#(so of course it looks like the show got cancelled after 3 seasons as far as I can tell 😭)

[autogeneratedkahootnickname]

Yeah so I'm an Amber apologist until the day I die.

I do think there's potentially a minor writing hiccup but I'm gonna set things out as best I can from my understanding.

What a lot of people don't pick up on, and what the show tries to convey in episode 5, is that Mark has been a phenomenally shitty boyfriend to Amber. We only see a few brief snippets of him cancelling some dinner plans, but this has been a constant, unfaltering issue for 3 months. 'He's late, he doesn't show, and he always has some shitty excuse.' From Amber's point of view, it wouldn't be unreasonable for her to think she means nothing to him.

But she recognises that the situation is complex, and she cares about him, and she sees that he IS trying, if not enough. So she gives him second chance after second chance. Honestly far longer than she should have done.

But yeah, their relationship is on the ROCKS for a LONG time. But since we see Mark superheroing throughout most of that, we can't put ourselves in her shoes.

So then, flash forward to Upstate U and the reveal. My controversial theory, but the one I think most makes sense in terms of writing, is that Amber didn't know Mark was Invincible until he tells her.

Amber is visibly startled when she sees Mark flying in her room. Granted she would be even if she knew, but it leans more to her not knowing than the contrary.

Amber does not know who Invincible is at Upstate U, and she never refers to him by name in the confrontation: 'I know you're a superhero', 'fly away, flyboy'. If she had known 'weeks beforehand' a cursory google would have been likely. She would be more likely to refer to him by name.

Amber is very intelligent, she's quick-witted, she's an expert at putting up walls as a defence mechanism and she hates being lied to. She would be capable of concealing her surprise, and wouldn't want to lose control in the conversation, but honestly she doesn't have to. Because her reaction seems genuine, even if its less premeditated than she puts on.

Amber goes into that interaction thinking Mark is a liar, a coward, a flake and an asshole. That interaction recontextualises him as a liar, a flake and an asshole. In different ways sure, but the end result is the same. Amber's whole issue is that she doesn't feel valued by Mark, and she's just been told that he was hiding an entire secret life from her because he didn't trust her. Also, Mark is not 'trusting her now': he's using Invincible as a retroactive get out of jail free card for being an asshole for 3-4 months. He frames it in a way that, even if its unintentional on his part, makes her out to be small, and petty, and irrational: 'because im out saving lives or protecting the planet.' It sounds like he's blaming her for being mad at him, and he's SO SURE she'll forgive him everything in that moment. She doesn't want to let him off the hook for being shitty, and Mark's behaviour isn't helping. This is supposed to convey that the way he treated her isn't ok even if he was a superhero, and he shouldn't expect it to be.

And she isn't happy about being angry with him! The scene ends with her looking pensive, conflicted, because the walls she put up in that scene do not reflect her character! She goes back to Mark to make sure he's alright, because she sees his actions in a different light, and bear in mind, at this point, Mark is still viewed by the public as someone who played a pretty substantial role in killing around 50,000 people at a guess. She's not going back to him because he's a hero now. He's public enemy number 2. That is an INCREDIBLE amount of integrity and dedication, traits she's displayed repeatedly throughout the season through her grassroots support of local communities.

William literally says in his pep talk to Mark:

'But you were a shitty boyfriend to Amber and you got what you deserved'. This is Mark's number 1 fan. Laying it out in front of us.

And last, but of course, not least,

Guys she's fucking seventeen cut her some slack jesus christ she's not a calculator

[adultswim2021]

The Venture Bros. #38: “The Lepidopterists” | August 3, 2008 - 11:30PM | S03E10

Well, it only took 8 episodes, but we’ve got our first just good-ass Venture Bros of the season. I forgot about this one being GREAT. There ain’t no hide nor hair of Hank, Dean, or Scooter Venture (is it Scooter? The dad? I forget his name all of the sudden and don’t feel like looking it up. Could it be Peanut?). This one was teased in the “Now Museum, Now You Don’t” episode. Doc Hammer wrote this episode and midway through the writing process Jackson told Doc that Spider-Skull Island was a museum now, in a different episode he was in the middle of writing. Lucky him, he got to write museum gags, like when 21 and 24 blend in at a museum tableau. 

The Monarch becomes Jonas Venture Jr.’s arch after the events of “Tears of a Sea Cow” (actually that one’s good I just decided). Throughout the course of their inaugural scuffle, Monarch uses weaponry, cunning, politics, and movie magic to get towards his ultimate goal of being able to terrorize the real Dr. Scooter Venture again (By Scooter I mean whatever that guy’s name is. I simply can not remember). The Monarch basically gets Jonas Jr. to attack him with enough severity that he would be within guild bylaws to avenge his loss by targeting his immediate family members, such as the hated Scooter Venture. Meanwhile we get Jonas Jr. trying to get the hang of being arched. 

The opening has a very memorable scene that involves the Venture Mech, Ventron, starting this one with a gosh dang bang. Ventron is piloted by Jonas Jr, Sally Impossible, the Sea Captain, and Ned, a parody of The Thing who’s just a childlike retarded man. Jonas Jr. is a very supportive parent to Ned, who nurtures Ned’s independence and choice-making so that he can, to quote Doc Hammer on the commentary, “be the best damn retard he can be”.

Doc uses the r-word cheekily on said commentary after sharing a story about his mother scolding him for using it on the show, spoken by the Monarch. Doc puts a similar exchange between Jonas Jr. and the Monarch, where the Monarch incredulously offers back that he’s a villain and of course he’d use bad words like “retard”. He joked that his mom won't listen to the commentary. I hope she doesn't read this blog.  

The Pirate guy has a side story where he gets addicted to tranquilizer darts. 21 and 24 have to go on some technical mission with a third guy, Henchman 1. 21 and 24 continue their meta thread about how they fancy themselves main characters of their life, and evade death. They mention Tomb Raider in this episode, specifically her dying animation when she drowns. Jackson and Doc initially bonded over Tomb Raider when they first met.

Henchman 1 is a squareheaded and competent, and voiced by Jackson Publick squeezing his throat like David Cross in Mr. Show when he does the black guy voice. You know what I’m talking about? Jackson Publick actually cites this in the Venture Bros art book (which I found a digital copy of; here’s hoping they reissue that thing with updated entries for the finale and final season). Henchman 1 doesn’t survive, as far as we know. 

This one moves so goddamn quick and is actually funny. They even manage to get into guild rigamarole, which I usually find fraught humor-wise, and not only make it interesting but make it an important weapon being wielded by the Monarch. Death to Scooter.

MAIL BAG

This was really a turning point for me with Tim and Eric. While they would still put out three or four fantastic high-concept or style parody episodes, the hitting average on the more standard sketch episode just completely tanks. You can make one or two great episodes out of each season compiling the best gags but the pickings are bone slim. Wish they just got cancelled and did more episodes of Nite Live instead lol.

I might be more charitable than that, but I basically agree. I used to rationalize it in my head that Tim & Eric simply grabbed an opportunity to generate a lot of stuff, and decided not to be precious with it, and just foolhardily started churning out stuff and lost steam. Like a somewhat noble failure?

I now realize that a likelier explanation is that Adult Swim ordered 30 episodes (seasons 2-4) and shortly switched over to HD, and the production budget was locked so Tim & Eric couldn't make the switch and were basically pressured into churning out their 30 as quickly as possible, just to grant it a slightly-longer shelf life before becoming completely obsolete. I guess I'll sort my feelings out when the season is done.

[veshialles]

hm. I think I might have a new blorbo 👀

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

Ten things I noted about the four-part miniseries “UnDeadwood” :

Now I decided to watch this even though I haven't watched Deadwood (probably should put it on my list), and knowing I'm not much of a western fan except when mixed with other elements (hello Firefly, my favorite show cancelled after one season). But let's be honest, I said to myself, I'll watch anything Critical Role does, and anything Marisha and Travis are in (bonus points for Anjali Bhimani, whom I also adore).

Damn, this miniseries was good. What can I say ? It got me !

More notes & spoilers under the cut.

First off, the production side of this miniseries is incredible, even more so when I'm coming from CR3 where they hired a team of experts on how to make amusements parks (!!!) to have a better set. The little town at the center of the table is well made, and the shots of the buildings really give a nice spatial representation. The opening credits are cool, and seeing the cast in costume really is a joy that a single one-shot cannot bring to the table. Also they all look HOT, that goes without saying. Also the accents ! I had the vapors.

Oh, and the music !! I saw it was Jason Charles Miller who did it, and of course he did ! That man is a nerd in a ZZ Top costume.

Brian's evident love for the original story of Deadwood (both the show and the real town) is evident and charming.

I love that the first close-up shot of Matt we see is : him, and his hair gently floating in the wind (of the studio).

The obvious editing bothered me a little bit at the beginning, but I think that was just because I wasn't used to it... Maybe some cuts were harsh... But yeah, the editing grew on me after the first episode. And I understand why they used it specifically in this short format, and to give a smoother feeling to the story. It made everything feels like a true immersion - whereas episodes of Critical Role are more a feeling of a show (which I love !)

Fogg, as he is enjoying his time with 3 ladies : "Oh, Reverent ! I got three of 'em in here, you sure you don't want a share ?" The Reverent : "No ! I have my own three ! The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."

"It's ... hiiiiiigh moooon !" Nice one Brian

"Curse my white-collar upbringing !" Marisha, you do not have to make me laugh like that, but I thank you nonetheless

I like the system of using both dice and cards for power or initiative. I'm gonna check it out. I need to see other systems besides D&D.

Arabella, about Fogg's injured leg : "You look like a 13-years old who just got her time of the month, so why won't you let me take a look at that leg ?" AMAZING SAYING

"God don't play cards."

"I ain't a religious man, not in a long time. I've seen enough people be animals out there to know that if God made us in his image, God's every bit as feral as the things he created." Hum, excuse me, who gave Matt the right to say those ABSOLUTELY AMAZING PHRASES ?? Did he went to the Caleb's school of one-liners that rule ??

Love how effortlessly they integrated the rules and the background together. The idea of spending a chip to go see The Bartender and ask some information if you're stuck, and also get a shot of whisky, is a good one.

As soon as Brian said there was some revenants about town, I was suuuuure we were gonna see Arabella's freshly dead sister. And I was right ! But it was devastating nonetheless.

We only saw NPC Katie for like 2 minutes, but she managed to make me fall in love with her in record time !

Marisha loving playing ladies who are snoops and weirdoes and wants to find things and love gory things and/or mystical shit (Beau, Alexandra in the Cthulhu one-shot, Arabella, Laudna). Yes I know she definitely loved playing Keyleth (my beloved) even if she was, as a character, very far from what she is or what she usually likes. But I also love that we see her preferences.

NITROGEN ??? DAMN ! Mrs. Myriam Landisman came here to PLAY

Marisha drawing a straight fucking flush, we love to see it. Amazing

Brian, to Matt : "I'm gonna say something to you, that I wanted to say for a long time. How the fuck do you want to do this ?"

This is why I love those kinds of actors who are all in. The consequence of Aloysius failing his spell was that "he forgot for 6 days attachments on an emotional level". And boy did Khary run with it. Retrospectively, I think Aloysius could have spared Clayton Sharpe, in the end ; but no, not with this consequence. And Khary knew what he was doing, he was crying while doing it, but he did justice to both his character, and the consequence. To an exterior eye, this could be waste of character development, but no, it's the opposite !

Is Al Swearengen secretly the Dealer ?? He said the same words ! "Greed ain't cheap"

THEY QUOTED THE FUCKING PRINCESS BRIDE, or close !!! I love them for this. "You seem a decent man. I hate to kill you." "You seem a decent man. That I'd hate to be killed by."

The ending my god. No notes, just tears.

I know that with Brian exiting the CR world, it's not going to happen, but man, imagine the parallel universe where UnDeadwood 2 was a thing... I want to go to there

[garc-i-a]

Why JATP Is Taking a While to Get Officially Renewed

Thought I would put my thoughts into words on the renewal situation. We know that the show was released on Netflix on September 10, 2020. As of today, it has been 242 days (10 May 2021). Julie and the Phantoms was released under Netflix Family, marking it as a children’s show on the streaming service. It was released in the middle of the second wave of the coronavirus (in the US) that has swept the world over. The show was created by Kenny Ortega, legendary choreographer and director.

To start off, we have to acknowledge that we ARE in a pandemic. Due to that, things have been touch and go in so many industries. That includes the TV/Film industry as well. The US and Canada, the two countries involved in making the show, have to follow the rules and laws related to COVID regardless of what people in the industry want. With that, we have to pay attention to what is going on with the pandemic to know how to go about filming. 

As of right now, Canada still has closed borders from the US to nonessential travel. To get into Canada as a foreigner you have to be going for a specific reason and follow all the Covid related travel rules. To read more about this, you can go to canada.ca and type in for traveling during the pandemic. Not to mention that for a lot of areas in Canada, they are still essentially in lockdown because of the now rising numbers in the country. Charlie’s home province of New Brunswick is still pretty restricted. 

Regarding vaccinations, although the United States has been slowly getting people vaccinated, Canada has had issues with getting vaccinations and don’t nearly have as many vaccinated. It is only just a few days ago that New Brunswick started administering vaccinations in the last few days. The vaccinations are only for people who are 50+ who fall into specific medical condition guidelines. For British Columbia, where the show is filmed, vaccines started getting administered the third week of April. It is believed there is a chance of getting all* adults vaccinated by mid June. My source for this information is from a native New Brunswicker and a CTV News article.

For the cast, getting vaccinated is paramount. Owen is already vaccinated. Madison’s dad is also vaccinated so it is likely she is as well or part way there. Now for people who are NOT vaccinated yet, most vaccines are administered in two doses. The doses are done about three weeks apart (I am partially vaccinated and my first dose was already done and second is next week). This knowledge is important as people need to be aware of the timing of these things. The amount of time between vaccines and for everyone in the cast and crew is essential for everything to go smoothly with filming.

