#and then I read an interview and my theory was realized when she said she's a string player

[dspd]

As soon as I heard the Loki soundtrack, I knew that Natalie was a string player before she became a composer. There's something about the luscious harmonies that she created that non-string players are never able to emulate.

[wlw-imagines]

Falling Head Over Heels - Olivia Benson x Reader (Law & Order: SVU)

a/n: i'm pretty sure like 9/10 of the fics so far this month have featured specifically love confessions in a hospital???? clearly working through something over here - plus (spoiler alert) probably much more to come from that genre as long as i still have the steam to continue writing this month

setting: You were only supposed to be backup. Just a routine follow-up, Olivia said. You’d be in and out in twenty minutes.

But nothing about SVU is ever routine. And now you’re trapped, bleeding, barely conscious - somewhere beneath the city in a freezing, broken-down basement.

Part of the Mayloncholy 2025: Day Five, "I can't feel my hands." of @may-lancholy

You join SVU with a lengthy transfer file and a reputation. Sharp. By-the-book. Not afraid to speak your mind, even to someone like Olivia Benson.

She watches you during your first week, sizing you up with the same intensity she gives suspects in the box. You feel it every time you catch her eye across the squadroom. She doesn’t speak much, but she doesn’t have to. She notices everything. That’s her job.

Your first case together involves a missing girl and a manipulative stepfather. The moment Olivia sees your theory board, she pauses. Then she nods, just once. You don’t realize until later what a rare gesture that is.

“Good instincts,” she says. “You look at the whole picture.”

You don’t reply. You don’t need to. You’re still figuring her out. You watch for her clipped sentences, the way she steps into silence instead of away from it. Still trying to understand why her approval feels like something heavier than just professional validation.

After the girl is found, scared but alive, Olivia brings you coffee the next morning. No smile. No comment. Just a warm cup left on your desk before you arrive.

It happens again after your first case involving a child victim. That night, you had trouble sleeping. You’d buried it behind a mask, filed the report, gone home and sat on your kitchen floor for an hour, empty.

The next morning: coffee left on your desk again. A quiet glance across the bullpen. Like she knew.

From then on, she starts assigning you harder cases. Tougher interviews. Giving you the reins even when others think you’re not ready. She sees something in you. Something familiar. Maybe something she remembers from her own early years here.

You work late. She works later. And more than once, the two of you stay behind, long after the others have gone home, pretending there’s more paperwork to finish, more files to read.

There’s nothing to say, and yet, somehow, it feels like a conversation.

You don’t know what it means. Not yet.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

The first time the tension breaks through the surface, it’s raining. A suspect bolts down 9th Avenue. You and Olivia chase them through puddles and traffic, your jacket soaked, hair dripping.

You catch the guy. Handcuff him. Shove him into the cruiser, out of breath. When you turn, Olivia is watching you - soaked to the bone, laughing in disbelief.

“You’re crazy,” she says, stepping toward you, breathing hard. Her hand reaches out. Brushes a strand of wet hair from your cheek, slow. Gentle.

You blink. “What?”

She doesn’t answer. Just gives you a small smile. Steps back.

Later, you replay that moment. The look in her eyes. The way her hand lingered a second too long. You think... if it had been anyone else, they would’ve kissed you.

But Olivia doesn’t cross lines. Not anymore.

And then, the second time. A takedown goes south. You get grazed by a bullet in the shoulder. Nothing fatal, but enough to send a bolt of fear through her. She’s the one who stops the bleeding, hands shaking, voice sharp.

“You should’ve waited for backup.”

You wince. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine,” she snaps. “You’re my responsibility, but damn it-”

“You’re not my mother.”

She goes still. Then, softer, quieter, “You know you're not just my detective.”

She doesn’t finish the thought. She never does. Instead, she walks away, leaving you with an apologetic-looking EMT.

But you feel it. Between the silences. In the way she looks at you when she thinks you won’t notice.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

The building is decrepit. Mold on the walls. Cracked tile. A chill that seeps into your bones the second you cross the threshold. You and Olivia move through the dark hallway with measured steps, the suspect somewhere inside.

You shouldn’t split up. She tells you that. But the adrenaline is high, the lead is too important. You see a flash of movement and take it. She calls your name. You don’t stop.

Then the floor gives way.

There’s no scream. Just a sound like the world tearing in half and then the rush of cold air and concrete as you fall. A sharp crack in your ribs. The air gone from your lungs. Darkness all around.

You’re in a sub-basement. Hidden. Sealed off and forgotten. You try to move and can’t. Pain burns hot along your side. Your breath comes shallow. Fast. Too fast.

Then, her voice.

"Where are you? Talk to me!"

You manage a weak shout, more of a grunt, "Basement. Floor gave in. I... I think I hit rebar."

She curses. It’s the rawest you’ve ever heard her.

"Stay awake. I'm getting help." Her voice calls from a far-away sounding place.

You want to tell her something clever. Something to make her laugh. But all you can manage is: "Not sure I can."

She doesn’t wait for backup.

You hear her boots pounding above you, then nothing. Then again, closer. A metal grate squeals open. Footsteps on rusted stairs. And suddenly, she’s there. Olivia. Dropping to her knees beside you.

Her coat is off in seconds, folded and slipped beneath your head. Her hands move quickly, pressing into your side, trying to stop the bleeding.

"Hey," she says, and her voice is too steady. Too calm. Which means she’s terrified. "You with me?"

You nod. Barely.

"I can’t feel my hands," you whisper.

Something flashes across her face. You think it might be devastation.

"You’re not dying here. I won’t let you."

You try to grin. "You always notice the details."

"Don’t joke. Stay with me. Please."

You feel your body trying to shut down, inch by inch. The pain is distant now. Just pressure and cold.

"Liv. I need to say something."

She shakes her head. "No. Not like this. You don’t get to say anything like it’s the end. You say it after. When we’re out. When I can yell at you and take you to dinner and..."

You touch her wrist. Weak. Trembling.

"You love me."

There is a short beat. A breath. And then, "I do."

It’s a whisper. A vow. A crack in something long-sealed.

You close your eyes. Just for a moment.

But her voice anchors you.

"Stay with me. Stay."

The sound of sirens, distantly. Finally.

And her hand, gripping yours, like she’ll never let go.

The sirens are louder now. Close. But Olivia doesn't move. She stays right there with you, kneeling in the dirt and dust, hands slick with your blood. The narrow beam of her flashlight catches in the tears she's trying not to shed.

She shifts closer, pressing firmer against the wound. You groan but she mumbles, “Pressure’s helping,” she lies. You both know it might not be enough.

You shiver. Not from pain. From the cold. From the fear you’ve been swallowing for the last ten minutes. “Tell me something,” you whisper.

“What?”

“Anything. Talk to me.”

She swallows. Hard. Looks down at you like you might slip away if she blinks.

“I hated you when you first got here,” she says, voice shaking. “You were too confident. Too sharp. Too damn sure of yourself.”

You manage a weak laugh. “You’re not great at comforting people.”

“I’m getting to the good part,” she snaps gently, brushing damp hair from your forehead. “And then you proved me wrong. Every case. Every choice. You made this place better. You made me better.”

Your throat tightens. “Liv…”

“I told myself it was admiration. Respect. And then I started looking for excuses to stay late when you did. Started bringing coffee I knew you liked. Started memorising how you take it, for no reason.”

You try to speak. She hushes you with a shake of her head.

“And I still tried to keep my distance. Because I don’t cross lines. Not anymore.”

You squeeze her fingers, or maybe you imagine you do.

“You didn’t cross it,” you whisper. “I did. I fell through the floor, remember?”

A breath escapes her. Half a sob. Half a laugh.

“You’re the worst patient I’ve ever had.”

“You’re the hottest doctor I’ve ever hallucinated.”

Olivia lets her head drop for a moment, forehead almost touching yours. You feel her breath, warm despite the cold. Her hands haven’t left you. One pressing in at your side, the other cupping your cheek.

“I need you to hold on,” she says. “Just a little longer.”

“I’m trying.”

“I know.” Her voice breaks again. “I know.”

You hear boots above. Shouting. The sharp bark of radios.

Then, light floods the basement from above. A ladder. Gloves reaching down.

“In here!” Olivia calls, louder than you’ve ever heard her.

Hands come for you. She doesn’t let go. Not when they slide a brace under your neck. Not when they lift you onto the stretcher. Not when they carry you up and she has to climb behind them.

She’s beside you in the ambulance, knuckles white around your hand.

“You’re going to make it,” she keeps saying. “You’re going to be okay.”

You believe her. Not because the medics nod. Not because they start shouting vitals and stats you don’t understand.

You believe her because she’s never looked this afraid. Or this certain.

You close your eyes, just for a second.

Her hand squeezes yours.

“Hey. Eyes open. You stay with me, you hear me?”

And somehow, you do.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

The world returns slowly.

It starts with warmth. The opposite of the basement. Thick blankets cocoon you, tucked snug beneath your chin. Soft cotton against your skin. A steady, rhythmic beep pulses beside your ear. Your side aches, deep and dull. Your throat is raw. Your mouth is dry.

But the pain isn’t the first thing you notice.

It’s her.

Olivia.

Curled in the armchair beside your hospital bed, still dressed in yesterday’s clothes. Her boots lie abandoned on the floor. One leg tucked beneath her, arms folded tight like she’s holding herself together. Her head bowed, chin nearly resting on her chest. Her face is softened in sleep, but there’s tension there too, in the furrow of her brow, the tight line of her jaw. Even in rest, she hasn’t let go.

You whisper her name, a thread of sound, hoarse and fragile.

“Olivia.”

She stirs instantly. Blinking as if surfacing from deep water, her eyes search your face before she’s even fully awake. Then she’s on her feet, crossing the small space between you like she’s been waiting for a moment to move.

“Hey,” she says, voice thick, and that one word wraps around you like an exhale of pure relief.

“Hey.” Your own voice cracks. Before the word has finished leaving your lips, she’s already reaching for the water on the tray beside your bed. She brings the straw to your mouth with the kind of tenderness that feels instinctual.

You sip. Slowly. Carefully. Her hand steadies the cup, her eyes never leaving your face.

“Can you feel your hands?” she asks, her voice threaded with tension she’s trying hard to conceal.

You lift your fingers, flexing them one by one. They move, clumsy, slow, but alive.

“Yeah,” you murmur. “But they’re cold.”

She doesn’t hesitate. She threads her fingers through yours like she’s done it a thousand times in her mind. Her grip is firm. Grounding.

And just like that, you're warm again.

“You scared the hell out of me,” she says finally, voice low, rough at the edges.

“Pretty sure I scared myself,” you reply, the ghost of a smile touching your lips.

She exhales hard, like she’s been holding her breath since the moment she found you. Then she perches on the edge of your bed, still holding your hand, thumb brushing absently over your knuckles.

“You lost a lot of blood. Surgery went well, but they said… another few minutes…”

“I know.” You squeeze her hand, weakly but with purpose. “I wouldn’t have made it out if you hadn’t come after me.”

Her gaze drops, lashes low. “I wasn’t going to leave you down there.”

“I know that too.”

Quiet again. But this time it’s laced with something softer, the slow, steady current of truth.

You turn to her fully, eyes tracing her features. The hollows beneath her eyes. The way her shoulders slump, like the weight she’s carried has finally caught up with her. “You meant it,” you say, your voice gentle but sure.

Her eyes meet yours. Steady. Open. “I did.” You don’t ask for more. “I did,” she says again, this time barely above a whisper. “And I still do.”

You squeeze her hand again, stronger now. And this time, she feels it. You see the flicker of relief ripple across her face.

“Guess this means we’re past the paperwork stage,” you murmur.

A laugh breaks from her, real and unguarded. It catches in her throat before spilling out, weary and disbelieving, like she didn’t think she’d get to laugh again. She leans in, pressing her forehead gently to yours.

“I want to do this right,” she says, her breath brushing your skin.

You nod. “Then take me to dinner. Yell at me for being reckless. Make me order dessert for healing reasons.”

Her smile is small but certain. “I will.”

“Good.”

Your eyes flutter shut, sleep tugging at you again, heavy and relentless.

She kisses your temple, soft, reverent.

“Rest,” she murmurs. “I’m not going anywhere.”

And you believe her.

Because for the first time, it doesn’t feel like she’s holding back.

It feels like she’s already yours.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

You’re not used to being fussed over. Not like this.

But that doesn’t stop anyone from doing it.

Your first day back at the precinct is a blur of too-tight hugs, sidelong glances, and concern barely disguised as casual conversation. Fin claps your shoulder, carefully, deliberately avoiding the side where you were stitched up, and grumbles, “You gave us a damn heart attack, you know.” There’s a sharpness behind the words, something raw, but his hand lingers just a second longer than usual.

