#<- in the sense that this is incredibly divorced behaviour

[causalityparadoxes]

Text reads: PPPS: Bill, If you're somehow reading this, go choke on glass. I am, as Mable says, "leaving you on read."

Ford my bestie. Stanford my beloved. Stanford Pines, unhinged fucked up old man that you are. GO OFFFFFF

[arthurtaylorlester]

i’m going to have to be honest, i don’t think today’s episode was very good.

of course, there were bits i loved as is with every malevolent episode, like jarthur saying each other’s names like that and arthur styling his hair after clark gable and john remembering, john literally acting like trying to kill oscar was nbd :), it was all very endearing.

but man. some of the other stuff threw me off so bad. there were NO STAKES, any sense of urgency created was immediately destroyed by jarthur literally talking their feelings out. one second is literally jumping on walls like a rabid dog, the next he’s calmly communicating with john and then he’s acting superior and calling him a child.

like, we’ve seen what triggers arthur’s erratic behaviour (usually a distinct lack of john) and how he acts when he’s like that, and sorry but just don’t think this was a case of that.

furthermore, arthur calling john was weird. not in the oh no! is john is canonically a child so you cant ship him with anyone because fuck that, that was not the implication, but in the sense that i think it was incredibly ooc of arthur to say that. like, he recognised that yellow was Like That because he was awful to him, not because he was a child. so why is he saying this to john? he says john can’t handle his emotions, which yeah because he can only talk to you which john makes very clear. arthur says its unfair for john to expect that he never speak to anyone again, but that’s not even what john asked. he doesnt want to be ignored and rather be included, which is a totally reasonable thing to ask for! he even says to arthur when he’s going off the rails that he’s used to being ignored by arthur by now and i don’t think this is another manipulation tactic.

seems like both of them forgot the main goal of the show: separating john from arthur without the king taking him back.

the friendship breakup with oscar at the end was ridiculously tacked on and in my opinion shouldve been the beginning of the next episode. but no, obviously that couldn’t have been done since the next episode is the season finale.

which brings me to my next qualm: this is a terrible penultimate episode. penultimate episodes are supposed to raise the stakes higher than theyve been the whole season so the finale is literally unhinged. and malevolent has been excellent at doing that (see: part 27 the roots). But all this episode does is nullify the stakes, we’re not looking forward to anything next episode. John and arthur are in their healing era (there was no divorce this season let’s be real), theyve left oscar, the stone is gone, the butcher is in police custody and daniel is fine.

so how is the season supposed to end with them (presumably) in the dark world? around a year ago, harlan said dark world arc soon. when is soon.

the lack of stakes in s4 has been a persistent problem for me i think, most conflict has been resolved either within the episode or soon after, especially jarthur relationship problems, which are like the core of the show

don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying i dislike s4, i love it, especially the first half, i think part 31 is the best malevolent episode to date. it’s just that with how well written it’s been, i was taken aback by this one just being…. ok?

i think that because every malevolent episode is such a banger, this one kind of being all over the place, especially with arthur’s characterisation, is kinda disappointing? ofc, ik basically all of harlan’s fam and himself were sick during november + they had a whole baby, so i’m hoping the shift in quality was a circumstancial thing.

[phantom-of-the-501st]

Episode 9 Thoughts

TBB Season 2 Spoilers

Here we go! Another great episode with some good stuff to talk about so let's get into it!

Soundtrack is incredible as always. Loving the slightly western tones. It's kinda giving TLOU meets RDR2.

PRETTY PLANET!!!

The planet designs this season have been awesome. ✨️

They're on a mining mission???

Well, work is work I guess. 🤣

I love that they're addressing the fact that Echo being gone means they need to reevaluate how they split up the team on missions.

They've worked with a squad of 4 before, but when one of them is a child that makes things a little trickier.

Omega misses Echo. ☹️

Same, girl. Same.

"Omega's a child. She shouldn't be living a dangerous life". *proceeds to make Omega extract highly explosive substances*.

THE ONE TIME THE DOOR TO A SHIP IS ACTUALLY CLOSED AND IT STILL GETS NICKED?!

Might explain why SW characters always leave the door open.

BECAUSE IT DOESN'T SEEM TO MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE!

So much bickering between Wrecker and Tech this episode. 😬

The kids are struggling. They're children of divorce. 😔

I'm kidding, but they're obviously all about stressed out atm. They all need a spa day.

Also, is this the longest we've seen them spat with each other? We always had the odd frustrated comment but they're being particularly snarky this episode.

Echo, pls come back. It's all going wrong and it's only been 5 minutes since you left. 😭

Well that explains the weird Lion King cryptic tweet.

Poor Wrecker. 😭 He just got stampeded over.

Great, now we're all stuck in a dark cave. Wonderful!

Omega constantly trying to comm Echo. 🥲

He's doing important stuff, sweetheart, but I'm sure you can talk to him again.

Hopefully. 🥲

"What is your issue?"

Tech, honey. Nooo. 😭

I'm not gonna call him an arsehole for that because he didn't know he was doing anything wrong but oh dear.

WRECKER'S DISAPPOINTED HEADSHAKE! 😭

I thought Omega was just gonna walk all the way down the mine for a second.

Brothers call each other out on their (even if unintentional) shitty behaviour and we love to see it.

Tech looks so cute with his eyes peaking through his helmet. 🩷

Omega, honey. You can't reach the thing. Stop reaching for the thing!

THIS IS WHY YOU STOP REACHING FOR THE THING!!!

Tech jumping in straight after her even though he can't see what's down there. 🥺

Actually, I don't know why I remembered this bit just now but I gotta mention it. Echo is Havoc 4 and Omega is Havoc 5. Did they cut Crosshair out of the number system??? 😭

And if he rejoined, would that make him Havoc 6 or would he get his old number back???

Anyway, back to the almost drowning.

Hunter knows somethings up. 😬

I actually really love the use of Hunter's senses this episode.

I thought they were gonna find an alternate route, not have Wrecker and Hunter also go down the waterfall. 😭

WITH EXPLOSIVES MIND YOU!

Awww. Tech talking about his emotions!

I love that he's explaining to her that he processes emotions differently. It's not that he doesn't care, it's just that he works through them in a different way.

Crosshair mention as well! 😭

That fact that Tech says he has to respect both of their decisions!

Tech may not agree with Crosshair's choice to stay with the Empire, but he understands that it's his brother's decision. It reminds me of "Understanding you does mean that I agree with you".

Tech cares about both of his brothers and yes, he misses them, but he manages his feelings in his own way. 🥲

I'm worried about the Tech hate that's probably gonna come outta this episode though. Some people already don't enjoy his bluntness and I worry they're gonna come after him for being a "dick".

He just processes emotions differently!!! He's not a bad person!!!

Aw, no Tech and Omega hug. ☹️

Way to ruin the moment, Wrecker. 🤣

Green cloudy sky is giving Mando S3 promo. 💚

Ooooo, more drama with Cid.

Hopefully they'll finally pull themselves together and acknowledge the fact that she's basically just screwing them over.

Sexy Hunter's-hair-in-the-wind shot.

AHHHHH WE GOTTA WAIT NOW 😭

First time we've had a two parter this season where we've actually had to wait for part 2.

Overall, I really liked this episode! I know there's going to be people jumping on it saying "it's just filler" and "it isn't progressing the plot". Emotional development is development! Let them all talk about their feelings!!!

They're clearly all struggling a bit with Echo leaving. Everyone is tense and bickering with each other, and while I know the guys are talking about how they need to accept it and move on, they're clearly all thrown off by the whole situation. I'm also happy that they're addressing the fact that Echo not being there requires them to rethink how they split up the squad. Three adults and a kid is a hard group to divide up.

Omega constantly trying to call Echo for help breaks my heart. She misses him, we miss him, his brothers miss him. There's gonna be a lot of missing him until he comes back. ☹️ I do wonder how often they actually keep in touch with him, though. Is Omega chatting to him when she can normally, or is it just because they're stuck and need his help this time?

I'm also really glad to see more Tech development! Yeah, he screwed up with Omega earlier on in the episode, but he worked through it. He's not really used to this type of thing but he's trying. And he acknowledges that they're a family. 😭

Also, I didn't mention this in the bullet points because I only just remembered this but Omega using Tech's words at the end! About how they can find a solution like they always do!!! I love seeing the little bits of influence that all of the guys have on her.

But, yeah! Long thoughts post today. Didn't expect to say quite this much but I'm missing Echo and I'm a stickler for emotional moments so I really enjoyed this episode.

Now we just have to wait a week! 😭

[shmaptainwrites]

Hey!

I thought about something...

Reader as Michael Tritter's wife during the events of season3.

The reader has no idea of her husband’s actions. Until that day, she confronts him and he begins to threaten her with divorce if she doesn't mind her business.

She worries about Wilson and goes to meet him. She introduces herself as Tritter’s wife and apologizes for her husband behaviour. She asks him if he has a place to eat and sleep for the night and offers him (at least) a drink to apologize.

They continue to see each other and begin to appreciate the company of the other.

Tritter learns it and the reader must make a choice between her mariage and Wilson

-👀

anon i’m foaming at the mouth this idea is so good

ngl i think if tritter is threatening divorce right from the beginning the marriage is already pretty much over

maybe you hear about his vendetta against house from one of his colleagues who’s also a friend of yours and when you realize this poor other doctor is caught in the crossfire gives you whatever courage you needed to confront your husband about his actions and how ridiculous he’s acting

he gets mad and after some escalation he says if you can’t stand by him maybe you guys shouldn’t be together in the first place. disgusted by the implications that you can’t even have honest conversations about his actions, you pack a bag and leave to go stay with a friend until he hopefully comes to his senses, and meanwhile you try to right some of the wrongs he’s created by offering some help to wilson

you’re nervously waiting outside his hotel room, wondering if he’s even going to open the door and if he does whether or not he’ll hear what you have to say when you introduce yourself. eventually he does open the door, he doesn’t look too bad but he also doesn’t look great (you can imagine he’s going through a lot considering his accounts are frozen and he’s had to shut down his practice), but when you introduce yourself he’s about to say something about not wanting to speak to you (but still very politely of course, he doesn’t want to get himself into deeper shit than he’s already in), but you stop him before he can close the door and say you’re there to try an extend an olive branch

he waits a minute to hear you out while you say you’re very ashamed and embarrassed about what your husband is doing and that you wanted to see if there was anything you could do to help for the time being seeing as you didn’t have too much control over the situation

wilson ponders for a moment and when you offer a drink at the hotel bar to start he accepts. when you go down you explain a little further to him that you’re very uncomfortable with the whole situation your husband has created around this incident and that he’s acting like a bully (which he shouldn’t be because he has power over others and it’s just wrong to use it for a personal grudge and say it’s in the interest of the law even if house technically is doing some illegal stuff) and really you just don’t know what you should do

wilson empathizes with your marriage troubles, clearly having been in that situation before, and after a few drinks it becomes easy enough to lean on each other and talk through what’s going on

it gets pretty late and you reluctantly say you have to go back to your friend’s home so you don’t keep her up, but that you could come check in on him again tomorrow if he’d like, maybe take him out to grab something to eat and he nods his head and says he’s free with a hint of mirth in his voice considering your husband is the one pretty much forcing his days to be open

your lunches and dinners together become more frequent and you find yourself very much drawn to wilson, and he to you, so when your husband finds out of this (maybe it’s word of mouth or maybe he actually sees the two of you out together) he comes to your friend’s home and confronts you about it

he’s incredibly upset, but for some reason you could care less because if anything over the past few weeks he had shown you his loyalties didn’t lie with you, he didn’t even apologize for threatening divorce or how he had spoken to you and so when he gives you an ultimatum it’s not even a question, you don’t want to be with him anymore

after calling your lawyer and dealing with those details to get the papers served, your dinner with wilson becomes a bit tense as he asks you what you were up to that day and you try to find a way to break the news to him

he’d be a bit surprised that divorce is what it had come to and maybe even feels a little guilty thinking it’s his fault, but really, with the way tritter had treated you throughout this mess you had gotten an indication of a side you didn’t see before you got married and you were more than happy to get out of there before things escalated and you felt trapped

wilson is so gentle with you even with everything that he’s going through and you both cling onto that desperate need for the other and your emotional comfort slowly finds its way easing into something more than that and it’s not before long that you spend more nights at the hotel than your friend’s home and when all was said and done neither you or wilson felt you got the short end of the stick (because clearly, that all went to tritter)

send me your sfw RSL character x reader thoughts

→ accepting asks for james wilson, cruise, and peter müller

→ i’ve seen up to 5x12 of house — NO SPOILERS PLEASE

[compacflt]

