#also i think this person is spot-on in their analysis of the first two seasons

[eugeniedanglars]

[The negative reaction to "Beard After Hours"] echoes a common complaint about the show, that certain arcs are picked up and dropped, that the show meanders too much. To me, it felt like an example of what Ted Lasso dares do that most television doesn't, take precious time to do something weird and tonal (and hang a giant glowy moon in the sky). This episode also established what I think is the best way to watch the show, treating it more like an album than an episode-by-episode drama. Themes flow in and flow out. We get a strange storyline and then never see it again. But it’s the ideas that the show is introducing, the way those ideas pair with each other, that make it an interesting show to watch.

Really enjoyed this analysis of the show and thought it hit the nail on the head regarding a lot of the criticism of this season.

[avelera]

I’m curious, how much control do you think Viktor was in in season 2?

I have tried to analyze this but am honestly stumped. Because on one hand it is clearly his intentions and logic being used. Since the beginning he has been wanting to heal people afflicted in Zaun (while it was also to cure his illness I don’t doubt wanting to help those in need was a legitimate motivation). He does immediately go to heal people in Zaun and all the conclusions he jumps to through the season do seem perfectly reasonable for him. He was the type of person who didn’t even conceptualize in season one that something like the hexclaw could be used as a weapon. That and the hexcore showing that he was a pacifist to the point of it being a massive blind spot to danger. So it makes sense being shot by Jayce of all people while in his eyes he was healing people would cause him to go all glorious evolution mode as a natural progression of his arc.

On the other hand he definitely didn’t come back right. The show makes a point to show in season one that the hexcore has some level of physical control over him, and even when going to heal the shimmer addicts he is following Sky’s voice. The writers also confirmed that it indeed was not Sky and was the hexcore manifesting his guilt to push him towards to glorious evolution. And his emotions definitely seem to be muffled and unexpressive. I know this part is joked about a lot but honestly even the fact that he chokes Jayce is surprising because he is consistently characterized as a pacifist to the point of it being a fatal flaw. He doesn’t even commit an act of violence in a show filled with fight scenes until the second to last episode, let alone against Jayce of all people. I think the last thing season one Viktor would do is intentionally cause physical harm to someone, hence why it is only at the part where he is the farthest gone.

Basically if I had to guess I’d say it’s like 50/50 level of control, but you have written some great character analysis so I’m curious what your thoughts are as to how much of season two was Viktor and how much was the Hexcore

Honestly, Anon, I'm wrestling with this on almost a daily basis myself when I write fics. It's definitely not helped by the fact they avoided a lot of exposition in S2 in favor of pacing (the slower pace of S1 allowed for a lot more signposting and exposition of what was going on, I think somewhat to the detriment of S2) and the fact that we don't really get much of Viktor after he stops being the Machine Herald, because to my eyes that's the first time we see the real Viktor all season and it would be nice to get him to express some contrast with what came before (though of course it would ruin the pacing of a perfect moment).

I think you basically nailed all of the points of confusion. I've ever considered tracking all the points where his voice warps for clues, because I think there is something to be gleaned from how and when his voice distorts, but in what direction is also a curious question.

Was saying "affection" kept them together more or less than what Viktor would have said to Jayce? Would he on his own have said love? Or would he, in his infinite shyness, have not dared to mention emotion at all, because Viktor is an expert at pushing those closest to him away and hiding his own emotions? Was that the Hexcore trying to drag Jayce in closer by calling it affection, or push him away before it could gain strength by lowering Viktor saying "love" down to just saying "affection"?

On the other hand, during the Herald's villain monologue at the end in the Astral Plane, his voice is distorted for almost every line except, "This senseless waste," which does feel like a sincere Viktor line, perhaps the only one that is truly him that whole time, including when he said he was pleased to see Jayce, in that horrible mocking tone. Could that not be the Hexcore speaking there?

I'll offer what I think is happening:

In order to chart "What is Hexcore" vs. "What is Viktor" it's less useful to look at Viktor's motives than the Hexcore's.

The Hexore wanted to expand its influence. It wanted to become powerful enough to have its own army and to destroy the civilization around it as other versions of the Hexcore have done throughout history. I believe it reached those goals by posing them as things Viktor, on his own, would want to do like help the needy, thus hiding its ends inside of Viktor's motives.

Note too that people who have dosed up on Shimmer are more susceptible to its molding.

Hence we can assume that the Hexcore, in the guise of Sky, using Viktor's guilt about her and his own failures to help the undercity, guided Viktor down to the Shimmer victim encampment specifically.

Viktor is not a mystic. The most mystical thing he says in S1 is that the Arcane speaks through mages. But the Hexcore is a magical artifact. Something like the Hexcore also destroyed a civilization centuries ago, and the figure in Heimerdinger's memory looks like Viktor when he's cloaked.

So personally, I think we can ascribe any mysticism to the Hexcore's influence too. That means the Cult, for example. Also Viktor's, "You need not suffer anymore," and kind of making them all genuflect to him, feels very OOC and just plain wrong for Viktor.

Whereas Viktor in the Astral Plane feels like real Viktor. Even the fact that when we show his point of view out into the world he is himself in a field of stars, seeing the real world projected in front of him like Plato's Allegory of the Cave gives the impression of imprisonment, like he's looking out through the windows of his own eyes to a shrouded world he can no longer directly touch.

And note, for example, that Sky/the Hexcore doesn't want Viktor to heal Vander. That's all Viktor. I believe the reason is because it doesn't want to run out of energy too quickly.

Basically, I think the Hexcore is stringing Viktor along there as Sky, giving him a little terrarium of stars to play in, while using him as a vessel of assimilation under the guise of healing. These are on both sides, inner and outer, things that Viktor wants to do, so he's seduced. He doesn't fight it.

I also think at a certain point, the Hexcore Viktor gains enough power to be able to impact people who aren't dosed with Shimmer. I think this comes later though, which is why it's not interested in Jayce at first but it is interested in assimilating him later. At that point, again, those motives align with Viktor's own sincere desire to see Jayce again (maybe he's sick of all the hippies in the commune lol) and the Hexcore is happy to get rid of someone who could conceivably stop it.

But note, the Hexcore is still playing along with Viktor. It could forcibly assimilate Jayce, but Viktor wants Jayce to choose his side willingly, so it holds back. In part too because that disappointment is what fuels Viktor to give himself over the Hexcore's goals entirely and ask for Singed's treatment with Apex Shimmer. At that point, as the showrunner noted, it doesn't need the guise of Sky anymore, it doesn't need to string Viktor along anymore. He's bought into the idea of forcibly assimilating the world if he can't get Jayce to join willingly.

I also heard an interesting theory that I'd like to factor in: basically, until he gains access to the Anomaly, Viktor doesn't have the power to strip himself of the Hexcore's influence or overcome it. That's why there's no point in Jayce trying to get through to him sooner, it wouldn't do anything because Viktor would still be trapped in its web.

Once they have the Anomaly, Viktor as an ascended being can strip away the Hexcore's influence. And that's why I lamented that we don't get more of his thoughts in that scene. Because I think an interpretation can be made that the Machine Herald look is just the human form of the Hexcore, using Viktor as a vessel.

Once that outer shell explodes, it really is Viktor again, with all the power of the Anomaly and Jayce's rune at his disposal. Now he and Jayce can work together to reverse the damage, free all the trapped souls from the Hexcore's web, and save the day. But we see that only then Viktor is able to view his own actions as himself, and he's horrified. There I think we get Viktor's one true, sincere reaction to everything that has happened up to that point and confirm that, yes, while the Hexcore interwove its seduction through Viktor's motives, none of this is what Viktor wanted. The ultimate outcome was the Hexcore's goals.

Quick Doylist addition: I also think there's definitely a draft where it's all Viktor getting controlled, but the writers know that can be kind of boring. It's better when characters take action and make choices, rather than being controlled. So I think that's why they settled on a combination of "The Hexcore's end goals, but Viktor's underlying motivations being twisted to support them."

[apartmentsmoke]

A Breakdown of BuckTommy's Storyline Going Into Season 8 - Part I (Gerrard)

For reference, here is the EW article.

I wanted to provide an analysis of what the EW article and other promotion may mean for Buck, Tommy, and their relationship going into season 8.

The first mention we get of Buck is in the title - he's "struggling." He is having a hard time getting used to Gerrard's leadership of the 118. Tim Minear says it is "harder for Buck than the rest." Eddie was in the Army, and Hen and Chimney have both served under Gerrard before. Tim mentions that Hen and Chimney both have other reasons to worry about Gerrard - their foster licenses. Hen and Karen are in the process of trying to get custody of Mara back, and Chimney and Maddie are currently fostering Mara. He says of Hen that "[s]he can't be written up at work," and presumably the same thing applies to Chimney.

We know that Ortiz and Gerrard are working together - Tim posted a still showing the two of them together and he stated in the TVLine preview that "they are connected in many ways" - a hint to how Gerrard regained captaincy at the 118, perhaps.

Regarding Eddie, Ryan Guzman has already posited that, with Gerrard's captaincy, Eddie may "be a soldier that keeps on going." He also said that he wants Eddie to punch Gerrard, and in the same article mentioned that he is interested in seeing Eddie "[h]aving that volatility [he made a previous reference to Eddie being a "very emotional individual"] and suppressing it."

