namanbagdi20

[kneworder]

some of you guys weren't raised on heroes (2005) and it shows

[variousqueerthings]

okay I watched good omens s2 yesterday with my partner, and I was genuinely very surprised -- I think if you've grown up through superwholock/merlin/the 100/teen wolf type shows where (with the exception periodically of doctor who) you kind of had to make up the good show that something could have been in your head, that colours a lot of your viewing, and to be honest I thought season 1 of good omens was a fine little piece, honoured the book while modernising it somewhat, it was a nice, fun, low stakes time, with a couple of things I might have wanted a tad different but nothing overall awful.

so I was seeing all this meta and gifsets and discussion, while I was waiting to give s2 a watch with my partner and thought "ah, people have made up the good show in their heads again" not that I assumed s2 was going to be a bad show, but that people were taking extra deep plunges into possibilities, the way fandom does, and that was fine. I knew there was a big ol kiss, I had a sense of some kind of argument at the end, and that it was setting up a s3

I also knew that mainstream reviews were calling it (politely) self-indulgent and dependent on whether or not you enjoy david tennant and michael sheen having a good time for just under 6 hours

all in all, expectations of a somewhat mainstream show without too much to think about, a nice, fun low stakes time, moving on...

(EDIT: AND THEN I WROTE A LOT OF WORDS SO YOU CAN IMAGINE THAT MY REACTION WAS QUITE DIFFERENT)

as it turns out it seems these things that were being written on tumblr were discussing the actual text of the show and not things you could extrapolate if you squinted and tilted your head a little to the left as I'm so used to doing, so in fact there is much to think about!

and my first thought was "this is like when you read early discworld books that ask a question like a joke, only to find that over time the answer to that question becomes very serious (and also can be funny at times of course)." how terry pratchett would pick and pick at tropes and notions and social ideas and go "oh now hold on, this seems strange..." starting way back when he thought it was odd that women warriors always seemed to be dressed in metal bikinis and then realising he hadn't done a good enough job of subverting the trope, simply by depicting it and calling it a bit silly

why do goblins always get treated as the villains? what's with this divine succession of kings business? where are the female dwarfs? who do we treat as disposable?

good omens season one went: "haha what if heaven and hell were intensely incapable, bureaucratic, corrupt, and uncaring of the work they did, and we took an angel and a demon and had them actually care? wouldn't that be... a bit silly?" (and it was)

good omens season two went: "what are the consequences for caring when the people who have power over you are incapable, bureaucratic, corrupt, and uncaring? what are the forces that supersede systems built on fear, ignorance, and violent conformity? can people change and break out of/challenge/break down these structures by caring?"

and this was set up with a neat little sleight of hand (to reference aziraphale's switch-and-bait in the episode with the nazi zombies), because the majority of season 2 does feel a bit indulgent: hey, remember those two wacky angel-and-demon characters? watch some more wacky things they did through the ages, watch them take a sojourn through 1827 Edinburgh and do a magic show during the Blitz, and... stop the death of Job's and Sitis' children (actually maybe that whole segment ought to have been what they call "A Clue")

see them try to figure out a kooky mystery, all the while setting up a cute little same-gender romance on their street. watch as everything points towards a happy ending that's all about the two of them realising what they've been to one another all these thousands and thousands (and thousands and thousands) of years- but hold on. lest we forget - and the show has made this point over and over - there are powerful people who control them, who hurt them, and who plan on hurting others, throughout the whole season, and as it turns out they know what they've been to one another for far far longer, and know how to pull their strings...

season 2 then, has to show us these things, not because they're indulgent (well, maybe occasionally, but the apology dance is still important), but because in order to make the ending a tragedy, we first need to understand, properly, the impact that they have had on each other. we need to understand that Aziraphale relied heavily on Crowley to be his moral compass and leaned on black-and-white thinking in order to deal with things, because if it's all grey then where does he fit and what has it all meant and heaven has to be the good guys, even as Job's and Sitis' children are ordered to be killed, it's all he ever had...

and Crowley was always an anchor, needed to trust that Aziraphale was different, needed to bend to every whim that Aziraphale has, because otherwise what's his worth in all this? After having been already deemed worthless by the heaven that Aziraphale needs to believe in?

and that, simplistically described, is the narrative that we're seeing in s2, and alongside that the ways that the changes they have upon each other are noticed, and monitored, and placed under suspicion, and finally... broken up, not by the clumsy, brute force that's been attempted over and over again, but by a promise to return into a violent, controlling system and to "make it better from within"

and all of this is wrapped up in two queer relationships + a third queered-within-the-text relationship that creates the inverse of how it ends for Aziraphale and Crowley (so far). queer love -- whatever shape that has -- is explicitly the shape of non-conformity within this narrative, including within the symbolism of angel-and-demon love of Gabriel and Beelzebub, which in the context of the systems created is considered queer (and one can argue till the cats come home about casting cis actors, about angel-and-demon notions of gender/romance/sexuality, but the "queerness" comes from building something non-conforming to the systems they exist in), and enforced by the explicitly our-world-definition-of queer romance that Nina and Maggie have going on (which, while less high stakes, still contains the background controlling relationship that Nina initially is in)

all of this to say, that I disagree that s2 meanders, or that plotlines happen for the sake of showcasing Aziraphale and Crowley without purpose, or that characters get sidelined (I'd say it sets up a whole host of interesting characters to further get into actually), or that it's strictly mainstream easy-access narrative that's just an excuse for the main creators and actors to get back together.

the love is the point, and this show takes its time to show the love (and the unequal boundary-setting, and the fact that one of them has an undiscussed tragic backstory, and the desperation to belong again, and the fear instilled by oppressive systems, and and and), so that we understand why those last 15 minutes happen the way that they do

it's sleight of hand, and like all good magic, you don't notice until it's happened

[chirpsythismorning]

Hi.what make you believe byler is endgame and how do you think The Duffer will make them endgame?

There's a lot of different factors for why I believe byler is endgame. If it was only one or two or three or a single digit amount of things, then I'd probably be more skeptical. Instead it's so many things that I don't think I can even quantify with any number?

Long post ahead so queue for later if you must!

I used to ship milkvan back in the day, and that's probably because I watched the show once and fell for the whole boy meets girl trope as peak romance, without even thinking about it? Like my first time rewatching the show pre-s3, I remember only focusing on their scenes and even going as far as to skip entire episodes in s2 without them in it, so it's really no wonder I missed details that might have helped me understand the full picture.

I also don't get queer-baited, like ever. I have watched shows like Teen Wolf where fans loved sterek, and even though that show had a gay show-runner, it was obvious to me they were never going that route, despite kind of feeding fans over the years with banter between them. The problem was the details weren't pointing to them being endgame, they were pointing to stydia. With stydia, they were using color coding in their costumes and had the fucking red string of fate in the frame with them multiple times and they were having entire plot lines built up around sort of their feelings for each other. Then there's all the other shows out there like Supernatural and Sherlock, and to me, it just felt like two guys that had chemistry that fans read as romantic and were having fun with it, only for the writers to try to profit off of that hope fans had, just sort of fucking with fans for years without really going for it literally in the text of the story.

And even if they did (albeit extremely subtly) that's when you would see shows tend to kill off the characters. Because after years of queer-baiting, the only solution is to kill at least one off, after tricking a sector of your audience for so long. Because unfortunately, no, they're not going to end up together, so we just have to get rid of one of them to make it clear that it won't happen.

While I don't vividly remember the moment I dropped Milkvan and picked up byler, I do remember watching s3 for the first time and feeling like something was off. And then to humor my confusion, I went online and came across an analysis for the end of s3. Even though it did really made me think like 'woah.. what was that?', in the moment, I was still in a position to not want to fall for it because of all the queer-baiting out there. I'd never fallen for it before and I wasn't going to start now basically.

And then I didn't read any more theories after that, I just basically jumped into rewatching the show for fun again, without really thinking about it even, and without skipping this time. And I vividly remember the shed scene definitely had some romantic undertones going on. When the camera was focused on Mike talking to Will, we didn't get any reaction shots in between of Joyce and Jonathan. Whereas when Joyce and Jonathan talked to Will, we got Mike's reaction and both Jonathan and Joyce's kind of reactions to each others speeches in that moment, which was to obviously convey the familial bond going on. And so in contrast, seeing Mike's monologue to Will be isolated, without any cuts to the others reactions during, with intense close-ups of Mike and Will, with Mike literally having one by one teardrops falling down his face and him repeating softly you said yes, you said yes... That... Like it made me really start to consider it in that moment, based on my new potential understanding of the end of s3 and based on what I had found upon rewatching that time.

Even still though, I didn't let myself believe it. And maybe in large part it was bc I did like the idea of byler I guess? And so that made me want to be more cautious? Other times when I came across fans shipping queer pairings that weren't canon, it felt like harmless shipping to me, where like I got the appeal, but didn't like feel genuine intentional slow-burn chemistry? It was always a thing that at most I liked merely as fanon. And so I guess I was trying to prepare myself for that inevitable disappointment that it wasn't going to go any further than what it had?

Maybe it was also because I was holding onto this idea of milkvan I had at the beginning? An idea that in large part contributed to my ability to get hooked with the show in the first place? Boy meets girl is like the most universal trope in our society and it was easy to just go along with it when everyone else was.

But more than anything I do think it was because I thought it just had to be queer-bait like it's always has been. At best I thought maybe it would continue very vaguely in the subtext in s4, with like 1 or two scenes at most hinting at attraction? But we all know that's not what happened..

S4 promo dropped, and I remember being like well here goes. It had been over a year, almost two since I'd been exposed to the possiblity of byler, though I was going into it prepared to see Mike and El being perfectly in love and that they were just going to act like nothing had ever happened between Mike and Will.

But then that Cali poster dropped. And that had me reeling. I remember sending a text to my sister like 'QUEER-BAIT?' and she was like yep queer-bait. But that's also because she's in the mindset of someone that hasn't seen anything outside of watching the show, and while half paying attention at that. This is the first piece of evidence she is being presented with and so of course she is viewing it from a don't hope or assume that could ever happen bc it never happens lens.

Even that I took as maybe a reality check, that this meant nothing, but also at the same time, this is the Duffer Brothers? They're smart? Why would they apply the if boy is pointing his feet at you he is in love with you rule via New Girl, with Mike and Will in the Cali poster, for shits and giggles? When the whole point in those posters is to hide foreshadowing?

Regardless of how much it genuinely shocked me they were appearing to really play with this concept of Mike having romantic feelings for Will, I still didn't fully let myself think about it too much...

And then as s4 got closer and more stuff dropped and there was like a lot of promo hinting Will having feelings for Mike, that's when it really kicked in for me. And that's when I went back and rewatched and holy shit it suddenly became clear as fucking day. My excitement for Vol. 1 was insurmountable because I was just about to have all of these recent built up theories confirmed or denied.

When Vol. 1 finally premiered and it turned out Mike couldn't say I love you to El? And Will very clearly had feelings for Mike, staring at him constantly when he wasn't looking and conveniently with Mike's POV missing by comparison? There was just too much at play that perfectly set-up byler.

Mike having a hard time telling El he loves her, while also having a best friend beside him who is in love with him, like, that's sort of what makes it clear that this is them trying to create a conflict that easily transitions into this revelation that the reason why Mike couldn't commit to El was because he was struggling over repressed feelings for his best friend.

And then that doesn't even include all the details along the way that support it. Like closet scenes for example weren't able to be harmless anymore post-s3, they just weren't. That scene at the end with El and Mike in Will's room established this idea that Mike is in the closet, and s4 did not let up on that idea whatsoever.

We were being bombarded with very basic film techniques that any filmmaker would be thinking about to establish the story and setting and create a feeling to convey a message through all of that.

They did not need to have Mike sitting in front of his closet at the very start of s4. They did not have to have a one way sign pointing to it. They did not have to have two dudes with muscles on his walls while most of the other guys either have stuff completely unrelated to the human form or bikini clad woman. They did not have to show Mike in focus more while staring at Eddie fondly as he talks about DnD and getting out of Hawkins. They did not have to have Mike go searching for DnD replacements in the wrestling room and the art room followed by saying, I hate high school.

The I hate high school line is viewed by most of us as a throw away comedic sort of line. But it really isn't. In fact it's arguably as deep as without heart we'd all fall apart, which is why they literally had that be Mike's quote alongside that one being Will's quote for the season.

Mind you, all of this shit in 4x01 is happening after Mike just episodes ago, in the previous season, sort of treated playing DnD like it was something kids did and told Will he felt this way, by essentially saying he assumed they'd be getting girlfriends and moving on from this idea that they can play games for the rest of their lives.

So Mike in s3 went from I want to grow up and have a girlfriend and stop playing dnd bc it is childish, to in s4 Do you want to play with me? I will literally settle for an absolute stranger rn, literally anyone? No? Uh. I hate high school aka I don't want to grow up. Now he thinks that he's the childish one when really, it doesn't have to be, if he just opened his mind to it.

Watching s3-4 back to back is actually so real bc it's showcasing Mike's complete shift, a shift that basically got flipped from s1-2 to s3 to s3 to s4, and it's directly related to his relationship with El and Will (along with his parents who all of s2 punished him by taking away his toys when he acted out bc of trauma/called his toys hunks of plastic and to essentially be used as collateral bc he's going to need to grow up eventually anyways). And we see how that is conveyed when he shows up to Cali unlike his true self, he just reverts right back to trying to be someone else like in s3. Only now he's trying to pull off a Cali look on-top of it, wearing sunglasses as he mumbles an incoherent sound, something like, 'eahauw' as he rushes up to kiss and hug El, putting the flowers between them so he had an excuse to separate sooner than later, followed actually voicing words to will, moving his duffel back out of the way to hug will properly, w/out sunglasses, visibly very happy to see Will, only to not even be able to hug him by cutting it short. AND for Argyle to confirm our suspicions by calling him a knock off?? NOW I'M REALIZING IT'S TOO MUCH YELLOW? Come on!?

That's another thing, the end of s3 hug between Will and Mike literally ends with Mike looking like he is in physical pain. Like dude looks like he was burned. He looks like a mixture of angry and heartbroken. And so having that, followed up with Mike barely even being able to properly hug Will properly 2 episodes later..? Gee I wonder why?

And then it just spirals from there.

The entire season Mike is by definition emotionally cheating on El, assuming that they are even technically still together atp. There's a reason they had her say From El, and it's so that there was this sense of maybe they were technically broken up now or even just on a break rn, since they wouldn't see each other for who knows how long? Maybe never again? And so that was a writing choice made in large part to allow all of these moments between Mike and Will throughout the season to feel romantic coded and for us to comfortably view them as such. Same with how they did that with Jonathan and Nancy in s2. They create conflict that is near breakup territory, without outright saying I want to break up, and then they throw them with their other love interest and create tension.

