#I think there's about 3-4 episodes that he's in where that's the case around scott

[kata-loging]

William Zabka as Scott McCall in The Equalizer (1985): season 2 episode 20: First Light

[whereispearlescentmoon]

My personal Life Series rankings (excluding RL)

Big Disclaimer: This is personal opinions. If you disagree, that’s fine, but also, I cannot be wrong because these are my opinions. You cannot be wrong because those are your opinions. None of this is hate to anyone it’s literally just what I enjoyed watching the most. There are some negative opinions expressed in this post. If that will upset you, DO NOT READ IT!

Smaller Disclaimer: I am a Pearl main viewer. The only season where Pearl wasn’t my main pov is the one she wasn’t in. I have only seen Pearl’s pov and the winner in completion for any season, as well as sporadic episodes from others. Therefore, I am also biased by how fun the season was as a Pearl viewer.

1.) Double Life- To absolutely no one’s surprise, a Pearl main’s favorite season is Double Life. The drama, the angst, the finale where she went fully batshit and just started killing. Also she won, which, ya know, makes me happy. And I really liked the gimmick of soulmates! I think it forced people to be strategic about whether or not it was worth it to actually fight as a pair, or whether it was better to have one person stay safe to heal while the other fought. I also liked that it kind of gave people default alliances, though of course that didn’t work out in the Divorce Quartet’s case until Martyn and Cleo made up near the end. The whole soulmates idea kind of forced some amount of player interaction and roleplay, which are my favorite parts of the series, even for those that don’t really do it as much.

2.) Limited Life- I have made the fact that the Nosey Neighbors are my favorite alliance ever no secret. And I think having both the ability to die a bunch of times, the gaining time for killing, and the boogeyman back created the opportunity for players to get creative with kills, to sneak around to conserve time, to go on actual rampages, and to have drama filled sacrifices. All of these are my favorite aspects of the series. I think when a gimmick is good is when it facilitates player interaction and kills rather than interrupts or overtakes them. There’s also Martyn’s win, which was just perfect. He took the fact that Scott and Impulse wanted a pure PvP moment, almost like Third Life, and instead tricked them into putting their guard down. Was it the most honorable win? No. But I’m never particularly fussed about honor or “cheating” when I’m here to watch a Minecraft death game between friends. He did the sickest thing he could, which is just outsmart them.

3.) Last Life- Oh beloved Scottage Duo. This is actually probably the prime example of what I mean when I say I like gimmicks that facilitate player interaction. Willingly giving over lives and the boogeyman curse were some of the biggest makers and breakers of alliances. This was also before I feel like alliances had to be really set in stone. People went back and forth constantly. Take Cleo, for example, who switched teams after BigB boogey killed her, and then kinda went rogue from GGG, and then switched back last second when she went red. The roleplay was great, the kills were dramatic and cool. I only really have it lower than LimL because of my bias for Nosey Neighbors lol.

4.) Third Life- A good old death game, plain and simple, and I like it that way! Good kills, good traps, and pure player interaction in a fight for survival. Bdubs’ finale is an actual fever dream nightmare. And of course the infamous cactus ring punching battle to the death. No notes. It’s really only this low because I am a Pearl viewer mainly and she wasn’t in this season.

5.) Secret Life- Pearl’s pov of this season was deeply involved, largely because the Mounders’ base was kind of central on the map. This meant I probably got the best idea of what was happening on the server of any of her seasons. I also watched at least a little of every pov this season, because I was curious about why people were acting the way they were so I wanted to see their tasks. The best task in my opinion was the zombie task, because it was something that got the whole server involved. I wanted to watch every pov to see when people were realizing what was happening, and I was genuinely excited by the interactions it created. I thought a lot of the tasks were great, in fact, but there were a couple that just… couldn’t work. And with so many people trying to get so many things done at once, there were definitely times where genuine interactions took a back seat to frantically trying to get someone to say or do something specific to get a task done, then bolting away to get a success.

And then there was the incredibly weak mechanic of gifting hearts. Some players started skipping doing it entirely, and I don’t even blame them. With no regen in a death game, gifting one heart didn’t really matter. It was much more rewarding to get hearts either from completing a task or, when that failed, by killing people. We still got a couple great sacrifice moments for extra hearts, which I’m always a fan of, but that was from the kill mechanic. The gifting didn’t really seem to end up mattering except when it came to reaffirming who was in what alliance at the beginning of episodes. Overall, a great season, but maybe a little over bloated.

6.) Wild Life-And on the topic of over bloated gimmicks. I will start by saying that I know the main audience of the series is probably like 12 and this kind of season probably appeals to them. I know that I, a 21 year old man, am not the target audience for this kind of season. I know that, but that doesn’t mean I can’t express an opinion on it. I probably don’t have any criticism about this series that most people haven’t already heard. I’m certain that Grian and the people he hired worked incredibly hard on this season, and the effort really shows. The models for the snails and the trivia bot were really cute, I think it was really fun to outsource quiz questions to fan creators, and the superhero mechanics were really well done. But that doesn’t mean I personally enjoyed this season as much as I enjoyed the others.

Player interaction, resource gathering, PvP kills, and trapping took a back seat to each episodes gimmick. My absolutely least favorite was the snails. Of the 120 something possible deaths, I think something like 30 were just the snails. In fact, that particular gimmick was so all encompassing that there was basically no meaningful interaction between players at all in that session, since basically every conversation boiled down to “man the snails sure suck anyways I should start running now because of the snail” and all of them seemed pretty sick of it by the end which is why they cut the session short. The fact that a few people actually managed to get base building done that episode was miraculous. I know it’s funny that that happened, and that maybe I shouldn’t be taking it this seriously, but it still contributes to why I didn’t vibe with this season. Not to mention, the growth mechanic was consistently super glitchy and a little hard to watch especially when people were trying to get up anything, and the mob spawn mechanic meant constant lag spikes that also made it hard to watch.

And then in this last episode, I’m sorry, but while it was deffo the finale I expected for this season that was already super chaotic, it was absolutely my least favorite finale of any series. I don’t think anything exemplifies it more than the fact that multiple final kills were due to mobs, including snail kills, in a session where almost everyone was on red and could have been killing each other. But they couldn’t focus on actually fighting half the time because they were shrinking and the trivia bots were there and oh there’s a vex and the snails are back and we have super powers. I couldn’t even tell what killed most people in their povs because yeah that explosion might have been a tnt trap, or maybe there’s a ghast somewhere or a creeper or someone is invisible and snuck up on them. Chaos is great in certain quantities but the whole finale was at an 11, and for me it wasn’t in a fun way. The only reprieve was the final fight, which was absolutely a fun watch because it was just actual PvP. Joel showed off some sick skills and won in a way I found very satisfying.

[articulate-and-annoying]

Okay final thoughts.

Overall this was very cathartic. I almost felt like I got a bit of closure about my dramatic breakup with the show after season 4 aired. Just taking it all start to finish, now with professional writing and editing experience under my belt, and a deep love for other pieces of Sherlock media, it feels like finally putting this little piece of my teenage self to rest.

The one good thing consistently in the show that I will always love, is the actors. Jesus Christ, they were perfectly cast, and put their whole chest into every terribly written cheesy line, and for that I will give them credit. My favorite parts about the earlier seasons are all just because the actors and their chemistry are just phenomenal.

Another thing I've realized about why I like the earlier seasons a little more, is that they're more campy. They don't take themselves as seriously or try to be dramatic, pearl clutching, edge of your seat television. It was a buddy comedy where they flounced around London and got shot at. I contribute the decline in my enjoyment in the later seasons directly to how seriously the show is taking itself. It's still funny at times, but just, too earnest in it's attempts to be cool and dramatic. It fell into the teen drama show trap of just constantly upping the ante and needing to one up the previous arc, and eventually it just lost it's momentum.

Mainly, I see this in the way the show writes it's villains after Moriarity. I firmly believe they brought him in too soon, or at the very least killed him off too soon. They jumped the shark for their antagonists after Andrew Scott, and because he was such a phenomenal actor and came off as such a threat, the new villains needed to get bigger and better. But they all felt derivative of Moriarity, to the point they needed to bring him back in Seasons 3 and 4 to keep people interested. Maganussen is just Moriarity with less inflection and a mind palace. Smith is just Mangussen but replace the blackmail with bloodlust.

The other thing that will never stop making me want to rewrite the show, is how Irene, Molly and Mary are treated. The writers do NOT know how to write women.

The issue with Irene Adler has already been discussed at length in the fandom so I won't go too far into it since I don't have much new to add. I will say that Irene's protrayal as a love interest in Sherlock stories will always bother me. She serves as a lesson to be learned, Irene is memorable because she reminds Sherlock never to underestimate anyone, regardless of sex. He made a mistake with her, and got bested in his own game. He keeps a photo of her for the same reason he asks John to tell him "Norbury" if he ever gets too full of himself. Irene humbled him, she wasn't a love interest.

Molly should have never existed as a character. I love her actor, and think she did a phenomenal job with what she was given. But Molly always felt shoehorned into the plot, like they needed to hand her a purpose that otherwise could have been given to another character, just to keep her around. I so desperately wanted there to have been a proper arc for her, but with TFP, the last we get of her on screen is Sherlock emotionally devastating her. Justice for Molly.

And then there's Mary. God I love her, even more so on this most recent watch. The TEH and TSoT are her at her best in many ways. Her dynamic with John and Sherlock is fantastic, she's able to be helpful and works wonderfully as a genuine long term addition to the cast. And even further than that, I'm in love with the idea of making her an assassin. There's so much you could do there, especially when it comes to bringing her into cases more and making her a part of the team. The only issue is that the writers fumble the ball on how they handle her and her backstory.

They introduce AGRA in 3.3, to kill her off and end the plot in 4.1. she gets 2 episodes to be a badass, and half of that time she's pregnant. Her story didn't go anywhere besides giving us the completely wasted plot of Sherlock and John fighting since it lasted an episode. Mary deserved so much better, and in a better universe got more time to be fleshed out.

Which is actually a great segue into my next major issue with the show: it had too many ideas to fit into 90 minutes, especially seasons 3 & 4. You can tell the writers had massive ideas for everything they wanted to squeeze into the season but didn't have time to really flesh out everything. So we got a lot of quick ideas in a long long episode. Season 4 reminds me of workshopoing short stories that have gotten too big for their restricted word count, and having the author refuse to cut anything to make the plot more cohesive. There should have been better editing done to ensure the flow and consistency of the narrative, but instead it ended up a jumbled, oddly paced, mess by the end.

Overall, I don't hate this show. There are a lot of things I am desperate to fix, and honestly might try my hand at someday. I think so show is just filled to the brim with wasted potential, all it really needs is some polish and a good editor and it can be a passably interesting show! I'm glad I rewatched it to put a rest to the anger I felt towards how it ended, but I don't think I'll watch it all through again.

TL;DR: BBC Sherlock is a mess. The show is poorly paced, cannot write a decent female character, and needs some serious script editing to make the narrative more cohesive, but god I still have a soft spot for the first couple seasons. Make Sherlock camp again 2023.

I'm rewatching/forcing my roommate to watch Sherlock for the 1st time. I haven't watched that show since 4.3 aired and 17 year old me swore on all that's holy I'd never watch it again.

I am, however, cursed with being hyperfixated on Sherlock in general and my roomie wanted to know what was so terrible about it. So back into the depths we go.

I'm going to update as we go for my own entertainment

[h50europe]

Why the myth about Steve's PTSD doesn't add up and other inconsistencies

In the last few episodes of H50, PL tried to sell us a mentally broken Steve suffering from PTSD. Only the whole thing came a bit too late. The clip you see is from season 4 and ended up - no, not in the series - but somewhere on the floor of PL's editing room. And why? after Kurtzman and Orci departed, along with their writers, PL took the helm and started turning Steve into a super-soldier. He stylized him into something that wasn't meant to be. Instead of developing the characters, PL began to incorporate more and more hair-raising action sequences into the series and then let Steve fight on the front lines. There was no mention of Steve's mental state, and a lot was explained by PL with: it just happened "offscreen." Yeah, sure. PL can't create a decent character. He can only produce stereotypes and one-dimensional beings. Like Adam. What potential would that character have had had he been turned into Five-0's antagonist? But no. So his role remained diffuse and monotonous. Sometimes even tragicomical.

Back to Steve. When SEAL Team started on CBS, PL also lapsed into SEAL mania. If someone who writes fanfiction were to produce as much garbage as this man did, he would be chased away from every writers' platform in disgrace. PL's Super SEAL also had to rescue his team members from a blazing inferno. Not man by man, no, he flew a helicopter right into the danger zone and lifted a whole cabin out of the burning jungle. If lunacy had a name, it would be PL. While the action became more and more exaggerated and unrealistic, the same happened to the protagonists. After the departure of Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, PL completely lost his mind. And please, don't blame the writers for the nonsense that was thrown at you. A series stands and falls with the showrunner. He dictates what he wants and passes it on to his staff.

And so, lovable Steve became a soulless robot who only showed feelings here and there. Danny diminished more and more into a sidekick. McDanno became a ship that drifted anchorless through a stormy sea and threatened to capsize again and again. From season 8, it became a reboot of the reboot. PL tried an ensemble show and failed more than miserably. Often the actors just stood around bored. At least that was the impression. The only highlight was episode 8.10. A feast for all McDanno fans. But even here, the outcome of "who shot Danny" was more than insubstantial.

Wait, there was something about SEALs... Oh, yes. Junior appeared on the scene and became Steve's lapdog. I really wondered when there was going to be an episode where he would fetch sticks for Steve. Luckily we had Eddie for that. And because he thought he was so clever, PL invented the episode speed dating. How many subplots can you squeeze into one episode at the same time? In some episodes, you couldn't even take a look at the bag of potato chips without losing the thread.

The case of the week became the yawn of the week. There were so many loose ends that PL then came up with something called retconning. That's what you do when you're no longer satisfied with what was once established in the series years ago, or it no longer fits. But PL went one step further and did the same with the characters. The more the series was dragged out, the more the characters deteriorated and became OOC. It means, often, they were not recognizable at all. And that's where we come to Steve. Because PL, in his desperation, didn't know what else he could do to Steve, and so he killed Joe White. He did it in such a cheesy way with a fake sunset that it made you sick.

Of course, one episode later, there had to be another gig of PL's favorite Barbie. He stuck a fake beard on poor Steve/Alex, so he couldn't even hug Danny/Scott properly. The episode also raised more questions than it answered any. And Steve? He still didn't suffer from PTSD, even though he had now lost Joe White and a fellow SEAL. Everyone is dropping like flies, except for Steve, who is standing like a rock. No matter what. He doesn't need in-depth talks with Danny, nor psychological care, nor any sleeping pills. No, he's doing great. He also opens a restaurant with Danny because apparently, the carguments are already getting on PL's nerves. Unfortunately, this plot device leads into nirvana. The idea was nice, but nobody thought it through to the end. And the merry-go-round continues. Until we get to season 10, where it gets even more absurd. Now PL is almost bombarding us with McDanno episodes, or at least it should seem that way. Oh well, he's already planning for season 11, so a new character has to come on board quickly. While in the beginning, Steve's mother, Doris, dies.

