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The Whole Potter-Dumbledore Relationship
Is Dumbledore actually evil or is he way more tragic than anyone realized? So I’ve been thinking recently about Harry Potter, and by recently I mean for the past decade and a half. But recently, as “since Thursday, February 11,” I’ve been thinking about a very specific thing in Harry Potter. Over at Tor.Com, Emily Asher-Perrin has a fabulous reread going on (that’s almost over *sob*), and in her…
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Simon's even more sympathetic if you over analyze because he clearly has a mental illness making him afraid of abandonment, resistant to change, emotionally unstable and having immense difficulty relating to others. Like he gets worried about Hazel in the cabin when the Cat gets near her, its clearly foreshadowing the next episode.
Agreed! And actually, I pulled put the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to research your suggestion that Simon has some mental disorder, and . . . you're right! He almost definitely has a mental disorder.
The criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder are: (not quoted, but paraphrased directly from the DSM-5)
Instability in personal relationships and self-image, impulsivity, indicated by five or more of the following:
Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. - check, this is kinda Simon's shtick.
A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships, fluctuating between extremes of idealization and devaluation. - there's not much potential for a "pattern" here, but his relationship with Grace definitely fits this.
Markedly and persistently unstable/fluctuating self-image or sense of self. - Simon does not qualify—if anything, his inability to paradigm shift indicates the exact opposite.
Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging. - violence, aggression, murder, all may or may not qualify. Simon ticks this box.
Recurrent suicidal or self-mutilating behavior or threats. - Simon does not qualify for this.
Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood. - In other words, subject responds intensely to swings in interpersonal relationships. Which sounds a heck of a lot like episodes eight through ten. Check.
Chronic feelings of emptiness. - We can't know whether or not this is true, because we can't really get inside a cartoon character's head. So . . . maybe?
Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger. - This is definitely present in him. He has a temper, he shouts, he gets angry, and it gets more extreme as the show progresses.
Transient, stress-related paranoia or severe dissociative symptoms. - Simon displays this too—lines like "everyone always lies to me" come to mind as evidence. (No dissociative tendencies, but the paranoia is present, so he meets this criterion.)
Now, the subject of a diagnosis needs to meet at least five of these criteria to qualify for BPD. Simon definitely meets five of these criteria (specifically, criteria one, four, six, eight, and nine), possibly even a few more (two, perhaps seven). In other words, Simon Laurent has Borderline Personality Disorder.
I'm not sure what conclusion to draw from this discovery that Simon is provably mentally ill. Does it mean calling him "evil" is deeply problematic? Does it mean he could've been saved? Does it mean he can't be blamed? Or is it just as toxic to argue that people with mental disorders are not responsible for their own actions as it is to argue that people with personality disorders are inherently irredeemable? (Not that anyone's argued either of those points—I'm mostly thinking in frantic hypotheticals at the moment.)
And of course these questions raise other questions (well, one other question) that has been on my mind since I first heard Simon called "irredeemable." What do people mean by "he's irredeemable"? Do they mean he couldn't improve and grow after the events of episode ten? Do they mean that his actions were unforgivable? Do they mean he was predestined to be a murderer from episode one, unlike the redeemable Grace? "Irredeemable" has become Simon's buzzword, but no one's ever really defined it. And until I get a concrete definition, I can't slap that label on him and throw him in the garbage with the rest of the characters I hate. (To be clear, I'm not saying anyone's wrong that he's irredeemable, I'm just asking what people mean when they say he's irredeemable.)
However, one thing is clear: as Anon pointed out, Simon is easy to relate to, easy to sympathize with, and easy to pity because of this. We may not all have personality disorders, but we all have flaws that make our brains work differently from how we'd like them to, whether those flaws are anger, laziness, or selfishness, or a mental illness, or something else. Yes, few of us are driven to be murderers because of this, but it still means that we can feel bad for Simon, even as we condemn his actions.
Every time I post something about Simon and it's not ten thousand words long, I'm showing enormous self-restraint and deserve a few claps. Also, sorry, Anon, for using your ask as an excuse to rant about Simon. You made a good point and I wanted to explore it!
Been a really long time since I've watched Daredevil but I do remember coming away from it feeling like it presented a pretty compelling internally-consistent moral justification for the vigilante thing. You're not planet-crackingly powerful, it's just that you can hear, in detail, every awful thing your neighbors are doing to each other, every night that they're doing it. You can't not know and you can't pretend not to know and when the kid tells you the next day that he just fell down the stairs you can't fall back on the provided ambiguity to absolve yourself of your responsibility to act. Semi-relatedly, you're really really good at martial arts. Start the clock
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Guys. I just realized something.
