#if it were me personally i'd have been yelling during season one

[daenerystemper]

changing alicent's age has started the ultimate butterfly effect that has now trickled down into generations of questionable timelined births including daeron "i am not even mentioned in season one" targtower & maelor "yes i really did start this drama" targtower because what do you mean aegon iii is likely too little to ride his dragon stormcloud to safety during the battle of the gullet

[theyluvlyss]

𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 !

and it's me getting to write henry being a simp🥴🥰. thank you for requesting, I honestly didn't think I'd get any for henry danger, so just this one has me allll /ᐠo⩊oマ !!! So ya, enjoy :).

𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬

《 ♡ 》 oneshot

───────── 《 .°•♡•°. 》 ──────────

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭 :

being the girlfriend of swellview's resident sidekick could be tough sometimes. always covering for him, constantly worrying about his safety, forever missing him...

but, regardless, he always made sure to remind you that you are the most important thing in his life. even if he has to wake you out of a dead sleep to do it...

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 :

fem!girlfriend!reader x henry hart - she/her/hers pronouns! - knows henry's super-identity/works with captain man!

𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐞 :

during season four (and up) (vaguely) - it's mildly implied to be winter

𝐓𝐖/𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 :

cursing (I think? I don't remember, but just in case lol) - yelling (in a jokey/lighthearted way tho) - henry being so boyfriend - a poison ivy knock-off gets featured in here cuz I thought it would be funny lmao - lmk if I missed anything /ᐠ~˕~マ.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ...𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

───────── 《 .°•♡•°. 》 ──────────

As you stocked shelves and marked down certain pricey items for the holiday's swift approach, you couldn't help but huff. Couldn't help but wonder why it was you had agreed to such a position. Hardly anyone even comes into Junk n' Stuff! Why did you have to play pretend employee for a vacant audience when you could be down in the Mancave with Charlotte and Schwoz, observing and maybe even solving crime and mysteries?

At this point, you might as well have taken real a job at a real shop or store.

But, then again... you were getting the bonus perks of higher pay, given as your boss was a literal superhero. And, because of the fact that the whole of Junk n' Stuff was a front, customers were rare. It was like being on break from three to ten, only ever selling to the occasional old person looking for a rare trinket, or a curious kid looking to resell something "vintage." Whatever the case, you were on your phone for most of the time, and were always happy to work alongside your best friend and your superhero boyfriend.

The third perk, you realized, even if you weren't exactly on the field beside him. You supposed it wasn't all bad. It's not like a lot of other girls had the guilty pleasure of saying the same.

"I work at a fake mom and pop shop that barely gets any customers, but it's okay because it's just a cover up for my boss who's actually Captain Man, and his sidekick, Kid Danger, is actually my boyfriend. My best friend Charlotte and I work to keep him safe every other day, and to top it all off, I get paid more than what my parents make in a week."

You shook your head, huffing to yourself in amusement. Not only was it a mouthful to say, but it sounded insane. Not that you'd ever actually say it to anyone but yourself in your head. But, speaking- er, thinking of...

You pulled your phone from your back pocket, taking your focus off of the box of probably stale snacks you were stacking near the front desk and onto Henry's already open contact. You scanned over your thread of texts between each other, your last message from earlier in the day still left on delivered. You didn't take this to heart, already aware of how busy his missions tended to get. And dangerous, too, hence why you had initially sent...

─────────────────────

my man😙❤️

───────────

Be careful out there today, k?

Ily💞✨️

Delivered

─────────────────────

And sure, after checking now, seeing you'd been left on delivered the whole time mildly stung. But you understood and didn't allow that to be the thing that slightly dampened your mood. Instead, you remained worried for your boyfriend, contemplating if you should send another text his way. Or maybe even call him. Just to see...

You fanned the idea away, setting your phone face down on the floor and continuing to do your "job." Anything to take your mind off of the peril Henry could be facing right now, and the last thing he needed was you distracting him. You wouldn't be needy. At least, not right now. But you'd continue to wonder what was happening, where he was, what dangers he was facing...

"Oh...! (Y/N)."

You turned at the sound of your name, smiling as Charlotte stepped out of the elevator.

"It's past ten, I thought you'd be home by now."

"Me too...!" You sighed, a dry chuckle leaving along with. "I guess I was just subconsciously hoping Ray and Henry would be back by now."

Charlotte gave her own chuckle and an understanding nod at your half-joking confession, moving closer until she was squatted beside and assisting you with the rest of your stocking.

"I wouldn't worry too much. They got this. They always do."

"I know, it's just-"

"-Besides, it's only Greenleaf. And you already know..."

You two shot each other a knowing glance, finishing her sentence at the same time together before laughing.

"...She always folds for Ray."

As you set up the last of the snacks, the two of you stood, cardboard box on your hip while Charlotte had scooped up your phone and handed it back to you.

"You're right, you're right." You admitted, tossing your head from side to side with a shrug. "Plus, I'm pretty sure her goals are relatively Mother Nature related. Can't say I blame her."

"Excatly." Charlotte agreed. "She rarely ever does any real harm, so trust me, Henry will text you back before you know it."

And with that, you two shared your final goodbyes for the evening, and your fret had subsided. Like you said, she was right, Greenleaf more of a particular "low level" classified supervillain, which meant an easy battle. If you'd even call it that. You predicted that right about now, Ray was doing his best to appeal to her charm and romance to subdue her, and though gross... it always seemed to work, so you didn't question it.

With that in mind, you finally decided to call in, clocking out for the evening and daydreaming on the walk home of a hearty dinner, a hot shower, and the warmth and cozy of your bed.

───────── 《 .°•♡•°. 》 ──────────

In the comfort of your room with your nighttime routine accomplished, you remained settled in bed with your eyes glued to your phone. Maybe not the healthiest option, but TikTok was very compelling in the late evenings. Especially when you needed a good laugh or a new song/audio to discover and add to your playlist. You scrolled endlessly, allowing the time to tick by without worry or care because tomorrow (in an hour or two) would be a stress free Saturday.

The millionth swipe upwards of your thumb brought you to your next video, a boy and a girl close in age to yourself participating in a trend that had been circling around for a little bit. It was cute, the way they both adorned wide, cheesy smiles, and their pajamas matched with each other. Even while they performed a popular dance, sticking to routine, you could sense the chemistry they had with one another through the screen. All of it ending with the boy scooping her into his arms, littering kisses across her face that she giggled at over the music.

If anyone asked, you'd be a little embarrassed to admit that you had let the video replay several times before giving it a like and then scrolling away. But, you couldn't - no - wouldn't deny the achy feeling it left you with.

Suddenly, you were no longer laughing at everything you saw and/or heard. No longer wishing to be on the app itself any longer because the ache in your chest was growing too much to bear. Too much for you to ignore, thinking about that random couple and their adorable antics.

How much it reminded you of your own boyfriend; how much you really did miss Henry. It wasn't like you didn't see each other often, practically every day. But it didn't stop you from always wishing to be near him, that he was with you. Family, school, and being a superhero did take up quite a bit of his attention, not that you doubted you were the fourth thing on his list. Selfishly, you assumed the second, at least...

But anyhow, in an attempt to rid yourself of the ache and to refrain from pestering him, you migrated from TikTok to your gallery, scrolling around until you reached a large cluster of pictures and videos from days past.

First thing, you were met with a short thread of silly pictures, Henry striking poses and making faces he'd forbid from showing to anyone, and you immediately sent them to Charlotte and Jasper agreed, for the sake of his dignity. Or just some random action shots, the complete blur of his figure due to moving too fast, which you would keep because they were still funny, after all.

But eventually, you came across a video, it automatically playing as you watched in reminiscence of your time at the mall together. You were both fresh from a Bath & Body Works, your phone's point of view shaking and aimed as though it were snooping around in your bag before pulling away and revealing your hand being held by none other than Henry himself.

"What'd ya' get me?" You chirped as though you hadn't just shown the audience already. But, it was clear you wanted to hear it from him at the time, both past/video and present you giggling at the way Henry shot a smirk your way with eyes that read, "Really?"

"What I always get you." He answered simply, looking ahead as you two walked. "The world."

"Harhar." You could be heard giving an equally sarcastic laugh before adding, "Yes, but specifically this time."

"Boba and (signature/scent)."

Again, both past/video and present you shared another laugh, and you were sure of the fact that you were admiring him shamelessly with your eyes full of love at that moment, just as you were now as the video went on.

"How come?" You pressed with glee, Henry's head shifting back towards you as he spoke.

"'Cause I love you. 'Cause you deserve it. 'Cause it feels gooood."

He laughed along with you at the way he elongated his words at the end of his sentence, a quirk he picked up from who-knows-where that always had you playfully rolling your eyes. In real time, though, the video had ended there, and you were swift to find another one, craving more of that feeling... that mock-comfort of Henry being with you when he actually wasn't.

It was the best you could do, for now, so you'd continue, snuggling deeper into your blankets and pillows while his voice kept ringing out from your phone.

"You smell really good." Was his first comment, ironically per the last video, stated while you admired yourself in selfie mode before switching to the back camera.

He was already stalking closer towards your position on his bed, in his room, before flopping down right into your lap and looking up at you like a puppy.

"And I love your eyes."

"My eyes?" You questioned, as though you were surprised, or as if he should be talking about someone else's.

"Mhm." He nodded slowly. "Your beautiful eyes and those lips of yours. You're too perfect, y'might have to get that checked out or something."

Your laugh at his joking statement caused the camera to shake, and it made you realize that in the moment, you had missed the way he continued to behold you. To cherish the rest of your features and run his hand against your lower stomach as his face flushed with red at the sound of your giggles. Laughter he caused, which made him happy, you assumed, given the way he couldn't even fight his own smile.

You wished you hadn't missed it all at the time, but were glad you were seeing it now; all of his love that then went poured into one gesture before the video ended.

He brought your hand to his lips, kissing your knuckles with a gentleness you were still currently missing, the video ending, and the silence of your room setting in.

It didn't help the ache like you thought it would, possibly even making it worse. And because of that, you thought it wise to call it a night, giving your messages one more check before making the last minute choice to send another. A final one for the evening, because at least that would bring you peace of mind.

─────────────────────

my man😙❤️

───────────

Be careful out there today, k?

Ily💞✨️

Delivered

Goodnight

I love you sm<3

❤️✨️

Delivered

─────────────────────

───────── 《 .°•♡•°. 》 ──────────

"So, uhh... you ever try Olive Garden?"

The woman, hair fiery red and a fitted suit made from the vines and plants she created (which were now being chopped away at by police in light of her villainous attempts), shot the man, Captain Man, a look of confusion and disgust. If her wrists hadn't been bound by handcuffs, she'd send another vine after him just for his obliviousness.

"No. I would never in my life..."

She didn't even have to finish her sentence, the tone implying that she wouldn't be caught dead eating from a place that required slaughtering animals and ripping plants from the ground just to serve "fine" cuisine.

"Is Olive Garden not vegan?"

Greenleaf couldn't even fathom a rebuttal to such stupidity, that fact clearly written all over her face as she was hauled away by more policemen. Ray, of course, didn't exactly catch on but jumped at Henry's shout from behind.

"Dude...!" A pause, striking out a hand to further enforce his demand. "Stop flirting with the supervillain...!"

"I'm-! . . ." Ray couldn't even deny that he was doing such a thing (granted, Greenleaf is an attractive woman), but would take advantage of his older age anyhow, pointing an index finger towards his younger partner sternly.

"Mind your business! Unlike you, Kid Danger, I have had the pleasure of time, which has allotted me the grace of perfecting my wit, savvy, and charm, I'll have you know. So-"

He was interrupted by Henry's gloved palm resting against his face, serving as a method to stop him from strolling any closer while Henry casually scrolled through his phone, his tone all the same.

"Hang on, my girlfriend just texted me."

Ray scoffed, seconds away from letting Henry know that he shouldn't be distracted on the job. That is, until he continued to go on with a flat tone, underlying bits of hilarity under it in attempts to get under Ray's skin.

"Y'know, the thing you don't have? The girl I used my natural born wit, savvy, and charm on to win over?"

"I get it!!"

Henry looked up with a smile at Ray's exclamation, innocently nodding with a swift, "Yeah." before putting his attention back to his screen.

─────────────────────

my wife❤️

Be careful out there today, k?

Ily💞✨️

9:23p.m.

Goodnight

I love you sm<3

❤️✨️

11:37p.m.

─────────────────────

What had been giddiness at first morphed into a feeling of guilt, thoughts of your saddened face sinking deep into his brain the moment he realized he had missed your texts. That you had apparently even gone to bed without hearing so much as a word from him all evening.

And sure, he knew you'd probably excuse it the next day, simply telling him that it "was fine" and that you "understood." And while that might be the case, he couldn't help but give in to the thought that you'd much rather have gotten to hear from him tonight. At the very least.

Besides, it's not like he didn't miss you, too. He missed you a lot, actually. You constantly on the brain every single time he fought and/or solved any crime, because if there was one person he'd guarantee the safety of while being in Swellview, it was you. But, along with your safety, he also wanted to make things up to you. He wanted your happiness. And he knew he was one of the sole people who could provide that, therefore...

