them to work or on a date, but he might if he's going to a particular event where you try to look better than usual
Like a high end club or exclusive event, he'll probably wear something classy
I think his go to is wither a pair of corset heels or high blocks
Obanai is lowkey jealous because Kyojuro doesn't really need the extra hight
4/10, keep up the hard work :)
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Giyu Tomioka
My first instinct was to immediately put Giyu on the 'Not Allowed' list
A hunch just told me that he would somehow cause more trouble if he wore any
But I considered it further and came to this conlcusion
Giyu can and will walk in heels, just nothing above three inches
He tried walking in four inch platforms and he was nearly tripping every two minutes
And if Tengen sees him exiting his apartment wearing them again he will not hesitate to put those things back where they came from
Giyu does like wearing heels though, even if he's not allowed to wear very high ones
Only wears them if he's going to a club though
His favourite pair is a professional looking pair of blue, beige and black slingbacks with a three inch heel
5/10, but he's walking on thin ice
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Gyomei Himejima
I don't think that Gyomei could walk in heels smoothly, but he can certainly get from point A to B
He just can't do it gracefully
If Gyomei walks in heels, he won't ever admit that he's struggling and he'll insist that he's walking just fine
But he has his arms outstretched like he's walking on a tightrope
It's honestly just not his thing, and I don't think he would be able to incorporate it with his current wardrobe
Even if he had the desire to learn, I think he would hear the struggle that Tengen's going through and just give up
He already has to go on a lengthy search to find anything to fit him regularly, let alone a pair of heels
2/10 I can't say I would recommend this for him, no
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Muichiro Tokito
You know those pictures of kids wearing their mom's heels?
And their foot barely fits in the shoe?
And they just look so awkwardly out of place?
That's Muichiro
Poor baby
I think he has some growing to do before he's going to learn how to walk in them
But Muichiro definitely wants to learn!
Given how his sense of style is usually baggy or loose fitting clothes, I can see him maybe going to Obanai for style advice in the future
Probably nothing high or flashy either, just probably a pair of classy heeled boots
I just don't think it's for him right now, at his current stature
Muichiro just looks a little bit out of place in them right now though...
1/10, maybe when you're a bit older buddy
꒷꒦˚︶︶꒦꒷︶꒷꒦˚ ꒷꒦˚︶︶꒦꒷︶꒷꒦˚ ꒷꒦˚︶︶꒦꒷︶꒷꒦˚
Thanks for reading! I have two more parts of this prompt with the slayers and demons so I should be sending that out in a while. I’m also working on a Kyojuro request and I’m hoping to have it out soon, so stay tuned lovelies ^^
Also thank you all for 200 followers, I swear I’ll work harder so I can post more often! I’ll be working on some requests in the meantime :)
Asks and requests are still open, just please read the rules before submitting anything ;)
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bildads-shoes · 4 months
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Ever since I saw this incredible post I've been thinking a lot more about the book vs show differences, and one of the things my brain keeps returning to is the very different presentation of Heaven and Hell.
In the book, I feel like the majority of the time Heaven and Hell are mentioned, it's simply in reference to them being adversaries. They're often just referred to in the context of being Aziraphale and Crowley's bosses, both equally uninterested in humanity or the details of their employees' actions. Hence, we really do see them as not being so different from each other, and dislike them both equally. Personally, I feel this is a bit different in the show.
In the show we actually get to see Heaven and Hell. We get to see Beelzebub for more than a couple of lines, we get to meet Gabriel, and we get to feel the atmosphere of Heaven and Hell as settings.
In terms of their general vibe, the difference feels pretty stark. Heaven is empty, cold, unfeeling; every interaction between the angels we see is laced with mistrust and two-faced scheming. Hell, on the other hand, does have emotion; it's a deeply unpleasant space, of course, but the way the demons complain to each other feels more honest. Take Uriel and Michael: we've seen them throughout both seasons, yet I can't recall either of them expressing a single honest feeling. Shax and Furfur, on the other hand, have had a lot of honest moments both with each other and with other characters. In a bizarre way, Hell becomes more relatable, more likeable, in the show.
Of course, there are massive issues with Hell, but they don't necessarily come across at first glance. The really dark aspects are almost always played off with jokes, to the extent that we don't talk about them that much. Beelzebub is pretty well liked from what I can tell, despite evidently having extensively tortured their employees - but it's part of a funny scene so we instinctively overlook it. Gabriel, on the other hand, seems widely loathed; he's just blatantly a dick in Season 1, and we don't see enough of him actually as himself in Season 2 to balance that out. I'm sure that's also in part due to fake-Aziraphale's trial being resurfaced in Season 2 as a serious, traumatic event for Crowley. We aren't shown the impact that Hell's treatment of Crowley had on Aziraphale, so once again Heaven ends up seeming like the more 'evil' side.
