#esp the last point every season they bring it up

[variousqueerthings]

For the Ask Thing, simply because we talked about it today, Cobra Kai please!

also @pigtailedgirl

oh how the mighty have fallen.......

my favorite female character ok in cobra kai (vs miyagi-verse generally) my favourite female character is tory nichols. absolute shocker (generally it's kumiko). she's literally given a whole arc that is soooooooo deserving of better trappings, but i will take it! she shines in this whole affair, she's brash, she's angry, she's definitely a lesbian! i thank cobra kai for giving me tory nichols. honestly, i thank cobra kai for giving me many women i can gnaw on, even though it's all just scraps. it's fine, we'll take it from here!

my favorite male character i think it was as-of s5 i kinda went "alright shockingly i am more interested in the teenagers than the adults officially in this show" and then i got halfway through this sentence and remembered john kreese. unhinged mf'er, the worst man in the world, would be a fantastic exploration of every worst american nationalist hyper-masculine impulse with a fascinating queer undertone, and... that's what he is actually, don't even come at me (i say like i'm not in the unhinged old men fandom) but of the kids, miguel. miguel needs to be saved from this narrative. miguel has nothing good to learn from these people. miguel is daniel larusso's successor in that he's put in these fucking Situations because of other peoples fucking business, and he did have some beautiful growth in terms of almost almost being lured into all of it, but then he got himself out. literally do not think johnny has taught him a single valuable life lesson. not a one. miguel. i see you (if it were all of miyagi-verse, then miyagi!)

my favorite book/season/etc s1-3. you understand. (hon mention to every silver scene in s4 though, silver you keep me coming back and idk whether to hate you or love you for that)

my favorite episode (if its a tv show) lol, s4ep1. tsilver intro episode. also, finale s2, the last time i could accept these bonkers fights happening in the story

my favorite cast member my beautiful marty kooooooooooveeeeeeee (obvs) and mary mouser, every little punky Look of hers is Iconique

my favorite ship as a usually bringing an aroace vibe to the party that fandom doesn't appreciate, this is my big exception. everyone is gay and alloromantic and allosexual is2g (i kid, there are some absolutely Amazing aro and/or ace reads and fics out there!) gonna give this one to sam/tory and every girl they pulled into their Nonsense. also aisha/the girl in this one fic @mimsyaf wrote in which aisha is Out (as in Out of the karate drama and also Out as a lesbian and Out of the narrative having lesbian sex. this too could be you if you got Out). sam. i know you're butch. i know it. sam, pspspspspsss sam listen! hon mention to kreese/silver. most awful men in the world ❤

a character I’d die defending miguel! sam! daniel! listen, in this fandom, we're all defending someone aren't we, and i respect all of said defences. kenny and shawn payne deserve more screentime, esp in which they're not treated abominably, miguel deserves to have more focused narrative and not have his thematic identity as Literally The Next Karate Kid From Day One distorted, robby.... oh robby..... goodness gracious robby...... you know. if you're in this fandom, you know!!! and of course, the larussos, the eternally Wrong Gender Performers according to straight men across the world. i see you (i also See You 👀 in a gay way) and johnny... i know what the point was with you. i will fistfight the writers for that one. i know this isn't you johnny 😭😭😭

a character I just can’t sympathize with stingray. sry. the actor seemed lovely. and i did kinda like that he ended up slightly (slightly) more serious, but. it should have been a Warning when he was more than in a couple of episodes i also don't hate yasmin and moon, but i think everything interesting about them is fanon

a character I grew to love youknow, i really like the characters of this show? genuinely the thing that keeps me coming back is wanting better narrative for them, because they're actually Interesting (except for above) there's so much in all of the mains that deserves 10000 fics (esp fix-its) not because they're bad, but because things keep getting presented that are Interesting and then dropped immediately. so yeah. i was into them all pretty much from the start

my anti otp lol is there a straight pairing that works in this????? other than amanda/daniel (but you know how bisexual that is)

[florallylly]

Loved your Steve child model au, esp because it focuses on Steve making his looks part of his personality. I wish the show would go into Steve's injuries more. We know he likes the way he looks and is a bit vain about it. If they never bring up the demobat scars again, what was the point? Because realistically he would struggle with it. Even prior to that his face should be littered with scars, his nose should look a bit wonky. I would love to see him coming to terms with his new look and how he will act because of it. Like you said I feel like Steve thinks beauty is all he has, he doesn't think he's smart enough, all his has is his looks and charms but if that gets taken away who really is he? I know the show won't ever acknowledge Steve's trauma, we would be lucky if the neck scar is visible in s5 but man. Sorry for this rant here

THANK YOU SO MUCH. i have literally been ruminating about this concept for ages, mentally begging someone to catch my brainwaves and write it. but unforch... it hasn't worked. had to get my little brain worm out in the form of word vomit, BUT I AM SO GLAD YOU GET THE VISION.

like he's constantly looking at the mirror pre-stranger things to make sure he's always looking perfect but after billy and starcourt, he can't help but look at the imperfections on his face. i don't think he's stop using mirror TOTALLY but i feel like at a certain point, he'd consider his BODY his appeal.

i think that him striking out in scoops would just validate his feelings about his looks, and make him feel even more like a Loser because could he even trust his fallback anymore? and just the crushing low self esteem because he thinks that all he has is being pretty, and when he loses that, then what is he?

and my theory is that when he does modeling on the side after his parents cut him off, photographers also point out his flaws and some of them end up trying to cover up his scars with make up or take focus away from his face. but he continues on because he Needs the Money. and at least he still has something attractive about him.

WHICH leading to family video, i think that steve would try to change his mannerisms to purposely bring attention to his figure and emphasize what he considers his best asset. only for his thoughts to be validated because he starts getting dates again.

in my heart, i imagine that during this time, he is connected with a photographer who is looking for a model for their art exhibition. and gushing over steve's "unique" look and his "bravery" for continuing to be a model. steve feeling super uncomfortable bc he's so used to trying to bring attention away from his face.

and maybe that photographer focuses on his scars, inspired to tell a story of sorts through their photos. and steve's eye twitching because he feels like a specimen under a microscope, and the focus on his "imperfections" just causes him to spiral a little bit rather than builds his confidence.

and the demobats just take away the last thing he's been able to hold onto. they take away the last thing that could possibly give him value.

and YEAH the show so rarely shows the consequences of trauma, especially when it comes to steve. and it's such a shame that the scars seem to disappear at the start of every season. if season 5 shows steve with ANY scars, i would be immensely surprised (though i think i might not watch season 5...)

ALSO sudden thought: steve harrington's brain trauma leading to migraines, and the bright lights during shoots trigger them. but he's so determined to see this through and prove his worth that he soldiers through. he's popping as much tylenol he can, but he's cold sweating bc the pounding in his head is so intense. and every time he leaves a shoot, he's out of commission for at least a day afterwards.

and i respond to ur rant with a rant <3 BUT YEAH thank you for getting the vision...

[mike-haters-dni]

‘SENT TO THE GULAG’ IS KILLING ME

okay yes hop has probably atoned for his sins by now and his monologue at rock bottom was really good but it still pisses me off sometimes idkk. im just waiting for the payoff of seeing him actually DO better this time😭

and exactly! the angst in s2 is like- messy- but that’s good television! it gave us a top 5 millie preformance how can i even be mad

men in stranger things are weird sometimes cuz you have to overlook their CRIMES, (i’ll be like “omg jancy!” then i REMEMBER…) it’s weird when a character is randomly at their worst for a scene or a season just to meet the story’s requirements

jopper can scream at each other all sam and diane for nostalgia in s3 but when you look at it in a larger context it’s kinda dicey. like how weird of hop to doubt her when he already knows to trust her instincts.

and also it’s just like- nobody drags him enough for me! he’s so loved- male characters can do ANYTHING kinda- so i have to get him. out of principle. and i see that hopper (and like david harbour) is too important to kill off in the show and that him and el’s relationship isn’t all lows, not even in s2. i think i’m just bitter that 1. st tiktok treats el like she was SO unreasonable in that scene>:( (i need to stop going there it makes me want to rant on tumblr) and 2. how much time was devoted to bringing him back last season like my cali boys were so neglected. :( (after 2 failed prison escape attempts i was like (why i am still looking at this insanely bruised man) so-

but yeah i need to stop typing now cause i have a million thoughts in my head about hopper and the way that he is. and the way the show treats him. (how funny is it that even the viewers can have a complicated relationship with him. maybe i’m not giving the writers enough credit in that regard)

: )

-No like, I agree 100%. We forgive but we never forget

-I have a hard time even being really mad at Jonathan for the Incident cuz like, that was such a weird ooc moment that was clearly just so the plot would happen. Like he got possessed by the spirit of the writers to do that shit. And like I can't even be mad at the writers either because like, the plot they were servicing is really fucking good? I might be the only person in the world who thinks this but I think this show is phenomenally written esp from a plot structure perspective. Near perfectly even. Like this show single-handedly instilled a sense of how to do super satisfying setup and payoff, and how to have every scene push multiple things forward, and how everything seen on screen needs to be relevant to as much as possible. Its so tightly written that its like...yeah Jonathan had to do that shit. It allowed like 3 perfectly intersecting plotlines to play out. There was no other option. And like there probably was and maybe I'm coping or whatever but like...idk it's perfect to me :) But still we forgive but we never forget. And we only forgive after they display a marked change in behavior. And we still never forget <3 (side note: remember when El dumped him and Mike ((and Lucas)) went full andrew tate for a second? That's the one thing he's ((they've)) actually ever done wrong lmaooo ((tbf they were also 13 so like)))

-Who tf is saying she was being unreasonable??? child???? traumatized??? isolated in a tiny cabin for a year?????? With Hopper?????? A cop????????? HellO?????????? Bro ppl HATE her bro this needs to stop

-I think the biggest problem with the Russia plotline is just that it's not fun? Watching Hopper get tortured in a labor camp is not fun? I came here for 80s vibes, friendship and supernatural shit and it only delivers that whenever Joyce and Murray are onscreen (who are really fantastic together tho) and once the monster finally shows up way too late into the proceedings. There should have been inklings of monster throughout to add some intrigue and let us know that this was all going to have a point that tied into the plot of Stranger Things the 80s Monster Show. But alas.

