#hopefully it gets addressed

[nin-deer]

Ch 143

i mean i think we all knew deep down the kiss was gonna happen based on the flow of the story but i think this chap reveals a lot about gorou and sarina

(uh warning this got a little out of hand so its pretty long lmao)

so.

i dont think anyone's completely in the wrong, but i definitely don't think they're in the right either. (not that i condone incest; its just that their motivations led them to this specific point. would the story have been fine without it? hell yeah. please i actually prefer it that way. but this is the direction the author decided to take it, so we have to take it as it is as a point of learning more about the character's motivations)

Let's first analyze sarina and gorou's relationship pre-reincarnation. I think I covered this in my last post where I rambled about onk, but gorou is doing a doctor thing where he "accepts" sarina's proposal just to make her happy. We learn in this new chapter that he basically catered to her every request, and that's what started that infatuation. we know from previous chapters that her bio family's shitty, so the only place she would get this love is from gorou. we also learn in this chapter that it's not actually a romantic love but a fanatic love, for lack of better terms. she sees him as her idol. does sarina even know what it feels to be romantically in love with someone? she spent her whole first life in a hospital, isolated from others her age. she spent her second life very curated and protected because of her mom and her future career; she couldn't really live a normal life. (we'll get back to this point later) all she knows about love is through her idols, so she's channeling it into (what she thinks is) romantic love for gorou.

gorou, on the other side of this, is an actual adult who had an actual life before all this, so he knows what a normal life is like. assuming sarina is one of his first patients, its obvious to see that he got attached, which is a very risky situation for scenarios like this. we see this attachment made her death worse, as he threw himself into following Ai to cope for her death. not gonna go too in depth about this here because, again, i made another post for this that i'll probably link at the end bc im referencing it more than i thought... continuing! he knows sarina doesnt have long left so he wants to do what he can for her, thus creating that "idol" persona sarina has for him.

we see in his regret in this new chap that he actually knows what he's doing and is aware of the consequences of his actions. ruby doesn't. she doesn't regret anything. as someone who reads a lot of isekai/reincarnation stories, its easy to joke that ruby and aqua are their old age + their new age, but that isn't necessarily true for ruby. sure, aqua is old and this could apply to him. but ruby? she didn't make it past 18 before she died. she's like,,, 13 times 2. double 13. she never fully developed in her first life, and she's developing in this current life. it's like a continue from where she left off. aqua actually was an adult, so he has all the knowledge and wisdom of an adult. why does this matter? shift your attention back to the concept of love for a bit. aqua knows what she's doing is bad and is trying to stop her, but the knowledge that she's sarina is making him automatically succumb to her wishes. a part of his brain, because of the trauma, still sees ruby as the sickly sarina he was caring for.

ruby is naïve. she doesnt know what love is. all the love she's ever been exposed to is whatever she saw online: idols. i dont even think she fully knows what the concept of family is. aqua is her brother? nope. aqua is the doctor she proposed to and now she has a chance to follow through like all the shows she's seen. she's closer than ever to him, so why give up the chance? even as ruby, she wasn't exposed to a lot of normalcy because of idol culture. she isn't able to learn about the difference between platonic love and fanatic love. we even see this with ai, who she sees more as an idol than her mom. the joy is in her idol being her mom, someone who's supposed to care for her. it's like shes living a fantasy made just for her. because aqua was so obsessed w revenge, he didn't have the chance to teach her anything, and it's not like he needed to learn bc he already knows. ruby doesn't.

aqua, as the one who understands these nuances, should have sat her down and explained things, but he didn't because of the trauma of sarina. ruby is ignorant and is treating things like a tv drama, now that her dreams as sarina can finally become true. aqua doesn't realize how serious ruby is about this because in his mind this is just a child playing house. ruby is like,,,, imagine you die and you wake up actually being sold to one direction. or whatever happens to you in your fav self-insert scenario/fanfic. idk a better analogy lmao but its like finally being able to play out your fantasies irl. she doesn't realize the real world impacts of her actions because, frankly, she doesn't care. she gets to live out her life as she wants. aqua was shocked after the first kiss with ruby because he realized then she was being serious, but he didn't speak out about it because, again, the trauma™. (we see him again uncomfy with the whole situation in the next page, but his lack of objection could be bc it's a scene in the documentary and he finds it more important to get revenge rn) ruby kissed him then because she purposefully created the mood like that so it would fit in the story she was writing in her mind.

so what does this mean? because of their shared pasts, aqua and ruby are put in this situation where ruby can do what she wants and aqua goes along with it. even if he knows its morally wrong, he can't bring himself to break ruby's immersion in all of this. BUT. big but. aqua shouldn't act like this. they're both capable of living out their lives as normal (barring the revenge and the whole idol stuff). he doesn't need to act like this anymore; ruby's not terminally ill. he's not a doctor. what he should have done was firmly deny her stuff he knows is wrong because then he can educate her about the reason why. as much as their personalities are inspired by their past lives, sarina and gorou are dead. they need to move on and live a aqua and ruby. (Harsh, I know, but because of this scenes like *gestures vaguely to the newest two chapters* happens. if aqua stood his ground and taught ruby about familial love and that what she's feeling is probably not romantic, i think this could have been avoided. but alas, we need it for the ~drama~)