We know that Eddie is preoccupied with Christopher's temporary move to Texas. He is still "mourning" and trying to contact Christopher, whom Tim Minear hints is not interested in hearing from Eddie. Eddie will "have to take a look at himself" and discover who he is once everything else he has used to define himself is stripped away.

Turning back to Buck, he is going to struggle with Gerrard's captaincy for another reason other than Gerrard's bigotry - he has never had a captain other than Bobby, and he also views Bobby as his father. It is a dual blow to him. With his friends understandably preoccupied, I think Buck will have to face against Gerrard's captaincy without the level of support he would have assumed he had. Hen, Chimney, and Eddie will not like working under Gerrard. Gerrard will discriminate against them. But they have worked in these environments before and they have reasons to not stand up in the manner that they may want to. Buck has not worked in an environment like this, and he has newly discovered that he is a minority.

Whether Gerrard is aware that Buck is bisexual - and dating Tommy, who Gerrard hates - at the beginning of season 8, I am not sure. It would lead to dramatic tension if he were to discover it during the season itself, so I believe that's what will happen.

The TVLine preview suggests that Buck will go complain to Tommy after dealing with Gerrard. Considering Tommy mentioned Gerrard, indirectly and directly, three times in Season 7, it is safe to say that he will be involved in the storyline. I think, no matter when Gerrard discovers Buck's relationship with Tommy, he will immediately recognize it as a spot that he can poke at.

It's clear that Gerrard and Tommy currently hate each other. When Gerrard first sees Tommy after a number of years, his first action is to call him a slur. Tommy has mentioned working under Gerrard was "regressive" and that it "did not make [him] a better person." He also stated Gerrard was like his father.

Where Bobby is the benevolent patriarch of the 118, Gerrard is his dictatorial mirror. The Gerrard storyline makes sense for Buck and his daddy issues, and is an interesting way to explore Buck's new relationship with Tommy at the same time. I think there will be some tension between the two of them, mostly due to Tim Minear's philosophy that if they're happy, they're off-screen - and given what he's said so far, he does not want to keep Buck and Tommy's relationship off-screen. I think they will work out whatever tension there is from Gerrard and become stronger as a couple for it. [Continued with Part II.]

[faerlygraceful]

So I rewatched all of the “Begins” episodes last night and it only managed to cement my head canons about Tommy, which began forming after we saw him again.

Of course I don’t know if they thought this was going to be where the character ended up when they filled the firehouse back in season 2. I don’t know what Lou thought about his character. I don’t know what the intentions were. What I am doing (since this is my head canon), is taking new knowledge and using it to recategorize previous interactions. I’m queer, it’s what we all do.

So I’m going to share my analysis with all of y’all cause this is the internet, and I’m allowed.

Spoilers for… well everything.

Tommy is one of the three characters who shows up in all three Begins episodes, the other two being Athena and Sal DeLuca. His first appearance in the show is Hen Begins, but as we know Chimney Begins is chronologically first, so we’re starting there.

Chimney Begins

1) We first see Tommy when probie Howie walks in. He doesn’t seem to notice that Howie is a probie, asking who didn’t tip the takeout guy. Gerrard quickly takes the role of antagonist, and that’s when we move on.

2) At one point when they’re coming back from a call after Howie has been there a while, Tommy says, in a surprised tone, “You’re still here?” I think this is less of a, “You don’t belong here,” and more of a, “You’ve been here for weeks/months and haven’t been out once, I would have quit, why haven’t you?”

3) While man behind, Howie helps a guy who was having indigestion and a panic attack at the same time. When the rest get back, Howie tries to bond with them over the call, but is ignored. They are talking about takeout options and Gerrard asks Tommy, when his girlfriend is supposed to come in and cook. Tommy sounds extremely contained during this interaction, gives a a day, and when pressed he stammers and promises. The conversation fades off so we don’t hear what he promises, but he didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about his girlfriend coming in.

- Now this is where we really start getting into my hcs. Either Tommy is bi (which we’ll hopefully find out tomorrow) or he’s closeted. The tightness in his voice (which is all we have to go on because the camera is focused on the POV character), tells me that he’s extremely uncomfortable with the interaction. He’s been put on the spot, and he doesn’t like it. I think the girlfriend is either a) a friend he’s brought by the house once and everyone inferred or b) someone he manufactured in order to get out of team events ie, “Oh I can’t go out tonight, my girl is cooking.” He is uncomfortable with what his boss (a confirmed bigot) is asking for, and the man is pressuring him to produce his beard. If she was actually his girlfriend and Tommy is also bisexual, it could just be that’s he’s uncomfortable exposing her to the environment that the 118 is at that point.

4) Howie starts to try and broach the barriers between himself and the other firefighters, only to be rebuked. At one point he corners Tommy in the locker room, and starts naming off all these topics, stating, “Tell me what your thing is and I’ll make it mine.” Talking about his formidable people skills and asking if that means Tommy just didn’t like him that much.

Tommy tells him, “If I thought about you at all, I probably wouldn’t.” Which tells me that Tommy has already built his mask, his persona, and since the others don’t try to look beyond the surface he’s able to maintain it, but he can’t afford to let anyone in. He can’t think about the new guy on the squad, he’s too busy making sure Gerrard doesn’t find out about his closet. That would be just another person to have to hide from anyway.

This is when Howie gets pulled for the ambulance. Eli tells him that it’s not personal, because friends die and funerals are held. Which makes me also think that Howie stepped into the shoes of a firefighter who died. Maybe one who Tommy was particularly close to? Eli goes on to call Howie a puppy who doesn’t get a name until they know it’s gonna come through.

The next thing that happens is Kevin Lee’s death. Which is incredibly sad and is a big part of how Howie develops as a firefighter, but this meta is Tommy focused so moving on.

5) The garage collapse at the mall, and Tommy almost dies. More to it, Howie saved him. So Tommy decides to share some things with Howie. “Love Actually, monster trucks, and craft beer”. Maybe not a coming out story, but he did declare that one of his favorite movies is a rom com. It’s a start.

Hen Begins

1) Tommy is first seen when Hen walks into the house. He’s comes up to the railing after Gerrard calls for everyone and is positioned between the captain and DeLuca. Now it’s my personal opinion that DeLuca is an ass and that’s backed up by these episodes but even Hen defends him in Bobby Begins Again, and that started with this episode. But again, we’re not here to get into Sal DeLuca’s headspace, this is about Tommy. When Gerrard calls Hen an “diversity” hire, we see Tommy looking very uncomfortable, and Sal is the one to take up some of Captain’s dirty work for him (“For real?”). This is the episode where I truly see Tommy as “falling in line” with the captain. He’s opened up a little to Howie (no nickname yet), a little more inclined to joke, but still is holding these boundaries.

2) DeLuca talks about taking his girl to see some vampire movie and Tommy immediately knows it’s Twilight. DeLuca talks about how he likes Kristen Stewart (with Hen agreeing) before saying something about getting behind that, which makes Hen uncomfortable. (According to this, it would put it in 2008, which means she’s a paramedic for ten years prior to Buck joining which I hate. All those movies came out rather fast but could all be classified as “Twilight” so it was probably at least Eclipse in 2010 especially with the references made…. But then we start to go into how much I hate this timeline because nothing makes sense ever) Tommy talks about how he doesn’t understand the attraction to KS because she’s too… (Sal puts in hot here) broody, and Sal asks him if that means he’s Team Jacob (which is what makes me think it’s at least during Eclipse, I don’t see DeLuca being a Twi-Hard, and so his frame of reference would be movie based), and when Tommy acts confused (not sure if an act or not, he knew what Twilight was, but that doesn’t mean he knows about Team Edward vs Team Jacob), Chimney confirms that he’s implying that Tommy is gay. You. See. Him. Freeze. There is a few seconds where Tommy freezes in place like he’s processing before he makes a joke, blowing a kiss at Sal before laughing. Gerrard puts a stop to the conversation, and Hen takes a seat.

— Remember when Tommy has buried himself in the closet? What happened when someone rattles the door with a gay joke? One where it’s being implied that you are gay? When you’re bigot of a boss is sitting not five feet from you at the same table? You freeze to not immediately deny the accusation in a way that would make you look sus, and then you make a joke out of it. It hurts, so much.

———-Ah shit I’m going to timeline this———

From what we know, Tommy was in the army as a pilot. For Timeline purposes we’re going to assume that Eli leaving is the reason Hen went to the 118. During her med student arc it talks about how she was a paramedic for 10 years, so 2012 makes sense there. It doesn’t make sense with other thing’s because in Lonestar’s Hold the Line (2021 would make this make sense), Hen tells Owen that Denny is 10 and she and Karen and her were married for 8 years, (Same sex marriage has only been legal in CA since 2013). Bobby was their captain for a year in Worst Day Ever, they had a captain parade for two years (six captains) and before that they had a someone who was cleaning up after Gerrard. Also Hen and Karen were freshly back together when DADT was repealed. That makes Denny a baby on September 20th of 2011.

Enlistment periods are 8 years but that’s a mix of active and inactive duty. If Tommy signed up out of high school (18), was an active duty pilot for 6 years (24) and then moved to the reserves for the remaining two while he became a firefighter, it means he could have been a firefighter for two years longer than Hen or Chimney while being less than 10 years older than Buck.

