#i had to rewatch the goddamn scene like 30 times

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

Happy Birthday David Dastmalchian 🎂🎉🎁🎈

To celebrate, I'm stealing borrowing from my friend's @polkadotjohnson amazing idea of making a Top 10 Loved/Hottest roles of his, with an honourable mention for both~ Here's 30 of my most adored characters of his with little snippets for each, it's a looooong read, and if anyone else wants to make their own, here's a tierlist I made for this exact purpose 💗💗💗

10.

💘 Love of my Life - Dr Fearless

My cringefail boyfriend, I love every single headcanon I hear about him. He was so damn cute even before I fell in love, and now every time I see him I start giggling and kicking my feet lol 😚 I adore how much fun DD has with him, and honestly I’m gunna dress as a vampire for Halloween this year /)w(\ been like 20+ years but I really really wanna do it!

🔥 Hottest Role - Whistling Marauder (Bird Box)

Mother of mercy. We rewatched the whole movie just for him, so naturally he shows up near the end and then died ;w; but that outfit, holy hell. Oh my god. I’m such a sucker for bad boys and this guy is going around forcing people to stare at this eldrich being that’ll destroy you or drive you mad. And he looks goddamn great while doing it. Gunna attach myself to the chain on his jeans. Okay I’m normal again, what a way to start off the list lmao

❣️ Honourable Mention - Luke (Singled Out)

Douchebag. Shitty brother who’s also great if only to save his own ass. Thief. Pure idiot. Irresistible. I knew the moment I saw the clips on youtube that he would so be my type, and seeing the full pilot only proved that. Dude picked a burger over getting his sister, he would treat me so wrong half the time, but then he’d make me waffles and it’d be all better 😊

9.

💘 Love of my Life - The Writer (Making Love)

This one breaks my heart so much. I’ve been in a relationship like this before, and I really want to save him from his. He’s beautiful, he’s talented, his outfit is hot as hell with all the rings and bracelets and necklaces, not to mention the undone shirt buttons, he’s got the emo bangs, he is the complete package for me. The only reason he isn’t higher is because I fell for many others first. I almost never watched this one because my brain was going haywire trying to imagine what kinda scenes I’d find in something with a title like that, and sure enough my face was so red the entire time since I watched with headphones and it starts with him whispering right in my ear, like him asking, ‘Do you love me?’ nearly made me cry, I love him so much. If I could bring specifically him to life I would love the hell outta him until he stopped needing such a painful, self-destructive fake love with the Woman QwQ

❣️ Honourable Mention - Nick (Love is an Elevator)

This one is just a silly little guy /)w(\ right from the start he’s so adorable, I would melt if anything even close to his interaction happened to me, and him just swooning and saying she was beautiful before bailing in tears is so me-coded TwT I would love to go out on a date with him!

🔥 Hottest Role - Abra Kadabra (The Flash)

Abra was so tricky to place because I love him, but as soon as I remembered his buckle outfit from his second episode I knew he had to go under Hot. Like, again, I’m so weak. I love his attitude, I love how he just wants that applause for his showmanship, his ‘powers’ are cool as hell, and DD has the wand in his home now and I think that’s so damn cool 😊 The reveal with him wanting to bring back his alternate timeline family was so sweet I almost cried, and he definitely didn’t deserve to be killed out so instantly right after his redemption. Not even a fan/watcher of the show, but in my head I’m having Flash warn him about it since he’s from the future, so he’s fine now 😌

8.

💘 Love of my Life - James Lewis (Teacher)

James was also incredibly difficult to place because I love him so much ;w; The entire movie I was rooting for him, guy did nothing wrong in the face of what was going on around him, and granted he did take things too far, but… villains are hot 😳 so I won through that entire movie. And he lived! And kept getting to teach! I remember I pointed at the screen when he was putting books away cause that’s my job lol I felt truly close to him in that short moment 😂 Anyway, Arabella didn’t deserve him, like she wasn't into it from the moment they met, every single time he talked she would do this 😬 guy was going through hell and was very clearly in a bad place all around, I can’t fault him for drunkenly saying the wrong thing if it were me, even if it did really hurt me. Gunna give him a new wedding ring to put on when he gets outta prison.

❣️ Honourable Mention - Hector (Premature)

He’s so cute!!! I may be weak for villains, but I adore his sweeter roles as well, I’m so glad I got to see him. If I moved to a new city and he was my neighbour I’d know I’d be okay, because honestly he needs to be my roommate like yesterday. A chef who’s afraid to cook because of OCD, I’m sure he’d be able to help me with my own cooking from a safe distance, and I already have some practice as my sibling has OCD and is very strict about how her food is handled, so I’ll have come full circle. I just need to make him more okay with cuddles first…

🔥 Hottest Role - Denham (A Killer of Men)

Denham was another one that was hard to place, because that axe twirls makes me insane, but with what little screentime he gets it all evens out. Another great villain, he’s just senseless violence in a bloody wedding dress and he works it. Love the look, love the vibe, if the world ended and the whole gang was coming at me I’d be honoured if he was the one who got me (I swear I’m not that deranged lmao just thirsty)

7.

💘 Love of my Life - Simon Lynch (Almost Human)

Even now I feel like Simon should be higher, especially since I’ve written my fic about him as well as my deep dive. I’ve said it before but my heart really went out to him, the deep dive says way more than I can fit it here, which probably means he should be higher lol so give that (and maybe the fic too 👉👈😌) a read if you haven’t already, all my love for him went into both.

❣️ Honourable Mention - James Harris (The Employer)

Another adorable character, the bar flashbacks had me blushing every time. We all knew it’d be him, but I’m so glad he pulled through at the end. I want this one to be happy, especially after everything he went through. Absolutely cutiepie, gunna be the one to pay for his dinner after he gets home 😊

🔥 Hottest Role - Dwight Pollard (Gotham)

Since I go into all of his roles blind, I had no idea what to expect for this one, but from the start I was hooked. Having him be a crazed cult leader with the biggest, most feral smile and laugh ever stole my heart the things I would let this man do to me sakndskjds I liveblogged his eps to a friend of mine who’s seen Gotham and has been trying to get me to watch it for ages cause I love DC, so she was thrilled as I sat here screaming about everything leading up to his ending :’D I’ve gotten some encouragement to write him, so when I do it’s gunna be so insane I’ll have to tag the hell outta it lmao (btw making these gifs nearly killed me oh my god I need him)

6.

💘 Love of my Life - Joshua Whitmore (Cass)

All the pain I went through trying to get this movie was worth it because it all led to him. I love him, I adore him, I’m so incredibly glad that so many others got to see him and love him too thanks to my trials and tribulations. DD’s only artist role, I got to connect with him on a personal level not shared with the others, and my desire to make sure he’s safe and taken care of is so strong that I wrote 26k about him, they’re two of my most favourite things I’ve ever written. I’ve thrown the ending of the movie out and completely placed it with my own, which can be found in my fics, and until Hugh Schulze DMs me personally and tells me what his vision was, that’s what I’m sticking with forever. So rest easy, he’s free from New York and buyers and dealers and the street and he’s safe and happy and painting again ;w;

❣️ Honourable Mention - Thomas Schiff (The Dark Knight)

The OG, a lot of people’s first roles of his, including mine. I remember seeing this movie in theaters when it came out so that means I saw him up there, on the big screen, and something about him stuck around in my brain until I finally realized my love QwQ Even if he isn’t as fleshed out in my mind to make the actual list, I still needed to include him in some way, I hope he got placed somewhere that wasn't Arkham after Batman stepped in.

🔥 Hottest Role - Cam (Relaxer)

I will never watch Relaxer again. Couldn’t even do it while I was making his scenepack cause so many horrible things happen to Abbie I couldn’t take it. But Cam, oh my god, I need this man. Someday I wanna write this huge fic about the reader trying to date him, and there’s no redemption. He’s still terrible at the end. But that’s what we all love about him, how shitty he is and how the potential is there for him to make us all worse. He sucks, but in the best way, and I kinda need him to maybe bully me please 😳 (making that first gif nearly made me blackout why is he doing pushups)

5.

💘 Love of my Life - Bob Taylor (Prisoners)

When I started adding names to my list of men I loved, Bob wasn't even on it at first I think, despite liking him in the movie. Then I saw more with him and added him to crushes. Now I’m fully in love with him, and he breaks my heart every single day. He was hurting for so long, even when we were watching I couldn’t place the blame on him while the rest of my family were convinced just like Loki that he was the one, but no matter what I couldn’t. The second I saw his sweet smile I told them there was no way it was him, and sure enough I was right. Another character who didn’t deserve what happened to him, I’ve been slowly helping him with my headcanons, but in my personal queue I have a fic planned for him and he will have no more sad days when I do 😭 I also have a bunny plush I’d had for years, my dad bought it for me and it’s been sitting on my bed ever since, and when I’m sad I hold it and pretend Bob gave it to me, it’s honestly got me through some much needed therapy because if he could go about his day with that kind of trauma then I could be brave and call about my own mental health :’)

❣️ Honourable Mention - Lonny Crane (The Belko Experiment)

This one’s a bit of a double whammy, cause I love him, but the switch to violence had me staring 👀 Either way, he didn’t deserve his death, but since it is a killing game type movie he was doomed from the start, at least his seemed instant 🥺 Someday I’ll write a fixit for him too, it was just too much for him back to back to back, he really didn’t deserve his final moments to have him as a villain even though I would really love to be lifted up like that aklskjdskds okay I’m normal again

🔥 Hottest Role - Ray Watkins (The Rookie)

Have you seen this man? No really, have you seen him? The twirl, the shirt lifting on his hips, the cold but also fun villainy, the nonchalance to mask the cruelness underneath. I need him. This one is not a Want, he is a Need and I need him. I hope that he gets to come back in the future to fully wrap up his plot along with the cop’s plot, pleasepleaseplease, otherwise I will die unsatisfied.

4.

💘 Love of my Life - Kurt Goreshter (Ant-Man 1-2)

I believe he might’ve been the second role I’d ever seen, but only after I really got into the MCU after Endgame. I skipped Ant-Man in my original watches, since I was mostly just into the Avengers and Cap (mainly Bucky lol) in general, but when I finally did a full marathon I really enjoyed the first movie. Cannot remember my feelings for him now since it’s been about 4 years, but I do know when I went back to rewatch in March I fell the second I saw him 🥰 the hair, the accent, the outfit AGAIN, and those hand tattoos, this is another Perfect Man. My crush on him is incredibly strong, it told me that yeah I was really starting to fall for DD (at that point I’d just seen Demeter a few times, and then Oppenheimer on accident) and it officially kicked off my marathon that eventually led me to my collection I have today. 

❣️ Honourable Mention - Lester Billings (The Boogeyman)

My family actually watched this without me way before my crush began, so when I saw he was in it I just had to finally sit down and watch it myself. Cue me hurriedly typing to my sibling when he showed up lol this man is SAD! He’s so beautiful and sad, I just wanna make a new family with him (I would be a parent for him, that’s the extent of my love) so he can be happy again. I love the backstory I made up for him way more than the original story, sorry Stephen King but you made him awful and I don’t want that one. I’m gunna save this man and he WILL smile again, that’s a Ray Guarantee.

🔥 Hottest Role - The Vampire (Cora)

Now, to start, this one falls prey to Very Bad Writing Choices. I will not deny that. Like, even with the allegory of the whole thing (that I did not see cause I just saw a short vampire story honestly) it's very much Not Good. But that’s why I’m removing him from the short and keeping him. In fact, go read polkadotjohnson’s fics on him, they’re fantastic and I adore how she wrote him. I someday wish to do my own, because otherwise everyone who can’t look past the Very Bad Writing Choices are getting straight up robbed of this one. Those double fangs need to introduce themselves to my neck pronto, you see what I’m saying? He’s so goddamn hot, DD needs to play a very serious vampire role again so everyone can see the Vision, he wants to do it, I need to win the lottery so I can fund this movie myself, that’s my new life’s goal.

3.

💘 Love of my Life - Jack Delroy (Late Night With the Devil)

The first movie I saw in theaters after my crush began! My friend saw him in a tweet about it and linked me to it so I thought it was already out, but I ended up having to wait two weeks and it nearly killed me ;w; I went in completely blind, which is good cause the trailer spoils so many great shots unfortunately, and the entire time I was swooning. Like, I usually whisper to my sibling during movies if we have comments, we’re very talkative at home when we watch stuff, but this time I was just sitting there staring with hearts in my eyes without pause. I’m in love with this man, plain and simple, I’m so glad I was able to get to see it since it didn’t come to the theater closest, we had to drive an hour away and when dad joked about me paying for the tickets since I was the one who wanted to see it, I did in a heartbeat. I wanted to see it again, but it was only there a couple weeks, so by the time I was able to go it was gone and I’m still upset about it. I’d sell my soul for this man, I love writing for him so much, I’m so glad my crush on Wojchek bloomed just in time for me to see this.

❣️ Honourable Mention - Hank (Virgin Alexander)

I avoided this one at first because the trailer was making me cringe and I was going crazy over what kinda sexy awkward role he’d have in it, but I was pleasantly surprised in the end. I think the movie is actually cute, despite some stuff still making me cringe, and Hank is literally the most perfect boyfriend. If he showed up randomly in my life I would date him in a second, hands down. He’s so shaped like a friend, I know I’d always have fun with him even when we’re not Having Fun, and that’s all you can ever ask for in a relationship 😊

🔥 Hottest Role - Breck Montanari (Double Black)

Okay first of all I gave him that last name. Second of all, I wrote 70k about this man and I am so in love with him that I own him now. I’ve taken him from Sara Woomer, he’s mine now. He has a full past, gave him a future and a partner, there’s no way I couldn’t have fallen in love with him. Unfortunately that fic will never be shared as it’s private, but know that, again, until Sara Woomer DMs me personally and shares everything else about this world, this is my new canon for him. And the cult. And the entire area where he lives. And several of the members. And the new Double Black who was such a chill dude that I made my bff love him too. This is my secret legacy. He only lost out to my #2 because there’s no way he couldn’t be my #2.

