#and it's funny how in one episode these happened

[d0rothydraws]

Prompt 3: Sylus following MC's holiday traditions that they enjoy.

It was your first Christmas together. You always celebrated it in some sort of way each year. Sylus, on the other hand never had a reason to. Sure the twins did their little festive thing and decorated the base and at time Mephisto as they wrapped him in garland. He never really felt a reason to celebrate - until you.

The festivities started the first week of December. You casually mentioned how you had to buy a new tree, always having fake ones since you moved out on your own. Your current one was falling apart and it was time to get a new one. Though, instead Sylus opted in for a real one. Secretly it was a reason to go out with you to the tree farm and watch your eyes shine as you debated between three different trees. Then finally as you two chose together - a tall and fat tree that looked a little wonky at the top - he told you to relax as he did the hard part.

You waited in the little cabin area where the customers would warm up with a cup of hot chocolate by the fireplace. There was a residential dog sleeping by the owners, an old lady that was knitting in a rocking chair. She told you how her and her husband had owned this tree far for over 56 years and some funny stories about her time working with the customers who would come and buy trees. About the newly wed couples who would come to get their first tree all bright eyed and bushy tailed. They would return the next year and a few of them would be pregnant or even with their newborn. The cycle would continue. Of course not everyone would always come back, or families stayed together. She said she always secretly guessed how the future would turn out for these couples, and she was always somehow right.

Sylus returned to the cabin, snow on his jacket and hair. You made him a warm cup of hot chocolate before you helped dust him off. You could hear the old woman chuckle softly, her laugh full of warmth as if the two of you reminded of her and her husband.

The two of you prepared to leave, Sylus' arm wrapped around your back. You said goodbye to the sleeping puppy and then to the woman who moved to give you a hug. She whispered into your ear softly, her voice so tender it almost brought you to tears.

"I'll be seeing you for several, several years, honey."

--

MERRY CHRISTMAS⛄🎁🎄

This one was inspired by an episode of my favorite sleep aid called Nothing Much Happens. A few years they did one about a tree farm and it was super cute and it became one of my biggest comfort brainrots. So here's the Sylus version 🥹

If you have trouble sleeping if staying asleep I highly recommend I've been using her stuff for over 5 years now.

not sponsored LMAOO.

[ilikekidsshows]

This is related to something mentioned on one of your asks (apologies if you did talk about it and I just didn't understand) but do you think calling Adrien a sexual harasser is comparable to calling Marinette a bad leader in terms of criticizing characters?

--

This is literally what I meant with my big rant on people who use “it's all just bad writing” to sweep aside bigger and bigger problems with the show. We're all used to excusing some level of bad writing from this show, but, like, usually people have a threshold for how much bullshit they're willing to swallow. I could excuse Cat Noir not getting the hint, just like I could excuse Marinette following Adrien everywhere and knowing his schedule (this is the actual equivalent point of comparison). They were quirky about it. Ladynoir was mutually flirty even if Cat Noir was too serious with it sometimes, and Marinette's nonsense was often funny. I mostly treated the stalker/harasser takes as opinions. I could see why people would view the characters that way, but I could see enough outside it to look past it. It was beneath my bullshit threshold.

“Marinette does practically everything wrong on screen but we praise her for things she didn't do so she did everything right actually” is past my bullshit threshold. You can't show the exact opposite of what you mean on screen and then claim something different is going on. Ladybug treats her teammates with different expectations, her rules are situational and conditional, she picks favorites, she keeps valuable information from her teammates, making it harder for them to do their jobs. Her failures directly lead to bad consequences. But, because she cried about it and was instantly forgiven while taking no steps to improve, that means she's actually the greatest superhero and leader ever. Like, that's a big plate full of bullshit and I’m done eating it.

Also, like, we really need to take the level of my personal betrayal into account when it comes to willingness to swallow bullshit. Like, Marinette being a bad leader and a terrible hero wouldn't bother me nearly as much if she wasn't also an abuse apologist. Marinette, when faced with the choice between doing what Adrien's abuser wanted and considering literally anyone else's opinion on what Adrien might need or want, picked the abuser’s opinion. Marinette picked Adrien's abuser over him. Like, if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't be near this angry. If Astruc hadn't smugly tweeted about how perfectly this decision ties in with her choice in The Bubbler, retroactively ruining one of my favorite episodes for me, I wouldn't be looking back at all of Marinette's failings and seeing how they led her to that moment. The writers practically invited me to do so. Even fans who still adore the show and Marinette think Marinette turning to abuse apologia makes sense. A lot of Marinette's character flaws lead to her making that choice.

