#bad episode? yes. 100 screenshots? still yes

[gregorygerwitz]

Tommy was nowhere to be found when Buck was in the gym though. That was 100% about Eddie. As was the Christopher thing because he didn't want to be replaced in Eddie and Christophers lives by anyone, for any length of time. The only time I really felt him trying to get Tommy's attention was their first scene together. But that was purposeful by the writers. They wanted to have it both ways and needed Buck to want both of their attention but have no idea why.

I've sat here for almost a full day wondering how to respond to this, and honestly, I very nearly deleted it without responding because... I barely go here. I just shifted over to 911 as my main fandom. I was a One Chicago blog a little over a week ago and yeah, one well timed rewatch might put me back on that train.

I just came over here because I watched the show, enjoyed it, and wanted to have fun with other fans. My posts are my opinion and my observations, and are obviously not meant to speak for all of canon or even any faction of the fandom besides myself (and maybe Kit, but our opinions vary sometimes too, and we live together). I just pointed out what I noticed, and the trends that I picked up on, and how I thought they were intending to establish Buck wanting Tommy's attention - which, in my opinion, they did really well.

So, I'm just gonna put a screenshot of the post this is referring to right here:

Here's the thing. If you watch every single episode of the show looking for Buddie moments whenever Buck or Eddie is on screen (and I saw a lot of that after last night's episode to the point that I'm getting exhausted and annoyed), then that's all you're going to see, even if that's not what they're trying to show us.

It's been especially bad since 7x04 and the BuckTommy kiss. Everyone is looking at his canon queerness through a Buddie lens and ignoring everything else around it. They're making his coming out to Maddie about Buddie, and they're making his attraction to Tommy about Buddie, they're making episodes we haven't even seen about Buddie.

In reality, none of that is about Buddie or confirming future Buddie or anything of the sort. He and Maddie mentioned Eddie in that scene because the conversation started when he said he felt like he was lying to Eddie and he didn't like it. Yes, Eddie and Tommy are similar, and I understand joking about Buck having A Type, but that doesn't make his attraction to Tommy any less genuine. And we don't know anything about 7x06 yet, but everyone is talking about Buddie getting drunk and sleeping together, or Tommy seeing them interact - as he's already seen because the three of them have had scenes together and he's canonically spent time with Chris - and immediately stepping back from the relationship because there might be something there.

Buck is going to his sister's wedding with Tommy. Buck told Maddie and Eddie about Tommy. Buck wants to dance at the wedding with Tommy. He wants to try for something with Tommy. Eddie encouraged him to go call Tommy and work things out. Buck is going to be out to everyone at the Madney wedding because he wants to be there with Tommy as his date.

I don't know. It's just frustrating to see this really good queer relationship tossed to the side because it's not the Popular Ship. Just because you don't ship it or you aren't looking at it directly, it doesn't mean it's not still there.

[trutrustories]

STUDY IN LOKI ROMANCE

Part 4: Heart of the TVA

Since we're only a few days away from the last episode, I decided to COUNT DOWN everything we´ve got so far ( that can be interpreted very easily as romantic ) and discuss what the actual fuck is going on with second season. Because even though I shipped lokius practically from S1E2, I absolutely did NOT expect this kind of development. (Not that I´m complaining)

Warning: This is gonna be LONG post, lots of screenshots, lots of SPOILERS, lot of "oh-my-god-they-so-cute" language, and little bit of meta.

I originally thought that this post would be everything at once, but since I have just too many screenshots this time around, I´ll have to split it. so every post will be one episode. Color coding means:

IIIIIIIIII = anything, that coud potentialy be just acting choice.

IIIIIIIIII = everything else (tzn.: whatever was written, and/or carefully prepared by filmmakers. )

side note: I already wrote, about how amazing it is, that Mobius is unable to fight but fights anyway and how beautifuly, and ridiculously brave he is HERE. But this is about Loki/Mobius interactions, so I´ll try my best not to talk about THAT. (Even when I´m really happy, that s2 continues with this formula and Mobius is still his completely defenseless while aggressively brave self. I love him, btw.)

EPISODE 1 HERE

EPISODE 2 HERE

EPISODE 3 HERE

check-list, episode 4 (my beloved): 33) changing clothes together not to be that person, but like... they always went through the door from TVA on timeline in their "camouflage disguises". So Loki couldn't use his magic to change their clothes. I mean... they even make turning off system that prevents magic plot point in this episode So unless they have some special device in TVA (which was never established) It is implied, that these two just spend some time changing clothes together, before going out. And that brings me to this specific moment: At the end of the previous episode we see them going through the time door (fairly soon after Victor Timely, in 1893 clothing) And this episodes starts with Victor ariving at TVA and wondering around the empty hallways. Alone. So let me get this straight: After we see them both walk through the time door, they end in that war room (were they met in ep1), just the two of them. Victor is.... somewhere. who knows where, who even cares? And they though: it is actualy priority number one to change our clothes. Yes, right now. Never mind, we have He Who Remains variant wondering around the TVA and everything is going to explode soon. We have to take our clothes off. RIGHT THE FUCK NOW. I´m sorry, film makers, but what the acual f-

34) Bickering like married couple (part 4) (but this time with EVERYONE else watching them with question marks above their heads. And these two idiots husbands probably didn´t even noticed xDD )

Also.... "It´s got your shape" 😳 really? really Mobius? And how would you- oh sorry, my bad, never mind. I almost forget you were changing clothes togheter MULTIPLE TIMES, so of course you would know that. ... right? 35) The "misunderstanding trope"

This whole scene is just... jeeez! Sylvie screeming at Mobius for wanting cake (while Loki already knows, that Mobius wants it, because he is in a stress.) He tries to stop Sylvie, but she continues. Loki circles around her and ends up right between them (cough...smybolism...cough) And Sylvie starts attacking Mobius because he doesn´t want to know his life on a timeline. While Loki is RIGHT THERE, knowing perfectly well Mobiuses reason´s and how bad she is hurting him, because episode 2 happened. Loki knows. And then she leaves, and Loki follows her. But Mobius doesn´t know, what we know: and that he went to her to DEFEND HIM. Jeeeeeeez writers.... thanks, for this perfect example of romantic complication. Dramatic irony 100%. I´m living for this relationship drama while everything around them collapses and explodes. 10/10 television!

Also... poor man needed pick-me-up cocoa drink immediately after 😭

36) Pie scene number two I have to say, I LOVED this scene. EVERY FUCKING WORD. philosophical conflicts? yes please. moral dilemas? give me more! but let´s focus on Loki defending Mobius. Him bringing up Thor into the coversation, and comparing his change on Earth (that he didn´t understand before) to his own change that came from spending time at TVA. spending time with Mobius. And he is standing infront of pies this whole time! basicly him low key comparing Thor´s love for Jane to his love for Mobius

And let´s not forget how obvious the difference between two pie scenes is! Because the first one is full of relaxed gestures, kindness and understanding. Just Loki and Mobius being intimite and open with each other 🥹 In glaring contrast with that, THIS scene, with Sylvie is full of conflict, tention and disagreements. The are standind, far from each other, and whole room has completely different (horror like) vibe.

37) THIS SHOT. just the two of them, right before the end.

God I love this episode so much! 💛💛💛

[skreebs]

Thinking about the ableism toward Jouno in the BSD fandom and it genuinely pisses me off so badly I want to hit people. I’ll be perusing the tag and looking at stuff and then I’ll see some random pop ups for AO3 and get shit like this

Now I don’t 100% know the context of this screenshot, for all I know this fic could be about him before he lost his sight, but either way it got me thinking and thinking got me angry and being angry means i need to complain. Jouno is already pretty shit blind rep, I’ll be honest. He’s the basic stereotype of “blind character has super senses because they’re blind” but can we give blind people literally ANYTHING else??? jesus christ. I’m pissed how BSD writes his blindness so as per usual I had to attempt to fix all of that myself, but attempting to fix it and removing it entirely are NOT the same and one is VERY MUCH SO WORSE. Again, not talking about this fic specifically but other ones I’ve seen that do this, or those “Jouno if he could see” edits. Spoiler alert, blind people can open their eyes.

I dont know why BSD and every other piece of media is so adamant on not giving visually impaired and blind characters white canes and just giving them "super senses" to get around it. It’s incredibly stupid and abelist to portray stuff like this. Disabilities are not super powers and thank GOD they didnt make that his ability but they still gave him that aspect and I guess it can be excused with SOME lore stuff like maybe he got really good senses from his surgeries but it just sucks that it happened that way at all? And then they don't even touch on how horrible having incredibly hightened senses to the point you can HEAR blood would be?? can you imagine hearing everyone internal organs around you 24/7 EVERYDAY? No one talks about that at all. That would be so fucking overwhelming its genuinely insane. Jouno is such a dear character to me, but genuinely when I remember him in canon without any of my headcanon explinations it’s just really sad that all I can say about him as representation is "well.. it could be worse".