[junseotual]

vity and tbz?!

hi bibi <3 (it got long so. it goes under the cut)

crabs

first bias: serim (& jungmo)

current bias: woobin / wonjin / jungmo / serim

album ranking: season 2 (hideout: the new day we step into) > liberty: in our cosmos = new wave > season 3 (hideout: be our voice) = season 1 (hideout: remember who we are) > the awakening: written in the stars (> vivid > boogie woogie)

how i got into them: i was interested when i heard they were going to debut bc. it's always exciting to see new groups debuting i think (nd partially because of the pdx/x1 guys but like not Really bc . i didnt rlly remember that i liked them during pdx AND i didnt like mini/hyeongjun when x1 was. a thing) + brina was posting abt them when the teaser pics were coming out nd all that so they were on the dash for me to see y'know. then batr came out and i hated it so i thought that's where my adventure w the cavities was done but after a while i finally listened to the rest of the album AND STAY WAS THE BEST SONG IVE EVER HEARD............i listened to Only her on loop for like DAYS . n here we are now

which member would be my best friend: id pester mini until he agrees to be friends w me . also wanji !! best friend energy off the charts

something i associate with them: crabs. cavities. brina & eri. the phrase brand deals bc of how many times ive said that mini deserves all the brand deals in the world. bubblegum w hyeongjun. orangeade & sewoon songs with wanji. pitbull (dont ask). randall the lizard thing w jungmo (this is brina's fault blame her). meteors, honestly.

bring the boyz back

first bias: haknyeon (& hyunjun)

current bias: ?????? (chanhee/sunwoo/hyunjae)

album ranking: reveal = breaking dawn > the start = chase > maverick => the sphere = dreamlike > the first = thrill-ing > the only > tattoo = be aware > bloom bloom (= last man standing = all about you > christmassy! => drink it > white) + still haven't heard the she's the boss album oops..... as u can see. very different from my title track ranking

how i got into them: see it's a long, long, long story........ was really excited when they were rumoured to have their little snack shop show/be debuting because i liked hak from broduce. i made another twt account just specifically for the to-be-tbz stanning purposes. saw hwall fantakens n i was like Oh Whos that. nd then suddenly i stopped going on that account n kinda forgot? abt them? i would listen to every release they'd put out but without much more bc as much as i LOVED boy. song of the century. i absolutely hated giddy up so i was like well too bad :/ rip my interest in them :/ and i think i disliked right here at first as well (i love her now. shes my beloved.) but i was absolutely INSANE about no air shes the best song ever i've been in love with her from the first second i heard her. so i ended up watching the showcase stage n someone caught my eye (i ended up finding out it was hak which was rlly funny it was a . destiny kinda moment). i think it was around that time that i saw their right here era weekly idol appearance. got a small crush on sunwoo. but then nothing much more happened rlly? i still kept watching their mvs whenever they'd release one and i Was a p big fan of their music!! and . i must have seen some more content at Some point before rtk because i remember already having a better idea of who each of them were before rtk started but. it was rlly during rtk that i rlly got Into them . but like . Rlly into them like . the amount of vlives i watched in the span of a few months (while rtk was airing, even though i wasn't watching the actual show, only the performances, and for a while after it ended im p sure)......yeah

which member would be my best friend: chanhee bestie shaped.... also possibly moonbae . or hyunjae/eric

something i associate with them: betrayal plotlines. flower emojis (esp in spam format). horses & pigs w hak. pink hair, chanhee's natural haircolour. big pools during summertime. winter releases (they probably have the best ones overall all things considered). sorry to taemin but danger is their song. also u w kyu & léks w cob & sarah w eric

[sweetcreaturetm]

Omg thank uuuuu babes for tagging me @simplebtromance and @cranberrymoons

This is sooooo hard for me and these are in no particular order except for the first one.

1. Room. To me this movie is perfect. Brie deserved her Oscar and I think Jacob should have gotten one too. The soundtrack is exquisite. It’s weird that this is a comfort movie when it’s like really not meant to be lol. It was always my favorite movie since it came out but when I was in the hospital last year it had a way of calming me down. I had severe anxiety when I started like coming to and I watched it every night to fall asleep. My mom and husband who would switch off staying with me said they’ll never watch it again. But I still love it.

2. Stranger Than Fiction. My dad and I love this movie. The part where he brings her flours… divine. My dads favorite line is “I want you in no uncertain terms” HOW BEATIFUL. Love.

3. Red White and Royal Blue. The newest addition I have already watched it so many times my husband just expects that I’ll be watching it already if I get home before him lol. I love it I love TZP I love the sweetness and I’m just obsessed.

4. Zombieland. My first intro to Metallica. Another one from my dad we used to watch this all the time. I love Jesse in this so much and Woody. “I’m not going to play with you at Pacific Playland” lmao so funny. Also plus a point for killing Bill Murray who I heard is an asshole.

5. Lord of the Rings. I’m not super picky about which one. But I do prefer to watch The Two Towers for comfort cause it has the ent battle which is my fave part of all the movies.

6. The Lorax. I watched this everyday one summer when I babysat for a friend and I was super depressed and I still know every word. Even though it was a bad summer I loved that kid and it makes me think of him.

7. Harry Potter. I know I know. But I do not support JK Rowling. Either Prisoner of Azkaban or Goblet of Fire are my faves.

8. Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. This one is hard to justify because it’s vvvvvv problematic and misogynistic. But those songs raised me. Going dancing… that’s a jam. My favorite brother is Gideon.

9. Captain America: Winter Soldier. Need I even say it? It’s the best marvel movie to me. The highway scene. LONG HAIR BUCKY. Got me into stucky and for that I will always be grateful.

10. I’m gonna steal the idea for this to be for comfort shows. Futurama (forever love), MASH, the like first 6 seasons of Supernatural, same with Greys, I love disenchantment esp the first season, and I’m a sucker for a good South Park.

Something weird that doesn’t super fit is that I rewatch football games. Like I have the nfl app and on tv I’ll rewatch random games. Usually the pats or the cowboys the chiefs maybe a bills game. I like to look up the score and try to guess when they score.

I’m p sure everyone has been tagged but I’ll tag my usuals: @wynnyfryd @steves-strapcollection @perseus-notjackson @charliesginger @sapphicsoyboy and anyone else cause my brain quit working :)

Rules: post 10 of your favourite comfort movies then tag 10 people.

I got tagged most recently by @every-aj-needs-an-angel (but I also think I got tagged a while back by a few people and I fell way behind on tags)

1. Pride and Prejudice (2005) - I mean we all know why. If you don’t:

2. Captain America: Civil War - I won’t be able to apologize for this. It’s just the most romantic bullshit a person can see. A man going against his country, the world, his friends, for his long lost love? Sigh.

3. Miracle - It’s hockey. I dunno what else I have to say.

4. The Breakfast Club - If you haven’t watched it, how.

5. Beauty and the Beast - This has been my favorite original Disney princess movie since I was maybe four and I learned to read? I thought Belle was amazing and I genuinely told my mom at six years old that I hoped my husband had a big library. What a dreamer.

6. The Princess Diaries - My sister and I watch this almost once a month. I blame naming Eddie’s daughter after Mia Thermopolis because I had just watched it again.

7. Matilda - This one is depressing when you think about it, but my family used to call me Matilda because I would prefer to just sit in my room and read. And then Harry Styles wrote the song and I was like…hmmm that’s something to unpack…and then I just started watching the movie when I was sad.

8. 10 Things I Hate About You - I mean.

9. Hook - I don’t know how many times I’ve watched this movie, but it’s gotta be in the triple digits.

10. Jumanji (1995) - I don’t have anything against the new one, but the original is just unparalleled. You just can’t compete with Robin Williams.