Now none of this helps in placing where these episodes fall in the timeline, but I would say that Bobby’s first day falls about a year before the pilot, and Chimney Begins and Hen Begins butt right up together. Also I have no more information on Eli and how long he stayed after training Chim, and I probably never will because I cannot watch Boston.

More timeline BS. Hen and Karen had to have gotten together during the captain parade because Gerrard would not have let her on a call where she got hurt enough that Chim would make the call to Karen.

——————— Timeline bs over ——————

3) Tommy asks about how “New York bitchiness” could be a compliment after Howie mentioning that she has an East coast vibe, and Hen thanks him for the compliment. And then Howie makes it seem like Tommy’s calling her bitchy, but I don’t see it that way. What’s more likely is that’s the only vibe he knows from the east coast, so when Howie suggests she has it, he’s like, wait you think that’s a compliment? Howie treats it like Tommy’s calling Hen a bitch, but it honestly didn’t come off that way, more like Tommy trying to clarify that Howie wasn’t calling Hen a bitch by saying she has an “East Coast Vibe”. Anyway this conversation quickly devolves in Gerrard being a misogynist, and Tommy and DeLuca quickly scamper off.

4) Not Tommy related, but we do have someone with insight into being an openly gay firefighter now. Casey with the 115. He says that they knew he was gay from the moment he walked in, and it didn’t matter that he was the strongest guy in the firehouse. Here we have proof that it doesn’t matter your qualifications, if you’re perceived as gay, you’re automatically singled out. He said it was so hard that he was told to quit and find a new dream by his partner. Now, there is a red flag about your SO tellingly you to give up your dreams, but can you imagine how bad it would have been for the boyfriend to get to that point? The person you care about coming home every night defeated and downtrodden over something that’s supposed to be his dream? The ease in which Casey shed the boyfriend makes me think that they weren’t together long enough to earn those privileges, but the job also gets a red flag for being so bad that you’d advise your short term boyfriend to quit.

5) Hen’s speech. During this we don’t see him often, because he’s off to the side. The camera is more focused on Gerrard, DeLuca and Howie for the most part. But he does seem very closed off, when you do see him, his arms crossed, not standing defensively or challengingly like DeLuca, but like he’s trying to shrink. Actually it kind of reminds me of another queer firefighter that we all know.

6) We don’t get to see much more of the reactions because we go immediately into a call where a party limo crashed into a flower truck. Which we only know about because Hen went looking for it, saving the life of a little boy. Tommy tells her good job, that they would have discovered the secondary wreck eventually but that it would have been too late. She also has now earned Sal’s respect.

7) When they get back the Chief is there. Now remember, she gave her speech, they went out, they come back out and Gerrard is being removed. Nothing that happened on that call or involving her speech has anything to do with this. She thinks she’s being fired, that Gerrard called while heading to or back from the scene to have her removed, but that’s not the case. Her speech wasn’t actually necessary because everyone was already complaining about how Gerrard treated her. They even talk about someone who compared Gerrard and his behavior to hemorrhoids. Which I’m not saying could be from the army pilot who was probably deployed and had to undergo long-term constipation or diarrhea, but it could be.

Now all in all, there nothing really bad about Tommy’s behavior that we’ve seen. He doesn’t approach Hen, but we’ve seen from her interactions with Howie that she barely accepts his overtures of friendship in the beginning, and Tommy is much more closed off, remembering how he only opened up to Howie after he saved his life. He also doesn’t stand up for Hen to the captain’s face, but as an Army guy, he follows the chain of command. Doesn’t mean he won’t file one or two or three complaints through the proper channels. He just can’t afford to put himself in Gerrard’s crosshairs, can’t afford to undergo his scrutiny.

Bobby Begins Again

1) Hen has started a betting pool on the newest captain. Over under is 6 weeks, making me think that that’s the least amount of time a Captain stayed (about a month and a half and if they had 6 captains in 2 years that’s an average of 4 months). Tommy gives Nash a month and has to run to the ATM. DeLuca is obviously the main antagonizer, it sounds like he wanted the 118 and was denied (Also ABC, maybe bring him back ala Billy Tyson? Might be fun.).

2) Tommy has never worked on a farm, or dealt with toddlers. Cause he was floundering and falling all over himself when trying to catch Maurice the rooster. All in all these calls don’t show much. Tommy follows Bobby’s instructions, even though part of time he’s just parroting what Sal says, no arguments. Adds further credibility to the fact that he follows chain of command. It doesn’t matter that this guys only going to last a month, he’s my captain now.

3) During the Guillermo’s fire, Sal breaks rank to save the kid (which considering who that kid grows up to be, it sucks that he was successful). But when Bobby takes him to task for endangering them all, Sal doubles down. I thought I was paying attention during this scene, but it’s hard with the yelling. At least two people try to get him to cool it, one of them being Chimney who calls DeLuca “Fredo”.

4) They’re all at the bar, talking about Sal getting fired when Bobby shows up and the vibes change. Now sometime over the past twoish years Tommy is single, and it seems chronically at least to the house. Maybe because Gerrard is gone he doesn’t have to maintain a beard anymore, but with the endless captain parade and DeLuca being a tool, he doesn’t feel comfortable coming out? I think he’s also classified the 118 as unsafe, so maybe this lended a reason for his later transfer. But as he says, “Single is easier. Having the scars impresses women, getting ‘em freaks ‘em out.” Which gives heavy implications that like Buck in season one, Tommy isn’t dating but hooking up. If he’s gay, then his partners would have to be okay with the fact that he’s still closeted. And mention of women aside, it’s implied that a longer term relationship ended because he got hurt on the job. (This is why I don’t ascribe to the Tommy dated Abby theory. She implied that her relationship ended because of Patricia, and Tommy implies his last was due to injury. Which could be. He got hurt on the job and she couldn’t handle care giver burden for both of them? But that’s also turning Abby into Shannon Diaz pt 1 and while I dislike both women, they don’t need to be same character different font.) Here’s what I think. He got hurt on the job, and his long term boyfriend couldn’t even go to the hospital to check on him because he wasn’t out to his crew, causing them to break up.

Also for all you Buck/Tommy writers, Tommy canonically has a scar on his right side from a piece of shrapnel that he caught. He says it’s from a factory explosion. I don’t have the ability to get screen shots atm, but it’s pretty.

5) Tommy quotes Fight Club with Chim. So maybe another victim of the Han School of Movie References?

6) Bobby starts with family dinners. Tommy decides to transfer. The cake says, “The 217’s lose is our gain,” and they push his head into it.

The very next scene is Buck walking into the 118.

So all in all, we see Tommy as a deeply guarded character. He doesn’t open up easily, he follows orders, he has a soft side. I don’t really know how to conclude this because I sprinkled my impressions throughout, but I hope that this helps anyone who’s looking for Tommy characterization, and we’ll see tomorrow if any of this is right.

[shakesthewizard]

Hi please explain about fabianxadaine???

Okay since you asked so nicely here's the fucking thing about Fabadaine

First, some background info

Before we dive in, you should know a couple things. For one, I'm a firm bad kid polycule truther. You could truly pitch me any pairing/grouping of those kiddos and I could find a really ineresting and/or sweet dynamic to eat the drywall about

You should also know that I'm gonna most likely remember some details during this analysis - if you spot them, please let me know by putting them in a bottle and throwing them into the ocean.

Second, some character meta

Adaine O'Shaughnessey is a girl with a lot of courage. It's sort of her defining character trait. The idea of "a wizard with an anxiety disorder" brings to mind someone pretty timid, who's afraid of speaking their mind. But from her first appearance, we see clearly that to Adaine, her disorder is pretty explicitly medical. On her first day of freshman year, she's already talking back to her horrible parents and trying to stand up for herself. Long before she gets access to medication, her disorder hinders her the way an asthma attack might; it has no bearing on her willingness to do the courageous thing.

Relatedly, Adaine thrives under adversity. Not abuse or mistreatment, mind - what I mean is that she likes it when people push back at her a little, so that she has opportunities to test her ideas and opinions against dissent. Look at her dynamic with Aelwyn in season three. Those two bicker and banter; they poke at each other, but it's how they're expressing things like concern or pride.

You could argue, probably well, that this is a product of sisterhood, and a product of their history in particular. But I think there's more to it than that. We see throughout the show that Adaine is a person who cares about exceeding; about learning and growing and achieving great things. It's classic wizard.

Adaine is the child of the wealthy and the important, and that shapes everything about her. It influences her struggles; her abandonment issues in particular. But it also shapes her goals, her values, and her attitudes. She seeks recognition for her skills and her labor, and she wants the people she loves to challenge her so that she can grow and make them proud.

Fabian Seacaster is the son of a famous man and a natural talent. His showmanship is clear and evident from the first moments we see him, and it's reflected in his character build from the start. He's a Champion Fighter, after all.

This showmanship is, frankly, a testament to Lou Wilson's masterful understanding of characters. That single trait can be picked apart to help us understand everything about him.

Fabian is a showman because he was raised as the scion of an up-and-coming house; given every tool he needed to learn his parents' skills, and to prepare him to take the Seacaster name when the time comes.

