#but I’ve only seen some episodes casually with my sister so I feel like an imposter

[sadiewinchester]

A few weeks ago I didn’t care about 911 and then my sister started watching it and now I’m gonna be genuinely so sad if the two gay firemen don’t kiss soon? How tf have you guys put up with this for YEARS ?!!!!?!!!!

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Okay so Promo costume meta time - this might be mostly incoherent ramblings because I’m still recovering - is recovery even possible at this point?? Some of this is copied from answers to asks i’ve given in the past day - its easier than rewriting the same thing out twice and I’m all about saving myself some time!

easy stuff first and under the cut!

Angela being in Orange in the sit down - these are usually a costume - so we’re continuing to see Athena in orange this season - since the black out and Harry storyline and the healing after - we’ve seen her in Orange a couple of times - Orange is a happy colour and it also denotes emotional strength so yay for Athena being in a good place! its symbolic of where she’s at in her relationship with Bobby as its around him when she’s worn it before - the casino - when they were having fun and being all in love!!

Maddie - I have a whole post on Maddie so I’m not going to go into massive detail here - I should have it out tomorrow - needless to say the promo stuff is interesting - all the casual baggy clothing - she’s seeking comfort and to hide her self a bit - its about protection. The check waterfall coat - its a check print so whatever is happening while she’s wearing it is not going to be happy time!! ( my money is on that being when Chim finds her and she’s not happy about it!)

 The green striped outfit - I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is from a later episode in 5b - green is a colour of harmony and balance - its about health and feeling safe and secure - it is also about growth and prosperity. Its also fun that Chim is wearing green in the sam scene - but it is check printed so 👀 there might be a problem or bump in the road coming as part of or after we see that scene!

Eddie - all dark colours - we are in it people! also interesting that the two sobbing scenes - Eddie with the baseball bat and Maddie in the ocean - they are both wearing a muddy grey/green/brown so we’re definitely paralleling them and we’re seeing colours so often associated with depression and 

Anyway back to Eddie - The knee rip in his jeans is interesting because it’s not like Eddie at all - but it fits in with a little theme - s1 Buck wears torn/ distressed jeans to his awful therapy appointment (interestingly it’s the same knee that’s ripped) I know what you’re thinking - but that wasn’t a good therapy appointment etc.

But here’s the thing it’s not about the therapy appointment or what happened there - it’s about Bucks mindset - this is the first time Buck has experienced losing someone and he doesn’t know what to do about it - he’s lucky in that he confides in Bobby who pushes him toward therapy, and yes that didn’t exactly work out in this case (although Buck would claim it did and eventually got his actual therapy from talking to Devon’s sister) but it did set Buck on the course of being receptive to therapy going forward - as we see later on.

Now here’s where that ties to Eddie in the promo scene - Eddie has probably spent his life being told to suck it up, put it away and move on, that therapy is for weak people etc so that’s what he’s always done - repressed everything and dismissed therapy - except when he was forced to to keep his job - no wonder he didn’t ‘click’ with Frank. So that rip is like bucks rips - tears in his armour that is going to make him receptive to therapy and talking going forward - he’s reached the point where he knows he really does need help - that he’s let buck see those rips and his breakdown is testament to their relationship- only Buck is the one who Eddie will allow in this far - so buck will be the one to guide him to therapy and this time - because Eddie has the support he’s never had before - therapy is going to work.

The shirt is a whole other fun thing - the use of a similar but darker and more muddy shade to the Ana break up one is again intentional - Eddie thought that breaking up with Ana would stop his panic attacks - that he’d be magically cured by ending the thing he saw as causing them. Only what he actually did was open the defences a little - Ana is just the straw that broke the camels back - we’ve seen more stuff trickling out in 5A until Eddie leaves the 118 in 5x10 - again the jacket is a muddied shade of green - it’s a bit brighter because it’s a decision he’s made (it’s the tiny bit of relief at easing the burden a fraction) think is it’s widened those defences a bit more - now everything is coming out faster and with more force until we hit breakdown - when he’s in the muddiest coloured shirt we’ve seen him in.

Eddie’s shirts while muted and generally neutral in tone have always been clean colours (and by that I mean they are an obvious colour - cream, black, tan, grey, olive green etc) whereas this shirt is murky looking - it’s a brown/grey/green - it just looks depressed and confused. And that’s the point - his defences are more or less destroyed by this point - all the stuff he’s repressed up to now is flooding out and it’s a murky mess (that one Ana left him to deal with!!!) But, now its flooded out, it can be picked through and sorted and dealt with.

So that’s what those shirts are saying - they’re showing eddies decent to breaking point in an additional visual way that you as a viewer will subconsciously pick up on (unless like me you’re trained in costume and colour theory so it’s less sub conscious and more concious!) and it adds layers to the effectiveness of the storytelling

Buck

The Eddie sobbing scene - I’m pretty sure it’s a shirt - buck has gone shirt crazy in season 5 - which is all about buttoning up - protecting oneself or choosing to keep things hidden by behaving somewhat stiffly - the phrase in the dictionary has this definition - (of a person) not inclined to reveal thoughts or information; reserved or inhibited. 👀👀👀 In the screenshot I brightened it looked more yellow ochre/ orangey, but there is literally so little of it it’s hard to tell - being right at the edge of the screen means the colour gets distorted.

I do think there’s a pretty decent chance it’s the one from Olis bts photo (again terrible lighting helping me with the actual colour!!) and if so we’re looking at puce type colour - which is a dark reddish brown - kinda like dried blood!! If it is puce it’s a super super interesting choice - combining the colour meanings of brown and red together - red = passion, confidence, danger and energy - and Brown = stability, dependability, comfort, reliability, support and protection!

So by combining the two you get a colour that is showing how much Buck is going to be there for Eddie - how he’s intending to be his rock, fight for his corner, supporting him and comforting him, and do it all with a determined and earnest passion! (And I am so here for that!!)

He has a black tee under his shirt in the bts whereas it’s a white shirt in the Buck actually scenes and this is interesting if it plays out how many of us are thinking it might - if he’s wearing it and abandons Tay Kay to go to Eddie’s side - then it’s reflective of both his relationship with Tay Kay and Eddie. The black tee showing us his relationship is not a good one - it’s soulless and dark - not in a good place.

If you think about where his relationship is likely to be with Eddie at this point as well - we know Buck isn’t initially going to understand why Eddie would leave the 118 - Oliver told us so. So if that relationship is still distant and a bit strained - again not necessarily in the best place at that moment and again born out of a lack of true understanding of the other person but we know that this will change for Buck - him seeing Eddie at his worst and lowest point will clue him into why Eddie left and he can step up and in with Eddie.

That’s why it’s important the Eddie scene would come second if it plays out this way and we get Buck leaving Tay to be there for Eddie- because although the costume is important for the first scene - it’s true meaning lies in the second. And that’s where the over shirt comes into play - a puce colour - dried blood which in and of itself is an interesting colour choice for that scene - having Eddie break down in-front of buck wearing the colour of dried blood when Eddie is potentially reliving the shooting - it becomes even more interesting if Buck is indeed wearing a white shirt with dark pinstripes in the scene where Maddie enters his apartment because then we are very definitely in 4x13/14 parallel territory - particularly if we reflect on Bucks thought process towards Taylor at that time - when he didn’t trust her not to put her job first, when he thought she was there to try and get the story - all things that we continue to see from her!!!!!!!!! 

Sorry if this is a bit of a rambly mess - my brain is still trying to unscramble itself from the promo and all the possibilities and the knowledge that even though we might have a vague idea - we don’t truly know the extent of what they have in store for us!! as always my inbox is always open for questions!

tags: sorry if i forgot you - shout at me and I’ll add you!!

@loveyourownsmiilee @lovecolibri @adamsparirsh @prettyboyandthekid @fiona-fififi @kitkatpancakestack @ktinastrikesback @mandzuking17 @oneawkwardcookie @outrunningthedark @reallysmartladymariecurie @theladyyavilee​ @leothil​ 

[jennana501]

A Case for Rexsoka

I’ve been around the block when it comes to ships. I’ve seen people obsess over them, and I too have been driven mad by obsession. I was a hardcore original avatar fan and I was OBSESSED with shipping Toph and Sokka together. Any time they so much as made an interaction I over analyzed it and picked it apart looking for clues that somehow would prove that my hunches were correct. It was because I related with both characters, and I loved their chemistry. I wanted them to have a romantic relationship because it would feel like some sort of personal validation.

I’m an adult now and nothing has changed. But it has been a while since I’ve desperately shipped two characters together that are not obviously romantically involved with one another, or who could be romantic behind the scenes or beyond the story shown.

Until Rex and Ahsoka.

And I’ve seen people be adamantly against it. 

“No no no it’s just a brother/sister relationship.” 

“No it’s gross she is a child”.

And of course being disagreed with on the internet can drive a person crazy, and instead of individually arguing with dozens of people online, I’m making this post once and for all to explain why I think Rex and Ahsoka have romantic feelings for each other. Especially Rex.

The argument I’ve seen, that their deep passion, commitment, love, admiration, and respect for one another (which are all so obvious you’d have to be...silly to not see it) are felt in a platonic fashion. Which, for the first 6 seasons and 8 episodes, I would totally agree.

But then Ahsoka comes back. And let’s face it. She is a woman. Age wise, she’s around 17, but everything from the maturity of her Lekku (which weirdly don’t get all that longer, especially compared to other Tagrutan women) to her poise and confidence, to her prowess as a warrior, a user of the force, and her ability to command soldiers as well as control her emotions points to her being an adult woman. She’s no Snips anymore; she’s no child. She’s grown up. And how her peers react to her illustrates how they now view her as an adult.

First there is Obi-wan. Obi-wan has always been a mentor to her, a sort of second Master. Obi-wan never hesitated to guide and Ahsoka or offer his council. He is proud of her when she succeeds, and will admonish her when she makes mistakes. When she returns and he sees her as a woman, he changes the way he treats her. He acknowledges her maturity by addressing her as an equal. He doesn’t admonish her. Instead he discusses with her, challenging her ideas and letting her offer an argument for them instead of putting them down and telling her how she should think or act. He also comes to her in his time of need, trusting her to help him with Anakin.

Then there is Anakin. We all know of Anisoka shippers, and they are perfectly able to ship and enjoy said ship, but we can all acknowledge that it is a crack pairing with no basis in the canon. Anakin portrays the perfect kind of brotherly love. He is excited to see Ahsoka, and is stunned by her unexpected reappearance. Things are harder for Anakin because he is used to their fun banter and sibling-like companionship. He’s constantly shut down with her business like manner and he struggles with coming to terms with the fact that she isn’t a little kid sister anymore. She is an adult with a mission and a plan. When he looks at her, he is endearing. He loves her. Admires her. And he can’t wait to pick up where they left off. There’s joy and adoration in his face. He is proud of her and what she has become, but he also feels alienated and even hurt because of how her adulthood has changed their dynamic.

Then there is Rex. When he first sees her, he wants nothing more than to reassure her that she still belongs. The clones had accepted her into their family. As far as they were concerned, she was one of them. When he looks at her for the first time, he’s beaming with the same adoration as he had had for her before, but also with a solemn awe at what she has become and what she has grown into. He welcomes her back into his life without hesitation.

But then there is a moment things shift so drastically that I paused the show and re-watched it half a dozen times. We all know it and love it. This face he gives Ahsoka. The Look.

What we see here is something we have never, EVER seen in Rex for 7 whole seasons. And it is my opinion that this is the first time Rex has been able to feel and express that he is attracted to Ahsoka. In other words, Rex has a sexual awakening.

Up until this point, Rex has been a sexless character. Nothing he does is flirtatious, sexy, or at all suggestive that he has those feelings inside him at all. Every sexual being has a moment where they are first animalistically drawn to another being. Characters who have already had this moment are easy to pick out. Obi wan. Anakin. Ventress. These characters have already experienced their sexual awakening. Ahsoka has too. Lux was her first object of attraction.

But Rex has never had this moment. Until this reaction.

I know some of you might be thinking “but Ahsoka gives a very similar look to Anakin, does that mean she is sexually attracted to HIM?” It’s a very good point. Ahsoka and Anakin share some cheeky playful looks during “Old Friends Not Forgotten”. We see many characters give similar looks to other characters, but does this mean it means the same thing as when Rex does it? The short answer is no.

When animators design a character, they establish the “range of emotion” for that character. You can easily see this when you look back at how many times you see Rex break from his stoic, captain’s face. He rarely laughs, smiles, or emotes in any way. This is why when we see him emote it is exciting to us as an audience. A character like Ahsoka or Anakin commonly show a wide variety of expressions. Ahsoka is much more likely to give a cheeky look than Rex is. So “the look” for Rex, means a lot more when he is doing than it does when another character does it, say Fives or even Obi-Wan.

Which means the writers are trying to tell us something about this moment. 

This moment has changed Rex’s and Ahsoka’s relationship. 

Now does this mean that they are going to go bang each other immediately? Does this mean the second they are alone after “Victory and Death” they start an intense, sexual relationship? Of course not. That’s not what this ship is about at this time. But the reason many of us ship it is because suddenly they don’t feel like brother and sister anymore. It isn’t entirely platonic. And the show does a good job to further emphasize this as they come closer and closer both emotionally, and physically during the finale.

Blocking is a huge factor in visual storytelling. During the finale, Rex and Ahsoka are blocked in a way that makes them as close as physically possible on the screen. This communicates to the audience that they are closer now than they have ever been. As Jedi and Clone Trooper. As friends, and as companions, their bond forged in the fires of war, struggling to find meaning in life as soldiers.

In contrast, look how Ahsoka and Anakin are blocked in their scenes. There is nearly always a gap between them, illustrating that they are distanced from each other emotionally. Rex is even visually inserted into the gap between them in several instances. Anakin and Ahsoka are growing apart, but she and Rex are growing closer.

We get to experience Rex and Ahsoka engaging in actions and conversations that we had rarely seen before. From casual banter, to moments of intense intimacy, to emotional peaks, Rex and Ahsoka interact more in these four episodes than in the previous six seasons. Part of this is because their maturity gap has closed. Ahsoka is finally Rex’s equal in experience and maturity. It is also in part because it is a unique dynamic. No Obi-wan. No Anakin. Rex and Ahsoka are equal leaders of the 332nd. There’s also the fact that they are put into life threatening situations and have no one else but each other.

But there is that “look” that is given at the beginning of all this that suggests something else, that as their bond undoubtedly becomes strong as beskar, there is an element of it that takes their relationship from the platonic to the romantic.

I feel every detail, moment, and piece of dialogue in the finale tells the story of this bond. 

Many instances of their strong emotional bond have been spread throughout the internet, with most ready to acknowledge that they have a connection unlike any other, one that may even be described as a “force” connection. These last four episodes are so exciting because we see two friends reunited, but then we get to watch as their relationship transforms.

Even disregarding their implied attraction to each other physically, they dive into each other and hold on tight. Ahsoka shares deep personal worries with Rex, and Rex and her are shown opening up to each other in ways they have never opened up before.

We were all floored and dumbfounded at scenes such as these that show these characters at their most vulnerable. But they decide to be vulnerable together. Is it because they are all that is left of their 501st family? It part, this is definitely true. But by being this vulnerable they transform their relationship into something very different from what they had before. It will never be the same again, and it will be near impossible to back out of the emotional intimacy that these two have participated in. Once you have formed that kind of an attachment with someone, there is no going back, and as is seen in rebels, these two maintain that strong connection even after years of being apart.

This goes beyond their sexual desires or needs. They’ve forged a bond that cannot be broken. They have shared minds, shared pain and agony that only the other can understand. They’ve been isolated from the world, and all they have left is each other.

And at the end of the series, when we have Rex and Ahsoka broken, their world flip upside down and everything they ever valued or cared about lies in ruins before them, the idea that they still have each other is that beautiful seed of hope Star Wars is so good at preserving. Those of us who believe that their relationship could be romantic want good things for Rex and Ahsoka. We want them to have that love and share it with each other. Maybe only for a few moments, but having known it would be better than both of them living and dying without having that experience. 

