#honestly i don't give a fuck about the whole love triangle thing

[maryasmorevna]

i'm sorry, what? '''katpiss'''? what are you, 5? also, peeta is the one who's too boring for katniss, who's actually a great protagonist for a ya series. but yes, let's keep on shitting on "flawed" complex female characters to lift up your bland fictional boys

[all-pacas]

thinking about my enemy (saviors) again

i think my problem/frustration in the episode is that it only last one episode, right?

so to recap, it's the camchase engagement episode. cameron is freaking out because she found the ring, and she's avoiding chase while she processes. the episode is very much on her side: it doesn't suggest she's right to do this, but it's sympathetic to her reasons: she's afraid for a number of reasons. she thinks chase doesn't "mean it", that it's a reaction to kutner dying and him being impulsive. that the relationship might not last ( l o l ). that losing people is scary and commitment is scary and she's just scared. and she does a very cameron thing and tries to extract herself entirely from the situation, push it away. she doesn't, she explains to house, want to say yes or no. she wants this situation to not happen.

cameron is also fairly clear that it isn't about not wanting to be with chase, both explicitly and implicitly (he dumps her in the episode, so there's that problem solved; she also makes it clear that her biggest fear is that he isn't serious, not that she doesn't want to marry him). and honestly? i get it! i am sympathetic! i think she goes about all this totally wrong, but the episode and house agree with that; cameron is fucking up. by avoiding chase, she's making the situation much worse. chase breaks up with her about it. she fucked up! so far, so good. and then cameron realizes she fucked up and goes to him to………………… apologize? you'd think, right?

meanwhile!

chase goes through like 8 stages of a breakup in this episode. at first, cameron tells him she has a really good, but secret, reason for cancelling their vacation. he is not thrilled, fair enough, but he gives her the benefit of the doubt. cameron says she just needs a day. a day passes.

chase realizes that she is still avoiding him, while also hanging all over house. the show tries to play this as ooooooh love triangle, but none of the characters really take this seriously; chase does go through the motions of jealousy but doesn't really seem that worried about the house part, just the cameron lying to him part. she promises him she has a very good reason for this. he confronts her about this: ("So you admit you lied to me. And now you’re asking me to trust you?"), but reluctantly agrees to keep waiting. clearly he's getting pretty stressed, but he's being a good boyfriend here.

cameron continues to lie and avoid him, and chase finds out she's been at work this whole time, that she's been kicked off house's case (thus lying about what she's doing), etc. he confronts her again and demands to know what's going on. she doesn't tell him. he dumps her.

so far? i don't have any issues. from either of them! they're both acting… maybe not rationally, but as you'd expect. cameron is trying to avoid confrontation and facing her feelings and got hit by consequences she wasn't expecting. part of her is trying to blow up the relationship because it's easier than doing something scary like talk about feelings. chase tried to give her space and time, drew a line, and broke up with cameron when she refused to meet him there. it's sad for them both; it's in character for them both.

so here's the problem. here's the big fucking problem.

cameron realizes, with help from house, that she fucked up. so she goes to chase to apologize (she never apologizes) and try to get him to take her back. she explains why she was freaked out: she found the ring and was scared, but she knows it was an excuse and does want to marry him. she then asks him to propose to her, i guess to prove that she does want to say yes, but cameron, get on your damn knee, come on, he dumped you.

here's the problem.

cameron has been promising that she had a really good reason why she was avoiding chase. she has insisted to him for days that it's a real reason and she just can't tell him: chase has no idea why she's been acting this way, just that she did. so he finally finds out, right? and the reason is: the sheer concept of marrying you made me ghost you.

i mean, yes. the reason is cameron was scared. in lockdown they subtly retcon this into i had cold feet, i say subtly not because that isn't true but it severely downplays the "ghost you until you dump me" of it all. but. can you imagine. can you imagine wanting to marry someone and finding out the big secret, really good, really justified, reason they've been avoiding you was they know that.

cameron never apologizes. the show treats her as wrong, in that her panic spiral was misguided and ended up with her dealing with consequences she does not want -- her actions bit her in the ass! oh no! -- but the show never really gives us chase's pov or chase's perspective on this. "i changed my mind! propose to me now!" it is considered a victory that he does. they are happy. they tell cuddy, holding hands. it is a happy ending.

from his perspective, he's looking forward to a nice minibreak, he's planning to propose, his girlfriend suddenly cancels but says she has a good reason for it, starts lying to him, he dumps her very reluctantly because she refuses to talk to him, and then he finds out that all of this is because she hated the idea of him proposing that much. she explains this to him and asks he propose anyway. she does not apologize or acknowledge he was right to break up with her or express guilt for her actions.

to be clear, it is not meant to be like this. from the way the episode never addresses this again to the way camchase are happy-go-lucky and happy going forward (the sperm thing, a relative non-issue in comparison -- they both compromise for the other immediately -- lasts two episodes and is given more weight), to the way chase apparently has no doubts or worries whatsoever two weeks later -- it is clear this is meant to be a sweet episode. we are meant to feel bad for cameron and happy she worked out her issues. this is a romantic proposal. did they have a long conversation about it off screen? who knows! i hate this episode so much <3

-

when chase, in lockdown, says that cameron never loved him, it's always struck me as a very silly little retcon. the whole conversation. the whole subplot. it's not bad, certainly not in the same way as saviors is, but it's different, because up until this point, we've always seen the relationship from cameron's pov: she's had all the agency and power. when she makes mistakes or has to learn and grow, it's always in a "she's being so brave about it!" sort of way: we never get to see chase Learn and Grow or make mistakes (and it isn't because he's so perfect and not a fuck up, it's because cameron is much more important to the show than he is). it's also a retcon because we see cameron fight for and make sacrifices/changes for the relationship, a lot: she quit in s3 out of loyalty to chase (as stated by house later). she falls over herself in the itch and both sides now to make chase happy.

as part of the you-never-loved-me exchange in lockdown, there's a very funny bit where chase is listing cameron's red flags and she protests each one. it's funny because there was no basis for this in the episodes we saw, but i actually do kind of think this was the intent: she called him over for meth sex because she already liked him (we see in s1+2 that actually they are friends, even if it's never underlined). she dumped him in s3 because she did have feelings and was scared (as chase himself points out in s3; as she agrees with implicitly in act your age and human error, but the show again forgot to underline the point). i actually think we were meant to see the relationship as cameron lays it out. i had cold feet, she says, to justify saviors. this is true. it also makes her behavior kind of not a big deal. this is exactly how the episode presents it.

chase's "you never loved me" rant is funny, because for the first time, the show is on his side. things that were genuinely not seen as issues or important when we were in cameron's pov are suddenly problems. chase is still on the show, and now his feelings matter. suddenly, saviors was grounds for divorce, and not the sweet music montage niceness it presented itself as at the time. suddenly their divorce is about cameron, when earlier in the season it was very much about chase.

[reyreadersblog]

My unpopular TIG opinions.

Since y'all are expressing opinions out here..who am i to leave out? Now have in mind that these are MY opinions, some of these are unpopular some of these are NOT, some of these are even underrated facts but let's just ignore that..

(Please don't hate me)

1. I DON'T CARE ABOUT EVE, and i don't want her to be with Grayson..bcs APPERANTLY and very unfortunatly there are people out there who ship Gray and Eve..crazy..i know, i really don't care about her, i already made a whole post about why i don't like her at all, she's a manipulator, she's a liar, she's a backstabber. She traumatised poor Gray and threatened Ave. I respect your opinion if you like her and i truly understand where some of you are coming from, but i just can't manage to like her, don't hate her i just dislike her. Even if she gets a redemption arc..i can't seem to understand how i'll like her character after what she has done, but if i will..."forgotten but never forgiven"

2.underrated characters, there are so many of them in this books, for example Zara Hawthorne. I love her honestly, i could never hate, i understand she may have done some wrong things...but i love her nontherless♡♡ and same goes for Alisa Ortega.