Stalking Adrien > disregard towards Adrien's personhood > not considering what Adrien would want when she makes excuses for Gabriel

Lying/secret-keeping > constantly keeping things from people when the truth makes her uncomfortable or look bad > lies about Gabriel because she thinks it will make Adrien's emotional reaction less volatile

Repeatedly insisting kids are safe with their parents regardless of evidence to the contrary > discounting victims’ testimonies > trusting Gabriel's opinion on how Adrien should be treated

Unequal leadership > treating people as objects to be controlled instead of equals to negotiate with > thinking she even has the right to lie to Adrien about his dad

As you can see, a lot of the patterns of Marinette's flaws lean on attitudes that explain almost too perfectly why Marinette would trust Adrien's confirmed abuser's opinion on things relating to Adrien, even when she sees the sensory deprivation chamber Gabriel put Adrien in. Almost all of the bad writing choices regarding Marinette now connect to one of the worst, if not the worst, moments of the entire series so far. And, because it's all so interconnected and all-encopassing to Marinette's character now that I can't just ignore it. I can't ignore any part of it. The writers are making me question Marinette's integrity all the way back in the first season, because many of her flaws were already established from the start of the series.

In addition to all this, Miraculous functions on Protagonist-Centered Morality, aka, the things the protagonist does are meant to be seen as the morally good thing to do or at least a valid choice even when the consequences are "unexpectedly" bad. Adrien’s “harassment” is never framed as the right way to act, but Marinette’s abuse apologia, disrespect of Adrien’s personhood and abuses of power as team leader are all treated as morally being on the same ground as not doing those things. “Lying to him or telling him the truth will lead to very different consequences with their share of happy and sad moments,” my ass.

Adrien being a sexual harasser, Marinette being a stalker, Marinette being a bad leader and hero and Marinette’s abuse apologia are all bad writing, but not all bad writing is written equally bad, if you catch my drift.

[classicanalyzer]

What If Season 3 - What If... Howard the Duck Got Hitched? Thoughts

"And to think a romance that would change the world, all began at a party. An intergalactic blowout thrown by the party prince of Asgard himself...that introduced Earth to the stars...and Howard the Duck to Darcy Lewis... But Howard and Darcy's lives weren't the only ones changed by Thor's Midgard rager. The party may have ended but the guests never left, as the worlds of Earth and the Cosmos became forever intertwined, just like Howard and Darcy." Uatu

I honestly think the best way to describe this episode is Stan Pines, "I am so confused and so proud right now." This is truly What If at its most bizarre insanity in the best ways possible. I love this episode because of how heartwarming and odd it is. I'm still processing the insanity of this episode but it's peak. It's a very Christmas episode without the story being around Christmas.

I was not expecting Howard and Darcy to be a wholesome, heartwarming couple, but here we are and I love it haha.

That Voromir resort was one of the darkest jokes in this show.

I love how this episode is just also an alternate take of Thor the Dark World with the Convergence.

I think the moment Kaecillius starts summoning Dormammu to use the Egg as a vessel is the moment where the insanity really goes off the rails in the best way possible.

Also, I'm not sure, but I felt that the Nick we saw in this episode isn't Nick Fury but Talos. I just felt some of Nick's words don't feel like Nick's. It felt very Talos rather than Nick but who knows?

It's refreshing to see a Loki who is thriving and not undergoing angst. He even has an actual normal relationship with his biological father. Party Thor's universe truly is the most funny and wholesome universe of this show.

Loki, Laufey, Zeus (voiced by the Darin De Paul), Malekith, Kaecillius, the Black Order, the Grandmaster, and Thanos all in one scene feels so unreal and insane.

Kaecillius and Malekith interacting makes me laugh because we really just got two of the most blandest villains in one scene. It's really hilarious seeing Josh Brolin coming back to voice Thanos' surprise at the insanity going on. Ebony Maw's saying "It's magical?" is just the cherry on top.

The hatching Egg really went full Raiders of the Lost Arc at the end.

Byrdie is such a fitting name for their baby lmao. It was a pretty wholesome ending.

It's hard for me to say a lot about this episode because so much happened and yet all of it is absolute cinema. Yet again, another peak episode of this final season.

Note: Yet again we have another massive being towering over someone small (Dormammu and the Egg). Let's see what Episode 5 does lol.

"Even in an endless universe, there's no place like home. And parents are the greatest heroes of all." Uatu

[bidisasterevankinard]

Not to be petty, but there's a "fridge magnets" theories about magnets on Eddie's fridge, but Buck's always was empty. Always. Until Tommy. And we saw in in the same episode as Tommy slept on the couch(perfectly fitting even with his height)

It's really funny how in one episode two theories was laughed at. Coincidence? Pettiness? Idk but it's funny

[bacchuschucklefuck]

they licensed his ass

my finished piece of the FWMS (official name definitely 100%) thing we started a few days ago! I had fun I hope folks had and/or continue to have fun with the sketch as well.

