#i really have a same feeling with both episode at the end

[rickyriddle]

So I have a theory regarding the Agatha What If…? episode. What if Agatha went to Hollywood? The episode doesn't really explain why she made that choice other than trying to get the Celestial’s powers. But I still wonder how she knew and why the regular Agatha didn't make that choice. And then I felt like the ending of the episode was a bit odd and maybe even ooc for her, to get convinced by Kingo like that. So I wondered: what makes this Agatha different from our Agatha?

They are similar, that's for sure. But the what if Agatha feels less… ruthless? Still self-serving and looking for more power, but a bit less murderous. Then it clicked. What if… Agatha never Rio? Now I know, we all love the idea of Celestial Agatha with Rio, both now cosmic beings but hear me out. First we don't know if Rio, as the comic entity of Death, has variants in the MCU. Tho ultimately, it doesn't really matter for this theory. Let's just imagine a scenario where these two didn't meet or never came to be a couple. What would have happened to Agatha?

Regardless of Rio, Agatha needed to steal powers from other witches in order to survive during the Salem years. She was already doing so before meeting Rio. But if she never met Rio, or never dated her, then it would also mean Agatha never had Nicholas. Never created the ballad. Never lost her son. Never started using this specific con based on the Witches Road to gain power as a way to cope with grief.

Now, how would that lead her to Hollywood? Well, main Agatha would have been too busy by first, running away from Rio, and secondly her road con. She'd be unlikely to look for another source of power when she got a successful con going on and unsuspecting witches falling into her lap all the time (as well as literal Death wrap around her finger).

But in a universe where she can't rely on that con or her cosmic wife, I think it's more likely that Agatha would look for power elsewhere, not just the magic she can steal from other witches. Hence why she ended up learning about the Celestial Tiamut and decided to go to Hollywood to hatch her plan to steal his powers.

That would also explain to me why this version of Agatha managed to be convinced by Kingo. Main Agatha would not have cared about what he said imo. But this Agatha isn't as bitter, hardened by the loss of her son and her complicated relationship with Rio. She might be more willing to bond with someone else who might share some of her experiences, possibly with loneliness and being different from their own kind. Agatha was always different from other witches due to her powers and never managed to connect with them, and she recognized that Kingo was also different from his own kind, the Eternals. So she knew he actually understood her and that might have led her to accept his proposition, and friendship.

But the main reason why I start thinking that Nicky didn't exist in that universe is that I cannot bring myself to believe Agatha wouldn't have tried to bring him back. With the powers of two Celestials, she could have rewritten the world like she wanted, yet chose not to and instead remained an actress. To me it feels like she didn't have something she wished to change about the world, which I don't think is conceivable if she lost Nicky in this universe too. There is also no mention or allusion to her dating Rio, so I do feel like these two were just not a thing in this universe and therefore, Nicky never came to exist.

Fundamentally, this is still Agatha, but she's not our Agatha we knew in WV and AAA. Same trauma with her mother and original coven, but different life experiences afterwards that could have led her to a drastically different path. I love agathario and imagining a world where they aren't a couple is hard, but I'm afraid that's what I feel like this episode was. Actually a “What if… Agatha never met Rio?’.

But hey, at least this episode confirmed she is indeed a lesbian, regardless if she's in a relationship with Rio or not.

[twig-tea]

2024 Tumblr Top 10

tagged by @lurkingshan here and @neuroticbookworm here, thank you both! This really reminds me that I need to do a real pinned post at some point.

If you want to generate your own, you can use this link! I used the link to find the posts but wrote this below because I thought reflecting on the posts would be fun.

My GL rec list (covering everything through to Feb 2024), which I'm very happy about taking first place. If you want GL recs, check that out first, and then feel free to browse my #GL recs tag.

The admittedly shady post from October calling out the director of the Addicted Heroin Thailand adaptation for (a)making weird choices and (b)defending them as artistic. But I stand by my anger about this. Censorship is not an aesthetic!

