#axl x Lexie

[helmes-deep]

“I just don’t wanna be your trophy boy, okay?” “Well, I’m sorry, but when you love someone, you want to be able to show—” “Wait, you love me?”

[tomkeirblyth]

[dpromophotospal-blog]

The Middle Season 9 Episode 4 (9x04) "Halloween VIII" Promotional Photos...

[namonaki-arts]

BEE MOVIE

[huntzbergered]

I loooove the way The Middle lays the groundwork for all its relationships. Axl and Lexie haven’t even developed real feelings for each other yet and I can already see how they’ll work together in a relationship (but if Devin came back, i’d throw Lexie overboard lbr). & I can’t wait to see Sue/safety cart guy, which I’ve wanted since last season. 

[entireoranges-creativity]

[irate-pirate-bi-27]

I was tagged by @nad-vaa (again) <3

Rules: choose any three fandoms (in random order) and answer the questions, then tag 10 people you want to know better

I choose: Star Wars, The Middle, and Riverdale. 

Three favorite characters (in order of preference): C3PO, Jughead Jones, and Axle Heck. 

Characters you didn’t expect to love so much?: Chirrut Imwe, Armitage Hux, FP Jones, Alice Cooper, and Mike Heck. 

The character you relate to the most: Kylo Ren, Brick Heck, Betty Cooper.

The character you’d slap: Brendol Hux (in fact, I’d do a lot more than just slap him), Sue Heck and Sean Donahue (not out of hate, just out of pure frustration), and Hiram Lodge (for obvious reasons).

Three favorite characters (in order of preference):

Star Wars: C3PO, Kylo Ren, and Chirrut Imwe.

The Middle: Axle Heck, Brick Heck, and a tie between Sue and Mike Heck.

Riverdale: Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, and Veronica Lodge from S1. 

A character you liked at first but don’t anymore: 

Star Wars: Honestly, I can't decide. I can’t think of any SW characters like that.

The Middle: Darrin McGrew.

Riverdale: Hermione Lodge. 

Three otps:

Star Wars: Reylo, Gingerpilot, and Chirrut x Baze

The Middle: Sue x Sean, Brick x Cindy, and Axle x Lexie 

Riverdale: Bughead, Choni, and a tie between Falice and Varchie. 

I’m tagging @danadardana, @the-bibliophile-jedi, @redhairedfeistynerd, @starboydameron, @captainx-camino, @the-armitage-hux, @ohmygod-zu-you-suck, and anyone else who sees this and wants to join in. 

[entireoranges]

Weekly Round-Up Of New Graphics & Fics Created

This week Aug 12th to Aug 19th

Andi Mack Bex Mack

Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency Dirk Gently, Lydia Spring, & Todd Brotzman Farah Black Todd Brotzman Estevez

Doctor Who Eleventh x River Song Harriet Jones Zoe Heriot

Freaks & Geeks Nick Andopolis

Girl Meets World Farkle Minkus x Maya Hart

Good Luck Charlie PJ Duncan & Teddy Duncan

Jesus Henry Christ

Kyle XY Amanda Bloom

One Day At A Time Elena Alvarez & Penelope Alvarez

Sherlock Molly Hooper

Sleepy Hollow Ichabod Crane x Abigail Mills

So Weird Rick Phillips x Molly Phillips

Star Trek Miles Obrien x Keiko Obrien Jonathan Archer & Porthos Q

The 100 Vera Kane

The Middle Axl Heck & Lexie

The Partridge Family Chris Partridge

The Rifleman Lucas McCain x Lou Mallory

While You Were Sleeping Jack Callaghan x Lucy Moderatz

[bestcgart]

VFX - VFX Breakdown Reel ABC's 'Scandal'

VFX Legion Wraps Three-Years of Visual Effects Work on ABC’s 'Scandal'

The Studio Created Hundreds of Photorealistic CG Shots, Seamlessly Matching The Shondaland Production’s Live-Action Footage and Transported The LA-Based Show To A Virtual D.C. Environment