I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING.
In this scene in DH part II, Harry, Ron and Hermione are just running around doing shit. Until now, I thought it was rather pointless and that they just took it in the movie to add some action.
But then.
I REALIZED SOMETHING.
Okay, in this order, it happens.
First, a giant, ugly creature tries to kill them with a large weapon. They hide behind a pipe.
Second, there are spiders. Loads of ‘em.
Third, there is a werewolf.
Then, there are dementors.
In that particular order.
Still don’t get it? We’ll take it again.
FIRST, A GIANT, UGLY CREATURE TRYING TO KILL THEM WITH A LARGE WEAPON AND THEY HIDE BEHIND A PIPE.
SECOND, THERE ARE SPIDERS. LOADS OF THEM.
THIRD, THERE IS A WEREWOLF.
THEN, THERE ARE DEMENTORS.
THIS SCENE IS A PIECE OF ART AND IT IS SO GODDAMN IMPORTANT BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT THEY HAVE ALREADY BATTLED AND NOW THEY DO IT AGAIN IN A SECOND WITH A SMALL SPELL AND IT SHOWS HOW MUCH THEY HAVE BEEN THROUGH AND HOW MUCH THEY HAVE GROWN.
thank you and goodnight
rebellion by denial. YEMS. the erasure shall not be accepted.
@a-really-tired-really-gay-bitch, here’s your pie. welcome to mega turbo hell. enjoy.
Pie version of this in honor of Dean Winchester.
The CW (derogatory) gets No pie.
why lamp
the mark of cain inevitably does what it does, and dean with anger issues throws things(on a spree), but pauses after throwing the lamp, and then there’s the bloody sequence, where he kills people(on a spree), but stops after throwing cas( for a second, then there’s more throwing, but no killing, because cas can listen to dean and dean can listen to cas, even when possessed, gay love pierces through mind control and saves the day<3)
Cas is often forgotten, like the lamps in the room, but whenever time comes, they pray to cas( switch on lamp). And cas, gives dean hope, like a lamp.
Darkness is alluring, but Cas is like the lamp, light on the end of the tunnel, distracting dean from freakin AMARA( and she KNOWS)
Then there is the lamp, filling in the half of the bed, when cas would have been there, but he's most probably hiding from the angel army, which he gave up for dean. It's watching over Dean, just like Cas said he would. ANd Dean is listening to a mixtape( i guess there's more than one mixtape he's made for cas, but couldn't give it to him). So cas is here as a lamp when he can't be, and Dean is thinking of cas, with the songs he couldn't share with him.
Then there's the dance. Which is pretty much in character for us the audience, but obviously not the kind of Dean that Dean projects himself as. It's unrepressed, and even his clothing isn’t overtly butch (well its always a mix-match with a leather jacket and the samulet , long sleeves but men's jeans...), but here it's a white jacket and black trousers, worn with grace.
this is where not only cas is lamp, but dean loves lamp=cas is innuendoed. THe dream goes in stages, like the character arc and He enters the stage hesitant He enjoys and lets loose into experimenting with Garth, who knows Dean is a softie and doesn't care otherwise anyway. He grows comfortable. He then chooses to perform with the lamp, a male-coded partner. and then at the end of the episode, sam and dean watch garth slow dancing with his wife. perfect parallel, and dean says out loud, “i always thought i could be a good dancer if i wanted to be.” {dean yearns for a ballroom, i.e.romantic partner, and for a long time around this point in th timeline, the eye stares and moment's and quarells and memories and all thought trails in dean's pov are cas cas cas, so that's that.}
deeper readings: the lamp dance was, as much dean romance as possible, it was classy(like rock), and ambigous or covered up( chick - flick - moment - but - very - cloacked : dean^tm) . It also is a call-out to him embracing his true feelings in his dream, and as we also know, cas has access to his dreams(cough -cough), Also, he's dancing to a song about "misbehaving", and it's all romantic, so the innuendo is clear.
But details! The lamp shines in the corner of the bunker, like corners cas often stands in, (almost always ), and dean approaches cas, sorry this lamp, like the lamp that was once filling the half of his bed, He pulls the lamp out of where it had been tucked away, and looks over the lamp from all angles, much like looking over cas whenever cas comes back.
Bonus point- dance paces up in the end, like dean's love and calls to cas become haphazard and more frequent and involuntary in s15.
And voila- the he blows the lamp a kiss in the end. summing up this moment:
a tiny spot the difference:
and finally here's mothDean and lampCas. because if 15X20, then why lamp?
lemme add some stuff and propose an ending continuing from 15.18 as is, with all the occured shit like erasing jo and ellen and destroying mary’s arc.
meta writers, i love you, and i will tresure stories no matter what, but here look at these lamps of ideas(hehe).
scattered points.
maybe even dean dies. and he dies unceremoiously, poetic , not everyone dies a hero in battle. BUt he dies not like this, not willingly, not giving up like this.
