#fuck dude i love live theater

[aq2003]

i think it's so interesting also that david played macbeth's last line ("damned be him that cries hold, enough") like he was still a little scared and resistant at the end. he's resigning himself to his death, yes, but there's still a part of him that wants to keep fighting

[starstruckodysseys]

goddddd i love theatre and seeing people do what they love and having a good time and feeling a sense of community with the audience and losing ur mind alongside everyone else and being part of something greater than yourself even if it’s only for a moment

[spohkh]

my calling is most definitely attending a show of local punkmetalscreamoskarock bands and then chitchatting w the members afterward and getting their merch and also their instagrams

[heartfullofleeches]

Haven't talked about them in a few days, but I just adore Jellyfish Darling and Alien together because I imagine Jellyfish as this ethereal, angelic looking being with their translucent skin and tendrils - and then we just have Al who is this normal guy (on the surface)

This dork who lives in spaceship pajama pants pulling what has to appear God's gift to humanity solely over the fact they both glow.

-

Alien: My moms are religious, but personally I just can't picture God being real, unless they're the biggest asshole in the universe. If God existed and loved its creations then why the fuck do I keep dropping my keys down the exact same storm drain?

Jellyfish Darling: [exists]

Alien: I stand corrected.

-

Alien, talking to a coworker/friend at the theater they work at: Meeting them was the best moment of my life..... I mean I would've drowned if I had human lungs - which I do, but besides that it was still the best day of my life.

Coworker: Sick, I'm happy for you, dude. Got any pictures of them?

Alien: Ye- [Remembers that Jellyfish Darling is the finest thing to grace this earth - tossing their phone at the wall behind them] Well, I did, but as you can see my phone just broke.

-

Alien wears a shirt that reads "Me and the bad bitch I pulled not knowing how to swim" whenever they hang out with Jellyfish Darling soon as it comes in the mail

[butchhamlet]

Inviting you to go off about Hamlet not dithering for no reason. I agree completely but I love to hear your thoughts always

in my recent dive back through my hamlet tag, i found this post, which makes this answer kind of redundant. but being me i am going to say it anyway. tl;dr: hamlet's Big Mistake* is not delaying; it's doubt; it's his total inability to be certain he's doing the right thing. which i think under the circumstances of "there is a ghost" is pretty reasonable, actually.

*obligatory "trying to apply hamartia/fatal flaws to shakespearean tragic characters is kind of a crapshoot because shakespeare rarely creates a guy with Just One Fatal Flaw" but also, even if you WERE going to assign hamlet a fatal flaw, it should still be doubting and not delaying.

let us remember the circumstances:

>ghost appears, claims to be my dad dropping in from purgatory, tells me to literally murder a man

literally not at all the wrong move to take a second to breathe here. whomst among us is getting this information and immediately going to kill 1. a living breathing human being 2. who is part of our immediate family and probably someone we know very well 3. and who is also THE MONARCH IN CHARGE OF THE STATE WHO HAS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT POWERS. as K @stripedroseandsketchpads said in the linked post, it's very easy for the audience--who in shakespeare's day would have been familiar with revenge tragedy's generic tropes, and who in our era knows that hamlet is a play about killing your evil uncle--to think, "is he fucking stupid? isn't it obvious?" but however knowledgeable about theater hamlet is (very), he's not waking up in the morning with the assumption that he's living Inside Tropes. (i do think he's aware he's in a revenge tragedy by the middle/end of the play, but that's another post for another day.)

point being: jumping straight to murder is a CRAZY ask. even from your shitty ghost dad who you address as king more than dad. plus, if ghosts are real, it does stand to reason that they might be evil/trying to get hamlet to damn his soul, because clearly supernatural and satanic things are not off the table. the ghost might be dad, but it might also be the devil, or maybe even a hallucination caused by a fit of grief. so the first step here is not "murder right away," it's "get some proof more substantial than a Maybe Ghost."

so:

>pretend to be crazy >get some proof

and, okay, fine. the pretending to be crazy is... a decision. based off the amleth story, we can infer the rationale is "keep claudius from realizing i've figured out the murder, because if he knows that, he will kill me." re: the monarch who can KILL PEOPLE WHENEVER HE WANTS because he HAS SOLE POWER. but hamlet, perhaps All That was a little bit much.

nevertheless: hamlet starts being crazy at the top of act two. he sets the mousetrap scheme in motion in the second scene of act two. that's not that much of a delay, dude. that is one (1) scene of arguable "dithering," and he's not doing NOTHING, he's establishing his antic-disposition cover. you could argue that a lot of time has passed, but the timeline of hamlet is so blurry. we do not know that. he's covering his bases, okay?

and then he gets down to business! he has to yap about it first, but he surveils claudius during the play! and THIS is where the problem arises--he doesn't put off investigating; rather, he can't STOP investigating. because no amount of evidence is actually able to convince him to Do It. this isn't procrastination; this is a deep inability to be certain that he's on the right path. and this is a case where certainty matters, because if he's wrong, murder is a mortal sin. and also regicide. people get killed for that. like badly killed

2.2 is hamlet setting up the mousetrap thing. 3.1 (to be or not to be) occurs in the time before the players set their shit up, a delay that is not his fault. 3.2 is the mousetrap. 3.3 is claudius in the church, and then--

>talk to my mom >impulsively and paranoidly murder the royal advisor > > >oh jesus fucking christ i murdered the royal advisor

"hamlet's flaw is inaction" okay. well. i would say manslaughter is an action. in fact it is Such an action that it gets him banished for an entire act of the play. and thus we cannot really call anything after 3.4 a delay, either, because he's not sitting around twiddling his thumbs, he KILLED A MAN AND GOT EXILED TO ENGLAND.

the one place you can argue for hamlet dithering here is 3.3, with claudius in the church. hamlet claims he doesn't do it then because he doesn't want claudius to go to heaven for Died While Praying Virtuously. if you believe him, fine. if you think this is kind of a load of bullshit to cover that he doesn't want to do it--sure, okay. if he doesn't want to do it, it's because he still doesn't feel like he has enough evidence to justify it. the evidence he has--the evidence he thought would make him certain--is claudius freaking out during the play. but let us remember that the murderer in the mousetrap is the player king's NEPHEW. for all hamlet knows, it's actually entirely possible that claudius is freaking out because he thinks this is a threat from hamlet, not a staged callout post.

"but we know claudius killed king hamlet because--" because he says so. in his soliloquy. to the audience. which we can hear because of the structure of theater. which WE can hear. which hamlet CANNOT! and so hamlet has set up this elaborate rube goldberg machine to allow himself to Attain Certainty that he's doing the right thing. and yet no matter what happens, he can't reach that certainty for real.

and he never does, actually. in the last scene of the play, watching his mother die after drinking poison, he'll still demand everyone bar the doors to seek out the treachery--he's still leaving open the possibility that claudius might have nothing to do with this (as if claudius doesn't spend acts 3-5 way past jean ralphio levels of suspicious). and yet hamlet still doesn't seize on the obvious, because no amount of proof can be enough for him, because fundamnetally he doesn't trust himself. he doesn't trust his perception. he doesn't trust his judgment. in the end, he doesn't even kill claudius for killing hamlet senior. he kills claudius because claudius has poisoned HIM (and laertes and gertrude). arguably, he dies without ever being fully certain claudius actually killed his father.

now, we can all come up with our own interpretations of WHY hamlet doesn't trust himself (because nobody else seems to? because everyone thinks he's crazy? because he's worried he might be crazy? because he's religiously conflicted?). i think most of you can guess my answer. but we don't get an explicit why and that's not the point of this post. the point of this post is that however you read it, hamlet's not procrastinating. he is trying, desperately, from a place of intense political and emotional duress, to grasp any amount of empirical evidence before he kills another person with his own hands. and he can't.

anyway! anybody here take the yale-brown scale lately?

[valentinelocks]

Peter has no idea Steph and Tim aren’t exclusive

So when he walks past Tim in an alcove at Gotham U cozied up awfully close with someone else he doesn’t initially say anything (but by god he’s judging) and when he makes eye contact with him a few days later sucking face with a different girl at the library cafe, Peter makes his disapproval KNOWN.

Missions at Mt Justice don’t change and he doesn’t ask to switch teams or anything drastic - but there’s next to no banter between them anymore. No silly games or witty jokes - Peter just clocks in and clocks the fuck out now. And no can even say anything because - he responds! And he still works just fine when they’re paired up. He also listens / replies when spoken to - he just isn’t friendly anymore.

In fact - he totally shuts down any conversation Tim joins and gets the coldest look on his face which is BAFFLES EVERYONE???

Because holy shit Peter doesn’t like you?? Do you kick puppies for a living - what the hell???

They’ve never really seen Peter mad before. Annoyed - sure. But this ice out is a new one and honestly kind of scary.

And Tim is ???? So confused. Because he has no idea what Peter’s upset about since he hadn’t actually noticed him that day.

Now - Jason obviously finds this hilarious because hell yeah fuck that guy (he knows they’re open he’s just saying choosing to say NOTHING).

Dick doesn’t know what to make of it because he’s pretty sure they were open? But now he’s doubting it because weren’t they just celebrating their anniversary?? (Zatanna mentioned it in passing but his ass was naaawt listening 😭).

