#fav character in the whole pilot

[stepperthenobody]

I watched the pilot a week ago and I already love him- He’s so baby girl material-

(First time trying to draw chess piece middle aged dude)

Dead wife 😀

Dead wife 2 😀

I like drawing tired chess pieces and chess pieces couples 🙂 AAAAA THEY’RE SO C00T ❤️❤️

Full page ✨✨

Anyways I will draw more of them in the future-

[sidsinning]

I watched the Hazbin thing

It's not bad at all, most of the songs are really catchy, the universe and plot are both interesting, the characters are quirky and distinct. I am excited to watch the next batch of eps when I have caught up.

- it just feels super rushed? Tonally gave me whiplash at times too (please work on the transitions from dialogue to song 😭🙏) (Stayed Gone is perfect I ain't talkin about you dear)

I think it's bc this was made with the already existing fans of the lore and pilot in mind who were waiting for the answers to questions they've had for years about twists, theories, character motivations, etc. (Also feels like the characters are established in a way the show expects you to know who they are already)

Personally I enjoy the whole demon extermination plot but I wanna get comfortable with the hotel itself first and it feels like we haven't done that

Also sidenote does it make sense when I say this show is very Tumblr-coded

It's not a positive or negative just a vibe descriptor I'm a resident here as well

My fav is Alastor

ALSO

I very much appreciate an American adult cartoon that actually wants to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye

It's not ugly yay

[dykedvonte]

I keep seeing fanarts of ppl's OC's being on the ship, so do you think that if there was 6st crewmember (specifically, another woman) Anya would've been more safe? Like, someone to actually call Jimmy's begaviour out, someone Anya might wanna trust? Is there a possibility something might have changed (even if a little) or it would not have mattered at all?

-💀

I feel like the game would make it part of the commentary on where she would believe and help Anya but still be sort of dismissive? Like the whole “don’t waste time crying and being scared keep going and move on, don’t let him win”. It’s supposed to be positive and reinforcing but sometimes it does more damage in those times of mourning and grief, it feels patronizing, like you don’t understand what you’re going through but they do. Even if they did call out his behavior it’s still on Curly to act and while another voice would help, it’s still 4 against 2 on guys that don’t get it until they have to vs women who always have to.

I don’t mind mouthwashing OCs but I do get a bit bored as they tend to be borderline saviors or like Jimmy aligned. They are either more complicit than Curly or just Jimmy haters for no reason, outside of what the creators know about what he did to Anya. I am never irked by OCs but in a story like mouthwashing you really need to think about what your character adds to the commentary, especially if they are there during the crash. It’s nice to have like characters on Anya’s side more whole heartedly and interesting to see characters who placate Jimmy but sometimes it’s one note.

I can’t and don’t want to police peoples OCs it’s never my intention when I comment on trends I notice, but I do feel like the way people make their OCs interact with these two characters and especially Curly, really show a grave misunderstanding of the narrative and these characters as people vs roles in the story. Still, I know people just make up characters for fun and that’s fine. Great even, but I guys I’m focusing more on OCs that are supposed to have those serious dynamics. My favs tend to be pretty-Tulpar or post-Tulpar au OCs.

The inevitably of the crash is on Jimmy. He did that not because he wasn’t stopped but because all his means to kill Anya were taken. The gun, the axe. Even if Curly did strip him of his co-pilot privileges and try to keep him contained there’s only so many people. An extra body helps but they have jobs they have to do, he’s the only one steering the whole ship and Jimmy would likely have an out: food, bathroom, etc. He’s not new and if he couldn’t crash the ship directly, who’s to say he wouldn’t sabotage something else? A clunker like the Tulpar wouldn’t take much. An extra person helps but it’s just another thing that prolongs what a person like Jimmy is willing to do to shirk responsibility.

It’s more than just needing someone to stand up to him and think that’s what is missing when it comes to inserting a character into the mouthwashing setting.

[frogsndogs]

So recently I watched this pilot short: Epilogue of endings. It’s about 12 minutes long, created by a group of animation students over a single summer. I had never heard of the project before it showed up in my youtube recommended.

It changed my brain chemistry. I watched it 9 days ago and I can’t stop thinking about it to save my life. The music? Spectacular. The voice acting? Perfect. The art? astounding. The characters? I’m already emotionally attached. Hotel? Trivago.

Listen, I don’t tend to watch of a lot of things anymore unless I’m with other people, and I have this weird thing about engaging in new media, I think because a lot of what I’ve been watching recently has been kinda disappointing, or very… I don’t know… it’s hard to describe. It just feels like a lot of studios are making characters shallower, relationships strained, and half-assing their world building. A lot of media that I’ve taken in recently is trying very hard to make itself seem edgy and serious and that’s not what I want right now and definitely not what I need.

But this 12 minute pilot? This is everything I never knew I needed. The characters feel like real people, with complex motivations and interpersonal relationships. They’re flawed, but they’re trying their best with the situation that they have. They have things, other people that they care about and would fight for, they have motivations and backstories that you can see the breadcrumbs of, but have not been revealed yet, and the breadcrumbs are so good you can’t wait for the whole loaf. The world-building is exquisite, built up enough that you can see the beginning, but still drawing you in with more questions. 

I have a more detailed review under the cut, with SPOILERS, but I highly recommend that you go watch the pilot. It’s 12 minutes of time well spent in my opinion.

So the first scene. We’re introduced to Lucy, Blu and CG. I think Blu is already my fav, lol. In this scene, we see the three characters playing eye-spy while walking through a forest. It’s a pretty innocuous scene if we didn’t pan up to the sky and see the sun having broken open and Lucy becoming emotional over having to leave town, and presumably the rest of her life behind. Blu doesn’t answer her.

So Lucy clearly doesn’t know what’s going on, and I’m wondering if Blu has limited information himself. Maybe even Blu doesn’t know why or how any of this is happening. Maybe Blu literally can’t answer her question because he doesn’t have the answers. Maybe it hurts, being so helpless and out of control, so he’s in denial to a certain extent, trying to pretend that everything is fine. He’s trying to keep this little girl, happy and safe and alive, while also presumably dealing with his own shit, and no he’s not doing it perfectly, he’s flawed, as people and characters should be, but he’s trying and so far she is alive and safe to a certain extent so way to go Blu! I think this will probably cause some tension between the two down the road, but for now they just keep walking.

I wonder where they’re going, if anywhere specific? Why did they leave town specifically, we see there’s lots of danger pretty much everywhere, did something happen?

Anyways, then we get to this scene of someone fixing what appears to be a subway train. He stops, pulls out a journal and we get some exposition stuff. We find out that the world ended, and how. And WOW. This whole thing was gut-punchingly realistic I feel. People blowing up the competition trying to race off into space when it’s announced that the sun is going to die out? That’s something that unfortunately I can see people doing. I wonder/hope that this will become a plot point again later on, and we’ll find out what happened to all those people. But anyways that’s not even the craziest part; the fact the sun broke open and released a whole bunch of eldritch horror monsters??? Yep here we go. And then the next thing hurts. Like a lot. Because the narrator says that ‘people who hoped to live out their last days in normalcy quickly found out that their life-style was no longer sustainable’. That shit made me want to cry. The want for a peaceful death, a calm death, a painless death, but having even that ripped away from you. This setting that these characters are in is awful and very terrifying, and we can see how it is hurting them, torturing them, but I got to give props to the world building. It’s good writing. They set up the plot, the problem, what’s been going on the past couple yrs, some mysteries, to both the viewers and the characters, and in doing so give us some idea of the characters that we do have. Because the characters that we do have are trapped. The characters that we do have are abandoned. The characters that we do have are survivors. 