Fabian is a showman because he believes wholeheartedly in his own greatness. His whole life, he's been surrounded by tutors whose whole job it has been to mold him into the perfect son, and they were paid enough to care about doing it right.

Fabian is a showman because he knows he's earned his own arrogance; wealth or not, pampered lifestyle or not, we see him scold his fencing teacher when he goes easy on him. Fabian isn't blinded by his privilege (or at least not entirely) - he genuinely cares about being the best, and he'll give up the luxury if it means greatness.

Fabian is a showman because he's deeply anxious. Bill and Hallariel clearly love their son, but being the only child of a world-famous pirate, tasked with being their emissary to Solace for future generations, is an unbelievable amount of pressure. Fabian has to be perfect to the world outside. He can't just be good; he can't just be great; he has to be Fabian Aramais Seacaster, Son of the Famous Bill Seacaster!

Fabian is a showman because he has to figure out who he is, somehow. Who is he, outside of his father? He certainly doesn't know, but suddenly he realizes he has to know, for his own sake. So he does what any kid does when they're trying to figure out their identity - they act out.

Finally, what I understand about Fabadaine that nobody else does

Fabian Seacaster and Adaine O'Shaughnessey are the children of the wealthy; the important. They're both second generation Solesians, sent out to represent their families. They're both ambitious people who are trying to achieve great things outside the expectations of their parents. They're both proud and straightforward, prioritizing their values over social niceties.

Adaine and Fabian both carry the swords of their dead fathers.

To put it simply - Fabian and Adaine are really good foils for each other, and I dislike when their dynamic is reduced to classic highschool boyfriend/girlfriend tropes.

As an example, a number of fics I've read have Fabian pursuing Adaine, and that simply doesn't hold up. Let's be honest here - Fabian has terrible taste in women, and has a bad track record of making the more self-destructive choice whenever romance is on the table. I have no doubt he likes Adaine, but he would also know that she'd hold him accountable and challenge him when he makes stupid choices. No, Adaine is the one initiating here.

The thing that really draws me to this pair is because both of them need and want to be challenged, but each of them has a different attitude towards challenging others, and it makes for an active dynamic that can evolve in a lot of interesting ways.

You know what, check back later. I need to write fic about this.

[absent-o-minded]

Tiny YR S3 Analysis

Just wanted to compare the parallels between these two hand holds in 3x05 and 3x06:

(Please ignore the shitty screencaps, I tried my best)

In terms of composition, these shots are identical. A hand-hold centre to the frame, in a car with the camera placed in the middle. However, they're underpinned by different narrative contexts.

Here, the first shot from 3x05 is drenched in darkness. The actual lighting inside of the car is dim enough to obscure both of their suits, which almost blend them into the seats and so it becomes hard to distinguish between the two of them - The only focussed light is on their conjoined hands. Notably, the actual touch itself is tentative, almost like the bridging of an awkward divide on the way to the palace. Neither of them are sure what the touch actually means. Even their sleeves fall over their wrists and interfere with the actual act, so we only see the bottom half of their hands. Simon reaches out first and places his hand in the open sliver between the two seats before Wille accepts and laces their fingers together. It's an assured squeeze that reads as: "I'm not sure what will happen. I'm nervous." "I am too."