When it comes to like how I think s5 could go down with byler, I have a few different thoughts about how that would play out. Obviously I love byler but there's a lot of other stuff going on so this would just be one aspect of the greater overall story. But for the sake of this post I'm going to focus on Byler possibilities.

Them holding off until Vol. 2, literally 2 weeks exactly after the premiere, to have Noah officially release a statement saying We now know Will is 100% gay and in love with Mike, that is them clearly knowing the gravity of revealing stuff too soon to an audience that might not be ready for it. They saw the reaction to s4 and they waited and then they made that choice to discuss it the way they did. That was the point they decided they were willing to tell the truth of the situation, including Noah admitting for the first time, that they've been hinting at Will's feelings since s1, and so he had to always be vague about things to avoid spoiling the Duffers surprise. And while they're doing this, when they talk about Mike's feelings about the situation, it is always that he has absolutely no idea.

There would be no justifiable reason to hold off on admitting Will's feelings for Mike outside of canon, only to admit they've been hinting at it since s1, if there wasn't actually something yet to see be revealed, making this revelation so late in the game, justifiable.

The main thing that we get from Mike being oblivious of Will's feelings, is that if Mike doesn't know, then technically he hasn't rejected Will yet. Because how can he have rejected Will if he has no idea? Answer, he can't!

And so now there is one season left and they are choosing to hold off on Mike's knowledge about Will's feelings? After they just finally admitted after 4 seasons that they've been avoiding telling us about Will's feelings, despite hints from the beginning because they didn't want to ruin the surprise?

What surprise though bro? Slow-burn unrequited love??? There isn't any such thing. Because that wouldn't be satisfying!

It takes us right back to the line Will makes in s3 (mid-series) to Joyce about how he's never gonna fall in love. It's not that he doesn't want to or even hasn't yet at all, it's that he doesn't believe experiencing mutual love with the person he has feelings for is in the cards for him, bc odds are, that person is going to be straight.

But... How is it satisfying to hold off on even admitting Will's feelings for Mike until the second to last season, only to hold off on Mike's POV of the situation until the last season, just to say at the last minute, Well, Will, you were right!...? Like, no.

And so I genuinely think the same thing they did with Will is happening to Mike in a sense, in that by sort of dancing around the situation with answers that don't even allow you to answer the question, by saying Mike is clueless, they can avoid delving into what exactly Mike would think. They can just say Oh of course he will accept Will and leave it at that.

The thing is, if I'm supposed to be rooting for Mike and El, these choices that they've been making, to practically infect all of their scenes with Will in the frame looking like a kicked puppy, it's not giving endgame, it's giving I should be praying for this kid to get a happy ending who is fully convinced that he won't get it.

The main question I have, is are they going to hold off the slow-burn for as long as they can, or are they going to do something unprecedented and make it happen sooner than anyone expects?

I guess for now I think that it's the most likely they will hold off until 5x07 for like the big obvious endgame moment? Slow-burn tends to thrive in it's true form, aka slow-burn until the very end. So it would make sense to have these barriers in place that prevent Mike and Will from truly realizing they have mutual feelings or something of that nature, and then acting on it. That doesn't mean the audience wouldn't be clued in on those feelings earlier in the season, but I think them both accepting those feelings and coming together and choosing to be together is something that won't be like established fully until the end.

THOUGH I will say there is one scenario I could see them manage to have Mike and Will realize those feelings sooner than we think and it's because of the satanic allegations... If Will and Mike were to ever get caught in a precarious situation, by someone in the town already accusing these kids of being the cause, specifically Mike as a member of Hellfire and specifically Will as the kid who has been connected to all of this, it would be sort of visceral seeing how that could play out with them being viewed as like a symbolic indicator of the incoming apocalypse.

Though then again, they still might not get together until like episode 7, bc with the last couple episodes being like 2 hours long, it's possible the homophobic/satanic aspect of it could come into play around then. I think it would be really critical to see other peoples reactions in the story to them getting together, including their family and friends, but also potentially the community bc that would go full circle with what went down in s1 and how like the whole community had an opinion about Will's sexuality even as a kid.

Early s5 is a big indicator of how everything will go down though. I don't think that they'll get separated and be apart the whole season, bc they made a point to convey in s4 that they want to make sure to give the audience a lot of groundwork to root for them and so I think s5 has to be much of the same for it to end in a way that has most of the audience full-on rooting for them and just screaming at their screen for them to kiss already.

However, I do think it's possible we could see them get separated for like 1 episode, maybe 2 but probably not 2 full episodes, I think the reunion would happen sometime at the end of 1 or 2 episodes.

I think Will is likely going to be targeted by Vecna, arguably already was at the end of s4, and then there's birthdaygate to address. Maybe he gets forgotten by everyone as a result of the memory/time trickery that Vecna has going on. And so we could see that play a role in them being separate for a bit while that is resolved, which would likely be early s5, to sort of mirror early s1. But then I think they would reunite by like the 3rd episode and work together most of the season as a team. And we will probably be aware of Mike's feelings in these moments because we would've just presumably gotten a bunch of parallels to s1 and considering Mike and El are broken up, it's going to be difficult to see Mike be so up in arms about Will after all of that romantic subtext, only to be with him and be looking at him like he hung the stars and shit. Even if Will isn't doing the same bc he's like convinced himself at this point Mike doesn't like him back, that would just make it even more clear bc it would be them finally showing us Mike's POV, after hiding it so much in s3-4. It would also sort of wake up those fans who had insisted Mike couldn't feel the same bc there would be no reason to do all of that for nothing.

Another way I could see it going down is by Mike basically somehow making 'a deal with god' (Vecna) that takes him instead. Maybe it's about saving Will who is trying to sacrafice himself already. Or maybe it's a way to save Max and it's sort of a last minute thing that is intended to cause them a lot of grief. Bc we know Vecna loves fucking with them. This would fit into the whole without heart we'd all fall apart, and the whole how am I gonna survive a whole week w/out you guys and Mike getting out in the DND game at the start of s4, along with like the whole theory about how if a paladin breaks an oath they basically have to go on a mini self discovery journey and can essentially be reinstated and forgiven by a cleric (Will). That would fit very very well into the imagery we got of Mike sitting down on Jonthan's bed with the upside down tapestry behind him, followed by Will sitting down beside him + Mike sitting down on the upside down couch at the cabin, followed by Will sitting down beside him. Meaning basically Mike would end up in the upside down and Will would follow behind him.

And I think in that scenario we might be seeing some things from Mike's POV that we have overlooked before, or maybe even things they have deliberately kept from us for the sake of saving it for later. Maybe that unused footage of him crying biking home after they found Will's body, or maybe they re-contextualize the cliff scene in a way that sort of frames Mike as feeling like he deserved to die that day bc after everything that happened with El, maybe he doesn't feel like he deserved to be saved by her, like Vecna just overwhelms him with the guilt that's been piling up for years, which led him to that failed monologue.

Also I think there is a very specific reason they chose to not use the song Time After Time in Max's memory of the Snow Ball in s4, and that's because they're saving it for s5. Every Breath You Take was regarded by most the fandom as a Milkvan song, and if anything it fit with all of them dancing more than it did specifically with Max's memory from that day. So them bringing that back for s4 felt like a combination of the Vecna foreshadowing and also them refusing to use Time After Time quite yet... Time After Time started playing right when Lucas asked her to dance, they easily could have used that song instead and left Every Breath You Take for s5 for a milkvan montage, hell Time After Time even would have fit well with the whole clock theme going on in s4.

But, I genuinely think it's because they're holding off on fully, in canon, re-contextualizing our understanding of that Snow Ball scene when it comes to Mike and Will's perspective of it. And how that song would fit into that revelation is a little to perfect to pass up, again on a show that has made a big deal about clocks and also has connected Will/Mike to the clock in Starcourt with the Yellow and Blue hands ie you say go slow I fall behind-- the second hand unwinds is fucking clock coded bro???

They are 100% saving that clock ass song for the end and that just tells me byler has to be endgame bc that song literally ended right before El entered the gym, it has no association to them, only to either Lucas/Max, Dustin/Nancy, or Mike/Will. That's it.

And so arguably the build up of Mike and Will is the only way to satisfyingly bring that song back full circle.

I guess I'll keep it simple and say that I think one of them are going to go missing/dissapear/be taken (something along those lines) early s5, and the other is going to find them and they're going to be a team basically. I think there could be 1-2 episodes of them alone sort of in the pits of the UD (Hell vibes). Maybe there's an almost kiss in those moments, or maybe even an official one bc them being alone finally is what grants them the courage to do what they haven't been able to do in the real world without the fears of the real world stopping them?

Though I do think that they will reunite with the others after 1-2 episodes alone. And so most of the season will be them teamed up with the og party and also having interactions with other characters along the way as well.

I do think a Murray/Byler confrontation is inevitable. I do think a Will & Robin confrontation is inevitable. I do think it's possible Mike could be exposed to the idea of having a gf then a bf (and vs) by Vickie in the case that Mike finds out bisexuality is real and an option. Bc tbh it's still something people today don't know about. So I don't think Mike Wheeler in 1986 Hawkins, Indiana would, though again maybe an interaction with Vickie could change that. Either that or Robin, Vickie and Steve are going to see Mike call Fast Times overrated and they're all going to share a look and that's when we'll know...

I do think that Will is going to have a hard time believing Mike could feel the same, even when presented with evidence? Not only does he have his insecurities in the way, but he also views El as his sister now (hell she might even actually turn out to be his twin). Even though Mike is his best friend, he's going to want it to be crystal clear that El supports it before Mike ends up being in their family via them being partners at some point. That's just who Will is as a character. He's just going to assume he is wrong for wanting that considering everything that has led up to this point.

And i think El is the kind of character that, no, she wont be like ecstatic about how this all played out and how she didn't need to get her heartbroken, but I don't think that feeling will last forever. I think they might have a little sibling talk about lying, assuming she finds out about the painting and what he said to Mike about her commissioning it. That would be a good parallel to her and Will at Rink-O-Mania when he chastised her for lying to Mike? Essentially an Oh how the turntables moment? Even so, when it's all said and done, she's going to make it clear to Will that she supports him fully.

And I think the same applies to Mike who also is going to want closure that they are okay and still friends and love each other as friends/family.

I think how all of this plays out would be very intricate, yes, but largely keeping in mind that they want us to like this ending and not be bitter about it, and so they're going to have to convince us that we want to fully let go of Mike and El and to root for Mike and Will.

This so called love triangle doesn't have equal stakes to the stancy/jancy one because we're dealing with an audience that has been completely left in the dark, now being bombarded. They have to try really hard to convince the audience to be on board with this, and also avoid homophobia in the process. They're going to have to make it very, very clear there are no more romantic feelings for Mike and El happening. Especially since we're ending the show with them in a sibling dynamic because of their relationships with Will. It would be gross to have this level of well maybe one day he could change his mind I mean he did that once before. Nope. It would be okay to have that sort of left unanswered with the stancy/jancy parallels bc we're not dealing with people being related to each other and swapping back and forth. That's why it needs to be clear in their situation.

And I do think that's why they did the whole I love you 9 times with Mike's monologue. Because it can't go up from there, there is nothing left for them to do after going all out like that, only to reveal Mike meant it deep down platonically? I mean what could they possibly do to backtrack? Have him give her another love confession where he says it 20x and adds no but fr this time?? No. They had to go all out like that to give those viewers what they wanted, the most they could possibly get and then say, sorry it's not happening. It essentially made it impossible to hope for it bc there's nothing left to hope for.

When it comes to byler and like these major moments that are bound to occur between them, I am genuinely most looking forward to them hugging again for the first time since the end of s3. That to me is going to be even more exciting than a kiss honestly (not saying I don't want a kiss but you know what I mean). And it's bc from a hug alone, I think we'll be able to tell that what's going on between them isn't platonic and that will in turn add so many layers to past seasons. I think it's also likely we'll get an almost kiss or two before the inevitable, and that would then make the slow-burn stretching until the end worth it, to me at least? Because just throwing them together never works when the formula has always been to hold off.

And that's also why the show has to end now. We can't have 6,8, 10 seasons of slow-burn, it would be exhausting. 5 seasons is the perfect amount. And having all of that angst and tension and heartache lead to a happy ending is going to make all of those moments in between that fans fought over for being critical of, sort of just dwindle to epic angst that was necessary to appreciate the happy ending.

[vicontheinternet]

The aftermath of daphne's return and the aftermath of nabu's coma being a psychological thriller

[randomperson351]

I’m back - DH

Summary: After taking a break for a couple of days, Derek comes to see you at school.

Inspo: Teen Wolf s3 ep9.

Do not repost or rewrite any of my work. Minors and ageless blogs are blocked.

Masterlist           Asks

Come outside. Behind the school.

A random text showed up on her phone in the middle of class from an unknown number. Immediately her thoughts went to Deucalion, however she eventually realised he was least likely to have a phone and had nothing to do with y/n.

"Hey coach I've gotta go to the bathroom." She said already standing, just leaving Coach Finnstock to stumble over his words slightly before just waving her off.

She walked confidently through the corridor and out the side exit, down the stairs until she reached the alleyway behind school.

Keeping her heart rate steady she looked around, relying on her enhanced senses to get a grasp of who was here.

Footsteps behind. Light and not threatening. She turned slowly, her face stoic as she prepared to see one of the twins or an equal threat before she actually saw the exact opposite.

Derek wandered out from behind the wall, arms by his side as he strode to the middle of the tunnel.

"I've gotta be honest, I'm kind of hurt that you're so suspicious of me." Derek spoke, his voice echoing throughout the alley and reaching her ears.

She began walking to him, slowly at first and building speed to reach a full run by the time she got to him, launching her body at him and wrapping her arms securely round his neck. His arms encircled her waist tightly, lifting her feet from the ground as they embraced.

"Bad things always happen when you leave so please stop doing it." She asked him, overwhelmed with happiness that he had come to her. She felt him breath out a laugh, holding her closer still if that was even possible.

"I promise I won't leave without taking you with me next time." He agreed, letting her down but keeping hold of her, bringing their heads together to softly kiss.

"Where the hell have you been?" She asked him breathily when they parted, keeping as close to him as she could. "And don't say that you needed to be alone for a while cause that is the single worst excuse ever."

Derek stayed quiet leaving the realisation to hit her.

"Oh god I'm sorry, you really did need to be alone didn't you?" She apologised.