I know there’s going to be at least one person saying “theres good blind rep in other shows though!!” Yes! I know! I’m super glad about that! But ignoring the bad ones doesn’t help much. You need to point out the issues to get good results. Recently, and by recently I mean about 17 hours ago, I watched/listened to the first episode of Daredevil, once with audio descriptions, and then after I watched without AD and had captions. I’m super glad that things are more commonly getting AD—it’d be a bit pathetic if the show with a blind main character was not accessible to blind people—but even with Daredevil, Matt still falls a bit into this stereotype.

Don’t get me wrong, seeing a character with a white cane has me absolutely elated, but from the single episode I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, he apparently also has some sort of super senses, and I know in the first episode he can hear heartbeats. I think super senses as a power is fine, but it’s just the fact they always give it to the blind characters. I, myself, am not blind, nor am I really visually impaired, I just wear glasses. However, as someone with a special interest in disabilities and also as someone that is disabled in other ways, seeing disabled rep fall into stereotypes over and over just really bums me out sometimes.

I think Daredevil is great so far from this one episode, I’ll probably be looking at more of it, but that is definitely just one gripe I have with it. I think Charlie Cox putting a bunch of effort into the role with the method acting and talking to people in the blind community and just all of that is amazing, I love to see that in anything, it’s just urrghh that it’s so hard to find a blind character that doesn’t have some kind of insane superpower senses with things. It reminds me of when characters with autism are so frequently portrayed as geniuses or their autism is only acceptable if it helps the neurotypical cast with “gadgets” or something. I dunno. Hard to explain, it’s 11 at night and I’m tired. Just don’t be ableist in any fandom or in real life. I shouldn’t have to even point out why this shit is disgraceful.

[sysmedsaresexist]

Would you explain the driving/DID thing more? I thought that supposed law as A. In the UK and B. Not even in law.

It's an exceptionally dumb thing to try and legislate anyway. Dissociation can happen to anyone, and accidents from people zoning out and not paying attention happen literally all the time. Texting and driving has killed infinitely more people than a dissociated system ever has, and yet that law does nothing to actually curb that.

Your comments sound like you support that kind of thing and I sure hope I'm just misreading that.

Hi! I'm not 100% sure I understand-- I think I do, but if I misinterpreted, let me know!

Please note that this doesn't even scratch the surface of these topics. This entire thing needs a BOOK to go over every little aspect. That said, my response is going to very topical, but I hope it still answers the question. I also get rambly, but when don't I?

To my knowledge, the original driving ban was actually in relation to autism, not CDDs, and nothing has ever come into place from a legal standpoint-- this includes my knowledge of the UK, US, and CDN laws. The same is also true of gender affirming care-- it was a discussion about autism several years ago. I actually made a post where I even found the person who started the CDD rumor, I'll see if I can find that post.

Now, this doesn't touch on the current climate around trans rights (especially minors' rights), because the states are having a fucking... moment, over there that sort of overlaps with this conversation but not specifically enough to get into, just pointing out that I understand things aren't exactly peachy across the world.

And that's important.

Things aren't perfect.

I admit that a lot of sectors need some serious reform and work, but we need to talk about real issues, not exaggerated ones. We can make things better for people with physical and mental health issues, but there's zero point in arguing about things that aren't actually real or happening.

I support the current safeguards in place-- doctors treating each person for their unique issues and symptoms. Personalized approaches.

I'm going to assume you're either UK or US, so for example...

Here's info on UK guidelines. You can see that, as I stated, it's about symptoms, not specific diagnoses. It also lists what's required for someone to be able to drive, and it's... really not that bad? 3 months symptom free? I see no issues with the way it's laid out. You've probably already passed the 3 month mark before this ever matters.

Canada works like the UK. The US has very similar stipulations, but doesn't list it as nicely. The general rule is that if you're at risk of ever not driving safely, check yes. "Not driving safely," is defined very similarly to the screenshots-- recent flareups or episodes, risk of falling asleep, seizures, loss of awareness or conscious control, same kind of things.

I support this. If someone is experiencing symptoms that would make driving dangerous, why would I not? I've been in too many accidents and like I said, I already lost my father.

The idea that you'll automatically lose your license, or not be able to get your license, is just wrong, and it's always anti psych people who say it. And like, pwCDDs can't get a job? Better tell that to all the VERY real doctors diagnosed with DID and actively working as clinical therapists. Guess they didn't get the memo.

A diagnosis will not stop you from doing ANYTHING. A lack of knowledge about your rights will.

No one should ever be afraid of being diagnosed or getting help. I am so angry at people that present a false idea of what happens. Like instead of lying and saying we're all going to lose our licenses, just teach people what they need to do and who to contact to sort licensing issues out. Let's focus on holding doctors accountable and ensuring they're making fair decisions on these things.

We all know that doctors aren't always fair, and it's not necessarily the system's fault. As patients and clients, it's our job to understand our own rights (yes, it is our job, unfair as it may be and as much hand holding as you might expect). No one is saying that there aren't shit doctors that will abuse their power. Unless we, as patients, understand our rights, no one else will stop that doctor from doing it to someone else. The law already backs us, it's holding them accountable and pointing out when the laws aren't clear enough. We can have our licenses, we should be promoting awareness of rights and responsibilities of the government, doctors, and patients.

And guys, I know it can be inconvenient, but... if you're not supposed to be driving, just don't.

My dad was not supposed to be driving. In fact, he was in a treatment center ACTIVELY RECEIVING TREATMENT, and was allowed to check himself out. That same night, he got behind the wheel, and he wasn't the only one who died.

In this way, I agree with you. Laws don't make a difference. Literally none. He would have driven that night with or without a license. It's up to us, as people, patients, and family members, to be honest about our symptoms and abilities, inconvenient or not, and we pray to God that someone gets pulled over with a revocation flag on file, rather than cops showing up to an accident that's already happened.

But no one will be fucking honest if people keep lying about how "dangerous" being diagnosed with something is.

Losing your license is a very small risk compared to the benefits (and no, it's not gone forever), and knowing your rights is the best thing you can do for everyone, yourself included.

Know your rights, know how to exercise them.

[showtoonzfan]

Accidentally deleted an ask regarding the scene with Blitz coming onto Stolas in “The Circus”, since I wasn’t finished typing and I accidentally posted it. Ugh, I apologize to that person, Tumblr needs to stop deleting the ask ALTOGETHER if you delete a post with an ask in it. Anyway, they made a good point with how uncomfortable it was and how Viv wants to portray Stolitz as hot and quirky, meanwhile Val and Angel are 100% bad. That I agree with, it’s very hypocritical of Viv to take certain themes like sexual assault seriously in HH, only to downplay it completely different in HB. Since the ask got deleted, I’ll just say my thoughts here on the Stolas and Blitz scene. So….at first yes, I was one of those people who went “Stolas is clearly drunk and not in his right mind”- when this scene came on, however I will admit that I now don’t necessarily think it’s 100% safe to say that Stolas was drunk. Sure, we see him gargle down a strong alcoholic drink, but between the time stamp there and the time he took Blitz into his room, I don’t think that’s enough time for the alcohol to fully kick in. I think it’s same to say that he was drunk either midway his and Blitz’s fuck session, or afterwards. However, wether drunk or not, Blitz was clearly in the wrong for that scene, he clearly wanted to take advantage of the situation he was in, and lured Stolas in to get to his book. It obviously wasn’t a smart decision since Stolas WOULD be drunk soon and already had strong alcohol in his system, so it only made the scene more ewey.

However, a problem I personally had with this scene altogether is that even though Blitz is the one who came onto Stolas, I still found it so weird that Stolas started the conversation with “You came here to ravish me didn’t you?” Not just that, but the fan servicey lovey dovey sparkles when he first saw Blitz.

It just never made any sense to me, because when did these feelings kick off for Stolas? When did he find a sexual attraction to Blitz? Where did these feelings even STEM from? These two (at the time) have not seen in eachother in 25 years, the last time being when they were CHILDREN. Then….Stolas reunites with him, and all of a sudden is just….completely in love and lustful towards Blitz. You may go “Oh well Stolas was clearly blushing around Blitz when he met him as a child so that’s probably where the feelings came from”- but not only does that not make any sense since Stolas never SAW Blitz after that or even made the effort to contact him if he really had a strong feeling, but I don’t even SEE Stolas’s blushy scenes as him being in love. One…he’s a small child, it felt more like puppy love, and two, he clearly expresses later in the episode how happy he was that Blitz was his first friend, so that’s how I see it, he was just happy to have a friend, NOT in love. The only reason he was blushing was for fan service honestly, regardless if it made sense or not. Moving that aside, Stolas states later that he was only “teasing” about the ravishing part, but honestly…..who JOKES about that?? Who reunites with a friend they used to know years ago, and just randomly is all like “Lol, wanna fuck? Jk I’m just kidding!”. I’m nitpicking and y’all can disagree with me, but that’s personally how I feel. Then Stolas goes from that to someone who doesn’t want it, when he was acting all nervous when Blitz came onto him, and that ALSO makes no sense to me, especially when you take into consideration that Viv is clearly trying to show that Stolas feels something for Blitz, judging by the pink outline and harp music when they meet in the screenshot above. So does he love him, or does he not Viv? It also doesn’t help that the scene overall is all over the place, just like HezuNeutral had said in her critique video, the dialogue flips back and fourth, with Stolas saying he has a good memory, only for him to reveal that he doesn’t remember Blitz’s name, only to THEN show that he remembers Blitz’s name having an “O” at the end. Like…if you’re tying to show us that they barley know one another or aren’t connected anymore, why have Stolas flirt? Why have the romantic music?

