#also i wanted an excuse to talk about marcela

[ladysophiebeckett]

Your posts about ysblf made me watch to rewatch Betty’s revenge part for the millionth time, and there’s something I noticed about Armando’s dry spell era. When he admits to Mario that intimacy with Marcela is basically nonexistent, he then asks him if he had been with anyone else after the last time with Betty to which Armando replies that he has had no time and that he lives for Ecomoda and to please Betty and Marcela. Now, the first times I watched this portion, I kinda got it and what he said made sense somehow because he was indeed under a lot of pressure. However, after rewatching these episodes, I noticed that he had not one (Adriana Arboleda’s event) not two (At El Meson de San Diego after Betty left), but at least three (at Le Noir when he followed Betty and Nicolas) opportunities to be with someone other than Betty (and Marcela), but chose not to, detail that he conveniently hid from Mario.

I think that the first time was during the night of Adriana Arboleda’s event and the only instance that applies when Mario asked him that question. That night he went home alone, even refused the tempting offer to party with the models even after Betty had already ditched him. He wasn’t that indifferent either, because he did go looking for them with the excuse that he wanted them to work for Ecomoda. Now, this might be true, but he is also a man who likes to look at beautiful women. However, after the coast is clear without Betty there and Marcela miles away, he still chose to go back to his apartment early and alone. At this point, he wasn’t as mentally unstable as he is in later episodes since Betty’s revenge was just beginning to take off, so the excuse that his many troubles were dulling his desire for intimacy didn’t apply either at this point. Adding to this, he was more than eager to get to it with Betty before she left. At first, I thought it was annoying that everywhere he went, there would be a former lover that who would openly flirt with him, but looking at it closely, maybe there was another purpose for doing this after all. I feel dense for not noticing it was to show that he had changed and could only be with Betty. Before, I thought it was just to remind us how popular he was and to showcase his internal struggle to admit openly he loved Betty while also being afraid of the backlash. What do you think? Your analysis is honestly some of the best I’ve seen. I’m in awe every time.

Sorry for the long ask, thank you for reading and good day to you 🫶

ive read this ask like 3x and im like,,,,okay wow mind blown. i would usually comment in order of the ask, but im reeling here so im just gonna have to do this adhd style. im sorry.

At first, I thought it was annoying that everywhere he went, there would be a former lover that who would openly flirt with him, but looking at it closely, maybe there was another purpose for doing this after all.

I'm very with you on this. I was too busy being annoyed at random women coming up to him that I didn't see that it was done with the purpose of seeing Armando rejecting them at every turn. Even at le noir, he doesn't care about the woman greeting him that's asking him to stay. It's not like there weren't other opportunities for him to be with anyone else. Something happens when Betty starts rejecting him. Conversations with Mario make Armando believe it's his ego at the front of it. It is and it isn't.

Let's talk about this:

However, after the coast is clear without Betty there and Marcela miles away, he still chose to go back to his apartment early and alone. At this point, he wasn’t as mentally unstable as he is in later episodes since Betty’s revenge was just beginning to take off, so the excuse that his many troubles were dulling his desire for intimacy didn’t apply either at this point.

Adriana's event is Betty's first rejection of him. All throughout the episode Armando is agitated because he can't find her. As soon as she tells him she's leaving with Nicolas, the agitation he felt all evening turns to anger. He goes so far as saying 'You're staying here, because I'm ordering you to'. It becomes his go to excuse when suddenly the boyfriend card doesn't work anymore.

In fact, he uses work as the excuse for why he gets into a fight with Nicolas at Inesita's. There's comparison's to be made between Adriana's event and the fight at Inesita's (aka Jaundice Day aka the night Catalina catches them). Right down to Betty wearing the same outfit when she says 'Let's see how jealous you get'.

Obviously Betty sees how maybe...perhaps...she took it too far.

At the first rejection Armando says something like 'you would rather go to a dinner with him instead of a date with me?? bc i would rather be with you' vs at Inestia's when he says 'you would rather leave with him instead of staying with me?'

It doesn't take a lot to make Armando lose it, in fact both times he grabs Betty in some way. The difference is that at Inesita's he forced to admit to himself that it's jealousy. Not his ego.

When he admits to Mario that intimacy with Marcela is basically nonexistent, he then asks him if he had been with anyone else after the last time with Betty to which Armando replies that he has had no time and that he lives for Ecomoda and to please Betty and Marcela.

I always laugh at that line bc he's failing miserably at all those things. His Betty isn't behaving properly, Marcela isn't being easily placated with his lies, the hidden state of Ecomoda is in shambles. But the only thing he thinks about is Betty. He can't focus on anything bc he knows his relationship with her is in trouble.

We all make jokes about Armando's dry spell and him going crazy--iirc and someone correct me if I'm wrong--but I believe that Marcela said at some point that when Armando was stressed sex would calm him down. I think she says something like this during one of his rejections towards her. So during the gaslighting arc he's going through high stress levels but the cause of the stress and the cure of said stress is Betty.

The cycle of sexual rejection going on in the Betty\Armando\Marcela love triangle is insane and tragic. (and only hilarious fm Armando's pov bc its a karmic punishment).

However, after rewatching these episodes, I noticed that he had not one (Adriana Arboleda’s event) not two (At El Meson de San Diego after Betty left), but at least three (at Le Noir when he followed Betty and Nicolas) opportunities to be with someone other than Betty (and Marcela), but chose not to, detail that he conveniently hid from Mario.

See, I didn't notice this. Or pay attention to what he isn't telling Mario. I'm??? And I'm a huge 'Betty's Gaslighting Arc' fan. Truly always something new to look at. Like you, I was just annoyed. I'm like 'i get it Armando, ur very popular with the ladies'--which is probably what Betty's thinking when she's a witness to some of this. Him not telling Mario that there were other opportunities means Armando is more aware of his feelings and the things happening around him than he lets on. He really does mentally push things away bc he doesn't want to see the bigger picture. He knows that if he told Mario he had other opportunities to sleep with someone and didn't, that Mario would know (even tho we know that Mario knows Armando's in love with Betty).

---However, after the coast is clear without Betty there and Marcela miles away, he still chose to go back to his apartment early and alone....Adding to this, he was more than eager to get to it with Betty before she left---

He says to Betty that he had an evening planned for them (and we'll never know what that was, probably a well lit place but nothing too fancy. and obviously a sexy little nightcap at Mario's apartment). Even says that they're only going to stop at Adriana's event for a bit and then leave. It was meant to be quick appearance to say he was there. He basically had his heart set on spending time with Betty (without Marcela or Mario breathing down his neck) and when it doesn't happen he doesn't think of making new plans with anyone.

This is him when he gets to his apartment:

(Ignore this set up which looks nothing like the apartment they said was his various episodes ago)

This guy is disgustedly looking at Cosmo magazine thinking 'I was supposed to be having sexy times with my gf\assistant and now I'm here....Alone'.

And this is him when Marcela calls him:

Completely annoyed.

If Betty called his cell phone that night and said 'This dinner with Nicolas just ended, do you still want to do something?' One, he wouldn't be making that face above and two, he'd have thrown that Cosmo magazine in the trash and left immediately.

I feel dense for not noticing it was to show that he had changed and could only be with Betty.

Do not feel dense babe, I didn't make this connection either. It's refreshing to still be able to discover new things in programs we've watched over and over again. That's why discussions like this are fun.

Before, I thought it was just to remind us how popular he was and to showcase his internal struggle to admit openly he loved Betty while also being afraid of the backlash.

That's definitely at the forefront of it all but it can also be a mixture of everything above. It's what makes the character nuanced and dimensional. Sometimes we question how is it that he can be faithful to Betty vs unfaithful to Marcela and it's not (just) bc he had magical sex with Betty. If we look at his subtle rejections of other women in the situations you've mentioned above, then really what we're witnessing is him choosing Betty every time. His confession outside of her house, the way he words it 'I can only be with you'--Armando fears he's losing her and he's won't admit to himself what he really feels, so he can't be at his most vulnerable and say 'I only want to be with you' (not that she would believe him).

That's why, at el Admirante, after confessing to reading her diary he's able to say, 'The life that I know I want to share with you'. Because he's knows now that above all she still loves him (and has always loved him). It's very scorpio of him tbh.

So yeah, I definitely agree with you. You've shown me a new way to look at it. Bc again, I hadn't noticed it. I just get too annoyed with him and all these random women. (come to think of it, a woman greets him when he's drinking with Freddy too and he's still like 'ok whatever' about it).

I love long asks I'm just sorry it takes me forever to answer them. I'm very slow and easily distracted.

[youwontlikethisblog]

Armando Mendoza: A Brief Analysis

Hey, how are you? It's been a while. This will be a lil update so if you want you can skip down to the [GREEN] to start with the post :)

It's been a hectic few months. I finally decided to stop setting it aside and get real about my writing and begun the tedious task of editing the final draft of my original manuscript. I'm a perfectionist(Although if we're considering my posts about YSBLF as an example of that, than you wouldn't expect it lol. I suppose that's what I get for writing post when I haven't had a lick of sleep and don't stop to take breaks while writing the posts and then, half brain dead, I sit down to "edit" the grammar). When it comes to something that truly means a lot to me I do not feel satisfied until it has reached my exact expectations. I've made a few updates on my writing and how it's been going. There's some exciting development on it but I want to wait a little more to be able to fully talk about it and share the news with y'all.

That being said; I still have not continued watching YSBLF since the last time I did a post about the show, y'know, life and all but without further ado, here is the post :)

Armando Mendoza: An Objective and A Not So Deep Dive

Now that I've had some time and space away from the show, I can look at the characters in a more objective manner. I've been considering a lot of things regarding them and I feel like this post might come right out of left field —seeing how I normally seem to "defend" Armando, or some might assume I do— and this post will most likely not do that. In reality, it won't. It'll rightfully so call him out.

See, the stark difference between Marcela and Armando, not personality wise, but writing wise, is that Marcela doesn't really have a backstory. Her past is pretty blurry and the very few clear images we get of it always paint her to be the exact same person. However with Armando his past, while also not clear, is more visible and a little bit more precise than hers. In the post I made for Marcela I wasn't as empathetic as I should have been.

Marcela's past is basically unknown and the very little information we do get doesn't paint her in the best of lights. However, that doesn't mean that she deserved or that what Armando was doing to her was okay. I should have said that in her post. I placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that while Marcela had a right to feel what she did, she didn't have a right to act the way she was. Feelings are valid, actions are not.

Well same goes for Armando.

Armando could have been dating a helicopter as a girlfriend, someone who was possessive and controlling of him, but that doesn't justify nor excuse his horrible behavior towards her. While yes, one could assume that his cheating had to do with his lack of control with life, it still doesn't justify or excuse it. Nothing, ever, justifies cheating.

As I said in the Marcela post: This isn't about her so I won't be explaining her reasoning, her behavior, her actions, or anything of those sorts, therefore, don't take it as me excusing her bad behavior. It's simply being mentioned.

With modern times come modern solutions. Nowadays it's very easy to be able to pick up your phone and google something, read a self-help book, find the root of your childhood trauma and even a therapist. Child development isn't easy to understand to the naked eye and you have to have years of experience on the subject to fully understand how point A gets to point B. I'm no expert of it, just done some basic research on certain topics of childhood trauma and such so while I might have some form of understanding, it's not an exactitude on the subject.

We can estimate that Armando had emotionally absent parents, witnesses how his parents turned their backs on his sister for falling in love with a poor man and the way the elite society they're a part of was about the whole subject. How do we draw to this conclusion?

His father doesn't even know what he went to college for or what he got his degree on. His mother coddles him, only when he acts to her standards, enables a horrible relationship that does not benefit neither her biological son or her basically-adopted daughter. Quite the contrary the show does a good job at showing the drastic parallels of Betty's relationship with her parents compared to Armando and his parents. Consider the fact that any time Armando is on screen with his parents they only talk about two things: His relationship with Marcela and the company.

They don't sound like the warmest of parents do they?

I talk a lot about being a writer and how knowing your characters IS one of the most crucial and important parts of developing your story. I mention this because when you write characters, fleshed out ones, you have at the very least an understanding of their past. Not an exact one, but an understanding in order to have them say the things they do and act the way they do.

Roberto was always cold towards Armando, from the very start. He clearly showed signs that he didn't very much care for him. He cared more about the company, his wife, Daniel, Marcela, Beatriz, and then, at the very end, Armando. With obvious reasons we understand why Roberto didn't trust Armando. It's always been told that he's always been a player, doesn't commit, and is immature, plus with the devil on his shoulder he calls a best friend, Armando isn't the most trustworthy.

Yet, that does not excuse Roberto's lousy father role in his son's life. Children need strong(by that I mean emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually present) male role models in their lives, especially father figures. I've said it before that it could be a possibility that Armando's childhood was very much with an emotionally distant father. This creates the perfect breeding ground for a child to constantly feel like they must excel in every part of their lives(perfectionism), have an anxious attitude, a fear of losing the love of their loved ones if they aren't excelling(low self-esteem), and other difficulties. Basically this ball of fear, resentment, anger, perfectionism, and anxiousness(being avoidant) . These issues on their own bring their separate problems that mixed together make for an unlikeable person. I don't know about you, but this sounds a lot like Armando.

Of course there's people who grew up with emotionally unavailable parents and grew up to be fully companionate, kind, loving, and wonderful people. That's the tricky thing about trauma, not one size fits all. Just because two people grew up the same doesn't mean they'll deal with it the same way.

Emotionally absent parents equal physically absent parents when it comes to their children's development.

His mother was the same, though, unlike Roberto, Margarita did love Armando and was present but very conditional with her love. You can have examples of this when Armando and Marcela would be fighting. She always took Marcela's side and pressured Armando to continue the relationship. She also guilted Marcela into staying with Armando. She was never there to comfort her son when he was at his lowest or even before. She was just only ever present in his life and made an effort to talk to him when it came to his engagement to Marcela. Plus, the whole causing Camila to divorce her husband and move to a different country fiasco.

Armando did a fine job of taking after his parents, as he is a perfect reflection of them.

There's one thing that Armando said that has ran laps around my brain for a while now; "I know I did things wrong, damnit I always do!" outside of el Meson.

He's aware of the things he does, even if it's at the heat of the moment, Armando is a self-aware jester, who never cared enough to change until he lost everything.

This change, while outside forces moved him to change, were not the reason why he changed. That's another message that is lost with this show.

Armando didn't change because he fell in love with Betty. Armando only learned to be brave enough to be the person he always aspired to be, because he fell in love. Doesn't matter who he fell in love with, he simply did. The love he received from Betty only taught him to be brave enough to love the same.

The same way Betty was naïve to how depraved any man can be, whether educated or not, rich, poor, or from a "high" society or lower class, Armando too was naïve to what was actually good and bad because he never really had parents that cared enough to teach him. Now this in no way frees Armando from accountability. Lets not forget that the whole point of his personality at the beginning of the story is that he sucks, and is a horrible man.

[TAKE A BREAK IF YOU NEED ONE.]

Sex addiction is a serious addiction. As I've mentioned before, in one of my earliest posts, that Armando shows to have signs of it but I'm no expert so I wouldn't say he does. For example, his affairs often cause issues in his relationship, his professional life, and for himself. While he's aware of all the risk that these affairs cause in his life, he still part takes in them! These are all signs that he has an addiction. However, I don't think that was the intent behind this part of his personality when he was being written, simply there to show how he was a Casanova of sorts.

These are all things I've already talked about in different posts but I wanted to dive a little bit deeper here in case some people haven't read those.

Let's get to the real juicy stuff now.

Armando's horrible, terrible, abusive, treatment of women.

Yeah Armando defended Aura, he wasn't a misogynist, and he didn't abuse his position of power nor assaulted any women(not talking about the constant harassment of Betty after she found the letter yet). Still, Armando was abusive.

He constantly manipulated women into believing he was serious about them just to use them, he gaslit —not only Marcela but all his side chicks— people in order to control a situation, and at times even got physical. Let's not forget the hair pulling, choking, and dragging of Karla, Marce, and Larson. Let's not forget Betty! While he never hit them, the way he acted, was not okay!

Armando was aggressive, he was controlling, and he was manipulative. God, he was awful!

There's no excuse or even a justification for him in this part.

While you can argue that his intentions weren't to harm those girls, he still did it. The moment they didn't behave to his standards, he removed his "love"(infatuation) from them. Does that sound similar to a pattern? like someone else? (Margarita).

However Marcela for this instance was a victim of his. His constant cheating made her so controlling, resentful, and bitter.

A cycle starts somewhere. Whether it be Marce being possessive from the get go of their relationship or Armando cheating first, somewhere the cycle began.

One thing I want to make clear is that both Marcela and Armando were abusive and victims of each other.

From the start of the novela Armando isn't a good person. He's horrible. However, he was meant to be charismatic, which would cause people to over-look those red flags.

There's a lot of sides to Armando's character and that's what makes him complex.

There's obvious reason as to why Armando, in a sense, has some redeeming qualities compared to the people he's surrounded by. You know, he feels remorse for the way he acts, especially towards Marce and Betty. He feels the pressure of not letting his parents down and the responsibility of keeping people employed. However, even if it's remorse, the problem always lays in the fact that he doesn't truly change.

In this half of the post I'm focusing more on his relationship with Marcela.

I've talked about reactionary abuse, toxic relationships, abusive tactics, and patterns in all of my posts regarding Armando and Marcela. I've explained in a simplified way and yet I feel like some people either reject the idea or only want to blame one party.

What makes Marcela and Armando's relationship toxic and not D.A. is that they both enable each other and their bad habits. See, even if Armando were the one that started the conflicts, Marcela also acts out abusively. Basically they up one another in any fight. As if saying "Oh so you're going to threaten to leave? Fine! Then I'll ruin your life! If you leave me it would be like losing my parents all over again." while the other responds with "Marrying you is simply a favor to you! If you speak up about this than the wedding is off!" get the idea?

Marcela enables Armando by acting out in her rage, further pushing him to act out in his cheating and gaslighting. Armando enables Marcela by his cheating and gaslighting. They both feed the cycle and reject any accountability for their actions.

What makes this drastically different in what a typical D.A situation in where the abused reacts abusive(aka mirrors their abuser) is that they BOTH switch sides. One moment Armando is the abuser, the one with the upper hand in the relationship and then, the next, Marcela is the one that is being abusive and in control. Often times they bounce off each other. It's not Armando constantly and only being the Abuser with Marcela mirroring him. They BOTH DO THIS.

However, at the very least, Armando at the end of the series took accountability and broke the cycle.

When you write two explosive and complex characters meant to be together you have to separate them from each other. By this I mean that Marcela is her own person away from Armando, just like Armando is his own person away from Marcela. Together, however, they are a volcanic eruption. While, for Marcela, this can translate to just being passionate and intense, for Armando it can be an absolute tragedy that must continue in order to keep every party of people in his life "happy" while in the end, at the very least, he has his affairs to give him something.

Together Armando and Marcela are a horrible duo because all they do is cause harm to one another. That's what makes their relationship toxic, not one sided abuse.

One can argue that the ONLY reason Marcela acted this way was because of Armando, meaning, if you remove the cause of the problem, the issue would be resolved, right?

Not entirely as we're often shown and told that Marcela is this way with everyone. She keeps up with public appearances for the sake of their elite society but she treats people outside of her economic class poorly, en fin she treats anyone that isn't to her standards poorly and inhumanly. What does this tell us? That she on her own is toxic and abusive so even if she were in a healthy relationship, her prejudice and expectations of things causes her to be this way.

Armando was a cause of the problems in the relationship! That's where the tricky part and what makes them complex, is.

We know that Armando and Marcela were basically forced to be together, or groomed. From a young age all they've heard is how they must be together to unite the families, how her dead parents wanted that more than anything. That's placing a lot of pressure on two people.

However, even if this were the case(which it is) Armando's go about and treatment of Marcela was not okay. For the sake of this post let's say that Armando is the reason Marcela is the way she is(meaning we ignore her personality all together). He caused her to be possessive, controlling, toxic, and cold. Marcela was once a kind and sweet person who did nothing but show devotion and adoration for him, and Armando's constant cheating and lying pushed her to be this way.

Armando could have handled it a lot better. If he felt obligated to be with Marcela from the get go, he could have at the very least, like the very minimum treated her as a human being, and not cheated. That's the very least she deserved.

Obviously, we don't know how the start of their relationship was like. All we know is that when they got engaged that he made a promise to Marcela to be faithful and that Marcela knew about the affairs. We know that Armando and Marcela at least had somewhat of a "happy" relationship, despite the affairs and fights they'd get into. (Which this on it's own establishes that Marcela was fully aware of Armando's unfaithfulness before their engagement, that and his promises to be faithful show us that it's been a problem for years.)

Let's consider this; If Armando fell for Betty when she was ugly SIMPLY because of the adoration and devotion she had for him, why didn't he do that with Marcela at the start?

Had she held this devotion and adoration for Armando from the start it would imply that Armando would have fallen for her, same way he did with Betty, and therefore Marcela would have never turned out to be the way she did, right?

Let's be honest here. That's the sole reason why Armando even began to have some sort of confused emotions towards Betty. It made him feel good, boosted his pride and ego, and tide with the fact he trusted her, he liked Betty. So if Marcela would have been the same way at the start, don't you think Armando would have felt the same? Therefore he wouldn't had cheated on Marcela?

Again, that sounds like I'm solely blaming Marcela for the dissolvement of their relationship but I'm not.

Armando is part/responsible for Marcela's possessiveness in their relationship and there's no excuse for it.

What is cheating and why do people cheat?

Cheating can range from emotional intimacy with another person that isn't your partner to physical. The physical can range from simple hand holding to full blown intercourse.

(source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-people-in-relationships-cheat/#:~:text=The%20participants%20admitted%20to%20cheating,desire%2C%20and%20situation%20or%20circumstance.)

In the article linked as a source it mentions that most partners cheat due to a lack of validation, love, or due to neglect in their relationship. What does this tell us?

While cheating is not a valid response to whatever is a lack in a relationship, there's always a valid reason the person feels the way they do. Let me say that again. Cheating is not valid, but the emotions of the person who is cheating, are. Cheating is not valid, but emotions are. What does this mean? (Unless we're talking about a narcissistic abuser. In that case, no. They are not valid) This is overall just a an idea of why cheating occurs in otherwise "healthy" relationships.

If you feel like your relationship lacks validation, love, neglectful, abusive, or there's no spark or desire: LEAVE or go to couple's therapy and work on it with your partner(EXCEPT FOR THE ABUSIVE ONE. LEAVE! LEAVE! LEAVE! LEAVE! There is help for you.).

Emotions are valid, actions are not. A person's feelings are valid but that does not excuse nor justify cheating.

While Armando's cheating was a huge reason why they had fights and arguments, there had to be a reason why he cheated in the first place and while his emotions were valid, his actions were not.

His cheating could have very well begun at the start of the relationship feeling as if he had no real control over his life because of his parents persistent push for him to be with Marcela, which means it had nothing to with Marcela, everything to do with his parents, and ultimately this caused Marcela to be so possessive. Or it could have simply been Marcela who was like that from the start because she too had to deal with the ever guilting of Margarita's "this is what your parents always wanted, for you two to be together and unite the families." In all honesty the real villain of this show is Margarita.

Yes, their relationship was a paradox of sorts. If they broke up, Armando would lose the presidency, the company would dissolve, his parents would hate him, and he'd be a failure. Marcela wouldn't have really lost anything except Armando.

We can go with the 'could have' and 'should have' or 'what if's', but at the end of the day all we've got is what is actually canon in the show and not just speculation.

A few weeks ago I saw this video on my IG feed of FG talking about the ending of YSBLF. He said he didn't give them their happily ever after, since Armando was Betty's executioner(verdugo).

If the writer himself is saying that Armando wasn't all that amazing, I suppose that means he wasn't.

Yes, Armando went through a redemption arc but even then, Armando wasn't the best person. He was simply a better version of himself. He learned to be honest, to view people as his equals, women as humans and not properties, and to be selfless and caring, that's a huge difference from the Armando from the beginning but Armando was still neurotic. He was still a control freak, and was prone to his anger outburst.

However, this is realistic! Armando didn't change to be the perfect man that was deserving of Betty. He came to be real. He had his traumas and he was healing from them. The love of Betty didn't fix him, contrary, when she stopped showing a pure love towards him, osea, removed her love from him, Armando had no other choice but to LEARN to love properly. In order to do that, he needed to revaluate himself, his goals, his life, and what had pushed him to such a low point in his life and the ironic thing is that Armando's low point wasn't him drunk and suicidal at the bar that night. Armando's low point was the moment he agreed to manipulate Betty in order to retain her devotion and the company.

