#and don't even get me STARTED on episode stills

[ohtobeleah]

Chameleon // Jack Abbot

Summary: When Jack Abbot sees the love of his life has changed her hair colour…it doesn’t go as well as he, or the rest of the ER, would have hoped.

Warnings: Separated Reader x Jack Abbot. Jack Abbot x F!reader. OBGYN Reader. Marriage problems. Mental health issues. Mentioning of divorce. Age gap relationship. Younger female x older male.

Word Count: 2k

Author Note: I’ve used this scene before in a series. But for this one-shot, it was perfect inspiration. I had to revamp and create this little one-shot for my Friday afternoon serotonin boost.

“You know, soon enough you’ll have to sit down and have a genuine discussion about the state of your marriage, brother,” Robby walked with Jack down the bustling ED corridor. The two were getting ready for handover, as they did every morning and night, like yin and yang. “Personally, I think the two of you can work through whatever this is, together. I don’t think a divorce is necessary.” 

There it was…that goddamn word that carried the weight of the world. ‘Divorce’, Jack Abbot hated that word. He always had. But he’d never hated it more than when it became relevant to his own marriage. 

“Besides, I hardly recognise you, all you do is work and go home and listen to that scanner. Then, come back as soon as the sun goes down.” Robby wasn't wrong. He wasn't wrong in the slightest bit. But Jack still didn't appreciate it. 

“Who said anything about a divorce?” Jack growled as he caught the back of someone by the nurse’s station he couldn’t recognise. “Look, it’s complicated,” Jack paused his steps. Robby mimicked his friend's stance as the two continued to talk, all the while Jack never let the blonde in pink scrubs out of his sight. “I love Y/n, and I know she still loves me, because if she didn’t, we wouldn’t be in this mess trying to fix what I broke.” 

It’s an inevitable part of depression. The part where you tend to push people away. The part where self-isolation becomes a form of therapy. Jack knew the solace of being alone far too well. He knew it so well that he forgot that he was married…

And that broke your heart. Enough that the love you had for Jack couldn’t outweigh the pain of his behaviour and lack of affection. Attention. Understanding and empathy. He forgot you even existed. So…You left him. But not before you gave him everything you could. And not without explaining in great detail, why you were leaving. 

Jack needed time and space to better himself. You wanted him to come back to you when he was ready to love you the way you deserved to be loved. You wanted him to realise what he’d done to drive you away. PTSD, untreated depression. It all became too much. 

“You need help, Jack!” He can still hear your words echoing in his mind. “You save people all day and yet you can’t seem to understand that you’re slowly killing yourself with this fucking bullshit!” He knew you were right, you had been from the start. But at the time? Jack wasn't ready to listen. So he watched you walk out of his life instead. “I can’t keep waiting for you to jump off a building because you don't give a shit who you hurt as long as your pain ends, I can't watch you die because you won't let me help you.” 

It's a haunting reminder of his biggest mistake. Letting you go. But a reminder Jack won't ever forget. 

“Who’s the blonde from OB?” Jack followed up his statement with a question that hung heavy in the air. “There’s no blondes in OB? Did we get a new resident?” 

Robby doesn’t answer right away. He simply studies the way Jack's eyes examine every inch of the woman standing over by the nurse’s station. He has to know, right? It’s the woman Robby had only just seen in the elevator ten minutes ago. The woman who had just been sobbing on his shoulder about how much guilt she felt for separating from Jack. 

He needed it, though. Even Robby agreed that Jack had been teetering on the edge of a full-blown psychotic episode. Your separation was the best thing for him. He needed to realise that he was going to lose the one thing that mattered most if he didn’t get a grip on reality. 

“Uhh—“ Robby knew it was you, the blonde that was. You’d told him about your crash-out. The one that ended with a bottle of hair bleach and some not-so-professional measurements. You’d explained how you’d been missing Jack like crazy, but maybe it was time to think about divorce. You weren’t sure if he was ready to change. To help himself get back to a point where he could love you just as much as you loved him. It killed you every day that passed, but you knew if you went back now, Jack would only revert to his old ways. 

And he’d slowly, but surely, been making progress. Robby had mentioned to you that Jack had been seeing a therapist. He wasn’t sure for how long, but he had mentioned it. That gave you a little hope, and eventually stopped the tears from flowing before you had to get out of the elevator. 

“I’m not sure, but let’s—“ Before Robby could think of any excuse to remove himself, and Jack from your trajectory…the normally brooding attending was excusing himself with a smirk only reserved for mischief. 

“Excuse me.” Jack looked at his best friend with the intent to cause trouble before he walked off in the direction where you stood. Not knowing it was you. 

“Oh, well, now I recognise you,” Robby chuckled as he watched Jack saunter off. “This isn’t going to end well—” He groaned through mumbles as he looked anywhere but at the car crash about to happen right in front of him. His hands were tucked deep into his pockets with fear. 

“Hey—!” Jack started as he approached the nurse’s station. “Are you down here for a consultation? I’m not sure if we’ve met. I’m-“ It was worse than a car crash… it was like a double homicide. But not a soul could take their eyes off the scene before them. 

Emergency Room attending physician. Dr. Jack Abbot verves obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Y/n Abbot. Separated spouses, who can barely work in the same hospital right now, let alone have a conversation face-to-face. 

As you turned around, Jack swore his heart fell out of his stomach. His heart raced inside his chest. You were stunning. He’d never seen you like this before. In all your years, you’d never been blonde. It looked…you looked beautiful. 

“Ahh!” Jack stepped back a little, fear was evident in the lines on his face. Holy shit, what was he supposed to do now? “What did you do to your hair?” Nope…That wasn’t what he should have said. But it was a question with many layers. 

Much like Jack Abbot himself. 

“I—I-I changed it.” You stumbled over your words as your husband, uh, ex? Husband? Separated spouse? asked with a tone you couldn’t tell was good or bad. Self-doubt immediately bubbled to the surface. “I uh, I coloured it.” You reach up and ran your hand through your blonde hair, not usually the standard issue colour. “I just—“ Then, as you stopped your mind from running off with the idea of shaving your head entirely, you caught onto what was happening... 

“Wait, you thought I was someone else?” Your heart sank. Jack didn’t even know it was you, yet here he was.

Jack immediately turned to look back at where he’d left Robby. Much to Jack's dismay…Robby had vanished into thin air. Shit. This wasn’t going to end well. He’d really put his foot in it this time. 

“You didn’t know it was me? And you were hitting on me!?” There was a tone in your voice that had everyone around you on edge. It made the blood in Jack’s head rush south…he liked you a lot when you were being mean to him. 

Langdon, who was only just getting situated with his patient pool for the morning, looked over at Jack with wide eyes and a shocked expression plastered across his smug face. He was so thankful it wasn’t him in Jack’s shoes right now. 

“No! No—“ Jack tried to explain himself. “No, I just thought you were, you know, some blonde.” But he had nothing to explain as he lowered his head and pressed his lips together. 

God help him. 

“Jesus, Abbot—“ You sighed. It was hard enough to love him enough as it was. Now, the idea of him running rampant around the Emergency Department, flirting with anything that moved, was going to ruin the small ounce of strength you had left. “You’re pathetic, and hypocritical—and slutty!” You whispered, shouted through gritted teeth. 

“And you are no blonde!” Jack retaliated, sending the Emergency Department into a buzzing gossip column. It was rare to ever see the two of you together anymore, let alone arguing like a married couple. 

“What did you just say to me?” It was a loaded question, like you were just daring Jack to continue. You stepped closer to where he stood, matching his intense gaze like you knew the way passed and into his heart. He fucking loved you. Being this close made his heart yearn for you. He just wanted you to be his again. 

You can’t pull that off, sweetheart.” The term of endearment slipped off his tongue like it was something Jack said every day. It was…But he wasn’t supposed to be calling you that anymore. Much like he wasn't supposed to be wearing his wedding band. 

It made your heart race. He still noticed you. He still wanted you and only you. He still cared. But not enough for you to trust he had your best interests at heart. 

“Blondes are either badass, or fun, and you’re—“ Jack paused, he was trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t inadvertently hurt your feelings. He was flirting, after all. “You’re a brunette.” 

“Fuck you, old grumpy bastard!” That was all you said as you collected your things and turned away with quick haste. You needed to leave. You were needed for a consultation, and that's what you were here to do. You weren't here to argue with your ex. 

“Damn—“ You heard it as you walked by. Langdon was looking at you like he’d just witnessed a public execution. “If you want my opinion, I think the blonde looks rad.” He smiled. 

“Oh, shut up!” You hissed with enough conviction that it had him thinking you might actually be venomous. 

“That didn’t end well, did it, Romeo?” Robby reappeared as Jack stood idly, watching you walk away. His heart ached, like he had a school-yard crush on the popular girl at school. 

“When did she dye her hair?” He asked softly, kicking himself for not noticing sooner. 

“Two weeks ago,” Robby replied. He knew Jack would take that as an answer he was hoping not to get. An answer to the question he secretly asked. The question was about your hair, but in reality, Jack had asked how long it had been before he noticed you. 

And the fact you’d been walking around like a totally smoke show for two weeks and Jack hadn’t noticed…made his stomach churn with guilt. 

“She’s too good for me,” Jack sighed. He knew he screwed it up. He knew he stuffed up your marriage. He just wanted to get back to you. “But holy shit, she looks good.”

“I think that’s what she was going for,” Robby smiled as he tapped his friend on the shoulder twice. “C’mon, we got hand over to get through Mr. Casanova.” Teasing, Robby coaxed Jack to follow him. 

Meanwhile, you watched on from where you’d run off to, secretly pining for your husband to flirt like that with you again any time. He was coming back to you. 

Slowly. But surely. Jack Abbot was coming back to life.

[autisticexpression2]

The underlying premise of all of Larry David's writing is that everyone is an asshole. There is no special episode of Seinfeld or Curb where we learn a heartwarming lesson about acceptance or whatever. There's an episode where Larry suspects that a woman is using her kid's autism diagnosis to excuse him for being an asshole, so he starts telling people HE is on the spectrum to get away with shit. I personally find it very refreshing.

