#i also. give her a lot of money that she doesnt give back and. yeah now i feel like my savings are just gone

[courviknight]

today worst day ever 🥹🥹 so glad to be home

[show-us-kaidenshenandoah]

Wicked Gelphie fans, i need you guys so badly to know how well Elphaba/Glinda are "good timeline"d "history doesnt repeat, it rhymes"-ified by Dorothy/Princess Ozma in Baum's original Oz book series. like. Dorothy/Ozma get everything; theyre the sweet, intimate friends-to-"??? are they a couple?"-ified political power-sapphic-duo that Gelphie would have wanted to be. like??

if you merge canons, fam... Wicked-Glinda must be struggling, seeing Dorothy/Ozma be everything she and Elphaba could have been.... omfg... the angst potential, the envy of watching a couple of sapphic childhood sweethearts get everything they were denied, fulfill Glinda and Elphie's dreams, and seemingly so easily too...

(also!! they even CAN look like a kid-Glinda and kid-Elphaba! there's canon to justify that kind of appearance paralleling!!)

faq below if you want more context

edit, psa: i did read these books from like.. the ages of 10 to like 14 or so, maybe as young as 8? idk, i dont remember. anyway. its been a decade since i picked them back up. and i didnt think this would gain as much traction as it has been after 100+ notes in less than 24 hours. uh. so. take my chronic memory loss-addled summarization with a grain of salt?? like? i just wrote this post so i didnt have to re-vent (agAIN) to my friends about how much i fucking love Dorothy/Ozma, period, much less in parallel to Gelphie. so. enjoy, carry on, and whatnot lmao

1️⃣: there's Oz books? plural???

yes, Baum wrote 14 books about Oz, actually. also, he wrote them under the appointment of "the royal historian of Oz" instead of "author", so there's other "official" Oz books by other "royal historians of Oz"

Baum wrote so much bc (he needed money, yes, but also:) kids would send him questions in fan-mail, and he would proceed to answer them via new novels. so he never planned to make more Oz books, he just (wasnt good with money and also) was routinely inspired by the kids who wrote to him and would write the stuff they wanted to learn about Oz and whatnot

2️⃣: does Dorothy go back to Oz? wasn't it all a dream for her??

yeah, Dorothy returns to Oz a lot in the books, she eventually even moves to live there permanently. bc, in the book series, it's a real place

only in the 1939 film was Oz ever a dream

3️⃣: how does Dorothy look like Glinda OR Elphaba?? what are you talking about?

okay so, "The Wizard of Oz" has an illustrator, W. W. Denslow. in the book, Dorothy is confirmed to be wearing a blue-white gingham dress (she changes outfits tho, she doesnt always wear the same dress all 14 books like she's some cartoon character); but im pretty sure her hair was all Denslow(? i could be remembering wrong. p sure im not tho??). this is what the 1939 movie based her appearance off of. so i can see why youd go "she doesnt look like Glinda or Elphaba"

BUT Denslow and Baum started feuding. so for the rest of the Oz books that Baum wrote, he had a different illustrator by the name of John R. Neil

and Neil decided to give Dorothy for every one of the books he illustrated (so, 13 of Baum's books to Denslow's 1 book of Baum's) a cute lil blonde bob, making her look like what i assume blonde-Glinda looked like as a child. i think she'd approve lol

so!! Dorothy very much looks like a trendy little Glinda, with her cute blonde bob, her fashionable drop-waist dress, and bows for most of the Baum series, actually!

(also, Neil had a preference for dressing Dorothy in this red and polka-dot number, but, again, she does wear other outfits)

(lmao also look at Tin-Man and Scarecrow with blonde-Dorothy, they look like her two gay dads encouraging her to just go be herself at school?? i love them)

(also, if you see "Eloise At The Plaza"-energy in this Dorothy design, im right there with you lol)

4️⃣: who is Ozma??

she's the Princess of Oz. she eventually appears in the second book of the series. she rules Oz after the Wizard

she's actually a really interesting transwoman allegory too. (spoilers for a book from the early 1900s?) she was born a little girl named Ozma, but has a spell put on her as a baby to be genderbent and was socially raised as a little boy under a different name, and she later realizes who she truly is: a girl. she finds the transformation scary, as she returns to her girl-form she always truly was, but she feels better and more herself now that she is Ozma again. i dont think L. Frank Baum intentionally wrote her to be a trans allegory, but you can very obviously see why our trans elders fucking LOVED Ozma back in the early 1900s

also, she has a similar "sir, you fucked up" relationship with the Wizard as Elphaba*. and, also like Elphaba, Ozma politically tries to make things in Oz better (just.. unlike Elphaba, Ozma has the power and support to do just that p much asap)

* (edit for contextual clarification on how the Wizard fucked up: the Wizard fucked up with Ozma because he is ultimately and p directly the reason why she was genderbent/hidden. he deposed of her family and sent her away. Baum decided later on to backtrack a little bit on this(?) because he wanted to bring back the Wizard and, in order for Baum to do that, has to try to not make him SO terribly horrible??? so like. Ozma does end up forgiving him and tolerates him amd he's nicer, later on, within the books. but i doubt any modern adaptation of the books would follow that, personally. even as a kid, i went "bullshit" and headcanoned that Ozma fucking hated the guy and, at best, MAYBE tolerated him for Dorothy, but overall did not like him for justifiable reasons! i think the direction society seems to have taken the Wizard is interesting, and i wouldnt be surprised if there was at least one future adaptation that made him The Bad Guy in a very Rumplestiltskin in the Once Upon A Time TV show kind of way. but like. in the books, they do END UP getting along. i just forever disagree with Baum on that lol i think the Wizard fucked up, and in book 2 of the series (the one where Ozma is, y'know, introduced), it is obvious the Wizard FUCKED UP. but yeah. also, Ozma does get her dad back. her mom was kind of never in the picture to begin with, specifically in a Ponyo's Mom kind of way, like, she made Oz and then left it for her husband and kid to rule, so. yeah. im getting off track. my point is the Wizard did a full-on coup on her family and then banished her and genderbent her so no one would recognize that she had claim to the throne he was sitting on!! he fucked up! so, like, i personally hc that Elphaba founded the "i hate the Wizard" club to which everyone slowly joined, like Fieyro and etc, and Ozma is their youngest member. the Wizard did both Elphie and Ozma so dirty, omfg)

it also should be mentioned, Ozma in NBC's "Emerald City" was casted as Black (her actress being Jordan Loughran). so, though Ozma does not have green skin (but also? neither did the Wicked Witch of the West in the books, she wasn't green there. that was a 1939 film decision to make her green. so! Ozma could be green!! why not!), but she does have Black features to theoretically remind Glinda of Cynthia Eviro's Elphaba when you consider that casting. or, if you prefer a Jewish!Elphaba casting, a'la Idina Menzel's Elphaba, i think Ozma's book design works well to interpretively parallel those features too. or both, if you like the sound of a Black-Jewish Elphaba and Ozma paralleling lol

(edit, because i thought i mentioned this but? no?? i didnt?? i must have misclicked or something to have deleted the paragraph. im so sorry, here you go:) also, when Ozma was a boy, she was basically enslaved to her jailor of a caretaker. which one could interpret as "oh, a Cinderella story!", sure. but, with a Black Ozma, it does read as an intergenerational grief-formed power-fantasy that is both empowering and poignant for Ozma to have ran away from her enslavement and gone on to become a princess afterwards. to any Black folks who may be going "is this going to trigger me?" about Ozma having been a child-slave, i remind you that Baum wrote this intentionally for children, so, no, the books do not sit in the trauma and horror of enslavement, but whether or not it would trigger you yourself is up to your discretion. i will say, Baum did NOT write the American Girls' Addy of his time (context: a children's book about a child-slave that does go into the horrors, some, though in a kid-friendly way) or Louis Sachar's Holes (i asssume i dont have explain Holes since its movie was such a hit), i remember it as even more kid-friendly than either of those also-children's books, so i would assume most people would be fine? but you are responsible for your own mental well-being, i urge you to confirm if it is fine for yourself however you need to do that. but, yes, you can use this backstory as further evidence for your Ozma being Black, of course! you can have Ozma be Black regardless, but if you want this as further evidence, go ahead! and also, it does parallel Ozma to Elphaba in the sense that Elphaba's family mistreats Elphaba! (i will, regardless of if you prefer a Jewish and/or Black Elphaba, add that doing so is also a nice "fuck you" to Baum in how, being a white man of the late 1800s and early 1900s, did end up throwing in racist and/or antisemitic caricatures here and there within his 14 books, unfortunately. i, an Indigenous American, remember as a child still immensely enjoying Oz despite Baum being racist towards Native Americans. if youre curious on the egregious level of it all and if the story could still be enjoyable, id say it's in the realm of Peter Pan, Willy Wonka, and Matilda of "wow. that is shitty. im going to pretend this thing i love is good instead via cognitive dissonance")

regardless, in John R Neil's illustrations, Ozma does have black hair, so that too coincides with modern understandings of Elphaba

(there is also her appearance in Disney's "Return to Oz", performed by Emma Ridley, where she is blonde. but, though i love that spooky movie, that's neither here nor there. as far as im aware, only in that movie has Ozma not had black hair)

anyway, she rules Oz; and by book 3, becomes really close friends with Dorothy. they're not a canon couple, not anymore than Gelphie is, but they are such close and affectionate friends that they are so easy to ship as childhood sweethearts (so, no, there is no moment of 🎶loathing🎶, but i find that sweetness makes them an angstier parallel for Glinda to watch over, personally lol)

like here's some illustrations from the books of them just being two "gal pals". no wonder our queer elders shipped them lmao and this isn't even all of their illustrations together, this is just the first spurts that google shot out at me lmao

also??? this is them with book-Glinda. not only do they look absolutely darling, also, yes, Dorothy becomes a princess, because Ozma said so. they co-rule Oz together. they are just too sweet, fam, i love these two little childhood sweethearts, i choose to see Dorothy's princess-ship as the same as two kids promising to marry one another when they grow up. this is so cute

and can you imagine Wicked-Glinda? looking down at these two, seeing what could have between herself and Elphaba had things turned out different??? im making myself sad

(also "Book of Glinda" is so wild. both in terms of "...Baum, how do you not see this as queer?" like with one example being like "Baum, you put that Glinda has 100s of single women at her beck and call in her palace, this is so easy to see as sapphic, sir"... and then, over here, we have John R Neil repeatedly reading "gave a platonic, innocent kiss" and going "okay, so, uh, making out? i dont do platonic kissing" lmao anYWAAAAYYYY, THAT'S NOT RELEVANT HERE)

🌟5️⃣ bonus:

so, you might have a few follow-up questions. like, what is "Elphaba" like in the books? what does she look like?

well, she's really only in the first book. she's one-note, evil, dies. she's not green-skinned, and she isn't given any sort of name. she is only called "the Wicked Witch of the West", that's it, she is not Elphaba

however, i will mention the Wicked Witch of the West, in the books, is a fashion disaster and i want to see her look used as evidence that "yes, goth-Elphaba and dark-academia-Elphaba are 10/10, but also?? kitschy grandma-core knitwear-Elphaba × her fashionably Barbie pink girlfriend". i'd love to see art of that. i'm just saying

also?? this isn't related to her at all but guess what

Scarecrow/Tin-Man was like THE ship for our queer elders. they are so emotionally intimate, they live together, it's great, look at these pictures of them being absolute bros (can you see why they were shipped so hard)

i bring this up, bc you could argue Fieyro/Boq if you merge canons to make your own narrative and whatnot. guess Fieryo and Boq kinda had their own mirrored 🎶loathing🎶 period under that framing lmao

or, if you hate Boq, youll probably love the Tin-Man's angsty "ship of Theseus"-like backstory as the once-Nick Chopper(: his human name, pre-tin-ification) that is in the books

so! enjoy that knowledge!! theyre super cute in the books, i love them. again, not a canon ship, but still beloved by our elder queers, just like Ozma and Dorothy

i hope it makes even more sense now why our queer elders used the phrase "Are you a friend of Dorothy?" as code to see if someone else was queer, not even taking into account the 1939 movie or Judy Garland's relationship with the queer community

anyway, albeit this is all the basics generalized, that should be everything

but yeah!! Ozma and Dorothy reminding Glinda of what could have been, of what she lost, being the sweeter "next generation" version of Gelphie?? tugs so hard at my heartstrings

but yeah, do whatever you want with Gelphie, Fieryo, and Part 2. im just saying. the angst potential of being envious and living vicariously through someone and seeing other people get the happy ending you were denied?? is right there lol

(edit: this awesome video by Kaz Rowe JUST came out if you want to hear more about the Oz book series, its queerness, its author, its GLARING PROBLEMS including but not limited to instances of racism, and so on and so forth. Kaz Rowe is a fantastic video-essayist, so i hope you watch the video and enjoy their hard-polished craftsmanship)

[cloveroctobers]

LOVE FOR A MINUTE — ARMANDO ARETAS [Summer Randoms]

A/N: I did say I was going to take a break with my summer collection soon but uh…THIS IS ACTUALLY SHORT WORK SO IT DOESNT COUNT! Anyways what if I bring you a dash of some mess that I randomly started writing on my lunch break based off one of my current overplayed songs?🏃🏽‍♀️

WARNINGS: language, toxicity, arranged marriages, mentions of gun violence, use of y/n & infidelity!

