#actually been thinking so much about finn because i resent the idea that it's all so entirely sad... i think its more than that!

[localcoffeeshop]

okayy seeing finn mental health takes in the tag and reminded of something i wrote in a rush before work today which i will now edit...

I think my opinion on finn is that hes not doing exceptionally horribly or exceptionally well. obviously he has issues and is literally refusing to think about sad things and grief... and he keeps roping jake’s descendants in to be his partner on adventures because hes trying to relive that… but i also think like its not all like. “omg things are so bad, he's in such a bad spot right now oh my god" because finn has like. always been like this. using adventuring/fighting as a coping mechanism which isn’t really inherently wrong? there have been times where adventure has been genuinely helpful for him to get through something and reach self-actualization. not just hall of egress, but the dungeon train was a way of distracting himself from the break-up with FP, and while he had to learn to put a limit on it and chill instead of obsessing forever, he also decided to stay on for "a week or two" because it was helpful for him to process what he was going through by getting enthralled in adventure and knowing he could return to mundanity after. and then on the opposite side of things, there are times where actually getting carried away with his feelings and "working stuff out" has put him in danger and not led to the result he anticipated, like the tower. i don't think that where he's at in fionna and cake is a regression as much as a constant.

i think he has some good things going, but he also has some really sad things going where he’s trying really hard not to think about the sad stuff. so its like. i just think there's a balance, just like real life, like people who "keep living their lives" as BMO said in the finale. his life isn’t horrible and terrible and sad, and it isn’t wonderful love light and healing and growth either. like, he’s just Finn. exactly as Finn is. even though he wasn't magically cured of all his troubles, traumas, and problems in his coming-of-age story - in fact a lot of things definitely slid backwards as a result of losing jake - there were still valuable lessons he learned and carried with him that influence the person he is in fionna & cake. we know he stays a bit of an adventurer into his older years, but i also really believe that it's not just all running from the pain - there's always a feeling of grief and sadness in him, but that doesn't keep him from experiencing genuine joy and happiness, having good times and bad times, enjoying his life and struggling with it... being finn

[coraniaid]

OK, so, for context:

I don't like Agent Riley Finn, at all. He is one of my least favorite characters in Buffy, by quite some distance. I hated him even before the events of Season 5, and I only continued to hate him afterwards. I think the show would be significantly improved if his character had never been introduced. I think Whedon's idea that Buffy and Riley represent the show's one "happy and healthy relationship" is nonsensical.

I don't like As You Were. It's arguably Doug Petrie's worst episode (well, worst so far, anyway: let's not forgive him for his Season 7 episodes just yet).

I don't even really like Season 6 much (certainly not as much as so many people on Tumblr pretend to do). I think the concept of the season is very good but the execution is often decidedly lacking. It is not a season I often feel the urge to rewatch.

But, that being said, I'll confess it is somewhat bizarre to see so many people reblogging a post that says As You Were would have been improved if Riley showed up contrite and humble and openly ashamed of his [yes, unquestionably terrible and indefensible] actions in Season 5, or that the episode is one last attempt by the writers to force the audience to like him. To me, that is just ... obviously not true. I don't even see how it could be true.

As You Were is barely about Riley Finn at all. It's about Buffy. Specifically it's about what most of Season 6 is about: Buffy being miserable and depressed, struggling with bills and a soul-crushing mininum wage job, resenting her friends for having brought her back to life, romanticizing her past and (wrongly) convinced that she somehow 'came back wrong'. Riley is only in the episode to further that aim.

So, yes, the episode ignores all of Riley's [very real, very irritating, very hard to forgive] flaws and past failings and instead presents him as a dashing and attractive ex-boyfriend; as the perfect guy who somehow got away. Yes, it focuses on how much Buffy's own fortunes have declined since they broke up. Yes, Buffy is meant to find him attractive and be sad that he's married to somebody else already. Yes, the show deliberately sets up Riley as being competent and put together and high status while Buffy herself is none of these things. But this isn't because the writers are somehow trying to trick you into liking Riley (it would obviously be a very stupid and ineffective way to do that if it were! it demonstrably doesn't actually make anybody who didn't like Riley change their mind! why assume that it is trying to?). It is because this is how Buffy sees things herself.

The episode is about Buffy first, and Riley ..., not even third. He is a plot device. Just as in Season 3's Gingerbread (when Joyce is possessed and tries to burn Buffy at the stake as part of her campaign to cleanse Sunnydale of all things supernatural), or Helpless (when Giles puts his loyalty to the Council above Buffy's own safety and well-being), in As You Were Riley exists primarily to tell us something about Buffy. In Season 3, Buffy was afraid that being a Slayer would ruin her relationship with her mother and that Giles didn't really want to be the replacement father figure she clearly wanted him to be, and those episodes have her fears come true. Both Joyce and Giles act in pretty repellent (and arguably out-of-character) ways in their respective episodes, but those actions are justified in that they are consistent with Buffy's own view of the world. You could replace both of them with nightmare versions of their characters (like Hank Summers in Season 1's Nightmares) and both episodes would play out the same way (and have the same glaring lack of follow-up in later episodes).

So too in As You Were. The writers are probably more sympathetic to Riley than the average Tumblr user in 2024, but they don't particularly care if you like Riley or not. He's not been in the show for a year and after this he's never going to be in it again. This isn't about him. What is important is that Buffy herself misses Riley and her relationship with him: not necessarily because Riley was so great [again, he wasn't: Riley sucks] but because he's a part of her older life that she wishes she could go back to. A time when she had a 'normal' relationship and was still in college (and doing well academically!) and her mom was still alive and things seemed to be going well for her. Because she misses the version of Buffy that she used to be. (Who exactly are we supposed to think the 'you' of As You Were refers to? I don't think it's Agent Finn...)

Sure, I'd personally think better of Riley Finn as a person if he showed up looking sheepish and told Buffy he was sorry for how badly he behaved in Season 5 and he said he'd fund all her future bills and help her get back into college before dedicating the rest of his life to campaigning against both missionary work and US-backed (para)military actions in South and Central America. I'd think better of Joyce if she'd ignored the two demon kids only she could see and supported her real daughter better, too. Or of Giles if he hadn't ever gone along with the plan of hypnotizing and drugging a teenage girl he'd sworn to take care of and protect and who, less than a year earlier, he'd promised his unconditional "support and respect".

But Riley being a decent human being and making Buffy feel better about herself wouldn't make As You Were a "better" episode. It would make it a completely different episode, one that belonged in a completely different season. It would make it something that was utterly at odds, tonally and thematically, with the version of Season 6 that actually exists. This is not a season where nice things happen to Buffy, and if you think it should be I honestly don't think you like the story the season is trying to tell very much.

As You Were is not primarily "the episode where Riley comes back" (in which the writers then decided to talk about how great Riley was with the aim of making the fans like him while Buffy ends up feeling like shit and being embarrassed about how her own life is going as some sort of collateral damage). It is an episode where Buffy continues to feel like shit and be embarrased about how badly her life is going (and, in order to further Buffy's arc, this time Riley is there too to make her feel worse).

Do I think that it works to have Riley fill the role he does in this episode? Well, no, not really. Like I said at the top of this post, I don't like Riley and I don't enjoy seeing him on my television screen. Into The Woods' awful ending makes me pretty angry and it is a shame we never got any pushback on the idea that Buffy "letting Riley go" was a mistake. Riley wasn't ever the perfect boyfriend As You Were has Buffy remember him as. This isn't one of the better episodes of Season 6. But an improved version of the episode wouldn't have Riley act like a better person. That more palatable, more fan-friendly version of Riley just isn't compatible with the story the show is telling. An improved version of the episode that was still trying to tell the same fundamental story wouldn't have Riley Finn in it at all.

[thehollowwriter]

Summary: Ace does that thing where he correctly yells everything someone did wrong at them, except this time that someone is Finn and Ace is, in fact, incorrect (there may be some oocness I hope not)

(Pls reblog and leave a comment ❤

Hold Your Tongue

Ace Trappola was Finn Clearcove's favourite underclassman.

Not because he liked him, no that achievement belonged to Chrysos Pendentif, but because he was so ridiculously amusing.

Stubborn, brash and egotistical, he was prime entertainment no matter what he did.

It was fun to watch him behave with such confidence despite being an anenome, grinning or smirking as he waited tables or worked the bar like he'd been doing it all his life.

But behind that incredibly fragile facade cowered a frightened little human teetering on the edge of a complete breakdown.

There were moments where the mask cracked, where a customer would irritate him and his face would twist into a scowl. Moments where he froze up and trembled when he felt Finn's eyes on him. Moments when the twins leered over him and he looked to be seconds away from screaming.

Tonight was one of those times where Ace's facade was threatening to fracture.

It was a slow sleepy night. Customers filtered in and out, filling the air with a soft murmur of tired chatter and only occupying a few tables. It was always like this near the end of the term.

Ace was clearly annoyed at having to be here when it was so empty, probably wishing he was back at his dorm right now.

His face twitched, his large fake customer service smile fraying at the edges as he spoke to his table through tightly clenched teeth.

He was trying so hard to be respectful, poor thing. Finn almost hoped he would snap so he could drink in the chaos that was bound to follow. It would lift him from his bad mood.

Alas, Ace was well behaved for once, and Finn knew it was for a reason. The same reason as always.

When Ace's breaktime came around, Finn sighed, made himself a drink, crossed one leg over the other and waited.

Finn watched as Ace predictably made a beeline towards him with an intense look of determination, leaving Deuce and Grim behind to roll their eyes and watch as he plastered a smile to his face.

God, Finn was running low on patience today. He didn't have the energy to deal with Ace now.

Whenever Ace was on his best behaviour, it inevitably led to him drifting to Finn in some way or another and attempting use him as some sort of... mole? Traitor? Ally?

The boy seemed to be under the impression that Finn was harbouring some kind of hidden resentment towards Azul and the twins that was just waiting to be revealed.

He often implied that Finn was being taken advantage of, mentioning all those times he's been in Azul's office for example.

Every time, Finn had to fight the urge to say "Actually, I'm not working, I'm spending my time kissing Azul breathless" just to see the look of horror on Ace's face.

Ace also tried going out of his way to impress Finn and garner his favour by doing whatever he asked, much to the dismay of his friends.

Why Ace did this in spite of the scare the scare he had during their first encounter, Finn had no idea.

"Hello Finn-senpai!" He greeted cheerily. "How are you this evening?"

"Tired." Finn responded flatly.

"Aw that sucks." Said Ace, voice dripping with fake sympathy. "Y'know I always say you work too hard. Do you ever get a break, really? You're never not working."

Finn took a long sip of his drink and and bit back a laugh. "I appreciate your concern, but I do get my fair share of free time"

Ace's smiled tightened and his eyes twitched.

"Do you, though?" His voice was straining with frustration. "Every time I see you you're working, and every time I ask about you I'm told you're at your club or doing a practical or studying or whatever. Look, I know you've gotten used to being treated like garbage but-"

"Treated like garbage?" Finn questioned, surprised. That was a new way of putting it. "I don't think-"

"Oh for the Queen's sake-" Ace slammed his hands down on the table with a "thwack", causing Finn to jump back in surprise.

"Yes you're treated like garbage!" He shouted. "No free time, no chance to rest! You're just constantly working your ass off! You're always called to the VIP room, in fact you're called there more than any other staff member! And you stay in there for hours!"

"That greedy prick is stealing precious time from you! The twins are almost worse! They're always grabbing at you and pulling you around like a ragdoll! How do you not notice how physical they are with you? It's gross!"

Finn blinked at Ace and bit his lip to hold back a snort. This was that prime entertainment he was waiting for. Ace had some very funny thought patterns.

Yet, even as Finn was visibly half smiling, sipping his drink, and customers and staff alike were turning to stare, Ace continued.

"Your boss is a scummy asshole! He's just using you! You think you matter more to him just because you're not an anenome? You don't!"

Finn let go of the straw. A frown settled onto his face and his eyes narrowed. "Mister Trappola-"

"Damn it, can't you see? You're just letting him use you like he's using the rest of us! He's not kind or benevolent, Finn-senpai, he's a monster! A greedy, selfish monster!"

Any mirth Finn felt toward this little explosion made itself scarce and white hot anger flooded his veins like fiery lava.

"Mister Trappola-" He went to repeat, but Ace cut him off.

"It's the truth! You need to grow a spine, because the twins don't treat you any better! There's no equal ground, they're sickos who treat you like a chewtoy! They-"

Finn lunged forward and grabbed Ace by the throat, pulling him down hard so they were eye to eye, faces inches apart.

"Mister Trappola, I will warn you only once," Finn spoke even softer than usual, his voice quivering slightly. "If you don't shut your mouth I swear to the Sea Witch I will make you wish Azul punished you instead."

All the passion fuelling Ace's liveliness vanished in an instant, draining from his face until he was white as a sheet.

"I- I-"

"You should thank the stars right now we are on land an not below the surface, otherwise I would be tearing your tongue from your mouth." Finn dug his fingers into Ace's Adam's apple, wishing beyond anything he had his claws and not these useless short nails.

"I will not tolerate you insulting my-" The word 'boyfriends' lingered on the tip of his tongue. "-business partners and spewing nonsense about things you don't understand. Do you truly take me for a fool who does whatever Azul tells me to without demanding payment?"

Ace stammered and shook his head wildly, muttering apologies and mumbling some excuse or other.

Seven why couldn't he just bite his face? Why did land have so many rules against violence?