-

sorry that went on way longer than i thought lmao. i think i covered everything i wanted to say but im too lazy to read back so fingers crossed

if you made it this far and are curious about the other post i mentioned in the beginning, its here. i just think its some context to my thought process but not necessary to understand this post

[potato-lord-but-not]

what is the funniest misconception john has about how a human body works (bc i'm curious, given that his experience with being human is arthur, who is resistant to every type of damage, and his own body, which also is not all the way normal)

John needs to surround himself with more women I think it would be good for him

[furubaycrossing]

pls post furu bay already i am dying to see and visit it again !! 😭

oop— 🤭

fair warning: there’s hella lag lmao no island of mine has ever existed without any, so my apologies in advance 🥲

[starii-void]

something about mei and mk being ‘the hero and the warrior’ except they’re more based

theres been a few instances of mei being upset about not being able to spend as much time with MK (the one i remember more vividly was her in s5 wanting to go on a ‘classic MK and Mei adventure!’ but im p sure there was an instance in s4 too that i cant recall) which lead to some thoughts

ive seen a lot of stuff about them and how mei might end up like macaque, bitter and abandoned by MK, like wukong did. but i just feel like it isnt true. so this is my future theory:

there’d be a build up of more instances like this. mei wants to do stuff with MK, but he prioritizes his hero training/duties. each time, she’s shown subtly being more and more upset until one day she snaps. she confronts him and is visibly upset, yelling at him.

but then, instead of snapping back (like Wukong did) he apologizes. maybe it can parallel the first fight they had in season 1 during the race somehow?

in the end, the two do what Wukong and Macaque couldnt, and make up. MK owns up to his mistake and they both get better. they have their own little adventures together, or something like that

and like that, it shows how they’re different from the Hero and the Warrior. it shows how Wukong and Macaque couldve turned out if theyd just put down their pride and communicated. it shows what they couldve been.

basically i just think they wouldnt turn out like macaque and wukong. ive seen a lot of people theorize that but they arent emotionally constipated enough for that to happen, plus we’ve seen them argue and make up on screen already.

also i think itd just make for some cool opportunities for art and visual parallels

[rickybaby]

Racing Bulls is reportedly introducing a new floor at Suzuka (via Formu1a.uno)

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s6 episode 20 thoughts

i hope that this episode gives us plenty of mulder and scully time, despite the episode description only mentioning the lone gunmen. i love them, but i crave mulder and scully time. it’s part of what i need to thrive. 

but! a return of susanne modeski!! glad to know she is still out there, because it very much seemed like she got killed that last time we saw her.

post-episode notes: wait, this one was really good 🥹🥹 and maybe i asked for mulder and scully time and received absolutely none (beyond one side of a 30 second phone conversation, which WAS genuinely very funny), but it was still SO good. the lone gunmen are my friends. and so is scully. and she suffered deeply. but. she likes hickey and cutie and byers. my poor sweet baby that could kill me with ease!!!

let’s begin!!

previously, on the x files… 

girl, that whole thing with susanne was a while ago. don’t try to trick us into thinking the last episode wasn’t baseball msr!

okay. yes. my memory is jogged. she wanted to expose the plot about the evil chemicals. but she got shoved in a car, and we haven't seen her since. and that was 10 years ago.

BYERS IS NARRATING!!! oh. he is special To Me.

he dreams that JFK was never shot… and he has these little kids who hold his hands. in this dream, america hasn’t been betrayed by its government. and he has a dog. and he’s married to susanne!!! bro kissed her once and has been down bad since.

he says all his hopes are fulfilled in this dream- for his country and himself. which means bro wants two kids and a picket fence and a wife and golden retriever… and instead he has the homies… which isn’t so different, if you think about it… but aww… little teddy bear byers… 

he wanted to save her. but it seemed innocent. not like the sort of manipulative man who goes into things thinking he wants to save a woman, if that distinction makes sense. there’s a naivety about his whole approach. an innocence.

and they kiss in his dream. near the lemon trees. oh. they’re going in for more. damn. he wants her BAD.

but in the dream, he always loses it all. and ends up in a desert. 

NOT cool. we need to give byers some melatonin to ensure he has good sleep and hopefully some sweet dreams.

intro time… love that blurry shot of the agents bursting into a room with their guns…and the intro was very short this time!!!

okay. so now we’re in nevada, at an event for defense contractors. noted. i’m starting to think there will be no agents in this episode. sad.

some people are playing poker. byers is among them! he claims his name is stuart funsten. and he gets the other guys talking while they play. this guy is talking about new tech that allows for cooking people’s brains in their heads. oh! at least he’s enthusiastic about the whole thing. 

frohike is collecting the chips!!! he makes a remark about the dealer being a man of distinction. which probably means about the chip or the brand or something, but idk. i rarely know what frohike is talking about.

byers is still in- the last person left, alongside the dealer. he puts another 200 on it. and gets raised 1000! and byers raises it EVEN more!!! 

frohike clears his throat pointedly. and when the dealer comments on the company byers allegedly works for, langly is in his ear, researching the appropriate response!

aw. you know, maybe not having agent time isn’t such a bad thing. look at these nerds!! 

he starts talking trade secrets on the air conditioner on the planes he very much (/s) works for…. and the dealer raises the pot AGAIN. 

langly tells him to stall and to FOLD, but he does neither!!! byers is doing some improv!

he says they subcontracted the japanese and triple billed the government. same thing they always do.