Rollins shows up with a coffee and a blueberry muffin, both still warm. She doesn’t say anything but just slides into the chair beside you and starts scrolling on her phone, like she’s giving you permission to just sit and breathe. Eventually, the silence between you shifts. Becomes soft. Familiar.

Carisi stammers through a “Glad you’re okay,” scratching the back of his neck, before retreating to his desk like he’s worried you’ll shatter if he says anything else.

And Olivia?

She watches from her office, arms folded across her chest, her expression unreadable through the glass. But when you glance up, even just for a second. she’s already watching. And she doesn’t look away.

She hasn’t, not since that day.

The day she found you. The day you almost didn’t make it out.

The hours drag. Paperwork. Light duty. A few check-ins from IAB that you power through with gritted teeth. The physical act of sitting at your desk feels surreal, like the desk has changed in your absence, or maybe you have.

But Olivia’s presence never feels far. You catch the shadow of her in doorways, the quiet sound of her footsteps nearby. It’s not overbearing, it’s grounding. A reminder.

At one point, she walks by your desk and places something down beside your keyboard without a word.

A paper cup. Tea. The exact kind you like.

There’s a yellow Post-it stuck to the lid, the handwriting unmistakable:

Don’t make me come in there and force you to rest. I’m terrifying. Love, Liv.

You snort under your breath. Shake your head and tuck the note into your pocket like it’s something sacred. A charm. A lifeline.

Later, after the bustle of the day has faded and most of the squad has gone home, the bullpen dims to a quiet hum. The silence feels earned. You find her in her office, bathed in the soft blue glow of her monitor, typing something with steady focus.

You knock on the doorframe gently.

“I survived the day,” you say.

She leans back in her chair, the faintest smile pulling at her lips. “Barely.”

“You were hovering.”

“Discreetly,” she replies, chin lifting in mock pride.

You give her a look.

“Okay,” she sighs, “not discreetly. But I didn’t hover hover.”

You step inside and close the door behind you. The lock clicks with a soft finality.

She stands.

It’s instinct now, the way your bodies move toward each other. The way your hands meet halfway, fingers tangling like they’re tracing a memory. Her palms settle at your waist, warm through your shirt. Your fingers find the edge of her jaw, her cheekbone, the place just beneath her ear where she softens under your touch.

“You look tired,” you murmur, brushing your thumb across her cheek.

She exhales like the tension’s been waiting for permission to leave. “You look alive,” she whispers. “That’s better.”

You lean into her, letting your forehead rest against hers. The low buzz of the building around you becomes background noise, fading into something warm and distant.

“I missed this,” you say quietly. “Being back. Being with you.”

“Me too,” she murmurs.

A beat of silence. Then, with a small, almost hesitant smile: “Noah’s been asking when you’re coming over.”

You blink. “He knows about me?”

Olivia nods, her smile growing, eyes shining with something soft. “He’s heard... a lot. I told him you were hurt. That you’re okay now. He wanted to know if you’d still tell him the bad jokes I mentioned.”

You huff a laugh. “The classics. Knock-knock. Chicken crossing the road, etc.”

“He loves those,” she says, “And for the record, he claims you’d make a better grilled cheese than me.”

You grin, “I haven’t even made him grilled cheese yet.”

“He’s precocious. And clearly a traitor.”

You grin, tilting your head. “Tomorrow night?”

She nods without hesitation. “Tomorrow night.”

Then she leans in, presses her lips to yours, gentle, sure, not rushed. Not hungry. Just home.

When she pulls back, her fingers trail down to find yours again.

“Come on,” she says softly. “Let’s get out of here.”

You follow her through the sleeping bullpen, past desks and memories and the ghosts of a hundred cases. The elevator dings as it arrives, and she doesn’t let go of your hand. Not once.

As the doors begin to slide closed, Fin walks past, a cup of something in his hand. He sees you, sees both of you, and doesn’t miss a beat. Just lifts a brow and smirks.

You glance up at Olivia, a question in your eyes.

She just squeezes your hand tighter.

And for once, there’s no pretending.

No excuses. No lines to toe.

Just her hand in yours, and the quiet promise of tomorrow.

[mariistic]

More Mari fics please 🙏

OFF SCRIPT

actress!mari ibarra × actress!fem reader

synopsis: As co-stars on a hit TV show, you and Mari share on-screen drama and off-screen teasing. But when the line between acting and reality blurs, maybe some things aren’t just for the cameras.

warnings: my fourth mari fic, and yes, there's more to come, cutesy, gay people, no crash, everything was all a lie, lmao jk tv show au.

🎬 : You met Mari at the first table read, and her first words to you were, “Hope you’re ready to die in the woods.” You weren’t sure if she was messing with you or warning you, but you quickly learned that teasing is her love language.

🎬 : On set, she’s always the one making sarcastic comments between takes, but the second you trip over a line, she won’t let you live it down. “Ohhh, someone forgot how to talk,” she whispers while everyone resets. She does this every time.

🎬 : The first time you had a scene together, the director kept telling Mari to be “meaner” to your character. She was way too good at it, and you jokingly called her a bully. She just grinned and said, “Don’t act like you don’t love it.

🎬 : the Zendaya of the yellowjackets actor au. Like nobody knows her real last name.

🎬 : You share a trailer, and Mari constantly steals your hoodies. If you ever try to take one back, she deadpans, “No, this is mine now. You can visit it on weekends.”

🎬 : The rest of the cast ships you two before you even realize what’s happening. There’s a running joke in the group chat that every behind-the-scenes photo of you and Mari is just evidence of your “secret relationship.”

🎬 : Mari has a habit of resting her head on your shoulder between takes. “I’m recharging,” she claims. You pretend to be annoyed, but everyone knows you let her do it every time.

🎬 : During interviews, she loves setting you up for teasing. “Y/N gets nervous in our scenes together,” she says once, smirking at you. You fire back with, “Yeah, because I’m acting with you.”

🎬 : You two always fake-argue about who’s the better actress. “I carry this show,” she says. “You carry me,” you reply. “Exactly,” she grins. “So you admit it.”

🎬 : When the season finale premieres, featuring an intense confrontation between your characters, Mari live-tweets, “Had to emotionally destroy Y/N on screen, but it’s okay, I took her for tacos after.”

🎬 : Paparazzi constantly catch you two hanging out off-set, and fan theories go wild. When someone finally asks in an interview if you’re dating, Mari leans in and says, “What do you think?” before winking. You roll your eyes but don’t deny it.

[butterflydm]

Rewatching 3x01 & 3x08 together (for fic purposes)

Spoilers for the whole season and some general spoilers for the books through, idk, I'll say Winter's Heart.

It really does feel like 3x01 set up some strong conflicts that were resolved in 3x08 -- Egwene's misgivings about Rand being about the madness as opposed to only about ~cheating~ comes across much more successfully if you only watch the first and last episodes of the season, lol.

I do personally feel like dragging Randgwene out for so long muddled the narrative that they were going for with them (from my own feelings and a sampling of what other people said -- some people picked up on them being mis-aligned but a lot of people basically attributed it all to Rand being A Bad Cheater Boyfriend, with Egwene essentially only being a passive victim instead of an active part of the relationship), because the themes that I've seen Rafe, Josha, and Maddy talk about in interviews (about Randgwene being about nostalgia and trying to keep in place a relationship that really doesn't exist anymore) feels like it comes across a lot more strongly without any of the intervening episodes between 3x01 and 3x08.

imo, 3x01 is also really the only episode where we get to see that Egwene is still ambitious, I think, and even then, it's only during her 3x01 Arches viewing (where mad!Rand tells her that she got 'what she always wanted' by becoming the Amyrlin, and so was potentially dismissed by viewers simply because it came out of Rand's mouth). And she never talks about it to anyone! It's all couched in her protecting Rand or being devoted to the Light (or protecting herself, once she realizes that there's an actual living person messing with her dreams). She never admits to any ambition in herself in s3, and she's never called out on it by anyone that the narrative tells us should be trusted on the matter (aka someone other than Rand).

What we needed was something like the scene with Elayne in early s2, where Elayne calls Egwene out on her jealousy of Nynaeve and it's obvious in Egwene's reaction that she hit on a sore spot and that Elayne is reading her accurately. Though, minor sidebar, now I kinda want to go back and see if Egwene ever admits to any faults, because it could be that that is supposed to be one of Egwene's flaws in the show -- we know from what was said in 1x07 that the pattern of the Randgwene pre-canon relationship was that if they had a fight, Rand (and only Rand) would apologize and that would 'fix' the fight, so Egwene never admitting to any faults or mistakes seems true for pre-canon Egwene; and when Randgwene 'resolve' their 1x07 fight, iirc Egwene never admits to there being any reason that Rand might doubt her devotion to Mat, a character who she has NEVER had a one-on-one conversation with on-screen and who she, in fact, did openly doubt when it came to his moral character. But it could be that I'm forgetting some lines that show!Egwene has had that would contradict this theory?

(I just went back and watched that Egwene & Elayne scene and Egwene never actually admits that Elayne was right and that she was feeling jealous; she straight-up denies it, in fact, just like she constantly denies in s3 that she's worried Rand might go mad -- it's just obvious in her reactions that what Elayne is saying is the truth. Plus it being about a friendship and not about a romance also helps un-cloud the issue, imo. As we also see in how Nynaeve gets more sympathy for wanting to 'save' Liandrin from the Shadow than Rand gets for wanting to 'save' Lanfear. So, yeah, that makes me lean towards 'this is an intentional flaw in Egwene's character' but I do feel like we needed something more in s3 to make that clear to viewers)

That is actually something that Mat could have potentially done if he'd gone into the Waste storyline the way that he does in the books -- been a contrast against/sounding board for Egwene. There's a bit of distance there, because he's one of Rand's best friends, but also a level of trust, because he's from the Two Rivers. I really do feel like we needed more of Egwene actually expressing her own feelings over the course of s3, because after 3x01, basically everything is other people telling Egwene how she feels while she either loudly denies it or looks off into the distance and says nothing. But according to the interviews, everyone else was right about Egwene's feelings and she was just in denial the whole time, but we never get anything validating that on-screen, imo. She just stays silent. So I really hope that we do get some conversations in s4 where Egwene expresses her own feelings instead of other people doing it for her.

Rewatching these two episodes so closely together also (as @markantonys recently talked about) really shows the contrast between the mad!Rand or the euphoric!Rand that we see in 3x01 vs the determined Rand that we see in 3x08, but we can also see that Egwene seems to feel like these are the same Rand, which means that she's not seeing him clearly. All that intervening space and the way that the Randfear relationship intersects with the relationship throughline makes it easier to go along with Egwene's viewpoint in 3x08, imo, and it's not as clear as it could be that she's not seeing the actual Rand who is standing in front of her but is instead seeing him through the lens of Arches!Rand who is screaming at her to bow to him. Everyone else is witnessing a prophecy coming to life, while Egwene is re-living one of her worst fears that she was forced to confront.

I feel like a conversation, or maybe more just showing us that Egwene is being affected by her visions, would have been good. Because it feels like Nynaeve's conversation about how deeply the Arches visions affects a person could be used to show that it's supposed to affecting Egwene too, even if she never talks about it but a) Elayne's visions aren't even shown on-screen and don't appear to have affected her at all and b) Nynaeve's talk sets up how her final vision in the Arches powers her own arc this season, so it's easy to mentally go "well, that's true for Nynaeve but it doesn't appear to be true for Elayne or Egwene".

So yeah, my general feeling is still that we either should have had Randgwene have their final relationship talk in 3x01 and had the rest of the season them resolving into a complex exes situation, or cut out some of the Liandrin backstory from 3x03 in order to put in some kind of Egwene scene where we can see how clearly she's seeing mad!Rand in the not-mad!Rand who is standing in front of her. Because it really feels like the way the narrative was played out disguises any issues that Egwene was bringing to the table in s3, and makes it look like the dissolution of their relationship was entirely Rand's fault. Especially since when Egwene talks about their 'relationship' to Elayne & Nynaeve, she says, "it's just as it was back home, like nothing's changed" while Rand says to Mat & Perrin, "we haven't really talked about [whether or not we're back in a relationship]" and we never get any kind of open and honest read from Egwene's perspective the entire season.

But, again, just watching 3x01 vs 3x08 does make the change in the relationship clear (even if Egwene still won't admit to Aviendha in 3x08 that they are no longer in a relationship! which is so wild to me!), and shows that Rand and Egwene have strongly conflicting points of view on how Rand needs to approach being the Dragon (especially now that Rand has fully embraced Moiraine's perspective, which contrasts sharply against Egwene's) and that this is, at this point in time, an irreconcilable difference in them that means that their relationship will never again be what it once was.

Egwene: "We could have kept you (Nynaeve) safe." vs Rand: "Safe's not possible anymore."

