#also this gifset is boring i know

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

if you put a boring blonde man on my tv screen and are like "this is the heroine's boring love interest. his whole thing is that he's a handsome dork and he's boring, too boring for her, too boring for anyone," then i simply love that man completely with hearts in my eyes

see: riley finn, JEFF SADECKI 💖💖💖

[blackhholes]

teen wolf meme: [6/7] villains -> the benefactor

I had to. Why? Because I heard you... I heard you scream in the tunnels at Oak Creek. That's why I knew it was the right time... to start over.

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

THE BEST OF PRIORITY: TUCHANKA (PART 1)

Featuring: Cmdr. Sophie Shepard, Urdnot Wrex, and Urdnot Bakara With: Dr. Mordin Solus, Primarch Adrien Victus, Dalatrass Linron, Urdnot Wreav, and Comm. Specialist Samantha Traynor This will be the defining moment of Krogan history... Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition (2021)

[borealing]

I really don't think West out of Yumen is your thing since it has a ton of straight romance. The production value is questionable, and acting mediocre in my opinion.

LOOOOOOOOOOOL i do enjoy romances of all varieties even straights (altho it can be a struggle) when theyre well written, i just tend to not enjoy direct Romance Stories in general... i like a good plot driven story. unfortunately so many idol dramas tend to be straight romances, a bit dull, and badly written (i forget which one it was where the reviews were like "i feel like a group of very beautiful people just fed me a spoonful of shit" LMFHABDKAUDBW) without even good writing to back it up. sigh. thank you for the review i guess i wont be watching!

[all-pacas]

I think one of the similarities between House and Chase that doesn't get mentioned that much is how fucking allergic they BOTH are to opening up. House is pretty obvious. But Chase? He's such a liar. He will do anything to NOT tell people about his personal shit. He lies to patients about it. He crafts a backstory. It's not as obvious as with House, because Chase is quite good at the Pleasant Facade, but like.

Here's a couple!

"I had a great time getting my tonsils removed, it's why I became a doctor!" Foreman, annoyed, points out he still has his tonsils. In S8, Chase explains the real reason: his mother used to lock him in his dad's study for hours on end, and he'd get bored and read textbooks.

"I did some antics as a teen, but my mother thought I turned out alright!" No, she didn't, she died when he was 17-18.

That one gifset from One Day, One Room. "Keep her asleep," Chase says, incredulous, because why in the world would you ever tell a patient about your past trauma? Why tell anyone?

His dad dies and he kills a patient. He clearly cared about Kayla, he'd bonded with her and her family. He pretends he was hungover and didn't give a shit. He refuses to tell Stacy or the board "I messed up because I was in shock/grieving," even though it ends up saving his job, until House pushes him to admit it. He would rather be sued and lose his job than admit "I was sad my dad died."

Most of his lies are actually meant to deflect from his personal life. He's much more private than I think he's given credit for: in the s1 episode with the nun, he lets it slip he hates nuns, and doesn't correct House when House (correctly) assumes he's a Catholic School Kid, but he doesn't tell House or anyone but the patient he actually went to seminary.

Socratic Method? He's clearly got some Issues with alcoholism, and, frustrated, calls Foreman out for assuming he doesn't know just because he's a rich kid. Foreman asks him directly, did you know someone like that? Chase doesn't answer. He spends the episode clearly identifying with the underage son of the patient, but never once utters the words "my mother was an alcoholic."

In 'Cursed,' when Cameron is prodding him about his father, he straight-up refuses to engage. She tries sympathy: nothing. She tries to relate: nothing. She gets frustrated: nothing. He tries very hard to avoid both his father and dealing with House, only opening up when forced. House also spends about half the episode trying to get the truth out of Chase, at one point even declaring they're going to talk about it now -- only for Chase to use the stairs to get away.

S6? He refuses to discuss the divorce, no matter who confronts him about it, no matter how gently. He claims he's fine, as he lies in the lounge, rubbing his ring-finger. He punches House just to get people to stop asking questions.

S8? He gets stabbed. Whenever one of his collogues ask how he's doing, he recites the same polite "thank you for your concern, but I'm doing very well" line in the same polite way.

The one running theme is that House is very good at getting the truth out of him. Half of these examples end with Chase losing it at House, telling the truth or blowing up or punching him in the face. Because. You know. Who else does that? Who else spends so much time avoiding talking about himself and his past and all the ways he's fucked up?

[shaissa]

okay, so I’m rewatching season one because you mentioned their interactions there in the last ask I sent. I finished the first two episodes, I completely forgot that taissa and shauna are the first two that we see interact in the adult timeline! Like shauna has been saving her contact info all those years and she’s the first person she thinks to call, and when she held her hand at the diner! There’s also the parallel of them being the only ones to get married and have a kid. They try to be normal in that specific way. I promise this is the last rant im sending you, sorry if this is annoying

!!!!

Yay I’m so happy me talking about them made you want to rewatch! s1 really is peak for them in both timelines. But yess everything about them in the adult timeline makes me feel insane <3 shauna like bored and doing laundry and seeing tai on her tv and the EMOTIONS on her face and then going to her safe and using a burner phone to call taissa to meet up !! Saw someone say in s1 they act like they’ve been having an affair for 20 years and that’s SO true oh my god.