NOOOOO. the other guy beats his hand, but just barely!!!! a king high flush to a queen high flush!

and dealer says to call security on stuart AND his partner!! he got busted!! he made up that word he asked about!!! which is why langly couldn’t find anything on it!!

they get manhandled out, which leads to frohike asking “hey man, you want to thunderdome?” <- and that is really funny.

langly is MAD that byers lost $3,000, but frohike says that it has to be him that goes undercover and not langly, “because this ain’t woodstock” (grabs his hair) <- LMAO

they didn’t even get any prints off the drink glasses!!! this convention was a BUST! byers says they should look into the dealer guy. 

a knock at the door. 

someone claims to be the CIA. they open up… it’s jimmy and timmy!! i don’t know who these guys are, but they must be friends- or enemies- of the gunmen, because one of them is wearing a shirt that says “government patsy”.

he asks if they were sneaking around… maybe they were… and maybe these two got something… well, maybe the gunmen did too!!

no, jimmy and timmy confess that they did not in fact, get anything. “it’s the t shirt” <- LMAO

t shirt guy says it means he is onto them!!! that he knows this year’s theme is assassination!! but he won’t say where he heard that theme. anyway, he claims there is some new stealth assassination tech being unveiled soon- and they will be front row. 

the gunmen tell them to go ahead to their lobster and “boobage”. which is diabolical.

OH! frohike says byers looks sad- he's the one that pushes the hardest for them to go to conventions, and then gets all squirrely when they arrive. “you’re still looking for her, aren’t you?” he asks.

byers says they met her at a convention! but frohike adds that they both know what happened. byers thinks that she was too important to the government to kill. frohike responds that either way, she is hopefully in a better place than las vegas, and grabs his shoulder, asking him to come along for lobster time.

oh… frohike knows him so well :(

they journey down to the slot machines… and as frohike says he feels lucky, byers SEES HER!! he goes to follow her. but it seems he’s lost where she went…. ah! he’s on her tail!!! 

he knocks a guy over trying to follow her. disaster.

AH!! A PHONE RINGS!!! AND IT WAKES UP SCULLY IN BED!!! SHE WAS SLEEPING! LET HER SLEEP!! DO NOT DISTURB HER SLUMBER!!

but i was thinking there would be NO scully today, so i am pleased :) even if she is not. 

it’s mulder, calling at 2:34 am. asking her to go to vegas RIGHT NOW!!! because the lone gunmen need her. 

LMAO, she says she trusts him, but she’s not so sure about the three stooges, BAHAHA

BUT THE GAG IS: IT ISN’T MULDER!!! it's the gunmen, using some sort of voice synthesizer!!! they literally predicted spongebob voice AI videos…

oh, mulder is going to call her tomorrow and ask where she is, and there is going to be a big mess, i can just tell already.

she sighs deeply. and says she will be there.

BAHAHAHAHA, frohike acknowledges that she will kick their asses. and it’s true. 

he trapped her cell, so if she tries to call mulder, it’ll go to them!!!!

frohike doesn’t even know why they need scully, LMAO, but byers says if they’re up against government agents, they need their OWN government agent. BAHAHA, does he want them to fight it out or something? 💀

but mulder is too high-profile! “he’s virtually a household name to the black-ops who kidnapped susanne in baltimore” <- so you want to bring in SOMEONE ELSE for the black ops to kidnap?! watch it, buddy… you may be a teddy bear, but don’t be stupid with scully…

langly asks byers if he is positively sure that he saw modeski. and he says he is- and they must find her.

he goes to get some ice, and sees the mystery dealer man who beat him in poker before!!! and he opens a hotel room door… and KISSES susanne!!! byers is heartbroken!!!

nooo!!! why’d you call scully here for this?!?

byers submerges his head in the ice, which prompts langly to say he thinks he’s trying to kill himself. “stop trying to kill yourself, byers” <-LMAO

oh, the poor boy is soaking wet and sad. but frohike found that the mystery poker man is named grant ellis, maybe from new mexico judging by the plates on the car. he’s from the D.O.D. and he works for the place susanne did!!!

byers comes to the conclusion that he MUST have brainwashed her. he thinks she ran from the people she used to work for, and there’s no way she would go back to work for them- or kiss that guy. it HAS to be brainwashing! 

frohike says he knows a way to find out. and he’s on the move… watching as the housekeeper enters susanne's room. 

meanwhile, byers is trying to get into the conference, but he can’t, because the guard who threw him out is working the door. langly wants to go instead, but byers again gestures to his hair. 

when they are stopped by their friends or enemies from earlier! with other friends or enemies! it seems they must be enemies of the extreme variety. jimmy says he can get in… when the time is right. he knows a hole in their security. 

but byers tells jimmy he needs to get in there today. so he had better prove he can do it

so jimmy crawls in through the vents… and listens from inside. and records with a camcorder!!! susanne is on the panel presenting!!! what is she doing?!

timmy is inside, too!!! it appears there is a traitor in the jimmy and timmy team!!! 