Egwene is trying to keep Rand 'safe' (from others? from himself?) all season but safety is not possible. But that might be what lies inside Egwene's refusal to commit to a break-up, even in 3x08? Because she believes that Rand 'needs' her in order to have the strength to pull himself back from the madness? idk she never talks about it! if that's the case, then maybe Rand not listening to her at the end of 3x08 means that she'll finally admit that they're not in a relationship anymore. We can only hope!

I do think that in the context of Egwene believing that she might need to 'stop' Rand, then her reaction to Aviendha asking if Rand ~deserves~ her strength is more interesting, because Rand's 'worthiness' is beside the point, if it's not about romance but instead potentially needing her strength to stop a 'mad!Rand' situation.

Rand absolutely is trying for a soft break-up in 3x01, though, with his assumption that Egwene is going to stay at the White Tower with Nynaeve and Mat, and she is not having any of it. And they're kinda stuck there until 3x06 though, again, it's wild that even in 3x08, Egwene will not verbally commit to no longer being in a relationship with Rand! (but Rand does, and it feels like the scene in 3x06 was clear enough to make the viewers feels that they're 'broken up enough' too, even if Egwene still won't say the words).

But by those same standards (was the 3x01 conflict resolved in 3x08?) -- it feels like Mat didn't go much of anywhere this season. He had some fan favorite scenes but the conflict that appears to be set up in his opening scenes -- not being able to help his friends because he's caught up in his own struggles -- remains the situation that he's in at the end of the season. Instead of being able to help Elayne or Nynaeve against the Black Ajah, he's caught up in his own struggles and taken out of the picture. He's struggling with memories in 3x01 and is now struggling with memories in the opposite direction in 3x08 (lost memories instead of new memories). He moved laterally but didn't actually resolve anything.

...that does line up with how Nynaeve's struggle with her block was essentially 'on hold' during s2 and then tee'd up to get knocked out in s3, so it could be that Mat was put on hold so that he can get the resolution to his current character struggle in s4 (fingers crossed for renewal, as always).

Taking Mat out of the Waste kinda feels like being put 'on hold' for Mat's own storyline but it has a MASSIVE impact on Rand's storyline.

Because everyone else who was already inclined to treat Rand like a person and also not be personally hurt by his relationship with Lanfear were already naturally leaving his plotline (Perrin, Elayne, and Nynaeve) so deliberately removing Mat -- who is the person who has been set up by the show to be the MOST sympathetic to Rand's concerns, as someone who a) has committed a similar 'crime' of abandonment that Rand did (1x06 Waygate abandonment vs 1x08 pretending to be dead), b) worried for weeks in s1 that he himself was the Dragon and was going mad, c) has already shown himself willing to support and uplift Rand (amateur therapy session in s2), d) has no reason to feel personally betrayed by Rand having feelings for Lanfear -- feeds into them wanting to play into Rand being more vulnerable to Lanfear when he's isolated.

And then that implies that bringing (some of) those people back into Rand's storyline in s4 would naturally/narratively give us a chance to get the other side of the story. Lanfear, the person who was trying to convince Rand that no one (but her) could genuinely care about him if they knew who he truly was, is now out of his life in a romantic way, and we are now free to bring back in the people who prove that she's wrong, because part of the point of s3 was to show us a Rand that would make the audience genuinely worry that he might pick Lanfear over the Light (but ultimately, I feel like the show would want to make it clear that Lanfear isn't actually correct and people are capable of loving and caring for all of who Rand is).

So it might have all been intentionally done to put us into Egwene's perspective to worry over Rand's mental state only to then bring in some characters in s4 who will be able to show us that part of that reaction was Egwene writing her own fears and worries onto Rand even though those fears aren't actually present (yet) in Rand's behavior.

It felt so significant to me that there was no Rand & Lanfear scene in the premiere and that really did play out throughout the season - Lanfear's primary dynamic this season, the one that mattered the most, was the one with Moiraine. Rand mentions Selene to Perrin and Mat -- that's the woman that he misses, the woman that he wanted. A woman who never existed. Moiraine is the one dealing with the woman who actually exists -- Lanfear. Just as it's Moiraine and Lan who deal with Lanfear in the season premiere, they are the ones who deal with her in the finale, while Rand has moved on from his ex and is dealing with things that matter more to him than holding on to a dead relationship with a cruel and manipulative woman.

The Randfear relationship is really well done on its own, but yeah I do feel like pulling the Randgwene relationship out so long kinda dilutes the power of what we see with Randfear, where Lanfear spends so long manipulating Rand and trying to convince him that no one but her can truly love him, only for Rand to go through the same realization that Lews Therin went through with her -- where she did something that accidentally revealed her cruelty and malice to him, and it make him realize the truth about her as a person. Because Egwene is mixed up in it, it gets dismissed as ~cheating~ instead of the abuse and manipulation of Rand that it is (otoh, it's entirely possible that even if Egwene weren't mixed up in it, it would still get dismissed the same way that the Mat-Tylin abusive dynamic is dismissed by some book!fans -- because some people genuinely believe that it's impossible for women to abuse men).

Randfear only have four (and a half, if you count Charn and Mierin) scenes together this season but each scene moves the story of their relationship's downfall forward in a powerful way -- we have the baseline of 3x02, which establishes that Lanfear is trying to tempt Rand and telling him that no one but her is capable of loving him because he's secretly just as awful as she is (peak abusive manipulation); we have 3x03, where Lanfear does her best to play on Rand's heartstrings and make him want to save her; we have 3x04, where Rand is given his hope that maybe Lanfear CAN be saved (and it's key that his hope comes from something that Lanfear herself had no way to manipulate); we have 3x05, where he momentarily gives in to temptation because he thinks there's a chance that 'Selene' really was a real version of Lanfear; and then we have 3x08, where Rand has learned who Lanfear really is and takes control of their relationship in order to finally end it. That is very economical and efficient storytelling! And the body language is all the Randfear scenes is just... excellently done. You can see the whole story just in the way they react to each other, without needing the words.

I will say, it feels very much like a warning sign that Moiraine and Lanfear agree that Rand's friends are 'holding him back' from 'the man that he must become' and then Rand comes around to agreeing with Moiraine (and, by extension, Lanfear) in the finale, and no longer objects to their methods (of hurting his friends to try to drive them away). Lanfear is maybe not the person that we should be agreeing with when it comes to how Rand's mental state should be handled.

That being said, the two parallel scenes of Rand and Moiraine's conversations in 3x01 vs 3x08 are very good -- we get them completely unable to connect and agree in 3x01, and when Moiraine crouches down to Rand's level, it feels like she's treating him like a child. While the 3x08 scene is both of them being willing to meet in the middle -- Moiraine admits she was wrong to try to force Rand to go to Tear, while otoh Rand has come fully to terms with the idea of embracing Moiraine's (unhealthy) policy of cutting himself off from his loved ones in order to embrace being the Dragon. And when Rand gets on her level in that second scene, it marks them seeing each other with vulnerability and mutual honesty, and they stand up together to fight their separate (yet linked) battles.

It cracks me up that Elayne gets kicked out of the ~serious conversation~ about the danger that Rand poses to the people he loves that Siuan wants to have with Egwene and Nynaeve... only to go talk to Rand and actually be the one person who has the greatest impact on him this entire season, by setting in motion his choice to go to the Aiel Waste and becoming the Car'a'carn to earn the Aiel as an army. Her advice here saves Rand's life (per what the Wise Ones told Moiraine in 3x03) and is key to him fulfilling the prophecies and the only people who know about it are her and Rand.

But that really does point out that Elayne gets left out of all of the "oh no, Rand is super-dangerous and is going to go mad" conversations that Egwene gets hammered with this season, so she's not bringing that with her everywhere she goes the way that Egwene is. But, yeah, this is another scene where Egwene has this instant denial and push-back against the idea that she might need to 'stop' Rand but apparently (from what was said in interviews and actually also the synopsis for the season that was put out) -- worrying about needing to 'stop' Rand was part of Egwene's struggle this season! I know I've mentioned it before but I really really feel like it needed some more attention and I feel like we could have sacrificed some of Liandrin's backstory in order to put a spotlight on this struggle of Egwene's.

Again, if you only watch 3x01 and 3x08 back to back, then I think that theme does come through successfully, but when you have all those intervening episodes, I feel like it gets kinda lost, especially since it's something that Egwene is never willing to admit out loud.

"Rand isn't used to having power. Command doesn't sit easily on his shoulders. But he will learn his duties and responsibilities to your people." Much like Elayne sets Rand's journey into motion, we see here that she has faith in his ability to become the Aiel's Car'a'carn. When Egwene is with Rand, she is always trying to see the boy that she once knew (the way that Lanfear is always trying to see Lews Therin? the way that Rand is trying to see Selene?), but Elayne sees the person that Rand actually is -- his challenges and his struggles included.

So I'm really hoping that we're going to see that when Elayne comes back into s4 and hopefully gets back into Rand's storyline relatively quickly -- Egwene will now be looking at Rand through the lens of mad!Rand from the Arches since she's decided he's not the boy that she used to know, while Elayne looks at him and sees the person that's really there.

Plus we see that Elayne is fully willing to wield dangerous power for the sake of the Light when she grabs the balefire rod from Jeaine and murders her with it without even the slightest bit of hesitation. So that's another place where it seems like she can understand the position that Rand is in.

There is also a very subtle and in-the-background Randlayne hug in the 3x01 goodbye scene. They definitely kept the Randlayne vibes low-key but present -- she's incredibly important to his story this season but not in a way that trips 'cheating' bells the way that his interactions with Lanfear did. The subtitles also say that Rand is telling Elayne "Thank you" here! It is VERY quiet though, because that's right when the music is kicking up. But I can hear it when I turn the sound up. So yeah, Elayne goes from saying goodbye to Aviendha right to saying goodbye to Rand.

(and the ta'veren boys goodbye hug is also very nice, even if I remain sad that pretty much all Cauthor got stripped out of one of the biggest Cauthor books in the series)

Aviendha's "My duty is to you, as yours is to your people." really does reinforce the point that Elayne made to Rand about how even if Aviendha is grumpy over Rand being the Car'a'carn, she does still stick by him. And that plays out in 3x08 as well, even though I do wish they'd actually gotten their own scene together, instead of Aviendha's single one-on-one conversation being with Egwene.

The White Tower scenes in 3x01 vs 3x08 go full-circle so hard and so painfully. That what Siuan tries to do to Liandrin here -- denounce her as a Darkfriend -- comes around on her in the end. Tried, stilled, interrogated, and executed. That was the plan for Liandrin, before her Black Ajah allies in the Hall came to rescue her. And, of course, Elaida made sure to send away Siuan's allies before moving forward with her coup.

So out of the Black Ajah that are revealed here, Liandrin is the only survivor that we see on-screen at the end of the season. We also get a foretaste of vengeful Leane here, who will see likely see in full force in s4, with that need for revenge turned against Elaida. Leane doesn't interact with Egwene in this episode, but she is there to witness Egwene repudiating Siuan's authority and leaving immediately after her Accepted Test (and so is Alviarin, who becomes Leane's counterpart at the end of the season).

We have the contrast of helpless!Nynaeve in 3x01 (because she's blocked) and then she gets unblocked in 3x08... but too late to do anything except save her own life. That's something that I've been turning over in my head. Nynaeve doesn't get to 'protect the kids'. She doesn't make it in time when Egwene needs to be saved in s2 and Egwene has to rescue herself; she isn't the one to heal Rand when he gets his dagger injury; she's not the one to save Mat's life in 3x08 even though she promises to help him in 3x01.

Maybe something about Nynaeve learning how to put on her own life vest before helping with anyone else's? I really am curious if Nynaeve is going to be able to help any of the kids in s4, now that her block is broken and she's no longer afraid of/hating her own power anymore.

[heart-of-the-morningstar]

I’m gonna write this down now so I can look like an absolute genius later (or look like a clown, but at least I said it with my full chest!)

❌ Spoilers for the FNAF Movie below! ❌

Ok, I might be huffing hopium here, but in my heart of hearts I STILL think Mike Schmidt is Mike Afton. If (or when) they make a sequel, there’s a way they can reveal this

So the most obvious thing from this movie is when Mike is in “Steve’s” office, and when “Steve” is reading Mike’s name out loud from his résumé, he stops mid-sentence. He looks at Mike for a weird amount of time, almost studying him, before completely changing the subject. There’s no way in hell “Steve” recognizes Mike from when he saw him as a kid when he kidnapped his brother Garrett 10+ ago, no chance. Also why would he go to Nebraska (unclear where the movie takes place, but let’s assume Utah because of the books) to kidnap a random kid and just drive off? Here’s what I think is going on…(also I’m gonna call him William from now on cuz we all know lol)

William fingered out that Mike is his son during that interview. My theory is that at some point, William was married and him and his wife have a son named Mike. And for one reason or another, they got divorced. This is when Mike was too young to really remember which is why he doesn’t recognize William during their meeting. Mike’s mom gains custody of Mike and remarries, she marries Mr. Schmidt. They have a child together, Garrett. Sometime after the divorce, William adopts a child, trying to cope after losing his only son. He adopts Vanessa.