This scene has garnered a lot of analysis for its parallel to the Kristina x Wille car scene in S1 where people have commented on the reversal of blocking - Wille now assumes Kristina's position and Simon equally assumed Wille's. We now know that this arrives before the birthday explosion, and so it's also a touch that signifies confronting the inner workings of an oppressive environment (the palace). It's nerve-wracking and cautious and consolidating, but it's also doubtful. We, as spectators, pick up on visual and physical cues and so we begin to see the hand-hold as an visual indicator that the unity between the two characters is about to be disrupted.

~~~~~

However, the shot in 3x06 reads entirely differently. The first thing is that the shot is bathed in light. It's a bit like an embrace, contrasting the previous presentation of a cold backseat, Simon and Wille are literally basking in the sun. Most importantly, there is a light flashing on Wille as it seeps in from the windows, illuminating his spot as a person who is newly free. Simon sits to the left with the natural light (no abundance of light) because Simon has always strived to be free. He has never turned away from the light. As he said earlier in the episode: "I never gave up on us. I gave up on the royal court." For Simon, the issue was never the fear of being free, but the constraint of not being free. For Wille, fear hung over his shoulders just like a King's robe would. Being free was an aspiration, never a reality.

But that has all changed. The light is let in. It stands similar to a spot-light, where Wille finally lets the sun hit his body and not have it scorch him, but rather enlighten him.

The actual act of holding hands is no longer bridging an uncomfortable space; It's an assured togetherness. It is the two of them acknowledging everything that has happened and knowing that a future for the two of them is no longer a "possibility", but a truth. It's giddy and confident and safe.

It's also the final touch of the season, and so it had to speak louder than dialogue ever could - Which I think that it does. Throughout S1 and S2, we understood that physical touch was always done in private, or if not, it was done discreetly with the knowledge that it was fleeting. S3 saw the transition from private to public, but not without the fight to touch and not have it be seen as a revolution. To just let it be what it is. And THIS is what the show has been working towards for 3 years. It can all be summarised with this simple, final hand hold in a sunny car that's racing towards a future that finally, finally resembles their dreams. It's not overtly revolutionary, it's not a grand gesture; It's just theirs.

[jadehaven]

Thank you for your analysis, it just makes so much sense, and it gives me hope that they might really explore a slow burn romance between them. 🥺

But also I've been going back to their scenes together, and they almost always touch each other, and it's so delicate and intimate? They might not be aware of it themselves yet, but they aren't acting like siblings.

Haha you’re spot on, and thank you! I’m holding out hope too! Nobody online listened to my speculations after season 1, but I called every trope before it happened. Not trying to hype myself up lol, just stating that the knowledge I have in the romance writing department has proved itself true in this area. Even the ring scene, I called it the episode before, because it would’ve been the perfect screen play in regards to foreshadowing. And I’m just a measly aspiring romance author, not even a screen writer or nothin’. But lemme tell you I freaked when I saw it the first time.

Anyway, about the touching— it’s very deliberate also. I do think, however, that it was played out as more platonic in the beginning than it is now. Galadriel and Elrond’s story feels a bit like a coming of age romance for this reason. It starts off like “puppy love” when they first meet. It’s innocent and sweet this way, but it definitely doesn’t give siblings. I think this is why much of the fan base was confused. Many folks interpreted it as either one or the other, completely platonic and familial(because of the lore), or entirely romantic. But in reality? They sit in this very small space that’s not quite friends, not quite lovers. Mckay even acknowledges this: “Best friends may be reducing their relationship too much. I’d say she’s someone for [whom] he has so much love.” This sets them up perfectly for the forced to kiss trope. Their moments of touch/intimacy would typically read romantic, but ultimately don’t because the characters are technically just friends. Anyone (including themselves) could justify that there’s no romantic intention in their touches.

Here’s the kicker though. Now there’s been a romantic gesture that doesn’t fit into the “grey area”. A kiss is a romantic gesture. OK AND BEFORE YOU SAY “things just operate differently in this world”— No. No they don’t. Because if kissing between elves was normal, or not romantic, or just something viewed as extra intimate friendship, THEN IT WOULDN’T HAVE WORKED AS A RUSE. 😤

*cough* Sorry. Got a little.. excited. As I was saying…

They’ve crossed the line, unintentionally maybe so, but now they will likely question their touchiness. The reason is, they don’t want to confuse the other person. Before, their intimacy was always “platonic” because they’d never acknowledged the possibility of it meaning more than that. Now there’s this elephant in the room. “Did you mean to kiss me? Would you have kissed me without the pin? Did you like the kiss? What would happen if we kissed again?” Etc etc. And all the unknowns create too big of a risk for it to just go back to the way it was before.

Maybe I’m overshooting a little, since ROP isn’t technically a romance. They might not do it this way, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Elrond suddenly doubting himself, not knowing how to touch her now, what’s safe and what’s not. Does this make sense?

I recommend reading ‘People we Meet on Vacation’ By Emily Henry, in order to familiarize yourself with the more common components of the trope(best friends to lovers). It’s not the only reference out there, and it’s not my favourite book/couple, but it does a good job of depicting those blurred lines— and what happens when you unintentionally cross them!

Anyways. Yeah, their touches are beautiful. We actually haven’t seen elves this intimate before on screen, and that should be your first clue. Even in Tolkien’s books, there’s not a lot of physical intimacy between two elf lovers. A kiss is a huge deal, and I think it’s supposed to feel that way to us (though people didn’t get the memo) because it’s how it would feel to them. Think about it. The only other person Galadriel has lots of little tiny touches with (though the tone is different) is Sauron. We know how they felt about each other, and they didn’t even kiss! The E & G kiss was not done on accident, that’s for sure.

Last point, just for funsies—

They literally can’t not touch each other 🥹💘 Even when they’re fighting, they’re compelled to each other. Bumping shoulders, held gaze, hand touching, the list goes on. If that doesn’t say romance then idk what will!! 🫶✨❤️

Thanks for the ask! Come again!

Bonus gif:

[asoulwithadream]

ANALysis and THEORIES- OFMD EDITION #1

Objective: PROMO GIFS

Time to analyse these bad boys, because I think I may have figured out what they are. They're lines from the show. Each individual little subtext to the official gifs are something which someone will say in the new season, and I'm determined to find out what, when, where and who (I determine that 3/4 would equal success).

I) "I've never seen Blackbeard like this."

This is the same shot from the trailer, possibly either before or after the infamous "Fuck you, Stede Bonnet." However, there may be a Clue in the second shot which may be able to somehow place this on a timeline (not by myself—this has drained my powers). I can't really tell, because of the low quality and high contrasting shadows, whether or not the side of the Stede topper has been smudged with Ed's make-up yet.

It was clear in the teaser when Ed played with the toppers that he'd caressed fake-Stede against his cheek as if he were some rather exquisite cashmere because of the smudges, but we couldn't tell during the teaser if this has already happened by this point because of the angle of the toy. But if anyone manages to get a better picture or spots something I missed that may contradict or strengthen this little thought, do let me know.

I'm pretty sure though that the person who says "I've never seen Blackbeard like this," is someone who has seen Blackbeard enough to know how he was. Someone that perhaps served by his side? So I think that the speaker in this context may be Izzy. There are two options of who he's saying this too: either Stede, once they team up, or to the crew of the Queen Anne's Revenge, this being the old Revenge crew (Frenchie, Jim, and we count Fang). Maybe even Lucius in the walls.

II) "I should have just told him how I feel."

I just want to take a moment just to appreciate the fact how much this gif resonated with me personally. This was the entire basis of all stages of grief I went through after the season finale, the bottomline of all my thoughts: "why couldn't he have just told him how he felt?". Brilliant delivery and shot planning from the designers of OFMD.

Anyways, let's get on with it. This gif is similar to the first one, in it having the potential of being also shot before or after the Vanity Fair picture with the crew (minus Swede) standing under the bridge(?) in the rain. I do think it's before the scene where Stede takes Blackbeard's poster and very confidently elaborates on Ed's goodness. He has his red cravat on, and is looking so pathetic in the rain looking at a wanted poster of his ex-boyfriend, that the scene is loveably laughable in it's entirety.

It's a bit obvious as to who is the speaker for this line: our very own Stede Bonnet. He's regretting on his actions back at the sailor academy, where he chose to keep quiet about his own opinions on Ed's willingness to leave to China, fast, because of his own deep-rooted issues with speaking up about what he thinks about serious, possibly life-chaning topics. Or maybe he's thinking of why he didn't tell anyone, especially not Ed, about the happiness he felt around him, how great he felt in his company, and how much love he felt for the man.

I can imagine this pretty early on in the season (as we know they reconcile or at least get a long decently early, from the leaked promo), and for some reason I have a picture of Stede laying slumped down on some form of furniture, ragdoll-style, whining about this to someone he knows: either Oluwande (probably the most probably option) or, hear me out, Spanish Jackie. I think she's going to become better friends with the Genital Pirate this season, and be a prevelant character to the narrative.

III) "Feel's like a storm's coming."

This happens during the rapid, quick scenes which we were just able to catch from the teaser. Where Jim is half submerged in water trying their best to reach for someone which I may think might be Ed, and Frenchie working the capstan for whatever purposes needed to hoist something heavy in a storm (don't look at me, I don't sail 18th-century ships). But look, Edward has his cravat on, the cravat given to him by Stede. Why he's kept this eludes me, since this should in theory be before their reconciliation, but we all know that Ed still loves Stede, and perhaps this is his way to hang onto him close to his heart while still matching his new aesthetic.

I would like to think that Ed is the one saying this. After all, he is an expert navigator and weatherman, proving his skills during his first appearances in the previous season. (However, I don't particularly trust his date-keeping skills. He messed up the first one, and then let his other date be held at gunpoint and scared into leaving. Tut tut tut) Another reason as to why I think this is because there is no pronoun indicating that he actively feels the storm, but more passed as a backhanded quip just thrown onto the crew and/or Izzy to alert them.

This could also be interpreted as a metaphor: symbolism for something, foreshadowing to the main plot or villain of the series, which will most likely result in some form of cliffhanger at the end, I tell you that.

I wonder if they're going to have another cloud scene though, talking about how they might show signs of storm. However, instead of shape I'd assume that they'd be commenting on a rather large-scale, dark rain-cloud, and connecting it to perhaps winds stronger than usual.

I also saw someone saying that it was possible that Edward, when he falls off the ship, looses the cravat amongst the waves, and that is why he doesn't have it to what I'd assume is after this scene.

IV) I love a good pirate's tale We can see from this scene that Stede is currently fighting on the beach in the same outfit which he had during the teaser, and if one looks closely you can see that he's excellently accessorised with a beautiful looped earring. However, what we've also learn is that the shot where Ed washes up on the beach is probably in the same scene as this, and by the look on Stede's face (probably augmented by the surrounding chaos) this may be the first time that he's seen Ed in a long time.

