#because its fascinating

[politemenacephd]

Question: So, if Miguel knows spider!reader in Arachnophilia, and spider!mig is mentioned in AFM, does reader know her own spider variant (personally or from Miguel/other spiders mentioning them) ??

I love both stories, and obvi the idea of Miguel & Reader being tied in several universes, but I was just curious on the idea of reader knowing.

oh im SO GLAD I get to talk about this THANK YOU SM cos its been on my mind for days!! I will use this chance to actually drop the dante fic cinematic universe timeline, which is: easing tensions - arachnophilia - a fortunate mistake - a fortunate mistake II There's certain things I gotta keep vague because I know how arachnophilia ends (and how it might tie into AFM II) and I don't want to spoil, but I'll talk about a bit because I'm rabid rn.

I wanna add for the sake of my lore on multiverse stuff, Miguel's who are turned into Spider-men are quite rare? I think this gets mentioned in AFM but Miguel's in general are rare, Spider Miguel's even more so. I took him saying Gabi's universe was the one where he was happy to heart, along with the fact we see zero variants of him in the society. That shit was always the most interesting thing to flesh out. I also don't know if I've ever talked about nena's multiverse story properly either, but its pretty tragic. She largely only exists in universes where Miguels' exist, and in all the ones where she comes into contact with him she dies. Our Miguel's universe is the only one where she doesn't, and Miguel blames this inititally on his canon but, as we know, canon isn't real, in reality it's because our Miguel was the only one with multi-verse experiences that humbled his apathy and violent tendencies. It's sort of like how meeting Miles put Peter B. on a better course, Peter's influence on Miguel is something no other Miguel had and it changed him in a way that made him capable of growing. Vig is the only other one we've met and it's obviously implied he was a poor partner who became a good dad after nena's death. Nena is like, universal collatoral damage, and it's only in the universe where she wasn't 'meant' to love him that she got to be loved. It's fucked up and she deserved better fr.

BUT I will say, to actually answer the question (sorry lol) the reader in arachnophilia is actually not a variant of the reader from AFM. I am sticking with the rule that AFM reader is never a spider, because its important later hehe.

BUT! But this makes Spider!Mig and readers relationship equally interesting to me anyway. I am a sucker for starcrossed lovers, excellent trope, and while it was meant to be a one-off I wanna use it to explore the idea of fully abandoning ones canon and exploring a relationship beyond the bounds of ones universe. I will be going more into Spider!Migs backstory for this, but I think the films never properly addressed the potential dangers/tragedy of love between people from different universes. I used it a bit with OG Miguel with my explanation for what happened with Gabi, E.g him trying to combine their universes, but this is especially spicy. So, again, actual question (I'm so sorry I swear this is all I think about, rip my PhD) as of AFM II reader also doesn't know about Miguel's variants beyond Vig, YET. Miguel is aware of Spider!Mig and reader as of AFM, and if you go back you can see a lot of his mindset in there, especially when he talks about not wanting kids because of his genetic mess and feeling like he's too dangerous.

Miguel as a character is great, I can't say that enough, he's harboring so much self loathing and unaddressed trauma that while he wants to do the right thing he imposes very strict rules that always end in hypocricy. In the same way I think he's awful to Miles because he see's Miles making the same mistake he did (e.g destroying the universe for a loved one) and a lot of his violence is like, imposed, he's awful to his variants because he knows he's fucked up his own moral compass and takes it out on them.

But yes Miguel knows where they are, he has not told reader though, but I do want to have them cross paths.

[sparklecryptid]

"why don't you become a librarian? you would only need two more years of school for a BA and then you could apply for a MLIS."

well. you see. librarians often become managers. i would sooner die than become a branch manager or have to manage anyone so library technician is the career for me

[murdererofthumbs]

It’s interesting how this season kinda built up to Roman ultimately falling apart. Not in the same way that Kendall did, we saw Kendall drowning for more than two seasons now, there was visceral chain of events to his behaviour. I feel like this whole season Roman was slowly going towards the high that came from Logan’s approval, maybe for the first time feeling like a number 1 child, with Shiv failing to assert her position, and Kendall blowing up his own path, excluded from family’s inner circle. Roman was always the weakest link, always the one that needed supervision or training, who needed to be scolded and controlled to not fuck up the deal. But everything suddenly flipped and he was making deal, after deal, after deal bringing more people to Logan’s table and he could feel the approval, the supposed love; he was finally trusted, seen. He was flying so close to the sun, he mistook burning for warmth.

But as he was closing in on his position, he also became more boastful, arrogant, his jokes nastier and more cutting. Not to mention the level of incest and sexual jokes. It felt like he was trying to absorb all the attention that he could, positive or not, and finally scream that he wins, that in the end this moron, weakest dog is closer to the top that any of siblings could ever imagine. I feel like the amount of delusion that he was showing was painfully visible both to the viewers, but also other characters; Kendall repeating to him “You are not a real person”. I think he wasn’t, and it started to slowly pour out, the moment he slipped, the moment his arrogance took control, and he stopped being cautious. One misstep and it was enough for Logan to be sure that Roman is still nothing more than a little pervert, and a good attack dog to use to his advantage. But not the heir.

So him starting to show more and more emotions towards the end of 3x09 was literally him falling down the sky. Bargaining his love for Logan, pleading, trying to use something that he always hoped was there, that all this abuse, and humiliation, and pain had some reason, was coming from some place of care. But it wasn’t , it never did, and apart from losing 3 people that he stupidity cared about so much, he also lost his goal that was driving him for years. He lost the illusion that he used like a shield, treated like a smoke mirror against the truth. And both Shiv and Kendall, and even Connor already understood that truth, they already made peace with it, but Roman never did, it never occurred to him. He was used and abused by Logan, but he was also taught that loyal dog comes back, that there will be consequences otherwise, that he will feel cold without the approval that Logan could give. Trauma bonding and emotional dependence on someone who sees emotions as weakness.

I saw someone writing about how Roman had to stifle these emotions, while also being probably the most sensitive out of all Roy’s. Had to push it down and reconfigure his whole persona to fit into Logan’s vision, to be more like him. But it was never meant to stay for long, it never did. So seeing him finally break down a bit was almost cathartic, like it was long time coming, and he had to finally hit the ground, like all his siblings did, going over their heads and trying to measure to the sun.

[iguinn]

the anglerfish episode was very interesting because of the implications, what the people it targets see are people who disappear but they look strange and off, and when they speak their mouths wont move. but when a picture is taken what is seen is a strange hand that John describes as becoming, possibly its a type of creature that feeds on humans and once its done it uses the empty shell left to try and trick other people to come near and eats them too then the cycle continues.