#SOCIETY if they let her direct the whole season

[sunfortune]

CHERYL DUNYE WORKED ON BRIDGERTON??????? this is crazy. kanthony has the lesbian gaze fr <— hasn’t watched bridgerton

worked on it? she directed the gazebo scene. we literally have FINGERS IN HIS MOUTH bc of HER!! i owe her everything !!!

[bibibbon]

What fails in MHA: gags/jokes

As well all know gags and jokes are everywhere in shonen but they are rarely done well in my opinion especially in MHA. There isn't a problem with having a bit of comedy in your manga but when the gag or joke either harms the characters development or just is offensive it tends to just fall flat at best and ruin the story at worst.

There are many common and multiple gags hori uses which I HATE:

Izuku/the midoriya family are crybabies. This is one that was VERY PRESENT during the earlier seasons which in my opinion ruined the show and many peoples view of izuku as a character. It makes sense why izuku would cry more then a regular shonen type of MC considering that he is supposed to be a "normal" teenager and he shows some very clear signs of anxiety. I understand when people get annoyed at how much he cries especially because it's very over exaggerated a lot of the time and just depicts him crying a waterfall when you could of just shown him tearing up. It's a bit more excusable for inko but it really doesn't shine a good look on her especially knowing that she is quite emotionally dependent on her son .

Katsuki being mean towards literally anyone and anything. We know that bakugo is a character who is going through a redemption arc to change and become a better person so we shouldn't see him be so aggressive and angry if he is trying to change especially if it's a joke. A gag like that really ruins his development and to me its the reason why I don't think he really changed his attitude or way of thinking towards izuku as much as people like to believe he has ( CANON BAKUGO AND FANON BAKUGO AREN'T THE SAME )

Perverted characters like mineta or sir nighteye .Yes, this is definitely targeted towards mineta and night eye because Iam still very disgusted by the scene of bubble girl and night eye and mineta just gives me the absolute CREEPS. honestly, idk what it is with hori and giving us these type of stuff it's honestly disturbing and disgusting I don't think I would mind if it were done to criticise or lambast something about hero societies pedophilic undertones and the way it loves to sexualise female characters but it's just there as a horrible gag.

Dumbing down denki and making him seem stupid. This is more of making UA look bad because Denki could of been seriously hurt in the usj because of the whole dumbing him down gag and while it isn't the worst gag in the show it kinda falls flat in my opinion and just makes ua look bad. It's also double standards in my opinion because he would be useless in battle if he were to overuse his quirk just like izuku.

The interview scene with mount lady. I don't understand why izuku was ridiculed for his lack of control when it came to blackwhip and it doesn't help that some of the characters where DEFINITELY ACTING OUT OF CHARACTER when they all had the same reaction.

There are some 50/50 gags that still failed due to horikoshi not letting them go or not handling them well.

Izuku's everlasting fanboyism of heroes especially all might. Look this one isn't that bad but like I just don't like the fact that he never grew out of it. I personally like to think that izuku was a big all might fanboy is because he saw all might as the only person who actually believed in him and gave him words of encouragement even if it was through a screen and even if those words where directed towards anyone not only him. As the story progresses izuku should grow to realise that all might is a flawed individual who has cared for him but harmed him at the same time.

Horikoshis perception of izuku being "too intense". This could of easily been incorporated into Izuku's character as an actual character trait that could be used as a gag from time to time. For example we see izuku over think everything or hyper analyse so many small things like fuyumi's cooking. There are moments where izuku seems to come off as weird to other characters and I feel like that shouldn't happen or it should be handled in a better way. I mean how is it that someone doing something so simple as looking at a video intensely will freak/weird you out compared to someone who has a weird quirk or a passerby doing something weird

There are definitely A LOT MORE THAT IAM PROBABLY FORGETTING.

However, hori does have some good gags/ jokes in my opinion, yes they are rare but they do indeed exist like:

Kirishima's manliness. A lot of the time this actually promotes positive masculinity which is something that is definitely needed and it also helps develop kiris character a whole lot more

This one interaction between jiro and tokoyami. I really liked it, it didn't come out as sexual which is something I really enjoyed and you can clearly tell it's just two classmates vibing and trying not to die

Tokoyami and his whole darkness persona. Idk I guess this is me but I like it, it adds a lot to tokoyami while also not being overused .

This one Iam 50/50 with and it's yuuga and his whole I like cheese and I can't stop twinkling persona. I think it adds more depth to his character and foreshadows his role as the traitor to a certain extent but I also find it a bit stereotypical considering the fact that he is french and yuuga will just end up speaking in basic french words and then Japanese

Hawks favourite food ironically being chicken wings. It's simple but it also makes us closer to hawks and can make him a bit more relatable to people

Izuku, iida and shotos hand crusher joke. That has to be my favourite joke in the series it literally didn't end up mocking anyone and cemented one of the best MHA trios

Overall, hori sucks at making truly enjoyable gags and has a lot that harm characters developments especially surrounding his MC Izuku but he can sometimes actually provide enjoyable ones.

[dreamwritesimagines]

Enamored [47] - The End

A.N: And the last chapter❤ I cannot thank you enough for your wonderful support throughout the story my loves, ILYSM ❤ And as always, thank you @theskytraveler for helping me with the chapter and the story❤

Summary: Everyone finds their home, sooner or later.

Warnings: Regency era society and social rules, mentions of sex, some gender specific language and terms, mentions of pregnancy.

Word Count: 5700

Series Masterlist

The morning of the ball was nothing if not complete chaos.

It felt as if nothing would be completely ready by the time for the ball to start, even though you had basically stayed up until dawn to make sure you hadn’t overlooked anything. You barely had any time to eat or sit down during the day and instead spent the whole time either in the ballroom or in the yard but now that you were looking at the result—

It looked absolutely amazing.

The opposites theme of the yard and the ballroom was impossible to miss. While the yard looked like it was made of chaos and fire, the ballroom seemed almost otherworldly with the waterfall in the middle, white and gold adorning the whole room. The foyer would serve as a transition point between the chaos and the peace –vices and virtues- and it was filled with pastel colors and flowers leading to the ballroom.

You and Lucie had been in your bedroom for almost two hours now. The modiste had worked her expertise yet again, as you could see from the gown you were in. Just as you wanted, it seemed to be the perfect depiction of wrath; blood red and nearly intimidating. The skirts of the gown was slightly wider than the rest, and the top of the bodice matched the thin crown placed on your head; both had sharp and pointy rubies like red shards of glass, gleaming in the candlelight. There was no doubt that your costume alone would be talked about by the ton, seeing how unusual it would appear among the sea of light colored gowns symbolizing virtues.

Well, it was the night for revenge after all.

Speaking of the night, now that you knew for sure Frederick would be captured tonight at the ball –Anthony had presented the papers and the proof to the court earlier today—, you could hardly control yourself. You had been feeling guilty for lying to everyone around you, so when Lucie was finished with your hair and gown, you had sat her down to explain to her what had been happening lately.

“So that’s why we have been fighting,” you finished your story while Lucie gawked at you, still covering her mouth. “Well…feigning fighting that is.”

“You’re jesting.”

You shook your head. “No. I’m sorry that I had to keep it from you Lucie, I couldn’t tell anyone.”

“But all those arguments…”

“It was for the ton to hear about, from the staff. You know how it is.”

“And sleeping apart?”

You nodded in the direction of the door leading to Anthony’s room from yours. “We exchanged rooms when everyone went to sleep.”

“The divorce?”

You waved a hand in the air. “Not happening of course. We’re madly in love, and the mere rumor of it was enough to lure Frederick. It worked better than I expected.”

Lucie let out a laugh and rushed to wrap her arms around you to hug you tight, making you let out a giggle.

“Oh I was so worried!” she said, pulling back. “I’ve never felt happier to be tricked.”

You clasped your hands over hers and sat down on the bed, pulling her to do the same. “Will you forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive,” she said, shaking her head. “Except for my sleepless nights for worrying about you, that is.”

“Everything is alright,” you assured her. “And I apologize again.”

“Does anyone else know?”

“Us, Elias and Cece and my father.”

“No one else?”

“Father told Aunt Lavinia I think,” you said. “Everyone else will know tonight, thankfully. I could no longer bear this deception.”

“God, it must’ve been so hard…”

“It was,” you said. “But it’ll be over tonight. And besides; the season is ending, we’re all going back to the countryside next week so it’ll be even better. I could use a break from London and this whole thing.”

Her smile faded slightly and she stole a look at you, making you tilt your head.

“What is it?”

“My lady, there is something I must tell you,” she said. “I—I didn’t even entertain the possibility because I thought you were unhappy, and I would never leave you alone if you were but…”

You pulled your brows together. “Lucie, I’m happy beyond words. I assure you—and I happen to think this has strengthened the bond Anthony and I have.”

“Yes, and I’m so happy to hear it,” she said. “But I was wondering, since we will go to the countryside after the season is over… After we settle you down in the Aubrey Hall of course, I was wondering if I could have a change of employment?”

You pulled back slightly, your heart doing a painful flip.

“What?”

“I mean now that I know you will be in good hands…”

“Wait Lucie—is this because I had to lie to you?” you asked almost frantically, “I really do apologize and it was never my intention to hurt you, you must believe me—”

“No that’s not the reason at all, it’s a much more pleasant reason actually,” she assured you and you licked your lips.

“What?”

“I wish to have a change of employment because,” she swallowed thickly. “Because I’m in love.”

You gasped, pressing your hands over your chest. “You’re in love?” you repeated. “Oh Lucie, that’s amazing! With whom?”

She paused for a moment and took a deep breath.

“Your cousin.”

You blinked a couple of times and your stomach sank.

“Oh no…” you whispered to yourself. “Lucie, you’re the loveliest person in the entire world but I’m afraid Kenneth is—um—he has someone in mind—”

“It’s not the future Earl of Ashdown,” she cut you off. “It’s Lady Iona and…I’m glad to say that she returns my affections.”

You stared at her for a moment before it dawned on you and your jaw dropped.

“Oh my goodness!” you said before reaching out to hold her hands again, a huge smile pulling at your lips. “Isn’t it the most wonderful feeling in the world Lucie? Falling in love?”

She let out a relieved breath and nodded, blinking back the tears. “It is,” she said. “And you’re not…angry at me for not telling you?”

You shook your head fervently.

“God no!” you said. “I do apologize wholeheartedly though.”

“You apologize?” she asked. “For what?”

“For trying to matchmake you with that jeweler’s son back in Paris,” you said. “And then the chef’s apprentice. And then the—well you understand my point, had I known beforehand I would’ve tried to matchmake you with a lady, or a maid, or oh!” Your head shot up. “Or my modiste back in Paris, she was very beautiful if you ask me— but I suppose it was fate. You were meant to find love in London just like me.”

She let out a happy sob and hugged you tight again.

“Thank you my lady,” she said. “And yes. I suppose I was.”

You pressed a kiss on her cheek and pulled back to look at her better.

“So you wish to go to Scotland to be with Iona?”