He fights for sam, and when he realizes he can’t cas comes to his mind, and at that he at last drops his self hate, and apologizes, the monolgue is an honest confession to sam that he needed him, and he neede to protect his younger brother. that is why he hunted. to be the soldier he thought he should be.
But he was sorry he dragged sam here, and he tells sam how he’s sorry for hurting those he loves. for hurting him while he hated his supposed failure of not bein able to take care of him, of hurting cas, and of all of hurting jack, because he thought he’d lost cas becoz of him, not wanting to see cas in jack, he tells sam that it was wrong, but he didnt know why he was this way, but he knew actually, and tells sam about his love for cas, and how in the end it was him cas died for. he tells sam about the confession and sam asks dean why he didnt say anything, and he says “ i thought then he wouldnt be happy but he’d be alive. but cas loved me more than i ever thought i loved him.”
then sam tells dean to let go, and die in peace, yada yada , to meet cas. to go, live.
sam though opposed by dean’s last wish, can’t abondon the hunters, so he and eileen together go and help hunters, saving monsters instead of killing them, and rebuilding their live, they keep in touch with claire and charlie and the kids grow up.
jody and dona adopt more, and donnatelo is like a godfather to everyone.
In heaven dean meets bobby, who knows, and bobby just opens a beer, and pretends to have that casual talk bobby has, and he reveals how jack let amara free, because that’s all she wanted, and now heaven and hell were in harmony, with rowena guiding his god ways and cas parenting the 3 yr old he is. lucifer is now an uncle of sorts to jack, and has reddeemed himself watching the cas-jack relationship, which his father never gave him. the archaengels reunite and the king of hell keeps the fun alive in the world with their and the demons sass. Lucifer and Amara get along and show Jack celestial power and the brilliance that was in CHuck , all along pointing out his flaws more obviously, Chuck is old and now friends with donatello, still the way he was, but he’s human, and he’s sort of just chillin, and to be honest, he isnt fond of eTerniiity now.
jack grows a world with the beauty Lucifer saw in his fathers creation and the peace Amara could create in emptiness, and Cas told him that in this empty space, was love.
Before Bobby can go any ahead after “heaven is different now son “bla bla, we have a “hello dean” from cas who’s been in the bar, as expected, and they hug, and before anything happens, dean says where’s jack and we see Jack back there playing with the ferns(fractals huh) and he goes “hello” and then dean rushes to him gives a monologue sorry, says he was angry( purgatory vibes huh), and then says what he didnt then. he says he took out his anger on jack, but that hurt him more, because he loved cas, and jack reminded him of cas, and he couldnt control what he did, but inside, he knew he was hurting cas, and that made him even more guilty. he says i’m sorry jack, i love you, and i’ll never be your father, but i have and will love your father. and then Bobby gies “ well aint that romantic” and then the boys leave on a ride in the impala .
heaven goes on, with visits sometimes from jack, lucifer , amara. bobby and jo keep charlie visitin there cool af house.
on earth, sam and eileen convince rowena into a strategy to save all monsters from destruction, and the fun element is kept alive by crowley ( lucifer sprinkles random naughtiness on this little earth as he grows to find it enjoyable to be fair )
bonus points for lucifer making john apologize, to everyone. ( But bobby still is the dad)
mary gets a monologue and the respect she deserves. WHen sam and eilieen come over, kevin totally becomes their adopted son-ish and eileen is as much of a dean cas shipper as sam, they enjoy watching dean go nicknaming, and they always giggle at their eye thing.
added ultra bonus, when sam and eileen come over to the roadhouse, cas is being “sTeve “ organizing the beers and stuff and , guess what the cassete player is playing dean’s mixtape and they both enter, look at cas being this naive softie and dean comes over with in hiz cozy comfy overall with a wooden large box of more cassetes , singing to the mixtape and putting them down with a thud, a complete mismatch of behaviours in one person at one time, and he goes on to cas with” want to dance?”, and cas is “Deaaaa”n, and they twirl lamp style to notice eileen blushing and sam face palming. dean then completely goes into DEAN mode , butchy face, and cas goes in signs goes “frekles made me this mixtape” and well......
fun.
if there’s to be a happy ending, this is how its done. plus this can end with chuck dying, and coming back to make a pie shop he is relentlesly proud of, and no-one disagrees.
if u do write one plz tag me or send me a link :) luv ya all.