Derek smirked slightly and tilted his head quickly to the right. "Not right now." The school bell rung loudly signalling the end of class, shattering the peaceful moment between the two.

Y/n sighed and dropped her head backwards exasperatedly, keeping one arm around Derek's neck and a hand on his chest. "Some days I just want to take a sledgehammer to that bell."

"Why don't you just come back with me?" Derek offered with a smirk, knowing she wasn't far from accepting.

"I can't, I have a double art lesson and chemistry afterwards and if I miss them I'll have so much work to catch up on, not to mention coach-" Derek cut off her reasoning with another kiss, followed by one more and then another.

"Still wanna stay in school?" He asked cheekily, knowing he'd won her over.

"I'll be really behind." She tried one last time that Derek took no notice of.

"I'll help you catch up all the work you miss." He promised, looking down at her with an adoring gaze.

She took a breath in before holding up a finger. "Can you give me a second?"

He nodded and released her slowly, keeping hold of her hand until the very last moment when she sprinted back up the stairs and ran into school, collecting her bag from Coach's lesson and then running back out to Derek.

She passed Stiles on her trip and told him to tell Coach she wasn't feeling well before continuing her run back down to the alleyway behind school.

Derek was still stood in the same position he was in when she left. She kept running back to him again, this time with her bag in tow, and he caught her exactly the same as the first time.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Yeah, I am now."

Derek gave her one last soft kiss before leading her out of the alleyway, one arm pulling her tightly to his body to reassure himself that she was still there.

In fact he had her so close to him that she had to turn her body into him and put her hand on his chest to stop him from suffocating her.

She smiled up at him when she had a realisation, making him smile back down at her but also question the sudden look of fondness on her face.

"What?" He asked gently, leading them through the woods.

"Did you come to me first?"

Derek didn't need to ask for clarification, he just nodded and kissed the top of her head; he knew the answer with absolute certainty.

Of course he came straight to her, she was his anchor.

[panharmonium]

omg—so have you finished your teen wolf watch-through yet or is it still in progress alongside the naruto watching?

no spoilers at all in what i’m about to say, but i literally just watched teen wolf for the first time a couple months ago and i love your merlin meta, so the serendipity of you watching teen wolf right now is like ✨yes✨

anyway, i would love to hear your thoughts on s5&s6 bc basically everyone i know (who has seen the show) told me to just stop watching after s3 but i ended up finishing the whole thing anyway bc i grew too attached to many of the characters 😂 if you’re comfortable chatting in dms, i would be totally down to talk more detail there—but also i would be excited to see any teen wolf posts from you, if you feel inclined to make any, bc like i said, you always have such a wonderful way of talking through things and sharing your perspective on stuff and i always love reading your metas but also most of the people i’ve been talking to about teen wolf watched it so long ago (and only the first few seasons of the show besides) that it’s just not the same 😂

—forever-rewatching-merlin

(i always sign these things as my merlin sideblog bc that’s where most people know me from, sorry if that’s weird) 🤣

*waves a big hello to you* HI!

Teen Wolf is still in progress alongside Naruto, but I'm getting closer to the end - we've got four episodes left in Season 5 (part 2), and then we're moving on to Season 6!

Everyone who told you to stop watching after Season 3 was probably right, or at least that's the impression I'm getting so far - I obviously haven't seen S6 yet, and I'm happy to be going into it not knowing anything about it, but I haven't enjoyed S4 and S5 the way I wish I could have, and that makes me doubtful about whether S6 can course-correct in a way that satisfies me. But hope springs eternal - I always go into new seasons optimistically; I was really enjoying the first couple episodes of S5 before it started to lose me, so I'll start S6 with the same open-mindedness.

My Teen Wolf watch actually started a looong time ago - I started watching back in 2015 (never as it was airing, though; I always just watched it on DVD) and got hooked partway through S1. I watched the first three seasons all in a row and was totally in love with it, but the very end of 3B (*cough*allison*cough*) made me so angry that I stopped watching for like two and a half years. Then I came back and watched S4...and it was so terrible that I stopped watching again for another three years. And now...I am finally finishing. XD

There is a LOT of Teen Wolf on my blog; it was my main fannish interest for years even when I wasn't actively watching new episodes, and it's still what I consider one of my "big" fandoms, despite the fact that I've been running around in Merlin and Naruto-land lately. My general Teen Wolf tag is (predictably) "teen wolf", and then I also use "pan watches teen wolf" for thoughts about episodes I'm in the process of watching (currently working on one of those posts right now).

There will likely be many more Teen Wolf posts here as I work my way through the end of S5 and all of S6, and I'd be totally happy to talk about it anytime! I do find it a lot easier to reply to asks or reblog conversation threads back and forth than use the tumblr messaging function - I don't have a problem with dms or anything like that, it's just that the messaging window is SO tiny and I have a much easier time with longer-form/asynchronous communication (things like Discord servers give me hives, and I have similar trouble with texting, so. I guess I am just Old. XD )

[gallavichthings]

I’m a bit late this week, but I have the pleasure of sharing the lovely conversation I had with @annansmith​ (here’s her AO3). She’s somewhat new to the fandom, but her stories get a lot of love. Some of them are My Whiskey Smells of Oranges, Moonlight Sonata and Just My Type of Thug.

GT: First of all, how can we call you and what are your pronouns?

A: Please call me Anna. Her/She.

GT: You use your real name as a username? That's unusual.

A: Anna is not actually my real name. It's part of it though. In fact all parts of my username are derived from my actual name. but it's still obscure enough that hopefully none of my real life acquaintances will ever notice should they stumble over my fics. Though if they were browsing through the gallavich tag, they'd be secretly people after my own heart. So wouldn't that be lovely?

GT: Alright, nice to meet you, Anna! Please tell us a bit about yourself.

A: What can I tell you about myself? I'm turning 29 soon-ish and not quite ready for my last year in my twenties. Though I've heard the 30s is where it's all about now, so I'm also looking forward to it. I'm from Germany, born in Berlin, but living close to Frankfurt for many years now. I work in the video game industry and have been stuck in home office throughout the past year like many others. I gotta say though, I'm a fairly patient person and I was able to take a lot of positives from this quarantine experience, specifically I got back into writing which is probably the reason why I'm still sane. Other than that, maybe to paint a better picture for you, I'm half Filipina, so I got a bit of an exotic look. I like making people laugh. And I hate exercising. There, some of the random bits that describe me.

GT: That's all very interesting, actually! Thank you for sharing. Do you have any real life friends who are fans of Gallavich or Shameless too?

A: I got into Shameless actually because of my best friend! She's been watching Shameless for a couple of years I think and last year after lockdown started I decided to binge Shameless and like always I overtook her and am further ahead than she is now. She likes gallavich, but she is definitely not obsessed like me. So I have to rein in my enthusiasm when I talk to her about it as to not sound like a crazy person to the normals out there.

GT: Hahaha, I totally understand that! What attracted you to Gallavich? What do you think it's the best thing about the ship ?

A: After being first introduced to Ian and the fact that he's gay, I kept telling myself "keep chill, you're not gonna obsess over yet another gay couple!". So in the beginning when the idea of that couple started being portrayed, I was trying not to get sucked in. Actually I really loved the overall Shameless show, so I wanted to watch it "normally" and not concentrate so much on Ian/Mickey. That resolution came crumbling down by the end of s3 I believe when we saw the hard-ass thug sniff and cry after Ian said good-bye to him. I think what I love the most about this couple is that their love is so pure and so beautiful in its essence that when you see it in juxtaposition to their gritty environment, to the truly ugly and awful that is being constantly thrown at them, it just pulls on your heartstrings. Their love couldn't be stamped out, even at times when they both tried to let go, because their love was just purely good at its core and so real that nothing could snuff it out. Also I love how rough and tough kinda guys they are, but are so soft for each other. I've truly lost my heart to this ship.

GT: The things they had to overcome, it's really an amazing love story when you think about it. It's impossible not to root for them when you see that they really care for each other, despite all the odds.

Why another gay couple though? What are your other gay ships?

A: I had just come from the Teen Wolf fandom. They weren't canon but I shipped Sterek. I wrote a couple Suits fanfic too (also another non-canon couple). I watched Shadowhunters and on there was a gay ship as well. And well my favorite show is Sense8 which is basically a multi-ship gay lovefest. I don't exclusively ship gay couples, but it's evidently a trend.

GT: Did you write fics for all these fandoms or just Suits?

A: Suits and Teen Wolf.

GT: And what made you want to write for Shameless too?

A: I started writing after s10 and I guess I felt the need to fill in some blanks for me. After the break-up, the years apart, and the border good-bye, I felt like so many things were left unresolved. S10 immediately started off as them bickering and Ian wanting a break. I needed to get a little bit more from Ian in terms of how he felt about Mickey being back in his life, how he envisioned his future, how it included Mickey, how serious it was, etc. What about the reason for their break-up? Are they just not talking about it? Does it not matter anymore? We knew how Mickey felt. He had thrown himself back into prison for a failed relationship, had given up his freedom for Ian. I needed a bit more insight into how Ian felt about all of this. Throughout s10 we didn't get much in my opinion and even with the promise ring debacle, his concerns were just slightly thrown out there and never really worked through. It wasn't enough for me and I guess that's how the desire to write something to fill in the blanks arose. Starting from my first bigger fic, I really enjoyed engaging with the fandom. I was usually always the silently lurking fan type. Maybe checking out what was going on in the fandom, but staying under the radar mostly, not talking to anybody. I really came out of my shell here in this fandom! It's a really lovely size with great people!

GT: Awn, that's so nice. You've made some friends in the fandom, haven't you?

A: I made one very good and special friend. I am positive a lifetime friend! And beyond that I have been talking to others here and there, commenting on posts, leaving more fic comments, that kind of fandom engagement. Which is about a hundred percent more than I did before.

GT: That is the best thing about fandoms, in my opinion. I'm glad you had this experience.

What's the best thing about writing Ian and Mickey?

A: Writing in character is important to me, whether I hit that mark or not I leave up to my readers, and I love how much range we're given with these characters. Over the many years we've seen how they react and behave in various different situations. We know what they like and what they dislike, canon contradictions aside. We have a lot of history we can draw from. I especially love how we can go from absolutely deep rooted internalized homophobia to incredible love declarations. Because it's happened! It's not unrealistic at all. We can write them so soft at times and be incredibly self-sacrificing without making them seem OOC. I think that is what I love most about them. In my recent behemoth of a fic My Whiskey Smells of Oranges they meet in a canon divergent beginning set in a soulmate universe and in this slow-burn they have all these moments pinging from trauma and hurt to absolute love and comfort, equally as intense. And I enjoyed having these incredibly tender and loving moments, those big love confessions after the many hardships they had to face together without it, hopefully, feeling out of character.

Also, I prefer writing established relationship mixed in with a healthy dose of comedy and those two have a chaotic energy to them, I absolutely love it.

GT: Is that the kind of fics you write the most, established relationship?

A: Yes, definitely! I love domestic bliss, writing in all these sweet little romantic moments. But still keeping their rough edges. Showcasing their chemistry and why they work so well as a couple... It's my favorite. And if I can make the reader also laugh at the same time, it's the best!

GT: Is that your favorite to read as well?

A: Hmm good question. Tentatively, I would say yes. I prefer reading canon compliant stories for gallavich and since they are together for most of their history, it's established relationship by default. I haven't come across that many comedy fics I think. But for sure there are a lot of soft ones out there. I don't mind reading a getting together or back together fic though. As long as the pacing and the characterization is right.

GT: Which fics do you avoid then?

A: I feel like a lot. This is not a statement on the offer this fandom has. It is about what I am not in the mood for reading. As I said I prefer canon compliant which excludes a whole bunch of fics that live in the AU realm. I have a few AUs I'm up for, such as organized crime and soulmates, but mostly I can't get behind a too strongly divergent background story for them. Especially when the motivation behind writing a certain AU is more about writing that trope than it is writing about Ian and Mickey in that trope. That's where characterization comes into play again. It is definitely a challenge to combine these. A challenge which I myself also struggle with when writing AU. The fics that I cannot get into whatsoever are with Svetlana and Yevgeny. The way the canon storyline was handled just hits a nerve with me that makes me unable to read those fics.

GT: Fair enough.

What are some challenges of writing them?

A: I'd say one of my personal biggest weaknesses is diving into characters' introspective emotional states. Or at least writing extensively about it. I do it enough where it is necessary and where pacing demands it, but there are so many wonderful fics out there who give you a beautiful introspective in-depth look into how the boys are feeling from the very first word to the last word and I admire that, maybe especially so because I can only do short bursts throughout the story.

GT: I am the exact same, so I totally understand what you're talking about.

What are your other favorite characters from the show? Do you include them in your fics?

A: I'm glad I'm not the only one struggling with this!

Fiona and Carl hands down I'd say. Most of my fics are post s9 and, therefore, are lacking Fiona, so when I was able to write Fiona in for the first time I got so giddy! I loved early seasons Fiona. She was my favorite character back then. And Carl is just a really funny character to write. In recent seasons he's become a favorite of mine. I also like writing the dynamic between Ian/Mickey and Liam/Franny. I'm not ready yet for Ian and Mickey to have kids, but taking care of the youngest I really enjoy writing in!

GT: Do you have your own OCs?

A: Yes. In My Whiskey Smells of Oranges I have created, in my eyes, a delightful school principal for my story. He's sort of functioned as the secret guardian fairytale grandmother to Mickey and if I had it in me, I would have loved to add a little oneshot of his POV to my story. I'm also working on a mafia AU, I say that but it's on ice for the time being, and that one is written from an outside POV. That OC is having a bit of a culture shock witnessing Ian and Mickey's unique dynamic. I love how we get to showcase the crazy that comes with the Gallaghers through outside POV.

GT: How do you come up with your OCs then? Do you base them on real people?

A: From a physical appearance standpoint, yes. I often tend to picture an actor I know from another show for my OCs. But they are never based on people I know. Actually, there doesn't go much forethought into my OCs now that I think about it. They usually fit to what I need them to be in my story. Now that you ask I feel like I should put more thought into it? Haha, well, maybe next time.

GT: Hahah, sorry, didn't mean to make you second guess yourself.

Tell me about your writing process then.

A: No worries, I love talking about writing with others! Which leads me to your next question. My so called writing process is a bit of a mess. My muse is very moody, an entitled little thing really... So first I would have an idea I like and can't shake. Then I would daydream a fair amount about it. Once there are a few scenes in my head I really like, I would write something resembling an outline down. Which looks worse than Swiss cheese. Sometimes it would say: family dinner - Ian out of job ---> Freddie blue paint ---> slow dance under moonlight ---> smut ---> bank robbery??

