#I WANT to rewatch

[fictionaltrvlr]

this is kind of embarrassing but I can rarely rewatch me favorite tv shows

I care too much about the characters now and it stresses me out to see them go through all that

[mararhodus]

There's a lot I hate about My Struggle IV (the abrupt and meaningless deaths of Reyes and Skinner, the weird speech Scully gives about William at the end, William having to fake his death, the fact it feels like a Part 1 to a 2 parter, etc, etc,) but, in what might be my hottest X-Files take, I ultimately think that Mulder loading Cancer Man full of bullets and walking off into retirement with Scully and their unborn baby might be the closest thing to a happy ending that this show could've had.

I swear to God though, if that new book that's coming out next summer doesn't retcon Skinner's death into him just being a wheelchair user or something, I will be deeply, deeply disappointed.

[amndees]

medieval fantasy au for my ocs except after i did it i noticed some stuff is just mcd rewritten for my ocs

[flodaya]

and to think some rando norwegian hates my guts despite me being a lifelong skam defender, i thought we were friends

[delicatebluebirdruins]

headcanons

Maria: likes to walk along the beach and stand in the surf, has a tendency to get lost in her head and stare with an abilitly to see things

Robin: likes to chill with Wrolf; also not quite cut ties with his dad but he did end up moving into Loveday's cave when she went back to moonacre

together: they understand each other a lot more still not entirely sure if their feelings are platonic or romantic but they're often together and with his friends and Wrolf

Robin is bi

Maria is bi

[michameinmicha]

Do you ever miss a character from a show but not like in the way that you want to rewatch the whole show because theres so much stuff going on and thats not what youre looking for but you miss your boy

[septembersart]

the epic highs and lows of high school bloodrush...

[hinata-boke]

🦉vs🐈‍⬛

[pineapple-frenzy]

Book 2 au with Zuko and Katara Lee and Huamei

Katara is separated from her friends, and so she's left to travel the earth kingdom on her own. She stumbles across Zuko, who is similarly travelling on his own. They decide that pairing up and travelling together would be best

[theeimportanceofbeingearnest]

You see a message and make a mental note to reply. You block the calendar out with half-hypothetical plans. These are white lies you need to get by, chocolate chunks of pacification. When they taste stale, you spit them out.

This is not sustainable. This is not healthy, and rot is is building in your back teeth and the crevices of old friendships.

By the time you decide to do anything about it, your toothless smile is off putting to strangers.

[brainrotcharacters]

"I walked away. They called after me and I walked away. I always do."

[scurvyboy]

Im watching Trailer Park boys rn and Stan is so ricky coded what the hell

he really is and i think about it all the time

another one for the occasion:

[mararhodus]

Genuinely love that Mulder and Scully are just like the autistic weirdos that just chill in the basement and Dogett is just like some guy

[stromblessed]

Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows

In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.

If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.

So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.

I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?

However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.

Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)

And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.

Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.

It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.

Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?

While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:

She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.

You see where I'm going with this.

When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:

And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD

When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.

MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS

No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.

And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:

Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!

The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.

And, uh

Yeah.

I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.

But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.

Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:

But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.

There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.

After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:

"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.

Kind of like another bird in this show:

[themadknightuniverse]

Sun and Moon

[revvethasmythh]

"I just think about the time we've spent together, and I start to fantasize about the way things could've been, about different choices and every little thing that's come our way, and those thoughts fade into a dream as I slip off to sleep to the sound of your breathing."

+ Sam taking emotional damage