#meta tba.

[maitiests]

none of you are prepared for my hc abt gai and lee meeting for the first time. <3

[truthliea]

@shotblanks enabled me, so let’s talk about my girl heather duke for a minute and how badly the musical fucked her over because holy fuck, they really screwed it all up.  

under the cut because this got long.  oops.

from her very first appearance the og screenplay makes it a point that duke is different from the other two heathers.  she’s noted as being a “similarly trendily accessorized, but noticeably more inhibited waif” versus the “amusingly robust, conventionally beautiful, trendily coiffed” mcnamara and “sexy, dangerous, and mysterious” chandler.  she’s quieter than them and initially doesn’t seem to matter as much, in the grand scheme of things.  she doesn’t make the same kind of impact on westerburg that chandler & mcnamara do.  which makes her an easy target for her own friends’ cruelty and she doesn’t dare speak in her own defense because she’s insecure and ashamed of herself.  but we see early hints that there’s more to heather duke than being heather #3, the afterthought.  she admires holden caulfield because he doesn’t put up with other people’s shit and gives a bizarrely defiant smile while talking about it.  she, like veronica, is amused by j.d. shooting blanks at kurt & ram rather sharing chandler’s belief he should be thrown in jail.  she doesn’t back down during the game of croquet, shocking chandler into silence.

and then, as soon as chandler is dead -- gone is the duke who let people walk all over her.  she’s no longer held back by chandler’s influence and, for the first time in years, is making decisions for herself.  she feels emboldened enough to make wry observations of j.d. & veronica’s relationship, talk to numerous reporters, and even sit in the lap of a boy she presumably doesn’t know well just for the photo opportunity.  it’s a wild 180 in behavior, but she still doesn’t make the leap into fully taking over for chandler until j.d. gives her the confidence to.  “i want your strength,” he says, and for the first time heather duke thinks she could be a LEADER.  not just that, but better than chandler ever was.   and arguably she is because duke has something chandler lacked: the unique ability to appeal to the students of westerburg high by putting herself in their shoes & speaking to them at their level rather than scare them into obeying her.  where other kids at school feared chandler, they like duke.  but it’s like veronica says -- “people love you but i know you.”  this bitchy queen bee figure, at the end of the day, isn’t who heather duke is.  she’s pretending to be someone else, mimicking heather chandler of all fucking people, and become one of the phonies she so desperately didn’t want to be.

and then what does the musical portray her as?  a one-note chandler wannabe defined by anger and jealousy.

[trashthemouth]

poisonedher replied to your post: anyone else think about how richie, bill, and...

elaborate, not because i don’t believe you, but because i want the essay.

OKAY.  LET’S GO.

so you’ve got richie, right?  the kid that hears bill, eddie, and ben’s stories about their first encounters with IT in the novel and wants PROOF.  the possibility of them being true doesn’t freak him out, but he doesn’t blindly believe it.  he actively seeks out logical explanations and you need all the facts for those sorts of things.  we see this in the movies too -- richie isn’t fully on board with what’s happening until he finally sees something himself and can’t deny that his friends have been telling the truth.  but unlike bill, who feels compelled to make another move after this has all been confirmed, richie wants nothing to do with this fight now.  let’s face facts, he says.  georgie is dead; stop trying to get us killed too.  richie loves bill, but he isn’t going to mindlessly follow him into danger when it puts all of their lives at risk.  also, richie keeps the losers grounded in reality.  he’s always the one pointing out the absolute insanity they’re dealing with, whether or not the others want to hear it.  which, ultimately, is why richie is bill’s right hand man.  HEAD.

then there’s bill.  strong and good, like a knight in an old cheesy movie, though not without his flaws.  he’s impulsive, running headfirst into danger without a thought spared for his own safety.  he has to be talked down from reckless shit, like going after IT all by himself, because he’s incapable of putting his emotions aside for even five seconds to stop and think about what he’s doing.  he has a tendency to ignore facts out of hope that he’ll be able to save everyone.  it’s not just georgie he wants to find -- all the missing kids are his responsibility.  but bill’s a NATURAL leader.  it’s his personal magnetism that draws the losers together.  they admire bill for his undying love and steadfast reliability.  he’s the one they look to for instruction when things appear bleakest because he’s the most optimistic.  this carries through to their adulthood.  bill is still the boy who asked them if they were going to ignore the bad things happening in derry like everyone else does.  they don’t because bill helps them believe they can win.  and when it’s all said and done, his next book is about them.  write what you know.  HEART.  

and finally eddie.  he fights back more than any of them, in the end.  it starts small.  helping bill fix up silver.  shagging foul balls during the other kids’ baseball games when his asthma isn’t too bad.  hanging out with his friends in the barrens or at the quarry.  but soon enough, eddie’s acts of rebellion start to escalate.  he fixes ben up in an alley, despite the dirt and blood, because he knows what he’s doing and it feels good to put that knowledge to use.  ( please tell me you ended up becoming a doctor, bev says 27 years later, because he should’ve. )  he jumps into the water during the apocalyptic rock fight that brings them all together, throwing with a ferociousness some might have thought him incapable of.  he slaps and kicks and yells at IT as a kid, the smallest of the losers but the biggest physical threat.  he chokes the leper and makes it small as an adult, providing the key to defeating IT once and for all.  he stabs henry bowers back with his own knife.  he takes the monster killer from bev and saves richie with it because he’s brave.  HANDS.

[maitiests]

what if i actually wrote down dai's chunin exams instead of just hoarding headcanons in my head? how 'bout that?

[maitiests]

/violently points at zuko's firebending in the new atla movie. LEE'S HOT FIST LEE'S HOT FIST LEE'S HOT FIST LEE'S HOT FIST. thoughts will follow after i finish the movie.

[stygiophobic]

𝙎𝙏𝙐𝘿𝙔: 𝘾𝙐𝙇𝙏 𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙏𝙊𝙊𝙎.

IN   THE   CHOIR   OF   SERAPHIM,   higher   -   ranked   followers;   nuns,   specifically,   are   subjected   to   be   experiments,   notably   forced   demonic   possessions.   on   their   backs   are   tattoos   of   their   ages,   heights   &   weights   and   blood   types,   as   well   as   “   notable   characteristics   ”   of   demeanor.   elysium's,   for   reference:

different   entities   &   demons   are   recommended   to   certain   nuns   for   possession,   based   on   personality,   demeanor,   and   /   or   other   characteristics.   ATROPOS   and   AKIR   were   suggested   for   elysium   before   atropos   was   chosen. elysium   bears   many   other   tattoos   across   the   expanse   of   their   entire   body,   mostly   gothic   architecture   &   religious   symbols   given   by   the   cult   leaders,   whether   it   was   their   preference   or   not;   despite   tattoos   being   normally   restricted   in   religious   settings   or   against   ones   faith altogether.