No one’s told Damian why Peter doesn’t like Tim right now but he doesn’t care and finds the sudden switch gratifying (he never liked the guy anyway).

Artemis was concerned about the team’s harmony at first but has since decided to stay out of it since it hasn’t affected their work.

But Wally’s been avoiding him too?? Because someone told him a mutated version of the rumour and he now believes Tim tried to bribe Peter to hide his cheating.

[Wally: it’s all alleged but man, who knew he could be such a douchebag?

Roy: (scoffing) it’s a bitch move, that’s for sure.

Jason, who is now hearing a frankensteined version of his own rumour repeated back to him: oh yeah…it’s just - crazy. Really. But you know I heard….]

Everything comes to a head when the rumour gets back to Steph after she comes back from a covert mission so this is literally the intervention that follows:

Artemis: (holding the bridge of her nose) So. We’re gathered here today because I feel there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding.

Tim: there’s no misunderstanding. Spidershit over here’s been spreading FALSE rumours about me-

Peter: I SAW YOU WITH MY OWN EYES YOU PATHOLOGICAL LYING PEICE OF-

TIM: YOU’RE THE MANIPULATIVE LOS-

Steph: shut up! Both of you!

(Silence. Jason coughs)

Artemis: Now does anyone have anything to say before we start? (Sighing) Yes, Pete?

Peter: I get why Steph, Tim and Wally are here. But why’d you call Jason too?

Jason: (Standing up, dusting his pants) he’s right, there’s been a mix up.

Artemis: Sit down Jason - (gestures haphazardly at Wally) just - tell them what you told me. About Tim.

Wally: I…just said that I personally don’t feel comfortable being on the same team as someone who pretended to be an angel of music to manipulate a young girl into loving him with the ultimate intention of keeping her with him forever through fear and…coercion?

Steph: …

Tim: …

Peter: ….dude - what

Artemis: (audibly taking a deep breath) so I don’t know why he just recited the plot of Phantom of the Opera verbatim - but if you think for a second that I’m going to let you walk out in that zeta tube Jason Todd without an explan- SIT DOWN.

Jason: (slumping back in chair, groaning) For the record - I DONT EVEN GO HERE

(The issue was resolved pretty quickly after that)

——-

Jason using his theater knowledge for chaos🤩 another silly behind the scene moment from my fic 🫶

[theonlymanny]

Jacob x male reader

Summary: you Bella and Jacob were best friends since diapers. when Bella left, you and Jacob started dating. but a disaster happens when he breaks your heart.

Warning: death. Mentions of suicide.

—————————————

"hey Jacob what do you think if we go out this Sunday." "I don't know M/n I'm kind of busy" "come on... it's Been centuries since we last hung out." Jacob let out a sigh "listen M/n I am busy and tired. I can't waste my time with something so unnecessary."

You looked down not wanting to show your sadness. "I'm sorry..." "alright... we can go to the theater this Sunday." "really?" "yes.." "alright! pick me up at 3? 4? you decide I don't want to ask Paul. , bye! love you."

"Love you too..."

"hey, where are you going?" "oh, I am going to the theater with Jake." "I Don't understand what you see in that guy... you deserve someone better." "are you going to bring this again?" "hey I'm just saying!"

After you finished you waited outside for your boyfriend. but he never came. after 1 hour you decided to text him but he never answered. "he wouldn't forget... Right?" after almost two hours it started pouring rain.

"M/n get inside you're going to get sick!" you were so busy crying that you didn't notice Paul carrying you inside. "I thought he remembered..." "he never came... I am so beating his ass!" "Paul wait no! I'm sure he had a-" "a what M/n!? a reason he left you? who knows if he is probably fucking anyone else right now!" "don't say that..." "I know who it was... its that chick named Bella!"

Paul bolted outside the house. "stay here and don't dare to follow me!" "Paul wait!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul traveled all the way to Jacobs house. only to find Bella and the pack outside talking.

"what did you do to him!"

"Bella calm-" "where is Jacob!?" Everyone turned around to see an angry Paul who looked like he was about to kill someone.

"PAUL!!!! I'm so glad your here. have you met Bella?" "you..." "Why is he looking at me like that?" "Paul... don't do it." Sam warned Paul in a serious way. "You ruined my brother's relationship!" "I don't even know your stupid brother!" Paul started growling and loosing control of himself "Paul calm down... don't do anything you will regret."

Right after your brother shifted you screamed at Bella "Bella RUN!!!" Sam, Jared and Embry turned to face you. "dude what happened?" "I'll tell you later-" Before you could finish Jacob ran towards Bella and also shifted.

Your brother was right... he was with Bella...

"Paul stop!" Paul turned to you and quickly shifted back. "I told you to not follow me!" "I knew you were going to do something after I told you! why are you doing this? were you going to hurt Bella?" Jacob also shifted back and he looked really angry.

After You said sorry to Bella about what happened it was now only you and Jacob. "I'm sorry this happened. I didn't mean this. I'm so sorry this will never happen again I promise." "you're right... it won't happen because we are done."

"what?" "don't act stupid you heard me, WE ARE OVER! I never liked you anyway." "but we been together for almost 4 years... I-I don't understand..." "Well you see I just started dating you because Bella left. YOU DON'T MEAN ANYTHING TO ME!" "You're lying... you just-" "listen here I don't want you anywhere near me or Bella. YOU WERE JUST A REPLACEMENT. BECAUSE MY DAD SAID YOU WERE GOOD FOR ME!”

You ran. You ran and didn’t stop, didn’t look back.

—————————————

After almost an hour of non stop moving you ended up lost. “Where… am I?” You were tired, hungry, and heartbroken.

You wanted to end it. There was no other way. Who were you going to leave? Jacob doesn’t love you. Paul will find his imprint and live a happy life. Just like the rest of the pack.

Suddenly you heard a sound, but before you could even react something grabbed you by your neck.

With the pack

Jacob finally arrived after a long 1 hour and 24 minutes

“Where’s M/n?” Bella and Paul asked almost at the same time. Jacob didn’t. Want to tell Bella and the pack that you ran away. “He… I-i don’t know…” “what do you mean you don’t know where he is!?” Paul asked aggressively and pushed Jacob.

“I don’t know! We broke up! I fucked up ok!?” Jacob regretted everything he said to you. How he saw your face scared of him.

“I know how m/n can be, if he ran away an hour ago he is probably not far… we need to catch up.” Almost everyone was surprised that Paul didn’t kill Jacob. But they needed to worry about where you were first.

“Do you have anything we can use to track M/n?” Sam asked Jacob. “He dropped his gloves before we left I was going to give it to him but we left.” Bella gave Sam the old looking gloves that Paul probably gave to you in your birthday.

Everyone shifted and got a sniff of the gloves. Sam growled before he started running. Everyone followed him except Jacob. “Take me with you.” Bella coldly told Jacob. “ I can’t it’s too dang-”. “Just do it dammit!”

Back with M/n

“Let.me.go…” you barely said because you couldn’t breathe.

“Let him go…” a red haired woman said who you could recognize. “Victoria….” The woman that tried to kill Bella when she started dating that weirdo.

“I see you’re one of the mutts brother… and I thought you were only human…” “I’m not a shifter.” You tried to sound intimidating even knowing you were about to shit your pants.

“I thought maybe I could kill you… because well you are Bella’s best friend.” You rolled your eyes at that… you were still afraid of what she was going to do. “Or maybe… I could turn you…” “what?” “Common… I know that your boyfriend left you for Bella. We will both get revenge for what she did…”

Your eyes opened wide at her words. She was right tho… Bella took Jacob from you. But she was still your best friend. “I…” “common I’ll help you go through it. Who knows you’d probably stop being so weak after all… tell you what. You help me defeat the Cullens and you will get your revenge on that mutt… we both win.”

You considered her idea. After all you weren’t going to hurt Bella. And even if you couldn’t hurt Jacob physically you could hurt him mentally… “I’m not sure…” “ you know I could kill you right here and now so you have no option.” “Okay, okay… I’ll help you defeat the Cullens, but! I’m not going to be one of your silly puppets you control. Deal…” you stretched your hand toward Victoria. “Deal… just breathe in… this might hurt a bit.” Before she bit you, you took a deep breath and-

With the pack

“We are close I can feel it…” Paul says to everyone except Bella because well she can talk through her mind. “Paul do you smell that…” everyone could smell that there were vampires around.”what if they caught up to him?” Jared said in a worried tone. “Search the area around, and if you find any leeches… kill them.” Everyone separated into two groups. Sam, Embry, and Jared. And Jacob,Paul and Bella.

“I swear Jacob if something happens to my brother I will rip your spine out of your body.” Jacob didn’t really care about Paul threats now. He just wanted to find you.

But then something that creeped everyone out was a scream. “M/n!” Everyone ran as fast as they could to a bridge nearby. “Please be okay… I promise I will love you forever and that this will never happen again” and Jacob was right… it will never happen again.

Bella wanted to cry right there and now. You weren’t even there. Only a pool of blood and your shirt. Everyone shifted back. “We are late…” Paul dropped to his knees he suddenly threw up. He was out of air. And started crying. “Why…. Why!? This it’s all your fault!”

