#i don't even know what i want to say with this gifset except that everything hurts

[nervouspearl]

"Moiraine, please..."

[sweetmariihs2]

Jason Carver was misunderstood?

Is he a bad person? or he had good intentions behind his behavior?

All the underlined parts have links to other blogs and gifs that are related to the things I'm saying.

I've heard people saying that Jason Carver was a good person and he was only misunderstood because of the sequence of events in the show.

I kinda see where they came up with that, because of Chrissy's death and everything. But I have good reasons to doubt it. The series show us that he's a very popular character, good at public speaking and giving a speech, and everyone seems to like him except for Eddie and the rest of Hellfire. I wasn't for no reason, though. I have a post that partly explains why Eddie doesn't like Jason or the basketball team, and yes, there's a very plausible reason.

I'm not a Jason hater. I don't think he's a straight bad person, but I don't think he's a good person either. From what I saw in the show, Jason is a upper-middle-class guy, have popularity inside school, have a popular girlfriend and popular friends, gives interviews in the school newspapers,

And overall is not judged by anything in his life. Everybody likes him because he's cool, he's nice to everyone, and that situation with Eddie is just because Eddie is a troublemaker, right? No, not really. Is implied in the show that they hate eachother from more than just that interaction. Briefly, because I want to change the subject soon and I've already talked a little about it, Jason would already hate Eddie because of his looks and rumors about him around school. Eddie hates that people judge him like this before even trying to talk to him first, and Jason is one of those people. But, as I said in the other post, Eddie thinks "If you can not beat them, join them". If people hate him because of their judgement, then he's going to do exact what they expect of him. He has more reasons to do that, for exemple to protect himself of agressions because people would think he's dangerous, but this post is not about Eddie so let's go back to the subject.

Jason has literally an almost-perfect life (Which is another reason of why he hates Eddie. The privileged never try to understand the marginalized. When you have a perfect life, you don't care about the minority or the outcasts and everything, because you are not suffering with it). Everybody likes him and he's a very standard guy, so he has no complains at all. He likes to be liked. He likes to be popular. He likes to have a nice, pretty girlfriend but not because he loves her — He doesn't hate her either, Jason isn't a douchebag, but I'm pretty sure that he likes the statuses more than he likes her. He must like her as a person but he is not romantically in love, same thing with Chrissy. (Pretty similar to Apple White and Daring from that cartoon we watched as kids some years ago lol) — Chrissy and Jason aren't intimate enough to talk about their problems with each other. Jason actually doesn't even have big problems in his perfect life, but Chrissy does. And when it's something so obvious that even the town freak can figure it out in seconds, I wonder how much Chrissy acts when she's around Jason. Her mother probably supports her relationship with him because of the good view people will have of Chrissy, and you know how her mother is; psychological pressure, eating disorders, keeping up appearances.

This gifset explains for itself, but even being so obvious people still don't understand and has that confusion/misinterpretation of the characters.

That's a truth that Chrissy+Jason pro ppl don't understand— Chrissy acts when she's around him. For example in that scene during the basketball team/cheer practice, when he turns the public attention to his romance with Chrissy (to Chrissy herself actually) ((showing even more about how he appreciates their status as the school's power couple)) again, not that he hates Chrissy, because he doesn't. He just don't LOVE her as a boyfriend should love. It's just the status.

Grace Van Dien said that Chrissy was an introvert— do you guys think that introverts like that public attention? Like those looks from the other students? She's literally trained by her mother to act! That performative smile of hers in the cheer practice don't look even a little bit with her true smile or her laughter. She's never herself in front of everyone, not even in front of Jason, but Eddie could have a small peak of it (and the exact same thing happened to Eddie, but with the roles reversed).

And also, Jason was already a sick person before Chrissy's death. What happened was just a trigger for him to get violent — he's had these urges before and even if Chrissy didn't died he could had freak out over anything else bad that happened in his life. His violent impulses towards Eddie and Hellfire weren't because of Chrissy (yes, her death has something to do with it, but it's not the only reason, at least not the most important one) he manages to convince everyone to go on a witch hunt with Eddie using his speech skills. He took advantage of the satanic panic, which he already believed (alienated by the media and blinded by his privileged life) and even truly believing that Eddie would have killed Chrissy, he was taking out on Eddie all the anger he had for him. He wanted to hunt and hit, hurt, but now had an perfect excuse for it.

@munsons-maiden has a perfect post who explains very well what was going on with Jason's behavior and his relationship with Chrissy I am basing on it because it is very important for the discussion, I highly recommend that you read it. And this another one about what I said about Chrissy's role inside this blog.

This other one is also very good to explain about Eddie and Chrissy's relation: Because for some reason the ppl who like Jason loves to villanize Eddie for everything he does, so this one is amazing to analyse his real intentions with her (and to prove again how bad of a boyfriend Jason is)

You can see that happening in the second episode. When Jason discovered about Chrissy's death of course he got really bad, but seconds later he is being cynical, calculating and planning ways to attack Eddie, saying that he was a psychopath who had taken the game too seriously, mistaking fantasy for reality (this scene happens at S4 EP2, 42:35 min). They plan to literally hunt down and beat up Eddie. Andy even laughs, makes fun of him by saying that Eddie would be so scared he would "shit his pants and cry for mommy. This guy's no fighter" (the fact that Eddie doesn't even have a mother, and she's probably deceased... hurts really bad) and they KNOW that Eddie is not a fighter. He DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO FIGHT, they KNOW that and they want to BEAT HIM UP. That's so fcking problematic. Is gross, even.

What makes me think... they are saying that he's not violent? but they believe that he killed chrissy, I would be at least scared of fighting with him. Or they know something that we don't....? (Maybe they know that he wasn't responsible....? Wtf? What is happening here?

What happens next is most shocking and important part of all. Refutes everything Jason's defenders say to defend him.

The other basketball player with him laughs and Jason says

"I hope he tries something. Gives me a reason"

what in the actual fuxk was that quote

This scene happens in the episode 3, at the minute 11:15. I really, really want you to open your Netflix right now and rewatch the scene. The other character even replies "hell yeah".

This man is violent. They KNOW that Eddie don't know how to fight, they wanna beat him up not because of Chrissy, but because they don't like him. They were LAUGHING while saying those things. None of them were sad. And as I said, now he has an excuse to do with Eddie everything he ever wanted to do: he said it VERY CLEARLY. "I hope he tries something. gives me a reason".

This guy is sick. He wants to see him suffering and crying of pain. He wants to see Eddie reacting, running or fighting back to PROTECT HIMSELF, so that Jason can have fun while beating him up right after. So when someone asks "don't you think that went a little too far? He is very hurt" they can say "he reacted, he tried to attack us, we were just defending ourselves", or just to see the prey running so the hunter has a little more fun.

When Lucas asks something like "Are you guys going to hit him?", Andy says something like "no, we're just going to have a friendly chat" while laughing with the other basketball player. Jason lets out a cynical smile, saying "if you don't want to come, you don't have to, just know that it's okay and it's still going to be one of us", with a menacing tone in his voice. Where is the instability for being sad about chrissy's death? Where's the grief? Anyone who lost their romantic partner would cry for days and days, not bothering to talk in threatening tones to put pressure on people or plan a rebellion against Eddie. The police were already doing that; since he was "very sad" with the situation, he should go home and rest, shouldn't he?

They used the excuse that the police isn't competent and so they should do it with their own hands, but it was just another excuse to cover up their desire to beat up Eddie. And what scares me so much is the other character, right after that quote from Jason, responding with "hell yeah". They agreed with him and saw nothing wrong with what he said, unlike Lucas, who found it absurd.

And yes, I'm going to mention that scene with Gareth.

He was already being violent to other members of Hellfire, and again, that conversation makes it clear that they are enemies from more time than just that one interaction with Eddie. According to what some pro-Jasons said, if Jason was angry with Eddie only because he provoked him that time in the cafeteria and Jason was not to blame for anything, why would he have done this to the Corroded Coffin? This argument with the members of H4llfire, cursing their music and being arrogant with them, this feels like an old fight. Gareth, Jeff and Freak 1 seem to be used to these comments from Jason — something we didn't see him doing in the cafeteria scene, i.e. they obviously hate each other for a longer period of time.