I think, as I've said before in previous posts, that Ed has been thrown off the ship in the storm mentioned above. He's been thrown off, and has happened to wash up on this same beach where Stede is fighting, which we know to be possible because of the automatic gaydar in OFMD. (What would be funny though is that he spotted Stede off the shore and decided to make his entrance super dramatic and kraken-like, but ends up just swallowing a shit ton of sea-water and gets his leather ruined, which is why he gets new clothes.)

Why he's fighting? I don't know. But I'm still sure that it's Ocracoke that they're on, because I'm convinced that it'll make an appearance this season—it has too, or else I will send in a formal complaint with our dearest Mr Jenkins.

Now, back to the main bit. The text. Who is it that says "I love a good pirate's tale?" I think that it's either said genuinely, but by someone like Stede, eager to hear about the adventures of experienced and famous seafaring pirates, OR flirtatiously, to insinuate something directed as a romantic quip to get Stede or someone else (a pirate) to talk more about himself. By who, I can't be sure, but I have a list of possible speakers:

Edward Teach

Spanish Jackie

Anne Bonny

Anne Bonny's campy friend

Lucius Spriggs

Stede Bonnet

If there's anything I've missed that you want me to add/change, which I find suitable, do tell.

I'm not sick at all. I'm a normal functioning member of society. I have a life.

[foggyworksbutbetter]

MORE SILVER SPOON CHARACTER ANALYSIS ‼️

finally making the part 2 i eluded to in my last post, since iii 15 and i have a ton more to add

for context, last post i outlined all of silver spoon’s char development from the first episode up to iii 14, but now that a new episode has come out i have more to say

major spoilers for iii 15 obvi

i had originally seen silver’s devotion to candle after her elimination as a good thing. he was thinking about somebody else for a change, being a better and more selfless person. candle did a complete 180 on me, and i completely agree with her. this episode ultimately showed that despite this confident persona he puts on, silver is a follower. without candle’s direction, he was suddenly lost. he thought that by “keeping her flame alive” she could still guide him through the competition in spirit. as though her tuning fork and crystal were an extension of her inner flame, something he had never truly understood throughout the series. at the end of the episode, it finally clicks.

candle says, “and now, you can tend to your inner flame.” as in allowing him to focus on himself. allowing him to be selfish like he once had, but in a completely different way. in a very indirect way, she is telling him that it is okay to think of yourself for once, that he isn’t who he once was. i think he might have been afraid to do so in fear of losing his growth and regressing to who he once was. candle’s patience with him is what allowed him to grow into himself, but he isn’t using it. he only wants to rely on her direction, as though he doesn’t trust himself to make the right decisions. but, she assures him he can continue on without her. even the most selfless people must think of their own needs too.

silver finally letting go of candle will allow him to completely focus on the competition. i think this has secured him a spot in the final two. and, as a side note, i think cabby will be alongside him. it makes the most narrative sense considering how much attention they’ve both gotten and how much character development they’ve gone through.

this is my prediction for the final 5 eliminations:

iii16-17: balloon and nickel (they set up for nickel to finally apologize and have the two make up, finishing their arcs and ending in their eliminations. i could even see this being a double elimination as a parallel to their season 2 elimination.)

iii18: blueberry (it will be close because of his new competitive spirit, but without allies he will be easily ganged up on by the two more experienced contestants)

iii19: who knows? i could genuinely see either silver or cabby winning this. they’ve both fought so so hard to get where they are, and grown so much. although, i’m leaning towards cabby since she has allies in the indefinites, bot, and likely test tube as well.

please give me your thoughts and additions if you have any ! and if you’d like more clarification on any of my statements you can always go to my ask box, stay safe yall 🫶🫶

oh also !! im double-posting this to the r/inanimateinsanity reddit! if you want to support me or look at the discussion over there, head over! itll probably be titled “thoughts on silver after iii15?” or smth idk

[galaxysharks]

HSMTMTS Maddox Autism Analysis

I had to use my laptop for this one, cause I'm not about to write all this shit on mobile. However, I shall not be adding gifs and pics to this one, cause i don't have those on my laptop, and i think there is a limit to those anyway. This one's long, and not guaranteed exhaustive cause my memory is Meh, at best.

Anyways, Onward!

General Info

So just from Promotional Material for Season 3

Maddox:

Techie Who always follows the rules.

The most excited person for Camp.

Hates Change

Comes to the same camp every year

From these, we already can see the building blocks of a targeted interest and a need for routines. The always following the rules is reminiscent of Autistics not breaking rules due to simply not thinking to.

Once the show itself aired, Maddox pretty quickly showed multiple indicators as well. For the sake of organization, I'm going to break these down as Tics and Tendencies and give a few examples, rather than by episode.

Irritation/Panic at unexpected changes in schedule

Saylor mentions frequently that Maddox is really struggling in Season 3 because for the first time, something is drastically disrupting this yearly escape. Unlike Ricky who, while panicking at the change, is able to actively work against it, Maddox struggles with fighting the change and usually must physically remove herself to prevent a more extreme reaction.

Maddox begins already thrown off due to Jet being sent with her to camp.

Dislikes when the Auditions is interrupted by Jet arriving an hour late.

She isn't hanging out with EJ this summer, likely due to feeling thrown off that he brought an entire troupe of friends.

Literally everything in Woman in the Woods - and going to her hiding spot to avoid a full meltdown.

RCOSL changes how she normally does the set direction in order to cause drama - again runs off after her and Jet's fight.

Really struggles with Madison's initial appearance at camp.

Realizes she signed to go to NZ before getting with Ash, and completely removes herself from the post-production celebration that LITERALLY every other character attended.

Very Literal Speaking

Several times when Maddox accidentally gets herself in trouble its because she says something that doubles as a pointed metaphor, even though she was being literal.

"...that kind of bond is....Forever"

"...you just got to commit to one side, of the boat....or else you'll fall in..."

"You have two minutes" - and actually timing it

"....and well, life has other plans..." - not realizing Ash could take this as an attack on her relationship.

"...Yeah my crystals haven't charged in like a month" - thinking Jet is literally taking about what she was actively doing.

Scripting

Maddox has multiple moments where she communicates using a clearly practiced script, and a few where she struggles once someone doesn't react how she expected and she did not have a response ready.

Shallow Lake Welcome Song

Introducing herself in the Honeycomb

The automatic little Thank yous when that one kid compliments her at a few points in the season.

The safety information on Newbie Night

The Woman in the Woods story is scripted - she gets interrupted and starts mixing up scripts when trying to get back on track.

Truly awful improvised scripting during RCOSL. Also not having the words to tell Carlos to lay off the whole 'hot for Jet' thing.

Memorizing all the lines she would need as a PA on the flight.

We literally see her scripting her confession to Ash.

Fumbling through talking to Ash about the NZ move, as she didn't think it was a conversation she was going to need to have.

Info Dumping

When Maddox gets excited, she frequently starts info dumping without thinking about it, usually while also kind of tuning out whats happening around her.

Several times in 3x03

Talking about her favorite nigh before she realizes no one is listening.

again when leading the group to the tents, when she is giving the rules and safety information.

Info dumps about rising signs before Ash gets upset and leaves.

general tips for color wars with Gina in 3x06

Snapping

Maddox tends to snap when deciding what to say to someone.

When she calls out Carlos for changing the cast list

We can hear a snap when she first asks Ashlyn if she was a Leo rising

She snaps when getting annoyed at Jet and Ricky when she directs them

She snaps after finishing her script for confessing to Ashlyn

Tapping/Clapping

Maddox claps and taps things when idling or when she is in between actions. Generally, if she's not got her hands in her pockets and isn't holding something, then she's doing this.

Maddox taps her hands together after Ashlyn catches her attention about the letter.

Clapping hands together as she talks when entering the honeycomb.

Taps on the set pieces when not using the drill.

Claps her hands with the paper star when Carlos suggests she likes Jet.

Taps on the bunk beds while talking to the girls after Camp Prom.

Taps on the broom while cleaning after Opening Night.

Claps her hands while talking to Ash in the hallway when walking to set.

Taps the tree stump that Ash hands her.

Shaking Things

Not as common as the tapping, but if Maddie is only using one hand she tends to shake the object she's holding.

The Letter to Big Red

The Markers after signing the wall.

The pamphlet on PA barking

Facial Expressions

Maddox's face tends to either be way more expressive than expected for the response she is giving, or way less. When she is alone, or with friends/Jet, her expressions are more free. she spends less time guessing and just lets her face to whatever its going to.

During RCOSL, her expression is almost unchanged, probably due to having to think about it constantly.

Once Newbie Night started going downhill, she paid more attention to seeming fine.

She is a lot more open in the fourth season, except with Quinn, where she remains professional.

Special Interests

More than pretty much everyone, Maddox has clearly defined interests

Camping

Set Design

Production

Possibly 80's style Camp Humor/Horror

Avoiding Adverse Stimuli

Okay so Maddox has exactly ONE coping mechanism, and its removing/Distancing herself from the situation.

Stands by the stage instead of joining the crowd on Welcome Day.

Does not return to the Bunks until very late.

Sits alone brooding when Jet takes off

Goes to hiding spot after scary story is interrupted

Stays by the wall for much of movie night

Building set/Managing costumes alone, instead of adjusting to help.

Operates more or less ALL of stage alone using a switchboard. Including in Season 4, when we know she has stagehands available.

Goes to hiding spot after argument with Jet.

Goes to probably commit balloon homicide before Jet stops her.

Hides from Ash to avoid NZ conversation.

Mentions that she doesn't actually attend Camp Prom all that often and normally goes to prank the boy's bunks.

Its okay, she'll probably get better about this with her now robust support system.

Anyway, there is definitely more, but this is what i can remember without immediately re watching the show again and going episode by episode.

[70s-show-diary]

I had a thought about your tags in the post about Hyde's gift giving but didn't have the writer brain-space to turn it into a longer character analysis post. However, without having any of the BTS details like script notes or writers testimonies, I have to disagree that Hyde being a thoughtful gift-giver would be an accidental character note. He highly values being noticed and provided for, coming from a background where he was overlooked, left, and made to fend for himself. Trying to avoid my very personal bias for the character himself, I also just feel that from the effort made to paint him as the Pigpen-type character from the start of the show, it's something they would have planned to add in- having him be unusually perceptive and/or emotionally mature as an unexpected juxtaposition to his neglected rough-and-tumble persona Not to assert that anything beyond the first season of T7S was planned out in such a mastermind way, but I just have to disagree that Hyde's gift giving is an accidental thing that fell into his character instead of deeply reflecting many things that are core to why he's the character we have

