#a lot of the subtext of the twins' relationship with their dad is that he is massively emotionally unavailable

[chirpsythismorning]

What do you think about the possibility of El and Will not being exactly twins but half siblings? Maybe Lonnie was in the MK Ultra project for money and had an affair with Terry Ivis, so El was born. His sperm was affected, and Lonnie had another child with Joyce, who was born with repressed/hidden powers (I'm considering Jonathan was already born when Lonnie's balls were chernobyl'd). Then Lonnie took Will to the Lab a feel times for test, but they concluded he was born powerless, because he appeared to be a normal kid.

Upon coming across twelvegate, I did initially go down this rabbit hole! I made a shit-post about the possibility of Lonnie being both Will and El's dad, but more recently I've expanded on that evidence in an ask, discussing why I basically don't think that is the case anymore.

The main thing that makes me so confident about this, is that I'm certain Terry isn't El's 'mama'. Like pretty much 100% certain.

There are a few posts where I discuss this (here, here, here) so definitely check those out if you want a deep dive to better understand where I'm coming from with that claim.

To be fair, I did not subscribe to this up until recently. It was as if my brain blocked me from even merely considering the possibility that Terry isn’t El's mom because of how tragic her whole situation was. And so it felt almost insensitive to even speculate, I guess?

But as of now, after actually going back and watching her scenes for myself, as well as flashbacks featuring her that resurface in future seasons, I think that if anything Lonnie is a roadblock to the truth, in the same sense that Terry is. Because the evidence that Terry isn't El's mom is too alarming to ignore. Like, once you see it, it becomes very obvious they've always been trying to hint this to us, as subtly as possible, and they did it successfully bc it went over everyone's heads.

And so since Terry isn't El's mom, and there are certain details tying Terry to having some sort of connection to Brenner (ie Papa/Mama, Bonsai trees, Hopper's line about Terry's 'relationship' with Brenner), then it's very likely that, in the original timeline/universe or whatever we want to call it, Terry could have worked closely with the lab in some capacity, though ended up supporting Joyce’s claims over allegations about the lab and experimentation, ie. the article at the end of s1 including Joyce/Terry's testimonies. And so she was basically a confidant to them who went against the lab and was lobotomized for it and placed in a scenario that blocked out the truth very conveniently for them, while also essentially punishing her.

And when it comes to Lonnie... That is where it gets very complicated. Because I think it's likely that in the OG timeline, Lonnie was not the greatest guy. I think there was a lot of scary subtext surrounding him harming Will in s1 and it's possible that this dude has been given the role of their father in this timeline, which in the original timeline he is not. He's essentially Stranger Things' very own Biff.

This does make me very intrigued about what is going to be revealed in 'The First Shadow' play coming soon. We're said to get the backstory for not only Joyce and Hopper but also Lonnie and Bob (and Henry) apparently, so that is making for some interesting potential Back to the Future parallels from Marty’s parents’ 1955 timeline vs Willel’s parents’ 1959 timeline. Also the synopsis being young Joyce Maldonado and Jim Hopper dealing with the shadows of the past...

Arguably, it is crunch time. We're approaching the final season and this is a revelation that a lot of the audience are probably not going to be ready for, despite a lot of the hints in the details. I presume they wont have much time in s5 to rehash the mysteries of the past, beyond glossing it over, and so this was honestly a perfect way for them to go back and give context for what is to come in a really unique way that is canon, but without having to cram too much into s5 like they had to for s4.

I do think that Lonnie is very likely to return in s5. Though he referred to Hawkins at its most tame as a hell hole, so idk if he would be running back there during an apocalypse, seeing as everyone else seems to be trying to get out ASAP. It is possible though, and yet I just really don't think his arc is about this series long secret that he is both El and Will's father. If anything I think the revelation is much darker in relation to what truly happened to him and El, possibly in relation to the lab, as he could indeed have been an MKUltra volunteer like you said. It could also help to go read up on some of the cases/allegations put against MKUltra back in the day bc, though it is quite disturbing in parts, it could very well hold the answer to at least some secrets seeing as this is partially based on a real life program that did exist back in the day.

If Lonnie was their dad, I think he would have been a lot more prioritized in the overall story over the seasons, and yet they kind of introduced him in s1 with only a couple references to him in passing since then. If anything it's giving we do not want to give this character too much acknowledgement in the story.

I think a return for him would perhaps look like the storys way of revealing to us that he is not actually their father. Either via flashbacks to the og timeline or perhaps vecna visions at a point when we’re still assuming this is Will’s dad. I do think he very likely is connected to the darker secrets behind what really happened though, related to Will and El's original disappearances, leading up to them in the lab presumably.

I won't claim to understand the memory/time-loop nonsense, because I think that it could also have a lot to do with Will's powers related to time and therefore probability perhaps, which ties really well into the whole X-Men 134 reference. And yet, obviously, I feel like it's too much to try to be certain about which angle go at it, despite having a lot of the pieces to perhaps figure it out? Bc we can guess all day what Will's powers will look like, but we still don't really know for certain? And so going too far beyond that feels like too much guessing to me.

I will say that what makes me even more confident about this theory, even more than the Terry evidence, is just the heaps of evidence connecting Will and El from the very beginning, and how that also connects to Joyce and Hopper more often than not.

If you're open to looking at evidence related to the whole Joyce + Hopper = Willel twins + Jon ? gate (?), or even just how byler also fits into this, bc tbh a lot of the evidence connects, these are a few posts below that might peak your interest. And this isn’t even all of it.

This is the MAIN one so if you read any of them, read this (first and foremost)

Twelvegate Evidence going back to s1 and oh so many unanswered questions

Twelvegate Evidence going back to s1 + Willel Twins

Deer Imagery following The Hoppers/Byers Family

David Harbour cryptically changing his IG pfp to twins, multiple times before S4 dropped:

The fact that Star Wars' big plot twist was that Luke/Leia were twins... That the Duffers are twins... That Noah Schnapp is a twin... 'IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT (MIKE), THEY'RE IDENTICAL'...

El: Me? I'm twice as happy now *cut camera to estranged twin Will opening van door for him and El*

The Wright Bros

Parallels between El being confronted, with Will standing by frozen

"She missed her dad. We all do."

El and Will reuniting at Nina and the remaining timestamp is 12:00

"Mom!"

I will alway say that I am subject to be wrong. The only thing I'm very confident about now is that Terry isn't El's mom, and it just so happens that everything else sort of falls into place after that.

[lemonhemlock]

Thoughts on rhaencient?

and

Thoughts on rhaencient

and

What are ur thoughts on rhaenyra and alicents relationship?

i hear your grievances and i have come to address them!

what can i say, anons. this was one of the changes i really liked from the books. by making alicent rhaenyra's age, they removed the frankly overdone evil stepmother trope. or, rather, by making them childhood companions, they subverted it in an unexpected way. it's really "shut up or i'll fuck ur dad" only with extra layers of tragedy.

i thought their dynamic was really well done actually? i loved how they were framed. alicent helping rhaenyra dress before her ceremonial investiture. the twin faces of sorrow when viserys announces he will marry alicent in the small council room. the deleted scenes of rhaenyra helping alicent in her wedding dress. the hand-holding after the tapestries farce! the "alicent, your grace, sister"!!!! i was obsessed with THE GIRLS in the first half of the show!

i've noticed that the gay subtext really flies over a lot of people's heads & i think it's bc it's more socially-acceptable for girls to display physical affection towards each other than it is for men. so it's easier for viewers to resort to the traditional reading that "they're just gal pals". i was v disappointed with some male asoiaf reviewers i've watched since so many elements that had to do with womanhood were completely invisible to them. it was so jarring. but there was this permeating sense of YEARNING and melancholic tension that emanated out of these two, like you could sense they were meant to be soulmates

i think it's fair to say that rhaenyra is probably a bisexual woman (esp if we also take into account her dalliance with laena in the books), as she seems to also be very comfortable within relationships with men. but, for alicent, i don't really think she knows what she is. that exploration of self was denied to her and her feelings for rhaenyra were misdirected the moment she was forced to have children & fear for their lives. there's also this little-discussed facet of alicent as a queer woman shoved inside a very traditional female matronly role from a very early age. coerced into having old man sex with her decaying husband, impregnated against her will, just very generally developing a noxious relationship with sex. whereas rhaenyra is afforded the opportunity of reveling in romantic love and inhabits the role of motherhood from a much calmer, more balanced perspective

i've already spoken about the symbolism of The Page in the final third of this post, but alicent & rhaenyra are such representatives of their houses' respective ideologies: soft power & diplomacy vs conquest & claiming. alicent wants to tame rhaenyra. rhaenyra wants to ravish alicent. they could have MAYBE balanced each other out in a utopic world where they would have just been allowed to BE & it's so jarring to see how they're torn apart by gross old men who barter with women's bodies and convince themselves they are doing what's right for them & their families. but ofc it's also The System TM as a whole at fault here. no one wins, no one is happy, no one is safe under patriarchal feudalism.

the breakdown of their relationship doesn't happen overnight, it's a ruin dismantled brick by brick by them, their fathers, the society that has no place for them to explore their bond, the bankruptcy of empathy, the failure of trust, but still they cling onto each other whenever they are rewarded a moment of respite!

[auxiliarydetective]

I've talked about this to @supermarine-silvally before, but I felt like this was something worth sharing with everyone, and that's:

I realized that all of my One Piece OCs have a very special relationship with Sanji, but they all have a very different relationship/dynamic with him.

Luna and Sanji are in a romantic relationship, yes, but it's a lot more mellow compared to Cora/Sanji - which is funny because animanga!Sanji is arguably a lot more over the top than opla!Sanji. But the main difference is that, while Cora joins in on Zoro and Sanji's bickering for her own entertainment, Luna is a huge calming and grounding force. Generally, Luna's relationship with Sanji is very based on the aspect of protection. Yes, Sanji protects Luna, but Luna also protects Sanji. Being a guardian angel is literally her thing. There's also the subtext of a goddess and her follower, which is a whole new thing to unpack.

Inari is essentially Sanji's little sister. Also, the entire WCI arc takes on a whole new dimension with Inari being Big Mom's daughter and Pudding being her twin sister. Until that point, she was close to delusional in her optimistic view on her family, but the whole thing is a huge eye opener, and both of them actually go through unwanted/scary changes to their body after the arc, so that's another parallel.

I already talked a bit about Cora, but the huge aspect that plays into their dynamic is, of course, their shared past, and (mainly) Cora's resulting trauma. Also, there's Zoro. Them being in a polyamorous relationship is a whole new aspect. You've heard of ZoSan bickering, now get ready for Cora adding her own teasing into the mix.

Is Lily another little sister figure? No. Sanji is pretty much Lily's dad. Like, the type of dad who loves his little daughter, thinks she can do no wrong and absolutely spoils her. Just like how Zeff just acquired custody over Sanji, Sanji just acquired custody over Lily because one of her former caretakers decided to almost die (Zoro) and the other decided to just leave (Nami).

And finally, Aurelia. Aurelia is Sanji's matron and mother figure. She came to Baratie, saw this child with mommy issues, and promptly decided to adopt him. If anyone dares hurt him, they had better make sure that they wrote down their will and think about their last words. Ever wondered how Sanji can afford his fancy suits and specific cigarette brands and whatnot? It's Aurelia. She loves to absolutely spoil him with gifts and Sanji basically just has to ask a little nicely and she'll give him money. Sanji sees a mother figure in Aurelia because she's actually caring and patient with him, and she's one of the few women that he actually allows himself to be vulnerable around.

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Taglist: @starcrossedjedis @oneirataxia-girl @daughter-of-melpomene - let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!

[lordkingsmith]

They are all softies deep down lol. Softies and sweeties, though some a little prickly.

Adam’s love life is absolutely by far the weirdest. I…cannot fathom normal kids for him, and half of his bad endings kids as I call them are lowkey Yikes. Going into this I figured Tommy would get the prize but yea no Adam might not have the longest list but he’s got the oddest one. I think it’s his vibes. I’d love to see someone else’s take and see if they come up with as weird or weirder or more stable.

Like…I don’t think Adam’s weird, but he attracts weird, you know? monster fucker vibes are off the charts for this lad lol

-Unknown Coinless; yes~ I can easily see it~

Tommy; ahahaha….yuuup. Tommy feels like he’d be a serial divorcee in most scenarios, and I don’t blame his relationships for trying but they can’t really help him coming at it from certain angles. I can see him and Adam getting together, I can’t see them making it last, sadly. Isaiah and JJ get to traumabond over the cringe of the baby stories and shared experience of having Tommy as a dad, yep.

Rocky & Aisha au; yes yes yes~ all the kids have so much second hand embarrassment by their parents pda in public~ and they thrive in their home with their parents~

Scorpina; I kind of hope it does happen because Skull’s gonna GET IT. lends a lot of credence to the two in every universe having a weird bond from terrible similar experiences. Awful but there it is.

Adam, because magic themed name puns.

Adam=Adam Warlock from Marvel

Sabrina=Sabrina the teenaged Witch

Luna=Luna Lovegood.

He was banking Sabrina wouldn’t know pop culture well enough to understand and he’s right. He thinks it’s fun and she’s using it to flip her evil past self off, yes. Nobody is telling her.

Adorable but freaky headtrip yes lol. And yea, I love the Coinless idea, had to include it given Adam. He’s not too happy being a kept man, but he’s also not protesting too too much. And his daughter is definitely babysat a lot by Eugene, who is best uncle forever. As appointed by Luna.

Carlos; yea the kids are definitely bits of karma. I don’t recall anything with any of the Inquirans, for either of them, in a romantic sense or a “someone’s caught feelings and this being a 90’s show is holding that back” pining subtext way either. Can’t say the same for Jason or a certain two Turbo Reds, but I could more easily see these two adopting as a favor to a deceased friend than anything else. But both kids kind of harken back to Carlos and Adam’s growth as characters lol.

Carlos is not happy with it but yea, this one’s going to have a relationship with a vampire. Personally like the thought the second he gets to earth he meets a version of LeeLee who DID undergo the transformation into vampire. Or a character like my oc Iva. Good kids who just wanna do their own thing, and Carlos would approve. The Inquiran girl loves her dads, but she can’t really fight her species nature. I…think they’re closer to oracles? Even Divatox in the tv show was sometimes prone to answering questions with questions and just knowing things she realistically shouldn’t. The twins were separated, that’s all we know. So I imagine Gwena will get better at this, they just gotta get through the young child phase. Realistically Divatox probably taught herself or was taught not to talk or think like a Inquiran. neither Adam nor Carlos want her to lose that, but they are glad when she will eventually adapt to human with humans and Inquiran with Inquirans. She’s got good role models all around, at least~

Trey of Triforia; you know you’re great when the crown prince of a planets not good enough for you lol. I have to wonder if he only split into three in a gecko sense of survival. He’s got gold, which is a tough color for anybody, and he crash landed into Aquitar, which had to have been bad for a non aquatic (I think his planet might be a desert?) being. And then kept using gold until he was edge of death bad to help a team he’s part of but never met before. Dude was not having a good month. And then Jason almost dies because of gold too, and was using it for a smaller amount of time, with less bodily strain.

It’s difficult though, to pair Trey with anyone. He’s interesting but we don’t know anything about him. I’m going to do my best. He’s a ranger and he deserves a little thought, and green/gold has potential. But yea…Adam’s a little out of his league. I won’t lie, I did like making up their daughter though lol. She’s maybe my third favorite of the list.

Dulcea: …gdi. Yea. I had to copy paste you. I’ll go and fix it.

Oh yea no this woman is Super Creepy with all the teenaged boys. Especially Adam. The frog prince monologue should not have been coming out of her mouth.

Was not comfy with it, but it wasn’t worse for me than the Zedd/Kim one. And for the purposes of being…fair….she has to be acknowledged. She would do this, and it is a bit gross. Garrett deserves to have friends who are used to strange and unusual, and he gets them~ I can at the very least give this kid that.

Adam Park OC Children

Adam’s a great guy and a total fucking sweetheart and the comics have and do him a disservice. I can’t fix that, but I can soothe my inner annoyance and give him a load of kiddos and loving relationships in all the alternate realities I can think of. And talk about the child he does canonically have in Coinless. Nameless Coinless boy also gets an au version. he deserves it, and his dad too.

Canon Children:

Unknown Mother;

Apparently a boy of unknown name, personality, or age. Child aged, maybe? So…probably anywhere from newborn to early preteens because the kid would probablyotherwise have been a sentry? I don’t know, I just… think they could have done a lot more with this mystery kiddo? child being assumed dead and then avenging Adam dying would have been a very cool plot twist! but no! he's so light on character he's not a character! He's a mention in a backstory to make Adam tragic! Who's his mom, who is he, how old was he, what illness did he die of, did he die of an illness, I-c'mon. there's light on character and then there's this. May the child come back in a reboot or just in general. And be a badass. I wish this for all of them, by the way.

My OC and Alternate Reality Kids for Adam:

Eugene Skullovitch;

Eugene doesn't believe in himself, but Adam does, did, and always has. They started dating after Adam encouraged him to play the piano in the talent show. Adam loves his music, and they're both encouraging of each other. Aisha is a surrogate for their son, Lukas. Given how close she was to Adam, it was only natural in her mind to offer. She loves him, loves he's found happiness, and when they decided they wanted kids she wanted to help that happiness grow. Lukas Park's 17, plays piano, and volunteers at the animal shelter. Adam's a doctor and while Lukas respects and likes this, he'd rather be a veterinarian. Or, like Skull, a professional classical pianist. They support Lukas with whatever he wants to do or be, and he loves the fact he's not being pressured. Skull once sat him down with a list of every job he's ever done (the list was actually more like an entire manila folder bursting out the sides, it was frankly impressive), a ranking system and how much each profession made. Everything from a cop to a detective to an undercover agent for the government to a waiter at a bar to a judge at a pet show to rockstar to pianist-it was comprehensive and a little overwhelming, but at the end of each profession Skull said if it was what he wanted, he'd be proud. At the end it left Lukas fairly calm and certain no matter what choice he made, it'd be the right choice for him, and his dads would support him in this. not associated with a color

Tommy Oliver;

They’d been friends since a bit before the transfer, and Tommy was Adam’s leader for years on three or four different ranger teams. There’s a level of trust there you don’t usually get, and they were both black and green rangers in their lives. After Tommy became Dino Thunder Black, and shortly after a divorce between him and Kat, Adam and Tommy started spending more time together. The getting together thing was an accident. Both of them at a Christmas party and then things going from one thing to the next, and Tommy says he’s never felt so at home waking up in someone’s arms.

