#also. i feel in my bones that there will be many scenes in s3 of ed talking to izzy’s grave

[getoutofmytardis]

ed and stede staying with izzy and buttons coming to visit 😭

[clockworkouroboros]

Now that the 60th anniversary specials are all out, I guess I'm gonna share my thoughts about them all, because it's the internet or whatever. Overall, I do think there's a lot of good in these specials. The fan service is absolutely there, but it's been done in a different way than some of the past special episodes, and it really acknowledges I think the many different kinds of Doctor Who fans, from the people who just watch the revived series (or even just bits and pieces of the revived series) to fans of Classic Who and even those of us crazy enough to get into the extended universe. I mean, featuring Beep the Meep and the Toymaker as your two Big Villains is both ridiculous and speaks to the nature of Doctor Who fans that we were all so excited for them. So. A lot of really nice things about these specials all around.

In The Star Beast, we got a really nice blend of nostalgia for the original Tennant era with new, interesting characters and a healthy amount of fan service towards Beep the Meep's half a dozen fans. Between those three things and RTD's obvious love letter to and heartfelt (if perhaps a little clunky) support of queer (and especially trans) people, it's easy to look past the episode's flaws; namely, that it's very light on the plot, and the handwavey bullshit that retcons Donna losing her memories completely undercuts the emotional heavy hitting of Donna losing her memories. You mean it was *always* that easy? Fuck right off.

Wild Blue Yonder really brought in, for me, more than a hint of Wilderness Years Who. The bottle episode slightly claustrophobic feel, the terrifying unexplainable Not-Things, the goddamn salt—I thought this story was the strongest in the set. I think RTD, like many writers, has a tendency to try and make things bigger and bigger and bigger, when really, his best stories tend to be like this. Consider Midnight as another example—brilliant, terrifying, and also very similar to some of the more experimental stories of the wilderness years. If I had a complaint about this story, it's that I would want it to play into more of the sense of sensory deprivation that stories like Midnight and Scherzo did. But honestly, that's a nitpick. It infuriates me a little bit—RTD likes to go in for some spectacle, as seen in The Star Beast and especially in The Giggle (and also the s3 and s4 finales, and also DT's regeneration story, and also and also and also)—but some of his best work is done when he doesn't allow himself the spectacle and instead really pares everything down to the barest of bare bones.

And, honestly? The Giggle was a bit of a letdown. There are so many ways you could bring the Toymaker into Who again, and he ended up sort of being an afterthought. Neil Patrick Harris was obviously having a grand old time in the role, which is great—so why not give him a little more to chew on? I thought there was a lot that was great—Donna and the Doctor in the Toymaker's domain, as an example. I think, building off of Wild Blue Yonder, coming back again and again to just how much the Doctor has been through and how that has affected them, was also a really nice thing to include, and something that I wish had been brought up more during Thirteen's run, because she really went through it.

But that also brings me to my biggest issue with The Giggle, and that is the way David Tennant's Doctor (Fourteen? TenThree? TenTeen?) has been written in a way that still is overshadowing Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor. This was honestly one of my biggest concerns as soon as Tennant's return was announced, and one of RTD's past issues in Who has been his chronic overshadowing of characters of color in favor of a white fan favorite. (Martha and Mickey both get this treatment.) The regeneration scene pissed me off in a way that I didn't think Doctor Who could piss me off—generally speaking, I'm pretty level-headed about most Doctor Who things because this show is ridiculous enough that you sort of have to just roll with it. I already adore Ncuti's Doctor (from his extremely limited amount of screentime), but I can't help but feel that he's been cheated out of a proper introduction because he had to share his limited screentime with David Tennant, the most popular Doctor to ever exist in the show's 60-year history. Likewise, because of this ridiculous Journey's End 2: This Time It's Stupider nonsense, I'm genuinely concerned RTD will randomly bring DT back for some fun multi-Doctor fanwanks, and sort of write all over the first Doctor of color's era with David Tennant. Not that that will happen (I certainly hope not, anyway), but the fact that he's leaving it open as an option already has me worried.

So. Yeah. Maybe I'm being harsher on RTD than I would otherwise be, because the nostalgia for having him back is so ridiculously high that it's driving me a little insane, or maybe these are genuine issues. I'm not upset that he's back, but these specials—and especially The Giggle—left me extremely wary that we're going to get the same exact issues that he brought to Who in his first run. Overall it'll be fine, and again, I did get a lot of enjoyment out of these specials! There's a lot about RTD's writing that is objectively both good and consistent. That doesn't mean I'm not holding my breath going forward.

[thegeminisage]

sigh. tng update time. tuesday we did "sarek" and last night i sadly watched "menage a troi" on my own.

sarek: the fact that they mentioned his "son's wedding" once near the beginning and never clarified distracted me for the entire episode until i could google it. and google gave me no answers except to say that he married saavik in some semi-canonical novel. i hate that because saavik was his student (i guess aos had him right after all...) and also because of whatever horrible and weird thing they had going on in search for spock. WHICH BY THE WAY BROKE PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED CANON don't get me started

anyway, aside from that, this episode fucking ruled

i love the concept of vulcan dementia just being vulcan emotionalism. i wonder if it's genetic. i wonder if spock would've gotten it had he lived longer. i kind of wish spock had been the one following sarek around containing his emotions even though i wouldn't wish that fate on him cuz then i would've gotten to see him :(

less thrilled about the new wife. they could have had someone else play amanda if her real actress wasn't available (and she wasn't dead, i checked). if people live for like 150 years in the future there simply wasn't long enough for her to die and for sarek to have gotten remarried, especially if vulcans bond for life (which i guess was implied in some interpretations of amok time but not canonized).

actually, if sarek had once been bonded to someone as spock was to t'pring, how did HE wind up with a human wife...did he get remarried so quickly because of pon farr or does that wind down as vulcans get older...so many questions which will never be answered

anyway, i loved the sudden bursts of anger, it was so fun. uh except for beverly hitting her kid but it wasnt Her so we can move past it. especially thrilled with riker and picard almost getting into it

SAREK CRYING? ok king. i wish we had gotten to see spock cry and not in that deleted tmp scene

i loved picard's nerdery of him also. that makes the mind meld very fun. the rituals are literally intricate. also, "we shall always have the best parts of each other inside of us" i HOPE THATS TRUE FOR SPOCK AND KIRK AND BONES. i read an excerpt from a novel. well. i don't want to talk about it

anyway, picard calling out to spock and amanda...maybe i did well up a little at the mention of spock's name. who can say!!!!!

menage a troi: SSSSSSSSSSSIGH

ok, so i grabbed this one by myself because the summary looked bad and we're trying to finish s3 before chr*stmas fucks up all our social plans. no matter how bad the summary was, the actual episode was WORSE

i have three good things to say about this episode actually. the first was that i like that deanna yelled at her mom again, although this time i know better than to expect it to stick. the second was that i LOOOOVED deanna and riker's little date outfits. extremely charming. and finally i loved when lwaxana handed riker that horrible looking vegetable and he ate it with only mild reluctance. king is literally down to clown.

the rest of this ep was garbage. i know we didn't actually see any sex happen but i feel like they implied pretty heavily that the ferengi fucked her, possibly even multiple times. and like it's funny! ha ha ha look at the crazy situations this eccentric lady gets into! ha ha ha look at her and deanna having to run around naked!

somehow, this was the worst lwaxana episode yet. idk why i actually expected them to do a little better in s3. like, if i was gene roddenberry and they did this to my WIFE on MY SHOW. but you can put even odds on it being his idea or him getting off to it. his horrible little fetish fuel.

cherry on top was lwaxana's self-sacrifice at the end where she stays behind to let deanna escape sex slavery or whatever. which one felt like a classic narcissist parent thing and two wasn't even real - it was an excuse for picard to do badly-acted poetry on the bridge to pretend to be her jealous lover to get them to let her go. and then after all that she goes right back to sexually harassing HIM. because it's funny! ha ha ha!

anyway, it's a shame they had wes's little arc as the b plot of this episode because it was fine and feels important continuity wise, and yet every list on earth will rightfully suggest this episode get skipped because it fucking sucks.

tonight, the last two episodes of season 3 - "transfigurations" and "best of both worlds part i." i already know picard gets BORGED in the finale because i've known that since i was a baby and i am WAITING!!! they fucjing blue balled me in the first borg ep and i am MORE than ready for some brainwashed cyborg action. palette cleanser after lwaxana troi episodes.