So I suppose it's no surprise that we end up having more discussions surrounding dismantling Heaven in Season 3, with Hell's toxicity being a slightly lesser topic of conversation. It does instinctively feel a little like Heaven is the 'bad one' in comparison, whereas we have to actively analyse those throwaway/comedic moments to acknowledge the massive issues with Hell. Therefore, to me, that neutral/equal presentation of the two 'bosses' in the book is no longer the case in the show.
Perhaps this is all because the show is shifting more towards commentary surrounding religious institutions as opposed to the Cold War energy of the book. Or perhaps we'll be explicitly shown more of Hell's dark side in Season 2 and will return to truly seeing them as equally bad. Or maybe you have a totally different interpretation (please let me know 👉👈). I don't know man, I just needed to get this thought out honestly lol.
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galadrieljones · 1 month
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Daryl's Arrows: Symbolism, Pt. 1 (Green and White)
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It has been a while since I've made a TD post. I'm hoping to make a comeback these days, and in my first attempt to do that, I'd like to talk about a topic I've been paying attention to for several years now: the symbolic nature of Daryl's arrows.
Daryl's arrows change color over the course of the series, as I'm sure you've noticed. In the past, we've seen colors and color combinations including red, yellow, green, white, and black. Sometimes they're dirty. Sometimes they're tattered. Sometimes they're pristine. Sometimes they're seen and not used. Colors in TWDU always mean something, and Daryl's arrows are no exception. In this series of posts, I want to look at how Daryl's arrows are used as foils for his psychological state, and how they often reflect his relationship and symbolic proximity to Beth. As one of the most visually compelling characters in the series, Daryl and his vast inventory bear many clues in terms of how he feels and where he's headed. With Daryl, who is a stoic character, what we see is often much more important than what we hear.
First, just for reference, in case you're unfamiliar with the anatomy of an arrow, I'll be referencing two key parts in these posts: the FLETCHING (or feathered "wings" around the back of the arrow), and the NOCK (the, often colored, slotted tip at the end of the arrow, opposite the arrow point, aka the arrow tip, or arrowhead).
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The changing color of Daryl's arrows is not confined to just the fletching. His nocks change color as well and are equally important.
The Prison: Green
As is everything with Team Delusional, this analysis originates with Scott Gimple, and like so much else we are still striving to understand, episode 3.12 "Clear."
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If you look closely at the shot from above, you'll see Daryl's *new* crossbow, leaning against the gun rack on the righthand side of the screen. Daryl begins the series with a much simpler design. The pictured more advanced compound crossbow is given to him by Michonne and Rick, after they bring it back from Morgan's cache, which is like Gimple's magical well full of hints and symbols. Beginning in the very next episode "Arrow on the Doorpost," Daryl trades his old crossbow for the new one, which he will use *almost* (more on that later) exclusively for the remainder of the series, and which he still uses now (or did up until recently, when he lost it in Portland, ME).
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Daryl's *new* crossbow (pictured above) is special, because when it's given to him, it contains arrows with special, alternating green and white fletching, as well as green nocks. It's important that this crossbow and, more specifically, THESE arrows, are gifted to him, as opposed to being choices he made for himself, and I will talk more about choices soon.
"Clear" immediately follows the mini-arc in season 3 in which Daryl leaves the prison with Merle and then returns. The theme of coming "home" is pervasive in TWDU, particularly with Daryl, who, for much of his character arc, has seemingly been without one. Further, the act of making a decision to settle down, to stay in one place, to commit himself has unabashedly occurred to Daryl only two times over the course of the series: 1.) In the episode "Home," when he chooses to return to Rick and the prison, even if it means leaving Merle behind, and 2.) in the episode "Alone," when he chooses to stay and to "make it work" in the funeral home with Beth.
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Every other time Daryl has decided to "settle down" or to "stay" somewhere, such as Alexandria, the Commonwealth, and the Nest in France, it's either been because of inertia, coercion, obligation, or some combination of the three.
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Perhaps you can see by now that Daryl and decision-making are important factors to this character analysis. The truth is, Daryl is a passive character. He doesn't make many decisions that are driven by a strong internal motivation or code. He makes decisions because they're easy, because they're what he *should* do, or because they're what someone else told him or asked him to do. Very rarely does Daryl make a choice based on his own desires or his own code. He is reactive at times, ie: He makes emotional decisions driven by rage, revenge, annoyance, etc.. But these are not deliberate choices. They are passionate, in the heat of the moment, and he may even come to regret them or to change his mind.
