Abigail (she/whatever), 27, Masc Butch Sapphic Grey-Ace, Autdhd, CPTSD, Chronic Pain/Complex Spinal Injury/Mobility-Impaired. Southwest USA, raised East Coast USA. "White" by social definition and privilege. Irish, Ashkenazi Jewish (Austria/Poland, Russia, maybe England), French, Welsh, possibly Breton by heritage. Anitzionist. Radical Leftist, not overattached to the work of dead white communists, if it helps people I'm for it, if it doesn't I'm not. Land Back. Bachelors' in Anthroplogy (Archaeology track), minor in medieval studies, unironically kin Grendel's Mother. Absolute Unceasing Yapper. Proud originator of the Grendelnatural Theory, Nature Goddess!Dean, and Spn Postcanon Universe. Writer of Generally Unhinged Crossover, Meta, and Meta Crossover Content. Walking(on good days) folklore & myth dictionary, Anglo-Saxon Scholar, Professional semi-ironic Charlemagne hater, Semifluent in conversational Old English, SCA/costuming, Casual Cultural-Anth study of the present moment, Protest Artist, Fiber Arts & Other Historical Craft, Gardening, Loud Weird Music. Fandoms: Supernatural/Destiel, Hellaverse, Good Omens, Beowulf, Mythology(all of it), Christianity Is A Fandom To Me. Homestuck & Voltron Survivor. Proudly Incomprehensible, screaming into the void. Anti-Stan Culture, Anti-Ship Wars. Not a proshipper but they have a right to exist. No-Mercy-Given brutal criticism of writers, actors, media and fandom mindsets is the norm here. To love a piece of media is to ask that it do net good in the world, and failing that, to take it for yourself. Media Cannot Be Separated From The Time It Exists In, Fandom Is Art Is Political. Not a safe space for unprovoked hate, personal attacks, or belief that a famous person genuinely cares about your well-being. I Am Often Not A Nice Or Pleasant Person. TERFS, Zionists and Antisemites, Racists, General Bigots, shipping "Antis" DNI.
MASSIVE tw for (not always particularly kind) fictional depictions of mental illness, psychosis and hallucinations. General unreality tw, also tw for heavy/realistic gore. This post goes into possible GF crossover/meta content within a fairly graphic live-action tv show.
I’m sure everyone has seen Jason Ritter’s recent monthlong, Book Of Bill -fueled twt roleplay stint where he acted, loudly, as though he was possessed by Bill Cipher.
One problem: I already knew it was Jason Ritter that was possessed, NOT Alex Hirsch… since last fall. And I think y’all need to know why, because… well, you’ll see.
(Disclaimer: I have not seen 99.9% of Gravity Falls, and have never been in the fandom. I have only watched/read the necessary material to make this post.)
The relevant episode here is “Sock Opera”. First of all, this episode establishes that may have been another viable vessel for Bill left behind after the series finale, albeit a charred and torn one.
Puppet Dipper.
Why the fuck does this matter? Well, last fall (premiering on the night of the Harvest Moon no less), edgy meme fodder superhero show The Boys released a spinoff, Gen V, focusing on superheroes in college. One character, named Sam Riordan (don’t get me started on the Riordan thing. His brother’s name was Luke), suffers from vivid hallucinations, and that’s where things get really strange.
Final tw for live-action depiction of psychosis/hallucinations
So… yeah. Jason Ritter, on The Boys*, playing HIMSELF, playing a deranged puppet show host who appears in a boy’s mind to convince him to go on murder sprees.
*the puppets and larger in-universe puppet tv show associated with Jason Ritter’s character have since appeared in the mainstream The Boys universe, so it can be concluded that Jason Ritter exists there as well.
Oh, and when Sam does give into Jason Ritter’s influence (wtf am I even writing rn) this happens:
Realistic gore warning, especially at the end of the clip. Seriously.
THATS. CONCERNING
Making all this even weirder, this entire show predates the Book Of Bill’s announcement by two whole months, and Jason Ritter’s recent Hot Triangle Summer by almost nine months.
It also predates Matpat’s ICONIC penultimate theory video by seven months. In that video, Matpat (jokingly, mostly) lays out a “final theory” that Bill
1) Survived (confirmed by Book of Bill)
2) is looking for a way into “our” dimension (also confirmed)
3) has found a new human puppet in…. Alex Hirsch. Now, that’s where I don’t agree. Due to the above clips, I always assumed that if Bill was hiding among the GF crew, it was in Jason’s head.
Also in this video, Matpat attempts to explain the Bill Cipher Zodiac thing (??? as I said I don’t actually watch this show)
…this thing. Matpat attempted to explain That Thing by linking each symbol to a project Alex has since worked on, saying that together, these easter eggs would spell out “the way to defeat Bill for good”. However, there is one symbol that Matpat couldn’t figure out.