William finds out about his ex-wife having another kid. He wants to cause her pain and suffering for leaving him. He follows the Schmidt’s and takes Garrett during the camping trip. Unable to handle the pain, Mike’s mom takes her own life, leaving Mike and his stepdad. Mr. Schmidt marries a little later to another woman, and she has a daughter named Abby. Sometime after this, both Mr. Schmidt and his new wife die, leaving Mike to care for Abby.

Vanessa owed William so much, he had adopted her while she had suffered in an orphanage for years. She would do anything he told her, even if it meant covering up his crimes. Years later, realizing what she was doing was wrong, she left her father and became a police officer, hoping to stop people like her father as she had failed to stop him.

Here’s another thing. Scott Cawthon knows that the fans are obsessed with the lore of FNAF. I think he knew he could make more movies, this isn’t going to be a one and done deal. Plus, he had his hand on this project every step of the way, he wouldn’t agree to anything that he didn’t want to happen in the story. Mike being William’s some is CRUCIAL to the story of FNAF (at least in the games). I think he’s trying to fake us out, you know how he loves to troll the fans!

Again, this is just a theory (A GAME THEORY lol), but I don’t think the idea of Mike being an Afton is dead just yet. Hoping and praying so I can look incredibly smart if or when the sequel drops 🙏🏻

[markbandanawitts]

A Full English Translation of Mine Yoshizaki’s 47 Question QnA 🔥🔥

— Near the end of the 11.5 Guidebook, Yoshizaki sat down for an exclusive interview with Shonen Ace (The magazine that serialized Keroro Gunso), where he answered some personalized questions about himself

I’ve translated all of them along with giving some context to certain media references in this w attached links. he’s talks exactly how you’d expect lmao

Q1: Yoshizaki-sensei, people often seem to think you’re a woman.

I guess it’s because my name reads as “Mine.” When I chose it, I only had the image of Ryuta Mine in my head. But judging by Keroro’s behavior, I think it’s pretty clear I’m not a woman (laugh)

Q2: What was the first manga you bought?

I had my uncle buy me one copy each of Kiteretsu Encyclopedia and Obake Q-Taro. I used to borrow Doraemon from a rental bookstore.

Q3: Do you still have them?

Nah, even if I did, they’d be unreadable by now. I reread them so much they fell apart.

Q4: Do you have a favorite place to read?

I haven’t been reading too much lately, but I love to in a quiet, cozy café.

Q5: Has anything recently made you feel like you’ve been tricked?

Actually, yeah. Not too long ago, a friend took me on a small trip. We hopped on the highway and drove quite a bit, and I had no idea why we were going where we were; but it was fun, so I didn’t think much of it. Later, when I got home and watched the episode of Kamen Rider Hibiki that I’d recorded that morning, I realized the episode was filmed in the exact spot we had visited! My friend hadn’t said a word! It caught me completely off guard, but honestly, it kind of made me pretty happy too.

Q6: Is there a character you look up to?

Oh, definitely Saeki-san (laugh)

Q7: Keroro’s gotten really popular. Anything about that make you happy?

Hearing that everyone involved with Keroro is having fun working on it is what makes me happy.

Q8: On the flip side, anything tough about it?

It seems like working on Keroro is also kind of exhausting (laugh)

Q9: If you could be any character in Keroro, who would you choose?

Maybe Poyon-chan. She seems so nice and fluffy.

Q10: Who would you like to live with?

I’d say the new characters, Alisa-chan and Nevula.

Q11: Why them in particular?

I feel like we could have a nice, quiet time in an old Western-style mansion.

Q12: Is there any invention from Kururu that you’d want?

Oh, definitely that one thing for making Gundam models!

Q13: What’s your favorite part of the manga drawing process?

Definitely when it’s finally completed (laugh)

Q14: What’s the toughest part?

Getting started (laugh)

Q15: What do you think of the illustrations in the first volume of Keroro?

What do I think? Well, it was my best effort seven years ago. There's something beyond just thinking "it's bad." Especially for Keroro, since I challenged myself to break my previous style and start from scratch, so there are definitely some awkward parts in there.

Q16: When do you draw the cover illustrations? At the beginning, in the middle, or at the end?

The inking is random, so it varies every time.

Q17: Do you pay attention to differentiating characters?

Sometimes I intentionally try not to differentiate them visually. I make their personalities distinct, so that can create a sense of difference. I’ve even tried going against silhouette theory a bit, which is directly reflected in characters like Keroro.

Q18: Which is more fun to draw, Keronians or Earthlings?

Keronians’ round eyes are a hassle, and Earthlings have too many lines... It’s a toss-up (laugh)

Q19: What about secondary characters? Which ones are fun to draw?

Every character becomes lively as soon as I draw them, so it's fun. To me, they’re all waiting in line to be drawn!

Q20: Any tips for drawing something you’ve never seen before?

Draw with your eyes closed!

Q21: Do you do anything to improve your drawing skills?

Since I started working, not really. I draw every day, so whatever I’m bad at stays bad, which can be a bit of an issue.

Q22: When creating a manga, do you start with the characters, story, or setting?

The theme. Something that instinctively feels like "that's it!" The rest comes after that.

Q23: When do you come up with story ideas?

I thrash my ideas around, trying to come up with something, and eventually, once I reach the mandatory state of resignation, it comes to me (laugh)

Q24: Which takes more time, storyboarding or drawing?

Storyboarding!

Q25: If you had to sum up the feeling of struggling to come up with storyboards in one word?

Ugh.

Q26: What’s something essential while you work?

Coffee, probably.

Q27: You’ve never taken a break from publishing, but do you ever want to? If so, when?

I always feel like I want to! Every single time, no matter what!

Q28: When do you usually draw your manga—morning, afternoon, or night?

My schedule is all over the place. I live on a 25-26 hour cycle, so when my timing is off, it tends to mess things up for a lot of people. It makes planning pretty difficult too.

Q29: What’s your favorite manga that you’ve drawn so far?

Definitely Keroro Gunso.

Q30: Do you think you’re better suited for one-shot manga or long series?

Considering the amount of ideas on my brain when working on Keroro storyboards, I think I’m better suited for long series.

Q31: Are you currently thinking about your next manga project?

Ideas come and go, honestly. Right now, I’m putting all my effort into Keroro!

Q32: Do you like your own manga?

When it comes to Keroro, I like it without hesitation.

Q33: If you were an editor, what would you tell yourself?

“You can take a three month break if you want.”

Q34: Are you comfortable with drawing manga in front of people?

I’m totally fine with it! But in reality, I usually work alone, holed up in my workspace.

Q35: Do you do anything for your health?

Not really… It’s bad… I feel like I’ve been sending out SOS signals lately (laugh)

Q36: Do you have any stress relief methods?

I never considered myself to be stressed, but recently my eye started twitching, and apparently, that’s a sign of stress. I was kind of surprised when I found that out!

Q31: There are 24 hours in a day, but how many hours would you really want?

48 hours would be great!!

Q38: Is there anything that influences your manga drawing?

I’m most influenced by the general atmosphere of the world around me.

Q39: How would you describe the feeling of racing through Okutama on your bike?

Yahoo!

Q40: Anything that’s stuck with you or left a strong impression recently?

The insurance commercial with soccer commentator Matsuki has really stuck with me… As for things, I’m obsessed with the NSF100 motorcycle— I want it so bad!

Q41: A memorable quote that’s stuck with you?

“Ramen is long and delicious!” (I have literally no idea what he’s referencing here my bad guys)

Q42: Since getting your cat, Mac, has your life changed?

My lifestyle hasn’t really changed, but it feels like my heart’s OS has been upgraded by about three versions!

Q46: Do you like traveling?

I like it, but I haven’t gone anywhere recently. If I could, I’d love to go with all my friends.

Q43: What’s the most wasteful thing you’ve ever spent royalties on?

Royalties, huh... (laugh) The other day, I saw a Keroro bath towel in a UFO catcher machine, and I had to get it. I ended up blowing ¥2,000* and still didn’t win it. I wonder if my royalties will cover that…

*this is like $14 😭

Q45: What are the things you love the most?

The Earth, my wife, and Mac (my cat).

Q46: What’s the most shocking thing you’ve experienced?

When I first moved to Tokyo, I saw an elementary school kid at Yotsuya Station wearing a backpack and smoking a cigarette. I thought, “Wow, Tokyo’s scary. Maybe I should just go home.” But I’m glad I didn’t because I became a manga artist (laugh)

Q47: What does drawing manga mean to you?

It’s about making people happy. That concept hasn’t changed since I was a kid making hand-drawn manga for my friends in elementary school.

Anddd heres my impressively terrible scans of those pages just in case anyone wanted the source

[lady-embers]

SJM Interview and My Thoughts

Court of Maas has a transcript up of one of Sarah J Maas's interviews. There was some things I found very interesting from it.

Let's start with this one:

The "meeting a character and just knowing that they're the next story" screams Gwyn to me. Why? Because she was a new character that was introduced and Sarah had to meet. And Gwyn herself has lines in ACOSF that hint at more to come with her story (and Emeries)

“You had this much to say about us?” Emerie said, choking on a laugh. Gwyn rubbed her hands together. “With more to come.”

The back of her throat ached; her eyes stung. “We’re in a book.” Gwyn’s fingers slid into hers, squeezing tight. Nesta looked up to find her holding Emerie’s free hand as well. Gwyn smiled again, her eyes bright. “Our stories are worth telling.”

Also, Sarah's answer on the question if we'll get an Elain POV in the next book was met with "we'll see Elain in some form" which to me implies she's more than likely not the main character & that just adds to my previous statement.

Next we have this:

"She realized she wanted to write men who will do everything together with their partner and not insist on being 'the hero' themselves"

That screams like Azriel and Elain are a no go since we know Azriel likes being the hero when it comes to her. Just look at him going to Hybern Camp with Feyre to try to play hero... or what about in ACOSF when Cassian talks about Elain being captured and this is what was said by Azriel:

Azriel stiffened. “I know. I helped rescue Elain, after all."

Azriel is "the hero" and will always insist that way with Elain. He's not the one for Elain.

But you know the pairings where the men will do everything together with their partner and not insist on being the hero for their partners? Gwynriel and Elucien.

We already see this with Azriel and Gwyn. He couldn't be the hero for Gwyn when she went into the Blood Rite because of the laws even Rhysand couldn't break. He even tells Cassian they trained them well and to trust in that training.

“There are plenty of other unspeakable things that could be happening to her,” Cassian said, voice thickening. “To Emerie and Gwyn.”

The shadows deepened around Azriel, his Siphons gleaming like cobalt fire. “You—we—trained them well, Cassian. Trust in that. It’s all we can do.”

Also, here are even some ideas of them doing things together that fit with their pairings:

Elucien

Traveling to different courts & explore the world together. Hosting parties and being politically savvy.

Gardening - I actually have a commission of this I'll post soon 🤭

Cooking/Baking - Lucien will want to help Elain and it's something I can see then enjoying doing together given their personalities.

Gwynriel

Spy missions. Training. Singing.

Research in the library for universe theories or general reading & just imagine them sitting up in bed together reading passages to one another, analyzing them, theorizing. Thank you @alex-catlady for this one!

Flying - Gwyn on a Pegasus and Azriel flying beside her. Maybe even making into a race for a little competition? Azriel flying with Gwyn in his arms.

[m1ssunderstanding]

The thing is. I don't care for Yoko, or John after he ends up in that relationship. Simply put not a good couple for each other. That's clear. But I still can't believe everything I hear and read about Yoko is actually true. In fact it comes of as an evil Disney female viliain. I think she might not be a woman of the accepted norm, or is the Mother of the year. But she did much for women back in the day not letting men scare her from doing what she wanted to do. Thing is if she was a man I just don't think most of it would have been accepted. Or become a president. When I see her in interviews and photographs she doesn't really comes of that bad. I might think she's more autistic if anything with her lack of facial expression, emotion and limited social gift. I just feel that women of today should be more careful to spread white men's words and opinions about her. Just needed to vent a bit. What are your thoughts about this.

Okay I was so confused why I was receiving this ask for a minute. I was like "yeah I agree. Did I accidentally say something that came off as anti-Yoko?" And then I realized you are just venting to me and I'm not in trouble lol. I welcome your venting any time, anon.

Anyway lemme break this down into bullet points because I think that's what I do best on this website.

Yoko and John's relationship kind of sucked.

