#do versions of this gifset exist? yes

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/729708592592306176/how-about-a-different-discourse-death-of-the

What this ask is missing, a bit, is that Death of the Author *does* mean that the author’s take on things is no more or less valid than anyone else’s. It’s about decentering authorial intent in analyses of media. Barthes is pretty clear and quite pointed about it in the original essay.

What bothers me about misuses of it and what I think this anon means to say is when people start decentering the actual *text*. The idea behind Death of the Author is also that the text stands alone. You don’t need to look at any extra shit to understand it. As you said, it was a response to a mode of analysis that obsessed over plumbing through author biographies.

The issue with what people do in fandom is they ignore the text. “I don’t like this element of canon, so it doesn’t exist.” (Which is different from arguing that it’s there but it sucks because of XYZ reasons, so I’m going to consciously ignore it in my fan works. This is when people just act like it isn’t there in the text in the first place.) “You have to take my bizarro world out-of-nowhere headcanon that is based on nothing except that I want it to be true, that I love this character and I wish they were XYZ therefore they are” and take it just as seriously as headcanons that actually engage with what’s in the show/video game/book/movie/whatever and use that as their basis (like building off something that is subtextual in the original work).

Granted we all do this to some degree, we all come to a text with our own biases and you can’t *always* easily separate those out, and that can affect, for instance, your interpretation of what the subtext is, but I think the irritating fandom behavior is when this kind of ignoring-the-text-to-substitute-your-own-reality is this very deliberate sort of laziness. The annoying thing in my current fandom is people who are fans of this one ship that they insist is the most progressive and other people just don’t see the scintillating “subtext” of because we are bigots or whatever, between two characters who don’t interact that much for two MCs and when they do it’s not at all shippy (but these characters both have very shippy subtext with different characters), but where these people think the ship *should* exist because of their identities. And their “evidence” for the ship is always gifsets taken way out of context and not including the dialogue that makes the non-shippy context for that scene very clear (including that it might actually be shippy for conflicting pairings). It’s like this bizarre version of “close reading” that strips out the largely context *deliberately* in order to make a particular conclusion seem more compelling than it actually is.

Anyway, all that ignoring-the-text stuff is STILL bad analysis per DOTA. Since the point of DOTA is to go based on the text, if you’re obscuring the text you’re kind of just installing yourself as a new author.

This is why DOTA doesn’t mean “anything goes.” It just means “authorial intent is just one interpretation that doesn’t have to matter.” It doesn’t mean other stuff we use in analysis doesn’t matter, and if anything the point is to make it even more text-centric than the older author-centric analyses were. People can still disagree about what the text says, of course, but they should both be going back to it in how they construct those arguments, and not, like those shippers, deliberately ignoring chunks of the text that weaken their arguments.

--

I don't think all of them are consciously throwing out actual canon, but they are often throwing out all context that would help evaluate subtext.

Like... if you're analyzing a Marvel movie, you might ignore what the director said in an interview, but you probably shouldn't entirely ignore the fact that it is a Marvel movie and apply assumptions that make sense for some arthouse film.

And, yes, if you're arguing for shippy subtext, even unintentional on the part of creators, "I like this ship because..." needs very little, but "This ship has more support than this other ship" requires going back to the actual text and looking at it in its totality.

There's a lot of faux-intellectualism around garbage like TJLC where people try to make themselves feel smart by using the language of close reading while having the media literacy of a bucket of rotting fish.

[skambigbang]

SKAM REVERSE BANG 2025 ARTISTS INFO

For this Reverse Bang, we're counting on all artists to inspire writers with their work!

Remember, 'art' can be interpreted in many ways. Most often, artists choose to create some form of visual art, but it can also be a piece of music or a song, if you feel so inclined! Visual art can be analog or digital, and it can mean many things: feel free to create a drawing, cartoon, painting, mood board, banner, gifset, video, photo manip, collage… Or create art that exists in the physical world: hand-lettering, paper art, knitted art, sculpted art, carved art, … You could even create a nicely formatted playlist, social media page, an item of clothing, a game - you name it! As long as it features the SKAM multiverse and inspires a writer, you’re set.

Read on for the timeline and FAQ.

TIMELINE

1. SIGN UP

15 NOVEMBER 2024 - 15 JANUARY 2025

Sign ups open on November 15th 2024 and will remain open until January 15th 2025. Sign up here!

2. CREATION

15 NOVEMBER 2024 - 01 MARCH 2025

You will create one or more pieces of art to inspire a writer.

During this time, you will be asked to check in once or twice to confirm you are on track for the next step.

On March 1st 2025 you will share some or all of your artwork, so writers can pick who they would like to collaborate with.

3. CLAIMS

MARCH 2025

At this point, the writers will get a chance to choose artists they would like to work with. You will be asked to provide some information on your preferences for the fic. At the end of this period, you will be paired with one writer, or possibly more, who will create a written work inspired by your art!

4. COLLABORATION

01 APRIL 2025 - 15 JUNE 2025

In the final months of the event you will finalize your artwork(s). You will also collaborate with the writer(s) you are paired with, leading to a written work to accompany and boost your art.

During this time, you will be asked to check in once or twice to confirm you are on track for the next step.

We will also ask you to provide some information about your work and your experience with the Reverse Bang to promote the event by May 15th.

5. CELEBRATION

21 JUNE 2025 - 01 AUGUST 2025

Time to share the finished work and celebrate all things SKAM!

RULES & FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

GENERAL

What is a Reverse Bang?

In a reverse of a more traditional ‘Big Bang’ fan event, a Reverse Bang is a fan-centric collaborative event where writers write a fic based on art created by fellow fans.

Both the ‘Big Bang’ and ‘Reverse Bang’ type of event can be traced back to the tradition of fanzines, which often combined visual and written fan art.

How can I be part of the Reverse Bang 2025?

There are three ways to participate: as an artist, as a writer, or as a beta reader.

Artists will create original artworks to celebrate SKAM. Writers will then create a written work specifically inspired by the artwork. And beta readers will be cheering on the authors, and helping them polish their work.

If you cannot be part of the Reverse Bang this year, we invite you warmly to enjoy the art and the fics starting on June 21st 2025, and give the finished works your love to keep the fandom alive!

You may join in more than one role, if you’d like… but be sure you can really commit to the tasks expected of you before you do so.

Can I join together with my friend?

Of course! In past events, there have been teams of writers working together on one fic. We welcome artists to do the same, if they like. In that case, you can join as a team - just let us know the contact data of all team members.

Artists and writers cannot join up as a team. The spirit of the event is to be paired up with someone you might not know before. But we hope you’ll join anyway, and meet new SKAM fans to collaborate with!

Beta readers and writers can team up if they wish to do so, but they will need to sign up separately.

Is the SKAM Reverse Bang 2025 open to all versions of SKAM and all ships?

YES! All versions of SKAM, all seasons, all ships are allowed. The more the merrier!

How many people will I be paired up with?

The short answer is: at least one.

The slightly longer answer is that we cannot give any exact numbers yet, because we don’t know yet how many people will sign up as artists, as writers, or as beta readers. It is likely that some artists may get paired with more than one writer. If there are more artists than writers, we will check in with the writers to find out if people are willing to write more than one story. 

A second consideration is that our fandom encompasses many verses, generations, and ships; of which some are very popular and others relatively obscure. The broader the horizon of the artwork, the more writers will be able to write for it.

That said, we will try our absolute best to make sure every artist is paired with at least one writer, and vice versa.

Do I have to keep my creations a secret before the posting date?

Yes, and no.

Unlike previous SKAM Big Bang events, we will not have an anonymous pairing. This means that writers will know which artists have created which artworks, when they choose the works that inspire them. This also means that you can freely talk about your project during the creating period.

However, we ask that you do not share significant parts of your works outside of the event participants. A tease, a snippet, a mention for Six Sentence Sunday, … - these are fine; but we’d like the fandom to enjoy all the new artworks and fics during the posting period of the Reverse Bang. Let’s make it a true celebration of all things SKAM!

My English is not perfect. Will that be a problem?

Not at all! Most of us aren’t native English speakers, and we all make mistakes. Some of us speak other languages too, so we will find a way to communicate - even if we have to rely on online translators.

What do you mean by ‘checking in’?

During the timeframe of the creation of art or stories, we will check in with you to ensure you are on track to be ready by the end date, to help you find solutions to any problem that may arise, to encourage you during the creative process, and to make sure you are still having fun.

Is this event age restricted?

The SKAM Reverse Bang is open for fans aged 16 and over. However, if you are under 18, we will ask that both the art and the written work that you and your partner create, will be non-explicit in nature. Beta readers under 18 will only be paired with teams creating non-explicit works.

Will there be a place to hang out while we are creating and posting for the Reverse Bang event?

Every participant will be invited to a pre-existing lively Discord server with a group of enthusiastic, friendly and helpful SKAM fans. Note that this year there will be no separate Discord server dedicated to the event, but a section of the 21:21 SKAM Fan Content Creators server will be set up to host the SKAM Reverse Bang 2025.

While we hope you will join the Discord server, there is no obligation to do so. 

What will be the main form of communication between participants and mods?

As said, all participants will be invited to join our Discord server full of SKAM fans. 

However, should you choose not to, you can reach the Reverse Bang mods via email, or you can ask your question on the Skam Big Bang Tumblr account.

Where will the art and the stories created for the event be published and shared?

All written works will be posted on Archive Of Our Own (ao3), in a collection dedicated to the Reverse Bang. The author will include the art, a picture of the art, or link to the art, in their post. Artists may choose to post their art in a separate post on Archive Of Our Own (ao3).

If you want to participate, but have no Archive Of Our Own (ao3) account, we encourage you to request one as soon as you register for the Reverse Bang. You can ask the mods for help, if needed.

After the works have been posted into the collection, both writers and artists will be free to post their works on any other site, including their social media. 

Of course, you will need your partner’s permission to post their work. And obviously you must credit your partner appropriately when posting their work alongside your own!

What if I cannot meet a deadline?

While an event like this relies heavily on everybody involved being accountable, we understand there is this thing called life. If something pops up that makes you have to defer on a deadline, or have to drop out completely, please let us know as soon as possible. We are ready to figure out the best possible solution, but we need to know in order to keep the event moving seamlessly for everybody. Communication is key. Do not hesitate to contact us! Better a solution that's not needed in the end, than a problem snowballing into an experience that leaves someone unhappy.

That said, please take the deadlines and timelines into careful consideration before committing to participating. An event like this can only run smoothly if all the parts run smoothly. With that in mind, exceptions to the deadlines must remain rare exceptions.