"Oi, the hell's going on here?"

If Ace went any paler, surely he would faint. In fact, he looked to be on the verge of doing so when he turned his head to see Floyd and Jade Leech standing side by side, staring at him.

"Is Crabby botherin' ya, Finn?"

Every single time Ace prodded at Finn for a favour, Floyd came over and asked this question. Every single time, Finn told him no and shooed him away. This time however, the shark slowly nodded

"Y-Yes. Yes he is."

"My my, how rude of you, Ace-san." Jade purred snatching the anenome on Ace's head and yanking it.

"Harassing our dear Finn and insulting us and Azul at the same time? I'll see to it that your dorm leader is informed and you are given a suitable punishment. Do you have anything in mind, Finn?"

Finn shook his head. What he had in mind would end poorly for them all.

"Alright, then. Azul shall decide." Jade pulled at the anenome again and Ace shrieked in pain, clawing at Jade's hand in a desperate attempt to get away as he was dragged to the VIP room.

Finn watched them go, his face bright red. Blood rushed I his ears, he panted heavily, his hands wouldn't stop shaking, his stomach churned.

People insulted his partners all the time. This sort of thought process wasn't anything new. Same old same old.

So why was he so angry?

Why did he feel so sick?

Finn's legs decided they didn't want to hold him up anymore and he collapsed against Floyd's side.

"Woah- shit, what's wrong?" Floyd grabbed him by the arms to steady him, his brow furrowed in concern. He watched as Finn opened and closed his mouth wordlessly, gripping Floyd's suit jacket tightly.

Floyd shifted his gaze to the door of the VIP room and a low growl rose from the back of his throat

"I'm gonna fucking kill him."

......................................

A/N: This was a short one, but I hope you all enjoyed Finn losing his temper a bit ehehe (and hopefully this wasn't too ooc).

Tagging: @distant-velleity @whspermy-name @the-banana-0verlord @officialdaydreamer00 @kitwasheree @cynthinesia @elysia-nsimp @twisted-wonderland-but-gayer @jovieinramshackle @casp1an-sea

NOTE: Chrysos belongs to @distant-velleity

[andreal831]

how do you think elijah would be if he have a Witch daughter, Who also Is esther's favorite granddaughter?

I'm loving all of the questions about Elijah as a father.

Anytime I picture Elijah with a child, it is always a little girl. I think he would be a great father to both, but I love the idea of him having a little girl who gets her attitude from her mother. Because we know she's going to have an attitude.

I like the idea of his daughter being a witch. But if he had a daughter while they were human, it obviously would have caused issues with Dahlia. For the sake of this answer, I'm going to pretend that's not an issue here.

Elijah's daughter likely would have been the first in her generation, therefore she would have been powerful and likely attracted Esther's attention. Elijah and Esther had a very strained relationship, almost nonexistent. He would have resented the doting attention Esther paid to his daughter and would have feared what the attention meant. Elijah would have tried to keep his daughter away from her as much as acceptable. I imagine he would have built a house away from his family, inviting his siblings to visit or even stay with him, but not his parents.

Even if Esther had a genuine love for his daughter, Elijah wouldn't trust it. He would worry that Esther was using his daughter for her magic and attempt to protect her. This would cause a rift in the family. Rebekah would grow angry at Elijah because she was always close to Esther, although they would reconcile. Finn would hate the girl for taking away Esther's attention and resent her for having magic when he didn't. Kol would teach the little girl all of the magic Esther refused to. This would actually bring Kol and Elijah together as Kol would understand Elijah's resistance to leaving his daughter alone with Esther. And Klaus would be Elijah's daughter's biggest bodyguard. He would be the one to understand it the most and understand the need to protect her in a way no one protected them. I also imagine Henrik being closer in age to the little girl than his older siblings, so he would bond with her and have a close relationship.

Elijah's daughter would be well-behaved with an attitude that she got from her mother. They would gang up on Elijah all of the time and he would pretend to be annoyed but he secretly loved watching them work together. He would love to watch her grow as a witch but feel helpless that he couldn't help her in that aspect. If it was during their human life, he would lean on Kol. If it was during their vampire life (somehow) he would lean on Freya. But he would struggle to delegate his parenting.

He would also clash with his siblings and anyone else who tried to step in on his parenting, but would ultimately need it with a teenager. He was a mildly behaved teenager and wouldn't know how to deal with the rebellious and impertinent daughter that he would inevitably have. I like to imagine if they were living in the 'Viking' time, she would make Elijah tell her all about the Valkyries. She would have learned to wield a sword, but Elijah wouldn't have wanted her to go off to battle for fear that she would be injured or die.

They would fight about everything, but his daughter would teach him to grow. He would at first be scared of her magic. He had never seen a first generation witch of their line. But he would be mesmerized by her power and proud of her for how she wields it. He would learn to trust her to take care of herself but always fret over her no matter how old she got.

I can't see Elijah only having one child, but I do think the bond he had with his first child would be special. He would love all of his children, dote on them, and he wouldn't play favorites like his parents did. But he and his first child would just understand each other better.

He would have been a great father, understanding and compassionate but also set boundaries and expectations. I would have loved to see it play out.

[codecicle]

OKAY so, first of all, this would be set during empire times. Chip is still a pirate ofc (or a smuggler, more likely i think but idk). Jay would of course be coming from an imperial family (Empire = Navy). Gillion would be a jedi/force sensitive, and his backstory is the one you have to sort of smooth out the most to make it fit.

My idea is that he was a Padawan when order 66 happened (Finn would be his master rather than biological grandfather i think), he escapes and goes back to his home planet to hide, which is where The Elders (tm) would hear that he was one of the last living jedi and basically give him his "chosen one" status because of that. But then, he accidentally does something to reveal his position to the Empire and endanger his homeworld and his people, causing him to be banished. Actually come to think of it, if we really want this to align with Riptide canon we could say that his planet was a neutral one and Jayson had come to try to get them to join the empire, and the Elders were like, actually considering it. He attacks Jayson (just like in canon) and gets exiled. Chip and Jay(I'll get to them in just a second) find him out in space with his distress beacon on, as something had happened to his ship.

Jay's backstory would be pretty much the same. Her family has always been pretty powerful, even before the imperial ties. I'm thinking that her dad's side of the family would maybe be royalty of some sort of some smaller middle-rim planet or system. Maybe not even royalty, just had a history of important government officials in the family, and pretty old money, yknow? And then the empire comes along and they join it and they all become important imperial folks, with Jayson (and Drey) becoming Commanders and shit (I dont remember the terminology super well, just people who ordered imperial troops and stuff), rather than government officials. I'm thinking Grandma Ferin would sort of be both. Drey wouldn't have been a super high ranking officer though before he defected--he was never as ambitious as his brother, not for power. And then Ava, still a higher-up in this au, gets killed by rebels/non-imperials, and Jay does the same thing she does in Riptide and sets out to find out what happened to her.

I'll write up chip's backstory in a second ask in just a sec I have to read something for school that i forgot about L

Gillion as a padawan when order 66 happened and becoming the chosen one because the elders think it was destiny for him to have survived,,,, dude your fucking VISIONS oh my god. cannot even BEGIN to imagine the guilt he must live with daily that he was the one to survive and yet he still fails over and over again,,,,,, AND JAY WITH THE IMPERIAL TIES GOING UNDERCOVER THROUGH THAT ohhh my god. her family needing to be loyal to the empire because of their old money or government status and her being full of that same resentment and hatred until she meets the rebels and jedi she was taught to hate and ends up adventuring with them.. jelly-jam my DUDEEE im so absolutely insane about this

[hopefulobjectmiracle]

A quick analysis of the puppy scene in 3x15, because my OTP is perfect.

This is honestly just a whole lot of gushing and flailing, tbh. Because Kurt and Blaine and their relationship are wonderful and I love them so, so much. So much so that I can write paragraphs on a scene that is barely one minute long. 

This somehow ended up being much longer than I intended, oops. Hope you enjoy it :)

We start off this scene with Blaine alone at his locker, presumably putting away his belongings from his last class, and you can still see Kurt’s ‘Gay-diddy-gay-gay-gay’ class council election poster on the inside of Blaine’s locker, even months after Kurt lost the election. But Blaine still keeps it up, because he loves Kurt, and if he had it his way, Kurt would win everything. Awww. He appears to be deep in thought, and when Kurt hides behind Blaine’s locker, speaking in the world’s most adorably terrible British accent, it startles Blaine for a second.

And man, does that make me sad. This is a kid that has been bullied, undoubtedly shoved into lockers and pushed here and there just like Kurt was. He hears an unfamiliar voice and immediately flinches back in fear, expecting the worst. 

But it isn’t the worst - it’s the best. Because it’s Kurt, the person Blaine loves more than anything, hiding behind the locker, and it’s Kurt speaking in that cute-ass accent holding a stuffed puppy in front of his face. 

(Side note - I once read that Chris Colfer improvised the dialogue and accent of this scene, as well as coming up with the name for the puppy, which totally checks out since Chris is a huge Anglophile.)

And as soon as Blaine recognizes his boyfriend, his face breaks out into the sunniest smile, and he does his signature “Kurt-made-me-laugh” move, the blushy head-duck (see here for reference). 

Kurt also looks similarly delighted to see Blaine, because Blaine is lovely and Kurt loves him so, so much, and because he’s also excited to show Blaine the gift he got him and help Blaine out with his problems. Kurt really loves Blaine, y’all. He looks so damn proud of the stuffed animal he got for him and equally proud of his own ability to make Blaine laugh with his clever puns. 

Kurt goes on to explain that Finn won the stuffed puppy while out at the amusement park for Senior Skip Day, along with thirteen others for Rachel, and as soon as he says this, Blaine nods along as if to say - oh, of course, that Rachel - because Blaine is considerate as hell and knows his friends very well. And in honest-to-god Kurt fashion, bb stole the puppy from his brother, because Kurt is the definition of Be Gay, Do Crime, and he also recognizes that Rachel does not need 14 different stuffed animals. 

He pouts a little right then, telling Blaine that he wanted to give it to him so that Blaine would have something, since Kurt wasn’t able to convince Blaine to go with them on the field trip. I wonder how that conversation went. 

Also, pouty Kurt is fucking adorable. Protect him at all costs.

Blaine is melancholy again, telling Kurt that he would have just brought the mood down for the group. And when Blaine says this? Kurt stops beating around the bush and gets straight to the point. 

Sweetly stroking the stuffed puppy, Kurt tells Blaine that he understands him. That he gets that family problems are hard, because they’re hard for him too. He uses himself as an example to try and get his point across to Blaine more effectively, and mentions that he and Finn disagree on nearly everything, but at the end of the day, they love one another and are always there for one another despite their differences. 

I’m also getting so many brotherly Furt feelings from Kurt referring to Finn as “the big lug” and talking about how much he loves him. Ugh. I also cry at the line where Kurt tells Blaine that he only has one brother and shouldn’t give up on that, given what happens to Finn. I wish we’d gotten more of that relationship in canon before Cory’s untimely passing, because they clearly had so much love for one another, both on-screen and off.

Anyway, Kurt sees the love he has with his brother and wants Blaine to be able to experience the same thing, because he loves Blaine so, so much and he thinks that Blaine deserves everything great in this world. He also brings back the cute-ass accent, and upon seeing Blaine look upset, bumps Margaret Thatcher Dog against Blaine’s cheek to get him to smile again - which Blaine absolutely does; his face is bright and sunny again because of Kurt’s silliness. Awww. 

Kurt tells Blaine never to give up, and Blaine indignantly responds that Cooper is the one who is leaving for a big audition. Kurt pauses, and tells Blaine that Cooper hasn’t actually left him yet. He says that Cooper is waiting in the auditorium, hoping that Blaine will come and talk to him and make things right. This line very strongly implies that Kurt and Cooper coordinated this, and that Kurt made an effort of talking to Cooper to try and arrange a meeting with Blaine - because in a matter of mere days, Kurt was able to glean how important their relationship was to Blaine and wanted to do everything he could to fix it. Give him all the boyfriend awards, folks.

I’m kidding. Please don’t start the Better Boyfriend Olympics again, lol.

Blaine huffs out that talking doesn’t actually work with Cooper, and that he’s tried it to no avail. And Kurt just nods knowingly, as if he was aware that Blaine would say that. And though it isn’t explicitly mentioned, I bet he did know. He then goes on to say that perhaps talking isn’t the best answer for Blaine. Maybe there’s something else, a better method of communicating his feelings that would work more for Blaine. 

Okay. You know what this reminds me of? Flash back a year, to Silly Love Songs. This is (perhaps unintentionally) a direct callback to 2x12. Back when Blaine was still crushing on someone who is not Kurt, he said this to the Warblers about his idea to serenade Jeremiah. 

Blaine (2011): I'm not really good at talking about my feelings. I'm much better at singing them.

And here are Kurt’s words, from more than a year later. 

Kurt (2012): Maybe talking is not the answer. Maybe you need to show him how you really feel in the best, most honest way you know how. 

Can I just stop right here and squeal a little bit? Because Kurt knows his boyfriend so, so well. He remembers the things that Blaine tells him, even things from over a year ago. He holds onto this key piece of information about Blaine, because Blaine is important to him and the things he tells Kurt are worth remembering. And here, in this scene, he puts his memory to good use to try and remind Blaine of his most effective and heartfelt form of communication so that he can help Blaine mend fences with his brother. 

GIVE HIM THE BOYFRIEND AWARDS, FOLKS!

