#It didn't really develop his character however and I wasn't really rooting for him in the first place

[frank-pricely-in-toyzone]

So 'Just For Once' is supposed to be a metaphor for Ruth's motivations and personality, right? Like, the lyrics generally being about wanting attention and love from other people when she normally gets ignored or passed over, and how her anxiety prevented her from doing things she wants to do (like theatre)? I haven't seen this interpretation talked about anywhere but I thought that made Just For Once really work tbh

[free-slutt]

𝙊𝙃, 𝙁𝘼𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙍 𝙄 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝙎𝙄𝙉𝙉𝙀𝘿 𝙄 | 𝙁𝘼𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙍 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝙇𝙄𝙀

a/n: i haven't started the show yet, so I'm not familiar with his character in this show. please forgive my cluelessness during this fic.

summary: the reader goes to the church to confess to the priest that she recently sinned. however, the father decides to have some fun of his own.

warnings: mention of religion, 18+, missionary, loss of virginity, oral(fem & m receiving) fingering, nipple play, praise kink, pet names like doll,sweetheart,baby, mentions of anal, spanking, degrading, corruption kink, almost caught

˖⋆࿐໋

growing up in a religious household, i have developed a deep appreciation for my catholic roots. whenever I feel overwhelmed by sadness, anger, or depression, I find solace in the church.

today i couldn't help but feel a tremendous amount of guilt. i found myself hanging out with a boy, and things got a bit physical. even though we didn't go too far, i couldn't help but feel ashamed. i had promised to wait until marriage, but these uncontrollable desires keep creeping up. i've decided to go to the church to talk to the father about my recent activities and confess my sins.

as i made my way to the church, i felt a mix of nervousness and anticipation. i'm meeting with father charlie, a young and attractive man who’s also the priest at the church, which is not something you typically expect in the church. i haven't had a chance to speak with him one-on-one yet, so im feeling a bit apprehensive about what our conversation will entail.

i open the big doors to the church to see it completely empty just to find charlie sitting down on one the church benches.

“hello there” he calls out.

"father, there's something weighing heavily on my heart that I need to share with you," i said as I hurried to sit next to him.

i can feel that irritating uneasy sensation in my stomach. I didn't even give him a proper greeting. the guilt was so overwhelming that it made me stumble over my words.

"what is it y/n?" he turns all of his attention towards me, his big brown eyes digging into mine, as if anticipating something significant.

“i don’t know who to talk to, i can’t talk to my parents about this especially my own father. i’ve been feeling really guil-“

he interrupted me with a gentle smile and placed his hand on my shoulder, assuring me that everything would be okay and letting me know that he was a safe person to talk to.

“father, i need to confess something. i kissed a boy, and he kissed me back. he started to touch me, but i stopped him. i made a promise to the lord, and i feel terrible for breaking it”

as the tears welled up in my eyes, i instinctively dropped my face into my hands, seeking refuge from the overwhelming emotions.

"hey, it's going to be okay," charlie said in a gentle, caring tone as he stroked my hair, trying to comfort me.

“now tell me, did you guys fuck?”

as those words reached my ears, i couldn't help but look up at him, shaking my head as the tears continued to fall.

oh no, i hope he's not going to make me feel even worse.

“no father i swear-“

"shh, no swearing in the church," he said, raising his finger to his lips with a smirk. the irony wasn't lost on him, considering he had just dropped the f-bomb.

it was so quiet for a whole minute, and I started feeling really awkward. i had come all this way hoping for some advice or comfort, but it seemed like he just didn't care.

as I stood up, charlie grabbed my arm, forcing me to sit back down. “i didn't say you could leave. where do you think you're going?”

he replied coldly, smirking, “always so forgiving. it's kind of pathetic”

i stared at him, utterly perplexed, not really sure what he was talking about.

“father, isn't forgiveness what the church is all about?”

“sometimes, but in this case, i really want you to show me how sorry you are. otherwise, you're just going to keep committing the same sin over and over again. you don't want that, right? you don't want your parents to find out how desperate their innocent little girl has become, do you?"

i couldn't believe what i was hearing from charlie. i never expected him to act this way, let alone say things like this. i was at a loss for words and didn't know how to react. all i could do was nod in agreement. the last thing i wanted was for my parents to find out.

“father, i think i should go”

"why are you suddenly so shy, doll?" his hand on my chin made me tilt my head to stare at him.

"you don't think i notice how you look at me during mass when I'm speaking on the stand? you've become so needy that you sometimes cross your legs to stop yourself from feeling those emotions you want to avoid so badly," he says while caressing my cheek, gently rubbing his thumb on my bottom lip.

"i know you think of me taking you to the point where you can't even think straight, cum dripping out of you while i use you for my pleasure. you don't think i notice that? the way you avoid eye contact with me”

“i don’t know what your talking about father”

charlie’s hand rested lightly on my thigh, sending a spark of electricity coursing through my body. as his fingers inched toward the top of my skirt, pushing the fabric up just a little, my breath caught in my throat. each slow movement seemed to stretch time, heightening my senses and igniting a thrilling tension i couldn't ignore.

it felt deceptively wrong—the kind of reckless abandon that sent a shiver down my spine—but the anticipation was intoxicating, and I craved more. my mind raced, caught between instinct and hesitation, as the warmth of his touch settled into a deep hunger, one i found increasingly impossible to resist.

i glanced up, searching his eyes for a sign, a cue that this was more than just a fleeting moment. we held a playful challenge, a promise of the passion we both knew was simmering beneath the surface. my heart raced with excitement and fear, the boundaries of right and wrong blurring into a sweet confusion. with every breath, i felt the world around us fade away, lost to the undeniable chemistry pulsing in the air. i didn’t want to stop it; I wanted to let go completely and dive headfirst into whatever was coming next.

“do you want this as much as I want this?" charlie's voice broke through the haze of my thoughts, causing my heart to race in an unholy rhythm. i felt his gaze resettle upon me, a weight both thrilling and terrifying. my mind was a jumble, each beat vying for clarity as i struggled to focus on anything but him.

his eyes—the deep pools of mischief and longing—held me captive, swaying me like a fragile leaf in a rising storm. the blueprint of his desires flickered behind those intense brown eyes, and my cheeks burned with a shameful blush. I could hear the hymns of the service fade into background noise, a distant echo that paled against the ferocity of this moment.

what was wrong with me? i shouldn’t be feeling this way, not here—certainly not in a house of worship. my skirt brushed against my legs, reminding me of the innocence i used to wear like armor, now discarded in the face of this ravenous yearning. charlie wanted me. craved me. it was a dangerous temptation that had taken root within me, whispering sweet nothings that urged me to give in.

the candlelit corners of the church bathed in shadows, the lure was overwhelming. each passing week at mass had been an exercise in restraint, a careful balancing act over a precipice of emotion. seeing him near the altar in his crisp shirt—as though god himself had stitched him together purely for me—seemed more sublimely wrong every time.

as his eyes swept over me, i wondered if he could sense the tension glittering between us, thick and electrifying like charged air before a storm. j licked my lips, torn between the sanctity of the aisle and the allure of his promise. "I need you, doll. I can't deny it anymore," he murmured like a sin freshly minted from temptation's forge.

i felt a tumultuous wave of conflicting emotions surging within me. the whispered prayers seemed empty as an overwhelming desire ignited like an uncontrollable inferno. "father” i gasped, but the air escaped me, filled with forbidden possibilities. despite everything, all i could focus on were his lips drawing nearer to mine, as if the world around us faded away, leaving only the intense magnetism between us.

in that sacred moment, beneath the flickering lights, surrounded by silence begging to be heard, we hovered on the brink of something vast and insatiable. would we give in? would grace curdle into passion? ignoring the whisper of consequence felt like my true struggle—should we tiptoe across this brittle line, or confess that hunger has only one unyielding answer? together.

as I processed what was happening, a surge of warmth enveloped me, and i found myself surrendering to the moment. his lips danced across the sensitive skin of my neck, light as a whisper but charging the air with electricity. a small moan escaped my lips, betraying the whirlwind of emotions stirring within me. i could feel his smirk, a secret shared just between us, brushing against my skin, simultaneously teasing and thrilling.

his hand roamed over my thigh, a firm yet gentle grip that sent a shiver cascading through my body. "that's it, such a good girl for me," he purred, his voice a low whisper that thrummed like a melody in my ears, both lustful and tender. each word dripped with a promise, igniting the fire kindling deep within me, blurring the boundaries between desire and surrender.

lost in this intoxicating closeness, i reveled in the sensations; the world beyond shifted and faded, leaving only his teasing caresses and the seductive intimacy that enveloped us—a balance of power and vulnerability, inviting me to cross the threshold into unknown territory.

