#I know there's other amazing gifsets out there of this interview and these moments

[subtle-as-an-earthquake]

I nod along attentively, but the truth is, I can't concentrate

[myownwholewildworld]

well, i decided to bite the bullet on this one! thank you to the lovelies @almostfoxglove and @gothcsz for the tags, and a special thanks to @jolapeno for this beautiful 2024 tootathon event! i think it's a pretty common theme between us lot, but seems like tooting ourselves is not our forte - at least not mine! i had been lurking in the shadows for a long while, but july came around and i said, why the hell not? so basically i'm a baby in the fandom, learning from the very best. i've been writing for almost two decades now, but mostly in spanish and on different platforms. i found myself looking for a creative outlet this summer and transitioning out of my online rpg era (foroactivo/jcink, i won't miss you). i am so glad i did, cause i found a home here 🥹 anyway enough yapping!

i have written over 170k words this year (probs a lot more if i take into account my rpg shenanigans) and at one point i've been very attached to everything i've written, so it's really hard to pick some favourites, but here we go!

per aspera ad astra (marcus acacius series) - this is one series i wasn't expecting to write as a fic this year as it was planned for something else, but here we are! i am just enjoying all the angst, it's like therapy lmao

the right kind of wrong (dbf!joel miller one shot) - look... the brain rot won and i gave in to the dbf trope. i loved writing it and seeing that other people enjoyed it too!

the way to a great wide somewhere (beast!din djarin one shot) - i just... idk 🫠 the moment i thought of this i knew i had to put it into words or i would quite literally die.

when the moon howls (javier peña one shot) - as i was rewatching narcos i had this itch i needed to scratch and the jolabrew + withcheese fall challenge gave me the perfect excuse to try my hand at writing Peña.

i regrettably have not been giffing as much as i would have liked to this year, but i promised myself i would pick this up in 2025 again! but here are my two favourite gifsets i've made.

tlou 1x03 - if you know me, you'll know that my favourite episode from tlou is 1x03 because i love bill and frank to fucking bits 😭 it broke me and it healed me in so many different ways.

pp press tour interview - when i watched this the first time i was like "yeah 1000% agree" because marcus acacius in that white armour is my fucking everything.

nothing of this would have happened if it wasn't for the people who stop by and read our stories, and for the writers who feed us amazing fics - writers and readers alike, god i love y'all. we all keep this amazing fandom alive. and i know there's been some rough lows this year, but here we still are!

i could go on and on tagging people who make me smile every fucking day but i'd be bound to miss someone and i could not forgive myself if i did that. so please, take this as my heartfelt thank you to every single one of you. i see you, i appreciate you, i love you. like for real.

some np tags for moots who might want to participate (and apologies if you already have!):

@joelmillerisapunk @joelslegalwhre @inept-the-magnificent @punkseyes @styleispunk @aurorawritestoescape @syd-djarin @katiexpunk @baronessvonglitter @orcasoul

[raideo]

Issey drama anon here, please tell us about Romance Doll because I have not heard anything about it

also, have you heard of Quartet? I've seen like 50 gifsets from it and it seems legit funny as hell

UMMM WELL- I'll put my thoughts on Romance Doll under a break at the end because the movie is pretty nsfw and weird and yeah...

Quartet is on my list! I'm definitely going to watch it at some point, but I also really wanna watch Miracles! Honestly that one has been the most interesting to me from the beginning but my adhd is just causing me to watch whatever's convenient first, not the ONE IVE REALLY WANTED TO WATCH THIS WHOLE TIME. I still have to finish Koisenu Futari too... I stopped that one cuz I was watching it with someone and we had a long period of time where we couldn't watch it. And then also it's just VERY HEAVY as a person who happens to be demi who has gone through periods of feeling like I could be aroace in the past. It's so realistic and deals with the painful things as well as the funny things and I am scared to finish it bc I KNOW THERES MORE HEAVY SHIT TO COME but it's an amazing show AND I DO WANT TO FINISH THAT ONE TOO.

And on a completely polar opposite note: ROMANCE DOLL, LMAO

Ok so, this movie is very much one of those WEIRDLY REALISTIC stories where all the characters are so real and flawed and HUGE MISTAKES ARE MADE by characters and it's just such a wild ride. You probably haven't heard about it because its FUCKING WACK.

Without giving too much away in case you wanna watch it (netflix dropped it last monday, which is actually why I ended up watching it over the weekend at all, but it's still available to rent on amazon 🙄) Issey plays Tetsuo, an unemployed art college grad who is desperate for a job. His friend gave him a tip about this sketchy job opening but told him literally nothing else about it. He shows up and this old woman greets him and shows him around and he's a bit shocked to find out it's a shop that makes SILICONE SEX DOLLS. The woman is like "your friend didn't tell you that???" And Tetsuo was like "he literally just said there was a job here-" and she laughs and says "Some friend he is then!" Honestly I loved the old lady she's great, I wish I could remember her name I'm too lazy to go look it up rn.

Anyway so yeah, he takes the job even though the interview was super awkward and there's this gross pervy old guy who works there and he doesn't really care about the subject matter he just needs money (mood)

One thing and another happens (and a lot of me wanting to slap the old man into next tuesday, seriously he's the worst) and a little bit later Tetsuo meets the love of his life through some bullshit connection to his job, and they end up getting married some time after, but she doesn't know what he does for a living and ITS ALL VERY HARD TO EXPLAIN WHY HE KEEPS THAT FROM HER without spoiling things but just- the movie is wack, I really didn't like it in the beginning but it pulls a complete 180 and ends up being this weirdly emotional and AT TIMES, a holesome wholesome slice of life movie??

Don't get me wrong it doesn't sugarcoat things like objectification of women and there's some degree of realistic portrayal of that bc of the whole Tetsuo working at a sex doll shop thing, it is very true to life- how men can be gross even if they aren't going so far as assaulting anyone. It doesn't excuse it either it just presents it as it is, which is good I think. But then there are OTHER moments where the movie is very sex positive- so its a wild fucking trip tbh. Definitely don't watch it if you have sensitivities to the things I mentioned above bc bro omg the first half almost had me like "yeah I can't watch this" a couple times jfc.

BASICALLY by the end of the movie the message is that communication and being open with people you love (and not getting bogged down with anxiety and guilt) is important, because on top of not being fair to the people who are important to you, hiding things from them can eat you up inside and make you act irrationally and hurt them even more whether you realize it or not. And also, you never know how someone will feel about the things you don't want to tell them. Something that could be huge to you could be no big deal to another.

Its just a very interesting movie. I don't know if I'd recommend it, theres some NUCLEAR SECOND HAND EMBARRASSMENT CRINGE MOMENTS like oh my god i wanted to die- and like I said above, there's lots of intense subject matter and some not so pretty moments that a lot of people may want to avoid. Id for sure check one of those sites that gives content warnings before watching bc hoo boy...

But all that aside, once again Issey is an incredible actor and his range is apparent in this movie. I saw some like- borderline SLAPSTICK physical comedy moments that had me so surprised bc he did them so well but its so new and different from anything else ive watched him star in. Dude is just unstoppable tbh. He HAS 👏 THE 👏 RANGE!! 👏

Also you get to see him naked a lot. So there's that!

[batri-jopa]

I think I finally understood this.

Whoever I recommend this movie do not became its fan. My enthusiasm probably only makes it worse for them because they watch it and experience the what's-a-big-deal moment... Like nobody falls in love with this movie at the first sight. I mean someone may like it of course. Somebody else can even say they liked it a lot. But nobody loves it wholeheartedly after first watching.

It all depends if that first watching left something in you.

This could be anything. Maybe just that new kind of music you want to hear again. Maybe a dance scene you wish to see once more. Maybe you read a review judging the character's motivation in a way you could not agree and rewatch to make yourself sure about it. Maybe you're curious about any possible detail of that different culture you only just learned existed. Maybe you're concerned about any of the social issues of the country you never bothered about before. Maybe there's something unexplainable and hard to verbalise that just caught your interest now.

All in all it means this movie somehow ignited a spark in you that can't be easily put out. And once you make your own decision to watch it the second time just to see more... you're caught in it like in quicksand.

Now rewatching it for god-knows-which time again, after reading all the possible reviews and interviews, after seeing all the screenshots and gifsets for numerous times, knowing it all by heart alreadt - I still feel the need to pause and repeat few scenes...

It doesn't stop to amaze me how easily I could have missed this shared glance! How probable it was that I could have never payed enough attention to the meaning of this whole scene! I might not have bothered about this conversation at all! I could have thought this gesture was just a stop gag! I was so close to be fooled that this tiny detail was an accident and thus uniportant!

All in all if I'd only watch it once - I know would have missed so many things I learned to absolutely love, I would miss adoring all the tiny details like hidden message, deeper meaning, all the subtle allusions and inspirations that were involved into creating this masterpiece!

Ps. I mean the movie And Then We Danced / და ჩვენ ვიცეკვეთ (2019), dir. Levan Akin but it could probably apply to other great movies that don't show their true value when only seen once.

[facetimebuddies]

okay so this is the second time i’ve seen someone write ‘queerbait’ in the tags of this post and i’m just. blegh. i have some thoughts and i’m not sure if i’m wrong or perhaps thinking too much into it or what but. i’m just Not Okay with that being tossed around based off scenes of Eddie looking at Buck.

the acting choices Ryan is making in terms of Eddie looking at Buck stem from a place of Eddie possibly having had his “OH! IT’S YOU.” moment, his “my god do i love you” moment, his “i’m dying and all i want is to hold your hand moment”, something we actually got to see on our screens when he was shot in the middle of a Los Angeles street and the one thing he does is reach out for Buck, whether or not you believe he remembers any of it is up to you but he Did That. That was a scene that happened, in canon. we don’t know that Eddie has had That moment, only Ryan does. and his acting choices have Been Okayed by tptb because hey, they wrote the damn scenes. we have no control over that, we just see his amazing acting choices play out for us and make our assumptions about why.

now, that being said, no one is saying Eddie is in love with Buck, no one is saying Buck is in love with Eddie, as far as I know no one from production has outright said “maybe we will, maybe we won’t.” no one has made Ryan and Oliver have interviews in which they’re playing up the ship for laughs and giggles, only to downplay it in the same breath. i have not seen any sort of “yea we know about X Ship and we are gonna mess with the audience about it” talk to get people to watch the show as most queerbaiting tends to do. no one is saying Eddie might possibly be kinda gay only to have him date women after women after women because He Is A Man. imo i think i’ve been around fandom long enough to know This Ain’t It babes. 

now what happens in the rest of the season, and possibly any other season to come, is another story but if they haven’t been doing that for the past 5 seasons why would they do it now?

my gifset was meant to show how eddie looks at buck with such love and adoration. he looks at him like he’s happy to see him, happy to be around him, happy just to be and exist. buck allowed him to be vulnerable and broken and stuck around anyway, in spite of it all, maybe even because of it. because at the end of it all buck needed someone to do just that for him too. they need to be broken and vulnerable together to learn how to put each other back together.

[aboveallarescuer]

I just found this post on Dany’s tag and saw that it was made a day after I posted a Tamzin!Dany gifset, so I’d like to say a few things:

1) I do like Emilia as Dany a lot. There’s an interview where Emilia said that she suggested having Dany slouch down while she’s sitting, which would have been amazing: 1) It would have shown that she doesn’t enjoy being regal and made her character more similar to book!Dany, who sits on her bench with a foot underneath her; 2) It indicates to me that Emilia’s personality was similar to book!Dany’s. Indeed, I made a point of using her in a previous gifset right after I found an old interview where GRRM says that book!Dany is “very funny”. My intent was to show that yes, I think Emilia could’ve brought book!Dany to life on screen if she had been allowed to. She’s a good actress and a sweetheart and I love that she has a good grasp of Dany’s character and that she never stopped defending her even after that nonsensical dark turn. 