Alex was allowed to take on the subject. Of course, only under the strict eyes of PL. He then nullifies Alex's idea that Steve kills his mother. Because a good soldier and Super SEAL won't do that. Little does PL know. THAT could have been the opening of a PTSD scenario for Steve. However, apart from that, this episode would have had any potential for a multi-arc. Just imagine Steve chasing his mother across multiple episodes. Again, PL stepped in and butchered Alex's episode. You can really feel sorry for the guy. PL at his best or worse? He just can't help it. And then, on the very last meters of the series, he brings someone new, who is allowed to cruise around with Steve most of the time. Because Danny was kidnapped by Wo Fat's widow, PL also invented quite late to have some villain at his disposal. This wannabe mastermind must really have been living under a rock somewhere if she wasn't even mentioned by her husband or appeared earlier.

Because towards the end, PL obviously ran out not only of steam but also of ideas, everything culminated in a wildly illogical scenario. Steve has to live through a dramatic day with Eddie, who stands as a metaphor for Steve (as I said, PTSD was never a thing for Super SEAL), Danny bangs his brains out in a ladies' room with a complete stranger, who dies shortly after that in an accident with Danny's rental car. Apparently, there was no budget to turn the Camaro into scrap metal. Danny then also goes home alone, ignoring the incoming emergency vehicles. Everything remains open at the end of the episode. While Steve expresses his gratitude to Tani and Quinn and says, he would be just as lost as poor Eddie without the dog and all of them. The strange thing is that you never notice anything until that sentence. A few forced dialogues are supposed to make the drama visible, but they all happen way too late or are so poorly written that you miss them.

PL had decided early on to make Steve a Teflon hero. That also means he didn't need to put much substance into the character. Which you can clearly see if you compare the first three seasons to the rest of the series. But towards the end, PL wanted to turn the tide and forcefully rewrote Steve's past. There is a huge difference if you compare Steve from seasons 1 to 3 with Steve from season 10. It is only a sparse remnant of what made this character so great. This change in Steve's personality also affects his relationship with Danny. The witty, affectionate banter degenerates into a snappy, humorless bitch-fest that takes all the joy out of it.

The final two episodes could have been written for any other crime show. As mentioned, we have Cole, who even gets a book'em Cole from Steve, which can only be described as out of line. And it begs the question, was that what Lenkov originally had in mind? Danny out of the show and Cole in? Was the last episode, which mainly featured McCole, something of a test run? Did all the McDanno moments happen only to tear the two apart eventually? Was the real final scene the one where Steve and Catherine take Danny's coffin back to Jersey? Was Danny not supposed to survive? Was that the real reason Steve wanted to get out of Hawaii because he wanted to pay his respects to Danny? And would he really have returned to Hawaii later? Or would he have turned his back on Hawaii? To me, this ending is more plausible than what PL served us. Then, Steve handed over his credentials to Cole instead of Danny, his second in command. Honestly, you can't make the end of a series any more sloppy and dumber than that. And I won't even lose a word about the last 1:30 minutes because I think everything has already been said.

No PL, mission absolutely not accomplished. You created Teflon-Steve. You never wanted him to show any weakness. You turned him into a superhuman who can survive anything. Only to pull the rug out from under him on the last few meters to the finish line and spit on his legacy. How can you dismantle such a great series and its characters like you did? How much do you have to hate something to do that? In the final interviews, the showrunner didn't exactly cover himself in glory either. Everyone who grew up with the series from day one knows that its end was wrong on all the possible levels and that the showrunner is solely to blame for that. It takes a fair amount of egoism and carelessness to drive 10 years at full throttle against the wall. Not many people can do that. Whether you can be proud of that, however, I doubt.

My respect if you have made it this far. Each of you gets 10 extra brownie points for it.

[silentfcknhill]

FAVORITE SHOWS IN POSTERS

Well, we’re back for another installment of this tagged meme, this time for TV shows! I also stole this from/was indirectly tagged by @jcmorrigan. My taste in shows also differs a bit from my taste in movies, as I tend to like a lot of comedy shows with not as many horror ones. I’m not into shows as much as movies overall, but there are some that I am very passionate about so I picked twenty again. So, here we go for part 2, in order:

1. Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend Of Korra (2005-2014)

I'm including these as one show since they take place in the same universe and tell a continuation of the same overall plot. Altogether this is probably the best piece of media to ever exist, including movies. It has so many great characters and villains especially and some of the most epic sequences, charming humor and heartwarming moments ever. I've never met a person who didn't like these shows, even people who normally don't like cartoons. My dad, who is biased against animation? He loved it. My mother? She loved it, watched it with her multiple times. My grandmother? Loved it. My ex-boyfriend? Loved it. My best friend? Loved it. I dare anyone not to, and I'm so glad it's making a resurgence since it's on Netflix for a new generation to enjoy.

2. Black Butler (2008-2014)

I never was big into anime growing up and only really started watching anime when I was like 16 and above, but this is one of the exceptions because holy shit is it ever dark and epic. I'm not sure I'd really recommend it for kids, it's more of a teens and young adults kind of anime and that's probably why it's so good, because it isn't afraid to explore dark and mature topics and do it with all of the intensity and gravitas required to do said topics justice. It has lots of great characters, and the story of demons who make deals with children who have a dark side is fun to watch play out.

3. Seinfeld (1989-1998)

My dad was a huge fan of this show so I watched it growing up since I was a toddler and it became a classic for me. I've watched thw hole show through at least 8 times, and I'll never stop because it never gets old or boring. It's also my only comfort show when I'm having a panic attack because of one time a few years ago when I was having a drug-induced psychosis episode and watching it calmed me down, so now it's like the opposite of a trigger and whenever I'm having an episode or something I watch it to bring me back to reality. For that reason it's more than a show to me, it's a medical treatment and I'm forever grateful to it.

4. The Good Place (2016-2020)

The big four shows made my Michael Schur all made it on this post (The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Office and Parks And Recreation), either in the main list of the honorable mentions, but this is my personal favorite of the four. It's so funny, quirky, relatable and basically tailor-made to suit my interests. Not only is it an entertaining and wholesome show, but I think watching it helped me come to terms with a lot of things like mortality, ethics, philosophy, religion and my relationships with other people. It gets  alot of different viewpoints across and if you're a very analytical and philosophical person like me you'll probably enjoy seeing it all play out. Not to mention, every single character is 'favorite character' material. It's rare you find a show with no filler characters in the main cast, but I genuinely can't choose who is best.

5. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-?)

Another of Michael Schur's shows, this one is just barely under The Good Place and to be honest it was tough to pick my favorite between the two because they're both equally funny. I know it's kind of controversial right now because of the whole law enforcement thing, but I actually think they do a good job of handling social issues in the show and remaining respectful of real-life systemic problems. As for the characters, this is another one of those shows where every single character is gold and I think that tends to be a trend among Schur's shows in general. He produces damn good comedy, and damn good characters. I can't wait to see what they bring next.

6. Rick And Morty (2013-?)

This is unfortunately one of those cases of 'great show, horrible fandom' and for that reason I don't get involved in the fandom even though I love the show. It's a shame because it really is a great show, so funny and, again, such good characters. I think it's a lot more accessible than the fandom likes to claim, so I'm hoping more people will give it a chance and not get put off by the intellectual elitism of the fandom because it does have some of the most entertaining and batshit crazy episodes ever, poking fun of some of the staples of science fiction in media while also poking fun of itself the whole time. Unlike the fandom, the show doesn't take itself seriously and that's enjoyable nowadays.

7. Orange Is The New Black (2013-2019)

While this show is a comedy, it is also a lot of other things and it's probably made me ugly-cry just as many times as it's made me laugh. Well, maybe not as often, but those few scenes (if you've watched the show then you know the ones I'm talking about) made me hysterically sob hard enough to be worth like fifty minor sads. But I didn't even mind because the show is just that good, and it makes you /feel/ something in a real way. Probably because of just how real it gets in terms of telling stories that happen all the time in the real world, sometimes with inevitably tragic endings. But these things do happen every day, and it's important to shine a light on that. It's not just representation for LGBTQ+ but also for POC, the neurodiverse, the poor, and many more. Give it a watch to broaden your perspective!

8. Big Mouth (2017-?)

This is probably the grossest show I've ever seen but by god is it ever funny. Maybe it's because I have an immature sense of humor or something, but I love this show. It definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea and I don't recommend you watch this show with anyone else around because it will get awkward. I think part of its appeal to me is that everyone I talk to who likes it considers it so relatable to their lives growing up but for someone like me who grew up on the autism and asexual spectrum and who was physically an early-bloomer by years, nothing about this show is relatable to me in any way so it makes it all the more crazy and bizarre watching how the people around me must have experienced things. Did y'all really have these experiences with puberty in middle school???

9. Dexter (2006-2013)

I recently heard that this show is coming back for a reboot soon and I'm so excited because this is my absolute favorite drama/thriller show, as evidenced by the fact that it's the highest one on the list so far that isn't a comedy. I love the idea of having a protagonist who is sort of a villain (or at least morally dubious), and the idea of a serial killer who only kills bad people is particularly satisfying for some reason. Maybe because he's the vigilante we all deserve and want in this unjust and evil world of modern times? Idk but the very premise of this show set it up for big things and aside from the ending I think it delivered consistently.

10. Once Upon A Time (2011-2018)

This show took us on some journeys, and you can't deny that. Sure, maybe it didn't always finish what it started and didn't always end in the most satisfying way, but part of its charm is that you didn't care because the experience was just so much fun. They took characters and stories that have been told to death and somehow managed to put a unique and unexpected twist on them, and that alone is admirable. Good twists, good villains, and pretty much every cliffhanger known to man will keep you hooked on binge-watching every episode.

11. RuPaul's Drag Race (2009-?)

A bit different than the other entries on my list in that it's not fiction but a reality competition show, but I couldn't leave Drag Race out because it's just so fucking iconic and perfect. Even when you disagree with the judges or can't stand a certain contestant you'll still be having a good time. It's got the personalities you love to love, the ones you love to hate, and the comedy that's completely meme-able. I mean just how much has this show contributed to pop culture and the internet? More than most of us, henny. I've watched every single season, even the international ones and all of the spinoffs. This show will probably be on for another thirty years when Ru is throwing shade from a hospital bed and I'll still be watching.

12. House (2004-2012)

Some people hate on this show, and I don't get it. I love House. Yes, he's an ass. That's the point. He's supposed to be unlikeable, and that's why I like him. Maybe because I always love the rude, sarcastic, misanthropic jerkass-genius characters for some reason. And I also love procedural shows, so it's a win-win. I also work in the healthcare field so it appeals to me for that reason too, because obviously the whole premise is outlandish which is what makes it funny. Of course it's not realistic for a hospital, so just enjoy the absurdity and don't get too hung up on the details of medical accuracy and professional ethics and you'll be fine.

13. The Office (2005-2013)

The third of Michael Schur's show and the last one that made the main list (sorry Parks And Rec, I love you too but there was just so many good shows to choose from and I saw you last so the nostalgia isn't as strong!) I don't think I need to hype this show up any, it's already a classic and you can't even turn around online without getting hit in the face by a dozen Office memes. You'll have to pry this show and it's relatable characters (especially Michael Scott) from my cold, dead hands.

14. All Hail King Julien/The Penguins Of Madagascar (2008-2017)

Like Avatar/Korra, I also consider this as one show for the sake of this list because it also takes place in the same universe (Madagascar, specifically) and I just couldn't choose one over the other because they're both so perfect. They're funny and I love all the characters (it cut out the weaker links of the Madagascar film series and just focuses on expanding the standout side-characters like King Julien and the penguins). It also delved into some lore, particularly the first show, and even though I didn't also agree with the directions it took (you may have seen me get salty about the ending because I cared too much), I can't deny how much I love it.

15. Bones (2005-2017)

One of the other scarce non-comedy shows on this list, it still has it's funny moments. It's also, like House, another procedural show that involves some medical stuff, but this time on a more scientific and forensic level which is even more interesting. It's nice to see a lead female with Asperger's, too. There's a lot of cop/law enforcement shows where they try to solve crimes, but this one is the best, and I'm saying that as a fan of CSI as well. Don't fight me on this, I'm right. Oh yes, it's corny, it's campy, it's cheesy, but I love every minute of it. Don't watch if you have a weak stomach though.

16. The Simpsons (1989-?)

We all grew up with this show, don't lie. It's been around longer than most people on tumblr have even been alive. Should it have ended seasons ago? Hell yes. But that doesn't take away what the first like 20 or so seasons gave us (there's a lot of argument about when the show jumped the shark, for me it wasn't until much later than the popular consensus). The characters are amazing, but the secret to the show's longevity is that they always return to status quo and there's comfort and nostalgia in that. Bart will still be in 4th grade when you're out there pushing 90. This show is persistent. This show is eternal. This show will outlive us all.

17. Ash Vs. Evil Dead (2015-2018)

Sorely underrated. This show is hilarious, gruesome and campy as hell and I love it. I don't think you necessarily have to watch the Evil Dead movies beforehand in order to get the plot of the show, although it would probably help. In my opinion this show ended way too soon and I'm hoping someday we'll get a comeback because Ash is the reluctant, self-absorbed hero we all need and it's 2020 so at this point there really might actually be a demon-zombie apocalypse and who's gonna save us then if not for the impulsive womanizer with a chainsaw for a hand?

18. Malcolm In The Middle (2000-2006)

Another show I grew up with, I don't think it gets as much credit as it deserves. It has some damn funny episodes and great characters, and it did a lot of the popular sitcom tropes before they were 'cool'. Some other great sitcoms, The Middle in particular, took a lot of influence from this show and it helped pave the way for the future of sitcoms at a time when they were about to make a comeback. If you want a good show about the real experiences of growing up, this is a much more accurate representation of the highs and lows of being an awkward tween from a dysfunctional home.

19. A Series Of Unfortunate Events (2017-2019)

Unlike most people I actually liked the movie version from the early 2000's, and I read the books growing up so I was excited when I saw there was a live action television adaptation of it on Netflix because I felt like they cancelled the movie franchise too soon. I was interested to see how new actors would handle the roles, and I was not disappointed. I wouldn't say I liked either portrayal of the characters better or worse, they both added their own twist to it and this show is a great and loyal adaptation to the books, probably because the author was so heavily involved. He knew just when to stick to the books and when to improve upon what he had done with the benefit of hindsight. This show is basically the books, but remastered.