They have one son together, Isaiah Park. Tommy cashed in on a favor owed by Grace, and soon enough JJ Oliver was trying to figure out where his baby half brother had come from. His opinion was Adam, because he was shorter. It wasn’t until several years later they were able to explain it in a way JJ would understand and accept. But they never let him live the cute story down, to his embarrassment. Given Tommy’s immunity to time fluctuations and manipulations by the Machine Empire, they found out they were living in the same town as Time Force. Tommy was able to complete a doctorate in, to Adam’s perception, a day. Tommy is a lead paleontologist due to this, and Adam works at the museum. However given Tommy being Tommy, there is currently a divorce. Tommy wears his trauma on his sleeve and Adam has given up trying to fix him.

Isaiah Park is sixteen. He’s quiet, thoughtful, and tends to think with his emotions rather than his mind. Lucky, charming, and a natural heartthrob to his school, though he doesn’t seem to notice. Loves music, especially classical, and reading. He hasn’t really thought about being a power ranger, though he wouldn’t say no if he was asked. He was babysat by the Dino Thunder team as a kid, and kidnapped by Mesogog once. All hell broke loose when this happened, and Isaiah’s unsure if he wants to be a ranger when this sort of danger could happen to any of his loved ones. Tommy and Adam are currently in the process of divorce, and Isaiah’s getting used to that idea as well, but it’s nice having JJ to talk to about it.

He has enough to deal with with his dads. They love telling the story of when he was three, they’d go “see you later alligator” and “after awhile Crocodile” and he’d respond, loudly and enthusiastically; “bye bye, froggie!” To this day he’s been unable to get them to stop telling this story to his friends, love interests, and any adult who’d listen. JJ feels the pain. Isaiah is not associated with any color. This is probably a good thing. However if he was, it’d be black.

Aisha Campbell;

It was just natural for them to get together. They’ve been friends together since forever, they’ve always been friends and it progressing to a little bit more made sense. They got married a little after joining SPD together. They have four kids together. Wendell, aged 26, Rocky, aged 26, Koniqua, aged 19, and Jacqueline “Jaq” Park, aged 17.

No way they weren’t going to name one of their kids after their closest friend aside from each other. Rocky was best man at their wedding even. When they found out they were having twins they simply used the middle name they were intending for a boy for Wendell. Rocky’s the older by eight hours, Wendell was a more difficult pregnancy and took his time, which actually was a foreshadowing to the twins’ personalities.

Rocky Park is rambunctious and a goofball. He loves making people laugh. Like his mom he’s empathetic and strong willed. Like his dad he’s prone to flashes of intense introspection, but never for long. Surprises people with his love of classical music. He’s enthusiastic to the point of being intense. Can be hard for him to dial it back. He’s a yellow ranger for his team.

Wendell is everything Rocky is not, and is a little bit of a little shit. He's often not noticed by other people, and tends to use that to his advantage. He knows his brother is a yellow ranger, and while he's not a ranger, he takes the opportunity to tackle or ram cars or steal from the monsters of the week. he's not noticed and it gives other rangers openings usually. He's given Rocky everything he's stolen, and is pleased when they're incorporated into the team's arsenal.

Koniqua is a lover of poetry, fables, and the history of the power rangers. She's determined to be one of the scientists who creates a new team, or unlocks the mysteries of the grid for general use. Pragmatic, quick thinking, happy to help her dumb brothers. They don't think she knows. She knew who'd saved her as soon as Rocky said "you're safe now civilian" and tried to act dumb. She barely resisted the urge to call him out. Doesn't bother fighting the monsters, her brothers got that covered, but she does help get other civilians to safety when needed. not associated with a color. She's going into historical costuming, with the intention of working for tv productions.

Jaq would love to know why earth is so valuable to bad guys that they keep trying to take it over. Genre savvy type, and doesn't take shit. Has psyched out two villains and one of the comedy duo by just asking over and over "okay but why". Not popular, has two best friends and they're all kind of outsiders. Prefers it this way. You will not find Jaq anywhere near the monsters when they appear, she's gone and dragging her friends off with her. not associated with a color, but has made the big bad main villain question themself and then cry. her brother was torn between disappointed, impressed, and terrified of his little sister. Jaq's considering maybe being a therapist specializing in rangers and their villains would be a lucrative career move.

Rocky DeSantos;

They make too much sense for anything else, they were best friends since the beginning. They adopted a kid who lost their home in a fire brought on by a monster. Peter's eleven and scared of the world. Adam and Rocky fully understand, but hope he can open up. They care for him and are worried about him. Peter DeSantos doesn't know how to feel about power rangers as parents after what happened, but he's glad Adam and Rocky are stable and they do try. It's just hard to open up. They have time, though, and that's what matters. Adam's been helping with his anxiety by showing him how to sew. Whenever he gets scared and his dads aren't there, he sews little projects. It helps and he's proud of what he makes.

tangential au; Rocky and Aisha and Adam are together with all above mentioned kids, and Aisha and Rocky's two kids. They live on a large ranch and the kids are thriving.

Scorpina; fascinatingly there is an episode where the Stone Canyon Trio deal with her in a human form as an exchange student named Sabrina. Adam was way into her. Coinless version Adam's finding Scorpina hot in general and she's flirting. A weird pairing but hey, there's a good history of evidence for mutual attraction! Of the trio Scorpina was always more flirtatious to Adam than Rocky or Aisha (this also makes him similar to comic!Skull in that a love interest is a long lived alien pretending to be a teenager for ulterior motives. imagine bonding over that extremely specific thing happening to you, yikes).

Scorpina is not banished to the dark dimension, and like Rita and Zedd, becomes good via Z-Wave. She simply takes the form of her human persona, the now young adult exchange student Sabrina. As Sabrina, she decides to see if she can patch anything up with Adam. Adam for his part needs to think about it. It's not that he doesn't trust she's redeemed, it's just so much has happened can he forgive her and accept the version of her genuinely trying to make things right? It takes a year and a half, and in the meantime they do see other people. But, eventually, they get together. They have a kid who's half alien, as Sabrina's species wasn't changed, she is more interested in looking human to help distance herself from her misdeeds, and blend in. For a time, at least, she eventually goes back to her true form when their daughter Luna Park is thirteen and develops her stinger. This is mostly to teach their daughter how to correctly use said stinger and other abilities without hurting herself or loved ones.

Luna Park is nineteen, very fashionable, calculating, and very good at getting her way. She generally doesn't do this maliciously, and works at a youth center, as the fundraiser manager among other things. She's extremely good at getting people to invest their money in good causes and very good at public events. She's a shapeshifter, but not as accomplished as her mom. While she looks like she'd be snotty or full of herself, she takes a lot after Adam and is very considerate and very polite and encouraging. However this doesn't mean she's a pushover, and she's sent more than one person who thought they could rough her or get handsy to the hospital. Rarely uses her stinger, Luna is an accomplished fencer and hand to hand combatant, though prefers kickboxing to martial arts. Think Daphne Blake with a stinger. Luna is not associated with a color

in a tangential au, she's a power ranger mentor and the green ranger for the team, when necessary.

tangential coinless au; Scorpina keeps protecting Adam, affectionately nicknaming him 'my little froggie' (to his concern), and doesn't let him die. However this annoys him because it sometimes mean she doesn't even let him fight. Eventually they produce Luna, and she's raised in the palace, often passed around by the sentries and Kim. Adam's not allowed by Scorpina to partake in anything potentially life threatening while Luna's young, and he gets placed as stay at home dad/personal body guard to own child duty. Eventually, Luna becomes a commander of black sentries, and works fairly well with the coinless. for the most part. Not much is different personality wise except she's more willing to commit murder and injury. Skull adores her too, and helps with the training when she's a kid.

Carlos Vallerte;

Several years after Adam transfers Carlos his Color, and after they team up, and a year after Adam joins SPA, he and Carlos reconnect. They got along well each time they teamed up, and after everything they get the chance to actually be able to get to know each other again properly outside of power ranger stuff. While both are busy with respective lives and careers, they do have joint custody over two kids, Miguel and Gwena. Aisha surrogated for Miguel, Gwena is an adopted alien girl from Inquiris. It's been a challenge to balance their careers with their kids, but they make it work. Generally, they don't live on earth, they currently live on K0-35 when not on duty with their kids.

Miguel is 13, and quite interested in nature, and earth. He's never actually been, because life kept getting in the way, but he wants to eventually. He's been promised he will, and that's nice. He likes ninjas and puzzle books and horror movies. Especially likes vampires, Carlos is just. Accepting this is going to haunt him for the rest of his life. Told Miguel if he wants to become a vampire that's fine but he needs to wait, and find someone who's not on the galaxy's most wanted list. Or working with a warlord or conqueror. the list of suitables is extremely small. Miguel's also thirteen, and he's realizing maybe he just likes the species in general more than the idea of becoming one. Loves vampire and zombie movies best. Not associated with a color.

Gwena is seven and from Inquiris. Any question given to her is answered with a question. Given how much human children do this in general...you can imagine the annoyance. Carlos and Adam quickly learned to phrase the questions as open ended statements for Gwena to respond to with statements of her own. She's very smart for a seven year old, and wants to know all the answers to all the questions, but is happy to question everything for the sake of asking the question. One day wants to go to earth, but also wants to go back to Inquiris again. She's also heard a lot about two infamous women from Inqiuris; Dimitria and Divatox, twins and very proficient in their own rights. At the moment, she flips between pretending to be Dimitria the good mentor, and Divatox, the pirate. She's seven so neither Adam nor Carlos are worried, but they do hope she'll decide Dimitria, who's a friend of theirs, will be a worthy role model, and not Divatox before the Z-Wave. not associated with a color, that anyone knows of. However Inquirians tend to gravitate to white or red color schemes in their clothing so it's hard for her dads to actually tell. Likes fables and magic and playing pirates. Vicseron, a friend of Dimitria from Inquiris, is Gwena's biological father, but was killed. Her mother also died, and Gwena had nobody. Dimitria had reservations about how well she and Divatox could look after a child. She brought the child to the most dependable ranger couples she could think of.

Prince Trey of Triforia;

While Trey crashed in Aquitar and needed help, when they sent him to earth to the other zeo rangers he helped them first, several times. Adam was, like the rest of them, very curious who the mysterious gold was. When they met properly, he had a little bit of a crush. When Jason took gold so Trey could slow down whatever was happening to him (his logos, pathos and ethos had split into three people, thoufh all of them were of the same mind. Triforian thing, apparently. It took a bit to get used to, to say the least.) Adam spent as much time as he could in the command center with Billy and Trey. They talked quite a bit, and Trey got a bit smitten with the curious green ranger.

When Trey was restored and he got zeo gold back, he decided to stick around for a little while to assist the other zeo rangers, and he and Adam began seeing each other. Adam thought it was kind of odd a prince wanted to date him, but he wasn’t against it at all.

They have one daughter. Crown Princess Tara, aged 20. Adam’s a diplomat between earth and Triforia, and Tara lives mainly on Triforia with Trey. She inherited Zeo Gold, and is noble, calm, and carry’s herself regally as she can. She does have her moments though, and feels like she can’t live up to her parents legacy, sometimes. She does try, though. She never stops trying. She’s going to be the best queen. It’s hard for her to believe it, but she’s going to be. Trey’s a great king, and he’s her dad. And Adam’s awesome, and he’s her dad too. And her teammates are awesome too.

Tangential au; Triforian life span might be longer than humans (I’ve got no idea, heellpp) and she’s the gold to the canon grandson of Tommy’s team. She’d be in the equivalent of early 20’s, in the hypothetical longer lifespan idea.

(we needed a green/gold lol. and this works, they did talk a little in canon. not much but I'm taking the opportunity)

Dulcinea;

She thought he was charming and sweet, and every bit a prince if he just had the self confidence to see it, himself. She made a child using magic, some years after the events of the movie. It killed her, but the child is hers and Adam's. He was confused and deeply saddened when he got the kid and the explanation. He loves Garrett, but it's a bit difficult. Garrett is an owl shifter, like his mother. He greatly resembles Adam. Garrett is 16, and doing his best. He's friends with the punks at his school, and has the constant air of wiser beyond his years. Often lives with Rocky or Tommy and Kat or any other dozen of Adam's friends while Adam's working off earth. He's got an odd, very inhuman air around him, even to other half human alien hybrids. There's something about his owl self that bleeds into his human form. He's never felt at home anywhere he's ever been, and he feels like he should go back to the planet his mother's from, guard what's there. He's a bronze ranger, and Adam wonders if this is from Dulcinea.

Unnamed Mother;

Adam made a mistake in highschool and while the girl wanted to keep the baby, her parents didn't think it'd be a good idea. Adam offered to take the baby off her hands, and while his parents disinherited him over it, Nemo grew up with a village for parents. Skull, Bulk, Aisha, Rocky, and Tommy and a few others off and on, all helped him during high school, with Aisha and Rocky stepping in during college, and Skull after, helping with whatever expense Adam needed. Nemo's fourteen, healthy, happy, and thriving despite everything. Adam's doing okay as a single parent, it's been hard but he's doing good. Adam's a tailor and Nemo mentioned wanting to go into this as well, and Adam about teared up he was so proud.

Coinless verse child has been given a happy alternative woo~

-

if I missed any, let me know! I think I covered most of Adam's possibilities ^-^

[vaguely-concerned]

quinndunham replied to your post “I need a proper space western sequel to mass effect andromeda only...”

i'm so devastated that we might never get a sequel, i'm in love with the weird space mysteries in it that they barely only grazed (and i also could not keep myself from romancing reyes for a single second lol, i ended the game dating him and gil cause the game couldn't tell i was doing both)

yeah with the hate me:a got I’m not optimistic about the chance for a sequel but I want it tho. and it’s so annoying too because you know what the gameplay base they’ve made for themselves is SO SOLID and I think they could do some really fucking cool stuff with it given more development time (the profiles are super neat when you play around with them!), the SAM/ryder bond is such an interesting concept worthy of further exploration, and I really want to know wtf was up with the people who made the remnant. (this really does not get played up enough in dialogue/if you don’t read the data from the scanner, but they have language that can directly induce complex emotions even in other species just by viewing it. what the fUCK that’s cool!)

I do think they should do a even cleaner break with the milky way stuff if they go for another game tho -- just do a bit of a genre switch like every game in the original trilogy does too, it’s fine! (after all me is a pretty pure space opera, me2 is more noir/I contend it’s actually a heist story where most of the story is the ‘gathering the team’ montage haha, me3 is a war story, all with varying degrees of lovecraftian horror in the background). dial that western knob up until it breaks bioware, make something really distinct and recognizable and different from how the milky way looked! dusty and worn and makeshift please! (kadara already has a pretty cool balance of this I think)

I always feel like that it’s almost sunny conspiracy meme when I talk about how there’s a lot of cool stuff to salvage in me:a lol. it’s like ‘okay the original kett designs are uninspired but hey their whole thing is genetic engineering who’s to say ‘kett’ isn’t so much a species as a bunch of different created species within the same cult!!!’. (I would love for them to go more horror-inspired angelic with how the kett look, to set them apart from the lovecraftian elements of the reapers and play up their weird lofty ideas of themselves) 

aaah I love reyes so much, he is SO much fun whether your ryder is romancing him, becomes his bro or hates his guts haha. I super enjoy the spectrum of possible outcomes with him and that they’re all entertaining. (and he’s a character who drives plot and lets you define your ryder more clearly for yourself, something I think is a bit lacking in places. also if they do make a sequel he’s always still alive in every worldstate so I have hopes, I have dreams) 

[equustenebris]

So yo uh major spoilers ahead for On the Trail of Copernicus if you haven't read it yet 🤭 But I have some Thoughts and I want to ramble.

I've been thinking about this page since I read it. Like there is sooo much subtext here.

1. Ratchet knows his dad and uncle well enough that Cartesius didn't even bother. He could have lied to Ratchet and pretended to be Copernicus, but he didn't. (Which makes total sense lmao, they're twins but he couldn't fool his SON. I just thought it was neat that they mentioned it.)

2. Ratchet trusted Cartesius(!!!) Remember by this point at the LEAST, Ratchet knows that Cartesius hasn't been involved in their lives for decades. Copernicus COULD HAVE told him about Cartesius's betrayal at university, or even his most recent return (and subsequent arrest). So either Ratchet is insanely trusting, or Copernicus never told him, and the fact that Ratchet doesn't seem to question why he's out of jail suggests the latter. Now there could be a lot of reasons for Copernicus never telling him...but I prefer to think that Copernicus tries to be the better person and hasn't talked ill of Cartesius to Ratchet -- even when it's justified.

3. Copernicus got the letter that his son was working with Cartesius and, knowing everything he does about what Cartesius is like, everything that Cartesius just did, and that Cartesius should still be in jail, he says he came to see IF there were ulterior motives. Like, his backstabbing brother goes behind his back to ask his son to travel to some remote inaccessible location to work on some secret project together and Copernicus is still entertaining the possibility that hey, maybe this is actually legitimate...? That's a HELL of a lot of trust to still be extending to your estranged brother

4. Copernicus describes the room as a cell but there's clearly nice looking furniture and candlelight, etc. I mean, he could have left him with nothing but Cartesius at least gave him a place to sit and some light and that makes me happy. Cartesius and Copernicus have a similar but different relationship than Gyro and Mads -- Mads would never do anything to hurt Gyro, that's not his goal and he's got no anger towards Gyro. In the same situation as the comic above, of COURSE Mads would make sure Gyro's comfortable. But Cartesius and Copernicus are different. Cartesius is directly antagonist to Copernicus. The way I interpret it, Copernicus is the reason Cartesius is so hostile. So for their relationship there's no guarantee Cartesius would do anything nice for his brother, no matter how small...but he did, and I'm choosing to extrapolate on that :>

In conclusion this family is so freaking interesting and I absolutely love their relationships so much 🥺

[verytiredblob]

My reviews on Manhwas

Alright so, recently I've began to fall into the great Manhwa hell, as if I didn't have enough fandoms.

But I neither have friends to chat about this with, nor a Discord chat where I can fanby about it, so I just decided to throw it in here.

These are both Manhwas I recommend and my opinions on them. If there are any spoilers, They will be striked through and in blue for anyone that wishes to avoid them (if anyone even reads this lol).

1. The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass (악녀는 모래시계를 되돌린다)

Premise: Aria was a terrible person and was sentenced to dead by being beheaded. In her final moments, she discovers her step sister, Mielle, actually manipulated her during her entire life just so she could get Aria killed. She then is beheaded, and wakes up in the past, in her child body. So now, she must work to both survive and get her revenge on her sister.

Lovely story, and my first Manhwa. The art is simply stunning, and all the characters are very flashed out and developed. Aria (MC) is the pettiest person alive and I'm here for that.

Also, I noticed a trend where, even though the manhwa has "Villainess" in the title, the MC is usually a total angel. Well, not here. Aria is egotistical and a total Diva, she has her goals and one of them is her revenge and by all that is sacred she'll get it.