TIMMY IS ONE OF THE BAD GUYS!!!! he says jimmy really screwed things up!! they wanted to use him for assassinations… and they wanted him as a patsy. 

BLEH... they shoot something into his head. gross.

scully arrives!!! she's asking someone to please take her bag up to her room. and byers and langly are here. the first words out of her mouth: “where’s agent mulder? i’ve been trying to call him” <- BAHAHA okay, yeah. your priorities are abundantly clear!

langly stutters… uh, his phone is messed up, and he might be hard to reach!!

OH she is SUSPICIOUS, LMAOOO.

but they find jimmy!!! he jumped in front of a bus!!! or did he… was he framed?!?! bleugh, that is very bloody. 

no one is answering scully’s questions and she’s annoyed, BAHAHA.

frohike finally sneaks into susanne's hotel room….. he has some gadgets about. he finds a camera recording him!!! but then someone is at the door!!! it’s susanne!!

he hides in the bathroom… and she starts to get undressed. and gets in a robe instead. 

oh… she comes in the bathroom…. but there’s a knock at the door. it’s byers!!!

he straight up asks if he remembers her!!! 

“john, what are you doing here?” <- OH! so she does!!!

he tries to say that he is here to save her…. but she says she hasn’t been brainwashed. he says his friend was killed, and that man you are with… 

“you mean my fiancé?” <- OH! the plot thickens.

byers has had enough. did he not see her get kidnapped?! she says it did happen. but things got better. and then she shuts the door on him. which does not answer much.

how is frohike gonna get out… he climbed up the vents!!! bro is a spider monkey!! he waves around the camera he found.

scully is in autopsy mode!!! she makes sure that whoever she is with really wants to be here. and it is langly, who says he is cool. but he looks like he’s gonna die. and then she’ll have to autopsy him, too.

langly is trying very hard to keep it together, but is quite literally quivering as scully does her job.

oh. she snapped her mask on. and i started blushing. 

oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay. yeah ❤️

she is cutting into the body. and we can see it go down in the reflection from her goggles. very gross! EWWWWWW.

EWWW, THE RIBS!!!

she asks him to please pass the saw on the counter, and also, i have been spelling his name wrong, or perhaps autocorrect has, because there is no e. just langly. so i must edit this in the notes. forgive me if a typo makes it through to the final product.

okay. she’s looking at some ribs. an average day in the office for her.

but he runs out to get sick. and drops the saw. it is a good thing this happened, though, because she sees the injection on the dead body's neck as she picks it up!!

BUT NO!!! timmy sneaks up on her and INJECTS HER!!!! I’LL KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS, TIMMY!!!

langly runs back out, and she’s out cold on the ground!!!!

oh no…. as she comes back to, he proposes that perhaps the blood made her pass out. bro. she’s a pathologist. this is not the most likely scenario.

SHE CALLS HIM CUTIE. and mumbles “done, done, done”. “how do you roll this thing?” <- OH!!! baby is stoned out of her mind!!!! help her!!! get her someplace safe!!! do not let her near a bus, langly!!

I’M FUCKING CRYING…. “what killed him?” “my medical opinion? beeeeeeeeeeeeeep” (she claps her hands) “and that’s all you found?” “that’s all i know” <- BAHAHAHAHHAAAAAA 

she collapses again. but langly doesn’t have an eye on her!!! he just went back to his own room! he says she claimed there was something important she needed to do!!! “man, she is seriously jet-lagged” <- BRO, GO FIND HER AT ONCE!!

frohike plays the video from susanne’s room, where she says she feels like she is being watched. ellis says she worries too much- the plan is on schedule. and they’re cuddling. gross. 

byers insists it is not her. “she would not marry that man” “you don’t know him like i do” “how’d you get in here?” <- BAHAHA

susanne jumpscare!!! she says he saved her life and the lives of thousands of others. and she asks to talk to byers. alone. the other gunmen sliiiiiide out.

she wants to know about his friend being murdered. and she says she is always in danger. 

oh… she’s thought about this moment- reuniting with byers- so many times. all the things she would say. oh!!! well! that certainly has some implications!!

so the bad guys took her and did things to her, and it was like drowning. and ellis pulled her up. even though she wanted it to be byers who did that!!!

ellis worked for them… but she says he was working against them, sabotaging them. he reminded her of byers. OH! so she def loves him

back to slot town with frohike and langly. WHERE IS SCULLY??? i am stressed. frohike insists he could get all the money out of this place if he didn't have morals.

oh no… timmy approaches…. they don’t know he’s evil…! he asks them to come play dungeons and dragons in memory of jimmy. and langly agrees. 

but frohike hears something in the distance. it’s scully laughing!!! she’s acting wildly drunk. SHE CALLS HIM HICKEY!!! AND TELLS THE MAN WHISPERING IN HER EAR TO BE NICE TO HIM!!! SHE SAYS SHE LIKES HIM!!! AND PETS HIS FACE!!!

(she likes him......... oh.....)