When we see the two in Rebels, for me it confirms that these two love each other deeply. But their lives can never be lived in a normal fashion. They cannot even be together as partners in life. The Empire has stolen this from them. The tragedy of this ship is that it can never be the way we want it to be. Rex will age and die long before Ahsoka is even halfway through her own life. They cannot live with one another. They cannot wake each morning with each other, at least not at the point we see them in rebels. 

But they continue to love each other. Even over distance, even knowing that mortality will claim them with only a fraction of the memories that they deserve with one another. 

So please, the next time you see some art or a fic, or a post like this, think of what I had to say. Rexsoka is about two adults, their lives destroyed at the hands of Sidious, but in defiance they still forge a bond that he could never break or take from them. And that to me is beautiful and something to celebrate.

Side note: I spent a ton of time making gifs but they never would work and so I had to use screenshots instead :(

EDIT: At the request of the OG poster of a few gifs, I have replaced them have also made some grammatical changes. 

[jasontoddssoulmate]

I made an account for the sole purpose of this TUA fic concept

I’m a sucker for those “the characters read the books/watch the series” fics and I’ve read a little for TUA but I just had the idea:

The Hargreeves kids watching the two seasons but instead of just the seven of them, their birth mothers are brought in to watch as well

Maybe have the birth mothers family (if they have any) watch it with them 

This happens before everything. Before Ben’s death, before Five’s disappearance, before they even have their names. The kids, One through Seven, are brought in. Maybe when they’re old enough to get the gist of what’s going on, but before they’re 13.

These 6 young women are brought in (because I adore that Luther and Five being twins is canon in the comics and I love the mention of it), and they’re confused because maybe The Umbrella Academy isn’t internationally well known so the kids are familiar but they can’t put the name to the face. Not until they introduce themselves, anyways, and suddenly they’re face to face with the baby that they gave away years ago.

Maybe a few of them regret it, maybe they tried to forget it, maybe they spend so much of their time thinking about it or maybe they’re overjoyed that their baby seems to be doing so well. 

But their names. 

There’s just so much about them that doesn’t feel,,, so right? Maybe that’s not the word for it but they’re too polite sometimes, their casually cruel treatment towards their sister isn’t normal and the way that they simultaneously act entitled and inferior towards each other isn’t suppose to be as normal as the kids make it out to be. 

All in all, the women are confused and maybe a bit wary of their casual usage of powers among each other that’s normal to the siblings as much as it is abnormal to the birth mothers. 

But communication is easy since each child learned their own mother language as well as the language of their siblings birth place and then some which only seems to remind the women that holy shit these kids are technically rich because of their father

The Hargreeves though? They’re confused and wary as hell. They may not have been introduced as The Inaugural Class of The Umbrella Academy yet (or maybe they have considering what your timeline is) but they’ve been training for most of their life and the situation is baffling. Here are these random people that they’ve never met before (at least to their knowledge) and they’ve never had to go outside to interact with others, not really at least. 

So it makes sense that they go for polite but threatening. They maybe decide unanimously that the weaker willed ones like Four, Six and Seven are discreetly protected behind their older (in spirit) siblings, One, Two, Three and Five. 

But they’re no real threat, its obvious in the way that the Hispanic woman uses such an endearing term like “mijo/a” and the way that the Russian woman has an ever present smile on her face and such a sweet disposition that reminds them of their littlest sibling and hey her eyes look just like Seven 

So after a while, they’re more open to being relaxed. Not Five though, he’s always been just a little paranoid and being a 58-year-old in a 13-year-old body never had anything to do with it. So he’s got a harsh personality but the Danish woman doesn’t seem to be deterred. He kind of reminds her of her older twin brother who acts so harshly, but who she knows loves her so much.  

So here are 7 siblings and 6 women and maybe family that was there for the women when they needed them the most. And maybe the person(s) behind this decide to be kept anonymous but they oh so want the children to get to know what being cared for is like. Maybe these women get to know the consequences of their actions or the children learn that the one who birthed them had their reasons. And it’s no excuse but it’s also not their fault. Both parties should be able to feel what they feel because it’s a complicated and maybe painful situation. 

The children lose their respect for their father every episode. Even One, who they all know cherished the favoritism but it doesn’t get in the way of his horror when he finds out that he used to lock Four in the mausoleum, still does if the flashbacks are anything to go by because not Four, not the kindest and brightest of their siblings. 

And when they learn of Seven’s powers and the reason why they are never present, they are understandably upset. They feel rage and disbelief that she had such a crucial part of herself ripped away at such a young age, because they know that their powers are like another limb. They’re born with it and they grow up with it and they were able to live their life with it so they feel rage. Rage that Seven had been so violated. Rage that the Seven they know isn’t really the Seven she was suppose to grow up to be. The Seven they knew as toddlers was sweet towards them but had a mean protective streak a mile wide that could never be controlled, not even by their father. The Seven they know now is so meek and desperate for attention. The Russian woman looks the most devastated as she thinks of the baby girl she got to hold for only a few hours before she was whisked away by a rich old man who is turning out to be the monster that one often hears about in television. 

But the women? They watch as the children in front of them, maybe a little damaged and emotionally constipated but so obviously protective and caring for each other, grow to be the grow ups in the screen above them that grow up and grow apart after so much tragedy. 

They watch as seven eventually becomes five. 

How Luther is sent to isolation for years and he goes along with it in a bid to continue to please their father.

How Diego continues to rebel because he wasn’t able to growing up but also maybe because he wants to spite his father, no matter how much he protests that he could care less what his father thinks.

How Allison goes through a divorce and loses her parental rights to even see her daughter due to her dependence of her powers that leaves her devastated. 

How Klaus is an addict who desperately wishes to get rid of the ghosts that have followed him all his life. 

How Five disappears only a little while after their current timeline.

How Ben was brutally killed by his own powers, never getting to grow up and become his own person. 

How Vanya can’t seem to do anything but go through the motions of her life, maybe having a little hope that she’ll be seen this time around, but is quickly squashed from Diego’s disparaging comments and the casual dismissal of her from her living siblings. 

They watch all this, and feel sadness and rightful anger that their babies lead the life of ex-child superheroes. The life of abused children. The life of children who had only each other. 

But was it really enough? Was it enough to know that they loved each other but had a hard time showing it and owning up to it due to fear of their father? Due to the constant comparisons and the way Sir Reginald had them turn on each other. 

But they knew it was enough. They see it in how Diego waits for Klaus to drive him around even after he had expresses annoyance beforehand, in the joy on Allison’s face when she sees Klaus again after so long, in how Five makes sure to check up on Klaus after his kidnapping, on Luther’s face when he apologizes to Vanya after realizing his own misgivings, in Ben’s task of continuing to follow his brother around even when it pains him and in Klaus trying to comfort Luther after he finds the unopened correspondents. They see it in the support they show Vanya as she goes to check on Harlan.

It had to be enough to know that after all they went through, they still care for one another and at the end of the day, would protect one another just as they were as One through Seven. 

So they watch what would be the Hargreeve’s kids misadventures, they watch as they grow together and grow apart just to grow together again, much stronger than before. 

They express sadness and disbelief when they see where Five ends up, they get mad when Leonard throws Vanya’s pills away, they grieve when they learn that Ben is dead, they’re embarrassed but find it hilarious whenever Klaus cracks an inappropriate joke, they become protective when there’s allusion to Vanya having sex, and are rightfully ready to throw down with Leonard as they watch their littlest sibling get gaslit into believing her family hates her as he nitpicks all of her interactions with her family. 

But just as they express their feelings over what happens to their family, they feel an immense amount of exasperation towards their older selves because so much could be fixed if they only talked to each other. 

They watch and despair over the missed opportunity that is Leonard in the same house as them just as they find out what his role is in the apocalypse.

Four tears up as he watched Klaus and Dave’s reunion be undone after all the heartache. 

Seven cringes when Vanya dismisses Five’s claims that he had been stuck in an apocalyptic wasteland and suggests that he’s gone crazy after his stint with time travel. 

Three feels her heart drop to her stomach as the flashback shows what becomes the moment that she faces the hard truth that come with her use of her powers.

Five feels himself flush in embarrassment as he watched two version of himself in the future, one that looks not much older than he does currently, go through paradox psychosis. 

Six feels frustration and a fierce grief that leaves him confused because he’s still alive he’s not dead, but I don’t have much longer. 

One feels horror as he watches himself hurt his siblings one after the other with a sense of helplessness because this isn’t me, I wouldn’t do this but I already did, why would I hurt my siblings, I’m Number One I have to be the one who protects them- 

The women, on the other hand, see themselves in their children. 

The French woman sees how her daughter and granddaughter, it seems, both look like a carbon copy of herself and her own mother. 

The Danish woman sees herself and her twin brother in Luther and Five. Sees her own personality reflected in Luther and her brothers personality in Five. Sees how her twins care just as much for each other and their siblings as herself and her brother do each other.

The Hispanic woman sees Diego’s fierce sense of justice that leaves others in the dust, and sees herself as she fought to keep her boy but ultimately lost him just as Diego loses Eudora. She thinks to herself like mother like son and bitterly laughs to herself but she’s so grateful that Diego had a mother who cared for him just as she cared for him because she often though about him and always made sure to commemorate his birthday. 

The German woman can’t help but see herself in her boy. Can’t help but see her little brother in him. Can’t help but see her older brother in him. Because Klaus is so joyful but he hides his pain behind a mask like her younger brother, he’s so loving towards his siblings like her older brother, and so nonsensical like herself. So like herself, down to the curly hair and the addiction. Even if she was able to overcome it with support from her family, it pains her and leaves her in despair to see Klaus and can’t find fault in those he had around him because she sees how much they try and sees how hard the Hargreeves find expressing emotion is to others. 

The Asian woman sees how sweet and shy her youngest is and thinks only of her oldest, who reminds her so much of him and can only despair in seeing that he didn’t live as long as her oldest had. She can only ask herself why her children don’t seem to be able to see themselves to adulthood but can only be grateful that even in death he has someone with him.

The Russian woman knows that her husband sees her in little number Seven, in Vanya, no matter how little that is. Maybe their personalities aren’t so similar because Seven is shy but she’s got the sweetest heart and so clearly loves her siblings. She has the same smile that she has and her little doe eyes remind her of herself when she was younger. She’s so small next to her siblings, just like herself. 

So they see themselves in these kids, these grown ups. But so do the Hargreeves. 

They see how Luther looks like what the Danish woman would look like as a man and how Five looks exactly like a younger version of the Danish man who introduced himself as the woman's older brother. 

They see how Two has the same skin tone and facial structure as the Hispanic woman. 

They see that Allison looks exactly like the French woman and see the same in Claire. 

They see Four’s curly hair and slim build in the German woman. 

They notice how Six shares the same dark hair and lower facial features. 

They see Seven’s eyes and smile and short stature in the Russian woman. 

So maybe they don’t know them well enough to see what the women see, but they grow to see it overtime because they spend so much time there, in this suspended room in time.

The women insist on getting to know them and vice versa. They insist that they have to talk about their feelings and assure them or gently scold them, depending on the reason, for what they feel because god do these children need to learn how to talk more about their emotions in a healthy way.

They get closer to the children and start to really see their childish side. They all fight over the silliest things, and become pouty when attention isn’t being drawn over to them. They crave physical affection, even Five who won’t admit that his maternal uncle patting him and One of the head made him feel all gooey inside. They make faces towards foods that they don’t like and still prefer junk food over real food. 

So maybe it’s harder to let themselves act like children because they’re being conditioned to not “be childish” but even then they have their lapses in control. Four enters a state of panic after being reminded of his time in the mausoleum. One feels overwhelming guilt when he sees how Luther hurts Klaus and reminds himself that he’s the one that needs to protect them, as the leader and self proclaimed older sibling. Five feels himself cry for the first time in a long while when he sees how his siblings act towards him in the future and realize it hurts him deeply because he knows that he’s messed up their lives a lot but can’t they see that he only want to keep them alive, he doesn’t want to see them die again, he can’t-

But instead of being shamed into controlling their emotions, they are comforted and reassured. Four’s birth mother helps ground him and counts his breathing with him to keep him from falling further into his panic. One get’s reassured by his birth mother that his future self isn’t his current self. That everyone in the room has seen just how much he cares for his siblings and knows he would do anything for them. The twins uncle gives into his urge and hugs Five, whispering in a hushed tone that it’s okay to cry, to let it all out. He whispers that his older siblings are being idiots and if they knew just how much their actions were hurting you, they wouldn’t hesitate to apologize and hug you too. His words only make Five cry harder. 

So they are cared for and allowed to be themselves fully and can be childish to their hearts content. And their birth families watch on in amazement and adoration. 

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I have so much more that I’ll probably add later, but basically I want them to be cared for, allowed to care for each other and learn to express themselves better. I want to see them get to have a good relationship with an adult and if possible their birth mothers. 

Pls share links and stuff if you get inspired, I’m not much for writing fanfic but I really do want to see something like this. I’d read the shit out of it. I have so much more that I want to add but I’ll probably do something about it later. 

[likesrandomstuff]

Avalance Fic Recommendations Part 3

Please see previous instalments below

Part 1: Bite Sized

Part 2: Snacks

Meals (Between 20,000 and 75,000 words)

When you want to live with a version of these characters for a while

I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends by Addictedtotvshows

My tags: Sara is an action movie star and Ava is a model, neither know each other, Ava is stuck for a couple of days

For this fic you have to suspend disbelief that it takes days for Ava to find another plane flight to get from one part of the US to another, when there’s no bad weather. Looking past that, really fun celebrity AU, and I’m a sucker for Taylor Swift titles. Ava’s stuck in town, Sara is a kind stranger and lets Ava use her home gym. Things escalate from there. Cameos from other Legends and Arrow character.

I've never fallen from quite this high, Falling into your ocean eyes by AvaHasAClosetMurderBoard

My tags: Soulmate AU, in canon besides that, when you mistake your soulmate mark for a pen line

I love soulmates, and matching tattoos is a great trope in that field. Told from Ava’s point of view, and she doesn’t think she has one. The tattoos can develop the closer you come to your person. Ava thought everyone was born with theirs’. The one Ava gets is so cool, and how it relates to Sara’s is so perfect. A lot of this drama could have been avoided if Ava didn’t cover hers’. The Legends don’t let Ava run away too many times. Read if you enjoy having your heart hurt and expand 5 times its’ size.

I Feel You In My Bones by childofsummer

My tags: Soulmate AU when you feel each other’s pain, if you’re thinking oh that’s bad for Ava, you’re right

The first time I read this was in 2018, and it was only one chapter and it caused me to stare blankly at my wall at 3am on a night I needed sleep. It is so accurate to Arrow canon, but told from Ava experiencing all of Sara’s pain, and death. Another one where I don’t know how well it works if you haven’t seen Arrow, but you’re not missing anything if you read this. Ava and Laurel become friends, and it’s perfect. 2018 me loved the ending of chapter 1 and what they do with a doppelganger. Later reads I’m not as sold on it. A warning, Chapter 2 and 3 have a very different tone and stray far from canon. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do an escape room with Ava.

The Future Holds A Split In Roads (Where You Gonna Go?) by fvandomtrvsh, WardenRoot

My tags: College Roommates AU, Fake Dating, no one is surprised by the dating

Ava has to find a fake girlfriend, so her parents stop trying to set her up. Sara offers to help. They do a very good job of fooling everyone. That starts to include themselves. All the good tropes are there. Fake Dating. Bed sharing. They were roommates. Great family interactions. There is a wedding (not Avalance). Sara moves boxes for Ava’s parents. Cookies. Ava has a twin sister. The miscommunication pain is worth it for the rest of the fluff.