2.

💘 Love of my Life - Wojchek (The Last Voyage of the Demeter)

The reason I finally learned his name QwQ I went into this movie blind, dad really wanted to see it and I love horror so I went with him, and the second I saw him I said, ‘Oh that guy! I know that guy!’ since by then I’d seen Kurt and Abner a few years earlier and vaguely remembered him. I spent the whole movie then dreading his end thanks to the opening lines, and I’m pretty sure I quietly yelled at the screen when he fell and then got got after praying he’d be okay TwT After Abner, he’s the first DD role I ever shipped with, and when my crush officially restarted I ended up writing my entire plot for him and Addy that night before bed. I love him so much, he’s my jolly sailor bold who stole my heart by crying over the thought of having to lose his home. He’ll forever own a special place in my heart because of all this, I can’t imagine anyone else taking this spot.

🔥 Hottest Role - Murdoc (MacGyver 2016)

Murdoc was the first TV role of his I checked out after I saw as many movies as I could that interested me (mostly all the ones on Prime sans a couple, my collection was very very small by then) and the moment I saw him be mentioned I was ready to go. The Alice in Wonderland vague text, running and then getting shocked before falling two floors, showing up with that hair, I was not prepared for everything else they were about to throw at me. Murdoc is one of my most favourite characters now, he’s so much fun, I adore everything about him, I’ve only edited with him twice and written him once, but I need to do both so much more! This one is hot as fuck, he’s adorable, he loves his son, he’s got tools, he’s utterly sadistic, he’s a silly little guy. This is another Perfect Man, I cannot wait to decide on his plot with Addy because there’s too many fun possibilities I honestly might just make multiple.

❣️ Honourable Mention - Willy Cunningham (The Domestics)

Now… you might all be thinking… why the hell is this guy a #2 honourable mention in the face of all the others… and the answer is… I’m a freak 😀 I’ll never say, but my eyes were opened to him, and my god, I will literally never be the same. I just need him and that insanely feral energy okay, lemme have this.

1.

💘 Love of my Life - Abner Krill (The Suicide Squad)

The love that started it all, I think I fell for him the moment he walked outta his cell and got teased. The love I feel for him goes so deep, it only compares to one other, and whenever I work on my plot for him and Addy I always get choked up. The ultimate one who didn’t deserve what he got, I actually refused to watch the movie again after he died, straight up did not watch until my marathon started, and as soon as I saw him in that cell it all came back. I instantly fell back in love with him, and thus his Addy plot has the most love put into it to make sure he’s happy and safe. I thought that maybe there’d be another to win my heart as my marathon grew, but nope he’s still there sharing it with my other #1, and seeing him can instantly bring a smile to my face no matter how I’m feeling. 

After the movie I read the trivia again and my crush on DD himself began, so it’s all thanks to him and Wojchek that I’ve met the people I know today and have created so many things in such a short time. When I hit my lowest low in years I just sat at my desk and held the funko I have of him and just cried it all out, and it honestly helped me get out of that spiral. Thanks to him I now have a Polka-Dot Man collection (still missing one figure and maybe a signed print and poster 👉👈🥰) and if I could get a plushie of him to join the ton I already have I’d buy him in a second. Maybe someday, if I have any courage, I’ll bring my funko or something to a con where DD is attending and get it signed, either him or my other #1, and I’ll cherish it forever.

❣️ Honourable Mention - Jude (Animals)

Like all the others, I went into this movie completely blind. I didn’t know DD wrote it or its significance to him until after it was over and the credits rolled. So the entire time I was watching I was falling in love with him, he was so incredibly my type in the moments he was actually happy that it’s insane, I spent the whole movie just saying how much I would date him in better circumstances. We were sadly betting which one of them was going to die as things just got worse, me and my sibling were watching so miserably, and then we were rewarded with a happy ending despite the bittersweetness. And then the credits rolled, after me repeatedly wondering why he’d accept a role like this after knowing at least about his addiction and it all fell into place. I haven’t been able to watch again so far now that I know a lot of what happened to Jude also happened to him, it breaks my heart too much, but I still love him deep down and I hope he was also able to heal after the credits rolled.

🔥 Hottest Role - Johnson (Reprisal)

Tied for first with Abner as the ultimate love of my life and claiming this one all to himself, Johnson is the Most Perfect Man. Literally, no other DD role can top him in my heart aside from Abner. I honestly almost skipped Reprisal entirely because the promo image on his imdb didn’t grab me (I’m such a fake fan I’m so ashamed of myself), but when I was done with everything else and wanted to see more, I downloaded it without ep9 since he wasn't in it, and started watching. What followed next was me falling so in love with the show that I spent forever trying to get that missing episode back from near dead torrents cause I needed to watch it even though he wasn't in it. Reprisal is my Roman Empire, I am constantly thinking about it and him and Matty, not just for my fic but just because I love it all so fucking much. 

Johnson himself is so fascinating, I’m incredibly in love with him and everything about him, he’s unlike any other role DD has played that there’s a complete disconnect in my mind, he’s just Johnson. He’s so goddamn hot I missed out on literally everything the first round because I was watching him so hard, Matty and Ethan were nonexistent to me and I’m madly in love with Matty now so let that sink in, and when I rewatched it immediately after with my parents it was like I was watching for the first time. I’m loving writing for him (and Matty and Ethan of course) so much that my thoughts go back to him daily, and it almost always includes me being on the verge of tears because of how insanely good this script is and how these boys bring me so much joy while also shattering my heart. 

Making the gif below no joke did make me cry like this show is my greatest weakness right now you guys don't even understand how much it and Johnson mean to me.

I need to edit more for him and them and the show in general, if I had endless money and all the confidence in the world I would truly fund this show single handedly so it can finish the way it was supposed to. I’m so mad at Hulu for giving me the greatest love(s) of my life before taking him away years before I’d ever know him, with no physical media or merch to at least collect to numb the pain. At some point I need to get some promo pics printed out as actual posters, I need this show on my wall so I can always see him.

[bucky-bucky-bucky-bucky]

I’m rewatching the teen wolf movie bc I hate myself and here are some of my thoughts:

First of all, I love the show. I started watching it from the very first episode way back in 2011. I was 15. And I was immediately in love / obsessed with the show. I’m 28 now and I still love it. But this movie is heinous. It’s a disservice to the characters, the actors, and the fans. I still wear my BHHS lacrosse sweatshirt proudly, but goddamn this movie is bad. If anyone cares, my feelings and thoughts are below 🐺

Did they think that we didn’t know who the guy in the black hood was? did they think we couldn’t tell? Did they think that we didn’t know it was Harris? In his first scene, they showed only the bottom half of his face- and it’s so obviously Harris. Then he starts talking, and it’s SO OBVIOUSLY HARRIS. Like did they think it was going to be a big surprise? Did they think it was a reveal??? At least change his voice a little or SOMETHING. Be so fr. When I watched it the first time, he was standing there in his very first scene and I said “oh, Mr Harris is back”. And then at the end they acted like it was some sort of reveal? I know that characters didn’t know, but it was extremely obvious to the viewer.

Why did Scott not become a vet? He deserved to be a vet!!!

Why tf does Derek own a garage? And he’s also an arson investigator? And he has a son?? This man’s like makes no sense. Who tf is his son’s mother? Why don’t they reference her even a little bit? So weird.

Stiles would never abandon the jeep tbh. When he went away to his FBI internship, he left it to Scott. And at the end of the show, it was stiles who had it. He’d never just ditch the jeep.

Mason is too smart to be a cop. I said what I said.

Allison comes back from the dead with red nails because she died with red nails. But if she came back to life exactly as she was when she died, does that mean she came back to life as a teenager? She died at age 17. And if that’s the case, it’s weird that she and Scott are together at the end. Cause he’s 30. It makes no sense honestly.

Why tf can Parrish not find a woman his own age? He was flirty and weird with Lydia when she was still in high school and in the movie he’s sleeping with Malia who he was friends with when she was 16-17. Very cool and normal.

I’m glad they brought the nogitsune back because it’s my favorite villain from the show, but obviously it doesn’t hit as hard without Stiles.

Eaddy Mays’s triumphant return as Victoria Argent- she serves so much cunt. I love her so much.

One of the only slays of this movie is that Melissa is a doctor now.

This movie is two hours and twenty minutes long and it somehow feels they didn’t do anything in that timeframe. Like obviously there’s a plot that moves along but it just doesn’t feel like anything happens for some reason?

In what universe was it Scott’s fault / Scott’s pack’s fault that Harris got sacrificed? It was the darach who did that- not Scott or his friends. Harris’s motive makes literally no sense. And wouldn’t have the darach known that Harris lived? Wouldn’t her rituals have failed because she needed three of each sacrifice for them to be successful? And since Harris lived, that means that there were only two sacrifices in his category. The nonsense is so strong with this movie

Scott playing in the lacrosse game is so hilarious, this man is thirty

Why do all of Harris’s lines at the game seem to be very poorly mixed ADR? Who edited this? 💀

Why the fuck did Derek have to die- and why did he have to burn alive? Truly he deserved so much better. He went through so much shit in his life and he shouldn’t have fucking burned to death. He deserved a nice quiet life with his kid. And to that point: I do not believe that he would’ve chosen to leave his son like that. Plus, Eli had to watch his dad burn alive! What kind of bullshit is that!

And tbh, the sacrificial death should’ve been Peter. I love Peter, but homie needed a redemption moment after the many many years of bullshit and schemes and double crosses. They should’ve made it so that Peter was there at the nemeton with them at the end. He could’ve stepped up to save Derek and Eli in that moment to show that he’d grown. Sacrificing himself- not just to save others, but to save his family too- could’ve been his redemption. But noooooo. They just had to kill Derek. Trash.

[blistering-typhoons]

BBC SHERLOCK REWATCH - A STUDY IN PINK (REAL TIME NOTES)

From the perspective of someone who watched this show when they were thirteen, made it their whole personality and then stopped being a massive prat.

I thought about organizing this into a cohesive review, and maybe as I go on I'll delve deeper into some of my observations but for now I thought it would be funny to present my findings in raw, mostly unaltered form:

- loud ass opening, my god

- only bit of acting Martin freeman ever does lmao

- dances along to theme against my will

- god the effects and transitions are so shit

- all the shots of the pills are so ugly

- oh yay molly - whoo - yayyy

- the potential withe these two goddamn

- also this sherlock does not drink his respect women juice by god

- fucksake the deduction about john's sister- not only is it translated awfully into this modern setting, it's explicitly a deduction Sherlock is supposed to make once they know eachother a bit better

- THE POTENTIAL

- also sherlock displaying one insecurity when john accidentally insults his stuff- well done moftiss, characterization

- How far away is the crime scene, why it dark

- pls the transitions

- PIPE BOMB, WHOO Phone deductionnnn

- oh my god it's so shit

- uuuuuuuugggghhhh the potential I hate this shooooow

- fuckin deduction as a way for witty one liners and sexism, i hate this place

- 'you were thinking it's annoying' i'm going to send myself off a cliff, CRINGE

- RACHE- moffat, come here a sec- literally putting ACD on par with the police, who are always wrong the sheer audacity- also just a bad change

- these lens flare white lights are so goofy please, you will never be a whole scene of silence with jeremy brett

- benedict cumberbatch is very pretty i will grant

- terrorized by the fact i used to quote this show unironically

- from a writing point of view I understand that John gushing over Sherlock is to show off and emphasize their specialest boy- but, some sincerity is infused into it from an acting standpoint

- 30:02 GIRLIE WHAT IS THAT SOUND EFFECT

- OOH YAY THE PSYCHOPATH/SOCIOPATH STUFF WHOO YEAAAAH

- All the phones calling as john walks past is kinda cool but mostly stupid

- oh anthea, what a rich character lmao

- how long was mycroft posed like that

- First johnlock queerbait whooo

- Where does he fuck off to???

- he just vanishes lmaoooo

- Three patch problem. Bruh.

- I am bored as shit, help

- This music- girl

- Bloated is a very good word to describe some of these scenes

- HERE SHE IS- THE BIG DADDY OF QUEERBAITING

- this scene is insane fucKING INSANE I HATE THIS SHOW

- god how much episode is left fucksake

- the stop/go signs- pick a tone girl

- this episode is so almost good and it's anytime Sherlock makes a mistake lmao

- not the drugs bust :/

- ooh sociopath line- whoo

- "I don't have to [imagine]." OOOH OKAY, WELL, YOU GUYS GET *ONE* POINT FOR THAT SHEESH

- this is so ridiculous- COME WITH ME- girl shut up

- I wanna be done I wanna be doooone.

- lamenting the confrontation we had in the unaired pilot

- The 'Frwhoomp' noise as the light goes out, girl

- 20 Minutes left my christ

- BRO- I forgot that bit of ADR wooooof

- and thus begins the scree of Moriarty

- five years, why is Scotland Yard still doubtful of Sherlock's skills? I know he might have been deep in his addiction during some of that, but they evidently kept him around for crime solving.

- Great man/good man quote has me fumin babes, my god, what a fundamental misunderstanding of Sherlock Holmes

- boring ass back and forth

- this piano is giving me war flashbacks

- is it a five orange pips reference?