Yes. From what we know about them, they were both bad for each other. Her manipulation game was on like level 1000 and he was John so he could be really truly scary. The thing is, people generally tend to assume she is mainly at fault for the relationship being so toxic because we a) sort of take for granted what Cynthia did in sitting still and pretty through all of John's abuse and expect everyone in his life to do the same and b) idealize Paul and John's relationship and say 'well if John can be so sweet to this person anyone who he is abusive toward must on some level deserve it -- including Paul when John turns on him' so that Yoko kind of gets both the 'how dare she not be Cynthia' and 'how dare she not be Paul' treatment. But what people don't understand when they over-emphasize Yoko's horrible manipulation is that John had literally all the power in that relationship. Physically, momentarily, image-wise, theory friends, etc. So yes, what she did to control him through fear and isolation was inherently bad, but what he did to make her scared enough of him to feel the need to do that was also bad. AND. With all that said. They also seemed to genuinely love and care for each other and were capable of great genuine sweetness and romance and healthy dedication at the same time.

We shouldn't believe everything we read about Yoko.

Yes. Like you said, people -- including People who worked for her -- are biased and we need to read against the bias as much as possible.

Yoko is not a traditional woman in any sense, and part of that means not being a great mom.

I agree she's no Linda and the thing is -- that's okay. If every mom was a little more like Linda, we'd all probably be better off mental health wise but it's not a healthy expectation and men are not held to the same standard women are with parenting. Yoko literally just acted like most seventies dads, honestly. My husband's grandpas none of them know how to hold a baby to this day. I have photographic evidence because they wanted to hold their great-grandson to brag to their friends but they clearly didn't have any interest in holding their own children as is also testified by the grandmas lol. So yeah. I agree she wasn't great. But point a) neither was John. He was more present but Sean still had a whole staff looking after him and Sean also remembers, along with his sweet memories, John taking his anger out on him before he was five years old. And b) she was good enough that Sean absolutely adores her. And before people go "what about Paul loving Jim, hmmmmm?" Paul's love for Jim goes as far as to eulogize him as the man who played piano at family parties and said 'there's no hair on a seagull's chest.' Jim's death didn't even make it into many years from now. Sean on the other hand is putting as much work Mary and Stella are into their mother into setting up Yoko's legacy as an artist and woman for eternity. He doesn't have to be doing that. But every chance he gets, he plugs her, and you can see just how much he loves talking about her. Which is actually our of character for Sean's normal victim-complex, twitter-troll type vibe. So whether she made it up to him in later years or was just much better than people tell us, Yoko passed the test with her son, and that means something.

Yoko pushed the feminist envelope by having the courage to do what she wanted to do despite the patriarchal consequences.

Yes. Thank you Yoko! We love you for that! The woman has balls of steel. And as she would have me do I'll correct that to pussy of steel because pussies are factually much tougher than balls.

If Yoko was a man, particularly a white man, she might even have become president.

What i would give for a Yoko Ono presidency! Why would you put that idea in my head? Now I have to live with it and the fact it can never be. But yes you are a thousand percent correct. How people can vote Donald Trump into holding the buttons to nuking the world and eternally hate Yoko for marrying a celebrity is bananas. Such a good depiction of exactly how much racism and sexism she's up against to this day.

Maybe Yoko is autistic.

Another evidence to me that she's still fighting an uphill battle with fans and her prescription is that I've been sure Paul is somehow neurodivergent for years -- almost as long as I've been a real fan -- and yet this is the first time the idea of Yoko's neurodivergence has occurred to me. She very well might be. It reminds me of how when I was little and instead of playing baseball at my T-ball games, I spent my time climbing the backstop, my parents put that down as "girl behavior" and I struggled through school and work and didn't get diagnosed with ADHD until I took myself to the doctor in college. Whereas when my little brother climbed the backstop it was "get this boy a therapist and some pills immediately!" I've been doing the exact same thing to poor Yoko! A lot of the behaviors I've noted as clear markers for Paul I've just thought were Yoko being Yoko but you have an excellent point, anon, thank you for bringing this to my attention!

We need to be careful when we discuss Yoko.

AGREE!! So many of the talking points we still use are have down to us from old racists and sexists and it's much better if we, like you've said anon, weigh them carefully against the attitudes of their time. We need to read against the grain a bit, even primary sources, and make an effort to see things from Yoko's side or to factor in things people of the past may not have. Thank you for this vent/wonderful reminder when it comes to Yoko, and to all the women and people of color, and really everyone who gets stereotyped and pigeonholed in the Beatles story.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 145 thoughts!

what even was this chapter, y'all. i'm getting a migraine.

While it certainly wasn't actively bad, it basically hits on enough of the issues I've been having with the Movie Arc that if you've been reading my chapter reviews lately, you could probably write this one yourself. Weird pacing, skipping over interesting parts of the movie, continued framing of AQRB as a shallow gag and failing to follow on any of the implied development from or literally any referenced fallout of the kiss in 143? It's all here, babes. It would ultimately just be boring and redundant for me to go over all that at length again, so I won't.

I will however say that I'm pretty disappointed we're blasting through what had the potential to be some really interesting bits of postmortem characterization for Ai, even filtered through 15YL. I don't mind the manga breezing past scenes we saw firsthand but like… how did Ai react when she realized she was pregnant? How did she feel, especially given that Spica once again emphasized her longing for a family of her own? IDK. The way the story is suddenly jolting forwards in these last few chapters and skipping such huge chunks of Ai's life ultimately feels very strange and I don't know what to make of it yet.

Everyone reacting to Crow Girl's acting was pretty funny though I'm kind of exhausted with Ruby's Gaga-For-Oniichansensei Gag Character flanderization. IDK if my tolerance for it is just decreasing or if it really is amping up, but at least in the 125-137 stretch I at least got the sense that they could be in the same room and have a normal conversation but ever since 139, it feels that bit more relentless. I imagine this would be less irritating if we knew how the aftermath of 143 had played out but it really seems like the manga is going to drag this out until we're all old and grey.

THAT SAID, this chapter does confirm that Aqua's hoshigan stayed white after that chapter and… eh. Who even knows what that means lol. It does at least imply that his talk with Ruby has brought him back to Baseline Aqua but Baseline Aqua is still a guy with every single mental illness on planet earth so I don't know if that's the world's biggest W quite yet. It certainly implies an improvement over double black hoshigan but… again, with Aqua being so totally cut off from the readers this whole arc and no idea of what happened in the aftermath of 143, it's impossible to make a meaningful guess as to wtf is going on with Aqua right now.

Oh yeah, uh. This chapter also I guess constitutes the reveal of how the AQRB reincarnation happened. I guess LMAO. Honestly, I don't have much to say about it other than it feels like a bit of an anticlimax for me? The idea works fine, the execution just left me… idk. Whelmed at best, underwhelmed at most. I feel like this backstory and the implied deep fondness for GRSR -> AQRB it implies doesn't really like up with the personality she displays in the Private arc but like, I kind of feel like she was tossed into the story without Akasaka having a clear idea as to what her role was even going to turn into so maybe that's not a surprise LOL

I will say I'm glad this seems to quash the theory that Aqua and Ruby were secretly capital-G Gods, instead framing it as a Tsuru no Ongaeshi type return of kindness to two otherwise mundane people. There was some fun fan theorizing around the idea, but for me personally, Oshi no Ko is most interesting when it focuses on that aspect of the story Akasaka highlighted in an interview recently, of human relationships being warped by the entertainment industry and I think an explosion of the emotional stakes to the cosmic scale of AQRB (or tbh any of the characters) being Secretly Gods All Along would be a bit of a shark jump for me and would really shift away from what I like about the series most.

That's kind of it for this one…! Not really a lot to say about this chapter, which is why most of this review was me explaining why I didn't have a lot to say about it.

[celticcrossanon]

Dear Celta, what a collaboration you’ve had with @ladykinrannoch you’re very complimentary to each others style of tarot reading. Something came up in the last day or so as to what Harry might be holding over Camilla/Charles. Feel free to not post this ask, as it’s just my ruminations and it may just be a wild conspiracy theory.

In considering how William feels about the press I made a post yesterday about how William came to distrust the media. In casting back into the past I recalled the forged financial statement, and the lie that was told to Diana that William was wearing a watch with a listening device. A huge question came up. WHO would have so much influence that they would convince a staff member off the BBC that Diana would be susceptible to these lies. WHO had that much influence that they would bring this to bear, to bring this level of malevolence to the Princess of Wales. To push her over the edge in such a personal, cruel and sadistic manner??? I remember that the BBC laid the blame squarely at Martin Brasheer’s feet and closed the investigation down without delving into the source of the forgery. Oh Brasheer was that creative and instinctively knew she would fall for this. But the more I think about the more I see a possible influence there.

Also Harry was living at Highgrove when William went to uni. So he was on his own with C&C. Is it possible that he overheard them speaking about the BBC and Martin Brasheer interview in a totally different way? Did they reveal themselves in a certain conversation that Harry overheard??? Is this the source of the blackmail?

Remember the Queen was wise, she knew a divorce would weaken the monarchy, and she didn’t have any constructive advice for Diana about her marriage since she herself couldn’t control Charles. Is it possible that C&C colluded with the BBC to concoct this false story with the aim of making Diana look crazy and paranoid. The lies did convince her to give that infamous interview which started the ball rolling towards her death in Paris. It started a chain of events which culminated in that car crash in Paris.

Diana refused the Queen’s offer of Ravec security after the divorce. At a minimum she would have had a sober driver. I bet they didn’t foresee how this would tragically play out.

Both you and Lady K’s readings were very clear, it had to do with C&C ‘s marriage, or origin of marriage. Harry is dumb, he’s no constitutional expert, he couldn’t possibly know the ins and out of a Catholic and Anglican divorce and marriage in relation to the monarchy and being head of the church. But he is cunning, and he may have realized later on what it is he heard especially years later after Martin Brasheer took the fall for the BBC. In the 90s both Charles and Camilla together, and Diana separately were involving the press in their war with each other. It just came out recently in a book this year that Camilla was in weekly contact with this journalist, so she also may have been needling Diana in the press, separately from Charles.

If this resonates with you, please consider asking your cards who influenced the BBC to go down this road with Diana. Who gave them the ideas of the forged financial statements and the William watch lie. Imagine the cruelty of such a lie, it looks very personal to me.

Thanks for reading my screed Celta.

Hi AnonymousRetired,

Thank you for the kind words about the duet reading. I appreciate them very much.

I do want to look more into that reading and what came out of it, but it won't be tonight - I am just too tired.

You raise very valid points about the Panorama interview. The forged statement may have been all from Bashir, or other people may have been involved. There was no investigation so it is likely that we shall never know.

I can believe Charles and Camilla firing shots at Diana through the press. The whole time period of the four year separation and divorce was horrible in terms of what was revealed and was was said in the papers.

I will add the tarot reading to my list and consider it when I have more energy. :) Thank you for sharing your theories with me. I always like hearing what other people have to say.

[xxjadeablexx]

Hazbin Hotel Synopsis

Salutations! My name is Jade and I have to make a blog for my Composition class. When given a free range of topics, I decided to write about Hazbin Hotel. Mainly character information, headcannons, theories. You know, that kinda stuff. I realized for my professor to care about any of this stuff, she probably needs to know about the show. And I highly doubt she already does. So! let's get into a basic rundown of the show, in mostly my own words. Obviously, spoilers ahead. On October 28th, 2019, YouTube channel "Vivziepop" uploaded a video named "HAZBIN HOTEL (PILOT)." The video soon blew up, and got praise and backlash for the idea of the show. It got a lot of criticism for being an animated musical, since those are mainly geared towards children. However, Hazbin hotel is a show with a target audience of 18+ (weird to think I was like 15 when this came out.) With many dark themes including commentary on the toxicity of the porn industry, this show is obviously not meant for children.

Despite the backlash, it obviously did something right, because in early 2020, before the second episode could come out, A24, an American independent film company, decided to take the concept and make a whole series out of it. Four years later, on January 19th, 2024, the show's first series was released on Amazon Prime. The show follows the Princess of Hell, Charlie Morningstar. She is a very energetic demon who believes the sinners in hell deserve a second chance. She builds a hotel and basically gets laughed at by everyone. But after getting back to it after an interview about said hotel, there's a knock on the door. We then meet one of my favorite characters, Alastor. Alastor is known as the "radio demon." He offers to help Charlie with the hotel. Charlie says yes and that's kinda the end of the pilot.

Alastor then enlists the help of Husk, a cat-like demon who runs the bar, and Niffty, a small cyclops who does the cleaning. It is immediately evident that Alastor is a powerful demon. He is known as an "overlord," and is feared by many, having the ability to control basically anyone, along with summoning help for any number of things.

As the show goes on we find out that redemption is basically impossible. The angels literally laugh in Charlie's face when she suggests it. Adam, the first human soul in Heaven and angel, lets it out that his army "exterminates' sinners and demons like once a year (which later gets changed to 6 months and then 1 month.) This upsets Emily, a Seraphim who shares the views of Charlie. Emily and Charlie say that:

If Hell is forever, then Heaven must be a lie (Emily!)

