#instead of p much all character development happening off screen; some of it happening off screen is fine but most/all of it off screen is

[edmunderson]

hhhhhhhhhhh my copy of the turf wars omnibus won't get here until thursday i need more korra content

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Routines

Tim and Marinette lived busy lives.

It was by choice, of course.

They were both prominent figures in their fields that could pick and choose the assignments they wished to take, had more money than they could ever dream of using thanks to the hefty trust fund that being even tangentially related to Bruce Wayne provided, and no one would blame them if they were to lessen or give up their vigilantism. If they wished, there was nothing stopping them from taking a smaller workload, from using up all of their sick days, from taking vacations, from quitting their jobs entirely...

That being said, they likely never would.

And the tabloids loved to speculate on their relationship because of it. How could they spend much time together if Tim was always at work, developing new technology for Wayne Enterprises? Marinette was cheating, how could she not when so much of her job as a designer involved getting up close and personal with models? Not to mention all of the business trips. Surely, the relationship had some kind of monetary motivation, or maybe it was just to more seamlessly merge their companies, or it had only happened for PR reasons.

They let them speculate. They simply didn’t know better.

The tabloids didn’t get to see how they acted behind closed doors, after all.

There would be days where neither of them went in to work. It wasn’t due to some sort of sickness that Tim had caught thanks to his lack of spleen, nor would it be because Marinette had hit some kind of artist’s block. No, it was simply because they wanted to spend time together.

~

They took breaks. Technically. If you squint.

There would be days where neither of them went into work. It wasn’t due to some sort of sickness that Tim had caught thanks to his lack of spleen, nor would it be because Marinette had hit some kind of artist’s block. No, it was simply because they wanted to spend time together.

They would turn on the coffee machine and then make their way over to the sofa. Marinette would nestle herself into his side and smile as he wrapped his arm around her. He would pull her as close as he possibly could so he could still use both arms to type.

He usually took video calls like this. It was always so much easier to maintain a pleasant smile, even when people often looked down on him for his age, because whenever he felt it start to waver he could simply look down at his girlfriend and suddenly he would find that it would be back in full force.

She would prop her sketchbook on her legs and start on some new designs. The designs she did like this were always, inexplicably, more lively than the other ones -- full of vibrant colors and swooping curves in a way that some of her other works lacked. If asked, Marinette would joke that the secret ingredient was love.

And, sure, this wasn’t technically taking a break from work. They were still productive, still did tasks...

But they counted it. They always came back to work the next day with the same euphoric feelings in their chests, the same springs in their steps. How could they not? They’d spent the entire day doing what they loved with the person that they loved. Who could ever want a break from that?

~

Every time one of them came back from a business trip, they made sure to spend the night together.

Tim would lay back in bed, Marinette on top of him. Her head would come to rest on his chest, clutching the back of his shirt tightly. His fingers would find their way to her hair and she would huff a little, knowing that her hair was about to get hopelessly tangled as he fidgeted with the silky strands, but she would nuzzle into his chest all the same.

They would watch a TV show. It didn’t matter whether it was good or bad. As long as there were people and some semblance of a plot, they would gladly stay wrapped up in each other’s arms to watch it.

Tim would rattle off whatever theories he had developed as they came to mind. Some of them were absolutely insane, he knew, and would never happen… but it was worth making a fool of himself if it got Marinette’s face to light up or if he earned one of those little giggles that escaped her when he was instantly proven wrong.

Marinette would, at least, pause the show whenever she wanted to talk, though it wasn’t out of an understanding of how time works. No, it was so she could sit up a little in his lap and point at whichever character had offended her this time. She would go on long rants about how makeup was just as important as outfits in costuming, but it was often overlooked in favor of making the actors look pretty. And, maybe she had already said all of this before, but it’s important, Tim! And he would just nod his agreement. Because it was important -- a TV night certainly wouldn’t feel like a TV night without at least one rant.

And then the screen would go black, the most recent episode done.

Tim would draw back a little and then pretend to be shocked when his hands were stuck in her hair.

“Oh noooooo,” he’d say. “I guess I can’t let go yet.”

“How unfortunate,” she would deadpan.

He’d smile cheekily at her.

“Shut up.”

“But I didn’t even say anything!” He’d argue with overexaggerated offense.

She would smile, shaking her head as much as she could with the fingers in her hair. “You didn’t have to. You have a presence about you.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” he’d say.

And, sometimes, she’d bring her hands up to cup his face. “Not sure if it was a compliment, but I definitely wouldn’t have it any other way,” she’d whisper before pulling him closer for a kiss.

… but, most of the time she would just laugh and say: “It wasn’t one.”

~

Once a month, Marinette tried to teach Tim to cook. Of course, they both knew it was a hopeless endeavor. He’d failed to make mac n’ cheese once, and Marinette -- who had lived the first eighteen years of her life in a Parisian bakery -- wasn’t good at discerning which meals were ‘easy to do’.

But that didn’t stop her from trying.

She would come up with a new recipe, would claim that this one was truly dummy proof…

And then Tim, dummy that he was, would manage to mess it up. Without fail, he would find some way to do something wrong. He would leave the milk on the stove and then be surprised when said milk on the stove decided to revolt against the system. He would raise the temperature on the thing they were baking so it would go faster and then be shocked when the cake didn’t rise at all. He would put too much in the mixer and then not understand why the contents had exploded over the two of them.

Worst thing was, she was pretty sure he was actually trying. He just… couldn’t seem to do it.

So, she would just kiss the disappointed frown off of his face and promise that they would do better next time.

And, every time without fail, he would light up.

“There will be a next time?” He would ask.

“Yeah. You’re lucky you’re cute, I can’t say I love being covered in ingredients.”

Tim would kiss her cheek, and then draw back and lick his lips. “I don’t know, I kind of like it. Something about my girlfriend being covered in tasty food really does something for me.”

“Like I said: you’re lucky you’re cute.”

And, even though she would say that, there was no mistaking the amusement dancing in her eyes.

~

They weren’t particularly religious, it was hard to be when Marinette had a god living in her earrings that obeyed her every command…

Which meant celebrations for the two of them were few and far between.

But, at least, they celebrated their anniversary.

They would sit on the rooftop, the blankets doing nothing to keep the hard tiles of the roof from digging into them and they did even less against the chilly Gotham air.

She’d stare up at the sky with him.

And, since it was Gotham, there were very few stars to be seen through the dark red and black haze of clouds that hung over the city.

But they didn’t mind.

Marinette smiled. “It’s our colors.”

He didn’t look over, watching the colors swirl above them. “Even the sky thinks we’re a good couple.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. The sky god really does have a thing for love.”

He gave a short puff of laughter and finally tore his eyes away from the sky. “Really?”

She shrugged, grinning at him. “No clue. There might not even be a sky god.”

He scoffed and untangled his hand from its blanket prison to give her a tiny shove. She could have dodged the attempt with ease, but she allowed the hand to make contact.

To her surprise, he grabbed ahold of her shoulder and pulled her into him. She gave an undignified little squeak and, if it weren’t for the fact that he was right there, she would have probably faceplanted onto the tile.

But, instead, her face came crashing into his soft, pillowy shoulder.

She looked up at the crooked grin that she had come to love over the years and huffed, pulling her own arms free so she could shove him. For real.

He flopped back, the hand he’d managed to get out coming to rest over his chest as if he were hurt.

“How could you? Roofs hurt, you know.”

“Well, yeah, if you throw yourself down on tiles it’s not going to feel too great.”

He cracked a grin, though he quickly tamped it down to keep up the act: “Victim blaming at its finest.”

She rolled her eyes and leaned over him. One of her hands cradled his cheek, her thumb tracing the tiny scar on his cheekbone.

He looked up at her. And she thought, somewhere, that maybe the reason the pollution in the city was just some kind of coverup so no one would know that they all resided in Tim’s eyes.

And then she cursed herself mentally for thinking something so cheesy.

She had to make up for it somehow:

“You’re the worst, I hope you know that.”

“I am. But you love me anyway.”

Dang it. How was she supposed to feign being annoyed when he looked at her like that? With that soft smile and thick lashes and hair that framed his face just so.

She decided it wasn’t worth trying to pretend.

Marinette let herself match his smile.

“I do.”

“Save those words for our wedding,” he joked softly.

She rolled her eyes. “You haven’t even proposed yet.”

“I could be doing that right now. Who knows, this could all be my plan.”

“It’d be a good plan,” she said. “I’d probably say yes.”

He narrowed his eyes just slightly. “Isn’t that essentially you proposing to me?”

She tipped her head to the side, considering, then she laughed a little. “I guess it kind of is. So, Tim, will you marry me?”

His eyes widened to an almost comical degree.

And then his face lit up with a smile that made her heart flutter.

“I hope you know I want a ring.”

She giggled. “Just say yes, you idiot. We can always get the ring tomorrow.”

His smile only stretched further. “Yes. I’d love to marry you.”

“I love you,” she whispered, leaning closer until her lips brushed against his.

“I love you, too,” he breathed.

Marinette didn’t hesitate any longer, tilting her head to give him a proper kiss. He freed himself of the blanket and she gasped a little against his lips as he wrapped her up in it as well, drawing her close.

She pulled away just a little, her forehead coming to rest against his. She couldn’t seem to get the dopey smile off of her face, but she wasn't completely sure she even wanted it gone.

“I proposed first, so I won,” she said, sticking her tongue out at him playfully.

He smiled. “No, I did.”

[fallindomino]

how i would have changed s2 of hsmtmts

obvious disclaimer but im not a screenwriter or anyth so im not claiming what i want is best, this is just for fun lololol

okay so first of all nini would still have dropped out of yac but she wouldn’t have gone back to east, she would have transferred to north bc she was too ashamed to tell anyone she left at first and maybe she still wants to explore who she is away from ricky and the others

nini could join north’s batb and this way maybe we could have some playful rivalry with lily and nini and more scenes with antoine shdhdjdj also it could have been a great opportunity to flesh out lily’s character so those scenes where she reaches out to ricky and her confession at the end of the season actually make sense lol

speaking of ricky ,,, i think he should have left the play at some point hear me out. he only joined in the first place because of nini and barely wanted to do it at all once he realized he wasn’t gonna be able to perform with her. he could have joined crew and been a manager with natalie or smth considering he rlly does see the theater gang as a second family. also this would leave so much room for ej and ricky development and bants since ej joined the av club and began to pursue film. they could have some convos where idk ricky asks ej how he figured out what he wanted to do after duke didn’t work out and ricky could actually develop some interests that arent the play or nini ,,, maybe fucking art club i mean he did p good on that centerpiece for carlos’ quinceañera.

with ricky not being the beast anymore i think seb should take his place that would be soooo good. and since seb isn’t chip anymore carlos won’t make those snide comments about chip being a small unimportant role and we can just cut that whole fight bc it was dumb and bad. we could still have seb being insecure that carlos is only dating him bc there aren’t really any other gay guys at school. in a heartbeat is great and i did like ricky being supportive in the background it was kinda funny too idk dhdjdjfj

ooh i almost forgot abt rini ahshdj okay so i still think they should break up. but in my version there’s no ricky pulling an ej 1.0 and deleting comments off of nini’s insta, cause with ricky in art club and nini at north trying to figure out what she wants i think one of them would realize that they’re going in different directions and only got back tgt because they made each other feel safe cause what they had was familiar. this could be triggered by ricky mentioning smth abt nini at yac and then nini breaks down and tells him that she dropped out and is at north and doesn’t know where she’s going. and then they can both realize they aren’t good for each other rn and have a less tragic mutual break up.

honestly i really liked the scene of nini taking charge after miss jenn freaked out cause with the character detail of nini giving every person in the cast of productions she’s in a thank you note she just seems really like someone who is suited to lifting others up. this could still be explored at north, maybe she could help lily through her issues that were briefly implied in ep 11 and nini realizes she wants to be a drama teacher and encourage kids to go off book and put themselves into their acting, something she couldn’t have at yac.

okay now ej ,,, so like i said in ricky’s section, more bants between them cause i feel like friendships kinda fell by the wayside due to all the relationships so more friendship !!!! also the scene where ej tells his dad he’s not going to duke shouldn’t have been an ending scene, it should have been fleshed out with his dad pushing back saying how he pulled all these strings to get him in and ej saying he doesn’t wanna go if his own hard work couldn’t get him there. and also more scenes of ej doing av club things !!! and realizing he rlly likes film and wants to do it OMG IT WOULD BE SO COOL IF HE BROKE THE FOURTH WALL AND ASKED THE DOCUMENTARY CREW ABT THE FILM INDUSTRY god i would love that. the only scene we rlly got of ej doing film things was at the quinceañera which made me kinda sad. uhhh also i just wanted to specifically mention how ej got mr mazzara that job at cal tech bc it really showed how he wanted to be there for people not just for gina, who he had a crush on, but for mr mazzara who supported him outside of romance, so i wanna keep that for sure.

gina !!! okay so i mostly liked her arc in this season, the only changes i would make would be to flesh it out a teeny bit (god this hypothetical s2 would have to be like 22 eps at least shdjdjdjfj) anyways besides ashlyn singing home to get gina to stay i think there should be a scene where they actually talk in her room abt how gina feels safer when shes on the run (second chance reference ilysm) hhhh and also a scene of her and carlos actually working out compromises for their choreo cause i liked that bit of development too and fleshing that out would make gina an even better foil for lily, who felt a need to hog the spotlight like gina used to. with gina’s own arc fleshed out her character would feel more whole independently from romance and portwell would be even more rewarding than it is in the current s2. the only thing i would really change abt portwell is that they would kiss !!! in the finale but thats bc im biased.

ashlyn should have gotten a more fleshed out storyline about being insecure about not being a good enough belle or the typical belle. there were some throwaway lines when north did their typical dramatics but the only two real scenes that showed it were when ash talked to big red about it and when she was telling nini she wanted to do a run in “home” bc lily did it. ashlyn should get more screen time where she has to grapple with the reasons she doesn’t feel good enough and big red can still support her but also gina too bc i would like more roommate besties interaction.

kourtney could still date howie, that harry potter shit was cute but there needs to be smth else for kourtney’s arc. idk she’s still into fashion so maybe she could be out here trying to create her own line or smth? this doesn’t have to be resolved in s2 like making a wholeass line takes time and she could work on it into a potential s3. kourtney just didnt get much outside of howie and the stuff at the beginning of the season where she said nini inspired her to be independent and that's why she got a job was just dropped?? so i think that fashion could fill that for her if she’s still dating howie cause like having her whole arc just be the pizza place kinda overlaps w big red’s mini arc abt how he wasn’t settling for hospitality, its what he wants to do with his life.

ik what ur thinking. anna, even if you added more episodes, where would u find the room to add all these plotlines?? well first we cut (most of) the seblos fight, so thats some time saved. honestly most of the time that we r going to gain is going to be from cutting ms jenn’s time. things like ms jenn’s and nini’s car ride would get cut, but mostly all of ms jenn’s romances would get cut down. considering she’s the teacher and isn’t actually a character with an arc how does she have THREE love interests this season?? like all of the weird tension between her and zack can be cut, like just some short scenes of them being competitive can stay. all of the stuff with ricky’s dad can go bye bye we don’t need it. i did like her w mr mazzara so most of that can stay i just didn’t like how he said he would give up cal tech for her, ew no that would be gone.

the MENKIES !!!! this is the last thing im gonna address cause in a perfect world every character would get a long fleshed out arc but then the season would be waaay too long and also im mostly trying to work within material the show gave so this is mostly made up of “realistic” deviations from what actually happened. lol idk what that even means it just makes sense to me. but anyways!! uhhh bro idk i thought them dropping the menkies was funny but it also made the finale really BAD lmao. in this finale, seb is the beast, east still had to deal w the fact that they’re underfunded compared to north but no one is injured, lily is less of a poorly written character and maybe ppl are even rooting for her, and wow i just realized i never actually said what role i think nini should have in north’s show. OOH she could be student director instead of lily cause lily both being in the play while also directing was weird considering omg i just checked and according to her wiki page shes a FRESHMAN?? and they let her be student director? lol hell nah. okay so with all that in mind ,,, the menkies should have been the season cliffhanger instead of portwell. east and north should both be nominated, both schools perform at the menkies, and then the award winner is about to be announced and THATS when it cuts to natalie and the end of the season.

