#but then they went and took away every single thing that made s1 great

[chocolate-cream-soldier]

...//...

[arsonsamruby]

sam winchester pride

i have a new fic <3 hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

it’s s1 sam coming out to dean. was THIS close to making the ending sam ugly crying alone but even though dean Is like. microaggressions boy he’s not going to be a bitch about it all that’s out of character. i think he does try very hard to support sam. like he’s not an ally but probably because he doesn’t really know what an ally is. 

anyway wtf am i even saying.

___ Sam has a headache. Dean comes by, ruffles his hair, slouches into the couch. Sam licks his lips, looking away from the screen. It has loud, bright cartoons on it and in the prickling sense of dread he’s carrying with him, the stimulation is too much. 

Half of the headache is from a hard hit he took to the head, lingering pain. The other half is stress and dehydration. Unless beer counts as hydration, then in which- well, he’s covered. The screen of the television is cracked through; it’s playing Friends reruns. 

He stands abruptly. 

“Sammy, I swear to God, if you start pacing again-” Dean warns, throwing a pillow at him. Sam ducks it, somehow. His body takes up half the room. It’s hard to find space. 

He can’t help it. His feet get itchy, his legs pull tight, and it’s nice. Nice, to put in his earphones and walk around for a little while. “I’ll go out to the parking lot, promise. I won’t bother you.” 

He smiles slightly at Dean, but his brother isn’t much looking. 

The parking lot of the motel has the sticky feeling underfoot of summer heat on asphalt, and sweat. The crumbling pollen and flowers from the trees have made his half-present allergies flare up. As a kid, Sam would have allergy seasons that ran out of sync with everyone else’s. 

Go three years without a single cold, until one awful summer would come and he’d sneeze and sneeze and sneeze. He recalls: Oregon, in a rainy patch. It had been a relief to wash all the yellow pollen away with the weekly downpour. Another thing about Oregon, he’d had a best friend there. A girl. 

Huh. He tries to tuck his smile away, but it comes through like the sun through clouds. Sam looks dumb, doesn’t he? Some goofball pacing around a parking lot and smiling to himself. 

After about ten minutes, maybe more, his pace slows. The scenery is getting too humid. He wants to roll back into bed, into those cool sheets. 

“Sammy? Is that you?” 

Sam kicks his shoes off into the dirty corner. Dean’s left a bootprint on the floor there. If Sam was looking for a fight, he’d say something. “It’s me.” 

“You got a call. Someone left a voicemail. For you.” 

His voice is sharp, pounding hail on cement. “A call?” Sam replies dumbly.

Dean nods his head over to the answering machine. “I’ll put it on for you.” 

Sam’s heart begins to slow to a rolling stretch of highway. The cars moving across it are few and far between and his breath is short and dangerous. 

“Sammy?” The effusive warmth dies down after the nickname, realizing Dean’s heard it through. The voicemail, the nickname. “You gave me this number the other day. Outside the Jewel Osco?” 

He laughs. It crackles over the phone in a friendly way. Friendly the way he kissed tiny little butterflies onto Sam’s collarbones, the way his house was cool in the summer night. 

“I guess you’re a big-time developer and all so I’m not sure if you even care. But I have the jacket you left with me? The other night?” 

He clears his throat. “If you want it back, you can drop by.” The voicemail ends. 

“You leave your jacket at your friend’s house, Sammy? Come on, it’s just like you’re little again. You want me to pick it up for you?” 

Sam realizes two things: Dean hasn’t caught what the message means, and Sam wishes he would have. 

“Dean?” 

“Mmm?” 

Sam has never been able to cry with dry eyes. He can’t hide the shaky undercurrent to his voice. His eyelids feel like cement but he keeps staring at Dean. A flush of fear is blooming high on his cheeks. 

“Me and that guy, we’re not just friends. Or whatever.” 

Sam went calling for information, at his house. Said he was a real estate developer, even though the back of his neck went red with the obvious lie. The suit was cheap and he was young. He’d gotten the information and then this guy, his name is Jude, had kissed him. Sam left the suit jacket there. He’s glad he’s getting it back, all things considered. 

He still doesn’t know what possessed him to hand over his number after buying peanut butter and sandwich bread two days later. A crack in his self control, maybe. 

“What do you mean…” Dean isn’t making jokes, at least. Sam squints hard at the floor. His head feels like a matchbox. Being struck over and over again. His headache is back, erupting with a vengeance. 

“Sam, is it something- Dad did? Is it something I did? To make you, uh.” 

Sam shakes his head, sighing deeply. He wants to be a bitch about it and spit out something sarcastic. “What do you think you could have done?” 

Dean shakes his head. Murmurs, “I don’t know,” almost that Sam can’t hear him. “I guess you’re the type, though, Sammy.” Sam knows what he means by that. “As long as you don’t go around falling in love with some starry eyed dude. We still have to find Dad.” 

“About that. Don’t tell him.” Sam pointedly raises his eyebrows. Dean doesn’t have a great record of choosing- choosing him, his secrets that he keeps tight in his fists. He doesn’t have a record of letting any opportunity to be a good son slip by. 

“Sure, sure.” Dean frowns. “Hey, what about Jess? Did you lead some poor chick on up until-” 

“Shut the fuck up.” Sam’s hands are suddenly shaking. Dean leans back. He’s not the shrinking type, his shoulders stay up and guarded. “I’m not gay, I’m- I’m something else. Both, you know?” The inside of his cheek is bitten raw, he can taste the fleshier bits coming alive. 

“I don’t think that’s how it works, Sammy.” 

The telling was easy; now it’s muddier. Sam wades in anyway. “Who here is the expert, you or me?” The sick dread has risen in his stomach and is now lapping at his sodden brain, pulling him under. It’s hot as hell out but he pulls the blankets over his legs. 

“Sorry. Bad take.” 

“I loved her-” Dean doesn’t like hearing about Jess and Sam cuts himself off. 

“Never mind. I’m going to go get more beer.” Dean leaves. 

Sam looks between the ugly green blankets, the TV still on, the white, unearthly light seeping in through every crack. When he told Jess, she lit up with it, went on to ask him questions, run her fingers through his shower-damp hair and let him talk. 

Dean bursts through the door. “Sammy, I really do want to say- thank you for telling me. You wanna talk about it more, we can go get your girly coffee drink and we can talk about whatever.” 

The aimless tears in Sam’s eyes finally come to the surface. “Oh, come on,” Sam groans. “You don’t have to act like I’m that-” 

Dean interrupts him. “Here, Sammy. Here. The way I see it, you’re like Chandler Bing now.” 

Sam blinks at him. “Dean, he’s not-” 

“Well, maybe not in the show, but everyone knows he’s gay anyway. You’re like Chandler Bing. If you want to go with me and get a coffee, uh, tell me about the guy action you got at Stanford, I’ll be your Joey.” 

Sam swipes the back of his hand across his eyes. If tears were blood he would look like a murder victim. Dean approaches him nervously. “Seriously.” He wrestles Sam into a tight hug, holding him for a long few minutes. 

“Do we still have painkillers around? I have a headache.” The walls (brown wood and decades out of date) are no longer closing in on him under oppressive heat and thoughts of Jess. Dean isn’t mad. Just- just Dean. 

Life returns to normal.

[klaus-is-the-real-number-1]

I Wanna Be Adored 2 (Number 5x reader)

A/N: wowe a part 2 of my i wanna be adored fic this is also an old draft that ive finished after s1, give the first one a read x

Request: hh.. that five imagine was so soft and sweet to read, great job <3 would you ever consider doing a part two? maybe the rest of the hargreeves meeting five's s/o? feel free to skip this one. but for real, it's such a good text <33

Words: 1529

“I’m just not drinking as much coffee anymore.” He said matter-o-factly. “I used to not be able to sleep very well so I’d just drink a lot of coffee to keep myself awake but I guess I just don’t have to anymore. I’ve been sleeping really well recently when I’ve been with you.” You smile as you feel him gently press a kiss to the side of your head. You smile contently, beginning to close your eyes, his heartbeat sounding like sweet music to your ears.

“Five, do you have a girl in your room?” A distance voice was heard echoing through the academy.

“Shit.” He mumbled into your hair, you knew it was going to be a long day in the Academy.

Five looked around frantically, trying to decide what to do. He pulled you up from his bed, mischievous glint in his eyes as he moved quickly to the window, you shake your head, trying to let him know you weren’t going to jump out the window. Giving you a wink, he pulled you towards his closet just before Fives bedroom door swung open.

“Shit. They’re not in here Diego!” Five let out a quite breathy laugh, locking his eyes with yours. It was only in this moment that you realised your closeness, it’s not like you have never been as close to Five as you were in that moment but the small space in the closest emphasised it. Five could feel the sudden change in mood as well, slowly moving his hands around your waist.

In that moment you forgot about Fives two older brothers peering out the open window, you forgot about your exams, you forgot about everything except Five. The collision of your lips felt like a thousand lighting bolts between the both of you. You were both so horrifically in love with each other but neither of you could get the words out. 

Klaus and Diego had came to the conclusion that Five and y/n had either climbed out the window or teleported away, that was until they heard a loud thump come from the direction of the closet. They both slowly crept forward before swinging the closet door open expecting to find their ‘younger’ brother. Klaus and Diego were met with nothing but a few toppled over books with no answer on where Five or his ‘friend’ were.

You collapsed back onto your bed in a flash of blue, giggling like school children giddy from a sugar rush. In the closet you’d both gotten too into the moment, Five pushing you against the side of the closet wall resulting in a bang.

“I would really like to meet your family, you know.” You say softly to him, settling into a state of calm. “So at least they know who you’re with rather than stress them out when they don’t know where you are.” His hair was silky to your touch.

“I know,” He let out an almost overdramatic sigh. “They’re strange, I don’t want to scare you off. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me.” You smile at his words but you were concerned, you knew all about Fives time in the apocalypse or at least as much as he would tell you, he would sometimes let something slip about the crippling loneliness or his time in the commission.

“I’ve been able to deal with your strange ass for the past year, I think I can cope.” You slightly shove him as you speak, admiring the way his eyes crinkle when he smiles. “Maybe if you warn them in advance, then they won’t “scare me off’ and they’ll be slightly normal?” 

He seemed to think about it, for just a split second the only thing whizzing around his fast mind was the thought of you meeting his family. Every possible situation that could occur whizzed through his head, every bad situation with every one of his siblings.

“Okay.”

A shiver ran down your body as you stood at the doors of the large mansion, waiting for the right time to knock at the door, or even just to convince yourself to do it. Every time you had been to the academy no one else was home, except for Pogo and Grace of course but they never asked too many questions, or Five just blips you into his room, you’d never knocked before.

But you knew you had to do this, for Five, so his family doesn’t worry as much. You’d even put on your best pair of jeans and best t-shirt, just to hope to make the right impression to his six sibling. So despite all of the atoms in your body screaming with anxiety not to knock on the door, you banged the knocker, you couldn’t even get a third knock in before the door swung open to reveal a nervous looking Five. His face lit up when he saw you, his eyes drifting up and down your figure.

“You look nice.” He said as he held his hand out for you to take, gently pulling you into the academy.

“I do try sometimes, you know.” You squeeze his hand as you stepped inside, hearing the chatter of his siblings from the other room. Letting go of his hand, you gently lift your bag from across you. Without missing a beat Five gently took it from your hand and hung it up. 

“It’ll be fine.” Five whispered in your ear as you walked into the room, reassuringly placing his hand on the small of your back. Your face instantly got red as you got closer to his siblings, all of their eyes falling on you, some giving you kind smiles while some didn’t show any emotion at all.

“Hi,” You spoke softly to the crowd, giving a soft smile. “I’m Y/n.”

“She’s my girlfriend.” Five added, moving his hand from your back to around your waist, giving it a gentle squeeze. A series of raised eyebrows erupted around the room as they all glance at each other. The room fell silent until someone finally spoke up.

“It’s really nice to meet you, I’m Allison.”

“Klaus.”

“Luther.”

“Vanya.”

“Ben also says hello.” Klaus spoke again.

“Diego.”

“Come sit down.” Allison said warmly, moving over so there was enough room for you and Five to sit down. You gladly sat down with Five squeezing next to you, his hand still resting around your waist.

“So,” Klaus said as he crossed his legs and rested his head on his hands. “How did you both meet?”

“I work at Griddy’s in between school, Five came in a lot and we just ended up talking, this was nearly a year ago now I think.” You say nervously, you gripped both of your hands together to stop them from shaking. 

The mood relaxed as you all made general chit chat, asking about your ambitions and your interests, how you’re doing at school and even a little bit about your relationship with Five. Diego however, had not muttered a single word, he just kept intently staring at you, maybe trying to read you and judge your character, or maybe he was still mad about when he last saw you.

A cold breeze drifted through the room, causing you to shiver and your bare arms get goosebumps. Five ran his hand down your arm, feeling how cold you were. “Want me to get you a hoodie?” He spoke quietly to you, you shook your head no to his question, not wanting to be a bother. “I’ll get you one, you’re freezing y/n, I’ll be back in a minute” The last part was spoke mainly to the room as he stood up and started walking to the stairs only to be gone in a flash of blue.

“Diego, I’m sorry!” You spoke quickly. “I’m sorry about how Five acted with you when you saw me last, I was the one who wanted to meet you all.” You were almost tumbling over your words as they spilled out of you. “I just thought you should know who Five is with when he’s not here, I’m super responsable and always make sure he’s safe.” When you finish your face was flushed, the anxiety crept up on you as you spoke, being unable to read Diegos face. 

“I appreciate that, thank you,” He said genuinely. “We just worry about him sometimes, ya know.” You nodded to his words before Five appeared before you, he was now wearing a jacket over his own hoodie and holding one out to you which you gratefully took. 

 “We’re going to head off,” Five said to the room, waiting for you to pull his hoodie on before pulling you up by your hand. “I’ll be back later.”

“It was nice meeting you all!” You say, you received a series of ‘you too’s and ‘come back any times’s. You walked with Five to the door before wrapping you bag back around you and leaving the academy. Fives hand was instantly in yours as soon as you were walking down the steps and out into the street, swinging it as you both walked.

“I think that went rather well.”

