#but this was more for the fandom too haha

[dialecticaldimensions]

Hello to any x files fans out there, I think I am finally ready to start my season 8 journey. Had to pause because I knew what was coming and as someone that was freshly experiencing grief about a year ago, I could not bring myself to continue… 

But!!! After a year of religiously consuming fanfic and reading many many msr/x files think pieces (shout out to @randomfoggytiger @thursdayinspace & @deathsbestgirl, I love scrolling your blogs & reading all of your thoughts!!) and also living vicariously through juni’s (mulders-too-large-shirt, not gonna tag her in case this is spoils something about s8) live blogging, I think I am finally ready to jump back in. 

I am so looking forward to the episodes I haven’t watched (despite already being irked with some plot lines), but I do like to watch source material for myself!! And the x files is truly some source material!!

For a show that was written in the 90s, the way I am sooooo drawn to Scully as a complex,well-rounded female character that I think even the more modern shows sometimes fail to fully capture. Because she’s just so complex and layered and multi dimensional in a way that I relate to and in the way that I see so many of the women in my own life. 

The way Scully is determined and strong and wants to be a boss-ass bitch, but is still sooo kind and empathetic and soft and girly (even though I think she wouldn’t really like to be associated with that term). 

Ugh, just ugh!!! As someone who also constantly struggles with wanting to be feminine and also wanting to be taken seriously!! I get it!! I get her!!! And gillian played this really well imo. There is so much depth to the way scully is portrayed even in times of shitty writing or less than compelling plot points. I have never been so drawn into a female character the way I have with her! 

And Mulder, my beloved. Definitely one of my all-time favourite male characters. He really is very kind and always willing to empathize with the victim. And the way he carries everything that happened with samantha and wraps it in layers and layers of dumb-ass humour, collapsing into his work and falling into his need to save everyone and everything around him. 

What I really like is how he is sooo determined to make the world better in the ways he knows how. And god, the way he claims the need to not trust anyone and be suspicious and question everything but never actually does that at some critical moments!! Because he so badly wants to believe in the goodness of people and wants to believe that he is worth the help, that they see what he’s fighting for and are willing to fight that fight. I want to scream about this so often. There is so much beauty in the subtle vulnerabilities of Mulder’s character and the way that he carries all that!! Again shout out to david for really playing to that in how he acts as Mulder. 

And then you put these two complex, flawed, unhinged individuals together and I have never known peace since!!! In the absolute best way. I have to say in the 15 years of being involved in a whole range of fandoms, I have never been quite as taken with a ship as I have been with msr. The way they fall into each other truly has me clutching at my heart. 

Because it really really is a meeting of minds and values and essences and an inherent understanding of what it means to exist in this world. They both have their own journey with that last one, but I think the way they move through that journey is soooo complementary to each other and that they could have only undertaken that journey once they met. 

… did not mean for this to be an essay haha, but this is what happens when I get started. This was mostly just a post to say if anyone wants to keep me company as I navigate s8 onwards, it would be v v welcomed! Periodic thought posts on the episodes will show up eventually ✨👽🛸

[pavlovianpanic]

just some interesting little details about the beta "what if?" playable (mostly) build from june 27, 2014). i haven't seen too much comparison, so that's why i'm here.

this post goes over this video, so not the whole build. note that this is episode 1, which is about 1hr 40 min of content. it gets less and less as the build progresses.

the first big one: rachel amber is jessie palmer here, as well as arcadia bay, oregon being aurora creek, oregon.

when max approaches the lighthouse, she goes forward in-game.

there's a rock blocking max's path with a fallen tree originally, causing her to go a separate way to view the storm. in-game, she goes forward because that path is not blocked. the graffiti on the rock from the beta is removed. it says:

NEVER GIVE IN / HOLD THEM UP

alyssa is different in clothing and hair color (blue is chloe's color in-game, but alyssa used to have blue hair).

mark makes some more dated references.

mark is much more harsh looking versus the "softer " stern look he has (smug).