[munadrawson]

Commentary on the Beach comic

Here is the commentary post. However, I may explore this theme again because I want to tell cute beach scenarios, especially one with Deep Cut as a group being old farts even though they are in their 20s... That's what happens after college. After you graduate, one hot summer day after leaving the gym, you reminisce.   FYI: This is long AF. Also mention of colorism and misogyny at the final thoughts section.

Background:

As I mentioned, this fan comic was unexpected but had a purpose. I did not want to jump into the folk song fan comic until I ironed out the few doubts in my mind:

Which desi river folk songs do I want to use to tell this story? What would be the theme? What would Frye and Shiver wear? What would each of their hairstyles be? Location? Location? Location?

The body proportions between the two were also in doubt. So I took the opportunity of this being a learning experience.

It is difficult not to beeline and draw it when I cannot stop playing the scene in my head whenever I listen to the songs. I HAVE to let this story simmer. I know it won't be perfect, but I want to tell it right.

Set-up:

Initially, the comic starts with Frye bringing in the watermelon for the rest of the crew. However, the delivery falls flat since we know about Frye's antics.

Plus, as much as I love the yellow desi-inspired inkling, I want to give equal attention to the other two. The most difficult one to draw is SHIVER. I see too much myself in them, let alone the chubby square face shape with sharp eyes. Whenever I indulged in fanfic, I would react like, "oh noooo. What is up with these sudden attacks? I just want to read a cute story and not be CALLED OUT LIKE THIS." The game makes it worse, tho.

Anyway. I have trouble drawing Shiver and Big Man (easier than Shiver) and have yet to write a comic where the two would interact. The two are the comedy duo in this story, while Frye has no intention besides munching on some grub. Mood.

Design:

I wanted to approach this fan comic as lazy as possible, but it can't be helped. An overachiever perfectionist is in my bone. I'm already exhausted from designing a college mascot as my day job. I didn't feel like using my brain.

And yet, I drew details onto their swimwear. *cries*

I had been referencing writers' works in each of my artworks. For example, Shiver and Frye as gaymers. Multiple fanfics had them adorably playing video games together. Another example is The Big Comfy Couch. There are numerous fanfics where they would have Adult Fun Time on a couch, whether in the dressing room or at home, as if it were part of a mythos. Some fluff moments are on the sofa, but Adult Fun Time outweighs them. I'm not complaining! It is rather amusing.

Me: *Slaps an arm of The Big Comfy Couch* "This bad boy can support so many adult fun-time sofa scene fanfics on it. It's a staple!"

This time, I referenced the swimwear from chapter 6 of Girlfriends by IslandsChickenScratch, the mahi mahi resort scene. The foundation because, as I stated, I went on adding the details and the add-ons... Thank goodness these characters don't have mammal-like hair, or else I would spend days drawing each strain.

I'll talk about the least to the most troublesome I had when designing the swimwear.

Shiver:

The most challenging character to render yet the easiest to give them an outfit. The cool n chic masc energy, let's goooooo.

The foundations for them were swim shorts and a strapless bikini top. As well as the back tentacle pinned up. I added the bottom bikini or a g-string to emphasize their hips. They enjoy flaunting their hips. Also, it gives off that cutout design of their default pants without the actual cutout.

The design of the swimshorts is a combination of the "Chili Octo Aloha" button-down shirt with S3 sunken scroll ten sharks:

I also added the orange gills on the top bikini to break the solid blue. Before, I had flora patterns in mind, but then I remembered that I loved seeing other illustrators draw Shiver with scars. It truly embodies the shark-like energy—one true blahaj.

Gosh, I am so envious of their chest size. Sure, mine has gotten smaller thanks to the gym, where sometimes I see them as pecs. But dammit, it would be great not to deal with sports bras. *grumbles* Oh well, on the brighter side, they did get smaller. So, I'm happy with the result, lol.

Lastly, I added the octopus medallion??? Pendant onto the kanzashi but with no additional frills. Simple, the better.

I love seeing other fan creators incorporate those pendants with different outfits.

Big Man:

You would think drawing a triangular, ideal Doritio body would be easy. Nope. Not at all. Not one bit. The struggle is real. But I give my best.

His base swimwear was the diving mask with a snorkel. I opt out of the snorkel because… I was too lazy to draw it lol—also, the war flashback of drawing the slopsuit helmet on him. I can't.

However, after taking away the snorkel, he felt so naked. I know he's a nudist. Big man the truest punk who doesn't conform to societal norms. I fold it instead.

I added the garland, adored with Brazilian flowers. It looks adorable on him! It is not a lei. I'm connecting it to a queer animatic story that I came across on youtube, "Pritty" by Pritty Not Pretty. Queer black boys love story by the poolside. It is so cute that I watched it three times. I can't wait for the animation.

I've seen some fan creators depict humanoid Big Man with Afrocentric features. I ain't that creative, and I don't want to draw a humanoid version of him. He's a blessing because, sometimes, I don't wanna draw LIMBS. He is a nice break. Delta.

Despise the lack of ears; a necklace is always a great choice because he's pritty cute. *Frye's finger guns*

Frye:

She's the opposite of Shiver when it comes to drawing. She's more freeing thanks to her personality, but the damn outfits tho. The problem is that she can wear anything.

She wore a one-piece bikini with cutouts in that scene. So, I combed through a folder of old references I gathered I had saved for my project. I found this orange one-piece bikini with a sarong and sunhat. Sure, it is a more mature look, but it is hot. Hot cute. The sunhat adds the cute factor. Subjective, I guess.

Similar to Shiver, I placed her pendant on the hat.

I added additional jewelry because the girl is at the beach, and of course, there are some desi songs associated with the anklet, nupur paye, to a stream.

Unlike the gold bands where she wore one on each arm and wrist, I only drew one anklet. I connected to a Bangla pop song, "Ek paye nupur amar," by Anila and Topu. Gosh, the music video is so dated and awkward, but basically, the song talks about the two options of a relationship. Would you rather deepen the connection and jump on the ship with them or have it severed?

I signify that Shiver will always choose the anklet, the one by the sea. Although the sea can be unpredictable with it's rough waves and storms, they would happily take Frye to the next level, and Frye would happily agree to it.

Yes, this comically fan-comic was kinda deep lol.

*cries* Why can't I just draw Frye crushing a melon... Then have gay brain goes "brrr me totes gay." "OTL

Final Thoughts:

Whew, this commentary is getting pretty long. I learned a few things when it comes to coloring the environment. I hate being a colorist. It gave me a migraine for a few days. So, I'll do flat colors for the folk songs fan-comic except for the bonus part.

It will be a doujinshi length worth. Ohmigawd, my first one ever?! All this effort is going for a certain gay yellow desi-inspired squid? Yes. Why?

