#{ask replies}

With the standard caveat that I don't necessarily endorse every view given! I'm gonna cheat here and give one list for documentary series, and one list for standalone documentaries. Unfortunately I can't access netflix rn and i knooooow there are some great ones on there that I just can't remember off the top of my head.

Series: (when available on ytube i threw a link in there. if any of these link to my own playlist with my first name on it, please tell me so i can replace the link)

Native America (four parts!)

BBC Civilizations (RECENT ONE NOT THE OLDER ONEEEE)

The West (Ken Burns) (honorable mention also from Ken Burns: Vietnam, Prohibition)

The Dark Ages: An Age of Light (Waldemar Januszczuzak) (this one IS in my field, tho im no an art historian. Waldemar is funny! Accessible! Pretty accurate! He throws around a lot of opinions but I think they're kinda clearly his?) (he has a similar one on the Renaissance)

Australia: The First Four Billion Years (planet earth deep time!!! fun and accessible. great bad CGI. probably funded by Australian coal and iron interests. however, truly an all-timer for me)

Honorable mention: From Jesus to Christ (PBS Frontline). Stay with me. This is from like the 90s, but I think so many people straight up do not understand how Christianity was invented and under what political situation. Some research may be dated, but this is a fairly cogent overview so far as i can tell. And Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit (also good is Meet the Romans with Mary Beard, but this is a good starter). From the Earth to the Moon (space race documentary). A bit dated, and someday someone will finally do an updated version of this, but no one has actually managed to make a good one yet.

Secrets of Saqqara Tomb (possibly the only good archeology documentary ever made??? last seen on netflix)

Into the Inferno (Werner Herzog)

A Volcano Odyssey

Flood in the Desert (PBS America)

Plague at the Golden Gate (PBS America)

Honorable mention: The Gilded Age (PBS America), Einstein's Quantum Riddle (PBS NOVA), Cosmic Dawn (NASA), Earthrise: The story of the photo that changed the world (National Geographic)

Podcasts

Honestly I mostly listen to BBC In Our Time. Quality varies, and tends to be better on things where the British are more comfortable, though I like how it always brings in a panel of experts. I listen to stuff under their history, science, culture, and religion headings usually. I have a spotify playlist of my top choices and there are like 50 episodes on it.

Sean Carroll's Mindscape. I pick what I want to listen to because I actively dislike a few of these, but in general it's great.

Syzygy - astronomy podcast. I listen to this occasionally, tho it's maybe less engaging?

It's not just breaking down a wall- the room they are in is a giant metaphor!

Nancy and Jonathan are trapped in a room with only each other- they have used their trauma bond relationship as an excuse to not form meaningful connections with other people or to grow themselves away from the trauma.

There is no way out from this room and the room is sinking/threatening to drown/smother them- they are both hiding from their problems and flaws and it is suffocating their growth. Like Max says in Vol. 1 when you are trapped you then have three choices. You end everything. You accept things and slowly lose yourself in the process. Or you escape. Nancy and Jonathan had chosen door 2. But that door has become unlivable. Yet they are still trapped. So they need to choose a different door.

When they have hit their lowest point and hope seems gone they decided to finally chose honesty- When you do not open yourself up for growth and healing you will eventually hit rock bottom. Until they face their own situations with honesty and choose to start down a path away from trauma they will not be able to move. The first step to any sort of recovery is honesty and they finally are ready to do that. The confess- they break up. And suddenly the floor is secure. They are both building a new foundation based on the truth. But they are still trapped. Jonathan (who has this entire show held steadfast to his trust issues and refusal to form connections that aren't directly tied to his trauma while in Hawkins {honestly the fact that he was connecting with Argyle was a miracle but sadly undermined because Argyle encouraged his escapism via weed} tries fruitlessly to escape alone but to no avail.

Nancy makes a joke about "anything more you want to confess?" This is the narrative calling itself out that every time people chose connection and growth and honesty GOOD THINGS HAPPEN. And then what happens?

Steve breaks through the wall and saves them. Because back in season 4 we DID see Nancy begin to form REAL connections. She was growing away from her trauma and letting herself be open. Her story of recovery has ALWAYS been tied to Steve. And now that she has finally found a new foundation for herself, she can finally start to figure herself out and confront that OTHER confession that she has been avoiding. Not the one about kids and knowing that Steve knows what his dream is (That I have already explained ad nauseum) but the one she DIDN'T confess to Jonathan. The most important part. That Nancy is Steve's true dream. Steve may be one of my favorite characters on this show but narratively he was created FOR Nancy. He is symbolic of a love that she cannot have so long as she is trapped by her trauma.

Ah, yeah, the newborn oldman!

This post is an ask reply to @deathrooteater! It was sent on my @katyspersonal but I've decided to relocate it in this blog, I hope that's okay!

For starters, I think that Orphan of Kos indeed was "aging" while being core of the Nightmare, because the model behind a shadowy figure we cut down to truly kill them and get 'NIGHTMARE SLAIN' message is much smaller in comparison:

I feel like the first image must be the infant form of OoK, when he was stolen and killed in the real world.