the line about taylor turning in her work was originally about hayden from mark

the binders in the back of the classroom are the same ones as the dark room. same in the finale game.

max's shirt cut changes a lot. it was way lower, she has more cleavage. a better decision to make her more modest in-game. it fits her better.

a lot of the models are untextured so sometimes you can see stand-in models that are untextured of max and nathan for npcs. you see this with other characters, too, such as alyssa.

nathan's beta model ... note that he's wearing a red sweater over the jacket he always wears. also he chokes chloe in the beta, not in the final game when they are having their confrontation with the gun. his shoes are super red. he's similar, but different to himself in his final iteration. kind of archie-coded ngl.

nathan says this line in the beta: "either it's doctors shoving pills down my throat or teachers."

the conversation with chloe and nate is different. chloe mentions specific drugs that nathan is giving out such as ghb (liquid ecstasy basically) and molly as well as other drugs.

nathan tries to bribe chloe with drugs, she denies him. actually it's interesting, the whole scene is longer in her "rewind version". some of the dialogue matches in-game, some of it is totally different.

the principal figure here is way more agreeable. example: if you tell on nathan for the gun, he commends you right away

the diary photos are insane, some are concept art, some are just actors. not a lot of diary content yet.

a lot of the dialogue is rough. there was a definite "way too direct" translation happening here from french to english or something.

evan says he loved jessie in secret.

they mention as a texture thing this overarching idea of all these ads to place around in a placeholder asset. they suggest a "club 23" and promoting it. max also calls victoria "practically the leader" of club 23.

jefferson invited victoria to dine in at his home. what? then it follows up with her saying they had a successful dinner together. she has the contest in the bag. it seems implied mark liked victoria more in this build.

victoria's strained relationship with her parents, her parents are divorced, she is going with neither parent for christmas.

it also infers there would have been a pic of zach and victoria in bed, so it was more than sexting. potentially two photos of this.

the kate and david scene is super weird? he's way more aggressive with her, grabbing her, poking her by the shoulder, and pushing her.

honestly a lot of these changes were probably to please producers but also please an audience. this is why additionally

chloe's license plate was different. no line from juliet about warren. pompidou is outside.

based on this model, warren is likely 5'6-5'7. they do look slightly more alike. nathan is 5'10 based on my estimations of how he stands (hunches a lot, making him look shorter) and using chloe's confirmed height of 5'9 as a reference. nathan and chloe are the same height.

warren directly asks max out like "do you want to go out with me?" but less fluid and more stammering. her options are "err", "i don't know", or "maybe".

in the parking lot, nathan has most of his original dialogue to start, but he straight out calls her a bitch, asks if it was her in the bathroom, and her prompt options are yes or no. he still headbutts warren. the rest of the parking lot scene is pretty much the same.

chloe knows mark in this iteration. she mentions him by name.

chloe's room has some room changes, of course, i can't name them all, but interestingly under her everybody lies graffiti there is a drawing of "daria". probably removed from the final cut for copyright. chloe likes the band korn, as well as a band called iron and wine.

so, here's when it changes: when max and chloe go into her room, this is all voiced now, but not ashley and hannah. but this doesn't last? the voices also didn't match the dialogue with the stand-in VAs. weird. the AI tends to follow the subtitles. actually, this kind of jumps in this scene? between VA and AI voices. you also can't break chloe's snow globe here.

also chloe had fuck written all over the american flag, but that probably didn't go well here with test audiences or something. censorship blah blah.

everyone loves radiohead.

jessie goes by jess. rachel goes by rach. cute.

jessie seems to have had a folk aesthetic versus a punk aesthetic. chloe's laptop in-game shoes three pics of chloe. in the beta, it shows chloe having up folk music. max questions what got chloe in that. likely jessie.