One of the big things that I have seen a lot is the outrage at other shows on Netflix being renewed before Julie and the Phantoms. There is a two fold answer to this. To start off, we have to remember that because of this pandemic, things take longer to process to be extra diligent and that more money is be used to cover for reconstructions and accommodations due to Covid. Knowing these two things, let’s delve into the renewals of other shows.

Some of the other shows that have been renewed are Fate: The Winx Saga, Bridgerton, Ginny and Georgia, and Emily in Paris. The big difference between these shows and Julie and the Phantoms is the fact they are not in the Netflix Family category. They are considered content for adults or young adults. Netflix has different rules on their shows that are put out on the regular platform versus the family section. Netflix Family rarely posts when a show is renewed so far from its premiere date for the next season. So in that respect, Julie and the Phantoms wouldn’t be given a huge announcement for the next season’s renewal if it follows the pattern of Netflix Family’s marketing.

Tying into this the matter of where the rest of the shows are filmed and the backing behind them in regards to production. The Winx show and Bridgerton are filmed in the UK, Ginny and Georgia is filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Emily in Paris is filmed on location in France. The reason that this matters is because these places have different rules for working during this pandemic, the vaccinations levels, and the threat of getting sick from Covid. These shows are also connected to larger properties or influential individuals*. Vancouver is a popular city to film in, of course, but it has been dealing with an uptick in cases as well as in a different province than Ginny and Georgia, and as such has their own rules. We cannot take into the likes of Riverdale or other shows that are filming right now in Vancouver. Lots of these shows were renewed and set to film already when the pandemic hit. They do not factor into things.

The last part of this is the production costs for making the show. As mentioned before, Vancouver is a popular city to film in. Due to the pandemic, it costs more to film because the need to have extra precautions, regular Covid testing, and etc. We know that there were shows that were initially renewed by Netflix but then canceled after the fact. The reason for this is that Netflix likely realized the cost to produce the shows would be too much and not in the best interest of the cast, crew, and any companies involved in the middle of such a huge reaching pandemic.

Compared to other shows in the Netflix Family section, Julie and the Phantoms has a high production level. I did some research on the Netflix originals in the section and the shows on there are either very low budget or have a backing from a franchise/company (ex. Baby Boss, Fast and Furious, Jurassic Park). Julie and the Phantoms does not have that. It is not connected to an established franchise or a large company. It is simply made by the likes of Kenny Ortega who does not skimp on anything in his productions. Kenny has stated that he is not willing to let the grandness of the show suffer because of the pandemic. The show has many crowd scenes and dancing sequences that require a lot of people. The show won’t be what it is without this. Based on this, we know that Netflix wants to be absolutely sure they can go forth with filming before announcing a renewal.

And there you guys go. All the information that I looked into and checked for this piece. I hope this helps many people understand what is going on why it is taking longer for the show to get renewed. It is not that Netflix doesn’t want to renew it. It is a matter of HOW and WHEN. If that makes sense. If you have any questions about what I wrote, you can leave a comment or DM me.

all*- Some individuals may not wish to be vaccinated

influential individuals*- There are people connected to some of the shows that have a standing within the media and the finances or awards to warrant being a part of the show or it being made at all.

Amendment

I was informed by my source in New Brunswick that vaccines have been administered since January but the qualification for who is eligible for the vaccines can change from week to week.

Amendment 2

Reuters has reported that children aged 12-15 are able to start getting the vaccine today (13 May 2021). So that means that Jadah and Sonny (15 and 13, respectively) will be fully vaccinated by the middle of June.

Amendment 3

A few days ago a local upstate New York newspaper wrote about Canada starting the process of opening up borders again. The process is in the beginning stages so there is no announced date(s) on the border reopening but it is in the works.

Amendment 4

A show called Firefly Lane has been renewed for a season 2. This is important because Firefly Lane is filmed in the same area of British Columbia as Julie and the Phantoms. British Columbia is getting better in regards to vaccinations and so this proves good news of a season 2 announcement for Julie and the Phantoms.

Amendment 5

It was reported on 21 or 22 June 2021 that Canada will relax quarantine rules for vaccinated Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and foreign nationals for essential work. This new system will go into effect 5 June 2021. If you are fully vaccinated and pass rules set by the government, you will NOT have to abide by the hotel quarantine steps when entering the country. That means that the JATP cast and crew can get to filming right away instead of quarantining beforehand. To read more about this: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lonelyplanet.com/amp/articles/canada-border-reopening

Amendment 6

On Charlie’s live yesterday (28 June 2021), Madison said that she got the second dose of the vaccine earlier in the day. In 14 days, she will be good to go on going out and such. Hopefully Jadah and Sonny have gotten at least their first dose. Gets us closer to being able to have the cast and crew together for the show.

Amendment 7

The National Law Review published an article on 2 July 2021 saying that fully vaccinated individuals will be able to travel between Canada and the US on 21 July or possibly sooner. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he wants 75% of Canadians to be fully vaccinated before allowing the border to be opened. With current numbers, it is believed this will be achieved in a few weeks time.

Amendment 8

The New York Times just reported that fully vaccinated Americans could be allowed into Canada by mid August and that people from other countries could be allowed to enter by September.

Amendment 9

It was just reported about two hours ago that Canada will allow vaccinated Americans in on 9 August. That is exactly 3 weeks from now on a Monday. Now all we have to focus on is protocols for safety while in Vancouver while filming.

[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 2x09 Review

Spring Break was a bit of an odd ep but helped move some key plots forward. Let’s dig in!

Well people can no longer claim that Portwell is one sided. We finally got Gina’s pov and she starts off the ep uncertain whether the shift in their relationship means that EJ likes her but by the end of the ep she seems sure of herself and that EJ likes her back. I liked that she didn’t try to pretend that nothing had changed or that she hadn’t noticed potential signs that EJ might like her; it always sucks when tv characters act like idiots. 

Perhaps the most important reveal of this ep was that Gina has a much older estranged brother who left her and her mom many years ago. That certainly makes her backstory more tragic and is definite set up for her brother to eventually return.

The writers continue to give Portwell great tropes, capping this ep off with an airport rom-com trope that also calls back to EJ getting Gina the place ticket so she could come back in S1. Not only did Gina keep EJ’s Duke sweatshirt but she altered it to fit her better which is both sweet and bold in the assumption that it was hers to keep. Gina got her sign when not only did EJ show up to drive Gina home and take her luggage but he brought her the granola bar that she had wanted but forgot to pack. I wonder if her posting on her story that she was ubering home after her flight was cancelled was intended to see if EJ would show up since the camera focused on her posting it. Also sweet that she’s taken to calling EJ, ‘ Eej’. 

EJ’s opening was good, shows a lot of his character growth from the selfish guy he was in S1 and how he’s learned to value other people which of course leads into his feelings for Gina. We got another great use of the camera as character tonight when Gina was laughing after her facetime call with EJ until she realized that the camera was on her. 

Jack was a lot of fun. Though he didn’t really change Gina’s mind over anything like the ep description said he would.  Seemed like Gina was largely over Ricky and wondering about EJ at the beginning and the end solidified her feelings for EJ but Jack didn’t really play a role in that, it’s not like he encouraged Gina to reach out to EJ or anything. There’s a vague sense in which Jack being nomadic linked him to Ricky’s unreliability in Gina’s eyes with her craving stability but that’s a stretch. Jack mentioned that the second most dangerous part of a plane ride is when the plane takes off, a hint to the blossoming Portwell relationship where in order to take off one or both of them has to risk a confession even though they could be turned down.

This ep might seem a bit weird in hindsight. The zoom parts probably won’t age well and five years from now people might be wondering why they had Gina hang out with a manic pixie dream boy of sorts for an ep.

The path is clear for canon Portwell in the finale with EJ being Gina’s second chance at romance and her first kiss since they clearly telegraphed it out of nowhere. I’ve been impressed with the great work the writers have been doing since 2x05 to build up Portwell as a ship but also work on Gina and EJ as individual characters; they’ve been the highlight of the season so far. 

There was discourse this past week over how well or poorly Portwell has been set up. Objectively very few ships on this show get much in the way of set up or consistent writing. Redlyn and Kowie had barely any set up before getting together. Seblos had none (though in fairness that was due to Disney restrictions) and Miss Jenn and Mike Bowen didn’t have much set up either. Rini did get lots of development in S1 but that’s because they had already dated and were the main ship of the show. The show’s not really about slow burns, if Jenzzara canons in the finale they’ll count and if Rina ever got together they’d also count but neither of those ships have gotten consistent development with Mazzara not being in several eps and Gina and Ricky not even interacting for the past 3 eps. 

Is Portwell a slowburn? In a sense since they did feature quite a bit in each other’s S1 plot lines and even had a fake dating plot but it is true that they were platonic and not that close in S1 so it’s a wash. There was clear set up for romantic Portwell in 1x10 with team wonderstudies and Gina staring at EJ (which interestingly enough looked more like set up for Gina to pine over EJ). I think the main problem is that even though we saw Gina and EJ hanging out in the background we didn’t get any scenes of substance between them until 2x05. It was a mistake and there should have been some scene, like EJ and Gina commiserating in 2x03 over being single on Valentine’s Day or something like that. Hell there was even that still from 2x01 of EJ and Gina looking at each other at the piano while they were in the frame between Ricky and Nini singing and having a moment  which would have been good foreshadowing but that shot wasn’t in the ep.

Whether Tim just really wanted Portwell to be a surprise in 2x05 as a mid-season twist to throw the audience off of what looked like a Rini/Rina triangle or he was unsure as to whether he wanted to go with Portwell or if he just planned it out poorly we may never know. Regardless they’ve had great writing for 4 eps in a row now which puts them slightly ahead of the 3 eps in a row of development Rina got in S1. I’m sure if someone added up their screen time they’d find that Portwell has more screen time this season than Kowie and more screen time than Redlyn or Seblos  got in S1. 

Caswell cousins was fun and Ashlyn did in fact paint EJ’s nails. 

Set up for Seblos drama next week, it’s refreshing to see Seb being jealous over Carlos flirting with other boys that’s definitely not something you see on Disney shows.

Ricky got some healing done with his mom. Enough to cover their issues? No but this is probably the best this show is capable of. There was a brief mention of therapy sandwiched between other options which sounds more like checking off a box then setting up Ricky actually going to therapy. I noticed Lynne was smiling at odd times like when she told Ricky she knew about his breakup with Nini; whether that was poor directing or acting I don’t know. Who knows if we’ll see Lynne again. As an aside still so wild that Tim named Lynne who’s been a kinda shitty mom after his own mom who he seems to be fairly close with.

Really liked You ain’t seen nothin as a song but not a fan of the Tiktok style vid. I’ll level with you wildcats, I’m too old to really get Tiktok, it just seems like a crappy version of Vine to me. Let you go was good, seemed better fitted for Joshua Bassett’s voice than some of his previous songs. A big sign that they’re not circling back to Rini for a long time for sure. Though on that note we got a bit of a hint that Ricky was Nini’s muse which may one day come back as a way to help bring them back together. 

Looking Ahead:

If there’s only 3 weeks left till the Menkies, with only 2 weeks left for rehearsal due to spring break, it’s hard to see East High winning unless North High is disqualified or has to withdraw. 

Lily is in a promo photo so she’s likely the unexpected facetime Ricky gets which is what I had theorized. Also makes it much more likely that she’s the party crasher Ricky re-evaluates in the finale though what Tim actually wants to do with those two I do not know.

There’s little point in bringing back the Valentine’s chocolate since there’s no real stakes. Rini are already broken up, Gina hasn’t spoken to Ricky since 2x06, and it’s not like Nini and Gina were ever close so even if they stopped talking to each other it wouldn’t really affect the show in any way. 

Seems pretty likely that Second Chances refers to Gina realizing that her first try with Ricky failed but her second chance with EJ won’t and that leads to her sharing her truth and cue the Portwell confession and kiss, perhaps with an assist on EJ’s end from Mazzara. We’ve gone well past the point where Portwell can be brushed off as just a plot device to help Rina but Tim is playing with fire by getting the audience so on board with Portwell if he’s once again going to have EJ lose a girl he likes to Ricky in S3.

Gina certainly needs to talk with Ricky and I do think that happens in ep 11 or 12 and leaves them on better terms. As I mentioned last week, if Tim was smart he’d slam the door on Rina if he’s going with canon Portwell or vice versa. If he wants Rina to be a slow burn he’s really botched the writing this season, it’s been too one sided and too angsty to sustain any kind of momentum or audience interest. They haven’t even interacted for 3 eps now and not only has it not affected the show but it’s inarguably made Gina’s story line much better.  Again I don’t think he’s smart enough to not try and do Portwell and then later Rina but he’s accidentally set up the Rina story line to quite easily slam the door permanently on them by having their conversation be closure for Gina who’s moved on and an apology from Ricky who never liked her back as much as Gina liked him.

Not looking forward to seeing Nini basically live out Olivia Rodrigo’s life in future seasons

Curious to see Carlos’ apology song to Seb. Ricky helping him with it is a great way to help start redeeming Ricky’s character in the audiences eye’s. According to Matt there is a bit of a Ricky/EJ rivalry this season and if it’s really happening the sleepover would be a good place to do it though I hope it’s not about Gina. 

Until next week wildcats.

[scrabbleknight]

2, 3, and 10 for the fic ask meme.

2. In terms of fanfiction, I'd love to write a TFA or Gwenpool fanfic.

Transformers Animated was always my favourite cartoon of the franchise. It's fun and stylistic and rarely takes itself too seriously. That's not to say it doesn't have serious moments. But sadly, it was cancelled after the 2nd season, just as Sari Sumdac (the MC) was about to leave for Cybertron for the very first time.