2) Using Tamzin!Dany in a gifset was never meant to throw shade on Emilia. If people can use Nicole Kidman (another actress that GRRM himself approved) as Cersei without being accused of hating on Lena Headey, why can’t I use Tamzin Merchant as Dany without being accused of hating on Emilia? I know, I know, some antis used to argue that Tamzin would’ve been a better Dany, but none of them truly appreciate Tamzin when you consider their arguments. I’ve seen some of them saying that she’d’ve been better as Dany because she “looks more inbred” (whatever the hell that means) than Emilia, which is gross and offensive. I’ve seen some of them saying that she’d’ve been better as Dany because she would’ve played Dany as a villain (without any proof to back up that claim). But if they had actually watched her work in The Tudors (which I really, really doubt any of them did because 1) they don’t really like Tamzin, they just hold on to any possible argument to hate on Dany and 2) they don’t even make edits and gifsets using her as Dany. I’ve only ever seen one before. And even if they used Tamzin, they wouldn’t be showcasing Dany’s cute and funny moments or making any content that paints Dany in a positive light like I did), they’d have to acknowledge that Tamzin’s character gives us footage to display how soft, playful, cute, funny and charismatic book!Dany is. THAT’S why I used Tamzin!Dany in that gifset. Her scenes in The Tudors perfectly illustrate GRRM’s quote about Dany being “very funny” (note that I used that quote in three gifsets with three different actresses - one with Emilia, one with Freya and one with Tamzin).

It’s so annoying that this even needs to be said (though I could’ve ignored that vague post if it hadn’t been posted in the main tags). Why can’t Tamzin be treated as a normal Dany fancast just like Elle or Freya? In fact, as much as I love Freya!Dany, Ciri tends to look dour and sullen in most scenes, so I’d argue that Tamzin brings out aspects of book!Dany’s personality that Freya in The Witcher can’t. Using different fancasts for different gifsets is a huge reason why gifmaking is fun. Should I have to add a disclaimer for every Tamzin!Dany gifset saying that I also like Emilia!Dany even though no one thinks that’s necessary for any other actress? I guess I also need to say that my book!Dany vs show!Dany gifsets aren’t meant to be anti-show!Dany, I just want to provide more content showcasing book!Dany scenes that make her villainous turn look even more ridiculous and to reiterate that D&D were screwing over Dany’s character way before S8 when one compares how she was portrayed vs. how Dany’s creator wrote her. Show!Dany definitely deserves to receive defense solely for herself too, but that’s outside the scope of a source blog called asoiafdaenerysdaily. 

In any case, there are hundreds of dark!Dany edits out there made by antis, why don’t you spend your energy complaining about that?

[mmtions]

I love Buck and Eddie, I think there could have been so much potential with them two as a romantic pairing but honestly im losing hope. With the way the show has been going and the way Buck and Eddie have been written, individually and as a pair, do you really think there is still a realistic way to have them actually get together?? And i would love your opinion on this because you are an incredible writer yourself and ive been following your works from your Flash days

Hi anon! Thank you for messaging and for your kind words, and following since the Flash days! Guess we're both suckers for best friends in love, huh?

So if you're looking for more of a proof-based answer, @kitkatpancakestack talked more about some s5 choices that is very interesting and I think there's some amazing meta going around like @matan4il who I think has gone through like every 5b episode analysing.

Unfortunately, my answer is probably not the one you're looking for. Because it just... doesn't bother me if Buddie go canon or not?

So I'm putting the rest of this under read more to save other people's dash. And I should clarify that yes, I will be popping champagne like everyone at any and all 'canon' moments we get. I was screaming with the rest of y'all at Buck being in the room, and fixing the walls, and taking Eddie to the ranch. That's great content! That's fun! I love those goobers so much!! And I am also not saying I don't care about Buddie at all because, uh, my AO3 word count would disagree.

But what I mean by not caring is: what is canon and what is not does not affect my enjoyment, and I think it's a lot more fun to interact in fandom with that viewpoint.

Now, one caveat here is that I am a fandom elder (in my mid-twenties lmao). I've shipped a lot of ships, from canon to rarepairs to both-of-them-literally-died-in-canon (pour one out for the spn homies). I've shipped m/f, f/f, and m/m ships. I didn't get into Buddie because I thought they were a ship guaranteed to go canon. (I got into Buddie because this insanely gorgeous man was all over my dash apparently leaving whatever the 118 was and I needed to know more. Then I read some fic, and then I watched the show, and then I realised I was gone for about 8k into writing the PTA fic.)

I treat fandom like I treat literature. (No, I'm not saying they're the same, go away if you're about to quote classic greek at me.) What I mean by that is: the skill of literary analysis does not hinge on whether the curtains are blue. I don't give a damn what the author meant by choosing blue curtains. What matters is my skill in linking the blue of the curtains to a pattern or motif I've seen in the text, and my skill in explaining it to other people.

It's the same with fandom. I love the show - the found family, the humour, the characters, the drama - but when the episode ends, it's fanfictions and gifsets and fandom analysis I turn to. It's about the transformation. I mean, if I read one fic where it's Buck pining, or another where it's Eddie, or another where they're astronauts or cowboys or strippers or married in vegas or bake-off contestants, or they get together in the early hours of the morning or they get together after a harrowing emergency - one doesn't negate the other, you know? The skill is how the creators have transformed it. The gifmakers who made links between like, 1x04 and 5x17 and made it gorgeous to look at. Video creators, podfic makers, readers who comment and bookmark and make rec lists. Fanartists!! That's the fandom for me, and the show is the source from which we decide if the curtains are blue.

Now, truly I'm not saying this to condescend to you. I get where you're coming from, and I've been there. But I found that I take much more pleasure in my fandom experience by ignoring actors and interviews and twitter nonsense. If this is stressing you out (again, I have been there, I know it can be genuinely stressful when you care about these characters so much) you need to make a decision whether you're going to take a completely insulated approach (join me! who is ryan guzman? I don't know and now neither do you!) or you're going to lean into looking for proof in all the small moments. That's up to you.

Your fandom experience is yours to curate. If naysayers are stressing you out, block them. Read more fic, reblog more gifsets, spread more art! But I can't be the one to reassure you. If you're not enjoying the fandom, then - and I mean this with real love - take a step away.

If you think the curtains are blue, they're blue. If you wan to go out to bat to prove the curtains are blue, that's okay too, if you enjoy that! If you're constantly worrying that an executive producer is going to declare they're green, I would really recommend you come join the blue curtain club where we sew our own.

Canon is the source, and we choose what to take from it. And that's unfortunately all the reassurance I have for you, my love.

[my-sherlock221b]

Supernatural Rewatch Ramblings: Dead in the Water

This episode is the first one to be directed by Kim Manners. It was written by Raelle Tucker and Sera Gamble. It is still the MoTW format and once again the ‘monster’ is something that was created by human action. Ordinary seeming stories—of bullying, lies, cover up—with deadly consequences.

Read below the cut for more and also watch out for the add-ons by my partner in crime @soulmates-for-real​ who does the most amazing gifsets and image galleries 😎

It reminded me of this quote:

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

It is a chilling experience—both the actual monster when we do finally see it and the backstory of what really happened. These monsters are all created by the flawed human beings. Here is another quote from the same source which could well be the underlying bedrock of the two very different approaches we see Sam and Dean take in later episodes to the whole saving people hunting things.

“Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.” .

Philosophical overtones aside, we are also getting more glimpses into the heads and hearts of the two leads.

It is already obvious that Dean has put the whole ‘Dad- is- missing- and- hasn’t- been-home-in -a -few-days stuff’ on the back burner till …ummm  forever ? cos he has Sammy in front of his eyes who is sitting shotgun and being completely brotherly and sniping and bitching while also being boyfriend- level possessive.

As I said in the earlier review- I was just so swept away by the swashbuckling swagger of Dean that so obviously was an armour for his vulnerability that I almost didn’t notice Sam much. This is the episode where he became something more for me. Someone who was also finding out what Dean was all about at the same time as we were.

Someone who could pull him down to earth with a sharp: ‘People don’t just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them.’

But also reach out to him and remind him that they ‘can’t save everyone’.

In an early scene in the episode Sam scolds Dean for even starting to flirt with the waitress. 

He smirks when Andrea shoots Dean down. He mocks Dean’s pick- up line about kids are the best. He seems pleased in a very petty way that Dean’s attempt has failed and that he has no choice now but to hang out with Sam and to give him his full attention.

The episode does have plot holes –that house Lucas draws and the history of the friendship of the two men and the missing boy surely must be well known to everyone in that small town, including Lucas’s mother and how come no one joins the dots etc. etc.

But small quibbles aside, we get to see that the past casts long shadows—whether sins of the past or just events of the past. ( again a parallel to the lives of the Winchesters themselves. And in later seasons we find out just how far back into the past those shadows reach!)

We see that Dean connects with the mute boy, Lucas, but then we learn that he can do this because he had also shut down after he saw his mother die and he knows how scary the world can seem and how he needed to make himself brave to carry on.

Sam watches from the sidelines and we can see him have an ‘oh ok’ moment as he stores away this information because it has clearly never been discussed in the family earlier. Kudos to Jared for being amazing with the ‘active listening’ that Sheila O’Malley references so often.

So despite Sam challenging him to name 3 kids he even knows, we see that Dean actually focusses on the kid throughout. The shared sense of loss aside, maybe Dean also sees himself as the protector of all little kids especially after the Shtriga incident. (which we don’t know anything about yet) (and we do see him bond with kids in every episode that involves kids. It is adorable !!)

In this episode Dean is almost drowning in his dad’s leather jacket and the way the silver ring looks on his hand is just ridiculously sexy…sigh….and that amulet right where it belongs…..deeper sigh. Then the cocky grin, the unsubtle flirting, all macho/manly/me- so- hetero/me- see- me- conquer on the outside but the soft squidgy child- whispering caramel centre, the trauma of being a motherless kid—having become motherless in a brutal way, a missing and probably almost cruel dad, a brother he raised as his own who walked out on him to go seek his own dreams….all these layers are being put together slowly for us.

Dean is not what he seemed to be and that brash swashbuckling exterior hides a very complex and interesting person. The script and direction were excellent of course but Jensen brought to it just the perfect balance of bad-boy + I wuv hugs.

Sam is still finding his way into the story and we are still watching things from Dean’s perspective as narrator which is fascinating to realize during the re-watch. As I have mentioned earlier, I was so swept away by Dean that it took me a very long time to focus on Sam as a separate person.

Ok, now, all together shout--- --WHY do people DO the following things??!!!

Put hands elbow deep into a sink, give lifts to obvious deranged malevolent spirits in human form, ‘let’s split up so we can cover more ground’, go into a shower/bath in a scary scene—can’t they HEAR the dun-dun-dun music score in the background?!! Sheesh.

Anyway.     *eyeroll*

In a not- at- all- very- surprising turn of events Sam and Dean’s fake identity is called out and they are asked to leave town, which they do. But ….of course Dean does a very dramatic turn on the highway and takes them back to make sure the kid is ok!

Then Sam rescues the mother from the lethal bath- tub while Dean makes sure the kid is safe. Then they start to connect even more dots and eventually we see an incredible heroic rescue scene in the scary lake with Dean and the boy.

Jensen had described this shot in some interview as the most terrifying scene he had ever done apparently because he was responsible not only for doing the scene right but also for the young boy’s safety underwater.

What a fabulous visual we do get finally, with the boy in his embrace as they shoot out of the water!

That lake with its dark water is one super creepy place. That very first scene where we see the girl swimming from an underwater perspective had me yelling at the screen for her to GET OUT NOW.

So, finally, all is sorted and revenge has been had and bad folks die, good folks live and as they leave the town of course Lucas chats with Dean and they high five and just like the sister in the Wendigo episode, the young mother in this one also gives Dean a kiss on his cheek. Dean of course blushes and goes all gruff and drives off with Sam smirking in the shotgun seat.

The pattern is beginning to be established.

I am loving it!😍

.

The gag reel of this episode shows Jensen leaping into Jared’s arms.

This is the third episode only. So they have known each other only for a couple of months at this point?! Hmm…my J2 tinhat is also shining. And also wow. I mean Jensen is NOT a tiny guy.

  Here are some other possibly more erudite and informed reviews if you would like to go down that rabbit hole like I did.

This one is cool https://the-orbit.net/entequilaesverdad/2016/05/10/supernatural-s1-e3-dead-water-summary/ and gives a fun and interesting score at the end which goes like this

Episode 3 counts:

Woman in the Fridge: 1

For Sophie Carlton being the first to get murdered by the vengeful spirit. It’s obviously meant to hook us harder: I mean, nobody would care as much about obnoxious brother Will, right?