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube....bed/AXL-iVYrGdQ" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> The recent airing of the series finale of ‘Scandal’ on ABC capped off VFX Legion’s three-year run as the sole visual effect company for award-winning creator/producer/writer/director Shonda Rhimes’ political thriller. The Burbank studio has been the driving force behind the hundreds of computer-generated effects that the show’s viewers didn’t see each week. Currently a streaming favorite on Netflix, Legion’s team takes great pride in the fact that the photorealistic digital world they created now goes unnoticed by a new crop of fans binge-watching the groundbreaking series. 'Scandal' is shot in LA, while its story unfolds in D.C. where deception and intrigue ensue as its central character, Olivia Pope, (Kerry Washington) the staff of her crisis management firm, and the White House’s inner circle ravenously vie for power. While the episodic drama didn’t call for futuristic CG worlds, the Los Angeles-based production relied heavily on VFX Legion to create composited sequences, set extensions, full computer-generated environments and exacting digital replications of iconic buildings in D.C. that would have been too expensive, impractical, or impossible to shoot. Once ‘Scandal’ brought VFX Legion onboard, founder, creative director James David Hattin’s first order of business was to customize a new digital pipeline that optimized the efficiency and quality control of the show’s visual effects. Hattin, the architect of the studio’s state-of-the-art pipeline, designed its infrastructure to support transparent communication with each artist and enable his management team to work one-to-one, supervising every phase of the production. Nuke-based compositing facilitated collaborative workflow and streamlined ‘Scandal’s’ visual effects process. Redshift was key to completing the CG renderings on schedule, while maintaining consistently high-quality. Spearheaded by Hattin, Legion handled every facet of the visual effects process for the last 50 episodes of the series, from pre-production, budgeting, establishing shot lists and developing concepts to on-set supervision and production. VFX supervisor Matthew Lynn, on-set coordinator, Mathew Noren and support staff were on-set during shoots, working closely with ‘Scandal’s’ directors, ADs, camera crews and post teams. They provided input and gathered data on green-screen placement, the positioning of tracking markers, lighting placement, camera angles and other specs, ensuring that Legion had the information and assets needed to produce visual effects that seamlessly blended with the live-action, as well as the lighting and look of the show. “As confidence in the our capabilities grew, more ambitious visual effects were incorporated into the show,” says Nate Smalley, Legion’s head of production. "The escalation continued during season six with an exploding cabin effect integrated into a live-action scene, and then moved on to more advanced full CG environments and set extensions. Our artists built a tight computer-generated replication of Marine One that closed the season finale as president ‘Fitz’ (Tony Goldwyn) ended his term and boarded the helicopter. For this year’s final season, we created a photorealistic digital aircraft that’s indistinguishable from a practical shot of the plane when cut back-to-back, before blowing up in a fiery explosion.” The release of ’Scandal’s’ VFX breakdown reel, ‘VFX Legion Goes to Washington…In LA,’ provides a retrospect of some of the CG sequences that the studio created for the show over the last three seasons. Currently, VFX Legion is readying to begin work on its fourth season of another Shonda Rhimes series, ‘How to Get Away with Murder,’ and is about to wrap this season’s finale of the CBS series, ‘Madam Secretary.’ The company is also finishing up visual effects for two feature films, award-winning Director X’s remake of the 70’s classic, ‘Superfly’ and the highly anticipated hundred-million-dollar epic film, ‘Asura.’ Credits: Project: VFX for ‘Scandal’ (Seasons 5,6,7) Production Company: Shondaland Productions / LA Production Company: ABC Studios / LA Executive Producer/Creator/Head Writer: Shonda Rhimes VFX Company: VFX Legion / LA Creative Director/Senior VFX Supervisor: James David Hattin VFX Supervisor: Matthew T. Lynn Production Manager: Andrew Turner VFX Head of Production: Nate Smalley CG Supervisor: Rommel S. Calderon VFX Coordinator: Matthew Noren VFX Coordinator: Lexi Sloan VFX Legion: CG Environments, Set Extensions, Compositing, Matte Painting, Lighting & Look Development, Dynamics, CG Modeling, Texturing, Tracking Visual Effects Executive Producers: Rajeev Dassani, Elan Dassani

[helmes-deep]

Now that Sue and Sean are a couple, I need my Axl and Lexie vs. Sue and Sean episode during the second half of the season >:DDD

[huntzbergered]

I still really, really want Devin back for Axl, but I could warm up to this Lexie/Axl thing.

[helmes-deep]

Prompt: Sue finds out that Sean has liked her for years.

“Ughhh, why did I ever let you drag me and Lexie to this?” moaned Axl. His limp body folded further into his seat as his head slumped over the restaurant table, forming a sad-looking mop of dark curls.

“Oh please, Axl,” scoffed Sue from the other side of the booth. She and Lexie, who was sitting next to Axl, were administering the four menus. “You know we barely get enough time to see each other anymore since we’re all so busy. This was the perfect opportunity for us to not only spend quality time together as friends and family, but to also enjoy a romantic evening with our significant others.”