20. Winx Club (2004-?)

Sort of an odd one out on this list, but I really love this show even as an adult and it may surprise you to learn it is still going on and the most recent season came out last year. They take big breaks sometimes in between seasons, but it's still going strong and in multiple countries. The only thing I don't like about watching this show is all the different and inconsistent dubs since the original show is Italian and each dub only goes for a couple seasons so by the time you get used to one set of voices/names for the characters oyu have to abruptly switch to another, but it's still worth it for the beautiful animation and cool characters (especially the villains!)

Honorable Mentions: 

13 Reasons Why, America's Next Top Model, American Horror Story, Arrested Development, Bates Motel, Battlestar Galactica, Black Mirror, Care Bears, Chernobyl, Courage The Cowardly Dog, Criminal, CSI, Duck Dodgers, Goosebumps, Kenny Vs. Spenny, Kim Possible, Kingdom Hospital, Lazytown, Lost, Making A Murderer, Mayday, Mindhunter, Modern Family, Monster High, Obsession: Dark Desires, Parks And Recreation, Prison Break, Project Runway, Queer As Folk, Queer Eye, Salem, Schitt's Creek, SCTV, Spongebob Squarepants, The Emperor's New School, The Good Doctor, The Haunting Of Hill House/Bly Manor, The Middle, The Pretender, The Walking Dead, The X-Files, Through The Wormhole, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Unsolved Mysteries, Yugioh

Tagging: @bullet-farmer​ and anyone else who wants to!

[arandomshine]

Hey its been i while :) in short school is mentally damaging and draining me but here i am

Wanted to post this on saturday already but didnt want to post with mcc going on you know? (congrats to teal Turkeys btw)

Also fun fact: the line scott says in this story is actually taken from the episode (31.)(Time: 8:03) its that moment specifically because thats when scott was cloesest to where she (my sona) was at that moment

Okay ill shut up now

Leigh's Masterpost

_______________________________

Leigh: talks in the bold font

Scott: talks in the italic font

_______________________________

The King's return

It's been about 3 weeks ever since Leigh found the letter and went into hidding she occasionally heard voices outside but she never investigated them in fear it might be bandits. She counted them there were atleast two different male voices and one female voice. Then one day she randomly peeks her head outside and notices the temperature was back to normal Rivendell temperatures, she looks outside of the building, the ice was still there but Rivendell was pretty cold naturally so she wasn't surprised. "Looks like our King leaving did really help.. but Rivendell needs it's ruler, well i think it'd be best to take a quick walk around everywhere to make sure the voices i heard weren't actually bandits,, So she did, she walked from the enchanting tower across the river all the way to the embassy shelby had built and everywhere else. Luckly nothing was damaged or destroyed. She was walking past her Kings home: "Now lastly the not so secret meeting room, i know im not allowed in there if it's not an emergency but i just want to make sure everything is as it should be in there, it's one of the most important places here afterall,,  She made her way towards the meeting room, she was one of the few people that knew where the room was and how to open it in case an urgent message for the King ever arrived. When she was infront of the entrance she looked around to see if she was alone, then flicked the hidden lever and not even a second later the room was open to enter. At first all seemed fine, she walked down the stairs to get to the chairs and her Kings antlers. Looking over where they were kept along with the Xornoth crystal that was supposed to be there, she thought she was gonna pass out: "Nonononono... where is the crystal?!..It was here, where did it go?! Did someone take it..? Okay deep breathes... Lets think about this logically. Who would've taken it?,, She thought and thought then it clicked:  "Shelby! Shelby must have it, im sure of it. I mean the demon did go after her the most, she told me eveytime time it did, so who's to say she didn't take it? I need to tell our King, the Owl's are smart enough, one of them should be able to find him, right?,, She rushed out of the meeting room quickly closing the door behind herself and ran down to the owl building aka. her home and called upon an owl: "Errol! Come to me!,, A few seconds later Errol was on her arm. "Errol, you think you can find our King? We need him back,, Errol ruffeld his feathers and flapped his wings as an indication that he could and was ready to fly. "Okay i trust you on this, tell him that shelby took the Xornoth crystal, that should make him come back,, And with that Errol flew of to find King smajor. Leigh wasn't worried about Errol going missing since number 1. The Owls are smart enough to find their way and number 2. every Rivendell owl has a small cyan,gold and white ribbon bound around one of their feet so if it does go missing it can easily be identified if it's found. Leigh goes back inside, since temperatures are back to normal she begins to move the unhatched eggs out of her living quarters. This took her longer the she tought, but after about 4 hours she was done. Just as she put away the last few things she heard a voice in come into proximity from outside just beyond the door: "...not sure if i'll invite people over for the Winter festival that we normally do, but i can atleast decorate. I wonder if i can create snowmen...,, The voice faded out again Leigh knew exactly who that was. "King smajor...and the Winter fest..,, She rushed to the door, and was about to turn the knob when she stops herself. "No i shouldn't..,, she let's go of the door knob. "He just came back.. and has alot to deal with, i should leave him be he told us, his citizens to do so anyway. But he did mention the Winter festival and that he was gonna start decorating for it, maybe i should aswell? I think it's best to wait until he starts decorating too. Oh! im gonna visit mom and dad on Winter fest they probably miss me! Okay thats the plan then. It's good to atleast have some normality in Rivendell again after everything that's happend in the past few weeks,, And with that she went into her living quaters to get some rest since the sun was already setting.

[j0elmill3r]

The Tonight Show

Chris Evans x Daughter!Reader

Chris Evans Masterlist

Warnings; Fluff, some swearing, mentions of drugs, mentions of mental illness, Jimmy Fallon and Jaeden Martell make appearances

Word count; 2.3k

A/N; I'm bored of corona so that doesn't exist here, you're also dating Jaeden Martell because he's baby and also this went on to also be a Jaeden x Reader too, oops.

--

"And tonight's special guests are Chris Evans and his daughter, Y/N Evans," You stood behind the door and waited for it to lift. You smiled when it did and you heard people cheering and clapping. You walked over to the couch and sat down on it, while your dad sat on the single-seat nearest to the desk. "Hi guys, thank you for coming. Y/N, this is your first time on the show, how do you feel?" Jimmy asked you. You laughed nervously and put your hands on your lap.

"Kinda nervous, and kinda scared, to be completely honest," You said. Both your dad and Jimmy laughed.

"I had to drag her out of bed this morning, she wouldn't budge," Chris said, you turned to him and gave him a fake angry glare. "One of the many joys of having a teenage daughter,"

"Does it take a lot of effort?" Jimmy asked. Chris chuckled and nodded.

"Oh yeah, it's tough. Y/N could easily sleep through a nuclear war," Chris continued.

"I am here, you know," You reminded him. "And you aren't any better, dear father," You scolded him. Chris raised his eyebrows and nodded.

"Since you two are clearly eager to embarrass each other in some way, we're gonna play a little game. Chris, you've played this before with your brother, Scott," Jimmy said. Chris began to laugh, which made you nervous. "I don't really have a name for it, but this game is incredibly easy, Y/N," You nodded.

"By the way, he reacted I'm gonna guess that it was 'Know Your Bro' and that I'm going to be exposed," Chris nodded and turned to you. Jimmy handed you a phone and a pair of noise-cancelling headphones on. "This should be fun," You said loudly.

"Okay, Chris. When Y/N was younger, what was the most typical thing a kid would do you gave her into trouble for?" He asked. Chris thought for a moment before sighing.

"The first thing that comes to mind was when she about 4 or 5 and she got into the paint in her room, that I had purposely put on top of her wardrobe so she couldn't reach it," Chris said. Jimmy laughed and looked over at you. You looked around, seeing people's reactions. "And so I went to check on her because she was being suspiciously quiet and I go into her room and find her covered in yellow, green and red paint. It took me a good few days to get the red out of her hair," He explained.

"Alright, Y/N," Jimmy waved to get your attention and laughed at the clueless look on your face.

"I'm scared," You admitted. Chris laughed.

"Okay, we asked your dad what was the most typical thing you did that your dad gave you into trouble for?" He asked. You looked to your dad, who avoided your eyes because you had a way of using your eyes to get him to tell you things. "Don't look at each other,"

"Alright um...I'm gonna take a wild guess that it's the time I took the paints and covered myself in them?" You said. Everyone burst out laughing and nodded, making you laugh. "I haven't done many things wrong, I'm an absolute angel!" You laughed.

"That is a lie if I've ever heard one," Chris murmured. "Alright, my turn," You handed your dad the phone and the headphones and then turned to Jimmy.

"Okay, Y/N, what is the most embarrassing thing you've ever caught your dad doing?" Jimmy asked you. Thoughts ran through your head until you got the one.

"Well, there's been a lot. But I think the most embarrassing has to be the time I caught him singing Avril Lavigne while he was cleaning the kitchen. And this was like 3 weeks ago when I came downstairs to get me and my boyfriend something to drink, and he was just there singing about skater boys, it was something I don't wanna see again, and I think if Dodger could speak he would say the same," The crowd burst into laughter and you grinned. You nudged your dad, who was clearly having the vibe of his life to whatever was playing from the headphones, with your elbow, telling him to take the headphones off.

"Chris, we asked Y/N what the most embarrassing thing she has ever caught you doing, what do you think she said?" Jimmy asked your dad. Chris was thinking for a moment before he sighed.

"Is it when I woke you up with blaring spice girls from by bedroom unironically?" You burst out laughing, along with everyone else in the studio. Tears of laughter formed in your eyes as you shook your head while bent over in half. "Oh no!" Chris cried. You sat back up and looked over at him apologetically.

"Do you remember the time Jaeden was over and I came down for a drink, you didn't see me, but you had your AirPods in and you were singing Skater Boy by Avril Lavigne very loudly," You told him.

"And you didn't tell me?" He asked you. You laughed and shook your head. "That is the ultimate betrayal, Y/N, honestly,"

"In that case Chris, you'll be glad to hear you get to finish off this game by exposing your daughter!" Jimmy cheered. Your jaw dropped and you smiled, shaking your head.

"I'll get you back for this," You pointed to Jimmy jokingly and put the headphones on, pressing play on the phone.

"Last question, so Chris, what is something Y/N did but has never told you she did, but you know because she's not a very good liar?" Jimmy asked. Chris chuckled and then looked at you, seeing you were looking down at the pattern on your dress.

"The thing that comes to mind is when she snuck her boyfriend in the window and thinks I didn't see him climbing up to her window, and neither of them is able to talk very quietly, and this is coming from the king of sneaking girls into his room," Chris said. "I hope this is what she's thinking, otherwise this could end up like an episode of Dr. Phil," Your dad turned to you and slid the headphones off of your head.

"Y/N, we asked your dad, what is one thing you have done and never told your dad about?" You froze and put your bottom lip out, laughing nervously again.

"Um...Can I pass questions or?" Your dad looked at you and you couldn't help but smile. "Okay um, I'm trying to think of something that won't get me into a lot of trouble," You said quietly.

"Are-are you implying there's more than one?" Jimmy fake fell from his seat and then got back up, his jaw practically on the floor.

"Maybe, but anyway," The audience laughed and Chris looked around, confusion clear on his face. "The only thing I can think of at this very moment is when I snuck Jaeden up into my room," You crossed your fingers hoping it was right, and you took the sigh of relief from your dad as a yes.

"Okay, alright. So, can we just talk about how amazing actors both of you are? Chris, your new Apple TV series is fantastic," Jimmy said. Chris smiled and nodded.

"Thank you, Y/N would say so because she got a boyfriend outta it," He said.

"I thought that the game was over," You murmured. "But yeah, I watched it with one of my friends from school and the ending had me sobbing," You admitted.

"If we're talking about making people cry, can we talk about Y/N in 'One Of Us'? For anyone who has been living under a rock and not seen it, here is the trailer for Y/N's latest movie," They showed the trailer, making you blush, mainly because you hate seeing yourself on screen. "Now, Y/N, you said that on a press tour, getting into the mindset of your Elliot was one of the hardest things you ever had to do,"

"Yeah, I mean, it's a pretty hard-hitting movie for a lot of people, it deals with addiction and mental illnesses, and so it was a lot of sitting down and talking to people who had gone through similar things," You said. Jimmy nodded and Chris took your hand.

"Now, your character's dad, Dean, is played by Ewan Mcgregor, right?" You laughed and nodded. "Did you know Ewan before your roll?"

"Not personally, like most people I had seen him in Star Wars and when I got told that he was being cast I think I went into tears in the living room,"

"I can confirm that. I ran in from the kitchen because I thought she hurt herself but no, she was crying because she was gonna meet Obi-Wan Kenobi," Everyone laughed. "But, I mean yeah, I saw One Of Us when the whole family went and there's this one scene where Dean is trying to get Elliot off of drugs and he locks her in her room, she screams and cries for him to let her out because she's scared and doesn't want to be alone, it was that scene that got me," Chris explained. Jimmy nodded and hummed.

"Was that a hard scene to film, Y/N?" He asked you.

"Yeah, it really was. I think because it's a really big point in the movie and you learn a lot about the characters at that scene you really do have to...I don't know, like give it 110%,"

"Moving on from that, quickly, Chris I have to ask, how did it feel finding out that your fake son is dating your real daughter?" Jimmy inquired.

"Well, it a little more since they hid from me for about 6 months," You smiled and batted your eyelashes innocently. "But I was okay with it. Jaeden's a good kid, I worked with on Knives Out and I could trust him not to hurt my kid. But Y/N's being little miss angry because she hasn't seen him for a few weeks," Chris said that last part hoping you would pick up on what he was suggesting, but as per usual, you didn't.

"Well, Y/N, we'd hate to keep him waiting any longer. Ladies and gentlemen, Jaeden Martell!" Jaeden peaked his head out from behind the curtain and smiled at you, making your jaw drop. You had never run quicker in your life.

"Oh my God!" You squealed as you ran to him and put your arms around him. "Why didn't you tell me?" You asked him, looking up at him. Jaeden chuckled.

"And miss that incredible look on your face? I would never," He tilted his head down, getting his now blonde hair in yours and his eyes and pecking you on the nose.

"Hey! PDA, you two," Your dad pointed out.

"Big Evans, little Evans and Jaeden, it has been lovely to see you all, but that is all we have time for tonight!"

--

You sat in the back of the car going back to the hotel, Jaeden sat beside you. Your dad looked in the rearview mirror and chuckled.

"If I see anything more than holding hands back there," He murmured not so quietly. You looked to Jaeden, who looked at you as if he knew what you were about to ask your dad. You let out a sigh.

"Hey, dad?" He hummed. "When we get back to the hotel...can I stay in Jae's room?" You asked. You avoided looking at any mirrors.

"Alright," He said. Your eyes shot open in shock, you weren't expecting him to say yes. You didn't question it though, so, when your dad pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, you didn't waste any time in dragging your boyfriend out of the car. You grabbed your backpack from your dad's room and brought it to Jaedens, dumping out your laptop.

"That sounded kinda expensive," Jaeden said in concern.

"Let's hope it only sounded expensive because if it is I spent about 50 dollars on movies I can't even watch," You said. You had both changed into pyjamas, yours was one of Jaedens hoodies, of course.