SYNOPSIS: in which Armando is trying to figure out a lot of things in his life but…it’s always something.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁

All it took was some passionfruit soda to figure out that you were cheating on him. Not only cheating but with someone he unfortunately worked alongside of.

Rafe.

And Armando already couldn’t stand his obnoxious ass. It didn’t take him long to figure it out either, the dots being connected unbeknownst to you and it was no secret that Armando was a man of few words but he was also very observant. Rafe had no issue being the loudest in the room, the type of co-worker that loved playing videos on his phone on the highest of volumes that one of his speakers was actually on its way out.

Rafe was all protein shakes, açaí bowls, and early morning workout routines but the moment he showed up with a plastic filled cup with a colorful beverage, burping up a storm from the other side of Kelly, who kept giving him warnings while she cleaned her favorite weapon of choice at her spot of the desk, that was the final blow for Armando.

Armando looked away from his own desk which was off to the side away from the original AMMO members—he had his own personal sticker thanks to the amusement of the team which read: does not play well with others right on the side of the table, he fully turned to face Rafe who laughed it up.

“C’moooooon, That was the best one!” Rafe held his hands up in defense.

Dorn rolled his eyes with a shake of his head, “not only are you annoyingly distracting, you also reek, dude. What the hell are you drinking?”

The ADHD must be kicking in as Rafe now had one hand on his phone, texting away with his thumb, giving Armando enough time to sneak up and catch a glimpse of a bikini photo that looked awfully familiar before Rafe quickly locked his phone. He clears his throat, lifting his head to meet Armando standing over him.

“Can I help you? Ever heard of personal space?”

Armando lifts his chin, his voice naturally low as he states, “Let me see your phone.”

“Uhhhh? No?”

“I’m not asking.”

“Which is exactly why I’m not handing it over.” Rafe smirked.

Armando crossed his arms, “You got something to hide?”

“No.” Rafe scoffed, “I just don’t appreciate you standing over me like you’re fucking Michael myers or something, making demands. We’re not even friends and I know you got your own phone, whether it’s from your deadbeat dad or from some dirty money you probably have stashed away.”

Hands were placed right on Rafe, making Dorn widen his eyes from his spot at the sound of impact while he sat at the end of the desk. Armando had his hands right at Rafe’s shirt, but not without slapping his hands flat against Rafe’s chest, almost knocking the wind out of him as Armando bunched up his shirt while he got right in Rafe’s face. “…Seems like you had a lot to say about me behind my back, so why don’t you say it all to my face this time?”

“Yeah okay…” Rafe starts as he sizes Armando up, “Maybe you should go on your lunch break because you’re doing a lot right now. More than usual.”

Armando doesn’t miss a beat, “Maybe I should ask your girl to join me instead. You know the one? The one you keep stringing along and is also the mother of your baby girl?”

Rafe tightens his square jaw, “what the fuck are you getting at, bro?”

Armando darkens his stare, “I see right through you, bro.”

“Oh yeah?”

“So I’m actually going to ask you a question that I already know the answer to: are you fucking my wife?”

Kelly and Dorn both flick their gazes to each other’s.

Rafe licks his full lips, breaking eye contact for a moment, but he knew he had an audience so he keeps his usual persona up, “…I’ll give her back if you want?”

And that was enough for Armando to swing. He didn’t need to know the details from Rafe but he needed to make the message clear, it was always fuck Rafe around these parts, and he stood on that. However Rafe wasn’t one to back down from a fight and sure he maybe taller than Armando, the well known muscle of the team but none of that means anything to Armando. He’s had plenty of bodies left to rot all over—so in short—none of these men were punks.

“As much as I love a good fight, I’m exhausted dealing with you assholes everyday! So cut the shit.” Kelly yells, one arm pressed up against Rafe’s throat on the other side of the room while Dorn is also holding Armando back.

Dorn nods, “We’re supposed to be a team, here!”

“He sucker punched me in the face!” Rafe points, “and we were forced to work with his bitch ass anyways!”

Armando pants, “The only backstabbing bitch I see here is you, motherfucker.”

“Oh whatever! I don’t owe you anything. You’re in your feelings over a chick that just wasn’t that into you and you knew that so you want to take it out on me.” Rafe yells, “face it, you got played by someone that was forced to be with you because of mommy dearest.”

Armando laughs humorlessly, ducking underneath Dorn’s arms but he jogs right after him, grabbing his wrists and pulling them back while yanking Armando, “I’m surprised it took this long for someone to knock you on your ass.”

“Oh it’s been awhile.” Kelly chimes in over her shoulder.

Rafe rolls his eyes, recalling just what Kelly was talking about, “I’d split your eyebrow open if it wasn’t for Mr. And Mrs. Smith here. And you got me while I was sitting, which is weak by the way.”

Armando shrugs, “what difference would it make? you’d still be garbage.”

“All that anger should go to someone who cares and newsflash, it’s not me.” Rafe mockingly grins at the ex-crime boss.

Dorn interupts, “wait…all this is over y/n? Rafe…the one you were sexting and talking about is y/n?”

Kelly throws her head back with a shake of her head, just wondering why her boyfriend would add more salt to the wound. Dorn sometimes ended up speaking his thoughts out loud before thinking them over, truly.

“Ding! Ding! Ding! Someone gets an B-!”

However that didn’t stop Kelly from shoving her forearm tighter up the dark haired man’s throat, making him wheeze. Rafe raises his hand in surrender as a sign that he was just joking.

“That’s fucked up, dude.” Dorn slowly loosen’s his grip on Armando who side eyes him for holding him back, then fixes his shirt, “on so many levels.”

The four in the room couldn’t erase the tension but two familiar forms definitely could.

“What is going on in here?!” Captain Secada demanded, as she viewed the damage to the tech, Rafe’s busted lip, who tried to hide the evidence by pulling his lips into his mouth, spilled fruit soda dripping off the counter and onto the desk chair, Kelly let’s go of the Asian man, placing her hands on her hips as she looked back and forth between the men in further irritation, Dorn awkwardly scratches the back of his head, and Armando appeared as if he was ready to leap again.

Detective Lowrey steps into Armando’s view, who still appeared as if he was looking right through his biological father, right at Rafe.

“Mando, talk to us.”

He says nothing, making Mike rub his jaw in frustration at the common wall his son liked to put up. “My guess is: Rafe got what was comin’ to him.”

Kelly snorts while Dorn nods his head, quickly looking away once Rafe throws his hands up is confusion on why Dorn didn’t have his back. Rita sends Mike a warning look but he just shrugs as he turns to stand side ways, so that he can get a good look at everyone again.

“Regardless of what happened before we arrived—which I will find out—Do I need to remind you all that this is a place of business, where professionalism and team work is supposed to be the number one priority?”

Rafe huffs, “try telling that to the cartel Tasmanian devil over there. I know what oath I took to be here…some people were just handed shit.”

All eyes snapped to Rafe at that.

He just didn’t know when to quit.

Armando snickered as he scratches at the side of his nose by his beauty mark. Although his heart was drumming in his chest over the truth, he kept his cool—now.

“…That’s fine, next time I’ll just put the gun in your mouth instead.”

“WHOA! WHOA! ALRIGHT!” Mike scolded, although he didn’t blame Armando, he didn’t need him locked up again.

While Rita interjected, “that’s enough you two!”

“I think that’s my cue to go home for the day.” Armando stated, not looking for permission from either of the higher ranks, as he turns to start grabbing a few of his items: phone, keys, and his backpack.

“Tell y/n I said wassup.” Rafe raises his chin while Armando sends him one last look with a mocking laugh, motioning a gun at him on his way out.

Mike runs his hands over his goatee as Rita sends him a glance, making him quickly dip his head to follow his son out of the trailer part of the building.

“Mando, hey!” Mike calls out to the shorter man who’s making his way over to his car.

Armando keeps moving, unlocking the door to the car, throwing his things into the passenger side. When Mike slams his hands down on the hood of the car, Armando turns from the ajar door to meet Mike’s eyes.

“Don’t do nothing stupid. Not when you’ve come this far.” Mike tells Armando, whose eyes are as dark as black coffee.

Armando blinks, “Sure, I’m a murderer turned agent but I’m not down for being disrespected.”

“Okay,” Mike nods, “I feel that. And I’m proud that you lasted this long not popping that asswipe in the mouth.”

Armando snorts, already being aware that Rafe had his share of words with Mike as well.

“Tell me now, are you plotting something against y/n too?”

“No.” Armando shrugged his shoulders, “I been knew—

“But you loved her so that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, right? You can be real with me.” Mike suggests.

Armando deeply inhales, “…I don’t think I know much about love after all, Mike.”

And with that, he climbs into the car, starting the engine, leaving the man on the outside to step out of the way and watch Armando go.

The stories you tried to spin when you got Armando to finally talk to you, made him blow up on you. It’s not the first fight you’ve ever had, the relationships always been toxic. Your mothers were in jail together, you and Armando were practically raised in that facility together in Mexico City until a certain age and then you were both uprooted away from your moms and away from each other.

Somehow you found your way back together, whereas Armando went into training underneath Benito Aretas, you didn’t exactly grow up in a loving home either. Finding yourselves into crooked crime and wealth, you both did well for yourselves and it was written in stone that you two would be in an arranged marriage. Your mother ended up dying in prison but that was her dying wish, believing that Isabel would do right by you.

Depends on how you define that.

You became Mrs. Aretas at twenty-one but once you came to the states and got a taste of a different life, you changed. Armando was always on a mission and ultimately you were on a different one.

You two were no longer a team so it seemed, carrying on tasks on your own where at times your home in Florida started to feel colder at times.

“I’m out here forced to pay off my debts with people I don’t even care for like that, knowing that my wife is doing me dirty. How do you expect me to continue living your famous lie of: everything’s fine when it’s far from it?” Armando asks after you slapped the laptop that he was working on, right off the dining table.

You’re folding your arms, “nothing about our relationship has been a lie, i love you and wouldn’t have married you if I didn’t regardless of what our mother’s wanted. I just—

“ Last I heard you don’t cheat on people you claim to love—guess that’s something you have in common with my mother.” Armando leans back in the chair, fingers folded together.

Raising your brows you deeply exhale, “Look…I know you’re pissed off with me and you have every right to be but i dont appreciate you comparing me to Isabel. I’m not anything like her.”

Armando shrugs his shoulders, “manipulative, selfish, calculated, narcissistic—

“Wow! Say it with your whole chest then.”

“You fucked up, so I’m done.”

“W-what?”

“All those years gone just like that.” Armando feels his jaw about to shake, “and with Rafe of all people? He’s somebody’s whole father and you know he treat’s Kennicott like shit so what was it? The crimson chin?”

You clench your eyes shut, “this is no excuse but the first time we were all drunk and at the club, Mike was there—

“Don’t bring him into this,” Armando snaps, knowing where you were going, “we been had that conversation months ago. You know what? I don’t even need the whole rundown because I’ve already got the gist. I just want to know when I should expect you out by.”

He’s back on his phone, app open to make a schedule and reminders already.

“I’m not going anywhere.” You argue.