And then we pan out to see the narrator having an interaction with one of the Monarchs. And this scene? Gave me chills, man. I was so creeped out by this. Acedia’s ‘I do not like that response,’ Mole’s utter helplessness to do anything, his clear, potent fear of the creature, the way that it just lightly touches him and he flinches. Then the frustration that we see on his face after it leaves, the anger that turns into tiredness and then hopelessness? Someone needs to wrap this man in a blanket stat.

And this is where I’m starting to think that Blu doesn’t really know the full extent of what’s going on. There’s a good chance that Mole knows about the Monarchs because he’s being held prisoner by one. It’s possible that Mole is seeing the world collapse before his very eyes, while Blu is just seeing the aftermath and not knowing why and I can’t say which is more terrifying.

The ‘I have influence?’ line is peak. I love it so much, I can’t even say why. That whole little interaction with Lucy saying that she takes after Blu, Blu being so genuinely touched and CG being low-key offended is perfect and I love it. It shows how close they are, how much they care about each other.

The the… zombie ppl??? I love the detail of how unlike a lot of teenage protagonists, Lucy listens to Blu, and gets out of danger. She trusts him to handle the situation on his own, and knows that the best thing that she can do right now is get to safety. There’s an implicit trust there, in spite of her clear issues with Blu not telling her things, and this is what I’m talking about when I say the character relationships are complex.

Oh fuck. The transitions? The way that it cuts from one character to another, each unintentionally completing one another’s scentences, and unknowingly engaging in conversation. It’s amazing storytelling, an amazing presentation and for some reason it just confirms to me that these characters are family. They fit together like puzzle pieces. I don’t know what else to say.

We get more info on our mysterious narrator, Mole, who is an amnesiac, and clearly going through it. During this scene we see a crumpled newspaper of what seems to be a younger version of him, winning an award for his dedication at being a subway motorman. His name is crossed out in black ink, so we can’t see it. Which makes me question, did he do this to himself? Is his amnesia a trauma response to everything he’s going through? Did something happen to the point that his brain decided shutting down and forgetting everything was better than remembering this one thing? And it hurts, because in the picture in the newspaper he looks so happy. So young. So alive. It’s a stark contrast to the man we see with bags under his eyes, talking to himself and becoming increasingly distressed. I read through the article, and again, props to the team, some other people might have just did random letters or whatever but they put in a whole ass-story, giving the viewers more info about Mole than even he has. We know he was a dedicated subway motorman. We know he was inspired by his father. We know he had a sister. But these answers only serve to bring up more questions? What happened to his sister? Was his father still alive at the time of he end of the world and what was their relationship like? Because there’s a chance that their relationship was really good, and that’s why he went on to become a subway motorman, but there is also the possibility that he was pressured into doing so, and the way that he complains about being on a train when the world ended makes me kinda lean towards that option.

Then we see CG and Lucy walking around the underground tunnels and we get more info on them. We find out that CG was created by Lucy’s mom, which begs the question of where is Lucy’s mom???? What happened to her? Is there a chance that she’s still alive? Does Lucy know what happened to her mother?? Or is this just another thing that Blu is keeping her in the dark about? Does Blu know what happened to Lucy’s mother???? Or— as you can see I am totally normal about this woman. Anyways.

CG is a fun character, optimistic and bringing a lighter atmosphere to the show, but there is just something… off about her in this scene. The disregard for the danger, the naiveté, the joyful voice in such a horrible situation, feels so wrong to me. I wonder though if CG chose to be like this, or a certain amount of it is her programming? Does CG know what happened to Lucy’s mom? I think CG was created to be take care of Lucy but it seems to be the other way around here, why is that? 

And then we get info on Blu. Blu was a solider during the war when ppl were trying to get all the resources to race off into space. I wonder if Blu had believed that he would be granted a place on one of these ships. (If he managed to survive of course.) Or had he been in the military prior to all this, and was just pulled along? This makes me want to know more about his belief system before and after the end of the world. Also it is implied by CG that Blu is carrying a lot of pressure, and I wonder how that will be dealt with later on… hmm… 

Also the music that plays when Blu uses his arms to pull down the wall? Amazing, I love it, I love the scene, I love the fact that he’s a cyborg, I am so invested in these characters already it’s killing me.

Then we see Mole almost (accidentally) kill Lucy and CG. He’s out of it, he’s the only person running the trains, he didn’t expect to have to watch out for anyone, I think that we can give him a pass on this. Blu doesn’t think so obviously.

(Sidenote: the way that Lucy curls into Blu, as he protectively shields her is so cute, my heart, help)

Blu is pissed. His tone doesn’t change too much, it’s light, but there’s this threatening undertone there that kinda creeps me out. Mole tells them he doesn’t have a name, before Blu forces him to tell them that its Mole. Wait… is he called that bc Moles live underground? Anyways, Blu wants to leave him to die there, which shows an interesting side of his character. Prior to this we’ve seen him take a protective, fun role as Lucy’s guardian but here we see this apathy towards someone who is obviously not doing so well. A lot of other people would be excited to find another living person in the apocalypse, but he’s fine just walking away. Is this just because he almost killed Lucy? Or is there something more going on here? In Blu’s bio on the rainbott instagram, it says that Blu was ‘left to die in a mysterious incident’ and it’s interesting that he feels fine leaving someone else to die in such horrible conditions. Again - complex character writing, props to the team.

But Lucy doesn’t want to leave him. This shows her compassion and maybe too her want for connection with other people. Blu resists; ‘Lucy that is the most unimpressive man I have ever seen,’ this line has no right to be so funny, esp with Mole just staring at him in the background. Did he hear that or is he too far away, too out of it? Then he relents, perhaps solely because of Lucy, or maybe also because of his own want to do the right thing. He doesn’t like Mole, he makes that obvious, but if Lucy want’s to adopt this strange hobo man, fine, if it makes her happy. He’ll do whatever it takes to make Lucy a little more happy.

Mole’s ‘it doesn’t want me to leave’ scares the shit out of me, and the way that he just freezes up when Acedia shows up… 

The scene when it talks about humans really creeps me out, and makes me worried even more about Mole. Calling him ‘entertaining’ and saying that he ‘belongs’ to them. It sounds like it sees him as a toy at best, and reminds me of the way that Mole said earlier that the Monarchs had the power to ‘turn Earth into their own personal sandbox’. Did Acedia get rid of Mole's memories for that purpose? So that he would 'belong' only to them. I wonder though, why Mole, and if there were others, if Mole had to watch those around him die, or worse when they gave an answer that it didn’t like. I wonder what Mole has had to do to scrape by and survive, what he’s been through. But Blu pulls him along anyways, kind of against Mole’s will. Like obviously being with Blu, Lucy and CG is better than being with a horrifying shadow monster, but aforesaid horrifying shadow monster is going to be pissed at him. I wonder how he’s going to react to that, if he’ll lash out at Blu or worse, Lucy for rescuing him because now it’s gonna be angry and he’s gonna have to be the one to deal with the fallout of that.