“UGHHHHHH, distant family members should never be forced to go on double dates with one another—it’s unnatural!!” groaned Axl. His fiery protest faded as his bent figure slumped slowly back into the booth. “Especially on Valentine’s Day…”

Sue couldn’t help giving her brother an irritated eye-roll, but she also couldn’t seem to wipe the worry from her concerned eyebrows. She didn’t like to admit it, but Axl had been right: she hadn’t expected for it to be this busy on Valentine’s Day. Their troupe had waited in line for a little over an hour in hopes of enjoying a nice, festive dinner together, and had only just been assigned their table a few minutes ago. Apparently, they hadn’t been the only ones who’d come up with the idea of having a pleasant evening dinner with their loved ones as a way to take a break from their busy schedules. The whole restaurant, which was a fairly popular, local eatery, was packed with couples who had probably gotten the exact same idea hours ago.

Sue’s anxious eyes turned to scan the expanse surrounding their group’s booth, taking in the entirety of the restaurant’s over-crowded seating area as another low grumble escaped Axl’s lips. For a moment, Sue saw nothing but a boisterous mix of laughing, chattering,  and smiling faces before her eyes caught sight of someone appearing out of all the noise, making his way through the maze of cramped seating and tables.

“Hey, guys, what’d I miss?” Sean asked, appearing at their table. “Sorry it took so long for me to park the car; the line outside was really long so I had to find another parking space, and the heavy snow out there made it hard to see so I had to go down two more blocks.”

“I’m dying!” Axl wailed, his face momentarily bobbing up from the edge of the table before sinking back down again. “I need food…”

“Not much,” said Sue, substantiating Axl’s alarming response with a much more sane answer. She scooted over to let Sean slide in and take a seat beside her, handing him the menu. “We just got our seats here; they haven’t come over to take our orders yet.”

Sean nodded as he took the menu from her and started browsing through it. For a moment, things seemed to pick up again as a few waiters headed toward their table, but then quickly turned to help out other customers. The four sat uncomfortably at their booth for about another fifteen minutes trying to get any waiter’s attention before Axl threw up his hands and groaned again.

“Argghhh, what are they doing in there—roasting a polar bear?!” Axl asked out loud in clear, vocal frustration.

“Oh, I know, I know!” Sue suddenly piped up in excitement. She had to do something before her over-the-top brother completely imploded. “How about we all play a little game while we wait for someone to come by and take our food orders?”

“Oooh, that sounds fun!” Lexie responded with delight as Sean nodded. Lexie’s face then quickly became perplexed. “But what kind of game should we play?”

“Hmmmm… well, it needs to be entertaining enough so that we’d all be interested, but still boring enough so that we won’t get too interested—just enough to help us comfortably pass the time until someone comes over to take our orders,” Sue wondered aloud. “Oh! I know! How about we each get to think and ask the rest of the group a question that everyone at the table has to answer individually? Aaannd the question has to have something to do with our relationships,” Sue suggested with a small smile. “In order to keep in-line with the Valentine’s Day theme.”

“Oh oh oh! Me first! Me first!” Axl shouted, his whole body suddenly bolting up as he enthusiastically waved his hand. Because as lame as he thought this game was, Axl was dying to do anything that would take the attention away from his starving stomach. “I get first dibs on answering whatever is the first question!”

“All right, I’ll ask first,” Sue said. She paused to think for a second. “Okay, here’s my question: when was the first time you fell in love with your significant other?”

“Well, the first time I fell for Lexie was…” started Axl, trying his best to entertain the question. Talking about this kind of touchy-feel-y stuff had never been Axl’s strong point, but he could talk a dog into buying one of his business products if he really wanted to, so he tried his best to consider his answer to Sue’s proposed question. Axl scooted closer to Lexie and put his arm around his girlfriend, pulling her close. “Uhhhh… I think it was a little bit right after I’d divorced April? Sue had told me that Lexie really liked me all of a sudden, and for a second, I was a little weirded out…” Axl shifted in his seat. “So then I decided I’d go over to that St. Patrick’s party to find Lexie and talk to her. So I walked all the way over where they were having the party, searched high and low in the crowd for Lexie, and when I finally found her and spotted her just a few feet away from me, I thought—”

Axl turned to Lexie with an earnest, fond look in his eye that most probably hadn’t thought he was generally capable of, while Sue and Sean looked on with expectant faces.