The downfall of Armando began the moment the novela started. It was a slow trickling drip from the throne he believed he deserved for simply existing and just as that, so was Marcela's.

Unlike with Betty, who was basically seduced to be bad, Armando and Marcela's downfall began from the very beginning.

So many people dismiss the abysmal abuse that was plain in the novela when it's the women acting out this way but are quick to crucify any male who acts the same way.

Now, I'm not saying Armando was only a victim of circumstance because that's not true. If I believed anyone was a victim to circumstance I'd say it was Marcela or Betty.

Why?

Because Armando, with chest puffed in pride, cleared headed, and sober CHOSE to manipulate these women. That's the abhorrent part of his character. That above all he always wanted to save his own skin and while his feelings were complex as to why, at the very end of it, he didn't want to deal with the repercussions.

While Armando wanted to be good, to prove he could be good, to himself, Marcela, and his parents, there lacked a true conviction in him. He felt like he needed to be good in order to have his parents love and approval and one of those things was that he also marry Marcela but he didn't feel inspired to be good.

There's a difference between knowing what's good, wanting to do good, and feeling inspired to be good. See, with inspiration comes motivation and with motivation comes action.

Writing complex characters means that good motives are acted out wrong. It means that bad motives are disguised as good acts. Not fully good, not entirely evil.

When you get to know your characters the rest of the story comes to you naturally and by that I mean that the actions they take, the words they speak, how they are, kind of rolls out of you naturally. You need to know your characters before you sit down to write your story.

Armando's actions are horrible. He was abusive but he was also a victim and I know someone is probably wondering "well why aren't you talking about the way he was towards Betty when she found the letter?" and that's simple.

Armando perfectly mirrored Marcela and Betty perfectly mirrored Armando.

I mentioned this in the Marcela Valencia post but I'll try and talk a bit more about it here.

Armando's constant abuse and violation of Betty is an exact mirroring of Marcela, however, he still chose to act this way knowing that instead of drawing Betty closer to him, that he'd push her further away and while in moments of lucidness Armando attempted to resolve the issues he had with Betty in a calm manner, she wasn't on the same page.

Armando chased Betty all over the place, threw jealousy fits, and forced himself onto her. Marcela did the exact same to him.

However, here's the tricky part of it.

Betty.

Betty was the perfect mirror of Armando. She lied to him, manipulated him, and "cheated" on him. The same way he was towards Marcela.

Obviously this is a simplified version of it but it's the same thing at the end of the day.

Had Betty never acted this way, would Armando have treated her the way he had?

To a lesser degree, I do think so.

I think he would have manipulated her and that he would have thrown some jealousy fit here and there.

See the thing is that if Betty had never given him a taste of his own medicine Armando would have never changed. No matter how much he wanted to or how badly he was in love with Betty.

Armando, to his core, was a coward. That's what he was in the story. Due to this he resorted to manipulation and cheating.

While some of his actions were due to some sort of trauma or the fear of rejection, and came from a place of hurt and self-preservation, Armando still acted wrong.

At least at the end Armando took accountability for his actions and somewhat changed his ways. Was he deserving of getting the girl? Not entirely but was Betty deserving of getting Armando? Not entirely and see that's the problem with writing romance.

Often times the most important bit of the story is cut out because "people don't want to see the reconciliation, they just want to hear about it. "

From what I know, Betty never took accountability for the way she treated Armando after she found the letter and this I will later discuss whenever I get around to watching YSBLF and write a post about the episode but in simpler words: Betty chose to exact revenge on Armando and yes, her emotions were so valid! but her actions were not!

Betty treated Armando the exact same way Armando treated Marcela.

Lastly, I've said Armando is a complex character from the start and while that may be true, this complexity does not excuse his horrible behavior because complexities never do.

Well, I hope y'all enjoy this long over due post, and I apologize for the long hiatus on the YSBLF breakdown posts.

Also, again, sorry if there's any grammar mistakes, I'm working on it! Lol.

'Til next time :)

[autisticlancemcclain]

Of all places they have family dinners, Pidge likes it when they go to the McClain house best. Everyone else’s place is fun, and she’s never once had a bad time, but there’s something especially special about dinners with Lance and his family. Of course she sees Lance every day — they still live on the Castle, they tried living separately of each other post-war but it was way too anxiety inducing — but they all decided, unanimously, that they would make an effort once a week to visit each of their families.

Visiting the McClains in Cuba, though, is the most fun.

The house is just so busy! There are so many people in it at all times. It’s always loud and exciting and there are always a million things to do. Pidge is always reminded of Meet the Robinsons when she walks through the worn door with peeling green paint and meets two people that were not there the last time she visited and whose relations are ambiguous. It’s great. That, and Marcela McClain may be the coolest woman Pidge has ever met. She’s awesome. She’s an Olympic heavyweight champion, and her biceps are bigger than Pidge’s head. Allura was so delighted to meet her she could barely speak. Pidge wasn’t far off. She’s also a professor of mathematics. Pidge remembers asking once why her career paths were so drastically different, and she’d simply shrugged and said she picked the careers that would piss the most people off and went from there.

Pidge fully understands why Lance missed her so much.

The absolute, number one, greatest thing about the McClain house, though, is the photo albums. Marcela was meticulous. She has dozens of ‘em, never highlighting one kid more than the other, and never missing a moment. Pidge has every embarrassing photo of Lance she could ever want or need. (Her favourite is a picture of Lance, circa 12 years old, with braces and the most emo outfit of all time, including badly dyed black hair. He’s stuck upside down on a set of monkey bars and looks miserable about it. It’s her lock screen. Occasionally she sends it to Keith and they laugh themselves to tears over it. Lance hates it with a fiery passion.)

One night, after dinner, they’re all crowded around the living room, half on top of each other, flipping through one of the older albums. Pidge watches as picture after picture of baby Lance flips by, and she notices that he is never, not even once, standing on his own two feet. She glances over at him now, and shakes her head fondly as she sees him curled up into a tight ball on Keith’s lap, head resting on his chest, playing idly with one of Hunk’s hands.

Pidge points to one of the pictures, where baby Lance is mid laugh, standing on top of teen Luis’ shoulders.

“You are always being held by someone,” she says. “We’re you afraid of being set down, you dork?”

She was teasing, poking fun at Lance’s constant desire to just hold and be held by people, so she wasn’t expecting the vulnerability in his voice.

“I was afraid of being let go,” he says matter-of-factly. He doesn’t sound upset, and he doesn’t look sad. Just as if that’s one of the truths of the universe, something he simply lives with and has come to terms with. His nonchalance doesn’t stop Keith from pressing a gentle kiss to his hair, or Hunk’s quick squeeze, or Allura’s hand popping up from nowhere to pat him on the cheek.

“We love you, Lance,” they chorus together, and Lance laughs. Pidge grins, too.

“We’ll never let you go,” she assures, “we like you too much.”

[shespeaksinsongs]

🎀 my melody - send me a sfw idea hc about a hp character and i'll either write a hc list, or tell you what i think of it!

He loves showing you off at his parents fancy balls

marcela i got very very carried away with this. cw: sort of shy reader?

-

he buys you the fanciest dresses, even though you're only going to use one. he knows the life of luxury is one you enjoy, even though you feel embarrassed to accept his gifts sometimes. so when an opportunity arises, he always takes it, spoiling you as much as possible.

in addition to that, buys you so many luxury products that you would have said no to, otherwise. you know he's just trying to spoil you without you having an excuse to say no, but you can't help yourself. he spares no expense when it's you.

"babe, not this one, please. look at the material. i can't even imagine the price tag." you said, coming out of the dressing room, wearing a dress that looked so perfect on you, you wanted to scream.

draco stared at you in shock for a moment, not believing that you could look so angelic nonchalantly. he shook his head slowly, trying to string words together as they would come along.

"i- merlin, y/n, you're beautiful. come here." he said, beckoning you to sit down next to him. he pretended to check the price tag by your back, when he feigned a look of being impressed. "actually, the price isn't too bad."

"really?" your face lit up. "how much?"

"22 galleons." he answered, rubbing your shoulders.

and somehow, you knew the real price, but the way draco looked at you, and the way he would pay any price to give you what you wanted made you change your mind about refusing his gifts. just this once.

when you're finally at the ball, though, he always asks what kind of entrance you want to make. because any entrance with him involved is going to be a big one, but there are ways to make them smaller, for your sake.

most of the times, you slip into the party unnoticed, people only starting to notice you two when you greet his parents.

but if he could have an orchestra play a fanfare, with him waiting at the bottom of the staircase, as you enter from the top, slowly stepping down, careful not to trip on your dress, which trails feet long behind you, and if he could watch the crowd gawk at you in awe, and look at him as if he's just gotten the best woman on earth (because he has), he would.

people for sure come up to you any second draco's left you alone. suitors from around the world, people with connections in modeling agencies, anybody of a high social status, basically.

but one of these times, theo just couldn't help himself.

"excuse me, y/n, but might i say, you're looking, ravishing." he says, eyeing you up and down in your silhouette dress.

you smiled politely, looking desperately around for draco, who'd slipped away to get you a drink and some special hors d'oeuvres he noticed you had a liking towards.

"thank you, theo." you half-curtsied, not wanting to make much of an effort, noticing he was already captivated by certain aspects of your body.

theo stepped closer until he was past the distance that was valid for a normal conversation to take place. "you know, you don't have to be with him. i know how he is, we used to be mates back at-"

"hogwarts." you heard a familiar voice say behind you, as all-too-familiar hands slid around your waist protectively, his chin resting on the crown of your head. "i remember. i also remember you saying you were engaged-to-be-wed a few days ago? to a girl named hannah, was it?" draco asked condescendingly. you let a laugh slip past your lips, knowing fully well draco knew exactly what he was talking about. "oh, there goes hannah right there!" he pointed behind theo to a young woman, looking semi-disheveled, presumably looking for her fiancee. "how do you think she'd react if i told her your perverse mind was looking to get someone as good as i have, hm?"

you felt yourself blush, growing hot, despite the manor being freezing.

theo stuttered before eventually giving up, muttering a quick apology to you before going to check on his fiance.

you turned around to face draco, who was smiling smugly at you.

"was all that really necessary, darling?" you asked, squinting your eyes at draco, who was grinning wide.

draco shrugged, tilting his head to the side as he breathed a heavy sigh. "i suppose it wasn't. i'll give it to him, though, he tried."

you laughed, making draco smile as he cupped your cheek with the hand that wasn't wrapped around your waist, still.

"come on, i've got something to show you." he says, his hand still on your lower back as you're whisked away.

family jewels, family artifacts, everything his parents would kill him for showing someone else, he's showing you. it's in a room hidden so far underneath the ground, that you can't decipher if it's day or night.

"i've been waiting a long time to give this to you." he says lowly in your ear as he has you covering your eyes. "it was my grandma's, and she told me she wanted whoever i marry to have it. so needless to say, i've been waiting to give it to you since i met you." he smiled, making you tear up a bit. such a way with words, he had.

you weren't married yet, but only because draco insisted he needed time to concoct the perfect proposal - one that would sweep you off your feet, and still, catch you by surprise.

he gently peeled your hands off of your eyes, leaning his head on your forehead, kissing your lips briefly. "you can open your eyes now, my love."

and when you did, you didn't know how to respond. you almost thought it was a trick. it was a tiara, as beautiful as you'd ever seen one, placed on a plush, velvet pillow, awaiting your hands.

"dray..." you said, before looking back up at him, softly kissing his lips again, before wiping a tear away. "it's - i love it."

he smiled, nudging it closer to you. "go on, try it, beautiful."

you did, and you could've sworn you'd never been looked at with such delicacy. "how do i look?" you asked, despite already knowing the answer.

"like the most stunning woman in the world." he said, his eyes wide as you giggled, trying not to blush. "merlin, i can't wait to marry you." he whispered, pulling you in for a deep and passionate kiss.

he guided you to a full-length mirror behind you, watching the two of you in awe. your dress, perfectly accentuated every part of you that you loved, leaving you looking flawless. you never needed makeup, but the small bits that you put on your face tonight, made you look like a doll. and the diamond crown that laid on your head, looked like it belonged there. like it was made for your head.

"my queen." draco said, planting kisses down your neck. you moaned as he sucked on multiple of your soft spots, watching yourself in the mirror be completely enveloped in him.

sometimes you stress, knowing the only reason you're someplace of such high prestige is because of draco. so he whisks you away, always into some room you've yet to see, because the house is just so damn huge, and sits you down in his laps, holding you close as he soothes you.

"you deserve to be here more than anyone else here. you're an angel, y/n." he said, his chin in the crook of your neck as you wiped away tears that escaped your eyes.

you pulled away, smiling at how he always knew just what to say. if it were your opinion, he was the angel, not you.

"i've told you how much i love you, right?" you asked, slowly coming closer to his face.

draco smiled, looking briefly at your lips before back into your eyes. "no, i don't think you have." he teased.

"oh?" you fake frowned. "well, that's an issue, isn't it?" you asked, laying him back on the plush bench in the guest bedroom you were hiding in, so you were straddling him.

"mm, yes, i think so." he said, smirking in between your kiss as you traced your tongue around the entrance of his lips, pulling at his hair, and touching him in all the right spots.

sometimes he gets horny.

"darling, we haven't fucked in my old bedroom in a while, why don't we go revisit?"

"who am i to say no as a guest?"

but you do, too. :p

he just loves being close to you, feeling your skin, unable to move anywhere but closer.

you learnt how to waltz back at hogwarts for the yule ball (which you attended together, as friends), but worry about looking silly, so sometimes, he picks you up onto his feet so you're stepping on his shoes and he's carrying you. no one can tell because of how long your dress is.

make out sessions in every closet of the house, except for the bedroom ones, because they're huge.

he just loves being close to you, feeling your skin, unable to move anywhere but closer

will show you off to anyone he hasn't introduced you to. he knows a lot of people, thanks to years of social training, and balls that he was always alone in. so now that he finally had someone to take to them, who wouldn't make you feel, well, extremely bored, he was thrilled, and couldn't feel any luckier.

"mr. indigo!" draco semi-shouted through a couple of people, bringing you with him. "mr. indigo, it's so nice to see you again." in reality, he couldn't care much less about seeing the man responsible for the success of the wand industry in the wizarding world. but he'd known the man since before he could remember, and was dying to introduce you to everybody. he wanted them to know you were his.

the man turned, looking you first in the eyes as he shook your hand. "mr. malfoy! well, i never - it's been years since i saw you last. and you come here with a lovely young lady." he said, kissing the top of your hand, which you smiled at.

"she's my girlfriend, sir." draco smiles down at you, and you swore you could see stars in his eyes. "we got together right before i graduated, and it's been her and me ever since." he said, his hold on your hand tighter as he inched closer to you.

you conversed with the old man, cracking jokes, and telling stories from your days at hogwarts, having found out that he used to teach there briefly before he moved to italy to start his business as a wand salesman.

he seemed to like you, as he held a sort of preciousness in his eyes when he talked to you. the way everyone had looked at you that night - like you were special, in need of fragility when being looked at. you really were an exceptional match for draco. anyone could see the way his posture straightened up when he looked at you. the way he'd jump off a cliff if you asked him to. to him, you were perfect.

the man was called by his wife, who briefly shared pleasantries, giving you a calming hug. before he left, he turned and said something that stuck with you and draco for the rest of your lives.

"i remember those days when mrs. indigo and i were just beginning our relationship. it's been 72 years, and still, i haven't let her go. make sure you never let her go, son. cherish her."

and when the night is done and gone and you're saying goodbye to narcissa and lucius, you smile at your lover and realize: there was never anything to worry about.

[el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle]

Calderón AU— Canon Divergence, Part 2

Lol, after rereading my part 1 and @youwontlikethisblog comments, I noticed that I didn’t make enough emphasis on Armando and how he feels with this whole situation, so this part 2 will be mostly about him! (Sooo, basically ig this is more like a Part 1.5, since it’ll just go further into detail of the events that happened in Part 1 because I’ll give my bb Armando the attention to his emotional state that the show neglected.)

You can find Part 1 here!

(( Same warnings as the previous post apply!))

Let’s star by establshing how Armando even starts in this AU.

Predictably, as a mess.

By the time this whole AU thing starts, Armando is canonically already in a delicate mental state: he’s already been drinking for a while, he already lost the business, is overwhelmed by Marcela’s pressure and his relationship with her, and is already paranoid with Nicolás. And here, just like in the show, he is very uncomfortable, but also disgusted with this turn of events.

In the show, Armando’s disgust came from two things: his ego and lack of physical attraction to Betty, and the way he was acting against his morals (the obvious abuse of power, the cruelty of playing with Betty’s heart, the inevitability of harm, etc.) Here, the first element is missing since he is not the one who will be dating Betty, but the second is even stronger now. This feels even more repulsive than how it would have felt if it had been him the one seducing her, although this is obviously something that he doesn’t know.

Anyways, Armando doesn’t back down on his words (how can you say “you know what? I WANT to be the one seducing the ugly woman!” without being shamed and laughed at?) but he also doesn’t lose opportunity to try to talk Calderón out of this madness.

During the two days between that first conversation aimed to discreetly plant the seed of doubt on Betty’s mind (part 1 of Calderón’s plan; see Calderon AU post 1) and the first love card, Armando is always trying to talk Calderón out of this. This plan is just absolutely ridiculous, cruel, and disgusting. He can’t let Betty go through this, she doesn’t deserve it.

Of course, this insistance doesn’t go unnoticed by Mario, who more than once offers to switch places with Armando, always in that half-joking tone, not because he doesn’t want to switch places (by God, he’d switch places with an inmate in death row!), but because he truly finds absolutely hilarious the way Armando is finding a hundred excuses to avoid this.

This has the predictable effect that all jokes of sensitive topics canonically used to have on Armando before he fell in love with Betty: he shields away. He gets defensive. His pride takes over. That’s why he never accepts to switch places with Calderon, because of the shame it’d bring.

Now, it’s also important to clarify how Calderon sees Armando’s feelings towards Betty. Calderon is not blind and he can clearly see that Armando doesn’t want him to be the one seducing Betty, because Armando has had for a long while a little something for her. This little “something” is a feeling that Calderón can’t understand. He thinks it’s more like… possessiveness. Yeah, something like that. Armando has always been incredibly territorial, so it’s logical to assume this is how he feels towards Betty, nothing else. Mario thinks Armando sees Betty as just his property, and little childish Armando is now throwing a fit because another boy will be borrowing his toy. Little Armando just wants to keep it in his private shelf, away from the world but never used by him, either (not that the world complains, tho! The storage room is the best place to keep the ugly toys).

Well, Armando doesn’t have anything to worry about, Mario thinks. He has absolutely no interest in keeping Armando’s toy, this is just business, and he lets him know this every time (of course, never with this language. Armando can be so sensitive with word choices when it comes to Betty. Mario has to tiptoe around his points lots of times because with Armando, it’s one misstep and the man shuts down completely)

Calderón’s reassurance that this is nothing but business, as horrible and sick as it may sound, actually creates mixed feelings in Armando. He can’t really put his finger on it (remember, this man has canonical trouble understanding his own emotions!), but for some reason, the idea of Calderon seducing Betty disturbs him less than the threat of Nicolas. He thinks it’s because Nicolás is after Ecomoda and his money, while he knows for sure Calderón isn’t. That’s what he keeps telling himself is the actual reason why this whole thing, as nauseating as it is, disgusts him less than Nicolás.

Truth is, deep down, Armando thinks Calderon’s plan is going to fail. He doesn’t think Betty will fall for Calderon. Armando saw the way she barely registered Calderón’s existance, meanwhile she nearly drooled for him, back when Calderon did that little “test” to see which one of them really had her attention. Betty likes him, not Calderon.

He also is sure that Calderón would never fall in love with Betty. He’d never turn her against him, he’d never get closer to her than Armando himself is because he doesn’t care about her, he’d never be more important for her than Armando himself is, and he’d never take her away from him. This is the real reason why, although Armando loathes the idea of doing this to Betty, he’d rather have Calderón trying to seduce her than have that abstract and unkown threat that is Nicolás Mora actually winning her over… (of course, all of this happens in Armando’s subconscious. He isn’t aware of this. He doesn’t know his real motivations for letting Calderón try. He thinks it’s all about the money. The denial is way too strong in this poor idiot man!)

Now, if you’re thinking “if Armando is so unconsciously sure that Calderón’s plan is going to fail, why is he going along with it?” Well, to put it simply: desperation. A mix of desperation to get her away from Nicolás (remember that Armando sees Nicolás as the devil incarnated; the living image of all he wants to be and to have and can’t. He hates Nicolás and what he represents), paranoia of losing her to Nicolás, and fear. He’s clinging to this plan because he wants to think it’s a light at the end of the tunnel, even though in reality he thinks it’s not going to work. He doesn’t really know why he’s going along with it. Ig that’s what absolute desperation and fear causes in a person, to act irrationally.

He’s thought about the possibility of Betty’s rejection tho (it was one of the arguments he gave Calderon against trying to seduce her), but Mario insists that if she rejects him, there’s no issue, because what matters is that Betty knows someone likes her.

Anyway, the day that part 1 of Calderón’s plan (the conversation between Armando and Calderón) happens, Armando is still incredibly reluctant to go along with it. His only way to tolerate being a part of it is while holding his third whiskey glass, and even then, his contributions to the conversation are very limited. Even Calderón told him to do a better job than that (which of course, led to Armando once again start on the whole “we should stop this” thing and Mario ignoring his excuses and manipulating him into accepting to continue).

By the time Betty finds the first gift, Armando is restlessly resigned that this plan already started. He’s nervous and anxious the whole day, biting on pens and his thumb; shouting at the most minimum provocation; tense as hell. Poor Wilson nearly lost his job for commenting on this. Marcela and him fought during brrakfast because of this, too.

Armando is in his office when Betty finds the first gifts, but Betty’s door is wide open, and he is observing while she reads the card. She doesn’t notice him there, and he doesn’t know why he is observing, or why he feels oddly proud when Betty’s face doesn’t light up in love and excitement, but rather remains confused and skeptical. His Betty isn’t taking the bait, and that’s enough for him to relax slightly (at least enough to not nearly fire Wilson again and enough to laugh a little at Freddy’s ridiculous dances in the hall, or kiss Marcela on the lips when she comes to his office with any petty excuse just to make sure that there’s no missing models hidden under his desk).

He’s even happier when, days later, he notices that there still aren’t any ugly excited squeaks filling the hallways from emergency meetings in the lady’s restroom. Betty hasn’t told anything to El Cuartel.

The only dark clouds in his sky is to have to witness Calderón’s dirty tricks. How he opens the door occasionally for her. How he gives a subtle and occasional compliment. How he smiles to her in the hallways. How he no longer sits closer to him, but rather, closer to Betty. How he brushed her hand when she handed him over a binder and smiled. How his attention seemed to concentrate on her whenever she spoke.

Armando is a naturally distracted man, but when he put his head on it, he can be keenly observant, and now that he knows Calderón’s objective, he can’t help but notice his every move and uncommon gesture in that eternal first week whenever Betty is around. He doesn’t think Calderón is acting much different— more attentive, but that’s it. Calderón says that’s exactly the point. He says attentions need to build up slowly, otherwise he’ll scare her.

Armando is not aware of what Calderón is writing in the letters. Calderón hasn’t shown him and he isn’t going to ask. Knowing would make him even more of an accomplice. All he knows is that Calderon signs as “a secret admirer”, because, according to Calderon, women love mystery. It’ll make Betty feel like in one of those cheesy romance novel (“con las que las viejas se echan unas berreadas”), Mario says.

Then finally, after around a week worth of cards (and candy, stuffed animals, flowers, and mixtapes, like a dumb schoolboy), Calderon lets himself be caught as the secret admirer. Then he goes to tell Armando how it went, all detail and cynical jokes included, of course. Armando is in an awful mood after that and can’t say why.

Meanwhile, Marcela is having a field day with all of this. Just like in canon, this Armando is too worried and stressed to be out seducing models. All his stress is relatively controlled through sex with her, which of course, keeps her in a great mood, since in her mind, Armando’s passion and the way he hasn’t sneaked out in a while mean that everything’s good. It’s just a matter of ignoring how his breath smells like alcohol every single night.