Then the scene where Blu pretends to buy tickets to appease CG? It’s for comedic relief, but again it makes me think about Blu. Is he doing it because he knows CG will be annoying if he doesn’t? Or does he genuinely not want her to be hurt? I’m not sure. 

Then the campfire scene. Lucy looks away when Blu removes his mask, Mole tries to lean in to see what’s behind it. Blu doesn’t like this, I assume it’s a sensitive subject, but Mole is again, kind of out of it. Mole is scared of Blu and Blu clearly knows this, even kinda uses it to freak him out. I’m looking forwards to see that relationship developing, maybe one that contrasts Mole’s relationship with Acedia, I dunno, someone who cares about him in this really twisted way that hurts him, and someone who at first doesn’t care at all(at first), but still takes care of him in spite of it. I dunno… just vibes.

And Lucy’s little ‘what if we tell ghost stories around the fire’ breaks my heart. It’s like she too, is in denial to a certain extent. This is just a fun camping trip not the end of the world. Everything is fine. Everything will be fine.

Then the post-credit scene. There’s presumably, something left of the government that is working to try and deal with the Monarchs, which gives me hope that there might be a way to stop them, a way to stop all this death and destruction. I am curious about what’s left of this order, what the gov was like during the war, and how they’re operating now. Also the way the commander calls the droid C21, and the way that CG is called CG, and the way that he says ‘find the girl’ and C21 frowns and does this have something to do with Lucy’s mom??????? What does any of this have to do with Lucy? Does she know more than she’s letting on, or does not even she know what she knows??? Help I need answers.

Also all the characters in the credits. I desperately hope that they find the main cast and all become friends pls.

CG’s little song is beautiful and I think that it embodies the heart of the show. Like I said earlier a lot of the stuff I’ve watched recently tries very hard to be dark and edgy and a dystopian show where all the characters have been trapped and abandoned and tortured is the perfect setup for some grim and gritty TV. But it’s… not. The characters are funny and lighthearted and smiling in spite of all the shit that’s going on around them. The characters are trying to be nice, to be good. They are connected, they are a family. It is a dystopian setting for sure, but I think that the story is about family, about love and caring for each other. The story is about Blu, Lucy and CG playing eye-spy. The story is about Lucy smiling when she tells Blu her mom said he was a bad influence. The story is about CG wanting Blu to get some rest and take a break. The story is about Mole’s desperate panic at trying to stop the train before it hits Lucy, and Lucy not wanting to leave him to die. The story is about four people sitting around a fire, listening to music.

I really love this story, and I hope to see more of it one day. It’s really beautiful.

[mostlywhump]

got any favorite laramie episodes? i can't stop watching "the confederate express" & the one in season 2 where slim gets pushed off a cliff.

also, is there any robert fuller whump in wagon train or emergency!? thanks!

Hey thanks for the ask!!

I’m procrastinating homework so I drew you up a quick list of my favorites from the shows you’ve mentioned. Two notes:

1. I’m a Jess girly so almost all of the Laramie favs are Jess-centric, but I’ll mark some of the more nuanced ones.

2. There are other whumpy eps of Wagon Train (ftr Coop is only seasons 7-8) and Laramie, these are just some of my personal favorites.

emergency 2.4 Virus - Dr Brackett gets a mysterious illness and also passes out knocking over a chair.

emergency 6.12 Lose Ends - Dr Brackett ends up in a car wreck with a concussion. Very nice moment where his medical coworkers realize that he’s one of the crash victims.

Wagon train

7.09 The Eli Bancroft Story - beat up and then left to die in the desert with a few other people. Found by friend and gets head cradled which I’m a fan of. Lots of angst.

8.05 The Barbara Lindquist Story - I made gifs of part of this ep (because it’s so good). He gets knocked unconscious and then shot in the leg (and left in the desert again) which gets infected and he almost loses his leg but not before being pale and delirious for awhile.

8.10 The Richard Bloodgood Story - this one was kind of weird, but there’s a lot of angst and he gets shot in the shoulder in a very satisfying way.

8.23 The Katy Piper Story - he’s not the main character of this one but he does get shot with an arrow and his friend is pretty mad about it.

Laramie

1.10 The General Must Die - Shot Off horse. People think he’s dead.

1.11 Dark Verdict - Jess has angst, Slim gets hurt, Jess feels terrible about it.

1.15 Night of the Quiet Man - shot in stage coach robbery offscreen. Found unconscious on the ground in the aftermath.

1.27 The Protectors - pistol-whipped and thrown off moving train.

2.5 Ride Into Darkness - beat bloody and then knocked unconscious and left for dead in a house fire.

2.9 License to Kill - nice scene of Jess yelling at Slim while Slim bandages his injuries for him. special bonus: Jess falls off horse from exhaustion and has to be helped up (against his will). Underrated swamp scenes.

2.26 Killers Odds - ambushed and beat up. Carried into house and cared for by Slim and Mort. Iconic scene.

2.27 Bitter Glory - shot in the shoulder

2.31 Men in Shadows - this is the only episode since the pilot where Slim punches Jess. Jess doesn’t hit him back and Slim feels awful. I remember seeing the tension in this scene for the first time and being like “this show is DIFFERENT”

3.26 Turn of the Wheel - both of them get hurt. Both get protective of each other.

4.1 Among the Missing - bad head wound. After care.

4.6 Lost Allegiance - broken ribs for whole episode also falls off horse

4.19 The Fugitives - Slim gets shot and Jess tries to tear the town apart about it.

4.20 The Dispossessed - Jess gets knocked out and has cute hair, but mostly I just like that the episode is focused on both of them equally and they aren’t disagreeing on anything. Wish there were more like this.

4.25 Edge of Evil - Jess gets thwacked but he’s also just kinda cute in this one especially.

4.26 Broken Honor - Falls off a cliff and carried to safety. All cut up and bloody with a fever:

4.29 The Marshals - shot in the chest. Most of the episode is people being angsty about keeping him alive.

[loulooser]

Here’s some things about me!

My name is Lou online

I’m lesbian aromantic agender

My favourite colour is green

I really like music, drawing (I’m not great tho), cooking, talking, watching movies, making friends, wearing clothes, being gay etc

My favourite band is twenty one pilots

I’m a massive Marvel nerd

My top five marvel characters in no particular order:

Phillip J. Coulson, Spider-Man (not including spider verse people, that’s a different tier list)(Andrew is the best of the three spider men), Wanda Maximoff, Natasha Romanoff, Loki Laufeyson.

Some of my fav books/series: Gone (Micheal Grant), Itch (Simon Mayo), all of Alice Oseman’s stuff, AGGGTM (Holly Jackson), The Angel Of The Crows (Katherine Addison), all of Darren Shan’s stuff, Skullduggery Pleasant, Ketchup Clouds (Annabelle Pitcher) etc etc

My favourite movie is fantastic mr fox

I really like Diggers (the machines)

Favourite animal is a rabbit

My favourite show is Agents Of Shield

I cry a lot

I love love love Les Mis. Watched it just under a month ago in London and I will never recover. Stewart Clarke the Javert that you are <3

I most likely have misophonia, but even if I don’t please for the love of god don’t make any noises around me

Anxiety is fun

Big fan of fictional old men from the 1800s. Shoutout to them.