“Yes my lady,” she said. “She offered multiple times and I said no but now that I know you’re going to be happy, I was wondering if it would be such a terrible thing to do.”

“It’s the best thing to do,” you said and wiped at your eyes. “I must admit it pains me to even think of being apart from you, but you must follow your heart Lucie. It would be incredibly hypocritical of me to ask for anything otherwise. You found love, so you should be with the one you love.”

She offered you a small smile, blinking back the tears and you took a deep breath.

“But you must promise me you will come to visit as much as possible,” you said. “And I will visit Scotland too, Aunt Lavinia invited me before, and—and it takes a week for the letters to arrive in England from France, and it probably takes less time between here and Scotland, so we will exchange letters all the time.”

She nodded. “I couldn’t bear not knowing what you’re doing.”

“The feeling is mutual,” you said with a smile and sat up straighter. “And now I will tell you what my father and Elias told me before I married Anthony. Before I left Avon House to move here.”

“What is it?”

“No matter who you decide to be with, or for how long,” you said. “My house will be always open to you, and you can come back whenever you wish. No questions asked. Bridgerton House and Aubrey Hall will always be your home, and it will always welcome you whenever you wish it to.”

A sob climbed up her throat and you cupped her cheek.

“And I’m afraid I must put my foot down because it is not up to negotiation,” you said. “You may be employed there and such, but in addition to your salary from there, your salary from me will keep coming to Scotland—”

“My lady, I can’t possibly—”

“I’m not going to hear it Lucie, my decision is final,” you said and offered her a small smile. “My father made sure I was protected in every way before letting me marry, you must simply let me do the same even though it’s in unofficial ways.”

She smiled back at you and sniffled. “Thank you.”

You wiped at your eyes and let out a small laugh.

“Well now I’m afraid no one will see me as wrath because I cried,” you joked and she chuckled.

“No no, I’d say you still look intimidating.”

A knock on the door made you turn your head.

“Come in?”

The door opened to reveal Anthony and he paused for a moment, his gaze fixed on you, a look of surprise crossing his face.

“I will leave you be,” Lucie rushed to her feet. “My lady. My lord.”

With that, she left the room and you got up from the bed to drop an exaggerated curtsy.

“So what do you think?”

Anthony closed the door behind him and strode to you to pull you into a kiss, making you giggle.

“Darling you look divine,” he muttered to your lips and you ran your fingertips over the lapels of his jacket that were lined with gold threads, gleaming against black fabric.

“And you look very handsome as always,” you said. “Are the guests here?”

“Most of them. They’re by the yard for the fireworks, and your fire breathers are gathering quite the attention.”

You gave him a proud smile and he tilted your chin up to look at you better.

“Were you crying?”

“Oh I was just…emotional.”

“What happened?”

“I will tell you later,” you said. “Shall we go then?”

He grinned and stole another kiss from you, then offered you his arm. You let out a laugh and took it, and walked out of the room with him.

When you got to the yard, you were nearly pulled away from Anthony. Not that you could say anything, considering you two were still pretending to be on bad terms, but almost all the guests seemed to have something to say to you. After greeting all the Bridgertons and Lady Danbury— and managing to dodge their questions— you caught the sight of your family entering the yard so you quickly excused yourself to make your way to them.

“Hello everyone!”

“Wow,” Kenneth commented. “I knew you would wear something scandalous but not this,”

You shot him a grin and pressed a kiss on your father’s cheek.

“Father,” you said before kissing Aunt Lavinia’s cheek as well. “And welcome!”

“Y/N, this is amazing.” Aunt Lavinia said and your father nodded.

“You look so lovely my dearest.”

“Thank you!” you said. “Let me guess, Aunt Lavinia you are wisdom and father, you are…”

“Temperance.”

“Y/N guess what I am!” Iona said excitedly and you tilted your head.

“Give me a clue?”

“Me and Ken decided to come as Aristotle’s virtues!” Iona said, motioning at herself. “I am friendliness and Ken is truthfulness.”

“I was going to come as a vice but she insisted,” Kenneth said, pointing at Iona and you giggled.

“Well you both look amazing!”

“I cannot believe there are fire breathers,” your father said. “Are we sure that’s safe considering you and Elias being here?”

“Father!”

“I’m just expression a safety concern,” he held up his hands, gesturing surrender with a grin and you heaved a sigh.

“Speaking of, where are they?”

Kenneth pointed at somewhere over your shoulder and you turned your head to see Elias and Cecily entering the yard. A smile pulled at your lips and as if on cue, the fireworks started, drawing gasps and noises of admiration from the crowd. You quickly approached Elias and Cecily and hugged Cecily, then Elias.

“Welcome!”

“It looks wonderful Chérie,” Elias smiled at you. “And so do you.”

“Everyone is already talking about your gown,” Cecily said and you grinned.

“Why thank you,” you said. “So Cece, I know you are Hope and Elias you are...”

“Love!” he said, motioning at the small heart pinned on his jacket. “I’m Love. I figured since you’re not going as that…”

“Good choice, it suits you.”

“And wrath suits you,” he said before his eyes caught the sight of something to your left and his jaw clenched. “Speaking of wrath…”

You stole a look in that direction and that familiar fury roared through you as soon as your eyes fell on Frederick. He raised his glass and looked around, then made his way to you.

“Make sure father is alright,” you told Elias and he took a deep breath.

“Chérie…”

“These are his last hours, Elias,” you murmured. “Anthony already presented the court the papers, they know where he will be tonight. It’s just a matter of time until he’s gone for good.”

Cecily squeezed at Elias’s arm.

“We will be with Lord Avon and Aunt Lavinia,” she told you and pulled him in their direction as soon as Frederick reached you.

“Well well…” he said, “It seems that you took after your mother on how to throw a ball as well. She certainly knew how to gather attention, both to the ball and to herself.”

You narrowed your eyes.

“I didn’t know you would be here.”

“Why would I not?” he asked. “Your husband invited me.”

Of course. Frederick would have got suspicious if you had invited him, but having Anthony invite him had only served to make him believe this deception even further.

“Oh did he?”

“A smart man, your husband,” he said as the fireworks kept exploding in the sky and you grabbed a drink from one of the trays. “Too bad he was blinded by love before you got married but I’m glad he’s seeing sense now.”

“And let me guess, you’re helping him?”

“It’s only fair,” he pointed out. “After all, you have come between me and the one and only thing I wanted in the world.”

“My mother never wanted you,” you deadpanned and his jaw clenched.

“Careful there.”

You tilted your head. “Or what?” you asked and he gripped the glass tighter. “It hurts doesn’t it? Deep down?”

“What?”

“You hate me and my father wholeheartedly,” you said. “But my mother loved us both. She loved me and Elias and my father more than anyone or anything in the world. But you? You went through all that, even more than 20 years later you’re trying to take some sort of revenge because you made yourself believe you loved her, she on the other hand didn’t even care about you at all.”

“You have no idea what you speak of.”

“I do though,” you said, looking him dead in the eye. “It’s not that you lost her, you do realize that? You never had her to begin with.”

He gritted his teeth.

“Let me tell you something about my parents,” you said. “My mother was so in love with my father that even after not seeing him for more than twenty years, his name was the only name she was saying on her deathbed, like she was talking to him. The same with my father, after his incident, when he had fever, when he was on death’s doorstep, all he could see or think about was her, he thought he was speaking to her. In their case it makes sense but in your case, I can’t help but find it ironic, almost.”

“Ironic?” he repeated. “And why is that?”

“Because when it’s time for you to die,” you said. “You’re going to go through the same. You’re going to see her, but…she won’t answer.”

A shadow crossed his eyes and you smiled.

“So yes, it’s ironic,” you said. “Because my mother felt love when she was dying, and I’m sure so will my father. But you? You will only feel the pain of never being loved by the one and only person you wanted the most in the entire world.”

He stared at you and your smile widened.

“Enjoy the ball,” you said and walked away from him to your family, fireworks still exploding in the sky.

                                                           *

By the time the firework show was finished, everyone was already impressed by your ball but you were nowhere near done. The ballroom made the exact impact you wanted as soon as the doors were opened, and people had spent so much time just admiring the setting and complimenting you before the orchestra started.

You and Anthony hadn’t danced yet, you didn’t want to raise any suspicions in Frederick until the last moment, but you could almost feel how much he wanted to be close to you because you were taken by the same urge as well. You absentmindedly played with your necklace and stole a look at him to see him repress a smile, twisting his ring around his finger. You stopped the warm smile threatening to pull at your lips as well, and turned your head when you heard someone clear their throat.

“Hugh!” you said, grinning at him and he bowed his head.

“Lady Bridgerton.”

“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t come.”

“And miss your first ball?” he asked. “Never. Apparently my sister is in love with one of the lords in here, so I had to wait for her to pick the perfect gown. Took an hour.”

“Abby and Edith are here too?”

“Mm hm. Just over there, see?”

You looked to the corner of the room and waved at them.

“I will welcome them in person and thank them for coming,” you said and tilted your head at Hugh. “How angry would you be at me if I told you I’m planning on matchmaking Abby with the one she loves?”

“You know who it is?”

“Mm hm.”

“Who is it?”

You shrugged your shoulders. “I’ve had my experiences with my own very protective brother, I will not betray Abby that way thank you very much.”

He threw his head back and groaned. “Y/N!”

“What?” you asked airily. “Besides if it’s true love, you cannot possibly be thinking of standing in their way.”

“Will you not rest until you wed all my sisters?”

“I will not rest until everyone that I love finds true love,” you corrected him and he stole a look at you before sipping his drink.

“And how do you feel?”

“Hm?”

“I heard about the…” he motioned in Anthony’s way. “Rumors. Are you alright?”

“Oh!” you said and nodded. “Of course.”

“You don’t have to lie to me, you know that.”

“I’m not lying to you,” you said. “Trust me. It will all be alright in the end.”

He heaved a sigh and you offered him a small smile.

“But enough about my love story,” you said. “How about yours?”

“Hm?”

You looked around to check whether anyone was listening and leaned in closer.

“How are you and my cousin?”

He shot you a light hearted glare. “Your cousin and I decided that we should remain friends actually.”

You gasped, pressing a hand over your chest. “What?”

“Mm hm.”

“Oh no, that’s a disaster!”

He pulled his brows together. “Not it’s not, I told you—”

“Are you very heartbroken Hugh?” you cut him off. “When I was heartbroken I locked myself in the house and I refused to see anyone, do you feel the urge to do the same? Because I can be there for you and visit you every day if you’d like, I have experience in heartbreak now so if you ever need—”

“Y/N, I’m perfectly alright, and so is he,” he said, nodding in his direction and you looked over your shoulder to see Kenneth catching his gaze, then raised a glass in his direction. There was no hostility whatsoever in his eyes and you frowned in confusion before you turned back to Hugh.

“But you were in love!”

“No we were not, as we both told you over and over again.”

“But I saw you two…um—”

“You do realize that not everyone whom you happen to like spending time together has to be your one and only love?”