Kurt is so, supportive of Blaine and just wants the best for him, and it just boggles my mind when people claim that Kurt didn’t love Blaine as much as Blaine loved him, because from even short simple scenes like this one, anyone can tell that it isn’t true. 

After listening to Kurt, Blaine stops, and for the first time, genuinely considers it. Prior to this, all of Cooper’s attempts at talking couldn’t get through to him. Blaine still felt the jealousy and resentment from all those years growing up. But after hearing Kurt’s advice, he puts that aside and realizes that some things, like family, are more important, and so he makes that decision to go see his brother and try and express his feelings in a different way. 

Blaine turns to go meet Cooper, and Kurt watches him go, looking so damn proud of his boyfriend and so, so hopeful...

Y’all know what happens next. Blaine and Cooper, a pair of brothers, sing a breakup song. Yet somehow, it works. Singing manages to communicate all of those emotions that were suppressed before, and opens the doors for real conversation between the two of them. They do successfully patch things up, with Cooper finally recognizing Blaine’s talent and Blaine trying to support Cooper in future endeavors. They are on a path to a close relationship, which is all both of them had ever really wanted in the first place. 

And if not for Kurt’s advice, this may not have happened. Y’all heard that right - Kurt Hummel helped Blaine patch things up with a member of his family because he knew how important it was to Blaine, and he knew how badly Blaine wanted this even if Blaine didn’t let it show. From all the bits and pieces of information we’ve gathered over the years about Blaine’s family, they don’t appear to be all that close, which is why it’s even more important for Blaine that he is able to reconcile with his brother.

(For more of my thoughts on Blaine’s family, feel free to check out this analysis of mine. Yeah, this is a shameless self promo. Deal with it.)

So...what was the point of this analysis? I’m not quite sure. I suppose I just had a lot of feelings about Blaine, Klaine, family, and the way that Kurt shows love. Like I’ve said millions of times, just because Kurt is more subtle in the way that he shows love to Blaine, doesn’t mean that it’s any less powerful. Scenes like this, in which he handpicks Blaine’s own words and uses them to push Blaine towards something he was too afraid to admit he really wanted? Kurt helping reconcile Blaine with his family? This is Klaine at its best, and scenes like this are why I will always, always ship this couple. 

Kurt and Blaine are incredible, y’all. 

Peace. 

[spaceorphan18]

I read with interest your view and that of @hopefulobjectmiracle about tumblr Klaine fandom. Is there more shipping these days than 2010-15? I ask because there seems to be a smaller group that only ship Kurt with Blaine but there seems to be a huge rise in Kurtbastian and Hevans shippers. Likewise, there’s many more pezberry or faberry shippers. And a lot more of those shippers trying to discredit Blaine or Brittany as OTP for Kurt and Santana. There seems to be new younger people joining Tumblr declaring a love for all things Klaine, and then a week later shipping Kurt with everybody else!! Has there been a change since the show aired?

Hi Nonny! :)

Hmmm.... There's not really a clear answer to this because the way shipping evolved is different than people just finding things now.

There are kind of two different things going on here -- Kurt related shipping and non-Kurt (blaine/klaine) shipping. I can't tell you much about non related Kurt things -- however, I will say that Faberry was HUGE when the show was on. It's a subsection of the fandom I never interacted with but it was around in season 1, and loud enough that the show makes nod to it from season 2 forward. Brittana was always around, too, and the reason Brittana became a thing on the show was, partly, due to fans crying out that they should be a couple -- and more than the throwaway joke the writers made in the first season.

I don't know what happened to those ships over time, or how the evolved since the show ended -- I'm sorry :/

But now, I will tell you the epic history of Kurt shipping. (Again. i should really dig out my old notes on this, lol)

Here we go long post...

I found it! I'm going to quote myself so I don't have to write it out again, lol. This was originally from an ask about the BBO (Better Boyfriend Olympics), but it'll work here, too.

Okay, so let’s go back to 2010 when there wasn’t a Klaine fandom, there was a Kurt fandom.  A lot of the BBO stemmed out of the Kurt’s Boyfriend Shipping wars of 2010.

Back then, there was just a Kurt fandom, and a lot of opinions about who he should date.  Believe it or not, Kurt was shipped a lot with the other guys on the show, there was a healthy dose of Kurt/Finn, but Kurt/Puck was huge, and there was a smattering of Kurt/Mike (I never really did see much Kurt/Artie now that I think of it, which is kind of funny in retrospect, but I’m sure it’s out there.)  Anyway - when the show announced Kurt was getting a boyfriend – well, things began to get heated up.

Three big ships emerged

Kurt/Sam - because the rumor was that Sam was originally supposed to be Kurt’s bf (probably not, but that rumor was big at the time).  Btw, they were the canoe ship (I have no idea why) and was also known as Kum (rolls-eyes).  This ship’s fanbase was so huge and lasted so long, that the show felt the need to address it head on in Season Two’s Rumours (not a joke).

Kurt/Karofsky - Also known as Kurtofsky, they were also called themselves the Pirate ship (god, Idk why, shipping wars are weird, yo).  These people were also really passionate, mostly about Dave, but liked the whole idea that Kurt would save Dave and they would have this weird - enemies to loves love affair or something.  I don’t know, I could never get past the squicky assault aspect, but whatever.

Kurt/Blaine - which. at the time, was… the biggest possibility? It’s funny cause the other two ships were just as big as the Klaine ship, and really the fighting became over who was going to be the best option for Kurt.

And that’s the thing.  Fans of Kurt were so passionate about who was best for Kurt, because everyone had seen him go through hell and back on the show, so his boyfriend needed to be perfect for him.  And you know who was perfect (at first) – Blaine.  More on that in a second…

However, Blaine brought his own bit of baggage – namely fans of Darren Criss (and/or Starkid fans).  Unlike Chord Overstreet or Max Adler, people knew who Darren was before he was on Glee.  So his own fandom joined in on the Klaine of it all.  At first it was all fine – as the shipping wars continued, it was less about Kurt vs Blaine and more about Klaine vs the other shippers.  Well, that was going to change….

Original Song happened and Kurt and Blaine got together ending the question of who would ultimately be Kurt’s boyfriend.  And things were nice and cozy headed into season 3.  You’d think the Kurt/Sam and Kurt/Karofsky ships would die out, but not really, they stuck around for a long time, and kinda morphed into something else.

See, The First Time happened.  And for the first time Blaine wasn’t the perfect prince that he was in season 2 – he had more of a developed personality, and more flaws.  And… some people didn’t like it.  (Also added to the mix was Sebastian – and the Seblaine and Kurtbastian ships were born, but those kinda go off on their own thing and I’m not really going to bring them up much here.)  Anyway, what really got fandom split was Dance With Somebody.

You had two sides of an argument, people who saw Kurt’s POV and people who saw Blaine’s POV – and guess what happened.  The two sides began to fight with each other over who was “right” in the argument.  (My god…) And thus started what fandom started referring to as The Better Boyfriend Olympics.

See - for reasons I don’t fully understand - instead of seeing that each of the boys have a fault and each were wrong in the episode, each side wanted to say that their side, and their POV was the correct way – that one boyfriend was more oppressed and the other was not as good a partner.

On the Kurt side, though, you had a lot of the old Kurt fans and ships who didn’t like Blaine (and/or didn’t want Blaine as his partner) so they vehemently decided that unless Blaine was the perfect boyfriend again, he didn’t deserve to be with Kurt.  Meanwhile, you had the Blaine fans, many of them Darren fans who wanted Blaine to have more depth to him than just being Kurt’s boyfriend, and not being Kurt fans first (or originally) they were going to push back at the Kurt fans who were lashing out at Blaine.

Compounding this was the fact that during season 3, there were so many cast members and characters that unless you were Finchel, you were begging for scraps and your featured episode to come along.  Meanwhile - Kurt got a ton of screen time, but didn’t sing much, while Blaine sang a lot more, but didn’t get much story.  The Kurt fans resented that Blaine was always singing.  The Blaine fans were annoyed that the Kurt fans resented it, and tried to remind the Kurt fans that Blaine barely got any development.

Either way, a war had begun.  And then The Break Up happened.

Now Kurt fans had a specific reason to point at – Blaine being a terrible boyfriend.  He cheated.  He’s terrible.  The end.

The fandom was not firmly split into sides - you were either a Kurt fan - a lot of them who HATED Blaine - partly because he was getting more attention at the time, partly cause he did sing more, partly because they were made up of Kurt ships that didn’t work out, and partly cause they saw so much of themselves in Kurt that they projected onto him their own feelings, and loving Blaine was not a part of that projection.  Or you were a Blaine fan - who spent a lot of time defending Blaine to the point of exhaustion, and became so resentful of Kurt that they wished Blaine could be with anyone else because Kurt (fans) didn’t understand Blaine and should just stop trying.

Weren’t there any Klainers you ask? Ha, well…. Klainers, people actually liked Kurt AND Blaine were stereotyped into two categories.  Category A) the really really loud fanbase (usually on Twitter) that harassed the creators, RM, Chris, Darren, various crew about Klaine every second that they got – to the point that it started to feel embarrassing (that’s probably my own projection).   Category B) People who thought (think) that Chris and Darren were (are) in a secret relationship.  (Spoiler alert they aren’t, never have been, and never will be.)  The two of these categories overlapped A LOT, and many of the fans of one boy or the other just disassociated completely.

You could still be a fan of the Klaine relationship, but you had a preference to which boy you were actually a fan of – you couldn’t like both, or else you were a Klainer, and that was not cool.  (I spent a long time NOT identifying as anything, and trying to make sure everything I did and said was equal – a) cause I was new to fandom and b) cause I hated that either one or the other of these characters were villainized so frequently.)

Anyway - Season 4 continued.  Adam showed up, and Kurt fans got all excited, but the problem was that a lot of them saw him as the perfect boyfriend again – not a real character but a prop that could make Kurt look good and be everything for Kurt.  Look, I liked Adam, I did, but he was underdeveloped, and this weird idea that your boyfriend needs to be perfect in order to be a functioning relationship is just unrealistic.  I digress.  Meanwhile, we didn’t get a lot of Kurt POV, which didn’t help things, and meant even more projection over his character.

Meanwhile, the Blaine fans had formed their own community, which became viciously defensive of him.  I think the whole fandom was toxic during this time for a lot of reasons, and I really wanted to quit it.  Many people did – the show wasn’t being fun anymore.

Season 5 came along, the boys got back together, tempers simmered, but the whole idea of the Better Boyfriend Olympics came back every time a conflict happened.  Arguments about who was the better boyfriend ensued, gatekeeping as to why their pick was best and why your opinion sucked still ran through the fandom.  Not helping was the fact that Cory had died, and the creators, actors, and crew – as well as media – was tired of Glee.

The one nice thing, though was that a lot of the old crowd had moved on by then, and there was an influx of newer people coming in during season 5 (and season 6) – they weren’t here for the season 3 droughts and season 4 wars, and brought in a newer and fresher perspective.

But still - we had the end of season 5 and the summer of spoilers and season 6 to get through.  At this point, the Kurt and Blaine camps had moved to their parts of the internet and really not speaking much to each other if they could help it.  When an argument happened on the show, the same kind of Better Boyfriend Olympics came up again – one boyfriend was worse than the other, and unless they changed xyz they were not good enough for the other.  But at this point, it was incredibly tiring.  I know that I was just ready for the show to be done with.

I should say, as an aside, not helping things were the rise of some rather vocal BNF-ish fans, who dug their heels in about their own opinions.  The refusal to even acknowledge that one side or the other might be right, or have valid points was not helping anything.  A lot of people on both sides refused to even listen to the points on the other side – and instead of being frustrated at the show, the creators, or whatever, they took it against each other, which wasn’t fun to watch either.

Season 6 happened - Blainofsky happened, and that killed enthusiasm for the season on both sides, most people just kind of wanted it to be over.  And then the ending came quickly, and I think a lot of people who were just plain unhappy about everything left for good.

The Better Boyfriend Olympics, or this weird competition that always pitted the boys and their fandoms against each other in the name of one being better than the other, leveled off after this.  I won’t give myself /that/ much credit - but one reason I created @todaydreambelievers was to give fans of both Kurt and Blaine a safe place where we could enjoy and discuss both boys without the BBO rearing its head.  And you know what – it did mend a few hearts.

For the most part, it’s been pretty quiet since.  Fandom is quieter, but I think the people who have come into it after the show has ended are a lot less judgmental and argumentative.  (I suppose it helps if you know how the story is going to end.)  And the cool thing, for me, is finding a group of people who enjoy Kurt and Blaine equally (or respectfully) – and reclaiming the name Klainer as a good thing.

I’ll end by saying this – it’s been relatively peaceful, even with the influx of new people throughout the years, but I have been seeing shades of BBO pop up again.  Look, you don’t have to like Klaine to be a fan of one or the other of them.  But there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world, a lot of things to be angry and get indignant about.  How a fictional couple was written ten years ago is not one of them.  Be respectful of people, and know that maybe the side you understand better isn’t the only side worth listening to.  ;)

////////////////////

So, I suppose that's part 1 of this full picture. Onto Part 2.

Here's the thing -- I've stayed, mostly, in my little tumblr buble over the past five years -- blissfully unaware that I suppose things were going on around me. Except... they really weren't. Until the pandemic happened, and Glee went to Netflix internationally, and a whole bunch of young kids grew up and started watching the show.