If I could, I'd write a continuation for that story, focusing on Sari adjusting to the new life among her people. She grew up as human for a very long time so it can be difficult to try and live as a Cybertronian, especially considering she's a Technorganic (half organic, half machine). There's a stigma against organics (humans) in that show btw, with some even afraid of touching one.

As for Gwenpool, she's my favourite Marvel superhero, being a pseudo-Mutant with the power to perceive reality as a comic book. This also comes with quirks such as jumping in and out of reality, traveling through time, using comic book logic, knowing anything that's been shown in comic form (because she has access to all the pages) and in one small Deadpool release, even create anything out of nothing just by drawing it.

Is she OP? Yes. Is she unstoppable? Hardly. Because despite her powers, she's still quite human. She can't shoot lasers or have super strength or anything like that. So she has a hard time fighting against powerhouses like the Hulk. But the main focus of her character is that she's constantly under threat of being retconned, so she tries her best to be popular.

I wanted to write a fanfic exploring that. One idea I had was her being at the edge of the universe, just sitting alone and contemplating with her thoughts, only for Galactus to appear and become her talking buddy. Being all-powerful, he knows how powerful Gwen is and sees her as an equal, all while observing her very mortal issues. Another idea was that she erases her own memory with the help of her wizard friend Terrible Eye and went to college. But then, a great catastrophe is about to occur so the heroes need Gwen's help to get the Infinity Gems and save the universe. But to do that, they need to go through a series of quirky challenges (placed by Gwen) to release her memories. In doing so, they also see the world through her eyes. So far, the only person who believes her abilities are the co-characters from her own series (Terrible Eye, Batroc the Leaper, Mega Tony, Cecil).

The problem is that both franchises have decades of storytelling, and I'm not American. So I don't have access and resources, nor the reason to even try. It's a HUGE WALL and frankly, I'm unprepared to try and climb that.

3. I'd describe my writing as direct and straight to the point.

Look, I'm not very good at fluffing my words. I see people writing a single scene and that alone takes up 1-2k words. Meanwhile, I write entire episodes in 6-8k words. Do you know how many scenes there are in one episode? A lot.

If I wrote like they do, a single episode could easily be up to 20k. This is also the reason why my uploads are very slow. I technically put in more ideas per chapter than most, even if it's a lower word count.

10. That would be Unchosen One, For Want a Nail and of course, Heroic BSOD.

The Unchosen One basically means a person who is not the chosen one but says "Fuck you" to fate and ends up doing the thing the chosen one was supposed to do anyway. For example, Link from Wind Waker (exclusively) was not the reincarnation of the Hero of Time and didn't have the Triforce of Courage. But because his sister got kidnapped, he ends up going on the quest to save her and even the world.

For Want a Nail is an alternate universe/what-if trope that asks "What if you change one small thing? What happens?". It comes from the tale where a horse got a nail stuck to its hooves and thus, the messenger couldn't deliver an important letter and one thing led to another and now, an entire kingdom is in ruins. The difference between FWaN with The Butterfly Effect is that no time travel is involved, and that it's not about cause and effect.

Finally, the Heroic BSOD. What happens when the hero is so utterly traumatized by certain events? They shut down. This is a tragic trope and it breaks down a heroic character down to their fleshy fragile core. It's chilling, deafening and really dangerous to everyone involved because if the hero can't do anything, then who can? So this episode of theirs is really compelling! I love it!

You can probably see all of this in SatF...

[army-of-mai-lovers]

Jet and Yue’s Deaths: Were They Necessary?

Two of the most common ideas I see for aus in this fandom are the Jet lives au, and the Yue lives au. I’ve written both of these myself, and I’ve seen many others write them. And while yes, fanfiction can be a great way to explore ideas that didn’t necessarily have to be explored in canon (I’m mad at bryke for a lot of things, but not including a Toph and Bumi I friendship is not one of them, even though I wrote a fic about it), it seems to me that people are mad that Yue and Jet are dead, to varying degrees. There’s a lot to talk about regarding their deaths from a sociopolitical perspective (the fact that two of the darker-skinned characters in the show are the ones that died, and all the light-skinned characters lived, is ah... an interesting choice), but I don’t want to look at it that way, at least for right now. I want to look at it as a writer, and discuss whether these deaths were a) necessary for the plot and themes of ATLA in any way whatsoever and b) whether it was necessary for them to unfold in the way that they did, or if they would have been more impactful had they occurred in a different way. 

(meta under the cut, this got really, really, really long)

Death in Children’s Media

When I first started thinking about this meta, I had this idea to compare Jet and Yue’s deaths to deaths in an animated children’s show that I found satisfying. And in theory, that was a great idea. Problem is: there aren’t very many permanent deaths in children’s animation, and the ones that do exist aren’t especially well-written. This may be an odd thing to say in what is ostensibly a piece of atla crit, but Yue’s death is probably the best written death in a piece of children’s animation that I can think of. That’s not a compliment. Rather, it’s a condemnation of the way other pieces of children’s animation featuring permanent character death have handled their storylines. 

I’ve talked about this before, but my favorite show growing up was Young Justice, and my favorite character on that show was far and away Mr. Wally West. So when he died at the end of season 2, it broke me emotionally. Shortly thereafter, Cartoon Network canceled the show, and I started getting on fan forums to mourn. Everybody on these fan forums was convinced that had Cartoon Network not canceled the show, Wally would have been brought back. And that is a narrative that I internalized for years. Eventually, the show was brought back via DC’s new streaming service, and I tuned in, waiting for Wally to also be brought back, only to discover that that wasn’t in the cards. Wally was dead. Permanently. 

So now that I know that, I can talk about why killing him off was fucking stupid. Wally’s death occurs at the end of season 2, after the main s2 conflict, the Reach, has been defeated, save for these pods that they set up all over the world to destroy Earth. Our heroes split up in teams of two to destroy the pods, and they destroy all of them, except for a secret one in Antartica. It can only be neutralized by speedsters, so Wally, Bart, and Barry team up to destroy it. It’s established in canon that Wally is slower than Bart and Barry, and it’s been played for laughs earlier in the season, but for reasons unexplained, the pod is better able to target Wally because he’s slower than Bart and Barry, and it kills him. After the emotional arc of the season has wrapped up, a literal main character dies. There’s some indication at the end of that season that his death is going to cause Artemis to spiral and become a villain, but when season 3 picks up, she’s doing the right thing, with seemingly no qualms about her position in life as a hero. In the comics, something like this happens to Wally, but then he goes into the Speed Force and becomes faster and stronger even than Barry, in which case, yes, this would have advanced the plot, but that’s probably not in the cards either. 

In summary, Wally’s death doesn’t work as a story beat, not because it made me mad, but because it doesn’t advance the plot, nor does it develop character. Only including things that advance plot or develop character is one of the golden rules of writing. Like most golden rules of writing, however, it’s not absolute. There is a lot of fun to be had in jokey little one off adventures (in atla, Sokka’s haiku competition) or in fun worldbuilding threads that add depth to your setting but don’t really come up (in atla, the existence of Whaletail Island, which is described in really juicy ways, even though the characters never go there.) But in general, when it comes to things like character death, events should happen to develop the plot or advance character. Avatar, for all of its flaws, is really well structured, and a lot of its story beats advance plot and develop character at the same time. However, the show also bears the burden of being a show directed at children, and thus needing to be appropriate for children. And as we know, Nickelodeon and bryke butted heads over this: the death scene that we see for Jet is a compromise, one that implicitly confirms his death without explicitly showing it. So bryke tasked themselves with creating a show about imperialism and war that would do those themes justice while also being appropriate for American children and palatable to their parents. 

The Themes of Avatar vs. Its Audience

So, Avatar is a show about a lone survivor of genocide stopping an imperialist patriarchal society from decimating the rest of the world. It’s also a show about found family and staying true to yourself and doing your best to improve the world. These don’t necessarily conflict with each other, and it is possible for children to understand and enjoy shows about complex themes. And in a lot of cases, bryke doesn’t hold back in showing what the costs of war against an imperialist nation are: losing loved ones, losing yourself, prison, etc. But when it comes to death, the show is incredibly hesitant. None of the main characters that we’ve spent a lot of time getting to know die (not even Iroh, even though he was old and it would have made sense and his VA died before the show was over--but that’s a topic for another day.) This makes sense. I can totally imagine a seven year-old watching Avatar as it was coming out and feeling really sad or scared if a major character died. I was six years older than that when Wally died, and it’s still sad and terrifying to me to this day. However, in a show about war, it would be unrealistic to have no one die. Bryke’s stated reason for killing off Jet is to show the costs of war. I’ve seen a lot of posts about Jet’s death that reiterate some version of this same point--that the great tragedy of his character is that he spent his life fighting the Fire Nation, only to die at the hands of his own country. Similarly, I’ve seen people argue in favor of Yue’s death by saying that it was a great tragedy, but it showed the sacrifices that must be made in a war effort. 

Yue

When we first meet Yue, she is a somewhat reserved, kind individual held back by the rigid social structures of the NWT*. She and Sokka have an immediate attraction to one another, but Yue reveals that she is engaged to Hahn. The Fire Nation invasion happens, Zhao kills Tui, and Yue gives up her life to save her people and the world, and to restore balance. Since we didn’t have a lot of time to get to know Yue, this is framed less as Yue’s sacrifice and more as Sokka’s loss. Sokka is the one who cares for Yue, Sokka is the only one of the gaang who really interacts a lot with Yue on screen, and Sokka is the one we’ve spent a whole season getting to know. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call Yue a prop character (i.e. a character who could be replaced by an object with little change to the narrative), she is certainly underdeveloped. She exists to be unambiguously likable and good, so we can root for her and Sokka, and feel Sokka’s pain when she dies. In my opinion, this is probably also why a lot of fic that features Yue depicts her as a Mary Sue--because as she is depicted in the show, she kind of is. We don’t get to see her hidden depths because she is written to die. 

In light of what we’ve established earlier in this meta, this makes sense. Killing off a fully-realized character whom the audience has really gotten to know and care about on their own terms, rather than through the eyes of another character, could be really sad and scary for the kids watching, but not killing anyone off would be an unrealistic depiction of war and imperialism. On the face of it, killing off an underdeveloped, unambiguously likable and good character, whom one of our MCs has a deep but short connection with, is the perfect compromise. 

But let’s go back to the golden rule for a second. Does Yue’s death a) advance the plot, and/or b) develop character? The answer to the first is yes: Yue’s death prompts Aang to use the Avatar State to fight off the Fire navy, which has implications for his ability to control the Avatar State that form one of the major arcs of book 2. The answer to the second? A little more ambiguous. You would think that Yue’s death would have some lasting impact on Sokka that is explored as part of his character arc in book 2, that he may be more afraid to trust, more scared of losing the people he loves, but outside of a few episodes (really, just one I can think of, “The Swamp”) it doesn’t seem to affect him that much. He even asks about Suki in a way that is clearly romantically motivated in “Avatar Day.” I don’t know about you, but if someone I loved sacrificed herself to become the moon, I don’t think I would be seeking out another romantic entanglement a few weeks after her death. Of course, everybody processes grief differently, and one could argue that Sokka has already lost important people in his life, and thus would be accustomed to moving on from that loss and not letting himself dwell on it. But to that, I’d say that moving on by throwing himself into protecting others has already shown itself to be an unhealthy coping mechanism. Remember, Sokka’s misogyny at the beginning of b1 is in part motivated by the fact that his mother died at the hands of the Fire Nation and his father left shortly thereafter to fight the Fire Nation, and he responds to those things by throwing himself into the role of being the “man” of the village and protecting the people he loves who are still with him. Like with Yue, he doesn’t allow himself to dwell on his mother’s death. This could have been the beginning of a really interesting b2 arc for Sokka, in which he throws himself into being the Avatar’s companion to get away from the grief of losing Yue, but this time, through the events of the show, he’s forced to acknowledge that this is an unhealthy coping mechanism. And maybe this is what bryke was going for with “The Swamp”, but this confines his whole process of grief to one episode, where it could have been a season-long arc that really emphasized the effect Yue’s had on his life. 

In the case of Yue, I do lean toward saying that her death was necessary for the story that they wanted to tell (although, I will never turn down a good old-fashioned Yue lives au that really gets into her dynamism as a character, those are awesome.) However, the way they wrote Sokka following Yue’s death reduced her significance. The fact that Yue seemed to have so little impact on Sokka is precisely what makes her death feel unnecessary, even if it isn’t. 

Jet

Okay. Here we go. 

If you know my blog, you know I love Jet. You know I love Jet lives aus. Perhaps you know that I’m in the process of writing a multichapter Jet fic in which he lives after Lake Laogai. So it’s reasonable to assume that, in a discussion of whether or not Jet’s death was necessary, I’m gonna be mega-biased. And yeah, that’s probably true. But up until recently, I wasn’t really all that mad about Jet dying, at least conceptually. As I said earlier, bryke says that in the case of Jet’s death, they wanted to kill a character off that people knew and would care about, so that they could further show the tragedies of war and imperialism. Okay. That is not, in and of itself, a bad idea. 