(Honorable mention) also come on, give my man Oren some appreciation he deserves, you think following teenager around is easy? Even if it's his job and he gets paid, it's still tiring..😔

3. Uhh..i am scared to say this...i prefer Nash and Alisa to Nash and Libby...WAIT, WAIT, WAIT...DON'T KILL ME YET..LET ME EXPLAIN FIRST🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻, i saw @hawthornesbiggestfan 's post, and that encouriged me to say this, read that post bcs that explains exacly how i feel. I love Nash and Libby, they're super cute, i can't wait for their wedding and think they are going to have a very happy family...but..i'm still at the restaurant😔, EVEN THO we never got to know Nash and Alisa's story, smtg about those two had me invested in them from the beggining, like imagne Alisa growing up and Nash slowly developing a tiny crush on them..young love..passion..childhood lovers...love confession..ughh, also the fact that Gray, Xan and Jamie already saw her as their family, like an older sister. Such a shame we never got to see their story. Again, i'm not saying i dislike Nash and Libby tho if it had been love triangle between Nash, Libby and Aliso...i would choose Nash and Alisa...

3.Avery is freaking underrated, yk what's sad? SHE IS THE MAIN CHARACTER, and she doesn't get enough hype (i've made a post about this too) meanwhile people are swooning over Hawthorne brothers, and yes i am one of them but i love Avery to death, i even saw someone comparing Avery and the brothers saying "oh she's so boring..Hawthorns are way better than her..blah..blah..blah" technically they were saying fuck poor people, i know for a fact NONE of the brother would last an hour from where she came from (iykyk), she's a girlboss, and a main character for a reason.

4. As much as i love Averyjameson, i have to say their story is pretty much over, We'll probably get some cute moments from them in tgg or in games untold, but they ARE NOT a main couple anymore.

5.TGG IS A NEW SERIES, please understand that it's new book series with new characters (at least most of them) stop attacking JLB, it's her books, it's her choice.

6.Lyra Kane's haters don't make sense to me, especially those one who mock, and laugh at her lovers saying "you don't even know her, i'm gonna laugh at y'all when she turns out to be Eve 2.0" uhm...sir..miss..shut it. I respect your opinion if you're a Lyra netural bcs it's true we don't know many things about her and i totally understand if you can't love her yet, but don't hate, we know we're delusional most of the times, but that's what headcanons is for, for fun, alight, let people have fun.

7. Will all due respect i have...Averygrayson shippers are...dumb..yikes..sorry, but it's the truth, i'm tired of talking about this, it's been 4 books, Avery is happy with Jamie, they're perfect for each other, their relationship status is great and Gray is most definetly getting a new love interest..but of you still ship and have faith in them..do so..who am i to stop you? Just don't be disappointed when it won't be ture.

8.i may be judging too early but Savannah and Gigi being in the game..doesn't sit right, tbh honest it'a NEPOTISM at it's finest, i love both of them so much..but..nah. again, idk for sure..it may be some trick, it's JLB after all.

9.there are too many repetitive charcter traits..Jameson and Rohan, Grayson and Savannah, Gigi and Xander, Eve and Emily, every single dad, exept for Isaiah.

10.Speaking of Isaiah, he is extremly underrated, i mean he is the best dad in the series and somehow people talk about Sheffield Grayson more than him.

Sheesh...don't kill me in the comments please, i'm too young to die🙏🏻😔

(I'll probably do a part 2...

[gayboysteve]

Genuinely why do people think Steve can't be a fully actualized person and a love interest at the same time? Do you guys just passively consume media without, like, paying attention? Steve has been his own fully developed person since season two. We don't need to know ever detail of his life to know who he is as a person. We know the moral fiber of his character and the strength of his will. We know he loves passionately and will do anything to help. We know he's a catty bitch that doesn't get along with his dad.

Not... everything has to be shown to us for Steve to be a real fleshed out character. There are definitely places where things fall flat (letting him even feel pain after his many beatings or torture of being eaten) but being a love interest is not one of the things where the Duffers have fucked up on him. Besides Nancy, he has the most character development out of the teens and he has an actual character arc that's been percolating since season one.

You don't need to ship Stancy or like it. That's not necessary. I personally wasn't a shipper until recently (though I never hated it like some people, I've just always focused more on the Steve and the kids or Steve and Robin) and I have to say it makes a lot of sense in the scheme of things for the love triangle to be reignited. Steve and Jonathan are not just contenders for Nancy's love, they both represent something for her journey and her picking one of them will be indicative of the path she's taking. Steve's speech about learning to crawl forward wasn't just about him, that was a display of what Steve's character can offer to Nancy's character as a romantic partner. The ability to learn to MOVE ON. TO CRAWL FORWARD.

Nancy as we know is still trapped in her grief from Barb and while Jonathan has helped her get justice from that tragedy he never helped her move PAST the pain of it. One represents moving forward, and Jonathan sadly this last season, represented regression.

Personally, I think it's Jonathan more than anyone that needs to not be in a relationship. It hasn't ever seemed to make him happy. I don't think Jonathan will ever be happy until he's allowed to get away from his family a little bit. The parentification Joyce did to him really fucked that boy up and he needs, in my opinion, to focus on himself more than anyone.

Nancy has expressly stated before that she doesn't want to be alone! Steve has expressly stated he wants love and romance and a family! They're still young they can work out their future later, why can't they find some happiness in coming back together stronger and more fully self actualized? More mature and developed? I think it actually makes for a very fitting end from a narrative standpoint which is, honestly, what convinced me to switch over to the ship in the first place.

Neither Steve nor Nancy have ever been reduced to just love interests. Even in season one when Steve is explicitly introduced as only a love interest, he actually has his own character arc going on. All following seasons Steve and Nancy (whether dating, broken up, or flirting) have all had plots not related to their romance. No one is being reduced to just a romantic interest. Unfortunately, poor Jonathan is the one that got that treatment. He's the one that needs to have something devoted to just him; something that isn't just being a brother or a boyfriend. Giving him a friend was a step in the right direction. Let's give him a dream now and not just something that we hear from Joyce. A real dream from Jonathan's mouth. Because all we've heard from him are the things he DOESN'T want for the future.

Also Stoncy supremacy anyway. Let all three fuck nasty.

(Let's not bring up the whole six nuggets things. I highly doubt Steve is actually going to expect six children from his future partner. It was a reference to the party. It was him lightening the mood and trying to bring some levity to a serious, and frankly, terrifying, situation. It was him trying to make Nancy laugh while laying his heart on the line. He's not expect six literal children.)

[abyssal-author-and-artist]

ramble about noelle. now. no choice. now.

I mean it's 6:30 am for me and I'm at the point in the all-nighter where I might just pass out so... of course I will!

She's honestly probably my second favorite character. (First is Berdly my favorite boyfailure) Like yeah Kris is cool and all but first Noelle's design is just so good. I note this in some of my older drawings that I haven't posted but her design can very easily be adjusted to echo the Delta Rune - the horns can mimic the wings, and I give her three freckles on each side and then her nose is prominent to be the three triangles. Make her face more heart shaped instead of oblong and boom! Delta Rune face!

Second the Snowgrave Route has me by a chokehold and always has. I have an au that plays with it but I really wish I had leaned harder into her being manipulated because her whole headspace in that route is so fascinating to my angsty little heart. She suffers and I'm here for it.