"father, i really don’t think we should be doing this here. It just doesn’t feel right. what if we get caught?" i watched as charlie sighed, rubbing his forehead in frustration, clearly torn between desire and caution.

"you’re right," he replied, his voice low and raspy, "but it’s late, and I don’t think anyone’s going to wander into the church at this hour. just relax, sweetheart."

i hesitated for a moment, then nodded, the thrill of the forbidden sending a shiver down my spine. i reached out, intertwining my fingers with his, bringing his hand to my lips and sucking gently on his long fingers. his eyes locked onto mine, filled with a primal hunger that made my heart race. i could see it in his expression—the desperate need to claim me, to tear away any barrier between us.

the air was thick with anticipation, and i could almost feel the weight of his longing as he shifted closer, his breath coming in quick, shallow bursts. the dim light from the stained glass windows cast a soft glow around us, amplifying the intensity of the moment. i could sense the tension building, a thrilling mix of danger and desire, as he leaned in, caught in the magnetic pull that seemed to draw us together like moths to a flame.

we were on the edge of something wild and reckless, and in that sacred space, everything felt possible.

charlie withdrew his fingers, his intention clear as he replaced them with his warm, teasing tongue. it slipped into my mouth, exploring with a fervor that sent electric shivers through my entire body. he held my neck gently yet possessively, urging me closer, deeper, igniting a fire that burned between us.

i kissed him back with equal intensity, a thrilling battle for dominance that left us both breathless. the taste of him was intoxicating, a heady mixture of desire and urgency that made my heart race. every flick of his tongue ignited a wave of pleasure, pooling low in my belly and making it almost impossible to think straight.

the heat of the moment consumed me; i could feel my body responding instinctively to his every move. the sweet tension built inside me, and i knew i needed him—needed to feel him against me, to drown in that wild connection we shared. my panties were already soaked, a testament to the overwhelming desire coursing through my veins.

charlie pushes my panties to the side allowing his already wet fingers from my saliva to dance around my clothed heat growling like a predator hungry for its prey “let me show you how a real man is supposed to make you feel darling, those little boys wouldn’t know how to handle something so precious like you. i can make you feel so good you wouldn’t be able to walk straight for days”

as he pumps his fingers in out of me the sweet sounds filling up the quiet church was enough for the both of us to go crazy “more father please” he smirked at my neediness removing his fingers out of me putting them up to mouth to signaling me to suck the sweet juices off of his fingers then going back in for a quick rub of my clit

charlie stood up getting ready to unbuckle his pants but before he could even do that a voice filled up the quiet room which caused me to jump and act quick closing my legs and hiding my exposed area “father charlie i’ve been looking everywhere for you” an older lady shouts from across the room as she appears to be in desperate need of his help

he sighed and i took that as my sign to leave before we both do something we might regret later, charlie keeps his gaze on me the entire time “hi, ill be with you in a moment” he spoke up the lady stops in her tracks wondering what a young woman was doing here at almost midnight with the priest of the church she was curious but nothing crossed her mind as she was desperate to talk to the priest

charlie followed me out of the church closing the door behind us “this isn’t over sweetheart” he placed a kiss on my forehead as he walked back into the church.

˖⋆࿐໋

a/n: omggg i hope you guys like this!! i’ve spent almost a day and a half working on this just for you all especially the person who requested this, i will be making this into a little series since it was getting pretty long! anyways i really hope you guys enjoyed this, remember feel free to request anything!

[celtrist]

I'm not sorry for loving you~

Really doesn't need to involve the obsession au, but the au is what I had in mind. And maybe that song would work better with someone than Mimzy, but Mimzy is probably one of the more sane-ish? Characters in this AU.

So I have to admit, Mimzy was just one of those characters that slipped my mind when thinking of the obsession AU. Granted the docket of characters was very filled in the original piece, and despite the history of these two characters (both in-universe as well as their development history), their relationship whether romantic or platonic is incredibly overlooked. I feel like it's pretty common knowledge concerning Hazbin, but when I talk about the character's developments, I mean that they were originally a romantic couple. Despite this fact, Almimzy is an incredibly non-existent ship, and that makes sense. Alastor and Mimzy barely interacted in the official show, and while she was planned to be a guest, she wasn't really present in the pilot or anything. With so little content even when the official show came out, it's kinda no wonder but it's still a little surprising considering their old status as a couple.

Ah, but I'm rambling! Back on topic, I didn't think of Mimzy until I was asked about it (which as silly as it is, it was really neat to see people ask about this au!). So I've since thought a bit more and all that I've said in the ask is pretty much close to on point with how she acts. I do think, however, that considering she ALSO knew Alastor in life just as he had her, she would be slightly aware of... something being amiss with her feelings. Not insanely, she's just as bad and unaware as everyone else with the obsession she has over him. She just is able to remember her feelings on Earth and compare them to her current feelings and recognize that they're not exactly the same. The problem is that, she's Mimzy. She seems like the type who'd be in denial about something being wrong with her, but I feel like she'd recognize while not thinking too hard about it that the love she felt on Earth is seemingly altered in Hell. The line "I'm not sorry for loving you" feels really good for her here when considering most of everyone else around Alastor WOULD be sorry if they had a more clear mind about it. But Mimzy wouldn't be sorry about it because she always loved Alastor, even back on Earth (in this AU anyway)

Mimzy's obsession is unique in that, rather than doing anything to Alastor she does things to HERSELF to get to Alastor, she doesn't have as much to be guilty of compared to others in her actions due to the curse. She gets herself into trouble, makes herself sick, self-harms, and has probably threatened to kill herself to get his attention, which not great and all very manipulative, but she never forces Alastor to do anything and could be (I don't know if I'm settled on this idea yet) rooted in her own self-esteem concerning the self-harm stuff. And it works. Alastor is canonically close to Rosie, but he never knew her until Hell so in this AU, he doesn't know who the real Rosie is. He knows who the real Mimzy is though, and he doesn't want anything bad to happen to her. So ironically, the person who pushes themselves onto Alastor the least does probably get most of his attention.

I can imagine a scene like this where he's patching her up and they're talking and Mimzy brings up how she's perhaps confused with her own feelings considering how different they are from life. And I can just imagine Alastor feeling more ill at the idea of Mimzy having always loved him romantically but never saying anything if she confessed that, despite how crazy her feelings for him feel in Hell are, the feeling of love and wanting him in a way he doesn't reciprocate was always true since their time alive.

I'm just rambling, but like I said in the ask Mimzy is probably one of the more tragic cases of what the curse does to Alastor's relationships. She's also probably the closest Alastor can feel to having a true friend again, even if Mimzy is still pretty far from her actual self around him. But she's familiar and would probably be the biggest driving force for him to try and get rid of the curse (other than the obvious harassment). He enjoyed Rosie before she made him sick, and he enjoyed Vox before he revealed to be the absolute worst in his thoughts about what he wanted from and to do to Alastor, but Alastor only knew them in Hell. And as far as he's aware, the curse starts immediately, so he NEVER knew the real Rosie or Vox. But Mimzy was someone he knew and wanted to be real with again... and could pretend to be real with again given a few drinks.

[ghostly-bat]

Damian being mentally unwell during pregnancy?

__________

Damian never really has the cleanest bill when it comes to his mental health.

How could he, after all? He spent the first decade of his life being severely indoctrinated and groomed into being the perfect killing machine, fooled to lead humanity into what his ailing grandfather envisioned and later was thrown into a foreign world governed with an even stranger law.

(he loves his grandfather, truly, and he believes the man had loved him back too. However, his love for the world is too big and has doomed him. Has doomed all of them.)

They all hate him then. He wasn't exactly easy to love, didn't really try to be either. He was just another obstacle— a hurdle to overcome, a problem to solve.

(if only Damian knew how much he was loved, how easy it was to love him, how many he has chosen to open his damaged heart to despite being hurt over and over for it. They'd go to war for him.)

So, to say that Damian simply has a few mental health issues would be underestimating it to a huge degree.

He had countless nightmares of people who he maimed and killed, sometimes sees their apparitions linger by the doorway. Even though he had prayed for them to go straight to Heaven, a place he certainly would never see, they're still here.

Jon liked to believe that Damian is comfortable enough to tell him all of these; to rely on him through thick and thin. He is, after all, his husband. The father to their children. He loved to think that, at the very least, Damian would share his burden as partners with him and tell him if it ever gets better.

He couldn't be more wrong.

He should've thought that Damian would become more erratic, more reckless with himself in light of his self-hatred being amplified. Jon has heard stories of new mothers (or, ah, someone who's experiencing pregnancy) subjected to extreme self-loathing following up to their incubation period.

