#hoping kurt stans show up

[gleesongtournament]

[spaceorphan18]

I think people want him to win in the glee universe. Like, yes, he got the best story of all of the characters, but it didn’t happen to him, if that makes sense? That was what we watched. In the show universe, he loses his mom and then almost his dad and deals with being bullied and passed up for roles and being bashed and oh his dad has cancer now it’s just one thing after another. I think people want Kurt to win in the show’s terms, rather than the audience’s (I hope that makes sense!)

Oh gosh - I remember this discourse! I don't remember the exact conversation around it - but it was about Kurt stans and things needing to be perfect for him all the time.

I get it. I get that Kurt's had a rough life, and the narrative kept throwing issues his way. I never minded Kurt's struggles, and I do think that ultimately, his story does have a happy ending to it. And I do understand people's frustrations.

Idk - this whole conversation would be better if I remembered exactly what we were talking about - but I getcha nonny! :)

[msharkness]

The School for Young Assasins, pt III (the final part)

*credits for the drawing to @serpenera. Thank you for letting me use it!🤍

Note: I know it's been a while but I just couldn't write the ending right. Thanks to my burnout I got from coding daily for the past month and a half now I finally got to finish this story. And I hope you like it. Enjoy!🤍 tagging @smilingformoney and @astronova-00 to let them know that the story they showed interest into finally got its conclusion.

Warnings: to not spoil anything i'll say just death and a lot of talk about it and about suicide, also angst as hell. Again, if you're a maurader stan, this is just a work of fiction, James and Sirius take the role of Kurt and Ram, period. No massive editing, just raw material.

Part 1 // Part 2

“Put those back!” Veronica urged, looking panicked from left to right to check if anyone in the library heard or saw anything.

“So you’re familiar with them… All the better,” Severus smirked at her, putting the two pistols back in his school bag. He hunched over it, trying to fit them inside as they were before he showed them to Veronica.

“I’m not ignorant as others in the Muggle Studies class,” she whisper-shouted at him. Severus knew who those others Veronica mentioned. They were all those dunderheads that didn’t deserve to breath a second more, the ones he and Veronica would take care of. He could already imagine them two conquering the world from the shadows, two rogues against the system, always two steps ahead.

 “But how are you going to scare them if you plan to kill them? Dead bodies can’t feel.” Veronica wanted for all this to be a dream but she could tell by seeing him so confident near her that this was all reality, his reality, their reality, her reality. Severus didn’t respond so she continued: “You already shot at them with blanks, that won’t scare them if you thought about it. Plus, where in Merlin’s name did you get them?” Her eyes met his school bag. 

The guns, always the guns, why can’t she just go with the flow and thank me later? Always asking questions, too many questions, he thought.

“When you have a drunk, violent, and muggle father, you’d be amazed to see what one can find in the house waiting to be taken.” And it was true. Severus found one pistol in the bathroom of his father’s house. The bastard tried to take his life from the looks of it, and he couldn’t even manage to do the deed. Coward. One pistol turned into two with the help of a multiplying charm. You know what they say, you can’t make a killer if you don’t squeeze the trigger with your own finger. “And we’re going to use Ich luge bullets,” Severus added nonchalantly.

“Ich lu - What?”

“Ich luge bullets. The nazis used them in World War Two to fake their own deaths.” He could tell Veronica didn’t understand a word he said, but it was all good. It meant his charade would hold for long enough. “Muggle history. I didn’t expect you to know it. You’re pureblood after all. But thanks to them we can forge their suicide and make it look like a suicide pact. The bullets will leave them unconscious for some hours. It would probably damage some tissue but it won’t be anything deadly.”

“You’re sure it’s safe?” Oh, she was so delicious with her innocence. He would miss her once he turned her to his liking.

“Of course. Now, for the suicide scene. We shoot them and make it look like they shot each other and by the time they wake up, they’ll be the laughing stock of this school. And for the final piece, we need a suicide note.”

“And what did you have in mind?” Veronica asked, her face blank, with no indications of her true feelings. If you want to mingle with the predator, you have to act like one. Severus smiled when he noticed this and added proudly: “How about ‘James and I died because we had to hide our gay forbidden love from a misapproving world.’?”

“I can make it work,” she smirked at him. Veronica decided then to give him one more chance. If it turned out to be a messed up joke, fine, haha and move on, trying to make Severus see that the world wasn’t such a harsh place as he thought. But if it was the opposite, some cruel thing with consequences like the Heather Chandler accident, then it was goodbye.

And so they planned the encounter with James and Sirius for the remainder of their time in the library. By the time they each went to their common rooms, the note was written, the weapons distributed to both of them, and the lure set.

The lure consisted of a letter inviting James and Sirius to a menage a trois with Veronica in the forbidden forest, that night, at around 9. The letter emphasized this fantasy of hers and how shy she was about it until she gave it a second thought. 

******

There they were. Both James and Sirius were facing Veronica in a moonlit clearing far from curious eyes. She tried to control her urge of fidgeting and biting her bottom lip nervously. She could feel the coldness of the gun’s barrel against her lower back and couldn’t think of anything else, no matter how hard she tried. 

“Glad you could come!” Veronica managed as seductively as she could. “I’ll ask you each to step in the circle closest to you,” she said as they appeared on the ground with a wave of her hand. James and Sirius stepped inside without any fuss, too excited by the prospect of making the “once nerdy, now hot bombshell hanging with the Heathers” theirs. “Now strip for me!” They got rid quickly of their cloaks, shirts were discarded and when they got to their belts James raised his head, eyebrows meeting in a silent question, trying to make Sirius look at him. 

“What about you, Veronica?” Sirius voiced the other’s query.

“I thought you could rip my clothes off of me, sport!” She gave them a reassuring wink. Veronica prayed for this to end soon. She felt sick, dirty, ashamed. What did she think she was doing so late after curfew? Playing good auror-bad auror with Severus in front of those two Hogwarts bullies? And with what purpose? So they could feel what the others felt in the presence of their “attention”? 

Veronica was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts by James. “What about now?” Yeah, what about now, Veronica? 

“Now I’m gonna count to three. One…” Her right hand slipped under the cloak on the way toward her back. “...two…” Fingers found the cold metal of the pistol and curled around it. The air felt heavy in her lungs and seeing the eyes of James and Sirius gleem in excitement, her knowing what it’s going to really happen, didn’t help very much.

“Three,” a deep voice shouted from the sky. All three of them lifted their eyes, only to see a dense shadow floating between branches. A sudden explosion broke the silence, disturbing the forest, and making Veronica’s eardrums hurt, followed by a short flash of orange light that seemed to hit Sirius in the chest, knocking him unconscious. Creatures from the forest started to cry and run in a chaotic pattern. 

“Now, Veronica!” The shadow screamed and Veronica remembered what she was supposed to do. Her fingers felt numb from squeezing the grip during the first gun shot and almost dropped the pistol when she released it from the elastic of her skirt. She pointed the barrel toward a scared and confused James and squeezed the trigger. BANG! 

The bullet hit the tree left to James. His eyes were as wide as a niffler’s who was caught stealing and turned to run, forgetting his clothes and his wand on the ground near the circle he was in moments before.

“He’s escaping… Shoot him!” The voice was behind her now, but she couldn’t care less what he was saying. She let a wild laugh leave her parted lips.

“Did you see him? His eyes?” Veronica asked, turning to face Severus. His face was livid with anger, eyes hunting for a glimpse of James. She stilled her laughter, the worse things now coming in the front of her mind. Then her head turned to Sirius’ limp body on the ground, a thin trail of blood smearing the right corner of his mouth, a bullet wound ornating the left side of his chest like a morbid, wild rose.

“I’ll catch him. Stay here!”, and he rose up into the air, disappearing in the night in the direction James ran.

“Sirius! You’re alright, aren’t you?” There was once more silence in the clearing, too much for her liking. “Sirius!” She pleaded again, this time shaking him gently in the shoulder with the tip of her foot, pistol still in her hand. But he didn’t open his eyes, his chest didn’t rise and fall with the hint of breathing. He remained stiff in the same position he fell, on his back, arms by his side, mouth half open in shock. Veronica didn’t need anymore hints to know he was in fact dead. Ich luge bullets… How could she be so stupid? 

From deep inside the forest the sound of another gunshot came to her. This is it. He’s done it. He lied to me, he used me. He killed them. Who could he kill now? It’s me. I know too much. It’s gonna be me. Severus is going to kill me. 

“Problem solved,” Severus panted from behind her, reaching for her shoulder. He gave it a short squeeze and went to search in her school bag. “Now let's leave that note somewhere and get out before Hagrid decides to investigate what those sounds were,” he said as he rose to his feet, the false suicide note in his hand. 

Severus went to Sirius’ body and left the note near him, then grabbed the pistol from Veronica’s hand and put it in Sirius’ right hand. “I left mine with James.” As if this was soothing for her or something. “Let’s go!” 

He grabbed her waist and flew them to the wooden bridge where no one would think to look for them and where they could celebrate their success. At least that’s what Severus daydreamed.They landed and as soon as her feet felt the hard wood under them, Veronica tore his hands off of her and took several steps back from him.

“I’ll find my way to the Ravenclaw Tower by myself,” she mumbled, eyes fixed to the ground in front of her. “It’s pretty late, you should head back to the dungeons too before Filch or someone else finds you out of bed.” Veronica began to turn around but she was blocked by Severus’ hand grabbing her arm tightly. 

“What are you talking about? I’ll take you there. I’m never letting you go, Veronica!” She flinched at his confession. She didn’t expect this of all things possible. 

“Let me go, Severus! This is over. Us, whatever it was, it was over the moment you shot Sirius.” Severus let his hand drop from her arm and stared at her in disbelief. All he sacrificed for her, for them. Was she really that stupid? Was she really a dunderhead like the rest of them? No, not that. He wouldn’t have become so involved in this relationship if she was like the rest. He just made an error of judgment. Severus thought Veronica was ready for this, for his type of living, but it turned out she wasn’t. And he was left trying to fix what he had broken.

“You say it’s over but you’re wearing my cloak.” He smirked at her. Veronica was then aware of the fact that she indeed wore one of Severus’ green collared cloaks. He gave it to her after that night he made love to her in the clearing and she took it from her trunk because she looked for the comfort his smell provided before performing that sick joke to James and Sirius. 

“Damn you and this cloak and me for not figuring it all out sooner!” Veronica shouted into the night, struggling to get the cloak off of her shoulders. In her confusion she didn’t notice Severus taking one step toward her. Veronica only felt his big, warm hands capturing her face. His thumbs were caressing her cheeks in up and down motions. She froze in place and stared at him in disbelief. Veronica expected him to scream at her, to jinx her, to throw her off the bridge, not coming at her with this tenderness that broke her heart.