“She’s… really… cute, and… I’m a cool guy, right? I’m glad she likes me; I really need to break up with April so we can go out sometime,” Axl finished lamely. Axl turned to give his date the warmest smile and most lovingly deep gaze, a look that perhaps much better communicated to his audience his clear and true affections for his girlfriend than his story had been able to express.

The intense anticipation on Sue’s and Sean’s faces quickly faded as Axl had reached the end of his tale, but Lexie only smiled and giggled like an excited, lovestruck girl anyway.

“Mine was when you rescued me from falling in your Winnebago that time me and Sue had to stay over at your guys’ place one night,” Lexie responded, her smile growing wider. Axl’s sincere smile grew with hers, and he pulled Lexie closer into him as they both went in for a quick kiss.

“All right, I’ll go next,” Sean offered happily. Everyone’s attention turned to him as they watched Sean sit still for a minute, pondering his answer to the question. Finally, after a long moment, Sean quickly answered. “Fifth grade—elementary school dance.”

“Wait, realllllllyyyyyy??” Sue gasped in shock, leaning a bit out of her seat to look over at her boyfriend with a startled look of surprise.

“Yeah, what?!” Axl echoed, immediately looking up from the empty straw wrapper he was currently playing with.

“Oh, yeah, totally,” Sean answered. He seemed quite confident and sure in his response. “I think I was in fifth grade, and you were in third. We were having that annual Christmas show at our elementary school. You were in that pretty pink dress, and I thought you looked really cute and you were really funny your class came up to present, and you were trying really hard to keep up with everyone else during the dance.” Sean gave a little laugh, recalling the memory. “And then later, during the party, when I was looking for Axl, I spotted you crying in the corner of the classroom because one of the kids had taken your candy cane.” Sean gave a deep breath and shook his head. “And… I don’t know what happened… But at that moment, all I could think about was ‘Axl’s sister is a really nice and sweet person, and I don’t ever want to see her cry like that again.’ So then I went to look for the kid who had stolen your Christmas candy. Found him and knocked him out, but it turns out he’d already eaten your candy cane so I ended up giving you mine instead.” Sean shrugged. “I think I had a bit of a crush on you for about a week after that, but I didn’t really think much about it because we used to play with each other all the time so I thought whatever I was starting to feel toward you was normal for childhood friends… I guess, even though I knew I was feeling a bit differently about you back then, I didn’t really know what to call it since you and I were so young and we were all just kids… but now, looking back, I think… I think that’s when I just started to realize… that… I liked you a lot.”

A brief pause filled the table as everyone became quiet, clearly touched by Sean’s sincere, thoughtful, and (for some) very surprising answer. Sue gave Sean a wide smile and reached for his hand, beaming as she told him how sweet his story was.

“And I thought Sue liking you since middle school was worse,” Axl replied with a half-smirk.

“Axl!” Sue exclaimed, clearly still very embarrassed and horrified at her brother revealing her adolescent feelings for her childhood crush.

“Whaaaat?? You were always making those ‘googly eyes’ at Sean whenever he was over—like that time he came over to play video games with me for our class project,” Axl retorted, scrunching up his nose in brotherly disgust at the remembrance of his sister’s painfully obvious feelings of love. “Not to mention that ridiculous poem you wrote for him in junior high.”

Sue could only splutter in response to her brother’s brazen reply as Sean looked up from the table in complete surprise.

“That poem was about me?!” Sean exclaimed. The recognition, as well as smile, on his face grew wider.

“Wait, you read it?!?” Sue cried out with utter shock, terror, and panic in her eyes. She immediately turned to Axl. “Axl, did you give Sean my poem?”

“What? No! Please, I sacrificed my dignity for your stupid, dorky-girl fantasies!! I did not claim to dot my i’s with butts for this!” Axl shouted back, trying hard to defend himself in a very incoherent manner. Sue and Lexie exchanged odd looks.

“Wow, I had no idea you felt the same way about me when we were just kids,” Sean thought out-loud, clearly fascinated and mystified at the revelation. He turned to his girlfriend. “You should have told me; I would have asked you out to a dance much sooner.”

“I can’t either,” Sue laughed in response, the same level of surprise and mystified fascination layering her voice. Her eyebrows then crinkled together slightly. “Still… I can’t believe we started liking each other when we were both so young…” Sue looked up to Sean, concern and slight worry echoing at the back her voice. “You… don’t think it’s weird??”