- also the pills look like that speckled gum that burns your throat

- when is it oveeer

- falling asleep

- bomb under the table but the table is made of glass and hates gay people

- she tooks the kidssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

- 13 min

- love, or rage, dude, come on Sherlock

- i hate this 'enjoying crime too much' theme they've written

- like watching a stupid play

- once more, the potential

- moriarty he said calmly

- also, so out of character for Sherlock do I even need to say

- peaks of what could have been- FUCK

- this mycroft fake out- lord

- also, mummy, fucksake

- cheesy ending BUT IT'S OVER

[sayakxmi]

[Magi reread; special edition] Episode 1: Aladdin and Alibaba [Part 1]

Lmao, yeah. Ofc I'm also rewatching it. Btw, you'll proobably see some Polish subtitles, sorry in advance. Usually, if I cut some pic, it's because I tried to cut out the subs.

Starting off strong with Aladdin screaming his throat dry (I feel that rn, but also, man, that's some good screaming, I give it to the VA, you can really feel how he's seriously losing it here).

Also, I didn't remember the animation being this pretty. Like, my mind is still on that scene with Ja'far attacking Cassim, and the dart being a bit too slow, which made it look kinda awkward ngl. But, well, first three episodes tend to look best.

He protecc.

But also, in the manga it was less breakdown-y. I actually like how the anime shows more desperation in Aladdin than the manga does, in which he's pretty chill about it all (unless we're shown him losing it in some later flashback, in which case I don't remember.).

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE Magi OST? Well, I'm saying it now.

Me: Is it Notre Empire playing? (compares to yt) Yes.

Bro, do you ever get so invested in the OST that you can tell the song right away?

Far, faaaar more despair. He's saying "I'd rather die than spend the rest of my life here." (I cut it). Damn.

Also, man, making screenshots is so goddamn annoying here. It keeps just. Not working for some reason. I hope somebody appreciates my commitment to adding some visuals here.

Ugo has such a low voice. It's almost weird. I always imagine him having it a bit softer. Also, kickstarts Aladdin's "who am I?" dilema earlier.

Also, man, Ugo does come off as kind of an ass here.

The shining planet looks so cool.

More of the shining planet.

Man, I feel like I'm going to divide these episode-posts. It hasn't ben 1.5 minutes, but I'm on 4 pics, with that stupid 30 pic limit. It's going to be annoying.

I like that we don't find out what's Aladdin's wish until later. But also, you know what? That was such a good way to cut it! Ugo tells him he'll grant his wish, and Aladdin repeats "My wish...?", and is IMMEDIATELY cut by V.I.P.'s "All my wishes are finally within my reach". Say what you want abt the anime adaptation, but that was an awesome choice here.

I'm kinda skipping the OP, I'll probably go about it in another post.

Workign hard.

Overall, there's a bit more interactions with some random people. You get the general impression that Alibaba is pretty well-liked here.

Also, something I meant to point out - I know it's not some ground-breaking discovery, but in the anime you very much get the feel that Alibaba is the protagonist instead of Aladdin, and, yeah. You very much do. Aladdin might've got the first scene, but for some reason you do feel like Alibaba's already got more focus. Though that might be because we learn more about him faster. In the manga Aladdin had an entire chapter to be established as a character first, but here we've got that one (1) scene, and then we have Alibaba working, interacting with others (they comment of how hard he's working), chatting about Budel, and him having a "I'm working to reach my goal" moment, like, that's a lot of information compared to what Aladdin's got. Aladdin meanwhile has only got that breakdown scene, which, honestly, tells us very little about him. Just that he's ectremely desperate to get out, so he was probably stuck there for a long time. Like, it does kind of play well to Aladdin's general mysteriousness, but also makes Alibaba steal the spotlight a bit. Which will be a bit of a trend for at least the first few episodes.

So, a small thing is that Alibaba comes off as a bit more confident here, at least regarding the Dungeon thing. In the manga it looks more like him daydreaming a bit, while here he's like >:/ I'm serious.

Take a moment to appreciate the camels, they're very cute.

Hm.

The face of a man who's about to get into debt, and is fully aware of that.

A classic.

"Hi, I'm Aladdin, a traveler!" You're a thief.

I do agree with him, tho, watermelons rule.

Smol.

Lmao.

Also, yeah, I'm definitely dividing this ep into several posts.

Very cute.

Also, yeah, watermelons instead of wine. Like, there's so fucking much changed to make it Sort Of work, though also not really, cuz you just end up ??? at times. But it could've been worse (it will be, I haven't forgotten Al-Thamen attacking Sindria for no fucking reason, like, that kinda defeats the purpose of being a secret organization??? and also since Al-Thamen is part of Kou, they borderline started a war...)

Alibaba being unexpectedly cat-coded here.

He was yeeted just like that.

What are your teeth made of? Steel?

"I am in so much trouble" face.

See? That's what I was referring to. In the manga he doesn't throw Aladdin on the ground like that.

Again, what I was talking about. I didn't cut it very well, but he's holding Aladdin's head. In the manga he pushes him back, and takes the punishment on his own.

Also, now that I think about it, it's another case of the focus being shifted from Aladdin to Alibaba. In the manga in that scene you're watching Aladdin freak out behind Alibaba, whereas here you can actually see Alibaba's expression a bit (not on this photo, sorry), and you can't really see Aladdin's face at all.

Mood.

And now he steals apples.

Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the ridiculousness of this situation. Aladdin just. Followed Alibaba there. Just like that. They don't even know each other's names. He just followed Alibaba into his house, and ate his apples.

And Alibaba doesn't throw him out for it.

Instead he started to monologue about dungeons, lmao. That's actually another difference - in the manga Aladdin doesn't care about the dungeons and Alibaba's monologue, but here he's actually curious about them, and listens to Alibaba's explanation.

Cool af imagery. I need this as my wallpaper.

Pretty, but also. Alibaba just. Faints, I guess. Lowkey lmao. We don't even know why exactly. He might just be tired from all that work or sth. But still kinda funny.

And Aladdin's like, welp, guess I'll go to sleep, too. In this random guy's house. They still don't know each other's names.

Aww, he's telling Ugo that maybe they'll find his friends ;w;

Welp, next part soon, cuz I hit the photo limit. Also, I need you to now that it hasn't even been seven minutes of the anime. And I skipped the opening.

[theggning]

Hello! I was the anon who asked Sapphire-Weapon about how RE6 was originally recieved. You offered to tell me about your own opinions on the subject, if you remember. If you like, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I rewatched some scenes and I still... hate it. The script and overall story were awful imo. It's cringey but without the RE charm, lol. And I'm still mad about how watered down and silly they've made Ada in that game. It was cool to play as her, but the whole "everyone important is just in love with her or wants to be her" was so blaringly stupid and lazy. I felt it really took away from her character, tbh. She should've zipped up and thrown a bomb down. Just explode the lot of 'em and go home to a girlfriend. Would've highfived her for that. (All jokes, lol!!). And Jake... his arc really lacked effort and it's a pity because I really enjoyed him as a character. He could've had a great opportunity with his development but... nah. A little insight as an OG fan about what you loved and hated would be great!

/rolls up sleeves

I consider RE6 one of (no longer #1 but one of) the greatest disappointments I've ever had in a video game that I was otherwise really, really hype for. So BOY am I down to unload talk about it.

Honestly the thing I hated the most about RE6 is the level design. It's really a shame, because the gameplay/controls are actually really fun. I love the increased focus on melee. Mercenaries mode in that game is a blast. But unfortunately, the campaign design is so fucking miserable and such a slog you could not pay me to play through the whole thing again.

The average level design in RE6 goes like this:

Hallway full of enemies

Telegraphed set piece w/ QTEs

Hallway full of enemies

Explosion

Hallway full of enemies

Telegraphed set piece w/ QTEs

The boss monster you defeated 7 times already STILL ISN'T DEAD and pops out to chase you some more

Explosion, launching our heroes into:

a hallway full of enemies!!!!!

I remember this being particularly bad in Chris' campaign, but it's a problem in ALL of them. There's no atmosphere, very few moments of quiet, no interesting rooms or details to look at. You know how in REmake/RE0 and the more recent remakes and especially in RE4R you can look around the environment and see fun little details, objects? How the rooms look lived in and like this was a real place once? There's almost none of this in RE6. The places you walk through don't look real. That marketplace doesn't look like anyone's ever done business in it. The spa level doesn't look like a real spa. It's a hallway full of enemies that leads you to your next explosion.

To add to the problem here, the chapters are goddamn ALMOST AN HOUR LONG EACH. Unlike RE5, where the subchapters were around 10-30 minutes if you knew what you were doing, when you sit down to play a chapter in RE6 it's gonna take you an entire hour. Even if there were some little fun moments in the levels, I can't remember them and I'm not gonna go back to play them when that fun moment is sandwiched by 45 minutes of awful bullshit.

The story also does absolutely suck. I have never before played a game plot that felt more like two 12-year-olds hopped up on Mountain Dew enthusiastically spitballing fanfic ideas and jamming every single one of them into a story. What's frustrating is that there are glimmers of good ideas all over the place, but they end up falling flat or getting stupid.

I could probably rant and rave about the plot of RE6 for another 4000 words, but since it's been a literal decade since I played the game and I'm fuzzy on the details, I don't want to go too in depth. So I think I'll just throw out some things I liked and disliked for each campaign. That I remember. From when the game came out.

It is also worth mentioning that my friend and I, foolishly, played the campaigns in reverse order because that was shown to be chronologically correct. This was a very bad idea. By the time I got to what most people consider the "best" campaign, I was 80% of the way to my sinking realization that I hated the game.

Jake's Campaign:

THE GOOD:

Sherry! I love grownup Sherry. I like her silly G-virus healing factor. I like the bit where she tells Jake to stop fucking whining about the evil daddy he never met, because Sherry fucking Birkin doesn't need to hear your "woe is me"ing about your evil parents fucking up your life.

The snow level was kind of unique and interesting-looking.

The spa level was kind of unique and interesting-looking.

THE BAD:

Ustanak. I realize we're trying to recapture the magic of Nemesis for the 4th or 5th time here, but when every other goddamn boss in this fucking game comes back 50 times before you kill it, it kind of takes away from the one enemy whose entire gimmick is that exactly. I cannot remember what he looks like at all. Nemesis is iconic, this guy is just big and ugly. The fact that Jake punches him to death with his bare hands is really silly but in kind of the good stupid RE way that I enjoy. It's what this loser deserves.

I'm honestly not a huge fan of Jake in general? He has a good character arc, which is more than I can say for basically anybody else in this game, but he slots right into this godawful edgelord teenage boy catnip character archetype that was absolutely everywhere in the early 2010s in gaming.

The idea of Wesker having a son could be really interesting (even if it makes me think about Wesker fucking, which. ugh) but it's integrated in a really strange way. I frankly do not believe Jake's mother when he says she genuinely loved Wesker and that he was a "good man," a thing that has literally never been demonstrated, ever, in the entire history of this canon. It's really incongruous given everything we know about Wesker, so I'm not sure why they went with that instead of the, honestly, more sensible idea of having Jake be an unauthorized experiment using Wesker's sperm or something.

The bit where Jake, who vocally despises his absent father the entire length of time we know him, suddenly decides to get pissy with Chris for killing him, is incredibly contrived. It feels like it's in there just because they felt like they needed an excuse for Jake to be in conflict with Chris, even when it makes no sense with what we know of Jake's personality.

Chris' Campaign

THE GOOD:

Piers is the best character in this game. He's charming, he's appealing, we can sympathize with him, he and Chris have wonderful chemistry together (platonically or not- I do love me some Nivanfield.) I love what they do with him as a "successor" to Chris, and how he helps Chris through his spiral. I will never stop being furious that they killed him off. Piers deserved better.

I like the broad strokes of Chris' character arc here. Chris becoming an alcoholic and suffering real, visible PTSD from the deaths of his men is both appropriate and a sensible step for his character at this point in the series.

Carla is definitely the best villain in this game. I have some beef with her that I'll discuss in the Ada section but in terms of campaign-specific antagonists, she's both the most compelling and the most dangerous.

THE BAD:

The execution of Chris' arc is possibly the stupidest fucking writing in this entire game. So you're telling me that Chris Redfield, Superstar BSAA Founder and Golden Boy, is somehow able to just disappear from the hospital where he's laid up with head trauma and amnesia? He just, wanders the fuck away and nobody notices? Chris is gone for SIX FUCKING MONTHS and nobody is able to find him in that length of time? Where the hell are Claire or Jill in this scenario? Claire spends 2/3 of her starring games moving heaven and earth to search for her brother. In Revelations, Jill disobeys orders and goes looking for him when he's missing for 12 hours. And neither of them bother looking for him when he goes missing for half a year? If you have ever wondered why Jill or Claire aren't in this game, it's because there's no fucking way to make this stupid plot work if either of them have anything to say about it. So they're apparently just blipped out of existence for the duration of RE6. Oh hey, we found Chris. In Edonia. The same place he went missing six months ago. Guess we were too busy to really look for him that hard. Hey Piers, go drag him kicking and screaming out of the bar. There's some shit going down in China and we need our top guy on the job. What's that? He's still suffering the effects of massive head trauma? He can't remember who the fuck he is? He has no idea who we are or what he's doing? Ehhhhhhhhhhh don't worry about it, stick a uniform on him and throw him into the thick, that oughta jog his memory a bit. This bit is so stupid and irresponsible that I will never again respect the BSAA as anything but cartoonishly incompetent. Head Trauma Amnesiac Chris gets his memory jogged midway through proceedings, and flies off into a frothing, mindless vengeance rage against Ada. In the process he personally gets an entire team of BSAA operatives killed. Again. Two in one game! That's pretty bad even for Chris! It's only via being screamed at by Piers that Chris snaps out of it and goes back to being the respected leader that he's supposed to be just in time to save the world. Chris decides, then and there, that maybe he's no longer in a position to keep doing this. That he should step aside and give a new generation of fighters a chance to fight for what's right. That Piers, who's been levelheaded and focused and brave through all of this turmoil, deserves to be Chris' successor and that he's the hero the world needs now. And then Piers dies horribly, tragically, traumatically, so uh. Never mind that I guess. Making Chris an alcoholic and forcing him to reckon with the deaths of his men is a great idea for a story arc for him. But this contrived-ass prolonged soap opera amnesia drama ain't it, chief. EDIT: Tumblr, in its infinite wisdom, just linked me to a blog post I made in 2013 COMPLETE WITH PICTURES I DREW making fun of this plot point. Please enjoy!