“I love you, Veronica Sawyer! I may not be the pureblooded snob your parents want you to marry, but you're stuck with me, it seems.” Her cheeks were blushing. From his confession, from anger, from the temperature difference between the cold night and his hot breath on her skin. “All I did from the moment I met you, I did it for you. Heather hurt you, I took care of it. James and Sirius overstepped their boundaries again, I took care of that too.”

“You lied to me…”

“And I’d lie over and over again if I could keep you safe.” His eyes gleamed in the darkness.

“You call this safe?”

“Life isn’t fair and it bites you and chews that bit of you very slowly so it would hurt even longer. What we did is nothing more than assuring it won’t happen as often as before. We did a good thing. They won’t be able to bite, and spit, and mock, and torture just because they want to.”

“Severus, I don't see it like you do…” Veronica tried to escape his grasp once more but he kept her there, his fingertips finding their way to her hair.

“You’ll see. I promise you that, I’ll make you see,” and Severus brought her lips closer and crashed his against hers, searching for reciprocation. But all he found was reluctance. Veronica didn’t even touch him, let alone embrace him. He forced his mouth on her even more, eyebrows scrunched in concentration. He wanted to feel her passion too. It was there, Severus knew it, it was Veronica’s stubbornness that wouldn’t let it unfold. He broke the kiss and looked her in the eyes, searching for a clue of some kind. Severus found them glassy, and a little red from trying not to cry. 

“Until then I don’t want to be near you again,” she breathed and ran away from him. It didn’t matter if Severus heard her, or understood her. This was about keeping the promise she made to herself.

Fine, of course, she is still influenced by the others. I should have thought about this before. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I need to end the others too. That’s how I make her see. I’ll bring quiet and peace in her life. I’ll eliberate her. Just wait, Veronica. I’ll come for you. His thoughts raced and he took off flying, going to the Astronomy Tower to think and plan all in the privacy the tower provided.

******

A few weeks passed by avoiding each other in the hallways. It was easier than avoiding the James and Sirius scandal anyway. Severus was right about one thing: they would end up being the laughing stock of the school. Rumors circulated among students more violently than wildfyre did, and as much as Veronica wanted to shout in everyone's face what the truth really was, she couldn’t because of Severus. 

Severus? He was quieter than usual. He didn’t try to talk to her after that night, didn’t leave her notes. It was like she never met him in the first place. It worried her and comforted her at the same time. But nevermind Severus at this point. The NEWTs were approaching and Veronica focused on that when her mind forgot about him. 

This and hanging out with the Heathers. Heather Duke took over after Chandler’s “suicide”. It wasn’t the same. Duke was more bossy and absurd than Heather Chandler. The perks of being chief popular I guess, Veronica thought. Did she bully Heather McNamarra to an inch of killing herself? Yes, she did. It was Veronica who stopped the Hufflepuff from doing something she couldn’t undo. Did she start gathering signatures for some school club or other, mocking and stalking and terrifying whoever dared to deny signing that piece of parchment? Yes, she did.

Veronica couldn’t care less about anyone at that point. Her thoughts seemed to keep bouncing to Severus. Will he come after me? I know too much. I know he’ll come after me, but when? How?

The day she sensed for the first time in a while his gaze on her through the crowd of students in the halls she panicked. Severus following her around did nothing but aggravate her state. This is it, she thought. 

Everywhere she went, Severus was just around the corner. The panic turned to fear, who turned to dread, who turned into an idea. The only way he was going to let her be is if she was dead.

Climbing the stairs to the Ravenclaw Tower Veronica could still feel him behind her. Good, she thought, come and see with your own eyes.

That was the day Severus was going to let Veronica know about his big plan and drag her out, by force if necessary, to see and understand what he meant that night. He made his way after her to the Ravenclaw Tower, answered the riddle, and sneaked into the common room. It was deserted. All the better. It was lunchtime so most likely the other students were there, having their last lunch. He got to the staircase to the girls’ bedrooms and flew straight to Veronica’s room, avoiding the enchanted steps. 

“Veronica, I know you’re in there, open the door!” Severus shouted through the wood, one hand turned into a fist that kept banging the door’s frame. “Veronica, don’t make me come in there. Just open the door and indulge me with your presence!” Silence.

Severus started to feel his stomach sink in an all knowing feeling. She’s behind that door dead. Veronica please don’t be dead, please. With a nonverbal spell he unlocked the door and entered. His knees were beginning to get weak and they buckled when he took in the sight of Veronica’s body hanging from a rope made of sheets. Her body was still warm and soft. Only if I acted earlier, she might still be alive. He let a quiet sob escape, a single tear tainting his cheek, before composing himself.

“I’m so sorry to find you like this, Veronica! It’s my fault in some way. You weren’t ready, I should have known that. But it’s too late now unfortunately. You know, I had prepared a surprise for you today. A gift one might consider. I planned to run away with you tonight after we watched the castle burn together. That was my surprise. Beside the gun I brought some explosives. From my father also. He’s a miner. I didn’t know what I would use them for when I took them. You gave them use. I do this for you. I’ll see you on the other side.”

Severus’ cheeks were wet with tears and his voice was nearly failing him by the end. He turned abruptly and left, shutting the door behind him. 

Seconds passed like centuries, and Veronica’s muscles were sore from keeping herself up and making sure the sheets were loose enough for her to sneak shallow, hurried breaths. She let herself fall limp on the ground, her lungs burning for air and mind burning for explanations. So Severus was after her in a way, but not to kill her. He wanted to take her with him after…

“The signatures,” she exhaled, her mind running at a massive speed. Summoning her wand, Veronica ran from her dormitory in search of Severus. It might be too late to stop him, but at least she could look him in his eyes in their final moments in a silent cry of Was it worth it? as they burned to ashes.

******

The dungeons were the only place she had to search. By now all the other students and the staff were in the Great Hall for dinner which was what Severus looked for sure. To have all the victims gathered around in one place while he set up the explosives right under them. That’s what the signatures were for. A massive “suicide pact”. 

“Veronica! You’re dead… I saw you dead!” Severus said, his eyes bulged in confusion. Veronica was in front of him, wand pointed straight at his chest. She got there while he was turned to grab a box of cables.

“You were mistaken, Sev-” he let out a tear at the sound of her nickname for him, “-and it seems to me you were mistaken since the moment I saw you.”

Severus’ soft expression turned into a frown.

“I wish your mom would have been a little stronger and would have stayed for you. I wish your dad was good to you. I wish you weren’t mocked and beaten in school and I wish those grownups saw what we all see, what we all face, what you’ve been through.” 

“You know nothing of what I’ve been through!” Severus spat, still crying, though he didn’t know the source of the tears. He had his wand pointed at her too by then, his arm trembling slightly.

“You’ve told me enough of it. And they deserve to be punished, yes. They all wronged you, I wronged you too. But we don’t deserve to die. Life is a much harder prison than death.” Veronica was sobbing then too. All she’d been through these past months came back in that moment and turned into tears.

For a minute they kept pointing at each other with their wands, in silence broken only by their whimpers.

“You’re right, darling!” Severus said as he dropped the wand. With a slight move of his wrist the boxes of explosives and cables were gone. Veronica’s knees gave up then and let her fall to the ground, a relieved breath escaping her.

“Life is a much harder prison than death. I love you! Always!” She lifted her head only to see Severus’ black wand pointing at his head, a greenish glow at its point. “Avada Kedavra!”

“Severus,” she whispered in shock. Veronica didn’t have any power left but to stay and look at the lifeless body of her former lover. It might have started as a whim and a lie, but it ended how he always said.

A suicide.

[angelhummel]

I feel like I know why Girls Just Want To Have Fun is first on your list but I wanna be chaotic and ask for you to elaborate anyway 😌

Lmaooo well where to start?? I truly do feel like that was the most offensive use of a song in the whole show. Forget Blurred Lines, forget whatever was happening in The Spanish Teacher, GJWTHF really takes the flop cake

Also I mean. Like I said before, I've probably said every negative thing I could ever have to say about Finn already. And this is the worst of the worst. Like I don't think even the most die hard Finn stan could come up with a defense for this. At least I hope not lol cause it wouldn't look good

I mean just the horrible narrative of Finn being the cause of all this. Purposefully outing Santana in the hallway and then immediately distancing himself as far as he can from the situation. Literally telling her that he's not the one forcing her out of the closet, the campaign ad is. When that ad was only able to be made bc he outed her at school in the first place alskjfkslghs. And then being made out to be the hero bc he got everyone to rally around her and show support for her after being outed. Did I mention Finn was the one that outed her??

And like her snapping at Kurt and Blaine for their song when like, they're the only two other gay people in the room that actually know what she's going through and just want to help. But she cries and thanks Finn for singing to her when he's the cause of all this in the first placeee. Idk what else to say. Everything about it stinks

Also the song is musty and doesn't sound good :|

[backslashdelta]

bells my beloved <33 hope all is well!!! so thought of a lil idea and i thought you'd be the best person to ask obvs. but i have the vibe that noah would be a fob stan, so my question is what would his favourite album, songs, mvs.. etc be? what songs would he sing? puckurt fob duets? 👀 (also love the new theme!!)

Myle my beloved!! What a wonderful question!

You're so right he would absolutely be into FOB I am very very excited to answer this ahhhh

Okayokay so:

Favourite album would have to be Save Rock And Roll. It's the post-hiatus album and they came back and killed it and *saved rock and roll*. Every song is a banger and there's a whole cohesive music video series and it's really just his favourite album of theirs hands down.

Favourite songs is a bit trickier, but here's a list of some that I think he's particularly fond of, in order from newest to oldest:

The Last Of The Real Ones

Church

Irresistible

Novocaine

The Phoenix

The Mighty Fall

I Don't Care

27

This Ain't A Scene

Fame < Infamy

Get Busy Living

The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes

For favourite music videos, I think he loves the SRAR series for sure. But aside from that, special mentions to:

Irresistible (the original one)

Centuries

I Don't Care

Thnks fr th Mmrs (he especially loves the monkeys)

Sixteen Candles

Also noteworthy, I think Joe would be his favourite member, followed by Andy, then Patrick and Pete are tied.

If he were going to do a FOB song as a solo in the show, I could see Grand Theft Autumn about Quinn when she's still lying about Finn being the baby. "You need him/I could be him/I could be an accident but I'm still trying/And that's more than I can say for him" is PEAK Noah Puckerman trying to step up and be a dad while he thinks Finn is being useless at supporting her. I could also totally see him singing I Don't Care when he's in one of his badboy/self-loathing fazes and wants to act like he doesn't give a shit about anyone or anything.

As for Puckurt duets, hmm... I could maybe see HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON'T. Oh or maybe Fourth of July? I could imagine them taking turns with the "Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean any of it/I just got too lonely/In between being young and being right".

W A I T. Stop everything.

Alone Together.

Puck is "I don't know where you're going/But do you got room for one more troubled soul" and Kurt is "I don't know where I'm going/But I don't think I'm coming home". Puck is "Cut me off/I lost my track/It's not my fault/I'm a maniac/It's not funny anymore" and Kurt is "My heart is like a stallion/They love it more when it's broken/Do you wanna feel beautiful".