Armando’s role remains to be just a passive listener, away from that whole thing… until Calderon needs to implement part 3 of the plan: breaking Betty’s heart. But of course, Calderon isn’t the one who needs to break it, it needs to be Armando, since it is him who Betty is currently in love with. This will leave her weak and vulnerable to vultures like Calderon to sneak into her head and heart.

Armando absolutely refuses… but after a while of Calderón’s brainwashing, Armando knows he needs to do it. It was too late to backdown now. If there was any moment to stop this farse, it was before Calderon got caught as the admirer. Now they’re at a point of no return.

Still, Armando refuses, although the seed of doubt is already taking its roots by the time he goes to Marcela’s apartment and drinks half a bottle of tequila (when in the past week did he finish the whiskey?)

Now that we know where Armando stands, let’s go to Betty a little!

This past week has been confusing for Betty. Not knowing who is writing these letters, contrary to Calderon’s intentions, is not being seen as romantic: it keeps reminding her of Miguel.

In the show, “Armando’s” cards and gifts are loved and accepted because she idolizes Armando, and thinks he’d never be anything like Miguel, even though she recognizes that they both approached her through the same tactic and his behavior doesn’t really match what the cards say. It’s her love for Armando what makes her like the cards, just like it was her love for Armando what made her enjoy going to those dark, loud, classless places to which Armando took her, not the places and gifts by themselves.

Therefore, Calderon’s cards are actually not having the effect he wants. Not at all. She’s suspicious, weirded out, and tense as he reads the first one. She’s thinking of Miguel. That’s why she takes that first letter and first thinks of throwing it away… but doesn’t. She doesn’t know why, but she instead saves it.

She prefers to think it is just a joke. A meaningless joke, not a malicious one. Always the optimistic and naive one, our poor Betty.

The second day she finds another one. She’s more suprised than with the first one, because she realizes now that this joker is committed to his joke. She saves the letter once again. By this time, Armando is no longer watching. He’s satistied qith Betty’s skeptical reaction to the first card.

The third letter is no longer a surprise. She expected it. She takes it, reads it, and feels the tug of a smile at the corner of her lips. She keeps it.

She’s been thinking a lot about all of this, obviously going through the possibilities of who the writer could be. She’s gone through the mental list of all men in Ecomoda, and she’s reduced the list to two candidates: mr. Armando and Mr. Mario.

Obviously, that’s what logic says (who else has access to her office at all times without it getting suspicious? And it’s not like she talks to any other men on a daily basis, either), but her insecurity as a woman, as well as her knowledge of those men’s standards with women, keeps whispering that it is impossible.

In any case, by the fourth card, she allows herself to fantasize a little— she dreams of don Armando giving her the cards. It’s a dangerous game, to let her mind run, but as long as it’s all anonymous, she can at least live off fantasies.

Three cards later, the truth is revealed: it isn’t Don Armado. It’s don Mario.

Needless to say, fantasy got ruined. On the other hand, that fantasy is now replaced with doubt born out of both insecurity as a woman and knowledge of don Mario’s… personality.

His words, as little as they were, sounded so sincere, tho…

((Let’s remember that, although Betty knows Calderon’s womanizer ways, she doesn’t know the depth of his manipulation. That is a side of him that he only displays openly with Armando))

She doesn’t want to know about this whole thing anymore. She’s set on pretending nothing happened. He said he wasn’t going to pressure her, and so, she’ll try to act as if nothing happened.

However, she’s always thinking of don Armando’s reaction to this whole thing. He surely must know, no? Don Mario and him are best friends, they tell each other everything…

Poor nervous Betty is so confused, and poor angry Armando is so confused…

Meanwhile, this whole thing doesn’t even make Calderon blink. While those two are worried and anxious out of their minds, each in their respective office, the cause of their anguish is currently at the club getting it on with some random chick he just met.

Hopefully that gets a bit more into detail about Armando’s position on all of this. Next part, if there is one, will be Part 3 and Part 4 of Calderón’s Plan: breaking Betty’s heart, and picking up the pieces to rearrange it.

Also, I might write a little drabble of how the scene of Betty “catching” Mario as the “secret admirer” went and how Mario retold this event to Armando. If I do, it’ll be in Spanish, tho, because there’s just not a satisfying enough word in English to say “mostrichátala” ((no promises, tho)

[makeupbychio]

to our baby // C.H

Pairing : Calum Hood x Female Reader.

Words : 7.9k

Summary : You’re a makeup artist from Brazil, and by accident you met Calum on Christmas Eve in a Uber. The question is whose Uber was it? Yours or his? but one thing is for sure, he believes in soulmates. A glimpse of your pregnancy in a video.

Warnings : Fluff, fluff and fluff. Angst, mentions of miscarriage and blood. 

Inspired by : Kylie Jenner’s pregnancy video. I don’t know if you like Kylie but Stormi is the real goat. Classic rom com movies. Love for Brazil and the family that I have there. Blue music video by Beyoncé. Kehlani’s pregnancy. Baby fever.

a/n : hi babies, so I love dad!sos more than myself. I poured my heart on this one and hope you like it. Feedback is more than welcome and love y’all. Happy reading. Also this give me such rich vibes because, duh, successful parents. Also I did the moodboard and it’s the first time I did one.

2 months

Your best friend Natali decided to start recording this moment, and that’s how your video starts with a soft piano melody that Calum created for the entire video.

“Are you recording this?” you said looking at your bestie’s phone.

“Yeah, cause’ it is official” your bestie said pointing at the doctor’s monitor. A little peanut of 7 weeks growing inside you. Your doctor is rubbing that cold gel in your belly and your eyes are looking at the monitor with bright, shiny, sparkly eyes but inside you are afraid too. “Hi baby, this is your mommy”.

+

3 days ago…

You’re in a cafe with your best friend, it’s almost night time when you decided to go for a cup of hot chocolate and a good slice of cake that you’d been craving the whole week. Calum, your boyfriend is on press tour promoting the last two singles so you’d been hanging out with your best friend.

Once you’re walking back to your place, suddenly you started to feel like crap and disgusted by the smell of coffee that a stranger was drinking and passed by you. Your best friend noticed when you gagged and told you to hold on till the next shop.

“Hi Marcela!” your bestie said to the cashier of the shop. You should have say hi too but you ran to the bathroom. “Sorry, she ate something” she said waiting for you in the other side of the door. Once you were done you were still feeling like trash.

“Hi Marcela and don’t worry I didn’t spot anything” you said. Marcela’s your best friend’s cousin. They’re from Brazil, so do you. She works in a big pharmacy, that the owner’s her brother, Pablo. “How is that pretty boy who plays the guitar?” she asked you, and you laughed that she didn’t ask about how are you.

“You just saw him a couple of weeks ago” you said. “How are you tho?”.

“Ya’ know, excited for the surgery” she said referring to her breast surgery and you’re so happy to see her finally in the process of a trans woman. “Well, before you go you should go back to the bathroom with this, on the house” she said giving you a pregnancy test. Before you refused, Marcela interrupted you. “Your boyfriend’s birthday party was wild so I’m just sayin’” your best friend gave her a look to behave. “I mean I don’t judge you with that hottie and a wild night” she said pushing you back to the bathroom.

You didn’t give her an answer, because she was right of what happened that night after you and Calum were alone. Ugh, in that moment you wanted him in the other side of that door and not your friends that are just making you more nervous.

“I would like to have his babies too if I could” Marcela tried to break the ice of this moment with a joke and your best friend punched her to be quiet. “What?! I’m just trying to make her laugh”.

“Y/N? U okay? 10 minutes have passed” Natali said knocking the door.

“I’m too coward to look at the result” you said in a shy voice in the other side. Your friends looked at each other and encouraged you by telling you that whatever the result is they are going to be with you and support you.

You left the bathroom to show them the two lines in the test. It’s positive. You’re pregnant. It wasn’t the first time tho, but that story’s for later.

+

“This is how I found out about you” your best friend said to the camera. “Your mother and I were living our lives having fun and working hard when she met your father”.

“I think that the story of your parents is unique, your dad loves to tell how he met your mother” Mali said to the camera.

“Once I saw in a well known tv show that you met your soulmate three times before being together. I didn’t believe it cause’ I used to think that love is a scam but one day…” Calum said to the camera. He remembered when he listened that line while watching this tv show he said ‘fuck off’ but kept watching it. Two days after that he finally met you.

+

3 years ago…

It was Christmas Eve, and your biggest opportunity in your career as a makeup artist. You won this with a lot of effort. You had 5 clients that day, everyone wanted to get all glam for the day by you. You were late because there was no taxi or Uber available until one driver accepted your call. It was snowing and the Uber arrived outside one of your client’s house and you ran with your suitcases full of makeup.

Once you sat in the back of the car, a guy entered the car too, hurry like you.

“Excuse me?” you asked him. “This is my car, you must have another car plate”.

“Hell nah miss. I’ve been waiting for twelve minutes” he said showing you his phone he noticed your accent and your beauty.

“I have the same one!” you showed him your phone. “Please, I’m late for work” you begged him.

“I’m late too!” he resisted.

“Can you please tell this man that I called you first?” you asked the driver.

“Sorry, the app is crazy today so maybe the system gave to me your calls” the driver said through the rear-view mirror. “But I got her call first, sorry buddy”.

“Ugh thank you! Why you don’t go on your car? For sure you have a car if you live in this neighborhood” you said at the strange man of the leather jacket.

“My car is in the mechanic" he said. “Please please I will call your couple to explain why you are late if you let me take this Uber”.

“Excuse me?! I said I’m late for work!” you were tired and you have two clients left and one of them is a billionaire, so you started to get angry at him who didn’t understand that you’re in a hurry.

“Work? You must have a boring life” he said before leaving the car. You were not going to tell him your life and explain yourself. You thought to gave him the middle finger but it’s not the day for that, you just told the driver to go.

Two months after that episode you were doing a beautiful gold eye look on a tall and handsome guy. He’s so nice and you found cute when he asked you about makeup, skincare and your career.

“So if you want more intensity with the pigment you have to spray setting spray directly to the brush and then take a little of the shadow” you told Luke when you are done with his makeup.

It was the day when they were recording Valentine’s music video.

“Dude we are waiting for you, what the hell?” Calum asked Luke when he arrived the set.

“Sorry the makeup artist is so cool we were talking a little bit. She told me she’s from Brazil and her skin looks amazing. I’m going to say to call her again for the next videos” Luke said showing the guys how amazing he feels with his gold makeup.

Calum wanted a little bit of glitter on his cheeks, but when he went to the room where you did Luke’s makeup. He didn’t find you. Another makeup artist told him that you had to do Lady Gaga’s makeup for a magazine cover when he asked about you.

Calum was going to ask how she ended doing Luke’s makeup if she does biggest celebrities looks because he was surprised and realized that she (you) must be a talented MUA. But he forgot to ask.

Two months after again. 5sos were going to Coachella but not to perform. They were excited for the weekend to have fun and to see all their favorites musicians on stage.

This festival is all about outfits, makeup, accessories, influencers, etc. But also to get to know upcoming good artists from different countries and music genres.

“Ashley how we end up here? I don’t speak portuguese” The boys said to their friend who wanted to see a brazilian artist.

“Me neither! But I love Pabllo so much” Halsey said. “Please, come on! It will be fun I promise”.

Once in the VIP section, Luke hugged a girl that Calum didn’t recognize. 

“Look Y/N” Luke said showing you to rate the glitter he applied.

“It looks amazing!” you said. And after that Luke introduced you to the rest of the boys telling them about the makeup you did on him for Valentine’s video, and Halsey recognized you since she’s a fan of makeup and to be honest you should be the one who is glad to meet her.

“Hey I think I know you from somewhere” Calum said trying to remember your face and before you said something and before the boys said a dirty joke, Calum remembered. “You stole my Uber! It was my Uber”. After a couple of jokes, and you clarifying that you didn’t stole anything, the show started.

Pabllo is the first brazilian drag queen to perform in this huge festival. You were Pabllo’s makeup artist, Calum didn’t need to ask you that. He saw you enjoying the show.

“This look is amazing” Calum said about the pink look you did on Pabllo. You thanked him for that compliment because it took you almost two hours.

“I also did chilean and argentinian artists makeup” you said proud of your work for this two weekends. After this song Pabllo is performing you have to go backstage to touch up the makeup. So after you said bye to everyone and before you went back to work Calum invited you to their place where they are staying for an after party when Beyoncé closes this festival’s day.

And after that, you two have been inseparable.

+

Today your career’s immensely different. Today you’re one of the most famous MUA in the industry. With a lot of famous clients, most of them billionaires including people from music, films, fashion industries, etc. You also opened a makeup studio in LA. This took you years, hard work, tears, sweat and blood to be who you’re today, always proud to be an immigrant. Nobody believes you when you told the story how you get into makeup. You come from a poor town in Brazil and every single night when you were in highschool you ran away from home to go to bars and do drag queens makeup, since then you’re friends with Pabllo and every brazilian drag queen.

+

“Like I was saying this is how she told your father about you” your best friend said while in the video that moment’s playing. You and Calum are in Arraial Do Cabo beach, your favorite since you have memory. It was sunset time, you were standing in the water holding hands when you told Calum the big new. The 35mm video shows how Calum lifts you up and kisses you so tenderly with the beautiful crystalline water as the background while he kneels to kiss your exposed belly in your bikini.

Of course you asked your doctor if you could travel to Brazil, your homeland. This was a trip that you planned with Calum for so long, you missed your family so much and also you didn’t want to cancel it since it was also Calum’s vacations. Once you arrived back your parents house you told them and your brothers (you’re the younger sibling) the big new. All of them cried and hugged you and for dinner your mom did all of your favorites brazilian dishes and desserts that you missed so much and you have to eat for you and the baby.

It was summer in Brazil and that night there was a storm but hot as fuck, as always. You were looking at the beauty of the city during night while you waited for Calum for bed time after an amazing day. He showed you the pictures he took during the day, he didn’t know if your glow was because you were at home, like when he visits Australia, or if it was the pregnancy. 

The next day you decided to go for a picnic with your family, a tradition you have. You went to the same place that is close to your old house. The picnic area has multiples simple grass courts where kids play football. You filmed the moments when Calum and your brothers started playing with the kids of the neighborhood including your nephews, your heart melted to that view of the children laughing when Calum failed a goal and Calum’s heart melted at the view of you playing with your nephews in the grass and then dancing with them. They love to show you what they had learned about samba and capoeira. The only thing on Calum’s mind was that it feels just right with you and that he can not wait to live what he’s watching, with you. With each of them holding your hands you came back to picnic table.

“Baby you’re going to have amazing avós, tios and primos” you said while filming your family members that picnic day. Your parents kissing your forehead and your brothers filming you playing carefully with them the match. 

“She still has it” your eldest brother said to the camera and then filming the picnic day. You can’t explain how much you love your family. You bought them a house in a good side of the city when you became rich. You were dreaming that your whole life because you came from a really poor part of Brazil but with the hard work of your mom, as a hairdresser, and your dad as a fisherman, you always had food and a house full of love. You consider your step dad like your real father, because he’s been there for you since day one and he taught you almost everything of life.

The first time Calum went to Brazil to meet your family, he already knew about your step dad. He and your brothers were harsh with Calum. The three of them have been always protecting you. When they realized how much Calum loves you, they treated him like family. Calum admires that coming from your step dad, and more than ever he has to show you that he would never do what your biological father did to you. He’s going to be the best dad in the world because he always wanted this with you.

Your last night in Brazil you found yourself looking at the balcony. You were sad for leaving again and for an specific memory. Calum noticed you were not sleeping and he knows you better than himself.

“Why you told me that you were scared to tell me the big new” he asked you. You told him that you didn’t know how he was going to react. And also because you didn’t know if he still wanted a family with you after your miscarriage you had last year.

+

1 year ago…

You never understand why the brain always remember the bad moments or the traumas. Sometimes you feel like this happened yesterday and some nights still haunts you. It was your mistake even when everyone told you that it wasn’t your fault. But it was.

You were back from Europe after all the fashion weeks in different countries. You travelled a lot, with no stop doing tons of makeup looks to tons of models to almost every designer that called you. Back in LA you continued with your clients and your studio.

You remembered that night, Calum was back too from the shows they did in Australia and New Zealand. Both of you were exhausted. In the middle of the night you started to feel feverish and thirsty so you went for water downstairs. Before you passed out you felt a strong ache in your back. The noise your body did against the floor got Duke in a second running where you were. He started barking when his help didn’t work which woke up Calum. He knew something was happening because you were not in bed and Duke was desperate. When he found you in the kitchen floor he called emergency when he saw blood in your shorts, he waited the ambulance next to you and holding you all scared because he had no idea what was happening.

In the hospital when the doctors did all the exams and gave you the medication you needed, your doctor went outside to talk to Calum explaining him what happened. You didn’t know you were pregnant until the moment you woke up and your doctor explained to you the same. Your doctor told you that the cause was the non-stop work you did, without eating well or drinking water, sleeping less than 4 hours, too much flights and the baby couldn’t make it. After a couple of days in the hospital to recover, your doctor told you to stay and rest at home all the time you needed. Calum was there for you all the time, taking care of you and letting you know he loves you, even when you felt guilty and barely could look at his eyes.  You always thanked him for what he did because after that you thought he was going to break up with you. Your family, the guys and friends were there for you too and until today you go to a therapist.

Despite all the sadness that brought you the hardest time you had ever lived. It taught you to take care of yourself, to put your health first and to slow down with work even when it’s your passion. So now when your doctor said that you were pregnant, you decided to keep this a secret until your baby is born. You want to live to the fullest this pregnancy, taking care of you and your child, so that’s why you don’t want any paparazzis following you everywhere or things that damage your mental health because you don’t want the baby to feel your anxiety or panic over unnecessary scenarios.

You told your loved ones your plan, you told just the right amount of people that you were pregnant, people who you can trust. You told your clients the secret and that you were going to work and keep doing their makeup until you start to show.

+

“He just told us like ‘hey look at this’ and for our surprise it was the first ultrasound scan” Michael said to the camera while a video of that moment plays. Calum telling the boys that like if it was a simple meme on instagram, their faces, reactions by jumping and screaming were priceless. “And we were so confused and I remembered I said ‘wait this a baby’”.

“Come on guys!” Luke said when you and Calum were goofing around the arena during soundcheck playing like kids and hugging each other. Then in the dressing room waiting for the show cuddling in the sofa laying your bodies in the limited space, Calum’s kissing your nose and the rest of your face and you’re caressing his cheeks and stubble softly with your nails. You promised Calum that you’re going to be careful every single show you will come to see him.

“Every single picture or video you find about your parents, you can see the chemistry” Andy, who is the director of this video, said to the camera and then a video he did for Calum’s birthday party is playing. “Everybody say happy birthday to Cal… one, two, three!” Ashton said through the microphone when it was time to sing at Calum. Then you two kissing and partying, and then leaving the club with all the flashes directly to your faces and other cool little moments of you two playing in the video to show how could your baby’s parents are.

+

3 months

You were in your first trimester when Calum found himself stepping into the elevator for the ultrasound which is going to reveal your baby’s gender. Andy’s filming everything and zoomed to little details that showed that Calum was nervous and anxious to see and hear his baby for the first time. He’s waiting for you that you’re on your way after doing a client’s makeup.

Your style have always been so urban and grunge. You always wear baggy shirts with cool designs on it or bands/singers merch or vintage shirts. And now it’s even more comfortable to you wearing that.

Luke was waiting for you to drive you to the clinic. It wasn’t a surprise when you saw paparazzis pictures of you arriving with Luke and rumors were already on social media but till the end everyone denied your pregnancy. But it was funny but crazy some of the rumors.

Plastic surgery, that you were cheating Calum with Luke, that you were expecting a baby, etc.

“Please guys, leave her alone” Luke said to the paps when he got out the car. He had to lie but he wanted to scream at them to give you space because of the baby but he couldn’t. Everyone was so protective with you and you understood because none of you wanted you live another miscarriage.

If it depends on Calum, he prefers that you don’t lift heavy things or anything that requires too much effort. “How are you feeling today baby mama?” he asked knowing about your morning sickness. You told him that you were perfect that you just want to know the gender of your baby.

“You’re fifteen weeks now” your doctor said rubbing again the cold gel against your belly. Calum was in a chair next to you rubbing your leg focused watching the monitor just like you. 

“Hey chief u are putting too much pressure on” Calum said on the defensive watching how hard the doctor was pressing the gel in your belly.

“Don’t worry, Calum. It’s just the skin. There she is” the doctor said once finally found the perfect take of the baby checking every detail and told you both that everything is okay.

“She? Can we hear the heartbeat?” Calum asked already covering his mouth and he can feel the chills going down his body tearing a little bit. Andy who was inside the room, zoomed to the monitor and also the only one who knew the gender before the reveal party.

+

4 months

Make it last forever

Come on, baby, won’t you hold on to me, hold on to me?

You and I together

Come on, baby, won’t you hold on to me, hold on to me?

Blue

Calum till the present day after your baby was born, he sings this song to her at nights. His voice activated your baby, she really loves her daddy’s voice and she showed her joy with shorts kicks in your belly. She demanded when she missed Calum’s voice or warm touch or when she was having a really good time after he sang or talked to her.

“Babe I think your daughter’s having a party in there” you said feeling her feet. You also had your mom and daughter quality time, you talked to her most of the times telling her typical brazilian stories your mom told you once, or giving her a couple of wise words or you also sing to her even when you can’t compare your voice with Calum’s with brazilian or typical lullabies.

“Hi baby, I know you love this private concerts at night but mommy has to sleep too” he said closer to your bump. Calum helped her to go to sleep by telling her stories or how he can’t wait to have her in his arms. “Well, as I can see you want to be awake I’m going to tell how I met your gorgeous mother” he started. He keeps telling that story too, you always tease that she’s going to get bored of the story but Calum tells the story every single time with more love.

+

5 months

Short videos of yourself in sweats and your bra showing your growing belly of five months in the backyard taking the sun of LA and the spring that is left. Then in the pool, next with Duke aka your partner of naps when Calum was in the studio, who at the first months he laid his head on top of your belly but now that is bigger he just lays next to it.

Since you got your doctor’s confirmation, you did mini videos in the mirror of your bathroom to see the progress. Filming from different angles with different clothes like underwear or bikini, short or long dresses, thigh or loose, etc. Calum loves to appear in the take behind you kissing your neck and landing his hands in your belly. Now talking about bathroom, he also loves to help you to get into and out the shower, wrapping you with towels, putting your socks or shoes if you can’t reach your feet, zipping up your dress and if you had a rough day he prepares you a bath with bubbles and candles and joins you. He loves doing all of the previous thing before you got pregnant. You do by yourself your makeup, of course, but he teases you about he’ll be an amazing makeup artist.

“Not after what you did to me that time” you said at him remembering that funny video when he did your makeup.

+

When Andy isn’t around you’re in charge of filming like early in the morning when you wake up before Calum. Every morning he woke up with his head near your belly and his warm touch around. He looks so at peace sleeping because you know that the previous night he fell asleep late talking with the baby, it’s been his routine lately so in the morning you take the camera and film your view, you take the opportunity to brush Cal’s messy morning curls with your fingers for a while.

+

6 months

Calum had a surprise for you since you couldn’t travel to Brazil or neither to Australia because it was too risky as your doctor said. He told you that today you two have Ashton’s birthday lunch. He wasn’t lying because it was Ashton’s birthday but also the surprise he had so he was filming since early in the morning.

“Babe can you help me, please?” you called him from your shared room. He went upstair with his camera.

“Damn look at you! Baby mama slaying!” he praised you looking at you with troubles with the unzipped dress. You blushed but gave him a pose with your belly at the camera.

“Please help me, next week I have to buy clothes and underwear that can fit me” you turned and he slowly helped you because he didn’t want to damage the dress that barely was fitting on you. “You can say it” you said with a pout since you noticed that any piece of your clothes were fitting you.

Calum knowing about your hormones and how you’re feeling with the shape of your body, which he thinks that you can’t look more precious but understand your struggle, he just wanted you to feel good. “You look amazing honey and you know how much I love this dress” he said with a smirk and hugging you to kiss your neck and grab your ass.

“Okay Hood, let’s go if you don’t want to have twins…daddy” you teased him before he got more horny. You winked at him and grabbed your bag to go downstairs but he stopped you.