We can see this clearly at the end of Daryl Dixon season 1, in which we really have no idea whether Daryl desires to stay in France or if he desires to go home. We don't know if he's going home simply because he thinks he should, or because he truly wants to, or because he just has some chip on his shoulder about staying. We don't even know if he considers the Commonwealth, or Alexandria for that matter, to be home, because he didn't choose either of those domains for himself. They were chosen for him, and he's just sort of been drifting in and out ever since. If anything, in the first season of DD, we learn that Daryl seems to be a man without a home, and a man without strong motivating factors to make choices, or to act.
We learn in Daryl Dixon that one very important potential motivational factor for Daryl that is entirely missing from his life is that of a family of his own. And no, I don't mean friends, or found brothers and sisters, or nieces and nephews. I mean a wife and children (his OWN children, not Rick's children).
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SO what does this have to do with Daryl's new crossbow? Well, first of all, Daryl's crossbow is gifted to him, a bit of "supernatural aid" to help him along on his hero's journey. The arrows, as well, are a gift. In the second half of season 3 and the first half of season 4, we see Daryl display unprecedented feelings of happiness and a focused purpose. He is given this chance, but ONLY once he chooses to stay.
In 3.10 "Home," Daryl makes his first major choice, which is to return to the prison, aka to return home. Once he starts using his new crossbow, he will then use the green and white arrows exclusively for the rest of season 3, all of season 4, and some of season 5 (until the episode "Spend"). The one major common denominator to this run is his proximity to Beth.
The color combination in these arrows is green and white, which parallels clothing and jewelry worn by Beth in the first half of season: Beth's earrings and her outfit in 4.1 "30 Days Without an Accident," and Beth's outfit in 4.2 "Infected."
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The "Beth lookalike" dead girl in "Infected" shows an interesting juxtaposition as well.
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In 4.4 "Indifference," one of my favorite examples of foreshadowing for Daryl and Beth, in a scene in which Daryl's arrows look very green against the verdant landscape, Daryl finds a rare piece of green jasper on the ground. As he's cleaning it off, Michonne initially responds suggestively, smiling, as if she knows something we don't. She says, "It's a good color. Brings out your eyes."
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Daryl responds quickly, correcting her to say that it's for Mrs. Richards, who has become ill. But this surprises Michonne. That's clearly not who she thought it was for.
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The piece of green jasper that Daryl finds looks suspiciously like the stone Beth wears in her earrings. Toward the end of the episode, Daryl can be seen studying the jasper pensively in the car while the rest of the team gets ready to go. This moment is rarely discussed, but I believe he is actually thinking about Beth when he holds the jasper that day, ready to return home from a long, hard journey. I also think Michonne might have known that something was going on. Of course, we may never know the truth on that, but Michonne is a romantic character, and if anyone was going to notice Daryl's feelings for Beth, it might just be her.
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Remember that green jasper is rare. It was chosen here for a reason. It is viewed as containing powers of protection and healing, as well as relief from obsessive behaviors and compulsions. You can read more about the properties and historical significance of green jasper here.
In any case, the color green is, of course, easily attributable to Beth, whose last name is green. This is specifically true when it's seen around Daryl. When it's seen around Rick, we might alternatively associate green with Hershel. But while Hershel might be Rick's "Greene," Beth is Daryl's "Greene." And when Daryl's arrows "trend" green, that means that her story and her relationship to him is creating psychological friction with his character on screen. It means, not only that she is "with" him, but that he accepts her there, and he is still the man he was trying to be at the time that he first chose the prison, and the time after the prison that he spent with her.
The connection between Daryl's arrows and Beth begins literally, but after "Coda," the connection becomes symbolic. We'll get there soon.
I also do want to point out that though this connection is somewhat subtle in season 3, once we get to season 4, with Gimple at the helm, the connection becomes much clearer and more overt. This supports the hypothesis that Beth and Daryl are Gimple's "pet" creation, something he always wanted to explore but never could, because they and their relationship are not a part of the comics. But via Daryl's arrows, he is able to keep their relationship alive in the background.
After the Prison: White
After the prison, when Daryl and Beth are physically together, and then we transition into Daryl's search for Beth in Atlanta, Daryl's arrows remain the same: alternating green/white; however, some unique shifts occur, in terms of emphasis.