Jacob couldn’t breathe properly. He knew it was his fault. “No… i didn’t ment this…” Jacob fell to the ground and started crying.

“I’m sorry M/n I failed you…” right next to him was the necklace the he gave to you. The one that Jacob said was worthless and just a piece of trash.

He hugged the necklace so hard that it could almost break. He still had a part of you with him.

—————————————

“AUGHHHHHH! Why does my head hurt so much??” “See it wasn’t that bad.”

“ so what powers do I get?” “You just woke up in a weird place and you only wonder what your powers are?” “Shut up…”. “Don’t worry kid we still have to run away… we are not that far from La push… so get up we gotta go.”

“Ugh… were you always this annoying to the other weirdos?” “Remember you’re a weirdo now! And we still have to work on you not trying to kill everyone you come across to. So let’s get moving.”

“I hope it’s worth…”

—————————————

Hey everyone!!!! The reason this story is late it’s because my dumbass forgot to save the end of the story so I had to re write it. That’s why it might get confusing in some parts. Hope you enjoy!

Also a short explanation. That Paul and M/n are not biological brothers that’s why Bella doesn’t know Paul’s brother.

Bye ✌️

[friedcheesemogu]

WHY WILLIAM BRANDT IS MY FAVORITE "MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE" CHARACTER

This is a presentation I made for my discord last year, mostly for my own enjoyment, hopefully someone else will find it fun.

(I will state up front that it doesn't include anything about "M:I: Dead Reckoning" or any speculation on "Final Reckoning." For reasons.) Grab your snacks, here we go:

Hi. Thanks for coming.

Once upon a time, back in 2011, a friend wanted to go see "Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol." I had seen "MI2" in theaters, promptly forgotten about it, and mostly we were going to this because my friend loved Simon Pegg, and this Jeremy Renner dude was going to be playing Hawkeye in the spring in "Avengers" so we were interested in checking him out. I liked the character of William Brandt a lot, and was very relieved when he wasn't the bad guy.

I then promptly forgot about him for the next 9 years.

In the summer of 2020, my housemate brought home the MI blu-ray set. When he put on MI1, I started off across the room from the TV, slowly crawling closer, climbing over the couch, finally committing to it... and had a great time. I mean, MI2 is hot garbage, but whatever, doves, man. MI3 was solid, and then I saw "Ghost Protocol," and I imprinted on William Brandt. Like hardcore. Like it makes me look stupid.

But I can't talk about him without first talking about...

I. ETHAN HUNT

Have you seen this man? Now you have.

So I see the MI series as a long term character journey for Ethan.

Each movie is different and each Ethan is different, based on where he is in life. (And yes, I know that's also because up until a point they all had different directors, but hear me out).

MI1:

The cocky beginner with nothing to lose. Well... he loses a few things, but by the end of it, he's pretty well set up. He also plans to get out of the game until the very end.

MI2:

Ethan's emo phase. He's becoming better at his job and he knows it, he's careless and rash with himself and with other people. And again he walks away at the end.

MI3:

"I'm trying to be normal." Ethan's gotten older, and is initially out of the field, and he wants to try that, he wants to see if he can have a civilian life with the woman he loves, live in a house, have a dog... He genuinely loves Julia and wants to be with her. Even at the end, I think he still has an idea that he can balance this life with IMF.

But then...

MI4:

This is the turning point. This is the crux of the change.

A friend once said that GP "isn't essential to watch" and my argument to that was, "what the fuck." Let's look into this.

Up until this point, Ethan's attitude has been "I can leave/I want to leave."

In MI3, he even asks Luther to "remember a life before all this," assuming and idealizing that as something better than what he is or what he has when he's with IMF

GP is the first time that Ethan is in it from the beginning. He's not green. He's not on vacation. He's not trying to run. He's been in a Russian Prison for two years and he put himself there. Now we start to see that his priorities have shifted, or at least, his priorities have made it such that he feels/needs/wants to be in the game. And here we find out what he's given up to do it: his marriage, his freedom, his physical and mental wellbeing (inasmuch as Ethan ever thinks about his mental wellbeing, but that's a different post)

At the end, it's the first time we see him walk directly towards another mission instead instead of trying to get away.

This is also the first time he seems to really appreciate his team and hold himself and them accountable to each other. After talking to The Fog, the team that was chosen for him.

...becomes the team he chooses.

(Please take a moment to admire how cute they are, how helpful. Jane Carter, my queen. Benji Dunn, my moppet.)

And part of the team he chooses to finish the job includes that guy that they "inherited:"

He chooses William Brandt.

LET'S LOOK AT THESE FINE BITCHES A FEW MORE TIMES:

*muffled "Crew" by Dessa" playing the background*

This image is my phone case.

Anyway, let's get to the main event: why William Brandt?

II. WILL

I'm gonna refer to him as "Will" from this point on, because this man is my baby. He is tattooed on my thigh. We are close, and every time I think about the fact that he is the only team member who never gets called anything but "Brandt" it breaks my heart. So I'm not gonna do that to him.

Will is unlike any team member Ethan has ever had.

Most people want to work with Ethan. Will would rather be anywhere else. He's an unwilling participant. He doubts his abilities and his usefulness even though he has the training and he knows the job. He's nervous. He's not ready for this. He doesn't want to do it...but he has to. So he will.

Ethan can't read him

Ethan is extremely good at figuring people out, or at least coming up with a rough idea of who they are/what they're after very quickly (traitors notwithstanding). But Will hides his true self perfectly. Well... almost.

Until he was actually fighting for his life, Ethan and the others assumed Will was just baggage. The fact that Ethan pauses mid fight to notice Will breaking a dude's leg is notable, because that's the moment he realizes he's misjudged him completely. Will has the ability to blend in and not seem like a threat, when the truth is, he's as fast as Ethan and can more than hold his own.

This scene is so fast that even though I've watched it about 436 times I still can't follow their hands and MY GOD it's so sexy I want to throw my computer across the room.

Will can pass in both the political world that Ethan shuns and on the field. He works with Hunley while simultaneously subverting him. He's able to do the field work in Mumbai and play along flawlessly in London in "Rogue Nation."

There is no literally reason for Ethan to say "you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine" in that tone of voice while they look each other up and down unless...

Anyway.

2. Will has real and believable pain and guilt

Will spends all of GP working with someone whose life he feels responsible for ruining. Whose wife he feels responsible for killing. He's haunted by Croatia and it's visible on his face when he talks about it to Jane and Benji (thank you Jeremy Renner). His emotions are crippling in a way that has never been addressed before, because they bring up what Ethan has only started to accept at this point: the cost of what they do is that you can lose people, forever. You can lose your faith in the job, in yourself, and sometimes that breaks you. Will, for all his high position, skill, and intelligence, considers himself a failure.

It's also worth noting that he and Jane are interesting parallels: they were both in charge of missions where they fucked up and now have to face their mistakes directly to fix them. But Jane is able to take her anger and her pain and turn it around; it takes Will years to even face it, and that's only under duress. That he rises to the occasion is to his credit, but it's hardly unreasonable to be so shaken by how you've failed that it takes a very long time to pick yourself back up.

3. Loyalty

Something I feel Will never really gets credit for is his loyalty to so many things, even at the cost of his sense of self.

He's loyal to IMF - he never left. Even when he was at his lowest, he did something else within the agency. He committed himself to this and he's going to do it, no matter how much it hurts.

He's beyond loyal to Ethan. Without him, Ethan might not have made it away from Hunley or survived the events of "Rogue Nation." In the tie-in comic "Torn Asunder", it is heavily implied that Will is the one who warns Ethan of when Hunley is getting close. He's on the inside making sure Ethan can stay one step ahead. It's true that Ethan ultimately reaches out to Benji, but that's because Will has a cover that's so deep Luther calls him "a sellout." He's also willing to play the part of the traitor successfully because he's kept Hunley at bay for so long. He also straight up kills someone with a car to save Ethan and Benji (and no one ever thanks him for any of this, by the way).

But he's also one of the few people who ever says "no"

For all his loyalty and commitment to Ethan, he's willing to argue with him -over the briefcase with the codes, over jumping, over what the hell Ethan means when he says "do you see" in the parking lot after Benji is kidnapped- to a point that it becomes more of a fight.

Will is not always right in these situations (or right by the standards of the insane people on the team), but he does have to have things explained, have to be persuaded that this is not some crazy bullshit. He wants the details because he knows those matter -that's his job, to find them, know them, and analyze them. It may seem like he's doubting Ethan when he asks "what happens if you don't make it back," but he's making a reasonable request of someone he knows isn't actually superhuman. Will is well aware that they are both fallible humans, and he takes that into account.

He's just so interesting...

4. Will and Ethan's relationship

Will is Ethan's foil. He left "this life" like Ethan tried so many times, but didn't actually leave any of it behind. He is what Ethan could be if he let the entire weight of his whole life on him (which I'm not saying he should do, not until he has time for a whole lot of therapy) and went "oh my god, what happened, what have I done?"

Will knows how to play by the rules, and thereby how to break them; Ethan breaks the rules to play by his own. Will knows the cost and -for better or worse- lets that keep him from acting; Ethan hopes that if he acts enough it'll balance what it's cost to do it.