I like Nintendo a lot!! Zelda and Animal Crossing my beloved. The 2DS is my favourite console ever (not the stupid 2DSXL)

I really like musicals!! Some honourable mentions: Les Mis, Hamilton, Wicked, Six, Heathers (some of it, haven’t seen the whole thing yet), In The Heights, Rogers the musical (SHHH SHH ITS FUNNY) and School Of Rock

I’m a massive nerd

My plan in life is to finish school (A levels in DT, Computer Science and IT), then start an apprenticeship in software engineering :3

Please send me asks!! My dms are always open for rants or a chat

Navigation:

- Writing posts to keep handy

- tags: (Mind you I don’t use them anymore)

#the reblogger - reblogs

#the religious text - original posts

#musical Lou - lyrics/yapping about music

#the boys from Ohio - tøp posts

#my FRIENDS - me and my friends

#marvellous tomfoolery - marvel

(I don’t have all my tags for people yet, but when I do they will be here:)

- #shreypilled sheepmaxxer -> @shreysheep

- #dizzy my beloved -> @diary-of-a-disaster

Cool posts I’m pinning here:

Disproving TERFs with biology

Wizard maze.

Shoe lacing patterns that help pains

Reaction templates

Cool art links

snapshots of my music taste:

(This is basically me putting together a playlist every first of every month that sums up my music taste and how my soul sounds if you will at that point in time)

[snapshots archive]

My cat:

Her name is April and she is very cute. No idea what breed she is

[trinkerichi]

What is your oppion on ribbun?

OOOH that's Jax/Gangle right? Oh boy you probably aren't asking for this but I feel like doing a big ramble and this is gonna be a long one. CHARACTER ANALYSIS INCOMING!

I'll preface this by saying I don't usually get too invested in shipping. I really like drawing interesting character dynamics tho, so I'll play around with the ships I see without really sticking to one. It's why I tend to draw a LOT of different ships only a few times each.

I'll ALSO preface by saying I really uh. Don't like Jax very much lmao I'm sorry. I'm not opposed to jerk characters in general, but I just didn't think any of his lines were funny. BUT I think that comes down to the fact that we only have a pilot and haven't seen much of their personalities yet. My favorite jerk characters, (Osomatsu, Bender, etc) all balance out their jerkiness by being dorky insecure losers that almost never win in the end so you kinda feel bad for them. I think if Jax ends up being written that way I'll become endeared to him. And goose has revealed before that none of the others actually like Jax so I kinda want to see that.

On the other hand, Gangle is my favorite character. She has barely 2 minutes of screen time but I love her concept so much. A friend called me out for this recently lol but all my BIG FAVS are characters that are themed around strong divided emotions. Pretending they're happy even when they're not, and having a hard time controlling their emotions as a result. (The latest ENA episode was a great example of this. Anyway.) Gangle being a sensitive flimsy pile of ribbons with a literal mask for a face? The fact that the tragedy mask seems to be her REAL face, while the comedy mask is so fragile that breaks if you so much as breathe on it too hard? I find that COMPELLING I want to see a whole series about her honestly.

Pairing her with Jax was inevitable, as is any fandom ship where the characters hate each other in canon. I usually hate this kind of pairing but this time I found it kinda fascinating! I think it's cause we don't really know a whole lot about either one of them so there's a lot of room to explore their characters through it.

I really do feel like Jax could hold a specific resentment towards Gangle. He's obviously not handling being stuck in the circus well, and he's bullying easy targets. He plays dirty. A person with high self esteem doesn't do that. Maybe he takes it out on Gangle because he hates how open she is about her feelings. He's putting on a tough and uncaring front, trying to pretend nothing bothers him, and she's out here being sensitive and fragile? How dare she! He's pushing her to her limits and she still won't harden herself. She doesn't have the energy to! Maybe she feels like she doesn't deserve to defend herself. It's so unhealthy! It's horrible!... And uh, sometimes horrible things are fun to write! DON'T JUDGE ME.

(And just so nobody accuses me of being insensitive here, without revealing too much, I've been in Gangle's place before. That's all I'll say.)

So with relationship stuff oh boy. We can take all those toxic traits to their extremes. But who would be the instigator?

What if Gangle coped with Jax's bullying by becoming more clingy. Becoming used to it.. Seeking him out. After all, he's paying attention to her right? Her warped self image being depressed and isolated in this circus for years would drive her to wanting any kind of stimulation.. does she realize this is self harm? What's it going to take for someone to step in before it goes too far?

Or on the other hand, what if Jax's fixation on bullying Gangle got mixed up in some more complex feelings.. If he really wanted to, I can see him manipulating her into a relationship just to see how many boundaries he can cross. He could have her wrapped around his little finger. Literally. He DOES have some misplaced affection for her deep down. He won't let himself think about it long enough to understand it, he's acting on impulse. She's uncomfortable but thankful for the seemingly lessened cruelty, so she puts up with it. And sometimes, rarely, between the thinly veiled insults disguised as compliments, he says something truly genuine and vulnerable. She can see it. He needs help. He needs love. But they're both hurting each other even more. It's wrong, but they're stuck now.

And now.. for the drama. Nobody can be pushed that far before snapping. As is the usual trope with soft spoken pushover characters, Gangle is a ticking time bomb. And I don't think she'd be willing to abstract entirely because of Jax, at least without clawing her way down.

Here's a fun fact. Have you seen that walk cycle video? Jax is tall, sure, but Gangle is PRETTY DARN TALL TOO. and she slouches. With her ribbons stretched to their full length she would tower over everybody. I want to see her get angry and be SCARY. I want her to stand up to Jax and lash out and scream and see him Genuinely Terrified. Everyone else caught in the crossfire too, covered in ribbon slashes. It wouldn't last forever. If the tension doesn't cause her to abstract she'll calm down eventually, or someone will be forced to break her mask to snap her out of the tantrum. Jax would pretend it didn't shake him at all, but would be noticeably quiet afterwards. Kinda shifting uncomfortably, they both avoid eye contact for as long as possible. His teasing towards Gangle never goes beyond slight ribbing again.

Whew.

Ok uh if you read this far, I don't LIKE the ship but it's a great character exercise! Hah I've thought a lot about it clearly. That being said, i usually prefer sweet cuddly ships myself. I think my favorite is Gangle/Pomni. I haven't seen this one around much, but those two are my favorite characters in the show and I'd love to see them interact! I think they could help each other with their anxieties and it'd be really cute. I don't even necessarily need it to be romantic I just think they'd have a sweet little dynamic together.

Surprisingly I've seen Gangle shipped with Zooble the most even though they haven't talked at all either and Zooble has like.. 2 lines. It might be cute but I wanna know more about them first.

As for Gangle n Kinger, I prefer them to have more of a father daughter type dynamic.

[katyaromanoffpetrova]

Hey bae, I promised I would send this so here I am🫡

The album Clancy by Twenty One Pilots is soooo Kat coded imo. So yk how I get carried away with asks right? Today I shall give you explanations of every song I think is Kat coded and why😁

Next Semester: while the beat is up tempo and catchy it’s actually really fucking sad. It’s about how he(the singer) almost attempted to unalive himself. Which obviously has similarities to Kat’s backstory. But then the song goes “can’t change what you’ve done, start fresh next semester” which is obviously representative of how Kat has gotten past everything she’s done wrong and is now in a better place.