Hi! I’m so glad you shared your thoughts with me! I love talking about this kind of stuff.

I can understand why my tags from this post that you are referring to may make it seem like I don’t think any of Hyde’s complex characterization was intentional by the show runners/writers of T7S. I tend to use the tags not only for organizational purposes, but for ‘throw away’ comments as well - the kind of things I wouldn’t want to ‘permanently’ include in the body of the post for the very reason that the comment is usually a bit tangential to the main purpose of the post. But tags are not the greatest place to fully-flesh out a character analysis, which can maybe cause some confusion.

And so that is why I appreciate you sending this ask because it gives me a chance to clarify the actual meaning behind that tag here in this post:

First - putting my own personal bias for the character aside as well, I completely agree with you that Hyde’s perceptiveness and emotional maturity absolutely juxtaposes nicely with his neglected rough-and-tumble persona (I love these words for describing Hyde btw; it’s so spot on). It makes for a well-rounded, complex, and engaging character, as opposed to the two-dimensional stereotyped ‘burnout’ he is on the surface.

I’m not saying that I think that some of these aspects of Hyde’s character/persona was not intentional by the minds behind the character (show-runners, writers, etc.), but I just tend to believe that it’s the fans of the show, particularly those of us involved in fandom and fanfic, that are primarily responsible for fleshing out these more nuanced aspects of Hyde’s character and persona. Not to be overtly cynical, but I think that there are minds here in the T7S fandom that have given significantly more objective thought and consideration to Hyde’s character than the show runners did.

But like you said, without having been in the writer’s room, there’s really no way to know exactly how much of Hyde’s complex characterization was intentional. I could very easily be wrong. If Hyde’s personal and thoughtful gift-giving was planned out and intentional, then kudos to the the show runners/writers because Steven Hyde is hands down one of the most interesting and complex characters I’ve encountered in media, especially considering that T7S is a sitcom.

And I have to give the writers/show runners some credit - after all, That ‘70s Show is my favorite TV show. But my passion for the show has been made considerably more enjoyable and enriching by the minds in the fandom.

TLDR; I’m of the mind that the show runners/writers planted the seeds, but it was the fandom that nurtured and grew those seeds into a garden that continues to flourish 25 years later.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

[yesimadeanotherblogfuckoff]

GO S2 OPENING ANALYSIS PT 1 (also Potential GO spoilers idk)

I haven't really seen anyone go in depth on the opening for season two yet so I'm making to this to point out all the things i spotted and some theories this is SUPER LONG POST SO BE WARNED

Crowley crawls up while Aziraphale floats down which is fitting but there's also storm clouds in the distance so there might be a scene after the flood or it's a sign of impending doom

right after crowley and aziraphale go through that dark tunnel Gabriel(?) can be spotted with that infamous box

they're in the middle of a scorched village and crowley sets goats on fire which pretty much confirms that they are somehow going to be involved with the story of Job if not directly involved

here we have that Gabriel statue from the trailer and a gravestone with "EVERYDAY" written on it, the reoccurring song that somehow related to the mystery

here's another gravestone with something written on it, this was the best photo i could get and i tried lightening it but i can't figure out what it says so if anyone has any ideas feel free to share

gravestone with jane austen on it, this author has been referenced quite a bit from the info we have about s2 so far and is on the cover for the episode "The Ball" so looking forward to that

"HERE LIES THE FORMER SHELL OF BEELZLEBUB" so i guess that's Neil's explanation for them having a different actor? Beelzebub molted? gross but very creative

also im pretty sure that bottom one says "Here Lies ADAM" as in antichrist Adam? oh man i hope he isn't dead he was such a sweet kid

there's a guillotine in the far back during their walk through hell hope that isn't foreshadowing anything 0-0

they also have this office on a pillar above the fiery pit of hell which i find very funny but this could also maybe be related to Shax? where she used to work maybe??

a sign for an underground train station so i guess we'll be expecting a train station scene of some kind?

the group walks through this gate with "GENTS" at the top no idea what that implys but i'll put it here anyways

there's a "WINGS FOR VICTORY" sign on the side of this bus which is a reference to British saving campaigns during WWII so confirms more WWII era stuff with aziraphale and crowley

there is this poster for STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN and my first thought was the LED ZEPPLIN song but actually it's a reference this 1946 movie

in which a British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl

so thats INTERESTING and COOL and totally doesn't imply ANYTHING about aziraphale and crowley's relationship or (potentially) maggie and nina's

but there is also a Zeppelin (it looks more like a blimp but whatever) and later on they go into a theater which looks very similar to the album cover for Stairway to Heaven

so I'm not gonna rule it out

there's a poster that says "THE FABULOUS LADIES OF CAMELOT" which is probably the group name of the show girls we saw in the trailer it says they are performing at the Windmill Theatre in London which is real and very famous for its Windmill girls who performed as nude living statues

i think this box is part of that saw a person in half trick and i can't wait to see Aziraphale attempt this trick and miserably fail like he always does, lot of laughs for sure

here's aziraphale on stage in his magician's outfit from the trailer but crowley is there as well so maybe he's his assistant? if so thats super funny and explains why crowley is not a fan of his magic act later on

very cute moment of crowley and aziraphale twirling around each other in the stars (this could be a nod to that moment that people spoiled for the first two episodes will know what im talking about )

this bridge they're walking on could potentially be the Humber Bridge near Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England (?)

or just a random ass bridge lol i do love to theorize tho

this airplane has "THY KINGDOM AIRWAYS" on its side very funny gag

these cotton candy hearts appear to be raining from the sky which im not sure what that implies but this season is focusing more on romance so it fits (also crowley and azira sitting together on the roof cute <3)

here we have maggie's record shop and nina's cafe right next to each other with record banners on the street, maybe a promotional party for the store? there's also a jukebox with records stacked in front of it. there's a promotional image of aziraphale holding everyday on vinyl (that i can't find sorry) so maybe he's gonna use this jukebox to play it?

i believe this is Gabriel(?) holding the package and going down an elevator from Heaven so he wasn't lying about needing to deliver something to Aziraphale something must've happened to him on his way over

one of the group is holding a sign for the "The 2nd Coming" as in the second coming of Jesus Christ?

A bar called The Dirty Donkey, new location for aziraphale and crowley to dine at? there's a smaller sign there but it's impossible to read HOWEVER

it looks like a holy figure standing in front of the opening of a cave, maybe an angel? considering the clothing maybe Jesus Christ?

I'm at my limit for photos so I will continue this in my next post!

(edit: here's the link for pt 2)

[marcholasmoth]

OSRR: 3596

today was my momma's birthday! she turned 70 today.

today i ended up going with momma to walmart and getting a bunch of stuff. we walked around the store and i had an increasingly hard time walking because - you guessed it! - my heel hurt!

honestly i don't know why i don't just have it in my file to never see that doctor. she doesn't listen to me. ever. it wastes my time and money and it's fucking terrible. i practically couldn't waste that money worse than this - if i gave it to just about anyone else it'd be beneficial and not a waste! god i hate that woman. what's the point of being a doctor at all if you're not going to fucking listen to your patients???

anyway.

while we were out, though, mom and i were walking along the back wall past the shoe section, and we spotted some slider sandals, the first of which that caught my eye were DBZ. my mom first saw the spongebob ones, but since i would rather have my retinas disconnect again than own spongebob merchandise, i was happy to point out the other kind i saw next to them - naruto ones.

so mom got me naruto sliders which are wicked comfy and will be great if my foot doesn't heal the way it should.

mom and i spent the afternoon watching some more episodes of the flash, before i went and made us dinner and brought it back up. we watched the end of a season of the great british baking show and then plopped the flash back on before it was time for bed.

nothing from joel today, but the man (1) needs his space and (2) usually has a game on tuesdays. i let him breathe. he lets me breathe. living together full time will be interesting, but nice - i'll get to cuddle with him and talk to him even on work nights because eventually i will be working a job with normal hours. inshallah i will get a normal hour job.

below is a bunch of stuff about my relationship with my mom. you don't need to read it if you don't want.

it was nice to just spend time with my mom without any other pressure or whatever. i think it's fun to spend time with her. she's silly. i love my mom a lot. yes our relationship at its core is complicated, and yes there are a lot of things that she's done that i resent. i won't deny that. and i know the argument of "but she's my mom" isn't always a good one because of one thing or another, depending on the situation. but even after all of that, i still love my mom. our relationship has improved since i've been out of the house more and more, and i'm confident that's why this is my perspective. but i love my mom. i like spending time with my mom. no she won't know everything unless she gets real cool with a lot of things real fast, but having a good relationship is a damn good start.

the older i've gotten the more i understand her actions, the choices she's made, the decisions she makes, the more i understand her as a person. which is nice to be able to do. understanding and relating are two different things but i can translate what she says and does into something i can understand - usually. of course the differences in communication leave her angry and me overwhelmed because she's NOT clear when she communicates and i am trying to bridge the gap she leaves, but i often do an okay job. but she has a short temper when it comes to asking questions and getting answers and then the answers i give are unsatisfactory. which is frustrating. "what do you think of _____?" if i don't say anything i am thinking??? what do you want me to do, keep useless information and analysis on file??? nah. "do you want chicken parm for dinner?" no, because i don't like chicken parm. i never have. i have been your child for 31 years. you should know that i don't like chicken parm.

so it's shit like that that drives me fucking bonkers. and if i'm short back she gets defensive which is also fucking annoying, so whatever, it is what it is. i try to control my tone as best i can. whether or not it works is a different question.

this turned into a long discussion of my mom and that's not really what i was aiming for today, but it is what it is.

in spite of all of it, i still love my mom. i'm glad she's still here to help me, when i have hard times or when i need advice. and i'm glad i can be present to temper her attitude toward others because good lord that woman is a nightmare of judging.

so i continue to keep the peace. 31-and-a-half-plus-years running.

[jonkentdeservesbetter]

I wrote a comment in r/SupermanAndLois awhile ago, where I mentioned how I’d one day get around to writing out an analysis on Jon’s character and his relationships. I have reposted that on my blog, but it’s largely irrelevant, except to say that I intended to.

The thing is, my original plan was to rewatch the previous two seasons, while taking some thorough notes on Jon’s personality and his relationships, and how those connections tie into his reactions and reflect his personality.

This never happened - despite starting my essay last year - because every time I tried going through a rewatch, I…got too upset.

It was one thing watching the first seasons, hoping for the last few episodes of season 2 - in the break after the ep. with the Barn Scene, wherein it seemed things were at last going to be addressed for Jon and begin to change for the better - to be what we hoped, in comparison with rewatching after…S2.