I could not abide watching from the sideline as I looked and read comments about Frye. Have her music be reduced to just "Bollywood" music. Look, I do listen to old movie songs, and I do enjoy them, but there are other genres...

And also, sigh. The blatant misogynoir. As an observer who witnesses colorism and misogyny close, approximately within and outside the family. I had to step in. It hurts knowing it hits close to home.

Me as Marie in January 2023:

"...I guess I'll step in. I don't wanna work. I just climbed out of the rabbit hole, battling my two years of depression, but as a light-skin desi with whatever art skills I gained over years, it is my responsibility to do something about this. I am a bottom feeder of an artist but, I DO have that privilege. SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

It does feel cathartic whenever I happen to draw Frye pretty. I usually announced it to my younger sister afterward, who always replied without a hitch, "Thank you."

It is a small step but a worthwhile endeavor. The duty of an older sister.

I'll continue to draw a small fan piece or two while working on the long-ass folk song fan comic. I want to finish the new fan comic before I go to Bangladesh in November.

[owlbeers]

Shadow and Bone season two thoughts

I tweeted a little as I watched, but I realised I wanted to put together my thoughts more longform, so here we go. In general: I liked it still but not as much as S1, I had Thoughts.

Spoilers for all of the season after the read more.

Idk maybe its the fact that they started referencing events from Crooked Kingdom - a source I care about a lot and um more than some of the other books - that I started to get pickier but I did.

To quickly get the Mal, Alina, Darkling, Nikolai plot of it all. I liked all the new casting (Nikolai took a little to grow on me, but Tolya and Tamar were great the whole way through). Generally I was fairly unmoved by it all, but this plot really isn't why I am watching the show. Genya gave me some feelings. Zoe Wannamaker is great. I preferred Ben Barnes' villain moments more in S1 but the end in the desert did make me feel a little bit.

I'll deal with the !!! end separately.

So, the Crows. I wasn't sure what I expected them to do - knowing that they wouldn't do The Ice Court - but idk I was a little surprised they mined Crooked Kingdom the way they did because in my mind it so clearly needs the events of SOC for emotional reasons for CK events to work, but I think they ... sort of pulled it off. Sort of.

I mean, they rushed the fuck out of it. I know they wanted to reunite the plots but I wanted more out of Kaz's revenge and yes we got a lot of investigation of Kaz's trauma but I wanted a bit more set-up for all the Crows. The cane fight was very good though. Freddy was great in the confrontation scene - so good - but I admit I missed the quiet of the book church scene and that only Inej saw it. Inej not being there, it being surrounded by lots of people ... it felt different.

The Kanej: they hinted at book stuff but it all just felt a little watered down. Yes we got the bandages scene but only nods to it because they're not really there yet emotionally, and yes he tried to get her out and got her freedom but I didn't really see the point in having that weird fight in the middle. Yes, he is pushing her away but it just seemed odd. The hallucination scene was feelings-y but kinda confusing in why they had that for Inej, but the recovery form it was nicely done with the softness in Kaz's eyes before the !!! sets in. However the final ep "I will have you without armour" scene was pretty great. And his looks when he saw her walk back with Alina and the sword! I love them.

Wesper: I liked Jack's Wylan from the get go and I thought him and Kit had good chemistry. Even with the plot changes I found them very cute and charming.

Also the bit where Jesper lists off how Kaz couldn't imagine doing this without him, and Kaz said yes all of that - but not the unlimited tab. I love me some Kaz and Jesper friendship.

Nina with the Crows was great. She doesn't take Kaz's bullshit and I loved the "there is five of us" moment at the end.

Matthias: welp sorry Calahan you had shit all to do. I did assume they were gonna get him out this season but uh guess that is for the Ice Court spinoff.

The end: haha they sure changed a lot there. A lot. Are they setting up something for S&B S3 and also SOC?? Now with Dark Alina in charge of Ravka and King of Scars Nikolai stuff?? Mal going away with Tolya, Tamar and Inej?? I liked that Inej is getting a pirate slave hunter moment (but I still need that Kanej boat scene. I need it). I guess they'll find a way to get her back? Will she get caught?? So many questions. So random.

I don't care about Mal x Alina really but uh if I did and that ending happened and I was expecting the R&R ending. Well.

Are they going to do a Tolya and Inej moment? I have mixed feelings.

Anyway in conclusion: I love the Crows! Some things were good! The actors were all great! But eh some choices I'm not sure about it. I need the Ice Court story though. Please Netflix.

Yes I have read book scenes and I might go hunt down some of my Kanej fic faves ...

[shatterspin]

I'M SORRY ABOUT THE E3RAAB THING; I really am. Dude, if I were you, I'd wanna forget it too.

Following up with MBC3's and CNa's schedule was practically impossible. I remember MBC3 had like a schedule on its website, and my brother and I completely trusted it, only to find out that that schedule was probably outdated or something because everything was in a completely different order, and we ended up missing most of our favorite shows

And yeah, they cut out so many harmless parts. I mean, sometimes, it was sort of useful. Like, you obviously know the "love triangle" mess in S3, right? I didn't. Not until recently anyway. It turned out they almost cut the whole thing, and little me didn't notice the hints in the show. For Monkie Kid, I think there is an Arabic dub. According to their wiki, there is. And they cut out things from what I can tell, removed episodes, and sort of changed names. Any character that had the word "demon" in their name had that removed. For example, Demon Bull King is now Bull King, Lady Bone Demon is just Lady Bone, etc.

Oh, and Ninjago was on MBC3 for a while. I think I found that out in the summer vacation when I was visiting my home country. My little cousins were watching it, but they were still on S5 at at that time. I think they stopped that, though

ALSO, WTH I'M GONNA CRY. I just heard the intro thing, and I'm shaking. I feel like my brain short-circuited trying to comprehend what am I listening to... And I think they gave Lloyd Nya's voice actress or something, and Harumi sounds very flat and monotone. Also, the rest of Ninja sound... so off? Especially Kai and Jay. Also, this is the first time I saw the Overlord summoning scene, and I didn't expect that it's there. I think I mentioned it was cut out on CN MENA. They directly jumped from 8:46 to 10:20

them cutting off the word demon out of everything is kinda unexpected. most things they would cut off would be romantic things but they would keep stuff w demons or whatever in bc nobody cares? i guess maybe some people complained? idk it’s weird as hell either way

extremely funny that they cut off the whole summoning scene tho 😭 what’s the purpose 😭

[sillsif]

↳ 8 Shows To Get To Know Me

thank you @jyuubin for tagging me! sorry it took me a while to type this up.

i have decided to pick shows that i rewatch for comfort or keep me awake at night thinking about every little detail and emotion inside. here we go!

Bones (2005 - 2017) i grew up with this show and i just love temperance brennan with my entire life. i love the smithsonians i love booth and brennan i love i love i love and i rewatched s1-s3 sooooooo many times because iykyk it just kills me in the best way everytime.

Because This is My First Life (2017) my comfort feel good kdrama. i love how this drama focused on telling the stories of three women fighting for their dreams, and how every one of them had their own definition of happiness. oh i feel so much for the three of them and i love love love their love interests too. such a well-written show.

The Good Place (2016 - 2020) another comfort and feel good show. the good place is fun, intelligent, and most importantly, kind. it came out during a time when we all needed that reassurance: that things can be changed. things can be better. things SHOULD be better. WE should be better, and we CAN be. i'd even say it's another version of everything everywhere all at once's philosophy. it also has chidi anagonye, the love of my goddamn life.