Reasons I didn't like the finale that have nothing to do with destiel so wincesties can stop saying its the only reason I didn't like it.........and yes a lot of them are about Dean
They reduced Deans entire complex character to just being a brother and loving pie and cars
Dean was brutally murdered and left suffering and in pain while being terrified. And as someone whose comfort character is Dean.....that was traumatizing and disgusting to watch.
Dean died on a hunt their dad failed to finish so he really did die being "daddy's blunt little instrument."
Dean's entire character development was just thrown in the trash. He spent 15 years learning self love and self worth and learning he was more than just a hunter. He had a purpose that wasn't just looking out for other people. He was given storylines that had nothing to do with Sam or their toxic codependency so he could grow out of it and be a big boy all on his own without his brothers help........ only for it to end with him and Sam and no one else. It ended with them being toxic and very much codependent.
Sam was left alone for another 40 years being miserable and sad, and even tho he had a family, it wasn't enough for him. He wss miserable his entire life before he died. That is no way to live.
No one went to Dean's funeral besides his brother and his dog. Jody? Donna? Garth? Claire, Kaia, Alex, Patience?? None of them were there. What about the AU people that Jack brought back? They couldn't go to his funeral as a thank you for saving the world?
Eileen wasn't even MENTIONED so that was just disrespectful to her and Shoshanna.
Jared's old man wig
The fact that John Winchester was confirmed to be in heaven even tho he physically and mentally abused his children and forced them to grow up by themselves most of the time and thus creating a bunch of neglect trauma. Hence the toxic codependency.
They should have talked about Rufus more. I miss that old fart.
Cas was only brought up 2 times the entire episode. He sacrificed himself time and time again for the boys and his son and has been a main character for like 8 years now and yet he was left with being mentioned only 2 times and we didn't even get to see him. They treated him as if he wasn't an important part of the Winchesters' lives for the past 12 years.
It was confirmed that Cas was alive and well and in heaven with his family he built over the years but we didn't get to see it.
Original Charlie was supposed to be in the finale and she wasn't either.
It needed more Dean and Miracle. Seriously.
The pacing was weird and off and felt like they rushed it just to get it over with. Like you're ending a show that has been on for 15 years that has a large fanbase....maybe you shouldn't rush the ending. Just some food for thought.
Those are just some of the reasons I didn't like it. So stop saying the only reason I hated it was because Dean and Cas weren't shown together.
yknow if romeo had just Cried on juliets corpse for a couple hours instead of drinking poison Right Then they would have been Fine
So a year or two ago I saw this amazing post on tumblr about colour symbolism in Miraculous (I really wish I could source it here but I can’t find it anywhere I am literally kicking myself right now). Anyway, it is an incredible theory and once start seeing the connections you can’t stop. The basic idea is that the some of the colours that characters wear or are associated with symbolise their general motivations. The theory focuses specifically on the colours red, white and black. The meanings kind of evolved as more people reblogged but from what I remember the basic gist is this:
Red= duty / loyalty
White= control
Black= love
I think they actually said that black was romance, but that definition is just a little too limiting in my opinion and broadening in it out allows you to make more connections. I am also broadening out red as well to include loyalty for the same reasons (besides duty and loyalty are also pretty similar, so it’s not that much of a stretch).
Anyway, I bring this up because I saw the post at some point during season 4—definitely before the release of season 5 anyway, but looking back on the latest season just made me realise that oh my god they were so right. So, I’m just going to show you some of things I’ve noticed when it comes to this theory, especially surrounding season 5. (Buckle up guys, this is gonna be a long post).
But before I get into all that, I just want to mention that the placement of the clothing also informs the meaning behind the colour. This was also mentioned in the original post too I believe, but I can’t remember exactly how it worked so I’m just gonna put my own spin on it based on what I noticed.
So when I say the placement of the clothing I’m really just talking about whether the colour is the top or bottom layer of clothing—jacket vs. T-shirt, blazer vs. shirt etc.. The bottom layer is the character’s core motive, with the top layer being more secondary. A lot of the time the secondary motive informs the core one, so it kind of becomes the means with which they achieve their core motive. For example, a character wearing a red coat with a black T-shirt could be interpreted as loyalty or duty coming from a place a love—they do what they believe is right because of the people they love etc.
Ladybug / Marinette
Ok, time to put this theory into action, and what better place to start than the main character? Ladybug’s costume is pretty straightforward: red with black spots. The red obviously represents her duty as a hero, her main motive when in costume. and the spots could either represent her love for Paris or if you’re a Ladynoir shipper, her love for Chat Noir, it could really go either way.