Mielle is a great villain, she has grown a lot in her own pettiness and tactics since she was a child, and I really like that. Also, watching her suffer for being a terrible person is delightful.

The Male Lead (Asher) is also really cool, I like how he's both witty and friendly, and how much he truly admires Aria and her achievements.

The side characters are also pretty good, and they get a lot of focus because of their interactions with the main cast.

Again, The art is S T U N N I N G. Look at this:

Literally all panels are drawn like this or better, I'm in love.

All in all, an awesome read, 10/10, I love this a lot.

2. The Monster Duchess And Contract Princess (괴물 공작가의 계약 공녀)

Premise: Leslie's life was terrible, and always centered on her big sister, Eli. After a failed attempt of her family to grant Eli her sister's skills and knowledge, Leslie searches for the feared "Monster Duchess" in an attempt to survive.

Another one with incredible art AND incredible characters. Leslie is an absolute angel, and seeing her grow as a person is awesome.

The gender envy I feel with the Duchess is unbearable, she's utterly perfect. And the entire family is so dotting and loving and sweet, my little grinch heart can't take it.

She's perfection, really.

The plot keeps getting more and more mysterious, and I'm here for it!

I love each of the main characters a lot, and even the villains are well done and fuel your hatred.

Also, Eli Sperado and her Dad can choke on those black flames for all eternity.

Another 10/10, although I must warn anyone that wishes to read this that the translations sometimes are very spotty and messy, so it can be a bit annoying.

3. I'll be the Matriarch in this Life (이번 생은 가주가 되겠습니)

Premise: Firentia was a girl that died in Korea in her past life, and was reborn into an influential family as the illegitimate daughter of the third son. Her life was pretty terrible, with in the end, her family ending up in poverty and disgrace because of her uncles and cousins, while she was exiled from the family. After another accident, she wakes up in her past, now with a goal: Become the Lombardi matriarch and stop the other family heirs from bringing it to ruin.

Awesome art and Awesome plot number 3! This is so good, genuinely. Firentia is such an awesome plotter, and her goals and actions are very well developed.

The Male Lead is my baby and I shall protect him, and the side characters? Utterly stunning.

The twins are the cutest fucking shit, seriously. Like, look at these two?? I'm dead. Although, all the children are very, veeery cute.

I like how Firentia subtly manipulates things around her to get what she wants. It's similar to Aria, but she's much more mature and knowledgeable, and has a much less petty goal.

Guess what? 10/10. Yeah, I know, I'm terrible at grading, sue me.

4. The Twins Siblings' New Life (쌍둥이 남매의 뉴라이프)

Premise: Arien and Arjen were a pair of twins that died in Korea, and were reborn again as twins and as the Emperor's illegitimate children. Now, with only each other to trust, they must do their best to survive.

My current obsession. I really like this one. The art is not on the same level of pure Awesome like the ones before, but it's pretty good nonetheless.

The plot is pretty nice, but I must warn you: DO NOT expect them to act like adults. Honestly, just forget they're meant to be reborn in this world. They're just normal children and that's it. They act like children, and they think like children. Honestly, I think the author just wanted to make this story about them as children and their producer went and said to make them reincarnates because that Isekai shit is popular nowadays (And to justify they having memories of their newborn days). Seriously, just ignore it, the experience reading will be much better.

Other than that, the story develops nicely. The characters are all very good and the plot is very mysterious. I am holding myself back to not spoil anything, aaaaa.

There is also only one another thing that disappoints me: Arien is very clearly the MC. The story is told by her eyes and we only know what Arjen thinks or feels when he says it 9 or by subtext). I really wish it was more balanced, because they're both different people and have different perspectives, and also I really like Arjen.

I have absolutely no idea where this plot is gonna go, and honestly? I like it. It's very rare when I don't know how things are gonna develop because of other stories, so it feels very fresh.

The brothers are freaking awesome. I was so scared they were going to hate the twins and be petty, because of other manhwas that are like that, but they're so loving and sweet?? All hail these idiots. Also, Daddy is the biggest dumbass of all, this poor clueless man.

An 8/10, because of the complaints above. Still a good read, and I really like it, even with it's defects.

4. I'm A Stepmother, But My Daughter Is Just Too Cute! (계모인데 딸이 너무 귀여워)

Premise: A seamstress dies of overwork in Korea, and wakes up in the body of Abigail, the vain Queen, and the evil stepmother to the princess Blanche. Yes, It's like she stepped into the world of Snow White, and she must now do her best to live and.. Dote on Blanche with toys and dresses as much as possible?

Again with the awesome art and nice plot. Why are there so many manga with awesome art?? I'm so envious.

May all hail this crispy, delicious art.

Abigail is a whole mood, and I enjoy how she is inserted into the life of someone who had already lived and had a reputation. Her actions baffle a lot of the characters, as do her motivations, and I'm here for it.

The King has also an amazing backstory that's very tragic and yikes. I enjoy it, really. Not something you see in men's backstories that much.

Also, I'm kinda saddened by the fact the MC and the king are bound to become an actual couple. They would be such good platonic friends stuck in a political marriage. I was robbed, y'all.

Abigail greatest ambition is to get to design a dress for Blanche and have her wear it, and you know what? Good for her! Sometimes, it's good to have an MC that is not plotting against world at large.

Also, her mirror? Verite is simply perfect, I love this guy. I non-jokingly ship him with Abigail more than her with the King.

Blanche is a sweetheart, she deserves to be in my "adopted children" wall.

For now it's more of a Slice of Life than anything? But I also don't know what happens in the novels, so I'm just going to wait.

For the current lack of a grater plot, this gets a 7/10. Still pretty good and entertaining, especially for when you just don't feel like trying to understand deep plots with lots of elements.

5. Beware of the Brothers! (그 오빠들을 조심해!)

Premise: Another one of those "I lived my life and then wake up in the past." Hari was adopted by this family after the death of their only daughter, and although her parents love her, her 3 older siblings very much don't. She lives a miserable life in their hands, and when it's the night before she is to get married and finally escape her brothers, she wakes up in the past, and has to deal with them all over again.

Another nice art one, and the background characters are very nice, as is the MC.

But for me, it has a big problem. And that problem is the main ship. It's Hari with her eldest brother, Eugene. Even though they are not related and yadda yadda yadda, they were raised as such, and thus it bothers me. Also, Eugene is as plain as white bread and just as generic when seen as the Male Lead.

I ship Hari with Johan, even though I know it's not gonna happen, Ugh, the pain..

For me, the main point in this is Hari's relationship with her other siblings and the other background characters. I'm here for that wholesome sibling interaction. Her relationship with Erich, specially, is awesome. I love these two so much

It also kinda lacks a plot? Other than the relationship development and their story as a family, but again, I have no idea how they will develop this.

Also, pet peeve? Why do they keep using Oppa instead of translating it properly as brother? I get honorifics and stuff, but it's so annoying.

I give it a 6/10. Good characters and good relationships outside of the bloody incest thing, and it's a good enough way to pass the time.

There are two more that I've read, buut it's like 4am and I'm sleepy as all hell, so I'll just add it in a reblog or attached post later, and I plan on doing this for other future manhwas as well.

Do you have any recommendations or comments or just wanna talk about any of these manhwas? Hit me up!

[darklingichor]

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell Ramble Fest Part 5. *Spoilers*

Day 5: finished it. Okay, lots of things. Rowell's writing is absolutely addictive, I would have finished it faster if it weren't for my job and bills and stuff. Stupid responsiblites keeping me from reading.

I think I'll take each plot thread and follow it to the end.

With Levi, I sort of expected him to be Reagan’s brother, possibly twin (just by the way she reacted to the identical twin thing). Anyway, what college class allows you to read and test on The Outsiders? Can I borrow anyone’s time machine and go take it? I literally (and I actually mean literally) read that book twenty times in a row when I was fifteen. I wrung every bit of context, subtext, and not-even-in-the-text out of it. I felt like I knew Johnny and Ponyboy better than I knew some of my own family members. My best friend and I also took turns reading it out loud to each other (we did this with a lot of books, actually). I could have taken that test in about five minutes and would have been the easiest A I ever got!

Anyway, can I just say that I love the fact that Cath sees audio books as reading? Some people don’t and it annoys me to no end.

So I do like the Cath/Levi pairing, but what is it about romance in fiction? One half of the pairing doesn’t answer texts so the other half makes out with someone else? Does this happen in real life? I’m aro ace, this is completely foreign to me. I mean, I understand the concept of demiromantic and demisexual. Someone you feel connected with makes you want to do the romance or  physical thing with them. But then you wouldn’t just kiss someone else because you didn’t hear from the special someone for a couple of hours, right? How does that connection happen in the brain? Not judging just wondering about something that makes no sense to me, personally.

It was sort of interesting how the relationship progressed. I get why she was so reluctant to really go there. Cath is the embodiment of fool me once, you will not get a twice.

I like that Levi really is a nice guy. Not a guy who plays nice and then expects something because of it. He legitimately felt horrible for the kiss with the other girl.

Also often, in the stuff I watched growing up, the love interest had to "look past" the geeky stuff that the main character liked. It is cool that Levi likes Cath for everything that she is, including the stuff that Wren tries to downplay. Same goes for Cath liking Levi. Niether one of them change to make themselves "better" for the other. That seems more real to me.

I like the slight struggle they had with Reagan being Levi's ex and how they all moved passed it. The only thing I can't figure out of I like is how once the relationship solidified, Cath's anxiety seems to have, if not disappeared, then greatly reduced.

I can't figure out if that's because she had more in the way of support in the form of Wren, Levi, and Reagan, more confidence because of the reactions she got to both forms of her writting, less stress because her dad had more support from her grandmother, and all of the other things that came together for her... Or the "Got boy now, what is mental illness?" Trope.

I would say it's the former because it would make sense, but we spend so much time in Cath's head and see her struggle and overcome, in the little daily battles that are always there even with changes made in the form of healthy coping mechinisms, medication or counseling. And suddenly it just drops away... I don't know, that bugged me.

Speaking of struggles

Arthur’s episode was handled really well, and I’m completely on Cath’s side. Family comes first. I don’t care if they are uncouncious, I wouldn’t be able to consentrate on a final if a close family member were in the hospital and I wasn’t there.

The part of my brain ruled by the anxiety goblin completely agrees with Cath wanting to leave the school. The part of me that is closer related to the turtle than it should be. “This is scary, uncomfortable, painful, ect. Time to hide.”

The more reasonable part sort of agrees with her when she said she didn’t choose the school, Wren did. Why stay at a school that you didn’t want to attend in the first place? I also understand the logic behind wanting to stay home to take care of her dad. Is ot the eighteen year old kid's job to take care of the parent? Not really, but what do you do when someone you love needs help?

The more rational part also says: You have a scholarship? Stay put, kid, loans blow!

During this whole thing? Wren is still a dick. The You and dad are crazy because you let yourselves be crazy argument...

"Got a broken leg? Walk it of wussy!"

Now, is that to say that Cath's way of letting her anxiety cope with her rather than the other way around is right?

No.

But it's a lot more complicated than "Just don't let it bother you." Bitch, if she could do that she wouldn't have anxiety now would she?

I don't know a lot about bipolar but I know enough to say with confidence, that just willing the chemicals in your brain to behave is not going to cut it.

So Wren's alcohol poisoning. Can I say that I loved how it was handled? The writing got around every tired thing that can happen coming out 0f a plot element like that.

Wren and Cath did reconcile, but Cath didn't cut her a lot of slack and was matter of fact about how stupid Wren's behavior had been. Her dad didn't do the whole "I'm just glad you're okay" thing, he laid down the law. One of my favorite lines from Arthur was when he told Wren that she had to go to AA meetings.

"I'm not an alcoholic."

"Good. It's not contagious. You're going to meetings.”

I honestly wouldn't mind a story from Wren's perective over the course of this year. It would be interesting to see her partying, her relationship with her boyfriend and her thought process while she let some of her personality blaze through while hiding others.

After she and Cath make up it becomes clear that she thought that she couldn't go to parties, make new friends, have new experiences and be close with her sister and still openly love nerdy things.

Professor Piper, writing, Laura, and Simon Snow.

I get the feeling that Professor Piper is suppose to be subverting the Mary Sue stereotype. When Cath first starts the class she is in awe of this teacher. Piper is wise, talented and compassionate. She's perfect. So when she first talks down fan ficton, I thought, well if the story were to follow the Mary Sue, Cath would "realize" her folly and abandon Carry On, Simon. I knew that wasn't going to happen.

The more she bad mouths fan fiction, the more she just... Acts like nothing touches her, I thought: She's the Mary Sue... But she's almost the villain (and almost is important here because she doesn't continue down that path). I mean, she can do whatever she wants with her students' grades? What university is this? Professors have to get their grades submitted by a deadline. She couldn't hold Cath's grade just cause she felt like it. She'd have to submit an incomplete and I'm pretty sure that it would have to be made up long before it actually was.

She calls fan fic "Stillborn" as if the only ultimate reason to write is to make a living off of it, that was bitchy. She likely would have been surprised that a good number of her students probably dabble in it, because I haven't met many people who write (post Harry Potter) who didn't read some fanfic, if not write it, and that's just one fandom Yes, it is a wonderful thing to make your living doing something you love,  However, Cath is also right, you can write like some people knit or scrapbook. You can do something you love simply for the love of it.

Further more and most importantly, no writting is "stillborn" you put effort into it, it lives, if only for you.

Now, Cath is trying to not write her final project because she's scared, she's afraid that she doesn't have it in her to do with her own characters what she does so well with Baz and Simon. That doean't mean her reasoning isn't sound, it's just not sound for her.

Nick... I don't have a lot to say about Nick. I knew he was going to end up being a tool, and he was.

Same goes for the Laura thing. I agree with Cath, you don't get to walk out of being a parent and walk back in to be a fair weather friend.

Simon Snow. As a framing device first the "original" books and then Carry On, Simon was very effective. I had a hard time listening to many of them though because of the narration. Don't know why they had the narrator switch when we were in Cath's story.

Having read Carry On before Fangirl, it was interesting to see the differences between the stories. And it simaltiously gave and took away hope for the Anyway the Wind Blows.

That fantastic part where Wren tells Cath that she can't kill off Baz, that she'd always said that Baz deserved a happy ending because of everything canon and all the fics they'd written and read, had put him through.

I thought: That bodes well for Baz in the next one.

But Wren also says that Cath has to give him a happy ending because Gemma T. Leslie never will.

Then I thought: Well shit, that doesn't, does it?

And all of this means nothing, really. Carry On and Wayward Son exist outside both this book and the fictional series...

Gah! This universe is like a Russian nesting doll crossed with a rublix cube!

The little bits we get of Cath's final project were lovely, and yes, painful. Writing something personal is painful but, but cathartic a lot of the time.

I had a lot of emotions reading this book and while I like Carry On more, I think Fangirl is fantasic. Just from the two books I've read, Rainbow Rowell's speciality is to take expectations and expertly either defy them or bring them to fuition in a way that is more satisfying than what the reader might be expecting. This means I might break from my escapist reading trend a bit more often.

[donnerpartyofone]

movie review fan lady here. I know it’s not yet BLOGTOBER, but in advance of that, what are some of the worst tropes of recent horror films, in your opinion? Of course, use whatever definition of “recent” suits your answer best! seems like you’re busy with new projects these days, hope all is well and that you have plenty of time to watch however many horror movies you like this fall!

(first of all, sorry for my uneven typing but i’m using a new laptop that has a really intrusive but also totally inconsistent autocorrect thing and I’m just sick of fucking with it) thanks for saying hello! I have been pretty dormant lately, and it’s encouraging to hear from people who enjoy reading what I write. the mental illness got me bad this summer. this was made unnecessarily difficult by the fact that I had arranged a month-and-a-half-long personal leave from work, during which time I expected to be able to return to “myself” and replenish my inner strength by doing only things that I care about, and most importantly, see what kind of life I lead when I’m not being crushed under the heel of my extremely demanding and shameful job–a perspective few individuals will ever have the privilege of gaining. of course, a lot of what actually happened amounted to a painful reminder of how little I’m really capable of as a person. this has been especially hard to recover from with the restored stress of being at the office. I had my first full-blown panic attack on my first day back. although I suffer from anxiety, I have always been hesitant to describe my episodes of escalating, wracking panic as “attacks”. this is because once when I was young, I witnessed someone going into a panic attack after confessing to me her history of childhood trauma; she went into a total fugue state, dragged her limbs, spun in circles, and made faces until she collapsed, never to remember anything about the experience. I thought, “so that’s what a panic attack is. basically, if you are aware of your surroundings, have basic control of your face and limbs, and can recall the event, then you don’t really have any kind of real problem to complain of.” my “panic attack” was still not as bad as that, but it did involve an interesting lapse of motor control on top of everything else, so I guess I’m giving myself credit for it.