“I think that with this you’re going to look even hotter” he gave to you a luxury package ready for your reaction. You opened it and found the shiniest gold heavy chain, you looked at him shocked. “I got a similar one too, it represents the name we choose for our baby” he said and you were already tearing up and told him that it’s beautiful and he told you not to worry knowing that the next thing you were going to say that it wasn’t necessary because of the price. Once outside you kissed him before he helped you to get into the car.

“Still don’t understand why Ash’s going to celebrate his birthday two days before” you asked Calum while he’s driving.

Calum’s a really bad liar but he did his best to keep his surprise. “I told you babe, he’s going to be in Australia for the next weeks”. Lie. And you remembered how mad you were at Ash when he told you because he was going to miss the baby shower.

But once you arrived Ash’s place and went to the living room and saw a bunch of people jumping and screaming ‘surprise’ at you, you got scared and hid your face on Calum’s neck and he can felt a few tears because your and Cal’s families are here. You hugged everyone and thanked Calum once again for this. “I love you so much”.

“Love ya’ more” he said smiling down at you and kissed your crown. And the next day both of you and your families, the guys, close friends like your MUA’s friends and from the music industry were at your place. You’re wearing a more comfortable outfit than the day before, it was a black fitted midi tank dress and a rainbow tie-dyed hoodies that you and Calum ordered for the baby shower theme because you don’t like that thing that pink is for girls and blue for boys so everyone’s wearing the colorful outfit.

You’re posing in your garden full of beautiful flowers of different colors as everyone’s taking you pictures.

“More to the side” Mali said to have the perfect picture of you and your baby. Andy was filming every moment and zoomed it when you waved at his camera and the other hand on your belly. Then pictures with Calum, then the families, the guys, and everyone who was invited. Every single person can noticed your happiness and pure joy, you were glowing and even more with your soft peachy glowy makeup you did.

In the video the zoom’s now on your and Calum’s matching chains that you were wearing minutes before the reveal. 

“Goddammit just say it!” Michael screamed impatient.

“Yeah, I bet Michael that it’s a boy” Luke said. They actually did bet five hundred.

“Why would you do that?!” Ashton stole words that Calum was going to say.

“Cause’ Y/N has two brothers and two nephews, maths Ash!” Luke said confident about his prediction.

Duke was hiding inside a box with the truth. When you both opened the box, Duke came out with a mini billboard hanging on his collar that says ‘It’s a GIRL!” 

“YES!” Everyone screamed but mostly Michael because now he won those five hundred dollars.

+

“Definitely I’m going to be her godfather” Michael said looking at the guys. Andy asked them to say something for the video, they were sitting in the couch.

“Hell nah Michael… Focus! We have to say something to our niece” Luke said at him. “Hi kiddo, unfortunately we’re also your uncles, I’m uncle Luke and just wanna to let you know that you have the coolest family ever and you can count on us for everything”.

“Yeah, I hope you guys have clear that we’re going to spoil this baby a lot” Michael said looking at you and Calum, you nodded at him and he with his partner made it clear by bringing tons of gifts for the baby shower. “Cool, I’m just going to say that never be ashamed of who you are or your dreams and I know I’m going to be your favorite uncle because your birthday’s going to be near mine”. Michael said to the camera while he did his thing with his hair of always adjusting it.

“Hi dear niece, uncle Ash here, you’re so lucky to have your parents and they’re lucky to have you. Hope you have your mother’s features cause’ she’s hot…” Calum slapped his head from behind due to the comment. “Okay! your dad isn’t that bad tho…being serious live to the fullest cause’ life’s beautiful, especially if you play drums” Ashton laughed and you rolled your eyes at how all of them including Calum had been discussing which instrument the baby’s going to love most.

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7 months

“You have to exercise, you gained ten pounds that weren’t planned” your doctor said. “Something light of course, and Calum, by the way you’re looking at me all scared, don’t worry cause’ everything’s going to be okay”.

“I’ve been craving a lot lately, I’m going to start again” you said swinging your legs like a child sitting once your doctor finished cleaning the gel of your belly. So the next morning you started again with yoga, you stopped for a month and that happened. You did yoga every morning with your personal trainer, since you can’t go to her studio because the secret will be revealed. Calum was also there encouraging you and sometimes Ashton, who assured you that he wasn’t there because he finds your trainer attractive.

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@enews: Is Y/N pregnant? She’d been seen attending at 5sos shows this week and fans took pictures of her enjoying the show in the middle of the arena with friends and family in the restricted space. In the pictures we can see that she gained weight by her cheeks. In the picture you can’t see if there is a baby or not due to her outfits. She, with her husband Calum also are the last ones to leave the arenas asking the bodyguards to make sure there is no paps. What do you think? It’s confusing because she and Calum have been posting a lot lately and you can’t be sure about a little 5sos member coming BUT fans are saying that maybe they’re posting old stuff to confuse us and also fans called to respect their decision after what happened to the couple last year. Link in our bio to see the pictures.

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“Do you want to say something to your granddaughter?” your brother asked with the camera to your parents and you melted at how cute your family looked with the hoodies on. 

“Ugh, I can’t wait to hold you, kiss you, hug you, teaching you things that maybe your mommy can’t teach you” your mom said all emotional.

Your dad said to the camera that they can’t wait to have your baby visiting Brazil and teach her all about your culture and country. And you couldn’t be more agree with them. You want to show your daughter her roots, teach her portuguese and bring her to the carnivals in Brazil, spend all day in the beach walking with her in the seashore holding your hand and a lot of things that you have in the list. The same that Calum has in my mind since he found out about his baby but visiting Australia.

“I know you’re going to be smartest and most beautiful baby in the world and as you can see you got us wrap around your finger and every single person that loves you” Calum’s mom said to the camera.

“I’m going to be the best auntie I promise” Mali said to the camera and her dad joked about she and your best friends are the only aunties, because your baby has more uncles that aunties and that’s going to be fun.

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“A doble vegetarian cheeseburger with caramelized onion and fries, please” you said from the passenger seat ordering your food to the worker of your favorite place for your cravings. Not taking risks to leave the car. Since you stopped working when you were five months you’ve been wearing baggy clothes to go outside and your designer friends have been sending you all kind of clothes from baggy and comfy dresses but still elegant and chic to pants and underwear that are the pieces you needed since every day your belly grows. Your best friend was driving and Mali was filming from the back. “And two portions of fries and a strawberry vegan milkshake, please… thank you!” you said with a guilty look to the camera. Later you’re going to ask why your doctor told you to lose weight. 

In another occasion that Michael invited all of you guys for dinner and you had in your plate a lot of things you took. “What do you have here?” Andy asked filming. 

“Well we have mac n’ cheese, french fries and sweet potato fries, two cheeseburgers of course one for me and one for the baby and a lot of salad because why not?” you said raising your shoulders.

But it hasn’t always been this way with your cravings and just beautiful things during your pregnancy because isn’t the truth.

Your cravings were so crazy and even things you didn’t like before that suddenly you want to eat that Calum reminded you that you hate that but doesn’t argue with you because you were going to get mad. It started with a lot of sweet things like cake or pies, fruits or chocolate and a lot of ice cream. Then peanut butter with watermelon, yeah, gross. To food that you love but hated being pregnant. Also food that one day you loved and the next morning you were disgusted and the next one loved again. And it ended with a lot of salty food like cheeseburgers, pasta, nuggets, etc but your loyal friend during the 9 months was ice cream.

“Babe I want to eat feijoada!” you pouted at Calum with a huge crave of your favorite typical brazilian dish. Calum couldn’t believe what he was hearing, it was 2 am and you were hungry and not in the best mood. “And also passionfruit ice cream, please”.

Calum did everything but the brazilian restaurant you love was already closed and he didn’t have idea how to do it. “We have the ice cream tho” he suggested if you changed your mind but that didn’t happen. You were going to start crying, the hormones were doing their thing that day.

Calum really wanted to spoil you but he had no idea what to do. He tried to facetime your family but he would have understood if they hadn’t answered because it was 6 am in Brazil. Thank God, your middle brother already started his day and when Calum told him what he wanted to do, your brother really realized how much he loves you. So he told him the steps, the recipe and the special secret of your family tradition, Calum told himself for the next one to pay attention when you or another person cook this dish.

“K’ thank you man, say hello to the rest, bye!” Calum waved through the phone once the feijoada was done.

“You are going to be a good dad, Cal. Now go to spoil your girls!” your brother waved at him too. And Calum really appreciated that comment.

“Sorry babe for being a pain in the ass lately” you said to Calum while you eat the ice cream laying against the headboard of the bed. He didn’t let you apologize for that because you’re doing something majestic and it was more than normal the things you had been through. 

Even when those moments aren’t going to appear in the video, Calum’s going to for sure telling your baby your crazy cravings. When you cried more than once watching puppy videos on Instagram and Calum asking you “babe what happened?” and you just told him “it’s just that the puppy’s so cute” and he comforting you every time you cried when the hormones were crazy. 

When you struggled with clothes. “Baby I’m doing my best” you said almost holding your breath and Calum trying to zip up your blue dress but in the middle of the night still end up broke. That night was a mess, you were out with Calum celebrating Tyler’s birthday, a friend of yours and you were half undressed that Calum gave you his jacket to cover the mess and then you started to feel sick when you caught the smell of a strong cheese.

How to forget how you feel with your body. The pain in your back, your feet, your breasts or when you felt so tired sometimes. How some days you were feeling yourself and other days you felt the most horrendous person. Some days the sexiest woman in the world and others the most unwanted one when you found a new stretch mark or how big your breasts and butt are, the pounds you gained.

“I promised that I used to be sexy, look baby” you said at Calum showing him a picture of you when you were 18 years old, you were in Copacabana with your friends in a party. Calum every day letting know how much he loves you and told you that you’re always going to be the prettiest woman in the world even when you had chocolate all over your face. He helps you too with your body issues because for his eyes all of these new things are a reminder of your little peanut and he loves every single inch of your body.

+

8 months 

“I’m thirty four weeks today, just a month left” you said to the camera showing your belly. “Look baby, your daddy’s painting your room” pointing at Calum applying the peachy paint in the walls and later you were going to add with black paint some trees and other things like clouds, sun, the moon, etc. 

Calum was already a 24/7 daddy. He called the guys to help him with the crib and the rest of the furniture. He had ready the bags for the hospital and the plan for that day.

+

Since you decided to keep your pregnancy a secret and to stop working and stay at home and not be in the public eye, you still had fun doing puzzles, playing with makeup, inviting your friends when Calum had to go to work. And every day you worked from home too, you still had to manage your makeup studio and your clients glam. 

Tonight you prepared dinner, a brazilian night. You invited everyone and after you were goofing around in the living room with music in the back. The guys made you laugh at their attempt to dance samba. You decided to join the baby mama dance flexing your pregnant dance moves so you started filming with the front camera of your phone and dancing with the rest to ‘All Me’ by Kehlani.

+

“What if she isn’t into makeup?” Andy asked you in the baby shower. This is the first time you speak for the video.

“It doesn’t matter. She can do and choose anything she likes, I just want to teach her that she as a girl that girls can. To empower her if she likes science, art or sports or whatever I’m going to be there for and with her. Baby just remember that I’m going to love you every single day of my life and I’m sure that you’re the coolest and prettiest Maori-Brazilian girl in the world and you should be proud of that. We with your dad are waiting for you, love ya’”. you said to the camera.

“Hi princess, well I’m going to try not to cry while I say this but I can’t explain how much we love you and can’t wait to finally have you in my arms and sing to you and have fun with you. You’re my sunshine and your mom’s my soulmate, that tv show I saw was right about soulmate but the truth is that Uber was mine” Calum said to the camera smiling so big that his eyes crinkled and you giving him a look because that question about if that Uber was yours or his is going to be forever a topic, but one thing for sure is that moment changed everything.

+

“Calum!” you screamed from the living room where you were resting after dinner with Duke in the couch. Calum arrived in a second running from the backyard. You were suddenly scared. “Don’t know if Duke peed in the couch or…” and the next thing you saw was Calum taking the bags and helping you to get up to lead you to the car. He was freaking out inside but he tried to keep calm and always reminding you to breath when a contraction hit you.

Andy filmed when he arrived the maternity floor in the hospital. Everyone was waiting outside the labor room. He gave your mom the camera as she was inside the room with Calum next to you. 

“Five centimeters left” the nurse said. For the video you decided to cover the screen so everyone will see just a black screen.

“Everyone’s here” your mom said while you wait. “We, Cal’s family, the boys, Natali, Marcela and Andy with Sarah”. And all of them were nervous waiting with fingers crossed with shuddering legs and feet against the floor waiting for Calum to go outside to say that the baby’s here and that you are fine.

You didn’t put in the video the ugly side of contractions and the pain you were feeling. The word you heard a billion times was ‘breath’, ‘take a deep breathe’.

“You’re going to meet your little girl” your doctor said to you and Calum once you were ten centimeters ready. You wanted to scream at your doctor for everything that the nurses put on you. How painful the epidural shot was and the every 3 or 5 minutes the contractions were. Till today you’re more than grateful that you had Calum supporting and helping you and also that he didn’t pass out. He’s going to be forever amazed at how your body and mind really did that and carried your little princess. 

“Okay, eight, nine and… ten. Go, push” you heard. “Good job Y/N, keep going please take a breath”. “One more and you’re done” your doctor said and in that moment you felt how Calum held your hand with all of his energy.

“You can do this baby” he said encouraging you. You were tired and all sweaty but your reminder was that one more to hold your baby.

Cries filled the room letting you know that she’s finally here. “Open your eyes mama” the nurse said to meet your baby before you fall asleep.

“You did it baby, congrats” Calum was crying while he kissed your forehead, so do you. “I love you mama” he said. He couldn’t believe that years ago he didn’t believe in love but getting into that Uber that Christmas Eve was, is and is going to be forever the best decision of his life.

To our baby

Ema Kara Hood

October 26

8 lbs, 9 oz

11:15 pm

[lightwoodsmagic]

I didn’t know where else to go. I know you love Zayn and I know you love Louis and with all this Twitter stuff I’m so confused how to feel. It’s awful, the whole thing, but Louis isn’t like that? And everything’s so weird with him and Zayn lately that I don’t know what to think. Please tell me what you think

Hi anon.

I wasn’t sure I was going to address this, but then I kept getting similar asks and thought, welp. Maybe I will.

Thank you for thinking of me, and I’m sorry that you’re having a hard time with everything that’s going on. I absolutely do love Louis, and Zayn. It’s a lot, and it’s completely okay to be overwhelmed, angry, upset, and disappointed.

Basically, I’m just gonna state some facts.

The first thing, the most important thing, is that everyone who’s angry, frustrated, and upset has every single right to be, because their feelings are incredibly valid, and people who are not part of the minorities that the account attacks are not allowed to tell people who are, how to feel. The fact that Louis followed that account in 2015, has never showed anything to suggest that he has these views, and that is was most likely to do with the official narrative are not the point. For a lot of people, Louis and his environment are a safe space, and at the moment, it doesn’t feel that way for some people. The fact is that he still follows the account, the account is homophobic, racist, pro-trump, transphobic, and islamaphobic, and it needs to be unfollowed.

It’s also important to remember that Louis is an adult, and people can still love him but also recognise that he needs to take responsibility for the way that it’s made people feel, however that is, that the account is completely disgusting. Addressing it publicly is sure to add to the negative views of him in the GP, and just unfollowing it may not be enough, but unfollowing it is what needs to happen, IF Louis has any control over it. People can also be furious at the situation because of his team if they feel that way, not necessarily directly at Louis as if he’s 100% orchestrated everything, but still believe Louis needs to fix it himself now.

Okay. So. In terms of the Zayn stuff, and the OG follow.

I’ve done some research, searched some stuff on Twitter, and Grace helped a lot too.

Louis followed the account back in November 2015, and at the time, the account seemed to only present itself as a gaming account for the outside. No one at the time mentioned anything about it being the type of account it is now, although I imagine it was still an account with similar views, but I can’t find all the tweets back further than 2017/2018, and I can’t verify what else the account tweeted about.

As Marcela said perfectly in a gc, we know that Louis’ follows and Twitter and socials have always been the ones used against him the most in the band, and that his Twitter is never to be trusted.

It is very likely that, at the time, his team followed it to stir shit up, because we know that this is what they do. This isn’t Louis’ thoughts and opinions, and this has happened to Louis in the past.

I do just want to clear one thing up. From what I can see (please someone correct me if I’m wrong), Louis didn’t follow this account after it said something about Zayn joining ISIS, which is something I’ve seen going around. This is the main interaction I could find to do with the account that mentioned Zayn, and it’s a reply from someone random about Zayn, and happened afterwards.

Excuse the bad quality, it’s a photo of a screen. I know, I’m the worst. Apologies.

There’s another thread where most of the tweets are unavailable, and people seem to be talking shit about Zayn. They seem to be talking about Zayn leaving 1D maybe? But it did happen afterwards, and none of them were the person Louis followed.

Regardless, this does NOT excuse the follow! I just wanted to clear that little thing up.

There’s also a Reddit thread that talks about Louis following pro-gamer gate people at that time. It’s also very plausible that the follow happened because of his team to try and start something.

The timing of this coming up now is also very interesting, and the first mention of it recently came from October 26th from an account that only started this year.

Basically I think at the moment though, it comes down to this:

- People are allowed to be angry, and are allowed to rant, and are allowed to be furious. Just because one person isn’t mad, does not mean someone else cannot feel that way.

- The account needs to be unfollowed. It’s disgusting, spreads hateful messages, and it’s not okay.

- The follow doesn’t appear to be related directly to Zayn.

- Louis has never showed that he is this type of person, obviously. What we know of Louis is that he’s kind, generous, open minded, accepting, and filled with love, but this has the potential to ruin his reputation at a time when everything is starting to go well for him.

I’m hoping that this gets dealt with quickly, for everyone’s sake. I love Louis, and I do not think it was his idea to follow the account, or that he condones anything in there, or to keep following it, but still.

I hope it gets unfollowed, and soon.

[gracetoecuadorexchange]

Engaging

Well, after another week of fighting more avidly against boredom, I am feeling pretty good about myself.

I got lucky last week after failing to do anything for the first day of my three-day weekend. Rosetta joined my family and me at a traditional countryside restaurant, although her refusal to eat food (the premise being that she wasn’t hungry having just had lunch herself) came back later with a vengeance in the form of ordering a full pizza and chicken hamburger at the park we walked around later. Even Henriette, who I’d thought would miss out as she was sick, joined us. She and Rosetta took a paddle boat around the man-made river.

Monday, although almost as activity-less as Saturday, still had something to do--make a “lemon pie” with Mami Nina I could take to Tuesday’s picnic at school. I say “lemon pie” in quotation marks because it was truly just a glorified casserole; without the baking, or spices, or really anything that goes into a casserole or pie. After layering the bottom of a casserole dish in plain cookies, then spreading a mixture of condensed milk, 50% milk, and lemon juice over the cookies, the process was repeated one more time. I got to leave my two lays of cookies and milk in the fridge for the next day and wonder how in the world I was expected to keep it cool while at school waiting for the last class.

I still don’t know what Tuesday’s picnic was celebrating, but it may have to do with diplomas/certificates that were given to some students at the start of the day.

I have no idea what gets you these diplomas as the year hasn’t ended, but I assume it’s a good thing as the studious kids were the ones called up. I can’t say I am one of the studious kids, but I did pay attention and even got homework and points in classes (except Quimica--Chemistry--because I hate everything about it with a burning passion).

Thankfully my worries over keeping the “pie” cool were assuaged when Mami Ale told me I could ask the snack bar to put it in their fridge. When the picnic rolled around as our last hour of the day, I was able to present my full sized “lemon pie”/casserole-stacked-cookies-not-even-baked thing to impress all my peers. Other “dishes” brought by these freshman-aged students included; Nutella, potato chips, pizza chips, chifle (chEEflay--salted banana chips), strawberries, Coca-Cola, caramel dip, packaged cookies (I took some home to savor later) and some gummy rings. It entertained a few students when I tried the potato chips with Nutella, and Aldo went so far as to test the pizza flavored chips with the chocolate as well.

Even at home I felt productive, able to work on some slides in a presentation I would be an active part of in school next Monday.

Wednesday and I investigated half-heartedly into the running organization one of my classmates is in, “Federation”--like Star Fleet!

I made sure to talk to my school group when Theatre class did nothing, and I even taught a camp game.

By the end of the day I had confirmation that grades would start being written down for me, which is a huge win. It’s hard to keep track of your language progress and feel like you’re doing good. Getting outright confirmation on schoolwork will definitely help in stabilizing how I feel I’m doing. Also, school work is insanely easy (except Quimica because no one wants you, Quimica) which is bad for the students that should actually be engaging and learning, but good for me as I already learned most things in depth in eighth grade.

Wednesday also marked the day I finally got the mail package containing a few things I hadn’t packed the first time around: a small stuffed bear that I like to brag has traveled the world, a large American flag, more journals since it’s been a little over a month and I’ve filled almost the entirety of my first one, and some documents bureaucracy prevented from finishing in time for my arrival.

I had learned from a friend that Venom was out, so of course I took this opportunity to try and connect with friends and watch the movie. Unfortunately, Mami Ale changed these plans without first consulting me, and movie watching was put off for Thursday, meaning I had to be that irresponsible jerk friend that cancels with only 2 hours to go.

This also happened to be the day Tete, the pregnant dog, was expected to have puppies, so I was given the option to stay home. My entire social life is currently at school, so I declined. I still got cake, as I think they were celebrating the new puppies even though nothing had happened (or would happen until the eleventh--that’s what happens when you assume dogs operate on human expectations).

With no one but me needing to wake early on Thursday for school and work, I had to walk down to Cruz del Norte. Unfortunately, sidewalks are not a guarantee, and I’m pretty sure my nice white uniform shoes were covered in a thin layer of dust and not smelling fresh by the time I was in the building. It didn’t help that I couldn’t shower that morning when the water pressure fizzled out as I washed my hands.

On the up side, I now had my trusty stuffed bear Jarfrey, who was a hit with the ladies of my friend group. I passed him off during PE, and by the end of it, Katherin claimed he was her husband.

Katherin was the Ecuadorian friend I had planned to watch Venom with the day before, along with the only exchange student that responded in our group chat when I first sent the invite out. Unfortunately, something came up and she couldn’t make it, but lucky for me, now Marcela could.

Her mother accidentally introduced herself as Marcela’s sister, but it was sorted out rather quickly and we watched Venom. Totally in Spanish. I think I understood about 50% of spoken words, followed 90% of the plot, and caught 40% of the jokes. On the car ride home I learned the family had a Wii U, so I will be looking into a Mario Kart tournament sometime in the future.

I didn’t get a chance to see Tete and her new-born puppies when I got home, but that was rectified the next morning.

Friday dawned, and people were late rising-- except for me because I’m always up at 6 and ready to leave by 6:45 as I was told to be. I saw the three little black puppies Tete can now call herself mother of, but I still haven’t dared to touch any of them in case that would hurt something.

At school, Marcela joined in Inktober late, coining the term ‘Latetober’ and letting me join in as well, along with Ysabella. In English while Marie was stepping out to find Henriette and my desk mates were talking amongst themselves, I drew a hamburger and a tiny hungry cat since the first day’s theme was ‘comida’.

Jarfrey of course joined me this day as well, becoming Marcela’s wrist adornment as she beat us all in the basketball game trying to make shots from different positions.

I learned from Marie halfway through the day that exchange students would be having a picnic. I have not kept up at all with the exchange students, but a picnic sounded nice and it’d be fun to enjoy the outdoors for a little while. I got to the park with four liters of sparkling apple juice and twenty cups--that’s right, I remembered to bring something to actually serve beverages in. I was the only one to remember to do so, and no one brought plates.

At one point, the French boy across from me passed Kinder chocolate under the table and we joked he was our drug dealer. He was the same one to eat tuna straight from the bag and try rip-off Cheeto puffs with guacamole. My second picnic of the week ended a little while after one of the girls got out their Ukulele and another sang along to ‘Riptide’.

It didn’t end before a woman we later learned had no connection to any of us sat down at the table and asked about exchange. People ended up leaving the chips and Nutella with her when we left for a walk. My day finished around 12 am as I enjoyed the two new Miraculous Ladybug episodes (2 in a day again!) and I started off the new weekend right.

Once more, I have fought off boredom, this time engaging in a combination of movies, drawing, and haphazard excuses to eat a ton of junk food with friends. !Ole!