"It’s Just a Cup of Coffee (What Gave Me Away)" by Gabna43

My tags: Ava’s pov from 3x05 to 3x12, early in the timeline to Better than Ice Cream, how Ava changed her mind about Sara and the Legends

Season 3 was rough as it was Guest Star Jes Macallan, and not Series Regular Jes Macallan, so she wasn’t in every episode. This fic explores what Ava was doing when not on screen, and how that lead to showing up to the restaurant in that uncomfortable dress.

swear to god (i ain't ever gonna repent) by lucylikestowrite

My tags: I have not seen the movie but apparently a gay take on Mr & Mrs Smith, Sara’s still in the League, but is also married to Ava

The fic is like being in a tunnel, knowing it’s going to blow-up at some point, but it’s dark and you can’t see the turns. Sara loves Ava, but the rest of her life is a lie, and every chapter you’re waiting for something bad to happen, but you can’t stop reading. Also, a lot of screaming “communicate!”.

all the lives I've ever lived (they were leading me here) by TheTruthAboutLove

My tags: the canon AU fic, Sara gets transported to a bunch of other universes, and realises that there is one thing in common (She loves Ava)

Do you like canon fics? This is for you! Do you like AU fics? Also, for you! In the vein of Legends of To-Meow-Meow and The One Where We’re Trapped on TV. Sara has to make it to a portal in each new reality. Ava and the team have to deal with the AU Sara. I could read a whole fic on most of these universes. Thankfully some have spin-offs. Sara is her own best wing-woman. I would watch the show of the last universe.

how to lose a woman in ten dates by TheTruthAboutLove

My tags: Nora thinks Ava should date casually, Sara helps her out, a take on Fake Dating

Ava is FBI, Sara is a consultant. Everything pre-Legends Season 1 is canon for Sara. A lot of Brooklyn 99 watching. One of the best lines I have ever read anywhere. They are too competitive for their own good. There are quotes I still laugh at after a very high number of re-reads. It is what I read on a day I need a pick-me-up.

love like fools by TheTruthAboutLove

My tags: Sara and Ava grew up together, Sara had a kid with Oliver, Ava became a successful lawyer

In my head I don’t like kid fics, but there are a bunch on this list, so *shrug*. You want to hug everyone, except Oliver, who deserves to be punched. The kid is cute, the development of the relationship is cute. Everyone is going through A Lot emotionally. They just work so well together and bring out the best in each other. Try the first two chapters and see how you go.

Paging Doctor Lance by Witchgirl1234

My tags: Sara is a doctor, but it’s canon, Ava has to deal with Sara not knowing her

Due to anachronism Sara’s life is not impacted by Oliver Queen, so she we to med school, rather than on the Queen’s Gambit. This isn’t great for her pregnant wife Ava who’s still on the Waverider. Makes Ava tackle the question of what she would do for Sara’s happiness. It’s an interesting look of what could have been, but while keeping the Legends we know together. And a pre-season 6 exploration of how important Sara is for the team dynamic.

Click here to see all the parts

[dreamescapeswriting]

BTS Reaction | The Boys Have Baby Fever [Request]

A/n: Stopppp because I have major baby fever right now but I’m not ready for kids! I can’t even look after a potted plant or MYSELF how am I meant to look after a mini me….but I keep imagining the tiny little fingers and tiny little toes and I just….Ya’ll need to stop cause I want a baby

 [BTS X Fem!Reader]

Seokjin:

"Who's been such a good little girl for Auntie Y/n," You cooed as you carried the small baby girl out from the changing room in her nursery, Jin was sitting on the floor with your nephew while you cradled your three-month-old niece in your arms bouncing her back and forth while you smiled at her.

"Which one? Blue or green?" Jin questioned your nephew holding up two different cars for him to choose from,

"Gween." You smiled watching them interact with one another, Jin had always been great with your nephew ever since your sister-in-law had him a couple of years ago. You regularly babysat for them a lot so they could have date nights and when she asked if you would look after the new-born you jumped at the chance. It would give you some practice for when you had yours and would somehow give you the courage to tell Jin that you were carrying his child.

"Are you going to go for a nap now baby?" You questioned your nephew as you noticed the time, it was for him and his sister to go down to sleep for a while.

"Can Uncle Jin read me to sleep?" You looked at Jin with the same question and he nodded, telling your nephew to go and pick a book while you followed close behind him.

"He loves you," You whispered watching him search through his bookshelf, you bounced your niece who was still staring up at you and Jin,

"Princess and the pea?" You asked as you looked down at the book he was holding out for Jin to take,

"It's my sisters favourite, and auntie Y/n's but I'm not supposed to tell you that." You rolled your eyes, it had been one of your favourites as a child but who didn't love a good Princess book when they were younger.

Jin quietly closed the book before placing it down on the shelf,

"He's out cold." He whispered tucking him into the bed and walking over to you, you were standing over the crip of your niece rocking it back and forth while you watched her sleeping. She looked so peaceful and happy - as happy as you could get as a three-month-old.

"Look how small she is," He cooed stretching out his hand to move the blanket away from her face, she stirred and murmured in her sleep before turning her head.

"They grow up though Jin..." You were trying to warn him about it all, make sure he was serious about this because you knew where this was going. He'd had baby fever for months since your brother told you his wife was pregnant.

"Yeah but they're adorable, and they turn out amazing." You looked at him as he started talking about all the reasons he wanted his own baby. You'd only ever heard him talk about it a few times, mentioning that he just wanted to pass down his name and his talent but the more he talked about it the more you realised how serious he was about having a baby.

"We should make one." He whispered standing behind you and wrapping his arms around your waist, burying his face in your neck and smiling as you both watch your niece sleeping, you took in a shaky breath.

"What if you already had one?" Your voice cracked through the sentence since you were nervous about all of this but his hands froze on your waist.

"I think I'd know if I had a son or a daughter out there somewhere." He chuckled thinking you were joking about everything but you smiled,

"What if they weren't out there yet, what if they were right here?" As you whispered you took his hand and placed it onto your stomach and giggling as you waited for him to slowly realise what you meant.

"Oh my god," You giggled walking out of the room and leaving him there to freak out a little bit while you went to make a cup of tea for yourself.

"We need to get ready, start planning. We have to tell the boys!" He was whisper yelling as he walked into the living room with you freaking out over everything he could.

Yoongi:

You'd been sitting in the waiting room of the hospital for hours, you seemed to be the least nervous one there as you clutched onto the small purply bunny you'd brought along with you.

"Guys?" You all looked up to see Namjoon walking out carrying a small bundle of blankets and you smiled knowing it was his son now coming to visit all of his uncles,

"Where are you going?" Yoongi whispered when he saw you going over to the room Namjoon had come out,

"To visit the new mum, stay here." You kissed his cheek gently and walked into the room to see Namjoon's wife, she was drenched in sweat and looked exhausted,

"Hi, mummy." You joked at her and she gasped sitting up in the bed and looking at you as you handed her the small bunny.

"How was it?" You questioned sitting down in the chair next to her bed, she told you all about the labour and how all the pain went away as soon as she saw her son.

"Why the sudden interest?" You smirked at her and bit down on your lip,

"I'm pregnant...But I haven't told Yoongi yet so keep it to yourself." You rushed out when you heard them coming towards the doors, you could hear those boys from miles away. Namjoon walked into the room and walked over to his wife while you stared at Yoongi who was holding the baby, he was bouncing him a little while he stared down at him.

"He's adorable," He mumbled causing the other boys to start laughing,

"Be careful Y/n I think someone is starting to get a little broody." Namjoon chuckled and the others all joined in telling you he hadn't put the boy down or handed him to the others since getting hold of him.

"Do you blame me? Look at his tiny little fingers and his tiny little fit," You'd never seen Yoongi like this with anyone before and it was sending butterflies to your stomach...it could have been the morning sickness but it was lovable to watch him like this.

"He needs to sleep Yoongi," Namjoon mentioned and he sighed taking their son over to him and giving him back to his mother.

"Come on you," You groaned pushing him out of the room, away from the baby to give him a clear head.

"I know you think it's just because we've been around them but I'm serious," You linked hands as you walked around the hospital together, you were on the hunt for a vending machine. Since becoming pregnant you'd gotten a craving for chocolate all of the time,

"Serious?" You questioned looking around for a sign of any food anywhere but you were lost in the maternity ward.

"About having a baby, I want one." You smiled at him as he stood you from walking and held you in place to make you look at him,

"Want me to steal one?" You asked nervously eyes darting around the hallway to avoid his gaze.

"Do you not want to have a baby?" His voice fell flat and he looked sad like someone had just killed a puppy in front of him kind of sad.

"W-What? No, I want one but Yoongi you're just-"

"I'm serious. I want one, I've wanted one for a while." You swallowed the lump in your throat and nodded at him, if he was serious about it all then there was no reason for you to hide it anymore.

"Okay well...Consider it done, you have one." He frowned at you not following along with what you were telling him, his brows furrowed together making you giggle.

"I'm already pregnant..." You waited for a couple of seconds while the information registered into his head and as soon as it did he physically jumped into the air, screaming about how happy he was.

"I'm gonna be a father!" He screamed as people walked past you both, staring and glaring as he yelled while standing on a maternity ward.

"Shh Yoongi, we have to keep it a secret." You giggled trying to get him to keep it quiet until you'd had your first or second scan but you knew there was nothing that would stop him from telling all of the boys and as many people as he could.

Hoseok:

It was one of the rare occasions where Hoseok had the same night off as you did so you were spending the time curled up together watching your favourite show. He wasn't that invested in it since it wasn't his style of show but, he watched it just so that he could relax and unwind with you by his side.

"Look," You glanced up from your phone to see what he was talking about when you realised it was the episode of your show where the main protagonist had a baby. She was giving birth in a barn since they were miles away from any kind of hospital,

"Ah I know, so cute right." You let out a soft laugh thinking he was talking about how close the couple were but as soon as the baby appeared on the screen again he shook his head,

"The baby." You looked at the baby in their arms. You smiled as you felt a warm feeling spread through your body, you knew you were pregnant you'd been pregnant for weeks but didn't know how to tell Hoseok. You'd never really touched on the discussion of having kids together and you thought he would think he was too young,

"You want kids?" You questioned casually as the adverts started rolling he hummed,

"I always wanted kids, they're adorable. I don't know what it is but the last couple of weeks I'd been wanting one more and more." You laughed nervously, you'd read up somewhere that when a female was pregnant with her husband or boyfriends baby they tended to get a little broody and would feel the urge to have a baby more.

"What?" He questioned watching you closely as you got up and walked into the kitchen, he stared at you while you made him and yourself another drink.

"You're drinking decaf." He mentioned getting up from the sofa and going into the kitchen behind you, you nodded your head as you added milk into the bottom of your glass.

"Well spotted sherlock," You giggled sarcastically and he stared at you some more. As if he would somehow be able to work it all out from one simple hint of you drinking decaf coffee instead of the usual.

"You've been sick lately too." You dropped the spoon into your cup, he was being smarter about this than you thought he would be but you played it cool.

"You're pregnant!?" He yelled but it was more of a question than a statement as he stared at you trying to guess if he was right, you'd never been good at lying so you avoided his eyes so you could try and get away with it.

"I KNEW IT!" He screamed jumping over to you and engulfing you in a hug, putting his hand on your stomach. There wasn't even a bump yet since you weren't that far along but you could tell he was excited about everything,

"We're going to be the best parents out there," He promised you kissing your temple and looking at your stomach,

"He doesn't even have ears yet," You laughed rolling your head back as he began talking to your stomach,

"He? What if she's a she." You rolled your eyes at him as he started debating on the gender already with you, you knew that he and the boys were going to all place bets on which you were going to be having.

"We should get you booked for a scan, and then we should start clothes shopping and getting ready. Babies take up a lot of time." He walked away from you mumbling to himself and making lists in his head while you calmly continued making drinks, already having gone through everything on your own.

Namjoon:

It was no secret that Namjoon wanted to be dad, everyone that knew Namjoon knew he wanted to be a dad so when you found out you were pregnant you kept it a secret. You knew he wanted a son or a daughter but you had to make sure you kept it from him for a while, you just wanted to make sure you were pregnant, there were many false-positive tests out there though the 30 positive ones you had stashed in a box should have been a sign enough that you were pregnant and carrying his child.

"Don't you think it's the cutest?" Namjoon questioned while you stood at the back of a small hall, you were at a gender reveal party for your cousin. You hadn't planned on coming but when Namjoon saw the invitation he jumped at the chance, he loved your family and you did too but spending all day with them wasn't your idea of fun. The hall was decorated with blue and pink decorations since it was a gender reveal and everyone was placing bets on what she was going to have.

"I want one, soon." He whispered linking your hands together, you'd noticed he was getting baby fever a lot lately and while you loved the idea of him getting excited you had a couple of weeks before you could tell him yet. You were nervous about it, saying that you wanted to have a baby and then having a baby were two completely different things. That and Namjoon was famous so it wasn't just you and him that would be affected by this change in your life.

"I know," You whispered back to him, he handed you a glass and you stared at it wondering what it was.

"Wine, your cousin wants everyone to drink since she can't." Your lips tightened as you stared at the bubbling liquid inside of the glass,

"What's up?" He chuckled deeply watching you debating about raising the glass to your lips,

"You've normally downed the glass by now." You laughed it off telling him you were trying to give it up and he drank it for you while you looked around for something safe for you to drink.

(X)

A week passed and Namjoon had done nothing but talk about wanting a baby and you didn't blame him. Since being at the party you'd gotten a lot more broody where babies were concerned, you found yourself talking to your stomach whenever Namjoon wasn't around,

"Babe!" Namjoon's voice sounded strained so you rushed up to the bathroom to see what was wrong and you saw him holding a pregnancy test box, shit. You thought you'd thrown them all out,

"What's this?" You stared at him and then at the box,

"Did you forget how to read?" You quipped trying to shift some of the focus off you and change the subject but it wasn't working because he just stared at you,

"I know what it is but, what's it doing here?" You just gave him a look with a smile on your lips, his frown was slowly being replaced with a shocked expression,

"You're really-"

"Yes!"

"That's why you haven't been drinking!" He screamed throwing his arms around you before dropping to his knees in front of you and smiling.

"Hi little guy," You smiled as he started running his hand over your stomach and talking to the tiny bump like you had been doing for the last couple of weeks.

(Since it’s going out on his birthday!!!)

Jimin:

This was your idea to test the waters with Jimin and babies, that and your best friend had just had a daughter and you wanted to buy cute outfits for her.  That and it would give you some good time with Jimin to talk about babies. You'd found out you were 6 weeks pregnant last week and you'd been wondering how to tell him since.

"What about this?" You turned to look over your shoulder, Jimin was holding up the cutest onesie with a pumpkin on the front,

"It has this to match," He then pulled out an orange tutu with small black pumpkins around it. You teared up at the sight of it thanks to to the extra hormones that were running rouge through your body making you cry over the smallest of things. That morning you'd cried at a cereal advert just because the kid on it was too cute for words.

"Is it that bad?" He groaned holding them up in front of his face mumbling about how he thought they were cute,

"They're adorable," You pushed the small shopping cart over to him and he placed them in - the bottom of the trolley was lined with clothes. It was like you were buying a whole new wardrobe for her and you wanted to,

"Look at these!" He yelled holding up two tiny baby shoes and putting them on his fingers, you teared up once again and Jimin started chuckling as he found more and more clothes.

"This! This is perfect," You looked over at him to see him holding up a man's shirt and a matching boys onesie.

"She's having a girl babe," You laughed at him and he shook his head looking from the shirt to the onesie as he put them into the trolley.

"For our baby," You choked on the air you were trying to breathe,

"Our what? I-I'm not- How did you know?"

"Know what?" You both stared at one another for a couple of seconds trying to realise what the other one meant when he got the look of realisation on his face.

"No, you're not!" He yelled loudly throwing down the pieces of clothing into the trolly and rushing over to you, his hand was on your stomach within seconds and you groaned pushing him away from you.

"You're making a scene." You whispered looking at him as you glanced around hoping that no one was watching you closely,

"I'm going to scream it from the rooftops! Why didn't you tell me?!" He yelled and looked at you as you giggled at the way he was reacting. You had no idea he would be this excited over having a baby with you, you'd done nothing but worry for the last week that he would tell you he wasn't ready.

"We're going to have to plan everything, I'll get a party planner for our baby shower. The boys are gonna scream! Uncles!" He yelled looking at you and then around at the store you were in, it was a huge baby shop,

"I'm not starting to shop yet Jimin, I want to wait for my first scan." You told him as you stopped him from running away to go and get more baby clothes and products, he groaned finding it no fun.

"When is that?"

"Not for another six weeks." You laughed as his face fell flat again, and you told him you couldn't tell anybody until you'd had that first scan and checked that everything was going alright,

"It'll fly by, just keep that big mouth of yours shut." You laughed at him as he nodded promising that he would do his best to keep it a secret.