Dude you should be so so so so so proud, literally one of the best pieces I've ever read. It's the angst and complex characterization of Baldwin's Giovanni's Room meets the research behind The Alienist (the book, obvi- haven't actually seen the show yet). I adore how you maintained the characters' personal values even though I don't like them most of the time, and I now know way too much about the military in general because I would wikipedia something every third sentence. (Also thanks for that because coincidentally I'm working on a research project on how low-level fighter jet training affects marine animal behaviour, and I actually passed my first oral with flying colours because of the random knowledge I have acquired while reading/because of your fic.) That being said, I desperately want a physical copy on my bookshelf- would you ever feel comfortable distributing one or letting us go get it printed professionally? If not, I totally understand and am more than happy with what we have access to now! Seriously, thank you- it's incredible.

thank you thank you thank you for the ask!! just gonna answer by point

1. i am very proud!!! just extremely editorbrained ie have been trying to fix all the flaws for the last two months straight, and now all i see are problems & flaws that i couldn’t fix…. you guys should see my hard copy of this fic every single page is basically black with pencil. just ripped it to shreds. it’s just a writer thing i think, i am my own worst critic :(

2. if by personal values you mean political opinions … I wish it were like socially acceptable to post my extremely in-depth headcanons about random shit like this because i am so deep in it that i literally wrote out ice and mav’s voting records since 1980. Tldr: conservaDems. registered R but consistently vote D. mav would vote libertarian if his husband weren’t standing over him threatening divorce. after 1/6/21 change their registration to D & are basically just neolib shills. only reason they don’t vote obama in 2008 is that mccain was a navy vet.

3. thank you for the compliment but i am literally BEGGING you guys not to take anything i say/claim in this fic about the military to be true. there are certainly elements of the truth but many of the details i literally just made up. or altered to make plot sense (see IRST discussion ch 9, IRST was SUGGESTED by Boeing in 2007/8, not implemented until 2010ish). so much of the plot simply would not happen in real life. i can make a whole post about this sometime if people are interested cause there is actually so much I could say about real life accuracy in this fic/implications of real life shit…

4. no way???? that research project sounds so interesting??? congrats on passing ur oral!! idk what that means but congrats!!!! coincidentally i am also working on a research project—it’s why i have to stop working on this fic at some point. my senior research thesis is a novel about USAF CSAR chopper pilots so ive been doing so much research over the last 5 months… but about the USAF not the USN. my navy research HAS helped though. so maybe it’s a mutually reciprocal relationship :) i would love to hear more about ur project!!!

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

also I think discussion on mlm fiction in fandom spaces is often overlooking its origins in the western world. which are old, dating back to, well, the beginning of fandom as we know it in its modern sense with Star Trek. it’s not a new thing at all, it’s been a trend since the sixties, before queerness was anywhere near as accepted as it was now. it didn’t originate with “fujoshi” (blaming all sexist and homophobic behaviour of mlm fiction writers on specifically japanese culture is pretty fucking racist actually too- the way we use the term in the west is incredibly divorced from its actual cultural context), it didn’t originate from teenagers as the authors at the time were primarily middle aged women (fanfic was literally distributed through mail then, it was difficult for teenagers to engage with unless they had really cool parents), and it was radical enough at the time that there was opposition in the same fan spaces towards that level of queerness. regardless of your argument on what it is now, it is dismissive and incorrect to ignore its origins if you’re gonna make bold statements about it.

[spicyicymeloncat]

I couldn’t respond earlier bc I was out but THIS

THIIIIIIISSSSS

WHY ARE MOST OF THE FANDOMS IM IN LIKE THIS.

THIS IS LIKE MY MAIN GRIPE WITH FANDOM (I’m in hater mode constantly because of this)

Long ranty post incoming, warning for opinions, discussion of sexism and brief discussion with “problematic ships”

Writers will show up and give you the most detailed world and people will have shipping wars for no reason.

And like I am in the boat of “enjoy fandom however you like, it’s your blog your content do what you want” but it’s disheartening when you’re on a tag for a franchise and none of the content is real or true or about the show and it just leads to a lot of other unpleasant problems with fandom. It’s fine if you do enjoy some of the things I’m about to complain about but the issue for me is when it completely dominates fandom bc it’s just incredibly boring to me personally.

AND DISCLAIMER. I do like shipping! Just not only shipping. It’s like butter. I like butter in my sandwiches but not tons of it on its own. I want the cheese or ham or lettuce and bread in my sandwich too. I’d like to enjoy the whole sandwich and the whole media franchise.

BUT LIKE CAN WE PLEASE talk about the huge mischaracterising and flanderisation that happens when people care more about a specific relationship dynamic and basically make content for that but with the costume of a specific fandom as long there’s a single hint of that happening. Like people just like a ship trope and they slap any old character onto it.

And it’s always the same fucking “they’re divorced <3” like I get it you like divorced old men (examples: the Magnus archives, Lego monkie kid) . And yknow I feel like all the fandoms I’m in have just a mlm couple and sometimes that’s the entire fanbase (examples: see above, Zelda, project sekai). Which at times feels a lot like a normalised version of just yaoi fangirling which has a lot of weird implications for society.

And also can we talk about women. Because whilst most fandoms tend to have THE MLM tm ship, sometimes fandoms have favourite men characters who don’t have to be shipped in order to be popular. But most women in the fandoms I’m in seem to only be popular because they can be shipped and this is such dated behaviour. (Example: Skylor vs Morro from Ninjago, again 80% of the cast of project sekai it makes me so mad). Like fandom only know horny or haunted by trauma fr fr /hj.

And like yknow, there’s also the normal amount of passive misogyny as a factor, such as women just being less popular in general (the Magnus archives has popular NON CANON ship of Elias and Peter which has no excuse of being so popular in comparison the two main cast canon couples of Melanie and Georgie or Basira and Daisy (ofc it makes sense that Jon and Martin are popular bc they’re the main main characters)

Like sometimes it feels like fandom is so romance oriented that women are simplified into their romanceability and they see this treatment much more than men (but this defo does happen to men and non binary people too but in general these are patterns). Also there’s also the immense woman hate when a piece of media has been implying a het romance but the fandom likes the gay ship more. I’ve seen this happen with Nya from Ninjago, this is basically happening with Yona from totk (and I’m going mad over it).

And speaking of romance orientated things, rip to anyone who looks into a hc tag and it’s entirely flooded with x reader and in like gentlest way possible all of those posts are not very in character and I guess they aren’t supposed to be, they’re just supposed to look dateable but like you see why that can be annoying right. Like I wish we had literally any other kind of headcanon. I wanna know a characters food preferences, I wanna know their medical history, I wanna know what kind of music they like or if their bilingual or what subjects they’d study at school. I want a description of literally any other relationship other than romantic.

But. But. The biggest rest in peace goes to fandoms where they’re main character roster is all sibling dynamics. My bestie is in the dc fandom and tmnt and like. Rip. Disastrous and terrifying. Deepest condolences. An entirely sibling cast combined with people determined to ship everything under the sun leads to unsavoury concepts. And yknow it could’ve been avoided if people realised that other relationships existed. And btw I said at the top that I think it’s fine to enjoy some things I complain about, this one doesn’t count. If you’re out here specifically glorifying and romanticising child relationships , sibling relationships or abuse, then you need to change your mindset. I don’t wanna get into the pro/anti bs, but like if you’re out here with the intent on saying that those relationships are perfectly fine, then I suggest getting therapy or something.

Other than that, generally it does frustrate me when it feels like a franchise is wasted on a majority of its fanbase. I have this same problem with tumblr sexymen, the jokes are funny but the actual unironic simping for a mischaracterisation really irks me, bc I just don’t like “horny” being an excuse to throw an entire franchise in the bin. Which is why I was so irrationally angry at people rehydrating Ganondorf from totk after only seeing the first teaser trailer. Also related, but I actually have the lmk macaque tags blocked because he was every other post and people mischaracterised him (imo) as hell he was the fandoms emo kitty cat (imo) and I do not care for it actually.

But I guess the solution is to be the change you wish to see in the world, so I’ll just come up with the headcanons and the content myself I guess. Bc I do believe ppl should enjoy how they want (barring supporting ickiness) even if I privately think that that character would not fucking say that. This is more of just a vent of why sometimes the fandom tag can be annoying to me, rather than telling people they should change bc I’m angry.

Sorry if I am being super blunt and mean (I started writing this and then life happens and suddenly you’re a little too angry :p), this is ofc all my own opinion.

Ps. I will note, I think Ninjago is one of the least ship dominated fandoms I’ve been in compared to the others. Like Ik there’s a lot non ship content and more hc in my experience at least. Like I don’t think as many characters get flanderised to the extent of my other fandoms. It’s not like it doesn’t happen but I appreciate the lessened severity of it (I might just be following cool ppl). And not saying there isn’t a wide variety of non ship content in other franchises, Ninjago just sticks out to me rn ig lol.

it sucks SO hard being one of the small minority in any fandom who couldn't care less about the ships present, and who really cares more for the lore than anything.

I dont CARE about new ship fuel youve found I wanna discuss why this super cool mystical thing has been secretly going on and what the fuck it means !!!!

[natilieal]

izzy hands was an aristocrat before becoming a pirate

having an absolutely normal time on discord with @endrega23 @im-just-so-so and @disorientedfey

disclaimers: vague spoilers, 2k worth of justification & reaching for a headcanon. Also keep in mind I refer to blackbeard & ed separately – blackbeard as the persona, ed as the character.  

I’ve been thinking a lot about Izzy’s character and his motivations — and sure, he’s in love with the idea of Ed and bitter about Stede coming in and taking Blackbeard from him, but it all felt like such an overreaction until I realised: Izzy must have been an aristocrat in his youth. I think he was specifically some minor noble’s second son, kicked out or disgraced in some way, and then found his way into piracy and onto Blackbeard’s ship. Looking at Izzy through this lens, I think, makes his character make a lot of sense. And also it hurts my feelings so

I’m going to explain how/why I think this theory makes sense using a few different things: Izzy’s appearance in the show, his personality overall, his behaviour toward Stede, and that post about Izzy being the one to do the bows in Ed’s hair.

Izzy’s appearance

This part stemmed from this tweet and the subsequent thought that Izzy, aside from Stede, is probably one of the best-dressed and most ‘put together’ characters in the show. His appearance is incongruent with his character: sure, he likes order and structure, which could be represented through his outfit. But he’s also incredibly focused on being a stereotypical pirate and on remaining emblematic of the fear that Blackbeard & his crew spark. When he’s framed by Fang and Ivan here, he doesn’t look terrifying. He looks like he’s wearing the pirate equivalent of a three-piece suit. And sure, it could represent how repressed he is compared to the others on Ed’s crew but hear me out: someone so openly disdainful of finery taking the time to wear a buttoned, collared shirt? Taking the time to tie a ring into his necktie? Taking the time to tie a necktie at all???

