#into every fucking frame of that montage

[carmenlire]

you know what i also want to talk about touch as a love language. i swear to god i had tears in my eyes over the way Jaewon and Jihyun touch each other. from their first meeting to episode two when Jaewon sits next to Jihyun on the bus and has the audacity to take out Jihyun’s earbud and replace it with his own music. Jihyun falling asleep on Jaewon and Jaewon finding it cute.

Hello??? all of episode six???? THE SCENES of episode six?? the aftermath, the next morning, them in their wetsuits on the beach and the way their hands touch ever so delicately. Teasing but settled. The quiet ease they’ve always had with each other. It’s so beautiful like i want what they have so bad. 

The contact in this show felt so solid, so real, like it was anchoring these two together, like all the spaces they touched were sacred, like they’d happily commit blasphemy just to be so close.

[gothamundernightlight]

Random Shit the Waynes Do on Social Media

Dick:

- The white whale of D1 and Olympic gymnastics athletes; always stitches their stunts and challenges, executing them perfectly, but no one knows who he is or who trained him

- Shares pictures of random children, and the whole internet becomes a detective trying to figure out if Bruce Wayne adopted another kid or if his gymnastics students won another trophy

- Photo montages of Haley being the cutest, which slowly transitions into Haley in whatever cute hat the internet can send to Dick’s PO Box

- Random video of him skydiving while giving tips on what to do if your chute doesn’t deploy. He never deploys his chute doing the video and no one can tell if it’s a bit or not.

Jason:

- AI Voiceover text posts providing surprisingly insightful analysis into classic literature

- A full six part rant on the Broadway adaptation of “The Great Gatsy”

- Random selfies complete with wildly made up backstories of any and every new injury he has

- Prank war on Damian specifically (this was intended for Talia but his finger slipped and now the whole internet loves it)

Tim:

- Randomly goes live to do study/work/research with me sessions complete with an actually decent Lofi soundtrack that no one can find (He totally mixes it himself but won’t admit it)

- Did ONE social media vlog for WE’s marketing division and it went so viral he gets forced to do more. The dead eyed stare he gives the camera with every stupid dance the intern teaches him makes the video top-tier

- Cute couples videos with Bernard

- Skateboard tricks (and fails)

- Screenshots of text conversations between him and his siblings discussing the most random shit??

Cass:

- Dance routines/pre-show/GRWM videos

- Shakily filmed videos of her kicking Dick’s ass and everyone just calls her a baddie in the comments. She doesn’t know what that means but she appreciates the love.

- Her and Steph’s late night food runs with the two of them just belting out to a song in a dark parking lot

Steph:

- Posts riddles and puzzles and how to solve them. She’s really good at it. Riddler hates her.

- Apartment tour of all the purple shit she owns. She’ll never admit that the room she’s showing off is her Wayne Manor bedroom, so everyone believes she just has a moderately sized loft apartment somewhere and she just never shows the kitchenette

- Her and Cass’s late night food runs with the two of them just belting out to a song in a dark parking lot

- POV shots of her going up to the boys asking them random questions. Dick matches her energy. Jason tells her to fuck off. Tim is barely conscious. Damian always has an overly rational answer to take the fun out of it. Duke just stares blankly at her (he always comes back later with a proper answer now that he’s had time to think about it). Bruce just stares blankly at her

Damian:

- Art reveals that never get many views but he’s still proud of nonetheless. Dick always comments on them to hype him up

- Accidentally recreates a popular vine that went viral and it’s just him insulting fellow GA kids under his breath but one of them says hi to him and he’s instantly polite back. His most popular video

- The multi-part experiment of him trying to Pavlov Tim, and when it actually works, Tim just chases Damian around the manor. The video cuts to black frames after Tim takes a flying launch at him

- All the pet videos. There are so many. People try to cancel him for exploiting them, but Damian clearly demonstrates that he would never force his animals to participate for views and how they will just leave if they don’t want to do something. Batcow is in the background just two-stepping unprompted

Duke:

- Every morning without fail, he posts a daily sunrise pic of Gotham, with a positive affirmation caption. One day he’s sick and he wakes up to a thousand messages of people panicking because their favorite poster has disappeared. He never misses a sunrise again

- Passionate rants about local government. Will not shut up about it. He might be an anarchist, but he’s forever remain optimistic that one day the systems that define society will one day actually work for all people. Bruce has every single one saved so he can implement Duke’s ideas into reality

- Boxing videos of him training with Luke. It’s never meant to be a thirst trap…but sometimes it is

- Dumb selfies. Duke unironically loves taking them, no matter what face he pulls, what filter he uses, not even caring where he is. This gets him in trouble the one time he posts one of him leaning off the edge of a high rise roof

Babs:

- Constant lectures on cybersecurity and internet safety. She teaches this at the library as a volunteer but feels she can reach a lot of people by building a platform

- Computer build stuff. Brands reach out to her for her reviews and she thoroughly discusses each product in length

- Rarely posts about her disability, but absolutely tears people to shreds when they make ableist comments about her. The only time she brings it up first is when City Hall takes over a month to fix their elevator and she calls them out on it

Harper:

- Electronics repairs. She constantly takes things apart to teach people how to fix it, and this can range from toys to cars. On more than one occasion , her video has been interrupted by someone who planned to be using the vehicle she’s just taken apart

- 2 AM hair dye/maintenance sessions. She constantly gets comments from men being like “Therapy works too, y’know” or “No, you’re so beautiful? Why would you do that to yourself.” She responds to the comments with a video of a gun pointed at the camera with the sole caption being “Fuck Off.”