By the time I ended TDB in 2019, there weren't many of us left. I knew there was our small, dedicated group of fans. The tinhatters (the group who thought Chris and Darren were in some kind of relationship. spoiler alert -- they're not). And I know the Kurtbastian fans have been kicking around for a while. But no one was around in huge numbers.

And then boom - pandemic, and I'm shocked (not in a bad way) that this show has already seen a resurgence. The weirdest part, for me, is the fact that not only is history repeating itself -- seriously, people are bringing up old conflicts that have been dead for ages, and old shipping wars I never thought I'd see again -- but I think this new group's relationship with the show is much different.

I think that Kurt is a character whom a lot of people can still identify with. And because he's on his own in the first season, it's still easy to project yourself onto him. And then shipping goes from there. Blaine went from being the exciting option, omg are they really gonna do Klaine?? to -- hey Klaine is the boring canon choice, we can choose who we want for Kurt.

Layer over that years of Blaine hate still circling the interwebs. The echo chamber that Twitter and Tiktok create. And the fact that neither Chris or Darren seem to have the army of fans they once did (well -- Darren does, but they don't really watch Glee anymore). And you get this varied landscape of shipping.

No, some days it doesn't feel that different from the BBO days. The fact that I still get asks about Blaine and TFT car scene or Tested makes me feel like I'm back in 2013. Other times I'm perplexed by resurgences -- such as Kurtbasitan and Kurt/Sam. (Please don't bring back Kurtofsky guys)

But there's a saying -- Same Shit, Different Day.

I think there is an entirely different group of people than the original people watching, and their reasoning for shipping whatever is much different. But they've certainly come to a lot of the same conclusions that brought about the shipping wars in the early days.

At the end of the day - I think Kurt will always been a fandom mattress. But ship what you like and be nice to everyone else. There's enough hate in the world -- no need to dump on people's escapism.

[jadeyarts]

Do you have any thoughts on Tiffany becoming Finn and Jake’s brother? Cause I know you ship Tiffinny

i typed up a huge thing but tumblr's new body section kind of sucks ass and deleted half of my post so i have to retype everything and it's not gonna sound as smart cuz im fucking tired so bare with me - also obviously spoilers for "together again" from adventure time: distant lands

thaaaat's the thing i was conflicted about.

see, on one hand it makes perfect sense that margaret and joshua would look at tiffany and want to take him in. and it makes perfect sense that tiffany would be receptive to this and want to be taken in by them. and in terms of wrapping up character arcs, tiffany needed a positive influence to steer him in the right direction after spending most of his appearances being fixated on bad influences and wanting to do the right thing but getting swept up in the wrong crowds and in a setting that explores the after life then there would be no one better than margaret and joshua. to help wrap up tiffany's arc for those who are invested in him, and for how they had chosen to utilize his character for the special, this was the best way to end it with the hope of him being able to improve.

but on the other hand A.) tiffany is a grown ass (albeit also dead ass) man by the time he meets margaret and joshua so its not like he really needs to be adopted (although i'm not really opposed to adults being adopted when theyre orphans who absolutely need those kinds of positive familial relationships in their life) but B.) i think it's conceptually weird for tiffany to be adopted by finn and jake's parents. not because of finn, but because of jake ... and the contextual history of tiffany's presence in adventure time as a series.

1. because tiffany was intentionally designed with an androgynous silhouette and a typically female name so that he could be conceivably presented as someone that jake could conceivably leave lady rainicorn, his girlfriend, for. and this is in fact a plot point, because she is intentionally lead to believe that this is a possibility. tiffany was introduced with the intention of making jake's girlfriend romantically jealous. tiffany never had a shot because he's the same age as jake's little brother, and that's intentional on his part too. but he's still someone introduced in a romantic context in relation to jake.

2. it's almost immediately established that while jake isn't really interested in tiffany and doesn't seem to actually care that much about him... like... at all... tiffany's attachment to jake is more comparable to finn's attachment to princess bubblegum early into the series - one sided infatuation - than comparable to finn's completely platonic brotherly attachment to jake. tiffany resented finn because he had no idea finn was jake's little brother. he did not understand their actual dynamic and was jealous of it.

3. also jake explicitly states he had a crush on the character widely believed to be (and conceptually considered as possibly being,) tiffany's biological dad. which is, idk, not problematic or anything i just don't think people usually crush on the bio parents of those who are or would become their adoptive siblings??? so its just weird to me

but also, 4. finn blushing at seeing tiffany again in the deadworlds, an action he really only ever did in the original series when confronted by characters he was attracted to. that he does in together again. which introduced the plot point of margaret and joshua adopting tiffany. maybe it's just me but actively putting that in and then in the same special going, "oh, they're going to be brothers now!" is... kind of a really weird decision, idk.

also imho i think actually considering finn and tiffany brothers is kind of a stretch because of the context... like, they both lived to adulthood - finn dying at approximately 80 or so years old - without ever having been raised together or considering each other brothers, ever. they had never spent a single moment as siblings, in life or in death. margaret, joshua, finn and tiffany had all died as adults who lived full lives... and tiffany never knew margaret and joshua at any point in any of their lives, and finn is the only one listed who had been actually raised by them.

so their lives had to end - as adults - for them to be thrown into a scenario where they could even theoretically be called brothers, and i don't think they really could be called brothers contextually because even ignoring the life they had before death, there would never be any time for them to actually live in the reality of being adopted by the same couple, or to get used to the idea, or to even begin considering each other brothers - because finn immediately decides to reincarnate. finn ceases to exist as he was known by all those who loved him, and all ties to that life are severed. possibly penny or shermy exist, now. but finn ... finn's just a memory.

but largely, it don't matter. none of dis matters. they're not real and my identity is not dependent on a fictional relationship going the way i wanted it to or how i thought it would, whether the writers shared my opinions or mindset regarding writing fictional characters we're all invested in or not. while i am still conflicted about the plot point for the reasons given, it doesn't really ruin my enjoyment of the special or feel it is any lesser as a finale.

[travllingbunny]

The 100 season 7: wasted potential

Here’s a (probably incomplete) list of setups/plot devices in S7 that got me excited at the time and could've made for some amazing final season storylines, but were completely wasted because @the100writers are hacks and didn't give a damn about making a decent final season:

characters on different planets: remember when JRoth bullsh1itted in interviews when S7 started, saying that the Blake siblings would be looking for each other across the universe, and that Clarke would be "going to the end of the universe to get people she loves back"?  Wouldn't it be great if that's what S7 was actually about? If it served to show how strong the bonds between these people are and how space and time can't break them? If there were big emotional Blake siblings scenes? If Clarke was the one who saved Bellamy this time?

memory loss: so, they only introduced that plot device to explain Octavia's amnesia in S6. I thought they'd surely exploit it further. I thought Etherea would be the closest to the black hole and slower than even Sanctum/Earth. Imagine Bellamy losing all his memories... That would be a much more convincing and less insulting way to make him a Disciple, without regressing/ignoring his character development, if he had no memory of his past life and they convinced him he had always been a Disciple, who just happened to lose his helmet.  Sure, it's basically the plot of Captain Marvel - but JRoth keeps stealing ideas from other SciFi and fantasy shows and movies, so why not steal that one and use it well! Then Clarke and others could go to Etherea to save him and she'd have to convince him of who he really is. And that would be an amnesia story easy to reverse as he'd get his memories back when he went back with them.

Bellamy's kidnapping/fake death: imagine if S7 had actually been following up on seasons 1-6 and honoring its male lead, and was about how much he meant to everyone. Make the search for Bellamy a really big part of the final season. Have everyone try to save him this time, instead of making everyone believe he's dead (even though his fake death was so unconvincing - did they think the grenade vaporized him?!) so you can get rid of that plot. An in-character Clarke, for one, wouldn't have believed it just like that. It's in her nature to hope and fight - remember her at the start of S2 when she was the only one of the 48 refusing to believe Finn and Bellamy were dead? Or when she called Bellamy every day for 6 years?

red sun toxin/eclipse - They actually brought back that plot device from S6, but this time, instead of using it to have characters voice their repressed emotions, resentments, fears, they only did that with Gabriel (to bring back Josie in a way) and the others were just running away from insects?!

time dilation - They forgot about it in 7b. It would've been a great plot device to use in the final episodes. Imagine they gave characters (let's say, Clarke and Bellamy, if this season was following up on 1-6) an opportunity to live Marper-like years of happiness on Skyring, in what would be a few minutes on Sanctum or Earth or whatever, before returning and then sacrificing themselves heroically in an epic death scene in the finale, if you want them to die in the finale.

Agents of SHIELD actually did something like that last one. It also had previously used the "characters looking for each other / saving each across the universe" in such a great way. Why couldn't The 100 writers do the same? 

I'm realizing how much I liked the S7 I expected to see instead of what we got.

[kurts-still-here]

They’ll Never See Me Cry Kurtbastian FanFiction Chapter 6/7: Panic Attack

Archive Of Our Own

FanFiction.Net

Please leave any questions, comments or feedback on here or on A03 or FanFiction.Net and hope you enjoy!! :)

Blaine and Sam

Blaine and Sam were walking down the hallway, hand in hand, happily in love. In Santana’s words it was sickening to watch but they didn’t care, they were happy with each other. They had never been so in love with anyone before and they were happy with their power couple status at McKinley. No more bullying, no more slushies, no more slurs, ever since they had gotten together no one had dared to mess with them or anyone else in the glee club. Except for Kurt.

They didn’t know why everyone was still picking on him because it couldn't be because he was gay. They were gay, Santana was a lesbian and Brittany was bisexual so it couldn’t be because of homophobia. And they would try and find out more about what was going on with Kurt because he had been acting strangely for a while now but they didn’t really care enough to ask him. He was distant and snappy with everyone lately and they were too busy being happy with their own life to have Kurt bring them down.

When Sam had first transferred to McKinley he had fallen for Kurt and he was pretty sure that Kurt had fallen for him too. At the time he wasn’t too sure about his sexuality and he thought that maybe it would be a good idea for him to explore dating since he had never met anyone gay before. So he went out with Kurt a few times but he didn’t like it and he could tell that Kurt didn’t either. He knew that Kurt had nothing against him and therefore he had nothing against Kurt so they had stayed friends (if you could really say that) but there was something… off with him. Kurt never smiled or laughed, Sam didn’t even know what he sounded like when he was happy. He rarely ever spoke and when he did, you could tell he didn’t want to talk or be a part of the conversation. He was like a ghost, miserable and see-through. He didn’t show his emotions which was why it was so hard to figure out what Kurt liked and how he felt about certain things (out of the 6 dates they went on all he learned about Kurt was that his mom had died when he was 6 of cancer and that he liked to design clothes). But you could still tell that he was sad. And since he never talked or deliberately showed how he felt, no one knew what to do.

The same thing went for Blaine. Kurt had transferred to Dalton and Blaine had instantly fallen in love with him. Kurt wasn’t the first gay person that he had met but Blaine knew he wanted Kurt to be his first boyfriend. But it was so hard to talk to him and to get him to open up. It seemed like Kurt was just there to get his school work done and to stay out of everyone’s way. The only reason Kurt had met him was because they shared the same dorm room with Nick and Jeff and there was no way that they could avoid each other. And he knew not to take it personally when Kurt was short with him or when Kurt ignored him because he knew that Kurt was an introvert and that he didn’t like talking to people but that didn’t mean that he didn’t try to get Kurt to talk to him. And he had succeeded eventually because Kurt had eventually agreed to go out with him after Blaine had stopped being subtle and had outright asked him but it didn’t last long.

They were too different. Blaine was bubbly and outgoing and Kurt was calm and dull. Blaine was affectionate and showed his emotions while Kurt seemed to hate being touched and kept his facial expression cold and emotionless. Blaine figured that he liked the way Kurt looked more than he liked his personality and therefore after a total of 9 dates which was more than Sam could say, Blaine broke up with him. And it hurt Blaine that Kurt didn’t even seem to care. Blaine had come to him, pouring out all his feelings and emotions about how he felt about Kurt and then Kurt just looked up to him and said okay. Blankly, no hint of sadness or regret anywhere. And then it got too hard for Blaine not to take it personally and even though they stayed friends he couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with Kurt.

Apparently he wasn’t the only one who thought that because after Regionals when he went with Kurt to a party with the New Directions he met Kurt’s other ex, Sam and they instantly hit it off. They bonded over both being rejected by Kurt and soon they were dating. And in a tiny part of each boy’s brains they knew they were dating each other because they wanted to make Kurt jealous and they also knew that they were still in love with Kurt so it hurt even more when Kurt showed no resentment, no hatred, no emotion at all towards the thought of Blaine and Sam as a couple. He wasn’t happy about it either but then again he was never happy so everyone knew he didn’t care.

So life went on. Blaine and Sam were happy with each other and their lives except for the fact that they couldn’t have Kurt Hummel. The fact was like an itch that couldn’t be scratched and whenever either boy saw Kurt they couldn’t help but feel a feeling of loss and jealousy. And it was frustrating because they were happy with each other except for when Kurt was around. And Kurt hardly seemed to notice etheir of them. He was always off in his own world, distant and cold. He knew that he was still friends with the New Directions and the New Directions knew that Kurt was still their friend but somehow it seemed like Kurt hated them. And the glee kids didn’t know how or why Kurt would or could hate them.

This was once again a situation where it would be helpful if Kurt wouldn’t shut himself out and would show how he felt. And because he didn’t show how he felt it was such a surprise when Blaine and Sam saw Kurt… crying, alone in the hallway.