The costumes in ofmd represent the characters, but they also make sense: it makes sense that Stede would take the time to put on his fancy outfits every day. It makes sense that Ed’s outfits get more intricate and fanciful once he’s on the Revenge. We’ve seen in the show that dressing nicely and taking care in your appearance are qualities emphasised by the aristocracy. It’s only in the final episode, once Stede finally divorces himself fully from his former life, that he starts dressing like everyone else in the show (ep 1 vs ep 10). So it doesn’t really make sense for Izzy, from the beginning, to be taking the time to dress the way he does – unless it was something already ingrained in him. Like, if he’d been raised rich, for example.

In the show, the only other character who wears a necktie is Stede. Ed does too, eventually, but his is a gift from Stede and symbolic of their relationship. Izzy has his necktie and his ring from the beginning. Why would he have those? Unless, of course, they’re a link to who he used to be before he became a pirate: an aristocrat, just like Stede.

A quick aside, but I also want to talk about Izzy’s hair. It’s styled – coiffed, to stay out of his face. It’s practical, but it’s still styled. When he gets punched later on, the first thing he does when he stands up is try to fix his hair. It could be to try and save face, to preserve that unshakeable exterior, but it’s such an unconscious gesture: who would think to do it, except someone who’s had it ingrained in them that appearance is important? And ofmd establishes there’s only one societal group in the show who cares that much about their outward appearance.

So now we have this image of Izzy, who, within the realm of what’s acceptable for a pirate, actually dresses quite nicely. He puts effort into his outfit; he has a collared, buttoned shirt, he wears a necktie, he buttons up his vest, he does his hair. Those are a lot of things for Izzy the character to do in order for his costume to symbolise his repression and desire for control. The only character who he is similar to here is Stede – who also dresses nicely, who is also repressed for a majority of the season because of his aristocratic background.

Izzy’s personality

This part stemmed from this post about the bows and also my general obsession with Izzy as a character. I’m going to break this section down into his behaviour in the show, his attitude toward Stede, the bows, and then general speculation/headcanons.

Izzy’s behaviour

First of all, I love this insane little man – but so much of his personality is, again, so incongruous to the rest of the show. There’s tons of posts about how Izzy is in the wrong genre, how he thinks he’s in Black Sails etc, and I don’t think it’s just to emphasise him as the villain. If you look at it through the lens of former aristocrat Izzy, he’s trying to act like what he thinks a pirate should be.

I’m going to point to another parallel with Stede here. at the beginning of the show, and in flashbacks to his family life, we see that Stede also has a preconceived notion of what pirates should be like; it’s a life full of romanticised adventure and violence. But then Stede gets a taste for the life of a pirate and says, “but what if it weren’t like that?”

Historically, Izzy joined Blackbeard’s crew around 16. I know ofmd plays fast and loose with history but hear me out – a 16 year old sheltered aristocrat with a romanticised view of pirates, joining the crew of the most terrifying pirate he can imagine. He would be incredibly easily influenced, there’d be a lot of hero-worship, and he wouldn’t be the kind of person to say “what if it weren’t like that?” Instead, he’d be seeing Blackbeard at his worst, and he’d think, “this is how it is.”

And if you look at Izzy as someone who joined Blackbeard’s crew as an impressionable child – as someone who was rejected by the aristocracy and allowed his hero-worship of Blackbeard to define his personality – his bitterness and anger in the show towards Ed, and towards Stede especially, make so much more sense. It’s not just Ed failing being at being a legendary pirate: he’s accepting and obsessing over the lifestyle, and the people, who rejected Izzy. Ed’s obsession with Stede is a betrayal of everything that Izzy is.

We know Stede lives rent-free in Izzy’s head. We understand that it’s because Izzy and Ed have a long history, and that he feels like he’s losing Blackbeard. But again, he becomes so resentful of Stede so quickly – almost comically so, and I think aristocrat!izzy again makes this all so much more understandable.

Izzy hates the rest of the crew because they’re not very good at being pirates. We see him berating them time and time again for lazing about, for not following orders. We know Izzy runs a tight ship and it makes sense for him to be infuriated with Stede’s crew.

The first time Izzy and Stede meet, Stede gets the better of him. After that first interaction in episode 2, Stede becomes an obsession for Ed – and it’s so clear that Izzy thinks Ed is going to kill Stede, or punish him in some way, for humiliating his crew like that.

And then Ed gets to know Stede, and Izzy watches him become obsessed not only with Stede as a person, but with all the trappings of aristocracy that Stede brought with him onto the Revenge. Again, looking at it through the lens of Izzy as a former aristocrat who unwillingly became a pirate, it makes sense. Izzy moulded himself into who Blackbeard needed him to be: his right hand man, ruthless and violent, everything the ideal pirate should be. Not only does he not get Ed’s approval or validation for it, but he watches Stede essentially get rewarded for not being like that at all. Stede, a naïve rich boy who is antithetical to everything that Izzy understands about piracy, and, by extension, the world, gets the attention and adoration of the famed pirate Blackbeard. Stede is not only antithetical to Izzy, but he’s also a physical representation of everything Izzy left behind; everything that Izzy rejected in himself, for Ed. Which, again, has to feel like the most extreme betrayal.

The post

So I’m sure we all saw David Jenkins confirming that Izzy did the bows in Ed’s beard which, first of all, absolutely ruined my day. Secondly, I think we all sort of assumed that Stede was the one who did it – mostly bc of the sheer romance of it, but also bc it, again, makes sense for Stede to know how to do those things. How and why does Izzy know how to tie bows? How and why does Izzy know how to style hair? Unless…………………………..

This, combined with Izzy’s overall appearance & general attitude toward Stede, really gives “the lady doth protest too much” vibes. More than that, I think Izzy is trying too hard to reject his ties to aristocracy, and hiding a lot of hurt behind it. In the show there’s a lot of ideas around that idea of rejection and the underlying hurt behind that rejection – Stede vs the aristocracy, Lucius’ “they can’t cut off my finger if there’s nothing to cut,” Blackbeard’s “love of a pet makes a man weak,” Ed throwing out everything of Stede’s in episode 10. Izzy, rejected and likely disowned or disgraced, finds himself at 16 years old on the ship of the most terrifying pirate in the world. Love of a pet – of anything, really – makes a man weak, and so Izzy rejects everything he used to be: rejects the soft trappings of aristocracy, learns to be bloodthirsty and ruthless and cruel, and rises through the ranks all the way up to first mate. And then his ultimate reward is watching Blackbeard become undone by everything Izzy has fought so hard to reject.

General speculation

Back to the original headcanon. I think Izzy grew up as some minor aristocrat; rich enough to be a little spoiled and a little sheltered, but also as the second son he’s always a little overlooked, never quite important enough to warrant fame or recognition of his own. I think that’s paralleled in his behaviour as first mate: he comes down too hard on the crew of the Revenge, is too strict & unyielding, trying a little too hard overall. Asserting the authority too forcefully, bc as the second son he always had to fight to be noticed.

I think this desire for recognition & validation is also really important: in the series, we see Izzy get angry at Ed time and time again because he’s not fulfilling Blackbeard’s legacy & instead is stepping back from the whole image. He takes the page out of Stede’s a General History of the Pyrates, points at the caricature of Blackbeard and says, “This is Blackbeard.” I think aristocrat!Izzy grew up overlooked and ultimately rejected by his family, and subsequently latched hard onto the idea of Blackbeard – he’s spent his life helping to build up the myth, obsessed with the fame and legacy of it all. For once, he has the chance to be remembered as something great. He’s not some noble’s overlooked second son; he’s Israel Hands, the right hand of Blackbeard. And instead, he watches Ed give it all up for Stede: an aristocrat, and, even worse, the first son. Fundamentally important in a way Izzy will never be. No wonder he ends up totally unhinged.

tl;dr a headcanon about former aristocrat!Izzy has taken over my life thank u for coming to my ted talk.

@endrega23 also wrote a meta ficlet about aristocrat!izzy here if u want to read it (u should)

[qiyansluvr]

Just finished The Story of Minglan

So I just finished the Song Dynasty drama The Story of Minglan with Zhao Liying and Feng Shaofeng in the main roles after binge watching it for a little under a week now. I actually had started it months and months ago but after watching the first few episodes, I noticed immediately that it was going to be a heavy and serious drama and i wasn’t in the right place of mind at the time to deal with it.

But here we are now, after having watched all 73 episodes of this masterpiece. Because that’s my main take away after finishing it : a masterpiece. 

There’s a few things that i could nitpick if i really wanted to go into details, but most of them are just scenes i wish we saw more of, and nothing that really changed how the story was told. 

First I’ll begin to say that it’s evident this drama was written by women. The harshness of what it means to be a woman in a patriarcal society is depicted so well. And all the women characters are complex and vivid and absent of stereotypes and archetypes. Yes you hate some of them for their actions, and behaviours, but you also understand how they came to become what they are. The stories around divorce and dowry and marriage but also jealousy and ambition and women’s relationship to one another is so central and so vivid, it makes me ache for every single one of them.

Less obvious but to me very much present and commented upon is the treatment of slaves vs the aristocracy, and mroe generally, the way class intersects with women circumstances, even within the lower gentry. I feel like that’s a subject that’s not often touched with historical dramas and here it definitely felt lke the scriptwriters thought about it.

I’ll also point out how fleshed out the relationships between the characters are, all of them. There are no relationships that are just flat and dont make sense or are ignored for the sake of the story. No, everything, every relations is accouted for and you understand how these relations shape the characters.

The male characters are also incredibly well written. Many of them misogynistic, as you’ll expect men from this era to be, but it never feels as if it’s put there just for the plot to advance. No, it makes sense, and each men has its own flavor of it, even the good ones. 

The relationship between the man lead and the woman lead is so delectable. At first i didnt really ship them, as we had anoher love interest for Minglan, but Gu Tingye grew on me, just as he grew on Minglan, and I understood why she would love him so. I like that they have a relationships of equals and that despite his scheming, she is his match. In my memory, the only other relationship that grew on me like that in cdramas is Fuyao and Wuji from Legend of Fuyao, where at first I didnt like the ML, but he grew on me. 

Which leads me to the acting, which is just so excellent. Zhao Liying is incredible, as she always is, but it’s also really nice to see how she changes Minglan’s posture and facial expressions as she grows. The chemistry between the two lead is just amazing, but so is the entire cast. The Sheng family dynamic is so realistic, you can always feel the tension. Special mention to Zhu Yilong and his gorgeous smile and puppy eyes. 

I need to give extra props to the set designing team, and especially the lighting team. I read that they tried to use as many candles as possible to avoid using too much modern lighting, and it’s really appreciated, bc the scenes that happened at night indoors are always well lit (especially in contrast to GoT which is my reference in terms of low-use of modern lighting). In general the sets are very colourful and distinctive, and you can feel the changing atmosphere in the different houses and rooms reflecting the nature of the characters occupying them.

That brings me to the costuming, which I admit i have very little knowledge on Song Dynasty fashion, but I like that it was colourful, that they used the costume to describe the passing of seasons and that each character had their own distinct styles, colours and evolutions. 

Overall, I woulld 100% recommend this drama, it’s now definitely in my top 3 cdramas alongside Nirvana in Fire and Joy of Life (even if I cant give a ranking within those three). 

As for the few things I would nitpick, they would be 1) Rong’er relationship with her little brothers. How she dealt with the grief of Chang’er, and how she deals with Tuan and how that affects her relationship with Minglan. 2) The relationships with the Sheng sisters at the end. The ending scene seems to suggest that they made peace but I would have liked a scene before, with all three (Hualan wasn’t a part of their dispute) of them talking about how much of a shitty father they have. 3) More happy scenes with Gu Tingye & Sheng Minglan. Maybe it’s bc im a romantic at heart but I just wanted a little bit more scenes of them together, they spend so much time apart T.T

To end things, this drama needs more people to watch it and more people to write fanfiction for it! 