In all seriousness, though, I like looking at her through the lens of her being expected to know everything and have it all together when she's thrust into this strange world with no preparation and no prior experience. As the player, you're handed control of her mental state. In a normal route, you help her be more confident in all encounters, help her learn how to navigate social situations more easily and let her embrace silliness similar to how you help Berdly. In the Snowgrave Route, you teach her to black out and do horrible things. You tell her to give all her control to you and she does, but it ends up making her terrified of giving up control because she doesn't want to hurt people, doesn't want the shutdown and blankness that comes with her giving over control.

Side tangent, that leads into Kris Noelle parallels! In the Snowgrave Route, you force Noelle to give over control and, at least in my opinion, it makes her act a lot like Kris in some ways once you leave the Dark World. She's quieter, seems to carry herself differently, is more defensive and possessive. She's terrified of giving up control. At the same time, she's also still acting in ways you've taught her to. Reminds me a little of certain Kris behaviors/headcanons - they're very possessive of Susie at times, and I personally love to headcanon Kris as having no filter when the soul isn't possessing them because they're so used to having a forced filter. Truth be told, any parallels here are mostly conjecture because Kris can't act super independently, but i do enjoy thinking of them as playing up their weirdest quirks to still be themself, which I just love.

Another thing involving Kris - I'm very decidedly neutral on Kriselle (at least normal Kriselle, Snowgrave toxic fucked up Kriselle is my shit) but I love looking at Kris and Noelle's relationship platonically. Estranged best friends who still care for each other but don't know how to anymore. Kris playing Noelle's piano means so much to me you don't even know. I want to make a young Noelle design so I can draw her listening to them play. They both mean so much to me as friends who want to reconnect but can't. Pulled apart by the same connections that once pulled them together (Asriel and Dess). There's so much there and it makes me feel things I'm just now delirious enough to express.

Okay Kris-related tangent over they can go back to their moss corner now. Let's talk about Noelle and gifted kid burnout! Because she is going to hit it so hard honestly. Bear with me since it's been a while since I've seen a playthrough and I'm about to ho into the arguably more "pay attention or you die" part of the game that I never paid attention during so I might get stuff wrong.

If I recall correctly Noelle's actively a star student. Doesn't seem like she struggles too much, either. She's a great student - always answers questions, always gets good grades, etc. I've seen a lot of takes with her mom pressuring her to study constantly, which is a good take, don't get me wrong! I just find her more interesting - to me - if she's coasting through without trying, because if she's anything like me when I was in middle/high school, she knows a huge burnout is coming. She can tell she's starting to have to care about little and she's about to crash and burn so hard. Imagine having paralyzing anxiety and also knowing you're about to hit gifted kid burnout lol (<- the words of a man who was like that a year ago. Now I just have the burnout proper!)

Her relationship with Susie is fascinating to me too. Have you seen that meme of Timmy Turner from Fairly Oddparents (i think that's who it is) praying going "please God let this happen it would be so fucking funny" except "this" is "suselle not be canon"? Because I unironically love that from a writing standpoint. I am a Suselle shipper through and through but honestly I think they have a lot of potential outside of it being canon. I love the idea of Noelle struggling to get over her crush and failing. Their relationship warping into new, unseen flavors of gay pining. Something just west of queer-platonic, where it's inherently romantic but neither is able to acknowledge it as such. Nothing actively toxic, just Noelle begging for Susie to hold her hand so hard it hurts - partially because sign of affection and partially because Noelle has a pattern of wanting Susie to hurt her which I could unpack but would have to at least touch on topics I don't really feel comfortable infodumping about in this otherwise sfw post at - wait it's already 7:30? So that's enough Susie and Noelle for now! Although I still think they should go on gay little dates.

Is it Kris tangent part 2 if it's Player tangent? Because Player tangent time! Mostly a bunch of points i touched on in Kris tangent. You can control her a lot. Ruin her psyche forever etc etc. This is honestly my Snowgrave Kriselle toxic mess tangent because let's be real, it isn't even Kriselle. It's not Kris x Noelle. It's Player x Noelle. You manipulate her and break her and make her scared and dependent on you and then you give her a Thorn Ring and she bleeds and gets stronger through pain and the whole time she is forced to do whatever you want and I. I just. There's so much symbolism there and it's so pretty. (Which leads into my catholic guilt tangent later which is already written but I might as well add to it.) So messed up. A part of my Gravity Falls infected brain wants to say "it's a little Billford" because I know you would understand what I mean. So I will! Snowgrave Kriselle is sorta Billford with more catholic guilt to me. Like Noelle's like "ah my best friend Kris! :) We've grown apart recently but I trust them implicitly and will not consider what they want me to do! :D Oh no, they betrayed me? :( That's not good. I'll just back out now- what do you mean the religious iconography built directly into our relationship means I am directly tied to them and they're allowed to order me as they choose while I am forced to listen because I am simply a servant of our God figure who is controlling Kris. What do you mean there's catholic guilt woven into my bones and I cannot escape because my whole situation is extremely easy to see as a metaphor for religious trauma. Stop it. Stop making my symbolism indicative of real-life situations I don't want you be trapped because of the guilt and shame associated with leaving being so intense and ingrained into my character that I can't leave. D:"

Also, taking a deeper look at the Angel iconography surrounding her? The robes and the Thorn Ring and the everything? Oh yeah, I could write some religious trauma into that girl. (Well I already did because I wrote this out of order and my religious trauma rant got out of hand.) Bonus points because she's canonically queer - bless you Toby Fox writing lesbians into everything you touch - and double bonus points if you headcanon her trans! Imagine having your religion held against you to make you hate yourself as you just try to live and then also you go to a terrifying magic world and also get kidnapped while dressed like the icon that's used to guilt trip you into thinking you're irredeemable. So terrifying and fascinating I could just blend her in the Blorbo Blender. Trademark.

And Snowgrave Route? Whooooo the catholic guilt metaphor is strong with this one! I already mentioned the Thorn Ring - a reference to crucifixion and the crown of thorns? Not sure, I never got that far in the Bible (wasn't raised religious but was forced to read the Bible as punishment once or twice). She gives herself over to a sort of savior, a godlike figure, Kris. Something something parallels between Kris and Chara/Frisk Undertale means parallels between Kris and the Angel that the Undertale children represent and therefore Kris can be regarded as a sort of messiah like figure in accordance to that and therefore Noelle gives herself over to a messiah (Kris) and suffers because of it. Not even overtly. Kris never hurt anyone else. They only hurt her. And really, they made her stronger. Sure they guilt her into killing a non-believer (Berdly), but they also make her stronger, stronger than they could ever be. She's now reliant on them and a wreck without them, but they pulled her out of one of the worst times of her life - heedless of the pain they inflicted on her - and they haven't ruined Susie. Isn't it her fault they hurt her? Did she not devote herself enough? Did she make a mistake somehow? Some small, imperceptible slight against them? Or maybe she simply isn't strong enough to receive their wisdom and she's paying the price of not being enough for them? Not being worthy of her messiah's "unconditional" love? Angel, she got enough of this in the Light World, now she's got two entities breathing down her neck. Extra powerful as a metaphor for religious trauma when you consider Kris as being functionally more of a prophet and yourself as the god in this situation. Because like. You are. If I ever write this into a fic I might just tag you if you're chill with it because I loved the catholic guilt rants so much.

It's been an hour and a half and I am on my phone and my finger hurts because phone evil wants to eat me and also I am running out of perfect haven't-slept-in-over-18-hours clarity so I'm going to. Probably brainrot over my newest obsession in the stupidest way possible. Maybe eat breakfast in an hour because I will evaporate without coffee and it's 7 am anyways. Thank you for an excuse to do this lol I love Noelle so so so much and I don't think about her enough. I'd like to stress i did nothing but write this, with a small break to draw the Noelle enclosed. Anyways I have like. Ten(?) Deltarune fics, about there, maybe more maybe less, not sure and not opening another ao3 tab to check right now. If you wanna check my fics out my user is the same there and also my ao3's linked in my pinned. Frozen Tears is my Noelle centric AU but I might rewrite it because wow I forgot how much I loved Noelle and. Kinda hated writing that fic. All my favorite details of the comic (because it was a comic first, made when my style first turned to what it is now) get lost which is a shame. I was so proud of the single panel of Kris's wallet.