"What did you buy? Because if you didn't get Birds Of Prey I'll be deeply upset," He said.

"You are such a fucking traitor," You said. You both sat with your feet at the headboard. "I cannot believe you. I hate you," Jaeden laughed as you tried to move away from him, but he put his arm around you and held you in place.

"You're cute when you're mad, Y/N," He told you. You faced him with an attempt at an angry face.

"Am not,"

"Are too,"

"Am too!" You argued. Jaeden smiled and flipped you around so he sat on top of you but didn't put his full weight on you.

"Do you wanna smile or am I going to have to tickle it outta you?" He asked you, getting in your face. You flashed him a fake smile, making him roll his eyes. "Fine, I did warn you," He said. He started tickling your sides, making you squirm under him and laugh uncontrollably.

"Jae! St-stop it!" You laughed.

"Do you hate me?" He asked you. You shook your head.

"I love you!" You blurted out. He stopped and looked at you with a raised eyebrow.

"You-you do?" He asked. You were scared you had done something wrong, but you nodded because it was true. "I love you, so, so much, Y/N Evans," You smiled and sighed in relief.  "So...Did you get-"

"Don't ruin the moment,"

--

Permanent Taglist; Open!

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[stilesxeveryone]

The Rewatch

Okay, so my opinions are a little unnecessary and all over the place and silly, but I thought it’d be fun to just write down my thoughts as I go through the episodes of Teen Wolf. I figured that I’d do about half a season in each post rather than a post for each episode, just to keep it all a little more short and put together. And I’ll put a cut before episode 2 to make it look a little nicer as well.

Season 1, episode 1

Oh god, here we go again

Why in the world was Stiles on Scott’s roof, how the fuck did he hang facing Scott (like what are his legs doing??), and how did he jump down so smoothly

AU where Scott also gets caught in the woods while searching for the body, so he doesn’t get bitten? What if Sheriff Stilinski got bit instead, imagine how different the story would be

Apparently wolves were in fact removed from California in the early 1900s, and packs have only very recently been spotted moving into the area in the last few years, so Stiles is right

Scott being a werewolf for all of one minute (and not even knowing it yet) but immediately being able to zero in on every conversation Allison has 

Lydia’s outfits are so cute 🥺🥺🥺

Derek looks so scruffy first episode! Compared to how I remember him, he looks so much younger here, especially with his oversized jacket

Again, Scott is weirdly good with his powers in the first episode, like he doesn’t even know he’s a werewolf or anything but somehow he knows how to calm down the scared dog?

Derek is literally so horrible at reassuring a new werewolf oh my god. “The bite is a gift.” “We’re brothers now.” Yes thank you for this information, but what about the important stuff? And Scott clearly says that he thinks Derek bit him, and Derek says nothing of it

Season 1, episode 2

Derek being terrible continues. Listen, I understand that he’s never done this before, but please, threatening to kill someone is not the way you teach them to control their anger

I need so much more Allison and Stiles being best friends/siblings content tbh

I feel like it’s pretty unlikely that Stiles “listens to every police call, follows every case” Stilinski would go out and dig up the body, because that’s definitely the kind of tampering with evidence that wouldn’t be helpful in court

Please the green screen is so bad

Oh god no it’s Scott stalking Allison time

Scott’s priorities are just a little messed up,, like it’s very concerning that he decided being good at lacrosse and impressing Allison was more important than not killing someone or getting himself killed, and like it’s clearly not arrogance that he’ll be fine since he was anxious about something going wrong

Season 1, episode 3

Stiles wanting to know if Danny and gay guys in general could be attracted to him is indeed my favourite thing

Oh jeez, I forgot about Lydia’s whole ‘pretending to be dumb’ thing, I’m so proud of her for developing past that, I really need to write her more often

I genuinely missed being able to see Chris Argent every episode, but also oh boy I can’t wait to see him in later seasons just bc he looks so much better later on tbh

I will never get over how much I hate the werewolf designs, like how they look when they shift,, they’re just- there’s nothing good about them at all

Season 1, episode 4

So Scott is aware of two werewolves in town, Derek and the alpha, but when he hears Kate say that she shot one of two werewolves and that he has 48 hours, he isn’t at all worried that “oh shit Derek might be dying?”

They talk so loudly in public areas about everything that happens and it is so incredibly concerning. There’s no way other kids in school aren’t hearing them 

“Why should I help you?” maybe because he’ll die if you don’t, Scott? What kind of question is that?? I know we’re all irked by that moment a lot but god we deserve to be irked by it

Fun little detail, the Argent gun business is called “Argent Arms International”

Kate constantly mentioning Scott being “adorable” or his “adorable brown eyes” any chance she can get is literally so gross and concerning (spoilers, but especially considering her history with Derek)

And of course we all know how we feel about Scott suggesting that the Argents could have had a reason for mass murdering Derek’s family

Season 1, episode 5

Does Jackson only watch sports videos? Like first he watches lacrosse games and now he wants to watch a basketball movie (also I just wanna mention that Jackson’s actor, Colton Haynes, is literally so pretty, his freckles 🥺)

I love the dynamic of Stiles and his dad’s relationship so muchhh, I’m really glad we do get to explore their relationship and what happened with Stiles’ mum in later episodes

Whole lotta trauma gets brought up in this episode, from Jackson, Lydia and Derek and I feel so bad for them tbh

I really like how the parent teacher conference goes, like it’s very much exposition about how Jackson is adopted, Lydia’s parents are divorced, Stiles’ mum is no longer in the picture, Scott’s parents are divorced and his dad isn’t around anymore either. But I think it’s a good way to use exposition and make it in character and show what the kids are dealing with

I know the CGI isn’t always that great in this show but that dying mountain lion literally looks like an old, stuffed, toy cat that someone animated with photoshop warp tools and it’s a tragedy

Season 1, episode 6

I honestly wish they had more of Scott struggling with being a werewolf? Obviously they show his troubles with aggression and handling full moons, but not much about anything else

Like it would have been really cool to see him struggle more with sensory overload since everything would be heightened, or seeing him struggle more with new instincts? 

Also very much could use less of Scott/Allison make out sessions, I don’t need fifty shots of Scott’s abs okay

I love that Stiles just goes “I’m gonna teach you how to be a werewolf before Derek fails to”

“She makes me weak” shut the fuck up, in what universe does loving someone (or at least in this case crushing) make you weak??? The person I love has only ever made me better, and I think I make him better too

Scott’s (Tyler Posey’s) acting… there’s a lot to work on and that gets more obvious the longer I watch this 

Doesn’t it later turn out that Deaton was literally the emissary of the Hale pack? So like really close to them (at least the alpha) and meant to help them out? But in this episode he straight up gives Derek nothing and Derek suspects him to be the big bad alpha? I mean obviously it’s just writing inconsistency, although I know fanon often translates it as Deaton being the most secretive and unhelpful bitch in the west. But also what if Deaton just straight up lied about being their emissary? I think that would be an interesting take

[thewatsonbeekeepers]

Chapter 4 – It is always 1895 [TAB 1/1]

TAB is my favourite episode of Sherlock. It is a masterpiece that investigates queerness, the canon and the psyche all within an hour and a half. Huge amounts of work has been done on this episode, however, so I’m not going to do a line by line breakdown – that could fill a small book. A great starting point for understanding the myriad of references in TAB is Rebekah’s three part video series on the episode, of which the first instalment can be found here X. I broadly agree with this analysis; what I’m going to do here, though, is place that analysis within the framework of EMP theory. As a result, as much as it pains me, this chapter won’t give a breakdown of carnation wallpaper or glass houses or any of those quietly woven references – we’re simply going in to how it plays into EMP theory.

Before digging into the episode, I want to take a brief diversion to talk about one of my favourite films, Mulholland Drive (2001).

If you haven’t seen Mulholland Drive, I really recommend it – it’s often cited as the best film of the last 20 years, and watching it really helps to see where TAB came from and the genre it’s operating in. David Lynch is one of the only directors to do the dream-exploration-of-the-psyche well, and I maintain that a lot of the fuckiness in the fourth series draws on Lynch. However, what I actually want to point out about Mulholland Drive is the structure of it, because I think it will help us understand TAB a little better. [If you don’t want spoilers for Mulholland Drive, skip the next paragraph.]

The similarities between these two are pretty straightforward; the most common reading of Mulholland Drive is that an actress commits suicide by overdose after causing the death of her ex-girlfriend, who has left her for a man, and that the first two-thirds of the film are her dream of an alternate scenario in which her girlfriend is saved. The last third of the film zooms in and out of ‘real life’, but at the end we see a surreal version of the actual overdose which suggests that this ‘real life’, too, has just been in her psyche. Sherlock dying and recognising that this may kill John is an integral part of TAB, and the relationships have clear parallels, but what is most interesting here is the structural similarity; two-thirds of the way through TAB, give or take, we have the jolt into reality, zoom in and out of it for a while and then have a fucky scene to finish with that suggests that everything is, in fact, still in our dying protagonist’s brain. Mulholland Drive’s ending is a lot sadder than TAB’s – the fact that, unlike Sherlock, there is no sequel can lead us to assume that Diane dies – and it’s also a lot more confusing; it’s often cited as one of the most complicated films ever made even just in terms of surface level plot, before getting into anything else, and it certainly took me a huge amount of time on Google before I could approach anything like a resolution on it!

Mulholland Drive is the defining film in terms of the navigating-the-surreal-psyche subgenre, and so the structural parallels between the two are significant – and definitely point to the idea that Sherlock hasn’t woken up at the end of TAB, which is important. But we don’t need to take this parallel as evidence; there’s plenty of that in the episode itself. Let’s jump in.

Emelia as Eurus

When we first meet Eurus in TST, she calls herself E; this initialism is a link to Moriarty, but it’s also a convenient link to other ‘E’ names. Lots of people have already commented on the aural echo of ‘Eros’ in ‘Eurus’, which is undeniable; the idea that there is something sexual hidden inside her name chimes beautifully with her representation of a sexual repression. The other important character to begin with E, however, is Emelia Ricoletti. The name ‘Emelia’ doesn’t come from ACD canon, and it’s an unorthodox spelling (Amelia would be far more common), suggesting that starting with an ‘E’ is a considered choice.

When TAB aired, we were preoccupied with Emelia as a Sherlock mirror, and it’s easy to see why; the visual parallels (curly black hair, pale skin) plus the parallel faked death down to the replacement body, which Mofftiss explicitly acknowledge in the episode. However, I don’t think that this reading is complete; rather, she foreshadows the Eurus that we meet in s4. The theme of ghosts links TAB with s4 very cleanly; TAB is about Emelia, but there is also a suggestion of the ghosts of one’s past with Sir Eustace as well as Sherlock’s own claims (‘the shadows that define our every sunny day’). Compare this to s4 – ‘ghosts from the past’ appears on pretty much every promotional blurb, and the word is used several times in relation to Eurus. If Eurus is the ghost from Sherlock’s past, the repressive part of his psyche that keeps popping back, Emelia is a lovely metaphor for this; she is quite literally the ghost version of Sherlock who won’t die.

What does it mean, then, when Jim and Emelia become one and the same in the scene where Jim wears the bride’s dress? We initially read this as Jim being the foil to Sherlock, his dark side, but I think it’s more complicated than this. Sherlock’s brain is using Emelia as a means of understanding Jim, but when we watch the episode it seems that they’ve actually merged. Jim wearing the veil of the bride is a good example of this, but I also invite you to rewatch the moment when John is spooked by the bride the night that Eustace dies; the do not forget me song has an undeniable South Dublin accent.* This is quite possibly Yasmine Akram [Janine] rather than Andrew Scott, of course, but let’s not forget that these characters are resolutely similar, and hearing Jim’s accent in a genderless whisper is a pretty clear way of inflecting him into the image of the bride. In addition to this, Eustace then has ‘Miss Me?’ written on his corpse, cementing the link to Moriarty.

[*the South Dublin accent is my accent, so although we hear a half-whispered song for all of five seconds, I’m pretty certain about this]

Jim’s merging with Emelia calls to mind for me what I think might be the most important visual of all of series 4 – Eurus and Jim’s Christmas meeting, where they dance in circles with the glass between them and seem to merge into each other. I do talk about this in a later chapter, but TLDR – if Jim represents John being in danger and Eurus represents decades of repressed gay trauma, this merging is what draws the trauma to the surface just as Jim’s help is what suddenly makes Eurus a problem. It is John’s being in danger which makes Sherlock’s trauma suddenly spike and rise – he has to confront this for the first time – just like Emelia Ricoletti’s case from 1895 only needs solving for the first time now that Jim is back.

At some point I want to do a drag in Sherlock meta, because I think there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye, but Jim in a bride’s dress does draw one obvious drag parallel for me.

If you haven’t seen the music video for I Want to Break Free, it’s 3 minutes long and glorious – and also, I think, reaps dividends when seen in terms of Sherlock. You can watch it here: X

Not only is it a great video, but for British people of Mofftiss’s age, it’s culturally iconic and not something that would be forgotten when choosing that song for Jim. Queen were intending to lampoon Coronation Street, a British soap, and already on the wrong side of America for Freddie Mercury’s unapologetic queerness, found themselves under fire from the American censors. Brian May says that no matter how many times he tried to explain Coronation Street to the Americans, they just didn’t get it. This was huge controversy at the time, but the video and the controversy around it also managed to cement I Want to Break Free as Queen’s most iconic queer number – despite not even being one of Mercury’s songs. There is no way that Steven Moffat, and even more so Mark Gatiss would not have an awareness of this in choosing this song for Moriarty. Applying any visual to this song is going to invite comparisons to the video – and inflecting a sense of drag here is far from inappropriate. Moriarty has been subsumed into Eurus in Sherlock’s brain – the male and the female are fused into an androgynous and implicitly therefore all-encompassing being. I’m not necessarily comfortable with the gendered aspect of this – genderbending is something we really only see in our villains here – but given this is about queer trauma, deliberately queering its form in this way is making what we’re seeing much more explicit.

Nothing new under the sun

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes)

"Read it up -- you really should. There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before." (A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes)

“Hasn’t this all happened before? There’s nothing new under the sun.” (The Abominable Bride, Jim Moriarty)

This is arguably the key to spotting that TAB is a dream long before they tell us – when TAB’s case is early revealed to be a mixture between TRF (Emelia’s suicide) and TGG (the five pips), and we see the opening of ASiP repeated, we should be questioning what on earth is going on. This can also help us to recognise s4 as being EMP as well though – old motifs from the previous series keep repeating through the cases, like alarm bells ringing. Moriarty telling Sherlock that there is nothing new under the sun is his key to understanding that the Emelia case is meant to help him understand what happened to Jim, that it’s a mental allegory or mirror to help him parse it. This doesn’t go away when TAB ends! Moving into TST, one of the striking things is that cases are still repeating! The Six Thatchers appeared on John’s blog way back, before the fall – you can read it here: X. It’s about a gay love affair that ends in one participant killing the other. Take from that what you will, when John’s extramarital affection is making him suicidal and Sherlock comatose. Meanwhile, the title of The Final Problem refers to the story that was already covered in TRF and the phone situation with the girl on the plane references both ASiB and TGG, and the ending of TST is close to a rerun of HLV. It’s pretty much impossible to escape echoes of previous series in a way that is almost creepy, but we’ve already had this explained to us in TAB – none of this is real. It’s supposed to be explaining what is happening in the real world – and Mofftiss realised that this was going to be difficult to stomach, and so they included TAB as a kind of key to the rest of the EMP, which becomes much more complex.