Now, keep in mind that I RARELY watch anything at all, so when I’m watching these, something is very wrong 😂

No pressure tags: @simplebtromance @zerokrox-blog @izzy2210 @estrellami-1 (I think you may have tagged me in this a while ago too so ignore this if you did 😭) @legitcookie @sidekick-hero @steves-strapcollection @wormdebut (or work on your gd fic ffs) @wynnyfryd @messessentialist

[karazrel]

anyways good things about this ep

brainy he’s literally a gift and jesse plays him so well

everything to do w nias hero arc

kara and nia having the mentor/mentee relationship that we deserve

manchester black being a dramatic bitch and wax sealing his handwritten letters in jail no less

bad things about the ep

the lames breakup scene was literally SO flat you’d think they’d put like a modicum of effort into writing it since they hyped it up so much lmao

lena is somehow okay w creating weapons to mass murder aliens

ben lockwood is still somehow alive PLEASE let MB kill him

this continued trend of making it seem like alex’s whole life revolves around protecting kara but then doing literally nothing to change that in the long term

[coal15]

Been thinking of ways to end bt w/out revealing some absurd "twist" at the last minute that makes Taylor an absolute monster. Because while bt the ship is almost universally hated, I've seen a number of comments--esp on the Wine Mom App (fb) with sentiments like:

"Where is sassy Taylor? I miss sassy Taylor!"

"They were so fun before they started dating!"

"I wish I could get into bt 'cause I really like Taylor but they're boring together!"

"Break up bt so I can go out with her."

"The only reason for me to root for them is so Taylor stays on the show!"

My point being even though most fans do want bt to break up, a lot of them would be disappointed to see Taylor made into a full-on villain. Like she gets busted for stealing from the elderly or some lazy, last minute, 'she was secretly evil this whole time' bullshit. Or if she was mean to Christopher to his face. Personally even I'd be disappointed if they pulled such a cheap move. I always hate it when one half of an unpopular ship is turned into an absolute devil just to guarantee the character loses every shred of audience sympathy.

Like, yeah what Taylor did to Bobby was horrific, but last season when she was reintroduced if they had just given her a scene with him where she admitted that what she tried to do was wrong? That she's realized since then that she needs to think more carefully and compassionately about what the human cost of going after that a juicy story might be? Then yeah, I could've liked her character. Because it is possible for basically good people to have massive character flaws--the question is will they realize it and work on themselves.

Don't get me wrong, I still wouldn't ship bt, but I could enjoy a sassy friendship--especially if Buck found out she's bisexual and came out to her as bi himself.

So how to write her off, give bt closure, but also not "ruin her character" for those who do like her. Personally I'd love for Buck to just . . . realize he's clinging because he's in love, not with Taylor, but with knowing she loves him and his devotion is appreciated. But that doesn't make for Dramatic!Television!

So there has to be A Thing.

Preferably something that brings positive growth to both of them at the end of the day. Now, my number one preference would be for Taylor to notice more and more that Buck always prioritizes Chris and Eddie above her. Because if a man said ily to me? No, I wouldn't expect him to totally ignore all his other important relationships but it would piss me off after a while if I was constantly being ditched in favor of time with the Best Bro and his kid. I'd love to see the process of her trying to ignore it while jealousy quietly builds until she finally confronts him and makes him admit that he'll never love her the way he loves Eddie and Chris--maybe even to admit or at least realize that no one will ever compete with them in Buck's heart.

Second option--and I HATED this option at first, but there's a few ways it could actually be great for Buck's character growth. The pregnancy scare. TV shows loooooooove a good pregnancy scare storyline. Here's the thing: I think right now Buck has either convinced himself that he is in love with Taylor, or he thinks staying with a gf who at least loves him will make him happy. And I think it makes him feel proud to know that he is crushing it at this Being A Boyfriend thing. Now, whaaaaaaat could possibly jar him out of such denial?

Pregnancy scare. That shit is real. A baby would mean he and Taylor would be tied together for life even if they weren't a couple. So here's Buck thinking he's gonna settle down and build a life with Taylor, all neat 'n tidy and loving. And he's always wanted kids, so wouldn't that kinda be perfect if she's pregnant? How great! But . . . he's not excited. In fact he's praying it's a false alarm. And that's what makes him realize he's not as in love with Taylor as he wants to be. He does want kids, just not with her.

And I know we've all agreed that Taylor doesn't want kids because of the career thing, but I used to take care of several children of doctors and lawyers, etc. One woman was a lawyer who eventually worked her way up to become a Judge, and she adopted her daughter as a single mom. So while Taylor doesn't seem like the maternal type (at all) I've always balked at the pervasive assumption that ambitious powerful women in demanding careers are derailed by motherhood. Like it's supposed to be obvious that women like that don't want kids. So I think it would be an interesting twist if Taylor has always thought of herself as an "I am NEVER having kids," kind of woman--but facing the possibility of pregnancy makes her realize that while she's nowhere near emotionally ready for motherhood now . . . and that she has a lot of work to do on herself first because Buck's love won't magically heal her . . . it is something she wants for herself someday. And for her to realize that when she closes her eyes and imagines it, she doesn't see Buck in the picture.

Then Buck and Taylor both come out of the relationship with changed visions of their future, and they can part ways on their own separate journeys of emotional growth.

Buddies are happy, Taylor fans are happy (even if it's bittersweet cuz she's leaving the show), and whoever runs 911's ig/twt accounts will be happy about not having to read a million replies complaining about bt.

[gumdecay]

.

[talkingtea]

The show lost viewers this season because it was insanely dreadfully bad. If they want any chance of a successful season 8, they're going to have to make some serious changes.

1) un bloat the damn cast. We do not need DP playing 2 shittily written mediocre characters with no plot taking up screentime when they can't even write 1 well. If they're not going to get rid of them both, I'll take Caitlin's blank face looking ass over white privilege Frost. Get rid of that dumbass Chillbean. Get rid of all and any Caitlin love interests forever bc DP has no chemistry with any of them. Cecile needs to be guest or recurring - she has no more use for the plot, esp now that Jenna is nonexistent and Joe is sharing scenes with Kramer. Unless they have a continued significant plot for Joe next season, he needs to be bumped down to supporting cast too and ACTUALLY support his pregnant daughter. Allegra doesnt need to be in episodes not focused on Citizen plots. Even if I dont mind her character, we don't need Sue back. She serves no purpose in the overall narrative. Why tf did they feel the need to bring her back and write for her when they can't even write their existing longterm characters properly?? Too many plates at the table. This focus on side characters has got to go. They didn't develop them well when they first joined the show which they should have done to make us invested. Trying to force in filler for that now after the fact is too late and disrupts the trajectory of the show. The only one they've done right is Chester.

2) go back to the roots of the show, with the Wests and Westallen family at its core and the characters and character dynamics driving the narrative, not the terrible and inconsistent plots. The show needs to stop being so invested in the spectacle and focus on the heart.

3) cool down the corny goofiness and gearing this towards kids bc I doubt the younger audience make up the majority of viewers at this point. This may not be a late time slot show but it is starting to resemble Disney shows with how "kiddy" and silly it has become. If s8 is indeed the last season, I hope they say fuck it and stop giving a damn about those (probably made up) constraints. Is it really that much to ask for the main couple to have some intimacy in bed? Even just cuddling under the covers? Steamier kisses?

4) let the writers who have experience writing the show and characters have more episodes because inconsistent characterisation and writing is ruining pivotal moments. And conversely, stop letting longtime writers with a clear anti agenda have pivotal WA/Iris episodes to write because again, inconsistent characterisation and writing is ruining it

5) they need to do right by Iris. Proper journalism story arc, proper pregnancy arc with her husband, proper investment in her vulnerability emotions and fears. Enough with the misogynoir.

6) a strong overarching villain with good, steady buildup and good motive who has stakes in the personal lives of every character, otherwise ppl are not going to get invested in the fight.

7) utilise their stronger actors more. They have significantly better actors with less screen time playing support like roles and keep pushing the actors who can't fucking act or carry episodes at the forefront and it is resulting in pretty bad episodes. A good actor can make bad writing tolerable. A bad actor just highlights all the flaws in the show. The focus on side characters exposed the show, bad writing, and how crappy some characters are this season, which we've been able to disregard in the past for the most part because at least there was fantastic acting and moments we could focus on instead.

8) they refuse to dismantle Team Flash at this point, so they need to make Barry a CLEAR leader. No more looking to others for decisions or having them in his ear all the fucking time. He's spent all seasons needing everyone's help for everything. How is he supposed to build his legacy as legendary if he needs everyone else to tell him what to do? He's about to be a father. They better have him shape up quick and learn to be a protector and leader in his own right. He's a muppet I can't take seriously at this point. If the titular character is written shoddily, the rest of the show won't hold up.

And 9) STOP PANDERING TO THE RACISTS AND DUMBASS WHINY BITCH FANBOYS. How hard is it to understand that whenever they do, the show suffers for it and has worse episodes, and when they don't, it thrives?? It's morons running this show I swear. How are fans of the show understanding the show more than the actual ppl who made the show??

It's not too late for the show; they can turn it around and end on a higher note but they seriously need to reevaluate the wrong turn they took after s4/s5ish.