“Nahh, we played a lot together as kids,” Sean replied matter-of-factly. “I think it’s kinda cute, and probably normal for people who spent so much time together, anyway.” He looked to Sue and smiled, squeezing her hand with firm re-assurance. “Besides, if anything, I think it kind of means that, maybe… we were always meant to be with each other.”

Sue’s face brightened up and she smiled, returning Sean’s honest words and sweet gesture with a loving squeeze of her own and a bright look. Sean gave her an encouraging smile and leaned over to give her a quick kiss on the lips. Lexie squealed at the couple’s antics, delightedly and affectionately choking her boyfriend’s arm.

“Word, you two make me sick,” Axl said, rolling his eyes in utter disgust. His stomach growled. He angrily threw away the straw wrapper, missing his intended mark before quietly muttering under his breath. “I should have never, never allowed you to convince me to come to this.”

DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY NIGHT?!?!?!? DID YOU SEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?!?!?!? OH MY GOODNESS I’M SO HAPPY IT FINALLY HAPPENED AND THEY’RE BOTH TOGETHER!!!!! IT WAS REALLY THE MOST PERFECT PAIRING-UP I COULD HAVE EVER POSSIBLELY IMAGINED!!!!! *SOBS TEARS OF JOY*

I’M SO SORRY IT’S BEEN SO LONGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!! But I really struggled with this one: I’ve been working on it for the past two weeks and in the process, I actually ended up writing a totally different story for this prompt because some parts to this one just weren’t working out (I finally did get it to move in the direction I wanted to, though :‘3). I also started working last week, so had to take a break from writing in general for a little bit. Good news is that I have the first drafts of the next two stories/prompts I want to post done, so hopefully those will come out a lot faster. I also might post the extra story I ended up writing for this prompt because I did like how that one turned out (it just didn’t seem to quite fit the actual prompt). *fingers crossed the next two stories come much faster than this one*

BUT YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU LIKED THIS STORY OR WHAT YOU THOUGHT ABOUT LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE OR OF YOUR DONASUE FEELINGS IN GENERAL I STILL CAN’T STOP SPAZZING OVER THE WHOLE THING LEOL!!!! 😭❄️💕

Send me a prompt and I’ll write a short Sue x Sean fanfic about it leol (closed)

Also available on FanFiction.net

[huntzbergered]

@amosthappyspace i knowwwww, i would give up half my ships to get devin back, like her small guest appearance gave me life omg. i think the actress had other comittments which is why they (so abruptly) wrote her off and it sucks because there was nothing really wrong in that relationship AND no proper break-up conversation. it fucking sucked. 

[helmes-deep]

Just thinking about whether Sean decided to attend St. Matthew’s because of its proximity to Sue. Because I wanted to figure out exactly when Sean decided he loved Sue, based on scenes provided by the show. I just wanted to make sense of the development to Sean x Sue, considering how these two had almost zero development until the last season. Not sure if any of this confirms or denies the idea that Sean moved to St. Matthew’s because he realized his feelings for Sue, but this is what I came up with:

A little note before we proceed: Personally, I don’t think Sean’s the type of guy to move to a whole school just to be closer to someone he likes (although he did drop his entire schedule and drive 5+ hours to ask Sue to her senior prom, so maybe he’s crazier – or more stupidly in love – than I would like to think). Sean seems like a reasonably smart guy (he did get into Notre Dame and is a med student, afterall), so I can’t really see him just dropping everything for the sake of pursuing a relationship that could or could not happen (not to mention one where he’s probably pretty sure his crush is already currently taken). That being said, I could see him making the decision to attend St. Matthew’s because it’s a good med school and is closer to Sue’s. I could see him being influenced to go to St. Matthew’s because of both of these reasons working out together. And I’m sure being closer to his family was also a big motivator as well; Sean seems like the type of guy who is really close to his family and would frequently come home for visits during the weekends – and always during the holidays/breaks.

Other side note: In the episode “Exes and Ohhhs,” where Axl and Sue become surprised by how they feel about Sean and Lexie getting together, I don’t think the writers ever intended to potentially put Sean and Lexie together. Like, I get that canonically, the two were supposed to express some type of interest in each other and pose the potential threat of getting together, but I really find that hard to believe. I think that episode’s sole purpose was to write in a reason for Sean to move back closer to Orson, and for Sue to realize that her childhood crush on Sean was never over after he was almost taken away from her. It’s the only way I can explain why Sean seemed reaaaally into Lexie at the moment lol, only to practically completely disregard/ignore that tension later, since it’s never really addressed ever again (granted, it’s been two months – The Middle time – between that episode and Season 9′s premiere, so I’m glad Sean doesn’t seem the least bit interested in Lexie now leooool).