“You were kissing though!

“To repeat, it doesn’t mean we’re each other’s true love.”

Your frown deepened before you heaved a dramatic sigh.

“Very well then,” you said. “I had originally planned to put all my efforts into finding Edith her one true love after I was finished with Abby, but I’m afraid this is more urgent.”

“Uh oh.”

“I will find you your one true love, a lady or a lord,” you said. “And I shall do the same for Ken when I visit Scotland. I think he prefers lords though, so I shall find him a dashing lord.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Besides, we’re family now,” you said, motioning between yourself and him. “We will visit each other a lot after the season is over, remember?”

“You’re always welcome in my house but I’m begging you, please—”

“I will throw a ball at the Aubrey Hall as well, I think that would multiply the chance to find someone who happens to catch your interest.”

“Why is love like the plague for you?” Hugh asked. “Just because you have it, does not mean you should infect everyone with it.”

“I will not stop until the whole world is as happy and in love as I am,” you said, wagging your finger at him in a threatening manner and he repressed a laugh, holding up his hands.

“You don’t have to be so menacing about it.”

“It appears that I must,” you said and he heaved a dramatic sigh, shaking his head.

“Will you change your mind if I fight you on this?”

“Of course not.”

“Thought so,” he said before holding out his hand. “A dance with the lady of the house then?”

You smiled at him and took his hand, then let him lead you to the dance floor.

                                               *

An hour into the ball, you had already danced with Kenneth, Elias and even your father before accepting Mr. Sinclair’s dance request. Now that he was completely smitten by Jane, for the whole dance he hadn’t stopped talking about her and made sure to thank you for introducing him to his true love, a statement that put a smile on your face. However, towards the end of your dance with him, you caught the sight of Cecily walking out of the ballroom so as soon as the dance was over, you grabbed another drink and excused yourself to look for Cecily. After a maid informed you that she had gone upstairs to the washroom, you quickly made your way to upstairs as well to knock on the door.

“Cece?”

“A minute!” she called out before the noise of heaving reached your ears and you scrunched up your nose, then leaned back to the wall.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want me to get Elias?”

“Oh no, I don’t want him to worry, this is—” she was cut off as she heaved again, then cleared her throat. “This is completely normal, as terrible as it sounds.”

You repressed a small chuckle and soon enough she opened the door of the washroom, wiping at her mouth with a towel.

“Should I send for a maid?”

She shook her head and offered you a smile.

“I’m getting used to it actually,” she said. “As much as one could get used to it, that is.”

“I do not envy you on that part,” you pointed out. “But I admit, I envy you on every other aspect of it.”

“Oh don’t worry, I’m very certain that soon enough you will be going through the same thing that I am going through right now.”

You sipped your drink. “Who knows?”

“I do,” she said and frowned. “Where’s your other earring?”

You touched your earlobes and let out a whine.

“I must have dropped it on the dance floor,” you said. “Great. I’ll just change them and look for it after everyone else leaves.”

She grinned. “Maybe a jealous lady stole it.”

You burst into a laugh. “Cece!”

“Could happen.”

“No it couldn’t,” you said and her grin widened.

“Alright alright…” she said. “I’m going back to the ballroom then.”

“I’ll be right there,” you said and made your way to your bedroom. You put your glass on the vanity, quickly grabbed another pair of ruby earrings –the spare ones you had saved for tonight- and checked your reflection in the mirror. You turned a little to check if your gown still looked as good as it did when you first walked into the ballroom, then smiled and grabbed your drink again before leaving the room.

It was only when you reached the hallway that you saw Anthony on the other side and you tilted your head.

“What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you,” he said with a small smile and you grinned.

“I had an earring emergency,” you said. “Why were you looking for me? Is everything alright?”

He looked over his shoulder as some noises reached you from the foyer downstairs and then turned to you again.

“You wanted to enjoy the view from a good spot, did you not?” he asked and as soon as it dawned on you what he was implying, your breath got caught in your throat, then you rushed past him to reach the mezzanine, where you could look down at the foyer that seemed to be swarming with people now, giving you a clear view.

“Let go of me at once!” Frederick’s voice rang through the foyer as two men –armed guards, as you could see- yanked him into the foyer. “How dare you? What is this?”

“Earl Woodhall, the parliament found that you have committed forgery and fraud,” one of the guards by the foyer said, not even moving an inch as your eyes caught the sight of your family, Lady Danbury and the Bridgertons leaving the ballroom as well to step into the foyer, the remaining guests following them. “You have broken her majesty the Queen’s laws as well as the parliament’s, and you will be punished accordingly.”

Even you could tell that all blood had left Frederick’s face as Anthony came to stand beside you while a dark smile curled your lips.

You wanted to see the look on his face one last time.

You held out your arm and let the glass slip from your grasp and in mere seconds it hit the marble floor, shattering into pieces, the sound gathering everyone’s attention considering how it was completely quiet because of people’s shock. Frederick’s head snapped up and Anthony threw an arm over your shoulder, raising his glass at him with a small smirk while you tilted your head, a pleased smile apparent on your lips.

“…You.” Frederick growled and you leaned your elbows on the railings, letting out a small laugh.

“It was about time you saw what real revenge looked like, and you’ve made it very easy,” you commented, entwining your fingers with Anthony. “Goodbye Frederick.”

With that, the guards dragged him out of the house and you stole a look at Elias and your father, who were both wearing similar smiles before turning to the rest of the guests who were staring at you and Anthony.

“Speech?” Anthony murmured and you nodded, then cleared your throat.

“Well now that the only traitor among us has been taken away and soon to meet his fate,” you said with a smile. “Allow us to welcome you to the Bridgerton House, and the last ball of the season.”

“Hear hear,” Elias called out, raising his glass and you let out a laugh as people started clapping.

“First of all, we would like to thank our dearest friends here who knew what has been happening for the last month was nothing but a necessary deception to uncover Earl Woodhall’s crimes,” you said. “Thank you so much for keeping our secret and not telling anyone.”

Anthony raised his brows and repressed a smirk.

Of course. The ton liked to be involved in anything and everything, especially any kind of secret. So by making them think some people among them knew your fights and divorce rumors were nothing but a deception, you were making sure that they wouldn’t suspect anything otherwise.

You were certain that so many people were going to tell each other they had known all along, even if they had been the first ones to jump on the divorce rumors.

“And to the rest who did not know,” you said. “For not being able to share it with you and for making you worry, we apologize.”

“Wholeheartedly,” Anthony said, pulling you closer to press a kiss on top of your head, earning a chorus of “aww” from the guests and you giggled.

“The second part of fireworks are going to start in half an hour as a celebration,” you said. “So yes, thank you so much for coming, and we hope you will enjoy the rest of the ball!”

Another round of applause exploded through the hallway and Anthony kissed the back of your hand, then winked at you.

“Come on,” he said. “We should go and get scolded by my family before we celebrate with yours.”

                                                 *

The ball was finished towards the dawn, and in your opinion –and also in almost all guests’ opinion, as they kept telling you- it had been the best ball of the season. After everyone left, instead of going back to your bedroom, you pulled Anthony by the hand to step outside, and went to the yard to sit down on the grass, with him following you. He leaned back to the tree you were sitting under, then pulled you closer to hold you in his arms, nuzzling to the top of your hair while you made yourself comfortable, resting your head on his chest, twisting his ring around his finger.

“I can’t believe it’s over,” you murmured, keeping your eyes on the gorgeous shades of orange and red painting the sky and he chuckled.

“Me neither,” he said. “I’m actually relieved, I kept thinking something would come up at the last second. That he would somehow figure it out.”

“He was too blinded by his hate to figure it out.”

“Lord Moore told me that his wife didn’t even tell him about our plan, but apparently she knew.”

“Mm, I overheard the same from Lady Bolton,” you said. “Apparently she knew as well.”

Anthony scoffed a laugh. “Unbelievable…”

“Do you think your mother and Lady Danbury forgave us when we explained it to them?” you asked. “They looked like they forgave us.”

“I think they did forgive us, but I can’t say the same for Eloise.”

“Oh me neither,” you said. “But I mean, this time next week we will all be together at Aubrey Hall, so she will have to forgive us.”

“After some bribe yes, I’m sure she will.”

You let out a giggle and craned your neck to look up at him only for him to dip his head to brush his lips against yours, then caressed your cheekbone with his thumb, smiling softly.

“Have I told you how beautiful you looked tonight?”

You hummed, pretending to be in deep thought. “Only once.”

“Ah that’s simply not acceptable,” he joked, making you giggle again. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid my eyes on my love.”

“And you’re the most handsome man I’ve ever laid my eyes on, so we make quite a fine pair in my humble opinion,” you said with a grin, making him chuckle.

“We do.”

“And I love you.”

“I love you too darling. With my whole being.”

You squeezed at his arm and nibbled on your lip.

“Anthony mon amour, I realized something tonight.”

He buried his nose into your hair again. “What is it?”

“I feel like…” you paused for a moment. “Every single thing that has happened, it had to be. It was all supposed to happen from the beginning, and now I feel—I feel like I am home now. Like I actually belong here, like this right there was where I was meant to be all along. We were meant to find each other and be together, it was just meant to be.”

Anthony pressed a kiss on your temple, holding you tighter.

“It was,” he murmured. “And you are home now.”

You smiled slightly and took a deep breath, leaning your head back to his chest and inhaling his scent, a sense of relief washing over you.

“Yes,” you said. “Yes I think I am.”

                                  The End.

Epilogue

 PS: Wow, this was a long ride!😁 Thank you so so much to every single one of you my loves who has given me amazing support and HCs and ideas! I wouldn’t be able to write this without you, I love you so much!❤

And special thanks to my wonderful friend and beta Bea for helping me with the whole story and making it so much better with her ideas and editing skills, and TM anon for their wonderful analyses of the chapters! You are awesome! ❤

[theplatypusblue]

Hrmmm thinking about wind in ninjago. And destiny and Morro and Euphrasia and stuff. Sorry if it gets slightly long lol

Umm so like wind is kind of free-flowing and fluid. It’s similar to water in that way, but it’s also different in the sense that you can’t really put wind into, say, a cup or a bucket. You can’t contain it — it’s unrestrained. It just kind of goes and does whatever it wants. You can see this is in both elemental masters of wind shown in the show so far.

It’s fairly obvious with Morro, but also slightly ironic. He tried so so so hard to be the green ninja, even when it was obvious that wasn’t what destiny had in mind. Even after he dies and becomes a ghost he tries to defy his destiny (see all of season 5). I feel like I don’t have to explain this part much, he’s trying to defy destiny, that’s like kind of his whole thing, blah blah blah.

But isn’t that kind of weird? Destiny itself acts like a container, right? It’s a controlling force; it dictates where you’re going to go, what you’re going to do etc etc. It’s like a box. And it’s a little weird cuz like…. for all his shit about defying destiny and all that… Morro very much wants to be placed into a box. He’s definitely not a fan of the box he’s in right now, but rather than trying to meaningfully “free” himself, he spends all of his time trying to climb into someone else’s box — Lloyd’s. It makes his efforts to ~defy destiny~ seem misguided, or at the very least a bit pathetic.