I also think that he might be a son specifically, because his differences with his mother mirror deformations of the Fishing Hamlet citizens! Whereas women are all Snail Women or Slug Women, very similar to Kos herself, men are the Fishmen! For whatever reason, the kind of Great One that Kos is suggests very visible levels of sex dimorphism? 🤔

The thing about Great Ones is that their death in the real world is not a final thing for them!

For example, Flora is missing all of her guts! It seems like she herself was killed and consumed in the real world, but it wasn't the final! My biggest guess about it is Loran, which was said to be a civilisation that faced the same kind of downfall as what Yharnam is going through now!

Another example is Rom:

Not only she died in the real world yet continued to exist in another plane, but also died way more spider-like and similar to her children yet transformed into a more caterpillar-like creature past death! (and grew those beautiful tails!) And yeah, I believe the Altar of Grief spider IS Rom! Occam's Razor suggests as much because lyrics in the theme of Ebrietas, who mourns the spider, are referring to Mensis Ritual that Rom is hiding now!

Death is not the end for the Great Ones yet: not only their astral entity lingers on, but they can grow and develop past death! But despite that, their death in the real world is a big deal! Ebrietas mourns Rom, and Choir is even aware enough to put many candles on her petrified corpse. The reason of the Hunter's Nightmare is grief of Kos, even though her baby is literally right there and very much alive I'd say...? Allegedly, at least:

It might simply be what Fishing Halmet citizens genuinely believe. But I think assumption that 'this is how the person would feel' can also be a reasonable evidence, as it would not come from nowhere! Great Ones in Bloodborne are unlike the unsympathetic types from Lovecraftian myths.

I think it suggests that the 'real world' death must then have irreversible consequences!

Miyazaki suggests in the interview that the reason Great Ones (tend to) lose their children is because from evolutionary standpoint, they don't need to give births! They are already perfect, advanced and immortal beings... so, something in their bodies doesn't agree with the concept based around mortality and passing genes along for improvement.

Whereas humans in Bloodborne are eager to throw away their humanity like shackles, Great Ones, on the other hand, yearn for what humans have! Ability to birth and care for babies is the main focus and difference that "imperfect", mortal lifeforms that humans are have and Great Ones don't. So, perhaps, death in the real world is a way to kill the "imperfect" part of a Great One that makes them closer to humanity? Great Ones continues to live on in some sort of astral plane, but their connection with "humanity" that they yearned for is killed, and it is a strong tragedy for them.

But this makes Kos strange. She is certainly dead and the Hunter's Nightmare only shows her corpse, but why is she different? The simplest explanation I could think of is that something similar was the intention from the start!

It is as simple as seeing that the only way to not let her baby die is to die in their place. Typically, marine creatures end up on the beach to die. In her case, it was pregnancy, and OoK would begin where she ended. Perhaps, he was unfortunately doomed to be an orphan regardless of the actions of the Byrgenwerth and Old Hunters, but the context matters, folks!

For one, OoK has the umbilical cord, even though it was seemingly taken away in real life. This must be a metaphor for not being able to move on from what happened. Not only that, but OoK himself bears the weight of the pain of Fishing Halmet's people that were just nice worshippers of his mother!

The only Great One that "has no blood" we've seen is Mergo's Wet Nurse, actually!!

And, coincidentally, she is nurturing Mergo, who is the core of Nightmare of Mensis! And this, nurtures the Nightmare itself. It is a conversation for another lore post so here ( x ), but in simplest terms: she is an Eldrich Velka fdshhfsdfds

There is a connection between the crows (which Wet Nurse also is) and taking the Hunters straight into astral plane (where Dream and Nightmares are). So, they are praying to this type of Great Ones to continue the Hunter's Nightmare by endlessly taking any Hunter forever here, or, at least, they believe this is what happens! However, pain of OoK is still the key factor. Fishing Hamlet's people hurt for him and he hurts being reminded that what happened is hurtful and so on, endlessly.

You see, even if Kos decided to give her life to have a baby, there is a very big difference between "an orphaned child is raised by nice worshippers his mother entrusted" and "an orphaned child was stolen and massacred by the people that murdered his mother when she was still pregnant and the nice worshippers she entrusted and is forever reminded about it even LONG past the point where the people who were guilty for it got their punishment". A Great One can grow inside the Nightmare, and OoK grew knowing nothing but this pain, grief and being the recipient of multiple people's yearning for vengeance (his own included). He is an "adult" by now, but one completely incapable of letting go of the fate he faced even before being properly pushed out of the womb, thus remaining attached to it.

He will also never have a child himself either, despite being born with such a strong connection to mortals as the most humanoid Great One we've seen; this system was cheated only by Oedon who resides in the Old Blood in secrecy, and by Rom whose "children" are not even her own but Blood Echoes reborn by her (Romlings drop Madman's Knowledge and her Altar of Grief's corpse is covered by mold that only grows from the Old Blood). It adds another layer to him beating us with the mother's womb - symbolically, the things that will never be. Again, having children is something Great Ones desperately want. Perfection of being ascended beings brings nothing but loneliness and emptiness.