Armando keeps a straight face although his brow wants to raise in annoyance, “cool then I’ll leave and have some people stop by to get my things within a week.”

“Armando.” You start, waterworks rising as you begin to follow him, “we can work this out.”

Armando stops in his tracks, almost making you bump into the back of him. He says over his shoulder, “there’s nothing else to work out, this hasn’t been working and I’ve constantly been turning the other cheek since we got here together. Since I got locked up but I guess you forgot about what a commitment entails. Maybe we’re better off without each other for good this time.”

Angrily wiping your tears you grit at his retreating form down the hallway that led to one of the five bedrooms, laundry room, and the side door that led to the car port outside, “don’t tell me you’re just gonna go off and fuck off with Kennicott and her kid? how cliche!”

He puts his shades on in the driver’s side as you rest your hands on the rolled down window, “take care of yourself the best way you know how, y/n and good luck with Rafe. Who knows how much longer he’s got left?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know exactly, what that means.” Armando’s stare is heated even behind his expensive shades, “please, watch your feet. I’m outta here.”

You’re left a gapping fish, jumping back as Armando reversed out of the car port and out of your life for good, if he can help it.

“Hi sweetie,” you smile down at the five year old by the swings as you briefly peek back at Kennicott standing in front of Armando who’s sitting on the bench, shielding the sun from his eyes but his faint dimples are showing as he peers up at her like she created the damn sun.

You start to wonder when’s the last time he’s looked at you like that.

It’s been some time since he emptied his things out the shared home you had together. You still tried to keep up conversations and hookups with Rafe, mostly to keep tabs on Armando but Rafe caught on quick to your game. That’s when the ghosting started and you running up on every other girl Rafe tried to bring back to his place.

Deeming you as crazy but it wouldn’t be the first time.

This wasn’t healthy, you knew this but you couldn’t help yourself. Why did Rafe think he could just get rid of you? And why did Armando think he can just move on and do exactly what you knew he would do.

That’s where you got it wrong.

He wasn’t dating Kennicott but she did manage to get some smiles out of him. Of course he already knew her since she came around to headquarters doing sweet things for Rafe and the team that he never appreciated. It was like Kennicott was a bother to Rafe yet she was also the mother of his child? She deserved better much like Armando did and if you wanted to look at it in a petty way…it was nice to get underneath Rafe’s skin in the process by being her friend.

You still didn’t sign the divorce papers but when you received them, you thought about doing a drive by to be honest. That was more Armando’s style but it wouldn’t be so different than what you normally got into. Before getting to that you started off small, by keeping tabs on those Armando affiliated with and placing a tracker on Kennicott’s emerald green 4Runner. Which led to the park Kennicott always brought her daughter to on Saturdays.

Wednesdays were swimming lessons, Thursdays were Kennicott’s late nights at the office so baby girl was usually with Rafe’s mom. You had their schedule down pat and it was the perfect time to execute.

“Y/n?!” Armando screamed your name as you handed the five year old off to your accomplice in the backseat.

It was like slow motion as you spotted a worried Kennicott gripping Armando’s forearm, once your eyes switched from their comfortability and back up to their faces, you sent a wicked smile before tossing the door back and hoping into the tinted car.

Armando knows he could have taken the shot but you were still his wife, there were plenty of witnesses and children, and he always had the risk of being thrown back in jail hanging over his head. He knew your game, actually fell in love with it, so all he could do for right now was embrace a distraught Kennicott underneath his arm and call it in.

If that’s how you wanted to play, he was guaranteed to win.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁

Continue reading my summer anthology writings & prompts here.

[ddlcbrainrot]

What do you think the girls would do in college? And how do you think they would look like?

well @heartbeatbookclub had a similar ask a while back and honestly i kind if agree with most things he mentioned. im gonna give a quick rundown of my headcanons but they are probably pretty similar lol

monika sweetheart im sorry but you are NOT having a good college experience. She definitely chooses a really demanding major like law and then surprise! the academically challenging major is academically challenging! who would have thought. she has been used to understand the meterial first try in highschool so now that she doesnt? ohhhh boy :). it definitely doesn't help that she went to college immediately after highschool. anyway what does she do? i have no idea. id like to think she takes a break and recollects herself, but lets be honest, monika is the type of person to keep at it until she like genuinely cant take it anymore. on the bright side, im sure the others would be a great help to her during this time

sayori does not go to college immediately after highschool, and that helps her a LOT. during her gap year, she focuses more on her mental health as well as figuring out what she wants to do in the future. and i think that leads her into some kind of elementary school work. maybe during her gap year she started babysitting around the neighborhood to make some money (and also so she wouldnt be sitting in her house all day) and she figures out how much she loves working with children

yuri i think would go to college right after highschool, but not because she feels like she needs to prove herself like Monika, its more of a "uhm i guess the next step is college" type of thing. i dont think college would be as bad for yuri as highschool. i actually think that this is the time she get a bit more comfortable and confident in herself. as far as majors go, she studies something literature-writting related. she probably has a draft for a book somewhere that she refuses to mention to anyone (at first). after college she probably ends up working at some sort of library whike she maybe does some writing on the side

natsuki is NOT going to college. i just cant see her putting herself through 4-5 years of more school. idk maybe she thinks about going to culinary school? but like, in my experience most culinary schools are super expensive. plus she thinks experience is way more valuable than any sort of class. so yeah she immediately goes into working. she starts off low, maybe she finds a job helping out in some local bakery for minimum wage. the best case scenario for her is to get to the point she can open her own bakery, but if we are being realistic, opening your own business is like.. a very big risk. so idk how possible it is

(in a perfect world they all open a book café/bakery together)

Here's a quick sketch of em :

[bl-bracket]

Deserved Better Round 1: Boston (Only Friends) vs Haoren (Happy of the End)

[Submitted Reasons Under Cut]

Boston: "He had his flaws but he also had his reasons! He deserved some of his ending, because of his actions, yes. But it was way too much just for not having the same view on relationships as everyone else."

"I mean one could argue that Boston got the best ending out of them all because he's living his best life slutting it up in the US away from his shitty friends while they still have to deal with each other, but like... why did they have to revenge porn my guy TWICE"

"Sure Boston was a bit of a dick (sleeping with a friend’s boyfriend) but he didn’t deserve the treatment he got in the show. He got non-consensually recorded for porn and then was blackmailed by a friend with it. Pretty much all of the Only Friends characters did shitty things but only Boston is unfriended by the group because he was being a bit of a slut. And arguably what Boston did was actually less worse than a lot of the other characters on the show. The retribution he received was incredibly disproportionate."

"Look... was he an asshole? Sure. But the only person he actually deserved ill treatment from was Mew. He did not owe Nick, Top, Cheum or Atom ANYTHING. His privacy was violated multiple times, even though he was always clear about how he wanted things and how important consent was to him. He did not ask Nick to fall for him either, and it was Top who was in an actual relationship and went behind Mew's back to cheat on him. Yeah, i do think that he shouldn't have gone for a guy his friend was interested in because bro code, BUT HE GOT WAY WORSE THAN HE DESERVED."

Haoren: "Sexually abused as a child. Abandoned by his mother. Lived on the streets with nothing to call his own. Gets sex trafficked. Is repeatedly sexually, physically, mentally abused, starved and even gets many severe injuries that require surgery because of the sex trafficking. Escapes from the trafficker but cannot escape that life. His only friend is the guy who trafficked him in the first place. Finds his "mother" again but she doesnt remember him. Still gives her money. She kills herself with no warning. Has to be on the run all the time. Is almost killed at least 10 times, by others or himself. Has to go to jail even though he is a victim. Has to leave the love of his life and lives with zero hope of having him waiting for him outside of jail. He went through enough torture in one life than most characters go through in ten. (If he doesn't win this bracket i will kill) (/hj)"

[kenjiyabuki]

gmmtv 2025 wants and needs and predictions

i was in a yapping mood. feel free to comment :0)

anyone remember Captain from My School President? yeah, i forgot about him too until i was revisiting it last week. he is such a cutie and he really shone through in episode 6. yes he did, go back and check it. so, GMMTV, please take him out the basement in 2025 and at least give him a secondary role? i accept even if it is just one of those "main BL lead's goofy bestie" ones, just let him see the sun.

SO I THINK THIS WONT HAPPEN BECAUSE ITS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE but does anyone remember this interview where Jojo said he wanted to make an Sex and The City-esque series about the dating life of a guy with Gun Attaphan as the lead because it haunts me daily. if i believed in a god, this would be among my nightly prayers. especially after watching Love in the Big City, i just kept thinking how a Thai series like this would eat!!! my first choice would not be GMMTV to be honest (i want bigger budget!!!) but then, i would trust Jojo with a story like this. at least i would love to see his version. its obvious Jojo's other not BL series (3 Will Be Free, Mama Gogo, The Warp Effect, Dirty Laundry etc.) are more widely beloved than his BLs (Never Let Me Go, Only Friends). so maybe he would be more successful doing something that doesnt have to adhere to branded pairs and it just could be messy and queer as much as he can make it without the shipper fans nitpicking at everything. which, OKAY, i dont know if Gun fans are that blasé but i assume they are as he does work outside of BL and like... c'mon he is such a great actor, put him next to a pot of flowers and he could create chemistry.

Jojo also said he would like to work with Fourth... which is yes. YES, please. look, yeah Jojo sometimes disappoints but to me, he is still one of the most exciting directors in Thai BL. he has a VERY distinct style and i love him for it. its exciting to see which new actor will get the Jojo touch each year. he is such a actor's director and they always shine a different way through his lens. I just want to see what Jojo would make out of Fourth and Gun, both great talents!

some days i think there is no way AouBoom wont have main leads this year and other days my trust issues kick in... nevertheless, i think we wont be seeing them separated but i am asking the court, haven't they done their time in the side couple prison? didnt they pay their dues? if the court agrees, let's get them out of the uni uniforms and put them into something darker. something higher stakes, desperate love, fans nail biting every week, some new actors as the side couple etc.... AouBoom can handle it.

GL ANTHOLOGY/ENSEMBLE SERIES. at least two. one in the messy Only Friends type of way, the other a saccharine romcom a la We Are. for cast i want them to put all the ladies in that GMMTV building in there, even the female flies buzzing around

tbh, if we are going to get another long ass New show, i want BL AND GL couples. like i dont understand why all BLs have to be sausage fests like why cant we have best of both worlds together in one series........... i need to see more useless lesbian and dumb gay friendship representation stat. (e.g. The Warp Effect or Bad Buddy)

a more personalized wish for GL: i think she is back from maternity leave so, i want Fah in a GL purely for my self interest. she is just so talented and gorgeous and i want to see her kiss other gorgeous girls... i want to say Namtan but i think NamtanFilm might keep going through 2025, which okay, not complaining!!!!!!!!!

i KNOW GeminiFourth will have another series because i think they have been saying it or at least confirmed that they intend to keep working together. they make GMMTV lots of money so i dont see any chance for them to not have new series. they also expressed that they wanted get out of the high school uniforms which is like YEAH. yeah, boys. i agree. last year i was so disappointed to see them in My Love Mix-Up. it felt like such a setback after MSP and their spectacular work in Moonlight Chicken. just get them out the those blue shorts and put them in whatever, that's my (our) only wish.

i love them but i think want FirstKhaotung to rest. or i just want to see them something not exactly BL. yeah, i cant believe i am saying this as well. excited to see them in THK. no further comments.

might be an unpopular opinion but PLEASE no japanese BL remakes. please. i think it doesnt translate well. i am sorry...

i dont follow them that closely but i think GreatInn confirmed they will keep working together. BUTTT how about ThorFluke tho👀 will we get any crumbs from them?

WinnySatang… i think they have lots of room for improvement in their acting (i feel the emotions but they can look stiff) which affects their chemistry's physicality (e.g. sometimes they leave room for several Jesuses). still, i find them endearing together and see lots of potential and growth in the future IF they also want to keep on being a ship. tbh, i dont see them ready to tackle being leads yet so i am okay to see them as secondary again. and also singular roles in other BLs or non BLs.

MarcPoon. in whatever way or shape or form they think we deserve it. i just want to see more of them on my screen, together or not. but if together, preferably in a different dynamic than We Are (looking at you Perfect 10 Liners…). i adored Poon in Shadow, i would love to see him in a horror or just anything challenging again.