But yeah, the worst of all of this is the near sex scene, where Blitz bites Stolas and that…all of a sudden attracts some strong sexual feelings, because again, where did this come from? But most importantly, Stolas admitting that he’s happy, getting off to the fact that they used to be friends, so he’s giddy someone wants him this way. Blitz then feels bad, and screws him out of pity, and the writers want us to see that Blitz is clearly taking advantage of STOLAS and his feelings. And…he is but…dear god it was such a horrible writing choice. The writers clearly did this so they can alter Stolas and Blitz’s relationship, where instead of Stolas being the one in power who wanted someone to fulfill his fantasies due to his failing unsatisfactory marriage, he’s now this “HELPLESS Uwu sad bean who fell in love with Blitz but baddy Blitz never LOVED HIM AND MADE HIM THINK HE DID!���>>😫😭

And it’s all a load of bullshit, trying to make BLITZ be the one in the wrong when Stolas was the one who constantly treated him like a sex slave in the first place, and yes I get that Blitz is also a bad person who’s using Stolas as well, but for the writers to portray Blitz as the one who broke Stolas’s poor uwu heart and instead paint HIM as the victim, pisses me off. The writers cannot call Stolas out PROPERLY for the love of all things holy, and I hate how they’ll continue to excuse his actions and suck him off, portraying him as a helpless lonely bean even though in truth he’s just a selfish horny pervert who can’t take a hint that someone doesn’t like him. Everyone keeps pulling the “He doesn’t know how to love” card, so if he truly doesn’t, would you mind calling him out on that? Because just because someone doesn’t know how love works, that doesn’t excuse anything, or the way they treat someone. It’s also funny how the writers insist that Stolas gained these romantic feelings for Blitz first, when in actuality when never SEE any of that. Again, when did the feelings kick off? Off fucking screen?? I can’t with this show’s horrible storytelling, this ship just keeps going further down the drain as every episode passes and nothing the writers can say or even show me can convince me that these two should be together, wether they paint it in a completely different light or not. “The Circus” definitely retconned the ship, and “Seeing Stars” just….erased everything I guess, though I bet Viv will go back to her forced emotional more serious scenes in the next episode. Fact is, I’m just done with this ship lol, it’s toxic, it has no buildup, it’s gross, and it’s horribly written. The fans can call me homophobic and throw a baby fit on twitter for all I care, the writing for this show is ass.

[tiffanylamps]

🔥🔥🔥🔥 of course, some beyond evil hot takes 🔥🔥🔥🔥 but also, what is some controversial opinion that you have about something entirely mundane :^0

ask me ask me ask me baby (Disclaimer: I started writing this, then had dinner, watched an episode of Bros on Foot, then had a shower and now I'm pretty exhausted (thanks rona + bad health). So my answers may seem a lil disorganised... they most likely are) Oh, gosh. I don't think I have that many opinions that are actually controversial when discussing be. But I shall still give it a go. I going to put a break here 'cause I really didn't know when to shut up. Also, sorry Iva but I feel like my answers are things we've already spoken about. So, I don't think any of this is new information to you 😩 TL;DR: Dong Sik and Joo Won shouldn't be represented by one aspect of their character. They're more complicated than that. (Including a mundane opinion at the end) (please excuse any weird funny business in this post (writing, grammar, spelling, clarity), we're trying our best here at Lamps HQ)

i. We as a fandom baby Dong Sik too much. I love Dong Sik. I adore him. He has seen and experienced far too many traumas, and I want nothing but good things for him in his future. What happened to him and his family when he was 20 was a tragedy that could have been avoided if the system (which should be in place to aid victims) wasn't systemically corrupt. He was beaten by police officers whilst in custody. He was framed and belittled, degraded, and humiliated. (the trauma he experienced is so layered and would take a lifetime for him to unpack and get closure from).

It almost completely ruined his life and future prospects, and it would have been done if Nam Sang Bae hadn't come in with his lvl 100 guilt and tried to make up for his actions. Dong Sik tried to make the best out of the awful circumstances that befell him and I sincerely admire him. Not everyone is as kind and loving as Dong Sik.... But but but... Buuuuut that doesn't absolve him of his actions. He murdered someone with his bare hands and allowed the system that was once put against him to be used in his favour.

Police officers shouldn't be murdering civilians. full stop. Yes, he was emotionally compromised- technically it could be seen as self-defence, but an unconvicted man, a suspect, was murdered and Dong Sik didn't face repercussions. Nam Sang Bae skewed the evidence so Dong Sik didn't get into trouble. Dong Sik took a year (?) off work after that event and to "help" him recover, Sang Bae got Dong Sik transferred to his substation (which Sang Bae had been demoted to as a result of one of his rookies dying on the job. Although, it wasn't deemed much of a punishment considering he was so close to retiring anyway). All the while, Dong Sik feels justified for his actions (as he did when he moved Min Jeong's fingers). (Screenshots from the translated script book/author's notes doc)

I think it's best that when discussing and exploring Dong Sik's character, we remember that he is a man capable of murder. He is a murderer. (Do I blame him for what he did? No, not really. I can see why he did it. Objectively, I fucking love it for the narrative lol). But yeah, he isn't a guiltless sweet baby angel who never did anything wrong in his life. (DISCLAIMER: obviously jokes are just jokes. I love them and I never want them to stop. I am super guilty of participating in this line of joking and I'm not about to stop any time soon. But when discussing DS in serious conversations, we shouldn't erase his history. By doing that, we are devoiding him of agency and retribution (which is one of the main arcs/themes of his character development)).

ii. Joo Won is autistic and people need to stop calling him stupid. I will die on this hill, I don't care. I fully encourage everyone to bully Joo Won, because, well, he fucking deserves it. I know that bullying him is a hilarious love language the fandom has developed and I fully participate in this pastime. I honestly love it. Yes, he has done a lot wrong and shouldn't be absolved of his sins (that being said, we should allow him the space to learn and grow. We should learn to forgive whilst still keeping him and ourselves in check). But where I draw the line is when people outright laugh at his characteristics/actions which are derived from the fact that Joo Won is coded as autistic.

I know not everyone is going to be particularly versed in neurodivergent symptoms and that is completely fine. I even didn't fully clock Joo Won being autistic the first time I watched the show- I "labelled" his actions as a result of one) his obscenely privileged upbringing and two) the fact that he (imo) has some degree of OCD (which is a type of anxiety disorder). Then it hit me one day that he is soooo autistic. A few examples (I'm too ill to list each one or go into full detail): 1- People say that he's a bad detective. Which, ugh. 2- That he should have seen the "obvious" signs that Dong Sik wasn't the killer earlier. This sentiment completely ignores the timeline of the show and the fact that the viewer is provided information that Joo Won doesn't have access to. And it also removes Dong Sik's accountability for being purposely obtuse and antagonistic. 3- the whole (very minor) narrative that joo won is lame because he has terrible people skills (or something along those lines, I can't quite remember the tags I read as it was a while ago). This one, in particular, ties in with Joo Won's autism coding. With a (relatively sound) understanding of what autism looks like in male adults, to me, it would seem that a lot of what Joo Won does (speaking bluntly, getting easily confused when provided a lot of information during an intense situation, overwhelm, struggling to gauge people's emotions/tone, being very black and white, hyper focussing on a topic of interest, struggling to adapt to new social environments, masking, issues with food and sensory stimulation, etc) can be credited to autism. Perhaps I'm connecting dots that don't exist and am projecting an ideal onto his character, but as someone who grew up with multiple friends and family members who are neurodiverse (and is neurodiverse myself), I can see so many similarities between Joo Won's actions, thought processes, and mannerisms to that of a person with autism.

^ (credit) here is an overview of some characteristics of autism in adults (obviously, it's a complex topic which differs from person to person. But I can definitely connect many of these examples to joo won's character and actions). [I feel like I could say a lot more about this subject, but it would be distracting away from the original point. I have thoughts on Joo Won masking and how he struggles to mask around Dong Sik]

How does this relate to Joo Won being "stupid"? One may ask. I will try to explain it as best I can (even though I don't fully have my answer planned out). Labelling Joo Won as stupid, as a stuck-up nepo baby who did nothing for the storyline, or just a useless dolt that needed Dong Sik to spoon-feed him, completely misconstrues the source material. Joo Won is intelligent, hard-working, determined, stubborn, foolish, annoying, pompous, proud, narrow-minded, snobby, short-sighted, dedicated, loyal, loving, persistent, and perceptible to change (and even more than that). We wouldn't have a story if Joo Won was stupid. We wouldn't have a conclusion if Joo Won was stupid. Downplaying Joo Won's intelligence and chalking up his characteristics as something that makes him less-than does a complete disservice to his character as well as his importance within the story. Beyond Evil is a story with TWO leads. It's not the Dong Sik show. I can NEVER subscribe to the act of bringing one character down in order to hold another up. Dong Sik is not this all-seeing, all-knowing, flawless character. If he was, he would have never been framed for murder, he wouldn't have been stuck for 20 years, and he wouldn't have needed help in uncovering the truth. He needed Joo Won (and Ji Hwa, Jae Yi, Jung Je, Ji Hoon, Du Soo, Sang Bae, etc). Without Joo Won, he may have never found out the full truth of what happened to his sister (as how many people in his life had a part to play in the traumas he faced). So, I think it's about time that people start to recognise Joo Won as a neurodivergent character (and stop giving him a hard time for not seeing signs that WE were given), as well as stop downplaying him. Kim Soo Jin, Sim Na Yeon, and Yeo Jin Goo created such a multi-dimensional, complex, flawed character with good and bad qualities, it does a disservice to their creativity and hard work when one belittles Joo Won down to one descriptor. Dong Sik and Joo Won aren't just the idiot and the downtrodden. They're more than that and fan interpretation shouldn't rewrite the facts of the show.