Everybody says this is the campaign with the worst, grindiest, bullet spongiest, Gears of Wariest gameplay and they are correct.

I think we are supposed to take the ending of the campaign as inspirational. Chris goes back to the BSAA with renewed determination, and we're supposed to find this as noble or heroic. I actually find this ending incredibly fucking sad and tragic. Piers' death is haunting Chris, and he's now taking Piers' faith in him as a mandate. Piers' hero worship and respect for Chris is now being interpreted as "you can't give up-- ever." Chris has resigned himself to fighting this battle for the rest of his life. He can never hand off the reins to a younger generation. He can never retire. He can never heal. He can never stop, and he's now doomed to do this until he dies/Capcom stops dragging his now 50-year-old ass out to star in every single game.

Leon's Campaign

THE GOOD:

The first 20 minutes or so of Leon's campaign is genuinely the best part of the entire game. By the time I got to this point I was already heavily fatigued from the above horseshit so I don't think it hit me like it should have, but the Tall Oaks University section is pretty great.

I like Leon being a mentor of sorts for Helena. It's a role we haven't seen him in before and it's interesting.

THE BAD:

I find the exploitation of Deborah Harper to be really gross. Helena gets blackmailed into starting an outbreak that kills the president for the sake of her sister. By the time we reach Deborah she's already been infected. Which is FINE... but making her a moaning, writhing, voluptuous monster vamping nude around the boss arena in a clear attempt to be sexually appealing to the (presumed male) player feels really icky to me. She could have just been a regular monster? Helena would still have every reason to want revenge on Simmons?

Due to the shitty pacing and structure, Leon and Helena both come off as super incompetent. Helena won't say shit about what's going on, leading us blindly into situation after situation and promising to explain "later." Leon's inability to drive reaches parody status as he crashes like 6 different vehicles in the course of this campaign. Leon and Helena's mere presence is a deathknell for every single person in the vicinity-- every time they encounter a group of civilians, every single one of them dies horribly. If this all happened once or twice then it wouldn't be so egregious, but this whole campaign feels like these two bumblefucks fucking up and getting innocents killed.

What in the FUCK was with the underground Skyrim dungeon section? Why is this area here? Aren't we in fucking Massachusetts???

Derek Simmons is Diet Wesker and he's terrible at it. He's not scary, he's not sinister, he's not even campy fun like Wesker was. He's supposed to be this grand evil mastermind, but he's doing all of this because Ada broke up with him or put in her two weeks notice or whatever? What a fucking loser.

The whole "oh no, a secret illuminati is running the world behind the scenes" plotline. I've been calling these guys the "Failluminati' for so long I can't even remember their real name. Having an omg secret evil organization running everything in your plot is not a plot twist, it's a fucking copout. This is so stupid Capcom has never again mentioned it, with good reason.

Ada's Campaign

THE GOOD:

The one and only actually scary part of the game, the Carla boss fight. Oh my god, is that some psychological horror? In THIS shitshow?

This is my favorite Ada character design. That open jacket is really stylish.

For about 2/3 of the previous campaigns, it looks like they have finally, actually done something interesting with Ada. Oh my god, is Ada an outright villain this time? What's her motivation? Are we finally going to learn who Ada works for and what her goals are? Why is she doing this? Chris has very good reason to be angry at Ada, but Leon's going to defend her just going by his gut? That's juicy! Wow! The boys are fighting!

I think it's extremely funny that Leon never technically finds out about the existence of Carla, so he watches a video of "Ada" hatching out of a fucking egg and assumes that's really her. He never gets corrected on this notion. As far as we know, OG Leon still thinks Ada hatched out of an egg. That's hilarious.

THE BAD;

They didn't do anything with Ada at all actually! The Ada/Carla switcheroo is really obvious once you realize it's happening, and would have been a cool opportunity to actually define something about Ada. Oh no, this evil scientist releasing the C virus on the world is claiming to be Ada? We all know the real Ada would never... um.... well... To me, the frustrating thing about OG Ada is that she isn't really a character. She shows up from time to time to save Leon or be mysterious or be a pair of boobs to look at, but she has no goals. No motivation. We don't know what she's really thinking or why she does things. She's taking orders from... SOMEONE? But we never find out who, and even when we think we know who, it turns out she's betraying them. Ada deals in bioweapons for cash, while also having an apparent soft spot for Leon. She's morally gray, but to no actual end. We can't say that she would or wouldn't do this or that, because nobody knows who Ada is or what she's trying to accomplish, and the script just has her coyly alluding to her alleged "goals" without ever explaining what those are. So yeah, imagine my disappointment when it finally looked like we were going to really get a look at Ada, only to find out that everything she does in this game isn't really her, it's an angry evil scientist who's been cloned to look like her. They have this whole fucking plot set up to do something, ANYTHING with Ada, and she ends exactly where she starts because none of it was her at all. The bit at the end where Ada winks at the camera about her "true employer" and her "real goals" made me literally fucking scream at my TV.

Hey sorry Capcom, I don't actually feel sorry for Carla at all. When you fuck around with bioweapons and cruelly torture people for the sake of your experiments, I don't really shed a tear for you when you get fed into the proverbial woodchipper of your own hubris. Carla is a great villain but I don't feel any sympathy for her whatsoever, and I really don't see why Ada ought to, either. If anything I'd think Ada should be more grossed out and offended that Simmons is THAT obsessed with her.

Okay so my last complaint is actually something that ONLY could have happened in the weeks immediately following the game. You know how AGENT is just, a stupid blank slate character who feels really out of place? That's because he didn't originally exist. He was patched into the game a few weeks after release, I think about the same time they added the ability to play Ada's campaign without finishing the other three first. Originally, you played Ada's campaign solo, as ONLY Ada. It made the psychological horror-y segments around the Carla boss fight a lot scarier and more impactful. There was, however, a slight problem in that RE6 was designed to be co-op from the ground up. Which means the very mechanics of the game are not designed for a solo character. Because recovering from near-death requires a second character to revive you. So for the first few weeks after release, when you played as Ada and got badly injured, you were forced to just sit there and watch her limp around for 20 seconds and die. Get hit by an enemy? Limp around and die. Injured by a trap? Limp around and die. Fail a QTE? Limp around and die. No recourse. No revival. Fall into the red and Ada suffers a slow, prolonged, unskippable death that you cannot escape from. At this point I had spent 40something hours playing the rest of the game, getting increasingly angry at the bad pacing and the worse story, so the extra frustration of Ada's literally broken gameplay in her campaign absolutely drove me over the edge. I managed to beat her campaign before the Agent patch that would have fixed this problem, but by that point I had come to terms with the fact that I absolutely hated RE6 and was deep in my mourning period for my prior anticipation.

Anyway, that's my tragic beef with RE6. Is it as bad as people say? Oh yeah. I think so. Is it as bad as I remember? Probably.... maybe? Does it deserve a second look from my initial impressions at launch? Yeah, probably. But the sting of that first playthrough still haunts me and I don't know that I'm ever going to sit through it again. I'd rather just take the lore notes and the little plot details that I did enjoy and run with those than force myself through the rest of the slog again.

I like how I said I was gonna be brief but then I ended up probably typing 4000 words about the plot anyway. AH WELL.

[amtrak12]

AO3 Wrapped for 2023!

I got tagged by @purlturtle for this, so thank you! :D Let's see how I did on fics in 2023.

Overall Stats:

Works Published: 2 - because a Pushing Daisies snippet snuck in there lol

Word Count: 92,498

Kudos: 475

Hits: 14,729

Bookmarks: 161 (99 public and it's killing me ahaha I just want a nice round number again D:)

Subscriptions: 285

(All of those stats are heavily, heavily skewed towards one fic over the other as you'll see below :P)

Individual Stats:

Most Popular by Kudos: Can We Keep Her, my Lucifer S3 time travelling toddler rewrite at 471 kudos. (Out of my 475 total for the year LMAO. I told you the stats are skewed!)

Most hits: Can We Keep Her (Lucifer) again with 14,688 hits. Listen I really only wrote one fic this year. The Pushing Daisies one barely counts.

Longest: Can We Keep Her (Lucifer) at 92,307 words published as of today and still growing. Fun fact: This is also my longest fic ever published! So it would've won this category in any year.

Shortest: Three Lifetimes (Pushing Daisies) at 191 words. I did have other one shot ideas after my rewatch but I had to save my energy for the Lucifer WIP.

Most Comments: SHOCKINGLY (not), it's Can We Keep Her (Lucifer) with 186 comment threads/415 total comments. My greatest wish when this fic is all said and done is to hit 1000 total comments because I'll never be able to hit that in any other fandom I could ever be in for the rest of my life. And if it does turn out to be 30 chapters long (or more!), then I'm actually on pace to achieve it :')

(And this is where I go more into fic recs than talking about my own fics, because I did not write (or read tbh) enough to have proper answers for this section.)

Fics that made me cry:

Writing: The [redacted] scene for Can We Keep Her that I've played a million times in my head but haven't actually written yet cause I'm only halfway through the story. Maybe also the time travel reveal scene which gets posted in January, but that's lived in my head for so long, I can no longer tell what feelings it evokes.

Reading: never have I ever by jrrmint (Lucifer). S4 Chloe/Lucifer smut. It doesn't make me cry, but it does make me ache because it's Season 4, aka the angstiest season, and this fic makes it even messier than canon was which is just beautiful in the 'I have a history of loving soap operas' way. :D :D It also taught me cheating is a trope I will eat up with a goddamn spoon for this ship. Like HOLY SHIT! Eve, I love you, babe, but I need more Chloe/Lucifer S4 cheating fic pronto! O_O

(NOT S3 cheating fic. It does not work as well, because the Chloe/Pierce relationship was already a stupid decision -- by both the writers and the character -- so let's not add even more stupid decisions on top of it. However, everybody's already hitting rock bottom in S4 (and at different times too!) so that's why the cheating trope works so deliciously there.)

Fics that made me smile:

Writing: The opening scene to chapter 7 in Can We Keep Her still makes me laugh so much. Rory's manipulative little "My heart hurts :(" ploy absolutely kills me, plus all the other 'Day 2 of a baby angel' chaos that's happening. Also all of chapter 9 with the Deckerstar family domestics of putting Trixie and Rory to bed. A++ me. Makes me grin everytime.

Reading: If He's a Tramp (He's a Good One) by maybemalapert (laconicsims) -- Lucifer joins Chloe and Trixie on a trip to Disneyland, set (and written) in early S2. I'm absolutely loving reading the Lucifer fics in chronological order/reverse page order on AO3 since I came to the show after the entire thing aired. And this little one shot was wonderful <3

Group Activities:

Gifts: No gifts given or received this year.

Collaborations: I did do something here, though! I was a beta reader in the Bering and Wells Big Bang event. :) I helped with Dawn of the Dragonborn: Heart of a Hero, Heart of a Predator, Heart of Dovahkiin which was written by Rinari7. Not finished yet, but hopefully someday! Because the outline was really detailed and incredible. So, so, so fun AU even if you know very little about Skyrim (like me)!

Events: Also the Bering and Wells Big Bang. I still absolutely could never be a writer for such an event because I get too stressed and freeze whenever I try. But I really enjoyed being a beta reader! Less pressure lol

[prettytanuki]

s02ep01 of Mushoku Tensei

Yay, everybody's most hated anime finally started!

"Hey, you, you're finally awake!"

Spoilers below!

So the episode starts and the first thing I see isn't the image above but... this:

Is this Rudeus? Why is he blushing? Can't trust blushing in this anime!

(it wasn't Rudeus lol!)

---

>Do I need to answer that?

Wow I see Rudeus became a snarky ass anti-social hikineet again.

She literally snapped (the arrow).

---

>I'd like a room for a month, please.

A whole month? So he's going to start searching from here?

---

lol he just left a pile of coin and went in

---

My boy, erm, man, is down bad.

This is kinda creepy ngl

---

>I'm not travelling to get over my heartbreak. I need to find Zenith.

Who is Zenith?

...

Oh yeah, his, his mom. I, I think...??? (or was it his sister???)

---

Wow now this is some tropey bullshit.

Ever since wild west movies you can't enter a goddamn tavern without everyone looking at door and making comments. It's like they sit in these tables just waiting for someone to enter through them doors. Like dude what were you even doing there before Rudeus walked through? Weren't you having a conversation? Drinking? Or were you like "hey bro keep watch on the door while I take a sip."

---

>Excuse me, would you mind helping me officially disband my party?

Oh, so that's what he went there for.

>*hesitates*

Just hand the tag, Rudeus, gosh, stop being so melodramatic!

---

>Did his party get wiped out?

Uh... no?

So did nobody notice what his party name was? I thought that would be important? I guess it's not that famous outside the... whatever that demon region was called.

---

>What about your party? >I work alone.

ok, kirito, calm down

---

wow he had a panic attack?

what... what is he touching in there

is it... it's her hair isn't it

...

okay...

bro is down bad

---

Every time I see a scene like this I can't help but think that this person only looks after Rudeus because he looks like a kid and if he looked his original way she would just kick him out.

Sad but that's what I learned from Cheat Skill: people are (jusfiably tbh) prejudiced against fatass hikineets (u_u)

---

Is he talking about his sister or Eris...?

(come to think of it, wasn't his sister already found? Gee, I completely forgot everything that happened in season 1!)