Can I use AI?

AI takes many forms nowadays. While many of us use some form of AI as a tool while creating, we want this Reverse Bang to reflect the many talents of fans and fan-created works. Therefore, we will not allow any art or stories which were created solely by prompting an AI generator, even if you lightly edit or modify the result.

That said, use of AI as a tool can be permitted, provided it is disclosed. Disclosing will allow people not to engage with your work, should they so choose.

To make the difference clear, let’s consider some examples.

Let’s say your art has a background consisting of a repeated pattern. It might be fine to do that manually, but if you want, you could also use some form of AI to create a repetition of something you created. Or, if you want to draw a female figure in a certain position but have difficulty finding a good reference, you could ask AI to create one for you, as long as you then draw the final artwork yourself.

For writers, you might like to ask a chatbot to suggest some names of fantasy lands if you draw a blank. Or maybe you can prompt an AI story generator to describe the atmosphere of a Mediterranean marketplace, which you then use as inspiration to enhance one short paragraph of your story.

The examples above are meant to illustrate that minor uses of AI to help create a work of art or a story, where the AI generated part is either a minor detail of the final product and/or used as reference or inspiration without it ending up in the final product, will be permitted for this Reverse Bang.

To be abundantly clear: Art or stories which were, at their core, created by generative AI based on a prompt by a human, will not be permitted for this event.

You didn’t answer my question!

Oh no! We’re sorry, and we invite you to please contact us through email. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

ARTISTS

So, what do you mean by ‘art’ or ‘artwork’?

Basically, anything can be art! Most often, artists choose to create some form of visual art, but it can also be a piece of music or a song, if you feel so inclined! Visual art can be analog or digital, and it can mean many things: feel free to create a drawing, cartoon, painting, mood board, banner, gifset, video, photo manip, collage… Or create art that exists in the physical world: hand-lettering, paper art, knitted art, sculpted art, carved art, … You could even create a nicely formatted playlist, social media page, an item of clothing, a game - you name it! As long as it features the SKAM multiverse and inspires a writer, you’re set.

Does my art need to be finished by March 1st 2025?

Not at all! What we need at that time from you, is something you are happy to share with the writers and which represents you and your work, so they can choose what art inspires them to create a written work to accompany it.

Since the Reverse Bang is in essence a collaborative event, we expect that your art might evolve as you talk more with the writer you are paired with - but if you want to have your final piece(s) ready by March, then that’s fine too! The main point is for you to have fun, and for the fandom to get to enjoy your creations.

What if the writer I am paired with wants to write a story I do not want to be associated with?

As an artist, we will allow you to list a limited number of themes, tropes or triggers you would rather not see featured in the works associated with your art.

[deadboydetectives-anonmeme]

DBDA Anonmeme: Archive of our Own Version

Join the DBDA Prompt Meme Challenge!

This challenge will be open from November 2024 to July 2025, with a max prompt limit of 50 (AO3's limit). If you have more than 50 prompts, you will need to post them to Dreamwidth.

As with all prompts, your prompt will be crossposted onto all version of the anonmeme - this is to spread them to a wider audience, and hopefully result in more prompts getting fills.

Now for a quick Q&A:

Are any kind of prompts allowed? Yep, prompts of all kind are welcome on the DBDA Anonmeme. This includes any pairing (or no pairings), NSFW, SFW, AUs, fix-its, and anything else you can think of! There are no right or wrong prompts.

How do I sign up? Hit "Prompt Form" button in the menu to the left on the Prompt Meme Challenge, this will take you to the sign up form. You're allowed to submit up to 50 prompts on AO3. If you have more than 50 prompts, you will need to use a different version of the anonmeme.

How do I fill a prompt? Press the Claim button under the prompt to claim it, then go to My Claims and hit the Fulfill button on the prompt you'd like to fill.

Do I need an account to use the AO3 Anonmeme? On the AO3 Anonmeme, yes. However if you don't have an AO3 account, you can prompt on the Dreamwidth Anonmeme without an account. You can also send a prompt in via the Tumblr Anonmeme. All prompts are cross posted by the mod across all anonmemes.

Do I have to stay anonymous? If you want to stay anonymous you can, otherwise you can opt-out when submitting a prompt.

Please keep in mind that all prompts crossposted by the mod are automatically posted anonymously. For example, if you post an un-anonymous prompt on AO3, the mod will comment it on Dreamwidth anonymously. All Tumblr prompts are linked back to Dreamwidth as it is the original anonmeme and you cannot link back to a single prompt on AO3.

If you do not want your prompt to be anonymous, you will need to post it on Dreamwidth yourself.

Can I fill a prompt with art or other media? All kinds of media are welcome here - fanart, gifsets, manips, video edits or really anything that pops into your mind.

Can I re-prompt? Yes, if the original prompt has not been filled within two weeks.

Will my existing prompt on Dreamwidth be posted on AO3? Yes, existing prompts will slowly be crossposted over the next few days. If you want to re-post it to AO3 yourself, be sure to check to make sure the mod hasn't already posted it. If it has been posted, feel free message the mod with a request to take it down so you can post it again yourself.

Got a question that hasn't been covered here? Feel free to send an ask on Tumblr, or post a comment on the Rules and Guidelines post on Dreamwidth.

[televinita]

Derry Girls, season 2 thoughts!

IN GENERAL

There's often still a pervading sense to me of "we had this great idea for an episode, but it was too expensive so the girls were thwarted and here's a different story instead." That said...

Why did this show not run for six years and a hundred+ episodes. I've never seen anything so consistently delightful or so untethered to continuity or a throughline in my life. These episodes might take place in absolutely any order as far as I know.

Seriously, despite many attempts to ground it with news reports and the still-mystifying-to-me presence of a baby in the background who has clearly grown older since season 1, I have no idea how much time is supposed to have passed in this series.

(if it was more than a year you DEFINITELY could have fit fifteen extra adventures in per season at least)

(Does this show have fic? It should have SO MUCH gen!fic that is just canon-compliant-missing-episodes in style, and yet, I am sure without looking that the vast majority of whatever does exist is simply not that.)

I am loving (almost) all the music! This is the dead opposite of my experience w/ Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

Getting a real strong urge to rewatch "Finding You" btw.

CHARACTERS & EPISODES

+ 2x01: got quite a delight out of Sister Michael's opposite-in-appearance, identical-in-vision Protestant counterpart

+ "I do enjoy a good statue, it has to be said," another iconic line I've known as long as I've known this show.

+ Hot Priest returns to the fold, love that for me.

+ everything about the poetry episode omg.

+ It continues to baffle me that Michelle is everything I should absolutely hate in a character, this is THE miscreant I'm always like "why are you still friends with this loser?" about in YA novels, yet she remains beloved and cherished 2 me just the way she is.

+ The Concert: an episode of pure unfettered delight

+ Let's not talk about the drugs/funeral one.

+ 2x05?? I went into this show with Erin/James on the brain, but with only a single screenshot to support it, so I simply perished of joy when he turned up at her door for Prom.

(also, Orla taking her grandfather because he's the fella she likes best?? awwww)

+ The finale!! I have also known that "you're a Derry girl now" quote (overlaid over different images) for as long as I've known this show existed, but it was still so great seeing it with context.

+ Did I rewind the girls swarming him with hugs at least seven times? Yes.

+ Also, okay, that's it, I need some version of James in a book and I am currently CURSING at how little British YA I have stored in my memory banks to make it so.

(ALSO I just remembered that a book version of Erin's diary exists and I require it. After some investigation, appears I can borrow the physical book via I.L.L. but I equally want the audiobook and it is not on Libby, sadface)

Now that I have forced myself to practice writing down actual thoughts, Imma go queue some gifsets, and I'm still going to make myself sit and process all this footage for another week or two, but VERY excited to get to season 3.

[bi-demon-ium]

listen. listen. take me up, cast me away. this phrase already drives me insane but in the context of this gifset? im spinning and spinning and spinning and sp

so like. okay. back to the basics. this is the phrase that's inscribed on either side of the blade of excalibur. yes, that excalibur, arthurian legend excalibur, the one from the lady of the lake (no, not the sword in the stone, they're different swords, yes i know it's confusing).

i'm not sure where this inscription first came into use, as most articles/information i can find just say "in multiple versions" the inscription or similar words to it are mentioned, although the only specific example i've found is tennyson's idylls of the king.

"[...] on one side, Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world, 'Take me,' but turn the blade and ye shall see, And written in the speech ye speak yourself, 'Cast me away!' And sad was Arthur's face Taking it, but old Merlin counselled him, 'Take thou and strike! the time to cast away Is yet far-off.' So this great brand the king Took, and by this will beat his foemen down." -- (Forgive me, I don't want to count all the lines and there are no line numbers, but I got the full text on Project Gutenberg.)

i also looked at Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur which is a pretty major text for popular/well-known Arthurian canon, and while there is an interesting exchange between Merlin and Arthur about swords and scabbards when Arthur takes up Excalibur that could certainly be relevant, there is no mention of the inscription on the blade.

but like, here's the thing. take me up, cast me away. it's about being willing to take up the mighty sword, to wear the heavy crown--take responsibility, take action, wield power and make hard choices. but it's also about knowing when to stop. not just when to take up the burden of power but when to let go of the joys of power. it's about knowing you can't fight fate: one day, the sword must be cast back into the lake. one day you will lose your power. one day camelot must fall, and arthur must die on the fields of camlann. in many ways, camelot was doomed from the start, from the very first time arthur drew the sword from the stone: because of the blood his father spilt, because of the fate that had been sealed long ago. it won't be for a long time, of course--galahad is unborn, the grail unfound, the heralds uncalled. guinevere is still loyal, if they're married at all, and lancelot might not have even arrived yet (i'm really not sure on the timeline, and even i were an expert i would doubt that there was anything consistent given all the different versions and contradicting tales that have been told over the years). but nonetheless, camelot will fall. take me up, cast me away: take power, but give it up, when it is time. take action, fight, but be willing to stop, too. stand up but know one day you must stand down, one day you will fall. take power. give it up. take responsibility. give it up. fight. surrender.

that may sound bleak, but you must remember: happy endings don't exist. it's about where you end the story--camelot lives many prosperous years before it inevitably crumbles. happy endings are just time. and if you stand up and fight--take up the sword--you can buy that time. the time to cast away is yet far off.