Revenge from Beyond the Grave: 4

Sophie Carlton, Will Carlton, Bill Carlton, and Jake Devins.

Brotherly Love: 2

I had to give one to Sam for cock-blocking his brother right at the start. Another point goes to Dean’s sick-of-your-attitude lecture to his little brother, throwing Sam’s decision to go to college while Dean stayed behind with their dad in his face.

Toxic Masculinity: 1

For Dean downplaying his grief when Sam draws him out about the aftermath of their mother’s death.

Swimming in Sexism: 2

For Will Carlton’s comment to his sister that “guys don’t like buff girls.” I added a point for all the times they had Dean hitting on any available woman. They do want us to be extra-very sure he’s hetero, don’t they?

Cumulative Counts: Dean’s Man Tears: 3

One point awarded for all Dean’s choking up about Mom. We’re now three for three, folks.

.

This review totally calls out Dean LOL. I love the reviews that were written as first watch because they are without the benefit of hindsight we have on a re-watch.

.

http://markwatches.net/reviews/2013/11/mark-watches-supernatural-s01e03-dead-in-the-water/

“It was fascinating to me, then, that through this, Sam was able to learn about Dean’s own emotional reasoning behind his hunting. Of course, Dean, being the most stereotypical dude of all dudes who ever duded, has to immediately act like feelings aren’t cool because BLEH. Okay, that is one aspect of Dean that I’m not terribly interested in, especially since he expresses feelings like every five seconds. The whole “I am a straight man and I’m very straight and look at that butt straight I’m straight” thing is already exhausting because I get it. You don’t need to tell me this every five seconds.” 

The comments to this review are also super entertaining with gems like this:

“So, if you knew that someone had drowned in the lake recently and their body was never found, WHY WOULD YOU STILL GO SWIMMING IN THE LAKE? Especially if two people had. It wouldn't make you think, "Hey, maybe there's something dangerous in that lake?" This show has some of the least genre savvy people EVER. Like, for example, once this mysterious death thing shows up in a sink, why would anyone want to take a bath or really ever fill any basin with water again? Seriously, is this the Bad Decision Olympics?”

.

Here is an awesome review from Fangasm also

https://fangasmthebook.com/2021/01/13/looking-back-on-dead-in-the-water-classic-supernatural/

[fortysevenswrites]

Aaaaa I NEED your thoughts on the Bold Type. I love my girls (and go off with Sutton and Richard, season 4 who??)

Okay nonny, here we freaking go!

Sutton (And Richard)

So, I’m not active in the fandom more than randomly rebageling some Richard/Sutton gifsets because I ship the straight couple and what fic I’ve seen is like ALL Kat/Adena, more power to those shippers and those fics, but I am RIDE OR DIE Sutton/Richard. 

I love them so much. It’s such a great relationship (which...there is no back half of Season 4. They got married and live happily ever after and manage to make it work with both their ambitions. Miss me with that shit the writers pulled. Not cool. As a writer, I think that the forms of conflict that they decided to go with is really lazy writing, and there are ways to have a compelling storyline and compelling relationship without trying to tear it apart at the seams. If things change and they reconcile in S5, I might consider making my way through the end of S4, but at this point, I’m not going to waste my time.)

I really don’t think the Older Man/Younger Woman thing is THAT big of a deal (maybe it’s because I was in a relationship with a guy 11 years older than me when I was in college. Richard may or may not remind me a little of my ex ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). I think Sutton is just...remarkably capable and competent and mature enough to meet Richard at his level (even if she does have fun as someone in her early 20s would). 

Also, they are both very, very attractive people, and yes, I am more than a little shallow about that shit.

Like, I haven’t watched the show since the pregnancy drama storyline kicked in, but now that I’m thinking about seasons 1-3 and the first half of 4, I’m actually inclined to go back and re-watch, because their storyline just is enjoyable to watch. It makes me happy when they’re on screen together. Their storylines are some of the drivers of the show.

Jane

And--and I really don’t know how popular or unpopular this opinion is, but I honestly don’t love Jane as much as I do the other girls. I don’t hate her, I don’t even actively dislike her, but she’s just not my favorite character on the show ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I know she’s the lead and she is extremely compelling and I do enjoy some of her story (and she’s an amazing singer, I love when she got drunk and high and sang Torn), but there’s just a lot about her that grates on me sometimes, and a lot of times where I’m watching and I find myself thinking, “Can we go just hang out with Sutton now?”

Like, I almost prefer Oliver’s family dynamic more than Jane’s sometimes.

And I REALLY don’t like how her relationship with Pinstripe ended. He fucked up, yes, but she let their lack of communication get in the way of actually resolving their issues. And this is coming from someone who is VERY anti someone who cheats staying in a relationship even if they know they fucked up. I just really like Pinstripe as a character and didn’t like his ending.

Especially following Jane now that she’s got her own vertical within the magazine. I just...don’t love it. I don’t like this guy who they brought in to be her new love interest or whatever the hell he’s supposed to be (okay yes, part of it is because Pinstripe is SO Much better looking, but mostly because I don’t like him all that much), but I’m just not a fan of him. Also, unlike Sutton who was not and has never been Richard’s subordinate, this guy IS Jane’s immediate subordinate and I’m not a fan of that power dynamic.

Kat

I think Kat is great too. I LOVE her with Adena, but I also love how they did break up and get back to being friends (when she came in to shoot for Sutton? Like I just LOVED those scenes), but I really do think that they SHOULD be endgame. I don’t know where the hell Adena was in S4, but she should have been around.

As for the relationship Kat WAS in, in S4 (which, I don’t want to thank COVID for much, but I’m kinda glad production got shot down because who the hell knows what they would have pulled in the last couple episodes), like...what the ever-loving fuck? I’m not a POC, but I am bisexual and support liberal policies, and I would NEVER be in a relationship with someone whose family and beliefs are SO antithetical to my own. Like...I am iffy on the institution of marriage as it is, but if I was ever in a relationship with someone, and ever considered marrying someone, knowing who they voted for in this election is absolutely a dealbreaker. Conversion therapy is a dealbreaker. A woman’s right to choose if she wants to keep her pregnancy or not is a dealbreaker.

I really do not understand what the writers did with Season 4, and Aisha Dee was SO FREAKING RIGHT to make the comments that she did after the season wrapped.

So I could never realistically (or not realistically see, in the case of TBT) Kat and Ava willingly being together.

Like, what the fuck? Honestly, I think the only good relationship Kat has ever been in on the show has been with Adena.

The Rest Of The Cast

Can I just say, the way my jaw DROPPED when I watched the scene of Andrew in drag was S T U N N I N G. Like...I just was absolutely delighted by that and am delighted by him. The fact that he has gotten more and more of a role as the show has gone on was an amazing decision.

I also enjoy Alex and Sage and Jacqueline so much, and they’re all fun to hang out with. Do I think Jacqueline should have stayed with her husband vs. her hot exboyfriend? Hmmmmmm ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, and I don’t remember this girl’s name, but the “Gen Z girl” that Jane hired in the second half of S4--SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN HIRED. The moment she whipped out her phone in that interview, the interview should have been OVER.

I understand people spending a lot of time on their phones (mine is never far away from me ever), but the fact that this girl, in her interview, did not even ask if it was okay to take notes on her phone? Was SO rude, and I don’t know which clearly-NOT-a-Gen-Z writer wrote that scene, but any Gen-Zer who is looking for a job, any reasonable person, would NEVER just whip out their phone while they’re being interviewed without asking for permission.

NEVER. 

Like...I watched that scene and was just stunned. And yes, I know that TBT is clearly not anything anywhere near reality, but like...that is an inaccuracy that I just can’t abide by.

You don’t pull that shit in a job interview, you just don’t.

Okay nonny, so...those are my thoughts on The Bold Type.

[kinkymagnus]

Twi YouTube AU?? 👀

dlgjk ok i dont have a coherent au idea i just like the idea of like. 

alec being this confident youtuber man who does all sorts of shit, like funny vlogs and maybe some sketches with his siblings or some lets plays or something, idk, he’s just a popular youtuber like, idk, fuckin markiplier or something, you know, kinda does a lot of stuff. maybe some fashion/interior design shit? idk? but like. he’s pretty popular and if there’s any list on tumblr that’s like “some queer creators you should try watching” he’s always up there because he’s pretty open about being gay. maybe at first he wasn’t in the earlier youtube days but he had a pretty emotional coming out video and everyone was like “holy shit” 

meanwhile magnus is like, a quietly popular youtuber, you know? kind of a niche audience, but with decent numbers. he does a lot of things, like vlogs about being trans. like, oh my god. magnus documenting his transition? would that even be a thing? wait oh my god is this mundane au, or is this canon? because twi magnus who’s actually a warlock with a youtube channel would be hilarious but maybe not a good idea. you know what? how about a mix. he’s mortal and was born in modern times and all, he’s like the same age as alec–idk why but i’m thinking he’s like a few weeks older or a month or two older than alec and alec jokingly teases him about being old–but he like…. still has magic, because why the fuck not. actually, you know what? fuck it? it’s an au where magic is just openly a thing. not even necessarily canonverse magic, just. some people have magic. magnus does little tutorials and shit, he has a real talent for it and he’s actually really powerful but he hides that. (possible plotline: some paparazzi discover he’s like, a level ten mage, and it’s a scale from 1-10 and 8 is the most powerful u get most of the time, there’s been a few really famous 9s and there’s been one 10 ever and that was fucking merlin. you feel. because why not. idek fuck.) anyway he has little diy make your own magical charms and weaving enchantment and safe summoning circles and tips for writing magical contracts and shit like that. he’s this cute little nerd but he’s like incredibly knowledgeable and he knows how to teach it in a way that’s understandable and accessible? and he answers questions in really clear ways, and he does amazing demonstrations that look so cool people accuse him of editing but he’s just That Good. and he’s like, actually a really well-published wizard/magic scientist, he invented the fucking portal, but probably under a pseudonym because he doesn’t really want the attention. (his last name is fell in honor of his mentor. yes. although if he does multiple ones he may or may not also use loss, santiago, rollins, etc.) anyway he’s just so fucking good, he has all these videos explaining magical theory in pretty easy to understand ways (maybe going from really simple to like “i understand the basics here and am ready for the technical terms but need an overview” videos you know. 

also he doesn’t just do magic videos, because i said so. also maybe some blogs, and like. because i want to. some fashion/makeup tips. and it’s weirdly endearing because it’s not something you’d expect since he doesn’t wear makeup that often–although a) there are def gifsets of his full makeup looks on tumblr, and b) when he does occasionally decide to wear lipstick or eyeshadow or whatever, most of his fans are like omg yes!! u look cute! also headcanon: twi magnus wears less makeup in general but he still indulges in nail polish. mostly dark/muted colors on his fingers, but bright silly colors on his toes. NAYWAYWYA

also magnus bane is his chosen name because he wanted something cool and wizardy sounding and undeniably masculine. 

also he’s so fucking sweet like look his videos are pretty popular because they’re just handy but he’s not exactly like, a super popular celebrity or anything, you know? but when he does meet fans he’s so incredibly sweet and he does selfies and he’s very appreciative of his followers? he’s so genuine? 

and alec is way more popular–not that he’s not kind and appreciative of his followers. it’s just the thing is, magnus and alec are totally opposite sides of youtube. alec is friendly charismatic completely non-magical youtuber, he plays video games with his sister and like, does vlogs and reaction videos and shit you know. magnus is out here with educational tutorials and excited rambles about magical theory. (i feel like sometimes he accidentally starts doing groundbreaking research for a video and forgets to like, publish it first, and people are like wait what the fuck holy shit) 

but then they fucking meet. 

and a) they’re Instantly smitten. b) this will eventually result in the weirdest collab ever. 

like NO ONE would expect magnus bane, tarot reader and tutorial on magic diy and shit, occasionally does makeup videos and little vlogs and talks about Issues sometimes, to collab with typical hot vlogger gamer man alec lightwood. but it happens, and somehow it’s the best fucking thing ever.