All that said (and bear in mind, I haven't actually watched this episode), this narrative you just outlined sounds fairly sympathetic to Palestine. Even if the characters treat it as a both sides issue, the audience can clearly see that wanting justice for stolen land is a more righteous cause than protecting the sanctity of a deli. Regarding the blatant antisemitism, Shara is still a recurring character seasons later, and having her say stuff like "fuck me like Israel fucked my people" is more of an admission than most popular Jewish writers would make. I don't know what exactly Larry David's politics are, but writers will often use exaggerated caricatures to voice more controversial opinions they might not get away with otherwise. It's like Sax Rohmer using his Fu Manchu character to criticize Hitler. He could have a character say the quiet part out loud about how "this guy sucks and should be killed" while falling back on the benefit of doubt that came with him being the villain.

Also, I know this isn't politically correct, but is a Palestinian person hating Judaism for Israeli occupation any morally different from a Native American person hating Christianity for the residential school system? Context matters, and no religion is above criticism, even if they did experience a genocide within the last nine decades.

Found out the actual context of this GIF and ohhh my god

[jams-sims]

Its so insane to find out Maomao has a adopted brother. I wonder if she even knows, I bet she does and does not care. This episode was insane!!! Also fucking Lakan tossing a fucking wooden beam into the Palace wall. Again, I would not have wanted to tell this man shit. Why is this family so fucked LOL. Also of course La is fox and Maomao is cat coded. The family of animal, who are all insane in their own way..

Jinshi scaring a servant girl so bad she pees herself was crazy. God being a women and poor during this time was so shit. Like you can't say no to the crazy imperial daughter of a governer. So now you just gotta act as this bitch. Its been going good for months or maybe weeks. Than the local basically police officer comes by fucking grabes you by the face and say he knows everyone. An that you arent who you say you are and he has never been this scary or angry and you 1000% sure your gonna get put in prison or worse fucking killed. Because again! Some governer daughter fucking ran off and you had no choice but to act like her. SICKENING. Even if it turns out they did it willing it still so shit.

An of course the daughter and Shishou is missing like come on now.

An don't get me started on Jinshi. Literally just trying to do your job and triggering someone so bad that they try and drink poison- would kill me. The late Emperor was so bad. An of course cough men cough didn't think mmm maybe we should let these old women, who were victim go this can't be good for their mental health to just stay in this bitch. Like it was sooo gross to have the line connect to the girls who were deflowered to how the late Emperor was pulling out all the pedo tricks. By giving a little girl candy and holding her hand waaaayyy too long IM GONNA VOMIT!! Like free me!! This guy is so fucking weird and my little theory about him also being a victim (proven slightly right) does not change how derange and unsmypathic this man is.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I both love and hate the s4 ladynoir conflict. It had so much potential, but the way they wrote it was so baffeling.

Personally I'm a big fan of interpersonal conflict in fiction where both sides have a point and is rooted in some real and presistent character flaws. And they absolutely could've had that with the conflict moments they had building up the arc.

Because all the conflicts they showed are ones where Adrien had legitimate complaints about Ladybug not treating him like the equal partner he's supposed to be and needlessly keeping him in the dark. But whenever anyone talked about the conflict it was made all about Adrien whining that Ladybug doesn't love him, which huh?????

Adrien complaining Ladybug didn't trust him was valid. Adrien complaining Ladybug didn't love him made him sound like a Nice GuyTM.

And the narrative keeps flipflopping about whether he's angry that he's not her partner or that he's not her lover in a way that feels like there were two writing teams who kept tugging the narrative between them.

In Hack-San Adrien complains to Alya about how no one keeps the cat in the loop, but when talking to Ladybug he says Ladybug did everything right and the only issue was that he would miss her if she was gone.

In Kuro Neko, Adrien is depressed because he feels like Ladybug doesn't need him and he's the same as any of the other sidekicks she picks and chooses at her convinence (a sentiment he echos in Wishmaker). The plot they set up, with Chat Noir being replaced with Catwalker, clasically should lead to the lesson of "Chat Noir really is irreplaceable in their dynamic, not just for his cataclysm but for who he is" and/or "Catwalker may be who Marinette wants but Chat Noir is the partner she needs". A plot which implicitly says Marinette is the one who needs to learn the lesson because she was devaluing Chat Noir contribution, at least if we go by the classical beats of the plot.

Instead, what we gets is Adrien learning a lesson about how he was wrong to complain and that he was simply too sensitive (also that Chat Noir is an inferior version of Catwalker and that's why he's better as Ladybug's partner). Which would fit the narrative of him being angry because he isn't Ladybug's lover but is an insane take for the narrative of him wanting to be treated like an equal partner. Except that in the finale, Ladybug tells him that he may not be her special partner anymore but he's still her favorite, which only makes sense in a narrative where he's angry about not being an equal partner and wrong for that.

(Also, don't get me started about how literally nothing in the episode built up to Adrien learning the lesson that he ended up expressing. I can't even point out to anything specific that would've logically made him change his mind that way. At least not anything that doesn't come with a whole lot of unfortunate implications.)

In Strikeback, the "conclusion" to the arc, it gets somehow even worse. I first thought that during the ladynoir argument, Adrien complained about how she gets to know all of the temporary holders' identities and he doesn't, but no. Apperently what he's actually angry about is that she knows everyone's identities and he wants her to know his too. Something which goes against the narrative of him being angry because he's not her partner because this would only make the imbalance between them worse.

Except, in the end of the episode, when Marinette has her breakdown after all the miraculous got stolen, she apologizes for pushing Chat away, keeping secrets, etc. All stuff that would make perfect sense in the narrative of Chat not being treating equally, but that the show never established because every time there was an instance where Ladybug treated Chat unfairly, the show refused to acknowledged it and said that the real issue is Adrien's crush. And once again, there was literally nothing in the episode that would lead her to learning the lesson that those parts of her behaviour are problematic. (Nevermind that she kept up the same behaviour in future seasons so she didn't really learn anything and develop as a character, but we're talking about s4).

And it would've been so easy to fix the finale so that it would've both adressed the season long arc they were (kinda) trying for, as well as made the loss of the miraculous rooted in an actual character mistake rather than simply bad luck. All it would take are two little changes.

Have Chat actually hear Ladybug calling Flairmidable "Adrien", instead of having him close by and listening for no reason and with no payoff.

Have Chat argue against Ladybug's order for him to detransform because he wants to keep an eye on Felix and prevent him from getting into shenanigans.

Keep everything else canonical, maybe insert a line or two where Chat tells Ladybug that he doesn't trust Flairmidable and her dismissing him so that by the end of the episode she would know not trusting Chat was a mistake, and bam! Now you have an episode that actually engages with the season long plotline rather than only playing lip service to it, gives an actual reason for Marinette to learn the lesson she expresses at the end and it makes the heroes' loss character driven rather than random happenstance.

Honestly, I think a lot of the conflict in the fandom over s4 comes for the shows indecision for which narrative it commits to. Both have grounding in the text, both are a complete mess that doesn't get a proper payoff, but in one Chat is in the right and Ladybug is in the wrong and in the other Chat is in the wrong and Ladybug is completely innocent. So people pick which narrative thet think the show was showing based on who their favorite character is.

I agree with everything you said, but I've covered my thoughts on most of it in various other posts, so I'll just link to my season four my beloathed tag in case anyone wants to read a bunch of rants on the topic. For this response, I'm just going to comment on a few things you brought up at the end because I don't think I've discussed them before.

Have Chat actually hear Ladybug calling Flairmidable "Adrien", instead of having him close by and listening for no reason and with no payoff.

I hated this scene so much! Ladybug was being so cute and sweet and giving an uplifting message that Adrien should have gotten to hear with the full context that it was meant for him! Instead the scene is focused on Chat Noir being pissy that Ladybug is being nice to another boy. What was the point of that? It's not like it pays off later! Adrien obviously learns that Flairmidable was supposed to be him, but we never see him process the fact that he spent a good chunk of the episode being jealous of himself or that all of those nice things Ladybug said were about him. You could cut the jealousy issue and the Flairmidable reveal would play exactly as it already does in canon because the jealousy was pointless! Why do they insist on undermining his character like this?

Obviously Adrien realizing that Flairmidable is Felix complicates the identity switch thing a bit since he could out Felix, but outing Felix is near impossible without an identity reveal, so it's easy write Adrien being cautious, but letting it happen once Ladybug insists that Flairmidable has been great. After all, Adrien has no reason to think that Felix is going to help the super villain. Plus the fact that he just saw Ladybug being so nice to "him" might make him want "Adrien" to stick around so that he can hear some more nice things.

This fix combined with nixing Chat Noir's worst behavior in the final would make the ending message work much better! As is, it makes no sense. Ladybug is apologizing for things that never really happened and Chat Noir was mad over things that weren't actually flaws on Ladybug's part even though this season was full of things that Ladybug did wrong. Of course, the rest of the season still undermines this fixed message, but at least this is better than what canon gave us! Cuter, too. I will always be annoyed that they finally took some time to let Ladybug assure Adrien that Desperada was a fluke only to never let us see him react to that statement. Many viewers probably even missed that she was talking about Desperada since it was subtle:

Ladybug: Awesome! Well done! You did what needed to be done on your first try.

[insert-witty-user-name-here]

Fic Rec Friday

(Pretending it's Friday) No rules or theme, just fics you've read recently (or ages ago) that you want to share with the world.

Following up with more fic recs from last week! There are simply too many wonderful fics in this fandom for one post. (And there are even more on my to-read list)

Shatter by @mirilyawrites

Each time Loki allows his focus to slip, he finds himself dreaming. At least, he’s fairly certain these are dreams.

Absolute poetry that captured me from the first line (and then each line after). Just. Stunning.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave by @lgwilt

Loki spared a moment to wonder at the unlikeliness of it all: Mobius, a man of no circumstance, no wealth, no social rank, whose courteousness and easy charm made him welcome everywhere he went; and he, the son of an Earl, who had graced the finest tables in the land, yet belonged nowhere.

Unless, perhaps, it was at Mobius’ side.

Or, Lokius: the Regency AU.

An absolute HONOR to beta-read this last fall. I remain obsessed with this fic.

beats per minute by burlesquecomposer (with art by @wolfpup026)

Don, freshly divorced single dad, starts going to the gym to regain some confidence, where he meets personal trainer Loki—who regularly works with people yet has a hard time getting close to anyone.

Confession time, I don't generally like modern AUs but I was TAKEN by this fic! It was beyond sweet. This is another one of those fics where I was shocked it was under 20K words because in my memory it was an entire novel. A beautifully built story.

The chair by Love_is_Green

Mobius is almost ready to go to the timeline and leave the TVA, he talks with B-15.