"Alright, I gotta' get outta' here."

"What?" Captain Man blinked rapidly, unexpecting of Henry's sudden announcement of departure. "No-! No, we have to clean up this mess. Look at all of these vines!"

"Yep, it's...quite the jungle." Henry admitted lacklusterly, nodding to himself before throwing a thumb over his shoulder and slowly backing away. "But, uh, it's Friday, and..."

"Exactly! Friday night, no school, which leaves you plenty of time to help me out. You're on clean-up duty tonight, bud!"

Henry, again, nodded along with Ray's words. He continued to take his giant steps away from the scene, talking fast and only thinking about you in the process, hence why his logic came out a little more than flawed...

"Right, except no, because last I checked, the saying goes, "Blow bubbles fight crime, feels good." Not, "Blow bubbles, fight crime, clean up a mess that's not mine." And, I gotta be honest, that would not feel very good. It would actually feel baaaad, which is exactly how you-know-who is probably feeling right about now..."

"Don't even say her name, kid."

A pause lingered in the air before Henry disobeyed direct instruction.

"I gotta go see (Y/N)."

And he was gone before the conversation could continue, Ray left on his own to help the police with deforesting the city's town hall. And, as much as it behooved him to do so, he couldn't help but admit to himself that if he was still Henry's age with a girl like you, he'd probably do the same.

He huffed, giving his sidekick the benefit of the doubt for tonight.

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Tossing and turning slowly as you woke, you hadn't yet processed what it was that had actually brought you from your slumber until you were fully sitting up in bed, finally able to recognize the sound as a gentle knock.

This then alarmed you, your head whipping around your surroundings in a flurry in an attempt to pinpoint the sound that had spiked up your heart rate in the dead of night. But, once you had managed to place the noise coming from your window, your fear settled into more of a light curiosity and confusion. It brought you from your bed, your feet now met with the cold air around you as you crept forward towards your window.

Steadily pulling back your curtains, your caution slowly turned into joy and surprise, a smile spreading across your face that matched the one on your boyfriend's own face behind the glass.

"Henry...!" You whisper-shouted, his name muffled as he watched you move to unlock your window. He was grateful that you were quick with this action, no longer having to mildly shiver outside while you pulled him through and onto your bedroom floor, admiring his figure in the dimness of your room.

"It's so late, what're you doing here?"

Your question escaped in the midst of a yawn, rubbing the sleep from your eyes while his own darted back to where the clock sat on your nightstand.

12:54a.m.

"I know, I'm sorry, (N/N). I didn't mean to wake you." He apologized, using a nickname that brought another smile to your face once the yawn had passed.

"I just...didn't want you to think I was ignoring you, y'know? I would've answered your texts sooner, I was just-"

"-I know." You cut in with a nod. "I understand, it's okay."

He laughed quietly to himself, all too correct about your compassion when it came to him that he sometimes felt he didn't fully deserve. Like now, keeping his hands hidden behind his back with something that'd hopefully make up for it all.

"It's not, though. I wanna be fair to you with my time. Want you to know that I care about you and that I'll be there for you, whether I'm Kid Danger or just Henry Hart."

"Woah, hey, you're not... just Henry Hart." You corrected, coming closer and placing a tired hand on his shoulder. It was only here that you realized he wore nothing but a white t-shirt, the rest of his super-apparel tied around his waist, red cargo pants and combat boots still intact. Pretty on point symbolism for the moment, if anyone asked you...

"You... are Henry Hart. You're my boyfriend with a lot on your plate, and I know that it's just not fair of me to expect all of your time, which is why I don't. But no matter what, I do love you for giving me whatever you can, so it's very much okay."

You didn't have to be able to see his face clearly to know he was probably just as red as he was in your videos from earlier, his bashful smile going hidden when he let his head drop for just a moment.

"I love you, too." A pause before he quickly debunked your reassurance with some of his own. "And it's not okay, which is why I got you these..."

And suddenly, you realized why he had kept his hands hidden behind him like some wise old man, revealing to you a bouquet of flowers of all kinds. An almost randomized assortment that'd be pretty hard to find in any flower shop. At any shop at all, given...

"Oh my gosh, they're so pretty! It's like, midnight, though, where did you get these?" You squealed quietly, doing your best not to wake up any family in the house while you took the flowers into your hands and admired them the best you could under the moon's light.

"Uhh..."

Henry really didn't know how to answer that, scratching the back of his neck in remembrance of his horrid sneak attempt through his neighbor's backyard.

"I stole 'em." Was what came out way too nonchalantly, leaving you to choke on air while your eyes widened.

"What...?! Henry-!"

"I'm kidding, I didn't steal-... Well... I mean, technically, yes, but not in the way that you're thinking."

"I don't know what I'm thinking...!" You burst through confused laughter. "My boyfriend just told me he stole flowers for me. From where?!"

His eyes shifted from you, to the side, and then back again, folding at the sight of your expecting face looking back up at him.

"My neighbor..." His voice strained quietly, and you could all but sigh and shake your head, letting your nose bury itself back into the makeshift bouquet of freshly stolen flowers.

"That old lady is gonna strangle you with her bare, wrinkly hands."

Henry snorted, sparing you his impulsive thought of the fact she'd have to know it was and catch him first, and instead, fake pain at your light slaps to his chest.

"You're supposed to be a superhero, not a midnight theif...!"

"Hey, c'mon..." He cooed, tugging you closer and smiling when you did begrudgingly move forward towards him.

"...You know I'd go rogue for you any time."

"Y'know, I'm starting to miss Kid Danger." You quipped with a smirk. "At least he'd know better than to pluck flowers from someone's garden."

"Mmm. Fair." He nodded before obnoxiously pushing his forehead up against yours. "But does he kiss you the same way I do?"

"Mmm-"

And before you could pretend to debate the matter, he had done just that, forever gentle with you as he placed his lips on yours and stole any thoughts, stability in your legs, and air in your lungs you had left.

Well, maybe not steal. You'd let him have that any time, the same way he'd bring you flowers at midnight to make up for any of his absences.

Just the thought had you breaking the kiss with another giggle, your turn to grow shy at the attention before you were finally able to fully heal the last little remnants of that ache in your chest.

"You should stay."

You threw it out as a casual suggestion even though you were practically screaming inside for him to say yes. And of course, you got your wish, because what wouldn't he do for you?

"I will."

𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭, 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐨🤭...

but seriously, I really hope you enjoyed, this was super fun and cute for me to write. got me wishing he was under my tree for xmas😔✋🏽.

also, I apologize for this taking as long as it did, there's reasons I have that will be later explained in a separate post/announcement, so ya :'D.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ...𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ...𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭

𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 :

@junknstufff

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 :

3,877

𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 :

none :(

[interestellarprincess]

The 1

Pairing: Lance Stroll x Reader

Summary: After two years, destiny put them together to fix things out.

Warnings: none, just a poorly written english (not my first language) and sad swiftie's drabble. Also some personal words i'd like to say to him.

A/N: It took me some time to finish this one, but when I was writing the part 1, already knew that part 2 would be with this song.

TYSM for being here tolerating my bad writing :)

Now to the good stuff, SUMMONING ALL LANCE GIRLIES!!!!

This oneshot has a part 1

Taglist: @motorsp0rt, @mirrorball-6

2 years have passed since the last time they saw each other. Two years since y/n had her heart broken by one of her favorite persons in the world. She took six months to finally get through what happened at the cafe with Lance. She got back to work and tried to live through it, because deep down, she knew that he was out there living his life with the other girl he took home and it wasn’t fair for her to be the only one frozen in time.

After those six months, y/n’s boss got her a recommendation letter to work as a social media in one of the formula one teams. Later, she found out that the job was at Mercedes and she couldn’t be happier. Y/n thought that her life was finally getting into the right course and nothing could stop her, not even the possibility of meeting him during one of the race weekends.

So it happened. Everything was fine, until Spain 2023.

It was Friday, before FP1, y/n was on her way to the Mercedes hospitality. The paddock was kinda full of people, mostly staff giving the final touches for the weekend, since it was a bit early for the gates to open . Y/n was trying to get through the people carefully enough to not spill her cup full of coffee. She failed her mission. Steps away of her destination, someone bumped her and the only thing she saw at that time was the green blur going through her. “Hey you! pay attention next time!” she yelled, not expecting for the blur to turn and come back close to her, not expecting for it to come back as a ghost that she’d been avoiding since the beginning of the season.

“Oh my god, I’m sorry, did you got burn…” Lance’s apologies stopped when he notice who was the person with the white shirt covered in coffee. ‘‘Y/n?, w-what are you doing here?’’ he shouldn’t be that surprised, but for a moment he wasn’t imagining that it was her in front of him, not after all these years.

After a few moments of processing, she finally managed to say something. “I work here, Lance.” She said trying to fix her shirt but it wasn’t worth it anymore. Meanwhile, he was just there, frozen looking at her. “Are you going to stay there looking like a statue or you’re going to apologize? I don’t have all the time and I imagine that you don’t have it too.” She was cold, but she needed to be. He blinked going back to reality.

“ y/n, I- I’m really sorry for ruining your shirt and your coffee… It’s just that I’m surprised by seeing you here.” He said scratching the back of his neck “look, can I get you another coffee? For, you know…” he was still thinking about what to say to her, she had no idea but she also haunted him after what happened. He felt like a piece of garbage for treating her that way and he wanted to apologize some day, but he wasn’t planning that this day would come so soon.

“Fine!” She agreed so fast that anyone would say it was because she was excited for it, however, all she wanted was to finally end this embarrassing and slightly stressing scene and go back to her normal day with not meeting her ex best friend and definitely without any coffee spilled all over her shirt. “Just dm me when and I’ll come, but now i need to go and get all of this coffee away” her hands were floating in front of her stained shirt during the last part of the sentence.

“Okay, see you later then!” he didn’t even finished his sentence when she was already leaving to the hospitality.

When Y/N arrived at the building, her friend Maya stopped her immediately. “Oh my god,Y/N! what happened to you? and why you’re looking like you saw a ghost?” she said already taking her friend to the nearest bathroom to get cleaned “Tell me everything!”

“If the ghost’s name is Lance Stroll, then I indeed saw one” Y/N was trying to dry her shirt with some paper towels while telling the whole thing to Maya, of course it didn’t worked, so the friend went out to get a new shirt for her. While Maya was out, Y/N noticed the notification on her phone.

@Lancestroll: I hope you’re ok and not burned

@yourusername: I’m fine, and the coffee wasn’t that hot

@Lancestroll: again, sorry for the shirt

@yourusername: it’s ok

@Lancestroll: btw, what do you think about today after debrief?

@yourusername:????

@Lancestroll: the “I’m sorry for ruining your morning coffee”? For what I remember, you’re not one of those with a bad memory.

Shit, he was right. Truth is that she just wasn’t ready to face him again.

@yourusername: oh right! After debrief is fine for me, see you there.

Y/N completely ignored his comment, but deep down, it still got her that he still knew her well. Maya came back, Y/N changed her shirt and the day went by as normal as possible.

Later…

Y/N was on her way to meet him at his team’s hospitality, when she finally entered the place covered in the team colors she saw him. He was there already on a table and waiting for her with her coffee, just like he did on the last time they spoke, just like he did on the day she left. For a minute, she felt like it was going to happen again, but the feeling passed when he said her name and waved at her.

“Different times now Y/N, different situations.” she said to herself inside her head.

She sat at the table, he smiled at her and handed her coffee. “I think it tastes better when it’s not all over you, right?” he tried to break the tension between them, because he knew that this meeting wasn’t because of the earlier accident, but because of the accident that happened two years ago.

“yeah sure it does!” she gave him a small smile after noticing how nervous he looked. “So, how are you doing? It’s been a while since we’ve last talked” Lance’s voice while finishing the sentence was almost a whisper.

“Oh, I’m good! On some new shit now as you can see” she chuckled while pointing to the silver star on her shirt.

“Yeah, this is so cool, I’m happy for you.” he took a sip from his cup “Did you started this year? I- I thought I saw you at Abu Dhabi last year.” Lance was nervous about her answer, because he could swear he saw her. Or maybe he was just missing her too much to the point of seeing her everywhere.

“Hm, sorry but it wasn’t me” she stared at her coffee “I started this year, John got me a recommendation letter. Anyways, tell me, how are you doing? How’s Juliana going? I didn’t saw her at the paddock” she knew she was a bit rough the moment she saw him look down.

He got surprised at how direct her words were, it was like ripping off a BandAid. He sighed “I think she’s fine, we broke up before last year’s summer break.” he stared at his coffee.

“oh, I’m sorry, you two looked happy together” she knew that they weren’t happy, but she was trying to be optimistic.

“No need to be sorry Y/n, actually, I’m the one who owns you an apologie.” he looked at her deep in the eyes and, for a second, she felt her body shiver. “I’m sorry for being an ass to you two years ago. You didn’t deserved to be treated that way, especially by someone you liked and who liked you back. I’m really sorry.’’ he said putting his hands over hers on the table.