My issue lies with the execution of said idea. First of all, the framing of Jet’s original episode is so bad. Jet is part of a long line of cartoon villains who resist imperialism and other forms of oppression through violence and are punished for it. This is actually a really common sort of villain for atla/lok, as we see this play out again with Hama, Amon, and the Red Lotus. To paraphrase hbomberguy’s description of this type of villain, basically liberal white creators are saying, “yeah, oppression is bad, but have you tried writing to your Congressman about it?” With Jet, since we have so little information about the village he’s trying to flood, there are a number of different angles that would explain his actions and give them more nuance. My preferred hc is that the citizens of Gaipan are a mix of Earth civilians, Fire citizens, and FN soldiers, and that the Earth citizens refused to feed or house Jet and the other Freedom Fighters because they were orphans and, as we see in the Kyoshi Novels, Earth families stick to their own. Thus, when Jet decides to flood Gaipan, he’s focused on ridding the valley of Fire Nation, but he doesn’t really care about what happens to the Earth citizens of Gaipan because they actively wronged him when he was a kid. That’s just one interpretation, and there have been others: Gaipan was fully Fire Nation, Gaipan was both Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation but Jet decided that the benefits of flooding the valley and getting rid of the Fire Nation outweighed the costs of losing the EK families, etc, etc. There are ways to rewrite that scenario so that Jet is not framed as an unambiguously bloodthirsty monster. In the context of Jet’s death, this initial framing reduces the possible impact that his death could have. Where Yue was unambiguously good, Jet is at the very least morally gray when we see him again in the ferry. And where we are connected to Yue through Sokka, the gaang’s active hatred of Jet hinders our ability to connect with him. This isn’t impossible to overcome--the gaang hates Zuko, and yet to an extent the audience roots for him--but Jet’s lack of screentime and nuanced framing (both of which Zuko gets in all three seasons) makes overcoming his initially flawed framing really difficult. 

So how much can it really be said, that by the time we get to Jet’s death, he’s a character that we know and care about? So much about him is still unknown (what happened to the Freedom Fighters? what prompted Jet’s offscreen redemption? who knows, fam, who knows.) Moreover, most of what we see of him in Ba Sing Se is him actively opposing Zuko and Iroh. These are both characters that at the very least the show wants us to care about. At this point, we know almost everything there is to know about them, we’ve been following them and to an extent rooting for them for two seasons, and who have had nuanced and often sympathetic framing a number of times. So much of the argument I’ve seen regarding Jet centers around the fact that he was right to expose Zuko and Iroh as Firebenders, but the reason we have to have that argument in the first place is because it’s not framed in Jet’s favor. In terms of who the audience cares about more, who the audience has more of an emotional attachment towards, Zuko and Iroh win every time. Whether Jet’s actually in the right or not is irrelevant, because emotionally speaking, we’re primed to root for Zuko and Iroh. In terms of who the framing is biased towards, Jet may as well be Zhao. So when he’s taken by the Dai Li and brainwashed, the audience isn’t necessarily going to see this as a bad thing, because it means Zuko and Iroh are safe.

The only real bit of sympathetic framing Jet gets are those initial moments on the ferry, and the moments after he and the gaang meet again. So about five, ten minutes of the show, total. And then, he sacrifices himself for the gaang. And just like Yue, his death has little to no impact on the characters in the episodes following. Katara is shown crying for four frames immediately following his death, and they bring him up once in “The Southern Raiders” to call him a monster, and once in “The Ember Island Players”, a joke episode in which his death is a joke. 

So, let’s ask again. Does this a) advance the plot, and/or b) develop character? The answer to both is no. It shows that the Dai Li is super evil and cruel, which we already knew and which basically becomes irrelevant in book 3, and that is really the only plot-significant thing I can think of. As far as character, well, it could have been a really interesting moment in Katara���s development in forgiving someone who hurt her in the past, which could have foreshadowed her forgiving Zuko in b3, but considering she calls Jet a monster in TSR, that doesn’t track. There could have been something with Sokka realizing that his snap judgment of Jet in b1 was wrong, but considering that he brings up Jet to criticize Katara in TSR, that also does not track. And honestly, neither of these possible character arcs require Jet to die. What requires Jet to die is the ~themes~. 

Let’s look at this theme again, shall we? The cost of war. We already covered it with Yue, but it’s clearly something that bryke wants to return to and shed new light on. The obvious angle they’re going for is that sometimes, you don’t know who your real enemy is. Jet thought that his enemy was the Fire Nation, but in the end, he was taken down by his own countryman. Wow. So deep. Except, while it’s clear that Jet was always fighting against the Fire Nation, I never got the sense that Jet was fighting for the Earth Kingdom. After all, isn’t the whole bad thing about him in the beginning is that he wants to kill civilians, some of whom we assume to be Earth Kingdom? Why would it matter then that he got killed by an EK leader, when he didn’t seem to ever be too hot on those dudes? But okay, maybe the angle is not that he was killed by someone from the Earth Kingdom, but that he wasn’t killed by someone from the Fire Nation. Okay, but we’ve already seen him be diametrically opposed to the only living Air Nomad and people from the Water Tribes. Jet fighting with and losing to people who aren’t Fire Nation is not a new and exciting development for him. Jet has been enemies with non-FN characters for most of the show’s run at this point. There is no thematic level on which the execution of this holds any water. 

The reason I got to thinking about this, really analyzing what Jet’s death means (and doesn’t mean) for the show, was this conversation I was having with @the-hot-zone in discord dms. We were talking about book 2 and ways it could have been better, and Zone said that they thought that Jet would have been a stronger character to parallel with Zuko’s redemption than Iroh and that seeing more of the narrative from Jet’s perspective could have strengthened the show’s themes. And when it came to the question of Jet’s death, they said, “And if we are going with Jet dying, then I want it to hurt. I want it to hurt just as much as if a main character like Sokka had died. I want the viewer to see Jet's struggles, his triumphs, the facets of Jet that make him compelling and important to the show.” And all of that just hit me. Because we don’t get that, do we? Jet’s death barely leaves a mark. Jet himself barely leaves a mark. His death isn’t plot-significant, doesn’t inspire character growth in any of our MCs, and doesn’t even accomplish the thematic relevance that it claims to. So what was the point? 

Conclusion

Much as I dislike it, Yue’s death actually added something to atla. It could have added much, much more, in the hands of writers who gave more of a shit about their Brown female characters and were less intent on seeing them suffer and knocking them down a peg, but, in my opinion, it did work for what it was trying to do. Jet? Jet? Nah, fam. Jet never got the chance to really develop into a likable character because he was always put at odds with characters we already liked, and the framing skewed their way, not his. The dude never really had a chance.        

*multiple people have spoken about how the NWT as depicted in atla is not reminiscent of real life Inuit and Yupik people and culture. I am not the person to go into detail about this, but I encourage you to check out Native-run blogs for more info!

[headheartbellarke]

DATE NIGHT | owen joyner headcannons

Requested by anon: “Owen x reader - both actors with very busy lives try to spend time together (they have a shared apartment but get no time alone) but every time they always get interrupted so Owen decides to take both their phones & turn them off/cancel their plans so they can spend the day together & do couple things.�� A/N: felt like headcannons would suit the idea better :3 WARNING(s): tooth rotting fluff ig hehe

Owen and you are both actors, but on different Netflix shows – he’s in Julie and The Phantoms, and you’re in Lucifer.

You met via your common friend, Savannah – you and her live in the same building in LA, and it was no surprise when you guys became best friends, considering how similar you guys are. You also have an apartment in Vancouver, BC, since you had to constantly travel there for shooting Lucifer, ever since you joined the show in its fourth season.

When Savannah mentioned that she needs to go to Vancouver, you were quick to offer her your apartment. A couple of weeks after she moved there, you went to visit her, because you missed your best friend more than anything, and that’s how you met Owen.

You developed a crush on him immediately (because, well, he is just too cute!) and you guys used to hang out all the time and were the same level of chaotic, and everyone used to talk about how you guys are made for each other. You two would try out all the new restaurants in the city, would check out all the tourist destinations, go hiking together, have movie nights every weekend – basically, you two were inseparable, especially after you moved there to film Lucifer. You guys would also flirt with each other, a lot.

Everyone, especially your best friend and Charlie, would tease you guys about it, constantly.

Finally, after a month of constant flirting, you couldn’t take it anymore and you kissed him, and the both of you confessed your feelings, and it’s been pretty great so far.

When lockdown started, you got stuck in your apartment in LA, alone, while he was back in Oklahoma, at his parents’ home.

You two would facetime each other constantly, but, obviously, that wasn’t enough.

Finally, in August, he moved into your apartment.

Safe to say, quarantine wasn’t as dull as before.

But when Lucifer season 5A released, and then, JATP, you guys had to do interviews 24/7, and you also had meetings for the next season.

You two would wake up, kiss each other, have breakfast together, and then, you guys would sit in your desks, in different rooms and work all day long. Sometimes, between interviews, you would grab something to eat from the kitchen, and on the way back to your room, you would go to him, and he would switch his camera off, and you would wordlessly sit in his lap and hug him for a minute, before returning to work.

He would sometimes come into your room, and press a kiss on your forehead, whispering an ‘I love you.’

Finally, after every bit of work is done, you and Owen would make dinner together, and have it while cuddling on the couch, and sometimes that would lead to more, but most days you guys are too tired to even speak.

One Friday, the both of you, coincidentally, had the entire day free. It was such a rare occurrence, and when the alarm in Owen’s phone rang, you switched off the phone, and wrapped an arm around his neck pulling him closer. He murmured sleepily, “Y/N, we have –”

You kissed him and whispered, “Nothing. We have nothing.”

That seemed to wake him up, as his eyes suddenly brightened, and he ran a hand through his already messed up hair. The action was so hot that it gave you actual butterflies.

“So… does this mean that…” He whispered, biting back a smile as his eyes trailed over your body. You grinned, grabbing a handful of his shirt, and said, “Just kiss me, you dork.”

Two hours later, you woke up (you always fall asleep after sex, almost as a rule) to find Owen’s side empty.

You walked to the kitchen to find him flipping pancakes and you swore that you could have swooned at the sight of your shirtless boyfriend cooking.

He served you breakfast, and you guys joked around, eating them, and enjoying the serene morning.

After breakfast, you did the dishes, while he did the laundry. After the both of you were done, you searched around for your phone to check your social media.

You couldn’t find it anywhere, and when you asked your boyfriend about it, he grinned mischievously. “We’re gonna spend today together, Just us alone.” You couldn’t stop a grin from escaping.

First, he suggested going for a run together, and you agreed. On regular days, you work out in the mornings, while Owen sometimes goes for a run towards the evening. But, today, you two went running together, along the beach. It was refreshing to finally go out after a while, even if you two had masks on, due to the pandemic.

When you returned, you guys took a bath together, and talked about the most random of things.

Owen ordered a pizza for lunch, and you decided to watch Mamma Mia.

Owen fell asleep on your lap after finishing his pizza, but you stayed up till the end, because who falls asleep during Mamma freaking Mia?

Soon after the movie, you fell asleep too, your hands tangled in his hair.

You woke up to the sound of feet shuffling, and found Owen standing a few feet away from you with his phone in your hand. “Hey, you’re up.” You smiled, and he tapped on his phone, your favorite song replacing the quiet of your apartment. He held out a hand to you, and you laughed, hiding your face in your hands. “You’re so cheesy.”

“Shut up and dance.”

“That was even more cheesy.”

Of course, you two danced, you burying your face in the crook of his neck, while he had his arms wrapped around your torso, while yours were around his neck. You breathed in his grapefruit scent, smiling when you remembered that he uses your body wash. You guys danced around for a while, the slow dancing soon turning to jumping on your couch and singing the Julie and The Phantoms soundtrack at the top of your lungs.

After that, you proposed baking some brownies.

That was a mistake because Owen never follows the instructions on the net. You were pretty irritated when he added four eggs when it was clearly written to add three.

“Aw, you look adorable when you’re mad.”

That was it, and you grabbed a handful of flour and threw it in his direction, his face now as white as snow.

He stayed silent for a while, before grabbing you by your waist and whispering, “Oh, it’s on.”

He proceeded to coat you in sugar.

Thirty minutes later, you were both covered in flour, and sugar and the kitchen in anything and everything that’s required in making cake batter.

Fortunately, you managed to salvage some of the batter, and another hour later, the smell of brownies engulfed the apartment.

“Wow, I’m such a good baker.” “Please, Owen.”

You guys cleaned up and facetimed Owen’s mother to show her what you had made.

“I helped.” “No, he didn’t, Dinah.” “Yes, I did –” “No!”

Dinah smiled at the two of you and said, “It looks great. I know it was all you, Y/N.”

Owen rolled his eyes, muttering, “I hate that you two are friends.” But his little smile gave away what he was truly feeling.

After that, you guys ate the brownies, and some leftovers from last night. Owen put on your favorite movie, while you snuggled into his side, and whispered, “Today was perfect.”

He smiled, kissing the top of your head, “I missed you.”

“I love you.”

He grinned, cupping your face, and pressing a kiss to your lips. His thumb caressed your cheek for a moment as he whispered, “And I love you.”

You wrapped your arms around him, feeling glad to have such an amazing and caring person in your life.

as usual, feedback and reblogs are highly appreciated <3

[hopeshoodie]

Ok so in light of the Independent article (see my tag #fusebox layoffs for more info), I’ve been trying to piece together the sequence of events that lead to FB Going to Shit™. 

All of the below is based on articles, tweets from the staff, and dates from screenshots. Especially with the Matchmaker stuff, I’m using the dates I personally accessed the stories- that might not be accurate to when they were actually released to an international audience, just when my phone updated the app. In hindsight, I’m not a great person to do this because I have a shit memory and don’t keep receipts, so if you have any corrections PLEASE lmk either in the dms or replies. 

In sum, the timeline appears to be:

1. Key players left Fusebox in early 2020. 

The one that people are probably most familiar with is David Gallopim, one of the artists who helped define the S2’s distinct style, leaving sometime before March 2020. He seemed to indicate that there was conflict over the new art style of S3, and released assets he’d designed of Harry in his own style (notably way prettier than Harry looks in-game). 

But probably more important to the direction of the company, Michael Othen, one of the co-founders and former CEO, left in July of 2020 (I had thought it was earlier in the year but according to LinkedIn it was July). It’s much more unclear why he left, but it’s notable because he was a huge force in making the game inclusive of LGBTQ characters. 

So all in all, not a great sign when employees who had a huge hand in creating the content and direction of a game that defined its success jump ship. Especially after the game was seemingly hitting its stride, with the host of Love Island (the TV show) doing a sponsored Let’s Play of S3 and projects in the works like Boat Party and CMM.

