Odd Ends & Miscellaneous Opinions

And by that, I mean there are a lot of similarities between Nightingale's description and Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. I don't know if Aaronovitch intentionally drew on this iteration of Sherlock, but I feel like the comic artists may well be using him as a reference.

or idk. maybe all posh English stock characters are just that similar.

I had more or less the same feelings about Internet Girl when it first came out. In that song, the verses feel like they're building to a critique of internet culture and the scrutiny that comes with being a famous woman online, but all we get is EAT ZUCHINNI.

The closest to poignant the song gets is with these lyrics.

In your feelings, 'cause you need me so Keep on breathin', 'cause you never know What I might do It just might be you

It reads as a critique on obsessive stan culture "In your feelings, 'cause you need me so" and the last lines seem to reference how idols are told to idols act flirty and promote parasocial attachments "you never know / What I might do / It just might be you" It suggests that the narrator/idol might just sleep with you, yes you, crazy fan person, so you'd better keep watching and buying merch etc.

Then there's the lyric:

Click it, click it, ooh, you hate it, jealousy's so overrated

"Haven't you heard? I'm the internet girl Yeah, it isn't my fault that it's always my turn"

This does a faint nod in the direction of toxic online communities and harassment which drives 'clicks' regardless. A type of toxicity that is often directed at women particularly; see literally every Katseye controversy ever.

Even the dreaded baby voice "I'm getting out of here" ties into to the themes set up in the song. The line that comes before it "It's all too much, I fear" points to the idea of being overwhelmed by social media pressure.

All the vague gestures at satire make the EAT ZUCHINNI bit even more frustrating because it's clearly referencing oral sex which could be read as satirical if the song was better written but it just reads as tacky and kinda of gross given the other lyrics. Like, if the song was good satire I'd be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt and say they're mocking how silly sexual lyrics and euphemisms (especially the fruit/vegetable based euphemisms that are common in kpop) are crammed into songs unnecessarily. But in this case I think it is just that.

In an alternate reality where Internet Girl was well written, the song could've have had Electra Heart energy and been a satirical examination of a self-absorbed and self-destructive rising star like Oh No or Prima donna Girl.

BUT NO. We get nonspecific gestures at meaning and satire but nothing that holds up if you think about it for more than five seconds.

Pinky Up suffers from the same issues lyrically.

The verses establish the idea that the world sucks, so we're gonna cope with it by partying and getting into trouble because nothing matters anymore. See:

"One day, soon, the world's gonna end I'm gonna make out with my new bestest friends I wanna live large, right before it all burns down"

and

"I wanna get high right before we're in the ground"

even the kinda of stupid

"Us against the world, shaking ass in the parking lot If we get arrested, haha, baby, laugh it off"

All this build on the central theme of everything sucks so lets just be dumb for a bit and forget about it.

The reference to Socrates isn't well incorporated imo but I can see how it was intended to link with idea of we're going to act dumb and ignore the worlds problems. Although Albert Camus and absurdism would probably have been a better philosophic reference given the themes the song is trying to have.

But then the chorus is just 'PINKY UP' without even a connecting lyric like 'so we're gonna put our pinkies up' which would still be a bit out of nowhere, but as it is, there is no connection between the ideas set up in the verses and the chorus. The only connecting lyric is

"I-I-I-I bet it goes like this"

Which does not make sense as a connecting lyric. Like was does 'it' refer to in this line?

Clearly, the chorus was designed specifically to go viral and be played at clubs and was probably written separately from the rest of the song with the verses tacked on later. Which is not a good way to write a song. Regardless, they weren't obligated to try and have themes in the verses. It could have been a fully nonsense club banger type song. But once attempted to add some meaning into the song, it baffles me that they didn't even try to make the verses link with the chorus at all.

In the cases of both Internet Girl and Pinky Up, I was so close to liking the song. I don't mind all the individual components, but the end result is less than the sum of its parts. It seems that the writing team put more focus on creating viral soundbites rather than a coherent narrative.

Both songs introduce interesting ideas and themes that make you think the song is going to mean something, but they simply don't deliver. There's no depth or elaboration. The conclusion to the themes of internet virality is EAT ZUCHINNI and the theme of coping with the awful state of the world is summarised with PINKY UP. Its so close to meaning something within that context its frustrating. It would take minimal rewrites to give the song a message about continuing to be cheerful and have fun in the face of adversity but it fails to even do anything that corny.

girl I think you have a stomach ulcer go to the doctors please I'm begging

This is more of a cool-idea-thing rather than a true fan theory thing, but I've been thinking it could be cool world building if the fae were related to Neanderthals or some other early human ancestors.

Because fae are largely humanoid they must have a fairly recent common ancestor with modern humans. But evolution still takes time so the divergence must have happened fairly early in terms of human history.

But what drove the evolution of fae away from their early human ancestor?

Natural selection and mutation.

Based on what we know from the books, it's possible that high concentrations of magic can act sort of like a mutagen. See people who are 'changed' by magic like Zoe from Foxglove Summer whose eyes changed colour after visiting fairy land (which would require altered gene expression at the very least).