Blaine and Sam turned the corner and their eyes were drawn towards a figure on the ground, curled up on itself. They instantly knew who the person was due to their small frame and pale hands, it had to be Kurt. They didn’t know what to do, they had never seen Kurt show any emotion at all and this time he just had to be sad. So not knowing what to do they quickly went back to the corner they had just come from and peeked over the wall to look at him from a safer position.

Kurt wasn’t just crying small, pretty, delicate tears like someone would’ve thought he would. He was full on sobbing, tears streaming rapidly down his flushed face. His chest was heaving up and it seemed as if he was having difficulty breathing. Both boys turned to each other with looks of confusion and sympathy, as if they were telepathically asking each other what to do. Sam was the first one to talk.

“What the fuck?” He whispered to his boyfriend. “I didn't even know he could cry. I thought he had had his tear things removed like Coach Sue,”

Blaine rolled his eyes. “Of course he can make Sam cry. Even Sue can cry, she didn’t have her tear ducts removed. That’s ridiculous,”

“Well what should we do?” Sam shrugged. “Should we just leave him there?”

“I think so,” Blaine nodded. “He hates both of us anyway, it’s not like we’ll be much help,”

“He doesn’t hate us,” Sam said, smacking Blaine’s arm and frowning. “He doesn’t hate me anyway,”

“How can you even tell?” Blaine said, getting angry. “He doesn’t talk, he doesn’t acknowledge anyone, hell it’s like he’s not even with us half the time. He walks around here like he’s a ghost.”

“Maybe he is a ghost then,” Sam said, seriously making Blaine roll his eyes again. “Hey, I’m serious. Maybe he killed himself because he’s so unhappy and now this is ghost Kurt. I think it’s cool,”

“Fine then, you go talk to the ghost,” Blaine huffed, pushing Sam to go and comfort Kurt but Sam didn’t budge. “That’s what I thought, he’s not ghost babe,”

“Well I need some kind of explanation. Even if he doesn’t consider me a friend, I consider him one and I don’t like it when my friends are sad.” Sam explained. “Do you still think it’s bullying?”

Blaine shrugged. He didn’t like it when his friends cried either but he also didn’t want to deal with a crying Kurt. If he was right (which he usually was) then Kurt would be one of those people that said there was nothing wrong when they had tears all over their face and in their eyes. He would be bitchy and would push whoever away and they would just be wasting their time.

“I don’t know Sam but really does it even concern us. You dated Kurt, you know how he is, we both do. He doesn’t want our help, trust me. He doesn’t need it either and I don’t want to waste our time. I thought we were going to spend the afternoon together, Kurt doesn’t need to tag along.” Blaine said with a resentful tone.

“I don’t think it would be a waste of time,” Sam admitted. “We could always spend another afternoon together but who knows, Kurt may never cry again. What if he tells us what’s going on with him? Then we could help him and he could be happy,”

“But he won’t tell us because he never tells anyone anything. I even forgot what he sounds like,” Blaine complained, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Don’t be like that Blaine,” Sam said, somewhat disappointed in his boyfriend’s unwillingness to help their friend. “He’s voice is all high and somewhat girly. It’s unique. And you don’t know if he’ll talk or not because we’ve never even asked him what’s going on. And maybe if we do then he'll feel like someone actually cares about him and he’ll let us help,”

Blaine opened his mouth to argue back when they heard whispers coming from the hallway and peeked around once more to see Kurt, still crying, talking into his phone.

“Dad,” He whispered. “Dad, please help. I’m at school and I can’t… I can’t breathe. Please answer me, I’m so scared. And I don’t think anyone else is here and I don’t want Finn, I want you and please just answer me. I don’t know what to do,” They then watched as Kurt took the phone away from his ear and stared at it. “Fuck I can’t send that,” They heard him say before deleting the message off his phone and leaning his head back against the locker.

Sam and Blaine turned around to face each other again and Sam knew that he needed to win Blaine over so they could get Kurt help. If he couldn’t breathe then he needed someone.

“Come on Blaine, please,” He pleaded with his boyfriends who avoided his puppy dog eyes and who crossed his arms in front of him. “He needs help,”

“If he doesn’t want Finn, then he doesn’t want us Sam,” Blaine hissed. “Now let’s go,”

“No,” Sam pouted. “You can go but I want to stay. What if he dies?”

“He’s having a panic attack Sam,” Blaine explained, like Sam was a five year old. “He’s not going to fine, he just needs to breathe some and then he’ll be fine,”

“I don’t believe you,” Sam continued to pout. “Well actually I do, that makes sense but still, he probably doesn’t know that,”

“Kurt’s smart, he knows what to do,” Blaine said, looking back over to the hallway that Kurt was in. “Look out him now, he looks better,”

Sam looked where Blaine was and saw that Kurt had stood up and was now taking deep breaths while walking back and forth and wiping his tears. He did look a little better even though he just wiped his face to have more tears fall down. And his breathing was still pretty uneven. But he looked better. And Sam would be lying if he said he would rather stay with Kurt then go with Blaine. He loved Blaine and even though he still loved Kurt, he didn’t want to be around someone who was so mopey and depressing, even if that person needed help.

So he turned back to Blaine who now had a hopeful expression on his face and gave in to him. “Fine,” He said, earning a fist pump from his boyfriend. “Let’s go,”

“Yes,” Blaine cheered, remembering to be quiet so Kurt didn’t see him. He took Sam’s hand and they started walking again, the way they had come from, as to not run into Kurt.

But something was still bugging Sam. Why was Blaine so against helping Kurt? He knew that Blaine had liked Kurt but lately it seemed like Blaine hated him and even if that wasn’t true, Sam wanted to know why Blaine acted that way whenever Kurt was brought up.

“Do you still like him?” Sam asked out of the blue. “I mean, do you still love Kurt?”

“Sam…” Blaine started to tell him but he knew that Blaine was about to lie and he wanted the truth.

“Look, just be honest with me,” Sam continued walking, staring stringent ahead. “I won’t get mad, hell even I still love him a little even though I’m with you. And obviously I love you more so you have nothing to worry about but you just seem so… I don’t know, it’s like you don’t like him because you still like him and you're hurt because he doesn’t like you. And I just want you to talk to me in case that’s what it is,”

Blaine sighed, looking straight ahead just like Sam. “That does make sense. I guess you could say I still love him a little. And just like you, I obviously love you more but there’s just something about him. It’s like I'm so drawn to him because I’ve never been rejected before, I’ve always been the one to turn someone down and now here’s this boy who’s so… I don’t even know how to describe him but I want and he doesn’t want me and that’s never happened to me before.”

“That seems fair,” Sam shrugged.

“But like I said, you love me and I love you and Kurt doesn’t seem to notice either of us so it doesn't matter,” Blaine said cheerfully.

“Right,” Sam smiled. “I love you,”

“I love you too,” Blaine smiled back.

But yet their minds went back to Kurt and they seemed to love him more.

Kurt

He didn’t know how to explain it, he barely even knows what happened. One minute he was walking down the hallway to his car and the next, all the air had been knocked out of him and he couldn’t breathe. He had slid down the front of some lockers and his heart felt like it wanted to beat out of his chest.

He couldn’t do it anymore, he officially wanted to die. He was tired of trying only to fail. He felt as if no one wanted him around and as if they were all better off without him. He wasn’t happy, he wasn’t good enough and he was so tired of it.

He didn’t see the point in life anymore. He was barely even functioning. He didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, didn’t talk or interact with anyone, all he did was stay shut up in his room except for when he had to show himself at school and even then he was barely there. So if you were barely even living in the first place then what was the point of living at all?

And he could do it, he could end his life and he told himself that he should. That it would be for the best and that no one wanted him around anyway and that all he was doing was taking up space. But then he would lay awake late at night with a razor or with a bottle of pills and he would think about doing it, slitting his wrists or downing all the painkillers, he would think about dying and all of a sudden, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He couldn’t help but feel like everyone would be disappointed in him. And it was weird, as if he was just making excuses for himself because he knew everyone hated him and that they wouldn’t care. But then he would imagine the faces people would make when they found him passed out in his own blood or when they heard that he was dead. And that he was dead because he had taken his own life. Because he was that unhappy.

And he knew that everyone knew that he was depressed and he knew that they noticed him and that just went to further prove that they hated him. Because they saw how unhappy he was and they did nothing to help him. They looked and acted like nothing was wrong with him but he knew there was something wrong with him and he knew that they knew too. And it was so frustrating that no one wanted to help him.

It was so frustrating that he wouldn’t allow himself to cry until he was alone in his room. It was so frustrating that all he wanted was a hug or to scream or for everything to just go away and that he couldn’t have that. He had to get up. He had to get up and he had to act like everything was fine. Like he wasn’t dying inside, like he didn’t want to do, he had to act like he was fine. And it was to the point where he didn’t care anymore, he didn’t try to hide how sad he was.

He moped around, he admitted it. And he shut everyone out of his life because he knew that all they would do was pity him and he didn’t want their pity. He didn’t want their sympathy. All he wanted was for someone to care, someone to help him not because they felt like they needed to but because they wanted to, because they truly cared about him. But who was he kidding? No one cared about him, no one wanted to help him. They wanted to ignore him and his problems and they only wanted to care about each other and not him. So much for friends, so much for family.

But it didn’t matter to him anymore, he knew what to do. He could get up and pretend and act like everything was okay and like his world wasn’t collapsing around him and he could go to school and stare off and ignore everyone and when he got home he could continue to ignore everyone and he could lock himself up in his room and he could lay down in his bed. He could pretend he didn’t exist because he never wanted to exist and he certainly didn’t know. It’s not like everything wouldn’t be better off without him anyway. He knew where he belonged and it wasn’t here.

[deafblindshorty]

Poe and Rey’s Underrated Friendship

I noticed that not a lot has been said about Poe and Rey’s friendship in TROS and related EU materials. That’s probably because it’s not the main focus, which I sort of understand. There are a lot of subtle moments of their friendship (even some hints towards a romantic relationship). Some of these points come from @greysmartwolf’s tumblr, others come from a discord server.

Disclaimer: I am not diminishing or minimalizing Finn’s importance to both Rey and Poe, but if it seems like it, then I’m sorry. That’s not my intent.

Let’s start from the beginning: Rey and Poe have a LOT of parallels throughout the trilogy (some of the same scenes, the same lines, they both face their past in TROS, they both blame themselves for the Resistance dying at Exegol, they almost gave up but two Rebel veterans gave them pep talks, etc). So, they have quite a bit in common including their love for flying and droids.

Also, about the age difference, age really doesn’t matter in Star Wars. Han and Leia are 13 years apart, Wedge is about ten years younger than Norra, and Snap is 16 years older than his wife Kare (He could be her father!). Huge age differences exist in other fictional materials set on our Earth- Brooke Taylor and her late husband from Legally Blonde are 34 years apart, Remus and Tonks from Harry Potter are 13 years apart, an old soap opera supercouple (Doug and Julie Williams from Days of Our Lives) are 20 years apart. As for friends, Will from Glee is in his 30s and is friends with a few 19-20 year olds and Sue who is in her 50s is besties with a 19/20 year old, 30 year old Launchpad from Ducktales is friends with 10 year old Dewey. So, 19/20 year old Rey being friends or dating 32/33 year old Poe isn’t that crazy or farfetched.

According to the TROS Visual Dictionary, Poe left BB-8 with Rey so she won’t feel lonely (and that’s probably also why BB-8 is with Rey on Tatooine). 

Poe was the first man Rey met whom she didn’t physically attack upon meeting him, and also smiled when they introduced each other. I don’t recall her smiling that wide whenever she was with Finn or Kylo.

They get along well in Poe Dameron #26-27. Poe was even a bit flirty with Rey.

It was Poe’s idea to build a Jedi training course for Rey in Star Wars Adventures, so Poe understands the importance of Rey’s Jedi training.

Rey understands what Poe went through with Kylo ( Poe also calls them ”Torture buddies!”).

When Poe, Finn, and Chewie return from the Fortress of Hothitude (I can’t remember what that planet is called. lol), Poe was so happy to see Rey. The way he walked up to Rey, his smile and his hands on hips. He badly wants to impress Rey. Alpha male!

And right after that, they have their only argument throughout the entire film. Poe and Rey quarrel in TROS was because they both didn’t listen to each other. They really only fight over the Falcon and BB-8. They both care about each other a lot, don’t blame each other in anything (except the Falcon being on fire and BB-8 missing a disc) and admit when one of them was right in argue (but prefer not to tell about that). Then Rey ends up smiling at him and Poe ends the argument by complimenting Rey (”You’re the best fighter we have. We need you.”). Also, Poe is the only one whom Rey talks to with sarcastic smile. Also, also, that argument is meant to parallel Han and Leia’s many arguments. Han and Leia argued every five minutes throughout the entire Original Trilogy, and they ended up together!

After sinking in the sand tunnels, Poe catches Rey and holds her bridal-style for a sec to steady her and was worried about her.

“He thought of protesting, of asking how Rey could possibly know which equally unremarkable direction was the right one. But Poe had learned that when Rey said things that way, her face determined, her voice unwavering, a fellow ought to just follow.” -TROS novel Poe knows Rey well. He knows when he must just shut up and do what she says. It kind of reminds me of Anakin telling Padme “Don’t worry. I’ve given up trying to argue with you.”

Poe taking the dagger from Rey in the novel and it felt like a weight has been lifted from Rey’s shoulders. It’s almost like he knew that would help.