However, if we want to go deeper we should look at where that quote comes from. I’ve given a few epigraphs to this section to show where the quote comes from – first the book of Ecclesiastes, then A Study in Scarlet. It’s one of the first things Holmes says and it is during his first deduction in Lauriston Gardens. This is where I’m going to dive pretty deep into the metatextual side of things, so bear with the weirdness.

[we’re going deeper]

Holmes’s first deduction from A Study in Scarlet shows that he’s no great innovator – he simply notices things and spots patterns from things he has seen before. This is highlighted by the fact that he even makes this claim by quoting someone before him. If our Sherlock also makes deductions based on patterns from the past, extensive dream sequences where he works through past cases as mirrors for present ones makes perfect sense and draws very cleverly on canon. However, I think his spotting of patterns goes deeper than that. Sherlock Holmes has been repressed since the publication of A Study in Scarlet, through countless adaptations in literature and film. Plenty of these adaptations as well as the original stories are referenced in the EMP, not least by going back to 1895, the year that symbolises the era in which most of these adaptations are set. (If you don’t already know it, check out the poem 221B by Vincent Starrett, one of the myriad of reasons why the year 1895 is so significant.) My feeling is that these adaptations, which have layered on top of each other in the public consciousness to cement the image of Sherlock Holmes the deductive machine [which he’s not, sorry Conan Doyle estate] come to symbolise the 100+ years of repression that Sherlock himself has to fight through to come out of the EMP as his queer self.

This is one of the reasons that the year 1895 is so important; it was the year of Oscar Wilde’s trial and imprisonment for gross indecency, and this is clearly a preoccupation of Sherlock’s consciousness in TFP with its constant Wilde references, suggesting that his MP’s choice of 1895 wasn’t coincidental. Much was made during TAB setlock of a newspaper that said ‘Heimish The Ideal Husband’, Hamish being John’s middle name and An Ideal Husband being one of Wilde’s plays. But the Vincent Starrett poem, although nostalgic and ostensibly lovely, for tjlcers and it seems for Sherlock himself symbolises something much more troubling. Do search up the full poem, but for now let’s look at the final couplet.

Here, though the world explode, these two survive

And it is always 1895

‘Though the world explode’ is a reference to WW1, which is coming in the final Sherlock Holmes story, and which is symbolised by Eurus – in other chapters, I explain why Eurus and WW1 are united under the concept of ‘winds of change’ in this show. Sherlock and John survive the winds of change – except they don’t move with them. Instead, they stay stuck in 1895, the year of ultimate repression. 2014!Sherlock going back in his head to 1895 and repeating how he met John suggests exactly that, that nothing has changed but the superficial, and that emotionally, he is still stuck in 1895.

Others have pulled out similar references to Holmes adaptations he has to push through in TAB – look at the way he talks in sign language to Wilder, which can only be a reference to Billy Wilder, director of TPLoSH, the only queer Holmes film, and a film which was forced to speak through coding because of the Conan Doyle estate. That film is also referenced by Eurus giving Sherlock a Stradivarius, which is a gift given to him in TPLoSH in exchange for feigning heterosexuality. Eurus is coded as Sherlock’s repression, and citing a repressive moment in a queer film as her first action when she meets Sherlock is another engagement by Sherlock’s psyche with his own cinematic history. My favourite metatextual moment of this nature, however, is the final scene of TFP which sees John and Sherlock running out of a building called Rathbone Place.

Basil Rathbone is one of the most iconic Sherlock Holmes actors on film, and Benedict’s costume in TAB and in particular the big overcoat look are very reminiscent of Rathbone.

Others have discussed (X) how the Victorian costume and the continued use of the deerstalker in the present day are images of Sherlock’s public façade and exclusion of queerness from his identity. It’s true that pretty much every Holmes adaptation has used the deerstalker, but the strong Rathbone vibes that come from Ben’s TAB costume ties the 1895 vibe very strongly into Rathbone. To have the final scene – and hopefully exit from the EMP – tie in with Sherlock and John running out of Rathbone Place tells us that, just as Sherlock cast off the deerstalker at the end of TAB (!), he has also cast off the iconic filmic Holmes persona which has never been true to his actual identity.

Waterfall scene

The symbol of water runs through TAB as well as s4 – others have written fantastic meta on why water represents Sherlock’s subconscious (X), but I want to give a brief outline. It first appears with the word ‘deeper’ which keeps reappearing, which then reaches a climax in the waterfall scene. The idea that Sherlock could drown in the waters of his mind is something that Moriarty explicitly references, suggesting that Sherlock could be ‘buried in his own Mind Palace’. The ‘deep waters’ line keeps repeating through series 4, and I just want to give the notorious promo photo from s4 which confirms the significance of the motif.

This is purely symbolic – it never happens in the show. Water increases in significance throughout – think of Sherlock thinking he’s going mad in his mind as he is suspended over the Thames, or the utterly nonsensical placement of Sherrinford in the middle of the ocean – the deepest waters of Sherlock’s mind. Much like the repetition of cases hinting that EMP continues, the use of water is something that appears in the MP, and it sticks around from TAB onwards, a real sign that we’re going deeper and deeper. I talk about this more in the bit on TFP, but the good news is that Sherrinford is the most remote place they could find in the ocean – that’s the deepest we’re going. After that, we’re coming out (of the mind).

Shortly after TAB aired, I wrote a meta about the waterfall scene, some of which I now disagree with, but the core framework still stands – it did not, of course, bank on EMP theory. You can find it here (X), but I want to reiterate the basic framework, because it still makes a lot of sense. Jim represents the fear of John’s suicide, and Jim can only be defeated by Sherlock and John together, not one alone – and crucially, calling each other by first names, which would have been very intimate in the Victorian era. After Jim is “killed”, we have Sherlock’s fall. The concept of a fall (as in IOU a fall) has long been linked with falling in love in tjlc. Sherlock tells John that it’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the landing, something that Jim has been suggesting to him for a while. What is the landing, then? Well, Sherlock Holmes fell in love back in the Victorian era, symbolised by the ultra repressive 1895, and that’s where he jumps from – but he lands in the 21st century. Falling in love won’t kill him in the modern day. What I missed that time around, of course, was that despite breaking through the initial Victorian layers of repression, he still dives into more water, and when the plane lands, it still lands in his MP, just in a mental state where the punishment his psyche deals him for homosexuality is less severe. This also sets up s4 as specifically dealing with the problem of the fall – Sherlock jumps to the 21st century specifically to deal with the consequences of his romantic and sexual feelings. There’s a parallel here with Mofftiss time jumping; back when they made A Study in Twink in 2009, there was a reason they made the time jump. Having Sherlock’s psyche have that touch of self-awareness helps to illustrate why they made a similar jump, also dealing with the weight of previous adaptations.

Women

I preface this by saying how incredibly uncomfortable I find the positioning of women as the KKK in TAB. It’s a parallel which is unforgivable; frankly, invoking the KKK without interrogating the whiteness of the show or even mentioning race is unacceptable. Steven Moffat’s ability to write women has consistently been proven to be nil, but this is a new low. However, the presence of women in TAB is vital, so on we go.

TAB specifically deals with the question of those excluded from a Victorian narrative. This is specifically tied into to those who are excluded from the stories, such as Jane and Mrs. Hudson. Mrs. Hudson’s complaint is in the same scene as John telling her and Sherlock to blame the problems on the illustrator. This ties back to the deerstalker metaphor which is so prevalent in this episode; something that’s not in the stories at all, but a façade by which Holmes is universally recognised and which as previously referenced masks his queerness. Women, then, are not the only people being excluded from the narrative. When Mycroft tells us that the women have to win, he’s also talking about queer people. This is a war that we must lose.

I don’t think the importance of Molly in particular here has been mentioned before, but forgive me if I’m retreading old ground. However, Molly always has importance in Sherlock as a John mirror, and just because she is dressed as a man here doesn’t mean we should disregard this. If anything, her ridiculous moustache is as silly as John’s here! Molly, although really a member of the resistance, is able to pass in the world she moves in in 1895, but only by masking her own identity. This is exactly what happens to John in the Victorian era – as a bisexual man married to a woman, he is able to pass, but it is not his true identity. More than that, Molly is a member of the resistance, suggesting not just that John is queer but that he’s aware of it and actively looking for it to change.

I know I was joking about Molly and John’s moustaches, but putting such a silly moustache on Molly links to the silliness of John’s moustaches, which only appear when he’s engaged to a woman and in the Victorian era. He has also grown the moustache just so the illustrator will recognise him, and Molly has grown her moustache so that she will be recognised as a man. In this case, Molly is here to demonstrate the fact that John is passing, but only ever passing. Furthermore, Molly, who is normally the kindest person in the whole show, is bitter and angry throughout TAB – it’s not difficult to see then how hiding one’s identity can affect one’s mental health. I really do think that John is a lot more abrasive in TAB than he is in the rest of the show, but that’s not the whole story. Showing how repression can completely impair one’s personality also points to the suicidal impulses that are lurking just out of sight throughout TAB – this is what Sherlock is terrified of, and again his brain is warning him just what it is that is causing John this much pain and uncharacteristic distress.

This is just about the loosest sketch of TAB that could exist! But TAB meta has been so extensive that going over it seems futile, or else too grand a project within a short chapter. Certain theories are still formulating, and may appear at a later date! But what this chapter (I hope) has achieved has set up the patterns that we’re going to see play out in s4 – between the metatextuality, the waters of the mind and the role of Moriarty in the psyche, we can use TAB as a key with which to read s4. I like to think of it as a gift from Mofftiss, knowing just how cryptic s4 would be – and these are the basic clues with which to solve it.

That’s it for TAB, at least in this series – next up we’re going ever deeper, to find out exactly who is Eurus. See you then?

[chcrrysprite]

While trying to figure out the Teen Wolf timeline (god it's so jumbled) I was thinking of ages and grades and first of all I think Liam skipped his junior year?? Anyway...do you think Theo aged in hell? I don't even know how long the time between 5x20 and 6x06 is, but still, if he didn't age he's missing time. Your thoughts?

yeah, this one confuses me, too. here are some of my thoughts about it.

okay. if we’re focusing on theo and liam (which i’m assuming we are because that’s the easiest, since most of my teen wolf knowledge comes from my fixation on them) i think that i can sort of figure this out.

i used to think that each season that passes is a new year in the characters’ lives, but that wouldn’t work, because if that were the logic, then the older characters would have been in high school for six years by the end of the series. i think that i’ve kind of broken it down from there.

seasons 1-3 are sort of a mystery to me since i barely remember specific context from that time, but since we’re talking about theo and liam’s timelines, i’m more confident in saying that seasons 4-6 had to have taken place over no more or less than two years. liam’s timeline has helped me figure that out, so i’ll start with him.

in season 4, liam transferred to beacon hills after being expelled from devenford prep. i’m not entirely sure if his age was specified, leaving some people to believe that he was a freshman and others to believe he was a sophomore, but it’s more widely believed that he was a sophomore. nothing was really said about devenford prep’s grades, but we can only assume that that prep school was specifically for high schoolers, so it would’ve made no sense for liam to have come in to the beginning of his freshman year somehow already expelled. (of course, this is implying that teen wolf writing ever makes sense, which it so rarely does. i’m putting a lot of faith in canon here.) in 4, liam is a sophomore in high school and is around 16 years old.

season 5 kicks off with scott and stiles starting their senior year, which would mean that liam is starting his junior (so he didn’t skip it). in the same episode that that’s established, theo was introduced, bringing me to my next point.

let’s focus on scott for a second, since he’s a senior: in the beginning of his senior year (and liam’s junior) in season 5, theo comes back to beacon hills, fucks shit up, and then gets sent to hell. simple and easy, right? 

no! then, in season 6, theo comes back to life, but scott, stiles, and lydia are still attending high school. this brings me to believe that seasons 5a, 5b, 6a, and 6b are all a part of one year - scott’s senior year and liam’s junior.

and that brings me into the second question asked - yes, i think theo aged in hell, but not anything that was particularly noticeable, since he could have only possibly aged a few months. if his capture and release took place between all of the other crazy shit going on in seasons 5 and 6, he wouldn’t have had time to be under there for more than maybe...four months, and that’s generous. this also means that theo raeken’s entire character arc took place in around a year. poor guy really went through an entire life switch. he probably has whiplash.

of course, that’s me speaking about timelines. if you’re asking if i think theo aged in hell just out of the principal of where he was...i’m not entirely sure. honestly, i’m kind of confused by the whole hell thing now. i’ve seen it being called both hell (more commonly) and also the “skinwalker prison” (which makes sense, because kira was the one to harness that power to send him wherever he went.) and then there’s the issue of theo technically being dead, which he kind of wasn’t. my reasoning for this is that he was able to be easily revived, he wasn’t in the traditional afterlife sort of hell that generally mimics the place written about in the bible, and he was completely aware of everything that was going on down there. i think that he was totally alive, just trapped, so he would’ve aged.

this was a super interesting question and one that i really loved answering. i tried to make it as clear as i possibly could, but in case you’re still confused (since i’m sure i rambled a lot even though i wasn’t trying - here’s me doing it again) here’s the breakdown:

- Liam didn’t skip his junior year, he’s there during seasons 5+6. He was in sophomore year in season 4, his freshman year took place offscreen before he was introduced, and he would either still be in junior year or entering his senior year after the events of season 6. - Theo was probably only in hell for a few months, since he wouldn’t have had time to be there longer with all of the other things going on. - I think that Theo did age in hell, even if just for those few months, since I believe that he was not really dead.

once again, these are all just my thoughts and assumptions, but i do believe that these are what make the most sense. :)

[ivory-sunflower]

Arty Art Things ✨

Hellooo!

I've decided to post some of the arty things I've done either recently or in the last few years, well the pieces I'm somewhat proud of at least. All my posts tend to be a lot more wordy than they need to be but hey it's what I do here!

