#also where was he during the s5 finale???

[frigidlyauthorial]

so sleepy tired so to keep myself awake I’m mentally picking apart every plot hole one miraculous ladybug.

[kyri45]

✨ShadowPeach Bio Parents Bio AU Q&A! 07/12✨

Welcome to the Q&A! A space where I can answer related or similar question about the Shadowpeach Bio Parents AU! If you submitted your ask anonimously, then you’ll have to check the whole post if it’s answered here, if it’s not, worry not! Your asks might have been used for a future comic or just in the queue~

Anonimo ha chiesto: Ok hear me out, what if Mac and Wukong talk about how afraid of dying Wukong is and how that fear now also applies to MK and maybe even Mac too

aaaaahh how about the fact that now Wukong is MROE afraid of MK dying than himself (since that's basically what happened in S5)

Anonimo ha chiesto: I am just imagining how will shadowpeach relationship improve that they will start courting each other and mk is like.. :0 DAMN U SURE UR THE SAME MONKEYS AS WHEN YOU WERE TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER!!!

BOY SURE THEY ARE!!!

@kristea9ay ha chiesto: Love your last post! I need more Spicynoodles content ISTG 😭 but the last post got me thinking, has anyone told Red what MK attempted to do? Or did MK just randomly mention it during a conversation. MK: oh yeah, I found out I could teleported right before I was about to sacrifice myself- Red: YOU-WHAT?! MK: right?? I didn't even know I could do that! Do you know how much easier delivering noodles would have been? Red: no- you- NOODLE BOY-!

LMAO POOR RED SON EVERY DAY MK PULLS OUT A NEW SHENANIGAN

Anonimo ha chiesto: Please show us Macaque courtnapping wukong in the past 🙏🙏🙏 Anonimo ha chiesto: Can, can we see what Macaque actually DID to courtnap Wukong? Please? Please and thank you? With a cherry on top? AND with an ice cream sundae!!!

I wasn't lying when I said it really was the tickle war. A very jealous tickle war.

@beanspassin ha chiesto: OMG I just had a thought!!! What if when MK finally gets the hang of his shadow powers, shadow portals to be specific- ITS WHEN HES COURTNAPPING REDSON!!!! >:3c

AAAWW THAT COULD BE ADORABLEE!! Unfortunately MK is not able to make shadow powers at all, there are certain powers that just he didn't inherit

Anonimo ha chiesto: What will we see first Shadowpeach marriage OR spicynodlles marriage??

Oh man I don't know, I want to say Shadowpeach since Spicynoodle is still a pretty new couple. They are both young (I mean, MK is) and still need some times to know each other.

Anonimo ha chiesto: I need more of wukong and Mk picking up there boyfriends like there bags of grapes. love me some stronk boyfriends

THEY ARE STRONKKKK I would see Wukong just lifting the whole fam

Anonimo ha chiesto: 1st- I LOVE YOUR COMIC! Is so good! Your stories make me want to draw and create and I really want to thank you because they do inspire me. I love your linework and your use of shape and YOUR EXPRESSIONS!?? Ugh! they are lovely 💕 With that said. And I am sorry if this is a weird question but with MK and Swk being trans and Mac seemingly not, I was wondering if you had any hcs with Mac’s gender? I’ve seen a bunch of the fandom hc mac as either nb, genderfluid or a trans woman. And I found it funny that he is now the cis monkey 😂. So I though I’ll ask. Also totally fine if you hc him as cis! Is just that at least with the fandom I interact with the one that tends to be the trans one is Macaque so It was honestly nice se SWK for a change! But I still wonder, you know? Anyways! Have a good day!

mmmm nope I don't. I don't have any preferences either so any of you can feel free on giving them any kind of headcanon. Anonimo ha chiesto:

*Jumps through window* OW OH HI JUST WANTED TO POP IN AND SAY I LOVE YOUR SHADOWPEACH SERIES OKAY BYE *runs through a wall* @honktraband01 ha chiesto: OUGHHHHHH YOUR ART AND STORYTELLING IS PHENOMENAL!!!! I CAN’T GET ENOUGH!!! (Especially the ShadowPeach AU omg) and I’m so excited for whenever the next part comes out I practically screamed when Mac dropped part of his glamour omg. I may or may not have decided to finally start binging LMK because of this au… and may also be working on various bits of fan art…. So THANK YOU!!! I’ve been in-between hyperfixations and this fixed it :33 @mistress-of-nightmares ha chiesto: So I discovered your Shadowpeach bio parents AU two weeks ago on a sunday evening and my weekly phone screentime thingamabob came this Monday and. My tumblr activity has tripled in a single week. Bc I re-read your comic like four times. Jsyk 👌 Anonimo ha chiesto: I just wanted to let you know that your art is amazing, and your shadowpeach AU is the reason I binged the entire LMK series in 2 weeks. Anonimo ha chiesto: This is not a question. I just want to say I love your shadowpeach bio dad au, and I hope you have a good life and be happy and never give up what makes you happy and I know I like it because when something makes me feel less tired and more happy I know it is a great thing to have so keep it going 💜💜💜

majoraofmask ha chiesto: I LOVE YOUR ART AO MUCH! Both of your comic series have my brain in a chokehold and I do not want to let go! Your art and character writing is so tasty! Gradients my beloved ♥️♥️ zazzalonies ha chiesto: Your comic brings me life, I was drifting out of the fandom until I found this and it’s the best thing I’ve found on tumbler, that you for your work 🥰🥰 m4delin ha chiesto: I have never seen the lego monkey kid series, but I'm super hooked onto the bio dad au. it's amazing

AJCCBOADCB THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LOVE GUYS!!!

@dragonaboni-blog ha chiesto: Hi! I'm thinking of doing a redraw of a scene from Shadowpeach AU (I won't say which one, it's a secret ;3) But I'd like to know if you have a color reference of Redson, pretty please~ OwO

If you wait just a little more I might draw him with colors, but until then very sorry but not at the moment.

Anonimo ha chiesto: So Umm since we got macaque being under moonlight shall we get wukong with sunshine??

Well he is most of the time under the sunshine but maybe we will see him absolutely shining.

Anonimo ha chiesto: does Mac experience anything else during esclipes? Mood swings? Angst? 👀 Hormones? 👀👀👀👀👀 I suspect SWK would be right there for him. It would be so cute to see him help Macque. 🥰

I guess he does have mood swings and also tirediness. He's more sleepy but at same time can't sleep. It doesn't hurt him but he feels the fact that he is weaker.

Anonimo ha chiesto: Ok but in ch.14 of vol.1 of JTTW, Wukong pilfers one of Tripitaka's old shirts and Tripitaka sees him wearing it and says he can keep it. Canon Wukong steals clothes from the people around him!!

AWWW HE GOT A COLLECTION OF LOVED ONES CLOTHES!

[quitealotofsodapop]

I had an evil little thought at midnight based on the fight under the mountain Wukong had. Specifically the "Everything I did was for US" line in a context separate from stone eggs.

I still think it's true. We discussed in the DMs how Wukong and Macaque met and fell in love, how Wukong's fight with Havoc had not been as easy as the book would have us believe and how a direct consequence of that fight was Wukong being dragged into Diyu. In the event of Wukong and Macaque being childhood friends who were separated after a very short interaction as cubs and then meeting again as teenagers during the mess with Havoc, he'd recognize his cuboid friends name as someone destined to die soon and panic because he had promised they'd meet again and he couldn't meet with Liu'er if he died! So in addition to wiping his name he wiped Liu'er and then as many other monkies as he could to cover the fact he was specifically protecting Macaque.

In the case of the Immortal Peaches, it was less about the insult to his hard work and more about the fact that Macaque was deathly ill, didn't even know he was sick too since he had always been sickly and simply thought he was jsut having one of his usual episodes, and only two known cures. One that is rare beyond belief and one being regular dosages of a certain type of peach that Wukong was tending to the orchard of at the time when Macaque's illness had worsened.

Thus when he was told that demons were not to partake in the peaches, the only thing that could save his mate's life, he made a desperate, drunken play. He'd already been sneaking peaches down to Macaque, usually the worst of the crop, the ones who still have the immortal properties he was looking for but wouldn't be missed by the celestials. But now he wasn't going to be subtle anymore. The Pills of Immortality were taken in error, being unable to tell what they were from his drunken stupor as after destroying the party and stealing all the peaches he could he had taken the wone and lost himself to it, drinking his sorrows over wasting his time trying to appease gods who never would have saved his mate away. The War was fought for the sake of seizing control of the Orchard for Macaque, nobody but Wukong knew this.

