#i mean. i have a mutual who ships in tom and jerry (hi ruby <3) so it's like. Fine. a thing does not have to have an overarching plot.

[radioromantic-moved]

found another lesbian who self ships with live action men (more than i do) and even though we're not mutuals or anything it is surprising how much better this makes me feel about me doing it. the way i am so "i don't Care what other people think about my selfshipping >:)" but also take so many cues from other people. i will get normal...one of these days

[pluviophile-bookworm]

AWAE 2x5 rewatch: thoughts and reactions

Look, I’m glad the girls were having fun, but I hate that this is yet another way for Anne to undermine her own looks. Why can’t she just accept and love herself for who she is? I feel like this cold open is important. 

Gosh, with the way Anne talks about Diana’s lips, I can totally see why people ship them. I for one don’t, at least not romantically, but the signs are definitely there, and in a more modern setting, they might have been written ending up together. 

You know, I love how confident Ruby is in her preferences. Yes, she thinks of nothing but beaus. Yes, that’s ok. Well, maybe not perfectly ok, but no one can make he change what she thinks about, and I’m really glad she knows it. I love that girl and that’s that. 

Come on, Diana, there’s no should and must when it comes to kissing! That’s what I’ve heard anyway. I’ve never been  kissed and with how touch-averse I am, I’d much like it to stay that way. But speaking of Diana and kissing, fast-forward to season 3, I believe Jerry was the one who forgot what he should or shouldn’t do when being kissed. And Diana... she had forgotten it long before the kiss happened. 

I said already I don’t ship DiAnne romantically, but I like how whenever they role-play, Anne always wants Diana to play the love interest, and Diana always steps right into character. 

“Why must the girl wait for the boy?” Well, once again, season 3. I like to think Diana remembered this moment then and just decided it was not quite necessary to wait. 

I love how Marilla isn’t bothered by the noise coming from Anne’s room where the girls are chatting, but instead smiles knowingly at it. She’s becoming a true mother, that one, as if she was a couple of years younger and Anne was her own child. Well, I guess she is now.

That was a long cold open. And a beautiful one, as they often are. A gold open, one might say. 

Bash seems just as excited about seeing Canada as Gilbert was to explore Trinidad. Their brotherhood is beautiful.

Boys being boys? No, Diana, allowing them to do that can only lead to... what Billy did to Josie in season 3. They should be told this is wrong, and I see Anne is going to do just that. “A skirt is not an invitation.” How iconic that line is.

Ooh, the grapes are sour, aren’t they, Josie? Mentioning her a minute ago, I couldn’t help noticing she wasn’t there when the girls were at Green Gables. 

And I see Billy and Josie’s fatal courting has begun. And Prissy and Phillips’ is just growing bigger. 

I see Josie is willing to “educate” her classmates in a proper “mature” game of spin the bottle. And of course, Billy has to be an even bigger... uh, no swearing on main... you know what I mean - about it than she is. If I didn’t think nobody deserves Billy, I’d have said they deserve each other. But even Josie doesn’t deserve that dirt-bag. “Where does that leave Cole?”, seriously? With the real men, of course. Where does that leave you?

I can’t help but root for Josie here, telling Cole she’s glad he’s there. She redeemed herself with that one. 

Sorry, Charlie, but who are you to speak for Diana? She can do that perfectly well on her own, thank you.

Diana and Moody? I see where their - if that can even be called courtship - in 3x1 came from. But I like him better with Ruby. 

Ok, that kiss was even more awkward than “Your dress is very... blue.” Poor dear Moody. He’ll get better.

Poor Anne... her trauma seems to never let her go. And what is Josie suggesting with “you’re of unfortunate circumstances, this can’t be your first kiss”. That was awful.

And speaking of everyone wanting to kiss Diana, as Anne was, there’s Jerry greeting her for the first time by name (because I count the “Hello, ladies” to her and Ruby in season 1 as a greeting to Diana). “I understand you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.” Oh, Jerry!... Well, as I’ve said about the movie Titanic, how blissful it is to smile at the beginning as if you don’t know how it’s going to end... that definitely goes for these two. 

“You’e very bold.” Come season 3, we’ll see who the bold one really is. Also, I love that Jerry’s smile is back. 

“I’d rather be smart.” Yes, Diana, that’s the way to go. And judging by the end of season 3, you’re definitely both smart and beautiful. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, you know.