Her civilian outfit is where it starts to get interesting though. Marinette wears a black blazer with a white top underneath. With the white as the core motive and the black as the secondary one, this indicates love from a place of control, and this is backed up by the events of show. Marinette clearly does love Adrien but she can also be very particular about how she approaches her love. She knows every detail about him, such as the schedule she has in “Copycat”, and feels the need to control every detail when she tries to confess to him, such as Operation: Secret Garden in “Gigantitan”. This controlling nature is only solidfied in the episode “Derision” after Kim pranks her on their date. “I should’ve had a plan […] I’ll never tell another boy that I love him before I know everything about him” (11:53-12:04).
Chat Noir / Adrien
Chat Noir is also pretty simple when it comes to colour symbolism in the show. His suit is all black, indicating that his main motive is love. In earlier seasons this most likely symbolised his love for Ladybug but now that he is with Marinette we can assume that it symbolises his generally loving attitude, whether it be towards his friends, family, maybe even Paris itself.
His civilian clothing also points to this same idea, with his T-shirt being black. Adrien also has a white over shirt, but rather than this representing some need for control, I’d argue this more so symbolises Gabriel’s control over him, which of course, does inform a lot of Adrien’s actions. Gabriel’s control pushes the black down another layer—it suppresses it. Instead showing off his colours proudly like he does as Chat Noir he has to leave them cloaked under a white surface, trying to navigate his core motive of love while being unable to fully shake off the white. Think of the many times when Gabriel has kept him away from his friends, like in the episode “Bubbler” where he wasn’t allowed to have a birthday party, or in “Revolution” when Gabriel ships him off to London for the next school year.
Interestingly, this isn’t the only instance where a white top layer indicates control thrusted onto the character wearing the colour. Kagami also follows a similar pattern sporting a white blazer and a controlling mother. She also has both red and black in the bottom layers so make of that what you will.
Another thing to note is that many of Adrien’s modelling outfits are fully white, such as the one in the fragrance ad or the angel outfit in “Simpleman”, representing the complete control Gabriel has over him when he is modelling. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but the only modelling outfit that is not white (apart from the stock photos like the ones in the mansion perhaps) is the one that he wears in “Queen Wasp”. Instead of fully white this suit is fully black, and it is topped off with a black pigeon hat, a hat that Marinette, who is in love with Adrien, made. Additionally, this is the episode where Gabriel almost gives up being Hawkmoth because of how Adrien was attacked by Style Queen in the previous episode. He is less controlling of Adrien and more loving in this episode, even go so far as to hug him in his first public appearance since Emilie’s death, and the black suit reflects that.
However, the idea that Adrien’s all-white clothes represent Gabriel’s control isn’t even just limited to modelling. When Chat Noir is akumatised in “Chat Blanc” his suit also becomes fully white.
In season 5, the Alliance rings are also closely linked to the colour white. The Adrien and Kagami avatars wear all white, indicating the controlling nature of the alliance and the fact that The two of them have no control over how their image is used. Even the virtual space that the avatars exist in is an empty white void, reminiscent of the padded rooms the two are placed in during the season 5 finale, rooms which are used to confine and control the two.
The only time when the Alliance interface is not white is when it changes to red. There’s two times this has happened as far as I’m aware: in “Revelation” when Hoaxer enters the Alliance rings and feeds the people fake news, and in “Confirmation” when Gabriel creates fake footage of Ladybug and Chat Noir kidnapping Adrien and Kagami’s avatars. In both of these scenarios, someone is preying on the public’s loyalty to the alliance rings and their sense of duty to get them to do their bidding.
And look, I know I’ve been straying away a from Adrien a bit, but I also just want to mention that the colour white is often associated with the rich and powerful of Paris in general. This is most clearly seen in “Emotion”, where the VIP party’s dress code is literally all white, reflecting how all the people in that room control Paris.
Gabriel
Speaking of rich and powerful, Gabriel also draws from the colour triad. He does have a few layers that aren’t one of these three colours but his very bottom layer is a white shirt, which isn’t a surprise really, we just went over how he is controlling with both Adrien and the alliance rings. He also has a striped red tie symbolising either his loyalty towards Emilie or the fact that he believes it is his duty to bring her back to life. The white stripes also indicate control, probably to reflect the way that he will do anything in his power to bring Emilie back, like using the miraculous wish, because he is incapable of accepting that sometimes things happen beyond your control and all you can do is move on.
In season 5 he wears all white as his obsession with the wish—his means of complete control, takes over. It could also represent how he’s become even more controlling of Adrien despite pretending to be more loving, (because again, he literally ships his own son off to a different country). Interestingly, in the episode “Destruction” he is inflicted with a cataclysm, a black cataclysm, which could be a visual metaphor for his love for Emilie literally destroying him, which is a really cool in my opinion.