Which brings us to the fight under the mountain. And how Macaque had called Wukong out, claiming him to be a selfish demon who just did whatever he wanted and sought nothing but power for himself. When the truth was anything but that. And then later, the battle where Wukong himself became the very thing to claim the life of the beloved he had fought so hard to spare from the pain of death.

A spare copy of the Book of the Dead, an unofficial prototype of sorts, is found. And Li Jing and Queen Mother opened an investigation on many things, namely the true cause of death for the Jade Emperor, based on that information. One of the record keepers doing the investigation reached out to Macaque upon discovering the inconsistency in his cause of death.

We discussed this idea in the Dms for a while, and the work-in-progress name for the idea is "Drafted Fate" for reasons that will become clear soon:

"The Book/Scrolls of the Dead", like any real official published work, has a draft copy containing most of the details of the final product.

However, while the Draft Copy may have the information of those included in the final Book of the Dead, it cannot be altered to change the fate of those listed. It's also constantly being updated by a team of exhausted record keepers. It also can be pretty outdated in some sections, especially considering those who became immortal afterwards or had a revival or two.

Think of it like an entire room full of jumbled scrolls and files with stick notes and corrections sticking out of them.

After the events of S5 with the loss of the Ten Kings; the Underworld has been scrambling to stay functioning as normal. King Yama hasn't slept in weeks. A few times, Xie, Fan, Ox-Head and Horse-Face are so overworked that they legit forget to collect any souls to process and there was a straight week where no one died.

One too many goofs happen and Yama shouts for the Record Keepers to get him the Draft Copy so he can fact check what's written down in the book.

Soon afterwards, The Six Eared Macaque is summoned forth by the infernal collectors...

Ox-Head: "Liu'er Mihou, according to the records shown in the Book of the Dead and your official Scroll, you really should be dead." Macaque, bored: "Yeah, yeah. All those years ago when I fought Wukong." Horse-Face: "No not that. According to the Draft Copy - you were fated to die nearly two thousand years ago!" Macaque, confused on so many levels: "The what?" Ox-Head, reading a drafted Scroll: "Yup, right here. Liu Er Mihou. Prolonged chronic illness, before you reached adulthood." Macaque: "That... makes no sense. I haven't been seriously ill in ages!" Horse-Face: "The entry is no lie. Although your name is not in the official Book of the Dead, your cause of death was predetermined long before Sun Wukong scrubbed his and many other monkey's names from the records. There is one or two corrections added here for times you should have died later on but somehow avoided those fates as well." Macaque: "I mean... I remember not being the healthiest cub, but I figured that was from being born on the Moon and not adapting to Earth's environment so good." (*The collectors share a look*) Ox-Head: "If I am not mistaken... this particular illness can only be treated and cured by regularly ingesting divine plant life. Namely, either bloomed Crimson Jimsonweed OR..." Macaque, unease growing: "Or what?" Ox-Head: "Peaches from the Empress's orchard." Horse-Face, nods: "There's a reason why they act as an antidote for most toxins." Macaque: "Think the first time I ever ate a Peach like that was when..." (*realising*) "Oh no..."

It quickly becomes clear that the reason Wukong was so insistent on his best bud having his fill of peaches was more than a friend sharing the bounty of his work or theft. But rather it was Wukong's way of treating Macaque's illness without alarming him or making his condition known to those who would have exploited it.

See, Wukong got a good look at the official Book of the Dead when he disbuted his unlawful capture into the Underworld. He saw not only his true name and predicted death... but that of his closest and oldest companion.

A death that would come to pass with or without his name in the Book.

Macaque's mind is reeling with the implications. How long did Wukong know? When did he discover that the Peaches of Immortality could treat his condition? When did he start sneaking the forbidden fruit to him under threat of punishment by Heaven?

Did a loyal attendant seeking panacea for his dearest friend reach his breaking point upon learning he would be denied the same fruit that the immortals fragrantly feasted upon?

By the gods, did he stumble drunkenly into Lao Tzu's lab the night of that fateful banquet seeking a cure?!

Macaque: "Peaches, answer me this question honestly and I will spend eternity taking back the things I said." Wukong, nervous: "Yeah?" Macaque: "Did you know of my intended cause of death all those centuries ago?" Wukong: (refuses to answer) Macaque: (sighs deeply. More disappointed in himself than Wukong's inability to explain his actions) Wukong, quietly: "It wasn't fair… the immortals could eat peaches like candy and you were dying on earth..." Macaque, voice catching in throat: "And I- Under the mountain I had thrown it all in your face... you... you really did do it for us. For me." Wukong: (*smiles wistfully*) (*the pair share a hug. both smell heavily of peaches*)

Macaque never complains about Wukong's habit of offering him peaches ever again.

And the celestial royal family, upon checking the Draft Copy of the Book of the Dead, discover an unusual pattern amongst those Sun Wukong has had contact with...

Namely that they're all supposed to be dead according to the predictions deemed concrete since time incomparable.

See, in Journey to the West; the Buddha describes Wukong's powers as such:

"Knows transformations, Recognizes the seasons, Discerns the advantages of earth, And is able to alter the course of planets and stars."

Wukong seems to be confused by the last line. He's pretty sure he hasn't been tossing stars and planets around.

In the context of this Au/idea; the last part isn't (entirely) literal.

You see, one of the most popular forms of traditional fortune-telling and prediction-making in China comes from careful calculations of a person or thing in conjuncture with planetary bodies i.e the planets and stars.

The Buddha had basically warned everyone present that Wukong had the ability to literally change fate. For better or for worse...

Makes sense for a creature partially formed by the Goddess of Positive Chaos, Nuwa herself, to ignore the plans the universe had set out for everyone else!

[lover-of-mine]

Okay, so I was watching the s5 supercut (link to those here), and like, we now know that they wanted to make Buck bi in season 4 but that was blocked by fox and that does give the opening to assume Eddie finding out he is some shade of queer was part of the plan for s5, especially considering the way that it is very easy to add a sexuality crisis to his breakdown. But I was chilling but I have blue and yellow on the brain and I got distracted by the way in 501, Eddie's panic attack arc is blue and yellow coded in a similar what 8a has been blue and yellow coded for Eddie (meta on that here), with the blue pamphlet and the yellow gurney, the gloves, and the bags.

I latched onto the yellow gurney because, well, not yellow lol

So obviously, I went chasing stuff in season 5 because why not? As usual tho, I do get more intense about the yellow when applied to Eddie since the blue has already been established as Buck's.

Also, the season overall has blue and yellow call, like the cheerleaders' call from 504 and the chainsaw one from 505, the 505 one even the dispatch side of it is blue and yellow, which is a choice.

But anyway, beyond 501 for buddie. The yellow rags staying behind Buck and the blue sheets around Eddie for the 502 conversation. The yellow beer with a blue ice pack (and a blue hoodie in 504).

The whole kidnapping plot in 506, the choice to put Mitchel and the mom in similar yellowish tones, the way they keep the suspenders up so both of them have the blue and yellow on them, the amount of blue and yellow instruments around them at that ambulance. The part that I think is the most fun here tho, is the way that when Eddie is talking to Mitchel inside the ambulance, the sirens only flash blue, the whole conversation plays out with only blue lights, until Eddie goes to open the doors and the red finally comes into play. I like the way they used those carts to keep the yellow around both of them while inside the hospital.

This does lead us to the most important yellow of the season imo, the yellow behind Eddie when he tells them he's leaving the 118 feels pointed to me now lol. I also think the yellow lighting when he's talking to Chris in 511 is important, especially because that yellow element isn't there when he's talking to Buck in 511 or even when he's talking to Chris in 514.

Not exactly Eddie, but important anyway, the way Chris is yellow for the breakdown where Buck is blue and red, I feel like it plays into the thing with all the primary colors I suggest on the meta for 8a.

In 515, when he's talking to May, the blue and yellow literal color coding on the computer and the yellow files.

There's stuff going on in 516, the way they play with the way dispatch has a lot of blue lights and the warm lighting of the actual fire.

Also Buck and the suspenders giving them yellow to Eddie's blue shirt. There's also the yellow of Chris's room in 517.

There's a lot of color when Eddie is in Texas during 517, but I do think that the sign and the cake being majorly yellow is an interesting choice.

And to end it all in a nice note, when they are fixing Eddie's room, Buck is placing blue strips on the wall, while Eddie goes over it with a yellow sponge.

They want my man out too lol.