OH, THE CIGARETTE SCENE. AND THE 800 LIGHTERS EMERGING AT ONCE. she cannot decide who lights her fire! i have seen this in gif form, and was always wondering what the context to that was. now i know. it makes sense that such a thing would only happen when she is... deeply inebriated. it's just not like her. poor thing.

he's trying to point out to her that she DOESN'T SMOKE. frohike tells everyone to back off!!! that is SPECIAL AGENT DANA SCULLY!! if you touch her, you may be committing a crime!!! go frohike!!!!

“we could’ve been stardust”, says some random guy. “maybe next time” (DID SHE SLAP HIS ASS?!) (or did he slap hers? because i might have to kill him, too)

langly is brought up to play d&d, which again, they are somehow playing for money- but he is surrounded!!!

susanne and byers are watching the tape frohike snatched from her room. he says he didn’t film them, which means “they” know. they were going to try and escape on the last day of the conference and go public with the research. the public is finally ready to believe. but they know everything, and they’ll kill them both. not great.

frohike walks in with a giggly scully, and susanne realizes what is going on at once. she was injected with a gas made by susanne!! ellis thought if they developed a small batch and destroyed the notes, they had the proof they needed to go public. and grant and her are the only ones with the samples…. 

grant evil confirmed?!

poor drunk/gassed scully is looking at them with great sadness as she realizes the weight of their words.

susanne is injecting her with something to counter the effect of the gas- once more, scully calls langly “cutie”- wait, langly made it out?!?! and after commenting on the pain, scully goes DOWN like a ton of bricks. 

“i don’t understand, why would the government want to turn scully into a bimbo?” <- I’M FUCKING CRYINGGGGGGGGGGHHGGHHGHGGGGGGG

BAHAHAHAHHAAAAAA, OKAY HOLD ON. HOLD ON. FROHIKE. 

holy fuck, that is so funny. filed under potential new blog titles. 

susanne says it’s a side effect- it can be used for brainwashing. such as making you forget your autopsy results. 

but what are they planning? frohike says they better find out fast. but langly scratches his wound from where he was injected!!!

langly returns to the room with timmy… where timmy says he is to go into the con the next day, and fire three shots at a target. 

we see langly going in there… with the gun…. will he do it??? susanne is at the panel. and ellis is next to her.

scully is back!! she is better!! i am so happy she made a quick recovery and managed to sleep it off! she wants to get in the room where the panel is happening, but she is not allowed.

ellis is watching as susanne leaves for the break…. and langly is approaching…. he pulls out the gun…… and he fires at her!!!! three times!!! and her blood splatters him in the face!!!! 

they call for a doctor!!! and scully is here to do just this. 

frohike and byers answer the call for help… WAIT, is this a plot…? they’re dressed as paramedics, and scully says to ellis that the shooter got away… oh, they’re in on this. it has to be fake blood. ellis asks who did this. girl... like you didn’t want this very outcome!!!

scully says to detain him!!!

frohike says “good work, party girl” and she makes a face like "why tf did he call me that" <- LMAO, ohhhh........

they load susanne onto the stretcher and take her away…. and timmy emerges… he realizes the blood is fake!!!

scully brings ellis in with frohike, where a perfectly fine susanne is standing!!! she asks for a moment alone with him. which seems dangerous, since he just tried to kill her.

ahaha!!! frohike has his poker chip!!! he says thanks for the tip!!

“big surprise, huh? since your programmed my friend to kill me?” “no, susanne, it wasn’t my idea” <- bro doesn’t even DENY IT?? just claims he isn't responsible?!?

omg… she has very specific spots under her shirt with fake blood containers… which makes that langly is a pretty good shot… very interesting to know!!

she asks why he saved her in the first place if he was just going to kill her. because the project was over. he pretended to love her. what did he get out it? 

he claims he got his life. 

but in walks timmy!!! with a gun!!! and he kills ELLIS!! and then he points it at her!!!!

no!!! timmy takes her at gunpoint to the gunmen's room!! and they let her in!!

(side note, frohike referred to susanne as “mata hari” twice now, and i didn’t know who that was, so i googled it… a very interesting rabbit hole WILL be followed later tonight)

TIMMY TRIES TO GET BYERS…. but byers gets him with the gas!!!!! 

lmao and he says “hi, cutie” too <- bahaha

timmy has confessed to the murders of grant ellis AND susanne!! no!! i was hoping she would make it!!!

scully is yelling on the phone, trying to reach mulder. she says she’s at the hotel. “what do you mean ‘what hotel’? las vegas” <- OH NOOO… 

“you called me… what do you mean, you didn’t call me?” <- BAHAHA

“oh, man… i am gonna kick their asses” <- YEAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

OH!! susanne isn’t really dead!!! byers hands her a paper containing information on her alias!! 

she asks him to come with her?! he thinks about it…. but he says she’ll be safer without him. “leave it to us now. it’s what we do”

she gives him something… and then another kiss…. and says “someday”. then gets in the car.