[castielsfeatheredballs]

On Jo and Amy’s rivalry, feminism and ‘getting the man’

This is a rant about an opinion I’ve seen about “Little Women” that just doesn’t sit well with me at all. It might not bother me as much if I hadn’t seen two of my most beloved authors believing it as truth--and no, I’m not, I’m not talking about fanfiction authors.

One of my favourite nonfiction feminist reads, ‘Ancora dalla parte delle bambine’ (still on the little girls’ side) by Loredana Lipperini is a wonderful feminist analysis of how women and gender are portrayed in today’s mainstream media. It’s an amazing read… except for the offhand comment in which she uses ‘Little Women’ as one example in which traditional femininity wins over tomboys because Amy ‘wins’ the boy instead of our girl Jo. Like excuse me, what?

On the other side of the world, a completely unrelated take on this: Marcela Serrano is one of my favourite authors ever, she has written several brilliant novels… one of which happens to be basically a Modern!AU of Little Women ‘Hasta Siempre, Mujercitas’ (So Long, Little Women), set in modern day Chile. In her retelling, Jo’s character Ada and Amy’s character Lola are BOTH in love with ‘Laurie’ (Oliveiro) from the beginning, their rivalry is heavily based on them fighting over him and the fact that Lola ends with him is seen very much as a loss by Ada.

Now, keep in mind--I’m not against the Jo/Laurie ship per se, like anyone can have the headcanons they like, more power to you. However, if you try to paint CANON Jo as the ‘loser’ well… I have HUGE issues with it. Because Canon Jo is not a loser in ANY way. Canon Jo WINS at life, her story is all about how even though she is ‘different’ aka not traditionally feminine she can have a fulfilling life without giving up any parts of herself, she marries the man she loves (who has zero issues with her tomboy ways and loves her for who she is), has a great career, co-founds a school for unprivileged kids and then later realizes her childhood dream becoming a famous writer, complete with crazy fanbase. Oh, and she has two lovely kids and is by all accounts a wonderful mother despite having a career.

Her rivalry with Amy is a very complex issue that has NOTHING to do with Laurie. It’s very much a rivalry between two different personalities and two different ways to be a woman--Amy being more conformist, feminine, eager to please, materialist, and conventionally pretty sister, while Jo is the more radical, aggressive, ‘masculine’, doesn’t have any fucks to give and rejects conventional feminine ideals sister.

Guess what? Although the narrative does side with Jo most of the time, it does a very good job on not demonizing or punishing Amy for being feminine. Amy has to learn a lot of harsh lessons about her attitude, about the risks of vanity and greed and compromising your values in order to please people, but the message is NEVER that she should change herself and stop striving to be beautiful, or well-liked, or rich, if she can do so in a moral way. In fact, she ends up happily married to a rich guy whom she loves, and ‘Jo’s Boys’ shows her as the neighbourhood fashion icon who bonds with younger girls by showing them how to make their clothes prettier with little money. Meanwhile Jo remains unapologetically herself all the way through and this is portrayed as a GOOD thing, but the narrative also calls her out on occasion on the fact that ‘being herself’ is not an excuse to be a dick to people. BOTH Jo and Amy’s narratives revolve around the fact that you should be yourself, that it’s okay to be a tomboy and it’s okay to be a girly girl, but that first of all you should be a good person.

Furthermore, if there’s one thing both Jo and Amy want and only one of them gets, it’s not Laurie (because Jo doesn’t want him--more on that later): it’s becoming a professional in their area of creative work. And guess who gets that? JO. Jo becomes a famous writer, while Amy has to realize early on that she isn’t talented enough to be a professional artist. However, this is in no way a result of their different approaches to life and femininity--it just so happens that Jo is a good writer, and Amy isn’t as good as an artist. That’s life, suck it up. Amy never gives up on her art, by the way, in ‘Jo’s Boys’ she’s still happily sculpting and sharing her passion with her daughter, because it makes her happy and fulfilled even if she’s not paid for it. So even if she’s not the ‘winner’ here, she’s definitely not a ‘loser’.

On the “Jo doesn’t want Laurie and never did” issue, which is obviously a central one: I’m aware that many people think that she did, in fact, want him, and that’s obviously fine. But first of all, even if you think that Jo is obviously so much more than just the man she loves; don’t downplay the fact that she had a great life, a wonderful career, amazing children and fulfilled all her dreams and is very happy. “Not getting the man” is NOT losing. Also, don’t blame the fact that she didn’t marry Laurie on her lack of traditionally feminine qualities: Laurie loved these things! Laurie was in love with her and proposed to her way before Amy was even on the radar as a romantic interest for him. After she rejected him, he had every right to fall in love again with another wonderful woman, and the fact that he did and he and Jo they were later able to be best friends again, no hard feelings is one of the most feminist outcomes I can think of, really. But seriously, the only reason why Amy “won” (ugh!) the man is because Jo said no. The only reason.

And you want to know why she rejected him? Because she didn’t want to marry him. Because she loved him a lot but as a friend and a brother, nothing more. This is said in canon many, many times, and seriously, just take a look at how she interacts with him and compare it to how she interacts with Fritz Bhaer. With Laurie they have a wonderful close friendship, an incredible bond that’s very precious and should be cherished, but she never seems to pay attention to him physically or worry about how she looks like to him. She acknowledges that he’s very handsome, but very matter of fact. With Fritz, she is CONSTANTLY obsessed about every tiny detail of his appearance--how he’s dressed, how his hair looks like, his voice, his gestures, how he eats, EVERYTHING. When he’s around, she brushes her hair three times a day, when she runs into him at the shops she wants to impress him with how good she is at shopping (I’m not even joking, this is in the text) and promptly makes a fool of herself because she’s so nervous… I mean, she obviously admires and respects and loves both men, but there is a constant physical awareness of Fritz, and a frantic longing that she definitely doesn’t have with Laurie. Face it, girl is thirsty for the Professor. I’m not saying that you should ship Jo/Bhaer, or even like them as a couple, like feel free to think Jo would have been happier with Laurie, but the fact is that in canon, her not ending up with Laurie is not intended as a punishment. It’s a REWARD: she gets to marry a man that she is deeply passionate about and to also remain BFFs with Teddy all her life. 

In canon, the only jealousy around this ‘love triangle’ is all, understandably, on Amy’s part. Who wouldn’t be insecure knowing that the man they married proposed to their sister first, and was so heartbroken by her rejection they literally couldn’t be on the same continent as her afterwards? And yet, Amy defies ALL the pretty blonde bitch stereotypes and doesn’t pull any passive-aggressive crap. She handles the situation like a mature adult and ASKS Laurie about it. And seriously this exchange is life:

"Shall you care if Jo does marry Mr. Bhaer?"

"Oh, that's the trouble is it? I thought there was something in the dimple that didn't quite suit you. Not being a dog in the manger, but the happiest fellow alive, I assure you I can dance at Jo's wedding with a heart as light as my heels. Do you doubt it, my darling?"

Amy looked up at him, and was satisfied. Her little jealous fear vanished forever, and she thanked him, with a face full of love and confidence.

THIS is how you do relationships, kids! Take notes. They communicate and talk honestly about the issue and she accepts his reassurance without questioning it further. Later in life, the Lawrences literally build a house next door to be closer to Jo, and Meg, and Laurie and Jo remain the best of friends, confiding in each other, plotting mischief, co-directing school plays and actually openly joking about his marriage proposal to her, with Amy’s full blessing. Amy herself and Jo also have a wonderful relationship throughout their entire life, because the whole point of their rivalry was not that there’s only one way to live life as a woman and only one ‘side’ can win, but that growing up means learning to understand each other and overcome differences and be true to one’s own path without letting it create a rift between you and your loved ones. Reducing all the brilliantly complex relationships between Jo, Laurie and Amy to a petty rivalry over a man is a huge disservice to those characters and all their accomplishments, and until the day I die I will defend the Little Women saga’s canon ending and it’s incredibly feminist message! Thanks for coming to my Ted(dy) Talk.

[ladysophiebeckett]

Regarding your Betty gaslighting arc post (which is awesome. Your analysis is always so on point and makes me see a new perspective every time), another great thing about these episodes is Mario’s comments that taunt Armando. Just to name a few of his iconic lines:

- She changed a night of lust and passion with you, for a simple dinner with Nicolás Mora

- Her only reward for doing everything (running both Terramoda and Ecomoda) was your kisses and sinister caresses and it turns out that they didn’t work or weren’t as effective as we thought

- When he flat out insinuated that maybe Nicolás was a better lover or well endowed (even more so than him) and that’s why Betty was rejecting him 🤣🤣🤣

- “You stopped wanting Marcela and all women because the company’s problems have taken a toll on your desire for intimacy, but if Betty accepted to spend the night with you, would you do it? Armando’s face is priceless here, and also Mario’s because it’s obvious he didn’t buy his response.

Finally, when he tells him to please snap out of it, that he had to come to terms with what he was feeling because even though it wouldn’t solve anything, it would allow him to clearly see just how screwed up he really was.

He even said some useful things to him. He constantly told him that Betty was testing him which she really was. Like you pointed out, she wanted to see if he followed word by word what was written on the letter to see if there was anything genuine about the things he said and did. One of the reasons she rejects him the night of El Meson de San Diego (aside from dignity) is that she had heard Mario tell him that had to do whatever it took to get her back even if it included sleeping with her. So when he told her he wanted to spend the whole night with her, Betty thought that this was part the plan he and Mario had for that night. Also, the fact that he didn’t guess she knew everything after all the things she told him that night is beyond me.

Anyways, I wish I could have the will and also critical thinking skills to make a huge post about Mario and Armando’s talks during this arc.

I love your blog, honestly.

you're incredibly sweet <3 thank u so much. i feel like im talking at a wall sometimes but it doesn't stop me.

i myself am trying to unravel the armando\mario toxic frenemy of it all, bc there's a lot to unpack. is armando that easy to manipulate? (no). is mario some puppeteer pulling all the strings? (no).

mario's taunts aren't helpful but i think sometimes theyre armando's mouthpiece. i think mario's comments are things that armando's already thinking but wont say aloud and when mario says them, it's like he's verifying those thoughts. it's 'oh ur seeing this too, im not crazy'. but mario isn't coming from a good place when he says them, however mario does push armando to continue to pursue her; pushing that armando doesn't need bc he was already going to do that. but mario telling him to do that makes it a cover for armando, an excuse, a security blanket if u will.

the night of el meson de san diego, betty drops anvil hints. from their argument in the office, fm their conversation in the restaurant, to their huge fight outside. she's incredibly passive aggressive about it but she does try to make it easy on him. in her office when he says 'you broke all the promises' and she says 'oh I broke all the promises? I'M lying to you?'---that was a life jacket, that was a gift. but he stutters. he's willing to believe she has something with nicolas and that nicolas is Bad and he's better than nicolas--armando can't think straight bc his insecurities and his ego are the forefront of it all.

armando that night really did want to talk and fix things bc that's how their relationship was before the letter. the desperation in his voice when he says 'i know if we go back inside and talk calmly we can figure this out'\'okay we'll go someplace else, i want to spend the night, all night with you'---he was trying to gain back their emotional intimacy and u can see betty waiver. she misses him, she misses how it used to be but she doesn't trust him or her heart anymore. and to really stick it to him she says she doesn't desire him. another blow to his ego. (that was a lie btw, bc they were going at it outside and also bc she says in her diary that it pained her to reject him bc she needed him too)

going back to the mario of it all, he's a complicated character we all have very differing opinions about. as i said, im still unravelling my thoughts about him and his relationship with armando. but i dont think it's a black and white as it seems. he's just as complex as marcela.

[ladysophiebeckett]

If Michel had never shown up at Ecomoda,how do you think Armando and Betty would have reconciled? Tbh I find it hard to imagine that she would give him another chance while still in Ecomoda and with Marcela around. We know that Marcela and Margarita only resorted to telling Betty the truth to keep Armando from leaving, but they would have probably never done so without that threat looming over them. At this point she also believes he is after Alejandra, turns out his over the top flirting drove her even further away from him. Would the Cuartel tell her that he didn’t do anything with her and that she was gone already without Michel’s presence? With Ecomoda out of debt and Betty refusing to remain the president, would Armando be given another chance by the board committee? I think that in this situation the only way I can see them working out is with Betty out of Ecomoda because it would give them the opportunity to rekindle their romance in a different setting away from the toxicity of the workplace and his family and Marcela (who still had hopes of getting back together with Armando), but curious to know how you think it would have played out.

I'm answering this but I fear I am not answering this, perhaps the way it was expected of me. And I wanna apologize to you, anon, in advance. So. Beware of that.

Before I continue, I want to state that i am using this as an excuse to talk about why canon events are needed and why fics that undo Important Canon Actions fall flat.

Sometimes we as viewers will ask ourselves 'why didnt X character just do (rational action)?' And its because the story needs irrational action\irrational thinking that actually moves the plot forward. We're not looking to solve the plot quickly because that isn't entertaining.

You go into any tiktok comment section that's ysblf related and you will almost immediately see someone call Betty the villain because she chose to have an affair with Armando. But if she doesn't decide to do that, then there's no story. If Betty wasn't naive, if she wasn't so loyal, if she had a reason to be suspicious of Armando--she would quickly put together that he was trying to start an affair with her right after the embargo happened. And if it played out like that, then there would be no room for Betty to grow as a person. If Betty doesn't make this decision then she doesn't change and neither does Armando.

Another example, one that I see in fics a lot is the Cartagena Arc where Armando doesn't get back together with Marcela. Viewers hate that and I get it. So they have him not do it, but they don't take into account why he needs to do that. Armando is a mess and he hasn't put himself together yet, so he goes back to what's easy and familiar. He can't not go back to Marcela just because he's in love with another woman. He needs to end his relationship with Marcela for himself. And that why those kinds of fics fail. Because they're trying to skip a hundred steps of character development.

Now that I've established that, let's get into it:

You asked:

If Michel had never shown up at Ecomoda,how do you think Armando and Betty would have reconciled? Tbh I find it hard to imagine that she would give him another chance while still in Ecomoda and with Marcela around.

I am first and foremost a romantic and I have to believe that they get together no matter what. But, we're exploring the removal of plot points that push characters into doing things....

We know from canon, before Armando knows of the significance of Michel, that he has a conversation with Mario about getting Betty back. He himself says that he knows it's going to take a long time, and a lot of patience, he knows she's still hurt but that he's going to take the time to show her that he's changed.

Armando here is trying to make a rational choice. He's trying to be normal. He's attempting to give Betty the space she's asked for multiple times.

Again, Michel is not arriving in this situation.

Now we have Betty, who's being tortured by the cuartel, who will not get off her ass about what Armando could be doing and with who. On top of that, she's confused about Armando's actions towards her. His behavior towards her at her lanzamiento disarms her. She wants very badly to believe that his affection is real but she doesn't trust it.

The reason the cuartel is so damn annoying in the last ten episodes or so, is because they need to motivate Betty's desire to leave. Michel showing up with a job offer (plus romantic interest) is Betty's getaway car. If we eliminate Michel's appearance, we are left with an annoyed, unhappy and dissatisfied Betty who's being told by said cuartel--specifically Mariana--that she needs to make a decision. But she's still under the impression that Armando is moving on with his life.

If Michel doesn't show up, Betty and Armando are in limbo. They won't do anything. He's going to leave her alone and she's going stew unhappily in her office. Marcela is still going to be there and the promise Betty made to her will still be in motion. Even if was only Betty using Marcela to keep Armando away from her. (Personally I think that promise is void if Armando dumped her. But I digress.)

All three of them are stuck in Ecomoda Limbo\Hell.

We know that Marcela and Margarita only resorted to telling Betty the truth to keep Armando from leaving, but they would have probably never done so without that threat looming over them.

Yeah, this wouldn't happen at all unless Armando had the motivation to leave. However---I believe in the cuartel. The cuartel saw him show up everyday looking like shit. They don't mention it to Betty when she comes back bc it wasn't a priority. But if they see Betty and Armando in some kind limbo-slow burn hell where Betty is left indecisive....Let's table this for a second, bc I wanna talk about this:

At this point she also believes he is after Alejandra, turns out his over the top flirting drove her even further away from him.

Yes, she does. But he wasn't 'over the top flirting' with her. All he really did (which is the same thing that Betty did with Michel) was walk around Ecomoda with Alejandra. He was seen with her, yes, but he was truly just being friendly and giving her a tour. Was she interested in something more? Yes (So was Michel). Could he have started something with her? Yes (So could Betty with Michel). Does he? (No). Because he's in love with Betty. The Alejandra situation is what motivates Armando to choose Betty. He could try and move on with a clean slate with someone else that doesn't know him or what he did, but he can't and he doesn't want to.

But unfortunately, Betty doesn't know this and it doesn't matter because all she needed was to see them together to make her own hurtful conclusions.

Would the Cuartel tell her that he didn’t do anything with her and that she was gone already without Michel’s presence?

Okay, going back to the cuartel---YES, they would. I believe this in my heart. If they see Betty and Armando in Limbo-Slow Burn Hell and it's been going on for weeks?? Yes, they would tell her the Alejandra thing never happened. Betty wouldn't care, bc she'll say 'if its not her, it'll be someone else'. I think that eventually one of them would mention what Ecomoda was like when she was away but this hinges on someone making a mention of Armando and that would have to motivate Betty's curiosity to know.

Remember that outside the bar when Armando seeks her out, he says 'and all the harm I did to myself'. So Betty would have to be motivated to remember that and wonder it meant. But yes, I think the cuartel would use this information it would just take them awhile.

(Nunca se ponen las pilas a tiempo)

With Ecomoda out of debt and Betty refusing to remain the president, would Armando be given another chance by the board committee?

If Michel never arrived, and Betty and Armando are in Limbo-Slow Burn Hell AND they manage to get Ecomoda out of debt---Armando would still not want the presidency back. Armando's stays on to help Ecomoda bc not only was it his fault, but he couldn't let it all fall on Betty. He even says he had stayed to regain some honor and to support Betty during her presidency. Michel's absence doesn't hinge on that.

Now would the board give him another chance? No. Marcela would be advocating for him and he would refuse it.

If Betty refused it, Armando would ask her to stay. He would talk to her like he talked to her the night of her lanzamiento. And this is where I'm a romantic and can't picture them not ending up together. I think that in this Limbo-Slow Burn Hell scenario, Armando would still offer to leave so that she could stay. If he tried his hardest to show her that he's changed and it still wasn't enough, he would still do what he did in canon except he wouldn't be so dramatic about it.

I think that in this situation the only way I can see them working out is with Betty out of Ecomoda because it would give them the opportunity to rekindle their romance in a different setting away from the toxicity of the workplace and his family and Marcela

Ecomoda is so important. It's like their child.

(They have 3 kids, Ecomoda, the Furby, and Camila).

Okay, jokes aside. Ecomoda is where they fell in love. It's where they met. It's where some of the best and worst things happened to them. It's what keeps them together by force when Betty comes back from Cartagena. Ecomoda is what blurs the lines between them. It's so fundamental to the origins of their romance. I can't see them, in this non Michel arrival scenario, being able to rekindle their relationship without it. If they fell in love during a terrible time for Ecomoda, they can rekindle Limbo-Slow Burn style while getting Ecomoda out of debt.

Marcela being there is not a deterrent because Armando broke up with her and she wouldn't be able to manipulate him. (A visible sign to Betty that he has changed). Yeah, she would beg him to stay as president if Betty were to leave once the company was out of debt and once again he would be like 'Girl, no. It's over.'

If that would be motivation enough for Marcela to tell Betty supporting evidence about his bar time suicide attempts, that's up in the air. We need Margarita's interference for that to happen and I dont think that exists in this Limbo-Slow Burn scenario. I think Betty would have listen to what the curatel saw day to day and then think about what Armando said to her and be brave enough to make a decision on her own. To ask Armando about it and trust that he's telling her the truth.

For Betty it would be a leap of faith.

Unfortunately, in this this Michel-less scenario the diary scene doesn't exist bc Armando doesn't have the motivation to go into her office and look for the photo of them. So there is no him finding out that Betty was in love with him way before the plan. Also, there is no scene where Armando and Mario have their break up friendship fight.

We take Michel's arrival out and the last 9 (long form) episodes fall apart. The plot needs him to motivate certain actions to fall into place. Betty needs a getaway car and Armando needs the motivation to run after her.

So yes, I believe they can still rekindle their relationship (BECAUSE I AM A ROMANTIC) but it would take longer because of inaction.

Again, I apologize if I didn't answer this the way you wanted me to. But this is what came out.

[el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle]

You're right, he did ask for exclusivity, I just rewarched the episode, but the terms of their game was clear from the start: he can cheat on her with Marcela only. Is it messed up? Sure, but the game was clear. This is also why Armando explicitly tells her he'll still be with Marcela, and why Armando asks especifically for exclusivity. This is also why it's a big deal when Betty is jealous of other women: because other women are not part of the "cheating exception" in their arrangement. Again, I'm not saying it's good or that it was healthy, all I'm saying is that boundaries were clear. Still, people are always calling out Armando for her treatment of Betty during the lover's phase, which is well deserved. Lots of us love the gaslighting arc because it's Betty finally realizing all the shit Armando made her go through and teaching him a well earned lesson. Let's not pretend no one ever calls out Armando (quiet the contrary, a big part of the fandom DESPISES him) so I don't really see how it's relevant.

When we mention boundaries we use the correct term "boundaries," but as you say back then that specific term didn't exist or wasn't used. It's not necessary to say that so explicitly, as shown above. Armando establishes boundaries by asking her to swear that she's only his and that she has no relationship with Nicolás. He's asking for exclusivity without saying it plainly.

Both Armando and Aura Maria were shitty partners, but at least Armando straight up told her he'll be a shitty partner.

We have the disadvantage of not seeing what actually happened or how the Fuentes' home life was. But we can infer that Aura Maria was never present. She had no issue with leaving anyone in charge of her kid, as she does it to her parents and her friends. She disappeared for days without even wondering about her kid or talking to her parents. They kicked her out with Jimmy because if they had kicked her out only, she would have been even MORE neglectful to Jimmy, I bet. At least that's the logic I'm seeing. Why would they kick her out while they stayed in charge of her kid? to give her more freedom to be irresponsible to her kid? It's sad that his grandparents kicked him out too, but Jimmy is not their responsibility, it's Aura's.

Calling out a woman for being an irresponsible mother is not mysogyny. People call out Daniel for planning to abandon his kid and the kid didn't even exist! Irresponsible parents are simply irresponsible parents. Her age is not an excuse. She can still go party and have lots of lovers if she wants, but she's still irresponsible. Everyone calls lots of characters out for their bs, I don't understand wy Aura María is exempt from criticism or even hatred.

Some of you are being really weird about Aura Maria in regards to her treatment of Freddy and her overall character\personality traits. Overall, if you dislike a character its fine. It means nothing to me. But these posts about Aura Maria are getting a little misogynistic.

The facts are, that yes--she is immature, she does string Freddy along, she is very extroverted and charismatic and a lot of men like her.

You know who else is immature, strings someone around, is very extroverted and charismatic and a lot of women like them?

This guy right here.He's gonna string around his assistant for at least half a novela.

But there's already some excellent meta on Aura Maria and Freddy vs Betty and Armando and u can read them here and here. so I'm not gonna get into that.

Again, if you don't like Aura Maria thats fine. She's a flawed character in a show with other flawed characters. I don't like Patricia, for example. I think she's annoying, she's mean, her goal is to find a man to fix all her problems and she fails at it. She's immature. She's classist. She gets paid 3x more than the other secretaries bc she's a nepo hire and yet still can't make any payments bc she's terrible with money. I could go and on.

But a lot of you like her and sympathize with her and her problems and how nobody wants to help her.

Aura Maria is also sympathetic character. She became a teen mom. The guy that got her pregnant is not in the kid's life nor in hers. She's a receptionist at a company who's alternate slogan is 'women don't advance here'. Her parents kick her and her son out, yes it was a consequence of Aura Maria's party girl antics. But that's not a good enough reason to kick out your daughter and grandson. Knowing that she's a receptionist and doesn't make much money to begin with.

And then the Mario of it all. No, she shouldn't have gotten involved with him but he's the one in the position of power. He shouldn't have gotten involved with her, he shouldn't have encouraged it, nor should he have been seeing her and Patricia at the same time. Both women who work where HE works. And who does he want to fire when he gets caught? Aura Maria. She's the one who gets the low end of the stick.