So anyway, looking back at Sean’s “misunderstanding” scene with Axl during the last season – in which Sean is so unmercifully blocked by Axl (AHHHHKKKKK THEY WERE SO CLOSE!! AXL HOW COULD YOU DO THAT ;;_;; you can see it here) – I noticed a few things about what Sean says to Axl about attending med-school, mainly two things:

When Sean shows up to confess to Sue (whom Axl mistakenly assumes that he means Lexie), Axl brings up a good counter-argument, saying that when Sean had visited East Indiana State a while ago, he had claimed he was too busy to maintain a relationship. I found it interesting that Sean doesn’t really deny Axl’s claim. Rather, he responds with the following: “Uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh maybe – is she here??”, as if he’s already got something worked out. His response makes me think that at that point in time, either Sean had already decided he was going to St. Matthew’s for med-school because he had feelings for Sue, or because now they were close enough to each other to start dating.

During Sean and Axl’s mix-up scene, I was initially thrown-off by Sean’s revealing he had feelings for Sue, since this was the first time it was ever really addressed (and Sue was soooooo in need of a steady love interest). However, upon re-watching the scene, I finally noticed everything else that Sean says – or attempts to say – after the fact. Just before Axl is about to slam the door on him, Sean says the following:  “And – The thing is, with med school, I am going to be a little – [Axl slams door]” I have a feeling he was about to say, “I am going to be a little closer to East Indiana State, since I'm now off the waitlist at St. Matthew’s,” or something like that. At the time, I was still reeling from the whole Sue x Sean thing, but after re-watching the scene, I think at this point, Sean knew (and was probably about to announce) that he was going to move closer to East Indiana State/home for med school, making the possibility of him starting a relationship with Sue much less far-fetched and far more convenient and possible. I think this thought is kind of confirmed later during the premiere episode of Season 9 when Sean comes over to the Hecks’ and he says something like, “I guess it’s okay to tell you all this now, but I’ll be going to go to med- school in your guys’ neck of the woods!” Which, again, either confirms or denies the idea that Sean decided to attend St. Matthews because of Sue, or because of believing that it’s a good med school and because of Sue.

Third point, which kind of considers something else. In that clip, Sean says he “should have said something the last time [he] was here,” referring back to the time he had come to ask her to the ball (the third time he asked her to a dance) and how he should have confessed his feelings for her then. By that line, I think it’s safe to say that Sean realized his true feelings for Sue when he came to ask her to the ball (the “springalicious” memory), or a little bit before then. So then, I guess the question now is: Did Sean make his decision to attend St. Matthew’s before or after that realization?? I don’t think there’s any mention of Sean voicing his thoughts about which med-school he should go to/waiting to get off waitlists during that season, or at least I don’t remember him mentioning anything else about his future education plans.

So, did Sean decide to go to St. Matthew’s because of his feelings for Sue???? IDK – you make up your own mind LOL. I think it’s safe to say that being taken off the waitlist at St. Matthew’s probably made Sean really happy that he could be closer to Sue at East Indiana State and about the possibility of starting a relationship with her; but otherwise, I don’t think the scenes in the show are able to tell us if Sean’s growing feelings for Sue really had any say in his decision to attend St. Matthew’s (at least at this point in time). And I just wrote this because I wanted to lol. Feel free to add in though; I’d love to hear your thoughts!! :DDD

[helmes-deep]

Am I the only one who’s noticed that “Axl” and “Lexi” are kind of like palindromes of each other??? And then there’s obviously the alliteration between “Sean” and “Sue”...... Were we supposed to catch on to this from the beginning???? 🤔🤔

[helmes-deep]

Unpopular Opinion: Axl x April

This is kind of random, but I was cleaning out my drafts and came across this saved text post. Originally, I meant to post this in response to some other post about the relationship between Axl and April from The Middle, but alas, never got around to it (like all things I start on Tumblr :p). Since the last season of this show is about to release soon (see what I mean?? The first episode of Season 9 already came out on Tuesday, October 3!!), I thought I might as well post this as a random opinion before we get to see the end to all of the love-related drama surrounding the Heck children :33

This post is mostly about Axl/April and Sue/Sean, with a tidbit of my updated thoughts due to Tuesday’s kick-off episode.