Something I think about a lot is this: it's not entirely clear if the Serbian hit squad that "killed" Julia was an actual group of people acting independently or whether the entire thing -and therefore Ethan killing six people- was set up by Ethan and the Secretary. If it's the latter they allowed Will to shoulder the entire blame for the incident (which is super fucked up, by the way). Regardless of whose "job" it was to protect Julia, IMF and Ethan threw Will under several buses. Once he knows this, he could use this against Ethan at any point -a reason not to trust him, a bargaining chip to get what he wants- but he doesn't. Will keeps Ethan's darkest secret and is trusted with it, possibly even before Luther. And he protects it, protects Julia, protects Ethan. Ethan asks Will to compromise everything he is while knowing that Will has the means to destroy him, and Will does it, because he'd rather put himself in danger than betray him. I think that says a lot about him (and again, a simple "thank you" would have been nice).

And of course there's this:

Ethan's life has never been more literally in anyone's hands than Will's. For all the ways Ethan fails to trust him for most of GP, Will doesn't hesitate for a second to jump out the window to save the life of the man who ruined his. And he was fast enough to do it, which I think says a little about his skill level.

(Mad props to Jane too, let's not forget her.)

III. Saturn take the leap

*"Hero" by Faouzia playing gently in the foreground*

Will is the kind of character I find endlessly fascinating. He's got so much going on under the surface, but the surface is so artfully crafted that it's distracting. He's withdrawn, but he's not shy. He's physically adept, but the suit makes you think otherwise. He's obviously very intelligent, and also capable of being a complete salty dumbass jerk. He's sad, and he hurts, but when he's challenged he doesn't back down. He's been watching Ethan's back for a long, long time, and because he didn't get a stupid ending in Fallout, I want to believe he still is.

A word from our sponsor:

If you please, Mr. Cruise:

And I'm so sorry that I've forgotten the source for this one, but it leads me into one of the final, most important points:

DAT ASS

*Janelle Monae's "Yoga" plays loudly and aggressively*

OH HELL YEAH THAT IS MY TWENTY DOLLAR PEACH RIGHT THERE

IV. Thank you!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope you found it at least a little interesting. Most of this was pieced together from notes I wrote last March that I understood then but past me did not account for future me and so I had to rewrite and rethink some of it. But William Brandt came out of obscurity to conquer my heart and become one of my all-time favorite characters. I sleep with a picture of him next to my bed. Yes I am grown up and pay taxes. This is the form my adulthood has taken.

I'm nervous about coming back to tumblr and still trying to find my footing, but one of the reasons I love fandom and fanfiction because there's so many more stories that can be told outside of the movies., and I want to make them and find them and hear about them. What has Will been doing since the end of RN? Are he and Jane besties? Do they all have movie nights where Benji picks the movie and everyone is like "why have you done this to us?" Let me talk to you about my canon divergence fic where among other things Ilsa is still alive and she and Will are not fond of each other... I personally love Will/Ethan as a ship, and I've dedicated my heart to it (AoT, anyone?), but there's so many options for everyone to pick their favorite character, favorite ship, whatever, and go deeper into them that we get to in the bursts of two to three hours they're on the screen. I'd love to talk with people about them and I'm hoping that I'll get the chance here. And then I can also mention my Mission Impossible dollhouse...

But for now, again, thanks. I really love William Brandt, the end.

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

Finally, the day has come, I get to finish Top Form! I am not going to go into a full rant about Fast Track and how it is both an annoying cash grab and really screws with the fandom experience (grumble, grumble), but because I was not paying for it, for my own sake, I ended up waiting to watch the last three episodes and just filtered the tag all this time, because it just got too hard to avoid spoilers.

(Note - this is no judgment against those who chose to pay for Fast Track, I get it, waiting sucked so much. I just work really hard to budget for watching as much QL on legit sources as I can, so it annoys me when companies try to squeeze out even more from us).

Anyway! Let's get back to my babies!

I love that a core theme of this entire series is that actors have a right to their personal lives, and the public can mind their own fucking business.

Also, for the record, anyone who sees personal photos get leaked, and doesn't immediately click off, uses it to gossip, and/or reshares or passes them on - they suck. IT IS NONE OF OUR FUCKING BUSINESS.

Can Akin & Jin just run off somewhere and join a local repertory theater troupe? I bet they'd be a lot happier.

Oh, this episode is going to be pure pain. Akin still doesn't believe he can ever truly be happy, so of course this is what he does.

How dare they make such a painful moment such a beautiful scene.

Also the acting here.

And here's the crux of the matter - Akin sees himself as a burden, not as a real part of any partnership or family.

He is so sure he doesn't matter, and it breaks my heart.

Johnny, a forehead flick is getting off light.

But of course even in the midst of his depression, our blorbo is going to be the sweetest man.

I'm here for Uncle Akin. He needs family so much more than career.

I love this convo with Sine and Sine's wife, because Akin has only seen his relationship with Jin as something that will inevitably end, and never even considered the potential of their relationship giving them the ability to be a unified front against the world.

Of course Jin has been working on a plan. Our boy never gives up. Akin has so much more support than he's been able to recognize.

I'm so relieved it's resolved by the end, but also, I hope we do see Akin make some effort to make up for his lack of trust in Jin...

Episode 10, let's go!

Arrggh, so cuuuute.

I can't get enough of them in cute mode.

Oh, let Akin catch a break! Poor dude's been through enough this year.

I have had some harsh thoughts of Grandma in the past, because of Akin's innate lack of self-worth and emphasis on acting over all other things, but I can also appreciate a woman who comes from the afterlife to make it clear she fully supports her grandson's gay romance.

Wait, is that Akin's mom? Why did I think his parents were dead? Or is she just a different older female relative and the subtitles are confusing me again?

Silly me, thinking this might be a lighter episode. I'm fine. *sniffle*

Ugh, why is Sigma at his grandmother's funeral? What an absolute disgusting power play to pull. Gross.

Do we think Touch is possessive over Jin? Is that why he's being such a little asshole?

I almost said Akin was lucky to be working with someone like Jade in this industry, but then I remembered how he knew right away to turn Sigma down, and I think this is just a man who knows how to pick 'em. Even if he doesn't feel worthy of them.

Oh, fuuuuuck Sigma. They just have such a bug up their butt because Akin wouldn't sign with them. What petulant assholes.

Omg, love this expression

gonna have to steal it.

Um, is this dialogue between a grandmother and grandson supposed to be delivered with so much innate desire?

I can't wait for Jin to tell all of his people to go fuck themselves.

Honestly, if I were Jin, I would 100% go to Sigma and tell them either they immediately sign all the rights over to Akin, or I go on national tv and tell everyone I'm super gay.

Alright, Finale time!!! Crossing fingers for all of Sigma to go up in an explosion. Literal or metaphorical, I don't care.

See, this is how you know it's all about pettiness - if it was about money, they'd want Akin involved for the publicity.

God I hate this fucker. Call his bluff! Go public!

I hate how much Akin is suffering, but I am also so proud of him for learning to lean on Jin instead of shutting him out.

Our baby is growing!

Lol, totally knew it would be a tie, but I love it. Jin has truly reached his goal of being on equal footing to Akin.

Also this is so fantastic, because Sigma trying to argue that Jin's star is fading due to his connection to Akin was just shown for the bullshit it is.

I hate Sigma so much!!!! Can we please get this man hit by a bus or something?

But, oh, these two together properly now. Akin leaning on Jin so naturally. And the return of the scoring system, but as a way to coach Jin - just perfection.

I want to see Jade's boyfriend so badly!

Spinoff please?

Ooh, his wings are bigger!

Oh this is pure bliss.

They are just so happy together. I'm fine. *sniffle*

Lol, the shade to Sigma, excellent.

Oh this so beautifully full circle.

What a warm hug of an ending, wow.

Ok, now they're just trying to kill me.

Ooh, Jade's got machinations going on - did you just arrange for the CEO of Sigma to be hit by a bus?

What a well made show. I'm not a huge angst fan, but the core themes and the relationship between Akin and Jin made this such a standout. Beautifully acted, gorgeous visuals, well-written, but a really good show.

Now to start the wait for the next SmartBoom project...

[rillils]

how do explain stucky from the moment they met to where they are now (together in each others arms) to my friend who knows nothing about marvel

ohh this is a tough one, honey! i think i've got two options for you:

the short answer:

stucky is a compendium of all the best tropes out there, and i'm sure i'm gonna miss a few:

soulmates? check! star-crossed lovers? check! battle husbands? super check! mutual pining? check! 'and they were roommates'? check! best friends to lovers? check check check! long-lost lover comes back from the dead? fuck yeah, check! temporary amnesia? check! dude in distress trope? check! 'they will always find each other and choose each other in every lifetime'? also check! identity porn? extra check! saved by the power of love? you guessed it: check! slow burn or childhood sweethearts? you decide!!! did they share their first kiss when steve was 16, as per a popular fanon theory? did they only confess their feelings during the war? did they only get together much later, when bucky was healing in wakanda? you can pick literally ANY point in their timeline, and it will still make sense! they're all equally valid! you can even have multiple different headcanons at once, i mean who's gonna stop you??? all you have to do is join in the fun! 💕

the long AF answer, aka:

STEVE & BUCKY'S LOVE STORY, UNABRIDGED SOMEWHAT ABRIDGED, part 1/3

all right, let's set the scene:

imagine two young kids, let's call them steve and bucky. they meet, they immediately take to each other, they become instant besties! and as they grow up together, facing many hardships, their bond deepens. not only are they best friends; they are also each other's family. they take care of each other, and they both know they can always rely on one another in times of need.

when steve's mom (and only remaining relative) passes away, bucky reminds him that he's not as alone in this world as he thinks he is: bucky will always be by his side. bucky will always love him unconditionally, will always be there for him, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, and he wants steve to know that.

in fact, he asks steve to move in with him, thus offering steve both a literal and a metaphorical home.

and steve says yes!