one, this actually gives more tension for a summer s3 as we would be waiting to see the consequences of whichever school won. also i bet people would be wondering if nini’s gonna be transferring back to east or staying at north. people would also prob wonder if ej would be getting the scholarship if east won and what that would mean for his interest in film.

lmao that got longggg and idk if anyone’s even gonna read this but it was fun to do :D

[elizabethsharmon]

reblog if you feel disrespected by skam france and demand official apology

below a full list of all the offenses:

Manon going back to Ch*rbage after he emotionally manipulated her to not testify against his brother (who got her drunk, took nudes of her, and kept blackmailing her) because “after all nothing happened = he didn’t r*pe her”

Making Arthur and Alexia a couple in the first place just so he could cheat on her with Noee and lie to her for weeks and then having her break up with him, only for them to suddenly being good friends in s6 and kissing in the last clip (which ngl almost made me throw up)

Bringing up Lucas’ insecurities and abandonment issues but never letting him talk about them with Eliott; posting some damage control posts on instagram instead and pretending like Lucas is fine with Eliott kissing Lola for the film (which he clearly wasn’t, the writers seem to not know him at all)

Wasting time to edit Tiff’s head onto different animals and posting things on that cyberbullying account that no one cared about instead of posting something from the grew + the worst social media ever

Not giving us a proper goodbye to the grew and not really saying anything about their future

Lying to the fans about god knows what we will see in s6 and baiting them to watch even though legit nothing of it happened

Not continuing Arthur’s story in s6 (fine, I don’t really care about that but we were supposed to see it so ???? )

Treating some fans more privileged than the others, giving them spoilers about the new seasons, inviting them on set

FranceTV Slash and SkamLaSerie instas mocking fans in their stories - saying stuff like Lola will cause the break up between Daphne and Basile, “addiction can be useful for flirting” (yikes), creating a ship war between fans in s5 by posting two photos of Alexia/Arthur and Noee/Arthur with a caption “we love them both, we can’t choose”, the host of the live of s6 calling people on tumblr “obsessed” and not apologizing when people said they’re offended by that, blocking people who were asking questions about why the SA was never mentioned again during the live

Liking all the praise but constantly ignoring fans when they were asking questions about writing choices and then blocking them

the rest of 50 offenses under cut cause turns out they really disrespected me more than I thought

feel free to add whatever you want if i forgot about something

None of the girls really apologizing to Imane at the end of season 4 after all they’ve put her through and after they took the side of the racist (who already had a history of drama with Emma) instead of their friend

Taking away Noee’s integrity and making her say “I love you” out loud (which was totally ooc cause an episode earlier she said LSF is her language and she doesn’t like her voice) after Arthur (who was leading her on for weeks) told her they can’t be together

Male gaze in s5 because even though the sign language is a body language, the way camera was lingering on her flat, bare stomach, a few times showing a close up on her boobs during the “song-dance” scene was male gaze

Lack of beautiful, slow-mo, piano music scenes for Alexia with Arthur staring at her awestruck because apparently she’s not worthy enough

Completely sidelining the deaf/hoh storyline in favour of cheating/love triangle plot

Reducing Camille to a translator and randomly making him Mika’s boyfriend because why the hell not

Completely forgetting about Mika and Lisa after s5 (did they ever find that roommate????)

Noee kissing Arthur right after he shared his traumatic story with her and overshadowing domestic abuse with cheating

Absolutely no follow-up about P*trick and domestic abuse after s5 

Having P*trick cheat on Arthur’s mom with Emma’s mom because they’re all one big family

Random crackfic farm episode that didn’t make absolutely ANY sense

Killing Fifi rip [*]

Arthur getting hit by The Car and being perfectly fine the next day

The Boy Squad becoming cheating apologists, Lucas giving Arthur the same advice he gave to Emma in s1 and Yann (who got hurt because of it back then) supporting it

Character regression, especially for Lucas, and the whole boy squad acting out of character

Continuously trying to make Lucas look like a bad guy because they knew we would forgive him everything

Arthur suddenly liking art even though it hasn’t been ever mentioned before and his whole instagram was filled with space related posts

Parallels between Eliott/Lucas and Arthur/Noee

Catherine - or lack of her - aka the queerbait from s3

Completely ignoring character’s birthdays - Basile and Manon (second year in a row)

Not introducing Lola before and making s6 about a complete stranger but still expecting the fans to like her from the get-go and watch the show by baiting the fans with the promise of “unofficial mains” (Daphne and Eliott)

Forcing the Lola/Eliott friendship and selling it in the promo as sister/brother relationship instead of writing it in a way that would make it flow naturally

Making Eliott Otteli Urbex King only to forget the plot after more or less three clips; also having Eliott hide the truth from Lucas for months and then pretending to resolve it in a text to Lola ??? which didn’t make sense in the first place but then it turned out that it was just damage control

Making Lola hook up with much older guys than her over and over again and having one of them s*xually assault just so Eliott could play the hero and save her; never bringing that up again

Making Eliott punch people left and right - anything to protect the ladies, Sofiane punching Ch*rbage in s4 can agree I guess

Making Eliott Otteli Urbex King only to forget the plot after more or less three clips; also having Eliott hide the truth from Lucas for months and then pretending to resolve it in a text to Lola ??? which didn’t make sense in the first place but then it turned out that it was just damage control

Letting Eliott talk about his past and insecurities only so Lola could prey on them later and emotionally manipulate him into drinking

Also Eliott not letting Lola apologize and brushing off her apologies because apparently that was nothing at all and it’s okay to let people walk you over and manipulate you 

Not letting Lucas speak for himself

The whole Lux & Obscurus plot, having Eliott write the film about his and Lucas’ relationship and what his love means to Eliott only to have Lola play in it, not adjusting the script so that it would fit the change and still keeping the Eliott/Lola kiss as a big fuck you to the fandom instead of having it end with a forehead touch and fade to black especially that they haven’t even showed it to us again during the screening of Eliott’s film (but it made all the other couples turned on enough to kiss in that exact moment so maybe it had a purpose) (it didn’t what the fuck was that)

Also acting like Lucas can’t spare a few hours to film it with Eliott cause he has to sTuDy FoR tHe BaC when they were filming it in the middle of a night on Friday, how is that realistic

Not giving Eliott any friends of his own and pretending like he’s a lone wolf even though he’s the biggest sunshine ever and he’s naturally drawn to people; acting like there are no other studens at his film school who could help him film his project so instead he let Lola find random people who knew nothing about filming to help him; having a bunch of random people at the screening of his film and if they were supposed to be his “friends” from the film school then I’m gonna throw hands

Acting like we will see what “minute by minute” really means and “see Eliott like we’ve never seen him before” which never happened

Switching POV for two clips only and they all revolved around Lola because they decided to go with su*cide attempt in episode 9

Also ending that episode with a su*cide note even though the next clip was before midnight on Friday

Giving Lola the worst therapist ever and a really poor attempt at cheering her up from the nurse

Enforcing that “having a loved one” is “the real reason to change” instead of sending the message that you should change for yourself first and foremost and showing that reaching out for professional help is a good thing and can really help you

Acting like ED can be cured by italian cuisine and not mentioning it again for weeks; having Daphne ask Lola not to go to rehab because they have each other and a few clips after that she’s suddenly after her first therapy (love that for her but there’s something huge missing here)

Making Lola’s life a living hell and a misery porn for 10 weeks straight

Making P*trick, Thierry and Lola’s biological dads The Worst (men are trash but it would be nice to see some good parenting on the show)

Giving all the members of La Mif two or three personality traits and not fleshing out their characters

Giving Maya a girlfriend because a season without a love triangle is a waste

Not really developing Mayla well and having their first kiss right after Eliott/Lola cursed kiss as a preemptive damage control to shut us up

Never mentioning why Lola was doing

Wasting a good chunk of the season on Tiff and that insta account and ending it with “she’s addicted to social media”

Giving Yann like one line each season after s3

Reducing Sofiane to the background dancer in s5 and s6

Hating female characters

F/M friendships are only possible if the guy is gay, otherwise cheating always had to be involved

and you know. in general. pretty much everything they did after s3.

[littlemisssquiggles]

I was wondering do u think penny will be the new p in team jnpr and oscar will make his own 4 man team starting with emerald an maybe get 2 new other character to join him like maybe the summer maiden

Hello again Dreamer. Actually…no. Nothing against Penny but in my humble squiggly opinion, there is no need for her to replace Oscar AT ALL on JNPR 2.0 since as of V8, it’s safe to say that the show has cemented that Oscar is a core member of the new revived JNPR squad whom I’ve officially warmed up to being dubbed Team ALPN or rather ALPNE since Emerald is as much a part of group with them as Oscar is.

So I don’t believe Penny will replace Oscar. As a matter of fact, I don’t understand why there is suddenly so much fear of Penny replacing Oscar. I’ve actually had one or two anon-ninjas come to me voicing the same qualms. While I understand the showrunners have been shoving Penny in our faces for the majority of the season (to an almost annoyingly obnoxious degree) and despite certain fans implying that Penny and Oscar share similarities----that’s not to say one could easily replace the other.

On the contrary, if I had to eliminate one between Oscar and Penny, I’d honestly get rid of Penny. Not because I’m a Pinehead but mainly since, unlike Oscar, I feel like Penny’s arc is complete. Penny became a real girl in the end, matching her fairy-tale counterpart.

The way how I see it there is no more development that Penny needs to get following V8. Her story is done. If Penny survives till V9, I’m mostly anticipating that she returns to being the supporting character she used to be before. While she is most present in the story assisting our main hero group from the side-lines, she never again takes up more screen time and development than she needs to since, like I said, her arc is done.

Oscar’s story, on the other hand, is still ongoing since he still has all of the personal stuff regarding his fears of the Merge with Ozpin to conqueor while simultaneously being the key to the Vault of the Relic of Choice since that’s the only relic that Salem was unable to uncover.

Beyond that, I don’t see much more to be done for Penny nor the need for Oscar to form a new huntsmen team with Emerald on it since that’s what ALPNE is for.

 And now for a squiggly rant…about Penny:

Pardon me for this one fam. As we draw closer to the RWBY V8 Finale, I’m suddenly feeling compelled to get a lot of repressed opinions off my chest that I’ve been harbouring whole season. Since you brought up Penny replacing Oscar, it’s forcing me now to admit something I’ve been feeling about this character since the start of the season. I’m going to be even more frank, fam:

Admittedly, I’m actually quite tired of Penny being in the story and I’m sadly not looking forward to possibly seeing her return for V9 since…I kind of don’t like her character as much as I used to anymore prior to V8 since I didn’t appreciate how the showrunners kept shoving her in the limelight so much for this season.

While I understand that Penny was the Winter Maiden and much like Cinder Fall, is an example of a maiden who got the chance to be developed rather than just being in the PLOT for the sake of dying like all the predecessor maidens. While all that’s fine, fun and dandy, I REALLY DID NOT LIKE how Penny’s story and development for this season took precedent over lead characters like Ruby Rose who, as I said in my recent post, took a backseat while supposed supporting characters like Penny got to steal the show out from underneath her…again.

This is sad of an opinion for me to admit now because before, I actually really liked Penny. Because Penny is adorable. She’s the precious little baby Pen-Pen and her first reaction to realizing that she’s now human; offering warm hugs to Team RWBY genuinely warmed my heart because of how wholesome it was.

But dagnabbit, I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t also say that I honestly feel exasperated now by Penny’s overall presence in the story because of how the showrunners chose to use her for this season as well as her friendship with Ruby.

While I do like how her story ended, I disliked how Penny was used for V8 since, to me, it felt like she was made to force Ruby to remain outside of the Salem subplot on Monstra which she should have been a part of from the start given the build up from previous seasons.

Even now as we are nearing that final episode, it STILL bugs me how Ruby’s MAIN role for this season was to push Penny’s arc while her own development and potential arc got snubbed and chucked through the door. There was an entire subplot on Monstra with Salem  that Ruby SHOULD have been a pinnacle part of but she couldn’t since the showrunners felt it best to keep her out of that and at worse, use Penny to make it happen.

Instead of Penny adding to Ruby’s growth as a character, I felt she more took away from it and it is for this reason why, if Penny returns for V9, I hope she doesn’t have a big role again. Even if she remains a part of the main hero group in Vacuo, I don’t wish to see her be utilized like this again. To be a sponge that takes away from other characters’ development and focus.

As I’ll say again, Penny’s arc is complete so I hope she goes back to being a supporting character. But that’s dependant on whether or not she makes it to Vacuo safely or dies to Cinder. The verdict is still out on that. In the meantime, pardon my thoughts, fam. I don’t mean to sound like I’m hating on Penny. I just didn’t like some of the ways she was used for this season. But as always, this is only my opinion.

~ LittleMissSquiggles (2021)

[entropic-introspection]

Final Fantasy XIV: A Quick(ish) Summary As Told By Someone Too Lazy To Recheck Exact Times/Things

1.0- We don't talk about it

A Realm Reborn (ARR)- for some strange reason the world got like, completely blown up 5 years ago, crazy! You are some dumb kid from nowhere in particular, with nothing but the clothes on your back and a weapon that is little more than a chunk of wood, or a book. Possibly just your fists. You have got 50 levels and a shitload of lore to get through until you reach the first expansion.

Essentially: you don't have enough money for chicken nuggets, your fashion game is nonexistent, and every high level player calls you a sprout and exhibits Concern about your every action (they mean well).

Garlemald bad, Ascians bad, Eorzea uhhh trying to be good but kinda racist/capitalist/pirates with a history of colonialism, Coerthas is French Catholic and in the Crusades with the dragons. Hydaelin... good? Confusing, for sure, often referred to as Mother in text. Primals bad and scary, but fortunately you are immune to their mind-fuckery techniques thanks to Crystal Mom and surprisingly good at kicking their asses. Garleans mad that you ""savages"" keep killing Primals, despite having a whole mandate against Primals and Primal summoning. Ascians mad that you keep killing Primals because Ascians are dicks. People die, there is an amnesia plot, some annoying twerp is annoyingly right about a lot of things and also you can't get rid of him, Moogles, possession, fucking Ancient Aliens Allagans (if it's a problem in ARR, it's Ascians or Allagans aight), and hey ho you go and kick Garlean asses until they throw a giant machine at you that they stuffed full of Primal juice. Such devastation-!

Then there is the slightly post ARR stuff, where we're still level 50-ish but not really into the next expansion. So basically, we meet Dragon Dad who slaps Crystal Mom's blessing off of you to build character, Ascians are once again dicks, Who The Hell Names These Things, wow Lysanderoth you're definitely not suspicious at all, and our annoying twerp is dabbling in politics and for some reason you're getting fond of him?? Just in time for...

Heavensward (Lvl 50-60)- Congratulations, you are now an enemy of the state! We return/flee to French Catholic Coerthas/Ishgard, where we get to room with our Dear Friend, Haurchefant.

Don't mind how all the high leveled players have started crying. This expansion is emotionally devastating, has a great storyline, and also features canonical consensual dragon vore as a plot point. You know that tweet that's all "Church bad because they won't let you fuck dragons"? Yes, that's Heavensward. You will still cry. We embark on an epic road trip with the annoying twerp (ft his existential teenage crisis), a famous dragon killer and sadboi, and a famous lady who advocates peace/fucking dragons. Somehow, none of you kill each other. Instead, you murder a weirdly attractive bug-man with good music and a desire for violence, a giant flying whale, and some old dudes. You also beat up the same Ascian from the first bit, again. And again, in his final(?) form. Dragon Dad has come along to watch your progress, and also check on his kids cause he's actually, y'know, the entire progenitor of the dragon race. Wow! His family is very sad, mostly. But he does like you, so hey, he can adopt you and have one kid that turned out ok and happy! Hahahahha there's no therapists in Eorzea :')

Then we get to deal with "Hey we ended your like 500 year+ Crusade and kind of upended your social structures, y'all good?" (no), something something Warriors of Darkness, something something Urianger sus, then ALISAIE JOINS THE PARTY. I love her ok, let me have this. She's the annoying twerp's twin, and she's more inclined to hitting things that politics and philosophy. She's also kind of crushing on you. Also Minfillia kinda fucks off to nowhere, which is weird, b/c she has been Important but also Not Involved with the plot for like. 8 years.