The sand snake- I’ve never seen Poe so scared. But he is not afraid of that snake, he’s ready to combat it. I mean, he piloted the Falcon without fear into the mouth of a giant worm! Poe is afraid that snake could hurt or kill Rey. Poe wants to shoot that snake and pull Rey back, and he almost does that. And Rey amazes him again! And Poe sighs in relief when the snake calms down and slithers away.

In the novel, Poe didn’t scream “Nooo!” or “What have you done?!” when Rey “killed” Chewie. Poe knows there is no scenario in which Rey would harm her friends consciously. He most likely knows about her dark visions (Rey tells BB-8 everything, who obviously tells Poe all important stuff). Poe is not mad at Rey and doesn’t make her explain how that happened. And honestly, if he did do that, then he’d be a huge hypocrite, since he accidentally caused the deaths of the bombers in TLJ and the soldiers on Crait, which is why Poe was gentle with her. Rey understands Poe. His usual anger. They both have a huge responsibility. The Resistance on Poe and Jedi legacy on Rey. And she was ready to hear his anger, but he didn’t even plan to lay into her.

Rey likes that Poe can steal speeders and she finds his past interesting. Rey was really interested in Poe and Zorii’s past connection and Poe felt a bit smug when Rey was able to beat Zorii (He said “Don’t Dja’kanka” because he was afraid Rey would slice Zorii in half before she could help them). According to some audio book excerpts, when Rey was thinking about Poe’s past or his criminal skills, her voice was mysterious and nonjudgmental. Finn wasn’t happy to find out Poe was a spice runner, while Rey was completely fine with that, it seems she even liked that

After the Spice Runner reveal, as they traveled a snowy passageway, Poe glanced over at Rey, who was silent and frowning, lost in her own thoughts. Or maybe she was focused. Sensing something. 

When Rey rushed off to look for the dagger on Kylo’s star destroyer, Poe didn’t stop her and trusted her feelings. Poe knows when he must just follow her instincts. He learned to read her.

Look at pain in Poe’s eyes after Finn’s words. Poe wants to be closer to Rey, he wants Rey to trust him more. But Finn and Leia were still closer to Rey than Poe was. “Perhaps, she didn’t want to put the rest of the team in danger, but they had already signed up for that by joining the Resistance.” (TROS junior novel, Poe)

"She’s out there, heading toward the Death Star. Her skimmer keeps tipping over – it’s damaged. What the heck is she thinking?” (TROS junior novel, Poe) Poe is so worried here. And angry. Now he’s mad at Rey, but later he will be angry with himself for losing her.

“Rey’s nobility masked an impulsiveness that might doom them all – and as highest-ranking member of the team, Poe felt responsible for not curbing it. He had flunked the leadership test yet again.” (TROS junior novel) Poe blames himself, not Rey.

“Maybe there was something the general could do. During the battles of D'Qar and Crait she and Rey had shared beacons. Maybe there was a way she could reach out to Rey or Rey could reach out to her.” (TROS junior novel) Poe planned to find Rey!

So, Poe doesn’t think Rey abandoned them and doesn’t resent her for leaving. If he did, he’d be a big hypocrite here, too, since he abandoned his father, who was dying from a poisonous Lurker bite in Free Fall for the Spice Runners.

Poe trusts Rey and knows she can take care of herself. That’s why he didn’t rush after her like Finn did.

“Poe didn’t have his usual pre-battle swagger. He seemed distress. “What’s waiting for her out there?” he asked Finn.” (TROS junior novel) Poe worried about Rey so much! That she’s somewhere alone and they won’t be with her there.

Poe was incredibly relieved when Rey was revealed to be alive (and he was also worried about Rey when he found out the Emperor wanted her alive).

The way Poe takes Rey’s hand is special, it’s pure tenderness, and the way he rubs his thumb over her knuckles tells everything. Poe loves Rey more than friend. Also, Rey pinches Poe’s elbow with a hope, like she tries to reach him. And when Poe does the same, she happily closes her eyes and pinches him again.

Poe and Rey also acted so jealous of Finn and Zorii respectively. Poe kept asking Finn what he was gonna tell Rey when they were sinking in the sand. On Kijimi, Rey couldn’t stop thinking about what Poe’s past with Zorii was.

So, usually, men tend to date women who remind them of their mothers (Take Harry Potter for example! Ginny looks a lot like Lily Potter.). Rey and Shara Bey (Poe’s mom) look similar and they’re both brave, adventurous, and great pilots.

Men also tend to date women who remind them of their exes. Rey also looks similar to Zorii, plus they are both cagey, kept secrets, both love to argue with Poe, but they care about him, and are extremely loyal.

TL:DR. My point is that Poe and Rey are actually good friends and would be a great couple. Disney/LF were just a bit more subtle about their relationship. 

[moonlit-imagines]

Headcanons for being Murphy’s best friend and dating Raven

Raven Reyes x reader

warnings:

a/n: ah, yes, im in love with this woman but mostly bc i just relate her sm ahhhh, also FUCK canon i do what i want and this is only until like beginning of s5

prompt: anonymous: “Hiii i hope you havent closed the requests yet ! Could you write some headcanons for the 100 for being murphys best friend and dating raven ?”

murphy was a bit of a dick in the beginning, but you tolerated him

you actually had the best luck getting through to him during your time on the ground

“y/n, can you get murphy to shut the hell up and do some work, for god’s sake?”

“on it”

and when you met raven, he could see right through you

nothing but endless teasing from him

“you like her” *poking your side*

“cut it out, murphy!”

she was stuck in two love triangles, you, her and finn, then clark, finn and her

and there were plenty of obstacles between you and her

especially when you were taken to mount weather and she was left alone with murphy, who she ended up hating

and he nearly ruined your chances with her bc she hated him so much

murphy had to calm her down and explain something to her

“hey, y/n would kill me if they knew i told you this, but listen. they like you a lot, im serious. y/n is so jealous of finn, they think you deserve so much more than that. i hope to god that they’re okay right now because i want to see them be happy. and you dont have to like me, alright? just...if you can, give y/n a chance”

raven was thinking about that all the way until you escaped mt weather

when she was captured there, you flipped out trying to get her away from the doctors trying to hurt her

the second you both were free, she ran up to you and kissed you

it was unreal to you

“murphy told me everything”

“that son of a bitch! but, sweet! it all worked out...let’s get out of here”

the relationship was a bit tense at first since there was a bit of resentment towards murphy, but you understood why

and she didn’t hold anything towards you

soon, murphy left with jaha and placed a goodbye note in your room

raven had to console you after he was gone, you were hurt that he decided to leave you behind, but he wanted you and raven to be happy

and you were, you really were

“babe, gimme a kiss” *kiss raven on the cheek* “one more?” *kiss* “another?”

she was upset she hadn’t been with you sooner

helping her while she worked around camp jaha

“can you hold that part while i fix this, please?”

“god, you’re so hot when you’re covered in grease”

*chuckling* “just get over here, babe”

everyone making fun of your “honeymoon phase”

staying up late together and being all sweet and cuddly and shit

crawling on top of her and holding her hands while the two of you talked, it was a bit of a normalcy for you two

she’d go on and on for hours over her work and ideas she had

you enjoy her passion for her work

she got very angry sometimes though, but you always calmed her down with a long, passionate kiss and some gentle words

she loves having her back rubbed!

raven is no doubt The Big Spoon no i will not be taking constructive criticism

going on drives with her (to keep her company on missions) (and protect her bc u worry)

raven lies about how her leg feels, so you have to be real with her and make sure she doesn’t push herself too much

she gets aggravated but she understands you’re just looking out for her

when ALIE took ahold of her you lost it, you were so worried and everyone could see it

they had to hold you back from her bc they were scared she’d hurt you

when she was strapped to the bed at niylah’s, they made you stay in the other room because she was saying some...hurtful things

“bring y/n in here, i’ve got something to tell them. Y/N! I’LL NEVER LOVE YOU AS MUCH AS I LOVED FINN”

eek

crazy ass time trying to get her to snap out of it

but they did and she cried and apologized again and again

you obviously forgave her, you love her

yadda yadda ALIE got switched off and you found out that there was another apocalypse coming your way

murphy came back too!

“hey, hey, im so sorry i left you behind”

raven was mad at him for leaving (and shooting her)

“you really trust him again? just like that?”

“he’s my best friend, raven...”

her putting up w him for you

and having to brainstorm some contingencies

you and her worked best together

when you weren’t busy flirting

“raven, stop getting distracted, we gotta figure out how to survive!”

“sorry, i just cant concentrate when my significant other is right there and not kissing me”

u guys are so cute

blahhh blahhh blahhh while she was working in becca’s lab, you were setting the bunker up with murphy

“at least now you cant run away from me when this thing gets locked”

“oh, real funny”

*repaired friendship hug*

clarke pulling you aside and telling you raven hasn’t left the lab yet

the squad rushing there to save her, and ultimately deciding the only way you guys were surviving was if you went up

“think we can pull this off, babe?”

“are you kidding me? do you know who you’re talking to?”

that’s ur cocky gf u love so much

bam you did it and you had to start your new life on the ring

lots of relationship counseling with emori and murphy

she asked you about him a lot

“what was john like before he left skaikru?”

“the same as now, just a little meaner and less loyal”

raven and you had a pretty awesome time up there, you grew so much more closer and she even proposed!!!

“i dont have a ring but were living on one so does that count?”

murphy was gonna be your best man it was decided

and at least he was getting along with your girlfriend fiancée much better

fr tho you’d literally die for each other and thats the end of it mwah

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @cullens-stuff //

[blodreina-noumou]

What's your favorite underrated Murphy moment?

I can only pick one? Impossible! I’ll give you my top 3. In no particular order, because this man is underrated in countless ways!

1 - “Your plan was better, let’s go.”

In 4x01, Emori is scavenging and preparing to flee Polis in the aftermath of the City of Light fiasco. Murphy manages to convince her that they’ll be safe with Skaikru, which is a sweet scene on its own. But my favorite moment of his comes when we see him next. 

Polis is tense, on the verge of breaking out into battle, and Skaikru is planning how they’ll keep the peace long enough for Roan to wake up and retake control. Murphy walks up to Bellamy, who’s standing with Indra and Kane. Murphy only needs to hear about thirty seconds of their plan - which includes Bellamy risking his life and offering Azgeda guns, to keep Echo occupied long enough for Abby to save Roan - before he realizes that his assumptions of safety among his people were wrong. Still he plays along for a few moments more, quietly accepts Bellamy’s gun, and goes to pretend to stand post. But in reality, he finds Emori again, and says: 

“Remember what I said about being safe with my people? Yeah, your plan was better, let’s go.”

It’s a small moment, but it shows so much about what makes Murphy amazing. He’s a survivor, not because he’s “a cockroach,” but because he’s adaptable, charming, and resourceful. This scene shows that subtly but very clearly. He hears new information, gets his hands on a weapon, and changes his plans in the span of a single scene, without doing much more than staying quiet and assessing the situation - something most other characters in this show really struggle to do.

2 - “Do I get a gun now?”

In 2x03, Bellamy and Finn are leading a team in the woods to find Clarke - a team which includes Murphy, who is pretty fresh off his Total Douchebag phase of s1. Bellamy and Finn are including him in the search party out of a lack of options more than anything else, and Murphy himself is tagging along to avoid the scrutiny of Team Adult, who have recently touched down on Earth. Nobody trusts each other, and Bellamy is still treating Murphy as expendable.

Bellamy barks out orders to his squad, leaving Murphy without an assignment until the very end. Monroe asks what Murphy will do, causing him to quip: “Yeah, do I get a gun now?” 

Bellamy snarks, “Something like that.”

The next we see of Murphy, he’s crouched at the base of a tree, tapping two stones together, looking anxious but determined. He manages to lead the Grounder they’ve targeted to a secluded spot, where Bellamy can knock him out.

At this point, although we’ve had the humanizing moment of Murphy telling Raven his story, as they both lay dying on the floor of the dropship, Murphy is still a not-yet-reformed antagonist. He hasn’t taken part in trying to save the girl on the cliff, yet, and we haven’t seen him in contrast to Finn’s later unhinged violence. He’s got a long way to go from “guy who peed on someone who asked for water” to “dashing hero who got the girl and also became a godking.” 

Because of that, there are so many wonderful little moments that help transform him in s2, but this scene is one of my favorites. It’s one of the first times we get to see Murphy used as straight-up comic relief, which is something the show will go on to fully embrace about him in the later seasons.

But it’s also one of the first times the characters get to see that Murphy actually can be a team player, and that he will put himself on the line, given the proper circumstances. Murphy has the most reason out of any of them to be afraid of the Grounders, to want nothing to do with them, to protect himself above all else - he was tortured by them, brutally, then used as a biological weapon against his people by them, and then tortured again. 

It would’ve been 100% his right to say, “No, go float yourself, I’m not facing these monsters without a gun.” But he’s brave, and far more heroic than he ever gets credit for, especially early on. This aspect of his personality only continues to develop and blossom over the next five seasons, and it’s beautiful to watch.

3 - “Tell me about Harper.”

4x13 is actually one of my all-time favorite episodes. I think it’s one of the few times this show has managed to expertly blend meaningful character moments with a compelling, exciting plot. We get to see so many sides of everyone, and the exchanges between Murphy and Monty are some of the best.

Monty (somewhat rightfully) distrusts and dislikes Murphy at this point, as the only real experience he’s had with him was when Murphy threatened to kill Jasper in early s1. Monty is freshly grieving Jasper, and it’s clear he resents Murphy’s presence. But Monty and Murphy must work together, if any of them stand a chance of surviving - including the two women they each love above anyone else, Harper and Emori, respectively.