Y/n sighed and looked at their hands together. " It’s okay now, Lance. If you never bleed you never gonna grow, right?” she gave him a soft smile.

After the apologies, the atmosphere between them got a bit lighter. “So, tell me, how are you doing? You’ve been doing great on the past race weekends.” she gave him a smile.

“If you say so, thanks!” he chuckled “But I know I need to work harder If I want to be quarter the driver that Fernando is.”

“Oh Lance, I guess you still the same when it comes to being too harsh on yourself.” she gave him a kind look " I know the media haven’t been the best with you, but you need to know you don’t need to be quarter of anyone than yourself. You’re still young and there’s plenty of time to improve your driving, and I trust you.”

“I guess I needed to hear that, thank you Y/n.” He smiled at her. “So, how about you…” he was about to finish his sentence when he looked down at her hands and saw the ring. “You’re engaged?” he was surprised.

“Guilty” she chuckled “His name is Travis, he’s one of the Mercedes engineers. My friend presented us last year by coincidence, before I got my job.” she smiled.

“Well, congratulations! I’m happy for you.” he said, but inside, his thoughts were screaming that it should be him. And he couldn’t help being mad at himself for it.

“Oh, thanks Lance” she was indeed happy with her life, but she couldn’t hold the thought that if her wishes came true, it would’ve been him. His ring on her finger, him wanting to spend a life with her. She knew it was wrong thinking this, but deep down she also knew that sometimes it was impossible to defend herself for never leaving well enough alone.

They chatted for a while, before their phones started to ring and they had to say goodbye. They promise to keep in touch because they missed each others friendship.

And in that moment, when they were leaving and following different ways, both of them started to think of what could’ve happened if that one moment had been different. Would everything be different between them now in the present? They felt the need to ask this burn inside their heads, but none of them were strong enough to ask it.

What they knew is that definitely everything would be sweet, if they were each others One.

[inkblackorchid]

What the hell happened with Crow: an autopsy (Part 2)

Hope you didn't think I'd forgotten about this post yet. Lads, ladies, and other lovely people, here we go. I have more yelling about bird boy to do.

But first, a few disclaimers. For people who may have missed part one, yes, as the title implies, this post is part two of an attempt to analyse Crow's character throughout 5Ds' whole run. You can find part one here. Now, both for people who may not have the time/energy to read my first, huge post about this right now, let me explain what I'm about here before we start again: My analysis is not meant to deter people who like Crow from liking him. It's also not meant to convince Crow haters otherwise, even if I admittedly personally like Crow. All of this stuff is just my personal attempt at dissecting how his character was handled in the show and why that might have been. And because this is part two, and I covered the Fortune Cup and Dark Signers arc in the first post, I'll start with the pre-WRGP arc, then dig into the backstory Crow was given directly before the WRGP begins properly. Also, mind the length of this post. I'm physically incapable of writing short things.

I also feel the need to reiterate another thing before I really get into the meat of things again: If you were hoping to see any old rumours about 5Ds confirmed, this is the wrong post. In fact, thanks to the very thorough work of someone over on Reddit (another shoutout to @mbg159 here, who's the author of those posts), I know for a fact that literally all the big rumours surrounding Crow are one big pile of logistically impossible horseshit, and I think after so, so many years of people citing this nonsense, the fandom as a whole finally deserves to let these go:

No, Crow was not meant to be a dark signer, least of all the final boss of season one, and Blackwings were not the reason he got more screentime later.

No, Aki being sidelined was not the result of her irl voice actress' pregnancy.

Yes, I know these two posts are both a long read each, but I cannot begin to tell you how tired I am of these rumours. So even if you don't have time to read the stuff above, please take away this: The big 5Ds production conspiracy theories are. all. bullshit. Because, to put it in as simple terms as possible, none of them work out logistically. The events people have pretended affected the show's production in a major way all don't line up with the actual production timeline. So just can the rumours already. Please let them die. And no pitting Aki and Crow against each other on his post or because of this post, yes? I beg you, I am so tired. Ok? Ok.

All right, now we can get to the good part. In my previous post, I left off at the end of the DS arc. So, in what position is Crow at the end of the DS arc? He helped save the world by defeating Goodwin and got his very own signer mark after Rudger/Roman Goodwin's death.

And now, where is Crow at the start of the pre-WRGP arc?

(Bam. Delivery bird boy be upon ye.)

This time, Crow wastes absolutely no time coming back on screen. We see him again within the first episode of the second half of the show, and wouldn't you know it! He moved in with Yusei and Jack and the three of them have a funny, brotherly, bickering dynamic between them. Also, as a fun little add-on that is very much in line with his deeply Satellite, down to earth characterisation from the first half, Crow now works as a delivery driver to earn money for the household. That's all very nice and good.

But what is his role in the plot from here on out? Well.

First, a small note about the pre-WRGP arc. Though this arc is fun to watch because it gives us a lot of silly character interactions the show no longer found the time for once the WRGP started, the pre-WRGP arc really can't be said to bother with actual plot much. It's the known filler arc of 5Ds, and as such, Crow is not the only character who gets pretty much nothing plot-related to do during this arc. Thus, I'll only give a quick run-down of what he does get up to, just in case any of these tidbits end up showcasing a relevant aspect of Crow's character I might come back to later.

Furthermore, another thing that's pretty much obvious to everyone who's ever watched the show in its entirety but still bears mentioning: Crow gets a lot more screentime from this point on out. Technically. Why do I say "technically"? I'll get back to that further below. For now, just keep it in mind.

So, how does Bird Boy spend his time during the arc where the plot's on the back burner? To be honest, on the sidelines, mostly. Don't get me wrong, Crow's there. Most of the time. But he gets pretty much only two episodes where he's the focus, and both of those aren't exactly known for being 5Ds' most memorable episodes (even though I still like them both tbh, but I digress): For one, in episode 68, he gets to convince Bashford to move in with Martha so the depressed old man isn't spending his entire retirement living in a scrapyard.

(This episode's comedic moments are actually fairly solid. But those are just my two cents.)

And for two, in episode 85, Crow gets to bond with the boys' somewhat cranky landlady, Zora, by duelling some sense into her son, Lyndon. (Which also introduces us to a duelling tactic only Crow uses that we will later see again: Losing on purpose.)

(And here we can see Crow showing off his skills at dealing with petulant children.)

Now, do these two episodes where he gets to be relevant actually do anything for Crow? As a character? Debatable. If nothing else, they strongly reaffirm the values Crow represents which we were introduced to in the first half of the show, though. They reintroduce us to his stubbornness, to his (in comparison to Jack and Yusei) more playful nature, to his very Yusei-ish dedication to doing the right thing, to his penchant for spite, and to his strong sense of family and community and his belief that these two things shouldn't be abandoned unless you have a damned good reason for it.

You may notice that there's a sizeable gap between these two episodes. That's because those episodes are where we get the only smidgens of plot in this arc. Among them, highlights like Sherry's introduction, the first reveal of accel synchro, Aki's turbo duelling license exam, three separate story beats hinting at the machinations of the emperors of Iliaster (Luciano's little stunt with Rua and Ruka, Placido getting started on building a killer robot army, and the Jack double being unleashed onto NDC), and Bruno's introduction. So, here's the thing: Crow is technically present during most of those episodes, too, but he doesn't actually get to meaningfully interact with the plot-relevant elements. (Which is not to say he doesn't have nice moments here and there. He does get to bounce off the other characters, and, just as one example, helps Yusei and Jack upgrade Aki's duel runner, as well as help Yusei build Rua's duel board. Crucially, he doesn't get to do anything that later becomes plot-relevant, though.) Moreover, not one, but two characters who end up becoming major players in the series' finale are introduced here, which is relevant insofar as that Bruno and Sherry both end up needing a good amount of development before they can impactfully take their later roles. Now, I say this with nothing but genuine appreciation for both these characters, because I do like them, but I feel the need to point out what this means not just for Crow, but for pretty much everyone who isn't Jack or Yusei: Every minute of screentime that was dedicated to Bruno and/or Sherry was one minute less the writers could spend on the rest of the cast. This is not to say that time shouldn't have been spent on them, they needed it, especially because they were introduced so late, but it's something I do want people to keep in mind when talking about who got how much screentime and whether or not that time was well spent. (I also have a larger gripe with the definition of "screentime" in general, but more on that later.)

So when does Crow get to be relevant to the plot again, now that he's even a signer and all? Well, not until episode 94, when the WRGP arc has already started. (Note that I'm using the 5Ds episode list on wikipedia as a general guide for which arc and which season starts where. You can find it here.)

*Deep breath*

So. Episode 94.

(Pictured: One very scruffy dragon. Bird? Dragon-bird. Bird-dragon. You figure this shit out.)

That episode. The episode where Crow, who was awarded with the status of a signer during the finale of the DS arc, finally gets a dragon to match his mark. And the episode where we finally, finally, get some actual backstory for Crow that goes beyond his involvement with the Enforcers and childhood with Jack and Yusei. A backstory that's only Crow's own. Except. How do I put this politely...

This shit doesn't make a lick of sense. Neither the events in the duel between Crow and Bolger in the present resulting in Black-Winged Dragon's appearance, nor the Pearson backstory.

Now, I'm not saying this to step on anyone's toes. From a writing standpoint, I can even make a fairly reasonable guess as to why this episode/mini-arc is here, I think: As I mentioned in part one of this analysis, Crow was not only introduced very late, but also got very little backstory of his own, which set him apart from the other signers. Don't get me wrong, he did get some backstory—we know of his strong connection to Duel Monsters because he learned to read from cards, and we know of his involvement with the Enforcers/Team Satisfaction. Crucially, though, Crow doesn't really get a backstory segment that feels as unique to him as the others. Aki gets her tragic past with her parents and her powers, Jack gets his betrayal of Yusei, which also doubles as part of Yusei's backstory, who as the protagonist understandably gets the most backstory, and even the twins, though they are as always treated as one unit, get their very own segment about the time when Ruka was essentially in a coma. Meanwhile, Crow only has that one-off tear-jerker moment about learning to read from his cards and his being a part of the boys' duel gang, which, and I cannot stress this enough, is treated as more of a Yusei and Kalin/Kiryu backstory by canon than a Crow backstory. Thus, it makes perfect sense from a writing standpoint that the Pearson/Black-Winged Dragon mini-arc would be here. Crow, up until this point, has neither a backstory segment dedicated solely to him, nor a signer dragon to call his own. So, how do we solve this? Give him both in a strategic double-whammy! The math checks out. Unfortunately, the writing of said mini-arc... doesn't.

Now, look. The juicy question of whether Crow would have worked better as a non-signer or not, which I already discussed in part one aside, I personally don't hate what this backstory is trying to do. It's just that the whole Pearson-drama has some very notable, logical holes which I'll get into below. Furthermore, this is not the first time something related to Crow has some unfortunate, logical and/or chronological issues. I already brought up the infamous fridge and Rex Goodwin's rather confusing backstory in part one, both of which raise some serious questions. However, Pearson and everything surrounding him arguably blow that clean out of the water. Let's examine this more closely, shall we.

The long-overdue backstory we get for Crow begins with a mystery: Mikage and Trudge, for a reason that is never given to us, are investigating the death of Robert Pearson (whose death would have been several years ago at this point), whom Crow knew very well, and they're doing it because they found a hint that the person who killed Pearson used an illegal card, Crimson Mefist, to do it.

(Post redemption-arc Trudge actually doing his job instead of bullying random Satellite citizens. Who would have thunk.)

Thing is, here, we already encounter our first, minor problem: Pearson has never been mentioned up until this point, not even as an aside. And this issue is compounded by the fact that not only Crow seems to know him, but Trudge claims to as well, because "Satellite used to be his jurisdiction". So, a named character who's familiar to both one of our protagonists and a notable side character, and we've never seen hide nor hair of him. If we pull our heads out of the story for a second, the irl reason for how this came to be is probably pretty obvious: Pearson was never mentioned before because the writers had nowhere near as solid of a plan for Crow as they did for the other characters, which leads to him being introduced out of nowhere here because we need a backstory and a dragon for Crow and we need those now. Moving on.

The mention of Pearson having been not simply killed in a fire, like Crow previously assumed, but having been murdered through a special, illegal card immediately makes him suspicious. So, he goes to consult Bolger/Bolton, another never-before-seen character who gets introduced in service of this backstory, and who knew Pearson well. And while this guy certainly acts amiable towards Crow at first, implying that the two have a good rapport, at least, he quickly starts acting suspicious when Pearson's murder comes up. Moreover, we as the audience at this point already know Bolger's looking for Black-Winged Dragon so he can use the card essentially as collateral to save his company. And the name "Black-Winged Dragon" already leaves very little to the imagination as to whose deck this monster is supposed to fit into. But, in a small twist, we learn from Crow that this was apparently Pearson's card, and supposedly lost in the fire where said man died, to boot. Then Bolger challenges Crow to a duel, too, offering to tell the truth about Pearson's death if he loses, but demanding Black-Winged Dragon, which he believes Crow to be in possession of, if he wins. So far, so good. We've got a mystery here, and canon is not contradicting itself just yet. Until we get to the actual backstory, which shows us the time Crow spent with Pearson, that is. Before we get into that, I'd like to highlight one theme this mini-arc introduces that actually feels like it fits Crow: Legacy. Over the course of meeting Bolger again and being reminded of his time with Pearson, Crow starts thinking about whether he's taking over his former mentor's/father figure's legacy well enough.