I never stopped watching movies, of course, but I almost totally abandoned letterboxd, save for a weird stint where I reviewed every single pre-Zombie HALLOWEEN movie; I actually suspect that for some reason, letterboxd only sent two of them into the activity feed, so no one even saw them all. so I stopped writing, and then I developed all this self-imposed guilt about failing to maintain my entirely voluntary pleasure-oriented routine, and my feelings of completely meaningless shame around this made it very difficult to start again. I think there’s also a sub-problem where, in actually recording my viewing habits, I started to get really stressed out about how much of my life I just waste on things I don’t even enjoy, just in order to kill time until I get to go to sleep again. for instance: yesterday I watched FATHER FIGURES, an ed helms-owen Wilson road movie that I was not even slightly intrigued by. in it, helms and Wilson are twins on the hunt for the dad they’ve never known, and they basically plod through a series of dopey vignettes: what if he was a MOVIE STAR? what if he was a FAMOUS FOOTBALL PLAYER? et al, ad nauseam. you can imagine what it’s like. *I* could have imagined what it was like. …but actually, there’s this weird sequence like an hour into the movie where (spoiler alert I guess), at the end of a string of dovetailing red herrings, the twins believe they’ve finally traced their real dad to a Boston suburb. they arrive at the guy’s house, expecting to meet a legendary supercop, only to find out that they’re at his wake. to make matters worse, the house is filled with young Irish American thugs who seem to be constantly on the verge of orgiastic violence, and who are already in a dangerously elevated emotional state. meanwhile, in this context, ed helms discovers that the woman with whom he had a one night stand two scenes ago is actually his sister. his and Wilson’s true identities, in addition to this sexual horror, come tumbling into the light of day at this worst of all possible moments, and the dead man’s own identical twin brother has to lay bare the sordid details of their family history to straighten everything out. I was embarrassed to find myself totally riveted to this sequence, which was something like THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW or THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE: ordinary people are absorbed into a secret, separatist subculture that is ruled by its own perverse systems of honor, incest and violence. I thought, “wait a minute, is this movie GOOD now??” of course the answer was, no, absolutely not! but it had me going for a second there. …but my point is, now I’ve seen that, and I still haven’t seen one single Eric Rohmer movie. part of the reason is, I’m afraid they’ll annoy me. don’t I have any kind of consistent thought? don’t I ever do a single thing with purpose?

god, remember when I used to use the anhed-nia blog to work out all kinds of really intense personal problems? I guess I stopped because I started feeling weird about what I was doing with the format, like I felt bad for people who followed during blogtober and weren’t expecting that kind of thing, which is so stupid, I mean it’s my blog and barely anyone follows it for me to worry about anyway. also the mental illness got me. I started feeling like, “why am I even writing this down, like what’s the point, I’m basically just masturbating and being pretentious and I’m not even having any revelations or whatever.” that feeling persists in my whole life, like a lot of people with depression. the constant why-ness of everything. it can be really extreme, like, “ok, I put my left shoe on, but is that REALLY a compelling reason to put my right shoe on? I mean I could just as easily be doing NOTHING instead!” anyway, watch out world, I might start putting personal problems on anhed-nia again.

but uhhh none of that answers your question. I don’t know if I have a proper answer! like, some things come to mind that are not necessarily “tropes” but I do consider them modern problems:

SETTLING UP WITH REALITY: we have this really sad situation now where, in order for a horror story to be compelling, every single movie has to suddenly slam on its brakes and examine what’s going on with everybody’s cell phone. did it get lost? is it broken? poor connection? as soon as this starts happening, all I can think is, “I’m watching a movie. this is the part where the writer has to take a number of laborious, repetitive steps, the conclusion of which I already know for sure, in order to explain to me that whatever is about to happen in the movie could definitely really happen in real life, for real, because the convenience of cell phones could not have prevented it. the writer knows that I have heard of cell phones, and so now we have to make a dry, methodical accounting of the status of all of the cell phones in the movie. once this has been finalized, the actual story may proceed.” I hate this so much. whatever inherent horror there may be in the failure of our phones in times of peril is completely negated by my awareness of the writer’s felt obligation to go around disabling each and every cell phone right in front of me before we can even begin to address the point of his story. let me put it a little bit differently: when we have a home invasion movie in which the villains cut the phone lines, that evokes a horror that is native to this genre. the protagonist feels personally violated, imprisoned, completely separated from their fellow humans, separated even from the form of reality they enjoyed before their victimhood began. the very definition of “home”, as a place that is private, safe, comforting, and under one’s one sovereign rule, is painfully inverted. that is the point of that specific story, in which the telephone has defined semiotic and psychological significance. on the other hand, the problem of cell phones is completely generic. now, in every horror movie of every subgenre, no matter where the characters are or what they’re doing or what we suspect will become of them, nothing can even happen without this dutiful address of the phones. this is only happening because of an absolutely ludicrous obligation people feel for their fantasies to resemble their reality as closely as possible, which flies in the face of the whole idea of having metaphors that help us explore our emotional and spiritual conditions. PS if you’re the kind of person who can’t watch even a really great movie without holding everyone in it to the standard of your own personal pragmatism and logic, then maybe you should ask yourself why the fuck you even watch movies in the first place.

BICKERING AS DRAMA: this may not be a specifically modern problem, although I *feel* like I encounter it most in horror movies from the last two decades. in any horror story with an ensemble cast, an important source of danger is the dissolution of personal relationships. under the strain of their predicament, people who desperately need to trust and protect each other become volatile, angry, cowardly, irrational. fearing for their lives, they lose their ability to cooperate, or even to agree on one most-hopeful solution to their shared problem. in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the ongoing fight over whether to hide in the basement or the attic is agonizing, and helps to underline the preexisting, banal political tension between the main characters–in fact, the corrosive social forces of the 1960s are key to this film’s subtext–which now compounds the mortal threat posed by cannibalistic monsters. alternatively, you can have a movie like John carpenter’s THE THING that is mainly composed of protagonists in-fighting; in that case, the irresolvable conflicts strengthen the movie’s message, which is specifically about betrayal, alienation, and loneliness. what I see in a lot of movies now, instead of a focused, purposeful conflict like those, is a deteriorating situation of multiple characters incessantly bickering with each other over the details of their circumstances. no one is making a salient point, or contributing to our understanding of their conundrum, or revealing something particular about themselves. they’re just yelling and sniping and sulking and badgering each other about minutiae, or about the key problem in such broad strokes that their arguments cease to have any meaning. I actually think that this is a consequence of that same boneheaded obsession with realism of which I complained previously. I often feel like these protracted scenes of petty fighting about granular details are a way for the writer to paranoiacally defend themselves against persnickety viewers who complain about “stupid” characters who apparently fail to exercise heroic levels of sober judgment and practicality. these viewers, who are so happy to hurl accusations of “UGH HE SHOULDA JUST _____” at the screen, as if there is anything “just” simple and obvious about the story unfurling, are progressively ruining storytelling for everyone, necessitating these grueling character discussions about the potential consequences of every hair-splitting potentiality of every situation. 

EFFICIENCY AND ECONOMY, OR LACK THEREOF: …this is sort of a different kind of point that I want to make, so bear with me. as a (secret, amateur) writer myself, I am plagued by the neurotic urge to explain exactly the way things happen in as comprehensive a fashion as possible. like, I don’t know, if I were writing a story about how someone inherits an old house, I’d probably start stressing out ridiculously about the bureaucracy of how this property changed hands, what kinds of officials would have to be involved, how the new owner evaluates maintenance needs, and EXACTLY how long everything would take. i have an irrational fear of leaving things out, when I absolutely need to leave things out in order for the story to simply be about whatever it is about–which is NOT property transactions. it’s not even that I’m anxious about “realism” precisely–this could apply to a fantasy framework just as well–I just lose track of which details are actually important, and which details I should give the audience credit for intuiting (or not even needing to know). because of this, I try to really notice when a writer deliberately, elegantly leaves a big gap in the action, in order to stay faithful to the story’s spiritual identity. I wish I could think of a good example! but I at least have a good anti-example, which is: I rewatched TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION this year for TEXAS CHAIN SAW (sic) MASSACRE Day. that’s a really crazy fucking movie for a whole lot of different reasons, but one thing I noticed about it is, the DP shows EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS. this became absolutely hilarious to me pretty quickly. is somebody talking? point the camera at them! is somebody reacting facially to the person talking? point the camera at THEM! did someone just walk in the door? now point the camera RIGHT AT THEM, and make sure you get the door in the shot and show the whole thing until the door closes and something else happens! it’s so crazy and nervous. there’s a scene where leatherface has to put a character into a cooler where there’s already another character trapped, so he has to pick up the big hunk of machinery that he used to hold the door closed, and then find a place to put that thing down, and then put the character in the cooler, and then turn around and pick up the thing off the place where he put it down, and then turn around and put the thing back on the thing again, and they show ALL OF IT. it really cracks me up, it’s so unnecessary. I mean, the scene is already in chaos, you just have to show a bunch of motion with the piece of machinery coming in and out of frame, but instead you get this like anal retentive breakdown of exactly what happens to every object in the scene. anyway, I try to notice when I’m feeling compelled to do that kind of insane accounting of everything that happens, and I also try to notice when someone else is really good at NOT doing that!

anyway, thanks a lot for the question! it’s really good for me to get a prompt like that. blogtober is coming after all, and I need to Get Amped. this fall I have horticulture classes at the local botanic garden three nights a week, so it’s going to be tough! if you (y’all) have any movies I haven’t reviewed that you’d like me to talk about, I would be very open to hearing about it, I often get stuck. also feel free to follow me on letterboxd to help pressure me into continuing to use it. https://letterboxd.com/donnerpartyof1/

[dillydedalus]

november reading

so with lockdown #2, my master’s thesis done & handed in etc, i just had absolutely nothing going on so this month so... lots of books. featuring Houses full of statues and birds, an AU of weimar berlin, and... the plague?

someone who will love you in all your damaged glory, raphael bob-waksberg (audio) actually listened to this last month! anyway even tho i forgot about it, i actually really liked it! it’s a collection of short stories, all about love in some way, most with a strange twist - a couple wants a small wedding but the MIL insists they have to at least sacrifice 5 goats to the stone god and have a shrieking chorus, or it’s hardly a real wedding, right? that kind of thing. i really liked these stories; they were fun, hopeful without being cheesy (mostly), and the audio production, with lots of actors reading the different stories was fun. 4/5

the driver’s seat, muriel spark man this novella is nasty, but in a good way - sharp, vicious, mean but so well executed. it’s also pretty hard to discuss without spoiling it & i do think one should go into this unspoiled. but it’s certainly a classic of the unhinged women genre, showing lise seemingly making herself as noticeable, irritating and off-putting as she can on a trip to an unnamed (probably italian) city. 3.5/5

the empress of salt and fortune, nghi vo (singing hills cycle #1) a lovely novella set in an asian-inspired fantasy empire, which shows young cleric chih and their speaking hoopoe almost brilliant learn the story of a previous empress, a northerner who rose from exile as an cast-aside wife to power and of her servant, a peasant girl called rabbit. enjoyed the setting and the way this story unfolded through objects and rabbit’s retelling, and will definitely read the sequel novella which comes out in december. 3.5/5

pine, francine toon (audio) this is a crime/thriller type book with some horror elements about a young girl whose mother has disappeared mysteriously when she was very small. she lives with her dad in the scottish highlands close to a giant forest. the beginning is pretty cool & creepy, but then like 80% of it is just the girl being sad & wanting to know what happened to her mother & the dad being an alcoholic mess. and then most of the plot happens in the last 10% & isn’t great. disappointing. 2/5

where the wild ladies are, aoko matsuda (tr. from japanese by polly barton) a collection of short stories retelling japanese folklore stories about female ghosts/monsters with a feminist twist. on the whole, i liked these stories, but also found them a lot more light in tone than i expected; i guess i thought this would be more on the wild & raw side, so i ended up finding them a bit underwhelming. might also be a problem with lacking cultural context. will say tho that tilted axis press is great & i will seek out more of their books. 2.5/5

piranesi, susanna clarke (audio) god this was so good! so delightful! the House with its many rooms full of tides and clouds and birds and statues is a wonderful, magical yet melancholy setting, the narrator is kind & gentle & earnest, full of wonder and curiosity at the House and its mysteries (the contrast between the narrator’s and the Other’s attitude to the House... yes), the slow building up to the numerous reveals are just. very well done. the writing is lovely (did i almost cry about the albatross? yes) and chiwetel ejiofor is a great audio narrator. just all around lovely & the ending hits just right. 4.5/5

doomsday book, connie willis reading this book during lockdown #2.... a galaxy brain move i wouldn’t necessarily recommend. anyway this is set in a near future where time travel is used for historical research; oxford university is sending the young historian kivrin on the first mission to the middle ages (1320, which is perfectly safe, as far as medieval years go), but things go wrong and soon modern day oxford is under quarantine (ha. how wild. can you imagine.) and kivrin notices that some things are a bit off about where she is (spoiler it’s actually 1348 and y’all know what that means right... PLAGUE TIME). lots of people on goodreads found this slow and boring and while it is pretty damn slow (and for a world with time travel way too many plot points hinge on being unable to contact people by telephone), i found it riveting and uh dread-inducing throughout, but also really warm and immersive. adored this, was devastated at the end. even almost a month later i’m still in my feelings about it. 4.5/5

too loud a solitude, bohumil hrabal (tr. from czech by michael henry heim) a novella i intellectually appreciated but didn’t really love - the narrator works as a paper compactor in a nightmarish basement full of mice (that also get crushed by the hundreds) from where he imagines rat wars in the sewers but from where he also saves hundreds of books. it’s fascinating & well-written but as soon as it gets away from the nightmare paper-crushing basement, it just loses its appeal, especially when the narrator reminisces about his relationships to women (how to simultaneously put women on a pedestal and smear shit on them!!!). 3/5

i’m thinking of ending things, iain reid literary horror/thriller type book with a really intriguing first half, as a young woman is visiting her boyfriend’s parents for the first time while thinking of ending the relationship and things increasingly feel off (the parents are weird, there’s a picture on the wall that the boyfriend claims is him as a child, but is actually her, she gets weird voicemails from her own number). great sense of vague unease, very scary. then the second half kind of blows up the whole story in a way that i should theoretically find interesting but just found kind of underwhelming and not scary, especially since the ending then feels the need to spell it all out for you. 2/5

passing, nella larsen (reread) ugh this is brilliant and i almost don’t have anything to say about it so i’ll just summarise it i guess. it’s a novella about two black women in 1920s america, who knew each other as teenagers and who run into each other in a rooftop bar, where both of them are passing as white. irene finds out that clare is passing full-time, married to a white man who does not know that she is black, and although she strongly disapproves, she can’t help but be seduced (the queer subtext is strong here) into renewing their friendship, which begins to threaten her sense of stability and control. this book is pretty much pitch-perfect, has a lot of things to say about race, loyalty, what happens when categories we live by are threatened or destabilised, and is also just tight and elegantly written and. ugh. brilliant. 5/5

ring shout, p. djèlí clark an alternative history/fantasy book where the ku klux klan gets possessed by demons from another dimension and a group of black (and other marginalised) women (some men too) who are able to see these demons have to fight them from gaining more power through a showing of birth of a nation. note: the klan is still already evil without the demons, but their evil makes it easier for the demons to possess them. very cool concept, very cool setting, but i found the main character and some of the plot progression a little boring. 3/5

amberlough, lara elena donnelly (amberlough dossier #1) this is really just the nazi takeover of weimar berlin in an alternate world (literally... the denizens of the city of amberlough are amberlinians... the two epigraphs are from le carre and cabaret...), told thru an amberlinian spy (cyril) forced to work for the nazi-equivalent (the ospies), his secret cabaret mc/smuggling kingpin boyfriend (aristide), and rough-and-tumble sally bowles (cordelia). as such, it’s extremely my shit, although i will say that donnelly makes it a bit easy on herself by making the nazi parallel so very overt; the ospies’ ideology is not particularly detailed beyond ‘real fashy’ and wanting to unite four loosely federated states. it’s just.... a bit weaksauce, and while she does include an ethnic minority for the ospies to hate, this also doesn’t feel as fundamental to their ideology as it should. also cyril sucks. but these issues may be solved in the sequels & it was a lot of fun. also.... amazing cover. 3/5

the vanishing half, brit bennett very much in conversation with larsen’s passing, this is a 2020 historical novel about passing, colorism, and identity, in which desiree and stella, very light-skinned african american twins who grow up in a black town that values lightness very much, become separated when stella chooses to pass for white and marry a white man. the book is very immersive and engaging, and stella and desiree are interesting characters, but (i felt unfortunately) much of the book is focused on their daughters, whose chance meeting might expose stella/reunite the sisters/etc etc, but who weren’t as interesting. the plot also relies on coincidences a lot which is a bit annoying. still an interesting and entertaining read. 3/5

die stadt der anderen, anthology printed version of an art project where three pairs of authors were sent on trips through berlin, which each person writing about what the other person showed them and how they experienced the city through the other. there was nothing earth-shaking in this, but reading it during lockdown was lovely. in conclusion i love berlin... would love to experience it again some time. 3/5

the fire this time, edited by jesmyn ward collection of essays on anti-black racism in america, many in response to the beginning of the black lives matter movement. i don’t have much to say about it, but it is very good and i would recommend. as is often the case with essay anthologies about serious topics i don’t really think i can rate it.

intimations, zadie smith a very short collection of essays written during early lockdown. smith is always smart and fun but i wish these had been a little more focused on politics and less on personal experience, but like, you can’t really criticise a book for not being what you wanted it to be. ‘contempt as a virus’ was very good. 

superior: the return of race science, angela saini really solid, engaging and accessible discussion of race science and why... it’s bad & dangerous, both looking at race science in the past and the invention of race, and how it is returning and regaining influence (not to say that race science ever completely disappeared, but as saini explains, it moved into a more marginal space in the sciences after ww2). 3.5/5

the hive, camilo josé cela (tr. from spanish by j.m. cohen & arturo barea) spanish modern classic set in madrid during the last few years of ww2. told thru short fragmentary snippets with a huge rotating cast of characters, mostly lower and middle class, going about their days, with the theme tying them together being “the city, that tomb, that greased pole, that hive”, which is a very sexy line, but unfortunately it didn’t work for me. the tone is v dispassionate and in combination with the huge cast it just made me profoundly unengaged. it also has the weird habit of changing scene in the middle of a paragraph, which i found rather confusing. 2.5/5 slave old man, patrick chamoiseau (tr. from french by linda coverdale) absolutely amazing short novel from the creolité movement aabout an old slave, seemingly resigned to his position, suddenly escaping and being pursued by the slavemaster’s terrifying monstrous mastiff through the forests of martinique, but really also about selfhood, relearning humanity, trauma and nature. the language is at turns sparse and lush and always gorgeous and the translation from french/creole uses endnotes (we love an endnote) and a strategy of doubling to retain some of the original language, which was really cool to read. so yeah this is brilliant. 4/5

mexican gothic, silvia moreno-garcia gothic horror novel about young mexican socialite noemí visiting her recently-married cousin in her new (english) family’s isolated, creepy and dilapidated mansion after said cousin sent a disturbing and strange letter calling for help. gothic horror shenanigans involving vivid dreams, family secrets and eugenics ensue. after a slow start, i absolutely devoured the second half in one afternoon bc once it gets going it REALLY gets going. not super-scary, but a nice creepy atmosphere & reveal. also loved how it combines the clear yellow wallpaper inspo (the cousin’s letter involves people in the wallpaper) and the focus on the english family’s eugenic ideology (not a fun fact but charlotte perkins gilman was a eugenicist), and the vain & flighty but also smart & stubborn protagonist. had a lot of fun with this. 3.5/5

i’m also still reading a tale of love and darkness by amos oz which is really good but which is taking me forfuckingever. 

[batboyblog]

So i was searching up gay comics for DC and Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne came alongsidd each others. Whats up with that?

I’m gonna just assume you mean this:

I will point out they’re not in the same bed, I know that’s what it looks like, but it’s really two twin beds.

any ways, um how to explain. In the the 1940s and 1950s the readership of comics was literally children, Boys aged 6 to 11. So stuff like “subtext” would be lost on them, what’s more is Robin was invented in 1940 to pull in those kid readers to give a character that they could relate to. In the 1930s lots of men left their wives and kids looking for work and in the 1940s they got drafted and went to war. So you have a generation of boys without dads. So Batman comics really pushed a hyper idealized father-son relationship in the comics, or what a kid would see as an idealized relationship, spending all your time together and having fun highly physical and slightly violent adventures with your dad. 