So when Damian declared he wanted to stop taking his medication for a bit in light of his pregnancy, fearing it might negatively impact the development of their babies/baby, Jon should've seen the red flags. They all should've.

Instead, they all only gave him words of advice, before leaving Damian to ferment in the dark world of his mind.

And one day, Damian would disappear.

___________

What do you think?

What do I think? I think this made me cry is what I think 😞 (maybe it's cus it hits a little too close to home for me at the moment with being mentally unwell)

But god this is absolutely devastating and so achingly in-character. you really captured how deep-rooted damian’s pain is — how it festers in silence, especially when he's most vulnerable. the line about how he thinks everyone sees him as a problem to solve?? the kind of thing that just sticks.

And the bit about jon thinking damian would tell him when things get bad... that quiet assumption of trust, only to realize too late that damian’s brand of love has always been about protecting others from himself, even when it kills him. that hurts.

Also the detail about him going off his meds during pregnancy??? so real and terrifying. like of course he’d do it for the baby. of course everyone would think they’re helping. and then of course it’s not enough.

I’m just. Ugh and he disappears. of course he does. this is so good. thank you for writing this 🥲

[ameliagiovanna0]

More chenford word vomit

@morganupstead @anothergolddustwoman @sylvies-chen and I talked at length about this and I needed to organize my (read: our) thoughts

They were headed straight for the wildfire, and Ridley did absolutely nothing. He knew what he was (not) doing. It wasn't a rookie mistake or something that could be explained away or a half truth. It was concrete. Wonderful grounds for termination, if you ask me. When he came in and told Tim and Lucy that he put the fear of God into the weather people, they both knew he was lying. That look they shared said it all. Not to mention that he lied to Tim's face. He's not going to let that go. He was letting Lucy handle Ridley when it was rookie mistakes and half truths, but now that both of their lives have been put in danger and he lied directly to Tim, it's not going to go over well

I'm going to restrain myself from talking too much about Tim's character development because I've already talked a ton about it, and I'm sure I'm a broken record at this point. However, the baked potato scene shows a lot for Tim

Side note: the baked potato was heart shaped?? I'm fInE

Tim started rambling and I didn't think too much of it. Anyone would be scared as hell in a situation like that. I didn't think about it until Morgan brought it up. But Tim and one of the men in his Army unit were trapped in rubble in Afghanistan. Aside from everything that he was experiencing in that moment - wanting to tell Lucy he still loves her, the unresolved issues with their relationship, the prospect of burning to death, Lucy's safety - he was reliving the entire Ray situation too.

Tim said he wanted to tell Lucy something. They might die, and the one thing he wanted to tell her was that he still loved her. Lucy knew what he was going to say, but told him not to say anything at all because she knew, no matter what he said, that it would make her cry. *clears throat, screams* SHE KNEW WHAT HE WAS GOING TO SAY BUT TOLD HIM NOT TO SAY ANYTHING AT ALL BECAUSE SHE KNEW WHATEVER HE SAID WOULD MAKE HER CRY

Lucy asked if the fire blanket would work and he started rambling, and for once, she had to shut *him* up. And she did so by interrupting him and putting her hand on his chest, which was honestly adorable and so fraught with meaning all by itself. The dialogue was everything. The bickering, "You have somewhere else to be?"

"Doesn't matter!"

Then the, "Of course I still love you! Do you?"

There is literally so much in these two lines. Tim didn't break up with Lucy because he stopped loving her, quite the opposite, really. He broke up with her because he thought she deserved better, and he didn't like what he saw when he looked in the mirror. Lucy never stopped loving him either, she's just struggling to understand why he did what he did. And she's hurt.

"So that's a 'yes!'"

Yep, dying. Dead. Hurled over a cliff. Lost my mind right then and there.

They're huddled together in the dead ass middle of the wildfire from hell and they're still bickering?? A ship bickering is like crack to me, but specifically these emotionally charged moments when they can't help but be themselves and revert to their roots

"You're infuriating!"

"I know! I know."

Lucy put her hand on his chest and he cradled her head I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING

THEY WERE BECOMING BAKED POTATOES AND ALL TIM WANTED WAS TO PROTECT HER AIVJCBNEIWFLVJN

Grey's relief when Tim radio-ed in was absolutely palpable. He couldn't handle losing another kid, let alone two. He's such a papa bear 🥺

They're crawling out from under the blanket and STILL bickering??? MY HEART

Tim reached for Lucy and Lucy wasn't expecting it, she tensed for like a half a second, but she let him hug her. I think Tim also knew that she would let him because they both faced that horrific moment together and needed comfort. She put up with him throughout the ordeal, she could deal with a hug. But whether she realized it or not, I think she needed it too. All the Chenford hugs have been so emotionally relevant and I can't

Abby, as per usual, says all the things better than I can. She basically said that in those super emotionally charged moments, chances are that you're not going to be delivering a heartfelt soliloquy, you're just going to be on edge. And I think that's exactly what we see from Lucy in the hospital

I will say though, the look on Tim's face when he said his priorities were clear and Lucy started talking about her career kinda stabbed in me in the heart, ngl. Tim was putting himself out there the best way he knew how, while still trying to let Lucy lead and regain her trust. So when she didn't admit that she still loved him too, I think that really hit him hard

But I also get where Lucy is coming from. She was made to feel like she wasn't his priority when he broke up with her. She put her career on the line when she made the five player trade then with the detective's exam and then the break up happened, so in a way, it makes sense for Lucy to want to worry about her career. She's guarding her heart too. Because "If we do this and it doesn't work out, I'll have ruined the most important relationship in my life," and that goes both ways. Yes, Tim broke up with her, but the point still stands. It *was* the most important relationship in her life and it and it's not there in the same way anymore

Plus, it wasn't that Lucy doesn't still love him, it's that she didn't want him to say it (1) just because it might be his only chance and (2) because they hadn't fixed things yet. She wants to repair their relationship and trust before jumping back into "I love yous." She wants to do it right, and saying it like that was too messy, even if it was true

BUT Tim made the comment of Lucy being out of his chain of command, and she gave him a cute little smile about it. The hospital scene had some flirtiness to it despite the looming chaos and fear

Like I said, they never stopped loving each other, but Lucy wants to do everything right. She wants them to heal first

And Lucy taking the sergeant's exam is honestly so amazing!!!!! Finally getting the promotion she deserves. She should've had the golden ticket before Nolan, but that's a whole other thing. She deserves all the good things!! Plus, it gives her the option to do patrol, investigations, and undercover work. She loves UC work, and she's so good at it, but it's not conducive to a normal lifestyle. Being a sergeant is a great way to do it part time.

And to quote Raq, Lucy is in her s1!Tim era. The love of her her life broke her heart, so she was closed off and threw herself into her work. And Tim is in his s1!Lucy era with his support group and therapy

TL;DR? Chenford still loves each other, even if Lucy didn't say it out loud. It's just a matter of healing right now. Sergeants Bradford will soon be upon us

[renard-dartigue]

You know, Kendrick receiving the grammys is well deserved. However, a part of me worries about him. On GNX, specifically in 'Wacced out Murals' and 'Reincarnated', Kendrick took his beef with Drake seriously. He was genuinely worried that he and/or his loved ones might be killed. Obviously for us as spectators, it's easy to see this stuff as just music. But the often misunderstood culture this music comes from, while beautiful and inspiring, can become dangerous real quick. It's happened before with Tupac and Biggie.

So naturally Kendrick wasn't going to play around. In a way, he's almost lucky Drake is a poser. Drake may have some dangerous connections or knows someone with dangerous connections given how long he's been in the industry. Thankfully, aside from Drake's bodyguard getting injured, there were no casualties in this beef aside from Drake's reputation and some of Kendrick's friendships.

I'll be honest, the night Meet the Grahams dropped, I was terrified. I saw people joking around about how the track itself scared them. Me, I was scared something bad was going to happen to Kendrick. Either Drake or a benefactor puts out a hit on him. I was so stressed I could barely sleep, scared I'd wake up to tragic knews. Some people joked about how Drake would have to kill Kendrick after this, not realizing that there was a non zero percent chance that could have happened.

And it's clear in GNX that Kendrick was slightly worried as well. 'Reincarnated' highlights that the beef really did mess with him psychology. Not because of anything Drake did but because of the stuff he himself did. Given what we know about Kendrick's character, a dedicated religious father who seeks to uplift his community through song, this beef made him realize some things about himself he never knew.