Anyways here's a shitty Noelle for your troubles. Every time I draw her I do it differently I swear and also I haven't drawn her in like. Six months. So.

Fun fact my Tumblr didn't want me to post this post! So it was finished yesterday and it's early so I'm not editing it to remove the time markers

[velvetblackness]

I just finished season 17 and omg I have so many thoughts...

Spoiler ahead:

First and most importantly: Emily has a sister?? Wait what? Maybe she just made it up to get to know more about Bailey...still kinda weird though

Second: I think season 17 was way better than season 16

Third: I still don't like this whole Bau Gate thing

Fourth: I need more of high JJ and Emily

Fifth: I love Rebecca and Tara together

Sixths: Anyone else gets the feeling that Emily and the Director fucked and some point or will in the future? I mean not like relationship material, more like hate sex kinda but not really hate...I don't know

Seventh: I need to know what will happen with Will, since the actor apparently isn't up for the role anymore

Eighth: I kinda like the Jill and Rossi idea but honestly give that man a break

Ninth: Rossi really shouldn't be in the field anymore he will get hurt

Tenths: I need to know more about this Luke/Penelope/Tyler triangle

Eleventh: is Sergio still alive?

Twelfth: I feel so sorry for the gold stars and I'm glad Jade was able to save Mila

Thirteenth: Please talk to me about this season, give me all the crazy theories and stuff

[mrs-monaghan]

Ok, but like why does Yoongi do Jk dirty like that? Lol Yoongi doesn't LIKE Jimin like that (does he?) and it's obvious that Jk does and the members know it.

Like in the behind the scenes of the xylitol Christmas commercial where Yoongi touches Jimin's ear and Jimin looks at Jk, Yoongi also looks at Jk's reaction. And a lot of other times where Yoongi is just waiting for Jk to react and Jk does and Yoongi just stands there without anything to do anymore.

Yoongi knows he is ruffling Jk's feathers by touching Jimin lol but why does he do it!?!

Could be many reasons

1) He doesn't care. 😂 At the end of the day he's older than JK so this could be a hyung card at play here. Who knows? (RM too stopped caring. He used to pull away from Jimin in the past when JK got bothered but at some point he said "fuck it")

2) Suga respects the Jikook relationship. (This should be number one but his behaviour is the reason we're talking about this so...😂)

Contrary to popular stupid beliefs, BTS wouldn't be BTS if they were dating eo willy nilly. Some of the things I see under YT comments are insane! V used to date JK but then JK left him for Jimin and now he's trying to win JK back. Or When JK rejected Jimin, Jimin started dating Suga and then Jimin left Suga for JK and now bla bla bla I mean, i see this shit everyday and I'm like;

I think it has to do with fanfiction, but it also has to do with the kind of TV shows we watch where a group of friends date eo and break up with eo all inside the group and somehow they remain friends and life goes on?? That's not how real life works. At all.

If any of that fuckery 👆🏽 actually happened it would affect the dynamic of BTS as a whole, big time. They wouldn't have been together all these years as a group if this was the case. Especially considering how possessive JK is. How attached to Jimin (satellite Jeon) he is. You really think Jimin getting with Suga would not cause some bad blood???

When they were young BTS were given scenarios where they were asked what they would do if 2 members wanted the same girl. Jimin said he would find another girl while JK basically said he would fight for his girl till the death. (I'm paraphrasing 😂) but yeah, JK said he would never give her up. Then couple that with JK's "mine mine mine" thing he's got going on and you know that man ain't about sharing, loosing Jimin, or none of that shit.

Another time Jimin said he wants to fall in love with one person for the rest of his life.

So these are the men we are dealing with. Those are their personalities. So this fanfic drama, love triangles people make up are just that, fan fiction.

3) Jimin is the only member he's comfortable having skinship with. This is because Jimin is very attune to people's feelings and u can see the way he initiates skinship with Suga is not how he does it with JK or Jhope. With JK he will just throw himself at him and call it a day. With Suga he will take a beat and actually make sure Suga is okay with it. And I believe Suga appreciates that.

Idk why Suga does what he does, anon. But there is one important thing we have to remember. JK doesn't have an issue with ALL Yoonmin moments. He could have an issue with them on Monday then on Wednesday he won't care. A good example would be this episode.

During this game Suga spent a good chunk of it all over Jimin and JK did not bat an eye. Not even once.

He wasn't bothered even for a second. Which fascinated me honestly. So just coz we don't talk about Yoonmin often, doesn't mean it happens all the time.

Also JK trusts Jimin explicitly and knows nothing is ever gonna come off whatever Suga feels. So it is what it is.

Bonus

Proof that Jimin knows about JK and his anti Minimoni agenda.

RM pinches (or almost pinches?) Jimin's nipples (which is a Jikook thing btw; to randomly nipple play on official content 😂😂) and what does Jimin do? He looks at JK. And what was that face Jimin??? 👀

Seems to me like someone was relived another certain someone did not see what just happened. He he he hee!

Oh. If u didn't get what i meant by Jikook have a nipple thing here u go. Nipple Nipple Nipple (Jimin actually looks like he felt that one 😏) another Nipple. Like i said, its a Jikook thing. 🤭

[justatalkingface]

Just finished reading your Momo answer and... hoo boy do I have some things to say about Hori.

With how he writes his female characters, to be all soft, pretty faced, and waifu shaped cutouts, it just feels like the author is being a pervert.

(Looks at how Hori has claimed Mineta is his self insert in some way)

This is the kind of stuff that you should've grown out of doing AFTER puberty. To not think or write women this way because it's just feels misogynistic.

Sure there can be some exceptions to SOME degree. Like Uraraka, Mina, or even La Brava.

But they always tie back to something, to either be a love interest, a damsel in distress for a male hero to save, or just be mistaken to being in a relationship with someone older than her.

And I just have a funny feeling that even if BNHA ends and make more, this won't be the end of objecifying women and just making them gentle waifus.

Yeah. And the sad thing is, it started off so much better.

It's hard to remember these days, but between Momo getting hyped as a recommended student who is clearly smart, Uraraka saving Izuku right back in the Entrance Exam, and Asui being an integral part of getting off the ship in the first villain attack, it's like Naruto if Sakura took out the second mook ninja in the Wave Arc with Sasuke instead of just standing there the whole time.

It wasn't the best, sure, the guys clearly had more focus, but they were doing things, actually participating in fights, which really was more than girls got in most shonen, and that's the reason, I think, people clung so hard to the idea that, 'MHA does women better' even as it grew more and more clear that wasn't the case.

But now... it feels like they've all regressed. Uraraka has turned from the girl who interned with someone called Gunhead, eagerly learning some kind of MMA style, to being the Token Female Teammate, coded to support The Main Character and to be his waifu in the future... when she's not being randomly thrown half assedly into whatever the fuck is happening with with Himiko Toga and The Completely Bullshit Love Triangle. Momo is now rather meek rich girl who only stands out because she doesn't have to buy the things she gives everyone else, and Asui is... Ochako's appendage into the Toga story, so... what. Implying a harem for Izuku? I'm not sure Hori has even thought that far ahead with her beyond giving Uraraka some back up when she tries yet again to talk down Toga.

I mean, hell, for all that she's a living fetish wearing a skin-tight suit, at least Mt Lady won originally. Ever since that first chapter, though, I honestly don't think she's won a single fight she's been in on screen. These days she exists to hold back Gigantomachia while the more important people do literally anything else, before she inevitably fails because he's basiclly the Super Nomu version of her.