And he almost broke Gareth's fingers for NO REASON, because he's not even SAD BECAUSE OF CHRISSY'S DEATH. Jason hardly ever mentions Chrissy dying, but he keeps talking about Eddie, getting revenge on Eddie, beating up Eddie, and all that craziness.

I don't even know if he really did broke his fingers or not. That was just so cruel, because it was only for him not to play the drums, out of cruelty. And his friends held the other boys so that they couldn't help, proving that they are all on the same level of cruelty. Jason even almost destroyed his drums.

If he (almost?) broke Gareth's hand just because of that, imagine what he would do to Eddie with all of that equipment. I don't remember exactly, but I know they had big things like baseball bats, crowbars, screwdrivers, things like that.

I don't even have to mention when they bought literal guns in vol 2. Even a fucking KNIFE. Like, that kind of professional knife, not made for cutting food like the ones we usually see in the kitchen. And again, with that cruel smirk on their faces. I feel so bad thinking about what they could do to Eddie. He could be shot, beaten, or stabbed to death by a GROUP of people. Not just only one guy. Eddie probably didn't even know that they could hurt him that bad; he just knew that he WOULD be beaten up, but not like this. And that's so sad because he's innocent.

Jason was CRAZY to get Eddie. In an absurd level.

That's the post, thank you for reading.

Jason is a sick person, forget what I said at the start of the post.

I'm afraid of those people

[thegeminisage]

it IS tng update time. saturday we watched "relics" and "schisms" and last night* we did "true q" and "rascals."

*times altered bc as usual im typing this up late at night

relics:

oh boy. ohhh my god

so like, i'd like to preface this with: i am not a scotty stan or anything. don't get me wrong i love the guy and i'm fascinated by the way he tricked me into thinking he had all ten fingers. like he's v fun and all. but im not like Extremely Emotionally Invested In Scotty. all right. that said

I CRIED. LIKE A BABY. no one was more shocked than i was. actually i'm sure catherine was not shocked at all

i didn't cry when he first showed up which is what i suaully do when i see spock. no, no, no, no. it was when he went to the holodeck and created the fucking BRIDGE OF THE ENTERPRISE. and they played the main theme!!! the sound effects were even the same!!!!!!! and like all his friends are dead now except spock and bones and bones frankly has one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel!!!!!!!! I'VE NEVER BEEN SO UPSET IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.

chronologically, this is also the last time we'll ever see a tos cast member coming back to reprise their role except for aos spock and um. an appearance which i do not wish to discuss now or ever. anyway it's definitely the last time in tng proper. and like yeah we have aos and snw and everything but those guys arent the OGs. AUGH.

also wah him saying the doctors are prettier on this enterprise. thats SO MEAN TO BONES………………….i miss him so bad and he's WAY prettier than beverly sorry beverly

i definitely wanted to kill geordi for yelling at scotty when he tried to tell his old man stories. im glad they hung out for the rest of the episode and that geordi treated him really niceys but it still felt a teensy bit patronizing of him at first like he was just doing it because picard told him to make scotty feel useful

THAT SAID. for once, i am pro picard, because picard is a giant nerd and he wanted to listen to scotty's old man stories as much as i did. not that i got to enjoy them while being blinded by tears. i'm actually genuinely tearing up right now while typing this just thinking about it. i think it was genuinely compassionate for picard to want to give scotty something he could genuinely help with in a way that WASN'T patronizing. like old people are just regular people you know. we all get old one day if we're lucky

spotted scotty's missing finger twice, which is two more times than i spotted it in my original watch of tos.

he remembered how to hide the missing finger (mostly) but forgot how to do his fake scottish accent. in his defense it's been ages and he was old but it was still funny

synthehol is wack. it's just another way in which there's no work-life boundary in tng. you're always on call, so you can never get drunk. you will NEVER have personal time aboard this ship. they can call you in your son's parent-teacher meeting. they can call you during birthday parties. you cannot raise your children here. but they do. anyway.

IT'S GREEN!!! i remember seeing a gifset of data floating around saying that to somebody, and then later i saw a gifset of scotty saying it in tos, but i didn't realize data was talking TO SOCTTY i thought it was just a reference!!!!!!! there were actually sooo many tos references in this episode, i was so pleased to hav caught them all <3

looooooved the dyson sphere. that was genuinely so fucking fascinating and it was the b plot!!!!! why can't it be the a plot!!!! it was so cool looking

i thot for a sec they were gonna kill scotty at the end and got REALLY worried but they didn't and he decided not to retire after all and good for him <3

anyway. that cry felt like a full-body workout. horrific.

schisms:

OFF GOES RIKER TO THE COFFEE SHOP

i waited so long to see the episode that gifset is from and it did NOT disappoint

my one sour note re: this ep was the beginning with data's poetry. can we please be nice to him and not loudly fall asleep in the front row. i know the circumstances are highly extenuating. i of all people understand sleep deprivation, which i am currently experiencing even as i type. but that was just rude!!! could he not have simply explained he was unwell and unable to attend!!!!!!! the crowd being restless was terrible. if you simply tell him that he has to have a limit on his poems he would understand. i'm glad geordi was an honest critic when data asked later but i would have liked to see data's results after incorporating his feedback. ok anyway

firstly, i loved when a little guy is sleep deprived. it was great when sam winchester did it and also great when riker does it

SECONDLY, that whole sequence with the table was fucking insane. everything getting darker and darker both literally and metaphorically and deanna starting to look uneasy near the end and riker's eyes being ABSOLUTELY HAUNTED and that table was basically like a chair, anyway

when they were like "yeah the aliens cut off your arm and reattached it" READER I HOLLERED. you can't just put a guy on a chair and tear his arm off and then make him forget stuff. please. it's been nearly 10 years.

when he's like theyre gonna take me again whether i want them to or not. yeah man they sure are. this isn't quite riker roulette but it is definitely adjacent

i think the best cure for insomnia is to be absolutely terrified of going to bed because you're still in uniform and have a tracking device on you because you are about to get abducted by fucking aliens. who could resist sleep after that.

i did wonder why he laid on the table so long before attempting his escape when time was precious but i doubt i could have done any better in his shoes. i sure did love the way that knife thing hung right above his neck though. i'm pretty sure we spent that entire scene hollering DISMEMBER HIM. TRAUMATIZE HIM!! and then they didn't <3 but i'm not even mad about it

anyway. 10/10 episode they need more space horror in star trek bc it's always fun. i remember reading that tos was originally meant to be space horror-y, but i found the pacing of those earliest episodes waaaay too slow. i want a star trek show with more dismemberment though.

true q:

mistakenly thot this episode was named qpid (got it mixed up) and was hoping for more of q wanting to fuck picard to so bad it makes him look stupid but all we got was one little arm around his shoulder. which was REALLLY funny because picard instantly made a face like he'd eaten sour lemon but we deserved more. to reiterate i do NOT want them to fuck i think the dynamic of q wanting to fuck and picard preferring to die first is the funniest possible set of circumstances

instead, q constantly displays predatory body language towards this EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL. he leans really close to her and whispers in her ear and all that stuff and i did Not like it

i kept waiting for this girl to secretly be his child, or for her parents to have once been friends with him, but they literally were just randos to each other. disappointing, especially after he vanished while she was having her emotional moment on seeing their faces

where do the puppies go when she vanishes them? do they cease to exist?? did she just kill 12 puppies on screen???? too horrible to contemplate. i wish i could make kittens out of thin air though. actually that would be a terrible power the world is overpopulated with kittens as it is but STILL.

i want to know more about the weather altering net. we could have an entire episode about that alone. you just...got rid of tornadoes? and forest fires? did you fix climate change??

riker almost being killed by an empty barrel sent me into fits. they didn't strap them down after what happened to worf? this spaceship gets jostled horrifically EVERY EPISODE. what are they thinking!!!!!!!!!