Contrary to everyone else, I didn’t mind Axl and April as a married couple. Yes, April was a complete and utter ditz, and yes, those types of characters usually drive me up the wall. But, while I didn’t LOVE April as Axl’s newly-wedded wife, I did like the possible development she could have brought to Axl – and likewise, the show. Yes, April was dumber than a rock most of the time (which was what also made her pretty funny!! lbh), but there were also definitely some moments of true, genuine awareness displayed by her. Distinct instances (at least two?? come to mind) where she and Frankie shared moments of real, mutual understanding between each other. One of them is in Episode 3 of the previous season – I believe it’s during the Halloween episode – when I think Frankie is having an emotionally bad day because none of the Hecks are giving her any attention/expressing their love and appreciation for her when in comes April – again, having been portrayed as a totally ditzy character up until this point – and tells her after all the festivities that she told Axl to be nice to Frankie because “we only have one mom” and “moms are pretty great.” The comment basically brightens up Frankie’s whole day and considering how heavily this show is based on showing how Frankie struggles as a middle-class mom trying to raise three kids, I thought that scene was pretty touching and significant. It just felt like at that moment, we as the viewers were supposed to see that even though Axl is a total knucklehead (and that he might be motivated a little bit too much by only looks), that he sees in April what we all have failed to see in her up until this moment – that April is actually a really sweet, caring, and mindful girl, especially where it matters most. April’s few moments of genuine care and mindfulness, especially to Frankie, might seem insignificant to some, but I don’t know if any other of Axl’s previous love interests have really shown that level of empathy and understanding between themselves and his mom.

I also thought that April had a very good potential to help Axl grow as a person – both in terms of finding his future job and emotionally. April’s presence as Axl’s now very real and present “wife” would have propelled him to develop a more realistic and grown-up view of life, thus encouraging him to go find a job to support him and her, as well as help him realize how hard it is to take care of a family. (I’m not saying that marrying someone is ever a good idea to find one’s life purpose, dream job, or whatever – it’s definitely not – but come on, guys, this is a TV show it doesn’t have to be 100% realistic.) April’s existence as Axl’s life partner starts to help him realize the responsibility of growing up and functioning as an adult – you can see a hint of him learning that right here in this video at 1:34. It’s why I was sooooo disappointed when they quickly (and in a rather contrived matter) annulled Axl and April’s marriage. It was like the show was finally going to give Axl some much-needed character development (after having him basically wander around for the past few seasons) by allowing him to taste a bit of what it’s like to grow up into a responsible husband, son, and adult. That possible character development was just broken off wayyyyyy too soon for him, imo. 

I really wanted April to stay because I’m also just kind of tired of Axl jumping from girl to girl lol. I mean tbh, he’s not exactly “jumping” from girl to girl like the ultimate playboy. And I’ve got nothing against any of his past girlfriends, really (I’m actually okay with and kind of like all of them, tbh). It’s just that his lack of a steady girlfriend robs him of some much-needed character development (same with Sue, btw) that has been making his arc very repetitive and boring lately (and by default, taking away humor from the show). I think the same situation has been happening to him and Sue (and to some degree, Brick) for about the past 2 or so seasons: none of the writers knew how to deal with the kids being grown up. Brick is no longer the cute little book boy we’ve known him to be, Sue can no longer get by with being the most unlucky dork in the world, and Axl by this time needs to get his act together. Those dynamics just no longer work when both Sue and Axl are in college and Brick has already had his first year of high school. Perhaps they were going for the realistic (and I will admit, I can definitely relate to Axl’s post-college life struggles), but for a TV show, especially a comedic one, it has to move in some direction. Because nobody wants to watch (too much of a) mundane life on TV. Because while it’s realistic – and somewhat relatable – it’s just… boring. So anyway, yeah, I would have liked April to stick around a little longer to better develop Axl’s character lol. Caveat: I have a feeling that the writers of The Middle did mean to have April stay a while longer (same goes with Sue’s story arc with the 2 or 3??? guys she was trying to get with this past season), but I guess upon hearing/deciding they were going to end the show after the ninth season – and considering it was wayyyyyy too soon for anyone to accept April at that point and I’m pretty sure we can all kind of agree that the cab-guy was probably not the very best pick for Sue lololol – that they just decided the best way to tie things together and give the characters and audience the ending they deserved was to quickly jump ship now and axe April and the cab-guy (was it Trevor??? Or Trey???) in preparation for the last and upcoming season. (Sidenote: Tbh I think The Middle had/has jumped the shark, but I do think it could have/can last for a few more seasons if the writers ACTUALLY KNEW WHAT TO DO WITH THE GROWN-UP KIDS NOW OR BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE!!!!)