SHE GAVE HIM THE WEDDING RING MEANT FOR ELLIS?!?!?!

and they go to hit the slots.

the end.

wait, this episode was actually really good… i was going to write it off because i didn’t think there would be agent time… but it was actually quite precious….

oh, scully. i wanted to see her kick their asses. 

poor scully!!! but lord, was her comedic acting funny. BEEEEEEEEP. bahahahaha. i was lowkey worried when she had the scene surrounded by all those men, though. i was like oooooookay... where is this going to go? very grateful she was just flirty and not taken advantage of by creepy men. shoutout to frohike FR FR, he is a real one

“why would the government want to make scully a bimbo?” still has me HOWWWWWWWLING. 

aww! the gunmen… i love them……. they’re so silly…. they love each other...

scully agreeing to go track them down in vegas even thought it was the middle of the night… because it was mulder who asked... yeah <3 she trusts him so much... and she is selfless to a fault....

oh, i hope mulder took her somewhere nice after that. to compensate for the shenanigans they put her through. and the drugging. "BEEEEEEP. that’s all i know". OH. i've said it a million times, but that poor thing!

it was funny to see her so out of it, though. just because she is generally hypercompetent in all capacities. trying to imagine mulder seeing her like this... i wonder if her memories returned to her eventually, or if she will just be really confused forever as to why frohike called her "party girl"... imagine sharing that story with mulder over a glass of wine........

yes. i need the followup MSR date fic.

oh! byers will get his happy ending someday.

what an excellent little side journey. it was a silly one. and you know i love a silly one. not a whole lot of character exploration with our main characters, but a trip into side character land can be very well done.

i cannot believe i am nearing the end of s6! it's been like... 2-ish months since i started?? i think? time blurs together- it's hard to tell. so we still have a bunch of unanswered questions. such as: is spender still out there or is he dead for real? where is diana? and most importantly, is mulder going to tell us why he has been so cranky on and off again? is he all better now that he had a nice little baseball date? will he apologize for his actions? what is going on behind the scenes that he isn't telling us? is this little romp down side character avenue a hint to a future plot? they said that mulder was practically a household name to the blackops that took susanne- have they been messing with him, or something?

i need resolution to the angst! i need an apology video with tears!

i will forever cherish scully mumbling "done, done, done". ah. she has been through so much.

[sunflowerwemadeit]

God, to Buck Eddie is leaving him as well and isn't that the most devastating thing you've ever heard? First Chris and now Eddie, he's gonna be so broken. He'll probably say something like "I'm trying not to make this about me" or "this isn't about me I know" but it is. It is. Oh my god someone wrap him up in bubble wraps and give him a hot chocolate and Eddie plushie I cannot.

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

Have YOU been following my inconsistent and largely incoherent ramblings about my Curse of Strahd game? Ever wondered who exactly I'm talking about when I refer to "the fighter" or "the rogue" in our party? No? TOO BAD. This is my blog and I do what I want, up to and including writing up a little who's who on the party in question.

Under a cut, of course, because I'm not a monster.

The Barovia Tour Group

Elowyn "Wyn" Bannon

Played by yours truly. From a noble family out of Neverwinter, whose recently acquired nobility stems not from blood, but from the fact that they helped open a bunch of mines on a minor lord's land and made him a ton of money. Wyn abdicated this responsibility thanks to some unpleasantness with her brother (of the "died and came back wrong thanks to her" variety) and ended up in Barovia as a nice little nightcap to her terrible awful no-good very bad luck. A tiefling cleric of the grave domain, she is currently functioning as the team's plan-maker and guiding hand, which she absolutely should not be. Well-spoken, practical, and extremely grim even in comparison to Barovian sensibilities, except when her very ridiculous sense of humor is tickled by the party wizard. Which is often. Has a soft spot for him, and for the party fighter.

Francis "Frank" Nigel Fourter

If you catch the very stupid joke of his name, you win a prize. A farmhand gone wannabe swordsman, Frankie began his losing streak to the hands of fate when he joined up with what he thought was an adventuring party and what ended up being a roving group of bandits. This revelation came to him as they were actively robbing Wyn, and while he helped her escape and swore an oath to protect her for the rest of the trip to Waterdeep, they were left with nothing but a waterskin and a handful of gold between them. They joined up with the fateful caravan that dragged the entire party into Barovia shortly after, and I'm sorry to say that poor Frankie's luck hasn't improved much since. Earnest, good-hearted, and loyal maybe to a fault, Frankie's obsession with stories of wandering do-gooders and with his battered copy of "Van Richten's Picture Guide to Monster Hunting" has figured largely into his protective nature. The party fighter, with lofty aspirations of paladinship. Might be the only one with a positive integer as their strength modifier. Himbo extraordinaire, as described by his player. Got traumatized in the Vallakovich house and all he got was this lousy t-shirt.

Orxim Brynhildr

Another Neverwinter native, Orxim is an artisan goldsmith whose proficiency with tinkering has earned him a space as the party artificer. He fumbled his way into Barovia with the rest of us because he was traveling to Waterdeep with his old guildmaster's mark, having recently inherited it upon said guildmaster's death. Which doesn't sound QUITE like how a master's title should work, but no one in the party knows enough about artisans guilds to question it. (Except maybe Wyn, but she has somehow managed to never be in the room when this comes up.) Courtly, studious, and maybe a little too keen on that book we got from Strahd's library. Very afraid of spiders. Acts like he learned noble etiquette out of a book, or from a bad TV show. Helped his master make the distinctive golden leg of a certain NPC before said master's untimely end. The second of our three human party members.