The fae live in allokosmoi which are magical pocket dimensions. Given the nature of these places, it's fair to assume that they have a high ambient concentration of magic.

If a group of early humans accidentally stumbled into an allokosmos, they would have been exposed to high levels of this mutagen and, as a result, mutated.

Any harmful mutations that reduced survival/fertility wouldn't be likely to pass onto offspring. But beneficial mutations like super strength, sharp teeth, immortality etc would likely pass to offspring. Eventually we would expect every individual in the population to have the beneficial mutations.

Because the allokosmoi are hard to exit/enter, there would be very little gene flow between the group of mutating early humans and other human populations. This genetic isolation would further drive the divergence of fae.

However, there was some genetic flow (we know because of changelings/other half fae people and folklore of people wandering into fairy land) so the differences wouldn't become too extreme. This gives us the modern fae as we know them from the series.

So what about Neanderthals?

There's a long standing mystery in science around what exactly happened to the Neanderthals. The mains theories are they interbred with Homo sapiens (some modern humans have Neanderthal DNA)/were killed or otherwise outcompeted by them. The general consensus is that it was some combination of the two.

But what if some groups of Neanderthals took refuge in the allokosmoi and later evolved into fae?

idk, i just think it would be a cool way of tying in the origins of the fae with a real world scientific mystery.

and btws, i don't think that Molly is actually non-human. I think the fae would be in a grey area like the Neanderthals themselves.

Biology is really complicated and resists all attempts at hard categorisation, so there is no one definition of what makes something a separate species.

Under the biological species concept, if two individuals can mate and produce healthy, fertile offspring, then they are considered the same species. We tend to discuss Neanderthals as a separate species to Homo sapiens but the evidence of interbreeding suggests it's a bit more complicated.

Because we know of fae/ordinary person offspring that are normal and healthy, we can conclude that under this concept fae are just a different ethnic group. You could maybe say subspecies, but as Peter often notes in the books, using that kind of terminology very quickly leads to eugenics. Also the entire concept of subspecies is considered iffy. Evolution is a very slow and constant process so these days people tend to talk about things as being on a 'spectrum of speciation' i.e. in the process of becoming a new species but not quite there yet.

There are also the morphological and phylogenetic species concepts that state species can be determined by differences in morphological characteristics or genetics. Molly might be considered a different species under the morphological concept (which is considered a bit outdated) but I doubt there is a large difference in genetics between fae and the average person. Otherwise, we would be unlikely to see healthy, fertile offspring.

TD;LR, I think it would be cool if Molly and the fae were descended from Neanderthals that hid from early humans in the allokosmoi and ended up mutating because of the high concentrations of magic there. I think Molly does count as biologically human but even if she didn't she would still deserve human rights as an intelligent, sentient being.

Just finished watching a Netflix documentary on the whole thing and I'm leaning towards the theories of either mass murder-suicide on behalf of the pilot or a random hijacking.

Either way, I think all the sketchiness around the way Malaysian airlines communicated/did not communicate info, the FBI holding back info and all the loose ends can be brought back to one thing:

Arse covering.

Malaysian Airlines had a major financial and PR crisis on their hands. Their main goal was to a) make the whole thing seem less bad and b) wrap things up quickly to minimise damage to their brand.

I alao think it's possible that various military surveillance may have picked up the plane but couldn't be arsed to investigate what it was or why a commercial plane was flying off course. They probably dismissed it off hand as just another commercial jet, nothing to worry about, or a random blip on the radar. (Like the Malaysian military which saw the plane U-turn on their radar and did nothing)

This would look really bad if it turned out that the plane had been hijacked or intentionally crashed by the pilot and they didn't do anything to stop it.

So they obfuscate and lie and hold back information because it would be really embarrassing if some of the biggest militaries in the world kinda just let the plane just keep on going.

The incompetence thing can be applied to other theories as well.

Plane got shot down? Midair collision? Catastrophic failure of engine/other bit of plane?

The likely cause of all of these scenarios comes back to incompetence.

Most unsolved mysteries boil down to incompetence. Why didn't police catch the Yorkshire Ripper earlier? Incompetence. Why is Jon Benet Ramsey's murder still unsolved? Local police were incompetent and screwed up the evidence gathering/inspecting of the crime scene. And now we will never know what happened to MH370 and exactly whose incompetence caused all this.

I think this idea may have come up before, but this is my personal iteration on the theory and what might have caused Nightingale's immortality. I have a lot to say on this so I'm just going to work through all the things we know about Nightingale and the RoL universe and why I think it supports this theory. Strap in.

Evidence #1: Nightingale is stuck at 40

The big questions here are a) why did he start ageing backwards in the 60s and b) why did he stop at 40.

I think most people agree that this is related to war somehow, and my theory is linked with:

Evidence #2: The form immortals take is psychosomatic

We know this from the story Lady Ty tells Peter. She is immortal, but she appears to age normally with the rest of her family because it feels right. When she goes on holiday and starts to feel young again, she ages backwards to 20 or so. Therefore, we can conclude that the form an immortal takes is controlled by their subconscious.