RIKER ROULETTE STRIKES AGAIN. her bringing him to the alternate dimension and trying to lay on the moves was bad enough but using her powers to MAKE HIM START KISSING HER? HELLO???? i'm still mad they wrote an episode about rape and just used it for deanna fetish fuel instead of actually discussing what this poor guy goes through. why is it somehow ok/not noteworthy when it's men. come on now

it was kind of silly to have this girl go "no way im a human forever" and then immediately solve climate change on this other planet because her lil crush (/VICTIM???) was down there. like that was so rushed and weird

ultimately not a very good episode. i only like one thing about q and they did NOT deliver. he was also a misogynist to beverly once...like, die

rascals:

this got a 1 on letswatchstartrek.com and i simply disagree. i would have given it a 2 or mmmaybe 3. well no probably a 2 but STILL. first of all, tng's children are ALWAYS charming, and these guys were no exception, save possibly the kid who was playing picard, who was fine until the tantrum scene/riker's son bit, at which point i wanted to die

i never want to hear riker say daddy again.

i HAAAATE the ferengi theyre racist theyre misogynist i HATE THEM.

i felt like there was a missed opportunity with obrien and keiko to have him be cool about it, instead of awkward like everyone else. like i obviously dont think they should be canoodling or anything, gross, but there's nothing wrong with a little platonic compassion. he got there in the end ig but idk it would've made a nice contrast

how old is their fucking baby??? i just looked it up and she was born at the beginning of season 5...her ass is NOT old enough to be talking yet let alone full complete clear sentences??????

anyway speaking of compassion............GUINAN AND RO

i actually unironically loved ro's little arc here. anyone who had a shitty childhood will tell you they'd cut off their arm before going back, but she had to go back anyway, and guinan neither pitied her nor minimized anything she'd gone through. instead she got to occupy that space in a totally harmless way and receive a little closure. while the rest of this episode was okay-ish to maybe less than okayish (i NEVER want to hear riker say daddy EVER again) ro's little bit was so so so good.

re: ro...i love that we don't constantly bring her past and situation up as if it's the only thing about her but nor do we shy away from it and how it's shaped her and the narrative has never once suggested she's too harsh or too angry or whatever. of course with a season and a half left there's still time to ruin it but so far her whole thing has been one of the very few instances where tng is doing everything wonderfully.

NEXT TIME: "a fistful of datas" (noooo it's a holodeck episode) and "the quality of life."

[majorbaby]

I still don’t understand MASHblr’s obsession with BJ Hunnicutt. I’m with the Boomers on this one. I think he’s such a boring character and Mike Farrell isn’t all that great an actor, especially when it comes to comedy. BJ’s love and devotion for his wife and child is admirable, but there doesn’t seem to be much else to the character. He’s basically Hawkeye’s shadow and parrot.

answering this backwards:

i think Trapper is textually more Hawkeye's "shadow and parrot" - he follows Hawkeye around assisting with his campaigns and whenever Trapper's core value system diverges from Hawkeye's it's in a minor, one-off way that doesn't feed any sort of conflict between them (Ceasefire, or Bananas, Crackers and Nuts where they fight for 30 seconds and immediately make up).

BJ does a little of that shadowing/parroting in 4-5 but i actually think one of the most interesting things their dynamic is how HawkBeej butt heads. BJ can be everything from nonchalant about Hawkeye's campaigns to directly opposed to them, in the later years they seem to be doing more and more of their own thing, which is a normal and welcome thing to happen when you've been on a show together for 8 years.

I do think you're right about his love and admiration being at the center of his character and for that reason, he's bland. I'm not sure why over 184 episodes they couldn't find something else to do with him.

To demonstrate more concretely what I mean when I say "bland", here's a list of dramatic BJ-centric episodes (metric used is BJ leads, not co-leads, the A-plot,)

Dear Peggy (not super dramatic, but he's the narrator so let's give this to him) scratch that, I rewatched it, like the other instalments of the "Dear... " series, it's an ensemble episode

Hanky Panky

BJ Papa San

The Party (iffy, but I'm including it)

Period of Adjustment

War Co-Respondent

Death Takes a Holiday (like The Party, iffy, but there's a big focus on BJ Drama)

Oh How We Danced

Wheelers and Dealers

Bombshells

With the exception of one episode on this list, Bombshells, every single time we look at BJ's emotional state during the war, he's having some kind of breakdown over missing his family. They tried this many different ways, list below corresponds to the list above

See above

BJ's cheated on Peg and it's thrown his whole life into crisis

BJ misses Peg and Erin and he adopts a surrogate family about it

BJ misses Peg and Peg misses BJ, let's all miss our families together (I love The Party, this is not a diss, I'm just trying to demonstrate how BJ's understandable fixation on his family sets the events of this episode in motion)

BJ misses Peg and Erin extra hard and he's drinks, destroys property and punches Hawkeye about it

BJ almost cheats on Peg (and arguably, he cheats on Peg emotionally) and it throws his whole life into crisis, but he doubles down on his love for Peg in the end so it's cool

BJ misses Peg and Erin and he's going to save this patient about it goddamn (he also does it because he wants the guy to life sure, but it becomes personal for him in a way it doesn't for Hawk and Margaret)

BJ misses Peg and Erin and Hawkeye does something about it

BJ misses Peg and Erin and he's a huge dick about it

In the 11th hour and season, BJ's finally allowed to lead a dramatic subplot that has nothing to do with Peg and Erin, and it was so notable to me that I wrote 1400 words about it here and made a gifset to mark the occasion

It's fine and normal for BJ to miss his family, this is not BJ's fault. But I do not miss BJ's family because I don't know them.

How many ways can we explore "guy who misses his wife" I guess a minimum of ten. It's hard for me to be invested in one half a relationship or in a character whose sole source of drama in the character drama years is about that relationship. Everyone misses their families, but Hawkeye, Margaret and even more minor characters like Mulcahy and Klinger get more diverse sources of conflict for their characters to contend with and conflict generates interest.

I said earlier that the most interesting thing about the HawkBeej relationship to me is their conflict, and indeed my favourite BJ moments are the ones he's at odds with Hawkeye: Preventative Medicine, Period of Adjustment, GFA, Commander Pierce, Yalu Brick Road, Bottoms Up, No Laughing Matter - I don't love all those episodes, and BJ doesn't lead any of them on his own except for PoA... the problem with a lot of these is that the show never leans too far into their conflict, because I'm still supposed to buy that they're BFFs. Actually with the exception of GFA I'm not sure I'm ever supposed to hone in on how BJ and Hawkeye are actually not compatible - if I read with the text, they're just as warm and fuzzy as HawkTrap were, but in 2023 I don't feel very warm and fuzzy when I see them together - and I love that for me, conflict generates interest!

But I gotta do that heavy lifting myself. Which like any fic author I am happy to do, but if we're talking about characters who are well-written in general, they need to stand up on their own without my putting an evil gay headcanon on them, and for the reasons above, BJ does not do that for me.

I really do think they wrote themselves into a corner with BJ - that isn't the fault of the character at all, it's just a trap the writers fell into. They made Peg, a character who does not appear in corporeal form alongside the character the main source of his angst and drama, and the other source of angst and drama (conflict with Hawkeye) wasn't leaned into hard enough. How do you write yourself out of that hole? I think Bombshells was one possible answer to that. I believe Ken Levine has written that they really tried to find some other source of character drama for BJ but that they were mostly throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck, so that's another reason why I think the writing for him was inconsistent. I know I've read that on Levine's blog I just can't find the source rn, but when I do I'll link it here.

To answer your question about the fandom's "obsession" with him - he's a blank slate! He doubles down a billion times on his love for his wife, I guess that means he loves his wife right? It's just way too easy to read against the text and turn that on its head, I see the draw. And I've seen all sorts of imo... let's call them, "colourful" takes on how BJ doing x means y that are very difficult to refute because there's nothing actually there to contradict it, because he wasn't written consistently or with much depth. You can either see what's there and accept it, he's a niceguy wifeguy or you can read against and see a nightmare repressed gay, I fall in the later category if we're talking about what's more interesting.