Lila Rossi
Lila is definitely the most interesting character to analyse under this theory, because not only do her clothes draw from the colour triad but even her name does. According to nameberry.com, Lila means night (ie black) and Rossi means red in Italian. She also wears a red cardigan with black underneath—duty or loyalty from a place of love. If we take Lila claims at face value then this makes sense, like in the episode “Chameleon”, when she catches a napkin with her sprained wrist to protect Max, all the while saying things like “I didn’t have a choice” (i.e duty) and “Why wouldn’t I Max […] you’re my friend” (i.e love) (5:40-42 and 5:47-50). But of course, Lila is a liar which means that everything from her name to even the clothes she wears is a carefully constructed illusion.
In the episode “Confrontation” it is revealed that Lila has actually been juggling two fake identities: Lila Rossi and Cerise Bianca. Now this is where it gets really interesting because Lila’s second identity also draws from the colour triad too. Cerise is a shade of red similar to that of cherries or rubies and guess what Bianca means in Italian? That’s right—white.
This can mean a few different things. Perhaps her Cerise persona is more noticeably controlling. Lila’s name directly reflected her clothing, with her first name indicating the the bottom layer (the core motive) and her second name the top layer (the means) so if we apply the same logic to Cerise then maybe her name indicates that this persona’s motives are control from a place a duty, in other words being bossy and controlling because she feels like it’s her job to lead and help everyone.
Another interpretation could be that these are Lila’s true motivations, especially with her being named after the colour white, and if you really want to stretch it, then you could also argue that the red indicates loyalty to herself; she controls everyone because it exclusively benefits her.
it could also be interpreted as somewhere in between. Instead of it being solely Cerise’s fake motivations or Lila’s true motivations it is rather a step closer to the truth. The loyalty to herself theory is, like I said, a stretch. If anything, her true motivation is probably just control for control’s sake, and in this Cerise persona her true colours are shining through a little.
I couldn’t really find a natural place to put this but I also just want to point out here that when she was akumatised into Hoaxer she still had the red and black colour scheme that she does as Lila because she’s still using the same tactics that she does as a civilian, pretending that all she does is out of love and duty. She does also however have splashes of white on her belt, tail and ends of her hair, so maybe that also symbolises her true colours showing through too.
I’m honestly curious to see if Cerise’s clothes will change in season 6 to reflect her name, especially with a lot of the other characters getting new outfits too. Either way I think it’s really interesting how both her fake identities are based off of these three colours.
The great thing about this theory is that it’s not just confined to these four characters. Plenty of more characters also wear these colours, such as Kagami, who I briefly touched on, Emilie (and Amelie by extension), Tomoe Tsurugi, even Nathalie. The only reason why I didn’t delve into these characters is because this post is getting pretty long and I think I’ve made my point, but really, I’ve barely scratched the surface here. There is so much significance with these three colours, they are literally everywhere.
it’s so funny when people online act like women reading trashy romance novels is like. a new phenomenon and a sign of the downfall of society bc this has never been a thing before. this has been an extremely popular genre of book for ages. the only difference now is that they’re written by women who wanted to fuck kylo ren. which i guess is annoying. out of every man in star wars like be so serious. they had harrison ford in those movies
i’m going to hold your hands when i say this and i am only going to be kind about it once: ai does not belong in fandom spaces, ever. not in writing, not in art, not in video, not at all. it does not matter how bad you want to see your favourite characters kiss, or how much you need a bit of help finishing a chapter, or whatever.
make friends with artists. commission somebody. learn to draw yourself. ask for a beta read. try a writing partnership. fandom spaces are communities, so engage with them! it is about the journey and the fact that we all love something enough to create and build together about that thing.
spending 30 seconds to kill a tree and get an AI to push out some soulless empty piece of “content” is antithetical to the entire point of being engaged with fandom, and if you’ve taken to doing this you should really reconsider if you belong in these spaces with the rest of us.
“Fyp” we don’t do that here. I mean, Tumblr the app and website tries, but we don't do that here.
“But then how will anyone see it?” peer review.
“How do you get engagement?” by talking and engaging with other people. Or making a devastating typo. Either way.
“But—” Listen, you’re not doing solo stand up anymore. This is a group improv class being held in a SAW dungeon. Good luck.