One of those fics that's less than 1,000 words and still wrecked me emotionally. Centered on Mobius reflecting on en empty chair at the TVA. Angst but with a hopeful ending 💚 (also recommend The Veins and the Branches)

happier than ever by @dreamycloud

Loki was Mobius’s everything. His beginning and end. His glorious purpose. So when he’s forever parted from Loki, Mobius realizes that the next best thing is to move to New Asgard and try to connect with the family Loki had been forced to leave behind.

Or, the one where Mobius can’t sense Loki, but Love can, and she may just be what they need to bring them together across time and space.

I am an absolute sucker for a Thor & Loki reunion story. Combine that with a Lokius reunion story too and from such an incredible writer as @dreamycloud, you've got yourself a FIC! Heartwarming story from beginning to end.

A Desperate Play for Control by @in-my-loki-feels (with more art by @wolfpup026!)

What If... Mobius worked at S.H.I.E.L.D. when Loki invaded New York?

When Loki arrives to take the Tesseract, he conscripts an additional ally to his cause, one perplexingly determined to look after his well-being. It isn’t just the scepter compelling Mobius; it’s the hollowed out, hunted look his new boss has. As the war approaches, they inevitably grow closer, but what happens when the fighting is done and there are no more orders to follow?

An instant Lokius classic- I mean Avengers Lokius AU!? How could it not be. Absolutely loved the characterization of Mobius here as a SHIELD agent. 100% could be a What If episode.

Paper trail. Or, traces of you by @doomed-spectacles (explicit)

Loki and Mobius sneak around. Despite having many nooks and crannies for intimate encounters, the TVA is not an easy place to sneak around. Set nebulously in season two.

PWF my beloved. Loved the balance between flirty banter and soft tenderness. (plus shoutout to the tag 'Mobius M Mobius is a little shit' because he IS and you should say it. I say with all the love in my heart. Little shit Mobius is my favorite).

personal space by a_cry_in_the_wilderness (mature)

“Asgardians are known for handling their liquor,” Mobius says, taking a wobbling step forward as he barely handles his. When he trips over his feet, Loki is there, holding tight onto his arm.

“I’m not even Asgardian,” Loki says, his voice soft. “What’s your excuse, Mobius?”

“It doesn’t take much for me.” Mobius admits.

The Lokius vibes here are perfection AND special shoutout to the fascinating look at Mobius and Ravonna's relationship- a relationship I will never tire of exploring!

feel the time pass by icebats (mature)

Truth is, Mobius doesn't remember how many times he's met Loki.

Gorgeous fic that was recommended to me recently. The character study here is truly top-notch.

Still need to leave comments on some of these fics and my to-read list is still miles long. This is an incredibly talented fandom. Tagging anyone tagged here to share their face fics if they want. Happy reading!

Oh another shameless plug for my previous fic recs

Past Fic Rec Friday | Platonic fics | Multi-Chapter Fics | Post S2 Fics | Post S1 Fics

One more- A TLOU fic (spoilers for S2, episode 2)

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The Soles of Your Shoes Are All Worn Down by ermengarde

Joel is so fucking proud of her.

500 words of canon-compliant comfort that I desperately needed post S2, ep 2.

[a-vibing-potato]

Here's the yapping :) (the following day so now I've already forgotten half of the episode but it'll come back to me, trust)

"Mommy Dearest" has got to be THE MOST Destiel episode of all time after "Free to Be You and Me" in Season 5. Like ACTUALLY. The entire time I was watching it I kept having to pause suddenly like "OH MY GOSH IT'S THIS QUOTE". I am NOT exaggerating, FOUR scenes in a row I was watching and then was like OH CRAP THIS QUOTE. "Cas, get outta my ass." The ENTIRE baby in a trench coat diner scene. The Cas staring out the window all melodramatically because Dean hurt his feelings. "I have a painful, burning sensation." Cas OBVIOUSLY checking out Dean's ass. Those are like FIVE scenes that I knew before watching this episode. Like I thought this episode would probably be kinda mid or average (mainly just because it's right before The Man Who Would Be King and I think that episode is gonna be an emotional angsty crazy roller coaster even though I haven't seen it yet) but oh my gosh! Cas really went off in this episode, and the Destiel is great, too and it's just awesome.

But a few thoughts on the actual plot of the episode (I'll put my Destiel obsession away for a second lol).

At the beginning of the episode Dean is like "I dunno guys, the phoenix ash doesn't burn me so how is it gonna burn Eve?" like. Is he dumb? Silver doesn't burn humans but it hurts SO many evil things. Same with salt! We literally EAT salt to LIVE, but it's effective on basically every monster ever. When did we start abiding by the logic of "Oh it has to hurt me to hurt them" like no??? It doesn't??? Sam literally says that, too, like "Maybe it's like iron or silver and hurts them but not us." and Dean's still hesitant?? Like it'll be okay, it'll work??

I also LOVE Cas in this episode (could you tell?) just because I love the episodes where he basically just tags along for the entire case like he's just a normal little guy, solving a mystery, hunting a monster (which is also why I love "Free to Be You and Me"). Like you're telling me a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent is stuffed in the body of that hot guy, and he's riding passenger princess style in the car? Yes PLEASE.

But I just loved how for the majority of the scenes, the four of them were grouped into pairs of Cas and Dean, and Sam and Bobby. Because 1) that means I get Destiel >:) and 2) I like the idea of Sam and Bobby getting father-son bonding time. Because we all know Dean's the favorite, Bobby ACTS like Dean's the favorite. But he also loves Sam. And I think it's cute :)

ALSO this episode felt like the one where Bobby truly accepted Cas as his son-in-law. The scenes at the sheriff's office just solidified that for me. Bobby talking to him about Sam and Dean going to take those two kids home, and Bobby comforting Cas that Sam and Dean just kinda do their own thing? Perfection. Also also, Cas is SO melodramatic in this episode and I love it. The staring dramatically out the window at the diner after Dean calls him a baby in a trench coat. "You don't know that. They might find more... wayward orphans, along the way." Like YES CAS. GET SASSY AND PETTY ABOUT IT. He deserves it. As a little treat :)

BUT PLOT RIGHT I WAS GONNA TALK ABOUT THE PLOT

Eve infecting the people and turning them into monsters in the first scene reminds me of the Croatoan virus (MY BELOVED <333 I THINK ABOUT IT EVERY NIGHT BEFORE I GO TO BED SERIOUSLY CROATOAN IS THE EPISODE OF ALL TIME FOR ME AND I DON'T KNOW WHY I JUST LOVE A MYSTERY DISEASE IT'S THE HOUSE MD FANDOM IN MY COMING BACK). But they're all violent and attacking each other? Croatoan? No, but I love it like it was.

The whole scene with them all realizing they need a "friendly monster" and I was SURE they were gonna say Cas. But Dean was so oblivious! "Those are in short supply, don't you think?" Like he's standing. Right behind you!! It FELT like Sam was trying to lead him to the answer, too. "But we've met one or two, right?" And Dean that fucker, responds with "Maybe." LIKE YOUR BOYFRIEND IS RIGHT THERE HAPPY TO HELP. But then they bring in Lenore???? From a LONG time ago???? I didn't even remember her I don't know who this bitch is???? Looking at the transcript it literally says she's from season 2 episode 3!! Am I actually expected to remember the name of a monster in ONE episode in early season 2 this much later??? Because I don't, that's very Magnus Archives of you to think I would remember a one-time monster by her first name. BUT her saying "I fed." was such a twist I loved it :) I did NOT love Cas killing her all of a sudden, I absolutely get why he did it, and I feel like she probably would have needed to be killed, but it was so sudden it was sad. :(

The entire diner scene is perfection, I love Bobby's confusion over an IPad, I love Cas getting all embarrassed and flustered that he can't search the town and THE LITTLE THROAT CLEAR babeeeeee before he tries again and looks like he's shitting himself. I love Dean calling him a baby in a trench coat and him staring out the window (can you tell now that I've mentioned it probably five times lol?). I love FINALLY understanding and knowing the context behind the clip "So Mom's making you limp?" "Figuratively, yes."

Timeskip because I don't have any big thoughts that I can remember or want to talk about for a bit...

But them getting arrested by the sheriff, nothing new except Cas' first arrest! (isn't it? I think so lol) Baby's first arrest of probably many.

The kids that Sam and Dean find (Joe and Ryan) are the cutest, I know they're meant to make us think of young Sam and Dean and they absolutely do oh my gosh. All the scenes with them are so sweet <33

Cas feels very jealous (well, I don't know if jealous is the right word but we're rolling with it) boyfriend in the scene with talking to Dean about the kids, very sassy, very snippy, but I ADORE him in it. He's practically begging Dean to stay there and Dean just won't listen. It's also giving lovers' spat, which, y'know. Great. I see where both of them are coming from, Cas wants to save possibly more people for the greater purpose, but Dean sees two kids that look like him and his kid brother and wants to save them.

THE BOBBY AND CAS SCENES ARE ACTUALLY MY FAVORITE IN THE ENTIRE EPISODE, PROBABLY EVEN MORE THAN THE DESTIEL SCENES WHICH IS CRAZY. Some worthy mentions being:

"They may find more wayward orphans along the way."

*the finger quotes on "sarcasm"*

"You don't let Sam and Dean Winchester do squat. They got what they gotta."

*the no-nonsense sass in Bobby's "Thoughts?"*

"I need five minutes alone with him." "Cas, your batteries are dead." "Give me five minutes." *SCENERY CHANGE TO Bobby drinking some kind of alcohol and listening to the pleasant sounds of muffled screaming coming from the other room, only mildly concerned* *Cas comes out with his hands SOAKED IN BLOOD. LIKE BOTH ARE COMPLETELY RED. He wipes off the blood (and looks hot as sin doing it) and has an address. It's later found out that he FUCKING DECAPITATED THE DUDE to get the address*

I don't get why Dean gave Cas a phoenix ash bullet when he literally says in this episode "I'm fairly unpracticed with firearms."??? Like???? Should we really be wasting a bullet by giving it to guy who's never shot anything before??? Anyway.

Not Eve literally just pretend-playing Restaurant inside as a waitress like is she seven. But also, go off queen.

THE FEELINGS I FELT WHEN SHE JUST CASUALLY GOT ALL THEIR PHOENIX ASH BULLETS BECAUSE YEAH, FUCK YOU, WE DID GO THROUGH A LOT TO GET THOSE. YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH. AND NOW THEY'RE GONE. JUST LIKE THAT.

The natural order thing TOTALLY makes so much sense though. I get where she's coming from. Also, please don't wear our mother's skin suit like eww. Absolutely the fuck not ma'am.