[cozylittleartblog]

happy pride month. i did not make this up for th ememe

[skeletoninthemelonland]

a glimpse of what their early dynamic looks like

[enderwoah]

watching martyn's lore stream yesterday was so funny bc grian is literally never beating the Watcher allegations. martyn said that he was DMing him to betray scott and get a move on because it was all taking too long. after it was all over he DMed martyn saying that that was the best decision to make there. if you watch from scott's pov, you can hear him say "finallyy" after impulse dies and martyn is going on his little rant. like he doesn't ever do it on purpose but it's actually so funny this is why he was chosen to be a watcher isn't it My God

[al-luviec]

something simple to try to get out of art block (it didn't work)

[staticvoidzz]

I kinda made a bucket list for stuff I want to see in a hopefully greenlit season 2, and I have more ideas, but my brain can’t think of them coherently, but I know they are there. Anyways, keep streaming FOPANW

[fear-no-mort]

i cant get over the whole time in the real world rick just sat there watching over morty and when he woke up finally rick sounded SO happy the way he just yelled his name excitedly the second he woke up,,,

[itsnobodysproblem]

Most Sherlock Holmes adaptations I've seen tend to place their Final Problem towards the mid point of the series (or even a bit earlier) - it's also in my opinion the best way of going about it, so you have time enough for the characters to adjust after the reunion but they know each other well enough for the events of Fina to be devastating.

Sherlock & Co is done with 20 of the adventures. How many are there? Fifty-something? Almost sixty? Let's say we'll be entering mid-point territory after the 25th story.

So let's pretend for a moment that we have 5 more stories until The Final Problem. Ok.

Estimating an adventure at 3 episodes each, that would mean little over 3 months - maybe 3 and a half? Starting, of course, from the end of Sign of Four, which will be somewhere in December.

So let's say 3, maybe 4 months into 2025. That would be, what? Late march, early april?

Early april?

John having to tell the listeners that Sherlock is dead, in early april?

Quick calendar search reveals what I was praying it would - the 1st of april will be on a Tuesday next year.

So what I'm saying

What I'm saying is Sherlock &Co has the opportunity to do the funniest fucking thing

[5-turtleducks-in-a-trenchcoat]

I will never be over the Paris catacombs/Mr. Ceiling arc. There was so much good horror stuff in there, I adore it.

[witchinatree]

making a list of my favorite quote/ones that stuck with me from each season 1 episode because i feel like it

(i'm starting this after episode 4 but it will be a WHILE before i post it)

episode 1: "bones are a lie peddled by Big Milk" - alice

i love this one because it's a great introduction to alice i think. also it radiates spiral so i hope we get avatar alice not dead alice (isnt there a podcast called alice isnt dead?)

episode 2: "If I wanted to clear the canvas, I would have used turpentine." - statement

this one was just fucking powerful and caught me so off guard like 😶

episode 3: "What would I do without her?" - statement

the norris statement <3 it feels like martin asking what he would do without jon which makes mag200 a lot sadder and i love them

episode 4: "Perhaps you shall prove a stronger will than I, and will yet find it within yourself to destroy this hungry thing of wood and cat-gut." - statement

augustus sighting #1 and we immediately get jonah magnus expressing that it may be possible for gwen bouchard unknown family member to overcome the eye's hunger spooky violin

episode 5: "Voyeur needs to be seen to be believed." - statement

i feel like this one is pretty reflective of how the seasons gonna go? like if you explain the events of tma (mag200 specifically) no one's gonna believe you, it must be seen to be believed!! and also seen!! like the eye!!!

episode 6: "Not sca- This isn’t some poxy blood test, some little pinprick, this is hundreds, thousands of razor sharp points pushing into your flesh." - needles

i love needles so much and i thought this was really funny because it was like "you dont find me scary!! what the fuck!!!" just kind of toddler michael energy

episode 7: "It’s not like we’re wrestling with tape recorders and manila folders." - celia

STOP IT. celia you can't say that you just cannot!!!!!! you Know™ too much maam i cant with you

episode 8: "Pleasure to meet you both. I’m Gerry!"