First Kill (2022) if i were a zombie ♪ i'd never eat your brains ♪ a lesbian vampire x hunter show that got fucking cancelled by netflix bc netflix hates lesbians. i miss them sorely. this show was fun and intriguing, it has the right tone for teenage romance — dramatic and heart-wrenching. the cast is incredibly charming — gorgeous women from mothers to daughters and beautiful men too. talia burns you are everything.

Racket Boys (2021) coming-of-age sports kdrama. i had a visceral reaction to insol when he [redacted] and then i had a mini phase where i had intense brainrots over haesol ( haekang x insol ) which in retrospect is sorta like me with palmchopper. you get what i mean? i still love insol very much and i still have brainrots about them in fact i'm looking at my gifsets right now.

The Get Down (2016 - 2017) I WILL NEVER FORGIVE NETFLIX FOR CANCELLING THIS SHOW. the get down was about the bronx and the beginning of hip hop. ezekiel figuero and shaolin fantastic. mylene. dizzee kipling. i love them so much. so many iconic scenes and lines. justice smith has remained one of my fave actors since then.

Better Call Saul (2015 - 2022) i watched this show during the airing of its final season bc it was all on netflix and i did not expect how easily i grew attached. i watched breaking bad a long time ago and never thought too much of saul goodman the funny lawyer, so i didn't rush to watch bcs when it first aired. but damn how glad i am to have binged it when it delivered its finale too. incredibly tight-knit and immaculate in writing and filming. the details are so intricate it's almost impossible to pull off but they managed. it's quite heavy from time to time, and such a tragedy too. but that's the story. and it does get the ending it deserved. i can say it's the best written tv show i've seen with such a long run.

Scissor Seven (2018 - ) happy, feel good, comfort show. it's a chinese animated series with a lot of canto humour, which just hits home for a canto like me. it follows the regular shounen anime formula but with less self-importance. it's just about a guy who wants to live a good life with people he cares about on this island he calls home. well, with the past coming back for his life.

tagging anyone interested!

[self-spaghettification]

WIP Ask Game

Rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

tagged by: @a-very-sparkly-nerd

oh god I have far too many WIPs but I will try

some of these aren’t official names they’re just what I like to call them so they’re kinda Obvious LMAOOO oh well 😭

some of the top 7 are also rayllum / feature callum so have fun guessing which

When You Wish Upon A Star

the sun will rise (and you will too whether you like it or not)

“Viren wins s3+Birth of Venus aaravos escape”

to gaze upon a fallen star

blind faith

i’d give the sun to you if you asked for it to warm your cold bones

 goeth before the fall

In the palm of my hand

Communion

A study of the Startouch elf

“incomplete viren dom fic def not inspired by that one mail scene what”

twink torture

rotten apples, rotten worms

hot tub

good boy

virrow #5 Bonuses that I’m not counting bc I won’t finish/lost inspiration: s5 trailer fic, a fate worse than death, a Date worse than death, s4 dream, “wip s6 prediction fic i immediately scrapped bc it was exactly what happened in 6x01 apparently LMAOO”, “Callum tries to kill aaravos lol”, “ziravos intro to Startouch elf”, the heat of the sun and the ice of the stars

ok that’s actually less than expected when written down so, let’s go? I guess? feel free to ask me questions about anything as the game says and!

Uhhhhhh @clown-fession @senatorhotcheeto @dreamerwithnightmares @vizider @beautifulterriblequeen @redr0sewrites @detectiphoenix @svperluminous @hoothalcyon @no-cinnamon-for-synonym @yurayuramiharin @arvikam @whazzyo @vestaldestroyer

@sthormiiii & @parroset bc art counts too

[foundfootagejoseph]

Blog 2

Antrum

Antrum is told to be one of the most haunted films to date. It is said that this film is told to kill people after viewing it which brings in a lot of viewers. The eeriness is something else and gave me such chills throughout the film. When I first started watching this film, it was talking about the previous events that are involved with the history of the film since the 1970s when it came out. The whole vibe that came with the film was filled with just this weird presence and i could not watch the whole thing entirely without taking small breaks from the horror i faced from it and the strange feeling. The beginning talking about how there were separate cases of the film randomly popping up at these places causing a lot of death and demonic stuff such as the movie theatre where it ended up getting burnt down and also at the film festival were strange because they were put on without warning causing people just to die viewing this film. I think it was just pure coincidence but at the same time it is something to think about. After that was explained in that half of the film the real film is set to begin but comes with a warning message before it starts which definitely gets you thinking on why would they include that warning message in the film when it should not be needed but i think it is just added for effect given the films background and lore. The scenery of the devils forest was so eerie also on how there were all these strange things inside of it such as the demons that were watching them and the strange occurrences that were demonic. These strange occurrences that happened throughout the film were amazing for the plot as the way they record throughout the film gives me these scary vibes throughout the film. All of the angles that they filmed in also were pretty cool how you would look at one place and it would be looking from the ground at them like you were watching them especially in like the squirrel scene when you could see the squirrel looking at them and them looking back at the squirrel calling it a demon it definitely had that strange effect on me. The scariest thing that went right through me was when you could see the devil through the screen like as an overlay staring at you which was scary because i thought i was imagining it at first but in reality i was seeing what the director want me to see which was chilling to the bone. Overall i did not like the film as much as other films i have watched in this class and all together in the horror movie section because yea it has eeriness to the film and definitely some chilling vibes it was not made to well and was kind of boring to watch which i know it was made in the 70s but it was definitely not a film that grabbed my attention and made me interested. The backstory was pretty interesting though to be honest with the most cursed film aspect. I would say the overall film had many good aspects to it though especially being a film from the 70s with like the scenery and eeriness mixed with the demonic background of the forest topped off with the lore of the film is unsettling. That is my examination of the film and how it felt to me personally as many other people have different experiences with it.

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[blueeandyellowmakesgreen]

I started ST really really late (like after Vol 2 came out) and one of the only things I knew about the fandom was that so many people hated Melvin (both my IRL friends and people on Tumblr) and when I first binged S1-2, I kept wondering 'why tf do people hate them so much, they're so cute' - I was a wholeass Melvin shipper for the 2 weeks it took me to watch those season and the hate for them made me so sad. And then I got to s3 ep 1 after they started being obnoxious and ignoring their friends and it instantly clicked for me why people hated them so much. In one episode I went from adoring them to feeling instantly annoyed whenever they were onscreen.

By ep 2 I was cheering for their breakup. And then!!!! I watched the S3 Byler rain fight and realized that they were really going down the road of Will being gay and in love with Mike, and right after the fight and Mike biking in the rain to apologize, I converted to Byler and haven't looked back since. Season 4 just made me hate Melvin more and ship Byler harder (I love the pining, especially the van scene, sue me) and when I went back to rewatch S1-2, it really hit me how many wonderful Byler moments I missed (like the shed scene and the super spy scene) and also hit me how weird S1 Milkvan was since they kissed a week after she escaped the lab (and it happened right after she asked if he would be her brother 💀 that relationship was bones from the start ngl)

Anyway idk what the point of this rant is lmao I'm just saying that you're not alone in loving Melvin and converting to Byler.

hell yeah!!! dont get me wrong, i openly clown myself for shipping melvin and i dont blame myself for it, because they were adorable! im glad both of you and i saw the light <33

if yall have any other melvin convert stories for me, im all game to hear it B) i need to know theres a lot of us out there

[thebeautifulfantastic]

Ooh maybe you already did BUT please drop your list of spookiest x files eps if you have a chance! ~spookytheory

hey Ash!! I am more than happy to share my list of spooky episodes ;)

a small side-note is that in earlier seasons, particularly season 1, I noticed that a lot of the episodes tended to lean more towards horror (but like, really campy horror) than in later seasons, so this is not an exhaustive list!

