#episode: ice shack

[nikkiruncks]

Hairstylist!Laurie my beloved 🥰

[our-happygirl500-fan]

So I’ve been digging around the Turtlepedia wiki, going through old tweets from the team who worked on Rise & watched videos covering the scrapped Rise episodes so this is basically a post going through some of the scrapped season 2 stuff for Rise that I have found:

Rise was first written under the basis of there being three seasons

JJ Conway’s twitter posted an episode guide which showed some of the episodes that were expected to be in season two:

As you can see ‘The Clothes Don’t Make the Turtle’ was one of the last episode that was released that fit the original plan for Season 2 before most of the episodes got scrapped or changed & the Rise team had to rush to finish the series.

Some of the episodes we know the synopsis of while others still remain a mystery the scrapped episodes were listed in order as:

Wedding Smashers:

This episode involves Mikey & Raph going undercover as pretend villains ‘Shady Bug & Dr Rude’ to sneak into Ghost Bear’s Wedding after they accidentally gifted Ghost Bear one of Donnie inventions (a black hole generating toaster) as a wedding gift that they then need to retrieve.

The episode was supposed to introduce the character Ghostpepper, Ghostbear’s fiancé 

The episode also brings up some continuity in having the characters be aware that Meatsweats has been missing since the episode Pizza Puffs where he got kidnapped by ‘Shadow fiend’ at the end, I wish this episode hadn’t gotten scrapped because it shows that the Turtles are aware that their enemies are going missing when Big Mama starts kidnapping them for her Battle Nexus New York.

This episode most likely would have shown Ghostbear be kidnapped at the end like how Meatsweats was kidnapped at the end of Pizza Puffs & Hypno was kidnapped at the end of The Clothes Don’t Make the Turtle.   

Warren Stone 2: 

Donnie: Stand back total stranger we are fighting our greatest foe

April kept the arm that she cut off Warren in ‘Warren & Hypno Sitting in a Tree’ & the arm ended up growing into a second Warren Stone, despite April raising this second worm in secret Warren Stone Two ends up becoming the ‘turtles greatest foe’ after Warren Stone Two captures the Turtles, April & the original Warren Stone team up to save the Turtles & defeat Warren Stone 2

Parts of the episodes storyboards can be found on youtube, a running gag appears to be Mikey referring to Warren as ‘that other worm guy whose not Warren two’  

T-Hex

The episode T-Hex covers Mikey desperately wanting a robotic toy but Splinter saying no & Mikey having to sneak the electronic pet into the lair. Though the robot is adorable Mikey learns that it’s not as innocent as it seems & is actually a trap set by Baxter, the episode would have introduced Baxter in an Albearto mech

Psyched Out

Shred Dead Redemption

After the events of Manny Unhappy Returns the Foot Shack has shut down, Foot Lieutenant & Foot Brute open up a cupcake shop selling flaming cupcakes called  Fire and Icing which Raph wants to investigate 

The episode would have involved the Turtles doing a stakeout, a chase scene & the Foot clan putting themselves at odds with Big Mama as they investigate if her new champion ‘Shadow fiend’ has a connection to the missing Shredder.

The Island of Dr. Noe

Dr. Noe, the evil dentist from Todd Scouts ends up kidnapping Raph & Leo ends up having to lead the team in order to rescue Raph & stop the evil dentist.

Something interesting about this episode is when the Rise team were discussing this scrapped episode it was revealed that Leo wasn’t supposed to become the Leader at the end of Season 2, that’s right the iconic ‘Blue You Are The Leader Now’ wasn’t originally supposed to happen, instead Leo was supposed to be pushed into roles where he had to take charge throughout season 2 & the season would end with Raph & Leo as co-leaders.

Battle Nexus NYC (a full 20 minute episode) which was used in the series as Battle Nexus New York, the main difference between the original plan & the episode we got is that originally instead of Cassandra taking the Shredder from Big Mamma, the Grand Nexus Hotel was supposed to have fallen into the Hidden City with both Big Mamma & Shredder leaving The Foot to have to venture into the hidden city to try & retrieve the Shredder.

Toddler Mutant Ninja Turtles

A Mikey focused episode where a ‘bank robbing immortal jellyfish’ zaps Raph, Leo & Donnie, turning them into Turtle Tots & making Mikey the oldest brother for the episode. The episode is said to be inspired by the 1987 series episode ‘Adventures in Turtle Sitting’

Dog Dale Afternoon

April’s friend Dale who we first see in ‘Hypno! Part Deux’ gets turned into a werewolf by a witch & Donnie & April team up to try & turn him back to normal

Bee Story

Goyles Just Want To Have Fun

Huginn & Muninn reunite with Draxum, only to be confused when they find him working as a lunch server. Not wanting Huggin & Muninn to know how soft he’s gotten since his redemption Draxum begs the Turtles to help him look good in front of his former minions.

Rampagin’ Raph

Mikey & Leo have become more skilled in using their mystic powers making Raph feel left behind so Raph tries to practice in secret only to end up stuck in his giant form, Raph goes to to Draxum for help who ends up separating Raph & his mystic projection however the mystic projection ends up rampaging through the city becoming bigger & more powerful with the more things it destroys leaving Raph to have come clean to his brothers about what happened so they can save city. 

Hot Thrash  

Gourd Almighty 

Donnie grows a giant pumpkin for competition & has to have his brothers help him find a way to get the giant pumpkin out of the lair

Two pages of the episodes script were posted on Ron Corcillo’s twitter

A Spiders Web Widens 

Hidden City Heroes 

Gone Goat 

Draxum walks out after having a fight with the family but then gets kidnapped by the Foot. While attempting to rescue Draxum, the family has no choice but to resolve their issues relating to him.

The Key (a full 20 minute episode)

Karai was supposed to be introduced in this episode, she was supposed to have a larger role training the Turtles & with the family spanning around 10 episodes but due to the Rise team rushing to finish the series most of Karai’s episodes were scrapped.

The rest of the episode titles were not finalised however Ron Carney’s twitter posted a schedule board where possible episode titles can be seen.

Though Ron Carney also admitted that some of these titles are fake, the episode April Showers Mayhem Flowers might be real as the team admitted to wanting to do an episode about Mayhem & their status as an agent of the Council of Heads 

The Return of Monty Moose is also probably real as we can see Monty Moose appear in the Rise Movie’s scrapped intro so the team probably had plans for the character in season 2

Monty Moose is a toy line only character from the 1987 series so Rise introducing him as an actual character is kind of cool

[alex51324]

That Tweet, take 2

OK, so my first reaction to That Tweet, by Djenks, was as follows:

My money is on DJenks realizing that he shat the bed & now furiously trying to write himself out of the corner he's in. (My second guess is that he basically already knows there won't be a Season 3, but there's some network or business-related reason for not announcing it yet.)

But now that I've had a bit more time to think about it, I am kind of seeing a scenario where he could've intended it to be a fuckery all along.

Step one is that we imagine him being a bit disappointed by how Lucius's death fooled absolutely no-one. It's likely that he was planning for the reveal that he was alive to be a much bigger moment than it actually was; maybe he even has some Big Reveal ideas that he had to put on ice once it became clear that there was very little actual suspense surrounding Lucius's fate. This is, obviously, since I don't know him personally, a big hairy guess, but it seems like a very plausible reaction for someone to have, when they put a lot of effort into planning a surprise and it falls flat because everyone guessed it.