Lego of LYKN in his own BL?????????? that has to happen at one point, no? something to do with dancing, hopefully????

OffGun is already confirmed for next year. and full disclosure, i am soooo biased. generally i want couples to mix and match but i like OffGun together so much, i dont think i will ever complain about them. they could've been on their 78th BL and i would be like "okay, when is the next one?". my only wish would be for them to go back to the darker, more challenging, higher stakes kind of BL in the vein of Not Me again.

i think we can all agree when we see that trailer with Podd & Papang on that screen we wont even be shocked...

on the topic of shock, i want a new unexpected BL pair that will make us feel gagged and gooped and gobsmacked like the announcement of OhmNanon (rip) or JossGawin. hit us where we least expect it!

[sugarache]

class of 09 hcs bc im bored

no minors please <3 nsfw

so firstly the elephant of the fandom... i don't think jeckole would ever happen. just. no. jecka is straight... maybe. and when she isn't i think she understands that while even having nicole as a friend is toxic and damaging to her life, a relationship is just a line she would not cross. she isn't that destructive. i also think nicole respects jecka too much to date her bc she clearly does not see much value in romantic entanglement.

only way i fw jeckole is a modern au, they're in their 30s, miraculously either stay connected/reconnected and are both alive, not too fucked up, and working stable jobs. i actually think modern 30 y/o jeckole would be super cute. or at least maybe they would try dating bc its 2025 who cares, nicole's an open lesbian who dates once in a blue moon, jecka thinks shes probably something but doesn't care for labels. it probably wouldn't last but i think they'd stay friends.

back to hs i only see jecka as bi curious straight girl who makes out w girls at parties. actually flipside made this canon. that being said i think she would experiment in a way that is... maybe less straight girl and more bi curious then she'll admit when sober. i like to think her and kelly happened more than once. also lowkey ship her and ari.... i don't think she would treat ari better than nicole. ok well maybe a bit better. she wouldnt be straight up abusive but she would def want the relationship to be kept totally private, might even be outwardly mean to ari at school so no one suspects. in private i dont think theyd be very lovey-dovey - jecka's bitchy and ari likes being bullied, but i think theyd have better boundaries than nicole and ari did. or at least jecka would never go as far as to cross certain lines in the first place. jecka would see that relationship as the only one in her life where she can be 'dominant' - she's terrified of her father and completly relies on him for support, tries to go along with nicole's insanity but most of the time can't keep up and feels like she needs nicole in order to feel validated more than nicole needs her. (not true. i like the bit in flipside where we see a bit of nicole being depedant on jecka. but jecka wouldnt be able to see that). yeah not super healthy, more so an outlet for jecka and something ari clings to because she's desparate and a baby gay.

like i said, nicole doesn't see value in relationships. but if she did........ i highkey ship emicole ;3 i love the emily suicide pact ending so much and the text she sent to nicole after ughhh that shit hit so right, literally better than any lesbian vn u can find on itch.io. they wouldnt date, just hangout a lot, not even just for drugs but because they genuinly fuck w each other. and sometimes they makeout. do not call emily a lesbo tho she will fuck u up. and dont u know her bf's in m13? and shes also banging some guy in his thirties. emily nd nicole r both toxic as fuck but together two wrongs make a right or smth and it counteracts and its probs the best relationship either of them have, esp since they dont think of it as romantic and therefore dont deal w the stresses that come w being romantically/sexually a couple. so long as nicole doesnt indulge emily too much.... altho theres so much potentional for tragic doomed toxic yuri if she does.

nicole is not a mean popular girl. she's moreso known for the batshit stuff she does and her being besties w jecka, who is realtively popular, like cool with the queen bee but not actually in her possee popular. she's kinda trashy, not emily trashy but enough so that she gets defensive if anyone points it out, particuarly if theyre comparing her and jecka. her family's fine for money, she's just a lot more jaded because of past experinces and isn't extremely materialistic. she def has a cousin who she gets all her clothes from - hand-me-downs. bc of this her style is just the best looking stuff her cousin gives her, not really HER style. she will def have a wolf cut in 2023. she leans more emo but is obvs neevr gonna come to school looking like that bc she's not interested in committing social suicide, she still wants people to think she's HOT, you know?

jecka will go to college, nothing incredly fancy, but not community college. itll be maybe an hour away from home. her dad doesn't give her acess to her college fund bc of this, says its bc she's being a stupid whore by going to one so far away, bet it's so she can sleep with guys whenever she wants bc he won't allow any boyfriends under his roof. further proves she needs to get tf out of his house. she's in the work-study program but it doesnt cover everything so she has to take out loans. sucks but its better than living with dad. (also, he totally emptied the college fund after the divorce and just doesnt wanna admit it).

nicole wouldn't go to college. im thinking one of the endings where she comes into a lot of money happens - either a lawsuit or a death or maybe the coke business goes better than expected. she would move far away, somewhere sunny like miami or cali. i can't see her liking the types of ppl that live in either place but maybe in 2009 cali isnt so bad. high school would eventually become a distant memory.

nicole canonically lifts + boosts. i dont think she'd make enough to move to cali but by senior year its def a side hustle for her. she gets better at it after a few runins with cop. she learns the valuable lesson of flirting is not a reliable way to get out of jailtime when committing a felony.

i dont think nicole regularly does hard drugs - harder than pills, i mean. she'll try most things once - emily is always up for something - but there's def hard lines, like heroin. as seen in flipside, i think jecka is very susceptible to abusing substances when emotionally wrecked, which is a horrible horrible horrible devastating mix. itd be so easy for her to get fucked up on something and not be happy about it.

in a future for jecka more in-line with the endings flipside provides, she's thrown out of the house and starts living in considerably shittier circumstances. i can see her getting rly fucked and stuck in a limbo, suffering from serious mental health issues, not having a support system, using substances to treat it and her life coming to a screeching halt. shitty jobs that dont last long bc she fails drugs tests or comes in hungover or just straight up forgets to show bc she's so fucked from the weekend. and then it stops being just the weekend. and it's getting hard to keep this up but she doesn't know what she'll do without this and she's so traumatized from what little sex work she did do that she'd rather kill herself than start selling her body for drugs.

this could also happen at college. too much easy access to drugs because she's hot and skinny, its 2010 and why would she need to go to therapy, she's away from her dad finally you really think she wants to talk about how awful he was every week? nah, fuck that. lets party! except she doesnt know what she wants to do when she graduates and her degree's useless and her friends don't really care for her they just like getting fucked and she can't go home and she can't text nicole because they haven't spoken since last summer and beside, nicole's probably dead in a ditch or whoring herself for drugs (she thinks telling herself these things will make her feel better about not keeping the friendship going. it does not.) and eventually her grades get so bad that she's threatened with expulsion and at this point, why is she putting herself in so much debt, its easier to take a leave of absence and get a real job. but drugs are so much more expensive when you're not in college. and she's only ever met a dealer maybe once, when she had friends with her and everything said the guy was cool, and she acted like she didnt care but rly she was scared shitless bc what the fuck what if hes in a GANG what if they forget the money and he KILLS THEM? (shes a white girl from the suburbs. getting drugs from your white middle class friends is way less scary than getting drugs yourself).

wow that got dark fast anyways. thats all for now. like i said i rly like kelly and ari and nicole and jecla and emily and yuri and messy high school y2k drama. and stories that center on female struggle esp for young women who are never taken seriously.

tried reading some fanfics but they were all very... poorly written ig or only seemed to be parodying the original.

if anyone has fic recs ill take em! might end up writing my own who knows

i rly like character studies, not interested in shipping altho i like yuri elements, please no pwp/smut, none of that weird jeffery glorifying shit plz <3

[patataatomica5]

Some Fear and Hunger headcanons and plot for a future fanfic I'm going to write :p

TW GORE, MENTIONS OF DEATH, SA AND VIOLENCE. (just in case something is mentioned)

ALSO SPOILERS FOR FEAR AND HUNGER 1

(you have been warned)

This is my first post ever in tumblr, i know the concept of mixing plot of a future fanfic and headcanons is weird, and the post got out of hand and got too long, anyway i hope you guys enjoy it :D

Ok so this is how I want everything to happen in my happy world of sunshine and lollipops. This is basically a to-be fanfic mixed with headcanons.

Everyones S endings come true and Rag, the Girl, Cahara and Celeste live happily with Moonless being the best girl ever.

+ The main party will consist in Cahara, Ragnvaldr, The Girl and Moonless.

+ At first Rag frees The Girl and, of course, Cahara ends up stealing from Rag and running away. (which makes our barbarian very mad and loses a little bit of what is left of faith in humanity)

+ Enki is an asshole and thinks he is just some dumb barbarian who probably doesn`t even know how to read (he does)

+ Ragnvaldr tames Moonles (best girl ever) and gives the doll and the dagger to our poor child to at least defend herself.

+ Even though the girl doesn`t speak, little by little begins trusting this red haired giant we all love and you could see the brightest smile when he gives her the doll :""")

+ Him teaching her how to properly handle the dagger and where to stab and cut a bigger enemy.

+ Rag having been a dad he will assure this girl gets the life she deserves outside of this damned dungeon, even if it means he won`t eat (or if he has to eat the c0rpses of his enemies behind her back in order to survive)

+ When Rag and Cahara see each other again, Rag is very weak and badly injured, but Cahara helps him come out of the battle and takes him to a safer space and cure his injuries (with the blue vials that he stole)

-¿Are those MY blue vials?-

*silence*

-Yeah-

*silence*

-¡Hurry up and drink it before you bleed out!-

+Rag is somewhat still mad at him but at least he is thankful he saved him. So lets him join :D

+With the time they learn more about each other and realice they are just trying to survive in a cruel world and an awful situation.

+ In the times they rest and open a rare bottle of ale or whiskey the conversation ends up in them telling each other their background and origins.

+ Even Cahara tears up a little bit when our favourite Oldegardian tells him about his late wife and child.

+Cahara just cracks a lot of jokes to kind of light up the ambience and sings and dances with the girl trying to cheer her up when something makes her upset or is very afraid.

+ Moonless is the best girl ever and protects the child a lot and sleeps next to her to warm her up.

+ And licks her face if she cries making her giggle :")

+At some point in the story we find D'arce and joins their quest in finding Le'Garde.

+Find the Cube of the Depths and kill the entire Cavedweller village on the way out

+ D'arce doesn't like Cahara's jokes and thinks he needs All-Merr (Jesus)

+When they find him, he is already dead.

+ Ragnvaldr is very glad that the man who slaughtered his entire village died tortured in this hell they call dungeon.

+ Cahara panicks a little, but doesnt show it in the moment (i will explain)

+ D'arce just goes on crying and mourning her capitain and ends up in a nasty argument with Ragnvaldr about the man.

+ The mercenary, knowing how Rag can go berserk and how this will end up very bad when D'arce pulls out her sword, he drags Rag out and they just run away with Moony and The Girl.

+ In a safe place to hide (probably the stairs leading up to level 3), its the first time Rag sees Cahara cry and panick (the boy probably has an anxiety attack) because now what? His mission failed.

+ How will the people believe Le'Garde was already dead? How will he pay for the freedom of his wife? Where will he get the money to feed his child-to-be? Will he even get out of this alive or in one piece?

+ Rag helps him calm down assuring him they will get something valuable out of this hell of a place.

+ They rethink what are they going to do. Rag is a bit lost too, because now that Le'Garde is dead, what now. He doesn't has a house to go back, or a wife like the mercenary, not even a town.

+Well, he makes a promise to wipe all of the darkness out of this place, or at least as much as he can.

+Cahara wants to find something valuable so he doesn't go back home empty handed.

+ They get lost a few times in the dungeon, because let's be real, being in complete darkness in those laberynthic corridors must be very frustrating and confusing. Even more if they all look similar.

+ They kill Isayah. Funny story, Cahara tries to steal the maps but end up in a fight with him. (Oh shit, here we go again.)

+On their way following the map they wipe all the bosses out, some of them even without the help of Cahara, because Ragnvaldr just goes berserk with hatred.

+ Arrival to the City of The Gods, Mahavre!