Here's a shot from "Inmates," as Daryl pulls an arrow out of a walker's head near the train tracks.
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This shot is from "Alone."
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And here's one from "Consumed." This is one of my favorite shots of Daryl in the entire series.
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In all of these shots, the arrows, which alternate green AND white for fletching, are specifically arranged in front of the camera so that the fletching looks entirely WHITE. White arrows are angelic in nature, protectors. They accompany Daryl and Beth’s discovery of the deceased innocents from the bus, imploring faith that not all hope is lost, as some of the children lived. They accompany Beth as she shoots Daryl’s crossbow near the cemetery, once again calling on us to "have a little faith," as even though Beth is caught in a trap, she is rescued by Daryl. And as you can see in the shot above from “Consumed,” the two white arrows literally resemble the wings of an angel, balanced delicately on Daryl's shoulder as he gazes out over the city, eventually seeing the Grady van in the distance, a major clue.
Note that per the "Consumed" shot, we see this same arrangement, double-white, from two separate angles, showing its purposeful nature. The first, just Daryl from the side (above), the second, both Carol and Daryl, head-on (below). Though they mirror one another in body language, Carol looks down, unsure of her fate. Daryl looks straight ahead, a man of conviction.
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In "Consumed," Daryl is communicated as a hopeful, motivated man, helping Carol through her crisis of faith and disconnection from her purpose and identity as the two of them search Atlanta for signs of Beth. He finds and takes the book about overcoming child abuse, a clue that he is making conscious choices to get better, and he is entering a real path to renewal and self-improvemet, all thanks to his time with Beth. Note, too, that angels do not only flock to Daryl via his arrows. He is also protected in the falling van, by the crucifixes on the back windows, and the holy Mother Mary, watching over him from the dash. In the shot below (right), you can also see, once again, the duality of body language between Daryl and Carol. Daryl is braced, staring straight ahead, ready for anything, while Carol, in her crisis of faith, breathes heavily and cowers in fear.
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Carol endures bad injuries from the crash, which are worsened when she is hit by a car. Daryl, however, emerges without a scratch. This theme of protection and indestructibility, for Daryl, will return in the future. In the episode, Carol tells Daryl that he has "become a man" now, and we see him perhaps as driven and committed to any cause as he will ever be. That cause is finding Beth. You can see this once more very clearly in the final shot of the episode, in which even Noah notices, looking at him like “WTF did I just walk into?” For the third time, too, we see Daryl noticeably squared up, facing straight ahead in the shot, showing commitment and determination, while Noah's expression is unsure.
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Also, if you look closely at the shot above, you can see, one more time, a single white, angelic arrow, perched just above the dash.
Daryl shoots one more white arrow over the course of the series, but it's not for a very long time. In 6.15, "East," just before the group is ambushed by the Saviors, Daryl, angry about Denise, having had his crossbow stolen by Dwight in 6.6 "Always Accountable," goes out searching for Dwight to take his revenge. In the scene, Daryl wanders a clearing as the bright sun shines down upon him, directly reminiscent of the sun coming through the trees in "Them." So reminiscent, in fact, that it is the same exact shot, just inverted both horizontally and vertically and adjusted with a red filter. Quick aside: Below, you can see the original two shots, the lefthand shot from "East," the righthand shot from "Them."
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Now, here are the shots again, with the shot from "East" on the left, inverted once, horizontally and vertically. You can also see the red in how it colors the light filtering through the trees. This communicates that since Beth's death, which he was directly morning underneath the tree in the shot on the right, Daryl's character has been "upside down." He's messed up. What was right is now wrong, and what was wrong is now right, and his descent lies ahead.
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Michonne, Rosita, and Glenn come after him, to try and dissuade him. When they do, Daryl shoots an arrow right past Rosita's face and into a tree. That arrow, the last of the green/white arrows we will ever see, appears entirely white in his hand and foretells that in the confrontation to come, Daryl, unlike two of his brethren, will be spared.
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In my next post, I'll move on to Daryl's red arrows, focusing on Noah's death, 5.15 "Try" and 5.16 "Conquer," as well as 6.6 "Always Accountable," Denise's death and what this all means. I believe that, over the seasons, Gimple has found small ways in which to show that Daryl has been continuously protected by Beth's presence, but that, in his darkest hours, he is not always eager to accept it. 💫
I'm going to tag some other TDers in these posts, just for reference. If you'd like me to tag you in future posts, please just comment here to let me know, and I will! ❤️
@wdway @twdmusicboxmystery @frangipanilove @angelthefirst1
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