This panel is from the 1950s but you see dads like that on TV and movies and books. Playing football, couching baseball, wrestling in the living room while mom shakes her head at “the boys”. Very 1950s, at the same time that a generation of real life 1950s dads were emotional distant because they were dealing with untreated PTSD from WWII, the fears and stresses of having grown up in the great depression and fearing all their things might go away tomorrow if they didn’t work hard enough. and just the general toxic masculinity of the 1950s try to “return to normal” after the War years when women got jobs in record numbers. 

which brings us back to Batman, it’s slightly different from other overly affectionate fictional fathers in that, unlike Leave it to Beaver, or Father Knows Best (my mother’s personal favorite) there was no doormat wife/mom. Which brings us to the greatest villain in Comics history, no not the Joker. A horrible horrible bastard named, Fredric Wertham dear old Freddy is basically only known for one thing, writing “Seduction of the Innocent” in 1954. The book basically said comics were making little boys gay. He used the close personal relationship between Bruce and Dick as one of his main examples. Comics were badly damaged by the resulting moral panic, DC invented a girlfriend for Batman, Bat-Woman in 1956 and one for Robin, Bat-Girl, in 1961. Also all comics were forced to adopt the “Comics Code”. The moral panic around the gay in comics has had long last effects has colored jokes about Bruce and Dick’s relationship for years. However it also attracted a lot of gay people toward comics, I mean if someone is calling something gay…. which might explain the high camp of the 1960s Batman TV show and for sure explains the movie Batman & Robin. 

[originaljediinjeans]

MCU Rewatch: “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015)

This post isn’t as long as the one I wrote for Avengers but it’s still pretty long.

In all fairness, after The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it was fair to expect Age of Ultron to be just as good, but it shouldn’t have been a surprise that it wasn’t.

But some kind of end-credit scene would have been nice.

The Bartons’ farmhouse has a very nice kitchen

The real villain of the film is the Mind Stone. The opening shot of the film is the Sceptre. The Mind Stone created Ultron and gave him his incentive to destroy the world and attack the Avengers--whether due to some scientific reaction or intentionally. Re: my theory that the Infinity Stones should be regarded as actual “characters”, AoU demonstrates it

The main characters are: the Maximoff twins, Tony Stark, and Clint Barton. 

The Avengers

By the time the film opens, the Avengers have been taking down Hydra and they’ve been unstoppable.

The team has a working relationship with JARVIS--we see at least Steve talking to him

Their teamwork is incredible. Steve is sharing his shield with Nat. I’m sure she’s not the only one but we got her doing it onscreen and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Also Clint tossing the Shield to Steve; the team throwing the robots to each other to beat up, it’s great to watch

The scene in Klaue’s hideout: the big 3 confront Ultron while Clint and Nat are waiting in the shadows

“Code Green” only happens occasionally, not every time

Does that mean Banner plays the “man in the chair” on other occasions from the QuinJet?

On their various missions, they have fought other “enhanced” people

The Avengers have their own satellite. It’s not just Veronica on there, they’ve got surveillance and stuff. It probably helps with their communications.

Wolfgang von Strucker let the other Hydra bases be found bc they didn’t concern him or his experiments. But he didn’t think the Avengers would come for them. An arrogant miscalculation.

But he’s also a coward

Hydra has always more or less wanted an army of super-humans. They weren’t satisfied with just the Winter Soldier--and how could they be?

Ulysses Klaue was in contact with Strucker and they had talked very recently

Golly these people are just disturbing

The Maximoff twins are indeed punks

Tony Stark:

By the end of the film, Steve takes Thor and Tony’s word for it that alien threats are still out there. But Steve doesn’t understand how seriously Tony takes that threat and how personally it affects him

Part of it is because no one was really listening in the scene after Ultron awakens when Tony talked about those fears. As soon as he said “Do you all remember when I went through a wormhole?” they thought he was expressing self-pity. They told him to minimize those fears at least momentarily because Ultron was the bigger issue at the moment.

Also Tony never told the rest of the team about the dream Wanda gave him. 

Probably because he didn’t think they would listen. Chances are, he was right on that count.

Steve and Tony aren’t super-close friends like the way Steve and Bucky used to be. But they were friends. They had a cordial working relationship. So those of you saying Tony in Civil War saying “So was I” was an arrogant assumption are incorrect--but those of you saying Steve at least owed Tony some personal loyalty are also correct.

Tony’s dream: Why didn’t you do more? Tony isn’t just afraid of aliens returning. He’s afraid of his own inadequacy. He’s afraid of failure.

Tony knows the team doesn’t understand what he’s been through. Tony also knows that the team doesn’t understand what the possibility of a permanent solution means: because some of them don’t have real “homes” to go to. And Tony kind of wants to end the personal hell he’s been living in for the last seven years. If he can. I think by the end of this movie Tony realizes that maybe finding something to replace the Avengers isn’t the best idea

There also is kind of something suspicious about him creating an AI that immediately attacked him and his friends. Maybe the Mind Stone tapped into Tony’s self-loathing and his...distrust of the others. IDK how that would already have been written into Ultron but remember we are dealing with cosmic forces here

It’s nice that even without an AI that Tony still has working internet in his suits

Ulysses Klaue knew Tony Stark well enough to recognize one of his catchphrases. What aren’t you telling us, Tony? (Chances are I don’t wanna know, actually)

Trying to harness forces that you don’t understand to solve your personal problems and everybody else’s problems is just a terrible way to deal with life

Watching Tony attempt that is not fun.

The Banner-to-Hulk and back transformation is painful and uncomfortable

Strucker had a chitauri slug monster in that vault. Tony’s PTSD was triggered as soon as he entered the room. Wanda just pushed him over the edge.

Thor had been looking for the sceptre since SHIELD fell. You have to assume that SHIELD had it in some kind of security--or they thought they did. All Strucker had to do was to contact the right Hydra sleepers and he had it for his personal use.

The Mind Stone created Ultron. Also Strucker created the robot bodies. Tony Stark did not create Ultron. Got it?

I like the party scene because it shows how some of the 06 have a life outside of Avenging.

Are those old vets at the party people that Steve knows/has met, or did Tony invite them?

Ultron wearing the mysterious cloak is super dope and my brother agrees

One of the weaker points of this film is that a lot of exposition happens in scenes in between the big action sequences. Like, exposition that explains tiny technical details

Fury and Hill absolutely pwned that Robot

Seeing Peggy in Steve’s dream kills me. Every time.

Natasha: 

Wanda convinced Steve to not trust Tony Stark

At the very least, Steve (A) was very aware that Tony dealing with something he didn’t understand behind everyone’s back had gotten them in the Ultron mess in the first place (B) he felt the need to tell Tony that doing so again was a bad idea, and (C) walking into the lab and seeing Tony already messing with it did not improve things

This whole thing really could have been avoided if someone else had taken Barton to the QuinJet and Thor had personally retrieved the scepter instead of letting Tony do it

Civil War really actually almost started over the cradle

But then Thor showed up and he didn’t say anything to explain stuff, he just did his thing with the hammer and the lighting

Also the tragedy at the end could have been avoided if someone had locked up the QuinJet, or even just hopped it over to the Helicarrier when it showed up--not like anybody had time but still

Thor saves a lady from falling--and she looks up and sees him--is that adoration in her face?

Laura tells Clint that he needs to look after the team and make sure they can work together, subtext: the world kind of depends on it

Helen Cho: *sass*

Clint has probably always wanted to bring the other Avengers to the farm. 

The Barton Farm probably has really great internet security. Probably the best SHIELD had to offer before it fell.

Did anybody get any real sleep while they were at Bartons?

Because it seems to me like the only time the Avengers got any sleep was during their trans-continental flights--but even then whatever jets they were flying in probably weren’t that comfy to sleep in

Ultron takes turns with each of the Avengers to pick a fight with them. He gets real pleasure out of intimidating each of them.

Sokovians hates America. They’ve been under communist rule for most of the last century so what do you expect? They hate American capitalism. They hate Tony Stark because that’s what he stands for. They hate the Avengers because that’s what they represent--or what people in an impoverished country in eastern Europe think they represent

(My headcanon is that American businesses tried to build there and they’ve made it harder for the local economy)

At some point back in the 90s, there was a war in Sokovia and one of the sides happened to be using contraband Stark Industries weapons. That’s what happened. I think Wanda figures that out sooner or later that it wasn’t directly Tony’s fault. If she doesn’t know already.

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff volunteered for Strucker’s experiments so that they could fight for their country. They joined the Avengers for the same reason. After Pietro’s death, Wanda joins the Avengers partly because she doesn’t have anywhere else to go, but she also wants to continue to fight the good fight and make the world a better place

Ultron knew about the Winter Soldier and after he had destroyed the planet I’ll bet you he would have gone to look for Bucky’s remains and then chewed on the metal arm like a drumstuck

the deleted/extended version of the Water of Sight scene was kind of better. They should have at least kept in the shot of Thor drinking the Asgardian liquor to stiffen his courage

Did his buds bring him that?

The scene with Laura and Clint in the bedroom is so tender. Screw what anybody else says, I love that Clint has a family. I’ve admitted this before, but I initially wrote Clintasha into my fanfic, but it just didn’t feel right. Laura and the little Bartons are what I needed 

(Because my Jedi OC who goes to the MCU is Clint’s adopted cousin)

Also, Auntie Nat. Clint and his family have adopted Natasha. I’m just in love with Clint taking in other orphan superheroes. ^_^

Nick Fury is basically the Avengers’ Dad and he knows it

Steve knows that the world he lives in now is different from the one he saved back in the 40s, and he knows that he’s a different person now. But that being said, his arc in this film is still heartbreaking to watch

Tony and Steve are both offended on a personal level that Vision can lift the hammer

When Wanda watches Vision coming out of the cradle, it isn’t “love at first sight”, it’s “okay the monster that Ultron created is out of the bag and it’s alive now, what’s it going to do?”

From my brother: Ultron should have known that Wanda Maximoff was going to “read” what was happening inside of the cradle

Also my brother: Ultron should have just flown off in the QuinJet

Ultron is just all kinds of unbalanced and he is scary

Overall, Age of Ultron isn’t as good quality as some previous MCU films but it still has a lot of epic action, it’s awesome and fun to watch

Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff:

I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again, the only reason I haven’t accepted other people’s theories about how BruceNat was fake or tried to retcon it myself is because I have made bad relationship decisions, I’ve tried to rush into relationships with people I wasn’t compatible with or didn’t know well yet, it’s part of being human

It’s still the worst part of the movie

I didn’t take it personally, I just...ugh

It’s poorly written and it makes no sense for their characters even if they do have a certain kind of working relationship. Even if you don’t ship Natasha with anyone else it’s terrible

The Hulk responds to touch from another person and it relaxes him

The Hulk does have some kind of relationship with Black Widow: he responds to her and he tries to protect her

Bruce Banner is also pretty comfortable with Natasha

Natasha’s lines in this movie really aren’t that great

We did, however, get the Red Room Flashbacks and a lot of kick-butt Black Widow action

The fact that Natasha talks about the trial of being artifically sterilized while the actress playing her was pregnant is kind of disgusting. Really disgusting, actually. But on the other hand (I think partly because of ScarJo’s pregnancy) Natasha is kind of emotional in that scene. Her voice is choking. She empathizes with Bruce and she tries to tell him as much. 

If there is anything redeeming about BruceNat, it is the thematic value

Natasha values her superhero work and she values the team

Everyone was kind of hoping that taking out Strucker in Sokovia would be the last thing the Avengers needed to do. So Natasha was banking on the fact that after they had stopped Ultron they wouldn’t be needed anymore. She was seriously contemplating running away with Bruce. If there was any possibility for her to step away from it all and have a normal life, she wanted it. She wanted some of that happiness in her life.

“I had this dream that I was more than the assassin that they made me into.” Why does no one talk about this line? That is her best line.

But poor Bruce just goes through the mill in this movie. 

When he comes out of the witch-dream in Africa, is he seeing Banner’s worst fear or the Hulk’s worst fear? Both?

Bruce Banner may feel some guilt with how Ultron turned out.

And the Hulk had a good look at all the terrible destruction he caused.

Did anyone else notice the soldiers with the guns surrounding the Hulk before the Hulkbuster finally took him out?

Hulk just can’t deal anymore, okay? 

And neither can Bruce. So no, now is not the time to elope.

I love the Maximoff twins, okay? Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen did a great job portraying them. And I’m biased because her name is Elizabeth and I’ve been cosplaying Scarlet Witch since months before AoU came out.

In spite of its flaws, I still like how Age of Ultron still has thematic depth. Themes include: Belonging, finding home and family, misunderstanding, being a “monster” versus being “human”. All themes that tie back to the greater MCU.

But yeah, it might as well be just a giant trailer for Civil War and Infinity War.

Age of Ultron and Thor: The Dark World aren’t the best MCU movies but Stan Lee has great cameos in both of them

The way I see it, after SHIELD fell (the world was less safe w/o SHIELD). Steve Rogers learned about Hydra having all these secret bases still in operation and Hydra people who had survived/escaped/not been found yet. That was important enough to him to reluctantly leave the search for Bucky (and hope that Sam Wilson would have some luck finding a person who didn’t want to be found). He called on the other Avengers to help him. Tony Stark decided that it would be a good idea to help out...well, more than a good idea, he knew he needed to help. He may have already had a new suit ready. Pepper had to have been at least semi-supportive at the outset. I don’t know what she heard about Ultron or Sokovia but it must not have been good.

[drsilverfish]

John Winchester’s Ghost and the Haunting of S12 cont...

The resurrection of Mary Winchester has brought with it the ghost of John Winchester, as the S12 writers’ room snakes the narrative back on itself to disinter its origins.

Here is his journal, as Mary reads its pages in The Foundry (12x03)

And here is his wire-wrapped baseball bat, which Dean had apparently been using in 12x15 Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell - ”Man! Dad loved that thing.” (Also, apparently, a reference to Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character on The Walking Dead).

It’s interesting, and deliberate on the part of the writers’ room, that Dean name-checks one of his father’s favorite weapons at a point in the story when, in working with the BMOL, Sam and Dean are taking a step backwards towards their father’s black and white view of the supernatural. A view which they have themselves evolved away from over the years, thanks to friendships and alliances with supernatural beings, from Amy the Kitsune (Sam was always ahead of the game in this regard) to Benny the Vampire.

As well as John’s diary and John’s baseball bat, we’ve also had Mary’s silent recollection of making out with John in Baby in 12x01 Keep Calm and Carry On.

If John has been physically manifest in objects imbued with his memory - journal, base-ball bat, Baby; Dean and Mary’s confrontation in 12x14 The Raid brings his less than stellar parenting close to being named in an actual conversation:

Mary: “I am your mother but I am not ‘just a mom’. And you are not a child.”

Dean: “I never was...” 

Meanwhile in the mirrors and parallels of S12, John’s ghost is everywhere.  

In The Foundry (my favourite episode of the season to date) we meet Lucas, the ghost boy murdered by and tethered to vengeful spirit Hugo Moriarty. The name Lucas recalls the kid Lucas from 1x03 Dead in the Water whom Dean had a special affinity for. Lucas was mute with grief after losing his Dad and Dean tells him that he was that way himself for a while after his own Mum died (Mary).

Hugo Moriarty is (in part) a mirror for John. Hugo lost his daughter in a car accident and went mad with grief, walling himself up in the house and starving to death then murdering children and tethering them to him. John lost Mary to Azaezel and he also went “mad” with grief, walling up himself, and his kids, in his obsessive revenge quest. 

In 12x04 American Nightmare (with its deliberate callback to 1x14 Nightmare, as signalled by Sam and Dean disguising themselves as priests on both occasions), Magda’s parents, fanatically religious and living off the grid, also mirror John Winchester (likewise fanatical, about revenge, and living off the grid with his kids, raising them as hunters on the road). 

 Magda is both a mirror for Sam, as a kid with special, supernatural powers (just as Max Miller mirrored Sam in 1x14 Nightmare) and for Dean (another layer of subtext down) as an abused queer kid. This second parallel is invoked by depicting Magda as a kid being punished by religious parents attempting to “cure” her (read “conversion” therapy). Like Sam’s parallel, this Dean mirroring in American Nightmare also invokes the old parallel from its twin episode, Nightmare, of Dean with Max Miller, whom we find out was beaten regularly throughout his childhood by his father and uncle. Remember that this (1x14) is the episode, where we get a hint that Dean may have protected Sam from a lot more than Sam knows regarding John’s drinking and (possible) violence. 

Back in our present, Sam and Dean set Magda free (a giant metaphor for being, or needing to be, on a path towards setting themselves free of some of the psychic baggage of their childhood) but, and here comes another John mirror, Mr. Ketch swoops in and murders her.

Mr. Ketch is a John mirror (although that’s not his only function in the narrative) in that we have seen him seduce Mary to the BMOL and attempt (and partially succeed for now) to seduce Dean likewise (12x14 The Raid). That’s partly why there have been two references to Sirens this season, because that particular supernatural creature works by seduction and thus provides an excellent metaphor for the BMOL and their seduction of the WInchesters.

Dean hero-worshipped his Dad when he was younger, Sam never did (which is partly why Ketch (semi) works on Dean, but not on Sam - his bike evoking the Easy Riders soundtrack Dean and Mary both share a love for, for instance. 

Moreover, we learn Mr. Ketch used to date Lady Toni Bevell in 12x14 The Raid, so, as others have pointed out, her kid might be his. Another neglectful / monstrous parent this season? Hmmmn.... hello John Winchester. 

Demonic father-to-be Lucifer is also, this season, paralleled with John. Not only is he on his way to becoming a Bad Daddy, but his minions want to “Make Hell Great Again”. He is an authoritarian and he is a purist (he hates humans) in the same way that the BMOL are (they hate the supernatural). Both mirror John’s black and white perspective, the one he raised his boys in, and against which they have come to rebel (Sam before Dean).

Here is Lucifer looking all corpsified and gross in 12x07 Rock Never Dies (hello corpse ghost of John Winchester:

In 12x05, The One You’ve Been Waiting For, we meet Nazi necromancer Nauhaus and his son Christoph, who have the following exchange:

NAUHAUS: “You were supposed to be my heir. Instead, you're an inconceivable disappointment.” CHRISTOPH: “You know, I used to look up to you. You conquered death. You did so many things. But now? (Sighs) Now all you wanna do is relive your glory days with Hitler.” NAUHAUS: (scoffs) “Your generation – you millennials – are too weak to steward the future. It needs a stronger hand. The world is divided and inflamed....”

This mirrors something of the history of Sam and Dean with their father - his insistence they call him “Sir” from the early seasons, Dean’s anxiety about living up to his father’s expectations, Sam’s rebellion and John’s anger (because Sam wanted to go to college), the way Dean used to look up to his father. Additionally, once again, we see a father-figure with an absolutist view of the world. What would John make of the grey area Sam and Dean now inhabit? Dean’s relationships with Benny, Cas, Crowley??