If angels can do whatever, and remain in the sky

The rules are shades of gray when you don't do as you say

When you make the wretched suffer just to kill them again.

Adam then says he will see them in 1 month instead of 6. (this is apparently because of a major timeskip, but I feel like it wasn't really explained like that in the show. it really just reads that Adam keeps moving up the date cause he's a prick that wants to kill all the demons.) Charlie decides to take things into her own hands and finds someone who knows how to Kill the Angels. So, what does she do? She gets her own army, her own weapons, and the guts to kill, and proceeds to kill literally any angel she can. Alastor gets injured and is unable to fight off Adam, which ends up fine because Niffty kills him. The scene is actually hilarious because Niffty is described as “10 pounds soaking wet,” by Angel Dust. So this tiny demon who was given a knife and told “stab any angel you see,” kills what is essentially the hardest angel to even touch. That's like the president dying from a mosquito bite. 

That’s not even mentioning Sir Pentious, who originally tries to kill Adam. After Alastor is killed, Sir Pentious decides to go after Adam himself. Pentious is one of the most cowardly characters in the whole show. He is so scared to confess to a girl at some point, that upon her questioning why he bought her a drink, he says  “Because i bought everyone drinks!” when he hadn’t but then he does because everyone hears him. He does that like 2 more times and the situation repeats himself, even when the drinks turn into sex. He is too cowardly to admit to liking her that he has sex with a stranger instead of just confessing. But I digress, because he redeems himself by going after Adam. He resolves. He confesses to his crush. He kisses her. And then Adam kills him like, almost immediately. Despite Pentious being a coward, he isn’t weak in any sense of the word. He is a skilled inventor with many war machines that could have killed Adam. Adam just kinda snapped and suddenly Pentious and his minions and his blimp are dead. But Niffty, a masochistic, child-like cyclopes kills Adam. I love Niffty, but how does that work?

It fine though, because Sir Pentious ends up in Heaven. His sacrifice for his friends proves enough that after he dies, he ends up in Heaven in front of Sera and Emily, the Seraphim. Thats the end. The last thing we see of the main plot is confused faces and a less dark version of Sir Pentious. 

[older1996]

I think one reason Older is so difficult to listen to is the abundance of religious references. I know George put his faith (hah) in worship, but religion has been that cause of a lot of turmoil as a gay person so when I hear it I just wince and skip the track. I can't listen to most of the album, but the few tracks that I can experience, I really like.

Anyways, I just say this I guess because I just abandoned religion and casually admire Satan and what he represents as an entity. I know you love the album Older, but do have difficulty listening the music because of the religious references? Sorry if this is an invasive question, I mean no disrespect.

Great question! Honestly I think a lot of it hinges on the way I interpret the lyrics when I listen to it. Here's some background context about me to add to what I mean.

Religious trauma had a major impact on my life due to being raised under Catholicism and going to a school that was heavily influenced by another Christian sect despite the fact it was a public school. Really, Christianity is the exact reason why I didn't even know who I was for so long due to repressing myself. I've always been into the paranormal--despite that conflicting with Catholic doctrine--but at a young age I realized I was actually pagan once I started reading the mythology of ancient cultures. I realized I was only believing in Catholicism because it was what I was being told to believe. Within the last few years I began syncretizing being pagan with demonolatry. (Which makes sense to me since demons are basically pagan gods that were villainized by the church. After all, daimon/daemon originally meant guiding spirit.) I have a strong connection to Lucifer and Azazel. (Of course both of them are heavily involved with fulfilling the role of The Adversary and Azazel specifically is The Scapegoat.)

I know there are Christopagans out there, but I do not vibe with the Christian god El, Jesus, or any of the angels at all. (Honestly the Christian god feels like an egregore trying to steal people's energy to me...) This is why when I listen to the Older album I don't see it as praising Christianity, but rather an indictment of it. In regards to Jesus to a Child, it uses the name of Jesus, but I feel like this is simply a vehicle to say that Anselmo was a savior to him rather than the church. Also, with You Have Been Loved it mentions Anselmo's mother still being devoted to Catholicism, but to me the lyrics seem to suggest that the Christian god is cruel if he was behind this. She's feeling the Catholic guilt, but really it isn't her fault.

In regards to the end of the song I see it being more like Anselmo is saying that hope is not lost and Yog needs to keep living.

I'll never forget the story Yog told how devastating it was to see Anselmo sitting in bed looking at prayer cards because he thought he would go to the Catholic idea of Hell. Plus the other one where after Anselmo got diagnosed, Yog looked up at the sky and said, "Don't do this to me." He specifically mentioned how horrible Catholicism it is and how it messes with people's psyche. I know I'm definitely harsher towards Christianity than he probably was, but my perspective makes me enjoy the whole Older album.

White Light was years later of course, but I always find it interesting how he specifically mentions gods instead of a singular one.

Considering the song is about his near death experience that seems incredibly intriguing... After all in the 80s he said in an interview that he wasn't really sure about the existence of an afterlife, but did believe in what is now known as the Stone Tape Theory. (The energy of events that happened in a place--especially traumatic ones--can leave an energetic imprint on it.) But then after his near death experience he said there was no denying that the spiritual plane exists to him.

Anyways, this all makes me think of a Federale song I've been listening to on repeat a lot lately:

This song is so me coded.

[alex51324]

OK, so I'm now caught up on Interview With the Vampire (TV). I have some observations:

Wow, was that trial ever a master-class in poor-little-meow-meowification! I was legit getting flashbacks from the (season 1-hiatus) Izzy Trenches, with the whole, "Pointing out that he doesn't have to put up with my behavior, and he wouldn't recommend anyone else do so either, is--due to Meow-Meow's personal circumstances--an act of such exquisite cruelty that it excuses pretty much anything he does while he's upset about it," and "sure, yeah, this thing Meow-Meow did sounds bad to you normies, but because we're pirates vampires it's barely anything; a slight loss of temper for which he should be forgiven completely because the other dude said something mean", thing, plus the side of "Oh, but that threatening to leave is the most brutal form of abuse thing applies only to Meow-Meow, and in only one direction; it's fine for decide to part ways with anyone else at any time for any reason, and nobody else has any right to find that at all upsetting."

(To be clear, I genuinely liked this in IWTV; it was interesting seeing an audience falling eagerly into this trap, when the audience is also fictional, and the show itself is winking and nodding to us about it.)

(I do wonder if the show is going to grapple with this at all next season--the reunion suggests that Louis had also fallen into this trap. I'm unconvinced by the fan-theories suggesting that Lestat was an unwilling participant in the trial; there might have been some use of vampire mind-powers to keep him on-script during the proceedings, but I think he genuinely didn't realize he gave a shit about Claudia until it was too late.)

2. The aging-up of Claudia's character (she was a little little girl in the books) puts her at right about the same age as The Vampire Currently Known As Armand was when he was originally sex trafficked as a human, and I wonder about that stirring up some long-buried feelings. Does the grotesque parody of innocence inherent in Baby LuLu have some parallel in his experience as a sexually exploited child? What happened to Arun--or to Amadeo, even--if he failed to play his part with a reasonable facsimile of enthusiasm?*

On the one hand, I'm interested in these potential parallels; on the other hand (glancing back up at point 1), it's a tricky needle to thread, to see these parallels as contextualizing Armand's actions, but not excusing them. I do not entirely trust fandom not to turn this into, "Well, she reminded him of His Worst Trauma, so everything he did to her was basically self-harm, and he pretty much had to kill her in order to achieve closure on that period of his life**."

(*Some of this may be addressed in the books? The Vampire Armand came out on the waning edge of my Anne Rice phase; I'm pretty sure I read it, but I don't remember much about it, and I don't have a copy. The parallels with Claudia wouldn't be, though, because in the books she was 5.)

(**Izzy Trenches flashbacks again.)

3. As someone who read the books back in the day, I appreciated the brief mention in S1 that Louis's grandfather had owned a plantation, worked by men who "shared his complexion but not his circumstances." To me, that line opened up the possibility of reimagining Book!Louis as also being Black.

(To be clear, he canonically could not have been; beyond that fact that It Would Have Come Up, in the first few pages--which I just re-read--he is described as being bone-white. Even if he was mixed and white-passing, it doesn't quite work.

However, Anne Rice did write a book, Feast of All Saints, about a mixed-race protagonist, who was the son of a slave owner and a woman he enslaved. I remember almost nothing about it, except that the white father had promised to free him and send him abroad to be educated, but broke that promise. Porting some of that over onto a book-canon-era Black Louis could be very interesting.

I'd have to re-read both books--and probably TVL, too--to be able to even think about writing it, which is...unlikely, but I put that idea out into the universe.)

[bucksittingonit]

https://www.tumblr.com/buckgettingstruck/755111868240150528/maaaybe-oliver-doesnt-post-about-bucktommy?source=share

I know we have mostly moved on, but I saw that nobody brought up the Arielle hate, so I will tell you the 911 on that. Arielle and the Lucy character was an unmitigated disaster of Kristen’s own making. When it was announced that Arielle was being brought on for 5B, a lot of fans were excited about finally getting another female firefighter. Kristen fumbled this so badly because she had too many things going on offset - Taylor’s arc was supposed to end in 5A, but then Michael’s actor wouldn't get the vaccine and was barred from set and availability of other mains - that she didn't realize how bad the introduction of the character was.

Everyone was so excited on 5B premiere day because the cast seemed to get along with Arielle and thought this meant big things for the FireFam and the new character. Expectations turned sour when the Buck/Lucy kiss was leaked hours before the premiere and people were pissed! Cheating is not liked in the fandom - as we saw that this past season with Eddie - but fans didn't believe that cheating was a Buck trait after how long he waited for Abby.

Kristen thought she had it made, she introduced a female firefighter and used the Eddie type of introduction to solidify the connection from the first rescue. We have to remember that this was also around the time that she shut down Buddie hard and Kristen was slowly realizing the Taylor coupling wasn't working with the audience (my conspiracy theory is that she believed Taylor was endgame), even after changing her personality and giving her a backstory that majorly backfired. She thought getting rid of Taylor would help warm people up to Lucy when all it did was get people mad and kind of feel sorry for Taylor (even the Buddie fans).

To be honest, Kristen was totally okay with pissing off the Buddie fans because she thought she had the general audience on her side. What she didn't realize is that while not a lot of people liked Taylor, BT still had their fans within the general audience and she basically killed the Lucy character with that kiss. Now you had even fewer people liking the new potential pairing compared to the older/not well-liked pairing of BT.

What made matters worse is that Kristen totally banked on people liking Lucy and a Lucy/Buck romance that PR already had a ton of interviews lined up for Arielle after the premiere and even a joint one with Kristen/Arielle/Oliver. In this interview, they all teased this potential romance between Buck and Lucy and that Buck was going to stay with Taylor, but be emotionally cheating with Lucy. The backlash was so loud that night and the weeks that followed that a lot of her scenes that were previewed in interviews by Arielle and Kristen had to be cut because of the audience’s loud dislike.

I put most of the blame on Kristen because a lot of the storytelling and actions made it seem like she promised Arielle a lead role for the next season and a romance with the main guy. The one part that I believe is Arielle’s PR team’s fault is that they shoved her spotlight because of this maybe promise from Kristen. She was doing so many interviews during 5B (almost every week and multiple) that fans were sick of her. A big joke that fans love bringing up is that Arielle had a constant line of “flirting and poking” that she would use in every interview. It took her team a long while to read the room about the response to her character. During these interviews, Arielle would also constantly drop spoilers that had to be cut because of the audience’s reaction to her. You can sometimes see the editing around her lines, especially in scenes in the truck and it is very awkward because people are either answering a question from her character or responding to something she said.

In conclusion, the Arielle hate was because of how badly Kristen fucked up. 5B is where a lot of criticisms came to light about Kristen’s timeline, writing choices, characters, storylines, etc. She can be a good writer when someone tells her what to write, but she can't handle show-running duties and determining story arcs and pacing for episodes and season-long storylines.

ahh good to know!!! i wasnt sure about the lucy/arielle aspect of it all so good to know. i dont want to hate on kristen like i feel a lot of the fandom does because i do believe she’s written good episodes etc but it seems like as showrunner a lot of things were mishandled. not that tim is any better rn but hopefully that improves

(also! if anyone else sends asks about this specific incident from yesterday i probably wont reply to it unless its something new because we’ve kinda beat a dead horse into the ground here)

[gwenyn28]

Debunking the „Invisible Strings“ Theory and more

Invisible strings – who hasn’t heard about that in any fandom? The true love. Faith. Soulmates. A forever kind of anything. This is what every fan wants for their favorite ship, right? Especially when it is two characters who have a built up. Share a story.

And if this theory turns into more, into the aforementioned “soulmatism” after these two characters got together, who wouldn’t be head over heels for it?