Anyway... there's a point in there somewhere... I think... I have no idea if I managed to construct a reply that makes sense. I don't think I fully relayed all my thoughts on this particular matter, but we live. tbh, I feel very icky when an autistic character gets labelled as stupid or useless. It gets on my nerves and if it wasn't obvious, I am pretty protective of Joo Won (maybe I shouldn't be, but... well... here we are!). Also, as a note: I don't expect anyone to agree with my opinion that Joo Won is autistic. But yeah, I was going to include more "controversial" opinions for be, but I have already said way too much. This post reads like a rant - which it probably is - and I don't want it to ruffle anyone's feathers. It's not an attack, it's just my opinion.

As for the mundane opinion: iii. kiwis are the scum of the fruit world. They're nasty and a lot of effort to eat (considering they don't taste great), and their texture is gross. But I do think their furry shell is pretty neat, even if it makes my skin cruel. (idk why this was the first thing that came to mind lol)

(sorry Iva. Maybe one day I will learn how to give short answers😂🫣)

[nerdgatehobbit]

3/15/24

I hope everyone’s enjoying the stabby day! And yes, I had apple pie yesterday.

Leverage & The Librarians are both great so far. The interesting thing is that the disc order is different from the airing order for the former’s season 1 DVD set. Though I have seen that info about how season 1 of The Librarians was aired out of intended order, so I’m guessing there’s something similar going on. FYI, Cadman’s actress Jaime Ray Newman played Aimee in the latest episode I saw, so that was fun. While I recognized her, I did have to look her up to remember where from. I’m early in the 2nd season of The Librarians; I’ve gathered that Flynn might have some moments of falling short, but I can respect the writers not wanting him to overshadow the others, so I’m liable to be chill about it. Not 100% sure, given his Blorbo status in my eyes, but more sure than not.

… I’ll try to get better about making posts about them. I did snag a screencap of Leverage using one of The Librarian movies as an in-flight movie. That was a cute reference! I’m also appreciative of how there are Star Trek people on & off camera in them.

Once I make/schedule the posts for “They’re Playing My Song”, I can move on to watching the last episode on Static Shock’s first disc. It’s held up pretty well so far (ruefully so in some cases).

Thus far I’m still lukewarm about Star Trek TNG and I’m feeling kinda bad about it. Hopefully I’ll enjoy it more as I keep watching season 2. I’ve caught a few episodes of the Sister Boniface Mysteries when Mom was watching and I enjoyed them.

Last month, I did see & enjoy TLM 2023, but I’m holding off until Mermay to post a lot about it. I did get around to getting screenshots from BATB 2022; I’m debating on if I’ll add onto the previous posts with the phone photos or if they should get their own posts.

Pokémon Masters has stayed fun. I got the free Riley & Lucario, and I picked Lucas & Dialga out of the three half-anniversary options (I already had Gloria & Zacian, and since I have Anabel & Snorlax I wasn’t pressed to get Red & Snorlax). Seeing Adaman & Irida in modern garb in the latest event was a bit odd. Since, I’m hoping that eventually Warden Ingo will become available.

… I ought to get back to the anime. Also the Pokémon TV app is going away soon, so I feel justified in having obtained DVD sets.

Sooner rather than later I’m going to end up screencapping BBC Merlin to get more Gwen content, but not quite yet.

Edit: I almost forgot, I got Warehouse 13 at the library for $10 on my latest visit. That’s on the back burner, but at that price I could justify my curiosity.

[certifiedfreakcas]

dean in every episode - 2x09 - croatoan

[nightmanatee]

TWWFTE rewatch

or the thasmin pinpoint

1. "because... you`re a woman?" and 13`s immediate "does it suit me?". i think yaz`s quick "response" might go deep into the "don`t screw this moment don`t screw this moment".

(btw she check`s on ryan`s reaction THE SECOND she says "what?")

2. WAIT apparently she checks on ryan EVERY time 13 does something gay. "does it suit me?" ryan do i need to react? "i`m calling you yaz `cause we`re friends now" ryan is it gay if i`m okay with that?

(it`s just one of the examples i couldn`t find any more from my screenshots)

3. glances glances GLANCES. i`ve already started to notice that yaz does it as many times as she can. ESP at her flat in the arachnids.

4. can we have the lights and sirens on? NOO.

5. "show me your collarbones" and yaz does it so enthusiastically. like girl whom are you trying to impress?:)

6. personal space? what is personal space??? i don`t know her.

the first example is with graham but my personal favourite is the one with yaz like what IS that???

7. what have i said about cheking on the doctor?

(and believe me when i say that she`s still looking at the doctor at the 3rd screenshot)

8. i know i know i AM cool at making screenshots but this one is here to proof you that yaz is a good runner bc she`s started running only AFTER ryan and grace but was able to catch up with the doctor.

9. almost there (bc tumblr allows only 10 pics per post). she. grabbed. yaz!

and 10. LOOK AT HER FAAACE

conclusion: this ep is so COOL they`re all smol bbys and thasmin is canon.

okay serious now: i`ve wanted to watch this ep to be able to grab SOMETHING from yaz`s first ep bc apparently every ending that characters have has it`s roots in the first episode. karl was insecure, he needed records to change/heal/evolve and in the special he believed that fireworks were just for him, which is character growth and a logical ending for him.

grace`s death was FORESHADOWED 10-15 minutes before with a sign "danger to death do not climb" and the camera kinda tries to make you NOTICE this sign.

graham and ryan have bad relationship and they end up BONDING with each other finding family and love, their adventure has a very logical ending for them as well.

and what about yaz? well there are 3 variants:

1. bad ending: she dies bc it`s something i don`t want to think about but it happened twice in the ep (one being grace`s death and the other one being that guy`s sister; she might make a hologram to her parents btw:)))) ). i highly doubt it but i cannot not place it here.

2. semi-good one: the karl`s ending? the screenshot is weird but i wanted to be sure that karl is there. i mean he`s changed (already happened to yaz) realized what he is worth, yaz, in general, is close to the same, perhaps she will simply leave the doctor and some next "stay here" will be the last straw for her.

3. the good one (bc i`m a believer clown). grace IS the doctor`s human parallel and she and graham kissed in the first episode were together for 3 years which IS chibnall`s number and graham`s speech at the funeral??? + graham and ryan`s bonding (i know it`s not the same but every relationship in chibbs` era succeeds ONLY if you`re honest with each other if you care for each other and are able and want to change; if 13 and yaz are gonna have a talk on the beach than i`m sticking to this ending).

anyways yaz`s fate is 100% going to foreshadow something from this episode bc it happened to everyone and i can`t wait to see it and then go back to this post and to the episode itself and realise that YES it was there all the time we just weren`t able to see it without the whole picture.

[sylvanas-girlkisser]

Arcane Background Lore/Easter Eggs (Episode 8)

oTwo more episodes to go folks! Oh, and overnight I went back and editied some of the older posts to better align with what we now know about the story.

I’m like 95% sure this is supposed to be an Ionian throne room, the snaking tree structures seen in the foreground and far background are very classical Ionian. Ionia (aka. the First Lands) is an archipelago located due east of the Noxian coast, who didn’t really have much experience with war and as such were utterly crushed when Noxus came to colonize them.

Oh boy we really are starting out right out with the Silvio Pepe moments. See that sigil on Mel’s chest? That’s is a symbol of the Solari tribe, and I have no idea why Mel is wearing it.

The solari are the biggest, and most militarized of the Rakkor tribes – the people who live on and around Mount Targon. They are highly religious, deeply hostile to outsiders, and importantly: NOWHERE NEAR NOXIAN TERRITORIES. Mel is in that outfit loudly advertising her membership of a religious order most Noxians wouldn’t even have heard of; the only explanation I can think of is that Mel herself has Rakkor ancestry (maybe from her dad?), and this is a way for her to connect to that part of her culture? We’ll have to wait for season 2 (or Mel getting added to League) to find out.

Now that the idea of Mel having Solari heritage has been planted, I can’t help but notice that her golden tattoos look very similar to those worn by a lot of Solari. (Shown below.)

However the traditional circular patterns have been replaced with a Piltover-esque art deco motiff.