Yup, that's it, that's their song. Omg I'm obsessed. Gonna add it to my list of gifsets to make I think!

Okay I am going to stop here but this was SO much fun thank you SO much <3

[katatonicimpression]

Legion of X #1

So Kurt is having a midlife crisis and has decided to become a cop. Specifically, it seems like the legionnaires do whatever x factor used to do. OK. It's silly. But whatever. It's the core premise that he's chosen to do this so I'll withhold judgement... mostly

Kurt's poetic analysis of the laws of krakoa is exactly why philosophers should never be put in charge of anything lol

Why is everyone drawn so cute??? They're all so adorable!!

I'm not really complaining. I genuinely like it

I actually really like the art in general. It's a really pleasing aesthetic from Jan Bazaldua. I particularly liked the dream space sequences and the bit when they're walking and talking through the portals. Fun and pretty.

LOST. She looks great!! It's nice to see her happy!!! Hope she gets a lot to do

Zsen seems fun as well. I hope she learns to find value in her powers. We stan an obvious foreshadowed character arc in these uncertain times

Not enough fabian content.

I heard forget-me-not was going to appear in this book? Strange that he never showed up

[egyptienneallure]

Hi is the Omar-Edvin PR anon. Please know this not an attack and I want and adore Omar- Edvin friendship to exist as much as the next person but I also think we need to be critical of it is potrayed too. I agree they seem to care about each other and genuinely like each other, no denying that. However, after they realised how much us fans love it, I am left to question their each interaction as something genuine or done to pander to the fans (to certain extent) because they know we love it. Especially now since they have blown up and have a second season - they NEED to show they have a good rapport because it sells the show too.

As for the Hillershka Choir thing, I feel Netflix placed Edvin specifically seperate from rest of the cast members ( you can see in the video they are all on sidelines as Omar walks in and does his little wave) before his performance that they could capture the iconic hug as promo material. Very tiny example of how such things are orchestrated for consumption.

For them being friends with each others friends. Well, Joel ( Omar's best friend) knew Edvin from before. They have liked and commented on each others posts from 2018 and I think Wilma ( Edvin's best friend) was already friends with Hugo ( another of Omar's friends) so it would be easy mix if you have a few common friends. As well Felicia who was on YR too.

They do seem to have chemistry but that wouldn't depend on their offscreen relationship. Sara (IC) talked about how easy it is if co stars have chemistry but she emphasis that as professionals their job is make it happen on screen if it doesn't exist. We do know a lot of examples of actors who had great onscreen chemistry but didn't really like each other that well off screen.

Anyway, we can speculate only the both of them know the truth and I hope they are good friends and remain so cause their interactions are comforting and make me happy. But I also want to make sure, that we as Fandom don't demand it ( as Twitter/insta stans do) so much so that they have to pander or put every time they are together because I feel their friendship will not remain authentic or have space to grow deeper if the Fandom attitude continues.

I don't know if I explained it properly but thank you for reading this.

of course i understand, thank you for sharing! i agree with you on that extent - that they definitely are close and genuine but it is beneficial for promotion to show their friendship. and that some of it done for the benefit of promotion. ok so this got so long im sorry, i'll put the rest of my response under read more ...

i don't think we need to question every interaction though - even if they've been told to play it up for pr, that doesn't necessarily mean the interaction is not genuine? i mean it's not like netflix told edvin hey find an art piece that looks like omar at the art gallery in berlin and take a picture? they still don't tell them exactly what to post or say you know. because they are close friends, their interactions can still be genuine even if encouraged for pr.

oh 100%, i agree with you about the Hillerska choir thing. I mean that was obviously professionally filmed for the audience. ok im gonna embarrass myself here and say i didn't even notice the other cast members even though i've watched that performance multiple times. i do still think edvin was very genuinely excited about the performance though. also omar has shared his unreleased songs with edvin :')

oh thats so random how edvin knew joel from before and wilma knew hugo? do you have any more info about that? from what i knew i thought they didn't really have common circles, yk since omar was always in the music world and edvin in the acting world? I don't think that edvin and joel were close though - otherwise edvin and omar would've known each other before YR?

alsoooo there is nurbo and edvin - they both comment on each other's posts - what benefit for PR is it for omar's random friend (srry nurbo 😅) to comment on edvin's photos?

i get your POV on chemistry, but i still think that their chemistry is part of what made wilhelm x simon's chemistry come across so special. like Sara said - they can still make it happen on screen, but i don't think it would have been as special. i feel the same way about kurt and blaine on glee - they wouldn't have come across so well if chris colfer and darren criss didn't have wonderful chemistry together.

i love your last point so much! i think as a fandom, as much as we enjoy and love their friendship, we shouldn't put pressure and expectations on it, or idealise it too much. people are always talking about how it's not right to ship them because it could ruin their friendship, but we don't seem to realise that being overly involved in their platonic relationship could also potentially be harmful...

thank you for your message! <3

[bandsanitizer]

Hello again

I appreciate you taking the time to reply and no disrespect was taken. I always enjoy seeing what a non Blaine Stan thinks, if they can back up their arguments succinctly with valid arguments . Even if we isn’t agree. Yours is a good analysis, different from the usual accusations that he’s toxic, abusive, whiny clingy, and the same scenes over analysed and misconstrued. I’d be very interested in hearing your views on Kurt, perhaps in Pm , as we don’t want to be ripped apart by extreme stans. Who are your favoured characters on Glee?

Hi! And I’m glad to hear! Concision isn’t my strong suit if you couldn’t tell lol so the response is below the cut

I’ve seen some of those arguements and while I get where they’re kind of coming from, I wouldn’t say there’s an inherent toxicity to his character. Like he’s not the best but he tries and he’s one of the few that seems to genuinely recognize his mistakes, own up to them, and apologize.

As for Kurt, it’s a mix of the biphobic comment from s2 and how it never feels like his mistakes or flaws are perceived that way? By himself particularly. I’ve heard that the whole biphobic thing was a reflection of the writers but by putting it in the show it becomes part of his character and then it’s a whole debate of “is this poor/lazy writing or intrinsic to him?” and either way you see it changes how to view the scene and while I’m all for the benefit of the doubt on it, it’s never something readdressed and I just feel... For me I feel like it’s part of his character and while he could’ve changed his opinions later in the series, I don’t really know. Idk it’s a very personal thing more so then “I hate him”

Then for his mistakes the Chandler situation comes to mind and while Blaine may have jumped the gun with calling it cheating and the song (though I appreciate the drama of that whole scene and concept), it doesn’t seem like he ever felt bad about it until Blaine admitted to feeling afraid of being alone once Kurt moves to NY. Like his attitude prior to that confession when they meet with Mrs. P frustrates me because even if it wasn’t cheating or intended to hurt Blaine—it did! and Kurt doesn’t feel remorseful at all (song choice was just... really bad and the episode painting Blaine as the one who should feel the most guilty? particular with the shot of Blaine at the end of the performance?) I just feel like he’s rarely shown to feel guilty for his mistakes and the show rarely has him face consequences for them.

And it sometimes feels like he’s sometimes waiting for things to happen because the universe owes him for the shit he’s gone through. Not to say that he hasn’t gone through some terrible things, because the universe really didn’t treat him kindly on a lot of things. Mostly I just don’t vibe with his character. Like you ever meet someone and you can’t completely figure out what but you’re like “I just do not care for you”? It’s like that. That being said, I understand the value of his character and his arcs in the show—particularly in earlier seasons—and appreciate his character for that and such and I don’t mean for any of this to be hateful because he seems like a good person and I don’t passionately dislike him or anything. He, like most characters on the show, deserved a lot better and had a lot of potential the show kind of didn’t see through.

And I apologize but that’s as much as I can really say on my opinions for him and I hope none of that was too mean? comes across unfounded? For him particularly it’s just a lot of personal things that affect my perception of is character and whether that disagrees with people 🤷🏻‍♀️ but yeah. I don’t like discussing it much as to not step on any toes.

But hmmmm... Would you be surprised to hear Blaine is my favorite character? I guess for me “liking a character” and having a “favorite character” are separate ideas. Sort of. My favorite characters in any media tend to be the ones I can connect to and feel a lot of feelings about. Blaine, thus, is exactly that plus his singing is great and I think Darren does a great job at playing Blaine. And I appreciate his particular level of chaos:

“GAP attack! First day at this new school I’m going to sing in the courtyard! Let’s have a sing off in a parking garage! My bf moved states so I’m going to join 23 clubs and run around in a superhero costume for a superhero I made up but is definitely a play on a certain original sidekick’s second alias! How else to show this dude I love him than to get back together for a day then propose with a big song by all the glee clubs ever at the exact spot we met!” + him hopping on furniture and pianos (oh gosh the stress it gives me everytime they stand/sit on the piano—)

and him being ready to fight people bigger than him (Sam, Karofsky) I know is rooted in his past with bullying but outside of that context it’s a little funny. because I’m sure he can throw a punch but he also looks very small and his willingness to throw a punch when all the McKinley boys start their fights by pushing each other for a while is a little hilarious. Blaine really captures that more absurd side of the show. Y’know the whole high school musical “people don’t actually break out into song like this” except Blaine definitely does.

Other characters I might say are favorites: Marley, Sam, Tina, Santana, Brittany, Elliot, Burt. Do The Warblers as a whole count? And overall my heart just breaks a tiny bit for the potential all the characters had to grow and change over the show but kind of just... didn’t? And Finn as a teacher was good for him and I do wish we had gotten to see that develop more.

Moral of the story is that when it comes to Glee I think way too much about everything and my opinions on it because WOW there are a lot of very strong opinions on it and as a show with a great amount of diversity not necessarily being great writing/representation... There’s just a lot to juggle. Sometimes I’m just like “I like how your voice sounds in this song! You’re in my top 10!” or “If the show developed why you’re doing what you’re doing waaaay more then you’d be a really intriguing character that I feel a lot of emotions about!” Idk it’s like most characters I’ve empathized with at one point or another then also been like “wtf? who does that?” so yeah. Glee overall just has a weird place in my heart. It’s terribly good and also really messed up and I think there are songs they shouldn’t have done and I’m so glad the show isn’t around to do but also some of their covers and performance are brilliant and terrific (cough syrup, smooth criminal, and ND nationals performance in s3 among them).

[karofskydeservedbetter]

Kurtofsky: What Could Have Been ...