(as a quick digression, it's also very interesting to me that in tennyson's text, take me up is written in the oldest tongue known to this world, while cast me away is written in the common tongue arthur knows. i don't think i have the energy to get into this in depth but like. wow, right?)

now you might be thinking hey gert? gert? what the FUCK does this have to do with kate and martina. and i admit. i got a little side tracked because this shit makes me emo. i haven't even gotten into galahad and i won't for the sake of time and relativity to the main topic here. and like, sure, the themes of fate less important/prevalent here i think. but like. listen.

take responsibility. fight, when no one else will. stand even when you're alone. be independent. but also know when to stand down. know when you need help. take up the sword, even though you're so young, too young to be a soldier. but cast it away when you must, when you can. be a kid, too.

and then there's the double meaning: two abandoned children. take me up. cast me away.

ough.

[littleragondin]

On Repeat Tag Game

I was tagged by @bengiyo and @troubled-mind to put my repeat playlist on Spotify on shuffle and list the first 10 songs. Thank you both! ⸜( *ˊᵕˋ* )⸝

As always it's a little bit all over the place, but here are my 10!

aeseaes - Carrion Comfort

I have liked all aeseaes songs I have heard so far. This one I heard for the first time as I was re-reading Abarat by Clive Barker, where the villain (who fascinated me as a teen) is called Christopher Carrion, and the song has been haunting me since. Also I can't resist some cannibalism imagery.

Luther Vandross - Your Secret Love

Haha okay, so maybe I listened to this one on loop while I was working on my Love in Translation's gifset. I just really, really like this song - I am a sucker for love songs, and he is so, so good at it. Plus, what a voice...

안예은 Ahn Ye Eun - 홍련 (紅蓮) HONGRYEON

Alright, I discovered Ahn Ye Eun (kinda) literally two days ago thanks to @petrichoraline and I already have three songs of hers in the on repeat (the other 2 are Trumpet Creeper and Changgwi). She has an incredible voice, her instrumentals are so rich, and I adore how she plays around with horror themes and traditional myths. I am a little obsessed. (I'd recommend going down the comms a little, someone translated the lyrics and gave a few notes)

Debout sur le zinc - La déclaration

That's my favorite song of theirs and one of my favorite love song period. It's very sweet, but my favorite is the ending verse where he says. "It's a bit of a declaration [of love] even if I know that you're not/ the remedy nor the solution, just a splint on my arm/that small thing linking us to others when we don't do well/an ultimate language of survival that put the world back on its axis" - recognizing that love won't heal him entirely but is still necessary for him to survive.

Jonathan Hultén - Where Devils Weep

I cannot for the life of me remember how I found this one, but the sorrowful music with those, in the end, hopeful lyrics have been a pick me up the past week.

Déportivo - Les Bières Aujourd'hui S'ouvrent Manuellement

Deportivo is a french rock band from my teen years, so this cover is a bit of a throwback. This is a quietly sad song about a man realizing that his long term relationship has run its course - "It will always be a mystery to me/how the body get used to it/when love dies slowly". It talk about the very mundane things (his partner turning their back at him when they go to bed, the clicking of their spoon the only sound between them as they dine) that made him realize they are not in love anymore.

The Real Zebos – Puttin' On the Ritz

Tons of covers of this song exist (I do love Taco's version from like 1982 I think). This one came up in the spotify recs and it clicked for me. Love the singer's voice, and it feels fresh without losing it's original vibe.

Simon & Garfunkel - America

I have slowly been working my way through Simon & Garfunkel's discography over the last few months -because all their songs I grew up with I love. But since I discovered this one, it's a go to when I feel down and I need something for comfort (there is something that makes me feel heard in "Katie I'm lost I said though I knew she was sleeping. I'm empty and aching and I don't know why").

เงา (SHADOW) - LAZYLOXY

Guess what show I'm excited for!!!!! Joke aside, I put Lazyloxy's opening for Rakdiao on loop for weeks when I watched that show, so the moment this came out spotify stuffed it under my nose and I really like it!

Elisabeth (2005) - Marktplatz in Wien (Milch)

Like last year, October somehow means I start putting the 2005 live recording in Vienna of Elisabeth on repeat. I love musicals, and I have a special relationship to this one (it's the musical that got me into Takarazuka and my first German musical). This song always scratches the itch perfectly so I listen to it even more than the rest of the album (all songs with Lucheni are top tiers for me)

If you feel like doing it, I will tag @petrichoraline, @sparklyeyedhimbo, @scienceoftheidiot, @howdydowdy, and @iguessitsjustme !

[doctordonovan]

❀    ||      maeve  &&  heights post diane

 so for anyone who hasn’t seen the show:  there’s a scene diane  (  maeve’s violent stalker who has literally just killed maeve’s ex-fiance / other stalker  )   has maeve on a rooftop at gunpoint and tries to make her jump to prove that the thesis of her failed dissertation   (   a dissertation maeve failed and led to the start of diane’s obsession with her    )   was correct.   there’s a gifset of a moment of it in specific here on my old blog with some of my thoughts in the tags.

 in general post coma,   surprisingly,   maeve is more drawn to heights than she ever was before diane.   not because of diane’s point though:   there’s no urge to jump and there’s not even fear about them.   instead maeve is drawn to them because it’s the place she feels the most numb.   this sounds odd but if she were to explain it:  that moment,  between her and diane on the rooftop,  was the moment she accepted fully that she was going to die.  yes she was terrified when bobby was killed,  each time diane hurt her during the stalking,  every time she had a gun pointed at her…   but this moment was when maeve accepted she wasn’t making it out alive.  

(  later,  in the scene where diane shoots both herself and maeve in front of reid,  maeve never seems scared for herself  -  only ever for him  -  and this is fully to do with that moment where she decided she’d die before giving diane any satisfaction of breaking her.  )

heights never frighten her again because in her mind they are forever linked to that moment of pure,  complete,  acceptance.  she was ready and expecting to die when first up on that roof.

so whenever maeve is feeling too much,  when she’s overwhelmed or struggling with her trauma,  going somewhere high up is her version of an ice bath.  she may have survived the bullet   (  I don’t remember a ‘canon’  )   and recovered from the coma,  but there’s no coming back from a moment of acceptance like that.  she does in a lot of ways spend the rest of her life feeling like she could simply stop existing at any time.

worse than that,  she feels like she’s on borrowed time and it doesn’t bother her much anymore.

[besidesitstoowarm]

"Doomsday" thoughts

i'm realizing i forgot to mention my WIFE freema agyeman in last episode. i'm so sorry baby. i can't wait for s3

anyway this episode fucks severely and kind of reminds me that a lot of diehard ten/rose shippers don't like. GET what makes them work, bc they don't get what makes rose work. i think i've said it before that not only do moffat haters not understand his era, but davies lovers often don't even really like it for the right reasons. or like, reasons that are based on the text instead of the tumblr interpretation of the text. this isn't to disparage davies likers or ten/rose shippers or whatever, just make sure you're remembering the episodes as they happened and not as 1080p gifsets you reblogged 8y ago

anyway! this was a great finale to s2 and to the rose era in general (i'll make a season retrospective w more detail). it's just some goddamn great doctor who, davies is masterful at weaving deep and impactful character work into the classic balls-to-the-wall insane doctor who shenanigans. let's explore, shall we

i love the idea behind the "genesis ark" like tell me that doesn't sound like something that already exists in dw canon. calling back to needing rose's touch bc humanity– the human ability/desire/habit of crossing boundaries, inherently filling every space, colonizing to be less generous– has a power to it. the bit as well about "cybermen will remove sex and class and race and creed" is a critique of centrism bc our differences make us human! they're beautiful! the great equalizer is horrific, imposed violence

i'm sorry if this seems homophobic but i don't think a straight person could have possibly written the dalek-cybermen interactions in this episode. "the daleks have no concept of elegance" "this is obvious" sorry it's just pure cuntiness on a level i have never seen a cishet achieve. i'm not stereotyping davies as just "sassy" or whatever he's deeply talented in all facets but bitchiness is indeed one of those facets

continuing the anti-establishment theme, yvonne walking into the cybermen hell saying "oh god, i did my duty" is deeply telling. the cyberman she becomes crying an oil-slick tear and fighting back saying "i did it for queen and country" is kind of sad and kind of horrifying. it's about the layers

rose gets to flex w the daleks by telling them what she did as bad wolf. "i met the emperor....and turned him into dust" yes!! yes!! get their asses baby!! "both sides had secrets" all the time war seeding is so tasteful and delicious. it works as both bread-crumbing info that will be revealed eventually and as background worldbuilding should they decide to never get into the nitty-gritty. they obviously do in "the end of time" for one and then eventually the 50th but davies plays it just subtle enough that if they never did get deeper into it, i don't think it would have felt like a cocktease

i love the pete-jackie stuff sorry. i love stories about people finding/refinding/etc love in their 40s. they're not the version of each other that they each know but they're close enough and they do love each other. their big hug made me emotional

and of course. the ending. what is there to say about the ending that hasn't been said a hundred million times already. murray gold is a fantastic composer and he CRUSHES it. the fact that ten was ready to sacrifice rose without her consent (which he will later do to donna! themes!), the fact that she fought the narrative and refused until tragedy took over, as it inevitably must. bad wolf bay. "i love you" "rose tyler, –" as tears drip down his face. oh i am just so sick. they were codependent and unhealthy but you really can't deny how much they cared for each other, and even tho i KNOW they meet up again and get their "happy" endings i just. oh it hit. phenomenal acting on both parts, incredible score, oh it just destroys me. a beautiful end for the season and for rose

side note, i did not recall that "runaway bride" was the next story. i totally forgot that we get the season-long gap before seeing donna again. i can't wait to get back to donna, she brings out the best in ten (being divorced and a pathetic wet beast)

season retrospective up soon!