And just... at least back then, even if she was Default Unsavory Hero, she was a character. At this point, Mt Lady feels more like an somewhat sexualized background Hori puts up every once and awhile rather than a person.

That's not even getting into Mirko. From a broader perspective, Mirko is such a mixed bag, because on one hand, she's a brash, aggressive hero who brutally beats up her enemies, and as bad a fit as that is in setting for someone we're supposed to wholeheartedly support, she's a breath of fresh air compared to how passive and soft every other woman feels at times.

But on the other hand, she's a literal bunny girl that Hori seems to delight in using as a chew toy, and there's so much messed up with her seeming to exist solely to be his plaything.

Then, to top it off, post War Arc every new female character introduced seems to be made to fulfil one role before being discarded.

The longer the story goes on, the less they feel like people, and more like one or two character traits (unless you're Asui, who literally seems to be a prop at this point) in an aesthetically pleasing shape made to display them.

And considering how these final parts of the story seem to be nothing more than just the most basic plot points, made without the padding required for a decent story, the fact that they've all been reduced to these empty things is just so telling. If these are all women ultimately are in this bare bones vision of Hori's story, it doesn't feel like a woman will ever be anything more than that, no matter how much time he may spend on them in the future.

[politelymenacing]

If they're not doing a reboot where they're married, and Henry gets to live happily in England with his two dads and go to a better school than he could go to Kansas???? then why are they showing us this?

APPLE TV EXPLAIN!!

Is that not what happened....?

Must've just been in my head, damn. 😛

OK. Here is my pitch to Apple to make it happen (because is just makes sense):

Why do the bit about Henry acting out and bullying a kid?

Why have Henry failing science (scandal!)?

To me, that should have nudged them in the direction of 'maybe he would be better at a new school in England?' rather than 'he'll be fine just as soon as Ted returns to Kansas'.

Then we have the whole Dr. Jacob of it all... they were clearly hinting at his and Michelle's relationship breaking down (thank god. I can't even go into how much that angered me). To me, that was freeing her of her ties to Kansas so she could move with Henry to England. But instead they just kind of maybe left it a bit ambiguous. Are we supposed to believe that Ted and Michelle would ever get back together? Because no.

Also, it was clear that Henry didn't really like him and would benefit from being closer to his Uncle Beard (ugh that bit outside of the pub with them two absolutely got me 😭)

There's also Dottie. Now, I will admit that that episode fucked me up a little (yay, mums...), so I have only rewatched it once, but if I were Ted her attempt at manipulation would have just made me want to get Henry away from her, so even more reason to bring him to England.

Now Ted:

He's doing better. Ok, not amazing, but he is getting regualr thearapy and he can control his panic attacks

He knows the offside rule. He (re)invents Total Football. He is finally understanding the sport he came over to coach.

He is starting to use British terminology for things! He's acclimatised! Honestly, if he'd been there any longer, he'd have been drinking tea.

They specifically show him interacting with his neighbours and the community.

And then you tear him away from all of that. It is beyond cruel.

Also, even though Sassy was not right for him at all, he was maybe starting to show that he could move on from Michelle and let someone else into his life. (I do not have enough time to lay out the Bi Ted agenda, I'm sure people have done excellent metas about it, but let's just say the Bi Triangles will haunt me forever.)

Which leads us to Trent.

I am definitely missing things because I'm just rattling this off the top of my head, but:

Are we just going to forget that Trent got fired for Ted? And then following his bliss lead him straight to Richmond to write a love letter book about Ted.

What was the whole thing about the right idea just sitting behind a couple of the wrong ones?? In the red string of fate episode, no less!

Whatever was going in during Girl Talk with Rebecca.

Why did Ted tell Henry that it was "good to have people in your life that are excited to be around you" literally the episode after Trent was SO EXCITED about Total Football and how Ted got them there. Like. Seriously.

TRENT’S LITTLE FINGER STICKING OUT IN THE RED STRING OF FATE BIT THAT WAS POINTING DIRECTLY TO THE RED STRIPES ON TED'S JACKET ahem.

Trenthouse magazine. TRENTHOUSE MAGAZINE.

The Robert Redford/Dustin Hoffman thing. Followed by a sodding wink.

And then there's the fact they are both middle aged single dads who have so much baggage. They get one another.

Finally. Because this is turning into a bloody essay. The ending. Ted was FOR SURE asleep and dreaming at the end. I don't give a fuck what Brendan said.

You can't get that close to Stonehenge, it all looked too fake, there's no way Ted wouldn't be there, Jane needs to get in the bin.

How did Sam manage to get into the Nigerian team? (Don't get me wrong, I desperately wanted that for him, but it seemed like it was never going to happen??)

Ted thinks Trent will agree to change the book's title, and even dreams up someone he knows (Shannon) to get a copy singed.

OH AND THE GLASSES. Trent has new glasses. Why? Because Ted doesn't want to imagine him with the ones from before because the first thing he said to Trent was a compliment about the glasses.

Basically, what I'm saying. Is that that is what makes most sense from the ending. HOWEVER, Apple TV, if you are convinced it was all real, here are some ways you can keep that ending (more or less) and still have the Romcommunism ending we deserved that will lead to you picking up this reboot idea:

Ted goes back, gets a final copy of The Richmond Way, the dedication says something about how Trent changed the title because he asked, but it was always about Ted, of course it was. Ted realises his huge mistake. (Maybe he goes to rush to the airport, only to find Trent standing outside his door.)

Trent didn't say goodbye to Ted because he was already on a flight to Kansas to wait for him with a sign that says 'Coach Lasso from England". (OK, this doesn't quite fit with the ending, but you know it's a cute AF idea so shhh)

Trent is singing copies of his book and asks who it's for without looking up and just here's Ted say his name.

In all these scenarios someone says "Is this a fucking joke?" END.

And now you are ready to start your spin off/reboot/series 4 with the footage of Jason and Jimmy at the Emmys. You're welcome.

You can have all of these ideas for free (plus whatever other headcanons you get out of me), Apple TV, if you let me play one of the minimal acting required background players in the AFC Richmond Women's team (Because that is a part of the finale i can get behind and I have credentials if you need to verify I can actually play)

[will80sbyers]

I like how gay mike truthers claim bi mike truthers have 'no evidence' when the majority of their evidences are coming from reaches like mike forcing himself to kiss el while imagining will's painting on the wall, mike supposedly only loving el whenever she is 'bald' even though he was mesmerized by her when she was feminine, mike supposedly not giving a fuck about el at all when they first met even though he insisted on protecting her and they formed a quick connection from the start, pointing out that conan poster supposedly proves mike is gay while ignoring the woman on the poster collectively because it doesn't suit the intended take that mike also might be attracted to women, etc. and do not get me started on all the 'closets' thing and minuscule details like shades of the sun shining on mike's shoulder that points to him being gay which do not even point to a specific sexuality info even if they are taken as non-hetero mike evidence.

but apparently thinking mike might be into girls and loving el/being attracted to her is a reach even though the show uses explicit scenes to prove that they had/have genuine feelings each other both in the scripts and on the screen, them being promoted as a couple for years in an outside the show with explicit scenes that show their attraction. not to mention how mike's positioned in the love triangle which is already a BISEXUAL love triangle in itself and the love triangle thing is what can point to mike being attracted to both el and will but ultimately going with will because they are more fit for each other. and people collectively ignoring the evidence that mike is paralleled to the other canonically bisexual character in the show aka Vickie because it doesnt count as a 'proof' apparently is honestly astounding.

Sorry not sorry for saying this but gay mike truthers need to get a grip and bi mike truthers have the right to speak up against biphobia and ridiculous takes in the fandom because it is getting tiring and annoying af.