Taehyung:

Taehyung shifted over in the bed turning to look at you while you slept peacefully next to him, for the last week and a half he'd had countless of dreams about you being pregnant with his baby.

"Mmmm, Taehyung, what?" You groaned as he began shaking you awake from what was a wonderful dream, you eyes slowly fluttered open and you saw he was laying extremely close to you.

"I had a dream," You hummed closing your eyes again and trying to get yourself back to sleep but it was clear Taehyung wasn't going to let you sleep until he talked about his dream with you. You moved your head onto his chest and he began drawing patterns into the small of your back as he spoke about what his dream was.

"You were pregnant-"

"Again? Tae that's like the fifth one this week." You giggled at him wondering what could possibly be setting off the dreams he was having. You knew one of his close friends back home was having a son soon but you didn't think Taehyung would be the type to get baby fever or be effected this badly by it. Sure you wanted kids but you never got broody...Not much anyway.

"Don't you ever think about it?"

"Think about what?" You were far too tired to go into depth about babies right now but you knew that was exactly where the conversation was steering anyway.

"Babies, starting our own family. I can't stop thinking of tiny little baby hands and feet...with their tiny little noses." He yawned halfway through his sentence and you patted his chest telling him to just go back to sleep and you would talk about it in the morning.

(X)

Morning came but you were in no fit state to talk about babies, you had your head resting on the toilet seat waiting for the next wave of nausea to hit you. You'd spent the last hour throwing up while Taehyung spent it trying to keep your hair out of your face and giving you water whenever you asked for it, you groaned sitting back against the tiled wall. He smiled softly down at you asking if you needed anything and that was when you noticed the calendar behind his head. You were late. Four weeks late.

"Top drawer there's a pink bag, can you bring me it?" He left the room so you sat up and flushed the toilet getting ready to take the test he was bringing you,

"What's in it?" You pulled out a pregnancy test and his mouth formed an 'O' shape.

You came out five minutes later staring at the smiley face on the stick,

"So you're a psychic?" You questioned looking from the stick up to his face, he had one of the biggest smiles you'd ever seen stretched across it and you giggled at him.

"I'm gonna be a dad?!" He yelled out coming over to you and jumping up and down when you got hit by another wave.

"Gonna be sick." You grunted rushing into the bathroom and throwing up once again, you really weren't looking forward to the countless amounts of times you were going to be doing this but you and Taehyung were over the moon about being pregnant together.

Jungkook:

"He's asleep," You whispered to Jungkook when he came into the living room. You were looking after your best friends son while she went out on a long-overdue date with her husband. Jungkook looked down at the sleeping infant in your hands and started tearing up, he'd been experiencing terrible baby fever since the moment your friend dropped off her son at your front door.

"Hear me out..." He whispered sitting down next to you and touching the boy's cheek, it was so soft and you couldn't deny the urge to squeeze them every time you saw him looking up at you with his giant blue eyes.

"What if we made one?" He questioned looking from the baby to you while you processed what he was saying. There was one thing that Jungkook didn't know though and that was that you were already carrying his child, you hadn't told him yet because you were waiting for the right time. He'd been so stressed out with work lately that you didn't want to dump it all on him at once.

"Make a baby?" You questioned him handing him the baby before standing up to stretch and crack your back, you had no crip for him to sleep in so he was sleeping in your arms or in the car seat she'd dropped him off in.

"Yeah, I think we'd be good parents." He told you as he looked down at the sleeping baby,

"We think you'll be a great dad too," He didn't catch what you said so you smirked at him knowing you were going to have to be painstakingly obvious about it with him until he got what you were telling him.

"You're adorable with him Kookie, you're going to be a great dad in nine months." You stared at him waiting for some kind of reaction but there was nothing coming from him to suggest that he'd heard what you'd said so you smirked to yourself.

"Jungkook I'm pregnant and you're the dad." Nothing. He just sat there bouncing the baby from side to side while smiling at him. You rolled your eyes and went to make you and Jungkook something to eat instead.

(X)

"I can't believe he's gone." Jungkook pouted as you sat in the now quiet living room, he sat down next to you as you pouted.

"It's going to be so quiet," You added on to his sentence looking around the living room, you had to clean up a little but you could sit here for a couple more seconds.

"Only for another nine months, after that it'll be loud again." He casually said as he patted your leg and got up from the sofa. You stared at him as he walked into the kitchen to get a drink,

"What?" You questioned scrambling after him as you tried to ask him what he meant,

"Did you seriously think I didn't hear you dropping hints all weekend? You told me you were pregnant, I heard." You blinked at him as he smirked at you,

"So you heard me and said nothing? You just let me keep saying it to you over and over again?" He started nodding while laughing at you and you stared at him.

"You're evil Jeon Jungkook." You joked as he walked closer to you left a small kiss on your lips,

"You love me though," You hummed and looked around the kitchen, it was a tip from all the bottles you'd been making up that weekend.

"Rock, paper, scissors on the kitchen?" You both began battling it out on who had to clean what and where. 

Tagline: 

@writingdreamsnottragedies​ @snowy-meowl​ @jooniesdarlingdimples​ @lyoongx​ @fan-ati--c​ @mitzwinchester​ @callingmyangel​ @rjsmochii​ @kneel-begyourpardon​ @taestannie​ @innersooya​

[ghost-pasta]

Jazz Appreciation Post

I love her 🥺 and she doesn't get enough attention in my opinion

her relationship with her parents.

Is very much as complex as it is with Danny. Jazz helped take care of danny, because that's what big sisters do. But that role was put to extreme because of their parents bizzar-o dangerous career. Caring for danny when they'll were to far up in their heads about santa or projects.

her getting into psychology because she became invested in why people were like that; starting with wondering why her parents were like that.

And then realizing things and making sure danny was having a better time than she did in her highschool years (is she a senior? A junior? An upperclassman anyway). But uh oh, turns out he became half Ghost due to her parents career.

But they're the parents. Sure they aren't perfect but it'd be fine to talk to them about this, right? It's got to be fine, it should be fine. It should be an unquestionable choice because parents take care of their kids.

But of course it isn't. Because her parents are like that and they hate ghosts. She's gonna help danny tho, because some kind of adult person should. Because kids need good role models, and she's gonna try. Because so far, she's the only good role model for she knows. (And she knows that sucks because they both know they're both still kids.)

She should've been focused on more in the show than she had been

the show never have her freinds because she was literally an academic loner "but don't worry guys she's happy-go-lucky, she's happy with how she is, it doesn't bother her at all she's fine, promise :)".

She's the closest thing to a good role model that danny has, which sucks. Even the nicer ghosts attacked him at first (Wulf, Frostbite, Clockwork) with the only exception being the Dairy King. But he was barely present in the show.

There should've been an episode where Danny tried his best to mentally/emotionally support her.

She either should've had a freind group or at least made a single freind at all

(I propose the character "Spike" that was shown in the first episode then never again) (his character model wasn't even in Freakshow's initial episode like, come on)

Jazz is a very attentive person, especially when it comes to Danny. Something that the show did play with. (Example A: The Ultimate Enemy) so I think there maybe should've been a Jazz centric episode featuring that. Or maybe a jazz centric episode where she gets more character depth than that. Like what her day to day life looks like.

She should've had a more active role in the whole situation between Dash & Danny

Bonus: headcanons and other thoughts

She does people watching sometimes. Likes relaxing in the park in some of her self allowed free-time because she can casually watch people going about their business.

She keeps a diary (who's she gonna tell her inner most thoughts to? Herself that's who. Because the show didn't give her freinds.)(I'm Salty ok?)

I do very much beleive she's acted as her own therapist for a while. Her psychology and therapy studying helping her figure things out on her own. Good at thinking critically saviour her feelings when she has the time to.

I want realisticSibling interactions. I want age old disagreements on which type of snack food is superior or something. (I want Fenton Sibling dynamic content and I'll make it myself if I have to)

Jazz hanging out with the trio more as time goes on.

Jazz obtaining a best freind in her age group (make nonbinary Spike her best freind is my agenda)

Jazz hanging out with Sam as girls. (OR, I've seen that Trans boy Sam idea going around, Jazz [& Danny] helping Sam with all that)

💖 Jazz 💖

Jazz, ironically enough, likes listening to smooth jazz, among other calm music. (Her life is hectic as it is, music helps everyone in some way)

Jazz is bi-ace or lesbian-ace (because I said so)

Jazz & Dani Sibling(-esque) interaction as the oldest sister and youngest "sister"

I have more thoughts but it's honestly hard to articulate them past "💖✨❤️Jazz❤️✨💖"

[comfyswitcherblanketfort]

Covert Operative

@stinastar turned my own mind against me and hit me with this in my inbox: 

“Heeyyyyyyy babe.You did this to yourself. I’m here to kindly ask for your own idea 🤣“The totally untrained/civi/softie jumps in front of a bullet for the one who's already been shot like five times? The ex spy or some shit who's been tortured and lived. And their twinky little SO was like NOPE” I’m assuming you’ll do geraskier but you know I also adore lambden. THANKS CAN’T WAIT. This is much better than filling my own prompts 🤣😘💖”

and i was feeling that Lambden life so, boo, this one’s for you 😘😘 ily

Warnings: this is all pretty canon typical levels of violence just modern au style, guns, gunshots, someone gets shot, allusions to killing, BIG TIME deception, feelings of betrayal, one of them is a secret spy, it ends soft but it is not a fluff piece, think an episode of NCIS or Covert Affairs. 

_________________

He’d found out by teasing Aiden about missing an exit. 

Aiden didn’t miss anything; he skipped it. Then drove them in circles, checking his mirrors the whole way, as he tried to convince Lambert he was just looking for something.

Lambert unbuckled and threatened to roll out of the car on a side street before Aiden finally admitted it. 

Covert operative, he’d said. Lambert had been thinking about proposing. To a spy.

They now sat across from each other on the upper level patio of a quaint little bistro, rather far away from the farmers market they were headed to, and Lambert was absolutely livid. Aiden ordered for them while Lambert pretended to be on his phone. Aiden had taken the battery out of that though, so it was more an excuse to not talk to him. 

“Bert-”

“Don’t fucking call me that,” Lambert snapped, barely keeping his voice low enough, “Only family calls me that.” 

The hurt on Aiden’s face wasn’t even slightly hidden and, oh did Lambert want to believe it was genuine, “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you. I did. But knowing placed you at greater risk.”

Lambert locked eyes with him, lips pressed together in a thin narrow line and eyebrows arching up as if to say “bang up job”, but he kept silent. 

“You don’t have to believe me right now. I just need you to listen to me. Please,” Aiden looked almost terrified for a moment before he schooled his features. He just looked like your average person out on a date with their live-in significant other. The pistol in his laptop case sitting on the table was the only thing an outsider would find odd.

Looking at Lambert was completely different.

He was breathing heavy, bouncing his knee fast enough the cooks in the kitchen below them could probably feel it, and the murderous look in his eyes alone would have killed someone unaccustomed to it. 

“I don’t even know you.” he growled.

“I’m still me. I swear to God, this was the only lie I ever told you,” Aiden offered a soft smile as he leaned forward a bit, “And that I liked your experiment with growing tea. So two lies.”

Lambert scoffed, crossing his arms and looking across the street. 

“Be as angry as you want. Hell, take a swing at me once we make it to a safehouse. But please - Lambert. Please tell me you can follow my instruction to the letter. You can hate me, and I’ll understand that, but I need to make sure you’re safe.” 

“Fine.”

A different waitress set their food in front of them in the tense silence that followed and just before she left Lambert noticed the edge of her tattoo peeking out underneath her shirt sleeve.

He glanced up at Aiden and made a split second decision, turning to the server, “Cool tattoo! Where did you get it? I’ve been looking for a good artist.” 

She blinked at him with round brown eyes before smiling and tucking her short curly hair behind her ear, “In Panama, actually. I had an interesting summer holiday last year.”

Something in Aiden shifted when she rolled her sleeve up and showed them the sailor’s Celtic knot taking up all of her inner forearm. Lambert looked politely, leaning into the ‘don’t raise suspicion’ issue Aiden had pressed.

“You make much better holiday tattoo decisions than I do. You know,” he cocked his head to the side and squinted a bit, “You look really familiar. Do you work anywhere else? I swear I’ve seen you before.”

She shrugged, “I’ve had to bounce around lately.”

“Renfri!” Lambert exclaimed, “You worked at the plant nursery! Sold me the giant monstera plant!” 

Aiden couldn’t have been any more tense as Renfri just nodded and made some excuse about getting back to work. 

“What? You told me to be as normal as possible.” 

Aiden stood as soon as she’d disappeared down the stairs, grabbing his computer bag before gripping Lambert’s wrist and hauling him up, “We have to go.” 

Lambert stumbled as he followed after him, a lead weight settling in his stomach, “She doesn’t work at either of those places, does she?”

“No. That was a completed knot. We need to move fast,” Aiden ducked into an employees only staircase that spit them out in a parking lot one street from their car. He broke into a dead sprint down an alley after a glance behind him. 

As soon as they’d cleared the brick, a bullet lodged itself where Lambert’s chest had just been a moment before. 

His whole body felt numb with shock. Aiden pulled him forward and shouted something at him but he didn’t register it until the third time. 

“Lambert! Climb through the fucking window!” Aiden was nearly screaming at him but shook his head and kept pulling him away from the open window that looked like it had been recently broken. Did… did Aiden do that?

He actually took a turn onto a busy street and sprinted up a block before diving right out in front of traffic, Lambert still in tow. They ran for another couple blocks before they dove into another alley that Lambert recognized as leading to their parked car. He had no idea if they were still being followed but he didn’t much care. He barely registered Aiden glancing back to check on him, didn’t even think he might be checking to see if Renfri was behind them. 

She wasn’t. She was leaning against their car, casually checking the chamber of her gun. 

“There you are boys!” she smiled brightly, “Took you long enough.”

Aiden slid to a stop on the gravel, keeping his fingers laced through Lambert’s, “Shrike.” 

“Cat,” She let go of the slide and the snapping sound echoed through the courtyard parking lot, “You killed my sister.”

“I didn’t.”

Lambert was starting to feel light headed as his mind caught up.

“No,” She conceded, “But you might as well have. What you stole got her executed.” 

“You two shouldn’t have gotten mixed up with Skinner.”

Before the last word had left Aiden’s lips Renfri raised her gun and fired.

She’d been aiming straight for his heart but Lambert shoved him aside with every last bit of strength he had. He felt a searing pain flash through his shoulder, outright blinding, even before he registered the crack of the shot. There were two more cracks back to back then nothing for a moment. There was one set of footsteps on gravel then one more sounded before the ringing in his ears muffled everything else.

Aiden was over him soon after, scrambling to stop the bleeding and yelling… something… but Lambert couldn’t hear him and his eyelids were feeling heavier and heavier by the second. 

-

Lambert tried to wiggle his nose and get rid of the itch as he woke up, but it only got worse. He tried to scratch it and ended up smacking himself in the face. His limbs felt heavy and there was a tube under his nose. 

Oh.

He was in a hospital. 

Where was Aiden?

He forced his eyes open as Aiden gently picked his hand up off his face. His eyes were red and a little puffy and he looked downright awful. There was blood all over his shirt, a little in his hair, and the bags under his eyes were a deep shade of purple. 

“What.. what are you…?”

Aiden bit his bottom lip for a moment before taking a shaky breath, “I’ll go if you want me to. I just needed to see you wake up,” he barely choked out his words as his eyes welled up with tears. 

Lambert frowned, “No. Stay.”

Aiden tried to laugh but it came out as more of a sob as he grabbed Lambert’s other hand and cradled it in his, “I’m so sorry…” he whispered. 

Lambert gave his hands a squeeze, “Please don’t go.”

“I won’t,” Aiden shook his head, “I’ll do anything you want me to.”

“Get me out of here?” Lambert grinned.

Aiden snorted, wiping at his nose with his bloodstained sleeve, “Anything but that.” 

They smiled and fell into a heavy silence. Aiden stared at their hands where he not so slyly kept a finger over Lambert’s pulse. 

“Hey,” Lambert’s voice had a husk to it that he only got when he was about to cry, “I still love you.”