Stormblood (Lvl 60-70)- Return of Lysanderoth! Briefly. Before he fucks you over, again. And a bunch of other people, honestly. But hey, this puts Eorzea in open contention with Garlemald for the first time in years, instead of them hovering in an uneasy cold war. For the first goddamn time in the game, you canonically get your ass kicked. Hard. So hard you decide fuck it! And go overseas to Fantasy Japan/China to visit some nice people you helped out earlier. You get catfished. You meet a weeb. There's some pirates, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There's Ravana take 2, this time in a slightly more 'Forever 21' phase. Wild, young, free, REJOICE.

You attempt to inspire rebellion (since your character doesn't talk much, this is quite difficult). Garleans crack down, and hey look, the dude who kicked your ass is back! Prince Zenos Yae Galvus, as by this point you've hopefully learned, even if you're bad with names like me. He kicks your ass again, but this time we break his helmet, and wait shit is he... kind of hot? Maybe? Fuck?? He pins you to a wall and tells you to find him later, it's all confusing and prompts strange butterflies in stomachs. (Side note: as a lesbian, I am making some assumptions here. Mostly based off of how I reacted to the idea of Tsukuyomi doing the same. Mm.)

Then he promptly fucks off, and to work off that sexual tension you square up and work with local friends on Rebellion! You get help from some neighboring nomads after proving you're cool enough to tame a bird, and this proves enough to free the area from Garlean control (for now). We go back to Eorzea, and prepare to kick Zenos' head in. He's playing hard to get though, so we gotta get through some other folks, learn hard lessons about war/colonization, and feel bad. AND THEN WE KICK HIS- oh no wait. Is he... coming on to us again? Oh jesus man, get a therapist, oh my god, this is awkward for us both. Turns out he's kinda depressed and just wants you. To fight him. To the death. There is some bullshittery and he becomes dragon. Fails to kill you, so he kills himself. (Spoiler: it doesn't stick)

The Garlean Empire is now pissed off at you, and Eorzea in general. Everyone is kung-fu fighting, but oops, Garlemald is preparing to commit ~war crimes~! Someone is doing something weird, which is making your Scion friends fall into comas, which is both very convenient and highly inconvenient, cause all of you are kinda needed right now! Zenos, or something in his body, is causing trouble as well. Look, even when we thought he was dead he was causing trouble.

Shadowbringers (Lvl 70-80): We find out what's been making our friends pass out- someone from another dimension has been trying to yoink you over to them, and like all attempts at using the Rescue spell, it just sometimes leads to hilarious accidents. In this case, some epic lag, so although your friends have only been out of it for a week or two at most, they've been in this other world for 5 whole years in some cases. Turns out, Garlean war crimes are all an Ascian plot (what isn't, by this point), and mysterious Crystal Exarch is hoping you can save this world and your own.

At this point, Yoshi P, the lead developer, pulls out a gun and asks if you've been doing all those side-quests and optional 48 man raids. He worked very hard on those, you know. He put in lots of lore. Then he asks if you remember all those dangling plot hooks from previous expansions. We're addressing a lot of those. And adding more. You are sweating and nodding frantically while scrolling a wiki on your phone.

You get to feel like you're in an Otome game, because there's two dudes being weirdly polite and interested in you, but also real snappish to each other in terms of "fuck off she's mine". Alisaie and Alphinaud off-screen character development. Urianger still sus. Thancred now a dad? Y'shtola still so good. A lot of things happen, and you get progressively sadder as the expansion goes on. You get a nice, great big burst of hope and love, and then SOMEONE is a DICK with a GUN. (It is not Yoshi P.)

Now you just feel bad. Your character feels bad. This is all build up for the A) some motherfucking revelations and B) the utter catharsis of "If you could take one more step... would you?" "What, all by myself?" "THROW WIDE THE GATE"

I have shed legitimate tears over Shadowbringers ok, between the music, story, and pacing it is an Experience. Oh my god tho, all the music from Shadowbringers is so good. La-HEE

[daz4i]

psychoanalyze atsumu? only if you want... im just interested on your thoughts cause your icon (｡･･｡)

*cracks knuckles* OKAY SO

(typing this on mobile so sorry if anything is weird, really hope the read more thing works too. also major manga spoilers warning!!!)

atsumu is a really interesting character, story role wise - he along with the rest of inarizaki starts as some major boss our main characters have to face in order to achieve their goal, and remains a background character for the rest of that arc

but later on in the story he becomes a consistent side character, like the rest of karasuno is for hinata and kageyama for all pre-timeskip events

in addition to that, he does go through some development over the timeskip, tho we're not really there to see his actual character arc, only the results of it (we do get enough details to go by tho, imo, but I'll get to that!)

so this^ was just to establish his role, and that it puts him in an interesting position to analyze, far more unique than a regular supporting character or a one-arc-wonder background character like he could've been (haikyuu does a really good job when it comes to giving personality and story even to those tho which is amazing). time to actually get into it now

i think atsumu's driving force is very clear, so much that even furudate said so - love. yes, competition and his brother are great motivators, but they're not the reason he does things. getting better is not what drives him, but more like his goal - to be more metaphorical, getting better at volleyball and specifically at being a setter is like the top of a mountain for him, but he's climbing the mountain in the first place simply because he loves, well, climbing mountains. everything he does, the hours of excessive training, not knowing when to quit, and becoming a pro - he does simply because he loves volleyball

(i always jokingly call him oikawa 2 bc of said excessive training and general Vibes but like, this is precisely what sets them apart imo - "getting better" being atsumu's goal or specific objective, but oikawa's driving force and motivator)

but that's just one aspect, if we wanna go full analyzation we're gonna be here awhile longer probably

so, we got atsumu's driving force. great! that's an important thing for making a recurring character! now we need 1 an obstacle, 2 some flaws, but 3 stuff that'll make them likable enough for the audience. and imo for atsumu it's:

1. an obvious answer is, for the first time we see inarizaki, karasuno as a whole. honestly obstacles in sports are p straightforward ngl. if we're talking about atsumu's character as a whole, as in more than his volleyball career, and if we're gonna focus on some short term goals, i think post timeskip he does have that minor goal to. well. be likable (just look at how hard he's trying to crack jokes at the monster gen impromptu reunion, and how straight up devastated he is when he fails + the first time we see him post timeskip, saying things like "why was i even born" because he messed up in front of other people)! and his obstacle for that is…

2. oh boy. atsumu's flaws. to put it simply, he's a dick. at least pre timeskip. he does mellow a bit after, and I'll elaborate on that later. he's also loud, kinda vulgar, demanding, childish, call it what you want tbh. tldr he's unpleasant for the people around him. also, he doesn't know when to quit - be it for training his setting skills, or calling someone out for playing badly. he keeps trying to get better even after the timeskip both because of his driving force that i mentioned earlier, and because of this, which brings me to

3. so, atsumu not knowing when to quit could be a flaw, but not necessarily! as i said, it does make him more determined, and some people may see it as an admirable quality! also he's genuinely just a fun character, possibly because he's loud and vulgar as i mentioned earlier - people love to see characters that aren't perfect because they're easier to relate to, and atsumu is no different! + his moments with osamu are genuinely just fun to watch imo, so yeah!

ok so we got a great base for a recurring character! now we gotta give them an arc. as i mentioned, atsumu's arc does happen mostly off screen, or rather the length of it does. but that doesn't mean we can't piece things together from the details we have! 

i think the main reasons atsumu mellows down through the timeskip, in addition to basic things like "he's an adult now and has to act like one", are a) him becoming a captain in his third year, and b) osamu "leaving" him

a is pretty straightforward imo - he gets more responsibility put on him, he has to grow up and be more authoritative to fit that role, he grows as a person and becomes more understanding and patient through that which adds into the person we meet 5 years later

b is more complex, in a sense. we know atsumu took it hard that osamu decided to quit volleyball, even if the signs were there even before he declared that (honestly atsumu might've just ignored them. it makes sense even, that he'll be in denial about the whole thing until he no longer can). in a sense, he loses the one person who was always there for and with him in everything he did. they're still close, but things drastically change as they move on into different fields and have different goals. osamu doesn't have the same love atsumu does, so he'll never be able to keep up the pace anyway

and as i did mention earlier, osamu was one of atsumu's motivators. to be metaphorical again, atsumu's love is like a car, and his competition with osamu was like the gas that let it drive, at first. so once this competition goes away, he needs to find new gas, a new way to make it drive. i think this whole thing was kind of like a slap in the face for him tbh, which is also why he reacted harshly. but he did find it in the form of a pro career, and then hinata, maybe competition with kageyama instead, a whole bunch of things but mostly just playing more volleyball. 

this was like. character analysis honestly. if we wanna talk specifically psychoanalysis, I'd say he definitely has something that makes him a bit more obsessed than just love (imo it's perfectionism to an unhealthy degree), and a desperate need to be liked after being abandoned by a person who was always by his side who supplied him with attention that he's now lost, and to make up for that he looks specifically for attention from people he respects and sees as equals, i think (which is why he tries hard to make other vball players like him but doesn't particularly care about his fangirls for example, as we've seen pre timeskip too).

anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk I'm sorry for rambling so much thank you for the ask!!!!

[ahyesthesufferingoftvteens]

Watched the Hollow season 2, my thoughts in no particular order (Spoilers):

Adam is gaaaaaaay my boy my beautiful BOOOOOOOY

Kai has a fuckin butler I’m w h e e z i n g 

mIRA HAS TWO DADS TWO GAY DADS AAAAAAAAA

Kai also has some parental issues which makes me relate to him even MOOOOOORE

I kinda wished Adam had a single mom cause I’m being raised by a single mom but like still I love his mom.

Kai being Kai as usual, that’s it.

There was approximately one scene that had some ReeKai potential but I take what I can get.

Adam and Reeve got some ex vibes going on and honestly Adaeve is adorable to me (still ReeKai trash tho)

I love Vanessa and I love how they made her and Kai BFFs but at the same time I got like “trying to put them together again” vibes so it also made me really uncomfortable like P L E A S E  S T O P-

Mira and Skeet deserve to be together.

WHY WOULD YOU KILL OFF MY BOY YEET SKEET HE HAD SO MUCH GOING FOR HIM AND YOU JUST DESTROYED ANY POTENTIAL OF HIM HAVING GROWTH LIKE FUCK WHAT A WASTE OF POTENTIAL MY MEMELORD DOES NOT DESERVE THIS BULLSHIT RESURRECT HIM IN SEASON 3 IF YOU MAKE IT MAKE HIM THE HOLLOW’S JESUS OR I SWEAR TO GOD-

I love Reeve and Vanessa’s character development, my god.

Skeet did get some small development not gonna lie, and I love him, but like...DO MORE BITCH-

MIRA IS NOW ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS THE HOLLOW WRITERS YOU DID A GOOOOOOD JOB IN FIXING HER SHE IS AMAZING NOW-

I got serious asshole vibes from the black haired edgy boy but it turns out he’s a total dork and I LOVE HIM EVEN MORE-

My girl...my ponytail green sweater girl died in like 5 seconds...F

I want all the digital avatar kids to meet their real life selves and just have fun talking through the screens fight me.

Purple haired girl is adorable and I love her floppy sleeves

Fuck Darker skinned Mira. I don’t hate her but like can she be anymore of a fucking asshole? At least with Reeve you could tell there was issues. With her she just did it for fun half of the time in my opinion. CHILL GIRL-

Kinda sad that Adam being gay was just...like there to be honest. Should’ve added more obvious hints of him being set up with ONE of the boys (or heck both I’m down for polyamory). I do like how they tackled Mira kissing Adam directly after Adam stated he was gay though, although it was brief.

Why does Kai dream of a chicken named Mable bitch what HAPPENED-

I looked at the background in the first episode while Adam was looking at the wall pictures and DAM ACTUALLY HAD A FUCKING EMO PHASE OH MY FUCKING GOD-

Reeve smiling, that’s it.

Reeve driving a car with badass music.

MIRA DRIVING A MOTORCYCLE AT ALL WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Kai, for once, had an actual brain cell (didn’t last long though-)

Mira is the most functional. Feel sorry for her ass having to handle Reeve and Adam.

I want Kai to get insecure about his place because of Adam and Reeve making up but instead of being defensive like in season 1 I want him to instead try to keep his mouth shut most of the time and try not to seem annoying so Adam and Mira don’t abandon him but it ends up just concerning Adam and Mira and even Reeve and Vanessa because Kai is now unusually quiet and almost seems a bit depressed and it’s Reeve that has a talk with Kai and tells him he’s fine just the way he is, and there’s some big gay between Reeve and Kai as well. I will sell my soul for someone to make a fic of this PLEASE-

I like how the last part of the last episode left some things open for a possible season 3 if the show gets renewed.

In short: I  W O U L D  D I E  F O R  A  S E A S O N  3

[hillnerd]

Did you like Legend of Korra? I was so excited to watch it but it never made me feel anything and after a while it became a chore to watch it until the end. Obviously it was impossible to reach ATLA's standard of perfection, but i never expected it would be this bad, because 4 seasons and i never understood what the story was or what's the moral of the story. Everything seemed rushed and were happening just to happen without having a bigger picture in mind.

So, I didn't much like Legend of Korra. Like you, I was very excited for the series, and like you I felt there was no ‘bigger picture’ in mind.

It started off with me not getting invested with the main teen cast. I found them to be a little one-dimensional with character arcs that fell flat or did not feel earned.

Example- Korra's first character arc in season 1- with her being unable to be spiritual, she loses her tie to her bending/spirituality- then, apropos of nothing, she can avatar state and has it all back because she randomly talked with Aang. This was a repeating pattern within the series. More thoughts:

There would be big character reveals that are interesting, then they'd immediately get thrown out and/or nothing much would be done with them. 

The characters were knocked unconscious/kidnapped just about every episode.

The different villains would start off as interesting, but then they'd kill them off.

Character relationships between the teens felt flimsy and didn't have build ups I got invested in.

I felt like the creators used humbling Korra via torture/trauma counted as a character arc/growth- and honestly it felt a bit liek torture porn for no reason. Like, how DARE this woman be cocky? Let's DESTROY her episode after episode.

It had some AMAZING ideas for alternate bending practices, and I loved some of the cast (Tenzin and Lin Beifong I LOVED.) But the main teens felt more like tropes than fully fleshed out characters for me. 

Mako and Asami were so stiff and boring when their backstories were super interesting and could have been these amazing motivators. Bolin was adorable, and my fave of those main four- but I didn't like a few of the arcs they chose for him. 

Korra was never going to be my fave character because of her personality and dumb decisions, but she was fine and I think they WASTED her character arcs. (I've never been big on dumb cocky jock characters who aren't funny/clever/lovable and don’t even have a tragic backstory. They just aren't my fave. :P) 

 Korra had a few moments in there that were very powerful, and I loved when she had that moment with the airbender dude on the bridge- moments like that were really great, but too few and far between. Even the animal characters were more about the DESIGN than their personality.

I loved the look/design of much of the world they developed. It was interesting, though felt waaaay too 'American' instead of feeling like a truly asian-based culture? It felt like they thought 'ah, the 1920s! Aka, new york!' which was sad, because the way traditional culture of Asia got blighted out by Westernization in real life was a huge tragedy- and they had this chance to really go 'alternate development of technology/culture' with the world- but instead were like 'Modern=Super Western.' Varrick was a fun guy- I had a ball when he was on screen- but yet again it all felt very 'we're taking this straight from American history.'

I love that they had a bit of a lesbian ending to the series- but not gonna lie, I felt like Korra and Asami's actual on page relationship was lackluster, had no chemistry besides what they LOOKED like together, and just felt as flat as every romantic relationship we saw. (Seriously, the only one that had something going on was Jinora/Kai? Like, even Tenzin and his wife didn’t do much dynamically.)