[rabbitindisguise]

There's a lot! It's cool you put this many together

Also, some you might not have heard mentioned:

All year: fuck this post and happy birthday [character], and a special holiday for the original post (Sonic's birthday, which is on June 23rd)

Every Tuesday: SPN "it's Tuesday" gif

January 8: spiders georg post day

February 13: parks and rec galentine's day

March 7: krusty crab 2

March 31: I didn't know march 31 existed gifset

April 22: earth day - happy birthday to the ground cake gif

May 1: it's gonna be may edits, the same gifsets with "gonna be" crossed out

Also May 1: "damn it's may 1st already? What's next, may 2nd? Fuck everything" tweet

May 25: towel day - Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy

July 1: Corporate pride end date memes ("see you in hell you stupid fruits" blender post with "corporations on July 1st" caption etc)

July 3: don't forget to leave out milk and cookies for captain America

July 26: down with cis bus post day

October 1: first day of Halloween (yes this is an actual holiday different from "the entire month of October is Halloween" because they come from different popular posts, I don't control the rate at which Tumblr makes cultural touchstones)

October 9: Leif Erikson day - SpongeBob

October 13: TREAT YO SELF - parks and rec

October 17: "two weeks later we spoke again" October 3rd cont'd

October 19: "October 19th is a feeling in all of us" - Community

October 21: back to the future day

November 1: only 364 days until Halloween - the nightmare before Christmas

Month of December: no I shan't it's Christmas - doctor who

December 23: happy Christmas Adam for those who celebrate (Christmas Eve what about Christmas Adam tumblr post)

Also December 23: Christmas Eve Eve from Friends

Also December 23: festivus from Seinfeld

December 24: IT'S ONLY ONE MORE SLEEP TILL CHRISTMAS (SCREAM) from the muppet version of the Christmas carol

Non holiday traditions:

"here's to the end of sweater weather" in early spring (particularly as a shout out to dysphoric trans boys)

"I wish I could wear a sweater" posting starts sometime in june-august, along with "if you're hot, they're hot, bring them inside" and "this isn't cute everyone knows goths only do this when they're stressed" about goths out in hot weather

"I love wearing sweaters" in fall, mainly October, multiple genres of posts for autistic/transgender/aesthetic/etc reasons

Other holidays: basically any viral meme post can become a holiday given the right circumstances since we have timestamps on posts now

Not a holiday but it's customary to be like "I can't believe no one's reblogged this on my dash yet I had to go find this myself/I have to do everything myself around here" in a reblog if a holiday meme takes awhile to surface again and you need to fetch the post

Also:

My condolences

Best of luck :)

OH and I will say that the major holidays are:

June

It's gonna be may

Ides of March

Neil banging out the tunes

Ever given

Nov 5

Please it's Christmas

Oct 3

Do you remember

Dashcon

These are the most enduring and universally celebrated across the website in my experience

ok since i don't think i've seen any semi-comprehensive lists of the tumblr holidays for the reddit refugees, here it is.

IT JUST HAPPENS

DAY 15 GIVE IT UP FOR DAY 15

Thursday the 20th

The Fifth of Wednesday

Sometime in June: That One Halloween Post Starts Circulating

Sometime in July: Dancing Pumpkin Man Video/Gif

WEEKLY EVENTS

Every Monday: El Muchacho Monday

Every Tuesday: Tuesday Again? No Problem...

Every Wednesday: Wet Beast Wednesday

Every Thursday: Out of Touch Thursday

Every Friday: Flat Fuck Friday

Every Saturday: Don't @ Me, I'm Chilling/Caturday

Every Sunday: Fingers In His Ass Sunday

YEARLY EVENTS

January 16: Appreciate a Dragon Day

January 29: Threshold Day

All of February: Funguary

February 14: Aromantic/Asexual Day

March 9: Miku Day

March 10: Mario Day

March 14: Pi Day

March 15: Ides of March

March 23: Ever Given Got Stuck Today

April 1: Mishapocalypse

April 2: Dashcon Announcement Anniversary

April 3: Dannypocalypse

April 8: Rex Manning Day

ALSO April 8: MARGARET THATCHER IS DEAD

April 13: Neil Banging Out The Tunes

ALSO April 13: Homestuck Day

April 20: haha 420 blaze it

April 25: The Perfect Date

April 28: Ed Balls Day

April 30: It's Gonna Be May

All of May: Mermay

May 3: Beginning of Dracula Daily

May 4: May the 4th Be With You

May 5: Revenge of the Fifth

May 25: The Glorious 25th of May

All of June: Pride Month

ALSO All of June: IT'S HALLOWEEN TIME TO GET SPOOKY

June 5: Barricade Day

June 16: Let Papyrus Say Fuck

July 20: Moon Landing

September 8: The Queen Is Dead and Sans Undertale Killed Her

September 21: DO YOU REMEMBER-

All of October: SKELETON WAR

ALSO All of October: Inktober

October 3: Mean Girls Day

ALSO October 3: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Day

October 20: Unnecessary Feelings Day

October 31: HALLOWEEN

November 5: honestly what didn't happen that day

November 19: Goncharov

All of December: Will the Gävle Goat Get Destroyed Again?

December 10: Please, It's Christmas

December 24: ALMOST CHRISTMAS MEANS IT WASN'T CHRISTMAS

[knowlesian]

has anyone done a gifset that’s just comparing izzy tearing up when ed chokes him/The Whole Toe thing? 

i only ask because i need to stare at izzy ‘fuck you we were NOT MUPPETS YESTERDAY oh shit, oh fuuuuuck yes it’s happening, glory hallelujah my boyfriend captain is back, i’m done being gaslit by you wholesome felt twats’ hands experiencing the realignment of his fucked up little world on an endless loop.

I MEAN. if you think about it, izzy’s from the version of black sails Certain Oblivious People thought that show was before the “they’re gay pirates, harold, deal with it or be unable to watch this show because they’re getting their gay all over the main thrust of the narrative as we speak” beat dropped. 

this means he is subtextually gay as shit for blackbeard in freaky/violent, public ways and even fucking gayer still for edward in ...also freaky/violent, but softer and more private ways and all the while textually speaking, They’re Just Good Friends forever and ever amen.

izzy is from a world where there is a rule: you work out the way you wanna fuck the guy you spend all your time with by stabbing things together. other people, each other, all phallic imagery is allowed and indeed, encouraged, so long as you use objects that evoke “soooo, this is supposed to be a dick thing, right?” but never push it beyond the realm of subtext. izzy can have loyalty and shared power, and as long as he cashes in his tokens sparingly meaningful gazes and clasping arms or patting each other on the shoulder and letting the touch linger juuuuust long enough to make it kinda gay are all on the approved list. in izzy’s world you bleed for each other, you kill and die for each other, you are the most important people in each other’s lives—as long as the text retains plausible deniability it’s Not Like That. 

maybe you can have a lil it’s not gay if it’s in a threeway (or a love triangle!) action as a treat and if somebody almost dies/is thought to be dead a hug is allowed, but your love better not even fucking think about speaking its name. 

honestly, even if izzy felt like pushing that barrier, what would he say? the sacred texts to translate what izzy feels for the man who becomes edward when they’re alone don’t even exist where he’s from. they have words for what he might want do in bed and what the world thinks of men like him, but love’s just not applicable. the songs he sings are not ones of love because not to put too fine a point on it, but: in izzy’s world, love is for men who don’t have boners you can see from space for other men. he’s swallowed all the lies the world told him about love whole and made them part of his identity.

with all that in mind, let’s look at how if you tilt your head and squint, ofmd is not just a joyful and affirming celebration of finding your community of equally if not identically bizarre fellows, but also a deeply depressing pirate love story as experienced by izzy ‘the only non-muppet around and not okay with it’ hands.

before i get into the actual meat of the two scenes, i want to stop and marvel at one specific part of the leadup and why ed decides to try and introduce the front of izzy’s neck to the back. quote time!!!!

Not some namby-pamby in a silk gown, pining for his boyfriend. 

like, CHRIST. fucking WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE. why are they so good? i gotta take a quick structural analysis break to handle the way the writers packed like... a whole fucking essay on izzy’s deeply toxic pirate masculinity and summed up a point i will spend this whole insane post trying to express in one tidy line. i ache to be this efficient a writer.

i’m gonna break it into pieces, because they all deserve attention.

we start out with what’s edging into a gentle slur, but is ultimately defanged by being nowhere close to on par with the uglier ways a modern audience knows he could phrase that. i think it’s worth spotlighting how izzy never quite says anything on its face hateful that i can think of? he’s not supportive, that’s for fucking certain, but unless i’ve forgotten something (very possible, often true) this is the closest he comes to fulfilling the homophobic gay trope in the content of his speech and not just how he says things/his vibes. 

(though let us make no mistake here, his vibes are rock fucking hard homophobic gay. jesus christ with this one, bless his heart.)

i can’t tell if it’s a writer choice or character choice. my instinct says it’s both! anyway, either way i’m into it. could even be a subtle hint izzy’s closer to dragging the canon kicking and screaming into the dark where he feels more comfortable. 

now we move over to izzy mocking edward’s dressing gown. this team HATES ME, because it’s not enough to just have him essentially say “take off that soft fancy shit and rub some dirt on it, real men don’t cry”. oh no, not for these absolute combopack monster/lighthouses! of course they have izzy leave off dressing and just say gown. of COURSE. we understand as an audience they don’t mean gown as in dress because the visuals fill that gap for us, but by deleting one word they effectively have izzy imply edward’s a big fucking girl without needing to have him actually say it.

i mean... come on. come ON.

pining and boyfriend are also excellent choices; pining implies weakness and fading from a former glory, and boyfriend is uh... boyfriend! what it says on the tin, but it also throws in tones of infantilization by leaning on ‘boy’ instead of a more adult-associated choice like lover. 

anyway onto what i’m supposed to be doing: crying about how con is lowkey playing out a grand fucking greek tragedy in the background at literally every second he’s on-screen as izzy and i’ve gone down the rabbit hole about it. honestly they should give that man extra hazard pay, he could have hurt himself going this hard.

look at the way his face softens when edward chokes him. look at the tears in his eyes and the tremble in his hand when he reaches out, the un-fucking-bearable tenderness. the way he doesn’t fight ed’s violence, he encourages and leans into it. (because once upon a time in private, izzy was allowed to know that blackbeard could be edward; he was the only person who knew that, before stede rolled on up in his stupid fucking boat and his stupid fucking pants and unearthed ed and ruined izzy’s whole fucking life.)

speaking of:

Blackbeard is my captain. I serve Blackbeard, not Edward. Edward better watch his fucking step.

the way i feel about ‘i serve blackbeard’ does not even need to be EXPLAINED. if you’re bothering to read this shit you know the face i made when that line entered my ears and lodged itself in my brain, never to leave, because you made it too. i won’t profane even this Most Unholy post with my feelings about the use of that particular verb there. it’s good. i like it. well done team, no notes and the end. nobody fucking perceive me.

more high mindedly: i love how izzy uses edward here, not ed. it reframes the “using edward is a privilege i am given by my captain” to “saying edward is a gift i can take back until you prove you’re my captain again”. as far as izzy is concerned, ed doesn’t even exist. blackbeard’s his captain and always has been and thus commands his loyalty, but edward’s in the doghouse until he thinks long and hard about what he’s done.

there’s also a beat there that i think stands as what izzy considers Having a Talk About Their Relationship.