[29-pieces]

Whumptober day 24 - The Musketeers

Day 24: Blindfolded Fandom/Setting - BBC’s The Musketeers, early S1 before d’Artagnan is commissioned Read on AO3 Read on FF.net

~*~

"Filthy cowards!" d'Artagnan raged, squirming with all his might in an attempt to get back up on his feet. The thick rope that had been wound around his middle kept his arms trapped down at his sides, preventing him from drawing a weapon or throwing any punches. It also made it harder to keep his balance. Between that disadvantage and the blindfold wrapped over his eyes to keep him from seeing which direction the next attack would be coming from, d'Artagnan had no opportunity to defend himself.

The red guards who had waylaid him all seemed to find this terribly entertaining. Their jeers and taunts circled the unfortunate recruit, as did a heavy kick every time he tried to clamber back up.

D'Artagnan gasped as another blow came out of nowhere, driving the wind from his body and leaving him to double up and wheeze for precious oxygen. The insults levied at him fell on deaf ears. As soon as he got free of this, he thought with fury, he was going to beat each and every one of them into the ground, single-handedly.

"Shouldn't have thrown in your lot with that Musketeer rubbish," one of the guards snickered. The statement was followed by a hand fisting in his hair, pulling him halfway up off the ground. "Everyone knows they're sorry excuses for soldiers."

D'Artagnan felt blood dripping from his nose over his lip as he bared his teeth and snarled blindly back, "One of them is worth ten of you!"

His loyal declaration was paid for with a punch to the cheek. What was one more bruise to add to the myriad he was rapidly accumulating? Reckless and outraged, the Gascon added, "None of you would dare face one of them one on one! You aren't fit to even speak of them!"

More blows rained down on him and he couldn't see to brace himself. Pure stubbornness (and the fact that they probably couldn't hear him anyway over the shouting and jeering) was all that kept him from any audible sounds of pain. For crying out loud, he wasn't even a musketeer! ...Yet! But when he was, oh, he would make them pay for this...

"One of 'em is worth ten of us, didya hear that, lads?" one of them asked with a loud guffaw. "Well, there are ten of us, aren't there? An' one of you. Which means... you might want to recalculate that, little pig farmer."

"You'd think all his time wrestling pigs would have made him better at this," another hooted.

D'Artagnan's blood surged hot at the insult, and he snapped back, "You're saying you're no better than pigs, then?"

A beat of silence followed; he could just imagine their collective brains trying to work through the statement, which eventually one of them did. An angry shout preceded more kicks and punches that d'Artagnan couldn't evade, try as he might to anticipate the next shot. Surely they would tire of this soon, he thought frantically. Despite the Red Guards' ongoing rivalry with the Musketeers, they couldn't actually kill him... could they?

"Wait, I know what'll make him squeal," one of the men suddenly called. "Where's Bruno?"

D'Artagnan had no idea who Bruno was, but the excited agreement from the others left him with no doubt he wasn't going to enjoy finding out. Multiple pairs of hands grabbed him by the arms, hauling him up to his feet and dragging the blindfolded recruit along. He struggled and shouted, doing his best to wriggle free of the rope around his middle, but they held him firm. Somewhere nearby, he heard a gate or door being opened, then he was pushed forward. Tripping on the cobblestone, d'Artagnan ended up sprawled on the ground again, only to freeze at the sound of throaty, furious barking.

"Shit," he hissed under his breath, trying to scramble back from the newest threat, knowing that he had no chance at fighting off a dog without the use of his hands. "Bastards!"

"Bruno, you hungry?" one of the guards closest to him asked. Footsteps retreated, leaving d'Artagnan alone.

Bruno, and he sounded huge, started barking and snarling even louder, sounding desperate to get at d'Artagnan's throat.

Heart pounding in his chest, d'Artagnan said his mental goodbyes to anyone who had ever known him.

"Get 'im, Bruno!"

D'Artagnan felt something huge barreling forward, heard the sound of heavy paws and enraged growling; he curled up to make as small a target as possible and finally gasped in fear.

Having finally achieved the reaction they'd been hoping for, the red guards dissolved into laughter.

.o.O.o.

Athos wasn't sure what he'd been expecting. Since d'Artagnan's first, rather memorable moment barging into their lives, he'd proven himself something of a magnet for trouble. Athos recognized it; he had two other brothers who were just as bad. What he was not expecting was for the Red Guard to have gotten themselves involved with the newest recruit.

Though, he was quite sure it would have taken nothing more than a snide comment about the musketeers in general, or one of the three Inseparables in particular, and d'Artagnan would have been trying to duel the entire complement of Red Guard. Athos shook his head in spite of the silent affection. Loyalty was commendable. Perhaps once they taught him to temper it somewhat...

In any case, even Athos had not been expecting a full squad of red guards to have waylaid the boy. Cowardice was one thing, but surely this was beneath even them. Coolly, the swordsman drew a pistol and fired it into the air. It worked to make all of the guards duck and spin around in fright, though it had also made d'Artagnan flinch violently from his spot on the ground. Not what he'd been going for.

"Restrain that brute," he ordered calmly, nodding to the dog they'd been using to taunt d'Artagnan. The beast was still wearing a collar and lead; he suspected they hadn't been planning to actually let the animal attack d'Artagnan, only wanting to get a frightened reaction from him.

"Athos?" d'Artagnan asked shakily. "Is that you?"

"Mm," Athos assented, directing his coldest glare at the Red Guard lieutenant, the one who should have been above this childish game. "Porthos."

"You lot," Porthos growled in disdain, dismounting from his horse and storming over towards d'Artagnan with his dagger in hand. The red guards scurried to get out of his way. "Pathetic, that's what you all are."

"The next time you get bored, we'd thank you to find your entertainment elsewhere," Aramis added flippantly, his own pistol idly resting on his leg but pointed right at their attack dog in case any of them had the bright idea to loose the beast after all. "And leave our recruits alone."

Athos watched as Porthos cut d'Artagnan free and pulled the blindfold away. The lad was quick to jump to his feet, and he was a mess of bruises, but Athos was pleased to see he appeared only furious and not scared. Good. It wouldn't do to let the bullies know they'd obviously gotten to him. He was also glad to see Porthos merely offering d'Artagnan a hand back up without fussing over him too much, none of them wanting to give the guards the impression that d'Artagnan needed coddling or protection. Lifting his chin, Athos turned his attention back to the lieutenant.

"Although," he went on. "If you're so anxious to prove yourselves against a musketeer, any one of you may challenge me. Right here. Right now. Any takers?"

His eyes slid from one to the next, daring each and every one of them to try their luck against a musketeer who was ready and able to fight back. To nobody's surprise, each of the guards looked away as his eyes settled on them. By now, Porthos was back on his horse and given d'Artagnan a lift up behind him. Athos nodded in satisfaction and glowered around once more, just to make sure the message had sunk in.

"The captain will hear of this," he growled, before wheeling his horse around and charging out of the Red Guards' courtyard.

He led the way back to the Musketeer garrison at the same clipped pace, but immediately swung down from his horse to grab d'Artagnan as soon as he dismounted from behind Porthos. Without a word, he took the lad's chin in his hand, turning his face this way and that to see what damage had been done.

"'M alright," d'Artagnan assured him, wincing and bruised, but as fierce as ever. "Next time I see one of their sniveling faces, I'm going to-"

"Whoa there," Aramis chuckled. He stepped over to the recruit, draping a casual arm around his shoulders. From his unconcerned grin, only one of his close friends would realize he was getting in place to grab d'Artagnan if he collapsed. "Don't get me wrong, I do love the idea of those tontos getting what they richly deserve."

"An' the captain would feel the same," Porthos said with a smirk, only barely masking the vengeful ire Athos knew he felt at their recruit being picked on. "But then he'd have to reprimand us..."

"And then you're mucking stables..."

"And most importantly, there's no sense giving the Cardinal reason to convince the King not to give you the commission you deserve," Athos finished for them. From his assessment, the lad had come to no real harm, nothing worse than some bad bruises and injured pride. "Now go see Serge. We had him save some supper for you when you weren't back in time."

Clearly still raring for a fight and unsatisfied at the lack of vengeance, d'Artagnan nevertheless nodded and headed for the mess. Athos watched him go, rubbing his chin broodingly.

Aramis crossed his arms and smirked. "There's some fire in that one."

"He's gonna make a great musketeer," agreed Porthos. "If he can stay outta trouble long enough."

Yes, Athos mused with a silent nod. Yes, he was quite sure d'Artagnan was headed for greatness. And they would be behind him every step of the way.

[galvanizedfriend]

Caroline es tu personaje femenino favorito de la serie ¿no? Recuerdo haber leído por aquí en tumblr que así era pero corrígeme si me equivoco. Me gustaría saber ¿Por qué? ¿Qué te hizo enamorarte de ella? ¿Siempre fue así desde las primeras temporadas o ese amor vino mucho después? Al igual que con el Klaroline ¿cuál fue el momento en que dijiste: Sí, estos son, este es mi otp? Me causa mucha curiosidad saber cómo fue todo ese proceso para ti aunque no sé si ya has respondido esta pregunta antes 🤷‍♀️

Yes, Caroline is my favorite female character on the show. I didn’t like her straight away, though. I actually thought she was very annoying at first. lol I started watching TVD from mid-season 2 and it wasn’t until season 3 that Caroline started growing on me. When I went back to watch the beginning of the show, s1-2, she was really, really, really unlikable, the type of character I cannot stand (every bit your stereotypical cheerleader mean girl of every single show under the sun). But what eventually made me like her was the fact that she was so clearly growing on the show.

By S6, she had had such great development, maybe the best out of every other character, and the fact she started as someone I was very resistant to became a plus. Caroline had to win me over. And the great thing about her is that she didn’t get a complete makeover and turn into someone else entirely, she genuinely matured. I feel like it was almost accidental the way she ended being written on the show. lol Of maybe the actress had a lot to do with that. Caroline was still often obnoxious and bossy and had this huge expansive personality, but she was a fully grown character, made all the stronger precisely because of that. I liked it that they never tried to hide her flaws or the things that made her annoying in the beginning. It made Caroline more relatable, even if I share no personality traits with her.

For KC... My relationship with TVD is a little weird. So I watched the show for like six years with a huge detachment. lol I didn’t really care that much about it, it was just something that I would watch because it was easy entertainment. I didn’t join fandom until after TO was over. But I did ship KC almost right off the start. I wanted them to be together and the fact I wanted to see that happen one day was one of the reasons it took me so long to give up on TVD and why I went back to watch the last season of TO. But I didn’t have any huge strong feelings about them until the show was over and I was OVERCOME with how dissatisfied I was with what I was given. lol I had a bad history with my ships, someone always dies, and I thought KC was THE ONE that was going to happen because there was no way a teen show on the CW wouldn’t deliver on something as obvious as that. LOL WHAT A SUMMER CHILD. But the moment they failed to give me their endgame was the moment I realized how invested In was. lol

I wanted them to be together right off the start. 3x10 (or is it 11? anyone, Caroline’s 18th birthday episode). I liked Klaus because he was an interesting character and I have  THING for villains who develop inappropriate feelings for the people they should want dead. lol So already that was promising. But he chemistry between them was ridiculous and so instataneous that it was inevitable. Plus, the fact I hated every much every relationship Caroline had ever had played a huge part in it, too. I hate Tyler, I hate Matt, and I would live to hate Stefan as well. Klaus was the one motherfucker on that show who ever saw Caroline the way I came to see her, who saw the same qualities I saw on her as qualities, instead of reasons to offer her condescending little eyerolls like ‘Oh, Caroline...’, you know? And their dynamic was just SO great. Ships that are too easy do nothing for me. Like Stefan and Elena - instalove. Blergh. I like the conflict, I like the chase, I like the difficulties, even the angst. Enemies to lovers is not my favorite trope for nothing. lol And KC had everything! So yeah. It was almost as though someone in the writers room went had written them PERSONALLY for me. And it only got better from there. So I was 100% gone.

And I guess I ended up writing a full essay. 🤣🤣 But yeah, that’s why I love Caroline and why I shipped the hell out of her and Klaus. Sorry that I still can’t answer you in Spanish! lol And I do so love to get questions and chat away here, so come back any time! :) Thank you!

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep 17: Just Throw em on the Murder Pile

Ah, week one of the Stay-at-Home mandate. After a week of getting so little work done, I decided to get Animal crossing so I could get away from the people I live with to our own little virtual islands. So, I spent my time, fishing so many fishes and bugs for the the museum that wasn’t open yet, placing them all over the island so I could use them later. Went to bed having done all this wonderful work, my masterpiece, my beautiful island.

The next day I woke up an hour later than my brother, who spent that time logging into Animal Crossing, not realizing he was sharing an island with me (for some reason you only get one island per switch, which was a decision they made???) and he was like “the hell are all these fish everywhere?” So he sold all of them, made himself an Oricalchos shirt and a Yami third eye in the fashion editor, and then used all my fish money to buy so many oil drums and put them all over the trash side of his island.

I was asleep one hour. One single hour. It is all trash oil drums and fire and a poorly drawn Oricalchos t-shirt.

Ah, the irony when you get a game to escape the people you live with only to realize that you share the location of the game itself--with those same people. The irony. 

So anyways, we found out that our efforts were futile anyway, long story short we sort of...soft locked this children’s game, and had to restart the entire island. lol.

So while I recover from that shock, lets talk about Yugioh.

They’re still on the Caltrain and Yami is still appearing to have a lot of difficulty remembering how to use cards without Yugi. But, we find out at the end of the episode, he’s mostly just pretending to have difficulty. We’ll get to why this bluff is so mind boggling later--Yami just has a lot of weird layers to him, and most are just so...so lovingly stupid.

Anyway, Timaeus doesn’t work with him now, but honestly it wasn’t clear why Timaeus ever did in the first place since Yami is both two people and a dead person at the same time. Yami shouldn’t exist.

This doesn’t matter in the end, because Yami is good at cards when he isn’t actively trying to get cursed to give himself a handicap like he did with Raphael.

Unlike Yami, Joey decides to reflect upon the moral consequences of Hella Killing a Guy, which youknow...should mess you up a little bit.

But obvi, Rex has to die for the plot to move forward, so RIP.

(more RIP under the cut)

Yugioh made sure to give Rex a big send off that took waaaaay longer than Gurimo, just saying.

Lololololol

Just two u’s, sleeping so pleasantly.

And I’m just guessing, ps, but I feel like it’s a good guess. I feel like this wasn’t like this in the original.

Back at the train that should be crossing the ocean at this point, Weevil has pulled out some misdirection. Knowing that Yami has been misdirecting Weevil this entire time, it is just so baffling that he’d totally fall for this.