There's a third popular category which is "niceguy repressed gay" and I can't get on board with that because I cannot simultaneously read with and against the text at the same time.

And finally, with regards to Mike Farrell's acting...

Keep in mind, this is largely subjective. I have an unfinished theatre degree and as part of that, one year's training in an acting conservatory, so those are my credits, make of them what you will.

Farrell does a good job when he's got a lot of emotion to work with, to pull up from his gut or chest, and express with a loud voice or vibrant expressions - think open rage or sorrow. So you've got great moments from him, Period of Adjustment, Preventative Medicine and Death Takes a Holiday all contain good examples.

He struggles with more subtle displays of emotion. It's a crime that the sun appears to be in Farrell's eyes during the HawkBeej goodbye in GFA, how could they do that to him (and to us, the audience). In 4-5 I'm not hearing anything from him except for a person reading words exactly as they appear in the script. He's helped along when he's got a scene partner, Alan Alda or Loretta Swit can tease a little extra depth out of him, so he probably had potential. On the other hand, scene-stealer DOS flattens him completely.

And wrt his comedic capabilities well... I've seen the Hawkeye/BJ ship characterized as "commitment to the bit to lovers" what bits? I think there's a reason they went away almost entirely post season 3, or Hawkeye does them on his own. For his own comedic entries, BJ mostly gets snarky one-liners or puns to deliver, that are said almost to himself every single time tacked onto other dialogue and therefore with limited reaction from other characters. Sometimes Hawkeye gets annoyed with him for his puns, or his using comedy to deflect, as BJ later accuses Hawkeye of doing lol.

Without making any direct comparisons to improv partners past, I've called BJ's expression when Hawkeye's on about something "BJ looking bored" cuz, uhhh, there's a war on and he's bored about it. And that's about as generous as I am willing to be about that.

I watched Sex and The Single Parent and Private Sessions as part of my research for this post and I mostly feel I am watching BJ Hunnicutt in an AU. Now it's possible this was just typecasting at work, I think Jennifer Aniston can act she was just making bank playing Rachel Green for 15 years after Friends finished its run - why fix what isn't broken if it's paying the bills? Maybe that's true for Farrell too, but I'm not watching another tv movie of his to try to figure it out.

With James Cromwell's role in Succession recently, I have seen his candidacy for BJ Hunnicutt come up around these parts and I gotta say, I think (the Academy-Award-nominated-for-starring-opposite-an-animatronic-pig) Cromwell is a far better actor, and from my understanding he missed out on the part because he was too tall and Alan Alda had to strain to look up at him. So there's that.

The Boomers* seem to think BJ Hunnicutt was a big softy who cried like a girl every chance he got and wasn't at all the image of the stand-up American man that all American men should aspire to be. I find that deliciously ironic because from my view, that is exactly what the BJ character was written to do. It's a big part of why I can't get into him as he appears in the text, I need to sprinkle something else onto him before I take a bite and I think that's what most people need to do with him too.

*no hate to boomers, some of my closest relatives are boomers.

[x0401x]

Do you think making a masterlist of currently active animanga blogs in a post to pass around perhaps would help? I try my best to find new ones since I don't know too lany, but as one anon stated previously in response to your post, a lot of orginal blogs are either inactive or deactivated. There are some series I love that have no content on here at all left since all the content is from blogs that are deactivated. Unsearchable.

I have the ambitious project (not now since I am in tremendous medical struggles/possible eventual end of life, but if I make it through it) of making some sort of semi regular gifset-manga-animanga contest of sort, with small money prizes, both for winners and smallers ones given at random for participation. Trying to bring back the old blood or bring in the new, you know? I am extremely far from that point and may never make it there, but I have always loved the animanga community of tumblr. It was always so cozy for me after my accident and after I ceased being a game developer. There is a charm to it!

Anyway, all of that to say you are not crazy, it did shrink and it is a relief to know I am not alone amongst those who miss the larger community that used to be there. Especially the content creators who deleted everything.

Hopefully we see a renaissance 💕❤

I hope you don’t mind me answering this publicly because Tumblr has been weird with asks lately, so I can never trust that my reply would go through if I answered privately.

And damn, I sure wish it helps because it’d help me, at least. I really wanna follow more blogs. My dash is dead lately. And wow, money prizes??? That’s very generous but are you sure about that? Not to rain on your parade or anything, but if you’re in tremendous medical struggles, maybe it’s best to save up all you can, even in the aftermath of it. By the way, I’m very sorry to about your condition. Hoping for the best to you.

I’ve been on this site for almost 15 years now and it’s the complete opposite of what it used to be at the beginning. It’s changed for the worst in every aspect except features and functionality. I really, really miss how it was before. I miss how the internet was back then in general. Just an entirely different thing. And that’s why I think it’s gonna be hard to get a renaissance, even with monetary incentives.

Don’t get me wrong, I think you should totally do the thing if you’re ever able to! It sounds pretty neat. But what needs to happen for things to go back to how they were before is that people have to start using the site as it was intended to be used. This place isn’t like other platforms, and although there are lots of posts explaining how to use the site properly, I feel like the people who want Tumblr to return to its golden are are the only ones passing them around. The message isn’t really getting to who it should be getting. I wish there was a way to teleport the new users back in time so they could experience the peak of this hellhole. But unfortunately, we have to find other ways to make them understand why they should reblog, make their own posts and follow/interact with other users. Perhaps that’s where the money could go to? A reblog/edit/follow spree challenge/contest? I don’t know, but either way, that’s a neat idea you have.

Again, hoping for the best to you! And thanks for coming by my inbox!

[the-heron]

how would you like to respond to this ask with absolutely as much as you can possibly say about the terror. it does not need to be comprehensible. just say things until you can no longer say things. let it all out. or let some of it out and let the rest of it spill over into the tags of reblogged gifsets, i have no qualms with either. this is entirely to give you another avenue with which to go as feral as you would like. have fun!!

hey anon quite frankly i would love to start talking incessently about the terror and also im gonna kiss you on the lips for asking me to

one thing ive been thinking about a lot after rewatching the whole season maybe. three or four times now (i am not mentally sound) is just how much the theme throughout the show is Being Something You Are Not. and its such a gradual realization cause you start with one character but the more you think about it you realize how that theme affects everybody and everything about the show.

i read something in an analysis post written by somebody MUCH more eloquent than me about Silna and Crozier and the parallel of them being thrust into a responsibility they didn't want. Silna was forced into a role that she knew she could not handle and it fails on her! multiple times! despite having NOTHING to do with everything going wrong shes been shoved into everyone's field of vision as The One Responsible INCLUDING by her own community. and by all means she does try to fill those shoes but even Tuunbaq has a say and it doesn't want her. and by the time she tries again its already too late.

and Crozier's situation wasn't identical but it's very similar in the sense that he did not want to be here and do this. being the only one not volunteered, but *asked* to go on this expedition, having already not been what Sophia wanted but doing as she asks anyways. good grief the man is in the middle of writing his resignation letter to sir john when he gets mauled. and now hes got no choice and that ALSO fails on him and gets people hurt and eventually its too late for him to make anything better.

but once you notice it with somebody else its like oh! that's right! EVERYBODY is doing this. sir john wasn't anybody's choice to lead the expedition and in fact he is actively detrimental to everybody's safety with his choices. Fitzjames is not half the man he says he is and has actively been lying To Everybody about about who he is an his accomplishments Forever. Goodsir is NOT a doctor and despite how happy it seems to make him to be considered as such he knows its not true and all of that scientific knowledge ends up killing SO many people. Hickey thinks hes hot shit and thinks he can gain control of everybody else AND Tuunbaq and yet he can hardly even do his own dirty work and gets other people's hands dirty before he does it himself.

i mean if you think about it too even the landscape isn't what it seems. they all think its a conquerable land and then they get there and realize its not. and because of this, they assume that must mean there's no way to survive out there. except there IS. there IS wonder. it IS beautiful. life CAN thrive out there and it HAS they are just so hazardous and invasive to the environment that they don't get to see it!!! they don't see the wonder and they are trekking to their deaths amongst a COMPLETE lie. this isn't, like, News to anybody else who's watched the show i just noticed how it all connects everybody and it blew my mind a little bit

[sophsun1]

Soph! These new gifsets with quotes are so stunning. I love seeing them on my dash. And that final shot of Britin? 😭 It says so much to me to see Brian just draped over Justin and it’s clearly not the first time. It just screams to me how Brian shows how much he loves Justin through his physical body. You don’t pass out on top of someone like that without being fully comfortable with them…

Hey lovely!

