#but it wasnt? just? what?

[lollytea]

I don't dislike the name change theory at all because I understand the thought process behind it, with the need to distance yourself from every trace of your abuser and all that. So like I get it. But I very strongly believe in Hunter reclaiming his name. Mostly cuz of scenes like this

It's important to him!! It's the name he uses to distinguish his true self from the persona he's built. It's the name he uses when he wants to be seen as someone other than the Golden Guard. It's the name others use when they want to express that they do see him. The name might have fucked up origins and he's clearly aware of it but being Hunter is the one thing about himself he's certain of right now.

[bamsara]

being an adult means we can buy or make as much self-indulgent shit (as we can afford) and unironically have trinkets of our fave things cause our teen years was bullied for liking things and hiding/denying we were ever neurodivergent to the point of suicide. sucks for anyone that thinks its weird cringe but I'm going to try and allow myself to love myself in little ways now

[formosusiniquis]

When Mike Wheeler, red faced and still faintly tear stained, asks him how he knew he liked both Steve doesn’t know how to tell him it was his sister.

Before Nancy Wheeler it had only been boys. Before Nancy Wheeler Steve had been sure he was gay and knew well enough to keep it to himself; dating around enough to earn himself a protective reputation. Before Nancy Wheeler there’d been Marcus Summers, from the baseball team, during freshman year. Steve had gone to every game, and had been forced to make up excuses about schoolwork and his other commitments when asked why he hadn’t tried out for himself. Before Nancy Wheeler there’d been Tommy Hagan. The summer between seventh and eighth grade had been very kind to Tommy, he was sunkissed and boy next door sweet, Steve had wanted to hold his hand and count the freckles across the bridge of his nose. 

Before Nancy Wheeler there’d been his first love, a boy who only visited one summer, the year Steve turned ten. His name had changed every time they hung out but he’d favored E’s. Eli, Emmett, Elliott, Eric, Excalibur, Excelsior, and once for about an hour Wayne. His hair brushed his chin in pretty brown curls and his big brown eyes were always bright with excitement. He always got storm off mad when any of the other boys they’d played with that summer said he was acting like a girl, E would run off to the woods and Steve would always follow. E always came up with the best games anyway, he didn’t like playing soccer or HORSE or anything else with rules that couldn’t be bent; he preferred imagination games where they were knights or wizards. He didn’t laugh when Steve said he always liked playing house, but never wanted to be the dad because why would he want to be someone who never wanted to spend any time with his kids. E who, while insisting on being called Samwise all day, was his first kiss.

Cause he knows what Mike wants to hear. He’s seen the way Mike and Will have danced around each other since the last portal closed. He’s heard the things Mike has said to and about Will. He’s heard all about the week that Will was in the Upside Down. He’s heard all about the summer of ‘85. He’s heard all about the final off again that seems to officially mark the end of Mike and El romantically. He knows that Mike wants him to say that he’d never even thought about boys before he met Eddie. That there’s just something special about Eddie that makes him want to give up his lady killing ways. That Eddie was different. That it was okay that he was having these scary new thoughts, maybe Will was just an exception.

And Steve doesn’t know how to have that conversation. When he realized he liked both it was a relief, that maybe he could have something normal and wouldn't have to spend his life lying or hiding. 

But Eddie was different. Eddie was special. Eddie was probably it for Steve which is scary in a different way that he’s not ready to touch yet -- not when it’s only been three months.

There’s never been another girl since Nancy Wheeler, not really

There will never be another boy after Eddie Munson.

So he tries to help, as best he can. It’s easier with Eddie there, not quite dozing against his shoulder -- the kid’s emergencies always seem to come so late at night these days. “When I was ten, there was a boy whose name kept changing who decided prince charming should get to kiss his faithful knight. And when I was sixteen, your sister-”

Mike’s goodwill diminishes quickly as his sister gets introduced to the conversation.

“Stevie,” Eddie says. It’s not an admonishment for bringing up Nancy. It’s awestruck and watery. “You remember that?”

“Of course I remember the first boy I ever loved," that word catches up with him a second later. Remember. 