With Euphrasia, it’s a bit less literal. There isn’t like, any specific path of destiny that she’s trying to get out of, per se; it’s more like the expectations of Cloud Kingdom society. The episode she features in mainly focuses on her choosing to be true to herself. Not having to hide her powers or letting others tell her what she should do. She makes it clear that she’s the only person who can decide those kinds of things. In that sense it’s kind of about self-determination or autonomy (kind of the direct opposite idea of “destiny” or “fate,” where a greater force is the thing that defines your life). In that sense, it feels like Euphrasia stays more true to the idea of wind I talked about before: free-flowing and not-giving-a-shit.

Societal expectations and destiny are both things that can control a person, if you allow them to. I like to think that the callbacks and references to destiny in Euphrasia’s episode weren’t just meant to harken back to season 5, but to help show what it means to be a master of wind in the first place.

So anyway yeah wind is all about defying destiny and all stuff 👍 and morro is a bit of a loser 👍 hopefully this was somewhat coherent lol

[sapphic-agent]

One has to wonder if Izuku's propping up of characters that don't deserve his respect has anything to do with him projecting his own heroic mentality onto everyone else. To be honest, this is biggest issue I have with him-he is willing to defend people like Aizawa, Bakugo or Endeavor even though they don't deserve it and expects the same out of others, and I've noticed that he has a tendency to trivialize the past trauma of others if that stops them from being as heroic as he is (all but demanding that Shoto use his fire and later on that he forgive his abuser because HE wouldn't let the fact he was abused for his whole life get in the way of mastering his quirk to become more effective, the whole Nagant fight where he sticks to the hero system even when he has direct evidence of the hero system being fundamentally corrupt and that he was on the wrong side all along, etc).

In my humble opinion, it boils down to him being a mouthpiece for Horikoshi. Bakugou, Endeavor, and Aizawa are characters he wants us to see in a positive light, and what better way to do that than for the main character (a "true hero," at that) to reaffirm their positive traits (Bakugou's strength and ambition, Aizawa being hard on his students because he cares, and Endeavor putting in the work to change).

It's definitely more present in the later seasons. For Bakugou and Aizawa it somewhat makes sense; he's been conditioned to think that Bakugou can do what he wants because he's strong and compared to some of his past teachers, he probably thinks Aizawa is a good teacher. He's desensitized to their behavior because he's been dealing with it for so long. But to extend that same courtesy to Endeavor is... Weird.

I've talked about him claiming that Todoroki's ready to forgive Endeavor before. It felt painfully out of character considering that Izuku said nothing about Endeavor all this time. Not once did he talk about what he thought about Endeavor's actions. But for some reason after 4 seasons, the first thing he does say in this regard is that the victim (his best friend) is getting ready for forgive him. This is even more odd since Izuku himself wouldn't be aware of the progress Endeavor even made. I have no other explanation other than it's Horikoshi's own feelings on the matter being projected onto Izuku.

Nagant, though, I feel is a little different. Izuku sticking to his morals and pushing through to save Chisaki isn't a bad thing. He also never denied that society was corrupt. But he maintains the attitude that if he keeps on doing the right thing for everyone else he can ebb the problem away. That was kind of the point of Dark Deku (albeit, executed horribly). And that's why Nagant accepted defeat (and later helped the heroes). She realized that if Izuku can keep his morals in such a toxic society, then all hope wasn't lost and that she shouldn't give up on the world. Missed opportunity for her to pursue Izuku a little longer, it would have been great for his character to have her really influence him and his thinking.

(Izuku should absolutely acknowledge the faults of society more than he does though in canon. Especially considering he was a victim of it. But if he does, he's no longer in a place where he can justifiably prop characters like Bakugou and Endeavor. And without Izuku as a mouthpiece, Bakugou doesn't really have a leg to stand on in terms of redemption)

I don't think him wanting Todoroki to use his fire had anything to do with Todoroki's worth as a hero. That was the guise Izuku used to get through to him because it was what Todoroki based his worth off of. In actuality, Izuku was encouraging Todoroki to take autonomy for the power he was born with and not to allow Endeavor to corrupt that aspect of him. Todoroki was holding himself back; not in terms of power but im terms of healing. And Izuku knew that.

You could make the argument that he was being insensitive. It's entirely valid. But I think he and Tododoki understand one another in ways that others don't. Todoroki understood Izuku's intention, which was why he responded positively to it.

(It's actually a very nice contrast to Bakugou trying to goad him into using his fire. Izuku's intentions are selfless and meant to help Todoroki, Bakugou's are selfish and somewhat mirror what his father wants. He's able to use his fire against Izuku because he knows that there's no ulterior motive behind Izuku's actions, he genuinely wants to help. Whereas Bakugou just wants to prove he's stronger and has zero consideration or sympathy for what Todoroki went through)

[thegettingbyp2]

It Should Be Me

Anthony Bridgerton x reader

Summary: Anthony doesn't like hearing the reader talk about the man she is supposed to marry

I was walking along the street with my brother who was saying something I should probably be listening to. At the moment, pretty much anything he had to say to me was something to do with finding me a suitable husband before the season was out. I love my brother, I really do, but when all he talks about is marrying me off, it tends to get a tad annoying which leads to me tuning him out. The other reason I wasn’t focusing on my brother’s ramblings was the fact Anthony Bridgerton was walking towards us.

For a couple of weeks, I had been getting mixed signals from the eldest Bridgerton brother. One moment, he would talk to me the way he has our whole lives, the next he would be sharp with his words and quick to leave the conversation. This confused me to no end and to top it all off, I realised that I had developed a small crush on my friend; something I could never speak up about due to the fact my brother would shoot me down instantly, believing that a marriage between the Bridgertons and (Y/L/N)’s would be disastrous despite the two families being friends for years.

‘And that is why I believe Lord Stapleton would be a suitable match for you sister. Ah, Bridgerton, lovely to see you!’ My brother, Henry said, shaking Anthony’s hand.

‘Henry,’ Anthony greeted his old friend before turning to me, a glint in his eye, ‘Miss (Y/L/N),’ he said softly, lightly kissing the back of my hand, ‘to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you two today?’

‘We’re on our way home from visiting Lord Stapleton, he seems very interested in (Y/N) and he’d be an excellent match.’

‘I see,’ Antony said before turning to face me, noticing I’d been quiet for the whole exchange, ‘Miss (Y/L/N), if it’s okay with your brother, might I steal some of your time, a catch up between old friends?’

I looked over at Henry who nodded and said about going to visit Benedict, Anthony nodding in approval before offering me his arm to take. I slipped my arm through Anthony’s, bid goodbye to Henry and set off in the opposite direction. As soon as we we’re out of earshot, I couldn’t help but start giggling much to Anthony’s confusion and amusement.

‘Something funny Miss (Y/L/N)?’

‘Not at all my Lord, I’m just grateful for you for getting me away from Henry’s incessant ramblings.’

‘Ahh, anything for a damsel in distress’ Anthony chuckled, ‘I assume, he’s still very much invested in marrying you off.’

‘It’s all he ever talks about these days,’ I moaned, ‘by the sounds of it I’m to be married to Lord Stapleton. Henry thinks he’s suitable enough so as soon as he proposes, he’s going to accept on my behalf.’

Anthony’s smile had faded as I spoke, ‘and how do you feel about this?’

I looked over at him despairingly, ‘well I hardly think I have a choice do I? Henry thinks he’s the best match so that’s that. I wish he was more like you were with Daphne, letting her marry someone she’s actually in love with.’ I said, leaning my head lightly on his shoulder.

Underneath my cheek, I could feel Anthony’s shoulder tense, ‘you speak as if you’ve already found someone you love?’

‘Maybe I have.’

Anthony felt his heart shatter in his chest, the thought of you with another man terrible to him.

‘May I ask who the lucky man is?’

I sighed slightly, nervous that he would catch on as I spoke, ‘well he’s wonderful, he’s kind, handsome, extremely family orientated; he’d do absolutely anything for his family and I just know he’d be a perfect father. I’m comfortable around him and he doesn’t expect me to behave by societies expectations, he likes me just the way I am.’

‘He sounds wonderful, (Y/N), he really does but you cannot marry a man such as him,’ Anthony said tightly, making me frown at him.

‘And why not?’

‘Because you should be with me.’ He’d stopped us both in the middle of the street and turned to face me, ‘You deserve everything you just described, but I am selfish and I do not want to see you with any man who isn’t me. I want to be the man to wed you, I want to spend my every waking second with you, be the father of your children. I can breathe freely when you’re around and I know things are going to be okay. I would never make you change a single part about you, you are absolutely perfect, so don’t marry this other man. Marry me.’

I remained quiet for a while after Anthony’s outburst, not quite believing that in his own way he’d just proposed to me.

‘Anthony, I,’

‘You don’t need to speak (Y/N), I just had to get that off my chest, I apologise,’ he said quickly and made to walk away before I caught his arm.

‘I thought you Vicount’s were meant to be smart,’ I said, amusement in my voice as I watched Anthony’s face turn into a frown.

‘I beg your pardon.’

‘That man I was telling you about? The one I said I was in love with? He’s standing right in front of me.’

Anthony’s face softened as he processed what I had just said, ‘me?’ he asked, ‘you’re in love with me?’

‘Yes my lord,’ I laughed, his face splitting into a grin as he pulled me into him and pressed a kiss to my lips that was just the right mix of love and lust, ‘and I will marry you. Henry won’t be happy though, he’s always been against our families marrying.’

‘I believe I can win him over my love,’ Anthony murmured before capturing my lips with his once again.