Backslide: one of my favs off the album. It’s about slipping back into that darkness he’s felt previously. He says “I don’t wanna backslide to where I’ve started from, there’s no chance I will shake this again” which I think really represents Kat’s mental health and it being such a slippery slope. And then (my fav part of the song) in the chorus it goes “‘cause I feel the pull, water’s over my head…..” and then it goes “I’ll take anything you have if you could throw me a line” which is like when Kat checked herself into the mental health place just desperate to get better.

Routines In The night: when he sings “walk the layout” he isn’t talking about a building but actually viewing his mind as a place to explore. “Some doors have “stay out” spray-painted in white” refers to bad memories and trauma which I think portrays Kat very well. Like she gets in her head a lot and has to be careful not to think so much about all those bad memories

Vignette: this one has major substance abuse themes which obviously represents a certain time in Kat’s life. But a line that gets me in this context is “….To pitch the greener grasses and hope that she would agree” in the song context this about him being scared to lose his wife to the greener grass, aka people not as broken. Kat has had so much guilt and fair over what her state does to Nat :(

The Craving (Jenna’s Version): is about his wife and honestly Kat could’ve written this. It’s about realising that he’s the ‘unstable’ one and the one who needs some extra support. “But I swear that I will give more than I take away” really gets me because we all know Kat has felt so guilty over how much support she’s needed.

Navigating: is basically about the never ending battle with mental health and trying to navigate that. “But when our fingers touch, I feel my way back home” is just very cute and could be about Nat bringing Kat back to reality when she has her panic attack moments.

Snap Back: is about relapse and being afraid to lose all the progress you’ve made with overcoming your demons. Representative of Kat having hard times and break downs but having to continue to fight and not lose her progress.

At The Risk Of Feeling Dumb: this is about having to check on your friends and make sure they’re okay but the chorus is from the perspective of the person with mental disorders. The whole chorus represents how Kat feels imo, just her not wanting people to drop anything for her and not wanting them to see her when she’s in a dark place.

This may be my longest ask yet tbh but you should expect this by now.

Also if anyone has album recommendations pls gimme🤲 not just u but anyone who reads this and wants to comment. I need more music👹

Omg I'm so impressed by your dedication 🤯 This is crazy. I listened to big parts of all the songs and although some of them aren't really my thing, l do see the connections you make to Kat.

I don't really have to explain it because you did so amazingly in your own explanation of the songs, but it just shows once again now complicated of a character Kat actually is. Her mental problems aren't just that: hers. They affect so many people in so many ways, and there's so much more to it than you'd think.

Leaving the past behind and starting over, being afraid to fall back, being scared your wife will leave you for someone better (and understanding completely), wanting to protect your loved ones but also needing them to survive.

She's so many parts in one, and that those songs portray a lot of them in one album is crazy

[andreal831]

Just read your recent post about Katherine and I have a genuine question: Why is it that whenever you’re talking about the bad actions of a character you like (Elijah, Hayley, Rebekah, etc) you brush it off as “just bad writing” yet whenever it’s the actions of a character you dislike (Katherine, Klaus, Damon, etc) you jump straight to “They’re horrible and irredeemable!” Why not just accept that none of the characters in the TVDU are good people no matter if they’re presented as being more moral?

I've said it numerous times, all of the characters in TVDU are bad. They have all done bad things, even the most virtuous seeming characters. That being said, I've also said that we can still discuss morality in the show. I get some people just want to enjoy their favs and not have these discussions, but that's not how I prefer to enjoy my shows. I like to have these deeper discussions where we analyze more than just "they are all bad."

Even the most monstrous people can still have standards and lines they won't cross. A line that I will not accept for characters is rape/SA. Again, I'm not saying that everyone has to have the same standard, but that's my standard. It's why I can differentiate characters like Damon and Katherine from the rest of the characters.

To your point, I have brushed off some behaviors in the past as bad writing because it directly contradicts already established characterizations/lore. Now, I did mention that there is some bad writing in relation to Katherine, however, one of the very first things we learn about her is that she raped Stefan. We learn this about her before we even meet her in real time. We also never learn anything later that directly contradicts these actions. In fact, most of what we learn reinforces it.

Katherine is a selfish, narcissistic character who craves power. Yes, we can look at her past and understand why she became that way and we can blame the Mikaelsons, but at the end of the day it is an explanation for her character, not an excuse. We also never see her feel guilt or even acknowledge the harm she did to Stefan, rather she attempts to gaslight him. Same for Damon, he even becomes somewhat friends/family with Caroline, yet he never acknowledges or apologizes for what he did. We also see a pattern of both Damon and Katherine reveling in their power over mortals or even their loved ones. Katherine has a million chances to make it right and never does.

Sure we can chalk it all up to bad writing because the writers were so problematic in their view of SA/rape. But we can even compare it to Tyler. Tyler in the pilot episode SAs Vicki. This is one of the first things we learn about him as well. The difference is, we see character growth. I don't think he ever gets the chance to apologize to Vicki, but we him grow as a character to the point that I couldn't imagine him behaving that way again. Again, I just don't see that same growth in Katherine and Damon. I could still see them doing that all the way into the last episode.

In my post, I did set aside the SA and focused on her character as a whole and still don't particularly enjoy her. Much like Damon, she has some iconic lines and comedic relief, but both characters lacked depth to me. I know a lot of people like to create headcannons for them and flesh them out, and that's great, I just don't for those characters. To me, there were just so many other characters I connected with more so I didn't need to try and excuse their actions away. Again, I am saying this from my perspective.

I do tend to discuss the Mikaelsons/TO more and talk about the bad writing there a lot. But I've also talked about bad writing when it comes to Klaus. TVDU is full of inconsistencies and bad writing. The writers are problematic and I think that is important to take into consideration when consuming media. However, I've never claimed it changes canon and I will never tell someone they have to have my headcanons. I analyze the show in a way that makes sense for me, like we all do. It's important to acknowledge we all consume media through a biased lens. I've never claimed to be above this, but I do try to keep my analysis based on the facts and my understanding.

Thanks for the ask and keeping it respectful!

[jjclopelover]

I already made a post about this, but yeah

in season 1 episode 8 I think, when they drive to the tarmac JJ in the Twinkie talks about leaving for Mexico and he says the word "abscond" which just means leaving, but that word is super old and had its usage peak sometime around 1850s I think

so, the guy that always says everyone else is smarter than him, and always plays down his intelligence, randomly uses words that only well read people would know nowadays

and, now I'm just thinking, because we know Pope reads a lot (seeing him read Kafka in the Pilot episode), that JJ just casually reads the same books as Pope just so he can talk to him about it, so that they have a shared interest

because other than that he really doesn't strike me as the guy that would just read Kafka or something else for fun.

He only does it to impress Pope.

YES! The whole "JJ speaking Spanish thing" is one of my fav traits of his character. And I could 100% see JJ reading books and learning new languages even, to impress Pope. While Pope wants general validation, JJ wants Pope's validation.