in this build, she calls jessie a ray of sunshine, and says she met jessie a couple of days after her dad's funeral. just after max left basically. more context for sure. chloe in-game infers it was close to when max left that she met rachel, but in the beta, chloe says she knew rachel confirmed for five years. this means chloe met rachel at 14, literally replacing max.

rachel is gone for 7 months in this iteration, not 6. this build might take place in november, they mention christmas with victoria, not halloween. this game build might have accounted for how short the in-game timeline is.

chloe mentions all the girls wanted to be jessie, all the guys wanted to sleep with her, but nobody knew her. she mentions jessie was a people magnet.

music sometimes changes but it seems like they had licensing to a lot what they wanted.

chloe shows no smoking habits yet.

on chloe's door, the sign says "wrong way".

the animal product line about chloe and make-up is added in later.

max calls the bathroom meds tranquilizers. it's basically just prozac lmao.

some of the living room is different, nothing major.

no real phone stuff yet. no texts.

no bongo. rip.

on one of kate's photos that david has, there is a french text overlay. it says "kate marsh. elle sait, quelque chose!" which means basically she knows something. there is also one that says parking de la blackwell academy.

chloe's smoking habit is shown / inferred a bit when max returns.

chloe knows victoria in this build. :)) if you took the photo of her having paint of her, that is. chloe can only seem to reference that inf that is the case. based on victoria coming to blackwell this year for school, how does she know chloe? chloe remarks she is a skank.

chloe asks if max if she kept what happened with nathan to herself, and max can say either she told mark or no one. this choice isn't in the game build of the beta. you still tell the principal. however, when choosing to say you told mark, max will comment that mark said he'll deal with nathan.

different song chloe dances to on her bed.

when david confronts chloe, it is voice acted again. not completely.

chloe calls david "old man" several times.

max says chloe drew a marker to her house, in the final game max mentions it's to the tree fort.

max tells chloe that she saw david grab and shake kate, and that it was scary.

while a lot of the conversation is structurally different, their scene at the lighthouse gets to the same point.

chloe does describe nathan's behavior at the bar a bit different than canon. she mentions in the beat him drinking glass after glass alone, keeping a wad of money out purposefully for everyone to see, and that she approaches him like a silly local girl who's over-impressed by his money trick, and he swallowed it nicely. calling herself a local implies that nathan is not local.

she describes her plan in the beta as "they were going to grope a little" and she would "finish him" by getting him drunk, then flee with his "cash and gold".

nathan drugs her with what chloe suspects is ghb.

chloe says when she felt the drug, she tried to run, but nathan cornered her. she says he cornered her. she also says "he wanted to get me naked and take pictures".

in this iteration, she broke his camera, not his lamp. actually, the dialogue is worded so weird. what she's inferring is likely that she hit his camera into his mouth before escaping, catching him off guard.

the drug made her sick, she vomited after, and slept for two days. she called nathan instead of writing him a letter and demanded he pay $3k or she'd tell. he agreed. that's why she showed up.

mark has an open desk in the final game, but has a huge inferred mac desktop in the beta. he has a laptop in the final cut.

the handwriting on the dark room folders is better.

this is pretty general, it's not every little thing, but the stuff i found noteworthy.

[kimtaegis]

Destination: your heart Estimated Time of Arrival: whenever you need him ➤ for @jung-koook ♡

[heliotrope155]

I do think it'd been hilarious to have a truth-serumed or spelled Dean around Cas, just start spilling his guts and flirting worse. But also genuinely think Cas would get so overwhelmed from going zero to eighty on this that he'd duct tape Dean's mouth shut after attempts to tell him to stop confessing romantic feelings kept failing. Final resort, Cas would whoosh away to some glacier and sit there until he'd collected himself.

[woolysstuff]

look at them go

The scientist dudes but i gave them a redesign

old designs undercut

[pizzaqueen]

A snippet from a future fic I'll probably never write, where Steve is a widower with two teenage kids, and he and Eddie randomly meet up, rekindling their old flame. This is when they've been together a while:

“Thank you,” Steve says, coming up behind Eddie at the bathroom sink.