---

>touches Eris hair as a group of dudebros walk by

Rudy... bro...

Haha haha. Brutal.

Just dumping salt on the wound aren't ya!

---

>you're early

I thought he was diligent, but I guess he just didn't sleep.

---

Something I noticed rewatching:

>I can cast spells without an incantation >the girls: *didn't even hear that* >the two magic guys: :o (holy shit) >the sword guy: huh? (what are them reacting about???)

I guess you could say this is a big deal for some. And others have no idea about it.

---

>he doesn't shake her hand

Stop being so melodramatic, Rudeus, jesus christ, they aren't even dead!

---

So the leader isn't the strongest. He sounds like the weakest, in fact.

I'm glad they have a healer. If I remember correctly it's the one thing Rudeus can't do.

Tsundere girl on full power AGAIN I see.

---

>you might part ways with us and party with other adventurers someday.

No, dude, they're using her to teach YOU!

---

>They can't see well in the dark, right?

I'm glad Rudeus actually learned something in his adventures. What an experienced adventurer he grew up (?) into!

PSA: adventurer isn't a stable job. Please don't be like him.

---

Why do I feel like that's not the case for Rudeus...

>then, what if I joined close range?

RUDEUS WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU'RE A MAGE

---

>the last person I saw cast silently was a teacher in my school days

It's that rare...

Wait how old is this guy.

He has lines under his eyes so I guess he must be extremely old (like 30 years old or more (sorry ;p)).

With that long hair, scarf and physique he looks like a character from some BL. Which one of the two other party guys would people ship him with?

---

THEY AREN'T DEAD. FUCKING HELL RUDEUS. STOP.

Guy you're talking to probably had his old party members die on him or some shit, your issues are NOTHING compared to *gestures around*

JUST GET IN THE DAMN ROBOT RUDY!!!

---

How nice of the monsters to stay together still in one spot where you can just blast them off the planet with one big explosion magic.

---

>mage, whispering: exa-flame >BOOOM

okay.

>he chants whispering again

Why is he whispering. That explosion was fucking loud. The monsters woke up already.

>he does it again

You know what I think that's just how he speaks.

---

What is Rudeus listening to on the ground?

---

>it's too late

Did he see it with his eye?

Rudeus???

Jesus christ, he was about to suicide by monster grizzly bear attack.

---

Stop giving everyone trouble, Rudeus. Cast some spell...

---

Wow the healer actually heals.

---

>Why isn't everyone running?

You think you can outrun a bear? Humans are better at long distance endurance you know.

>of course I know why they stand and fight

Because... they gonna die if they don't???

Sorry is this supposed to be deep?

---

>goes grope Eris embarrassing hair bundle again

>doesn't

Is this supposed to be character development?

---

I can't believe this lazy sack of shit did nothing the entire fight just to step up last moment and seize the hero spot.

---

Oh it's the melting snow thing again.

This gets a pass.

Because it looks badass.

---

This looks like it could make a good wallpaper.

---

Love at first sight!

If tsundere switches because of his power level I swear to god...

---

What is this. Blood? Mud? Fire burns? Cold burns? An EoE reference? I don't even know.

I'm glad Rudeus can actually loot things like a proper adventurer.

I'm also VERY GLAD this is actual looting in this series and none of that "monster disappears and turns into Japanese-style bath tub drop item" kind of bullshit.

---

The fact that he can say "thank you" in scenes like these is probably one of the best parts of this series.

---

One thing I noticed rewatching:

They're shaking hands NOW because he didn't shake her hand when they left. This went over my head the first time.!

---

>more tavern antagonism

Stop acting like NPCs, NPCs...

---

>everyone: fuck off foreigner >:( *xenophobes* >foreigner: we'll buy everyone a round of drinks! >everyone: uh, yeah ur alright :3

Leader is paladin class I see.

---

>Rudeus! Rudeus! Rudeus! Rudeus!

please stop

this is cringe

he just cast one spell

y'all spoiling him

---

>hand in pocket

AGAIN DUDE???

wait what

what

WHAAAATTTT

no way

It's the panties. The holy relic.

Jesus christ.

>what the hell am I doing?

What the hell are you doing really!

---

You know despite the voice actor's terrific voice acting it's kinda hard to take you seriously when you're pressing your teacher's stolen panties against your face like that.

---

I'm glad he finally came to terms that NOBODY EVEN FUCKING DIED YET.

---

Wow such an impact...ful.. scene... i... guess????

Okay, so we have both good news and bad news.

Good news is... he isn't into the redhead loli.

Bad news is... he's really into the teacher loli.

Sad news is... best loli is the crazy demon lord loli and I'm afraid we won't be graced by her absolutely psychopathic presence again so soon. But we will one day I hope. Think of it like this Rudeus was born with two eyes, right, so what I'm saying is... does that count as foreshadowing??? Please???

---

So new season starts with now-veteran adventurer Rudy getting into a new party and he will probably use their help to search for his mother (?) Zenith.

All things ranted one thing we get in this anime that we don't normally get is a character having started his adventurer job from zero in a world, leaving a party, then forming a new party and showing off his experience.

Normally it's start from zero OR start with full experience.

Refreshing that we get to see both ways for once.

[bussanbaby]

This is a rewrite of the jail scene from 2x12, for all of us that are bitter with how it went. Hope this brings you all at least a sliver of peace. 

After Alec comes back from Magnus’, he feels so agitated and uneasy, that even the fact that he banished Azazel back to Hell with a single arrow doesn’t help his mood, his pride pushed fully aside in favor of racing thoughts. He reports mechanically to the Clave, leaving out certain details that stick to his mind and ignite his suspicious nature.

 On one hand, he can understand Magnus’ strange behavior because of their somewhat failed summoning, but at the same time, even when tired or angry or even hurt, Magnus has never been this clipped and terse with him. It’s not the fact that he refuses to help Alec when he calls, because that has happened in the past and for good reasons, but not being given any explanation beyond being busy is unlike his boyfriend, usually attentive and understanding towards everyone he harbors some kind of affection for. Everything from cryptic words to Magnus not responding to his touch, leaves Alec feeling wrong and thrown off-kilter.

  He stomps into the camera room outside of Valentine’s holding cell and with crossed arms, he watches the footage, blinking when a shoe hits the lens, jostling it.

  “I know you’re listening! Please, I’m not Valentine, I’m Magnus Bane!” He hears the man call, sound muffled over the speakers. Anger blooms heavy inside his guts at the very notion that this maniacal murderer could even say the name, what’s more pose as Magnus, when clearly, clearly it’s Valentine-goddamn-Morgenstern; a delusional racist hell-bent on destroying the Downworld. Alec feels sick thinking about it, feels resentment beneath his skin itching to be let out, to pay back in violent justice for everything this man, this monster, has ever done.

  Without thinking, his feet carry him over in large strides and he yanks the cell door open, pushing Valentine up against the wall. “That’s enough!”

  This has to be a trick, a practical joke – Valentine speaks, says Alexander, which stings, because it reminds him of Magnus once again, of the soft cadence of his voice, eerily similar to what he just heard.  Nothing makes sense; when he was shackling Valentine up before the summoning, he looked into his eyes – mad and defiant and unapologetic to the last moments, but here, here Alec sees fear and desperation, a hint of tears catching on the hollowed out light from above. He presses his forearm against Valentine’s chest to keep him contained and feels a rabbiting heart beating heavily against his ribcage. Fingers grip tightly at his arms and Alec wants to shake them off, but he’s caught up in the disjointed conversation.

  “I’m Magnus. Azazel switched us with a curse, unum ad unum.” Valentine’s voice trembles as he talks with a wild kind of urgency, eyes fixed on Alec’s, too soft for a Morgernstern. Alec feels doused with doubt, cold tendrils of it coiling in his stomach. It doesn’t seem real, but now Alec can’t get the thought out of his head, like a song stuck playing on repeat.

  “You gave me that omamori charm, that I carry with me every day. It was after our night in Tokyo-“  Memories flood Alec’s mind – when he snuck off to buy the omamori, because he wanted Magnus to have something from him, to remind him that Alec loves him and cares for his well-being, when they kissed and Magnus’ hands were warm and steady at the small of his back, when kisses slowly turned into something far more intimate.

  It doesn’t make sense, Alec thinks, as the world fades into background noise, only his fighter’s instinct keeping who he thinks is Valentine from grappling him into a vulnerable position.

  “Stop. Stop!” He yells and the echo is the only sound left until their breathing fills the empty space. How could Valentine know details from his and Magnus’ life together, those moments captured in time with such accuracy? The doubt settles heavier, claws its way up to Alec’s throat and threatens to cut off the air. He can feel his hand trembling, while he holds Valentine at a distance. He shouldn’t trust anything that comes out of his mouth, because if Alec knows anything about him, it’s that he’s a villainous, lying snake ready to sink teeth into anyone that moves too close.

  Yet, maybe it’s true, Alec thinks. Maybe this is Magnus, trapped inside of his mortal enemy and with nobody except Alec to believe him. Maybe it’s just an elaborate plan to get out of here and continue the rampage of destruction and if so, Alec’s head would end up on a stick in front of the Inquisitor before five minutes pass.

  Self-doubt was always a close companion of Alec’s, ever since he started trying to fit himself into the mold of an emotionless leader; logic and proof and hard facts, not emotions or intuition. Alec can’t help but struggle with his judgement, something pained pressing against his ribs.

  “How do you know these things?”

  “Because it’s me, Alexander. The day of Valentine’s massacre , you told me that you loved me.” Alec stares unblinkingly at the panicked tremors of Valentine’s lower lip until his eyes start to burn and he presses them shut, that awful fear coming back to him, a memory of not knowing whether Magnus was still breathing after the Soul Sword was activated.

  He turns away, scrubbing both hands over his face in frustration. All of this feels like a sick fever-induced nightmare and Alec can’t help but pace in front of the glass like a trapped animal. He quickly tries to list all of the pros and cons, tries to put his thoughts into logical patterns.

  Could this be a lie? Always. Alec doesn’t doubt that, because Valentine could be 5 steps ahead of everyone and planning to use Alec’s weakpoints against him in case things go awry, maybe with a help of some spell they didn’t know about or maybe just through the sheer power of manipulation – after what happened to Jace, anything is possible.

  At the same time, he could be telling the truth; this could be Magnus counting on him for help, calling out for the person he loves. This could be Magnus – terrified and left alone in an empty cell with everyone thinking he’s Valentine. There’s a chance love of Alec’s life could be trapped in a body that doesn’t belong to him, hopeless and helpless without his magic.

  Alec can’t bear that possibility.

  He pulls his phone out of his pocket, almost drops it with trembling fingers and hits the green phone icon next to ‘Magnus’. Seconds stretch out while he’s waiting and then there’s the click of a picked up call. Before he can get any word in, there’s Magnus’ voice snapping at him.

  “Alec, do you not understand what the words ‘I’m busy’ mean? I-“

  He swallows at the tinge of distorted anger directed at him, but pushes past it. He looks over at maybe-Valentine, who’s watching Alec with hope written all over his face. “I have one question and then I’ll leave you alone.”

  “What is it then?”

  Alec’s brain quickly jumps from one personal detail to another, searching for something that only the real Magnus would know.

  “Do you remember what you answered me, when I told you that relationships take effort?” He asks, his heart right in his throat as silence falls on the other side, followed by an annoyed scoff.

  “Why would I remember all of our conversations?”

  It’s enough proof for Alec.

  “Sorry for bothering you then. Bye.” He forces himself to keep up the ruse, disconnects and holds the phone tightly, before turning to face Magnus in Valentine’s body, who’s shaking involuntarily with relief, eyes still focused on Alec, but wet, round tears dripping down scarred skin that’s just not right.

  There’s a shadow of a smile when he speaks.

  “I’m all for effort.”

  Alec breathes out, the doubt gone.

[scribblescrabbledepartment]

spring break movie log. the only rewatch was john dies at the end, which i saw in college but apparently was not paying a lot of attention to bc the only thing i remembered was the ending. anyway it launched my dad & me into a whole argument about who voices mr krabs because every time i see clancy brown onscreen i say "oh yeah mr krabs" and i absolutely have done this several times before but apparently he always thought i was doing that for no reason because he thought mr krabs was voiced by someone else and was so confident in this belief that he had me thinking i was outta my goddamn mind for a full 5 minutes, 5 minutes during which i looked away from the movie to check my facts. you cant look away from john dies at the end for 5 minutes without missing like 30 different things and he was unable to fill me in on what i missed because it got so complicated but it was fine i got caught up

[ID: a page of various things laid out on a green background. a thumbs up-shaped note at the top labels it "spring break 2022," and an easter egg, a sticky note with a forest scene drawn on it, and a cut-out picture of a bunch of food decorate the page. scattered around the page are small notes with movie titles: troll 2 (1990), lord of the rings (1978), garden of the dead (1972), the terror of hallow's eve (2017), 1 2 3 scream (2011), and john dies at the end (2012).]

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed - Episode 02

Warning: Spoilers for all 50 episodes!

(Masterpost ) (Previous Episode) (Next Episode)

Donkey Riding

way ho and away we go, donkey riding donkey riding way ho and away we go, riding on a donkey

Wei Wuxian and Apple are doing their best for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 

Xiao Zhan had trouble riding the donkey sitting side-saddle, so the Department of Questionable Practical Effects made him a fake leg to wear while riding regular style. 

Can you spot it? It’s very hard to spot. It is very convincing.

Simple Pleasures

Wei Wuxian takes his time wandering up the nearest mountain, and half of the cultivators in the land also wander up this mountain because...Night Hunting! The cultivators are hot and thirsty from walking because they forgot that they all know how to fly. 

Wei Wuxian relaxes by a well and listens to people stanning him. 

Also

I’m going to say it: Wei Wuxian never met a drinking vessel he couldn’t blow.