And the way I just wanted to chill watching an hour of buddie and ended up writing a meta, will my brain ever chill?

Anyway, if you read this, I love you 🫶

[loosethreadsofyoursoul]

while i will always love and appreciate the bisexual dean winchester agenda, i truly believe that if he was raised differently—or maybe if he grew up today instead—that boy would have been gay. like his love for women in a romantic/sexual context was always such a caricature and was continuously used as a symbol of masculinity that played against the roles assigned to him by his father growing up for the sake of suppressing any queerness he might exhibit. now whether that suppression was purposely written into his character or was a reaction to the character they had created, i’m not sure, but it’s there regardless.

i don’t mean to dismiss the love he felt for cassie or lisa, but particularly with lisa, i’m not sure he was ever in love with her, despite the fact that he did care for both her and ben. i get so frustrated watching the end of s5 because him going to her house and his perfect “apple pie life” being with her in suburbia genuinely came out of nowhere and i’ve never understood a) why it had to happen, and b) why it had to be lisa. but thinking about it in this sense, she was the closest thing he had in his life to everything he was raised to believe he should want by one john winchester, who lost his perfect wife, perfect family, perfect apple pie life and sent all of them down this path in the first place. so of course to dean, his happy ending would be with someone like lisa. but that’s the important part. someone like lisa, not lisa herself. he may have had love for her and he may have been able to picture a life with her, but it wasn’t necessarily because she was everything he wanted; she was a symbol of the things that tore his family apart and so to be with her felt like he was finally able to put some of it back together. and that makes me so sad for him because all of that is a result of the sense of responsibility ingrained in him growing up by john, not something he wanted for himself.

but back to his general attitude towards women, there was an excellent post that said he only acts like the typical womanizer he has a reputation for being around women deemed “stereotypical” by the misogynistic perspective. otherwise, he tends to take on a fairly brotherly role; he doesn’t tend to pursue any women he can “take seriously,” and is more intimidated or impressed by them than anything else. with the exception of cassie (which was pre-series and we never got full context for in the first place), he only ever pursued women with whom he would have a definitive ending—by that i mean women who he knows he’ll never see again or who would have a clearly defined role during the time they’re together that wouldn’t threaten the status quo. and yes these could also be the traits of a commitment-phobe or someone chronically on the move, but for one, sam doesn’t tend to do the same thing (see ruby, amelia, and eileen), and for two, given the things i mentioned already, it makes me consider it more of a result of him not actually being interested in women romantically.

his reaction to women when not purposely used as the butt of a joke or to perpetuate the “womanizer dean winchester” agenda is often so innately fraternal, caring in a way that doesn’t have any expectations behind it. and when there is a romantic context, so much of the relationship can be attributed to the way john raised him and the beliefs he has as a direct result; it’s never simply been built on the foundation of love.

every time he is dismissed as this macho het guy, it also dismisses so much of what makes him a wonderful character, and yes a lot of that is his queerness. so in a world where he didn’t grow up with roles and responsibilities that shaped him into someone he knew his dad hated and forced him to create this character for himself in order to survive? i think he would have been gay and he would have been okay with that.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Since you’ve talked about the secret between Adrien and Mari and how Adrien has no agency, back when the s5 bible leaked, there was a part where it said that „Adrien will never find out about his father being Hawkmoth“ or something like that.

Do you think the writers will actually stick with that rule? Because I just can‘t see how this is supposed to be narratively satisfying…

I have no idea and that's not a compliment. It's a condemnation. Adrien should absolutely find out about his father. The story isn't satisfying if he doesn't. But Miraculous doesn't seem to care about being satisfying. It cares about being shocking and that's a terrible thing. To explain why, let's talk about the topic of predictability in narratives and why it's generally a good thing.

We'll start with a quote from a famous George R.R. Martin interview where he perfectly explains why you want your stories to make logical sense with the final line of the quote being the most important part:

Before the Internet, one reader could guess the ending you wanna do for your novel, but the other 10.000 wouldn’t know anything and they would be surprised. However, now, those 10.000 people use the Internet and read the right theories. They say: “Oh God, the butler did it!”, to use an example of a mystery novel. Then, you think: “I have to change the ending! The maiden would be the criminal!” To my mind that way is a disaster because if you are doing well you work, the books are full of clues that point to the butler doing it and help you to figure up the butler did it, but if you change the ending to point the maiden, the clues make no sense anymore; they are wrong or are lies, and I am not a liar.

This is a writing rule that I believe in my soul, but that the Miraculous writers don't seem to care about. Miraculous will introduce things that should be important to the story, but they end up meaning nothing.

A great - and relevant - example of this is the Chat Blanc stuff. Chat Blanc comes near the end of season three, early season four sees Marinette have a nightmare about Chat Blanc, and late season four is all about Chat Noir feeling left out as Marinette trusts Alya over him. Many viewers looked at these story beats and went, "Oh, okay, so Chat Blanc is causing Marinette to push Chat Noir away. Got it." because it honestly was the only thing that made any sense.

But that's not what was going on. The official word is that Marinette was just stressed over her new role as the guardian even though nothing in the text really explains why that would strain her relationship with Chat Noir. It actively improves her relationship with Alya! Why wouldn't it do the same with her long-term partner? As we've discussed several times, he was fine with the status quo at the start of the season and didn't even ask for more responsibility until Kuro Neko so it's not like he was doing anything to stress her out until he randomly quit on her.

This begs the question: if Chat Blanc isn't haunting Marinette and Chat Noir isn't stressing her, then why doesn't she share things with Chat Noir? Why go with Alya when Alya's identity was revealed to the villain requiring Alya to go into "hiding" as Rena Furtive? There's really nothing in the text to answer those incredibly important questions. Question that are only incredibly important because the writers actively chose to have multiple episodes dedicated to Chat Noir feeling left out. Why that happened really isn't clear so there's also no clear resolution. What needs to change? No clue! Did that thing change? Once again, no clue! It's all set up with no pay off!

Or, at least, we don't get the kind of pay off you'd expect to see. Aka the big dramatic moment where Ladybug finally confesses what happened to her. Instead, Chat Blanc's big pay off is Adrien missing the season five fight because he just magically knows that Chat Blanc happened:

During the scene that leads to Adrien wearing the Alliance ring after being reticent to it, [the writers] say that they had a conflict when writing it as they had to find a way for Adrien to not become his superhero self, cataclysm the walls and go help his lady in Paris. The end result is that Adrien is reminded of the devastating effect of his power by the nightmare and would therefore do anything to avoid hurting people, and so he wears the ring. Mélanie says that he "could become Chat Blanc" and the others add that even though he does not remember and has never lived it, Chat Blanc still has an influence on his actions.

So Chat Blanc doesn't matter to the person who actually met him, but it does matter to the person who was Chat Blanc an alternate timeline even though this show has never once showed another akuma victim to be haunted by their akumatization. Does that make any sense? No, it's frustrating and confusing, but it does tell us the way these writers think and that insight doesn't bode well for Adrien learning the truth about his father. It's not enough for me to say with certainty that it will never happen, but I would not assume that it will happen. The show has an active pattern of avoiding these kinds of payoffs:

Example 1: Multiple Lila appearances had her claiming to be Ladybug's BFF and she was even interviewed for the Ladyblog based on this lie, but as soon as Alya learns Ladybug's identity, the show conveniently forgets about this ongoing lie because then Alya would be against Lila and the writers didn't want that.

Example 2: Marinette gave Alya the Fox without telling Chat Noir that they had a new full-time teammate, but Chat Noir never learns about this development. The most he gets is that Ladybug revealed her identity to someone, which is nowhere near as important as the Rena thing in terms of the ongoing fight against Paris' resident supervillain. The fact that Rena Rouge is now Rena Furtive is literally never revealed to him. He learns that she's active in the final fight, but the name change and her status are forever a secret. Alya being Rena Furtive also leads to nothing useful for the heroes. You could remove that from season four and it would play almost exactly the same same for a few minor tweaks.

Example 3: Luka learns Ladybug and Chat Noir's identities in Wishmaker, but this reveal is just used as an excuse to write Luka off the show in season five. The episode that gets him written off shows Monarch realizing that Luka knows the identities because of some mental connection that happens during akumatization. This is damning because Kagami was akumatized twice in season five (Perfection and Protection) and we later learn that Kagami learned Marinette's secret identity during Perfection, the first of the two episodes. In fact, Kagami learned the secret mere minutes before getting akumatized and she was akumatized because Marinette wasn't talking to her so Marinette being Ladybug should have been on her mind and yet Monarch didn't get so much as a hint of any of this!!!!!