SO. they are each other's home, they're living together, they're getting by all right. but then war breaks out, and eventually it reaches their little home as well: bucky is drafted, and steve, due to his many health issues, and despite his best intentions, can't follow the boy he loves onto the battlefield.

it's a very difficult time for them both - so much so that they can't even bring themselves to talk about it.

they have no choice but to say goodbye for now, knowing that they might never see each other again. but here's something you might not know yet about steve: he's the most reckless, most stubborn fucker america's ever seen. he's not gonna let this stop him!!! instead, he goes and gets a very sweet, kindly scientist to fucking experiment on him, because screw it, he's going to fight in this war if it's the last thing he does. and that's how he goes from Smol Steeb to Lorge Premium Steeb.

of course, things don't go exactly as he predicted, and steve is made to be the star of a war propaganda-fuelled musical kinda thingie, which he resents (but he looks fucking precious in his costume)

BUT! he does get closer to the actual battlefield. which is where he discovers that bucky has been captured by the enemy (!!!!!!!) and is most likely dead by now. but steve isn't willing to give up so easily! he'll believe bucky's dead when he sees it with his own eyes. so, he embarks on this suicide solo mission in the attempt to get bucky back, even if it means wandering on his own. into enemy territory. where he would be shot. on. sight. with no protection for his dumb ass except for a bunch of theater props!!! but such is the power of love, y'all.

against all odds, steve finds bucky very much still alive! and as soon as bucky recognizes him, even as confused as he is, he pulls out this beautiful, ecstatic, angelic-ass smile, like he's just seen god or he got high on some real good edibles or maybe both idk, like my man here was having a serious Religious Experience™ you guys

and i just wanna say, they could have totally kissed here and it would have made plenty of sense. but that's true of like 90% of their scenes in this franchise, so *shrugs*

ANYWAY steve takes bucky in his arms (well technically yes he does) and brings him to safety, and on their way there, bucky proves once more just how hard he meant that "with you til the end of the line" from before

afterwards, steve is finally given the chance to fight, just like he wanted.

bucky, on the other hand, could very well leave the war behind and go home; but when he learns that steve is staying, he chooses to stay too, and fight by his side. and he tells steve so in this very intimate, softspoken, delightfully suggestive conversation, which can be summed up like this:

and so they walk right back into the heart of the fight, only this time together, as they were always meant to be!

but. during an especially tricky mission, they're surprised by the enemy, and as a result, bucky falls to his death into a deep ravine.

steve is devastated. overwhelmed with guilt, grief and rage, he vows to bring down the people responsible for his loss, even if it costs him his own life.

and um, it kind of does? cost him his own life?

victorious after his last vis-a-vis with The Antagonist™, steve still chooses to sacrifice himself to prevent the catastrophe set into motion by the aforementioned Antagonist™. he's flying a jet over the frosty expanse of the atlantic, and you know, from the outside, you could easily argue that he could try to save himself. if he really wanted to. but with bucky dead, and the people responsible for all this pain, either dead or captured, it seems like all the will to fight is gone from steve; and so he plunges the jet straight into the ocean, and himself with it.

is this the end of their story?, you might ask.

the answer is: of course not!!!! the best is yet to come, babes!!!

EDIT: here is part 2

[05sonicfan]

Probably not a hot take from me, but...

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is one of the best family films of 2024.

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

It's not a perfect adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2 by any means, but it cleans up a lot of the unessary stuff from the game.

Especially in regards to Maria and the ARK.

I LOVE that the Space Colony ARK doesn't exist in this movie. Because the movie knows it doesn't need it. All it needs to adapt is the research facility where Maria dies and the Eclipse Cannon.

Gerald Robotnik is an interesting character in the film for sure. He still has the same hatred he harbored for humanity in SA2, but with the added bonus of resentment for his grandson, Ivo because, in his own words...

"You're no Maria."

Gerald definitely is playing favorites, and I think it's abundantly clear why. He sees himself in Ivo, and it disgusts him. Whereas with Maria, he can only remember her innocence.

Speaking of Ivo, man, he's great. I mean, he's just all over the place in this film. He's good, he'd bad... and he sure as hell is funny. He and Stone are great, and I love how he finally admits his true thoughts about him during his sacrifice. Stone deserved to be validated for all the shit Ivo put him through over the years.

Now, I wanna move on to our meat and potatoes. Sonic and Shadow. They're phenomenal. Sonic is pretty much the same as he was in Sonic 2, with a little bit of added angst, which is due entirely to the film's themes about family, morality, and loss. Shadow is... jesus... he was amazing. He was everything I wanted him to be. Cool, dark, yet understanding. That being said, I wish they spent more time on Shadow dealing with the issue of what Maria wanted VS getting revenge on GUN with Gerald. I think extending Shadow's conversation with Gerald about their plan and Maria's wish would have done this perfectly and, in turn, better set up his switch to the good side so it's not as "oh yeah I guess we're doing this now."

"Live and Learn."

Okay, time for me to gush about Crush 40.

First of all, SEGA needs to pay Johnny G. what he's owed. Second...

HOLY FUCK

Live and Learn is everywhere in this thing. It's basically Shadow's theme for this film, playing in moments where he's either doing cool shit, or turning further to the light.

And when it played when Sonic and Shadow went Super on the fucking moon?! Oh my god, I would've screamed if it weren't for the fact I was in a public movie theater. You do NOT understand what this means for the next few films. We might actually get songs like "What I'm Made Of" or "His World" adapted for these movies if they keep doing well.

And I don't need a masters degree in Sonic-The-Hedgehogology to tell you how COOL that would be.

Speaking of Sonic, I wanna turn it back to talk about him and Tom. Dude. I love how Tom is immediately ready to join Sonic on his adventures. He loves this kid and wants to support him in any way he can, and I bet Sonic's so happy Tom wants to Hero with him.

"What did you do."

Tom's injury towards the end actually hurt me a bit. I didn't realize how much I cared about him until they played with the possibility of his death in this film. Also, I love what it meant to Sonic. We've seen in Sonic 2 that Sonic has some pent-up aggression for the echidna that killed Longclaw, that he never really properly expresses. The possibility of losing Tom, his best friend and father figure, the first person he connected with after years of isolation, it drives Sonic into a dark mindset. And. I. Love it.

This is what modern Sonic stories need. To give Sonic a wide variety of emotions, for him to act rashly if his closest friends and family are hurt, because it gives him more personality and shows us just how much he cares.

"What was his name...? Tom...?"

I loved everything about the scenes where Tom is hinted at being dead. I love how Shadow sees Sonic's reaction to Tom's potential death, and he has a small realization that he's become just like who he hated. I love watching Sonic panicking because he might be losing his best friend and father. I love how Maddie tries to keep a hold of herself for the sake of Team Sonic. I love the argument between Knuckles and Sonic about the use of the Master Emerald. I love the fight between Super Shadow and Super Sonic. I love how Shadow criticizes Sonic for letting his blind rage take over. I love how he wants Sonic to finish the job, and Sonic realizes what he's doing.

"The light shines, even though the star is gone..."

Sonic and Shadow's brief conversation on the moon is actually really sweet. They share a connection through their losses, and Sonic is able to guide Shadow to the light, by simply telling him to make the right choice. I think it's great because up until now, I think Shadow believed what he was doing WAS the right thing. But after seeing himself become like the GUN agents who ended up killing Maria... He starts to doubt himself. He goes to Gerald, who reassures him that what they're doing is justified, but Shadow doesn't believe that. Note how in that scene he asks if "this is what Maria would have wanted." Gerald responds by basically ignoring his question, saying that destroying earth is what deserves to happen to it. Gerald's own attitude led to his downfall. It's what caused Shadow to realize that he's on the wrong side of the fight by the time Sonic and him are on the moon, sulking.

"There are no winners with revenge."

I love this line from Sonic. It says so much about his past experiences from the last 2 films. He's seen revenge constantly ruin his life. So to be the one delivering it...? It goes against everything he's stood for, crosses a line he doesn't want to cross, and most importantly, sets him up for failure.

"Don't tell me you have a catchphrase.."

I like the comradery between Sonic and Shadow in the Super Hogs v GUN drones fight. They have a newfound understanding for each other that I think would have been able to make them better friends had it not been for Shadow's sacrifice, which will probably lead to the amnesia plot lines from Heroes and Shadow 05, which means it'll probably make Shadow a Sonic hater again. But then again, these movies keep surprising me, so who knows, maybe we won't go that route?

"What..? Who are you?"

Speaking of surprises.

FUCKING. METALIX.

And AMY MOTHERFUCKING ROSE.