I personally think Kendrick regrets writing Meet the Grahams. While he may still agree with everything he said, he probably feels ashamed that he let the his emotions get the better of him. Drake slandering his family and childhood friend ignighted a hatered in him he truely didn't realize he was capable of. There is no denying that the song will forever impact not just Drake but his family too, especially Adonis. He might think he took things a step too far.

After cooling off, he likely wrote Not Like Us as a pallet cleanser. Just to deescalate the beef a little. And because it was released soon after the ominous track that is Meet the Grahams, the lighter track hit harder.

Man I feel like I'm just rambling now, point is that I hope Kendrick is doing okay mentally. He portrays himself as tough and unbothered on the outside, likely a coping mechanism he developed while growing up in Compton. But his music proves that he has a big heart and is extremely passionate about hip-hop. I hope he doesn't feel like he just put on some big spectacle for outsider to laugh and clap at before returning to the status quo. He's bringing hip-hop back to it's more authentic roots. It won't happen in a day, but it's a step in the right direction for the genre. And it was going to happen with or without him receiving awards.

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

Having spent the last few weeks un-fridging Catherine Todd, let me tell you, I NEVER want to see another motherfucker complaining about how Jason was """fridged"""

Like, sorry folks but he just fucking wasn't!!! Even if he had been a female character, that would not have been a fridging. The narrative at all times was deeply concerned with his internal experience of the world, his motives and emotions, and always considered him a human being whose agency and autonomy needed to be considered and highlighted. At least half of Death in the Family is about Jason's wants and needs and his attempts to fulfill them. Jason constantly makes decisions that alter the course of the story.

"Oh but his death was used for the development of the other character and the tone of the narrative as a whole" yeah, no fucking shit, of course it was, that is the entire fucking point of killing a character off! When a character dies, they stop developing through their own story arc, so they can only effect the arcs of other characters. The fact that this is done disproportionately to women is only one part of what the concept of fridging is about and reducing it down to only that ignores the real meat of why fridging matters.

Fridging is about the way that female characters are killed off in ways that disregard their agency, write off any choices, emotions, or motivations they might have had as not worth examining, and pointing out that the reason female characters are so often killed this way is because women are thought of as being less capable of agency and less fully people than men.

A good way to tell if a character has been fridged is to ask yourself "Hmm, if this woman was replaced with a literal bitch, an actual four legged puppy dog, would the narrative meaningfully change?"

Catherine Todd was fridged for Jason. She has no opinions, no meaningful personality traits, no agency in her own story or basically anyone else's for that matter. She is sad. She is addicted. She is dead. That is the whole of her character. Her entire purpose is to be a bullet point of angst in Jason's backstory. If you replaced her with a dead dog, none of Jason's story would be meaningfully changed.

"Oh but she was a parent, all the Robins have dead par-" They why was it Willis Todd that got resurrected in order to turn Jason into the 'Damned Prince of Gotham' and not her? It's because misogyny. If you come to any other conclusion why Scott "Known to Write Misogynistically" Lobdell didn't make Catherine Todd the one to come back, you are fucking kidding yourself. She is a female character and was therefore not given the same consideration as the male characters, it is as simple as that.

We all have every right to rail against the way Jason was killed off, the way the narrative blames him for his own death, the ways that he has been badly mishandled. He's even a character that's suffered due to prejudice! The classism in the way he's handled is really strong! I also think there's a ton of value in an analytical comparison between the ways that Jason's mental health is treated and the origins of mental health stigma that are rooted in misogyny. The Jason Todd Hysteria Essay is a frequent reread for me.

However.

None of this makes him "female coded" and any serious comparison of how female characters are treated and how he is treated must inevitably run into the truth that he does benefit from all the privileges that a male character gets for being male. He is treated in classist and ableist ways, and both classism and ableism intersect with misogyny, but the fact of the matter is that he does not have direct misogyny wielded against him and the female characters around him suffer from misogyny to his benefit.

You can call his death obnoxious, a callow cash grab, poorly thought out, bad for his character, of overall detriment to society, et.c. and be perfectly justified in doing so

But if you claim that he was fridged you are factually incorrect and for the crime of ripping the label off of a feminist theory (and failing to learn what it means beyond the most reductive single sentence 'definition' possible) for the benefit of a male character I sentence you to having all of your socks dipped in musty ass bog water.

[paigemathews]

do you think in the altered future timeline the relationship between leo and chris has improved much? because watching the show post reveal and post og!chris death it seems to me that leo is driven mostly by guilt but once chris is born, baby chris is kinda relegated to second thought and not doted on and worried over as much as baby wyatt ever was. the only person who seems to put him first is piper as though she's the only one who's really learnt her lesson

i feel similarly about paige and phoebe and how they look (or don't look) after their new nephew in contrast to how protective they were/are over wyatt. leo is there for chris like piper is but ultimately i think he's still prioritizing wyatt so when we see glimpse of an adjusted chris in the altered future i'm like okay so how did we get here because i don't think the show really earns it, i don't look at leo and go he is transformed and would def put both his sons first now

Unless I'm forgetting something, I don't really think that Leo prioritized Wyatt over Chris. (The only thing coming to mind was when Chris was dying, but seeing as Gideon was the only one who could heal him, Leo had to go for both of them.) I mean, yes, there was the discussion of the unchanged future, but that wasn't current Leo, so I don't really see why he would need that character development. Tell me if I'm missing something, but I didn't really get the idea that Leo prioritized Wyatt over Chris. (More on that below bc I want to talk about their relationship in the changed future first.)

I think that Leo and Chris's relationship is definitely improved, but I think it has new and different tensions! (Who is Chris without daddy issues?) Because Leo has that regret and trauma and doesn't actually manage to overcome it, but even if he had, watching your child die in front of you is going to impact that relationship. I feel like Leo has this extreme overprotective streak that would drive Chris crazy because I mean, Chris is pretty hyper independent. From Chris's perspective, without context, it comes across as Leo thinks that Chris is less skilled and more fragile, which definitely pisses him off bc it just brushes up against the whole complex with the Twice-Blessed as an older brother. I think that he definitely takes it as a comparison thing between Wyatt being so powerful and Chris not. Mel definitely gets some overprotective tendencies as well, but I think it's easier for Chris to get over that bc a) since Mel isn't a hybrid, she can't teleport out when she gets in over her head so it makes sense to worry a little more over her and b) Mel doesn't really seek out demons with any kind of the same frequency that Chris does (and demons seek out Wyatt), her power is freezing, and both of those things mean that she doesn't actually get injured that often.

However, Chris's issue is primarily rooted in that he feels like Leo doesn't think that he's as capable of Wyatt. If it would work, it might have led to Chris trying to prove himself, but instead, it's much more on that Chris just doesn't... tell his dad when he's going demon hunting and will go out of his way to make sure that he can't find out. (I'm pretty sure that's actually how we get our introduction to Magic School library assistant/Wyatt's coworker Kaila (and future med school student) in the main series is Chris getting her to fix up a few scrapes from a demon attack instead of getting healed lmao.) It definitely upsets Chris, but it's something that he's more used to dealing with bc he's Wyatt's younger brother and a lot of people genuinely view him as less capable. It definitely vastly improves their relationship actually lmao because at least this time, it's Leo's excessive worry over him instead of indifference or apathy.

(But speaking of regret, I have an next gen series episode idea floating around my head that I'd love to do if it I can fit it into the storyline logically. A demon who takes the form of your greatest regret attacks the Halliwells, and Leo walks in during the fight and Wyatt and Melinda (who have no idea of the unchanged future or the time travel for the necessary context) see it transform into Chris. Mel might try to punch their dad. (Leo's regret is failing to save his son.))

But honestly, I think that a lot of the relational differences to Chris and to Wyatt are less in-universe and more as a result of the show overdoing it when Wyatt was a baby and not wanting to repeat basically the same exact stuff with Chris again. And I mean, even with Wyatt still getting plotlines, he's a toddler and has more storyline options than Chris (who is basically a potato at this point) does since they kind of used all of them. Plus, there's the difference that Wyatt was the firstborn so it actually makes sense that he got a lot of the "Oh God how are we gonna keep this thing alive/safe from demons" elements that weren't as necessary with Chris. That was also around the time that both Phoebe and Paige had more separate plotlines/independence in comparison, so it makes sense that they weren't as intertwined around then to me. But I think it's really mostly an out-of-universe thing bc we already did baby plotlines in all honesty.