(Crow having some Deep Thoughts TM, featuring one of Yusei's most relaxed, easygoing smiles in the entire show, probably.)

This theme, I would argue, is one of the major things this backstory introduces that really meshes well with the Crow we already had until this point. He's a community-focussed guy and absolutely a family person, if him taking care of Satellite orphans is anything to go by, so leaving behind a good legacy for the people after him (read: the kids he took care of) would absolutely be something he cares about. We see this element of legacy again in his cards during this episode, too, which canon implies he inherited from Pearson. (I'll get to THAT can of worms below.) And on paper, with the themes he's already got going, Crow being the only one to inherit his deck rather than build it all by himself would actually make sense!

However. This is where we have to get into the meat of the backstory. I'll start by listing the barebones information Crow's backstory with Pearson gives us, then going into why several aspects of it are either logistical or chronological nonsense.

So, as canon tells us, Crow met Pearson after Kiryu/Kalin was arrested, when the Enforcers/Team Satisfaction all went their separate ways. During this period, Crow had already set up shop near the original Daedalus Bridge and started out taking care of orphans, but it wasn't all smooth sailing. He was, by his own admission, "living aimlessly". Then, during a pinch, Pearson and Bolger show up, take care of some bad guys for Crow and the kids, and Crow sees a new role model in Pearson. Pearson, who rides the Blackbird, plays a Blackwing deck and owns Black-Winged Dragon. So, he joins up with Pearson, presumably learns how to work on duel runners from him, and also befriends Bolger. Then, one day, a fire breaks out at Pearson's workshop and the man in question dies, but leaves Crow his runner and his duel disk before he does so. End flashback. Because I want to tie this together nicely, we also learn later that Pearson technically left him Black-Winged Dragon, too, by sealing it in his runner. And, of course, that dragon later becomes Crow's very own signer dragon.

Several points to be dissected here. And funnily enough, Bolger's duel with Crow isn't relevant for any of them. Let's start with the big one: The timeline. I want you to remember that as far as canon is concerned, Crow is 17 during the DS arc. Moreover, it's canonically stated that Jack stole Yusei's first duel runner two years before the show's start, at which time Crow would have been 15. And their time together as the Enforcers must have been even before that, because Kiryu/Kalin was already in prison for a while at that point and Crow and Yusei don't reunite until the DS arc is basically in full swing. So, I'll make a vague estimate here and say that during the time of the Enforcers, Crow would have probably been 13-14. (Which is hilarious when you think about the fact that this gang of angry teenagers essentially took over the entire duelling underground of Satellite, but I digress.) Now we add the idea that Crow met Pearson after the Enforcers, but that he died before canon starts into the mix. That means Crow first ran into Pearson sometime around age 15, and that he then died presumably before Crow turned 17. So far, so good, that still slots into canon, even if it makes Crow pretty damn young for some things. He's even missing the personalised Blackbird duel disk he later wears during the Enforcer days, I went back to check. What he is not missing, however, are his Blackwings. And this is where canon may or may not have made an implication that, if intentional, breaks this timeline. See, during the scene where Pearson's workshop is burning down and he's already trapped under debris and has embraced death, he tosses Crow his duel disk and leaves him his runner.

(Two important screenshots, in sequence. One, Pearson with his duel disk still strapped to his arm. His deck is very obviously still in there. Two, Crow with that same duel disk, as made obvious by its distinct shape.)

What this implies is that Pearson also left Crow his deck. Which, yeah, fair enough, if I were dying in a fire I'd probably also think "fuck it, not like I'll need my cards in the afterlife". What this (and Crow's look the first time he sees Pearson's monsters) implies, though, is that Crow didn't start playing Blackwings until Pearson left him his deck. Which is factually untrue, because there is literal evidence in the show that Crow already had Blackwings during his time as part of the duel gang, before ever meeting Pearson. (The exact episode, if you want to check for yourself, is 33, where Crow summons both Bora the Spear and Blackwing Armor Master during a flashback.) However, I will concede that the show never actually states this is the case, it's just implied by what we see on screen, so perhaps the idea here was that Crow already played Blackwings before Pearson, but grew to love them even more through his mentor/father figure, and so later happily integrated the deck he inherited into his own. Crucially, canon never states this outright, either, though, so the option remains on the table. But, to give the benefit of the doubt here, the possibility that this could still slot in with canon and that it was just handled poorly is there. The same cannot be said for the Blackbird, however.

(Uh oh. So much for canon continuity.)

The above two screenshots directly contradict each other. First we have Yusei, upon reuniting with Crow in Satellite during the DS arc, casually remarking that Crow finished his duel runner. Which means that canon at this point suggests to the audience that one, Crow built this duel runner by himself, for himself, and two, that Yusei knew about it for a while already. Then there's the second screenshot, from the Pearson backstory episode, where Crow outright claims the Blackbird was left to him when Pearson died. I don't think I need to tell anyone that these two things can't be true at the same time. And again, I think this is where Crow fell victim to the writers not having a clear outline for him. At first, he was supposed to be this scrappy guy who also built a duel runner for himself, just like Yusei. But now, he's a signer, needs a backstory and a dragon, and because a theme of legacy is introduced alongside Pearson, the runner suddenly needs to be inherited, as well as (possibly) Crow's cards. Now, a crafty fanfic writer could probably reconcile the above contradiction somehow, and I know some stories that accomplished that. But the point isn't that we, as the audience/fandom could make this work, the point is that canon didn't make it work. What canon, sadly, also didn't get to work was Black-Winged Dragon.

(We meet again, bird-dragon.)

Here comes the next elephant in the room: Everyone and their mother who has watched 5Ds knows that Black-Winged Dragon was never implied to be a signer dragon up until the duel where Crow acquires it. In fact, an entirely different dragon is teased so heavily long before BWD ever shows up that it to this day is one of many people's major gripes with the show's writing.

(Why, hello, Life Stream Dragon! Fancy seeing you here.)

And yet, Black-Winged Dragon is turned into a signer dragon before Life Stream Dragon, who was teased more than sixty (!!!) episodes before BWD was ever even mentioned. Why? Simple: Because Crow became a signer and Rua/Leo didn't, because the signers all need dragons (or else the "5Ds" part kind of doesn't work), and because Life Stream Dragon thematically doesn't fit Crow.

Now, I've seen people post theories to reconcile this weird hitch in canon, hell, I've even posted an idea for how it could be reconciled myself. But, again, that isn't the point here. The point is that as far as good old, barebones canon is concerned, it isn't reconciled. Canon at first states there are five signers, suggesting that there are also five dragons. But then, the fifth dragon never shows up, and one of the signers dies, to boot. Only for canon to then teach us, oh, no, look, the signer marks can wander from one person to the next. And to add insult to injury (at least where the show's writing and internal consistency is concerned), the signer mark that was "freed up" by Roman/Rudger's death doesn't wander to Rua/Leo, who any attentive watcher would have expected to become a signer because it was heavily teased during the DS arc, but to Crow. Frankly, I'm not surprised many people were angry about this, but in case my disclaimer didn't make it clear, I don't think it's productive to pin this on Crow by claiming his cards became super popular irl. There was definitely an out-of-left-field writing choice made here, but the only answers as to "why" were left in the 5Ds' writer's room, I believe. At a guess, if you want me to throw out a non-sugarcoated theory as to why, though? They probably thought Crow would be a more interesting character for their target audience. He's a scrappy guy who sticks it to authority, he's brave, he's funny, he plays a cool deck, and most of all, unlike Rua, he never embarrasses himself in a duel on screen. Why am I highlighting that last part? Because I feel like people sometimes forget that the target audience for this show, at the time of its creation, were about twelve year-old boys. And you can feel free to contradict me on this, but most twelve year-old boys I've known and know don't want to project themselves onto a chracter who loses and gets his butt kicked a lot, and who's a bit awkward and steps in it sometimes, which is much closer to how actual twelve year-olds are—but that's exactly why they prefer the cooler characters. And Crow is the cooler character, by average twelve year-old boy logic, regardless of what the grownups of this fandom think.

So Crow gets a dragon and the writing doesn't bother explaining the how or why of it, let alone tackles any of the implications made by Black-Winged Dragon's existence as a signer dragon. (Like what does this mean for the larger worldbuilding? Does the Crimson Dragon actually have more than five servants, but chooses to only ever bestow five marks at a time? Can any "dragon" the Crimson Dragon chooses be a signer dragon, and it just so happens that the constellation of signer dragons is nearly the same as the original one in present-time 5Ds canon? Did the Crimson Dragon specifically elevate BWD to a signer dragon because it felt like it? Was BWD always supposed to be a signer dragon? Was Pearson supposed to be a signer, but died too early before the dark signer prophecy was set into motion? Am I overthinking this? (Yes.)) He also obtains his dragon in what feels like the weirdest way possible to me, because it suddenly??? Just decides to appear in his runner????? Out of nowhere??????

(Why is that here. How did it get there. Why did Pearson even put it in there. And HOW. Is it just wedged between the machinery or what???? And how on earth did Yusei, Bruno, and/or Crow never find it before this point considering how often someone tinkered on the Blackbird on screen???)

(This scenario, of course, also raises the question how the other signers even got their dragons. But like many other, interesting questions, this episode chooses not to interact with that one whatsoever.)

In short, this backstory is a bit of a mess, to say the least. For as much good as it tries to do by contextualising Crow's character and giving him something that sets him apart from the rest of the protag group, it feels like a rough draft of an episode was given the green light to be produced without any editing, judging by the contradictions and weird implications. As such, it harms Crow's character as much as it builds it, as evidenced by how much fandom backlash he still receives years later for the things that were bungled in this backstory and also in different aspects of his character writing.

Now, you may notice this post has gotten stupidly long due to just how convoluted the specific hangups of Crow's backstory are. I originally meant to cover the WRGP and even the Ark Cradle arc for Crow in this post, too, but due to how much there was to say about canon's attempt to finally make Crow a "proper" signer, I've decided that trying to force another two whole arcs in here would be a disservice to the analysis and the character, and also make this agonisingly long, so I'll close this part out here and write a part three, perhaps even a part four depending on how much material the WRGP gives me to work with.

There's one more thing I need to get back to before I finish up this part, though: The "screentime" discussion. I mentioned far above that I take issue with how some people seem to be using the word screentime, and now I can explain why. First, I want you to take a look back at the episodes I covered here, those being 65-95, essentially. Now, as anyone who usually dislikes Crow will tell you, Crow is present in most, if not all of these episodes. He's on screen. He's getting screentime, and, according to many people, hogging it, even. Okay. Now, I want you to look back up at the analysis. How many episodes did I cover where Crow actually gets something to do? As in, where he's either the focus of the plot or gets to contribute to it in a significant way? There's the old man Bashford episode. There's the Poppo Time clock episode. There's his two backstory episodes. That's four. Four episodes. If you're generous, you might add in the episode where he gets to narrate Yusei's backstory alongside Jack and the two fake Jack episodes where he gets to have an emotional moment or two with his foster-brother. If you're less generous, you'll note that none of these episodes have Crow actually interacting with the main antagonists in a meaningful way or set up anything important that pays off later. (Hell, he doesn't even get any, and I really mean, any meaningful setup interactions with Sherry, who ends up being his final-boss-level opponent during the final episodes! Aki gets more meaningful interactions with Sherry than him, not that this ever gets a payoff.) And this is why I take an issue with people claiming Crow gets so much "screentime" post DS arc. Because to me, "screentime" should be time spent letting a character act meaningfully within the story, which most of the pre-WRGP episodes aren't for Crow. He's on screen, yes, but in many episodes, it wouldn't matter one whit whether you replaced him with a nameless side character, which isn't exactly a great look for a supposed third of a protagonist trifecta. Perhaps I'm being too strict with my definition of "screentime" here, fair enough! But the claim that Crow hogs screentime already rubs the wrong way during this comparably unimportant arc, so I can't leave it alone. It feels very decidedly malicious to claim a character who during some episodes seems to only be there to provide exposition or make whatever jokes Yusei and Jack's personalities aren't suited to is stealing screentime from other characters. As for the WRGP duels and whether he's "hogging" anyone's screentime there, I'll dig into that nonsense in the next part, please be patient with me.

...Phew. Okay.

Now, before I leave you to wonder whether I'm every finishing my Crow analysis in full again, I want to attempt to do the same thing I did in part one—propose some changes that could have been made to the writing for Crow's character in order to make things slot in better with the rest of canon. With a small disclaimer, of course: These are just my suggestions as to how Crow's character could have fit into canon more smoothly and been done less of a disservice by his own backstory.