Luckily not all gay Mike truthers are like that, there are many that acknowledged those things and still consider bi mike a possibility and those are the people I personally want around

but yeah that's not a valid argument because it's just not true, I think everyone should be allowed to make all the reaches they want personally I am the first that enjoys and does that sometimes, but at least don't say we "have no proof" ... I think we just think the gay Mike proof is not convincing enough for us and the bi mike is more convincing because we have a different point of view on Mike's character... That's it, a different interpretation.

And I mean... We even have literally a script that pretty much explicitly states that Mike liked El romantically in s2... so it's a really weird take to say bi mike truthers don't have any reason to think he's bi... It's confusing to me how people can seriously believe that tbh

And as I said many many many times you can even not believe the script or think they changed stuff if you want, that's not a problem for me because nothing is confirmed yet and who knows, maybe they did decide to make Mike gay after s2... I have no idea because I'm not the writers!

I just would like for people to stop being randomly biphobic in the tag because that does trigger me and makes me feel like I can't enjoy byler in peace without feeling like I have to defend my whole identity when I'm reading the tag

[strangersteddierthings]

Trope rating game

tagged by @zerokrox-blog. Thanks so much!!!

rules: How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic? -10 -> very dissuaded  0 - don’t care either way  +10 -> very enticed  nope -> if it’s a hard no and you’d never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you’d insta click out of the fic if it wasn’t tagged.  Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it’s conditional.

Age gap: 0

It becomes an immediate -100 when one character is underage and the other isn't.

Codependency: 0

It becomes +10 if it's Platonic Stobin but otherwise I'm pretty neutral.

Obsession/Possessiveness, jealousy: -3

Honestly the other tags would have to sale this for me. I don't mind a bit of jealousy, but a lot of these I've seen lean into Dark!fic, which isn't for me. I like angst, yes, but it's gotta be leading towards Angst with a Happy End.

Opposites (grumpy/sunshine etc): 0

Here's the thing, in a lot of these opposites fic, they aren't actually opposites. It's like... their outward appearance is opposites, or they approach things in different ways, but at the core, they aren't opposites. Having just opposites tagged wouldn't get me to click on your fic.

Enemies to lovers, Enemies with benefits: +3/-8

Duel ratings here. Enemies to lovers, yes. Enemies with benefits, absolutely not. This is just me as an ace person who can't contextualize sleeping with someone you don't even like??? Couldn't be me, I'll never understand it.

Friends with benefits: +3

I like it only if it ends with them together. I'm a hopeless romantic that way.

Sex to feelings: -5

Same at the enemies with benefits. I gotta know at least one of the characters is already halfway in love for this to work for me.

Fake dating/relationship: +10

Oh the angst!!! I love it. Especially paired with the Mutually Pining tags, so good!! So, so good!

Friends to lovers: +1000

This is top tier to me.

Found Family: +10

YES! Let the families be found!

Hurt/Comfort: +10

Yes. I want them to hurt and then be so so comforted. Every time. All the time. ^ Zero wrote that and I agree.

Love Triangle: -5

Ugh. No.

Poly, open relationships: 0

I'll read Poly, but not open.

Mistaken/hidden identity: +3

This hits my misunderstandings/miscommunication desires well, so I do like it.

Monsterfucking: 0

It will not deter me from a fic, but I don't really read PWP because it doesn't hit for me. I need the plot. I gotta know that the character loves the monster their fucking or I just click out. Listen, judge all you want, but I will click into a PWP fic and scroll to the very bottom and read the ending first. I gotta learn if it ends with love or not! I'm not wasting my time to be disappointed :/

Pregnancy: -9

Not a -10 simply because the tags CAN persuade me to read but rarely.

Second Chance: +8

Second chances lends itself so well to the Angst with a Happy End, miscommunication, and misunderstanding tropes I adore. I won't read if the second chance is for abusive relationships but otherwise yes, I love it.

Slowburn: +2

Here's the thing. I like this in theory. I want to like it. But it's got to be well done. There's only so much suspension of disbelief I can do before I'm eye-rolling at how these two won't just talk??? This is especially double for fics that give us the POV of both characters. If I can see they're both in love and stupidly obvious to everyone around them, I can't. I will skip whole chapters to find where the slow burn ends. I'm not sorry.

Soulmates: +10

Soulmates!!!! I love this trope. However, I think it is at its best when the soulmates are platonic, OR the thing that makes you soulmates (like words appearing on skin, or images, or seeing color, etc) happens only after you've fallen in mutual love. I'll read fics where this doesn't happen, of course I will, but there's something special to me about the "we found each other, and without knowing if we'll be soulmates, I've decided to love you anyway. I love you, soulmate or not" and it's through that decision to love that the universe grants you each other.

I'm going to tag: @i-less-than-three-you @nburkhardt @afewproblems @rebelspykatie @steddierthings @a-little-unsteddie @skepsiss @localinsaneman

[the-gene-mile]

hi!! if courtney got an episode about her/centred around her what would you want it to be about?

OH AN OPPURTUNITY TO TALK ABOUT MY GIRL THANK YOU THANK YOU.

just. ANYTHING about her mum. where is she. iirc we saw her once in the unbearable like-likeness of gene and then never again. what's up with that. i'm pretty sure they've confirmed courtney's parents are married so is she like a business mum that goes away a lot or something?? the writers really need to update the mrs wheeler lore

if we wanted to get actually serious about her i feel an episode focussed on how people obviously find her annoying could be something (they did somewhat retcon that since like. the gene and courtney show but not the point). we never really properly saw her with her friends from her first appearance so there is the potential to do something with that; maybe they were spreading some dumbass rumour about her or something and she tries to do something about it (maybe like a mix of some like it bot and itty bitty ditty committee? idk.)

ALSO the THINGS I WOULD DO for a proper gac peck episode. i fucking love roller i hardly know her and the gene mile (obviously) but the former forces alex and courtney together (in-universe) and the latter just kinda has them stand next each other like twice. making them do a group project is the obvious setup here and maybe they go to each other's houses or something and the whole bit is how their families are like. complete opposites. no love triangle shit (affectionate) either like we have roller for that just let them be best friends and annoy everyone in their grade is that too much to ask

also an episode about her but not about music. don't care what but we've had two and dance is just music's cousin so roller is basically another music episode. even half the episodes where she just appears for a single scene are music-based (wag the song, gene's christmas break, the plight before christmas). like let her have more than one hobby PLEASE oh my GOD.

honestly thinking of hypothetical episodes with her is tough bc we don't actually know that much about her so there is a LOT we can do w her. she's kinda just used as girl gene in a lot of episodes she has like 3 total personality traits. the easy answer is to have her interact w tina and louise properly, ESPECIALLY tina since she wasn't in the a-plot of the gene mile. idk they could do something where they split the school into girls and boys for whatever reason and she talks to louise and tina about whatever the fuck kinda situationship she's got going on with gene at that moment. louise can try and sabotage it and tina could try to steer her in the right direction? that's something right? (and it could give us more gene and zeke content but this isn't about them)

alternatively they confirm her trans mtf and that's the whole episode the end

[maysxn]

A Scorch Trials rant Pt. 2

Hello, it's me again. I just finished the book and I don't know what to say (I'm lying, this is gonna be a long rant…again).

After finishing the book I thought maybe I was the crazy one because I had only seen good reviews about it and maybe I was being way too harsh and critical about it after a quick search, Goodreads showed me that some people agree with me. I give this book a score of 1.5 stars out of 5. I'm honestly disappointed.

The Maze Runner was an amazing book, with good characters, fast pacing, a mystery, and a lot of questions. It was exciting, it was thrilling and I wanted to know more.