The lore drop about Crowley, purgatory, human souls, etc. was so good and cool I love it. ALSO ALL THE WEIRD STUFF GOT EXPLAINED. Like there were a LOT of loose threads but they talked about all of them and I think wrapped up all the episode-centric plot holes!!

THE. FUCKING. TWIST. That Ryan was turned and Dean and Sam didn't even realize EVEN THOUGH THEY TESTED HIM WITH DOZENS OF TESTS. I screamed. (Also, my sister somehow fell asleep during this episode and slept through most of it??? because she's a freak and does that like how are you not on the edge of your seat, but when I gave her a crash course of what happened this episode via transcript, she literally thought Sam was turned. And I was like. Yeah. That would've been really cool, too. And totally on brand for Supernatural to do something like that to Sam.)

My FAVORITE part of the episode: Dean saying "Bite me.", Eve doing just that, and finding out that DEAN HAS PHOENIX ASH FLOWING THROUGH HIS BLOOD BECAUSE HE DRANK IT WITH A SHOT??? Your honor, I fucking love him, he's so crazy.

The dread from finding both kids dead after knowing that one was a killer like okay... but who killed them? Also Cas' whole "I told you so" look on his face for like two scenes lol he's so sassy in this episode and it's actually my favorite version of him.

Sulfur, demons, "Why would demons kill these kids? UNLESS- they were told to." And Cas IMMEDIATELY taking that as his sign to get the HECK out of dodge lmao. Like buddy you are not slick.

Dean defending Cas saying that he wouldn't work for Crowley/keep him alive on purpose/etc. to Sam and Bobby when NEITHER of them believe him. Gay boy, you just love your boyfriend and don't want him to get in trouble.

Cue: The last scene but a tie for my favorite shot scene in this episode, tied with the scene of Bobby drinking alcohol while muffled screaming is heard in the background: The record getting played on a record player and Cas just STANDING THERE like a fucking FREAK all menacing just LOOKING AT DEAD BODIES. LIKE INSPECTING THEM. CASUALLY STROLLING AROUND, JUST PERUSING THIS MASSACRE. He is my favorite he's so unnatural and doesn't abide by societal rules. Give me more Cas that doesn't fit in because he's weird. I love that kind of Cas :D

And we end with Crowley being alive and playing into Cas' humiliation kink with "Really, Cas? How many times am I gonna have to clean up your messes?"

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, this rant did NOT need to be this long, I don't know HOW it ended up this long, but it did. I guess I had more feelings and favorite parts of this episode I needed to quote than I even previously thought lol. Anyway, @greypistacchio, you asked to be tagged in my insane long rant (I don't know why you'd subject yourself to this torture, but here you go lol) Thanks for being interested in it, I just really love Destiel and Cas (if you couldn't tell).

Hope you all are having a great day :)

[geekgirles]

One consistency issue that gets at me when it comes to Sam is how they often treated her love for animals and activism in their favour as a joke. And one they didn't even bother to keep every time it actually would make sense for the writers to bring it up, at that.

One such example is her complete indifference to Cujo in Shades of Gray. Now, don't get me wrong, Shades of Gray was 100% Valerie's episode and her chance to shine, so naturally, I'm not saying the episode should have been about Sam instead of Valerie and Danny's budding rivalry. Nothing further from my intention.

What I mean is that it makes absolutely no sense for her to care so little about Cujo just so they could make a quick "haha, she's a cat person" joke.

Cujo starts barking to Danny, trying to go to him making uprooting the tree. Sam and Tucker holds on the tree branch as Cujo drags them down the hill. Sam: [Sighs. Turns to face Tucker.] "This is why I'm a cat person."

Even if it is quite common for people to have a preference between cats and dogs, I just don't think it meshes well with her already established animal lover personality that refuses to eat anything with a face. Especially when early on in the show she was absolutely mesmerised by Delilah, a gorilla, and bent on keeping the frogs from being dissected.

And you could say, "Well, Geeks, Delilah was an endangered species and those frogs were going to get killed. Of course it'd make more sense for Sam to care about them more than Cujo." And you would raise a very valid point, except for the fact that we later find out that Cujo and the other guard dogs were all put down in favour of the new, more technologically advanced security system.

Don't tell me that kind of heartlessness is not the kind of thing Sam, who did not hesitate to get on Skulker's case for so much as suggesting Delilah should be in a cage (even if he was actually talking about Danny and she was in the wrong there), would completely blow a gasket over.

Same-ish with Wulf.

Again, Public Enemies is a great episode, and Danny's conflict with Walker definitely deserved all the spotlight. It's just that it feels contradictory for Sam to be so blasé over Wulf's situation. I mean, a wolf ghost who's been unjustly incarcerated and repeatedly tortured with a shock collar and Sam doesn't seem all that bothered about it?

That makes absolutely no sense!

Thankfully, they remedied it somewhat in Claw of the Wild, but still.

If you're going to introduce a character as a committed animal rights activist, be consistent about it, damnit!

[mintedwitcher]

i mean i don't think eddie's scary but it's pretty clear that you do and that you would not feel the same way if he was white and buck was brown because you keep doubling down on the idea that eddie hurting buck's feelings in a moment of horrific grief is worse than buck hurting eddie's body over petty jealousy. and if you really were against that you wouldn't have been cheering the bucktommy kiss on in the first place.

I'm gonna answer this one. Not because I think anything I say will actually change your mind, given the amount of frankly delusional shit you've been spewing in my inbox tonight, but because I want to address this.

My position on this scene is not and never has been even remotely tied to the races of the characters involved. It's about the physicality of it. The verbal, emotional, and physical toll of it. Eddie didn't just point a finger in Buck's face. He also implied, heavily, that Buck is to blame for Bobby's death. He implied, heavily, that if he'd been there, Bobby wouldn't have died. He implied, heavily, that Buck's grief and Buck's loss was not as important as his own. He physically backed Buck into a corner to intimidate him because he dared to talk back.

All because Buck didn't want to rehash the moment Eddie found out that Bobby was dead. (and what kind of request is that, anyway? that's something you discuss with a therapist.)

Because Buck didn't make his grieving process about Eddie.

Buck was absolutely wrong to bodycheck Eddie, I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. But the flirting with Tommy? That came after Buck admitted that he was wrong, and took responsibility for his actions, and gave Tommy an explanation for why he acted that way. It doesn't excuse what he did - and no one says it does - and Buck still apologised to Eddie after that scene. And even Eddie, later, makes a joke about being "maimed". Buck also received a lecture from his sister - an actual abuse victim - for hurting Eddie, and got called out by Chim AND TOMMY for it, too.

The difference here is that Buck took accountability, he took responsibility, he showed remorse, and he apologised.

Eddie did not. Eddie brushed it off with a joke that didn't even acknowledge HIS role in the situation ("heard some dick was being mean to you") and foisted his child onto Buck, like he has done EVERY time. It's a pattern of behaviour with him, and it's obvious to see if you just look at it.

And look, I get stan behaviour. I used to love Eddie, until the writing decisions started getting worse, and Eddie got worse as a result. I used to be a buddie shipper myself, as recently as last year. But I took off those shipper goggles because of the toxic fans, like you, who made it intolerable to be in buddie shipper spaces. And then the writing on the show got worse, and I pulled away because of the way Eddie is being written. Right now? I don't even believe Buck and Eddie are friends, much less romantic prospects, because no one should treat their friends the way Eddie has treated Buck in this episode.

If you genuinely believe otherwise, stop wasting your time sending me anons that I will not read, and do us both a favour and block me.

[marisandini-chu-blog]

WOHOOOOO! I'M SO READY FOR TBHX EPISODE 6

Damn, I've met some really good mutuals along the way and had fun discussing so many wild ideas. I'm having a hard time keeping my thought straight for this and what to talk about. So let's focus instead on E-Soul and nobody else.

It had occured to me this week that just like how Nice's PV had been about Nuce, but the story about Lin Ling. E-Soul's PV had been about the OG and the story about Yang Chen. Which leaves 2 (or 1) identity still being questioned; the man trying to kill the OG and the man Lin Ling witness on the beach.

It also makes me wonder if even the person who saved Yang Chen was even OG E-Soul.

Anyway, Shang Chou is sus but that's not news to anyone. He's definitely an opportunist though, if he's anything more. Only time could tell.

I suppose Zero could only be hinted by his arc. (If Lin Ling has sprinkle of Hero X at the background. Maybe we get sprinkle of Zero too in E-Soul's arc)

Anyway, let's begin...

"It's not easy playing hero" Yeah, no shit, officer. Can't you see the bloody bruise on his face?

Shang Chou... your sus meter is rising with every word you said. Why the hell do you have excuses ready coming out of your mouth.

Of course you notice him NOW that he's popular. At least Xia Qing is concern for him and his life BEFORE he's popular

Xia Qing - i don't care if anybody says you're boring. You're a real one, and I will wish nothing but happiness for just being a good fucking person.

Ignore the people who only want to see Toxic Yaoi

LMAO, the awkwardness of using your fake account after knowing your real one

You know what? It's not everyday I get to watch the aftermath plot when a love interest knows your identity (mostly because they drawn out the secret for so long). This is refreshing in a way how two friends navigate their way after a change of dynamic.

Wait, does Xia Qing actually have a crush on him? I mean, she did personally invite him to a concert. Maybe it's less of 'I have a feeling it's you' as she claimed, and more 'I was hoping it was you'

That Boss is a real one. You've got an upstart celebrity of course you'll milk it!

AHAHAHAH YEAH I GET IT KIDS. GETTING INSTANT AFRO DOES LOOK FUN

...LH0, I see you. I know a fucking fanservice when I see one with those scarred abs. For that I say, "Thank you"

WAIT, HOLD ON! THAT'S THE OG E-SOUL?!

He's gotta be more than 50 years old, at least! How ripped is he?!

Ho. Ly. Shit.

Out of everything that this show would take me. Showing how new "brand" can overtake and overshadow the original or old brand to cater modern audience is so honsetly real. This is honestly hits HARD.

Because being the first X, E-Soul has significant impact to the community and the world for his contribution. The sacrifce he made to step up being the hero of the Worst Villain when nobody could. But because young people don't learn or can't understand what made previous generation a fan of his... it's not easy to gain traction then

Oh, no... Yang Chen might be devestated if his Hero started to hate him

OH NO! IS OG E-SOUL GONNA BE A BOOMER?!