Aiden just stared at him with wide eyes. 

“I’m scared, but I love you,” he repeated. 

Aiden leaned over and kissed his forehead, tears falling over his hair, “I love you too.”

[onrainynights]

why you can't compare buddie to destiel (from someone who ships both)

this is kind of addressing the recent negativity in the buddie tag, but it's also a collection of my thoughts and reasoning for being buddie-positive despite my experiences with destiel and spn in general. the text of 911 is not really discussed at all, and this is relatively spoiler-free, so if you're thinking of watching 911 I encourage you to read it. if you haven't seen both shows it probably won't make perfect sense, but I wrote this with spn fans who haven't seen 911 in mind, since that's most of my followers (and also seems to be where much of the negativity was coming from) pretty long post under the cut to save your dash

I just want to prepare y'all for the fact that buddie could be the slow burn will they/won't they mlm romance we've been waiting for practically forever.

at this point it's not fair to call it queerbait because where their relationship is now fits the characters and their development. this is not like destiel, where there were many moments over the years that could've ended with them getting together and it would've made sense with the story. buddie right now is in this sweet, wholesome pre-relationship kind of place, which on its own is a compelling dynamic and so fun and good to see. a resolution of it right now would feel out of character—they both still have some development to do before that would feel natural. and so, I don't think we can really call it queerbaiting unless the characters get to that point and there is still no resolution.

also I'd like to point out the overall positivity from the cast when it comes to buddie. both Eddie's and Buck's actors have said (I'm paraphrasing cast statements in this post unless they are in quotations) positive things about the pairing, and Buck's actor has said that he likes the interpretation of Buck as queer, and he would be happy if the writers took his character in that direction. also Eddie's actor with "that's what they all say" when buddie was referred to as a "bromance". Jennifer Love Hewitt, who plays Buck's sister (another main character), is very supportive of buddie, saying she's "rooting for it", that it would be "amazing", she doesn't "see how it couldn't happen one day". this was in response to hearing that a fan insists Buck and Eddie will be a couple. She flat-out said "I think so, too." She jokes about buddie with Buck's and Eddie's actors all the time. Also, my favorite bit from the video of her saying all this, "Let's manifest it together!"

It's safe to say this is a VERY different environment to spn. I don't think I've ever seen a cast this positive about a show's main non-canon queer ship before. NEVER. I think it's safe to say that if/when buddie is canonized, the cast will be just as excited as the fans—at least JLH will be! Add into the fact that the show's PR seems to be leaning into bi buck and buddie right now, it's a VERY different vibe than spn had, definitely. There's no gaslighting of the fans here, at least not that I've seen. also, although 911 has a large casual viewership, I think it's safe to say the GA would not be upset by buddie—there are only 3 serious, long-term romantic relationships involving main characters in this show, and one of them is a lesbian marriage with two children. And yes, the characters are shown being lesbians, it's not just a stated fact; the audience is privy to their relationship (and their interactions with their adorable kids). I think it's safe to say that buddie would go over well with the fans, even the casual viewers (of which there are many). buddie doesn't seem to be a huge divider in fandom like destiel is, either. reactions generally seem to be either "I ship it" or "I don't care either way."

Also I'd like to point out that while yes, it's possible that buddie is only bait (which would be disappointing), there's a reason queerbaiting works. people WANT to be queerbaited, because it's nearly indistinguishable from a slow burn will they/won't they queer romance. queerbaiting allows fans to make theories, create fan content (including fic), and keeps them engaged with the dynamic and the show. fans who are vulnerable to queerbaiting want a slow burn will they/won't they queer romance, which is currently an almost completely untapped market. spn could've tapped it, but despite the huge fandom they did not. there are SO MANY people outside of spn fandom who want a slow burn mlm romance, one that keeps the audience guessing, one that's will they/won't they, one that is not guaranteed, and that is why queerbaiting works so well. the audience doesn't just want the payoff, they also want the build-up. the longer the build-up, the higher the payoff, and the suspense of the build-up is gone if you know from the start that the payoff is definitely coming. that's part of why malec from shadowhunters didn't fully tap this market—there was no question of if, only the question of when (which wasn't really a question either, given there was an episode in season 1 literally titled "malec" when they got together.) the characters were always queer, the show being an adaptation of a book series where they were in a relationship and eventually had children together.

this was why November 5th was such a big deal—fans were so far past the will they/won't they aspect of destiel, firmly believing that destiel would always end as a "won't they" and not a "will they" that when cas confessed his romantic love for dean, destiel trended on Twitter over the US election. you all know that story, but maybe not everyone reading this knows that after Nov. 5 there was a case of hundreds if not thousands of spn fans experiencing love sickness because of the confession scene. the payoff of making destiel fully canon (and reciprocated, in English) would've been huge. fans would've been throwing their money at the c/w.

which leads me to the possibility (this is not at all me saying that I think this happened or even is likely, just that it's one possibility that /could/ have happened) that buddie started as bait, that the writers never intended for them to be a couple, but saw fan reactions to buddie during season 2 and started to lean into it in season 3 (and 4 so far, but it just started so I don't want to make any generalized statements about it) possibly still as bait or maybe not deciding yet if they'll go anywhere with it. and then maybe they saw destiel trending on November 5th, realized just how BIG the market for a slow burn will they/won't they mlm romance is, and said "hey, we already have the foundations for one of those. why not go for it and draw in all those viewers who clearly want one so badly?"

if buddie goes canon, because the cast and PR have been so positive about it, unlike spn, and because of the text of the show itself, the show's creatives could VERY EASILY claim that they were never baiting, that it was all an intentional slow burn will they/won't they romance from the beginning, and most people would believe them; there isn't really any evidence to the contrary, although I am sure there would be at least a few fans convinced it started as queerbaiting, and there might not be any evidence to refute that, either.

the point is that 911 is currently sitting on a gold mine. if they play their cards right, and execute buddie well, they will monopolize this market that old straight white men serving as network executives have failed so far to really tap into. they queerbait without the payoff, which gives the show a reputation among those in the market who haven't seen it, guaranteeing they will never watch it. shows in this vein: sherlock (huge reputation for queerbaiting and a finale fans didn't like) and spn (huge reputation for queerbaiting and a finale fans didn't like). spn got so, so close with cas's confession but then continued to gaslight its fans, and PR did not lean into destiel AT ALL. if 911 did buddie? the PR team would be all over it. it would be a moneymaker, big time, and Fox knows it. if buddie, or even just bi buck, went canon, tumblr would be all over it. viewership for the show, which is already impressive, would skyrocket. 911 would monopolize this market, because fans wary of queerbaiting would watch it with the knowledge that the payoff is there, and there really wouldn't be a competitor until other shows saw the success of buddie and followed suit with their own pairings, and given the fact that the market specifically wants /slow burn/ queer romances, that might take a couple years. that puts 911 in a really good position, where suddenly the fandom of the show, not just the GA, is very large and likely very dedicated to the show. the success of canon buddie might just change the landscape of TV in the coming years, showing execs that while queerbaiting does work, actually going through with it is really where the money is. 911 would not just monopolize the market for a while; it would pioneer it.

if buddie never goes canon, I would probably be a bit disappointed at the wasted potential, but unless the characters get to that point where canon buddie seems like the most logical outcome and they /don't/ go for it, I won't be truly upset because I don't think it's fair to claim its queerbaiting until then. I can't tell you how likely it is that buddie will be canon at some point, but it seems FAR more likely than destiel /ever/ did, and we ended up getting cas's confession in the end. I have hope, despite being hurt so badly by spn. 911 is a genuinely great show with some fantastic writing, and they don't leave chekov's gun unfired, unlike spn.

really, it comes down to this: if Jennifer Love Hewitt is allowed to clown for buddie, then so am I, and I'll enjoy this show—which is amazing even without canon buddie—while I apply my clown makeup.

[riverdale-retread]

Riverdale S5 E6 Back To School 

5 Things I Loved/ 3 Things To Consider

The S5 Character Resets are underway and I really love them.  Let me count the ways.

1. Jughead the adult is someone who rolls with the punches. I love that he grew out of that boy who was willing to DIE to belong or prove a point or save others and was in general so tense and defensive about who he was.   He has a new relationship with the word “weird,” going from the high octane emotionality of  I’m a weird weirdo and not your project!!!  to this casual,  Embrace the weird acceptance. He also has a relaxed sense of humor about his writing (I don’t know, but it makes a good story), rather than the white knuckle performance anxiety he used to have about it.  Jughead blatantly fishing out money from the tip jar his students have put on his desk in his classroom to mock him was DELIGHTFUL. I loved it SO MUCH.

2.  Toni is basically on a mission to correct the things she didn’t like about her childhood before her own baby arrives and I adore that.  Her work started last episode with reclaiming what the Serpent Dance (Female) is, making sure that the Serpents are financially solvent, that Sweet Pea and Fangs are gainfully employed, and giving Archie a bunch of homework about how to rehabilitate Riverdale.  In this episode she makes the point that cheerleading is a sport and that Archie needs to get over his Football Supremacists nonsense, and works on getting Cheryl out of her doldrums.

3. Cheryl was always a fragile, tender person underneath her mean girl and theatrical exterior, and the adult character reset seems to be that she’s done with pretending that she’s fine that her brother died. She’s supposed to be done grieving, but she isn’t. For personal reasons, I love this.  I understand you, Cheryl.  Cheryl used to aggressively hide this part of herself - the no-lipstick self - and  I’m not sure that Toni is actually doing the right thing by trying to revive the Red Lipstick Cheryl.  That tension is delicious though.

4.  Archie and Betty have completely stopped trying to be nice, warm, fuzzy people who mean well.   They’ve become the people I’ve been tracking in the retread all along - tough, pragmatic, violent, domineering, and not all that interested in anyone else’s issues/agenda/ problems, including each other’s. I guess I’m in the severe minority, but I love anti-heroes, especially women, so I am getting such a kick out of the shitty stuff they do. Archie, knowing what he knows about how Reggie’s father humiliated him on the football field as a child and the tender, boy-bonding they did in the aftermath, goes charging up to Reggie, when he’s the coach, and just punches him in the face with no hesitation. Holy shit. I love Betty enjoying her own beauty (her hair!) and sexuality (she was always the more sexual one in Bughead), approaching sex as a fun sport activity more than anything else.  Betty has no qualms about pretending to be FBI and neither actual law enforcement (Tom Keller) nor law enforcement adjacent (Kevin Keller) dare say a peep. 

5.  Veronica’s current liberation from the cult of Archie (even if it’s temporary) is a relief to me.  When Chad correctly points out that what Archie is asking for - and has always asked for and gotten - from Veronica is a handout, she doesn’t argue or launch into a speech about how wonderful Archie is and how he’s going to save the town or whatever. She just didn’t want her husband to be rude to an old friend by being so crass. Veronica’s also developed some of Hermione’s sadness (because being in a straight marriage is unhealthy for people, as per the Riverdale thesis), but at the same time it’s given her some emotional directness. She no longer seems to need to find The Perfect, Everyone Wins solution. She just says what she wants and needs, to her husband. 

Sidebar: So in addition to being Ethel Muggs and Brett Weston Wallis, I’m also goddamn Chad Gekko because Veronica continually pouring money into everything and anything Archie wanted funding for always irked me SO much. Thanks, Riverdale, for the self-realization I’m getting.

Things to Think About

a)  Is Archie capable of having sex only in Riverdale? The Music Room basically became the Archie Andrews Sex Room when he was a student. He says he’s dated no one since leaving the town, which Veronica apparently understood to mean he was practically celibate (which I find unlikely; I mean - HAVE YOU SEEN ARCHIE?).  I do feel like Archie Andrews is turned on by the Riverdale High School building itself. Betty says My sister who has gone through long bouts of various kinds of instability and involuntary confinement is missing and his answer is Cool, anyway, let's fuck and just propositions her in the teacher’s lounge.

b) Ms Bell is playing all sides of the game (she calls Cheryl about Toni, and then calls Hiram about the Bulldogs) but I can’t tell what game she’s playing. I love that actress - she’s at Dr. Curdle Jr. / Nana Rose levels of interesting and I’m all for having her have more to do.

c) The Serpents really hating Jughead’s book, and then his next book also being something to do with Riverdale made me remember a tidbit my AP English teacher told us about D.H. Lawrence, who would approach someone who looked sad, look at them with his sad blue eyes and tenderly ask, “Whatever is the  matter?” and let them pour their heart out, and then, two or three months later, when that person was ENRAGED at their heartache having been turned into a thinly disguised short story for publication, could not understand what the problem was.  I think this may be a commentary about this type of writer from the Riverdale writing team - We are the truly creative creators, and better than this dude, might be what they’re saying, because they invent outlandish events rather than trying to do some sort of ‘slice of life.’ 

[mikaze-discord]

HEAVENS: Love letters

Soooo this is the last of the love letter, I really must reiterate how thankful I am to the people who responded to my message. Specially thankful for the people who ended up writing for one of the boys, all of the love letter writers are so cool. If you wanted to write your own love letter for your oshi then feel free too!! Utapri Tumblr is kinda dead.... but! I hope you enjoyed the love letters

Please enjoy under cut!!!!!!!!!!!!

EIJI OTORI 

From Anon:

Eiji Otori is another member of HEAVENS and he is a down-to-earth type of character. One can say he is a cinnamon roll as he looks out for HEAVENS and his brother, Eiichi. Eiji talks in a formal manner to people outside of HEAVENS and addresses them by their surname like the time he worked with Tokiya for Mighty Aura, or when he was working with Camus and Masato for Feather in Hand. Around HEAVENS, Eiji talks casually, calling them by their first name. He is very mindful of other members of HEAVENS and Eiji keeps an open mind for ways to improve his skills as an idol and to help out his bandmates come to a solution where both sides agree. Eiji speaks very fondly of the people he works with formality and a lot of respect.

What I love about Eiji is his relationship with his brother, Eiichi Otori. The two have a strong bond as Eiichi looked after and took care of Eiji when growing up. The two of them are inseparable and do a lot together while looking after each other. Personally, their sibling bond is what I wish to have with my sibling as well, even though we're complete opposites like day and night! Their interactions are easily seen throughout the anime, you can even see their sibling bond show the most through HEAVENS Radio as Eiichi and Eiji are the co-hosts. If there is anything that I'd like to know more about Eiji, it would be about his hobby, gardening. He has a lot of knowledge on plants and perhaps agriculture. It'd be nice to see HEAVENS talk about their hobbies one day. But all in all, Eiji is a great character that I appreciate with a heart of gold!

From Anon:

Eiji Otori, the 4th member of HEAVENS is one of my two most favorite characters in Utapri. I was originally drawn to his kind and gentle demeanor, that made him such an easily lovable character. He was introduced in the 4th season of the anime in the cross idol unit episodes. The way he treated Tokiya besides knowing he was part of the rival idol group ended up becoming an essential part of Tokiya’s later character growth. Although Eiji is meant to be a foil for Tokiya’s character their personalities are completely polar opposites, their devotion to wanting to be an idol being one of the only similarities besides level headedness. Eiji is his own character, right down the way he speaks to the way he sings. Eiji seems to always carry the group in a loving and family-like way, even going as far as having domestic hobbies like gardening and baking. We always see him and even hear the way he interacts with the other members of HEAVENS on the radio show as if they were an inseparable family. Eiichi, his older brother and the leader of HEAVENS loves him in a way that is so complex but Eiji will always love him back with every fiber of his being to the deepest parts of his soul. There is a deep connection between the brothers that is so beautiful that even poetry couldn’t express, it’s more profound then words can show. It’s a bond they share that only they know, like a secret.

However, even then there is so much more about Eiji that makes him such a wonderful character. When it comes to myself, Eiji hits a bit close to home in a more personal way. Perhaps that is also a factor in why I love him so much. I empathize with him and I can see through his eyes in ways only a younger sibling would know. As a younger sister to a sibling who has always been in the spotlight in some form of way with a big presence, I always lived in her shadow, but I admired her and cared about her above anything else. The way Eiji feels about Eiichi is something that I can personally relate with and understand. Eiichi is an essential part of Eiji’s character and the anime does not lack to show this, nor does it lack to show that Eiji is just as much an essential part of Eiichi’s character. It’s more obvious in the radio show that is hosted by the two brother but it’s not fully ignored either in the anime. I love how Eiji interacts with all of the characters, and seems to find ways to treat everyone with kindness even if they aren’t kind to him in return. He admires those who show a deep love for the things he does, and respects those who are more experienced then he is. He’s always eager to learn

and please. He’s the kind of person you’d always want around and you’d want a hug when things get rough. Eiji is definitely the most pure hearted character of all the Utapri characters. And, I’ll always stand by that through and through.