Nauhaus tries to have his son killed (remember when Dean was dying in 1x12  Faith and John didn’t show up?) and Dean actually refers to Nauhaus sarcastically as “Father of the Year”.

Here is “Father of the Year” Nauhaus-Hitler.

Nauhaus donates his body to Hitler (there’s a sentence) re-animated by Thule blood magic and Dean (it’s important it’s Dean) kills him. 

From a Winchester family psycho-drama perspective (the underlying theme of S12) Dean needs to kill the ghost of his father in his psyche. Particularly Dean, because Dean was the “good son” who repressed so much of who he was in order to be a care-taker to Sammy (a role his father persistently neglected as part of his obsession with hunting and revenge for Mary’s death).

Sadly, Hugo Moriarty is also a Dean mirror, because Dean’s co-dependency (the lesson he learned in childhood that his self-worth comes mostly from his role as family caretaker) means that he has some unhealthy patterns around trying to tether the people he loves too tightly to him and then watching them endlessly slip away.      

 Dean lost his childhood and he adopted a bravado, a machismo, in imitation of his father, which closeted his own more complex self (signalled by, for example, his secret love for soap operas like Dr. Sexy MD and for chick flicks). Dean felt the need to hide his appreciation for “feminine” coded thngs, that his Dad would likely disapprove of. Hence his continued anxiety about openly liking things like the fancy cucumber water in 12x07  Rock Never Dies.

This is why we get an episode titled Regarding Dean (12x11) which strips away what SPN meta fandom calls “performing Dean”. Memory-wiped Dean (regressed Dean, psychoanalytically) is soft with bunnies, exhibits a child-like quality and wants desperately to ride Larry the bull (in subtext - dick - i.e one of Dean’s represssions as a result of his father’s macho hunter upbringing is the repression of his bisexuality).

Here is Dean free of his father’s repression....

Another deadbeat Dad lurks at the edges of the narrative - namely Chuck - as Cas returns to Heaven with Kelvin on a promise to speak to Joshua in 12x15 Somewhere Bewteen Heaven and Hell. This reminds us that Joshua was the gardener angel Sam and Dean met in 5x16 Dark Side of the Moon, back when they all hoped that if they could just reach God he would intervene to stop the apocalypse.

That’s an interesting reference, Dark Side of the Moon, at this point, given that Dean’s Heaven back then contained an idealised vision of his mother feeding him pie, one he is now having to painfully deconstruct as he meets the real Mary, a woman who reveals she didn’t cook and who is all too ready to become obsessed with hunting in the way John was.  

We can now, looking back, explicitly parallel the BMOL’s supernatural genocide plan with the revived Nazism we revisited in The One You’ve Been Waiting For (Dabb’s political parallel to contemporary America also being at work this season). 

As Sam and Dean and Mary continue to work with the BMOL, eventually a clash of values will come to a head, between the old Winchester way (John’s) and the new one (that of his sons). 

In facing this conflict, the ghost of John Winchester, still lying mostly unspoken between Mary and her sons, will certainly manifest (whether spoken out loud or continuing to haunt the narrative in a variety of mirror guises).

We’ve had the return of demons with yellow eyes like Azaezel, namely the other Princes of Hell - Ramiel, Dagon and Asmodeus. 

This can’t help but (deliberately) remind us of Azaezel’s narrative in the early seasons. Remember his possession of John in 1x22 Devil’s Trap, and how Dean figured out that his Dad wasn’t in the driver’s seat, because the demon said “I’m proud of you”? 

John was a flawed man - he wasn’t literally Hugo Moriarty or Nauhaus or Hitler or Lucifer or even Mr. Ketch. However, this haunting of the S12 narrative by his ghost, in a plethora of dark mirrors, is about his effects on the psyches of his children. What a dark lake of unspoken things lies between the resurrected Mary and her sons in that regard. 

And in that sense, we can understand why John’s ghost looms so monstrously at the heart of the Winchester family psycho-drama this season, in tandem with the resurrection of “Mother Mary”.  

Thanks to Supernatural’s SuperWiki and to Home of the Nutty for most of the screen-caps.

www.homeofthenutty.com  and www.supernaturalwiki.com 

[quatschmachen]

374.5

Another update~  April Fools obvs

XXX

It was Monday, thank Mother Meowry. It meant Philipe and Felicia were at school, leaving him looking after only four kids. Calvin had disappeared to do some business dealing, leaving Étienne with the kids. Ed was busy at Work Earning Big Money.

Étienne knew that as the papa of these children the expectation was that looking after them would come naturally like some gift of the universe, but quite honestly the triplets were in the terrible twos and Georgie had just escaped the harness in the middle of the arcade. Usually he did not take his kids to the arcade but Daniel had whined at him in his four-year-old speak about wanting to go, and through will power managed to lead the pack (literally by dragging them on his stubby legs towards the arcade). Étienne, in order to keep his children together, sensibly had them on a long rope and little harnesses. Sure, some parents judged him for the move, but hey, he didn’t see them walking around four little insane kids.

When they entered the arcade, he was relieved that the kids were happy to play the games and he thought he could relax. However… Georgie had managed to Escape somewhere in the arcade.

The triplets were in their terrible twos. Étienne knew he had to quickly wrangle Georgie, yet he was not keen on dragging the kids from the game they were absorbed in… quickly looking around the area, he determined there were no railings for Daniel to get his head stuck in (because Daniel somehow still managed to get stuck in the friggin’ weirdest places), he decided to take a chance.

Like, Calvin can’t criticize what he doesn’t know right? (He was having a burning jealousy over the beta’s natural tact with children - to be honest, he was half wondering if the cruel gods had made a mistake making him the omega; he certainly felt like the worst papa ever to walk the earth, not that he actually ever told anyone this).

Giving the kids another look, he quickly walked towards the direction he suspected Georgie had waddled. Finding his child in a matter of moments (much to his relief) standing in front of the Princess Maker game, he quickly scooped him up under an arm, gently chastising.

“Georgie, you should not wander and make papa worried.”

In response Georgie reached out with a chubby hand and tugged on one of Étienne’s ears making him wince. Gently shifting him, he quickly walked back to where he had left his other children.

Except the other children were not there; heart thumping and aiming somewhere down amongst his stomach in panic and fear, he looked around, tail twitching. Where the hell could his children have disappeared to in like a minute?! They were just there playing the game!

God was he going to have to do that embarrassing parent thing and call his kids on the intercom? The intercom of shame… the intercom of others judging…

“Étienne.”

He winced. It was a voice he knew and hated from numerous PTA meetings. The voice of his enemy.

Forcing a smile, and trying to ignore Georgie who was struggling even more in his grip, he turned towards Stuart. Stuart was a fellow omega, who seemed to have the Perfect family. In fact, beside him was his three-year-old, standing there Perfectly Behaved with no leash in sight.

“Stuart, how pleasant to see you,” Étienne lied through his teeth, trying to ignore the fact Georgie had somehow grabbed his tail and was chomping on it.

“Yes, indeedy,” Stuart replied, looking a little past Étienne. Gritting his teeth, Étienne ignored the annoying way the other omega talked. There was just something about him that made his skin crawl… maybe it was the Stepford wife effect?  Surely he must be a robot from how perfectly his sandy brown hair was coiffed, barely touching the nape of his neck, or how his white skin had nary a freckle or stripe. Or even how his eyes seemed to be that ideal shade between yellow and brown that was on all the popular models. If Stuart was not taking skin whitening cream to hide a stripe or two Etienne would eat his hat. “That’s sure is an interesting way to keep your children in one location.”

“Hmm?”

“In the claw picker machine.”

Horror slowly dawned upon Étienne as he looked towards where Stuart was pointedly looking. There, literally inside the machine where young nekos attempted to pick up a stuffed toy with a giant claw, were the two twins, faces pressed against the glass.

“Mya!” he exclaimed nearly dropping Georgie in surprise, and dying on the inside that this terribly embarrassing moment was of course happening in front of his PTA enemy. However, he knew that he would regret not getting a photo of this. With his spare hand, he grabbed out his phone and took a photo of his two children, Carey and Richard’s faces pressed up against the glass, leaving streaks on the inside.

“Shouldn’t you be busy getting them out of the machine instead of mewing about it on Chatter?” Stuart asked in a rather arrogant manner.

Trying to keep his calm, Étienne responded, “I am preserving this to embarrass them in the future when they are older…” his tail twitching in annoyance. God, Stuart was the worst. It did not help that the omega also liked to boast that his alpha only needed him in the relationship, with the implication that because Étienne’s alpha had a beta that Étienne was somehow Not Enough. One of these days he was going to rip the other omega’s throat out. Taking a calming breath, he decided that blood sport was probably not a good idea in front of three two year olds.

“Isn’t that cruel to be planning to purposely embarrass your children in the future? I know /my/ alpha would never allow such a cruel act.”

Closing his eyes for a moment, Étienne attempted to keep cool at the highly insufferable tone Stuart had taken, the tone that made his skin crawl whenever Stuart decided to boast about how amazing and rich and caring his alpha was (with the implication being that Étienne’s alpha was some loser shitball who couldn’t find a clean shirt if it had just been pulled out of the laundry).

Kneeling in front of the vending machine, Étienne pondered how to get his children out of it… Reaching up through the bottom where the toys dropped out, he managed to grab Richard’s foot. He gave it a tug.

“Myaaaaa!!!” Richard screeched as if Étienne had attempted to rip his foot off, jumped in the air, smacked his head against the glass, and somehow managed to pass out. Panicking, knowing that Stuart was watching and Judging, Étienne’s mind was swirling with what the hell he should do. Meowry, Calvin would know what to do. Why the hell did he have to be out of town doing some stupid business deal to get their art gallery lots of money? He needed him here!

He heard something that sounded like a derisive chuckle come from Stuart and he knew the other man was enjoying his predicament.

“You know if it was me, I would call the attendant… maybe they have keys... you know to open up the machine? Before you kill off your other child in a similarly abusive manner…” Stuart said in a semi amused yet derisive manner, with the subtext of ‘wow aren’t you a shitty omega, who the hell would reproduce with you, what a pity someone even tried, no wonder your children will end up fuck ups with you as a parent, can’t even think of calling the attendant over.’

Turning away, Stuart said, “Come along, Gerald.” Obediently, his child followed.

Glaring at him, knowing that Stuart’s suggestion was the good and logical one, and hating that he should do it, Étienne frowned.

Maybe there was a way he did not have to follow his suggestion… For a moment he wondered if he could just pick them up with the claw, but after looking at the machine and seeing Carey lazily sucking on a squid toy, he knew that he needed to get them out before they ruined any more toys (that he would no doubt be forced to pay for), and he had a feeling that his claw skills were rather subpar since usually games like this were Calvin’s specialty.

With a sigh he stood up, and looked around for an attendant, his hand now holding Georgie’s small hand, making sure that he at least kept one child alive.

Thankfully an attendant was nearby, and once Étienne embarrassedly explained the situation, and the Attendant laughed heartily at the situation (but in a nice jolly manner), he went over and unlocked the machine.

Frantically, Étienne scooped out Carey and Richard, and checked their harnesses. One two three… wait a moment... where the hell was Daniel!?

God did he manage to actually lose and or kill off a child today?!

The Attendant was busily locking the machine again, when, in the far corner he noticed a smol black ear poking out of a pile of toys.

“Wait!”

Curiously, the Attendant looked at him. “Mya?”

“My other son is in there.” Étienne admitted in embarrassment.

Another jolly laugh, and the Attendant opened the machine again, and, (after another photo for posterity of course!), Étienne reached in and carefully extracted the sleeping Daniel.

“Thankyou,” Étienne said as he quickly checked the harnesses and got his children in order again.

“No problem, this really brightened my day,” the Attendant responded, “You have some cute kiddos there, and from their inventive curiosity I have a feeling they will end up amazing future nekos! Especially with a great parent like you worrying about them!”

Eyes prickling, with what were obviously not tears, Étienne gave a nod, managing to get his voice firm as he responded, “Of course they will be great, they have great dads! I apologize about this inconvenience, how much do I owe you for the toys?”

For indeed as each child was lifted out of the machine they had laid claim to a toy (Georgie who had seen this had begun to cry until he managed to lay his hands upon a kawaii pink alpacasso).

“Oh! For such a laugh don’t worry about it, this machine gets us enough money as it is,” A happy wave as if the thought of money was an irrelevant concept, the Attendant toddled off to do his job stuff.

Standing up, Étienne frowned at his children, deciding that maybe it was better to walk them home, even if keeping them inside made them loud.

Thankfully, due to the fact he had been pregnant with triplets, they had finally moved to a nice house with many rooms. (Having three children in the penthouse was a bad time, and it had become imperative that they have a larger space.)

“Come on,” Étienne said, as he led his string of children out of the arcade, “We’re going home to make cookies.”

“Cookies!!” Daniel exclaimed happily.

“Mmhmm,” Étienne figured at least at home if they fell into a railing, or somehow got sucked into the couch, friggin Stuart wouldn’t be there to judge him. It did not even matter that he was a shitty baker: with the kids helping out, the cookies were bound to fail and... (here his tail twitched at the thought), maybe when Ed came home he would take pity on them and make some good cookies?

Pausing a moment, he looked at his phone, and sent the pictures of the kids in the machine to their private group dad chat, knowing that they would get a good chuckle from this mishap.

Screw Stuart and his alpha, Étienne thought angrily, he had the best husbands! They thought his screw-ups were hilarious – as if to prove a point, Calvin responded rather swiftly with a laughing emoji.

C: “You alright? All the kids alive?”

In response Étienne sent a snap of him looking rather tired, but with all children walking behind him on their lead.

When he was halfway home, (he had paused to let the kids run around in a field chasing butterflies, which of course he had taken like ten thousand photos of; his kids may be fuck ups but they sure as hell were cute), Ed finally responded (probably in between meetings, Étienne thought.)

Ed: Oh my god, did Daniel get stuck in ANOTHER thing?! XD XD What are the chances he becomes the next Mewdeeny? I’ll be home around six tonight, getting off early. J What’s for dinner? Take out? O;

Étienne smiled, appreciating the small jab at his home cooking. The last time he had attempted to make an omelette it had been burnt to hell and back – but Calvin and Ed valiantly had eaten it. (The children of course had better sense, and refused to eat the burnt offering, which had forced Ed to make the rest of the omelettes… soft buttery pieces of heaven.)

Et: Excuse meow! I can make dinner just as good as you! When you get back prepare to be dazzled.

Ed: Guess I will take the acid reflux medicine before I come home then!

C: Me too

Et: >: C Guuuysss you are being mean :’C

In response Calvin sent a picture of himself on the bus, apparently done the business meeting.

C: Look I’m so worried about your cooking I’m racing home to stop you!

Et: jokes on you I’m not even home… (at this point, Étienne sent a photo of the kids in the field chasing butterflies)

Ed: Awwwwwww that’s so cute. Want another one?

Et: Oh my god no, non, nope. Please let me rest. Rip me.

C: Ehh?? What we’re only stopping at six?

Et: Yes. Please.

There was a moment of silence in the group chat, during which Étienne glanced up and made sure all his children were in sight (it looked like Carey was busy pulling on Daniel’s tail and no doubt causing an Incident, but hey Daniel needed to learn to fend for himself was the reasoning), before finally Ed said.

Ed: Who’s picking up Phil and Fel from school?

C: Isn’t that supposed to be Etienne?? Since he has the day ‘off’?

Paling at this, Étienne glanced at the time. Thank Meowry, he still had time to go to the school and act as if he had not just forgot his other two kids.

Et: There’s a reason why I’m not home. I am of course picking up the kids. Hmmp.

C: Just checking in, don’t want a repeat of last Wednesday.

Et: I WAS ON MY WAY I JUST GOT DELAYED.

Ed: By fish tacos?

Deciding that he did not want to continue the conversation at this juncture, and wanting to prove he was a competent and good Papa, he managed to corral his children (ignoring the fact Daniel was a little teary from the abuses of Carey) and walked towards the school. God, he had forgotten the leads for Phil and Fel… but they were old enough to walk beside him, he thought.

Phil, despite not being the hockey prodigy, was doing rather well in school. He was blossoming in shumka dancing too, which was pretty good for an eight-year-old. Felicia on the other hand… was more trouble than the four nekos that he was currently leading to school. He wondered if she would have any more scrapes and bruises today.

As they reached the school he realized he was a little early, which was probably the responsible parent thing to do. Unfortunately, as he neared the playground he noticed that his Enemy Stuart was also early, and watching his perfect child perfectly play on the swing. No doubt he was there to pick up his other irritating perfect children.

Étienne always viewed it as a misfortune that omegas went into heat around the same time, because it meant almost like clockwork the minute he popped out another child Stuart also managed to keep up popping out his own perfect kids. Each one of them seemed to be overachieving children, top of their class and perfectly behaved. Étienne half wondered if he was cloning the same child.

Stuart sadly had noticed him. “Oh? Your children are still alive?”

Wanting to ignore him, Étienne felt a slip of horror when Carey squiggled free of the lead and made a beeline to the swing. In almost slow motion he watched as his child launched himself at Stuart’s little Gerald, the impact tossing them both off the swing and rolling into the sand.

Stuart had screeched in horror at the scene, “GET YOUR SAVAGE CHILD OFF MY CHILD!!! DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO TRAIN THEM!?”

Coolly looking at the scene, and noticing with some satisfaction that Gerald now had a tear in his pants, Étienne released the other children from their harnesses and said, “Well you know, it’s a cat-eat-cat world… if Gerald doesn’t figure out how to fend off potential mates now, he will never succeed.”

Stuart’s face was getting redder by the minute due to his fury, and he rushed over to try to part Carey and Gerald. (Daniel had managed to wander off, a little too close to something he could stick his head in, but quite honestly Étienne had become adept at getting Daniel out of railings of every sort so he was not too worried).  Georgie and Richard however had rushed over to help their brother.

As Stuart was rushing over to save his precious Gerald, Étienne realized with some surprise that Richard was not beating up the little kid, but instead they were /playing/ and it looked like the poor kid was finally having one moment of fun in his life, before Stuart adeptly plucked him from the play tussling.

“Don’t play with them!” Stuart was scolding Gerald, “They are no good for you!”

Étienne watched uncomfortably as Gerald began to cry, obviously distraught that he could not play with the others. Stuart however misinterpreted the tears.

“Look at my Poor Gerald!” He clutched the child to his chest, “Your child made him cry!” (Of course how he said the words, Étienne managed to read “your horrible barbaric children harmed him and now he will never walk again.”)