[cryptid-in-your-closet]

Someone tell me which WIP I should work on instead of studying for my finals

You Have the Wrong Guy - in which everyone is giving Jake the shovel talk when it was Bradley who broke off their first relationship - Exs to Lovers, ft. dagger squad and class of 86’

Unpacking - how each of the daggers (and Mav) find out about trans!Jake - not romance centered but has the development and destruction and ultimately getting back together of Hangster, Javy is the best friend ever and deserves all the love, this is very self indulgent

Running - Jake has ran his whole life. If no one can catch up to him no one can leave him. Then he meets Javy. The man seemingly has unlimited  patience and always seems to be a step ahead of Jake. - character study, Macheresin, Jake has an absent father and issuesTM

Ballett AU (unnamed) - In which Ice is a Ballet instructor and Mav takes care of Amelia for Penny when he’s not test piloting the military’s newest planes. - plenty of misunderstandings, Icemav endgame but mistaken Mav/Penny, Penny&Sarah friendship

Dinner for Three - when Beau gets an invite to the Mitchell-Kazansky household he figures it’s something to do with the dagger squad, after all the first (and only other time) he was invited over was to celebrate the success of the dagger mission, what he was not expecting was a fancy dinner cooked by the handsome couple that are blatantly flirting with him. This is some cosmic joke, right? - Cyclone/Maverick/Iceman, might end up being smut but won’t promise anything, ft. Cyclone having a massive crush on Ice and reluctant feelings (ew) for Mav, surprise they like him too, Bradley shows up in here for some reason

Dadmral - the obligatory fic in which the dagger squad finds out Mav is married to the COMPACFLT - Pov Phoenix which is different for me lol, some texting, dagger squad and class 86’, Icemav, Ice is alive, Rooster gets smothered by his uncles who have missed him

Coming Home - Rooster fixes his relationship with Mav while working on the Mustang and getting awful (and some good) relationship advice - Icemav, Hangster, Mavdad, Icepops

Goose Been Knew - in which Goose has to deal with idiot pilots who clearly love each other (twice), don’t worry he has a lovely wife and partner to go complain to. - Goose lives, Icemav, Hangster, Slooserole, really just short bits of Goose putting up with Mav and then Rooster

Guitar - Bradley owns a guitar for reasons completely unrelated to his ex who he’s definitely not still in love with. That would be crazy. They’ve been apart for years. - Hangster Exs to Lovers, bitter Hangman, Phoenix and Javy are DONE, the rest of the dagger squad are confused

A Series of Weddings - Tom and Pete get married for the first time in 91’ despite what the world tells them they can do, they talk about it in 2011, they get married legally in 2013 when Ice is diagnosed with Cancer, talk about redoing vows and throwing an actual celebration in 2015 (they don’t), redo their vows in the spring of 2021. In 2023 they attend the Bradley’s wedding. - this is honestly one of my favs, inspired by this post, Icemav, no relapse of cancer, lots of weddings, love, and fluff, Hangster at the end, class of 86’

[bronx-bomber87]

I have decided to rewatch the entire series over the hiatus with reviews. Whether anyone reads these will come with time haha but either way I’m doing it cause I think it’ll be fun with having s5 done and going back I’ll see things with totally different POV. Will credit all gifs I use to their original owners at the end of my reviews. All the gif makers in this fandom are the real MVPs ❤️ These reviews will mainly center around Chenford and development of Tim and Lucy through out the series , but I will throw in bits about the show as a whole too. Because I do love it as a whole as well. These may be long cause I have a lot to say haha anyway whoever sticks around and reads it I love you haha feel free to comment on these posts as well. Would love that. Alright here we go. Let us start where it all began the Pilot.

Some backstory like to add here for me. I’ve been with this show since it got green lit by ABC. I was a huge Nathan Fillion fan and wanted to follow him to his next show. Also I loved Eric from my teenage years. So my sisters were obsessed with Days of Our lives as teens. I had no interest in it till Eric entered the arena. I thought he was (and still is BTW) one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen. I was very interested in watching DOOL after that LOL if you didn’t know that tid bit about him before now you know. His name was Rex and he was shirtless quite a lot and had my rapt attention as a 14 year old girl. Lmao

Anyways Nathan and Eric were the reasons I started this show. I was excited Nathan had a new show and Eric was a bonus for me. I was so excited I remember watching the pilot on my phone during my lunch in the pool room of my job at the time. The pilot had me captivated and I knew this was going to be a great show.

First off like to start with I miss Nathan with some meat on his bones. I know he has to be in wicked good shape for this role. I just miss his ‘Castle’ form from s1.

Second like to talk about my girl Lucy Chen. Her characters entrance into the show is my fav of the pilot. Lucy has such BAMF intro. The ‘hot shot’ right off the bat. I will always love her opening appearance. That confident bad ass is what Tim sees in her day one. Why he’s so damn hard on her. She just doesn’t see that in herself it just yet. But hell of a start for her.

Then we have our first glimpse into Chenford. To that lightning in a bottle chemistry. Doing that thing Eric and Melissa do so damn well. Their silent communication with just their eyes and expressions. Saw this look between them and I was a goner.

‘Officer Bradford gets our hot shot ‘ He most definitely did in more ways than one. Has no idea how his entire world is about to shift with her in his life. I think he was very impressed with her. Thought she was a ‘hotshot’ because of the arrest that morning. But he couldn’t let her know or see that. Especially not on her first day with him and at this point in time ever.

Ah Tim s1- so very guarded his walls so high the Great Wall of China is put to shame. To me s1 Tim is a man in pain and its exuding out of him with every action he makes. He has no emotional support or outlet and it shows. It’s why Lucy entering his life was the best thing for him. Shook him out of his walking pain/anger. We get to see the first glimpse of the ‘Tim Tests’ Lucy is to endure.

She’s not even two seconds into her time with him before this occurs. He’s grilling her already. So hard on her right out the gate. Because he saw something in her. He was testing her in the harshest way. Being so hard because he was hurting not that a first time viewer would know that. Re-watching s1 Tim the man truly is hurting and lashing out with everything he does. He so damn gruff , angry and guarded, that he comes off like a tool cause well he was at this point.

You aren’t supposed to like him right now IMO. You only see him as this insensitive jerk. You have no more information at this point than this current impression . When you know his whole story rewatching him like this. All I see is a radioactively angry and hurt man. You’re not supposed to like him right here and now. He’s coming off as unreasonable grump of a man. Especially so when Lucy fails his first Tim Test. Which leads us to the gas station scene.

The ‘punishment’ he gives her just another test. To him it’s his way of proving to himself he’s right about her. He already knows she can take care of herself. He wanted to see it in action and Lucy delivers in spades. The pride is written all over his handsome face when she wins her fight. Then Isabel shows up…

Eric KILLS me in this scene. The way his eyes tear up. His whole body is trembling. You can hear his bated breath as he speaks to her. He goes from gruff T.O. to concerned husband in a flash. We get our first look into him as a character. That he’s more than just this hard ass T.O giving Lucy a hard time. That there is something going on behind the scenes for him and it’s deep.