Tobias the Magnificent/Wizard of the Stars/Whatever other silly bullshit he's come up with recently

A wandering conman and self-made divination wizard, Tobias spent most of his time pre-Barovia swindling people out of their cash by plying them with his "fortune-telling" prowess. Flippant, self-confident, and particularly keen on uncovering hidden knowledge, Tobias has all of the makings of a bastard except that he can't seem to stop being so goddamn nice all the time. His penchant for absurd, straight-faced humor in the face of despair makes him one of the few fonts of levity in Barovia, and a central star around which the party often operates. Clever and incredibly book-smart, but with absolutely no charisma score to speak of. Obsessed with all things magic. Uses spellcasting to show off almost constantly, in a way that would be annoying if he wasn't so ridiculously theater kid about it. Got so freaked out by an encounter with an entity that wanted to make a deal with him for knowledge that he's been asking Wyn about finding god for a cleric multiclass. Gives startlingly good hugs.

Conner Silverblade

The party rogue. Hasn't deigned to share much about himself save that he lived for no small amount of time in a sewer. Keen on nothing so much as stealing anything he can get his hands on, even against advisement. Maybe especially against advisement. Had a run-in recently with some delicate cargo that made all of our lives difficult. The only other non-human in the party besides Wyn. He's HERE, I guess???

[emieclat]

ok so canadian postage stamp prices inflated by an exorbitant amount so quickly that the stamps i bought mere months ago are already out of date and i now have to pay extra on those stamps if i want them to mail out at all. which is such bullshit if i'm being so honest. i've already paid for those stamps. it was from ONLY A FEW MONTHS AGO.

[jaggedjot]

"THERE CAN BE a huge range of reasons why a show in 2024—this one or any other—doesn’t have the reach it deserves; endless pixels have been spilled on streamer fatigue and fractured audiences in the past few years. AMC, a darling of the prestige-TV-on-cable era, is in an especially strange position: Even when Interview’s first season was a hit on its streaming service, AMC+, it was still held up as an example of a troubled industry in transition. Two years and two Hollywood strikes later, the situation is even more complicated. As the industry restructures and changes who can watch what where, a disconnect has emerged between what viewers like and what critics do. At the same time, social media platforms—the loci of 21st-century word of mouth—continue to implode, fracturing the conversation of an already dispersed audience. Amidst this, IWTV faces specific hurdles due to the nature of the show. An adaptation of Anne Rice’s 1976 novel that pulls heavily from the many Vampire Chronicles books that followed, the show racebends many of its leads—its titular vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac, is now Black—and goes all in on the queerness of the books. And it is, of course, about vampires—specifically, vampires who do terrible things. “IWTV has so much that a modern audience could want from a series but, unfortunately, some people won’t receive it solely because it’s a queer horror show with majority BIPOC leads,” says Bobbi Miller, a culture critic who recaps the show on her YouTube channel. “Genre TV is always going to have to jump through more hoops for success than a standard drama.” For the converted, the idea that more people aren’t watching Interview is maddening. One could certainly argue that the show, with its dark, twisted Gothicness and emotional maximalism, isn’t for everyone. But in an era of unceremonious cancellations—even of shows that execs touted as hits—and with an absence of information about the show’s future, it’s understandable that its most dedicated fans would be pushing for more viewers. Interview isn’t the only show whose fans question its marketing efforts; it’s a common accusation leveled at streamers of all sorts, especially when a show is canceled. But in this conversation, Interview fans pointed at specific decisions made by the network that many feel have made this season’s rollout feel so much more muted than the last. “It’s been a conversation that fans have been talking about for a while now, but I think what really set them off was the comment made by Film Updates,” says Rei Gorrei, a fan who dubs herself the “Unofficial Vampire Chronicles Spokesperson.” A pop-culture aggregation account with nearly a million followers, Film Updates revealed they had been denied interview requests with the show’s talent—and since fans were worried no one was hearing about IWTV, they couldn’t understand why that reach wasn’t being capitalized on. “I think the combination of these things along with little marketing leaves fans in a word-of-mouth scenario where we now feel like it’s up to us to campaign for the season three renewal,” Gorrei says. Many questioned the promotion the network had been implementing, too, like the decision to never have Anderson and Assad Zaman, whose characters’ romance is one of the main focuses of the season, interviewed together. Episode five in particular, with its explosive fight scene between the two, would have been a prime opportunity. (AMC did not respond to emails seeking comment for this story.) Other fans raised concerns about the unceremonious cancelation of the widely admired official podcast, whose Black female host, Naomi Ekperigin, felt like the perfect interviewer for a show with Black leads and nuanced racial storylines. Then there was the fact that too few episodes would air in time for Emmy consideration—not the fault of marketing, but yet one more source of fan worry."

Interview With the Vampire Fans Say the Stakes Have Never Been Higher by Elizabeth Minkel

[trans-axolotl]

Is there a reason why work might not be published if it was submitted to the psych archive? No pressure to answer just curious, thanks for the resources and education you do!

Thank you so much for sending a message because I just went and checked and the way the form was set up, it had sent like a third of responses to spam 😭😭 this had happened earlier this year and I thought I had solved the problem with the filtering but I guess not, I’m just going to start checking the spam folder regularly as well. Tomorrow night or Saturday I’ll go through and get everything that I can find updated onto the website.