🎃 x-files episodes to watch during spooky season 🎃

season 1:

1x3: Squeeze -- it's generally thought of as one of the scariest MOTW episodes, and it's one of the few episodes that actually scared me.

1x7: Ghost in the Machine -- I think this is the only X-Files episode to actually be take place on Halloween, so of course it had to go on the list!

1x8: Ice -- mainly here because it's in the same style of horror as "The Thing."

1x11: Eve -- it's just a very sinister and unexpected concept, which I loved.

(optional) 1x13: Beyond the Sea -- it's one of my all-time favorite episodes, and it definitely is spooky, but I think of it more as a Christmas episode because it takes place in December.

1x21: Tooms -- if you feel like wrapping up the storyline from "Squeeze."

season 2:

2x11: Excelsius Dei -- it's a ghost story, so naturally I had to put it on the list :)

2x14: Die Hand Die Verletzt

(optional) 2x15: Fresh Bones and 2x21: Calusari -- they don't stand out in my mind as being super memorable, but they do have the spooky Halloween/horror themes.

2x24: Our Town (also known as 'the episode that will never let me look at a piece of fried chicken the same way ever again')

season 3:

3x14: Grotesque -- to be honest, there's surprisingly few horror episodes in s3 (it's mostly sci-fi/comedy/psychological horror) but this is the one that stands out to me as being the most “spooky."

season 4:

4x2: Home -- it would be a disservice to the show not to include this episode on the list, since it was the only one to receive a content warning

4x6: Sanguinarium

4x22: Elegy -- another ghost story!

season 5:

5x5: The Post-Modern Prometheus -- it's just so campy and different and funny! yes, there are issues with consent, but there is also the slow-dancing scene :)

5x10: Chinga -- I mean, it was written by Stephen King, so it's going to be a scary horror episode (and surprisingly shippy!)

5x12: Bad Blood -- "classic vampirism," of course.

season 6:

with the exception of "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas," (which could technically go on this list, but in my mind it is too firmly cemented as a Christmas episode) s6 doesn't really have a lot of horror either. If you squint you could count 6x10: Tithonus, 6x18: Milagro, and 6x18: Field Trip, but I don't really see any of these as true horror.

season 7:

again, not too many horror episodes, but there are a few that stand out, most notably 7x4: Millennium (we have zombies!!), 7x7: Orison, and 7x14: Theef.

season 8:

8x4: Roadrunners -- such a good (and maybe underrated?) horror episode.

for season 9, I don't really have any to list (I skipped through a lot of s9 and have been meaning to go back and watch it all eventually), and the only spooky revival episode in my mind is 11x8: Familiar.

so there you have it! that's my list of Spookiest X-Files Episodes. hope you enjoyed it!!

[rillette]

Okay hi I'm sorry bc this is probably a stupid question but you seen like you know a lot about Hal Jordan!! and I'm curious- what's so bad about the live action green lantern movie?

ok so. first of all, not a stupid question, this is a fun question because its shit on like. multiple different levels. its like genuinely not a good movie on like movie standards and its not a good or faithful gl story either. im probably going to have to put this under a cut so i don't clog up the dash lol.

if you care about spoilers and you plan on watching the movie: it's ugly and boring and they somehow fucked up the stupid bug parallax retcon even more than it already sucks. like its really ugly i can't stress that enough the cgi looks like gum. also the pacing is shit.

if you dont care about spoilers keep reading i guess lol

on like a movie level, it's genuinely not well made. like i said earlier the cgi looks like poo poo shittle and its a significant portion of the movie. like all the gl costumes are cgi and shit its not great. its just not fun to look at which is kinda... not great considering that its a fucking movie. also when hal turns into the green lantern his pupils turn like glow-in-the-dark star green. think teen wolf or jason in titans s3. its very disconcerting. actually wait hold on i live blogged this i have a screen shot i think.

gross. i went back and reread my liveblog and the audio scaling is also bad. i remember scenes being super loud and then they cut and carol is like whispering into the microphone.

also the pacing is like super odd? i watched this movie in chunks so i didnt get like the full effect but the pacing is really fucking slow. the climax of the movie is like a good almost two hours in when hal punches the big bad like once and then it flies into the sun. here is a description of that scene so you dont have to watch this movie: (Hal voice) aughhggg auuuuuuu (trying not to fly into the sun bc gravity) but wiat… >:J (let's go of airplane construct) (punches it once) houuughghhggh (falling into the sun noises) (hal passes out). at least the passing out part is like in character.

in terms of the plot. hoo boy. i? its hard to figure out where to start here because, like, the big bad is parallax. which, should mean the big bad is hal himself, but no, it's the stupid fucking retcon bug parallax. except its not. parallax in this movie is like a big ugly eldritch tentacle monster that slowly floats towards earth and then attacks earth and then gets punched (once) into the sun. genuinely im having a hard time trying to explain this movie because i was so bewildered by their choices the entire time.

it doesn't feel like a green lantern story. there's a weird B-plot where hector hammond gets like infected with parallax and amanda waller is there? i think?? there's just so many characters in this movie that should not be in hal's origin story. Sinestro is there btw i forgot sinestro is there! instead of ranting about order and chaos, he rants about fear and how you're not supposed to feel fear as a gl. this movie honestly feels like if the plot of gl was a flavor than this movie would be like watered down la croix. like something is there. but its so fucking faint. after taste of something that COULD be green lantern.

this movie sucks dude. like its not even bad enough to hate watch its just vaguely nauseating and boring. i need people to stop adapting parallax unless they've done their required reading and they're not using the retcon. geoffry my worst enemy this is your fault somehow i know it in my bones.

hope this helps!

[herinsectreflection]

What is it you don't like about Spuffy?

For what it's worth, there's a lot of stuff I do like about Spuffy. I think their dynamic is very interesting and brings a lot of great stuff to the show. Some of their scenes together are among my favourite scenes in the show. I think they have great chemistry and their blossoming romance is compelling. I have a (small) Spotify playlist for them. I love Spuffy. But also, sometimes, I hate Spuffy. I contain multitudes. So here I will focus on what I do not like. I just don't want to be pigeonholed as a "Spuffy hater" or whatever because that's not me, and also that's a boring way to interact with media. But also I have opinions and sometimes I do hate Spuffy, so here we go.

Fair warning, this is more a subjective rant that substantial media critique.

My problems with Spuffy lie almost entirely with the way they are used in S7. Actually - scratch that, because S7 contains their best scenes. Their gentle holding in Touched is one of the most romantic moments in the series, and the church scene in Beneath You is a genuinely brilliant bit of television. The problem is that almost nothing between those two moments works for me.

I feel like there's a missing section in Buffy's arc. She goes from being pretty standoffish and conflicted about him in Beneath You (which makes perfect sense to me) to passionately singing his praises by Never Leave Me. I think that "I've seen your penance" line is what breaks me. Because... what penance? What has Spike actually done up until that point? All he's done is be crazy in a basement and hypnotically murder people.

It presents Spike choosing to get a soul as redemption in itself, that alone completely wipes away any negative feelings Buffy might understandably have towards him. This is where the show loses me on this relationship because I wanted a much slower burn, with Buffy gradually growing to trust Spike and open up to him in a new way. What I feel like I got was Buffy accelerating to this passionately pro-Spike position in a few episodes, and then being locked in that mode for the rest of the season. It's an inadequate response to what happened in Seeing Red and Buffy's trauma, and it's just a more boring story for me.