If someone did this to Seto Kaiba--that I would believe, instantly. But to Yami? OK there, Yami.

Mind you, Yami is grieving, and he’s not mentally all there in both the literal sense and in the mental sense, but wow, Yami. You fell for that.

Yami has lost his entire mind and is just kind of winging it until he gets arrested.

He has no reason to be better than this. He’s like “FML. I’m gonna go ape, I don’t freakin care”

Like, Yami has this anger problem, which the show has said out loud a few times this season, but we haven’t really seen too often in previous seasons to a great degree. So we have to give him some places where he can demonstrate getting super pissed, to make up for the fact that Yami’s character developed has mostly been about “I’m too lonely and cursed to make friends, Yugi.” and “I’m DEAD, Yugi, I don’t want to learn about my history.” and “Gods why are you always making problems for me to solve for you, Kaiba?”

Not saying he hasn’t been mad and vengeful before this moment, but he hasn’t been as explosive before this season--it’s always been a chill anger, a quietly menacing kind of crazy, youknow? But...characters change. Yami’s developed to be different now and that’s fine. Being pissed someone killed your soul bud that you share a body with, I feel, is a natural thing to be pissed about.

But, Yami is permanently in a state of anger and brooding since Yugi left, despite being pretty chill for most of the past 4 seasons. It’s like the first time we get to experience Yami be Just Yami since the beginning of Season 1 and it’s a completely different Yami anyway.

I guess this is to point out that they really did rely on the other to complete their personality. Which is weird, but that is a thing you do with people that you’re spend a ton of time with--you kind of forget how to do things solo.

Like there was this interesting study where they took married people and asked them simple grade school questions, and they answered them fine when they were together in the same room. But, when they were separated--they suddenly would blank on random stuff. They couldn't remember capitals or multiplication tables--simple stuff. But people who were single, were able to do these things fine alone or with a friend.

People who spend a hell ton of time together learn to help eachother answer the questions as a team, and the parts of the brain you use to like...memorize capitals and multiplication might decay because there’s someone else who will just always do it for you.

So anyway, the takeaway I get from this is that the part of Yami and Yugi that could read if Weevil is lying was Yugi and that’s a lot to take in. Yugi might be smarter than Yami? Weird. Low bar, but weird.

So, Yami won’t need to justify to himself like Joey, he’s just gonna kill this guy outright. Immediately. There was some card shenanigans, and I guess he had the opportunity to beat him even further after he was dead? I didn’t fully pay attention to the card logic but it was so brutal that Tea had to get involved.

She was quicker to save even S1 Seto Kaiba, just throwing that out there. Tea was like “I’ll step in between you two, but I’ll be run really slow about it.”

I think she was more worried about Yami going dark than Weevil who’s...already dead. And again, you don't have to worry about Yami going dark. I say it a lot but he’s a dark wizard. This is kind of his zone.

And then, they actually touched for the first time in like--kind of a lot of episodes. I kind of forgot about this ship.

How come when she’s wrestling him it looks more like a hug than the few times they’ve hugged? These writers, man. They’re just...so close to figuring out how to write a ship but just so, so far away.

I just want to remind y’all that the Oricalchos broke Valon’s arm but Tea and Tristan just walked away because they’re that hulk IRL.

I just love that Yugi is so short that Tea has to be on a ladder below him in order to have this pose happen.

After that awkward moment that Yami lost his entire mind and killed a guy, he had another weird moment where he just...looked down at his hands and was like “I’m the real monster?????”

He didn’t think about the moral consequences until AFTER he killed Weevil. And honestly, that feels a lot more like the Yami I know. That was maybe the most Yami thing he did this episode. Reminder, they got into this train duel while trying to stop a runaway train, and they did nothing about that.

So anyway, how’s this train going?

(San Jose has over one million residents but don’t tell Yugioh.)

And then, sadly, I had to say goodbye to my penultimate favorite character in Yugioh, second only to the storyboarder. Goodbye, forever.

At least the death sequence for the Caltrain seemed appropriately long, as it should be. Rex’s went ON but the Caltrain? Lets get that slowmo pan for it. Goodbye, first train in Yugioh (that wasn’t shaped like a dragon.)

And I just figured it was Darts who did this, but apparently Darts was just as upset as I was when he saw that train derail and then soar 500 feet above the track like a figure skater.

Y’ALL

First off congrats to Darts’ fluffy as hell lower eyelash extensions, I’m lowkey jealous.

Second off, every year on the ballot we get a measure that wants to funnel money into the Caltrain. Every single year. It almost never passes, and when it does, the money sort of vanishes into the aether. It’s really annoying.

To think that THIS ineptitude is what helped Darts loose track of Yami and I’m going to assume save the whole damn world.

I can’t believe the auto lobby and the corrupt Caltrain management just saved the world like that.

I can’t believe that’s Canon to Yugioh.

My expression when I found out that after we just mercifully cut the cast by two, they decided to stick in this new guy?

Ugh a new guy.

So Yugi and Tea do say at the end “you ok?” “yeah” so it’s nice that Tea can survive a train crash off a cliff into a ditch. Tea, and this reincarnated ghost. God tier.

Anyway if you just got here, this is a link to read these in order

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

I feel like I say every week “ah, I finally have time to catch up” but I still post at exactly the same rate anyway but...I guess we’ll see, huh?

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x13: What We Become - First Thoughts

Holy symbolism and a half! This episode was amazing! Kind of freaking out over here. Okay, where to start?

This was such a beautiful episode. Especially in a Richonne sort of way. I really loved it. It was a crazy psychological episode for sure, but I thought it was gorgeous! The way they tied things together and did flashbacks to the very early episodes with Michonne. It was just utterly moving and compelling.

***As always, spoilers abound below. Don’t read until you’ve watched! ***

So, Virgil was a researcher in a medical lab on the island. There’s a lot of virus and Cure and medical stuff. In fact, the place Michonne goes into with him at the beginning to kill his family (who are walkers) was pretty much a replay of the golf club. It had the Grady lighting and it looked like a medical place. Not so much like a hospital as like the retirement that the Governor went into in 4×06. But it was still medical and then they went into a room and they were people hanging from the ceiling, just like at the golf club.

And that’s probably where we got the most fascinating symbol—to me anyway—of the entire episode. We saw a shoe on the floor. So, my first thought of course was lost shoe symbolism. 

And the people hanging were obviously Virgil’s family, so he fell to his knees and was crying. It was very difficult scene. But then he did something really interesting.

He picked up the shoe and put it back on the walker.

In all the seasons that we’ve had lost shoe symbolism, we’ve never seen someone pick the shoe up and put it back on its original owner. And that made me rethink the symbolism just a little bit. I still think it points to the death fake out. But I think it’s specifically represents the separation of the people involved. Putting the shoe back on probably represents the reunion. So, Virgil was reunited with his family, even if they were dead. And Michonne finds Rick’s shoes, which means she’s about to be reunited with him.

You could even think about it from a Disney standpoint. I’m thinking about the end of Cinderella when the prince puts her lost shoe back on her foot. Could this Lost shoe symbolism have been a Cinderella template all along? Crazy.

Oh, by the way, Virgil picks white flowers to give his dead wife. I am 99% sure they aren’t Cherokee roses. They almost look more like lilies. But when he picks them, he’s still telling Michelle that his wife is alive, and it turns out, much like Sophia, that his wife is a walker. So even if they aren’t actually Cherokee roses, I think the symbolism is the same.

The Apple Symbol – this episode made me totally rethink it.

Michonne eats an apple and then finds out that Virgil has poisoned her. What he gave her, Jimmyweed, apparently, gives her the trippy hallucinations where she didn’t save Andrea and becomes one of Negan’s minions. So, we literally have an example of a poisoned apple. Since we’ve compared the Snow White template to Beth, maybe that’s not very shocking, but I can’t help but think that every single apple has represented a poison apple in some way. 

And I think maybe the poison apple just represents losing one’s family. I was thinking that I didn’t understand why we saw so many apples around Maggie in season seven, since she obviously didn’t die or anything. But she just lost Glenn. So maybe just as the poison apple divided Snow White from her prince and her friends, the dwarves, the apples that we see in TWD are always about being separated from the ones you love. And that’s why they’re “poisoned” apples. (I went back and watched 7x08 finally, and it confirmed this. I’ll talk about it in more detail later in the week.)

The Michonne stuff, while not particularly TD, was totally crazy. Did everyone notice that, in her hallucination, it was here that killed Glenn, at the Savior compound? And I loved that she and Rick came face to face. And Daryl killed her. After all the history between the characters in this show, it just strikes a major chord.

Also, in the hallucination, after Daryl shoots her, the camera focuses on Rick’s boot as he steps on her. A direct foreshadow of her finding his boots. I also had the thought that this is why we saw so much closeness and banter between her and Daryl in ep 1. Of course we already know they’re close, but they were also setting up this hallucination in a big way.

But the biggest take away here is that Michonne’s decision to help Andrea is what set her life on a positive path. I’ve talked about this before, but they like to say, especially on TTD, that if Negan had been the hero of the show, rather than Rick, to begin with, he’d be the good guy. And you all know I don’t buy into that. No one has been 100% behind Rick when he makes morally questionable decisions. We still love him, but don’t condone his occasional brutality, per se. And he’s certainly never beat someone’s head in with a bat in order to enslave people. It’s all about the choices they make.

By making the chose to show Andrea mercy (we definitely had the mercy theme in this episode) it led Michonne to where she met Rick and Carl, who became her family. She met her soulmate, adopted Carl and Judith as children, and eventually had another baby with Rick. But that all stemmed for that one choice to help and show mercy. I love themes like this!

One of the most powerful moments of this episode was near the end, when it flashes back to Rick staring at her through the prison fence in episode 3×02 and you hear Carl saying, “dad, should we help her?“ So powerful!

Oh, by the way, in hallucination when Daryl shot her,  he had both wings on his vest. I about screamed. But it actually makes sense because that would have been back during All Out War, before he lost one of his wings. 

But it also shows that the loss of the wing was very intentional and they took the time to put it back on his vest for this hallucination.

They talked a lot about heaven and hell and staring up at the stars. This was Michonne’s hell, being evil and not having ever acquired her family (Rick, Carl, Judith, RJ).

When encouraging Michonne to go find Rick, Judith said, “what if he’s trying to come home to, but no one will help him?” (Emphasis mine.) Talk about a home reference. And Michonne heads north to look for Rick. So we have a home and north star symbolism.

Michonne also says that she will try the walkie every morning for as long as she can. Just like Rick and Morgan’s arrangement in S1. Obviously, just like with Morgan, at some point Michonne will move out of radio distance, and she’ll be gone for a while. But I maintain that Rick and Michonne will have a reunion with their kids, just as Rick and Morgan did.

At the very end, she sees a huge group moving north with horses. I couldn’t help but wonder if that will end up tying into Fear the Walking Dead somehow. Or possibly the Highwaymen, who also rode horses.

I have a ton more to say about this. SO many great details and symbols, but I’ll go into them more tomorrow. How did everyone else like the episode?

[fanfic-inator795]

RotTMNT/Baron Jitsu fanfiction: Dating… With Children - BONUS DRABBLE #5

(Also available to read on AO3)

Just something quick and silly based on something my dad used to do to me and my brother, lol. Enjoy!

Also, do you ever wonder what Lou would look like with the beard he grew once he became a rat? Because I do, all the time.

Dad-Dad-Dad-Dad-Dad-Dad-Dad-DAD!”

Lou smirked, setting his cup of tea down the moment he heard the boy’s excited voice. “Hello to you too, Donnie.” He caught his purple son with ease as Donnie all but launched himself at his father. Leo came in right behind him, slow enough to allow his twin to have his well-deserved spotlight but still smiling just as much.

Draxum was also smiling at the sight. “Well now, someone’s happy.” Despite remembering Donnie’s plan very well, he feigned ignorance. “I wonder what brought on such a good mood. What do you think, Lou?”

“No idea,” Lou shrugged, playing along, “Why don’t you tell us, Donnie? Why are you-?”

“My show and tell went GREAT!” Donnie yelled, still grinning ear-to-ear, “Everyone loved Shelldon an’ told me how cool he was! Everyone clapped, and all my new codes worked perfectly, and Mr. Suranio gave me a gold star! It was the best show and tell presentation EVER!” Noticing his dad and Draxum’s amused expression, Donnie cleared his throat and calmed himself down a bit. “So yeah, that’s why I’m so happy.”

“Aaaaand also ‘cause he’s the smartest kid in our class,” Leo commented, his tone genuine. He occasionally heard other kids in their second grade class complain about Donnie being a nerd and wondering when he’d take his annoying big brain to college already, but usually a glare from him or Raph or a calling out from April would shut them up. There was no denying that Donnie was a nerd and a smartie, but Leo didn’t mind. (Besides, he knew he was still the coolest kid in class.)

“Well, I for one am very happy for you, my son, and very VERY proud,” Lou said, pulling Donnie close. The purple-dressed boy happily accepted the hug. …Though only for a moment. Because only a second or two later, Donnie’s smile became a scowl, and he pushed his father away, hopping off his lap. “Huh?” Lou raised an eyebrow. He knew Donnie wasn’t always up for hugs, sometimes just feeling too sensitive for them and wanting his space, but he had seemed like he had been enjoying it a moment ago-

Figuring that he couldn’t just leave his father in the dark, Donnie said bluntly, “Your face ruined the hug.” Draxum nearly choked on his badly timed sip of tea while Lou just blinked, too confused to be offended.

“He means your face hair,” Leo flatly added, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Donnie nodded, still pouting slightly at his ruined hug.

At that, Lou got a bolt of realization. “Ohhh, you mean my stubble?” he asked, stroking his chin a bit.

“Yeah, that stuff! Like, geez Pop, it’s like trying to hug an itchy cactus or something!”

“Oh really now…?” Leo stiffened slightly, recognizing the mischievous glint in his father’s eyes. He tried to escape, but the Great Lou Jitsu was just too quick for him!

In one swift motion, Leo was picked up and hugged, with Lou’s seemingly-spiky cheeks rubbing right up against his face. “NOOOOO!” he yelled, squirming as he tried to push his father and his annoying, itchy stubble away. Lou could only laugh, letting the boy go after a couple seconds.  “Gah, you’re so weird!”

“Oh, let your father have a bit of fun,” Lou said, still chuckling to himself. Leo just stuck his tongue out at him before running out to the TV room to join his other brothers, with Donnie right behind him.

