#? kinda iffy on that one as it's not really correct but same difference

[rottmnt-residuum]

Part 13 of Arc II (Part 39)

the stuggle is real. but i persist

⇇ | ⇽ (c) | ⇽ (G) | index | ⇾

[its-no-biggie]

worst season of rvb poll got me thinking about. the worst season of rvb. anyway heres an analysis of every instance of time travel in rvb (and, by extension, the main reason season 16 is my least favourite).

[the tenses in this post are all over the place i am SO sorry. i hope it still makes sense]

church and gary (blood gulch)

first instance of time travel is church getting blasted back in time on sidewinder and then having gary send him back. (this may have gotten retconned? i know them ending up in the distant future got retconned, but i feel like church going to the past could still work..... either way im talking about it as if it was time travel.) honestly GREAT time travel. no branching timelines or alternate versions: church going back to blood gulch didnt change anything, because he already traveled back and caused all that stuff to happen. its a perfect closed loop.

even him going back over and over on sidewinder is consistent, because the one timeline is the one we see- the one where all of the churches combined do whatever it is they all do, at the same time, and the nth church ends up in the present with his friends. its a little iffy because some of the dialogue kind of implies that the first church got there and no other churches were there, tried some stuff and then went back and there were 2 churches, etc etc until we got to the nth church. but thats not how time travel works and it wasnt shown on screen, so. im choosing to believe that its correct.

it also doesnt make sense that he shows up in the present at a different time than everyone else (coincidentally, the exact moment the viewer is at in the story 🤔🤔), implying that like, time passed while he was dealing with the time travel stuff? also not how it works, but it was for dramatic timing so. i kinda get it.

wyoming (blood gulch)

next up is blood gulch wyoming! i hate that they changed his power later because this one is SO much more interesting. the way i understand it, he can essentially send his present consciousness, with all of its memories and experience, into his past body of a few minutes ago. this one DOES change the timeline, because every time he goes back, he uses his memory of something that hasnt happened to change the course of events. its a little different from typical branching timelines time travel, because his whole body doesnt go back (although there is an x-men movie that does it like this!), and it makes for a really cool power. it DOESNT make sense that tucker remembers the future that doesnt happen, but thats par for the course with this show (although usually its caboose who knows stuff he should have no way of knowing). and it makes for a fun fight rather than a one sided beat down.

but there is an inconsistency here that genuinely bothers me- why does wyoming leave copies behind?? with church it made sense, because his present body went into the past, where his past body already exists. but with wyoming, his consciousness is transferred to his past body. thats how he retains the memories of what happened (will happen? doesnt happen? was going to happen?). it seems like they just threw the copies in there because they were like "well church left copies behind so clearly time travel means you make copies" without thinking about where those copies come from and how it works.

season 16

here it is. the worst season (well.... my least favourite, anyway). season 16 CANNOT decide if its a closed loop or not. the moment where caboose travels back and asks the reds and blues about his lucky penny? closed loop! he was there the first time, we thought he was present caboose. but genkins erasing pizza? he went back in time and changed something, and now theyre in a timeline without pizza. which could work as a branching timeline, except how did the reds and blues get from the pizza timeline to the no-pizza timeline?

its almost written like theres one timeline, where the present "updates" every time someone makes a change. but thats not how time works! if genkins erased pizza then he has ALWAYS erased pizza, and pizza has never existed. OR he erased pizza and created an alternate timeline where pizza doesnt exist, which doesnt effect this timeline at all. making changes to the past doesnt "update" the present, the past CAUSES the present and always has caused the present. i know its hard to wrap your head around, because we're used to causality happening in order. so we think "if the reds and blues go back in time, clearly the effects of that would happen after they go back in time". but no, the effects would happen after they arrived in the past, which is BEFORE they time traveled in the first place. this is the nature of time travel and SO many movies get it wrong.

theres also the problem of the "present". its something i see in a lot of time travel stories and it always bugs me. what is the present to a time traveler? yes, we live in the present, but people 100, 1000, 10000 years ago also lived in the present. its just not the present anymore. what makes our present more special than theirs? when a time traveler arrives in a new time, either before or after the moment they just left, is that not now the "present" to them and the people living there? the present isnt an absolute, its relative to where someone is in time. so it seems self-centered to me, to decide that the present of the main characters is The Absolute Present. everything in The Past affects The Present and only The Present. the way i see it, every moment in time exists, and theyre always experienced in order, but the person who is experiencing it is always experiencing "the present". so every moment is simultaneously past, present and future.

and its frustrating because, even if they were going to do it this way, theyre still not consistent about it! because there are closed loop cause-and-effect moments that make perfect sense, like sarge giving his past self the idea to punch achilles (or something to that effect, i havent watched this season in a while). their whole dilemma is about whether they have free will or not, but that same scene has already clearly shown that they dont! simmons was always going to call his past self because that call ALREADY HAPPENED. present simmons will be unable to say anything different than what he already heard himself say, because thats how the call went. sarge was always going to give himself the idea to punch achilles because thats how he got the idea in the first place. they distinctly show us a closed loop and then get all worked up about whether its a closed loop or not. like?????

and the worst part is that they ALMOST get it. the writers clearly know the difference between a closed loop and a branching timeline, and that those differences affect how paradoxes are resolved, but not WHY theyre different or how they actually work. so they present it like everything hinges on paradoxes, which is just. not true??? they even use the example of the grandfather paradox, which is HILARIOUS because if you use a coherent form of time travel, its not a paradox. if your time travel is a closed loop, you wont be able to kill your grandfather. the past already happened, and your grandfather didnt die, therefore you wont be able to kill him. it didnt happen, so it wont happen. and if its a branching timeline, you can kill your grandfather, and then from that moment forward there will be 2 futures: one where you exist, and one where you dont. since youre now in the one where you dont exist, going to the future of this timeline will be a future where you dont exist. but you arent from this timeline. so itll be weird for you to be here with no parents, and your parents in your original timeline will wonder what happened to you, but. its fine. not a paradox. so the whole thing about them breaking time with a paradox is kind of annoying because like. it wouldnt happen at all if the time travel was actually consistent with reality.

and like, yeah the inconsistent time travel is essential for the story, but thats no excuse. if you want branching timelines, the "lost in the past" story becomes WAY more interesting. have them go to different times, change things, then end up on a completely different timeline than the others. hell, have grif fuck something up that ends up erasing pizza, then he has to try to get back to the timeline that has pizza. make the portals have the capability to jump to alternate timelines as well (not just forward and back through the current timeline), but theyre difficult to use and all the reds and blues are lost in alternate universes- unable to communicate with each other and unsure which timeline is the original. running into alternate versions of themselves or the people they know, creating more and more alternate timelines by continuing to change the past..... THATS a lost in time story.

alternatively, if you want the whole "you cant change the past" message that comes from trying to save wash, go with the closed loop version. the chaos of the past gets less chaotic but arguably funnier: the reds and blues would inadvertently cause major historical events, either in an attempt to prevent them or just by being there and causing mayhem. and then the attempt to save wash never works, no matter how many times they try, because the past cant be changed. kind of a similar arc to church on sidewinder, but having the whole gang involved would be fun

season 17

and finally, season 17. this one is more like the wyoming version, where their present consciousness is sent into their past bodies and the timeline branches. it wreaks absolute havoc on the timeline, which is the point, but this time it works! theres one "main" timeline, which is the show as we watched it, and chrovos' goal is to create as many branches as possible by changing major events. each branch doesnt effect the main timeline, and every time they jump, they go back to the original timeline. i like this one! its consistent, logical, and unique without being confusing. the bit about everything after time got broken being 2 timelines simultaneously was a little implausible, but its consistent with time being "broken" so ill allow it.

the stuff about black holes sending you to the beginning of the universe makes no sense, and neither does having genkins be chrovos. they clearly didnt think about the timeline enough and this is a major plot hole. but at least its a closed loop! and having huggins time travel by traveling at the speed of light is just blatantly incorrect (yes, the speed of light is the fastest you can go. but light still takes time to travel. it doesnt go backwards through time). just have her be able to time travel, shes a mystical ball of light, you make the rules.

having them heal the timeline was cool, and sort of coming to terms with the fact that you cant change the past, and that all the bad stuff that happened got them to where they are now, was a coherent and well-implemented message. its the only season thats a genuine time travel story, and i like it! i think the time travel supplements the story really well.

[imperatorisaureinova]

FTF thoughts

hookay FTF thoughts here we go! It's long so it's under a read more hah! There are parts about FTF I liked but a lot...also not really. I will say as a disclaimer I do understand that due Disney cutting the show things changed and things that were planned or set up had to be altered or dropped entirely. But there are so many choices in terms of writting and some personal biases from the crew that really just make me wonder "BUT WHY" Philip! Augh again an episode where he spends doing....nothing. Though this is more a general complaint of mine in the series over all esp now I've watched trough toh a couple times is that as a villain Philip doesn't really do all that much. Anything intresting he does do is either cut short, or we only learn about it via flashbacks/background info. I know Dana said she hates writing him and it shows! Which is honestly a shame because even if you dislike him, he's not just a cut and dry villain there's a lot of substance to him. And it's really sad to watch that go to waste.

I DID like the scene with Ghost Caleb, I had theorized for a long time that he was being haunted by the ghost of his brother/previous GGs and it's nice to see I was correct about that. And him saying "Oh, shut up." to them was funny, AND I WAS RIGHT ABOUT HIM HAVING ONE FINAL GRIMWALKER, but sadly much like anything intresting it wasn't meant to be. And now he's possesing Raine.

Which I apolgize for anyone who likes Raine, I really don't. And I'm sad that I don't but Raine just has such little substance, take away the fact they're Eda's ex and...there's not a lot there. Now of course Raine isn't the only character who suffers from this issue but Raine is more in your face because being Eda's ex means they're supposed to be more revelant but there's just not a whole lot there. Raine roleplayers I beg of you, PLEASE help me like Raine! I know they have potential but the show will not provide!

And to close my thoughts off on Philip so far, I'm sad they're just having him do the same thing, all signs point to him going to restart the draining spell, which kinda makes the whole DOU thing feel pretty moot. Sadly the way things are just makes so that there is just not a lot they can do with him in general. I've been expecting him to die by the end of the show since Hollow Mind and I figured he was going to kick the bucket by the end of King's tide so they could give all the attention to the collector (we'll get to him next). But guess he'll still be there for the finale. Regardless RIP Philip Wittebane, you were a great villain but you wound up being wasted.

Now onto The Collector....

Oh boy. Now given he was included because of the cut I was already a little iffy on him since Philip WAS already a great villain for the show, but ok fine, lets see what they'll do with him.

OOF. They pretty much declawed him instantly, compare to how TC acts in season 2 vs how he is in FTF. We got some intresting tidbits such as the collectors having been an entire species, who as their name suggests collect. But if something prevents them from collecting they'd go nuclear and kill everything, except we are shown TC doesn't like this. Which honestly is stupid as hell given HE LITTERALLY HELPED PHILIP TO PLOT GENOCIDE, but no, he gets excused of that because he's "uwu baby" ugh. I am willing to bet that the collector who caught the owl beast will be a different collector and not the one we know (it was a nice nod to see the Owl beast act up when seeing the collector, poor creature was tortured basically)

I also wasn't impressed by the Weirdmageddon but watered down. (The bit with Terra was funny) And Odalia...well she's there...yay? They said they were going to go ham,but fail at going ham F

So The collector so far is just a watered down Bill Chiper and not even a good one at that.

Huntlow, fucking hate it, sorry not sorry. As a trauma survivor I'm honestly so tired of the trope that we need romance to be "fixed" I don't give a shit if "Plus sized girls should see they can get the hot guy too" as a plus sized person, there are different ways they could've done that. Body positivity is important yes but this isn't the way to do it. Did we really need half the episode spend on Boscha and Kikimora? I don’t think so Stringbean? Her design is hella adorable but her being a “shifter” just feels like fan service to me, since many people have been speculating what her palisman was going to be Dana just said “Oh, she’ll be ALL the things so nobody is wrong” they should’ve just been her base snake form. woof, I really don’t want to be so negative but it’s hard to ignore bad writing when I see it, to quote what someone said in my discord server “So far, TTT and FTF really just feel like nothing more than afterthoughts” and honestly, I agree. I will be excited to watch the Finale in April (provided Itunes doesn’t fucking leak it again) but my hopes are all but gone, I don’t have much if any expectations 

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

*Pushes up non existent anime glasses* Actually, the Egyptian pyramids weren't built on slave/forced labour, and that's just a common misconception. They were actually built by engineers and craftsmen who were paid for their services with beer and food, which was a common practice for the time since they had no official currency until the Greeks took over. (Which makes sense, considering that the pharaoh would want the best people for the job and not unskilled labourers who have no idea what they are doing.) ...I study a lot about ancient Egypt.