Aww, ty!

This is where I'm at my happiest creatively, I love thinking in scenes it's my gif process of being able to see a quote/line of dialogue and either jump to a parallel or think of which moments slot in. Kinda like the lyrics set I did for you, so any quotes/poetry/lyrics you associate with them as always send my way it may spark some creativity!

I was feeling down (as you know lol) with my gifs so I'm trying to make more things like this which don't stress me out as the scenes do, and trying out new gif layouts.

But yes that final scene of Brian being so nakedly raw and vulnerable (no pun intended 😛) all his walls and defences are gone and as you say he is an actions speak louder than words kinda guy, physical touch is his communication and we see that as he clings to Justin. Justin himself comes to realise this "he showed me he loved me everyday." Brian canonically can't keep his hands off Justin which makes him being so affronted at Brian wanting to cuddle so fucking hilarious - god that entire conversation is cringe the execution to get Justin to NY was so poor 🤦🏻‍♀️

You sense Brian is finally at peace in a weird way in that scene because he's no longer hiding how he feels, the dreaded "love" weight has been lifted and that's what makes it even more heartbreaking because we know Justin's leaving. Justin truly was his exception to everything.

[agameoftragedy]

I suspect GRRM's frustration with HOTD as opposed to GOT has a lot to do with the 'when'. GOT ended 5 years ago now, and the later seasons were even earlier. To be frank, I suspect that 5-8 years ago, GRRM was less likely to be enraged at changes because he felt like he could still finish the last two novels. At some point, most of GOT was completely new material, so he probably couldn't complain that much since he didn't know what would happen and I suspect they stuck to a general outline. I could easily see him saying "it sucks fans hate this, but I can finish the books and that'll go over much better." But now, it's 5 years past GOT and Winds of Winter still isn't done and god knows about the final novel. Fans have discussed how GRRM is becoming more concerned with his legacy - as he probably is right to do. He is...getting older. And now he's looking at a real possibility that the books might never be finished and what will be left of his legacy is S8 GOT, HOTD, and whatever else HBO decides to adapt. And lord knows no one wants GOT S8 to be what fans have left of the story. That puts much more pressure on HOTD to be the perfect adaptation, so that he feels like his series goes out on a high note if he never finishes the novels.

I guess so. It was just kinda weird how much he focuses on how amazing and emotional Bitterbridge was though because I did read the Princess and the Queen, Fire and Blood (and the world book may have had some about the Dance I think?) and... maybe it's just been too many years but I don't recall that much detail about it so it's just like. George does all of that stuff only really exist in your head rn beyond just stated facts vs like an actual storytelling of how it all went down. Because like. I get attachment to your ideas but if they haven't been externally committed (in detail) it's a lot harder to appreciate and follow.

And although ASOIAF isn't finished I'm less forgiving of GOT because a) they didn't even follow what does exist to that point, and b) they completely threw shit out of the window to do what they thought would be cool with characters/actors they personally did or did not like. Themes are for 5th grade book reports or whatever. It was shit.

Whereas I haven't been able to watch much HOTD because no HBO and I struggle to watch stuff with my disabilities nowadays anyway, but I see a lot of discussion and gifsets and I am theoretically fine with basically everything I've heard so far? Would be a bit bothered if they cut Nettles because Nettles is cool and demonstrative of things, but like. As soon as they changed Alicent and Rhaenyra's ages it was clear it couldn't be 100% faithful but I don't think that matters so much because the source material is... meh. Like ultimately what are the themes and messages of the dance? War is bad and tears everyone apart? The innocents suffer most? Nobody wins? Royalty/feudalism sucks? Like I think all of those things are possible to be the conclusions of HOTD, I don't see it ever being such a betrayal as the end of GOT except maybe in GRRM's mind where the events are perhaps an ASOIAF-level story, but for the rest of us it's. Really Not.

Tbh if this is how he feels I'm more surprised he didn't kick off at earlier changes in HOTD 🤔 but as you say, maybe his mindset has changed lately

[mdverse]

why don't you vibe with Rachel?

sorry this took a while, anon. i've been trying to figure out how to answer it because the short answer is that rachel tends to awaken a lot of frustration within me if i think about her for too long. i don't really know why i get as heated as i do just with her but it just happens. it's weird because i don't usually have strong negative feelings towards people, so there might be something aside from the more in-depth explanation i wrote under the cut that i just can't put my finger on right now.

rachel is one of the characters in glee whose storylines are regularly shoved in the audience's face, like the writers are trying real hard to get us to care about her. the thing is, though, i could not care less about most of it? i'm generalising a bit but half of her storylines are centered around finchel/her other romantic interests, and the other half is about how she wants to sing this song or play this role and how she deserves the spotlight more than the other glee kids and can't imagine a world where she's wrong about that. and then if it doesn't work out, she gets really overdramatic and we're stuck listening to her complain about things. even in the finchel dynamic, which i am not a huge fan of, a big part of their season 3 storyline is rachel talking about nyada and new york and ignoring all of finn's insecurities about what to do after high school. when puck told finn that he needed to start thinking about himself, i felt that. the fact that rachel treated even her close friends like garbage without even realising it until they stood up to her like kurt eventually did? everything just revolves around her and it's exhausting.

another thing i dislike relates to this gifset i reblogged on my sideblog. rachel gets so much favoritism regarding her singing/talent - it is mainly from schuester, whom i ignore, but it's so blatant. it gets to the point where other characters, particularly mercedes and tina, are used to taking a back seat because "only rachel can do this" and sure, rachel is talented and does put on some great performances, but that statement just doesn't sit right with me. everyone in glee club is talented, but most of them get sidelined in favour of letting rachel perform. i'm tired of seeing it, i'm tired of seeing rachel sing lead in almost every song in competition (with the exception of s2, where she assumed she'd sing the lead and then complained when she couldn't, and s3 sectionals where presumably the only reason she didn't sing was because she was banned from competing in the first place) or yet another solo after every minor inconvenience or argument, i'm tired of hearing her cover songs that don't suit her voice just for the sake of having her sing more, i'm tired of having to watch equally talented characters get pushed down just to stroke rachel's ego. not to mention erasing a bunch of interesting early-seasons friendships and giving them all to rachel instead (quinncedes? kurtcedes?) and of course i blame the writers for this, because they ignored so many characters who had a lot of potential to be interesting in order to let rachel shine more. i understand that with an ensemble cast as big as glee's, it might be harder to write parts that get an equal amount of screen time but you can tell they did not care about most of their characters. and as a result, they highlighted rachel so much that i just have to pretend she does not exist.

also... rachel's casual racism? need i say more? i know there were other racist comments from people like sue but sue is so obviously written as satirical and rachel does not have that same vibe. like that throwaway line to blaine about how they would have "vaguely eurasian-looking children"? as a relatively white-passing eurasian person that line always made me feel weird. or all of her comments towards mercedes. it wasn't really addressed aside from mercedes herself calling out rachel, even if it happened right in front of schue, and i don't appreciate that. there were a lot of double-standards in glee.