The “llama”. Except it’s not a llama. It’s an alpaca.
A seemingly (ie, hopefully) sentient alpaca named Sloane, who just happens to be one of the most baffling, non-sequitor gags in Gen V.
So, this is as bizarre as it gets, right? All this goes down, Book of Bill comes out, Jason has his Bill roleplay month and we’re all done, can shut the proverbial and literal book on this specific vein of Cipher shenanigans. …Right?
fUCK NO ITS NOT OVER.
On June 4th, 2024, Gen V’s official twt and insta pages announced their newest character, Cipher, with the show’s second season being confirmed for 2025 in a post dated July 26th.
That’s all the updates on this situation for now. A quick reality check to finish up: Obviously Bill Cipher isn’t real and these writers, actors etc aren’t actually possessed. However, I would take Matpat’s own thoughts one: Alex Hirsch absolutely being the type of person to build this bonkers metanarrative, and add that this is far from the only absolute gut punch of a late-2000s-fandom-specific easter egg to be found in Gen V. Other examples include the characters of Luke Riordan, Annabeth (yes seriously), and ofc the tragic/antihero psychic girl with mind control abilities whose eyes turn red with blood when she overuses her powers, and who loses her hand in a climactic season-ending battle…. If You Know, You Know. TLDR someone in Gen V’s writers’ room is both young enough, savvy enough and unhinged(complimentary) enough to 10000% do this on purpose.
Anyway yeah. Just coming over from The Boys fandom to let yall know that Bill has already made the jump to 3d, via puppets of all things. Hope this was helpful or just vaguely ominous.
Congratulations! You have successfully unlocked [redacted]mom. New functions such as "Falling asleep on the couch at 9pm after a glass of red wine" and "Making mean comments about other people's front yards" are now available. Enjoy!
is there, like, a REASON nearly 100 years of nonstop scholarly effort to figure out what this guy and his mom even ARE, haven't included, idk, CHECKING RELATED LANGUAGES TO MAKE SURE THERE AREN'T ANY REALLY OBVIOUS ROOT WORDS THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT TO OLD ENGLISH OUTSIDE OF NAMES BUT SURVIVED *TOTALLY FUCKING INTACT* IN LIKE *EVERY OTHER LANGUAGE* ?!?
this guy's name means
DOOR-BOLT?! or FENCE?!
so was I just TOTALLY FUCKING RIGHT about all the "warder" and "keeper/holder" words used to describe Grendel being indications that he was some sort of ward-keeper?!?
DOES THIS HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE IDISI, SEEMINGLY HIS MOM'S PEOPLE, AS BREAKERS AND SETTERS OF IMPRISONMENT?!
WHAT THE FRESH FUCK ARE THESE THINGS
AND WHY IS THE GUY WHO'S MEANT TO GUARD SOME SORT OF BOUNDARY OR ENTRYWAY *EATING PEOPLE*
WHAT WAS HE EVEN GUARDING BEFORE
WAS THERE LORE HERE WE-THE-AUDIENCE WERE SUPPOSED TO KNOW
WERE THOSE KIND OF QUESTIONABLE SCHOLARS RIGHT AND THESE ARE OLD GODS, OR AT LEAST OLD PAGAN ENTITIES?!
DID THE DRAGON ONLY END UP IN MANKIND'S REALM BECAUSE BEOWULF KILLED THE MEARC-KEEPERS AND WAS NOT ABLE TO REPLACE THEM IN THAT ROLE
its 4am i cannot deal with this rn
what the actual fresh flying FUCCCCCKKKK
-wAIT BUT ALL OTHER USES OF THE NAME GRENDEL OR GRINDLE IN OLD ENGLISH ARE TO NAME PONDS AND MARSHY AREAS. THOSE SAME AREAS ARE SAID TO BE THE HOMES OF MONSTERS. WERE LAKES AND MARSHES STILL SEEN AS BOUNDARY PLACES BETWEEN WORLDS EVEN AFTER CHRISTIANIZATION?! DID THE GRENDELS KEEP THESE PLACES?!
