#don't get me wrong I love this show

[coockie8]

How hard the Sonic Underground opening goes really does not prepare you for the at best mid quality late-90's songs within the show lmao

[chebepowder]

😭 Incredible start to this very good article.

[butnobodycame627]

why didn't peridot stay disabled… it would've added to their whole message of being different being okay and diversity and…. sigh….

[anotherlikeyou]

Ah shit, here we go again

[muppetfreak]

Mr. Riordan, it is truly a pleasure getting to experience your second draft.

[saetiate]

"sorry to annoy the dash with another selfship thing" you should absolutely be posting more of your selfship things. the more you post, the more pointed the posts and asks and writings and moodboards can be made for you. the more you post about your selfship, the easier it is to interact with

[honeybadger-who-gives-a-shit]

Will someone please start a petition to re-write Voy and make an animated show with the same cast?

Star Trek shows tend to give an interestingly consistent narrative role to ensign characters (or characters who aren’t ensigns, but are otherwise notably the lowest ranked/youngest of the cast). The Ensign generally represents youth and innocence in both its positive and negative aspects – simultaneously representing the perfect model Starfleet officer and the dangers of overconfident inexperience. There will be stories where The Ensign’s youth and optimism are the emotional core of the crew that actively saves the day, and there will be stories where The Ensign’s inexperience result in disastrous consequences.

The characters that fit most into this category are Chekov in TOS, Wesley in TNG, Nog in later seasons of DS9, Harry in Voyager, Tilly in early seasons of Discovery, Adira in later seasons of Discovery, and Uhura in SNW. It’s a bit different in Lower Decks and Prodigy since almost all the major characters in those shows are equally low-ranked/inexperienced, but most of those characters do share plenty of similarities with the typical Ensign archetype.

An important thing to note, though, is that this archetype implies the beginning of a character arc – generally a coming-of-age style one where we see The Ensign gain experience and perspective, losing both the positives and the negatives of their youthful bright-eyed inexperience. Nog’s war trauma arc is one example of this. Wesley gets a more classic coming of age arc. Tilly, Adira, and Uhura all get arcs about learning to trust in their own abilities, finding their place in the world, etc. And generally speaking, if their shows aren’t cancelled prematurely, these characters do gain rank or get promoted to new positions. It’s sort of an obvious part of what this character arc entails. Every single one of the characters I just mentioned gains rank onscreen at least once. Even Chekov, who comes from TOS where nothing really changes episode to episode, gets to be shown over the course of the movies gaining rank and experience.

Which all makes Harry’s perpetual ensign status on Voyager even weirder. I’ve seen people defend the decision to never let Harry gain rank (or any other real promotion in responsibilities/duties) by referring to the Ensign archetype. Star Trek shows always have an Ensign, so supposedly Harry needed to keep being The Ensign forever. But this argument doesn’t make much sense when you consider what the typical Ensign arc entails for basically everyone except Harry. If Harry followed the typical Star Trek Ensign character arc, he would have gained rank and responsibilities over the course of the show. It would be very inaccurate to say that Harry has no character arc over the course of Voyager – we see him become more experienced and hardened by the events of the show. But despite all of this, he gets an episode like Nightingale in season 7. He is never allowed to grow beyond the original parameters of The Ensign archetype.

[coffeecatcraze]

The fact that Vaggie knew it was a HORRIBLE idea for her to go to Heaven because there were so many things that could go wrong and so many bad memories there, but her girlfriend needed her and she couldn't say no to her cute face; the fact that the headstrong, optimistic, determined, powerful Princess of Hell knew she couldn't handle taking this huge step alone and the only one person she could imagine being by her side in that critical moment was Vaggie.

The fact that even when she felt so hurt, heartbroken, and betrayed and tried for a second to deny it, Charlie never stopped loving Vaggie, still referred to her as her girlfriend, and had full faith that she was completely succeeding in her task (getting detailed sensitive information from a weapons-dealing Overlord) while Charlie herself was struggling and failing with her own.

The fact that even with Charlie so upset that she intentionally threw a painful commentbat her (a comment with a subtle double meaning, though Charlie herself was definitely NOT thinking clearly enough to realize that implication and only meant to make a jab at the secret-keeping), Vaggie still wanted so desperately to protect Charlie out of love that she regrew angelic wings despite having been in Hell for years.

The fact that one gesture from Charlie told Vaggie everything she wanted to say to her, and that mutual understanding was so complete that she didn't hesitate to run to her knowing she would be accepted because her girlfriend still loved her and forgave her.