Conchúr White

Anyone one who's been on this blog for a bit will have probably have seen me talk about this lovely Irish fella. The pencil drawing is actually a year old as of yesterday, I only know that because screenshots of me flipping out about Conchúr following me on twitter popped up in my memories yesterday. I think I'd sent it to him at about 3 in the morning (I was not in a good head space at that point in time), so probably not what he was expecting to see when he opened his phone in the morning aha

The biro version is much more recent: I got bored while sat at my desk and doing research about university courses, saw a biro, saw my old drawing of Conchúr, had an idea. I revisited my GCSE art techniques and here we are. Again, I put this up on Twitter and now (at the the time I'm writing this) when you google "Conchúr White" it's the third top image of him which is a bit mad really. I think I spent all of about 20 minutes on Conchúr but another 45 minutes on the words behind him. The words are the names of the songs on his EP 'Bikini Crops', he doesn't just really love the idea of Channing Tatum driving him around at night in a daisy print bikini... Well maybe he does but what he does in his spare time is none of my business...

TechDif

So I mentioned that the pencil drawing of Conchúr came from a rough patch in my mental health and this one is no different! In fact this one came from an even worse circumstance so we love to see it. I had a bad, bad time in July and this started as a way of distracting myself from what was going on in my head. Without it, I can't honestly say I'd still be here so even if the final product of this had been a terrible mess I would still love it for keeping me alive. However, it did not turn out to be a terrible mess!

Now that the origin of this is out the way, where do I start with TechDif? Unlike Conchúr, I haven't really talked about them on here (unless you count one brief post about Citation Needed) before so I guess I'll do it here. The Technical Difficulties are a wonderful group of 4 British fellas who have had their fair share of fun online and even before. They did a radio show at university together, which went on to become their Reverse Trivia Podcast, later moving on to a panel show called 'Citation Needed': and a game called 'Two of These People Are Lying'. All of which I would thoroughly reccomend, they're one of my go to things when I'm having a rough time. All 4 of them are excellent! Tom Scott (red top, blue jeans on the picture) has his own YouTube channel which does content aside from TechDif. If you're quite nerdy and like science, linguistics, computers, or any number of other things you may enjoy Tom's channel. He is probably best described as "The Moderator" of the group, much like a tired teacher he tries desperately to keep everyone on track with what they're meant to be doing, but usually it does not end well for him. Then we have Matt Gray (space top, holding an ice cream) who also has a channel away from TechDif stuff, he does techy electronic things and has a series called 'Will it Soft Serve?' where he puts all kinds of strange things through a soft serve machine. Matt brings a very specific energy to TechDif and I can't fully describe what that vibe is but I love it. Matt and Tom also share a YouTube channel where TOTPAL is posted and they had a series called 'The Park Bench'. Moving on to everybody's favourite Gary Brannan: Gary Brannan (SATIRE hoodie, glasses) and can I just say, what a fella he is! He's just excellent! He is the one that will argue and rip into Tom the most (not in a malicious way) and hilarity ensues. There are some episodes where he is absolutely on it, getting all the points and others where he very clearly has no idea and that's where some of his funniest quotes come from. Given how badly I was doing at the time I made this, his response to it on Twitter was so so lovely. I specifically remember one tweet where he said I'd made him happy and although it was probably a flippant comment, it just made feel alright for a bit. Yeah I might be feeling awful right now, but I've made someone else happy so that's a nice feeling. Then last but certainly not least, we have Chris Joel (buffalo check shirt, beard)! I would be lying if I said he isn’t my favourite... His sense of humor is the one I vibe with most, he can get rather dramatic in parts and can chat bollocks like a champion. He has absolutely no online presence away from TechDif and, like Rens from Temples, I fully believe he’s a cryptid and lives off in a tree somewhere. 

The picture took me about 4 days to complete, well 4 nights because I did most of it between the hours of 12 a.m. and 7a.m. - I remember watching the sun come through my window each morning. It’s made up of lots of little pieces, all cut out and stuck on; even the sky and hills are made of separate pieces of paper. Nothing was actually drawn on the piece of paper it’s all stuck on, it’s not how I usually do things but if I messed up one little but I could just redraw it rather than ruining the whole thing. The most tedious parts to make were Chris’ shirt because I had to draw each square individually and then join the as well, and cutting out the ban-hammer in the bottom right was surprisingly hard. Every single detail of the picture is a reference to the podcast/shows, I still have the plan sketch and reference list knocking about somewhere. I listened to a lot of true crime videos while making it to the point that certain parts remind me of different cases: the brandy now reminds me of Peter Tobin, and the big spiral thing reminds me of Tim McLean (very harrowing case) - sorry that fact is a bit morbid but interesting nonetheless. 

I did post this for a little bit back in July, but I received some rather awful messages so I took it down. Generally, Tom Scott/TechDif fans are lovely but there’s been a few that have taken a disliking to me for some reason so I’m hoping they don’t resurface again. I’m in a better head space now though, so even if they do I’m more equipped to deal with it this time.

Hozier

This was a quick sketch I did in April, I was getting bored with lockdown and decided to summon the bog man himself. There’s not really much more backstory than that, no poor mental health story, no fun twitter story - he’s just here. He’s vibing. I will say I’m particularly proud of his nose, I just think it’s one of the best noses I’ve ever drawn. His hand is okay, but I think that the hands on my Conchúr drawings are better. So there is the Hozi-Boi...

The Corpse Bry

I’ve talked about Bry on here before as well, I love him, he’s excellent, top lad. He is a living Tim Burton character, he’s 6′6, very skinny, and his legs are longer than my will to live. I was watching ‘The Corpse Bride’ a few weeks ago and suddenly had an idea and so ‘The Corpse Bry’ came to be. I gave him a little panda friend because the panda has always been his animal - he used to wear a panda beanie all the time and his album had a panda on the cover. Again, there’s not really a fun story behind this one, I guess it’s somewhat fun because it’s the first art I made after finishing my psychology exams in October so it was nice to actually have the time to draw.

James Bagshaw

Ginger talking about Temples for the third post in a row? it’s more likely than you think! I did this one last week, I’d had a bit of a wobbly day and had group therapy on Teams in the evening and I just couldn’t concentrate on what was going on and I ended up doodling Mr James E. Bagshaw, the glitter crying fraggle man himself. It’s a bare-bones drawing that I could definitely work into more but I’m happy with it as it is to be honest. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit and add the individual bits of fringe to his jacket, just thinking about doing that makes me tired. Maybe I’ll get around to drawing the whole band at some point...

Alice in “Wonderland”

This one is from about 5(?) years ago, it’s not my typical style and was a “study” based on another artists work (basically i just had to copy this fellas work). I’ll be honest, this one has a sketchy backstory that I won’t go in to because it’s not exactly a nice one, and because of that I also won’t say who the artist is that it’s based on. Despite this, I’m still really proud of this one and I’m so sad that I never got this piece back after I got taken out the class. I’ve considered trying this style again, I’ve even joked about doing another Conchúr drawing in this style as a nod to my progression through GCSE art, eventually leading to Conchúr drawn in ink on music manuscript and stained with neon paint and dyes - it would be quite the project!

So this has been quite a lengthy post so apologies about that but life goes on. Similar to the vinyl post, I’ll probably add to this as and when I make more art. Even if no one is reading these posts, I’m enjoying making them so that’s the main thing. It’s just nice to document things and the feelings that go with them. 💕

~ Love Ginger xx 

29/11/2020

[lovelygirl]

So I've just finished season 2 of the unfinished OA and I have some thoughts...or some head cannons about where the show would have gone. They are not clearly fleshed out. Maybe a rewatch and some research is in order. I haven't watched season 1 in a long time and can't remember if we know what everyone's NDEs are or not, but wiki doesn't have anything, so I guess not?

If you haven't watched the OA and you love some complex fantastic/scifi/cop drama stuff - you've gotta watch. SO GOOD. And it had Jason Issacs being peak awful with kind eyes.

*I'm cutting for my feed's sanity and for anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled.*

1. The show runners sold Netflix a 5 season show. There are 5 "wanderers". Considering season 2 was following Homer's NDE, and they set up season 3 to be following Scott's NDE, I think we would have traveled through all the NDEs to get to the resolution.

Trouble clearly arises since Rachel dies in season 2, but given the concept of integration and the fact that Rachel's spirit returned to the kids and BBA, I think it will be a matter of finding her in the ether more than an inability to. Her parallel self would most likely have to want to welcome her in.

2. But is it really the Odyssey? There are certainly overtones, and perhaps we could glean something of the overall story in the comparison. The central question becomes who is Odysseus? Is it OA/Prairie/Nina? It is Homer himself? HAP? We just didn't really have enough seasons to know.

What you could say, however, is that the driving desire in the Odyssey is the return to home, and the utter will Odysseus has to get there. We discover in season 2 that traveling has everything to do with will. We know that OA's will is to get to Homer and that together they would make a home. So was the end game really about finding a place, or integrating together as beings?

3. Karim is her brother and sent to protect her in all dimensions. Does that mean Elias is also her brother in the original dimension? In season 2 Elias really, clearly states that he knows more. Élodie certainly knows more (season 2), almost as though she comes from the future, not a concurrent timeline. If that's the case, what does OA have to learn/do? What really, is her overall mission? Clearly she is more than a normal traveler. Does that mean she's more than human?

They call her "pure" several times in the show. I wonder if this is a purity from the noise of human-created structures. That her NDE, her nationality, her blindness, her time underground all make her separate from the traditional structures of society and it takes someone separate from that noise and expectation to notice, listen, and save.

4. Season 2 ended with at least 3 people knowing who OA is in the meta dimension, while explicitly saying she will not. Her three most devout followers - HAP, Homer, and Steve. I mean, any time 3s come up, I'm looking for allegory. OR is it that the closer she gets to "enlightenment" the more people around her are awake too? Like the hardest part was the first step. She had to believe she was OA and the rest will fall into place.

5. OA's NDE takes her to the rings of Saturn? In season 1, HAP tells OA his take on her NDE and how he doesn't think she was on Earth. Season 2 has an entire monologue about what it means to look down on Earth. The season even culminates in the episode titled "Overview". What if OA is being locked up by an even "bigger evil" outside of earth and she's been sleep/suppressed. Her journey and the whole show is about her returning to herself and using the Earth and its inter-connectedness in the right way to overcome/destroy "The Original"/bigger evil.

[whats-rambled-rambled]

Stuck in reverse - playlist

You can find it on Spotify here. 

Okay, let’s talk about it! 

Sam Smith – Fix you

I remember crying to the original song (by Coldplay) back in 2005. Whoo boy, lots of teenage feelings!

I’m not the biggest fan of Sam Smith’s music, but one day I was just driving home from work and this song began playing on the radio and by the end of it I could barely see the road.

// When you try your best, but you don’t succeed When you get what you want, but not what you need When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep Stuck in reverse And the tears come streaming down your face When you lose something you can’t replace When you love someone, but it goes to waste Could it be worse? //

That one line – stuck in reverse – felt just so perfect for a story set in the universe where people invert themselves back and forth.

It became one of the three main songs that inspired me to write the whole damn thing, and also the only title in the story that is not a title of a song as well.

Chapter 1: Ben Platt – Ease my mind 

This is one of the songs I have on my daily playlist, I just love it, and the lyrics are so fitting:

//Most days I wake up with a pit in my chest There are thoughts that I can’t put to rest There’s a worry that I can’t place

Most nights, I am restless and quiet won’t come So I lay there and wait for the sun There’s a trouble that won’t show its face

You came out of nowhere and you cut through all the noise I make sense to the madness when I listen to your voice//

We learn more about the nightmares in the next chapters, but it all starts here. That melancholic vibe stuck with me for the rest of the story I guess.

Bonus song: Lewis Capaldi - Before you go

The combat scene in one song, or at least what I imagined was going through Reader’s mind at that point.

//I fell by the wayside like everyone else I hate you, I hate you, I hate you but I was just kidding myself Our every moment, I start to replace ‘Cause now that they’re gone, all I hear are the words that I needed to say When you hurt under the surface Like troubled water running cold Well, time can heal but this won’t//

Have you ever felt that way? Trying to hide your broken heart under anger? I don’t know, it just resonated deeply.

The second part of the song kinda seeped into the next chapter:

//Was there something I could’ve said To make your heart beat better? If only I’d have known you had a storm to weather

//Would we be better off by now If I’d have let my walls come down? Maybe, I guess we’ll never know//

Chapter 2: Kaleo - I can’t go on without you

Another song from my daily playlists (side note – I saw Kaleo once live on a music festival and they were mind-blowing, you should really check out more of their work).

It worked with the story because of its desperate and painful mood.

Bonus: Calum Scott - Dancing on my own

Holy shit, I FELT this one. (Been there, done that). Of course I had to write it into Reader’s past. Actually, I wrote it first and then found the song, but it doesn’t matter, that’s the flashback scene right here:

//Somebody said you got a new friend Does she love you better than I can? And there’s a big black sky over my town I know where you’re at, I bet she’s around And yeah, I know it’s stupid But I just gotta see it for myself I’m in the corner, watching you kiss her, I’m right over here, why can’t you see me? And I’m giving it my all //

Chapter 3: Billie Eilish – Bad guy

No feels, pure bop. This song is so BADASS, I really needed to get that vibe into the undercover mission, I didn’t want Reader to be an emotional mess and nothing else, you know?

Bonus: Tones and I – Dance Monkey

I shit you not, I’ve had that one on repeat for the dance scene. There is something incredibly seductive in that beat, I just couldn’t get it out of my head.

Bonus: Kings of Leon – Closer

It just makes my heart clench and leaves me breathless.

Chapter 4: Ben Platt – Bad habit

Ah, that was the moment when I cursed at myself for using Ease my mind for chapter 1, but we already talked about it.

Even though this song is very emotional, it’s not that heartbreaking, you can hear a faint smile here and there and it just makes my heart sing.

And oh my god, those lyrics:

//You always said that I’d come back to you again ‘Cause everybody needs a friend, it’s true Someone to quiet the voices in my head Make ‘em sing to me instead, it’s you Hate to say that I love you Hate to say that I need you Hate to say that I want you But I do Bad habit, I know But I’m needin’ you right now Can you help me out? Can I lean on you? Been one of those days Sun don’t wanna come out Can you help me out? Can I lean on you?//

They just work with that plot, you know?

Bonus: Dodie – Sick of losing soulmates

Another song that just resonates with the story.

//What a strange being you are, God knows where I would be If you hadn’t found me, sitting all alone in the dark A dumb screenshot of youth Watch how a cold broken teen Will desperately lean on a superglued human of proof

What the hell would I be, without you (what the hell would I be) Brave face talk so lightly, hide the truth (hide the truth)

'Cause I’m sick of losing soulmates, so where do we begin I can finally see, you’re as fucked up as me So how do we win?//

Chapter 5: Adele – Someone like you

The whole damn sunset scene + this song on repeat = feels

The pain in her voice? God, it just reduces me to a puddle of tears.

Reader could just sing it at some point to Neil almost word for word.

Bonus: Passenger – Let her go

Okay, the case of that one is quite funny, because I kinda needed to figure out how to get from point A to point B of the chapter, and I was browsing Spotify looking for „campfire songs” or something like that. Of course I’ve heard this one before, but I’ve never actually focused on the lyrics.

And oh boy, suddenly it all became clear.