The non-novel-spoilery reaction post to episodes 1 & 2 of Love In The Big City which was also from October, but which honestly stands up for my reaction to the whole series. What a gift of a show.

A quick pitch for Akaya is in Love with Hiroko from July. This one hurts! I was so ready to cheerlead for this show and did several times, but the penultimate episode made me wary and the finale really upset me, to the point where I didn't end up writing about the finale, so I'll take the chance here: Don't make a show about two self-aware lesbians, one who has been comfortably sexually active for years and one who is super horny for her, and have them get together as adults and yet be celibate for a year out of "respect". Is the message that sex between consenting and enthusiastic adults is not respectful?! GTFO. For the record I can be respected with orgasms, thank you.

The episode celebrating the messaging in the finale of Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo from November. Glad that this is here between the previous entry and the next two, because this is a good balm for the pain. LFtCoT landed the ending and gave us all a giant hug while doing it!

The list of things I was thinking about at the end of Wandee Goodday ep3 from May. Another disappointment for me. The things this post shouts out are still things I like about this show, and reading it again is a reminder of where the back half let the first half down (not taking seriously some of the things we were told to take seriously in the first few episodes).

An early post about Love Is Better the Second Time Around from March. Another show that did not land everything, in this case because it felt like it tried to shove in a complicated conflict in the last two episodes that they didn't have time to handle. But I still love those early episodes and all of the interplay between Miyata, Iwanaga, and Shiraishi.

My clown theory for Every You, Every Me also from October, which ended up being correct! I've never been more happy to be right, I liked this reveal for the show so much.

In February I wrote this thesis about the state of Thai BL looking at data from 2022 and 2023, which I have been meaning to go back and update since I think Shan as usual was feeling the start of the wave and we needed more data to see the change actually play out in 2024. I now no longer feel (as I did in this post) that things haven't changed, I do think they have this year. But I need to crunch the numbers again to prove it to myself (and everyone else) though. Stay tuned!

In July I did a round-up post about the various theories surrounding Century of Love, and whether Vee and Vad were the same person. Turns out San did wrestle with this as I'd hoped but the show itself felt like it lost steam and copped out around this, unfortunately. At least we'll always have fox demon Offroad and grumpy old man Daou's collarbones thanks to this show.

Special shout-out to @lurkingshan because two of the posts above are answers to asks she put in my inbox that spawned project posts. Shan knows what the people want to hear!

Tagging @italianpersonwithashippersheart @benkaben @ellsieee @colourme-feral @pigglepiephi @impala124 no pressure tags and apologies if you've been tagged already!

[quigzahhutt]

📓 :3c

Put "📓" or some other version of a book emoji into my inbox and I'll explain the plot of a fanfiction that I haven't written but daydream about

YIPPEE I HAVE SOO MUCH TO SAY. I hope u like threesomes and sargebon bcuz this is just. a whole lot of that :)

SO. for the longest time I've been so hooked on the idea of Alex and Lily coaxing Logan into a very tender and deeply caring relationship, but Logan misreading their advances as just playful flirting or like attempts at just a threesome. which he's totally fine with because, well, they're both really hot if Logan is being honest with himself (especially if like. Logan isn't quite sure how he feels about men; he knows he likes women for sure, and men are similar but just to a lesser degree- the idea of dating another man doesn't quite revolt him as much his buddies back home seem to feel. also, Alex is the first man Logan is interested in actually dating, not just fooling around with, which is a little startling for him)

I imagine like... Alex constantlyyyy flirts with Logan and of course, Logan just passes it up as Alex's humor, a brittle attempt at making their workplace environment a little less downtrodden, less like a burden and more like something to look forward to. because Logan does look forward to it. working with Alex is fun, and it's nice to actually feel like someone in Williams cares about him, desires him enough to express it even if it is just a joke half the time (most of the time)

but then Alex's advances start feeling a little too.. touchy, and Logan, being the ridiculously and nauseatingly considerate person he is, begins feeling a little concerned because, does Lily know this is going on? does Lily know that her boyfriend is actively flirting with another man? does Lily know that her boyfriend is staring at him from across the room like he wants to pin Logan to the wall like a butterfly in a shadowbox? it's just a lot of feelings and while Logan is pleased to have so much of Alex's attention on him, he's really concerned for Lily