(...well fuck. well, FUCK. izzy thought they were dating, didn’t he? he totally did. holy shit that’s perfect. they were subtextually dating and stede started actually dating ed and that’s just another level of his reality stede broke. oh my god, this little ratman. this fucking IDIOT. his life is the worst. it’s amazing and so funny and also no-jokes sad. SO GOOD.)

so i guess that means in izzy’s world, that was how you say “we might still have to work together, but you’re sleeping on the fucking couch until i sort out how i feel about your little fling”. blackbeard is his captain and he serves him; that’s business. edward is his Subtextual Boyfriend, and from izzy’s perspective edward has been really shitting the bed lately.

honestly: awww, look at him go! trying to communicate like a real boy. that’s one mangled ‘you tried’ star for izzy.

all that would be enough to make me want to fling myself into the sun, it really would. i would still be screaming about izzy and the way con makes sure izzy’s gaze always comes back to rest on ed in every scene they're in together, no matter what else is going on, for the rest of my life.

but oh wait, it GETS WORSE. because here it comes: the toe scene. buckle up, get ready for this to Go Places because i am going full galaxy brain. let’s talk about love as consumption re: izzy’s feelings about doing the Weird Vore.

there’s the unavoidable jesus shit all up in this scene’s guts so i honestly could stop here and just scream WHY? WHY, WHY DO A FUCKING COMMUNION METAPHOR WITH HIS OWN TOE STANDING IN FOR THE HOLY HOST? YOU’RE SICK. YOU’RE SICK AND I LOVE IT!!! SIT AND THINK ABOUT YOUR CHOICES AND THEN NEVER EVER CHANGE, AND IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT: GO AHEAD AND GET WORSE for a couple hours instead of moving on, but i’ll get there eventually. 

aka: if you ever thought to yourself ‘i wonder if anybody’s gonna talk way too long about the constant and super amazing queering and/or subversion of christian imagery and the religion itself in this show’ i got your back there, just you hold tight. ohhhhh baby i got so! many! thoughts! on! that!

for today though, i’m gonna stick with the way izzy processes love and his relationship with ed.

the way ed gets rid of lucius, layers his armor back on piece by piece, and then sees himself reflected in an implement of violence and names himself a monster, not a lighthouse, before he goes to visit izzy is... A Lot. i want to talk more later! but it felt worth mentioning here as his gateway between the new world he thinks stede denied him and the old world he used to share with izzy. 

similarly, the way we get a shot of izzy’s bare, vulnerable feet and black loincloth thing-y before ed takes his toe makes me want to wade right into the proverbial sea!!! i hate this show.

the mix of tenderness and menace taika flips between here is just... like, i know this post is about con and izzy and i will GET THERE but because taika’s affect entirely changing here is important to izzy, i get to gush about it. he’s just so good. 

anyway, izzy. izzy, who has a mouth full of his own toe and edward all up in his grill and thanks to the Weird Vore is having a religious and a sexual experience all at once. izzy, with a love song for broken men in his heart and tears in his eyes, because in this moment he is full of nothing but awe.

the way we use ‘awesome’ now is pretty casual; it means we like something. that something is good. my lunch was awesome, your hat is awesome, we had an awesome time. good, but not necessarily noteworthy. you forget awesome things that happen to you all the time.

in the bible, when something is worthy of awe, you drop to your knees and cry and beg for mercy because the glory and power of what you have just witnessed cannot be expressed by clumsy human tongues; to be in even an echo of the presence of god is to experience the overwhelming urge to absolutely shit yourself. edward’s hand around his throat gave him hope, but this clicks everything back into place for him because the violent, ugly evidence of edward’s love for him is working its way down his gullet. hurrah! life is good again, and by good izzy means horrifying.

so yeah, izzy is chock-full of awe. edward is the face of his god and real flesh his communion; this is a motherfucking religious experience. bow down bitches, because he is worshipping.

(also, he probably came in his pants.)

the thing that really takes me to “fuck it, i’m out, i can’t anymore” place is the way the method of consumption proves the lie of izzy’s ecstasy. edward isn’t providing him any real nourishment, ed is feeding izzy himself, shoving his own toxic notions of love down his throat and making sure he chews them real good first. he’s not consuming the man he loves, he’s eating his own fucking tail.

i just wanna talk to the person who came up with this idea. maybe i’ll beat them up in the parking lot of a denny’s, maybe i’ll cry on them forever. maybe i’ll buy them a fruit basket so expensive i will have to go into debt forever. who knows! i am both a monster and a lighthouse, myself.

the tatty scrap izzy clutches close to his chest and calls his heart might only exist in metaphor, but it’s just as red as ed’s and unlike our boy, the claret being spilled by izzy’s love most fucking certainly isn’t wine. violent and transactional, nasty brutish and short; these are the words izzy learned for the feelings in his chest. it’s like jack said before buttons took his ass out with what i can only assume is the power of having the most amazing facial expressions i have ever seen: pirates don’t have friends, and they don’t fall in love. they’re just in various stages of fucking each other over and in izzy’s sad, repressed world, they don’t even get to fuck each other in the bargain.

but that’s okay: he doesn’t need that. the story izzy lived in before stede ruined his life told him time and time again: it’s not about that. 

so this is good, and this is right. with edward looming over him, subtextually fucking the shit out of him but not making it gay in a way a straight audience would be unable to ignore, the world makes sense again. he’s got the taste of his own flesh in his mouth and blood on his teeth. he’s home. 

so long to that muppet bullshit about ‘talking out our feelings’ and ‘giving each other hugs’ and ‘oh my FUCKING GOD get some therapy you leather-clad sad sack who is 1000000% going to die alone in a puddle of his own piss if he doesn’t get it together’. fuck emotional literacy right in the ear! who’s she? izzy’s proud to say he’s never met her. 

all that joy, the glimpse into a world where love is a word that could ever apply izzy was all a bad dream, and now he’s awake. this is the real world: this is as close to a love song as men like izzy can ever hope to shape with their untrained tongues. 

hey la, hey la, motherfuckers. his boyfriend’s back.

...so yeah anyway, anybody seen that gifset?

[number5theboy]

it might be hard to pick, but what's your favourite greek myth parallel/reference/allusion in regards to five? (i hope i phrased that right lmao)

for me it's still odysseus because you know. metis and long journeys and inability to adjust to peace after a lifetime of war and being held captive by a woman and having "no name" to hold him back and being extremely arrogant and hypocritical yadda yadda yadda. (i like the sisyphus references too, but i dont really consider five to be an ~absurd hero~, especially after s3. he clings to meaning in the apocalypse but in the face of his existence turning out to be absurd he does give up, kind of).

Hey Anon, first of all, congrats on sending in probably my favourite ask I've ever received. I was genuinely so excited to answer this that I kept it for when I would be in the mood and able to savour it, and before I knew it, a month has passed, so sorry about that, I hope you'll see this. But now I've just come off making a mythology-centred Five-gifset and my mind is buzzing, so there will never be a better time.

I once did an entire, very self-indulgent gifset about figures in Greek mythology that Five reminds me off, because to me, he thematically fits into that kind of storytelling. Very powerful, very skilled, fatally flawed, fucks around and finds out, all that jazz. The fact the writers have made a dozen mannequin jokes and yet haven't tossed in a Pygmalion reference yet is baffling to me. But I think Sisyphus and Odysseus are the only direct comparisons made in the text, and I do love them both. Me elaborating on why both of them are really neat connections under the cut.

I agree with you, I like the Odysseus one better, mostly because it's a really satisfying comparison. Yes to everything you said, the combination of wisdom and cunning, the long journey motivated by finding his way back to his family, his inability to find peace once he'd gotten them back because his time away - both the erring and the fighting - changed him, the women that keeps him, the absence of a name, the arrogance, the hypocrisy. I'd like to add the reluctance to fight paired with a high level of fighting skill, the tendency to try and talk things out first, the ability to read people well, the way people around him tend to die, the fact that his fatal flaw is pride/hubris, a character paying for his transgressions.

It's a very interesting character to compare Five to, because Odysseus is definitely one of the most nuanced and most versatile characters from Greek mythology, and I like how much the two have in common. But what I find even better is that there are a few key differences that make Five more than just a superhero take on Odysseus. There's the obvious fact that Five got reverted back into a child, and that he started his journey a lot younger, so what he longs to find his way back to is a different version of family from Odysseus. Odysseus also has a certain amount of obedience to authority, he knows how things ought to go and primarily tries to operate within boundaries set, while Five is pretty much ungovernable, he is constant to question and defy authority. Five also has time-travelling powers and technically the ability to undo everything that has gone wrong, but he just doesn't manage, he keeps overestimating himself and making things worse, which adds to his pathos. They are quite similar, but there is just enough of a spin to Five where the comparison is very much warranted but not tired. It tickles that particular part of me that loved Odysseus at age 10 when I first learnt about Greek mythology.

As for Sisyphus...I'm kind of splitting this in two, one part about the Sisyphus from the original myths and one about him as an absurd hero because Camus be Camus-ing.

Sisyphus is so known for his eternal punishment, because it is truly a wonderful image for a neverending, meaningless task, that it tends to be forgotten what he did to deserve this fate. Sisyphus was sentenced because he cheated death, not once, but twice, by finding new ways to escape it. So when Five says, "I've cheated time so much, I guess I thought I'd somehow cheat death", that hits, first of all because the writers literally forgot that Five had already cheated death by rewinding time and saving his siblings and himself from their certain demise, and secondly because that realisation of one's own mortality is part of the Sisyphus myth, in my opinion. Fun fact, in some, non-Homeric versions, Sisyphus is said to be the father of Odysseus, so being a cunning dickhead who pisses off gods is apparently a heritable trait. This tidbit about cheating death, paired with the endlessly repeating punishment, which the show alludes to via world's biggest ball of twine (Five replying "seems pretty big to me" when Klaus says that he thought it would be a lot bigger is a moment that I hold very dear) is just a good bit to compare with Five. He technically cheated death by turned time forward and bypassing the death of the entire human race, he cheated death again by turning time backwards, and he keeps living despite everything. At the same time, he chases his obligations, trying to keep the world alive, and surviving, in a seemingly endless repeating cycle. I really like the allusion to Sisyphus too, because it too is very warranted but it's not just a direct adaptation with superhero veneer.