That's not even getting into the issue of the fact that nothing in Perfection so much as hints that Kagami knows even though the episode is all about her relationship with Marinette or the issue of Marinette keeping her secret identity safe even though she was almost akumatized the freaking times! SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!! WHY IS IT WRITTEN LIKE THIS??? How is anyone supposed to follow such shitty lore? The audience can't text appropriately if they don't know what the stakes are.

So, yeah, I'd put a small amount of money on Adrien never learning because that would be way too satisfying and Miraculous hates being satisfying or logical. The times we do get big reveals are generally terrible like with freaking Andre the Ice Cream Man being the one to tell Adrien about Marinette's crush or Lila being outed because of a plan Sabrina and Marinette made up off screen or Adrien finding out about Chat Blanc because magic. Watch Andre the Ice Cream Man be the one to tell Adrien about his dad for some reason. Nothing would surprise me at this point.

[ven0moir]

tw; rant. Once again here to remind everyone that byler not being endgame is, at best, negligent queerbaiting

this is the show where one of the producers said "the UD mythos is important but the heart of the show are its characters and their interconnectedness/family dynamics" or something along those lines AND also said that "very few things are coincidences in this show."

i'd have been ( and i bet a lot of other bylers too ) COMPLETELY FINE without byler even being a possible card on the table. i'd HAVE STILL BEEN A FAN OF THE SHOW without byler! in fact, i WAS--i cared more about el and hopper's rs than i did mike and will's. it wasn't until S4 that i REALLY got invested in the show bc of the promise of will's arc, WHICH INCLUDES MIKE. the way they handled the painting arc, if byler isn't endgame, is literally the most underwhelming thing i've seen.

the only difference that byler makes in my case is that if it hadn't come across as a real possibility, then i would've remained a casual viewer and not think about the show again until it came out, like yknow, most people. so this whole "will they won't they" thing going on makes it feel like a marketing technique to keep people who enjoy byler hooked at the promise of something significant developing there.

this isn't about "oh your ship didn't become canon? tough luck" it's legit that they would ruin their show for me FOR. NO. REASONNNNNN. I WAS ALREADY A FAN!!! I HAD NO BYLER EXPECTATIONS!!! not to mention how shitty it is on the lgbt community. and also, the mass hate bylers would get.

and before you say "its ur own fault for being delusional, they didn't queerbait--" I'm sorry but what Noah is doing IS QUEERBAIT even if he doesn't mean to and the duffers should tell him to stop hinting at byler until post s5 or whatever

im not even going to talk about the show IMPLYING BYLER for ages. for example; dustin telling lucas that he saw him and max holding hands and that meant there were feelings between them even if lucas denied it/said she was just scared vs mike holding will's hand AN EPISODE PRIOR

or the song "on the bus" playing during a lumax scene where they connected vs it playing on a byler scene in s4 using very similar phrasing it's like they're subtly winking at the audience.

the shitty way that mileven finally got their 'i love you' like im sorry it feels so rushed and awkward if this was supposed to be the culmination of mike's arc

i could literally go on and on and on and other bylers could as well so yeah. ugh im sorry for the negativity in the tag but i just REALLY need that to be very clear that byler vs mileven isn't an argument that is ocurring on equal ground and that byler isn't 'just a ship that people analyze too much'

if it was never going to be canon, THERE WAS NO NEED TO HINT AT IT **AT ALL** and THAT is what really grinds my gears. most bylers would still love ST bc our favorite character is WILL. we would've been fine if will's whole thing was telling his best friend he was gay and that's it. like, the bar is on the FLOOR ... me personally? i'll be satisfied with will getting a completed arc in the supernatural and having his moment to shine and bringing the story full circle like WE WERE PROMISED ( unless yknow, people want to call us stupid and delusional for expecting will to be important at all )

what i will NOT tolerate is people being mean to bylers for being upset about byler not being endgame in the end bc WE HAVE A RIGHT TO BE. and if you're one of those people sincerely: FUCK YOU. i wish you get exactly what you deserve. thank you for reading and that's it from me

[ohnopeh]

i love the idea that ian finally understands he had been making mickey believe he wasn't loved enough for not singing the paper.

he goes to mickey showing a ring and mickey is hopeful but also wary of what is happening, then ian says it

i love ian, but darling, you can be a bit dumb (its okay you are learning)

what could have mickey possibly thought? that ian will marry him cause gallagher keep their promises? that's all to it? is it not because he supposedly loves him and genuinely wants that?

the look on mickey's face as he realises what ian said makes me think that it was the moment mickey fears were ''confirmed''. ian didn't love him enough, of course he wouldn't, why would he? ian bought the promise ring, yes, but he still wouldn't wear it but hang it on his neck where he can hide it, is mickey not it? and then mickey says it

he realises mickey had been thinking ian didn’t love him and that’s it, he tried many times. by coming out, being there during the whole diagnosis, being broken up with but still thinking of him and hoping to be together, thinking he will be with him in mexico and then getting himself back to prison so that he can be with him, support him through all that. but that was it. he didn't have it in him to fight for them anymore, he had the rights to finally put himself first and say ''that's enough''. ‘you don’t love me enough now, and that’s fine, it’s cool.’

but ian fucked up. he now knows that mickey believed he wasn't enough, he wasn't the right one for ian.

it didn't even cross his mind that it could have been a possibility, cause since the diagnosis, ian had been so sure that he wasn't worth of mickey and the pain that comes by being around him, loving him.

so ian thinks : how can you ever be so sure you love me? how can you even possibly be in love with me when i have such disorder that won't make it easy for you? what do you even see in me to think i'm worth all of that?

the only explaination ian can think of for someone like mickey to fight so hard for their relationship to work is that : he's either crazy or he never experienced any other type of relationship before.

cause ian has, ian has dated other people after mickey and none of them loved him. one cheated on him, gaslighting him that it was okay cause it was a chick and not a guy. the other made it a challange for ian to be attracted to him, didn't respect ian when it came to his trauma regarding monica, didn't really care about ian being off his meds, being more concerned that his mania was making him the star of the news and not what trevor really wanted. mickey had never done that, mickey had always been there for ian and he knows that— he knows that mickey is the one he loves and the one that will do anything for him. he broke up with him because he loved mickey too much and wanted him to be free.

being with those people made it impossible for ian to even pretend that mickey wasn't the one he loved and that loved him back.

but mickey? he never had a relationship other than the one with ian, so how could he know that ian is the one if he never dated anyone else? someone ‘normal’, someone that wouldn’t make him worry and watch for his mood swings?

ian is telling mickey that he has a choice to do better— he’s telling him that out there, there’s someone that won’t hurt him, that won’t make mickey think they’re not in love enough to take the big step with him. cause ian knows mickey is everything— but how could mickey know that ian is that for him too?

i love how mickey’s expression changes as ian speaks. it's the moment it hits him that ian loves mickey enough, he loves him too much so that he questions himself just as much, deciding for both of them (once again) what mickey needs and who he shouldn't be with.

and i love that mickey finally understands everything, he understands why ian broke up with him in s5 and tried to move on and pretend mickey wasn’t what he wanted. mickey's first reaction is just to shake his head and say ''jesus christ, ian.''

and ian looks so confused, he might be thinking : what did i say wrong? i know i am right, you know that this is true. i'm a problem, i'm not worth it, can't you see? but that's mickey’s limit, it was ian’s moment to work on his not worthy of your love shit and realise that it’s all bullshit cause mickey is all in for them. he always has been no matter what.

and mickey knows so well that he can't do anything else to prove it to ian. he straight up tells him the answer to lip's ''figure out why you don't wanna marry him.'' 'cause he doesn't believe he's worth it. but mickey has proved him enough, mickey has told him what's ian true fear is and its not mickey's love for him that will fix it. it was ian's job to work through with it (and he did!! of course he did) back when this episode came out, i was so angry and frustrated about it, i guess growing up makes you see things differently uh?

[whateverisbeautiful]

Hi, I have been loving your Richonne kiss list. I was wondering if you could do another one with your favorite scenes with them comforting each other or being silly and goofy?