But that makes the allegory that ENG developers were going for not only distasteful, but make no sense historically.

[Referencing this post!]

***Content warning: I will briefly discuss orientalism in this post!***

I admit that my understanding of ancient Egypt is extremely shaky, so thank you for correcting my mistake 💦 I’ve gone back and edited my original post (while also leaving my original words there; I want to own up to the error instead of erasing it entirely). It’s always nice for me to learn new things, especially that which expands my worldview.

I’m not sure if any of us can entirely pinpoint what the localization’s intended meaning with the nickname is? At best, we can speculate, using what we know of TWST and the real world to come to sound theories 🤔 It’s been a really fascinating topic to read up on, and I’ve enjoyed seeing so many different perspectives on the matter!

Despite all the discussions I’ve had over the past few days, I do still think the choice of “Monsieur Pyramide” for Jamil was distasteful and unnecessary, but the issue isn’t as black and white as some may believe it to be. The reason why “Pyramide” can be read as orientalist is because it conflates the Middle East (where the Scalding Sands/Jamil’s hometown appears to draw inspiration from) with Egypt (where the pyramids of the real world reside). It reduces entirely separate cultures into “one and the same”. BUT, to play devil’s advocate, one can argue that the world of TWST isn’t a direct one-to-one parallel with the real world. It is possible to create a fictional location which borrows elements from multiple different cultures to create and entirely new one for said fictional location. It is ultimately up to each individual as to how they wish to gather information and interpret this situation, as it can go both ways.

As I’ve shared before, I personally think that while localization changes are to be expected, those changes need to be “make sense”. I understand some things having to get censored to be more sensitive of a different audience and their culture, but I don’t understand what was so wrong with the original “Monsieur Multi” or why “Pyramide” was taken as the more “culturally appropriate” change💦 I find it interesting that EN has us sometimes scrambling to justify the changes they’ve made, whereas Rook’s nicknames were very easy to understand in JP and required very little effort to understand why he called people certain things. He’s a very forward person in that sense, and to think that he’d just… carelessly slap “pyramid” onto Jamil’s is kinda iffy 😬

I think that it’s important to enjoy the media we consume, but it’s just as important to stop and to criticize that media’s missteps and shortcomings. It doesn’t come from a place of hatred, but from a place of love and a desire to see something we really care for be the best that it can be.

[lutawolf]

I had a question swirling in my head for a while now, but didn't know how to best phrase it without it potentially coming off as offensive. But you kinda mentioned it in the latest Kinn as Dom post yourself, so I'll jump right onto that.

As a Dominant to a sexual submissive, you have to recognize when they need to lead. There are times when they are knowledgeable and it would do harm to not recognize it.

Basically, the question I had in mind was along the lines of "How do you reconcile dominance with cases of lack of (technical) expertise/competence?"

Making good decisions means making informed decisions. But everyone's human with limited capacity and skills, and we live in a world where things get more complex by the day and sought education focuses on hyper-specialization most of the time. How do you correct a dominant who is right in the midst of doing not the most efficient, an uninformed or outright bad decision without overstepping? (And how do you keep sticking to it, when you are absolutely sure if it's a bad, bad take? Since a Dom can overwrite a subs choices, as I understand?) If it goes really awry, I'm guessing the rescind your trust and submission will happen, but before it goes that far, how do you make one, who isn't recognizing on their own, understand/stop without breaking anything yet? I'm guessing it kinda boils down to broader beats of mutual respect and good communication, and knowing each other well, but I was curious about more practical cues/advices.

(I was also wondering if there anything about that which might even transpose to strangers. Like there are these cases of those clichéd wannabe alpha-individuals trying to dominate e.g. a meeting or something. If you do know things better, taking reigns yourself and kicking them off their high horse isn't so difficult. But hell is the aftermath with such individuals often a pain in the butt. I have been wondering the longest time how you could feed up good information the most elegant way without breaking those alpha-prides, but also not wholly rescinding being credited for your part towards the better result.)

Hey hey,

If we got lost in the woods. It would be team work that saved mine and my husband's ass. I can find water, food, make traps, and loads of other thing. I however, can't find my way out of a paper bag. I have zero sense of direction. So, it would be stupid of me to not recognize that and follow him back to civilization. As we often nature hike, this has happened a few times.

A Dominant doesn't mean all knowing. If you know more, then you need to let them know. It's how you address them that is key.

Example: I fucking put Dominante instead of Dominant on the recent post. Here comes the lovely iffy, "hey question Luta, but why Dominante" Now, honestly I don't need to be tiptoed around that much. However, I highly appreciate the amount of respect she showed me. Only a bad Dom would be unappreciative of how she handled that.

The same would go for situations in the work force. It all in how you word it. Being respectful will get you much further with a Dominant, than trying to enter a pissing contest. Example: A Dominant is putting something together wrong. "Hey, I've done this a few times already. I would love to help if you don't mind?" Nobody but a jack-ass is going to argue with that.

Just because there is difference in the power balance doesn't mean no respect. Well unless you are a slave to Master but that's deep submission and it is consented to. Anyways, in anything other than deep submission there should be respect on both sides.

Hope this was helpful 💜💜💜

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

And when dick finds out jason KNEW and didn't tell b/c of the bet. oh man. Can we get a chapter in dick's pov on this? idc where u put it I just really want to read it.

Dick rolled his eyes at his brother’s antics. Honestly, he didn’t really care who Ladybug was. They had more than enough proof that she was on the good side and their little squabble didn’t seem all that serious.

Besides, no one in France knew who she was after her being a hero for four years. Dick wasn’t one to attempt the impossible (he loved things that seemed impossible, but that’s different than things that actually are).

Still, Damian had come to him for help and he was fine taking some time out of his day to research with him.

And what did they find? Pretty much nothing.

The Parisians either guessed her age as 15-21 or somewhere in the thousands.

She had to have come over from France over the past two days but there wasn’t a single person even moderately matching her description who had come over.

Her friend group was iffy. Supposedly she was friends with someone named Chloe Bourgeois, who’d had the bee miraculous for a short period of time. Then again, some footage indicated that Ladybug might actually hate the girl, so that information was useless. All the other heroes she’d worked with were still a mystery.

And her powers? God, don’t even get him started on her powers. Did she know what she was going to summon or not -- sometimes it seemed like it and sometimes it didn’t. Just how far did the apparent invulnerability go? How does someone take a miraculous? How does her outfit work? Why won’t the mask come off? How much did her cure actually fix? The only thing they knew for sure was that she had to participate in a battle for her to be able to use it.

Even Tim hadn’t been able to scrounge up more than rumors.

But Damian still wanted Dick to be there when he confronted Ladybug with the information and question her, and he didn’t really have anything better to do.

Finding her was way harder than they thought it’d be. You’d think someone in bright red would be easy to spot in the middle of the night, but apparently not.

But, eventually, they found her.

She didn’t seem to notice them for a while. She hopped from rooftop to rooftop, drink in hand.

And then she stopped. She took a long sip from her drink.

“What do you want?” She asked. Well, at least they knew for sure she was French. Her accent was still pretty thick.

Dick and Damian looked at each other awkwardly. What were they supposed to say? ‘We tried to stalk you on the internet but it didn’t work’?

She spun on her heel and repeated herself: “What do you want?” Her smile was getting more strained.

Damian crossed his arms over his chest. “Who are you?”

Wow. Smooth. He fought the urge to sigh.

Ladybug grinned cheekily as she matched his posture. “I’m Ladybug, of course.”

He could already tell they weren’t going to get anything of substance from her. Still, Damian was sending him pleading looks out of the corner of his eyes. He brought a smile to his face. “We’ve spent the last few days researching you. We looked up immigration records, plane flights, everything. No one matches your descriptions. You, frankly, don’t exist.”

She tapped her earrings. “That’s ‘cause of magic. It keeps people from finding out my identity if I don’t want them to.”

He blinked and looked at Robin, trying to gauge if this could be true. Sure, metas existed and the internet had attributed her powers to the earrings she wore, but the idea of earrings giving people powers was still kinda odd for him.

Robin didn’t know. Great.

And then Ladybug took a sip of her drink and Dick gave pause. He’d seen that cup before. Pretty much every day, actually. He could ask Tim about it later --.

He was pulled back to the present when Damian groaned and left. He broke into a wide smile. Maybe this wouldn’t be impossible, after all.

He held out a hand to shake. “It’s been nice meeting you. Sorry about my…” He hesitated for a half-second, unsure whether he wanted to say ‘brother’. He glanced at her eyes and decided against it. He didn’t like how intent they looked. Whoever she was, she wasn’t stupid, that much was obvious.  “... partner. He’s a bit annoying.”

She beamed as she shook his hand. “It’s fine. It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Nightwing. I hope next time we can get to know each other without him around.”

He chuckled. “Just Nightwing would be fine. And that sounds great.” He gave one last wave before hopping away.

~

Jason’s phone rang and Dick grinned, glad for an excuse to stop working for even a second.

“Who wants to talk to you?”

He held up his phone to show it was ‘Timberly’.

They both frowned at this. Tim? Calling during work? He must be dying.

Jason turned on his speaker.

“Heya, Replacement, what’s up?”

“Hey, I’m going to take the day off.”

Jason and Dick looked at each other for a long time, stunned. And then they finally processed it. “WHAT?!”

“WHO IS THIS?!”

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM?!”

“ARE YOU OKAY?!”

“IS THIS A PRANK?!”

“Yes, I’m fine. No, it’s not a prank. I’ve met someone --”

Jason laughed.

“-- not like that, Jay -- and I’m giving her a tour of the city. She just got here from France a while ago.”

Cafe person? From France? Dick’s brain clicked and he shoved Jason out of the way to get to the phone. “Did you meet her at the cafe?”

“Yes, I met her at the coffee shop, Dick. What does it matter?”

“She could be Ladybug.”

Tim and Jason laughed at him. Laughed.

“You’re insane. Can I have time off or not?”

Dick fought back his annoyance. Tim was actually asking to leave and he wasn’t going to stop him. “Yes!”

“Please!” Added Jason.

The line went dead. Dick dropped back onto the couch and pulled out his own phone.

How could he bully Tim into bringing (the person who might be) Ladybug over?

He opened up the family group chat.

Idontwantpicturesthatsjustmyname: Guys you will not BELIEVE this

~

Dick rested his head on his hands as he watched Marinette from across the table.

“So, what do you know about Ladybug?”

Her eyes widened slightly. Whether this was because of the suddenness of the question or because he was right he wasn’t sure.

“Subtle,” Jason said sarcastically. He sent Dick a short glare as if to say ‘don’t scare her off we just met her’ and then gave Marinette an apologetic smile. “Sorry, ‘bout that. He’s been obsessed since she appeared, and most of his research has been a dead end. He’s grasping at straws.”

She relaxed and gave a soft laugh. “I’m too klutzy to ever be Ladybug, you can ask anyone.”

Dick tried not to look too skeptical. He’d purposefully surprised her with a rather forceful hug when he’d met her to see how good her balance was when she wasn’t paying attention. She’d had no problem both staying up and supporting their weight.

He couldn’t tell her that, though.

He groaned. “And I don’t suppose you know who it is?”

“Nope.”

And, just like that, the conversation moved on. Damn it, Jason, can’t you relax for a few seconds so he can interrogate her? Ugh.

Still, he smiled at Tim’s expression as Marinette began to explain exactly how they’d met. Even if it annoyed him that he hadn’t gotten any information, no one could ever pass up on the opportunity to mess with their siblings.

~

Jason sent Dick a glare as he pulled on his leather jacket. “You want to what?”

“Do a stakeout!” Dick said brightly. “I’m pretty sure Marinette is Ladybug.”

Tim sighed. “So we’re going to stalk my new friend? Great. Maybe this is why my friendships don’t last.”

“C’mon! It’s not like you even have to go, Tim.”

“And let you guys embarrass me? No thanks.”

“She won’t know --,” Jason said.

Tim sighed and put on his mask. “No. Come on. Dick, you owe me a coffee.”

Dick groaned but nodded. “Fine, I’m paying for snacks. Let’s go.”

~

“For the record, I think you’re stupid,” said Jason as they started to pull themselves up the fire escape.

“Thanks!” Said Dick brightly. “I know I’m right, but thanks!”

Jason laughed quietly. “Suuuure. Wanna bet?”

“Sure. How about 3k?”

He rolled his eyes. “Only 3? Are you really sure?”

Dick scoffed. “Fine. 5k.”

Jason smirked and pulled himself up the last rung and sat himself down on the edge. “Sucker.”

Tim glanced inside and gave sarcastic jazz hands. “Wow. How suspicious. She’s going to sleep.”

“Can’t you guys even pretend to believe me?”

“Nope. You’re insane, dude, the girl probably couldn’t hurt a fly if she wanted to.”