RAGHHHHH OH MY GOD GERRY!!!! i love him so much and idk how to handle him being alive in the tmagp universe!! gertrude too but idk we got so much of her in tma and not nearly enough of gerry

episode 9: "And honestly, it’s kind of compelling by this point." - sam

they got him 😔😔 the horrors got sam 😔😔 also i found this to be an interesting contrast to jon's heavy resistance in season 1 like he was being compelled but he wasn't going to let anyone know that vs sam "its kinda compelling to trauma dump on this paperwork :]" how is he somehow even more victim material

episode 10: "Gosh you’re sexy, here’s a twenty for your trouble.” - alice

does this count as a quote if shes also quoting what she thinks sam should say? idk anyway i love her i would say that to her if given the chance and it was very silly. i will not be addressing bonzo i am scared.

episode 11: "...Thank you, Alice" - gwen

dyhard dyhard dyhard dyhard dyhard. okay also, the way she CRUMBLED at the idea of anyone doing anything nice for her please someone give her a hug and let it be ME. this series is tossing me back and forth between sam & alice (what is their ship name) and dyhard but this put me back to dyhard

episode 12: "You know it's rude to have absolutely no game?" - alice

she's so fucking funny i need her to be okay so badly!!!! i don't think even tim made me laugh as much as she makes me chuckle and this one really got me. it's hard to write such a comedic character in a podcast since you only have the voice but they really nailed it i adore her

episode 13: "Is it my fault?" - gwen

each of these episodes just reveal a little bit more about how loving and soft gwen is and idk i love her so unbelievably much so seeing that she felt guilt about the bonzo stuff just made her so much more real :(

episode 14: "Christ, they’re in the walls…" - statement

theyre in the walls!!! theyre in the goddamn walls!!!!! anyway that got me because i realized the hole before the statement said it. made more sad than scared tbh

episode 15: "Babies are cool!" - alice this entire interaction between her and sam & celia was so awkward, she is so obvious and i love her anyway

episode 16: "It’s not like I was holding doors open for Mr Bonzo or anything." - gwen my wife is so so so stupid but i adore her AND this gives room for character development. i wish she did not do that though. i love when characters are flawed and have depth but i struggled to get past THIS flaw of hers

episode 17: "Thanks, I guess. Not exactly the same, though, is it?" - celia shes talking TO JON IN THE COMPUTER. SHE KNOWS. i lost my damn mind i love her i love her. get the gay people out of the puter please queen

episode 18: "Why would I need to talk to you? Your work is satisfactory. Unless you have a work-related issue I could assist you with?" - lena solidified my opinion that lena is the best boss to ever have, i adore her and i would want to work for her if she wasn't the boss of Creepy Establishment #1

episode 19: "You’re going to throw it in the fishtank, aren’t you?" - alice colin's behavior is like really worrying BUT i'm glad he's back. i was not convinced he was still alive

episode 20: "I suppose it’s too late for remorse, isn’t it? And why should I be sorry? This is what I deserve!" - ink5oul/statement they reminded me of jon a lot, like especially his season 3/4 transformation when he doesn't quite know everything but he knows he isn't who he was in season 1 anymore, i hope we see more of their life and they can be helped :(

episode 21: [Tape Recorder Bites Ink5oul] - audio description i know it's not technically a quote but this is just so fucking funny. why does it have teeth. what does this mean for the lore. holy shit.

episode 22: "Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood" - celia. knawing at the walls of my enclosure i am so not okay. i'm not okay. wtf. wtf. wtf. they're real. wtf.

episode 23: "I had a favorite mug. It said “love you, bitch” and had a picture of a drunk dog on it." - alice. okay i just love this entire interaction because gwen got to open up a little bit and my dyhard heart is so full

episode 24: "I am told that children like me, and I’ve always held the opinion that the world would be a better place if everyone just thought more." - basira. once again this whole interaction was so fun but like idk i loved hearing basira somewhat happy and in a safe place :] my wife <3

episode 25: " I am trying to help, to save us from this goddamned fucking nightmare machine!" - colin. MAN I REALLY WAS ROOTING FOR YOU!!! I WAS SO CONFIDENT YOU WEREN'T GONNA DIE!!!! it's over

episode 26: "I was worrying for a moment that you were Magnussing." - alice. MAGNUSSING BEING CANON MADE ME SAY IT EVEN MORE I'VE SAID IT LIKE TWICE ALREADY

episode 27: "You didn’t tell me the room was labelled, “Archivist.”" - celia. oooooh somebody's got TRAUMAAAAA LMAO

episode 28: "So you’re telling me you know nothing about an OIAR external contract being found with the bodies of two tattooed thugs who met rather grisly ends?" - TREVOR HERBERT???? anyway. ink5oul mention!!!!! i hope they stop killing people it's really rude

episode 29: "Alice, er… we’ve got to talk. It’s important." - teddy. i knew it was over for him but i didn't think it was gonna be THIS bad??? bye babe i guess??? 😭

episode 30: how do i even pick. the whole fucking episode. i can't. i am in a state of shock. i need to lay down for 30 years.

[hauntingblue]

Rewatching act 2.... yeah ISHA WATCH OUT FOR THE CYCLE ISHA!!!!! NOOOOO

[lapis-lazuliie]

idk just kinda insane to me how, seven years on, steve and reece still very openly cherish the one and only ep of their anthology series that was filled with gay subtext