[confoundedluna]

okay I got back from the UD movie like half an hour ago, I promised a post with my thoughts so here it is, warning here that this will have spoilers for anyone that does still wanna see it spoiler-free, I have tagged it as such

let's get into it ig - apologies if this is Long lmao

TL;DR - passable horror movie, Bad until dawn movie

so I'm gonna start with the positives, because I don't think it was entirely Awful, even if my overall opinion isn't great

the best things were absolutely the cinematography and the practical effects, which I've seen many people praising too even in more negative reviews. there were some really great original shots that really built some tension, and some really well integrated recreations of shots from Until Dawn - the best was definitely when the character of Megan (Ji-young Yoo) uses the radio, and when she gets stuck on a glass ceiling which is cracking under her, which evokes Emily in the fire tower. the gore was really well done and believable, it wasn't overly edited with CGI like some other films have done in the past, and that really does help with the mood of the film. sets were also well done, lots of details. the recreation of Hill's office was Perfectly done and even things that weren't one to one were very closely recreated and very clearly evoking what they were trying to, like the mines and the sanatorium

another thing was there were a few jokes and lines of dialogue that did land well that weren't ripped from the game, though the most entertainment I found was Definitely in something that I really don't know if it was meant to be comedic or not (though judging by how the marketing has referred to it, I'm assuming not). there were more references to the game than I was personally expecting, and a few moments that are basically film versions of the Don't Move mechanic, which was fun.

that is, however, where most of my enjoyment stops

I'll start with the main gang of characters. I did not connect with them, at all. yes, that's common in horror, but that's because most of horror casts will end up permanently dead. the final character or smaller group of them within the overall group is usually more developed, and there's usually at least Someone to root for. the entire cast of characters all survive, bar the missing sister who is confirmed turned and then killed. most of the cast I felt nothing towards, and the only one that really got any kind of interest was Belmont Cameli as Abel (I'll be calling him Abe since most of the characters did if I refer to him again). he's the asshole of the group - he's willing to leave others behind and sacrifice them to save himself, and though I wasn't in any way rooting for him to live, at least I got some entertainment out of him and a few of his lines. This is highly unlike Emily and Mike, the most comparative game characters, who both are at least kinda assholes depending on your playthrough, but you still end up rooting for them because of how they fight to survive, through their chases and their relationships with the other characters. I didn't get anything like that for the movie group. I didn't care about them finding the missing sister, because there is no lead up event that gives me any kind of sympathy for her or anything like Hannah and Beth got through the prank and falling off the cliff. we're just told that she's missing, though we do see her die once as the opening kill.

the general setting also doesn't lend the same mood that the game has. there's an inexplicable storm that surrounds but doesn't cover the building and woods area that the film largely takes place in, but it's a far cry from the snowy, isolated mountain. even if the sets are well done, the general setting isn't right. until dawn is very large, with the lodge, the basement, the hotel, the sanatorium, the mines, the cabin, and the cable car stations. the film largely sticks to one building, the welcome center, until the ending. i suppose it's an attempt to get the same isolated feeling, but a mountaintop and a few small buildings are very different.

the story i was Hopeful for when i heard the premise, because I did believe that a time loop could lend itself very well to the story of until dawn (before hearing it wasn't going to be said story). however, the loop really isn't utilised to its fullest potential. the set-up was that every night would be a new threat, and it also ends up being that the threats sometimes carry over. there's simultaneously a witch who possesses characters, and the Psycho knock-off, for example. however, the film then completely drops the ball on this. many people said that it wouldn't be possible to do the story of the game because of the large amount of content, and I'm glad they didn't try to, because they couldn't even do the majority of their own content. Most of the thirteen nights that they can survive but don't are shown through brief video footage, skipping over what could have had character development or something more directly, from a few nights in to the final night. this footage is purposefully glitchy, masking anything interesting happening for the little time we see it. it feels rushed, and like a cop-out way to show Some stuff but not commit to it. it's played off with the characters not being able to fully remember each night, with the only way to reliably track how long it has been being the guestbook that is signed at the start of each loop, but it's just not well done in my opinion.

my Biggest issue is with the threats and villains/antagonists of the nights themselves. the majority are only briefly shown, but a few do get more screentime. this is the Psycho knock-off, a witch, water that makes you explode (yes, the 'bad water' leaks from ages ago Were in fact real.), the film version of game's creatures, and Dr Hill. the witch is the least important here, and the Psycho I'm only mentioning as I need him for a comparison.

I'll start with Hill, because he is the main antagonist of the film. He's supposedly the same character as from the game, and he is the main mastermind behind the events of the film. The area that the game takes place, there was an immense disaster that caused an entire town to be wiped out, and he was sent in to help any survivors deal with their trauma. he is (somehow, this is never explained) controlling the time loop, using it to study fear and the effects it has on people. Clover (Ella Rubin) is the one influencing this current loop, her fears manifesting as the threats within each night. yes, this also ripped off Silent Hill. the Psycho is apparently a 'common' occurrence, and the bad water is 'quite rare', and due to her 'self-destructive tendencies'. he is also defeated by said water; he sets his coffee mug onto his desk Directly Next To a leak of the water and monologues to Clover, who has seen this water Explode Most Of Her Friends and knows that there is No Other Normal Water within the area, and he Turns His Back On Her, during which she pushes his cup under the leak and then back from it. he drinks the coffee and explodes, and since the gang then lives to dawn, they're free to leave - the storm surrounding them stops. despite this, the ending of the film is the monitors from his office changing to show recreations of the game lodge, with a car pulling up, and him whistling over said scene (which is something he just. does in the movie, for some reason.)

this is. an interpretation of Hill that feels a Lot like someone watched an out of context clip of him in Josh's final hallucination or the one where he yells at the Psycho showing up in his office. game Hill is a hallucination, plain and simple. he was created from Josh's mind, which was going through withdrawals and severe trauma as well as just a general history of mental illness. the real Hill was concerned about Josh and directly tells him not to go through with the prank, not to stop taking his meds. he had even actually Helped Josh for a period, as the report clue that can be found mentions Josh Improving after Hill treats him. there's a great Reddit post from the UD subreddit that talks all of this through very well:

put simply, this Hill does not line up with the game Hill in a satisfactory way, and if a sequel with the remake Sam teaser Does go ahead and turns him more into the film version, I think it's an immense disservice to Josh's character. his motivations are his own, he chose to go through with the prank because of how he was suffering, Hill is him, his mind, and not someone with ulterior motives. retconning it into something that was done for Hill's personal gain takes away from that. the film showing him having a report on Josh as well as on Clover, and the way he whistles over the monitors of the lodge setting, seems to imply that Josh is just another in his time loop experiments. if this is the direction taken by a film or game sequel, I'm sceptical of how it would work.

the next thing is I feel something that the fandom and people following the game and movie in any way Need to talk about more, but I've only seen mentioned by a couple of people so far, and that is how the creatures work within the film. they are clearly intended to be the same beings from the game, using the same name. they are this only in their name, and in the fact that they eat flesh. they are more like general zombies than what they are supposed to be.

the Biggest problem, however, is how they are created. while the game has rightfully received criticism for its use of Native mythology, particularly for having a white actor playing the character that is named after a real person and is supposed to be Native, what I have also seen is that its portrayal of the creature is far more accurate than most media. compared to the deer skull and antlers portrayal, the game version (the stretched, bone thin, starving, cold person) is incredibly faithful.

the film version shares traits within the physical transformation: losing hair, growing teeth, nails sharpening, and focus is drawn to the spine coming out of the skin. the transformed characters do not move in the spidery way from the game, and do not seem particularly stretched in the same way as the large game versions, but they do seem to see based on movement, and the faces do resemble the ones in the game. however, the most important part is what Triggers the transformation. it isn't succumbing to cannibalism and being possessed by the Native creature's spirit. while immense hunger is Mentioned as happening within the loops in a video within the film somewhat akin to the Events of the Past, it is the loop itself and being trapped within it, constantly dying, that is what transforms you. the characters do not ever mention experiencing any kind of hunger as they transform (thirst is shown within the bad water loop so it Could be read that they're also hungry, but it isn't confirmed outright), despite this being key to the lore of the creature in both reality and the game version of events. though i'm not Native myself, so I cannot speak on a personal interpretation there, this seems Immensely disrespectful, taking something that is a part of Native mythology, and turning it into something that happens to you because of something that a white man has done (Hill with the time loops that he has purposefully trapped people in).

the film version of them also just. kinda suck? which is far less important, but is very much worth bringing up. we see throughout the game the immense presence and strength and power of the creatures. they're (most of them at least) decades old and still incredibly powerful. only fire can kill them, and hand-to-hand combat with them is Not something that ends well. the film version? one is defeated by being repeatedly stabbed in the head, even if it is still moving throughout this, and another from being impaled through the stomach on a stone spike. both times, overpowered by the teenage characters that are barely shorter than them. the Psycho, by comparison, seems invincible. and he almost is! he is only killed within the final loop, and this takes three of the gang working together and using an Enormous pickaxe to smash his head in. every other attack (throwing things, stabbing him) does nothing to him. he's akin to Michael Myers, with his ability to just have attacks bounce off without damage.