🗣🗣🗣

[bloodbenderz]

Can I ask what your season 1 Lok reboot looks like?

this is about 3k words i checked lmfao dont say i didnt warn u

a key part of the whole thing is that korra gets way more perspectives and more experiences representative of like, normal people in republic city bc i think something that really defined what a good avatar aang was was how many people he met and got to know and how he didnt exclusively or even mostly associate w cops and bureaucrats and leaders. so mako and bolin. well first of all their backstories are a little more fleshed out and we get a less black and white view of the “triads” (lol) and mako and bolin’s experiences w them. cuz the show very much does the whole thing of like Criminals Bad but dont worry even tho mako and bolin did commit crimes theyre not Criminals!! so just a little more nuance on the alleged gang problem and the poverty in the city

korra does start out very naive w very black and white ideas (ex. “you guys are CRIMINALS?”) i think a really good way of developing her away from her sheltered naive worldview is putting her in whats clearly an incredibly complicated city w an absolute cesspool of political conflicts, ethnic tensions, the lasting effects of colonization, etc and having her try and understand the needs of “the people” in a more complicated way than “i have to save the good guys from the bad guys” ykwim? and i think the absolute WORST way to do that is what they did. bc we get mako and bolin who could contribute genuinely compelling thematic elements to the story: one parent who was indigenous and one who was from a colonizer background in the decades directly following the end of the war, kids who grew up in poverty apparently without any familial support, and who now are trying to be “respectable” members of society (especially mako). and then most of that is pretty much tossed aside bc asami swoops in w her capitalist dad and her piles of money and the class issue is just never talked about again.

so the way i’d fix all that is like. introducing more, like, normal people. some nonbenders, more workers, more immigrants, etc, to show what daily life is actually like for people. because. we dont know! we dont have any context about whether the nonbender oppression thing is actually an issue bc we dont KNOW any nonbenders with normal lives! and spoiler: the nonbender oppression thing is not an issue. bc it doesnt make historical sense. lok is set 7 decades after the end of the war. that is not by ANY stretch of the imagination long enough to heal from the scars of imperialism, ESPECIALLY not when lok is also set in a settler colonial state. like that fact should have featured PROMINENTLY in the political and social setting! realistically, nonbenders arent an oppressed class, earth and water nation people are, regardless of bending status! as in all settler colonial states, the colonizers and their descendants (in this case fire nation people) retain most of the financial and political capital, leaving the colonized and racialized immigrants (in this case earth kingdom and water tribe people respectively) generally impoverished and politically suppressed. like aside from the fact that theres no way toph would have become a cop, it’s so ridiculous to think that an established privileged class of fire nation colonizers would EVER accept being policed by earthbenders!

imagine how much more nuanced and interesting it would be to set republic city as a remnant of a colonial past still fraught w the violence and tension that colonialism and the associated ideology imposed?? instead of some vague ideas of criminal who wear 1920s outfits and harass shopkeepers think about why extralegal and violent groups like that might form! earth kingdom people trying to push for the reclamation of their land? ethnic groups protecting themselves against corrupt cops? ESPECIALLY w the history that the fire nation has of SPECIFICALLY jailing and killing earthbenders and waterbenders BECAUSE of the potential they have to resist against fire nation imperialism like it just makes no sense at all that earthbenders would be privileged on land that, 70 years ago, they would have been imprisoned on! like these various paramilitary groups falling along these different ideological or ethnic lines, fire nation or earth kingdom or water tribe, pro colonization or anti colonization, pro cop or anti cop, pro immigrant or anti immigrant, and then you juxtapose that w depictions of a govt thats failing to keep this all under control w tenzin trying desperately to keep it together despite the fact that it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the state has no interest in taking the conflicts seriously and would rather just point vague fingers at criminals and gangs? and THEN you bring in korra, who has no idea about any of this and thinks that all its gonna take is kicking some ass every couple days, meeting normal people who offer all kinds of different opinions abt the efficacy of the state and the different violent or nonviolent groups and ideologies clashing in the city and the way all this shit is affecting people’s lives and livelihoods and relationships w other citizens??

theres so much good shit there so many incredible things u could do w that like Where do we go after colonial atrocities? is it possible for a settler colonial state to take revolutionary or indigenous ideas seriously? is liberal reform enough in a state like this? and then all the growth that korra could do going from a simple black and white life about mastering the elements to this messy complicated sociopolitical knot of a city? and all the different kinds of characters u could introduce in this city? like why would u EVER think that the most interesting characters that this story has to offer is a police chief a congressman and a billionaire????

but anyways. that’s what the Setting of my idealized version of lok is. as for the actual plot, it is as follows

it starts out similarly as the show. republic city is MUCH more fraught w political tension and violence and korra knows this but assumes that it’s just a matter of throwing a few gang leaders and corrupt officials in jail. tenzin manages to come see them in the south pole and intends give korra real lessons while he’s there but they receive news of a terrorist attack in republic city only a few days after he gets there so his family has to pack up and leave again.

korra stows away to republic city (katara catches her leaving and gives her blessing im a SUCKER for that moment). she does have a hard time adjusting but she doesn’t do what she did in the show lol the first person she meets in the city is this older woman who works on the docks, directs her to a place where she can eat and gives her a roof to sleep under for the first night. so korra’s first exposure to republic city is just about forming connections w ordinary people like ship workers and a family owned restaurant and people practicing their bending in the park. and by the time she reaches air temple island a day or so later her head is spinning w all this new information and the way that nothing is really what she expected it to be. tenzin gives her his own perspective on everything and pema gives her her own perspective on everything and even those two seem wildly different from all the people she’s already met. and so korra starts to get a kind of outline of the conflicts plaguing the city as extremely complex and a lot more influenced by older ideas of fire nation imperialism and earth kingdom land reclamation than she had any idea about.

mako and bolin are still pro benders but not like. super famous like they are in the show. korra’s picked up a couple friends by now and one of them takes her to a gym where a lot of amateur pro bending (is that an oxymoron? lol) matches happen and thats how she meets mako and bolin and joins their pro bending team. Unfortunately for korra, this gym is run by lin beifong, and also has the distinction of being one of the most notoriously anti settler state organizations in the country. lin beifong is NOT a cop but she runs this gym (and the pro bending league) as a way to offer support to local earth kingdom/water tribe youth, teach self defense skills, a center of community organizing, and sometimes to act as a front to hide revolutionary/combat organizing against the pro fire nation paramilitaries/police force. tenzin is DISTRAUGHT that korra does this and this is where the friction btwn them comes from bc (from tenzin’s perspective) she does things like this without thinking or even fully understanding the context behind them and tenzin will have to deal w the political fallout of the avatar openly aligning herself w a very divisive figure in the community and (from korra’s perspective) tenzin is too unwilling to take sides in a conflict that’s claiming lives and when the state is clearly not taking sufficient steps to protect people well then why the hell shouldnt she align herself w lin beifong, who IS taking steps to protect and support people?

as korra more fully integrates herself into the city and learns more abt how different people think abt everything going on this is where the real exposition abt the equalists begins. they’re a paramilitary group w an ideology thats gaining increasing support among middle/upper class fire nation people, esp nonbenders. on the face theyre abt putting checks on “bender oppression” but really it’s an excuse to persecute and surveil earthbenders waterbenders and airbenders, bc fire nation people have all this leftover fear about benders who arent fire nation Rising Up Against them and these people who r using their Savage Excuse for Bending to terrorize good innocent (fire nation) people. theres all too frequent terrorist attacks that the equalists claim credit for mostly against monuments to earth/water/air nation people and earth/water nation community centers (one like it was the event that forced tenzin back to republic city) but also like the govt doesnt take a lot of these seriously or if they do only a couple people are charged without doing damage to the entire organization

this is also around the time that they meet asami and she becomes part of their friend group. asami likes pro bending but her dad HATES it so she sneaks out to watch matches at lin beifong’s gym (korra says ironically like don’t u know how ~divisive~ that is and asami answers that the only reason its Not divisive is that gyms like beifongs are the only place where nobody recognizes her). and asami alongside korra is also kind of developing a more nuanced perspective on the city that she lives in cuz obviously the only worldview she’s ever been exposed to is her father’s right? and she keeps pushing it off making excuses not to bring mako and bolin and korra around to her house or even not to be seen w them in certain neighborhoods until they call her on it and she’s like Well honestly my dad might do something awful to u! and i dont wanna risk it!

and as time goes on we see more abt asami’s home life like her father’s hyper conservative politics and asami keeps these secrets abt her hobbies and her friends from him but she’s still clearly under his influence and mako bolin and korra r getting increasingly worried abt it cuz like...asami seems to tend to make excuses for him so that she wont have to be drawn into conflict and originally they think its just her being privileged and thats def part of it but the more they find out abt it the more they realize what a tight fucking grip he has on her and the way that like. asami sneaking out once or twice a week is the Only thing she does for herself. and it really starts freaking them out how influential this billionaire is and all the information theyre getting from asami abt what a piece of shit he clearly is. and so that whole plot thing comes about and shows us how deeply embedded these “equalist” ideas are in conservative republic city politics and how much influence theyre actually having in policy making and law enforcement.