SIDE PARAGRAPH: Lexi’s all right, but a tad boring imo. She’s very vanilla, which is probably good for Axl, but ehhhhhh for me….. Also I’m still mad about how Axl might have been into Lexi when he was still dating April lol.

Probably the last reason why I thought April would be a good addition to the show was because of her ditziness lol. Sure, it was kind of annoying half the time, but April’s completely air-headed comments definitely brought back some much-needed humor to the show. Of which The Middle has been severely lacking lately, because of, you know, the lack of character development for the children (and maybe to some degree Mike and Frankie, but we won’t get into that rn :p). Here we have two kids (Axl and April) whose families kind of really dislike each other, which could have added some pretty epic and funny Romeo and Juliet-esque moments/tensions and comedic relief/humor back into the show. If there’s one thing that’s been missing from The Middle lately, it’s the lack of a few tertiary yet delightfully peculiar characters that provide the extra comic relief to the show through their contact with the Hecks. The most recent instance of such characters are probably Mike’s brother Rusty and Sue’s friend Brad (who is kind of over-used at this point imo). I would have loved to see Frankie and April’s mom at “civil” odds with each other due to their children having been wedded, or maybe Mike and April’s dad actually forming some kind of bond. But alas, both Axl’s – and Sue’s – love interests have been added and dispensed of far too quickly for us to get any type of secondary characters that were as funny as Darrin or the Glossners.

On a sidenote, I’m just as frustrated with how Sue and Sean’s relationship was executed this past season. Again, I think The Middle’s current lack of humor goes back to them not letting Sue get serious with a steady boyfriend to develop her character (by this point, I would have liked Axl to be married or at least be in a steady relationship with the girl who’s supposed to be his future wife/have a fiancé, while Sue should at least just be beginning to find her steady boyfriend). I’m just tired of seeing e v e r y relationship Sue’s ever been in get curbed by some unforeseeable plot device. That being said, again, I do think they rushed Sue’s and Sean’s feelings for each other due to the reasons I’ve already stated above in regard to Axl (aka they had to end the show). I don’t really love, love Sean (there might have been a time earlier in the Middle’s timeline when I might have thought Sue and Sean would have probably made a cute couple, but then it seemed those random “Sue x Sean” hints were completely dropped, so then my feelings kind of passed but maybe they’re back again??). Again, I haven’t necessarily disliked any of Sue’s past boyfriends, except for maybe that hyper-hippie college dude. I probably also love her earlier love interests more because they were more interesting (aka had definite quirks/personalities) and each gave her some character development. But I do think Sean’s a sweet guy and somewhat of a perfect match for Sue. Like Lexi, the guy probably would have warmed up my heart if the show had given him more time to break down his feelings for Sue so that I could get a better idea as to why Sue all of a sudden subconsciously loves Sean and Sean subconsciously thinks a lot about her lol. So yeah, even though I wasn’t a huge Sean fan (or anti, for that matter), I was SO UPSET (albeit a bit conflicted) when Axl’s selfish butt blocked him and made him throw away the snow globe :’c (Update: I’ve since re-watched Sean and Sue’s interactions for the past couple of seasons and oh my word DID YOU SEE HOW DISAPPOINTED AND/OR SAD HE WAS THE SECOND AND THIRD TIMES SUE SAID SHE ALREADY HAD A DATE TO THE PROM/DANCE AND THEN LIKE DURING THE SHOW’S NINTH SEASON PREMIERE I WAS ALL IN WHEN HE SHOWED UP AT HER DOOR HAHA HE LOOKED SO NICE AND THEY WERE SO CUTE AND AWKWARD WITH EACH OTHER AND IF THEY DON’T END UP AS OTP FOR THE END OF THIS SHOW IMMA HAVE TO CUT SOMEONE LOL :’PP) But yeah, long story short: his development was rushed, too leol.

Feel free to reblog this and respond before next week’s episode!! (or perhaps after :pp) I just really needed to write and say all of this lol. While I’m not too excited about Axl and Lexi just yet (hold on a sec, I think I just realized a kind of alliteration between Axl and Lexi and Sean and Sue??? O..O), my only hope is that Sean and Sue get together and become an item early on so that I can see them be a cute couple for the rest of the season and show’s run :’33 ❤❤