I applaud Eric for this scene we get to see him become human and vulnerable for the first time. Not only that but be those things around Lucy for the first time. She’s already soft for him when she gets the glimpse into him as a person. Says she promises she won’t tell anyone. He quickly resolves it with his sharp reply to her saying ‘ Damn right you won’t’. He’s mad at himself for letting Lucy see even a glimmer of vulnerability. Can’t show her one damn crack in his rough T.O. exterior. (yet…). Pilot does such a good job setting up their dynamic, of everyone’s really but theirs is my focus of course in these reviews.

Lucy probably thinks he’s out to make her life hell. When really he’s seeing potential in her. As seen in the previous scene at the gas station. He’s hurting so naturally he’s going to throw himself into work. Not let Lucy waste this potential he sees in her. Because work and training her is something he can absolutely control unlike the situation with Isabel. We get to see Lucy apply one her lessons in their next scene together.

Tim kicking her out of the car earlier (Which at the time I’m sure she loathed )him doing so save ultimately ends up saving his life. When he gets shot and she’s able to relay where they are and get him to safety. Also how she defends them both until backup arrives. Reinforcing what he sees in her in the first place. She protects herself and Tim like a pro.

Some side notes I’ll probably make each ep. Probably non Chenford related. I always forget how much I loved Captain Zoe Anderson- she was only in the show for a short time but made a massive impact. She was such a fierce leader putting Grey in his place and her POV on Nolan.

Also Lucy being with Nolan in beginning. Even when first started watching. I was like nope. Don’t like this. They just didn’t work. I hate it every time I re-watch it I hate it LOL but it does show her pattern of things before Tim. Such as taking on relationships she knows will never work out. I.e. Nolan. Because she isn’t ready for such commitment or projects like Chris. Well that’s all she wrote for the pilot. Was fun to write this up. Will continue to do so through out the hiatus. 😊

Gif credit to tim-lucy

Burning Blake

The rookie central

Hamburger heroes

Chenford source

Thesweetnessandthesarcasm

rookielucychen

[adracat]

G-Witch episode 12 thoughts

Well, that was a wild ride. I think we all know the big moment that everyone is talking about but before we sprint to the finish in angst-ville, let's enjoy the relatively lighter bits-- just joking there aren't any.

Seeing the witches go all out with their permit scoring really highlights how unique Aerial and Suletta are. Still, Sophie is able to beat the GUND-format antidote by sheer force of will. And unlike Suletta it takes a huge toll. This fight was incredibly one-sided on behalf of DoF which I think we all suspected. Witches aren't feared for nothing.

In the middle of all this chaos, Miorine is shielded from debris by Delling. His talk to her and mention of Mio's mother was enlightening. They way he speaks of her makes me wonder if she was a soldier too, possibly killed by a Gundam? Whatever the truth, it's unmistakable how much he cares for Mio's well-being. He might have a shit way of showing it in a non-deadly situation, but it's better than Fail Mother of the year, Prospera.

Before we open that masked can of worms, here's a brief mention to Nika. We see her save herself and the rest of Earth House by signaling to Norea's gundam. Lucky for her, she was recognized as an ally of the 'Prince'. Not so luckily, her little morse code session was seen. Oops.

I'd like to see her collusion and secrets come to light early in the next cour. She's a good egg, just trapped between her past ties on earth and the friends she made at military school. Will it end terribly? I'm anxious to find out.

Pour one out for Bob by the way. I won't mourn Jeturk, but it's scarred his son for life. Imagine changing to become a better man all because someone was nice to you, but whoops. Patricide. That's a twist I didn't forsee but it piques my intrigue. Will Bob return to Guel with a massive revenge scheme as CEO of Jeturk industries?

But speaking of parents and children...

Posting this entire scene because I wanted to showcase, beginning to end, how informative this is for what follows next. We have Suletta fearful for her life, shocked by seeing her mother kill. She's completely shaken, yet calms once Prospera repeats the philosophy we've been hearing the whole show. The light shines upon Prospera as she offers her hand, appearing angelic in spite of the killing. You can see the moment Suletta internalizes this. Killing for those you love is just; fighting gains you two, running would mean losing someone. She moves forward and pilots Aerial as Prospera demands. It's a subtle manipulation, and from Suletta's wide-eyed stare (similar to another episode where she's desperate to believe her mother) she accepts this new reality.

Small aside, I like this brief confirmation Aerial can communicate detailed things to Suletta despite only appearing as lights and a whale-like sound to us. Very interesting.

Now onto the penultimate scene.

Messed up and shocking as this is, I found it completely in character. I don't think she's snapped or anything like that, merely accepted her mother is right and killing for another person to survive is an acceptable trade. Her unnatural cheer in this scene is unnerving, but I read this as her desperately trying to keep herself and Miorine calm; she's acting the same as always to downplay the gruesome reality.

So she does what she has always done and mimics Prospera, positioning herself in the same way. All the while she's oblivious to how horrifying her behavior comes across. Yet it doesn't escape us, nor poor Mio. I would not be surprised if Prospera used that phrase as a means of conditioning Suletta to do what she asks.

From groom to murderer in the span of one episode and cour 😔 Suletta now persona non grata. It's cruel to leave us here until April but also brilliant ngl. I can't wait to see how our fav couple navigates this conflict. All is fair in love and war.

I do love this shot though, bookends are my weakness.

[chaifootsteps]

When you realize that Hazbin Hotel isn’t actually popular. It’s just Angel Dust and Alastor people like. And. Wow. Just Wow.

I think it’s one thing to have favs but like that’s the only thing ppl ever talk about in the fandom, angel and alastor have the most amount of merch, HELL ANGEL HAS A WHOLE ASS MUSIC VIDEO. If anyone genuinely thinks Hazbin will be about Charlie I feel so bad for you. (And she’s probably just gonna get the Millie treatment). I think the first two episodes will focus on Charlie but I think it’s just gonna become the Angel and Alastor show.

I literally just found out today that Charlie and Vaggie are dating. Like . Wow. Because in the pilot they barely interacted one on one. Like Viv just say you hate female characters because you like fetishizing gay men 💕💕

The urge… to save them… adopting all the cast and getting them into a better series

It's going to become the Angel and Alastor show, and judging by the audition script and that scene of Alastor manhandling Lucifer's staff and being able to get away with it, they're not going to be well-written. They're not going to look, sound, or behave like the characters we fell in love with.

[dreamsandscenes]

My Ranking of TVD Seasons

*spoilers ahead*

NUMBER 8 - SEASON 8

I mean…do I need to even explain this? We all saw season 8. It was a mess. I felt like I had to drag myself through this season, just because I wanted to see how it ended. The only highlight for me was the ending.

NUMBER 7 - SEASON 5

The characters going to college was always going to be a strange transition - as it is in any tv show that starts with the characters in high school - and I just didn’t like the change. I can’t even put my finger on a specific reason why. It just felt different. This season also had the Travelers and Markos, who were just boring villains. The whole Silas/Qetsiyah plot was interesting at first, but fizzled out for me. The only highlight I could maybe pick out is Katherine’s arc. The show just didn’t fill the hole that the Mikaelsons left behind imo.