So. First, a quick-fire thing about the pre-WRGP, to get that out of the way: Crow, alongside Aki, is the only signer who didn't get his own confrontation with either Iliaster or their minions. (Yusei had Ghost, Jack had fake Jack, Rua and Ruka had Luciano.) Instead of having him confront a cranky old man in a scrapyard or Zora's son, they could have easily given him a very short side-story where he gets to experience the threat of Iliaster up close and personal, too. Hell, they could have very nicely cut the recap episode where Crow and Jack lie in the mess of Jack's terribly built coffee table and philosophise about Yusei's backstory for this, too. (As funny as their interaction about the coffee table and Jack lying on the floor with a perfectly intact coffee cup are.)

(Pictured: Two idiots (affectionate) contemplating life among the scraps of a shitty, broken coffee table.)

Then, there's the Pearson backstory, of course. So, here's the thing, I think two very different kinds of "fixes" could have worked here. Crucially, they both depend on Crow's status as a signer. I argued in part one that Crow might have worked better as a character if he hadn't actually become a signer, so I'll give both versions here. Let's go.

Option A: We try not to touch canon too much and Crow stays a signer.

How to do this? Frankly, I think what Crow's mark and Black-Winged Dragon were majorly missing was setup. The mark is the smaller offence here, since, fair enough, the idea that signer marks can wander from person to person isn't too out there for 5Ds canon. However, the lack of a dragon despite the alleged 5Ds stands out, and Life Stream Dragon's wasted setup only makes it worse. Thus, making Black-Winged Dragon make sense would have required giving him the same amount of foreshadowing as Life Stream Dragon, at the very least. And you know who could have been great for that? Sweet, ever-forgotten-by-canon Ruka. She was already shown having flashback dreams to the signer dragons' first battle against the dark signers, so who's to say she couldn't have gotten dreams about a shadowy, new dragon she's never seen before? Perhaps even dreams where she's not sure if the dragon is good or bad at first! It could have provided intrigue, it could have made the audience curious. To strengthen that, canon could have also bothered taking the question "hey why are there only four dragons now" seriously. No character in canon ever questions why there are five marks, but only four dragons. Even Rua, who was previously hopeful that he might secretly be a signer, never brings it up. If canon had bothered to actually point this mystery out, they could have used it not only to foreshadow Black-Winged Dragon, but to aid Life Stream Dragon's setup, too. What the fuck am I talking about, I hear you ask. Hear me out: Life Stream Dragon is shown way, way later down the line, long after the audience probably already accepted that it was simply never going to show up, literally bursting out of Power Tool Dragon's armour. We are not provided with an explanation as to why. Imagine if they had sprinkled in another dream Ruka could have had about the ancient past here. Imagine if they had used the opportunity to show something like, oh, during the battle, Life Stream Dragon got injured so badly they had to protect its wounded body with a suit of armour, in the hopes that it would heal. And with one original signer dragon out of commission, the Crimson Dragon sadly had to choose a replacement in between, because the Earthbound Immortals were sure to return. Bam. Black-Winged Dragon. Two signer dragons, set up simultaneously, without forcing the canon lore to do somersaults. Furthermore, to actually explain why Pearson had the dragon but wasn't a signer, they could have easily sprinkled in a flashback between him and Crow. Maybe Pearson could have mentioned how the dragon always feels like it's never really his, as a joking aside. It would have been enough for me to suspend my disbelief, you know? And then the rest of canon could have played out exactly as we know it. Crow could have confronted Bolger, could have obtained Black-Winged Dragon because maybe the dragon finally decided he was worth throwing its weight behind. The mystery behind the missing fifth dragon could have been solved, and it would have made for satisfying payoff without kneecapping Life Stream Dragon's setup or conjuring an extra dragon out of thin air. And really, stuff like the runner thing could have so easily been solved by simply picking one version (did he build it himself or inherit it?) and sticking with it. All it took was a little more care.

Option B: We assume Crow didn't actually become a signer, but try to keep his backstory intact.

Okay, this version works under the assumption that Crow, despite partaking in the final battle against Goodwin during the DS arc, didn't receive a signer mark. To make this work, I would, bluntly put, simply make it so that Black-Winged Dragon doesn't exist. Pearson can still play a powerful Blackwing monster during his flashback that Bolger wants to find and sell later, but it simply isn't that dragon. Really, Blackwings have enough to choose from there. If the backstory episodes had been placed a little later, say, during the pause in the middle of the WRGP, he could have even received something like Blackwing Full Armor Master here. (Yes, I know that card didn't exist at the time, but my point is that he could have simply received a powerup like Yusei and Jack did, instead of a completely new monster.) With this setup, they could have still added the intrigue of taking the question why there are only four signers now seriously. They could have still set up a mystery about why no one ever saw the fifth dragon outside of dreams. And it could have made Rua becoming a signer later, and in this version getting the tail mark instead of a completely new one, that much more satisfying. And Crow could have kept his "fuck destiny, I'm trying to save the world here"-attitude from the DS arc, providing a nice, amusing counterweight to our heroes chosen by an ancient Incan dragon deity. All it would have taken would have been not giving him a mark and switching out Black-Winged Dragon for something else.

So, take your pick, I guess. In the meantime, I'll try my best to work on part three faster than I did part two, lmao.

See you next time!

[longeyelashedtragedy]

For the send a character ask: Granit Xhaka XD

@perfectpiety here you go!!!

favorite thing about them: HOW to even answer this??? i think granit might be as close to "perfect" as a human can get. first of all let's get out of the way how stupid gorgeous he is and has been for basically his entire adult life--my personal favorite granit aesthetic era is his early bratty twink time at arsenal (if he's wearing 29, you know he's extra fine) but he's stunning in any era. his cheekbones should probably be arrested. the side dish to this is how fucking awful he looks in his selfies 😂 he's way too young to take such bad photos of himself. there's some legend that quilters would purposely make a mistake in their quilt to show humility--that only god can be perfect--while i don't know if this is a true story, maybe granit's selfies are the contemporary version of this 😂

as for the REST of it...

who the fuck is this man? he's so strong and solid while not being an asshole, toxic man with no emotions. he operates on a value system that feels almost archaic sometimes, but in a good way, like he'd probably lie his nice coat over a puddle for mikel to step on in the rain. he truly seems to have the most golden heart. But he has a heart of molten gold—more lethal than the hard form.  More alive.  Overtaking everything it touches. His natural leadership and charisma are truly insane. My sister is a little like him in this way, and it's always truly fascinating to watch--someone who just naturally commands the attention, leads a conversation, even the most experienced and hardened team captain seems to defer to granit for the team talks. while "taking over everything and commanding the attention" is often a really annoying and unlikeable quality, for people for whom it comes that naturally you can't even hate them for it because they're not trying to be pushy or an asshole. they're just a born leader.

i also used to think he was kind of a himbo, but i feel like i owe him an apology because he actually seems quite intelligent and serious. he's one of those footballers who can give an actual academic subject answer for "what was your favorite subject in school" (math lol)

least favorite thing about them: that he DOESN'T PLAY FOR ARSENAL ANYMORE

favorite line: anytime he calls mikel a "freak, in a positive way"? in his open mic video during covid season, where someone scores and he goes "FUCK ME! THAT'S FOOTBALL GUYS!" uhhh...his entire "if you don't have the balls to play, stay home" speech in 2022? when he told alex iwobi "i only listen albanian music" in his #29 days cause that was such a lie lmao. in terms of international duty: when he was hyping up the team before the penalties vs france in euro 2020 and yelled "WE ARE CLEARLY THE BETTER TEAM HERE". or...most iconically...looking at the serbian bench and mouthing "Ta qifsha nonen ne pidh"...thanks to my scholarly pursuits of albanian i did not need a translator for that ;). or wait...in colney carpool...whatever the fuck that weird thing he said about giraffes was 😂

brotp: well...granit and his actual brother taulant? hahaha. i love him with anyone he was friends with at arsenal (gabby j modelling his clothing line, anyone?) with carlos cuesta, with ricci rodriguez, xherdan shaqiri, and breel embolo (always ready to throw down with vs the serbian nt). his history with yann sommer...i love granit's Friendships

notp: ok...please don't hate me. i don't mean "notp" as in like, eww, i hate this, i'd never read about it, i'd block the tags, etc. i just don't personally ship granit and martin. i think they were a great influence on each other as like...captain and vice-captain, and i loved seeing their interactions there. i just didn't really see sexual chemistry between them, if that makes sense. i certainly have read some granit and martin fics and enjoyed them! i just don't ship it really.

otp: i mean...

X H A K A R T E T A

do i need to stay more? two hearts that beat as one. one's heart is the other's home. mikel saving granit, shaping and transforming him, understanding him...sometimes it makes me think of the story in plato's symposium (don't worry everyone--i got a C+ in classical philosophy this is the only thing i remember or understood) from aristophanes where he talks about how zeus cut ppl in two and they have to roam around looking to find their "other half" so they could be complete...Xhakarteta be like that.

and also. how they both own each other, dominate each other, submit to the other. granit in charge in bed yet all in service of mikel. granit's utter, wide-eyed devotion to mikel in interviews. the way mikel saw the beast and the angel within, and loved the beast and showed the world the angel. UGHGHGGHGGHGGHG

random headcanon: i don't think granit would like, label his sexuality as anything? i think he just does what feels right.

unpopular opinion: i've definitely expressed this before but i do not--sincerely do not--agree with the popular view that granit would "lose control" when he got physical. for example (sorry veronika hahaha) when he chokes ashley westwood. if you look at his body language there--or even in like november 2022 vs chelsea where he kind of flung chalobah around--it's honestly a body that is very IN control of itself. he just came at these games from a very different mindset. he's naturally aggressive, goal-oriented, here to both win but also defend the honor of both himself and the team, so-- confident in his value system, he didn't care what he had to do to make it happen.

i've genuinely never seen granit appear "out of control," and i've watched a lot of aggressive granit compilations hahaha. i think mikel did help him find maturity about this, and i think putting him in a less defensive role really helped. granit defending = license to Murder

(frivolous bonus: i think he looked hot with the bleached hair! like he looked kind of deranged and so it grew on me...it definitely doesn't suit him hahaha)

song i associate with them: i don't really have one...maybe kangë e shahirav by mc kresha/lyrical son, and/or future lovers by madonna, but only bc i've listened to these songs a lot when writing fics about him lol

favorite picture of them: hOW do u expect me to do the impossible!!!!! how about these 2, the first with granit in my two favorite colors of course (and i love the 2nd one because he looks like he just woke up lol)

[rabbithaver]

oh cool ive finally figured out what my role in this family is! since i am a lazy worthless fuck with no marketable skills and a PhD in bitching and moaning, i've been wondering why my dad hasnt kicked me out yet. well, thank god my dad decided to tell me! thanks to him, i now know that my role in the family is "person it's ok for me (dad) to verbally abuse and harass when im in a bad mood"

tw for suicide, abuse, just shitty fathers. he's not always shitty and i do love him, but when he sucks he really sucks

i came upstairs to get dinner and found my parents watching TV with the volume already cranked up to like 90. which is insane, even for us. i could hear it clearly from DOWNSTAIRS through the FLOORBOARDS. when i get upstairs, i asked politely if they could turn it down, and my dad immediately fucking bit my head off about it. treated me like less than dirt for even daring to ask. i was trying to be nice and he acted like i'd gone over to the TV and turned it off in the middle of what they were watching.

i explained i wanted it turned down because i haven't seen this season of Stranger Things yet. my dad basically said "nope, don't care. your mother can't hear it if it's any lower, so go fuck yourself." i would understand that line of reasoning, but they had the captions on, and i know for a FACT that my mom has been able to hear the TV when the volume is at like, half that,

he doesn't do this to anyone else. it's literally JUST me. i ask a simple question and if he feels like it, he'll chew me out and yell at me. if anyone else asks, he'll say he's not in a good mood and to leave him alone. no one else in the family gets treated like this. he genuinely doesn't care if he hurts me and he's never once apologized to me. i don't understand. why is it just me? is it because i'm a failure and a disappointment?

he just doesn't see me as a person worth respecting. he's never taken me seriously. in the past, when i was a suicidal teenager, i remember yelling during a breakdown, "you wouldn't even care if i k*lled myself!" and he actually laughed and said "No, I wouldn't. Why would I?"

yeah, why would you? what is there worthy of respect? i'm a disappointment in every single way. i'm an embarrassment to this family. i have failed every single thing i have ever tried. i couldn't even off myself properly. i couldn't do the bare minimum and graduate high school -- i'm the only person in the entire extended family not to meet the lowest bar possible.

it all makes perfect sense, but it still fucking hurts. it hurts twice as much because i still love him despite the way he treats me when he's moody

[my-shields-are-down]

Heyyy

Did you enjoy the Valentines episode of The Rookie yesterday? Did you like the chenford content we got?

Hello -

Popular question! I have thoughts.

Generally speaking, I liked the episode. I thought the story lines were great, I loved the "found family" vibe, I am very interested in Celina's murdered sister story, I laughed at all the couples having fights on Valentines Day, and I loved the Chenford content we got.