Okay, I’ve long made peace with the fact that Dave Karofsky will never get the happy ending he deserves with Kurt Hummel. Glee has been over for years now but the Kurt and Dave fandom have managed to live on. Back when I became super into the Kurtofsky ship. I would comb Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction Dot Net for stories featuring these two. Back in those days, there was a lot of tension between the Klaine stans and the Kurtofsky stans. I was a part of the latter. I never bought Kurt and Blaine as anything beyond friends who just so happened to share a passion for music. In fact, when Blaine Anderson was introduced in Season 2, I figured he would become Kurt’s fairy godmother of sorts and help him better navigate the extreme bullying he was receiving from Dave. Instead, Kurt left McKinley and was whisked away to this fantasy all-boy’s private school which Burt Hummel would have never been able to avoid on his mechanic’s salary. I never liked the idea of Kurt going to Dalton Academy because I thought it sent the wrong message to LGBTQ+ kids who may be suffering from bullying and low self-esteem. The message seemed to be loud and clear with this one: If you’re being bullied at your school, just leave and go to another school where everyone will accept you. Thanks but no thanks Glee. 

Eventually Kurt does come back to McKinley but he inevitably develops feelings for Blaine and the two even attend prom together. Sigh. I get it. Kurt is a openly gay teenager in Lima, Ohio and finding another gay guy who was out of the closet must have felt next to impossible for him. With that said, that was my main issue with Kurt latching himself on to Blaine. In my most humblest of opinions, that pairing always felt like it was borne of desperation. Sort of reminds me of when straight people assume their gay friend will automatically be interested in dating their other gay friend. 

When Season 3 roles around, Blaine, for some reason I have never quite understood, leaves his private school behind and enrolls in McKinley High School which has to be on the Top 10 list of worst schools in the Mid West. With Blaine now a McKinley student, he can officially join New Directions and officially overshadow Kurt. It’s bad enough, Kurt is in constant competition with Rachel Berry but now he has to complete with his boyfriend who is considered to be more of a leading man than Kurt which is basically code for Blaine is more masculine than Kurt therefore he should play Tony in West Side Story opposite Rachel Berry, Kurt’s musical nemesis.

Then the night comes where Kurt and Blaine attend Scandals, a gay bar outside of Lima, Ohio. Kurt runs into Dave Karofsky who seems to gradually be coming to terms with his sexuality. This moment right here is where I assumed he and Kurt would build a friendship after years of being adversaries. It was clear to me and so many other viewers that not only Dave had changed his behavior, he was working towards coming out of the closet and having Kurt there to support him would have been an awesome story line. But that story line never came. Instead, after Blaine tries to force himself on Kurt in the parking lot, for some reason Kurt decides to lose his virginity to him. 

The next time we see Dave, he admits his feelings for Kurt but is subsequently outed by a teammate who sees him having dinner with Kurt. Again, I thought this would be yet another opportunity to build something between Dave and Kurt. They didn’t have to become boyfriends but after Dave’s suicide attempt, Kurt made a promise to be there for him. Well, the writers must have forgotten about that promise Kurt made because this is one of the last times we see Dave and Kurt together before Season 6.

Season 6 was probably the most frustrating seasons for Klainers and Pirates (Kurtofsky stans) alike because instead of pairing Dave with Kurt - which would make so much sense after all this time has passed - they pair Dave with Blaine, Kurt’s ex-boyfriend. What!? Seriously writers, what on earth were you thinking. There’s no way Dave would have ever gone for someone like Blaine. Blaine was too arrogant and showy for someone like Dave. Even if Dave and Kurt never got together - which they never did - Dave Karofsky does not strike me as the person who would settle for his crush’s ex-boyfriend. Super unbelievable. 

Eventually Dave and Blaine are broken up which thank God but that only happened so Kurt and Blaine could become remotely involved again. Remember, from the moment Kurt laid eyes on Blaine, fandom had decided that Kurt and Blaine would be endgame and one of Glee’s major pitfalls was letting the fandom dictate the fates of our beloved characters. In the real world, Kurt and Blaine would be friends who ultimately go on to marry other people. Because Kurt and Blaine’s dreams were too aligned, Kurt would have inevitably ended up putting his hopes and dreams on the back burner to support Blaine which doesn’t sound like a healthy relationship to me. Dave would have supported Kurt and would have gladly have taken a step back to let Kurt shine in the way he deserved. I believe in relationships where one person has a dominant personality or goal, they need someone who is willing to take a step back to be their partner. I’m not saying this is the case across the board but I think this formula would make for a healthier relationship.

By the time the series came to an end, there was zero indication that Kurt and Dave remained friends. We know for a fact they do not not end up becoming romantically involved. It can be assumed Dave and Kurt would go their separate ways and probably never speak to each other again which is super sad to me. Kurt and Dave could have been the ultimate ship on the show if the writers had given them the chance. As someone who loves television, one of my favorite kind of pairings is when two individual who seemingly have nothing in common manage to develop a healthy relationship in spite of having very little in common. How fun would it have been to see Dave and Kurt living in New York City together, David attending NYU while Kurt attended NYADA. Dave showing up with flowers on opening night of one of Kurt’s shows. Kurt and Dave agreeing to marry and adopt a child together. Dave being a stay-at-home dad while Kurt lives out his Broadway dreams. Each being supportive of each other no matter what. No shade, but I can’t imagine this sort of relationship between Kurt and Blaine. I don’t think Blaine is a bad person - I just think, like Rachel, his dreams require him to be the most important person in the relationship. In a Dave and Kurt pairing, each would be able to shine despite having dissimilar career goals. 

But unfortunately we will never know what could have been.

The good news, however, is that as long as fanfiction exists, Dave and Kurt always have a chance at a happy ending. 

[spaceorphan18]

As primarily a Blaine Stan, and having chatted to other devotees, or read their old blogs, season 4 is very popular with us. Mainly the career development, screen time and plots he got away from the Klaine storyline. (Yes even the break up). A chance for our beloved to show off his acting skills, and not just sing a lot, such as season 3, or be the fairytale prince of season 2.

Season 5a is similar. Season 5b is tougher on him, and that’s maybe why it’s not so popular - I do see Kurt stans love it more. And season 6 is a mess, but it all works out in the end.

Oh, Nonny, I am very aware of Blaine Stans love of Season 4 <3 <3

I've had a lot of conversations with Blaine stans over the years about exactly what you said -- how he got to be a real boy away from Kurt, and got to have his own world and his own friends and hopes and dreams.

I remember at the time that a lot of Blaine fans became frustrated after Klaine became a thing again because Blaine lost some of his identity again. (While I don't necessarily think this is wrong - Season 5 and 6 became a Klaine story and both Blaine and Kurt lost some individuality there -- and even as a huge Klaine who loved that development, I agree it's sad that their personal journeys and stories took a hit.)

I'd argue Season 6 holds together a lot better than one might expect narratively, but for Blaine, he takes a very huge step back, and we don't really get to see his POV. It's more so Kurt's story until Transitioning and that's about all the development Blaine gets, so I feel ya on that.

<3 <3

[bethhxrmon]

Alright, it’s time for an analysis that no one asked for! So, starting off I would like to say that the “Which Kurt Kunkle Are You” instagram account has done a far better job of analyzing the movie and having humor in a similar tone to the movie than I have. I’m not gonna reinvent the wheel here, if you want some real in-depth and good analysis plus some fun memes and good art, check it out!

This is going to be a combination of a critique on Billy Hargrove and Kurt Kunkle’s characters as well as the audience reaction. Keeping in mind that I’m not an expert and it’s been a week since I’ve seen Spree and over a month since seeing Stranger Things 2 and 3 (double majoring and doing online uni is time-consuming). I might miss things and I might interpret things differently from you. That’s just how it’s gonna be.

So let’s start off with the whole Billy vs Kurt deal that one lovely anon decided to bring to my attention. My first point is going to be that comparing Billy and Kurt is like comparing apples and oranges, they’re both fruit. In this case, they’re both villains. That’s where the similarities end, unless you wanna bring up that they’re both from California lmao.

Kurt is the main character of his respective movie (whether he’s a protagonist or if that’s Jessie can be up for debate imo), whereas Billy was intended to be the human antagonist (pretty sure that’s what the Duffers said) of season 2. Obviously this opens up Kurt to be a more well-written character. He has lots of depth and development as a character and a true, complete arc. His death was, frankly, unavoidable. I say this as someone who likes his character.

Meanwhile Billy is a side character and one of the least important characters of the entire series. His job is to be a road block in season 2. He was also used as a way to prove the show acknowledges racism in that time (it’s very blatant and there’s no systemic racism in the show but that’s an essay for another time). This is something that since the season’s release, Dacre has tried to backpedal on. I’m not faulting him for that, I don’t know the guy, but it sucks that the show is essentially trying to erase its own antagonist. Anyways, his death isn’t a shocker. What was a bit surprising (more disappointing actually) was that the third season doesn’t acknowledge his actions at all. Billy has no character arc aside from the fact he has a shitty dad and that he used to have a mom. Wow. His death was also unavoidable, not much to be done with his character. I don’t blame the Duffers, they have plenty of characters to work with that are actually enjoyable.

Now, let’s get into the audience reaction/fan bases. Let me just say it here: if you’re attracted to Kurt or Billy or any other antagonist in a physical sense, good for you! I hope you’re living your best life either way whether I can relate or not. What becomes an issue is when you don’t acknowledge the bad things the fictional character has done.

In the case of the Spree fandom, to my knowledge (I’m not an all-knowing internet being, I can be wrong about things), there aren’t any “Kurt deserved better” or “Justice for Kurt uwu owo” posts. The fandom on the whole has determined that Kurt deserved what he got. He is a shitty human being, he killed people. In other shocking news, fire is hot. No one in the fandom actually wants to date or marry Kurt Kunkle. No one is genuinely trying to imagine a healthy relationship with him. Why? Because that’s not how his character works! “Stanning” him, and my one-time use of the term “Kurtslut” is meant to be funny and a joke. It’s in the same vein as the satirical, sarcastic tone of Spree itself. 

So I’ll admit it, I don’t intentionally go into the Billy tag very much, if at all now that I think about it. His character doesn’t intrigue me at all. However, since people love to come on anon and give input no one asked for, I’m aware that some people refuse to even acknowledge all of Billy’s misdeeds. They think he deserves better and shouldn’t have died. This entirely misses the point of Billy’s canon characterization. If people like his character so much, then they should accept him for what he is as a character. Otherwise, do you really like that character? Or do you just feel bad because his dad’s a shithead?

Also, this is a bit of a side note, but most of my beef with this side of the Stranger Things fandom has come more from the Harringrove end of things (I have a whole post on that). It’s a screwed up ship. I’m only saying this to cover my bases because this should go without saying, if anyone started to ship Kurt with one of the canon characters in Spree, I wouldn’t be here for it. That’s that on that.

To conclude if you made it this far, no one is stanning or glorifying Kurt. Some of us are just attracted to a fictional character. It’s not that deep. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk!

[fanficslutforsmut]

Mall time fun. Peter Maximoff (Evan Peters) PeterMaximoff/OC

(OK so I’ve been literally obsessed with Even Peters as Peter Maximoff and I cannot get over it so here’s a lil thing I was thinking off, I want to add more but I honestly don’t know how I feel so like lmk if I should keep this going into maybe a series)**************************

Being the daughter of a mutant with shapeshifting abilities was cool, but being the daughter of a shapeshifting mutant and a mutant that could teleport was even better, and the icing on top, having a twin.