This is related to my wider frustrations with how S7 uses Spike. Spike is one of my favourite characters, and I don't think S7 serves him well at all. Like a lot of stuff in S7, there are the bones of a wonderful arc, taking him from a lost boy broken by his own choices in Beneath You to a "champion" in Chosen. But the meat is entirely lacking. Where is the actual arc? Where are the moments he is challenged, that he makes decisions, that he changes his course? He is made an object in the first half of the season - being crazy, being mind-controlled, being captured. His big moments in the second half involving reclaiming the metaphorical skin of a woman he murdered and then verbally torturing her son - not exactly "champion" material there.

Post-S5, there is a real dearth of Spike having meaningful relationships with anyone that isn't Buffy. People talk a lot about his affection for Dawn, but they have nothing after Bargaining, and Spike is an active hindrance to her and Buffy's relationship in S6. Obviously Joyce is gone. He stops having scenes with Xander, Willow, or Giles like he did in S4. He almost stops existing outside of Spuffy. Which is great if you're really into Spuffy but is frustrating if you want to see Spike form bonds with many different characters. His romance starts to feel like a straightjacket on his character, confining him to one thing rather than expanding his horizons. It reminds me a lot of Angel in S3 - a character constricted, not able to reach their full potential until they move over to AtS.

Honestly, this is all just stuff that I wish was better than stuff that is actually bad. On its own, this would just leave me with a relationship I generally liked and would cut a bit of slack. However, S7 also does its best to make me actively resent Spuffy.

"S7 ruined Buffy's relationships with the Scoobies in order to make Spike look better" is an old take that I think doesn't do justice to the complexity of the situation. I don't like to agree with it because it almost seems boring at this point, and I don't like to take boring perspectives. And yet... I can't help but agree with the general gist, if not the specifics. S7 repeatedly pits Spike against every other character, and then comes down hard on Spike's side. It seems to take Spike's insistence that he is "the only one there for [Buffy]" in S6 (there I think a transparently self-serving narrative) and swallow it wholly unironically. And all I can think is what an awfully unromantic idea. I can't imagine anything worse than a relationship that is oppositional to friends and family. It works for S6, which is meant to be this fascinating toxic codependent mess, and I love it there. But S7 wants to present a better, healthier version of their relationship, and yet this aspect feels obviously unhealthy.

And it's just... so unnecessary. There is absolutely no reason for these relationships to be in competition. There should be space for all of them. And yet the LMPTM/Empty Places debacles destroy Buffy's platonic relationship, and hold up Spike positively in comparison. As someone who is far more invested in Buffy's relationships with Giles, Xander, Willow and Dawn than I am her relationship with Spike, it makes me resent the latter when they should be able to coexist just fine.

Where I disagree with the aforementioned "S7 ruined other relationships to prop up Spuffy" take is that I don't think the writers are trying to do this. I think they're trying to say something about self-reliance and the toxicity of concentrated power. Judging from the way they are written in Chosen, I think S7 thinks it's repaired the broken Scooby bonds. The problem is that it never did - it skipped actually resolving Empty Places and so it ends up feeling like some relationships were torpedoed and others were propped up.

Kind of related sidenote - one of my largest pet peeves about S7 is how it shows Buffy's growing affection for Spike by having her prioritise his health/safety over others. Like Xander will be bleeding out from a huge gut wound or Dawn will have a metal bedframe thrown at her head, and Buffy will rush to Spike who has, like, a cut lip. I get why Spuffy fans would find this cute (and I know they do because I've seen the gifsets) but I find it irritating rather than endearing. Girl he is fine. He's a vampire. Your best friend is dying. Have some priorities.

(Spiral does this the right way round when Buffy ignores Spike's booboos to concentrate on Giles, and actually makes me like Spuffy way more.)

And kind of related to that - the way that LMPTM presents Buffy as being willing to sacrifice Dawn to save the world but Spike is a line she cannot cross*? Absolutely dire, bottom 5 moments in BtVS history. No love interest should come above Dawn, ever. I hate it. LMPTM actually makes me livid like four separate times.

(*Yes I know it's not literally saying that because there is an actual military/tactical reason to not just let Spike be murdered but the episode is structured as if it is saying that and that matters.)

Spuffy is almost an Uncanny Valley ship to me. It contains a lot of tropes and themes that I usually love in romances, and there are times when I absolutely adore them. But there are so many little things that are just a bit off from where I want them that I have moments of not being able to stand them. They're kind of the opposite to Bangel - a ship that just personally doesn't appeal to me but I find basically fine for what it is and never annoys me (in S1-3. I have some issues with the way it's used after this point). They're a ship that is absolutely my kind of thing and I feel like I should like more than I do, but has moments where the way it is written enrages me.

So I end up feeling the same about them both - I see the appeal, I respect each of them for what they are, and I think they are both very important relationships for different times in Buffy's life. But ultimately I find both Spike and Angel more interesting as characters outside of these romances, and I want Buffy to move on from them both.

Finally - and this is something that has nothing to do with the actual show and is entirely down to my own fandom experience - but I think I've just seen too much Spuffy lately. It's very popular here, and I think I followed a lot of pro-Spuffy blogs because honestly I tend to agree with Spuffy shippers on most parts of the show outside of Spike being Buffy's true love or whatever. And you know when something is just fine to you, you don't really have passionate feelings about it but everyone around you is obsessed with it and so you start to be irritated by it? That used to be BBC Sherlock for me. Lately it's been Spuffy. There was just too much of it on my dash and it has made me more negative and petty about the relationship even though there's plenty I love about it. I've had to unfollow a few people - not because they've done anything wrong but just to reduce the proportion of Spuffy on my dash. Honestly, ask me about Spuffy in a few months and I'll probably have a different take because I am 100% being influenced by my own fandom habits here.

[w00wzerz]

~ Titans Reunited ~ 💫

(All that matters in Titans S3 ep 13 finale)

🚨Beware! Rant + Analysis below!🚨

This final episode was a ride that I’m glad I could hop off of until season 4. In all honesty I felt that there were so many missing pieces that I’d hoped would somehow come together in the end, but clearly the show runners had a different idea. Now to be fair there were some highlights that moved me to the core, so without any delay, lets get to it!

For starters, when we are presented the display of Rachel and Gar genuinely happy to meet up with Donna, the entire room could hear my little sobs. However, this trope is one in particular that I believe the writers have battled with. 

The characters should be allowed to express their emotionality, in fact their vulnerability allows for the audience to build a stronger connection to them, thus increasing their popularity amongst the fandom. Yet, we got to see little to no real reuniting with the team because of the non chronological scene cuts. But I digress…

Moving on to Kory being fed up with the constant disrespect from the team. Now although I loved her out pour of emotions, this scene was not only completely unnecessary, but I saw absolutely no use for it non whatsoever. Now let me explain why:

Sure, Conner destroyed Kom’s ship which was her only way back home to Tamaran, but why is she so chill about it? Why was Kory more upset about Conner’s selfishness then Kom, who according to common belief was SUPPOSED to be the villain this season? And let’s not forget that even after all of this they were still able to rebuild the ship a few minutes later… So what was the point again???

——————————————————————————

Speaking of disrespect, I have to discuss Dick’s blatant disrespect for Kory AGAIN in the scene below. This is another problem with the writing room seeing that there are barely any consistencies within the story! Even after he saw his child with this woman in last weeks episode, why is he now so comfortably hollering at her? Many argue that it was probably the stress that factored in to his behavior, but I call BS.

S1 Kory would have wasted absolutely no time putting him in his place and telling him off. This is the issue that I have with the unnecessary reconstruction of Kory’s character and storyline. Just look at the blue bolts. I can’t even fathom. The SFX was pretty cool though.