Somehow that equals my preparation and after providing a fair amount of offerings to my muse, setting mood fitting music in the background, and staring at a blank document for hours, I painstakingly try to write down my first few sentences which I always hate. After days of mini existential life crises and self-pity have passed, I dust myself off and keep on writing. At a certain point I will have gotten into it and it's a bit easier to keep at it. I usually fill out these poorly outlined scenes in the moment when I write them. I write other scenes in so I land where I want to end up. It works for some reason. I get really into these spontaneous ideas that make my story come to life. But I do wish I could just outline my story to its last detail. It's just I don't think I would ever start writing, if I had to come up with every scene immediately. When I write and let spontaneous ideas take me through the story, let characters show me how they would deal with a certain plotline, it usually worked really well for me. I guess every writer is different and you just gotta go with what works for you!

I have to write everything down first though, since I don't have everything planned out which is why I need to go back at times to rewrite something. I also lay out bread crumbs throughout the story and I want to make sure it's coherent at the end. So I am not usually a posting chapter by chapter author. I actually like giving my readers the full experience at once. I like to read about their impressions after they've read everything, when it all came together to paint that one big picture for them.

GT: Lol this made me laugh

Where do you usually find inspiration for your fics?

A: Usually from canon. I thought about this before and I noticed nowadays we are so used to binge watching a show that the individual episodes don't sit with me anymore. Having to wait week by week for the last Shameless season really gave me the opportunity to ruminate about the characters' motivation and reasoning. Trying to fill in blanks. Imagining ways to fix certain plotlines. It was really great and I even wrote two oneshots between the episodes. I'm going to really miss that. Especially having to sit with an episode together with the fandom, wondering how the heck to interpret what happened. I'm less inclined to pick something up from past episodes when the moment has already passed. Other than that I really enjoy my talks with @livinginsunnyhell​. We have probably already written entire theses on gallavich and I really cherish those long winded discussions. She's definitely another inspiration to my writing.

GT: Awn, I'm sure she'll enjoy knowing that.

What did you think of the finale?

A: I actually liked it. I wasn't a fan of the pacing, that one gallavich furniture scene, Debbie's weirdo gf, and that floating chair bit, but all in all I liked the open-endedness of it. I love that we have always accompanied this show, these characters over the years as a slice of life type of story. We got to witness their lives through a certain period of time. But they had their moments before the pilot and they will have their crazy rest of their lives after the finale. I like how they will simply continue how we've always accompanied them. Also I'm a terrible emotional mess after I've stuck with a very long story and got attached to the characters. So for me that really made it easier to let go. It's not over, they continue on. And we get to write fanfic about it!

GT: Exactly! It's our world now. 😁

What do you headcanon for Ian and Mickey after the finale?

A: First of all, they'll never break up. They'll get Bazooka the dog and live on the West Side for a bit. They will make a decent amount of money with their business until these knuckleheads realize they can't keep driving around a stolen ambulance modified to hold a bunch of heavy weaponry in it. Maybe a close call will make them look for an alternative job. Still working for themselves and together, but legal now. They might move back to the South Side, buy a little house, and years down the road they will start taking care of a kid that kinda fell in their lap. But in five years earliest! I want them to live solely for each other for now. I think they are not ready yet to be parents. For now let them focus on each other, get their irresponsible craziness out of their systems (to a degree), and cement their relationship even more. I want them to bask in their love for each other and their married life a bit more, before they split their attention between that and kids. In between a lot of crazy shit will happen par for the course, but they are solid and they will conquer everything!

GT: Sounds lovely.

What's your favorite Shameless season?

A: Since I like established relationship and the domestic bliss that comes with it, I'm gonna go with s11. Ian has come into the role as husband so beautifully. I adored him! We got a lot of sweet moments. Of course I don't like everything about the season, but when did I ever with Shameless? But a very close second is s4. I got so hooked on gallavich back then. It was such a great season! Judging from an overall perspective though, I loved the first three seasons of Shameless. I loved how it was all about that family unity in the beginning. How these six siblings tried to make ends meet together with Fiona at the helm. It warmed my heart and I wish we had kept a little more to that theme in later seasons.

GT: Yes, I think they lost that unity along the way. I have the feeling they were so worried about owing up to their name and having shameless plots that were more and more bizarre that they didn't realize that was not what people enjoyed more about their show.

A: Yes, I wondered about that. Did people watch the show for the bizarre stories or for the characters and their family bond? The latter came first to me.

GT: What about a favorite episode?

A: Favorite episode, that is so hard! Gallavich had so many great moments. I'm going with 11x06. I loved Mickey working through some of his past demons there. I loved how Ian was by his side and knew exactly how to be there for him. I absolutely loved loved that talk on the couch.

Seeing them finally happy and there for each other is heart-warming.

GT: If you could go back and change one thing in canon, what would it be?

A: The moment in 5x12 where Ian simply strolls back into the house while the guy he loved gets chased down the street and shot at. Not gonna lie, dark times, dark dark times...

GT: Agreed. Out of your own fics, which one are you the proudest of?

A: It's between Moonlight Sonata and My Whiskey Smells of Oranges. Moonlight Sonata is a post s10 fic very much in line with my usual writing style. It's a fic in which Ian figures out for himself what it means to be a husband. It has a lot of light-hearted, sweet moments and many funny bits in it. There are a couple dashes of angst, but mostly it's a tender fic. The feedback has been great and it's just a sweet fic I think very fondly of.

Whiskey couldn't be more different. It's a friends to lovers slow burn with a heavy amount of hurt/comfort. Writing it was far out of my comfort zone. It's 169k and the longest thing I ever wrote. I never thought I'd be able to write such a monster. The journey I sent those boys on though, it was so heartbreaking and heartwarming. I wanted to showcase that no matter how these two met, they were always meant for each other. Unlike canon they start off as friends and study partners, but they gradually build that same deeply tied connection with each other and while as teenagers they don't have much to give, they give everything to each other. Having been able to explore that kind of wholesome, devoted love between them, has just been very special to me. That fic helped me embrace the parts I tended to think I was weak at and it made me a better writer for sure.

GT: You mentioned the feedback had been great. What kind of comments are you favorite to get?

A: I love the ones that seem to come from an emotional state in the moment it was written. When someone tells you they are so emotional right now, having laughed and cried along with your story, those are really precious. And I really cherish those who comment on things you didn't think the readers would necessarily pick up on, on parts of your story that you might have agonized over for a long time and they validate your efforts by noticing.

GT: What are some of your favorite fics and/or writers in the fandom?

A: I feel like I am repeating myself about this, I already shared my favorite fic recs in the past a couple of times, but I can't help still liking those the best. I absolutely adore @captainjowl​'s fics! Wish she would write more (hint hint). My canon compliant heart goes to @livinginsunnyhell​ (ao3: ProstheticLoVe). I really loved You make me feel human by Dragona. Also a fan of ColdReign and IanRightsOnly!

GT: Hahah, I'll pass the message along lol. 

Ok, finally, tell us about your next fic projects. Do you have anything planned?

A: I just started writing on a Moonlight Sonata sequel which will continue where MS left off, only this time it's going to be about Mickey trying to figure out what kind of husband he wants and needs to be for Ian, including all the series typical shenanigans and love confessions. I am also tackling a season 12 fic which is more gen than gallavich focused. If I can get my muse behind it, it will be in the Shameless typical twelve episode format. I hope I will finish the mafia AU fic soon and lastly I am working on a PWP series, because I feel like we have way too little smut in our fandom!

GT: I love that you're writing a S12 Gen fic!

That's all, thank you so much for participating. A final message?

A: Thank you for having me! It's lovely that you're doing this and I hope we can keep the fandom engaged with fun activities such as this even after the show has come to an end now. I want to encourage all the artists, writers, bloggers, and all the fans to keep the gallavich content coming and circulating! I know first hand it's not always easy to put your art out there, so I really hope we can be as supportive and positive toward all the content creators out there! We do this for free and for everyone to enjoy! We know our works might not be perfect, we know it might not be to everyone's taste, but it's a ton of fun expressing ourselves and sharing it with you! So let's stay kind and encouraging and remember there is always a real human being behind a gif set, a meta, or a 10k fic.

GT: You said it all. Thank you again ❤️

[hepaidattention]

hi I’m going to list off my favorite emotional scenes in Teen Wolf that made me stop and think “oh my god - I thought this was just a campy teen drama.” Don’t mind me. (Not in a particular order.)

1) When Stiles thinks he has the same type of dementia that his mom had, and him and Scott hug each other before he has his CAT scan, and he just sobs as he holds his best friend. That scene WRECKED me and I will never get over it. It, in my opinion, was the most emotional scene in the entire show because it wasn’t about anything supernatural or mystical. It was a real issue that people have to face every single day. 

2) In s3, again when Stiles is mentally fighting the nogitsune and hasn’t slept in weeks. He goes to Scott’s mom for help, because that’s who he has for a mother figure. He needs someone to take care of him and he knows she always will. He breaks down in front of her, terrified over what’s happening to him, and she makes him sleep with a sedative (in a loving, caring way). He calls her mom as he goes under, and that scene might never leave my heart. Ever.

3) When Aiden dies in his twin brother, Ethan’s, arms. The fact that his last thoughts were that he still was going to die as the villain, even though everyone knew he was redeemed as a hero. Ethan and Aiden were never my favorite characters, but his death was so immensely sad and it was too much for me. He was just a kid.

4) The entire episode of Motel California. Isaac literally having to relive his childhood trauma - like what the actual heck? And of course, the scene when Stiles not only tries to talk Scott out of suicide, but then tells him if he’s going to kill himself then Stiles is going to die with him. AND THEN HE STEPS INTO THE GASOLINE. I literally ... I can’t. The relationship between Stiles and Scott might be the most wholesome friendship in any show I’ve ever seen.

5) When the Sherriff refused to let Stiles admit himself into Eichen House and uses the excuse that Stiles needed his pillow because he couldn’t sleep without it. Then, as he’s near tears fighting his son, telling him he couldn’t live with himself if he left him there without his pillow because he wouldn’t ever sleep, Stiles just looks at him and says, “Dad, I haven’t slept in days.” I think Stiles and his dad are my second favorite relationship in that show. There’s nothing compared to their father/son bond. 

6) When no one will believe Lydia that Stiles is real in s6 and she breaks down outside of where his door should be. What hurts me the most from this was that Stiles ALWAYS believed in her. It didn’t matter if she had zero proof, he always believed her and always convinced everyone else to believe her. If no one went along with it, Stiles always did. But when he was gone, she had no one to believe her, and no one to help her find him. Lydia always went to Stiles when she needed his help, and in many scenes she’s at his door for his help. This scene killed me because it reflected how she needed him, she came to his door, but it wasn’t there anymore and the way she broke down against the wall made ME break down. 

7) When the Sherriff remembers Stiles in s6 and his wife has to “die” in order for him to fully remember. Just. That’s it. There’s no other words to say. It was a BEAUTIFUL scene and I... I can’t. 

8) In s3b when Stiles has the nightmare within a nightmare within a nightmare, and when he finally wakes up he’s screaming and panicking and his dad has to come in and hold him down like this wasn’t a new thing. That’s called PTSD guys, and it’s real. This scene killed me. 

9) s3b again, but when Stiles can’t read in class and runs out and has a panic attack in the bathroom. Scott follows him and Stiles is insisting that its a dream, and Scott has to talk him through that panic attack as well as showing him he’s really awake. The realness in this scene just... all of s3b had me crying tbh. 

10) When Stiles has a panic attack in s3a. I swear this show got so real sometimes. They dealt with panic attack's a lot in the show and I appreciated it so much because YES. Teenagers going through this crap WOULD have panic attacks. I mean heck I have panic attacks without my friends and family all almost dying on a regular basis. It was so so sad and it just broke my heart for him.

11) in s6, when Stiles is being erased and he runs to his dad. He goes to him terrified of what’s happening and he hugs him and is frantically explaining and his dad asks him what his name is. That scene hurts. Stiles not being remembered by his dad is crushing, and it really hit me that he was really being taken. Seeing the realization on Stiles’ face is heartbreaking. 

12) When Stiles is about to be taken in s6 and tells Lydia she’s going to forget him and she says “I won’t” and he just says, “Lydia, you will,” but she still refuses to believe it. Then once he’s taken, she sits there and says “remember, remember” and the next scene Scott and Malia ask her what she’s forgetting and she says she can’t remember. 

13) When Lydia walks to and waits by Stiles locker in s6a after he’s been taken, and she doesn’t know who’s she’s waiting for, she just knows she’s supposed to meet someone there.

14) When Lydia realizes/remembers she never once told Stiles she loved him.

15) When Lydia stays with Stiles even though she knows Allison is about to die, and then can sense her death and sobs as she lays on an unconscious Stiles for comfort. Lydia goes through hell in s3b and I don’t think we realize it enough. She not only was emotionally tied to Stiles and had to not only watch but feel the pain he was going through with the nogitsune, but she knew Allison was going to die and knew there was nothing she could do about it. 

16) s3a when Lydia can feel what’s happening to Stiles but she can’t do anything about it so she just cries and banshee screams in her car. 

17) When Isaac has a breakdown in Argent’s arms after Allison’s death.

18) The entire backstory of Isaac. Like. Guys he was so abused that poor boy deserved so much better. His goodbye made me mad - we got so attached to him and then he just left and never came back. 

19) in s5 when they save Lydia from Eichen House but they think she’s dead, and Stiles begs her to open her eyes. I literally hold my breath every time I watch that scene. The tears in Stiles’ eyes, his broken expression, Scott and Deaton looking at Stiles like they don’t know how to handle Stiles if she’s dead, it’s... it’s so much emotion. And the relief on everyone’s face when she finally breathes. Just... damn. 

20) The entirety of Stiles dealing with the death of Donovan. I can hardly get through s5 because I can’t stand to watch the pain Stiles go through the entire season. He is emotionally tortured the whole time, and it’s not like is s3 when its a supernatural force - it’s his own darkness being used against him. He almost loses his dad, he almost loses Lydia countless of times, Scott (his BEST FRIEND, the guy he calls BROTHER) loses trust in him, and he has to live with the death of Donovan on his conscience with literally no support. Stiles was always, like Lydia, right about just about everything. Yet, no one ever picked his side - which left him having to fight his demons, AGAIN, alone. 

I’m gonna leave it there at 20. However, I could go on for hours. This show man - how is it one of the campiest, yet funniest, yet most emotional shows I’ve watched in a really long time? 

[niallloverontheloose]

“Scott McCall would be classified as a genius if his family was wealthy and he had access to private tutors, and could pay for extracurriculars that look appealing to colleges.