Thank you! 💗 Richonne’s playful side is one of my favorite things, so I love this idea and absolutely can make a list. Took me a minute because my mind read this ask through my extra lens and thought to make a compilation list of not only my favorites but every scene I could think of off memory where Richonne was being silly/funny, playful, flirty, or lighthearted lol. Here’s the list below 👌🏽😊⬇️:

SEASON 3

Even when Richonne were strangers, there were some great signs of the banter and lightheartedness that was going to develop even more in their relationship. The first glimpse of it is in Morgan’s apartment in Clear when Rick just has to comment on Michonne eating that protein bar, and she has that great response back, shrugging and saying “The mat said welcome.” Clear also includes Rick’s first notably flirtatious moment with Michonne when he asks if she wants to drive, and when she says yeah, he takes a more playful approach to the fact that Michonne knows he sees dead people by saying “Good, cuz I see things.”

And even at the end of season 3, when Michonne notes Rick could have just taken the formula, Rick’s “Must’ve been something else then” was very flirty and had a playful vibe to it even tho that man was not playing lol. His subconscious knew whatever effect Michonne had on him was something serious. 😋  

SEASON 4

Season 4 came out of the gate (quite literally) with showing that Rick and Michonne have got a lot more comfortable with each other since we last saw them in season 3, and have a super cute playful dynamic. This season, the very first scene between them includes Michonne returning from her outing and being eagerly greeted by the Grimes boys as she gives them both gifts. And Rick’s razor gift is almost strictly just like a gag gift that Michonne got to put a smile on his face as she teases him about his face losing the war.

Then there’s a whole lot of lighthearted moments between Rick, Michonne, and Carl while they travel as a trio in the second half of season 4. One of the silly/playful moments that stand out to me between Rick and Michonne during that time is when the three of them are about to eat and Rick asks how hungry they are on a scale of 1-10 and Michonne says “28.” I always love the family vibes of that scene and the way Rick seems tickled by her answer and gives her the food first.

Michonne proved to be one of the best at getting Rick to smile and laugh because even when the two of them are gathered by that fire at night in the season 4 finale, Michonne just commenting on the rabbit they had has Rick grinning, laughing, and sneaking those signature loving glances at her.

SEASON 5

Rick and Michonne are very much operating in their co-leader and co-parent bag in season 5. And there are a lot of weighty decisions and things they have to deal with this season, but they still found some time to be playful and lighthearted with each other. The top two moments I can think of that showcase that in S5 are when Rick and Michonne are coming back from that one run with Father Gabriel, Sasha, and Bob. Michonne jokes about how crawling around in slime and sludge for food is living, and once again, she puts a sincere smile on Rick’s face and gets him to laugh.

Another golden, flirty, and playful moment is when Michonne sees Rick’s clean-shaven face for the first time. I love her smitten reaction and Rick’s reaction to her reaction. Plus, a moment that’s always personally funny to me is seconds before when Michonne asks more in a general rhetorical sense how long she was brushing her teeth in the bathroom, and Rick is the one to reply, “20 minutes.” Rick giving an exact answer always makes me smile because the man was paying attention and counting down the minutes until his crush came out and saw his fresh face lol. 

SEASON 6

The first half of 6A doesn’t have a ton of playful Richonne moments that I can remember. The only small one I can think of is in the season 6 premiere when Rick says the gate will hold, and Michonne lightly teases that that’s good considering how close their standing to the gate. But that scene does feature Morgan asking Michonne if she ate his peanut butter protein bar back when they were in King County. And Michonne says she didn't eat it while Rick quietly reacts to their exchange, knowing that's not true lol.

And that quick exchange between Morgan and Michonne does become a bit of a comedic Richonne moment later when Rick feels the need to tell on Michonne and inform Morgan that his wife atp actually did eat that protein bar. The fact that Rick remembers that little detail from their Clear run all that time ago is further proof that Rick remembers pretty much everything about Michonne.

And then in 6B we get the start of Richonne’s glorious canon era as a couple. Even in the moments leading up to their first kiss we get to really see the silly/playful side that has become such a natural part of their dynamic. Like in the opening scene when Rick teases Michonne about using up his toothpaste and later that night when they're on the couch. Michonne reacting to the fact that Rick had a day and Rick surprising her with the mints are great lighthearted moments of the two being comfortably silly with each other.

A moment where Richonne aren’t being funny but it’s still funny is when Rick is trying to make it clear to Jesus that they won’t be budging on getting the food they need and when Jesus asks for a few more days, Michonne is the one to chime in that they can give them that and Rick swiftly chooses to drop the stubbornness and agree to what she says.

Also, Richonne were feeling especially playful during their morning together in 6.15 too, when Rick is eager for Michonne to “stick around” and gets her to smile and laugh a little with just how hungry he is for her to stay in bed with him. 

SEASON 7 

It’s funny because Season 7 has the highest amount of silly/playful Richonne moments from my list, and almost all of those moments come from one episode - Say Yes. Of course, it’d be the golden Richonne honeymoon episode that gives us Richonne at their most happy and lighthearted. However, even before Say Yes, there is some very cute, flirty, silly, playful vibes from Richonne in 7.10 at the junkyard - with the standout one being when Rick limps over to grab that cat statue and happily gifts it to Michonne because they won and to replace the one she lost.

Then 7.12 puts silly/playful Richonne on display several times. From the opener with just the lightheartedness of how Michonne looks at Rick when he says he likes keeping watch and her asking Rick if they’re gonna win today, as well as the way they are in the van as Rick persuades Michonne to extend their trip a few more days.

Then there’s Rick reminding Michonne that he owes her a deer after running after her despite her trying to let him know he could just stay calm in the van. And Michonne didn’t even remember what he was referencing at first, but then she leaned into it, saying Rick does in fact owe her a deer. Rick and Michonne on that rooftop gives big silly/playful energy too, as Michonne shoots down those cans and they laugh.

Then they fall from that the roof, and their first reaction is more laughter. They were so happy to find those MRE’s and Michonne’s silly little “They’re ready, let’s eat” is so cute.

Plus, I always like the subtle little moment when they’re looking at the MREs and Rick shows one to Michonne, and they both just seem so excited.

There are a lot of smiles between Richonne during that proposal dinner, and I love that it ends on such a heartwarmingly playful note when Rick surprises Michonne with the MRE that consists of chilli and mac n cheese…together.

When I first read this ask, a scene that instantly came to my mind as an example of Richonne being silly and playful together was that Say Yes scene behind the dumpster when Michonne teases Rick for leaving her eight walkers as opposed to his one.

I love Rick trying to explain why he divvied it up that way as Michonne listens amused, and then Rick ultimately saying “You can handle eight.”

Rick and Michonne continue their banter when Michonne goes to help Rick push the car, and he tells her he can push since she got her 8 walkers already. Then when Rick and Michonne get stuck in that car surrounded by walkers, the jokiness continues as Rick says it was a good plan, and Michonne playfully delivers “It was a great plan.”

Since walkers usually ain’t no thing to Richonne, the two of them are even able to have some playful exchanges while being chased by walkers throughout the carnival. Like Rick saying they could just go, and when Michonne double-checks if he wants to go, he’s just casually like “Nah, we can do this.” Also, that moment when Rick asks how many walkers Michonne has left, and then she asks him and he starts pointing and counting the walkers around him. 🤭 They were in quite the playful mood on this honeymoon trip, and I’m forever here for it. 

SEASON 8 

This is how I know season 8 was a depressing season because I can only think of one playful Richonne moment, and it wasn’t even in reality. It was in a vision. Rick and Michonne definitely had a really cute playful vibe in that vision of Carl’s dream world tho. Like with Rick knowing Michonne was the one who turned off the alarm, and them joking about that big owl statue and the festival with Judith. But this is the season Richonne loses their son, so it’s understandably a pretty somber season for them both. Thankfully, Richonne gets to experience significantly more joy and good times during their brief time together in season 9. 

SEASON 9 

It hit me that pretty much every single scene Rick and Michonne had in season 9 was a happy one, apart from their final one when they’re taken from each other as Rick blows up the bridge. From season 9’s very first scene, we get to see Rick and Michonne being adorably lighthearted and happy with their daughter while she paints outside their home. Michonne not being able to hold in her laugh when Judith talks about Rick’s drawing having a big tummy is gold. And I always love that Rick looks like he gets a kick out of Michonne getting a kick out of that.

Another scene that instantly comes to mind when thinking of playful Richonne is the two of them in the Sanctuary as Michonne jokes about Rick being “The Famous Rick Grimes” both at the start of that great scene and at the end. And Rick teasing Michonne about if she'll be making a charter or constitution.

In my favorite TWD Richonne scene, in 9.03, Rick and Michonne again have that infectious playful vibe in bed, especially when Rick starts moving books and flicking away her pencil cuz he wants her to take a break from building the foundations of a new civilization so they can work on building a whole new life to bring into the world. And of course, Richonne is the epitome of playful during their Family Fun Day with Judith too. 