At this moment the school bell rang and a flood of children came out the building. Deciding not to answer Stuart, Étienne looked at the flood of children, picking out Philipe rather easily, and then not too far behind, Felicia (who seemed to have a new band-aid in the middle of her forehead).

“Philipe! Felicia!” Étienne called, getting their attention. Thankfully they had heard him, and they wandered over to him looking relatively happy to see him.

“Papa!” Philipe exclaimed as he gently took his hand, a look of deep concern on his face, “Does this mean you’re making dinner?”

Hearing the conversation, Felicia made a face, “Yick!!! Not burnt omelette again!”

Feeling mortified, certain that the disapproving Stuart was overhearing his cooking failure, Étienne responded with a tight smile, “Let’s gather the others and go home, ok?”

“Okaayyyyy,” with a huff, Felicia stomped over to the triplets, “WE’RE GOING HOME STOP PLAYING.”

The triplets immediately obeyed, having already learnt the terrors of not listening to her.

Philipe had gone to fetch Daniel (who thankfully was just riding the bouncy duck thingy and not stuck his head in a railing.)

With a sigh, Étienne happily guided his children home.

As they were occupied colouring at the dinner table, he opened the fridge; after careful consideration of the ingredients, he picked up the phone and called a take-out place.

[youmightbeanidiotif]

Canon Wincest quotes in SPN:

(Dean, Sam, S1-S15) “Sammy” “Dee” (11.04, 11.12, 14.03)

(Dean & Sam, S1-S15) “Bitch” “Jerk”

(Larry & Lynda, 1.08) “Let me just say, we accept homeowners of any race, religion, color, or... sexual orientation.” “Let me just say, that we accept homeowners of any race, religion, color, or... sexual orientation.”

(Dean, 1.11) “You’ve always known what you want. And you go after it. You stand up to Dad. And you always have. Hell, I wish I—anyway… I admire that about you. I’m proud of you, Sammy.”

(John & Sam, 1.22) “Killing this demon comes first, before me, before everything.” “No, sir. Not before everything.”

(Dean & Sam, 2.07) “What do you think, Scully?” “I'm not Scully, you're Scully.” “No, I'm Mulder. You're a red-headed woman.”

(Dean, 2.09) “You make a move on him, you’ll be dead before you hit the ground.”

(Sam & Dean, 2.09) “It’s over for me. It doesn’t have to be over for you. You can keep going!” “What if I don’t want to?!“

(Henrikson & Dean, 2.12) “Yeah, I know about Sammy. The Bonnie to your Clyde.” “Yeah, well, that part's true”

(Bobby & Dean, 2.15) “You're bickering like an old married couple.” “No, see married couples can get divorced. Me and him, we're like, uh, Siamese twins.”

(Molly & Sam, 2.16) “Right before, we were having the dumbest fight. It was the only time we ever really argued, when we were stuck in the car.” “Yeah, I know how that goes.” “You know the last thing I said to him? I called him a jerk.”

(Dean & Sam, 2.20) “It was just a wish. I wished for Mom to live. That Mom never died, we never went hunting and you and me just never uh... you know.” “Yeah. Well, I'm glad we do.”

(Bobby & Dean, 2.22) “Something big is going down, end of the world big.” “Well, then let it end!“

(Dean, 2.22) “I’m gonna take care of you, I’m gonna take care of you, I gotcha. That’s my job, right? Watch out for my pain in the ass little brother?”

(Sam, 2.22) “I mean, you sacrifice everything for me.  Don't you think I'd do the same for you? You're my big brother. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you.”

(Sam & Tamara & Isaac, 3.01) “So, how long you two been married?” “Eight years this past June.” “The family that slays together...” “Right. I'm with you there.”

(Dean, 3.01) “Because I couldn't live with you dead. Couldn't do it.”

(Kyle & Sam, 3.05) “This guy, he... he killed my brothers. How would you feel?” “Can’t imagine anything worse.”

(Dean & Sam, 3.06) “Look at you, sticking up for your girlfriend. You cougar hound.” “Bite me.” “Hey, not if she bites you first.”

(Sam, 3.07) “I just wish you would drop the show and be my brother again. Cause…just cause.”

(Dean, 3.11) “Sammy, I get all tingly when you take control like that.”

(Trickster, 3.11) “This obsession to save Dean? The way you two keep sacrificing yourselves for each other? [...] Dean’s your weakness. And the bad guys know it, too.” 

(Sam & Dean, 3.15) “Then, whatever the magic pill is, I'll take it too!” “Oh, what is this? Sid and Nancy?”

(Dean, 3.16) “Sammy, all I’m saying, is that you’re my weak spot. You are, and I’m yours.”

(Dean, 3.16) “SAM! SAAAAM!!”

(Sam & a crossroads demon, 4.09) “I don't want ten years. I don't want one year. I don't want candy! I want to trade places with Dean.” “No.” “Just take me! It's a fair trade!”

(Cara & Sam, 4.14) “Haven't you ever been in a relationship where you really love somebody and still kinda wanted to bash their head in?” “Sounds like you're speaking from experience.” [...] “His name was Karl. We were married. [...] I mean I loved him. Still do I guess but... I don't know. It's like one day I looked up and I was living with a stranger and... you know what I mean, right?” “I guess. Or, I don't know, maybe.”

(Nick, 4.14) “I gave him what he needed. And it wasn’t some bitch in a G-string. It was you. A little brother that looked up to him”

(Dean, 5.04) “Because whatever we have between us... love, family, whatever it is...”

(Dean, 5.04) “The point is…maybe we are each others Achilles heel. Maybe they’ll find a way to use us against each other, I don’t know. I just know we’re all we’ve got. More than that. We keep each other human.”

(Hotel manager, 5.09) “And at 4.30 there's the 'Homoerotic Subtext of Supernatural.'”

(Dean & Castiel & Sam, 5.13) “Really? Anna? I don't believe it.” “It’s true.” “So she's gone all Glenn Close, huh? That's awesome.” “Who's Glenn Close?” “No one, just this psycho bitch who likes to boil rabbits.” “So the plan to kill me, would it actually stop Satan?”

(Ash, 5.16) “A few people share. Special cases. Whatnot. […] Aw you know, like, uh, soulmates.“

(Zachariah, 5.18) “You know Sam and Dean Winchester are psychotically, irrationality, erotically codependent on each other right?”

(Dean & AU!Sam/Dean & Sam, 2.20 & 5.18) “Why are you doing this?” “Because you’re still my (big) brother.”

(Castiel, 5.18) “I don't have the same faith in you that Sam does.“

(Crowley, 5.20) “My valet hid a tracking device in your car, a magical coin that easily trumps your little bags o' bones. It allows me to hear things, too and, my, the things I've heard.”

(Chuck, 5.22) “This is the stuff that's important. The army man that Sam crammed in the ashtray – it's still stuck there. The Legos that Dean shoved into the vents – to this day, heat comes on and they can hear 'em rattle. These are the things that make the car theirs - really theirs. Even when Dean rebuilt her from the ground up, he made sure all these little things stayed.”

Chuck, 5.22) “In between jobs, Sam and Dean would sometimes get a day – sometimes a week, if they were lucky. [...] They could go anywhere and do anything. They drove 1,000 miles for an Ozzy show, two days for a Jayhawks game. And when it was clear, they'd park her in the middle of nowhere, sit on the hood, and watch the stars... for hours... without saying a word.”

(Dean, 5.22) “Sam, it’s okay. It’s okay, I’m here, I’m here. I’m not gonna leave you.”

(Sam, 5.22) “It’s okay, Dean, it’s gonna be okay. I got him.”

(Chuck, 5.22) “Dean didn't want Cas to save him. Every part of him, every fiber he's got, wants to die, or find a way to bring Sam back. But he isn't gonna do either. Because he made a promise.”

(Chuck, 5.22) “I'd say this was a test... for Sam and Dean. And I think they did all right. Up against good, evil, angels, devils, destiny, and God himself, they made their own choice. They chose family. And, well... isn't that kinda the whole point?”

(Dean, 6.01) “So I'm dead? This is Heaven?”

(Sam & Dean, 6.01) “You finally had what you wanted, Dean.” “I wanted my brother. Alive.”

(Lisa, 6.06) “You two have the most unhealthy, tangled-up, crazy thing I’ve ever seen.“

(Veritas, 6.06) “Mallory to your Mickey.”

(Dean & Sam, 6.15) “Yeah, but here, you got a pretty good life. I mean, back home, the hits have been coming since you were 6 months old. You got to admit, being a bazillionare, married to Ruby, the whole package. It's no contest.” “No, you know, you were right. We just don't mean the same thing here. I mean, we're not even brothers here, man.” “All right, then. Let's get our crazy show back home.”

(Sam & Dean, 6.15) [Sam knocks on the wall.] “Solid. It's real. Nice.” “Yeah. Yeah, real, moldy, termite-eaten home sweet home. Chock full of crap that wants to skin you. Oh, and, uh, we're broke again.” “Yeah. But, hey... at least we're talking.“

(Sam, 6.22) “I was with two guys. One was like a male model type, and the other was an older guy named Bobby.”

(Balthazar, 6.22) “How's Sleeping Beauty? You didn't steal any kisses, I trust?”

(Tortured!Sam & Sam, 6.22) “Why is this so important to you?” “You know me. You know why. I'm not leaving my brother alone out there.”

(Sam & Don & Maggie, Sam & Dean, 7.05) “See? Guys, guys... You're talking. All these years, you... you buried your anger and your disappointment till it tore you apart. All you needed to do was talk.” “He's right. I couldn't kill you. All I ever wanted is you, Mags. I've been crushing on you since forever. You're the woman that I want to never grow old with.” “I could never murder you either, Don. It's crazy... But true.” [...] “Hey, were you, um, were you listening to the Starks tonight?” “Uh, a little, when I wasn't getting slammed into a wall or stung by bees.” “You notice how they, uh, you know, how they... how they opened up, got everything off their chest?” “Yeah. Kudos on selling them that crap.” “It wasn't crap, Dean. It worked.”

(Dean, 7.06) “Sammy. Not Sammy.”

(Leviathan!Sam, 7.06) “You could be anything. You're strong, uninhibited, smart enough, believe it or not, but you're so caught up in being good and taking care of each other.”

(Dean, 8.03) “I know where I'm at my best, and that is right here, driving down crazy street next to you.”

(Mrs. Holmes, 8.03) “I don't think he could bear the thought of life without me. That's why he drove off that bridge.”

(Michael, 8.04) “Is it just me or are you getting a workplace romance vibe from those two?”

(Kate & Michael & Brian, Dean, 8.04) “I'm pretty sure that FBI agents don't say "awesome" that much. You know? And they definitely don't hunt and kill college kids.” “Did... did they say anything else?” “Dude, they just sat and talked about how they have been apart for a year. You were probably right about that whole office-romance thing.” [...] “Do I really say "awesome" a lot?”

(Sam & Amelia, 8.05) “You have no idea where you're going, either, do you?” “No. Not really.” “And that's because you have no one. I mean, at all, right? I mean, that's why you're... here, in this place.” “I used to... have someone, I mean. But that's over now. It's gone. You know what that's like, don't you?”

(Dean & Sam, 8.10) “What do you want to hear, Sam? That I was wrong? Fine. I was wrong. Okay? But if you’d have just heard me out, if you’d have trusted me, all of this could have been avoided.” “You didn’t want me to trust you. You wanted me to trust Benny, and I can’t do that.” “Right. Okay, well, then, what the hell do we do now?” “That depends. It depends on you. On whether or not you’re done with him.”

(Dean, 8.14) “I want you to get out. I want you to have a life, become a Man of Letters, whatever. You, with a wife and kids, and grandkids, living till you're fat and bald and chugging Viagra... that is my perfect ending.”

(Dean & Sam, 8.14) “Sam, be smart.” “I am smart, and so are you. You’re not a grunt, Dean. You’re a genius. When it comes to lore you’re the best damn hunter I have ever seen, better than me, better than dad. I believe in you, Dean. So, please, please believe in me, too.”

(Dean, 8.23) “There is nothing, past or present, that I would put in front of you.”

(Ezekial/Gadreel as Dean, 9.01) “I made you a promise, in that church. You and me. Come whatever.”

(Ezekial/Gadreel as Dean, 9.01) “There ain’t no me, if there ain’t no you.“

(Jody, 9.08) “Come on. You and Dean? That's something special, don't you think?”

(Castiel & Sam, 9.11) “Sam, the trials. You chose not to go through with them for a reason, didn't you? You chose to live rather than to sacrifice yourself. You and Dean, you chose each other.” “Yeah, I did. We did.”

(Alonso, 9.13) “Hey, new guy. Quit flirtin’ with the trainer and keep scoopin’, huh?”

(Dean, 9.23) “I’m proud of us.”

(Sam, 10.02) “I don’t care. Because you’re my brother and I’m here to take you home.”

(Sam, 10.03) “Come back. [...] Come back to me.”

(Dean, 10.03) “What did Sam say? Does he want a divorce?”

(Castiel, 10.03) “It’d take a lot more than trying to kill Sam with a hammer to make him want to walk away.”

(Dean & Sam, 10.04) “I never even said thank you, so...” “You don't ever have to say that, not to me.”

(Dean & Marie, 10.05) “Why are they standing so close together?” “Reasons.” “You know they're brothers, right?” “Well, duh but, subtext.” 

(Dean, 10.05) “I don't need a symbol to remind me how I feel about my brother.”

(Marie as Sam & Sam, 10.05) “The two of us against the world!” “What she said.”

(Heddy & Beverly, 10.06) “I knew those boys were trailer trash the moment they rolled up in that American-made.” “Not to mention homosexuals.” “Homosexual murderers.  Like Leopold and Loeb.”

(Sam, 10.12) “Look, man… do I wish the mark was gone? Yes, of course. Absolutely, I do, but… I wanted you back.”

(Sam, 10.18) “This is my life. I love it. But I can't do it without my brother. I don't want to do it without my brother. And if he's gone, then I don't...”

(Sam, 10.18) “If there’s a cure, we’ll do it and deal with the consequences later. I can’t lose you.”

(Sam, 10.23) “You will never, ever hear me say that you—the real you—is anything but good.”

(Dean, 10.23) “Close your eyes. [A tear runs down Sam’s face as he continues to look up at Dean.] Sammy, close your eyes.”

(Sam, 10.23) “Take these. And one day, when you find your way back. Let these be your guide. And they can help you remember what it was to be good. What it was to love.”

(Sam & Dean, 11.01) “I unleashed a force on this world that could destroy it, to save you.” “And I told you not to.” “And I'd do it again.  In a second, I would do it again.”

(Sam, 11.04) “Dee, it’s late, I’m exhausted.”

(Sam, 11.04) “We are home.“

(Lucifer & Sam, 11.10) “No wait, here’s my personal favorite, is you doing every stupid thing you could to cure the Mark, even after you knew it would go bad.” “My brother was dying!” “Yes! And you’d do anything to save him. And he’d do anything to save you. And that is the problem. [...] you’re so overcome by guilt that you can’t stand to lose Dean again and he could never lose you, and so instead of choosing the world you choose each other, no matter how many innocent people die.”

(Dean, 11.11) “All that matters now, all that’s ever mattered, is that we’re together.“

(Sam, 11.12)

“Dee, listen...”

(Sam, 11.16) “The nest messes with their victim's head, shows them things they love, parts of their soul in distress.”

(Sam & Dean, 11.16) “You said the soul eater made you see things, plural. So, what else did you see?” “I saw you, dead on the floor.” “How messed up are our lives, that you seeing a vision of dead-me is actually kind of comforting?”

(Dean, 11.17) “Bring him back. Bring him back and take me instead.”

(Michelle, 11.17) “I watched the man I love die. There's no normal after that.”

(Dean & Cesar, 11.19) “You guys fight just like brothers. Almost as bad as us.” “Well, it's more like an old married couple.”

(Dean, 11.20) “I’m not leaving you, ever!”

(Dean & Sam, 11.23) “C’mon, you know the drill. No chick flick moments, c’mon.” “Yeah, you love chick flicks.” “Yeah, you’re right I do, come here.”

(Dean, 11.23) “I need him, he needs me.“

(Dean, 12.01) “Listen, bitch. I don't care who you are, I don't care what you want. You have my brother. [...] Now, I'm gonna give you one chance, just one, to hand Sam back. [...] You think you can run from me? Try it. Because when I find you, and I will find you, if he is not in one piece, I will take you apart. You understand me? [Lady Toni hangs up, Dean snaps Gregory’s cellphone in half.]”

(Mary & Dean, 12.02) “Sam had a chance to get out, and he came back?” “When Dad disappeared, Sam and I looked around and something became very clear. The only thing we had in this world, the only thing aside from this car, was each other.”

(Dean & Sam, 12.06) “He’s more of a, uh… animated Japanese erotica chick.” “Don’t tell her that!” “Tell her what?” “It’s Jody, man.” “Dude, be proud of your hobbies. It makes you who you are.”

(Dean & Billie, 12.06) [Dean is pounding on the door, trying to get in.] “Sam. Sammy! Hey!” “You can huff and puff, but that house is on supernatural lockdown. They can’t even hear you.” “Hunters are dying in there.” “Everyone dies.” “You got in there. You got in there to reap that soul. You can get me in.” “But it’s a one-way ticket. And you’re gonna owe me one.” [The door glows and Dean tumbles through it and rolls into the room.] “Where’s my brother?!”

(Dean, 12.07) “We're the brothers that rock together.”

(Dean, 12.09) “Being locked in that cell, with nothing? I’ve been to hell, this was worse.”

(Sam & Dean, 12.11) ”Dean, do you remember HBO?” ”Uh...” ”Cinemax?” ”Skinemax?” ”Great, alright, come here. We’re just gonna sit you right here.” “Is this like, live Skinemax?”

(Dean, 12.11) [Sam screams in pain.] “S-Sam?”

(Sam & Dean, 12.11) “I can’t believe you rode Larry.” “Hey, I was awesome on that bull. I was like a God.”

(Sam & Dean, 12.11) “Just, you know, some of the things we've done, we've had this weight for- forever. And seeing it gone, you looked happy.“ “Look, was it nice to drop our baggage? Yeah, maybe. Hell, probably. But it wasn't just the crap that got lost, I mean it was everything. It was us. It was what we do, you know? All of it. So... that's what being happy looks like? I think I'll pass.“

(Dean, 12.14) “Sammy? Lucy?!”

(Sam & Dean, 12.15) “Dude, why don’t you take a shower and change your clothes, you’ve been wearing the same pair of boxers for four days.” “Okay, one, weird that you know how much underwear I’ve packed...” “That’s what’s weird about this?”

(Dean & Sam, 12.15) “Alright, let’s get to it then.” “Yeah, that’s fine, um... after you get cleaned up.” “I got baby wipes in the car.” “Dude! Dean, I’m serious man. You smell like roadkill.” “That’s ‘cause I do all the heavy lifting. ... Alright, but I’m using that fancy shampoo you keep hidden from me.”