2. It seems like Fusebox‘s CEO/executives hired new management, either in 2020 or early 2021. Employees complain that the executives don’t understand what it takes to make a game and are pulling the studio in the wrong direction. It’s unclear if the newly hired execs had experience. 

Wil Stephens, the CEO/founder, has been with FB since its inception but also appears to have only founded game distribution ventures and not worked in any development or employment capacity. If that’s the case, maybe the complaints about lack of experience/knowledge about the mechanics of making games work are about him. If not, then some of the newly hired execs would likely be to blame. 

Paul Virapen, COO, was brought on in November of 2020. He’s worked with Disney’s gaming division, Big Pixel studios, Wooga. The quality of that experience is dubious since he headed up the ‘let’s make apps for Apple watches, it’ll be the next big thing�� department… Lol. Notably also, all of his roles had been in the executive/managerial realm, not the development teams, so the complains might have been about him. THIS IS SPECULATION, but I’m willing to bet that Virapen was a if not THE driving force in switching Fusebox’s focus entirely to matchmaker. All the studios he’s worked with have primarily produced and promoted Match 3 games, and he has a background working with big studios that produce games for large international audiences, not small studios making narrative games for limited audiences.

A new Manager of Finances, Ruth Erskine, was brought on in December of 2020

Rob Goddard, a new producer, was brought in January of 2021

Several key operations positions were filled by existing employees being promoted to management- 2 as far as I can tell. But as a whole it seems like December 2020 was a huge shift in leadership for the upper management while a lot of the other teams expanded but kept their old players as well.

3. At some point in late 2020- mid 2021, the executive team made the decision to switch LITG’s focus from a narrative pass-based game to a Match 3 incorporating romance narrative cut scenes. In early 2021, Fusebox teased more content to come while releasing S3 (seemingly referring to Matchmaker and not S4). In the interim between S3 endings and Boat Party’s release they put out an interview confirming the new game will be Match 3 but did seem to indicate that the plan at that time was for Matchmaker to be a side project with a different development team and not replace the main game. Notably, the LITG writers and artists were reassured that their roles will continue to exist (according to the independent article) as they’re working on S4.

3. In September of 2020, Matchmaker became briefly available in the US. That’s when I first downloaded it, at least. It would be added/removed from the google play store multiple times before having a unilateral release in July of 2021. 

Throughout 2020, Matchmaker is available to Asian audiences solely with LITG S1 getting rolled out in incremental updates. 

Eventually, Beanie Quinn is released (March 2021)

LA Noir is released (May 2021)

Seduction Games is released (late May or June 2021- I got the update and played it June 3rd, but hadn’t opened the app for a month or so. It might have come out before then, which is unfortunate for this timeline since it’s so inextricably linked to the open letter and layoff dates)

LITG S2 is released (only like 20 levels of it) the same month- June 19th for me. Notably, all of these stories are only released to an international audience, with the UK and USA still not having access to the app.

4. At the same time, Fusebox’s internal affairs are pretty quiet from 2020-2021, at least on social media. 

S3 comes out in 2020, Boat Party comes out later in the year and finishes in 2021. Post S3 in October of 2021, a survey goes out gauging player interest in new art styles and representation, which was pretty in keeping with past actions and seemed promising for S4. 

Boat Party features a promising cross promotion implementing irl brands into the game. It’s unclear if enough money was made from this on FB or the sponsor’s end to make that strategy viable, but that might’ve impacted management’s outlook for the profitability of LITG.  

Fusebox teases more content for the summer on Instagram, and then follows up and confirms it’ll be a proper season.

5. More key players leave in early 2021

Ed Sibley is still listed as Narrative Direction on LinkedIn, but he’s not credited as a writer on Season 4 (he was on 3,2,and 1) and started work with NetSpeak games in May of 2021, so we can assume he left around then or at least transitioned away from Fusebox then.

Fred Francis, another writer who had been on the team since S1, turns in his resignation ‘weeks’ before the layoffs were announced in late June. So we can assume he made his exit sometime early June or late May.

6. Prior to the release of Seduction games in May/June, staff expressed concern about the biphobia in Seduction Games. No sources have given a specific time when this took place. They were reassured that the problem would be corrected prior to release, but then the story was released as is to an international audience in June. The article released by the Independent is unclear- there might have been discussion prior to the open letter where staff expressed concerns and then were reassured before the game going live. OR the open letter might have been the first expression of concern by the staff. I tend to think the former, and the open letter was a response to Matchmaker going live with Seduction Games anyways, but I have no proof for that. On May 24th, 31 employees sent an open letter of concern regarding the problematic content in Matchmaker. This letter isn’t public, so we don’t know the scope of the employees' concerns or who the employees were.

7. To resolve the situation, a meeting between the staff and at least the COO (likely more than just him though) was held sometime after May 24th. Allegedly, Virapen was disrespectful to the employees who had questions, refused to answer, and ended the meeting early before any resolution was had by closing his laptop and leaving the room. At least 4 HR complaints were made in the wake of that meeting, we do not know the nature of those complaints. 

8. Some time mid-July (maybe July 26th? A writer tweeted about their job ending soon on that date), employees were made aware that the LITG app would move into ‘sunset mode’. It’s unclear what was communicated, but it seems as though S4 will be heavily delayed or cancelled altogether and no future seasons would be made. Writers begin to post about looking for work on Twitter

9. June 30th- The majority of Fusebox writing staff announce on twitter they’re out of work. In addition to the entire writing staff, unity engineers and producers are also let go.

10. July 5th - Fusebox executives respond to an article by MCVUK with a statement asserting they were “consulting with [their] employees on a proposed change to its business model” that would focus on producing Matchmaker content. They also expounded that the move was to secure “cash injections and and continued support from respected investors across the media and gaming industry”

11. July 6th- Fusebox announces that S4 will be delayed from the summer release date and that there is no fixed release date. 

12. August 2nd- three jobs are posted to Fusebox’s careers page on their website, one being Head of Narrative Content. In the job listing, it specifies that they’ll be maintaining existing properties as well as new ones, and that because of the co-development model (re:fusebox outsourcing Matchmaker to another studio) the new Narrative Lead must collaborate with external content creators.

Hopefully posting this timeline gives players a better understanding of how radically Fusebox has changed in the course of 2021 (and how royally they screwed over the people who made LITG what it is). Again, please let me know if you have receipts showing dates are different or things to add. 

[mattsboldyy]

memories - auston matthews

Summary- Y/N and Auston’s 2 year anniversary is coming up, you found yourself rethinking all of the happy, sad, funny, frustrating, and fun moments you and Auston had between the almost 2 years you’ve been together. 

Words- 2K

Requested- No

Warnings- covid, fluff

Requests- Open

Author’s Note - The first part takes place in a covid free world. It’ll let you know when the whole covid thing starts in the fic. Enjoy!

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3 MONTHS INTO DATING AUSTON - JANUARY 2019

“Oh, look there’s Mitch and Auston!” Steph, Mitch Marner’s girlfriend said while pointing down to the ice where the Maple Leafs were warming up to face off against the Colorado Avalanche in the Scotiabank Area. You waved to Auston, with him giving you a little wave back. “You two are literally the cutest.” Steph said, sitting down in her seat next to your and the other WAGs. “Not as cute as you and Mitch.” You giggled, sitting down next to Steph. “He adores you, Y/N/N!” Steph said, showing you a picture of Auston looking at you with the cutest look on his face while standing on the beach from last month. You smile. 

Some time later, the game was about to start. You were nervous because Colorado was a good team that season, but you reminded yourself that the Maple Leafs were having a wonderful season too so you tried not to worry. 

About six minutes into the game, Mitch stole the puck and headed down the ice for a breakaway, Auston not to far behind him. 

“Marner passes the puck to Matthews, back to Marner, and back to Matthews. Matthews shoots... AND SCORES!” the sports announcer said.

You and Steph both jumped to your feet, cheering, then giving each other and the rest of the WAGs high fives.

The rest of the game was somewhat of a mess. But the maple leafs ended winning 5-3! You and Steph was at the dressing room hallway when two very strong arms wrapped around you. You turned around and to your relief, there was Auston.

“Hey baby!” You said, giving him a kiss on the lips.

“Hi gorgeous.” Auston said. 

“You played great tonight.”

“Thank you.” Auston said, smiling down at you with his hands still wrapped around your waist.

Soon after saying goodbye to Steph, which is also  your best friend, and the other WAGs, you and Auston headed back to his apartment . 

-------

You walked into the apartment right behind Auston and then shutting the door behind you.

You and Auston sat on the couch and watched ‘Love Island’  and cuddled. 

After one episode, you looked over at Auston and smiled. 

“Hey Aus?” You asked, still looking over at him. 

“Yeah?” He said quietly with his eyes still closed.

“I love you.” You said.

Auston’s eyes flew open. “You what?”

“I love you!” You said.

“I love you too.” Auston said, getting of off the couch and walking over to you.

You giggled as he kissed you passionately. 

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9 MONTHS INTO DATING AUSTON - JUNE 2019

“This food is good.” You said to Auston while looking at him across the restaurant table.

“Mhm.” Auston said, with his mouth full which made you laugh.

A few minutes later, Auston spoke up. “I have a question to ask you, and it’s okay if you say no because I understand.”

“Okay..” You said, with a confused look.

Auston then reached into his pocket and pulled out a key and slid it across the table.

“I want you to have this.” Auston said, looking at you.

“Your spare apartment key? You want me to move in with you?” you asked excitedly.

Auston nodded and grabbed one of your hands from across the table.

“I think I’m really in love with you Y/N and I really want you to move in with me.” Auston said, smiling slightly.

“Awh. I will move in with you Aus.” You said giving him a sweet smile.

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11 MONTHS INTO DATING AUSTON -  AUGUST 2019

You shifted around in the bed your throat being a little sore so you opened your eyes to see that it was 6:00 am and Auston had practice at 7:00 am. You got out of bed and walked into the kitchen to find Auston eating breakfast. You went to say good morning but nothing came out. You had lost your voice and your throat had gotten a lot more sore when you tried to talk. Auston looked at you with worried eyes. He got up and walked towards you, guiding you back to bed.

“Stay right here, love.” Auston said leaving the bedroom.

Some time later, he came back with some soup, medicine, and tea.

“Thank you babe.” You said, very faintly.

You expected Auston to be leaving soon since he had practice but instead he grabbed the remote to the bedroom TV and went to get in his side of the bed.

“Don’t you have practice?” You said quietly

“Yeah.. but you’re sick and I don’t want you to be alone.” Auston said, scrolling through netflix, trying to find a show to watch.

You looked at Auston. How did you get so lucky? Auston also thought that same thought all the time. How did he get so lucky? 

“I love you Aus.” You said while laying down on his chest.

“Love you too, Y/N/N.” Auston said, smiling down at you.

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1 YEAR, 4 MONTHS INTO DATING AUSTON - JANUARY 2020

You heard your phone ringing and saw your boyfriend’s picture pop up on your screen, so you answered the phone. 

“Hello?” you asked.

“Hey babe.” He said, 

You could tell something was wrong though... just by his tone.

“How’s practice?” You asked.

“Good.. but have you heard of this Covid-19?” Auston asked.

“Yeah.. I saw it on the news here and there.. hopefully it doesn’t get horrible.” You say, piecing the pieces together that Covid-19 was what he was worried about.

There was a short silence when you decided to speak up again.

“I’m sure everything's gonna be fine.” You re-assure Auston.

“Hopefully..” You hear Auston say. 

“Well anyway, practice is about to start. I love you baby.” Auston said.

“Love you too Aus.” You say, while hanging up the phone.

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1 YEAR, 6 MONTHS INTO DATING AUSTON - MARCH 2020

Auston was at practice when your heart dropped when you saw a notification saying that the NHL season was canceled due to covid. You sat in disbelieve. You couldn’t imagine how sad and upset Auston was going to be when he got home. The whole city of Toronto was shutting down.

Not long after the news that the season was over, you heard the apartment door open.

“They cancelled it..” Auston said, walking into the apartment, and dropping his hockey bag.

“I heard..” You say, walking over to him to give him a hug. “I’m so sorry baby.” You say as you rub up and down his back.

“It’s not your fault.” Auston mumbles as he walked over to the couch, picking up the remote and turning on ‘Love Island’.

“Love Island, eh?” You ask, standing behind the couch with you arms crossed, laughing as Auston laughed with you.

“It’s my therapy.” Auston said, turning around and slightly smiling up at you.

“I bet it is Aus, I bet it is.” You said, turning around and walking into the kitchen.

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1 YEAR, 10 MONTHS INTO DATING AUSTON - JULY 2020

“You ready?” Auston asked, opening the apartment complex’s main door with Felix’s leach in hand. 

“Mhm!!” You say, starting to walk down the sidewalk in the city of Toronto,

A few minutes later, it turned into a race between you and Auston to get back to the apartment complex first. You were already out of breath but if Auston won, he’d tease you about losing. You kept running, trying not to think about Auston, and try and focus on your breathing. 

About 20 minutes later, you had made it back to the apartment complex but with no sign of Auston or Auston’s dog, Felix. You waited for 5 more minutes with still no sign of Auston.

You started to get worried because he’s a professional athlete and you didn’t think it took them this long.

You tried calling Auston... 4 times.

You sat down on the bench outside the apartment complex and called Mitch, asking if he had heard from Auston. He of course, didn’t so then you just sat on the park bench, trying not to worry.

Soon, you saw Auston come into view, with Auston, his clothes, and Felix covered in mud. 

Your jaw dropped.

When Auston and Felix finally reached you, you were still in disbelieve, wondering what happened to cause this mess. 

“What happ-” You were asking when Auston cut you off.

“Felix saw a squirrel. His leach got out of my hand and he chased it. I lost my phone too..” Auston said.