Eddie pauses, catching Steve's eye in the mirror. “What for?” he asks, mouth foamy with toothpaste.

Steve slips his hands along Eddie's hips, hooks his chin over Eddie's shoulder. “For loving my kids.”

“You don't—” Toothpaste dribbles down Eddie's chin and he stoops to spit what's left in his mouth into the sink, gathering his hair to one side. He rinses his mouth out, wipes his face with a towel, then turns to Steve. “You don't have to thank me for that. Of course I love them.”

“Not everyone I've dated has.”

“They're idiots.” Eddie grabs the hem of Steve's shirt, pulling him close. “I mean, first of all, they're part of you, and I don't think I could love you and not love them. But...” He trails off, a small smile tilting his lips. “They're amazing kids.”

Pride swells in Steve's chest; he slides his arms around Eddie's waist and says, “They are.”

“And I'm pretty damn honored I get to be part of their lives,” Eddie says, “so thank you,” and he butts his head gently against Steve's.

Steve huffs and slides his hands up Eddie's back, pulling him into a tight embrace. “I love you.” He presses a kiss to Eddie's neck.

“I love you too.”

“And they both love you as well.”

Eddie lets out a shuddering breath. Steve knows how nervous Eddie was, when they started dating, that he wouldn't be welcomed, but it's almost like he's always been part of their family now. “Good to know,"”Eddie says.

Steve holds Eddie a little tighter. All those years ago, back in Hawkins, when they ended things, Steve thought he'd never see Eddie again. But here they are, together—a family—and Steve's never letting him go this time.

[gilbirda]

hot take but we as a society need to be more comfortable about discussing "icky" parts of history, and even telling the side of the "bad guys"

hear me out

history is written by the victors, and will be heavily biased. The defeated will be painted as evil, deviants and/or like they have always been "the bad guys".

Reducing people to "the bad guys" does a huge disservice to the opportunity of learning from the past, because it creates a distance between the modern reader and the actual events, it creates the comfortable position of "I'm not like the bad guys, so i will never make their mistakes"

I think is important we understand how and why people believed in something, and where did things turn a certain way. Yes. Even "the wrong side". Even the nazis. Even those people you are thinking about, whoever they are.

Because you are not immune to propaganda and it's so so so so important to understand what happened and how did we get to those points before we fall to the same techniques again and again.

"Learning from the past" isn't deleting the ugly parts or cringing when someone brings up war. Thinking otherwise is a huge mistake and precisely what someone who wants to make the same mistakes wants you to think.

[eddiegettingshot]

also isnt part of the issue that the whole point is eddie cant communicate with chris properly at a distance + over face time AND his parents are actively excluding him from chris’s life. how is he expected to make an informed decision on 1. If its a good idea to move and 2. What chris’s situation is actually like. and if the issue is partly miscommunication than why do people expect the same form of communication that isnt working to also solve the problem lol? not that eddie needs to consult his 14yo son on their living situation. but the things you said about chris thriving without him + the fact that the picture painted for him might not match reality is really leading to some big moment from him in texas like he is on his last thread right now

yes all of this as well lol

[crabsnpersimmons]

Miss, it's time to go to bed. Are you on your phone again? Sleeping late will ruin your lovely skin. This is the final warning. If you don't fall asleep now, We are going to dance. - "잘자요 아가씨" by ASMRZ

found this song and i was possessed to draw @starriegalaxy's butler Eclipse dancing to it

(also i apologize in advance for my horrendous hiragana, hangul, and cursive)

Textless, effectless version under the cut!

[eeniiart]

I can't even remember the last time I did a full colored piece :'")

[quickfixinator]

Hiii!!! You mentioned in your reblog "jersey boy", while talking about fanfics including mullet Stan and old ford. Can I PLEASE get a link? I need fanfics with them. please. You'll save a life if you do, or if you have any other interesting reccomendaitons [excited][excited][excited]

HOLY shit I have waited for this day for my entire life YES absolutely here are a few I love with my heart and soul, the first one is mullet stan & old ford, the rest are mostly just good fic recs with brief descriptions, title, author, & word count guestimations.