[cactusradical]

keeping yourself safe while dating: avoiding redpill and pickup artist tactics

I thought I'd put together a quick list of the most common tactics predatory men use to gain access to women and abuse them. if you're attracted to men, please have a look and keep these in mind. as soon as you're able to spot them it becomes so much easier to avoid these toxic men. this is not intended to be a post about abuse in general. if you would like more information about all stages of abuse including early red flags, explanations of behaviour, and exit strategies, I would highly recommend lundy bancroft's 'why does he do that?'. links to free pdfs are widely available, including on my blog.

negging

a backhanded compliment in order to gently lower your self-esteem, intended to make you try harder to 'prove yourself' to him, and be more likely to accept his male attention for the sake of validation.

an example of this would be 'you're pretty for a ______' (generally directed at ethnic minority women and fat women). you can see that while he is calling you 'pretty', he is also denigrating your ethnicity/weight, making you eager to prove that you're 'one of the good ones'. a similar example would be 'you're not like other women'.

if he does this you should probably just leave him there. coming up with a 'witty' comeback is pretty pointless and a waste of your valuable time.

touch escalation

men will sometimes try and create a false sense of intimacy with women they barely know by gently touching them in innocent places, such as on the arm, hand or back.

this is supposed to 'ease you into' more intimate touching (ie sex) and test your boundaries.

if a man does this, be attentive and remain firm in your boundaries. try and create physical distance. if he remains persistent, he is not safe to be around.

date-prolonging

if you are on a first date with a manipulative man, he may prolong the date by asking you to stay longer than planned or by moving locations (eg you planned to meet for a coffee, but then he wants to go to a bowling alley and then go for dinner). this is used to build intimacy unnaturally quickly in order to obtain sex, as well as to gain more information about you

do not allow this to happen, and if a man becomes upset at you asserting this boundary, he is unsafe, especially if you are refusing to go to an isolated environment such as his home.

hot and cold behaviour

this is pretty self-explanatory, and is done to create a heightened emotional state so that you become addicted to the attention. a person who is genuinely interested in you will never give you mixed messages or be this fickle. if a man does this, do not pursue a relationship with him.

triangulation

this is an obvious one: men will make themselves look like they have many 'options'. they may frequently bring up their attractive exes, regale you with stories about women who are 'obsessed' with them, flirt with other women in front of you or have an inappropriately intimate relationship with a close female friend. this is intended to make you feel like you have to compete for his attention. again, avoid men who do this. they do not respect you.

love-bombing

a man will shower you with excessive praise and attention to make you dependent on him. he may say he loves you inappropriately early on, ask you to live with him inappropriately early on, and begin discussing your future together inappropriately early on. this creates a stronger emotional bond in your mind and makes you more dependent on him. this is also often an early red flag of future abuse.

dread

this is a series of techniques employed by these men to 'keep you in line' in a relationship, especially when they feel they are being denied sex. it includes ignoring you, conspicuously flirting with other women or threatening the end of the relationship/divorce. it is incredibly manipulative and a form of abuse. please, please listen to me: if your partner does this, leave him.

this stomach-churning post goes into disgusting detail on the process of doing this. one illustrative quote: 'after yet another sexual denial just look her in the eye and say something like: "You know I need to have sex with you to have a relationship. You understand this is a biological need for men, right?"'

[hmslusitania]

I see we're going ape over buddie and Choices tonight so

Yknow in 2.07, when Shannon comes back and her and Eddie have their first scene together? The argument at the end, after Eddie says it wouldn't be a good idea for her to see Christopher bc she left them, she says she needed him, she needed a husband and a co-parent - and "I needed someone to have my back!"

To which EDDIE says, "I always had your back"

*insert Incredibles "coincidence? I think NOT" gif here*

(Also side note, I do like that the show doesn't try to sugarcoat what Shannon did being messed up, and that Eddie's own actions weren't really the right thing either[thinking about his conversation with Buck where he says he got to pretend he left for a noble cause even tho he was running], and that it was just a sticky situation that neither of them were equipped to handle in any way, and snowballed. I do kind of wish we could've gotten post-divorce Shannon and Eddie and Christopher interactions, figuring out how they fit together, if at all, bc I like those intricate and messy situations but I could see how that might get too close to retreading old ground re: Michael and Athena's divorce. But I do hate how ive seen the fandom like. Seem to oversimplify things with Shannon sometimes? And make her the ultimate villain, and Eddie Did Nothing Wrong, Ever)

Hi Anon!

The decision to have Buck and Eddie's first bonding moment end with "You can have my back any day" and "or, y'know, you could have mine" only to then six episodes later find out that at least a contributing factor to Eddie's marriage dissolving was that he "didn't have her back" is like. Such a galaxy brain chaos move for them to take, honestly. Like?? They could've had the phrasing be literally anything in 2x07 but instead they had it directly echo Buck and Eddie in 2x01. What was the reason? Why did they do this?

As for the rest of your ask:

(gosh this got long and, uh, opinionated. It is Not Pretty below the cut)

One of the things I really liked about Eddie Begins is that we did get to see him at the beginning of his journey in being Chris's dad because it gives us an opportunity to appreciate how amazingly he's grown as a father. Like, he didn't start out as a perfect dad and he was definitely kind of lost in the woods at the beginning there when it came to the whole "how do I parent" thing. And before Eddie Begins, we'd only ever seen the end result of the growth he's gone through, where he really is a fantastic dad whose son is basically his entire reason for being. Before Eddie Begins, we get to hear him say things like "I left first" and "I've failed that kid more times than I can count but I love him enough to never stop trying" but we kinda have to take that on faith? Because we hadn't actually seen him be anything besides a good dad until we saw his Begins episode. (And even then in his begins it's like "area man in his early 20s unsure how to care for small child while also coping with PTSD and a toxic support system" which like. yeah. no shit. there's one hell of a learning curve there)

The thing about Eddie and Shannon as a couple and as parents that always gets to me is that they were so fucking young. We don't know exactly how old Eddie is in the show, but we can guesstimate pretty safely that he's around the same age as Ryan which would make him between 23 and 24 when Chris was born, and it seems reasonable to believe Shannon was around the same age. It's also a pretty common reading in the fandom -- although I'm not sure how much canon support there is for it because we really, really don't know anything about their relationship pre-Christopher unless I'm forgetting something -- that they got married because Shannon got pregnant and that was the Done Thing. And when you're 23-24, baby on the way, freshly married, that is just like. So much. It sure as hell ruined my parents' relationship when they did that exact thing, and then they disliked each other until they were 27 and then they got divorced, and no one was happier than me about it, I have to tell you.

Back to the show, I can only give you my impressions, obviously, but the impression I have always gotten from the whole "I left too" conversation and the context that goes into it and the different behaviours we see exhibited by the characters is that Eddie "left" first and it comes across to me that he was basically an early twenty-something kid running scared from the abstract concept of being a father in general, and then when he was forced home by an honourable discharge, and was confronted with the reality of Christopher, he managed to step the fuck up and become Christopher's dad. It's there in 2x02, right? "Oh, you've got a kid? I love kids!" "I love this one." Eddie doesn't strike me as a Swiss Army Knife all-purpose Dad(tm) the way Bobby is. Eddie is Christopher's dad. (and like, of course, he's obviously moved by kids when he's on a call, we've seen that enough times to know that if there's a child who can even glancingly remind him of Christopher, Eddie's sense of self-preservation goes out the window, and I love that about him as heart-stopping as it can be in practice)

Shannon, on the other hand, didn't run from the idea of being a mother -- at first. When she left, it wasn't from the abstract. She left Chris (and "gave up" on Eddie, thanks Helena). She was not running from a concept, she was running from a reality. I think Shannon is a fascinating character to include in a television show as a side character, because she really isn't a one note character. Like, she was unarguably a bad mother, and from what we saw, she was a questionable romantic partner to have (but as you said, anon, Eddie was also not 100% the best romantic partner when he was with Shannon either; their entire relationship so far as I can tell was built on sexual chemistry which, uh, super does not sustain a relationship), but she also seems to have been a devoted daughter? I mean, yeah, it's entirely possible that her mom being sick was a convenient excuse to bail -- and obviously she didn't come back after her mom died, and didn't, y'know, contact her son or husband in the interim, so yes, I can see that being a valid way to read the situation. I don't think she's the Ultimate Evil, because she strikes me as a very human character in all the ways that people are more often than not really fucking flawed.

But then we get back to the actual break-up scene. The first time I watched it (and second, and third; then the fourth time the person I was watching with was like "I mean, sure, but it could also be read in this light") her "I'm just learning how to be someone's mother" speech really bothered me? Partly because it was the abstraction of it, right? Eddie doesn't like kids, he likes Christopher, and Shannon sort of had the inverse journey there, I guess, where it went from she didn't know how to be Christopher's mother, to she didn't know how to be a mother. And that speech bothered me because it always sounded to me like she was bailing again. She begged Eddie to let her back into Christopher's life (guilt? I guess?) and like, straight up bribed him with sex which was sure a choice, and then decides -- for a second time -- that she's out. It sounded, to me, she was handing Eddie papers and maybe, in a few years, possibly, once she'd had "time" to "figure out how to be someone's mother" she would try again. Just like she had in the interim between leaving when Christopher was little and the time of season 2.

And like, that could totally be a misunderstanding of the scene and what she was saying. It's what I took away from it, but that could very well be influenced by the fact I was raised by divorced parents and my dad had custody and if you count up all the time I spent with either parent when I was a minor, I was predominantly raised by my father and have had an especially tempestuous relationship with my mother that is mostly (sometimes) repaired now that I'm in my late twenties and have not lived with her since I was sixteen.

Back to the show, and to your comment that the fandom tends to treat Shannon like the Ultimate Evil and act like Eddie Did Nothing Wrong, I mean. Yeah. Fandom as a rule tends to shirk nuance. We're all fools here on the internet sitting in our blue industrial waste container crying about a wee woo show. I personally believe a more nuanced take on that might be that Eddie has shown a great capacity to learn from his mistakes (sometimes to make fun, shiny, new ones, but for the most part, just like ends up doing better the next time) and Shannon did not show that capacity in the time we knew her.

I think, depending on what they did with it, there was potential for an interesting storyline if they'd played through the divorce. I don't think it would've been rehashing ground covered by Michael and Athena's divorce because I can't see Eddie and Shannon having reached a point of amicability and friendship. The only thing we know they had in common was Christopher, and frankly, when you boil it down, the ways they engaged with Christopher as a person were so disparate that -- to me -- it really didn't seem like they had Christopher in common when you get right down to it. But I wouldn't have wanted to see Christopher and Eddie dragged through an ugly divorce process. They deserve better than that.

There's also a conversation to be had about Shannon's blatant ableism towards her own son, but that is extremely not my lane since I am not disabled myself. But even from an outside perspective, basically their entire parking lot conversation in Haunted, uh, haunts me with it's repugnance and the fact that instead of calling her on any of it, Eddie "Chronically touch starved" Diaz's response was to kiss her? Gosh golly do I wish that was one of the mistakes he learned from properly instead of finding a new, shiny version.

ANYWAY this got long, tl;dr (although if you clicked on the read more, you probably read it) version is No, Shannon is not the Ultimate Evil, she's a shitty mom not a demon in a skin suit and a pretty yellow sundress; and No, Eddie is not a flawless human who's never done wrong in his life but holy fuck is he trying and he'd be the first person to tell you he's made mistakes (and often has been); and no, sorry, I don't want to see the divorce storyline play out because we probably would've had to see either Eddie Bashing, Shannon Redemption, or Shannon turning up again like a cardboard cut out of a cartoon villain the way Eva did and I want to be witness to exactly zero of those things.