Step two is him deciding to sell Izzy's "death" a little harder, with the emotional death scene and the funeral (where we do not actually see the body, and a mourner, Wee John, is missing) and all. It's laying it on a little thick, in my opinion, but again, we did all confidently (and correctly) assume that Lucius was alive based on the evidence that "this show wouldn't do that" and "The Stede-Ed reunion won't work if he's really dead," so you can see how a showrunner could, hypothetically, get to--

Step three, is Djenks opening up his socials at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning, expecting to see reams of speculation and analysis about how Izzy could have survived, and being genuinely shocked to instead find seas of angry and devastated fans suggesting that he should perhaps give up television in favor of a career in going and fucking himself.

Step four, realizing that he drastically overshot the mark re: creating genuine suspense over character death, he tweets out a big obvious hint.

I don't love this interpretation--for one thing, there is nothing in the episode we saw that would provide a plausible in-universe reason for faking Izzy's death. It would be pretty easy to create one--have Prince Ricky No-Nose vow personal vengeance against Izzy Hands in specific for calling him a syphilitic cunt/his role in foiling the "end of piracy" scheme--but we did not see anything like that. To make the funeral scene work as a fuckery, it would be necessary to insert a flashback between the "death" and the funeral in which A) this happens, and B) the other characters find out about it. That's a cheap trick that I personally hate--the old, "Haha, I made you feel a thing by deliberately withholding context"--but again, if it's an overcorrection for the complete and abject failure of the effort to create suspense around Lucius's fate, I guess I can live with it.

If Izzy's death is a fuckery, that addresses a lot of the other problems with the finale. First, Ed and Stede's obviously-doomed, harebrained scheme to give up piracy and be innkeepers (in a dilapidated shack, on an island where we see no other people or settlements) is plausibly funny, as long as we aren't thinking that Izzy died for it.

Second, the tonal whiplash of going from the funeral to the wedding is also fine if everyone involved knows perfect well that the guest of honor at the funeral is actually recuperating just offscreen.

(Thirdly, there's Captain Frenchie--I haven't seen much discussion of that, but the only problem I had with it is that I can't think of any moments from the season where he stood out as being a leader for the crew. I might've missed something; he's not one of my particular blorbos, but it wouldn't have taken much, just something you can look back on and see how it was setting up him becoming captain.

And, crucially, we do have those few little moments of setup for Frenchie as First Mate to Captain Izzy. Frenchie was there during the dark days, during which he presumably underwent some skill development, pirate-wise, and definitely bonded with Izzy to some extent. We see him holding Izzy's hand during his breakdown, and he presumably helped hide him and definitely lied to Blackbeard about it, and then how they were sitting in the cell on Zheng's ship--it isn't a whole lot, but you can look back and see why it makes sense for Izzy to pick him.)

Making Izzy's death a fuckery doesn't do anything to fix the way the whole Zheng thing fell flat. (Why give her a massive fleet in the first place, only to take it away? Why did we get those scenes of ships being towed across land? What was she doing selling soup on the Republic of Pirates? For that matter, why did she come to the Caribbean in the first place, after becoming Pirate Queen of the Chinese seas?) It doesn't help with how Ed and Stede keep repeating the same beats of getting closer, then running away, then reuniting without ever talking about their relationship or their issues. It doesn't address why the Kraken Era had to go that dark, if the whole thing was just going to be smoothed over in the space between episodes 4 and 5, and how Ed never really takes responsibility for any of what he did.

However, middle installments of trilogies are notoriously difficult to write, and it isn't particularly fair to judge them before you get to the last part. Most of the weak points could look better in hindsight once we know how it all turns out.

(And, not for nothing, as long as Izzy is alive, we can still get something where Ed reckons with the Kraken Era, and particularly-but-not-exclusively what he did to Izzy. I don't see how that works with a dead Izzy, though--it's too easy for Ed to keep minimizing what he did and offloading blame onto him.)

There isn't a whole lot of evidence for an Izzy Lives scenario. All we have is:

This Show Wouldn't Do That (which, recall, was point 1 in why we didn't believe Lucius was dead. However, it is weakened by the absence of point 2--unlike with Lucius, the person who "killed" Izzy isn't a character we're expected to like or root for.)

No body at the funeral. I initially interpreted the funeral as being intended as proof that Izzy was really dead, a sort of "don't get your hopes up, guys," after what happened with Lucius. But again, if we're thinking about the framing of Izzy's "death" as an overcorrection to how completely non-fooled we all were by Lucius's, maaaaaybe not? I mean, if he really wanted to hammer the nail into the coffin, we would have seen Izzy lying in the grave, or his body being sewn into a shroud of sailcloth (as was the custom), or something. (Also, point 2b, the unicorn did have two legs.)

No Wee John at the funeral. There are certainly Doylist reasons he might've been left out--maybe the way the shooting schedule worked out, it saved money or some other resource to just leave him out of that scene, something like that. But for an in-universe reason, "somebody had to stay back and nurse Izzy" makes a lot of sense. (I mean, if this show operated on real-world logic, someone would have had to stay with the ship, but that's never been a concern before.) Wee John helping Izzy with his makeup for Calypso's birthday was presumably a bonding experience that involved some vulnerability on Izzy's part, so it would be weird for him to just nope out of the funeral, but plausible that Izzy would find him acceptable as a caregiver.

Stede and Ed's conversation over Izzy's grave could, just barely, make sense as a conversation about how Ed and Izzy are now on separate paths, with no particular guarantee that they'll see each other again. It takes a certain amount of massaging to make it fit, but it almost could? (Except Zheng's part really doesn't--unless the grave actually contains someone Ed cares about, or she isn't in on the secret that the funeral is a fuckery.)

I'm not in love with any of this, or even particularly convinced by it--my enthusiasm for any Season 3 is going to be pretty dampened, unless the announcement that it's been picked up includes the information that Con O'Neill has a contract to appear as a major character in all 8/10/whatever episodes--but IDK, I guess it's maybe not outside the realm of possibility? Ish?

[pumpkinfreak]

Watching Hannibal for the first time S2E7-E8

Episode 7

Will is free everybody, but given his mental state, maybe he should stay in prison. The boy is unwell, justifiably so. Miriam Lass, now equipped with a cool robot arm, also not doing well. However is still training with the FBI, after two years of psychological torment from Hannibal. We love a motivated queen.

Jack really shows up in this episode, before Will even leaves the asylum property. and is all like, "We're still friends right... Pookie bear come home the kids miss you." and Will still goes to the cabin where they found Miriam. Granted it is not for Jack, it's so he can catch Hannibal, and after sniffing around the Love Shack, Will diagnoses Hannibal as just being a whimsical little guy. He's just a theatrical little scamp. Where you see a living person Hannibal sees an art exhibit.

(Headcanon: Hannibal is a fan of Marina Abramovic.)

Anyway, Jack is now leaning toward Hannibal, maybe being the Ripper, especially after talking with Will. The Sassy Science boys even find a fingerprint that matches Hannibal's on a flower petal. Hey, you know who else fits the profile of the Ripper.

Now, they are correct, that being said. You find a fingerprint of the man, YOUR BEST GUY, has been pointing to for weeks, and just go "Know what? This other guy is also pretty whimsical." I won't completely fault them for this because Chiton on paper looks suspicious, especially considering his own unethical practice of implanting memories in people. Ignoring that...Chilton goes home and finds Gideon's body in his guest room.