[gothicprep]

so glad that AI video is here! sort of. kind of. you ever want to see a screensaver that looks like it was designed for windows 2000, where fish are flying through the air across village streets? sora can do that with one easy prompt! you ever wanna see a woman lying in bed, roll over, and watch her arm turn into the comforter? sora can do that too! it's amazing! do you ever want to see a POV of an ant's tunnel that looks like something worse than what you'd see on bbc's planet earth? sora can do that too!

i'm sure we've all seen these videos and many more at this point. the ai evangelists swear that this is a game-changing revolution in its ability to turn simple prompts into movie quality video. assuming that movie quality means a late-stage mcu movie, or madame web, or a direct to video dreamworks knockoff from the early 2000s. really? none of those things. it's not as good as any of those things. and yeah, yeah, i know, "it's going to improve", "this is the worst it's ever gonna look", "it's gonna get more realistic". but there are some who will tell you that this is the beginning of a brave new world. a whole new era! we've got a whole movement that's going to unlock creativity that's been untapped, trapped within people who have no actual talent but, um, some ideas i guess. there's a deep reservoir of those people who society has been wasting for all these years.

let's be real here. more likely, the AI is probably going to be used to much more boring ends than new great works of art when it's not being used for more nefarious ends. on the more boring side of things, you'll have people on the internet say "what if you had batman fight the straw hat pirates from one piece? that's something an ai could do!" fanfic kind of stuff. "what if goku fought superman? who would win? i'll bet ai can show us that!" another thing it can bring to life? sex tapes that you didn't make, but you're going to be starring in! get ready for the future where someone gets mad at you online, and five seconds later, you're in a bondage orgy! have fun at the bondage orgy! that's what ai promises :)

but that's not the worst of it, believe it or not. the real problem with ai is that it's going to give bad actors the ability to create international crises by ginning up phony videos. want to spark a riot in the urban center of a country you don't like? fake a video of a cop killing a kid. it'll go viral and the gas stations will be burning before the city can prove it didn't happen.

wife & i were watching the second season of tokyo vice last night while we were waiting for true detective: night country to come on, and in the premiere episode, there's a video of a sex worker being beaten to death while a gov't minister looks on. when presented with the video, he pulls the shaggy defense and just says "it wasn't me". the denial doesn't wash because the technology at the time couldn't have faked it, but in short order, we're going to be in a future where we won't be able to prove it was or wasn't him. "oh, it was ai". welp. no one will know.

the ability to circulate low-quality, unverified information has real downsides. and if anything, the decades during which i've grown up with the internet prompts me towards a lot more wariness of ai than unbridled enthusiasm. if the best case scenario for ai is what the internet did to the information environment already, we're all fucked. the speed with which things can spread and proliferate is frankly terrifying. the prompts people are using now are dumb, and the programming is not very good, but the ai evangelists are right when they say it's going to get better. and as it gets better, it's going to be more tempting to use it in ways which absolutely are negative for society. i'm sure there are cgi artists working at major studios who will be able to use these things in good ways, but i sit here and i hear people talk about "oh, the great wave of creativity is going to be unleashed by ai!" and i'm just like. what kind of future are you living in, where the technology always works out the way you want, and everyone is happy, and there are flying cars in the sky and rainbows?

[theroundbartable]

I think when we talk about Polin scenes we don't talk enough about the "courage" scene.

Colin has just been the hero of the day with the whole baloon disaster and is asked how he found the courage to react so fast and I think there are a couple things we keep overlooking:

1. He's about to talk, then sees Penelope, then he stutters and he changes direction. He looks at her and only her. Because the message is for her alone. But he says it in front of many, MANY people who should have clear sight of his focus on Pen. He can't get out of that position yet, but he will never be too ashamed to talk to her. He's signifying that he'll always make space for her in some way.

2. He makes a full on throwback to season 1, when Pen told him: " if one finds oneself in love. One should declare so loudly, fervently and bravely." Colin chooses that moment to give her a hint. Multiple hints, in fact.

A) Colin: " I did that for you. To protect you from that baloon." His eyes are on her, because when people ask where he found his courage, she is the true answer.

B) Colin: "You were the one who taught me how to be brave. Because you told me not to be afraid to chase after my dreams. (Travels, love, etc.)"

C) Colin: "I'm quoting you from when you were about to confess, maybe, I think, hopefully, because I love you, look at me! Do you hear me?!?! Thats why I did that. I was brave because I love you!"

D) he's telling her that she's brave and should take what she WANTS. And perhaps hoping that she'll come confess to HIM because she might want HIM too, alas she turns around and goes to Debling and it breaks his heart.

-> he's looking for signs for Pen's feelings for him and finds himself rejected as soon as she turns around and looks at someone else.

3. Penelope sees him, does not understand the reference for what it is, but for something else because she has been publically rejected by him and has accepted that fact as such.

A) Colin is telling her to be brave. He's telling her that she IS brave, like he told her that she already knows how to do society.

B) He's encouraging her to go after Debling. Because Colin cannot know who her real feelings are for, and she must assume that Colin believes she has feelings for Debling, so that's the conclusion she draws.

C) he's making himself look even more heroic in front of so many ladies who all like him and to her, it's another public rejection because Colin is popular with the ton despite LW, while she is not and never will be. She can see, plain as day, that she'll never belong like he does and it's a reminder for her that she cannot hold on to Colin any longer. If she'd had hope for them until then, she's giving it up at that moment and decides to go after Debling.

Do you realize how insane that is that they conveyed ALL of that in two minutes?! With one scene?!?!

So much was communicated, so much was miscommunicated, and ya'all go feral over the every other scene instead (not that that's a bad thing, I just want to sound obsessed).

You can see where the tether between them breaks. How Colin finally dares to reach out and Pen lets go for good and how it destroys them both! Can't you see it? Can't you see how their entire personalities are driven to that moment? How this is the height of the tension? The last moment they are as they had been? Their last chance at conveying their true feelings before every attempt is doomed to be a scandal?!? And there is no going back to the friendship they'd had?

Am I the only one?!?!

[pinkorchidsinspring]

Ivy is so so gay, to explain let us lyric analyze:

How's one to know? I'd meet you where the spirit meets the bones, In a faith forgotten land

Hoax: “your faithless love’s the only hoax I believe in”

A complicated relationship with religion is not something lacking throughout gay culture.

Taylor is more than likely referencing her own struggle with her relationship to a religion not approving of her sexuality.

Your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, Tarnished but so grand

The lovers touch while beautiful, was a sin, and wrong in the view of most but to Taylor this touch was amazing despite being tainted with those ideas.

Oh, goddamn, My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand, Taking mine, but it's been promised to another

This is probably a reference to the "adultery" being committed here, because the narrator has a fiancé/beard.

Oh, I can't, Stop you putting roots in my dreamland

She can’t control this love.

Her dreamland of “Folklore” is based in her real, honest, raw emotions.

She can’t stop this lover from being the reason for this dreamland.

I wish to know, The fatal flaw that makes you long to be, Magnificently cursed

Being gay has never been easy, and early on makes everyone who is gay in any way, wonder why they can’t just be straight. Taylor has most likely dealt with her own version of internalized homophobia shown in the original version of “Picture to Burn”: “Go and tell your friends that I'm obsessive and crazy, that's fine; I'll tell mine you're gay”.

Clover blooms in the fields, Spring breaks loose, the time is near, What would he do if he found us out?

This whole paragraph just gives forbidden gay love, and screams I don't want to care what other people think in this moment.

Crescent moon, coast is clear

Again with the hiding in “coast is clear”

Associated with feminine energy??? Combined with the coast is clear??? Yep, screams hetero.

Spring breaks loose, but so does fear

So very gay. Very gay. Come on. Sound like recent political events in America? With the turn of a new season, fear, specifically fear of being caught together, or the media finding out becomes more relevant than normal.

He's gonna burn this house to the ground

This male partner/beard is going to ruin their relationship, completely out of fear of what would happen if the truth of who she loved came out.

I'd live and die for moments that we stole, On begged and borrowed time

Even though this love was kept a secret, it was still Taylor’s whole life at the time.

These moments were "on begged and borrowed time" due to outside pressure. Possibly the pressure to be straight, and to appear straight, and not have longing looks directed at your "best friend".

So yeah, it's a fire, It's a goddamn blaze in the dark, And you started it, You started it, So yeah, it's a war

You Are In Love: “You understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars”

The Great War -so LGBTQIA

She finally understands that she has to fight through societies pressures to keep the love of her life.

It's the goddamn fight of my life

What would be so hard about being straight and in love with Joe Alwyn? Especially when you’re only known for writing break up songs about “men”…

Most recently while introducing “Dear, John” Taylor told swifties that : we should not “feel the need to defend [her] on the internet against someone [we] think [she] might have written a song about 14 billion years ago."

There are many things that don’t allow this song to have a hetero explanation. These are the things. <3

My other song analysis’ if you’re interested <3

[noitsnote113]

Lucas and Mike arc parallels and how that explains Mike in s4. (Long)

This is gonna be both a Mike analysis, a Lucas one, and a little bit of a Will analysis. But mostly Mike. We have a lot to unpack on Mike.

I’ve always, in a way, have found Lucas and Mike very alike. I would almost say the show is contrasting these two characters to each other in a way that makes the viewer know Mike’s fate because of Lucas’s arc.

Lucas & Mike contrasts

Let’s start in s3. Because this isn’t something new that’s sprouted in ONLY s4. Do we recall that in s3, Lucas is Mike’s romantic guide? And you might say “oh this JUST a silly little detail, it’s not THAT important.” When it’s bigger than that. Mike seeks Lucas and Lucas only when his relationship is in a bad place. He takes his advices even in s4 when Lucas isn’t there w him to guide him. If we recall Lucas’s line in s3 “Girls like pretty things”, and when Mike flew to cali what does he pick up for El? DING DING, Flowers!! Keeping Lucas’s advice true and still following them. Because he is guiding himself from what Lucas does (that works for him and max) and is keeping on these advices even when Lucas isn’t there. And why is that? Because Mike doesn’t have parents to look up to/ask these questions. Because let’s be honest, Karen and Ted wouldn’t answer. Because they ARENT in love, and Mike knows this. But Lucas? He is a DIRECT contrast to Mike in this, because his family isn’t perfect, but the love is THERE. It’s real, so Lucas CAN ask. Thus, Lucas KNOWS about relationships/how to approach these things, and that’s why Mike asks. He is the polar opposite to Lucas in his home life but the show doesn’t let you think about this because he (Mike) is worried on getting El a gift to win her back (letting viewers not think about why Mike relies on Lucas the whole of s3.)

Lucas wanting to fit in FOR society/Mike wanting to fit in FOR El parallels

So anyway, let’s skip to season 4. Lucas’s case is different from Mike’s here. Of course, Mike’s character arc IS about trying to fit in through s2-s3 (*cough* comphet). But he doesn’t mind appearing like a nerd INFRONT of others in s4, he doesn’t care. This is where his differences with Lucas are CLEAR, because Lucas does care! Because appearing a certain way for others will stop him (Lucas) from being bullied. But Mike does not do this, thus his “You forget, we don’t want to be popular.” comment in s4 when Lucas suggested that they be anything (popular) else than nerds in the eyes of others.

But that’s the thing, Mike cares if only El finds him cool. Keep in mind, both of them in their different ways, are doing the same thing. Lucas wants to be different/cool FOR society and Mike wants to be cool FOR el. And are we forgetting about what Lucas said at the end of s4 whilst realizing that wanting to be something your not is useless?

“I thought I wanted to be like you. Popular, normal.”

And that line could very much be used with Mike and Lucas. Mike wanting to be just like Lucas in some aspects (*drum roll* Liking women!! bc that’s where he wants to be like Lucas in!!) and realizing by the end (just like Lucas did) that that’s useless. So what is the end of Lucas’s character arc? Him accepting that being popular and trying to be something he’s not ISNT gonna get him anywhere. And who are we expecting this same character development from? Mike in s5.

Mike’s being apart from El but clinging on for symbolisms of Childhood & Will

But back to Mike, because his character didn’t reach comprehension and self awareness like s4 Lucas did (as it’s reserved for s5.) Anyway, Mike doesn’t care if others don’t find him cool. Because he feels like he ISNT enough as he is for El and ONLY her, no one else (And this isn’t “cute”, this is a deep insecurity problem of thinking the person won’t accept you for who you really are.)