asami suffers in the aftermath of this like being forced to truly confront the harm her father is doing both to the city and to herself. and she ends up leaving home when this discovery really breaks. but bc of the deep corruption in govt and police sato isn’t really....dealt with? like this big story breaks and everyones like Oh, My God! Hiroshi Sato Is Funding An Illegal Paramilitary Group! and theres all kinds of inane political discourse about it and he’s arrested but he bails himself out immediately and his finances are examined but he maintains control over them and after a few weeks the gang (bc they Have become close among all this w much less interpersonal drama lol) has to admit that this news story hasnt done what they thought it was going to it hasn’t dealt the equalists a real hit its just given them a very high profile ally

and this is when things really start to ramp up in terms of action like up until now korra’s daily activities are mostly like hanging around in the city w her friends  (which in part entails doing little avatar stuff that people dont feel comfortable going to police with, like Can you help me my ex husband wont pay child support or Please help i got robbed and i really needed that money for rent next month or Help my son keeps skipping school can you talk to him cuz im worried abt him being safe and doing well in school) and pro bending and airbending lessons (which i know ive neglected this part of the story in terms of her whole spiritual/physical conflict but it’s more of a subtle thing like it’s one of tenzin and korra’s more frequent arguments like tenzin says she needs to focus on spirituality and korra asks why she even needs to bc republic city is a sociopolitical problem not a spiritual one) but now the equalist threat seems to really be looming on every level of society like the storyline of equalists preventing pro bending matches happens here and everyones just at a total loss of what to do next. plus increasing and scary rhetoric about tenzin and his family that destroying the last airbenders is necessary to preserving the integrity of the united republic

and so theres the equalist takeover of the city. the people who are mostly resisting this are lin and ragtag group of people who have been resisting colonial rule for a long time (including suyin, who is part of a communist anti colonial community outside the city, because i said so and i think it would be fun), people who have been visiting her gym for years, members of her amateur pro bending league, plus asami and korra and tenzin. korra and tenzin have a sweet moment (bc they do genuinely care abt each other a lot even if their relationship has been marked w a lot of tension and arguing) where tenzin says like you know i think that ive lost focus on the kind of spirituality that might actually help you. korra says what do you mean? and tenzin kind of gestures to where theyre sitting with people buzzing around organizing to take care of innocents and civilians and to fight the equalists and he says this is a kind of spiritual too, isnt it?

and something something plot plot blah blah i havent decided on the details of the plot climax yet but that’s the climax of korra’s character development and what helps her connect w her spiritual side in order to protect the city: the realization that community is its own kind of spirituality. and it kind of represents the real development that i want her to have going from somebody who thinks that the world is divided into criminals and victims and she has to save the victims Into the kind of avatar who understands the people that she’s bound to serve. she becomes an avatar of the people!

and then happy ending lol korra and asami get together lin and tenzin reconcile after years of being at odds the show ends on a hopeful note that the inhabitants of republic city and the united republic as a whole Can move on from the scars of colonialism by reckoning w the remnants of fire nation colonial ideology and reparations to the earth kingdom people whose land this is and destruction of colonial systems that have maintained and enforced colonial violence all these years

[nothing-more-than-hot-leaf-juice]

okay so i never watched korra when it was airing but my friend told me about it and i Really dislike a lot of the post atla worldbuilding choices made in korra esp in regards to energybending and harmonic convergence also i find a Lot of the older gaang character choices Questionable that being said is it worth watching korra in ur opinion??

I personally liked LoK fine. I think it removed itself enough from AtLA with most of the gaang members being reduced to cameos, allowing for us to imagine their post-series life however we want. I get why some people don’t like it but I think it’s great as far as TV shows go. It’s important to remember that it’s a very different show from AtLa in terms of tone and story, which is completely fine. It’s stand alone and if there are aspects of it that you know about before watching it that you know are going to frustrate you, that’s completely valid and you shouldn’t watch it if you know you won’t like it based on those aspects. 

I really wish LoK had gotten more time to have the characters just get time to interact and have arcs that lasted more than one season. Having 13 episodes instead of 20 meant that they had to spend most of the time on plot and action and I wish they had spent more time on some filler stuff or minor plots that furthered character arcs and developed relationships. There’s kind of a love triangle that’s painfully awkward but it’s easy to skip around. Something that’s VERY important to remember is that LoK had a bunch of production bs and they basically didn’t know when they were going to get cancelled so they treated every season like it could be their last, meaning they couldn’t have arcs or stories that lasted more than 1 season, which is a shame because AtLA did that so well. 

Things I like in LoK that I think make it worth watching (an incomplete list bc there’s honestly a lot of cool stuff): 

Lin Beifong metalbending, especially in season 1 

The concept of metalbending and how it would logically affect how the world works 

Bolin, aka the Himbo of my Heart 

Varrick and the general everything about him 

Jinora being really fucking good at airbending. Love her. That scene where she gets her tattoos? I cried a little ngl 

I honestly really liked how political it was. AtLA was political, but the entire series took place during a fantastical war. LoK really dives into the sociological repercussions of the fantasy elements of the show and the events of not only the events of LoK, but of the universe in general. Like they FINALLY address how bad the Earth Kingdom monarchy is at its job and address the political repercussions of a monarchy with all the political power but zero interest in the people of their kingdom. 

That being said, I love Prince Wu with my whole ass and heart. He is the King of the Badgermoles and I love watching him slowly get more competent as season 4 goes on. 

Zuko just shows up for a combined total of maybe 5 minutes in season 3 and 1) has a cool dragon, 2) does some cool firebending, and 3) makes a joke about Combustion Man. Then he just flies off to do his own thing. Perfect Cameo. Iconic. 

The anarchist antagonists in season 3. They raised MANY good points and kind of fit in a grey area, which I think we needed more of in avatar. They had cool aesthetics and were all specialized benders and their respective prison breaks? So cool. 

 baby!sky bison 

There are two episodes in season 2 just telling the story of how the first avatar came to be that just adds a really cool worldbuilding aspect to the universe, I think you can just watch these on their own if the series as a whole doesn’t appeal to you 

There’s a scene where Bumi goes to talk to Aang’s statue at the Southern Air Temple that made me cry a little bit 

Bumi just being cool as a nonbender in general 

lots of cool action, expansion of bending (lavabending, bloodbending, metalbending, etc.) 

Seeing the Air Nomads come back maybe not in the traditional sense, but deciding to use their abilities to bring peace and harmony to the world just as Aang would have wanted is just really cathartic 

Iroh II’s introduction in season 1: dante basco voice acting + cool Azula-like firebending flying + Zuko-like parkour in the sky? Love it. 

cool character designs all around 

the SOUNDTRACK oh my godddddd

[loving-jack-kelly]

yoooo i finished white collar last night after u were talking abt it and binging like the whole damn thing in a few weeks so tysm for the rec!! 🙏 very much garbage (affectionate) which is exactly what i needed 😅 what are ur thoughts on the ending tho? i didn’t get it— like i like that it was a bit of a “...“ ending but /spoilers neal ditching nyc and his friends, esp after the outcome of the cape verde arc, seemed like it didn’t end his character arc well? and ig i get faking ur death to avoid the pink panthers’ wrath, but why keep it from peter or mozzie? and only for a yr?? for the Drama?? 😅

caterpillar anon look away spoilers ahead lmao

I actually love the ending! I think it made a lot of sense with Neal's character because the entire Panthers storyline kept hammering in the fact that they wouldn’t just go after the mole, they’d go after everyone the mole cared about. I think that it’s been made really clear through the entire show starting with the Kate arc that Neall would go through hell and back for the people he cares about. Like he was willing to put himself back in jail for another four years just for the slight possibility of seeing Kate again, and that was all the way back in season one.

Through the entire show, you get to see Neal letting the people around him in and dropping his walls around them more and more. From the start of the show, it’s obvious how much faith Neal has in Mozzie, and by the sixth season, it’s clear they consider each other family. The Burkes, too, Neal has solidly and completely added to his life. He would do anything to keep them safe. All the way back in season three he was willing to give up the treasure and get himself sent back to prison to keep Elizabeth safe, and they’re even closer by the time Neal and Peter bring down the Panthers.

Neal doesn’t have anything to gain by faking his own death. It’s not like he’s sitting on a treasure like he used to be, and it’s not like he really benefits from escaping, because he had an ironclad release contract that he knows would have been honored. But he has a lot to lose if the Panthers realize it was him and not Keller who ultimately sold them out. Sure, there’s a good chance that might not happen, but if it does, and they send somebody after Mozzie or Peter or Elizabeth or the baby, he would never be able to forgive himself. To him, it’s a lose-lose situation. Stay in New York a free man and either lose the people he cares about or never be able to stop looking over his shoulder in case they’re after him or leave everyone behind knowing that they’re safe. And fundamentally, Neal isn’t a selfish person. He’d rather everyone be safe without him, even if it hurts to leave him behind, than stay and be happy with an ever-looming danger over all their heads.