Anne talking about kissing to Matthew and Marilla, neither of whom ever married or had anything more than an utterly tragical romance is... well, awkward. I mean, well, it renders Matthew unable to sentence, if I may put this in a more modern way of speaking than my usual style.

“If you had red hair, you’d want to cover it too.” Well, is this the one where Anne dyes her hair? It has to be. It’s mid-season. 

Oh, I don’t know about dyeing, but this is the one where Cole braids Anne’s hair, and it’s moments like this that make me feel extra bad that she had to lose all of her beautiful hair to vanity. No doubt she came to appreciate it when it had to come off. 

I love how different and yet similar Anne and Cole are. I just love everything about their friendship. The world needs more of those. 

“feminine proclivities”? What on Earth? Also, I remember reading the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and learning for the first time how great of a humiliation it used to be for a boy to sit with the girls. I mean, I believe Cole would much rather sit with the girls in a world where that didn’t have any bad connotations - not because he’s effeminate or something, but just because they, for one, treat him nicely.

I mean, I get Marilla. One minute she is a new mother, the other her child is asking about kissing. Adopting a teenager is like that sometimes, but I bet she sees it for how rewarding it is in the end. 

“Rachel does have the effect of making you want to do the complete opposite of what she suggests.” Well, yes, but that still leads to good advice somehow, doesn’t it? i mean, it doesn’t make her any less annoying to me right now, but it is what it is. 

“I’d rather be ordinary.” Well, sometimes I think like that, too, but no, Cole, you don’t. Anyone could force themselves to be ordinary, but not everyone can be extraordinary. You’re given this unique chance. Don’t let it go because of some stupid dirt-bag teacher drowning in his own internalised homophobia. 

Gilbert “it’s not a love letter” Blythe and Anne “there’s nothing romantical about this letter” Shirley-Cuthbert. What a match made in heaven. 

“Maybe he wants to be pen-pals” Well, yes he does. Why else would he suggest it in season 3? 

Cole said about recitations that they make him feel too tall. Well, sometimes it’s nice to be tall, isn’t it? Not that I would know, in all of my 5′ glory. 

Gosh, I don’t know what’s worse about Prissy and Phillips’ kiss. That he can barely bring himself to do it, or that their entire teacher-student romance is sickening to me. And then he takes it out on Cole. Internalised homophobia is a drag. 

There’s the fox again... maybe its beauty can teach Anne how wonderful her red hair really is. See, she perceives that the fox is beautiful, but doesn’t see the connection. 

See? Marilla recalled things said earlier by both Cole (”Too tall, too weird”; ”without calling too much attention to yourself”) and Diana (”I’d rather be smart.”; “if you’re beautiful, you get stuck on one path”). Too bad it’s just further confirmation to Anne that she is, indeed, plain - which she is not.

That was beautiful in a sort of blunt, savage way. “I don’t like you.” I mean, sure she was nice to him once, but asking him like that if he doesn’t like girls... too personal. Too rude.

I don’t really know what to say here, but this kiss was beautiful. It was a way to show their friendship to each other and the world, and to stand up for each other while being called freaks. Beautiful.

So this is when Anne gets the hair dye. But why do I think that with raven-black hair, she’d look a lot like Wednesday Addams? 

And... Gilbert is back. What a nice surprise that will be thanks to letters arriving quite a bit later than they’re written.

Marilla is so caught up in rehearsing her speech on kissing  that she doesn’t even notice the remains of Anne’s hair-dyeing. Not until she sees her actual hair, now a horrible greyish green. Poor Anne. 

I love the parallel with Josie’s own hair troubles, though. And I love how this same scene evolves into something more in season 3. A statement on beauty and feminism. But now let’s just focus on 2x5 and not think so far ahead. 

I said focus, but I don’t even know what to say about Anne’s hair being cut. Hair cutting is traumatic for me, but never like this. Let’s be over with it now. 

Let’s sum up this episode: girl talk in Anne’s room; reflections on beauty and courtship; a skirt is not an invitation; different and weird is not bad; spin the bottle and all the awkwardness bound to surround it; Jerry is very bold with Diana; internalised homophobia is a drag; Anne and Cole’s friendship is pretty much the most beautiful thing in this episode focused on beauty; the Shirbert correspondence continues; Gilbert and Bash arrive in Avonlea; hair dye shenanigans and the painful consequences thereof.