The men are struggling to carry back a machine vital to their survival on The Ring. Monty has injured himself by removing his gloves in an effort to recover the machine, causing serious radiation burns on his hands, and he’s in a lot of pain. Despite Monty’s less-than-warm attitude towards him, Murphy does everything he can to support Monty and to distract him from his pain. 

The entire exchange is worth rereading, if it’s been a moment for y’all (it had been, for me):

(After forcing his gloves back over his radiation-burned hands, Monty reaches to lift the machine.)

Murphy: Hey, no no no no no, not with your hands, okay? I’ll do it.

Monty: It’s too heavy to carry all the way by yourself. On three. One, two, three!

(They lift the machine together, and Monty screams in agony.)

Murphy: Who knew you were a secret badass?

(Murphy and Monty start carrying the machine together, over the uneven terrain, through the pouring black rain.

Monty screams in pain again. It’s clear each step is excruciating.)

Murphy: Hey hey hey, watch your step. It’s probably a bad idea to drop the thing that’s gonna save our lives, huh?

(Monty is starting to flag, his exhaustion apparent in his face. He keeps grunting and crying out in pain.)

Murphy: Okay, okay - focus on me. Tell me about Harper.

(Monty stares up at Murphy incredulously, swaying on the spot.)

Murphy: You guys seem pretty serious, you uh, tell her you love her yet? If not, I mean, today might be the day.

Monty: I’ve told her.

Murphy (smiles): It’s crazy how it changes you, isn’t it?

Monty then proceeds to pass out. Murphy begs him to stay conscious, but after a few moments, it’s clear that he’s on his own, and that Monty is in serious danger. Murphy has to make a choice, and he makes the right one - he lifts the incredibly heavy, lifesaving machine all on his own, and staggers back to the lab, leaving Monty behind. Fortunately, they’re able to save Monty later, and he says one of my favorite Monty lines: 

“You chose the machine!? I may not hate you anymore.”

Monty and Murphy bonded here, over their love for the incredible women in their lives, and over the unfortunate and harsh reality that some things are worth dying for, worth being in pain for, worth sacrificing other people for. This scene shows so much - Murphy’s pragmatism, but also his romantic nature, his reliance on humor as a defense mechanism, and his willingness to do difficult things to survive. It’s peak John Murphy, way back in s4. 

My love for him, which had been growing strong since s2, was fully sealed with this scene.

He has many more memorable moments, but this is long enough. Thanks so much for the question! It really helps me write meta when people ask specific things. And I’ve never had the chance to really talk about Murphy!

[sometimesrosy]

Okay but I really wish the whole spacekru&Clarke friendships weren't so overlooked in storyline. Out of nowhere this season suddenly Murphy and emori care about madi. Same with raven season 6. Yet they couldn't understand Clarke's need to care for her season 5. Murphy and Clarke could've bonded over their mistakes and cockroach nature yet he holds everything that happened years ago, before praimfaya over her head like he's innocent either. Part 1

Part 2. Clarke and echo hugging out of nowhere in season 6? Yeah they've all grown and made mistakes but where's the development in some of these? I hate how Clarke is so selfless sometimes because she just puts up with people, her now so called "family" yet they don't talk about their relationships and develop them, making comments all the time or willing to sacrifice her and not care. I love her she rises above that but who wants to put up with that. Who should

+++

I really wish you wouldn’t come to a conclusion and then pretend that the canon that shows spacekru’s relationship to Clarke and Madi didn’t exist.

It may not have the same development that you want it to have, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing. And I hate it when people erase canon to feed their theories.

If there is canon narrative that disproves or disagrees with your theory, then your theory is not working. If you don’t address that contrary canon, you’re just ignoring it. That’s erasure and bad theorizing. At best you have an unproven hypothesis. Just an idea. 

Clarke and Spacekru relationships are not overlooked. First off Bellamy is spacekru and both s5 and s6 were about their relationship, even when they were at odds. 

We had Clarke and Monty and Harper in season 5, and they didn’t survive, true, but they spoke to HER and asked HER to take care of their son and Jordan has a relationship with her too. 

Clarke and Raven was a complex relationship and Raven was MAD at Clarke for MANY reasons going all the way back to Abby and Finn. S5 and s6 was a continuation of her resentment from all of that. You can say they aren’t focusing on their relationship but you’re wrong. The closest definition of that relationship is “sibling rivalry.” And no, it’s not always happy. In s5, Raven met Madi, and they were on the same side trying to get free of Clarke to save Bellamy and co. Raven’s relationship with Madi started THEN and was outside of her relationship with Clarke. In s6 she wasn’t saving Madi because of CLARKE she was doing it for Madi, and because it was the right thing to do. This reminds us of when she didn’t give Luna’s daughter meds and then watcher her die from it. Whether or not the meds would have worked earlier, RAVEN was confronted with the moral reasons to save people instead of being pragmatic. She was ALSO working with Abby to save Madi. She ALSO had a moral awakening and leadership crisis when she decided to help Abby bring back Kane and then help Kane die, taking the serum with him. THIS began her learning to understand Clarke. And when she came back, THAT’S when you saw her start to deal with morality in a more adult manner and make choices about that, not pragmatism or resentment. When she thought Clarke was gone for good, that MATTERED to Raven. Raven’s change in attitude was about HER OWN character development. Not Clarke’s. Clarke was already trying her best to do better. Raven REFUSED to stop working on Madi, when Clarke ASKED HER TO, because she needed to save Madi not open the shield. She didn’t do that for Clarke. She did that because it was the right thing to do, and honestly, you should have noticed that moment as one where Raven and Clarke clicked back together based on their long history and independent intentions to be better. Then there was the whole losing their mother/foster mother and desperation to save madi/their people. And like, if you think  the beginning of 7, where they’re working together and Clarke understands her struggle with the near meltdown and deaths is nothing and then that whole scene where it’s just them in the belly of the beast and that doesn’t count as relationship development? I just... why? What do you think that is? 

And with Murphy? You don’t understand why he’d care about Madi now? WHY NOT? Murphy was the one who tried to save Luna’s daughter and went sneaky to do it. He faced Raven down to do it. His relationship began with Madi in season 5 also, where he met her in the rover. Why wouldn’t he care about her? She’s his family too. Also like Raven, Abby was like his foster mom. Her death hit him hard. Madi is their way to make it up to her. And yes, Murphy blamed Clarke for things, and was irrational about it during the eclipse psychosis, blaming her for things that weren’t her fault, but he saved her and teamed up with her to save them all, too. And siding with Josephine was after she was dead and he was trying to save their people so her sacrifice was worth something. Even if he did momentarily try to get Clarke erased from Josephine, in the end he chose Clarke and Clarke knew it. They DO understand each other and Clarke never blamed him. She said she was proud of him. And he was happy she was alive. They don’t NEED to talk about their feelings, they understand each other, cockroach to cockroach. Notice she DID need to talk to Raven, because Raven needs logic and understanding while Murphy runs on intuition.  Clarke put Murphy in CHARGE of Sanctum. He is taking care of everyone. MADI is his family. What kind of fan of The 100 doesn’t know how much of a hero Murphy is, how much he cares about his family. 

We had Clarke and Echo in season 5. They had a huge scene that showed them getting their resentment and sadness out and then they basically got over it. Echo was the first person to consider Clarke part of the team again. When they hugged, it was NOT out of nowhere.  They’re allies and have not been antagonists since that Clecho scene. You didn’t pay attention to it and decided that Echo hated Clarke when she simply didn’t. She defended Clarke at the beginning of s6 when Murphy and Raven attacked her. Echo was ready to destroy Sanctum for killing Clarke. Echo follows Clarke, because Bellamy follows Clarke and she knows how to follow her leaders. Echo has been Clarke’s people since s5 and Clarke has been Echo’s people since the same. Tell me again how they hug out of nowhere? Or is your bias against Echo and insistence on a shipwar blinding you? Clarke and Echo get along. Period. They are more alike than they are different. Shoot, Clarke was the one who invited her into the family. No one else wanted her to come. She sacrificed her suit so Echo could stay.

“So called family.”

That’s the key to your ask.

You are continuing the war between Clarke and Spacekru. The war that was never there. They had a falling out like family members have falling outs. Siblings. And you continue to hold that over their heads even though they’re over it and family again.

Drop it. Or if you want to hold onto it, don’t send it to me.

I’m actually kind of annoyed that I had to do all the work of pointing out relationship development that was pretty major for three (or more!) seasons while you’re just whining that it isn’t there.

Y’all. This fandom. I swear. It’s like once Echo got made a main you all lost half your braincells. You erased anything that had anything non-evil to do with her, and that includes her inclusion into spacekru. 

STOP WITH THE FAN WARS.

[bettsfic]

nobody asked but here’s how i would have written it: star wars sequels edition

WARNING FOR TROS SPOILERS

(though they are somewhat hidden, because this is just what i wish had happened)

in the same way i re-plotted season 8 of game of thrones, here’s how i would have plotted the star wars sequels in terms of the basic beats of conflict, using the themes and characters already established.

the force awakens

more time spent on what happens between RotJ and TFA. the present narrative is interspersed with flashbacks to ben solo’s upbringing, so we see where the seeds of darkness grew from.

ben is a good boy who turns into something of an entitled brat. it is both everyone’s and no one’s fault. han and leia’s divorce. leia’s duties which take up most of her time. han running away from his problems, and both of them dropping him off with luke to be trained as a jedi, without regard to how his young mind perceives it -- a small betrayal, a change for which he has no explanation or understanding.

then there’s luke’s patient yet firm hand in teaching ben the ways of the jedi. ben wants to be special. he wants his power and potential acknowledged. he is the grandson of anakin skywalker, the greatest jedi who ever lived. but luke spends most of his time trying to teach ben humility. it only leads to ben’s teenage resentment.

they fight, and snoke comes to ben in a dream, offering him everything he desires -- he would be snoke’s one and only apprentice. he would be given access to power beyond anything the jedi could show him. he would be able to do whatever he wanted. and best of all, he would finally fulfill his potential.

ben says no, of course, because the dark side is Bad. but snoke keeps coming to him after every altercation with luke, until eventually ben’s resolve breaks, and darkness floods him, that’s how luke finds ben when he pulls his saber -- one foot in darkness. it’s the turning point that leads ben astray.

MEANWHILE throughout his and rey’s lives (here is where shit gets ROMANTIC) they’ve felt a bond with each other, though neither could explain it, and they did not know who rested at the other end of the bond. for years, they offered each other comfort in dark times, until kylo ren came around, and he shut their bond for good. 

YES all of that goes in the first movie.

rey, finn, and poe’s narratives stay basically the same, except we establish somehow that rey has Fears about her identity and a sense of belonging, and those strings, if tugged properly, could bring her to the dark side.

i believe as a writer, an audience is far more apt to believe goodness than bad. they want to believe characters have good intentions and motivations. it is established that kylo ren is a big bad who has done awful things; that does not need expanded on. star wars has already done that with the original trilogy. we don’t need a reboot of the same themes that were relevant in 1977. what we DO need is a story about genuine repentance and forgiveness.

we expect kylo ren to kill han. it’s all set up. we think he is bad enough to do it, but we don’t want him to. he readies himself for it, han is waiting for it, but it doesn’t happen. ben walks away.

and yet! han still dies, from some lack of action from ben, so that he still sees it as his fault.

THEN he meets rey, and they know instantly what they are to one another. their bond reopens. rey asks him to come to the light, and he does.

the movie ends with a decent certainty that ben is prepared to shun the dark side, but now he’s up against snoke and the first order.

the last jedi

my major beef with the last jedi was that it was a waste of time. it was pretty, and the themes were woven pretty tightly, but ultimately nothing happened in terms of progressing the present story.

we open with ben solo firmly seated in the resistance, under the command of his mother. he is working to atone for his wrongdoings. leia has forgiven him; luke has not. more than anything, he wants luke’s forgiveness.

rey wants ben to train her but he refuses. he sees the darkness in her and he fears it will draw him back. also, he’s kind of in love with her, which is a Problem.

so rey goes to luke on ahch-to. she asks him to forgive ben but he won’t. she asks him to train her but he won’t. she spends time training herself, becoming attuned to the force.