YANG CHEN YOU FUCKER! SHE'S SENDING YOU THE SIGN!!!

IF YOU HAVE TIME LOOKING AT YOURSELF, THEN CONFESS COWARD!

Oh my God, so may things keep happening. A slander already coming for him?!

Well, there goes the theory of Shang Chao was behind the scene on that front.

Oh... no... not the trauma response...Yang Chen... honey...

YEAH!! XIA QING! Ohmygod she's such a good lawyer in this! I'm glad they dedicate a scene for her that give us a reason why Yang Chen would fall for her

Oh, Look. Enlighter... Anyway, good job on the assist Shang Chao

"If you can't (be honest with yourself), I won't stop and wait for you either." Xia Qing is SO REAL for this!!! LH0 I swear if you touch her!!!!

Oh, is Shang Chao secretly want to be a hero...

No....

NOOOOO!

LH0 THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT ABOUT NOT TOUCHING HER!

...

...I

*slowly stand and applaud*

You fucking got me, LH0

It's like he knew exactly his own reputation and decided to say, "Crime against woman? How dare you. I do crime against all gender. Thank you very much."

Not to mention, this really hits me how real this situation can be because I just recently read an article how whistleblowers of AI company were being assasinated becauee they have concrete proof and information of stealing intelectual property.

Like, even though I know that's a real thing that can happen. It didn't feel real until I read the article. How soulless company can be for the simple purpose of retaining power and money.

So for this scene to happen... it really felt like a tragedy.

But more so for Yang Chen because the possibility is... his Hero... or at least the company his hero work orchestrate this. Even if the OG wasn't behind the assasination, the fact of the matter is, the guy didn't try to intervene what his company was doing against Yang Chen.

That in a way...

The Hero who saved him...

Is also the Hero who tried to kill him...

God, this is better than Toxic Yaoi. I'm loving this!!!

[atomicpirateperson]

why is rob so mischievous??

here's a yapfest of 6 reasons i came up with!

some of this is essentially canon and some of this is just theorization. i really like analyzing rob's character and if anyone wants to shoot me an ask about him i'll be grateful :]

1. to not die.

rob ended up in the void because he was useless to the show. if he couldn't die from the lack of food or water there, he would have spent an eternity in isolation. it makes sense that he's afraid of what happens if he becomes useless again, so he really needs a niche. his dilemma starts because the only niche available is the antagonist. in his monologue from The Disaster, it's clear that villainy is far from his dream job and he feels forced to act this way.

2. for revenge and closure.

of course, revenge against gumball is his most iconic and obvious motivation. however, on a deeper level, i think it's about more than the wattersons. despite his behavior, rob might have a strong sense of morals and justice. for example, in The Rerun he couldn't bring himself to end gumball's life after being saved, and his guilt was clear.

as for the closure part, he can't undo any of the traumatic events in his life, but because of this strong sense of justice, he still needs something to do about it. he still needs to resolve this somehow and he chooses vengeance.

truthfully, most of these vengeful thoughts should be directed at the void, but he can't enact revenge on the universe itself. so, he targets the closest thing to take his anger out on: gumball. in fact, as a villain, rob never brings up gumball's past offenses. who knows, maybe he doesn't even care what gumball did!

3. as a creative outlet and source of purpose.

there's no doubting that rob likes to be theatrical and extra in his villainy. there's definitely some real passion put into it even though he doesn't have a choice.

as a homeless orphan who doesn't appear to be in school, he probably doesn't have much to do in life. he's a creative and imaginative person for sure, so he needs a way to express and entertain himself.

it's easy to interpret his melodramatic moments as pure acting/exaggeration, but it could also be a genuine coping mechanism and/or way of venting, which ties into the closure thing.

4. for control.

with no house or family to provide stability or support, control is something he has been robbed of in life (pun not intended).

his shenanigans might help him feel in-control and safe by taking control and safety from others. this is especially prominent in The Disaster/Rerun with the literal remote control that sends him into a power trip.

also, while it's partially his fault, other people don't listen to him, so he has to get what he wants through force. this is probably the reason why he worked towards his benevolent goals so forcefully in The Inquisition.

5. for attention.

6. to defend himself.

this is pretty self-explanatory. real kids show attention-seeking behavior just from having inattentive parents. with no parents and little to no friends, this is probably the case for him as well. regardless if the attention is negative or positive, he really needs to be noticed and talked to by others. this would also be an additional reason for why his actions are often gumball-centric because that puts him on screen, at the center of attention.

this one doesn't show up often. i'm mainly adding it because of the scene in The Future where gumball and darwin charge at him unprompted. sure, he went into defense mode first, but he wasn't the ones who literally killed him first and asked questions later (actually, they never asked why he was doing that). the episode would have ended differently if they stopped to pick up on the many clues that this wasn't just typical rob shenanigans. (interestingly, gumball was less presumptuous in encounters before this. maybe he and darwin were angry because banana joe and his mom had nothing to do with rob's evil upbringing... but at the same time they don't always care about joe that much)

outside of that, rob's crimes might also serve to intimidate others to keep himself safe. a homeless kid alone on the streets needs to deter dangerous people as much as possible.

...and that's all i have to say :] again lmk your thoughts about this!

and before somebody acts like it is: this is not meant to say that all of rob's actions were completely normal and justified. it's just a villain analysis don't start

[unhinged-domestic-raccoon]

Miraculous Rewatch Where I Overanalyze Everything: Stormy Weather

Hoo boy, this one's a doozy! I almost hit the image limit! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe this was the first episode produced, so some of the things I'm gonna talk about are gonna be early installment weirdness.

To start off, with: Alya is so good with kids and it's precious and amazing and adorable! This is one of my little fanfic note things, since I'm planning on doing a KittyBella AU, where Alya and her relationship with her family is going to be a major plot point. She is just so able to understand Manon and so caring with her, but still respects her (not just letting her win the clapping game for example). I wish this came up more in fanfic. If you have Rena Rouge on the team, I feel like she should be the best member at dealing with kids and the first to think of them and comfort them during a crisis situation. Like, to the degree that it's shocking to their teammates.

Continued under the cut:

Even though Alya is great with kids, Manon is so very attached to Marinette and I think that's so sweet, but I also wonder why that is. I mean, the obvious reason is that kids are clingy and don't like strangers and Marinette is her regular babysitter, but I do also think Manon likes how indulgent Marinette is with her. The whole "I can't say no to the babydoll eyes" thing is probably a big deal for Manon, who doesn't get a whole lot of attention from her very busy single mother. Just food for thought.

Alright everybody, place your bets now! Does Gabriel own Kidz+ and did he hire Alec specifically for this purpose? Is he actively encouraging Alec to lean into the cruel TV personality? Or is he just taking advantage of a rude person? Either way, I think that if you want to establish a proper rogues gallery for Miraculous that has more recurring baddies, Alec and Bob Roth are both great places to start. They'd absolutely willingly work with a supervillain, and I can totally see them getting akumatized multiple times.

Holy horror movie vibes Batman! This looks like something straight out of Arachnophobia! The score doesn't help at all, it's got the classic *reet reet reet* slasher violins! And the way that her umbrella doesn't turn black right away like it does in later episodes and instead slowly seeps with it! The flickering lights in the elevator that have NO explanation for happening without Gabe's influence somehow? The experience of getting akumatized was WAY scarier in this first episode, and I honestly wish they kept that vibe. It makes Hawkmoth seem a lot more threatening and a lot less silly.

This whole first season actually consists of Mothman (no I will not stop on the derogatory nicknames for Gabe) being way more outright villainous. Especially in this episode, he has extremely creepy undertones from his obsession with actual children. I'm positive this is because we didn't know he was Adrien's dad yet, so he didn't have to come off as sympathetic ever. He could just be evil. I do a love a good sympathetic and redeemable Gabe who's only doing this out of extreme grief (that's NOT what we got in the season 5 finale btw, that was just nonsense), but MAN if season 1 doesn't make me yearn for an uncomplicated Disney Renaissance Villain version of him.

Hey, why does Stormy Weather SERVE so hard?! She is doing a full on catwalk strut in this scene! This is why Aurore needs to be a more prominent background/recurring character. I know she's akumatized, but that is just SO MUCH personality! Let her be an unhinged theatre kid in more scenes please!

I do love that even when Marinette is being brave and heroic as a civilian, she does NOT have the enhanced physical capability of the Miraculous. She's not being at all clumsy in this scene, she's showing her inner Ladybug! But she also can't just jump the bench, she has to climb over it by straddling it like the rest of us regular schmucks.

Time for another Plagg highlight! I actually forgot about this running gag/character trait in season 1. Plagg is extremely lazy and never actually wants to transform. He's always either hiding or complaining when Adrien needs him. It's something that kind of disappeared with seasonal decay as the series got more complicated, which is a real shame. Not only is it funny every time, but it's also kind of important if you're going to let Plagg fulfill his TRUE role of being Adrien's mentor. Adrien already knows how to work hard and sacrifice for those he loves. He does it every day. Plagg encouraging him to be selifsh and lazy is HEALTHY for him.

Can we talk about the power level in this yo-yo? Both times, it didn't even have that much force---it just kinda accidentally fell and bopped the heroes on the head. But it's still a magical weapon, so obviously it hurts extremely bad. I'm gonna start keeping track of if civilians ever get hit with this, because I'm almost positive they do, and that's GOT to be a bigger deal than the show makes of it.

Also, we need to talk about how, even with the physical enhancements, Marinette isn't always the best at controlling her yo-yo. Before I started this rewatch, one of the things that frustrated me was that Marinette, a walking disaster in her regular life, suddenly becomes extremely physically competent as Ladybug. But I'm starting to realize that's not true. She actually struggles a lot more than Adrien does. Even in the sound design, Marinette tends to have more effort grunts when they're doing acrobatics than Adrien does. We'll get to another example in a moment!

Another stealthy hello from our favorite cat boy! He fully just climbed that fence without making a single sound! LET HIM BE SNEAKY AND CREEPY! I am BEGGING ya'll!

I'm gonna highlight these moments here to say that, for all Marinette gets annoyed with Chat's flirting (image 3), she flirts back plenty too. I didn't quite capture it in that second screenshot, but she *winks* at him when she says she'd rather he stick to the catsuit (instead of a swimsuit). During the fandom's Salt Fic Era, one of the things the salters targeted was that Chat is supposedly constantly pressuring Ladybug into a relationship even though she continually rejects him. But the joking flirting and teasing was honestly just a part of their dynamic for a long time. It just occasionally gets awkward because Chat is genuine about it while LB isn't (also LB tends to ease off when they're in the middle of serious moments while Chat continues to be goofy to lighten the mood, which irritates her and is something they should both probably work on).