But ever since El is gone, do u think he’ll try to be something that he’s not without the person that makes him feel like he has to in the first place? No. Because with her gone, he doesn’t have to hide anything anymore or suppress who he is in order to seem cool for her (respectfully, how do ppl find this “cute”?).

And the biggest proof for this is that he joins hellfire to seek for that part of him he thinks is LOST since he has kept it hidden for so long (when being w her.) He wants to reconnect w what he threw away in s3 (this is what i call character growth). The people that say that Mike joined hellfire FOR El are crazy. Because not only would that not make sense, but it’s the fact that we have never seen El and DND be associated in any way. So that could be only one or two things. Either be symbolism for Will, or be a symbolism on Mike’s happiness/nerdy side. But I think it’s both. Since as we know, Will’s whole character arc is about embracing being different. Being nerdy, if you may. (Keep in mind, this is exactly what mike’s trying to suppress.) We have been introduced this since s1 with both will and jonathan, just as we got introduced to Mike trying to be cool for El in s1 (him shutting up about his toys just because El seemed uninterested).

Lucas and Mike’s arcs being contrasted and Mike and Will’s being intertwined

Therefore, Mike and Will’s arcs are connected (either take this platonically or romantically, it works both ways) because their arcs are the opposite wholely. They are different through and through. And that’s exactly what makes them be intertwined.

And Lucas and Mike’s arcs are too!! For contrast!! The show is telling us what happened to Lucas when he wasn’t being true to himself, they are making us expect the same for Mike (that is more or less doing the same thing.)

Lucas being a role model for Mike in relationships and to help Mike w the stuff that helps HIM with max clearly is lacking. Obviously, this isn’t working w El, because just as Max isn’t El, El ISNT Max. Lucas told Mike in s3 about gifts, and he has kept on with that advice since forever. But that’s the thing, El doesn’t want acts of service, she wants him to say that he loves her. This contrasts Mike with Lucas AGAIN because Lucas’s advice is Mike’s form of hiding who he is as well.

Anywho, back to Will! He is a person that ommits everything Mike is feigning not to be. And by reconnecting with dnd (which Mike has claimed was childish in the past) I feel like Mike not only finds nostalgia and happiness in it but it reminds him of Will. Because Will isn’t seen suppressing being “childish” or rejecting dnd. He doesn’t take any shame in that. Because Will’s character arc is to be rewarded for this mentality of not sucking up to what people want him to be in s5! (And there is no way of doing this if he’s not ending up with Mike.)

And I would like to add, we know that people that have feigned to be someone/something they’re not in this series typically don’t end up well in this facade. Ex. El to Mike, Nancy to Steve, Dustin in the snowball, Robin to Vickie, and Lucas. <- So would we really expect for Mike, who has been paralleled to Lucas SINCE s3 to end up any different than Lucas did in the end of s4 when he realizes that not being yourself is worse than sucking up to what people want you to be? And how would we get Mike to end well or any different than any of these characters seen as he is following their SAME patterns? And if he is following their same patterns he is gonna have their same resolution : being exposed for who he truly is.

I also want to add that in 4x1 we see him letting go of these expectations and I feel like this explains why he joined the hellfire club, FOR CLOSURE to who he is (to breathe a little from acting a certain way) and for closure to a person (Will) that is the essence of everything he has been trying to suppress (childhood, feelings, growing up, being different etc.)

[pluckysidekick]

OMG. We went 180 degrees from last week’s desert to this week’s paradise of riches in CW’s Nancy Drew land! We knew Larry Teng and the whole crew wouldn’t abandon us with the BTS content. After the seemingly epic filming of episode 6 when it was all quiet on the set last week, we’ve gotten hints from Kennedy and onset photos for Ep. 6, we’ve heard from exciting new ND writers, and saw some glimpses for Ep. 7 that’s filming right now. Let’s get into it!

I have to start with this incredible “team meeting” cast photo Kennedy posted in non-wardrobe from the Icarus Hall set. So happy to see them together, masks and all! Note Leah with her tablet, Maddison with her phone, Alex going old school with his yellow lined pad and pen, while Tunji and Kennedy are both like “I don’t need to write it down, I remember everything” 😂.

Larry shared twin pics from (presumably) the Ep. 6 set of the women and men of the Drew Crew, and they are perfection.

Nancy, Bess, and George having a heart to heart at the Claw is everything to me. I love these three together whether they are talking ghosts, relationships, career, family, or anything else. Also note the wardrobe, loving George’s yellow blazer and Docs especially. And of course, the Claw is closed, no customers as per usual!

Seeing Ace and Nick together in action is just…no words. Love their looks, love the intensity, just the best two characters together. Of course we’re wondering what’s going on - are they dumpster diving? We saw George and Bess in front of a burned out van back in Ep. 3 - is there a junkyard theme this season 😂?

Ace’s shirt looks a lot like the one he wears in 2x15 (Tom Swift episode), and it’s also a very similar (but slightly different) to two earlier looks, the cast photo from Ep. 2 and the early morning pickups photo from Ep. 3? 4? (some kind of blue/green button down and white T-shirt combo). Coincidence, or is there something else timey wimey going on with Ace? BTW if anyone from production is reading, we’d love to see a nice colorful old man shirt for Ace in one of the eps (also thank you for reading lol).

Speaking of Ace, Kennedy gave us another heart attack on Twitter this week when she gave an emoji hint for Ep. 6 that amounted to someone dying “a little.”

Since we know from Larry that Ep. 6 epic and special effects heavy, I wondered in an earlier post if the crew tries to break the curse in this one. Could things have gone wrong, with Ace being “mostly dead” (shout out to Carly for the perfect Princess Bride reference)? Did they trigger the curse instead, or deliberately try to flatline him like Nancy once thought about doing to George? Or can they somehow use the shroud to flatline Ace and George, revive them - and possibly switch bodies? The possibilities are endless.

Alex did show up for the Ep. 7 team meeting pictured above, so here’s hoping Ace recovers to be with his soulmate (and all that entails) for him and for us, e.g. we’re expecting great things that top that S3 finale dreamscape scene of Nancy and Ace!

So excited to see new writers working on ND this season! Lauren Andrea and Tiffany Irene both posted pics from the set and talked about how great the experience was. So important to see diverse representation in the writers’ room, and also love to hear about how awesome the whole cast and crew are on ND - it really shines through in every episode IMO. So happy for them, and can’t wait to see their words come to life in S4!

Onto a few early hints on Ep. 7. Maddison posted an IG story that Ep. 7 started this week (confirming Larry has a break while he preps Ep. 8, which we know he’s directing). Check out her cute white top from wardrobe hanging up in the closet. DP Nick Thomas posted some gorgeous, spooky photos to his stories from the Historical Society exterior. Are those Riley and Maddison’s stand-ins? Ace and George? Or some combo? Can’t wait to find out.

I may have broken Tumblr’s long post rules, but really hope you enjoyed the pics and speculation. I am almost done with Chapter 9 of The Space Between (S4 spec. fic), it will most likely go up next week. If you haven’t tried it already, I can promise lots of action, angst, and wackiness with the whole crew including meetings at the Claw, Ace and Nick bonding, Ace’s earring, and much more to help tide us over. See you soon, my guess is we get tons more content!

[scatteredpiecesofme]

ˏˋ°*♡➷ get to know me ༊*·˚

Thank you @sflow-er for tagging me, I really like the moodboard concept!

The idea is to pick a favourite movie, character, animal, drink, song, season, book, colour, and hobby and present them as pictures. Let's go!

Movie: '120 Battements par Minute', France, 2017 (The English title should be '120 BPM'). The film is about the AIDS activist organization ACT UP in Paris in the early '90s. Brilliant acting and directing. Heart-breaking but totally worth it.

Season: spring spring spring!!! Because nature comes back to life with an explosion of colours, the temperature is perfect (not too cold, not too hot) and it's my season of birth.

Character: Lady Oscar my beloved! From the manga and anime Berusaiyu No Bara - The Rose of Versailles. My bi little self was SOOO in love with her when I was a teenager. I still mourn her death every 14th of July.

Book: 'Orlando' by Virgina Woolf. One of the most beautiful representations of love (and life, and personal growth) beyond sex, gender and social conventions I've ever read. In the background, a not-so-subtle criticism of sexism, patriarchy and society as a whole through Woolf's witty irony.

Animal: donkeys! Look at these cuties I met during one of my mountain hikes! This was a hard choice because I like almost all animals and I could have mentioned any of them from gekos to elephants but today I want to show some love to these sweethearts.

Colour: another hard one because I love all colours, but I stay loyal to my favourite since age 3, that is red.

Song: 'Alive' by Sia. The vocals give me chills, and it touches on something personal. I'm still breathing. I'm alive.

Drink: coffee is my religion.

Hobby: drawing doodles with colored pencils. I have many hobbies and I tend to go by phases, but every now and then I enjoy mixing and matching colours and patterns with no specific purpose, it's just relaxing and fun. My inner child is very happy.

I'm tagging @othervee, @wasitroyal, @randomsmilingpotatoes, @pagegirlintraining, @idleness-24-7-blog Please feel free to ignore this if you have already done it or if you're not interested. Anyone who's not tagged but likes the idea, don't hesitate to share your own moodboard!

[rachelberryy]

Santana Lopez, Gender Performativity, and the Gaze-Death Dichotomy

For @tuiyla

This is a follow-up from this essay on Santana and Bejewelled by Taylor Swift. It also probably looks the way it does because of this post that I read recently.

(I dug out my old university notes for this, because Judith Butler is a GOAT and I felt like going big brain mode)

i.

The top line of my notes on Butler’s gender performativity theory reads, “Gender may be naturalised and taken for granted, but it is still socially constructed and created through the repetition of everyday acts”. As far as I can tell, that isn’t a direct quote, so I’m going to presume it’s a paraphrased summary on my part. It’s the ideological descendant of an idea from Simone de Beauvoir, probably the most influential feminist philosopher of the twentieth century: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” (Incidentally, the idea of gender as a social construct in western feminist literature goes at least as far back as Mary Wollstonecraft. As per usual, TERFs don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.)

Okay. Let’s talk Santana.

Santana is an Afro-Latina lesbian, and a woman. All of those things are relevant in one way or another. We learn that when she was young, Santana was quite the tomboy, until she was socially conditioned into abandoning that particular persona. Given what we know of her family, I think it’s a reasonable assumption that her abuela had something to do with that. That delivers us to the version of Santana we get for the first season and a half of Glee. She’s a bitch, she’s aggressively sexual, she’s notoriously promiscuous, she’s a cheerleader - the feminine high school archetype. In other words, she’s both a stereotype of the idealised high school popular girl, and a whole bunch of things for which women are typically demonised.

