#Was the whole time thanks for coming to my ted talk

[aggro-my-beloved]



teen!milo had braces

teen!david wore glasses

teen!tank dealt with bad acne

and teen!asher had sex

[crimsonbreeze]

I need to talk about Kate Moreau

Because I have never seen any character be given such importance only to end up being so under utilized. The lack of explanation to the mystery that was Kate just left me feeling cheated. I wanted to know this character. I needed to know this character. Even just a little bit. I got..well, next to nothing.

(Spoilers for the whole series ahead so new viewers read at your own risk.)

Kate is the driving force for all of Neal's actions for the entirety of the first two season and yet throughout all of this, she remains nothing more than a plot device. There isn't any one scene in the show where we ever get to see anything from Kate's perspective. We only ever see Kate from other people's POV or we hear other people talk about her, see how they feel about her and how she influenced some aspects of their lives but never see how other people influenced her or how she felt about them. Maybe this was just me but I just kept on waiting for a scene or an episode where her actions would be explained and we would get to see exactly why did everything she did. I kept feeling like it was coming but it just never happened. All we ever got was a quick minute of Adler confirming that Kate really had been on Neal's side all along but the plan went somewhat sideways and so he killed her. It just didn't have the impact that it should have and it was made so much worse by the fact that Neal seems to kind of just gets over it after he gets this answer and then is just entirely focused on the treasure in the next season. The lack of insight into Kate leaves the storyline feeling incomplete despite having spanned two entire seasons.

There's just so much wasted potential. I particularly would have loved to see the dynamic between Kate and Peter had she lived. Kate and Peter were sort of pulling Neal in two different directions and it would have been so interesting to see them interact some more. Peter clearly didn't trust her but it also heavily seemed like he just didn't like her. Same goes for everyone else too, honestly. So did they just dislike/distrust Kate as a person or was it just because they didn't like how much Neal loved her? Pretty much everyone was telling Neal that Kate was playing him by the end of the season to the point where he truly begins to doubt her. I needed the aftermath of that and I never got it. I wanted to see Neal be angry at himself for doubting her when all she wanted was to run away with him. I also really wanted some kind of confrontation between Neal and Peter where Neal's guilt kicks into overdrive and he lashed out at Peter and blamed him for making Neal question Kate and for Peter never giving her a chance (because seriously Peter vilifies her from the get go). Even as a plot device she's under utilized.

The scene in season 5 when Neal is running to Rebecca triggered something for me (cause that hug they had was the hug I had been waiting for between Neal and Kate that I never got) I couldn't stop thinking about it especially after learning that Rebecca had all that intel on Neal's old girlfriends. For some reason, I can't help thinking the person she she was emulating the most was Kate. I don't know why but the feeling wouldn't go away cause even though we knew pretty much nothing about her, it was what I had been imaging Kate to be like the whole time. So I wound up going back and rewatching all of the scenes that Kate is in or mentioned cause I needed to get to know this character and I thought rewatching the scenes and focusing on her would help. But no.

Kate has no personality. We never get to understand her motivations or emotions before she's just very suddenly killed. Which I could accept if we got even a little bit more insight into her character but even though they spent an entire season with Neal trying to figure out who killed her and why, her death still doesn't feel like it got the attention that it should have because we never get to see Neal grieve. I wanted to see him missing her, thinking about her, maybe wanting to talk about her but struggling with it. I wanted more flashbacks even if it was just him seeing her face for a split second or remembering her laugh. Literally anything that would have given us some sense of what she was like as a person.

At first, I kind of blamed it on bad acting by Alexandra Daddario but after watching the scenes a few more times, I think it has more to do with just bad writing and I think she actually did a pretty good job in the flashback episode. The bones of the story are so good but it's just not enough so it leaves the entire storyline feeling hollow. I feel like they just couldn't decide if they actually wanted Kate to be good or bad so they just told the actress to be mysterious which lead to her not really being able to show a lot of emotion. We see a lot more emotion at least in the flashback episode from Kate and get a small sense of what she might be like but again, it's ALL from Neal's pov. Same thing when she has that meeting with Peter. it's all from Peter's perspective and we see it as him retelling what happened in that meeting to Neal and Kate is skewed by his perception of her ( i looked into her eyes and I didn't see concern for you). The only time I remember see kate's feelings or reactions to something is for a few seconds in 1x06 when she's on the phone with Neal where she smiles when she says hi to him and then the five seconds of focus we get on her when Neal tells her he's not telling her where he hid all the things he stole.