Draxum shook his head slightly at his prankster of a boyfriend. Lou might have been in his 40s, but he still acted like a big kid sometimes. Still, at the very least, it was endearing. “Guess you’ll have to shave again soon, lest you ‘ruin’ any more hugs.”

“Eh, we’ll see.” Lou stroked his chin again. “I really do want to try and grow a beard…”

Draxum raised an eyebrow at this. He had noticed Lou’s stubble as well, but didn’t think it was a big enough deal to bring up, it most likely being caused by a lack of time to shave in the mornings or a broken and not yet replaced razor. “Seriously?”

“Yeah! Why not?” Lou shrugged, “I’ve always sort of wondered what I would look like with one.” He wasn’t too bothered by the prospect of aging, having simply put himself in the category of ‘distinguished’ actors once he found his first grey hair rather than freaking out about it. So, if a beard made him look older, so be it. He was curious, and shaving everyday was a pain anyway. “Don’t you think I’d look good with one?”

Draxum hummed, leaning forward a bit as he took a good, long look at his boyfriend’s face. “…I can’t see it,” he finally answered after several seconds of suspense.

Lou huffed, waving him off. “Maybe you can’t see it now, but trust me. When it grows out, it is going to look good.”

“If you say so,” Draxum conceded, giving neither approval or disapproval, “Though I doubt the boys are going to agree.”

“They can disagree if they want, but this-” Lou pointed at his chin- “is still happening.” With that, the subject was changed and subsequently dropped.

For the next week and a half, it seemed like Lou was sticking to his goal, his stubble getting longer each time Draxum visited - though he did try to at least try and keep his eventual beard from getting too scraggly, shaping it slightly and keeping it clean.  

One Monday night, Draxum managed to make it over for supper after work kept him away for the whole weekend. He knocked on the door, just as he normally did… and a clean-shaven Lou opened the door. “Oh,” he said, slightly surprised, “Changed your mind on the beard?”

“No…” Lou mumbled, pouting as his eyes squinted in a scowl, “Those little punks of mine staged a ‘hug protest’.”

Draxum brought his hand to his mouth, trying and failing to hide his snickers. “I’m sorry, a hug protest?”

“Yeah! They told me they were doing it Friday night - no more hugs from me until I shaved.” At first, Lou had sort of smirked, accepting their ‘protest’ though not expecting it to last long. This expectation changed however after he had tried to tuck them in that night. Every single one of his son’s refused a good night hug, and then would overdramatically whine about how they had just gotten the ‘worst sleep ever’ the next morning, all because they hadn’t gotten their good night hug.

When the same thing happened the next night and day, Lou simply bit the bullet and shaved out of a mix of guilt and annoyance. At the very least, his boys all gave him a group hug the moment he stepped out of the master bathroom. “It was just too much of a hassle at that point to keep it,” Lou said, concluding the explanation with a bit of a sigh, “When they are all in their teenage rebellion ‘too cool for hugs from our dad’ phase, THAT is when I will grow my beard.”

Despite still being way too amused with the whole thing, Draxum just sympathetically patted his boyfriend’s shoulder, silently wishing him the best of luck with his goal. With it still being a while until supper and the boys upstairs playing, the two settled down on the couch, half-watching local afternoon talk shows as they talked about their day.

Lou snuggled up to Draxum’s side as his boyfriend wrapped an arm around him. With his smile softening a bit, Draxum kissed his cheek.

He would never try to control how Lou decided to look - boyfriend or no, that was Lou’s business, not his. Still, Draxun had to agree with the boys: he definitely preferred cuddling up next to a shaved Lou.

((I had been thinking about writing something based on ‘Jupiter Jim Ahoy!’ but uh… yeah the implications would’ve been wayyyyyyyyy too dark even if I was never planning on actually writing anything bad. So, silly drabble it is.

As for the next big chapter, it’s finally time to write two of the things I had been thinking about the most when I first started this fic: Christmas at the Jitsus, and TANG SHEN! Yep, Draxum finally gets to meet Shen and you’ll see the boys interacting with their auntie ^v^

So yeah, expect that probably sometime in December. …Also, with the finale three days away at the time of me writing this, just wanna say: If Draxum dies for real at the end of S1, thaaat’s probably gonna kill my inspiration to write anything after the Christmas chapter. So, yeah, just a heads up. Anyway, see ya’ll in December, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!))

[bylerly]

alright everyone. after my rush of emotions after that season, i’ve had time to decompress, and make an actually cohesive list of my thoughts about the season. as you could probably guess - MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!

first, let’s get the (much) shorter list out of the way. here’s what I enjoyed:

the acting. i want to mention how good millie was, because she was fantastic, but i almost feel like i shouldn’t, bc el took SO MUCH screen and plot time, that millie was given every opportunity to be good. she doesn’t really need any more special mention. otherwise - noah (with the little he was given) and sadie were particularly great. so were winona & david, but that goes without saying.

the elmax friendship. these two deserved it. and max bringing el out of her shell, showing her how to become her own person.... incredible. 10/10 i love them both

alexei. feels weird saying this, but he was probably the new addition I enjoyed watching the most. it would have been kind of cool to see him live past season 3.

an lgbt+ confirmed character. this one is a little.... tricky for me. as happy as I am that there is a queer woman written into the show... I feel like it’s a cop out to not have to confirm will’s sexuality. robin confirms her sexuality in less than a season, but after three with will, we still only get ~subtext~? still, this is a positive portion, so.... I guess that was something I was happy with

el moving in with the byers at the end. finally. this is one of the only things that is keeping me excited for s4. i guess i can only hope for there to FINALLY be some good willel interactions next season, but if this season has taught me anything, it’s not to get my hopes too high :-)

jancy ending s3 on a good note. parts of their storyline were fantastic, some were disappointing. but i really dug their dynamic, and the realistic struggle between the two of them, with nancy not really understanding jonathan’s class struggles, and jonathan not grasping the weight of the misogyny being thrown at nancy. their final moments at the empty byers house at the end were especially lovely.

el no longer being OP, and not being undefeatable. i love el. i really, genuinely do. i love her character, i love her traits, i lover her power. but the duffers were relying too heavily on her to constantly save the day with her powers, and it was happening too often. one of the faults of s2 was the constant thought of how easily el could’ve fought off all these threats if she was just there. i think it’s incredibly interesting to not only see her get completely worn out, but totally lose her powers. like mike said, i’m sure they’ll come back, but i want so badly for el to not just be defined by her powers.

a platonic m/f friendship. yes, one of them is confirmed queer, and they would’ve probably been romantically linked if she was straight. but i’ll take what i can get when it comes to this. platonic opposite sex relationships?? r i s e

now for the meat of my thoughts ~ what I didn’t like:

mike’s characterization. the writers completely made him into a dick this season. i get it, he’s a teenager, so he’s going to be an asshole sometimes. hell, in a recent post, I defended that, saying it’s good writing. but I underestimated just how awful he’d be, completely blowing off his friends for any chance for a second alone with el. I understand that he loves his girlfriend of course, but s1-2 mike loved his friends just as much. he was so utterly unlikable this season, that it seemed like he was a different character.

lucas as comic relief. this is so lazy, and i’m so angry for both the character and caleb, both of whom deserve so much better. he really had nothing to do if it wasn’t related to max, and the writers further reduced him down to a one-dimensional, kind of dumb, mediocre boyfriend, and that is not the highly intelligent, brave, kind lucas that i know and love.

will’s sidelining. god, this made absolutely no sense. noah fucking shined last season. he stole pretty much the entire thing. every critic, even those who disliked the season, had nothing but good things to say about his performance. furthermore, will has so much potential in so many different directions in so many aspects of his character. however, once he revealed to his friends that he was feeling the upside down/MF’s presence... they may as well have written out his character. he was sidelined almost to the point of background character. they gave him very little to do emotionally after that castle byers scene, and even fewer lines.

total lack of willel scenes. phew, if this wasn’t a bummer. will spoke a single line to el, and maybe one or two throwaway lines about her. if there is one thing most of the fans can agree on, it’s that will and el have the biggest connection to the upside down, the biggest unspoken connection, the most parallels, and the most intriguing potential relationship... and they really just said “fuck it” and didn’t have them interact at all. (that’s poor writing folks!) they better make up for this now that they’re living together.

amount of eleven scenes. i love her so dearly. i really do. and i’m so happy she grew into her own, not through mike or hopper. but the amount of el plot and screen time this season was actually difficult to watch. every other scene centered around her. so many characters and so much of the story went undeveloped, while she got way, way more than was necessary. additionally, take any kid’s plot (other than dustin), and guaranteed, it revolved around el. people were starting to catch on that the show was favoring her character more than even most shows’ mains.... and this season took it to a level i actual didn’t think it would.

the comedy. it was so awkwardly written. so much of it threw off the pace of the show. it seemed forced, and just... not very stranger things-esque, where the comedy was typically well-written and blended into dialogue.

the baddies. this was a huge letdown, too. i understand that the monster was large, but it was far less menacing to me than, say, the MF’s physical form. it had gore points, sure. it felt incredibly boring and predictable. in the same vein, i thought the ‘zombie’ style storyline of heather & co. would be deeper than that, but that was literally all it was. again... not interesting to me. billy was a rehash as well. the russians definitely had potential, but even that plot wound up being incredibly one-dimensional.

billy’s screentime. this was one of the things i was absolutely furious about. he got more screentime than the party (minus el) combined. they wanted for us so badly to empathize with him, to humanize him... i’m sorry, but you wrote a character that almost killed a boy for being black, that abuses his sister, and is a misogynistic asshole. abuse doesn’t excuse that, and it’s insulting to abuse survivors to say that billy inevitably became this way because of his dad, and that he deserves our uwus for it... and actually got el’s. he took screen time away from characters who desperately needed it, and that’s something i will never look at the duffers the same way for.

the scoops troop. I wanted to love erica... but i feel so indifferent to her. she was way too much this season. and robin. again, i love that she’s confirmed queer. and i dug her character more. but even then... i don’t know. i would have rather never had her introduced, and allowed established characters to have been better developed. and as a whole, the whole storyline of the troop was just what I feared: underwhelming and awkwardly placed.

high steve & robin. won’t elaborate on this too much, bc there’s not much to elaborate on. it just felt so wildly out of place and unnecessary.

that dustin/suzie number. what the hell was that? what could have been a 20 second joke was stretched out WAY too long and was bizarrely placed. just because you have an actor from broadway, doesn’t mean he needs to sing. and even if he does sing... you couldn’t have found a better time or situation? i literally was just staring at my screen in disbelief as that whole thing happened. entirely unneeded.

the amount of flashbacks. i understand most casual viewers wouldn’t remember certain things because of how long it’s been. but they literally put a recap at the beginning of the season. that’s what it’s for. and there were also plenty from like.... the episode before??? the amount they included took away so much time, that it almost just seemed like they didn’t have enough footage, and they had to fill their time stamp somehow. at some point, it just becomes insulting to the audience’s intelligence.

the overall tone. this season did not feel like stranger things in the slightest. off the top of my head, the castle byers scene and the byeler scene in mike’s garage were the exceptions. the first few episodes did have some moments. but overall... it kind of felt like some weird, high budget commercial or something. the charm, distinct aesthetic, and nuance of seasons 1 and 2 was non-existent.

the post-credit scene. there was some last-minute hype up in the reviews for this. was that supposed to be shocking in some way? i suppose this is more the fault of the reviewers who hyped it, but... really? a demodog? we’ve seen that before... i guess more the point was to show that the russians officially have some kind of technology for this. but still, an underwhelming reveal. more intriguing to me, was if hopper was the american in the cell he mentioned at the start of it. or maybe brenner?

the neutral:

that ending. on one hand, it was incredibly predictable. they literally placed an obvious shot of it in the trailer (easy to deduce that the byers had moved out, and that it was fall, so it was an epilogue scene). i was convinced that there would be a twist element they weren’t showing us, but nope. on the other hand, i thought some things were done beautifully (which wasn’t exactly a trend this season). as i mentioned, i loved the jancy moments. i really did like the hopper voiceover, although it was a little trope-y and heavy-handed... i still got a little emo, ngl. those goodbye hugs were somethin’. and, as i said before... el! moving in! with the byers! gimme

so uh... that’s it, i guess. no one really asked, but i needed to get my thoughts out. what did you guys think of the season?

[sol1056]

multipart ask on Keith

I would honestly love your thoughts on Keith’s character development, specifically him leaving for the Blades in S4. Personally I’ve always been on a fence with how they wrote Keith’s character after that. For one, he started as a lone wolf and I always thought they would subvert that along the way with more character interactions and team building episodes like in S1, but apparently S4 throws all of that away. I thought him forcibly being the leader of voltron would be a great opportunity for development but Shiro takes his place in the black lion and Keith just leaves. 

It really didn't help with all the signs pointing as him as the true leader of voltron when he barely even interacted with the team personally (except for shiro) after that point. To top it all off his “maturation” was a two year time skip montage with his mom and he suddenly became level headed and ready to fly Black. So when he finally returns and become the leader of voltron it felt a bit underwhelming and hollow. To be honest I also find his interaction with the team afterwards kinda out of character [...] 

I just wanted to hear from a writers perspective if Keith leaving was a good idea for his character in general. He had some really good scenes in his time with the Blades but i personally think in exchange it took way too much [away from] his development with the others. I also wonder if it's even possible [to execute well] leaving for the Blades and then becoming the leader of Voltron. 

Here’s a general rule: avoid leaving any of your protagonists at a bus stop. 

A few chapters is already pushing it; the equivalent of 1.5 seasons is out of the question for all but the most superlative of writers. I’ve met superlative, and believe me, no one on the VLD staff qualifies. If they did, they wouldn’t have been writing for VLD in the first place. 

The start of S4 will forever baffle me. Had S3/S4 been broadcast as a complete season, I might’ve assumed there was a technical error, and would’ve tweeted at Netflix and not returned to watch until I got word this really was the midpoint episode. No warning, no foreshadowing, not even a peep out of Keith, and suddenly he’s working with the Blades. 

In an ensemble cast, the point is that it’s an ensemble; you don’t forget one of your core cast at the bus stop while the story-bus trundles on. If Keith were meant as a protagonist, then sidelining him for 1.5 seasons is an even worse crime. If the intent of the story, thematically, is 'stronger together’, shoving one of them out of the picture is pretty much the antithesis. 