I've seen a lot of discussion about whether this whole weather girl competition was rigged or not. The evidence used tends to be that Mirielle winning by half a million votes is actually bonkers and highly unlikely, and that there only seems to be merch for her and none for Aurore. While it's a fine theory, I'm not sure that second point holds water. All the Mirielle balloons and banners we see are being sold after the competition, and there are figures of Aurore around too, so it's plenty likely they just kept Aurore's merch boxed up. Also, both their faces are on this bus that she throws at the heroes:

In general, we gotta talk about how Aurore is an akuma who's fighting skills and murderous rage go really hard for someone who's supposedly just an average teen. Like, I think this is worse than the general upgrade in bloodthirstiness that comes from akumatization. It makes me wonder about what kind of issues she has in her personal life. Because even if she is just generally kind of angry and violent and there's no other reason, that's gotta make her a pain to be around.

Welcome to my personal hell where I attempt to figure out the timeline of these episodes! Stormy says that she's giving the summer forecast and canceling summer vacation in this episode, which implies to me that it's towards the end of the school year. But if we're to believe that all the episodes take place within a single year (which I've heard is canon but that I have no source for), then that can't be right because other important stuff happens after this. And it can't be during the summer vacation before the school year because it has to take place after Origins. I'm gonna go ahead and do as most of the fandom does and call BS on the "this all happens in one school year" thing. French school starts in September and ends in June or July, so I'm gonna say this episode happens sometime in May, which means it chronologically takes place after both the Bubbler and Mr. Pigeon. I'm also going to guess that Mr. Pigeon takes place after the Bubbler.

By the way, shoutout to these poor firemen who keep valiantly attempting to cut Alya and Manon free from their ice cube! I like when the civilians aren't just useless targets to get hit by the akuma and are actually attempting to help and keep themselves and everyone around them safe.

EEEEEWWW why is his voice clip for using cataclysm different in this episode? I mean, it's probably the same in French, but my guess is that they redubbed the English clip after this episode, because it sounds like he was going to say another word here and then got cut off (also he just sounds better in French anyway).

Chat Noir is so cool you guys. This is what I meant when I said that Marinette tends to struggle with the physical side of heroism in a way that Adrien doesn't, because he is more physically inclined than she is. Chat is capable of effortlessly dodging around all of Stormy's rapid-fire shots and doing complex acrobatics to cataclysm the billboard. It's just extremely impressive. This rewatch is making me remember how much I love most of the fight scenes! They're just so cool!

Here we see an extremely rare instance of Tikki encouraging Marinette to shirk her responsibilities in exchange for fun! She says Mari has totally earned the treat after saving the whole city, which I think is at odds with later seasons Tikki who tends to big on personal suffering for the greater good. Gonna have to see if this is a one-off, a case of seasonal change in character, or if I'm misremembering the later seasons.

That photographer is absolutely correct in adding Manon to the scene. I would be absolutely cooing over a magazine cover that had a teen model posing with an adorable little girl. I would not give a darn if it was a teenage model with a teenage girl. Sorry Marinette, the professional knows his stuff.

[michanvalentine]

Today I’m comparing two characters from completely different works: Astarion from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Angel Dust from Hazbin Hotel. But let’s start from the beginning—otherwise, it wouldn’t be me; I need to be long-winded!

The images are not mine but belong to their respective authors.

If there's one thing I've realized, it's that I need to change friends—because my best friends clearly don't love me and keep recommending things to watch or play that inevitably end up consuming me. Anyway. Lately I watched the Hazbin Hotel series—of course, late as usual, because I must be living up the ass of a constipated ostrich, never coming out, totally unaware of what's going on in the world… or maybe I wish that were the case. The truth is, real life eats up all my time and my responsibilities are always looming over me. I just want to spend more time on my PC, my PlayStation, and on Netflix! Bwaaaaaaaahhh!!!

Okay, I could throw a tantrum and whine forever, but I'm getting off track. I discovered this series and now I’m listening to its songs on loop.

When I started watching it, I knew nothing. I wasn’t expecting the musical numbers, or the jokes to be that crude, or that I’d end up laughing like an idiot—or loving almost every character that much. Of course, I didn’t expect some of the characters—though not all—to be anthropomorphic animals with such an appealing art style, nor did I expect a series that looks comedic on the surface to tackle heavy themes like rape and abuse. So, after several episodes of just smirking, I’d end up crying… and wanting to kill Valentino’s character. Angel Dust is both a self-imposed and inevitable tragedy, to such a degree it breaks my heart. I love him for exactly who he is.

As Husk would say, he’s a hopeless loser—but honestly, that’s perfectly fine by me.

The thing is, while I was watching Angel’s suffering (and I had no prior information about him beyond the Prime series and the two videos I only found afterward on YouTube—namely, the self-produced pilot by the creator and the Addicted video), I couldn’t help but notice all the elements that make this character so similar to Astarion from Baldur’s Gate.

They’re both queer men. They are both proud of their appearance. They both have a wicked master who literally owns them. They’re both treated like objects and sexually exploited. They both wear a mask of seduction and constantly flirt, flaunting their hypersexuality. They’re both physically and psychologically abused by their tormentors.

In Astarion’s case, it’s the magical compulsion of his vampire lord that breaks his will; for Angel, it’s drugs and the intoxicating fumes of his producer and infernal Overlord.

Both characters are looked down upon and stripped of their credibility as victims. One is a vampire spawn, a monster who deserves nothing but a stake through the heart. The other is a whore and a junkie—he must like it, or he was asking for it.

Both are disillusioned—with the world, with themselves—and hide their vulnerability behind smiles and jokes, concealing how deeply broken they truly are. Both are desperately searching for freedom, for identity… at least until they meet the right people and catch a glimpse of hope.

And funnily enough, they also share the way their relationship with the main character begins: for both of them, it starts as a matter of convenience—and only later does it grow into something real.

What probably sets them apart the most is their level of resignation. Astarion is decidedly more defiant and determined in pursuing his freedom, even at the cost of becoming the tyrant himself—the one who holds the power to bend others to his will. Angel, on the other hand, is more overwhelmed—by himself, by the drugs, by Valentino. But that’s precisely what makes it beautiful: because even though both believe redemption is impossible (“I can’t be what you see in me,” says Astarion; “You’re never gonna redeem a demon like me,” says Angel), deep inside them, hope still burns. And there’s so much more strength and virtue than anyone would ever imagine. Certainly more than those who look down on them or those who abuse them without mercy.

Honestly, I really wasn’t expecting such a hard-hitting and raw blow like the fourth episode of Hazbin Hotel. The scene where Valentino beats Angel and threatens him is truly intense. And the video with the song Poison… a masterpiece. The song and the music guide you, scene after scene, sliding down just like poison, while the images of fiction—the film reel—blend and blur with the more painful ones of real violence: raw, terrible, and all too real.

It shows how Angel has become trapped in it, almost addicted. How he’s become the actor of his own tragedy.

At this point, I encourage anyone who hasn’t played Baldur’s Gate 3 to give it a try—and those who haven’t seen Hazbin Hotel to go check out the series. Lol. I’m doing exactly what I blame my friends for: recommending new obsessions! Go forth and dive into media!

Below I’m leaving the video for Poison, because I really like the song.

⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: There are depictions of sexual assault and violence. Please be advised and prepare yourself before watching.

[joramrinah]

Here is my live reaction to this week's episode, brace yourself cos this is long, and obviously spoilers!!! ahead:

Okay, we have the balloons

They both seem in relatively okay moods I guess

Oh so that's what the balloons were for

Oop, here it is, Ruby's coming to the show, and Deb is way too amused for my liking

Not the bear piss

Omg DJ's so pregnant

Ava, babes.... A make over? For seeing your ex, whilst you have a blooming new exiting relationship with two people, and a tv show which is a great success? It's almost as if you're overcompensating

The face she made is so funny to me idk why

"Where's my hug" The cringe I just cringed

Oh so Ava's expecting Ruby to cause issues

That was so painfully awkward

Even Ava's judging herself for that make up

MIRROR SCENE????

Okay not yet but it was a close call

The poor writers scrambling for jokes

That poor intern

Okay side note but I really like Ava's outfit

NO, DEB PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU DON'T GO THERE

Oh no, no, noooo

Oh Deb... Why

Okay, i'm kinda mad at Deb but dammit if she isn't adorable with the corgis

Oh so they have noticed Ava's treating the relationship very physical (believe it or not yesterday I tried many times to put my thoughts about that in writing, I had no idea this was gonna happen)

Okay, they actually get points for wanting to actually date her, like have an actual relationship

"Not over your last relationship" They are thinking of a different person than Ava is

Okay, taking my points back, that was bad, like I get why, but still, they could've provided an alternative, like just watching a show or something, try to cheer her up instead of dumping her when she's clearly had a rough day

Deb's exhausted with that gay

OH AVA'S LOOSING IT, but I don't blame her honestly, she endured way more that I could've

FUCKING CALLED IT!!! I KNEW SHE WAS GONNA QUIT, I COULD SMELL IT

OH SHE'S LOOOOSING-LOOSING IT

Deb wanted to postpone the show to wait for her..... My gods can they just make out already

Oh this hit me right in my Swan Queen feels (iykyk)

SHE HAD DEB'S PICTURE THIS WHOLE TIME?!?!? I just read something like this in a fanfic WHO FROM THE PRODUCERS IS ON AO3?!?

THE WAY SHE'S TOUCHING AVA'S HOODIE ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????????

Oh no, no, no, tell me nothing happens to the dog, omg no the coyotes please no

Oh thank fuck he's okay, my heart about stopped

Damn we've not seen Deb this shaken in a while, or maybe ever

Okay Deb had some sort of realisation

Both of them breaking traffic laws for each other, cool, cool

Okay that type of music is played in romantic comedies before the main characters reunite and kiss after one was going all over town and looking for the other, just saying

O??? MY?????? GODS????????????

I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START, THE TERRIFIED SCREAM AT THE THOUGHT OF AVA HARMING HERSELF?? THE FACT SHE RAN STRAIGHT INTO THE WATER, WITHOUT A DAMN ABOUT ANYTHING OTHER THAN SAVING AVA? BROOOOOOOOOOOOO

Why does Deb look so attractive like this??