Sometimes it was more of a nuisance, the shapeshifting mostly, it was harder to control. It was my downfall.

"You're doing it again." Jean looked back to the book she was reading.

"I know, oh god." I tried to smooth my hair down. "I just can't help it sometimes." I sighed.

"When are you going to let me see you, I wanna see the real you and you won't let me in there either." She poked my forehead.

"This is the real me," I said sternly, my confidence running slim. She huffed rolling her eyes.

"Whinnie are you coming with us? We're going to the mall." Kurt asked me, his tail swaying behind him as he walked. My eyes shifted to Jeans', she nodded.

"Sure, who's us though?"

"I am!" Scott yelled, jogging over to us, glasses shielding his eyes, and a grin covering the expanse of his face.

"You are what?" Peter was behind us now, his arms resting on the shoulders of Jean and me.

"Going to the mall, you can come if you want," Summers told him, smacking his hand off of Jeans' shoulder, making him falter on me just for a split second. The blush on my face was burning.

"Let's do it," Peter laughed, his arm stayed slung over my shoulder as the six of us, Peter and myself, Scott and Jean, and Kurt and another 'gifted youngster' I had never met.

"Jean, a little help here." Scott laughed as we got closer to the garage. It was Professor Hank that was walking past, completely unaware of us as he walked by. Jean using her ability to trick his mind into not even seeing us.

We laughed once Scott picked up some keys to a yellow convertible,  the seats filled quickly leaving only one left while Peter and I stood awkwardly.

"I can meet you guys there." Peter laughed, scratching the back of his neck.

"Don't be ridiculous, just lap up," Scott told him, ushering him. "Now hurry up before Professor X comes out here and we all get in trouble."

Peter hopped over the door, plopping down into the seat and I mentally cursed myself for wearing a skirt to match with Jean.

I tried to maneuver easily to sit with my back against the door, seated on Peter's thighs with my legs hanging off the side of his lap.

I'm sure not even my genetic mutation of being able to change my entire being or Jean's power to erase someone's memories would let me live down the bright red blush creeping up the flesh of my face, neck, and the tiny amount of my collarbones and chest you could see from the sweetheart cut of my shirt.

Scott peeled from the garage, speeding down the curved driveway and onto the road.

Instinctively Peter held onto my thigh as we lurched forward, catching me before I smacked into the headrest of Jean's seat.

"Thank you." I smiled, expecting his pale hand to retract, hoping at least. I wasn't going to able to help the way my skin reacted to his skin on mine.

The ride was filled with talks about a new movie coming out but I was too engrossed in studying the details of Peter's hand that was still on my leg. I had to bite my lip to keep my mutation under control.

"So where to first?" Scott asked as he threw the car into park. I shrugged, looking between everyone.

"Well, I want to go look at some clothes, come with me?" Jean asked Scott who, of course, just smiled and nodded his head at her.

"Kurt and I were thinking food court." The girl, I have yet to learn her name, announced.

"So just meet back here in like an hour?" Scott asked, we all nodded, filing out of the car. I had the help of Peter who held my hand, leading me up and over the door. I tried to contain my excitement.

By now we were left alone, walking through the doors of the mall as our friends had deserted us.

I had no doubts in my mind it had been a set up by Jean.

"Anything you want to do?" I asked, swaying my hands in front of me.

"If I'm being honest, which isn't that often," He paused to look at me and I laughed. "I wouldn't mind messing with Scott." He pointed off to the direction in which Jean and Scott were walking in.

"I'm in, what's the plan?" I had a few things in mind but they were more aimed towards Jean and not the poor sap.

"Well, I got this." Peter leaned against the wall holding up what I could only assume to be Scotts wallet. "And I was thinking we could switch it for Scott's."

"Wait who's wallet is that exactly?" I asked. Small hands snatching the worn leather.

"Holy. Oh my god, Peter how did you get this?" I asked, handing it back immediately after seeing Logans', or as most of us know him as 'The Wolverine', photo ID.

"I grabbed it when he was talking to Charles, he's like one of the only people I haven't been able to mess with." He looked so nervous, as the weight of what would transpire when the man found out he was robbed finally hit him.

"Okay," I looked around. "What's the plan stan?" The bubbling in my stomach continued to rise as he huddled closer to me to reveal his secret plan.

"Easy, we switch them and see what happens when we get back to the school." He chewed on a Twizzler that I hadn't even noticed before.

We followed Jean and Scott for a while, keeping far enough distance to not be on Jean's radar but just close enough to keep them insight.

"Ok so do you want a distraction?" I asked, pushing my hair behind my ears, as we hid behind a clothing rack.

Jean was looking between two different dresses while Scott admired her.

"Show me whatcha' got." Peter chuckled, ushering me. I thought of an older man I had seen walking into the mall, my body changing to match the picture in my mind. I walked out of the rack, clearing my mind for a second before I bumped into the unsuspecting couple in front of me.

"Watch it you hoodlum." I grouched at Scott, continuing to make my way past them. I walked out of the store and around the corner. Shifting through the crowd to convert back into my preferred body.

Trying so hard to contain my laughter at the thought of Scott's utterly bewildered look.

"Did you call them hoodlums?" Peter leaned against the spot next to me against the wall.  

"Was that too much? I was going for the 'I'm too old for this crap'. vibe."

"It was perfect, now we wait."

Peter and I had spent over an hour messing with Scott and then onto Jean but she was harder to do, as she often foiled our plans.

By the time we had met back up at the car, I was sitting on the boot of it, swinging my feet back and forth as Peter stood next to me, munching on some sweets.

"Do you know her?" I asked, pointing at the small girl next to Kurt as they walked towards us.

"Not really, I think her name starts with a J though," he told me in between mouthfuls.

I nodded, staring at the bright yellow jacket she wore.

"She's pretty." I liked how happy Kurt seemed at the moment, a fumbling mess, but happy.

"Who's ready to get home?" Scott yelled, racing Jean to the car.

Peter turned to me.

"I am so ready for this."

[nancysgillians]

17-29 for Glee ask meme!! 💜

Oh wow ok thank you! I hope this is not too annoying to answer all of these in one go. You indulge me so @gorgxoxus​ 💖

17) Favorite canon couple? I mean obviously Wemma. KIDDING. It’s Klaine. 

18) Favorite noncanon couple? I answered with Pezberry for this earlier but I am also going to say that a very strong contender lately has been Quinntina and I blame @kuiinncedes​ and @personalgarbagepile​ for this burgeoning obsession. I want some collegiate Ivy League whirlwind romance story for them thank you. Where’s the fic?

19) Least favorite couple? You know what my absolute least fave couple was Wemma. Emma deserves better. Bring back Carl or make Holly/Emma happen. Hemma?

20) Best friendship duo? I think Blam’s friendship duo was the most fleshed out and I adore them but Kurtcedes will remain near and dear to my heart.  21) Best friendship trio? Kurtcheltana - we really could have had it all with them but we had to get a stupid subplot of funny girl understudy shenanigans to ruin everything. If you’ve followed me you know I reblog everything kurtcheltana. I think I have at least 15 posts with them in my drafts right now. 

22) Least favorite friendship? Puck and Finn (enter your preferred mashup of their names here), they really only had a friendship when it was used for a plot device and I dunno I think they both deserved a better friend. 

23) What ship is totally overrated? Hmmm an overrated ship is interesting, I answered underrated earlier (and below) and followed the underrated canon ships only rule so for this one I am doing the reverse. An overrated noncanon ship that I adore but can admit is a lot would be Faberry. 

24) What ship is completely underrated? I answered this one earlier with Tike so I’ll say another ship that is canon and underrated is Wildebrams. They had something sweet that I liked and though I love Jenna and Kevin’s friendship I would have preferred a Tike and Wildebrams endgame if everyone has to follow the unrealistic you-must-fall-in-love-with-someone-from-highschool trope Glee loved so much. 

25) Ship you used to like but now dislike? I genuinely used to like Quick and honestly I don’t know what flipped but rewatching the series this year twice I just found them blah and want Quinn to live her best life at Yale and not be tied down by her past. Plus as we know from above I am digging Quinntina Ivy League vibes. 

26) Ship you used to dislike but now like? Hmm I am mostly an equal opportunity shipper but I used to dislike Samcedes bc the show ruined Sam so much and I think Mercedes deserves the world. Now I like the idea of them growing up and living these awesome lives in LA and Lima and then eventually getting together later in life. I don’t want them to have Finchel’s original endgame story but I wouldn’t be opposed to something where they are endgame but have really happy midgame romances, lives, and experiences. 

27) Favorite family relationship?  Is there any other answer but the Hudmels?!?! Burt and Carole are everyone’s parents and Finn and Kurt are a brother duo comedy goldmine. 

28) Favorite mentor relationship?  Listen, I loved Isabelle and Vogue.com as much as the next Kurt stan but I have to say that Isabelle wouldn’t challenge Kurt to soar. I think Carmen and Kurt would have been a kickass mentor relationship that the foundation was laid out for in the show but instead we have to give Rachel (523981738) chances and make me resent Carmen a little. 

29) Best vocal duo? Darn this one is difficult because I think when Klaine get a good song or a line I am overjoyed at how they sound but its like 50/50 on if their vocals will be perfect. Meanwhile Artie and Mercedes (Artcedes?) are like everyone’s back up vocals and when they have a song or a section together it is PERFECTION. If you aren’t listening to Amber Riley’s or Kevin Mchale’s music you are sleeping on them. This was way too much fun, thank you! Send me a number/question! 

[civillovefanfic]

Heeey, I hope you have a great day so far (as far as possible with the current situation) :) just out of curiosity: have you always been a seblaine shipper or have you been a klaine shipper first and if so, what made you fall in love with seblaine? :) also, you have mentioned several times that glee will always have a special place in your heart and I would love to hear y? Have a nice day!!

Hey! That’s really sweet of you to ask, thank you :) I’m doing well and hope you are too anon! That’s a really interesting question that no one has ever asked me but I’m glad to answer! 

I have never been a klaine shipper, ever lol I was always a big fan of Blaine the moment we were introduced to him and became a stan ever since--which is kind of why I never shipped him with Kurt. Kurt, imo, was an incredibly selfish person and treated Blaine more like an accessory than a boyfriend. While Sebastian was selfish too, I just felt like there was a lot more chemistry? I’m not going to get into detail about the badly handled character development--because I truly believe if we would have had more backstory for Sebastian, more character development that didn’t paint Blaine right into Kurt’s hands, that Sebastian would have been a more suited relationship for Blaine (especially as he got older, went to college, moved to NY, etc). I’ve always been on the bandwagon that Sebastian made Blaine feel wanted from the get go, something he was clearly lacking from his relationship with Kurt, otherwise the attraction never would have happened in the first place. 

More under the cut! 