another thing I want to bring up but wasn't entirely sure where to put it is the character of Megan, who I mentioned before. she's given some form of psychic abilities, able to sense how the nights are getting worse, being possessed by the witch without being near her (unlike Clover, who has to be gassed by her), and generally more impacted by the situation compared to the others (she gets sick when they first arrive, for example). i saw it suggested that this somewhat stands in for the player and the premonitions we can get from the totems in the game, and I suppose this could be true? but her treatment within the film is just. it stood out as oddly. i guess vicious? to me. one point is that her deaths seemed far more exaggerated than the others. with the bad water, everyone else that drinks it simply explodes, kinda like Ready or Not. Megan? first one of her legs explodes at the knee. the her stomach inflates and explodes as she's crawling on the floor. then her head explodes after that. with the witch possession, she's shown as being in immense pain, eyes rolling back in her head, screaming very shrilly, and then she floats. she's seemingly briefly possessed by others that have gone missing, stating lines that they would have said in their own loops, and then her neck promptly snaps itself after she warns the others that things are going to get worse with each night. she also wears a butterfly necklace, which feels important to point out. I don't know, it's just. something.

basically, the film's a little slow to start up, the middle was probably the best part, the ending peters a little and the survival of the entire cast, even after they all experience several deaths, just doesn't feel earned or like something i really wanted. i won't say that i had an outright Bad time, but that was because I knew going in that it wasn't going to be an until dawn movie, not really. and i feel like it's. y'know. a Bad thing when someone has to actively pretend your adaptation has nothing to do with its source material to even remotely enjoy it.

I want to say that I have absolutely no ill-will or hate towards anyone that did enjoy the movie, fans of the game or not, these are my own personal thoughts and opinions as someone very autistic about until dawn that dislikes change and would have straight up been happy with a ten hour shot by shot recreation of a path of the game.

hope y'all that read this far enjoyed my rambles lmao

[miss0atae]

Century of Love : Good ideas, Good acting, Meh ending (EP 9 – 10)

I'm again late to the party. We’ve finally reached the end of Century of Love. It wasn’t a series I thought I would enjoy, but I was pleasantly surprised. I’m glad I was convinced by others to watch it. Again I have to admit how great it is sometimes to have found really interesting people’s blogs to read here on Tumblr. It can sometimes make you see something in a different light. You will always find so many different views. Sometimes you’ll agree with them and sometimes you won’t see the same things as them. However, it’s always interesting. That’s the beauty of any work of fiction: you’ll always have something to say about them and it’s not the same for everybody. This time I won’t develop one point from the series. I’ll focus on a summary of what I feel about it.

Things I really liked about it:

◾ The story itself was interesting. Reincarnation mixed with Chinese mythology to have a BL story in Lakorn style. Century of Love used the Lakorn formula to offer something different among all the great QL series we got this year. I also believe it was good that the story didn’t really give us a proper answer on who was the real reincarnation of Vad / Wat. It lets the viewers to decide what he prefers. The only thing to keep in mind is that it’s better to let the past stay in the past and to fully live in the present. That’s the only way to love and to be loved.

◾ We had great characters too even if sometimes some of them were a bit too much for me. I guess it’s because some were classic Lakorn characters (New Vad / Wat was a perfect example of this. She was just too much at the end). However, two characters got my heart in this series. Firstly, I would say Vee was my favorite character. I like how he was a combination of cheeky, playful and loyal. You just wanted him to find a cure for his grand-ma and to charm this handsome grumpy youthful-looking grand-pa. My second favorite character was Third, who played the childhood friend doctor of Vee. He was supposed to be the reincarnation of Lord Trai the ex-fiancé of Vad / Wat who killed her. However, in this time, Third has only been an ally to the main couple, even if he had feelings for Vee. He was there when San and Vee needed him. He never shy away from telling the hard truth and I’m glad he wasn’t just here to create a rift between San and Vee. I hope Tao and him get to have their own little romance.

◾ I was also impressed by Offroad and Daou's acting. I have to admit I never understood why people liked them before. I wasn't a fan of their boys band (LAZ1) and I didn't like their previous series, Love In Translation. I tried hard to get into it, but never felt the hype. However, here in Century of Love, I really liked them. Their acting was good and they would engage you to root for their characters. The chemistry between them is quite good and it makes you believe in the romance of their characters. Now, I'll be more interested in any other series they may do. Let me add too that I find Offroad really handsome. His smile is so pretty.

◾ The goddess had a really nice sense of humor. She must have had fun. Good for her!

Things I didn’t like:

◾ It's quite common in QL series especially Thai QL series, but I didn't really like the end. I'm glad Vee and San got their happy ending because I would have been really sad if they didn't get it. However, I felt like the end was rushed to fit the 10 episodes they were given. I also didn't like how San made this stupid move to not tell Vee the truth about how he saved him. Instead of thinking together of a solution, he left and let him deal by himself with the loss of his grand-ma, but also his disappearance. This was dumb and it seemed so out of character for San to let someone he loves suffering alone.

◾ I felt like they didn’t handle well new Vad / Wat appearance. It’s like they didn’t know if they wanted to make her a villain or a side-kick. Hence, she was stuck in this role where you wanted to root for her, but also where you were annoyed by some of her actions. I felt like she could have been better used by the story. I also saw how many viewers seemed to like her. They should have make something of it. I admit it was interesting that she didn’t have the same personality like the previous incarnation of Vad / Wat (just like Third wasn’t Trai). I don’t know I just wished for more from her.

◾ The five colored-stone power and the deal with the goddess made no sense after they used the stone to save Vee. We've been told San needed to have it to give it back to Vad / Wat to end his deal with the goddess. We've also been told he needed to be close to the stone to be able to not feel the pain he would always get until finding the reincarnation of his lover. However, when he gave it to Vee it shouldn't have matter. Unfortunately for him, even if he was close to Vee, he still felt the pain. Also, even if the stone reacted positively to Vee, giving it to him to save him, wasn't like ending the deal with the goddess. I wish it was because it would have avoided a needlessly complicated break up for San and Vee. The series never gave us an answer about why the rules changed suddenly.

One thing I can't explain, but felt it wasn't good enough. However, in the end it didn't matter:

◾ Let me get it straight. I created this category only to talk about Juu. I was so conflicted about this character. I have to admit I found her a bit annoying sometimes, but she was really a nice girl deep down. I felt bad not liking her as much as other. Especially as she was always trying to help the main couple to be together. Don't get me wrong, I like the actress and I feel she did a good job. I guess I forgot how young Juu is and that's why I felt like she was too much.

[crackshct]

40. What do they wonder about? What sparks their curiosity and imagination, and why? How is this expressed, if it is?

Character Development Questions | accepting

From what we've seen of Boothill so far, both from flashbacks and his numerous other appearances in the story, he seems to be a person fully grounded in reality and the five senses. "The world is what the world is" - in other words, he accepts what he sees at face value, mysteries and all, which means there's not a whole lot he'll spend his time wondering about. He's not the type who has to know what he doesn't understand so long as he can work with or around it. Make no mistake though: this doesn't make him a fool. I think instead, based on the short scenes we've gotten of a young Boothill with Graey and Nick and some of his character stories, this lack of wondering is rooted in a sagacious appreciation for and trust in the natural world that he knows will keep turning whether he unravels its mysteries or not. It makes him perceptive and adaptable, and allows him to devote his attention to other, more practical things.

This doesn't preclude a healthy curiosity, but I think that his curiosity is turned toward what is immediately observable. He likely asked Nick a number of questions whenever they were out riding: "what are those fish called?" "why does the grass come back greener after a wildfire?" "is one type of bullet better than another?" along with more philosophical questions about topics like death and revenge even when he didn't fully understand the answers at the time. Likewise, as an adult, he speaks with the experience of someone who's had his fair share of trial and error and is pretty confident he knows what outcome he's going to get for the decisions he makes these days, but he's not afraid to ask "why?" when he encounters something new. This, however, doesn't seem to go much deeper than the first answer he gets.

On the other hand, imagination as an extension of wondering (e.g. daydreams, theory) isn't really his thing. I think this is made the most clear during the Slumbernana hypnosis scene in 2.6, when the researcher asks him if waking up from a dream brings him misery, and Boothill waxes poetic about the beauty of his homeland.

"Misery? Why, no! It's a shame you're stuck in a dream, can't lay eyes on the land I love. It's so gorgeous, you'd be willin' to die right there."