Also their hands at the diner!!!!! Yesss both melanie lynskey and sophie nélisse have talked about that scene and i NEED to know what the script said. When shauna sees taissa on the tv, the script says she feels a mix of emotions including LONGING and that’s been making me insane ever since i read that

Several people have said it sooo much better than me but taissa being so involved in shauna’s pregnancy from the moment she finds out and then being by her side the entire birth and for days after </3 and then like you said them both being the only 2 Yellowjackets to have kids and both of them struggling to connect with their kids. It’s really like that loss broke them both in similar ways and it’s just so !!!!

I love that we get that in the adult timeline and then the teen timeline starts off like idk they ARE on the same page about the allie situation and they agree to keep their first secret from jackie. And shauna seems to regret it when taissa is playing rough at practice but idk. Thinking about a gifset i saw recently of shauna telling taissa at the party it can’t be easy knowing she crippled someone today — to last episode when shauna was in charge of further crippling coach ben.

I think it’s goes along with what melissa was saying about shauna not being scared about the bad parts of herself anymore. She DID agree with taissa about the allie situation, but she couldn’t own up to it. It Scared her. What taissa did scared her (i think it scared taissa for different reasons) i think shauna was just scared of herself and she was projecting that onto taissa during the fight at the party in the pilot episode.

But them consistently being on the same page and then shauna being afraid of that in early s1 fascinates me. Shauna agrees with Tai about going to the lake but then snaps at tai when she thanks her for having her back and it’s like shauna is just being mean because she’s afraid of herself. She didn’t go along with what jackie wanted both times that she agreed with tai. So she takes it out on taissa when it backfires both times (allie’s leg gets broken and jackie is pissed at her after the lake vote)

I just think they’re really very similar in a lot of ways and shauna initially is scared of that. But the bond they form, that intimacy and trust they place in each other is just !!!!!

I could go on but this is so long already lmao

Thanks for the ask !! It’s not annoying at ALL. Send me as many rants about them as you want <3 i love any excuse to talk about them for real

[separatedleoau]

Hi I was jus wondering how do you decide which panel you animate.

Also why did you decided to animate this comic? For practice? Simply because you want it? For revenge?

Also do you have any tipp for starter animaters how to start animating what kind of animations should they start with.

Love the comic can't wait for more. Please be healthy (it's good for your health)

Sending lot of love with hugs (if you like hugs)

by vibe, mostly

This is animated kind of for practice, kind of just because I think is fun and intresting to mix comic and animation, and yeah I guess a bit of revange, if thats the right word on this case cause there was another comic I wanted to do this with and chickened out of it (maybe the correct for of it would be avenge?🤔)

Now let me go into story mode:

When I was starting this au I was just gonna do One's concept design and the one scene that got stuck in my head: him dropping down for his introduction, and that was it

So I thought "I could make this an animatic" and I started storyboarding it on my sketchbook and then went "wait this is too much work, I don't wanna do it.... I'm gonna make it a comic" but there was That Shot that I had in mind and so clearly and I wanted to see it in motion so bad

Animation in comics is something that has gotten stuck in my head for close to a decade, long ago (in a galaxy far far away) I saw these zelda comics by Zac Gorman

I think it was the first time I saw a comic animated, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Then I saw a gifset of the How to Train Your Dragon "Downed Dragon" scene with Hiccup walking on the forest and it was composed as a comic, but they were gifs of the movie, I think that's what settled it in my mind that I would want to tell a story that way at some point

But I didnt know how to animate or make comics

So I started practicing, one step at the time, I decided to start with making comics (I started drawing my httyd fic since it basically was already scripted, but I realized how complicated that was and gave up lmao)

I've used the putting some animation to comics before, in small forms and not that often, really, but I was practicing for that moment when I had a Big Story for me to tell in that medium. Thing I have now and I'm working on!

So I took on httyd comics again and used another au I had to practice long form comics and animation on comics with it. I realized at some point that I was biting more than I could chew and decided to tone it down and keep it to just comic, I would get the oportunity to practice animation-comic making at some other point

And so this au came in taking down my door

I used what I had storyboarded as thumbnails for the comic and decided to make some small bits with simple animation and That Shot fully animated frame by frame (the original idea I could never make it look good so I settled for something simpler, I still want to try and re-do that animation, not to change the comic, but just as a bonus mostly for myself)

So yeah

It's been for pratice when I finally get to do my original story (that I'm working on rn)

Just cause I want to cause it looks cools and I've been mening to do something like this for so long

And I'm avenging that first httyd comic I tried to do and kinda the current httyd comic cause I took out the animation of that one

As for tips for biginer animators?

I should say learn the animation principles since those are your bases, everyone hates doing the bouncing ball cause is boring but is actually a good start.

but honeslty? chose a guy and go nuts with it <- thats my tip of how to improve on anything art related, making fanart of httyd has gotten me this far

[heyclickadee]

Because I have a tendency to get stuck in art blocks and s t r u g g l e badly with composition, and because I think The Bad Batch is a beautifully shot show, I’ve started doing rough grayscale studies of bad batch to unpack how line and value can be used to direct a viewer’s eye to where people want the audience to look. (I’m doing it with other movies and shows, but I do really like TBB, so….) That way, if I’m sitting in a period where I can’t draw, then maybe I can at least learn something. It’s not fan art, it’s just trying to break the composition down and make it make sense to me, but I think it’s interesting so I figured I’d throw them all here.