i’m not sure how their channels collide. maybe alec plays a game involving magic and magnus talks about all the ways it’s right/wrong but it ends up just being bantering and giggling and magnus may or may not end up leaning into him on the couch their sitting on and giggling as he makes a stupid joke with the character in the game and immediately everyone’s like…… we ship it

not that i support irl shipping but u know how it goes, everyones like “damn they’re cute” and they’re both openly queer so there’s that. i mean, still not cool, but you know

but really tho they keep doing collabs after that and become actual friends and both start kind of….. doing things for each other’s channel? magnus does a thing like “interview with someone who knows nothing about magic” and we just see a total mundane take on magic and honestly it’s really interesting for both of them, we have more “magnus, who’s an Old Soul and despite having a youtube channel is actually not that great with technology, raphael does all the editing, tries to play video games and kinda fails at it but he gets the hang of some of them”?? he likes puzzle games and mariokart, he does NOT like super smash bros because “THE CHARACTER NEVER DOES WHAT I WANT IT TO ALEXANDER” “you’re just jealous bc i beat ur ass” “you wanna play mariokart again, lightwood?!” 

magnus does a tarot reading for alec, alec does a vlog with him just like “day in the life of alec lol :P” and there’s moments where he just comes up behind magnus like “hey what’s up” and magnus, who’s in rumpled home clothing, sees the camera and chuckles and kinda half heartedly waves it away, and the audience loses their mind at how cute he looks lkdhjgfh

they just become actual good friends, you know? it’s weird bc you wouldn’t think it would work but it really, really does

also on of alec’s fans at some point tries to make a transphobic crack at magnus during a livestream and alec goes OFF on his ass and it’s trending for the next week, the clip goes viral, it’s like “HIMBO GOES OFF ON HATERS FOR BEING TRANSPHOBIC TO HIS FRIEND/POSSIBLE LOVER?” and alec apologizes to magnus for all the attention it brought them but magnus is like “it’s okay, we can use this” and they end up using the hype to do one of those charity livestreams youtubers do and all the proceeds go to something like mermaids or the trevor project, you feel? they’re like “suck it transphobes look at all this money you got trans ppl” khjfgh

ok but eventually they do get together, not on camera, and while it’s slow at first and kind of secret (from the internet, not from friends and family) they’re also not super subtle. they know they’re not, but they’re just sort of like “it’s no one’s business, we’ll announce it when we’re ready”

and honestly tho they love each other so much

also i’ve just decided it’s not uncommon for strong magic-users, even like, level 4 or 5 and up, to have marks, so while his cat eyes are usually glamoured maybe he showed them after a q&a or in a vlog or something? and there are like. lots of gifsets of this, okay, and like, lots of thirst comments. which are like, this weird mix of slightly uncomfortable, really flattering/validating, and embarrassing (in a good and bad way). anyway, magnus has cat eyes in this au, because i fucking said so.

ANYWAY back to their relationship, they’re in love

how did they meet? maybe at a con they bumped into each other, or a totally random fan was like “y’all should do a collab” and everyone was like “what”

or maybe a mutual friend and fellow youtuber, meliorn, who is a nonbinary youtuber who fucking has a sword don’t question me, introduces them? 

idk. but when they meet they hit it off instantly and flirt and end up getting coffee and they don’t date for a while (maybe mutual pining/misunderstandings like “oh he doesn’t like me like that, but it’s okay, we can still be friends :)” or something lkfgjhfgh) but eventually they end up getting together

how? no idea. let me think about it.

idk why but im thinking they’re filming at magnus’s apartment and they’re on his couch and just. late night. they’ve finished up filming but they’re still bantering and maybe playing some video game like mariokart or watching a movie together and just. magnus is leaned all the way into alec, just snuggled up and pressed close against him, alec ends up putting an arm around him, and alec cracks a joke or teases him and magnus sits up a bit to like, poke his chest or flick his nose (you know what i mean? like in an otp person a shifts, still kinda sitting in their lap, and is like [playfully hits shoulder or boops nose or something] and now they’re making eye contact and person b ends up pulling them into a soft kiss???) anyway THEY MAKE EYE CONTACT AND ALEC PULLS HIM INTO A SOFT KISS and alec almost pulls away when he realizes what he’s done but magnus makes this soft little happy noise and leans into him, kissing back, and they just end up kissing for a bit and when they break apart alec is just looking up at him with breathless wonder and magnus is looking down at him with that same soft reverence and alec blurts out something like “you’re magical” and magnus just loses it and he’s giggling and leaning against alec’s chest and alec starts laughing too and magnus can feel the vibrations in his chest and it’s just so nice and pleasant and wonderful and they may or may not end up making out 

they have to talk about it in the morning when they end up falling asleep together in magnus’s bed, cuddled close, but they find, to both of their delights, they both want to date and be in a serious relationship and it’s so fucking good ok 

they go to dinner and the transition from friendship to romance is a little awkward but so worth it, especially when they realize HEY IT’S BOTH YOU DONT STOP BEING FRIENDS WHEN YOU DATE. i mean like, they didn’t not know that, but it’s like, idk how to explain you know they’re kinda like “are we doing this right” and then they’re like “fuck doing it right we can keep cuddling on the couch and giggling and bantering over stupid shit and watching dumb movies and kicking each others asses in video games it doesn’t matter we just also kiss and have dinner more often and sleep together and also we may or may not be in love” 

also they’re That Couple. they’re like straight to the honeymoon, they’re domestic from the first week. magnus is casually doing magic around the house (imagine: he just dyes his hair on a whim and grows it out a little bit and alec is like “i love u no matter how u style ur hair and stuff, and like, ur usual look is so fuckin cute and handsome, but also I Love This.”) but like he’s like (casually summons small ball of light to read book at night) (casually makes alec little protective charms–side note alec def makes him some of these too, but he asks magnus’s old mentor, ragnor, and two of his friends that can do magic, catarina and dot, to enchant it, since he can’t himself, and having magic woven by people who care about him will make it stronger. oh mhyhogfd) and just like. magic used to be something he mostly kept to himself (this def has something to do with his parents–his mom, who he thinks killed herself because of his eyes/magic, his birth dad who’s a powerful sorcerer–level 9, actually, and they think magnus is level 8 for a long time–who was an abusive fuckstick) and then he started doing youtube and it was a kinda show, a gift, something to share, but still not really something he just used openly in front of people he cared about (other than his close friends, since most of them do magic too anyway) but with alec it’s so easy to do that casually?? it’s so easy to just feel comfortable and safe????? yes

anyway they do eventually “come out” as boyfriends, maybe something short and sweet like just. a tweet of magnus sleeping curled up on alec’s chest and he’s like “god i love my boyfriend

they were already not subtle but now that they’re not hiding it they’re so fucking blatantly in love tbh. they do one of those boyfriend tag videos and it’s fucking adorable, at high request they do some couples games kind of videos, like the newlywed game and fuck marry kill (mostly on alec’s channel but magnus has a few, too) and it’s just HIGH QUALITY FUCKING CONTENT

also originally i was just thinking something along the lines of “in canon verse, twi alec is instagram famous/famous on social media and he gets cute tarot boyfriend and is like look at my cute boyfriend and then magnus’s small insta account mostly for his business gets a fuck ton of new followers and alec’s gets a considerable amount too” and now i’m imagining everyone from their respective audiences first thirst-following the other, then actually getting invested 

but really tho they’re the internet’s hottest couple for a while it’s great

for some reason i’m picturing them doing a live tour now, with like, accessible tickets and magnus does magic live on stage and idek what else they’d do tbh but it’d be fun as fuck

anyway this au got away from me

me: i dont have any real coherent ideas

also me: [vomits a 2,500+ word ESSAY] 

[bonenzone]

Kat and Michael on Bonenzo during season 7

“It’s very different from the other flash-forwards you’ll see. Oh, and this one has the huge reveal of who I end up with!” But it isn’t just Bonnie’s love life that’s going to throw you for a loop; Graham also says that Thursday’s episode contains a major Lily-centric twist. “We don’t find out everything that Lily has done, and all the ways she’s effed everybody over, until Episode 5,” she says. “There’s a huge reveal for Bonnie and Damon in that way.” - Kat

The actress also teased that while Bonnie and Damon might find themselves on the outs very soon, there could be something brewing between her character and Damon’s ex-cell mate, Enzo (Michael Malarkey). “[There’s] some really good relationship stuff— friendship and that evolving between her and Enzo,” teased Graham.

"You'll see a lot of stuff between Enzo and Bonnie, which is super exciting 'cause I love working with [Michael] Malarkey," Kat said. "There's a really cool dynamic there." But don't expect a rush into the relationship the two have in the flash forward. "I think that they're developing it very, very slowly," she said of the Bonnie/Enzo romance. "Over the next few episodes, you'll see a lot of their dynamic together, but it's still very much present day Bonnie and Enzo. So you see our kind of -- I don't know if it's like cat and mouse or this very sparring dynamic.

We still haven't seen Bonnie's flash-forward yet. What can we expect from that? Graham: It's really exciting, and you'll get to see a new love interest. It's in Episode 5. I'm really proud of that episode. It was directed by Kellie Cyrus. I can't give away too much. It's really cool. It's one of my favorite episodes of this season.

“There’s going to be worldwide trend, I think,” Graham says. “The fans are going to be really shocked and happy and will get all sorts of feels. I’m excited for people to see that because it’s a big moment for the fans. When I read it, even I was like, ‘Oh, really?!‘”

We talked to Kat Graham recently, and she said that she was so excited to film with you this season. We haven’t seen a whole lot of Bonnie and Enzo together, so what is that dynamic like? Malarkey: First of all, Kat’s a fantastic actress, and the stuff we’ve shot together has been really quick and sharp. We’ve really been having a good time working together — it’s some good stuff. When Kat and I started to work together, there was an immediate kind of energy, and when you work with another actor who spends a lot of time working on the scripts, and wants to run it a lot beforehand, it’s really rewarding. I remember, after the first scene we did together, driving home, thinking, “F–k yes. This is why I do this stuff.” They are fun, exciting scenes, and I look forward to everyone being able to see them.- Malarkey

We’ll also see Enzo searching for something else: love. That’s right, Michael told us we will be seeing his love interest in flash-forwards pretty soon — and it may or may not be a familiar face. “I think people will be pretty shocked by it,” he teased. “All I’ll tell you is that there was immediate chemistry. I know that those scenes that we already shot together will be f–king amazing.”- Malarkey

__________________________________________________________

So many of the antis were Bonnie and Enzo shippers, many of them were excited for Bonnie and Enzo, so many speculations on Bonenzo happening in season 7. The meta, gifsets, bts pictures of Kat and Michael, the hype was there, interview post in the tags, then the episode aired 7x05, people were happy for them.

Then I think 7x08 happened Enzo was still interested in Lily, and people were very annoyed by it. Bonnie and Damon were still having romantic (for BD fans) scenes so it's like what's the point of Bonnie & Enzo if he's with Lily and Bonnie's hanging out with Damon all the time. Of course by the 8x14 episode the armory happened, Bonnie chopping Enzo's arm off, killed a lot of fans joy and they just went back to their original ships (KlausxBon, BonxKai,BonDamon, BonKol, etc) and left Bonenzo alone. 

Caroline Dries pretty much killed a ship that was alive and well liked with her stupid storytelling.  Malarkey and Kat did a good job from S5 with the whole hate story, all she had to do was develop it not recreate it, in fact a Damon/Bonnie/Enzo arc would of made the Bonnie fandom super happy. Even if Bonenzo was endgame in the finale.

--- --- ---

Thank you!! This was such a good reminder and I agree with you re: a lot of the fanbase turning due to the slow storytelling/build up. It was so sweet to be reminded of how excited Kat and Michael were to both be working with each other and telling the BE story.

As we see from Julie's interview comments, she and Caroline both saw the BE banter in s6 as the catalyst for the ship in s7. They thought they could extend that energy across half a season and the fandom would wait patiently. They were wrong.

I will note though, I still have a lot of new followers coming to this blog, I also see a lot of newer fans who watched the show after it aired and in bulk. Considering so many positive and supportive Bonenzo shippers who exist outside of the fandom I do think that some of these ships poisoned the relationship for themselves. I remember how ruthlessly they judged every action Enzo made when they shipped people who actually violently drew blood from Bonnie but hey, end of the day, each to their own. It's nice to not have that noise around during this rewatch.