Aura Maria and Patricia are looking for men with money to support them and don't do well in this endeavor bc the only man that looks like a prospect is using them in some way. That or the men they encounter don't take them seriously.

Freddy likes Aura Maria and yeah she does like him but she doesn't take him seriously as a prospect bc he's not rich and when you're a poor young single mom--bc REMINDER Aura Maria is in her early 20s forced to grow up quickly (she was a child having a child)--living in your friend's\co workers house--he doesn't completely fulfill her list of requirements of what she needs financially. She's not looking at the full picture. Much like Patricia, who doesn't look at the full picture when it comes to her transactional relationship with Nicolas.

So because Aura Maria mismanges her relationship with Freddy, I'm supposed to what? Have her burned at the stake? That because Freddy is kind to her, and does things out of his own free will over and over again, that Aura Maria needs to be devoted to him? Automatically? Because people think she owes him?

If you don't like Aura Maria, that's fine. But a lot of the posts I've seen in the general tag are past not liking a character bc the vibes are off--it's becoming about hating her bc she's not reciprocating to one guy bc you think he's earned it. Or it's about her not being a good mother bc she's not acting 'like a mother'. And want to see her punished for it as a result, as if getting sexually harassed by Gutierrez (ON TWO OCCASIONS) isn't punishment on it's own.

Because reminder (again)---that Mario AND Gutierrez have taken advantage of Aura Maria in some way bc of their position of power. Bc Aura Maria is young, beautiful, and poor. She can be easily be taken advantage of and tossed away. (Much like another character who gets utilized as a consequence of financial fraud)

But Freddy is the true victim in all of this bc Aura Maria sometimes take advantage of his kindness. Do you realize how dumb that sounds?

There is a double standard in how Aura Maria is being viewed bc she's not acting grateful or humble or self sacrificing enough to gain sympathy. She's being judged solely on how she's treating (1) man and not about all the other factors she's living in--some of them out of her control.

If one can feel bad for Patricia even tho it's primarily her fault that she's in the predicaments she's in, then I don't see why one can't extend that same grace to Aura Maria.

[youwontlikethisblog]

Picasso's Night

The previous post Adriana Arboleda brings you up to date with the analysis if you would like to go read it before you start reading this one :)

Now this day has been a pretty eventful one. For one: We witnessed Armando show contentment that morning when he saw Betty for the first time that day. Totally absorbed by her existence until Mario cleared his throat.

Armando screwed up big time when he made it seem and acted like spending some alone time with AA was a lot more important than Betty or the company. He yelled at her and said she got on his last nerve and since then Betty has been on a bad mood with Armando, who after Mario told him that Betty was jealous had a moment of realization and has been feeling pretty awful since then.

Interestingly enough as the night progressed and Betty was invited to the exhibition of Picasso's collection, Mario kept insisting that Armando go and speak with Betty since he was leaving to Miami the next day.

Though this time, unlike the last time he traveled, before Panama, Armando was a bit more hesitant to leave. It wasn't merely because of the new collection they were going to launch and it wasn't because of the state of company. Armando looked at Betty to see if he had any reason to stay, looking at his best friend for any excuse to stay.

After Marcela tells Betty to reserve two rooms at the same hotel they stayed last time and Mario agrees to them traveling he then starts to insist that Armando go speak to Betty and apologize for his behavior that day.

The one thing that Betty did begin to screw up on(aside from starting an affair with her hawt boss) is that now emotions begin to play a huge role, not in the personal part of her life but the professional.

Betty has always been good at maintaining a good separation of what is professional and what is personal(although most of the times when she didn't she was following Armando's lead or example) . At the start of their affair, the day after Armando kissed her for the first time, Betty stayed professional. Even afterwards, Betty stayed professional. When it has come to company time Betty has stayed professional except this time she didn't.

Her jealousy, her feelings took control of her, foretelling things to come, less than 24 hours away.

This also pushes Mario with this idea that Betty must be catered to by Armando in order to keep her under control, though Armando knows best and he knows Betty won't betray him, Mario keeps pushing this narrative and when Betty doesn't agree to it or deny she'll do it Mario understands this as her holding it over Armando's head because of what he did that day.

Writing this now has made me realize that that's the reason he wrote the letter to Armando, not as some stupid mistake or for Betty to find it, though that's a pretty good theory, is that he did it for Armando's sake. Here me out!

For one he truthfully believed that Armando would be stupid enough to screw up giving Betty her gifts and that it would ruin the relationship but the cruelty of this letter exceeded even his jokes behind closed doors, that Armando didn't find amusing anymore, even before he slept with Betty the first time. I'll explain this in the post regarding that fateful letter and from the point of view as a writer and why even that sequences of scenes was a bit choppy and had it's mistakes in execution.

Now here when Armando asks her if she will embellish the balance for him for the big board meeting she allows her anger and resentment to come above her labor obligations and she doesn't give him an answer, better yet she finds a way to ignore the subject. Yes you can argue that Betty was always motivated by her secret crush and her secret feelings for Armando to do all the things she did it in the past, like the first time she embellished the balance and while yes that is true. I have pointed out how Betty showed her love for Armando through her work. He had upset her as well in the past and she'd still do it because in the thick of it she couldn't see him fail when she had the "solution" in her hands but this time her feelings-though extremely valid since he did end up hurting her feelings not as his employee but as his girlfriend- come above everything because this time her ego, the one he was helping to build up, was crushed by the man himself and that is a mistake. Especially when it comes to something that doesn't only directly affect Armando but an entire enterprise where her friends happen to work in. This again foreshadows events to occur in less than 24 hours.

Later when he goes into her office to talk to her she tells him that she doesn't do that, but he interrupts her and tells her that he doesn't want to talk about that but that he wants to talk about Adriana and what happened in his office.

Again though Armando contradicts himself a lot when he is with Mario when we see him with Betty we know where the true nature of his worry or concern lies and it isn't the company but their relationship. The evidence in this is how he behaves when Mario brings up the company compared to his relationship with Betty.

After Betty leaves Mario explains why Betty was hurt and that he can't leave with Betty being hurt, angry, and resentful because she's got the company in her hands. Armando looks angry when Mario is explaining what his mistake translated to Betty. He's angry at himself, while Mario talks about the company Armando has his back to him, peaking outside of the blinds and then turns to him.

"What you're doing is throwing away all that work [we] put in the days before. You're practically telling her that the relationship is just a game. That for you the ninety sixties are a lot more important to you." Armando quickly looks at Mario when he says this, again he is maintaining himself composed and controlled with his emotions as his face doesn't give much of a reaction but the quick jerking of his eye sight allows us to know that this part, from all of what he has said, is a lot more important to him than the company, again because he trust Betty with it, and that he is more worried about the way he has offended Betty. "that this is made of paper and let me tell you something; an ugly wounded woman is more worse than a wounded tiger and that wound doesn't heal with pats on the back, no Sir."

This conversations motivates Armando, not to go talk with Betty since he already wanted to do that but to go searching for her so he could fix his mistake and clarify just how important she is to him.

At the exhibition Betty points out his needs with the models to which Armando tells her that she makes him feel like if he were some seggsually deprived man, which is true. This does make the assumption that Armando's conquests or what not where meant to be written as a borderline seggsual addiction behavior type of thing since she doesn't say "your infatuation, your affairs." she clearly says "your needs with the models".

The conversation here is important because it begins to open a can of warms. She tells him that he'd look good with her, that Adriana Arboleda and him would make a good pair. That their attractiveness complements each other.

"I understand asking for privacy for one thing only." We then see a frame of Armando(lol the painting behind him has to be comedic gold!) who glances away from her, lips with a slight frown but not tight or pursed, showing that he isn't mad or frustrated rather he is upset with himself. "You wanted to be alone with her. Besides I'm not asking for you to give me any explanations. At the end of it you are the president and I'm your assistant. Besides this all happened during work hours and since I've worked for you I perfectly know your needs with the models." She glances around and leaves as people get closer to them. Armando then goes after her.

Right now I'm going to admit that I was wrong, well somewhat. I wrote a post once saying that Betty was calling Armando Don instead of Sir as the relationship progressed but I was wrong. Betty uses the title of Sir as a term of respect for Armando. Even here when they've slept together and she's seen and felt the change of Armando towards her and their relationship she still calls him Sir or Don Armando, that doesn't change. However the somewhat mentioned does change when it comes to Armando. So I was wrong but towards who the theory fell upon. @el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle was right and there isn't much of an importance when it comes to Betty and what she calls Armando. HOWEVER let me preference this that the person I was pointing this theory towards was my bad however the theory of changing names or titles is correct.

If you've read my untitled post regarding my OC and her relationship and how that helped me realize how I wasn't sympathizing with Marcela and that not only was A+M relationship toxic but as well as dependent than I gave you some glimpse into my original writing and how that process helped me be able to understand this part of their relationship and now that this is out of the way, let me tell you why these last two paragraphs are here.

My OC has a habit of never remembering peoples names on purpose, she does it as a power move. As if saying "You're not that important for me to remember your name." she does it especially to annoy people. Also because she's distracted half the time judging a person when they're first introducing themselves. Armando does something similar with Betty on her first days or weeks at Eco Moda.

Men tend to ignore women who they aren't attracted to. Armando did this to Betty. On a professional level he didn't ignore her but as a woman he did. We knows this because it was clearly presented this way at the start of the novela. However I really made my self take notice of this when I re-watched the first half of the novela(I haven't seen the ending bc I tend to avoid things that I cannot control or expect).

My OC is introduced to a guy who she can't stand and at first she calls him all sorts of names starting with the letter 'C' until she managed to remember his last name and calls him that for the remaining of the beginning of the story until they become friends, she switches between Caleb and Anderson, often times calling him by his name when they are having friendly conversation. When they become good friends and establish their friendship he no longer is just Anderson to her but Caleb, someone worth remembering. This is a small detail that I thought would allow the reader to determine the change of tonality between these two characters and their relationships and honestly one of my favorite details to write so when I first noticed this, I got too excited and projected it onto Betty when in reality it was Armando.

Now that I've spoiled my own writing(that I'll most likely never publish) let me explain why I bring this up, finally.

Armando called Betty at the start of the novela "Emperatriz". Once they became more familiar and Betty corrected him and told him he could call her Betty, he finally remembered her name. It's important to note this small detail because just like I intended to write it, so did Fernando Gaitan(I'm assuming lol). He did know her name but he didn't care to register it. Marcela called her Beatriz in front of him, Mario called her by her name, everyone did except for him, and she[Marcela] got upset at him when she heard him call her Betty because in her[Morch] eyes that was a cute nick name to have for an employee, especially for an "ugly" secretary. Now the switch between Betty and Beatriz did happen before the affair started, however the switch was a little bit more noticeable as Armando began to blur the lines of personal and impersonal.

In this scene though and the scenes before this, whenever emotions were heavily involved, especially when it was regarding their relationship Armando calls Betty, Beatriz, in fact even when she wasn't present in the room and he'd talk to Mario about his feelings and why he felt guilty(before he'd shut off this part of him bc Mario would start making jokes) Armando referred to Betty as Beatriz and not Betty but when it came to talking about her as an employee and not a woman he'd refer to her as Betty, it happens this day as well. When he gets upset that she won't let him spend alone time with AA and he yells at her and calls her Betty.

Why am I bringing up this small detail in this post? In this scene and the scene in Mario's apartment this is very evident and signifies the growth of his feelings and his conscious commitment to Betty as a woman.

Finally, after a bit of arguing inside the museum they leave together, of course, after sneaking out because Marcela went to the museum trying to catch him.

It's also important to note that when they found out Morch was in the museum that Betty asked Armando if he had anything to drink. It's pretty standard for him to be drinking, tipsy, or even drunk when he goes out with Betty. The one time I can remember him being completely sober was when he had to confess his feelings for her, soberly, the day after he kissed her for the first time. I broke that down in another post :)

Other times while he hasn't been drunk or tipsy he has had a few drinks at the office, however again it's pretty standard for him to drink and she knows this but why is it something that is brought up here?

Betty attributes Armando's behavior, especially when he is this...stubborn in doing things that could expose their relationship when he has been drinking. Not only that but also because the night they first hooked up they both had been heavily drinking, especially Armando and it is important as the continuation of the night leads us to Mario's apartment.

Outside, in his car, Armando finally gets to clarify his actions as he apologizes and tells her that he only wants her to know that she's more important to him than any other woman and he isn't shy to name the woman as he says: "than Adriana Arboleda, than Marcela or any other woman." This sounds a bit rehearsed but not like the previous times where we can even notice in his tone of voice and his micro expressions that he does so for manipulation. A great scene to use as a contrast to this attitude of his in this scene is the one where he makes out with Betty, the night he fights Roman and Co(wrote a post about it too). This lets us know that he really did think about how to apologize to her. While here his tone is rehearsed his micro expressions aren't a show, in reality his behavior is natural and goes along with what he is saying.

Now Betty in a teasing tone replies to him saying "That's not true." (also because she doesn't believe him)and Armando in a very serious tone and even a seductive tone, gazing his eyes down her body and back to her lips tells her that of course it's true and leans in, placing his hand on her face and they start to kiss.

This shows us that Armando once again isn't only feeling his emotional attraction to Betty, which is what moved his physical attraction forward in the past but now he can tell the difference between these two and he is okay with them! This is a huge step for Armando because he no longer is denying these things from himself. In fact he encourages himself and Betty to have these desires for one another and that as the days progress since their first sinful night his desire for Betty only continues to increase.

When they pull away his phone starts to ring, Betty asks if it's Marcela and Armando's facial expression and tone tells us it is as he looks annoyed and pissed that she's calling him.

This reaction is also standard for him because it's the exact same expression he pulls every time Marcela calls him. Especially when he's with Betty. However this small detail we've been given through the past episodes and this night also hold much significance in future episodes when his reaction to her call no longer is standard behavior from him.

While at the start of this phone call his tone is very forced in "lovingly" speaking to Marcela, his micro expressions again show us that he is just pretending. This tone is one we've heard a bunch of times before and it's one that is solely reserved for Marcela. Even on her part she tries to speak "politely" and just as if she were simply calling because she was curious but as this conversation goes both their dances of trying to keep things peaceful and civil subside and they basically start a mosh pit where they become more hostile until Armando implodes on her.

Marcela in a her standard of questionnaire routine asks Armando who he's with, hesitant he admits he's with Betty.

Her reaction to this however isn't standard of just guilt, taking into consideration the events of the day and that even Armando has told her that Marcela stops nagging him when she knows he's with her and because she's also eavesdropped and heard Armando say that Marcela doesn't consider her as a femininely threat, much less a woman, she once again gets hurt.

One could assume Armando did this to cover his tracks in case anyone told Marcela that they saw them leave together. It's also not hard to believe that Armando is stupid and says things without thinking them through in the heat of the moment however what is more obvious is that he probably wanted to take Marcela off his back so he tells her that he's with Betty. The small pause he takes before he says this helps me determine this. It could also be that he did so in case anyone did tell Marcela he left with Betty.

As Armando implodes on Marcela for insinuating that he lied to her i.e that he's going to go off with his mistress, Betty shifts in her seat and then she looks uncomfortable, returning to her guilt.

In this scene Betty experiences first hand this toxic side of Armando, one she has seen as a boss to employee scenario but not as a significant other. She has heard and even been in the middle of their fights in the past and while even then she behaved professionally, and also guilty this time she shows a lot more emotions raging from being uncomfortable to even being upset with Armando. This however is a small taste to what she will experience first hand not as the bystander of this side of his but as the target of his toxic behavior.

Later in the car, as he drives, Betty, with a broken heart tells Armando she believes that he should go on his trip and try to reconcile his relationship with Marcela and reconnect while they're away.

Armando, nervous and scared asks her if that's what she really wants and the hurt that it might be, he asks(really demands) for her to look him in the eyes and tell him this. Which Betty doesn't. In this moment his phone rings.

Why do these small details play such a huge role?

Less than 24 hours away, Betty finds the letter which plays the exact rhythm in which Armando and Mario planned her downfall.

For one: While in the past Betty agreed to embellish the balance for the meeting, this night she did not and because of this Armando went out to look for her at the exhibit and then took her to his best friends bach pad and slept with her all so she would embellish that balance which would keep the board members at peace allowing Armando to continue as the president of Eco Moda.

Two: That Mario called him this night, while they were together, and while Armando "played" it off that Mario wasn't aware of their affair, when she later questioned him about it and he denied it, these conversations begin to makes sense to her.

We know that's not the case. While Mario spoke about the company Armando didn't seem that concerned or even motivated to go searching for her but it wasn't until Mario mentioned how sever it was what that he implied to Betty that AA was more important to him than her[Betty] and what that meant for their relationship and how she was suffering because of it that he was motivated to search for her as he said, a terrible fear was settling in him because of it. While yes, Mario suggested that they hook up so she could be happy again and forgive him and that way the company would still be in their hands and not Nicolas, Armando didn't need any motivation for that.

In fact he hasn't needed any inspiration or motivation sober or drunk to desire Betty, often not being able to stop himself from kissing her and more. Was this based on Mario telling him to do this?

No.

It wasn't because Mario suggested it(At the office). Unlike their first night where Armando kept calling Mario and kept asking for help and advice, this time Armando gets annoyed at Mario for calling him. Even his behavior is different. While before when Mario kept insisting that he slept with Betty to get it over with, Armando showed disgust or being repugnant to doing an atrocity of that magnitude towards Betty, this time his face was poker. He showed no real disgust towards the idea of seducing Betty as in he'd sleep with her, more that Mario yet again was using something he knew was important and special to the both of them[B+A] as a weapon for the "good" of the company.

When he hangs up his phone Betty points out that the direction he's driving isn't towards her house, to which Armando tells her if she really wants to go home.

"I think it's for the best." He turns to stare at her and then pulls to the side of the road.

"That you want me to take you home?" He asks in disbelief. Betty swallows hard, the corner of her mouth look a bit downward and she looks scared. "Damnit!" He hits his steering wheel and though he is angry, his tone is completely different to that of his tone when he is angry at Marcela. "Damnit, Beatriz, all I want is to be with you tonight, I leave tomorrow, remember? I went to the museum, exclusively, to pick you up, to see you, to feel you next to me, to be with you. When we bumped into Marcela I risked my life and I am still risking it to this moment. Everything I've done is to tell you that I adore you, that you're above Adriana Arboleda, that you're above Marcela, of-of all of them!" We can determine he is honest here as he stares at her, exclusively even when she doesn't stare back at him, she looks pained and confused herself. "and the only thing you can tell me is that you want me to go to Palm Beach(I LOVE the way he says Palm Beach it's just ugh so nice) and have a marvelous honeymoon with her so that we can grow closer." He looks down, away from her and then ahead of him. His voice was no longer harsh at the end more so becoming almost a whisper. "That's what you want? Okay! Right now I'll drive you to your house because it's what you're asking from me. I don't deserve this." (BAWHAHAHA ARMANI YES YOU DO, MY BOY).

Now in a non-contextual way one could simply asume that he is doing this all under the bias of manipulation towards Betty, especially that final line of "I don't deserve this." but when you take all the context clues and you look at the bigger picture there's more that plays in here and I'm not saying that Armando isn't manipulating Betty in this exact scene, he is very much doing so, however it isn't like in the past. This time he does so to get what he wants, which is to spend the night with Betty so he guilts her with this final part of "I don't deserve this- because I've risked so much to spend this night with you."

However taking aside that guilt trip manipulation, why does Armando stumble once in his words showing he isn't rehashing this previous speech? and why does he take a breather before he tells Betty that he'll drop her off at her house like she asked?

While the first apology was what he rehearsed with himself, this second time around it took him by surprise to admit that she was above all the other women because this apology wasn't based on a "lets just make up right now." it was an apology based in heart and the self-realization of how true that statement was for him that while yes Betty was above Adriana Arboleda in her significance to him and even Marcela who he's engaged to, she is now also above all women.

How true is this statement?

Well we see a change of behavior of his with women in the future episodes which proves, yet again, that this confession of his wasn't just an apology so Betty could forgive him, but an apology that was sincere and heart felt.

Betty finally gives in and tells him to wait. With tears coating her lashes she stares at him "Sir, forgive me." She speaks solemnly. Armando's entire body relaxes just a bit as he sits back on his seat. "Sir, forgive me. I want you to understand that-that this hasn't been easy for me. [The situation] with Adriana Arboleda and now the conflict with Ms. Marcela; it's killing me, Sir." His anger and hurt begins to simmer down. "I don't know what to do, how to behave. I-I think I'm acting very bad." She looks away from him, touches the side of her face in a worried and embarrassed manor while Armando stares at her and timidly(in his nature) asks her what truly worry's him.

"But do you want to be with me?"

"Yes, of course, of course. It's what I want most." She caresses the side of his face, he leans towards her hand "in the world." and now he looks like he's come back to life. Staring at her with a soft glow and when she pulls her hand down he looks at it and follows it until he stares back at her, feeling the absences of her touch and missing it. "But you leave tomorrow." They both look away from each other but Armando only does so for a micro second before he stares back at her. "and I won't be complete without you, Sir." Again we get a frame of Armando's reaction to this. "Not being by your side will not be any easier for me." As she speaks her tone is soft, timid however not wavering showing that while she is nervous to confess this to him, she isn't scared of doing so.

"Betty." He says so adoringly towards her. "Betty" he whispers and touches her face and honestly I believe his favorite part of Betty's face is the side of her face, by her earlobe cause he's always touching her there. "Nobody said this would be easy. We knew this road was going to be a difficult one but you know what? I am going to be missing you so much. I'm going to miss you a lot."

Again the words here are lost in translation he tells her "Usted me va a hacer muchísima falta." which roughly is saying that there will be a huge lack of her in him, causing him to yarn for her a lot and feeling that absences of hers will make him miss her in a very profound way because he needs her. This separation they're both fearful of is what brings the forgiveness to shore.

Now the post for that specific scene will need an entire post dedicated to it because there's so much! Just so much.

For this episode I had to watch it on the NBC app so maybe there was some scenes missing.

I don't know if anyone noticed how important the story of Picasso and his lovers was for this and how they showed the similarities to Armando and his lovers, specifically how toxic Picasso was(all though if we're being honest that dood sounds more abusive than just toxic bc we all got a lil toxicity in our system but that foo was straight up kidnapping his lovers and locking them up while he had other's on the side? Nah man call a hotline.) towards his lovers. Though I am not saying that Armando is a saint, I don't think he is as bad as Picasso, that dood needed a restraining order against him so he could just stay away from all women.

In all seriousness though the similarity was that though Picasso had lovers he cared for each of them especially his last two lovers, i.e Betty and Marcela and it foreshadowed just how jealous and pathetic Armando would become in the future.

I mean I love Armando, I had to learn to love him bc at first I didn't, but the behavior he displays in the future episodes while yeah one could explain them are not justifiable and I will get into detail on that in the future posts and the post I am still writing regarding his abusive/toxic tendencies.

Overall this episode, which on NBC is episode 68, was pretty straightforward with a lot of small details to look at and not really for the leading on of the scenes in Mario's apartment but overall where the story continues to get pushed.

In this episode, the episode when Armando fights Roman and Co. and her birthday night celebration and the previous night of this episode are nights that Betty goes back to prove that what she reads in that letter are true, especially this night, before they got to the apartment and just how much Armando "risked" to spend that night with her.

While she tries to believe that it's all a joke because she's certain that Armando was honest and heartfelt with her through his actions and not words, she doesn't trust him. I'll explain that a lot more further in that post.

Pushing forward the plot of the story though we see just how these two have truthfully grown close together and not just as friends but as lovers who are exploring their feelings a lot more now and while Betty is learning to open herself up again, Armando is learning to love for the first time.

I say that Betty is learning to open herself up again because it's true. While in the past she asked Armando why he was interested in her, she shared poetic talk about how the moon inspired poets and how guilty she felt when she saw Marcela, she hadn't opened herself up, not until the night at the hotel and that wasn't much, she barely opened up when Armando was asking her about her first time. This night she was a lot more open. She called out Armando's behavior point blank and period, no hesitation, she spoke about her opinion and then she spoke about how she felt, not regarding her insecurity but regarding their relationship and the absences she'd feel from Armando not being there. While before she'd just say "I need you." or "You mean a lot to me." this time she goes on to further explain her feelings to Armando instead of just saying the words, this time she elaborates.