Holy fuck. You all have no idea how hype this is. Unfortunately, I can say much in terms of predictions, but I think we'll be in for a treat come 2027.

[happypotato48]

Century of Love EP 2 Unhinged Tangent Thoughts

Ok let's get back to old man yaoi??? BL.

It's a very common thing for men your age don't worry gramp, i think, idk i'm not there yet i'm still a youthful young man full of vigor and what not :3 also the phrase they use here roughly translates to the cock (as in the bird) not crowing.

This old man still haven't realized that he's in a BL written by the OG Y girl Nu Wa. i know that bitch made her clay men kissed each other the first thing she did after making humanity.

Sorry grandma i'm still 50/50 on that it isn't scary sometime but othertime it fucking terrifying. i think that's how it suppose to be though.

Wow, whose is that going to be i wonder >_>

As a clumsy disaster of a man why is this never happened to me ever. i'm mad where my god dang BL moments!

Future husband future husband!. shhhh i'm manifesting.

We stan a communicating family, even when the thing they communicate is a old man wet dream :)

I probably have a relative like this somewhere that i never met. my extended family is pretty gigantic.

What in yaoi hell is this, god this show is ridiculous.

Kids are weird so meh i'm not bother by the willingness of Wee to go along with this.

K the show is smart for having someone stating the obvious solution.

This is kinda sad. San kept the place where the love of his life died unchaging, it's like he stuck in that moment for 100 years relive it again and again unable to move on.

Time only moves in one direction, san is literally frozen both physically and emotionally in time waiting to relive the happiness that long gone.

Back to being unhinged, Dude your fight scene is weaker than forking ironfist. good thing that this a BL show and not an action show cause my god this is Thailand we know how to do action!

The hair it's the hair like one look at that and anyone can tell that this mofo is suppose to be the bad guy.

My man that dude has a knife sticking out of his shoulder. is Wee a himbo?? verdict yes no ?

I liked this EP the pacing is very good and juxtaposition in the theater scene is immaculately well done. and here come the tin foil hat and clown makeup, i don't think Wee is Wad, even though all the signs pointed to that i really loved the the theme of moving forward and continue living past grief that Wee represent. and maybe that will be the case, finger crossed.

[quohotos]

Man, I really feel bad for the Dinotopia guys. They built this whole intricate, creative, enrapturing world, and it was going to be the next big thing. It was gonna be the next franchise. They got George Fucking LUCAS to make a screen adaptation of it. Yeah, the starwars guy. Then midway through production he realizes how much he loves making movies and decides to ditch your project and make the prequels instead. They say there's no bad blood but... man it would fucking kill me to go to the theater and see Naboo and think "Fuck, that coulda been waterfall city"

There still was a franchise. They did eventually make spinoff paperback novels and video games and there were even a couple screen adaptations, but they were done by Lifetime and Hallmark. The lifetime one is actually surprisingly good given its budget. It tells a story that mirrors the structure of the original picture book, two brothers get marooned on Dinotopia, one of them rides a pterosaur and then they have to stop a dude named Krab from stealing a crystal that he needs to make an ancient machine get him off the island... but it's not a reboot or anything, it's the same continuity as the books. I guess guys named Krab really do be stealing crystals every generation or so. It's not really that bad of a series but damn it could have been George Lucas!

I dunno, I just find myself thinking about it. It was a uniquely artistic and non-violent series for its time. All of the dinosaurs and people live in harmony. There used to be a steampunk cyber empire of capitalists who tried to replace dinosaurs with the coolest looking robots you could imagine, but then there was a revolution and they all live in communistic harmony with no real currency. Each according to their need, each to their own ability. All that Jazz.

I'm certainly more normal about it than I am say The Underland Chronicles but I still find myself thinking about those gorgeous communist dinosaur picture books. In another reality, Battleborn won over Overwatch, Galidor never got its budget cut and was actually a smash success, Warner bros actually did something with the TUC film rights, and Kids in the 00s grew up with Dinotopia instead of the Starwars prequels.

[trina-makes-an-entrance]

My 2025 Eurovision BMC headcanons and what song do I think the BMC characters would like:

Christine: Hardcore fan. She's definitely in love with Remember Monday - What The Hell Just Happened. The harmonies, the schuyler sisters coded dresses, the fallen chandelier, IT'S SO THEATER KID CODED, OF COURSE SHE LOVES IT!!! I think she loves Eurovision, even tho she has assumed that the whole competition is super rigged. I feel like she probably would only watch the performances and just turn off the TV when the voting begins just so she doesn't get depressed. She goes like "Well, that was rad, can't wait for next year :)" and calls it a day.

Jenna: Personally, I headcanon her as half Spanish (bc I'm Spanish and I like projecting, okay???), but she's super cynical about Eurovision because after seeing Spain perform for a couple of years and getting just a few pity points, you kind of just- lose hope?? She's a reaaaally casual watcher, but really liked Serving. She defo cheered a bit for Melody, but was rooting for Malta, I just know.

Michael: Doesn't care for Eurovision AT ALL, but Jeremy and Christine make him watch it with them. He prolly likes the goofiest songs, that's why I think he loved Esspreso Macchiato, because "ain't no way they let that dude in" and "holy crap what the fuck is that plane doing?". He definitely got the song stuck in his head for hours.

Brooke: I just know she was rooting for Luxembourg. The doll-like aesthetic, the vocals, she's a super fan and throws a Europarty every year with her family. To me she's half Greek (although she's usually really imparcial), and their parents started the tradition of watching Eurovision back when she was a little kid. They decor their living room, get snacks, they even have little whiteboards where they write the points they give to each country after every performance. She was so so mad about Luxembourg placing so low.

Chloe: Didn't really care for Eurovision at first, tho Brooke usually invented her to her Europarty. After a couple of years, she started enjoying it more. She probably loved Esa Diva. She loves to judge the staging and the outfits, and that's probably the only reason she watches Eurovision. She gets a bit mad over the ranking, but would identify herself as a casual enjoyer.

Jake: I headcanon him as half Australian and my boy was DEVASTATED when Milkshake Man didn't get to the final. Just like Brooke, he's an Eurofan — the kind of person who listen to the songs weeks before the final and stalks the singers in social media. I feel he'd root for many countries and probably likes La Poupée Monte Le Son, What The Hell Just Happened?, C'est La Vie and Esa Diva. He's really versatile, I just know.

Jeremy: Between fan and causal watcher, but gets really angry and outraged about the votes, to me he's half German and quite biased, so I feel he really liked Baller. But he's a sucker for a pretty voice singing a ballad (I'M NOT PROJECTING, YOU ARE PROJECTING), so he cried liked a baby to Voyage, by Switzerland. He doesn't even know what the hell Zoe's saying, he just likes it that much. He also likes Lighter and Survivor (he's not beating the bisexual allegations).

Rich: Started watching Eurovision once he made friends with Brooke and Jake. He roots for the chaos and prefers to not listen to the songs before the final so he can be surprised easier. He loves Bara Bada Bastu and Tutta L'Italia. He ebjoyes judging the performances and doesn't filter his reactions at all.

I feel like after the Squip, they'd all watch Eurovision together — you have the fans who yell at the tv when the televote fucks everything up (Brooke and Jeremy), the fans who accept the show for what it is (Christine and Jake), the casual enjoyeres who love talking shit and judging the performances (Chloe and Rich), and the cynical watchers who couldn't care less but their friends make them watch it (Michael and Jenna).

[mrsroryhuntzberger]

My thoughts on Ginny and Georgia Season 3 Episodes 4-10. Major spoilers. Also it’s basically what I was thinking while watching not concise at all lol

Ep 4

* “I put your name on the prayer list” lol

* I hope Georgia and zions mom end up on good terms Georgia needs a mother figure

* Did Ginny not go looking for Marcus after she FaceTimed her mom??????? Did his parents not know he was gone????

* Also Paul is freaking out what did Nick tell her? That his boyfriend was investigating her for murder?