[jlf23tumble]

1D Day, Hour One

God only knows what this hellscape will look like on December 18, so if I’m gonna recap each hour of 1D Day, I might as well do it now, eh?? 1D Day is a gift that none of us really deserved, and yeah, it has a ton of shitty moments, but much like X Factor itself, the true gem is Louis Tomlinson and how much he runs this entire show (and lbr, the band itself), Jesus, god, do I love him.

Anyway, 1D Day aired 7 hours of live content on November 23, 2013 to promote Midnight Memories, and yes, yes, we’ve all seen the gifsets, but like anything else with this band, it’s tremendously better in context. I watched this whole thing a couple of years ago, when I first got into this fandom, but I didn’t know all of the dynamics then, so it’s extra fascinating to me now. We’ve all binged worse shit than this that took way longer, and I promise you won’t regret an hour a night for a week--but if you’d rather read my hot take, here you go, under the cut! Note: these are really shitty screengrabs, and for that, I am truly sorry.

A horrible announcer introduces the D by saying they weigh in at a collective 792 pounds, and all I can wonder is does this mean they have daily weigh-ins, why is it that specific? This focus on their weight is just gross to me. C’mon, writers, you’re better than this (j/k, you aren’t).

The three-foot bubble between Louis and Harry is established pretty early on, with Harry doing the prettiest sitting in all the land before bolting to his feet immediately because Louis happened to walk by his couch. A very real question: Was this bubble a requirement that Ben Winston constantly whispers into their headpieces, or did sbb decide, hey, let’s make it obvious that we have to CONSTANTLY adjust where we stand, even if it’s two feet away because that’s not enough room for Jesus?

There are some truly hilarious guest “stars” to announce, the first being the giant video head of David Beckham, which pops up and immediately starts speaking, so we're already off to the races with a) fuckups and b) Louis’s annoyance at said fuckups.

Liam takes a good hard look at his future:

Harry isn’t allowed to gaze at Becks, he’s off by the listening booth, which is a giant red call box because they’re Briddish, pip pip, cheerio. Unrelated, but I low-key feel like Harry's coked up or else really taking the piss with all his “LIVE BANDDDDDDD,” JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!,” etc., not to mention how fast he’s speaking, the way he grinds on the guitarist’s lap while Louis fonds at the sky, and all the yelling with arms aloft.

The best part of the rundown of the guest “stars” (or breast stars, if you’re Niall) is that we’re only in the first 10 minutes, so everyone’s giving it a go, but then we get to Mr. Simon Cowell, and Niall claps five times to stony silence (me as Harry constantly staring at Louis from three feet away):

Piers Morgan comes out to describe the “grilling” he’s going to give them later, all angry—genuinely angry—that they’re trending on twitter because they keep saying that he smells. And they don’t stop, even here, they keep yelling, “What’s that smell? You stink, etc.,” and he’s such a dick that I want to bottle this moment and spritz it around my house daily.

This mild trash talking continues, with Piers promising “tears from Piers,” but Slytherin Niall pulls the fingernail out of his mouth, smiles that sneaky smile, and says, “Yeah, but this isn’t Piers Morgan Day, is it, this is 1D Day,” and I want a transcript because there’s so much talking, but all of it trashes Piers, and god, I love my sons.

Anyway, they keep winding Piers up (Piers: “I’m going to find out what you’re most embarrassed about,” Liam: “The way you smell,” Piers, genuinely in a rage: “Don’t say that”), and he keeps talking about how he’s interviewed heads of state, etc., the implication being that this is below him, but Niall counters that Oprah and Barbara Walters have, too, and they would have much preferred Oprah, to the point where Piers admits they couldn’t afford Oprah (lmaooooooo). 

We move on to Harry, spinning a twitter wheel that means they’ll follow whoever it lands on, which seems like a cute idea. I’m guessing it’s the official twitter handle?? I don’t know or actually care!

Louis can’t read the teleprompter, and he mutters later that it’s because it makes no sense rather than being too hard to actually see, but me as Niall, already yawning at the 25-minute mark (the bubble is preserved, though, whew):

I’m guessing Scott Mills is the “host” of this show because he comes out with a stick (??) and an agenda (Scott’s no Dermot…he has a face for radio, as they used to say back in the day). This whole section just features a lot of Harry and his pinned sleeves staring at Louis, and honestly relatable:

The next task is toilet paper roll stacking, with two judges from the Guinness Book of World Records on hand to see if this band of hyenas can beat the current world record and stack 28 (!!!!) rolls in 30 seconds. Two reasons to love Louis: he interrupts this idiocy to ask, “How did you two get into this, is this a full-time job you do every day?” (I was wondering the exact same thing), and this is his face for this challenge:

Sadly, they fail, and Harry’s the one who has to tell the judges, “Well, sorry for wasting your time!” with a cheery wave from the ladder. Uh oh, though, the bubble, we’re at two feet:

Much better!

This is still too close for Ben Winston’s comfort, so we split up the teams in what feels like a college course with a lot of money to run fake broadcasting drills. Zouis gets to report from the field, with some tweet rapping; the weather guy, sports guy, and lead broadcaster experience some technical difficulties, prompting Harry’s infamous, “SOMETHING’S GONE WRONG,” and we’re off to Poland:

For a production company that seems hell bent on “no homo,” there are lots of things that raise my brows, like this big “handsome” (Harry’s words) he-man who’s going to pull a “boohs” full of 1D fans over a line, so the boys have to guess how long it’s going to take him…by writing all over his mostly nude body (I’m the eye contact that Harry and Louis maintain during this):

Dude pulls the boohs successfully, so yay! Next up is Wrong Direction, the world’s worst lookalikes (HONESTLY, I’m embarrassed for everyone in this segment on Hollywood Blvd: the idiots who are “fooled” by this, the guys themselves and the low-key insult of it all, myself because this went on for way too long):

I’ll spare everyone the individual matchups because yike, but the real Wrong Direction comes to the studio, with all the guys dressed up like their matches, and the real D is polite, albeit mildly “wtf are we supposed to do about this” (me, too, Zayn). Points to Harry for at least trying to strike up some conversation: “Did you have foon, acting like us?” We’re supposed to vote for the best one on Google+ (lolololololol).

Scott takes two girls who look like they’re legit about to pass out into the red call box so they can be the first people to listen to the new album. While they listen to something none of us can hear, we get some VT (that’s “videotape,” god, I hate the whole lingo lesson we got earlier) of Spain and some fans, all of which feels like lengthy filler. I feel for the people Scott mentions as being asleep during this because there is a LOT of fill. Maybe make this shit shorter, just a suggestion!

Next up is Jamie Scott from his home somewhere in the middle of the night; he wrote most of Midnight Memories along with Louis and Liam, and he gives them an 8.5 in terms of how they did on a scale of 1-10 (and that’s AFTER Louis insults his pillows with the alphabet on them, “In case you forget”). There’s a lot of Lilo hand-shaking in celebration, and some enthusiastic clapping from Harry (a little too enthusiastic…I’m gonna imagine that someone tells him to tone it down in his earpiece because he looks around quite a bit):

A few things happen that don’t really interest me: the first listen of “Through the Dark” (this is skipped in the vid), a remote report from Radio Disney (Harry: “HOLLYWOODDDDDD!”) and a fan who wins the chance to come visit them later in the day, and then we’re back to Scott, who looks exhausted, and it’s only been 40 minutes.

All is not lost, because the next VT is the totally unnecessary yet extremely vital coverage of the D’s exercise regime. I’ve seen so many gifsets of hottttt and sweaty Lirry, but you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Niall’s American accent while he stretches: “Welcome to my workout dvd! I’ll be with you for the next 45 minutes to  give you the lowdown of how I stay in shape.” PLEASE @ NIALL, DO THIS.

I really WANT to be Harry and effortlessly pump out pushups, but in reality I’m Zouis, popping some robot dance moves and drinking Red Bull. The weird shorthand throughout this is that Liam is an animal (Ziam + a whip = fire), Harry’s into flirty sexercise, Niall wants an arse like Kim K’s, Zayn’s a slender boxer, and Louis…just fucks around? Missed opp for footie Louis.

The first performance is “Story of My Life,” and we’ve all seen it before, but godDAMN, Zayn sings like an angel. Lots of technical problems in the audio, prompting quite a few Louis/Harry hand gestures, but still, in spite of it all, they sound amazing individually and together.

Even local asshole Piers Morgan is impressed, as he comes out to tell them that they were surprisingly good, along with a bunch of other neg bullshit. This is another one of those segments that it pays to watch the whole clip of, and Jesus, do I want a transcript. They head over to the couches, and Piers points at Louis and says, “You have the most reason to be nervous,” but Louis’s like, “Yeah, but I’m not,” and wow, #goals.

Everyone gets a couch, and the upshot is that Piers is a terrible egoist who thinks he’s a fantastic interviewer, but he really isn’t…all the questions are shit, and these five eat him alive. Everything he asks falls flat, and it’s so masterfully, subversively handled, from Louis’s iconic “define girlfriends” (and the underappreciated attempt by Harry to define it for Piers later: “Like in primary school, if you hold hands with a girl and you're eight, is that a girlfriend?”) to the obsession with smells (Piers asking Niall, “Why do you always smell,” claiming it’s a fan’s question, and Niall answering that it’s because he had colic as a child, so can only fart; Piers asking Zayn, “Who stinks the worst,” and Zayn saying that they all smell quite good, actually) to Piers demanding to see Zayn’s tattoo and relentlessly attacking him for it being a gun (Louis keeps interjecting that it’s a watergun, but go off I guess, paraphrasing).

But the best is always Louis. “What’s the weirdest thing a girl has done to impress you?” “Tweeted Piers Morgan.” Later, he says pointblank to Piers, “You do stink.” But then…but THEN, it’s the Four interview 1.0, only instead of Ben trying to get Louis to deny gay rumors, it’s Piers, who does it twice: “What’s the one rumor you wouldn’t want to hear about yourself?” Louis’s answer: “That I’m not good at football.” “Are you good?” “No….I just wouldn’t want it confirmed.” Piers tries AGAIN: “What’s the worst thing you’ve had to read about yourself?” but Louis turns it around and says he hates reading about one of the other boys being dead (!).

Because he’s the worst, Piers takes it to the ladies and asks how many girlfriends they’ve had and how many times they’ve kissed a girl. Harry says he’s kissed 8 ladies (which prompts a good scoff out of Zayn), and everyone else says 5 or 6, 3 or 4, etc., with Louis declaring he’s only had one proper relationship (no genders mentioned), so maybe 2 (lmaooooo). Piers gets all excited that he’s kissed more girls than this hot boyband has, and I wanna say, you’re almost there, “friend”…keep working it through.

There’s more antics w/r/t Piers, like his poor 2YO daughter crying, and him trying to blame it on Harry Styles not answering her dad’s sex questions or stupid questions about embarrassing things they’ve caught the others doing, and yeah, I don’t think they’ll get into the big ot5 gang bang on live TV, but ask anyway, I guess?

The last person to suffer sitting next to Piers is Liam, and I love him always, but especially for saying, “How’s it going there, stinky?” when Piers takes a seat to ask him why he’s so sexy. Piers tries to “joke” that the sexy question is for him, but nobody says anything, and then he asks Liam AGAIN before admitting that it’s a shitty question, so then he asks about them all wearing tight jeans, and godddddd, why does anyone let him interview anyone?? 

The good news is that Piers can tell he lost, so as he tells them that he thinks they’re pretty okay, actually, but, “You’ve gotta stop calling me stinky,” and you know they never will.

Scott says it might feel like much longer, but it’s only been an hour, and Zayn’s lookalike won, so we can all rest easy. This hour closes with a review of the highlights, and it’s ham-fisted and awful. Shocking!!!!

I can’t do one of these every single day, but I’ll do hour two sometime soon! Hope you enjoyed this, @justlarried, lol!