so, Logan decides that he doesn't think it's the right thing to do to just text Lily about it (+ he doesn't even have her phone number so) bcuz he has like. a weird complex about texting the girlfriend of the guy who's been lowkey trying to get into his pants for a few months so. anyways. fast forward and it's a race weekend and Lily is there, and so Logan is like "oh perfect I can tell her about Alex acting weird and everything will go back to normal and I'll stop feeling this weird feeling in my chest!" plot twist. Lily actually finds Logan first so she can ask him to dinner that night with Alex to this nice restaurant! (the one that Alex actually brought up in that one episode of team torque, the one that he said that Lily said "Logan would like that place" wink wink) and Logan, of course, is cornered by this beautiful woman who is asking him to go out with her and her equally beautiful boyfriend who Logan has lowkey been lusting after for weeks. and the feeling in his chest doesn't go away

SO. Logan somehow ends up at this nice restaurant, all dressed up, sitting at a table with two also very dressed up people who happen to be a) very attractive and b) dating. and Logan kind of wants to hide in the bathroom for the rest of the night bcuz he feels strangely like a third wheel while also feeling like the two of them are trying to crawl into his skin. they keep looking at him all soft and expecting, and Lily keeps slipping her hand on his thigh underneath the table, and Logan is wondering if Alex is aware of it, and now he's feeling stuck because he thought that Alex was maybe trying to cheat on Lily, but now Lily is the one acting like a hound with her hands feeling all too hot against Logan's thigh

by the time Logan works up the courage to excuse himself to the bathroom, Alex beats him to the punch and excuses himself first, which is like a big 'ah shit' moment because is it weird to go to the bathroom at the same time? and also it would probably be in bad form to leave a woman at a table alone when you're out together, right? and also this gives Logan the opportunity to talk to Lily about how Alex has been acting; so Logan swallows the beehive in his throat and turns to Lily all like "hey by the way your boyfriend has been persistently flirting with me and touching my ass and looking at me like he wants to kiss me and coddle me and turn me into a bowl of sticky rice and that he then wants to eat" all in one breath and Lily can't help but laugh, and it leaves Logan feeling really silly

and she of course leaves her hand on his thigh, and then bats her eyelashes before confirming that, yes, she's aware that her boyfriend is flirting with him, and then also confirms something doubly insane; she's the one orchestrating most of it. then Logan learns that while, yes, Alex has a big fat crush on him, Lily is also pretty interested.

at first, Logan feels really dumb, but he also feels confused, because it sounds like they both want something really complex from him, but there's no way that they actually want to date him, right? they're just in it for a threesome. right?

and then oops, Logan verbalizes all that, but this time, Lily doesn't laugh, and she instead moves her hand from his thigh up to his bicep, and the look in her eyes is all too serious when she says that they don't just want him for a good fuck. they dont even know if Logan is a good fuck at all, but they do know that they're insanely interested and that Alex has been wanting Logan in a very Not Normal way for a loooong time and Lily finds Logan horribly endearing (+ it would be nice to have another American to help her team up on Alex every now and again) and so. the offer is on the table

and then the night goes on, and Logan simultaneously feels wayyy more relaxed but also like he has ice cubes in his pants which are melting. currently. and very fast. and then he goes to bed that night and he can't stop thinking about their proposal the entire time that he's trying to fall asleep. and then he can't stop thinking about it when he wakes up, and then the day after, and the day after that. and it becomes a whole thing that Logan is having an increasingly hard time dealing with on his own

and then. 2024 happens, and it continues to happen, and then Logan gets fired. and he doesn't have any idea what to do other than to show up at Alex's door on the night he gets the news, and Alex has no idea, but when he gets an arm full of Logan, he doesn't say anything. he doesn't comment on the bags under Logan's eyes or the lingering, tacky layer of sweat all over his body because he couldn't bring himself to shower after being cleared from medical. and when Logan tells him, he can feel Alex's entire body tense up at the news, like he was just thwacked hard with a whip across the small of his back