So! Potentially very boring things under the cut:

The thing that started this off was getting sent a gifset of the scene in “The Return” where Wrecker gives Crosshair his armor back. It’s a great scene, and one of the things that allows for the show to pull that moment off is the way that most everything in many of the shots is designed to draw the viewer’s attention to Crosshair’s face so that we’re paying attention to his reaction. For example:

It’s not a very high contrast shot, but if we block out the basics, most of the lines in the scene are directing us towards Crosshair. Both Wrecker and Omega make movements towards him in this shot, and then this movement is sort of carried over to Crosshair via the various lines in the background/Wrecker’s arm/even the crate. Additionally, our eyes tend to be drawn towards points of highest contract, which, in this shot, include the lamps in the far background against the pillars (forming a line from Wrecker to Crosshair) and the light hitting Crosshair’s face against the much darker background. Between all of this most people in the audience are going to end up automatically looking right at Crosshair who is, of course, the main person we’re supposed to paying attention to here.

This isn’t actually a full frame. I sort of grabbed a screenshot over the interwebs for this one, but The Bad Batch actually has a very wide aspect ratio. From what I understand it’s shot and aired in a CinemaScope ratio (2:39:1 or 2:35:1, though TBB is 2:39:1). It’s basically super ultra widescreen, an aspect ratio used when a filmmaker wants to make something feel more epic or cinematic, and as far as I know it’s the same aspect ratio used for the original trilogy before any cropping happened. (For reference, The Clone Wars was also shot in a CinemaScope ratio, 2:35:1, but was cropped to 16:9 for airing on Cartoon Network, and Rebels was shot and aired in 1:78/more or less 16:9.) So an uncropped screenshot of TBB would look more like this:

This is from “The Outpost.” It’s actually a fairly dark shot with Crosshair faced away from the camera and the value of his figure blending right into the rest of the foreground, which actually comes communicate a sense of someone who isn’t trying to draw attention to themselves (to me, anyway), but our eyes are drawn to Crosshair anyway by every major line in the shot as well as the highest point of contrast converging right over Crosshair’s shoulder. That, and the line of his rifle/shoulder and the support pole forming a big, well, cross-hair right in that same spot. Otherwise, he would blend right into the foreground and be easier to miss.

Unlike Hunter in this shot from “Plan 99”

Where basically you’ve got the exact same thing happening, every line in the shot converges on Hunter’s location, but instead of using just high contrast to draw our attention, we’ve got a fairly middle-gray scene with our eyes being drawn to the focal point by having one bright spotlight.

The orange cross mark I’ve drawn here is just to mark the center of the frame, which I wanted to point out since, at least as far as I’ve noticed, TBB has a tendency to save center and slightly off-center shots for really specific moments. I’d have to check on that and what the pattern is, though, since a few of the remaining shots in this post are center shot. (Filmmakers area generally taught shoot in thirds or, alternatively, on a phi grid or other away from center set of focal points, though you do get some center shot movies and shows. I think Raiders of the Lost Arc has a lot of center shots.)

In fact, a pretty good example of shooting in thirds (or on a phi grid—I laid it out and I think it fits the phi grid slightly better) is this shot from “Faster”

Where you’ve got Tech and Tay-0 placed on slightly close thirds on either side of the frame. If we’re just looking at line and value, with this shot we actually get this sort of interesting back and forth between where our eye is being drawn. A lot of the lines in the shot are directing us to look at Tech, but then you’ve got one of the lines going through, and the sweep of Tech’s arm and datapad pointing towards, Tay-0, whose face and body are outlined with a much higher contrast in value. And then we have that one very bold arc connecting the two. The result of this is that our eyes sort of bounce back and forth between these two characters as they get into their conversation.

Most of these shots have had just one or two (at most three) characters, and there are many scenes of TBB with everyone where our gaze is sort of directed to the group collectively, but sometimes you’ll have group scene where our attention is directed more towards one individual than others, like with this shot from “Battle Scars”

Once again, you’ve got most of the lines in the shot converging towards Rex as well as Rex’s person serving as the point of highest contrast while everyone else sort of melds into the background in terms of value. He’s also the first (and maybe only) figure who breaks fully above objects in the background to be shot directly against the sky. Line and value aren’t the only things directing the audience’s gaze towards Rex in this shot—there’s actually a lot of desaturation happening as we move from Rex, to the other characters, to the far background that helps as well, buuuuut this is a grayscale breakdown so that unfortunately doesn’t show up...here. (This is a center shot scene if we’re going horizontally, but Rex’s head, which is really the focal point, is right around the top third of the frame; it’s not exactly a low angle shot, but we are still looking up at him.)