For him, dreams, imagination, and all other kinds of simulation don't compare to reality. He would rather be awake and engaged wholly with a world he can touch and feel. Even with the destruction of his homeland behind him, he knows that there's no point in wishing for what's already been lost, and so eternal paradise doesn't tempt him either. The path of the Hunt dictates that one move ever forward, not back, after all.

Doesn't mean he doesn't have a sentimental streak though. His text message chain, where he sends the Trailblazer some recordings of the night sounds from the desert he's camping in because they're so beautiful, is one of my favorite text chains in the game. But I risk getting off topic with that one.

Perhaps if his life was a more peaceful one, where he wasn't fighting for survival daily, driven by an immense and insurmountable pain, he would have more bandwidth to dedicate to abstract and theoretical pursuits, but as it is, there's little else that holds his attention beyond the tangible path of revenge.

tl;dr : Boothill respects and appreciates reality, warts and all. He doesn't need to know the unknowable, nor does he spend his time with the abstract. What he can take in with his five senses satisfies him just fine.

[flower-boi16]

"I Wanna Dance With Some Ollie" Is a Good Episode, Actually (A Response to The Alphajay Show)

Before I start this post I want to say that I am a fan of The Alphajay show, I really like watching his content and I think he makes good videos. That being said, however, the TGAMM segment in his "Ranking The WORST Episodes Of 2023" video is awful and just gets a lot of shit wrong to the point I especially have the motivation to debunk what he says in the video. So... let's just begin.

He starts off the segment by saying this:

"I Wanna Dance With Some Ollie is one of the worst episodes I've seen this year. And it's one of the most disappointing episodes I've ever seen since making this channel. And to basically summarize my video on it, the first season of Molly Mcgee builds up her character perfectly. You have the girl who moves from town to town. Wanting to build strong memories in her now forever home. Even if she was cursed by a ghost. Her positive aura radiated the otherwise miserable town and her ambition combined with her amazing musical sequences and solid comedy that took her do gooder attitude, and gave her a very much welcome edge for an amazing character who I rooted for to save the town and was ready to watch season after season of it....she threw all of that away for a boy named Ollie"

....what? No she didn't. I really don't know what Jay's talking about here? Molly didn't throw away her goal of enhappifying the town for Ollie, all she ever did was just get a crush on him. Saying that she threw all of that away for a boy seems kinda disingenuous to me. It just looks like he's mad because...Molly got a crush on a boy. Like, is she not allowed to have crushes or something? After this he says this:

"However this isn't just romance shifting a person into doing things that they otherwise wouldn't do because that's natural that's understandable. This is about a show, brut forcing a romance that otherwise wouldn't have made sense without understanding why people clammer over the ones done right. I brought up Spider-Verse earlier and that's a great example of romance done right. Gwen has her own life own motivations and her own cool aspects that are not connected to Miles. Likewise, as said in my video about Molly Mcgee, Luz and Amity from the first season of The Owl House worked because Amity had a life, motivations and cool aspects before liking and meeting Luz. Also the Grom episode wasn't the like the 5th episode that they went to. They actually built up the tension of wanting to see them get together."

Wait...does Ollie not have his own aspects that aren't connected to Molly too? Like, he's a kid who was taught to hate ghosts and became a ghost hunter, and he got a whole episode where he went through character development over his guilt about hunting ghosts, not to mention the whole conflict of his parents finding out he's friends with a ghost. Ollie also does have aspects about him that are not related to Molly, are the ones I just mentioned somehow not enough?

Alphajay is saying this as if Ollie's entire character is just about his romance with Molly and that his whole character revolves around her, but that's just objectively false. After that he complains about the episode "Beats you over the head about how much it wants to you spread the ship" which really isn't worth talking about so lets talk about the thing he says after that:

"You'd think the girl who went to the ghost world and defeated the chairman to free all ghosts would be a little bit more quick to explain why Ollie shouldn't be discriminatory towards all ghosts, especially Molly's best friend who is a ghost who gets caught and trapped at that very same concern"

Ummmm...

Alpha. Didn't she literally try to do that in Book Marks the Sprite? Ya know, the last episode these two interacted in before this? She did try to explain to Ollie that ghosts may not be evil but she wasn't able to convince him.

So after that he ends the segment and moves on to talk about an episode that I am assuming is from modern Spongebob. Again, I do like Alphajay's content but a lot of the stuff he said in this segment was just straight up objectively wrong. 

[st-hugs]

I have a lot of thoughts on squid game s3 and I'll put them below in a read more. This is copy pasted from a convo I was having with a friend about it haha

Gi-hun's motivation is sadly out the window after failing to stop the game in the first place, which really does dampen the rest of the show.

I saw it as Gi-hun attempting to stop the system/cycle of exploitation only to fail. Paralleling how companies and execs exploit their workers/talent through a major power imbalance, treat them as disposable, and usually any chance of stopping them and such sadly never works (in reality), the people who usually spearhead/lead for these companies go on to continue to exploit elsewhere (hence the set up for squid game us...... speaking of. Kate Blanche i love you but i dont care about a western adaptation). Gi-hun's spirit was shattered after he failed to stop the games in s2 and seemed like he had given up entirely until he got involved with 222...

the baby being left behind and saved at the end is a spark of hope, but even when reading all this from the season, it feels like such a waste because it wasn't executed the best. I think the director definitely intended for the season to feel quite hopeless, but I really do feel like the show would've benefitted more with some of the characters we were invested in lasting longer. I can kind of see that maybe these minorities/vulnerable groups were knocked out sooner to aid that exploitation read though as usually these groups are more likely to be tossed to the side (the elderly, lgbtqa+, mental health struggles (the religious woman, but i dont know if she was either mentally ill/has a disorder or just a manipulative person..shes kinda less developed and she was a lil hard to watch because she didn't care much for those around her but ANYWAY), single mothers/women as she is the only woman left at the end -- you could even say those with drug addictions were knocked out too but could be a stretch), and all it leaves are all these greedy middle aged men flocking together or ready to do what they need to succeed, whether it be cheating or lying or exploitation of the weakest/vulnerable people left.

However I found it hard to stay with the show bc Gi-hun was the only one left, and tbh, knowing his motivation was broken, he's now just making sure this baby survives and i think that's why my investment was dying a bit -- I simply didn't care enough because all the other characters I poured my time into were picked off so early in the season. Their character moments and deaths were really well done, but while I could see what the director was going for, I only wish they could've stuck around even just a little bit longer. :^( the sour feeling was the point but it backfired for me a lot and just kinda left me defeated imo

The rogue guard was cool and I was rooting for her that she would save 256 but I wasn't quite as invested in her as the others.

The detective's entire arc felt useless, he just dicked around in a boat for the entirety of the 2 seasons and did a horrible job in finding the island. I think he was honestly dumb to not see something off about Park earlier. It was quite disappointing because he was so proactive and kinda badass in s1, so to see that his story kinda amounted to not much at all in the end just felt so piss poor.

I can see the intention behind a lot of the choices, but a lot of them either amounted to nothing/were cut way too short, or completely wasted opportunities. Maybe the episode count hindered it a bit and it did force things to conclude without any closure, but I can't be sure.

I know the director suffered a lot trying to create the rest of squid game and I worry immensely if it's because of the different culture in korea; I'm not sure how shows are usually produced there or if they are overworked, but I can see why these themes resonated with him a lot. he did go through quite a lot of exploitative stuff himself, or at least witnessed it. It's just kinda sad that he seemed so stressed and his health suffered a lot to create it. It makes me wonder if the production was strict or he was overworked, or if it was the pressure, but can't be sure. It's still sad though. I still respect him a lot as an artist/storyteller, just a shame that squid game didn't really come together how most would've wanted in the end.

Ah OK update I'm reading that his experience was when he was trying to get squid game produced only to struggle getting it picked up leading to debt. A lot of his work tends to be social commentary and often leads down dark themes due to lack of justice in a lot of these things

I think in s2 and 3 he decided to explore more of that explotative side of capitalism and how they treat folks from underrepresented/overlooked backgrounds

[acourtofthought]

Do you think Elain would actually try to get back to her human self somehow? I saw a lot of people think that she’d be in cahoots with Koschei because she wants to be turned back. I think the “I don’t want a mate/male” quote and Feyre thinking she wants a human man thing is in ACOFAS, so since then things have changed. She seems more accepting of the fact that she is fae, she just hasn’t accepted Lucien yet. These ideas mostly come from the evil Elain theories which I really don’t like anyway 🙄 but if Elain and Lucien are connected to Koschei I hope her trying to go back to humanity isn’t her main plot line. I hope she’d be over that by now

Elain did say "I don't want a mate / male" but then turned around and developed a crush or flirtation with a male shortly after which suggests progress.