“I know what I saw. That coffee cup was the same one he --” he pointed at Tim “-- brings home all the time. And he saw her get one that day. She’s French and new in town. It’s got to be her.”

Tim sighed. “This feels wrong,” he mumbled. He took a long sip of his drink before continuing: “She’s a civvie, we can’t just watch her.”

“She might be a civvie,” corrected Dick.

His brothers groaned and they all opened their bags of Doritos.

And then Marinette flung the window open and stuck her head out. “Could you guys not do this outside my window?”

Everyone jumped. Tim literally jumped, nearly falling over the side of the fire escape in his surprise. They got into fighting poses on instinct.

Marinette had gone a little pale at the sight of them.

They quickly dropped their guards.

She flashed a weak smile. “Oh, I’m sorry, sirs. I thought you were just guys on my fire escape. You on a stakeout?”

Everyone looked at each other confusedly. Did her accent somehow get worse in the few hours since they met her? Tim looked especially confused by the development.

“Of sorts,” said Red Hood carefully.

She yawned and rubbed her eyes and her accent slipped back towards normal as she spoke: “If you’re staking out, can you…?” She trailed off and her eyes found their way to their Doritos. “Is that really all you’re eating tonight?” She asked, her lips falling into a frown.

The three all looked at each other.

“I mean... yeah, it’s stakeout food,” said Dick.

She clicked her tongue. “C’mon,” she waved them inside and began walking to her kitchen.

They all shrugged as they stepped through her window. What did it matter?

Dick snooped around her apartment with his brothers. He didn’t really know what he was looking for, just evidence that she did anything shady, but really he didn’t know where she’d hide anything. The place was pretty empty.

‘Damn, you live like this?’ He thought, giving her a glance and shaking his head.

His eyes found their way to her bed and he frowned. She’d set up a fake version of herself with pillows and blankets… but hadn’t she made it seem like she’d gone straight from bed to the window? How awake had she really been? And, if she’d been awake, had the accent been faked? Why?

He raised an eyebrow at the real Marinette.

“There were three people outside my window, did you want me not to take precautions?”

He looked away. Fair enough.

He continued looking for anything, but his attempts were fruitless. He would have thrown his hands up in frustration if he didn’t think that would make her suspicious of their true intentions.

Unable to do much else without making it obvious, he wandered over to watch her bake.

~

Dick looked the NightMare outfit up and down.

Ladybug sighed. “What?”

Maybe he could get some information on how her powers worked.

“Why is this outfit more intricate than your normal one?”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “Because I was intending to make it look like a coincidence that I showed up here right after the Ladybug in Paris defeated Hawkmoth,” she said.

He knew she was lying. He didn’t know how he knew she was lying, maybe it was the cadence of her voice or the fact that she had a tendency to keep them as in the dark about her identity as possible, but she was definitely lying.

But he couldn’t prove it.

So he moved on.

~

She stumbled out of her portal and sent them all a tiny wave. “Salut.”

Dick’s eyes widened and he rushed forward to catch her in case she fell. She didn’t, but he still wrapped her arm around his shoulders to hold her upright. “Christ! What did they do to you?”

"Some sort of tranquilizer,” she mumbled, closing her eyes. “We need to warn the Waynes.”

He tensed and looked at his family, who were anxiously shifting from foot to foot.

“You’re not in any state to do that,” said Bruce, finally.

“I can open a portal.”

A wide smile stretched across his face. Aha! She’d admitted that she had to have been somewhere to open a portal. He had her now! “You’ve been to Wayne Manor?”

She opened an eye just enough to send him a glare. “No, but I’ve been outside it.”

His smile dropped. Damn. That’s a good point. The outside was a pretty popular tourist spot. He sighed.

“You need to get home,” said Tim. “I’ll make sure everyone turns around.”

Dick sent him a slight glare but let go of Ladybug and turned away. As much as he wanted to be right, the idea of watching her stumble into her room while half-awake in order to confirm this made him feel a little sick.

He could figure it out some other time, at least.

~

Jason dropped Ladybug onto the bed and they all scrambled around her.

Dick picked up a knife and started attempting to cut the suit around her wound and a curse slipped from his lips as it attempted to reform itself instantly.

After a few attempts, he reached for Ladybug’s earrings. He hadn’t even really been thinking about her identity, he’d just been frustrated about the apparent inability to help her.

Her hand shot up and grabbed his wrist before he could touch them. She tried to say something but couldn’t talk above the blood gurgling in her mouth.

He pulled his hand from her grip.

‘Fine, but when you die stupidly it’s not my fault,’ he thought.

He went back to attempting to tend to her wounds through her outfit.

~

Listen, just because he hadn’t done that didn’t mean that he didn’t still want to know.

He sent a text to Marinette. He’d check every once in a while to see if she responded, but if it took however long Ladybug was out then he would be right.

~

He stepped into the apartment and was stunned to see that Jason and Tim were already there.

But then he watched Marinette walk over. And she was probably injured, with how hard she was trying to hide her limp. And she clearly knew that he was onto her, otherwise why would she be trying to hide it?

“You’re walking a little weird, are you alright?” He said, a smug grin on his face.

But then Tim came to her rescue. He walked over and slung an arm over her shoulders protectively. “Maybe if you weren’t watching her walk she wouldn’t be overthinking it so much.”

Damn it. He hated it when Tim had a point.

Whatever. At least he’d thought of a plan B. He watched as Marinette’s eyes fell on Robin. She’d never met the vigilante before, so there was no reason why they shouldn’t get along.

And then she was nice to him.

He wanted to kick a wall. Was he actually wrong or was she just aware of what he was doing?

She pulled a bottle of wine from her cupboard. “You guys can all have this, right?”

There, a perfectly acceptable way to be petty. He snatched the drink from her hands. “It doesn’t matter because you can’t drink!”

Marinette raised her eyebrows. “It’s legal in my country.”

“But not in ours! Where you are currently staying! How did you even get your hands on this?”

She shrugged innocently.  “You’re more uptight than my actual mom.”

He scoffed. Rude!

So rude, in fact, that he didn’t realize that she had changed the subject until there was no natural way to come back to it.

He stared at the wine in his hands.

Screw it.

~

Dick glanced at his phone as he received a text.

His eyes lit up at the username. Marinette! Aha! He had her now! It had only been a day since Ladybug was released, surely this was proof --!

Definitelyforgottosleep: lemme in

He frowned. All thoughts of Ladybug were pushed out of his mind at the two words. Was she okay? What had happened?

~

Chloe Bourgeois? Where had he heard that name before?

A frown found its way to his face as he tried to recall this. “I know you.”

“You do?”

He nodded slightly and scratched the back of his head. “Definitely... so where...?”

Marinette looked a little pale. “Don’t all rich people kind of know each other?”

Dick gave a small nod. “I guess...” He said despite being sure that wasn’t it.

She grabbed both of them by their sleeves. “C’moooon. It’s cold out, we can at least do this inside.”

~

Dick watched from a bit away, trying to fight back a grin as Marinette and Cass greeted each other.

“Hi,” Marinette squeaked.

Cass looked Marinette up and down. If anyone could crack this case in two seconds, it was her…

And she did.

“Are you a vigilante?”

He fought the urge to squeal. Yes! Yesyesyesyesyesyes --!

And then Jason appeared out of nowhere to tackle Marinette in a hug.

This couldn’t ruin his good mood, though. Nothing could.

“Cass thinks that Mari could be a vigilante,” said Dick with a cheeky look on his face.

Jason and Marinette tensed slightly and looked at each other.

Then, Cass gave a short laugh. “No, wait, I was wrong. Don’t worry about it, Dick.”

Ah. Nothing could ruin his good mood except for that.

His smile dropped instantly and he groaned. “Dang…”

~

Dick looked between Marinette and Tim with horror. Ladybug had confessed literally hours ago and here he was dating Marinette? What the heck? Sure, they were cute together, but that was just cold. Couldn’t he have waited a few days at least?

It didn’t even occur to him that maybe the whole ‘Ladybug confessing’ thing could be linked.

~

When he’d turned on his comm, he hadn’t expected anything much from it.

“The bug’s been bugged,” said Cass.

“She’s been what?”

“Bugged. Someone bad found out her identity and now she’s got a bug.”

There was a silence as this sunk in.

Then Dick was yelling. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOMEONE FOUND OUT HER CIVILIAN IDENTITY?!”

“Damn, Nightwing, didn’t know you cared so much,” said Tim, who sounded a bit on edge.

“WHY DID THEY GET TO KNOW BEFORE ME?!”

“Because everyone gets to know before you,” said Cass calmly. “You’re officially the last to know.”

“IM SORRY?! EVERYONE KNEW?!”

“Yep.”

He couldn’t believe he’d been betrayed like this, especially by his own family.

And so he questioned them.

Tim had apparently figured her out the second day and not said anything about it because ‘her identity clearly matters to her, she didn’t even know I knew it until a little while ago’. Damn him. Dick couldn’t even get mad at him for that.

And then Jason was next. He’d apparently found out when Marinette had gotten shot. He’d given the same reasoning as Tim, which was more than a little suspicious.

Bruce was next. He’d found out on the Wayne Manor cams and hadn’t said anything because he thought everyone already knew. Ouch.

Duke said that he had just found out when Marinette had touched her comm. He got a pass.

And then Cass said she’d found out the moment she’d met the girl. Dick had suspected that, considering the conversation they’d had on Thanksgiving, but then he’d questioned her on why she hadn’t told him and…

“Red Hood and Marinette didn’t want you to know, so.”

Dick was practicing breathing exercises. It didn’t work, though. “WHO IS SHE?!”

He had a strong suspicion he knew, considering Jason had kept the answer from him, but he wanted to hear it directly from someone.

Jason attempted to steer the conversation away: “Hey, so about that bug thing --.”

Whatever attempts to save his wallet he was about to make was ruined by Cass, who simply said: “Marinette.”

Let’s just say Jason was lucky that Dick was against murder.