The man who killed Kino Medarda and now has it out for the rest of the clan could be any number of people, but my first thought is that its probably Jericho Swain. At this point in the timeline, Ionia are either about to, or have recently reclaimed their independence from Noxus; and Swain is using their defeat to the Ionian to drum up support from the army in order to stage a coup. In the flashback we learned that Kino was a rare voice of peace among Noxian nobility, so it would make sense that Swain would want to get rid of him as he’s rallying soldiers with promises of retaking Ionia (which he won’t succeed in by the way, there’s a knife lesbian in the way).

The scene of Heimerdinger finding Ekko’s skateboard is a reference to the “True Genius” trailer, where Ekko uses a hex gem to create a not-quite, but almost flying skateboard, which Heimerdinger later finds and refines.

Technically it’s just: “Cecil B. Heimerdinger” now.

So, I’m not here to argue Sky didn’t get fridged, she 100% did. What might interest you to know is that: Somewhere in the Noxian country side, there is a hidden academy, where a young girl named Rell is having runes carved into her skin that without her knowledge is draining the souls of her classmate in an effort to make her the most powerful mage to have ever lived. The point is, Sky might not be dead dead, her soul may be trapped inside the runes on Viktor’s body. So yes, still fridged.

In League, the hex core is generally presented as pure, rational technology. This is not that… Going off the mix of organic and metallic bits, as well as irregularly shaped glowing holes, this is void magic. Void magic IS VERY VERY BAD. If it wasn’t clear from the scene already, Viktor has absolutely stuck his dick in the blender on this one.

The suits Silco’s shock troopers wear are clearly based on the “Turbo Chemtank” item from League (which I couldn’t find a high res picture of 😭). In League chemtank makes you harder to kill and you can activate it to temporarily GO REAL HECKING FAST.

This goon just experienced the quintessential “fighting against Vi in League” experience: Suddenly, there’s a punchy lesbian and then you die.

Jayce uses some version of most of his League abilities in the fight against Silco’s goon, problem is he’s got like 8 billion of them so I’m gonna run through them quickly. Above screenshot is a reference to his “thundering blow” ability, which sends an enemy flying with a burst of lightning.

This is his “Lightning Field” ability, it creates a field of lightning. It’s yellow because... I dunno it’s yellow in League 🤷‍♀️.

This is a two for one. First Jayce’s uses his stance change ability to switch his weapon from hammer mode to cannon mode. Then he uses his “Shock Blast” ability, which shoots a ball of electricity out that has a near supernatural ability to always hit MY BISEXUAL ASS no matter how much cover and other potential targets I put in the way.

Also, This is Vi’s signature “Vault Breaker” ability, it does more or less what you see here: she charges up her fist and then punches very hard. Though in game she kinda goes flying with her fist ahead of her, which looks goofy AF.

Circling back to Swain for my daily dose of shoehorning in a character who won’t appear in Arcane: This is Irelia Xan, Ionian revolutionary, decolonization queen, and in dire need of being hit with the same lesbianizer they got Vi with. At the age of 14, while being held prisoner, told Swain to fuck off out of her lands, then chopped his arm. A general theme with Noxus is them horribly underestimating just how angry a teenage girl can get.

If there’s anything I missed please let me know, I’m planning to do a breakdown like this for each episode.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

[overwatch]

Studio Pierrot reanimated parts of Naruto for the 20th anniversary and man. Good to know this series still has a choke hold on me after all these years. I never even finished the series.

Thank you for letting me know oh wow this looks so much better and cleaner and the way the original Naruto should have been!!!!!! I am still trying to finish the series so I’m not able to finish the video today bc spoilers (even tho I have been spoiled but have a poor memory so win-win!!)

also, I know you sent me this ask bc you feel compelled to join me and finish the show that’s right hold my hand we are doing this just message me babe I will guide you

And now I’m gonna share my fav screenshots everyone, so I hope you enjoy Naruto spam. Also will include the worst screenshots and why I hate some of the art/animations they went with:

I LOVE Iruka so much adfk hdahdu hold me

ofc they had to re-do this classic when gays in anime were invented

Lordee have mercy this is good this is the feral Naruto we deserved

A dad who is trying his best and his children!! However, disappointing that in almost single scene that Sakura shows up in she is crying lol (yes I know that is her character pretty much but this is a remake of something they could have shown other moments/altered a bit!!!). I also hate how big Sakura’s eyes are

100% the direction they should go if they ever do a remake I love these shots with dif styles to convey intense emotions

Feral Gaara!! The animation of the sand body morph was smooth! Yes!

me and my cat arguing over the last slice of ham

honorable mention of one of my favorite designs of Kishimoto’s: toad. Idk if he based these toads in some Japanese art style or stories but I just love the toads so much it’s such a nice aesthetic I wish Naruto wasn’t a fox I wish he was a toad boy always! Love u toad man. Fuck jiraya tho 

Things I detest:

bad cgi animations like coffins falling wtf the animation was so bad. If you’re going to reanimate something maybe DON’T PICK THE BEST ANIMATED EPISODE IN ALL OF THE SERIES if you can’t make the animation smooth of 2 coffin doors falling off cmon.

the colors are WAY TOO bright. I am a slut for Haku’s arc, and part of it is the gray-ish, foggy ambiance in whatever land Haku/zabudaddy are from. I feel some of the reanimation has too much color and it doesn’t convey the right mood/artistic direction 

Some characters’ could have re-designed and some moments are lacking expression. Just look above. Orochimaru’s fake exam body has ‘spaced’ out eyes that convey that this person is not all there, or in Orochimaru’s case, that the body is just a vessel. In the reanimation it lacks that, Anko’s forced smile, as well, is missing. This is just a specific example but that I saw in many other moments in the video.

oh god. well. THAT aside, everyone remembers this and knows this moment as well as the back of their hand. Gaara’s head flops down and bounces from the force of Lee’s kick - in the reanimation, Gaara is just kicked. Also, his expression is supposed to be that of utter shock, not defiance or annoyance like above.

BIG EYES LOOK BAD I know this is an anime and I am being unfair BUT CMON THIS IS TOO MUCH

this is lazy... so much you could have done. Kishimoto rly can’t world build but you had the chance to remake this and it’s just this. Some mountains and hokage’s office and boring rooftops. whatever.

The animation of kage bushin is so BAD you can’t tell from this screenshot so just go to the video and watch it. I do, however, like the idea that Naruto’s ‘pop’ smoke animations would be a whirlwind, considering his chakra affinity is wind. But the video is missing the iconic cloud-shaped smoke

Again, love the different styles to convey insanity/intense moments but the windows music player animation in the bg completely ruins the moment (and it’s TOO BRIGHT, color could have been rethought :(   )

[zelzenik]

my take on the infamous kataang kisses

so i just saw this post that spoke highly of Kataang and on how ATLA deals w consent and what's allowed between partners, and i'm... i'm mad, lol.

this has been spoken on before, but since these bad takes are still floating around on the internet, i feel the need to at least vent/give some sort of rebuttal.

i'm not linking or screenshotting this post, but this is word-for-word what was said regarding Kataang (questionable grammar has been transposed as well):

"One of the many things I adore about atla is how the girls are allowed to and do tell their partners off when they cross a line.... Katara gets upset with Aang for kisses her without her consent, and it's never made out to be overly dramatic or unreasonable, it's framed so that the girls are in the right."

HOW does Kataang properly convey this message??

there's a lot to unpack here. like, a lot

just to start off, yes, i'm aware that not all Kataangers believe that the kisses were consensual and can recognize how problematic (and WRONG) they were. but there are some (many) who do not

for the sake of this rebuttal, we're all going to establish and agree on what happened with the Kataang kisses. personally, in the Cave of Two Lovers episode, i don't believe they kissed - if they had kissed, the creators would've made that known in the show; in the Day of the Black Sun episode, it was clear that Katara was NOT pleased w what went down, same with the Ember Island Players episode; the finale kiss was consensual, however, in my opinion, it made absolutely no sense and came out of nowhere.

this is an address to the following various shippers within the ATLA fandom.

to those who DEFEND Aang's actions toward Katara and JUSTIFY these non-consensual kisses:

don't DO this. these portrayals of murky non-con kisses on television are so harmful!! they perpetuate this whole "nice guy" complex where a guy (or anyone) thinks that he (or they) deserve(s) or can take physical affection from others without their consent/mutual feeling. we have such an awful problem in media concerning these sorts of "nice guys" who wind up taking advantage of women simply due to the fact that they know they're nice and feel that they deserve it.

yes, Aang was a child. yes, he was in an iceberg for like 100 years. i work with plenty of preteens from the ages 10-12, and they've all been taught to respect other people's boundaries, especially when it involves romantic (and depending on how old they are, sexual) encounters; it's worth noting that, at least from my experience, guys are significantly less interested in relationships around this age than girls are!

portraying Aang in a light where he simply takes what he wants from Katara multiple times does a disservice both to him as a character and to all who watched the show without having a clear outside understanding of physical boundaries.

to those who claim that the non-con Kataang kisses are good lessons to others on consent

i might have been able to agree with you had the situations been ADDRESSED within the show! but they were NOT.

the non-con Kataang kisses are not a good example of when a girl has been made uncomfortable by a guy or has been touched nonconsensually by one and stands up for herself because we never have a scene where Katara actually stands up for herself!

between the two non-con Kataang kisses that occurred during the show, not even FRACTION of the show was dedicated toward addressing them!

okay, yes, if you rewatch the show as an older teen or an adult with accurate views on consent, then, yes, those non-con kisses can be an example of how pervasive lack of consent is within our past/current culture

but, for the most part, this show is watched by kids. it's a kids' show. ofc it's grown to be much more beyond a kids' show, and there are so many teens/adults who LOVE the ATLA fandom, and that's totally cool! i'm always anti-harassment and anti-bullying-people-for-enjoying-shows-they-love.

for a show that's primarily marketed to children, though, regardless of the time that it was made in (since the 2000's were far less up to date on consent than we are now in the 2020's), if non-con kisses are included, then they should be addressed.

they can only be good lessons if they're addressed, instead of left hanging and teaching children that such non-con kisses are rewarded.

canonizing Kataang, in a way, validated Aang's blatant ignorance of Katara's boundaries which annoys me to no end.

to those who who say that this behavior was FINE because Kataang canonically dated/married

it's not! it's really freakin not!

do you know how many women experience some form of sexual harassment or assault or rape within their lifetime?? 1 in 6!

and do you know how often these women are unable to do anything about it because the person who attacked them is someone that they love or are involved with?

just because one may be in a relationship with another person doesn't simply excuse this type of behavior.