As for Sisyphus as an absurd hero...it's been a while since I've read Camus, but the fact that Five, right after comparing his obligations to his family to a ball he keeps watching roll down a hill, asks, "and what's the point?" does suggest that the writers did mean the more meaningless side of the Sisyphus myth, likely tinged by Camus and his eternal obsession with the absurd. As far as I remember, his take on the myth is that realising and acknowledging the meaninglessness trumps the absurd and allows to reach a state of accepting serenity. I think whether Five, specifically in s3, falls into the role of an absurd hero really depends on interpretation. He doesn't in s1 and s2, because his meaningless, ever-continuing task (working to save the world from an impending apocalypse) is pursued with no acknowledgement of the underlying absurdity of trying to save the entire world that keeps changing and slipping away. In s3, there's a shift. Five gives up. Kind of. Sort of. Not really. I don't know. To be an absurd hero, he would have to acknowledge the situation and still continue his task, content with what he is doing because he is aware of its meaninglessness. A key quote from Camus that I am absolutely nicking from Wikipedia because I am not re-reading that and do in-depth literary anaylsis for a throw-away line from a silly Netflix show, is that "there is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn". Five talks about fate in s3. He says that fate doesn't care for whether he is ready to face whatever it has in store for him, and then again, he tells Reginald that it's time they accept their fate and let the world end. And Five gives up. He stops pursuing the task...for a time. Because he was ready to let the world go and see what, if anything, is on the other side. Until the finale, where he is back in survival mode. He's the one to find the sigil, his decision is what ends the last guardian and culminates in Reginald (and Allison) resetting the world. So, does the act of giving up keep him from being an absurd hero? Or was that uptick, working towards saving it despite everything he knew, despite knowing it can't work out well, the action of an absurd hero? I don't know. Not quite, I think, because I don't think Five has ever reached that moment of contentment at the realisation of the meaninglessness of everything he's chased for his entire life. But it is fun to think about. I'm a bigger fan of using the original myth rather than Camus' interpretation of it, because that one was very much written with the meaninglessness of labour under capitalism in mind, which is not quite something that the Umbrella Academy is dealing with, Five even less, and I like the detail about cheating death being the thing that condemns Sisyphus to his endless, meaningless, repetitive task, and Camus doesn't delve into how Sisyphus came to be stuck on that hill.

[qqueenofhades]

did you watch lucifer season six and what are your thoughts pls and ty

Ahaha. Yes. Yes I did watch it. Then I cried for a literal hour and attempted to compose myself, only to start crying again when I lay down and kept on thinking about it. Then I had more feelings. Then I slept like the dead due to emotional trauma. Then I reblogged gifsets and had More feelings. Then @buffaluff and @flynnanimal watched it and also required emotional support due to drowning in their own tears. So, uh... we're all fine here now. How are you?

My main takeaway from the final season was the sheer amount of love for the characters, story, and fans that you could feel shining through all the episodes, and which made SUCH a refreshing change. I had feelings in my tags the other day about how a show about the devil was constantly goofy, hopeful, loving, and uplifting, rather than all the grimdark nonsense they could have easily done with it. (As I said, just imagine it as written by the GOT idiots?? NO THANK YOU.) The writing really loved everyone and wanted to give them a proper ending and emotional journey, and it wanted to show the fans that they weren't stupid for having invested six seasons of effort and emotion into this, and just... that is so much rarer than it should be? Compare all the movies and TV shows that treat their fans like the enemy, that want to outsmart them at all costs even if it means changing major plot elements, that ferociously guard spoilers and think that "shock value" means good writing, by throwing hackneyed cliche upon cliche and making everything Depressing, and just... Lucifer had its hiccups and slow points and missteps, of course, but I am SO glad they didn't do that. The entire show consisted of Lucifer slowly but steadily progressing toward being a better man, despite mistakes and setbacks and sometimes a little too much will-they-won't-they. (Season 3 was the only one where I got bored and skipped over the filler episodes with Pierce/Lucifer/Chloe in order to get to the end).

That is an essentially simple premise, but they stuck to it, and they didn't try to create more drama by randomly wrecking what they had already established. I wrote a fic all the way back in mid-season 2 (In Nomine Patris) that ended up predicting quite a few of the future characters who had not yet appeared on the show at that time, including Eve, Michael, and Azrael, and several plot points, including the very major one of Lucifer returning to hell for the sake of his daughter with Chloe. And while this might mean that I am just that good at guessing TV shows (I would like to think this....) it also means that the writers set expectations, followed through on those expectations, and didn't suddenly derail everything or turn it totally on its head just for the sake of cheap shocks. As we can all attest, they certainly caused PLENTY of drama, anguish, pain, and suffering, but they did it in a way that remained faithful to the overall premises of the story and the characters, and wanted to see them become the best versions of themselves. I cried my eyes out at the end and then thought, "hey, I might want to watch the whole series again," which, if you ask me, is the mark of doing your job right. There have been so few TV endings recently where I didn't immediately swear off the whole thing or have to pretend that canon didn't exist, so yeah.

As I said, it was just refreshing to watch something that had that essential deep generosity at its core, where the message is that everyone is worthy of love if they make the hard and painful effort to change and become better, and that even if earthly things feel small next to all this messy celestial drama, they still matter, and that you are loved no matter what. I loved that Amenadiel became God and Lucifer returned to hell as a choice in order to help all the trapped souls be able to work through their guilt and go to heaven. There were obviously certain echoes of The Good Place in that ending; I don't know if it was something they had planned all along or if the success of TGP, another series asking deep questions about life, death, morality, and human nature within the framework of a goofy heaven-and-hell sitcom, influenced it, but either way, it worked so well. Even if it tore my heart out and stomped on it on the ground, it was fitting and oh so lovely to see Lucifer, once the most selfish being in the entire universe, following in Linda's footsteps and becoming selflessly dedicated to helping other people. Just. Chef's kiss.

And of course, Deckerstar. The Hades and Persephone vibes were IMMACULATE this season, and while it did take Lucifer and Chloe the best part of four seasons to get together, they never significantly backslid, never had third-party issues or cheap cheating storylines once they were officially a couple, and Tom Ellis and Lauren German REALLY killed it this season in particular. It was never easy for them and sometimes the drama went on a little too long over the course of said six seasons, but the love story was beautiful and incredibly meaningful and always true to the fact that the actors and characters and writers (not to mention the fans) all loved it so much. They were so much the emotional heart of this, and when they went to hell together in episode 6x03 (where they turned into cartoons because wHAT even IS this show), Joe Henderson said in an interview that this was to give the fans a view into Lucifer and Chloe's future (after) lives post-6x10, and to offer them a basis to write fanfiction. I mean... the showrunner saying to the fans "here, we love you, have something to write fic about!" is likewise pretty shockingly rare. It's again an example of how this show always audaciously poked fun at itself, never took itself TOO seriously, and was always welcoming its fans and the people who loved it to do so, rather than making them feel stupid or taking joy in wrecking beloved characters or plots.

Obviously, I loved Rory, the badass lesbian half-angel goth Deckerstar child straight out of My Immortal (seriously, she was SO edgy, it was amazing), because of the fact that Lucifer's entire arc was always about feeling abandoned by his father and that he was going to have to face it for himself. Dorky Devil Dad Lucifer trying his absolute HARDEST to bond with his daughter was simultaneously hilarious, adorable, and heart-wrenching, and yet again, the Growth. We all remember when he could barely tolerate Trixie touching him, and now we're here. Also, any variation whatsoever of "this is just a brief moment of time that we must be apart, love is eternal and stronger than death and we will never really leave each other" as a line is guaranteed to make me bawl my eyes out. So that was fun.

I got a big kick out of Ghost Dan running around and trying to get everyone to see him, and had feelings about seeing him in heaven with Charlotte and his beloved Pudding Pops at the end. I had feelings about how they handled Ella finding out the truth (or rather demanding to know why nobody had told her) and of course, I obviously loved Maze and Eve and their goth/femme wedding and the fact that they got a good three-season romantic arc (indeed, I wanted more of them). My god, Trixie is SO BIG, she used to be a tiny little nugget. I love that Linda was the moral and emotional rock all along, from the first episode to the very last, and that Amenadiel was Deeply Vindicated when Charlie's wings appeared at his first birthday party. I love how Lucifer in s6 is absolute thousands of light years from Lucifer in s1. And as ever, Chloe was Perfect. I am happy that I spent six seasons with these characters and saw them become better, and that I was never made to feel like an idiot for trusting the writers to end everything in a beautiful and emotional way. Because, well. They did. Sure, maybe I could go back and pick at a plotline here or a detail there, but I don't terribly feel the need to do so? It might not have been perfect, but it was perfect, and I am so grateful that it existed.

[morgana-pendragon]

☕ + (your favorite TS album)

I REALLY DON'T AKJSDNFUEWIGHWEROI so i'll just do my faves from my fave albums i guess 😭

welcome to new york — i moved to new york last year and the "and you can want who you want, boys and boys and girls and girls" fucks me up on any given day <3

how you get the girl — it makes me feel goooooooooooood i just have to dance when i hear it this love — genuinely have a playlist named after this fucking song and made one of my first gifsets to it it makes me AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA i know places — it's too much it's too much it's TOO MUCH FOR MY STUPID LITTLE HEART THAT ROMANTICISES RUNNING AWAY WITH A LOVER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA wonderland — see previous. and also the fucking supercorp vibes i can't i can't talk about it you are in love — AND YOU UNDERSTAND NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY THEY LOST THEIR MINDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND FOUGHT THE WARS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S THE BEST FRIENDS TO LOVERS OF IT ALL I MELT EVERY TIME new romantics — i think this was genuinely my first ever like. favourite taylor swift song. i heard it on the radio one night and i was like 'yo what the fuck is this song it feels like crack'

i did something bad — IF ! A ! MAN ! TALKS ! SHIT ! THEN ! I ! OWE ! HIM ! NOTHING ! don't even fucking get me started on the "and i'd do it over and over and over again if i could." i was watching a rep reaction once and the reactor incorrectly said she meant "if i had to do it again i would" NO. she said "if i could" meaning if she could make the conscious choice to do it again SHE WOULD. OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. 