Thank you for letting me know bc I really don’t want to have peoples responses and work going missing 💜💜

[rickybaby]

“I don’t think it’s fully sunk in …”

[parf-fan]

And that's a wrap for the 2024 season! For my part, I enjoyed the hell out of the season and did not end it with closure (through no fault of my own, for once). The only reason I'm not in a rotten headspace about the lack of closure is reflected in my choice of phrasing for the opening of this post: the sheer amount of footage I captured this year and the anticipation of finally getting to sink my teeth into it, putting together that cinematic edit I've been dreaming about since 2017.

Final count: One-hundred and nineteen (119) shows. Three-hundred and twenty-three (323) gigabytes. Seventy-one hours, twenty-five minutes, and thirty-nine seconds (71:25:39) of footage.

As part of reviewing all this footage to begin work on those cinematic edits, I'll get started right away on posting the raw footage to the PARF-fan Facebook. This will not, I fear, be a swift process. It took me twenty-one days to get through the twenty-six videos from 2022, which I cared about significantly less than these.

As a compromise, I've begun posting individual one-off numbers from Finales in Song to the PARF-fan Highlights youtube channel. If there are any particular moments you would like access to sooner, message me and I'll toss 'em up there. I recorded every single Finale from the Saturday of Viking Weekend through the end of the season, with the exception of both days of Wizarding Weekend (as I was ill at the time, no I will not stop being salty about that). I also have the Saturday Finale of Pyrates' Invasion; as well as Off The Cuff on 9/21, 9/29, 10/6, 10/12, 10/19, 10/20, and 10/27; and Whose Jest from 9/21 and 10/13. (For that matter, I have the 2023 Finales from 9/30, 10/1, 10/14, and 10/22; and 2023 Off The Cuff from 10/1 and 10/22; and 2023 Boarshead Brawl with its multiple endings from 9/16, 9/24, 10/1, 10/8, 10/14, 10/15, 10/21, 10/22, 10/28, and 10/29; and I'd have more if I'd realized sooner that the ending changed daily rather than weekly, and also if it hadn't rained so blessed much.)

[mha-quotes-and-such]

TW: MENTIONS OF ABUSE

What do you personally think of Endeavor x Hawks? I think it's an interesting ship because it explores further the idea of Endeavor improving as a person, and it can help explore the idea of Hawks finally letting down his barriers and being truly honest with someone. A lot of people call it unhealthy because it's an abuser and an abuse victim but I think considering Endeavors current atonement arc it could instead lead to a past abuser learning how to be gentle with a survivor and a abuse victim learning to let go of the pain by seeing first hand that A) They can be loved, and B) That an abuser won't always be an abuser if that makes sense. The age gap is really dependent on your views, in fiction I don't care as long as they're both adults but in reality that's a hard no. I also think it could explore the topic of Idol x Fan and how that can impact a relationship. Sorry for rambling I just like odd ships and I think there's more to this ship than people will allow. Ships like this allow discussions about abuse and idol worship to be had in a way that doesn't make it gossip about real people while also having a respectful discussion.

Before I get into this, I’m just gonna make a few things clear. 1. As long as a relationship is between consenting adults, whatever I dont care. Age/age gaps wouldn’t typically effect my opinion on a relationship as long as theyre adults and have been for the duration of the relationship. 2. Its important for people, regardless of their previous actions, to attempt to grow and change, and its important for there to be encouragement of this growth

That being said, I’m really not a fan of the ship. I think idol worship, age gaps, and the power dynamics that come with them are something super important to talk about, and can be done well in regards to Endeavor and Hawks. You definitely can do this in a shipping way, but personally I don’t like the approach. I think sometimes we (collective, internet wide) feel the need to explore all one-on-one relationships in the context of shipping, as thats the popular culture at the moment. Sometimes though, that can skew or downplay some of the important (and frankly, often more interesting) aspects of a relationship. If you’ve ever seen that popular post that says (paraphrasing here) ““Shipping and blorbofication are not inherently at odds with understanding a story” and “a lot of people can’t understand a story because they only know how to engage with it in terms of shipping and blorbofication” are two statements that can and do coexist”, thats kinda what I’m trying to get at. Unfortunately a lot of nuance is often lost when its put in the context of shipping

I also think that a lot of their personal growth (overcoming trauma and rectifying past abuse) is kind of… trivialized? if they’re shipped. It’s definitely possible to do it in a respectful, meaningful way, but I think for me personally its just not a satisfying conclusion. Especially in the case of Endeavor, he shouldn’t be attempting to make up for past behavior in order to get something. If he’s apologizing to his children in order to get a relationship with Hawks, its not actually “redemption” so much as it is just continuing to behave in a particular way for his own gain

Tldr: Its cool if you ship it, I just think that the most important parts of their dynamic, which really need to be addressed, are often downplayed for the purpose of shipping. I also feel its just not a satisfying end goal for their character arcs

[1am-s0-veryt1red]

with the leaks to the 2nd to last chapter out can I just ask that we hold off on criticism of whoever until the last chapter is officially out? I know it's asking a lot

[comfortlesshurt]

brutally reminded that somewhere out there is a physical copy of an absolutely terrible detective conan genderbend au i wrote when i was like 12

i am not thriving today so here's a tag rant