Reading a Terry Pratchett book is literally just: Here's a funny little joke Here's something that you can tell is a joke but don't get and will only figure out five years later Here's a surprisingly cool fantasy concept Here's a unique and well written simile Here's a lil guy Here's something that has aged depressingly well into the modern day Here's something that has aged remarkably queer into the modern day Here's a character that you can barely understand what he's saying Here is the most terrifying and deeply disturbing concept you have ever heard, casually mentioned Here is the dumbest fucking pun you've ever heard but in the best way Here is a quote so profound that it makes you view morality and the world in a different way Here is a plot twist that you can't tell if it's genius or stupid Congratulations! You've finished the book! It has fundamentally changed you as a person and you will never be the same!
fanfic writers are so fucking awesome man. they write novel length fics that are sometimes even better than some published bestselling books written by professional writers. like fanfic writers are professional writers to me and they gift us their masterpieces for free. they give us something we can look forward to after a long day. something from which we can seek comfort when life is hard. something that can be our own little getaway. in a world of capitalism, despite everything, they give us all of these for free. like holy fuck. shout out to every fanfic writer. I wish all fanfic writers a very ‘I love you with all my heart and soul. I thank you from the bottom of my heart’
This is a slow fandom zone
None of that "Oh no they bomb-dropped all the episodes in a week 1 month ago, I'm late!" "The tag hasn't been active all week is the fandom dead?" "I only got a hundred shares the first hour no one cares about my art"
Slow down
Take a deep breath and slow down
Fandom is YOU. And me and everyone. If we doodle stick figures for a show that ended 30 years ago we aren't "late" or "doing too little", we're playing dolls in our own time and having fun with works of art that mean a lot to us
You can literally watch and engage with something that aired in 2004 as if it aired yesterday
If the tag hasn't been active for 14 months guess what? If YOU post there, it isn't dead. Literally you can talk about anything you want whenever you want there is no weird law against watching things that people aren't actively talk about
Let's be deranged about stories together
like a solid 60% of weird fandom tropes were invented by women who needed slightly more avant garde ways to fuck spock.... wanting to fuck spock is in many ways a load bearing pillar of fandom like if u took it away the source code would just break theres like a molecule of wanting to fuck spock or reaction to everyone wanting to fuck spock within the heart of fanfic all fanfiction is about wanting to fuck spock except fanfic about wanting to fuck spock which is about women in stem
me as a kid reading Dune: I appreciate the detailed world-building that justifies why everyone fights with swords and has mental powers, but the idea of a Butlerian Jihad against computers is pretty silly
me in 2025, trying desperately to find the three (3) places you need to go to to disable the latest helpful AI assistant that's inserted itself into my work chat and is advising me to do things that would be a breach of federal law: Oh Now I Get It
Elrond be like: I am 4/8 human, 3/8 elf, and 1/8 angel. My mother is a bird and my father is the planet Venus. My twin brother was the first king of Atlantis but somehow I seem to be more famous than him. I am one of three ringbearers, the other two being the female version of Feanor and a guy who loves fireworks. My foster father is a crazy homeless guy who likes music and his whole family is dead. My many-greats grandnephew is in love with my daughter. No one can tell my sons apart. I like waterfalls and am both a glorified innkeeper and a top-notch doctor. I am the voice of reason no one listens to.
So far my favorite thing about the X-Files is that they stablish pretty early on that Mulder will break into, trespass or infiltrate government-adjacent and military facilities, he will get caught doing it, and then Scully will have to go and get him like "yes, he did something illegal, but he's just a silly little guy" as if Mulder's her annoying-but-harmless dog who got into someone's trash and not a grown ass man trying to expose government secrets.
And at first, both the viewer and said government agents who caught Mulder sneaking around will be under the impression that Scully is the reasonable, levelheaded rule-follower in this dynamic, but the show is quick to point out that if someone does refuse to hand Mulder back she is more than willing to highjack a car and hold another officer at gunpoint in a hostage situation, she would just prefer to ask politely and avoid the hassle.
I love that I discovered fandom at my age (68). I’m retired after 40+ years of working full time. My kids are grown and my grandkids are young adults. I finally have the time to follow interesting people on sites like this, who broaden my perspectives and stimulate thought. I’ve immersed myself into the world of fan fiction where I’ve discovered extraordinary authors who so generously share their talent and creativity. This is truly a rich and delightful time in my life. I’m so grateful for Good Omens, the show that introduced me to this fandom that means so much to me.