TOWL

Apart from Richonne being very playful in all three of Rick’s episode one dreams (which was such a great sight to see the two of them have their playful flirty energy on that park bench 🥰) Real Richonne doesn’t get particularly silly/playful until the end of episode 4 if I’m not mistaken. I love that when they laugh after getting caught up in making out while switching seats, they both have this cute, playful excitement upon learning that the car they're in is a hybrid.

Richonne also has such a sweet, silly moment when they get excited to find those packs of ramen in 1.05 and are amused by its punny title. Several moments between Richonne in the souvenir shop were giving playful and flirty in the very best way as well. And even their kiss and embrace in that shop had something playful about it.

Richonne manage to be both intimidating and humorous in how they approach that sibling trio in the woods in 1.05. I like the way they quickly get in sync when operating in the spirit of petty together as they take away the noodles and toss their guns. Richonne also seems refreshingly lighthearted when decompressing in that cabin as Rick teases about being surprised Michonne took the noodles. Also, our girl Michonne was feeling flirty and frisky when asking what Grimes was up to with the toothpaste and booze, and she knew her man was feeling the same way. Once again, she was right because he took her hand and got straight to business when kissing her.

One of the funny moments of the TOWL season finale is Michonne asking Rick what’s in his crate and the “it’s complicated” look he gives her. Michonne’s also teasy with Rick when he tells her Beale thought he could lead this place, and she jokes that she guesses he was right that he really could do this all by himself.

And finally, even tho she's not joking, I also think it’s a sweet, silly/playful moment when Rick asks if they’re crazy and Michonne just casually answers “Certifiable.” They know they’re crazy, but they can embrace that about themselves even more because they’re not crazy alone. They’re a crazy unit, and I love that because Rick and Michonne found a partner who matches their crazy, they’re able to just be lighthearted about it since they're often so good at being lighthearted together, as evidenced in all these moments. 😊👌🏽Thanks for asking for this list and for reading. 💕

[magnuspanoptes]

Came across your blog and fell in love with your takes on arguably the most important dynamic in tma (like it made me miss them and actually start a relisten after like never finding the energy to after the finale years back). Do you happen to write any fics or have any fic recs?

RAHHH thank you!! this is exactly what i'm hoping to achieve every time i post yet another one of my delusional comparatives 🙂‍↕️

and i don't write fics but i do have recs!

I'd suffer all if you'd tell me, by RavenXavier is definitive S4 silence of the lambs / red dragon prison visit fic. to me.

Death Be Not Proud, by Startless - is another prison visit fic, but it's an AU where jon chose to die in his coma and woke up as an avatar of the end.

Pinned in vain desire, by statuscrows is about jon slowly developing compulsion which causes problems for elias :) they probably write the most in-character elias. he's not nice, but he's fond of jon. i recommend, like, every single one of their je fics. nobody writes beholding powers quite like them, almost every fic is based around an aspect of the beholding. Skeptic is an AU where jon finds gertrude's tape on the first day of the job. statuscrows always writes jon with his early seasons abrasiveness and mean streak intact, which is really all i want from jon's characterisation. i don't want nice jon, take that awayyy; Ritual misery is set immediately after 160 and is doing more interesting things with the web than all of S5 put together; From his prospect high - jonathan sims learns to See; Quenched in darkness you shall see - this is noncon and dead dove. read the tags! reccing this because ritual voyeurism to please the beholding is a real and true concept.

Perchance to Dream, by parva_dae and once upon a dream, by indelibleangel - are dream fics, inspired by MAG 120. first one is a snippet of elias poking around in jon's head and worsening his fear and paranoia. he would do that ^_^ and in the second one they talk. and kiss.

and lilies, by kototyph - i read two chapters while it was still ongoing but it's finished now and i haven't gotten around to it yet, but from what i remember this had, like, revolutionary elias characterisation. he's a disaster. a very well put together, beautiful disaster.

also these two one shots they wrote for jonelias week which i liked very much :3

something different crosses the threshold, by aguntoaknifefight - amnesia. classic.

a heavenly madness, by roundthedecay - this is one of the very few, proper gothic fics with these two. there's a cursed oil painting. jon's having his life ruined by said cursed painting. and jonah/elias gets a proper gothic villain treatment.

Worn to Shadows, by Ash_Rabbit, which somewhat satisfies my bluebeard itch, but it's an AU with no institute.

everything Candentia has ever written, basically. they write entity horror really well, and i think almost every one of their je fics are squarely in the horror genre, which i appreciate very much. i'm here for the horror. and you have to check out Beholding's Own if only for the jonah chapters. it doesn't have that older mentor shaping the younger in their own image dynamic because this an AU in which they're childhood friends. but it's so good. it's so good!! the georgian jonah chapters are exquisite. the tone, voice, word choice, atmosphere, general everything. also, some serious wuthering heights stuff happening between these two. like, they get it. they get it! they've also written a bluebeard (and cupid & psyche) adjacent fic - darkly, which is a fairy tale au. and Where Hope and Reason Part is tagged dead dove for the detailed descriptions of eye gore. which is my thing. we need more of that.

Professional Distance - takes place during the birthday tape, has an excellent elias voice. he's evil. and enamoured by jon. and evil.

a glass essay, by fairbanks is jonpeter and only tangentially lonelyeyes and jonelias, but it's one of the most gorgeously written fics i've had the pleasure of reading. excellent isolation narrative and has symbolism which pays off in an unexpectedly perfect way. and as a guy who does not care about peter lukas or any ships involving him in the slightest. well. this got to me.

Scenes from an Epicenter, by NeverwinterThistle which is set during S3 and the first je fic i recall reading. the bit where elias takes jon home after distortion helen drops him in his office is canon to me <3

Dark Square Bishop, by Blissymbolics, exactly what it says on the tin. homoerotic chess match at the end of the world.

[markantonys]

my hot take is that i think 6 would be the ideal number of seasons for wotshow! i know everybody gasps and clutches their pearls anytime i suggest that less than 8 seasons could actually work and be good and be plenty of time haha and for that reason i will make this unrebloggable, mostly just musing to myself over here, not looking to start an argument! but if we put s4 finale as dumai's wells, which is a big turning point in the series.........i honestly struggle to imagine 4 full seasons' worth of story for most of the main characters after that point. most of them kinda only have 1 major story arc between dumai's wells and last battle prep, tbh, and the rest of the pagetime in all those books is made up of either cuttable sidequests (ebou dar, far madding, etc) or cuttable minor characters and their cuttable subplots eating up an absolutely inordinate amount of pagetime while the mains tread water and take 4 books to accomplish something they should've been able to do in 1. it's also worth noting that stuff often takes less time to do in the show than we might assume; for example, a lot of people might assume mat's moiraine rescue heist should take up half of an episode since it's important, but it's actually not that long of a sequence and i bet they could do it in like 10-15 minutes.

now for a layout of how each main character could do 6 seasons!

rand: s4 dealing with caemlyn and maybe also cairhien with anvaere as colavaere, finale dumai's wells leaving him ready to downward spiral into a dark place next season; s5 darth rand as the season-long emotional arc with smaller plot beats like the cleansing and semirhage peppered throughout (cairhien could also be placed here), finale epiphany; s6 loose ends (like bonding with his partners, which i feel could work great as a post-epiphany narrative reward rather than being crammed in before he starts going downhill) and last battle

egwene: s4 going to salidar and being raised amyrlin maybe as the midseason climax, then second half of season heading for tar valon with finale cliffhanger being kidnapped; s5 tower arc, finale seanchan battle; s6 loose ends (gawene, TAR battle with mesaana's substitute unless that somehow gets folded into the seanchan battle) and last battle

perrin: s4 maybe masema is dealt with early to fill up perrin's TFOH absence, finale dumai's wells; s5 faile kidnapping arc married to his TOM whitecloak alliance storyline by having galad's whitecloaks be his devil-deal for rescuing faile rather than the seanchan (and maybe it's the seanchan who kidnap faile, thus letting the shaido be done with after dumai's wells and ensuring all the main characters are narratively connected to the seanchan during s5); s6 loose ends and last battle

mat: s4 forming the band and maybe leading them at dumai's wells as the culmination; s5 some kind of storyline that covers his tuon and seanchan involvement, though i imagine the circumstances would have to be fairly different from canon if ebou dar is indeed cut (maybe he absorbs ituralde and leads campaigns against the seanchan on rand's behalf, which brings him into tuon's path, though idk how it would play out after that since he wouldn't abandon his own army to haul her off on a solo roadtrip, unless maybe something happened to force him to); s6 loose ends (moiraine rescue - i think it would make more sense as an early-season event in the final season, and in the penultimate season finale all we get is a cliffhanger tease that moiraine might be alive) and last battle