don't blame me — I FLY INTO THE FUCKING SUN WHEN THE LAYERED VOCALS COME IN I HAVE TO LAY DOWN AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA my romantic ass heart can't handle "for you, i would fall from grace just to touch your face" beCAUSE YES. RISK IT ALL RISK IT ALL RISK IT ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL . "my name is whatever you decide" BECAUSE WHAT IS NOMENCLATURE IF NOT THE FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT EXPRESSION OF LOVE AAAAAAAAAAAAA 

delicate — once again the supercorp vibes ok im done no im not i say that about just about every taylor song in existence "is it too soon to do this yet" CAUSE IT'S DELICATE AND YOU DON'T WANT TO COME ON TOO STRONG BUT WHAT WHAT WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE FEELINGS WHERE DO THEY GO HOW DO YOU HANDLE THEM AUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH 

so it goes... — "and all the pieces fall right into place" FUCK FUCK. the fucking poeticism of being fated to fall into place with the right person. FUCK

king of my heart — if someone ever said "is this the end of all the endings? my broken bones are mending" about me i would simply cease to exist i have no idea how mr swift is still standing 

dancing with our hands tied: the acoustic rep tour version > "i love you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us" FUCKING HELL LOVE IN THE FACE OF IN SPITE OF ADVERSITY WHAT THE UCKFINGIUGURFSOEWH "i'd kiss you as the lights went out swaying as the room burned down i'd hold you as the water rushes in if i could dance with you again" the fucking deCKERSTAR OF IT ALLLLLLL i can't i can't talk about it i can't 

dress: the SUPERCORP OF IT ALL. "made your mark on me. a golden tattoo" is the only line im gonna address cause if i don't stop myself i'll be here all night. MADE A MARK?????????????? A FUCKING GOLDEN TATTOO. to have the object of your affection be literally imprinted into your skin i fucking. what. unforgettable irreplaceable etc etc im losingmy mind

call it what you want: who the FUCK writes "i want to wear his initial on a chain round my neck not because he owns me but cause he really knows me" what the fuckwhatthe fuck god having someone actually KNOW you so well that you want to carry a piece of them with you at all times and not only that but to have that piece of them be the very first part of what makes them them i fucking cant 

cruel summer — supercorpsupercorpsupercorp “I LOVE YOU AINT THAT THE WORST THING YOU EVER HEARD” SREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH because it’s about i love you whether or not you love me i can’t help it but i fucking do and i’m acknowledging that even if it kills me FUCK. 

lover — “can i go where you go? can we always be this close?” i am laying down on the floor crying and i have been laying down on the floor crying since the first time i heard this song 

the archer — can a song be a person cause if so this one is lena luthor “who could ever leave me darling but who could stay” FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU WHY WOULD YOU SAY THIS IT’S ABOUT THE “I WANT LOVE BUT I KNOW I DON’T DESERVE IT” fuck. 

i think he knows — lyrical smile indigo eyes hand on my thigh we can follow the sparks i’ll drive this song is such a feel good song i just gots to. bop whenever i hear it

miss americana & the heartbreak prince — ugh ugh ugh ugh it’s about the loneliness and the love you find in it “it’s you and me that’s my whole world” like ugh how can you NOT imagine a lonely girl in high school finally finding the one person who understands her and feels safe with but being ripped apart for months on end ugh ugh ugh it’s too much 

paper rings — if you don’t stand up and dance every time paper rings comes on you’re listening to it wrong idc idc. “I LIKE SHINY THINGS BUT I’D MARRY YOU WITH PAPER RINGS” cause you mean so so so much more than all that other superficial shit that if we only had paper rings i’d still still still fucking marry you 

cornelia street — don’t even fucking. god the tiva “that’s the kind of heartbreak time could never mend” im fucking??????????????/ sorry????????????? FUCKIGN?????????????????????? UGHUGHGUHUGGUHGUGH icanttalkaboutit. 

death by a thousand cuts — myheartmyhipsmybodymylovetrynafindapartofmethatyoudidnttouch i can’t talk about it this is supercorp in s5 it’s far too much it’s too fucking much 

london boy —pubwe.  false god — “remember how i said i’d die for you?” what the HELL. “i know heaven’s a thing i go there when you touch me” shutTEHFUCK UP. FUCK

afterglow — it’s lena it’s lena it’s lena it’s lena idk what else to say it’s LENA IN 5.19 IT’S JUST. AAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH. 

it’s nice to have a friend — once again. best friends to lovers. i can’t i cannot *insert tyler oakley meme* 

daylight — I ONCE BELIEVED LOVE WAS BURNING RED BUT IT’S GOLDEN LIKE DAYLIGHT I AM FLYING INT O THEFUCKING SUN AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA . you are what you love. YOU ARE WHAT YOU FUCKING LOVE. 

the 1 — it’s about the missed connection it’s about reconnecting with yourself but most of all it’s about fucking chosen family  cardigan — “and i knew you’d come back to me” the repetition the repetition the fucking repetition because it shows the certainty the fucking surety the security in knowing and having known and loved a person so well that you were that sure they’d come back to you  exile — the fucking TRAGEDY OF IT ALL. “you were my town now i’m in exile seeing you out” and the conversation of “you never gave a warning sign” “i gave SO MANY SIGNS” like fuck. god my tears ricochet — it’s the fact that taylor herself said the words “the superhero and the best friend” about this fucking song . i will not elaborate lest i perish  mirrorball — “i’m still a believer but i don’t know why i’ve never been a natural all i do is try try try” taylor said ‘here’s a song for all my burnt out bitches’  seven — only thing i love more than best friends to lovers is CHILDHOOD. best friends to lovers. god there’s just something about having known someone your whole life knowing them inside and out knowing them knowing them knowing them and loving them anyway, in spite of it all, because of it  this is me trying — taylor said “mirrorball wasn’t explicit enough so here’s ‘ i was so ahead of the curve the curve became a sphere fell behind all my classmates and i ended up here’ enjoy xoxo”  invisible string — god the soulmatism the string of fate the fated to be together i eat all that shit up i cant i cant  mad woman — and there’s nothing like a mad woman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what a shame she went mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no one likes a mad woman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you made her like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hello morgana !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fucking hell .  betty — gay.  peace — ‘i love you i love you i love you im so so so so so sorry about what i am and what comes with me but am i. am i enough. am i enough that you’d still be with me despite all the bad shit.’ fuck. “all these people think love’s for show but i would die for you in secret” shut the fuck up . stuhitehgioergasiufheFUCK  hoax — hi natasha DONT WANT NO OTHER SHADE OF BLUE . BUT. YOU.  the lakes — my runaway ass heart takes the reins once again. i CANT 

willow — “wait for the signal and i’ll meet you after dark show me the places where the others gave you scars” what the FUCK. god champagne problems — SHE WOULDVE MADE SUCH A LOVELY BRIDE WHAT A SHAME SHE’S FUCKED IN THE HEAD AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA gold rush — the problems of having a lover so fucking attractive that everyone wants them and you can’t blame them cause like. that’s how fucking amazing they are. god ivy — “i wish to know the fatal flaw that makes you long to be magnificently cursed” what the FUCK. the arranged marriage of it all the fucking forbidden love the fear of being found out the desire to be found out in spite of the repercussions the need to be near one another no matter the cost i fucking. just . and also “and the old widow goes to the stone everyday but i don’t i just sit here and wait” scratches such an itch in my brain cowboy like me — NOW ! I ! KNOW ! I’M ! NEVER ! GONNA ! LOVE ! AGAIN ! look at this gifset annalise made and tell me you’re the same afterward. you can’t  long story short — PAST ME I WANNA TELL YOU NOT TO GET LOST IN THESE PETTY THINGS. YOUR NEMESES WILL DEFEAT THEMSELVES BEFORE YOU GET A CHANCE TO SWING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA  evermore — and this pain wouldn’t be. for evermore. AAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

state of grace — and i never saw you coming . and i’ll never be the same. fucking let that sink in . fuck  treacherous — “PUT YOUR LIPS CLOSE TO MINE. AS LONG AS THEY DON’T TOUCH” “AND I’LL DO ANYTHING YOU SAY IF YOU SAY IT WITH YOUR HANDS” IM FUCKING ?????????????/ SORRY?????????????????  stay stay stay — god just the cutest little song ever about staying . god how could you not love it  the last time — the repetition in “this is the last time” showing how much you don’t want it to be the last time i am not. ok holy ground — god the intimacy and reverence in dancing with someone and not wanting to dance if not with them........ fuck sad beautiful tragic — routinely listen to this song and just cry cause it just. fuck everything has changed — god the change the right person brings about in you ... fuck. FUCK.  starlight — so fun. so fun. don’t you see the starlight?? don’t you dream impossible things??????????????????  begin again — the fucking. ‘you love me better than anyone has before’ of it all. fuck the moment i knew — sobbing. SOBBING. the way she gradually gets louder and louder and just screams and screams and then gets quiet and says “and i said i’m sorry too”. fuck. i can’t talk about it come back... be here — god the missing the missing the missing the YEARNINGGGGGGGGGGG UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH  girl at home — a bop. a bop i’m not sorry about it nothing new — LORD WHAT WILL BECOME OF ME. ONCE I’VE LOST MY NOVELTY. FUCK . can’t talk about it it’s too much  message in a bottle — another bop and this time it’s just. i love you so much look what you’ve done to me look  forever winter — i love you so much i’d do anything to help you but you won’t help yourself and it makes me scream and cry  run — we’ve already covered my runaway ass heart twice. this song just. and the fucking locket. god  the very first night — “YOU DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH I MISS YOU” cause some things just can’t be put into words it’s impossible to convey how much you fucking miss someone it’s too much  all too well (ten minute version) — *deep sigh* i hold the tenminutealltoowell url. so do with that what you will . i can’t talk about it

[lilacerull0]

"They see each other with absolutely no filter." Ooh YES! You said you're "going to stop now," but don't stop! Tell me more! Tell me EVERYTHING. *settles in with a comfy blanket and a cup of tea* (This is about that gifset of Rory and Jess feeling nervous, by the way. Haha)