Headcanon time – in my head, Wheeler and Neil are close friends, she treats him a bit like a younger brother, I just can imagine they know each other very well at that point. Of course she knows hows about his past. Of course she heard about Reader. And she thinks they are both silly babies and they should just kiss, right? That’s why she chooses that song.

Those lyrics – they fit Neil’s backstory so damn well.

//Only know you love her when you let her go

And you let her go//

And he was stupid enough to let her go. Because his timing was off.

Those lyrics are also perfect to make Reader think about his ex-girlfriend, because of course that is what you’re gonna it’s all about.

Bonus: Del Amitri – Tell her this

Ahh, there it is – the second out of three main songs for Stuck in Reverse.

I remember the moment I found out that Rob Pattinson sings and writes music, then I listened to some of the songs and my heart went whoooosh. So I just had to make Neil play a guitar, I just needed to find out what song would be The One.

Do you remember that flashback about them both watching a tv show on his couch? Here, you’re welcome. 

I recently started rewatching Scrubs and when I got to that episode – ding, ding, ding!

This is the ultimate “hey, I fucked up, I shouldn’t have let you go, I’m an idiot and I love you.”

Chapter 6: Imagine Dragons – Next to me

I adore that song. It warms my heart. I think it fits Neil and Reader’s relationship.

And I needed all the fluffy feelings to switch the tone of the story to something lighter.

Bonus: Michelle Branch – Everywhere

This one is a silly bop, and it always puts me in a good mood. A nice song to listen to when you are happy, in love, and you are making breakfast.

Bonus: Ashlee Simpson – Pieces of me

This one (same as the one before) came to me from Zach Braff’s workout playlist, haha. I mean I almost forgot about it, but it makes me smile every time I hear it, and the lyrics work nicely:

//On a Monday I am waiting Tuesday I am fading And By Wednesday I can’t sleep Then the phone rings I hear you And the darkness is a clear view Cause you’ve come to rescue me

Fall, with you I fall so fast I can hardly catch my breath I hope it lasts

It seems like I can finally Rest my head on something real I like the way that feels It’s as if you know me better Than I ever knew myself I love how you can tell All the pieces, pieces, pieces of me//

Bonus: Kaleo – I want more

Is there such a thing as a warm melancholy? Because that is a vibe I get from that song.

//Turn back, leave all you had Forgive, I’ll forget 'Cause what we need is what we once had Time won’t stand still Just say you will 'Cause I need you there and now

If you leap, I’ll come falling too Running deep 'til that rivers through I don’t mind what you have to do 'Cause I won’t think less, less of you

Yes, I want more, more Looking for more I want more, more 'Cause I want more

Old grounds Feels like the weight has been lifted away So don’t you leave me there wanting more//

Chapter 7: Ben Platt – In case you don’t live forever

I mean it’s not my fault that Ben’s songs make me FEEL things, damn it.

The whole damn song = utter heartbreak when you think about Neil coming back to Reader before he goes back to Stalsk-12 to open that damn lock.

//I, I’ve carried this song in my mind Listen, it’s echoing in me But I haven’t helped you to hear it We, we’ve only got so much time I’m pretty sure it would kill me If you didn’t know the pieces of me are pieces of you

I’ve waited way too long to say Everything you mean to me

In case you don’t live forever, let me tell you now I love you more than you’ll ever wrap your head around In case you don’t live forever, let me tell you the truth I’m everything that I am because of you//

Bonus: Charlene Soraia – Wherever you will go

Why am I doing this to you? Because we all like pain.

This one is for the scene on the deck:

//So lately, been wondering Who will be there to take my place When I’m gone you’ll need love to light the shadows on your face If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all Then between the sand and stone, could you make it on your own

If I could, then I would I’ll go wherever you will go Way up high or down low, I’ll go wherever you will go

And maybe, I’ll find out A way to make it back someday To watch you, to guide you through the darkest of your days If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all Then I hope there’s someone out there who can bring me back to you//

Bonus: Rhys Lewis – No right to love you

No light, only pain and suffering.

//'Cause I have no right to love you When I chose to walk away I have no right to miss you When I didn’t wanna stay And I have no right to need you And I knew what my heart was gonna lose I have no right to love you But I do, I still do Yeah, I still do//

Bonus: Knox Brown x Gallant – Reignite

This song is just so incredible, it makes my palms sweat and my mind going places. Yep, it was on repeat.

Oh you know which scene this one is for.

Bonus: Freya Ridings – Lost without you

The last dialogue. On repeat. Because this song breaks my heart and leaves me a sobbing mess.

//Strangers rushin’ past Just tryna get home But you were the only Safehaven that I’ve known Hits me at full speed Feel like I can’t breathe And nobody knows This pain inside me My world is crumbling I should never Let you go I think I’m lost without you//

(OI, SPOILERS) 

Chapter 8: Florence + The Machine – Never let me go

I have only one thing to say:

Fuck you, Nolan.

Third out of three.

//And it’s over and I’m going under

But I’m not giving up I’m just giving in

Oh, slipping underneath So cold and so sweet

In the arms of the ocean, so sweet and so cold And all this devotion, well, I never knew at all And the questions I have for a sinner released In the arms of the ocean deliver me

(Never let me go, never let me go Never let me go, never let me go)//

Bonus: Sasha Sloan - Dancing with your ghost

Suffer with me.

//Yelling at the sky Screaming at the world Baby, why’d you go away? I’m still your girl Holding on too tight Head up in the clouds Heaven only knows Where you are now

How do I love How do I love again? How do I trust How do I trust again?

I stay up all night Tell myself I’m alright Baby, you’re just harder to see than most I put the record on Wait 'til I hear our song Every night I’m dancing with your ghost Every night I’m dancing with your ghost//

[emetophobiahelp]

Criminal Minds Warning Compilation

This is a compilation of all submitted warnings in Criminal Minds in one place. I got frustrated having to constantly scroll through the tag so I figured I would compile them. Thank you to all the people who submitted! You guys help all of us so much :)

I am unsure if it’s complete past the end of Season Four as that’s where I’m at in the show. If I find any more I will send a warning in and hopefully eventually I’ll be able to say this list is complete. I usually just skip an episode if there’s a submitted warning as there’s little to no plot line through the show, so sorry if some of the warnings are vague.

This list is not completely spoiler free and not all of these are actual v* scenes. This show is surprisingly safe for emetophobes!

Unsafe episodes in Season One: 9 and 22.

Unsafe episodes in Season Two: 13.

Unsafe episodes in Season Four: 13, 15, and 24.

Unsafe episodes in Season Five: 7.

Unsafe episodes in Season Six: 7, 17, and 23.

Unsafe episodes in Season Seven: 1, 2, 6, 8, 12, and 22.

Unsafe episodes in Season Eight: 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 18, and 23.

Unsafe episodes in Season Nine: 1 and 12.

Unsafe episodes in Season Ten: 3.

Unsafe episodes in Season Eleven: 21.

Unsafe episodes in Season Thirteen: 1.

Season One: E9 (Derailed): 10 or 11 minute mark. Pregnant woman gets s*. Elle is talking to her and she says, “I think I’m gonna be s*.” No visual, just audio. E22 (The Fisher King Part One): 16 minute mark. Woman sees a body part and v*. No visual, just audio.

Season Two: E13 (No Way Out): 6:50-7:10. Gideon and Morgan are talking to a serial killer in a diner and it cuts to a police officer v*. After, the v* is still visible. It cuts back and forth from diner scene to police officers a few times but only one has a v* scene. Visual and audio.

Season Four: E13 (Bloodline): 12-12:45. Girl has epileptic seizure. Not v* but still triggering visual and audio. E15 (Zoe’s Reprise): 31 min mark. A girl Prentiss is interviewing says she’s going to be s*. Audio, unsure if visuals. E24 (Amplification): No v*, but lots of coughing, especially in first few minutes.

Season Five: E7 (The Performer): Warning is vague. “Not safe at all. Just skip it.”

Season Six: E7 (Middle Man): Multiple warnings.  1. Very brief v* after *SPOILER* Chris is made to kill Scott. Maybe mute from Scott’s death until after Chris stands up from sink. No visual, just audio. 2. 27:40, a man v*. Might be same as previous warning. Mute and look away for about 15 seconds. No visual, just audio.  E17 (Valhalla): Near end of episode, right after Prentiss says she needs some air. Some coughing and mention of the word v*. Later when she goes to her apartment to change her shoes you can see it. No visual, just audio. E23 (Big Sea): Multiple warnings. 1. 25 min. A man can be heard v*, it then shows it as someone yells at him to clean it up. 2. When the guy is being held captive in the boat, he looks up at the unsub and then down at the keys. He v*. Visual and audio. 3. 38 min. At end of episode, Agent Morgan is performing CPR on a girl. She v* water. Not too bad visual, but bad audio.

Season Seven: E1 (It Takes A Village): About halfway through the episode, there’s a flashback to a woman taking pills, and a man forces her to v*. Happens after Prentiss starts interrogating Doyle. Not that graphic but visual and audio. E2 (Proof): Around 21-22 min mark. When Tammy is shown at the dance, she says she’s not feeling good and clutches her stomach. There’s no v* but she acts like she will. Ends when Uncle Cy goes to hug her. Later in the episode, Tammy’s mom recounts the incident with Cy but nothing happens. E6 (Epilogue): 18:40 min. Chase starts trying to resuscitate the girl. The next scene shows a guy violently coughing and shows blood in his hand from coughing so much. He continues coughing. Could be triggering. E8 (Hope): A little past halfway through the ep when the woman finds her daughter. You can see it coming. Visual and audio. E12 (Unknown Subject): 3 min. Garcia is showing them pictures of a case. It’s hard to see but there’s v*. At 4:21, Prentiss asks, “what’s that on the floor?” And Garcia replies. Also, Garcia mentions there’s salt in the water which makes you v*. Skip until intro or look away. (4:59 is safe) E22 (Profiling 101): When Prentiss says something about the victim’s friend holding her hair, the victim bends over and v*. It lasts thirty seconds, so when Prentiss talks about the girl getting s* just mute and look away. Audio and visual.

Season Eight: E2 (The Pact): After Mr. Dolan is being interviewed, it cuts to Darlene v*. She talks and then g*. Mute and look away after Mr. Dolan is finished with JJ. Audio and visual. E5 (The Good Earth): V* is mentioned and not shown, but you see implied v* as people lean over. Also just a gross episode in general. E6 (The Apprenticeship): 9:40. When the kid asks Holly to cover his shift, he says he v* that morning to get out of work. E7 (The Fallen): At the end of the episode when the unsub is pouring bleach on the woman, she starts coughing. Sounds like v*. She also continues to g* after she’s rescued. It’s not too bad but could be triggering. E8 (The Wheels on the Bus…): After the girl shoots Trent and the guy says something about his blood, she v*. Lasts about 5-10 seconds. Audio, unsure if visuals. E18 (Restoration): Beuford gives Derek the list, and Derek v* after washing his hands. Mute after he finishes talking to Hotch. It’s over quickly. Visual and audio. E23 (Brother’s Hotchner): Multiple warnings.  1. In the beginning when the guy opens the stall and the girl is bleeding, she’ll fall to the floor and start coughing pretty bad. It ends in maybe 10 seconds. Audio and visual. 2. At around 8:40 min , a guy randomly spits blood. It happens/ends just as the beginning credits start. When the little girl starts to pray at the family dinner, both the parents begin to bleed like the other victims. the dad will cough before the screen goes black

Season Nine: E1 (The Inspiration Part One): Multiple warnings. 1. At around 6 min mark, girl v*. They also talk about it a few times. 2. At 21 min, a mother g* and s* out teeth. 3. After unsub kills girl in the shower, Blake asks about the v* when she’s at the coroner’s morgue. 4. When Rossi and Morgan find the girl in the park and mention her hair, Morgan says she probably v*. 5. When Hotch says “wheels up in 30” and the unsub is taking another woman into the woods, she v* when she says he’s going to fast. Lasts 5-10 seconds and only audio. (Possibly same as first warning) E12 (The Black Queen): At around 18:55 min. When Garcia and Morgan are testing microphone signal, Garcia says she feels like she’s gonna v*. Nothing happens though.

Season Ten: E3 (A Thousand Suns): When Reid and Kate go to look at the plane crash and start to look at the pilot’s seat, a few seconds later Reid will notice there is v* from the passengers on the ground. He just says the word and there is a visual but it doesn’t look very realistic. After the crowd of people at the station are asking questions about their loved ones on the plane Morgan and JJ will mention the v* again and talk about what caused it

Season Eleven: E21 (Devil’s Backbone): When the two boys are in the back of the van, one boy v*. No visual, just audio.

Season Thirteen: E1 (Wheels Up): Garcia and Simmons are in the car and Garcia says, “No creepy weird stuff.” There’s a lot of people looking s* and leaning over bowls. No visual that was noticed.

Happy watching!

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

Another day of quarantine, another attempt to decipher the secret to one show’s mind-boggling longevity - Are they casting spells on every airdate? Do they have some kind of talisman? Did they make an actual deal with a literal devil to stay on the air this long?? The fact that Jensen Ackles has barely aged a day sure suggests they might have. It’s Supernatural! 

I think one of my favorite things so far has been the trailer that plays at the end of “Crossroad Blues” to really make sure you tune into the next episode which...did not play for two weeks. Looking at air dates, “Crossroad Blues” plays on Nov 16, 2006, so that’s right around the Thanksgiving break. Then they come back for ONE episode on Dec 7 and that is their midseason finale. TV programming is wild. 

I was like, really into this Bobby Johnson, like...I was into that.

It’s very possible that at this point in the season, SPN is trying real hard to keep their audience. Looking at the numbers for all the episodes leading up to “Croatoan”, they’re only averaging between 3 and 4 million viewers, roughly 1 - 2 million less than where they were at this time in season 1, so it’s easy to see why SPN was on the hook for renewal in season 2. Looking over its ratings for the rest of the season, the audience numbers just keep going down. The show is the number 8 highest rated show on the CW in 2006/07, so technically in the top 10, but it’s tied with Reba and One Tree Hill and the CW only had (16) original programs that year, so it’s not boasting much. These numbers supposedly include Live + 7 day DVR watches, so those numbers really are not good, BUT: starting in January of 2007, the CW started releasing episodes online the day after they aired, so I’m willing to bet that large portions of their audience were still tuning in, just not tuning in in a way that could be tabulated by Neilsen at the time. 

It’s also interesting to note that for both season 1 and season 2, the real mythos/lore/arc episodes don’t really start until the midseason. In season 1, it’s not until episode 10, “Scarecrow,” where we’re introduced to Meg and the bigger stakes at hand for the Winchesters. Their search for their father starts ramping up and the show starts subtly shifting away from Finding Dad to Fighting The Boss Fight. 