Then we have same old Dick being selfish and proving yet AGAIN that he is not fit to lead the Titans. I also have a bone to pick with this scene as well seeing that - Gar’s reaction to Jason had to be the most underwhelming one yet. It makes no sense, Gar went out on a manhunt for Jason, he knew that the murderous Redhood was not the person he wanted to be and still… chileeee let me move along.

I also understand that Tim is eager to become the next Robin, but why would Dick endanger his life by bringing him along on a mission with the knowledge that he has little to no experience in combat?

Then there’s another scene cut and Bruce is back in Gotham, to meet up with Dick and Jason and talk about who knows what. The only thing that I took away from this was that there will be no-more Red hood for now. This is a bittersweet feeling, but it had to be done… For the greater good. 🥴

Let’s talk about Dick’s community penis. He is in the business of wanting his cake to eat it too because why would he ask Barbara to accompany him back to San Fran with the team? AS IF HE DIDN’T JUST PICTURE HIS DAUGHTER WITH KORY?!?! I was ready to fight multiple people after this.

And alas we have finally reached the heartwarming portion of the episode, I was so happy to see domestic Dick Grayson back on my screen. This was literally all we have asked for from the beginning!

I definitely enjoyed the farewell hugs between Kory and Donna, it was so refreshing to see those two back together. I will not mention the wasted potential that was Conner and especially Kom.

I also have so many questions… Why did Donna return, setting the stage to become the new leader of Titans, only to leave right after reuniting with the team? And how is Tim going to be Robin without Batman? Why is Kom NICE! Um… And they just are not going to address Dick’s outburst earlier, ok.

But anyways, peep his hungry eyes for his future wife 🧐 she deserves better.

In all, the finale did not provide as much closure as I had hoped, I would’ve loved to see more family interactions between all of them, but thats exactly what season 4 is for! I am hopeful that Kory’s story will be properly developed and considering that the writers room are constantly on Twitter reading through the drags, I’d say they will be taking notes.

It’s been fun, see you all next season! 💜✨

[buddielove]

Hi! I'm a gay fan of 911 and I have a question about the whole Buddie fandom. As much as I like Buck and Eddie, it's frustrating that a HUGE part of the fandom is pushing for these two characters to get together instead of putting energy into supporting Hen & Carla and Michael & Dave. Not to mention Carlos and TK in Lone Star. Can you explain to me the appeal of wanting these two men together? Wouldn't it be more interesting to see two heterosexual males just be able to bond in a non-toxic fashion? That's something we don't get to see often on television.

Hey! This is MAD long lmao I am so sorry! You caught me on a day I felt like talking! Also this took like a year to answer you lolololol. This does have a few ʻhot takesʻ so please be warned! So like in this essay....

So first I am also apart of the LGBTQIA+ community, so I do understand how it could come across as a fetish or being non supportive of the current canonically LGBTQIA+ characters, however I think a lot of the interest around Buddie and the want for them to be confirmed as a couple is how they are being written. Me personally I knew since s2 e1 Buck and Eddie were written not as rivals but as two people who would eventually become friends, but it wasn’t until the Christmas episode with the elf assuming Buck was Chris’s dad and Eddie’s partner that I was like ‘hold on!’ because I was really hoping Abbey would return and I didn’t see Eddie as a possible Buck live interest because of that. The elf’s comment wasn’t played off like most other shows would (think Dean and Sam arriving anywhere in Supernatural) it made me go back and look at the other episodes to see exactly how Buck and Eddie were being framed/written. And as we have moved into further seasons I think there has been a shift in how Buddie is being written, in s3 it was very much like two people progressing into a deeper friendship then the blood clot/lawsuit gets in the way and they both have to deal with emotions surrounding that, then Buck’s response to Eddie being trapped (we see how is he when Boddy is trapped in a fire WITH A GUNMAN, it’s emotional but not to the point is is with Eddie), even the love interests feel very pushed on us and there’s so little banter between Buddie about their gfs and how they feel about these new beginnings. It feels off, not like a friendship in the slightest, more like two people trying to force something and not wanting to deal with any other feelings. Then when Eddie gets shot and reveals Buck is Chris’s legal Guardian in the event Eddie dies, that’s huge, and he did this after only a year of knowing Buck (I have friends with kids. I’ve known one of them for FIVE years, I’m at their house every week, the kid calls me family. I’m person #10 on the list of ‘who gets my kid if I die’, not #1 lol) It just feels like it’s all building up to something, and people are getting tired of waiting for that something! We’re all emotionally tired from the past two years, and probably from many shows queerbaiting us and this is something that could happen, seems to be something the actors are ok with and the fans want. So why do they keep drawing it out. This isn’t about us demanding they ignore the chance to write a healthy platonic male friendship, or forcing two characters to be gay, it’s about holding the writers to what they’ve implied and seeing what could come of it.

Also think of it like this; If Buddie is confirmed it will still be a good example of a healthy friendship which then developed into something else, like Booth/Bones! Showing the natural progression of friendship to relationship that happens a lot in real life. It’s two men who previously (on screen at least) have only been with woman, but now they have an emotionally connection with someone which they then develop and explore. This could be 911’s first nontoxic depiction of two gay characters coming together, because sorry not sorry the canon couples aren’t perfect (which does humanize them) but they also reenforce harmful troupes that plaque the LGBTQIA+ community, which I’m sure you understand: TK was a drug addict, who only got with Carlos at first cause he was hot and sex was TK’s new addition (all gay men are sex addicts who do drugs and sleep with anything that moves). Carlos was ashamed and wanted to keep TK on the downlow (poc gay men want to pretend to be straight but have free access to gay sex). Hen cheated on Karen seemingly the first chance she got (lesbians can’t handle monogamy when pushed, and cheat on their long term partners). All known and documented troupes that happen far too often.

I’m not saying Buddie is some gay jesus ship that’s gonna save the entertainment industry but if done right it could prove to be one of the few healthy depictions of two men getting into a gay relationship we have. If they plan it out correctly, show us the relationship development, like they did with Maddie/Chim for example, Buddie could be used as a positive example of a gay fictional relationship (I really could go into depth about this. I probably should tbh).

As for not supporting Hen and KAREN, or Michael and DAVID, I think fans do support them! The writers don’t. If you read fanfics Henren and Michael/David are featured heavily in many fics, and ik some people might say ‘well they’re only there so Buddie can talk about their gay side!!’ but both these couples have their own fans and fanfic tags! They aren’t just plot devices in Buddie stories. There is a huge side of the fandom that supports Henren and wants to see more of them and their family. Same with Michael and David, during the episode where Michael and Bobby team up to find that plastic surgeon who was working illegally many people where ecstatic that we were getting more Michael/David content and that David was getting more than a couple lines. But sadly it seems like the writers only want to delve into these story lines when they need filler, they even miss opportunities to include these other LGBTQIA+ characters when it makes sense;

(Someone came for me about this but I am going to bring it up again)

When Chris is sad and wants more human connection, instead of bring Harry + Michael/David and Denny+Nia+Henren back into the picture (and yes I understood at the time the pandemic was bad (lmao still is!!), but all the actors at some point would have/had crossed over into each other’s ‘bubbles’, so ALL the actors would have been exposed to each other so getting the children together with adults they had ALREADY been with during shooting wouldn’t have been a super spreader event) but instead they brought in Ana after only two on screen dates and pretended like it was a logical thing for someone who’s up to that point been extremely careful with their child.