[sgt-paul]

Hey! Hope all is going well :) I’m curious if you have any information/sources about Linda’s role in Paul’s life during the Beatles breakup and the time after? Paul has said she saved him. I do think she provided so much stability and comfort throughout their marriage and I’m interested in knowing more

thanks so much, i hope all is going well with you too! i’m terrible at remembering and also, organizing stuff like this but i tried to gather a few interviews where paul mentions it.

“I suppose before I married Linda I was about to burn myself out, but I didn’t realize it at the time, you know. But looking back now, kinda 10 years, 11 years later, there were definitely a few moments there where I was getting near the edge kinda thing, but Linda is kind of a steadying influence.” (1980)

“She saved me from general overall excess, which was pretty much total sort of party and work.” (1991)

“I remember very early on apologising because I was so tired, I said, 'I'm really tired, I'm sorry.' She said, 'It's allowed.' I remember thinking, Fucking hell! That was a mind-blower. I'd never been with anyone who'd thought like that: 'It's allowed.' And it was quite patently clear that it was allowed to be tired. I think I'd trained myself never to appear tired. Always to be on the ball. 'Sorry I'm yawning. I'm sorry,' which is complete bullshit. It's a Beatles thing, you had to be there, you had to be on time.” (1997 - MYFN)

“I was in a bit of a state when I first knew Lin. There were a lot of drugs and I was living on my own, totally overdoing it, boozing away. It was a case of, ‘Yeh-hey, have some more drugs...’ ‘Have you got some?’ ‘Try this one...’ ‘Don’t mind if I do.’ It was the Sixties, the hardcore Sixties and it was really starting to get to me. Looking back I can see I was doing too much, but I didn’t think so at the time. I just had trouble getting my head off the pillow sometimes. I remember once almost suffocating myself whilst trying to sleep and thinking, ‘You’re probably going too far here, son, but never mind.’ Linda would say, ‘Let’s just cool it down.’ She was a huge help. She started to put some sense back into my life. She put some order into it.” (1998) + “I helped with the shearing and mowing the fields—and horse-riding. That was the biggest thing. Linda taught me to horse-ride. I really remember at that time being on a horse and thinking I’ve got control of something. It was a feeling of some sort of power that was very strong. Through the nature in Scotland, through riding and through her support I did manage to get it back together.” (1998)

I ask him what has given him most happiness. “I think marrying Linda. Personal happiness. It was a reawakening. With the Beatles you lose your identity. You put your identity into the common identity and you’re a Beatle.” (2001)

“It had been a heavy, difficult period, but meeting Linda and starting a family was the escape. I’d see there was life out there. [...] Because, Christ, I’d worked like a devil with the Beatles for all those years, and it didn’t appear like there was going to be any happiness at the end of it. So, suddenly I found it, and grabbed it. The album was my escape. We made it in the front parlour. Get home, new baby, it was that joy, it transforms your life. I hadn’t had a baby before – we had Heather from Linda’s first marriage – so home was great joy and solace for me.” (x)

Has the whole process of navigating fame and the pressures of the music industry affected your mental health? I think so, yes. But, in truth, I just took to booze. There wasn’t much time to have mental health issues, it was just, fuck it, it’s boozing or sleeping. But I’m sure it did, as they were very depressing times. It’s funny, I remember when I first met Linda, she was divorced with a child and living in New York and having to fend for herself. She got depression and I remember her saying she made a decision. She said, “You know what? I’m not going to have this depression, because if I do I’m going to be in the hands of other people. And I’m not going to allow that to happen.” So she sort of picked herself up by her bootstraps and said, “I’ve got to get out of this myself.” And I think that was what I was able to do, to get out of the depression by saying, “OK, this is really bad and I’ve got to do something about it.” So I did. (2020)

“Having just met Linda, there was a romantic element to it and there was a new discovery of you know, thinking about a family and so all of that was very nice. You know I’d be playing a bit of electric guitar let’s say, just sort of playing around and Linda would come in and say “I didn’t know you played electric!”. I said “Oh yeah, yeah, I do, a little bit”, (...) she was very encouraging, so that would encourage me to go “Right I’m gonna do a song with a big electric on it!”. [...] I think as I said Linda was a huge help, I’d hate to think what’d have happened if I didn’t have her.” (2020)

i think some people tend to think this “saving” only had to do with what was going on with the band at the time, and while that is undoubtedly true too, like whether we are talking about the personal or the business troubles, or paul feeling like an “unemployed worker” and all that stuff, linda was there as a shoulder to lean on and her support and love were( incredibly important to paul. but the way paul talks about it, when he mentions her steadying influence etc, i think he also (or maybe even more so) means it in regard to his messy lifestyle and his generally crazy behaviour in the 60s, which definitely peaked after his breakup with jane and before (/around) he got together with linda. so the transition from that lifestyle with all the drugs and clubbing, the groupies, the "i have 4 girlfriends" mess, the workaholic mindset, plus the slight uncertainty which was followed by complete uncertainty and instability after jane had left him, to a much calmer, a more stable and comforting family life with linda, heather, and later mary, was a huge thing and i can definitely see why paul values linda's role in that so much and why he credits her as the person who basically "saved" him. i'm sure this change didn't happen in a day or anything, but i think we just sort of take paul finding linda for granted, like he was extremely lucky that linda arrived at that exact point in his life and helped paul put himself on the right track basically and was able to provide him so much support and love. she showed him a new way of life, a new way of looking at things a different mindset etc, which paul really needed in order to avoid completely burning himself out. and i'm sure that that's also why he stresses this so much, because he knows that her influence turned out to be super important and all that. 

[defensefilms]

Defense Films Lists His Favorite TV Characters Of All Time

5. Chris Partlow- The Wire

The ending of The Wire paints Chris Partlow as something closer to a serial killer. 

He wasn’t. None of his hits were done out of pleasure, curiosity or even impulse. Every one of those bodies helped the Stanfield organization become what they became, even the one on Michael’s stepdad.

What Chris represents is reliability and capability. The ultimate “get shit done” guy. Out of all the characters on the show, none were more dependable or crucial to the success of the institution they served. 

Lester Freeman was capable but not a good politician and ultimately a nuisance to his superiors. Bill Rawls was incredibly capable at his job but he was power hungry and ambitious. In season 5, Gus Haynes is the most capable man in the news office but the problem was that Gus questioned authority and didn’t “go with the flow” when the office decided the paper needed a “refreshing” of how they cover the local news.

Chris didn’t have any of these handicaps impeding the people he served.

He recruits the foot soldiers for the Stanfield crew, even training them himself and Marlo had something akin to a small army at his disposal as a result. He organized his sub-ordinates, handled all surveillance when Marlo’s crew was under investigation at the start of season 5 and took care of incoming shipments after they established a direct line to the Greeks. 

When the task required finesse or subtlety, like the time he stole Sergey’s picture from the court office, he was more than capable of that too. When Marlo is questioning how to address the murder of one of his dealers, he listens to Chris and chooses to retaliate on the perpetrator directly rather than targeting everyone on his corner. 

Marlo truly comes to rely on Chris in matters concerning Omar Little. Every step of how Marlo wants to get back at the near mythical larcenist, is first passed by Chris. Chris takes this as his number one job throughout the show. Anything concerning Omar is handled with brutal efficiency, tact and an almost out ouf place  sense of professional pride. 

That’s Chris’ most endearing quality. Through all the blood, guts, scheming, lying, betrayal that comprises Baltimore’s underworld, all of which Chris is very much a part of, he has a pride in how he approaches the day to day business aspects of what he does. 

Stringer Bell is arguably the best second-in-command in the show’s run but he was dishonest, ultimately harming the survival of the institution he served and damn near going rogue. 

Chris doesn’t share such qualities as blind ambition or selfishness. He understands that trust is all he has in this game. When the indictments eventually come down and Chris is facing a life sentence he doesn’t complain or even raise the possibility of turning state witness. Instead he ends up on the yard along side Wee-Bay. Marlo in turn makes sure that Chris’ people are taken care of financially.

Many of the men that serve in the various institutions depicted in the show could learn a thing from Chris Partlow. When the time came, he fell on his sword and did so in full acknowledgement that this is where it all leads. There’s a kind of honor in that.

4. Tony Soprano- The Sopranos

One of the biggest misconceptions about The Sopranos was that it was a story about a gangster. It wasn’t, or at the very least, that would be an over-simplification of what the story actually contained.

What it was was a story about a man and his family, both biological and criminal. That’s the tie the binds all of the story’s narratives together.

Another way of looking at Tony’s story is one of leadership. Having ousted his Uncle Junior from the seat of power, season 2 and onwards, as far Tony’s criminal life is concerned, focuses on what happens once you get to the top. 

While the show’s creators gave you plenty of grizzly, violent scenes, what leads to those is the story of a man struggling and failing at leadership. 

In every season, Tony has to deal with a problematic figure, employee or subordinate. 

Season 1 was his Uncle and the idea of old fashioned leadership. Then in season 2 it was the ever-acerbic Richie Aprile, representing a generation older than Tony’s, that still feels entitled to something. Seasons 3 and 4 gave us Ralph Cifaretto, the only one among the men I’m mentioning that actually earns his status and then in season 5, it was his cousin Tony Blundetto.

Each of these problems is uniquely stressful for Tony because of how they pull at the threads of both his family and criminal life. With the exception of his Uncle Junior, he kills all of them.

By that metric, Tony is in fact a very poor leader. 

He doesn’t really deal with the Richie Aprile problem because his sister beats him to it. He doesn’t willingly promote Ralph Cifaretto even though Ralph earns it and is the only one among the candidates with any real intellect and business savvy. In both the cases of Christopher Moltisanti and cousin Tony Blundetto, Tony allows favoritism and nepotism to cloud his judgement and ironically both those men die at Tony Soprano’s hands.

This paints a picture of a tyrannical man, slowly devouring everything around him because he’s got to be in control. Worse yet, his need to be in control doesn’t actually lead to smarter long term decisions or better people management.

Tony’s relationship with Ralph in particular is built on professional envy. He feels entitled to Ralph’s race horse winnings because “why should his subordinate benefit more from anything than he does?”. He then proceeds to take ownership of the racehorse itself without assuming any of the costs of owning the animal. Then to top it off, he steals Ralph’s girlfriend purely because he has the status to do it, even digging in to Ralph’s personal life in order to justify doing so.

Textbook mismanagement. Every type of managerial violation you could imagine.

So how does Tony handle it when an employee is actually being a problem on a criminal/business level?

He rewards Tony Blundetto’s deception after the Joey Peeps killing by letting him run an already profitable gambling joint. He promotes Christopher to “made guy” even with his drug problems being well known, and he promotes Bobby Baccalieri, partly at his sister’s behest and partly out of spite.

 It was fun to watch on screen but you’d hate to work for Tony Soprano.

How does that translate to his family? What kind of leader is Tony at home?

Season 3 does well at examining Tony as a father/paternal figure starting with his relationship with Jackie Jr, which is built on concern at first. Then later it starts to make Tony anxious. Before Tony decides to push nature towards taking it’s course, when Jackie runs afoul of men in Tony’s charge.

His relationship with AJ is also a bigger part of the show as the seasons go and it’s not much better in as far as the leadership or guidance that Tony offers. We can waffle on about AJ’s failings as a spoilt teenager but the real problem is that Tony doesn’t see himself in AJ. 

That’s the first step to any failure of leadership. An inability to find common ground or identify with the people you’re leading.

We won’t go in to how hypocritical it is because the entire way that Tony entered the mob life is because he himself was a mob prince and his father’s status definitely paved the way for him. 

Hypocrisy. That’s the other key to failure in leadership. 

All these negatives added up to make the most fascinating television character in over 20 years. A constant stream of contradictions and watching a man say one thing but do another was it’s own experience and you didn’t realize what a horrible human being you were watching until you saw the show over and over again. A scary observation that implies people are either blind or really comfortable with evil and narcissistic behaviour.

