#mini mine

like, ofmd came fairly close, but neil literally knows us, he lives here with us and says hi in the halls and overhears us talking about what matters to us and trading theories and fantasizing about what we'd like to see. and he wrote this for us.

like, this could not more obviously be written for us. for us weird little queers who care so much about these two idiots.

every minute of this was written and crafted and performed to say we love you back. it wasn't made to be a hip tv show or to impress or entertain anyone except us, and you can see that everyone involved had a blast in the process, because they love these characters too.

it is just so kind, cliffhanger notwithstanding. this show grabbed me by the shoulders, looked me in the eye, and said i see you and i love you too. and that is so fucking extraordinary.

you made arthur-and-john pesto with you bare hands. you killed lillith. you yoinked larson's eyes and tossed him into the dreamlands.

and you're, naturally, all wrapped up in your plan to kill your dad and hit the restart button on existence, then here strolls up arthur-and-john, not only alive but in better condition than when you killed them. here's lillith, not dead and inhabiting the body of a 200 year old southern man with mystery!eyeballs stitched into his sockets. they're here to kill you.

i keep thinking about this part, because it just seems so specific a thing to write, considering that harlan didn't have to name this character 'malam'.

merriam-webster says that the first known use of the word 'palindrome' was in 1637 - a far cry from the 1300s - and "in the past palindromes were more than just smart wordplay. Some folks thought they were magical, and they carved them on walls or amulets for protection."

since the episode dropped, i've seen a couple people in the tag mention that at first they thought malam was an alternate version of arthur - i did too. john's description of facial scars, a missing right ear, and differently colored eyes just sounds too reminiscent of arthur to be a coincidence. someone else said that malam's voice is the one closest to john's that harlan has used, and i had that passing thought while listening too.

obviously malam doesn't have arthur's face, since john would notice that, but i just keep thinking about palindrome. the same backwards as forwards.

malam is older, with a 'dark complexion'. he has arthur's scars, and the voice john would have in a human throat. differently colored eyes. he exists to bring justice to dead children. he says our "day of wrath".

and then i'd like to wish you an extra special get kicked in the shins, because every time you said "queerbaiting" what you really meant was "nb and aspec doesn't really count as queer".

that's what you meant. you meant "gay is better". you meant "queer love only counts if they kiss". you meant "sure they might technically be ~nonbinary~, but they look like men, so they're really just men". you meant "i don't respect aspecs and i don't think they deserve representation".