The Scorch Trials almost made the burning flame of my curiosity disappear. This book was like a long filler episode, they just walk, and walk, and walk, and eat and pee and continue walking through the desert, you have a little action sprinkle here and there and then we continue walking, only to have Thomas passing out every five seconds.

After three hundred pages when we finally arrived at the finish line, we found the most absurd thing I have ever read in my life. Wdym that some weird capsules emerge from the ground, creepy monsters come out from them, they fight, they get rescued and then Thomas just wakes up in a white room?? Are we still in the same book??

The character development I was hoping for, was nonexistent. If Thomas was already annoying because he could not stop thinking about Teresa, then we added Brenda to the mix and it became a whole new mess that I felt was unnecessary. The world is already hard as it is and you want to create a bland and underwhelming love triangle that is all over the place with characters that barely have an ounce of personality to distinguish from one another.

Honestly, I thought Thomas was making fun of me on the final pages when some of the Gladers didn't make it to Save Heaven he literally says "I didn't know them well anyway", no shit Sherlock.

Then the questions, we have a lot of questions that are still unanswered, I read almost four hundred pages for nothing??? Not even ONE answer??? What is WICKED actually doing? How do they get money and manpower to do everything? Is money still a thing after the fucking apocalypse? How does the economy work? Are all countries controlled by WICKED? All the areas are secluded? How does WICKED spy on them in the middle of the desert? What is the purpose of having everything planned? What makes Thomas that special? and I could go on.

At this point, WICKED is almost like an omniscient god more than an evil corporation/government/laboratory. They almost feel like fucking wizards, they have teleportation portals and eyes everywhere, they can heal people in an instant, they can alter their senses, they create monsters, etc. They can do all that but they cannot find the cure to a virus.

Wouldn't be more efficient, controlled, and cheaper if they just did what they did to Minho in the movies?

And to finish this long rant with another pet peeve of mine, Is Thomas Spiderman? Or why does he always know when something bad is about to happen?

[mourningcandles]

I made this post about The Reluctant Director&Furnace&Cornelius, but I think I'll make a new one to keep talking about them. It needs to be a separate posts with tags like this.

#thinking about that time the Reluctant Director tracked Cornelius across the Hinterlands just to accuse him of a crime he didn't commit #despite having proof of crimes he did in fact commit #because they didn't care about the other crimes #they just really pettily thought he was involved in a different crime because they were jealous (platonic) #meanwhile Mister Fires was right there#both of them mid-stand off like ''where's Furnace Ancona and what did you do with her- wait I thought you had her'' #''I will make your life a hell'' what are you two #what is up with your rivalry #this post was brought to you by: Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine being on their platonic love triangle playlist #okay fine they did care about the other crimes but Furnace said fuck off when they brought it up so they did because they're a simp

There's a marked air of jealously between The Reluctant Director and Cornelius. It shows quite plainly in their interactions. It's a bit miserable, actually.

Speaking with Cornelius [...] "Did she show you her face?" Cornelius asks. "Perhaps I should show you mine." He unwinds the bandage around his head. His face is covered with tiny mouths, none of them bigger than an eye. When his first mouth is silent, the other mouths speak, or grimace. All these mouths give him a strange cadence; he speaks with one voice and another, like verses of poetry.

He has no way of knowing that Furnace has removed her helmet in the Director's presence. That is an assumption he makes, and that assumption is that Furnace trusts the Director. With that assumption comes some measure of disdain. But he doesn't know the context.

For reference, the timeline for this character's run is:

Start investigating Cornelius

Bring evidence of embezzlement to Furnace

Be annoyingly persistent (autistic) until she reveals her faces (plural) out of frustration and anger

Never bring it up again

Furnace goes missing

Finish investigating Cornelius and confront him

They wouldn't have ever learned what was beneath the mask if it weren't for Cornelius and his nonsense.

Hear him out His need to speak is electric in the air. Confessional The mouths speak: "This is what the Masters made of us." "Of Furnace and me." "Not because they have such power. Not because they even noticed us. But because in opposing them, we unmade ourselves." "The masters did not make the law, they did not make the Bazaar, it is best to ignore them, do not even bother to unbuild them, just ignore them and follow a different rule –" "– and here you are –" "– and the Devils took the Red position, neutral, both sides –" It goes on like this, on and on, a litany of thoughts from all the little mouths. At the end, Cornelius' central mouth says, "It was my fault. I called on the Discordance, I read the law of ice, I tried to enter the Adulterine Castle." He looks at you and you see a man who is, on the whole, sane. "I don't speak this way to everyone. But she trusts you, I think. And so I trust you, even if I should not."

It's honestly such a leap for him to extend even the illusion of trust towards a Director of the GHR who also has evidence against him (which he suspects) but such is the nature of their weird rivalry, I suppose.

Ask him where Furnace is Does he know? Lightning glance The tiny mouths and their many stories collapse into silence. "Does she love you?" Cornelius asks, with the one mouth at the centre of his face. "Because all the stories I'm hearing, the gossip on the rail – she's taken your side a stupid number of times." His eyes bore into you. You have an intuition: he does not know where Furnace is, but he would remove your liver with his hands if he thought that would produce her location.

The only thing preventing these two from throttling each other is that they both love Furnace. They are to some degree fighting for her affection despite both knowing full-well that she doesn't care about them that way in the slightest. The only thing preventing these two from throttling each other is their uneasy alliance, formed with the purpose of saving Furnace, perhaps even from herself, ultimately. Their methods and how far each is willing to go vary, but it does prevent them from throttling each other.

Also the Reluctant Director neither knows nor cares whether this feeling in romantic or platonic, both in their own case and in the case of Cornelius. In the end they like Furnace and they think Cornelius is a prick and a freak. They will admit that they are also a freak, but they are under the illusion that they are less of a prick. They are not.

[forabeatofadrum]

Trope Grading game

Thank you @artsyunderstudy for the tag. This is fun.

Rules: How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic?

-10 -> very dissuaded

0 - don’t care either way

+10 -> very enticed

nope -> if it’s a hard no and you’d never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you’d insta click out of the fic if it wasn’t tagged

Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it’s conditional.

Age gap: -10

Define age gap. I don't think I will actively look for it, regardless of age gap, but what kind of age gap does matter. Obviously, I am not fond of, for example, one of them being 16 and the other being 26, but one being 26 and the other 36? Sure. As I always say, it's not about the amount of years, but whether people are in a similar moment in life.

Codependency: +5

Okay, yeah, remember how fiction is all about exploring themes that would be a big no no in real life? This is one of them. I am such a sucker for fics that explore codependency, especially since it can be quite toxic or it can stem from, for example, of inadequacy which... give me ANGST.

Or also, what happens when people seem to be different in how much of themselves they want to give? Like, with Klaine, I am a big "Kurt needs to learn how to let people in and Blaine needs to learn to care for himself" truther.

Obsession/Possessiveness, jealousy: +3

Kinda same thing as what I wrote above, but somehow I am less interested in it. I like to explore it if it stems from some internal conflict. As Ashton said, Simon's jealousy come from his own insecurities and I eat that shit up, but I would never think it's a cutesy thing.

Opposites (grumpy/sunshine etc): +5

Yeah, sure. I like the idea that people compliment each other, but I also like the idea of having a lot in common. So I do like it, but I am not nuts about it.

Enemies to lovers, Enemies with benefits: +5

"I don't really care for enemies to lovers" I say, as I ship Snowbaz and Firstprince and Zimbits.

I mean, it depends on what constitutes as enemies. If "enemies to lovers" is just being used as a way to have two terrible people forcibly end up together, then no thanks. It needs to make sense. It needs to show how people and the relationships evolve.

Enemies with benefits.... meh. Not really? Feels kinda weird to group these two categories together, since they're wildly different and I am just not into this one. Mostly. Sure. I mean, I do flail over Restoration Ecology by @captain-aralias. I cannot shut the fuck up about that fic and Simon thinks of Baz as his enemy so you know.