+ Pause at the Tower of The Endless, where Cahara dreams of the days before he left to the Dungeon. At the end of the dream Nilvan visits him and tells him to carry her child (The girl) to the God of the Depths in exchange of her endless soul.

+The mercenary agrees, taking her soul and waking up with the stone in one of his hands. But lies.

+He won't allow the Gods their way with this poor girl who only has met darkness. She deserves something better than being sacrificed or worse things.

+Ragnvaldr dreams of the fatidic day he found his village reduced to ashes and had to bury his wife and son and wakes up crying :""(

+ Moonless tries to give him some comfort and the girl lends him her doll in an attempt to make him feel better and gives him a big big hug.

+ After fighting the fellowship, Cahara is tempted to sit on the golden throne, but snaps out of reality when Rag calls him out.

+ Both of them start filling their bags with everything that shines and even break a wall of the palace taking golden bricks and ornaments. It's pure gold, it can be sold and melted.

+ They find the crown of the treasure maps and having nothing else to kill in the dungeon, they rush out of that place as fast as they can.

I will make a part 2, don't worry, it has gotten very long.

[zyafics]

Is Luke getting along with JJ and the reader in this universe?Is he a good dad and what does he think about Rafe?I am very curious about that

i try to stick to canon as much as i can, so no, in this universe, i don’t think luke is a good dad to jj nor to reader 😭 at least with jj, he sees himself in him and is hard on jj for all the wrong reasons (as we see in the show) but with reader, it’s a whole different story. reader just doesn’t look like luke (making her more general and more reader-insert so u don’t have the white, blonde archetype) and it pisses him off. he believes that reader is an affair baby his ex-wife had and refuses to come clean about. he often uses the argument against reader, so their arguments often ends with luke bringing up that reader should be “grateful” that he stuck around to take care of her especially since their “whorish” mother left them and her. i definitely think he put his hands on her before, especially when she was younger, and i believe she was a recipient of his anger and lot more than jj and she took it bc she doesn’t want jj to get hurt. it wasn’t until jj got older and learned to fight back that he stepped in more and also, reader also started to fight back a lot. it was a ROUGH period when she was 13-17. i think now, especially cause she still lives with luke, she has a non-existent, low-communication relationship with her father that occasionally spirals into long, heated arguments when he’s reminded that she’s grown (like dressing up the way she does) and can do whatever she wants and whenever he does something that trips her out (like trying something with jj or basically interfere with their lives in some ways), she would fight and sometimes leaves for days on end bc she doesn’t want to deal with him! 🥹 it sucks bc i think deep down she does care for her dad bc she is grateful he did do all this for her but man, sometimes she wishes he could be better.

as for rafe, i think luke would definitely be a strong believer of the pogues-kooks rivalry (pushing it onto jj a lot) so when he first saw rafe, he definitely saw him as another kook and had a strong disdain for him. and it got worse after he learns his only daughter is “with” rafe, to which luke thought was just a fluke and would end within days/weeks not realizing that they had stronger feelings. he would definitely make reader feel bad about it—every time they get into fights, he would tell reader that she should go live with her “kook” boyfriend and leave just like her mother did. it pisses her off and drove her insane but eventually she would at times! and the fact that reader is so close to money luke could use but DOESNT do anything about it? yeah. definitely can see luke trying to guilttrip reader about money because of rafe. so he does not like rafe. but overall luke knows it’s because he has little power over whether reader sees him or not and that drives him insane!

hope this gives u a better feel for this universe! 💗🙂‍↕️

[swiftfootedachilles]

Hi! 47, 48 and 49 for the headcanon tag if you are still writing them please ty ily 🧡🖤

47. AU if they had a more normal childhood- How would they be in high school? (Would Ian be a jock? a cheerleader? would he be popular? Would Mickey enjoy studying? what's his favorite subject?) i don't think there's a universe where ian and mickey have normal childhoods and still come out the other end as ian and mickey. but if they had somewhat-stable childhoods? i think they would still be the goofy army kid and the drug dealer. mickey would barely make it to graduation and he would be a class behind, but he wouldnt drop out without even finishing freshman year like in canon. ian loves rotc but he doesnt have tunnel vision fkr joining the military, because hes not as desperate to get away and start a new life. maybe ian gets his math tutoring from mickey, and mickey studies for english tests with ian. i love aus where they are more than just secret fuckbuddies in high school. i need more of them holed up in ians room at dinnertime, passing cigs and joints, teaching each other about inverse trig functions and symbolism in the great gatsby. yeah a lot of things are still shit and they still make a lot of mistakes. yeah mickeys dad is still a piece of shit and ian barely makes it through senior year from the stress of his diagnosis. but it's better. and they are still ian and mickey. so it's all still worth it in the end

48. After awhile, do you think people got to Ian and Mickey for relationship advice? (Gallaghers / friends / franny ) i definitely think debbie tries to subtly hound mickey for info about sandy. what she's doing, where she's at, who she's hanging out with. at first mickey tells her to ask sandy her fucking self, but he realizes 1. he has to be nicer to the only free welder he knows 2. nothing he does to deflect the questions actually makes debbie leave him alone. so he answers her curtly and holds in his annoyance for debbie's obsession with his cousin. eventually he actually tells her something worth listening to, and debbie takes the hint and tries a new tactic for approaching sandy (debbie hasn't been able to get her out of her head and she needs closure or she's gonna combust)

i think lip and tami also sometimes try to drag gallavich into their fights. "you know what it's like living together in a small space, tell her im right." "you've made your relationship work for a while, why dont you give him some advice on how to do the same thing." ian tries to stay out of it because hes very biased toward lip, but mickey honestly dgaf about lip and tami's relationship so he tells them they're both equally and dumb and annoying and they better find someone else to talk to about all this relationship shit before he rigs their duplex with c-4s

49. Gallaghers post canon: Does Lip go back to school/ gets a profession? Do all of them talk to Fiona? What happened with Debbie and Heidi/ Sandy? Franny? Does Carl open the cop bar/ stays a cop? Does Liam live with Lip and Tami? How does he deal with Franks death? okok i have many thoughts about post-s11. i will be as succinct as possible as to not write a 10 page essay about my fanon theories. if y'all want that you'll have to pay me to go on a podcast or smth.

i don't think lip goes back to school, at least not in the near future. maybe further down the line, but for now he's in the mechanic and refurbishing business. which honestly he can make a hell of a lot of money doing so i see no reason why he would feel the need to go back to school and burn himself out and be in debt all over again.

the siblings keep in contact with fiona. i like to imagine she eventually moves much closer to chicago like fort wayne or springfield. somewhere that makes long weekend visits possible. they definitely facetime and are on good terms. if she moves closer i can see liam possibly moving to live with her? or at least stay with her during summer break

fuck heidi i really dgaf about her. i hope debbie and sandy can at least make up and be cordial with each other. i think they are very off-and-on for a looong time. toxic situationship that neither can seem to get away from. they both got shit they gotta figure out if they ever wanna be girlfriends again. sandy throwing debbies trauma in her face was FUCKT UP. and what the hell was with her secret son?? that plot was weird as hell😭

carl dont need to be a cop so yeah i will make him a bartender instead. fuck the cop bar thing, but they can have, like...a cop night or something. like tuesdays and thursdays during happy hour they get a discount or smth. but i REFUSE to turn it entirely into a cop bar. carl lives in the apartment above it

ummm okay so first and foremost lip is NOT selling that house idc what anyone says I AM NOT LETTING HIM DO THAT. DO YOU KNOW HOW BAD THE HOUSING MARKET GOT IN 2021? FUCK OFF. he and tami are either gonna have to suck it the fuck up and live in the gallagher house (ITS A FREE FUCKING HOUSE!!!!) with liam and probably also debbie and franny at least for a little while longer, or lip has to stop being an idiot and live in one of the MANY FREE HOUSING OPTIONS TAMIS FAMILY GAVE THEM. DONT piss me off phillip. with carl, ian, and mickey out of the house i don't see why they can't live there for at least a couple years. debbie can take her time finding an apartment while still living there, liam can have some semblance of normalcy in his life without having to move schools, the older sibs can get their own room (lip and tami, debbie, liam, franny and fred), if they can't make it work then they can't make ANYTHING work. it's literally half as crowded. and i think liam takes franks passing really hard, but i like to think everyone is much more supportive of him than ian was toward mickey when terry died. liam, carl, and mickey can have a heart-to-heart about their complex relationships with their dads. i dont think fiona comes up for the funeral - she probably goes on a bender in miami lbr. but i imagine liam has a decent enough support system that he won't be traumatized by franks deathl

[mdhwrites]

Ok, so i watched the finale, it was pretty predictable but enjoyable. But during the after cred scene, it really just solidified how aimless these characters are, Willow truly became just 'strong athlete' who serves as Hunters arm candy. She doesnt seem to give a shit about plants anymore ig? shes just 'buff' now.

Gus went straight back to 'guy who likes humans who has a group to celebrate said interest'. Amity is just... making abominations? i guess? Hunter is making palismen, which seems shoved in because caleb apparently carved.

Luz is... magic. yeah thats it. Eda is a headteacher, which feels widely out of place, but whatever. King Is. Other characters are rebuilding? i just- it feels like these characters have nowhere else to go because they just had no personal goals outside of very basic shit.

With amphibia, sasha became a child therapist, anne became a biologist who specialised in amphibians, marcy became a game designer. These are all goals that reflect their journey.

Now I want to start by saying that endings are hard and that character endings can be even harder than that. If you do a time skip epilogue, you have to somehow be able to show that all the characters are happy, successful and moving on in a way that makes sense and is narratively satisfying. You also usually have VERY little time to do this with because it's purposefully meant to be fluffy and sweet and disconnected from the rest in a way that isn't going to fit with the core of the show. The problem is that part of why this is hard is because characters are meant to be complex and their endings should reflect on the themes of the piece as well. Marcy's creativity and wonder about things blooming into a webcomic (I believe it's a webcomic and not games at least, though games works too) is great because she found a healthy way to share those passions with others and make connections through them. Anne's whole arc was learning to find the wonder in others and the strange world she was in and so her aquarium job is dead on the money. Sasha had to learn the hard way how to stop being controlling, angry and manipulative and passing those lessons on is far deeper and useful to others than anything her cheerleader base would have made you expect. It also makes it so when the show states the theme of the piece, about separation being a chance to grow and what you'll find coming back together is all the stronger, it hits SO. FUCKING. HARD. And comparing that to TOH... Well, we got effectively six character endings from what I've seen, seven if you count Lilith but hers is just more of what she was already doing as her job in the series, just now with a harpy form so I don't. Only six are meant to be any sort of final cap on their character/lives. And I'm just going to say this outright: They're not all bad. So from best to worst, with the name at the start of each in bold in case you don't care about someone, let's talk about: Hunter Amity Eda Willow Gus Luz Hunter: It's good. It's genuinely pretty damn good. That's not a joke or a setup or anything either. If Hunter's arc was about rejecting Belos to any extent, then this is a GREAT finish, even without Flapjack. After all, the part of the Isles that Belos himself most directly destroyed through his consumption, greed and wrath was the palistrom trees and palismen. Having it be that Hunter is now helping restore those elements is incredibly potent. Of course, there's also the obvious connection of Hunter and Flapjack but arguably the bird had more to do with his arc than any one character so him influencing Hunter's future just makes sense. I think it also just fits well with Hunter's character though. Watching out for people trying to steal palistrom wood uses his old soldier training but now in a constructive way, he's obviously not a very social person so the isolation is probably nice to him to get away from things and the boy has a LOT mentally to deal with. Working on regular wood while thinking about all of that is going to be a good place to release those anxieties and tensions in a good, creative manner. And for themes of identity, I think it's fine too. While Flapjack was Caleb's palisman, I don't think we ever get it confirmed that Caleb himself carved for a living or the like. That makes this genuinely something Hunter is doing himself and not because of someone else. That includes if he's doing it somewhat for Flapjack because honoring a friend is a very personal thing and very different from copying the dead. And again, frankly, the job feels very right for Hunter because it plays into his strengths rather than his weaknesses and gives him the peace he needs. No notes. Good job show. You got one. Amity: Okay, that's a little mean because Amity's is... Fine. It finally gives a point to her and her father's arc that you can't argue with through "X led to nothing" like angst about her father or the abomaton problem. There is a through line to this, especially with her abomatons. It makes narrative sense and functions.