Anyway, the reason any of this is important is because when you’re shooting with an incredibly wide aspect ratio like this, there’s a LOT of information being conveyed with every frame. You can fit a lot of stuff on screen at once. And while people generally going to rewatch and pay attention to background details (if nothing else, TBB is a goldmine for those background details), you do want to draw your audience’s attention to the most important parts of the frame—especially when an individual shot typically lasts only a few seconds. Or less. Like with this:

So this shot from "Faster" is up for less than a second before the camera turns to follow the speeders and then changes to another shot, and I had a devil of a time even getting screengrab of it. (Mostly because I was trying to grab it on my phone, but that's not really the point.) In less than a second the people making this have to communicate where Tech's speeder is, what's happening, what we're even looking at, while the objects in the scene are all moving incredibly fast. .

So, to communicate that, you've got multiple speeders moving in the shot, but only one (Tech's) standing out in terms of value against a fairly dark ceiling, as well as a combination of some real direct one-point linear perspective and the more or less arrow shape of the ramp pointing directly at the point Tech's speeder is going to be when it reaches the peak of its crest over the ramp. That way we're already looking at where Tech is going to be before he gets there and end up following his speeder as he zooms by.

[danasevans]

okay I’ve reblogged two This Ain’t Philly gifsets in the past like twelve hours and while I stare at my lord and savior dana evans I’m Thinking. it’s so fun to watch the background patients bc their facial expressions are Hilarious watching all this go down. but you know who else is there???? driscoll. he’s back against the wall watching the showdown with an expression of ridicule. and fuck I’m betting this is the moment. this is when he got bored of ribbing mateo and standing around the door trying to sneak through because he WATCHES dana arrive and quickly fix a problem. he’s been seeing other patients brought back before him and here’s the woman who’s clearly the one making that happen. i’m still early in my rewatch so I don’t quite recall, but he also doesn’t directly interact with dana much?? I think she stops him from following her and mckay through the staff door once maybe. but given the timing, it seems like this moment, this show of force, is likely when she realizes who she is— in his eyes, it must be Her Fault he’s still stuck out here. since the man has clearly demonstrated that he has no idea how an ER works. and that cause and effect… dana’s toughest, most confident moment leading to her weakest… oough. it hits

[deputyrook]

also as an aside the reason I included juno (from the descent) instead of sarah in the gifset is because my hot horror take is that juno should be the main character of the descent. juno is such an interesting, complex, ambitious, determined character and sarah is so boring by comparison. juno is flawed and tough and i love her. her perspective and position in the story is way way more interesting than sarah's dead family angst. "I was the other woman in a relationship with my best friend's husband who i loved and now he's dead and no one knows" is so fucking interesting! "I accidentally killed my friend thinking she was a monster and i feel even MORE horrible guilt now" is so fucking interesting!

i propose a third ending to the descent where juno somehow makes it out alive anyway

[galactic-rhea]

never thought about the vader + obiwan dynamic like that but damn. kind vibe. consider !! (or dont ur decision) if we were to tentatively tie it into the pre-existing canon that instead of the "vader wants to kill obiwan because he blames him and is therefore obsessed with killing him" it could be more. vader is obsessed with kill obiwan BECAUSE of his self-hatred and self-disgust. obiwan (and ahsoka. and rex. and luke and-) is one of the last pieces of Anakin Skywalker alive. he's a living reminder of that pain and who vader couldve been. so the obsession is less With obiwan, then with himself and it turns into this grotesque self-harming violence and obiwan is being sucked into by association. i could also see this applying to vader's fights with ahsoka and luke (the first one not the second). peace and love ur thoughts and art are golden ❤️

Woah thank you! <3

I haven't watched Rebels yet, so I have no idea how the Ahsoka vs Vader fight went (which is why I avoid so hard gifsets with Ahsoka and Anakin 😂😂) but it could be pretty accurate, I suppose!

With Vader, I usually remain on the notion that he's pretty much a husk of Anakin, he lacks any passion at all, like sure he's angry and furious most of the time, and annoyed, but it's like, instead of raging burning fury, it burns like how ice burns, is old and calculated and rootten and it leaves you numb to everything.

In the original trilogy he doesn't seem to deny thaaaaaat hard being Anakin, I mean he does, but like he's just so...idk, he's so "meh" about everything, nothing matters, like instead of going "THAT NAME MEANS NOTHING TO ME ANYMOREEEEEE!!!!" it's more like "-takes away Luke's lightsaber- That name means nothing to me anymore y'know."

"then my father is truly dead"

"ah"

Like he's almost bored, in fact when he kills Obi-Wan he does look almost bored like "wow, this is a lame fight, I'll end it quickly old master" and then he stomps on the robes when Obi-Wan's corpse disappear,,,,like a cat trying to catch a light pointer, and then he just leaves like "whatever idc why this body is gone, i've seen weirder stuff" NKJDFSNJDFSSD

He doesn't even care enough about his self-hatred to like, you know, do something about himself, or like, even kill himself because Palpatine probably doesn't let him die and because he believes he deserves the hell he lives him. He only mostly moves to carry on Palpatine's orders.