and then it's kind of weird after that. Alex goes to see Logan immediately after the race as quickly as he can, but unfortunately he can't stay long, and so he gives Logan Lily's phone number and tells him to give her a call, that it'll help to have someone to talk to who hasn't been through something so painfully similar before, and then Alex leaves. and Logan calls Lily as soon as he boards his plane to Florida

and then it just turns into a thing, sort of. the two of them talk, and Alex is there sometimes in bed with her, or just generally around, ruminating in their shared hotel room all the while Logan lies in his own bed, shirtless and vacant but feeling a little less empty than before

and then when his friends ask who hes talking to, he shrugs, because even he doesn't really know. is Lily his friend? a strange sort of therapist? his girlfriend? the last one puts a lot of knots in Logan's chest, knots that he can't untangle right now, and so when people ask, he just says 'a friend'. which still doesn't feel quite right but it's better than telling them 'my ex teammates girlfriend of 6 years who I've been talking to almost every hour of the day since I was fired'. that would sound really bad

but then he kind of starts thinking about it, especially when Lily sits on FaceTime in nothing but her bra and a lazy pair of athletic shorts as they chat, or when Alex answers her phone instead, obviously still in bed and shirtless and Logan can hear the shower running in the other room. Logan lets himself think about what they might've been doing, or what they might have not been doing, and it doesn't freak him out as much as he thought it might would, or how much he thinks it should

and so he brings it up. reminds them of the idea of dating, even if it is long distance, and Alex snorts because 'great, balancing a long distance girlfriend wasn't enough, I definitely need a long distance boyfriend, too' and it makes Logan snort and roll his eyes, and everything feels really natural and good and nothing like how it all did a few months ago, back at the restaurant when Logan felt like he was going to choke on his own tongue

and then that's it. they talk whenever they can, and Alex starts telling him about all the embarrassing things Lily does, and Lily in turn does it for Alex, and Logan can't help but laugh because he already knew about most of the things that Alex does, and Lily cracks a joke about them already dating behind her back, and that she should've heeded Logan's warning all those months ago, and it's good

Logan starts telling his friends that he's talking to his girlfriend whenever they ask, and his boyfriend whenever they ask again, and he deals with the funny looks and the questions, and its not nearly as horrible as he thought it would be

and that's the plotline that has been eating away at me since. May. MAY. and the primary reason I haven't written it is just that like... long fics are so hard for me and I just know I'd get burnt out, and that would lead to a whole lot of grief about failing and yadda yadda, but I'm glad I could finally yap about it :)

[wildlybewitched]

So lots of big feelings towards the Felicia/Silco/Vander flashbacks! Out of 75 of you, 55 said that it was more damaging to the plot then the AU episode.

I personally had a really hard time deciding and I almost immediately regretted not making a 3rd option for them both being equally bad, but that's an easy cop out so I'm glad I made everyone choose just one lol.

Lots of good replies too (hope you all don't mind I share, lmk if you want me to remove yours):

Arguments for AU being worse:

@lion-eva61

@ariadnesweb

@kuaille

This last argument is really my motivation for what I personally ended up choosing - the AU world being worse. Of course there were many good arguments acknowledging that it doesn't exist in the main timeline so they can more easily separate the two, for me this was a huge eye opener, along with baby grogu, that this season was just not cut from the same cloth as S1. And that the lessons we take from the AU world is the lens in which we are supposed to read the story. And that just pissed me tf off lol. Not to mention it ruins the tone quite a bit by giving us this twee perfect world, and serves a ridiculous amount of fan service with Ekko/Jinx (which having a hardcore shipping fanbase is always just $$s for an franchise). So, pretty much just eyerolls all abound for me. That isn't to say the flashback wasn't extremely painful to watch, particularly since Silco is easily one of my top 3 characters and it just straight up murdered the man from S1 lol.