* Max don’t cover for your brother he’s in a bad place and needs help

* “See things fall apart without me” Georgia I think things were falling apart BECAUSE of you

* Nothing screams innocent like practicing crying in the mirror

* My prediction: Paul is gonna stay with Georgia throughout the trial and she’ll be found not guilty and will celebrate but he will tell her he wants a divorce then. It’ll be very good wife when the husband won but Alicia found out he cheated with kalinda so while he celebrated she packed his things and got him a place to live. Paul will do the same. Or maybe if they don’t divorce they will be together publicly but separated privately

* Or maybe Paul will stay for the kids bc he’s a good father figure to them

* With the exception of whatever is going on with Abby and Sam and that asshole dude I am enjoying the teen storylines

* Okay also with the exception of Maxine and her gf Maxine’s other storyline is cool but her and her gfs get old

* Also respectfully and disrespectfully Maxine is such a theater kid

* “I need the people I love to stop doing illegal shit” poor Ginny asking for the bare minimum

* “I don’t love you anymore” damn

* Damn not him saying it again

* These teenagers need to stop drinking their brains aren’t fully developed

* They make running look so good I hate running but maybe I should start

* I hope Paul gets the kids in the divorce

* “What’s vandalism?” “It’s when you trash a classroom so you don’t have to go to school” GEORGIA NO DO NOT SET THIS UP FOR AUSTIN

* “He dumped coffee on another student” “it was lukewarm”

* Wolfe is older Cal from Manifest

* “Georgia for what it’s worth I don’t think you’re a murderer” but she literally is

* I feel like Norah is the most under-developed of the main teens

* Lol not faerie smut being mentioned

* Georgia that is not modest

* I mean technically Georgia is a serial killer the definition says 3 or more murders and she’s done 3 at least

Ep 5

* I love the opening song (“way down we go” by KALEO)

* Poor Ginny

* “None of this is true” Georgia all of it is true

* Zion do not team up with Gil do not listen to him

* Max fucking defend Ginny how can you possibly think she knew about the murder

* “Paul might not leave he loves us” poor Austin

* Not a reporter questioning a minor without an adult present and on school grounds

* Good on her ex and his gf for getting her out of there (I don’t remember their names)

* I’m losing some empathy for Norah like I get it’s tough but she’s not being supportive

* GOOD ON GINNY PUNCH PRESS he’s such an asshole

* Omg science museum I love it

* …I wanna go to this science museum

* I kinda like Wolfe this date montage was very cute

* Oh no not Marcus seeing Ginny and Wolfe kissing

* Also how long is she gonna be able to keep the Gia stuff going maybe five more minutes if that

* Little Ginny doesn’t look like teen Ginny and it bothers me

* Poor poor Austin and ginny

* They might not be blood related but I want Paul to get custody of Austin

* The poor kids having to deal with reporters and their family falling apart and their friendships suffering too

* Shit not the poem coming back to bite Ginny

* Shit not social services coming for the kids honestly I’m kinda surprised it didn’t happen sooner

* Oh fuck Gil

* Separating the kids is fucking awful

* Oh fuck you Zion

* Also all of this in front of reporters Jesus and their stuff in trash bags this is so traumatic and awful

Ep 6

* Of course Ginny isn’t gonna listen to Zion

* Sometimes georgias accent feels too southern drawl other times she sounds exactly like my southern grandma especially in the scene calling Ginny drunk

* Poor Ginny even when she’s at her dads she has to parent her mom reminding her that calling could look bad and then having to hang up and block her own mother who she was just taken from this poor kid

* “It can’t get worse than this” Georgia it can

* Norah Ginny isn’t her mom I get it’s a tough position being close to the family of the dead guy but taking it out on Ginny isn’t fair

* I feel for max it’s hard feeling left out

* It sucks separating Austin and Ginny

* “I have a responsibility to those kids” “they’re not really your children” fuck you nick “I love them nick” go off Paul again I want Gil gone and Paul to get partial custody of Austin

* Yeah Zion this is what happens when you don’t listen

* This is random but georgias car still has a Texas license plate she needs to get her registration updated

* Zion is having to deal with the consequences of his rushed actions

* I’m kinda on board with the Marcus and Georgia friendship I think they both need someone right now

* The set for the assholes basement and this Cambridge party have got to be the same and I find it kinda funny

* I like Wolfe he’s probably not long term material but he’s what Ginny needs and so far he’s not an asshole

* I’m less on board with the Georgia Marcus friendship bc it feels like Georgia unloading her shit onto another teenager who cannot handle it right now

* Pleas Ginny do not have sex on top of a washer

* Georgia calling from Marcus phone is gonna backfire and spur Ginny onto Wolfe

* Wolfe is a dork I like him

* Okay his actor is my age I’m allowed to find him attractive lol

* “Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been??” “Now we’ve had sex” Zion is not ready for any of this

* I love that Zion is spilling all the tea in front of Joe who just wants to serve the man his drink

* Awwww Paul petitioned for custody of Austin

* Paul and Zion should beat up Gil. Joe should also get in on that

* Look I’m all for calling Georgia out and she’s made bad choices but she really loves her kids and tries even tho she’s not always good at it (never forget she fucked their credit scores)

* Ginny is def a better friend to Norah than Norah to Ginny

* Also someone else is gonna be pregnant probably Ginny bc she just had sex with Wolfe

* “I’m always princess peach and I’m not willing to compromise on that” same Joe same

* Georgias dad tried to kill her??? Did we know this???

* Oh shit Ginny is pregnant this is why we wrap it before we tap it

Episode 7

* They should blame Gil or at least try to introduce that idea in court. Gil has a history of violence, was previously in prison, there are multiple people who can attest to his physical abuse of Georgia and he has a bone to pick with whatshername because she blocked his apartment application

* “What did I always tell you about love?” “That you can’t trust love?” “That love is a lie?” Stellar parenting Georgia

* “I bet your mom never lets you have ice cream for dinner!” “She does. All the time”

* “Your mom’s not normal…she’s got a lot of issues…it’s not my fault” it is your fault fuck you Gil

* “I’m pregnant” “that’s wild” Wolfe do not let me down now

* This is Chekhov's positive pregnancy test I swear

* Georgia please call someone on Ginny’s behalf she can’t go alone she’ll be angry in the moment but it’ll work out

* I know I said call someone but I didn’t mean Marcus call max

* Not this lifetime rip off making Ginny white

* “It’s open” GEORGIA WHY IS THE DOOR UNLOCKED

* Ginny needs so much more therapy

* Omg are Georgia and Joe gonna hook up he’s shirtless and literally dripping wet in her house

* Like Chekhov's positive pregnancy test, Chekhov’s intimate moment between Joe and Georgia will come back and I think it’ll involve Paul

* GEORGIA DONT

* Fuck I knew she was gonna use it

Episode 8

* Again love the soundtrack

* I don’t know how I feel about Wolfe I don’t think he’s a bad person and he really likes Ginny but he handled the pregnancy poorly but also he’s a teenage boy and the freak out is understandable

* NOT GIL MAKING AUSTIN THROW AWAY THE HARRY POTTER GLASSES EXECUTE THE MAN

* Cynthia do not steal a tablet also why is the tablet randomly in the lost and found that should be locked up

* Glad Cynthia saved the glasses

* Abby and Marcus is also a dynamic I like

* “Cause God has a plan for me and you’re not in it” lol I love Abby

* Is young Georgia stealing a car???

* Lol not Georgia making sure cheaters never prosper

* I’m fully skipping the rehearsal scenes I don’t care

* “Anna loves to ride” “well that much is obvious”

* “Ginny wants going on with you?” “My mom is on trial for murder”

* “You’re so babygirl” Ginny omg you’re gonna break Joe

* I was wondering when the ED storyline was coming back

* Awwww okay empathy back to Norah that was sweet telling Ginny her brother was gonna be there and inviting her to come over and see him

* JOE PUNCHED GIL OH MY GOD Joe is now my favorite Paul and Zion would never

* I was so worried for Austin for a minute

* Awww Austin was so excited to see Paul

* Oh fuck Gil

* I’m conflicted about Paul I almost like him too much for him to be in this situation but I also want Austin to be happy again split custody with Paul

* “No more secrets between us okay?” You mean like a fake pregnancy

* I also have mixed feelings about Zion he’s trying kinda but he’s not doing a good job and he’s trying too late. It’s also hard bc the audience knows so much more than the characters we know why Georgia killed these guys, why she got involved with a gang, why she made these choices but Zion doesn’t know why all he knows is she made decisions that put his daughter at risk and suddenly realizing he doesn’t know the woman he thought he knew and second guesses everything he knows

* There’s still no excuse for teaming up with Gil

* “You guys make so many decisions but I’m the one who’s affected” this sums Ginny’s life up so much

* “I’m not sorry for protecting you but I’m sorry for not doing it sooner” he’s missing the point I fear

* Yeah Zion Georgia shooting someone in the hand was a red flag

* It’s so shitty that Zion and Gil didn’t even discuss getting the kids together they are siblings who went from living together to not seeing each other that’s traumatic

* Zion better piece it all together

* I do love the bro bonding of Georgias exes/current man

* Is Paul gonna figure it out??? Honestly he probably should divorce Georgia and again get custody of Austin

* “Hi” “hey” “hi” “hey” “hi” “are you bulimic??”

* “I burn myself well I used to” “I have herpes well cold sores” “I had an abortion last week” “…I don’t have another one” “my first orgasm was with a toothbrush!” “I do get ready with me in faerie makeup” This is so much chaotic support I love it

* Also as an ACOTAR fan I am living for the faerie smut stuff it’s hilarious

* “Max is gonna be really mad we trauma bonded without her”

* Yup Paul figured it out it’s understandably divorce time Georgia you can get out of this

* “Lying to me about being a father” it is so fucked up when Paul says this

* Yeah I agree with Paul Georgia you’re the reason the kids are gone at least part of it

* OH SHIT OH SHIT PAUL PUNCHED THE WALL BY HER HEAD I gasped

* Oh shit he really verbalized her worst fears

* On one hand I don’t think Paul is right about Georgia being the most selfish person but on the other hand he’s not wrong? Like yes she does stuff for her kids but I think she makes the wrong choices on times for selfish reasons. Or like she picks the worst option because it’s what she wants like she doesn’t want to deal with Zion after their breakup so she and the kids live out of her car instead of being in his apartment or she wants to provide her kids with stuff so she steals things. She doesn’t want to handle the consequences of her own actions so she forces her family to move and uproots her kids and doesn’t provide them a stable life

* Omg not the girls egging Abby’s dad house in faerie dress up

* Paul divorcing Georgia: valid. Paul supporting letting big business and turning his back on local businesses: shitty wtf man

* I hope Ginny and Austin don’t find out about the divorce from the news but they probably will because these kids have to suffer

* I know Georgia will get out of this but idk how

* Is Georgia gonna get the literal gang involved?