He was not, however, against cursing him out for the entire family to hear.

~~~

When you have to read 44 chapters of your own fic to answer a prompt--

I probably missed some things, too. I put a lot of little things in

[spidermilkshake]

Started doing some to-scale size references for Redwall-verse species, including some speculative ones (and corrected identifications, such as Jacques's few infamous instances of "crested lizards"... those are newts, buddy).

All the creatures in this series are obviously much less tiny or gigantic in proportion to each other than their real-life inspirations. Kinda got to do that to make a building useful for both small mice and massive badgers and otters!

All of the smaller bat species that would be present in the Mossflower and surrounding regions, though the series itself doesn't pay much attention to bats and their great diversity and very different life cycles. For the most part, any bats seen in the series are the mouse-eared bat or the pipistrelle (two of the most common, generic "lives in big caves" small insectivorous species) All of the bats in the series itself that appear are regarded as belonging to the "goodbeast" class, a pleasant change from the usual end result of Being an Animal the Public Loves to Hate featuring in Redwall (like poor rats, weasels, and snakes...). The bats that do show do seem to embrace their elevated status somewhat, though appear a bit more oblivious to the deep, nasty depths that the roots of such division go to, and their wide-reaching and often violent consequences. I suppose if you lived in a cave and never met any outsiders but one time in a generation, you'd be oblivious too. Of course... Jacques made Biology-Class-Failing blunders the first few times he tried including bats, the worst of which was presenting the bats as blind. OOPS. That's an animal-myth so widely-criticized you'd have to find a very sheltered kid or a very dim-witted adult to see people still spreading that little nugget of unwisdom.

The next time part of my series here shows bat species on it, it will include the larger ones. Which I speculate would NOT get the more friendly "goodbeast" class regard, largely down to their greater size meaning their natural predation would not be focused entirely on invertebrates (especially as the largest European bats do hunt small vertebrates, as bats are obligate carnivores). Being willing to hunt small birds, frogs, and mammals would stamp 'em with that Scarlet V of "vermin". The only reason some hunting creatures appear to still get counted "goodbeast" is that they have followed a sort of arbitrary rule: Only hunting fellow animals which "goodbeasts" haven't assigned any sort of intelligent-creature status to, which would be basically all invertebrates and fish... which becomes deeply iffy if you realize that a number of social insects, mollusks, and fish in general are very much just as conscious and intelligent as various mammals and reptiles in real life, so presumably they're sentient in the Redwall universe but just aren't capable of verbal speech. Except the ones that are. OOPS. Yeeeeeaaaaah... having river eels as named, speaking characters on occasion really hammers home that "goodbeasts" consider fish fair game only by some rigid rules division--their horror at seeing birds and mammals killed for food doesn't really seem morally motivated at all: They just want to be able to punish creatures for hunting anything close to them because they don't believe anything should hunt "goodbeasts" at all... but don't you tell them to make it equivocal! Of course Goodbeast creatures still get to enjoy delicious flesh--so long as it's from a creature different enough that they don't see themselves in it, and thus don't give silent permission for any of the underclass's creatures to "hunt outside the lines" they laid down on everybody.

XD It turns out, trying to stretch one's own personal pescetarianism into a universe that does not abide the same human-dominating ideologies... uh, turns out awkwardly! Especially weird when it's moral pescetarian stuff, which is a bullhonkey reason to not want to eat a bird but be perfectly a-okay with eating a parrotfish, especially with more modern animal sentience discoveries. It's a bonkers hypocrisy.

Less bonkers though than having pure-carnivore vesper bats eating exclusively mushrooms and salads. XD

[markkuum]

just finished watching bungo stray dogs (including the ova; movie; & wan) & ITS SOOO GOOD, MAN 😭 (i gush more under this cut)

so far, i think s3 is the best one imo.. (s2 a very close second) character wise, my faves are; ✨ ranpo, chuuya, dazai, kunikida, akutagawa, fitzgerald, & kenji ✨ i'm probably biased with ranpo bc i watched (& rlly enjoyed) saiki k. & they have the same seiyuu (hiroshi kamiya) so i often picture saiki in his shoes. other than that ranpo is so cool??? like he has no ability power whatsoever & he's just plain ass smart af 😵 chuuya? another badass character. dazai—i mean who doesn't like dazai? i was actually surprised to find out that dazai & tsukiyama (tokyo ghoul) has the same seiyuu, his voice is very familiar so finding this out was very surprising. kunikida,, a character we should look up to tbh 🧎 akutagawa, another cool as character & i actually like him more than atsushi 🤐 fitzgerald is arguably my favorite leader.. (i rlly like fukuzawa & mori but fitzgerald hits different..) like dude,, he has money as his ability. thats cool,, & also fitzgerald dilf. and kenji,, he's just a cute as character w a wicked ability 😌

i do have some iffy things/things i really dislike about the series. 1.) dazai attempting to suicide is one of the things i find "iffy" about it. ik he's not glorifying it/encouraging others/viewers to do it but i find it off-putting. though he has turned down the attempts as the story progressed so that's good ig. not really bothered by it that much, i kinda think it adds more character to him? but srsly we shouldn't take suicide as a laughing matter. 2.) the pedophilia. i was really bothered with mori & elise's relationship & throughout the series i continuously convince myself that they have a "father-daughter relationship". but for some reason mori is still a really likeable character & i'm baffled by the fact that i like a pedo character- 😭 3.) lastly the incest or at least the implied incest. i tried.. i really tried to like the two tanizakis but they're just SO weird. it's so... awkward & whenever they're on the scene doing whatever the hell they're doing i just cringe so much. i have a brother (two of them actually) & i'm NEVER this touchy/clingy with them. junichiro has a cool ability - not gonna lie about that but bc of his peculiar r.ship w his sister i just cant.. now, naomi... she literally has no personality whatsoever & a very "distinct trait" about her so far is that she loves her brother. & don't tell me it's just a platonic relationship w them being clingy, in one of the bsd wan episode; when dazai & atsushi were cleaning the lockers, they opened naomi's locker and lo and behold pictures of her brother. just that. again, its like her only trait. & when yosano lost her scalpel & she searched junichiro; naomi was jealous..? Like c'mon.. I don't think I'll ever wrap my head around them & say that i like them,, i just can't. sorry not sorry.

overall, I'd give it 7.5/10 (prob 8 tbh). please don't cancel me or fight me in the comments, this is just my opinion. & if you want to share yours feel free to do! including correcting me; maybe you can help me have a change of mind w the things i don't like ab bsd. or if you want to just gush over them,, go ahead! i really appreciate you for taking your time to read all this garbage i wrote 😅 i hope you have a splendid day!! stay safe n healthy~

[kill-your-authors]

Honestly I make posts or tag posts about how attractive I think Luca Marinelli is like that’s all this sudden obsession is to me but the reality is that in a very short period of time he’s become one of the most important influences in my life. 

Like, with every new thing I learn about him or witness him say or do in a video, I feel overwhelmed with hope and with - I don’t know, some sense of peace I can’t explain. Like...learning that he played a trans woman, though I stand by that I do not think cis people should play trans people, I’ll admit that with Luca it doesn’t have the same sort of performative-ally-diversity-checklist flare that it did when say Scarjo wanted to play a trans man. And just listening to him talk about his experience playing Roberta and how he felt for her character and properly using she/her pronouns without any difficulty whatsoever and like lord knows there’s a lot more at risk for a man’s reputation to perform femininity to any degree than there is for a woman to perform masculinity and he still did it, and like, that means something to me, I guess. That he played a trans woman, and he’s played more than one gay man, multiple queer characters, and it’s just a non-issue for him. 

And then learning that he literally moved to Germany with Alissa and learned her language and raised her children alongside her as if they were his own, to the point that he thinks of them as his own, plus, in the video when he talks about Pen Paper Peace and he goes out of his way to correct himself when he says “We, rather she,” And points to his wife and says that she’s the one who came up with this charity...

And then yesterday I was sort of skimming through La Solitudine Dei Numeri Primi because there’s no subtitles for it yet but I was kinda iffy on whether or not I was gonna watch it anyway because I wasn’t sure how long his role is - there’s this scene where he’s standing in his underwear staring in the mirror trimming his beard, right? And at first glance I was like...”Wait, that’s not how he normally looks in his underwear, right?” because he’s done plenty of other scenes that required him to be in his underwear or whatever and in this movie he looked different and it took me a moment and I was like, “Oh, he’s wearing a fat suit.” And then like, the camera panned out and I saw this crease on his leg where there normally isn’t one and I was like, “Oh shit. He actually gained weight for the role. That’s really him.” 

And like, I knew he lost weight to play Cesare in Non Essere Cattivo but for me when an actor loses weight for a role I’m kinda like...okay there was no internal struggle over whether or not to do that though. Like, maybe for some men who have spent years building up muscle mass to look a certain way for certain roles or whatever, but that clearly isn’t Luca (another reason to love him, tbh). He has a very average build, a build that is very obviously not the result of his own personal sculpting. So losing weight for him, for any actor who’s not worried about muscle mass, is probably a no-brainer. No bad can come for an actor losing weight. But gaining weight? At least in America, that’s a risk most actors aren’t willing to take. Let alone for one little scene so early in their career. But he did it. And, seeing Luca with a good extra fifteen to thirty pounds on him for one small tiny scene in a movie...just like filled me with fucking joy. That he was willing to do that.

And this all boils down to this interpretation of him on my part, that he really is an actor for the love of the art and not for any other reason. And he probably actually really is shy when people are complementing him. He probably actually is nervous on talk shows. He probably actually does just look forward to sleeping directly after an award. He probably actually wouldn’t want to be batman if he were a super hero because he probably actually never would want to be someone who hoards wealth (hence, him and his wife starting a charity). And like, there’s that interview when someone asks him if he’s expecting a nomination for Non Essere Cattivo and he says, “To expect something like that would be arrogant,” or something to that affect, and then goes on to say how happy he is for everything happening for that movie regardless and it’s like...if it was just about appearing modest, he probably would have said something like, “I don’t know” or “I don’t think so” or something like that, but he specifically said, “That would be arrogant” as if that’s something he very purposefully does not want to be.

And then of course there’s that speech of him accepting the award for Martin Eden, and he deliberately thanks people in each of their own languages, deliberately mentions the men out at sea risking their lives to do good... 

I just can’t stress enough how much I love him, not just as a very talented actor, or an exceptional example of My Taste In Men(TM), but as a person. 

[jabbubab]

i needed to have a rant about this because i've seen it one too many times. i can only apologise that your inbox is the one this humongous essay has landed in

as much as i don't like max and the people who surround him, he does have a point about drive to survive

the portrayal of his relationship with daniel in dts was weird, and overtly made him the villain to daniel's heroic protagonist when in reality they were just highly strung teammates who were, and still are, close friends

you could kind of see the same pattern when they did esteban and checo, and how they painted checo as the villain that got all the limelight and kept his seat. or drumming up carlos and lando's 2020 rivalry to the nth degree when it... wasn't really there

the way they dramatised romain's crash to seem like it went on for 182838 hours, or completely transplanting irrelevant and misleading radio messages in different situations (seb's brazil '19 mein gott radio being used in austria '20, or lando's "he's pushed me aside? what's he doing?" directed at checo being repurposed to make it seem as if carlos was disobeying reasonable team orders), or splicing in footage from completely different races for seemingly no good reason

apparently this season they've managed to forge a rivalry between yuki and esteban (????!?!???) which is perhaps one of the strangest narratives they could've come up with

drive to survive is an awesome tool to draw new people into the sport, and to get a little bit of that unfiltered behind the scenes that we wouldn't normally; but as someone who watched dts to reignite their love of the sport, it props up a helluva a lot of inaccuracies and misleading storylines, and misses out huge "plot points" of the season (see hulkenberg's '20 subs, george in sakhir, etc...; apparently the entirety of baku and brazil have been missed this year too)

i mean, look no further than how they nearly completely brushed lewis' fight for blm and racial equality under the rug in season 3. it was a huge motivator for him through the season and we hardly got any of it

then there's the whole mazepin debacle, where they've not addressed his despicable behaviour and have now proceeded to seemingly give him a redemption arc where there wasn't one. either on track or off

like as much as i hate to say it, if you're going to criticise max, do so in something that he is actually wrong in

not where he has one of those moments where he is unfortunately correct

Oh no that's fine I totally agree that drive to survive has some SERIOUS issues with how it portrays certain drivers and makes up rivalries. I enjoyed the first couple of series of it but I doubt I'll watch S4 because it'll just be worse than ever for that sort of thing.

My issue is more that Red Bull - including Max - basically had a season long smear campaign against Lewis saying whatever they could think up to try and put him down. So for him to now take what he thinks is the moral high ground and say he won't get involved in that side of things is kinda hypocritical more than anything. Plus all the reviews I've read say that basically Horner is telling his story and makes Max and the team seem even more like the bad guys.

I totally support drivers who don't want to share everything. I support people like Seb and Fernando (who apparently barely appear in the series), even Lewis during season 1 who understood that getting involved in it might not be the wisest thing. I just think the way they acted all season, it would've been nice to see them try and justify it to the potential new fans DTS can bring.