...Except how much have those things actually mattered to her and in how long? She still rejected her father's hug in Reaching Out and didn't ask Em and Ed about him so their relationship by the end of the show still wasn't good. Escaping Expulsion explicitly said Amity was letting her grades slip so she's been at least distracted from magic for over a season at this point. Yes they claim her hair is abomination styled but it's WAY too light colored for that frankly, making it look way more pink than any sort of purple. Worse yet is that Amity's arc, besides becoming Luz's girlfriend, can be generously claimed as having a theme of becoming her own person instead of what others want of her. This technically works but clashes some by her still following in one of her parent's footsteps. She just swapped from her mother's dream to her father's passions. Now Alador never pushed her to copy him, he was neglectful after all so that would have been hard, so it still works. It is still theoretically a form of abominations that is characterized in the show by being about passion rather than simply performance with Odalia pushing the need for it to be commercial, something Amity theoretically won't care about. Frankly though, with how much her arc tries to push her caring about others, her reading to kids, there even being from what I've seen a sweet moment between her and the Collector... Why not make her a teacher or a caretaker of some sort? That's harder to portray than abomination mechanic but it fits as an ultimate capstone for going from someone who only cared about personal position, being the best and would throw away lives for her goals to someone who rejected all of that. To someone who spent their life now lifting others up and her knowledge empowered her to do that better than she otherwise could have. So Amity gets like a B. It works narratively and for the character but there's some improvement that could be done.

Eda: Oh look, a job that is going to make her absolutely miserable! That is my first thought hearing that she's a headmaster. After all, being the lead administrator is NOT the same as being a teacher. The paperwork alone is going to make her wish she was dead, much like when Tsunade became Hokage in Naruto. But that's not really what you're supposed to be thinking with it. It's supposed to be the ultimate extension of both Momma Eda in her students being her kids but also the fulfillment of Eda going from reluctant mentor to full on teacher. Which... If there were more than two episodes of the series where Eda was actually even attempting to be a mentor to Luz, that might actually mean more and that is EASILY the stronger thread being pulled here. You have to make the students into a more abstract concept for the Momma Eda theme to really fit here. What could you have done with her? I don't entirely know but I would probably have said enjoying retirement with Raine. Living a life finally at peace and without a need to hustle and bustle to fight against the curse or the system. She could have the freedom she always wanted without having to fear for her life. Having her partner by her side also makes it so you know she has family, something she spent so much of her life without. So essentially it's an ending that works from a more meta perspective but when you actually consider the events of the show and the character, it's questionable how much it fits or how 'happy' an ending it will be for her, especially when it ties her down so hard.

Willow: Okay, being fair here, from a setup perspective this actually works better than Eda's ending. Her strength is much of what defined her character, magically and physically, and she decided personally to want to go into sports in S2. Her becoming an athlete fits on both of those levels. For a character who is mostly a plot device, that's not bad.

Except it really doesn't play into anything about how she began and her resentment towards the name Half a Witch. It also has nothing to do with her plants. These elements that the show tried to claim had her seething resentment, that dominated her childhood, are ENTIRELY gone from her ending instead of reclaimed in any way. It's frustrating because it really paints that early stuff as pointless and genuinely just for Amity's sake, not Willow's and that's not great when the athletic stuff always felt tacked onto me in S2 just to give her SOMETHING to do with Hunter.

It also just continues pushing this feeling to me that despite setting up and wanting Willow to be the shy, plant girl archtype at times, S1 especially wanting her to just be willing to wilt away, SOMEONE on the writing team hates that archtype. Just wanted to surgically remove every last scrap of that from her character, regardless of if she was given the time to justify it or the like. That was frankly more okay to me with the shy element than the plant element seeing as she feels BORN to do plant magic by the fact that she was a master practically from the first time we see her use it without no training.

But here's the real reason it's below Eda: I hate her design. It's mostly fine but it's also UNFINISHED. She has one kneepad and ONE SOCK. You can make excuses for one of those but not the fucking sock and it drives me up a wall. I also don't like that the reformed Isles would still have a character like Willow having spikes on parts of her uniform for sports. Get rid of those and imply things have become gentler show. It's not like you've ever cared about keeping the Isles' identity intact before.

Gus: Here is where we go from "It functions but is maybe not good if you think about it" to "You're being way more honest than you're meaning to be show." After all, we have that cyclical aspect of Eda where Gus is returning to the start of the show but there is NO thought put into this.

If there was, if the show was willing to show that Gus had become wiser and more considerate, he wouldn't be studying humans. Not on the Isles. After all, how is he even going to do it on the Isles? Studying Luz? That feels weirdly like being friends with Bigfoot while saying you still need to find Sasquatch and prove the legends are true. Dude, maybe stop being... weird about this race you know exists properly now. It's kind of uncomfortable.

It's not even a hard thing to fix: Say he's here to see Luz off before going through the portal door with one of those glamour stones to cover his ears. He needs to go learn anthropology and the political sciences of our world in order to prepare to be a proper ambassador. That actually might have been neat.

But, you know, that would have taken any thought or care with Gus and we're lucky he was even remembered in the finale frankly. It's a flat failure though and really highlights how Gus hasn't grown and is still mostly a joke to the writers.

So then the question is... If Gus is this bad, can it really get worse with

Luz: *breathes in slowly*

*breathes out slowly*

I've been pretending to grade some of these and if that's the case, I don't even accept Luz's ending. I tell the student that they ignored what the assignment was and just copy and pasted the first paragraph of their wikipedia entry and tried to hand that in as their answer to how the MAIN CHARACTER OF THE SHOW ENDS IT. Because that is exactly the vibe of this ending.

Luz didn't grow and she sure as shit didn't learn anything. Remember: Her theme for her character arc, the worst decision to me creatively, is the fantasy she wants to live versus the consequences of that fantasy. It doesn't even matter how bad that theme is ever handled in the show because this is theoretically the largest, explicit theme of the story outside of personal expression being all that matters.

And Luz literally ends the series chasing the same dream she had at the start.

I... I don't even entirely know how to respond to that. The show, which is a kid's show remember, legitimately said that her running away from her problems to play out one of her fantasy books was such a good choice, it should be the thing she does for the REST OF HER LIFE. That it is the final, definitive note for the character that Luz the Human is going to be Luz the Witch.

And you know what? If Luz's journey to being a witch actually meant anything in the show, this might have literally any justification. If during the course of the show she had genuinely learned a lot as a person over the course of becoming a witch, if magic itself had so many rules as to require you to be a functional human being in order to use it, it MIGHT work. It's not great but it might work. Except... Remember back when I was talking about Eda? About how Eda spends two episodes teaching Luz and that's it?

Remember: Luz is like 90% why the Selkidamus is beat while on the boat. By the beginning of S2, and explicitly with Escaping Expulsion, she is already closing in on the ceiling of her powers. She already outshines most other witches to the point where the Emperor is the only person to give her a real challenge combat wise so long as the series is actually remembering to let her cast spells. Half of her glyphs aren't even tried to be connected to anything but instead, as she puts it, are found from other witch's spells randomly. They're just... There and no one else noticed somehow.

And this is what you want to say her character was leading up to? A profession that in the human realm has no transferable skills because she can't just be spinning Stringbean all the time without it being obvious and glyphs don't work in the human realm. It's actually worse in the Boiling Isles because unless she's going to get employed as a glyph master or something, she still needs a job. Everyone has magic there after all and anyone can use glyph magic with ease. You don't even need to be confident in it. Thank you Gus and Looking Glass Ruins.

It is bizarrely revealing how little thought and care was put into Luz and the themes of the show with this being how it ends. It is just, top to bottom, a failure. The only way it functions is fans of the show being happy she's chasing her dreams into eternity. You cannot think about it for even a second without some sort of question coming up.

And what else would she do? Easy. I've been saying she should have become a counselor or a therapist literally even before S2. That was just the obvious way for her to grow to me. She learns that you need to balance reality and fantasy, your passions with the demands of the world and takes up a job that lets her help kids like her find happiness and a place in their world. Either world. It would imply she understands childhood fantasies are just that, it would highlight her empathy and understanding of others and also is an amazing culmination of the theme of Fantasy versus Reality.

And instead the show's response was probably as far from caring about any of those things as you can possibly get. I don't understand it and it blows my fucking mind.

But I mean... if you want to finally drop the pretenses and just admit that your show is nothing but basic, escapist fantasy... I guess there really isn't a better ending than this, is there? =======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

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[musubiki]

i'd love to learn more about coco and lime's dynamic... the art you've made of them give me annoying bickering siblings energy (compared to mochi and taffy's more softer sibling energy) and i love it so much LMAOO

ITS TRUE in my mind mochi/taffy give off the "siblings who have to have each others back because the world is cruel and cold" dynamic whereas lime and coco have the "asshole siblings fist fighting to sit in the front seat" dynamic LOL!!!!

but their friendship is honestly very funny (if it can be called that). coco straight up thinks theyre cool. shes like "Oh yeah hes my bro" and throws up a peace sign, meanwhile lime cringes in the distance. between her and oscar, coco is WAY more likely to meddle in limochi moments and lime HATES IT !!!!! he just wants some mochi time, and coco is the one thats usually interrupting and/or stealing mochi away for some girl time. HOWEVER coco also then has the Inside Scoop on mochi, so he has no choice but to consult her. as a result, coco is one of the only two people (the other being oscar) that lime actually talks to about mochi (his options are garbage. 50/50 chance that oscar will use the newly acquired information to fuck with you, and coco uses it as blackmail)

i think lime would get along with her more if she didnt meddle in the mochi affairs so much. shes the one thats more likely to try and play matchmaker, and lime wants to kill her every other episode. he just wants Something To Develop(tm) with mochi naturally and casually without coco over there kicking his shin every time mochi mentions shes going to buy snacks or something. "First of all," he aggressively and quietly whispers, "I was gonna buy her snacks anyway, and second you don't have to kick me every fucking time mochi does something!"

as a result, from mochis pov, she'll be talking about something and all of a sudden lime and coco start fucking fighting in the middle of the classroom. coco kicks him and he throws fruit juice on her and it starts a whole thing. mochi doesnt actually even know what triggers it. (she DOES hang out with stray cats a lot, so she figures they just fight randomly sometimes like the cats do LOL)

another thing is coco is notoriously unhelpful when it comes to mochi. she only gives very obvious and straightforward advice that lime is too much of a coward to do. its like "Easy, just tell her you like her." and lime walks away like "Oh great idea, I cant believe I never thought of that. Thanks for nothing."

also during their high school years, as class president she very much sees him as a money-generating asset. "You see, if we hold a school dance and set up a booth where you pay 10 dollars to dance with Lime, then all the girls will come and pay the entrance fee AND pay the dance fee, and since all the girls will be there all the guys will come too so summing up all of that we have--" and she just rambles off not even paying attention to lime yelling that she cant just sell off his body like that without even asking him (he eventually gets roped into doing it against his will)

and the love-hate friendship is also because shes so annoying, but she does things sometimes which lime is actually greatful, like when she convinced mochi to start wearing the short skirt to school. catch them afterwards with coco being like "Hey hey you see that? What do you think? Where's my thank you? I take cash or card for tip." and lime is head in hands, a mix of extreme gratitude and irritation

(also worth mentioning that from cocos pov, lime is excessively selfish with mochi. shes like "Dude, you walk with her to school everyday. You see her after school EVERY DAY. You SLEEP with her EVERY NIGHT. I can't have ONE AFTERNOON for us to get ice cream??" and lime goes "No. I was gonna take her to do that.")

an equally funny dynamic thrown in: oscar the opportunist ripping the rug out from both of them while theyre fighting all the time. goes and gets mochi ice cream while theyre hashing it out. this actually happens more than once, no one really figured out yet why oscar keeps doing this, but i think its because it serves the dual purpose of 1) fucking with lime and/or coco, and 2) doing something nice for mochi, since he knows shes always stressed out. the main time this little thing of his shows up is when mochi off-handedly mentions that no one asked her to prom/winter ball/some dance. immediately coco kicks lime and they start fighting again, and oscar the opportunist (after giving it a few seconds) goes "Why not go with me?"