Long story long, I mentioned a few reasons up top but--I’ve always enjoyed OTPs where character A is a cinnamon roll and character B is a fuck up who needs the love of character A to become more developed / realize that they’re a better person than they pretend to be. Seblaine holds so much more mystery and honest development in the hands of fic writers (since we never got much in way of canon) and like I said, I am still to this day thoroughly pissed off with Kurt’s behavior / how he treats someone he claims to love. Sebastian as a character held more heat, entertainment, mystery, layers and opportunity for growth in the little time we had him compared to Kurt the entire series. And that’s the tea. 

Glee holds a special place in my heart for many reasons: 

it’s one of the first fandoms that I’ve had key involvement in (from finchel in the early years, to seblaine in the later). I’ve written 124 glee fics and that’s not counting the finchel and seblainchel and countless other ships that are floating around somewhere on my ff.net account

it’s the only fandom that i’ve held popular rps in (if you know my seblaine rps, then you know. i still get messages to this day about them) 

seblaine is the longest OTP i’ve had in fandom land and it’s still one of the strongest that I have, consistently developing and changing into AUs that span past canon 

seblaine as an OTP in general holds a special place in my heart for many reasons

the relationships / friendships i’ve had that have changed me as a person have been from the glee fandom

glee was a big part of my life for a long time (and still is in some ways), which is why it has a special place in my heart. 

Seblaine is also an OTP which I hope to keep hold of as long as I can--relationships, fandoms and shows come and go, and I’m hoping that this one stays put for as long as possible. And for as long as people read my seblaine and enjoy it :3 

thanks so much for the ask anon! means a lot and hope you enjoyed my rambling lol 

[pynkhues]

Since you're a writer, I'm hoping you can shed some light on this. IMO the writers were chasing viewers in S2 and trying not to get canceled. Personally, I hate when writers toy with their audience, it means they don't have a clear picture of their characters and narrative. How do you feel about writers making it up as they go?

Ah, this post got really long, anon! Since you asked me as a writer, I’m answering as one (I hope you don’t mind! I also hope this doesnt come out as too Creative Writing 101 for people either. This is just lessons I’ve learned and use in my own practice, so I’m applying them here.) 

(Also I have drawn horrible diagrams on my very pink notebook paper - I am so sorry, haha)

So first thing’s first - no. I don’t think the writers were chasing viewers (at least not beyond the way any writer is wanting an audience), and I don’t think they were making it up as they go really, but I can understand why you would think that way! 

It won’t be a surprise to anyone that I love this show a lot, but coming from it as both a writer and editor - this show does have narrative problems, and the biggest ones, particularly in s2, are in execution, escalation and pacing. 

I think heading into the season they had certain character arcs they wanted to follow which married well with the story they wanted to tell. In particular, I actually think the writers have a very strong handle on the girls (I will say that I’ve had a few asks telling me Beth’s characterisation is all over the place, which I’m curious about, just because I personally find her very consistent, and when I’ve asked for clarification, I’ve never gotten any reply, so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

I mean, look at their s2 arcs on paper, right? 

Ruby tries to negotiate Stan’s lowered opinion of her after the reveal of what she’s done, then has to negotiate him telling her to turn Beth and Annie in. She manages the situation painfully but pulls them through and they’re close again as Ruby navigates the increasingly lower depths of their crime life. When Stan acts to save Beth for Ruby and is arrested, it only escalates – the case on him driving Ruby to extremes to try and save him, including robbing a Quick Cash and using counterfeit money to bribe a lawyer. On top of that, she’s being targeted by an FBI agent who’s after her best friend who she gives up and then saves and then who tries to sacrifice herself for them. Ruby finishes the season the most morally compromised she’s ever been.

Annie gets back together with her ex only to find out that he’s gotten his not-quite-separated-wife pregnant. She splits up with him, but is heartbroken and it’s only amplified by the fact that they’ve been given a job by their Crime Boss to murder a man who tried to rape her but who’s grandmother she has a relationship with. Her sister can’t kill him, and Annie doesn’t get the chance as MP beats her to it. Upon disposing of the body though she endures a whole lot of pain as a result of both her ex’s new family and knowing she’s robbed a woman of her own. Annie goes on a guilt tour – tells her son, helps Marion, helps Nancy only to eventually find an absolver of her guilt in Noah, who builds her up and tells her she’s more than what life has given her. She lets herself have it for a while, before realising he’s FBI and there to trap her, and Annie tries to use him only to realise she can’t, and she finishes the season in a lot more hurt than she started it.

Beth struggles with guilt after getting Dean shot, gets the job to kill Boomer from Rio, can’t do it, gets support and encouragement from him (in various states of animosity), but in the end doesn’t have to find out if she can do it because MP does it instead. She’s rewarded by Rio in a way she probably never has been by anyone, her husband further subjugates her, so she has sex with Rio, starts to entertain a future with him, but he undermines her, so she seizes control from him. They work together. Dean forces her to break up with him due to jealousy, she struggles, goes back, but Rio’s stung, so unhelpful, and they play a little cat and mouse before he bails then kidnaps her and she shoots him.

With the exception of that very last sentence, I think all of those are narratively really strong pathways to have explored. Like I said above though, the issue is in execution, escalation and pacing.

But to talk about those things, I think I probably need to talk about story. 

SO!

Stories have a shape.

Kurt Vonnegut talks extensively about this, and while he’ll talk about a few different types of story shapes, they really all boil down to this bad boy here:

Look at this guy.

What a beautiful thing.

He’s a story.

It doesn’t matter if you’re reading Dr Seuss or Charles Dickens, when you read a story – when you strip away its words and its characters and its settings – this is what it looks like.

Or, well.

Not quite.

Really, it’s this guy:

But we’ll talk about him in a sec.

Right now, let’s talk about that first little inch: 

The Beginning

The fact that stories have a beginning is not a surprise to anyone. Stories need them. In some ways, they’re the most important part of your story. After all, the job of the beginning is to set up the world your protagonist is about to leave behind. That is essential in grounding a reader / viewer – orienting them to the world that they’re in, and getting them invested in the story you’re about to tell, if not the protagonist.

Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Game of Thrones are all excellent example of this (and frequently used in teaching) because in each of these cases it’s literal. Frodo leaves Bag End, Harry leave Privet Drive, Luke leaves Tatooine, the Starks leave Winterfell. There is a literal departure from the world before the crux of the story, and that departure is what signifies the start of the ‘hero journey’ aka the main part of your narrative.

Of course, it’s not always literal – in fact, it’s usually not. Usually that world is symbolic – it’s the single, uncertain world before the Bingley’s buy the house next door in Pride and Prejudice or the dry domestic sphere of Breaking Bad before Walt decides to make meth. It’s a marked shift, whether that’s internal or external.

In Good Girls, it’s internal.

The beginning is actually pretty perfect. The world it sets up that we’re about to (try to) depart is one of struggle and invisibility.

Beth’s in a loveless marriage promptly discovering that her husband is not only cheating but about to leave them destitute, Ruby’s getting ignored by the healthcare system and can’t afford to pay for her daughter’s wellbeing, and Annie is in a dead end job about to lose custody of her child.

Writing-wise – as a beginning, I honestly think 1.01 is close to perfect.

It sets up who these characters are, their personal conflicts, and the story world they share together, and the worlds they have on their own i.e. Ruby at the hospital and the diner, Annie at Fine and Frugal, Beth with Dean and Boland Motors.

Then:

BOOM

Inciting Incident.

The inciting incident is also often called The Point of No Return.

When I’m teaching, I personally like to call it the “You’re a wizard!” moment.

It’s when something happens that means everything set up in the beginning will be changed forever. It’s Romeo meeting Juliet, it’s Katniss volunteering for Prim, it’s Frodo deciding to take the ring to Mordor, it’s Jaimie pushing a child out a window, it’s Beth – deciding to take her little sister’s joke seriously and rob a grocery store.

(Again, I like to use Harry Potter because it’s literal – there is no return for Harry after hearing Hagrid tell him he’s a wizard. Everything is changed forever).

Inciting incidents are probably the most singularly important narrative moment, because they’re what everything else tumbles out of. Pretty much everything that happens in the story should be a direct or indirect result of the inciting incident. The inciting incident is ultimately the key of the story and what should unlock the overall arc.

When it comes to a series – whether that be a TV series, movie series or book series, each individual instalment (see: season of a show) should have its own inciting incident which – preferably – builds off the one established in the first instalment.

The Hunger Games does this really well. Katniss and Peeta being brought back into the games in Catching Fire is both an imitation inciting incident which allows the author to explore the story world further in an exciting way, and also an inciting incident that’s directly borne out of the first book / film – aka Katniss pissed enough people off during the first games that they’re going to try and kill her for real this time, which in turn gives us the opportunity to explore Katniss’ trauma, the ramifications of her actions in the first book on the broader story world, and to generate a new, compelling chapter based off of both.

Good Girls has a terrific inciting incident in s1 – which is Beth realising she’s about to lose everything.

That is our narrative point of no return.

And it works on a lot of levels – it establishes Beth as the driving engine of the story, fuelled by the chorus motivations of Annie and Ruby, rounding off both their collective and individual stakes, it sets us up for a strong narrative spine and solid characterisations.

Good Girls actually also has a terrific inciting incident in s2, which operates strongly on its own while also building firmly off the character arcs of s1.

The s2 inciting incident is Rio showing up on that park bench with Marcus, a gun and an order.

The story pivots here – giving Rio a lot of narrative thrust (get your minds out of the gutter kids), and making him a sort of secondary story engine. The core engine is still Beth, but her life is different now. She’s been traumatised and she’s exhausted, but Rio revealing his son to the girls (and tying their motivations up together in a neat little package) while forcing her to act, re-establishes her as the person who’s decisions are going to be the driving force of the narrative.

Ruby and Annie are, of course, story engines in their own right too, but they fall into line behind Beth usually, and their narrative push is actually usually away from the story throughline, but we’ll talk about that in a sec.

Rising Tension / The Middle

Okay, this is where things get a little tricky.

Do you remember this guy?

When we talk about stories, rising tension / the middle is the big guy. It’s the bulk of your narrative. It’s Where Things Happen. It’s where all the ugly stuff set up in your beginning and exploded by your inciting incident just - - grows a life of it’s own.

Or - -

Well.

Maybe not.

Forget about this guy.

Rising tension is this:

Rising tension is a series of ‘mini climaxes’ on the way to the main climax that raises the stakes, lets you know characters better, and pushes your characters onwards to the main climax.

Each of these little climaxes should be followed by a ‘narrative rest’. (that’s the dip after each spike)

Which - - I don’t know, might sound weird? I know when I started writing I was like ?? but it’s true! The closer you get to a big narrative climax, the more important rests are! Rests are – I personally think – one of the most important components of storytelling, because they re-ground an audience, remind them of what’s at stake, before thrusting everyone back into danger.

Again, Harry Potter is a gift in this sense because this is all really clearly paced out. Think about the first instalment – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s / Sorcerer’s Stone.