VAN KIRYUIN

From @whereisvanderwood:

Kiryuin Van. Where to start? He’s cocky. He’s cocky as all hell. There’s something in his air that is poised yet undignified. Childish yet mature. The man is founded on juxtaposition, not dissimilar to a painting of Picasso. His ability to be unique in an industry that begs for individuality, to rise above a tidal wave of competition and stand apart from other fish in the sea, is awe-inspiring. Expectation is dead to him; though the oldest member of Heavens, the weight of bearing the role as ‘most mature’ or the ‘parent’ of the group couldn’t be further from his concern. He is only any dimension of himself he wants to be at any given time. Dumb bitch by morning, bad bitch by night. Much like his bandmates, his confidence and intimidating aura is unwavering. He claims his victory before a race begins, and I couldn’t say if that undying faith in oneself is a skill or a sin. Whatever it is, he owns it. He shamelessly, unapologetically owns who he is and shares it with his fans, friends and enemies.

Also, he’s hot. He’s very appealing to the human eye. His ruggedness reminds me of a warm blanket in winter. His voice, oh his voice. If the world was about to blow up and he just said “No it won’t”, in his own way, I think I’d believe him. Regardless of what he says being juvenile or mature, he’s always authentic. No sugar coats, no little white lies, only genuity. As just said before, he is who he is and wouldn’t change for anyone if it wasn’t in his own best interest. Who couldn’t love a guy like that?

YAMATO HYUGA

From @kusagiiiii:

I'll be honest, I used to forget Yamato exists alot LMAO I fell in love with him when I was looking at a HEAVENS group photo! I think he is a very stronk,very cute and a very soft boy! in some ways haha he's my type

I honestly wish there would be more story on the HEAVENS boys since they all seem like they had a pretty rough past so yee that's basically it~

From Sammy:

Everybody, listen up! It’s Sammy here! Are you ready for some strong appreciation? Let’s shout it out! Yeah!!

Where do I begin when it comes to Yamato? It took me a while to actually like him. At first, I wasn’t a fan of how he was when he first showed up in the anime. I still remember when Yamato was one of the few HEAVENS members people really didn’t like or care much for, next to Eiichi and Nagi.

I used to be one of those people too with Yamato. I found him to be very stubborn, but over time after listening to HEAVENS Radio; The Drama CDs; Watching Maji Love Kingdom, etc… I came to realize there’s so much more to him.

I’ve learned a lot more about him, especially through role-playing as him, and my love for Yamato skyrocketed. Even with all the new content that’s been coming out for HEAVENS lately like Black Garden and Endless Score, my love grows even more every day. Yamato sneaked his way up to being one of my best boys.

Yamato is HEAVENS’ Strongest member. (Seriously, how the heck does this boy train everyday and do so much of it?!) He’s not always aggressive and violent. He’s actually a really thoughtful person who cares about his friends a lot, even being very protective of them. Yamato is the kind of person that’ll immediately stop what he’s doing, and only think about how to help the other person feel better.

A lot of things tend to be overlooked for him cause of how he’s written in the anime, and there’s fans who only pay attention to that. Not even giving the extra content a thought or a single glance.

As Ryuya’s younger brother, Yamato has his own insecurities, especially since he’s always seen as just a shadow. He’s been trapped in darkness where he feels he’s not good enough to be appreciated and loved as his own person. He doesn’t know what to do and which path to take. Yamato only became an idol just to defeat and finally be better than Ryuya at something. I feel that goal is still there, but it’s not a major one like before. Now, Yamato has people like the other members of HEAVENS, the angels, and the other idols. He found his light and happiness.

Overall, Yamato is the kind of person he wants everyone to be proud of. He wants to always share his strongest power and energy, carrying the burden of everybody’s smiles. Wanting to see those around him happy and be the best they can be.

Another part that I really like about Yamato is whenever he gets embarrassed. I can’t help, but find that really cute cause it’s something we don’t see or hear out of him a lot.

There’s also the times he demonstrates how much he loves food. Even though he overeats and knows he can’t help it when he’s hungry, I really liked when Yamato stated that if eating makes you happy, go for it. Just make sure you train afterwards to burn off calories. It helps people feel good about themselves.

Even the times when Yamato struggles with difficult words, specifically English and kanji. It’s embarrassing for him to admit, but he knows he’s not good at that sort of thing. What I really like about this is HEAVENS is always willing to help him, even Tokiya and Cecil. They help keep things simple and easy for Yamato to understand.

There’s a lot you can say I just simply vibe with when it comes to Yamato, and I love him. Hope everyone enjoys this long appreciation of this strong boy, and I hope you all love him too!

SHION AMAKUSA 

From Anon:

When I saw Shion for the first time, he caught my attention with his beautiful appearance. His cream-white hair, his periwinkle eyes and his pale skin were a wonderful combination that I just couldn't ignore. Physically, he was exactly the type of character I love… Even his hairstyle is great! And what to say about his pretty face! To me, he looked like an angel.

His style in clothes is something I also like about him. With all this mixed, the only word I can use to describe him is "perfect".

But, of course, there's more than just physical appearance. Shion's way of speaking, as we all know, is quite… Particular. And those beautiful words made me be more interested in this boy, even if they were a bit difficult to understand. This characteristic is something that, in my opinion, makes him special, not only in his group but among all the groups.

That poetic way of speaking is a beautiful combination with his voice. When he speaks I find it so mystical… And when he sings his solo songs I feel relaxed and even a bit emotional. He's not an angel just physically, he also sings like one!

But what made me love him completely was his personality. To be honest, at first I didn't understand why he acted so hostile to Cecil and signed with him, but when it was explained later I could see his point of view and I felt sorry for him, for how he was feeling and the big sacrifice he was making if we take into account his thoughts.

Loyalty is something I value a lot, and Shion has a huge loyalty towards his friends. After that incident, he changes his way of thinking and he starts getting more friendly to the rest, something I find beautiful.

I also find him very cute, an extra point for me to like him. His -sometimes- childish attitude is adorable! And how he acts around his friends… So lovely!

I also feel a bit similar to him in some aspects, such as listening to the same song again and again, liking birds or even usually feeling sleepy, besides other things. These similarities make me feel connected in some way with him.

Shion is a very special character for me, and I can't wait to see more content about him, to know more about this wonderful boy, for example, about his family, where he is from, how he ended up in HEAVENS, how he started to speak the way he does… There are a lot of things we don't know yet and I hope we can get more information about Shion soon!

[ravs6709]

Kwami Sitting- Alya and the Kwamis

Alrighty, major spoilers from Gang of Secrets! Like, major.

But yeah, I've been having feels for that entire episode and because there was the reveal, it means kwami sitting! So here's some kwami content featuring platonic alyanette. Mentions of food.

Ftr, I made the zodiac kwamis all use they/them pronouns, though I don't think it ended up being too relevant in this fic. The main ones though do have genders.

Enjoy!

•~•~•~•~•~•

It had only been a day since Marinette had revealed her identity, and Alya liked to think that she was taking the news well. After all, that was Ladybug, the superhero that she'd wanted to unmask for so long, until she realized that it would hurt more than help. She still couldn't believe that she also happened to be her best friend.

But it made so much sense though. Both Marinette and Ladybug were strong, courageous, intelligent, and incredibly good friends. It explained why Marinette was always late to class or making excuses.

It also explained why she looked so broken. Because she wasn't just Ladybug, the only person who could undo the damage caused by Shadowmoth. She was also the Guardian of the Miraculous. She was someone who hated lies, but had to lie in order to keep everyone safe.

But she told her secret to Alya, and Alya vowed to help ease the burden that she was carrying.

"See this?" Marinette pointed to the large pink box, before it expanded to show dozens of coloured bottles. "This is where I keep the miracle box. And this is how I open it."

She then pressed down on a bunch of the bottles, before a drawer opened.

"Woah!" Alya gasped, before remembering that Marinette had been defensive about the dollhouse. "It took you less than a day to make that?"

"Uh... yes?"

"That's so cool!"

"Focus, Alya." She picked up the miracle box. "Each of the miraculous are stored in here, but the kwamis don't have to stay inside of it. And-"

She was interrupted by both her and Alya's phone buzzing. There was a notification about an akuma attack.

"You go, I'll look after the box! I'll also cover for you in case your parents come!" Alya told her, and she nodded.

Marinette transformed- woah it looked so cool!- and made her way to the roof. But before she left, she turned back to face Alya.

"If things get dangerous, I might have to come for one of the miraculous. Keep your phone in case I need to text you."

"Got it! I won't let you down, Marinette!"

Even though she would be missing out on a chance to film for the Ladyblog, this was an opportunity to properly meet the kwamis! She'd seen glimpses of them before, but her priority had been comforting Marinette over her curiosity. But now she actually had the chance to meet them all.

"Alright!" She called out. "You're all under my watch now! Can you like up so I can figure out who is who?"

She knew about the main miraculous, and some of the others, but she wasn't prepared to see just how many kwamis there were. She only recognized four. Trixx, Tikki, Wayzz and the bee whose name she didn't know. Others looked vaguely familiar, like the snake, horse and dragon. But she didn't know there was one for the pig, rooster, tiger (wait were they for the zodiac?).

"Ooh, you're Alya, right!" The pig kwami asked. "I'm Daizzi! It'd be really cool if you were my holder!"

"I told you, she's already taken!" Trixx replied.

Alya looked at the two kwamis. Were they fighting over her? It took all of her willpower to not scream, only because she didn't want Tom and Sabine to hear and get concerned. Then she'd have to explain why she was screaming, and Marinette's sudden absence. Yeah, she definitely should not do that.

"I'm very flattered that you'd like me as your holder, Daizzi" she said instead. "But as Trixx said, I'm taken. I like being Rena Rouge."

The other kwamis began to introduce themselves, and a brief summary of their powers. There was so much to take in and she wished she could talk to someone else about it, but knew that she couldn't, and wouldn't ever betray Marinette's trust like that.

After that, she sat on the bed and pulled out her phone. The kwamis were insanely old, so they'd probably be well behaved, and she could start writing down notes for her next Ladyblog article.

Or well, that's what she thought. Apparently all those years of living meant nothing, because as soon as she got distracted, she heard something fall to the floor.

It was a good thing that Alya had two devious sisters that had a tendency to cause destruction, otherwise she'd be fuming.

But because she had the experience, all she did was casually look back at her phone as if nothing had happened.

"Oh," she began, faking sweetness into her voice. "I was planning on getting you all some snacks, but I guess not."

The twins were starting to grow old enough to not fall for the tactic, but she suspected that the kwamis would. As expected, they turned towards her with wide eyes and sad expressions. They whispered amongst each other, before they moved to start cleaning up.

Trixx seemed to be participating half-heartedly- he probably knew what she was trying to accomplish, he was perceptive like that.

"Okay, what are your favourite snacks?"

She already knew that Trixx liked fruit, but she was not prepared for the variety of foods listed. Pollen liked peppers, Wayzz liked drinking tea, and there was a lot.

"Okay, I can't say that I'll be able to get food for all of you, but I'll do my best. Wayzz, I'm leaving you in charge."

She figured that since Wayzz was the previous guardian's kwami, he would be the wisest.

•~•~•~•~•~•

Alya took a deep breath, then tip toed down the stairs. The bakery wouldn't have everything, but taking a large variety of stuff would be weird. If it was just sweets, it'd be fine. But to take fruits and crackers and popcorn? She had to sneak the food back upstairs.

She looked into the kitchen and didn't see anyone.

"I haven't seen you in such a long time!" Sabine said from the front. "How have you been?"

Perfect! While they're distracted with the customer, I can get what I need.

Surprisingly, the kitchen raid went better than she'd expected. She managed to find even more food, and was able to carry it upstairs with ease. When she opened the trapdoor, the kwamis all beamed.

There was also no damage, fortunately.

"Before you eat," she said, chanelling all her authority into her tone. "I'm going to set up what we humans call a movie. Let's watch the Ladybug and Chat Noir movie."

It was easy to access it, since she already bought it online with an account. She got comfortable then started the movie.

The kwamis were fixated on the movie, impressed with the animation and the capabilities of the computer. However, there was a slight problem.

"How did they get the idea of the miraculous so wrong?" Baark asked.

"Remember, humans don't know that we exist. They have very little to work with," Wayzz answered.

Except that the others ignored him, and started critiquing the movie even more. Alya groaned. She was never going to be able to enjoy the movie again without thinking of the conversation going on around her.

•~•~•~•~•~•

There were footsteps on the roof, and then the trapdoor opened. Alya didn't look back at Marinette, even when she detransformed.

"Oh wow, you're good at this," Marinette remarked.

Alya only hummed as a response, and reached for the last of the popcorn. "I like stole a crap ton of food from the kitchen though. Hope you don't mind."

"Are you kidding me? I haven't seen them sit still in ever!"

Alya felt arms wrap around her from behind, and she smiled. "I told you. If your load gets too heavy, I'll carry it with you. Even if it's by doing something as simple as babysitting these cute kwamis."

"Thank you Alya, thank you! I don't know what'd I'd do without you."

"I love you too Marinette."

•~•~•~•~•~•

Ml taglist- @subrosasteath

Want to be added/removed from the taglist? Just let me know!

[toujoursmiraculous]

Thoughts and Reaction to SENTIBUBBLER

For the past month, every day my sister greeted me with "Sentibubbler!" Sometimes multiple times a day. So this episode was a very anticipated one. The trailer spoiled that the opening scene was a dream, so I wasn't expecting to be surprised or anything like that. HAHA BOY WAS I WRONG But first, this dream points out several things she's worried about and she's going to have to address because they're seriously stressing her out. Likely in the order of occurrence in the episode is how we'll see it addressed. (In chronological order because let's be real, broadcasting companies don't seem to care much about what episodes we get when, so we'll likely see them happen out of this order) - Alya and Trixx being able to keep the secret and be trustworthy. (Which seems to be taken care of in this episode) - Nino finding out she's Ladybug. Nino's close with Alya, so tbh it's probably just a matter of time before he finds out on his own, or they break down and decide to tell him. - Chloe's issue with the Miraculous and Ladybug's rule that has only applied to Chloe so far. - And Chat Blanc. It seems Chat Blanc becoming akumatized again is a bigger fear to her than all the rest, based on her reaction, being horrified and backing up to the point she knocks stuff off the table. It also shows that she's thinking about how her and Chat Noir in this other timeline were in fact together and thinking about what the reason for it is. She believed that it was them being together knowing their secret identities, and their love did it. So here in this dream, well everyone knows right, so what's keeping them from being together now? Interesting thought to have for someone who claims she doesn't love him. ;) Tikki squeaks when bounced. Good to know lol But poor thing was asleep. LOL the Lochness Monster is Trixx's doing, huh? It's like every major event in history happened because of a Kwami. What else are we going to learn xD Marinette being freaked out by the tarantula. The biggest spider I've ever seen in my house is a Giant Crab Spider. Freaked me out so much too. Poor thing was terrified though so I let it go outside. xD Are Alya's parents going to be like Marinette's parents and just shrug when their daughter says things they don't understand and let it go. Because in their situation, those are the best parents to have. Except Adrien's, who isn't around....oof moving on. And here is the start of Nino feeling left out... DX Anyone that knows me knows I adore him, so this is going to begin to get really painful for me. ;-; TRIXX IS JUST SO STINKING CUTE And then suddenly with the phone ringing and empty room with a villain on the other line threatening the lives of her friends and family, did I feel like I entered one of my Taiwanese dramas instead of Miraculous Ladybug. And I love it! I had no idea how Alya was going to deal with Shadow Moth's call, instructions, and Sentibubbler in the room, I was at the edge of my seat. Older seasons it was so much easier to have a good general idea anyway of what was going to happen, but now you get caught by surprise much more. Alya is so brilliant, there's honestly nobody better for Marinette to have told first. I love Chat Noir so much and for emotional reasons, I wanted him to know first. But it's so easy for one or both to be unable to transform or do their job, they need at least one other on the outside they can trust. Alya is certainly that someone. I do think Nino knowing and Adrien finding out will make them the strongest though. But of course, not without its consequences. There is no perfect solution. I also want to point out too. When Marinette was trying to decide what to do, she thought of ways that would cause significant trouble, or worse. Transforming in front of everyone and going back in time to erase that. Nothing she thought of to get herself out of the situation was a good idea. Chat Noir didn't want to listen to Rena Rouge and was going to blow her plan up. Her wording wasn't great, and she should've said it differently so he'd be more likely to listen. But