Hope that makes some sort of sense? I'm not saying Max is totally in the wrong and it is more the people around him, but yeah it's just a bit iffy to me.

[smallblueandloud]

some leverage: redemption reactions

i finished leverage redemption today! and i don't have anyone to talk to about it so, here we have my reactions for all eight episodes, both positive and negative. please feel free to reblog/comment -- discussions are what i'm here for! (under a cut because spoilers and also this ended up being 2k. whoops!)

EPISODE 1: the too many rembrandts job

the "aww, this guy is trying to pull his first heist! how cute" job

what they chose to do with nate was... interesting. it might just be that i read too many of those cracky "here's how they should explain nate's absence" posts, but i was expecting something funny. the grief permeating this episode -- it makes SENSE, but it was still weird. leverage doesn't usually have sadness like this. pain, yes, rage, certainly, but sadness? not usually

the way sophie immediately spots the signs of a con and slips into a character? phenomenal. i'm here for EXPERTS BEING EXPERTS and this show does NOT disappoint

harry wilson is a really solid character! most impressively, he's not flynn, which is impressive enough that i'm making a whole bullet point about it. i was worried that noah wyle was kinda a one-trick pony, but it appears not! good for him tbh

i'm LIVING for the ot3 moments in this episode. "what happened?" "we happened" YESSSSS!!! i wish we'd had more domesticity, but i know they did what they could

"he gets it from his father" FUCK!!!!!

the discussion about redemption in this episode is FANTASTIC but personally i am still delirious with excitement about "my nana leads a multi-denominational household" so expect those thoughts in 3-5 business days

EPISODE 2: the panamanian monkey job

the "flash electropop concert" job

BREANNA INTRODUCTION! i love her so MUCH, y'all. we only got to see her dynamic with hardison in this one episode, but man, it manages to be one of her best dynamics anyway. i just! i love her! i love the way the team works with her!

"in our field, you're one of the best. but there, you're the only one." god we have ELIOT/HARDISON rights and i am NOT OKAY. just!! them!!!!!! being supportive!!!!!! they have learned how to be sweet with each other! they work together so much better (in part because we're seeing them from harry's outsider pov instead of nate's insider pov, but STILL)

midway through this episode, i thought "huh, leverage always focuses on specific people, when really the problem is systematic, and pretending it's anything different is just an excuse to not fight for change". and then at the end harry talks about how the system itself is broken! i love knowing that john rogers and i were reading the same tweets last summer. it's a good feeling to trust the people making a piece of media

who let noah wyle speak spanish. whoever it was, they need to rescind their permission

god, the parker/hardison in this episode. THE PARKER/HARDISON IN THIS EPISODE! they KILL me friends they KILL ME!

also just like, hardison in this episode in general. he made a star trek reference! he made a doctor who reference! he decides there are other people who need him more! the way they wrote around gina bellman's maternity leave in s2 was good but this was phenomenal.

also i'm here for ot3 crumbs so "is this like the time when eliot wanted us to say no" is going on my ot3-is-canon conspiracy board

this is a tiny detail but eliot taking out the drone with a goddamn ORANGE was so good. he's so good at his job!! they're all so good at their jobs!! i know i literally just talked about this but AAA

EPISODE 3: the rollin' on the river job

the "sometimes you just want to rob a vault wearing a floofy dress, and that's valid" job

i did... not. like. how the villain in this one was an immigrant whose exploitable weakness was a "desperation" to be included in the upper crust. and the fact that they beat him with a literal southern belle who explicitly beats him BECAUSE her family has been in the area for "hundreds of years"? it just feels Iffy.

also iffy about this episode was breanna's characterization. it felt inconsistent. she feels inconsistent across the whole season, but this episode in particular... she tells harry she's only with the team because she's desperate, that she doesn't believe in hope, and then at the end of the episode she tells parker she wants to be there to change the world. and like, even in the first place, she's not here out of desperation! SHE asked to join the team! like, i can see how it all kinda fits together, but it just feels... inconsistent. idk. i think these scripts all could've benefited from an extra round or two of editing.

anyway! i loved the way they tied hardison into these episodes, even though aldis hodge couldn't be there. he has binders! breanna doesn't want to read them! parker did! he put in big letters, "when in doubt, trust the person in the van". i'm just so !!! about how much i love him and how much he loves his team and how much his team loves him. FOUND FAMILY, BABY!

all inconsistencies in breanna's characterization aside, i really liked her speech at the end. i know how she feels! it's really nice to have someone on the team who's from -- not my world, really, but a lot closer than any of the others. it's a nice feeling! i love her a lot. i hope her writing gets more consistent

lol, parker ate eliot's carrot cake. i love the parker/eliot rights we get in this show, they're so domestic and it's wonderful.

EPISODE 4: the tower job

the "hardison made his partners learn klingon" job

watching this episode was what made me go "they're not going to make us sit through a harry/sophie romance... right? right?"

i'm still not sure they're gonna let us avoid it but it COULD work so... i've decided to just not worry about it for now

i liked the number of ways the con goes wrong! it was fun to watch them work on the fly like that. i think them not having a dedicated Mastermind(tm) is a good watsonian explanation for their plans being pretty haphazard in general, but it's good, they think well on their feet

nate was a chessmaster. he had the whole situation in his mind from the beginning, accounting for every possible outcome. parker and sophie are much more adaptive, and it's cool to see. they can rely on their respective skillsets a lot more than nate could

a really solid episode! probably one of the strongest ones in the season. i liked it a lot.

(ALSO as mentioned above the klingon lines were fantastic and not just because they were a star trek reference -- every time eliot and parker both mentioned hardison, together, it added a year to my lifespan)

EPISODE 5: the paranormal hacktivity job

the "sophie was worryingly prepared to fake her death" job

i know why they characterized the client as a skeptic, i really do, and i loved the format of this episode, but also. But Also. she should've been a love interest for breanna and I'm Right.

having a girl's episode was the CORRECT choice. they do crimes in their free time! they fleece newbie, cruel criminals! it's so good!

it would've been cool to have eliot around for the assassin guy, but it was also cool to see the others take him out without having eliot to rely on. it's like getting to see how they'd take out eliot, if they were ever on opposing sides.

PARKER CANONICALLY USES SCRIPTS IT'S THE BEST THING EVER

breanna bristling about letting the criminal into the theater's electric system was so good god i love her so much. she knows hardware! i bet she likes to work with her hands. i bet she stims. i bet she has adhd

actually, sidenote, but i LOVE these headquarters. they look so nice! the stage is so nice! i loved having an episode set in and around it, it was such a good choice.

EPISODE 6: the card game job

the "FINALLY AN EXPLICITLY QUEER LEVERAGE CHARACTER" job

QUEER BREANNA QUEER BREANNA QUEER BREANNA QUEER BR

UNFOLLOW ME NOW THIS IS GONNA BE THE ONLY THING I POST ABOUT FOR THE REST OF TIME

GOD, what a good way to reveal it. it's fully about her! i love queer romances, of course i do, but i don't think i've ever seen a character come out without a romance being their reason for doing so (however indirectly). i still think she should've gotten a date with the client from 1x05, but i really liked this too.

this episode just felt like a love letter to fandom, and i love that. i love how much it shone through. i'm used to writers specifically going out of their way to make fun of fans and laugh at them, so it was just. really nice to have someone stand up and go, no, this is important for a reason! people love this for a reason! it MEANS something!

very fun to watch eliot swordfight. very fun to watch sophie recite a sonnet in her classic fashion. very fun to watch parker work at being a good mentor. breanna was so excited about the card game! they're all so good!

oh, and i guess harry's here too.

EPISODE 7: the double-edged sword job

the "harry is addicted to mobile games, which is a mood" job

hot take alert! i think this is the weakest episode of the season by a LOT. it needed so much more editing. it felt so disjointed, so all over the place. the plot was haphazard but in a muffled way, where you had no idea why they were doing what they were doing. the climax was sudden and didn't make any sense. it was just weird.

i'm not the person to comment on this but it feels kind of lazy to cast an east asian guy to play a socially-awkward tech genius. just a thought.

oh, of course jonathan frakes directed this episode. sometimes his stuff is really good but other times (ahem, ds9 3x02) it's disjointed and all over the place. i'm not even surprised it was him.

idk if i have anything else to say about this. oh! some of the team moments were great -- mostly involving eliot. i loved the moment of him recognizing the headshot, i LOVED the ten seconds of everyone teasing him. he and parker talked about the wellbeing of their friend, the woman whose ex tracked her down!

separate bulletpoint to say how much i LOVED his conversation with breanna outside the house. he's so good at reassuring! he could go deeper there, talking about being better than your worst day, but he knew when not to push! it was so good.

"first off, this guy can't TOUCH hardison" deserves its own bulletpoint because like. y'all. Y'ALL.

EPISODE 8: the mastermind job

the "eliot is more than just a pretty face" job

oh man this post is so much longer than i thought it would be. okay just one more episode and then i'm done.

the callbacks to original leverage were SO well done and made me feel emotions without feeling overbearing.

i didn't like the central premise -- that nate would share so many details with a random insurance agent -- in the first place, but i did like how it allowed them to bring back nate without actually hiring timerty mcasshole.

i liked eliot's insistence that he's more than just the muscle! he is, and it's really good to know, textually, that the writers do too!

me, watching the resolution of the episode: ah, yeah, insurance fraud. a classic!

harry bonding with his guard had "they don't even have dental!" energy and i am SUCH a fan. i know it was all for the con but also give me harry, unable to stop advising people, even when they're actively holding him hostage

parker! on the phone with hardison!!!! ADORABLE

is it just me or was someone else expecting the accountant's name to be something significant? with the way they led up to it, i was waiting for a "sterling" or something else. my sensors were pinging for another tara reveal. i'm still convinced we're gonna get this guy dramatically revealed in the season finale.

a really nice episode! i had a lot of fun with it. and now i want to rewatch the rashamon job, but tbh i ALWAYS want to rewatch the rashamon job.

and that's a wrap! overall, a fun season, i enjoyed it a lot. not as solid as original leverage, but it's the very beginning, and it was put together during a global pandemic, so i'm cutting them some slack. also levar burton is gonna show up at some point. that's a big reason of why i'm cutting them so much slack.

my personal ranking of the episodes is 1x04, 1x06, 1x08, 1x01, 1x02, 1x03, and finally last (and least), 1x07.

what did you guys think of the new season? what was your favorite episode? do you agree with any of my opinions? disagree with any? let me know, please, i'd love to discuss!

[botwstoriesandsuch]

im loving the history lesson posts!!! what are you're thoughts on the ruins in Tabantha? based on the memory near the skywatchers and the shrine quests in the region, the stone ruins in tabantha existed about 10,000 years ago and were destroyed or vacated and left to crumble. but the stone structures contrast heavily with the wooden architecture of Rito Village? bUT if i'm remembering correctly the song lyrics go "pride of the rito/pillar to the sky" so the rito stone and tabantha itself has (1)

Ok first off, I AM SO SORRY! I read this ask months ago and I worked on it in my google docs and then I was going pure theory mode and then another person sent in another ask about ruins and I was getting all excited so basically long story short I got so caught up in making a masterlist of all the ruins that I completely forgot about this ask until now... So anon I apologize for the terrible wait but hopefully you’ll still enjoy what I have in planned. 

You’ve given me a lot to work with so I’m going to break this up into several posts based on your asks. I’m gonna post them on different days becauseeeee content management, schedules, things.....I’m lazy and also if I posted all my thoughts in one post it would be like a giant book with zero pacing so

[Today] Thoughts on the Ancient Columns and the Ruins of Tabantha

[Some time later idk when I post it I’ll shove the link here] The Effects of the Calamity on the Rito and People of Hyrule

The Relationship between Skywatcher Locations and the Cunning of Calamity Ganon

Buckled in ladies, lads, and gentlefolk? It’s time for a history lesson, Part 1 o’ Trois. So today here is

Ancient Ruins, Architectural Parallels, and the Probable Worship of the Fae

So! Let’s start with the ruins of Tabantha. Specifically, the Ancient Columns. 

Anon you’re correct in that these ruins are over 10,000 years old. We can not only gather this from the fact that their condition is the same even 100 years ago, meaning they have to be older than a century (see their crumbled state and similar moss patterns) but also from direct lines from the Creating a Champion (CaC) book itself. 

However, I’m inclined to believe (for several reasons that I’m going to get into) that these ruins have nothing to do with the “pillar in the sky” as mentioned in the Rito songs. For one, the pillar of Rito village is of an entirely different architectural style, given that it looks like the natural work of wind erosion. And for another, the existence of the Rito village pillar has to have been much younger, around 100 years old, in order to coincide with the Sheikah Shrine quest, as the Sheikah platform thingy has to correlate with the characteristics of the pillar’s shape. Ergo, ergo, ergo, the “pillar in the sky” isn’t 10,000 years old and has no correlation with the Ancient Columns.

Ok so! Back to the actual ruins themselves and what we can analyze from them. 

Circled above is every instance of ruins in the Tabantha region. Although I should specify that I’m talking about the Ancient Hylian ruins, as that is the type that is most notably scattered across this area. 

We know that all these ruins are off the same civilization because of their style and material. 

[Remember this picture for later^^]

In addition, we can also tell from ruin maps in the CaC book that these ruins are from the same Hylian civilization, as well as the important detail that these ruins were centered around the Goddess. 

Citing that other screenshot at the beginning on the Ancient Hylian Culture, these ruins were built around the same time as the Sacred Springs, so I think it’s safe to assume that these ruins had a religious purpose.�� 

But I can take this one step further! Up until now, all this information has been based on interpretations from the botw ruins and official info alone, but if we take into account the real life counterparts/parallels, I can prove the exact purpose to what these ruins are for!