"no" or "i don't think this is a good idea" or "i'm not feeling this" or "maybe later?" or "i don't feel so good" or "we're in the middle of a war right now" or SILENCE -> NOT CONSENT!!

regardless of your relationship with another person, if they do not respect these boundaries, then they have not respected your damn boundaries.

i don't care if they're your boyfriend or your girlfriend or your husband or your wife or your partner. whatever. if they ignore your boundaries, then they are not respecting you, point blank.

closing

it's no secret that i'm a huge anti Kataanger. i first watched the show as a teenager, and while i initially started the show off loving Kataang, as soon as i hit the non-con kisses, i was immediately turned off from the ship and became a huge Zutara shipper (not even knowing which ship was ultimately endgame but especially loving the dynamic between ZK post-Crystal Catacombs scene).

as someone who's survived a relationship with non-con elements present, i cannot in good conscience ship Kataang because of those non-con kisses.

i love both Aang and Katara too much as characters to see them portrayed in such a way. what hurts the most is that all of these issues COULD have been fixed in the show, if there'd been some sort of reconciliation between Aang and Katara, some sort of encounter where Aang recognized that what he did was wrong and Katara learned that it's okay to say no. but this did not happen. so here i am writing a meta/rant/vent about it.

i understand that this post may not be well received, but this is something i really needed to get off my chest (again) because i hate seeing people praising ATLA for its poor examples of consent within relationships. (it literally drives me crazy.)

[aquagirl1978]

We're back - and with a friend! @aliboo joins @violettduchess and myself as we review the first set of Antares' new route!

#1 - Favorite line in set

aliboo: "How embarrassing for you that such an 'incompetent mercenary' has already tripped you up so much." - I'm 100% here for MC asserting her dominance early on.

aqua: (How long has it been since anyone has held my interest this way?) said by Alien!MC - Truer words haven't been said, MC. How long has it been since I cared about someone in this game? Please don't answer that question

Violet: (I know where I stand with Antares: directly in his way.) said by Alien!MC

#2 - Favorite scene/moment

aliboo: That part in episode 3 where Antares and MC get conveniently tangled together and wrestle themselves away from each other... the combination of sexual tension and humour was 😘👌

aqua: When Keda broke MC out of jail. Not only did we get to see first hand MC in action, and how stubborn she is when she refused to leave because she had to "scrub the system" of her bogus arrest. We also saw what a strong and reliable ally/friend Keda is to MC, and I hope we get to see some more of this throughout the season.

Violet: I loved the moment when they naturally fell into the "good cop/bad cop" roleplay together without missing a beat.

#3 - Did you buy hearts? Which scene(s)? Worth it?

aliboo: I bought them all. All worth it. #1 for the UST, #2 for the extra glimpse of Antares' character, #3 for the shenanigans.

aqua: Yes, all of them. And they were all worth it. The third one stood out the most to me and was the most fun.

Violet: all of them and yes they totally were

#4 - Standout character

aliboo: MC - an amazing confident protag whilst still very relatable; the kind of character that has all the best lines you could only wish to have to hand.

aqua: Antares' billowing cape. It just shows how extra he is, he shows up in this very gritty spaceport, and his cape is flapping everywhere. With all the fighting, I am amazed it made it out in one piece.

Violet: Antares. He is EXACTLY as I hoped he would be: arrogant, intelligent, commanding, sexy as all hell.

#5 - Thoughts on the CG?

aliboo: I love it. A nod to the original but more sexy.

aqua: Great cg! I love how it mirrors the first cg, but you can see how the artwork has vastly improved.

Violet: I really liked it!!

#6 - Fave screenshot

aliboo: I clocked up 303 screenshots during his first 3 episodes and I'm expected to pick 1? I chose this one mainly because I love the artwork and it's an indication of his route direction - and that silhouette is the closest we get to Antares sans helmet so far!

aqua: What can I say, I love mini cgs.

Violet: It's a perfect marriage of line and sprite

#7 - Secondary character shining moment.

aliboo: Keda! I didn't warm to her in other Alien!SP routes but she did make me smile in this one... "even your number one money launderer has to admit, there are a few things an attractive partner can do for you that credits can't"

aqua: Keda breaking MC out of jail and then later sharing a drink with her. I hope we get to see more of this friendship.

Violet: I liked the soldier who got hurt. Because of them, MC was allowed to see Antares as the leader who leaves no man behind and that was an important moment.

#8 - Thoughts on the villain.

aliboo: No identifiable big bad so far... we don't know Psyri's story so I'm not counting them. The conflict in the first 3 episodes is between Antares and MC. I think later it will be someone representing The Union.

aqua: I don't see a clear cut villain...yet. I'm leaning towards thinking the Union will somehow end up being the big bad somehow, as they've proven themselves route after route to be vile.

Violet: Psyri? Is she a villain? Aside from being slippery and getting away constantly, I am not really sure what to think of her

#9 - Most OMG scene?

aliboo: I want to give a shout to the scene where Psyri escapes captivity, shooting an Empire soldier in the process, and Antares is witnessed to show compassion for the fallen soldier. I felt MC's surprise and changed perception of him.

aqua: The scene towards the end of the third episode when Antares relays his orders to Corvus (He's alive and on the ship!) thus betraying MC. A wonderful scene all around.

Violet: When Antares pressed MC against the wall, body to body, and my heart stopped beating for a few seconds.

#10 - Any predictions for next week?

aliboo: We know she's gonna stow away on his ship.. this is less of a prediction, more of a wish... I really hope Corvus discovers her and helps to keep her hidden for a little while at least.

aqua: I'd like to see more scenes with Keda, maybe helping her out again and causing some shenanigans. Excellent idea with Corvus helping MC, more shenanigans ensue!

Violet: She is gonna stowaway on his ship....and he's going to catch her and there is going to be some AMAZING dialogue. And hopefully more body pressing.

[hapalopus]

Cross Your Heart Chapter 17 live blog/initial thoughts

@karkalicious769 I've been so excited for this chapter I went out and bought snacks to really make it a special reading experience. I can't believe we're finally gonna figure out what's going on!!!

I'm tired of tumblr's image limit, so instead of screenshots I'll just copy-paste whatever quotes I'm reacting to. And I'm on mobile, so I can't do line-breaks only paragraph breaks RIP

Anyways without further ado...

The image of Rook in Max's old 70s clothes is delightful and I need fanart stat! at least in my mind it's 70s, don't ruin this for me dfghgdd

"a tiny part of Rook was thrilled by his lack of respect today." THAT’S MY BOY!!! He's really grown as a character during this fic and it shines through in little things like this<3

"Even his eyes were the wrong shade of green." Yes yes we get it Blonko, you're madly in love with Ben and have memorized every detail of his face xD

"Rook certainly could think of worse ways to spend eternity. He was glad that he was sharing it with Ben, even if only one of them would get to remember."

"When Ben made no move to take the origami rose, Rook leaned forward a few inches more to tuck it behind his ear. Without his armor and gloves on, he could feel Ben's hair against his fur and had to resist the urge to stroke his jaw." When I tell you I had to stop myself from squeeing here. Oh man.

"Ben turned pink, eyes widening at the gesture as Rook's intentions sank in. His lips formed a silent "oh" HE HAD AN 'OH' MOMENT AAAAA!!! Good or bad, is there anything more satisfying than Oh Moments? no. no there is not

"Rook took a step back, even though he wanted to be closer." Excuse me miss?? How do you make the simple act of moving out of the way give me feels????

Paradox's dialogue is on point, I am 100% reading it in his voice!! And by that I don't mean the rest of the dialogue is not on point ofc, it's all great, sfjjhfdk

"though Rook doubted that the man actually had a doctorate" get his ass

""At first, I wasn't planning to speak to anyone at all," Paradox admitted. "I was simply going to end this timeline and move on. But you're close to Ben— closer than you should be, even— and I must confess to a certain level of, well… personal curiosity." For all the meta talk about how Rook isn't cosmically significant and how this timeloop has nothing to with him... it's oddly satisfying to know he's the reason the loop hasn't been ended yet. Even if the reason is less "your existence matters" and more "your existence is curious". Also, Paradox being able to just erase entire timelines is terrifying and I love him existing as some kind of eldritch being who views people as ants.