This is not to say you can’t do it; in hindsight, I think the clone should’ve been shelved and the real Shiro returned at the end of S3/S4. But that comes with the assumption that a) the team would struggle a great deal more in his absence, b) prompting development that would create a new dynamic once Shiro returned, and c) that Shiro himself would change in some degree, from/during his absence: one that, by definition, that would need to be complete.

In other words, if you’re going to remove a protagonist, two things must happen. One, they must be removed, which Keith wasn’t. The story checks in on him irregularly, and each time, he's treading water while the story moves on. Two, the absence must become a driver: in a sense, the absence is a presence of what’s missing, and regaining the character must be paramount. 

VLD put minor effort into recognizing the impact of Shiro’s absence, limited mostly to the torture-porn of watching Keith isolated in (and by) grief. It couldn’t even be bothered to do that much, when it was Keith’s turn to fall off the team. No one missed him, no one needed him. The result was a clear message there was nothing Keith brought to the team that couldn’t be done by someone else. There was no presence in his absence. 

Consider the few scenes in S4-S6 with anything of Keith. His storyline did nothing to push the main story forward. In S4, the Blades are focused on tracking a new quintessence, a subplot that discovers nothing, provides no twists, and goes nowhere. In S5, despite Keith being with the Blades, the two groups have dropped communication to such degree that neither is aware of the other’s participation in the Kral Zera. 

If you’re determined to leave a protagonist in another castle, for heaven’s sake, use that distance to allow them to continue to impact the main storyline. Make their absence into a working presence that can link the two groups; the complete radio silence just underlines how meaningless the story considers Keith, in the overall plot. 

In that light, Kolivan’s left-field decision for Keith to extract Krolia feels like VLD was grasping at straws, trying to find something to occupy Keith. Worse, that mission contradicts S4: the quintessence is no longer blue, no longer notable for its energy levels, and no longer transported to secret bases in massive quantities by major warships. It’s back to the usual maroon, carried on small cargo ships in limited quantities, and now a dangerous substance with questionable side-effects. 

In a nutshell, VLD left Keith mired in pointless actions with no bearing on the rest of the characters (hello, suicide attempt never mentioned again). Late S5, VLD realized it needed to get a move on, if Keith was to get an upgrade. So it took the easy way out: an overload of exposition flashbacks that neatly evaded any emotional beats between Keith and Krolia. VLD had no idea how to get Keith from point A to around point K, so it settled for just telling us Keith had grown up. On a space whale.

Had we been given a better reason (or any reason) for Keith joining the Blades, had we been given a hefty sub-plot for Keith that led him back to the team in an organic fashion (or at least dovetailed with the main throughline), had the story used those seasons to show us Keith learning with the Blades in a way he couldn’t or wouldn’t with the team... well, for one thing, it’d still contradict the ‘found family’ and ‘stronger together’ themes, since it’d be even more clear that Keith was stronger elsewhere. 

But setting that aside, at the very least, Keith wouldn’t have returned feeling he’d gotten a personality transplant. We would’ve seen his progression, such that any given point along the way would’ve been recognizably Keith, even if the starting and ending points were almost a one-eighty. It’s called character development; most stories do it as a matter of course. 

I’m left concluding that the creators genuinely don’t grasp that characters will change per their experiences. It’s a crucial element in storytelling, because characters are the core of any story. If you can’t figure out what would make a character choose A this time and B next time, you’re failing on one of the most fundamental aspects of characterization. In fact, you’re missing the entire point of a story: character choices are the plot.

I do have to take exception to ‘signs pointing to [Keith] as the true leader.’ I’ve posted before about the mentor trope, and how Shiro’s S1/S2 arc contradicts Keith as Black Paladin. I suggest you read those before coming at me with the assumption VLD did any of the work required to establish Keith's leadership as inevitable. 

It’s possible to have someone strike out on their own, learn valuable lessons, and return grown-up and able to handle the situation they’d originally fled. It’d be a very different story, though, one that isn’t focused on a titular robot, but on a single protagonist’s journey. It’d also be a story that has nothing to do with ‘stronger together,’ as the movement away (to learn) and back (to reclaim) means the protagonist only became stronger when they weren’t with the rest. 

Keith taking command of Black in S6 should feel like a victory in terms of his arc: where once he’d recoiled, now he steps forward. But since we never saw how or why his perspective changed about leadership, all it would’ve taken is a subtle shift in Yeun’s delivery and we could be talking instead about how Keith returned and was still in his ‘you want me to lead, this is how I lead’ pique. 

Shiro’s return creates another turning point where the question would be logically raised, and it’s almost as though (once again) there’s an episode or two we didn’t get. It’d be reasonable for someone to raise the question of whether the team now swaps again. Yet no one does, and we’re supposed to expect Keith --- who waved the little ‘Shiro is Black’ banner far more and for far longer than any other character --- is now content to command Black, with no need to even broach the topic. 

That’s a radically different perspective Keith shows in S7 onward, and it’s a problem created by the lack of development for Keith, in S4-S6. In the course of a single episode, we literally went from Keith being his slightly out-of-his-emotional-depth awkward self, to someone clear-eyed and commanding almost to the point of arrogance. It’s not helped when his original characterization returns for the duration of his fight with Shiro --- only to blip out again as soon as Keith returns to the team. 

And forcing that abrupt shift on Keith’s part meant the rest of the story (and the characters) got shoved around into their respective places and out of shape, as well. Stories are made of characters, and characters are dominos. You knock one over, and it has a cascade effect. Changing Keith from the character we knew to someone else wearing his face could not happen in isolation, and every character around him suffered as well. 

Like Shiro and Lance, Keith had major potential to be a groundbreaking character. He was introduced as the kind of independent, socially awkward, spitfire character usually pushed to the forefront in American media, yet S1/S2 gave him a solid place as Shiro’s greatest supporter. Keith had all the makings of a hero we rarely see: someone who truly believes the title of leader is beside the point, that the team is what matters.

I’m used to Gundam, which almost always strives for a resting place of five (or four) protagonists standing shoulder-to-shoulder. There might be one among their ranks who gets the central position, but the narrative is firmly consistent that should the team lose any one person, it would fall apart. There’s no need to ever tell us the team is ‘stronger together,’ we can see that lesson play out, over and over, whenever the team is divided, split up, or loses someone. 

AtLA followed a similar pattern; by the end, it’s obvious the strengths each person brings to the final battle. There’s no question that every single one is crucial for victory; there’s no point where someone leaves and there’s not immediate and significant impact on the remaining characters’ successes. Sure, Sokka may not be able to bend like the rest of them, but without his brains, they’d be sunk. Katara, Toph, and Zuko might not be able to bend every element, but if any one of them isn’t there, the team is going down. Aang may command the central position, but he can’t do it all on his own. 

While AtLA shone in having characters who visually broke the mold of our usual white-dominated, male-dominated American cartoons, it also broke away from the lead hero + band of intrepid (but far less capable) sidekicks. Like Gundam, it presented a group of characters who grew into a true team. The pictures might show Aang in the middle, but every one else contributes an equal amount, in their own way.

VLD had the makings in its first two seasons to go that route. But its EPs wanted dark and edgy, a perspective too cynical to embrace the optimism inherent in a team-based story. Sure, their deconstruction of VLD’s S1/S2 trope-subversions brought the story to a point where Keith was declared the definitive top guy, the true Black Paladin, head of the paladins. 

Thing is, pushing Keith into that position required altering his personality beyond all recognition, destroying the team dynamic, and gutting any chance of recognizing the other characters as equally integral to team success. In effect, making Keith the de facto leader required destroying the team: and what’s the point of leadership, then?

[anthropwashere]

so how was your trip? I hope it went better than you were expecting

It did go better than I expected, actually! And thank you for providing me a springboard to hop off on, because I sort of wanted to organize my thoughts on the whole trip to reflect on everything.

(This got kind of long, oops, my b)

So, in case anyone else skims this, I haven’t been back to my home town in something like seven or eight years. I ran off to the Air Force right before Thanksgiving of ‘09, there was a brief visit the summer of ‘10, and I can’t recall when exactly, but the then-boyfriend and I made another brief visit six-ish months after that. I’d left on shaky terms with my aunt and uncle but stayed away because I have a, haha, all-around bad relationship with my mom. (The visit then-bf and I did left me with bruises on my arm, not because she hit me but because she wouldn’t let go.)

I was… nervous. Anxious as hell is probably a more accurate description, haha. But 95% of that anxiety was totally unfounded! I had a lovely time catching up with all my SoCal family (we’re Irish American, so I’ve got clusters of not-as-close relations spanning the entire country). The aunt and uncle who took me in my senior year of high school were an honest joy to catch up with, and it was really nice catching up with the other aunt and uncle out there too. Plus I got to hang out with all but one of my cousins, and she’s getting married next summer so I’ve got the best excuse in the world to catch up with everyone all over again in my favorite part of California! 

The best catching up was with two of my cousins, the one nearest my age and the youngest. I’d fallen out of touch with the nearest-in-age years back (we’re both equally crap at it, haha), but the three of us had dinner together twice and she and I fell right back into laughing ourselves stupid over everything like we’d only seen each other a few weeks back. And my youngest cousin is just as big a nerd as I am, so we spent like, hours, talking about writing and her RP stuff and world-building and dumb Tumblr jokes. It was great. :D Youngest cousin’s best friend since, like, kindergarten tried to go into the Air Force as well, but Basic uhhh, basically broke her from the knees down. So she got out before she really got in, but she’s doing really good and seems really happy even with the physio she still has to do. We laughed over all the bizarre/awful shit of Basic and did compare/contrasts of what it was like for when I went through versus her while the family stood back a few feet with vaguely concerned expressions. (Me: We had messenger bags when I went through, you? Her: Regular backpacks. Me: Oh okay, I heard trainees were hand-carrying stuff for awhile since the rumor mill said a trainee hung themselves with the bag strap. Her: Holy shit, yeah, I can see that. Everyone else: nervouslaughter.jpeg) She got a kitten while I was there and he is the sweetest boy and she’s gonna be such a good cat mom. :)

It was also wonderful to just drive around my home town and see what’s changed and what’s remained the same. Thanks to the absurd existence of the Santa Clarita Diet I’ve blabbed that’s where I’m from on here on several occasions, and it’s uncanny just how specific the natural light of SoCal is compared to other places I’ve lived. Also I did a walk-by of Yoki’s apartment from S1 because it’s an apartment I used to walk by all the time on my way to high school, and I was right! They did edit the front to look shittier! There’s still well-trimmed bushes and cherry trees and a nice fence like I remember!! Also, the couple jokes about how shitty Newhall is are much funnier now that I’ve seen the amount of gentrification they’re sinking into the downtown area. I mean, yeah, my street is just as ugly and old and not a place you’d want to walk ‘round at night as it was when I lived there, but downtown? Is adorable, what the hell.

AND MOUNTAINS. YOU GUYS. I missed mountains so goddamn much. I haven’t lived anywhere with mountains since ‘11 and I legit started crying on my drive back from the beach (the Pacific is so much more alive than the Atlantic, ah it was gorgeous!!!!) because there was a 40-mile stretch of farmlands and orange groves cradled in all these burnt-brown mountains. And even though my home town is in a valley it’s still full of all these steep hills and crazily curving roads and I really just enjoyed driving around grinning like a loon. I’ve got to get back on the West coast one day, oof.

I mean, it wasn’t all perfect of course. There was a strong undercurrent of worry for one of my uncles and their oldest son for personal stuff I’m not gonna splash out here. I was tempted to go track down a friend from high school who lived just up the street from the shitty apartment I grew up in, but I knew it would have been an awkward mess and I just… didn’t want to force that on her or her parents by surprise. And even though I’d flown out with the full intention of not seeing my mom, I did end up doing lunch with her one day. I literally only agreed to that because when I told one of my aunts that, she braced herself against the kitchen counter and said, “Fuck, you’re gonna leave me with that?” And like, yeah, 100% guilt trip, but also 100% a justified reaction.

And speaking of her, it was so gratifying to have the (awkward, kind of embarrassing) conversations about my mom with all the other family members. They’ve only had her side of things for years and she is very, very good at playing the victim. I laid out my side of things and every single member of my family was like, “Oh, okay, yeah, you did yourself a solid.” One of my cousins straight up said I was the smartest one of us for getting out of the worst situation any of us grew up in on my own steam. And it was gratifying yeah, but also kind of astonishing, to have this conversation with so many different people who have all kinds of different familial relationships with her, expecting that I’d have to die on the hill of “I literally don’t have the energy and I live 2,600 miles away from her,” but that… didn’t happen. Everyone agreed. Everyone had their own negative but justified opinions of her. Everyone felt like they had to deal with her instead of just have her around as part of the greater SoCal family.

So, yeah. The lunch was rough, but it would have been so much worse if my aunt and uncle hadn’t agreed to come with. Yeah, she sent me 50 texts after that lunch with only a handful of grudging (necessary) replies from me. But I got through it, I got the one box of stuff left of pre-military stuff in her storage (that I’ve been paying for for eight years since hey, steady income who?) out and packed up for my uncle to ship for me. I got a new number/phone yesterday so I finally, finally can wash my hands of her desperately wheedling texts from new pre-paid phones every couple of months. I found some cute things at an antique shop I used to go to all the time as a kid. I had the wackiest sleep schedule because insomnia and jet lag and OTC sleep aids are a hell of a combo. I read a whole book for the first time in like six months and got a bunch of writing done!

And I have to keep saying this: it was so gratifying to be proved right over all this mom shit. I don’t want a competition, I don’t want horrible things to her, I just don’t want her in my life without excluding the rest of the family, and I feel like I’ve finally made the first steps towards that.

Also, while I was waiting for my plane to begin boarding my aunt texted me to wish me a safe flight and to tell me that my uncle had said saying goodbye to me had been like saying goodbye to one of their own kids. I just about started crying right there in the terminal. :’)

I’m not gonna read through all this because I’m sure I’ll get embarrassed, but all in all? Excellent trip, glad it wasn’t on fire while I was there, looking forward to seeing everyone again next summer. :)

[wily-one24]

I hope there's not a question limit per ask lol... Paint it Black: 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 14 and 15 (or as many of those as you feel like answering lol)

Okay, two things.

A. Of *course* there’s no ask limit. I am an attention whore and will talk all day if you encourage me. Ask away!!

B. WTF tumblr? When I reposted that, it was a paragraph basically saying “ask about my fic!”, but now there are NUMBERED QUESTIONS? What? Where was the second half of that post when I came across it in my dash? 