The best characters were the ones tied directly to the original Avatar cast- Aang and Toph's progeny. They had some amazing characters and moments there. Honestly, they could have made Korra be Sokka's grandkid and had her take a bit more after him and Suki- that could have been cool, but instead they did nothing with either of them. :(

They kind of took a huge dump on our original cast at times, I felt- and honestly seeing the original Avatar and having the mechanics of the spiritual world/Avatar cycle so spelled out felt a whole lot like when star wars did midichlorians. It just took away a lot of the magic and didn't do much for the series, to me at least.

So yeah... There is interesting stuff, great designs, and it had a bunch of potential- I just think it never was fully realized as it could have been. I feel like the strongest suits of the creators are their imaginative takes on ways to use bending, ways to fuck with people, and their designs. They seemed WAY more invested in the adult characters when it came to internal motivation/character arcs/personality/history etc. and I WISH they’d just stuck with them when they were younger, to be honest. They were way more interesting than any of the teens/kids. I’d love to see ‘the Aang Gaang’s’ kids doing adventures way more than anything I saw with Korra and her pals.

[orionsangel86]

Sam & Eileen - A Supernatural Romance.

I am quite clearly over the moon about 15x06 and Sam reunited with and bringing Eileen back from the dead. I was so over the moon in fact, that I burst into tears when Eileen stepped out of the bathtub and took Sam’s hand. That was… wow. 

That was the most romantic moment in this show since 13x05 “it’s never too late” (also a return from the dead!)

So I was inspired to write an homage meta post celebrating Sam and Eileen’s romance looking back at everything canon has given us on this epic pairing.

It turns out, despite all my usual grumbling, there is still one het ship out there that I can totally get behind, and no one deserves love more than our dear Sam Winchester.

11x04 - Baby

This is where I believe the story started for Sam. 

“You don’t ever want something more?”

(x)

“You know, with a hunter? Somebody who understands the life?”

This question, from Sam to his brother at the start of Season 11, has shaped so much of the subtext in the seasons following. It’s significance to the Winchesters individual development arcs, their hopes, their dreams. It blatantly spelled out for the audience what both these boys desire and what they deserve for each of their endgames.

Not a white picket fence, not the apple pie life, just something. Something that suits them. Something to share with someone else, romantically, who might fit that particular box. Let me be very clear here and stress that Sam certainly wasn’t talking about him and Dean finding that something with each other.

Dean’s journey towards finding that something has been building for even longer than this particular moment in canon, with the other stand out scene being his confession in 10x16 where he talked about having things, people, feelings, that I want to experience differently than before, or maybe even for the first time. Dean’s journey is something we have discussed at length, and as every meta writer in fandom knows all too well, it only leads in one particular direction - towards a certain dreamy blue eyed angel. 

Sam’s journey has not been discussed as intensely as Dean’s, but 11x04 did lay groundwork for the writers to build upon. It hasn’t been as smooth or as obvious in the subtext as Dean’s either, with certain writing decisions appearing to come out of left field and confuse the path. But it seems that Dabb has course corrected and brought us back on track. 

This episode was the first time in canon in a long time that we heard Sam textually voice his desire for a romantic relationship of some kind. I therefore immediately got excited and locked this moment away in a pocket in my heart to pull out again if ever the show would introduce a character who could fit those requirements for Sam. 

The show did not disappoint.

11x11 Into the Mystic

GOD I forgot how full of delicious layers this episode was! It was written by the same writer who wrote 11x04. Robbie Thompson clearly had something in mind for Sam when he first wrote that script, and he gave it to us (and Sam) in this episode.

Eileen is introduced in 11x11 as another Hunter on a quest for vengeance - to avenge her murdered family.

It isn’t a surprise that we basically immediately shipped Eileen with Sam after this episode first aired, because her entire backstory is written to compliment Sam. Within the first 5 minutes of getting to know her, she already fulfills the requirements from Sam’s wistful speech in 11x04. She is a hunter, she is someone who understands the life. But more than that, she is all of the following:

She is on a revenge quest

She has murdered parents

She was raised by a Hunter or rather “trained” to be a Hunter rather than raised (in a scene which implies a similarly strict hunter upbringing to Sam and Dean)

She continued hunting alone after her guardian died

Her grandfather was a Man of Letters, making her a MOL Legacy, just like Sam.

Her mother was a lawyer, so she makes a joke about studying law which prompts further bonding with Sam due to his Stanford law education.

Eileen catches Sam’s eye almost immediately, and it is surprising I didn’t pick up on that on my first watch at the time, but Eileen is literally disguised as the cleaner in order to go unnoticed. Sam had no reason to be suspicious of her, and I think at the time we all assumed that he just wanted to question a potential witness - but even so, there was no need to interrupt Mildred to go speak to her. Could Sam’s distraction have been a bit more than strictly professional? In hindsight I’m gonna go with YES.

Their next meet is cute simply because by this point the audience is misled to think that she is actually the banshee. The ominous music tones, the shots of Eileen watching the Winchesters from a window. We believe that she is the villain, and then when she uses magic to pin Sam and comes at him with a dagger it’s practically a romantic trope used in enemies to lovers fics. A case of mistaken identity (another trope) and Sam and Eileen are able to reveal each of their truths. They bond immediately with both Sam and the audience learning all of the above. the checklist requirements indicating their compatibility is so blatantly obvious its almost too on the nose. But then het romance always seems that way doesn’t it?

The real kicker in this episode that made my heart sing at the time was this:

“Feel free to drop me a line if you ever need anything. Or even if you just wanna hang out”

“you can’t call me though, I mean you could call but I won’t answer.”

(x)

FIRST OF ALL - HOW DARE YOU KILL ME WITH FEELS SAMMY OVER THAT GORGEOUS SMILE

Sam’s line here though was SUCH A LINE. “Or even if you just wanna hang out”

I see you Sam Winchester. Hoping for Netflix and Chill right? I know you have Netflix. You gave Cas your password. :P

This little interaction at the end of this episode was pure flirtation and it was gorgeous to watch (and to rewatch, with hindsight, knowing what happens in 15x06 to totally deepen their relationship. Urgh. I guess I really am a sucker for a good old fashioned Supernatural Love Story!)

The other big takeaway from this episode is that meeting Eileen rejuvenated Sam. He starts the episode unable to sleep, haunted by his Lucifer trauma and feeling so down and broody that Dean steps in constantly to ask if he’s okay and try to engage in talking about feelings (always a bad sign for a Winchester to get to the point where they feel they need to ask the other to talk about feelings!)

But the end of the episode marks a significant change in Sam. He smiles, he opens up to Dean, he textually states that the case helped him. He opens up a keepsake box (that we never knew he had before this episode) and puts the retirement homes leaflet in there - an indication that he actually has hope that he might live to see a happy retirement (a wonderful sign for someone who just 40 minutes ago was acting like a total nihilist.)

The case alone wasn’t some spectacular revelation, so what else could have possibly caused Sam’s change of heart? The answer is obvious. Eileen did. She acted like a beacon of light this episode for Sam, and in a perfect bookend to how the episode opened, Sam curls up in bed, turns off his light, and is able to sleep. It is only Dean who spends the night restless and haunted.

This was the first time that Eileen acted as a “win” for Sam just by meeting him.

Unfortunately, we don’t meet Eileen again until a whole season later in

12x17 - The British Invasion

This episode is a far cry away from 11x11′s layered genius. Messy, overly plot heavy, too many various character stories causing mental whiplash, too much focus on unnecessary side characters, LUCIFER existing in general, an unnecessary sex scene between Mary and Ketch (eww), a bloody death scene, and moments of utter stupidity from the lead characters.

In other words it’s a CLASSIC BUCKLEMING.

Do yourselves a favour and if you ARE planning on re-watching this episode, just skip to the parts with Dean, Sam and Eileen (the Dagon and Kelly stuff is relatively good as well - the rest is utter garbage).

Anyway, pushing aside my hatred for the terrible duo for a moment, I will say that as per usual, what they lack in subtlety and intelligent subtextual layering, they make up for with a sledge hammer to the face in terms of trying to get a point across. So when it comes to Saileen in this episode, well, it might as well be canon already.

Practically every time Sam and Eileen interact in this episode, they are framed as a flirtatious couple in the early tentative stages. The smiles and playful flirting, the smirks when one does something to make the other proud. It is very clear, even if it is still technically subtextual, that both Jared and Shoshannah are playing this like these characters are attracted to one another, and are building on that relationship.

Hell, even Dean teases Sam twice about Eileen in this episode (though once was in a deleted scene that they should have kept instead of the Lucifer crap):

(x)

What we also find out from this opening scene, is that Sam and Eileen have been communicating off screen since 11x11. It is textually confirmed that the two of them have been developing their relationship previously, and we just haven’t seen it. Did Eileen visit the Bunker previously? Because she certainly seemed comfortable there this episode. Have her and Sam cuddled up to watch movies previously? (We know another pairing that textually do this even though we’ve never seen it on screen - Dean and Cas). Dean feels comfortable enough to tease his little brother in that playful typical sibling way, so clearly Eileen at this point has become a more frequent character in Sam’s life. It’s just a shame we as the audience have never seen anything of it until this episode. 

This episode might be the first time we have seen her again since her introduction, but it certainly isn’t the first time Sam has seen her since. This is canon.

The rest of this episode continues this theme of displaying with zero subtlety that Sam and Eileen have something more than friendship. One of the easiest ways to truly see the effect of this is just watching Sam in scenes with her compared to Sam at any other time. Like in 11x11, Eileen manages to light Sam up and have him grinning like a puppydog. It’s kind of adorable and also quite shocking when you realise how rare it is to see Sam smile (or any of the characters in this angstfest of a TV show for that matter.)

Just look at the above cheesy smile in the car scene. Look at Sam’s bashful face here when Dean teases him in front of his girl:

(x)

Look at this smug face when Eileen snaps back at the irritating guy:

(x)

Jared hits every mark playing a loved up Sam Winchester. 

By the end of this episode, a tragedy strikes and Eileen is scared off. Their relationship here ends on a comforting hug, because meaningful relationships in this show are almost always first signified with comforting hugs following traumatic events, and tentative hand holding.

The way he strokes her hair gently is just SO touching and intimate.

(x)

When all is said and done Eileen leaves, terrified of the British Men of Letters. When Dean asks Sam where she was, he tells him she went back to Ireland, and Sam looks so dejected at that thought. I don’t see how anyone can possibly read his reactions towards Eileen as anything other than romantic affection.

As a bonus point - I will mention that due to Bucklemings sledgehammer approach, it is quite clear that Eileen plays a Cas mirror in this episode. All of her scenes with Sam are paired off against Dean who spends this entire episode trying and failing to get hold of Castiel. In the Winchester’s final scene, Sam greets Dean in the morning and immediately asks his brother about Cas. Sam does this a lot in season 12, because Dean’s concern for Cas is present throughout every episode in which he is absent. Dean admits he is worried, but changes the subject, instead asking Sam about Eileen (note that it is the next morning so Dean assumed she had stayed the night).

Both brothers revert to the other when it comes to their respective partners. Sam leaves it up to Dean to contact and worry about Cas, and Dean does the same with Sam about Eileen. By this being a common pattern throughout pretty much all of Carver/Dabb eras, both brothers subtextually acknowledge that they each have a strong emotional connection with their respective potential romantic partners and therefore any contact or communication about each partner must come from the brother closest. 

12x21 - There’s Something About Mary

Another Buckleming episode and the less said about this one the better. I won’t even mention the extremely insulting and inappropriate way to kill off a disabled character (almost as bad as killing off a lesbian by having nazis butcher her) I also won’t comment on the letter that Eileen sent Sam which whilst it did have romantic undertones, was clearly written by a 12 year old girl and did not marry with Eileen’s character at all (Eugenie showing her misogyny again).

The one good thing that came out of this episode (the only good thing) was Jared’s understated grief over Eileen’s death. 

(x)

(x)

His performance dealing with her death in this episode was beautiful. It was understated, but clearly portrayed as heartbreaking. Unfortunately Sam had to push it down and bottle it up. 

Eileen’s death was a huge shocker to us all as it didn’t make any sense at that point to cut short a story that seemed so clearly to be on a specific trajectory. We often talk about how Eileen’s romance with Sam at the time was tied to Dean and Cas, and that their relationship paralleled Dean and Cas’s in the narrative. This is all true, especially the death of Eileen coming as foreshadowing for the death of Castiel at series end. Just looking at that above gif of Sam where he looks at her corpse bears an extreme resemblance to Dean pulling back the sheet and looking down at a dead Castiel in 13x01.

However much I squee and love that these relationships are clear mirrors of each other though, I need to stress how Saileen, how Sam and Eileen’s canon relationship, is so much more than that. They may have mirrored Destiel, but they are also totally different, on a different course, and with a totally different backstory. Eileen doesn’t exist just to give Sam his own version of Cas to run off with. She is not there just to push up a separate ship. Sam and Eileen’s romance stands alone in this story. It may mirror DeanCas at times, but its purpose is not for DeanCas. It’s purpose is for Sam and Eileen. 

Right from the start she ticked all of Sam’s boxes, and the clear attraction between them made it obvious. Yet Eileen was not written to just be a love interest either. She is an ally, a capable hunter, who is written deeply, with her own trauma’s and tragic past. Yet she keeps fighting, all whilst owning her disability and making it work for her rather than hold her back. She is hardly a Lisa, or an Amelia, both of whom had zero depth of character and were more or less written to look pretty and concerned as the Winchester boys basically treated them terribly. Eileen stands out as an individual character far beyond her relationship with Sam. She was full of potential which is why her quick death was an absolute travesty. 

Eileen should not have been killed off. I believe even the writers are well aware of that, and this is why they brought her back. 

Which brings me to:

15x06 - Golden Time

We knew long before this episode aired that Eileen would be back as Dabb revealed her return at SDCC. He made comments at the time ensuring that any characters he brought back would not be fanservice, that they would be characters chosen because the writers felt their stories ended too quickly, and that they had more stories to tell. Something I believe that DabbBerens are doing in particular in this season is righting the wrongs of the past. Eileen’s death was a clear “wrong” and I think its highly likely that DabbBerens’ were aware of this and saw Eileen as a no-brainer to bring back. As I said at the start of this post, Dabb is course correcting, getting his endgame plans back on track, and ensuring that he hits certain markers in order to do that. 

Once again, we are at a place in the story where Sam is grieving, and suffering deeply from all of the loss and trauma that he has faced. Being God’s personal puppet, losing his mother, losing his son, and losing someone he was close to in Rowena by his own hand, has left him in a dark place. Sam’s arc in early season 15 plays out very similarly to Dean’s arc in early season 13. A Winchester in desperate need of a win.

Eileen was Sam’s win in this episode.

Given the time that has passed since Eileen’s last episode, and how the narrative has progressed since then, I was worried that Eileen’s return would seem like fan service, and would therefore fall flat (I felt this way with AU!Charlie and never warmed to the character because of it). I was also worried that whatever potential relationship might have been building between her and Sam in seasons 11 and 12 might not have shone through in this episode. But thankfully the writers played it pretty damn perfectly and Eileen’s return wasn’t just a small side plot to an otherwise jam packed episode (like Kevin’s return in 15x02). No, her story was the A plot as Sam devoted himself to finding a way to save her from a terrible fate.

My concerns about their potential romantic relationship not being played as it was in 12x17 were also completely unfounded. From the moment Sam saw Eileen’s ghost whilst on a jog the romance was immediately back and I have no doubt that Jared and Shoshannah are once again fully playing up the connection and romantic attraction between the two. 

I am so convinced of the romance being put across here, and I want you to see why I adore this so much (in case you don’t already see it). So here are my biggest and most important takeaways from Eileen and Sam’s scenes in this episode and WHY I feel these stand out as significant elements towards proving the writers intentions for this to be an endgame canon relationship:

1. Aside from the obvious similarities between Sam and Eileen that were written into 11x11 in order to ensure that Eileen was able to stand as Sam’s equal, the one other thing that we have long discussed that Sam needs in a partner is someone who at least somewhat understands the trauma and pain that he has experienced in his life. Sam has predominantly bonded with people via shared trauma. Before her death, Eileen had had her fair share of traumatic experiences growing up in the tough hunter lifestyle, but spending an eternity being tortured in Hell is a different level of trauma entirely.