The Teen Wolf fandom went so hard on ‘look what clever masterminds Peter and Gerard and Deucalion and Theo etc all are’ but NEVER took the slighest pause to examine what that said about Scott for outwitting every single one of them on multiple occasions.

If Scott was white, if new fans weren’t so predisposed to hate him or look down on him because of the gross influence of the meta crew and their followers, if Scott were ANYONE else, people would absolutely be citing that character’s actions in getting Allison away from Peter at Macy’s in Season One, his plan in Season Two, his preparations for facing Deucalion in S3, his strategies for things like trying to trap a Dread Doctor in S5, etc, etc, as proof positive of the fact that this teenager is SMART AS HELL and thinks on his feet AND deduces things from clues AND strategizes ahead of time AND has a widespread vocabulary AND takes things he knows and applies them to situations he faces AND displays pretty much every other indication and marker of high intelligence out there.

We all know damn well colleges are not just about how smart a candidate is. It’s also about prestige, connections, what a college thinks an applicant can ADD to their school or its reputation…… The world of Teen Wolf absolutely was poised to have supernatural beings in all kinds of academic institutions, wielding influence and shaping minds there….. And what are the chances that any and all of those supernatural beings WOULDN’T be falling all over themselves to recruit the first True Alpha in a hundred years, the werewolf who as a teenager was so influential he took down the infamous Beast of Gevaudan, the Alpha Pack, faced the Wild Hunt and more?I

f Scott were literally anyone else, nobody would have even NEEDED to cite his intelligence as proof that he could have walked into any college he wanted to and been welcomed, nobody would have overlooked how eager the wider world of supernatural would have been to add him as a feather to their institution’s cap…..

The only reason fandom never imagined Scott McCall being actively sought out after the show for his True Alpha status alone was purely because it was Scott, and Scott didn’t deserve respect and recognition in any aspect.”

~*~*~

And that's why the Scott McCall defense squad is the butt of every single fandom joke. 

They'll claim that Scott "demonstrates an extensive vocabulary and preparing for his SATs" even though Allison corrected him in Magic Bullet: 

ALLISON: How did you— You got here at the same time I did.

SCOTT: Oh, yeah, I—I - I just took a shortcut. Really short shortcut! 

ALLISON: What is going on with you today? You are acting all kinds of bizarre. 

SCOTT: I'm just stressing about classes. I'm not doing as good this year.

ALLISON: Not doing as well...

SCOTT: See? Exactly! 

and Stiles had to help him study and learn new words because Scott can't even learn/memorize a bunch of words on his own.... I mean, Scott "academically not the most accomplished"  and "Lydia's mom is the only reason I'm still in high school"  McCall had to drop AP biology (a class literally ANY student could attend to despite of their grades and school records) because it was too hard for him...

Scott McCall's canonically a below average student with shitty at worst/mediocre at best grades even before the Bite; but Scott stans love to erase canon and trying to blame the fact that Scott the brightest crayon in the box on his lycanthropy. Scott's utterly shit at strategy and long term planning, and he can't even wipe his own ass without his "super smart" and "smarter than everyone else" – even Scott admits it – friends Stiles and Lydia, AKA the actual planners and strategists of the group.

Canon Scott has the emotional intelligence of a piece of toilet paper and got played by Theo Raeken like a cheap throughout Season 5. And yet his delusional squad will insist Scott is a genius and smarter than Stiles and Lydia 🥴

[cinematicnomad]

I don't care for the prev tags thing but yeah, #prev tags the teen wolf movie. Sterek fan fics have never let me down.

#i can already see how this is gonna go #stiles and derek won't be included #they'll just be referenced #and if jeff davis wants to throw in one last queerbait he'll have someone suggest that they're in the same place #anyway....i have been waiting for news like this after all the rumors #i will probs go read some fic instead lol (x)

prev tags are THE WORSE, but copying the tags into the post and crediting the tagger is the best)

LOOK i just have some serious doubts that thoechlin and do'brien are going to actually take time out of their schedules to film a teen wolf movie. hoechlin's moved on to other shows where he's actually given a chance to have real storylines and o'brien's out there starring in movies. at BEST i could see them like, answering a zoom call from scott while he's trying to round up all his friends to come help with whatever nonsense is happening in beacon hills rn, but i'd be surprised if that were to happen. if anything they'll just have scott or someone be like "i called stiles but he's working on a case with the FBI, and derek's unreachable with braeden etc etc"

honestly like, super happy for everyone that's excited but i peaced out of teen wolf after s3 so i'll probably just catch the interesting parts via gifsets on tumblr lol

[luulapants]

Digging into the Teen Wolf credits

So I fell into a bit of a rabbit hole researching the shift in writing and directing credits in Teen Wolf, trying to find some explanations for the lack of continuity, whiplash change of directions on storylines, and the messiness of the later seasons. A lot of people (myself included) tend to focus on casting issues and Jeff Davis as the be-all-end-all of these issues, but here are a few interesting things I’ve put together:

1. Waning involvement from the original producers/directors - 

Russell Mulcahy was a producer/exec on all 100 episodes and directed 39 episodes, including every season finale and all but one season premier (5a). He was a big-shot music video director in the ‘80s. According to his Wikipedia, “Mulcahy's work is recognisable by the use of fast cuts, tracking shots and use of glowing lights, neo-noir lighting, windblown drapery, and fans.”

Tim Andrew came on as a supervising producer and progressed to executive producer, holding a producing credit for all 100 episodes. He directed 35 episodes, including some of fan-favorite suspense episodes like Night School, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, and Riddled.

While their producer credits stayed steady, it’s the director credits that interest me. Between the two of them, they directed 75% of S1, 100% of S2, 83% and 75% of 3a and 3b. S4, it drops to 58%. Back up to 70% and 90% for 5a and 5b, then plummeting to 60% for all of S6. It’s worth noting that S4 is the first season where we start to notice that whiplash effect, not really sure what characters’ motivations are. In one episode, the focus seems to be family financial drama, and then we forget about that and focus on Lydia’s powers. Then the focus is assassins, then Kate Argent - and what the hell is up with Peter?

It’s hard to say for sure, but one could draw the conclusion that the decline in director credits from Andrew and Mulcahy also suggest a decline in interest from them in maintaining the show’s storylines.

In fact, in 5b and season 6, you see a third long-time producer, Joseph Genier, step in to direct a few episodes: the rather sloppy Maid of Gevaudan, Blitzkrieg, and Genotype. We can’t give him too hard a time over it, since his only other directing experience ever was a 2016 Netflix horror movie The Secrets of Emily Blair, shitty even by Netflix standards. He also has some late-season writing credits, but we’ll get to that later.

2. The curious case of Angela Harvey - 

In order to understand the writing on TW, you need to know Angela Harvey. She climbed the ranks from personal assistant to writers’ assistant, then, starting in 3a, staff writer.

A staff writer is a salaried, stable figure in the writing department, who works with what is often a rotating door of producers and head writers. They’re usually not the “ideas” person and don’t get the final say, but they help the head writer work through the story and stay on track. Most larger shows have a whole team of staff writers. TW never had more than one at a time.

Shortly after her promotion to staff writer, Harvey got her first full writing credit for Frayed, which is a controversial episode! It’s both praised and detested for the non-linear storyline, the sometimes confusing flashbacks, and Allison’s emotional hallucination of her mother.

After that, she went back to staff writer and was a rock for the show for all of S3 and 4. In S4, she got full writing credit for I.E.D. and Time of Death. Both got mixed reviews on-par with the rest of the muddled mess of S4, but I will note one thing: the human factor. I.E.D., for me, was the first episode that really gave a more rounded picture of Liam, who until that time felt very much like a new puppy coming in to replace our favorite old dogs that went to live on the big farm in the sky.

S5, Harvey gets a promotion to ‘story editor,’ which is pretty much just a title and pay promotion. She wrote A Novel Approach and Strange Frequencies, two more mixed-bag sort of episodes with some golden moments and some crippling larger-story issues. Then she writes the slightly stronger The Sword and the Spirit and... 

Gone. She vanishes from the credits for the rest of season 5. I haven’t been able to find any specific explanations, but I did find a rather telling quote from her in an article about how black writers get hired but not promoted in TV:  “I repeated staff writer four times,” she said.

Harvey then returns for 6x2 with a shiny new title: executive story editor. I can only draw one conclusion from this sequence of events, which is a contract dispute. Harvey demanded a promotion (as she should have, given her longevity on the show!), was denied, and walked off. The show floundered in her absence and begged her back with the new title.

She got full writer credits for two more episodes for S6 but left the show for good after the second, After Images.

To me, it seems clear that they had a strong, stable voice in Angela, but her commitment to the project waned as she realized that the show had no commitment to her. She may not have been the strongest head writer, but she was an essential core, a beating heart of the show. Her contributions were undervalued and, ultimately, the show suffered because of it.

3. The rotating door of writers - 

It’s not unusual for head writers to come and go on shows. Then again, most shows have a stable core in the writers’ room to host those head writers. TW had Jeff Davis, who has frequently been acknowledged to be overly hands-on with the writing (even in episodes he did not take writing credit for), and a single staff writer: Angela Harvey and, before her, Andy Cochran (who was staff writer for S2).

S1 did not have a staff writer, but that was because Jeff had a very firm grip on the story and also because there were only four writers other than Jeff Davis (and the original Teen Wolf movie writers). Interestingly, none of those 4 writers ever returned to the show after S1. This would become a theme for TW writers.

Jeff kept even tighter control on S2, writing 8 of 12 episodes with the help of Cochran. Other than them, there were four other writers, two of whom were a writing team.

Jeff wrote 15 of 24 S3 episodes and brought in 6 new writers and one S2 writer, Christian Taylor who also produced and directed. Of the new writers, only Ian Stokes, who wrote The Fox and the Wolf would become a regular writer afterward (though Alyssa Clark did write two more episodes in S4). Stokes wrote three S4 episodes and three for 5a.

Jeff wrote 6 of 12 episodes in S4, 5 of 10 in 5a, 4 of 10 in 5b, and then did not write again until the series finale.

Starting in Season 4, the writing credits are all over the place. Most writers come in for a single episode and never again. The few notable exceptions are:

Eric Wallace, a later seasons producer

Will Wallace (not sure if related) who was a writers’ assistant that seems to have been randomly granted writing credit for 5a’s Ouroboros, despite having no other writing credits to his name previously. He got writing credit for 4 other episodes in S5 and S6, plus a random staff writer credit for 6a’s Ghosted. 

Lindsay Sturman, a lalter seasons producer who now writes and produces for Supergirl. 

And producer Joseph Genier who, as he had been allowed to direct later seasons with no previous directing credits, was also allowed head writer credit with no previous writing credits.

What can we divine from this? Chaos, honestly. An inability to resist the uninformed and careless whims of the producers. The lack of lower-level writing staff, who are usually the ones there to give stability and cohesion to the story, meant that every new writer brought in new and contradictory ideas of what the story was about and where it should go. Looking at these credits, I can’t tell if the problem was that everyone wanted to write and writing spots were being given as thank-yous in exchange for producers laying down money or if they had such a difficult time finding quality writers willing to work in that environment that producers had no choice but to step in and write as well as they could given a lack of resources.

4. The vanishing first assistant director - 

Compared to the other issues, this one seems minor. However, it seems like TW gave up on the position of ‘first assistant director’ at some point. This position is essentially the right hand of the director, making sure that set runs smoothly and the director has everything they need. 

James J.D. Taylor held the position for 50 episodes, including all but 4 episodes in S1-3a. In the first 3, Jeffrey January filled in. For the fourth, Eric Sherman, who would come to be Taylor’s backup, it seems. For 3b and the first half of S4, Sherman and Taylor traded off every other episode. Taylor tried his hand at directing for S4′s Monstrous, at which point Sherman started trading off episodes with Matt Rawls.

Taylor went back to first assistant director for S5, but intermittently and with no backup for his position. 8 of 20 episodes in 5a had no first assistant director. Taylor directed 6x2 and was first assistant for 6x4 and 6x5, but 17 of 20 episodes of S6 had no first assistant. 

Sure, there were second assistant and second second assistants, but it seems very odd to neglect such a pivotal position. What is especially baffling is that 6b had first-time directors Tyler Posey, Linden Ashby, and Joseph Genier all working without a first assistant director. To me, this speaks to staffing issues and difficulty organizing a show that was clearly on its last legs.

In summary -

Where the early seasons had focused attention and investment from the original core producers, directors, and the show runner, clearly their attention and care for the project waned over time. They failed to promote the show’s most valuable workers and failed to bring in lower-level staff to do the grunt work in the writers’ room. Instead, they pulled in more and more higher level executives, who tend to have lofty ideas about where a show goes but no willingness to dig into the nitty gritty details. Film schools could make a study of Teen Wolf: “How to run a show into the ground.”

[chirpsythismorning]

Rick Conroy's Recent Rentals:

Teen Wolf (1/2/3)

As a refresher, this is a shot from 4x02: Vecna's Curse. Robin, Max, Dustin and Steve are using the video store's database to look through the most recent rentals of all the Ricks in town as hints for which one Reefer Rick is, so that they can get his address and track down Eddie.

Unfortunately for them, this selection here from Rick Conroy didn't give off 'reefer' vibes and so they moved on to the next one.

However, luckily for us, this could very well have been hinting at events that are either already happening in s4, or are perhaps still yet to fully come to fruition in s5.

2. Teen Wolf (1985)

This is easy/hard because although it could be fairly simple, it could also be complex, to the point where it may very well go even further than this film. So I guess I'll just humor the implications, both simple and complex, because why not.

The entire plot of Teen Wolf revolves around a protagonist who is tired of being average, only to find out that he's actually the opposite of average: a frickin' werewolf.

There are a lot of possibilities for where elements of this film could align with certain concepts in the show. I even feel like it could be related to a specific arc on the most basic level (ie. Sixteen Candles = Birthdaygate).

Ironically, something I also noticed related to this, is that in the same episode we get the Rick selection with Teen Wolf, we also see the poster for it in the exact same spot as the Sixteen Candles poster was at the end of s3. We even see the letters ARC(ADE) in the right corner of the frame for both (probably just a coincidence, but a cool one at that).

Notice the pole going straight through the Teen Wolf poster here? More on that later...

Initially, I was going to just associate this film with the storyline related to the basketball team, because we do see a prominent arc related to basketball in s4, and so that felt like an easy way to pinpoint that reference?

However, I did feel sort of inclined to dig deeper, and this is because the other two films from this specific Rick selection connects to Will's character more than any of the other characters arguably.