SJM isn't the kind of writer to wave a magic wand and make these characters traumas disappear so Elain saying she didn't want any of the above after the war, after losing her father, after Graysen's rejection, etc. are not surprising.

She was thrust out of a world she loved and into one where she was turned into a being she grew up fearing, suddenly finding herself kicking beats and stabbing kings in battle. I think it's normal that she was trying to distance herself from extremely fae things like mating bonds and relationships with non humans when she really hadn't had times to come to terms with the fact that she is now fae and living in a place that is so unlike what she was used to.

However it's been over a year since the war. Nearly two years since she was turned. Elain may not be ready to fully embrace being fae (as Nesta wasn't ready until the end of her book) but that doesn't necessarily mean she wants to go back to a life where she knows people turned their backs on her.

Also, I can't recall a single SJM main character hero / heroine who has tried to work with the bad guy for selfish reasons and not ended up looking like the villain.

(spoilers for TOG to follow)

In the ACOTAR series we have Rhys looking like the bad guy because he was working for Amarantha. But....he ended up the hero because he was actually protecting his entire court and trying to find a way to free Prythian.

In TOG, we had Dorian seeming to work with Maeve. But in the end, he had only been playing her, finding how her powers worked so he could use them against her.

The above are two scenarios where a main character looked like they were working for the big bad only for us to discover they were using their intelligence to turn the tides in their favor.

But.........

In ACOMAF, we have Tamlin playing double agent to Hybern. Even though he was gathering information that did benefit them in the war, his main reason for allying with Hybern was to get Feyre back.

As a result, SJM made his character one that now "sucks" (her words from an actual interview with Eva Cheng).

Tamlin may get some sort of redemption but my guess is he's never getting his own book. With his journey, the author has told us that when a character tries to play double agent for selfish reasons it's not going to leave them looking like the hero, even if they were also trying to gather information on the side.

So Elain trying to ally with Koschei to be turned human again? HOW does that end up with her as a heroine?

First, it means she's willing to put others at risk for her own selfish desires, that is not FMC energy. Elain has had visions of Koschei, she knows he's kidnapped other females. Who would ever root for her knowing that she was willing to work with someone like him after that?

Also, Elain seeking him out then needing rescuing....isn't that just proving that she shouldn't have tried handling anything dangerous like Az believed? That she was a "little girl" trying to play in a "grown mans" world and failing? That Nesta was right telling her not to get involved with the Trove?

The only way the Elain / Koschei theory would work for SJMs kind of writing is if everyone thought Elain was working with Koschei for her own reasons but it's revealed she never wanted to be human after all. That she set out to prove she could best him with her intelligence and came out victorious (as Dorian did with Maeve or Rhys with Amarantha).

I am with you, there are so many more things that SJM could do with Elain's character than having her regress back to 2 years ago. We've already witnessed her at her lowest where she struggled with becoming fae and losing her life in the human lands. She's not 100% and I don't think she's thriving like she could be elsewhere but she has now made a few friends, keeps busy around Velaris helping others, developed her first "crush" on a fae male and now has a nephew to love. SJM would have wasted multiple books of Elain working through the worst of it and coming out on the other side to turn around and have her willing to put others at risk to become human again.

[pettyeddiediaz]

https://www.tumblr.com/eddiebestdaddiaz/780642753632714752/the-struggle-is-so-real-because-eddie-wasnt-in?source=share

So real!! I hate to be this sensitive, I want to enjoy the episode, but it's so...!!

And how ironic is it that we know for sure that Tmmy will be in the next episode, but we have NO idea really if Eddie will be there, and he's a freaking MAIN?! (That's bugging me more than it should, tbh)

I just think that even if it was intentional, to create this isolation for Eddie it wasn't totally necessary to completely erase him from existence😅

Sorry to have barged in

no sorries needed, i love opportunities to talk about eddie diaz

see my thing is i think i could have enjoyed it more if texas had felt more satisfying. i might be in the minority here, but i was so excited to get to texas and learn more about eddie. he is such a private character in terms of his repression of his own feelings, so i thought maybe getting to his roots would allow us to dig deeper. instead, all he has done is shown me how tenacious he is, how gentle he is, and how much he loves his son. all three things i already know!

and i see all the takes that this will be crucial for him to realize where he wants to be, but that also is rough for me because he has been saying since s3 the 118 is the family he chose. i mean maybe the main issue we will revisit is him realizing that he doesn't have to choose. that he can have christopher and what makes him happy? not sure, but i am holding out hope it will do him justice. it's just... at this point... we have given buck's pov on eddie's move more attention than any real development for eddie or chris. and it's a pattern. i love buck, and i thought 8x09-8x11 were really good. i just wish eddie got the same momentum.

i do think that invisible's eddie plot was supposed to be in the two parter, but tonally, it did not make sense. however, doing it before didn't really work for me either, i think, because it feels like they wrapped up the central texas conflict... but eddie is still in texas? logistically, i know the house ties him there, but in order for it to work for me, i am going to need to see eddie and chris talk about what is keeping them from LA on my screen. so much of this arc has been fed to us through tim interviews, and i think that makes it less compelling for me?

again, i am trying to be positive about it, but i can't help getting s6 flashbacks sometimes. i think if they give it the right attention (not even a lot of attention, but just purposeful scenes), it could turn out to be good. but for a character that is already isolated from the 118 narrative a lot outside of buck, it's tough to watch the 118 go through something like this together while eddie is isolated from the narrative again...

[lexicat2410]

The Secrets Of Us

The Secret History of Us

The Secret History of Us was honestly such a sweet book that pulled me out of my reading slump and was a lovely read overall. The book centres this girl named Olivia (Liv) who died but didn't due to this mysterious boy saving her and she wakes up with no memory of herself the last 4 years (She is 18 yet only remembers when she is 14 and younger.) Its a fascinating concept I would recommend reading it when you want something though provoking but light and a bit mysterious.

Pro's 1. The characters themselves were lovely or were understandable dislikable in a way that made sense to the character and did not just feel like it was done for plot convenience:

Olivia: The main girl herself, from the start I was rooting for her until the end of the book she was a great protagonist which I could emphasise with and I understood her curiosity and motivations throughout the book she was a sweet likeable person in general who you just root with throughout the book. Her identity crisis is understood as the way she is described how she is not unsure who she is is completely understandable to me at least.

Sam: Sam is Olivia's brother and whilst is not a central character he is personally my favourite character as he was one of the only people in the situation who seemed to care about who Olivia is now compared to who she was before the accident. This is best displayed in the bacon scene where basically a year before the accident Olivia was vegetarian but when she woke up she did not remember and doesn't really want to eat vegetarian stuff but everyone else is forcing her as that is what she was like before, however Sam looks past who she was before and is like be who you want to be not who others want you to be.

Walker: Firstly who names their kid Walker, anyway apart from his name he was a lovely character and a nice contrast to her boyfriend Mark as he did not expect her to be anything but who she was and is a genuinely nice person I approve of him as love interest.

Mark: He is Olivia's boyfriend but she doesn't remember him as he did not come into her life until she was like 16-17, he seems nice at first if not a bit weird like your girlfriend forgot you drop it please but I mean it is kinda understandable. Towards the end it is revealed he hid something and this wasn't done badly for the sake of the plot it seemed natural to his character. So I didn't like him but I was not set out to so theres that.

2. The whole memory thing was done really well I personally feel. My personal favourite was the vegetarian crisis as highlighted above but it was really cool seeing Olivia deal with her memories she had forgotten and her internal struggle that the person she was before might not have been the best sort of person and who she was really. These moments is when the book truely shined out to me.

3. I liked how the book was written it was from Olivia's point of view and she was lovely so it was just a nice comforting read in a lovely style of writing.

4. The plot was consistent and I liked the character development.

Cons: 1. The ickiness factor: The fact she thinks mentally she has been alive for 14 years whilst physically being 18 means that in my head she is mentally younger this might not be true but for me it was a bit icky that she dated 18 year olds especially Mark for some reason I think its that they has a personal relationship before that made this icky for me. Her with Walker she just seems more mature with him and he seems more open to her. Overall a small ick.

2. Paige. No I will not elaborate.

3. The plot was a bit slow but it was a small book I wished there was more plot but oh well not the worst.

Overall The Secret History of Us is a lovely novel I would recommend to anyone who wants a light read with nice characters and and overall nice if not a bit simple plot. It did what it set out to do well and got me out of a reading slump so it got 5 stars.