Firstly, these ruins are obviously inspired by architecture in Ancient Greece, and other old Empires (like the Romans and Byzantines) across the Mediterranean. 

We also know that the ruins are constructed out of limestone. One, because moss is able to grow on it, so it is unlikely that it is marble. And two, we can see the actual limestone texture when seeing the broken parts of certain columns and walls. 

[and kinda quick side note here: but the existence of large limestone rich structures 10,000 years ago gives more credit to the theory that Botw takes place after a large flood, notably the events of Wind Waker. One, because limestone is a material mined near the sea, as seen with the Island of Paros and Naxos for the Ancient Greeks. And Two, this ancient sea was directly mentioned in the description for botw rock salt. And also Three, this explains the weird placement of certain structures, such as the buildings placed on suspended and isolated rocky plateaus like the ones I showed earlier by the Skywatchers. So there’s your mini theory which kinda proves that the Tanagar Canyon was probably an ocean trench at one point and it also still proves my connection of the Ancient Hylian ruins being parallels to the Ancient Greeks and all that because...ocean. Greece, peninsula, hundreds of islands, lots of quarries in Hyrule by the sea. Akkala is by the sea, there’s quarries, also the islands with mining equipment like Tingle Island. You get it by now right?]

Anyway. Greeks, Romans, polytheistic gods, temples for sacrifices, limestone, yadayadayada. Safe to assume that these Hylian ruins were of a civilization centered around a temple of some sort worshiping a powerful being, or beings, such Hylia. Hurray! Theory seems done.

BUT!

I can take it

A step FURTHER!!!

You see, I was originally gonna leave this post at that. The Ancient Columns are of an Ancient Hylian civilization 10,000 years ago that worshiped some higher powers. “Great!” I think to myself. “Time to get all my screenshots so that my ADHD followers wont die immediately” 

But but but! As I was spending an hour or so getting said screenshots, I took this picture right here and came across a revelation so bright you could have placed a light bulb over my head... 

A pretty enough capture, got a nice aerial view of the ruins, the suspended island thing in the middle of the path... nice view of Tanagar Canyon and the Ancient Columns, the sunset is all pretty and—Oh hey! The Great Fairy Fountain is there. Heh, that’s nice. You know it’s kinda weird that it’s just plopped right in the middle of all these Ancient ruin and temp—

BAadaBing, badaBoom, ladies, lads, and gentlefolk! I’m here to tell ya that these giant fae ladies were once worshiped by 10,000 year old Hylian civilizations. And not just this fairy mind you, but all four of them.

First piece of evidence? The proximity of 10,000 year old structures to every Great Fairy. Mind you, these are the most rare type of ruin in the game. 90% of the ruins are of settlements destroyed 100 years ago by the Calamity, and then the other 10% is still divide up between the Ancient Sheikah and Zonai. So I find it quite interesting that almost every case these special ruined civilizations are near a Great Fairy. [Uh, spoilers for all the Great Fairy locations btw]

First, of course, you got the Great Fairy in Tabantha. 

Then you got the one in Akkala, by the Torrin Wetlands (again, the highlights in yellow are of the canonical 10,000 year old Hylian ruins)

The Lanayru Promenade isn’t even up for debate at this point....I mean it was the parade ground for the ceremony up to the Spring of Wisdom. How much more “Ancient Hylian” can you get then that?

The only kinda iffy one is the Great Fairy in the Gerudo desert, but even THEN this fairy is by two out of the three only instances of 10,000 year old ruins in the entire desert, the third instance being the Zonai labyrinth. 

But, sure. Correlation might not equal causation. But I think the picture becomes all the more clear when you take a look at the timeline of events!

Note that no one in Hyrule really knows what the fairies are all about. Sure, you got that one researched in Tabantha that knew about one of them, and some of the elders in Kakariko had a sort of understanding that a fairy was their neighbor. However, their stance was that of wariness and caution, and they very much did not worship or give offerings to them. Dorian, for example explicitly shows suspicion towards the fairy, and thinks they might be dangerous. (Which, to be fair, is valid if you’ve ever read ANYTHING about the fae)

My point is, people don’t know what the Great Fairies are, or what their powers, motives, or *anything* really are. Sure, 100 years might have passed, but it would be pretty hard to forget something as eye catching as the fae. The people of Hyrule can remember century old white horses, cook books, treasure locations, ancient songs, and vague legends, but the majority of them don’t know about the Giant (seriously, it’s right in the name) Fairy Fountains?!

That is, of course, under the assumption that the Great Fairies existence was known 100 years ago. But what if it wasn’t?

You might be inclined to assume that the fairies lost their power because the Calamity prevented them from getting offerings 100 years ago, but in truth, there is no evidence whatsoever saying that their lack of power originated at the rise of Calamity. 

It’s entirely likely that they haven’t been sitting around for 100 years, but 10,000, or even more. It explains why no one knows anything about them, and also their proximity to the ruins. 

A beautiful spring you say? You power is directly correlated to offerings you say? 

Gee if only there was some ancient civilization that existed a long time ago, that has ties to old religious practices, temples, and polytheistic, which has parallels to the Ancient Greeks and Romans who build their civilizations centering around certain gods and offerings to said powers, and also if only these said civilizations were nearby to all of the fae oh WAIT!

Even when Link gives his offerings, the results are only that of the Great Fairy Fountain blooming, not an entire spring. Could an entire spring existed long ago, providing for the hundreds or thousands of people who worshiped the fae? Who’s to say that these old 10,000 year old civilizations gave offerings to the fae not only for the magic and all that, but for the vitality and life that they provide? Who’s to say that those earlier relief arts of warriors on chariots were of people with enhanced armour. Fairies that give you magic defense would be quit helpful for a civilization that liked to battle... the possibilities are endless....

TL;DR, the Ancient Columns, along with the other 10,000 year old Hylian structures, were constructed for religious purposes, centering around the Great Fairies, who accepted their offerings in exchange for the vitality of their springs, as well as their enchantments. 

So! That’s that. Can you believe this is just me tackling only one aspect of anon’s ask? I realize that the majority of the ask was about the Rito but...oops! That’s why I split it into parts. [When I post the other posts I’ll update the contents at the top to link to them]

A like and reblog is appreciated! I spent too long on this, including an extra week because tumblr deleted my original draft which was much longer... so if you liked it, let me know! It’d be nice to know that my time didn’t completely go to waste, :P Anyhow thanks for reading all this

[queer-as-frikc]

My coming out story is weird, it gets a lil transphobic so tw near the end tw long post too

So, pretty much throughout my time growing up through elementary school and half of middle school, i grew up in a white middle class area. I didnt know about the LGBTQ+ or anything other than what I saw, which was white people and an occasional poc. Eventually I had to move and I ended up in a super diverse area, and ended up becoming best friends with this person (they are ftm now so imma use the right pronouns but they were f when this story mostly takes place) he told me all about things I didnt know, specifically the LGBTQ+ community and that he was pan, and it was new information so just like any 13 year old learning new things, I questioned myself, I questioned if I could like the same sex or not or possibly more.

Sadly, drama happened between my best friend, his girlfriend and I, so thing got a little weird. But there was a time in winter, when he was off that relationship for more than a month and he said he'd like to date me, and I really thought about it before hand and said yeah, I couldnt tell you how happy I was to have this experience.

I told my mom that night, in a round about way cuz I was nervous, "Hey mom, what if I liked girls?" She told me she doesnt think that I do, because I always expressed feelings for guys, and when I tell her I didnt really understand what being gay was when I was younger, I didn't really know it was a possibility. She snapped at me and said, "Unless you are willing to kiss a girl and do the other stuff, you arent gay at all."

Eventually I have a sit down conversation with her, about how confusing this all was and how I wish I knew how I felt, and so on. She said she had a similar questioning phase but it never stuck so she doesnt think I am.

Like a month later I figure it out and dude that was so gratifying. I came out as bi to my mom, who just dismissed the whole thing, but I was terrified to tell my uncle (it's a long story about that, no it's not "sweet home Alabama") because he always said bi's were wh*res so yeah. I ended up telling him, and he goes, "You know my opinion on it but that doesnt mean that I'll disown you or anything." Btw the relationship (dating wise) with my best friend after he came out as ftm because he went back to his ex, it's all cool tho.

So that was that, or so I thought. It was my first year of high school, and I finally really understood the definition of pan, what was holding me back though was the trans experience, I thought because I didnt know what it was like, I couldnt be pan, even though I didnt have a preference, turns out it just means you like people no matter their gender and it like, clicked finally so yeah. I've told my family about that since but I a similar reaction: my mom said she doesnt think I am and she lectured me on my generation having so many labels and how she hated it. My uncle said he appreciated that I was pan more than me being bi which confused me but he just had a better view of pansexual than bisexual. (I explained to both of them what the difference was but idk man)

I believe it was my second year of high school when I really started to question my gender, and that was mostly because I saw a video of what gender dysphoria looks like if it's not that strong and you arent aware for ftm. So like wearing bagging clothes all the time, always wearing sports bras, and practically no other bra, feeling really good if someone accidentally calls you sir, etc. And I was like, oml it's me. But it wasnt, I didnt find that out until later tho. So, with my friend group, I find a name that seems to fit me well and ask them to address me by it and he/him pronouns, as like a test of sorts. (All of my friends are gay in some way so it was cool) In the end tho, I got a little iffy about the whole thing and wouldnt ever correct them at times or it was just off for me. I felt really bad because I thought that they might have thought that I was just trying to force myself to be more like them, but I wasnt, i still felt bad though and kinda dropped it.

I'm not sure 100% how I figured it out tho, but I remember talking to my best friend (not the same one from middle school, they were my best friend as well but they arent the same person) about the whole experience and I believe they brought up the idea of genderfulid, and I was like :0.... what that. They explain it, you go aall over the gender spectrum, some days you might feel like a boy, others you might feel like you have no gender, some days you might feel like your gender is something completely weird and different, that's just what it is. And I was like, "It fits but like, I barely feel femme at any point in time, maybe like once a year." And they tell me, that's ok and stuff as long as my gender just decides to be a completely weird and went all over the place, it counted, so I was like, "I finally figured it out!!!" And i was so happy.

Then came the time I was comfortable enough to tell my parents. I had been using the label genderfuild for over half a year already and I thought that it was what I was so it was ok to tell them. I saw how ok me being gay went, so I was nervous but not as nervous as I should have been, probably. I told my mom first, she went on a similar rant of her no liking my generations labels and such, but it went fine, I explained it, I thought I was through, I thought I was fine, apparently not. One day I'm in the shower and I hear my mom being very expressive with what ever shes talking about to my uncle, which is fine, she needs someone to vent to sometimes. When I get out though, and I can here her clearly, I hear sees complaining about what I told her recently, that I'm genderfulid, but instead of saying that, she only says I want to be a boy. (Oh no) So shes complaining to him, asking why I cant be more like her and just be a masculine girl and be fine, why do I have to fit in with the crowd of my generation to feel special, why cant I just be fine with who I am now? Etc.

The sad thing is, that night, I was going out shopping for pants and underwear with my uncle because I needed some and I wore men's pants already at that point, because they are more durable, and stuff so I knew it was gonna be a long ride. My mom was snippy with me that whole night, just the entire time which sucked.

When we finally left to go get clothes though, I didnt know it could get worse. My uncle lectured me about how that's just my generations fad, and how his was making tattoos and piercings ok in the work place and mine is being trans a gay and all that crap, and that I'm just trying to fit in, I'm not being myself, no matter how much I chop myself up and cut my hair and take hormones my chromosomes will never change and so I can never be an actual guy. He also said that I would bring just more attention to myself being a woman who does guy things rather than try and be one, and he thinks I'm doing this all for attention. I was mad but silent at this point, I didnt want to cause anything to happen. He ended up asking me, "So did you pick a different name?" I was surprised but I said yeah, and my friends were using it and it seemed to fit better. He asked me what it was and fear over took my body. I told him, "I'll only tell you if you dont use it against me if your mad." He says, "i cant promise that." And then gets mad because I wont tell him. Though I do, because I feel obligated since hes buying me clothes. To be even more confusing, he buys me guys underwear, and undershirts along with the predetermined pants he promised me and now I'm so confused.

But it gets even worse. When we get home, my mom freaks out on him because be bought me all that mens stuff and she said he was encouraging my behavior and stuff, he defended with it's just clothes, and yah it is. Eventually things settle down, obviously my mom isnt talking to be, but that's for the best at this point. I'm in the living room with my uncle and he just then starts harassing me with questions like, how do you know? he asks. "Well, I just feel that way, same as you." I say. But why do you wanna be a guy? he asks. "I dont wanna be a guy, it's just weird that way. Also it's not me being a guy, it me being many more than that," I say. He says that's bullsh*t. I offer to show him videos that better explain what trans is and how it's an actual sciencey thing and stuff but he said he wont take a video because he wants me to say it. And then he just goes off, saying the name I picked out shows how self centered I am because I am selfish, he kept asking me if i liked to fight, to catch and play with bugs, to be strong, to be angry all the time, and all these stereotypes for men and I just left, and went to bed. He wasnt going to listen to me, so there wasnt a point to me staying.