They really could have pushed the ‘118 is a family!’ message here and included the canonically gay supporting characters, and the lesbian main character(s) but they did not and instead chose to push the Ana/Eddie coupling even though they hadn’t properly developed it yet. The writers themselves don’t seem to care about developing their canonically gay characters and including them more than they have to but fans are continuously developing Henren and Michael/David with hc and fics.

I’d like to use your logic against you for a second, in s1 we have a very healthy, platonic friendship between Chim/Bobby but that got written out to the point they are more like boss/employee unless the scene calls for them to seem closer, we now have Bobby and Michael friendship but again we hardly see Michael. On Lone Star we have Owen and Judd as a really, really good example of a healthy male friendship but we see Judd more often with Tommy now then we do with Owen, and in s2 it’s overshadowed by Owen trusting Charlie from Twilight and constantly getting fucked over! Why can’t the writter just be happy with these happy, healthy, emotionally well male-male friendship they’ve already included and expand upon them. There’s enough drama because the show literally involves burning buildings and people’s lives being at risk from some natural/man made disaster ever 12 seconds. Does it need to have so much interpersonal conflict and male peacocking??

[whiskeyjack]

#like Rio was literally soaking in his betrayal for the last season#why spend so much time with him bathing in his hurt and pain only to reduce what led up to the most pivotal scene in season 3?#I hate how they made Lucy’s death seem#it was so rooted in Beth’s betrayal

I feel this in my bones! All of it makes noooo sense and the no scars 😭😭😭 You think they would ~try~ for some consistency at least!

Right???? I know many people feel the same - and I’m purely just adding my complaints to everyone else’s in light of 4.09. Incredibly long-winded rant about how the show’s still fucking up (specifically with trauma) under the cut.

I absolutely agree and feel that the show’s decision for Rio to not only not have scars, but also to choose to frame what Rio’s motivations were for Lucy’s murder the way they did, is incredibly disappointing and upsetting. I personally was not part of this fandom when s3 was airing so I can’t really speak to how everyone felt about it, but for me, Lucy’s death was incredibly conflicting. Still is. I hate that scene.

However, from a purely story line approach—and by this I mean temporarily suspending the show’s blatantly harmful racist, misogynistic and just general cultural and tone-deaf narratives of portraying a young, female, character of colour as ‘naive’ and insignificant (to Beth)—while I hate it, I do understand the significance of Lucy’s character’s death relative to the plot. (During season 3 anyways.) Rio was betrayed. Rio was hurt. Rio was struggling to show Beth that actions have consequences. So, he showed her in a different way. At the time, it wasn’t super out of character for him to resort to violence, just not in front of the girls. As @00gangfriend00​ pointed out to me, Rio chose Beth in that moment in his own way. As Nick so eloquently put it, “Gangster Rio had to […] show her how big [his world] is”. In my opinion, the decision to have Lucy’s character’s death resurface this season and be used as a plot device wouldn’t be an issue, if—and only if—they continued with the show’s storyline in the weighted way they did since mid-s3. But they haven’t. They didn’t. The show continues to use characters that preach something even the writers can’t practice. At this point, it’s mentally challenging and honestly, incredibly exhausting, to be a fan. It’s always been challenging trying to defend many of their choices, and this only adds to my sentiment that I no longer think I should try.

Actions have consequences, and I just wish the writers knew that.

When they dedicated an entire season to build up Beth and Rio’s relationship in a quite frankly, unexpected, and a bit of a rushed way, only to rip it away in the most hurtful, cruel (and ooc) way possible resulting in real people being hurt by what was portrayed on their screens, there are consequences to that. When they spent the first half of the third season validating and building on Rio’s pain and betrayal, only to completely flip the script and suddenly have him brush it off, there are consequences to that. When they spent at least one and half seasons putting him—at the time, a non-POV character—through a maelstrom of emotions and circumstances where he experienced: distrust but willing to take risks after being turned in, lust, jealousy and then vulnerability (and probably some degree of love), rejection and feeling used, a deeply bruised ego and deception, trusting again even though he was still hurting, betrayal and backstabbing (literally) to the point where he came within an inch of his life and then after, being a victim of lies and deceit again forcing him to relive his most recent emotional betrayal while still suffering from the physical one Beth just put him through… all of that to say, the writing choice to have Rio find a way to show Beth how deeply she hurt him, was validated, in my opinion, because of all the events leading up to, including, and the consequences from 2.13. By upping the circumstances and stakes in that finale, they made the show about a hell of a lot more than comedy and crime. But, as soon as they say that he simply had to ‘walk [the gunshots] off’ or give him a backstory where his decision to kill Lucy boiled down to familial rivalry, what are the consequences of that?

It completely invalidates both traumas.

Rio didn’t walk it off. He was cooped up with a Fed while he had to snitch for at least a month (yet another inconsistency regarding their shoddy retcon). He plotted to kill the person he had fallen for that had put the bullets in his body. He then killed someone she cared about because he was incapable of killing her.

These are the scenes that NBC Good Girls chose to write, script, produce, film, edit and air.

Reducing the death of a character to an attempt to impress a woman, or just demonstrating how real and dangerous his world is, while leaving the true depth of trauma he experienced unacknowledged isn’t healing, it’s hurtful. Even if we assume Rio was putting up a front for Nick, we, as the audience, never got to see any other side of his (necessary) turmoil. The lack of scars and blasé comments, combined with the abundance of Rio POV scenes, points to the show deliberately switching gears and wanting the storyline to be done. Like @septiembrre​ said here, reducing trauma to a few lines isn’t healing, it’s hurtful. Erasing Beth’s violent actions against Rio isn’t healing, it’s hurtful. 

Both of these traumatic moments in the show—Lucy’s death and Rio’s attempted murder— were heavy and momentous, but they were deliberate choices. And I just wish the writers had the integrity to see them through.

It’s not okay to use trauma as a plot device and pick and choose how to write the fallout for it.

Edit: now that we know the direction of the show throughout their last season, it honestly saddens me to think about the incredibly problematic relationship the writing/producing crew had with trauma. (Unfortunately, I don't think this is unique to NBC Good Girls.) The whole Nick-Rio physical abuse storyline was not something that I was okay with in the slightest, especially since it really did reinforce the implicit narrative of Rio being stuck in a cycle of abuse. To him, at least from what I took from the show in season 4, love was synonymous with hurt/pain, which especially coming from Beth, a white woman, and Nick, a white-passing politician, perpetuates poisonous racial hierarchies of power that are not okay. Especially nowadays. Full stop.

The show committed to those story lines when the show aired them, but the lack of care and consistency cost the show an irreparable amount of both engagement and authenticity, especially where it matters. I'm not sure how retconning usually works when it comes to shows—and if it's normally as inconsistent as Rio's backstory is/was—but by the looks of it, the show had the time and money to cast new actors and actresses and come up with entirely new story lines. Honestly, the show's production feels a bit like a middle schooler: saying/doing things for shock value without any (public) accountability for the impact. However, each person in the room of production, is a fully-fledged adult who—unlike an adolescent—has the tools, or at least the resources to access the tools, to examine the problematic narratives of the show and possible impacts. Who Rio is season to season changed based on who was writing the script. The inconsistency was deafening.

I really hope that the show doesn't continue to do any more damage out there to people who still haven’t healed from the previous events incurred on screen. While the show may have initially had good intentions, the way it rolled out ended up disappointing—and more importantly, harming—fans (and likely marginalized cast + crew), due to unexamined racist, misogynistic and general power-over + exploitative toxic tropes that needed to be changed, if not removed completely, and/or treated and written with more care, empathy and perspective. To those out there still struggling, you are not alone 💗