This episode cleverly once again elevated Eileen to the same level as Sam. They are equals now, both through good and bad experiences. Eileen was dragged to Hell, and only escaped when Chuck released the souls. Given that 1 year on Earth is 100 years in Hell, this means that Eileen was in Hell for 250 years give or take. Her trauma, her pain over this, is something that she can’t talk about just yet, but this significant connection between her and Sam was textualised clearly:

SAM: “I’ve been there too. Hell… long time ago. You try and forget but it gets inside you. Talking helps.”

EILEEN: “I can’t. not yet.”

SAM: “I understand”

And he really does. It is something that we can argue is a shared suffering that can create a (forgive me for this) profound bond between two people. The only other people who can understand just what he has been through were Dean (via years of Hell torture), Cas (via shared Lucifer possession), and Rowena (via shared Lucifer torture). Eileen now makes that very small list.

2. The other big factor that this episode made clear to point out textually was that this is not a Chuck manipulation. This really is Eileen, and her return from death is not part of Chuck’s story: 

SAM: “Rowena got it, she didn’t know the details but she knew the game was rigged so this. Magic. This is how she kept control.”

The reason I do not believe that Eileen is part of Chuck’s manipulations is this very pointed line right here about Rowena. Along with many other things in this episode that indicate that it isn’t guided by Chuck, Sam specifically clarifies that Rowena used magic to maintain control over her own universe.

Whilst I fully believe that Rowena will be coming back as Queen of Hell (because whatever happens to Heaven and Hell at the end, they will need balance, and someone to play caretaker and Rowena has just been set up for this role far too perfectly for me not to at least consider the option), this episode so beautifully respects and honours her character, to the point that Rowena, even in her absence, is able to control and play architect to all that happens. Rowena effectively is given Chuck’s role over this particular narrative, but instead of being framed as something villainous, it is portrayed as a precious gift that she has given to her protege Sam.

Rowena rigged the system for herself, as Sam textually explains. Her use of magic, was her way of escaping Chuck’s control, and it is through Rowena that Sam is also given this power. The power to bring back someone he loves - who was most likely taken from him by Chuck’s own dark and poorly written story (yes I do believe that Meredith was throwing shade at Buckleming in the deep subtext - pretty much all the other writers do this all the time if you pay close enough attention :P)

Rowena’s journey from villain, to reluctant ally, to friend and then finally to family, is one of the most beautiful and epic journey’s on the show (rivalled only by Castiel in my opinion). She remains one of my all time favourite characters, and her tribute in this episode, that even after death she could bestow such a precious gift to Sam, is one that I think will remain one of the more touching stories this show has given us. This is yet another reason why I believe that Sam and Eileen are endgame. Because it is a gift from Rowena, and I believe it is a gift that will be honoured by the writers.

3. It’s a small moment, but it is IMPORTANT. Sam confirms that he was teaching himself ASL after he met Eileen. In a moment of adorable flirtation Eileen beams at him and a bashful Sam smiles and bounces on the spot like a giddy schoolboy. This is yet another reveal of moments in the lives of the Winchesters that we just don’t see in 40 minute episodes. That it is canon that Sam spent hours of his life teaching himself ASL so he could more effectively communicate with Eileen is so precious. There is no way to argue how much she meant to him. 

But it isn’t just evidence of Sam’s affections, it proves to be a useful tool to the hunt in this episode as well. When Sam is unable to speak due to the witches curse, he is instead able to sign “My brother” to Eileen so that she knows to go and get Dean. It is Sam’s knowledge of sign language, which he learned due to his affection and interest in Eileen, that saves his life in this episode. 

One point that I HAVE to mention here is how the writers gave so much thought to their depiction of Eileen as a deaf person, and how wonderful her return is as representation for deaf and hard of hearing people everywhere. In both this episode, and also in her first episode 11x11, her disability was not treated as a set back, but as a tool that enables her to get ahead. The only time the writing displayed an insulting and frankly ableist light was Bucklemings 12x21 which isn’t really surprising. We expect such things from Buckleming. The other writers have proven how much more compassionate and caring they are.

The idea that Sam Winchester could end up falling in love with a beautiful, deaf woman in Eileen is practically unheard of in TV media. When do the protagonists ever end up with anyone less than “TV perfect”? It is groundbreaking that Supernatural in it’s 15 seasons has grown so much and come so far. That it started with the fridging of two women, that it’s cast remained predominantly white men throughout its entire run, that it was blackened by excessive misogyny in its early days, as well as ableism via the treatment of Bobby Singer’s paralysis in season 5. 

Supernatural has faced heavy criticism throughout it’s run, but it seems like the writers have listened and are learning. By allowing Sam and Eileen to have a happy endgame, they are doing a wonderful service in truly putting this show on the map for progression and representation - They just need to make sure that they follow through on that other big important thing too…

4. Rebirth and new beginnings. I am reminded of 13x05 and the brilliant Steppenwolf song “It’s Never Too Late To Start Again” as I rewatch the bathroom scene for the hundredth time. If the rest of the episode hasn’t already had you crying out how desperately these two should be together I fully believe it was Meredith’s plan (along with the entire production crew and Shoshannah and Jared), to have us all bawling our eyes out in happy tears that Sam and Eileen get to be together now!! (well, I certainly cried. A lot. and ruined my mascara. and squeaked at such a high pitch only dogs could hear me. The only other time I have had that reaction was in 13x05… oh, and 12x19. It’s RARE okay!)

I think the most significant point here is the touching of hands, which calls back to an earlier painful moment in the episode when ghost Eileen reached out to try to comfort Sam as he despaired about being a cosmic joke, and found she wasn’t even able to touch him. 

It is a romantic trope that was most famously used in the film Ghost, where touch was a big part of the on screen relationship. Supernatural displays this same trope rather perfectly here when the big win of the episode takes place, and Eileen emerges from the bathtub alive and whole, and tentatively reaches out to take Sam’s hand again with vastly different results.

(x)

Sam is so hesitant to touch her back, so fearful that this isn’t real, that he isn’t being allowed this. The overwhelming sense of relief and warmth that radiates from him when he finally does take her hand was exactly what made me burst into tears. The moment is so extremely breathtaking, so intimate and touching that your heart just aches for them to have that happy ending. It’s rare that Supernatural gives us moments like this, but when it does give them, when it allows its characters a win, they are immediately memorable and stand out as bright spots in an otherwise dark show. It’s moments like this that make watching these characters suffer so much worth it in the end.

The hug that comes after the touching of hands is just as intimate. This is portrayed as a lifeline. Something for Sam to grasp onto and breath. Something that inspires him to change his outlook, to gather his determination, and to convince his brother to join him and fight for the happy ending that both of these boys so desperately deserve.

(x)

The entire bathroom scene was a testament to how well Supernatural can work romance into its narrative. How these talented creators can easily provide us with a romantic scene to tug on our heart strings. Anyone screaming that romance doesn’t belong in this show I will now point at this scene and tell them exactly how wrong they are. This scene is EXACTLY what this show needed. 

For anyone denying the romance here (yeah funny how the bronly’s are so anti Saileen - I wonder why...) I’ll spell it out for them:

This is how you set up a romantic scene in TV Production:

1. Candlelight. Check.

2. Soft focus (dates back to the 1930s when films would use soft focus to portray the dreamy emotional uplift of happy couples in love - see Meet Me In Saint Louis for a very clear example). It is almost always considered a filming technique to portray romance. Check.

3. Chivalry. As if any of us didn’t expect Sam to be a perfect gentleman! But the fact is that the way he turns his back and waits with bated breath to see if the spell had worked is shown as anything other than platonic. He is almost shy, knowing that if and when she emerges from the water she will be naked, but he turns to preserve her dignity. Check.

4. Leading on from that, this is literally a naked woman emerging from a bathtub whilst Sam awkwardly stands in the room. It could have been highly sexualised. They could have used that god awful 70s porno music they like so much in this show. Sam could have made a joke to dispel the tension. If this was a platonic friendship, any of these things would have given it away. The fact that none of this happened, that the scene remained tense and intimate but not overly sexualised only further validates the romantic reading. I mean LOOK AT THIS:

CHECK

5. The music. Music is such an important part in any story. It always plays a vital role in signifying the correct atmosphere, and the correct tone of a scene. We talk about music a lot in relation to Dean and Cas and the sweeping melodic notes that usually compliment any heightened emotional DeanCas scene. The music during THIS scene though? Well it was beautifully romantic in every way. If in doubt, just go back and listen to it with your eyes closed. Play this music track over another random scene of two people sharing a moment, and it will make the scene read as romantic. I guarantee it. 

CHECK AND MATE.

Overall, this episode was the most romantic and most intimate Sam and Eileen have ever got yet in canon. It is a clear indication that their relationship is heading in a positive direction. I couldn’t be happier with how the writers are portraying this and am jumping for joy at the thought that Sam might actually get what he desired all those years ago during 11x04 when he tried to bring up the topic to Dean in the Impala.

We know from promo photos, that Eileen is still staying with Sam in 15x07. That she comforts him. With images like this to go on:

I’d say with some confidence that we will get to further watch their relationship grow, and I couldn’t be more excited for it.

I fully expect there to be darker moments coming up, and potentially Eileen will be sent away for a period of time (my money is on Chuck “dusting” her the way he did with Becky in 15x04 because I don’t believe that kills people and I do believe that they can be brought back from wherever he sends them too - plus “dusting” makes me think of Avengers Endgame which I find amusing because the “dusted” all returned at the end. I wouldn’t be surprised if Supernatural played around with that as it so often likes to play with pop culture references). I think that post Mid Season Finale we will be back to a period of utter loss and despair for the Winchester boys, and that therefore those who they feel strongly for (aka Cas and Eileen) will have to be separated from them.

However, the point is that it is always darkest before the dawn. In this story, 15x06 has laid the groundwork for Eileen to be Sam’s romantic endgame. It’s now up to Sam, and Eileen, to make sure they fight to get what they both so desire.

Bring on the finale show.

(If you liked this meta run through of Sam and Eileen’s building relationship, please leave a comment for me. It took forever to complete! Also, please click the links under the gifs and go give the gifmakers some love! The gifsets I have used are all wonderful and deserve your reblogs. (Gifs that don’t have links are my own)).

:)

[helmes-deep]

I'd love to hear more about why you love Marianne/Brandon and Sense and Sensibility in general!!

Oh my word, yes!! :D :D I also wanted to let you know that I’ve also been thinking of sending you some Austen-related asks as well, but I think your askbox is disabled?? If you don’t want to be sent asks, though, that’s okay, too; I’m okay with chatting as well, I was just wondering since you sent me this one!!

First off, I probably really like Marianne and Brandon together mostly because of how well Alan Rickman portrayed him, lol. His expressions of quiet pain, grief, and unrequited love were just so on point that I was amazed and actually quite impressed by how well he portrayed Brandon’s reserved, but quietly passionate, lovesick nature—it was also the first time I’d realized that he was actually quite talented and an accomplished actor (and I grew up this whole time knowing his existence as Snape, lol). His lovestruck expressions are just SO GOOD!! Like when he sees Marianne playing the piano for the first time or when she thanks him for saving her. Alan Rickman doesn’t have to say a word, but you can see everything happening to Brandon through his expression and eyes. His portrayal of Colonel Brandon is one of my favorite cinematic portrayals of any Austen hero—if not my absolute favorite of all time. I just loved how Rickman portrayed Brandon having so much passion for Marianne, despite it not being overtly dramatic or in-your-face. In terms of the books, Marianne and Brandon actually aren’t my favorite Austen couple, but in terms of cinematic adaptations, the 1995 version is my ultimate otp. 

On an additional note, I’m also a sucker for the “unworthy/lowly guy loves popular/pretty girl” trope in relationships, and I also loved the angsty pining that was happening between Marianne and the Colonel, lol. I just LOVE that angsty drama, lololol. I also think that Marianne and Brandon’s dynamic is also a lot more interesting than Elinor and Edward’s—Marianne and Brandon have a lot more of the “opposites attract” type of thing going on, and moreover, Marianne matures from being in a relationship with Brandon, unlike Elinor (though, to be fair, I guess the point of Sense and Sensibility is that Elinor is more mature from the get-go, so perhaps that’s a moot point, but I still think that there’s so much more to explore in regard to the “opposites” dynamic between Marianne and Brandon than there is to Elinor and Edward).

Secondly, Sense and Sensibility is not my favorite Austen novel. It probably ranks as fourth or fifth?? on my Austen reading list?? (First is Persuasion, then Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and then maybe Sense and Sensibility or Northanger Abbey; I haven’t read Mansfield Park yet :v) It’s very plodding with how little action/dialogue there is and how much we read about what’s happening in the characters’ heads instead of actually getting to see it happen (in a way, this is fine since it seems like Sense and Sensibility turned out to be more introspective, but I prefer more action in my reading :dd). But Ang Lee’s 1995 portrayal is perfect, imo. Granted, I haven’t seen another film adaptation for Sense and Sensibility, so I don’t really have anything to compare—and I do wonder if my opinion of the film would have been different if I’d read the book before seeing the movie—but the movie does so many things well from beginning to end, imo, that I don’t think my opinion could’ve changed that much if I’d experienced the book first. The book Sense and Sensibility is a bit like Emma, imo—a story that plays out much better on screen than it does on the page (unless your only option at the time is to read it :p). I love the story, plot, and all the casting (Edward kinda annoys me in the book with how reserved he is and he kinda still does in the movie, but Hugh Grant—as much as I kinda don’t care for him, lol—plays his super-reserved and shy ways very perfectly, imo). It just summarizes the original’s story and spirit so well, imo, with all of the drama and dialogue and romance and longing, etc. that you’d expect and want to have from any Austen or period film 👌👌

In regards to Marianne and Brandon, I love how the 1995 adaptation does a much better job of Marianne coming to the realization that she loves him. On the smallest level, perhaps I am just a tiny bit disappointed that I didn’t get as much Marianne and Brandon interactions in the book as I’d hoped, but I still think the movie does a much better job of outlining Marianne’s growth. I don’t quite agree with Austen’s sentiments that you shouldn’t be as boisterous or passionately driven as Marianne is at the beginning of the book, but what I do like about her arc in the 1995 version is that she comes to the realization that true love isn’t always excitement and fiery passion—sometimes it’s just quiet, steady care from the person you love, and most importantly, it’s always there for you to support and look after you (I think maybe if Austen had come up with that lesson at the end of the book, it might have held up better over time—certainly in ours, I think—but I get why she compared and contrasted the things she did, considering her time period). This progression that we get with Marianne’s developing feelings for Brandon in the film are so much better than the book’s, imo, where Brandon and Marianne barely talk to each other or get any interactions at all (I think Brandon maybe says one line to her in the entire book??). The book’s ending just seems extremely rushed with how Austen pretty much jammed all of Marianne’s closing development into like three large paragraphs. I honestly think Sense and Sensibility’s ending reads very rushed when you compare it to Austen’s other stories, imo—at least in regard to Marianne’s arc. I was really surprised by how quickly Marianne’s story ended, considering how much time and care she gave to Pride and Prejudice’s ending (which I read before S&S). It almost seemed like even Austen was getting tired of how long this book was dragging along and decided to just end it fast because none of her other books seem to have that kind of quick/snapshot end development, imo. I suppose you could argue that Sense and Sensibility is more of Elinor and Edward’s story than it is Marianne’s, and that Marianne’s situation at the end of the book is kind of her “punishment,” which I get, but still MARIANNE AND BRANDON ARE MY OTP AND I WILL NOT HAVE THEM DISRESPECTED LIKE THAT, LOL the terribly rushed ending just seems so out-of-place for Austen, imo. So yeah, that’s why I love the 1995 film version more than the book, lol, and from all the cinematic adaptations of an Austen book that I’ve seen so far, it is probably my favorite 💗😊

[sotorubio]

hey! i totally understand being grossed about by the kiss. i was just wondering, why do you hate the season as a whole? I’ve been thinking other than the kiss the season has actually been pretty good! Just wondering your opinion!

hey!! for starters i use the word "hate" v liberally so if u see me using it it doesn't necessarily mean i have had a terrible time 24/7 in fact there have been a ton of stuff i rly enjoyed since i love lola's character n lamifex n all that jazz it's been cool!

however, objectively i think it has been p bad n tonight's whole thing ruined a lot for me (not only the kiss but also i rly... didn't like the "you're my addiction" thing.. what was that :/). this season, for me, has been p similar to s5 when it comes to its problems. individual clips? often v nice there have been so many great clips w daphné n lola but as a whole? they just never lead anywhere and/or aren't addressed properly like when lola found out daphné told their parents abt her n it was a whole thing but then it just. ended w the supermarket clip even tho lola had a right to be angry. then when maya ghosted her lola was hurt n angry n maya said she couldn't talk to her while she's drunk even tho she knew at this point lola was an addict. that fight/ghosting was never properly resolved n next time they met LOLA was apologetic n while yes she was v rude to maya but like. she had a right to that n it ended in her apologizing instead (the exact same thing that happened in season 5 w the le gang falling out n then arthur showing up to the trip apologetically when AGAIN he had EVERY right to be angry w the guys)

second thing is the amount of storylines. this season has felt v.. introductory? up until like the sixth episode they just kept bringing up new things that never went anywhere n Still haven't gone anywhere

then the things they haven't acknowledged yet (there's still time so they Might acknowledge these at one point but personally i think it should've been done way before now)

the above mentioned fights

lola's true feelings abt her mom n how she has treated her + lola's relationship w thierry (probably will be explored more but last time we saw them she just forgave him immediately after seeing him slightly sad)

the sa storyline (if they don't acknowledge this AT ALL... ❌ but it should've been discussed by now that's a traumatic event)

lola sleeping w adult men? jfc pls bring this up soon lmao

lola's psych/therapist who was never seen again w/o ANY explanation (this season is supposed to be abt addiction n mental health right? so let's give the main character a professional to support her but then show how bad professional help is for u n how u should just find love instead we have such great rep /s)

then there r a few more things that they truly need to address but I won't criticize it for those yet bc there's still time to go through stuff

bonus points if daphné is benny.taxi that will completely destroy the amazing n well written development of their dynamic n no there absolutely is not any time to mend that again if it breaks their bond (n if it doesn't that's simply just bad writing bc checking on ur sister like that is extremely creep n crossing personal boundaries) + if we count sm as a part of the season never forget how bad their social media game is it's laughable

then a more personal reason rather than an objective criticism is that the interactions between lola n the og squads feel so forced (except w daphné ofc). it would be much more fun n enjoyable if lola had a group of her own age n much more realistic like idk abt y'all but i would not want to make my little sister a permanent part of my friend group msjflsjfkd

ALSO! everyone is loving the wlw rep which is always great for sure but i still don't know if lola's a lesbian or bi bc originally she was hinted to be a lesbian by the director himself but then she keeps sleeping w men w/o it ever being addressed anywhere n some ppl were saying she was stated to be bisexual off screen in an interview or a live show of some sort so if that's the case i personally don't think wlw rep can be that good if the ppl making the rep don't even know the simple difference between a bi woman and a lesbian.

[scftuan]

Coffee, Black.

Genre: Mafia!au

Rating: M (brief depictions of violence and smut)

Characters: Byun Baekhyun x reader

Summary: he was the heir to Seoul’s most infamous mafia empire and she was just the girl who made his coffee. But somehow, that’s all the mattered.

“I’m sorry, we’re not open.” You called over your shoulder as you continued wiping down the back counters, coffee grounds and random spills discoloring the damp cloth you were using.

“Not even for your favorite customer?”

You rolled your eyes, turning around to see Byun Baekhyun grinning back at your, his eyes scrunching with the crookedness of his mouth. “I wouldn’t say favorite...probably best considering the unhealthy amount of coffee you consume.” You deadpanned, even though you were already moving to put together Baekhyun’s go-to order.

“You really know what to say to get a man going.” He teased, pulling a chair out from one of the tables and sitting backwards on it, his arms wrapping around the back of it as his legs straddled the sides.

“Hmmm, what does that say about your desperation level that someone giving your a dire health warning can ‘get you going’?” You said, coming out from behind the counter to set his coffee in front of him.

“It says that I find dangerous situations sexy, especially when you’re involved.” He winked, sipping his coffee with a cheeky smirk as you turned away, hoping he hadn’t seen the faint flush that had graced your cheeks.

——————

“Okay, who’s the guy?”

“Who said there was a guy?” You asked your friend, trying to feign innocence even though your lips were already turning up at the corners in a smile.

Your bestie squealed, grabbing your hands to pull you down onto the couch with her. “Tell me all about him. First, what’s his name?”

That was easy. Byun Baekhyun was a name that had become common for you in the amount of times you’d said it, heard it, or thought it. Anything else? That would be more difficult. You knew he liked coffee more than life, that he seemed to come from a large family, that when he wasn’t working he could be found enjoying online games and the occasional flirt session with any female who passed by. But try as you might to learn more about him, Byun Baekhyun had been very tightlipped concerning his personal life.

But you couldn’t tell your friend that...so you lied. You told her all the things that made up your ideal type...and you hoped that all these things were true for the only person you wanted to fit them.

—————-

“You’re an odd one Byun Baekhyun. Most of my customers are college students and seniors in retirement. But you still have yet to explain where you fit in with those.”

Baekhyun shrugged, running a hand through his dark locks. The ends were growing out and now the black strands fell into his eyes—you had an itch to push them away, but it was one you ignored. “Doesn’t matter where I fall sweetheart, I’m still the most gorgeous thing to walk through your door.” You would have retorted if you knew it wasn’t true. When you’d seen him for the first time, you had thought he was a model. Tall, with broad shoulders and a slim waist. Dark hair, either slicked back or hanging in a tangled mess depending on his mood. Dark, almost eyes that twinkled in a face of chiseled features. White teeth that twisted in a crooked grin which stood out starkly against his golden-toned skin.

So instead of a retort, you turned back to the obnoxious task of pretending to be re-shelving all the stock in the back. The next five minutes or so passed in a silence that was almost uncomfortable. In fact, you had almost broken and turned around to bicker with Baekhyun again, when you felt something solid and warm pressed against your back.

“I’m bored.” You heard Baekhyun murmur, his breath fanning the stray hairs around your face, the sound of his deep voice rumbling from his chest against your back. “Play with me?”

“P-Play with you? This isn’t a kindergarten Baekhyun.” You huffed, hoping to disguise how quick your breathing had become.

Baekhyun chuckled, one hand pressing against the counter next to you, the other just barely touching your waist. “Oh, believe me love...I realize just how far you are from being a child.”

You spun around then, eyes locking with his as you stared up at him. For the first time, you almost wanted to fear him. Like this, pressed against you, exuding danger and power. Dressed in black like a shadow and eyes dark with desire.

“Who are you Byun Baekhyun?” You whispered, hand unconsciously reaching for his face. Before it could make it’s destination, Baekhyun had pulled away, taking a step back. Immediately, the darkness faded and his crooked grin twisted his mouth into that funny shape that made him seem almost boyish.

“That is for me to know, and you to find out.” And just like that, Byun Baekhyun was gone.

—————

After that ‘incident,’ Baekhyun didn’t come back to the cafe. You tried to make yourself feel better with the argument that he held no obligation to this place and there were plenty just like them in Seoul—all probably with better coffee and prettier girls.

‘Stop that Y/n,’ you mentally scolded yourself, having found that you’d lost track of counting the day’s earnings, ‘Byun Baekhyun owes you nothing and you owe him nothing.’

But a little voice wanted to whisper ‘liar.’ Liar for not admitting that you owed Byun Baekhyun your heart more than he owed you his.

—————

“Y/nnnnnnnnn.”

You frowned, attempting to push past the solid wall of body that was Byun Baekhyun as he whined at you. “Don’t ‘Y/n’ me. You haven’t been to the cafe in almost two weeks and you expect me to just close up shop for the day?”

Baekhyun pouted, his puppy dog eyes softening even more than usual (and melting your heart along with them), “I know I haven’t been around—work has been busting my ass. I wanted to apologize by taking you out.”

You’d daydreamed all the ways Baekhyun might ask you out, but using a date as an attempt to butter you up had never been one of them. “Thanks but no thanks Byun, its not like we’re friends so I don’t see how it even matters whether you try to make it up to me.” As soon as the words had left your mouth, you wished you could take them back. You saw the way Baekhyun’s eyes hardened, trying to cover for the hurt you knew he was feeling. “My apologies, I guess I just assumed somewhere along the way you may have at least developed some fondness for me.”

Now it was your turn to feel that twinge of hurt. Did Baekhyun not realize how deep your feelings ran? Or maybe he did and he was just teasing you with them. “How could you expect me to have ‘fondness’ for you when you won’t even tell me the most basic things about yourself? I know nothing about your personal life, about your hobbies, your friends, not even about your job!” You shot back, trying to mask the burn of the tears in your throat.

“If I told you about my work, I’d have to kill you.” Baekhyun said cooly, and somehow, you knew he was joking.

“Fuck you Byun.” You hissed, shouldering past him as you furiously wiped the tears out of your eyes.

And wish it as you might, Baekhyun didn’t come after you.

—————

This time, when Baekhyun didn’t show up to the cafe, you knew why. It wasn’t because of work, it was because the words you shared were too heavy to walk off. In your despair at missing him so much it hurt, you vaguely remembered saving the phone number he’d given you. At the time, you’d done it to tease him, saying that there was no way Baekhyun could survive the bruise to his ego that came with a girl rejecting his number for the first time. Your finger swiped over the screen of your phone, thumbs hanging just over the keyboard—ghosting a message to him that you would never send.

By the end of the day, you’d sent multiple different messages to him in your head:

‘I miss you.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘I didn’t mean what I said.’

‘I was hurt, you know that I think of you as a friend...as more than a friend.’

“Stupid.” You mumbled, pressing the heels of your palms to your eyes as if that would block the tears threatening to spill.

The ring of the bell above the door jerked you from your thoughts.

“I’m sorry, we’re closed.” You choked, breath shaking as you prepared to turn around and face the customer.

“Not even for your favorite customer?”

You gasped, spinning around to a sight that made your heart drop in your chest.

Before you stood Byun Baekhyun. But it wasn’t the cocky, vibrant young man who your heart had been aching for. This person was battered and bruised. Blood matted the hair around his face, the trickle of blood sourcing from a cut on his forehead. A split lip and a darkening black splotch against his cheek completed the facial treatment. And that wasn’t the least of it. His hand clutched at his waist where a dark red was coloring the stark white of his dress shirt.

“Oh my god, Baekhyun what happened?” You demanded as you rushed over to him, none too soon as he collapsed, his weight pressing against you as you caught him. His groan of pain hurt your heart as you tried to gently set him on a chair.

“Its just a scratch.” He mumbled, his eyes fluttering and his breathing shallow. He was looking far too pale as the shadows under his eyes deepened. You glared at him, and he at least had the decency to look a little sheepish. “I really shouldn’t have come, but I-...I didn’t know where else to go. All I could think about...was you.” He admitted, letting out a hiss as you removed his hand from the wound on his side.

“This doesn’t look good Baekhyun. You need to go to the doctor. Let me call the hospital and-“

“No!” Baekhyun exclaimed, his hand grabbing your wrist desperately as he pulled you back down to him. Realizing what he’d done, his grip loosened, though he didn’t let go. “Please Y/n, you can’t call them. I’ve had worse...besides, that’ll just make things worse.”

You wanted to argue, but something about the look in his eyes made you stop. “Baekhyun, please, no more secrets. Who did this to you and how did it happen?”

Baekhyun sighed, “Fine, I’ll tell you, but would you mind getting that first-aid-kit and also a needle?” Once those things had been gathered (along with a damp cloth to start cleaning his face), Baekhyun started his explanation. “Y/n, I’m not who you think I am. The things I do...well, they aren’t exactly legal.” “Gee Baekhyun,’ you sighed, ‘that really clears things up.”

“Hear me out!” He protested, his hands moving to fiddle with the first-aid-kit as he began taking out gauze and alcohol. “My dad...he’s not a good man, in fact none of my family is. Have you heard of the Byun Family?” You nodded. When you’d first moved to Seoul, you’d heard rumors of a family that was the power behind most of the major businesses and people in the city. Supposedly, they were mafia types who worked in the shadows and made their success through shady dealings and ‘accidents.’

“Whether fortunately or unfortunately, that’s the Byun Family I’m part of. In fact, I’m the oldest, the only son, and thusly the heir.” When you still said nothing, Baekhyun continued: “I’ve grown up in this life. I’ve...hurt people...killed them in fact. I’ve done what I’ve had to do to survive and make myself every bit of the imposing leader that my father is.” He sighed, giving you the chance to begin dabbing at his cuts with alcohol and antiseptic. “Thats the reason why I haven’t been around lately. My father...he’s stepping down, which makes me the official leader. I’ve been running almost everything anyway, but now that its official and without my father’s ‘prestige’ to protect me, I’ve been having a lot of...close calls. Dealing with them has been a pain in the ass. Tonight was supposed to take care of the last of them, but they got the jump on me and my men and I was injured in the crossfire.”

“This all still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here.” You mumbled, taking out the surgical thread and needle, having a feeling Baekhyun was going to need it.

“I had to get out, and I needed to go where they wouldn’t find me. You were the first person that came to mind. But-fuck, Y/n I really, really shouldn’t have come. I’ve put you in danger and-“

Before he could finish, your lips had pressed against his own. Apparently, the shock wasn’t enough to keep Baekhyun’s arms from wrapping around you, his lips moving against your own. When you pulled back, Baekhyun somehow didn’t look so beat up despite the deepening color of the bruise against his cheek.

“I’m really fucking glad you did that because I’ve been wanting to kiss you since I first stepped in here.”

“Yeah, yeah.” You said, rolling your eyes as you made a whining Baekhyun begin taking off his shirt. “Lets get you bandaged up first and then we’ll talk.”

Baekhyun smirked, despite wincing at the shot of pain, “If you wanted to get my shirt off you could have just asked.”

“Shut up Baekhyun.”

—————-

Things didn’t go completely back to normal. But they did start to get better.

Now that the secret was out, Baekhyun became more open with you. Little by little, he told you about his family, about his life, about anything you wanted to know.

Instead of delving into the gory details, you started simple.

You learned that he had a corgi named Mongryong, that he had a whole youtube channel’s worth of vlogs that he never posted, that he hated cucumbers—that he even went through of period of time where he dyed his hair every other week.

“No wonder your scalp looks so dead.”

“Hey!”

One day, he even told you of his secret dream.

“I wanted to be an idol, you know. I took dance lessons secretly since I was already doing taekwondo and had the flexibility for it. I even learned to play the piano, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.” He told you one day as you closed down shop for the evening. You looked at his hands, smiling softly at the delicate and long fingers, perfectly designed for touching the ivory keys of the keyboard. “Will you sing for me someday?” You asked softly, your fingers brushing against his. He grinned crookedly at you and nodded, “Yeah, just for you.”

—————

You don’t remember how you’d ended up here, tangled between the silk sheets of Baekhyun’s bed, gasping his name as he held your hips down, mouth working over that spot on your womanhood that had you practically screaming.

“You taste so sweet.” He murmured between licks and sucks, earning him a distressed tug on his dark locks.

In the haze of pleasure, your mind recalled him entering the shop, his fingers lacing through yours as he pulled you into the dark streets, into his even darker car, and finally into his apartment (or penthouse more like). You’d teased him about being ‘kidnapped by the mafia,’ but Baekhyun had been all serious as he made you sit down on the couch in his expansive living room.

At the silence (and the dark considering Baekhyun still hadn’t turned the light on), you started to grow nervous. “Baekhyun? What is this all about?” You asked, laughing shakily as your eyes adjusted to the darkness. You noticed his shadowy figure move, taking a seat at something across the room. “Close your eyes Y/n, and listen.” He murmured, his voice echoing in the darkness.

You obeyed, and almost instantly your ears picked up the soft notes of a piano. As the notes grew in number and intensity, you gasped in realization.

Baekhyun was playing the piano.

Baekhyun was singing.

His gentle voice carried as his fingers moved across the keys, painting a story of longing. The plight of his tale awoke the own feeling blossoming within you, the one you’d been trying to squash down since the day Baekhyun had walked into your life. When the music stopped, you released a breath you hadn’t been holding. “Baekhyun,’ you breathed, “that was beautiful.”

A light flickered on and Baekhyun smiled shyly at you, before his expression suddenly changed, “Oh my god,’ he said hurriedly, rushing over to kneel before you, his hands cupping your cheeks, thumbs brushing against a wet substance, “are you okay?”

You laughed, hands moving to touch his, “I’m fine Baekhyun, but you...you’re otherworldly.” Something softened in his eyes, and Baekhyun’s hand moved slightly, thumb brushing against your bottom lip, “Funny, I always thought of you as my angel, my saving grace. Before I met you...fuck, Y/n, I was a mess. My life, it was so fucked up, and I liked it that way. I didn’t care what I had to do, who I had to hurt, nothing mattered except that rush of power, the knowledge that no one could touch me. But you did Y/n. When I walked into your shop, you touched my heart from the first. After that, I vowed to protect you.” He paused, gauging your reaction (though you were entirely enraptured by his words). “It would have been easy to walk away, I’ve done it enough times to not have a conscious anymore. Besides...walking away would have protected you, being with me Y/n...it means danger and fear and—fuck, I’m really not good at this.” He rambled, eyes flickering between your own and your lips. “Fuck it, Y/n, I’m so desperately in love with you that I can’t be selfless.” And then his lips were crashing against yours, his hands holding the back of your neck as he rose up to meet you. You gasped, your eyes instantly snapping closed from the shock. Instinct kicked in and you found your fingers threading through his hair, pulling a whine from him.

Okay, so maybe thats how you’d wound up here, your back arching as your body shook with the power of your climax, mouth opening in a silent scream of Baekhyun’s name.

You could feel his smirk against your most intimate parts as he worked you through, fingers joining the mixed as they curled within you, brushing against sensitive spots that had you jolting from the nerves.

“I’ve always wondered what you’d look like in the throws of pleasure. God, you’re breathtaking...but I bet you’ll look even prettier wrapped around my cock.”

If you were in a normal state of mind, you’d be aghast at the lewdness of his words, but you were too busy dragging him back up to you so that your mouths could meet. “Shut up Baekhyun,’ you breathed between kisses, hands moving to finish removing the last piece of clothing between the two of you (his boxers), “and get inside me.”

Baekhyun didn’t have to be asked twice. With a solid push he was inside you, making you both gasp. He was so...big, you’d never felt so full and you found yourself craving the feeling. You clawed at his back, knowing you were probably leaving scratches as your urged him to move.

“Holy shit,’ Baekhyun hissed, his hips moving to give a shallow thrust, ‘you’re so tight, fuck how could you possibly feel this good.” You couldn’t find the words to answer, and Baekhyun didn’t press you as he began to move. At first, he started slow, pulling all the way out before pushing back in again, stretching you to a point you didn’t even think possible. But as you both became more desperate to reach that peak, his pace picked up until he was practically pounding into you. His mouth worked at your neck, your hips rising to meet his as you chanted his name. “B-Baekhyun,’ you whimpered, fingers desperately trying to find purchase in his hair, on his shoulders, his back, ‘I’m so close Baekhyun.’

You heard his dark chuckle as he drew back enough to look at you. “Are you gonna cum love? Wouldn’t surprise me with the way you’re sucking me in, fuck it’s almost like your pussy doesn’t want to let me go. Guess you’re more of a slut than I thought.”

You moaned, so close to that climax you desperately wanted you couldn’t argue with him, “Only for you Baekhyun.” You murmured, mouth dragging against his jawline, “So if you’re such a boss, make me cum like I’ve never cum before. Fuck me until I’m bruised.” That was enough for Baekhyun, he growled and made himself move even faster, fingers moving to swirl around your clit. “Then fucking cum for me princess and I promise my name will be the only thing you remember for the rest of the night.”

With a scream so loud all of Seoul could probably hear, you came, stars bursting behind your eyes as white hot pleasure surged through your veins. Baekhyun didn’t last much longer either, the feeling of him coming inside you causing another cry of pleasure.

When the high cooled down, Baekhyun flopped down next to you, arms snaking around your waist to pull you against his naked chest. He sighed, pressing a kiss to your shoulder blades, “I didn’t hurt you did I?” You smiled, shaking your head. “No, of course not. I won’t break Baekhyun.” He laughed, and you decided you liked the sound. “That’s good, because believe me, I have no plans on you leaving this bed anytime soon.” You blushed and smacked him playfully, though a yawn stifled the force. Noticing the sudden wave of sleepiness, Baekhyun smiled, “Get some rest love, I’ll wake you for round two, and believe me, it’ll be the most pleasurable alarm you’ll ever experience.”

You rolled your eyes, though they were already starting to droop in sleep. The last thing you remember before dreams came for you, was the whispered affirmation of the love that you now shared.

Maybe he was the heir to a mafia empire, and maybe you were just the girl that served him coffee...but in this moment, that’s really all that mattered.

[deviant3lover]

OOOOOOOO! You writing for other charaters now? Cuz, here are some bois I'd like to see your take on! Pick and choose who you'd please: Zombieman, Child Emperor, Tatsumkai, Sonic, Flashy Flash, Mumen Rider, King and, (one I'd really like to see) Sweet Mask. Thanks, and happy early birthday!

Thank you~! And lmao, my birthday was like, a month ago now;; I swear my attention span is hella weak- I see a shiny thing and I 

Z I P 

Outta my work and go over to look at it for the next 3 days.

And anon… dear anon…

I will do ALL OF THEM.

MUMEN RIDER:

If I’m being honest? I honestly hated him when he was first introduced.

He cycled as fast as he could to confront the Paradisers, had a moment where he parked his bike, (a bit awkward, but I faintly enjoyed the sight) pulled off a show of confidence that implied that he knew the gravity of the situation and has a way of dealing with it effectively (the common subversive tactic: weak looking character has tremendous strength) and then got DECKED ON with one hit, showing that it was just shallow hot air he couldn’t back up.

And then he got credit for the work that Saitama did. (Albeit unintentionally.)

Not… the greatest first impression. I thought he was an overconfident guy who was playing hero, uncomprehending of the danger that he puts himself in for the sake of living in an idealised fantasy that since he’s the protagonist, since he’s the one with determination and a heart of gold, it’ll all work out. Him cycling towards the Sea King at full throttle, with him apparently not taking the hint from the Paradisers, drove that belief home to me even more.

(Wow, I sound like Garou here. :o…)

And then he launched into his spiel.

How he felt like he wasn’t good enough to take the promotion, how he knows, better than anyone, that he’s weak. That yes, he might not win- might even get killed for his fruitless efforts for it, but what matters is that he tries. Not because he feels like he can pull it off eventually, or that the monsters will submit to how ~brave~ he is, but because it’s just important to try in the face of overwhelming odds, if it means that others have a slightly better chance of surviving because of it. Willing to die just so others won’t, even when you’re dismissed as a weakling both in the present and after death.

And that made me doubt about what I thought of him.

It wasn’t until I saw him trying to convince TTM to leave Garou alone, trying to intervene when Garou attacked him, and getting his face smashed repeatedly into the concrete sidewalk for his efforts by the same man he tried to defend, that I was utterly convinced that Mumen was genuinely heroic.

This may be a little dark, but I have a feeling that Mumen’s sense of justice doesn’t entirely stem from his selfless nature, but also from feelings of worthlessness. That he goes above and beyond to be a hardworking hero because he feels he has no worth if he dares do otherwise. The Christmas extra chapter in the manga sort of sparked this belief for me. If Mumen’s sense of justice was purely selfless, he’d mention other options (e.g. Friends inviting him out, new bistro downtown, setting up a mini Christmas tree and treating himself to a nice present) and maybe consider injecting some time for himself for them, if not on Christmas day, then the day before or after. Instead, he says with a smile, that he’ll be patrolling the streets for danger with no allusion to his personal life. And that lingering suspicion still sticks to me to this day.

CHILD EMPEROR:

First impression? I didn’t think too much of him, because I didn’t have much reason to. Very little screen time in the early manga/anime didn’t get me to form much of an attachment or investment in his character.

But later on? I like him! A kid prodigy, but it’s made clear time and time again that he still has room to improve, and I’ve always been a big fan of personal growth and developing self-reflection/awareness in stories. The fact that he wasn’t a stuck-up brat who thought he knew everything, and (taking into account that he’s literally 10 years old) still had a great deal of growth ahead of him in terms of the technological and the personal…

Yeah. I’m definitely holding out my hope for seeing a side story dedicated to him.

If I had the luck to choose the idea for the plot, I would love to see what sparked his love for technology, his mishaps and successes and so-so’s when it came to developing his skills and his gadgets. I want to be able to see the people around him reacting with awe and confusion over this kid hurriedly drawing up complex diagrams on a chalkboard board for different ideas before they leave his mind, which gadgets he’s put the most work in, the most time on, and is proud of, and finally; if he had a snobby phase and is ashamed of it. Bonus points if he took a break from his work to read up on how to be more like a mature adult so that older people will take him more seriously outside of being an inventor.

SONIC:

I, uh… honestly don’t think too much of him? He never really stuck with me.

Conversely… I do, however, like the few times we get the spotlight shined on him. He’s a badass to watch, and I laughed and cringed when the infamous ‘accidental punch’ scene came up on my screen. Considering the fact that I watched the anime first before the manga, I wasn’t anticipating it at all.

Which makes me glad in this case! The animated scene feels way more impactful and memorable than the manga version. I felt the build up and the rapidly increasing dread rise in me as I saw Saitama’s fist slowly punch Sonic’s unmentionables. Animating the- ahem- impact of his punch done me in and seared that scene into my mind.

Hmm… I feel like Sonic’s a more rebellious version of Flash, whilst also having been influenced by him. The both of them enjoy taking care of themselves in more luxurious ways, with their glossy hair and refusal to be filthy or rough in any way (e.g. Flash taking good care of his hair in the shower, Sonic opting to cook the monster cells and serve them tastefully before eating them) but I feel like Sonic likes rebelling more outwardly towards how he’s been trained and conditioned as a ninja compared to Flash. He just gives off that vibe~

Expanding on that, I feel like he’s more self-reflective and subtle in his thoughts. Flash is sort of absorbed in his own business and narrow range of experiences (not that I’m blaming him: he’s a busy man) while Sonic is more rooted to reality, and is a little more mellowed out to show for it. In the audio CDs, he gains a new understanding of what Saitama is forced to go through and respects him more as a person than just a milestone to beat, and he overcomes his trauma of Saitama ‘punching him’ by accepting what happened and simply keeping the possibility of it happening again in mind; not to torture himself or blame himself for being ‘weak,’ but to acknowledge what he’s fearful of and accepting it, allowing him to move on.

FLASHY FLASH:

I was gunning hard for him to be a cold-blooded woman assassin who wants to look elegant and deadly at the same time. Femme fatale, minus the seduction.

I was a little disappointed when he turned out to be a guy, and more so when he riled up Metal Bat with his insults while telling them to cut it out (counter intuitive, but it wouldn’t have been so bad if I wanted to see that. But I didn’t want to see it so lmao-) so, apart from his cool character design, I was a little turned off in my investment in him.

I was hoping that they kept the name ‘Lightspeed Flash’ instead of Flashy Flash. Yes, I know that they’re pretty much the same in terms of meaning, but the former just sounds more dignified. Considering he’s a man who takes himself seriously in both his work and appearance, I feel like it’s more in character for him to suggest a hero name that sounds more impressive, but still shows that sort of silliness underneath when you look closely.

He gained back some of my respect for him when he directly told Tatsumaki off for stealing his kill and talking down on him. That takes mad guts and I was wondering which of the heroes are willing to risk a serious fight with her to prove that they’re not one to be trifled with.

(Metal Bat was a little different in that regard: at the time, I just saw him as another affectionate parody of the delinquent trope. Nice contrast to the rest of the older, calmer heroes, but a little generic.)

Flashy Flash… yeah. I feel like he’s willfully disconnected himself from the world both emotionally and socially. Not because he’s afraid, but because he thinks it’s useless. He’s already seen the worst of it thanks to his upbringing, so there’s no point in putting in effort to go out and explore just to discover what else is wrong with the world.

I also think that, like Tatsumaki, he feels more than competent on his own and believes doesn’t need any outside help or interference. Hence, anyone who doesn’t meet his personal standards immediately has their opinions and suggestions of him dismissed or not truly considered with respect. He thinks he knows what’s best, even when there’s opinions screaming that he’s not, because he doesn’t respect others that way.

KING:

OOF- Okay, I was actually pretty ambivalent about him.

I thought he was cool when he intimidated the Tongue monster into submission, then thought he was an egotistical, vain hero when confronted by the G4 monster, then thought he was a pitiful, cowardly man forced to flee out of necessity, and then thought he was an endearing puppy when he realized just who Saitama is to him.

And. Hm.

King is… a very genuine man. I like him. Like Mumen Rider, he’s willing to put himself on the line to protect others. What makes me a little conflicted is if he’s more, the same, or less heroic than Mumen.

More: He has absolutely nothing to defend himself with in terms of physical skills or strength. His luck is his only maxed out stat in the hero game he’s obliged to play, and he’d rather be left alone, but he still puts his life on the line to help others, even when he’s scared witless.

Less: He does have his awe inspiring, fear inducing reputation that can neutralise the monster threats more often than not, and is aware of this, using it to his advantage. So maybe he’s a little less courageous since he knows it will work in his favour more often than not.

My take on him…  King strikes me as a good man. In a normal, monsterless world, he won’t be the kind who’ll fearlessly charge into battle against terrorists, or pull off any awe inspiring feats by himself by passing life saving legislations; this man isn’t interested in grand scale heroics and would rather support those who are interested and are good at it.

No, King strikes me as a man who wants to keep to himself and offer his sincere help to those who manages to become good friends with this shy man. He may be quaking in his boots at imminent danger, but he’ll still try to stand up for what’s right when someone else is being taken advantage of, even if he’s not entirely sure of what he’s doing.

AMAI MASK:

(RECENT WEBCOMIC SPOILERS!!)

I never cared much for Amai until now.

I can’t imagine anything more devastating than working yourself down to the bone to protect and give people hope, to cultivate others into what it means to be a true hero, only to realize the people you worked so hard for was just as hideous as you used to be. This man worked so hard, and him protecting the people he cared about wasn’t enough to deter them from reacting with horror and disgust. It wasn’t even five minutes until the first of his ungrateful ‘fans’ tried stoning him.

Thank God Saitama intervened… the look on his face after he was called a cool guy was both ugly cute and heart wrenching. He may have been called dreamy or inspirational by the adoring masses, but being broken down to the very thing that you’ve been ashamed and fearful of your entire life, and still having someone who sees you as someone worthwhile must’ve meant the world to Amai. He’s a monster, yes, but he kept a vice grip on his morals and never let them go, even when his grip on them was weakening with every breath he took.

I also liked the way that ONE written his rise to fame. The build-up and anticipation surrounding how he looked behind the mask, Amai himself being bitter over the vanity of the public, learning to accept it, and gradually became obsessed with embodying the symbol of justice- this time, where everyone can see it. But it wasn’t on his own terms, no; instead of being seen as the ugly but virtuous man before, he has to present himself as a handsome idol, instead of being loved and revered for who he truly is; ugly and all. That it’s not a defect.

And I felt pity for him when I realized that’s what happened.

My opinion and takes (interpretations) of him? He’s interesting, to put it lightly.

If I think more on it, I feel like he’s losing himself to his delusions. It’s ironic: someone focusing on saving the hearts of others, yet all they can see is themselves.

True to the series, Amai reminds me of Genos. Of what Genos would’ve turned out to be if he was kept alone with no one he can truly connect with. No one who can remind him of the sweeter things in life that don’t matter. No one you have a personal, deep connection with to return home to.

Amai strikes me as a man who’s so focused on eliminating evil that he sees it everywhere, no matter how small or large it is, or if it even exists. If someone doesn’t live up to his standards or sees what he sees, he immediately has this sort of insurmountable, unseen distance from them that can’t be easily crossed.

In all honesty, I’m intrigued and worried for him. Part of my indulgent ideas for him is that he’s slowly starting to hallucinate and had started monsterize from the inside for a long, long while, and it’s only by the Association’s dependence on him and his adoring fans that keeps preserving the man that he used to be when he was purely heroic, but hideous. And even then, it’s not enough.

I feel like he’s painted himself in a corner where he feels it’s too late to try and get help for his condition, instead desperately searching for someone who can take his place. He knows how important a symbol is, and if he had the choice, would keep it up as long as he lives, but his passion for it isn’t enough to drive off what he’s becoming.

And he was right.

ZOMBIEMAN:

I may have done Zombieman already, but I also realise that I’ve missed out on some things that I wanted to include~

In contrast to Amai, Zombieman strikes me as the type of guy who’s a sort of ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ character. Unlike the book character, Zombieman is in a society that accepts, reveres, and adores him for all he does despite his questionable history and to what degree he is ‘human.’ He doesn’t seem to believe that what he is makes up for who he is, and anyone who thinks otherwise will earn his ire; but again, like Frankenstein’s monster, he knows it’s a part of him, and that it’s still a source of discomfort for him. He needs to get that skeleton out of his closet for him to truly enjoy life.

TATSUMAKI:

Honestly, I didn’t notice too much of her character until much, much later in the manga. Prior to that, I admired her ability to take care of the worst threats by herself. Soloist heroes and protagonists were always a soft spot of mine: learning to handle the worst of what life had to throw at you and being good at it, but not necessarily good at taking care of your emotional and mental wellbeing, confiding in others about that, and showing that it’s okay to be vulnerable or lost or flawed, and endeavoring to fix that?

Yesss. Good trope. One of my favorites.

So, what finally caught my attention from her?

Her fight with Psykos.

I was sort of seething with the way Psykos was chilling smugly in her underground lair. Her plan was smart, but the way she was so self-assured and the way she thinks she’s above others; human and monster alike, sipping wine all the while?

That irritated me a lot.

So, to see Tatsumaki rip her from her cozy room and into the fray of the battle, coercing her into spilling intel by twisting her limbs and body each and every way to force it out, and striking fear into her heart with that sadistic, predatory smile of hers?

I loved it. Whoo!

As for takes… I’m not sure if I have any on her to be honest! At least, not one that isn’t already canon. She believes that you shouldn’t rely on others to become strong, or to save you, and has lived up to that idea by herself. She can back up her words and I admire that.

I do feel a little sorry for her, considering what she’s gone through. As much as I agree with her, sometimes she can take it too far.

I was a little irked by her showing little to no concern for shielding her team mates from getting crushed underneath the rubble of a building, with Darkshine stepping in to protect them, but I suppose she had a point; you have to take care of yourself on the battlefield.

Still; her total lack of concern left me a little perturbed.

This was curbed a bit by her refusing to uproot the association until she knew Tareo was safe; I feel like that added more character to her in the manga, as opposed to the webcomic.

In conclusion: All of these characters are good. UoU! Murata and One are great writers, and they made them feel fleshed out and distinct from each other in almost every way possible whilst keeping them believable. And I love them for it. :3

[popwasabi]

“Picard” S1 Review: Doesn’t boldly go but is nonetheless engaging

Produced by CBS All Access

Starring: Patrick Stewart, Isa Briones, Allison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, Evan Evagora, Harry Treadaway

Many fans had high hopes for “Picard” going into CBS All Access’s continuing voyage into the Star Trek franchise.

Fans wanted to see the lore finally expanded into the future after its previous three ventures (Enterprise, Abrams Trek, and Discovery) took place in the past, bring modern themes and ideas to Star Trek’s futurist’s world view in a way that felt fresh and relevant, but most importantly continue the story of the franchise’s greatest captain; Jean-Luc Picard, of course.

(He���s the best captain. This is not up for debate. Don’t @ me!)

In some ways the new series succeeds at this. We get glimpses of the previously untouched world of Star Trek post “Nemesis,” new themes that are resonant with real world events and exploratory, even critical, of the Federation’s worldview, and of course plenty of Picard himself as he navigates the strange new galaxy he inhabits.

But Picard ultimately misses the mark due to rushed storytelling, half-baked side plots, and just plain poor execution overall. It’s sad because “Picard” and this very talented cast and production team have their moments throughout this first season’s ten episode run but somehow even with 10 episodes of content to work with fans still end up with a somewhat jumbled mess.

(Me by like the eighth episode.)

This isn’t to say “Picard” isn’t worth your time if you’re an avid Star Trek fan or just someone who likes Patrick Stewart in this role in general but the first season will leave you still hungry for more and not in a good way.

“Picard” continues the story of the titular captain, now retired admiral, many years after the events of “Nemesis” as a retired Jean Luc reflects on his life in Starfleet and of his late friend Data who gave his life for his. A synth ban has been enacted in Starfleet after a major riot on Mars some years prior and Picard is understandably sour on the idea, given his relationship with Data, while also fighting Starfleet on not helping the exodus of the Romulans after the supernova that wiped out their homeworld in “Star Trek (2009).” When a young woman comes seeking Picard’s aid after an attack by mysterious assailants, revealing that she is an android and the possible daughter of Data, and gets killed, it is up to the retired Admiral to find her twin sister before she suffers the same fate.

Before we get started let’s throw out some of the bad faith arguments on why this series wasn’t all that good.

“Picard” doesn’t suck because it has “politics” in it. At this point, if you are complaining about the existence of social viewpoints and political/philosophical discussions in your Star Trek, or let alone any series for that matter, I don’t know what the hell you’ve been watching the past few decades. Star Trek has always been more than just a show about cool-looking spaceships and laser beams, you neckbeards.

(Hell, even the other “Star” got more going on in it than that.)

It’s also not bad because of female representation or “girl power.” Again, Star Trek has always had this and frankly having a few more instances of the women of Trek taking center stage doesn’t even come close to rebalancing the scales on the overall massive representation of cis white men across the genre and even the series anyways.

Also get the fuck over the use of curse words in this series. While certainly some instances in this show felt awkward, the use of the word “fuck” does not dilute Star Trek’s overall story.

(It would have made earlier season’s funnier for sure.)

Now that that’s out of way let’s get into the real reasons that, for me at least, the series fell short of an otherwise promising goal of delivering great new Star Trek.

The main problem stems from the series overall jumping off point in its first episode. Picard is understandably still upset about the death of Data and having him deal with survivor’s guilt is a great way to bring this character into the future and reexplore the humanist viewpoints Data touched on in the older series. But also having Picard deal with his fallout from Starfleet, both from the synth ban AND the Romulan exodus, creates chasmic diverging plotlines that never quite come together. The story really needed it to be one or the other. Either Picard wanting to advocate for the continued existence of synthetic life or the rescue of the Romulans post super nova. The latter is touched on a bit through the addition of the character Elnor but doesn’t quite work given that majority of the Romulans in this series are portrayed as villains.

There is definitely a post Brexit, anti-immigrant hysteria message being told there but not enough depth and nuance is given to make it look like Starfleet was particularly wrong here to abandon them given that they do end up being spies committing espionage in the Federation and the clear villains of the first season. The showrunners could have brought these two stories together by perhaps making Soji a Romulan bent on bringing down synthetic life because maybe her twin sister died in the riots on Mars, making Picard have to choose between his commitment to both minority groups abandoned by the Federation but of course, that’s not what the series goes with.

Also suddenly shoehorning in a convoluted anti-synth worldview into the already ultra-secretive Romulan empire was muddled to say the least.

(A decent summation of the Romulans, pretty much ever. Also why is the only Asian actress in this scene in Osaka depicted as an alien, Mr Kurtzman?...)

Some of these ideas could’ve been saved through better editing and pacing though but not enough is done in this first season to mitigate these issues. Too much of plot is told through plain exposition; people sitting down and talking for five-ten minutes about prophecies and backstory instead of having the story simply show us instead. It makes the pacing often slow even by Trek standards and grinds the action to a halt even when there are lasers being shot at one another in the next scene.

Many of these plots get barely any attention too. The Borg cube, why it’s abandoned, and why Hugh is working for the Romulans through the Federation is given surface level development at best. Seven of Nine returns and at one point is momentarily hooked up to the Collective and she doesn’t really say much about it after it happens. The new character’s Rios and Raffi both have side stories given to their development that get touched on once and never brought up again. Dr. Jurati straight up murders her lover and is set to turn herself into the Federation and it’s just kind of forgotten about in the finale. And Elnor, well, he gets to do his best Legolas impression slicing and dicing fellow Romulans with his sword I guess.

(He is still best boi though :3...)

The main co-star however, Soji the perfect android, has a particularly rushed development going from a scientist unknowing of her nature, to supposed prophet of doom, to predictably the savior all in one season. Her arc needed more time to develop with perhaps her Romulan love affair with Narek being the first season’s main driving force and her realization as an android being the climax. 

Instead we get basically four seasons of Battlestar Galactica’s Sharon arc crammed into one season and it unfortunately makes the story feel half-baked.

(Ok, Boomer.)

Don’t get the wrong idea, all these new characters have great individual moments as well throughout the season but sooooo much side plot is shoved in already into a muddled overarching narrative that it feels like several seasons worth of storytelling stuffed and edited down into a ten episode arc. Why the series felt it needed to conclude this robust story about synth hating Romulans in “Picard’s” first season feels like an unforced error in this reviewer’s opinion even if Sir P Stew only has maybe a couple seasons of extensive acting left in him anyways.

But the season isn’t completely worthless, as much as this review has been spent dunking on its less than stellar parts. The cast is exceptional, even working with the spare parts they’ve been given. Episode 5’s “Stardust City Rag,” in particular, stands out as a good mix of old and new Trek, with a decent dosage of cheese featuring Patrick Stewart trying on a French accent in a space bar. Santiago Cabrera is delightful as the ship captain Rios while also playing various forms of himself in AI form in equally enjoyable roles. Evan Evagora is fun as the deadly yet somewhat aloof Elnor, even if his character doesn’t do all that much except cut up a few Romulans. Seeing Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis reprise their roles as Riker and Troi respectively in episode 6 was heartwarming and felt the most like TNG out of all the episodes. And Jeri Ryan seems liberated in this series in this version of Seven of Nine, no doubt glad to be rid of that restrictive corset and Rick Berman’s meddling hands.

(Big “Fuck you, Rick Berman” energy going on in this scene.)

The production value is obviously high level as Trek has rarely looked this good on the small screen. There’s some great cinematography throughout the season whether it’s Picard’s chateau winery, the haunting nature of the Borg cube, or the synth homeworld in the season’s final beats. The spaceships look cool as always and the world of the future feels well futuristic.

The musical score is also top notch, with a great opening theme that feels very much in line with Trek at its futurist glimpse into a hopeful cosmos.

The season’s best moments though are between Picard and Data and will remind you why they were more than likely your favorite characters on TNG. Generally speaking, exploring the humanist themes of artificial intelligence in new Trek was a good choice and having Picard deal with survivor’s guilt kept the pulse of the muddled story still beating. Brent Spiner is still great as Data and will remind you all again how talented he has always been as an actor and though his age seeps through the makeup a bit he is nonetheless still a perfect android.

Though the finale as a whole is underwhelming, the characters do share a nice final moment that is both touching and reminiscent of everything a fan loves about Star Trek. It’s a great cap to an otherwise ok return to Star Trek for TNG’s top characters and its truly touching in the best way that this franchise has always been known to be.

(Deactivating my emotions chip because I just..can’t! I just can’t, ok! *Sobs*)

But great acting and high production value can only mask so many flaws with a convoluted plot and “Picard” unfortunately suffers from the bloated and uncooked nature of its many ideas. What the story really needed was three season arc not just ten episodes and it shows. I guess the plus side is with this particular plot wrapped up it leaves the door open for new ideas and a fresh start in the second season but it does feel like an overall miss for Picard’s homecoming back into the universe of Star Trek.

Overall, though there are worse ways a Star Trek fan can spend their quarantine than watching “Picard” and there’s certainly enough here for fans to latch onto and have hope for better things in the next season.

Hopefully things are less rushed or at least more focused in the second season and we can see a more proper return to form for both Picard and future Star Trek.

Here’s hoping the producers and writers make it so…

VERDICT:

3 out of 5

Let’s hope we get a return of Q in the next season.

[oksanasanna]

NO HATE NO HATE NO HATE NO HATE I am genuinely JUST CURIOUS (pronounced similarly to how v says danger-ooous in my head) why do you hate Carolyn?? She seems to be a fan fave so I’ve never seen someone who disliked her before. From what I’ve seen the only criticism really is that her being gay would’ve been like better, and a better use of Fiona Shaw. So op I ask again, why don’t cha like her. Grace us w your reasoning p please

I don’t really hate her. All in all she’s a fine character and she certainly has an important place in the show and Fiona is a wonderful actress, but she’s just... not my favorite. Rant under break

I was indifferent to her/liked her enough in Season 1. She has some good mystery. Good acting. Good presence. Some good lines (Though I don’t seem to appreciate some of them as much as other people. That rat coke can line??? I 1) would have never written it. 2) would have cut it immediately. 3) would have not let it be filmed 4) would have cut it in editing. I just don’t get why people LOVE that line?? it doesn’t make any sense?? isn’t believable at all?? adds basically nothing to the show?? is trying too hard to show how quirky carolyn is?? anyway i digress).

Season 2 was more of the same. I get why the character’s on the show and appreciate what she can bring to the table in terms of plot. But I did start to develop a personal vendetta against the character. Anyone who hates eggs and smokes hookah and likes those stupid fucking airpods that fall out of your ears all the time is my personal enemy, so basically if Carolyn was a real person I’d fist fight her no doubt no doubt.

But I still liked her enough as a supporting character in the universe of the show. The key word there is supporting.

She’s getting way too much screen time this season. In episode 2 she had the exact same amount of screen time as Eve and Villanelle and just... no. Fuck that. This is a show about Eve and Villanelle being obsessed with each other. Carolyn should not in any world have the same level of prominence as them. (She didn’t get quite as much screen time in episode 1, and I hope episode 2 was an exception because they wanted to show her grieving Kenny but still. They could have shown her grieving with much, much less screen time.)

On top of that, her scenes are GOOD. Like. She’s getting great writing and great pacing and it’s making some of Eve and Villanelle’s scenes feel rushed. Like they didn’t even give Villanelle time to explain what happened with her WIFE. I get that she married her for the money and the marriage ended with the fight, but the whole wedding scene could have been set up and executed and explained better, and I think it would have been if they’d had more time. I understand what happened because I rewatch/read interviews/etc., but I feel like casual viewers aren’t getting/appreciating certain parts of the story because some plot points aren’t explained as perfectly as they were in previous seasons in the show. Other pacing is weird too. The Felix kill felt rushed, and we didn’t even see the aftermath of his death in the episode that he died?? A lot of the editing this season feels too quick and it’s because they now have 3 storylines to juggle instead of two. And in what world should Carolyn’s scenes be prioritized over Eve’s and Villanelle’s????? I’d rather Carolyn’s story feel rushed than theirs.

But while Carolyn’s scenes are well set-up and well-written and well-acted, they’re also... fucking boring. Like I would rather watch Villanelle clip her toenails or Eve make 50 dumplings than watch Carolyn fucking argue with fucking Paul about literally nothing that will ever come up in the plot ever again! I don’t care! We don’t need to see her console Audrey! All of these scenes could happen off screen and be mentioned offhand. It has nothing to do with Eve and Villanelle, you know, the actual main characters of the show. I think either Eve or Villanelle should be on screen at any point in time, and they’re not doing that this season.

Plus she’s getting all these good reviews! A lot of reviews for this season are (undeservedly) lukewarm, but everyone seems to be praising Carolyn/Fiona. Which, she’s great, but half those people praising Carolyn’s storyline are talking about how Eve/Villanelle’s storylines aren’t as interesting as they used to be. (Which, again, is dumb. They both have GREAT storylines this season. I’m loving it.) But it’s like... you think their storylines aren’t as good this season because they’re not getting as much focus as you’re used to them getting... because Carolyn is stealing a portion of the spotlight... Villaneve’s scenes are so great this season, and it makes me sad to imagine how much more epic they would have been if the season was focused entirely on them and not on them and Carolyn. 

Basically I just resent Carolyn for stealing screen time this season, and I really really wish they hadn’t tried to make her a main character. She’s important, but she’s not what this show was ever about/should ever be about.