NO WATCH BEN CAMEO AAAA

"To demonstrate, Paradox snapped off the end of one branch. Everything that came before still existed, but there was nothing in the future, and there never would be again. Rook tried to imagine time just stopping and couldn't." This makes so much sense!! I feel silly for not catching on earlier, but then again it's been a while since I watched those episodes :3 But god, this is a really good explanation and suddenly the Eternity ending (or what I assume it revolves around) seems disturbingly likely o.o

""No, Ben can't be dead. He isn't supposed to die. Why—?"" THE CONTRACTION, I'M-

"Rook stared into Paradox's eyes and saw the endless march into infinity. He saw nothing at all." For some reason this really drives home how... idk, I keep repeating myself, but I really have no better word for it. Paradox is a terrifying eldritch creature. I imagine his eyes, matte and empty like shark eyes now. Dreadful.

"He was seconds away from launching himself forward and decking Paradox in the face." He should've :/

I always get a little bit of second hand embarassment when a character bares their soul like this, but it is a really good speech. However much I may dunk on Ben, Rook is right, he really is just a good person who does good things. And who can live up to something as simple as that?

And then the ending. If you hadn't been generous enough to share the date for tge next chapter I might drive myself mad with that "we need to talk" xD

Gah, I loved this chapter!!! So satisfying in so many ways :DDD

[earthstellar]

More TFP Deep Thinking: Transformers and Road Safety

So, we have two episodes in TFP that touch on road safety concerns in regards to humans using/driving/riding in sentient vehicles: 

Road Safety Themed Episode Summaries: 

1) Speed Metal - Jack gets into street racing to beat a bully. Arcee initially enables it, Bumblebee does later after Jack and Miko both pressure him into it. 

This ends badly, with the bully being injured and needing to be rescued after being knocked out by Knock Out. 

2) Legacy - Smokescreen fails to care for human road rules in any way despite Jack trying his best to teach him how to drive on Earth; Because Jack is a teenager, he gives in to Smokescreen’s peer pressure and screws around after the bully returns. 

Smokescreen then gets called out for a mission, but not caring about human safety (probably due to an inability to internalise or appreciate just how dangerous this whole situation is for humans in general), he brings Jack along and it doesn’t go well. 

This is a long post, so I am putting it below a cut to spare everyone having to scroll for a mile: 

General Concerns About Sentient Vehicles in Practice: 

Because this is a kid’s show, ostensibly anyway, the bully is mostly fine at the end of Speed Metal, and Legacy depicts dangerous driving in a way that a young audience can internalise as “oh, that’s bad” as the episode ends with Arcee being furious with both Jack and Smokescreen. 

But they raise some pretty good points about just how dangerous the entire concept of being in a sentient vehicle actually is. 

I’m only going to focus on two main points here to prevent this from being the world’s longest post ever, but I do want to talk about them because they are common Transformers media themes and I think it’s interesting to think about the ramifications of some of this stuff in-universe as well as from a more realistic point of view. 

The Humans Involved are Mostly Children and Teenagers

All of the humans involved in these episodes are children/teens, which adds a new level of horror to all of us who are watching it as adults. 

I used to work in education and social care for at-risk youth, and we did actually have some cases of kids getting hurt in reckless driving/illegal driving situations, so I’m naturally a little more sensitive to this whole topic altogether. 

We do see Fowler and June get thrown around a bit, but I’m going to focus on the kids, because doing this kind of shit with children involved is inherently more dangerous and scary. 

1) Being children, they don’t have any driving experience. 

Jack does, but primarily/only on a motorcycle from what we see on the show as far as I remember, and even then, he’s a teenager in high school and we can assume he hasn’t been driving for very long overall. 

So to kids/young people, who are overwhelmingly more familiar and comfortable with being passengers rather than drivers (even Jack only has probably a couple years of driving experience due to his age regardless of how much confidence he has behind the wheel), the idea of being in an uncontrollable vehicle able to do whatever it wants with you inside of it is sort of a nightmare! 

When something goes wrong and you lose control of your car in real life, it’s scary as hell even with years of experience driving. 

For example, when hitting ice on the road, your car starts to spin out or starts drifting, there’s no traction, and you have to get your shit together quickly. 

I have experienced that several times myself, and it sucks. It is massively scary, every single time, and that is when you still have some modicum of control over your vehicle. 

Now imagine if your car instantly became totally uncontrollable and no input or activity you could possibly perform would resolve the dangerous situation, because your vehicle itself is the dangerous situation. 

Now imagine you are also a child with zero driving experience, who implicitly trusted that your vehicle would drive safely and via the intended route, suddenly thrown into a situation where shit has changed and the vehicle is now doing things that you cannot predict and cannot alter or prevent in any way. 

There’s no way they could ever touch on this seriously in TFP or any other Transformers media because it has potential to be genuinely frightening to the target young audience demographic if depicted in certain ways, and it would sort of be show-breaking because of the potential impact of that kind of fear on the human characters within the show (at the very least). 

But this shit is scary, and even moreso for young kids. I was in a pretty terrifying couple of car/road incidents as a kid, and I remember the feeling of being completely shit scared while the windows cracked and shattered, the muffler was ripped out of the bottom of the car, and we were pinned between two big rigs (cargo and oil tanker) on the highway at 65 MPH at night. 

I can’t help but think of the TFP kids being put in a situation where they’re all driving convoy style away from Decepticons for whatever reason, and while they are in their respective guardian’s alt-modes, they get shoved up against Optimus at high speed... 

I’m telling you, it’s a trauma factory. 

2)  A Transformer could just decide to do anything. Whenever. 

This is obvious, but let me break it down in more detail: 

A particularly unsettling moment in Speed Metal is when Jack is riding on Arcee, and they pull up to a light-- And Jack’s school bully makes some snide comments which set off Arcee, so she peels out at high speed from what looks to be a four way intersection. 

It’s worth noting that Jack is more level headed than Arcee about it here, for the most part. He even questions her actions, calling her out for violating her own road safety rules. She disregards him, saying “just this once”. YIKES. 

I’d like to point out that she does some seriously dangerous high speed manoeuvres in that scene, including a left side overtake while accelerating to attempt to mitigate wheel skipping and any lost speed from lateral drag that puts Jack inches in front of a high speed car: 

Now, arguably, if need be she could have transformed and prevented any major collision/injury, but keep in mind the bully is a civilian and having to remain secret is a consideration; Any hesitation here could result in casualties, and that concern may well cause hesitation in deciding to transform or not. 

And on top of that, is putting Jack in this position in the first place a good idea, even knowing a Transformer is extremely likely to out perform a human vehicle even without transforming? Hell no, and here’s why: 

He is riding Arcee like any other motorcycle; He’s just holding on and hoping for the best at this point in the street race. 

He could easily fall and roll off, because he’s not able to tilt his weight into any of the turns or effectively prepare for anything Arcee is doing. Look at the angle in that one screenshot above; Jack’s doing a hell of a job just trying to stay seated, and the sudden strain on his left leg/hip has to be pretty uncomfortable. 

Motorcycles do not have seatbelts, unless they are specialty gear, and even if Arcee’s alt-mode does have some way to secure a rider, Jack absolutely did not have them engaged as this ride did not start out as a street race and I do not recall seeing anything that suggests Arcee has engaged any type of seatbelt or other additional rider safety measure here.

I’ve both ridden and driven motorcycles before, and the idea of doing so at high speed with an uncontrolled, unpredictable motorcycle (or driver if I am passenger) is frightening. There’s no way to know when to adjust your position/balance, grip, or anything. Jack isn’t manually controlling anything, his hands are off the controls on the handlebars because those are Arcee’s functions. 

So she just hauls off, high speed, and does extremely sharp weaving turns in close proximity to another high speed vehicle-- Because a human teenager was talking shit to them at a stoplight. 

It’s not responsible guardian behaviour, and this is somewhat called out in this episode and again more heavily in Legacy, but uh, there’s a lot of reckless Transformer driving with humans involved in this franchise in general, and this is a more blatantly unnecessary example.

And the thing is, Arcee is fairly serious and strict. She is a mature person and typically handles road safety well when it comes to Jack and the other children. Yet, she still ends up encouraging street racing. 

Cybertronians don’t typically fully seem to grasp humanity or our realistic limitations as a species, and while most of them do generally try their best to avoid problems or injuries of any humans they work with, there are plenty of situations and conversations throughout all Transformers media that sort of emphasises as a running theme that they really don’t 100% internalise that yes, this shit is wildly dangerous for humans. Like, all of it.

Arcee was doing manoeuvres that I’m sure she could recover from if they went poorly. But could Jack? No, and she wasn’t fully considering that in this moment.

Unfortunately, although Arcee handwaves it as “just this once”, it only takes once for this to result in serious injury or death. A dumbass teenager managed to goad her into risking Jack’s safety for the sake of beating said dumbass teenager.