You sat there for a minute before you started laughing so hard.

“I know. It’s so funny.” Auston said sarcastically, looking at you.

“Glad you have a sense of humor, Aus.” You said, getting up from the bench and patting Auston on the back and going back up to the apartment.

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2 YEARS INTO DATING AUSTON - SEPTEMBER 2020

It was you and Auston’s 2 year anniversary. It was almost nine o’clock so the sun was down and it was dark outside. You had just gotten back from shopping and going to dinner with Steph, Mitch’s girlfriend. When you opened the apartment door, the whole living room and kitchen was decorated so beautifully. There was fairy lights wrapped around the room and candles lit on the kitchen island and dining table. Your jaw dropped in awe.

“Auston?” You called from the front door of the apartment, dropping your shopping bags.

“In here babe!” Auston called from the bedroom. 

You opened the door and saw rose petals on the bed with a tiny box wrapped in white rapping paper and a gold bow. There was candles all over the room too. You gave Auston a sweet look before going over to Auston and rapping him in a huge hug and kissing him.

“Open it!” Auston said, gesturing over to the present laying on the bed. 

You walked over to the bed an picked up the present, sitting down on the bed where the present used to be. You opened the present and there was a ring. 

‘It’s a promise ring.” Auston said, sitting down beside you and putting his hand on your thigh. 

“Auston! It’s gorgeous!” You said, looking at him.

The ring looked like this. 

“I’m glad you like it.” Auston said, kissing your head and smiling down at the ring. 

Auston then got up and reached for your hand, leading you to the kitchen and living room, where the candles and fairy lights were. Slow music started dancing and Auston put his hands around your waist, and you put your hands around his neck. Auston started slow dancing around the room with you.

“Auston.. this is so sweet of you.. but it feels like I’m at my high school prom again.” You giggled with Auston laughing with you.

“I love you Y/N/N.” Auston said, looking down at you.

“I love you to Auston, I will forever.” You said smiling up at him.

[visionaxry]

TOP 10 TV SHOWS I WATCHED IN 2020

1. Dear White People

This show goes on the top tier of my favorite shows ever. It’s been around since 2017 (after the eponymous movie of 2014) but only this year I finally got the chance to watch it. Truly one of the best written shows I’ve ever seen, with such compelling characters and story. While I love to watch series with hard hitting social topics, it’s usually very emotionally exhausting for me. However, DWP manages to balance the gravity of its plot with a bright outlook. Besides, I always love to see different characters’ perspectives so the format of DWP is extremely engaging.

2. Grand Army

Grand Army is not your typical teen drama. It’s very raw and real. Five protagonists pull you into the story, and whether you hate them or love them, they don’t let you go. All characters feel like actual people you could know in real life. The show talks about racism, terrorism, sexual assault, white feminism, poverty, homophobia, bullying and more. I also love the way the show uses phones and social media, which you rarely get to see in teen shows. It doesn’t feel glossy or over dramatic. It does get graphic and dark, but it makes you care about the fate of its characters. Here, we also get to see five different perspectives. That and the rawness reminded me of SKAM, although GA is way less cheerful. It could also be compared to Euphoria with it’s portrayal of real issues, but I feel like GA hits the spot much better (and has more diversity).

Finding out that the creator is racist, upon finishing the binge, left me shocked and quite conflicted. I hope they will change the showrunner for season 2 (if it gets renewed). 

3. The Great 

I’m not much of a period drama fan but this one’s no typical historical shows. It plays around historical figures, but you shouldn’t take that too seriously, just like the show itself. It’s a great (haha get it) fun to watch. The combination of comedy with the actual life or death peril creates a unique experience. Each episode the tables turn, you feel both, betrayed and enticed. Not to mention, Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult’s chemistry and performances are phenomenal. Overall, it feels like a strawberry blew up in your mouth (take it however you want).

4. Dickinson

Dickinson is similar to The Great in a sense of historical accuracy. And I’m grateful for it, because seeing the 19th century nobility twerking at a party was something that brought me an immense amount of joy. Of course, you get to see Emily Dickinson’s poetic and original inner world, which is handled quite creatively.

5. The Queen’s Gambit

This is just a very well written, portrayed and produced story. Even if you feel like it wouldn’t be your cup of tea (I mean a period piece about chess? Come on), chances are once you put the show, you won’t be able to stop. It’s a limited series with a star struck cast which pretty much reads like a prolonged film. It’s also pretty suitable to watch with your family, if usually you struggle to find a common interest.

6. Julie and the Phantoms

This show certainly exceeded everyone’s expectations. It may seem like a typical kids show, but it’s smart, deep and entertaining. The music is incredible and it’s impossible not to fall in love with characters. Also, here’s the proof that your show doesn’t need to have graphic scenes and oversexualized underaged characters to be good. 

7. Saved By the Bell: the reboot

So I didn’t watch the original show, but the reboot caught my attention mostly because of Josie Totah, and because the vibe of the show just felt like something I would like. And I was absolutely right. Perhaps it’s not everyone’s cup of tea (and what is?) but to me it’s hilarious. A sort of heart-warming witty little show with gen z humor and interesting diverse characters. Definitely my new comfort show. And Lexi’s my queen.  

8. Outer Banks

Released during self-isolation it became a way for the viewers to live vicariously through the risky outdoor adventures. Perhaps, that’s why it’s such a hit and a bit overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked (why do you think it’s on this list). It’s not an outstanding show, might be cheesy and raise some questions (like how can they all be teenagers looking like that?) but it’s entertaining and engaging, and sometimes that’s all you need.

9. I am not okay with this

Let’s take a moment of silence for this amazing show being cancelled. Do you like Teotfw or Stranger Things, or better yet both? This show’s for you! It’s unique, dynamic, feels like you’re reading a comic book. Has a certain mystery to it and its own distinct voice. It also feels retro and nostalgic, even though it’s set in modern day.

10. Love, Victor [SPOILERS]

There’s a lot of things I wish I could change about the show to make it better: For starters, more representation. I mean you’re making a show, not exclusively, but primarily for the lgbtq+ community and you only have two main gay characters? What’s that about? There are so many possibilities to make other characters not straight. E.g. Mia and Lake could be couple goals, Pilar being bi, Andrew – definite bi energy. Secondly, the cheating trope is so exhausting and overdone in gay storylines. It doesn’t add drama, it just makes the couple and the characters hard to root for. Also, making the love interest so obvious was so underwhelming after everything we went through in Love, Simon. I was kind of hoping for a surprise love interest until the end.

Regardless of all that, no matter how far from teenage reality this show is, it was cute. And even though I rooted for the secondary characters way more than the main one, I’m still excited to see what they come up with for S2.

[androgynousblackbox]

have you seen the latest RaM episode? I was hoping to see if you had any thoughts about it! I really liked the exploration and the going off the gotdamb rails with the decoys. Also that scene with rick just. dick out and making morty peek at his ass for No actual reason sndhs

Don't forget the fact that his family didn't questioned for a single second that it should be MORTY the one to look into Rick's ass, like there was never anyone else but Morty who should be do it. It was gross, sure, but also such a... "guys would be guys" moment but not in the violent/toxic way but on the silly and unnecesary way, you know? Like Morty called it "punishment" and, sure, nobody wants to be farted into their face, but I can see Rick pulling a similar move on just any friend he feels like pranking to and, on a way, that was kinda wholesome. Okay, so I am going to pour my thoughts about this and the other episode as I usually do here so bear with me: -The fact that Summer IMMEDIATELY picked on what could go wrong about the whole decoy thing, and Rick has to aknowledge that Summer was smarter than this on this regard. This to me is talking again about how Summer IS actually smarter, emotional and socially wise (meaning with interelationships at least), that she could tell that if one Rick thinking he is not a decoy was going to make decoys then of course other Ricks would have the same idea. But Rick never saw this coming because he was only thinking of the decoys as instruments to be used and disposed, even as he was giving them actual personalities and filled their memories with real ones. He never considered they could go on to make their own because, well, they are not This Rick and this Rick is the smartest man in the universe, the guy that unironically think himself to be god, so OBVOUSLY think only HE would be capable of pulling that off. -The fact the immediately after a Rick wins while proclaiming himself "not a man, I am god!" only to be killed by what is essentially JUST A TOY, some little creature that was MEANT to be killed but got pissed when nobody did it. A literal "god" got eliminated for something fucking mundane that didn't even had to do with the main conflict. He doesn't even understand WHY this little dude just killed him, he died with uncertainty, and if that isn't the most human experience ever then I don't know. -With this episode and the first one, I HOPE this season is going to be about desconstructing Rick thinking himself above anything else. I said this before, but I don't trust fans who truly believe Rick is entitled to do anything he wants and be shitty with everyone because he is smart. It seems to be like these two episode literally adressed that kind of attitude by putting Rick on situations where not even he can get out of and revealing he is, in fact, still just a flawed human being. A major criticism that many people have levered against the show is that yes, we know Rick is sad and miserable, but the show still goes out of it's way to keep making him win on anything he wants (most of the time at least) and thus is signaling to the audience the idea that he is always right, that he should be always right, because he has the power to do anything he wants. The very first episode start with Rick about to fucking die with all his regrets ("I am a silly man, a silly old man") and then he is saved BY MORTY. If it wasn't because of Morty being there that would be it, they both would be gone. -The previous season was already descontructing Rick as the patriarch of the house and show how nobody "needs him" on the same way they needed him on the first season. The only character you could argue still gives a fuck about Rick's approval/recognition is Summer, but even then Summer was never submissive and passive like Season One Morty was to Rick, instantly believing anything he said. Plus, we all know that Rick COULD take Summer on all his adventures and she would never complain about it because she doesn't give a fuck about school anyway. But he still insist on taking Morty instead, despite his protests, because he just likes Morty better than Summer and he does not take well with Morty not relying on him. I don't fucking buy the whole "cancelling brain waves" excuse anymore because, come on, there is a million ways in which Rick could circunvent that problem if he wanted to

but he just prefers keep Morty around. -On the first episode Rick literally says "let me deus ex machina out of here". Deus ex machina literally means the hand of god because in ancient greek mythology many plays would have an element of a literal hand coming from the sky to take the characters out of any problem they are in. And it didn't worked! He needed Mr Nimbus to save them. Because he is not fucking god, and the show is finally showing us concrete evidence of this, while Rick is still the only one with this delusion on his head and this delusion is part of his downfall. The whole second episode is nothing else but Rick's ego fucking him in the ass, literally killing him over and over again. -Beth was GREAT rejoicing on Rick's existential crisis and she fucking deserved that moment, I am glad they gave it to her. -The way so many of the decoys decided to react to knowing they were decoys was so amazing. Like yeah, a majority of them decided to be all "oh no, there can only be one", but many other just off themselves because they couldn't handle not being The Original, insisting to the last moment that they MUST be the original because, well, that is what they think, and then other decoys were just ready to accept death because they had accepted there was no other way. -The only wish of Summer to be on the ocean was... so wholesome? Like it made for a beautiful scene in general, but then they dying hand by hand and just happy to be together, Rick apoligizing to Morty because they couldn't make his wish come true, such a good moment. -The fact that all those Ricks made decoys purely out of a sincere desire to protect his family, it's just great. It was still selfish to basically create life with the only purpose of it being destroyed, but it was motivated as another security measure to protect others, not just himself. -The skin wearing Rick on the swamps talking about "a Rick must provide for his family". Ricks CARE about their family so much. -The puppet Smits were so cute, I loved their voices. -THE MUPPET SMITHS. Even if it was nothing but a costume, it was cute and I want them on Pocket Mortys. -This scene is a Call Me By Your Name reference and nobody tells me otherwise:

As I explained on a server: 1. Italian. The movie happens on Italy. 2. Pool. Many crucial scenes include a pool. 3. Age difference. If they just wanted to imply Morty was flirting they could have used just an older teenager, they didn't need a literal hunk that kinda looks like the older character on the movie. 4. THERE IS FUCKING PEACHES ON THE FOREFRONT. If anyone saw Call me by your name, they know they literally fucked a peach at some point and then the love interest EATS IT ANYWAY. And what does it look like the guy Morty is with is eating? PEACHES. 5. Parents are watching and don't give a fuck. 6. I have decided. -Regardless if it's a reference or not, though, is still pretty fucking gay. -I have seen some fans theorizing that the Smith family we see in the end with Space Beth was our own, and at first I thought so too because they are with Space Beth but then I was... wait a minute, ALL Beth decoys knew there was a Space Beth. They went out of their way to show us this by always having Beth being the one who insisted that no decoy had to die, because she knew what was to feel like a copy. When Rick decided to make another family exactly as his own, he also made HIMSELF expendable and interchangeable. We don't need thirty Smith families, the show only needs one and it doesn't matter which one is it as long is one we can recognize. Why couldn't that have been another decoy family that just so happened to want to do a space trip while all the bullshit was happening? I don't think they are ever going to confirm if this was our original Smith family or don't, just like they won't confirm which Beth is the clone, but I personally think it would be fucking hilarious if they were a decoy and Our Rick just died thinking he was a decoy. -Also the way that Space Beth was just casually putting an arm around Morty made me so happy. Considering that Beth is also the mother who prefered to save Summer over Morty when their lives were in danger, I really like the idea that Space Beth sees how much Morty has grown and is proud of him for becoming a badass himself without Rick's help. That is just my headcanon though, but wouldn't be nice to have SOMEONE appreciate Morty? -Finally, but not less important... Rick knew Morty uses a yosemite shirt in order to cum. This man literally knew about the masturbatory habits of his grandson. Rick went as far on his desire to protect his family he used that knowledge for the decoys. He also told Morty to not fuck his double, which is a nice little reference to Morty literally doing that on the comics but also a subtle way to tell us that Morty is definitely Not Straight because, yeah, I am fucking counting selfcest as a form of queerness because regardless of everything else, that is still two identifying male characters fucking. We only need Beth showing attraction to some female character and the entire Smith family would be officially pan/bi.