So that's mostly what I go by with him, if he's obssesed about anything, is when he learns about Luke, probably. If he wanted to rid off everything about 'anakin skywalker', you would think he wouldn't care about Luke that much because Luke very proudly takes on the name Skywalker (i would say agressively and stubbornly 😆) and he would rather not aknowledge anything about Padmé or why he turned to the dark side, which he probably doesn't admit outwardly, and probably tells himself he doesn't care, but internally is the very reason he hates himself.

He also kept Ahsoka's lightsaber, which, again, is he reaaally wanted to destroy everything that remained of his old life wouldn't fit (again, I haven't watched Rebels so idk if that's brought up in their fight)

He wanted to kill Obi-Wan mostly out of the fact he...kills anything opposing the empire, and the jedi are forbidden now and "I suppose I should want revenge and he's here now".

But yeah, I could see an AU where he does want to hunt down Obi-Wan and it's just an attempt to end what's left of Anakin, and feeling really empty and unchanged if he believes Obi-Wan dead (or actually manages to kill him before ANH timeline). Like there's just quiet silence, and he still feels the same, Anakin's still hasn't been destroyed, and then goes back to his usual misererable apathy.

[wellofdean]

Thinking more about this gifset from ep 12x09, The Future, and just want to say a thing about what the word 'subtext' means, because it sometimes feels like what people think it means and what it actually means are not aligned.

So, as a starting point, subtext is defined as "the implied meaning or underlying message of a narrative that is not stated directly. It is the unexpressed thought, feeling, or emotional throughline that lies beneath the text."

The scene in the gifset linked above rife with subtext, and it's really very obvious. But first, there are several layers to the text. There's the visual: Sam looking concerned, Dean working on Cas's truck. There's also the context of the other events in the episode. In brief: Cas returns to the bunker after being out of touch for so long that Dean was worried, and angry with him; Cas tried to return the mixtape Dean gave him and Dean refused to accept it; Cas tells Dean he feels like he just keeps failing and Dean stresses that they need to work together; Cas 'plays him' and steals the Colt from under his pillow; Dean threatens to 'kick his feathered ass' but notably does not follow through. Right before this scene Dean throws Cas the keys to the Impala like it's a totally automatic for him to do (it's not!), only to have Kelly drive off with his Baby, and with Cas.

Here's the transcript:

Sam: How did this happen? Dean: ( Scoffs ) What? The lying? The Heaven plan? Or the fact that I'm working on this stupid truck? Sam: No, I mean, what's wrong with Cas? Dean: Well, he hasn't exactly had a banner year. I mean, think about it. Between Lucifer... (huffs out a breath) ...killing Billie, Ramiel, everything's been blowing up in his face... And he's so desperate for a win right now, he can't even see straight. Go ahead and give it a try. (Engine starts)

So the text of this scene is a combination of what we see, the context in the episode, the wider context of the show and relationships, and the lines.

Here are some examples of the subtext in this scene:

Dean has given some thought to how Cas is feeling.

Dean understands that people make questionable decisions when they are feeling down and defeated.

Dean has been there, and done that.

Dean sympathizes and empathizes with Cas.

Dean's frustrated, but Cas is still family to him.

Dean cares about Cas and wants to help him.

Sam does not quite know what to make of Cas's behavior.

Sam knows that Dean will know better than he does what is motivating Cas to do what he is doing.

Dean is emotionally closer to Cas than Sam is.

Sam relies on Dean's reaction to Cas's recent actions to know how to react himself.

Dean wants Sam to understand and sympathize with Cas, and not judge him too harshly.

There is much more one could add to this, but nothing I've said above is the least bit controversial; it's nothing more than a basic understanding of the content of the text, and it is very clearly communicated. Understanding these things in this scene is not rocket science, and everything I mentioned above is indisputably there as unspoken but clear emotional throughline in the text.

Subtext is not a mysterious puzzle, or a ghost floating around in a text that is invented out of the audience's desires, it is the actual emotional force and content of it. Ernest Hemingway is a long way from being my favourite writer, but he was, nevertheless, a heavyweight champion of subtext. He called it the 'iceberg theory,' or 'theory of omission': the text (words themselves) present only a small part of what is happening in it, but it is important to note that subtext is part of the text like the unseen part of an iceberg is part of an iceberg. A text without subtext would be very boring indeed, and would leave nothing for our minds to do when we process it. It's difficult to imagine any narrative text that doesn't have it.

I think that a lot of the time we say things like: I want Destiel to be explicit, not 'just subtext', but look at what is communicated via subtext above! Virtually everything that's important about the scene! Subtext is not imaginary thing the reader adds, it is part of the intent of the text, and Destiel is more explicit than this in the text in a lot of ways because it is the bones the text is hanging on -- it may not be spoken, but it is part of the structure of the text, and that's because of things like the way Ruby and Sam's story parallels Dean and Cas in season 4, or the way Dean's entire motivation in purgatory is Cas, and when he gets back from purgatory, he can think of little else, or the way Cas very obviously parallels Colette in the MOC arc and there is no Abel, or the entire widower arc, or the fact that main emotional arc of season 15 is Cas and Dean's break up, reconciliation, Cas's confession and finally Dean's despair and willingness to just die in the final episode. There's a lot of that that simply doesn't make any sense without Destiel as a structural element in the narrative.