Basically, after being stumped with the Teen Wolf mention, and intending to just stick with the simplicity of how the reference could apply to s4, I moved on to Romancing the Stone, only to find out it screamed Will, and so a part of me began wondering if it could be more complex than it seems when it comes to this reference.

And so, what exactly would Teen Wolf (1985) have to do with Will and his present/future arc, assuming that these three movies are indeed related to his character?...

Well, Twelvegate.

Just take a look at the film's slogan at the top of the movie poster:

He always wanted to be special. But he never expected this!

Upon rewatching this scene I also noticed there are twelve Ricks total...

As many of you probably know, there has been a decent amount of imagery with Will's blocking being obstructed by rods/poles/stakes, etc. (ie. Phineas Gage). So the fact that a pole interferes with the poster for TW could also be intentional in its attempt to give it some association to Will.

Here are the several other shots we get of the TW poster in this same episode:

I remember so much discourse about how this shot above was foreshadowing Max's confrontation with Vecna, which I do still fully believe to be the case. However, now I'm also rethinking about how that claw representing Venca looks just a little too aligned with the TW poster to not at least be a little bit intentional...

Look at Dustin and Max's bikes! They're blue/yellow directly in front of the poster!

And that's that on that!!

Though, if I’m being honest, this all still felt a little too simple to me.

The poster with Michael J. Fox opening up his shirt to reveal the title Teen Wolf also reminded me of the official reveal that Vecna was 001? Where the UD vines sort of scatter to reveal the number on his wrist...?

While it could be relevant as a potential hint for Will only now discovering as a teen that he has powers/is connected to the lab, similar to the protagonist of Teen Wolf only now discovering as a teen that he is a werewolf, I still want to try to take it another step further.

Now, going back to the basketball plot in s4, because I do think there still could be some connections between the show and the basketball theme in the film, is that there's actually a really layered connection to Teen Wolf going on here. And it has very me intrigued.

Although, this connection can be easily overlooked, as it's not related to the 1985 version, but actually the 2011 drama series, loosely based on the 1985 version, which goes by the same name...

As it turns out, Mason Dye’s most notable role before he was cast as Jason Carver in s4 of Stranger Things, was his role as Garrett in s4 of Teen Wolf.

So I guess the casting department decided to typecast tf out of Mason, by giving him the role of a character in a storyline potentially inspired by elements from the movie Teen Wolf? A role which also happens to be almost identical to his role in the series Teen Wolf?

Jason Carver character description in Stranger Things: popular basketball player ends up hunting down Hellfire Club (ALSO peep his #12 jersey... yep.)

Garrett character description in Teen Wolf: popular lacrosse player ends up hunting down Scott's pack

This also reminded me of the Duffer's talking about the casting of Amybeth McNulty. For those who don't know, Amybeth starred in Anne with an E (2017-2019), which is a drama series based on the book Anne of Green Gables (1908). There's also a well known TV mini-series based on said book which came out in 1985. After casting for Vickie was announced, the Duffers revealed that they were fans of the AOGG book and the mini series as kids (which is why the book was referenced in the show a few times), but also made a point to add that they were big fans of AWAE.

This is interesting to me because I feel like TW and AWAE are the kind of shows that have a bad rep (mostly deserved for TW atp), but specifically because of how they present themselves on the surface?

Werewolf teens and a talkative red-haired girl in braids don't exactly scream quality TV to most people? Which like, fair enough. Not to mention, both adaptations were based on stories that were very popular in the 80's, being modernized for future audiences. And so a lot of people hated them for that reason alone, without even giving them a second glance.

However, within the context of the Duffers, who are well known film nerds, who literally watch anything and everything under the sun, I think it's possible (and even likely) they watched Teen Wolf the series.

Arguably, TW's most impressive narrative moments come from season 3b. Which interestingly enough brings us back to the main focus I had for this post, which is how exactly this could all relate to Will.

Answer?

Will being possessed by the Mind Flayer is EXTREMELY void-Stiles coded:

Void-Stiles is easily recognized as one of the strongest arcs in the entire series, and for good reason. S3b season truly tested the limits of Dylan O'Brien's talent, along with a lot of other elements in the show just really hitting the mark that season. The story-building, the vibes, and the acting from the cast overall was pretty good, making it well regarded as a fan favorite (sound familiar?).

At first it starts with Stiles sacrificing himself, essentially dying for a short period of time, only to come back to life, but to have also left a door open in his mind. This door (ajar) makes Stiles vulnerable to the Nogitsune (an evil spirit that feeds off of chaos, strife and pain), who of course takes advantage and attaches to Stiles.

Slowly, Stiles starts experiencing an inability to focus, sleepwalking, vivid dreams during the day, while also not being able to tell the difference between dreams and reality. Eventually this leads to the Nogitsune gaining control, who then starts to have more influence on Stiles' behavior, leading him to trick his loved ones around him into believing that it's him by acting like Stiles at times, when really it's the Nogitsune. He uses Stiles' body as a vessel to wreak havoc on the town of Beacon Hills, but also specifically Stiles friends/family.

He even goes as far as to make Stiles do things like twist a sword into his best friends chest, then finally detaches himself from Stiles' body only to in that very same moment kidnap Lydia (his love interest), and ending in a battle with him orchestrating the attempted murder of an entire floor of a hospital, along with successfully killing a beloved main character.

While I do think it's possible we could see some similarities between these storylines here (we arguably already have), something I realized a while back when researching for birthdaygate, was that it did remind me a great deal of Stiles' arc in s6a of TW.

What makes this arc kind of ironic in the context of this post, is that there are some parallels to Back to the Future...

Basically everyone forgets Stiles existed, to the point where he's completely erased from reality, including photographs (Back to the Future reference). Other details about him, like his name and his connection to the people around him, is what plays a big part in his return (including radios being used between realms to communicate with him... yep).

As it's happening, Stiles starts going up to everyone he knows, first casual friends, and slowly down the line to people that mean the most to him. Suddenly his best friend doesn't know him, then his dad, finally the only person left who remembers him is Lydia, only for him to be taken and for everyone to forget (including Lydia). And this was basically the big cliffhanger that closed off the first episode of the season, with it being a guiding force to them getting Stiles back in the following episodes.

Now, I just want to make it clear that I do NOT think that this is how s5 is going to play out, like barely, if at all.

My main purpose for this post was to look at the simple and complex in relation to this reference and how it could relate to what is to come, in any shape/form.

Like, we know they draw a lot of inspiration from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (along with 100+ films and more). And yet still, that doesn't mean we're expecting the show to play out exactly like it does in those stories.

What we're expecting is some inspiration & parallels.

S5 is said to be drawing a lot of inspiration from s1-2, which are two seasons most tied to Wills disappearance and possession.

Clearly in the case of this reference, there are A LOT of possibilities for what this could be hinting at related to Will's arc in particular.

I'm excited, but also terrified to find out what...!

[capricornsicle]

I have a feeling your ask box and I are going to be familiar. You might be hot-taked out after that killer Satomi discourse. But whenever you’ve got it in you, I’d sure love to hear what you think about Kira and her Jeff-deemed-absolutely-necessary departure.

Oh, definitely. And I do love content, so...

Kira Yukimura was done so dirty by the writers and Jeffrey “I’m not racist I’ll prove it by arguing to poc calling me out for it on twitter” Davis. Her treatment was racist, tokenizing, and it wasn’t even high-brow racism. It was sloppy and lazy. If you’re gonna write all your characters of color off the show, commit to it. She went to the desert like 5 times before she stayed. Cowards.

Kira was only meant to be on the show for the Nogitsune storyline in 3b. However, fans liked her so much that, as with Theo in season 6, she was brought back for more episodes. The difference is that Cody Christian is white-passing and male and Arden Cho is not. Female characters don’t exist on Teen Wolf without a relationship to a male character. Hayden existed for Liam. Tracy existed for Theo. Melissa existed for Scott and Argent. Allison existed for Scott. Lydia, the female character with the most screentime of all of them, spent a lot of her time existing in relationship to Jackson, Stiles, Parrish (shudder), and other male main characters. Women on the show were reduced to love interests and mothers more often than not, and Kira was the same.

I loved her character. I loved her arc. I loved Arden Cho, who in real life is as sweet and kind as her character. I enjoyed her parents, both Noshiko, who’s surprisingly funny and a total badass, and Ken, who’s the most wholesome man in the universe. The only straight man we stan. I love him.

Anyways, Kira was getting a fun arc outside of being Scott’s girlfriend, with her parents and her powers and all, and then wham, white-passing boy shows up and no more main character status for Kira. Guess there wasn’t enough room to keep the only interesting plot line of all the ones happening in s5. Personally, I would have chosen Kira over the Marrish garbage fire of underage relationships, but that’s just me.

Then. The Skinwalkers. I could write a whole essay about them, but this is a Kira post, so I’ll limit it to her. At least Luther got sent to the moon for a reason. Kira got sent to the desert for “rEaSoNs”. There was no indication that her power was out of control, but every indication it wasn’t. She was growing and learning. Then, suddenly, she was “too powerful” so she had to go to the desert and disappear for a few episodes and then go back and forth for a while before they wrapped up sending Theo to the upside down or wherever he went and she could finally go... hang out with the people who we were told could help her control her power but who only threw spears at her and gave her a season finale ex machina. Then back to the desert with you!

You can tell something was going on backstage in her treatment. Arden Cho wasn’t informed she was being cut, she had to be told by fans. Her departure was carried out as swiftly as possible, and not for any real reason. Kira would have been tremendously helpful against the hunters and in a lot of later scenes, against the Ghost Riders (and let me remind everyone that KIRA WAS THE ONE WHO TOLD LYDIA ABOUT THE WILD HUNT), against pretty much anything. Immune to electrocution? Don’t help with the hunters who love electrocuting people. Sloppy writing through and through.

And what’s more is that Kira was cut just in time for the Scalia thing, which was so fucking rushed oh my GOD nothing has ever been less natural- this is a Kira post, calm down capsicle. Anyways, Kira got replaced as Scott’s love interest and not much else by a white girl, no hate on Malia or Shelley but much on the writers. I loved Malia and Kira’s friendship, and if anyone should have gotten with Malia, it should have been Kira. (The first time I saw Malia I wondered if we were getting another ambiguously brown character, actually, but no, just Georgian and well-tanned. But I bet not all my followers knew Tracy was played by a Chinese and Cherokee actor. Or that Nolan was played by a Mexican and Caxcan actor. Or that Theo was played by a Penobscot Native actor. The list goes on of white-passing POC who got to stay marginally longer than Black or brown characters.) The “Scott ends up with a white girl he has no chemistry with” threw me for many loops, especially after I was surprised to find myself liking Scira, even though I’m usually bored by straight relationships because of their one-sided focus and nonexistent chemistry. Kira got to be a character outside of Scott, and I liked their romance better for it, and then desert for a thousand years!

TLDR on the canon end of things is that Kira and Arden were done dirty by a group of powerful white men who wanted to tell a cishet white story.

Now, on the fandom end of things, I’m stepping into the real hot water. It’s safe to say that Kira’s story was sloppy and Arden didn’t deserve that ending, but it’s less safe to say that this fandom doesn’t treat her that well either. Here’s the most popular x Scott ships on Ao3, under the Teen Wolf tag with no other filters.

Scott and Allison. Scott and Stiles. Scott and Isaac. Then Scott and Kira, in dead last. Scott and Malia don’t even make the top ships list, probably because of how rushed and sloppy it was, but I digress.

People love Scott and Allison a lot, and I get that. I liked her too. I was also sad when she died. But, unlike a lot of sentiment I see in this fandom, I don’t think she should have been brought back to fight the beast in season 5 and get back with Scott. Not only do I think bringing characters back to life without very good reason and explanation (which they wouldn’t have, come on) cheapens their death, and that bringing characters back to life is weak storytelling in general, but let’s recall that Scira is still a thing in season 5. They’re still madly in love when Kira leaves. Allison should not have come back and love-triangled so Kira could be written off for a different white girl or so the massive amount of young white girls in the fandom who love Allison would be angry at Kira for breaking up their OTP. That would have been the one thing that could have made season 5 worse. (Well, they could have made Marrish a thing or killed Mason, but Jeff Davis thought about it and a shiver went down his spine because the ghost of Christmas future hears my name in its nightmares.)

Even if people aren’t “bring Allison back” campers, they largely ignore Kira’s entire existence. People who post gifsets and posts about Allison or Lydia don’t give anywhere near the same amount of attention to Kira. I see more Malia posts, actually. And while all of them had more runtime than Kira, none of them paired with Scott quite as perfectly, or had such strong independent storylines. Lydia almost did, but it kept petering out and she kept going back to main plot only. I see lots of appreciation posts for Allison and Lydia and Malia and the men, obviously, but NOTHING for Kira or Arden Cho. We all know what happened backstage because we read the same post in 2016 or whenever and then we all stopped talking about it.

Even the racism in this fandom skips Kira. Scott antis, I’m looking (controversially) at you. I’m glad Kira isn’t the subject of a bunch of obvious racism (as much as “bring Allison back!” makes it subtle), but not because she’s a forgotten side character. Kira made the main credit sequence! She has a sword! What else could you all POSSIBLY want?

And here’s where I burn at the stake: Kira was written off her own damn “look Fun Japanese mythology” storyline half the time so it could center around Stiles. A white boy. There were numerous issues with the mythology before that — “Oni” means demon, not “firefly samurai ninja”, and it refers to a similar mythology as the western “fae”, a large collection of creatures benevolent, malevolent, and in between, with different traits and origins. Kitsunes are meant to be red or white, not gold, and they’re foxes, not cats, animation team. “Nogitsune” refers to the malevolent class of “low” Kitsune, or “wild” Kitsune, who didn’t align themselves with the goddess Inari and do divine and pious work. There are many of them and the most they really do is harass people at shrines, not murder indiscriminately for funsies. They’re only malevolent in that they like doing bad deeds, not that they’re serial killers. And they’re not one of the usual 13 low Kitsune, two of which are bad of their own accord! (Spirit and Air. Google it!) They are meant to be dealt with by Inari-aligned high Kitsune, not your average tricky fox. Among other things.

So Stiles. Outside of the Kira storyline, he’s used in a lot of fandom discourse about racism and sexism. And queerbaiting. Y’all love a scrawny white boy. Anyways, Stiles gets possessed by the Nogitsune (that’s NOT how that works but okay Jeffrey) and suddenly s3 is about him. Kira’s not evil, now let’s look at Stiles being tired and messy and killing people. Dylan #1 did a great job playing that part, no hate on him, but the fact that a white boy became the main character in a Japanese (or Korean, if you’re Jeff, same thing) girl’s storyline is. Hmm. How do you call it? Blatant racism. And erasure. Which is racism. YIKES, Jeff. There is so much wrong with Stiles being the Nogitsune and controlling the Oni and his whole story (and oh my god the other guy who got possessed was also a white boy instead of a Japanese character played by the same actress Jesus fucking Christ). I’m not going into that, because that’s its own essay.