So yeah sdfjfdhdf As fun as mental image of Kos whispering in Maria's ear is, from canon standpoint? I don't think this is what is happening at all! :>

What are some of your favorite rarepairs?

Thank you for the ask! Rarepairs are my lifeblood <3

Jeremie/Ulrich is a top-tier one for me, all the little nuances of their relationship that you've got to dig a little deeper for when watching the show, but are most definitely there. They have a quiet, respectful rapport and mutual support that's just *chef's kiss* opposites attract, indeed!

Jeremie/Odd for different yet similar reasons as above.

Sissi/Aelita has so much potential I feel, for all the odd parallels and interesting contrasts between them. They each have so much that the other envies, and that's forever interesting to me.

Sissi/Sam (Suarez) is wild but I'll forever be thinking about Strawberry Sauce for making it so real to me, A++ fic

Odd/Herve is something I think about, don't ask me why I just see something in them!

Patrick Belpois/Odd, and Aelita/Lise because there's nothing I love more than spinning in-depth tales about characters who show up for like 0.2 seconds *affectionate fist clench*

Franz/Jean-Pierre because maybe something happened in the thousands of loops on June 6th 1994, who are we to say otherwise?? (there's a five-year WIP in my fics folder that wants to be heard, oops)

1) One of the dumbest things about this situation is that I did not even know that the person who made initial Tweet telling people to kill themselves over liking a ship was a minor. I saw absolutely unacceptable Tweet, and I responded to it for how it deserved to be responded.

2) You guys pull the "just minors" card all the time, and what you guys are saying is WAY more insulting towards minors than just posting the screenshots of something ALREADY fully available on Twitter. YOU are the one insulting minors' intelligence and morals by acting like they're somehow conceptually incapable of being responsible for unacceptable and genuinely evil shit. Like, are you implying that nobody simply knows that being a bully over interests and lying is bad until they turn 18?

3) You are straight up making it sound not for what it is

You block them and move on, they do dumb things, you taking it personally and going off the rails however, is absolutely moronic and cruel asf

Of course I took it personally when one of them literally went to dig out a post from over two years ago that was not even racist + long ago deleted after friend explained me what was not right about it just to accuse me of racism (literally where?). Of course I took it personally when one of them ALSO literally screenshotted a random bio that was never mine and lied on their Twitter that it was mine.

It is not "just a dumb thing kids do let them have their childhood uwu", it is lying and slander. It is not "moronic and cruel" to call their actions for what they are.

4)

delete those posts, and leave the kids alone fuck sake.

If I deleted the posts, would they do the same with their posts? Of course not. If they somehow deleted their posts, could I be confident that they would not still keep screenshots and use them every single time I do the awful crime of sharing lore about Bloodborne or otherwise inconvenience them? Of course not. Will they leave me alone tho? Of course not. I will respond to the Twitter comments I get when I see them until they simply stop.

Also I won't fucking negotiate while being talked like that. Seriously, you could literally hold me at a gunpoint and I would still not do what you tell me. I don't understand why some of you guys thought that I would ever do what you ask from me when your "asking" is just insulting me and pulling "b-but minors can't be decent people it is a skill you only unlock as an adult" card over and over and over and OVER. You talk to me like you are well aware of my personality, so how do you not know that I never allow anyone to threaten or insult me into doing what they want?

5) These people would have acted the exact same way even with their names censored. They just need an excuse. If it wasn't "but she didn't censored out the names", it would be something else. You've seen yourself that they move goalposts towards whatever is a convenient at the moment.

6) I responded to the original person that told people to die over liking a ship (because no you don't JUST block someone who says this, and no I did not even see their age either), then their friends responded to me responding, then I was responding to their responses, and so on and so on.

7)

This isn't the first time you've done this shit either, you LIKE being seal clapped by your friends and being a piece of shit

No, this IS, in fact, the very first time I picked a fight with Soulsborne Stans Twitter. If you imply that I "was a piece of shit" before then you are one of the people who believed dumb slander posts by Percy and Marble on Tumblr, therefore you are my enemy by PROXY. I can't stand people who read obvious bullshit and just believes it, anyone with basic common sense would understand how much nonsense those posts are. And I won't do what an ENEMY tells me. Get out.

8)

'I don't have traction so it doesn't matter' it's about respect.

So me preemptively defending myself from that manipulative thing people do when they delete their posts and then lie about the posts not being that bad to make the person look worse is disrespect? So I should respect people who are being bullies on Twitter? And also liars? It is crazy with how many absolutely absurd things you are okay with, but the moment I defend myself is where you draw the line?

Again, I posted it where my friends can see it so they know what actually happened when those people will go in their inbox and DMs to try and twist the situation in their favour. Which IS something people like this do.