Hannibal was clearly keeping Gideon alive, and sclicing pieces of him off like a leftover Christmas ham. I just feel the need to clarify that.

Chilton books it, but, Hannibal is already in the house. In his plastic murder suit. On top of this, there are two FBI agents outside, waiting for Chilton. Hannibal proceeds to knock out Chilton and super-murder the two agents. He then dips, leaving Chilton to hang with three dead bodies. Just like a goofy whimsical guy would.

Chilton is taken in for questioning, and Miriam freaks out, Is convinced this is the Ripper right in front of her and shoots him in the face.

...Oh also, Will tries to kill Hannibal, decides not to do that, but does want to continue seeing Hannibal for his therapy.

Because these two girls like to play 4D chess. Personally, I started eating the game pieces long ago and probably would have shot the bastard. But who am I to question art.

Side note. There's a moment between Alana and Will, and she's all mad that he tried to murder Hannibal from prison. Will's response is "Girl... ya boyfriend Eats people...please do not talk to me or my dogs ever again." He didn't say it out loud but I saw it in his eyes.

Ep 8

The fact that this GIF is not edited...and this was a real line from the show.

Now, I'm not a doctor or a veterinarian, but I don't think people go in horses. I am also fairly certain, that to put a person inside a horse would require breaking some bones. Then again, I eat chess pieces, so what do I know. We're gonna circle back to the horse incident first let's talk about Jack and Will

The episode opens with Jack and Will Ice fishing. Clearly, these too are talking about catching Hannibal. When I'm not busy shoving game pieces down my throat, I can catch on to obvious fishing metaphors. Isn't Jack's wife dying of cancer...could this conversation not happen over a phone call. Priorities Jack. Anyway, they take the fish to Hannibal, and he cooks them dinner. The way this man plates these fish is appalling an octopus is involved. Octopus and trout, how did it take these people so long to realize he's a lunatic.

They sit down to that horror show and have a little chit-chat about how their all friends, and Hannibal and Will are going to put the whole attempted murder behind them.

We also meet Margot Verger, of the Verger slaughterhouse, which is worth millions. She is justifiably traumatized because her brother Mason has been abusing her their whole lives. Abusing her in ways I won't describe here, but I trust you understand. Also, she is gay, and a woman, So her stupid dead sexist bigot father left everything to her brother because only straight people with penises can slaughter hogs.

Hannibal is her therapist, and she wants to murder her brother. Hannibal is very enthusiastic about that idea.

Also, her brother Mason, steals people's tears? and stirs them into his martinies? It is very silly and was certainly a choice the showrunners made.

Circling back to the horse thing. We meet Peter. A victim of a traumatic brain injury, who loves animals. Even though getting kicked by a horse was the reason for his injury. If anything bad happens to Peter I will rip this website asunder. DO NOT TOUCH HIM. So he did put a dead woman in a horse, to try and revive her. That is true. His social worker was murdering women and trying to blame Peter for it, but after Peter tells the police this. The social worker kills the horse that hurt Peter, just to be vindictive, before trying to murder Peter.

I WAS DEEPLY UPSET ABOUT THE HORSE DYING.

Anyway, Will and Hannibal show up, and as mentioned before, Peter has put his social worker in the horse. Will takes him aside to console him, and Peter confesses. He did not kill the guy before putting him in the horse...

This man... put another man. A LIVING GROWN ADULT MAN. Inside a horse. sewing him up inside. That man then bursts out of the horse, still alive, and where was Hannibal when all of this was happening.

Petting a sheep. In the barn. Just watching this man re-enact Alien. Even Hannibal seems to have a second of "Wow, this is happening" before telling the guy he would be better off in the horse. Will then storms back in and tries to kill the social worker but Hannibal stops him at the last second. Clearly impressed by Will's eagerness to kill.

...Seriously how big is a horse's womb...

On to the next episode

[the-mercurial-star-o-vesper]

A MILLION N ONE IDEAS: Gravity Falls

Gravity Falls is a great show, and like all great shows, its has its fall moments, its rushed moments, and you gotta admit, it kinda made Weirdmaggedon a bit too important.

Which is perfiectly okay, just about fantastically honestly, for a show that only had 2 seasons and one really burnt out team by the end. They did a fantastic job with what they had.

... But let's see if we can't help it out a bit though.

See, starting Gravity Falls with Season 1, the season 1 characters came out (roughly) alright. The ones who paid for it the most ended up being the most important lore guy ever of all time, Standford Pines, intro'd mid S2, and the Not-Love Interest, Wendy, who kinda got dropped to the wayside the moment the Not-Crush left the screen.

S1 set up the world build. People are complicated, people are funny, people are flawed and gullible as well as tricksy and weird, and everyone has a backstory that complicates them as they complicate themselves by their bonds with others.

That's the build.

But let's see if we can't fill in what's missing, yeah? Start some ideas going, really solidify our two missing character's places beyond the "I'm apart of relationship with this Character and that's what makes me Important" shindig.

Characters defined entirely because they are related to other characters in some way--either as family or love interest--are not characters who are capable of standing on their own if the spotlight hits them.

So let's get started. Some of this was prolly already discussed years ago, back when Gravity Falls was active and sending off episodes? But fuck it, I wanna make the list this time.

WENDY CORDUROY

Lumberjack scenes. Perhaps even demonstrating a handling of pine logs. There are techniques to demonstrate when chopping wood, handling axes and chain saws, and what bits of forest your allowed to chop at, and what bits might seriously hurt yourself with. Maybe add a slasher flick ref joke here and there ( Strange family with Axes in the yonder woods? My gods the 80s have returned again. ) And of course, name your-skyrim-ref about selling logs and making houses. Maybe Wendy counts as a carpenter and that's how the Mystery Shack has been roughly standing with furniture, so that Stan doesn't have to pay a whole construction crew if he doesn't have to.

The Family Business. We got to know Soos's family. We know the Pines. Why not top off with the Corduroys? What does Manly Dan think about the Mystery Shack. What if Wendy's brothers walked in and caused mischief. Sounds like an episode waiting to happen. ( Did Manly Dan have encounters with the Manotaurs? ) What if we had an entire episode where Dipper was trying the "traditional method" of courting by impressing Wendy's Dad, and just kinda sucked at it, because its just a crush. Maybe that's why Stan had Dipper chop wood that one time. What about a rivalry between the Corduroys and the Northwests thanks to that special bit of ghostly history. ... What about Wendy's Mom? Also I should tots point out that Manly Dan looks like Bluto, so does that mean he's got a rivalry with a one-eyed Sailor who likes veggies? Stan kinda looks like Popeye... He's got the strength for it.

Peter Pan. She's fucking named Wendy and that name only comes from ONE PLACE. I'D KNOW, I DID THE RESEARCH. Maybe she likes fairies and adventures, or something. Maybe even a "Lost Boys" reference thrown in. Maybe Wendy likes REAL FUCKING VAMPIRES. I know I like Real Fucking Vampires. Get really creative, and throw in Arhturian Myth, as the name Wendy is based off of Guinevere. Maybe Wendy could pull a sword from a stone. Or maybe she's the one who puts the sword in the stone. Now that makes a true king, right there. Maybe its not sword, maybe its an axe. THE ONE TRUE LUMBERJACK TO RULE THEM ALL AND IN THE DARKNESS BIND THEM.