[terra-sprout-imagines]

S/O Surprises them at a game they said they couldn’t be at headcanons (Daichi, Sugawara, Kuroo) Part 1

Written By: Terra

Warnings: Anime spoilers for Season 2 (Daichi), Season 3 (Suga) and the Land VS Air OVA also known as “Riku vs Kuu” (Kuroo)

Request: How would Suga, Tanaka, Bokuto, Kuroo, Daichi and Hinata react to their S/O surprising them by showing up to a game that they had previously said they couldn't make it to? by @myheroesaretired

Author’s Note: Here’s part 1! This is my first time writing for Haikyuu so I would appreciate feedback! Part two will be written by Sprout because we both wanted to try writing for Haikyuu and show you guys what headcanons would look like from each of us. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy!

READ PART TWO HERE: Tanaka, Hinata, Bokuto - For whatever reason, this link does not show up on mobile, but part two is out and can be found on our blog

Sawamura Daichi

You were part of the music club at Karasuno, your specialty being the piano.

You had a huge recital coming up, so your instructor set up individual one-on-one sessions with each member so they could gauge each of your current abilities and offer more individualized feedback

Unfortunately for you, your one-on-one session happened to be the same day as the Miyagi Volleyball Inter-High Preliminaries.

You couldn’t reschedule your session with your instructor, but at the very least, your session would be over by the afternoon

That would leave you enough time to catch hopefully all of their second match

But only if they managed to beat Wakutani South first.

Out of all of them, honestly I think Daichi would be the most okay at hearing the news

I mean sure he wants you there, but he knew when you started dating that there was no way you’d be able to make every match

You already support him more than enough with what games and practices you do sit through

And he makes sure to support you in kind with your music

After all he knows how important it is to you

So when you had to tell them that you wouldn’t likely make it to his first match of the day

He just gave you a soft smile and pressed a kiss into your forehead.

“It’s okay, I know you’d be there if you could.”

“Just make sure you’ll be careful out there.” You responded.

He chuckled, “I always am.”

And that was all he said about it really

During the game, he wouldn’t be casting his eyes up into the stands looking for you.

He’d be completely focused on the game in front of him, knowing that you were still cheering for him in spirit, even though you were back at the school.

However, what Daichi didn’t know, was that the student with an appointment before yours had to cancel due to a sudden illness.

This meant that you would be able to come in early, and hopefully you would be there in time to catch your boyfriend’s match.

And sure enough, it was only a quarter after ten in the morning when you were rushing through the doors of the Sendai City Gymnasium where Karasuno was competing.

In your rush to find the doors to the stands, you happened to pass by the medical office.

You caught familiar swath of blonde hair in your peripheral vision that had you stopping in your tracks to do a double take.

Yachi was standing there just outside the door, her gaze clearly worried.

Realizing that someone on the team had been hurt, you turned on your heel to walk over to the young manager, wanting to check that whoever it was on the team hadn’t been hurt too bad.

After all, you had come to care for every member of the team in the time you had been dating Daichi.

Hearing someone approach her, Yachi tore her gaze from the door and to you, her eyes widening when she saw who it was that was walking towards her.

“Yachi? Did someone get hurt?” You asked, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder to try and calm some of her nerves.

“I-it’s Daichi!”

You felt a cold sense of dread wash over you upon hearing those words. Daichi got hurt?

“How bad was he hurt- is he okay?!” You snapped your gaze now to look at the white door to your right

“H-he and Tanaka both dove for the ball a-and they c-collided. The nurse said he would be okay, but that he needed to rest and let the bleeding in his mouth stop before he could go back. I didn’t want to disturb him, so… I’m waiting out here.”

You felt some of your worry go knowing that he was going to be okay and that he wasn’t seriously injured.

Of course, hearing that he was bleeding still wasn’t news you wanted to hear, but it was better than hearing that he had gotten a concussion or broke a bone or something.

“Thank you for waiting Yachi. You can go back to the game if you want, I can keep him company until he’s cleared to go back.” Your smile was gentle, reassuring as you looked back to Yachi.

She nodded after she asked if you were sure, tripping over a quick “thank you!” before she turned to run back to the match.

You took a quick breath before entering, opening the door carefully so as not to make too much of a disturbance as you walked in. You exchanged a few words with the nurse on duty before taking a seat next to the bed where your boyfriend was currently lying down with an ice pack pressed against his cheek and his eyes closed.

“Hey.” You cooed softly as you pulled up a chair to sit next to him. You reached out with your hands to clasp his free one in between your own.

Daichi opened his eyes, his gaze widening in surprise when he saw you sitting next to him before his expression melted into tender adoration. “Hey, I thought you said you weren’t going to make it.”

“The student before me had to cancel, so I was able to go in early. But how are you? I heard from Yachi what happened.”

His hand squeezed yours. “It looks worse than it is. A little more rest, and I should be good to go back in.”

You sighed in relief, before looking back at him with a playful glare. “I seem to recall you promising me that you were going to be careful.”

Daichi smiled in response, and at least looked a little guilty. “I’m sorry, I just got so caught up in the game that I was moving before I even had time to think about it.”

You shook your head, a smile upon your own features. You leaned over and kissed the top of his forehead. “It’s okay I forgive you. Now you better hurry up and get better, Captain. Or your team is going to win without you.”

His chest shook as he laughed. “You know, I think I’d like to see them do just that.”

Sugawara Koushi

It was the day of Karasuno’s match against Shiratorizawa

You had been to their semifinals match against Seijoh the day before, but unfortunately for you your neighbor’s son had woken up with a fever.

His mother had tried to call off of work to take care of him, but she was only able to take a half day after trying to plead with her boss.

Because of the last-minute nature of the emergency, she had asked if you would be willing to watch over him until she was able to get off of work until her mother arrived later that morning to take over.

Of course, you weren’t able to say no. Having watched her kid before on multiple occasions, you were quite fond of him, and besides, you weren’t one to turn away from someone who clearly needed your help

So you had sent your boyfriend Suga a message as you gathered some of your things, letting him know about what happened and that you might not make it to his game like you had wanted to, but at the very least you would make sure to watch the live broadcast and cheer him on from home.

And Suga, even though he felt a pang of disappointment at the news, would never hold it against you.

Of course having you there in person to cheer him and his team on was what he would prefer

But he would never get upset for you helping out someone else who needed it, especially since he likely would have done the same thing if the roles had been reversed.

Just knowing that you were out there cheering him on, even from far away, was enough for him

But even still he would find his eyes wandering to the stand as Karasuno took to the court, going directly to your usual spot in the stands only to fight down the slight disappointment every time he found it empty.

You were still there, cheering him on, just not physically. He would be okay… right?

At least that’s what he kept telling himself. He did understand 100% but it still sucked that you weren’t there, especially a match as important as this

So caught up in his own conflicting emotions, Suga found that the pressure of the match was starting to get to him when Coach Ukai called him over to put him in the game

His hands were so cold… when had they gotten that way?

He brought them together, trying to warm them up and get his head in the game. Karasuno was depending on him, and he wasn’t going to let them down. He wanted to go to nationals too after all

A sudden warmth enveloping his hands snapped him out of his own thoughts

He opened his eyes (when had he closed them?) expecting to see you in front of him

He couldn’t help the slight flicker of disappointment in his eyes when it was Kiyoko who came into focus instead of you.

She must have seen it, because she only smiled at him, pulling Suga’s hands away from his face and gesturing to the stands behind him.

“Someone’s here to cheer you on.”

Suga’s eyes widened at her words and he whipped around, a giant grin stretching across his face when he saw you waving to him from the stands

Your face was flushed, and you looked to be a little out of breath, clearly you had been in a rush to get to the gymnasium.

The moment he set his eyes upon you, warmth filled him and chased away the lingering chills.

As he played, he could easily pick your cheers out from the rest of the crowd, even above the deafening cheers of Shiratorizawa’s admittedly impressive cheer section.

From your spot in the stands, you couldn’t help the proud smile that you wore as you watched Sugawara on the court.

“You’re late, you know.” You turned your head to see Tanaka’s sister Saeko giving you a teasing grin.

“Better late than never.” You replied with the same grin

When the game was over, you were the first one to rush down to the court, not caring that you technically weren’t supposed to be there.

Suga was quick to a tight sweaty hug the moment he saw you running towards him

He placed a quick kiss to your lips resting his forehead against yours.

“I’m so happy that you made it.” He whispered

“I got lucky that his grandma showed up earlier than expected. I was able to get a ride to the gym with some friends from my class who were kind enough to wait for me.”

He let out a breathy laugh “I’ll make sure to thank them later, right now I only care about celebrating with you.”

Kuroo Tetsuro

You really wanted to be there; you really did with everything in your whole being

But you had a doctor’s appointment for the same time as your boyfriend Kuroo’s qualifying matches for Spring Nationals.

In the complete opposite direction of where Kuroo was competing.

Even though the appointment was just to remove the cast on your (previously) broken arm, the travel time alone was what worried you. Even with the earliest possible appointment time, traffic in Tokyo was never anything to joke about, and even taking a train to the gym would take more time than you were comfortable with.

It was kind of stupid how you broke your arm in the first place really

What was supposed to be a run in the rain to the nearest convenience store for date night movie snacks had turned into date night at the hospital while you got a cast fitted on your currently broken (and thankfully non-dominate) arm after you had stepped in a rather slippery puddle on the sidewalk.

Who knew puddles could be so slippery?

Certainly everyone else except you

And of course, the date to get your cast removed had been today of all days. But alas your doctor was booked solid all month so moving the date of your cast removal had been impossible.

Kuroo had known about this weeks in advance, but he was still disappointed that you wouldn’t be there to cheer him on like you usually were.

“Even if I don’t make it to today’s game, I’ll make sure to make it up to you by being there at Nationals.” You had told him that over the phone when you delivered the news about your appointment.

“You better.”

Still, as Nekoma lost their match to Fukurodani, and Kuroo looked to the stands to see Alisa and Akane cheering for their brothers, he couldn’t help but wish that you were there with them.

“You’re off your game.” Kenma had shown up behind him as Kuroo had been lost in his own thoughts.

“Are not.”

“Are too.”

After a solid minute of the two going back and forth in that manner, Kenma sighed and shook his head. “They promised they’d be there at Nationals, right? Then you need to make sure you keep up your end of that promise by making sure we get there.”

Kuroo sighed knowing that Kenma was right. He had to focus on the match ahead. Their next match against Nohebi would determine who would be taking the final spot for Spring Nationals.

He had to make sure that Nekoma wins, just so he could see your face, hear your voice amongst the crowd even once more cheering him on.

By the time, the match against Nohebi started, Kuroo was mostly back to his usual self

His determination to have you there cheering him on at Spring Nationals something he clung to in order to keep him in the moment and not fixating on the empty space in the stands where you would normally be.

The match however, proved that Nekoma was going to have to fight a lot harder than anticipated.

Yaku twisted his ankle early into the match, and Nohebi was living up to their reputation for being suck-ups to the refs.

It’s not that he doubted Shibayama’s skill as a Libero, but Yaku was a third year, and had a lot more experience in the position than his underclassmen.

Thankfully, Nekoma took the first set, and while they were switching sides of the court, Kuroo spared a glance back to the stands, immediately doing a double-take

There you were, gazing down at him with a wide grin upon your features, your now-free arm waving back and forth in wide motions.

Any weariness that Kuroo might have felt from playing vanished instantly when he saw you, newfound energy coursing through his veins.

You’d made it after all, and Kuroo knew that now there was nothing left to worry about except securing their place at Nationals.

When the game ended with Nekoma’s victory, the two of you were quick to find one another, Kuroo pulling you in for a quick yet passionate embrace and kiss.

“You were amazing out there.” You breathed against his lips as you two pulled away

“Of course I was. I had you cheering me on.” His lips were cocked in a smirk, but you could see in his eyes how genuinely happy he was that you were able to make it, even if it wasn’t the whole game. “How many speeding tickets did you manage to get on the way here anyway?”

You laughed and threw a light punch against his arm. “None, thank you very much. But I am lucky that I still got here in time to see the end of your game.”

“It’s okay, you’ll be able to watch all of the matches when we head to Nationals.”

[jaysevhls]

The Life I Had (pt.2) | Jay Halstead

Summary: Based on season 5, episodes 7 and 10. Jay is struggling with this undercover mission, while Y/N is trying to help him after Erin left him. Both of them are starting to realise their feelings for each other.

Pairing: Jay Halstead x Reader.

Author's note: Requests are open!

PART 1 | PART 3

It was time to go to work, when you got a message from Hailey that she'll pick you up, because you got a case. Since yesterday you were now at Adam's apartment, because when you moved to Jay, you decided to sell your apartment. You needed cash and it wasn't a necessary to have another one. You thought that it'll last longer than that, but well... Jay had different plans.

"I'll be back late, you can take my keys." Adam said when you walked into the kitchen.

"And why is that?"

"I'm working at something, don't worry." he hugged you, took his gun and badge and then left.

Hailey showed up few minutes later.

"What do we got?" you asked.

"Jay was undercover yesterday and he found a shooted girl. He's on the scene."

"Well, that's none of my business, but I'm pretty sure we've finished this case and there's no need to him be undercover."

"Yeah, I guess. Voight is already there, I don't know what we should expect." she said.

"I swear to god, if he got involved in something because of this girl, I'll end her." you said and closed the door behind you.

You followed Hailey to her car. After few minutes you were on the scene.

"What are you doing here?" Jay asked as you, Hailey and Voight showed up.

"Well, what are YOU doing here Jay? I'm pretty sure we've closed this case." Voight asked him, but you knew what the answer will be. Of course Jay was feeling something to this girl.

"I'm working. Camila Vega, she's my CI." he asked and looked at you.