ARE THEY ASSOCIATED WITH CAIN BECAUSE THEY KEEP/CONTROL/UPKEEP THE ENTRYWAYS BETWEEN THE HUMAN AND NONHUMAN REALMS?!
wowwww I LOVE when a fandom space becomes so toxic that interacting with it starts affecting how I see people as a whole and bleeding out into my real life and affecting interpersonal relationships. I had to get out of most destiel-centric fandom spaces because of this reason, is Good Omens next? is it really too hard for fan spaces to find ANY OTHER REACTION to questionable writing besides turning on each other with such vitriol, condescension, and uncritical reveling in their own until-now-surpressed Very Real Bigotry and the glory and superiority of their own hate? will spaces keep rotting so badly that I am forced to leave them to preserve my ability to treat others as human? does this read to NOBODY ELSE like radicalization-pipeline, movement-busting, psy op shit?
i love when boomers complain about shit like this because as a fast food worker i would literally rather walk out into the lobby and shoot myself in the head than suggest more than one menu item to a customer
really funny to meet a genderless alien and make them your gender out of convenience and then fall in love and now you’re gay. you made yourself be gay.
in most cases (ie the left hand of darkness) there’s some amount of gender imagery that is latched on to to justify the arbitrary gendering. in project hail mary he meets a rock and is like this is a boy rock because i’m a boy too :)
it’s okay to do things that make your symptoms worse (as long as you’ll stay safe)
every once in a while you need to eat something yummy. or go on a walk. or a trip to the zoo. take a hot shower. cry your eyes out. dance. listen to music. draw for way to long. write. laugh. sit in a cafe with a friend. paint your nails. dye your hair. go on a run. pet a cat
sometimes you need to do things that are cathartic or make yourself feel alive. sometimes you need the reminder of why you’re fighting so hard to stay alive
this is your reminder that just because it makes your symptoms worse, it isn’t always the wrong thing to do. there can be value in these actions
If you think about it too, abled people do it all the time. Deciding to drink to excess at a party knowing they'll have a hangover. Going to a theme park knowing walking all day is going to hurt their feet by the end. We have the right to make those same decisions.
This is called Dignity of Risk, and it's an important concept in disability justice.
Everyone weighs their physical and mental/emotional health against one another in constantly shifting balance; inevitably, there are times when we choose to accept consequences to one for the sake of the other.
Infantilsing us by undermining our agency in the name of "protection" or "care" is yet another way that we are disabled by society.
hey when did "I'm going to start calling people slurs fr" become a thing we say on here? because a friend just called me out for using the phrase casually and I had to take a solid few minutes to think about what I was saying and why. So, yeah, I think calling people slurs, or even threatening to, might actually be super not ok. am I just stuck on a bad side of tumblr rn or are other people seeing this said too? and if so can we stop?
like that's genuinely an actual harmful mindset to internalize. slurs are a very specific thing that is different from insults. afaik slurs are ALWAYS punching down, taking advantage of one's own privilege to do so. they're not just "really bad insults", which I feel is how the term is increasingly treated around here. if you want to find worse ways to insult people because the state of the world right now feels too cruel for current insults to be sufficient, I share that goal. but that's still not slurs, and I feel like there's been some sinister definition creep around these terms over the past few months. I won't tell anyone to be polite, but slurs as a concept are based in oppression, function through oppression, and I feel like some people (myself included) are making a choice to forget that.
(edt: The rose is just symbolic btw (although I do think Cas would literally give him flowers). The point is that from Dean's perspective Cas is probably hiding a weapon, that's why Dean looks frozen and tense. Dean can't really comprehend what else a man would hold behind his back approaching him if not a weapon, what intention would anyone have towards him other than violence. But also that's artist's intention solely Cas also would literally give Dean a rose in the middle of a hunt he has his dense moments lmao)
please please please please reblog if you’re a writer and have at some point felt like your writing is getting worse. I need to know if I’m the only one who’s struggling with these thoughts
this is a common phenomenon. the better you get, the more you recognize flaws. the good thing is you can strive to get better. but the bad thing is that you see nothing but flaws. you are actually getting better, but your editing/critical brain is getting tuned up and can see more things to improve. someone post the graph, I can't find it
Thinking about the act 3 hag coven questline…. Grendel as a hagspawn doesn’t really fit into the campaign lore since he’s dark urge but Grendel as a hagspawn…. I’m thinking with my brain
do you want to be infodumped at about the etymological origins of the word "hag", its presence in Old English poetry and charms, and possible connections to Grendel's Mother?
ok ok it'll be in tomorrow night's pridepost. and by "it" I mostly mean "screenshots from a book that explains OE Hags better than me, and then I'll do my best to explain why I think this is relevant to Grendel's Mom"
Concept sketch for my Grendel design! I want to incorporate the design elements mentioned in the poem, but I also wanna try and keep away from the Jim Henson design as much as I love it. Gotta stay creative lmao
remember he's got long enough hair to lift his severed head by, and is described with a word meaning "man" at least a couple times, and maybe does magic.
...Grendel is so weird lmao what the fuck is he I'd kill and die for him
Thinking about the act 3 hag coven questline…. Grendel as a hagspawn doesn’t really fit into the campaign lore since he’s dark urge but Grendel as a hagspawn…. I’m thinking with my brain
do you want to be infodumped at about the etymological origins of the word "hag", its presence in Old English poetry and charms, and possible connections to Grendel's Mother?