Everything is Beautiful at the Ballet

The actress who plays A-Yan is named Zhang Linran. She probably has studied dance since she was 4 and now she gets her big break which turns out to be feeding an apple to a donkey. So let’s pause for a second to look at how beautifully she moves.  

Reunions are Awkward, Part 1

Wei Wuxian meets up with one of his family members and it goes super well. 

I...like Jin Ling? He’s much less of a douchebag than his dad, his uncles Jin, Jiang, and Mo (the three stooges), and every damn one of his Jin cousins. He’s genuinely brave (his Dad’s primary good quality) and his hair is on fleek. He’s still a whiny diaper baby, but I like him. 

(much more after the cut!)

Then Jiang Cheng shows up, looking fine as hell and radiating peak arrogant-prick energy.

When he discovers that ‘Mo Xuanyu” stuck a piece of paper to Jin Ling, he tells the child to literally murder him. Excellent uncleing! A+++++ would recommend.  

“In fact, literally murder anyone who uses Yiling Laozu’s tools, like talismans, lure flags, or spirit compasses - basically murder everyone in the Lan Clan plus those other fanboys we saw coming up the hill. Then get out there and make some friends, goddamn it!”

These nets full of cultivators on this daytime night hunt are the only time we ever see anything in a net during a night hunt.  In fact dudes constantly go night hunting and the only prey we ever see is rock lady, murder turtle, and a couple of rag mops in the lake. 

You Are Not Qualified to Speak to Me

Also radiating arrogant-prick energy on this occasion is Lan Wangji. He has been using pettiness as a weapon since long before he met this Jiang Cheng turkey, and he *brings it* when Jiang Cheng tries to have a conversation with him.

Letting your eyes wander everywhere except to his punchable face while you ignore his passive-aggressive questions? Quality work. 

Dropping a silence spell on his child and then letting your own child explain it to him? Golden. 

Lan Wangji is never ever going to forgive Jiang Cheng for what he did on cliff day, and his silence here is as pointed as an ice pick. I suspect the last words Lan Wangji actually spoke to him were “Jiang Wanyin, stop it,” sixteen years ago. 

Jiang Cheng is actually the bigger person in this particular interaction, visibly mastering his temper and telling Jin Ling to take his medicine. 

Reflecting

Wei Wuxian hangs out by a beautiful river and hallucinates for a while. River Jiang Yanli is nurturing and River Jiang Cheng is pissed off, so there are no surprises there.  River Jiang Cheng thinks that Wei Wuxian is a promise-breaking douchebag. He’s not exactly wrong. 

Courtesy of convenient gossiping cultivators, Wei Wuxian discovers that the 16 year old arrogant kid from the Jin clan who his brother from the Jiang clan has custody of is actually and quite obviously Jin Rulan.

Well fuck I guess now I care about something, that’s inconvenient. 

Needing to help parent the child of the sister who parented him is what draws Wei Wuxian fully into his new life. 

As soon as he has this realization, Apple comes back from roaming around, and never gives him any trouble after this for the rest of the story. Which...probably doesn’t mean anything. 

Wen Gravesite

Does Wen Ning hang out here because it’s where he and his (dead) people came from? Oh great, now I am sad. 

Judging by all the leaves on this grave thingy I’m going to say that this grave tender dude is, ah, not very good at his job. 

Get him, Jingyi!

I feel like maybe we all focus too much on how Lan Jingyi is so hilarious and sardonic and not enough on how he is a such a biscuit. 

Soul Grass

As mentioned in the previous post, Chinese spiritual concepts don’t always translate well into English. Soul grass? Sure, why not. 

This is where Wei Wuxian’s Sherlock Holmes brain starts to work, although he still doesn’t remember really basic stuff about Dafan Mountain. Dying and changing bodies is rough on the old neurochemistry. This creates more opportunities for flashbacks, however, and if there’s one thing The Untamed deffo needs more of, it’s kissing flashbacks.

Temple Statue

Presumably grave-tender dude is also in charge of clearing away spiderwebs at the temple, because it’s not getting done. 

Jin Ling walks into the temple blaspheming at full volume. 

Since this isn’t a Greek story, he isn’t immediately struck blind for this. Then when he wishes for the statue to come alive, it obligingly does.  Everything’s coming up Rulan!

Wei Wuxian shows up to rescue all the kids by throwing talismans at the monster which does not tip anyone off to who he is. 

Baby Cultivator Babysitting

Lan Wangji chills out in the cultivators’ pavilion with Jiang Cheng and their mutual hate boners.

Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian forgets all about his nephew and turns into cool professor guy, explaining the basics of soul-eating to the baby cultivators and gleefully encouraging their fear of Hanguang-Jun’s punishments. 

Because the Lan babies are good filial children they are super respectful and engaged with this random adult who is lecturing them. They also - like their own Hanguang-Jun at their age - see and admire Wei Wuxian’s intellect. It’s easy to forget how extremely smart Wei Wuxian is, because of how extremely dumb Wei Wuxian is.

Lan Jingyi suddenly figures out Wei Wuxian is not crazy. 

Bis. Kit. 

Then Rock Lady shows up and Jin Ling sticks 6 arrows into her while Lans Jingyi and Sizhui stand around not bothering to draw their swords.

I see a lot of comments about the bad effects in the statue sequences but I think Rock Lady is all right. The figure animation is decent and the lighting is no worse on her than on everything else in the scene. Her hair is nice, for a rock person.

Admittedly I just finished watching Guardian which has CGI monsters so bad they may have injured my retinas and possibly also my DNA, so the bar, for me, is pretty low. Rock lady clears it with room to spare.   

Note: Wei Wuxian’s flute playing does zippity towards controlling the statue. Not sure what his plan was here.

Wen Ning Kicks Ass

Now we get to meet Wen Ning, who appears to be a stone-cold badass. Later we will discover how hilariously inaccurate that assessment is. 

While all versions of Wen Ning are delightful, this version of Wen Ning is also...strangely attractive? He’s got a Patti-Smith-Horses-Era vibe here, instead of his more usual lost-baby-dork vibe. And his dreamy “I have nails in my head” expression is intriguing. 

I mean, he’s not a total snack like zombie Song Lan or pre-zombie Song Lan or blind Song Lan or post-zombie Song Lan, but this look is a good one for Wen Ning, is what I’m saying.

Reunions are Awkward, Part 2

Lan Wangji, who has 99% already recognized Wei Wuxian because of the haunted sword and the fierce jawline and beautiful neck and tiny tiny waist, is summoned by his flute playing as inexorably as the Ghost General was. 

Jiang Cheng also recognizes Wei Wuxian and goes into full beatdown mode, thwarted (silently) by Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian attempts to preserve his incognito by sassing Jiang Cheng in as sibling-like a manner as possible. 

Hanguang-Jun’s Pro-Ghost Agenda Has Been Clear for Some Time

This Jiang/Lan fight is hilarious when you consider the implications.

Macroexpression vs. Microexpression

Mo Xuanyu brought Wei Wuxian back using sacrifice summons, a dark ritual invented by Wei Wuxian that he, most likely, did NOT show to Lan Wangji back in the day. So it’s a pretty safe bet that Lan Wangji doesn’t know that Wei Wuxian was gifted a body, rather than stealing one.

when your brother turns around, you must whip him you will never live it down unless you whip him

When Jiang Cheng lets loose with Zidian, it’s not just because he’s angry. He’s using purple power to force Wei Wuxian’s ghost out of the body he’s apparently possessed. And Lan Wangji instantly STOPS him from doing that.

Clan Leader Jiang: this person has been possessed, against their will, by an evil ghost

Future Chief Cultivator Lan: Counterpoint: I am banging the ghost

Flashback Time

Welcome to your 30-episode flashback!

Once I used to join in Every boy and girl was my friend Now there's revolution, but they don't know What they're fighting

Let us close our eyes Outside their lives go on much faster Oh, we won't give in We'll keep living in the past

Road Tripping to Summer School

Gosh I’m looking forward to younger, kinder, more relatable Jiang Cheng.

...prick. 

Incidentally, until now this episode didn’t know that Jiang Cheng has smile muscles, and neither did the person who glued his wig on for him.

I Like Rabbits

Here we have our first rabbit in a large collection of rabbit iconography that appears in The Untamed. 

Instead of sending everyone to the Wikipedia page for Tu'er Shen I’m going to take this opportunity to rec the short film Kiss of the Rabbit God by Andrew Thomas Huang (tw: blood, tw:body-mod cutting) which you can read about and watch over at  Nowness.com 

Particularly if you are a queer person of Chinese heritage, check it out. 

So. What the fuck are these? Are they food? 

Are they made from wax? Or corn starch? or pig intestines? 

Wei Wuxian runs off to get laid drunk and Jiang Cheng grumps about it. Jiang Yanli reminds him that being free is a Jiang Clan Rule, so really Wei Wuxian is following the rules by not following the rules. Does that mean he’s not free? My head hurts. 

Jiang Cheng: yes but grump grump grump

Jiang Yanli: Nothing bad will ever happen because of A-Xian’s choices, trust me

Outro

Wei Wuxian faint tally: one  Caught by: the cold hard ground

Soundtrack: 1. Donkey Riding by Great Big Sea 2. Living in the Past by Jethro Tull 3. Whip It by Devo

Fic prompt:  Lan Wangji’s internal monologue while he sits in the pavilion with Jiang Cheng 

If you write a fic from this prompt and want to share, please post a link in comments!

Bonus: Wang Zuocheng, macro-expression king

Episode 03 Restless Rewatch coming soon!

[naivesilver]

Is there any of the shitty Pinocchio adaptations that you think are bad but you still enjoy in how stupid and/or weird they are?

WELL. Well. Yes and no?

For one, almost all of the adaptations I despise have at least a tiny little something that I would save - that makes me mourn the fact we didn't get a better story built around it, even. Emperor of the Night, arguably the worst Pinocchio movie of all time, had this very peculiar theme of Pinocchio as a tool in the fight between good and evil that I would have KILLED for in any other instance; the Disney movie, for all its flaws, at least made the franchise known and gave us a very endearing Pinocchio/Lampwick combo; even the shittiest, cheapest cartoons were extremely entertaining for their intended audience.

Aside from that, though, I have a hard time enjoying the adaptations I complain about the most as a whole, because their mistakes are too glaringly obvious for me to ignore. (That's an issue on my part, bear in mind, not in theirs.) However, there are other, weirdly niche things I've seen that I know would be terrible if I were to put aside my personal taste. Blame childhood nostalgia, drunk rewatches, you name it. Life is already so goddamn weird, there's no point in pretending I only like good stuff and have never cried laughing in front of awful media.

Among them are, in no particular order:

Fairy Tale Police Department

Think Once Upon A Time, but it's an early 2000s low budget cartoon that most people have (rightfully) forgotten. The core cast is a team of detectives tasked with making sure fairy tales get their happy endings - they save Pinocchio from being turned into firewood on the very first episode, and after that he becomes their sort of...little helper? Funny sidekick? No one really knows.

Guys, he's so fucking annoying. He's literally the stupidest character on screen, second only to the male deuteragonist whose main personality trait is to flirt with anything that breathes. He doesn't do anything of use - they don't even take him on investigations except by accident (literally, I still remember that one episode where he was being so bothersome they sent him to clean the patrol car and then took the fucking car because they'd forgotten he was there. Child labor laws WHEN). I physically cringe every time he steps on the scene...

...but I grew up with that cartoon, so tragically, I got attached. 5yo had two crushes on that show - one was the vaguely butch female detective who took names and kicked ass, and the other was Pinocchio, because even then I had my priorities straightened out. I'll go to my grave knowing that among an endless flood of amazing characters (the Three Little Piglets were part of a MOB, for God's sake), I looked at a fastidious child and went "I want that one". Sigh.

Pinocchio (2002)

THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE...This movie has ruined my every chance to be perceived as a proper film enthusiast forever again - I love it and I hate in equal measures, and I will NEVER recover from its influence.

Can you believe that this was the most expensive Italian movie ever made???? I can't wrap my head around it. Roberto Benigni went and asked for an outrageous budget, and those people GAVE IT TO HIM, knowing that in this movie no one playing a child would be under the age of 30, that Nicoletta Braschi would have the role of her balding husband's mother, and that all the additional Lampwick-and-Pinocchio screentime would be used to add weird homosexual vibes to the entire plot. Tangerine lollipops have been ruined forever, from my perspective.

Unfortunately, it's book accurate to a fault, down to the actors' accents, and it's clear it was a passion project, so I can't write it down in my personal Pinocchio Death Note. I wish I could, sometimes, though. Benigni in flowery ledehosen is a picture that's seared forever into my brain.

Huey, Dewey and Louie in "The Adventures of Pinocchio"

Allow me to be Italian on main for five minutes more. This one was published in multiple parts on Topolino comic books during the 90s, as part of the endless list of Disney parodies of famous movies/shows/books, and to call it weird would be an euphemism.

Basically, it's the book Pinocchio, but with a futuristic twist: Huey, Dewey and Louie play the titular character, except they're...robots? That want to become human?? And again, it follows Collodi's story, but the Disney characters play their book counterparts for some reason, and Gladstone plays Lampwick??? And the Cricket is a sentient traffic light with arms and legs????

Honestly, I wish I was exaggerating. But then again, it's almost impossible not to appreciate an adaptation that goes apeshit to this level. It's so ballsy it does a 360° and becomes great. What the fuck.