Back in season one, Neal might have chosen to stay and scheme around whatever the Panthers might plan, because back in season one Neal didn’t care about them as much as he’s grown to, and back in season one Neal still felt invincible. But he isn’t, and by season six, he loves Mozzie and the Burkes and even to some extent the entire white-collar division and has seen how dangerous his enemies can be and he can look at them and look at himself and know that if a group as powerful as the Panthers is gunning for the people he loves, he won’t be able to outsmart them. It took the full force of the FBI, Neal, and Mozzie to bring them down in the first place, and that was when they were playing subtle. The Panthers have nothing to lose now that they’ve been caught, so why should they keep playing subtle? They won’t, and Neal knows that his strengths are in the con, not in evading a bloodthirsty and very angry gang of very smart, very influential men.

Neal’s entire character arc has been realizing that sometimes, there are situations you can’t just charm your way out of. He’s dug himself into so many holes that he wouldn't have ever gotten out of if it weren’t for Peter and Mozzie, and now it’s his turn to get them out of the hole he’s accidentally dug for them. If the Panthers figure out who Neal is and what he’s done, he’s almost definitely sentenced all his loved ones to death. On the other hand, if they think he got himself killed as a direct result of what he pulled, why do they care? They figure out Neal is the mole, hear that Neal got himself killed while trying to make a getaway with the money he stole from them, they don’t look further into it because karma did their job for them, and they never go after Peter or find Mozzie or get anywhere near Elizabeth and the baby, and so they’re all safe.

As for why he kept it a secret for a year, I think it was out of necessity. Mozzie has proved that he’ll follow Neal no matter what. They’ve fully earned each others’ loyalty, and they’re a package deal. So if Mozzie knew right away, he would have been in Paris in an instant, and anybody who knew them would have been able to guess why. Peter would have tried to talk Neal out of it, tried to convince him that there was no danger and everything would be fine, and I genuinely think that if Peter had tried it would have worked, and Neal knew that too. He didn’t want to leave New York, but he felt like he had to, and part of that was keeping Peter in the dark so Peter couldn’t even try to convince him otherwise. I mean, in season two he admits that he almost stayed when Peter asked before the plane blew up, and that was long before they were at the point in their relationship they’re at by the end of season six.

Neal left Mozzie the clues because he did want to see Mozzie again, he just needed it to be far enough in the future that people wouldn’t connect the dots between his “death” and Mozzie’s sudden move to Europe. I also believe that Neal didn’t leave the bottle or tell Mozzie to leave the bottle for Peter, I think Mozzie realized that Peter wouldn’t turn on Neal now and would let him have his new life in Paris, but also wanted Peter to know that Neal wasn’t dead, because it’s clearly still affecting him and El (flashback to Neal playing with the ball anyone? like if u cry every time). Peter finding the storage container and seeing Neal’s plan all neatly laid out for anybody who found it to see is a clear departure from a Neal who would have wanted it to genuinely stay a secret. Looking at the wall of pictures and the clear plans, it’s obvious that he wanted whoever found it to know exactly what he’d done, and he trusted that when Mozzie (and eventually Peter) did find it, he’d keep it a secret and also figure out why Neal had done it.

Which, again, wasn’t selfishness, it was the exact opposite. Neal’s last big con wasn’t for money, or reputation, or to solve a crime, it was to protect the people he cares about.

[nealiios]

The Supernatural 70s: Part I - Corruption of An Innocent

"We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us - we're soldiers writers."

-- with apologies to the screenwriter of "Stripes"

Dear reader, I have the darkest of revelations to make to you, a truth when fully and wholly disclosed shall most assuredly chill you to the bone, a tale that shall make you question all that you hold to be true and good and holy about my personal history. While you may have come in search of that narrative designer best known for his works of interactive high fantasy, you should know that he is also a crafter of a darker art, a scribbler of twisted tales filled with ghosts, and ghouls, and gargoyles. I am, dear innocent, a devotee of horrors! Mwahahahaha!

[cue thunderclap, lightning, pipe organ music]

Given the genre of writing for which most of you know me, I forgive you if you think of me principally as a fantasy writer. I don't object to that classification because I do enjoy mucking about with magic and dark woods and mysterious ancient civilizations. But if you are to truly know who I am as a writer, you must realize that the image I hold of myself is principally as a creator of weird tales.

To understand how and why I came to be drawn to this sub-genre of fantastic fiction, you first must understand that I come from peculiar folks. Maybe I don't have the Ipswich look, or I didn't grow up in a castle, but my pedigree for oddity has been there from the start. My mother was declared dead at birth by her doctor, and often heard voices calling to her in the dead of night that no one else could hear. Her mother would periodically ring us up to discuss events in our lives about which she couldn't possibly have known. My father's people still share ghost stories about a family homestead that burned down mysteriously in the 1960s. Even my older brother has outré memories about events he says cannot possibly be true, and as a kid was kicked off the Tulsa city bookmobile for attempting to check out books about UFOs, bigfoot, and ESP. It's fair to say I was doomed - or destined - for weirdness from the start.

If the above listed circumstances had not been enough, I grew up in an area where neighbors whispered stories about a horrifically deformed Bulldog Man who stalked kids who "parked" on the Old North Road near my house. The state in which I was raised was rife with legends of bigfoots, deer women, and devil men. Even in my childhood household there existed a pantheon of mythological entities invented explicitly to keep me in line. If I was a good boy, The Repairman would leave me little gifts of Hot Wheels cars or candy. If I was being terrible, however, my father would dress in a skeleton costume, rise from the basement and threaten to drag me down into everlasting hellfire (evidently there was a secret portal in our basement.) There were monsters, monsters EVERYWHERE I looked in my childhood world. Given that I was told as a fledgling writer to write what I knew, how could anyone have been surprised that the first stories I wrote were filled with the supernatural?

"The Nightmare" by John Henry Fuseli (1781)

My formative years during the late sixties and early seventies took place at a strange juncture in our American cultural history. At the same time that we were loudly proclaiming the supremacy of scientific thought because we'd landed men on the moon, we were also in the midst of a counter cultural explosion of interest in astrology, witchcraft, ghosts, extra sensory perception, and flying saucers. Occult-related books were flying off the shelves as sales surged by more than 100% between 1966 and 1969. Cultural historians would come to refer to this is as the "occult boom," and its aftershocks would impact popular cultural for decades to come.

My first contact with tales of the supernatural were innocuous, largely sanitized for consumption by children. I vividly remember watching Casper the Friendly Ghost and the Disney version of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I read to shreds numerous copies of both Where the Wild Things Are and Gus the Ghost. Likely the most important exposure for me was to the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? cartoon which attempted to inoculate us from our fears of ghosts and aliens by convincing us that ultimately the monster was always just a bad man in a mask. (It's fascinating to me that modern incarnations of Scooby Doo seem to have completely lost this point and instead make all the monsters real.)

ABOVE: Although the original cartoon Scooby Doo, Where Are You? ran only for one season from 1969 to 1970, it remained in heavy reruns and syndication for decades. It is notable for having been a program that perfectly embodied the conflict between reason and superstition in popular culture, and was originally intended to provide children with critical thinking skills so they would reject the idea of monsters, ghosts, and the like. Ironically, modern takes on Scooby Doo have almost entirely subverted this idea and usually present the culprits of their mysteries as real monsters.

During that same time, television also introduced me to my first onscreen crush in the form of the beautiful and charming Samantha Stevens, a witch who struggles to not to use her powers while married to a frequently intolerant mortal advertising executive in Bewitched. The Munsters and The Addams Family gave me my first taste for "goth" living even before it would become all the rage in the dance clubs of the 1980s. Late night movies on TV would bring all the important horror classics of the past in my living room as Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Godzilla all became childhood friends. Over time the darkened castles, creaking doors, foggy graveyards, howling wolves, and ever present witches and vampires became so engrained in my psyche that today they remain the "comfort viewing" to which I retreat when I'm sick or in need of other distractions from modern life.

ABOVE: Elizabeth Montgomery starred in Bewitched (1964 - 1972) as Samantha Stephens, a witch who married "mortal" advertising executive Darren Stephens (played for the first five seasons by actor Dick York). Inspired by movies like I Married a Witch (1942) and Bell, Book and Candle (1958), it was a long running series that explored the complex relationship dynamics between those who possess magic and those who don't. Social commentators have referred to it as an allegory both for mixed marriages and also about the challenges faced by minorities, homosexuals, cultural deviants, or generally creative folks in a non heterogeneous community. It was also one of the first American television programs to portray witches not as worshippers of Satan, but simply as a group of people ostracized for their culture and their supernatural skills.

Even before I began elementary school, there was one piece of must-see gothic horror programming that I went out of my way to catch every day. Dark Shadows aired at 3:30 p.m. on our local ABC affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma which usually allowed me to catch most of it if I ran home from school (or even more if my mom or brother picked me up.) In theory it was a soap opera, but the show featured a regular parade of supernatural characters and themes. The lead was a 175 year old vampire named Barnabas Collins (played by Johnathan Frid), and the show revolved around his timeless pursuit of his lost love, Josette. It was also a program that regularly dealt with reincarnation, precognition, werewolves, time travel, witchcraft, and other occult themes. Though it regularly provoked criticism from religious groups about its content, it ran from June of 1966 until it's final cancellation in April of 1971. (I would discover it in the early 1970s as it ran in syndication.) Dark Shadows would spin off two feature-length movies based on the original, a series of tie-in novels, an excellent reboot series in 1991 (starring Ben Cross as Barnabas), and a positively embarrassingly awful movie directed by Tim Burton in 1991.