To sum it up: I couldn’t get through them.

Still, I did get somewhere with my analysis, and I’d like to hear any thoughts others may have in response. It’s really very little, when not posting my messy, unedited ramblings, but essentially: do you know Enneagram types? I’m actually not that familiar with it, aside from knowing things about my own. But when I was considering what and how to write the essay I’d mapped out, I thought a look at other personality analyses could be useful for kickstarting the process. So I went to the website. I remembered thinking of the profile and analysis on my type, how I’d been shocked at how accurate it all felt; which is why it’s what came to mind. I didn’t expect to actually find a type that fit Jon, but well.

Jon seems like a 3w2, in my opinion, and Jordan an 8, although I didn’t dive deep enough into the latter’s to determine wing.

Here’s the link to the Type Three profile. I’m not going to say I think every single line is spot-on for him, but I think it’s useful, still. Note: TW for ableist language in some parts.

Also: consider that some of the ‘unhealthy’ levels explained actually match Bizzaro!Jon.

There’s a lot to read and agree or disagree with, depending on how you, personally, interpret Jon’s characterization. For me, I found these excerpts quite striking:

[…] since these professions have status in their community and in the eyes of the family. No matter how success is defined, Threes will try to become somebody noteworthy in their family and their community. They will not be a “nobody.”

To this end, Threes learn to perform in ways that will garner them praise and positive attention. As children, they learned to recognize the activities that were valued by their parents or peers, and put their energies into excelling in those activities. Threes also learned how to cultivate and develop whatever about them is attractive or potentially impressive.

[…] Thus, the deeper problem is that their search for a way to be of value increasingly takes them further away from their own Essential Self with its core of real value. From their earliest years, as Threes become dependent on receiving attention from others and in pursuing the values that others reward, they gradually lose touch with themselves. Step by step, their own inner core, their “heart’s desire,” is left behind until they no longer recognize it.

Thus, while they are the primary type in the Feeling Center, Threes, interestingly, are not known as “feeling” people; rather, they are people of action and achievement. It is as if they “put their feelings in a box” so that they can get ahead with what they want to achieve. Threes have come to believe that emotions get in the way of their performance, so they substitute thinking and practical action for feelings.

Seriously, there’s a lot of Jon on that page.

[kkf]

I’ve woken up with Ava Max’s “Sweet But Psycho” chorus in my head the last few days. My subconscious is definitely not trying to tell me something.

To be specific, it was the chorus:

Oh, she's sweet but a psycho

A little bit psycho

At night, she's screamin'

"I'm-ma-ma-ma out my mind"

Not the most comforting lyrics to wake up to. While contemplating my current mental health, I considered how my therapist would ask me to deconstruct that particular thought.

Which, because of my recent Buffy rewatch brain, eventually led me to think about how badly Buffy needed a therapist. In 144 episodes, she had only three brushes with mental health professionals. I’m going to set aside 6.14 “Normal Again,” because that not only does that episode merit its own post, but I also don’t have enough chocolate on hand to grapple with the mind fuck that is that episode. I’m just looking at 3.04 “Beauty and the Beast” and 7.07 “Conversations with Dead People.”

In season 3, Buffy is recovering from the implosion of her relationship with Angel. As a Bangel fan, it hurts me to write this, but the relationship from the point where Angel loses his soul is a metaphor for an abusive relationship (dude tries to kill her, her friends, her classmates, end the world…not a healthy route to take a relationship).

So as the season starts Buffy is traumatized from losing Angel and Jenny, as well as being the one who had to sacrifice the person she loved to save the world. After her three month sabbatical to LA, our girl CLEARLY needed some professional help to sort through everything. And for once, Buffy gets some of this help in the form of Mr. Platt, the school guidance counselor.

Buffy’s conversation with Platt is impressive when one considers how much ground he covers in such a short amount of time.

Of course, in true Buffyverse fashion, this help from a qualified professional only lasts about the 15 minutes it takes for him to become a victim of our latest monster of the week, a Jekyll-Hyde classmate whose own abusive relationship is meant to serve as a foil for that of Buffy and Angel. Buffy never gets professional help again. Until Holden, Buffy’s former classmate-turned therapist-turned newly risen vampire.

(Confession: I have a soft spot for Holden, because the actor who plays him was also in one of my favorite episodes of Firefly.)

Now Holden’s therapy session is an interesting blend of analysis and fisticuffs, as he IS a newly turned vampire and is, thus, evil. As he reminds us.

For this reason, Holden has a slightly more confrontational style when getting Buffy to open up. He challenges her, pushes her not to hold back. And as a result Buffy is open about her inferiority-superiority complex, which really, he says, is the root of the loneliness that Buffy feels. Being the Slayer makes her feel superior to her friends, however her performance as the Slayer makes her feel isolated and inferior. As Holden states, “it all adds up to you being alone.” But then goes on to argue that “everybody is until you die.”

Thinking about loneliness and isolation as recurring themes for Buffy, both of which are experiences trauma survivors tend to experience, I’m reminded about a recent YouTube short (which was originally a TikTok) that I saw which stated two pieces of food for thought. The first was that “the reason why we self sabotage is because it allows us to predict what is going to happen which gives us the illusion of control over our own pain” and the second was that “they’re not your type, they’re your pattern.”

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fx12Lxxojvo

Buffy’s sabotaging patterns of behavior (choosing men who are centuries older than her for example, or men who she is in no danger of falling in love with) offer her the illusion of control over what kind of pain she is inviting into her life.

Additionally, Buffy’s patterns of behavior - the self isolation, the relationships she chooses, all of them work as ways of protecting herself. She chooses emotional isolation from her friends as a method of protecting herself from the possibility that they won’t understand the choices that she’s making or that they will call her out on repeating sabotaging patterns of behavior.

It’s not a coincidence that it’s someone outside her immediate social circle who calls her out on her pattern of choosing relationships where she doesn’t have to completely open up. As Holden is someone to whom she has weak social ties, Buffy is more likely to be receptive to new ideas coming from him than from someone within her close social circle.

Often, especially when starting therapy, the fact that the person you’re speaking with is someone who has no “horse in the race” enables a patient to be more open, not just to being completely honest with the therapist, but also to receiving feedback. With my own therapy experience, having a complete stranger validate that while my reactions to certain triggers were not disproportionate, they didn’t make me crazy. They didn’t make me broken.

I wish, looking back, that Buffy had more of an opportunity to interact with mental health professionals. The metaphor of the show is “growing up.” How much more interesting and helpful would it have been for young viewers to have seen that the patterns we can find ourselves in can be challenged. That we can change. That with a little help, we can stop feeling so “psycho.”

[the-autistic-duck-fan]

Analysis number two and we're doing Journey Beyond Sodor, a movie I saw pretty recently, so I wanna get my thoughts out before they fade from my mind. (I swear I'll do season 2 after this). I will say, overall, I had a lot of fun with this movie. No, it's not perfect, but I liked it enough to actually purchase it so I can watch it over and over again. More beneath the cut since this post might get a bit long.

So, first of all, I love James in this movie. He has the vibe of an obnoxious older brother in this movie and I'm living for it. He's just petty and a jerk and I enjoy it. He also has a bit of an arc as he does go to help Thomas in the end and for the most part stays focused on that goal, even if he initially had selfish reasons for doing so. As a long term James lover, I was very pleased with his characterization in this special.

So, let's talk about characters introduced in this movie. First we have the three experimental engines, Lexi, Theo, and Merlin. I fully enjoyed these three. They're so quirky and I couldn't help but enjoy them (seems to be a pattern with this analysis so far). Lexi is very enthusiastic, despite her belief she can't do anything. I can kinda relate sometimes. Theo is also someone I can relate to, being nervous and jittery but also trying to be kind. According to his wiki entry he was intended to be autistic coded, which I think is kinda cool. Merlin is also just so enthusiastic but clearly a little bit...well, special, seeing as he thinks he can turn invisible by letting off steam and closing his eyes. But I love his sincerity and adventurous spirit. Overall the experimentals are a strange little found family of imperfect individuals and I love them.

Lastly, we have Hurricane and Frankie. I can't explain it, but I really like Hurricane. I'm kind of a sucker for villains whose hearts aren't really in it. While he goes along with Frankie, I feel like he's genuinely nice in some places, like saving Thomas from melting and risking himself, just sort of held back by the engine he associates with. Speaking of her, I did not like Frankie. I mean, she's a good antagonist, but she reminds me of my grandma (an awful person, I'm sure you can guess), who pulls a lot of similar stuff to her. Overall I didn't like her and I wasn't sure she really deserved the redemption she got.

Characters aside, I also enjoy the plot. It feels pretty well paced for the most part except for a few spots where things felt slightly rushed, but they did have to squeeze things into an hour and twelve minutes. Overall, things felt varied and the adventure was fun. I actually expected the experimentals to show up and never be seen again, but they came back towards the end, which I was happy about.

Also the song numbers are very enjoyable. 'Somebody Has to Be the Favorite' had me grinning like an idiot the second it started. Beresford's back and forth number with Thomas was also enjoyable and I liked how Thomas tricked Beresford at the end (it made me wish CGI Thomas was a bit more cheeky sometimes as he's more nicey nice in the stuff I've seen). 'Hottest Place in Town' has been stuck in my head for days and I really like Frankie and Hurricane's singing voices. Side note I love that they repeat it when James shows up at the steelworks but he's not buying it. Thomas' song about wanting to go home was probably the least noteworthy and I don't like his singing voice that much. 'We Can't Do Anything' was a fun number that made me think the experimentals were stuck between the depression and acceptance stages of the grieving process, though it was a little long. 'The Most Important Thing is Being Friends' is my least favorite, but it's not bad and wraps up the film pretty well (plus I like Henry's joke of 'what did I miss?' at the tail end after him being gone through the whole movie).

So let's talk a bit about things I didn't enjoy as much. First of all, Thomas' voice is a bit irritating to me, though that isn't exclusive to this movie, it's a problem I have with other parts of CGI Thomas. It's especially noticeable when he sings as I alluded to above. Another thing is something I touched on a bit earlier, I didn't like that Frankie got a redemption arc. Well, it's not even an arc. It just happens. It felt a little too fast after everything she did and I don't think we really saw a redeeming side to her. I understand that it's a kid's film and they want to give it a good ending, but still, it bugs me just a bit. Though what I like about this special is enough to counteract these for me.

Journey Beyond Sodor was one of the first pieces of CGI Thomas I saw and I'm glad it was cause it gave me some optimism and the hope that made me look for the good in CGI Thomas. I thoroughly enjoyed this special, even if it's imperfect. Sorry if this seems all over the place, I'm still finding how I wanna do these and this was more rapid fire thoughts than anything.