Cause there's Eddie with his riot of brown curls and his Bambi eyes. Eddie, who has explained why soft feminine words chafe against his skin leaving him itchy and anxious. Eddie, who has an Uncle in Hawkins. Eddie who moved to town the summer before he entered high school with a buzzed head and his mother's last name. Eddie who finally settled into an E he liked best.

"Wheeler, here's a tip from me to you," Eddie says, his advice is always better received than Steve's anyway, "if you have to ask you probably already know."

"Straight people don't really spend much time wondering if they aren't really straight," Steve agrees.

They don't rush Mike out the door, a crisis is a crisis and even in the wake of new discoveries Mike deserves to be heard out. Deserves a chance to cry and rage and feel those emotions someplace safe from his Reaganite father -- just as much as Will deserves to have someone who knows what they want come to him, deserves better than experimentation.

They cross the bridge from late into early by the time Mike sets off. The sun is creeping up over the horizon and Mike looks solid, certain; the dawn hints at the man he is growing up to be. Though every instinct of Steve's begs him to drive the kid home, Eddie's soft hand lingering at his hip holds him fast. They wave instead, encouraging Mike to go home and to bed before he does anything; knowing his front bike tire is already pointed toward the Byers-Hopper place.

"The first boy you ever loved, huh, Stevie?" Eddie teases before the door has even managed to click shut.

"And the last, I'm hoping, if I play my cards right."

"You were always pretty good at that. You were the only person that summer who called me by my name, except Wayne."

"It was your name." He knows that's too simple. Knows how hard Eddie has had it, continues to have it. But that summer it had been that simple, Eddie trying on names like shirts each one fitting until they didn't. "For what it's worth, I like Eddie a lot more than Excalibur."

"Oh fuck off, I was going through a fantasy knight phase. Which I know you remember."

"Right a phase, and how much longer is this fantasy 'phase' going to last?"

They're the kind of tired that makes you feel drunk, when Eddie tackles Steve and sends them both to the floor and to giggles. Eddie might not have been his bi awakening, but Steve is pretty fine with him being his everything else.

[pencildragons]

still insanely funny to me that ortus nigenad has canonically written 18 volumes of epic poetry about a bodyguard who was, in fact, Just Some Guy, and regularly quotes himself out loud in conversations on the regular. man had to die at the start of gtn because he was too fucking powerful to live

[batcavescolony]

The fandom would be so much better if everyone realized that Batman's kids are just like that. None of them are normal! This is what they were doing before/directly after meeting Bruce:

Dick wanted to kill Anthony Zucco and avenge he parents death.

Jason uncovered a crime front in the troubled youth school he was sent to.

Tim stalked Batman, Nightwing AND the Teen Titans.

Stephanie created a whole vigilante persona to mess with her dad.

Damian and Cass are trained assassin children that can get anywhere.

Duke joined and lead the 'we are Robin movement' along with being a vigilante before he was Signal.

Bruce doesn't control them, he has tried to stop them, they don't listen. They aren't vigilantes because Bruce forced them to, I'm pretty sure they would have done that without his help, they're chaos incarnate!

[mistykaru]

inner thoughts :>

[sugajimin]

2022 - YOONGI RECAP

you can also call it, yoongi’s hair evolution 

BONUS:

(cr: ptd on stage/yet to come in busan: 0613data,nba japan games: @/jung-koook)

[hinata-boke]

Drawing a randomly generated Haikyuu character (almost) every day until I give up

72. Koganegawa Kanji

[cantteachanoldguardnewquotes]

1. The cute quick check in they do

2. Flirting at the kitchen table

3. The relief that they're both ok

4. Cozy cuddles

5. The endless love and adoration in their eyes

6. Kings of nonverbal reassurance

7. True loves kiss

8. The way they can make each other laugh under any circumstances

Favorite soft Nicky and Joe moments in no particular order requested by anon 💕

[intotheelliwoods]

So in 2al, before Leo got his prosthetic did F!Leo ever leave his off so present Leo would feel less alone about the whole arm situation? One arm solidarity and all that

Oh absolutely.