[maevelin]

That is what i find so frustrating about TO. You have to be on another level of crap storywriting, if you have all the characters you need there in front of you on a plate yet instead of using your creativity and working with what you have you conjure up a baby plot revolving around a character no one even asked for. The whole reason we wanted TO as a show was to see more of TO family. These are supernatural creatures that have lived 1000 years yet theyre reduced to soap opera storylines. 1/2

I was really slow to pick up on the fact that TO wasnt going to be the show we all asked for. I wasnt really an active part of the fandom on social media then so didnt know what was going on so when TO was announced i stupidly thought this is going to be amazing, a plot about the original family. By that point i was sick of damon and most of TVD characters and was rooting for klaus to kill them all lol. It wasn't till the scene where Rebekah's driving away from NOLA in her car i (2/3)

Realised that she's actually leaving for good. I still thought in my head that this is just part of the plot but then i found out Claire left and i realised that this baby plot is actually what the show is, and not the show i was expecting so i stopped watching for a long time. Maybe i was just stupid because the pilot did make it clear it was about a baby plot and not TO family. Also weird how elijah was barely in TVD, rebekah was in it more yet Elijah was more prominent in TO. (3/3)

--- 

I honestly believe that JP never cared or wanted to write for vampires. She doesn’t have the knack or the talent for that genre. She does not grasp it. She does not care for it. I think she was there to fill in the blanks for Kevin and together they made a decent team. Kevin had the genre down up to a point and was good with the plot and the characterization and Julie could sprinkle some soap to the ships and the emotional drama and that combination actually fit. 

It is no wonder that once Kevin was out everything became a shipping soup and by the end of it everyone seemed to have one goal. To be human. To act human. To get the white fence, the babies, the normal life. Which would be find for a drama soap or show concerning humans but was catastrophic for the kind of genre show TVD was and what TO was meant to be but never was. I mean how many vampires were even left in the end? Not just those that died but those that turned...human. Come on now. JP wanted to have her cake and eat it too. She didn’t care for TO in the way a genre writer should and would. She wanted to get her baby soap and that was the only chance she actually had to go through with it. Everything else of hers that didn’t belong to the TVD franchise was getting cancelled in their pilots or before their first seasons even finished airing. And in general as a writer she writers for the telenovela kind of soap and she can’t separate in her mind church from state in the way that she couldn’t divide what she wanted as a fan from what she should write as a professional. She believed it to be one and the same and when it would not work she would throw everyone else under the bus so to avoid responsibility and then she would try to make it work anyway. Well... newsflash Felicia!

I on the other hand however was not in the same boat you were where TO was concerned. 

By the time S4 of TVD had reached its middle I was seeing things I hated. When they killed Kol while they were planning for the spin-off my mind was on red alert. I knew by that time how JP operated. It was obvious. I already knew her ways with the fans from Kyle XY too. Then I heard Phoebe had signed first. BEFORE Joseph while they had killed off Kol so Nate wouldn’t be part of the show. I saw where that Klayley trainwreck was leading. I already knew JP’s lack of talent and her inability to actually create intellectual plots and twists. So I was suspicious. I wanted this to actually work. I was an Original groupie first. I was rooting for the Original to get their own show but not in that way. It was like I watching a crash happening and I could not avert my eyes while everyone else was not seeing it.  I was voicing my concerns back then and I remember that the fandom kind of saw me like the crazy lady in the lot but when the backdoor pilot aired I was 100% sure of what TO was going to be. Rebekah was regressed to a supporting cameo ffs! Kol was dead. Klaus was OOC crying in the streets next to his lunch that was obviously by the promotional interviews and the way they framed it in the backdoor pilot meant to be his love interest with what I saw from the gifs later (since I had never finished the backdoor pilot because when they threw the twilight scene I was out) was a copy of a KC scene with the whole art but meant to be more ‘deep’. The whole episode had some cinematic moments that were okay and I remember liking that they had used the Lafayette cemetery from Interview with the Vampire. The soundtrack seemed awesome. Marcel actually seemed interesting. And then...the baby crap and I was out. Back then before the backdoor pilot had even aired Joseph Morgan had said in an interview that if he was in charge some things may have been differently done. But then I remember thinking...oh crap...and then the episode actually aired and OH CRAP.

I never bothered with TO. 

I dropped TVD like a bad habit when S4 ended and saw the ridiculousness with the doppelganger nonsense. At that point given everything JP was doing I found it really hard to understand how people could hold on to hope when it came to her and her writing. I was trying to warn people from the fandom left and right. Because I had honestly gotten truly attached not only with the ship but with the fandom too and I didn’t want people to get their hopes up and get treated as I was seeing them get treated. I was seeing it, I was speaking about it and understandably most people believed me to be irrational. I remember even people that I was close with and still am to give me the sideeye and be okaaay then.

By the time the official pilot aired along with TO’s first season I was 100% they would cut out the KC phonecall scene that was only meant to be a hook to get the green light for the backdoor pilot rather than anything else. The seen was cut of course.

But then I remember thinking that any responsible writer would aim to get a crossover as soon as possible and get Caroline there even to create a closure small arc to span in the two shows slowly (as they did with BTVS and ATS) but then they were all about saying how logistics were not working and the universes were going to be separated and I was still unable to understand how people actually had hope when the people in charge had no talent to do the basics and were so reluctant. The warning bells were there. Kudos to the DCTV universe for actually going for the crossovers in parallel back then so to show to everyone how the excuses the TO writers and producers were using were just that...excuses.

I was out for sure but I remember that I still kept an eye out to what blogs I followed reblogged and I remember when I realized how sloppy TO actually was. I remember seeing a gifset from a flashback of Klaus that aimed to be a visual parallel to Lestat from Interview with the Vampire only in the lore of the TVD franchise it was from before he broke his curse and he was shown with double fangs and golden eyes that were Hybrid traits. They actually didn’t bother to keep the basics of their main lead consistent for crying out loud. I don’t remember from which episode that gifset actually was. Only that it was from the first episodes and I was like...come on!

I remember I basically muted and unfollowed many blogs back then so to get my dash clean from that mess.

Anyhow I then returned for the 100th episode of TVD. When 5x11 of TVD was meant to air and the promos were out I was insisting that anything else that a kiss would be bad news for KC. I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s excitement but I was just getting a bad feeling about it especially after knowing JP’s track record. It was just too obvious to my eyes and it would be a regression in the development KC had up to that point. You DON’T narratively speaking -from a writing perspective- go from one cheek to the kiss to the whole sex when the characters are in different shows forming different attachment and ships if you don’t meant to wrap up the story. Which would mean leaving fans high and dry after leading them along. By that time TO was doing well in the ratings and I knew JP only cared for that and the KC fandom was not needed in her mind. I had made posts about it warning people again before 5x11 had aired. I remember I had even gotten some aggressive asks from KC fans about spoiling their fun and being negative without an actual reason. Then 5x11 airs, the sex scene is there (all sloppy to just get it out of the way...bad directing, not bothering with a song, giving the bare minimum) and JP goes all out and gives the interview about the KC closure minutes after the episode airs so to ruin everyone’s parade. Then there was the bomb with Claire’s exit which in my eyes was pending anyway ever since I had heard Claire had wanted to stay in TVD but was given an ultimatum only for her to be barely there in the backdoor pilot.

So generally speaking when it came to TO I was never hopeful. Not when JP was in charge. Not when they hired Carina out of all people for their writing team. Carina that hated Klaus and the KC fans. Not when they were disrespecting KCers from day one. Not when they were disrespecting the Kol fans. Not when Daniel was out there saying that once we would meet the new girl we would forget all about KC (which was said before TO’s first season aired so it was obvious that everyone was lying about Klaus not having a love interest). Not when the cast was mocking a whole fandom. Not when the conflicting interviews kept coming. Not when they had hired the gossip girl writers and producers and no one bothered with the actual genre. Not when...not when...not when...the list kept going. 

I kept my criticism and my predictions going and I remember being patient because most people believed me to be crazy (which I am generally but not when it came to that so I could understand the confusion) 

....and flash forward and here we are. 

Although, admittedly, certain things did surprise me on a real life level, at first anyway, because fictional stuff aside I could never believe that certain people could act in the way they did (losing flights? getting into twitter fights, picking out fans, and even calling them assholes in podcasts? on and on), but otherwise I never had any expectations to begin with so most things didn’t surprise me and yes I did earn the right to go ‘I told you so’...which I tried to tone it down many times but sometimes it was just too fun to resist. 

[sunshinetoday]

“It’s been 17 weeks since our favourite show is back in production!! Let’s see what happened in this week. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. week summaries.

*Clicking on links will take you to the original posting of the video/article/tweet… X marks the posting of linked content on Tumblr. It takes you to the post of the Tumblrino who posted it here.*

This busy week started off with some great filming news; Someone walked thru the set and saw Gillian Anderson reading her script...  (X) We got a video of Brick from the make-up trailer! And a picture of Brick from the same trailer.  

And then, it happened. THE PICTURE of MULDER AND SCULLY IN BED, CUDDLING!!!! According to the new BTS video... The screenshot is not the best, but we have one, at least. It is exactly what we would expect from CC. Mulder’s face is weird, Scully is completely under the sheet. Like literally not a single inch of skin can be seen. But her head is on Mulder’s shoulder and they are sharing a romantic moment. On a sofa. That’s all that we saw and of course, it went how it always goes...we had more questions than we had answers. One thing is for certain, tho. Many many people are gonna go after CC in a very violent way, in case this turns out to be another cheap trick... 😄😄😄 Anyhow, here are some theories and summaries:

Looks like Mulder and Scully GET IT ON on Mulder’s sofa!! @youokay-mulder

msr 2018 @youreadarkwizard

Expectation vs Reailty/Or Fan Fiction vs The actual show @hekapolis

So, David says that “there are “definite intimations of hanky-panky” between the pair, beginning in the revival’s third episode” -->doppelganger episode

Chris Carter proved it again, that having no show bible, nor actual memories/knowledge of his show serves him well; “ We’re not used to Scully looking up at UFOs.  We’re not used to looking at Mulder at death’s door.” Could someone email Chris and make him watch his show?! The subject of the email: Platonic Activity. 🙈🙈  

Talking about continuity...One more thing has been revealed in the new video; Welcome back ‘Jeffrey completely perfect, no scar on his pretty face Spender’!!

Thursday arrived and with it, a new #tbt from @gillianaofficial “Looks like we found the upside down first…but in the future. #tbt #TheXFiles aaaaand we got lucky this time, as not only Gillian but David also shared one of his rare #tbt pics. “#TBT to the time when @marilynmanson and I played 🎸 together!”  

And just as awesome as this week started, it continued on when  @gillianaofficial shared another intriguing #BTS  “Praying to the Goddess Media. One. Last. Time.“  @BryanFuller #TheXFiles #bts @davidduchovny  

Fox Mulder is standing in a church, wearing a black tuxedo!!! Other fandoms would be crazy happy, that a wedding is in sight, but here, at the X-files fandom we’ve been tortured, tricked and hurt so many times that this is us: IT IS A FUNERAL. SCULLY IS DEAD. WILLIAM IS DEAD. EVERYONE IS DEAD. So, yes. Chris Carter made sure that we are paranoid and we learnt our lesson. Believe nothing, doubt everything...and fix everything. So here is the MSR wedding picture, we all needed @justholdinghandsok

Next filming day, next pictures by Gillian and David. They shared the same pic of Gillian & her Gilly-box. David Duchovny:  It’s official...longest Gillyboard in history! #TheXFiles #bts  Gillian Anderson: “Awe look at that itsy red mark next to my platform! What wee little earthling is set to grovel at my feet?!” (X) Not much later, thanks to some Photoshop skills, came another post:  Like father like son. @brick_duchovny davidduchovny 

David gave an interview to the Australian press, where he talked about Season 11:  “I was only going to watch one but I had to keep going, they are fantastic, I’m not bulls—ing you, I am not selling it,” he says. (X)

1 MONTH, 1 MONTH, 1 MONTH, 1 MONTH, 1MONTH, 1MONTH, 1MONTH

Filming continued at Garibaldi Park, which looks gorgeous at this time of the year. And so Gillian posted a video on Monday. “Smoothing out my bits” (X)  

Filming news:

#TheXFiles already done on Vancouver's 500 block Hamilton Street today. That was fast.(X)

It is #TheXFiles filming inside of St. Andrew's Wesley Church today. (X)

The X-files filming,  St. Andrews-Wesley United Church (X)

From Carlena Britch on the X-Files season 11 set

#Thischurchislit

#TheXFiles will be filming at & around Garibaldi Park in North Vancouver on Wednesday & Thursday. (X) 

it’s looking great out there! They have created a fake playground, and the street is lined w “police”cars. (X)