3. Noah Solloway- The Affair

Out of all the characters on this list, this one was hurt most by writers hitting a ceiling in how much they could say about the character or how much they wanted to say.  Divorced men don’t really have that much representation, so if you’re writing a character that so strongly linked to that one particular event in his life, you may hit a ceiling if you don’t actually have real life examples to work with.

They had the right actor, the right story and it was the right time in human history to tell this story, it just felt like they didn’t follow through on really speaking on the plight or rise of guys in Noah’s situation.

Anytime I watched The Affair, and unlike most, I was pretty loyal to it despite what reviews told me, I identified with Noah. All those other characters didn’t make sense to me the way Noah did.

The story begins with my man being stuck in a rut, the kind of middle age funk  married men tend to fall in to, so he drives out to visit some folks and while he’s there he happens to meet a baddie. Story of every man’s life. Only he does what you’re not supposed to do and sacrifices everything he has so he can be with the bad-bad. 

Then my mans starts popping off with his book writing, gets a publishing deal and in his 40′s, he starts achieving his highest career peaks. See this is important because it shows that the writers understood the subject matter really well, as well as the demographic they were talking about.

Then the next season, they go in to some murder mystery plot, Noah ends up in jail somehow, almost as if the writers and producers didn’t feel confident that they could tell Noah’s story without the theatrics/murder mystery element. 

The other danger that the writers probably didn’t want to indulge was rewarding the character with any kind of happy ending or positive outcome. Noah’s infidelity serves as the jumping off point to all of the story’s unfolding plots, mostly depicting the impact on the lives of his immediate family, a handful of which play out in sad dramatic fashion. So the writers likely felt like Noah couldn’t win at the end. 

In the 1930′s when gangster films were first being made, they would commonly feature PSA messages at the start warning against criminal behaviour. 1931′s “Little Caesar” starring Edward G Robinson, features a warning at the end that makes it clear the film’s producers and writers needed the character to go down in flames at the end, to prove the moral point that “crime doesn’t pay”. 

A writer’s moral obligation and the times in which they live can lead some to write the ending that makes a moral point rather than writing the most dramatic or honest ending. I think Noah Solloway kind of suffered from this.

I don’t know. 

There was a chance to explore modern men in a way that most stories fail to. They had the foundation. They knew enough about who and what they’re talking about. However it didn’t manifest in the telling of the story. 

I’m not saying Noah needed a positive ending, it’s just that the one we got was not the most fitting nor did it wind up ending the story honestly or even dramatically.

Noah Solloway should have got the Tony Soprano treatment in as far as how much the writers explored his inner world but instead the show’s creators decided it didn’t matter. They didn’t answer the question of why this happens to modern men.

If nothing else Noah Solloway can be a blueprint or foundation for those telling this story in the future.

 2. Ciro Di Marizio- Gomorrah

About as slimy and as low down as a television character can possibly be. Ciro represents Machiavellian criminality pushed to it’s extremes. 

When writers plot a character’s trajectory, they often fill it with moments that make the character more endearing. Exploring the relationship the character may have with a child, friend or spouse that makes you see the character’s more genuine/compassionate/likeable side. The writers of Gomorrah did plenty of that with Ciro.

However, they didn’t hesitate to show you just how off-the-rails and downright evil Ciro could be. 

What’s funny is that Ciro is defined by loyalty and servitude when the story begins. He is a capable captain and rises to 2nd in command when the Savastano family needs him to. However the death of his close friend and mentor changes him for the worse and he goes ham. 

What follows is betrayal and Ciro basically masterminding a coup of the Savastano clan but the levels of paranoia that his new found power push him to, make him question whether it was all worth it. The world burns around him and a kind of justice is restored when Gennaro is able to take back power and restore the Savastano name. 

That’s one aspect of the show that Ciro truly exemplifies in that he rises to the top but the throne never truly feels like it’s his.

He is Iago-like in his ability to understand the weaknesses of people around him. He proves himself more cunning, capable, strategic, murderous and even business-minded than almost every other character. Every character except for Pietro Savastano (the man he betrays) and Gennaro Savastano. 

The show goes to great lengths to put forth the idea that crime families in Naples are on the same level as the pope. True modern day monarchies. Royal families that have the power to benefit or harm anyone around them. People bow their heads to them when they walk in public and use reverential terms when addressing them. They will often have salons, jewelers  or restaurants cleared out so they can enjoy the establishment in ostentatious privacy. 

When you look at it like that, Ciro was always an outsider. The difference between just sitting on the throne and being born of the throne. 

In that way maybe Ciro’s story is about redemption. 

He eventually sides with Gennaro Savastano again, helping him get his wife and daughter back after they’re kidnapped. He does this by essentially lying to/duping a crew of young dealers from Florence to fund this hostage rescue and then he offers himself as a sacrifice when the Florentines demand blood.

At his best Ciro served the clan and went to great lengths to restore what he had destroyed. 

1. Marlo Stanfield- The Wire

Is there any greater?

Sure there are characters like Tony Soprano whose world and whose inner thoughts the audience gets more familiar and intimate with. Within the same shared universe as Marlo is a character like Stringer Bell and the writers of the Wire go to great lengths to understand and convey his moral conflict as a drug kingpin turned wannabe real estate tycoon. 

Marlo is something purer though. 

You don’t need to know his inner-most thoughts like Tony because his utmost desire is simple, he wants to be the top kingpin of Baltimore. What more do you want?

He does not share Stringer’s moral complexity because unlike Stringer he is not conflicted at all. He’s not a drug dealer playing businessman, he’s just a drug dealer and that’s all he ever wanted to be.

From the start of season 3, it was fascinating watching this man move about on the screen with a confidence reserved for the richest and most talented. Indeed Marlo proves he has both in bundles. 

He outwits the older drug kingpin in Stringer Bell by maintaining independence from the Co-Op. He matches Avon Barksdale’s war effort step-for-step after Avon comes home from prison. He outsmarts the wily, Proposition Joe in order to learn how to launder his money and then get access to the Greeks.

It was fascinating watching Marlo avoid pitfalls, monopolize Baltimore, out-think his older counterparts and grow his empire to the scope that he did. 

There’s a youtube video that compiled all of Marlo’s scenes from his 3 seasons on The Wire and it pretty much plays like a feature film. Watch it here if you dig Marlo as much as I do.

You’re not watching a drug dealer become a kingpin, or at the very least that’s what I believe. It has more to do with watching the younger generation upset the order, and in a lot of ways that’s what Marlo represents. From the moment Marlo shows up, all old agreements are null and void. He does this over and over again throughout his story. Constantly upsetting the order and establishing his own. 

Indeed Marlo isn’t aware that this is what he’s doing. He’s acting on ambition, arrogance and naivety. 

It speaks volumes that most of the characters on this list have on-screen relationships that explore their personalities, like the aforementioned Ciro’s relationship with his daughter. Marlo has none of that.

Marlo’s most revealing relationship is his rivalry with Omar Little, a man he only ever encounters once. The continuation of their feud happens because Marlo refuses to let any perceived slight towards him slide. One way of looking at what this shows is that Marlo is both egoist and perfectionist, the latter of which is actually very prized personality traits in today’s business environment. The combination of the two is actually commonly seen among CEO’s and top executives.

Marlo shows every weakness and drawback of youth while exposing the follies of the more seasoned and experienced in his field. A walking contradiction in that way.

[worldwidemochiguy]

Reticence (soft! Yandere Hoseok)

Summary: You were always terrified of getting kidnapped when you were younger, and now that you’ve been taken by a man who claims to want to take care of you, you recede within yourself so far you refuse to even eat... but Hoseok is determined to let nothing hurt you, not even yourself.

Warnings: Kidnapping, kind of Stockholm syndrome, mentions of not eating so if you’re sensitive to that kind of stuff pls be careful <3 Yandere behaviour, though I am kind of romanticising it in this fic, please remember that that is all it is: Fiction. Obviously in real life this behaviour would be unacceptable and horrifying. 

Word Count: 2.2K

Masterlist :)

a/n: my first hobi fic!!! this is for @kpopgirlbtssvt​ from a request made about a billion years ago (sorry :/ ) for made-for-each-other verse! Yandere Hobi with a shy reader who wouldn’t talk even though he begged her to, and then him coming home from work to her telling him she missed him and was glad he was home. this was a lil less fluffy and a lil more angsty than i intended, but its still a ‘happy ending’ bc im a weak bitch with simple pleasures, what can i say lmao

Reticence

“What do you want for breakfast, sunshine?” 

Silence. 

Hoseok sighed, then straightened up again, walking over to the refrigerator. You remained sat by the kitchen island, empty gaze fixed on the marble countertop. 

“Omelettes it is, then!” He exclaimed with artificial excitement, trying to be cheery in the face of your taciturnity, but even the sunshiney optimist that was Hoseok was finding it more difficult than he expected. He had hoped that by now you would’ve accepted him, but you remained as quiet and unresponsive as the day he brought you home. Not that you thought of it as ‘home’ yet, but he hoped you would eventually. Hoseok was not a patient man, but he was willing to wait forever for you. 

You didn’t even blink when he set the plate down in front of you. It didn’t seem like you were going to attempt to eat it either. Hoseok sighed. He could understand if you didn’t want to talk to him yet — even though it had been months and he’d been nothing but kind to you — but he drew the line at refusing to eat. 

You had lost weight. The cute cheeks he loved to watch bunch up as you smiled were now sunken. Your beautiful figure which he had admired from afar was starting to become worryingly waif-like. Hoseok frowned, a crinkle between his brows forming for the first time as his usually exuberant features warped with agitation.

“Listen, Y/n-” Hoseok sat down at the kitchen island across from you, bracing his forearms against the table and leaning forwards. “You have to eat. I promise there’s nothing in it that could hurt you. Look, I’ll even eat it myself!” Hoseok carved out a small piece of the omelette and popped it in his mouth, exaggerating his chewing and swallowing. “See?” You offered no reaction, and Hoseok felt his disappointment join the omelette on its way down to his stomach. 

“I can understand that you maybe aren’t so happy with me right now, but that doesn’t mean you have to punish yourself. Just, please, please stop shutting me out.” His pleading tone did nothing to move you. You just sat there like a ghost, and a groan of frustration slipped out of Hoseok. 

“Please! I’m begging you! Just eat! I don’t understand, all I want to do is take care of you! All I want to do is love you, why won’t you accept me? Why won’t you even talk to me?” 

The only sound was Hoseok’s harsh breaths after his outburst. If he couldn’t see the slow rise and fall of your chest, Hoseok would think you weren’t alive at all. He slumped in his seat, allowing himself to wallow in self-pity for a moment, before forcing himself to get up and ready for work. When he passed through the kitchen again on his way out the door you were still sitting there, staring at the countertop. 

The front door banged shut, the sound echoing in the apartment. Then, silence. And then, very quietly, the noises of cutlery moving against a plate and chewing. 

~~~~~~

“I don’t know what to do~” Hoseok whined, his head buried in his hands. Around him, his shocked friends were gathered in an informal circle. Each of them had an expression with varying degrees of surprise and confusion — they had never seen Hoseok, the literal personification of sunshine, so dismayed. 

“It’ll be ok, Hoseok. I know it’s bad at the moment, but you just have to wait until she trusts you. Once you achieve her trust, you’ll both be the happiest you’ve ever been.” Taehyung reassured him. Taehyung was obviously the source of authority, since him and his wife were basically the perfect couple. 

“But what if she never trusts me?” Hoseok fretted, before groaning again. “She won’t even eat! I don’t know what to do, I’m just watching her slowly starve in front of me and she won’t even look at me!” The rest of the group paused as they digested this new information. It seemed this girl was particularly stubborn.

“Force feed her then.” Jin shrugged and Hoseok’s head shot up in outrage.

“No! I could never hurt her like that!”

“You’re hurting her by letting her starve.” Jeongguk pointed out, and Namjoon smacked the back of his head, chastising. Meanwhile, Hoseok looked like he was about to cry.

“Listen, Hoseok, are you sure this girl is the one?” Jimin questioned, bracing his clasped hands on his knees. 

“I know she is.” Hoseok replied with a conviction he rarely used. “The second she came into my life, it was like I was born again and she was the first thing I saw. The only thing I could see. Her face- God, it just… glows. She’s like sunshine. She’s an angel. She’s so beautiful and kind and fragile and I want to protect her from everything, and I don’t deserve her but no one else does either and I know we’re meant to be together. If I thought I could’ve let her go, I would have. But I can’t. I have to have her, she has to be mine.” 

The circle of men was quiet for a second, before a quiet chuckle broke the silence. 

“Well then,” Yoongi rasped, “if she’s all that you say she is-”

“She is.” Hoseok interjected fiercely.

“Then all you can do is have a little patience.”