Oh this SHOOK shook Deb, she's saying sorry, telling Ava she can't quit, ASKING FOR ANOTHER CHANCE WITH QUIVERING LIPS AND SAYING PLEASE?!? MY GODS JUST TELL HER YOU LOVE HER ALREADY FOR FUCKS SAKE

"You are my voice" CLOSE FUCKING ENOUGH I GUESS, HOLLY SHIT THE GASP I JUST GASPED, and the way Deb smiled?!?? AND THEY WANT ME TO BELIEVE THEY'RE NOT IN LOVE?!? THAT THEY AREN'T SOULMATES??!? YEAH FUCK THAT

"We have to make it for each other" THIS JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER

The way Ava's looking at her...

DEB'S LAUGH AND SMILE?!?? THE WAY SHE'S LOOKING AT AVA!?!?!? SOMEBODY SEDATE ME

THEY'RE LAUGHING TOGETHER AGAIN, LIKE REALLY LAUGHING, TOGETHER, I'M FINE, IT'S FINE, TOTALLY FINE

DEB IS FINALLY NOT TRYING TO HIDE HOW MUCH SHE LOVES HER, THE LOOK, THE SMILE AJXBSIANSUWNSBAIB

Ava's been driving around with that bottle for MONTHS

THE SONG?!?!?!?! KING PRINCESS?!?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?

[fanficmanic]

I've finally watched 8x16 and 8x17

Just to be safe cause I don't want anyone coming at me with pitchforks and fire - spoiler alert for 8x16 and 8x17

Oh, and probably long post ahead - be warned. I need to let this off my chest and vent.

For 8a, I didn't watch any of the episodes live. I didn't have a source for that at the time, and I always kept an eye on here to sort of give myself a heads-up of what happened in each episode. Then 8b came and I found a website to watch live - which is 12 pm Friday where I live, meaning the episode airs while I'm at work.

Still, I kept watching each episode live, and put in live reactions, and went nuts over predictions and obsessed over possibilities.

Then March 31 happened, and nothing was the same again.

A week later, I went on vacation (still in that vacation as I type this - got 5 more days), where episodes air at 3 am local time. I watched 14 the day after cause I was jet lagged and couldn't wake up for it, then I watched 15 live and cried so hard to the point that I woke up my husband and he freaked out. When I explained what was going on, he just hugged me and asked if I wanted him to stay up with me to vent (this is important for another point I will be making below). I'm kinda glad that all of this was happening while I was busy seeing friends who I haven't seen in years, cause otherwise, I would've driven myself insane during that one week hiatus before 16.

Still, I couldn't find it in me to wake up for 16 and watch live. I wanted to, I really did, but I just couldn't do it. Then I read all the negative feedback and I was like, nope. Not doing this. So I found a clip of the funeral, watched that, and called it a day. This, for someone like me who hasn't gotten so hyper-focused on a tv show in years, is so OOC. I still didn't watch it, even after 17 aired, which I didn't watch live either (not for lack of wanting, but the website I use is blocked where I am currently).

This morning, I woke up to an insane amount of posts here about 17 - and my fandom bestie whose opinion I treasure the most (looking at you @cathcer1984) said that I have to watch it. So, I downloaded 16 & 17, and only was able to watch them now.

Here are my thoughts on 16 (better late than never, I suppose):

No matter what Gerrard does, and no matter how he acts, he'll always be an asshole to me.

Hen and Chim were phenomenal. Their acting was out of this world, and the makeup department deserves awards cause it felt like Chim had aged 10 years.

Buck, who has a chronic case of abandonment issues-itis, was clearly barely holding himself together. He was putting on a strong mask because Bobby told him that they'll need him, and he'd die before disappointing Bobby even through the great beyond.

Eddie only being there for a few minutes pissed me off, but man did he do an excellent job. That single tear that trickled down his face when they saluted Bobby broke me.

Athena's dealing with her grief by working the dead child's case was so in character that I wasn't even upset.

Even though I had watched the funeral scene last week (and cried), I still cried again - and once more, my husband just hugged me and wiped away my tears.

I'm kinda conflicted about Bobby being buried next to his first wife and kids. I mean, it's a beautiful move and very emotional, but that doesn't give people a place to visit him and talk to him. I'm also kinda pissed that Buck, Eddie, Hen, and Chimney didn't get on that plane with Athena, May, and Harry.

Now, like I said, I woke up today to insane posts around here, and I was so confused that at one point I thought I'd be watching Buck and Eddie throwing fists at each other.

However, now that I've watched the episode, I'm starting to wonder if I'm watching the same show as everyone else is - particularly those who are calling Eddie abusive.

Again, the acting was phenomenal, the cases were typical 9-1-1, and the team work at the end kinda showed that the team might still be grieving, but they still work together seamlessly.

The talk that Eddie had with Hen and Karen proved to me that they actually don't know what Bobby told Buck - that they'd need him. I don't think they'd be annoyed by it if they did. On the contrary, I think they'd be working on helping him unburden himself from the heavy load Bobby (unintentionally) put on him.

As for that kitchen scene, I honestly think it was incredible. The acting OS and RG pulled was crazy, and I could feel their grief and anger and helplessness as if it was my own. Again, I don't think Eddie knows what Bobby told Buck - he's still not over the fact that he wasn't there with the rest when the worst happened. And he's lashing lashing out - justifiably so. And this brings me back to what I was saying about my husband earlier.

See, the thing is, we all know that Eddie was brought up to the notion that showing any sign of emotion is weakness. He's repressed and feeling guilty on top of mourning someone who has literally saved his life. In all the past seasons, we've only ever seen him cry when he had that meltdown - and he did that behind a locked door that Buck had to break down. We actively saw him hold back his emotions and become completely stoic: when Shannon died; when he thought Chris was dead during the tsunami (even if it was for a few minutes); when Buck was struck by lightning, during Bobby's funeral, and so on. Yet, we see him try to hold back his tears when he's talking to Buck in the kitchen after pointing that menacing finger at him (can you hear the irony?).

This brings me to what I mentioned about my husband earlier. My husband and I have been together for almost 16 years - married for 14. We've been through so many different things that have caused us immense pain and resulted in one of us lashing out at the other. Our most recent issue is related to my health, which has been going on for about 3 years now, and if you ask anyone who knows me, they'd tell you that I'm ok - managing but ok. They never see my frustration and my pain and my tears, only my husband does, because he's my safe space. I know I can vent and express my frustration in whichever way I find helpful at the time, and that he'll always hold me, help me up, and support me.

This is what's going on with Eddie. He said that he couldn't cry when he received the news because he didn't want to freak out his kid. We saw him with his clenched jaw during the funeral. Still, maybe on an unconscious level, he knew that, standing there in front of Buck in his old kitchen, he's safe to let go of everything that's been eating at him regarding Bobby's death.

On a not-so-different note, Chimney punched Buck and everyone is a-ok with him (even though it's been years since), yet, here we have people calling Eddie abusive and toxic.

Then we've got Buck, who has a chronic case of abandonment issue-itis, and who (even before Bobby died) always wants to help his family and fix things. He's going around rating people's grief so that he can figure out how to help them - it's the only way he know how to do things. But he can see that they don't need him, not the way Bobby said they would, and he ends up in a confessional booth trying to contact Bobby (may I suggest a Ouija board next time?).

But even though Eddie lashed out at Buck, and even though Buck called Eddie a jerk after reading his note, Eddie (who can barely afford anything by being an uber driver) flew his son over to cheer Buck up, and Buck - the man with a heart bigger than the universe - accepted that with the good faith that it is because Eddie gave him what he needs (his family) without him having to ask for it. Because Eddie saw that Buck was trying to help everyone BUT himself, and he stepped up to do that.

Was Buck making everything about him again? Maybe, but then again this is the same person who has had to spend his entire childhood working on getting his parent's attention. Nothing makes sense about grief - like Karen said: you're grieving, fair can go fuck itself (she didn't say that, but she might as well have).

Anyway - if you've gotten this far, I thank you for reading my rambles and venting. I needed to get this off my chest because I've been feeling like I want to scream at my phone all day after reading all the different posts. Like I said in an earlier post - the amount of people I've unfollowed after the last two episodes is a lot.

[darcyfangirlsfrequently]

Live reactions to CM S18 ep1

AHHHHHHHHHH FINALLY IT'S TIMEEEEE MY HANDS ARE SHAKING

Starting off the season with a trigger warning is CRAZY we really aren't playing around

Oooh tricking the police into helping you get the guy into your car. smart.

CONCENTRATED HELLO KITTY I'M CRYING

AHHH THERE THEY ARE THEY'RE BACK ON MY SCREEEEEEN

Emily only introducing half the team is still weird to me

"Can you stop him?" * The Look * AHHHH WE'RE SO BACK

TYLER BADGEEEE (surprising absolutely no one lol)

the way I say the back of Tyler's head and immediately thought it was Luke---

"Trainee" AHHH I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS DYNAMIC

LUKE QUIZZING HIM. BEING THE MENTOR. THE STUDENT BECOMING THE TEACHER. THE NEWBIE IS THE EXPERIENCED GUIDE AHHHHHH

Luke are you aware chairs exist??? Do you ever NOT sit on desks?

And again. Putting Luke and Tyler in near IDENTICAL outfits is crazy work and the costume dept. knows what they're doing.

JJ and Luke quizzing him I'm so excited I'm SO excited I'm loving this so much

"Are you kidding me with that?" LUKE 🤣🤣🤣

he just casually has a dagger??? Also get your foot off JJ's desk

JJ and Luke just looking at each other like "awww that's so cute"

Rossi maaaaaaaaaaaaaad

I'm glad Luke asked Tyler to define OPR bc I also want to know haha

So while yes I absolutely believe Rossi set up Voit's attack in prison that audio clip proves nothing other than Rossi giving him a head's up that he was in danger

PENELOPEEEE HI BABYGIRL YOU LOOK SO GOOOOOD

"You're here again" Penelope how often do you go to visit him??

JJ really looks so GOOD with straight hair

TARAAAA HI GIRL YOU LOOK SO GOOD

Wait... Will is still alive? We have to watch him die? Oh god

aerosolized fentanyl is a THING???

The way they're all bouncing off each other and figuring things out WE ARE SO BACK IT'S SO GOOD

I'm curious. Are these people who can't swim? is there smth weighing them down? why don't they try to swim to the edge of the pool to get out? Obviously he would still kill them but why don't they at least TRY??? Even if they were still drugged I think they would have the wherewithal to try

Poor Emily istg sometimes her job is making toddlers go down for their nap

Luke getting his smart boy moments!! Yay!!