In my former post I explained some basic screenwriting rules, especially the “Show don’t tell” one. You can read it here if you want to.

Because there was and still is a big discourse in the fandom about the “They are made for each other and they are their endgame” I want to look at a few things concerning these theories and what happened on screen through the lens of the “Show don’t tell” rule.

Let’s start with the biggest part and what is mentioned in the post’s title.

The Invisible String Theory

To understand what I am talking about I will give you a short summary what this theory is about.

“Buck and Tommy are connected through invisible strings. Tommy left the 118 and Buck joined, taking his place metaphorically speaking and also literally speaking because he now sits at Tommy’s former seat at the 118’s dinner table. Later on, on a call where there was a big gas leak and a house was almost exploding (Eddie was inside with a kid, hiding in a bathtub) Chimney who was off duty at that time called Tommy to help. Tommy flew past that call to spill water all over the place and Buck looked up, watching his future boyfriend. There is also a connection through the episode “Buck actually” where Buck met Thomas and Mitchell, an older gay couple, who died together. Mitchell and Buck talked a bit about love and Mitchell said the famous phrase “You don’t find it, son, you make it.” Connecting this to Tommy due to the name of Mitchell’s love (Thomas) and because Tommy’s favorite movie is “Love actually” (said in one of the ‘Begins’ episodes).”

So, these are the main points for the theory. If I forgot any detail, I apologize. But it wouldn’t change that much about my interpretation if the summary had more details.

First of all: I could quite easily debunk and kind of nip this whole theory in the bud with one big point. Tommy coming back for season 7 was a last-minute decision. He was not the first choice so this thing between him and Buck being planned years ago? The seed being planted back then? Doesn’t fit.

Tommy (as a love interest for Buck) was kind of plan c (?) if I recall it correctly.

First idea was to bring back Lucy Donato. She can fly a helicopter (we saw that in the bridge rescue in season 6). Her not being available due to the actress’ new show was a last-minute thing. It can be seen on the form Hen submitted at Harbor. In the form the name of the requested pilot is “Lucy Donato” and not “Tommy Kinard”. That shows that the switch was not planned early and kind of made last-minute. If Lucy would have been brought back as an old new love interest for Buck, we will never know.

Second problem was that Natalia’s actress was also unavailable. Her character and Buck were in a relationship at the end of season 6 and this would have lasted into season 7. But instead, due to the lack of availability, they broke up over hiatus and she was never mentioned again. Therefore, Buck was without a big storyline and without a love interest. Because Tim, the showrunner, had it already in mind that Buck would and should realize some things about his sexuality (Buck has always been queer/bi-coded and Oliver has played and/or decided to play him like that) they decided now would be the right time. Buck’s story arc wouldn’t need that much time and so it could fit into the shortened season.

To get Buck to this realization that he could be attracted to men as well as women, there was a catalyst needed. Tim said in one of his interviews early on in season 7 that he didn’t want to invent a completely new character for that. Therefore he “recycled” an old one – Tommy. To give Buck an entry-level relationship that he can explore this new side of him a bit. But he also said that it wouldn’t be anything more than that. Even Lou, Tommy’s actor, stated the same in an interview he gave that Tommy was kind of the practice round for Buck.

And don’t mind that Lou mentioned in the same interview that Tommy was first brought back to be a love interest for Eddie but then they switched it to Buck, probably because to the reasons above.

To sum this part up:

Tommy being Buck’s soulmate and this being the plan in the long run doesn’t make sense when you look at the way of decision making.

But okay, benefit of the doubt. Let’s still look at the theory in detail.

Buck joining the 118 and sitting in Tommy’s seat

Mitchell’s husbands name

Episode title vs. “Love, actually”

I admit that these three things could be interpreted as something with a deeper meaning. But it could be also interpreted as nothing. Let’s dive into the screenwriting for a moment.

Like I said before it is quite essential to “Show don’t tell”. These three points might be big in the part of that ship’s fandom but the casual viewer doesn’t remember any of that. If it had been important and the show had wanted to lean into the theory they would have used some narrative devices. Like flashbacks. For example:

The moment Buck learns that Tommy’s name is Thomas we could see a short flashback to Mitchell and Thomas and the conversation Buck had with the former. Or another flashback where Tommy sits at the table and then fades and Buck sits down in the same spot. So that the general audience would make this connection. That they would have their “oh” moment, realizing that Tommy and Buck are really connected on a deeper level and made for each other. Or at least that there is something more to their relationship.

But we don’t see any of that. Just the hardcore fans remember the episode “Buck, actually” actually. Because for us these moments with Mitchell are so important and a valid part in a lot of fanfics on both sides. The casual viewer? They probably won’t even remember the episodes they watched three weeks ago. An episode that aired in 2018? Well… just no.

Buck looked up at the plane

For this point I will take off the screenwriter’s hat again because I can explain it without any screenwriting rules.

We know that Tommy is a helicopter pilot who works at Harbor. He also was a pilot in the army. I am sure that not many people know that but if you are a pilot doesn’t mean that you can fly anything that goes up into the air.

Imagine the same with a driver’s license. Just because you got your license for a normal car you are not automatically able to drive a truck, a tank, a motorbike, a bus etc. Most vehicles need special licenses so that you are able to drive them.

And the same goes for anything that flies. Tommy is able to fly a helicopter and he has a license for that. But being able to fly a plane? Okay, screenwriter’s hat on again because I noticed that I need this for the next few sentences. It is possible that a person has more than one license. And Tommy could be one of them, being able to fly a helicopter AND a plane. But again. We don’t know and nobody told us that he can. We know him as the helicopter pilot. Connecting him to the plane? To make this connection someone would have to mention it on the show that the audience can see “Oh, Tommy flew that plane and saved them all”. And screenwriter’s hat off.

Chimey said that he called Tommy for help and I totally believe he did that. Because Tommy is connected to people who can help with air support. So, it was Chimney’s obvious choice to ask him. But it makes more sense that Tommy asked someone else to fly that plane to help instead of flying it himself due to the aforementioned license thing.

And if we now think that it’s more likely that someone else flew that plane, the theory that Buck looked up to see his future boyfriend flying in to save him (and others) makes no sense anymore. (And yes, I ignore the point that kind of everyone was looking up because there was a damn fucking plane coming to the rescue and nobody says that the pilot is Bobby’s soulmate… or Hen’s… or any of the other people who were around back then.)

I think I properly explained why the “Invisible String Theory” might be a nice fandom created idea but it makes no sense in the long run, realistically speaking on a tv show level. Too many things don’t add up and make no sense storytelling wise.

Let’s hop on to other things in that context.

2. The whole “Evan” thing

Fans and the general audience alike know what kind of relationship Buck has with his given name. He never says he hates it. But he shows it more than once or it is shown that his chosen name holds a special place in his heart, and not his given name.

Buck talks with his parents as they visit him at the station. When his father calls him “Evan” Buck interrupts him and tells him that his name is Buck. People who know him call him “Buck”.

When Buck is down after the I think the warehouse fire Athena talks to him and cheers him up. She gives him a pep talk and ends it with “That’s what being Buck means to me.”

In the coma episode coma!Bobby and coma!Buck talk before Buck realizes that he should escape this coma dream. It is about his name as well. That he is Buck. And not Evan.

There are a few other examples, I just listed the three most obvious ones, I think.

In conclusion we can say that Buck prefers this chosen name over his given name for several reasons. He accepted being Buck and not just Evan.

Now Tommy comes in and calls Buck Evan all the time. We even know that Lou has been told to just call Buck Evan as Tommy and not Buck. Why could that be?

People are saying that Buck reclaims his name, being called Evan is him being more mature. Or even that it is something special because only Tommy is allowed to call him Evan. But are these really the reasons? I doubt it.

We know that Buck has a complicated relationship with his name as stated earlier (family issues etc.). Why would he all of a sudden want to reclaim this name, to show him being more grown up? After the lightning strike and the follow up coma we saw him already grown up. Grown into the name, being comfortable with being Buck. Because being Buck is enough. Why would he all of a sudden decide that now he wants to be called Evan again after the audience has already experienced his growth in season 6 where he feels good as Buck, not Evan? And even if he wanted to be called Evan now for reasons, why would he not tell everyone to switch the name?

From a screenwriter’s perspective it is quite simple. Tommy being the only one calling him Evan is important. But not in the way people think it is. Not because it shows a special connection or because of a deep bond. On the contrary. Remember the phrase Buck said to his father. “People who know me…” It is more of a “Tommy doesn’t know Buck” thing. With this simple action the general audience notices that something is off between Tommy and Buck. Because the audience knows Buck’s preference and some might even remember all the reasons why (most might remember that it has something to do with his family).

“Language” is a very effective narrative device. Using certain words or how characters talk to each other can deliver a message for the audience. Screenwriters use this device so that they don’t have to actively say something but the audience will still get it. In this case: Nobody has to say that Tommy ignores Buck’s chosen name and that something feels off about it, the audience sees that he does and that it is.

Now people might say “But Buck hasn’t stopped him” and yes, I agree. Buck has not stopped him with the whole “Evan” thing. It could be simply because he still has to get used to his first relationship with a man, exploring stuff etc. Or it could be deeper and be rooted in his abandonment issues, unconsciously scared that if he tells Tommy to change the name that Tommy will leave. And Buck failed another relationship.

There could have been some possibilities to explain this name thing. Like Buck telling Tommy explicitly that he wants to be called Evan. Or Tommy asks Buck about it because he notices that he’s the only one calling him Evan and Buck states that he is okay with it because he likes it when Tommy does (this could have given a nice little look into their relationship and could have been a sweet moment.)

But nothing like that happened. We just hear Tommy call Buck Evan every time he appears on screen. And this is intentional, the intention behind even backed up through the instruction for Lou not to say Buck.

“Show, don’t tell”. Tommy uses the “wrong” name for Buck while the audience knows what Buck prefers. So, it feels off for people who watch the show and we get to see a relationship where both parts aren’t really on the same level.

3. Buck’s big “coming out”

There are people who complain about the way it was shown on screen. They argue that Tommy could have told Buck how he looked. And they are mad at him for that. That it was a forced coming out and that it was a shitty move from Tommy etc.

I don’t agree with that. Because I wouldn’t look that deep into it. In the end this scene had just one purpose - a subtle coming out for Buck. We know that they were already running low on time that episode, cutting of scenes almost worth one complete episode. So, Buck coming out to everyone else besides Maddie and Eddie? Would have taken too much time. The “soot face” scene was more effective and delivered the message to Buck’s friends and the audience. That Buck is out now.

I want to focus more on another part of the hospital scenes. The one when Buck and Tommy kissed. (And no, I don’t want to talk about that it was kind of out of character for Buck to leave Maddie’s wedding to go see Tommy because that is something else to discuss at another time maybe.)

Hardcore fans were happy about this scene and yes, I get it. Tommy promised to be at the wedding and he was. And they kissed. Great. Your ship sailed at that moment. But the moment people went deeper in and romanticized it that Tommy came to see Buck even after he fought a fire, I have to put my foot in.

Let’s put off the shipper’s googles for a second.

Tommy being at the hospital was just for one purpose. That Buck could come out to his friends and that the audience knows that he is out now to everyone and doesn’t have to hide anymore. Nothing else.

Because if we look deeper into it, there are some questions. Tommy works at Harbor. They usually do the air support. Why would he arrive at the hospital with a fire engine in full turn out? If you are on-call duty you usually aren’t for a different job. Compare it to a doctor maybe. If you are on call as an eye doctor you wouldn’t be called in to do a brain surgery. Especially such an expert like Tommy, a pilot, wouldn’t be used for normal fire-fighting that could keep him occupied when an emergency occurs that needs a pilot.

Therefore, him coming in with a turnout full of soot, having just fought a fire, was solely for getting the soot on Buck’s face. Their kiss was to remind the audience that they were still seeing each other even after their failed date and the coffee-date to get out the invite for the wedding.

There was no deeper meaning behind it and the writers used that scene to deliver a subtle coming out without Buck telling everyone.

Interpreting it as “Tommy came to see Buck even if he worked so hard in these past hours” and “he didn’t even go home to clean up himself because he wanted to rush to Buck” is looking too deep into this. (And just to mention, even Buck cleaned up and switched clothes although his sister’s wedding had to be cancelled because the groom was missing and Maddie was going crazy about it. But Buck went and cleaned himself up.)

4. The Bachelor Party

Yes, I know. There is a big controversy about it, especially Tommy’s reaction. Let’s analyze this.

Tommy didn’t dress up even though Buck told him that the party was 80s themed. Instead of just saying that he didn’t have much time and couldn’t find a fitting outfit, he stated “They had Henley’s in the 80s” in a very condescending tone and made somehow fun of Buck and Eddie for their Miami Vice costumes. “What are you, the Wedding singers?” (reference to a movie where the two people who are meant for each other are with the wrong people but that is not the point here).