ANSWERS

3. What’s your favourite line of narration?

Oh geez. How the hell am I going to answer that? I have favourite lines per chapter, I have favourite lines per scene! Each part I’m reading at any given moment happens to be my favourite. Every time I reread it, I find something new... and... maybe I suck for saying this... but I think “you’re a fucking genius”, then I get all sad, because I think that was probably one of the last great things I’ll write. I’ve been going downhill ever since... but anyways, to seriously answer your question, I’ll give a few examples... 

 - That face off scene between Regina and Snow, where Snow claims her father was a good man and Regina answers “To you!”, the entire scene is charged and emotional and brings up so much shit between them that was never explored in canon. 

- The flashback of Emma’s tenth birthday (technically collectively, all of the flashbacks, really. They’re angsty as fuck, but so formative in their characterisation that sometimes I forget they’re not actually canon). I have this habit of tearing Emma down to her bare bones and then trying to build her up again. I actually do this with most of my main female characters, and I do apologise for that Buffy, Kaylee, Veronica, Emma, and Alex. You all deserve so much better than me. 

- The scene where Regina is alone in the castle and revisits the old chamber of Leopold’s. It’s hard to read but that is some weird little cathartic release right there. There is some great imagery that I don’t think many people allow Regina when it comes to her healing. Everybody tends to go the “being married to Leopold was a BAD THING” route, without ever really exploring the day to day soul destroying aspect of it. The reality of being the King’s prisoner wife. But giving her the ability and strength to revisit it, so she can finally acknowledge to herself how damaging it was, to close herself off from it both literally and figuratively, and then to be self aware enough to compare that situation to the one she has Emma in. That is empowerment. 

- The parallel scenes of Emma and Henry at the start and the end of the fic. The first being when Henry is so adamant to rescue Emma and curse everyone again just to take them back... and the last where you can see how much indoctrinated he is into the fairy tale land, how much he is drifting from “our world” being the real one, to the fairy tale land being his reality, and how his morality has shifted... but then... he also brings it back by getting vulnerable and shows his concern not just for Emma but for Regina... which also shows great advancement from the child like black/white morality of good vs evil he begins with to an acceptance of a more adult grey-area morality, his willingness to examine the facts and the truth to make up his mind. 

All the minor characters... Nancy (sweet, voiced Nancy), and Miss Edith (poor Miss Edith), Rachel, all the little characters that had such minor parts, but had such great effects in the lives of our main characters. 

Oooh, writing Rumple was fun. I got to write him as nobody really does. As that creepy reptilian imp from the first few flashbacks in S1. Before they really woobified him. The hysteric giggling, maniacal creature who smelled the air and exuded pure malice. It was really enjoyable writing him like that. 

Well, this went terribly off topic... anyway, yes, flashback scenes and confrontation scenes, be they between Snow and Regina, Emma and Regina, Regina and Maleficent, Emma and Snow, Emma and Henry... it’s in emotion that the true power of the fic lives. 

4. What’s your favourite line of dialogue?

oh, this is harder than the first. It would take me ages to reread this fic (and now I most likely am, thanks) to really go through it and cherry pick my favourites. But, if a line has happened to truly hit home and resonate with you as a reader, it most likely did the same for me. I remember quite a few times writing this fic, thinking “holy fuck!” and knowing, just knowing, that it was definitely the line to write. 

5. What part was the hardest to write?

The first two chapters. Up until the pivotal moment where Regina heals Emma, those were difficult to write and definitely difficult to read. I’ve had many readers tell me they were about to give up, bc it was too much torture porn to enjoy, but that moment specifically was a turning point for them because it built up the trust that I could and would reign Regina in beyond the point of no forgiveness or return. 

11. What do you like best about this fic?

I liked writing it. 

It took me to some pretty intense places. Fic writing, for me, has always been a form of therapy. I work through to some pretty intense fucking emotions through the angst of it all. Like, no, I have never been magically transported to a fairy tale land, collared, enslaved, and held against my will for the sake of my family and community’s lives... but if you look deeper in my life at the time, I had just been through a pretty horrific pregnancy that nearly killed me, my spouse and I separated, and I was left ill, recovering, and a single mother of a toddler and infant. I felt like I was being ripped apart from all angles, forced into a live of servitude for the betterment of everyone around me at the cost of myself. Even, though, like Emma, I didn’t blame them, it was still a period of mourning and loss.

I didn’t realise it at the time. This revelation happened years later when rereading the fic and trying to see where all the emotions had been coming from. It happens a lot with some of my more intense, dramatic, and (strangely enough) most popular fics. I don’t always see the correlation to my life at the time, but if I look back I can generally trace the rationality behind what my muse was trying to work through. 

12. What do you like least about this fic?

The polarisation. The controversy. That fucking chapter fucking four. I still cannot reread that chapter without having to take a step back and breathe. That scene has some good imagery, but even now sometimes I just skip it. It’s not worth the shakes or unease or... ugh, just thinking about it upsets me. 

I made a mistake in the tagging and I learned from it, but holy fuck was I attacked at the time and used as a sacrifical cow to the radfems. It was, honestly, surprising to me. Not only the reaction, but the harshness of it, all the accusation and personal attacks aimed at me.  

I mean, I knew the fic was always going to be confronting to some. It dealt with some pretty hard issues and subject matter. I had warned for all the violence and non/dub con. But... I didn’t expect or prepare for the backlash in including a male, even if the male used was... just used... and never actually amounted to anything more than a tool for Regina to control/bind/further entrench Emma to her own will in one scene. 

I, very naively, went into it thinking “surprise!”, and that an almost canon past pairing that was heavily explored in the actual show would not be controversial in the least. More fool me, I suppose. I definitely went back to re-tag it, I apologised. I am not sure what else I could have done, but to this day this fic is held up as an example of queer baiting and everything wrong with false lesbianism. And it is definitely used as an example by biphobic people as to why bisexual women cannot be trusted as we’re all “really straight women at heart”.

To be fair, I never explicitly labelled the fic as “lesbian”. I begin all my fics (no matter how AU or ‘out there’) from a canon stand point. Meaning, everything that happened in the show up to that point counts. Which includes every prior relationship both Emma and Regina had been in up to the Season One finale. Which, surprise, were with men!! 

14. Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

I don’t know if there’s anything they should ‘learn’, but I definitely hope readers realise that this is in NO WAY AN EXAMPLE OF A HEALTHY BDSM RELATIONSHIP. It is not meant to be a guide, a ‘how to’, or a ‘goal’. This is an incredibly fucked up way for two already fucked up characters, to find some kind of semblance of existence in a world/s stacked up against them from the very start. I didn’t think I needed to state that out loud, but apparently I had to. Many times.  

If not that... then definitely I hope perhaps some of the writing made people think about the characters more in depth, or differently, that it gave the reader a new way of thinking about the show and the storylines/characters in it.  

15. What did you learn from writing this fic?

Tagging. Tagging fucking matters. Tag properly. Like, just do it. 

In all seriousness, though... I think I learned a lot about my own trauma. 

I also think my writing developed throughout the fic. There is a definite shift from the first two chapters... you can definitely see where it became less of a short one off smutty fic set up and more of an in depth angsty character exploration of the soul kinda thing. 

I learned about set up and development and bringing in stray bits of plot development later in the story to tie up loose ends.  

[puppetmaster55]

Thoughts on S6

So. Season 6. I want to say that this won’t have my own biases, that I won’t go off on salty tangents or let my emotions get the better of me. I really want to say that this is my unbiased thoughts on the season (and on how it connects with s5, and how it acts as the conclusion of the narrative arc begun in s3).

But I can’t.

Anyone who’s followed me for the last… nine months, I think, knows how I feel about clone theory. I’m sure I’ve been vocal enough, especially in the months between s5 and s6.

And I still don’t like it.

And I really don’t like how it was handled.

See, any clone storyline has to feature an in-universe reason for there being a clone of a specific person. You can look at Young Justice as a major example of how to handle a clone storyline (Superboy is, naturally, a clone of Superman and it’s explained why he was cloned—for the day that Superman starts to move away from “the big, blue boy scout”—alongside the other clones all having a reason why they were created). There has to be an in-universe explanation for why the clone exists.

Which is what upsets me the most about s6, and Operation Kuron, is that… there isn’t one. There is never once given an in-universe explanation of why Shiro was cloned, or what purpose the clone was made for.

Well, that last part isn’t true. The purpose a clone was made, from a meta perspective, was purely to act as a new host body for Shiro’s disembodied spirit. That’s it. That is entirely why Kuron existed.

Which, since that’s the only reason Kuron existed, means… Naxzela wasn’t Haggar using Kuron to lure everyone into a death trap as means of revenge from the s2 finale, or to infiltrate Volton and deliver it to the empire, or to infiltrate the rebels and act as a spy. Kuron amounted to a total net loss for Haggar, and for the Galra Empire.

Kuron ultimately amounted to giving Voltron back their Black Paladin for the better part of a year, completely losing an entire one-third of the empire because of it and resulting in Zarkon’s death and the dissolution of the Galra Empire.

Kuron did more for Voltron than he ever did for the Galra Empire.

Not even to mention the absurdity that this is what Haggar was referring to back in s1, saying Shiro “could have been the empire’s greatest weapon.” What? Him? Him, the original, specifically? When you’ve already got like a hundred copies of him in cold storage?

No. Just… no.

And perhaps the worst part of it all is… now we’ll never know. We killed all the clones, every single one, destroyed the lab where they were created so all the data there is gone, and Honerva looks to be done with that and moved on to better things. The clone, in the meta narrative, did exactly what it was created to do: be a new host body for Shiro.

Wait. No. I just realized the actual worst part of it all.

Kuron ended up a braindead body for Shiro to inhabit, basically. That’s the worst part of it all. Because not only have we gotten rid of an interesting dynamic in having Shiro interact with a clone of himself, but that all that development Kuron had with the team in s4 and especially in how he opened up and trusted Lance in s5?

All of that is now gone. It’s dust in the wind as we return to Shiro and Lance’s relationship circa s2 (AKA, workplace colleagues who have never shared a tender moment opening up to one another or built up trust to share their worries about themselves)

As much as I would love to believe that Shiro inherited Kuron’s memories, I’m not holding out hope that Shiro will ever remember his bonding moment with Lance. The creators themselves called Kuron a “Shiro husk” in an interview, which doesn’t lend itself to meaning Shiro has or will have any of those memories that Kuron built up over the last 4 seasons.

MOVING BEYOND THAT.

I liked this season. It was nicely plotted, very tense over multiple episodes, and despite my having no emotional attachment to Keith, his battle with Shiro-Husk in the clone lab was wonderfully animated and really drew me in. Lotor too was great this season, being pushed and pulled so hard that he finally snapped. Romelle is really lovely, and I am surprised that she no longer looks so much like Allura or is related. Krolia too, was incredible, her love story with Texas Dad (which, I’m really sad that we never got a name for him and now I am forced to forever refer to him as Texas Dad) really tugging at my heart.

Did I hate this season? No, not at all.

Did I love this season? Hardly.

I liked it. It’s ranked either third or fourth on my list of “most to least favorite seasons” after s5 and s1. It’s a very “upper middle” ranked season for me.

But I did not love it. Mostly because of how it handled Operation Kuron, and also because of how it handled Lance.

…..I did say that I wished I could keep my biases out of this.

Lance… felt like a regression. Like we had him be so built up as a person, that s6ep1 then had it all get reversed. How, you ask?

Well, Lance had a near-death experience and Allura brought him back to life. Along with his life, Allura seemed to have resurrected Lance’s old romantic feelings for her, which is what I hope happened, otherwise it horribly colors a good deal of Lance’s distrust of Lotor in s5 and relies on tropes I don’t think any of us want to see (just visibly moon over the girl for long enough and she’ll eventually grow those same feelings for you! What a surefire romance this is!)

Not that I have anything against any ship, but that Allura might run into Lance’s arms because of her failed love story with Lotor just… rubs me the wrong way.

Outside of that, I’m not surprised with the lotura becoming (for like twenty minutes in-universe) canon. They shared a number of moments growing closer and closer and both showed some romantic interest in the other.

But back to Lance. Season 5 built him up as the only one who took notice of something going on with Shiro, and even had a number of scenes focused on Lance, and had all the narrative build-up that Lance was going to play a major part (he even came across worried about Shiro in s6ep1, asking over the comms about Shiro’s well-being).

But then, as I said above, Lance had his feelings for Allura rekindled and that took over his entire purpose in s6.

I knew, ever since we were shown the promo poster at the end of s5, that Keith “as many times as it takes” Kogane returning to Voltron meant that Lance would get the short end of the stick re: Operation Kuron. I just didn’t know that it meant that Lance wouldn’t even get the stick at all. I should have, though. Lance always gets shown up by Keith dropping in five steps ahead of him, after all.

I could craft a meta on how Lance’s reaction to seeing Kuron’s braindead body means that he’ll take it as reason for him to step down for good when they reach Earth but… nah. Not now.

I think I’ll just conclude this section by expressing what little shred of hope I still have that Lance finally has time in the spotlight in the coming seasons.

And now… Keith. I feel no emotional attachment to Keith, and this has been something slow going ever since s2 happened. His character archetype doesn’t appeal to me, and I felt whatever lingering interest in him die off when he failed to in the s4 finale. Because that was the perfect set-up for someone to die, someone like a major character, but… he didn’t. So when his life seemed in danger in s5 I didn’t believe it, and when he nearly got hit by spaghettification in s5ep2, I didn’t believe it. Keith, out of every character, is the one who will never be put in real life-threatening danger. Even when he is (s4 finale), Keith still makes it out unscathed.

So… about the only emotional connection I had when watching the Keith vs Kuron fight, was with Kuron. And even then it was tenuous because of how the clone thing was handled.

I dunno what to say about the whole 2-year age-up thing, beyond… that sure was a quick way to mature Keith away from his impulsive nature.

I am not emotionally attached to Keith, or interested in him enough to weigh in on that.

….I do like space wolf though.

I didn’t like that Keith is set up now as The Black Paladin, unlocking Black’s wings in a mirror of both the s2 finale where Shiro did it, and the s4 starter where Kuron awakens Black. That whole sequence very obviously was Shiro letting go of his place as a paladin and Keith stepping up to the plate in full, after the symbolic return by summoning the Black Bayard. I’m not going to get into how I feel about Shiro stepping down as the Black Paladin, because it’s been better said by others (notably, zilla I think said it all best), but I am saddened that he’s no longer the Black Paladin and that Keith now is in full.