nynaeve: barely has any story to speak of after ebou dar besides being a cheerleader for rand/lan/elayne, so even for a 6-season model they'd probably have to make stuff up for her (i still like my previous suggestion of rand having sent ALL his partners away during darth rand time, which here would be s5, and so nynaeve is the one he almost kills during the collaring incident, and this causes him to send her away too, to the black tower where she and logain basically replace pevara and androl in cleaning up that mess, thus ensuring this important storyline is in the hands of a main character, neatly paralleling egwene's efforts to clean up the mess at the white tower during the same season, tying out nynaeve's connections with logain as the one who healed him AND in showverse as someone who also witnessed his gentling and whom he was impressed by, and being a poetic conclusion to the show's flirtation with the idea of nynaeve joining the red ajah by having her instead be a key figure in *helping* men who can channel)

elayne: s4 rejoins the waste crew to get folded into avirand's relationship and work with rand on retaking caemlyn; s5 succession arc; s6 loose ends (cairhien throne maybe) and last battle

the main issue here is that that's putting a whole bunch of major climactic events in the s5 finale (rand's epiphany, egwene vs. the seanchan, perrin's battle of malden, elayne's battle that makes her queen), but i'm sure they could spread these across two different episodes like s3 is doing (perhaps elayne & perrin in ep7 and egwene & rand in ep8). and there also isn't a great way to *not* have all these late-series climaxes coincide unless some characters have their single late-series storyline stretched across 2 seasons, which i'd say is a big no-no for TV.

so, yeah! i'd never say no to 7 or 8 seasons of course, but when *i* game it out, 6 is the number i naturally land on, although i know i'm much more merciless about cutting stuff than a lot of readers are! hell, even rafe is taking s3 at a slower pace than i'd initially proposed back before we knew anything. 6 also has the advantage of being a pretty reasonable and realistic number to hope for in today's television landscape (WOT's sister-show ROP is slated for 5, so reasonable to imagine WOT might land somewhere around that number too). 5 seasons would be tight but doable, 7 or 8 would be luxurious, but i would be extremely pleased to get 6 even if that's less than rafe's max possible number.

my final note is that i suspect we are now around about the Decision Point where amazon has to let rafe know how many total seasons he'll get so he can plan out s4 accordingly, and thus i also suspect that s3 will leave everyone pretty much exactly in their TSR ending spots, which would make them all well-positioned to pivot into different things in s4 depending on the future plan. (for example, say elayne and nynaeve are still in tanchico at the end of s3. this way, if it's decided there will be 7 or 8 seasons, they can head off to salidar in s4 and take time for a sidequest, whereas if it's decided there will be 5 or 6 seasons, they may have to scoot straight over to rand & co right off the bat in s4 to get ready to launch into the caemlyn arc.)

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

Out of touch

Every time Syd and Carmy physically touched (so far)

Season 1

01X02 - Hands

01x07 - Review

The first time she touched him and he actually registered her touch, because the previous time it was in the middle of a fight, he wasn't thinking.

Season 2

02x02 - Pasta

02X03 - Sundae

02X08 - Bolognese

Let's go with the bonus track right now: This Sharpie touch doesn't count, right?

But when he pointed at those stains, he said: "Actually, I've got something for you. Uh... For later."

And she started to take off her jacket:

And then as she continued undressing in front of him, so to speak, he said:

Because he had forgotten to call the fridge guy. Again.

I just find it funny that that was his word choice as she was taking off her jacket... he could have said: "Damn it!" or cussed in any other way, but he looked at her straight in the eye, as she was removing her chef's whites right in front of him and went: "Fuck me!". No touching, though. OK, moving on.

Season 3

In S3 it's like they are deliberately trying not to touch:

03x01 - Tomorrow

Avoiding contact, but close. In every sense, which is a rapport they maintained throughout the whole season, till Forever.

03X10 - Forever

So what we have here is literally Sydcarmy being OUT OF TOUCH with each other, very clearly and graphically depicted by Storer throughout S3, and an even clearer decrease in contact if we take into account all 3 seasons.

It's not like they touched so much before but we can clearly see the decrease in contact.

The physicality wasn't there, and neither was the best verbal communication to compensate for the lack of it.

They were growing apart and not talking about it.

There was less contact in every sense, not just physical but the physical manifestation was just ANOTHER manifestation of their distance, which obviously was also emotional.

So, my guess is that in S4 we will either get a SIMULTANEOUS recovery in the physical aspect and better verbal communication because this was rock bottom and there's no way but up from here, plus the CRISIS of Syd probably quitting will force a change

OR

What we will see FIRST is a PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION of non-verbal communication + a PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENT in verbal communication.

Because they will either get out of the woods all at once, during an EPIC argument or any situation where emotions are running high and they have NO FILTER, which is what I hope happens.

OR

The change will be progressive, slow but sure, and the full manifestation of it will be explicit by eps 4x9/4x10, which may or may not be the series finale, as S5 is not confirmed yet but by the time S4 is out, it may be... who knows? If this is how Storer decides to go about it, then the PHYSICAL aspect will be the first thing we see, the non-verbal shift, and THEN the verbal communication will follow and they will start using words that actually matter, FULL SENTENCES, as opposed to leaving most things unsaid or "saving it for later" because there may not be a later to talk about anyway.

[sabi0229]

I would like to thank @just-a-fun for their recent post about Darius that motivated me to write a whole angst lore thing ....again.

I really do think that it's a possibility we will get to see a wider perspective of Darius emotions in season 3 because of everything that happened in season 2 especially finding out the women who he had fallen in love with and thought that he was the reason shes "dead" is alive.

In season one we get to see some emotions of grief mostly depression but also we see how Darius keeps pushing his emotions down trying to focus on the whole who's trying to attack us mission. Darius is seen taking lots of deep breaths during specific scenes mostly when him and Ben are disagreeing on something or arguing. Sure it may look like hes trying to be the bigger person and calming down the argument which he is. But there is also a look in his eyes for a split second before he take his breath as if hes trying to hold back his emotions from expressing how he truly feels. Once we get to Kenjis episode Darius is actually showing some emotions that looked like he was holding back like anger and not the same type of anger when he and Ben were arguing about the raptors or theories but mostly when its's about Brooklyn its slightly visible. throughout the episodes we see him show more and more emotions exactly like in season one of CC when the Indominos attacked and he focused on pushing his emotions downs and then in the final ep where they're under ground Darius just burst out. Its show cased in majority of the seasons except in season 4 where hes mostly gone back to his season one self where he doesn't really talk that much. I noticed in season 2 of CC hes trying to be more optimistic and socialize with Mitch and the others exactly how he was trying to do with Zenya in season 2 of CT.

With season 3 of CC we see him display a lot of emotions and in season 5 and in both seasons we actually see him try to push his emotions out. S3 with Ben and S5 with Kenji and then he had busted out on them he fought with Ben and yelled at Kenji so in S3 of CT we can predict that his emotions will be mainly focused on Ben and Brooklyn . And that a main emotion will definitely be anger and betrayal but he will try not to show because he already knows everyone else is going thorough the same wants to make sure they're safe he doesn't focus on his emotions which will defiantly cause him to lash out later on in the season. like in S2 of CT when everyone found out Ben knew we saw the look on Darius face where he was hurt and wanted to ask Ben questions too but realized he shouldn't be focused on that and try to get everyone to focused on finding Brooklyn so they can bring her back.

[pearlofthewoods]

(Part 4)

When Spike receives his soul however, this dynamic truly changes. During the scene in which he receives his soul, Spike is already shown kneeling on the ground. Symbolically, he now knows he is ‘beneath’ Buffy, but has accepted this and is willing to change.

Interestingly though, having a soul does not make Spike automatically Buffy’s moral equal, (like it does for Angel in earlier seasons).

Spike spends most of the opening episodes of Season 7 in the high-school basement once he has received his soul, trying to come to terms with all the things he has done. It is also Spike’s choice to live down there. He could return to his crypt, but (perhaps even subconsciously or just visually on the writer’s part), Spike considers himself in a very bad light at this point in time, and thus lives ‘beneath’ literally everyone.

Once Spike has recovered and finally accepted what he has done, it is also very interesting to me that the narrative and the visuals don’t raise Spike back up to Buffy’s level.