* Oh shit is she going on the run

* Oh shit she just kissed Joe

* Oooooh he’s kissing her now damn are they gonna go on the run together?

* “I’m about to go on the lamb” sex time

* Hello what about your ankle monitor?

* Oh shit that’s a lot of empty bottles

* This is so bad Georgia

* I guess she cut the ankle monitor off somehow

* Awww the flashbacks with tiny Austin

* And she immediately got arrested Jesus Christ

* “I couldn’t do it I turned myself in” at least stick to going on the lamb Georgia my god

* Poor Ginny

Episode 9

* I’m actually enjoying starting from max POV

* Does she have OCD? The “wrong everyone I love will die” sounds like OCD with the bedroom lights

* Max is gonna forget about the chicken

* Called it

* Also max tell your parents about your brothers drinking that’s bad shit

* Fuck you Gil

* Poor Austin I feel so bad for everyone but mostly for Austin he’s stuck with Gil and has lost the only father figures he had and now Gil wants to take him away from Ginny??? And he’s just a kid

* I hate Gil so much

* “I’m his sister!” “Half sister” MOTHERFCUKING JOE COME BACK HERE AND BEAT HIS ASS

* HE GRABBED HER HOLY SHIT

* I am literally gasping so much rn

* Oh good on fucking Cynthia “it’s pepper spray” this is why we need to get Gil

* I need a Cynthia and Georgia team up to take down Gil

* I feel bad for Max a lot has happened and she understandably feels left out and her current gf kinda sucks

* Awww tiny Max, Norah and Abby

* Omg I just noticed young Norah is wearing fairy wings so she’s always been into fae that is a hilarious detail

* “I’ll see you soon…when I visit next” that’s sweet I like Joe

* Awwww poor Max

* Okay I’m on kid Maxs side they wanted to show the dance off it takes 30 seconds you can talk after

* “If you tell mom and dad I will never speak to you again. I will never forgive you” poor max poor Marcus these poor kids

* I skipped the musical scenes I’m sorry but I got the important info and am glad max talked to her parents and started talking more I disagree with her mom I think max needs to talk to her friends it will build up and spill out

* “Max don’t be dramatic again” Abby no

* Also the camera looked down right on max and she looked so much like Marcus except for young Ginny the casting on Ginny and Georgia is great

* Poor max

* Why is Austin taking the stand????

* OH SHIT THEY ARE PINNING IT ON GIL

Episode 10

* Did they know Austin was gonna say that?

* Damn Ginny is taking a play out of her moms book

* This is what I’ve been saying all along!! Gil would be perfect with his violent nature and motive against Cynthia

* The court case is over and there’s still another hour left what’s next

* Gil is gonna come at her and Austin still has to go home to him until the custody stuff is handled…

* Good on Georgia putting down the wine

* The court case finished up really quickly

* Oh good Austin is at Zions

* And now they can go home the next day this is wrapping up too well too fast

* WHAT IF GEORGIA RUNS FOR MAYOR

* Georgia needs to lay low and accept the miracle she didnt go to prison

* “You wouldn’t understand Joe until you’ve been with a woman like that” “yeah I wouldn’t understand”

* Ginny lied about the cameras omg she played Cynthia

* “I’m petitioning for joint custody” that’s fine I mean it’s a little late but it’s not the worst thing

* Poor Austin

* “Austin’s gonna be okay right?” Girl ask him you’re his mom

* Georgia in therapy??? Miracle!!

* Ugh is Marcus gonna turn Ginny against Max?

* Ginny going to Korea with her dad interesting

* Of course Marcus is failing honestly his parents have kinda sucked this season they are putting more responsibility on max

* Abby why are you being an ass about max I don’t get it

* Norah they aren’t fighting but max this isn’t the place for this convo

* Marcus don’t give Abby alcohol at school

* Awww Wolfe showed up

* Lol not the racist teacher getting called out

* Junior year is hell year good luck

* Also not Marcus lying to Ginny he needs help

* I agree god help Austin he needs it

* Damn Paul did get recalled I’m not surprised

* Good Paul fire Nick he’s been awful

* Poor Max I feel like the Baker family is slowly becoming a mess and it gets swept under the rug but it’s gonna blow up

* “Don’t make me regret setting you free” oh shit

* Also Georgia you can’t be surprised Ginny learned from your actions

* You are not okay Marcus you need help Jesus what is happening in the baker family LOCK HIS WINDOWS

* Poor max Marcus has a huge issue and is being an asshole

* This is so awful

* Abby what is wrong with you poor max

* Ginny don’t be like this to Max

* Oh my god she just admitted it Joe well I guess she can’t be charged again because double jeopardy

* Oh she’s gonna full on confession

* Joe reallly went “you killed those people hot”

* Damn they are right person wrong timing Joe and Georgia

* These teenagers need to stop drinking

* No no no Paul I have some empathy but you didn’t lose the recall election because of Georgia you made your own choices. The divorce is valid but blaming her for your job issues and saying she made you worse isn’t fair

* “I didn’t make you anything that wasn’t in there already” get him Georgia

* “Kids drink it’s not a big problem” IT IS YOUR BRAIN ISNT FULLY DEVELOPED AND YOU ARE DRINKING SO MUCH he was legit blacking out before the suspension

* Ellen you have to make it a little worse for it to get better

* Also where tf is Austin we haven’t seen him in a while

* Marcus parents need to have a joint meeting with his therapist to discuss what they should do because he needs serious help they can’t provide him

* Poor Austin crying and holding his hockey jersey poor baby

* Austin broke his glasses and is mad at Ginny this poor poor kid

* Are they taking him to rehab??? I hope so he needs help

* Was that Georgias mom and stepdad??? The not murdering thing will be harder if they show up

* IS GEORGIA PREGNANT she said when she was pregnant with Ginny she craved milk

* Shit who is the daddy???

* Damn what a cliffhanger

[copperbadge]

Hi Mr Starbuck! Some friends and I are moving in a few months and we're eyeing various places all over the US. Chicago came up as a relatively affordable big city (compared to LA and NYC) and I have to ask the resident Tumblr Chicagoan his opinion. As a resident who lives and works in the windy city, what's your big pros and cons of residing there (especially things you might not encounter as a tourist)? (also, how accurate is your "guide to chicago" still, since its been a few years!)

Well, I definitely have opinions!

The guide to Chicago is no longer accurate -- too many places have closed or moved, and the pandemic altered a lot (for example the Money Museum still exists but I'm not sure if it has regular hours even now). I should do a new one but like, I really don't get out much anymore so I can't talk about restaurants outside of a VERY local area, and I never could talk much about hotels, which just leaves points of interest mostly already covered by Atlas Obscura. :D At this point it'd just be kind of moot, others are doing it better than I am.

Chicago is inexpensive compared to New York or Los Angeles, but like, that's everywhere in America. Chicago is still a quite pricey city to live in, mainly because the taxes are so high -- 10.25% sales tax, for example, and my property taxes are also pretty steep. People joke about Taxachusetts, but I'm pretty sure Chicago at least has it beat (and 2/3 of the state's population lives in Chicago or the outlying suburbs). Housing is not at a premium in the way it is in NY and LA but depending on where you want to live and how far you want to commute it can still be very expensive. My housing was never less than half of my monthly income until I bought this place, and then ONLY because the job I'm in now came with a $10K/yr raise from my last one.

Chicago does have great culture, great museums, great food, and it's a liberal island in a pretty conservative region. It is however quite segregated, so if you are any race other than white, living here can get a little more complicated than I've portrayed it as a white dude. There is significant crime and particularly gun crime, but it's generally confined to specific regions of the city. That said, even if you discount crime, the Chicago PD are corrupt as fuck and uninterested in being helpful, so if you are from a demographic the cops enjoy harassing, it will not be different here.

I do love the city, warts and all. I like the water, I like the people, I like the midwestern vibe. I'd find it very hard to leave, especially because I have a network of friends here, but also because I just plain like it and I know it really well. There is a very short list of cities I'd consider leaving Chicago for, and most of those would have to have a well-paying job waiting for me. But it did take me time to fall in love with it -- it took a few years before it felt like home.

It's a little difficult to get more specific without knowing more about your situation -- what you do for work, what your budget is like, what your goals are in leaving where you are. Do you prefer to drive most places? (Parking and traffic can both get dicey.) Can you tolerate taking public transit if driving is inconvenient? Is the industry in which you work something that has a lot of openings here? Do you want to live in an urban environment, and if so are you prepared to live in a likely somewhat shitty apartment to do so? If you prefer to live in a house, are you prepared for a long commute? What do you like to do for fun and is there a thriving culture for that here? What is it important to have access to -- museums, concerts, theater, sport? Where do you need to travel to regularly (ie, I go to Austin several times a year) and how do you prefer to travel there?

Anyway, yeah -- like, I love it but I have few illusions about it. If you want to chat further feel free to hit me up by email, happy to answer more specific questions!