Armando is learning to love for the first time, being humble in realizing his mistakes, his limits and also understanding just how his actions affect others but the most important thing is that he is learning to be at peace with his feelings for Betty. We saw it that morning when he first saw Betty, later in the office when Betty caught him making out with the AA picture and just how guilty and embarrassed he felt because Betty saw him. Unlike with Marcela where he was scared that she'd cause a while scene, this time the problem for him was that Betty wouldn't cause a scene but be hurt and dump him for it, which would be a big deal for him. We saw it later when Betty forgave him after the letter and gift and when he realized the huge mistake he made with AA in the way he treated Betty. All of these behaviors has shown an Armando who has accepted that he cares for Betty, not love, but cares for her deeply and that she is important to him.

Thank you for being patient with me and sorry that I haven't been as active. These past days have been pretty busy and they'll continue being so. I'll probably only be able to post once a week but I hope that the post become better quality that way as well since I'll have more time to really break down the episodes.

Well 'til next time! :)

[youwontlikethisblog]

Adriana Arboleda

I find this episode so interesting and since I like to avoid many things, I've put off writing this post because I just don't know where to start.

Previously:

Armando was visibly upset when they mentioned the wedding in front of Betty, it was purely because he didn't want her to once again feel guilty and break things off. While at the same time he overheard a conversation with Nicolas and Betty that sounded like she was jealous and mad at him for "cheating" on her and that he was a bad boyfriend.

This feeds the distrust that Armando has towards Betty's fidelity and his insecurity regarding their relationship(and his role in Betty's life) as well as his rivalry that he has against Nicolas.

Betty was visibly upset with both Nicolas and Armando. For one because Nicolas really is a huge reason as to why Armando feels a certain distrust. As much as I find Nicolas endearing there's many things that annoy me from him. For example the fact that he continues to find ways to converse with Patty even though he knows that Betty doesn't like it, especially that she doesn't want Patty to know anything regarding where he works at and what he does, but Nicolas; to impress Patty, always brings up the topic of money to make himself more desirable. Yeah he's insecure and he wants to get her attention but that doesn't excuse his crappy behavior as Betty's best friend, someone that he considers as his family. That adds so much pressure, distrust, and resentment towards Betty and Armando's relationship. Yes Nic wasn't aware that they were in a relationship to begin with but Betty often times told him, reminded him, and got upset with him for telling or talking to Patsy Pats about Terra Moda or what he does for a living and the dangers of that information getting out.

Two: that Armando is getting married. For one it makes her feel inferior, that their relationship isn't as strong and that Armando isn't serious about her like she is of him.

Armando had convinced Betty to continue the affair, despite the fact he's getting married. He told her it was only for show, that he'd continue with the preparations of the wedding but call it off last minute. Mario had told him that he needed to get Betty on their side because she was the only one that could embellish the balance for the board meeting this is when we start getting the trails to the letter and why Betty rationalized Armando's behavior after reading the letter.

However that isn't the real reason as to why he goes to fix things. It's what he uses as an excuse to justify why he goes to fix things with Betty. Mario, to get him to do this, weaponized what Armando had told him earlier that day about what kind of relationship Betty and Armando have. Had Armando not shared any of what he did he wouldn't have had any ground to continue to manipulate him.

Currently:

It's the morning of the day AA arrives to Eco Moda. When Betty exist her office she sports a huge smile and greets Armando, who is absorbed by her presences and very content. His eyes follow her through his office as she moves around it and just the same, Betty's eyes are on him, barely noticing Mario. When she does, as she's about to exit the office she greets him, we see Armando with a smile just absorbed by her until Mario speaks and he composes himself to act like that didn't make him happy, joyful, at peace, etc...

Why does AA hold such a significance here?

Armando is now slowly accepting and willingly understanding his feelings(he does try to justify them as something else at times). Betty says she has felt this through his kisses and his affection towards her, that she knows that he loves her now and that he is faithful to her-when it comes to Marcela.

However as she said the previous night as she wrote in her diary that she isn't so sure about his love or fidelity when it comes to his true vice; the models. Models like AA.

Jealousy isn't something healthy in any relationship, even when media tries to paint jealousy as this normal and healthy thing that every person experiences, it's not.

In the previous post I mentioned what the definition of Jealous/y is. It's a combination of feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, or resentment but if you look up the definition of it it says "concern over the relative lack of possessions-"

Sometimes it isn't an object, rather a person, however the issue lays within the fact that person who feels the jealousy views said person as an object rather than a human. Armando's jealousy is possessive, insecure and resentful however Betty's jealousy is of inadequacy and insecurity. She doesn't feel resentful towards Armando for being attracted to "beautiful" women. She expects that from him.

AA represents Betty's insecurity as a woman in a physical form. When Betty finds out AA wants to see and speak with Armando privately she tries to stop that from happening, contrary to the past when she'd help the man out, this time she tries to stick to "he said he doesn't want to be bothered" but when Armando realizes who wants to speak to him he ignores his duties as the president of the company and the importance of him being in said meeting for the future collection, which will help Eco Moda be able to pay off its debt. Betty knows this so when she sees that Armando doesn't stop to think, at least of the company, much less consider her(the true nature of her anger), and that he is an easy prey or weak idiot to women like AA she gets angry at him but her jealousy lays where she feels the most insecure.

Armando forgets of Betty and how happy he was when he saw her that morning. Now all he can think about is AA.

AA is the symbol and the token object of Armando's weakness: seggs with society's "perfect" women. He places this "need" of his above anything, his responsibilities as president, as an engaged man, and as someone in an committed and mature relationship.

I find Mario's behavior interesting in this scene however. He stares at Armando with raised eyebrows and a frown on his face, contrary to before where he was trying to keep himself from laughing, however freaked out over Armando's feelings, this time he's annoyed at him.

I keep trying to figure out why he'd get annoyed at him for this. In this scene Betty is behind Mario, where Inesita and Armando have a clear view of her. Betty is trying to stay composed and not let the personal seep into the impersonal so Mario hasn't seen her. Yes we're fully aware that Mario is a man that is extremely detail oriented when it comes to human behavior which gives him an advantage to manipulate people and get whatever he wants out of them so he can simply assume, by Betty's tone, that she isn't pleased by this. However this scene and Mario's behavior is very much unlike him.

This is my speculation, not what we are being told.

Maybe based on how Armando had spoken about his relationship with Betty and his feelings for her, Mario was annoyed at Armando for his behavior like saying "How can you say you cherish her and that you love her as a friend and then do this to her? And yet I'm the terrible one? The one that doesn't understand why the plan is wrong? The one with iron skin?" or one could simply point out that Mario didn't want to get stuck doing most of the work in the meeting while Armando went off to spend time with a hot woman.

Later when Betty agrees that they should take a break, when Betty exits the office(I'm skipping that scene for now) and Mario is walking up to it he asks her if Armando is still in there, she tells him that he is and with AA. Mario then says he shouldn't go in there and interrupt them then but he notices Betty's demeanor and asks her if she's alright.

Betty doesn't look at him, she doesn't pay him attention. She doesn't even make eye contact with him so again Mario behaves naturally.

Of course he pretends to be unaware of the relationship Armando has with Betty. He says he won't go in there and interrupt them, but he pays close attention to Betty.

We're all fully aware that Mario would be capable of seducing Betty. He lacks all the moral and ethic rules to not do that. Mario is a villain, a well written one. So his behavior here is just odd imo.

I do believe and know based on his character, that Mario is also annoyed at Armando for screwing up once more, therefore jeopardizing the company and all that it implies. However, take into consideration what happened the previous day. Mario isn't stupid, he is way too smart. He knows that Armando deeply cares for Betty, he's known this all along though he has also tried to deny any true motive of Armando caring for Betty because she's ugly and he knows his best friend and only uses Armando's feelings towards Betty when it benefits him. He knows that Betty is important and special to Armando. Unlike Marcela.

Mario pointed this out the previous day when he told him that he[A] had made love with Marcela in the past but that from what Armando had shared it had never been sweet. He is fully aware that Betty is vastly different to all the other women Armando has been with and it's not only because she's "ugly" but because Betty is of extreme importance and significance to Armando.

Does Mario disprove of Armando's behavior towards AA being in Eco Moda? Yes.

For two reasons: One that Armando is screwing up the plan again. Two that Armando is a hypocrite who gets mad at him for making jokes about their relationship but then he goes and does that, (which is an even bigger disrespect to Betty, Armando's Betty.) all while constantly telling Mario that he is scum because he feels no guilt while he does.

Does Mario care about Betty's feelings? No and if he does it's not enough to make him have a change of heart because what he truly cares about is remaining in the social statues he's on with being the wingman of Armando.

Again even if he did care a little about how Betty feels it's not enough for him to re-evaluate his role in the plan and what comes above that is Eco Moda's ownership but it gives him more intel on how to manipulate Armando. In the meeting board, when he finally got a view of Betty when she went to sit back down at the table, Mario examined her quickly, did so as the meeting continued, glancing at her, studying her.

Resuming to a chronological order.

As Armando leaves to his office to speak privately to AA, Betty stays behind in the conference room with Inesita and Mario where as Mario said, she looked broken and not her computer like self.

Once Inesita suggest they take a break Betty says she'll go to her office, to which we see Mario with his worried expression, look at her and then turn to look towards Armando's office doors in a silent plea that Betty doesn't catch him indecent.

In their office, Armando is busy talking with AA so Betty doesn't catch some indecent Armando, but because she knows him, she knows that he's capable of acting like everything is normal. When she looks at AA she looks her up and down, insecure in herself as a woman with such a woman in the same room. Armando in this scene is absorbed by AA's body, a contrast to when he was absorbed by Betty's presence(that includes body). Barely paying attention to Betty and speaking to AA in an informal and casual way, something he doesn't even do with her. In some places in Latin America speaking formally is a sign of respect and impersonalism. When you speak more casually it implies a personalized relationship with someone: meaning that they have a more deeper connection than someone you work with, a friend, a family member, a lover, etc. Betty and Armando aren't even on that and they've had seggs.

Betty takes note of this, again, this now moves on from her simply being insecure as a woman to now being mad at Armando for behaving this way.

Once Betty exits the office to go grab their refreshments she overhears Armando call AA espectacular

Whenever Betty is mad she always places her hand to her hip. As she stops to talk to Marcela she does this, again implying her anger towards Armando.

The last thing I'll note about this whole AA thing at this time is how both Betty and Marcela react. Marcela goes into the office fuming, throwing shade and whatnot to display her jealousy towards AA and her possessiveness towards Armando, however Betty only displays her anger towards Armando while very minimalistically showing her jealousy because of AA.

Marcela's anger was targeted towards both of them while Betty's was towards Armando.

Later that day after AA leaves, Betty remains angry. When Armando tries to apologize for yelling at her, Betty ignores him and tells him they need to get back to work.

Armando not only made her feel insignificant as a woman but he also said she got on his last nerve, tell me you wouldn't feel bad about yourself and be mad at the person who did that.

Obviously Betty feels inferior to AA. Who wouldn't if we're being honest? She's hot. Again when it comes to Betty it isn't hard to understand or sympathies with her over this.

However lets just remember that Betty has always felt insecure and inferior as a human being and a woman.

Insecurity presents itself in many ways. For some it could be them acting loud and obnoxious, like Armando. For others it could be them never asking for anything or expecting anything because they believe they don't deserve anything, like Betty.

Slowly however, her relationship with Armando has built her self-esteem. She walks a bit taller, she doesn't have such a tremble in her voice anymore unless she's speaking to Marcela or Daniel. Even on this day she dresses differently. She sports a more juvenile outfit, there's a glow to her. Though her clothing isn't form fitting or revealing, she has changed her clothing. Even now since they started to date she doesn't wear the super long skirts with the very boxy blazers from the shoulders or the clothes she wore at the start of the show. She wears the green dress, the yellow, red, and black dress often and the green skirt suit(the olive green one with the skirt that's shorter than all the other ones she wears).

In the past, on one of their first dates, Betty joked that she was ugly and Armando got upset with her, told her that he didn't like that and that she needed to respect herself. Ironic ain't it?

Armando's sole attention has given her a boost of ego, but his confirmation the night they sinned(lol) that he too felt what she felt for him, which was desire, has helped her a lot. Again to recall what her first time was like, this second time around it built her self-esteem. Especially because since then Armando hasn't been able to keep his hands to himself whenever Betty and him have been alone together, out of office hours.

(Currently listening to the YSBLF playlist on Spotify and honestly I just wanna dance)

The previous night though aware of Armando's fidelity to her when it came to Marcela, which was why she said she felt no jealousy or the likes in regards to that relationship(outside of guilt) she still is very aware of Armando's s. addiction tendencies. It isn't only a matter in which Armando is weak to women like that that even when he doesn't want to cheat on Marcela or whomever, he still falls for their manipulative or even pushy tactics to get him to sleep with them.

Let's not forget that Betty knows Armando and his behavior when it comes to the Models because unlike Marcela who has only seen snip bits when she stands behind him when he's flirting, Betty has seen it and heard it all from Armando. She has been in the room when Armando and Mario discuss how to get away with his affairs, she has seen him in action, she has even heard and seen the way he plays women. However Betty lacks the knowledge we have of Armando's seggsual affairs.

What does this mean?

To Betty, this weakness of Armando is solely based on the body of the women he is sleeping with(which are all A Grade) and though to some degree this is true(his obsession with perfection etc.) there's more to it. Armando, aside from having slept with her and saying he desired her, has never acted eager to jump her bones or expressed it like he has about all the other women he has been with. He has never made her feel validated as women for her body, though she knows he has an emotional attraction to her, she doesn't believe he has a physical one(I'll get to that scene in time ok! for now I'm talking about it like they haven't screwed again) for her, or at least one that matters. So when she sees AA in the office and she looks her up and down Betty compares herself, not as Armando's girlfriend, but as a woman in general.

For us women looks are the most important and most valuable thing we're told we have. Without them, what are we?

When you grow up being the "other" of society standards for women you grow up with no self-worth. Comparing yourself to others becomes second nature. We know Betty has said she grew up lonely, only Nicolas was her friend, kids in school made fun of her. She never had this moment when she looked at herself and was at least okay with what she was staring at. The contrary, she hated it but learned to tolerate it. Her self deprecating jokes were her acceptance of it, her way to cope with the way the world treated her. It was for her to be able to not care as much about it. However the way people treat her based on her looks still stings and this time it's a lot more.

Could you put yourself in her shoes? All your life you go about it feeling lonely, ugly, unwanted, inadequate, etc. and one day after so much heart ache, a terrible relationship that left you emotionally disfigured and scarred, a man that is desired by so many women AND men, who is "educated", "smart", handsome and has a good sense of humor pays attention to you, how would you feel?

Realistically speaking; a lot more insecure.

Some people hate themselves so much that they hate when people take notice of them because it's like saying "you have terrible taste if you like me, therefore you are not as great." Burdening someone with your own self-hatred. Betty has shown this in the past, when Armando first started to pursue her. She asked him time and time again why he'd be interested in her or notice her because a man like him could never notice her as more than just his employee.

AA is the incarnation of Betty's own dilema. Her self-hatred and insecurity as a woman because in her eyes she lacks beauty. Body wise she doesn't have Meat on her bones, she has frizzy wavy hair, doesn't wear makeup and has one eyebrow plus a mustache. However, despite this, Armando has fallen in love with her and in a matter of seconds this is shattered.

Armando forgets who Betty is for him. He forgets what he feels for her, the importance and significance of her to him and his life and is enveloped with the idea of AA wanting to speak to him and not in this "fanatic" manor but as a man wanting to conquer. Betty's ego isn't only hurting but she(in complete) is hurting by this. Next to Marcela she knows she is the one to hold Armando's heart and now his desires, but next to women like AA, she is insignificant not just as a woman, but as a person in general.

Especially after Armando yells at her, after a long time of not doing so, he yells at her in front of AA, he forgets Betty is even in the room or in the world. While with Marcela he tries not to bring her up or the subject of the wedding because he knows it hurts her(visibly kept glancing towards her office when AA was asking about it, confirming that whenever he seeks her comfort when she isn't with him in the room he'll be facing or standing by her office), he doesn't even consider her when AA is the room. She's heard him say he'd forget all of his commitments and relationships and run away with AA and marry her, just that day she saw him kiss a picture of her and basically make out with it.

She believes that unlike Marcela, AA is real competition because she's hawt(even though Marcela is hawt too) however she knows that Armando isn't in love with Marcela or even interested in her for that fact but she knows that Armando is of AA. However again because Betty is so insecure as a woman she believes that she isn't even in a competition with AA, because if AA wanted to, she'd take Armando and he wouldn't even put up a fight, he'd go willingly on the first attempt. Add that to Armando saying that Betty gets on his last nerve?

He dug his own grave.

One could ask how is it possible that Armando didn't pick up on Betty being jealous?

For one because Armando has only experienced Marcela's jealousy which is loud and arrogant. She throws shade, she yells at him, she demands from him. Betty doesn't do that. She interrupts his one on one time with AA by entering his office and looking for some paper work. She drops a box full of things to ruin any momentum he could be building with AA. Her jealousy is displayed in quiet and timid ways. The one time it she makes it "loud" enough is when she hears Armando flirting with AA and steps out of her office and stands in the middle of them, until he notices her, but then, after she bumps into him, he yells at her. You can tell right away this isn't just like when he yelled at her in the past that it made her want to cry(I mean who doesn't want to cry when they're being yelled at) but this time it was something that hurt her deeply. For the reasons mentioned above.

And two because he's clueless. Though in the past episodes we have seen Armando learn to be in sync with Betty's feelings and make an effort to be attentive and understanding, all of that work of his is thrown out the window when AA appears, making Betty not only feel inferior and insecure as a woman in general but making her feel like she's nothing, not even in a "my fav. employee" type of way. He makes her feel worthless as his girlfriend.

This is when the hurt moves on to anger.

Anger at herself and anger at him for making her feel this way.

When the Love Guru brings all of this to his attention, Armando has a face of realization.

He truthfully thought Betty was just being her unaware and naïve employee self. The one who trips, who doesn't back up her files on disks, y'know, the one she was at the start of the novel. He doesn't think that Betty is acting out in jealousy because again she doesn't act like Marcela does.

When he finally realizes this thanks to Mr. Dimples, we see the sudden "oh crap" face. Like it all made sense and he knew he messed up.

It's interesting to see how these scenes play such a huge roll to Betty finally speaking up in the relationship later that night.

Sorry this post took so long for me to write. I wanted to fully understand the huge significance of Adriana Arboleda as she has been one since the start of their affair, unbeknownst of Betty.

[youwontlikethisblog]

Betty's New Look

Previously I talked about Armando's rivalry with Nicolas and how that also motivates him to continue the affair with Betty. I've also talked about how Armando displays signs of s. addiction. I felt it was important to break that down to really understand this post in particular.

By understanding what motivates Armando in his quest to have affairs and understand why the man is so obsessed with the beauty standards of women we can now understand his behavior towards Betty.

I mentioned in that post that I have an OC that is portrayed to have s. addiction and how much research I had to make so I could write it correctly. However I didn't mention or explain as much something vital that I see in Armando as well.

Seggs can many times not only be a form of escapism or control but many times for reasons of self-esteem/worth. If the person believes that the only way they can ever feel wanted or loved is by acts of s. than they will often participate in said behavior to feel that way.

With Armando he doesn't only do it to escape the chains of a pre-planned destiny by his parents and fiancé but because he also doesn't really feel loved and he uses these models as a from for him to feel that way or at least wanted,(I mean the only thing he has that keeps his relationship with Marcela together is their seggsual relationship.) he doesn't only do it to feel like he has control over that part of his life.

I mentioned in another post that women enter Armando through the eyes. He is a very physical man. He is superficial when it comes to the women he sleeps with. He grew up in the fashion world where the standard is tall and thin. The beauty of women can only be found in those types.

What does this have to do with Betty's new look?

Though we've established that Armando is attracted to her personality, he isn't of her physical appearance. Does that make him a bad person? No. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes we find someone's personality so much more attractive than their outer appearance but we still dare to date them. Women are often told "you're too pretty for that man" because of this.

Armando isn't a bad person for that and he accepts to a certain degree that he is attracted to her personality but because he is such a superficial and perfectionist with the body of a woman he denies this. He denies any and all attraction to her for this exact reason.

He finds it so hard to understand why he would still be attracted to Betty and why he likes her kisses when he doesn't look at her as a seggsual object like he does to all the women he has had affairs with and that's because unlike those women Betty isn't a seggsual object and that throws him off.

Lets considered the fact that when he repeated what Bertha told him about Nicolas, that he didn't even think of her with a bad thought(one could assume she meant a perversive thought.) as he tells this new piece of information to Mario he said so surprised and when Mario said that it made sense to not think of her in that way he agreed. In an instant he contradicted himself. In his tone he seemed surprised that a man wouldn't think of Betty so much even with a bad thought but that he understood that no one would? To some degree, to some far end distance, Armando does view Betty as a woman but not enough to actively desire her as one like he has in the past with the models.

(I'll talk more about this when we get to the B-Day episodes 😏)

In the past when Marcela got a new look he commented on it. It was the first thing he mentioned as he said she looked great(Betty was a witness to this). However when he see's Betty's new look he doesn't even comment on it. For one because he doesn't want to hurt her feelings and two because he doesn't want to lie so she keeps looking like that.

I think, in my very personal and humble opinion, that Betty looks fine. What ruins the fit is her hair but it is very 70's office chic. Like lets be honest if they took off the bangs, did a middle part, defined those curls, and didn't apply that much blush and lined her lips, she'd look so cute. Unibrow and braces with the glasses, Betty would slay. She'd look like a cute dorky person.

She IS very gorgeous to me!

I will fight anyone who disagrees with this and I will set up a time and date for it!

Now that we have established Armando's hesitation to accept Betty's physical appearance and why he doesn't want to comment on it lets begin.

In this episode Betty had just arrived to Eco Moda, her friends went to see her new look in her office as if she were the main attraction at the zoo and when leaving her office Armando over heard their commentary on it, once again being witness to the critique of Betty behind her back as none of them wanted to tell her how awful they thought she looked and they were her supposed close friends.

Marcela then enters his office and they talk about how Patty thought Marcela had caused those bruises on Armando, who tells her that the cuartel thinks the same and they start to flirt and then make out.

Just as they start to Betty exits her office.

Armando's reaction is a pissed off one. We see him roll his eyes and clench his teeth while he has his lips tight, even Marcela comments on it.

"My love you don't have to get so upset."

"No it's just embarrassing for all of us." He says and walks behind his desk and sits.

Betty struggles to speak for a second before grounding herself and saying that she just wanted to excuse herself to go to Marcela's office so she could sign the paper work for the loan they were giving Sofia.

Marcela only stared at her for a bit before she couldn't look at her without bursting into laughter right there and then.

Betty doesn't make eye contact with Armando he however stares at her with a concern look on his face, which is very different than his first reaction to Betty being in the room.

Now he watches Marcela sign the paper, he's got a crease between his brows that are furrowed, his eyes are saddened and his mouth slightly parted but still slightly tense.

This is a look of worry.

Betty excuses herself and Armando watches her leave while Marcela starts to laugh(Natalia really nailed the mean girl laugh).

As Marcela starts to make fun of her Armando asks her not to make fun of her and she tells him that whoever did her hair didn't curl it but stuck her into the electricity socket. Armando stares at her as she says these things with his lips pursed while squinting his eyes at her as she laughs.

He disapproves of what she's saying and it angers him that she is HOWEVER in a very classic manor he doesn't tell her any of this. Unlike the previous night that he literally started to hit the guys who were saying these awful things to her, saying that they had to respect her, here he stays silent. He doesn't even yell at her. Instead he turns around and goes to his computer.

I'm not saying that Armando should have hit Marcela lmbo! That would be bad and inexcusable! What I'm saying is that again we're shown the contrast and contradictions of Armando. While with complete strangers he demands for Betty to be respected and treated well he can't to that with Mario or Marcela. Not only because Marcela would get jealous and throw a fit about him telling her to be respectful but because he'd also give her cuerda(rope) to suspect and continue being controlling and with Mario because Mario would make him miserable if he shared even a fraction of his confusion or talked through his feelings about it all because he's tried it in the past but each time Mario makes a joke about it and he just shuts down. He's a coward to face the people in his life that really matter because he doesn't want to face the consequences of liking a woman like Betty.

The girls asked Betty if anything is wrong and she tells them no. Betty expressed her guilt and how she feels terrible whenever she sees Marcela and how she has walked in on them kissing and Armando making it obvious that he was angry that she interrupted them(It also explains his worried expression in the latter of said scene).