~~~~~~~~~~

It was incredibly boring being kidnapped. Especially when your kidnapper did nothing interesting except make bad food and dance along to music from the TV surprisingly well and cry sometimes when you wouldn’t look at him. Frankly, it would have been easier if he were more of the torturey-type, because it was really hard to stay stubborn in the face of his sparkling eyes and radiant smile.

When you were younger, there was a poster up on the wall of your homeroom at school. On it was an old man with an ugly sneer and a beige trench-coat, with the slogan ‘DON’T TALK TO STRANGERS’ superimposed in glaring red letters. You used to stare up at the poster and wonder how anyone could be so stupid as to talk to someone who looked like that. 

You were never afraid to yell ‘STRANGER DANGER’ at the highest decibel your little lungs could manage whenever a person brushed too close to you in the mall. It was almost a habit — you were avidly fixated on your own personal safety, much to your mother’s chagrin and public embarrassment. Being banned from all the surrounding stores within a 20 mile radius had two consequences:

You had to drive forty minutes for a new pair of socks.

You stayed at home a lot more than you went out.

You became a homebody, and it was certainly not something you were unhappy about. Staying safe in your room meant there was less risk for someone to kidnap you. The comforting layer of your blanket was a shield from everything bad in the world. When your parents were arguing constantly, screaming at each other every other night, you would just tuck yourself in and read a bedtime story on your own since they were both occupied. When your parents eventually divorced, you buried yourself under your duvet rather than answer their questions about who you wanted to stay with, and what your preference was. When your mom died in a car crash, and your dad started drinking, your mattress was the shoulder you could cry on, your blanket was a warm arm holding you close. You had always felt safe in your bed. Perhaps that was why you were having such an averse reaction to being taken from it.

Hoseok was not a man with an ugly sneer and a trench coat. He had an impeccable sense of style, and his smile was breathtaking on the few occasions that it appeared. You more often saw his face twisted into a pained grimace. For a kidnapper, he was awfully sensitive. You were pretty sure it was reasonable for you to be holding grudge, and it’s not as if you were actively fighting against him or anything. You were just refusing to acknowledge him. You were highly skilled at repressing things, or ignoring them, and you were resolved to do the same now. 

By 7 o’ clock, your resolve was slightly eroded. Hoseok always arrived back at half-past 5 on the dot. He was a very punctual person, and you felt an unwelcome sense of worry curl along the edges of your mind as the clock counted away the seconds of him not being there. You remembered feeling the same way when you waited for your mom to pick you up from your dads, watching the clock hand sweep past the numbers, increasingly taunting. Of course, you hadn’t realised that she was at the time caught in between a lorry with a drunk driver and a very steep incline. You wondered if you were being similarly clueless now. 

When the door clicked open at quarter to 9, you had to restrain yourself from exhaling in relief. Hoseok came in looking slightly disheveled, his collar undone and his hair mussed as if he had ran his hands through it over and over again. He gave you a quick once over to see if you were alright, shot you a small, forced smile and then went straight to his bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

That was odd. He never closed the door to his bedroom. He had always left it open in case you needed anything, despite your refusal to acknowledge him. First, his late arrival and now yet another uncommon action? You felt curiosity bubble within you. That was it. Curiosity. It’s not that you were at all worried about him, you were just being nosy. Of course. 

You tiptoed towards the door, tracing a finger around the door frame lightly. What if he didn’t even come out again for dinner? You doubted he had dined out without you, he had been eating his meals sitting across from you while you refused to touch yours since the day he stole you. You really should check on him, if only for the fact that if he dies then you’re trapped here with a high chance of starvation.

Before you could convince yourself not to, you opened the door and stepped inside. The only light-source came from the moonlight filtering through the window, casting Hoseok’s form lying on the bed in a deep blue. His eyes, which you assumed had been closed previously, shot open to observe you as he propped himself up on the backs of his forearms.

“Y/n.” He rasped, and a pleasant shiver ran down your spine. “D-do you need anything?” His tone was both excited and confused, probably because you had literally never directly interacted with him before. 

You didn’t speak, and for the first time your silence was due to speechlessness, rather than a conscious desire.

“I-I, uh,” You stuttered, and Hoseok sat up ramrod straight, hearing your voice for the first time. “You… were late home.”

Hoseok felt like he couldn’t breathe. Your voice was so soft and pretty, fuck, and you were actually looking at him, you were actually talking to him, holy shit- and you called the apartment home. You said he was late ‘home’. Hoseok somehow managed to keep his shit together. 

“I was?”

“Yes.” You confirmed with a small nod of your head. Fuck, you were so cute. “You normally come back at half five. It’s almost nine now.”

“I’m sorry. I was working late.” He was staying at the office because he felt guilty for not taking proper care of you and wanted to avoid seeing the proof of your unhappiness, but you didn’t need to know that. 

“It’s ok.”

You remained standing at the foot of the bed, locked in his gaze. The bed looked so comfortable, moulding to support his body, and his warm body was exactly the comforting presence you were searching for all those years ago and you found yourself asking,

“Can I sleep in the bed with you?” 

It was a quiet, timid suggestion but Hoseok reacted to it like a bombshell. His eyes practically popped out of their sockets and his entire body tensed. You were about to rescind your offer when he reached out a tugged a corner of the blanket down, welcoming you into the warmth. 

You awkwardly sat on the edge of the mattress, nudging off your house slippers with your toes before slipping under the covers. The relief was instantaneous, shrouded in comforting and familiar warmth, and you couldn’t stop yourself from plastering yourself against his side, arm reaching out tentatively to rest on his chest. You felt his muscles jump under your touch, before his arm slid under you and tucked around your shoulders, drawing you into him closer. You closed your eyes, letting out a quiet little sigh, and you let yourself say the words you wish you could’ve said all those years ago when your mother never returned.

“I’m glad you’re home. I missed you.” 

[hurremsultanns]

Poison is Queen: What Made Livia such a Fantastic Villain in I Claudius (1976)

(TW: Mentions of sexual assault and incest)

The miniseries I Claudius (1976) took the historical figure of Livia and her portrayal in Roman histories (by authors such as Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio) and how Graves adapted that for a novel and then turned her into a charismatic, well written, entertaining and memorable soap opera villainess. She is one of the most memorable characters on the show due to how she is written and acted. Personally, she’s my favourite character on the show, even though I sympathise more with other characters. She was the smartest character on the show and someone who always achieved her goal, she embodies the show’s dark humour, and she straddles the line between a pure evil and a complex evil villain without losing character consistency. Overall, she is a well-rounded and well-written character

One of the most important reasons why she was such a villain was how intelligent and effective she was. The best example of this can be seen in how she killed Augustus in Episode 4 (Poison is Queen). In this the show takes for its inspiration an accusation that Cassius Dio made of Livia. According to this story, Augustus refused to eat any food that anyone else had prepared. Therefore, in order to poison him Livia painted the poison onto the figs on a tree that he would pick himself. Even though though this owes itself to historical sources written decades after the events they describe (and is apocryphal), it is an incredibly creative and clever method of killing someone. In addition to this, she clearly embodies patience and uses time to her advantage in order to get what she was. Not only can this be seen in the Prophetic Chickens speech in episode 1 (which is a brilliant introduction to her strategic insights and political awareness, as she could see how things were eventually going to turn out, gambled and patiently waited in order to see the results of her decisions take their course) how she waits for the right moment to kill people (such as Agrippa and Augustus), but Siân Phillips herself discusses it in her interview in I Claudius: A Television Epic. She may not achieve her goals quickly, but she succeeds in the end. Her strategy is the definition of playing the long game. And using her brilliant foresight and strategic political abilities, she accomplishes what she sets out to extremely well. She played a risky game, but ultimately for better or worse Tiberius did become emperor, the Republic never returned and she was eventually deified by Claudius. And even though there are implications that the corruption that the choices she makes brings risk destroying the empire and will bring about the fall of Rome, ultimately the final word on this is said at the end of the final episode (Old King Log) by the Sibyl to the dying Claudius. She says that there will be many emperors in the future and they “won’t all be a bad lot”. This, and Livia’s argument that keeping the Republic would have doomed Rome contribute to the possible argument that ultimately while what she did was unethical and immoral, in a sense Livia was right at the end of the day. It is certainly unclear whether or not she doomed Rome or saved it. There are obvious pitfalls of this, however. It is important to acknowledge imperialism, monarchy and dictatorship are deeply flawed political systems. Of course, because they are examples of absolute power, corruption and the abuse of power tend to be at their very core. And this also reinforces the misogyny of Graves’ original book because it shifts the blame from Augustus being responsible for the political decisions which he took that allowed him to set himself up as the answer to the crisis of the late Republic and the slow accumulation of more absolute power in the hands of individual strongmen. Although, these problems don’t in my opinion take away from the way in which Livia is set up to have far more political savvy than the men around her, as she is the character who sees the clearest how the winds of history are blowing. This makes her a compelling character because it makes her truly awesome: her methods are terrifying, but her intelligence and her effectiveness are impressive.

In addition to this, she embodies the link which the show makes between its most horrific moments and it’s funniest moments. This is contributed to by the employment of dry humour and dramatic irony in her dialogue. One of my favourite examples of this is when Marcellus telling her that cooking his food for him personally is a good thing for her to do and she replies that “Goodness has nothing to do with it.” This is a good example of how well the show used dramatic irony, especially in respect to Livia. While Marcellus thinks that she is simply doing something kind but smothering for him, both she and the audience understand that there is more to this (i.e. she’s going to poison him in order to free up Julia in order to marry Tiberius). Not only is this simultaneously a shocking moment (since as far as the audience is concerned she has practically admitted what she’s going to do, even though Marcellus is unaware of what she meant), but the fact that this is hidden behind what would otherwise appear to be a kind but empty platitude is both clever and hilarious. This is an important moment because it sets the bar for the dry wit, sarcasm and dramatic irony that often accompany Livia as a character, even in her most horrifying moments. Other examples of this include the “food poisoning” scene between Livia and Musa in the same episode after the death of Marcellus, the “don’t touch the figs” scene, and her brilliantly hilarious speech to the gladiators. Not only does this add to the characterisation of her intelligence, but it also adds to the entertainment quality of her as a character. As villainous and evil as she is, she is also genuinely entertaining and fun to watch, which makes her show version so enjoyable to watch and memorable in comparison with the version of her character in the book (This is a comment that other fans of the series, including Prof. Mary Beard herself, have made and I fully agree with it). By contrast, in the book, there is often very little ambiguity as to what Livia’s schemes and activities are, and there is very little dialogue. This means that one of the things that show!Livia is most memorable for, her one liners, were added in Pulman’s script, and they make for a far better character than book!Livia. Through the dramatic irony, we get a far better sense of her intelligence because the audience has to work out on our own what she has done before it is confirmed (which adds to the perception of her intelligence as we have to think it through for ourselves) and that and her humorous moments make her a far more enjoyable character than her book counterpart. Therefore the dramatic irony and humour that characterise Livia as a character make her a great villain because they make her more memorable than she otherwise could have been.