[ffamranxii]

Sailor Stars thoughts:

1. The anime does its absolute best to make the Starlights unlikable. Taiki is a fucking asshole (he won’t even give a dying girl, who he explicitly was taken to visit, an autograph, and tells a bunch of children that their grandfather’s theory about souls becoming stars is dead wrong), Seiya is a Nice Guy who hits on Usagi constantly despite being told multiple times she has a boyfriend, and Yaten is a mildly sarcastic cardboard cutout. I know the manga doesn’t expand on them much but the anime is supposed to help make these people real. Counterexample is Chibi-Chibi, who hardly speaks in the manga and relies on her cuteness alone to be likable. They gave her a very cute voice because it was literally all they had to work with, given how often Chibi-Chibi actually appears

2. The dub cast for the Starlights is frankly awful. As civilians, Taiki alternates between a woman trying too hard to make her voice deep and having a bad cold, Seiya sounds like a prepubescent boy, and Yaten sounds like a woman (which they’re not, as civilians); as Starlights their voices are VERY high pitched, especially Yaten’s. Their sub voices just sound like woman talking a bit deeply and then normal women.

3. Why the FUCK did Toei think literally changing sex was less controversial than crossdressing? The Starlights are women and have always been women. Plus, them being male civilians in the anime creates a paradox, because if they’re men with sailor crystals who can become senshi, why can’t Mamoru - who is confirmed multiple times throughout the series as carrying the earth’s star seed and thus being Sailor Earth - do the same? Naoko said Mamoru can’t be a sailor senshi because he’s a man, but the Starlights don’t abide by this rule, they change their fucking biological sex

4. Why is absolutely no one concerned that Chibi-Chibi, a THREE YEAR OLD, just goes off on her own and has her own little adventures? She wanders into some strange old man’s house and they’re all “oh that’s just Chibi-Chibi,” and no one is worried that a literal stranger invites a three year old into his house where he gives her toys and candy? The 90s were WILD, man

5. Why does Chibi-Chibi, again who is THREE YEARS OLD, have a thigh gap?

6. This one’s on Naoko because it’s like this in the manga, but the anime is supposed to expand on the universe so I blame them too: Why does literally nobody question Chibi-Chibi’s motives? Some strange pink haired child who fucking falls out of the sky one day up and brainwashes Usagi’s mom into thinking she’s her second daughter, and nobody bats an eye at this? That’s sus as fuck and literally the only question anyone has is “is she your kid or Chibiusa’s?” She doesn’t even have a NAME, “chibi” is just a random word she says!

7. I am DIGGING the mobster feel of the Animamates’ civilian forms. Especially Iron Mouse and Tin Nyanko, who clearly launder money through a shady car dealership.

8. The Starlights’ only redeeming qualities are their snazzy entrance music and Seiya’s red suit

9. Why is Aluminum Siren the only Animamate who understands that a senshi has a pure star seeds? Like, y’all killed the senshi of your home planets to take their star seeds so YOU could be senshi (which is presumably why Galaxia wants more seeds, to make more Animamates with them), shouldn’t you know that?

10. Aluminum Siren/Lead Crow are trying their damn hardest to give Harumichi a run for their money in the quest to become the Best Space Lesbians.

11. So the Moon Kingdom fosters loyalty through child soldiers. I’m assuming Queen Serenity has her own senshi in the form of our senshi’s mothers, etc. (Which begs the question of if the Asteroid Senshi are supposed to be the future kids of our senshi or if they too are child soldiers from the asteroids they’re named after.) Kinmoku seems to foster loyalty by having the Kakyuu’s senshi fall in unrequited love with her. (In the manga it’s stated Kakyuu has a husband who died when their planet was destroyed.) I mean, whatever works, right?

12. I LOVE Tin Nyanko’s dub voice. She’s only around Usagi’s age and she sounds it

13. The dub actress for Lead Crow seems like she’s half assing it. Her voice doesn’t raise properly when she yells, she never sounds really angry, and it’s just so odd. I find a lot of dub voices do this, while the original Japanese VAs will scream their lungs out into the mic

14. On the reverse, Galaxia’s voice actress is a badass. She’s supposed to have a deep menacing voice but I like the one they gave her in the dub. She’s quiet, and sounds almost kind, and that’s a fucking TERRIFYING sort of villain we don’t see a lot of. Even when she’s pissed she doesn’t raise her voice.

15. Why are Lead Crow and Tim Nyanko the same height? Lead Crow is like 5’10 and Tin Nyanko is 4’11 like Sailor Moon

16. As an aside, Tin Nyanko and Lead Crow don’t like each other, which reminds me of the cats vs crows trash can showdown in Haikyuu lol

17. Haruka’s hate boner for Seiya gives me life

18. FINALLY someone calls the Starlights out on being assholes but it’s only after Makoto sees them harassing a THREE YEAR OLD (Chibi-Chibi). Literally everyone BUT Usagi thinks they’re assholes. “They sing such beautiful songs!” Bro. You can sing pretty and still be a fucking dick.

19. Lead Crow goes after Sailor Moon only after reading Siren’s notebook. Ditzy SIREN is the smartest Animamate, lord help them

20. Kakyuu’s dub voice is SO GOOD. She’s my favorite minor character, I’m still bitter they didn’t show Sailor Kakyuu

21. Seiya’s crush on Usagi was so awkwardly shoehorned in. I hate it. Jesus fucking Christ Usagi is sobbing in the goddamn rain about how much she misses Mamoru and Seiya is STILL coming onto her.

22. It is literally so fucking funny to me that Mamoru spends all of Stars fucking dead. He’s just a perpetual damsel in distress.

23. Rei literally lectures Usagi about leading Seiya on and how “you need to do the right thing and tell him you already have someone,” AS IF USAGI HASN’T BEEN DOING THAT AT EVERY AVAILABLE OPPORTUNITY. THE FIRST TIME THEY MET SHE SAID SHE HAD A BOYFRIEND, SHE’S TOLD SEIYA OVER AND OVER THAT SHE ISN’T INTERESTED IN HIM, THAT SHE’S GOT A BOYFRIEND, THAT SHE LOVES HER BOYFRIEND. The fucking MISOGYNY here, like it’s Usagi leading Seiya on instead of Seiya being a fucking Nice Guy who can’t take no for a goddamn answer. Shut the fuck up, Rei.

24. Pretty sure under Kakyuu’s headdress is a pair of odango

25. The fact that Iron Mouse and Aluminum Siren both die when their bracelets are removed yet Tin Nyanko doesn’t implies that Tin Nyanko was the original Sailor Mau. Mouse and Siren dying implies that forcing senshi powers on a civilian is dangerous and that Galaxia’s bracelets are the only thing keeping them alive (albeit brainwashed). Yet Tin Nyanko seems to revert to “good” when one of her bracelets is destroyed. Galaxia has to intervene and kill her personally. Tin Nyanko may have offered her senshi powers to spare Mau (this applies only in the anime; in the manga she’s explicitly said to have killed Sailor Mau)

26. Oooh Galaxia’s angry voice is so commanding and sexy

27. Don’t gimme that “we love Usagi but we love you Starlights just as much.” No you fucking don’t. The whole death scene in the anime is just so... ugh. Bad.

28. The Outers fighting Galaxia is hilarious. They’re supposed to be stronger than the Inners yet Galaxia never even has to get out of her chair to kick their asses. The writers were trying real hard to make us fear the worst and back the senshi into a corner but literally they’ve made this an impossible battle to win that only becomes winnable due to plot armor.

29. Rewatching Stars and classic after Eternal and Crystal makes me miss the battle damage the fuku took. The new series always has them looking pristine, but in classic they actually get roughed up and battle scarred. It makes it more real.

30. Aww how come Uranus and Neptune got to keep their names when they joined Galaxia? I wanna know what whack ass Animamate name they would’ve gotten. (Also Galaxia literally just sent them out like Pokémon, wtf)

31. I feel like Saturn dying shouldn’t be possible since she’s literally a senshi of death but... whatever, go off I guess.

32. So.... Uranus and Neptune joining Galaxia to try and take her star seed is a cool idea that absolutely did not happen in the manga, and needed more than half an episode of development. Would’ve been a cool plot if it wasn’t so rushed.

33. So much of this season was rushed so they could tie the series up at a beat 200 episodes. If they really didn’t want to go over 200, they should’ve cut the Nehelennia arc (which isn’t in the manga anyway) and and focused on developing the Animamates, this sweet Harumichi betrayal plot, and explaining Chibi-Chibi??? Her existence makes no sense without Sailor Cosmos, and they just... didn’t include her??? Wtf

[sfb123]

Ur love for picky eating.. tell me more with 16,28,35

I love history .. what do u say with 34

Random other asks 2, 11, 22, 25, 30, 31, 37.

Answering from this ask list.

Thank you so much for all of these! Some of them were super hard, and I’m sure some of my answers will be disappointing. 

16. 3 drinks you consume the most

1. Water

2. Yoo-Hoo

3. Cream Soda

28. 3 things you love cooking/baking

1. Cookies

2. Pretzel Bites

3. Pasta

35. 3 vegetables that you like the taste of

1. Potato

2. Carrots

3. Lettuce (had a real hard time finding a third)

34. 3 people in history that inspire you the most

1. Clive Davis

2. Gary Marshall

3. Diane Warren

2. 3 movies you have rewatched many times

1. 101 Dalmatians

2. The Little Mermaid

3. That Thing You Do

11. 3 books that you would recommend everyone to read

I don’t really read books a ton, so this is a tough one, and everyone would probably hate my picks.

1. Elvis and Me (Priscilla Presley’s account of her relationship with Elvis. It’s also a movie, and I’m obsessed with both)

2. Part of Your World: A Twisted Tale (From a series of books exploring what would have happened if the villains in Disney films actually won in the end. This one is, obviously, The Little Mermaid)

3. The Hit Charade: Lou Pearlman, Boy Bands, and the Biggest Ponzi Scheme in U.S. History (This guy was fucking nuts, and his story is so fascinating. I am obsessed with Lou Pearlman)

22. 3 movies/books/tv shows that made you cry

1. Homeward Bound (the 90’s remake, if you don’t cry when Shadow appears on top of that hill, you’re a goddamned monster, I’m getting emotional just thinking about it)

2. The OC - a couple of episodes, but none more than this moment that first aired at a very particular time in my life, and brings me back there every time I watch:

3. Dumbo (the Baby Mine scene, it gets me every time)

25. 3 people you’d never get tired of

1. Gwen Stefani

2. My sister

3. @phoenixrising308 (aka my Joy)

30. 3 moments you could never forget

1. Getting proposed to

2. Being onstage at the Comedy Cellar in NYC

3. Being asked out on a date as an April Fools joke in 6th grade (don’t feel bad, I didn’t like him and I said no, so I’m not upset about it, just a shitty thing to do)

31. 3 types of flowers you love the most

1. Calla lilies

2. Roses

3. Daisies

37. 3 languages you would love to learn

1. Italian (I only know select words and phrases I picked up from my grandparents)

2. Spanish (I know a little bit…or un poco, if you will, but I’d love to be able to be conversational)

3. French

[coinofstone]

5x12 The Diamond of the Day pt 1

Final two episodes! Big finale! Why am I making myself cry in the middle of the afternoon! Both eps in this post.

I do love that they made Arthur a sore loser

Enter treacherous white woman #2. Srsly it was lazy writing when they did it for Mordred, it's worse now with Gwaine.

I do love the actual Round Table war room discussion but a) why isn't Merlin seated at the round table and b) why does Leon have so much goddamn faith in Camelot's walls? Like??? You literally said the same thing last year and yet Camelot *did* fall when Agravaine brought an army through the tunnels!

Poor Aithusa. Kid's had a rough life.

I do love Arthur responding to Merlin presenting him with all his supplies ready - which he prepared without his magic mind you - with suspicion 😂

But then he calls Merlin a coward and it's sad

Katie has such a great voice. That entire thing in the cave from her taunting to her laughter to the spell, it just just beautifully played.

Whole ass battle to prepare for and Arthur is just walking around moping cuz Merlin isn't there

So, Merlin's father-vision telling him he's magic itself and he just needs to believe in himself to get his magic going again, does this mean he *didn't* need to go to the cave to get it back? Cuz it seems like he needed to recharge in the cave itself, his injuries were healed when he woke up. That seems like magic cave stuff to me.

Also that "always have been and always will be" - I'm taking to mean 'always have been' in the sense that since he's 'magic itself' even before he was born, his magic existed in other, intangible forms, like we are all stardust etc. But now that he is, he will always be, aka he will not die.

Arthur waking up with his wife in his arms and Merlin's name on his lips, jumping out of bed to act on dream-info.

Balinor telling Merlin to trust in what will be.... like bitch that is literally not how this ends.

5x13 The Diamond of the day pt 2

You know that gif of the cat knocking everything off the table? That's literally Merlin shooting lightning at everyone from his perch on the ridge.

I have a lot of snarky things to say about Merlin coming out of the cave in full Dragoon gear and riding a horse instead of teleporting like the other witches but I'ma keep that to myself.

Mordred is a bitch and Aithusa has terrible aim. At least Aithusa's loyalty to Morgana makes sense.

Arthur said oh shit I'm magic - oh wait no it's that old man again

He also straight up "No! Bad dragon!"-ed Aithusa

Y'know, for all I've watched this episode and screamed about Arthur's death, I don't think I've ever focused on the exact moment he gets stabbed before.

Mordred catches him from behind and he meets it, no fault there. But as soon as he realizes his assailant is the knight who turned on him and joined Morgana, what does he do? HE LOWERS HIS FUCKING SWORD

He leaves himself wide fucking open and vulnerable and Mordred seizes the opportunity. I understand wanting the moment of recognition for Arthur, but on what planet is a trained warrior going to drop his sword mid-attack because he recognizes his attacker as a dude who only just recently decided to forsake him? It's soooooo dumb

There was a whole sequence a few episodes back where Mordred and Arthur are sparring, the point of it was to show that Mordred has become a skilled swordsman. So what exactly was the point in having Mordred run Arthur through as soon as Arthur idiotically lets his guard down? This should've been a meticulously choreographed sword fight, with Mordred getting the upper hand and sticking Arthur properly. Not this nonsense. Look at Arthur's FACE! Oh, Mordred... 👉👈 do you maybe wanna be friends again- STAB ... guess not

Uther's been rolling in his grave but he's taking an extra tumble watching Arthur forget all his skills and training in that moment.