Ice Bag. Fuckin seriously, everyone else demonstrated their symbol, somewhat, so we need ice bags, stat. Where does all the Ice mean? Yeah yeah yeah, handwaved as "not literal but metaphor"--dudes a handwave doesn't a story make. We're looking fer ideas here! Maybe Wendy and her family has a history of putting people in ice baths. Maybe Wendy has been in an ice bath and is now down a kidney. Maybe her favorite kind of water is freezing fucking cold. Maybe she has Ice Magic. SECRET WOODLAND WITCH. Maybe a Carrie was pulled on her once, but instead of pigs blood, it was a bucket of ice, and she just walked away from it, cool as all hell. Could be all of the above. Or maybe her favorite weird thing to do is find a store's local ice cooler, and just sit inside with the ice.

Teenage Episode. Teenhood is a terrible fucking time of high emotions, changing bodies, general confusion, and roughly thinking that you're more adult than you actually are, but to adults you're gonna be a kid til about your mid twenties. So let's have an episode of general moodiness. Have an episode where Wendy has a hard time, and has no patience for antics (as teens often do when frustrated). Where she is the center piece, Mind. She's based off of cool-characters, and gods know, the coolest Character around, the Fonz, has had plenty of episodes were the writers put him through the wringer. So why not? Why not remind the audience that no amount of cool-kid mojo really changes the fact that you are often lost with your own body and feelings at that era. Hell, add in a Stan parallel. Stan's teen self was designed based off of the 50-60s tough-cool guy after all.

STANFORD PINES

Dimensional Trauma The man has been on the multiverse train for 30 years. He has seen some out of this world shit. That out of this world shit would probably give him breakdowns and freakouts. And if you think he wouldn't, take one really good look at Stanley Pines. Ending up a bundle of neuroses is just how Pines Twins work. Plus, it would also help define how interdimensional travel works in the GF World Build. ( My personal headcanon, for example, is that the portal kinda portalized Ford, forcibly teleporting him across the multiverse at any point and at random, which forces him to have everything he needs on him least he lose it, and to adapt at a moment's notice--which also serves to destroy his sense of consistency and peace. Which would cause a conflict back on Earth, because even if he knows he won't be teleported again, he still feels the anticipation and sense of doom and it keeps him from both relaxing and really connecting. ) Yes, I know we have the published Journal 3, but do you really think a bunch of silly dimensions (Like "M") is how you develop character? Or make a good story? Or is it just a one off gag to be forgotten about later on. Or a bunch of crossovers? Cos lemme tell ya, you ain't developing anything if you're constantly referencing other works instead. Yeah Rick n Morty, really funny, but that's not important to Gravity Falls or we'd be having a different story and a different discussion.

The Multiverse So why not go into some dimensions with Stories? Perhaps there was one where the atmosphere was more nitrogen than oxygen. Perhaps there was one that had reversed gravity at all times. Perhaps he met Aliens, Fay, Anomalies--maybe a variant of the SCP Foundation is somewhere and he ran right into it. Maybe there are Space Guards that hate him, as a parallel to the Time Police. Maybe the multiverse is actually stretched between two points, Order and Chaos, and effectively we have the first side mention of the "Chronicles of Amber", and how it handles the multiverse, without breaking copyright laws for once. Clearly in the case of Stanford, the alternate dimensions are not the same thing as Parallel Earths--so perhaps the GF Multiverse is more like the Laundry Files, and its actually easier to get to dimensions that are Nothing Like Yours. But in exchange you have eldritch abominations that think you're crunchy and good with ketchup. Maybe he ran into the zombies that are created by luminous worms... Eitherway, an excellent way to develop character, Ford, and develop the world build.

Developing Character Relationships Which is hilarious, given that I just said that Ford was defined by his relationship with others, and implied that was the reason he was a rather weak character. But he is. He's specifically defined by being Stan's brother and Dipper's author, and Cipher's pawn. Yes, he does have the interdimensional 30 years to him that adds to his Voice of Character and his Aesthetic, and of course his backstory with Cipher, but we don't really have anything on him that wouldn't be outdated to his current character. The Stanford in the journals is not the same Stanford that returned to Earth anymore, and the story of Journal!Stanford ended the moment he was lost in the portal. Just as the Story of Homeless Tough Guy!Stanley ended when he became Mister Mystery. They are arcs that add to the character, but those arcs have passed, and now we need to define what we're seeing after a long period of time. We've seen Stan. We haven't seen Ford. So, that's a point that did somewhat start when Ford entered the show, which was his relationship with himself as he once was, and the mistakes he made. But what about Fiddleford? A one time sentence is not a development make. And I stopped thinking that Chandler's Law was worth anything when it came to relationships, so Stan sacrificing himself in battle, doesn't count as a relationship fix just because he came out on the other side, and Ford felt bad. And we've seen Dipper. But I already pegged that relationship as "Doctor Who with Companion", so that's not that special. Best way to help define his relationships with others, is to find situations to throw him at to help define those relationships. Like, what if he and Mabel ran into jurogumo who ate people, but their silk was powerful enough for Ford's experiments and Mabel's sweaters, but they still had to battle spider people (Without Killing them because otherwise, no new silk). Or how about Ford and Soos. Maybe Ford had to act like Stan for a Day, and felt like he couldn't let Soos know (maybe because Ford was kicking Stan out but felt bad for the Handyman, who was a good handyman to have around and looking at the house, whilst Ford was in his lab.) And it results in a long episode of Ford being an awful Mister Mystery. Then it turns out, at the end, Soos already knew. Hell, fuck it, throw Ford and Wendy out into adventure together. Two of the least developed in character, out into the world? Recipe for a enjoyable disaster to watch. Maybe there's something in the woods. Something the Corduroys knew about, maybe its a place they don't tread or cut trees from. Maybe, Ford wants to find out What. Make it a suspenseful episode-- we see evidence of the Thing In the Woods, but we never, Ever, see it directly. Or when we do see it, its merely Teeth, or Claws or a Hoof, but NEVER upfront. Like the movie Alien.

Stand Alone There are plenty of moments when a character stands alone in whatever story they're present in. Usually a character goal will put them there, like money, or boyfriends, or mysteries, or birthdays. Have an episode where Ford stands alone, defined only by a goal that isn't the Main Story Villain or the local Main characters or even the overall plot. Gravity Falls excels at Character Driven, and we need Ford to have a character that isn't "Plot Plot Plot Plot" or "Relation Relation Relation". What is his goal that defines Him for this Story. Could go for the easiest known goal of studying anomalies. Find something weird, go investigate. Problem there, though, is that by this point--that's just copying Dipper, who, as a character, has had that goal longer than Ford (regardless of what backstory says). So instead, how about the goal of "Studying Normalacy". It doesn't have to be the character's defining aspect, because Ford is the Weirdness Doctor Who guy, but we want interesting stories that don't immediately involve Dipper or have people asking "Where's Dipper?" ... and the best way to have those stories, is to play on the fact that Ford hasn't been on Earth in 30 years, and probably doesn't remember how to act, or how things work, and certainly, doesn't know about the local technology and culture changes. He's just as much an alien to Earth now as the anomalies he's studied, possibly more so, and he was born on Earth. After those stories, we can go back to him being the Weirdness Scientist straight outta the SCP Foundation, because after those points, he's got enough development to change goals without immediately comparing him to another character. Sometimes, you just need pacing and time.