Patriarchy, like all reactionary ideologies, is deeply idiosyncratic, almost by design, and creates these catch 22 situations where women cannot conform or rebel enough, it will hate you anyway, because that is its point. That is complicated by the fact that Santana is a fictional character (and one created by a team of male writers, at that), and therefore is also a construct of the male gaze without any agency of her own. This is doubly true for Santana, who starts out as a side character whose first proper story is as Puck’s ‘woman on the side’, and whose second proper story is sleeping with Finn.

The whole thing is a mess of contradictions, an ill-fitting mess of female stereotypes. Slut, bitch, queen bee (once Quinn is deposed). She’s the opposite end of the ‘fucked up ways in which patriarchy constructs female sexuality’ spectrum to Quinn. She’s also, as we later find out, completely fucking miserable. She’s acting, all the time, allowing the only emotions that slip through the cracks of her walls to express themselves as anger. It’s all, you guessed it, a performance. A version of her that didn’t exist until society forced it to. Those aspects of her - so many of them distinctly gendered - are entirely constructed, against her actual nature.

ii.

And then she quits the Cheerios, realises that she’s a lesbian, and begins to deconstruct herself. Glee is an exceptionally manic show, with so little time afforded to monologues by anyone not named Will Schuester. And yet, at the end of Sexy, Santana is given quite a lengthy one, explaining and exploring her character up to that point. (I can think of one other single moment where the pacing of Glee gives Santana specifically a second to breathe: the pause in the middle of RHI/SLY.) The promiscuity, the bitchiness, the anger at the world. The knives turned out so that they don’t cut inside. So much repressed self-loathing.

Part of the reason that sapphicism broadly and lesbianism in particular are such an affront to patriarchy is because they don’t abide by the rules of the game. In other words, it challenges the way in which patriarchy has determined that womanhood and femininity should be performed. That doesn’t mean, however, that it isn’t a performance, if only because, within Butler’s framework, performing and lying are not the same thing.

As I explained in the previous essay, Prom Queen, conceptually and functionally, is about gender roles in a lot of ways. Kurt bucks gender norms with his outfit choice, by embracing the prom queen title, and by dancing with Blaine at the end of the episode. Quinn, in her desperation to be popular, and validated, and feminine, chases the prom queen crown ruthlessly, because it’s the ultimate prize for a popular girl. Again, like the cheerleading, it’s one of the classic high school archetypes. The whole idea of prom king and queen is so aggressively gendered, obviously. It’s binary, and heteronormative, and rooted in about seventeen different forms of social hierarchy. It’s gender performance taken to the extreme.

The conclusion of Santana’s storyline in that episode is her reconciliation with Brittany, and Brittany telling her that part of why she lost was because people could tell she was hiding something. Exactly who and how many people knew about Santana’s sexuality and when they knew it is something the show can never quite seem to be able to make its mind up on (side eyes at Finn Hudson), but the conclusion in this moment seems to be that the performance has, to some degree, gone awry. Because what use is a performance if nobody believes it? In that moment, it’s Santana’s worst fears about being punished for her transgression come to life - she is performing femininity incorrectly, and therefore she is denied the title that represents patriarchy’s feminine ideal.

iii.

Santana comes out is outed early in season 3, and we finally meet the person who has probably shaped her character - and her performance - more than anybody else we hadn’t met to that point (so, basically, more than anyone but Brittany). Alma Lopez. Abuela.

With some of the crumbs we’re offered up to that point, I don’t think it’s too unreasonable to see Alma’s treatment of Santana to be emotionally abusive - and this is only doubled down upon by her reaction to Santana coming out to her. It’s pretty explicitly stated that Alma is one of the main reasons that Santana is as vicious as she is. In other words, she shaped the performance. She’s clearly a pretty big female role model in Santana’s life, which is why the rejection hurts as much as it does.

The Glee subreddit is home to a wide variety of deeply stupid opinions. That might seem slightly mean, but one can only read so many defences of Finn Hudson objectively bad actions before one becomes slightly cynical. One opinion I’ve seen bandied about on there that I usually don’t have much time for is that Alma herself is a deeply repressed lesbian, largely stemming from the fact that Alma’s main issue with Santana’s sexuality seems to be that she’s willing to live it openly. Its slight difference from the usual ‘hate the sin, love the sinner’ line. I do think it’d be interesting to touch on it here, though. Santana, in many ways, learnt her performance from Alma, which is why her open embrace of her sexuality here - after so much angst and drama - is such an act of defiance, and that’s only doubled with this particular reading of Alma’s reaction.

iv.

While we’re on the subject of Santana’s family background, I’d like to talk briefly on the stereotyping of women of colour in particular, and the way that intersection plays into the idea of gender performativity. Santana’s race and ethnicity are a little ambiguous in certain ways. She refers to Mexican heritage, and Alma has a Dominican flag in her home, if I remember correctly. However, since it’s never explicitly stated otherwise, I’m going to run with the idea that Santana is Afro-Latina, like Naya herself was.

Santana, particularly in her initial presentation (read: performance), very much fits into some of the stereotypes often assigned to Latina women. She’s sexually aggressive and promiscuous. She has a ‘fiery’ personality type. (I’m not overly fond of that word, especially in this context, but I think that’s really kind of the point.) As she says herself, ‘My job here is to look hot.’ Of course, that line can be read shallowly, because I really don’t think Ryan Murphy or any of the lead Glee writers thought that deeply about these things, but most of this essay relies on Death of the Author theory and my reading far more into this story than its creators conceived. It also speaks to Santana’s lack of agency, both in and meta to the narrative itself. She also is hot but w/e

A worthy point of comparison here, I think, is Mercedes, who of all the main characters is probably denied agency the most; who is so infrequently allowed to be much more than a foil to Rachel, both by the writers and, perhaps more depressingly, by much of the fandom, particularly back in Glee’s original heyday. She is also frequently desexualised, again by both the writers and sections of the fandom. There is probably an essay to be written on the variety of reasons that Quinn (thin and white) is read as a lesbian and Mercedes (fat and black) is often read as asexual or earnest in her religious reasons for her celibacy when Quinn’s canon reasons are basically the same. I don’t think all of those reasons stem from those differences, and I definitely don’t want to criticise people for sexuality headcanons that offer them representation - because an asexual, fat, black woman would be kind of revolutionary, if indeed that was what Mercedes was. I also really don’t think I - a white person with half a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Sociology A Level taught by a person for whom I once had to define intersectionality - am the person best suited to write that essay.

Which brings us back to Santana, and the ways in which her ethnicity impact her performance of gender, especially in the first two seasons when that performance is inauthentic. Death of the Author is, again, critical here - and I’m going to talk more about that at the end - but so is Gaze theory and Santana’s multi-layered lack of agency. As with all of the people of colour on Glee, Santana’s race and ethnicity are often ignored until it’s comedically convenient. I’m not saying the jokes don’t always work - Sam’s ‘Quinn once had sex with a Latina lesbian - learned that in glee club!’ comes to mind (I think part of why that works is that it’s one of the only times that it’s explicitly shown that homophobes are often deeply racist as well) - but I think that is notable that that’s often the only time it’s ever seen as worth mentioning. Santana, though played by a woman of colour in Naya, is ultimately a construct of the white men who created her, and it is through their Gaze that she exists. She has no agency in the real world, because she’s a fictional construct, and a distinct lack of agency within the narrative as a queer woman of colour.

So how does all of this relate to gender performativity theory? Said theory might be pithily summarised thus: “Gender is something we do, not something we are.” (I promise I do have a degree, I’m not just copying buzzy phrases from the inside cover of a sociology textbook lmao.) This, then, might fairly easily be mapped onto other socially constructed categories of being. So, how does one do their gender, or race, or ethnicity, or sexuality, when one has no agency of one’s own, when one is entirely a construct of the Gaze of others? When the puppet strings of the performance are juggled and manipulated entirely by someone outside the self? Ironically enough, things become even more of a performance, in multiple ways a construct. Santana the character is constructed, in the same way Santana the person, the queer woman of colour, is. Which is, of course, why critical literary analysis is such an apropos way to explore these ideas, because everything is a constructed performance anyway. And, in this way, we see how Santana’s character is flattened, whether it’s in the vaguely afterthought-like quality to any consideration of her ethnicity, or the wholesale ignoring of her blackness, or the fact that Santana the character, as opposed to Santana the person, is herself a construct.

And then the author dies. More on that in a bit.

v.

Santana has parallels with a lot of characters. Quinn is the obvious one, which is very well-trodden ground analytically speaking - narrative foils, both craving popularity because they can’t just up and admit that they want to be loved, both very gay and very repressed, both in love with Rachel - and season 2 makes Santana’s parallels with Dave quite clear. There are also certain parallels present with Kurt, though - and it’s not just because they’re the two principal queer characters - the two token McKinley gays, as someone put it once.

The relevant mirror here is on expression. Kurt starts out as very experimental, as far as his dress-sense is concerned. It’s also fairly androgynous. “Fashion has no gender,” he tells us. Over the course of the series, however, his fashion becomes more conventionally masculine - not overly so, but certainly more so than at the beginning. In Santana, this shift is even more pronounced. The main windows we get into her fashion is late season 2 and then season 4 and 5 in New York, and while it’s not exactly like her season 2 choices were all that transgressive, they were certainly more experimental than her tight dresses from later on. Now, this isn’t me hating on this style - because girl looks good - nor is it me saying that lesbians can’t adopt a more conventionally feminine sense of style. I would hope that goes without saying. Regardless, I think there’s something worth discussing here where agency is concerned.

Because, of course, Santana isn’t a real person - a real woman and a real lesbian; she’s a construct of a team of male writers. I think the easy explanation here is that the producers got lazy, on a whole range of fronts where costuming was concerned. And that is, at least to an extent, a reasonable line of thinking. To gesture to a fairly straightforward example, after a point they just started having Rachel... mostly just dress like Lea. However, I think there’s a more interesting lens of analysis to be had here where Santana is concerned when we recall that scene where her mother informs us that she was a tomboy growing up. The three points we have, really, are that snapshot of Santana as a small child, season 2, and season 4-5. In season 4 in particular, Santana is portrayed as feeling generally directionless and unsure of herself; of where her path is headed now that she exists outside the rigid hierarchies of McKinley High. And, so, her performance of femininity is exaggerated. It’s a continuation of what the cheerleader role represented for her earlier on: burying herself in the typical female role to hide from internal conflict.

I think there’s also more to be said, at this stage, on the way we can see this in Quinn as well. In season 1, she’s the church girl: babydoll dresses, sundresses, and, of course, her Cheerio uniform - something that she uses as a wall of self defence in a similar way to Santana. In season 2, her wardrobe is largely a more mature version of that - she’s been through the ringer, and being homeless and having a child have forced her to grow up, but, as we see in her determination to be Head Cheerleader again, she’s still desperately clinging to the version of herself from Before. The biggest departure is obviously Skank!Quinn, where she briefly leans fully into a more androgynous punk look before adopting, again, a fractionally more androgynous version of her season 2 appearance, namely the addition of her blazers - which might be read as something as a symbol of male soft social power. Her story in season 3 obviously continues to bring the angst, but it’s also a period of self-actualisation. The most traditionally feminine we see her presenting after that is in her brief appearances in season 5, where it is pretty explicitly established that she’s behaving inauthentically. It’s all fairly on the nose, especially on that latter point. Obviously we can’t map that onto Santana directly, but I think it’s an interesting lens of analysis, given that, as I established at the beginning of this section, the two characters parallel each other pretty strongly in a whole smorgasbord of ways.

vi.