(when lime (pissed) asks him what the fuck later on, he goes "Well you were taking too long to ask her, plus half chance you actually gather up the guts to do it. This is our last school dance, and I don't want Mochi to miss out just because you didn't get your shit together fast enough. You'll still see her at the dance, I don't see the big deal.") (oscar is good at forcing limes hand)

[sorrelpaws]

Sorrel imma listen to each song and the playlist and give my take! I wanna see how close or off or just any feedback tbh! For funzies! LMAO The first song is JUST THE VIIIBE FOR THE SHOW OVERALL <33

YOU ACTUALLY WENT THROUGH EVERYTHING honestly im so giddy over this. I'LL PUT MORE SPECIFIC THOUGHTS under the readmore, BUT U WERE PRETTY SPOT ON DUDE!!!

arrival - totally for the vibe. Just sounds like them to me daydream in blue - originally this was more so about rick/diane and how rick (badly)copes with her loss. BUT HONESTLY your interpretations centering morty's disillusionment ARE ALSO REALLY NEAT and i cant believe i didnt think of that sooner hehe i think it might be hell - YUP!!! mostly rick song but also has some lines that work for morty them changes - ALSO WORKS FOR BOTH OF THEM!! but personally i think of it more as a rick song snake eyes - I'LL ADMIT THAT THIS is half here for the vibe, BUT ALSO yeah definitely morty at a breaking point toy plane - YESSS EXACTLY!!!! i've been plugging this as a morty song basically since i found it. Very much about the dynamic between him and rick. TO BE HONEST i've never even thought about the "though this house is unchanged" LINES BUT YOU'RE SO RIGHT. RICK POTION #9. found god in a tomato - YUPPP very much their vibe. also makes me think very much about rick and just The way he is. his whole "i'm better than everyone" shtick just - YESSS EXACTLY THIS IS LITERALLY JUST rick being an asshole 180db_[130] - YUP just here for the vibe B) everything hurts - YEAH YEAH YEAH just completely rick's angsty sad miserable life no need for a leader - actually this for me is very much an evil morty song. specifically s3e7's whole plot starstruck - YUP MORTY SONG!!! for all his hurt feelings and protests, morty still obviously looks up to rick A Lot, so while he may be mad about something, he'll still go along with whatever rick wants fifteen minutes - THEM BOTH YEAH. here for the vibe cadence - this one is just kind of Rick and Morty to me. i dont even know how to explain it, just has their vibe. BUT I LIKE your interpretation a lot!! about how morty is aware of rick's self loathing and trying to kind of help him in his own way i'm your dog - YEAH. this is the most morty song ever to me. he really wants to act like he doesnt need rick, but he's also disgustingly codependent so the moment rick needs him, he comes running back. in the yard - YES!!! huge morty song. kind of has rick potion #9 vibes again, BUT I REALLY like the idea that there's some pressure to never mess up around rick, and feeling like his family prefers each other over him who is she ? - YEAH kind of here for the vibes, but also a bit for rick and diane! i don't know, i just feel like after searching for her killer for a couple of decades she might morph into less of a person and more of just an idea running on a treadmill - HEHE YESSSS morty doing everything for ricks approval to the point he sacrifices his own comfrot barbarism begins at home - YES about rick and morty's weird abusive relationship. morty not being "good enough", rick being a terrible role model/adult presence and not knowing how to be Nice call this # now - JUST FOR THE VIBES!!!! money - THIS ONE to me is about rick wanting to be better for morty, but having a really hard time stepping out of his nihilistic-asshole comfort zone. he knows he sucks, he acknowledges it, and he really wants to be better kiss me, son of god - very much a rick song hehe. specifically im imagining him in the era where he's contributing to the citadel's creation, but there's a line here that also make me think a bit about his relationship with prime (i destroyed the bond of friendship and respect between the only people left who'd even look me in the eye) birdhouse in your soul - just Rick and Morty and their relationship dungen - another Just for The Vibe song, BUT YEAH works well as a "throwback to the "good" ol' days" interpretation too drunk to come - YEPPPP RICK SONG ALL THE WAY BABY nugget killer - i'll be honest i also have no idea what this song says or means But it just Feels like rick and morty to me. i can feel it in my bones glue - YUHHHH MORTY ABOUT RICK YEOP YEP YEP YEOP oulala - YEP rick and his whole attachment and substance abuse issues two weeks - YEAH. their whole relationship

[milfygerard]

i wanna add the shot of "mom i am a rich man" in yntcd to the taylor and marriage discourse

on one hand it screams i am successful in my own right

on the other hand it's a statement on marriage too

and sure i know there is nuisance especially when i have a sister that loves the quote so much she framed it in her workspace too and she also dreams of being a sahm with her bf making enough money to support a family but at this point in time she outearns him by a lot while being a few years younger (not too big of an age gap, 3y, but still, she got started later in life than him) and she's actually good at her job (heard good reviews from clients) while ive heard complaints from people about the quality of work of her bf and then capitalism on top of it all making it almost impossible for a regular person to be a stay at home anything while depending on a partner because what if something happens to that partner and suddenly they cant work while the person staying at home has been out of the workforce for a while (this is an actual situation that another family member is going through but at little fault other than their own because they refused to work for a long time and now they're desperate and in debt with multiple people)

yeah like the fact that if you trace it back marriages and how theyre legally structured are kind of inherently misogynistic and promote a capitalist ideal that really doesnt exist anymore (if it ever did) i do think is one of the complications. The reality that both her boyfriend and the state are failing your sister and not allowing her to do what she wants to even if what she wants aligns with what society expects because of how tightly squeezed the lower and middle classes are is an interesting point. I do think that taylor, being in the tax bracket shes in, has a slightly different view but i get what you mean about like. The financials of it all.

I dont know if taylors ambitions and desire for independence and artistic movement can even align with marriage and kids. There is always a risk being permanently tied to a man and taylor knows well that no amount of power or money will save you from misogyny and that giving a man control over her empire by being financially attatched in that way is a big big risk and a big big ask. Its why I'm up in the air on taylors real stance on marriage and getting married, shes very serious about control and independence and her fucking money, and the legal realities of marriage do not really align with those beliefs she holds but also (and im fictionalizing/speculating here a little bit) taylor as a woman is meant to want marriage and kids and to settle down and eventually retire to focus on Womanly Duties. You see her sort of wrestle with this in her past few albums again starting with folklore, but I dont think its something shes really fully broken down yet and decided if she Really wants kids and marriage or if shes just meant to want it.

[thievescanted]

cal-as-companion questions part 1

this is @omgkalyppso's fault btw

Where can your Tav be recruited? Are they first encountered on the Nautiloid, or in the Nautiloid crash region? Or are they not recruitable until a later act?

cal can be found on the way to the grove just outside the nautiloid crash region, arguing with a man who, believing her to be dead, had been rifling through her bag. upon your interruption, the man will say he’s sorry for the mistake, but insist to you that he really did think she was dead. passing a DC 22 investigation check will reveal that there is something off about the way she breathes - it seems more deliberate than automatic.

when you realize she’s tadpoled too you can ask her to join you - she will be reluctant about it and tells you she doesnt play well with others. if you take her word for it though she says “Ohh ha that was a joke! No, we should definitely stick together. You could clearly use the help. No offense.”

Do the other companions have special comments or reactions upon recruiting your Tav?

astarion and shadowheart do nottt trust her lol

shadowheart: Are you quite sure we need her company? Far be it from me to question your judgement, but there’s something off about her. Something about her eyes, perhaps - they have this… cornered animal quality about them.

astarion: (looking over tav’s shoulder at cal, squinting - clearly is seeing something you don’t) Hm? Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fine picking up another stray. Probably.

(after a long rest you can get the following banters if theyre both in the party:

astarion: you look cold, moretti. do you need a jacket? cal: you offerin’ me yours, sunshine? astarion: ugh. no, the last thing i need is for any of my clothes to come back reeking of cigarette smoke. i was only making an observation.

cal: you’ve got red on your collar there, astarion. what is that, tomato? or maybe - astarion: what? where? i - cal: (cackles) astarion: (sourly) oh, do fuck off.

they are playing undead chicken)

Does your Tav have any comments or advice when you recruit other companions?

of shadowheart: So you're taking this one with us, then. She doesn't exactly seem the friendly sort, but then I suppose neither do I. of astarion: I'd be careful of that one. Just take my word for it, yeah? of wyll: He's coming along, then? No, I don't mean anything by it. He seems... (wrinkles her nose) nice. He seems perfectly nice. of karlach: (clearly not paying attention to you, very clearly trying to see karlach) Sorry, did you say something? I was admiring the view of the, uh. Landscape. Just appreciating nature. of lae'zel: Sorry, did she say she knows how to get these things out of our heads? Why are we following you? No offense. of gale: Gods, but that one can talk, can't he? Can't say I really understood any of it. Ugh, wizard shit.

What sort of general actions raise or lower their approval?

cal will act soo annoyed about you choosing to help people (“Listen, I don’t mean to get in the way of your whole… (dismissive hand-wave) hero thing, but I do feel compelled to remind you that the matter of the fucking brain parasites in our heads is kind of time-sensitive. But by all means, let’s stop and help every sorry bastard we come across.”). she then proceeds to approve of it every time. she also approves of you giving people money. fucking with rich people nets huge approval. also she likes if youre kind of mean to people. dont worry about it

Are there any instances where your Tav can permanently leave the party, depending on player character actions?

honestlyyyy i think cal will straight up leave the party if you encourage wyll to sign a new contract with mizora. she really values autonomy, and i think telling him to give up his life for that of his father would make her lose a lot of respect for you. she won't leave the party if you help the cult raid the grove, but it will drastically lower it to the point where if she disapproves further she may leave lol

Do they have any secrets that can be revealed? What are the prerequisites for this secret coming to light?

she uhhhh died when she was 21, and was brought back to life by a woman named teverezhta; the condition for cal's revival was that she carry parcels for teverezhta around faerun. she doesn't know what's in them, or what theyre for (you later find out that one of the things she was delivering was shipments of the tadpoles youve been finding around - she was not aware of this). failure to comply with the terms of the contract would mean that tev could kill her automatically; however, the parasite currently gets in the way of this so cal has significantly more freedom. tev also can't currently track her by magical means

somewhere near ethel's house you can find a crow. if you speak to it it will just caw at you, with a note that the crow seems unusually intelligent (with animal speaking: caw. fuck off. caw.) the next time you long rest, the crow will appear in your camp and reveal itself as an half-elf man named emil, who informs cal that their business is not finished yet - tev may not be able to magically track cal, but if she finds she hasnt been doing her job, she'll find her and kill her herself. fortunately her current job is to continue investigating the cult

after this cal will explain her death and her contract to the best of her ability (she remembers neither, only that they happened). it's clear throughout the conversation that she worries youll see her as a liability

Do they have their own personal quest that spans the course of the game? Can it take different branching paths depending on the choices the Player Character makes?

YEAH. so you later find out that there's a piece of. someones soul that was inadvertently stiched into cal's heart during her resurrection - the intention had been for her to be a vessel for this soul, but it didnt quite go as planned so the teverezhta family found a different use for her. HOWEVER that piece of soul in her heart does give her the ability to utilize limited necromantic magic. growing that soul would increase her range of abilities, but also make her less herself (she'll eventually develop a second shadow, and her reflection will occasionally be. not her)

the end id define as the "good" end would be one where tav helps free cal from her contract. im not entirely sure how that would happen just yet, but it would mean she would be properly Alive again, albeit with that soul in her still

What do they say when the Player Character asks them to stay in camp? How about when the Player Character asks them to come adventuring again?

> I need you to go back to camp. Cal: What, really? Won't you miss me? > I'll find you later - go wait there for the time being. Cal: Fine. I'll go stare at some rocks and wait for you to get back.

> Come with me - there's work to be done. Cal: Thought you'd never ask. Try to keep up.

Does your Tav have any escalating conflicts with one of the other companions, like Lae’zel and Shadowheart’s knife-fight?