I typically read longer, multi chapter works, but there are a few on here that are one shots, or are so close to being one shots that I consider them that in my head. for the most part (in this fandom at least) I don't read anything that's below 5k unless someone really twists my arm into it, so these are mostly going to be decently large time commitments but very, very good stories.

this is mullet stan & old ford, but also old stan & nearly-paranoid ford pines: (Stan Overboard, itS_JuSt_a_thought, approaching 100k I think?) https://archiveofourown.org/works/59722483/chapters/152329459

sea grunks, absolutely gut wrenching. I've gone back and reread the end a minimum of four times: (Fisherman's Knot, scribefindegil, just over 100k) https://archiveofourown.org/works/6179098/chapters/14157307

gravity falls retelling but the best version of it I've ever seen. this fic is a commitment, but this fic is worth it. it will take up more space in your head than you're likely going to want to give it: (Knowing Me, Knowing You, f_imaginings, hit 1,000,000+ words the day after christmas. I would know, I was there. wonderful little (Big) christmas gift.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/9529949/chapters/21548483

paranoid ford & mullet stan. what could go wrong? (so, so much.): (Monster Hearts, gen_is_gone, 50k~ & there's another part when you finish getting destroyed by this one) https://archiveofourown.org/works/61267219/chapters/156583162

am obligatory jersey boy by fordtato mention: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6885211/chapters/15708244

mullet stan & paranoid ford battling the devil (their communication issuses) this is also the best time loop fic I've ever read, and I read Knowing Me, Knowing You, in a week. that is to say I read a lot and I read often. so to be the best time loop fic I've ever read, is really, really hard feat to accomplish. that being said, this fic did do that so: (Déjà Vu, interlude, I don't remember this one being very long, but it is a gut punch) https://archiveofourown.org/works/27586903/chapters/67484779

actually destructive I'll just let you know that now: (Bait & Switch, underwater_owl, multi chapter, there's a series for it on AO3 with NSFW sections that aren't in the work & an additional part that is in progress) https://archiveofourown.org/works/58728250/chapters/149654767

baby stan twins. they make me want to bawl so hard: (The Effigy and the Inferno, Pokimoko, multi chapter, not super long) https://archiveofourown.org/works/60958624/chapters/155724274

have you ever considered the ship of theseus. what if the ship of theseus was a man. does that idea make you want to hurl? I'm a big fan of when people drive a stake right through the heart of stanford pines. really big fan of that: (To Make This Man of Me, mikripetra, one shot) https://archiveofourown.org/works/62754457

what if the stan twins met in the multiverse and shared a drink? surely that wouldn't hurt. surely not: (What's Almost Familiar, Fangirlwriting, one shot) https://archiveofourown.org/works/58904062

I know a lot of these are not mullet stan & old ford (there's one! please don't kill me! if you know of any others PLEASE let me know I would love to see them.) but these are some of my personal favourites. I'm a sucker for a story with a good sibling dynamic in it, so buckle up, grab your tissues and settle in for probably over a weeks worth of fic recs, if you read anything like I do.

also I am so sorry if I've managed to screw up the formating on this, I am on my phone OR if the captions contain a level of inaccuracy to them, this is a collection I have curated since the start of august and I've never compiled them like this before so I am working on some moderately old memories. forgive me in advance for any errors.

anyway, please take these, share them with your friends, leave the authors a whole hell of a lot of love because they are fantastic and I don't think they'll ever know just how much time I spend thinking about their fics.