She goes between being a pure evil villain and a complex villain, although this is never made to feel contradictory as it is completely within her established character. She is perfectly willing to the lengths of murdering Augustus’ heirs and disappearing other people in order to get her way, but when she finds out how bad Tiberius has become and Caligula is, she calls their behaviour “disgusting” and refers to Caligula as a “monster”. Since their villainous actions are so different from what Livia does. She’s OK with herself murdering people in order to get what she wants, but she draws the line at incest, sexual harassment and assault. This also works well because it highlights her self-serving narrative: that she is doing everything for the good of Rome. Which is even emphasised by her outrage at finding out what happened to Lollia. She does not want to admit her role in turning TIberius evil by separating him from Vipsania (forcing him to divorce her and marry Julia, the original Disaster Marriage) and Drusus (by murdering him when he was injured, the one thing she can’t admit to Claudius), his two anchors. In episode 1 when he is speaking to Drusus, Tiberius says that they are the only two people whom he loves and describes his brother as his “lifeline into the light”. Therefore, by murdering Drusus and also forcing Tiberius to divorce Vipsania, Livia has a role in turning him into the evil person he becomes later on, and her outrage could be interpreted as a way to avoid the consequences that her toxic behaviour has had. I am not saying that she is responsible for his actions (that’s all on him), but she is responsible for turning him into the type of person who would do them, and that this is a fact that she conveniently ignores as a part of her self-serving narrative. While in some ways she is willing to revel  in evil, there are things that she cannot bring herself to admit to. So she both has the motivations of a complex villain and the entertainment value of a pure evil villain, and this works flawlessly.

What makes Livia such a great villain is that she is such a well-rounded and intelligent character.This can be seen in the characterisation of her intelligence, the humour that accompanies her and the way in which her depth as a character does not diminish her evil. She is a more interesting, entertaining and enjoyable character than her counterpart in Graves’ original book at least in part due to these reasons.

[filmmakerdreamst]

‘Boy Meets World’ Re-watch (as an Adult)

‘Girl Meets World’ doesn’t count as a sequel. Not because of the writing/tonal choices but because in the original show - despite continuity issues - the characters felt like real people e.g. the way they spoke/acted/dressed was the way people behaved in the 90s where as in the spin off, they were Disney characters e.g. hyper versions of themselves especially Cory and Eric. And the transition between both shows didn’t come naturally. It’s not an objectivity badly written show but it was pretty much a re-do of the old show with the same storylines/tropes without continuing the story. (I say the same thing about ‘The Incredibles’. vs ‘Incredibles 2’.) Also there were too many cooks in the kitchen pushing one way or another. You could see Micheal Jacobs style, all the aspects were there, but he was also creating a ‘DISNEY’ show at the same time. I don’t know about you but the one message I took from the original show was ‘finding out that life cannot be packenged into a lovely little present ’ which kind of contradicts everything that the new show is. If anything GMW is an AU universe (and it really felt like that, rewatching it right after BMW e.g. it felt flipped) almost like Disney’s version of ‘what happened next?’ The primal difference between both shows is BMW is portraying what is real and GMW is based on what is real.

Going off my point, I will however be always thankful that it exists because I probably wouldn’t of found out about ‘Boy Meets World’ otherwise. Although saying that, I never thought that the original show needed a continuation of any kind (a lot of things make sense about the spin off if you acknowledge that Disney requested it - I think it would of been much better off on its original platform) ‘Boy Meets World’ was very much a product of its time i.e. when tv shows were still relevetivley new and had no rules - like there is stuff in there that not even adult shows today have. Plus there was something about it that felt very personal (such as the characters and setting) as if the creator based it on his own childhood growing up and I think that was part of its charm and why it had such a big effect on pop culture - I’m not so sure you can repeat that.

BMW is big on meta I’ll tell you that. I love how it’s so aware of itself. The amount of depth that it has never ceases to amaze me. It’s whole universe is so dense and huge. Every quote/storyline is so unique it sticks in your brain forever. (I swear the humour got more and more deranged every season). The show was also incredibly queer and progressive.  It didn’t give a crap about sexuality. Much more than I remember. Proof to never use ‘but it was made in the 90s’ excuse.        

I loved how the show kept reinventing itself every season as Cory grew up so you really felt you were growing up with him and all the characters. The Character Development on this show was so natural/authentic. Every single character got a chance to shine. No one changed their look in one episode and no one had an intervention every time someone had an identity crisis (GMW) My favourite development was Shawn Hunter. He went from a cool kid to a ladies man to a poetic soul. It was so satisfying to watch.

I realised that Cory Matthews is actually my favourite character (before it was Eric or Shawn) I already have a special soft spot for ‘annoying’ characters because they tend to be the most memorable/real. For example, Karma Ashcroft from ‘Faking it’ was my babe while everyone was hating on her. I really related to his anxiety/self hatred about being average and I loved that he constantly made mistakes. It was very refreshing. He’s also incredibly queer-coded. I found that alot of his mannerisms make sense if you see him with extreme compulsory heterosexuality (because identity’s such as bisexual or gay couldn’t exist normally in the 90s) There are moments in the show where he literally mimics his best friend’s behaviour around girls e.g. when the class pretty much gets brainwashed by the sex ed video in ‘Boy Meets Girl’ Shawn gets asked out by a girl, making Cory jealous - which pushes him to ask out Topanga.

It’s funny how a few years of life experience can change perspectives completely because when I was sixteen (aka the same age as Cory and Topanga) watching BMW for the first time, I was mad at Amy for ‘not understanding that they were in love’ (in ‘A Walk to Pittsburg’) but now that I’m older I’m actually agreeing with her. Yeah, what do they know about love? Because all season long they were acting quite superficially.

Cory and Topanga became somewhat of a toxic couple in seasons 5 -7. Reminded me of my parents relationship because my mum gave up her chosen university to be closer to my dad and they aren’t together any more. Topanga’s love for Cory was very conditional and Cory cheated on her multiple times/openly begged for sex  (Again like my parents) And you should never be in a relationship with someone who makes you say “You make me think not so very much of myself” There are arguably much more signs of emotional abuse than love in their relationship especially from Topanga’s side. Plus their story was altered so many times to give it more basis (they retconned Shawn and Cory’s friendship to do this) I could write an essay on how Kevin and Winnie’s love story on ‘The Wonder Years’ is much more believable because it actually addresses how toxic it was and they grow apart in the end. If GMW was a realistic continuation, they would be divorced with a little girl - leave them in the 90s where they belong.

Alan and Amy were couple goals! Cory and Topanga wish that they could have what they have. Literally the definition of ‘a healthy relationship on tv that keeps thriving and over coming obstacles without big drama’. Best TV parents ever.

I loved the Matthews family; how they all had individual arcs and developments of their own. One of my favourite arcs was in season 5, when Eric and Cory were both jealous of what they ‘didn’t have’ with their dad, so Alan made an effort to give them both that they needed. Honestly, I had never seen so much healthy communication on TV before. Alan is the best father around. His whole personal arc of giving up managing a supermarket because he wasn’t passsionate about it anymore and buying a mountain store was so inspired. I found it funny that the family had more of a relationship with Shawn than Topanga.

Shawn Hunter never caught a break. It got a bit tiring. He was never allowed to be happy for five minutes. Every time he laughed or smiled, 5 years were added onto my lifespan. Why didn’t Johnathan Turner adopt him? I loved their dynamic. Why did he let him go back to his abusive father who just dumped him anyway?

Jack and Shawn’s complicated dynamic was possibly the most unique/interesting arc of the entire show and no one talks about it. I don’t care what y’all say - despite them being very different, Jack was the only one who fully took care of Shawn without second thoughts (Turner and the Matthews family had doubts)

I liked Shawn and Angela. I thought they were much better suited than Cory and Topanga. I honestly wouldn’t of minded if they ended up together even though I always had a feeling they wouldn’t. (Like I’m glad she went with her dad in the end) And considering how important they were as a interracial couple in the 90s, GMW handled that very poorly.

Shawn and Cory should of ended up together. And before you come at me with ‘it’s important to have m/m friendships without toxic masculinity’ (which is an important arguement to have) - yeah no shit there’s an entire Industry based around that/pitting women against each other. While it is important to have those friendships between men that are close and even intimate (take Chandler and Joey, Schmidt and Nick, Isak and Jonas and Jake and Charles for example) there was also another layer to their relationship which the narrative played off sometimes as them “going out” or “in love”.  I actually recently found out that a writer - who came into the show in season 3 - confirmed that she wrote gay undertones into their relationship on purpose ‘In my opinion as a writer, they thought they were “straight”, they both didn’t realise or understand their feelings for eachother’ but couldn’t deliever because the producers wanted to keep the show “kid friendly”. Kind of like Xena and Gabby. I know people prefer Jack & Eric (I love them as well) but everything got ruined for me as soon as they introduced the ‘love triangle’ and I always tend to prefer emotional tension over sexual. They were just so unconditional with each other/ their friendship was so good and healthy and now I’m so bitter that it never happened.

I never understood why Shawn and Cory had to stop being best friends after he got married. He’s not Topanga’s property. I always hated how Topanga tried to interrupt/interfere with their dynamic — although now I realise it was because the two of them purposely left her out. Looking back at it, If it really was just a intimate friendship then why would she get so easily jealous if she didn’t sense there was something else deeper going on? You should never marry someone who puts you second.

I didn’t like Topanga when she was with Cory (or vice versa) Especially after they got married. She was a great character on her own. Feminist before her time. Hermione Granger before her time. I always felt she deserved a lot better than him in a way e.g. if someone I considered a friend speard a rumour around high school that we slept together - I would never speak to that person again. SHE SHOULD OF GONE TO YALE GOD DAMN IT. And as someone pointed out the other day, if the roles were reversed some of the stuff she does or says to Cory would be considered domestic violence. ‘She’s always blaming Cory on shit that isn't even his fault or makes him feel bad or shuts down his emotions and turns it around so he's comforting her instead.’ There was even a moment in GMW (not that I consider that show a continuation) where she locks him out the house for a few days after he insulted her chicken, and his son Auggie had to bring him spaghetti. If Cory was a woman, that would not be played off as a joke - that would be considered abuse. They were however a better couple in GMW ironically.

Angela Moore is now one of my favourite characters on BMW. She was beautiful. Her friendship with Rachel (and Topanga) was the best. And I frickin’ loved her and Cory’s friendship development - when they could of easily not played into that. I hate that she got villiaized in GMW.

My favourite seasons are 4, 5 & 1. My least favourites are 3 & 2 & 7. And even then the show was still pretty darn good.

The back and fourth clash between Turner and Mr Feeny in season 2 was very entertaining.

Mr Feeny and Eric are my favourite relationship on ‘Boy Meets World’. I love how Eric was the only person that Feeny directly told that he loved him. Also, why didn’t Eric become the new Mr Feeny? He showed more traits of becoming a teacher in the show than Cory did.

Eric and Tommy was probably the most heartbreaking plot line in season 6. (That season was an emotional train wreck) I cried for a fourth time. The world doesn’t deserve him.

I loved the development of Shawn and Topanga’s friendship. Even though there was a silent competition over Cory, they eventually became good friends. I found out that the song ‘She will be loved’ was inspired by them which is awesome but it’s also proof that people ship for less if it’s an m/f dynamic - just sayin’. I however see a more convincing potiental romance with the two of them than Cory and Topanga sometimes.

On Cory and Topanga again - they weren’t a bad couple overall. I liked them in s1 - 3. They had some great moments. But upon my rewatch (getting out of that 90s idealised headspace) I found them to be too similar at times - chafing as another person put it - to the point where they cancel each other out. A lot of people pointed out that Riley and Maya paralleled them and I was thinking “That’s not nesserily a good thing.”

‘Dream. Try. Do good.’ is on my mantelpiece.