NOT..... really? like cal and astarion realize pretty quickly that theres something Going On with the other in an undead or undead-adjacent kind of way, but will have agreed to keep their noses out of it. they'll allude to it in banter from time to time to get a rise out of the other, but its - mostly - friendly

Are there any unique NPCs associated with your Tav that can show up during the course of the game?

emil will show up from time to time to annoy cal. he will flirt with the pc - to annoy cal - but nothing will ever really come of it. you can ask him about his family, and he'll give some answers. in a way that annoys cal somehow. he'll often show up as a crow, but he's like as not to appear in his genuine form

Are there any moments in the game that trigger unique dialogue for your character? (Like Gale’s anecdote about the barfight after you save the goblin prisoner)

(upon finding the necromancy of thay): (sarcastically) Necromancy. How lovely. Ugh. We're not taking that with us, are we? I think that's real, actual skin on it. (if you give it to astarion): Listen, I like Astarion as much as the next guy, but are we really trusting him to be normal about that?

[iamafanofcartoons]

Rabbit aka PhonyMangaka Debunks Hbomberguy’s “RWBY is Disappointing Video” and explains why the Critics are wrong about RWBY.  Part 2 of 2

Insert Monty Fight Here Spends a bit talking about how the animation and the writing of the show is set up between Monty, Miles, and Kerry.

Kind of hard to tell if he likes the general idea of it, because he's using an example of Ruby vs Roman and the Club thugs.

Seems positive

Alright so a problem he listed out was how disjointed the scene of the two teams getting the relics and "Running to live another day towards the cliffs"

But it just cuts to another fight were the teams have to engage with the Deathstalker and Nevermore.

And he got it very wrong

He claims it doesnt connect, but Ruby clearly says "make it back to the cliffs" and you can obviously see that's what they're going to do.

It's the deathstalker and the nevermore that are clearly chasing them that they are forced to fight. Just didnt pay attention?

"Character arcs tend to start and stop...  Weiss was annoyed at Ruby being made a leader...  During the test Weiss said she was going to be nicer."

I do agree with this somewhat.

The Weiss racism plot was mostly offscreen, and I would have liked for the friction between Ruby and Weiss to have lasted an extra episode, but I'm not too hung up on it.

However, this reading can be a bit surface level.

Yes, Weiss agreed to be nicer to Ruby however that was done bc SHE thought she'd be made leader bc she believes she is better than Ruby both bc of her age and her status as the heiress of the SDC.

So no, it makes perfect sense why she's annoyed, it's just dishonest of you to really paint that picture when all it takes is just watching episodes that aren't even 15 minutes long.

And another thing is. It's not that Prof Port told- her to just "stop it" as he puts it.

He basically dresses her down and shows her how childish and unreasonable she is.

Weiss does let her feeling's and headstrong way of thinking get in the way of her, but it's not like she WOULDN'T reconsider her ideals/values. This is the same- person that was okay with Blake being a former terrorist in the end despite the things that the White Fang did to her family and her social life growing up.

"All Weiss needed was a man in a position of authority to tell her off"

If Glynda did the same, the same thing happens??

Like yeah...

This is the same person that wanted to call the police and trusts them to do their jobs, of course Weiss listens to authorities and values their opinions moreso over her peers.

"Her character arc is about her dealing with her abusive and controlling father so it- comes across as gross that they would let this happen."

.......................

Are you seriously comparing Professor Port to her Father??

Is that what we're doing?

That makes literally 0 sense lol?

Miles and Kerry talk about how they view RWBY as cool kids and not just female- mcs.

And the reason why he brings up those clips is to basically... idk call them a hypocrite because they made jokes about Yang?

He mentions the time Miles tweeted the Yang vs Tifa fight and says "My money's on the hot one" and also Kerry saying "Yang is the happy joyful on  Everything you want in a girl."

So basically using those two instances were they

1. Promote a Deathbattle video so they can get more views.

2. Have to explain who each character is on the team RWBY

Also please credit who you use for fact checking!

https://youtu.be/EmHM_0Mfe3g

That video was from  @NerdCaliber  from way back in 2013, not a bad interview and even if it was from way back then, i suggest giving it a like!

He now goes into Jaune and the Jaune arc. Which ok, once again I admit that a lot of people do have it's gripes with it. Gripes I can-

Very much understand.

If this volume was longer, and the episodes were too, I very much do believe that so many people wouldn't be so upset by it as they are.

The writing for Jaundice isn't bad either.

It's about a kid who gets bullied because he's weak but tries to deal with it on his own, despite the fact that he very much DOES need help.

We get to see his struggles and with the pep talk from Ruby and with him ACTUALLY standing up for himself in the end, it isn't as simple as "kill a monster that's threatening the bully and that's how you solve it"

As hbomberguy puts it.

It's

"You have to find the inner strength within yourself to stop being a doormat and stand your ground."

Jaune stands his ground, he gains that confidence, and he tells Cardin to never mess with his friends ever again.

He was determined and the facial expressions really hammered home to Cardin that Jaune isn't going to fold to him or his team anymore.

For the last time, I agree that it's weird to put it in the middle of an already short volume with very small run time.

Honestly RWBY SHOULD have had more to do in this Volume-

That I think could have been spent with Weiss's racism and her preconceived notions about the White Fang and those in it as well as just Faunus in general be explored in seeing how she deals with it.

That WOULD have been better and I admit to that fully.

"Penny and Sun just appear... Nothing you could have cut to establish these characters."

Tbcf, Their introduction is fine.

Sun hopping off of a boat that he illegally boarded?

Just Sun things.

Penny getting knocked over for standing in the middle of an alleyway?

Just Penny things

Like he said. it's the last two episodes.

They can be built upon more in the next few volumes.

It's like saying "Why is Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury are in the last episode.

Surely you couldn't have cut an episode or two to introduce them" those are ACTUAL side characters.

JNPR actually has importance over any of the tertiary cast.

Says things I agree with, like production being disjointed.

Don't really agree with the sentiment that the show isn't cohesive.

If anything, I feel like the volume is just too short. If CRWBY were to redo it today Most of the complaints would be nonexistent, obviously of course.

But that's what happens when you have more than when you first started out with.

"Lets not assume this is author self insert wish fulfillment... It's just really weird you picked Neptune... gets into love-triangles with female characters that you write... Just feels weird."

Like... Just say you think it's author self insert wish fulfillment.

That's obviously the picture you're painting.

You're literally not doing ANY amount of nuance to even dictate that you think differently.

The pussyfooting is just lame.

Like also implying Kerry is a creep because "Neptune hangs out with Yang" going back to that old interview were he calls Yang "anything everybody would want in a girl" with then a cut of him saying "she's 17".

Bro just stand your ground and call him a creep.

Because that's LITERALLY what you're trying to get at, at worse or Calling in his behavior as questionable at best.

Both of which, is so demented.

Considering it was Monty (the guy you're dedicating this video too btw) told them which character they'd voice.

Raises points about naturalistic exposition in regards to the prom and how it's all about prom (ignoring the B plot with Yang and Blake too I might add).

Major complaint though is that he feels like there's no plot going on... Which is the actual point?

The "plot" is being halted because Yang basically getting Blake to stop overextending herself with the White Fang and to chill out.

They're still KIDS, much like how Ozpin told Glynda.

They can have a moment where they're embroiled in small scale drama of love triangles and prom.

Besides, the end of the episode is still a thing, where the CCT is broken into and Ruby discovers a certain shadowy figure in that room.

Things are still happening.

The prom was a great excuse for the protagonists to chill for ONE night before a mission and the antagoinsts-  to do some dastardly devious machinations.

Claims Ruby fell into the plot, ie Mount Glenn, but also conveniently ignoring the worldbuilding (the same thing he harps on about earlier in the video) that explains Elder Grimm and what happened to the people of the settlement.

And the narrative reasons is that it's an old decrepit settlement, so of course their would be sinkholes.

Though, it's moreso a flimsy defense so yeah I could see why he wouldn't like how that happens.

But it also bugs me that he never mentions what happens BEFORE Ruby fell.

I don't really see the need to really complain about "it has a working rail system?!?!?!"

I mean yeah?

We don't know how long they've been planning this sort of invasion, but with all the material they gathered and the helping hands around them.

It's not farfetched to think- They could get it working.

Especially since the railroads weren't really messed up.

It's just, a nothing complaint imo.

And it definitely is organic??

Like what's more natural than

"Hey uh theres a bunch of terrorists and Roman Torchwick getting on a train leading to Who knows where. How about we board it and try to stop them?"

I mean that's a pretty damn good reason to get on the train.

One thing I can say about hbomberguy.

He will praise the ever living fuck out of Monty and Shane's animation.

(deserved mind you).

But will leave no room- for Miles and Kerry to even BREATHE.

This man has his foot on both of their necks and just keeps applying pressure like, damn dude

"It's objectively an awful song."

YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH THERE WILL BE NO CAFFEINE SLANDER AT ALL YOU VILE BEING!!

IT'S ONE OF THE BEST RWBY TRACKS AND I WILL NOT STAND FOR YOUR NEEDLESS MUDSLINGING!!!!!!

Also, if we REALLY wanna talk about side casts...

CFVY, depsite how fucking cool they are, are the literal definition of a side cast.

They came in, kicked ass and took names like fucking bosses.

They didn't need a whole biography before they came and what is it with people- mainly critics and youtubers, who believe every single person in the universe needs whole entire episodes and dialogues to understand every single character in existence.

Like damn maybe we should give Tock a backstory too

"Who is this guy, what are his-"

Bruh it's not THAT deep

"That's the story????"

Huh???

The... The story is that they "stopped" whatever plans that the White Fang and Roman have cooked up.

Like, this is all a set up for the end of Volume 3 where the complaints you're bringing up DO have consequences.

Because of the Grimm invasion- Atlas is allowed to bring in it's robots and even more of it's warships...

Know what happens next???

Exactly.

It's bread crumbs.

A domino effect.

Where things are leading up to the bigger picture.

"There is no build up for Velvet to put away her weapon at Coco's request bc-we haven't seen it".

No it's to keep the audience in suspense/garnering hype to what exactly Velvet's weapon could be. It's not supposed to be revealed just yet, but later on in the story.

It wasn't meant to be a joke or a play on OF a joke.

It's just a story beat/reveal.

"It doesn't feel right to speculate."

But spends a minute and a half speculating that Coco and Velvet were supposed to have bigger roles in the story because of how long and how much effort it took to rig her and fan submissions too.

Uhhh... Maybe that's just... How rigging- goes???

I'm pretty sure there were efforts similar that went into RWBY, JNPR, Sun and Neptune, Neo, etc.

Not everything has to be this big/large grandiose purpose you're trying to place on these characters.

And even if they were, ideas and plotlines DO get scrapped many times   Through production, either because it doesn't fit, or because they wanted to do something else entirely.

But this is ALL speculation.  You and me both are doing that.

He ends off this segment by saying that this was all production and execution angle and how the fights are great and everything else sucks and how it's mismanaged and poorly connected.

Even though I've gone through his "connections" and just found that he wasnt paying attention to most of the scenes and the dialouges is both funny and frustrating.

"Two full seasons of teething problems" yeah that's true.

I mean yeah lol, not gonna fight that there.

Are... We really comparing this too Jojo's??

Oh.. We are?? Aight then

And now we're comparing it to Cowboy Bebop.

just about the first robbery scene and characterization and things like that...

But... Have you ever considered that... maybe, just maybe, they were doing two different scene. If you're going to sit here and try to rag on- RWBY for "not understanding how the robbery scene works."

Then that sort of point can be used across every single piece of media that has a robbery scene in it. And even then you still were able to get basic things out of her "it's not much" and??

You still have about, 9-   volumes worth of content to get to know more about her.

"It's all coincidence driven story."

There isn't just one way to write a story bomber. literally, if you want to watch Cowboy Bebop so much then go rewatch it.

These shows set out two different types of vibes.

Not- Everything is 1 to 1. Just a lot of nitpicks mainly.

Nothing really substantial is said here besides just ranting about Ruby's lack of characterization. Blank Slate, making a stab at her for liking books.

Like, I dunno man, it's just cumbersome at this point.

So remember when I said it's going to be a 2 parter. I lied.

I only got through 27 minutes today and I'm already tired of this video.

SO part 3 tomorrow and that should be the end.

Goodnight Night City!!

https://twitter.com/PhonyMangaka/status/1654286207021457410