NUMBER 6 - SEASON 7

I didn’t completely hate this season. Ngl it was weird without Elena. That being said, I actually liked the time jumps in episodes. I wasn’t a fan of the Caroline pregnancy storyline, but that only happened because Candice King got pregnant irl. It just seemed to me like Caroline felt so bad for Alaric & everything he went through in S6, that she continued the pregnancy out of pity for him. The whole Alaric & Caroline “romance” (if you can call it that) was disgusting too. What were the writers thinking. I enjoyed the Damon and Bonnie moments though and Bonnie finally found a good love interest in Enzo. The Heretics weren’t all terrible either. I liked Nora. The Originals crossover ep was a highlight too.

NUMBER 5 - SEASON 6

Season 6 was a mixed bag for me. I really loved the whole prison world storyline. I thought it was unique and an interesting way to keep Bonnie and Damon alive after the S5 finale. It completely changed their relationship for the better too. Kai Parker was a great villain, one of the best in the whole series. I remember when he first told Bonnie and Damon about what he did to his family, that was the first time I was genuinely disturbed by a TVD character. Liz’s death was so emotional. Elena’s storyline this season was dull and I didn’t enjoy the whole Lily Salvatore thing. The season finale at Alaric and Jo’s wedding was crazy though.

NUMBER 4 - SEASON 4

Hope Mikaelson tutorial above 👀. Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion, but I actually liked Elena’s transition and then her no humanity arc. I seriously didn’t like the sirebond thing though. That felt icky to me. Her relationship with Rebekah from enemies to kinda friends was nice. Going to Silas island for the cure was interesting. Did I love the cure storyline? Not really, but it wasn’t the worst.

NUMBER 3 - SEASON 1

So many great moments. I just love this season. I will say, the pilot is a little rough, but most pilots are, so I don’t hold it against the season as a whole. While I’m not a Stelena shipper, I do think Stefan and Elena were very sweet in S1. Elena was also at her best in this season and season 2. When I say I like Elena, it’s this one I’m referring to. Damon was in his villain moment. The arrival of Katherine at the end was just perfect after all the talk about her throughout the season. I will say, I didn’t love S1 the first time I watched it, but when I went back and rewatched it, it became one of my favs.

NUMBER 2 - SEASON 2

This season? Oh this season keeps you on your toes. Elijah’s first appearance was so damn good. The moment at the school dance where Bonnie looks at Elena as she fakes her death with the sparks falling around her was a beautiful shot. I was so stressed the first time I saw it because I really thought Bonnie died. The build up to Klaus’ arrival and then him taking over Alaric’s body, so we kind of got a sneak peek of the character before Joseph Morgan fully entered the show was fantastic. I wish he didn’t kill Jenna, but he wouldn’t be the villain if he didn’t do horrible things.

NUMBER 1 - SEASON 3

The best of the best. The absolute pinnacle of the series. Season 3 was non stop action. It never got boring. And of course one of the main reasons why this season is number one for me is the introduction of the full Mikaelson family. The Originals brought so much to TVD. This was THEIR season tbh. They were the best villains ever in the series, and watching the Mystic Falls characters try to take them out never got old. From Stefan’s ripper arc, to the Mikaelson ball episode, to Alaric being turned by Esther, and then finally, Elena’s death and transition in the final episode; it was just simply a perfect season.

[twilight-deviant]

How did you take fancy to the ship fiskmatt?

Heh. There's a semi-long answer to this? If you want the rolling snowball of reasons.

I'll confess I had next to no familiarity with Daredevil before the Netflix series premiere in 2015. I knew it existed, and I may have seen some of the 2003 movie. Buuuuuut I have long been a fan of Vincent D'Onofrio. So I went into DD (when it was still realistic and expected to watch all Marvel projects) most excited about whomever Vincent's character was going to be. (Hearing his voice at the end of 1x01 and then seeing him at the end of 1x03 made me happy.)

I ramble about that because it set a stage of increased odds that I would probably:

Love Vincent's character most. (Still true.)

Be most invested in a ship with his character. (Fisk/Vanessa is probably my second fav DD ship after Fisk/Matt.)

Then I watched Daredevil, and no ship reeeeeeeally caught my fancy (outside of Fisk/Vanessa). I liked Matt/Karen for the Pilot before my interest immediately fell off. It was then replaced by Foggy/Karen and their sweet B-plot in 1x02. (btw, I think canon abandoning this relationship was a big dumb mistake.)

So I passively thought to myself, "Eh, not every show needs a ship, and the plot of this one is more than enough to keep me entertained."

And then episode 1x06 happened.

Fisk decided to talk to the Man in the Mask on the radio, and at 90mph, my thoughts went from, "I have no DD ship" to "Eeh! My ship is going to speak to each other!" to "......My ship?"

It was very odd. Haha. As if I had been shipping them the whole time but forgot to tell myself. (Is that what makes a person's soulmate OTP? THE one true pair? They were out there, you just hadn't met yet.) It was only after that scene and episode that I began putting more thought into the FiskMatt ship. Because it genuinely had not occurred to me before.

I always love a good hero/villain ship, and FM is goooooood. S1 is a really great time to get into the ship because they push the "two sides of the same coin" bit and push it hard. They are the same, except where they are exactly opposite. In hero/villain shipping, this is such a holy grail yin/yang dynamic.

I also enjoyed a lot of their dialogue, of course. Fisk's strong and immediate respect for Matt that he voiced in their radio call.

(My soul left my body at this line. ^^^ It's been almost 10 years, and I'm still not over it. Other hero/villain ships WISH they could have something so beautiful and profound to look back on.)

I know that's an unnecessarily long answer when the truth is just, "One minute I didn't ship them, the next minute I was obsessed." But it feels relevant to say the whole of S1 had a big impact to me. Their relationship and its potential checks almost every box for what I could want out of a ship. (One of the only things it's missing, imo, is more time spent together, on screen and in comics.)

S2 only had the one scene with them, but it was everything to me and I was so excited for it, I had to pause my tv before Matt entered the room and compose myself. My family watching the show with me was like "wtf just play it?" (Did I upload that S2 scene to youtube so I can watch it whenever I want? Yeah, maybe. I uploaded the radio scene as well, but Disney copyrighted it. I can't share, but I still watch it privately.) I also loved that Matt put Fisk in prison at the end of S1, but the man was still so utterly respectful and taken with the blind attorney. Until that scene. ^-^; Before Matt threatened Vanessa, Fisk had a little crush on him. Change my mind.

Then S3 went back to S1 basics (with Born Again set to do the same next year). Centering Fisk and Matt's relationship because it's undeniably the lifeblood and success of the series. Fight me. The show puts so much focus on the two characters individually (more than other main characters) while also super-charging the tension of their interactions. Every time they speak is so impactful and memorable.

Sometimes, I feel like a crazy person because how am I and a dozen other people the only ones shipping this??? How are there not hundreds of fics on AO3? (I don't want to say it's because Fisk is unconventionally attractive because I try not to push assumptions like that on other people. I hate when Matt/Foggy shippers assert the only reason people don't ship them is fatphobia. 1. Eff off. 2. I'm overweight. 3. I just like their platonic friendship. At the same time though... Fisk's appearance and age are probably part of it? Right?) But idk... I kind of like the coziness of my rarepair. I like being at the perceived center of the ship. Haha. I like when I wake up to someone that just discovered FiskMatt and my inbox is 30 kudos left on various fics.

That said... I'm curious if Born Again might awaken new people to take a fancy to the ship. X3