Keith being the Black Paladin is still not something I’m on board with, but if the writers can pull it off without making the show all about him again then I can live with it.

If there’s one major plot issue, outside of the clone and Lance, that I have to take up it’s… Acxa. Apparently she’s been on Lotor’s side this whole time, and been leading Ezor and Zethrid to the other side because… Lotor wanted her to? IDK, that felt like a messy retcon done so that Lotor could have all three Sincline ships together.

Honerva being cleansed of the rift corruption from Oriande was interesting, I admit. Really interesting. And even more so that Acxa mentioned that it was Honerva who sent the generals to retrieve Kuron and Lotor. Which makes Honerva (who Lotor said, like two weeks before in the s4 finale, was his mother) doing that “I am your mother” reveal and them being shocked so… off-putting. But Honerva seeming to have no love left for her son in the wake of learning about what he did to the Altean colony is… fascinating. She sees the worst of Haggar and Evil Emperor Zarkon in Lotor.

Romelle was really interesting too, as was the colony. I liked that it was addressed that the Alteans who were off-world survived and went into hiding. I liked that we’ve got a source of meta to look into with the colony, and with the source of Lotor’s refined quintessence. And it doesn’t come out of nowhere, not entirely, because Lotor has always admitted to being the kind of person who would willingly sacrifice a few if it meant a great reward (he was fine with Voltron being potentially destroyed or lost in another reality when they were collecting the Sincline Comet, and didn’t care about the loss of systems to the coalition and Voltron, and willingly threw Throk into the lion’s maw, so to speak, just for the reward).

This whole season felt like the second half of what was set up in s3, felt like the endgame that those seven episodes were building up to.

But… it didn’t feel like it connected back to s4 or s5 all that much. The coalition isn’t featured at all after we spent all of s4 building it up and bringing it back up in s5 as being firmly against the empire.

Which brings me to the conclusion of a 26-episode arc. It didn’t feel like one, unless the arc was “Lotor’s arc”. I expected Sendak to play a part, but he only appeared once and then vanished entirely to raze the empire and build up his “Fires of Purification” group.

And where we left off with Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid was… disappointing, almost. I’m not sure if I should expect them to return, considering the likelihood that they were pulled into one of the rifts, and even if they managed to avoid all that they have no ship to get away on, since they abandoned Honerva’s ship (which left to go to the colony of Alteans, I suspect).

I LOVED the DND episode, so so much. That is exactly the kind of filler we’ve been crying for. I laughed, I cried, I didn’t cringe away in second-hand embarrassment, and I had so much fun. The best episode of the season, and one of the best of the series.

I loved Hunk in the opener. He’s getting better at taking charge (compare that moment with when he sat in Black’s cockpit in s3ep2) and growing into both a fine diplomat and a courageous paladin.

I loved Coran, and Pidge, and Allura this season.

And I still love Lotor. He’s such an incredible villain, right up there with Azula. I fully expect both him and the Sincline to make a return in the future, considering that he’s now left behind in the place where the Rift Creature exists and the Sincline is just… there waiting for it to take possession.

I dunno. I liked the season, despite how Keith returned and was reaffirmed as The Main Character We Should Care About Above Everyone Else (yes, yes, this is a salt mine I need to get out of, I know that). It was a good season. Not great, not hardly the best season, but good as ever. It connects well with s5, and continues parts of the set-up we got there, that I can almost see how they would’ve existed as a 13-episode season. Where the series goes from here, I can only guess at bits and pieces.

What would I have changed? I’d remove the clone plotline entirely, for starter. I’d keep it as Haggar using Shiro’s arm and that nanovirus from s5ep3 to mindswish Shiro into the perfect soldier. I’d have had Lance realize Shiro’s been mindswished and do everything he can to break Shiro out of it. I’d have removed that whole “Acxa was really on Lotor’s side all along” thing, because it changes her actions in s5 and sours the “For Narti” moment. Instead I would have had Ezor learn about Operation Kuron and realize that Lotor slaying Narti was because of this, and the generals leaving Honerva all alone while they take their Sincline and run. I’d have featured the coalition’s reaction to Voltron siding with Emperor Lotor, and how that strained and blurred the moral lines even further. I… am not sure I would change much with Lotor’s arc, beyond having increased his paranoia both bc of Haggar and Sendak but also bc of the rift affecting him. Push him with that paranoia, so that when Allura says that he’s just like Zarkon it really causes him to go full Azula and say all that.

So that’s it. That’s just about everything I wanted to say about s6.

[ruwithmeguys]

You’ve got to accentuate the positive...

It really doesn’t take much for people to say a TV show has gone stale. Or, that a season is bad because of an episode arc. And something I won’t do is judge what I already love on the basis of a few spoilers or a few episodes (or episode arc). I’m used to it by now to be 100% affected by the ugh of it all...

By 6.11 of Arrow, I wasn’t alone in hailing s6 as the best season of arrow. It has everything in it: Oliver’s growth. Olicity getting married. Starting a family (this coming from the man who used to think he’d die alone). Diggle getting some focus once again (though I question why he wants to be GA, because in every prior season, he hasn’t even mentioned it). Felicity being so clearly strong willed (especially in 6.03/04/07/08/09/10/11) and effortlessly brilliant. The new team progressing in their own way…

Whether it’s a way we like or not.

A lot of people have complained about the villains this season too. I’m good with it. We don’t need to have a horribly terrifying villain every season. We don’t need another Adrian Chase or Malcolm Merlyn. I liked and still like the idea of a group of semi-capable villains, regardless of whether or not the actor/actress is someone we/I can back, because I don’t think we’ve gotten to the bottom of it yet.

What I’m puzzled by the most however, is the reaction to the current arc; the way people are getting lost and angry and frantic by it.

Don’t you know Arrow by now?

Perspective:

(S1, a season of introduction, isn’t one we can use to discuss this so- nope!)

S2: there was a solid stream of episodes, all focusing on or around Sara Lance, Laurel and Quentin. Sara and her attempt to change so that she could exist in Oliver’s world. Sara’s attempt to fight off her own darkness and failing to do so, arguing about it with Oliver over and over again because of Roy, Slade and Helena. Sara and Laurel’s relationship. Sara and Oliver and Laurel’s history. Laurel realizing her bitterness was hurting her sister. Oliver letting go of any feelings he had for Laurel after his final attempt at caring, once again, ended up hurting him. Laurel and Quentin’s fight against their addictions – it went on and on and on until I thought my interest had gone dry...

S3: the 4 mind-numbing episode arc about LL becoming BC before uselessly being abandoned for another 5 episodes and the team’s morose attempt at fighting the good fight without their leader. Oliver thinking he can’t live, thinking he can’t have it all – that to trust his team, meant inviting darkness. And an extra 2 episodes where we had to watch Oliver make more bad choices and Felicity start a relationship with Ray, 3.10 to 3.15. That’s 6 episodes of UGH.

S4: Less episode arcs and more a general feeling. Oliver was put in the backseat in order to sell LL and Thea as members of the team. I know you all love Thea, but to me, she didn’t quite fit the team. The way her character progressed made this feeling worse. Then we had Oliver lying to the love of his life for 8 episodes. So, yeah. BAD.

S5: love it or hate it, season 5 had several stand alone episodes that made you nauseous. 5.13, 14, 15 were particularly crappy.

Any of you who thought they’d change this pattern for the sixth season, were fooling yourselves, I’m sorry to say. But S6, I think, has been one of the kinder seasons.

There’s no bad Olicity angst (the 6.08 angst was delicious). There’s no ridiculous attempt at selling a character to us. There’s no ‘I’m Oliver Queen which means I can’t have a life’ crapola…

The way the team split was handled has left much to be desired, I know that. It really has. I admit that I can’t love the new guys like I do OTA, but I did like them. Now I can’t stand them. They took every bad habit Oliver has EVER possessed, thrown them in his face and then utilized them x10 and made excuses for their behaviour… and then blamed Oliver once more.

But even with the crappy attitudes of the newbies and their horrifying lack of morality recently, each episode this season has been pretty on the ball.

I also know a lot of us don’t like BS.

In portraying LL or BS, KC seems to have a problem with grabbing the majority audience’s sympathy. Her villain role this year has been decidedly camp and over the top and, once again, her character is rooted in selfishness. No surprises there. And now, well, she’s using (going to use) LL’s identity to get what she wants. I hope Quentin is happy: he gave her the tools for this.

Anyone who wasn’t expecting this or for her to be in 6.15 a whole lot, were not paying attention.

She’s going to use the excuse of being kidnapped for a couple of years and assume LL’s identity. This is not the action of someone who wants redemption. This is the action of a mole. I always thought she’d try to play one side against the other for her own gain and I bet that she does.

She’ll also use her knowledge of the team as leverage: blackmailing Oliver and co so that they can’t prosecute her because she knows so much and, really, they can’t imprison her unless they want to unfairly blemish LL’s reputation, because she isn’t LL.

Happily, Oliver made it very clear that he a) doesn’t care about saving her, he’s looking after the city and b) pretty much doesn’t want to see her again. Everything else he did in 6.14 was rooted in his respect for Quentin. I know Quentin has officially flown over the cuckoo’s nest but after years of friendship etc, Oliver owes it to him. Even if he knows it’s not right. He’ll do it, just this once.

Saying it the way he did too, to never wanting to hear her name or see her face again… it’s like not expecting a child to do the exact opposite of what they’re told. Of course the writers would have her push back.

You know, she could have gone with Quentin. Instead, she’s decided to immerse herself in another woman’s life. When you’re looking for redemption, that’s kind of the last thing you do. She wants something. And she’s going to take it.

And you know what? This could be really good.

They’ve slanted away from a true redemption arc. It doesn’t mean she won’t end up there. But the likelihood of it being about true goodness is pouring away, fast. And it’s going to bite all of them on the ass.

You know, I state the obvious, if it was any other character/actress, we wouldn’t be having the same problem with this SL.

I don’t like LL/BS or KC. I have my reasons, which I won’t force on anyone and I know that if this were a different character/actress/actor, the ‘god, this again’ I’d feel and the outrage everyone else has displayed, wouldn’t be nearly so high.

This isn’t a plot-line to make people happy. It’s designed to both satisfy a trope (for her stans) and not repeat a character (for us, because enough with boring and predicable please) and to make us all freak out and get angry. We’ll be waiting for something to go wrong. They want us on tender hooks and you know what? It’s working.

The amount of hype the people who hate this arc have produced is more than the hype created by those who like it.

There’s goodness coming. There is.

But every year, a chunk of the fandom family start hating on the show with nearly the exact arguments as the years previous. I get it. I do.

But, you know what else happens every year? The slingshot.

Would I like Felicity and Oliver to hog the screen time, I sure would. It took years to get them married. Show us more for god sake! 

But it isn’t realistic. The show has more than one character and the design of it, though flawed, is one they haven’t changed. There are filler episodes and other things. We knew – we KNEW – that 6b (6.10 – 6.14/15) would have little to no Olicity (save some amazing moments, especially in 6.11) and yet there’s still surprise at this. 

We knew, after watching 6.12 that the newbies were wrong and would continue to be so. We knew that the BS arc would be a royal pain in the ass, but this latest twist is going to test the characters and maybe that’s a good thing.

First thing’s first though. Every single season, Felicity’s story goes like this:

We have a group of episodes surrounding her. Then she comes out of the main focus but is still very much part of the plot. She has brilliant moments that make the show great. Then, like a slingshot, roughly during episodes 16/17/18, she pops back into focus for the rest of the season.

Let’s look at past seasons again.

S2: between episode 1 and 5, she’s very much relevant but not the focus and then for 6 to 10, she was very focal. With Sara’s introduction and Roy’s, she’s secondary until roughly 2.19 up till the finale.

S3: episodes 1 and 2, she’s focal. 3 and 4 she’s not. 5, 7 and 9, she’s focal. 6, 8, she’s not. Then the BC arc and episode 14. Then slingshot round again.

I do think season 3 gave Felicity the most SL isn’t given ANY of the female characters in Arrow. Now, there are too many characters for this to work.

Still, it repeats, it repeats, it repeats. Same with season 4, same with season 5.

Would I like more married Olicity, HECK YES. But – and the way they’ve done it is more than a little skewed – they’re trying to make it look like Olicity are currently waylaid by all the drama. They literally don’t have enough time to be together. They’ve gone back to saving the city full time; just like in season 2 and 3 where they had to somehow handle saving the city alone with living their lives. Both Oliver and Felicity were unable to do so alone, from what I remember. Now we know there could be more scenes. They could give us a few moments at least (beyond the few brillo-pads ones we’ve had). But those scenes were sold to Rene and Curtis. Thankfully, there’ll be less of them in 6.15/17 etc.

As much as I don’t like it, we’ll get back to it.

And as much as I’d like to see more of Felicity’s SL, I’m going to leave any and all judgement on the lack of it since 6.07, until the end of the season. Safe to say, it’s been taken over by her break with Curtis. He did the unforgivable. She gave up her money to save Oliver. I believe we’ll get more, but there’s just too much going on.

Would I prefer to see that over the badly handled civil war crap? Yes. Of course I would. Would I prefer to see more married Olicity, more Felicity and Diggle over this BS bull? Yes, I would. But they got MARRIED. The show literally told the audience they were each other’s true loves and destined to be together. The writers actually allowed Oliver to get married. It means they probably think they can afford a few episodes of not giving us much in that department but again, it depends why you watch the show.

I’m also hoping the writers showed the B team to be assholes because they’ve got lessons to learn and forgiveness to earn, I really hope for that.

They’ve mentioned a honeymoon. The show only does that when they plan to deliver, whether it’s this season or the next. Either of them could end up in jail. If fan theory is correct, Oliver gets poisoned/drugged in 6.18, leaving her alone in 6.19.

My point is that, the show isn’t going stale just because of an arc that’s been handled in such a way. Or because of a character that we literally don’t care lives or dies. Or turns into a goat. Whatever.

It’s going to be fine…

In re to BS – Stephen, Emily, Juliana and KC mentioned things about her. KC’s words haven’t been accurate save for aforementioned extreme contention between BS and DD.

The only thing Stephen said about it was that it would be interesting if LL was actually walking around in the daylight the past couple of years. He said it was an interesting take. That was it. And I agree. I don’t like her, but I agree.

Emily mentioned there might still be a thing between Felicity and BS (another possible fight) and really, if BS pretending to be LL culminates in her facing off with Felicity then bring it on because my god, it’s a death wish waiting to happen! I’ll get the popcorn!