last but definitely not least is the part i struggle to put into words. i also might just be remembering some stuff wrong because it's been a while since i've watched through glee and i try to forget a lot of the rachel content anyway, so bear with me. some of my issues with rachel are similar to my issues with finn, in that they both do shitty things and then for the most part, they don't really face the consequences for it. in rachel's case, it does apply more to her high school self, because i do think she grows and faces reality more in the later seasons (ie: broadway and her downfall). Unfortunately for her, though, i tend to rewatch the first 3 seasons and then only pick certain episodes from the latter half of the show, so her high school self is more prominent in my mind. and of course she isn't the only one who does shitty things, 90% of the glee kids and adults have their shitty moments, but at least some of them grow from their mistakes and show proper development (it's not always consistent, but i blame that on the writers once again). with rachel - and maybe i'm just reading it wrong - it feels like her apologies aren't genuine? from what i can remember, they always come after she gets a lot of backlash for her actions or sees that her actions resulted in some shit going down with other people (ie: snitching to finn about the real father of quinn's baby, sunshine & the crack house, ditching funny girl for that tv audition, i'm blanking on other stuff right now) so it gives off the feeling that she's only apologising because people tell her she fucked up and she doesn't like hearing that, and not because she actually feels guilty and wants to do better.

that being said, i don't hate her anymore. at least i don't think so. do i like her? nope. but i've gotten to a point where i can go "yeah that was a sweet moment and i can appreciate that from her" and that's nice, because i really don't want to spend time and energy hating a character on a tv show (especially when there are worse characters on glee lmao). and i'm being very careful about how i portray her in vb au, because i do think that her dynamics with the rest of the team would be really interesting to explore.

[adelineardn]

Hi! I'm writing a "Voldemort dies early" AU and well, I want Nagini to join the crew. I didn't watch The Crimes of Grindewald but from what I heard, she has very little personality there, and her background is quite the mess. So I'm trying to nitpick good bits from the canon and add enough of irl info to make something that makes sense.

I saw your addition on a post about Nagini, so I hoped you could offer some comments on my thoughts so far. If not that's cool.

Her name

Nāginī, the female counterpart of a Nāga, the king cobra, or a serpentine class of semi-divine deities found in Hindu religion.

Parvati; Almost Perfect

I'm not saying her parents couldn't name her that, but couldn't it also be a nickname she picked up later in life?

The Maledictus curse

I like the idea of the hereditary blood curse. It could be in Nagini's family for several generations, passed from mother to daughters. She could know that she'll start having problems controlling her transformation around (let's say) 30, and the snake form could become permanent in her 40s.

There could be ways of delaying the inevitable permanent transformation, or even a way to lift the curse altogether.

(BTW I looked up the golden snail princess myth you mentioned in the post and it's super similar to some stories of Brother's Grimms, except the girl in the version I remember read turned into an apple tree.)

Life and locations

From what I can tell Nagini's journey goes something like this:

Indonesia

America - the circus, she's at least 20 or at this point.

Europe with Credence (1920-1930s)

Albania, where Voldemort allegedly found her, already fully snake-ified

England

I looked onto Asian - US migration and most commonly it was for cheap labour, namely Japanese, Chinese and South Korean people, and later on Bengali Muslims and Filipinos and others (whenever one group tried to unonize they would start hiring from another ethnics to keep the labour cheap).

Would it be pausible that Nagini's family was partially muggle and they went to chase the American dream? Only to face rampant racism, might I add.

Again, I didn't watch and don't intend to watch The Crimes so everything I know about her time in America comes from gifsets and wikis, and nobody knows what she was doing in Albania...

Since Voldy is dead it would be a group of ex-Death Eater tourists who would find and befriend her in Albania (or somewhere else) circa 1980. I'm thinking since she's not the only one hunted by the law it would be her name on all their paperwork when starting a legit rare potion ingredients collecting business...

Again, feel free to ignore this but I'd love to hear somebody else's thoughts. Finding headcanons on Nagini is surprisingly hard.

omg sorry for only responding now (I’ve been away from tumblr due to the hilarious amount of schoolwork), again I’m so sorry :((  I’ll put my thoughts into points to make it look neater: 1. yes!! the name “nagini” could have been a nickname and not her actual birthname. 2. maybe there could be a potion of some sorts to delay the permanent transformation, or maybe a ritual of some sorts. 3. in the fantastic beasts movies, it was stated that nagini was found in the jungles of Indonesia, so the theory of her family going to america to have a better life being the cause of her getting captured does not work.  4. I have a feeling she went to albania to flee from the whole wizarding war thing. 5. ahh your last point is great, it might be possible IF those death eaters are able to find and “befriend” nagini. idk if the death eaters knew about nagini, but if they do then yeah!! aaaa I have a strong feeling that your work is going to be superrr cool <3333

[namtanlovesfilm]

Hey axelle! I hope you're doing well. The reason I'm writing you today is cause I had some ideas bouncing in my head and would really appreciate if you had some advice with regards to it seeing as you are indeed our queen. I have a small little blog and sometimes I make some content on it however many a times I get really discouraged if my gifsets don't do that well or seeing some other creator post a similar gifset and seeing it bode real well with the audience. One more thing that discourages me is some of the creators are so dedicated and so consistent and so amazing at their work that I feel like I cannot even make a dent in the community with my small posts. I know it's all stupid and we're all just having fun but I would still like some advice if you have on how to deal with this stupid shit.. Ignore me if it sounds like I'm just ramble-ranting here. Anyways hope you have a nice day and thanks in advanve x

hi anon! oof... I felt this message in my soul! everything you've described, I've felt myself at some point too. and I don't think you & I are the exception at all tbh. for some advice... frankly it took me SO long to let go of the metrics. basically I had been a small ass blog for so long, and then over the course of a month I more than doubled my following count and knew growth that I'd never experienced before, which frankly got to my head. I was OBSESSED with metrics, so much so that even the period when my blog was thriving the most (during why r u, 2gether & my engineer airing back to back) I was CONVINCED that a post getting 500 notes was flopping. like WHAT lmao?? now if I get 500 notes I'm overjoyed :') so anyways just saying that all this stuff, notes, people being more successful than you... frankly none of it matters. I know it might not resonate with you but this is NOT a race. you're making stuff bc you want to, and YES I'm the first to understand than it not getting the reception you wanted SUCKS. I go through it every time I make a post nowadays. that being said, even if you're posting less than others, you're still important to the fandom. we're each a brick that makes up the foundation of this fandom, no matter how successful we are, how many things we create... but if you really want to gain a bigger following, you've got the solution in your hands anon. I have never grown more than when I was posting a minimum of 15 gifsets a week (yes I was insane lol) and giffing every bl series that were coming out, so if you wanna grow it WILL take a lot of time and effort to do so. also nurture the connections you have with other blogs bc reblogs are key to the success of a post. but keep in mind that today I'm giffing only the shows I care about, I'm posting about 5 gifsets a week, people don't reblog me as much, but I'm way more fulfilled & mentally stable than when my blog was thriving. so what I'm saying bc this is getting long is, if you wanna grow, productivity & consistency are key, as well as connections. BUT being big on tumblr is really not the end all be all of life. I'm not shitting on it bc my blog has allowed me to have so many great interactions with people over the years, and THAT I would never take back. but the extreme insecurity, the hours spent working on gifsets rather than spending time with my family & friends, the drama... THAT, I don't regret leaving behind. so good luck with your blog anon, and continue making content that you enjoy making and are proud of. I hope someday people realize your value to this fandom and you achieve the success you desire <3

xxx

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

Okay, but Tempus Fugit/Max and the birthday arc 🥺

What’s your thoughts about “I didn’t know it was your birthday” and then two seconds later “oh, here’s a gift I wrapped especially for you that just happens to be in my pocket.”? Think it’s along the same lines as “I stole these flowers from the guy down the hall” when he actually came flying through the front doors clutching them for dear life?