I do appreciate Arthur getting Mordred back though. Like that moment of merciless anger followed by the hurt and regret playing on Arthur's face, warring with surety and responsibility. It was good.

I've rewatched the big confession scene about 16 times just now.

I don't quite understand why Merlin took Arthur to the woods to begin with. Instead of bringing him to the med tent in the battlefield or back to Camelot. What was the reason?

Merlin saying it feels strange (to use magic freely in front of Arthur) and him just going 'yeah' completely deadpan makes me laugh every time.

I really feel like Arthur's head should be elevated at a further incline if he's going to be fed.

Gaius refusing to outright expose Merlin as the sorcerer but nonetheless letting Gwen figure it out on her own warms my heart.

My God Arthur is sitting there dying, feeling betrayed about his best friend 'lying' to him, and still he can't stop himself from looking at Merlin's mouth.

Percival summoned MUSCLE POWER

Hey um random but why does Gwaine even know where Merlin and Arthur are headed? Why would Gaius tell him?

Arthur looks at Merlin so lovingly after he's killed Morgana 😭😭

And now he's literally grabbing at the man's hand 😭 "just hold me, please"

That's gotta be the gayest death scene in television history. If you can watch that without thinking Arthur puts his hand on the back of Merlin's head because some part of him wants to bring him down for a kiss, or that "just hold me, please" is in any way shape or form a 'bros' thing, and certainly not at all an intentional mirror/callback to Isolde dying in Tristan's arms, then I'm afraid you are what we professionals refer to as a dumb-as-nails fucknugget, more commonly phrased as 'willfully ignorant'.

"All that you have dreamt of building has come to pass" yeah except for the whole, y'know, magic still being illegal thing.

I've said this before, but, while I'm sure there was a determined intention to have Arthur die in his armor, probably in some kind of attempt to make sure the audience knows he's died a warrior's death, I *really* think it was kinda stupid that Merlin never removed it, despite Arthur being weak, despite the fact that there was something like five days between him getting stabbed and him actually dying, despite that for the duration of that time they were traveling or hiding out. Merlin managed to produce a cloak to put on Arthur, why did he need the full armor on that whole time? Like even if they left the chainmail on, those plates on his shoulder were just getting in the way, and it looked quite uncomfortable.

Also not for nothing but Lancelot got like, every flower in the forest surrounding lush verdant greens in his death boat, Arthur gets a bunch of sticks.

It suddenly occurs to me, watching this now, that the reason Leon/Percival is such a common side pairing in Merthur fics, is because these two motherfuckers are the only original Knights of the Round Table to survive the series. 🤦‍♀️ I dunno how I failed to notice that before now. My stupidity amazes me.

I'm *really* glad they decided to do this scene with Gwen wearing the Pendragon red dress instead of the black mourning dress. Yes she looks fabulous in it but it's more the symbolism than the 'reality' - with Gwen wearing her house's colors it represents a continuation rather than a finality. Camelot will go on, Gwen will undoubtedly end the war on magic and with Morgana dead (and frankly, I think by now she already brought about the death of all the angry incel type rulers in Albion) there stands to reason her reign will begin with a period of peace, possibly longer than Arthur's. We kind of have to assume that the 'time the poets speak of' is, inevitably, Gwen's reign - which only came about through Arthur's death. It's a little bit toooo subtle in my opinion, but at the same time, I understand the need for the focus on Merlin and Arthur - after all, this show was their journey - not leaving much time to focus on Gwen and Camelot in the aftermath of Arthur's death.

I will just say, the first time I watched this that fucking truck scared the ever living shit out of me. I also just immediately, viscerally hated that scene and declared it invalid - but I think it was because the truck made me jump out of my skin. It has since grown on me, particularly once I started reading 'Arthur Returns' fic.

Everything beyond this point is post-series spec and headcanon, so if that's not your jam you can exit safe in the knowledge that as usual, if there's anything worth commenting on in the S5 extras, I will create a separate post!

For those interested, my go-to post-series fic is We Begin Again by katherynefromphilly I fully headcanon this series as the continuation of the series.

I have a lot of thoughts about Gwen and Merlin post-Camlann.

For one, poor fucking Gwen. She's lost her father, her brother, and her husband, all by what, age 30? That's rough. And who knows what happened to her mom, that was pre-series and I don't think it was ever mentioned.

Merlin, dear god poor Merlin. First of all, I just wanna say straight off that my instinctive headcanon about Merlin was that he never returned to Camelot. I couldn't really say why exactly. I just don't think he could stand being there after Arthur's death. But practically speaking, Merlin's still got Aithusa to deal with, that dragon needs some godsdamned house training asap. He's still the last Dragonlord, it's reasonable to assume he'd immediately take that on considering Aithusa is partially responsible for Arthur's death (the sword Mordred killed Arthur with, only succeeded in killing Arthur because it had been forged in Aithusa's fire-breath) so he's either going to attempt to train the bad behaviors out of Aithusa, or...well...

The only thing is, I do not believe Merlin would abandon Gwen, or Gaius. So my hc is inherently flawed. I do think Merlin probably spend a couple months with his mum, and I do think he ultimately settled near lake Avalon waiting for Arthur's return.

But I do wonder, what must their relationship have been like? Gwen, surely, would've sought his guidance in establishing laws governing the use of magic. And surely, peace cannot last indefinitely, so Merlin absolutely would've defended Camelot and protected Gwen. There's just no way he could've completely turned his back on them, but I doubt he could bear living in Camelot. And Gwen is both strong and practical enough to get on without him there 24/7, even though I'm sure she'd miss him.

I also think she would've found love again. Whether with Leon, as many people hc, or someone else not in the series.

ANYWAY.

Thanks to everyone who came on this journey with me. I will post comments on the extras if I have anything worth saying - and I think I'll do a master post linking all these episode posts after I clean them up once I get time to sit at a computer and do so. Until then! 💙💚

(Gif source) (h/t @shut-up-merlin)

[airenyah]

just watched that episode 'the song remains the same' and honestly I have a few things, imagine if Anna actually called Cas rather than Uriel, what are the implications of that happening and that would have played out very differently, also makes me sad because in classic spn (s1-5) Dean got the ending he wanted (yes I ship destiel as the next person but at that time, he was a different person from s10 (where I stopped watching - I can't say for s15, but judging on here he's a very 1/?

person as well). And then in s15 (which I've only seen the last episode of) he dies, and it's like - the whole point of his character was to survive and to live the apple pie life, like at the end of the day THAT IS WHO HE IS. Anyhow it makes me sad that when I watch s15 for the first time (I'll stop at Misha's physical last episode) that he didn't get that. That's why I feel for long term Dean fans because that was what happened, and I don't understand how even Kripke thought it was a good 2/?

idea considering he gave him a happy ending in s5. 3/3

ohhhh wait, are we talking anna calling present time!cas or 1978!cas? because if i remember correctly (sorry i didn’t bother rewatching the ep for this ask) anna calls uriel and asks him to kill the winchesters, right? and i think it’s fairly obvious that present!cas would absolutely not have gone through with that, buuuuut 1978!cas however.... 1978!cas who didn’t know the winchesters, didn’t know dean yet.... now THAT’s raises an interesting question 🤔

re: and it's like - the whole point of his character was to survive and to live the apple pie life

my god YES!!!! the other day i was rewatching 8x14 and there is this whole bit:

Dean: We've been down roads like this before, man – with Yellow-Eyes, Lucifer, Dick friggin' Roman. We both know where this ends – one of us dies... Or worse.

Sam: So, what – you just up and decided it's gonna be you?

Dean: I'm a grunt, Sam. You're not. You've always been the brains of this operation.

Sam: Dean—

Dean: And you told me yourself that you see a way out. You see a light at the end of this ugly-ass tunnel. I don't. But I tell you what I do know – it's that I'm gonna die with a gun in my hand. 'Cause that's what I have waiting for me – that's all I have waiting for me. I want you to get out. I want you to have a life – become a man of Letters, whatever. You, with a wife and kids and – and – and grandkids, living till you're fat and bald and chugging Viagra – that is my perfect ending, and it's the only one that I'm gonna get. So I'm gonna do these trials. I'm gonna do them alone – end of story. You're staying here. I'm going out there. If landshark comes knocking, you call me. If you try to follow me, I'm gonna put a bullet in your damn leg. 

and it’s just. so goddamn infuriating in the light of the finale. tell me, does this not demand that he does in fact find a light at the end of the tunnel? you’d expect a character who constantly goes on about how they’re gonna go out guns blazing, who doesn’t see any value in themselves, who doesn’t think they deserve to be saved,... you’d think the whole point of a character like that would be the growth that comes from realizing that they actually do have value and that their life is worth living. and for dean that would be especially after they defeated chuck. but oh wait--, this is supernatural where we can’t have nice things, right (character development? what’s that?)

i can’t say much post S9 because i haven’t watched S10-13 since they aired and while i did catch up on the last two seasons over the past year, they didn’t really stick in my memory (apart from the final 3 eps) soooo i don’t remember much buuuut there was this in 13x23:

Dean: Hey, you remember... remember when you asked if we could stop it? All the evil in the world?

Sam: Yeah.

Dean: If we could... really change things? Well, maybe with Jack, we can.

Sam: Maybe you're right. But then what will we do?

Dean: Mm. Yeah. This. (holds up a beer) A whole lot of this. But on a beach somewhere, you know? Can you imagine? You, me, Cas, toes in the sand, couple of them little umbrella drinks. Matching Hawaiian shirts, obviously. Some hula girls.

Sam: You talking about retiring? You?

Dean: If I knew the world was safe? Hell, yeah. And you know why? 'Cause we freaking earned it, man.

and i think there might have been some more scenes where dean expresses similar sentiments (like the one from 10x16 in the confession booth about not wanting to die and wanting to experience things differently or for the first time)? i don’t really remember, i’ll know once I get there on my big spn rewatch I’m currently doing. and it’s just. how does it make any sense for the show to end with dean not getting to finally find happiness in life on earth and grow old. i don’t understand. 

although i’m not sure i agree with you on the s5 ending being a happy ending for dean. i think it’s more bittersweet than happy. i mean, yes, dean does tell lisa that the happiness he pictures includes her, but we also learn this in chuck’s voice-over at the end of swan song:

Chuck: Every part of him, every fiber he's got, wants to die, or find a way to bring Sam back. But he isn't gonna do either. Because he made a promise.

he’s outright suicidal after sam jumps into the cage. and honestly, i’m not entirely sure if dean actually would have showed up at lisa’s door if sam hadn’t made him promise. this bit from 6x01 also reinforces that for me:

Bobby: [Y]ou got out, Dean! You walked away from the life. And I was so damn grateful, you got no idea.

Dean: Do you have any clue what walking away meant for me?

Bobby: Yeah -- a woman and a kid and not getting your guts ripped out at age 30. That's what it meant.

Dean: That woman and that kid -- I went to them because you asked me to.

Bobby: Good.

Dean: Good for who? I showed up on their doorstep half out of my head with grief. God knows why they even let me in. I drank too much. I had nightmares. I looked everywhere. I collected hundreds of books, trying to find anything to bust you out.

yes, i think dean liked lisa enough and i don’t think he necessarily minded staying with her but i also think he was more drawn to the idea and the apple pie life that she represented. the “getting out” of the life. but dean hates getting non-hunters involved in the life and he also hates himself and the mess he is so i think dean might have wanted to spare lisa the trouble and would probably have stayed away if sam hadn’t asked him to go find her

[cheap-pack-of-cigarettes]

30 Day BL Drama Challenge

Day 25 - wost ending

So I really didnt know what to do for this one bc i dont remember watching a drama and thinking the ending was “the worst” per se.

The closest i could think of was history3: modc but i dont think it was the “worst” as in not done well, or acted well- but as in the ending felt more unnecessary?? ***SPOILERS***

Like i said, if you were on my blog when that happened you’ll know i very much did not like the ending but mainly bc that one episode felt astronomically different to the 9 before it. Not just me, but many people spent nearly the entire episode not even knowing if xi gu was actually dead and it wasnt helped at all when half way through the ep we got this xi gu look alike that was dubbed for a reason i still dont understand??? we never got to see zhi gang mourn the loss of xi gu when it was established from early on that they were the only family each other had. We also never got to see hao ting’s parents apologize to their son for being homophobic and even 5 years (i forgot how long the time jump was) after xi gu’s death, hao ting is just as shattered and depressed but his parents are all like “do you have a girlfriend?? you need a girlfriend!! we want you to have a wife?? xi gu who?? that was just a phase!!” And then we see hao ting’s conversation with his ex where she basically tells us that we have no idea if hao ting even got to properly mourn xi gu bc his aunt didnt let anyone - not even his boyfriend- go to the funeral??? Why?? in the previous eps the aunt was never portrayed as someone that mean?? It literally made no sense. And finally, the end scene when its hao ting and sun bo talking, hao ting says something along the lines of “its finally time for me to see him” talking about climbing the Himalayas to be as close to xi gu as possible and a lot of people think this was hao ting’s goodbye to his friends and family bc he has been so destroyed as a person since losing xi gu, he wanted to take the incredibly hard journey up the mountain to be as close to him as possible before taking his life. Idk none of it made any sense to me and felt like it belonged in a completely different series. the other 9 epsiodes i love, they were amazing and i rewatch them all the time but ep 10 just makes no!!! goddamn!!! sense!!! at!!! all!!! so that’s why i’d probably say its the “worst” bl series ending for me