The support, love, and intimate understanding these two share even when things are hard and painful is so beautiful. They've been together for years; they've been through so much; and it's wonderful to have that respected and portrayed canonically instead of dipping into that easy, fan-craved trope of dramatically heavy relationship angst. I'm glad they left that angst itch to be scratched by fanworks instead, because these ladies aren't that type.

They are powerful; they are determined; they balance and complete each other; and most importantly, they are so head-over-heels and experienced in their love for each other that it took one day for Charlie to deeply consider everything and fully reconcile with Vaggie, who never doubted her even for a second. Their relationship isn't just established; it's stable, and I love to see that for a wlw couple. <3

[licorishh]

no way she's alive ?? yea those mental health breaks because social media makes people suck are wild huh

[meagancandraw]

You ever think about how neither of them got to say goodbye?

[wandixx]

"There is only so much you can for the dead" part 2

continuation to this, I should probably make an original title at some point

trigger warnings: graphic describtion of Danny's death

Moments of blissed, deadly stillness felt unfairly short. It was less than blink of an eye, less than a drop of darkness after he asked Team for the last time to leave and before he woke up, in exactly same state that he was when portal spat him out. He could barely perceive his limbs, and what he could, was consumed by agonising pain.

Fuck, he hated Death Days. Absolutely horrible experience.

His nerves were on fire, electricity dancing and burning across them. His veins and lungs and nostrils and ears and stomach and eyes and mouth and every little crevice of his body was filled with ectoplasm, like liquid fire and evaporated ice, drowning him at every attempted breath. He was crushed by an unimaginable weight, at the same time as his body exploded. He was just coherent enough to feel his bones breaking, cells bursting, his very molecules being rearranged and destroyed and rebuilt but not coherent enough to tell if his scream was anything louder than a whimper.

He was in the middle of the crowd that screamed louder than he could handle, as if every person who ever got to Ghost Zone used this exact moment to let out all of their anguish, hands dragging and pulling and squeezing and brushing at every inch of his skin. He was alone like no one was ever before, in silence that was deafening. He could be stomped to death any second without anyone turning his head, and so separate from everything that he could be only existing being.

He couldn’t help but wait for Death, merciless and brutal, whose twisted children invaded his bed time stories since he could understood words, whose corrupted children he was taught to hate. She was hideous and horrifying, but against everything, she was familiar and he wanted, needed, to see one intimate face in the situation that was so wrong, wrong, wrong. He waited for her to rip his last breath away so everything would stop.

If he had a scrap of himself that could feel worse, it’d cry when he felt her getting away from him, slipping between the fingers that were both tense and limp, impossible to control but possible to feel, broken and twitching. She was getting away but pain wasn’t lessening, maybe even getting worse, to the point where it was only thing that filled his brain.

And then it all stopped. No pain, not even any left over typical to how injuries worked, just a moment of weird pressure against his palm (just like the button), that soon stopped too.

He was in his human form, but in the hazmat he wore just before the accident. Something was wrong about it all. Something in his body made it feel like not his. Something in his chest was too light and too quiet and some intrusive thought made him want to claw on his rib cage until he ripped it open and realized what was missing.

Breathing seemed to easy, enough that he got lightheaded. It got a lot harder when he realized.

He couldn’t feel his core.

Before he managed to come to terms with that, there was a gentle pressure on his hand again.

And the pain returned.

*-*-*

Danny didn't wake up abruptly, with a choked scream and phantom burns. He also didn't wake up slowly, not in the nice, relaxed way at least, when the line between dream and reality is blurred beyond recognition. He woke up in pain, feeling like he wasn't even sleeping before, just… somewhere else while his body was destroying itself again for what felt like decades.

It took some effort to connect with his body after he woke up. To be able to move even a finger. Even longer, to open his eyes. Actual ages to sit up without urge to scream.

After seeing the absolute wreckage of the room, he kinda wished it took him longer. It looked like a warzone. Electrical burns on the walls and ceiling, random puddles of bubbling ectoplasm eating away anything they touched like an acid, and what little stuff there was before, was almost all broken beyond recognition, either by whatever force was doing its thing during his death day show or ecto. When he looked at it a bit more, it seemed to go in spiral around him.

It was kinda sad that the cookies went to waste like that. He was curious who brought them in though.

Thank fucking Ancients that Team listened to him and nobody was there when the whole mess was going down. They would probably join him on the other side of the veil otherwise.

He saw it all only because of his ghost enhanced in dark vision (thank Ancients he stayed in the ghost form) because apparently his Death Day shorted out both main electrical circuit and the emergency one. Thankfully, according to his ears, it only reached this and rooms next to him, instead of the whole Mountain.

Fuck. He really hoped Robin gave him some sort of back-up back-up room because otherwise he was dead. Or well, dead-er.