[killjoy-prince]

this post screamed rui and tsukasa

[craqueluring]

i'll write a proper long post about this thats more detailed eventually, but another deliberate way hannibal manipulated will in s1 is by blurring the lines between their therapy sessions conversations about will's emotions and killers' emotions/motivations.

for example:

will is frantic and traumatized by his hallucination of killing the girl that georgia madchen killed in 1x10. hannibal responds to that, then relates will's experience to the killers experience. uses the word delusion as a bridge. this prompts will to dig further into the killer's head. while he's responding, will is closing his eyes and staring off into the distance, as if he is seeing what the killer is seeing. then, using the word lonely as a bridge, he brings the subject back to will.

hannibal does this constantly.

even in episode two, the second time they had ever been alone in hannibal's office together, hannibal does this.

will is frantic and traumatized from his hallucination of hobbs in the grave of one of the mushroom garden people. hannibal just barely talks him down from it, then instantly changes the subject to the killer. forcing will back into the killer's head. then changes the topic to will again. blurring the lines between them, again, and again, and again.

[piosplayhouse]

I won't meta this because I don't want to speak over anyone but I do think it would be interesting to see an asexual scum villain analysis deconstructing how sqq convinces himself that sex is what binghe needs to be happy / what will fix everything because that's the narrative all the media he's consumed (that he's literally transported into) has told him

[jerreeeeeee]

people so often interpret sazed as taako’s ex, which like, to each their own obviously, nothing wrong with that, but i think its so so much more interesting to interpret him as taako’s apprentice instead. and like all we have to go on is that he really looked up to taako who sort of taught him how to cook. “thought taako hung the moon and stars” or something like that iirc. which brings so much more depth to taako’s relationship with angus if sazed was to taako then what angus is to taako now, someone who idolized him and saw him as a mentor.

it puts some of the conversations taako’s had with angus into really interesting context. like the fact that the first person taako’s (ever?) told about what happened at glamour springs (which he didnt know at the time, but was sazed’s fault) is angus. does he tell angus because he doesn’t want him to be betrayed (like he assumes sazed was, since he ran away)? or because he doesn’t want angus learning from someone so clearly unfit to be a mentor (both since he was unfit to be sazed’s, because he was dismissive to him, and because he believes himself to be a murderer)? he teaches angus magic and cooking. when he implies that angus might become as or more skilled than him he jokes about striking him down. which is exactly what he did to sazed when he wanted equal share.

but taako redeems himself with angus. he mistreats angus in the beginning, bullying him and dismissing him and generally being a dick, but as angus becomes taako’s apprentice, he’s more open and a little nicer. still “open” and “nice” in his own way, but definitely more than he was before. learning from his mistake, letting angus in and being encouraging and honest in the way he wasn’t with sazed.

idk. i think it’s so interesting and so rarely explored

[tvok]

'MAKE IT COUNT.'

[bananonbinary]

i dont have the brainpower to articulate it correctly but something about the procession of villains in tma and how it reflects dehumanizing the Enemy.

we start out with jane prentiss, who is stated to HAVE BEEN a Person, but its fine she’s not really anymore she’s just a hive its fine. then we get not!sasha, who never was a person. then nikola, who kinda vaguely is person-adjacent, but still is firmly a Monster.

in late season 3, we also get the hunters, who use this sort of logic to go after jon and mike crew and other people we KNOW are People. but it’s still okay, because our heroes Would Never, and anyway there’s an obvious line between someOne like jon and someThing like mustermann. the hunters are just blinded to this difference, but it’s still there. probably. maybe.

then season 4 hits. all our villains are just Some Guys. they can do some pretty evil things, but so can jon. they have houses, and bank accounts, and live real lives. and when jon kills Peter Lukas, there’s no getting around the fact that it was a murder.

season 5 is practically all about this, with martin realizing that “avatar” is meaningless and these people are just the same as them. the enemy was never some nightmarish monster, it was just awful people who were willing to hurt others. and when it all comes down to it, when jon kills the Main Antagonist of the entire show, there’s no powers, no epic fantasy battle, no romantic heroic moment. just one man murdering another with brute force.