There are so many ways in which the whole story is BUILT AROUND the assumption that Cas is Dean's strongest bond and partner, and around how important Cas is to Dean's emotional life, which is why I think it's often more accurate to say that Destiel is CONTEXT, because it's actually the reason why we understand the subtext of so many scenes and arcs in the story.

The fact that Cas loves Dean is not subtext, it is explicitly stated, and the fact that Dean loves Cas is not explictly stated, but it is present in the text at so many levels, that to call it 'just' subtext or imagine that it is some kind of unacknowledged, unavowed ghost in the narrative is not accurate. There is no way to understand a thing like Dean's devastated face at Castiel's pyre, or why Castiel leaving in season 15 feels like a divorce without it. Destiel is the emotional force of it, and moreover, it's the part of the iceberg you can't see because it's underwater, but it is fucking there, and IT WILL FUCK YOU UP.

[galedekarios]

seeing @mercymaker's own post about the "apology" made me feel confident enough to air my own feelings about it now that i have had a night to think it over and not internalise it anymore.

i'm not going to further belabour the point again how this "apology" is not an apology at all, but a statement where he doubles down on everything, omitting important facts, twisting truths, dancing around the issue at heart, and so much more.

it's frankly exhausting at this point.

i want to address one thing specifically however since he thought it was prudent to dedicate an entire paragraph to it in his "apology".

the fact that he wrote this:

"Truthfully I am not sure when or if I’ll begin creating again but I will continue to ask for permission to credit/use someone’s works if I feel like I’m inspired like I honestly had been doing following the late March situation. I do not expect any forgiveness or positive reactions to come out of this tbh, I just know an apology was warranted and deserved. This time I’m actually taking a step back to evaluate it."

after he just said this:

"To one gifset in particular, the hands set, that gifset was honestly a pure coincidence/accident. I truthfully had no idea that the blog had done something similar first. Hands are a common theme in Gales romance that I picked up on and I had no idea a similar set was done prior. I can say this about other sets too but it was this one in particular that I can honestly say was an honest coincidence/accident. And I couldn’t have known that those scenes/themes bore any special significance to that blog. Also I want to acknowledge I was never seeking “mutualship” but more so I enjoyed them as a creator and most likely had tumblr technical issues. I’m sorry if my actions ever made you feel unsafe, that’s the last thing I’d want to make someone feel :/"

it's just... absolutely vile to me.

first off, i have to ask: which is it? are you "apologising" or are you still trying to pretend that the concepts gifs i created and you stole are "common" things that you "picked up on" and "had no idea a similar set was done prior", which you could "say about other sets too"?

i'm confused at this point...

i'm being facetious here. i'm not. he's not sorry. he's sorry he got caught. again. and that, this time, it reached other parts of the fandom that it previously didn't, where he couldn't lie anymore about how all of this is just a case of people bullying him, of people being exclusive and clique-y.

i don't understand why he singled that set out in his "apology", however, other than that he must know by at this point that it's the one gifset that most upset me. not only because he stole it twice, but because it is so meaningful to me.

so... let's look at the facts here:

he followed me from early on, ever since my blog got traction in the bg3 fandom after the full release of the game

he engaged with me via messages and comments at around this time

there was no talk abt this theme specifically in relation to gale until after my meta and gifset gained traction, despite being a set containing an original character, which generally does worse in terms of engagement

he stole several other of my concept gifsets that i posted around this period in time (gale + missing waterdeep, gale + saying i love you, gale of waterdeep vs gale dekarios, one of my oc compilation sets)

he contacted me to remake a gifset in particular that was an older set as well, just like the hands set

i showed side by comparisons in my original post (same scenes, same frames, same framing, same caption) and it was so blatant to the point of where several people reached out to me, confused if the copy is actually my set or reblogging it, thinking it was mine

i think it's pretty obvious what actually happened, considering the context and, to be honest, at this point i don't think even he believes his own lies anymore.

all i can say is that this was not about apologising - none of this was - it was about trying to save face and doubling down.

[woozapooza]

I know I’ve said basically this same thing before, but I was thinking about it again, so here we go again: interpretation of a work of fiction is a personal thing and there’s really no objectively correct reading, but personally, I’m eternally unconvinced by and uninterested in readings of The Sopranos that boil down to “these people literally cannot change, they’re destined to be Like This for the rest of their lives.” Obviously the show excels at showing the factors that constrain people’s choices, but if we’re supposed to disapprove when the characters justify their bad choices by downplaying their own agency (which I think we are!), then we can’t also believe that those choices were literally inevitable. It’s gotta be one or the other!

Like, on a gifset of the scene in “Down Neck” where Tony says, “You’re born to this shit. You are what you are,” and Melfi responds, “Within that, there’s a range of choices,” I saw a bunch of people in the tags saying that Tony was right, and I’m still all ????? whenever I think of that. He’s 100% right that the circumstances of your birth inevitably affect your life and your character, but Melfi’s response is also obviously correct, both in Sopranos world and in the real world. To say that he’s right and she’s wrong is, IMO, to fall for the very lie that he (along with most of the characters on the show to one degree or another) tells himself so that he doesn’t have to take responsibility for his life and his actions! Granted, some of the people saying “he’s right” may have just been joking, or they may have forgotten the full context of the gifs. But this is also just one example of a pattern that doesn’t get any less strange to me no matter how much it pops up. Actually, it’s a pattern that extends beyond The Sopranos. I can’t wrap my head around a reading of any story that boils down to “it literally had to turn out this way, the characters were always going to do what they did.”* To me, that interpretation requires either (1) believing that people do not have agency in real life**, or (2) believing that fate doesn’t exist in real life but does exist in the story***, which to me automatically renders the story pointless and boring because at that point it has nothing to say about real life.