(Gwen, Sam & Dean, 12.15) “Why couldn’t I just tell him the truth? I didn’t, I lied. I lied to make things easier.” [...] “Either way, I shouldn’t have lied to you and I’m sorry, man, I” “Well, okay.”

(Sam & Dean, 12.15) “Every job we’ve worked in the last two weeks, they’ve all come from the British Men of Letters.” “Really.” “Yeah, I didn’t tell you because I know how much you hate them.” “No, we hate them. Us. Together.”

(Mick & Sam & Dean, 12.16) “Kendrick’s is the largest collection of occult lore in the world.” “Cool.” [Dean gives ultimate bitchface.]

(Mick & Sam, 12.16) “Booked us all suites.” “Wait, you... we’re in separate rooms?”

(Dean, 12.16) “Yeah. Sam’s best friend. They’re like nerd soulmates.”

(Sam & Dean, 12.22) “Is this how you pictured it? The end?” “You know it's not. I always thought we'd go out like Butch and Sundance style. Blaze of glory.”

(Dean & Sam, 12.22) “You come back.” “Promise.” “Bitch.” “Jerk.”

(Sandy & Dean, 13.17) “What are you doing?” “They took my brother. I’m gonna get him back.” [Dean continues to make chemical bombs.]

(Dean & Sam, 13.19) “WHERE THE HELL IS MY BROTHER?!” [Dean enters the room where Sam is being held.] “SAM!” “DEAN!”

(Dean & Sam, 13.20) “I don’t care what happens to me, I never really have, but I do care what happens to my brother.” “Dean, we're going to that place, and we're gonna save Jack and Mom. Together. And if something happens, we will deal with it together. And if we die? We'll do that together, too.”

(Dean to Sam, 13.22) “I thought I’d lost you, man.”

(Dean to Sam, 13.22) “We’ve lost friends, we’ve lost family, we’ve lost each other.“

(Dean, 13.23) “Sammy!” [Lucifer disappears with Sam and Jack.] “SAMMY!”

(Castiel & Dean, 13.23) “Dean, you can’t.” “Lucifer has Sam!”

(Anael & Michael!Dean, 14.01) “Why would he say yes to you?” “Love.”

(Sam, 14.01) “If it meant finding Dean, I’d... I’d do anything.” 

(Dean, 14.02) “Sammy... It’s me...”

(Dean & Sam, Jody, 14.03) “It’s just every time I think about it, it’s like a nightmare. I mean, I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, it’s just always there... watching.” “Dee, it’s just a beard. I’ve been a little busy lately.” “Well, that’s not an excuse ‘cause Duck Dynasty called and they want it all back.” “Some people say I look good.“ “No. No Sam. No people say that.“ [...] “Hey, I like it!” [Sam is smug, Dean is exasperated.]

(Dean & Spencer & Sam, 14.03) “Yeah, not Michael anymore.” “Right, Chief told us. Welcome back.” “Chief?” “Yeah, I asked them not to call me that.” [Dean is exasperated.]

(Jody to Sam, 14.03) “First love strikes quick, and to lose it like that… Wow, you two are having a time of it.“

(Sam to Dean, 14.03) “For me, you were gone, for weeks. I didn’t know if you were alive… I just need you to talk to me, slow down so I can catch up.”

(Dean & Sam, 14.04) “Oh wow.” “What?” [Dean gestures to his jaw.] “Oh. Yes, I shaved.” “I mean, it’s so smooth. It’s like a... dolphin’s belly.”

(Dean & Sam, Samantha, 14.04) “Soft, delicate features, luxurious hair, she’s like your wonder twin.” “What? What are you talking about?” [Sam and Samantha simultaneously push their hair behind their ears.]

(Stuart & Dean & Sam, 14.04) “I broke it off before we could MIRL.” “Merle?” “M.I.R.L Meet in real life.” “Why do you know what that means?”

(Dean to Sam, 14.04) “Thanks, man. You, uh... You got me out here 'cause you needed to get me out my funk and get me a win, and you did. So... thanks.”

(Sam & Dean, 14.04) “Hey Dean, when we get back to the bunker, man, you gotta stop hiding out in your room.” “I’m not hiding out.” “And I get why you’re doing it, I do. What happened with Michael... you said yes for me. For Jack, for your family. You did the right thing. And what happened after [...] I don’t blame you, no one blames you, but you gotta try to stop blaming yourself. Please.” “I’m never going to get over it, okay? I’m just not. But you’re right. [...] Whatever you need, I’m there.”

(Dean to Sam, 14.04) “Alright, Chief?”

(Dean & Sam, 14.04) “Next year we're doing Halloween right, okay? I'm thinking matching outfits. Batman and Robin.” “No.” “Bert and Ernie.” “No.” “Yeah, that’s weird.” “Yes.” “Uh, Rocky and Bullwinkle.” “Dean.” “Shaggy and Scooby!” “Why would we...” “Turner and Hooch.” “Ugh.” “Ren and Stimpy.” “Come on now...” “Thelma and Louise!” “Thelma and...” “ We just put it in drive and go.”

(Dean to AU!Bobby, Dean to Sam, 14.05) “He’s doing his best. He’s doing better than his best.” “Well, she learned from the best.”

(Jack to Dean, Charlie to Sam, 14.06) “Sam wanted someone around when you came back. He’s worried about you.” “He’ll be fine. Your brother, I mean.”

(Dean to Jack, 14.06) “Sam won’t like it.” [aka mom] “Remind me to give you the talk later.” [aka dad]

(Dean to Kaia, 14.09) “I need that spear to save Sam so, if you’re not going to give it to me, kill me.”

(Michael!Dean to Sam, 14.09) “Dean was... resisting me. He was too attached to you.”

(Sam & Dean, 14.11) “You were gonna leave, and you weren’t even gonna tell me. Me!” “You're the last person I could tell, the last person I could be around, cause you're the only one who coulda talked me out of it!”

(Sam & Dean, 14.11) “But there has to be another way...” “There’s not, okay? Sam, you’ve tried [...] and I love you for trying.”

(Chuck to Sam & Dean, 15.19) “Hey, guys. Enjoying a little alone time?“

(Sam & Dean to Chuck, 15.19) “We'll give you what you want.” “The whole Cain and Abel thing, us dead, whatever. I'll kill Sam, Sam will kill me, we'll kill each other. Okay? You pick. But, first, you got to put everything back the way it was. The people, the birds. Cass.”

(Sam & Dean, 15.19) “You know, with Chuck not writing our story anymore, we get to write our own. You know, just you and me going wherever the story takes us. Just us.” “Finally free.” [Sam and Dean drive off into the sunset together on a road trip.]

(Sam & Dean, 15.20) [Ordinary Life by Van Morrison plays over domestic montage in the bunker.]

(Sam & Dean, 15.20) “You got anything?” “I got something.” [Dean takes Sam to a pie festival.]

(Sam to Dean, 15.20) [Sam smashes a slice of cream pie in Dean’s face.] “I have wanted to do that for a very long time.” [Dean scrapes the cream off his face with his fork and eats it.] “You’re right, I do feel better.”

(QOTD board, 15.20, Barn Scene, The Night We Met by Lord Huron)

(Sam & Dean, 15.20) “I'll call for help. I'll get the first aid kit.“ “Sam, Sam! Sam... stay with me. Can you stay with me, please?” “Okay. Yeah.” “Okay. Alright. Listen to me, you get those boys and you get them someplace safe, alright?” “We [motioning to both of them] are gonna get them somewhere safe.” “No. You knew it was always gonna end like this for me, it was supposed to end like this, right? I mean, look at us, saving people, hunting things... it's what we do.” “No, no. Stop, okay? Just... just stop.” “It’s okay, it’s good. We had one hell of a ride, man.” “I will find a way, okay? I... I will find another way.” “No, man. No. No, no, no, no. No bringing me back, okay? You know... you know that always ends bad.” “Dean...” “Okay.” “Please...” “I'm fading pretty quick, so... there's a few things that I need you to hear. Come here.” [Sam moves close and Dean puts his hand on the side of his neck.] “Let me look at you. Yeah, there he is. I'm so proud of you, Sam.” [Dean’s hand on Sam’s shoulder, Sam holding onto Dean’s wrist.] “You know that? I've always looked up to you. Man, when we were kids, you were so damn smar... smart. You never... you never took any of dad's crap. I never knew how you did that. And you're stronger than me. You always have been. Hey, did I ever tell you... did I ever tell you that night that, uh... that I ca... that I came for you when you were at school? You know, when dad hadn't come back from his hunting trip?” “Yeah, um.. uh, the woman in white.” “The woman in white, that’s right. I must have stood outside your dorm for hours... because I didn't... I didn't know what... what you would say. I thought you'd tell me to... to get lost or get dead. And I don't know what I would've done... if I didn't have you. 'Cause I was so scared. I was scared, 'cause when it all came down to it, it was always you and me. It's always been you... and me.” [Sam is crying.] “Then don't leave me. Don't leave me. I can't do this alone.” “Yes, you can.” “Well, I don’t want to.” “Hey, I'm not leaving you. I'm gonna be with you... right here.” [Dean is crying, he places his fist over Sam’s heart.] “Right here... every day. Every day you're out there and you’re li... and you're living and you're fighting, 'cause you...you always keep fighting. You hear me? I'll be there every step. I love you so much, my baby brother. Oh, man. Well, I did not think this would be the day. But it is. It is, and that's... that's okay. I need you to... I need you to promise me. I need you to... to tell me... that it's okay. I need you to tell me that it's okay.” [Sam looks away, shaking his head.] “No.” “Look at me. Look at me. I need... I need you to tell me that it's okay. I need you to tell me... tell me it's okay.” [Sam places his hand over Dean’s on Dean’s chest.] “Dean… it's okay. You can go now.” “Goodbye, Sam. Goodbye.” [Dean closes his eyes, a single tear falling down his face, his head falls onto Sam’s shoulder, Sam holds onto Dean and starts crying hard and brokenly.]

(Sam & Miracle, 15.20) [Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits plays over montage of Dean’s funeral and Sam grieving in the bunker.]

(Sam, 15.20) [Sam wears Dean’s hoodie and watch and takes Dean’s duffle when he leaves the bunker.]

(Dean & Bobby, 15.20) [Dean arrives outside the Roadhouse, Bobby sitting on the porch.] ”What memory is this?” ”It ain’t, ya idgit. [...] That kid of yours, before he went wherever, made some changes here, [...] he set some things right. Tore down all the walls up here. Heaven ain't just reliving your golden oldies anymore, it's what it always should have been, everyone happy, everyone together. [...] Your mom and dad, they got a place over yonder. It ain't just Heaven, Dean, it's the Heaven you deserve, and we've been waiting for you.”

(Dean & Bobby, 15.20) [Dean looks a little pensive, a little sad.] “It’s almost perfect.” “He’ll be along.”

(Bobby & Dean, 15.20) “You got everything you could ever want or need or dream, so, I guess the question is, what are you gonna do now, Dean?” [Dean looks over and Baby is there,  wearing her original license plates.] “I think I’ll go for a drive. [Dean walks over to Baby.] “Hey, Baby.”

(Dean, Sam, 15.20) [Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas plays over montage of Dean driving in Heaven and Sam raising Dean Jr. on Earth.] [Sam, old and gray, removes a dustcover from Baby and sits in the drivers seat as though he can feel or imagine Dean there.]

(Dean Jr. & Sam, Dean & Sam, 15.20) [Carry on Wayward Son by Neoni plays.] [Sam, very old now, lies in a hospital bed in his living room, surrounded by photos of Dean, John, Mary, Bobby, and Dean Jr.] “Dad, it's okay, you can go now.” [Sam nods, places his hand on Dean Jr’s. He closes his eyes, his head falls to the side and a single tear falls down his face.] [Dean stops on a bridge and enjoys the view, he gets a look of awareness on his face that turns into a happy grin.] “Hey Sammy.” [Dean turns to see Sam, he’s the same age he was the night Dean died.] “Dean.” [The boys look each other over and note they’re both wearing the same clothes they had on the night Dean came and got Sam from Stanford. They smile at each other, relieved and happy and joyous and emotional, and hug. They walk over to the railing, Dean’s arm around Sam, and enjoy the view.]

Comparisons, parallels, direct lines, feel free to add to this list.

[ourimpavidheroine]

I was so upset about how Voltron Season 2 ended. I thought it would end like LOK with an LGBT+ pairing (didn't matter which, I just wanted one) holding hands or something and then pick up next season. I don't know, I really, really hope that comment an interviewer made was about the third season because I'm kind of feeling a bit queerbaited. And Hunk was resorted to jokes about food. That's a big step back from last season. Let's just hope for a better (and gayer) third season.

Just in case…

Spoilers beneath the cut. You have been warned!

Yep. It was queerbaiting comment, for sure. All is forgiven if they were talking about Season 3 and follow through with it, of course. That comment confused me in general, though. I don’t really feel there was anything going on in Season 2 that couldn’t have been shown on CN or Nick, for example. I mean, maybe a few of the fight scenes might have been a shade toned down (and I am just being nitpicky) but certainly there was nothing romantic/sexual/gender questioning going on at all with anyone! That much I will give them - there are no romantic relationships of any sort on the show if we get past the glimpses we’ve seen of the Paladins’ parents. Heck, we don’t even know if Rolo and Nyma are a romantic couple, it just wasn’t played that way. The closest we get is Lance’s feeble womanizing (which absolutely no one takes seriously, including Lance, although it’s starting to border on assholery with Allura since she’s clearly not interested and he keeps pushing it, come on, showrunners, don’t do that shit, it ain’t cute) and the group’s gentle teasing of Hunk with regards to Shay (which clearly doesn’t upset or bother Hunk at all).

Now clearly a character can be LGBT+ without having their sex life actually addressed (no really, Hollywood, it’s true!) but since, outside of Lance, they haven’t addressed anyone’s sexuality at all I don’t think they are being coy about it. Our seven main characters have been utterly focused on the fight with Zarkon and that’s it. Which is fine with me at this point.

They did make it clear this season that Pidge thinks of herself as a girl - she even refers to her lion as “Girl” (which I loved, by the way). Doesn’t mean that Pidge couldn’t be LGBT+ of course! (A baby queer Pidge sporting a huge crush on a girl would delight me to no end, although she seems to feel that way for mechanics and I am down with Ace and/or Aro Pidge if that’s how they want to play it.) 

I know the fans want a Lance/Keith pairing, but I have to be honest and say that at this point the two of them are coming across as bickering siblings far more than two guys who have unrealized crushes on each other - especially in light of the comment that they are going to address sexuality on the show! I mean, if they are going to address it, why leave it all up to easily misconstrued and very subtle subtext? Watching the two of them in action is like watching my twins in action. If the actors are supposed to be playing it that these two guys are attracted to each other but either don’t know it or don’t know how to play it, they are not convincing me. The point I am trying to make is that if the showrunners were trying to sort of fly under the radar with it - the way Bryke did with Korrasami - that would be one thing. But they’ve stated that they are not, so what’s with making the fans dig really deep for it? It would not be done that way if it were two hetero people having a love/hate attraction kind of thing, and that’s what gets me. Either treat it the same or don’t do it at all, you know? And maybe I’ll change my mind on a second viewing (I was watching it with a sick kid and also taking care of her, so I’ll admit I may have missed something) but yeah. I don’t know. Maybe I am asking too much. Either do it so that the kids watching - not the older teens/adults watching, but the actual intended audience - understand that these two characters are in love/have a relationship or don’t do it at all. (And it can be done. Kids understand that Pearl loved Rose and wanted her to be her girlfriend, Clyde on Loud House has two dads, and Mitch from ParaNorman has a boyfriend.) But instead we’ve got Lance wanting to know if Keith and Allura are in a tree (HA!) and yes, as I grownup lady I could take it that Lance is actually jealous at the thought that Keith might be kissing someone else, but kids are not going to get that, because Lance is always going on and on about Allura. They are going to assume he is worried that Allura is kissing someone else, and that is entirely my point.

That could change of course - and if done right, having the two of them realize they have feelings for each other and then having the atmosphere between them do a 180 would be great and I would be there for it. But uh, speaking as an older person, a teacher, and a mother, the last fucking thing you want on a ship where everyone is desperately scrambling to get ready to fight a deadly enemy would be two teenage boys distracted from training by trying to get it on at every possible minute. OMG.

And I think that is the point, really. Not that much time is supposed to have passed between a bunch of kids still at the Garrison to that big fight with Zarkon and Haggar. We are talking months, not years. They’ve had no time to really focus on their personal lives. We’ve seen growth - I just LOVED Pidge’s episode where she bonded further with her forest lion despite her pale skin and allergies (god, I love her) and obviously Keith was the focus this season and got a lot of growth as well. (Hunk’s referral to him as “Keith” and “Galra Keith” had me on the floor.)

I did love that Lance, as a presumed straight boy, rocked the face mask - why the fuck can’t straight boys give a damn about their appearance? And I did love that we were shown that Hunk has a true love for food and for feeding people, not just eating. I do feel that his smarts are getting overshadowed by Pidge’s - I mean, Hunk is supposed to be an engineer but he’s not doing any of that, Pidge has taken over. I think his character needs a little love next season, for sure. Although how much did I love Hunk and Pidge holding hands and crying when they were going to be separated? SO MUCH. And Jeremy Shada confirmed that he’s working on his Spanish so that Lance can speak it convincingly, which gets my full and hearty approval. More Cuban boy speaking Spanish, please!

Do you know who I would really like to come out? Shiro. Not Lance, not Keith, but Shiro. Having the main male protagonist, the hero of the show, the strong one, the father figure, be gay? THAT is what I would like to see. I don’t want to see Allura in any kind of romantic relationship at this point - she’s been asleep for 10,000 years only to wake up and realize her planet and her people and everything she knew is gone, give the woman some breathing space to grieve and deal (which she has not done, by the way, and I want to know if that’s going to be addressed or if the showrunners are just going to sort of let it slide and hope we’ll forget about it). I am not at all invested in a Shiro and Allura relationship, which I don’t think would work (too many cooks and not enough assistants, if you catch my meaning) and anyhow, Shiro’s my pick for being a LGBT+ character. 

I wasn’t disappointed by season 2, although it wasn’t quite what I had hoped for. The characters didn’t come along as far as I had hoped, which is a pity. Here’s hoping season 3 will go deeper into that. But that sexuality comment still confuses the fuck out of me, because, like I said, outside of Lance’s half-assed womanizing (which could certainly be read as the lady doth protest too much, I will grant you) there was nothing about sexuality at all, be it straight, gay or anything in between. So I think it must refer to season 3. It has to!