The X-files filming, Lynn Canyon Park, night shoot

@thexfiles filming LynnCanyonPark (X)

Press of the week:

The X-Files' David Duchovny Hints at 'Hanky-Panky' for Mulder and Scully (and New Footage Backs Him Up) (X

No Government Agency has jurisdiction over The Truth - Deep State

AN X-FILES EPISODE SHIP GUIDE FOR FOX MULDER AND DANA SCULLY (X)

Gillian Anderson And David Duchovny Celebrate An 'X-Files' Anniversary Together On Twitter (X)

The 'X-Files' revival continues with a mobile game (X)

9 hit TV shows NO-ONE thought would be a success, from Game of Thrones to Doctor Who (X)

Disney's bid for Fox assets gains momentum: sources (X)

Videos/Photos this week:

Season 10 Cliffhanger | THE X-FILES

2 New Cast Promotional Photos & New Featurette (X)

Promo images for The X-Files Event Series: The Second Chapter

In other news this week;

Channel 5 to premiere new Agatha Christie movie adaptation starring Gillian Anderson and Glenn Close (X)

American Gods EPs Bryan Fuller and Michael Green Exit Ahead of Season 2 (X)

David Duchovny on why you should listen to singers with “bad voices” as he preps Australian tour (X)

Gillian Anderson to Headline New Agatha Christie Adaptation (X)

Some awesome gifsets, pictures, videos and fan arts:

Breaking News - Mulder and Scully are fucking @ccoble

Are you okay? I’m fine... @muld-r

What the fuck dude, do you even know what show this is?  @fistful-of-fandom

We are not used to looking at Mulder at deaths door @platonic-activity

The bed sharing is out there @startwreck

Amazing, amazing December wallpaper from @a-january-girl

they know one (1) pose @youreadarkwizard

Seriously, what is with The Gillovnys and being accident prone?! 😂😂😂😂  @abbycorasmom

12/01/17 -  “I won’t let you go alone.” Can you tell me the name of the episode featured at #33? @thexfilesbasement

NEW FANVID,  ✘/ Believer BY @scullygrl9

History of the Gilly-Box &  Kim Manners - ‘Rock from Mars’ Tribute, Season 10 by me

I think this is it for our 17th week! *Let me know if I missed something or if you have suggestions what to include in the next week summary, feel free to message me anytime*

Lots of love, fam! For another great week ahead!  ❤️ 👽😄👽

[missklou]

Bts reaction {Wanting to break up because of his insecurities} Part 2/2 Maknae Line.

Part one HERE.

(for people that make gifs/gifsets, I absolutely adore your work, if you do not approve the use of your gifs please let me know and I’ll stop)

(Currently taking requests)

Request:  Helloooo! I’m a bit overexcited but I’d love to read a reaction in which the members doubt themselves (about looks or characteristics or smth) and want to break up with their s/o because they feel like they aren’t enough (heavy angst oh boy) but with a happy ending in which their s/o reassures them and they kiss, hug etc… just fluff :) Not sure if you write angst but yeah that’d be great <3

Mini scenarios (not even that mini, I’m sorry I have a problem) with each member. If you like it, please check the masterlist for more

Warnings: Heavy angst.

Jungkook:

Jungkook criticised himself a lot.

You can see it in his eyes when he watches himself in MVs and interviews, the way he just seems so unpleased and serious always bugged you, but it was something Jungkook had to deal himself.

Being the golden maknae was hard but Jungkook owned his nickname. He took his job -and passion- very seriously and it was required a lot of you to get him to show his insecurities and let you help him with them.

Their comeback was approaching fast and Jungkook was not happy with his appearance at all. All tho you insisted that he looked beautiful and fresh, he often complained about “looking expressionless” or not having double eyelids, looking puffy. Every day it was a different excuse for his dissatisfaction and you were getting tired.

-Do you see it? -He points at himself in the last shot of the video. -Why can’t I get the choreography right like hyungs?

“Why can’t I look good like hyungs?”, “Why is hyung so good?”, “Woah hyungs look so awesome.”

You had enough of it.

They had been filming their mv for the past hours and all Jungkook did was talk poorly about himself,  all the other boys had made mistakes too, they got lost too and had unperfect shots as well, why did Jungkook put himself down like that all the time?

-Ya stop! -You raise your voice at him when he looks disappointedly at his reflection in the mirror, he turns surprised, the boys exchange confused looks as well, you walk towards him and slap his muscular arm, he shrinks.

-Ah! What is it Y/n? -He looks hurt and you slap him again.

-Why do you keep insulting my boyfriend? -You yell, the staff around you chuckled at how cute you two looked together. -Ya! He’s the most beautiful, talented, amazing boyfriend in the world, why do you keep saying he isn’t? -You pout at him, he grins and you hit him again, he grabs your hands, laughing loudly.

-Stop beating me noona!!

-Then stop talking about yourself like that! Your eyes are the size of a plate, you don’t need double eyelids! Your arms look strong you muscle pig, your dance is perfect and that’s why you are at the front! -He nods in agreement, promising to stop putting himself down. -Damn it you look so hot! I thought I was going to pass out because of how amazing you are looking.

-Stop exaggerating! -Jungkook gives you his bunny smile, you widen your eyes.

-Do you take me for a liar punk? I thought I was going to have a heart attack! You could have killed me with this looks!

-Okay, okay, you are embarrassing me, you look like my mom. -He hugs you, tugging you to his chest.

-We all need Y/n’s in our lives, it’s like she’s his number one fan. -Hoseok laughs with the other members, crossed arms all looking at you.

-Damn right I am. -You say, shaking your head. -And I’m biased as hell, I must say! My boyfriend is the coolest!

(by jungkook-gifs)

Jimin:

Jimin constantly talked bad about himself.

If your boyfriend had one flaw, it would be his lack of self-appreciation. Of course, he praised himself a lot and talked about how handsome he is, but you could see it in his eyes that he meant it as a joke, and none of that was taken to heart.

There was nothing that you wanted more than to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he could see himself the way you see him.

You knew exactly when Jimin was upset. He was never good at hiding his feelings, and when there was something wrong he rather tell you right away, knowing you would find out sooner or later

You knew Jimin was jealous over your dance routine but he is a grown man and he would have to deal with jealousy since you two were in the entertainment business. The music wasn't even sexual, it was funny and colorful and your group happens to have a collaboration with a male group, which earned you a dance partner in the choreography.

Jimin didn't want to interfere with your job because he knew just how serious you were about it, instead, he tried to keep his worries to himself and maybe that was the cause of his breakdown.

You are in the dance room, trying to coordinate the steps with your partner. All though you are the main dancer of your group, some parts were choreographed by him and you are having a hard time getting them down since he has a different style than yours.

Jimin would often teach you dance steps and help you choreograph, it was hard learning with him because you were so distracted by your boyfriend's beauty and glow when dancing, even when he was just explaining it, you felt like in a daze. It was nothing like that with that boy, the steps were difficult and you paid attention only to your feet, which made you bump into each other so hard you end up on the floor.

You have to hold your bodies from the way you are laughing hysterically, he even tries to sit down and apologize but you are laughing so hard from the embarrassment that he ends up just lying on the floor next to you again, following your laughing.

He teases you about being clumsy for the rest of practice and you talk more than dance. When you get out of the dance room you find Jimin waiting in the hallway.

-Baby! Why are you here? -You only ask him because you thought he wouldn't have a day off until next week, but Jimin seems to understand it in another way.

-Why? Should I not come? You don't want me here? -His eyes are dark and tense, you stop on your feet, looking shocked at your dance partner and friend, he shrinks his shoulders and murmurs "I'll be leaving you alone" before running for his life.

-What is up Jimin? Why are you mad?

He only looks at you, eyes roaming your face as if he is looking for something.

-Let's break up.

You feel something inside you scream but you can't voice it, all you do is stare at him dumbfounded until he turns away and leaves.

It takes a lot of time to recompose.

By the time you were able to move again and go to your apartment Jimin is in the process of packing his things, you notice that he no longer looks angry, just seems that he cried on his way as well.

-Why? -You ask, standing in the door frame of your room, watching him throw his things into a bag. -Was it something I did? Or say? -He doesn't answer and that pisses you off. -I deserve to know why you are leaving me Jimin!

-Because! -He shouts, letting his bag drop to the floor, he looks so lost and small for a moment that you forget that he's angry, overwhelmed with how good he looks flushed. -You could have better!

You freeze at his words.

-You just... -He is lost in his thoughts, trying to get them all out at once. -I can never make you smile or laugh like that! I got there to see if I could take you home and you were laughing to brightly, so beautiful... -His voice starts to lower as he seems to lack strength. -I can't even concentrate on my dances thinking about you in that room with the man I can't ever be! -You are about to interrupt him but he's too fast. -He's tall, charming, shameless, he has abs, can teach you how to dance better than I have ever managed to do and can even make you laugh like that! -His eyes are filled up with tears now. -And here I am, a second-rate dancer, receiving comments that I don't show my abs anymore because I don't have any or that our relationship is fake because you are too pretty for me...

You cross the room in seconds and push Jimin to your bed, he loses his balance and sits, you put one leg on each side of him and sit on his lap.

-I can't even concentrate on what you are saying because of how good you look. -You tell him, your hands cup his face. -I can never learn when you teach me because I am always so stunned by the way you move your body Jimin.

His mouth opens but he can't say anything, his hands grab at your waist.

-No one can take me to another world like you do Jimin, no one. Seung Jun can get every fucking step right but he could never have the fire that you have in your eyes when you dance. You can't learn to have this kind of passion, you can't learn how to make people see your mind working while you move, only you can do it... It’s like being surrounded, it’s like you are everywhere and that is exactly what got us together, remember? -You kiss him once, then twice, having a hard time to pull away. -I saw you dancing, the way only you can do it and my heart went crazy Jimin. Do you remember how I chased you for a week? I couldn’t get over you!

He smiles, his eyes turning into crescent moons. 

-Now let’s show these motherfuckers who doesn't have abs. -You take his shirt off, nails digging in his back the moment he pulls you closer to him, rubbing against his erection. 

(by @mvssmedia) 

Taehyung: 

You and Taehyung had been trying to get pregnant for the past two years. 

Even with all the failed attempts, Tae wouldn’t let you lose hope. One of the things he loved most in the world was kids and you wanted more than anything to see Taehyung as a father, the father of your child. 

You tried everything but you still ended up in a clinic, trying to find out what was wrong and why you couldn’t have a healthy pregnancy. 

Test results showed that you and Taehyung were perfectly normal. 

For some reason, that drained the remnant will you had and left you completely discourage. 

You started to get seriously sick. Depression dragged you into a dark hole where you couldn’t manage to eat, sleep or function the way you should, the fear that you might never be a mom or that the universe is playing you is heavy on your shoulders and what you didn’t realize is that it was hitting Taehyung as well. 

Because he was so focused on supporting you, it passed unnoticed how troubled he also was, how seeing you so unmotivated upset him beyond limits. One day he got home and found you wrapped in blankets, crying your eyes out over a drama where the girl was telling the guy that she was pregnant; The scene was happy but you were so sad over the matter that you couldn’t help but sob uncontrollably. 

Your boyfriend approached, he kneeled in front of you on the floor and petted your head. 

-Y/N, I can’t do this anymore. -He whispers, his low voice hits you so hard your sobs get louder and more tears strain down your face.

-Tae...

-I’m sorry baby, I really am but... I can’t see you like this okay? I feel so bad to be doing this to you, we have to break up. 

You sit up at the same time, shocked. 

-I brought up that we should have kids. -His hands fall to his sides, he stares at the couch, too scared to meet your swollen eyes. -I promised you a beautiful and healthy child that I seem to be incapable of making. -Taehyung sounds so destroyed inside that you wonder why you didn’t notice it earlier, that he has been blaming it on himself. -And now you are like this because of me, because I couldn’t be a good husband, I’m not strong enough to take care of you and you deserve that. -His voice shakes like he’s too scared to say it. -You deserve someone that can give you all of your dreams and I know how much you want to be a mother...

You drag your body out of the couch and sit in your husband’s lap, hugging his waist and hiding your face in the crook of his neck. 