[joltrify]

Guys I didn't know if you knew this before but i like him a lot //

Practicing anatomy and marker...ing w/ my most favorite guys!! Also the slightest bit of physiological dev wheee

[rudnitskaia]

White Chrysanths for the Swallow

Rocky was waiting for her at the table at the Little Daisy, but this time he was especially eager. Even Ivy had stopped teasing him about the way he lighted up and hummed to himself as he waited for Mau to show up at the door of the café, and just smiled, refilling his coffee whenever it ran out. He almost daydreamed of handing Maura two tickets to tomorrow's musical: of her eyes sparkling, of her taking his hand and telling him he was the best in the world.

But time passed, and Mau wasn't coming.

In those few hours, Rocky had replayed the fantasy in his head hundreds of times, changing the lines and the scenery. At first, imaginary Maura was beaming with happiness, calling him affectionate names, melting in his arms like all those heroines on the stage of a musical theater in the arms of their beloved ones, but every time the fantasy became darker and darker. More disturbing. Mau no longer rejoiced, no longer smiled. Her bright lively figure was becoming more and more dim, and she more often sighed, frowned, did not accept the gift. She asked him to return the tickets, scolded him for wasting his money carelessly, told him some news, one worse than the other, and finally said she didn’t want to see him again. Never again.

It was getting unbearable to sit still, and Rocky abruptly moved away from the table, threw on his coat, and headed for the exit. Maybe a walk would clear his head a little…

“Miss Pepper, I have a very urgent task to attend to. If she shows up on the doorstep, don't let her out of here on any pretext. Lock the doors, board up the windows, show her every fashion magazine you can find, but don't let her leave here until I get back. I'm counting on your wit and exceptional charm.”

The way he looked intently into Ivy's eyes before he left looked almost threatening. He wasn't even aware of the desperation hiding behind that look. But Ivy saw it.

“Don't worry, I'm an expert at this,” she winked at him encouragingly.

The cold air blew across Rocky's face, and he shivered, pulling his scarf over his nose, the same funny skewed scarf Mau had knitted for him last Christmas. Sometimes, like now, Rocky thought he could still smell on it the very same scent of coffee and pastries that wafted from the Venza family's eatery. It didn't help distract him, though. Quite the opposite. After walking a few blocks in an attempt to escape his doubts, he spotted a small flower shop — Rocky's imagination immediately conjured up a lovely picture of Maura cradling a fresh spring bouquet on this cold, cloudy evening and he didn't notice himself stepping over the store’s doorstep. The frail old woman behind the counter put aside the newspaper and immediately chirped, offering him different flowers, and finally convinced him to take a few white chrysanthemums. She tied the flowers with a delicate pink ribbon and also wrapped them tightly in the newspaper she had read before.

“They mustn't be overfrozen. Or they won't last long,” she explained sternly.

Rocky walked back much more briskly. He was warmed by the thought that now he would be able to give Mau not one surprise, but two. Hiding the bouquet from a gust of cold wind, Rocky lowered his gaze to it and pressed the flowers closer to himself… when suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the headline of one of the newspaper articles.

“Shootout at the small Italian eatery Casa di Rondine shocked the residents… a bloody showdown in the neighborhood… occurred on the night… police identified the bodies of two…”

Rocky couldn't remember how he reached the familiar alleyway. How he threw the bouquet to the ground, swung over the barrier tape, and rushed to the entrance — a gaping hole instead of a small blue door. Shards of glass littered the floor, the formerly cozy, cramped hall was a real mess, the furniture was riddled with gunshots. Even the old tabletop radio was now on the floor, shattered to pieces.

“Stop right there!” a panting policeman grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. “What the hell are you doing breaking into a crime scene?”

“I… uh…” in his panic Rocky couldn't think straight, but nonetheless he blurted out: “I'm from a newspaper. Wanted to visit the crime scene myself.”

“A lousy reporter you are, then. Your buddies sniffed everything around here a long time ago.”

“I was just hired today and immediately assigned to this very intriguing case. So…”

“There's nothing intriguing about it. This Bianchi guy…”

“Who?”