My big complaints/issues. I'll address these first and then move onto what I loved.

one - I want more smooches between Tim and Lucy. Even a quick kiss here or there would be great. I don't need tons of sex scenes - there are a couple of fan fic writers who have that shit locked down. I can get any variety of smut on AO3.

two - while the main action stories were good and interesting, they weren't great. There was a lack of urgency and excitement (a/k/a "oomph") in both the Ebola and the sarin gas story lines. The episode could have been better in that regard. I felt like these stories were "scratching the surface" of the topics.

three - as usual they were cramming 4+ stories into a single episode instead of focusing on just 2-3. Trying to include everything left a lot of unanswered questions and dangling storylines. Whether or not they are addressed in future episodes remains to be seen, but we don't have that many episodes left this season.

Now for what I really enjoyed about the episode.

+ I totally get why Bailey was mad at John. Him swooping in to save the day was annoying. That said, I want to hire him for the next time I have to call my mail-order-prescription delivery service. 9 times out of 10 I end up yelling at the imbecile who is not taking notes during our conversation and not expediting the order. I would love for him to just handle that for me.

+ I loved the Chenford content we got. I've basically wiped out all of my expectations for these two fictional characters, so I am always grateful and surprised at what new tidbits we get in an episode. We now know that Tim sometimes sleeps in a shirt - why god why! - and that he defers to let Lucy sleep on HIS side of the bed. Tim's a romantic that somehow found time between his new demanding job and Lucy to go jewelry shopping!!! He's a bigtime softie - especially for Lucy. He basically let her off the hook for keeping him in the dark by accepting her non-apology. they have an active, active sex life requiring fuel for extended sessions, they go out to eat as much as they eat in, Tim notices her outfits. Tin got them a reservation out on the busiest restaurant day of the year. Lucy flirted with other men at UC School. Lucy was first in her class at UC School. I'd bet $$ that Noah hit on Lucy and she turned him down - not because of Chris, but because of Tim. Lucy openly touches Tim now. And many more juicy tidbits.

+ I liked that all the couples were fighting. I personally am not a Valentine's Day fan. I think it's a stupid event to generate sales for multiple industries. but whatever. One of the writers is an Alias fan with the Charlie Bristow character. Another secret sister to Sidney. Hello! + I am very interested to see where things go with Celina's sister's murder. I thought it was a little pompous of Nolan to pre-screen the file for her. But as she is his trainee, I guess it makes some kind of sense.

I loved the found family random conversation generator event on open mic.

I loved that grumpy Tim, and slightly jealous confused Tim was back.

I am glad they found a way for Tim to ride with Lucy - they have such a great rapport.

But there are some issues lurking in the darkness and which likely will pop up again before the end of the season:

Tim stressing about not being able to handle multiple calls. How does he manage that? Metro still has the potential as a stressor on this relationship. We need more information about what Tim heard and what people are saying about Lucy's maneuvers.

If Lucy was #1 in her UC Academy Class - you can bet she was recruited as an UC officer right out of the gate. Why didn't she go that way, why did she go back to patrol? She and Chris were still together at that point.

The whole UC career thing will be a stressor - what happens when Lucy is offered or asked to go on a long term assignment. We know Dm/Jake comes back. Will Juicy? Will she have to stay under for longer time without him? What will that do to their relationship? Won't be as hard now as later when kids are involved but could cause some stress for Tim.

Chris Sanford comes back next episode - I'm guessing because he's the only DA left who can prosecute Elijah. I'm also guessing there won't be any Chenford angst there. too much action other places to focus on that.

But generally speaking, I'm happy. and if I wasn't? I'd either rewatch one of the earlier episodes, or read through the 2500+ fan fic stories on AO3. Plenty of stories abound to make me happy, not all of them visual, on tv, or on Tuesday nights.

[gay-kurapika]

I sort of like...want to talk about some of my worst experiences in customer service/retail. Because I've been working in some kind of customer service since I was 14 and I'm fucking tired. I think if people like knew they were draining the soul out of some random underpaid employee they wouldn't pull this shit. So I had a woman who yelled at me for about 2 hours because her $35 order through the grocery stores online pickup wasn't complete. She had ordered canning supplies during canning season, and unsurprisingly we just didn't have them. She insulted me personally, she said I must hate elderly people because she had to come all the way out here for her order (the app literally told me she had a 10 minute drive so like yeah you had to come all the way out there, I believe that for sure) and didn't get it, and then she had weird racist comments about my coworkers, which I was literally not fucking entertaining, you just literally don't get to say rude fucking shit about people who are working very hard and who you know nothing about. Like I'm not pretending this is a real problem, the 19 year old kid who brought out your groceries doesn't deserve a personal attack. I remember I sat on the floor and cried after that conversation because I was overwhelmed and I'd started having a panic attack. A coworker had to sit down with me and gave me the kindness of telling me "that Karen doesn't deserve your time"

And I've had other ones too. I got stalked by a man when I was 16 and working at a diner because he was sexually interested in me. He had to have my Aunt tell him to leave me alone and stop coming to the restaurant because he wouldn't leave me alone while I was there and he kept inviting me to his house. This man was in his 50s and I was a teenager.

I've had customers physically assault me, insult my intelligence, insult my appearance, and demean me. I don't have the patience anymore, I'm the mean grocery store worker now. The only okay thing to ask for is the location for an item. If you ask me for anything else I don't care. I'm not your therapist or your mother or your wife. I will not pretend I care about you when you have no respect at all for me. Like I only care about people who are polite and nice.

[clonehub]

Episode 3 of the bad batch!

"we're fine" girl the gonk droid is on its side

I wonder what these rations taste like

Okay so echo can eat solids. And also everyone is yelling at him to fix everything on the ship. They are flying through hyperspace on a ship that doesn't work properly and I'm SORRY but techs priorities are BACKWARDS

THEY DONT EVEN FIT IN THE SEATS AAAHHHHHH

The way they're acting I'm thinking theybe never crash landed before which is actually really funny bc Anakin only knew how to crash. Like it was a regular occurrence in tcw for bitches to be crashing all over the place

Okay first mention of crosshair.

"Crosshairs actions may have been influenced by his inhibitor chip" "it can do that?" Was it. Like wasnt this established. Like one or two episodes ago? I'm genuinely confused this could be my own standing knowledge of the chips getting in the way but why's echo surprised the chip is influencing Crosshairs actions

I will say. There's times where the lighting and the model rendering blends in such a way so that u can't really differentiate the features on omegas face if that makes sense. Like it blends too much

I do like how much they do the blur/focus thing I've always liked that

Rampart being like the only person in this entire series with decently brown eyes :/

Oh look. Once again referred to as enhanced (crosshair). And it's like the more that I think about it. It would not make sense for the Kaminoans to work so hard to keep tbb alive if they believed they were really defective. They're very much like "here's our enhanced product here's our enhanced soldiers see how enhanced they are" like tbb are advertising so they wouldn't say "yeah they're defective BUT--"

So crosshair just walking about in his jammies

Tarkins face model is p good

Something about the models for this first batch of conscripts is like. Like they were built the way they were bc the animators knew they wouldn't be on screen long.

This is kinda funny tho bc they definitely made some heads and just stuck them on a clone models body HFKSBFKSNDKSJS not that I'm mad I like they didn't do boob armor but fhakdnaksk

Tech is so like. Not arugmentative but he has to reply to everything and it's normally in a dismissive or disagreeing way and normally I wouldn't care at all but sometimes it's like was this line necessary.

"you wanna narrow that down" bitch can you go outside and look damn making all this noise from the back seat

I wonder why if Wrecker is having all this obvious hesd pain nobody is actually like checking on him?

A nice blend of music here

It's so funny like how much ppl just fucking hate being scanned because like for me if every doctors visit could just be a scan I'd be so gung ho for it. Yeah let me just lay here for three seconds and hardly get a needle or anything tf

Willing enlistment as metric for a good soldier is interesting and I feel like purposely manipulative bc the guy in the scene before this just said he's got like food and housing so that's partly why he's staying. It's not a loyalty thing at all lmao

What's funny is that I think tbbs helmets for all their little specialities don't actually contribute to air tight contained suits the way the normie clones do. Bc if this was Rex and co they could probably just keep their buckets on w a lil attachment. So they get the headlamps and the HUD. But hunter can't have that so he has to remove the entire thing and put on this mask.

"we each have enhanced skills"

See I wish they could have maintained this tension around crosshair better through the season

Not this white boy poking crosshair in his insecurities BDMABDLSNSLAK no wonder he was so gung ho to kill him and also why he wanted to stick w the imps so bad. Again again again it's ego

They use English letters a lot here not that it's a bad thing or anything but like I remember how in tcw during some like behind the scenes things they basically implied they tried to avoid doing that. They sometimes would say the aurebesh letters and sometimes it'd be A and B

Oh he didn't tattoo his eyelid. Not that it like has to be but like. I just noticed

Sorry these choking noises are so throaty

Bro just unconscious here fjandnaknsa

Wilhelm scream :/

Yeah wow the uh. White boy was the only one with moral back bone huh. The only one who said extrajudicial execution of civilians was bad. Just him huh. Hm.

This is an interesting creature

Oh she gotta be standing on something to be this tall

DNA degradation still doesn't make sense to me given what should be the kammies gene prowess but whatevs

It's like. They're hung up on Jango DNA but if hsi stuff is swirling the drain and you don't have boba would the next thing not be to just find a new guy? Also how does any of that make this any less cost prohibitive

"such a contingency would require a direct source. The clones required will not return willingly" / "they are kaminoan property and we only need one"

Uh but tbb are enhanced and mutated so therefore not the best candidates for sourcing for Jango DNA? Unless I've got this wrong (I'm thinking I do).

I wonder if this room still stinks

This is a sweet thing wreckers done I will say that. But also is omegas room just a viewport or is there a turret attached to that chair?

"I never had my own room before" who was she sharing a room with?????

[striveattemptfail]

so i took this screencap after i read the latest ep and—

hn. (=_=)

idt i'll liveblog this week but i'll put my Thoughts under the cut

(tl;dr jason's Moobs and artemis' arms are the only thing getting me through this webtoon and unfortunately i am near hitting the point where that can no longer sustain me 😔😔)

(also pls heed the tags on this post bc there is a lot of Wank And Bitching. if you don't wanna read the meandering negativity, pls move along ᕕ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕗ)

okay so Thoughts™️:

i said i'd stick around to make sure lobo was done well but considering he folded and fucked off in <5 panels i can't even judge that

and idr if i mentioned it on my blog but i told some friends i'd stick around for the first season of rho and likely drop it after that

but idek if i can keep to that anymore

i've read a lot of really crappy comics, superhero issues and webcomics alike. i've had my fair share of whiplash pacing and wildly ooc canon

i'm not saying i'm an expert at judging comics, but i'll give myself enough credit to say at the very least that this webtoon is Just Not Good

while i'm personally not bothered by changing the art style—

(actually, it's one of the few things i appreciate in traditional publishing for superhero comics, so introducing it to the webcomic medium has been really interesting to me)

(but that's a whole other post lol)

—they're not using the change to its full potential, or even for its intended purpose

i get that the webtoon weekly schedule is brutal and borderline inhumane for a lot of asian artists, so it's probably hell on earth for western artists having to switch to that kind of scheduling

nico offloading all the inking to another artist so he can get a break makes sense

but if that's the case, the art should be more polished—and it just isn't

it's still abundantly clear to me that corners were cut to get eps out on time with the same kind of length

i'm not an illustrator, and my eye for perspective is already pretty awful with my glasses on, but i think it still says something that my half-blind ass can still see errors

if the art has to change to give the regular artist a break, why isn't any of the art (both from the original artist and the fill-in artist) not up to par?

and this isn't even considering that the art just changes in the middle of an arc, which makes everything hella confusing for a reader who can seamlessly read episode after episode due to the nature of the webtoons platform and the webcomic medium in general

at least if there's an art switch in most traditional comics, it's introducing a new arc or volume to that series, and it's physically broken up into multiple comic books/issues

the changes in rho thus far have just been ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ at best, and (to me) without any thought about how the style could affect the overall story

to be clear: wayne family adventures also does this. but at least toby succeeds in emulating starbite's art style enough not to break immersion. and because it's been toby every time, the changes in art style is usually only noticeable when scrutinized

unlike with rho thus far, who's had different artists with similar but still distinctly different styles

so the abrupt art change is not only impacting the immersion of a reader but the effectiveness of the storytelling

and i don't even wanna get into patrick young's abysmal writing thus far. i know better than to yell on the internet about comic writers after namedropping them lol

i love jason. i genuinely like his rebirth outlaws team. for all the flack i give lobdell for rhato (2011) and in general, he did some actually decent things for all three outlaws during their 2016 run onwards