So what if it was the same for Nightingale?

My theory: He became immortal but didn't realise. So he aged normally because he expected to, it felt right. The magic was fading, the world around him was changing all the time and he felt increasingly old so he continues ageing into the 60s.

So why did he start ageing backwards?

I think it could be that on a subconscious level, he wanted to be young again. Your 60s is usually when your health and physically mobility start to deteriorate. With all the stairs and very much not accessibility friendly design of the folly, he would have been very aware of his decline.

My head cannon is that he slipped in the bath and hurt his hip or something so Molly had to help him. The combination embarrassment and crushing realisation that he really was that old must have kick-started something and he began to age backwards. Essentially he just didn't want to be old anymore and this caused a subconscious shift which resulted in his de-ageing.

This is also when the magic started to return. We know that he saw himself as a bit of a relic, just holding down the fort as the magic dwindled away. But what if when the magic started to come back, on a subconscious level, he felt like might still be needed?

Then there's this thing in psychology about trauma being stored in the body and that the body remembers trauma in a complex way we still don't quite understand. So maybe Nightingale gets stuck at 40 because thats where his mind body are stuck psychologically, back in the war.

Okay, but how did he become immortal in the first place?

Evidence #3: Immortal beings like genii locorum can passively absorb magic from their surroundings

We know this is the basis for the power behind the rivers, but what if this principle could work with other sources of power?

Evidence #4: Magical energy is released upon death and can be used by wizards for spells etc.

Nightingale mentions in book 1 that some older rituals call for animal sacrifice to provide a source of energy for the spell. This is also how we get demon traps. The trap is a battery that holds the angry spirit/magical energy until triggered.

What if Nightingale unknowingly became a battery?

Evidence #5: Immortality can be achieved via human sacrifice

It's been awhile since I've read Lies Sleeping (I think that's the book where this happened but I could be wrong) but in it, we learn about the origins of Punch.

Essentially there was a mass death/suicide thing with chanting and magic and Punch, at near death, absorbed the magic released upon the deaths of the others. This is what caused him to become a revenant/god or spirit of riot and rebellion.

This is arguably also what happened to Simone and her sisters in Moon over Soho. They were doing magic (making shapes in their minds) in a jazz club when a bomb hit and everyone died. Huge release of magical energy that they somehow they managed to absorb and so survived.

Evidence #6: Magic happens in the brain

At the point of death, your brain does a lot of last ditch stuff to try and keep you alive/not panic i.e. dumping all the neurochemicals so you start hallucinating about heaven and other stuff.

We know the brain is a practitioner's source of magic because of hypothermatological degradation.

What if, at the point of death, a practitioners brain starts scrambling to save itself and starts absorbing magic from its surroundings like the genii lorcorum.

Evidence #8: Wizards can absorb magic from their surroundings, i.e staffs

We know it's possible for wizards to absorb magic from external source because that's how staffs work. Staffs help keep a practitioner from destroying their brain by providing an external reserve of magic that the wizard can draw on when needed. I think this principle may also be linked to why electronics get fried by magic, but I can't quite remember the exact explanation for that given in the books so maybe not.

Either way, we know wizards are able to draw on the magic around them.

Evidence #7: The human body cannot be manipulated by magic unless it is injuried or near death

I think this is also in Lies Sleeping when Caroline is explaining how her healing magic works. From what I remember, the reason magic can work on wounds is because the wound represents a weak point in the body's defences in the same way a cut is vulnerable to bacterial infection/foreign invasion.

Evidence #8: To conquer death, you have to die (or come close)

Mama Thames says that she became a goddess when she threw herself into the river. She said that the river wasn't 'asking for anything that she wasn't already willing to give' i.e. her life.

Punch also died in the process of becoming a god/spirit.

What if something about being in a near death/recently dead state allows the magic to penetrate your cells/natural defences. What if it can then alter you to the point that you become something else?

Conclusion: Nightingale died or nearly died at some point during the war. His brain began to absorb the magical energy being released by those dying around him. This huge amount of magic altered his injured body, making him immortal. He didn't realise this happened as battlefields are pretty chaotic, particularly during WWII. So he aged normally until a change in his subconscious caused him to age backwards to the point where his mind and body were psychologically stuck.

Because the source of his immortality was the death of other soldiers/the magic of the battlefield, this would make him genii bellum i.e. a God of War.

We know this sort of thing is possible because of Oberon and the other 'Old Soldiers'. But I do think Nightingale is different somehow. It could be the sheer volume of death during WWII was so much higher than other wars and so he absorbed a lot more magic. Also it could depend on whether died died or just came close to death.

Also I think if Nightingale ever came to this conclusion he would be absolutely horrified and probably take a vow of pacificism or something. It's hinted at throughout the series that he has pretty bad survivors guilt and idea that he only survived because he absorbed the magic released by his dead friends probably would not help with that.

All of this could be applied to Vavara as well and I personally think she is also a God of War.