MEANWHILE, snoke exploits rey’s fears. ben won’t have her. luke won’t have her. she doesn’t know who she is. she doesn’t know her purpose. she has all this power, and nothing to do with it. snoke promises that if she comes to him, he’ll show her who she is. 

in a moment of weakness, she does. snoke takes her to palpatine, who tells her the truth: she is his granddaughter.

i know! it undercuts the entire theme of scavenger-to-hero, a nobody rising up from nowhere! just give me a minute!!

finally rey knows her place. her people. a name and where she belongs. after a lifetime of powerlessness, she is drawn to the idea of ruling the galaxy, of the sith lineage continuing in her. she tells herself it is because she is fundamentally good; she will know what’s best for the people. she’ll be able to make the good changes she wants to see. democracy is a farce, after all, and the only valid rule is that of a truly just leader.

empress palpatine is born!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gimme that bad bitch aesthetic.

ohhh shit, says ben.

we are boned, say finn and poe (who are boyfriends, obviously).

big final battle in which the resistance is decimated. ben doesn’t want to, but he knows, to save rey and the galaxy, he has to open himself up again to the dark side, and hope that this time, he’s strong enough.

the rise of skywalker

now we have a setup for an actual conclusion that is not predicated on “win the war and destroy all evil” but forgiveness, redemption, and accepting the balance of dark and light.

rey has been training under snoke. she is now more powerful than she has ever been. she is potentially more powerful than anyone has ever been in the entire history of the galaxy. 

snoke annoys her now. she kills him.

palpatine is useless to her now. she kills him too.

hux amuses her. she lets him live.

and then there’s ben. ben, who visits her through their bond. ben, who is a nuisance to her, a leader of a resistance that has no chance of winning. and yet, she can’t bring herself to kill him.

switch to resistance. luke forgives ben, and ben luke. luke and leia have decided that it’s their time to pass into the force. ben urges them not to -- there is too much riding on their advice and leadership, but they assure him he has everything he needs to end the war, and it is their time to go. they say their goodbyes and pass into the force together.

i know, with carrie’s passing, this couldn’t have happened this way. but! i am not considering practicalities right now.

back to rey. she knows the only way the resistance might become a real threat is through ben’s power. she begins beckoning him to her, using the same tactics snoke did -- he can become her apprentice, and it will not be how it was with snoke, but she will treat him as an equal. they will rule together. 

ben is so torn!! 1) still stupid in love, and 2) it’s kind of his destiny? vader’s grandson and palpatine’s granddaughter. two leaders is a far more efficient system of government than ten thousand senators squabbling for eternity to make decisions. the galactic republic was peaceful, but that was only because it was powerful. there was still slavery in the outer rims. poverty. torture. disease. the galactic republic did nothing to help the people who actually needed help. as ruler, ben could help those people. he could do good.

he goes to her, defying poe and finn’s orders for him to stay and fight, and is immediately taken captive on the empress’s ship. she makes him wait in a cell for a long time, then demands his presence. he’s taken to her. 

imagine: ben on his knees in front of the empress’s throne. handcuffed. ragged, defenseless. a lil beaten up.

and ohhhhhhh is he pretty, rey thinks. this is where it gets ~sexy.

ben tries to lock his feelings for her away, but she’s too powerful. she roots around in the force and sees the truth: he loves her, still, after all this time. after all she’s done. he wants his love to bring her to the light, as she once did for him.

but it’s a trick!! ben’s feelings are true, but he had only wanted to distract her. he breaks his bonds, grabs his saber from where it sat on her throne. they fight!!

obvs rey wins, but he was counting on that. she goes to give the death blow, but she can’t. she loves him too much. and ben knows she’s not beyond saving.

the resistance is battling the first order. they are losing, badly. in fact there’s no way they can win, even with lando’s civilian fleet. the only way to win is for rey to step down from power and call a stop to the fighting.

ben tells her that blood is worthless and has nothing to do with who she is. she doesn’t have to be a palpatine. she doesn’t have to continue the sith lineage. she is not a noble and just ruler --

she puts her saber to his throat for that one, but he backpedals 

-- but she is not a jedi, either. they can be whoever they want to be. and where she belongs is with him. 

she clicks off her saber. her face softens. 

i can’t come back from this, she says. 

i did, he replies. i’ll help you.

this is who i am.

it’s not. i promise it’s not. you’re rey. your parents loved you. i love you.

THEY KISS

ben feels a shift in the force. the light is overcoming rey. she drops her saber and lowers her hood. she looks so young and scared. 

hux and his guards enter. a mutiny ensues while hux tries to take over the fleet and destroy the resistance for good. then he will take command and rule the galaxy.

they battle!!!!

at last, they kill all the guards, and back hux, powerless, into a corner. he has only his blaster, and it’s on the fritz. he smacks it against his palm. together, they kill him.

rey calls a complete ceasefire. the war is over.

epilogue:

A WEDDING!!!!!!!! with appearances by jedi force ghosts. everyone is happy. the galaxy is at peace. the end.

[spaceorphan18]

I'm new to fandom - what are the better boyfriend olympics? I've heard that phrase being used a lot to talk about Klaine but I'm not really sure what's going on.

Hi Nonny! Welcome to fandom :) Pull up a chair as I give you a history of the BBO and how it started.  I actually think it’s kind of fascinating now that I’m not living through it, lol. 

Okay, so let’s go back to 2010 when there wasn’t a Klaine fandom, there was a Kurt fandom.  A lot of the BBO stemmed out of the Kurt’s Boyfriend Shipping wars of 2010.  

Back then, there was just a Kurt fandom, and a lot of opinions about who he should date.  Believe it or not, Kurt was shipped a lot with the other guys on the show, there was a healthy dose of Kurt/Finn, but Kurt/Puck was huge, and there was a smattering of Kurt/Mike (I never really did see much Kurt/Artie now that I think of it, which is kind of funny in retrospect, but I’m sure it’s out there.)  Anyway - when the show announced Kurt was getting a boyfriend -- well, things began to get heated up.  

Three big ships emerged

Kurt/Sam - because the rumor was that Sam was originally supposed to be Kurt’s bf (probably not, but that rumor was big at the time).  Btw, they were the canoe ship (I have no idea why) and was also known as Kum (rolls-eyes).  This ship’s fanbase was so huge and lasted so long, that the show felt the need to address it head on in Season Two’s Rumours (not a joke).   

Kurt/Karofsky - Also known as Kurtofsky, they were also called themselves the Pirate ship (god, Idk why, shipping wars are weird, yo).  These people were also really passionate, mostly about Dave, but liked the whole idea that Kurt would save Dave and they would have this weird - enemies to loves love affair or something.  I don’t know, I could never get past the squicky assault aspect, but whatever. 

Kurt/Blaine - which. at the time, was... the biggest possibility? It’s funny cause the other two ships were just as big as the Klaine ship, and really the fighting became over who was going to be the best option for Kurt.  

And that’s the thing.  Fans of Kurt were so passionate about who was best for Kurt, because everyone had seen him go through hell and back on the show, so his boyfriend needed to be perfect for him.  And you know who was perfect (at first) -- Blaine.  More on that in a second... 

However, Blaine brought his own bit of baggage -- namely fans of Darren Criss (and/or Starkid fans).  Unlike Chord Overstreet or Max Adler, people knew who Darren was before he was on Glee.  So his own fandom joined in on the Klaine of it all.  At first it was all fine -- as the shipping wars continued, it was less about Kurt vs Blaine and more about Klaine vs the other shippers.  Well, that was going to change.... 

Original Song happened and Kurt and Blaine got together ending the question of who would ultimately be Kurt’s boyfriend.  And things were nice and cozy headed into season 3.  You’d think the Kurt/Sam and Kurt/Karofsky ships would die out, but not really, they stuck around for a long time, and kinda morphed into something else.  

See, The First Time happened.  And for the first time Blaine wasn’t the perfect prince that he was in season 2 -- he had more of a developed personality, and more flaws.  And... some people didn’t like it.  (Also added to the mix was Sebastian -- and the Seblaine and Kurtbastian ships were born, but those kinda go off on their own thing and I’m not really going to bring them up much here.)  Anyway, what really got fandom split was Dance With Somebody. 

You had two sides of an argument, people who saw Kurt’s POV and people who saw Blaine’s POV -- and guess what happened.  The two sides began to fight with each other over who was “right” in the argument.  (My god...) And thus started what fandom started referring to as The Better Boyfriend Olympics. 

See - for reasons I don’t fully understand - instead of seeing that each of the boys have a fault and each were wrong in the episode, each side wanted to say that their side, and their POV was the correct way -- that one boyfriend was more oppressed and the other was not as good a partner.  

On the Kurt side, though, you had a lot of the old Kurt fans and ships who didn’t like Blaine (and/or didn’t want Blaine as his partner) so they vehemently decided that unless Blaine was the perfect boyfriend again, he didn’t deserve to be with Kurt.  Meanwhile, you had the Blaine fans, many of them Darren fans who wanted Blaine to have more depth to him than just being Kurt’s boyfriend, and not being Kurt fans first (or originally) they were going to push back at the Kurt fans who were lashing out at Blaine. 

Compounding this was the fact that during season 3, there were so many cast members and characters that unless you were Finchel, you were begging for scraps and your featured episode to come along.  Meanwhile - Kurt got a ton of screen time, but didn’t sing much, while Blaine sang a lot more, but didn’t get much story.  The Kurt fans resented that Blaine was always singing.  The Blaine fans were annoyed that the Kurt fans resented it, and tried to remind the Kurt fans that Blaine barely got any development.  

Either way, a war had begun.  And then The Break Up happened.  

Now Kurt fans had a specific reason to point at -- Blaine being a terrible boyfriend.  He cheated.  He’s terrible.  The end. 

The fandom was not firmly split into sides - you were either a Kurt fan - a lot of them who HATED Blaine - partly because he was getting more attention at the time, partly cause he did sing more, partly because they were made up of Kurt ships that didn’t work out, and partly cause they saw so much of themselves in Kurt that they projected onto him their own feelings, and loving Blaine was not a part of that projection.  Or you were a Blaine fan - who spent a lot of time defending Blaine to the point of exhaustion, and became so resentful of Kurt that they wished Blaine could be with anyone else because Kurt (fans) didn’t understand Blaine and should just stop trying. 

Weren’t there any Klainers you ask? Ha, well.... Klainers, people actually liked Kurt AND Blaine were stereotyped into two categories.  Category A) the really really loud fanbase (usually on Twitter) that harassed the creators, RM, Chris, Darren, various crew about Klaine every second that they got -- to the point that it started to feel embarrassing (that’s probably my own projection).   Category B) People who thought (think) that Chris and Darren were (are) in a secret relationship.  (Spoiler alert they aren’t, never have been, and never will be.)  The two of these categories overlapped A LOT, and many of the fans of one boy or the other just disassociated completely.  

You could still be a fan of the Klaine relationship, but you had a preference to which boy you were actually a fan of -- you couldn’t like both, or else you were a Klainer, and that was not cool.  (I spent a long time NOT identifying as anything, and trying to make sure everything I did and said was equal -- a) cause I was new to fandom and b) cause I hated that either one or the other of these characters were villainized so frequently.) 

Anyway - Season 4 continued.  Adam showed up, and Kurt fans got all excited, but the problem was that a lot of them saw him as the perfect boyfriend again -- not a real character but a prop that could make Kurt look good and be everything for Kurt.  Look, I liked Adam, I did, but he was underdeveloped, and this weird idea that your boyfriend needs to be perfect in order to be a functioning relationship is just unrealistic.  I digress.  Meanwhile, we didn’t get a lot of Kurt POV, which didn’t help things, and meant even more projection over his character. 

Meanwhile, the Blaine fans had formed their own community, which became viciously defensive of him.  I think the whole fandom was toxic during this time for a lot of reasons, and I really wanted to quit it.  Many people did -- the show wasn’t being fun anymore. 

Season 5 came along, the boys got back together, tempers simmered, but the whole idea of the Better Boyfriend Olympics came back every time a conflict happened.  Arguments about who was the better boyfriend ensued, gatekeeping as to why their pick was best and why your opinion sucked still ran through the fandom.  Not helping was the fact that Cory had died, and the creators, actors, and crew -- as well as media -- was tired of Glee.  

The one nice thing, though was that a lot of the old crowd had moved on by then, and there was an influx of newer people coming in during season 5 (and season 6) -- they weren’t here for the season 3 droughts and season 4 wars, and brought in a newer and fresher perspective.  

But still - we had the end of season 5 and the summer of spoilers and season 6 to get through.  At this point, the Kurt and Blaine camps had moved to their parts of the internet and really not speaking much to each other if they could help it.  When an argument happened on the show, the same kind of Better Boyfriend Olympics came up again -- one boyfriend was worse than the other, and unless they changed xyz they were not good enough for the other.  But at this point, it was incredibly tiring.  I know that I was just ready for the show to be done with. 

I should say, as an aside, not helping things were the rise of some rather vocal BNF-ish fans, who dug their heels in about their own opinions.  The refusal to even acknowledge that one side or the other might be right, or have valid points was not helping anything.  A lot of people on both sides refused to even listen to the points on the other side -- and instead of being frustrated at the show, the creators, or whatever, they took it against each other, which wasn’t fun to watch either.

Season 6 happened - Blainofsky happened, and that killed enthusiasm for the season on both sides, most people just kind of wanted it to be over.  And then the ending came quickly, and I think a lot of people who were just plain unhappy about everything left for good.  

The Better Boyfriend Olympics, or this weird competition that always pitted the boys and their fandoms against each other in the name of one being better than the other, leveled off after this.  I won’t give myself /that/ much credit - but one reason I created @todaydreambelievers was to give fans of both Kurt and Blaine a safe place where we could enjoy and discuss both boys without the BBO rearing its head.  And you know what -- it did mend a few hearts.  

For the most part, it’s been pretty quiet since.  Fandom is quieter, but I think the people who have come into it after the show has ended are a lot less judgmental and argumentative.  (I suppose it helps if you know how the story is going to end.)  And the cool thing, for me, is finding a group of people who enjoy Kurt and Blaine equally (or respectfully) -- and reclaiming the name Klainer as a good thing.  

I’ll end by saying this -- it’s been relatively peaceful, even with the influx of new people throughout the years, but I have been seeing shades of BBO pop up again.  Look, you don’t have to like Klaine to be a fan of one or the other of them.  But there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world, a lot of things to be angry and get indignant about.  How a fictional couple was written ten years ago is not one of them.  Be respectful of people, and know that maybe the side you understand better isn’t the only side worth listening to.  ;)