(some things. i'm still not forgiving him for rhato (2016) #25, or the fact that willis todd was apparently gd wingman, or for a lot of other things, but that is a discussion for yet another post lol)

i honestly cannot say the same for patrick young's writing

aside from the (fucked up) storyline happening to bizarro, i stand by my point that the highlight of every arc thus far has been the villains

which would be a compliment if it weren't for the fact that the series is supposed to be about the titular (anti) heroes of the story, or if the heroes were just written half as well

and yet?? i've been disappointed by every development for jason, and the mostly lack thereof for artemis, much less the downright disrespectful treatment for all the other characters introduced thus far

bizz really is the best boy, not only for his kind nature but for being the only decently written character out of the three

i get that superhero comics allows for different characterizations and the webtoon is continuing that tradition

doesn't mean i like what's happened to most of the characters

it's just........it's been really disappointing reading this webtoon

and i honestly feel bad for those who've spent hard earned coins unlocking any of this webtoon's fastpass eps

verdict: am i gonna drop this sooner than i thought? likely so

unfortunately for me i am a stubborn masochist of a stan so i'll be testing how long i can hold on just out of love for these characters 🥴🥴🥴

[anonanimal]

ok fine i'm starting on suck session s4. cumulative liveblog under the readmore

love love loveeee how we start with a meeting with the slightly more normal people presenting the branding options and roman does not care. the siblings arrive and the laptop lid gets shut and we're fully back in Their World

"here's what you have to understand. i've smoked horse"

logan's birthday party and he does not care. has all joy really fled from him? incredible

"i'm a cousin i get a plus-one i'm an honorary kid" shut the fuucckkk uupppp he's WHINING greg immediately on my shitlist

"marcia's in milan, shopping. forever" lines of dialogue to make people post 'god i wish that were me' and also make me wish marcia were here.

is tom really asking logan if he'll still be his special boy if he and shiv get divorced? hard to tell because he's having mouth diarrhea but he IS. ok he finally got to the point.

logan walking out of his own birthday party with our favorite somewhat scary goon to go to a restaurant. contemplating mortality. tells colin he's his best pal but logan roy doesn't know what a pal is anymore, colin gives short noncommittal answers because he knows better than to say anything else. volunteers one bit of personal info and logan steamrolls along. logan doesn't really want a pal. or can't be a pal even if he wants to. turned completely inward. he's going to die. even if they don't actually kill him during season four my headcanon is that his days are numbered. sorry for saying fandom terminology such as headcanon but i mean it's the word for what i mean isn't it

the way tom says "oh greg" mattmac did not have to let his voice go that deep. or maybe he did.

"karl do you have any jokes?" "frank, start. be funny." SCREAM

"who wants to smell greg's finger?" SCREAM

REFERENCE TO GREG'S GAY DAD

"congratulations on saying the biggest number you fucking morons" SCREAM this can't possibly work out for them. i love the three of them together as always though. like when they delay their meeting to ask shiv if she's ok. in their sibling relationship there's genuine love that hasn't yet been eroded.

i don't even know what to say about the shiv and tom scene i'd just be quoting the whole thing. they're so ridiculous. and sad.

aaand logan last scene. watching atn and calls a subordinate to yell at them. sad old man.

[badboyportrait]

[Image ID:

A post from girlroach on Tumblr that says "Gripping my bathroom sink repeating I am not afraid to keep on living I am not afraid to work this world alone"

Lyrics from You're On Your Own, Kid by Taylor Swift: "You've got no reason to be afraid/You're on your own, kid /Yeah, you can face this/You're on your own, kid/You always have been"

Lyrics from Matilda by Harry Styles: "You can see the world, following the seasons/Anywhere you go, you don't need a reason /'Cause they never showed you love/You don't have to be sorry for doing it on your own" (last line highlighted in blue)

Artwork of a pale-skinned person in a bathtub of stars, with only their head and hand visible. They're holding a cigarette. Handwritten text next to their head says: "FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MANY MONTHS I WASN'T AFRAID TO ADMIT I WALK THIS WORLD ALONE..."

Lyrics from Graceland, Too by Phoebe Bridgers: "No longer a danger to herself or others/She made up her mind and laced up her shoes/Yelled down the hall but nobody answered/So she walked outside without an excuse/She could do anything she wants to/She could do whatever she wants to do"

Quote from James Baldwin: "It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I'd be taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here."

Post by guooey on Tumblr: "Constantly repeating to myself 'you are not broken you are young and learning how to live' during everything I do everywhere I go all the time"

Lyrics from Liability by Lorde: "So I guess I'll go home/Into the arms of the girl that I love/The only love I haven't screwed up/She's so hard to please, but she's a forest fire I do my best to meet her demands, play at romance, we slow dance/In the living room, but all that a stranger would see/Is one girl swaying alone, stroking her cheek"

Lyrics from It's Time To Go by Taylor Swift, highlighted in grey: "He's got my past frozen behind glass/But I've got me"

Text: "Where can my heart find peace if not in me?"

Anonymous said: I haven't written a love letter since. veinings said: Write one for yourself

Words from Take Me With You, Andrea Gibson: "COMMIT TO LOVING YOURSELF COMPLETELY. IT'S THE MOST RADICAL THING YOU WILL DO IN YOUR LIFETIME."

Words: "Sometimes you need to remind yourself that you were the one who carried you through the heartache. You are the one who sits with the cold body on the shower floor, and picks it up. You are the one who feeds it, who clothes it, who tucks it into bed, and you should be proud of that. Having the strength to take care of yourself when everyone around you is trying to bleed you dry, that is the strongest thing in the universe." (last sentence highlighted in yellow)

Post by babyspicegf: "its really comforting to know that all the times i was at my lowest and loneliest in the past the whole time i had my self in the future and present who had survived those things looking back with love and tenderness and wishing desperately to offer comfort…i am my own guardian angel and i can use that knowledge when im struggling now and remember that somewhere there is a version of me that has survived this and is watching me with love and pride and joy in her heart"

A blurry picture of running horses. Over it, text says "it is with blind faith i believe i am worthy"

Words by I.B. Vyache: "It's time to forgive my hands for being hands. I'm going to hate myself a little less tomorrow. I'm going to hate myself a little less tomorrow."

End ID.]

on self love

@girlroach // you're on your own, kid, taylor swift// mathilda, harry styles// ?// graceland too, phoebe bridgers// james baldwin// @guooey // liability, lorde// it's time to go, taylor swift// ?// @veinings// take me with you, andrea gibson// ?// @ babyspicegf // ?// i.b vyache

[jameui]

SADDEST AND BEST LINES I'VE WRITTEN IN MY WORKS

"I am without a family, sir, so I'd be much willing to sacrifice myself in order to keep San from going through the same life torture I'm suffering in." (SAID BY Y/N, IN AN UNRELEASED WORK)

----

"I don't scream. I don't yell. I don't cry. You won't ever see it, but I'm dying inside." (BY Y/N)

----

"You never know when you need someone unless you lose them. You never know when you love someone unless they leave you. It's not a simple logic. Anyone can suffer through the same thing if we're too careless." (NO SPECIFIC IDOL, BUT FROM ANOTHER UNRELEASED FIC)

----

"Simple. Happily ever after, it is not about how everything eventually ends, it is about the time spent being happy with the person you hold dearest in your heart. Dear one. Happily ever after ends in a story, but in a life outside of this unreal fantasies, it's forever. Everlasting." (TAEHYUNG, CURSE, UNRELEASED FIC)

----

"I'm afraid I haven't been much help to the group, since the start. I feel like I'm just a burden." (BY Y/N, 'SHOCK', UNRELEASED FIC)

----

"M/n-ah. Listen, love is a complicated matter to ponder, but it's up to you to decide whether or not you'll make it more hard on yourself than it already is or find ways to carve your way through a thick forest." (BEOMGYU, MY LITTLE BUDY, UNRELEASED FIC)

----

"T-T-Take care, m-my sunshine." (SUNDROP, MY LITTLE SUNSHINE)

----

"YOU never felt useless because you were the person who got all the acknowledgement, praises, and credits even when in the first place it was never your hardwork." (SUNOO, ANTI-HERO)

----

"I don't want to leave you, M/n, so please keep me inside your heart." (JUNGWON, SWEET DREAMS, UNRELEASED FIC)

----

"And you deserve a life worth of karma. Asshole." (Y/N, BEGIN AGAIN)

----

Dearest M/n,

Unfortunately, I am still having difficulties learning to understand the culture you and your people live with, so while I write this letter I am still in wonder whether you see me or not. As you read, are you able to see a projection of me? I give you my full permission to laugh as boisterous as possible, but I also have yet to learn the difference between a letter and the letters. It's quite confusing, yet fun in my perspective knowing there are two of the same exact words, but different in purpose and use.

These are only half of the untold truth I want to tell you, my celeste, but I am running out of parchment to write this on and I fear I no longer have that much time to be able to finish this letter, but there is this paragraph in a book that I have recently read and it is better said than left, so as I finish this letter, bidding you my sweetest and final farewell, I, Sim Jaeyun, an Eternal wants to deliver my first and last speech.

'Your beauty blossoms compared to that of a flower during the season of spring; I never want to say goodbye to you. Your eyes like a pool under the summer skies; If I dive in, I might never be able to get out. Your heart as warm as the fireplace when it's cold during the winter and your love never fades away until fall, but continues on to forever.'

My dearest, beautiful, celeste. My only star. I love you and I always will. Forevermore. (THE LETTER OF JAEYUN, CELESTE)

----

"I really don't want much, Heeseung. I just want you to repay for the damage you have done to my mother." (Y/N, CORRUPTION)

----

"But, M/n. You don't have to be anyone you're not. You're special as you are. You don't have to prove something to them." (JAEYUN, LOVE, UNRELEASED FIC)

[laf-outloud]

//The thing I always notice about these AA's who jump in and are like "We don't just like him for his looks!!!" is thats all they ever say. They never elaborate, they just make sure to yell about how that's not all they care about ... Its always just "we like him/them for more than their looks!!" and then silence. zero follow-up.//

Not the anon from before, but come on now. There are a million things to like about Jensen, and no one is required to make a list of why they like him. Most people are probably just too lazy to type it all out.

But since I have the time right now, here's my reasons why I like him (and I imagine most people you accuse of not having good reasons to like him apart from his looks would have similar lists):

- he's genuinely kind (stated many, many times by his friends, large numbers of people who have worked with him, including people like make-up artists etc and not just the ones actively trying to promote a show. also experienced that for myself firsthand)

- he's good with kids (observed from afar and experienced that firsthand as well)

- loves animals

- is very professional and hard working according to numerous people

- has a great sense of humor. I absolutely love his dry sense of humor and he always manages to make me laugh during panels and so on

- his great comedic timing

- his impeccable behavior towards female actor colleagues and women in general, hence why he was one of the very few male actors who had positive stories shared about him by various women during "me too"

- his acting skills and style of acting. jensen always manages to bring the emotions out of me, something which only very few actors can

- his singing and his voice. he's a good singer and song writer; I really enjoy listening to jensen's voice and his and steve's music

-  his fashion sense and style choices

-  his generousity, which has also been described by numerous people

- his goofy, playful side, which is always a joy to watch when it comes out

- the gentle and caring way he interacts with his friends, like jared, rob or jdm (and also nervous fans, children, ...)

- his views and opinions on various issues, which I share/agree with

- the thoughtful, interesting and in-depth answers he gives to good questions during cons

- various small details and idiosyncracies you start to notice about a person with time, like the endearing way jensen bites his tongue when he's genuinely happy/laughing, for example

- how he creates postive, comfortable environments for the people he works with

- how he is always the person that people rely on during crises/emergencies and who manages to keep calm and take appropriate actions (as told in various stories by jared, misha, rob...)

- that he actually knows his way around cars and is a good handymen

- the numerous moving and heart-warming stories I've read from fans (and other people) about jensen over the years

- the sensitivity and vulnerability underneath the mask that he doesn't always manage to hide

- his oft remarked-upon patience

- how he elevated the character of dean way beyond what he was originally intended to be and crafted him into one of my favorite fictional characters of all time

... and I could go on, but this is already too long. The man has tons of qualities that I can admire and appreciate or find endearing. Jared is not the one-dimensional villain hellers paint him as, but Jensen is also not the one-dimensial asshole Jared stans paint him as.

I've been in this fandom since season 3, and if there's one thing I know for certain it's that both Jensen and Jared are pretty damn great guys, and I'd count myself lucky if even a fraction of the men around me were as decent as they are.

Never fails. The Jensen defense squad strikes again. You know, you could just block certain tags, block my blog and avoid my blog entirely if you don't agree with or like the opinions shared on my blog, either by myself, or my anons.

I appreciate that you sort of , tried to, remain respectful (though there's enough aggressive language that I'm not convinced). I may not agree with all of your points, but I do know that people are not one-dimensional. And personally, I don't think Jared fans paint Jensen that way because I feel there are a lot of legitimate criticisms, particularly regarding his actions and words this past year, but I have a feeling on that point we're going to have to agree to disagree. (And if you happen to read more of my blog, you'll see that there are times I've defended him as well from overzealous fans.)

[mochisquish]

Hi! Firstly, I just want to say, I love your cobra husbands content! Glad to know I’m not alone in shipping them😭😭

I was wondering what are some of the things you’d like to see with Terry and Kreese in the next season of Cobra Kai? Do you have any head canons or moments you’ve hoped for when they interact with each other? 💕

Thank you so much! You're definitely not alone. I think we have a good little therapy group on this website, lmao.