Kate feels like a puzzle where we've been given a lot of the pieces but I can't get them to fit together. We never see her emotions or hear about her feelings but we get snippets of the kind of person she is. The easy and obvious stuff is that she's beautiful and into art. On a less obvious scale, it's implied that she's very smart. Based on the flashback, she spent somewhere between 1-2 years just avoiding Neal and hiding from him and Mozzie while working (most likely solo?) as a con artist and a fence. How was she managing that? She wasn't a conwoman before Adler took off with her life saving so obviously, she picked up on things quick for her to be able to pull off hiding from Neal for as long as she did. She knew immediately when Neal tried to con her and she called him out on it. Was she working a legit job and fencing on the side? How was she affording to be moving around from place to place every week? What was her living situation like? Did she have family other than her dead father (we never got to see what clue she had left there for Neal, only the flower from Alex instead)? How did she feel about the fact that she was the reason Neal eventually got caught the first time? Did she feel guilty? Did she blame herself for him being in jail? How did she feel when she found out he broke out with only 3 months left on his sentence just for her? How did she feel about him working with the FBI? How did she feel about Peter? He used her as bait to catch Neal and then years later basically threatened her to keep away from him. Did she think he was using Neal or did she believe him when he told her he was Neal's friend?

She seems to be scared for Neal's safety but she was bold enough to make a deal with Fowler and later go above him to make a deal with Adler to let them both go once he got the music box and to point a gun at Peter (even though they make it pretty obvious she didn't have it in her to actually pull the trigger, you can kinda see her hand shaking as she points the gun and Peter doesn't even flinch cause he knows she won't do it which is the only unbiased thing about kate we get from that scene). What was going through her head during all this? Was she scared? Was she angry? Desperate and just throwing a hail Mary? Why was she in contact with Adler when even Fowler wasn't? Did he contact her when he learned Fowler had roped her into his mission to get the music box? Was Adler upset about Kate getting involved? She seems to stay calm under pressure, she's funny and charming and friendly from what we get from the flash back episode that gives her a certain gentleness that contradicts what most characters kept saying about her to Neal in the first season. The later seasons paint her more and more as a victim and an all around good person. Her leaving the painting for Neal in season 3 when she could have taken it, Neal using the word innocence to describe her in season 5, Keller telling Neal that Kate was dead the moment Neal laid eyes on her making it seem once again that despite his love for her, Neal was the worst thing that ever happened to Kate...

Again, so much wasted potential. I feel like we could have had such a great, nuanced female character in Kate and we were robbed of that cause the writers decided they wanted to move on from the Kate storyline without ever actually giving us her side of the story. Don't get me wrong, I loved the mystery and the intrigue it created but the mystery needed to be at least somewhat unraveled at the end and what we got just wasn't enough.

Anyways... this disappointment has lead to me creating an entire personality and backstory for Kate in my head based off the very little we do see of her. I think she had the potential to be an amazing character and also, I just wanted to see more of the couple. My obsessive rewatching of those scenes led me to me fall in love with the Neal/Kate ship in all it's tragic glory. Causes the one thing the show did make very clear to me was that these two loved each other more than anyone and I think they were perfect for each other. I still would have loved to get to know Kate a little bit more but I also get the sense that maybe the writers couldn't figure out a backstory for ther that made her so special for Neal. Seriously what is it that could make Neal Caffrey fall that hard? I can make do with my head canons but it just sucks seeing the groundwork and realizing how great the character and the ship could have been.

[bookinit02]

honestly going to be a little brave even and say that the reason buck kissed tommy Like That at the hospital is because he was so pent up from the bachelor party and seeing eddie shirtless getting vodka poured down his throat that he was like . i need to make out with a man immediately or i will die.

[jup1tersparx]

rick rounds autistic and gets away with no one ever picking up on it via pretending all of the autism traits are 1) him being rude on purpose and 2) him just being a REALLY dedicated and stoic leader.

he never makes eye contact with anyone and seems to ignore to half of the things you say when talking to him? yeah he’s locked into that sigma grindset bro he doesnt have time for your bullshit. he refuses to let anyone touch him? oh is he also gonna cry and tell you about his feelings while you’re hugging 🥺🥺🥺? he barely makes any facial expressions, his voice is always monotone and he won’t react at all if you break down crying in front of him? yeah hes hardcore man completely unreadable. he gets really loud and angry and unpredictable when theres a lot of people and noise and lights? yeah hes a fucking wildcard bro you dont wanna mess around near him trust me. we need real men like this leading America forward thank god men are finally being masculine again 🙏🙏🙏 (/s)

[whosthere54]

“Why did you invite me to your wedding” by Kevin Atwater is Wet Birds coded. In this essay I will-

[jevilowo]

TOP TEN WORST TYPES OF TF2 MISCHARACTERISATION: (in my opinion)

Woobified Scout (we've all been subject to it at some point)