Spike has done terrible things, he has acknowledged them, but the narrative will not forget. It frames Spike accordingly.

Which is why I think it’s so beautiful that in Touched, when Spike makes that speech to Buffy, he kneels down to be below her. He is no longer fighting to get her to acknowledge him as an equal in power/threat (S2) or as an equally matched lover (S5/6). He neither expects, nor wants anything from Buffy. He is just content to wonder at her, and by lowering himself before her, he offers himself completely to her at the moment when all of her friends have shunned her.

Because this is in the aftermath of Anya saying to Buffy “you really do think you’re better than we are, but we don’t know, we don’t know if you’re actually better”, and Buffy’s friends agree. They belittle and attempt to humble her.

In comparison, Spike has finally realised and accepted than Buffy is actually better than him, better than all of them. And he supports her, to her friends, calling them ‘sad sad ungrateful traitors’ and saying the she has “surpassed them”.

So when Spike kneels in front of Buffy, I don’t think it even crosses his mind any longer whether he is beneath Buffy, or even to consider their dynamic at all. She is the one, and she is far above where all of them could ever hope to be.

Spike is in awe of Buffy, and that is reflected in how he navigates the space around her. He kneels, almost like he is worshipping her. All he wants is to show her that he’ll be there for her, and support her as long as she needs.

And so the cycle is finally complete. Spike has a soul once again, but at the one moment he could finally choose to consider himself Buffy’s equal, he declines. Unlike all of her friends, he chooses differently. This time, he chooses to be beneath her…something he’d never done in any of my previous examples.

He chooses to accept his past, repent and to offer himself wholeheartedly to the girl he loves, with no expectations, and I think it’s kind of beautiful.

(Parts 1 , 2 & 3 )

[ilikekidsshows]

Hello. :)

Can I asked for your opinion? I've talked with some of my friends and they said ladybug miraculous is exclusively a leader miraculous while I think it's more strategy related miraculous, not necessarily a sign of a leader, just like the snake.

This discussion is started when I want to write a story about Adrien take over as a leader of the miraculous team after Marinette got vetoed as a not good leader by the team (the story take place three years after s5 finale and they're all adults, Adrien also take times to heal and not Marinette boyfriend). so while she remain as a guardian and strategist, Adrien will be the one leading the team and my friends said it won't work because of the reason that I stated above.

I've seen some example where the leader and the strategist are two different people that's why I think it will work, that ladybug miraculous isn't an exclusive leader miraculous. What do you think? I'm confused because while I was pretty confident before about my opinion that any holder can be the leader, my friends keep saying the same thing that only ladybug holder can lead because the lucky charm ability and it make me doubt myself now.

Thank you and take care.

---

You are absolutely correct, the fact that you can find examples of the team strategist and team leader being two different people with the team still functioning proves it. Your friend has simply fallen into the trap of thinking that, since one thing is what we mostly see, it's therefore the only way to do things. The team leader and the strategist being interchangeable is what we more commonly see, which is why I, too, used to think Marinette's strategic thinking made her a good leader back during the pretool era.

Furthermore, the Lucky Charm ability is not what makes the Ladybug hero indispensable, since Luka has also shown that he can strategize with the Snake Miraculous, it's the Miraculous Ladybug and purification abilities. The reason Marinette is the most important member of the team is because only she can purify Akumas and fix the damage caused by any fights. Basically, Marinette has three times the amount of abilities any other Miraculous, outside of the Dragon.

Regardless, post-retool Marinette has repeatedly failed at everything else a leader should do outside of strategy. What Miraculous she's holding can't change that. Who cares that you can purify Akumas when you lead your team like a dictatorship and are inconsistent with what the rules that you yourself alone enforce are? That's extremely stressful for the team members. Who cares that you can fix the buildings after the fight when you play favorites on your team and never listen to any dissenting opinions even when they're absolutely correct? This tendency has caused problems that could have been avoided if Marinette just stopped viewing her teammates as drones.

Her go-to tactic in a fight is “keep my distance and think of a plan while others actually fight the Akuma”, which makes it obvious she should be more of a strategist instead of a front-lines leader. But, I’ve even grown disillusioned with Marinette's strategic ability. It's one thing to, in a desperate situation, after deep deliberation, make the sacrifice play, to sacrifice something or someone else so that more can be saved. Even with the Miraculous Ladybug ability, Marinette treats sacrifice plays extremely casually and she's very willing to make them when they're her idea. Way too often, Marinette comes up with a convoluted plan that can still be summed up as “sacrifice Cat Noir and fix him with my Miraculous Ladybug later”. Backwarder is the most obvious example, but whatever she was doing to him in Reverser is pretty up there too, never mind how casually she leaves him as the sole cambatant every single time she's getting backup and whenever she's busy implementing a plan. Way too many of Marinette's plans rely on having Cat Noir do most of the heavy lifting for her to sacrifice his well-being so casually even from a logical perspective.

Frankly, the only reason to argue that Marinette should still remain the leader after all this is if you want her to keep doing a bad job or shield her from criticism. Like, her tendency to treat Cat Noir as expendable cannon fodder would be brought to question by everyone on the team if Cat Noir was the leader instead of one of her drones. Marinette's standard for leadership can only be maintained in a team where only she's allowed to do any of the thinking, with everyone else going “Well, she's Ladybug, and she can do no wrong”. If she loses this cover, she's far more likely to get called out on her willingness to sacrifice anything or anyone but herself.

Meanwhile, Cat Noir brings a lot more to the table as a potential leader. He’s friendly to new team members even when he doesn't pick them (contrast how these two greet Volpina, who they had no reason to be suspicious of the time), he considers how their team members might be feeling (even when they aren't on the team anymore like Chloé) and he's concerned over things like having consistent rules for everyone on the team instead of playing favorites for his favorite team members (he was appalled when the found out Nino and Alya were being held to a lower standard than anyone else even though Nino is his best friend). He’s also far more open to perspectives other than his own and he'd never hold others to standards he doesn't also hold himself to.

[dukeofdelirium]

https://www.tumblr.com/greenfiend/760014880863649792

these people are gonna explode when S5 drops

“who cares about his crush”

1) it isn’t a crush, he’s in love w Mike and

2) hundreds of thousands of ppl care just on tumblr alone

“the story is about monsters”

I mean… yeah, somewhat. But those monsters very clearly represent something. Like homophobia and the AIDS epidemic, which tie in to Will’s character and also into Mike and Will’s relationship. I mean, the allusions to this have been very on the nose every season, especially s2 with how the doctors/scientists treated Will in comparison to how gay men were treated during the AIDS epidemic.

“His scenes are pointless distraction from the larger story”

Will is literally the confirmed main character and focal point of the 5th and final season. He was the entire reason this story even happened at all. He was the one singled out and taken to the upside down. He was the focal point of the entirety of s2. And in s3 and s4, the moment he isn’t the focus, the show declines in quality. The entire time that Will is focused on in these seasons, the writing forces you to feel bad for him and forces you to simultaneously hate anything and anyone that is upsetting him. S3 and s4 weren’t about some gay kid pining hopelessly over an unattainable straight friend. It was written to make you hate Mike and El together. It was written to make you want Mike to be with Will where he actually acts like himself again. It wasn’t about Will being alone and sad, it was about Mike not being with him when you know he should be.

What do these ppl think is gonna happen in s5? Do they actually think that Will is going to confess his undying love for Mike that is unrequited and that Mike will be like “that’s weird of you Will and I don’t feel the same but we can stay besties <3” and then Will is like “no Mike I totally get it, I’m gonna kms now so you an El can go to the local village with 3 waterfalls” and then he just walks into the upside down and dies and it all fades away or something? 😂😂😂😂😂

The upside down, the monsters, all of it is a manifestation of Will’s trauma and emotions. It’s a metaphor for the homophobia and abuse he has experienced as a young gay kid, as well as being closeted as a survival tactic… hello, Will is trapped in a cold, dark and lifeless world where nothing can survive (he can’t breathe, the air is toxic, it’s suffocating) and he is forced to hide there but he is really good at hiding (bc you get really good at hiding who you are in order to live) and his best friend Mike, who is literally a Paladin in D&D (like his knight in shining armor) must rescue him from this scary world (the closet) *wink wink nudge nudge*

It’s literally a gay love story between childhood friends with the cool sci-fi and horror elements tacked on enough to where you won’t notice it until you either care enough to analyze the show OR you watch the final season and it slaps you across the face in a very unsubtle way (byler endgame)