Thems is some ideas I was thinking of, and thought of as I wrote, when I realized that while Gravity Falls is still fucking Awesome, it just needed some more touches

And let's face it, can't say no to more potential Gravity Fall Stories.

[thatseventiesbitch]

Eric Defending Donna

A rabbit hole I went down for... reasons. Decided to share for funsies.

Season 2 -

In Eric Gets Suspended, Donna is smoking a cigarette on school property and when a teacher catches her, Eric says it's his. He is suspended as a result.

Mentioned in a diary entry that I think is meant to take place sometime in season 2 or 3 - Eric and Donna go to a dive bar to watch the superbowl, and a big, dumb guy starts hitting on Donna. Eric comes to her defense and asks the guy to step outside - while he and Donna slip out the side door (😂).

Season 3 -

At the end of the roller disco episode, Eric comes into the basement and starts whaling on Kelso (and the guys gleefully join in). He shouts, "Donna told me what you did, you dillhole!" Eric was hitting Kelso because he'd made a pass at Donna at the roller disco.

In the ice shack episode, Eric and Donna play the Newlywed Game vs. Jackie and Kelso. Through one of the questions, it is revealed that Donna's told Eric she hates her huge feet. He insists in front of everyone that he doesn't think they're big, and then pivots to insisting that big feet are actually a good thing (😂).

Eric also defended her after he pantsed her in the driveway and Hyde was teasing Donna and calling her Granny Panties. "So what if she wears big panties?" 😂🤣😭

Season 4 -

Eric believes Casey Kelso is manipulating Donna. He tells him not to let Donna believe he cares about her if it's not true, and to let her go rather than hurt her. When Casey disregards his words, Eric threatens to kick his ass (if he makes Donna cry).

He is also very protective of her after the incident with Casey Kelso at the Le Motel. He tells her that he thinks Casey's all wrong for her and that they're moving way too fast.

Season 5 -

When Bob enrolls Donna in the Catholic school, Eric 'marches' over to talk to Bob and try to convince him to let Donna stay at school with him/her friends. He brings a crumb cake to bribe him. He even says he is "prepared to fight this with every fiber of my being" - until he sees her uniform. 🤣

Eric's Grandma Bea is rude towards Donna, seeming to imply that Eric can and should find someone better to marry. While Eric initially enjoys the fact that someone thinks Donna's the lucky one and he's the catch, he eventually tells his grandma that she has got to give Donna a chance, and that if she does she will love her. (Though unfortunately it doesn't work, *lol*)

Jackie's upset with Eric and Donna for threatening to tell Kelso about her secret relationship with Hyde, so in a snappy moment she refers to Donna as a 'big red whore'. Eric tells her to watch what she says.

Season 6 -

When they have their pregnancy scare and their parents confront them in the living room, Donna has to ask him to step in (*lol*), but he does, and says, "Look, whether we're pregnant or not, Donna and I can run our own lives." Unfortunately the next sentence out of his mouth was... utter crap.

After Mitch takes Donna to his brother's wedding and then lied and embarrassed her in front of everybody, Eric was going to fight him. When Mitch tried to weasel out of it, Eric's response was "Donna was really nice to you and you humiliated her - I can't let you treat people like that."

Season 7 -

When Donna's boss at the radio station fires her for refusing to wear a bikini to promote her show, Eric backs her up. He even 'cusses out' her boss and then storms out, taking her with him! Then he comes up with a devious plan that ultimately helps Donna win her job back.

*Note: I purposely did not include the scene where Eric confronts David Millbank in season 1, because although Eric wanted to fight him for Donna, it wasn't on Donna's behalf but because of his own insecurity. And we know for a fact that Donna didn't like it.

[guttersniper]

LIST 5 SONGS THAT INSPIRE YOU TO WRITE YOUR MUSE.

trouble's braids, tom waits

nature boy, nat king cole

running kind, merle haggard & the strangers

old man, neil young

the city of new orleans, arlo guthrie

bonus songs: the partisan, leonard cohen; hot and dirty in the city by labi siffre; you should've seen the other guy, nathaniel rateliff; hobo's lullaby, pete seeger + playlist

LIST 10 QUOTES THAT INSPIRE YOU TO WRITE YOUR MUSE.

try explaining a life bundled with episodes of this -- swallowing mud, swallowing glass, the smell of blood on the first four knuckles. -- richard siken

those years gaze up at me like a hound. the centuries watch as we walk off the sheer cliff of them. my eyes adjust to the dark, but my heart never. -- hua xi

one of the things i try to do: memorize the smallest, most mundane and ordinary, unprepossessing, and virtually invisible of physical moments: the look and feel of a certain wall at a certain time on a certain day. those walls, those little shacks, those cats in the sun: all that is lacking in self-consciousness i seek to hold in vision, memory. (simple composition, color tints, a wash of light, crumbled brick, cold shadow, stillness, rose-color dirt, a twitching whisker.) -- michelle anderson-binczak

people talk of "social outcasts." the words apparently denote the miserable losers of the world, the vicious ones, but i feel as though i have been a "social outcast" from the moment i was born. if ever i meet someone society has designated as an outcast, i invariably feel affection for him, an emotion which carries me away in melting tenderness. -- osamu dazai

he knew french and german. he knew the periodic table. he knew--as much as he didn't care to--large parts of the bible almost by memory. he knew how to help birth a calf and rewire a lamp and unclog a drain and the most efficient way to harvest a walnut tree and which mushrooms were poisonous and which were not and how to bale hay and how to test a watermelon, an apple, a squash, a muskmelon for freshness by thunking it in the right spot. (and then he knew things he wished he didn't, things he hoped never to have to use again, things that, when he thought of them or dreamed of them at night, made him curl into himself with hatred and shame.) -- hanya yanagihara

the girl fits her body into the space between the bed and the wall. she is a stalk, exhausted. she will do something with this. she will surround these bones with flesh. she will cultivate night vision. she will train her tongue to lie still in her mouth and listen. the girl slips into sleep. her dream is red and raging. she will remember to build something human with it. -- lucille clifton

what voice is this cut in the air as though a wound itself had speech / give her small hands / give her dark hair / give her a wound no word can reach -- christian wiman

what does it feel like to be lonely? it feels like being hungry: like being hungry when everyone around you is readying for a feast. it feels shameful and alarming, and over time these feelings radiate outwards, making the lonely person increasingly isolated, increasingly estranged. it hurts, in the way that feelings do, and it also has physical consequences that take place invisibly, inside the closed compartments of the body. it advances, is what i'm trying to say, cold as ice and clear as glass, enclosing and engulfing. -- olivia liang

maybe it’s better to have the terrible times first. i don’t know. maybe then, you can have, if you live, a better life, a real life, because you had to fight so hard to get it away--you know?--from the mad dog who held it in his teeth. but then your life has all those tooth marks, too, all those tatters and all that blood. -- james baldwin

out there where small things scratched and sometimes touched. where words could be spoken that would close your ears shut. where, if you were alone, feeling could overtake you and stick to you like a shadow. out there where there were places in which things so bad had happened that when you went near them it would happen again. -- toni morrison

bonus quotes: there is nothing in this story that’s not a dagger. (hieu minh nguyen); this may be unpleasant to consider, may even be a bad place to begin, but if there were a nicer way to tell this story it wouldn’t be this story. (catherine lacey); most of it happened without music, the clink of a spoon from the kitchen. / someone talking. silence. / someone sleeping. someone watching somebody sleep. (marie howe); look now: my heart is a fist of barbed wire. (analicia sotelo); now you wear your skin like iron and your breath as hard as kerosene. (townes van zandt); i seize on little things / you can tell a lot about people / by the way they comb their hair / or the way they don't look you in the eye. (nikki giovanni)

[thestupidhelmet]

That ‘90s Show Ponderings

The fact Fez calls Eric his best friend on That ‘90s Show is another example of how little T9S’s creators (two of whom were two of That ‘70s Show’s creators and one of whom was a T7S writer) care about the source material (i.e. That ‘70s Show) and the meager amount of effort they put in to refamiliarize themselves with it.