AHHHH LUKE'S SMILE WHEN HE SEES PENELOPE THROUGH THE WINDOWWWW

"It is not demure or mindful" NO NOT THAT TREND 🤣

Penelope stop saying "yo"

Luke's soft little smile at her when they're all in her office spying on people. Secret Dating Garvez is SO REAL (yes I am still on my bullshit about that and I always will be)

Is Luke just... eating a lollypop? and more importantly did he get it from his gf Penelope

Yes indeedy!!!

I'm loving this friendship between Luke, Tyler, and Penelope as a trio I really am. And yes I think it's a product of Luke and Penelope feeling so secure in their relationship that they have no issues with being around and working with her ex-situationship

I know JJ was DYINNNNN to ask Pen about the luke/tyler situation

WOAAHHHH THE WHOLE FAMILY??

Not us getting the most Luke information we've ever gotten at once from his fucking DOG TAGS. We now know his blood type (O-) and that he still identifies as catholic

"Well... that's where I come in" YES IT IS BBG

Luke dear god the smiles each time you LOOK at her...

first look at the unsub!!

Oh he has a gun! Well that answers my question about why they don't try to escape.

What I want to know is: why these people? how does he make these selections?

ooh wait unrelated to everything but I bet the reason there's the scene this episode (i'm pretty sure) where Penelope is crying to luke "he thinks empathy is a sin" is bc she's talking to him about why she goes to visit Voit

Emily and Rossi playing "clue" 🤣🤣🤣

AHHH IT'S THE LIGHT BLUE LONG SLEEVE WHICH MEANS IT'S GARVEZ TIMEEEE

ohhh he's pissed

I WAS RIGHT FUCKING CALLED ITTTT

"I remember you taking off your glasses. It's how I knew you were serious." I can't with them he loves her so much he can just read her he knows her so well

"I don't see anything but I believe that you believe it." I literally cannot with how soft he is with her

HIS HAND IS ON HER LEG HIS HAND IS ON HER LEGGGGGG

AND SHE TOUCHED HIS HANDDDDD

secret dating garvez is SO real

"you know i never got heartburn before i met you" is that 50yo speak for "I love you but you stress me out" like how did he manage to say that SO romantically

"Can you run more than one search at a time?" he says with a fond smile that says he knows that she ABSOLUTELY can

"Science says asking a dumb question makes you less cute" WHAAAAAAT THE FUCK???? AND THEN HE POKED HER SHOULDER???

And then there's the almost cheek/head kiss we saw in the sneak peek. still mad he didn't give her a smooch but the rest of the stuff in this scene is making it very easy for me to get over it

Tyler's little grin when Luke says "you too." He's like "yay! i get to go do a big boy job!"

The mom trying to help her daughter stay alive as long as possible 😭😭😭

Oh my god them using the corpse of their husband/dad as a float to stay alive...

NO OMG THE CORKSCREW TO CUT A HOLE YESSS

No the unsub saw and the mom is shot 😭😭😭

Tyler using his dagger to open the cover!!!!!

@lklvz @mortalscience on a scale from 1-10 how insane were you when Luke dove into the pool and got soaking wet bc of it

I was like "why does luke have his jacket on all of a sudden..." oh. it's her dead husband taking her with him to heaven I see

OH SHE LET GO SHE'LL LIVE YAY

For any of y'all who said greencia was gonna happen again... fat chance with him being in Alabama.

*flash forward ten years later* Tyler rejoins the BAU and they're ALL still there. even rossi.

although the 10yr rule didn't apply to Reid, Garcia, JJ I think, even Luke since he only became an SSA when he joined the BAU

*sigh* penelope's gonna close that door and he's gonna kill the nurse isn't he

Yupppp called it

That was such a good fucking episode I can't even holy shit

[paxesoterica]

I fell behind on GQuuuuuuX watching, but recently caught up (as of episode 5).

I don't think I've written down my thoughts about the show previously, so here are my notes so far:

*I love the vibrancy of the colors in this show, especially the multi-colors used for character eyes.

*Machu's impulsive willingness to use violence for the sake of others is a nice contrast to her shock at seeing people actually die, and I'm curious where her character development is going to go from there. Compared to past Gundam protagonists, I'd say right now she bears the most resemblance to Kamille, but I can't help but note a few Suletta undertones as well; to be sure, she strongly contrasts with Suletta's initial desire for a 'normal life', but the two share a sense of justice and willingness to stand up for others, as well as an initial willingness to let someone else guide their actions.

*Machu is heavily associated with jellyfish, including a stylized jellyfish on her beanie and slippers; even the wire attacks of both the Witch and the Black Tri-Stars are arguably evocative of jellyfish using their tendrils to attack prey. Some types of jellyfish are known to be bioluminescent, to which her desire for Kira-Kira might allude, and while jellyfish can swim, they'll sometimes let themselves be carried along by the current or the wind, letting an external force guide them rather than relying on their own strength.

*Something is up with Machu's Haro. It's possible it might be connected with Amuro, due to it being a Haro and being able to unlock the Psycommu functions of the GQuuuuuuX. I also can't help but think the fact that Amuro's dad, Dr. Tem, didn't suffer brain damage in this timeline, is going to be significant somehow.

*Nyaan is still a bit mysterious, but the last episode affirmed for me that her most prominent trait is pragmatism, and a willingness to do what she needs to to get through the day.

*Her vision of Kira-Kira is notably different from the one shared between Shuji, Machu, and Shiiko, and I think that might be due to how Machu and Shiiko were both drawn toward Shuji/the Red Gundam (albeit for very different reasons) and thereby his vision of Kira-Kira, while Nyaan realized she couldn't rely on Shuji and had to resort to her own strength instead. Perhaps, in time, Machu's perception of Kira-Kira will change into something different as well.

*I've heard some folks mention that Nyaan might be Thai, based on her skin tone and (nick?)name, and her situation is an allusion to the real world struggles of Thai immigrants in Japan. I'm unfortunately not particularly well-informed on that, but I will note that development on GQuuuuuuX started a little bit after the 2019 anime film, Seven Days War, which has a prominent plot point of Japanese high school students protecting a Thai immigrant kid from the police. That connection might seem a bit tenuous, but please note that the main writer was Ichiro Okouchi, and that this film also featured a prominent plot point of the male protagonist's crush revealing that she was a lesbian and actually in love with her best friend, with both said friend accepting those feelings and the protagonist being gracious about the situation, so arguably the film has a stronger connection to Gundam than you might think.

*Shuji gives me Anthy vibes, in the sense of being a potential friend to the protagonist, but who's under the influence of some malevolent other that may drive the two to conflict instead.

*Shuji's alias for Clan-Bat is 'Hara Herimushi', which apparently translates to 'Hungry Tapeworm', referring to a parasite that can live in the intestines and cause stomach troubles (or, in its larval cyst form, it might instead be located in the brain and cause a change of behavior).

*Shuji is way too casual/calm about killing somebody in a combat game that doesn't need to be lethal, but considering how helpful he's been in making money for everyone, it makes sense why Machu and Nyaan are ignoring all these glaring red flags.

*Shippers, as they say, will ship, but my current assessment on that front is that Machu has some attraction to Nyaan and Shuji, Nyaan has some attraction to Machu, and Shuji doesn't really seem interested in either that way. The last episode ended on a cliffhanger that would seem to indicate that Machu and Nyaan are going to 'fight over a dude', and I can certainly see why some viewers might genuinely believe that, but I trust Yoji Enokido, who is one of the main writers on the show, to be more nuanced and complicated than that. In any event though, these three are on some sort of collision course, and I can only hope they fare better than Amuro, Char, and Lalah did.

*This post analyzes our main trio by of comparing them to Enokido's previous work on characters from Revolutionary Girl Utena and Diebuster, and I recommend reading it if you haven't already.

*Speaking of which, I do find it funny how people keep overlooking his work in favor of Hideaki Anno. I feel that if more people paid attention, they would recall that he's previously been the main writer on both Revolutionary Girl Utena and Star Driver, both of which utlilized a duel format for its fights up until the end, so the Clan-Bat stuff feels like a pretty natural progression from that. The show might shift to outright war toward the end, especially if a Season 2 gets announced after episode 12, but I wouldn't necessarily expect or count on that.

*The TV series omits mentioning the Rose of Sharon or Char's fight with Sayla, but since it frames the 0079 portion as a flashback being recounted by Challia, I'm guessing he may simply not know those details, and hopefully both events will be revealed in a later recount. Shuji does mention that the Red Gundam is looking for 'a rose' on Earth, which means that my initial speculation that Shuji might be the Rose of Sharon is probably incorrect (and it's also probably not any of the major characters we've seen so far, assuming that the Rose is a person and not an object of some sort).

*I don't think any of the theories that any of the new characters are secretly old characters from previous UC shows are correct, but I wouldn't be surprised if several of them are linked to previous characters in ways that we simply don't know about yet.

*I've seen some folk speculate that, because the Zeon trio is running after the main trio toward the end of the opening credits, that means our leads will be joining the Zeon crew. However, I think it just means they're all ultimately after the same thing, and that doesn't necessarily indicate they'll engage in jolly cooperation; they could very well be rivals instead.

*Shiiko Sugai reminds me a bit of Juri Arisugawa from Revolutionary Girl Utena, in their beliefs of 'there are no chosen ones/Newtypes' vs. 'there's no such thing as miracles', and even a little bit in how both want more from life than the expected 'traditional' roles of women. Unlike Juri, Shiiko seems to be straight, but she clearly wants more than just a life as a wife and mother, and I can't help but contrast her continued pursuit of a combat role with how Fraw Bow and Mirai Yashima became relegated to background characters in Zeta while their husbands continued fighting.

*I actually wondered if Shiiko might be related Mirai or Bright considering that she has the GQuuuuuuX equivalent of dot eyes, but at this point it seems to have just been a stylistic allusion to 0079 than anything deeper.

*Challia seems way too cheerful about a civilian stealing a secret military project under his purview, and using its experimental systems for a combat game. Perhaps he's hoping it will cause a second Zeknova, and give him the opportunity to learn more about Char's fate.

*Challia's casual acceptance of Nyaan's brutal use of her Mav suggests that, in contrast to his genial demeanor and seemingly kindly treatment of Xavier, he has some rather unhealthy ideas about how relationships should work...but perhaps that should be expected of a man who's still 'in the thrall of the Red Comet' a good five years after the latter's disappearance.