both Ladybug and Chat Noir were going to do things that would cause serious damage and consequences. Rena Rouge was the one that helped make things go smoothly. But also yikes the fact that Chat Noir got so angry and hurt about being left out (it didn't even have anything to do with Ladybug, so that's going to be a misunderstanding that adds up and comes back later ooof) that he destroyed a chimney with his baton. o.o But his "Oh well Miraculous Ladybug will fix it anyway so I can't feel too bad" xD Everything lately about these episodes just screams "Chat Noir and Nino are going to have to know, at least some details, and soon." either that or both of them walk away because they can't put up with it anymore. And I'm pretty sure we're not getting the latter! Chat Noir being told by Marinette to stay where he is. Chat: BUT WHYYYY x.x Marinette: Rena Rouge created a Ladybug illusion to trick Sentibubbler, who is a Sentimonster. If you go there, you might ruin her entire plan! Chat: ... and you know this how? That's really sus, Marinette... Marinette just goes all casual Chat-like as she explains and he just doesn't even question anything anymore lololol Alya being super smart and getting Shadow Moth away from her while she still keeps the Miraculous. Hahahaha what if all the rest do that too, that'll be so great. x3 Chat, explains what's going on and what he has to do. Marinette: Good idea! :D Chat: Relax. The real Ladybug will save her and together we will save you. Marinette: We're already saving them, Kitty. We already are... Me: AHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MY HEART ;-; The only real physical damage done to Paris that day was when the Agreste's decided to vent their anger out on innocent buildings. Marinette being as Ladybug to Chat Noir as she can be while Marinette's the one with him trapped in a bubble. x33 I love how he uses Cataclysm, gets trapped in the bubble again, and Marinette just blinks at him like "Oh Kitty...:c" In S1, Marinette would've rolled her eyes and shook her head lol Ladybug transforming in a bubble right next to Chat Noir and he knows absolutely nothing :D I'd be so nervous even with that illusion if it were me. Chat Noir: NOBODY CAN MUTE ME Shadow Moth: Wanna bet? THAT ACTION SHOT OF PEGABUG TAKING THE COFFEE CUP FROM HAWK MOTHS IS ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITES Her hair is so pretty and her smug look is just so perfect!! Chat Noir saving Nino <3 Ladybug and Rena Rouge's hug <3 Seriously loving these friend moments. But they make me nervous about what's to come. "Hey, I thought today would be the end of Chat Noir." Oh dear. Please don't have him thinking like this still. What's it going to take for this poor boy to understand he's irreplaceable and she cares so much about him? At this point I think him knowing her feelings for him and some of the truth, but not all of it, would be what it'd take. Okay, the scenes after the end card now are tripping me up. Such creepy, dramatic music with a getting angrier all the time Gabriel. Scary. Thanks to spoilers from TFOU, this scene here, hints at the finale episode for sure. And that was the episode! I really enjoyed this one, I love how it's really getting the ball rolling on some problems that later on will need to be fixed, to then have them come back happier and stronger than before. We just need to live through it first lol.

[zhilan]

was debating on voicing this or not, but saw a convo on talking about something similar so thought to share. Even if there's some true Melby fans, it feels like straight shippers have convinced the Charmed writers to go with Melby, and by extent straight shippers got to speak over queer fans on a queer story. Melby still feels forced and I just can't really back it up. I feel bad for Bethany, who apparently is gay herself, having people have this talk about a character she plays. 1/2

Pre Charmed I was one that never really saw much difference if it was a gay or hetro person playing a gay character. I never saw the big deal about whether a person of x sexuality or race wrote about a gay or poc characters. Charmed changed that, with Melonie Diaz seemingly being anti Abimel, not understanding why people shipp them. The writer stuff is self explanatory at this point, sad it feels like ppl r ok with gays getting less if it's cis het pocs benefiting. (2/2)

Okay, so a lot of things here but first we'll talk about Melby. I agree there are some people who do genuinely like them (but they’re few tbh). I was one of the people genuinely excited for Melby when Ruby was first introduced - especially because I was feeling zero chemistry from MelKat and I was so relieved they replaced Kat with Ruby as a love interest because for me personally, I do think Melby does have chemistry and I was into it. But the season progressed... and nothing. My big problem with Melby is that their entire relationship was developed offscreen, and the very very very little that we do have onscreen doesn't really have much continuity. I mean. Here's a summary of their development (like this is ALL the Melby content leading up to the ILY:

2x12, they meet

2x13, they wake up in bed together (awesome, we never even saw their first kiss LOL), end of episode they decide to be casual

2x19, they break up (even though they weren't even a couple??)

3x02, they're back together without addressing the issue with magic

3x06, they break up, again. make up again.

3x12, they're saying i love you

Like... literally WHAT?! what?!?! I've seen many poorly written wlw relationships (because that seems to be a standard for a lot of shows) but damn, Melby takes it to a whole new level. And I think the thing that makes it even more frustrating, is that the fact is literally all the other wlw ships, canon and non-canon (that's Melko, Melda, Melkat and Abimel) ... ALL have better writing, better build-up and better development that Melby has. It's the fact that we've had better wlw writing before this, that's why it's harder to just be okay with it because we know the writers are actually capable of doing better, so why are we stuck with a non-existent ship instead? I’d take Melko, Melda, Abimel and even Melkat whom I don’t really like - over Melby because they all actually have content. And Jada, Niko, Kat and Abigael are their own person, instead of a love interest written to fit Mel in whatever way is convenient (which is a whole other issue too). And it feels even more unfair when you consider Melby only gets about a tenth of screentime compared to the het ships on the show when Mel is just as much a lead character as her sisters.

And so yeah. And it sucks and it’s annoying because it’s mostly the straight people shoving it down our throats - blaming the lack of investment for Melby on racism when it literally has nothing to do with that, and everything to do with - again, the lack of everything! (And omfg, is2g when it’s the white cishets telling qwoc who ship Abimel we’re racist.... stfu perhaps??) Honestly, Melby scenes for me are cute - on their own, without context bec with context it just sucks. They’re enjoyable, but they’re not exciting because the best part about shipping is the build-up, the waiting-for-it-to-happen. Melby had none of that. And that’s usually the part where you start getting invested on a ship, yk. At least that’s how it is for me. 

As for Bethany, yeah I agree it sucks because... I mean I don’t know her, but I follow her Insta and she seems like a genuinely nice person (with a super cute cat!) and idk I mean I haven’t seen people tagging her or anything when expressing disappointment with Melby so I don’t think she’s aware of the discourse. (I hope, because she deserves better than that) but honestly none of the criticism for Melby falls on Bethany. It’s not her fault at all. It’s on the showrunners for having it play out the way that it has.

And Melonie. I mean yeah. I have nothing against her, really. But as far as wlw representation goes, we know that she has a voice in the writers room from one of her interviews and even Abimel aside since that’s not the canon ship, I feel like it’s important to notice that even for Melby she doesn’t really push for more of it. She seems very content with what we’re given (which is next to nothing lbr) and I’m kinda meh about it — and I agree this is where the difference between having hets play gay characters matter. Because gay people will usually push for better gay representation because it’s personal to them and they know exactly what it means to the audience. Like look at how Chyler Leigh from Supergirl is constantly pushing for better wlw. And of course that’s not to say hets never do that because some do (like Azie Tesfai, for example bless her soul), but then for some it’s just a job. And to be clear, I’m not hating on Melonie for not doing more, but I think it’s also true that an actual lgbt actor might make more effort.

** I always think there should definitely be poc writers for poc characters though, that’s non-negotiable. And lgbt writers for shows with lgbt characters. Charmed is lacking in both, unfortunately. 

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

BFCD Reviews by Nesha: Final Space, Season 3

Everybody that know me know that I’m high class #Quillective trash and my main thoughts and feelings go out to Quinn Ergon and Gary Goodspeed - precious Gemini gems, and of course the BABIES: Little Cato, Ash and Fox #NeshaLuhDaKids I had some attachment to Avocato once upon a time, but that n***a got on my LAST nerves this season, so we currently at “Do you, Boo” status by the end of S3, and eventually, yes, I’ma get to why that is. 

Disclaimer for somebody who stumbled across this post because of the fandom tags - I am an independent partaker of this content, not “part of the fandom,” and my audience in particular is NOT for everybody. SO: If you may have been criticized in the past for casual racism, tone deafness to Black women’s concerns or accused of misogynoir or antiblackness, leave now. 

If you don’t like cussing, AAVE, general ratchetness and mean lesbian energy, you too might wanna go. A bitch can be eloquent, but I type like I talk, at times, so it is what it is and I don’t curate for kids, dudes, or nonblacks. That’s just what that is.

I wanna start with Ash Graven. This season is about Ash more than anybody else, despite the fact that there was a lot of emphasis on Avocato’s toxic ass man pain and growth in Quinn and Gary’s relationship, ULTIMATELY, nobody in the crew did more coming into fruition as Ash did, and I have a lot to say about her, because I have a lot of feelings.

♡ Ash Graven

1. Ash is a kid. Lol. Everybody got very confused because of the unnecessary transformation that Invictus gave her. Ash did not “grow up,” her body was altered. That’s a fuckin kid in a woman’s body. A kid who has previously been living with survivor’s guilt, parental abuse/neglect/exploitation, chronic trauma, and a disastrous superpower that most people could not be trusted to carry. She’s a child having a coming of age moment in this season that is mostly molded in manipulation. If you hate on Ash, go fuck yourself. ESPECIALLY if I’ve caught you stanning other characters who have been shit characters, in this fandom or not. Ash was dealt a shit hand and nobody had her back but her brothers, and she’s done what she could and thought was best to care for them. Anybody that missed that - just don’t have kids, K.

2. Ash has no parental guidance. As far as she knows, the only adults who have ever had her back are dead and the ones that she’s stuck with now, she GAVE a chance to try to trust them. She gave Quinn a chance to try to see some of Nightfall (the only adult that we’ve seen not exploit her) in her. She gave Gary a chance by choosing him over Clarence, when she had to make a choice. She even gave Clarence’s ass another chance - with which he responded by dying to not fail her. Now, she has Gary, who just a few days or weeks ago, idek, forced her to try to summon her powers while she was both injured and also upset over having to leave her brother behind - TO SAVE HIS GIRLFRIEND! And she got snatched away in the process and left behind with the enemy, to be mentally assaulted and returned changed, only to have them not trust her.

I love Quinn too. I love her dearly. But the facts were that she was dying and having an episode that nobody could really help with, and Gary didn’t take the time or consideration to think about the stress that he was putting on Ash by putting her in the position to make her feel like she needed to save Quinn for him. Whether or not she was the only one who could, that is a lot to put on a child, and not only did he do it, but he didn’t even seem to think that hard about it whenever he then left her ass. Sure, he was glad when she was returned, but that was a fucked up situation that yet another adult put her into, and the first thing that he should have wanted to do when seeing her was to apologize and try to make it right. It was a huge miscalculation to treat her as a potential enemy that he and Avocato needed to vet. EVEN IF that’s what she was to them, both of them should have had the sense to assess while still treating her as the kid that they supposedly knew.

3. Most of her trauma has been recent and continuous. She looked up to Nightfall, watched her die, and had a meltdown. The events from Season 2 (with Clarence almost killing Fox and leaving him to die, her leaving his side to help out, seeing that Sheryl was treacherous to her own son, losing Nightfall), and the events that are taking place in Season 3 are only in the span of a few months.

They were only stranded for a month whenever we see them surviving together. That girl has had more happen to her to hurt her than to help her and nobody around her BUT Little Cato has been sensitive to that. And they are all fucking adults.

These things being noted - changing Ash’s design was the absolute worse fucking thing. Aging a girl up to make the bad things that follow more palatable is what that seems to be. Ash is still a kid. And THEN, they allegedly made her a queer kid. I say allegedly, because that “reveal” was so poorly done and subtle and weak that I, an almost 40 year old queer, didn’t realize that that’s what they meant whenever they said that they were gonna reveal somebody as a character who is part of the LGBT community.

So... FS production just gon’ decide not only to transform her body into that of a woman, when her mind is still full on traumatized child and hormonal teenager, but also, she likes girls, and they didn’t even do it in a cohesive way that added to the story. They threw it in, like, “BTW, she likes girls, and also, she’s full grown now.” then immediately went for the “Villain” lever, and bitches just ate that shit up. Fuck y’all, forreal. 

& Fox

He didn’t deserve that shit. And, I know a lot of people felt that he was pointless and boring, but his ass was sweet and caring and searching for love and acceptance. As a background character, I liked him. But, he was literally just fodder for Ash’s downfall, which was unfair and problematic, considering that his ass is definitely Black coded. Don’t play. He was voiced by a Black man, spoke with a blaccent, and definitely would be read as Black if you wasn’t looking at him and seeing an alien. They gave him a sacrificial negro trope, the big friendly negro that can kill you but loves everybody trope, and they used his death to just push some narrative forward to set up the one verified queer character as a villain. They got they ass in a vehicle and rolled right over another Black character, and another queer character. Chile...

 ♡ Little Cato!!!

My precious have not been getting some good for too long, and I have had it. He’s not focused on so much this season as he is in the background of other people’s stories, but a very important takeaway is and will always be that Little Cato, aside from Fox, really was the only one here who consistently treated her like she mattered, so it made a lot of sense that he could be the catalyst for her finally having ENOUGH with these people.

I really wish that he could have found out the truth about his past from Avocato, because that’s really who OWED him that truth, but Ash did the thing that I’d expect and told him, to be honest with him. She even told him that Avocato wanted to tell him and that she took that right away from him, because she didn’t believe he deserved it, and I’m respecting her for that, too. I wish she could see how much it hurt Little Cato for her to try to take him away from his home. 

Little Cato has lived before, for a while, and he’s not mature enough to behave as a man, but he at least has a loving foundation to draw from, and having had that support, this is more of his home than it is Ash’s. He doesn’t know how to explain that to her, and she doesn’t know how to understand that for him. Just a tragic situation for two kids with a lot of problems.

♡ Quinn Ergon & Gary Goodspeed

Quinnary notes that might not be featured in the BFCD Reviews by Nesha:  (Quinn Ergon/Nightfall x Gary Goodspeed) rundown - 

I've had two favorite parts of this season so far and they're very mediocre things that you wouldn't think would be like my favorite part but they are. One of them was that the first thing Gary does when she wakes up is to ask her about her sister (someone obviously very important to her who he's previously promised to allow to let live through Quinn's memory and says he wants to hear about her when he's trying to keep Quinn from dying). Because... He really did care and wasn't just saying something to keep her.

Quinn's mother fucked her up in a way that is so frustrating because Black mamas really will traumatize you about their younger kids. That shit hurt. You showed your daughter dead bodies to make her think about that in the event that your other daughter might be in battle? Bitch wtf

Whenever we say that Black girls are programmed to put everybody ahead of us, that's unfortunately not just including Society, it's in households too. And Quinn comes from this place where that is her reality... Then she meets Gary and he doesn't even register for her as anything special. He doesn't appear impressive or incredible in any way... But he (admittedly) weirdly locks on to her and shares himself - thinking that he's showing himself to her, and ultimately he DOES. And he wants to see her too, beyond all this, who she is, at her most humane. He wants to know about her sister. About someone who mattered to her enough to have the helm of her trauma when she was out of touch with reality. Very soft. Very sweet.