The point is that Tommy did not put any effort in it. The audience knows how Buck can get with these things. Remember Clipboard!Buck and him being Firemarshal. The audience even saw in the previous scenes how important this party was for Buck. He really wanted to throw it for Chimney and was totally into it.

Tommy reacting so poorly was a mood dampener and we could see that in Buck’s (and Eddie’s) reaction.

Now, people explained that he was on call and that this was why he didn’t dress up. Usually, if you are on call, even as a First Responder (or especially as one), you have to switch into a uniform to work. Doctors, nurses throw on their scrubs, police officers wear their uniform, firefighters theirs etc. He could have easily worn something different. Tommy did not know if he would be called in or not. But he decided against it, wore a Henley and made a joke about Buck (and Eddie) being dressed up.

How can you analyze this from a screenwriter’s point of view?

If they had wanted to establish the relationship between Buck and Tommy further, we would have been shown stuff that would let the audience have another “Oh, they are into each other” moment.

For example: Tommy could have worn something colorful or fun, just a shirt or something and they could have had a sweet little exchange about it. Or he could have explained to Buck in a normal way why he decided to go with the Henley. Or, and that is a major point, he could not have been on call in the first place and could have partied the whole night with Buck (and Eddie, or even without Eddie to give us more couple time). But he did neither of that.

It was an intentional choice to not dress him up and let him even act kind of condescending towards Buck concerning the outfit. It was also an intentional choice to make him leave. Him staying could have shown the two of them in a more relationship way, how they act around each other, how much fun they have together. But the writers refrained from this to a. show the disconnect between Tommy and Buck and b. not to dive deeper into their relationship and to show it to the general audience.

The bachelor party was the fifth scene we saw Buck and Tommy together – the first one at Harbor when they were interrupted by Eddie, the kiss in Buck’s kitchen, their failed date, the coffee date and now the bachelor party.

In none of these scenes the writer’s focus was to establish their relationship. For the audience it is still not really shown what kind of relationship these two have, especially not that it is such a lovely one like some fans claim it to be.

While I mentioned all their scenes until now, I want to go back to one and talk about this one as a last point.

5. Their first date

In episode 7x04 which is completely from Buck’s (unreliable) point of view we got the kissing scene when Tommy asked Buck out for a date. Ignore the “My attention? – I guess.” for a moment even though it probably is important. Remember, anything is intentional and not just because they had no clue what else to write. But this is not what I want to focus on here.

The whole episode was from Buck’s point of view and the audience learnt that Tommy is a lot like Eddie. They have so much in common – the military, Muay Thai, repairing cars etc. The audience learns that Buck seems to like Tommy who is similar to Eddie and that they kind of click.

Now we jump to the next episode and Buck’s and Tommy’s first date and the writer’s intentions switch. While thinking that Buck and Tommy would be a good fit after the last episode the audience now learns that there are differences between the two of them.

I don’t want to excuse Buck’s reaction, the “hot chicks” comment was misplaced. But thinking about it you could at least understand it. He is not out yet, just noticing his attraction to guys a few days prior and is now on a date with a man for the first time… and bumps into his best friend. It is just human that he panics and says something stupid. Still, it was needed that he apologized for that.

Tommy’s actions on the other hand were more than just a bit misplaced. His “closet” comment could have outed Buck in front of his best friend. Luckily, Eddie (and Marisol) was oblivious enough that the comment flew past their heads. Immediately after, Tommy ended the date and ordered himself an uber.

Again. Until then I could explain this by “he is mad at the comment Buck made, feeling like being shoved back into the closet” etc. I would agree. I wouldn’t be on that level myself because I think rudeness shouldn’t be countered with rudeness but okay. Everybody acts differently.

Now, to really end the date, the writers made another intentional choice. They could have shown that Tommy still cares about Buck, that Buck is important to him. They could have made him say something like that Buck isn’t ready and that he understands him but doesn’t want to go back into the closet. Something like that. He could have shown some empathy. He could have explained his want to end the date so that the viewer could relate and understand him.

But instead, the writers chose Tommy not to talk to Buck. Until the moment the uber stopped at the curb, Buck (and the audience) is still thinking that they are going to the movies. Then Tommy abruptly ends the date and drives away while Buck stands alone at the curb, staring at the leaving car. (Concerning his abandonment issues this is kind of heartbreaking.)

Every message, every action Tommy did after Buck’s comment could be explainable on its own. But sum everything up and it leaves the viewer with another off feeling – the closet comment, ending the date without saying so, leaving Buck on the curb.

Even later on when Buck met up with Tommy again at the coffee shop, Tommy did not apologize. I wouldn’t go that far and say that Tommy is gaslighting Buck. But he explains his actions with “You are not ready”. He probably doesn’t see that he did something wrong or that he could have handled the situation better.

The viewer starts to think about that relationship and that they maybe did not click that much like everyone thought at first. Nobody probably thinks that Tommy is a villain here. Just that he is probably the wrong fit for Buck.

There are a few more other scenes between Buck and Tommy and each one of them can be analyzed through the screenwriter’s lens. But probably there won��t be anything new that hasn’t been stated already. So, just a short summary of three scenes that are worth a comment.

During the medal ceremony when Buck is happy about the award (it is obviously his first) Tommy makes a comment – “Enjoy it while it lasts.” This shows another time that they are not on the same level and they don’t really match. Tommy just sees himself and cannot be happy for Buck. Therefore, he makes that slightly deprecative comment and Buck face falls.

While Bobby is in the hospital, being dead for 14 minutes and now in a coma afterwards, Buck is worried sick. Everyone knows that Bobby is his surrogate father. He wants to share this with Tommy who turns it into a joke, not really taking Buck seriously and listening to his concerns and fears. And Buck’s face falls again.

While Hen and Karen try to interrogate Tommy about his intentions with Buck (kind of a shovel talk), he deflects and makes jokes that are misplaced.

If you look at all of these things mentioned above - from the name calling, comments and certain scenes - from a writing perspective you can see that these were deliberate choices. There were enough moments to really establish the blooming relationship. To make Tommy likable.

First, he could have been on screen more so that the audience would see their relationship like we do with all the other couples. For example, like Athena and Bobby dancing together on the cruise ship. Did it add to the storyline per se? No. But it showed them being a couple and in love. There could have been small little scenes like that with Buck and Tommy. But the writers and the showrunner decided not to show any.

And remember. For the general audience things have to be shown that they will be able to relate to the characters and accept things into the narrative. So, if there are no e.g. domestic scenes between Buck and Tommy, nobody will believe they have a sweet little domestic relationship.

Second, the few scenes they had Tommy could have been written differently. Except in 7x04 where we saw the whole story through Buck’s eyes, he was always stiff and condescending, making misplaced comments and jokes. The writers could have given him lines where he e.g. supports Buck after he is worried about Bobby. Or an apology at the coffee date where they both decide to start over. There were many chances to make him a fit for Buck, to give him scenes and lines for the audience to relate to. So that we can see him as the fit for Buck people claim him to be.

But, the show did neither. There was just a limited number of scenes and the lines Tommy had were never really supportive or sweet towards Buck. All in all, the writers went full in with the “Show don’t tell”. They painted a certain picture of Tommy for the audience to understand that Tommy might not be a bad guy but just not a fit for Buck.

And in the end, this is what counts. What is shown on screen and the writer’s intentions with this.

Not what someone comes up with as a headcanon or what people assume happened off screen.

Disclaimer in the end: I just want to say that this post isn’t about the casual part of the fandom. The people who just watch the show, enjoy the ship and are happy about anything. As long as they are respectful and live the “ship and let ship” lifestyle, I am completely fine with it.

This post is more about the hardcore five people who try to shove down these theories and “canon” events as a given we have to believe and accept and “how dare you ship something else???”. People who act superior and think they can be dismissive and condescending and whenever you don’t agree with their point of views you are called names, slurs and a lot of different other things.

[alexwritess]

BACK TO YOU

this is the second part to my last post so read part 1 here

Contents: mention murder, criminal minds themes, angst, fluff, happy ending

You were awoken by soft ruffling, as your eyes adjusted, you turned to where Spencer was and were met with an empty bed. Your heart sank a little.

“Spence?” you softly called, he walked out of your bathroom and paused when he saw you sitting up in bed.

“Shit did I wake you?” he asked. “I’m sorry”

You rubbed your eyes in an attempt to adjust them to the daylight.

“No you didn’t” you paused for a split second. “Wait, where are you going?” You asked in a concerned tone.

“Work, we just got a case”

You try your best to contain your annoyance. This wasn’t the first time Spencer’s job cut your time together short, it had often happened during dates or even before. It felt like a punch in the gut to get canceled on at the last minute when you’d spent HOURS getting ready to see him.

Spencer stood in the doorway, his tie still in hand, his expression torn between duty and desire. "I'm sorry, but I have to go," he said softly, his eyes pleading with you to understand.

Your frustration simmered beneath the surface as you crossed your arms, your voice tinged with irritation. "Of course, you do. Duty calls, right? Always comes first."

"I wish it didn't have to be this way," Spencer replied, his tone heavy with regret as he took a step closer to you.

"Well, it is," you retorted, your patience wearing thin. "You know, I thought last night might’ve meant something to you."

"It did, of course it meant something to me" Spencer insisted, his heart heavy with the weight of his conflicting emotions. "But I have responsibilities, you understand that, don't you?"

You let out a frustrated sigh, your resolve hardening. "I understand that, but you always put your job before everything else. You know what? Just go"

Spencer's shoulders slumped in defeat as he realized the depth of your disappointment. With a heavy heart, he turned to leave, knowing that this argument would linger long after he had gone.

-

The conference room buzzed with tension as Spencer’s mind drifted, his thoughts consumed by the argument he'd had with you earlier that morning. Despite the urgency of the case the team was working on, his attention faltered, his focus fractured by the weight of your unresolved conflict.

Across the table, his colleagues exchanged theories and observations about the latest string of murders, their voices blending into a background hum as Spencer struggled to silence the inner turmoil raging within him.

"Reid, you with us?" Hotch's voice cut through the haze, pulling Spencer back to the present moment.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" Spencer asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"We were discussing the unsub's pattern," JJ replied, concern flickering in her eyes as she studied her colleague and best friend.

As the team delved deeper into the details of the case, Spencer forced himself to concentrate, his analytical mind piecing together fragments of information in an effort to contribute to the investigation. But try as he might, his thoughts kept drifting back to the argument he'd had with you, the words you’d exchanged echoing in his mind like a relentless refrain.

Hours passed in a blur of interviews and forensic analysis, each passing moment only serving to deepen Spencer's sense of unease. Finally, as the sun dipped below the horizon and the team reconvened at the BAU headquarters, a breakthrough emerged from the chaos of their investigation.

"We've identified a potential suspect," Rossi announced, his voice brimming with quiet confidence. "He fits the profile, and we have reason to believe he's still in the area."

With renewed determination, the team jumped into action, their focus honed on apprehending the perpetrator before he could strike again. But even as they worked tirelessly to bring the case to a close, Spencer's thoughts remained fixated on the rift between the both of you, a weight that seemed to grow heavier with each passing moment.

As the night wore on, Spencer found himself unable to shake the feeling of unease that gnawed at his insides, his mind consumed by the need to reconcile with the woman he was was starting to love. With a heavy heart, he dialed your number, his fingers trembling slightly as he waited for you to pick up.

"Hey," your voice was soft, your tone tinged with apprehension.

"I'm sorry," Spencer blurted out, his words tumbling forth in a rush. "I shouldn't have just left that. I want you to know that I care about you, more than anything and I really want this to work out”

There was a moment of silence, broken only by the sound of your breathing mingling together across the line.

"I'm sorry too," you replied, your voice choked with emotion. "I let my frustration get the best of me. I care about you too, Spence."

In that moment, the weight that had hung between you lifted, replaced by a sense of understanding and forgiveness. And as you spoke, your voices weaving together in quiet reconciliation, Spencer felt a warmth spreading through his chest, dispelling the lingering shadows of doubt and fear.

With a newfound sense of clarity, Spencer hung up the phone, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he turned his attention back to the case at hand. And as the team closed in on their suspect, bringing an end to the reign of terror that had gripped the city, Spencer couldn't help but feel a surge of gratitude for the woman who had stood by his side through it all.

As the case drew to a close, Spencer found himself standing on your doorstep, his heart pounding in his chest as he reached out to knock. And as you opened the door, your eyes bright with unshed tears, Spencer knew that no matter what challenges lay ahead, you would face them together.

With a whispered apology and a gentle embrace, the both of you found solace in each other's arms, your bond stronger than ever before. And as you both leaned in to share a tender kiss, the echoes of your argument fading into the background, Spencer knew that no matter what the future held, you would always find your way back to each other.