"Since when? Did you put her in papers? you didn't want to listen this conversation. Walking by the few police officers, you decided to check the body and find some personal items like phone or wallet.

But there was nothing. Only cash.

"Y/N? Can we talk?" Jay appeared behind you as you were talking with other officer.

"What do you want? If I left something at your place I'll take it tonight, but I'm pretty sure I've got everything."

"Stop, no, I just... I really miss talking to you. I want to apologize Y/N." he looked at you and you felt tears willing up in your eyes. Why was this so difficult? You weren't together, you didn't break up... He was just a friend. And partner.

"I don't think it's a great place to have conversation like this. I can meet you tonight if you want."

"Okay, be at my place at 9pm." he tried to step forward and hug you, but you moved to the back. You didn't feel right, not now.

Even if you were still mad at him, you smiled when he walked away. It was painful being that far away from him, he meant so much to you, and it couldn't end up like this, but at the same time he needed to know that what he did was just wrong.

Time passed by and you decided to leave Adam's apartment and go visit Jay. This day wasn't that bad at all. Back at district you were talking a little bit more with him that usual, so that made you really happy.

You decided to take a walk to his apartment. It was close to Ruzek's apartment and there was no need to drive, besides, you thought that this night you both will end up drunk.

After few minutes you were chasing the hall. You checked your phone last time to saw if he sent something to you about cancelling your plans. You knocked on his door, but there was just silence. He didn't text you, you were just standing there knocking at his door.

"Hey, can you be more quiet? If he's not answering, maybe he just doesn't want to talk" some neighbor said.

"Sorry, I'll just go now." you answered. You stood there for second before storming out from building. When you felt the wind on your cheeks, you bursted into tears. He lied. He freaking lied, leaving you there alone.

You couldn't catch a breath, everything was so blurry. You didn't want to show up like this in Adam's place, so instead of going there, you went back to the district. It was late, the whole intelligence went homes, so no one would notice you there.

You sat on the couch in break room with tea in your hands. From nowhere Voight appeared confused, just standing and staring at you.

"Please just don't say anything, I can't handle more today." you said.

"What happened kiddo? I thought you went home with Adam." he walked closer.

"Yeah I did, but I forgot to do something here so I got back."

"Don't lie to me Y/N. You gave me your files, there's no reason for you to be here." he said. "So, you better gotta tell me what happened or I'm calling Adam."

"Halstead and I can't get along in past few weeks, we were supposed to meet today, but he just didn't show up and I can't go back to Adam place looking like this. I'll stay here for the night I guess."

"No way Y/N. Come on, you're going back to Adam, you're going to tell him what happened. I can't let you think that this is okay. Talk about everything what is bothering you kid."

"You're right I guess. But I'll go alone, I need to call someone before I got home."

"Okay, but I'm giving you 15 minutes, then I'll call Trudy to drive you on her own."

"Sure thing."

The next day, you arrived alone to the district. Team got a lead to a guy who were dealing with drugs and he supposed to meet that killed girl. After founding out that she was undercover as CIA agent just made this case the important things and it needed to be solved as soon as possible.

You smiled at Trudy when you got there and went straight upstairs.

"Club Echo? And Alex? I know him, I met him trough Camila." you heard Jay's voice as you appeared in bullpen."I can go under with Y/N." he continued.

"Take Hailey, I've got a work to do." you snapped at him and went to your desk. Voight looked at you and answered:

"Y/N, you're going. I need Hailey here." he said.

"But Serg-" of course he made this because of the last night and what you've told him.

"Go before you'll say too much." you stood up, grabbed your jacket and went after Jay.

The whole time there was a silence in the car. You said that you don't want to talk as you got in his truck and he just nodded.

After a while you were in Echo, searching for Alex.

"Hey man, thanks for meeting." Jay said.

"Ryan, hey! Who's that pretty lady huh?" Alex asked looking at you.

"Not your league. I'm his sister." you pointed with your head at Jay.

"So, I heard that you have something good for me."

"What are you talking about?" Alex laughed at Jay.

"Man, we y'all know that you're dealing. Camila told me."

"Yeah I do. What also did she said after that 20 minutes in the back of the club and whole night at her place huh?" you looked at Jay confused. He stood you up for her. He freaking lied to you because of her. He chose her over you.

"Alright, you want to know more than you should. Can we make a deal?" Jay asked.

"Sure, I'll call you when it'll be done." they said goodbyes and you went outside.

You couldn't believe that Jay really did that to you. After all these years.

"I can't believe..." you whispered.

"What Y/N?"

"You're sleeping with her. This entire time being "undercover" you were screwing up with her." you said.

"Y/N, it's not like that..."

"It's not like what? Like what Jay? You fucking lied to me. I was the one who waited for you for almost an hour in front of their apartment, because you were too busy fucking her! Was that worth it? Over all these things we had?

"I wanted to see you but it came out of nowhere and I needed to meet her and talk." he answered and walked closer.

"No, all you needed was to fuck her. That's what you wanted to do. All this time. And don't play being broken and alone Jay. I was the one who were with you all this time! I stayed the night with you, I moved in with you, because you needed help! I watched you almost die, cry every night, I was there, not her! And you're still treating me like this."

"Don't make it like this Y/N... Don't play innocent girl, you're saying that I'm making wrong choices but maybe look at yourself and ask if it's right to sleep around with Adam!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Life isn't perfect Y/N."

"Yeah, funny story that you were the one who broke me first." you said and walked away.

Part 3?

[itsonlystrange]

So, after reading @hawkinsschoolcounselor latest post, I went into the comments and, boy- they were, well. They were not great. I mean I guess I laid this onto myself but, anyways, I’m going to be answering this comment right here:

This is ALL for fun! It’s all a bunch of light hearted love, but this comment REALLY ticked me the wrong way.

For starters: There’s always been this trope in media of “one is enough.” Or “we have enough representation!” And it’s VERY prevelant in tv shows. The theory that “oh! There’s already one gay character, that’s enough for you, right?” Is sh!tty. It’s horrible.

Think of it this way: if there are 200 white sheep in a room, and then the shepherd brings in one black sheep, do you think that would suffice the other black sheep from the other herds? Do you think that would ‘hold them over’? I mean imagine being a black sheep in a crowd of 200 other white sheep, you’d feel alone. Okay, so now pretend there is a tv show, and this black sheep is watching that tv show, and of course, all the actors in the tv show are WHITE SHEEP. So then, in season 3 of Sheeper Things, they FINALLY introduce a black sheep, and of course the black sheep is happy, but still, they can’t help but realize that all of the white sheep are still there and overcome that small black sheep by a LOT!

I’m assuming that comment was made by someone straight, as they clearly don’t grip representation. Also, I’m assuming that person is slightly homophobic, just by the way they phrased it. It seems odd, I mean, what’s the issue with having one more gay character?

Well apparently, in their minds, Will being able to overcome his childhood is much more effective then Will being gay- so.

Let me lay it out for you:

Surprise! You can be gay AND want to hold onto your childhood! And, there are already so many other characters that could have a lovely arc of learning to accept themselves and learning to be their true selves away from societies norms *cough* mike *cough* Lucas *cough* but of course, they want to make WILL the one who gets this arc because if Will was gay that means he has a better chance of getting with Mike! (This was under a Mileven video btw) so they want him to be canonically straight so there is no chance Mike and Will can be endgame!

Now second: 90% of the comments under this video are people saying they think he’s asexual.

1. You can be gay AND asexual

2. Asexuality is the feeling of not being sexually attracted to anyone. YOU CAN BE ROMANTICALLY ATTRACTED TO PEOPLE IF YOURE ASEXUAL.

3. Will is fourteen! And if we’re using the logic of “oh he hasn’t wanted to kiss anyone so he’s asexual!” Then shouldn’t Dustin be asexual too?-

4. WILL IS FOURTEEN! Just because he doesn’t want to get down and dirty at that (very young age!) DOESNT mean that he doesn’t like sexual attraction at all. It’s kind of insane how people are seriously making these assumptions over a 14 year old child, some people like to wait, and that’s fine!

5. If the people in the comments meant aromantic, there really isn’t anything in the show that proves that he doesn’t like anyone, period. I think partially it’s heteronormativity and people not wanting to see the fact that Will clearly has a crush on mike, or had one in the past. The script even went as far as saying “But his eyes aren’t on the cute girl, they’re on - - Mike.”

Why do you think the script would put that in if there wasn’t something there, unrequited or not? Personally, I think that a lot of people don’t want to accept the fact that Will could have a crush on Mike as that would destruct their heteronormative bubble. They don’t want the main boy in the show to be gay because it disrupts the balance in their life. And it makes the chances of mike and Will ending up together being strong.

6. Saying “you have one gay character, that’s enough representation!” Is BULL. SH!T. There will NEVER be enough representation in the media for the lgbtq+ community. Ever. Even when we keep trying, there will always be something. Whether the show being cancelled or the one gay character dying, representation in the media for minorities are slim, but ESPECIALLY for the lgbtq+ community.

We are all VERY proud of Maya and Robin. We love Robin, but that doesn’t mean the Duffers just get to sit back and be like “oh, we already have one gay character, we don’t need more.” Like, what? That’s not how this works. Representation doesn’t just get to stop after the heterosexuals deem us to have “enough gay characters” or “if you add too many gay characters it’d get unrealistic” no. We’ve (me being a bisexual) have went through YEARS AND YEARS of ZERO representation. ZERO. While the hets always got their happily ever after love story, we WAITED.

We love Robin, but that doesn’t mean they can just halt Will’s arc since season one because you deem the representation to be enough.

This isn’t apples and oranges. Will can be gay AND not want to grow up. It isn’t always just black and white.

Maybe it’s the people who refuse to see the way Will looks at Mike, and just takes that as “2 bros looking at bros”, but there is very clearly something under the surface there.

since season ONE they have built Will up to be gay. Since the first episode.

Put it this way. Joyce used the term “f*g” in episode one. Why do you think they would use a slur like that If it weren’t going to go somewhere. What was the point of using a slur to describe Will in season one, or to Troy and James literally tormenting the Party for Will being gay almost all of season one. What was the point of that if that wasn’t going to go anywhere?

I can GUARANTEE that If Mike promised El that he’d go crazy together with HER instead of Will, the milevens would eat that up and call it “romantic!” However, because it’s just two boys, it’s totally platonic, right? It’s totally just two bros being bros.

If Mike held el’s hand like that and said “we won’t let him.” To el instead of Will, milevens would EAT THAT UP. They’d say that was the most romantic sh!t in the show.

If Mike told El that meeting her was the best thing he’d ever done, MILEVENS WOULD EAT THAT UP. They’d call it the most romantic thing of the century. It’d be on ever fan accounts Instagram pages. It’d be in all of the bios. But of course, because it’s two boys, it HAS to be platonic.

A lot of times milevens excuses for things are “well mike said he loved her so it’s end game”

Stancy, anyone?

Or Mike said “you’re the most important thing in the world to me.”

In the most DRY way possible. If Mike said that to Will in that way, EVEN I WOULDNT BELIEVE HE WAS TELLING THE TRUTH.

I mean the way Mike said that line clearly shows that el isn’t the most important thing in the world to him. There’s something underlying there. Like I said, that line was DRY. There was no emotion behind it. He was just saying that to get El to shut up, to get El to forgive him, so they could move on.

If Mike had said “you’re the most important thing in the world to me” to WILL like that instead of El, I wouldn’t have believed it either. And I bet that If that was the case the milevens would say “Mike doesn’t really love Will! That line was so dry!” But because it’s El and Mike, they say that’s the cutest thing since sliced bread.

Again, I have zero issues with Milevens, it’s only the toxic ones like the comment above that get to me.

Will has been set up to be gay from DAY ONE. The duffers have studied film for YEARS. Do you seriously think they’d let these all be coincidences? Do you seriously think that after writing season two NOBODY said, “hey, that’s a little gay.”

One scene is fine. If we only had gotten crazy together, yeah, I don’t think I would have thought it to be canon. But it’s the fact that they wrote in OVER 10 QUEER CODED ROMANTIC SCENES BETWEEN MIKE IN WILL, JUST IN SEASON TWO.

You can’t make that up! That cannot be an accident!

They’ve said over and over that everything they do, every song they play, every outfit the characters wear, is intentional. It’s all there for a reason.

Finn and Noah had to read these scripts, rehearse them, and then spent hours filming them. Do you seriously think it wouldn’t have cross their minds that “Hey! That’s a little weird Mr Duffer.”

That’s mostly because Finn and Noah probably already know where the show is headed.

If your only source of Mileven evidence is that Millie has said that they should get married and that they kissed in the end, then, I have some news to break.

Obviously, if anything were to happen in season 4 with Mileven not being end game, Millie couldn’t just say that. Finn couldn’t just say that. It’s their jobs to keep the fans intrigued and on their toes.

David knew he wasn’t really dead but he still had to pretend in interview after interview that Hopper was indeed dead. And he played it off pretty well.

Millie knew El wasn’t really dead after the season one finale yet she still had to play it off like El was.

So obviously, they can’t just outright say “Mileven isn’t end game!”

I mean,,, I’m sure they’d get fired for it.

So, we really shouldn’t pay attention to what the cast says in interviews, and we shouldn’t take that as canon, either. Their job is to subvert our expectations for the show, and they’re doing it well.

TL;DR:

Will can be gay and also have an arc where he doesn’t want to grow up and where he can learn to be his authentic self. The interviews the ST cast do should not be taken as canon as their jobs as actors are to keep us on our toes and subvert our expectations. Byler has a lot of proof and has a large chance of being canon, and most milevens don’t want to believe Will is gay because that means Will would have a larger chance of getting with Mike. The lgbtq+ community still need representation regardless of Robin and just because we got one lesbian does not mean the duffers can sit back and go back to their only heterosexual couples and ideas.

Byler is end game :)

@kaypeace21 @strangertheory @stranger-analysis @willthecleric (opinions?)