While Fez definitely demonstrates an attachment to and affection for Eric on That ‘70s Show, they barely have any scenes or episodes where they truly connect. Their friendship is woefully underdeveloped. The two characters Fez has the closest bond with are Hyde and Kelso.

Until season 5, Fez considers Hyde his best friend. They have many storylines (often B stories) and interactions in episodes together during seasons 1-4 that establish their connection and develop their friendship 

A flashback in “Class Picture” (4x20) shows us how Hyde, Kelso, and Eric meet Fez, and Hyde is immediately protective of Fez and offers him on-going protection, which inspires Fez to declare that Hyde is his best friend.

Once Hyde is paired romantically with Jackie in season 5, most of his significant storylines invovle her. Fez and Kelso are developed as true friends because of this new status quo, whereas before season 5, they are generally antagonistic to each other. By the end of the season, they’re clearly established as best friends.

While Fez and Hyde’s friendship is never forgotten in the later seasons, it’s no longer Fez’s primary platonic relationship for the rest of the series.

Never, though, are Fez and Eric depicted as best friends. They are friends because Fez is there (in the basement). He and Eric interact without much significance, except on rare occasion. We hear in “Trampled Underfoot” (5x21) about a phone call Fez makes to Eric at three a.m. to ask if they’re still friends, but this is a punchline adding to a  theme of the episode about Fez’s neediness 

“I’m Free” (6x05) is the only episode where Fez and Eric’s friendship is featured, but no growth in their bond occurs. It’s mostly jokes and a confirmation that Eric truly does care about Fez.

That Fez doesn’t mention Kelso at all in any of his That ‘90s Show episodes, or Jay -- Kelso’s son -- makes no sense. Fez would’ve very likely been Jay’s godfather. Once Fez’s romantic interest in Jackie dies in “Ice Shack” (T7S 3x10), they eventually become true friends in the later seasons (particularly season 7). Kelso, Jackie, Jay, and Fez all live in Point Place -- seemingly continuously (with maybe a few breaks) the last fifteen years (Point Place Time™). 

The above paragraph again, begs the question as to why Red and Kitty have no idea who Jay Kelso is until the events of That ‘90s Show and act like they haven’t seen Kelso or Jackie for years. The series establishes that Fez has been Kitty’s hair stylist since he became one, and true to Fez’s nature he would’ve talked about Kelso, Jackie, and Jay -- since character-logic dictates he would’ve been involved in their lives (even if he weren’t Jay’s godfather).

All of this is to reiterate the point of That ‘90s Show being a canon-divergent AU continuation of That ‘70s Show. It couldn’t be anything else since its creators seem to have the barest of memories of That ‘70s Show and didn’t do the research necessary to refresh their knowledge.

The one exception is Red and Kitty’s relationship, and that’s thanks to Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith knowing and caring about their characters (and Kurtwood making sure he and Debra Jo became executive producers of T9S so they’d have the clout to keep their characters [mostly] on-model).

Red and Kitty’s relationship is returned to canon in That ‘90s Show after That ‘70s Show introduced a boatload of character drift into their relationship in season 6 (catalyzed by Kitty’s menopause / self-medicating with alcohol storyline in season 5) -- to the point where their relationship in season 7 is almost not recognizable as the one from seasons 1-4.

[saiyanqueenreads]

Still trying to figure out glyphs and titan blood in the human realm...

So in Thanks To Them when trying to track down Hunter and the titan blood Luz states, “Glyphs are powered by the magic of the isles, by the Titan itself! The closer I am to the Titan Blood, the stronger the glyphs become.”  She then is able to create some very tiny tiny light balls with her glyphs in the woods outside the graveyard where the Titan’s blood will soon be uncovered.

It’s kinda hard to tell how far away from the blood’s actual hiding place Luz is at that moment.  But she is still in the wooded area, is apparently outside of ear-shot of Hunter running ahead of her, and hasn’t gotten near the ‘lake’ to enter the inner graveyard at all yet.  So she has to be at least 300 feet, and likely even farther, away at that moment.  Once she actually gets to the edge of the woods outside the ‘lake’ her glyphs seem to be working at full power because she’s able to create a rather handy ice bridge.  Again, it’s still kinda hard to tell the distance, but it’s gotta be more than 30 feet...

Now, backing up a bit, the first time in the episode that we see any action with the glyphs is the faintest of reactions when Luz places her hand rather accidentally onto one while at her mother’s vet clinic.  This is likely at least a mile away from the hidden titan blood if it’s within the city itself.

And backing up even further, the only other time we’ve witnessed attempted glyph usage in the human realm previous to this episode was in Young Blood, Old Souls during Luz and Lilith’s fight.  Where this happened...

...and thus Lilith got to keep her face intact.

But here’s the issue: 

It wasn’t JUST Lilith and Luz battling it out just off the steps of the mysterious shack in human realm woods that day...  There was also King, who followed the fighting duo through the portal door and was restrained by Lilith at the foot of the shack’s stairs. 

And the fight between Luz and Lilith happened, at most, 30 feet from him. 

So how could the glyph have failed during that fight?  There was a literal titan chock full of titan blood VERY VERY close to Luz. 

This is to say nothing of what the shack’s distance from the graveyard stash of blood might be.  After all, if there is a bit of a reaction from the vet clinic, why not here too?  Is the fact that the glyph Luz draws in her home during the opening montage has absolutely NO reaction (while the one she’d previously attempted to maim Lilith with in front of the shack seemed to crumble) significant?

So what’s the truth about the rules dictating glyph magic and how it relates to titans being their power source?

Is it a distance thing?  Is it about the blood being outside the body?  Is it something to do with King’s blood vs his father’s?

(Like, the vial that Belos unearths is thick-walled and it’s clearly stoppered well, so it doesn’t seem to be a matter of that blood being “out” while the blood inside King is “in”, because if there was any exposure to the air the blood would be free to dry out or drip out and we can tell that neither is happening until Belos smashes the vile against the archway.)

So WHY exactly wasn’t Luz able to mess up Lilith during their season 1 finale fight?  Because that glyph really should have worked if it all comes down to being close to a titan or parts of a titan’s body. 

And I wonder if there’s going to be an actual reason that might be brought up in canon. Especially since King’s status as a titan hasn’t actually been discussed much.  The only thing related to his blood we really actually know is that the Collector didn’t really need it to be freed after all, just a titan’s cooperation/touch.