Harry and Ron save Hermione and Ron from the troll!!!

Then they become friends and enjoy school and quidditch.

Harry loses control of his broom during a quidditch game!!!!

He’s okay and then it’s Christmas and Harry gets the invisibility cloak and feels connected to his parents for perhaps the first time in his life.

Harry, Hermione and Ron go through the trapdoor to get the philosopher’s stone!!!

And - - okay, you get the point.

Each mini climax ups the stakes, but we feel those stakes upped because of the time we spend with characters during the ‘narrative rest’. For instance, while Harry and Ron saving Hermione from the troll might have sparked an interest in her, it’s the narrative rest scenes between that and her setting Snape on fire during the quidditch game that makes us invest in her as a character. 

This is where things get a bit hairy with Good Girls. Good Girls does a tremendous job of giving us both great climaxes and wonderful moments of narrative rest. The issue, for me at least, is that it’s not always the best at balancing them. When I talk about escalation and pacing, this is a big part of what I mean.

Remember how I said this was the shape of a story?

Well, I think Good Girls s2 looked more like this:

We had a lot of solid movement in the first half of the season that sort of flattened out into a lower stakes, more meandering middle (which gave us 2.08 through 2.12). Which - -

Look.

The story changed gear, and it didn’t work.  

Think of it this way:

2.01 – mostly character-based fallout from s1 + inciting incident of Rio handing them the gun

2.02 – almost entirely rising tension culminating with the girls bribing Boomer and Beth lying to Rio

2.03 – which thrusts us straight back into rising tension with the girls trying to kill Boomer and ‘succeeding’ via Mary Pat

2.04 – which gives us a very satisfying narrative rest as we explore Rio and Beth’s relationship outside of an overall narrative thrust – he gives her a key, she shies away from him, only to fall entirely back into him culminating in sex which itself brings about a new climax (no pun intended!) in the scene with Beth, Rio and Dean at the dealership. It’s also a strong character episode in closing certain plot threads – ending Annie and Greg’s relationship + ending Ruby lying to Stan about what they’re doing – while establishing major new threads – i.e. really colliding Turner and Mary Pat.

2.05 – and after the rest, we’re back to almost entirely satisfying rising tension! Building off of the threat of finding Boomer’s body and the new tensions that Rio and Beth’s intimacy brings.

2.06 – a mix episode! Very much building to the strong climax of Beth seizing power, but also an episode that plays around with character, has a lot of strong ‘rest’ moments i.e. the girls sorting pills and talking which gives us a lot of information as to state of minds, etc.

2.07 – again, very strong mixed episode which is focused on one single, extreme climax – Jane being missing, but building a very character-centric episode around it. Also introduces Noah though? Which is a mistake. He should have been introduced - I think, in 2.05, but that feels like a whole other post.

2.08 – narratively speaking the same as 2.07 in the sense of a single climax (the girls failing to get the money back / the Beth-Ruby confrontation), but has the added bonus of flashbacks.

2.09 – we have a slight narrative thrust with the robbery of the Quick Cash but it proves very quickly to be low stakes. This is an alllll emotional stakes episode, which means narrative tension is slowing.  

2.10 – again, a character-focused, narrative rest episode devoted to Beth struggling with getting square. A few small climaxes – Annie and Ruby in Canada and Turner at the dealership being the big ones, but both quickly prove toothless. The heft / strength of the episode again is in character moments, not narrative thrust. Again - slowing it down. 

2.11 – oh, what do we have here? Another character-focused, narrative rest episode? I love this episode – it’s one of my favourites of the show, but it’s intensely character focused. Very much centred in waving away the smoke around both Noah and Rio for Annie and Beth respectively. No dramatic climaxes. Slowing the story down even further. 

2.12 – another narrative rest episode. A lot of slow exposition of Mary Pat and Jeff, which is good to know, but I’d argue placed badly in the season. This season’s already been slowing down despite the narrative timeline tightening, but this episode only further pushes on the brakes for Dean’s new job, Beth and Dean’s divorce, Beth and Rio’s break up. Two very small climaxes - the lawyer telling Ruby he knows about the money and the Boomer reveal but - in the context of the season - actually pretty low stakes. Again. Slowing down the narrative. 

2.13 – A BIG CLIMAX EPISODE WHAT IS GOING ON???

What I’m saying in this is that the pacing in the back half of the season was, to me at least, fundamentally off. They hadn’t steered a strong enough narrative spine to take us through the season, and got heavily invested in character moments and not-entirely-thought-out-fallout in the back half of the season – it didn’t understand it’s own narrative thrust well enough to get us through. It also established a certain pacing with us in the first half of the season and shifted gears halfway through.

You can’t have your first three or six episodes be high-stakes-high-action, and then make the back end of your season same-stakes-low-action and top it all off with an explosive, poorly built-up finale in the way that they did.

There wasn’t enough thrust to push us through to the scene in Rio’s loft – neither narratively or in a character sense, and as a result, those last few episodes fall apart. Even beyond that though, the season escalated quickly then - - didn’t really know what to do with those escalations? It plateaued, which is indicative of bad pacing across the season. 

I actually do think it’d be a relatively easy fix? I’d bring the Noah arc forwards and actually fiddle with the Beth and Rio break ups - get one even closer the tinale and make it more painful. Make it a climax in itself. 

But anyway, haha: 

The Resolution

All stories have a resolution too of course.

The resolution can be 30 seconds or 30 minutes – it’s a time to tie up loose ends and to reassure your audience that the journey they’ve been on is worthwhile.

(After all – you’ll notice the story diagram is not symmetrical – we never finish where we began).

I’m not going to talk too much about resolutions because at the end of the day – resolutions should fall fairly naturally out of your beginning, your inciting incident, your rising tension. It should tumble out like the double wedding at the end of Pride and Prejudice, but I will say that the s2 resolution was...err, not good. In no small part because it didn’t fall out of what we’d been told all season. They’d established a certain throughline and then taken it back, and that was nagl to be honest. 

On the plus side though - it wasn’t a finale, so I have my fingers crossed they can fix it!

But yes, back to your ask, anon. 

No, I don’t think that the writers were pandering. I think they went in with a sketched outline and that they probably got lost in the back end of the season and weren’t quite sure how to drum up the final act, which meant that final act didn’t work.

Ah, this post got so long! I hope it wasn’t boring or too self-indulgent or silly, and that you got something out of it! I am, of course, always happy to answer writing questions, and I hope you liked reading my story ramblings ;-) 

[janiedean]

I really, really love your metas! In "Why a Jaime/Brienne Endgame in the Books Makes More Sense Than One Might Think, Based on Previous Works of GRRM's" you wrote, that you have endless reasons to assume that both, J and B, will survive the whole series - can you please name some? Aside from this mentioned meta I've only read an explantion of the weirwood dream, which can be interpreted in both ways. Or can you link a good meta that explains other reasons? Thank you very much!

hey!

first of all thank you so much, glad that you appreciate my rants. ;) that said, sure I can go in-depth. in order (btw @ginmo has written also some excellent meta about this, just check on her blog), and also counting the weirwood dream which I’ve ranted on at length in that specific meta:

now, the first thing is how grrm strategically placed these two in the narrative, in the sense that:

brienne has spent her life being passed for a joke and she desperately wants for someone to see her worth as a person and she’d about kill herself for the people who manage to get as far as to gain her trust/love, jaime has spent his life loving people without getting much in return and with that trust being used/abused/thrown away and everyone taking it for granted... and we’re assuming they’re not set up to be together when as stated grrm has written them as romantic from the first moment?

(also, jaime’s entire first chapter in asos is basically ‘I find brienne attractive but since I never considered that I could be attracted to anyone but cersei I can’t understand I’m attracted to her so I’ll stare at her and think she’s ugly all along even if I really am attracted to her. brienne’s issues are also rooted in the fact that no one sees her as attractive. jaime does. hmmm?)

both of them start from a miserable situation from which they’re finding their own way up, not down - jaime is more obvious but brienne is too because she starts at the point where she’s so starved for recognition she would die for someone who just was nice to her but didn’t really gaf about her and now she’s... well, becoming a knight because sure af that is happening, I’m sticking with the theory that the knighting is book canon too -, and if they both end up miserable or one of them does it doesn’t work;

both of their chapters have heavy foreshadowing concerning possible marriage/having children/finding love - jaime wants to father his kids and at some point resents that other men are husbands and fathers but not him because he was always the warrior and he doesn’t say it happily, brienne is half-glad her first betrothed died because she thinks she’s not suited to typical feminine things/to fit into a woman’s role in society but she’s also sad at thinking she will never have children, these two are going to get together very soon, and I’m supposed to think they’re set up for failure? k but I can respectfully disagree;

also, this goes back to that meta I wrote in which I said that grrm does not do grim for grim’s sake and he’s actually way less cruel than it seems, likes a good love story and has more than once finished his other books with satisfying resolutions to that kind of storyline, but adding to that: in comparison to whatever calvinist crap message hbo wanted to send, I have to inform y’all that grrm is a currently agnostic lapsed catholic and it’s exceedingly clear in the way he explores/deals with redemptive themes.

now, let me break the jb narrative for a moment to inform you of a few things that as an atheist born and raised in a 99% catholic country whose literature’s funding works are heavily based on catholic themes/on stories rooted in catholicism:

the ‘you need to die to be redeemed’ narrative is 100% bullshit according to catholic morals and on top of that it’s opened to anyone at any time;

like, the basic distinction between catholic and calvinist approaches to the topic (and I can’t believe I’m defending catholicism but nvm that) is that calvinism preys on a narrative where your negative qualities define you and you cannot escape them (which is because calvinism accepts predestination ie the idea that seeing your lot in life you can deduce if you’ll go to heaven or hell, so if you’re poor/unsuccessful/you committed mistakes/a crime and so on you’re not redeemable and it’s proof you’re damned) and that meant that in societies with calvinist background the death = redemption narrative is extremely popular because it’s seen as ‘hey this person is wretched and they suck so they couldn’t have lived anyway and they did something good with it for once and it’s the best they could hope for’. catholicism, at the contrary, works on the basis that as we all have free will we can change for the better and if you repent for your sins/past wrongdoings/mistakes then that’s enough to be redeemed and if you do it on your deathbed.... you can still go to heaven, you’ll just have to atone for your wrongdoings (that’s the entire point of purgatory’s existence ie making people who repented near death or too late to gain heaven atone for their sins before they can enter heaven). and the moment you repent then you’re free to start your new life and do better and gain your place in heaven, which you’ll obtain in virtue of having turned a new leaf;