AAAAAAAAH, YOU ARE MAKING ME SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!!!!!! Okay, here I go. First of all I really really love that gifset and both of those scenes because (this may sound a bit contradictory) them acknowledging the fact that they're both nervous takes away from the awkwardness of the situation? People usually work too hard on making the circumstances less uncomfortable which almost always leads to everything being even more uncomfortable for everybody involved. Jess and Rory are like: okay, I'm nervous, you're nervous and that's completely alright. None of them denies it. Rory could have denied it out of politeness, especially in 6x08. They haven't seen each other for quite some time, they could have easily fallen out of their pattern. It would have been natural for Rory to say something like: nooooo, this is not awkward at all and Jess could have easily taken the conversation to another place but he doesn't. Instead he confirms it by saying: "I'm a little nervous too". Neither of them had to do that which leads me to the whole "they see each other with absolutely no filter" theory and that is my favourite thing about them. And both of them are the kind of people who would rather keep their emotions to themselves and deal with them in quiet, admitting or mentioning the sentiment such as nervousness that easily wouldn't be something that comes naturally. But despite all of that, both the scene in 3x08 and the one in 6x08 feel insanely real to me. Something else I think is important is how Rory instinctively feels comfortable with Jess in the sense that she doesn't need to be this perfect version of herself around him. Even in Lorelai's eyes she's the perfect kid. In the earlier seasons, Rory would worry about school or grades and Lorelai would be like: "you're the smartest kid alive, you can do no wrong". Even when Rory points out how Jess wasn't the only one responsible for the car accident in season two, Lorelai doesn't seem to comprehend it. I think she assigns it to Rory having a crush on Jess, but for Rory that conversation wasn't that much about Jess as much as it was about the way that she's perceived. I don't blame Lorelai or Richard or Emily for treating Rory like that but coming from someone who finds that particular part of Rory's life and personality extremely relatable: it can get unbearable because you want your flaws, struggles and failures to be acknowledged. And Jess does that for her. He never puts the accent on the improbability of her not succeeding at something. He only ever helps her overcome the already existing problem (when he implies how she graduated early he already knows how that's not the case, but he gives her the chance to say it herself and that, in my opinion, is very important and tells a lot about the mutual understanding they have going on), the problem being her own self sometimes too, because he knows who she is. Yes, he's aware that's she capable of great things, nobody ever doubted that. But Jess also knows what it takes for a person to get there and he knows how crucial having somebody who really understands or is willing to understand you, with no set expectations or prejudice (even if it's of the positive kind), actually is. And the best thing about this: it's mutual. They both inspire each other to do and be better and all of that because they are not only aware of the other's flaws, but also willing to point them out to one another in order to grow and learn. I just love them so so so much.

[andsmile]

okay here are my two cents, not everyone’s cup of tea but here we go

the article is real. yes, it’s not well written. yes, everything sounds like a fever dream. but this show has been a clusterfuck for years and now they managed to touch the one good thing they had going on (their solid core four ships) that are about to become a clusterfuck too.

however, the reviewer who wrote that seems to be VERY b*rchie biased and literally gushed over the ship happening all over the recap, not stopping to actually talk about what it means for bughead and varchie, or veronica and jughead. they ignored the glances that we know from the stills the core four shares (bughead and varchie), and only said “veronica looks at archie” / “jughead looks at betty” and enhanced b*rchie glances again. whoever wrote it likes the idea of b*rchie so we can’t trust it completely.

cheating SUCKS. sucks, sucks, sucks. however, it’s not the first time it’s used as a plot device to shake things up in a teen show. it won’t be the last. riverdale thrived on the stability of their core ships but they probably wanted to shake things up while simultaneously catering to another part of the fandom, so there you go.

i understand if you’re a thrown off by cheating but (and that might be controversial) i don’t think this invalidates bughead’s or varchie’s journey. the writers have failed to show us why b*rchie would be “confused” to a point that they’d cheat on their significant others (and that’s where the story diverts from other triangles/quadrangles from other better written shows) but this is just another storyline they’re pulling out of their asses too quickly. either way, it doesn’t change what happened so far for varchie and bughead. it’s “the darkest storyline” that you can and should ignore.

this is not real life so if you feel like “forgiving” archie or betty for doing this, it’s okay, it doesn’t mean that you’d be a cheater on real life or that you’d condone this attitude. also, when in doubt, go with the characters reaction: if jug and veronica do forgive them, and you still like the ship, why wouldn’t you?

it’s also okay if you want to jump ships or to leave the fandom. do what’s best for you!

what matters more to me right now is: how will they follow this up? what will happen afterwards? are b*rchie going to honest? are they engaging on an affair (sounds crack but)? are they honestly just going to choose jug and veronica and that’s it? does it mean anything for real, or is it just a thing that happens in the musical, a “showmance”?

we can only expect bad writing, so i don’t think we can expect archie or betty to tell their secret to jughead and veronica. with the tapes thing going on, i feel like they will go back to their relationships and ignore this ever happened, when someone leaks a tape that blows up the core four. and we initiate season 5 with the core four all split up. with a time jump, many things can be forgiven and it’s a set up for angst.

it’s a weird thing that this episode is using ALL of the b*rchie cards and trumphs wrapped into one. flashbacks for kiddie stuff? pilot reminiscing with a song about mistakes and goodbyes? window scenes? “longing”? er... if i was a b*rchie shipper i’d be wary. it’s a huge b*rchie sandwich and it could literally be giving all possible content so they never visit that again. also, i, for one, am glad that these flashbacks are happening now and not in episode 18. maybe they want us to believe b*rchie have been waiting for each other but we just won’t believe it and the writers are on crack but they know their audience, don’t think they don’t.

let’s not blame the cast, reviewers, or even the characters that have existed for 78 years on this bullshit story line.

maybe i am too detached from canon, or maybe i have seen enough shit (that always, inevitably, hits the fan on the fourth season) with my other ships to feel really upset. thing is, i have always been on the loser side of the cw shows before, but that was always the smallest fanbase (with brucas, stelena, dair, etc) and i’ve always watched the big fanbase win over the small fanbase regardless of the writing or continuity. this time we, the bughead and varchies, are the big fanbase. we can boycott, be heard, let them know we hate it, that we won’t watch, and they will listen. the cw has fired producers for that before, and riverdale is the cw’s cash cow. let them know that you hate and don’t watch, especially if you live in the USA.

i know it’s hard to even think about your ship in a good way right now but remember that the archie comics characters have been around for decades and that this isn’t their only universe. which means, you can still love your ship and ship them in the comics or, especially if you want the riverdale timeline, content fans create for you. it’s really the time to support your fanfic writers, fanartists, gif makers, video makers, etc. this is the time we come together as a big community and support each other until this is over.

the fanfics you read, keep reading them. they don’t have any relation to the source material. the arts and gifsets you reblog, keep reblogging them. keep stanning your version of your ship, this is what’s going to matter in a few years from now when the show is over and there’s nothing more to “feed” from.

be respectful to your fellow bughead and varchie shippers now. i guess this is crucial. we can win this war TOGETHER, but not apart. it doesn’t matter that you think archie is the fuckboy that should die - don’t say it to a varchie shipper. it doesn’t matter if it pisses you off that betty always gets excused - don’t say it to a bughead shipper. let’s be friends, let’s stick together, this is the writers fault, and archie and betty as characters also deserve better.

[agentmarymargaretskitz]

Upon thinking about it more, I do want to say that I was absolutely NOT disappointed with Buck Begins. It was really good! Oliver Stark and Jennifer Love Hewitt and the actors who played the younger versions of them were all amazing!

I also 100% read Buck as being bisexual in the episode. He was absolutely flirting with the guy at the bar! And a bi person is still bi even when they're with someone of a different gender, I would never claim otherwise! I'm bisexual myself, I get it. I was just hoping for it to be explicitly stated in canon is all. Or even if they didn't use the word (like most network shows don't), they they would show him having a fling with a guy or something! I just want Buck to be canonically bisexual so bad, and it felt like a huge missed opportunity.

I just... felt more emotionally from the prior episode. The "Love me anyway" line from 4x04 absolutely broke me. I wish I had felt more from Buck's emotional state in the factory fire. Like I said, I think the lack of reaction from the other characters when the explosion happened. I felt robbed of Bobby and Chimney and Eddie's reactions. If you look closely you can see the fear in their eyes, but... I was hoping for a little more.

(I was also not expecting any sort of a big reaction from Eddie like lots of fans were, because that's just not who he is. There was just almost nothing shown, which was disappointing.)

Thr firefam having his back was peak poetic cinema and I will forever be grateful for that moment.

And I *know* things were different because of Covid. I just... even trying to de-hype it in my mind going in, I ended up feeling a bit disappointed.

Maybe it's just because Chimney Begins was so amazing and I can't help but compare the Begins episodes? Even though I'm trying not to... god I wish I could love it the way so many other fans did!

Also, Nurse Omar is my new favorite side character. I loved how invested he got with Buck's life! And he seemed like the only person who Maddie could actually call a friend at the time. And how he desperately tried to get her to leave Doug, but he couldn't force her to, so he just supported her however he could. He was great and I was glad we got to see him.

I guess I'm just sick of the reminders of Doug. He existed, of course he would be mentioned in the flashbacks, but I didn't want to keep seeing the reminders of what he did to Maddie. Hopefully he can stay in the past now.

So over all, I did like the episode. It just felt a little lackluster compared to some of the others, but none of that is on the actors. They were all incredible. It's more on the writers and the editors.

Maybe it will be more impactful upon rewatch once the season is over. Maybe they'll come back to some of these plot threads and keep addressing Buck's emotional state.

I'm still holding out for a Buddie "we need to talk" cliffhanger at some point. Is there a patron saint or god for bisexuals? Because we need a serious prayer circle 🤡🤡🤡

-Quarantine Anon

Those two knocked it out of the park. I watched the episode over my lunch break and was screaming into my hands for so much of the time.

I did not mean to go off in an angry bisexual rant (the LoT fandom has left some marks on me) and I’m sorry about that. Maybe there was some stuff that gave more hints that got left on the cutting room floor? (Whoever is doing editing, we need to talk about those cut tiny scenes!) And it may be a network thing too. IDK.

“Love me anyway” was absolutely heartbreaking and it’s hard to top. Massively hard. There might have been some self projection going on with me watching the factory fire, I dunno. And if we weren’t in a pandemic, maybe we would have seen more reaction without the masks. Plus, yes- good point on Eddie.

That moment- showing what family is- that is gonna stick with the fandom for so long. I expect to see it in the next 118 firefam gifsets.

Chimney Begins was a goddamn masterpiece of hope and pain and I still remember how it tore me apart. Maybe Buck Begins will be better with age? Who knows?

Omar was awesome and I fell in love with him. I’m kinda sticking with an idea that he was so happy when Maddie didn’t come into work after she ran away because she’d finally ditched Doug.

Doug is a tough subject. He’s a part of history, but one people want to forget. It’s hard to watch that shit. 

Maybe we should fight the editors for the cuts?

YES A BUDDIE ‘WE NEED TO TALK’ MOMENT!!! Does Apollo or Dionysus count for the bisexual protection? Lady Gaga? IDK. But imagine that happening before hiatus and then something again that’s definitely A THING by the end of the season.