I've noticed many people just lump Betty as the insecure girl because of romance and that's really where her depth ends but Betty is a very complex individual here too(and I really want to make a more detailed post about it!).

She navigates a world that overall treats her poorly only because she's "ugly" but inside Eco Moda she navigates a world that actively prays for her downfall and who humiliate her in front of many only for the reward of laughing at her expense be their personal satisfaction. Yes she's dealt with bullying and people excluding her because they think she's ugly all her life but the cruelty that she faces in Eco Moda goes beyond and above.

These people are supposed to all be people of class, people she views as superior to her in all aspects. It isn't just humiliation that she faces for her physical appearance but she faces an over all humiliation for simply being a human existing and even then, even as she feels so terrible of herself, as she hates the way that they humiliate her, she still thinks of them superior to her and their opinion matters to her and because of this, despite their disgusting behavior, Betty still has some respect for them on the professional side. She still respects their authority inside Eco Moda and their vitality to the well being of the company.

Betty is such a sweet person at this stage of the novela that she still respect these people but it's so hurtful to see because she also does this because she thinks she deserves this.

Trauma affects a person in more than one way. Her life experience has been painful, isolated, grim, cruel, and lonely; add the traumatic relationship she had with Miguel to this, Betty doesn't have a self-esteem. She doesn't have a sense of self-worth. Betty, in such a terrible an awful way, believes that she isn't deserving of respect for simply existing, much less of voicing how it makes her feel when they treat her the way they do.

She doesn't understand why her father takes so much care of her. She doesn't understand why anyone would ever be nice to her. She's shy, timid, reserved, afraid. This is exactly why she was so impacted by Armando's behavior towards her. It wasn't just because she has no self-esteem. It's that someone treated her as a human being worthy of respect for simply doing her job and existing.

In the following scene, which is a parallel of a scene I previously talked about(post You Betrayed Me!) Armando's behavior is vastly different.

While in the past when he heard them making these crude jokes at the expense of her[Betty] boyfriend Armando seemed scared, angry, worried, and humiliated to a certain degree but this time his demeanor is different. This time he squints his eyes at Patty. He looks at Marcela with disapproval without hiding it. He visibly looks pissed.

"Did you see her clothes? No one would undress her with that!" Patty and Marcela laugh.

"Who would want to undress her?" Marcela says and they cackle, seriously, they cackle a lot. "I think Beatriz goes to the gyno and he tells her not to get undressed, that he'll examine her over her clothes."

"Obviously! She'd tell him "Doctor could I get undressed?" she mocks Betty's voice. " and the Doctor would tell her "No please, please! Don't do it! I beg of you!" she clasp her hands in front of her, pretending to be the Doctor begging. Armando had passed by her, squinting his eyes and now he's behind Marcela, far away, still hearing their conversation staring at them in disbelief and anger.

"Could you imagine what it must be with the boyfriend?" Patty says while Marcela laughs.

"No! See, she's so ugly that he doesn't kiss her, he hits her." they laugh. Armando stares at Marcela with disdain.

"Again with the jokes against Betty?" Marcela turns to him laughing.

"No. No they're not about Betty. They're about Betty's boyfriend." this time, unlike before, he doesn't change his emotions. He squints his eyes at Marcela once more. "and what he has to face tonight once he sees her." She covers her face laughing.

"Maybe he already saw her." to Marcela this line holds no meaning but to the audience it does and it isn't only for comical effects. Armando is now saying that her[Betty] boyfriend already saw her i.e. him. He is now out loud in his own way confronting the fact that he is her boyfriend to himself, while before he wasn't even able to say it to Betty or himself this time he's confronting himself about it.

Betty walks past Armando and he watches her as she walks towards Marcela and Patty who are still laughing, she bumps into Hugo who laughs at her, and they don't hold back at making it obvious that they are laughing at her and making jokes behind her back.

"Who is that creep?" Hugo voices loudly. Armando turns to glare at him. "Betty's cousin?"

"No Hugito that's the very same Betty but like a new version." Patty says.

"She went with the enemy so they could dress her and style her hair." Marcela says.

"What hairdresser? Because he didn't do highlights, he did lightning bolts." Hugo jokes.

The model and the rest laugh while Armando visibly controls his anger, but doesn't hide it or pretend to be unbothered as he shakes his head at Marcela and Patty and marches away from them.

Compare this to his previous reaction, while Marcela knew that Armando didn't like that she was making fun of Betty the other time he didn't actually voice his disapproval, he even laughed at one of the jokes that Patty made until he heard Marcela call him[Nic] a Multi-Millionaire. This time he finds no humor, he doesn't even feel offended that their making fun of Betty's boyfriend or hurt, he feels furious that they are.

However in the following scene all of that good behavior is squashed like a bug. He sits with Calderon talking bad about Betty's new look.

While Calderon tries to make him be a good boyfriend Armando scoffs and questions "praise her new look?"

"You haven't praised her new look?" Calderon whispers alarmed. "What are you? A beast? An animal? An ignorant!" he hisses. "Look there's nothing worse, nothing that humiliates a woman more, that tramples her ego, that ends her love for a man than you not praising her new look."

"What? Do I give her four hallelujahs for the hairdo? What?"

"No but Betty isn't the only woman that goes through that, my god. Almost all women are a disaster when they change their look but you still praise her new look! It's that simple." Armando sighs. "Look when a woman changes her look she changes it for A: her husband. B: the lover. In this case we have one true god." Armando purses his lips and rolls his eyes. "So then my dear god, praise the new look."

"She won't believe me. She won't believe me. The entire world has made fun of her for it. She'll think I feel pity for her, consoling her, or or worse that I'm making fun of her like the rest.

"Then the time for you to demonstrate to her that you're really serious[about this], that your love goes beyond the physical(goes on to list all of her physical flaws)" Armando looks pained to be the poor fool to have to "Accept" this. "well the list is long but if I were you I'd make love to her just as she is." Armando slowly, repeatedly blinking, turns to look at Mario. "well it's the only way for you to show her that you love her, that you desire her."

"Be very careful, Calderon, because with the simple fact that I already kiss her, with that fact alone, I'm paying in life what I should be paying in death." He whispers. "And besides I'mma tell something for me... to do that to her, never. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps." He stands up.

"Well you better start to prepare yourself. Where do you have Adrianita's picture?"

Yes I've talked about how women enter Armando through the eyes but that doesn't justify his behavior, it merely explains it. The objectification he has on women as seggsual beings clouds his judgement and blinds him to see past that. While he doesn't like that people make fun of Betty, he does worse. He doesn't make fun of her, he verbally humiliates her by the mere fact that he compares kissing her to a punishment, that he finds her affection to be a torment only for the fact that she's "ugly".

Armando continuedly flip flops from caring about Betty and her best interest to only caring about his. We're barely starting to see him take notice of Betty's interest but he still focuses mostly on what he wants and what he feels comfortable with. He doesn't once wonder if Betty does.

He finds her kisses a punishment because she isn't pretty. He finds her affection a torment because she isn't pretty. If she had the body and face of AA and the personality of Betty mans would proclaim it to the four winds and the seven seas. He would dump Marcela on the spot for her.

People are allowed to have types, we all have them. When do we draw the line between types and actively dehumanizing a certain group of people? When it no longer is based on preference but hatred and fear of said group.

Armando to this point hates that Betty isn't society's beauty standard. He hates that she isn't his idea of woman perfection but he lives tormented by the fact that he still cares about her. That he doesn't like it when people treat her poorly or make fun of her. That he hates it when they dehumanize her, (except he's a hypocrite because he does the exact same thing and he allows his best friend to do that exact thing.) and that he secretly enjoys her kisses and her affection. He hates all of this which is what truthfully makes him a miserable piece of ish.

These episode however are meant to help Armando accept Betty's physical appearance to a certain degree(lol I'm saying that a lot). He is forced to accept that he can't control the way a woman looks and that he can't change it either(I'll talk about this in the next post) Here he is faced with Betty's new look and he's forced to think about her feelings first than his own. He's confronted within himself that he is Betty's boyfriend. He is forced to find a way to tell her that her new look isn't it without tearing her confidence to shreds.

In other words Armando is forced to accept that Betty isn't a seggsual object but just because of that it doesn't mean she should get treated horribly. That the respect she deserves isn't only because of how good she is at her job but because she's a human, a person with feelings and with struggles of her own and that he doesn't like it that people don't see that.

But it foreshadows as well that he also has to accept Betty's physical appearance as it is and be okay with the attraction he has towards her, or at least prepare himself to accept that attraction.

Now as Armando and Calderon talk about how hot AA is Betty interrupts and leaves the office but overhears Armando call AA a mamasita and say that if she ever showed up that he'd throw everything away and marry her on the spot.

She seems annoyed by that as she shakes her head and walks away from the double doors.

Obviously our girl is hurt because not once has Armando mentioned her new look, not once has he made the effort to say anything about her physical appearance but there he is talking about how he'd end all his relationships without care of consequence if AA showed up and he'd marry her for the simple fact that she's hot.

Men really only have the audacity!

Here Betty is trying to escape her comfort zone(though she didn't get far from it) for the sake of Armando's ego. She's willing to face humiliation and ridicule if Armando likes her new look, even if she feels uncomfortable and knows how people are insulting her behind her back, and he hasn't said a single thing, instead he comments about how hot AA is.

I do want to note that Armando is behaving more like a boyfriend now. While in the past whenever the subject of his crushes or infatuation on Models was brought up he didn't reserve himself to express how hot they were or how he wanted to look presentable for them except now he pretends to show no interest in them when she's in the room. Better yet he pretends to be offended that(when the two models went to ask for their paycheck and tickled him) they'd flirt with him or try to play with him. Except this time he pretends like he isn't even aware of how hot she is and only is interested in her in a professional matter but as soon as she leaves the office she over hears how he truthfully feels.

She knows him well and because of this it does hurt her.

[youwontlikethisblog]

Betty, My Betty! Part 2

Okay as I'm writing this I'm rewatching this scene over and over to make sure that I'm picking up the vibes correctly.

After all the entire point of my commentary is to digest what the writer, Fernando Gainta, the director and actors wanted us to know.

We're still in the same time frame of Armando finding out Betty has a boyfriend, though to the audience we are fully aware that Nicolas is just Betty's friend and the person she used to disguise her crush on Armando, in other words, Betty's true love is Armando and he doesn't know that but believes that Nicolas is which feeds the cycle of paranoia this man has.

The day between Marcela and Armando started off estranged due to their argument the night before. Though at first they seemed to tolerate each other when Marcela went to yell at Betty for the checks not being in cash, like she said she had told her, Armando went to Betty's aid and yelled at Marcela(in the hall before she made it to Betty's office) and then he got the worse news of his life and has been on a rollar coaster of emotions.

In this first scene I'll be talking about: Marcela enters Armando's office, pissed off. Her eyes are shooting bullets at Armando and his voice is.. how do I say nonchalant but annoyed? It's mostly an oxymoron.She's asked about the money. He does have a sharp tone as he tells her "My love, I just signed the papers for her to do that." His eyes aren't behind as he too is shooting bullets at his fiance.

I have a love hate relationship with Marcela. One moment I really like her and the next I could strangle her, not enough to actually do it but enough to imagine it.

Marcela has her arms folded in front of her looking apprehensive while shifting on her feet and shaking. Not only does her tone of voice allow us to pick up on her mood, so does her body language. She truly dispieses Betty.

I want to add here that the previous night when Marcela insulted Betty as she was leaving you could tell Betty was upset and not only because of the insults towards her and Marcela insulting her work ethics and role in the company but she stared dead at Armando as if also upset at him. I placed myself in her shoes and my inner monologue was "If only this dude could keep it in his pants and stop being such a whore so I wouldn't get told that I don't do what my father paid for me to study and instead I'm his pimp that would me great! I hate this and you." because we do see Betty being level headed and understanding where Marcela is coming from though Marcela also never makes Armando take accountability for his infidelity which is annoying on both their parts.

Back to this scene.

Armando glares at her and says "Can you give me a second, my love?" he mocks at the end. In the next frame we see Marcela rolling her eyes, arms folded in front of her and our dear and sweet(this is sarcastic) Mario Calderon sticking to the shadows observing and inspecting everything silently. This is important to take into account as this is what allows him to be such a good manipulator because you're not even aware that he's doing it.

Armando without taking his eyes off of Marcela then yells for Betty, twice and Betty runs towards him and in her very sweet and calm voice says "Yes Sir?". I've seen this scene one too many times because I often rewind to study certain scenes, even before I started to write these post and it wasn't until now that I paid attention to Marcela's reaction.

Once again Armando has eyes on Marcela the entire time. Not even when Betty enters the room does he turn to look at her. His tone continues to be strong, allowing us to know that the frustration or anger he's feeling is not directed towards Betty here but Marcela.

However Marcela(Let me just say the actress is so pretty) is now playing her neck, and rocking on her feet. As Armando says "Tell me, did you get the money for the lady?" Marcela's body language is very interesting. As she goes to rub her chin and sports a smirk on her face.

I'm trying to understand why she would react that way as just a second ago she was fuming and then annoyed because Armando was yelling.

These are my two conclusions:

1) Since her back is towards them she could be assuming that he is directing that tone of voice and anger towards Betty, which would make her happy that Betty is paying the price for their argument.

2) That it brings her joy to anger Armando. In a previous post I talked about how Marcela always seems to be looking for an excuse to lash out at Armando and it could be that she enjoys to get him riled up as she says in some episodes back (the make up seggs is always good) or she just likes making him miserable.

Betty goes to hand her the money and asks her if she'd be kind to sign the papers. Betty, even when Marcela had insulted her, her profession, and her role in the company, speaks to her with respect and kindness. Marcela doesn't even look at her. Instead she just grabs the money and starts counting. Mario is in the background taking it all in.

When Marcela laughs at this and tells her "Ha! Are you suspicious? (insinuating that Betty was calling her a thief) or what?"Mario's eyes grow big as he panics(remember that he is worried that if people yell at Betty she'll turn against them(he too isn't that bright as he later leaves a letter that does just that))

Now Armando's reaction is different as his expression softens and he shifts from being annoyed or angered to now trying to buffer the situation. He goes to say "My love you know perfectly well that's just formality. Stop bothering so much" his eyes are wide, his tone of voice shifts from annoyed to apprehensive and Marcela yells and tells him "Don't scream at me!" and he hisses her "You are unbearable."

Betty is really just standing between the both of them uncomfortable as I would too.

Marcela reminds Armando of what they talked about the previous night and how he hasn't done neither one thing or the other. We get a brief frame of Armando, lips tight in a line in anger to then softening them a bit to stare at Betty. This allows us to know that it is an unpleasant idea, in a sad way, for him to fire Betty or even think about it and not because she's the owner of Eco Moda.

Marcela proceeds to tell him not to expect a different Marcela or for her to be kind and we get music that sounds like the jaws song as she exits the office.

Now Mario has been there the entire time. He hasn't said a single thing or done anything to aid the situation. All he has done is read the room, hear and observe everything and everyone.

This is reminiscent of what we come to see of Armando and Marcela's relationship. This is the day where it is solidified that their relationship is doomed and over with. At least the side of their relationship that kept them off each others throats for long. Where Armando would at least make the effort to talk to her and be open, even when she always turned it around to make it about herself and he always had to swallow down his feelings and comfort her when it was him who needed it. Their relationship had some sort of fighting ground. That's what kept them fighting but if we're being honest here their relationship was mostly based on two people who just enjoyed screwing each other. It wasn't based on love, respect, honesty, or loyalty but based on the commitment to their parents and family and seggs.

When I was in middle school I had this teacher talk to us girls about lust and love and how at our age, which was emotional immaturity, we could assume that because we felt attraction it was love but that they were two different things.

Lust is based on physical wants and needs whilst love is based on emotional and spiritual wants and needs. Love is the desire to give while lust is the desire to receive.

Armando and Marcela have never been in love with each other instead they've been in lust with each other except one mistakes this lust for love and mistakes love for possession.

Knowing to tell these things apart in our romantic life helps us establish a healthy relationship and sadly Marcela hasn't learned to tell these two things apart and this scene shows us that very well. Their relationship is doomed and there is no going back because she asked for the head of the person who is changing the life of Armando Mendoza and not just professionally and economically but in a mental and emotional way and though he isn't aware of that yet his subconscious is and it's made up its mind.

As Mario proceeds to ask him what she's talking about he[Armando] tells him that Marcela asked for Betty's head. We then see Betty standing by her closed office door listening in.

Mario asks shocked "What?" because of course, how could he allow Marcela to ask for the head of the secret owner of Eco Moda?

Again our dear and stupid Armando is in another planet, or solar system, point is he isn't in the same wavelength that Mario is in. He goes to explain that Marcela thinks Betty is his accomplice and fixes him up with his dates which then leads to Mario frantically telling him that she's crazy and he can't contemplate that option.

Armando again is biting his thumb nail, he's nervous but agrees and his mood changes drastically. He looks determined as he tells Mario "I know, I know. Look, no one is going to touch Betty!"(in spanish he says "Nadie me va a tocar a Betty" making it possessive that no one will take Betty from him) and we get a cut to Betty hearing him say that.

Here's the important thing to note throughout this scene. Armando's body language and his reaction is shown directed towards Marcela, not Betty. While Mario directs the topic to Betty being the new owner of Eco Moda, therefore shouldn't be yelled at or fired, Armando is sticking to the emotional aspect of it all. How could he fire the girl who is unconditional and loyal to him? How can he fire the girl he likes? and most importantly that no one is taking his Betty away from him. Be that Marcela asking for her head(he's willing to pay the price and whatever Marcela throws at him but he isn't firing her) or Nicolas Mora being her boyfriend.

What makes this concrete? When he tells Mario that Marcela is just taking advantage of the situation with Claudia and that she's always wanted Betty out it shows us hIS thought process. He isn't concerned over Betty being the new owner. If he were he'd mentioned it, just like Mario has. He would say "Marcela isn't aware she's the new owner but we are and I can't fire her." but those words never escape his mouth, even in secrecy with Mario. However, Mario does say those words even when Betty is in the room over or at least insinuates it.

Fast-forward a bit we get a scene of Claudia picking up a bottle of an alcoholic beverage and we get a clean cut to Armando pouring himself a drink. The parallel would be Claudia is drinking because she is heartbroken due to Armando kicking her out of his office so angrily the previous night and then we have Armando pouring himself a drink in the same time frame, he is stressed and he has started to drink more in the past few days but the back to back scenes with the same music tell us that he's also drinking due to a broken heart.

Armando can't catch a break right now.

Again this isn't speculation as when Mario point that out and tells him that it's too early to be drinking Armando gives him a list of excuses saying "Don't you think I've got a pretty sinister day today? Marcela and I are at each other's throats and today is the new[collection] launch. Plus! In that hotel there's a crazy model waiting for me and I don't know what she's going to do when I get there" The problems go escalating little by little as he list them and then he says "and on top of that, on top of everything-" when we say that phrase it means that we've already established we've got problems but what makes all those problems worse, what makes your situation worse is the next problem you're about to list which is the worst. His tone goes from being frustrated like he was naming the other problems to bringing his voice down and in a solemn tone saying "My Betty, has a boyfriend." he then proceeds to say that they are in his[Nicolas aka Betty's eternal love] hands.

Now one again could argue that his concern is Eco Moda because now he is untrustful of Betty and Nicolas with Eco Moda and I will argue back that the writing tells us otherwise.

[Read my two previous post regarding this because it makes it clear that the writer wanted us to know that Armando did trust Betty and Nicolas previous to the knowledge that Nicolas is Betty's eternal love.(I like to say that because I imagine that's what Armando hears in his head when he thinks of Nicolas)]

Had that been his concern he would have said this: 'Don't you think I've got a pretty sinister day? Tonight is the launch for the new collection, there's a crazy model waiting for me at the hotel and I don't know what she's going to do to me when I get there and plus we're in Betty and Nicola's hands now because I've lost the company and on top of that Marcela and I are at each other's throats!' but he continues to hang onto the fact that Betty, his Betty, has a boyfriend which is his biggest concern next to Nicolas existing.

His anguish is that: Betty has a boyfriend.

His concern is that: The boyfriend works in Terra Moda.

His pain in the butt is: Marcela is at his throat asking for Betty's head.

Mario then tells him that he won't deny that he is worried about Betty's situation but that they need to handle the situation delicately and that Armando cannot judge her for it. Cut to a frame of Armando staring at his glass of whisky to squinting his eyes at Mario; who then tells Armando not to criticize Betty's personal life. Again Mario is trying to keep Armando from pushing Betty against them in turn taking away the company.

"You can't question her for not telling you about the boyfriend. You can't take away your trust!" he hisses at the end.

Armando's eyes are the main reaction we get here as the rest of his face is covered by the whisky glass he had in hand. His eyes narrow. He is concentrating on what Mario is telling him and is paying attention to him.

This is setting ground for the later manipulation as Armando begins to do this a lot.

The music changes to a more intriguing one. Mario stands up and leans towards Armando on the desk and whispers "you know what we have to do? What we have to do is to really figure out who he is, what he does and what kind of person he is before we start to panic."

Now who is Nicolas?

We know he is Betty's oldest friend and longest friendship and that he cares about Betty. He went to defend her against Roman and his friends even when he got hit for it. We know that he is protective of her and besides having a crush on a woman we know and he knows bullies and mistreats Betty, he is a good friend to Betty.

He prioritizes her feelings and he does anything to make her happy. Even going along with Betty's lies and schemes.

He tries to advise her to put everyone in their place when they abuse her for her looks when she becomes the owner of Eco Moda, once again showing us that he wants Betty's best interest and doesn't like that people treat her poorly. He is naive and somewhat dumb when it comes to real life problems like dating and social interactions.

Personally I find Nicolas endearing and I think Nicolas has always been very kind to Betty and always done his best to put a smile on her face.

He does let himself get distracted with the idea of riches and he brags about what he doesn't have but even then Nicolas is still morally and ethically correct. He has those tendencies and desires but he never goes through with them because his love for Betty and his loyalty to her keep him from it.

Nicolas is a good person flaws and all.

We know this, Betty knows and Armando knows this.

How are we sure he knows this?

Betty herself said to him "He is my other me" I don't have to breakdown what that means because we know she means that he is basically the same person within that she is therefore, Armando knows who Nicolas is and his distrust isn't based on Nicolás taking the company away. When he said that they were now in his hands he could have meant "Betty is in his hands".

It's important once again to understand this because it isn't until later that day that he finds out about what Mariana told Betty, again we know that Nicolas is the alias Betty uses for Armando, but he doesn't know this.

Right now his true anguish is that Betty has a boyfriend and that boyfriend is Nicolas Mora, an object of disdain to him now and we understand his mistrust isn't based on Eco Moda and what they could do to it but that Nicolas is Betty's boyfriend and he can take her away from him.

It isn't until after Bertha tells him everything Mariana said about Betty and her eternal love(I am referring to the real one being Armando) that he begins to distrust Nicolas as an individual(without Betty) who can "manipulate" Betty with love to turn against them and this then shows the true disgusting nature that two egocentric and selfish people will show.

Armando did use Betty to secure Eco Moda and it is wrong. Mario thought that the only way a girl like Betty could ever get anyone interested in her or get someone to love her was only on interest of money. However and I need to remind you of this, Armando had another reason to go with the plan and it wasn't just that he is a disgusting human being at this point of the novela, but he subconsciously already liked Betty. He already had feelings for her that he didn't understand and he tried to justify for other things.

My personal theory regarding this topic is that Armando in a sense thought he was saving the company and Betty. He thought that by going along with this plan to make Betty fall in love with him he was saving her from Nicolas, who didn't truly love or care about Betty in his opinion and was only going to use her for the money but unlike him [Nicolas] Armando did care for her even if he didn't understand how and the depths of his feelings towards Betty. So he killed two birds with one stone.

He would secure that Nicolas wouldn't convince Betty to take away Eco Moda by promising her love and that Nicolas didn't take Betty away from him therefore saving Betty from pain.

I still haven't gotten to those episodes, I have seen them so I'm going off by memory but again, these three minute or five minute scenes give so much information. Fernando Gaitan did a tremendous job with foreshadowing and parallels(also the actors all have so many ticks that identify their moods that it's so fun to watch!) that it's really fun to pick apart these scenes because they have later consequences in the following episodes.

This post is already long enough lol so I will make another post about this same episode.