#Never too old for fandom
100% agree and will throw in my two cents that it's gotta be maul that turns him somehow. the closest obi-wan ever gets to the dark side in canon imo is the fight vs. maul in tpm. like, that's straight-up revenge on his face, and there's a definite parallel between obi-wan cutting maul in half and obi-wan later being cut in half by vader in anh. it's not a very jedi way to kill someone. ofc in tcw there's an excellent arc where obi-wan faces maul again and chooses the light, but like you said, if there's no universe where he would ever make a different choice, that isn't really a choice at all.
i get the sense that the dark side is a one-and-done kind of thing, you give in once and you're evil forever (unless you have an extremely persistent son), so really obi-wan just has to use a dark side technique to kill maul and that's it, he's a dark sider. there would have to be some palpatine (or dooku?) influence leading up to it, since there's a difference between dark side and sith.
his character would diverge too far from canon at that point for me to be interested in the fic, though. it's hard to imagine what he would do as a sith after killing maul. i could maaaybe picture a dark obi-wan that strongly focuses on the religion half of sith religion, but idk. that's all i've got - not very satisfying or fanfic-able, unfortunately.
Sith! Obi-Wan: Is it even possible?
Sith! Obi-Wan is such a fascinating concept to me, because it’s so unlikely. Like frankly it feels even less likely than Anakin’s redemption, and that redemption being so incredibly unlikely but still possible is literally the thing that makes the OT so powerful. Like it’s baked into the premise.
And Obi-Wan falling can’t be impossible, because that would take all the narrative power out of him always choosing good. But like, this man has literally had everything happen to him, and he doesn’t turn. He has moments where he has to recenter himself, but he always does it. He’s such a wonderful balance of “constantly looks like hot shit” with “but on the deepest level of his soul he’s untouchable.”
It should be impossible.
But I believe it at every turn.
People aren’t fucking around when they describe him as one of the best Jedi there ever was.
So I am fascinated by the idea of a Sith Obi-Wan, because what could possibly turn him?
Not torture, not loss, not grief, not losing his padawan, not having to fight his padawan, not beliving he’d killed his padawan, not finding out he didn’t kill his padawan, not watching over that padawan’s kid for twenty years, not death, not war, not walking away from Satine, not Satine dying in his arms, not losing Qui-Gon Jinn, not Dooku’s best efforts at temptation, not the genocide of his people, not being set on fire, not the existence of the Death Star, not twenty years of being a hermit, not Melida-Daan, not whatever Xanatos was doing, not every atrocity the Empire ever committed,
But it can’t be impossible, because he’s still a human, he’s not the Force itself.
I’ve read some Sith Obi-Wan fics, but they’re all either unconvincing on this point, or have to resort to saying, “Obi-Wan is a Sith but he’s not evil,” as though that isn’t the contradiction of all time (No shade to these fics, not everything needs to be perfectly convincing, and I’m not against writing a character in a certain way just cause of the aesthetic. I know how to use the back button; I kept reading cause I enjoyed them overall).
I just.
I don’t know. Do people have ideas? Theories? Fic recommendations?
Cause my only idea is an Obi-Wan who has literally never heard of the Jedi and was raised from an infant as a Sith and barely resembles the Obi-Wan we know at all.
Some splendiferous tags by @unlovedanimals on my other goofysilly post:
They make a great point that I wanted to piggyback off of in a less goofysilly way than the original.
Obi-Wan is not a rule-follower (as established by the recklessness and sheer amount of cunt served), but he is a principled man. His principles are likely a large contributor to why he is not a rule-follower. The whole Melida/Daan thing in Legends wouldn't have happened if Obi-Wan valued rules (and even respect) over what he believed was right. Actually, most events in his life seem to be him getting pulled into some bullshit because he's trying to abide by his principles and do the right thing. The man couldn't mind his own business if he wanted to. The Situations haunt him.
That strong internal moral compass lead him well up until the Clone Wars, when the amount of factors to consider became too great, so he had to slim his attention down to his immediate concerns in keeping people alive. Principles can only get you so far, especially when a creepy guy in a cloak is actively trying to ruin your life and the lives of everyone around you. Obi-Wan's persuasiveness, strategizing, and arrogance were great assets for a general, but ultimately he was too principled and too kind for war.
Some Jedi (Anakin and other fallen Jedi, especially) blame the Order for this, that, and the other because of its adherence to rules and the Code, but notably Obi-Wan doesn't. He reflects, he sees the faults and the missteps (i.e. how they set Anakin up to fail), but he doesn't blame because he never really followed the rules. He followed his own principles, so if he were to blame anyone it would be himself.
What people mistake for following the rules is actually him trying to provide structure for Anakin. Children and people in general do well when there are parameters in place for them to follow if they don't have experience or knowledge to fall back on. The structure is clumsy because Obi-Wan was so young when he became Anakin's master, but he did his best to establish expectations. He wasn't perfect, but how could he be? Perfection isn't human and would make for a very boring story.
The tragedy in Obi-Wan's character is how he's always trying to do what he feels is right even in a world that presents wrong after wrong, and every time he gets knocked down he stands back up, even in the face of his own mistakes.
And he's also a little bitch.