Absolutely NOT trying to start a fight or anything, I literally just wanted to get these thoughts out of my head. Actually, no, I had to get these thoughts out of my head. I don’t have free will, which means you can’t criticize anything I do. Sorry but I am naught but a helpless victim of destiny 🤷‍♀️

*from an in-universe perspective, I mean. Not from a meta perspective. **obligatory blanket disclaimer that I realize that there are limits to any one person’s agency and I am NOT saying that you can do literally anything if you just try hard enough ***obviously some stories do have destiny built into them in the form of, like, prophecies or whatever, but that’s not what I’m talking about here

[moonlightspencie]

hear me out… washing the impala at the bunker with dean when you’re bored. please and thank you 🫶🏼

literally rbed a gifset of him doing that exact thing earlier today. i’m feral for this scene {and the entire episode} so my brain is running wild rn hehe (also the quote from said episode, “i’m mostly confused” was one of my first handles on tumblr)

pairing: dean winchester x gn!reader

—————

You strolled around the bunker, frankly unsure what to do with yourself without the absolute urgency of chasing down some big bad. Not even a casual case had come up in a couple days, and you were growing a bit restless.

You finally ran into Sam after wandering for a while, catching him as he made a sandwich in the kitchen.

“Hey,” you greeted briefly, walking over to steal a piece of ham.

You chewed on it as he glanced at you with a quirked brow. He chuckled softly, then sighed.

“Hey,” he finally said. “You done eating my sandwich ingredients?”

“It was one piece of ham, Sammy.”

“Sam,” he corrected.

“I’ve been living with y’all for how long?”

He paused, then shook his head softly with a smile.

“You doing anything today?” you asked, hopping up on the counter.

He watched you for a moment. “Not really.”

“Ugh,” you groaned.

“What?” he asked, laughing.

“I’m bored,” you exclaimed. “We’re all cooped up, I need to… I need to do something.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” he shrugged. “I’m gonna eat my sandwich.”

You sighed hard. “Where’s Dean?”

“Garage. I think he’s washing the cars.”

“All of em?”

“Probably,” he said with a smirk. “Go bother him.”

“Bother him? You think I’m bothering you?”

“Yes.”

You scoffed playfully, hopping off the counter. You started walking away, but made sure to get the last word in.

“One of these days I’ll be long gone and you’re gonna miss me like crazy, Sammy.”

He smiled again, not able to get in a word as you left for the garage.

You heard music playing before you even got to the door, opening it carefully and walking inside. You saw him, soaking the impala in soap and water, just a black t-shirt and jeans.

At least he wasn’t wearing the short-shorts this time.

You let yourself watch him for a few moments, never not in awe as to how someone could look so good in a plain black t-shirt. Eventually you decided to stop creeping on him and headed towards him instead.

“Hey,” he said as soon as he saw you.

“Hey. You need help?” you asked, lingering near the hood as he wiped down the windshield. “And by that I mean, please let me help. I’m dying to do something.”

He smiled, nodding towards the suds-filled bucket.

“Grab a sponge.”

You picked up the other sponge from the bucket, wasting no time in scrubbing down the roof of the car. You both listened to the music, slowly but surely getting every nook and cranny of the vehicle. You were working on one of the back wheel wells when Dean grabbed your attention.

“Hey, trade-off,” he said, tossing a newly-wet sponge in your direction.

Unfortunately for you, he didn’t give enough of a verbal warning. The heavy sponge hit you in the leg, knocking you off your balance and making you land straight on your butt. You opened your mouth in a feigned offense.

“You dick,” you said, laughing lightly.

He laughed at you, not even bothering to help you back up. You scrambled up, slamming the sponge on top of the car and grabbing the hose. You called for him, stopping him from laughing right as you sprayed him with the hose, effectively soaking his shirt.

His eyes went wide, freezing in his motions for a few seconds.

“You little—”

He started after you, not stopping even as you started spraying him again.

“No!” you squealed.

He closed in, grabbing you and effectively trapping you against the car. He wrestled the hose from your hand, turning it on you.

“How do you like it?”

You screamed and laughed, trying to push him off. He was relentless, giggling with glee as he soaked you completely. You reached behind you to get the sponge, wringing it out over his head. Luckily for you, it shocked him enough to get out of his grip. Unluckily for you, he quickly recovered and caught up to you before you could get far.

“You’re not getting away that easy,” he muttered.

He grabbed you from behind as you tried running, pulling you into his chest. His arms wrapped around you, holding your arms to your chest. You laughed hard, trying to wriggle away.

“You’re so mean,” you yelled, his grip only tightening.

“Don’t start what you can’t finish,” he said into your ear, clearly proud of himself.