(again: not to be that person, but in luke’s gospel one of the two thieves crucified with him is like ‘can you save us since you’re the son of god’, the other thief is like ‘please he has done nothing and we have sinned we don’t deserve to be saved just please remember us when you go back to your father’ and jesus tells the second thief I won’t need to remember you because you’ll sit at my right. also, in dante’s divine comedy there’s a guy who had been excommunicated in the middle ages waiting to get into purgatory for having repented on his deathbed and in manzoni’s the betrothed ie italy’s funding novel the character who’s objectively better written is a dude so heinous for his crimes that he’s called THE UNNAMED and the moment this guy gets doubts and wonders if there’s any hope for him left the local arcibishop leaves everything saying that the moment someone like that is in need then they’re more important than his own parish, goes to receive unnamed guy, tells him that just wanting to be better is enough as far as god is concerned and he’s saved as far as he cares. like, as much as catholicism sucks for the entire rest of it and for how much the catholic church is the worst ideologically the fact that everyone can be redeemed is the basic staple of the entire thing.)

now, given the ^^^, this is where I tell you that most lapsed catholics/people who left catholicism for whichever reasons usually grew up catholic and if you grow up catholic you spend your first twelve years in church at least and if your parents/people around you are also catholic you will absorb it, good and bad, so if grrm grew up catholic, he grew up with that background. (I could again rant for hours about how atheist writers who grew up catholic differ from atheist writers who grew up protestant/calvinist because if you compare grrm and idk kurt vonnegut it’s glaring but this isn’t the place for it so nvm let’s go on)

now that I’ve told you this, I’ll get back to jaime and brienne’s canon survival chances. I needed to tell you that because...

all of the stories with redemptive themes in asoiaf (jaime, theon, sandor, whoever) are not by nature calvinist. whatever d&d think or hbo thought, none of them are written in a way where death is their best option/their only way to achieve redemption/to finish their story with dignity. theon has gone through hell and back and left and regained his sense of identity, he’s not built to die now, sandor has freaking gone to rehab and I’m 100% sure he survives the series and gets closure, while jaime is exactly a poster child for the above stuff I described. like, jaime is someone who’s fundamentally good who had the misfortune to spend his entire life jumping in different kinds of abusive situation one to the other (tywin’s parentage in general, his relationship with cersei throughout at least from the moment they were *experimenting* and like hell I’m going back on that sorry not sorry, guarding aerys, being with cersei at *her* terms and being forced to relieve his trauma all over and not having his needs met etc., tywin potentially ruining his only healthy relationship [with tyrion] and so on) who in turn has done exceedingly bad things/taken bad decision/committed heinous deeds that he regrets having done out of his bad reaction to all of that, not treating his ptsd and basically deciding to stop giving a fuck and embrace being the horrid person everyone thinks he is... until he meets brienne, remembers who he wanted to be because she’s posing an example of it and decides on his own to try and be better, which is... exactly... the entire fucking point. the moment he decides to try and be better and reclaims his dreams/the person he wanted to be/tries to do good he has automatically achieved a narrative status where he chose to be better and therefore the narrative is giving him a chance to be that, and usually those stories are meant to.... have the message that you can be better than the bad things you did and you can turn back the page at any point. like. jaime is written to show you that it’s not too late to get your shit together and not letting others/your surroundings define who you are;

on the other side, brienne is presented as extremely sympathetic from the beginning. also, grrm is very good at describing how shitty is your life if you grow up a woman who is not standard attractive, that everyone laughs at and who has endless insecurities for it.... and she’s the paragon of knighthood/everything good about chivalry in the goddamned series. brienne is legit one of the best people in these books and it’s not because I stan her - she’s kind, she’s just, she’s brave she’s everything a knight should be, she’s willing to change her mind when she misjudged people, she’s forgiving and life threw her crap all along and she’s still persevering from it. brienne is written in a frankly painfully objective way to eventually succeed at what she wants. if in affc she’s crying because she feels like she’s too much of a freak to be her father’s heir and she’s not woman or man enough for anything, the entire narrative point is that she has to succeed at both being a knight and a lady otherwise grrm can’t plant hints and believe me he can;

this means that jaime is headed on a redemptive path which in that kind of story when written by catholics or former catholics never ends up badly (also, aside: redemption is good for everyone and it can’t be just ONE character having it, you don’t buy it at the supermarket, so saying that if jaime has it then tyrion or theon or sandor or whoever can’t have it is just poor reading, people change all the time irl and in narrative you aren’t obligated to redeem one and kill everyone else) or in death, brienne has been written to succeed in her endeavors after she suffers a shitton and I think stoneheart has to be the worst and the end of it (in the sense that after that situation is resolved the way for her is down, not up). which if I do the math and we have stated they’re headed for romance, means the both of them should have a chance at a future together;

also, I can go and tell you that their asos road trip ending with harrenhal is bursting with symbolism that includes death and rebirth - not going into the weirwood dream and sticking to the basics... guys, jaime starts as a prisoner, then ends up losing a part of herself he thinks define him but in truth only defines what he thinks he is (and he’s not ie cersei’s double, the kingslayer, the person who has to drive himself crazy to protect everyone else), then ends up almost dying and sitting in the middle of his own filth for the entirety of the trip (and even then he does good things ie saving brienne from being raped *cough*) and then ends up in a scalding hot bath where he confesses his most well-kept secret and source of 50% of his trauma to someone he trusts regardless of how much he likes it or not, faints and then wakes up again when everyone thinks he might be dead. symbolically, I think it speaks for itself. thing is, during the entire thing *brienne* is there alongside him and while she’s also getting her own share of trauma/ptsd (I mean brienne has totally bloody mummers related ptsd and I’ll die on that hill) she physically is the reason he survives it - she cleans him up, she gives him enough pep talks to convince him to live, she hears his confession, she changes her mind about him for it (but imvho she had after he saved her from being raped because that’s where she calls him ser for the first time) and she catches him in the bath when he faints which is.... fairly symbolic in itself, and she is the one who puts him back on his feet after. like, while jaime’s choices after are all his own, his symbolic journey through his own physical/mental filth he has to go through during asos succeeds because she helped him even if she didn’t know she was doing it, and like... guys, there’s a reason why in the weirwood dream the brienne in jaime’s head which he has conjured and who is basically what jaime sees brienne as in that moment, not necessarily the real one..... keeps on telling him all the time she’ll keep him safe/protect him and she basically tells that to anyone he feels threatened by (or his subconscious feels threatened by), and as stated before, jaime lannister has never, until that point, assumed that *he* would be in the position where someone else gives a shit about him to the point where they will defend him rather than in the position where *he* is the person that has to protect everyone else regardless of how much appreciation he gets in return. like, excuse me but if I was writing my own book I wouldn’t put this much work and care and this symbolism in these two’s history if I meant to kill one of them off or to not have them be happy in the end.

like, the point is: grrm is an extremely meticulous writer with an astonishing attention to detail and who put in book two shit that made extra sense when reading book FIVE, see theon saying he wouldn’t go to his death wearing dirty clothing in acok which makes you go like ‘....... why’ the moment you read his adwd chapters. no one, unless they have a penchant for sadism, would put that much work with those themes in that specific kind of story if then it doesn’t deliver. or, in different words, using a character I love as well so no one can accuse me of being impartial: when grrm put the same kind of work in catelyn’s chapters from got to asos and then you read them knowing about lady stoneheart and the red wedding, it’s obvious that he built her up for being an extremely tragic character and that she was destined to die regardless of all her efforts to save her family (same for robb but we’re talking pov characters). but catelyn’s storyline doesn’t have redemptive themes. it’s about regret, loss, loving your children but being imperfect/not being able to be there for them, and so on. catelyn’s storyline never promises you a happy ending from the moment ned dies and probably even before then. catelyn’s storyline promises you endless suffering and that’s fine because that’s her point in the narrative.

on the contrary, brienne’s tells you ‘hey there’s this girl who has had it like shit all her life without deserving it and whose worth no one sees because she’s ugly and who at the same time is actually a genuinely good person who’s trying her best and okay, she’s gonna suffer but she’ll come out on top while getting what she wants which is recognition as both a lady and a knight’ and given that brienne is also an extremely rare rep (say what you want, cishet unattractive women with her issues and her backstory are basically only less rare than unicorns in media) that I’m 100% sure grrm knows speaks to a lot of people (because he writes her too well to not know), if brienne doesn’t get that after all that shit, the narrative would not deliver on a fairly huge promise.

even worse, jaime’s tells you ‘hey there’s this guy who has been an abuse victim to at least three different people who doesn’t even realize it and whose life is so fucked up you’d need fifteen psychology textbooks to even start grasping it and that everyone sees as the worst person ever and who has ended up believing he is out of not managing his trauma well and hey look at him going through an insane amount of extra suffering but coming out of it wanting to be better and sort of succeeding and hey he has setbacks but he’s starting to see himself as his own person and he’s out of his #1 worst abusive relationship and he can decide what to do with his life now and you should root for him’, which means that if he dies or worst of all dies like in the show (but that’s not happening) the narrative doesn’t deliver on a huge promise and gives you the message that you can’t escape your mistakes and the abuse you received...... which is not the message grrm likes/wants to pass. like, I’ll die on that damned hill.

and to finish it, that was for them as single characters, but going back to the beginning: love is a fundamental part of both their storylines. as I said in the beginning, brienne suffered because she wasn’t loved enough and would die for anyone she loves herself without even expecting anything in return because she thinks no one will love her like that, jaime suffered because he loved too much without getting anything in return (or better, getting cersei’s abusive crap for his entire life) and he turned it into something toxic that’s not what he thinks it should be (he sees his and c’s relationship as the best thing ever where they’re soulmates because she sold him that narrative, but that’s not the kind of rship where you *turn your partner’s blows into kisses* which is actual text). at this point, the narrative is telling you ‘oh hey here’s two damaged people who actually would be very good together because their personalities match in that sense [as in, brienne would thrive with someone who loves her that much openly and finds her attractive and respects her for all that she is and jaime would thrive with someone who would appreciate that tenfold and who’d love him back just as much and who’d die for him - canon! -, and it wouldn’t be the kind of rship where anyone’s blows turn into kisses unless they were friendly sparring before] and oh hey look at that they’re in a storyline where they both influence each other greatly and oh wait he’s attracted to her and she thinks he looks like half a god and she’d die for him and he was willing to get mauled by a bear for her and they’re obviously meant to hook up’, which automatically promises a resolution where they both get what they want or you basically spent all your time rooting for it.... for nothing. which would not give anyone reading it satisfaction unless you hate jb that much, but I’m 100% sure that most people reading asoiaf casually would not hate it that much and grrm likes that trope that much to not deliver on it.

so, tldr: if one of them dies or if they aren’t endgame with a reasonable happy-ish ending for the both of them, the entire narrative fails to deliver on the promises of their individual storylines and their shared one, and there’s nothing in grrm’s writing that suggests that he would not deliver on it. I mean, if it was stephen king I’d hold my breath because I love steve but imvho his endings suck 85% of the time and he manages to do 180° turnarounds that have no sense whatsoever, but it’s grrm, not stephen king, and everything of his I’ve read that actually had an ending ended in a way that was coherent with the overall storyline and maintained its promises, so here, the above is pretty much the summary. hopefully I haven’t exhausted you. ;)