-Don’t do this to me. -You ask him in a small voice, he hugs you back tightly, cheek pressing against your head. -Don’t hurt yourself Tae, you destroy me when you do that. -You close your eyes, overwhelmed with his perfume and warmth. -This is not our fault Taetae... You are right, I really want to be a mom but you want to be a dad just as bad, we are giving it our best. -You lean back to see his face with heart eyes. -We are going to do this because there is no reason for us not to succeed, we are going to have the most beautiful girl ever and she is going to grow strong and talented like her father. I don’t want to have children with anyone else Tae, it’s only you, and that is because you are the only one that can take care of me. -You go back to hugging him and he pulls you both to lay on the floor, your head rests on his chest where you can hear his heartbeat. -We are going to go through this together. 

-We are. -He repeats, to make sure. 

-I love you. 

-I love you too jagi... But it is going to be a boy.

You laugh out loud before weakly slapping him in the arm.

(By @4cyphers)

(THIS IS SO SHORT IN COMPARISON TO PART 1 OMG I’M SORRY)

[sharkiegorath]

On Elias

[this is the third (3rd) time I’ve tried posting this since Tumblr’s mobile search/tag search keeps eating the post. because it’s perfectly fine with showing untagged personal posts and spam whenever you search for something, but randomly decides when to show Actual Content]

ok look I know people don’t always read the OP’s tags but I keep getting “I’M SURE HE’S EVIL” comments on a pair of gifsets with fairly obviously positive parallels and reblogging something just to definitively say “that mysterious character is eviiiiiiil” is Not Cool, even if it’s in the tags.

Yes, recent commentator, Elias definitely broke into the house. It's probably why he suggested that the Johnsons go out in the first place! But the common assumption is A) that he planted the books and B) that he did so for a malicious reason. It seems as obvious as it could possibly be while remaining unconfirmed. It seems so obvious in such a twisty show that I think it isn’t that straightforward.

Gosh, where to begin? Firstly, names and etymology are pretty good theory fodder and Easter eggs, e.g., ‘Hap’=haphephobia and all its ‘hap’-prefixed variants; ‘Khatun’ is both an old title of nobility and a modern word referring to any woman. 'Rahim' means ‘merciful’ or 'servant of the merciful'. 'Elias' is a cognate of 'Elijah'. Elijah was the Abrahamic prophet who sort of had a special connection with women and children; who was cared for by an angel; who resurrected the dead; who entered Heaven without dying at the end of his earthly life; who is sometimes believed to have become an angel. All of this information is available on Wikipedia! So even if Elias did plant the books, I don’t automatically assume he’s malicious.

There’s this interesting bit in an interview with The Atlantic:

Marling: [...] I think one of the original stories that was influential actually comes from Jewish mysticism. Do you know it?

Kornhaber: Is this leaving the door open for Elijah at Passover?

Marling: Yeah. It’s so beautiful. I think it’s amazing to try and use that as a reminder of trying to stay open. I struggle with that all the time. You get scared and you close the door. But I think The OA, she’s inviting them to let a new thing in.

(Principal Gilchrist's first name is another cognate of Elijah - 'Ellis' - and his surname means 'servant of Christ'. People have made the connection between Ellis and his "water under the bridge" comment to Ellis Island and the nearby Statue of Liberty, plus he has a snow globe of the latter.)

Elias’ potential connection with an ‘evil’ Rachel was probably debunked early by Zal Batmanglij on Twitter: the plants in her cell died because she refuses to water them as an act of rebellion. I'm too lazy to go through the whole thing about why her name being on the office wall in large Braille doesn't automatically mean she works there in the first place. I think she and Elias are connected (because of his car crash analogy and the “[My brother] never got to hear it”/”I’m a listener” lines), but I doubt it’s as evil agents.

Elias is shocked and defensive when he bumps into French in the house - but the scene follows French, so of course we aren't shocked and suspicious about French’s presence. Basically, the audience has had the same reaction to Elias breaking in as Elias initially has to French breaking in. Part of what makes Elias seem suspicious is his reaction. IMO Elias doesn't even imply or confirm that the OA was lying  - he just doesn't correct French. The other 'suspicious' thing he does is...move his eyes while hugging French, which isn’t incriminating on its own since the emotion is ambiguous.

There's confusing reasoning behind why Elias would place the books in the first place. The books seem tailored to match major aspects of the OA's story. The immediate assumption is that if someone planted the books, they meant for the Crestwood Five to find them and conclude that she based lies upon them. But if that's the case, Elias likely had no way of knowing that French would break in, go to her room, thoroughly search her room, and look where he did. There was no guarantee that any of the Five would find the books, jump to the conclusion that OA was lying, then share the discovery with the others.

Alternatively, you could argue that Elias planted the books intending for someone else to find them during an investigation and use it as proof that OA was making up stories, and the Five would fall for it in the process. But in that case, why did he let French leave with all of the books? And remember, Buck kept one and the rest let him. It’s possible that they submitted the other books to the FBI offscreen, or that Elias replaced the books. But I’ve never seen the theory cover what happened to the books after the reveal, so I won’t play with that hypothetical situation here.

Maybe Elias planted the books for someone else to find and didn’t know French took them. After all, we don't know what happened after the hug. But that introduces a new set of logical problems. How would French sneak a big, heavy box out of the house? He could take it if Elias had already left or wasn’t watching him...but why would Elias leave French unsupervised? Does anyone think that Elias ensured French left, then French broke in again not long afterwards and took the books, all offscreen? And couldn’t his presumably nearby car be a potential giveaway?

So, the books don't make much sense as an attempt to disillusion the Five. Some people think French's reaction stretches audience suspension of disbelief, right - I think it's an even bigger stretch that the FBI would predict a break-in and his reaction. To a lesser extent, the books also don't make sense as an attempt to frame OA, because they end up with the boys and don’t seem to play a role beyond breaking their faith. As for how French took the books while Elias was there, Elias advocates strategic passivity and avoids direct persuasion; I don't find it outlandish that French would say something like "I need to show proof to the others" then take the box, and Elias wouldn’t protest because it's not part of his agenda either way.

The next most obvious explanation for the books is if they really are OA’s. They weren’t necessarily used to construct a lie.  

In the previous episode, OA had a conversation with BBA about how cultures that suffer more loss tend to have more totems. OA knew this because of an exhibit that she loved so much as a child that she made her parents take her back twice. It made a lasting impact on her, as evidenced by the wolf hoodie that reminds her of Homer’s. BBA is not with the boys when French reveals the books, so she doesn't even have the chance to recall that conversation. We don’t know if BBA learned about the books after the boys did. And the books were specifically stored beneath the wolf hoodie. The Five may not be aware of the hoodie’s significance; Elias wouldn’t know the hoodie’s significance unless OA wore it to a session and he asked why she has a hoodie with a wolf on it, or she spontaneously told him, both of which seem a bit far-fetched. (Onscreen, at least, she never wore it to a therapy session.)

Ehh, miscellaneous notes:

It’s uncertain that OA can read English text. But the conversation with BBA says that the Thing Itself isn't as important as what it symbolises. (“Objects carry meaning in difficult times.”) She doesn't need to be able to read the books in order for them to mean something. Anyway, she might’ve been bilingual from a young age; she was 7 or 8 when she went blind and she seems fluent in English by the time we see her in the American boarding school. (There might be proof that she can write in English, since she signed the bottom of the note she left for her parents? It’s been interpreted both ways so idk.)

The Five getting discovered in the abandoned house probably wasn’t set up by Elias. BBA had previously slipped and told Principal Gilchrist about it while driving to save Steve.

I don’t strongly rule it out, but I don’t think Elias spied on the Five, because he only realises who French is when he tells him his name. Unless he’s pretending.

Why were the books under OA’s bed, under the hoodie? Maybe she hid her totems in case her parents found them, since Nancy already thought she had delusions that could easily be linked to The Oligarchs and The Iliad. It’s unclear to me, but there might be a moment in the first episode where OA shoves the video camera under her bed (starts at 29:15-ish), foreshadowing that she might’ve done the same thing with the books later.

The issues I have with my own theory are:

According to the label on the Amazon box, the books were delivered in September. That's at odds with how OA's video was posted in February 2016. But the FBI (or another organisation) ordering the books also doesn't make sense: they would’ve been planning to discredit her months before she returned or assembled the Five or told her story. Even if they knew about the experiments, Hap dumping OA on the road in February seemed entirely spontaneous; that itself was the result of a seemingly random event (getting caught by the sheriff). More importantly, I’d question why the boys didn't notice the discrepancy in dates, and why the FBI didn't realise it themselves. (Like, all they had to do was remove the label or use a different box.) How can they predict a very specific chain of events yet not be smart enough to remove a label? It’s not impossible in the broader scope of the story - maybe they have reality-warping powers, maybe there’s time travel involved - but right now it’s a big stretch just to support the basic theory that Elias planted the books. So I suspect the label is a minor production oversight. Considering exactly how briefly the date is onscreen and difficult to read even when the scene is paused, I think it wasn’t meant to be read by the audience. (Compare the length of the date’s visibility and its readability to earlier in the scene, when French looks at the newspaper clippings, or whenever a phone/computer screen takes up the frame.)

How did OA order the books? The hardest part is how she went online, but she could’ve placed the order sometime in the first episode before the router was taken away. It’s possible to order things from Amazon without a credit card and have them sent to a pickup point or post office, so that’s not a big issue if she had money somewhere (or stole it from her parents, which is 100% in-character for her). Sneaking the package into the house is another problem - but, then again, she’s cunning and her room is conveniently located so things can fairly easily go in/out of her window.

Elias suggested that the Johnsons go out for a family dinner. That somewhat complicates the timeframe he would’ve had for breaking in; if the outing had gone 'normally' they would've returned home before it was very late, yet still at an unpredictable time. (Again, he probably had no way of knowing they’d choose French's workplace, that it’d go badly, etc.) He was unable to break into the Johnsons' home on the night the OA finished her story, which is why he broke in later on, when French did. I guess Nancy and Abel went home after the incident at the Olive Garden and Elias saw the house was occupied, so he waited, and luckily for him they left the next day?

I’m not sure whether Elias lies when French asks if OA told him about Homer, the mine, and Hap’s studies. She told Elias specifics about the first and third premonitions, but it’s unclear how much she explained the second, Homer wasn’t mentioned by name onscreen, and we don’t know if she talked about the movements and angels. It’s worth noting that right after their last session, Elias does lie. OA explained her dreams, including the previous night’s. Afterwards, Nancy assumes Elias knows what happened last night...but he says no, seemingly to see how Nancy explains it. He’s capable of minor lies to Learn Things for ambiguous reasons. (Does he lie to Nancy for OA’s benefit? Or is it because he doesn’t trust OA, or is it simply an effort to hear different sides? I think the tone of the scene suggests he’s trying to help OA, but you might think it’s deliberately misleading. Anyway, they’re not all mutually exclusive motives.)

If the books really were OA’s, what was her reaction when she returned home and they were missing? She probably wouldn't tell her parents. But what would she think happened? Possibly she might be able to put two and two together since she’d previously helped Steve sneak into her room. Maybe she doesn’t seem sad right before the shooting because she deduced that the Five wanted to help her, and she didn’t know that the boys concluded she was lying.

We might be able to get general sense of where The OA is headed by examining Brit and Zal's previous work. Sound of My Voice is the most similar. One of the most common (and plausible) theories for SOMV is that Maggie was telling the truth and the 'FBI agent' wasn't actually an FBI agent. But there are other reused elements that were subverted: OA is much less intimidating and more personable than Maggie; the Five are inclined to believe her without being cult-like; the agent was trying to catch Maggie without her knowledge instead of possibly pretending to help her. I kinda hope it's a meta Red Herring planted for people who've watched both.

Elias was in the house for a reason. I think the video camera and all of the tapes might be a Chekhov's Gun. Brit Marling said something along the lines of "it’s worthy to question Elias’ motives"; he doesn’t necessarily have Good intentions. However, him planting the books isn’t a sure thing and we know nothing about whatever he did in the time gap before the shooting; there’s no indication that he helped or hindered OA in any way, if they’re still in contact, etc. So I think it’s a Bit Much to leap to "ELIAS IS EVIL" Not everyone who thinks he planted the books assumes he’s evil, which is nice. But it's Tiring seeing the evil accusation treated as if it's rare or a new theory, especially considering the depth of analysis that the rest of the show receives.