[redlettermediathings]

It finally happened! The day that we received a package from Breen was the best day since the pandemic started. The slim package that arrived in our mailbox was like a little slice of heaven sent to us from above. A simple mailer that held the truth of which we sought. Cinema. Kino. Joy. I looked at the package, my brow sweating with anticipation. I pursed my lips as I often do in the delicious moments before sipping an ice cold beer. This was just as good. Maybe better. The mailer was that of a simple man. It wasn’t a fancy mailer. It wasn’t padded nor did it have a design on it. In fact, the mailer the DVD arrived in was a cut up cereal box held together with duct tape. I smiled and whispered to myself, “That’s the cup of a carpenter…”. It was here. We received the new Neil Breen film. Was this a Blu-ray? No. This was a DVD-R burned on a computer. I smelled the disc and the jewel case. It smelled like 2003. I cried at the beauty of the whole embarrassing ordeal. It was like a hug from an old friend who had long since passed. A friend you never wanted to see again or allow to hug you. In my hand I held the new Neil Breen film. I couldn’t wait to show the guys! I called Colin from Canada and told him to run to RLM HQ right quick to watch the film with us. He said, “oh, I’ve already seen it. It’s terrible.” And I called him a poutine-slurping, caesar-sipping canuck fuck and told him to get down here to Wisconsin right quick. He responded by saying, “I’ve got work and I’m watching my elderly neighbors diabetic cats and…” I just cut him off. I said, “Look you fucking prick, I have it. Let’s watch it!" So he did come down, albeit unwillingly. What are Neil Breen films? They are moopies made by a man who is the weirdest man to ever live. He’s the perfect oblivious filmmaker. Never getting better or evolving, only getting worse and more lazy and more old and more grandpa jeans. Neil Breen’s films are always about a loner man that has special skills or knowledge above all other humans. There is often a babe involved in his films, although the sexuality is awkwardly placed and seems forced. The women usually look incredibly uncomfortable at the notion of being in love or even attracted to Neil Breen. Likewise, any romance on his part seems obligatory. I guess the thought is that a movie needs “romance” so he must add “romance” But he’s no James Bond! Since this was Breen, we assumed this was worthy of a Best of the Worst™ Spotlight™ episode. It couldn’t simply be lumped into a regular three movie episode. Boy, were we fucking wrong. This pile of trash couldn’t have been more disappointing. Breen has gone too far this time with the green screens! Who does he think he is!?! Peter Jackson? George Lucas? James Cameron?!? I mean, sure you can use a green screen sometimes… if you’re making a fucking Avengers movie!!! But come on! Literally every background, outdoor location, and room is a stock image. A flat shot without movement. I can say that at the very least in some shots he created a foreground mask to make characters integrated into the frame by putting them behind objects, but really? While the story sucks, the acting is bad, it’s boring and shitty, it’s still a Neil Breen film and we have to love it as if it was our own cross-eyed inbred baby with no limbs. Anyways, while I have you here, I own a timeshare in the Cayman Islands. It’s in a nice part of town, but it’s basically a 1.6 million dollar shack. One of the owners killed himself recently and now I’m stuck with paying his part due to a legal snafu. I don’t quite understand it, but my lawyer Phillip Gorlon (no relation) tells me it’ll cost me more in legal fees to get out of this timeshare than to just keep it. I tells him that I’m strapped for cash at the moment, what with the cost of eggs, covid tests, etc… so my question to you is: Do you think Neil Breen might want to shoot his next film in the Cayman Islands?

[nikkiruncks]

Jackie just walking away from Fez without a second thought 😂

[worldwright]

Good evening !

Today was a great day -as in I went for one hour to my university, one hour with my classmates and russian prof (of russian). I was shacking in anxiety -and I couldn't find my meds for this EVEN IF I PACKED THEM URGH

BUT BUT BUT, it was nice to be back and speaking and writing in russian. That said, finishing Yuri On Ice today was funny x) Oh do they love throwing little words in russian (and wtf, why is there a french guy speaking in the last episode ? i just fucking laughed at that, it was sooooo robotic of him to talk like this omg) and I will NEVER say that my accent is good, it's very french, but oh man. Their accents were funny - it's fine, russian isn't from the same linguistic group as japanese, like, at all. But for me, someone who sees on a weekly basis russians (and sometimes ukrainians, or my (half ?) serb classmate and my half-slovenian classmate -they're the ones with the best accent by far for quite obvious reasons, and apparently my (half ?) chechen classmate is good, but I never really hear him talk so. iirc ive already told you about how my region -and by extension my town- has a good amount of slavic/slavic descendant people and yes i know chechens are caucasian, not slavic but it's because of the (directly or indirectly) USSR that slavic people are here -before or after it. anyway, that's france for ya), it's extremely funny

BUT OMG I UNDERSTAND BETTER WHY PEOPLE WENT CRAZY OVER YURI ON ICE

AND OH THE JJK EPISODE OF YESTERDAY. OOOOOOOOOH I LOVED IT SO MUCH AAAAAAAAAH

Have a great morning my friend !

THE EPISODE OMFG. I LITERALLY HAD TO PAUSE TO CATCH MY BREATH WTFFFFFFFFF

my partner was like "lol megumi is for sure not gonna have lasting trauma from thissss :)" and Yes For Sure but First !!! he actually has to figure out who the Fuck that guy even Was LMAO. I think he suspected something from the way he ran over to the body....... but lol We Don't Have Time To Unpack All That 👍

also it was SO MEANNNNN of them to end the episode where they did like Bruh !!!!! Let Us See The Goddamn Summoning Ritual

I mean I know we will next week but . come onnnnnnnn

language classes sound fun!! at least if it's a language ur actually excited about learning lol, my high school Spanish classes were just kinda a drag and I wish every day that I'd taken Japanese...

and yea it's so fun to hear a language in a show that you know and the actors clearly don't 😂 like I know they don't have time to properly learn an entirely new language for a few sentences but sometimes I simply do not process those words as English, man... in the show Firefly they were speaking cowboy English with all the cussing in Mandarin 🥰 my partner said it was very amusing to hear lol

I think I actually have a free weekend??? what am I gonna do with myself.......... I've got some chores to do but after that..... maybe I'll hop on a random bus and see where I get

have a wonderful Friday, friend!!

[einsteinsugly]

The Kids are Alright: Aunt Jackie, the Headcanons...

-Hyde and Eric are adopted brothers, so their children are naturally raised like cousins. They're all very, very close, but the kids tend to end up at her house, because it's nicer. Plus, they're not boring "mom and dad" like Eric and Donna.

-She throws the best birthday parties, ever.

-She spoils her nieces and nephews rotten, just like she spoils her own children. She lets them know that presents aren't everything, though. They're just nice to have, okay?

-Many of her excursions involve going to the mall, or going roller skating, or ice skating. Or, if she's feeling fancy, she takes them skiing. Or out to a nice dinner, if she doesn't feel like traveling.

-She takes her godmother duties very, very seriously. She's their confidant, and so is Hyde, but she only has goddaughters, so they naturally gravitate to her.

-She lets the girls wear makeup way earlier than Donna and Brooke would, so it's their little secret. Well, as long as it's not too obvious. It's blush, not spray paint!

-She loves hosting fashion shows/dress-up days for the girls. Girls are powerful, and they can be cute too!