Also, Mulder grinning with that straw between his teeth should be illegal. He looks like an impish kid I can’t even 🤣

HDNZBZJZNSJS Tempus Fugit/Max my beloved- i don't usually have as much fondness for the mytharc as I do for the rest of the show overall, but the season 4 mytharc is absolutely my favorite. there's just *something* about it that I'm obsessed with (which is a whole other rant lol). and I love that you call it the birthday arc 🥺 can I steal that?

ok but I have gone off about the "I got you something :D" scene so many times in tags on gifsets and such actually. like it's SUCH a cute scene and Scully's awkward expressions are super relatable but at the same time there's this very very deep bittersweetness to it all bc it is, of course, smack in the middle of the cancer arc.

tbh I'm decently certain that Mulder has always (or at least since around s2) known when Scully's birthday is but just. they never make a big deal out of it?? like that kind of thing... isn't their kind of thing (this entire opinion is prob influenced by the various fanfics I've read lol, but I kinda adopted the meta as well). but he DOES know when her birthday is, he just doesn't bring attention/celebrate it for her, ya know?

until 19-heckin-97. until she is dying. until, and this seems very typical of them in general, it's her last birthday. and no, that doesn't mean he's accepted that she Is Going To Die, but it means- there's more weight to it. and if worst does come to worst no matter how hard he fights it, he doesn't want to let her die thinking he didn't care enough to remember her birthday. so: Tempus Fugit/Max. a Snowball with a sparkler instead of a candle, and a dorky little gift. it all means a lot more than it seems to anyone else tbh and that just GETS ME

(as you can tell since I'm waxing poetic about it right now 😂)

also that bit you mentioned from Memento Mori — aahnfndjxnxdjsns it's SO ADORABLE and so bittersweet and so THEM. I've said it a few times in tags about that scene: he makes a point to try to make her laugh, and she does, and he forces a smile too. if they can smile for each other, there's a chance everything can be okay. and I may be looking too hard but I think I can reasonably say that like- okay Mulder is ALWAYS trying to make Scully smile, he's just like that. but I think he tries especially hard during this arc; they're both Struggling, it's hard, they can't figure out how to balance what's happening with their partnership and relationship, but he continually tries SO HARD to make her smile or laugh — and when she does, he absolutely lights up. it's adorable

SHZJDNDKSK and YEAH his big dorky grin with that straw in his mouth, like yeah there's the angst in the background and yes both of them are very aware that there is a Reason he's finally gotten her a gift this year (Scully's comment about alien implants strikes me as her way of backhandedly calling him out for it; she never wants him to treat her any differently bc of her cancer, except for like. I mean on some level she DOES but not always in the way it ends up, if that makes sense) but!! he's celebrating his absolute favorite person in the world and just for a minute everything is okay, she makes awkward faces when everybody sings the birthday song (Mulder singing "special agent Dana Scully" instead of just "happy birthday dear Dana" is like. there's always That One Person at every birthday party, right?) and for a minute it's about as normal as they could ever pull off — he loves her, and he is happy to be with her. same principle as the way he looks at her in Unruhe, actually--

......also the lighting of that scene is v good, I kinda love it

[sweetfirebird]

(if you're serious about dvd commentary? if not, obviously ignore!) but - I'd love to know some talk behind A Heaven to Reach For. I know the intent was to write a short fluffy thing, but did you have an specific approach to world or character building for it?

To be perfectly splendid honest, part of the approach was something vaguely sellable. I mean, it always is, unless an author is already wealthy, but because I suspected (rightly as it turned out) that Delf wouldn't sell well. So even though historical and fantasy are generally assumed to be less popular than contemporary for romance purposes (which I think is generally but not always true. Certain authors have made careers out of historicals, so there are exceptions), I find fantasy easier because literally just adding magic to a story means you can do whatever you want. Even if I also label it historical, adding magic to the mix changes events, or can change events, in lots of cool ways. (Not to shade certain big name YA fantasy authors who are Scottish and also absolute cunts, but adding magic to regular world history should uhhhh change the world history, not just leave it exactly the same but with secret chocolate frogs. Anyway. Somebody is salty this morning...afternoon.)

So being a history nerd, and also having just seen a gifset for the BBC Musketeers (a show I enjoyed), I was like... yeah that sort of vibe. A Musketeers sort of vibe. But seeing as (I literally thought about and starting writing this because of the stress of watching armed anti-mask assholes storming D.C.) I just wanted something to help me relax, I didn't want... actual Catholic v Protestant France v England/Spain shit happening. Also I wanted it to be gay. So--MAGIC.

And then, because it pleases me and because it also pleases a lot of other people, I decided on a tol and a smol. It was supposed to have a sex scene but it just didn't feel right with the flow. I could have added one in an epilogue but it felt tacked on and weird? So I didn't.

And then.. idk. I like it when the tol is strong and tough and everything but also just... easygoing and gentle. And the smol is... a little falcon who is capable of immense damage and smart people know to steer clear of them. And I like mutually pining dweeby dorks, who each think their love is impossible for very different reasons. And I like it when people who speak the same language--but in different ways--start to realize what the other person is actually saying.

Anyway, and then a spring holiday for fucking...

I was a pretty lazy student. I like to learn things. I don't particularly care about academia, though. So... lazy. So I should have been a history minor but to officially be a minor would have required a statistics class... aaaaand I didn't want to do that and just took history classes instead. I also read history books, all the time.

So when it comes to worldbuilding... I sort of use that historian-lite background. Not, say, taking a specific holiday from some real point in time. But the idea of it. Lots of cultures had something similar. Lots of cultures in Europe had pagan traditions that carried on, maybe only slightly changed, even with the Church looming over them. I think it's a human nature thing.

Basically, I decide, loosely, on what I want. And then I go about creating a place where that could happen, where the manners and rules and social mores could create a giant of a man who has good friends but contents himself for a life without the romance and care that he wants, and where a scrawny little mage could be unwanted by the world at large and so assume he would be unwanted by the gentle giant also. And where musketeer-like dashing, flirtatious soldier types could laze about an inn all day, teasing each other about fucking and their secret hearts desires.

And then I sprinkle in some lesbians.

[sometimesrosy]

hi rosy! it's my birthday today and I know you don't talk about the 100 as much anymore but I was wondering what was your favourite part of the bellarke relationship (s1-6 only ofc) and what do you think made it different from the other ships on the show.

Happy Birthday!!

Every time I see a great gifset of Bellarke, I shake my head sadly and say “what a waste.”

Let me tell you what my favorite part of Bellarke was... it wasn’t a scene or season. It wasn’t about the ship. 

It was about the STORYTELLING. I loved the way the bellarke relationship was a mirror for the story as a whole.

The head and the heart thing wasn’t just about Bellarke, it was also about leadership and living and how to be a good person.

The idea of hope in the apocalypse, while struggling to survive, was tied to the idea of the love they felt for each other. “You still have hope?” “We still breathing?” as they wrote each other’s names down on the salvation list because they needed the other to be breathing.

The concept of wanting to give up, but fighting still, because Bellarke still believed-- not just in making things better, but in each other.

The mythic and symbolic parallels in the relationship and the story. The idea that your flaws AND your greatest enemy could in fact be your greatest strength and greatest love.

Bellarke was EMBEDDED in the story from episode one. It was the framework around which the post apocalyptic science fiction adventure show was built. It was the spine of the story, and everything that happened with them was a reflection of the larger story. 

This is why the way it ended made the story fall apart. It wasn’t actually that they didn’t get together. It was that they were REMOVED. Erased. Invalidated. Ignored. Forgotten.

They did not finish the story. They took the heart out of it and gave us a braindead 7B. So the secondary characters flailed around trying to get to the end and did the best they could, but they straight up stopped tellling the story of The 100. They stopped fighting for humanity. They stopped fighting for survival? They began fighting to be erased in sent into purple sparkly space heaven? 