Anyways, because of how much this fandom loves Stiles, it’s easy to ignore how Kira and Japanese characters were treated. People project onto Stiles with glee. He’s white. He’s awkward. He’s (supposedly) not super attractive. (Yikes.) He’s ditzy and bouncy and all that fun stuff, but he also always saves the day. He got written off for most of 6b and he still saved the stupid day. And hey, dark!Stiles (let’s not get into calling him dark instead of Nogitsune that’s just too much wine we’d have to crack open to say it) is a fun trope and people like posting and creating about him. Except that he’s the white boy who took Kira’s storyline. Her independent story about Kitsune and the like was all given over to him, not just by the show, but by the fandom. So now every post about Kitsune is a Stiles post, even if it started with Kira. And because it’s Stiles, and this fandom loves him, and is easily offended by people leaning too hard on the glass house around them and him, Kira gets forgotten and swept aside. Everyone would rather talk about Stiles. Who is incapable of bad. Or cultural appropriation. But if you attack him you’re being ableist because he has ADHD. This is why I relate to Nolan for anxiety feels instead.

TLDR on the fandom end, y’all don’t treat Kira better than the show did. I see a few posts here and there from some dedicated users — typically the same people posting about Boyd, Deaton, Morrell, yeah that’s it I’m the only one posting about Kali. (Un-fun fact: Kali was not played by an Indian actor, but by a half-Black actor. Jeff Davis, when called out on twitter, said “wow ok idiots we tried to find an Indian actress but it was hard actually SUPER hard so shut up and stop telling me how to write MY show”, which is paraphrasing with intent to make fun, but exactly what he said.) Y’all who know about Arden and Kira should diversify your blogs to include more POC, especially ones where the actor AND character were rudely sidelined for vague white people reasons. Post gifs of Kira along with Allison, Lydia, and Malia. Post ship stuff of Scira too. Post about kitsunes, the origin story of the Nogitsune, when you post about the white boy who became the main character of that arc. Call the show out. Call the fandom out. Stop making every bit and piece of her story about Czechoslovakia White Boy. Demand Kira in any future runs of the show, if season 7 or whatever does happen. Include her in your fanfictions, in your headcanons, in your art. You don’t have to love her, but you have to remember that she’s as there as any of the white characters are.

This take is very hot. If I receive racist asks and/or messages about this, I’m going to make fun of each and every sender.

[blessednereid]

Prompts

Phrases/Quotes

A1 "I gave you everything and you broke me" A2 "How could you" A3 "You were my world, and you burned it to the ground" A4 "I never want to see you again" A5 "Why did you do this to me." A6 "Yeah, those were fun times." A7 "We can't go back to that." A8 "I fell for you, and like glass, I wound up broken." A9 "You can't just break my heart and then change your mind" A10 "You changed my world, but you made it worse" A11 "You told me you wouldn't break my heart, why should I believe you when you say that you want to fix it" A12 "I can't lose you" A13 "Please don't leave me" A14 "Just stay" A15 "I'm fine, just leave me alone" A16 "So you won't even cuddle with me" (Can be a fluff/angst)

Onomatopoeia

O1 *Glass breaking*

O2 *Yelling*

O3 *Agonized screaming*

O4 *Street Noise*

O5 *Restaurant Noise*

Plot Idea's

P1: You've been diagnosed with a rare disease (made up so as not to offend people) and you only have 2 months to live, as there is no cure.

P2: One of you realize that your relationship isn't going as you planned and you break it off, to the dismay of (other person)

P3: One of your friends dies unexpectedly and you and (Other person) are coping together.

P4: You find (Other person) sneaking off all the time and decide to follow them one night. You pick the ending.

P5: Authorities crash your engagement party, and arrest you for murder. (other person) is one of the only ones who believes you and tries to exonerate you. 

P6/My Personal Favorite: you're trying to calm (other person) down when they are mad but they hurt you (by accident of course) and you stop speaking for weeks.

P7: You're getting married to (other person 2) and when the pastor asks for objections, (other person) is quick to stand up.

Songs (lines, titles, etc.) *I really like song fics haha*

S1  Why'd you only call me when your high

S2 Lose you to love me

S3 POV

S4 I wanna be yours

S5 Still Don't Know My Name

S6 July

S7 Line Without a Hook

S8 Arcade

S9 Medicine

S10 All of Me

S11 Like I'm Gonna Lose You

S12 Someone You Loved

S13 Someone to You

S14 Deep End

S15 Hold On

S16 You Broke Me First

S17 One Day

S18 Train Wreck

Send requests, I do for certain characters in the fandoms in my description, but please note I have only gotten to S3 of The Vampire Diaries (I finished TO and caught up with Legacies) and just started S4 of Teen Wolf at the time of posting. 

[once-upon-an-imagine]

Dive (Part Three) - Derek Hale

A/N: hello, dearieees! I am so sorry for the long wait, but pt  is here! thank you all so much for liking this story! hope you keep on liking it XD I honestly finally just started feeling like myself again! expect some pending requests this next week xD 

Warnings: full-moon fight; reader getting hurt, based on S3;E3 (Fireflies) 

Disclaimer: I don’t own Teen Wolf :) gifs aren’t mine :)  

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Dive

And I've been known to give my all And jumping in harder than ten thousand rocks on the lake

“You lost them?”

“Yeah, I... kinda had to” you said, annoyed at Derek’s tone.

“That wasn’t exactly the plan!”

“I know. Which is why I think we should stick together. Trust me, he’s too strong, too fast, and way too angry for one person to handle. We gotta do this together” you replied.

“Okay, we are at the trails by entrance of the reserves, can you meet us here?”

“Yeah” you said, looking down. “I just gotta drop something off first” you said , hanging up and wrapping your arms around the two little siblings still trembling to your side.

A few minutes later, you were running alongside Derek and Scott, looking for Cora and Boyd.

“Is it them?” Scott asked when they found a shoe print.

“We’re not the only ones that decided to stick together” Derek informed them.

“Is that gonna make it easier or harder to catch them?” you asked him.

“I don’t know.”

“You saw Boyd trying to rip two little kids apart. Are they gonna do that to anyone they’ll find?”

You and Derek shared a look before you two turned back to the young werewolf. “Everyone and anyone.”

You got just in time to see Cora fighting Isaac and Andrew. It looked like she could single-handedly beat them both. Scott quickly kicked her out of the way and once Cora saw Derek, she growled at him before running away. He went after her with you, Andrew and Isaac quickly on his heels, and Scott not far behind. It wasn’t long before you lost her again though. And you were then interrupted by another call from Stiles, stating that apparently they found a dead body and he believed that Boyd and Cora were responsible.

“This doesn’t make any sense” Derek stated. “The public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods, we haven’t tracked them anywhere near them!”

“Derek” Scott started. “They killed someone-”

“How are they moving so fast?”

“Derek-” you tried.

“They can’t be that fast on foot!”

“They killed someone” you said, stepping in front of him and making him look at you.

“A totally, innocent kid is dead” Scott continued. “And it's our fault!”

“It's my fault” Derek stated.

“We need help” Scott suggested.

“We have Isaac and Andrew now” you told him.

“I mean real help” Scott said, making both Isaac and Andrew look at him, offended. “They’re too fast for us” Scott explained. “For all of us. They’re too strong, they’re too... rabid-”

“We’ll catch them” Derek said.

“What happens if we do? You’re just gonna hold them down until the sun comes up?” Andrew asked.

“Maybe it would be... easier just to kill them” Derek said, looking down.

“Killing them... isn’t the right thing to do” Scott said, seriously.

“What if it’s the only thing to do?” you asked. “If we can’t even catch them, what else do we do?”

“Find someone who knows what they’re doing” Scott replied.

“Who?” you asked, knowing exactly what he was going to suggest and youcould feel Derek knew it as well.

“Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves” Scott told them.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

“Do you think this is gonna work?” Andrew asked in the back of Derek’s car.

“Nope” both you and Derek said as you all watched Scott talking to Allison’s dad while he pointed his gun at Scott. You couldn’t help but feel like something was off about him. You could feel his scent and for some reason, it felt familiar to you.

“Me neither” Andrew muttered.

“So your, uh- your sister” Isaac said to Derek from the back seat. Derek turned to look at him and you tried your hardest not to laugh. “Sorry, yeah, bad time. I’m sorry” he said clearing his throat and sitting back. “I’ll ask later, is fine” he said quietly and earning another look from Derek. “Or never” Isaac quickly said as Andrew rolled his eyes and you let out a small chuckle. “Yeah, I’m good with never” he added.

“Hey” Derek said softly at you and you turned to look at him. “How’s your wound?”

“Your what!?” Andrew said widening his eyes at his sister.

“It's fine” you replied Derek with a small smile. “I’m fine” you repeated looking at Andrew. “It’s healed” you assured Derek who only nodded. “Look” you said pointing at Scott, who was now getting in the car with Allison’s dad.

Derek quickly turned on the car and followed them to the public pool where they were taking the body away. Next thing you knew you were back where they started. Once you stepped out of the car, Derek felt you tense up, behind him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked you.

“What did you say Allison’s last name was?” you said, trembling a little.

“I don’t think I did” Derek said confused. “It’s-”

“Argent?” you asked with your eyes glowing red.

“You know him?” Derek asked.

“Lupin?” Chris asked looking at both you and Andrew.

“You guys know each other?” Isaac asked just as confused as Scott and Derek were. Andrew had already placed himself next to his sister, eyes shining just as bright.

“He killed my mother” you explained, fangs already out.

“Lupin, look...” Chris said with his arms up in surrender. “I know you won’t believe me, and I’m sorry, but that was a long time ago” Chris told you. “A lot of things have changed and I’m out of that now, I’m just here to help you-”

“Oh, so I guess that makes it okay, then” you snapped at him.

“It doesn’t” Chris assured you. “I know it doesn’t, I didn’t even know you’d be here but honestly, I’m here to help” he said calmly. “I really am sorry about your mother” he said sincerely.

You heard Andrew growling at Chris next to you. You were ready to launch yourself at Chris but then you felt Derek’s hand slip into yours.

“Hey, look at me” he said and you slowly turned to him. “It’s okay” he said calmly and you felt your heartbeat slow down back to normal. “I am really sorry about all of this” he told you. “But... we need his help” he pleaded. “Please?” he asked, placing a hand on your cheek. “Trust me?”

You felt your eyes going back to normal and your fangs hid away. You were fighting everything inside of you not to rip Argent’s throat open but you knew Derek needed to find Cora.

“Fine” you said, still in an angry tone and earning a glare from Andrew. “You help us” you said looking at Chris. “But after that, if I find you again, Derek and Scott won’t stop me” you said with a threatening tone. “Trust me” you said making Chris step back a little scared.

“You tracking them by print?”

“Trying to” Scott said.

“Well then, you’ve been wasting your time. There’s only one creature on Earth that can visually track footprints, that’s man” he said standing up. “And if you’re not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd’s and this-”

“Are Cora’s” Isaac said, confident.

“No, they’re yours” Chris told him. “You trampled Cora’s prints when we got here. Listen I know that all of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges of the full-moon-”

“I know a way we can let them loose” Andrew said glaring at him.

“But that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in” he continued, ignoring the younger Lupin’s comment.

“So what do we do?” Derek said annoyed.

“Focus on your sense of smell” Argent told them. “Actual wolves are known to track their prey to a hundred miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is in with them, wolves can track a scent by a distance of two miles. Which means we can lead them to us” he said. “Or into a trap” he said tossing a big net to Scott. “They'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared” he said as he tossed each one of them night goggles. You quickly tossed them back to him.

“Thanks but...” you said flashing your red eyes at him. “I’ve got my own.”

Both Andrew and Derek did the same thing and Chris simply grabbed them back.

“Just remember, we are not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings” he continued. “Don’t think they can’t rely on that human side. It’s suppressed, but it’s there, reminding them how to mask their scent, cover their tracks, how to survive.”

The six of you started to gather your things before you could make your way into the woods, but Derek pulled you towards him. “Hey” he said softly again. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine Derek-” you said trying to walk away but he didn’t let go of your hand.

“Lupin-”

“What do you want me to say?” you asked in a broken tone. “I’m here teaming up with my mother’s killer to-” your voice broke and Derek saw a tear streaming down your face but you quickly wiped it away. “Let’s just find your sister” you whispered.

“You don’t have to do this” Derek insisted. “You don’t have to work with him-”

“I told you I’d help you find her-”

“Not like this” he said worriedly. “Look, I can’t even imagine how you must be feeling right now. If you want out just-”

“I don’t want out! I just-” you said looking up at him. “I’ve been trying to track him for so long” you confessed glaring back at Chris, who was talking to Scott. And then you saw Isaac trying to distract Andrew from going over there to murder him. “And now I find him and I have to trust him and act as if it never happened?” you said with a sarcastic laugh and another tear fell down your face. This time, Derek wiped it away before you could.

“Do you want me to kill him?” he offered and you let out a small laugh that made Derek smile.

“It’s all just... so messed up” you said sighing.

“I know” Derek said brushing his thumb against your cheek. “But it’ll be okay. I promise” he assured you. “We’ll figure it out. Together” he said with a small smile and you nodded back at him. “And my offer still stands” he said sweetly before he kissed the side of your head. He didn’t know what made him do it. But he didn’t really care once he felt your arms wrapping around his waist.

“Thank you” you whispered before you made your way back to the rest of the group.

“When was the last time you saw your sister?” Chris asked Derek once they started looking.

“Nine years” he replied. “Thought she died on the fire.”

“You feel like you have a lock on her scent?” Chris asked him but he shook his head no.

“Scott? How confident are you in your skills?”

“Honestly?” Scott said nervously. “Most of the time I try not to think about all the things I can smell” he replied.

“Alright” Chris said. “The problem is when they breach the woods and they reach the residential area” he instructed. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of beacon hills.”

“They’re not gonna... kill everything they see, are they?” Isaac asked worried.

“No” Chris replied. “But there is an important difference to recognize” he said looking at them. “Wolves hunt for food, at a certain point they get full. Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill, for some primal apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. And who knows when that need gets satiated?”

“We can’t kill them” Scott said in a serious voice.

“What if we can’t catch them?” Derek asked.

“Maybe we just need to contain them” you suggested, suddenly. “There’s no one in the school at night, is there?”