“Whoa,” you heard Sam’s voice. “Should I give you two some privacy?”

You stood up a little straighter, looking in his direction. Dean only slightly loosened his grip.

“We’re washing the car,” you stated as if he didn’t just walk in with fully functional eyes.

He merely quirked a brow. “You two look cleaner than the car.”

“She started it,” Dean said quickly.

You craned your neck to see him behind you, giving him a sour look.

“You threw a sponge at me.”

“You hosed me down.”

Sam nodded slowly, backing out of the room quietly to retreat.

“Not fair,” you said, almost smiling again.

“Very fair,” he stated.

“Let me go,” you laughed.

“No way,” he said, only holding on tighter. “This is your punishment.”

You smirked. “If you really wanted to cuddle this bad, you could’ve just asked, you know?”

“How much you gonna let me ask for?”

“Not much I wouldn’t,” you said, hoping this wasn’t crossing any lines.

He hummed, an obvious smile in his voice, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Apparently, he didn’t care much about a crossed line or two.

check out the drabble masterlist | send requests for more

[obsessioncollector]

haiiiii peyton ^_^ what were your favorite books this year?

Hiiii Lane!! 🤗💝 I hope you're having a lovely holiday or just a lovely day if you're not celebrating! I am so indecisive when it comes to picking faves so enjoy my non-answer 😊 I'm also going to tag you celia @symptomofloves bc you said you want to see my faves! ❤️

I would say the overarching theme of the year has been longing, desire, eroticism, and obsession, in many manifestations. So I'm going to list a cluster of excellent and often insanity-inducing (compliment!) books that fall into that category, in the order of when I read them (so unranked):

Dennis Cooper — George Miles cycle: THE obsessioncollector saga... Definitely not for everyone bc it's very graphic and upsetting, but he captures the desire for understanding and connection so well. I read it at the beginning of the year so it really set the tone for the year to come.

Mary Gaitskill — Bad Behavior: A story collection! She is one of those writers who articulates things I never realized I feel—reading her is such a revelation!

D.H. Lawrence — The Rainbow; Women in Love: Would transitioning have saved her? I'm kidding but truly he captures the experience of being a teen girl and young woman so well. (These two books are a diptych so I get to lump them together.)

Kathy Acker — In Memoriam to Identity: Read this so you can enjoy the sadly defunct @kathyack-blog-blog 😊 Like Mary Gaitskill in that she captures elements of myself I never knew existed.

Angela Carter — Burning Your Boats: The Collected Stories and The Magic Toyshop: Her most famous work is the story collection The Bloody Chamber, so I also recommend starting there if you want something less daunting than the complete stories. I love Angela Carter! I think I reblogged a gifset of her talking about her work being self-indulgent but she is self-indulgent in the same ways as me! Gothic and elegant and she is such a master of the fairytale/folklore retelling, which I think is so often done in boring and predictable ways.

Edmund White — A Boy's Own Story: All bangers from the very first few pages! Such an eloquent examination of a self-conscious adolescent painfully dedicated to trying to understand himself and others. Reminiscient of that Mishima quote about how he thought he was more mature than the other boys but it was just because he thought about himself more bc he was so insecure </3

And then here are a handful of ones that don't fit into that theme but were nonetheless highlights:

Scholastique Mukasonga — Our Lady of the Nile: Celia is also a Mukasonga fan so you know she has to be good! 😊 This is a collection of interlinked short stories, all set at a Rwandan boarding school. Masterfully combines the more mundane tensions of adolescence with the leadup to the genocide.

Maya Binyam — Hangman: A 2023 release! I don't read many recent releases bc I find it difficult to sift through the hype but I'm so glad I read this one. A treasure and also quite distinctive in terms of the style and structure.

Mae M. Ngai — The Chinese Question: This was my only 5 star nonfiction of the year! Ngai is probably better known for her book about undocumented immigrants in US history, but I read this one bc it was available at my library and it's excellent. It focuses on restrictions on Chinese immigration, both in the US and also South Africa and Australia, around the time of the Gold Rush. Ties into contemporary issues, both in terms of immigration (unsurprisingly) but also in terms of questions of diaspora and cultural identity.

Jhumpa Lahiri — Interpreter of Maladies: I should have read this years ago but I think I unconsciously avoid contemporary writers from bourgeois New England backgrounds bc that's literally me 😭😭😭 Pretty much the platonic idea of a story collection though. All the characters seem so fully realized, in such a small amount of time!

Thomas Mann — Death in Venice and Other Tales: Sometimes people talk about reading to see themselves reflected but Mann is a writer to read if you want to see yourself reflected in the most unflattering light possible 😭 Another writer I'd been putting off for way too long.

Isabella Hammad — Enter Ghost: As I said wrt Angela Carter, I can be wary of anything marketed as a retelling or too intertextual/meta bc I think they're often done poorly, but this is an exception! To be clear, it's not a retelling, but it's centered on a British Palestinian theatre actress who impulsively joins a Palestinian production of Hamlet while visiting her sister. Very intriguing examination of the protagonist trying to understand her own Palestinian identity while also negotiating how to present herself to her family + friends and the world and resists simple dichotomies.