He rolled out of the bed, barely catching himself from smacking on the floor like a sack of potatoes. Though some would argue he didn’t catch himself if only his face didn’t fall to the floor like the sack of potatoes.

Only then he caught sight of big, ecto-green circle that embed itself into the wall right over the bed. It had familiar vibes. Really familiar…

He had to tell the Team about it yesterday.

*-*-*

M'gann was sitting on the needles, just like everyone else. Sure, Phantom asked them to forget about him and essentially ignore whatever was happening to him, but there was no way they'd actually be able to do it. Case in point, first time alarms about shorting out of the electrical circuit in the room. They run there so fast that they had door open to see what was wrong before the absolute onslaught of electricity and ectoplasm and something else turned off the alarms thirty seconds later. Truth be told, they couldn’t do much, not without risking becoming second ghostly member of the Team, they’ve been there and ready. Conner tried to come in anyway, with his invulnerability and such, but they had to drag him out when despite extensive dodging he got hit five times by the time he got two steps into the room. Also, there wasn’t really anything he could do to help.

So they just spent last almost twenty hours alternating between different things to keep themselves occupied enough to not fall asleep and distract themselves from quilt but not enough to not be able to drop it at the moments notice if it was needed. First plan was to nap in shifts if it was necessary but it quickly became apparent that sleep was impossible with how worried everyone was and when M'gann proposed to just shut down their brains with her powers, everyone got really defensive. Well, no was no. So they just sat, at the moment in awkward silence because every topic that wasn't Phantom felt too inane and every topic that was Phantom felt too… just no. No name for why, just no.

M'gann was about to get up to make another batch of peanut butter and oatmeal snacks that took few minutes to make and could be dropped at any second, when Conner practically jumped in his seat, tilting his head to hear better. Robin perked up from whatever he was doing on his wrist computer at the same time.

"Phantom left the room!” they exclaimed at the same time, jumping out of their seats.

This head start didn’t matter by the time everyone ran or flew out to the corridor, racing against clock to the room where they left Phantom. It didn’t seems so before, but now M’gann just cursed their past selves for not waiting somewhere closer. There wasn’t really any place where they could stay instead, unless they set camp right outside his door, but it still. They should be there five minutes ago, like Wally, who obviously run off.

They heard Wally speaking before they’ve seen him.

“Hey, hey calm down. It’s fine, they’ll be there in a second, just chill. They’re right after me, whatever happened, we’ll help you in just a moment, you don’t have to run. You’re barely standing. Phantom, calm down”

M’gann barely made it around the corner and she thought she had seen Kaldur actually smacking into the wall. He brushed it off.

Phantom looked beyond rough. It seemed like Wally, who had ghost’s arm across his shoulders, was only thing holding him up. His feet were firmly on the ground, not in his usual way, when he looked just a breeze away from flying, but in this fully human way, which was unsettling. His face was gray instead of his usual almost tan, eyes wide and terrified.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he muttered, not looking at anyone in particular “I’m sorry, I’m sorry”

“Phantom, it’s fine. It’s fine, we know about the room, it’s fine,” Robin said, trying to placate him. It didn’t quite work. Ghost was on the verge of hyperventilating, which was a bit weird to see on someone for who breathing was voluntary.

“It’s not about room”

“I’m sure it’s fine anyway”

“It’s anything but. I’m sorry-”

“Shut up and tell us what happened if you’re so sure we will be pissed”

“Artemis!”

“Portal”

“What about it?”

“Portal is what killed me.”

M’gann didn’t like how the whole situation looked before, but it suddenly became much worse.

“My Death Day made another one”

[demonicseries]

i'm not disappointed in them not becoming canon as i am with how the writers tackle conflict. They create these high stakes throughout the season or in finale cliffhangers, but never know how solve it or have the characters be affected by it. Instead of Guillermo learning to deal with his past mistakes, they make up a way to quickly turn him back by killing Derek. And since death is also a permanent thing, they make sure to get out of having Derek stay dead. Even the guide tried to have them suffer consequences for their actions, but they got out of it with a quick dumb joke. (Now if this is a meta commentary on the show, i'd be cool with it, but after the s4 premiere ignoring the s3 finale, i don't know). What was well executed was the process of Nandor deciding not to kill Guillermo, but then we're back to normal, no change coming from this.

And I could brush it off with sitcom story telling, but the writers set up these stakes and just aren't using them. But even ignoring that, the other thing tying us to watch each new season is the emotional growth that the characters can have, especially with each other. It's set up in each season finale.

In this one, we see them go back to the status quo. I'm not leaving this episode asking any questions about where there dynamics are going, or how any situations may affect or change them. Guillermo stays human. The vampires exist as they always have. It's all so boring. Sure, you can throw them into more situations, but you'll still be left with static characters and static plots, that never live up to the potential we see in the show. Why make new seasons if you aren't going to do anything new?

i ship nandor and guillermo as much as the next person, but being disappointed at a season because they didn't become canon is a bit crazy, especially when the whole show doesn't just revolve around these two characters, and also when this season has allowed to see how much actually all of them care for each other, and yes, they care about guillermo as well.

nandor putting aside his pride for guillermo, moving past the fact that someone turned him into a vampire, says a lot. giving guillermo what he wanted, which was to be human (hopefully just at the moment, because otherwise that's just sad but this is a subject for another post) and people saying that one can still consider nandor's and guillermo's relationship as "platonic"... in what world?

some people out there are only gonna be happy with a season once these two become canon, otherwise, the whole thing is shit and is "queerbating" the people.

[luna-loveboop]

I want. Four to get appreciation. Because

Four gave a ton of unnoticed help when Twilight was injured

The fight with Wild was difficult, and I know we're all concerned about his negative view of the shadow crystal

But Four did something that no one else really thought of to help- He took care of Twi's stuff

From the beginning he told Twilight to not worry about them

So Four took care of pretty much everything but the others (that Sky and Wars handled)

He took care of Epona

Which is so very important- he took care of Twilight's horse. After her arrival at the stable Four followed up on her

And for Epona, a horse so attached to her human, having some company can help so much for reassurance

He took care of Twilight's stuff

He got Twi's shield- his bags and equipment, and organized it into one place

And he was worried. He obviously found the shadow crystal while handling Twi's stuff, but his negative reactions to it were out of concern.

Also- because of his placement in this scene

I'm fairly convinced Four was ready to start cooking before Wild showed up (since he's beside the counter with food supplies). At the very least he had the basket of fruit out for everyone -but he was literally standing with food behind him- he thought of everything

And he did housekeeping!

Wars payed for the inn, so Four took care of the inn

Realistically these boys were probably not too concerned with tidyness. Four got all of Twi's things on one table, and took care of the room they stayed in

Organizing tables and Twi's things, having food supplies ready, and opening the curtains- overall he was the one tidying up the inn

Four helped in a huge way! He took care of Twi's horse (Epona is so important), his equipment and shield and bag, as well as the other rooms in the inn

Four filled in all the little tasks that others didn't think of. He helped in ways that were needed, but not obvious

There's a lot of problems with the shadow crystal and with Wild, and I don't know what's gonna happen in the future

But don't forget this- don't forget that Four was one who stepped up in an almost unnoticeable way

Don't forget that when everyone was barely holding it together, Four visited Twilight's horse and took care of his things

No matter what develops in the future- this amount of care shown is important ya know?

.

Art and comic from Jojo @linkeduniverse au :)))

[every-moment-a-different-sound]

Ok so the moment in Episode 3 after Charles meets Monty for the first time just won’t leave my brain. I’ve seen a bunch of posts about how Charles is jealous in this moment, and I 100% agree.

But I also think he’s being a bit self-destructive and feeling somewhat abandoned here as well.

He’s just spent the night trapped in a loop reliving his trauma. From Charles’s perspective, he’s just spent the night not being able to save a family from abuse. He wasn’t good enough to help them- at least that’s how I imagine it would feel to him.

They’re walking back from the Devlin house, not even inside the Tongue and Tail yet, and Edwin starts flirting with talking to Monty. When Monty talks about it being a perfect morning to do an astrology reading for him, Edwin glances at Charles, and Charles instantly starts talking to Crystal to give Edwin privacy for his chat with Monty. But Crystal says that the murder loop drained her so she’s going upstairs, and the moment everyone’s backs are turned Charles just looks so sad.

Charles watches Edwin and Monty talking for a moment, clearly seeing that Edwin’s enjoying himself, and pulls this face.

I think it’s jealousy, but I think it’s also that after the night he’s just had, he wants comfort. He wants his best mate. But Edwin’s too distracted by Monty and Crystal’s tired, and I don’t think Charles knows how to ask for comfort, or feels that he deserves it. Again, from his perspective he’s just spent hours failing to help people that are going through the same abuse he did; why would he deserve comfort?

So he just walks off. No parting words to Edwin. He just leaves.

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Thinking about "So Long, London" as one does and the "I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free" which is devastating enough on its own as a succinct shorthand of saying "I gave you some of my most formative years thinking we were committed to the same life plans together" (as in building a family life together) but with ~everything~ can also be a statement of her entrusting him with her youthful hopes and dreams and joy and earnestness only for it all to be cast aside and not returned (and at worst, weaponized).

[sluttyhenley]

THE WALKING DEAD "Alone" | "The Next World"