-She makes her nieces (at the bare minimum, but sometimes, her nephews) watch all of her favorite movies, inside and outside the theater. Grease, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Clueless, Titanic…

-Plus, she introduces them to ABBA, Madonna, Mariah Carey, etc…

-When the girls are old enough, she gives them her hand-me-downs.

-She gives Betsy her old Nancy Drew collection, her Barbie dream houses (one was the guest house), and her copy of the board game Mystery Date. Betsy only embraces the first, and doesn't really appreciate the rest (Betsy's favorite board game is Operation, by the way).

-She's the one that buys all the American Girl dolls for the girls, and takes them to the American Girl Place when it opens in Chicago.

-She always lets her nieces and nephews go behind the scenes at her show, and sometimes? She lets them be on her show, too, if they want.

-She always has a charity drive on her show, and she lets the kids perform, if they want (think of that one Full House episode, where Stephanie dances to "Love Shack," and you get my drift).

-She teaches girls (and boys, too) they can do anything they set their minds to, and that they deserve the best. They deserve success, true love, and everything else in between.

-She gives not only her kids, and her nieces and nephews, the childhood she never had. Yeah, money is nice, but it can't buy happiness, you know?

Side Notes:

Jackie tends to be exclusionary towards her nephews when it comes to stereotypically girly activities (it's not a problem in my verse, though), and sometimes harps on the nieces that really want to join (*coughs loudly* Leah *cough*). Which is all sorts of problematic, but it's what she would do, so…eh.

Thanks, @lily-267, for the makeup idea!

[starlost-lix]

tag game! thank you @oh-the-aster-blooms for the tag 💛☀️

three ships:

chanlix- chan x felix (stray kids)- i’m never getting over their soulmate relationship, they’re perfect for each other

heedo x yijin (2521) - i’ve never been a fan of open endings but every episode made me laugh and cry so much i love these two so much i wish they had a happy ever after 💔💔

victuuri- victor x yuuri (yuri on ice)- i love the trope of A fell first and B fell harder, this is LITERALLY it, and oblivious shenanigans are just the CUTEST! also- the rink kiss. that’s it. when will on ice adolescence come out?!?!?!?! 😖

first ship ever:

i’m going to be very basic and say percabeth (percy x annabeth, PJO), i still have a very special place for them in my heart 🥰 and also jily (james x lily- HP mauraders) bc i loved all the fanfic imagining the marauders era, the fanon is really thriving with that ship

last song:

back for more by TXT ft anitta! a masterpiece fr 😍

last movie:

um mind blank, think it was me rewatching the batman (another masterpiece 🥺)

currently reading:

uh my economics textbook 😭 but i’ve got a bunch of ao3 tabs open in my browser 🫣

currently consuming:

a tasty glass of water before i go to bed 😴

currently craving:

chocolate chip cookies and a shake shack burger 🙏

tags 🏷️: @staytotheend, @fandork , @barleytaegyu, @passion-of-my-own-world, @crazy-random-bookworm-17, @stayxlix

[mysteriesofmarcy]

Maystery Monday #5: Underestimated

So today the queen poems from Star vs came to mind.

We have classics like

Tick tock, the clock talks

But secret are its powers

The only one to break its spell

Was Skywynne, Queen of Hours

Important poems, like

Eclipsa Queen of Mewni

To a Mewman king was wed

But took a monster for her love

And Away from Mewni fled

And new ones, like

The immortal monster

Will long be haunted

By the darkest spell

Of Moon the Undaunted

But I noticed something.

Star's poem says

Star the Underestimated

Was queen for just four days

Her one decision on the throne

To give it all away

And that got me thinking. This wasn't the only time Star was underestimated. From The Banagic Incident:

Marco: Sorry, I underestimated you.

Star: You... underestimated me?

Marco: Ehmmmm, yeah, I did. Sorry. This stuff looks delicious though!

Star pushes the ice cream out of his hands

Marco: Why did you --

Star: There was a fly on it.

She's not the only one either. In the Amphibia episode All In!, Andrias tells Anne that "From the moment you walked into my throne room, I underestimated you."

And there are several points in Gravity Falls where Dipper and Mabel are severely underestimated. Instances that come to mind include

Headhunters, where nobody believes Dipper can solve the case of the murder of Wax Stan

Irrational Treasure, where nobody (including Dipper) believes Mabel can solve the case of the true founder of Gravity Falls

Gideon Rises, where Gideon doesn't believe Dipper can stop him without his journal

And Weirdmageddon III, where Stan doesn't believe the Mystery Shack Gang can (or should) save Ford

I'll also throw in The Stanchurian Candidate where Dipper tells Stan "We don't think you can do it" and he proceeds to (almost) win on his own

So in short: to be a protagonist in a modern cartoon, you must be underestimated.

And I'm sure this trend also shows up in other shows, but these are the only examples I can think of right now.

[orlissa]

A fandom I have not seen you reblogging for your ask:

A Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon/A song of fire and ice

I actually did HoD this morning, but I can proudly (heh) say that I've never, ever seen a single episode of the original series either :D (not a big fan of bloody stuff), but I know a lot, and I mean a lot about it.

Girl from a dying royal family is sold to a barbarian as a wife by her brother. Barbarian in turn turns out to be a loving husband who kills her brother by pouring molten gold on his head, I guess. But then the barbarian dies, and the girl miscarries, but gains three dragon eggs and goes on a military campaign to liberate the opressed. Everybody in the fandom was rooting for her, but then she went batshit crazy in the last season and was killed, and so everyone was super disappointed.

There is a family up in the north with a bunch of kids, out of which one is adopted - it's Jon Snow, who knows nothing -, although no-one is absolutely sure about his parentage for a very long time, so it's a big *mystery*. He eventually goes to protect this big wall, then shacks up with the dragon princess and kills her. He also has perfect fibonacci ass. Oh, and he dies at some point, but then walks it off.

The father of this family is played by Sean Bean, and, as it is his shtick, gets beheaded at the end of the first season. The oldest son and the wife gets killed not much later when a wedding turns into a bloodbath. The older daughter is a redhead and kinda... okay? The younger daughter is a tomboy who becomes a pretty good killer/warrior, and the youngest kid falls out of a window and gets paralyzed. He can also see out of the eyes of a raven or something. And he is being carried around by this guy name Hodor, who is named so because of a past traumatic event when he needed to "hold the door."

There is another family with three siblings. One of them is a dwarf, who is kinda cool, the other brother is a knight who loses his hand, and the sister is a raging bitch. The knight and the sister are also lovers, and her kids might or might not have been fathered by the brother. Later on he falls in love with this giant of a female knight and she is just the best.

The sister's firstborn is The Absolute Worst(TM), and he becomes king, but then gets poisoned and dies, and no-one is sorry about it. It also happens as just he married Natalie Dormer. Who also dies later on.

There is duel (I don't know why) where Pedro Pascal fights a mountain-sized man and gets his head crushed like a watermelon (yikes). His character is also a womanizer with a bunch of daughters.

Oh, yeah, there are these ice zombies on the other side of that wall, and "winter is coming" which means that there will be a time when they breech the wall, I guess.

There is a character called Littlefinger, but I have absolutely zero idea who he is or what he does.

Every character you like will die.

Everybody, even the actors, hate the last season with passion.

Once they left a Starbucks cup in the shot.