I was done with LL./BS/KC long ago but I’m choosing to see the little goodies in the crap because I love the show, even with its faults. It hasn’t gone stale guys. The newbies are idiots but they never used to be, so I’m waiting for the penny to drop for them. Let’s just ride it out, kay?

This season has given us so much, even if it hasn’t delivered on other things we’re waiting for, so I’ve decided to accentuate the positive. If a show pushes it, then they’ve earned the scorn. Arrow hasn’t pushed this season as far they’ve done in previous additions and we get the added luxury of Olicity being a pillar.

For now, I’m good.

[alisayangds]

Voltron: Legendary Defender Thoughts, Post Season 6

I finished Season 6 earlier this week and I’ve been a little out of touch with the online fandom since Season 3 (VLD is literally the only reason I subscribe to Netflix, so I waited until there were enough episodes to justify subbing for a month). So I ended up watching S4-S6 in one large jump.

This is a collection of random thoughts about the writing, the characters, and other things.

Pacing

I think the 6-7 episode short season format from Season 3 onward doesn’t work in the show’s favor.  The first two seasons had a lot of room to stretch their narrative legs, but the later seasons are not that great at having an ending.  I was watching the end of S5 and rolled on to S6 without realizing there was a season change right away except that something in the pacing felt a little “off” so I checked the Netflix episode number and discovered I’d move into a new season.  I can only imagine how annoying that would have been as a S5 viewer to realize it just stopped when it did.

Season 6 itself, however, has a very nice ending, and I think if S5-S6 had been a single season it would have been amazing.

But I guess breaking things up into smaller episodes is better business. People who can’t wait stay subscribed or subscribe more often.  I’m clearly not Netflix’s primary customer.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Personally, with 3 hour long seasons, I’d rather see something closer to movie style pacing, which VLD does not do.  They always want to add a humor episode in there somewhere, and with the shorter seasons that has actually turned into more humor episodes, so we get two every thirteen episodes instead of one.  But the humor always puts the rest of the story on hold while the team gets goofy for a while.

Some people like these episodes, but humor is always a matter of personal taste and unless the series is primarily intended to be comedic, I prefer my humor in smaller doses woven into the main narrative rather than to have a break episode with some yuks.

Clone Shiro

I can’t believe it took this freaking long to reveal clone Shiro for what he was.  I thought it was bloody obvious he was a clone ever since he showed up in Season 3, but the writers took so long to finally reveal what was going on that I started second guessing myself because geez by now we’ve spent more time with clone Shiro than real Shiro.

I know part of this was that Shiro’s return was mandated by Dreamworks, but I think they could have done the clone reveal a lot sooner.  We were stuck with the fake for four seasons.

Hat tip to the artists and writers though for consistently portraying clone Shiro as being a little “off” compared to the original. His demeanor, even before the rest of the cast really got suspicious, didn’t feel right, and clone Shiro’s casual wear is just different enough that I knew something was wrong but not specifically what until I pulled up images side by side.  You can see all of this as far back as his return in S3.

Maybe I missed it, but I don’t recall the team ever really grilling Shiro about how he disappeared from the Black Lion and ended up being a Galra prisoner.  Even if he’d claimed no memory, one thing does not naturally lead to the other and I would have liked the team to have built up suspicion or done independent investigation sooner.

The Keith vs. clone Shiro battle was fantastic though.  I don’t know why it had to be in a facility full of more Shiro clones, but the choreography itself was spot on.

Actual Shiro

When Shiro’s “ghost” in the Black Lion revealed he died back in S2, I thought he was going to stay dead (and maybe be ghostly adviser to Keith when needed), and I would have been okay with that.

I have mixed feelings about it being that easy to retrieve his soul and just shove it into his clone’s body and that making everything okay again.  I like Shiro, and I’m glad he’s back, but that felt a little too easy.  Allura spends so much of S5-S6 fussing over her ability to use alchemy as well as her father, but then she resurrects Shiro like it’s no big deal.

I know, it was in the closing minutes of the episode and time was probably a factor (and they probably wanted that out of the way before starting S7), but it felt too pat.  I don’t know what’s going on with his hair turning white, if it’s just part of the resurrection or indicative of something else, but it doesn’t bother me.

Keith

Related to Shiro coming back, I hope Keith stays in the Black Lion and Shiro takes on an auxiliary role.  It’s the role Keith was primed for and obviously intended to take when Shiro died back in Season 2.  The Blade of Mamora side missions were interesting, but we spent a lot of time with Keith away from the rest of the team, which felt really weird, especially knowing that he’s intended to be the Black Lion’s pilot.

I was glad we got to see the story of how his parents met though and the two year time dilation/time skip he went through was neat.  The changes are subtle, but he looks just a bit older and more like his original 80s Voltron: Defender of the Universe self.

He seems to have gotten himself sorted out and knows where his priorities are now.  I don’t think he’ll give up the lion, but who know if there will be more executive interference.

Lance

I’ve been largely ambivalent towards this Lance.  Because my sense of humor doesn’t line up with the show’s, he’s been difficult to accept as a comedic character, especially since the original was a very flexible character.  DotU Lance could be both the butt of the joke, a skeptical badass, or the most considerate member of the team, depending on the episode.  VLD Lance is mostly jokes.

But he’s grown since then and I really like that he’s been maturing in S6.  I’m seeing sparks of DotU Lance and what essentially made him a reliable second in command if Keith wasn’t around.  He also shows some of his trademark skepticism, and surprisingly it’s not always clouded by hormones over Allura.

And related to that, I didn’t ship VLD Lance and Allura before, but I do now.  He clearly cares a lot for her and they had some good moments together.  I have a feeling it’s one-sided, but Allura knows, and I can’t imagine that the fact she does will never come up again.

Romelle

Too little too late?

I don’t know.  I’ve been waiting for Romelle since S2.  Granted, she was late to be introduced in the original series too, and I knew she wasn’t a character you’d add during S1, but I didn’t think we’d have to wait all the way until S6 for her!

While I like her backstory up until meeting Keith, once she arrives at the Castle of Lions she doesn’t actually do anything.  She’s mostly standing around because obviously this isn’t her home and she’s not a soldier.  She likely wouldn’t know how everything works.  But it’s kind of disappointing because all her interesting moments are summarized in a flashback.

I remember Romelle for kicking ass.  She might have been running around in a pink dress with a short skirt, but she was rocking that laser rifle and a bandoleer of grenades.  I want VLD Romelle to be like that too!

VLD Romelle shares the original’s sense of determination, but comes across as more passive than I remember.  She’s closer to original Allura than original Romelle.

However, she is still with the main cast at the end of the season, which likely means there are plans for her in S7.  They easily could have left her back on her colony as a cameo appearance, only to show up again when the Voltron Coalition needs to go do something, but they didn’t.  She’s still with everyone and I’m pretty sure the writers aren’t going to leave her hanging around at whatever their new base is going to be all the time.  That would be a waste of a character.

Shiro x Romelle Romance?

I realize that everyone has preferred ships, and the VLD fanbase is no different, some of whom probably don’t give a fig about the original series, and that’s fine.  But I’m not one of those people.

Shiro and Romelle are different people from their DotU incarnations, and Romelle is coming in ridiculously late into the story.  Realistically, there might not be the time to develop anything, but assuming Shiro is freed up from Voltron piloting duties in S7, it would be a fantastic time to spin him and Romelle off on side missions, much like they do towards the end of the original DotU.

I can’t see their VLD incarnations as being in a relationship right now.  There’s no spark, but obviously the writers are super aware of the original series and its Japanese counterpart, so I have some difficulty imagining that they would ignore this.  If that was their intention, it might have been better to leave her out entirely.

[saintkimora]

well i finally found time to type this all up so! here is the story of how last last friday and saturday night went (not the ones from this weekend but the weekend before so like a week and a half ago). it isnt really a nice story but it is significant. first part is tristan then joel then tristan again, the tristan parts are good but the joel part is pretty bad. this is only part 1 btw! sorry @ that one anon a few days ago bc this might make you even more mad lmao

first part: tristan! so on friday i was in the library holding an online eboard meeting for gsa and tristan (the first guy i talked to for a while then hooked up with like 2 years ago and last christmas eve) was apparently studying in nexus which is the building next door to the library. and he sent me a snap (it was clearly the type you send to a lot of people it wasnt like an individual one) of him captioned i hate studying so i sent him one saying i hate planning events bc thats what i was doing. so we snapped back and forth for a while and then the library closed so i was leaving and he was like “come say hi to me in nexus” so i was like ok! 

so i went and sat across the table from him and we talked for like an hour and a half and it was so nice! hes v good to talk to but our conversation dynamic was kinda similar to me and joel’s dynamic so that was interesting. he called me my voice cute at the beginning bc i was like “sorry if i sound weird im a little congested today” and he was like “no you sound like you always do, its cute” so i was like hm so then we talked and caught up and it was very good conversation! then at one point after asking how i was in general he was like “so how are you doing....romantically” and i told him how i was with someone rn but i was kinda having some issues and he was like oh ok and i asked him and he said hes looking but its hard bc people keep ghosting him so i was like aw :/ (but on the inside i was like well thats what you get for ghosting me all those years ago lmao) 

also at one point i told him i go to the gym now so i have a little bit of muscle and he was like “yeah haha sure” and i was NOT about to take that so i was like “i can show you right now if you want” (i was wearing a tank and a zip up hoodie) so i took off one hoodie sleeve revealing my arm and i flexed and he was shook he was like “oh wow you werent kidding, thats actual progress” and i was like ha

after an hour and a half he had to go meet his friends or something so i went home. overall it was super nice! i loved talking to him so later that night i just sent him a nice text thanking him for spending time w me and saying how much i enjoyed it and then he thanked me for keeping him company and said he really enjoyed catching up so that was nice! then later that night things took a turn for the worst.....

so at this point it was friday night and joel and i were texting as usual, we were having a nice convo and were making jokes and what not. then after i asked about his day he texted me this “its fine but i just got another fucking email from slut A and im over it” and i was like “slut A......” and he was like “fucking tinamarie” (the girl who always causes trouble for his theatre club that gets him really pissed off even though it really isnt that serious) and i was like “yeah i figured but did you really need to call her that” and he was like “if youre literally gonna criticize every single word i say then im just gonna stop talking” so then i apologized like 3 times but he left me on read and didnt talk to me for the rest of the night

so! the second i read that final text i had like......a panic attack? or something? idk but it was a mess i got soooooooo cold instantly like i put on sweats socks a hoodie and 2 blankets and i was still trembling and my teeth were chattering so hard i couldnt even talk bc it just came out as gibberish and my toes were numb and my heart was beating fast and you know all that good stuff. i texted several hunties but none of them answered so i decided to text tristan! he was v nice and he comforted me and talked me through it which i appreciated. but like getting that text reminded me so much of the texts i would get from caleb so it just made all those feelings come rushing back and it was v overwhelming but i wasnt about to call joel about it bc he was already mad at me and i was scared i was gonna make it worse

about an hour later i sent him a long text saying how sorry i was bc he wanted to vent to me and i shut him down when i shouldve just taken his side and stuff bc i wanted to try to fix the situation. half of it was lies though like i was not sorry for what i did at all bc he should not be calling this tinamarie girl that! he didnt read that text until the next morning but even after he didnt respond. he was def still awake when i sent it though bc i saw him active on fb messenger slightly afterwards. anyways the next day tristan texted me again to check on me and see if i heard from joel which i hadnt by that point but i really appreciated that he went through the effort of doing that! joel and i had plans to go to the mall that day so i texted him around 4pm (this is saturday now) saying i hope his auditions went well and asking if he wouldve still liked to go to the mall w me. he said he wasnt feeling up for it bc hes tired and i was like not up for the mall or not up for me and he was like just the mall, you can come over instead. so i went over and brought him popeyes bc he was hungry and we hung out and watched dragula and talked and it was like a completely normal day so i was a little surprised he didnt bring up the events of last night. so like 3 eps into dragula s1 i asked him if he could pause it so we could talk so he did and this is where things got worse

so i was like “so....how are you feeling about what happened last night?” and he was like “well it was fucking annoying because i wanted to vent to you and you tried to school me, im already socially conscious, i know its wrong but it was the first thing that came to mind at the time” and i was like “well if you are mad at a woman and your first instinct is to call her that then that might be a problem” and he was like “can i be a fucking human?” like ???????????????? the STUPIDEST excuse like that makes no sense! you can be human without saying misogynistic things like.....annoying. he just had soooo many excuses he was like “oh its ok bc i would never actually say that to her face” like...ok great to know that being socially conscious is just a performative thing for you! if you only do it in public but are still problematic in private then like...whats the point

he was also like “it may seem like a small issue that isnt important to you but her emails are actually a huge problem. YOU wouldnt know since your organization isnt as involved, but her actions affect every area of the organization so its stressful to deal with her” like heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeereeeee we go again idk why he always tries to drag my gsa for no reason. i didnt even say he couldnt be stressed or angry with her i just said he shouldnt call her what he did! 

so now for when it got personal. so i told him i was like “i know you were mad and wanted to cool off so i wasnt gonna force you to talk to me, but it wouldve been nice if you just sent me a text like ‘oh perry im mad and dont wanna talk rn, i need some space ill talk to you later’ instead of just ignoring me for the rest of the night” and he was like “well i didnt have time i had too much going on with the organization” and i was like “i mean it takes 10 seconds to send a text” and he was like “well i didnt want to” OH so now the truth comes out! and then he was like “i was already stressed out with the email so then its like ‘oh now i have to deal with perry too’” and like..............that was really hurtful bc literally the main reason i rarely ever bring up any issues i have to him is bc hes already so stressed with everything else and i want to be a source of happiness in his life not another source of stress so im afraid to bring things up bc i dont want to add to his stress and be another thing that he has to “deal with” so like, he literally vocalized the exact reason im afraid to talk to him about these things so its just confirmed my suspicions and now i feel even worse about bringing up any issues i have with him 

i didnt tell him about the panic attack yet but i did say “well i mean im sure you can tell i was upset, since i sent you a long ass apology text an hour after the convo ended. and if it was the other way around and i knew you were upset about something i said i wouldve dropped everything and called you right away to fix the issue” and he said.............. “well im not gonna prioritize you” like.... !!!!!!!!!!!!! ok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! great! we already knew i was at the bottom of his priority list but at least now he basically admitted it :/ i was just like well ok

that is the end of part 1 bc im splitting up this post lol