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you really can write whatever you want

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(Large)Deer in headlights

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Congratulations, you found the GRIDDY’S DOUGHNUTS Secret Menu! Order wisely.

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Real ones would know i had a completely bonkers insane umbrella academy phase. Now anytime I’m out of ideas I just draw fives of varying levels of quality

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happy valentine’s day from two snesbians 💗

based on this image:

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"the world isn't kind" ok??? Much more importantly are you?????

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I love Five Hargreeves *puts him through the horrors* *puts him through the horrors* *puts him through the horrors* *puts him through the horrors*

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I have brainrot for this show again.

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I really really love this scene. It’s so beautiful and heartbreaking and thematic and nobody asked for a deep dive but I’m going to write one anyway. So just as an overview, what really gets me is the acting, the atmosphere, the music, the way the camera slowly sweeps over at the very end. It’s just *chefs kiss*

Okay, now for a closer look.

It’s the way that he just drops the wagon handle when he sees the body, the way that he goes to take a better look and he’s confused and curious but then...then he actually looks at the face and you can immediately see the wheels turning, the dawning and horrible realization. He takes another sweeping look around, he stands up, and there's a beat in the music and for a moment all you hear is the apocalyptic wind. His face shifts and he blinks several times and you can just tell he knows. He knows who it is.

And a lot of people ask how he recognized them, but I think they forget that they’re played by different people in real life but in the show they’re one in the same. (but honestly it’s kinda spooky how similar the child actors look.) But that’s his brother, that’s his family, of course he recognizes them. That’s a face he’s probably seen almost every day of his life since he was a baby. And maybe they’re older and different, but the identifying features are still there. You’d know your family. And suddenly all the similarities start adding up fast and he runs to the other bodies. He shakes Diego, desperate to find somebody still alive, and when he doesn’t respond he just collapses back into the rubble with what I’m pretty sure are tears on his face.

Then he stumbles over the pile and he finally sees it. He sees the face of another one of his siblings and the confirmation of what’s been building this whole time (the tattoo). And he freezes, he just freezes at first and slowly takes a little step back, a step away from his brother's dead body. And it so subtle, but it’s so well-acted. Just...the look on his face. The ash falling around him.

You can tell that you’re watching somebody shatter on the inside. You can watch as his entire world falls out from underneath his feet and all he can do is stare because it’s already happened. Then the camera slows down here and pans over to the tattoo and the screen cuts while the music still plays. It’s masterful.

Okay, now I really wanna talk about the song for this scene (Never Tear Us Apart by Paloma Faith.) I love it and honestly I think it fits Five and this scene and his arc so well.

“Don't ask me what you know is true. Don't have to tell you I love your precious heart.”

Now obviously we the audience know that Five loves his family and how much their deaths impacted him. But he never really voices that to them specifically. (In fact, he spends most of S1 annoyed because the clock is ticking and he is under so much pressure and they aren’t exactly being helpful at first there). The closest he comes is in S2 where he tells them he wishes he could forget seeing them die. But the thing is, his love shines through in his actions. No matter how much time passed, he never gave up on them, never stopped worrying about them. He always believed that if he could just get back to them, everything would be okay. And he did, and in doing so, he brought the wrath of an entire agency that specializes in killing people down on himself. He got back, but he physically altered himself to do it. He loves them so so much, and in some ways, I don’t think he realizes he should probably say it more often because they don’t realize just how much he’s done to prove it.

“I...I was standing. You were there.”

That’s really the whole problem, isn’t it? He’s standing in a broken wasteland and his family is there. Bonus; the first time it says “you were there” the camera shows Luther’s face.

“Two worlds collided.”

This is where the past (Five) and the future (the apocalypse) meet. This is where the pre-apocalypse and the post-apocalypse worlds collide. Because Five is not supposed to be there. He is life in a world of death. He has collided with the future and that is what ultimately changes everything.

“And they could never ever tear us apart.”

I love this because I think this line says everything. It says so much about the character, his arc, how he feels, who he is. Because from the moment that Five sees his siblings, his path is set. The seed is planted. Its cemented. In the same way that Vanya is always destined to be the bomb, Five is now destined to always be the flaw in the equation that derails it. Because he refuses to quit. He refuses to let them die. He’s going to make sure that they (the Commission, the Handler, the apocalypse, even themselves) will never tear them apart no matter what he has to do to achieve that.

The other thing I love is where this scene is situated. It runs into the credits. It’s at the very end and contrasts the flashback at the beginning. It’s the big reveal that shows us why Five is the way he is, why it’s been such a difficult few days. It immediately alters our perception of him. It raises the stakes in such a personal way. Suddenly, it’s not just the world as a whole he’s fighting for, it’s the very fate of his family he is seeking to undo.

Anyway, this has turned into a pretty long meta, but to summarize; this scene is brilliant and I Have A Lot Of Feelings.

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glimpses of you

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A Reunion

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no way ppl are using ai to write ao3. what happened to being a tortured writer. what happened to blood on the page. what happened to the ao3 curse. people used to get run over, have their houses burned down, break their entire spines and they still put in the work to finish a chapter. fuck you, using ai. y’all are weak

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Me, leaning against the wall with a flirty smirk on my face: "hey good looking, what's cooking?"

The steel factory: