#if they were going into 6b thinking they were getting cancelled

[kodzuken]

.

[lover-of-mine]

Low key on Oliver and Ryan. Since we know they watch us. I think he was offended at people turning on Ryan. Sure they probably don't have scripts yet but they know the direction and were probably already told you know? It's why he never promoted the pairing or followed Lou. Especially when the other side made the attacks on Ryan so personal. It's a double offense really. They built this ship. Do you think Oliver is cool getting all the accolades and leaving Ryan behind for a wal mart version of Eddie??? Just know the other side, Oliver is judging you!!

That's my Roman Empire 😂

Full conspiracy theory, but I keep saying Ryan has known where it's going and that's why he was locked into pr jail, and Oliver was just brought into the inner circle and that's why he looks so frustrated, but here's the thing, Oliver and Ryan know what they have in their hands when it comes to the impact buddie could have, there's no way they don't, and obviously, they would want that, the amount of exposure they could get from this is insane, and Oliver seems annoyed, just look at the way he refuses to talk about bt long or like you said, didn't follow Lou, or the absolute insanity of opening his Instagram after 710 just to like a video of the thumb thing and nothing else. Realistically dude is probably frustrated that Buck being bi stopped being about Buck, trapped him in a ship war and made people turn on the thing they've been working on for yeaaaaars and the way Lou was encouraging it probably didn't help. I don't blame Lou for capitalizing, if people wanted to pay me 145 dollars to talk out of my ass about a ship I would be doing it too, hell, I'm running this blog for free kapakapka. But my thing is, the plan was Eddie going first and that got switched mid production, so, again conspiracy theory, my thought process here is that Oliver and Ryan were told "okay abc is cool with it, we're pulling the trigger" because that would explain the way they were acting that week leading up to the season premiering, the way Ryan was just saying shit and Oliver was in a perpetual state of blushing, but then T was better received than expected and the showrunners decided to capitalize on that for longer than anticipated, because looking at it from a business perspective, they already had s8 confirmed and they are probably expecting the same level of exposure they got from Buck being bi to come from Eddie being queer, especially because Eddie being queer means buddie going canon, so delaying Eddie's arc because they want to make the most of the publicity makes sense (rip Eddie confirmed queer by family feud, we will make it true, I promise), it would explain why Ryan changed his tune during the promo for 707 and 709, but switch back after 710 and it would also explain why Buck was pushed to the background during that space too. Tim keeps saying he doesn't have a plan, while I do believe he doesn't have the exact plot, I REFUSE to believe someone can manage to setup a love story like buddie accidentally and just going with the flow. A show is a living organism in a way a book or a movie won't be because it needs to adjust to the circumstances in which it's airing, but I cannot believe they don't have some sort of outline with the ideas they want to give, the general way they want to get there and the endgame of the situation. And I've been saying this since s6 and the very blatant switch in tone with Buck and Eddie in 6b when they thought they were gonna get cancelled that they promptly pretended wasn't there once s7 started. If I, a girl with a blog in the middle of nowhere Brazil getting absolutely nothing out of it, can see that buddie can accomplish something that doesn't exist in media, there isn't a slow burn queer relationship where both characters were not introduced as queer that go through so much together they can't help but falling in love in a media that isn't about queer themes, hell, I can't think of one from something about queer themes, you think people who have been working on this for years can't see it too? Come on, Oliver knows that Buck ending up with walmart Eddie is worst case scenario when compared to the thing he could have if buddie goes canon. And Ryan is his friend, Buck is this thing he pours his soul into, of course he will want the best possible thing there. He so is judging the other side. Dude admitted to crying in the shower to buddie edits. They read fanfiction. Like, come oooooon, they are driving the clown car, cocaptains of the ship.

[outrunningthedark]

I fully believe the plan was to go with Buck fathering the sperm donor baby in some way whether that was get Connor out of the picture or something else

Yeah, tbh, I never bought into the Buck/Kameron thing for season six - one, because I initially didn't think the sperm donor arc was gonna last literally ALL season and then (secondly) by the time 6B came around those of us who had taken the Buddie Blinders off were ready for the death doula spoiler to lead to some sort of relationship.

But knowing what we know now about the high probability of cancellation that Kristen & her team were obviously prepared for (hence the thrown together 'happy endings' for the two single guys)...who really knows, right? Natalia may not have ever been an option had Kristen believed she had more time (more seasons) to develop Buck and Kameron at a pace that wouldn't feel rushed or disrespectful to Kameron's relationship with her husband. Now with Tim in charge again and canon Bi Buck with a boyfriend...sperm donor arc can still come up one day - it's drama Tim's keeping in his back pocket in case of emergency, lol - just not for the purpose of making Kameron a permanent fixture in Buck's life.

[cinematics123]

So… there is a lot. And I will probably save some of it for a more focused/personal Buddie post.

First, if you were on the Buddie train (and I am) you were not wrong. Secondly, despite no Buddie, this was an excellent finale. Even the pacing was mostly on point. It was… good tv. If they were going to get cancelled (and they thought they were) this was the canon ending. We’ll call this CanonA. Let’s look at the CanonA ending.

For many of our mains, the firefam, it’s a good ending. Bobby and Athena are both healthy and get their cruise. Maddie and Chimney are planning their legal escape from the IRS wedding.

Hen and Karen story picked back up a thread about a baby, which is very interesting, but… we didn’t really get anything else on Denny and his Dad? Is that story line… done? Are they ok? It seemed like there was more conflict because of how the hospital scene let Nathaniel in but with some real distrust. It feels like they dropped one (meaningful) thread to grasp at another. It’s good, but not great.

Buck’s ending is more mixed; Eddie’s is downright tragic. Buck’s CanonA ending is that he got close to the answer and got the wrong one. Any wonder that his math power crapped out on a date with Natalia? People have said that growth in the show is non-linear. People don’t always learn, people don’t always grow. Buck makes the same couch mistake he did with Taylor. In CanonA, Buck may never know how close he got to that special ending. Instead in CanonA, instead of finding happiness, he goes down the Lev path from 6A. Happy-ish. Girlfriend, maybe kids, life gets busy, maybe finding the meaning at the end. Not bad, but not what “The Age of Absolutely” was about either.

Eddie’s is… tragic. We’ve gotten trickles of Eddie’s real story, but 6B confirmed so much fandom speculation. Though he had met Shannon before, they got together senior year, right into kids and marriage - and Eddie runs away for at least 2 deployments. He bails. He later dates Ana, sees the ready made family - and breaks up with her. He is putting wanting a wife and mother over his heart - that’s canon.

Eddie fawning over Buck in the poker scene and all of 6B is equally canon. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I believe their last deep talk together is… about how Natalia sees Buck. Eddie says the experience had to have changed Buck. Not only does he see Buck… but implies something has changed between him and Buck. With Nat and Buck dating, Eddie rushes to find anyone to date - and basically ends up with Ana2 (instead of Chris’ teacher, she helps him find glue for his project).

It seems like… Eddie’s realized that while he sees Buck, Buck… doesn’t see him. And Buck is not seeing Eddie in that scene. In a kind of parallel to “Buck is in the room”, Eddie needs Buck there too… but this time Buck goes the other way and Eddie doesn’t say a word. Instead, Buck goes… and Eddie goes back to his heteronormative fantasy. Despite saying he wants to get better “for me” he’s after a wife and mother for Chris, Chris is even there with him on the date phone call. It’s not just lack of progress, Eddie got to the very threshold of opening himself to Buck - if only admitting it to himself. Instead back into the closet. That’s Eddie’s CanonA ending. It’s grim. It doesn’t “get better” for Eddie. He gets to the edge and chickens out.

If you think you were misled that Buddie was a romantic plot, you’re right. When looking at our firefam, Buck and Eddie were constantly paired alongside the other couples. We didn’t just see them through a romantic lens, that was how they were presented. In the CanonA ending, there is not even a last scene with Buck and Eddie tighter as friends, it’s Buck&Nat and Eddie/Chris talking to Marisol. The pairing of the two as a couple/family is broken. In itself, that’s sad. Them laughing over beers or Buck being there encouraging Eddie on while he talked would not have broken the “coupling” lens. They deliberately chose to do so.

So much like how Eddie reaches the point of understanding only to hesitate and withdraw back into heteronormativity, so does 911 on Fox. It clearly got to the point of understanding Buddie as a couple, presenting Buddifer as a family, and then… pulls back and gives them last minute female love interests. Like Eddie, it chickens out and loses out on giving Buddie CanonA happy ending. Instead what it gave then was… realistic and everyday bad relationships. They got close, but in a case of life imitating art, like Eddie it settles for being convention and traditional at the expense of its own growth and happiness. I hope 911 on ABC does them better.

[woodchoc-magnum]

other thoughts under the cut containing negativity and disappointment so don't read if you don't want that

look i knew last week that they were gonna pull some bullshit

and while i'm glad they didn't shoehorn buck and eddie going canon into the last episode of the season or end it on a cliffhanger, i am not thrilled about the enforced hetero love interests

and i get it, it's a happy ending to wrap everything up because they thought they might be cancelled, but still. it sucks.

you can spin it however you want, but it sucks. after the promising way 6b started? this is a fucking bitter pill to swallow, let me tell you.

and yeah i think buck did show some real growth this season, taking charge of the emergency in this episode and when kameron gave birth, but one area he hasn't shown any growth in is his love life

and sure maybe we'll start season 7 with them breaking up, or already broken up, but like... how long are we going to keep doing this? finding reasons to keep buck and eddie apart?

I'm just tired of it. The hiatus is welcome. Hopefully moving to ABC sets a fire under the writers and they write an amazing season 7 - I really, really hope that it's the shot of life this show needs.

And i also think that it's okay to be disappointed, and it's okay to lose faith, and it's okay to feel a little cheated. I confess i skipped buck and natalia's scenes because i. do not. care.

at the end of the day i think they squandered an amazing opportunity to build up to buddie canon this season, and i have no idea at this point if it's even in the cards anymore. I think that's the thing that disappoints me the most.

anyway

i'm still writing fic so don't worry about that, if the writers aren't going to give me my goddamn happy ending I WILL FUCKING WRITE IT MYSELF A THOUSAND TIMES IF I HAVE TO

[littlerosetrove]

I’m looking back through and thinking about past posts and whatnot from 6A, and I’m not misremembering. Plenty of people were taking what they were seeing on screen and - yes, perhaps some of their hopes were a bit strong and clouded their and my own judgement a bit - predicting and believing things like this would happen in 6B:

- Buddie would, still in some fashion, go canon. At the very least lay solid groundwork to raise it above subtext.  - Buck would have some kind of breakdown, particularly in terms over the sperm donation.  - Chris, since he’s growing older, would have some opinions and thoughts about the Buck and Eddie of it all.  - Bobby may have a breakdown of some kind, because there were subtle hints in 6A he’s not fully okay. - Chimney would have his own story, a bit more separate from Maddie.

And we didn’t get any of that. 

I know. I know the cancelation played into things, but my goodness....

- Buck and Eddie were, at the last minute, paired off with women.  - 6B did - I still think, though I’ve only watched 6A once - a sharp turn in Buck being “nah I’m good” about the sperm donation. Hell, I remember even at the end of season 5, plenty of us were thinking, “Okay, Buck is due for a breakdown in season 6, given everything that happened in season 5.” And yet....... - We barely got anything with Chris, which isn’t particularly unusual, but damn. Missed opportunities.  - Nope, Bobby’s fine. Which... is okay, but idk. I think the Wendall of it all was the story and exploration for Bobby and his continued sobriety, which I felt was weirdly handled because of the timeline. The timeline that Wendall has been, retrospectively, important for years. Oops. - No singular story for Chimney, or Maddie for that matter. Their story was scattered and in some parts rushed in season 6. But Chimney’s character tends to get sidelined like this, let’s be honest. 

[theblondegoesabroad]

Day 413,414, 415

Saturday 20th March, Sunday 21st March, Monday 22nd March 2021

Where to start. What a weekend we have had! Since our plans to head to fountainebleau got cancelled due to the strict lockdown in France, Benoit and I changed our plans and instead headed to Berdorf, a climbing spot, closer to home. Still a two hours drive, but a climbing spot none the less. Saturday morning after a early tea in bed, we had breakfast at then got on the road. We arrived at Berdorf around 10am, and were climbing by 10.30. It was a big first day climbing, the temperatures were crazily low, the rock was freezing but we had a lot of fun. The first day, Benoit and I climbed the same routes, all on lead climbing. I like going to Berdorf as the routes are so well bolted, there is pretty much a bolt every meter, so even when you are climbing really hard routes, it is not to scary climbing them on lead. I really enjoyed myself. For our first day, there was a bit of sunshine, and even though my fingers were constantly frozen we had a good time. It was crazy climbing with numb hands, as usually you climb a lot based on sensations, and what your fingers are feeling, but when you cant feel anything, you grip on and pray that you don’t slip. At least with the cold temperatures, you stick on a bit better than when it is too hot! After a few routes (both easy and hard, I think we climbed a few 6bs/6cs – which is hard for me and I was happy I lead climbed them) under our belts for the day, we scouted out some projects for the next day, and then make the most of the afternoon to explore Berdorf a bit more. There is a huge forest all around us, and generally when we are only there for two days, we spend our whole time looking at the rock in front of us and no time exploring the rest of the forest, so for the last hours of the sunshine, we packed up our climbing gear and went for a walk. It was lovely, the forest has incredibly rock formations and we enjoyed checking them out. Then at 6, we headed into town to the only takeaway restaurant and bought a pizza each. The hot food was exactly what we felt like and we watched the sunset while eating dinner. A good end to our first day. Then into the van to warm up and blob for the evening, until it became a respectable hour to fall asleep!

It was a pretty rough night, it was freezing, and although we have our super warm duvet, it is still March and not really camping season. We woke up to a balmy -2 degrees and wow, it was hard to get motived for our second climbing day. To start the day easily, we decided to head to the supermarket and grab the supplies for dinner. We decided to have a BBQ and salad so grabbed a few things this morning. Since it is so cold, at least there is no need to try and conserve things! On our way back, we decided to go for a little walk in an area nearby. Once again it was stunning and neat to see another part of the forest. Then back to the climbing spot. And wow, today was a big day, we pretty much only climbed hard routes, 6cs, 7a and 7a+, I was really proud of myself as it was just at the top of my level and I actually climbed pretty well, numb hands, toes and all. Benoit to finish off his day climbed a 7c that he has been working on, and it went really well. A good way to finish off the day, we deserved our beers at the end that was for sure! After our big day of climbing, we headed back to the picnic area, and started a fire before having nibbles and a drink. It was pretty chilly so once again, we had a pretty early dinner, but this time next to the fire. We made a yummy Greek salad, and benoit cooked sausages and potatoes on the BBQ. Another lovely night camping, and then back to the van to snuggle up and keep warm for the night.

Monday, wow today was hard, after two days of intense climbing on my part, I was knackered, I think the constant cold and the big days out doors really wore me out. So this morning I was low on motivation. Luckily I had Benoit to rally me along. After a lovely breakfast in the freezing cold we decided to head out for another walk and discover a bit more of the area. We found some really neat caves, that were mined for milling stones, using a technique where they drill wood into the rock face, then eventually the wood swells up and due to the pressure causes the rock to break, pretty crazy, and the patterns left on the stone are incredible. It was neat to see and the forest was stunning. The rock formations all around really make you wonder! Then back to the climbing spot, Benoit started and then had a toilet break, while I was waiting for him I checked my phone and heard that one of my host dads had passed away. It really hit me hard as I have been meaning to go visit them in Angers ever since I came to Europe but with covid and constant lockdowns, I never got the time. It was just a bit too tough to handle, so we decided to head home. Climbing is such a mental sport and if you are not thinking clearly, it isn’t fun for anyone, so we called it a day and hit the road. We stopped off at a few spots to check out the views and look around but by 3pm we were home, unpacked and finally having a nice hot shower. Wow it felt good to relax in the heat! The rest of the afternoon, we did washing etc, and now I am writing my blog! Ready to get back to work tomorrow!

Love Kate xxxxx

One: long weekends away, having Monday off from work, really made the weekend feel like a holiday, we were able to spend two nights away and it was great. A really treat Two: The cold, although I spent most of the weekend freezing, it made getting back to warmth and hot water all the more rewarding Three: Benoit, for introducing me to the sport of climbing, for pushing me to my limits, for helping me get through barriers, for motivating me and for spending a super weekend together! It was bliss!

[purplepints]

1/4 I think the lack of Derek and Stiles in Season 6 was the main reason Teen Wolf got cancelled. That, and the fact that people didn’t care about Scott and the newbies enough to watch a Season entirely focused on them and in which Tyler Posey got all the unadulterated screen-time without other actors ‘stealing’ his spotlight for once. Scott McCall may be the main character of an ensemble teen show, but he’s definitely not its main draw.

All 4 parts of your Ask together, Anon —

1/4 I think the lack of Derek and Stiles in Season 6 was the main reason Teen Wolf got cancelled. That, and the fact that people didn’t care about Scott and the newbies enough to watch a Season entirely focused on them and in which Tyler Posey got all the unadulterated screen-time without other actors ‘stealing’ his spotlight for once. Scott McCall may be the main character of an ensemble teen show, but he’s definitely not its main draw.

2/4 The Teen Wolf writers knew this; the producers knew this; the actors knew this; the critics knew this; EVERYONE knew this. That’s why Jeff and Posey tried to bait viewers into watching season 6 using Dylan O’Brien’s name and rising star status and promised them lots of Stiles screen-time even though they knew Dylan was unavailable due to conflicting work schedules and that Stiles had only a bunch of scenes and a very limited role throughout the whole season.

3/4 The result? Viewers saw right through their bullshit and stopped watching as soon as they realized that the fan favorites were barely in it. (The ultimate bait was begging Tyler Hoechlin and Dylan O’Brien to come back for one last cameo in the finale, though.)

4/4 It’s not a coincidence that season 3B, the Stiles-centric season, is the highest rated and most critically acclaimed Teen Wolf season ever and that the ratings started tanking in Season 4, when the show writers and producers chose to destroy and sideline every single character – especially the fan favorites – and decreased their screen-time in order to bring the focus back on Scott.

* _ * _ * _ * _ * _ * _ * _ *

Pints says:

TW started keeping Derek and Stiles apart in S3b. S4 was a whole ass mess, S5 failed to regain momentum and S6 was the nigh inevitable result of years of letting things skate. S1-S3 felt more like an honest progression of a show getting its legs under itself, which isn't too odd. A lot of shows have okay-to-good opening seasons then hit their stride, and a lot of stuff people griped about in S1-S2 seemed to be smoothing out. It was also early enough with few episodes that I'm sure lots of viewers expected the show to come back around and touch on some of the things mentioned previously. I think by the end of S3 (S3b, specifically) people had started to cotton on to the fact that some things were just not going to be revisited or explained. By the time S4 rolled around, we'd lost Gage, Sinqua, Crystal, Daniel, Max, Charlie and even Keahu.

During S4, TW seemed to hit a wall and also very obviously started to ignore character growth & experiences in favor of throwing a hundred new things at the audience. It wasn't just the loss of established characters and voices or perspectives, it was that loss coupled with the lack of exploration and growth in the remaining characters storylines. S5 continued that trend, as well as not having Hoechlin (or much of Ian or Seth, who were absent for much of S5 when storytelling could have used them), separating the mains and purposefully using horribly cliche 'miscommunications' to push everything along. Unfortunately, it just worked to push viewers away. By the end of S5, TW had done every single character so dirty that you could reasonably argue they had to be doing it on purpose, because few Productions can or would fuck themselves over to that degree accidentally. I think that's where TW really lost its audience, because even if your faves weren't around or focused on, what was happening didn't make sense. It wasn't just that some characters were gone, it was that a ton more had been shoved in nimbly-pimbly and not developed alongside the remaining cast from previous seasons being under utilized AND again, events that should have been discussed or folded in just got dropped.

S6 came along and used the same playbook as S4 and S5: add in more characters, throw convoluted storyline around, etc. Worse, I personally think it was clear that by this time a lot of the Production was just phoning it in. Nothing the characters were doing in 6B made any sense, and while having Hogan and Wagner back might have been a 'finish where we started' story wrap up, it just fell flat. I also absolutely hate unreliable narrator as a surprise ending simply because it gives the production a stupid easy way to shrug off their gross inconsistencies. It was poorly done and everybody knew it.

Again, the problem with Teen Wolf was the writing and production, not just the actors. I will say that I am old af and enjoy lots of ships, lots of characters and lots of different things, so I don't watch or read things based off of a specific ship or character. I wasn't a big fan of Stalia, I was cool with Stydia, I enjoy Sterek and Steter, it's not a focus issue for me.

You're welcome to check my tags regarding the business/real world side of stuff (#tw biz, #tw schedule) I was using at the time S5/S6 stuff was going on to discuss contracts, actor availability, episodes, etc. If you want to see my slow descent into Facepalmville over S5/S6 you can look at my '#Pints Live' tag for my live blogging.

[phoenixyfriend]

This is all personal drama, so feel free to skip. In fact, please do if you aren’t like... at least a mutual.

Like a good 80% of my internet friends who I vent to about my IRL friends are advising me to just cut all connections, but like:

(Under a cut because I’m publicly airing SO much dirty laundry as part of my grievances but I can’t... not. At this point, I don’t even care if they see. Maybe they’ll figure out how much has gone wrong if they do. It was just going to be a list of why cutting ties is hard, but I ended up venting instead.)

(DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, REBLOG THIS)

1. They still have some of my stuff. 1b. I forgot to add this the first time I wrote the post but they still have my fucking rakija, I want that back at some point, dammit. 2. We have mutual friends (who think there’s still a way to salvage the friendship). 2b. I met almost all of my IRL friends through them, so it would be hard to cut ties with them completely unless I felt like ruining working friendships. 3. They genuinely haven’t realized how angry I actually am. 4. I don’t think ANYONE IRL realizes that I haven’t genuinely, wholeheartedly enjoyed their company in over three years. 5. Seriously, every single time we’ve hung out is me going “maybe it’ll be better THIS time” except no, it never is. 6. I just ended up feeling like the kid in a drama about verbal domestic abuse, who leaves the room and tries to ignore the yelling when “Mom and Dad” fight. 6b. One of them also blamed me for “making” them fight just by being there, which just completes the metaphor. 7. It doesn’t help that they refuse to take me seriously because I’m “the baby of the group” despite the fact that I am, surprisingly, a grown-ass adult. 8. Or that I’ve cried the last few times I hung out with them, and they never acknowledged (or even realized, in some cases) that they hurt me. 9. Keep hyping me up for things and then cancelling last-minute to the point where I no longer believe anything they say, tbh. 9b. I joke inside that this is a friendship that’s built on broken promises and the only reason it’s a joke is that a few promises actually WERE kept! Haha! 9c. Have I mentioned the birthday presents yet? No? Great, let’s do that! They hyped me up for my 21st birthday gifts, and the late 2016/early 2018 holiday gifts and... never actually gave them to me? Which would be fine, but I’m turning 22 in less than two weeks and got back from Japan like ten months ago, so, you know, that’s a thing. Hell, I’d have been fine with no gifts, because I know my friends are all struggling twenty-somethings, but I’ve repeatedly been told they exist and just never??? Fucking??? Ugh, just don’t hype me up for a gift and then act so annoyed when I ask about it that I just give up on ever seeing the damn thing. 9d. This one’s kinda petty, but like... who comes to a graduation party and doesn’t even bring a card? Like I understand not bringing a gift, because broke twenty-somethings, but still. Not even a card, or goddamn chocolate bar. (This one is petty because I did the same thing two years earlier, but in my defense I was still in college, while they’ve had jobs for like two years, and I think had way less warning about the get-together than they did, though that might be wrong.) 10. Lost about $40 of my fabric (it’s being held hostage by one’s family) and planned on never telling me. Ever. They say (according to a mutual friend) that they were hoping I wouldn’t find out so they’d get it back without me ever knowing it had gone missing, but honestly... 11. At least 75% of the issues they’ve had with me in the past are actually probably me having autism. So that’s fun. 11b. Guess who actually suspected she might have autism back in sophomore year, but was “assured” by one of these friends that she clearly didn’t, and then continued to stay in denial about it until like... a month or two ago? Haha. 12. “You can be our financial advisor!” *Proceeds to literally never ask for my advice on things I clearly know more about, and gets angry/annoyed/passive-aggressive when I point out their marketing is flawed* 13. I nearly failed a class because I was in their musical, but hey, that’s fine. 13b. I actually really enjoyed the musical, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was poorly managed and I couldn’t actually practice my main role because nobody bothered to give me an accurate recording of the music I was meant to be dancing to, or a significant amount of time to work with the musician, so I ended up fumbling on stage. 13c. I’d say that I feel used, but I kind of used them back at the beginning, since they introduced me to cosplay and did all the sewing early on? 13d. Granted, when I asked them to teach me to sew so I wouldn’t need to rely on/use them, and could maybe contribute a little in return, they freaked out on me because they were worried they wouldn’t be seen as a useful/worthwhile friend, so after a certain point I can’t even say it was my fault. 13e. I do feel emotionally used, though. For a lot of reasons. That’s not new. 14. Did I mention that I once said I must be good at masking when I’m hurt by something they say/do, since they never noticed, and then got a response of (I’m paraphrasing) “Oh no, you’re really obvious about it, but I was sewing, so I didn’t acknowledge it since you deserved it.” Well, if I haven’t already, there it is. 15. It’s been over a month since I freaked out and left because even my minimum fucking needs weren’t being treated as valid, and neither of them has even acknowledged something is wrong beyond a single tumblr post about how it’s “probably just the paranoia,” let alone apologized. Sorry! It’s not the paranoia! You’ve legitimately just been such assholes that I’m having trouble seeing how we can fix this! For three years! You know for a fact that when someone hurts me, I don’t want to go back to normal while pretending nothing happened. I want a fucking apology that acknowledges what happened, why it hurt, and a promise to try better in the future! You know this because I fucking told you to your faces the last time this happened, when I bit the backs of my hands so much you told me I’d get nerve damage from it while hiding in your bed while you comforting each other in the other room. I put up with your shit for three and a half years and I’m so fucking tired now.

I’m tired. I’m tired of the passive-aggressive bullshit. I’m tired of being treated like a child. I’m tired of getting ignored. I’m tired of being let down. I’m tired of having my hurts ignored. I’m tired of the “it’s all about me!” attitude every time they mess up. I’m tired about my pain never being about me. I’m tired of the sarcastic “Well, I’m sorry” that only goes to show how little they actually want to apologize and how little they think they’re supposed to. I’m tired of being treated like shit, and of being worried every time something goes wrong that I’ll watch them regress into treating each other like shit.

I’m fucking tired.

If you’re an IRL friend you know exactly which friends these are and I’m done pretending nothing is wrong. I’m done pretending to forgive them when they don’t even want to admit that they’ve hurt me. I’m not done crying, obviously, since there are tears running down my face as I write this, but what else is new?

(Do I hate them?)

(...at this point, I really might.)

[thedegenerateasexual]

this used to be on my main, but i wanted it here instead so i could be honest about my rarepair. now with 6B in the ranking here we go:

3B - nogitsune is a truly terrifying villain, the “darkness” in the first few episodes was genuinely frightening, kira and malia, two of my favorite babes, get introduced (THEY SHOULDA BEEN GIRLFRIENDS), derek and chris touch each other like a lot this season and also get handcuffed to a bench together (i could list all their interactios but that'd take awhile...), peter hale gets his finger hacked off, and the end reveal with kate had me fucking #shook (if you didn't watch live you missed out), if we pretend nothing bad happened to allison this season it would be BASICALLY flawless.

4 - my son derek hale got himself a beautiful girlfriend who did not kill anyone later, he got to turn into a real wolf, and he got to scare the hell out of kate argent for once instead of the other way around. bonus combo points: peter gets to be an actual villain again (i hate Good Guy Peter) and also parrish in general Ha Ha lights up my life, and OH YEAH SCOTT MCCALL KICKS SO MUCH ASS IN THE FINALE derek hale is president of the scott mccall fanclub in season 4 and honestly has anything ever been more relatable?? shoutout too to this season for having the second-most derek & chris content after 3B.

6A - every time i remember this season exists and it is like it is i weep a little. you couldn’t have paid me enough to ship stiles and lydia before i watched this because it invoked the creepy nice guy tropes but after watching it they remind me so, so, SO MUCH of claire and ben from @cambionverse i have completely reversed my decision. the running themes of grief and letting go were A+, the villains were fascinating and scary, and this season even made peter hale interesting for thirty entire seconds when he did One Good Thing, everything in it is just so unexpectedly well-done. it’s the only worthwhile season of teen wolf that doesn’t have derek hale in it.

1 - my beautiful son scott mccall is at peak floppy-haired adorableness, the introduction of all the plotlines were tight, there wasn’t a lot of loose material (almost none in fact), everything came together really well, and kate argent, one of the villains of the season, is my absolute favorite teen wolf villain ever she is TERRIFYING and completely steals whatever screen she’s on

3A - this one is okay on the surface, but frankly there were too many killed and written out side-characters to really enjoy it (cora came out of nowhere and i STILL have more questions than answers, erica and boyd deserved better, and derek got screwed over, AGAIN, JUST because he tried to make a genuine emotional connection with someone. does include a few iconic moments tho such as stiles talking scott down from hale-ing himself, lydia finding out what she is, and oh yeah MY SON SCOTT MCCALL BECOMING AN ALPHA I’M SO PROUD OF HIM 10/10 FOR THAT PLOTLINE but overall it's a collection of cool moments where the overarching plot is like :/

2 - while this season IS largely “technically” flawless, tightly plotted, introducing many perfect sidecharacters whom i will forever be missing bitterly after their untimely demises, a villain somehow scarier than kate (even if he is less fun), and the blurring of the battle lines when everyone started realizing just how fucked up the hunters code was…it just kinda goes below the others because a). it always bugged me that they key to saving jackson was his humanity but it got pulled out of nowhere at the last second and we never saw him be even a little nice to anyone he wasn't trying to manipulate b). i don’t think my son derek had a very nice time this season. no. he got kicked around a lot. held the idiot ball for a little while. i love him but he was bad at being an alpha and so not very many good things happened to him. great season but lacked that very specific hale content i always long for. c) lydia didn't get much justice in this season either she spent most of it being terrorized s m h

6B - so the concept of 6B on paper is great - fear is the enemy, we must all learn to be brave - but instead of going that way we used 10000 dumb logic leaps to have everyone turn on the people who've been saving their lives for years. and no one ever pushed back or reminded us of all the good they've done, they just...went with it. this season should have been a tribute to scott mccall and how far he's come and how great he is, but instead it takes away the pack's future by denying them college to have them continue fighting in a war that makes no sense. (also, the scott malia was pushed on us way too hard and absolutely uninspired. like, jesus.) that said i'd still watch it before most of 5 because a lot of old favorites came back for the curtain call and that was admittedly pretty cool, but 6A had WAY more nostalgia. this season just about ties with 5B (ranked directly below it) but in the end the tiebreaker for me is derek hale + his comebaack episode being ENTIRELY spent with chris argent. like, i could not have ASKED for more - not only does his comeback not get ruined with st*rek queerbait but my rarepair gets in one last moment instead. i was not even for a second hoping they'd get to interact AND THEY DID. so, this one, just barely, goes above 5B.

5B - only barely watchable. on paper la bete is a great villain but the CGI is so bad it kind of cancels out how scary it could have been. i’m glad mason is OK and that everybody more or less got their shit together after the shitshow that was 5A but it was mostly just bad. lydia in the asylum with the rapey needle guy is bad, bringing back gerard was really bad, writing out kira is SUPER HORRIBLE and also the skinwalker thing was RACIST, it’s mostly just passable because you’re so fucking glad to be done with 5A. crystal reed’s reappearance as the first argent was nice but i'm too bitter about allison being dead to enjoy it

5A - easily the worst one. the dread doctors are scary but they’re more gross than scary and they’re not FUN villains, you know - they introduced and quickly killed a lot of characters in this season and 5B combined (i know some people don’t separate the halves of 5 since they’re so intertwined but god do they both drag), so by the time we actually started caring about them and wanted to know more about them (and we never get to know more) they were gone, every member of the cast holds the idiot ball in at least one crucial moment, including scott, who would never in his life do such a thing. the only good plotline was the stiles and donovan one and it didn’t get half the time it could have for being the only compelling part of the entire fucking season. also, theo is the fictional character i hate more than any other fictional character. i’m talking dolores umbridge levels of hated. he is VILE. every moment he spends on my screen i hate him more. very glad i saw him getting tortured in 6B. he could have been so great - someone smart enough to manipulate such a tight-knit pack - but instead they made the pack stupid, which TOTALLY ruins the suspension of disbelief. revealing he was evil to us, the viewers, right off the bat, was also a dumb move because it takes away the suspense. what a trainwreck of a season

[colethewolf]

I feel bad that some fans think Sterek could happen, but they need to open their eyes. Jeff hates sterek so much. The only reason we have scenes w/Stiles & Derek are bc Dylan & Hoech prob put that into their contract to return. Jeff just wants to use the 2 biggest faves to get viewers back so he can save some face. But sterek wasn't ever going to happen & it's not happening now. We need to wait for gifs only, no one should be watching. it's not worth it!

Some people want to keep their hope. It’s somewhat understandable, seeing as how I remained hopeful for quite a while. But there came a time where it was clear that Jeff didn’t care about Sterek & didn’t want Sterek fans anywhere near the show. If people want to ignore that glaring moment, that’s on them. 

Personally, I don’t see what Sterek fans could possibly keep waiting for. It’s not going to be anything nice. It’s not going to be what we deserved. It’s not going to be what Stiles & Derek should have naturally built together and what should have been seasons worth of slow build towards endgame. Jeff tossed those cards out long ago. 

If anything, Jeff might make Sterek endgame at the very last moment NOT because he cares, or wants to apologize, or because thinks Sterek is great. But because he wants to go on a victory tour when 6B ends. He will make Sterek canon, simply because he knows that media sites will want to ask him about his decision to make it canon. Jeff wants praise. He wants the opportunity to look like the hero & savior. He wants to make people believe that Sterek was the plan from day one & that Sterek fans “were just too impatient to see where his vision was going”. He wants the chance to gloat about making a popular gay pairing canon.

He’s also an extremely egotistical & vindictive person, which is why he’ll most likely avoid making Sterek canon. Just look at his interview with that Geekiary interviewer. He hates Sterek & he hates that it wasn’t his idea. He hates that fans have remained vocally critical of his work & decisions. He hates that his show got cancelled, but Sterek remains popular. He hates that he didn’t have control. 

[lover-of-mine]

Yk, something about my Eddie fell first essay, I never really went like "oh this is something that could be proven right by canon" mostly because when I wrote that I was still dealing with buddie being a distant possibility not something that's so close I can taste, but then Ryan was let out of interview jail. Then I went full conspiracy theorist. (Please note everything from here on out is a conspiracy theory that will most likely never be confirmed or denied so I'll live in it forever) I had made the post about how I think Ryan is playing Eddie as in love with Buck, the question was whether he was being told to do that or he was just playing it up as much as they allowed him to because we know Ryan supports the ship, and then Ryan said the "this goes beyond friendship and I love you to the core" thing.

He said he talked to someone about what it meant for Eddie to do that, because he didn't understand it at first, and then that's the conclusion he reached. But the thing is, that line "I love you to the core" specifically means so much in the context of the season, to say I love you to Buck like that in season 4 is so MONUMENTAL, that I wanna believe one of the writers straight up told him "yo this is a love confession" and explained it to him like that, and he has been playing Eddie with that line in mind ever since, and that's why he had that locked and loaded for the interview. Because, like, I, in my most normal day, am out here arguing they casted Ryan with a plan, even more considering the way Eddie was written for Ryan, they could very much have told him "look, play with the chemistry you and Oliver have, if the audience likes with might amp it up, if we're lucky we might go there someday" because you have moments in season 2, but season 2 is still very low stakes, but then when I think about the the season 3 of it all, the there's nobody in this world I trust with my son more than you, the lawsuit, and well of it all and the way they put Ryan in pr jail after Eddie begins, an episode that would retroactively be HUGE for buddie but it's pretty big for them anyway, I'm like 🤔 because we all saw Ryan talking about buddie this past month, the guy CANT SHUT UP, and if he was told something during season 3 or 4 along the line of "play it up, we are gonna fight to make this happen", putting him in pr jail would make sense, because they can't risk him saying something if they're not sure they can deliver, because how fast they dealt with Buck being bi while in a new network makes me convinced someone on fox was blocking it and nothing will convince me otherwise. But now they can, so they let Ryan run free. Because you can make a VERY strong argument that Eddie is aware of something during season 5 and 6, season 6 most of all, but you can very much make season 5 queer coded and have Eddie be like "oh I can't ignore how I feel about him anymore", because Ryan also said something about Eddie's breakdown and how that's what allowed Eddie to let Buck "know who Eddie truly is" which is interesting with the way Eddie is constructed, because if Buck is inside the last wall Eddie had up, what's actually stopping Eddie to see he's in love with Buck by the end of the season? Which would make season 6 as a pining season for Eddie make sense. Down to the way the cemetery seems to be pulling these very specific reactions from Eddie that are the same reactions we saw him have in breakups and flights with Shannon. But also things like Eddie's reaction to the lightning being something we never saw from Eddie before AND the way Oliver talked about a scene of Eddie losing his composure during in another life, not during in a flash that we didn't get to see most likely because they completely rearranged 6b because they thought they were gonna get cancelled, so they wouldn't be able to deliver what they had in mind. But now they have nothing but time, season 8 is already confirmed, and by the looks of it abc was like "go for it" with buddie in a way that fox never was, so they finally got to tell Ryan "we're doing it, go crazy" and now we are here. They could prove me right today. About Eddie not about Ryan knowing and some secret plan being in place forever. I don't think it's gonna happen. I seriously don't think it's gonna happen. I'd be more surprised to be proved right than wrong here. But the conspiracy theory is a possibility that felt very real for a second there during promo season lol

[mrleopard25]

Doctor Who: Regeneration Series Revisited - The Second Regeneration

Time Lord: “Your appearance has changed before, it will change again. That is part of the sentence.” The Second Doctor: “You can’t just change what I look like without consulting me!”

Story (from “The War Games” and “Spearhead From Space”):

     The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe arrive in what they think is No Man’s Land during World War I, but quickly learn that they are on an alien world where human soldiers from different time periods have been gathered and brainwashed to fight each other. The Aliens in charge hope to collect the best soldiers from these “games” and use them to form a brutal army to conquer other worlds with. Aiding them is a renegade from the Doctor’s past, who is only referred to as the War Chief.

     The War Chief hopes to use his skills at time and space travel to lead the Aliens in galactic conquest, but the Doctor joins up with a rebel faction on the planet to topple the Alien rule and stop the Games. Unfortunately, upon sizing up the situation fully, the Doctor realizes that he is simply incapable of returning the thousands of soldiers to their homes, as not only can he properly the TARDIS (especially to so many destinations), but also the War Chief’s time machines are inherently faulty and dying.

     The Doctor realizes his only choice is to summon his own people, the Time Lords, as they will be able to accomplish such a task easily. But the Doctor reveals that he is a renegade as well; it is against Time Lord law for him to interfere in other cultures, even for good. The Doctor finally decides that he has no choice, and summons the Time Lords. The response is almost instantaneous. The soldiers begin vanishing off the battlefields while the Doctor and his companions race for the TARDIS to escape.

     After a brief respite the TARDIS materializes on Gallifrey, homeworld of the Time Lords, and the Doctor is taken prisoner. First he testifies against the Aliens, in particular their leader, a sinister man known as the War Lord. The Time Lords find his actions abominable and sentence his world to be placed in a fold in time, so they can never interact with any other species again. The War Lord himself is disintegrated (youch!).

     After the Time Lords return Jamie and Zoe to their homes and wipe their memories, the Doctor himself is placed on trial for stealing the TARDIS and temporal interference. The Doctor maintains that he is proud of the evil he has fought, while condemning the Time Lords for doing nothing with their great power. The Time Lords deliberate on the matter and decide the Doctor is partially right, but can not go unpunished. They sentence him to exile on Earth, a planet known for its frequent alien attacks, and force a regeneration upon him.

     The Doctor is sent to Earth in the 1960′s (or is it the 70′s? The UNIT stories were meant to take place in “the near future”), unconscious and in custody of UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), an organization dedicated to fighting alien and supernatural incursions. He finds his memory has been selectively wiped and the TARDIS sabotaged. His arrival coincides with the landing of spheres around the globe that are bringing mannequins to life. The first Nestene invasion has begun...and they want the Doctor.

Production:

     The production team at Doctor Who were having a great deal of difficulty with the sixth season. The ideas and scripts were becoming more and more intricate, with more interesting ideas, but ultimately they were becoming significantly more expensive. Another bit of trouble was the decision by the BBC to air Star Trek which, with its superior budget, made Doctor Who look like the cheap kid brother (coincidentally, this situation would happen again in the late 80′s with the Seventh Doctor being programmed against Star Trek TNG). To compete, it was decided that the next season should be made and broadcast in colour. This, of course, meant another increase in budget.

     The earliest idea to combat the increase was to have the Doctor Earthbound in his stories. Already there was groundwork for this; UNIT and the primary character associated with it, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, were introduced in “The Invasion.” (Yes I know Lethbridge-Stewart was introduced earlier, in “The Web Of Fear” but he wasn’t a brigadier yet, not was he in UNIT).

     But the next question was why the Doctor should be Earthbound at all. Luckily there was still a lot of mystery surrounding the Doctor’s origins and the story “The War Games” was to be one to answer some of those questions while leading into the next season. The Doctor’s homeworld and race, the Time Lords, were finally introduced; an ancient race of great power but were too bureaucratic to interfere with events. The only thing that would cause their involvement would be abuse of time travel, something the Time Lords felt they had dominion over.

     And as if to fully bring the era to an end, Patrick Troughton announced he would end his tenure as the Doctor after three years. He had found the role rewarding but very demanding. Just like with William Hartnell, the workload was intense: filmed “as live” and 48 weeks a year working. As such it was decided that part of the Doctor’s exile would include a change of appearance - the word “regeneration” was still not used.

     The regeneration itself wasn’t fully seen on screen. There was a spinning effect used and Troughton grunted as though under serious strain...he contorts his face and a few other effects are used, but the episode ends with him spinning into darkness. The first scene with the Doctor in the next season simply shows the TARDIS materializing and Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor stumbling out, still in the Second Doctor’s attire.

     A staple was introduced with this regeneration, and that is of the Doctor recuperating after the regeneration. For the first two episodes the Doctor is barely conscious, as if the process has been a tremendous strain.

     Although this season was relatively short, it was a tremendous success. The BBC was considering cancelling the show but after seeing the strides the show had made in production quality (while within budget) and how accessible the show was to new viewers (you hadn’t needed to have seen the previous seasons to get the premise of the show), the series remained on the air. And it would only get better. The Pertwee era lasted five years and was even broadcast in North America on PBS stations. A whole new audience was being introduced to Doctor Who. There was more to come as well. More revelations about Gallifrey and the Time Lords would be had, a rival Time Lord known as The Master would be introduced, and 10th anniversary special called “The Three Doctors” would unit Pertwee with both his predecessors. 

Analysis:

     First of all I must state that the regeneration was handled very well. It made logical sense to cap the end of that season in such a fashion and it made sense within the confines of the story. Here we had probably the most epic story to date (maybe “The Daleks’ Master Plan” takes that title though) with an immense problem brought up at the resolution: the soldiers need to go home. The Doctor promised them he could do it. The method he thought would work was not an option. The means to fulfill his promise was within his grasp but to do so would sacrifice his freedom. He (and the War Chief) knew that the instant he contacted the Time Lords, the reaction would be immediate.

     And I absolutely must congratulate the portrayal of the War Chief. He is exceptionally intelligent, sinister, conniving, and a great counter to the Doctor. There are many words that go unsaid between him and the Doctor, thoughts communicated through the eyes. Also worth a note, the War Chief immediately recognizes the Doctor and with hindsight we know that (generally) Time Lords recognize each other regardless of regeneration.

     Speaking of which, the War Chief is presumably killed by order of the War Lord near the end of the story, but one wonders if he didn’t just regenerate afterwards. With hindsight we can say “why not?” And if he did, what became of him? I would say he was most likely caught by the Time Lords and tried as well. And if I were to put a wage on how THAT trial went, he was probably executed.

     It’s at this point that I want to mention Season 6B. There is a popular theory amongst both fans and members of the production teams at Doctor Who (especially Terrence Dicks) that the Doctor did not regenerate right away but was instead recruited by the Celestial Intervention Agency (you know...the CIA?), an undercover agency operating in Time Lord society that discretely influences events in the universe. The reasoning behind this makes sense; the CIA would need an agent with experience to go out on dangerous missions but would need to be able to deny association with said agent. The Doctor fits the bill. It would be after they grew tired of him (or more likely, he tried to escape them) that his regeneration and exile would be imposed.

     Why has this theory gained so much notoriety? A few reasons. Let’s look at the episode evidence first. In “The Three Doctors” (1973), the Second Doctor is pulled into affairs by the Time Lords to deal with the being Omega. Wait...hold on, how were the Time Lords able to snatch the Second Doctor so quickly? He was on the run from them! Well, if he was an agent acting on their behalf, he would be at their disposal. Next is the involvement with the CIA. In “The Deadly Assassin” (1976), the Doctor gets a real brush with the CIA through their contact Chancellor Goth, who just happens to be played by an actor who portrayed one of the Time Lord judges in “The War Games.” Or is he the same character?

     In “The Five Doctors” (1983) the Second Doctor meets up with the Brigadier years after his retirement and proclaims “I’m not exactly breaking the laws of time, but I am bending them slightly.” Strange that the Doctor now seems to have the ability to control the TARDIS. Later in the story, the two bump into phantoms appearing as Jamie and Zoe, who recognize the Brigadier. The Doctor corrects them, noting that after the Time Lords returned them to their homes, their memories were wiped. How could he know this? It hadn’t happened to him yet! Or had it?

     And then finally in “The Two Doctors” (1985) the Second Doctor and Jamie are on a mission from the Time Lords to investigate temporal experiments being held on a space station. And the Time Lords have dual control over the TARDIS! This makes no sense given the chronology of events we see during the Second Doctor’s tenure. Note also that both the Doctor and Jamie are quite visibly older, and although you could chalk that up to the actors being older, it seems most likely that this falls within the 6B theory.

     Terrence Dicks, the man with a longstanding production history with the show (including writing “The War Games”!), and Robert Holmes, writer of “The Two Doctors”, both advocate this theory. In fact, Dicks wrote a novel called “World Game” that takes up right after the end of the Doctor’s trial and into his recruitment. Unfortunately, even though the BBC Doctor Who archives even include a page devoted to the 6B theory, the canonicity is still questionable.

     Finally some remarks on “Spearhead From Space.” Anyone who’s seen “The Three Doctors” and “The Five Doctors” know that the Second and Third Doctor don’t actually get along very well. This is probably because the Third Doctor is a representation of his impending exile and the Second Doctor is a reminder of the freedom he lost. So when the newly regenerated Doctor finally gets a mirror and sees himself, it’s quite funny in hindsight that his first words are “Oh no!” At the time it was meant to mean that the Doctor was simply shocked at how different he looked, but now we can interpret it as him begrudging that he’s now become the man he wasn’t very fond of.

     Interesting to note, this Doctor has a cobra or dragon tattooed on his arm (hard to distinguish). It’s a popular theory that this is a branding the TIme Lords gave him to mark his status as a criminal. Well, in reality Jon Pertwee got it in the Navy, but they didn’t try to hide it...

     At the end of the first episode we see the Third Doctor has escaped the clutches of the Autons were were kidnapping him from the hospital, and has made a break for the TARDIS. A trigger-happy UNIT guard shoots at him and he collapses. In the next episode it’s revealed the bullet just grazed him, but if that were true, why did he lapse into a coma? Knowing what we now know about regeneration, notably with the Tenth Doctor being able to regrow his hand within a certain time of his regeneration, we could easily speculate that the Doctor was shot through the head and healed! Makes more sense to me at least.

     The story as a whole is pretty good. The character portrayal of Channing, the lead Auton, is downright chilling. He has this alien intensity about him that made him perfect for the role. There is also some downright hilarious and excellent dialogue between the the newly regenerated Doctor and his attending physician; the surrounding dialogue about his condition also really illustrates how alien the Doctor is. There is one thing the brings this story down however. Look, I’m sorry, I don’t know why writers do this occasionally, but we don’t need hillybilly-redneck-yokel characters. This trapper Hibbert is an idiot and the story suffers every time he’s on screen - and he doesn’t even get shot by the Autons to compensate!

And Another Thing:

     That nurse treating the Doctor after his regeneration could be best by a Grade 8 biology student.

Third Doctor: “Don’t you recognize me?” Brigadier: “I’m positive we’ve never met before.” Third Doctor: “Oh, dear. Oh, I...I can’t have changed that much, surely? Oh I must see what they’ve done to me. Can I borrow...can I borrow a mirror please?”

[queen-mabs-revenge]

Are you excited for the musical episode?

OK, I know it doesn’t seem it based on the last 12 hours of activity on my blog, but I’m really, really not. In fact, I’m super glad they leaked Killian’s solo song so that I can fully enjoy it separate from the rest of the episode that I’m dreading aside from a source of high quality crack.

Serious negativity under the cut, my dudes.

Every single spoiler that comes out of this episode re: the wedding has me wavering between outrage and apathy, and the lead up to it has been that way as well.

Look, I’m going to be honest about something that I’ve been a little hesitant about talking about publicly. Ever since Emma came down that staircase, ring in hand (and if I’m being honest with myself, ever since we’ve seen the ring in the promo), I’ve been slowly, unconsciously detaching from this relationship, and it’s pretty unsettling to me. I’m not trying to, it’s not some concerted effort to emotionally divest myself of the show before a cancellation or a shake-up, it’s just whatever the hell they’re making this relationship into this half season, it’s not what I fell in love with, and it’s even the antithesis to what I fell in love with and what I’ve been in love with for years. 

I don’t really feel much of anything at the moment when it comes to the things I’m supposed to squee about, because I’m still feeling quite bad about the way their dynamic has been established going into this milestone relationship event. It’s become so imbalanced between the two of them (and between Killian and the Charmings in general) in the name of pushing purile drama, that I’m just not able to find myself feeling those good feelings in the way that I did a mere few months ago.

(Even Pancakes. Look, I’m not going to lie. I reblogged with glee because I wanted to try and feel glee. I want to be a part of a fandom meltdown a la the drop of the couch scene in 6.01. I miss feeling that way and I’m trying to make an effort to get it back?)

5A played with the idea of taking the dynamic of Killian letting Emma take the lead to the unhealthy degree of her taking the lead without him having the agency of giving it to her (her turning him into the Dark One against his will) and explored the super negative fallout from that. 5B showed it again but with Liam, and framed him as being wrong to steamroll Killian and not include him in solving problems because he knew best, even when it was with the best of intentions. 

They were supposed to grow from that. But all I’ve seen in 6B is a return to that as if it never happened, but instead of it being framed as a disastrous thing for their relationship, it’s being framed as just a cute little blip that’s excusable because Emma has walls, and Killian is just happy to be here.

(I have a massive meta on this that I keep going back to in drips and drabs, but tbh it’s just so sad to think about that it might just stay a perma-draft)

It’s just the way I watch things and the way I process things I’m emotionally invested in, but I can’t just say ‘ah well, that’s over and done with’ and move on to feeling happy wedding thoughts, because for me it colours the relationship as a whole now.

So that coupled with the hilariously awful Very Traditional Wedding Of Zero Personal Significance that’s apparently more about the town than the couple? The three episode rush to the finish line that’s super cool for this slowest of slow burn couples? Zero insight into any of the decisions made for the engagement/wedding…like nothing at all? 

Nopesville.

(Like real talk: if you want me to be invested in a mediocre ring, show me why Killian thought it was the best choice and I’ll go along with it. If you want me to be invested in the desire for alacrity, show the decision that lead up to it. If you want me to change my mind about that shitshow of a dress, Make Me Understand Why It Matters To Emma and I’ll give it a go. If you want me to care at fucking all…show. the. workings. holy. fucking. shit. it’s. not. hard.)

I’m at the point where I’m reblogging the pretty and I’m just along for the ride because I’ve been in for so damned long that I’d like to know what the end of the story is for these characters I care about. 

I’m looking forward to it the way one looks forward to ripping off a band-aid :)

[haletostilinski]

why do u say tw doesn't deserve ratings?? =0 like don't get me wrong i don't like the show either I'm just curious as to your reasoning for it.

Because they queer bated Sterek shippers? And treated us like crap? Jeff Davis teased that he could possibly “be persuaded” to make Sterek canon, and I know that kept me tuned in longer than I probably would have been otherwise. (Don’t get me wrong, I loved season 3 overall, but the biggest part of me tuning in each weak was to see if they’d have Sterek scenes, or if they’d make progress with Sterek, or if they’d eventually become canon, or even just become friends, something. Honestly, as much as I loved other characters on the show, Sterek is what pulled me in, and without it I doubt I would have stayed around as long as I did, or if I would have watched the show at all.) 

They had Dylan and Hoechlin make a video all entwined together and being touchy feely just to get our votes so they could win the Teen Choice Awards (I love that video, but the producers/powers that be/whoever used the Sterek shippers). 

They catered to Sterek shippers between the season 2 and season 3 break, but as soon as they realized how big Sterek was and how serious people were about Sterek and how much they cared about it - more than anything else on the show - they pulled back on it. Like it was a fun little thing to entertain because so many people liked it, but actually going there? Pfft! Nawww. 

Jeff became aware of Sterek after season 2, and while 3A had Sterek scenes, they were fairly limited. Why? Jeff and Co. KNEW how much people loved Sterek and how many loved Sterek, that it was the most popular thing about the show, and instead of giving them more scenes and at least trying to see where Sterek could go - even if it was just to get to a place of actual friendship - they pulled back. They kept these two at a distance, even tho they were the most interesting and complex and entertaining pair on the show. 

Hell, even if they personally didn’t like Sterek - they have to listen, at least somewhat, to their fans. Yeah, the show isn’t completely for the fans, but…fans are what keep shows going. Without the fans these shows would be nothing. Does that mean shows should cater to fans? No, not exactly. But they should take in what fans say and think and feel and truly take in what fans want, because if not? Well, you get horrible ratings, and then you get cancelled. 

They stretched out Sterek for as long as they could. And I just know that if Hoechlin had stayed they would have continued to tease Sterek fans, and give us still a slim, but still there hope. Like how in 3b we got basically nothing with Sterek, but then in the last scene in the last ep of the season, we get a Sterek scene??? Because, ya know, gotta keep us excited for Season 4, so we’ll tune in.

And then Season 4 happens, and they have NO scenes together, at all, and then season 4 finale happened and then the Sterek scenes happened. Fuck, man, I would have watched Season 5 too just to see if we’d get Sterek scenes if Hoechlin hadn’t left.

I’m sure Jeff was real bummed he lost one half of the thing he could use to keep the ratings up and keep his shitty show going. But then he said in interviews that he hoped he could get Hoechlin back and he would absolutely LOVE to have Derek back, which was AGAIN, a slim hope for some, I bet, of Derek returning and more Sterek, MAYBE. 

And what happens recently? We get leaks that maybe Hoechlin was on set (but of course we can’t fucking tell if it’s him or not, OF COURSE) and of possible body doubles being cast for Derek, and so on. And rumors that Dylan was back on set too for 6B. 

Their show is ending and yet they still use Dylan/Sterek/Hoechlin to entice people into watching.

(Plus there is the way that some actors treated the Sterek ship and its shippers, but that has more to do with said actors than the show, but still.) 

Sterek shippers were treated poorly and so I think TW doesn’t deserve the ratings Sterek shippers would give them. 

[onceuponamirror]

Hi. Thoughts on season 6b so far? I'm assuming you have read the articles and spoilers. What do u think

Like I’ve said, right now 6B is feeling like a wrap up, and if so it’s probably the right call. It’s bittersweet, of course, but it is better to plan the endings than get suddenly cancelled. Here’s what I’ve said in past posts:

on the one hand, you know honestly, i think some of these characters’ arcs may have run their course. how many times do we need to see regina struggle with her dark impulses? what kind of growth does rumple have left in him, beyond a fuller ascent into darkness if not going out in a fiery sacrifice? how often do we want to watch zelena flip flop?

even my faves, my dearest otp, emma and killian….i want them to have their happy ending. i want their story tied up beautifully and i think we’re past the point of throwing wrenches into their relationship.

so, to be totally frank, what’s left for these characters except closure? it feels like we’re heading towards a wrap up with these stories. and a part of me is pretty okay with that, because i think it’s time.

I haven’t really read a whole lot of interviews that came out recently (I think a bunch were released today) because I’ve been pretty sick and laying low, so I can’t speak to anything specific right now, but overall I’m looking forward to seeing some real happy endings!!!