Arguments for the flashback being the worst:

@arriettyspin

@ianthesmells

Big agree on how episode 7 actually doesn't show Ekko is a great light. I don't think their friendship at like 10 years old was enough to hinge that whole episode on. I get that he obviously remembers her and considers her among the innocents dead in Zaun, but S2E7 just did not follow thru with that same feeling and I hate to say it but I dislike timebomb more and more each day lol. Obviously the writers just had their ships and they were going to put them in the story no matter what.

These two plot lines come up a lot in criticism of season 2 so I’m curious…alternatively did you think one or the other worked for the story? Or disliked both equally?

[ratguy-nico]

[roots-symphony]

do you think the reason agatha’s trial felt weird is because she was the only one who did not actually buy into the mythos of the road since she knew the truth? like that was why no perspective change and all the other reasons why people thought it was a fake trial

[grapejuicegay]

Okay, friend

[eschynite]

Maybe I'm projecting and being hopeful but I mentioned to M that I don't even get to shit by myself in peace lmao and I feel like something clicked for him. Bc I was like hey, at least you get private bathroom breaks at work (noncombative). And since then he's been a lot more acquiescent when I ask if I can nap and stuff

[sskk-manifesto]

Ep 4 :)

[blubble-lake]

it's been over 2 weeks and this thing (unfortunately) still has a grip on me

[twelvedimensional]

also the depth the interiority that idle rambly monologue of the dr's holds, the fact that his offhand thoughts just coalesce into this wonderfully stark image (the tardis, revered, the tardis, reviled, the tardis, the center of a city and then all alone again at the edge of a sea)

[amtrak12]

[jakeperalta]

truly did not expect to cry through so much of sex education s4 I'm

[quietwingsinthesky]

I think the nature of Clara haterism on Tumblr can’t be fully understood without the historical context of 2013. Namely that by the time of DW season 7b Moffat was widely hailed as The Bogeyman Of All Misogyny Ever. Clara was considered THE prototypical Shallow Moffat Girl, and she became a sort of figurehead for everything wrong with the show. (Bc everyone was maybe 14 and Smith was too beloved to insult.) Consequently, she evokes a kneejerk bad faith reading response in many users even today.

yeah, alright, i can see that. i am surprised that, at least as far as i’ve seen, amy & river don’t get the same treatment? or if they did, it hasn’t persisted half as long as opinions on clara have. Because having now seen how all three of them were written, amy got treated. so much worse with The Misogyny™️, and River bounces between ‘actually a fascinating character’ and ‘moffat wrote a sexy girlboss who wants to fuck the doctor’ so hard it gives me whiplash. (and i say this as a River enjoyer, I love her and she deserves so much better lmao.)

Of the three of them, I think Clara actually comes out a lot better written overall? She’s allowed more space to be a character rather than be a woman, if that makes sense. Sure, bit of a rocky start in s7, and I can certainly see why the Impossible Girl thing could be aggravating to some people. (I think it was. Fine. fantastic episode conceptually that sort of fell apart when it came to actually doing anything.) but Clara in s8 (and the start of s9) is fantastic. Her relationship with Danny and the Doctor is messy and deceptive and so understandable. “Listen” as an episode almost felt like ‘hey what if the clara putting herself in the doctor’s past was actually interesting and impacted him’. Her becoming more like the Doctor, especially after losing Danny, both as an effort to hold on tight to the only person she perceives as keeping her moving forward and giving her a purpose AND because to her, the Doctor is able to lose so much and not be destroyed by it and she wants that (without really understanding just how much this life is fucking him up, too.), is just. fantastic.

where was i going with this. i have no idea. my point, i think, is: i guess i can see how initial reactions to clara might color a less than flattering picture of the rest of her, but :( consider: i love her so so much and everyone should be niceys to her.

[mleemwyvern]

session 7 feels like the moon big of secret life to me. dramatic, chaotic, deadly, a big event that took over the server and drowned out everything else. felt a little bit forced because there needed to be an end soon, but still lead to something entertaining. and im seeing very similar controversy about it. its interesting to me.