The other was when they were talking about how they met and stuff and Gary absolutely cringed thinking about how corny he was when he approached this woman. A lot of dudes never do that. The complaint of earlier seasons that Gary was overbearing, obsessive and creepy , if you missed the fact that he has terrible abandonment issues from his father’s death and his mother’s rejection, here we have him, in his adult state, looking back at the way he was and being embarrassed about it, and that’s growth!

A close third is whenever at the beginning of the Season he says "Quinn it's been a month eventually you have to open up to me about what you've been through" and she says "I will in time" and he respects it but he reiterates that he's there whenever she needs him. I don't think that people realize how revolutionary that kind of statement is especially for a character like Quinn to hear - who has always felt like she had to take charge, had to take the lead, had to make the sacrifice.

Even when she realized that she was dying, she didn't want to burden him with the information. Not even like ‘a thing that she knew if that could help prevent it and she didn't want him to have to go after it,’ but... she didn't even want him to have to deal with knowing about it!

Maybe she thought that she would just drop, maybe she didn't realize that he was going to have to see her in that condition. And then once she realized that he was going to have to see her in that condition one of the first things she says is "I should have told you." Girl is on her deathbed wishing she had done it differently, for Gary's benefit.

I saw somebody on Twitter tried to come for her about not going to Gary after he killed Fox (you know, shortly after her surgery to save her from the very brink of death, and listen... Quinn comes to see about Gary when she can. She’s done it several times. In fact, I’ma make a whole POST about Quinn and Gary moments SPECIFICALLY to point out to haters in the main tag - where they got Quinn Ergon, and by extension, me, FUCKED UP.

Stop Playing in Quinn Face

HI! HELLO. ACTUALLY MY FAVORITE PART OF THIS SEASON IS THAT QUINN AND GARY JUST FUCKED. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANKS. OK. Back 2 bidness

See.. after Gary and Quinn got over the humps of Quinn’s Final Space poisoning... everyone got it... nobody told her until Avocato was mad and told her during a lash out, and let me say something about Avocato’s fucking audacity this season... 

♡ Avocato (Note: His name is A-V-O-C-A-T-O. Some of y’all be tryna stan and y’all can’t even spell his name.)

I done seent Avacata, Avocata... That’s not that dude name. Be writing whole ass expositions about some other Ventrexian n*gga. Hope this helps:

AVOCATO. Listen, boy. YOU decided to be a traitor to your people and your king and queen. YOU decided to dedicate your cause to the Lord Commander and lied to your son his entire life about killing his parents, raising him, and never talking to him about it.

Yet and STILL - whenever you had the chance to finally tell him, you ain’t do the shit. Lord Commander gave you the perfect ass opportunity - WHEN IT CAME UP, and even then, with that boy looking you dead in the face and being glad that now he knows everything... you ain’t Ventrexian man up.

Then, whenever you were supposed to be checking on Gary after his traumatic murder fight with Fox and Invictus, you turned it around and literally made it about you. attacking him in the process and only after a physical fight did you apologize. (And y’all still didn’t get back to what had happened to Gary, which was no real fault of his own). 

Fast forward to after you willingly agreed to stay behind and fight and y’all lost. Now, it was Quinn’s turn to be the center of your blame and you lashed out at her because everybody is dying, despite the fact that y’all agreed to stay behind and fight, nobody even told her that y’all were sick, AND you still wasn’t 100 with Little Cato. 

You just had a lot of mothafuckin audacity this season, Avocato, and I personally was not here for the shit. Even when Ash blasted yo ass, your main thought was to threaten to kill her if she took Little Cato, instead of assuring her that despite what you’ve done, Little Cato was safe with you. No, she wouldn’t have listened to you. But, the words you chose tell us about who you are and how you are. You a war mongering killer that don’t ever take responsibility for his shit, and even in those brief moments that you do, its always somebody else’s problem. 

I’da thunk that LC getting snatched away would be humbling for you, but I guess you were chosen by the writers for minimal growth. Bye, Avocato. Witcha bitch ass. We is not cool right now, but you do you. Hope you find some growth up there in ya ass, where ya head been. 😁 Can’t believe I mourned yo ass. You coulda stayed dead as hell.

FINALE NOTES:

OK BITCH OK THIS FINALE WAS HYPE!

Let me pull it up so that I can liveblog it for the shit that I need to conclude this journey. 

We start out after Ash done took Little Cato and burnt off. Gary and AVOCATO done said they finna go get they son. Chile, I cannot handle Biskit voice. I like that lil’ dude but ya voice, Mane. I can’t with it. 

OK OK OK... Whenever Quinn comes up to Gary to talk to him and say potential goodbyes, she look like she wanna say some and that makes me think about whenever she looked like she wanted to say something in season 1 and didn’t. Quinn as grown a lot in her feelings for Gary, but she still has that hard time with talking about her feelings, but I love that you can see them in her face.

Chile... these folk was kinda taking they time gettin started, huh? Knuckas, do y’all remember that everybody finna die of FS poisoning? Lol. Also... why didn’t they start hallucinating and shit? I guess its not until it covers ya face? 

NIGHTFALL. 😥 I love you, Sis. I miss you. But, “Because I’m you and WE think of everything...” YES. I HAVE BEEN SAYING THAT! EVERYBODY EXPECTS QUINN TO THINK OF EVERYTHING AND WHENEVER THEY DON’T THINK OF THE THINGS, SHE GETS BLAMED FOR MAKING THE TOUGH DECISIONS THAT NOBODY ELSE COULD EVEN MAKE. Underappreciated, really. And people still mark Nightfall as a villain, despite the fact that she not only sacrificed herself, but also came specifically to help another Gary. Sidenote - Nightfall didn’t actually pursuit Quinn’s Gary until Quinn was trapped in Final Space and she thought she got a signal from him. So, I’m still salty AF that she been labelled as a villain just because people don’t like her, when her actions have all been to try to help. Here is no difference. She thought of the things that she didn’t think a younger version of her would think of, and left it for Quinn to find. Nightfall be on RNS, and most of y’all didn’t deserve her.

Quinn’s identity crisis is so sad, but I liked that Nightfall EVEN thought about that. And Sheryl... you kinda starting to grow on me. I hate to give shitty mothers who find compassion in old chance a try, but she do seem to really be giving it a go. 

Ash is so fucked up that she rushes right into the devil’s arms. This reminds me of when trafficking victims go back to their abusers because they don’t have the resources to adjust in the system. 😪 She REALLY believes what she’s saying. She really feels like Little Cato is safer with Invictus with the Team Squad. That’s sad as fuck, bruh. 

THE. ACTING. AND. ARTWORK. IN. THIS. CONFRONTATION. SCENE.

Avocato... I’m proud of you for FINALLY taking responsibility ad opening up about it. Little Cato’s reaction is precisely how kids in the system are, as well. They wanna be at home with their parents, no matter who their parents are or what they’ve done. and Avocato meant what he said and did what I referred to earlier as “Ventraxian man up.”

“I’m sorry we failed you,” from Gary was so important. Because, they technically did fail her. Had Ash seen the same amount of love from Gary as she’s seen him give to others, she might have been more receptive to the truth and less susceptible to lies. But, as she had just said earlier, it was too late for kind words. She’s currently beyond accepting them from him. For a brief moment, it breaks through, but without that ability to know love from an adult properly, she can’t accept that apology right now.

H.U.E. with his big robot, Lord Commander...EYE. There’s so much happening right now bitch processing has left the room girl. Biskit did so damn much this episode. And it was good to see everybody on the team have a moment to help things, instead of like one person having to handle the bulk of things. 

Quinn’s begging voice... its such a contrast from whenever she sent out the SOS in season 1 and was afraid and angry. Like... the desperation here shows her softness. 

Ash’s RAGE Bitch...

Gary’s “I love you...” She looked so happy! And then she just sat with it. I feel like she definitely loves him too, but she doesn’t communicate that way. But, her FACE. She was just... did she think that he didn’t before, or was she just speechless because she didn’t expect to hear it? Because, we gotta be real... Sis probably has not ever heard those words from anybody before. And that first time, when it’s really there is a DOOZIE. She had an abusive mother, a seemingly jealous or competitive sister, and we saw how nobody in the Infinity Guard respected her ass when she was serving them the real. I think this is the first time she’s been in love or felt it and when Gary said it, she had to collect herself. The way she ran to him and jumped into his arms??? SHIPPING CRACK. And Mooncake was a part of their hug too. I have a lot of feelings about this dynamic since Quinn and Mooncake are the only characters that we’ve seen Gary have these “love at first sight” reactions to and Mooncake is the first character that I recall Quinn being nice to in S1. 

So.. my heart was very full when they ripped it from my chest moments later. Mooncake has been watching Team Squad members be self sacrificing for a little while now, and he loves his family and Gary so much that he rushes straight towards danger. (Sure, I don’t think that he estimated how powerful Ash could be at this moment), but he had to at least consider that he might be caught or left behind.

Bitch, Ash is GONE. She said, “Fuck all y’all!” Not knowing whether or not Mooncake is destroyed makes it very hard for me to know how much I can stand this, but I also want to hope that he is gonna survive. Quinn having to make the decision to lightfold is hella sad, but even though Gary is destroyed, he has to know that this is exactly how Ash must’ve felt whenever he had to make the call to leave Fox behind. She hated to do that to Gary. She even seemed more regretful about it than Gary did whenever he had to leave Fox and when he left Ash. Sure, its because she loves him more than he loved Fox and Ash, but its a terrible position to be in to have to hurt somebody you love like that. On the other hand, they gave her hella shit for them not escaping when could have the first time, so naturally, she was going to make this decision. 

It very much sucks that Invictus is free and my brain can’t eeem FATHOM what that means for everything and everybody, but the Final Space poisoning left the Team Squad’s system, so maybe there is a rejuvenation of some sort in Invictus’ power? Or does Final Space poisoning leave your system as soon as you leave Final Space? I don’t think that was clarified. 

Anyways, I still don’t hate Ash. Y’all can say whatever about it, but I see sad white boys get forgiven all day every day on this site, and I’m upset, but I’m not letting my baby go. I’m not cheering her on, but unless she dies, I’m gonna hope for the best for her, like I said here. 

DAMN this season was some shit. Ionknow if I’m emotionally capable of watching another season of Final Space in progress. If they make it back for another season, I will most likely just wait until the end to dive in and let them shock my senses all at once instead of on a weekly goddamn basis, because GODDAMN GODDAMN GODDDAMN!

@andromidagalaxie @daintyurbanprincess @shslargue @space-finally​  The Quinnary Moments Masterlist probably won’t be ready by Quinn’s birthday, since her birthday is the day before Juneteenth, but I’ve started on a little fic that I might have the first installment of posted by then. We shall see. 

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Here is my JOURNEY during my first watch of the first two seasons of the show. (I watched Season 3 in progress and waited until it was over to write up this review) and my probably incoherent tag of whenever I do me a lil’ liveblogging: Nesha Watches Final Space, and here is my review on Quinnary: BFCD Reviews by Nesha: (Quinn Ergon/Nightfall x Gary Goodspeed) FINAL SPACE

[itsclydebitches]

I’m wlw. While, I’m not going to shame WLW members of the FNDM, bumblby pisses me off. V6 skipped development for both characters for the sake of “confirming” it, but I thought there scenes in V7 were cute. At first. Then it felt like RT dangling gay keys in front of my face. Now they’re attached to the hip while giving the het. ship (Renora) independence. Yang doesn’t care what Ruby thinks and only Blake was upset by her fall. What are your thoughts?

I’ve touched on their relationship quit a bit over the years, on and off, so I’ll try to summarize those big thoughts here: 

I like the ship. I’ve always liked the ship. I’ve never been a die-hard fan like some, but as soon as I entered the fandom and realized they were a thing I went, “Oh yeah, I can see that. I’m on board!” 

Which isn’t to say I’m always a fan of how people engage with them. It’s a fact that every major ship in any fandom is going to have its annoying, dramatic, and toxic elements. It’s also a fact that RWBY has developed a reputation for being particularly vitriolic. I think a lot of the hate towards Blake/Yang stems less from what we actually got in the canon and more from bad experiences from a small subset of fans. Not everyone. Not even the majority. But enough that casual fans, Blake/Sun fans, those who dislike the ship, etc. have reached a point where bmblb is a) so incredibly prominent and b) at times so heated that even a fellow shipper can grow frustrated at the state of the “RWBY” tag. This then bleeds into our reading of the canon material. After all, if you’re frustrated about seeing this pairing so often in fandom spaces and/or you’ve had a bad run-in with someone who ships them, seeing even more of them on Saturday will exacerbate those feelings. 

This is a frustration that’s increased as the show still refuses to make the relationship canon. Crafting scenes each week where something semi-romantic occurs, but isn’t enough to confirm a relationship (like the forehead touch) creates a branching number of annoyances, from “Oh my god how is this still not canon” to “Here’s another week of the whole fandom claiming it is canon.” Those “dangling gay keys” are a problem both for those desperate to see the relationship confirmed because they love it and those desperate to see the relationship confirmed so the characters can begin focusing on other aspects of their identities. “Attached at the hip” feels too close to queer baiting for comfort while simultaneously too narrow a depiction of Blake and Yang. Surely they have concerns and relationships outside of each other. 

I agree entirely that the relationship was rushed in some respects. However, there’s a post somewhere in the depths of my blog where I argue strongly that queer relationships should be allowed to be rushed, simply because so many het ships are too. I stand by that. I understand the frustration of moving from the two interacting primarily as teammates to suddenly holding hands, but that’s a gap that appears in many, many non-queer pairings. Jaune is a great example. Though we introduced Pyrrha’s interest in him from the get-go, he was running after Weiss for his whole time at Beacon, got a little closer to Pyrrha, she suddenly kissed him, and then... we’re meant to believe they were madly in love? His grief is certainly written in a way to imply as much. The cultural expectation of the guy losing the girl just fills in the rest, we didn’t actually see it on screen. So I both agree and disagree. I always want RWBY to be better written, but I also don’t want to hold our queer pairings to standards we don’t demand of the het ones. That way lies a lot of excuses for why it “can’t” ever happen. I’d rather have poorly written and rushed representation than no representation at all. 

Agree entirely about there being a problem with Yang’s fall. Blake’s reaction was fine. The lack of reaction from everyone else was not. As I said in my recap, you can’t prove their love by taking love away from these other relationships. Making Ruby seemingly care less about her sister will not convince me that Blake cares a great deal. Though this is a problem RT has across the whole cast, tying into that “attached at the hip”ness. Characters tend to have one (1) relationship and that’s it. RT really struggles to write a cohesive group, instead creating a collection of duos that happen to inhabit the same space. I can see places where they’ve been trying to correct that this volume  — Yang speaking to Ruby about Summer, Nora talking to the girls about Ren  — but moments like Blake’s talk with Ruby really struggle. In that, these characters haven’t spoken in seven seasons, so all Blake has to say is a generic, ‘I believe in you’ that comes across as stilted and unpersuasive  — we can see the writers trying to convince us that Ruby is The Best and that these girls have a relationship when they... don’t. And scenes like Yang’s fall show us that these underlying struggles are still at work. RT doesn’t know how to craft a scene where everyone reacts because Yang is a well-rounded person sporting a deep and unique relationship with three other teammates. They know how to craft a scene where the one (1) relationship takes centerstage and everyone else becomes cardboard cutouts. 

As for renora’s independence, I need to side with RWBY on this one. The entire point of this arc is that Nora realized she is also attached at the hip and wants to do something about it. That’s a good thing! Whether or not RT actually manages to write a relationship where they’re together without being entirely co-dependent remains to be seen, but splitting them in this last episode was a good start. Similarly, the show did separate Blake and Yang for the majority of this volume and now may have separated Yang from the group for a significant length of time. That’s not the same thing as the girls realizing they need space like Nora did... but then, they aren’t in an acknowledged relationship like Nora is. I don’t think it’s fair to compare them when Yang and Blake haven’t even reached the point where they’re talking about their relationship, let alone what that looks like going forward, and therein lies my real criticism. In order to see the depth RT is trying to give to renora, they have to actually make bmblb canon first. It all comes back to that. The question of queerbaiting, how they find healthy boundaries, how they compare to other relationships in the show... there’s no real groundwork to discuss any of that until we can say, 100%, that they are, in fact, a couple.