But, it gets worse. The morning comes and I'm awoken by the slam of my door by my uncle and the laughter of my mom. My uncle starts being really aggressive and starts cleaning my room, I only have clothes on the floor mostly so that's all it was, but he starts saying, well if you're gonna be a man, imma start training you like one, the man of the house picks up after everyone, the man of the house does everything he can to help the house run smoothly, the man of the house has to be strong, and all that stuff. (Which I thought was funny because he was "the man of the house" yet I did everything, and still do. I clean up most after him, funny huh.) And, I know what's happening and so I stay in bed, I don't want this to happen. But I literally get ripped out of my bed by my uncle and get told to stop being a little b*tch and a brat because I'm being selfish by my mom and I'm yelled at to sit in the living room and wait while my uncle cleans my room. When hes done hes starts lecturing me and being all aggressive and in my face. He keeps asking me a million questions with the tone that he didnt care so I knew he wouldn't listen. Eventually, him and my mom leave, I'm told to stay there until I get back. When they do get back, they act like everything is fine, nothing happened between them and I and it's just been so hard for me to talk to them about that since.

I'm greatful that I dont have to deal with that anymore but every time something that that is brought up with my family, I panic so much now. I'm fine and I'm safe but it was very traumatic for me. And uh, thanks for listening.

hey, thank you so much for sharing your story. this was just. so heartbreaking. noone deserves to have a person like your uncle in their life. im so sorry you had to go through all of that. i hope you’re in a much better place now <3 (also i loveeddd reading about how you figured it out) =)

again, tysm <3

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Mod: Four more confessions on the Discord pronoun topic:

oh my god the transphobia confession? im sorry but what has this world come to if you’re really that pressed over someone using gender neutral pronouns and editing with the correct ones afterwards. also, not all people (including trans people) think femboy is transphobic. it was just a dumb assumption some tiktokker made. sure it can be used in transphobic settings but just expressing a want for a femboy doll, ie a feminine male doll, is not transphobic. god y’all are so annoying. there’s actually transphobia you guys should worry about.

~Anonymous

i feel like i know what the person accusing the discord of transphobia is talking about, and it was definitely not the norm (and was called out at the time). someone just they/them-ed someone else with a he/him pronoun tag. if there's something much worse and more rampant happening i would love to know, and absolutely not discounting the pain of microaggressions and purposeful misgendering, but that very much was handled and called out at the time. i have seen nothing else to suggest transphobia from the regular users. if you see something serious, go to mir, not confession blogs.

~Anonymous

Someone accidentally not noticing someone's pronouns, but changing them when notified of it, without a fuss. Is not transphobia. Even if it's in the name, 90% of people don't really look at the names most of the time. At least "they/them" was used, which is gender neutral, instead of the person assuming a gendered pronoun, Seriously, don't blame malice, on which can be explained by ignorance. Transphobia would be on purpose misgendering, and then refusing to change it when notified.

~Anonymous

Transphobia doesn’t fly, fullstop. But that said, femboy, or mascgirl, are literally terms describing a presentation in men or women, it’s basically the same as tomgirl, and tomboy. It’s short for feminine boys, or masculine girls, or more specifically, for men who enjoy, or even naturally are drawn towards presenting in a way associated with women, and vice versa for women who enjoy, or are naturally drawn to presenting in a way associated with men. In addition, it is not a cis thing, a transman can also choose to present more feminine, or a transwoman can choose to present masculine. While still being 100% a woman, or a man in their gender identity. It also feels a bit iffy to imply that someone who’s a femboy/mascgirl aka tomgirl/tomboy, should be presented as enby. Since the way someone presents themselves on the outside, does not determine their actual gender. It’s really dangerous to say, or even imply that. Trans people are either transwomen, or transmen. Or: Women. fullstop. Or: Men. fullstop. And nonbinary, are nonbinary, or enby. Fullstop. There’s a huge difference between people just presenting outwardly in a certain style, which is socially associated with a certain gender, and a persons actual gender-identity. It’s just how transwomen can do drag, and do it for fun, and enjoy it, while still being 100% women, even though people associate it with men. Cis women also do drag. An example of a transwoman, 100% woman, is Juno Birch, in case anyone wanted to check her out. Please don’t mix up terms, or at least be aware that there is actually a good deal of people who just like to present in a certain way, and that these terms are very specific to these people, and that it doesn’t directly influence their gender identity. It is kinda mirroring the transphobic talking point of people, who say if a transwoman doesn’t present 100% feminine the entire time, or a transman not presenting 100% masculine the entire time, are “lesser” or not actually women/men. And using these terms, and thinking they have to be about gender, instead of just outward presentation, is really damaging.

~Anonymous

[kryptored]

She’s Shady and Sketchy...(2)

I’m back. I really want to thank everyone for the feedback I received for part 1 of SSaS. The amount of notes I got was phenomenal, I almost couldn't believe it. Really, thank you everyone. 

Now, about part 2 - the typos during the group chat portion are as intended, because it’s not a group chat if no one’s screwing up what they're saying. I know they're supposed to speak French so, the formatting of their words are different, but I'm referencing the use of English in - you all get the point, right? Je ne parle pas français; I’ve only finished the elementary course. I tried to make it look authentic, but we’ll see. Also, a shout-out to @writingishfanonsideblog​ for pointing out the pun (you have no idea how long I was waiting for someone to see that). 

PART 2:...when she goes on and raves

In a room above the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie

Marinette is severely stressed. At the moment, she is reminding herself that she needs a break from everything – being Ladybug and the new Guardian, keeping up with her commissions, helping out at the bakery, being the class representative, etc. Clearly, it was somewhat working as Adrien could see from his position. He watches the girl lying down on his lap as he treads his fingers through her soft, dark hair. Her eyes are closed in content (kind of), the lines on her forehead slowly melting away. He smiles lopsidedly as he notices her cute nose crinkle and wiggle every few seconds, her lips in a pout as her mind continues to spew thoughts and ideas inside her mind. He reaches out a finger to boop her nose and says, “Hey, I can hear you thinking. You’re supposed to relax.”

Marinette opens her eyes, her brows even more furrowed. “And I told you that I can’t help it.” She tries to swat his hand that hovers over her face. Adrien laughs as he avoids her hand, returning to combing through her hair. She closes her eyes again and tries to go back to her halfway-decent relaxed state that Adrien so often made fun of her for. Oh, did she mention they’ve gotten closer?

To her amazement, Adrien had finally understood the extent of what Lila was doing. It was quite awkward at first, what with how Marinette was struggling to keep her composure in front of the same person she had fallen in love with beyond his looks. Adrien, on the other hand, was starting to realize that Marinette is someone so precious to him that he would do anything to help her, even if it meant he had to grow a backbone or two. It was working, thankfully, and had not backlashed on him. He had started to be less lenient with Lila’s inappropriate approach and invasion of his personal space, to which he made sure to mention to his father. For once, he felt that he was his father’s son because the day after his confession, he had found himself free of Lila’s grasp (literally and metaphorically). She was still modeling for the brand, though (to the disappointment of him and the many staff who found her performance lacking).

That did not mean the same for Marinette, though. He may have finally stood up to Lila, but Marinette was taking the brunt of her anger. Just recently, his friend told him how Lila was being more aggressive in her approaches, to the point where most of the class were starting to treat Marinette at arm’s length. They could clearly see that the class was taking sides, and it wasn’t theirs. Alya and Nino had been at the forefront of convincing him to talk sense into Marinette and giving Lila a chance. For some reason, they forgot how uncomfortable and mortified he felt whenever the latter came close to him without his permission. They weren’t that close, let alone friends. They were working the same job, at most. Physical contact was definitely not acceptable when he says so.

THE GOOD KIDS (11)

It’syagirlALYA: Hey, Lila. good to hear you’re doing fine, girl!

DeLila: I just don’t want to worry everyone.

It’syagirlALYA: It’s okay, don’t worry about it.

rose-pink: that’s right, Lila!

DeLila: anyway, about what I said…

            I just really think that marinette needs to be…

           Controlled.

jabberwocky: controlled? She’s not an animal.

sea-monkey: yeah, it kinda sounds…

                     haarhs

                     hars

                     harsh

DeLila: Oh, I didn’t mean it like that. Im just saying she needs to be stopped.

            She needs to know what it feels like to be bullied.

brainf.Art: Hey, I think destroying her sketchbook is too much. I wouldn’t do the         

                 same if another person, especially an artist, was being mean to me. 

Jules: Nath’s right. If Marinette’s gone that bad, we shouldn’t stoop so low.

rose-pink: We’d be the bullies!

jabberwocky: besides, she already knows what it feels like to be bullied.

                      Remember chloé?

DeLila: Oh, Im not saying we bully her. Just, I dunno, give her a warning?

It’syagirlALYA: How bout this, lila: we try to keep you 2 apart as much as

                       possible.

DeLila: But…what if it doesn’t work? Or I just approach her again to really try be      

            friends with her?

It’syagirlALYA: Look, girl – we’ve known Mari for a long time. Well, more so the 

                       others, but yo get the point.

kneeknow: what Alya means is that you let us handle it for oyu.

sunflower: that way, no one fights anyone.

DeLila: Oh, that’s a nice idea.

sun: Yeah, it is.

DeLila: Anyway, I was wondering if one of you could help me with our math 

           homework? I was just os distracted thinking about the charity Ive been

           doing with Prince Ali on Tuesday that I wanst able to concentrate.

Maximus: I believe I can be of assistance.

DeLila: Thanks, Max! do you think you could send me a copy? It’s just, my mom  

            wants me to attend some very important meetings so, I won’t really have 

            much time.

Maximus: Oh. I suppose so, yes.

DeLila: Great!

It’syagirlALYA: Maybe you should take a break now.

sea-monkey: Sleeep.

Jules: Rest.

DeLila: Um, why?

Am I bothering all of you now?

rose-pink: No!

sunflower: it’s just, you said your head was hurting a while ago and we don’t 

                want to make it come back

rose-pink: or wrse!

                 worse.

sun: yeah

DeLila: Oh! Right.

             I’ll see everyone tomorrow, then?

It’syagirlALYA: Sure.

kneeknow: Yeah.

DeLila: Bye, everyone!

jabberwocky: Yup, bye.

sea-monkey: See ya.

brainf.Art: bey.

                  bye.

sunflower: bye!

sun: bye.

Jules: yeah, bye.

rose-pink: bye-bye!

Maximus: Good-bye.

HOLD THE EFF UP (10)

It’syagirlALYA: I just had a realization.

                         Lila kept claiming she’s Ladybug’s bff, but that kinda sounds iffy

kneeknow: what makes you sya that, Als?

It’syagirlALYA: I never relly got a chance to ask LB herself but…

                         why would someone like lila deliberately tell me, the   

                         LABYBLOGGER

                        That she’s Paris’s superheroine’s bff, knowing that Hawkmoth 

                        could easily use her against LB?!

jabberwocky: holy sh*t, youre right!

sea-monkey: I may not be the smartest, but even I know that’s dumb.

rose-pink: which means Lila is inn danger!

Maximus: as seen during Animan hunting you down.

Sea-monkey: MAX!

                        It wasn’t my best moment, okay?

sunflower: and her family!

Jules: she’s not in danger…

brainf.Art: Juleka!

Jules: let me finish: she’s not in danger, she put herself in danger.

sun: does that mean lila’s not really friends with ladybug?

It’syagirlALYA: guess I’ll have to hunt down LB if we want to find out ourselves.

brainf.Art: what if ladybug deflecting about it is just a tactic to protect her?

Jules: I’ll do you one better: why didn’t lila know better than telling other people 

           something tha could be passed on to HM

           No offence, Alya.

It’syagirlALYA: none taken.

kneeknow: Juleka’s right. It’s one thing when LB pretends she doesn’t know 

                    someone for safety reasons. It’s another when you don’t know who 

                    could possibly be listening or watching the interview and they plan 

                    to do with it.

sun: wasn’t there something on the news about someone claiming to be Chat’s 

        girlfriend who ended up being kidnapped by an akuma as bait?

sea-monkey: ooh! I remememember that!

Maximus: She was heavily reprimanded by Ladybug and Chat Noir, not to 

                 mention her parents for endangering herself.

jabberwocky: hey Alya, weren’t there somepoeple who tried to call her out on 

                       the interview?

It’syagirlALYA: who? The girl ivan was talking about?

jabberwocky: No.

                        I mean Lila.

Maximus: Alix is correct. I seem to recall about 27% of your comment section 

                 filled with doubts and proclamations of disbelief.

It’syagirlALYA: I think this calls for another meeting. But this time, for different 

                        reasons.  

Come tomorrow morning, 10 people in class had a wary look in their eyes. Lila had yet to arrive, but asides from them, Chloé and Sabrina were already seated and talking about whatever it was that had them busy yesterday. Along the front rows, Marinette is seen to be chatting excitedly with Adrien. Now that they think about it, they hadn’t realized when exactly those two got comfortable and closer together (particularly Marinette). After all, it wasn’t much of a secret except for Adrien that the girl had a huge crush on the model. Alya and Nino, mostly, were very confused on how they missed the development on the interaction between their best friends. But before any of them could comment on the newly discovered development, the real person who had been running on their minds had finally arrived.

“Hi, everyone! It’s so good to see you all this wonderful morning.” They never really thought much about it, but Lila always did have this overly sweet tone. It was different compared to Rose’s own way of talking. “I’m glad to announce that nothing too bad came off from my head injury, but I want to also let you know that I got…”

Huh. Not that they didn’t care about the well-being of others, but Lila always did have a way of putting a lot of attention on her. But really, for how long and how much she’d told them, it was too hard to ignore that she always did talk about herself.