“The renter, Augusto Bianchi, if that's his real name at all, apparently had a huge debt to pay someone. And for that, he got pinned down. There was a scuffle in the night, at least four assailants. The two guys we found here have a couple priors, but they're not in a condition to tell us who hired them. The amount of such cold cases we have…” the man hummed and passed his hand above his head. “We've already explained it all to your fellow scribblers this morning. And I highly doubt the landlord would want to tell the same story tenth times over to another newspaper weasel. The only thing he's interested in right now is getting money from the insurance company.”

“And the girl?”

“What girl?”

“The waitress. Who worked here. What about her?”

“Considering how much blood there is, they're probably both either in a ditch, scattered in pieces, or feeding fishes somewhere at the bottom of the Mississippi… both father and daughter, if you meant her,” boredly remarked the other officer, who had quietly approached them, lighting a cigarette. “There's nothing for you to do here, boy. Henry's right — there's absolutely nothing of interest in this case. People might have chattered about it in the morning, but the very next day they'll forget all about it. Go home, don't add to our workload. And quit the paper that sent you here. If your editor doesn't realize that news like this must be broken in the heat of the moment, believe me, their business will burn out faster than a short match.”

Rocky tried to get anything else out of them, at least a little bit, to look in the kitchen of the eatery, to slip upstairs to Mau’s and Augusto's apartment, but the policemen were adamant. On unsteady legs he made it to the nearest bench and collapsed on it, staring blankly into the dark November sky. He could have screamed, could have destroyed everything around him on a single painful impulse, but the emptiness that engulfed him was far more frightening.

His silence was more frightening.

Years would pass. Would flow, as before, from night to night. The world won’t notice his loss. The world won't notice any loss at all. In the place of his beloved swallow house, other birds will build a nest. Freckle and Ivy will eventually stop opening that wound with their questions. And one day, perhaps, he will stop gazing into the crowd, hoping to find among the unfamiliar faces the features dear to his heart, and stop flinching when he hears someone say amore mio. He knows how it happens — it was not the first time. All he has to do is smile and everything will work out. It'll wear off, getting back to the way it was. One day.

But the bouquet of chrysanths will still remain rotting on the cold ground.

[turtleblogatlast]

Proof that I do do comics sometimes

[chestersbraincell]

Aside from the EMBARASSING lack of anya angst in the fandom, could be please have atleast a SLITHER of swansea angst I mean come ONNN

[lord-squiggletits]

The reason this fandom hates IDW Optimus isn't because he's a cop (plenty of people are fine with Prowl) or because he's a bastard (most characters in IDW are) but because he commits the crime of being an actual person who's messy, flawed, and makes a shitload of high stakes mistakes fitting for the intense situations and pressure he's put under constantly.

But we can't have Optimus actually react to his situations by lashing out or being unpleasant, no, he has to have the personality of a cardboard cutout of G1 whose only defining personality traits are "dad, funny, nice," and if he ever vents negative emotions it can only ever be #relatable depression or him being sad on his own without ever letting it show during the important parts of the story. If Optimus dares do things like be angry or frustrated or bitter it's just a sign that he's a bastard and LITERALLY the worst Optimus ever. If Optimus ever makes mistakes or does wrong things in the heat of anger/frustration/stress it's because he's just an evil bastard with no redeeming traits.

God forbid Optimus go through an unending gauntlet of war, politics, atrocities, near-complete loneliness, and a seemingly endless cycle of violence for his entire life and come out of it kind of bitter, angry, and tired of dealing with people's shit. He's not allowed to be a realistic person, context doesn't matter, sympathy doesnt matter. IDW Optimus doesn't fulfill the fandom's fantasies of Father Figure or Perfect Cultural Icon or Twinky Fucktoy and since that's the only reason most people care about Optimus in general, the fandom collectively trashes on IDW OP.

All because he can't fit into the overly simplified and childlike double standard the fandom has where if any other character is messy and flawed, that's good writing and interesting and compelling, but if OPTIMUS is messy and flawed, he's Literally The Worst and he's an asshole for no other reason than He Sucks, context be damned