Even the most mature and strict Cybertronians are prone to screwing around now and then. 

The more familiar they are with humans, the more lax they generally seem to get about keeping an eye on measuring out what they do in accordance to human tolerances and limitations. 

We sometimes see this in reverse, which is kind of how this is handled in TFP; After this episode, in Legacy, she digs into Jack and Smokescreen brutally. So at least she learned something. 

But Cybertronians are people, and they are still people in alt-mode, and no person is ever perfect.

Sometimes, your giant space robot guardian is going to turn into a car, let you get in, and then ten minutes later you are going at brutal speeds barely missing instant death every other second because another space robot called them a weenie or something.

Everyone gets mad sometimes, and does dumb shit. The thing is, “just this once” is not acceptable when driving with a much more delicate human. 

The same thing applies in real life; No adult worth shit would ever risk driving dangerously with a younger person in/on the vehicle with them. 

But people are people, and people still do dumb shit sometimes. And sometimes that dumb shit has a body count. It is unfortunately human, and apparently Cybertronian, nature. 

Conclusion!

I’m leaving this as it is for now because I have to get ready for work. lmao

I had other stuff I also wanted to say/touch on here, but I write a lot and I know nobody wants to read a million pages about this. (Although if you do, tell me, because I absolutely could do that write up.) 

If you read all of this, thank you! 

[hiimsociallyawkward]

a servant of two masters

hi friends welcome back to me aimlessly ranting about merlin. up today we have 4.06 and this episode. wow. literally just the title gives me everything i need and i'm absolutley here for the chaos that will ensue. hi bestie @lady-ofmagic-andstars

i love them in their capes

i want a cloak

dude the 'oh it's not gonna happen' and then it happens trope is so dumb but i laugh every time

notice how the knights ripped off their capes

dude people are falling off of horses and out

MERLIN

ok ok but how is he injured. ik this is rated for kids but i really dk how badly merlin is injured. it looks like just his shoulder but he shouldn't be almost dying like his yk?

:,) arthru making jokes

ok but i love arthur taking care of merlin

alskdjflsadk them trying to make jokes to make each other feel better :,)

stop arthur. stop telling the truth merlin's not dying here 😭

bestie vibes only deadass

HAHA

a s s

side note, the site i get my screenshots from- this picture has 61 views while others average maybe like 10-15?? perverts HAHA just kidding

sok i'm actually really curious as to what merlin's injury is

alsdjf;lasdfjsaldfjsaldf merlin making the rocks fall

idk if it's jut the angling but i felt like the enemies were way too close for merlin to create an entire rock barrier. i don't have any screen shot evidence but so you're just going to have to take my word for it

ok but like who even are these men. they were working for morgana trying to capture arthur?

and what's morgana going to do once she has arthur? kill him and take his place on the throne? remember how well that turned out last time she tried that? no one wanted her. idk idk morgana is just confusing as to what she wants

pls die agravaine

haha strangely fond of the boy? there's nothing strange about it

ok i laughed but i also felt bad when morgana splashed merlin awake and flailed around like a fish

dude merlin is so snarky here and i'm HERE for it

ok i like the knights being competent. thank you thank you

and now they're riding back into camelot with their capes on? you're telling me they traced back their steps to find their capes, dusted them off to make sure that they weren't too dirty and didn't have any leaves or branches still sticking to it before riding back to camelot? iconic

poor gaius. ok he's the worst but he does think of merlin as his son and this makes me sad

ok i have a dumb question. do you think merlin understands whenever other magic users are casting spells? ok i feel like this is a dumb question now. but like, is magic a language? are all incantations in a different language, so when other person who knows magic is watching you- they know what you're trying to do and such? i feel like "of course they'd know" but i'm basing that assumption on hp where everyone knows that alohomora is alohomora and where everyone knows that lumos is lumos. but what about here? does merlin know what she's incanting? can he slightly understand it even if he's never seen/done it before? is magic a language like latin, and even if you aren't completely fluent, you and parse together things and make an assumptions?

arthur is just so sad here

i just, i have to have these here

yes bby figure out that we have a traitor

gaius is not slick in the slightest. yes. look at the traitor king

wow morgana being able to bond with the snake? i wonder how

ok question, does the fomorroh have some sort of loyalty to whoever calls them?

✨kill arthur pendragon✨

ok that snake going in his neck is actually scary

pretty castle counter: 5

btw this is actually my zoom background sometimes. it depends from call to call but it changes between this pretty castle and peeta mellark

G E O R G E

ok i've seen all the tumblr posts but it doesn't get less funny. the 'merlin's missing and we can't find him so we're going to replace him with another manservent dressed EXACTLY like merlin so arthur feels better' makes me chuckle every time

i would like to have that for breakfast

i like the loyalty arthur thank you. i love the loyalty pls. i love that they're friends. like, i love the romance but i love just people being friends too

ok this whole scene. arthur wanting to look for merlin because he has to at least try, gwen just wanting arthur to be careful and to come back to her, gwaine being buds. i love all the friendships in this and just yes thank you

ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok i'm not at the hug scene yet but i know it's coming and i'm beyond excited

ok this sound track is so cute.

saldkfj;asldkfjasldkfsd

matching icons for you and your best friends

deadass if someone wants to change their tumblr icons so we can match hmu bc i'm 100% down with that

another pretty castle scene

SASSY MERLIN PLS

ok ik this is dumb to comment on because i feel like it's not tremendously hard to execute but i love the differences that colin made in regular merlin and fomorroh merlin. it's the best

they say it later in the episode but i find it hilarious how bad of an assassin merlin is

dude pls you're pouring poison in front of EVERYONE else?

BOG MAN. ok guys i'm calling you guys bog mans now.

ASLDJFALSDFJS THE JEALOUSY SCENE

i am cringey but laughing at the same time you don't understand why am i this childish

ok but arthur is being so sweet right here. i feel like he's not trying to be showy in front of gwen, i feel like he wants merlin to rest and that's so sweet. he's so patient right here and i love him

i miss the gwen and merlin friendship actually

dude merlin is roasting gaius so hard today

leon geeking out over weapons is so cute. omg he's such a tiny nerd i love him

laskjflasdfj THIS SCENE. this makes up for the stew jokes that i may or may not still be mad about

i love that the knights LITERALLY turn a blind eye it's actually hilarious

LOOK AT MERLIN BEING COMPETENT?? HE'S SO SMART WITH THE ARROW RIGGING THING

it's literally treason leon pls and you're laughing you're the best 😭😭

i wish we had a pervical back story arc

ok i think it's dumb that i laughed when merlin ducked but i stand by that

ok why do i feel bad for arthur a little. he's talking abt some semi-deep stuff. not deep deep but like, he's trying to ask for advice from his friend, his close advisor. he would've never talked to merlin like this is season 1-2 but here he is, talking about trust. and MERLIN is trying to MURDER HIM. yes. i admit it's a little funny when i'm just watching merlin trip over things and such, but when i listen to arthur talking i feel slightly sad

literallly. merlin's passed out on the floor and arthur doesn't even think anything is wrong

gwen's face when she knocked merlin out is so cute

oop. why is arthur standing in agravaine's door way like an absolute robot

cyes arthur. figure him out

i hate agravaine. i just want arthur to be happy. he's only trusting agravaine because agravaine is family.

stfu agravaine 'you're all that's left of my dear sister' SHUT THE FRONT DOOR

ok there's a repeat of the castle from earlier but i'll spare you

pls this bath scene is so awkward. tt not being able to trust anyone anymore and we're laughing at merlin but arthur's talking so sad and deep

pls this bath scene is so awkward. that's all the notes i have

again, i miss gwen and merlin

merlin is MONCHING on those berries. i'm craving berries now

ok but like. yk that pouch that gaius is using to make the forromoh dormant? what if merlin tucked it in his neckerchief as a precaution. i'm just saying.

aslfkjasdaskdjf the tavern

yall why did merlin have to stop his horse to drink the potion

i want the knights to have a cool band name or smth yk what i mean?

i like that merlin is still a little in the camelot red. it's not the same shade but yk what i mean

HAHA LEON AND PERCIVAL BEING PUSHED TOGETHER. I JUST KEPT ON SCREAMING SUBTEXT SUBTEXT

damn morgana wants RESUKTS. i dont blame her

the frist interaction with merlin and morgana in the hut is so awkward. pls.idek how to comment on it

deadass morgana's dress is so pretty.

magic fight! magic fight!

stfu 'rightfully mine' pls

hehe there's a leaf in his hair

ok i feel like i should've commented more on the magic fight but idk bro

so ik that colin was in this whole episode but it really only just now feels like merlin is here and i think that's fun

arthur is the cutest. i'm loving this dynamic you have no idea. i live live live live LIVE off banter. pls

guys i'm sad apparently i can only put 10 pics in a post but pls enjoy this one pic of arthur right here 😭

ok idk abt you but i'd love to hear jokes abt brass

agaragvaine pls die already

YOU'RE SUCH A PERV LITERALLY

GO

AWAY

NOW

dude that last scene was actually really pretty and i'm sad that i can't attach it now

anyways thanks for reading my long ass rambles. but i'll be back next week to the secret sharer i'll catch you on the flip side