I feel my wishlist isn't that crazy, but here we go. I'll try to keep it realistic, because if it was up to me, they'd get some good terrorizing in before eloping to Tahiti.

----

Kreese finally moving in with Terry. The second Terry finds out about Kreese's living conditions, he needs to force him into his house. I feel especially strongly about this one, not just because of their relationship, but because the show loves call-backs, and this scene is waiting to come full circle. It makes too much sense.

Terry picking up where he left off and constantly trying to give Kreese gifts, and Kreese thinking up new and inventive ways to avoid them. At one point, Kreese pulls out a box full of iPhones he refuses to use, and lets all his students take one. After the kids break into absolute jubilation, he makes them kick through the screens during an exercise.

Earnest conversations that have nothing to do with war or karate. Them being together is a good opportunity for the audience to hear real honesty, and understand their characters on a deeper level. When Kreese speaks to Johnny, it's always half truth and half lie, and obviously Terry is manipulative. I don't think we can get their true story unless they're talking to each other. Neither can be vulnerable unless they're with each other.

When Kreese calls Terry at the end of season 3, he says "Been a long time," which surprised me. Kreese's self-worth seems tied to his achievements, and if they haven't spoken for a while, it's probably because he was destitute and felt he had nothing to be proud of. I'd like to see them discuss that as friends, and for Kreese to finally understand that Terry loves him no matter what.

On the same note, they need more moments similar to the Vietnam hug, so that kind of intimacy feels like part of their dynamic and not a one-off. It would be cheap if they had that tender moment and then never had one again because they were suddenly too manly. The entire dichotomy of two evil men who hurt other people but are soft with each other is fascinating and I'm obsessed with it.

The CK students and Johnny witnessing their obsessive bond. I want Terry to enter the dojo every day yelling, "HERE HE IS, THE GREATEST KARATE MAN I'VE EVER KNOWN," while rubbing Kreese's shoulders. Their relationship should be hypocritical to all the hyper-masculine ideologies Kreese rams down his students' throats. I want those kids to feel like they're trapped in a clown car that's on fire. I want Johnny to spend days asking, "What the fuck is happening," and every time Daniel tries to explain it, he looks right through him like he's seeing God. I want other characters to have a REACTION to their relationship, because Kreese is a completely different person around Terry.

I want an explanation for this ring:

It's the only jewelry Kreese wears, and he never takes it off, even during training. It's not the same ring, but it's a similar style to one Terry wears in TKK3. Did they buy the rings together? Is the ring significant? Is Kreese just a fashionista now? Did I make all this up in my mind?

I could come up with some more specific scenarios, but mostly, I want their relationship to keep the energy of TKK3: Loyal, obsessive, unhinged, selfless, sweet.

[lightcomingthroughthedarkness]

hey, would you mind sharing what kind of spoilers for the new season are already out there (other than clarke/gaia apparently) that the previous anon mentionend? or do you have a link where i can look them up myself? i personally do not plan on watching, but for some dumb reason i still get really upset when i hear about stuff that is happening on this show, so i'd like to prepare myself.

This is basically what I got but please don't @ me if I get some of it wrong. I don't have the screenshots right now. And don't get all pissy with me about spoilers. If you don't want to see them, then don't look here. Episode 7x02 to 7x04 below the cut.

7x02:

Clarke and Bellamy are not in this episode.

We see flashbacks of Octavia and what happened to her in the anomaly. That scene under water, is Octavia swimming up to the surface and arriving at a new planet. Diyoza is already there and is in labor. When Octavia arrived, Diyoza had already been there for 3 months. Octavia helps her give birth to Hope and it's a call back to Bellamy helping Aurora give birth to Octavia.

Octavia, Diyoza and Hope spend 10 years on this planet called Sky Ring (because of a wormhole close by, time moves faster there than it does on Sanctum) Octavia is at that point older than Bellamy was when she went into the anomaly. Octavia tries to get back to Bellamy for 6 years but after disagreements with Diyoza (we see in the trailer) she sort of gives up after a while. Octavia writes Bellamy a letter, telling him that she now understands everything he did for her (as she has helped raise Hope), how she wishes that he is happy etc. Octavia tells Hope about her people, the same way Clarke did with Madi. Octavia promises Hope that she will bring "Clarke, Madi and Bellamy" to Hope (when Octavia tries to leave one of those times) and Hope asks "and Murphy?" And Octavia says "and Murphy".

This planet is also some sort of prison planet that is controlled by the people that control the anomaly. So at some point something happens that separates Octavia, Hope and Diyoza. Hope grows up on Sky Ring but we do not know what happened to Diyoza and Octavia after the second time she disappears in the anomaly. Most likely captured. Hope saw Octavia in 7x01 and that was a memory from their 10 years together that Hope can't remember.

Hope, Echo and Gabriel arrive at the same planet in "current" time. They spend a long time on the Sky Ring. Echo is desperate to save Bellamy but they can't get out. Turns out, there are two prisoners on the planet at different times and they start to make plans to escape and find Bellamy. They find out Bellamy was taken by some people called "the disciples" lead by a man named Anders. Echo also finds the letter Octavia left for Bellamy but Hope rips it away from her because she doesn't want Echo to touch Octavia's things.

Basically the episode is Octavia flashbacks and Hope, Echo and Gabriel arriving and trying to find out where they are.

7x03:

Bellamy is still missing.

Sanctum stuff. Clarke and Gaia under the tree as we see in the trailer, Clarke holding Abby's ring. Clarke says she has nothing left from her parents. Gaia says that's not true, you are here. Clarke then buries the ring and Gaia buries the flame. Gaia says "your fight is over" and Clarke says "may we meet again". Indra joins them, they have to deal with Sanctum.

Most of Clarke's one on one scenes are with Gaia in 7x03 and 7x04.

Murphy and Emori are staying in the palace. At some point Raven walks in on them and Murphy jokes about that happening for 6 years now, since they were on the Ring together. Murphy and Emori need to keep pretending to be Primes. Raven needs Emori's help with the reactors on Sanctum because there has been some problems and if they explode everyone will die. (We see that man, James die in the trailer). Basically they all need to fix it.

Tension in Sanctum between all these different groups. Wonkru are angry and want Madi to lead them, not only getting information from Gaia or Indra. Indra goes to get Madi, Clarke and Gaia stop her. Gaia tells Wonkru she destroyed the Flame. Wonkru are now angry and basically go back to their original "krus".

Raven is fed up with Wonkru and turns to Eligius to help with the problem (Eligius are trying to take over Sanctum). Then Raven, Emori and Murphy work on the reactor thing, Emori has to get in and fix shit, she has little time to do that. Murphy and Raven are stressed and when things go bad Raven yells at her to "get out of there" (trailer). Emori and Murphy get radiation sickness. Raven does not. Because of the radiation, Eligius are not safe and some of them die. Raven finds herself in Clarke's shoes so to speak, people dying in her "care". Murphy says something about welcoming Raven to "the grey world". One who dies is Hatch, his wife Nikki is not happy and attacks Raven. Raven thinks she deserves it for causing their deaths.

Clarke is still dealing with Russell, to kill him or not. She and Gaia sit on the porch, talking (trailer). Finally after their talk, Clarke decides not to kill Russell because things will get worse if she kills him.

7x04:

We see young Hope living alone after Octavia and Diyoza disappeared. She has learned to take care of herself. The anomaly comes back and she runs towards it. People come out of the anomaly. They are prisoners sent to Sky Ring to atone for their sins. Hope fights back but then later becomes friends with one prisoner. Hope learns how to fight from him so she can fight back the next time the anomaly comes back. At the time, Hope is 10 years old. Hope grows up and the anomaly comes back. The prisoner, her friend helps her so she can get into the anomaly but by doing so, he dies for her.

Back to Echo, Hope and Gabriel in their time on Sky Ring. The prisoners have some sort of chip/memory thing in them. It goes back to Becca and pre-end of the world stuff. If you access the memory chip thingy, you get information from people. Even if they die and have that thing in them, you can still get information. That's how the anomaly people find out stuff about people.

Back on Sanctum. One of the people Echo killed in 7x01 is found in the woods and brought to Clarke. Jordan then tells Clarke there are people (the disciples) on Sanctum and have asked for Clarke. Clarke goes to meet with them (trailer) but first she wants someone to take a look at the suit they have found. So Clarke goes to Raven. Clarke and Raven have a moment because Raven is upset and feels responsible for Eligius members dying. Clarke helps her process her choices and what that does to them to have to make tough calls.

Clarke goes to meet the people who called for her. It's Anders. Anders says that they are the disciples and need Clarke's help. Anders' - and the disciples' leader believe Clarke is "the key to win the last great war the human race will ever fight. You should know time moves much faster where your friends are, every second counts"

Clarke goes back to Raven who is working on the suit and finds out the anomaly is a wormhole. Raven asks "Bellamy, Octavia and Echo, where are they?"

Back to Echo, Hope and Gabriel. Still stuck on Sky Ring. It's been years. We find out Octavia told Hope greek myths (flashback), like Bellamy did to Octavia when she was a child. Echo is trying to trick the prisoner Orlando so they can get out of there and use the anomaly to get to Bellamy. They find out information about the face tattoos and what it means. Apparently it depends on what level you are as a disciples. Then there's something about the prisoners coming to Sky Ring having some sort of faith or religion. Gabriel talks to Orlando when he sees him praying. They talk about truth, belief faith etc. After a while Orlando and Gabriel, Echo and Hope make a deal to help one another out so they can go through the anomaly when it comes. But only if Echo, Hope and Gabriel promise not to kill the Orlando's family (the disciples) when they come through the anomaly.

Echo has now spent 5 years with these people and she promises that she won't hurt Orlando's people when they arrive. During this time, Echo and Hope have cut their hair, trained to fight and Orlando marks Echo and Hope on their faces with the anomaly signs so they can blend in and get through and around the anomaly. Echo is seen as a loyal person, even to the people she's spent 5 years with on Sky Ring. Then Orlando's "prison time" is up and his people come through the anomaly. Echo has tied Orlando, waiting for what will happen when the people come through. Echo had promised that she would let them live if they got help to get through the anomaly. Echo being Echo kills them all and Hope and Gabriel are shocked. (call back to when Finn killed those grounders in s2). Orlando who has helped them all these years and believed Echo, is horrified and cries when he sees what she has done (man gagged and crying in the trailer). Echo walks up to Orlando, tied and gagged, Hope and Gabriel yell at Echo not to kill him. Echo leaves Orlando with a knife to basically fend for himself. Maybe because she spent 5 years with him 🤷🏻‍♀️. Echo tells Hope and Gabriel that Orlando can't be trusted not to ruin their plan when they get to Bardo because they (Echo, Hope and Gabriel) are not Orlando's people. Hope and Gabriel don't argue and they don't help Orlando. Hope, Echo, Gabriel then leave in the anomaly that has arrived and their goal is Bardo, to get to Bellamy and it is also where Octavia and Diyoza might be. It has now been 5 years since Echo last saw Bellamy. We do not know how time moves for Bellamy.

Clarke and Raven find out there's information about Clarke in the suit they found. The disciples somehow know Clarke is called "Wanheda" because it says so on the suit/helmet. Clarke goes back to Anders and asks to see her friends. Anders tells Clarke they are no longer on "Penance" the real name for Sky Ring and that the prisoner there (Orlando) was betrayed so he killed himself. Clarke, believing Bellamy is there, says that she doesn't believe her friends would betray anyone. Anders does not tell Clarke that Bellamy was not there. Anders says he has proof. Orlando left a note. Clarke says she won't say anything until she gets proof that her friends are alive. Anders says they don't have to give Clarke proof, they already have a machine that taps into people's memories so they already know things about Clarke's friends and Clarke. Who are they getting all these memories from? Octavia? Bellamy? Diyoza? We don't know.

Clarke tells Anders she won't go with him and that she has friends with her. Anders says he also has friends with him, invisible like in 7x01, they appear. Apparently they can go into "ghost mode" like putting an Iphone on silence, lol. Then Jordan comes up, Clarke gets angry that he is there but turns out he is a distraction. Ander's friends are shot. Then Raven appears with her suit in ghost mode. Raven is yet again forced to kill people. She is upset. But they go to the anomaly stone (trailer). They don't know where it goes, what happens there etc. When they start to walk into the anomaly stone, Gaia tells Clarke she will stay behind with Madi. Raven, Clarke, Niylah, Miller and Jordan go (jump team). Gaia climbs up from the anomaly stone cave but is attacked by a disciples person in ghost mode. When Gaia wakes up, the disciple person is taking the anomaly stone offline (whatever that means) and she tries to fight them again but she is pulled through the anonaly and disappears. The anomaly stone collapses.

The jump team arrive at a snowy and windy planet. There is nothing there. They don't know how to survive or how fast time moves there. And they have no idea how to find another anomaly stone so they are stuck there. Episode ends.