“…I could also introduce you guys to…”

Introductions. Hm… well, that was one word they were well acquainted with. There wasn’t one a time they hadn’t heard Lila mention someone new and promise introducing them. it wasn’t that they were using her for her ‘connections,’ but she could at least try to avoid making promises she would suddenly forget about.

Their eyes narrow down on her, following her every move while she is none the wiser of the sudden change of how they see her. Things hadn’t been easy after the short meeting among those in attendance. Doubt had been planted among their minds and initially, none of them knew whether to weed it out or to water it with curiosity. Lila, thinking she has their trust still, goes on and raves of the many things she’s supposedly done.

Lila approaches the one person she knows is her greatest ‘fan,’ Alya, and proceeds to shower her with the many tales she had spun that involved name droppings and not-so-subtle self-praise. She goes on, thinking that all is well, but the others are actually more inclined to observe the same person they once believed at the drop of her hat. They are listening to her words carefully, only this time with more awareness.

TAGS:

@animergirlweeb @sturchling @plsltmesleep @theyellowfeverexperience @rudy-ruby @j-a-n-e--d-o-e @queenmj10 @krispydefendorpolice @the-delta-42

Is that everyone?

[dukeofonions]

Reaction Redux (I know it doesn’t make sense but it sounds cool)

Alright, here is my initial reaction to Putting Others First: Selfishness vs Selflessness Redux.

It’s finally here, I’ve watched it a total of two times and currently have it on in the background as I type this, and I have a lot of feelings. All of which would be too much for one post, so after I do this I’ll be making a few separate posts addressing certain points I’d like to expand on further. 

So what I’m going to do is have the video playing as I write this out, that way I don’t miss out anything I wanted to discuss. Basically it’s not gonna be a full on analysis, just a lot of random ramblings with what I hope are some insightful gems sprinkled throughout. Consider these my notes for all my future serious analysis posts. 

Good? Great. Let’s go.  (Also spoilers under the cut)

So, how did I feel as I watched the video for the first time? Well considering I got the notification for the video while I was still at work, I couldn’t get as excited as I wanted to be about it because I didn’t get off until 8pm and had to deal with one too many dunderheads so I was pretty grumpy once I got off. 

However, as soon as I got home and retreated to the safety of my isolation fortress (aka my bedroom) I was finally able to get excited as I got on my laptop and pulled up the video and let me just say I was a mess the entire time. I missed my boys!!! I knew they wouldn’t all be present, but I still missed my boys!!! And I loved seeing them again!!! 

First things first, that song at the beginning! I think it’s called Review Redux (correct me if I’m wrong) it’s such a freaking bop and I wish it was longer because I could listen to it all day. I loved the artwork and little details that went into their characters, and how each of the circles represented who was singing/talking by their colors. Fun stuff and a great way to recap everything! As well as foreshadow things to come within the episode… “If our goals aligned with his what would that say?” Roman you’re in for a rude awakening bud… 

Also, the little moment near the beginning where Patton is about to shut Thomas’ negative thinking down, but stops himself and allows Thomas to explain why he feels that way. Showing that he’s learned to ease up just a little since he learned to do so in Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts. Good for you Patton. 

Speaking of Patton, oh he is so confused. I understand where he’s coming from, and honestly everything he said are things I have been taught growing up, and this is something I’ll address in another post because I have a lot of things to say about it. But just know that I adore the development Patton has been going through and watching him grow and mature. 

Oh yes, I must mention I was pleasantly surprised to see Logan. I didn’t think he’d show up in this episode, or at the very least have a brief appearance, but I love how he took part and by far the funniest part in this episode (to me) is when he had so much to say in one little post that it popped up and hit Patton in the nose. It was one of the few moments where I laughed out loud and I rewound it a few times on my first viewing. 

Plus Thomas being more concerned about the blinds than Patton. My type of humor. And Roman actually gets to use his sword for once, good for him! 

(Funny enough as I typed this the video got to that part at the exact same time so I got a nice little laugh again) 

Which brings up my next point: Logan getting yoinked after Patton skips his dialogue. No one talks about how he does his little impression of that philosopher, am I the only one who found that utterly adorable? 

Let Logan geek out over philosophers please. He clearly loves it so much. 

Then we get to Roman believing he’s the one responsible for everything, wanting to give up the driver’s seat to Patton. And just… This exchange of dialogue:

Thomas: “Roman, I only mean well when I say…” Thomas: “That that is the stupidest thing you have ever said.” Roman: “Oh Thomas, you’re just blowing smoke.” 

I don’t know why I enjoy this so much but I do. Give me more of this. I crave it now.

And I just need to make a whole post about Patton in this video, there is so much to unpack with him alone.

Looking back and noticing that Thomas only starts listening to Logan after he’s been replaced by Deceit kinda hurts. 

Speaking of which, can we appreciate how much better Deceit has gotten at impersonating Logan? Looks like he took Roman’s advice and focused on the little things. Good for him. 

Alright, one of my absolute favorite parts from this episode and where things really start to shine: Patton freaks out and turns into a giant frog because he’s so desperate to have an answer for them he flips and honestly, sounds a little crazy. Which, I don’t know why but I find it both menacing and hilarious at the same time? 

Also the fact he turns into a frog because he was talking about Frogger earlier, nice touch! (And Lilypadton that’s so cute) 

Then we get probably the single greatest character entrance in the history of character entrances. We find out that Deceit finally reveals himself and steps in to stand up to Patton and get him to see how his actions have been having a negative effect on Thomas. 

The way his voice changes from Logan’s to his own, his music kicking in, “The Lord of the Lies” oh my gosh it’s all just perfect! Also Roman’s “Reptilian Rapscallion! Reptilian Rapscallion! We’ve got a code yellow!” 

And if I may: Roman: “What have you done with Logan?!” Deceit: “Nothing at all and I resent the question.” 

WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM YOU SNEK?! 

(in all honest probably nothing but what if) 

Important to note here that Roman instantly begins defending Patton from Deceit as soon as he accuses him of misleading Thomas. This goes to show just how much Roman views him as a villain. Or in other words: Patton, good. Deceit, bad. A viewpoint he continues to hold onto until the end of the episode, which also deserves it’s entire post because we all know how much turbulence that caused within the fandom. 

And to the observant eye, you’ll notice that the cane (or staff) Deceit uses is the same one that dragged Logan off screen. 

Frog puns. That is all.

I just, I love Deceit’s dialogue throughout this scene. It’s stuff I need to hear and tell myself on a regular basis. And I’d honestly rewatch this part (along with the rest of what Deceit and Logan say later on in the video) because it’s all something I need to also teach myself. But this ain’t meant to be a personal post so I’ll just move on. 

Deceit’s walk towards the camera. I don’t know why. It’s so smooth. He’s amazing. I love him. Snek… 

I have problems don’t @ me. 

Also no one is mentioning the reference to that one “Turn based rpg” short that Thomas made with his friends and I find that sad because it’s a neat and fitting reference given the theme of this video. Also earlier on when the trolley problem is first brought up all the people on the bottom track are Thomas’ friends. Another neat little detail, though sadly, their digital selves perished. 

PETER SINGER 

Logan doesn’t seem to like Deceit much, not outright hate him or anything, but it’s more like he just tolerates him but doesn’t seek to get on good terms with him. Which is a shame because as both parts of SVS have proven, these two have the capacity to work together. Which is why I hope Logan gets a debate episode with him as well because out of all the Sides, these two have interacted the least and that needs to be remedied (especially when they’re my two favorites) 

Deceit is trying to make Roman understand, but he’s so caught up in this black and white thinking that he disregards everything Deceit says! Why? Because the last time he tried to hear Deceit out he was reprimanded. (In other words, I relate to Roman so much in this that it hits a little too close to home and I’m definitely making a separate post about this. 

Deceit: *confused* Trees? And I’m so glad I found out I’m not the only dunce who thought Deceit’s name was going to be written on his hand… 

But seriously this whole moment, with the buildup, Deceit’s reluctance to share his name, the music, I’d put it up there with Virgil’s “I was one of them” for best Sanders Sides scenes.

Also, Deceit’s name is Janus! I was a little iffy about it at first, but since I didn’t ever really have a prediction for his name, I wasn’t disappointed and the name is growing on me. 

And then, the moment of trust is immediately ruined by Roman laughing. Dude, come on. (again though, post for another time because I understand where Roman is coming from here)

In all seriousness though I just love the last bits of this episode. The emotion, the angst, it doesn’t hold back and I appreciate the team taking things a step further than normal. Usually, moments like this are followed up by a joke to play it off, but they don’t do that after Roman sinks out. They stay in the moment until it’s had time to sink in. I wish the episode had ended a little more somberly, but I think this is a good step in the right direction. Showing that there won’t always be a 100% happy conclusion to things. Sometimes you need to take time in between to figure things out. 

This line: “Do you think there’s a limit to how many times someone can say sorry before you have to admit that they’re just bad for you?” This line is so important to me within the context of the episode and outside of it. I won’t get too personal but I will say that I was raised to believe that if a person wronged me in any way, that if they said sorry, I had to forgive them. Even if they did the same thing over and over and over again. As long as they apologize, you have to forgive them and move on. And that has messed me up in so many different ways, especially when those people are family. 

Janus sums it up best with “It depends” because yes, some people make the same mistakes again and again. But there’s a difference between someone trying to change and accidentally falling back on old habits, and someone taking advantage of your “forgiveness” that they continue to do those hurtful things because they know they can get away with it and not have to change. 

Also, while it’s totally fine for people to dislike Patton, I can’t understand how anyone could watch this episode and claim that he’s still the same as he was at the beginning of SVS Part One because he has changed. He has finally realized just how much he’s been hurting Thomas, and even Roman. He sinks out at the end to apologize to him, he recognizes his faults, and he’s seeking to make amends. He wants to do the right thing here, and keep in mind that recently a lot of his views (which are also Thomas’ views) have been flipped on their heads and they both need to rethink some things. It’s part of growing up and becoming your own person. 

I need to make a whole post about the more personal things that I got from the last three episodes (excluding Asides) because there’s just so many important things these episodes teach and I feel the need to address them. 

Also everyone sleeping on the fact that Leslie Odom Jr. just casually makes an appearance and attempts to start a pilot episode for his own series “Odom Sides” which I wish him luck on. He just wants to be in the room where it happens. 

Everything Patton did was for Thomas, so he wouldn’t be left in the dark again. He promised to keep fighting but ultimately, ended up fighting himself. Am I deep yet?

“Those imperfections don’t make you any less worthy of love” can you tell how much this episode means to me yet? 

Janus’ “I’ll take care of him.” Ack, he just cares so much… My gosh… Where did this character come from and what did he do with the slimy boi? (I mean that in two different ways)

Oh, there he is. That’s my boi. 

“There are smarter ways to get people to do what you want anyway.” “There are much less barbaric, much more fun, forms of sabotage.” 

Parallels? Maybe? What the heck I love Janus whether he’s encouraging Thomas to look after his mental health or plot his schemes in the shadows. Do I trust Janus? Oh heck no, of course not. There is something suspicious going on here and I both love it and hate it. More on that in a different post though.

“You’re not stuck with an evil snake boi. You’re just stuck with a snek boi.” 

Yes Thomas, continue to overthink every little issue until it results in a mental breakdown. Hm, sounds like what someone with anxiety does… I suppose that’s why this series exists. 

Okay call me a bad person but I almost always space out during Thomas’ messages to the viewers at the end of the videos. I don’t know why but I cannot focus on them to save my life and usually end up skipping past them to get to the end card. I dunno, maybe because it takes me out of the moment? Especially during episodes where they don't’ address the audience at all and then suddenly “Oh yeah! This is a Youtube series lol” it just feels out of place in more story driven episodes like this one. 

Okay am I the only one that’s kinda creeped out by Lee and Mary Lee? I dunno they just seem, off. Like if they were characters in a horror movie they’d be that overly nice couple that turn out to be the killers. Those are the vibes they give me. Maybe it’s because I have zero people skills due to being homeschooled all my life and the only social interaction I get is with coworkers so I dunno. They still creep me out. They creep me out more than Remus. And he legit freaked me out for a bit before he stole my heart. (I suppose this means I need to make a separate post about these two because I do have some opinions about whether or not it was a good idea to actually include them at the end. When I said I had too many thoughts about this episode I meant it)

And if the end card is any indication, I’m going to assume that the Sides are invisible to everyone except Thomas. Unless they’re just “observing” and not even Thomas can see them at this point, given he shows no indication of seeing or hearing them there. Maybe they get to choose when they’re visible? Or Thomas does? I dunno, the rules of this universe have never been clearly stated and are inconsistent. 

I didn’t expect Patton to be the first to accept Janus, and I’m kinda glad I was proven wrong. It does seem fitting with Patton’s growth and I liked their little moment at the end. 

And that wraps up my commentary. I hope you found something in this mess of, things. I plan to go more in depth with my separate posts which I’m going to have fun writing, so be on the lookout for those! 

Also at the time of writing this I now have 63 followers?! Thank y’all so much! I never thought this blog would get this far and I’m so glad it did because I’m having a lot of fun with it and hope to bring out more content regularly! Again, thank you!!