I’ve been dancing around the whole ‘death of the author’ bit for a while now, so let’s get into it. The post that I linked at the top of this essay describes DOTA as 'once a work is complete, what the author believes it to mean is irrelevant to critical analysis of what's in the text’, and I think that’s a reasonable definition to work with here. In other words, the fact that this essay takes Santana as a person with agency of her own, outside of her creators’ intentions, is not necessarily incompatible with my argument that we might use the fact that she’s a fictional character to explore the idea of social constructs, because the former exists outside of the latter. Santana is a construct of fiction, and the author is dead. The two lenses of analysis go hand in hand, inverted as they may seem.

I don’t think it’s too controversial a statement to say that Glee isn’t a particularly tightly written piece of fiction. (Maybe it is controversial on the subreddit. Shit’s wild over there.) Santana is no exception to that. Her character is messy and inconsistent, and the writing varies in its willingness to explore her depth. It would be trite to say that within that uncharted depth lies the DNA of a brilliant character. I also don’t think that that’s entirely accurate, because Santana Lopez is brilliant. The brilliance, which I think I’ve explored quite widely in this essay, is in the margins, in the unsaid, the unexplored. It’s in the performance. Reading between the lines, we see the carefully constructed image that Santana herself created. That is the foundation upon which the character is built. And from that, we can analyse her in myriad ways - along with the myriad ways in which she is, herself, a constructed performance, both within and outside of the narrative, constantly deconstructing and reconstructing itself.

The author is dead. Long live Lopez.

[peggyloraine]

Story idea:

This is a mash up of multiple stories but after season 2 events and a new season has begun. Eloise still wants nothing to do with Penelope and No longer believes there is any chance of a future with Colin. Penelope knows she has no prospects for a suitor in London, as her mother, society and Colin make her feel unworthy of love, so she decides to take her Lady Whistledown money and leave. There is just one thing she wants before she goes…..a kiss.

She stays for the hearts and flowers ball at Aubrey Hall. On the night of the ball she dances with many gentleman, but she has been hurt and doesn’t quite trust Colin. When he seems to be approaching her for a dance she withdraws. (The kiss is not pre planned, but it is a desire of her heart). When Colin follows her, he asks why she has been avoiding him and she tells him she tells him she heard his declaration and that it hurt her and that it made her feel unworthy of being loved. She also declares her love for him and tells him she understands that he doesn’t and will never love her. That she just wants to move on, but then she asks him for a kiss. She says please and he kisses her and both enjoy it, and Penelope starts to end the kiss, but Colin pulls her closer to him. Then they are caught kissing by a crowd, including his mother, who happily announces it a pleasant birthday surprise (Colin is furious and bruises her arm because he believes she has trapped him)

Lady Violet tries to calm a sobbing Penelope and tells her that many other weddings have been built on much less, while the brothers are speaking to Colin and he is feeling betrayed and now despises Penelope. The next morning everyone leaves for London and Penelope’s mother is proud of Penelope for trapping Colin and she tells her mother that she did not do it on purpose and she doesn’t want to marry him in that way. Her mother hits her and tells her she will marry him or she will be dead to her. So Penelope goes to Genevieve with bruises on her face and her arm asking for help to escape. There is already passage paid on a ship to the Americas but it is over a week away and she has non where to stay. Her maid covers for her at home so no one realizes she is gone for three days.

So will she get away from England to a whole new world of possibilities and love? ( She has a childless Aunt and Uncle in Ontario, Canada). Please let her be discovered by a handsome Lieutenant (Earl), that befriends and courts her and marries her. And treats her like the treasure she is. They go back to England when she is 24.

5 years gone and Colin still has not made a move to marry. But one evening he sees something familiar across the dance floor, it is not his Pen anymore. She is will a tall handsome and attentive man and everyone is whispering about how the insipid wallflower captured the heart of an Earl. Urs I do want it to end with Polin together….so our dashing Earl must die….. but I think we all need an exciting tear jerker. But maybe you will decide that Colin will get his head out of his bumm and intercept her before she boards the ship. Maybe he figured out that she is everything he wants and crossed an ocean to drag her home. Maybe it is Massachusetts instead of Ontario and Pirate Colin comes after her.

Maybe multiple people will go in different directions with this idea. But please… we have a long time to wait and I want to see s a story called (Colin’s Lost Treasure) about Penelope from Colin’s POV. For Penelope I think (Finding Her Way Home).

[lunar-years]

Okay I just need to say this to someone. As a royjamie or even jamieroykeeley Stan, I would be okay if either of those ships don’t happen. But i really don’t want to see Jamie end up with some random girl like shandy? like at the end of the new episode we see her go up to talk to him while Keeley watches and like… idk maybe it’s silly but like I don’t even want him to sleep with her?? Like I want him to be happy and see him accept that he deserves love. Just not with her?

Ooh Shandy! Let’s talk about her. I’m really enjoying the addition of her character & I just hope they don’t screw it up and turn her into a joke. I think her main narrative purpose is to cause additional drama/conflict at Keeley’s workplace, not so much to be part of the team’s storyline/drama. Her sleeping with Jamie had honestly not even crossed my mind (if anything I think that’d be a one night stand situation, not any sort of actually developed relationship). Jamie’s got way too much other stuff going on this season. I would not be too worried, anon.

Shandy as a part of Keeley’s storyline, though, is excellent for the following reasons:

1) I like that it opens us up for more of Keeley’s backstory. Keeley living in a flat with a bunch of girls who were all modeling and trying to get together with footballers and Keeley being the only one to “get out” just feels so right

2) Keeley also recognizing that she was only able TO get out because she found and connected with someone who was willing to help her get there (Rebecca), and then deciding that she was now in the position to be that person for someone else is just sooooo!!! God I love Keeley Jones. Women helping women representation.

3) one thing about Keeley is that she really does see the best sides of people, and she knows how to get those parts to shine. She recognizes from personal experience that you may not have the “experience” or the education or the kind of surface-level intelligence society values, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have value of your own, or that you can’t break through the limits other have set for you. A person can be smart and clever and hard-working in so many different ways, not all of which are obvious. But Keeley sees what other people dismiss. She saw it in Jamie back in s1 and she sees it in Shandy.

4) Shandy IS smart, and direct, and she has a lot to bring to the table. Obviously with the strobe light thing, but again when she just walked up to Zava and was like yeah happy to have you here thank you but you need to give us something back here too and post about the club on your socials. Like Keeley wasn’t wrong about her!! Shandy’s just…rough around the edges, and doesn’t know the etiquette for a corporate setting. I think Keeley hiring her right off is going to initially backfire in some ways and cause problems for her and her office, but I really really hope Keeley’s willingness to mentor and believe in Shandy comes back around in the end. Because that’s a story that I think is important to tell, and because it’s one of Keeley’s best traits, her willingness to see the good in others where maybe it’s not often recognized. That’s the whole spirit of the show, isn’t it?

[cordycepsfem]

Pageboy Readthrough, Part Eight

Previously

your reviewer had to read about EP's sex life with her own two eyes

this included the bizarre phrase "magnets sucking" which, I'm not going to lie, has possessed my entire brain since reading it

I'll be just sitting at work thinking work thoughts and then all of a sudden I'll magically hear a voice saying magnets sucking in my brain and remember why it is that 30-somethings should not be writing memoirs

anyway the rest of the chapter was about being homophobically attacked

your reviewer went off on a tangent about why Umbrella Academy Season Three sucked

we had a brief "we live in a society" moment

and then we had a much longer digression about anger being useful

by the end of it all EP owed me $64.80 (CAD) for everything I had to read with the only two human eyes I'm ever going to have

Also, I want to go off on a longer digression about this today: it finally hit me why this book is hard to read...

It's not well-written.

There's a lot of jumping back and forth between things that are happening now and things that happened previously, and then when we're reading about the now there are lots of side tangents about things that are also happening now or recently happened. There's not a straight line through a chapter.

Maybe this is what it's like in EP's head and for that she has my sincerest sympathy and understanding, as I don't think anyone's mind truly works in a linear way. But she also had, I assume, an editor or two who had the thing in front of them and could have helped but didn't. Again, this is my entire soapbox about 30-somethings writing memoirs: as a group nothing's happened to us miraculous enough to fill a memoir, and we're also not emotionally ready for people to tell us we're actually not that brilliant, so many of us would have a hard time taking direction. I don't know if EP's celebrity "wowed" whoever her editor was, and they just slapped a "You go guy!" sticker on it and sent it to the publisher, but... if I turned this in I would be embarrassed to read it back, partially for all of the embarrassing childhood things I would have shared but also because I wrote it in a way that says "linear plot line? fuck her" and expected everyone to love it.

But what do I know - I'm not on the New York Times bestseller list or anything. (Or am I? You don't know.)

Now

Chapter Ten

EP tells us about being cast in An American Crime and meeting Catherine Keener

having not seen the film nor having any idea who this woman is, let's read on

ah, yes, I remember now:

An American Crime is about the horrific abuse of a young woman named Sylvia Likens

obviously acting in this role was a lot for EP, as it would be for any actor

this part of the book is actually really tender, and I appreciate the detail EP puts into talking about how she would try to get the feeling of playing a horribly abused young woman out of her head

and for all I said about it not being written well, these two paragraphs felt absolutely solid in my chest:

(apart from the fact that a metronome sets tempo, not speed, because again, I am a very specific type of asshole, and today apparently it's "pedantic about music" asshole)

EP talks about going to a restaurant in a train car that only serves pasta and I am once again jealous

she also talks about her eating disorder, smoking, drinking, and not sleeping as her basic routine, and I am once again saddened

she dates a guy who tells her she's not gay while they're having sex (see, this is where the whole timeline thing comes in - in a previous chapter she'd already come out, and now we're back before that happened)

when EP returns to Halifax she weighs 84 pounds (38.1 kg)

here are some other things that weigh approximately 84 pounds, according to the internet:

ten gallons of water

a baby rhino

2 bushels of gooseberries

a fiberglass canoe

16 bricks

2 sandbags

anyway

EP's mom is worried about her

a therapist gives her bad advice

EP gains some weight back and then goes to audition for Juno

we learn that before EP's mom was a French teacher she worked for Air Canada but is afraid of flying

we also learn that EP's mom is the daughter of Anglican minister

EP enters a sexual relationship with Olivia Thirlby and hangs out with Michael Cera and Jonah Hill and they make music and get stoned and walk around town together

oh and also they make Juno and it is good and EP loves making it

and things are better

and the next chapter opens with vomiting so it is here I must stop for the night