Friends with benefits: -5

No thanks. Not opposed to it, but just not for me.

Sex to feelings: still figuring it out

Can I redirect you to this long ass reply that I wrote about how my entire feelings with smut is *cha cha real smooth* super weird at the moment and also the main reason I am not into friends/enemies with benefits but how I am slowly, like, accepting (it makes sense if you read the post) that I do like smut when there's feelings?

Fake dating/relationship: -5

Honestly, I never got this trope. I don't hate it. I don't think it's a bad thing, I just never liked it that much and I didn't get the appeal and it's been done.

Friends to lovers: +10

OH YEAH. I am a big "date your best friend" believer. I think friendship can be a great foundation for romantic love and my angst loving ass also likes the whole "but will this ruin it?" stuff, although that has been a bit overdone, but also, two cakes principle.

Found Family: +10

I AM SUCH A BITCH FOR FOUND FAMILY WHY ELSE DO YOU THINK I ALWAYS TRY TO GIVE MY CHARACTERS A GROUP OF FRIENDS IN FICS.

There are so many goddamn good fanfics with this trope BUT the first one that comes to mind is like a handprint on my heart by @alphacrone, like this fic wrecked me to no end (affectionate).

Hurt/Comfort: +10

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

Love Triangle: -10

Fucking hate this. Sorry. I do. Well, not sorry, actually, because I think the media's obsession with love triangles is so fucking tiring anyway and I often find the dilemma to be widely stupid and not fun to read. This is why I am a big fan of shows like Sense8, The Legend of Korra, and Ted Lasso who ended their big love triangle stories in an unexpected way. More of that please, but then technically speaking it wouldn't be a love triangle.

Poly, open relationships: -5

Offline, in real life, I am not opposed to poly stuff, and in media I am all for more poly rep, but I am just one of those people who cannot multiship for life. So it depends on whether the ship/character in question is already poly, if that makes sense. I know I just said I like how Ted Lasso just fucking did nothing, but give me that good Roy/Jamie/Keeley shit, but for the love of God stay away from Klaine or Snowbaz with someone else.

Mistaken/hidden identity: 0

Hm, I wrote an entire fic about catfishing and how it's a messed up way to start a relationship since you don't really know the person in question. I think it can be interesting, and even comedic, but it really depends on how the fake identity came to be.

Monsterfucking: none

No thanks, but again, this has more to do with me not liking smut. Mostly. Again, I made a whole ass post about it. Idk, if you're just starting to figure out what you like, monsterfucking feels too daunting. Nope.

Pregnancy: none

No thanks. Mpreg is a big no for me and also just pregnancy in general is meh. Don't like it. Like many things on this list, I am not, like "morally opposed" to it, I just do not vibe with it at all.

Second Chance: +100000

BUT I DO FUCKING VIBE WITH THIS I AM SO FUCKING DOWN FOR THE REUNION FIC TROPE I ALWAYS SAY IT'S MY FAVOURITE. As much as I think it is a good thing for couples to work shit through as a couple, I am such a bitch for the idea of people finding themselves and growing as a person without the idea of being tied to someone AND then they fall in love with these improved versions of the other and also relearn to love the person they used to be. God yeah, I love this crap. Sign me up.

There are a lot of *chef's kiss* reunion fics in the world, but I need to give a shout out to the Woods verse by @flowerfan2, which I need to reread soon because I recently fell into the Into the Woods 2022 rabbit hole.

Slowburn: +7

I say I like it, but I am also impatient. But yeah, it is definitely something I would click on.

Soulmates: 0

Hm. Mixed bag, mostly since, like fake dating, it has become such a been there done that thing in my head. Oh, the world becomes colourful! Oh, you can write on your body and it shows up on the other's body. Oh, tattoos of your lover's first words! Oh, red string! (I keep saying I do want to write a soulmate fic where I fuck with these ideas, but idk how yet.)

So I don't actively click on it, but that being said, I love fics that throw what we know of soulmate fics out of the window or give their own spin to it. The Check, Please! fandom has some really good ones, especially with the angst potential of Jack "dying" in 2009. A really good one is i'll see you with your laughter lines, also written by @alphacrone. If you want a less angsty one, Those Tangled Olive Threads of Fate by @mcbangle is a hilarious way to fuck with the "red string" trope.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I am fucking tired now. I should sleep. And I am lazy because of it so I will tag everyone who wants to do it.

[scrapyardboyfriends]

I honestly think out of the main British soaps (Eastenders, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, and Coronation Street), Emmerdale may be the worst out of the lot rn. I feel like the other three soaps have AT LEAST one or two storylines that are kind of interesting and keep people watching, but Emmerdale just doesn't have anything! It's so boring. I watched the national television awards and even with the brief snippet they showed of Emmerdale, it looked like the most basic and boring soap out of them all. Not to mention that Emmerdale's ratings have lowered and the buzz around the show is poor compared to the other soaps, even Hollyoaks which has always been the underdog. I've lost so much interest in the show, I've basically stopped watching. They really need a huge overhaul. I just hope they're starting to realize that a big change needs to be made. I think the best way to do this would be to completely start fresh with new showrunners. Eastenders had a huge overhaul and even though the show is not my fave, they've done a good job at starting fresh and creating buzz for the show again.

I'm glad they didn't win anything at the NTAs last night. They certainly didn't deserve it. I feel like they're just floundering right now. They really do need a complete overhaul with someone coming in with a fresh vision and plan for how to rehabilitate the show.

I haven't watched in over three weeks now. I mean that's also cause I kind of fell down a Red White and Royal Blue rabbit hole and suddenly had new tabs to refresh but also because the show is garbage and there's really not a single storyline that I read about that makes me want to actually watch.

I have zero interest in this Lydia story because I just don't think it should be happening in the first place. It's bad enough that it's yet another rape story but it's that on top of her being basically off screen for months and then coming back not only to this but to revisiting the whole stillborn baby plot too. It feels like they're just stuck with all of these characters and only know how to give them one story and so they just continually go back to that well and pile on more misery and it's exhausting.

I'm annoyed with what they're doing with Gabby. All they do is have her throw herself at unavailable men. At some point, maybe it would be nice if a guy actually liked her back. Radical thought. Maybe her character could actually grow?!? Not to mention, her continued hatred of Nicky and trying to screw him over is just boring. Everyone else has moved on. It's not like he wasn't being manipulated into it all anyway. I wish they'd just had them become friends.

Anything with random plot gangsters is a no go for me. The fact that it also involves Nate is just doubly bad.

I truly could not care less about Amelia.

I know the Cathy actress needed a break for exams or whatever so they shipped her off in the middle of her story but the fact that they're bringing her back just to finally give her the diagnosis we've all known about for months and she knew she had already is just silly. I'd rather have her learning to adjust rather than lashing out over a diagnosis.

I might watch some of the stunt week just to see Chloe die if that actually happens. But I just could not care less about that love triangle. It's so tedious and boring and none of these people work together and I wish they'd just let everyone move the fuck on.

I can't believe they're going back to the David and Victoria well for his exit. They truly have nothing to do with these characters. It's just sad.

I think the only thing right now that might get me to watch again is if they actually brought Amit in for Jai and Suni. The fact that they killed Rishi off and then the whole story seemed to just die with him is so wild to me. I have to assume that it's going to come back but it's just so dumb that Jai spent his last weeks with Rishi hating him for this lie and then turned around and decided he would just continue the lie with Suni. It's kind of ridiculous. And while I feel like it all has to come up again and they have to bring in Amit eventually, I could equally see it being forgotten about entirely because these people suck that much.

So yeah...they really have a whole lot of work to do.