"Feral" (rapist) Sniper (scary)

Not smart Heavy (man has a phd, smh)

Seme/Uke ass Heavymedic dynamic (and also woobified Medic)

Those "it was a girl all along" type Pyro fics (they fill me with such raw feral rage its insane)

Asshole dad Spy (can be fun in small doses but gets taken way too far 80% of the time)

Racist/Homophobic Soldier (HE WOULDN'T. Unless told to predjudice the enemy BUT THATS IT)

To the same extent, needlessly assholish Soldier (only exists to add another billion Scout Angst fics to the pile)

When Engie is "the normal one" (he's a maniac with a god complex, get it right)

Demo being ignored, or just having his alcoholism be the only thing about him

An honourable mention is making Ms Pauling straight /j

[retros-artandstuff]

vriska + a transmasc dave doodle

[kindlythevoid]

Listen, Ethan Hunt is at his core a silly goofy guy. Can he improvise? Sure! Guy loves to do it, does it all the time in fact, favorite way to do things. Anything that requires an actual thought?? A single thought spanning more than the next hour?? Nothing. Not a single braincell of his is working. This man hopped into the helicopter knowing nothing other than the fact that it was constantly yelling at him and that was a Bad Thing. Why? He doesn’t know. Listen. Listen. The man is smart; we all saw him do physics in the third movie when he pendulumed across a building. But also?? This man gets by with the Bare Minimum amount of Critical Thinking Skills (tm). The amount of times (at least two) he has gotten through a mission hoping the targets had never seen each other before?? Jumping into/through/generally towards something with the wish that he makes it and then doesn’t!?! I love Ethan, but it is because the only two thoughts going through that man’s head is Love Friends/People and Jump/Climb Things.

[monstrsball]

the thing with kurosuga is it can be so good but not many people are right about it.

[lillybearrie]

Anyone else look at Icarus in season 1 and like after actually listening to the words they say immediately go "oh you didn't get hugged enough by your care giver as a child huh? You had to work your ass off for the slightest bit of approval didn't you? I bet the parental figure never hit you but they did emotionally neglected the fuck outta you huh buddy."

...K good to know

[noramoon]

need a song for what i’m feeling rn bc what on earth is happening 😭

[mintandcreme]

:)

[thedappleddragon]

YAY

[ivymala]

Hi hello that Loki ending had me feeling so emotionally devastated I don’t know what to do anymore

[itzmoss]

i need to have a moment

somehow

both shows i love, once upon a time, and voltron

people seem to not like the last season

which i can understand why because with both they dont really like how the ended

but like

yes im not a fan of the way they ended but i still love the last season of both shows

like when i was younger i didnt really like the last season of ouat, and i rewatched the full show recently and i couldnt actually place why i didnt like it, so i watched and i actually really liked it, i mean sure ouat is repetitive thats just kinda what the show does, so yea ofc the last season is "repetitive" but like it also adds this whole new situation with different interesting characters and a different setting.

then when i originally watched voltron it was like maybe the first few seasons when i was younger and then i completely forgot abt it, flashforward to me rewatching it in 2022 because stuff started showing up on my social medias, i thought woah theres so many seasons lets binge it!! then i saw people said the last season was bad, so i literally didnt watch it... which is insane, recently i wanted to rewatch it again, and i thought you know what lets try the last season

it wasnt bad at all, i mean sure the character development couldve been better, and yes we are upset about klance, but my experience watching the last season was pretty amazing, like genuinely crying for half of it cus that shit HITS

anyways here are my "hot takes" (for some) i guess...

[wonkyjaw]

Okay but as horrid as Riko is… if he’d ever been met with an ounce of kindness he would have gotten a redemption arc. The whole point of the Foxes is that people deserve and should receive second, third, fourth, as many chances as they need. I mean, just look at Seth. In a story like that I think it’s a disservice to dismiss the fact that Riko deserved those chances too. He had all the privilege in the world so long as it stayed within his gilded cage. He was just as stuck as Neil and Kevin and Jean. That didn’t give him the right to do what he did, but he had his own abusers and his own neglect and Kevin was likely the only person in his life to ever even try to be nice to him and view him as a person and Kevin is Kevin (meaning if it was not exy, then it likely did not matter). I just think that if Riko was treated with kindness in the face of all his nastiness he might have found his way eventually.

I just see so much of Akito (Fruits Basket) in his character. He was told he was king, pressured to be the best or else, and ignored by the people he craved the attention and love of the most and beneath all that pressure he became cruel and reactive. The only real difference between Riko and Akito is Akito was given that unconditional acceptance and forgiveness (no matter how ‘undeserved’) and was forced to confront how wrong past actions had been. Akito got a redemption arc.