ABOVE: Johnathan Frid starred as Barnabas Collins, one of the leading characters of the original Dark Shadows television series. The influence of the series cannot be understated. In many ways Dark Shadows paved the way for the inclusion of supernatural elements in other soap operas of the 1970s and the 1980s, and was largely responsible for the explosion of romance novels featuring supernatural themes over the same time period.

While Dark Shadows was a favorite early television program for me, another show would prove not only to be a borderline obsession, but also a major influence on my career as a storyteller. Night Gallery (1969-1973) was a weekly anthology television show from Rod Serling, better known as the creator and host of the original Twilight Zone. Like Twilight Zone before it, Night Gallery was a deep and complex commentary on the human condition, but unlike its predecessor the outcomes for the characters almost always skewed towards the horrific and the truly outré. In "The Painted Mirror," an antiques dealer uses a magic painting to trap an enemy in the prehistoric past. Jack Cassidy plots to use astral projection to kill his romantic rival in "The Last Laurel" but accidentally ends up killing himself. In "Eyes" a young Stephen Spielberg directs Joan Crawford in a story about an entitled rich woman who plots to take the sight of a poor man. Week after week it delivered some of the best-written horror television of the early 1970s.

In retrospect I find it surprising that I was allowed to watch Night Gallery at all. I was very young while it was airing, and some of the content was dark and often quite shocking for its time. Nevertheless, I was so attached to the show that I'd throw a literal temper tantrum if I missed a single, solitary episode. If our family needed to go somewhere on an evening that Night Gallery was scheduled, either my parents would either have to wait until after it had aired before we left, or they'd make arrangements in advance with whomever we were visiting to make sure it was okay that I could watch Night Gallery there. I was, in a word, a fanatic.

ABOVE: Every segment of Night Gallery was introduced by series creator Rod Serling standing before a painting created explicitly for the series. Director Guillermo del Toro credits Serling's series as being the most important and influential show on his own work, even more so than the more famous Twilight Zone.

[xiaosean]

why you should watch douluo continent

the drama adaptation is such a good rendition of “soul land” and stayed true to the plot line and character development. it was fast-paced (perfect for me) but may be confusing for those who don’t know the story. i personally love the donghua, and i think the drama did an adequate job of portraying everything in their own way 😁 (read at your own discretion; this contains spoilers)

things i liked:

initially, i didn’t like the dreamscape bc wtf is it doing there? why is he hearing his mom’s voice in episode 1 (it just kills the entire momentum of the plot); and then after i got to episode 39... fucking ep. 39, i knew the dreamscape needed to be there in order to save tang san’s life; mr. wang who wrote the script, props to you.

the cgi 🥰✨ i had really low expectations bc if there’s shitty cgi like cql... i wouldn’t be able to handle it. but it’s so good ??? please, i know the ape soul beast was small and funny looking (bc they had to spend money on the water dragon lmao), but other than that, it was so good and how each and every character’s powers were able to shine

le outfits + makeup - they’re not super pale 😭😭😭 finally !!! and the outfits are so nice, SO SO NICE, each and every character holy hell

how they changed hu liena’s (aka. qian renxue) role in the drama --- she’s my fav female antagonist; she’s so good here, her character was annoying at first, but she’s so dynamic and independent, and just wants to impress her mom. you see her helping tang san + his squad during the last 5 eps because SHE CARES about her mom despite her strict upbringing 🥺 her and tang san have a ship name called 糖葫芦 (candied hawthorns) and i think that’s so cute hehe

the seven devils 😂 i loved the seven devils in this adaptation almost as much as i loved them in the donghua; each and every character got their own storyline, they’re not boring nor do they draw attention away from the tang san’s main plot, and you see so much development (esp. in ou sike and dai mubai)

headmaster, da shi, and er long trio! 黄金铁三角 iconic and they captured it so well 😭 they chose the actor for the headmaster so freaking well i’m screaming! he loves money so much and his little facial expressions as a third wheel is everything, the comedic relief! and da shi... i see y’all thirsting over calvin chen okay 😌 he’s so much better in the drama tbh & er long is majestic and amazingly powerful and cunning, i love her !!! and props to luo san pao, the best doggo ever!

the seniors! they basically perfected tang san’s relationship with dugu bo... it was antagonistic at first, but then they became besties over poison 😭❤️ i loved dugu bo’s character in here bc he was so funny & didn’t get social cues LMAO // the ape soul master was brief but he honestly made my day with how much he respected the tang family & how he took care of his father back in the day // 七宝琉璃 squad was also 🥰 (less hot than in the donghua lol) but they also somehow made jian yeye the comedic relief? i love how they’re so accepting of ou sike despite him being a support soul master

tang san’s mom - i can only hear her voice, but she made me cry & i love her for that

tang san ❤️❤️❤️ xiao zhan’s voice over just blended in with his character & it was just so wonderful; tang san in the donghua was smart, so fucking smart, cunning, but the kindest at heart; xiao zhan truly portrayed that and my most memorable part was when da shi said “your only flaw is that you let your emotions get the best of you” (this is so important), and you see him later try to control his emotions and not act rashly, especially when confronted with 时年 & 比比东 --- also crying scenes 11/10

bibi dong powerful, POWERFUL WOMAN, props to her voice actress, i got chills when she said, “��根本没有资格知道” // tang hao, wow he’s just like i imagined, but i wish he was a little more emotional in ep. 1 bc the blue silver plant in tang san is essentially his lover’s martial soul

how the concept of family was generated within the shi lan ke academy squad 🥺 it’s such a feel good drama, istg, makes you so happy when you’re having a bad day ✨

things i didn’t like:

xiao wu’s character portrayal (the scriptwriter’s fault, not xuanyi) // i honestly let it slide for the first 10 episodes bc i usually start falling for a character later on, it’s normal; but drama xiao wu didn’t fulfill the 小舞姐 in my heart 😔 i get that many people like her, but it’s not the same! xiao wu in donghua is beautiful, independent, and outspoken, BUT MOST OF ALL HER LOVE FOR TANG SAN IS OBVIOUS, you don’t need to say “一起去” every other line in the drama; i think this could have been remedied if they stayed true to the storyline and let tang san enter the secret dimension alone, bring the mythical herbs back, and have xiao wu prick herself to activate 相思断肠红 (they completely butchered the significance of the flower i’m so angry; fyi: the flower can only belong to you if your heart loves one person --- there’s the most beautiful backstory to the flower but drama douluo said nah). also, drama xiao wu is so clingy and she started exposing herself from the beginning... no momentum build-up whatsoever 😔 it’s 斗罗大陆, not 斗罗大陆: 小舞传 and sometimes it felt like she was being so insistent on following tang san around, i’m just 😓 

the whole canghui academy scheme --- it was confusing for 10 eps straight until they got to the end of it, but I guess the drama wanted to add that part in because they wanted to focus less on the competition and more on 变异武魂 (the mutated martial souls) in order to defeat bibi dong

how the beginning was so confusing 😫 i wish they just stuck with child tang san remembering his past life as a disciple in tang clan & then learning 玄天宝录 on his own bc that was such a great part of his character development + understanding of soul masters/their weaknesses; and the fact that he would rely less on his parents 

the kiss + confession at ep. 40 // could have done w/o it or even a simple forehead kiss; the confession from tang san was way too quick considering there’s little to no emotional build-up towards that moment (other than bibi dong doing all the work like the queen she is) and there’s no surprise element either? like we’ve been knew she’s a soul beast since ep. 5 🥲 and the kiss was awkward & like i said, sanwu’s love doesn’t need words or actions to confirm... it’s this innate thing that the audience should be able to see (if the scriptwriters focused a little more on BIG plot points that boost the sanwu relationship, then it would have been perfect) ^^ i wish they spent more time on the romantic aspect of the relationship bc even after 30 eps, they seem like siblings when OP said They’re Not.

overall thoughts:

this is purely my opinion, so please take it with a grain of salt! the cons imo were minor except for the development of the sanwu relationship; it doesn’t seem like romance to me 😔 but hopefully it’ll get better in the (maybe) second season when they take some time apart to grow? i’m surprised how much they referenced the original story (characters and such), and i am thoroughly impressed with WHERE THEY ENDED IT, and how they rounded all the new/old plot points together in a way that makes sense. i also don’t hate any of the antagonists, which is why this drama is so lighthearted and easy to watch. it’s not emotionally taxing (sans tang san crying bc xz breaks me heart 😭💕), and safe + enjoyable to watch with family! you’re gonna miss it once it ends, and i think that makes a drama successful 😁 also i’m not gonna go into depth about the mysterious ending bc i might spoil it for those who want to watch the donghua LMAO (but if you want to know my theories, shoot me an ask)