Murphy and Emori’s story was finished. But to be honest, Murphy’s story had ALWAYS been outside of the main The 100 story. So that story wasn’t eviscerated and could make it’s resolution. The endings for the side characters were nice and satisfactory, though tragic (Like Diyoza and Gabriel.) But Octavia got a cheap unearned romance and never reunited with her brother and the pain and horror of the bunker was NOT worth it as her people turned on each other for no reason. Wonkru? Ha. no. Echo never told her truth or faced Ash’s existence. Raven started her leadership role, but ended up being just a prop for other characters’ erasure or growth. Miller and Jackson were okay but that storyline was too slight to sustain us. Don’t even get me started on Madi. Hope was okay but she wasn’t The 100. Jordan was lame. They never utilized him. Indra was good, except for the fact that she should have killed Sheidheda right away. 

Wait. You were asking about Bellarke. See. I keep seeing how it fell apart. 

I’m taking it as a lesson, frankly. Because you see, I love to write science fiction-- and yes, I love romance, but I don’t always want romance to BE the story, like in the romance genre, so the first six seasons are a good example of how to build a story AROUND a romance without making it be ABOUT the romance. And that I like. And it was masterful, I thought. 

[katierosefun]

Caroline, don't let gatekeeper anons bully you into deleting things off your blog because they're supposed to be a ship that gatekeeper anon doesn't like. You reblog what you want. <3

hi anon! i appreciate the message. i didn’t really see the other anon’s message as meant to be bullying, but i’ll admit i was just a teeny bit taken aback / unsure how to go about next action steps. 

and because it’s now 1:20 am, apparently i now have more sleepy-tired-courage to actually say something more here, but i feel like ?? i’ve been given permission because of this ask now?? so everyone’s about to get unasked for clarification from caroline because we love that at 1:20 am! 

i understand that there are people who don’t like certain ships / feel uncomfy about certain ships / etc. for the most part on my blog, i don’t really go too deep into shipping except for maybe one or two ships, and even then, i feel like compared to most fans, i tend to keep things relatively light? idk, i’ll scream about how cute a certain ship is, but like 75% of the time, it’s back into found family mode just because i feel most comfortable discussing that kind of stuff, and i’d rather talk to people about like.......who gives the best hugs instead of who should do the devil’s tango with who, you know? 

um, but for the most part, re: reblogging something that might have been intended as shippy. almost all the stuff i reblog from are just from other mutuals without the creator’s original tags, so of course, i’m going to miss if an artist / writer tagged the work originally as a ship or whatever. but like, if i didn’t read it that way at first / just thought “oh! cool art!” then i’m still going to reblog it? idk. this is such a messy answer, so i’m sorry about this, but i mean.........unless a work is very explicitly of a ship, then i’m still gonna reblog art / gifsets / whatever just because my knee-jerk reaction might have been “oh cool more fanart / edits!” 

idk, that said, like...........if i ever reblog something from someone who was, idk, incredibly racist / transphobic / homophobic / all the bad things, then i would want people to inform me just so that i know who i might unknowingly be like...validating. but when it comes to,,,,like,,,,,,,everything else, i mostly just go “well, i didn’t see it that way” and hit the reblog button and move on.

that said, like. yeah. i think for the most part, i’m a big girl who has enough critical thinking skills in deciding what goes / what doesn’t go on my blog. 

(that said, i’m sure the anon referred to here didn’t have any ill intent / try to imply otherwise. i still appreciated the gesture, because i genuinely didn’t know about the original tags, but in the end, it is my final decision on what i want to keep / not keep and etc., and i just hope that people trust / respect me enough to make that decision without too much of a hassle.) 

[bereaving]

That's true, Bly is definitely more Gothic. When I compare them with each other, I like Bly more based on story, characters and the overall feeling you get while watching 👀 but that's just my personal opinion. Hill House made me a really huge fan of the whole series. It's not just dumb horror it's a well thought through story with so many details and twists, it's perfectly done.  

Haha well he's not as interesting as Jamie so it's easy to forget about him 😉 

To his whole backstory, yeah I mean he had a traumatic childhood and it made him who he is now, but even after episode 7 I had no sympathy for him, like nothing. OJC did portray him perfectly, there's no doubt about it, but just his character and how he treated Rebecca and the kids just made me hate him and there was nothing that could change that. I have to say it was kinda hard for me to hate him because in Hill House, I loved Luke and now seeing him playing the complete opposite of that was definitely interesting 😅 

Everyone was shocked by this scene but I loved it 😂 it was just great how Viola just came and shut him off 

You have, but there's no need to stop saying it 🥰

This scene...oh my 👌 I've watched it so often and it gives me goosebumps every time I watch it again, too. That's such a good shot, the whole atmosphere was perfect. And then Dani, with so much nervousness in her voice, saying this line 🥰 the way Jamie looks at her after it and then the hand holding, makes me realize how much I love them every time 💕 

I mean, yeah, their whole story was perfect, nothing happened without a reason and that's the same with the ending. I can't say I will ever get used to it, I'd have rather liked to see them happy till the end, as cheesy as it sounds, but I just don't get the reason behind of destroying a good relationship in the most cruel way possible. And I also know that it kinda had to end like this but it caused so much struggle for me, I was so sad after watching it, I felt so empty and I know it's just a show but I was heartbroken at the end. Like really heartbroken, and even after watching it a few times I have to prepare myself for the end cause it destroys me every time. But yeah it caused a much bigger impact, thats for sure.

I can agree to everything you just said in this! And it's true, the show reminds yourself of many things in your own life even if it reminds me of sad things mostly but it's still unusual for a show to have so much impact and thats wonderful 👏 

Haha yeah I get that 😂 I, as I already said, didn't have this "wtf" moment because I knew she would be in this one too 😅 but it changes the whole look you have on the show knowing that she already was playing Nell.  

And I agree on the most fascinating sibling, for me it's also Nell for sure. I loved all of them (except Steve) but Nell was my favorite for sure 

Totally true! I don't like the whole concept of the show which makes it automatically not interesting for me. 

I mean i have seen a few gifs of Victoria here on Tumblr and she looks f*cking cute in it what makes me even hate the concept more cause if it wouldn't be like it is, I could watch Victoria's great acting again 😭 

Haha omg yes! Same here! 😂😍 I would leave everything behind just to be the one helping her out and I wouldn't care about my fear of dogs too! I mean that would be a dream come true tbh 😂 

It’s another long one, anon! :D

We stan one man in Bly and that’s Owen 😄

OJC was jarring for me, too, but by the time I watched Bly, I’d gotten wind that 1). he played Luke and 2). he was supposed to be the gardener but people were like, “it’d be weird seeing the siblings play lovers” so he was cast as Quint instead. So to see him as Luke, it was still a shock, but... a mini one.  It is also worth pointing out that if he had played Jamie... I don’t think I would be this invested in Bly.

His pre-death scene? LOL, I screamed so loud when that happened and almost threw my phone. I had an inkling based on what Rebecca said, but... good christ. It got me.

Re: the ending again Yeah, I mean, I completely understand how it feels. Personally, I can’t really say that I felt differently, particularly after the first watch - I was left empty, too, and so so shattered. Even now, if I have to go back and see clips of the ending, I still get teary-eyed. Some days I would just randomly put on I Shall Believe, or Frank Ocean’s Godspeed, and just... cry. Generally, there’s always going to be that part of us, when we see stories that resonate with us but have sad/tragic endings, that holds up for that bit of hope that they’d defy the odds and conquer whatever it is that life throws at them, That maybe this time as we see them again, they’ll prevail. But... alas.

Re: Nell Crain, this blog is her stan account, and adult Steven can kindly go away. Which, if I’m being honest, I was underwhelmed by Michiel Huisman in Hill House. I mean I saw him in Orphan Black and I remember walking away from the episode where he’s in it thinking, “oh this guy’s good.” And then I see him here and he’s just... there? Everyone made me feel and everyone had that Thing that made me relate to them easier. Not him.

Honestly with Love Quinn... I obviously do not know how batshit crazy she is, but judging from the GIFsets... she’s a chef. I’m studying to be one. Her murdering tendency and derangement aside, I just... want to go to the farmer’s market with her, buy her flowers and/or strawberries or both, and bake pies with her.