“You wanna trap them inside?” Derek asked.

“If there’s somewhere with a strong enough door, no windows or access to the outside?”

“What about the boiler room?” Isaac suggested. “It's just one big steel door.”

You turned to look back at Scott. “You sure the school is empty?”

“It has to be” Scott said. “There can’t be anyone there this late, right?”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

“And the hunted becomes the hunter.”

You and Derek turned around to see Peter standing behind you. You had split into groups, mainly Scott’s idea just to get you and Andrew away from Chris.

“What are you doing here?” you asked him.

“You really think a few high-tech dog whistles are gonna help?”

“I don’t see you offering a hand” Derek told him.

“Personally, I'm trying to cut down on futile endeavors” he said.

“Cora's alive” Derek informed him.

“I heard. Let's throw the reunion party when she's not an unstoppable killing machine-”

“I can stop her” Derek assured him.

“Sure you can. By killing her...” Peter told him. “Which happens to be the point of this little exercise. Deucalion wants you to kill them. He wants you to get rid of his baggage, making it easier for you to join his pack. The fact that it was supposed to happen in the vault, and not up here, out in the open, doesn't change his plan. It just means that Boyd and Cora are gonna kill a few innocent people first."

“So we should just let them?” you asked. “We should be okay with innocent people dying?”

“Unless you're okay killing your own” he told you.

“We can catch them” Derek stated.

“Oh, come on. How much damage can they do? So they off a few homeless people, a drunk stumbling out of a bar too late. So what? Let Scott deal with it. Let him be the hero of his morally black-and-white world. The real survivors, you and I, we live in shades of gray. Then again, even if you did kill them, you're still an Alpha” he said before turning on the device Argent had given them. “You can always make more werewolves” he suggested before he walked away.

“Hey” you said, snapping Derek out of his thoughts. “We will catch them” you assured him. “And then, we can beat Deucalion and his pack, okay?”

Derek was about to reply but you both heard the growls from Boyd and Cora coming at full speed down the football field. Derek quickly grabbed your hand and went inside the school to wait for them. Both of you quickly pulled out your claws when you saw them at the entrance. But both Boyd and Cora jumped to the ceiling.

“They’re not going through the school” Scott said. “They’re going over it!”

“The red doors! Someone has to get them open” Andrew said and you immediately went inside the school, quickly followed by Derek.

All of the sudden, you saw Boyd and Cora running down the hallways. Both of you launched yourselves at the werewolves. Derek succeeded in hitting Cora and making her fall down, but you barely moved Boyd.

“You know, I don’t think we thought that through” you muttered holding your wounded arm as Boyd was about to throw himself at you but Argent quickly came in with his taser with Andrew and Scott beside him. Derek quickly pulled you to his side as the five of you faced the two other werewolves.

“Come and get us” Derek told them before him, you, Scott, and Andrew ran towards the boiler room. Boyd and Cora right behind them.

Everything went dark and you could only hear their growls and see their flashing yellow eyes in the room. You stood hidden, next to Derek. You tried to steady your breathing so he couldn’t tell you were terrified. But of course, he could also hear your heartbeat so you felt relieved when you felt his hand grabbing yours. You closed your eyes as you heard them scratch their claws against the pipes. You then felt Derek’s hand leave yours as he, Scott, and Andrew sprayed them with the fire extinguishers. Once they were empty, Derek quickly grabbed your hand again and the four of you ran out of there as fast as you could. But before you could get out, you felt Boyd’s hand grabbing your ankle and pulling you back in.

“Derek!”

“Lupin!” Derek stopped dead in his tracks when he felt your hand slipping away from his. “Go!” he informed Scott and Andrew.

“W-what no!” Andrew started to say but Derek cut him off.

“GO NOW! CLOSE THE DOOR AND KEEP IT LOCKED! I’LL GET YOUR SISTER!” Scott nodded at Derek, knowing that they needed to do it. He pulled Andrew out the door and shut it behind them.

Once he heard the lock, he came back for you. He quickly pushed Cora out of the way and saw you fighting Boyd. He saw Boyd had already made some damage but you were really standing your ground. Boyd buried his claws on your side, making you growl in pain. You quickly stood up when you saw he was going to do it again. You started fighting him back with all you had. And you could see that Derek was doing the same with Cora. You were about to hit Boyd again, but he easily grabbed you by your neck and pulled you up. You kept on fighting, trying to scratch him, kick him, anything. But he was too big. He was too strong. You tried to scream for Derek, but you couldn’t. You suddenly saw Boyd starting to turn back before you passed out. The next thing you knew, you were dropped on the floor and Derek ran towards you.

“Lupin!” Derek said placing his hands on your face. “C'mon, sweetheart, stay with me” you heard him say but everything started turning fuzzy.

“Derek!” Scott, Isaac, and Andrew came in, running towards the two of you, yelling your name.

“Get them out of here” Derek said to Scott and Isaac. “We’ll take care of her” he instructed them as they left with Cora and Boyd.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

“How is she?” Derek asked entering his room where you were still asleep.

“Healing” Andrew replied, not looking at him.

“She’s gonna be okay” Derek said, sitting next to him and Andrew only nodded. “Did you tell your brothers about Argent?”

“I know she doesn’t want me to” he replied, calmly. “They would simply hunt him down and try to kill him.”

“I get where you’re all coming from” he admitted. “Look, I don’t like him either. But, just remember he’s not the reason you guys are here” he reminded him. Andrew turned to look at Derek.

“You know, my sister doesn't ask for help” he told him suddenly, looking back at you.

“I’m sorry?”

“In all the years I’ve known her, she never asks for help” he repeated. “Whenever we’re fighting, no matter how bad it gets, she handles it, she tells us to get out of there, which we don’t really do, but she has never yelled for help” he said looking back at him. “Until yesterday, when she yelled for you” he finished with an arched eyebrow.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know” Andrew said, shrugging his shoulders. “You tell me. I saw you two very close last night, in the woods” he continued.

“She was upset, I was just trying to calm her down-”

“Sure you were” Andrew said smirking. “Remember that look you gave Isaac yesterday when he asked about your sister? You’re about to get three of those. And worse if you hurt her” he said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re an Alpha, trust me” he stated before he got up. “But, for what is worth, I think you’d be good for her” he said before walking out the door.

Derek sighed, burying his head in his hands. He knew exactly what Andrew was talking about. He knew what was happening. He just wasn’t sure if he was ready for it.

“Hey” he heard a soft voice and he turned to look at you, waking up and trying to sit on the bed.

“Lupin” he said gently. “Hey, take it easy. You’re still healing” he told you.

“I’m alright” you replied. “Cora and Boyd?”

“They’re fine” Derek told you before his eyes traveled to the bruises that were still fading on your neck.

“I’m fine, Derek” you assured him. “Um, I’m sorry about last night” you suddenly said, looking down.

“What are you talking about?”

“When I called you to come back” you explained. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You don’t have to apologize for that-”

“Yes, I do” you insisted. “I g-got scared and it was stupid” you muttered.

“Look at me” he said softly and you slowly turned to face him. “There was no way I was gonna leave you alone in there with them” he assured you.

“Well, thanks for coming back” you said with a small smile.

“You would have done the same for me” he told you, making you smile back at him.

“I know, but still” you said grabbing his hand in yours. “Is that for me?” you asked looking at the plate of food next to the bed.

“Yeah, I thought you would be hungry when you woke up” he said shrugging his shoulders. He cleared his throat when he saw the smirk on your face. “I mean, you should eat if we’re gonna start working on beating the alpha pack” he corrected. “Stop looking at me like that, Lupin” he said trying to stop himself from smiling.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Hale” you smiled before she took a bite from your food.

To Be Continued [CURRENTLY PAUSED]

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

[Ch. 1] [Ch. 2]

A/N: aaaaahh xD here it iiis! again, sorry abut the loong wait and even loonger chapter! hahaha hopefuly it made up for it! xD soo… let me know what you think! :D part 4? let me know if you want to be tagged to this or any other story ;)

[staliasjeronica]

Riverdale S5 Ep2 Thoughts *Spoilers*

Thoughts under the cut so it’s not long and annoying!!

- Can’t wait for this Archie centric episode ugh it’s so dumb how the show derived from the ARCHIE Comics isn’t about Archie anymore… teen wolf did the same thing with it’s main character and it’s so dumb

- Slughead fadshjfkaslja

- Archie 🥺😭 poor baby

- Bret’s ALREADY dead? Damn.

- Typical Cheryl lol

- Archie can be so good at faking dating Betty but not Veronica :(

- Jughead shut up???

- Veronica caring about Jughead’s feelings I’m so—but she’s acting like they’re the it couple of Riverdale High and iff they break up everyone will be devastated lol literally no one other than Jughead would care. Still, she’s babie and trying to keep the peace even though she shouldn’t have to be the better person like always.

- Ahhh Hiram. And Archie once again being attacked by an adult. NOT HIRAM ACTING LIKE HE DIDN’T HAVE A MISTRESS, AND ALSO BRINGING FRED INTO IT? FRED NEVER CHEATED I????

- So Hermosa can be at Pop’s when Veronica’s working but Jughead, who basically lives there, can’t?

- Veronica being held at gunpoint my baby 😭😭😭 HERMOSA?? I mean it quite literally was self defense but this show always forgets about that.

- Veronica looks so fucking good ughhh Her having shit not attached to Archie’s side is so good for her MUAHHHHHHH

- “Betty’s instincts are good” lolololol Charles stop lying

- Of course they all have to wear red. “Why, you hate monger?” “for killing the weirdo who was going to kill you for some dumbass reason that makes no sense and I don’t remember” yeah am I surprised smh

- It’s weird that no one has known that Hiram never stopped being the bad guy. Like??? LODGE WOMEN CONSPIRING AGAINST HIRAM THAT SHOULD HAVE GONE DOWN IN LIKE S2 OR S3???? YASSSSSSSS FINALLY

- That Charles look……….. mmhm I already saw the spoiler that he’s behind the tapes smh but I’ll save that rant for when we do find out

- I love that this is happening finally with Veronica taking down Hiram and it’s really fun to watch but it’s not that gratifying because it should have happened long ago… but now that she has Hermosa with her, now she can get her mom back onto her side like s1? It just… it’s amazing that it’s finally happening but c’mon this should have been done in s2 or 3

- Still annoyed that Betty took his spot at Yale or whatever and never gave it back lol she really doesn’t care about him. AND he still doesn’t know she cheated, and Veronica’s the only one who’s thinking of his feelings. Mmhm.

- FALICE IS SO CUTE AHHHH Them being their little family could be so much cuter if they forced Bughead to break up <3

- Right Penelope still isn’t in jail for all the shit she’s done sigh

- CHONI SCENE AWW even though it’s for an alibi for Penelope to like kill her entire family. So why now does Penelope care about Cheryl’s feelings

- Donna knows Betty doesn’t care about anyone but herself why would she even TRY. Joan’s mom spilling everything over the phone lol ok???

- Knowing Bughead is going to implode makes Bughead a little bit easier to handle

- Is Hermosa encouraging Veronica to send guys to beat up her dad or something

- They’re charging a child as an adult….? I know that happens irl even though it shouldn’t. I mean obviously he still did wrong but charging him as an ADULT?

- Oh goodie another tape… it’s so gross that Bughead sleep in the same bed together like that

- Jellybean </3

- Ew her name for him in her phone is Daddykins

- VERONICA IN THAT DRESS WOOOOO WHAT A BEAUTIFUL QUEEN!!

- “A dog who needs to be trained.” Veronica standing up to Hiram his always so good even though they always just make her pretend she didn’t. We love and miss badass Veronica muahhhhhhh

- I feel like in the future Hermosa will be the new Hiram and I don’t like that because they always reuse their dumb boring plots

- Cheryl’s outfit could be so good if she didn’t have that hat but somehow she still pulls it off

- The way Penelope comes out of the hidden wall

- it’s so fucking weird that Cheryl doesn’t act like she hates Penelope and that she didn’t do what she did.

- JUGHEAD DOESEN’T HAVE HIS HAT ON OPRAHHHH

- It would have been so good to see Betty uncover that bug but okay. Could have made bh’s boring investigation bs somewhat interesting

- Why couldn’t we have just had a nice family thing. JUST LET FALICE BE HAPPY DAMMIT

- This Charles reveal isn’t surprising at all because we’ve known since he showed up. Maybe if not every new character was bad we could have been surprised by this. 

- If Betty was a “good detective” like the writers try to make everyone believe, Betty would have instead made Charles confess and record it secretly. But Betty and Jughead are awful detectives and try to be the hero when they’re anything but and assume they’ll listen to them.

- HERMIONE!!!!!!!!! QUEEN SHIT!! This should have been done in s2

- YES BUT WHENEVER VERONICA WANTED TO LEAVE YOU COULD HAVE BACKED HER AND LEFT LIKE??? Anyways power move!!! When the Lodge storyline has been the best thing of this ep

- Mary 🥺😭 “Or to Betty and Jughead” girl what?? What does destroying the TV do bro literally nothing. Poor Mary :(

- JUGHEAD ACTUALLY CARING ABOUT BETTY’S FEELINGS?? Not them making BH act like an actual couple NOW when they’re going to implode. But also when will Jughead find out about Barcheating smhhhhhhh

- ADULTS STOP HURTING ARCHIE. HE’S A CHILD. What the fuck is this. Stop encouraging Archie to BEAT you?!?!? That’s so unhealthy. Now they’re hugging…

- I found out about JB because of the Jeronica gc and I know it’s because she doesn’t want Jughead to leave but this show really has to ruin every character to make anything crazy that Betty/Jughead/Bughead do seem incomparable it’s so??? What was the reason… it seems like they just put everyone’s name on a spinner and spun Jellybean and had to somehow tie the tapes to her. This is so fucking dumb, truly. One more ep until we’re free of Bughead’s boring high school investigative bullshit and we can have change and better plots and dynamics. One more until the time jump!

- DRINKS? Jughead you’re not 21 and your dad is a recovering alcoholic.

- But thank GOD Jughead has a scene without Betty. Imagine it automatically being good because bh isn’t forced to have screen time for no reason.

- So is no one else gonna know that it was JB taping their house because the entire core four+ got one.

- I just love that everybody else’s plots were better than BH’s, like always. Though I wish Archie’s arc of wanting help to not be so angry was over a psan of episodes and not just one.

- Veronica was naked…. do VA get another sex scene? Why? They’re broken up…….. plot twist it’s Reggie. We could wish. Nah but we’ve seen V use sex to like.... distract herself, or maybe it’s goodbye sex. Idk but hearing people are slut shaming her once again........ fuck off maybe???