[jostenneil]

hi! Thank you so much for taking the time to recommend all those small town books and adding your thoughts and descriptions of them! It helps so much. I’m adding them to my list, I’m so excited! Also, if it’s no trouble, can you also recommend me dramas or tv shows with this narrative? I’ve been wanting a new show to watch :D

SOOO as i am sure you've seen over the course of the past few days,

hometown cha cha cha - a new gem that is absolutely fantastic to me. it's about a dentist who loses her job and takes a trip to a seaside city for some perspective, only to end up moving there and set up a dental clinic in semblance of a fresh start. the problem is that she's a city girl, and this isn't the city. there's a lot of preconceived notions that she has about the people in town, as do they about her, and so far the show has been a slow and steady practice in the kindness and patience we learn to emulate when meeting new people and understanding that they are as troubled and hopeful in their own lives as we are. also, the romance thus far is positively swoonworthy. i went into an emotional crisis last night over it

into the ring - another kdrama fave that i was positively obsessed with last year. it centers on the politics of a small town, and how a girl who is notorious for making (rightful) complaints to city hall ends up running as a district representative. initially this is only something she does bc she's in desperate need of money, but the mc has so much inherent love for her town that she ends up being a pretty proactive representative anyway. her relationship with one of the people who fields complaint calls at city hall is also a focus, and it's one of the most tenderly developed romances i've seen in a long time. there's just a lot of care and attention to detail in the show that makes your wholehearted investment worth it. every character brings something unique to the table

anne with an e - obviously if i was going to rec the book series then i was going to rec the show as well lol! if we are going to be completely technical then admittedly i do think the sullivan movies have the best portrayals of anne and gilbert as well as the best depiction of their romance (esp in the sense of accuracy, the third movie aside), but the more recent show i think does a better job of staying true to the books' nature of investing in a full cast. it really captures that homey, small town feel that i so love, and i think it expands on the cast in ways that other adaptations haven't really cared to

gilmore girls - admittedly i don't know that i need to include this bc i think everyone knows this is the go-to small town show. but nonetheless. there is a lot about the show that has aged poorly over the years (namely how enjoyable rory is as a character, which is. . . very little unfortunately as seasons go by) but i still think it possesses a lot of small town charm, esp in its comedy. the way everyone's lives just seamlessly interweave in stars hollow is both incredibly real but also ridiculously funny bc sometimes overlaps in episode plot points are so obscure as to be bizarre. i genuinely think it's a really enjoyable show up through the fourth season (the affair plot point aside)

sweet magnolias - this is a new show that started airing last year but oh my god! the level of invested i was as i watched it was so crazy. the plot touches on a lot of different characters but it centers itself in the friendship between three women who are each dealing with their own struggles and decide to open a spa together as a sort of healing project. the character arcs aren't particularly unique but everyone is nonetheless so endearing and i really appreciate how almost every character is human. like i think a lot of shows with teens can tend to make them out as unforgivable esp bc it's so common for adults to portray them these days, but the teens in this show are actually teens, and i like that they're given opportunities to grow and change in spite of mistakes they may make. i rly value those kind of narratives and overall the atmosphere of the show was just very healing. also heather headley is so damn pretty i was completely enamored with her the whole season

everwood - little to no one has heard of this show likely bc it started airing at around the same time as the oc and one tree hill and i mean. obv it was going to be overlooked in comparison. but personally i love it a lot! the initial plot's about this kid ephram who's just lost his mom and moves to colorado with his dad and sister. his dad worked a lot before his mom's death and as such ephram doesn't really have much of a relationship with him, so rebuilding that is a huge focus. there's also amy, aka the girl ephram likes, who's dealing with some trauma of her own bc her brother landed her boyfriend in a coma. there's a lot of baggage in this show re: death and i think there's a sadness that really permeates the atmosphere, but not in a way that's disconcerting per se. it's just real. it gets down to the ugliness and loneliness of trauma, esp wrt the teen characters, and i really appreciate that. the only major flaw is there's a plot point where ephram dates his college babysitter who is in college and gets her pregnant although his dad scares her off so he never finds out. but we ignore that

friday night lights - as someone who was in marching band and could still not for the life of me tell you what is what in football, this show is so damn good. it's about a rural texas town exclusively driven by its football team, except this year, the first game starts off with the star player being paralyzed from the waste down, putting a number of different people on the spot: the star player's girlfriend, his best friend, the new head coach, the runner-up qb who has never actually played a real game. i think anyone who watches the show ends up watching it for a specific character or dynamic but at the core it's just about the like. inherent goodness of people. like some of these people make mistakes due to pressure or grief but most of them are irrevocably human and that's what drives the show forward, as do the unlikely but endearing relationships formed between various people in the town. my personal favorite dynamic is between tim and lyla, who are in a bit of a unique place as the best friend and boyfriend of the injured star player

i hope you enjoy! let me know if you try any of them hehe

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

I love the purgatory prayer for the Emotions and acting choices. But at the same time, I'm really bothered by the implications that it was wrong and unreasonable of Dean to be upset about his mother's death and he should apologise for that. I mean, apologising for your behaviour is great, but that's his mom, and Cas did fuck up in this situation, Dean had every right to be pissed! Esp since it all really happened not so long ago.

Idk, that's probably my problem with the whole Beren's anger arc in s13-15: they repeatedly gave Dean very good reasons for anger (bc he's still a protagonist), but then turned around and acted like he's crazy for expressing or even feeling it. It just doesn't sit right with me. Also, it felt kind of redundant after the MoC plot, which was also about Dean's rage. And tbh, to me, MoC storyline handled this theme (for the most part) better.

Sorry for ranting in your ask box, you are my fave meta writer in this fandom, and it's always interesting to see your pov on different aspects of the show.

Thank you ^-^

I agree! It’s actually curious that you bring up the MoC arc because earlier I was thinking about it... That was different, because the “rage” was programmaticly trauma. In the Carver era Dean’s mirrors are characters like Claire, Amara, characters who lash out from a place of pain and betrayal. That was clear and intentional.

The narrative drastically shifted at a certain point from “the MoC draws from your inner darkness” (which was more in line with the “dark variation on fantasy” thing they played with back then) to “the MoC draws from the Darkness” but at the end of the day it doesn’t really change much, because Dean and Amara are the same. In Supernatural’s horror variation on the fantasy classic, there’s no clear lines drawn between who’s Frodo and who’s Gollum and who’s the Ring, because there’s no magical source of evil, but evil is trauma. (But Dean is definitely Frodo, who gets his return to the Shire at the end that he can never quite enjoy because everything’s changed - I’m pretty sure it was planned all along that Mary wouldn’t be The Perfect Mother, because she was supposed to be Frodo’s return home, things can never be the same after the journey. But I don’t think Mary was supposed to just get killed like that.)

The Jack arc feels different because Dean also lashes out from pain and trauma, but somehow the narrative is not compassionate to him. The narrative of the Carver is kind to Dean, it gives him the return home at the end.

Now, people have been making jokes and memes about Dean in the Jack arc - how he was basically the man resentful at the child for killing the wife in childbirth, how he was “baby trapped”, how he and Cas were respectively husband-coded and wife-coded... well, that’s not an incorrect assessment...? Dean was painted as an angry man, you know? Not as a villain, of course, because it was still acknowledged that his anger came from a place of pain and trauma, but in a way where he cannot understand his feelings and doesn’t really have much to write home about in the emotional intelligence department.

The Carver era painted Dean as a wronged woman in pain slash Frodo who thinks he’s Gollum or even the Ring itself, the last seasons painted Dean as an angry man who somewhat can’t recognize that anger comes from trauma. (I’ve always said that the tragedy of Dean is that Dean is aware. And the tragedy comes from the helplessness. That’s how I read him, at least.)

Obviously not all writers write Dean the same which results in a picture more complex than this, but this at least is the general gist of it, imo. Or, at least, this is one side of the issue.

The other side of the issue, as you point out, is that the narrative doesn’t seem to allow Dean his feelings. I don’t know if it’s a reaction to the Carver’s era tendency to write Sam as vaguely unsympathetic and Cas as chronically suffering from bad decision syndrome, but possibly - Sam is now the sympathetic one (at least in theory, because Dean always defies intentions...) and Cas is Definitely Taking The Right Decisions. So everything regarding Jack is The Right Decision, because Jack Is Good And Will Save The World, and Dean... Dean is chronically wrong and an ass because he doesn’t quite jump on the wagon. (Despite being cool with getting on the wagon on his own terms, based on his own assessments.)

Jack is repeatedly shown as naive and dangerously easy to manipulate for the wrong things, and hardly in control of his hyper-powerful powers, but if Dean expresses reservations then he’s chastized for it, despite having all the reasons to be terrified of what Jack can potentially do.

But first Sam projects himself on Jack (and when that happens there’s no escape from it, Dean is the asshole ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) and then Cas is Totally Right This Time, so Dean should not be a dick and definitely should not experience grief and trauma in ways we don’t like. Only Good(TM) trauma survivors allowed.