Season 2 is pretty similar. Up until “Croatoan” (episode 9), the show has been about the fallout from John’s death. Finding the yellow-eyed-demon is certainly a driving factor, but it’s very much on the backburner. The show even makes a point to say, hey! Our guys don’t really have any leads, so it’s gonna take a while before we get back to this. 

I actually really appreciate that the show takes this much time to let the Winchester process their grief. Kripke and Co. have said numerous times that they realized the episodes that work best are the ones that really dig into the emotional journeys of the characters, so they just went ahead and made that the primary focus of the first half of the season. It gives weight to their loss at the beginning of the season - John’s death is not some throwaway plot point, it’s a real gut punch that our characters aren’t going to get over in a hurry. It also lends weight to the danger the brothers face in the future - John died immediately, who’s to say that won’t happen to Sam or Dean? 

I mean, sure buddy, but also...no one here is okay.

Not to mention, John’s deal with the yellow-eyed-demon (+ the events in “Crossroad Blues”) give us a subtle/not-so-subtle hint as to what’s waiting for us at the end of season 2. But we’re not there yet. 

Then we’re in “Croatoan” and reminded in full force what our guys are supposed to be fighting this season - not their crippling grief but rather a very present threat to their physical and spiritual well-being. That’s not to say we haven’t had a taste of the Sam-centric plotline that appears in “Croatoan”. BUT I’d argue that even though “Simon Said” deals with the Psychic Children, it’s still only a tease for what those children are capable of. “Croatoan” really drives home the threat from the yellow-eyed-demon, not just from his Psychic Children but also whatever nefarious plans that he’s been cooking for however-long. And it puts this threat front and center as a main quest for the back 13 of the season. 

Because of COURSE demon viruses come with their own dusting of sulfur.

Doing the math on this, it looks like SPN had a Front 9/Back 13 split? As in, they got picked up for the first 9 episodes of season 2 but weren’t sure they were going to get those final 13 episodes and that is...crazy? I have not seen any proof this is the case, but it is something to consider for a show that was on the edge of cancellation for this season and last season. It’s possible that the CW was treating all of its programming like they were pilot seasons since this was, essentially, CW’s pilot season, but again - I have no evidence other than this 9/13 split to prove it. 

Back to the show. Let me just say: I LOVE “Croatoan.” Any time anyone wants to make up a supernatural reason for an obscure historical mystery, I am ON. BOARD. And the Lost Colony of Roanoke is definitely one of my favorites. I STILL love this episode even though I can hear my friend whispering through the decades, ”The colonists just intermarried with the local native tribe, the Croatoans…” which is apparently actually the answer in real life. But demon viruses are fine, and particularly relevant in The Year of Our Troubles 2020. 

CROATOAAAAAAAAA!!!

What also works in “Croatoan” is the dynamics between the brothers that will play out for the rest of the season/series. The groundwork for their big fight at the end of this episode has already been laid in the beginning of the season. On the one hand, you have Dean, who’s lost so much at the hands of the yellow-eyed-demon he can’t stand to lose anymore, especially not his brother. On the other hand, Sam is becoming more like his father - ready and willing to sacrifice whatever needs to be sacrificed to defeat this thing, even if that means giving up his own life. Sam has the same motivation that Dean has but coming from a completely different direction. If his death will save his brother, then he’ll do it, no questions asked, just like John died to save Dean. Neither of the brothers are willing to lose the other and they will go on to make increasingly stupid, selfish decisions to make sure they won’t have to. Yes, I love this show, and I love Sam and Dean, but man they are DUMB BABIES. 

OOF.

So we get “Croatoan,” where we see the stakes at hand - the yellow-eyed-demon is out for World Destruction, not just Winchester Destruction. He may have plans for the Psychic Children, but his plans reach far beyond a bunch of 20YO with wacky powers. And when Sam gets infected with the demon virus (LOL, sulfur in the blood?????), he knows he’s a danger to others and is immediately ready to sacrifice his life to keep those around him safe. Dean goes on to prove that this is a line too far - he’ll keep others safe but if the choice is between killing his brother and anything else, he will literally choose anything else. Sam turns out to be fine in a mysterious kind of way, although the town clearly is not, and the boys ride off into the sunset. Then we get the cliffhanger - John told Dean something important that we will not find out until January. 

These dolly shots crack me right up.

If you’re watching this in real time, you wait a month for that cliff hanger to resolve itself in “Hunted”. If you are living in the era of streaming, you just skip the closing credits to find out what John said - “He said that I [Dean] had to save you...and that if I couldn't, I'd . . .That I'd have to kill you.” 

Are you ever just like, What the actual F*CK, John Winchester?

This is literally Dean’s worst nightmare - having to choose between duty and family. Sam understandably doesn’t take this well to start with, but like in “Croatoan”, he ultimately settles into the idea, which is...deeply upsetting??? 

“Hunted” does a lot of fun things - 

Number 1: We get more of the Psychic Children (because I REFUSE to call them the Special Children, sorrynotsorry). We see that there’s a range of Types, from Scott who definitely looks like a serial killer to Ava, who ultimately goes on to be the headmistress at a secret magic university (OMG, DO watch The Order cuz that shiz is GOLD.)

Seriously, if you liked Supernatural, you will like this show. 

Number 2: We get the return of Gordon, this time as a head-on antagonist. Do I like Gordon? No, I find him frustrating at best. But do I LOVE Gordon as an antagonist? Absolutely! He is smart, capable, and (at this point) wholly non-supernatural, Natural, if you will. He’s such a good foil to Sam and Dean and he’s the perfect villain for this moment. He sees the world in only black and white. To him, there’s no moral dilemma as to whether or not the Psychic Children are good or bad - they’re definitely bad and he’s here to stop/kill them. I think he’s an important catalyst for Dean too, since in both of Gordon’s episodes, Dean sees what he could be if it wasn’t for Sam’s influence. He doesn’t want to be like Gordon, so he needs to keep Sam around.

Number 3: Alright, this one isn’t so fun just cuz the final scene is a little sloppy, but Ava turns out to be a good catalyst for Sam. When Ava shows up on screen, she is clearly on Team Cool Kid. She’s totally normal, very Apple Pie, but she shows up to try and save Sam’s life simply because it’s a life that she can (hypothetically) save. She knows nothing about demons or curses or Chosen Ones, she just had a weird dream that gave her a weird feeling and then she acted on out of the goodness of her heart. It’s exactly what Sam does when his dreams kick it into high gear in season 1 (with mixed results). Sam hangs out with Ava, gets to know her, gives her the whole Truth is Out There speech and when she leaves, I actually really appreciate this character. She’s had a wild ride of a day and she is just taking this whole thing totally in stride. Good on you, Ava! 

Except, when we get to the end of the episode and Sam tries to check in on her, we find her fiancé with his throat cut, sulfur on the window sill, and Ava nowhere to be seen. Now I don’t remember what I thought the first time I saw this episode, but I don’t believe that Ava killedher fiancé. The show really seems to want me to believe that she killed her fiancé, though, indicating that no matter how cool she was at the beginning of the episode, it’s only a matter of time before all the Psychic Children “go darkside”, as Sam so strangely puts it. 

Anyone else this this was a weird line? I thought this was a weird line. 

And this is what pushes Sam’s arc through the rest of the season. Our next episode is “Playthings,” which feels like a monster-of-the-week episode where they squeeze in some unrelated emotional drama. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun episode, but SPN is usually better about tying their MotW eps into the emotional character arcs and this one is not as finessed. There’s a little more disconnect here. The important takeaway from “Playthings” is this: seeing Ava “kill” her fiancé convinces Sam that his father was right. Sam may need to be put down, and if that happens, he wants Dean to be the one to do it. Dean agrees, but we all know that he’s doing that just to appease Sam and that he’s still gonna do whatever it takes to save Sam, no matter the cost. Nothing gets resolved and this will definitely come back later. 

I mean, yeah that’s probably true.

Some things - 

First off: Sam seems to be perfectly OK with this and that...is not OK. 

Secondly, SAM?!? WHY would you put that on your brother?? 

Thirdly, DEAN! Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep. 

FINALLY, and maybe most importantly, this is the best example I can think of to showcase a character’s greatest strength also being their greatest weakness. The Winchesters are about two things - fighting evil and taking care of family. Done in equal measure, these strengths make them heroic tropes. Taken to extreme situations? Well, now you have two humans wide open to failing at one of these things so bad that the apocalypse literally starts.

What these three episodes remind us, honestly what this whole season so far reminds us, is that Supernatural works because of relationships. The monsters and the mythology and the classic rock are there as a fun framework to get us interested in the show, but it’s the characters that keep us. That’s what viewers connect to. I really appreciate the arguments that Sam and Dean have with each other, starting at the end of season one and up until now in season 2. They feel very deeply rooted in character, not contrived for the sake of Drama. Neither of them is wrong, per se, but then neither of them is right, either. Their emotional backgrounds feel complex and grounded, foundations for real characters, not just the caricatures that you’d expect from a show about ghosts on a network aimed at the 18 - 24 demographic. 

See, THIS is the sort of fight you’d expect, not a fight where one brother is begging the other to literally kill him. 

And this is gonna be the hill that I’ll die on - characters and relationships are always the heart of any successful franchise. I mean, why else are there so many shipping wars out there? Why write fic if it isn’t to explore relationships and aspects of a character that the show doesn’t present? Sure it’s not the only reason to write fic, but I’d argue it’s a BIG reason. 

Because it’s not just the characters building relationships with each other, it's the audience building relationships with those characters (and to a lesser extent, with the world of the story). This is the core of any show that hopes to make it past season one and beyond, no matter the decade, the network, or the platform it airs on. We like stories about people with problems we can relate to. Dysfunctional family trouble? Check. Drama at work? Been there. Feeling like the world’s about to end any second? Oh yes. You can feel those problems deep down in your gut, even if the specifics are different. It doesn’t matter if those people are working in an office or a hospital or hunting down demons in the dead of night. If you can show us people, real people with something we can relate to on a gut level, that’s how you stay on the air for 15 seasons.

[stilesxeveryone]

The Rewatch, pt3

Again, I’m very open to have any discussions about anything I’ve said here! Please feel free to message me or comment anything!

Spoilers throughout for the end of season 2

Season 2, episode 1

Love starting off a new season with Jackson in a ditch, Scallison making out, and Chris shoving a gun in Scott’s face

I will always and forever ignore the whole “Stiles major crushing on Lydia” thing tbh, like I just do not enjoy their relationship being romantic at all

Scott with his head out the car window like a dog, oh my god

Isaac! My beloved! I didn’t realise he was first episode! 

God I hate Harris, I wish I wrote him more often tbh. I think he’d be an interesting character to write and add importance to, maybe as an enemy at some point

Chris Argent in a black suit? Sign me up

I really need to make a season 1 rewrite where Stiles and Lydia are best friends honestly. Like one where maybe some people find Stiles annoying but he isn’t an ass like Jackson, and Lydia likes him so he’s popular. In this case he wouldn’t be friends with Scott so there’d probably be a lot of canon divergence in the beginning

Oh buddy you know I hate Gerard 

Season 2, episode 2

This whole scene between Isaac and his abusive dad is so tense and uncomfortable and horrifying, good job

I really don’t understand the timeline of this season honestly, I thought Matt and the kanima bonded later on? Like when Jackson gets him to come over with his camera? But Isaac’s dad’s death suggests they’ve already bonded? Idk man idk 

I can’t believe Chris and Victoria Argent straight up torture the school’s principal to get him to quit his job, like please, that’s so unnecessary, just pay him off, or pay someone higher up off or whatever

The entire lacrosse team now think Stiles is into chaining people up during sex now, don’t they

Scott can smell a werewolf in the gym locker room but has to get two centimetres from their faces to tell if they’re a werewolf? Kinda weird bro

Derek asking for help? Man, I’m proud of him

Derek and Stiles little bit flirty vibes, good for them (also Derek’s smile is so cute)

The kanima is kinda ugly but like at least it looks better than the beta shifts

Season 2, episode 3

Idk if I’ve ever mentioned this but I’ve been planning a fic for ages where Matt (or technically anyone) is into Stiles and stalking him, and when the person bonds with the kanima they use it to go after everyone close to Stiles. Don’t know if I’ll ever actually write it

Oh hey, just the Argents traumatising Allison

I wish my school had a rock climbing wall 

Jackson is a really bad liar

Also yes I love Erica and Boyd and I need to write them more, I think I say this about every character, apparently I just need to write more in general

I just remembered the first time I ever watched teen wolf I didn’t understand why Sterek was so popular, because literally all I could see was Scerek, that’s so fucking funny

Season 2, episode 4

This is the episode that inspired the fic I was just talking about! Stiles at the mechanics, getting his car fixed, and the mechanic gets killed. The plan was like the mechanic harassing or flirting with Stiles, and Matt (or whoever) is waiting at the mechanic and sees it happen, and later that night gets the kanima to do it’s thing. Again, don’t know if I’ll ever actually write this so feel free to do it if it sparks inspiration

Also oh my god that murder is kinda fucked up, just not being able to do anything as a car slowly lowers onto you

God, Gerard grosses me out so much

I completely forgot how creepy young Peter is. I see his face, his fucking stare, and I just feel uncomfortable 

Yessssss, more Stiles and Lydia comforting each other and being supportive and being friends!

The pool scene! I forgot all about the pool scene! Where Stiles treads on water for ages while holding a paralysed Derek up. Just a fun scene tbh

Also another inspiration for the kanima fic because it kinda feels like the kanima is following Stiles around a bit

Season 2, episode 5

I miss the Stiles/Danny/Jackson fanfic I wrote that got lost when my laptop broke, it was almost finished and the suddenly gone, I was so upset

I literally hate that Derek tips the paralytic venom down Jackson’s throat, like okay, what if it affected his lungs and he stopped breathing??

I haven’t written any Stiles/Isaac have I? I should do that

This whole scene of Lydia giving the key back to Jackson and saying “I should hate you” is so good, v well done

Also I think Erica has been called a bitch three times now and I don’t appreciate that

I kind of wish they told Lydia what was going on sooner, I mean everyone around her having secrets and knowing what happened to her has gotta be rough to go through, and probably feels isolating and scary

Season 2, episode 6

Bless those drag queens that immediately attach themselves to Stiles

Lydia with her puppy is so adorable

Listen I know I’ve already written a “Stiles turns into a cat” fic, but that one was Steter, and I kinda want to write one where Lydia takes care of transformed Stiles

Also I appreciate that the jacket that young Peter is currently wearing ends up being adult Peter’s jacket in a later season

Oh god I still cannot believe the best plan that Stiles and Scott could come up with was kidnap Jackson and steal a prison transport van, how fucking stupid can you be

Gerard (Michael Hogan) does a very good job of being creepy and making me incredibly uncomfortable any time I see him

“So long as you stay strong, we won’t have to kill a 16 year old boy” wow okay, thanks mum for blaming your daughter for you wanting to murder a kid

How many times has Scott been too busy with Allison to notice something bad happening, or almost being too late to stop something because of it? Too many times