- Gym videos. She and Dick work out together and he’s the ultimate hype man

- Outfit montages of her getting ready for a random gala and she’s always pulling off the most masc-looking suits that look gorgeous on her

Helena:

- Target practice. She does all kinds of trick shots and crazy crossbow stunts in a wide variety of outfits. Her most popular video is of her in a corset and platform heels.

- Her and Steph bonding over all things purple

- Outfit of the Day posts. The girl has expensive tastes and she absolutely shows it off.

Bruce:

- Occasionally does promo stuff for WE (because Tim refuses to do all of it, and their social media intern won’t back down)

- Shares absolutely wild stories from his college years that somehow always get proven to be true even when the whole comments section is just like “this seems false???”

- Kid tour. He saw one mom do it and felt sad bc he’s never get the kids to agree, but somehow they all did (Alfred bribed them.)

- Shares everything from each one of the charities he’s involved with. Has reposted every single one of their posts on his own personal channel. It raises them hundreds of followers each time.

- One of the kids posted a video montage of Bruce being Brucie and it’s so utterly humiliating? But he won’t delete it because all of the comments say he’s their favorite billionaire and that’s more than his own kids will say.

- Random Pride Month post. Every year it catches people by surprise and every gossip magazine always wonders if Bruce is coming out. He’s just being an ally (and potentially is in denial).

Alfred:

- Prefers not to use social media, but one of the boys filmed him doing random things to teach the internet how to do things properly, like making the bed, doing laundry, etc. Is the internet’s favorite grandpa.

[cerastes]

I still think it's really cool how Amuro starts as the shittiest pilot alive (because he's a 15-year old) that only gets carried because he's in the biggest, fattest stat stick in-universe at the time (a few retroactive additions made in the future notwithstanding), enough that even its crappy vulcan guns are tearing Zaku IIs apart, and when he starts getting a bit too cocky, Char and Ramba Ral show up in objectively inferior pieces of junk and absolutely deliver his pizza, they just drag his face across every available surface in Planet Earth like he's a Yakuza mook, all because they are simply that much better at piloting, and the thing is, Amuro takes that very seriously.

He goes from shitass kid in an unfortunate situation that doesn't want to get in the robot to the most unwell child soldier in the war, which is really saying something, but most importantly, becomes so good at piloting the Gundam that the Gundam physically cannot handle Amuro's piloting. They need to apply "Magnetic Coating" to its joints so they don't fucking snap away from the main frame because Amuro, one, moves too damn well but also in too extreme a way for the frame to handle it, two, despite being equipped with two sabers, a shield, a beam rifle and vulcan guns, Amuro is a stern believer in introducing most everyone in thagomizer range to his Rated Z for Zeon hands, the single most official pair of hands in the business, tax free. He KEEP going Ip Man on these dudes, he does NOT need to do a Jamestown on these mother fuckers but he INSISTS. Somehow even the Gundam Hammer, which is a giant Hannah Barbera cartoon flail-- Ok, look at this thing, words do not do it justice

Even this god damn Tom and Jerry prop is less savage that whatever Amuro decides to do the moment he's done throwing his shield to get a free kill on someone and it officially becomes bed time forever for the unfortunate sap at the business end of his ten-finger weapons of mass destruction.

The RX-78-2, "Gundam" for its friends and family, even has a top of the line cutting edge Learning Computer that 'learns' alongside the pilot and their habits. This data extracted from it was so absolutely fucked up that it completely revolutionized Mobile Suit combat afterwards, which is a wholesome thing to think about when The Best Combat Data Ever came from a really angry, really stressed 15 year old that doesn't even like piloting. He was 15! He made Haro with his own hands! Amuro literally just wanted to make funny cute spherical robofriends! Amuro was out there trying to make Kirby real, but fate had other plans for him. His cloned brain put in a pilot seat is one of the setting's strongest 'pilots'.

They made fucking Shadow the Hedgehog with his brain, god damn.

By the end, Zeon is rolling out Gelgoogs out of its mass production lines. These things are in the Gundam's ballpark in terms of overall specs (or "power level"). Amuro is bodying them as if they were episode 1 Zaku IIs.

AND THEN HE GETS FUCKING PSYCHIC SPACE POWERS. Not that he needed them, he bodied a couple Space Psychics without any of those powers before awakening to them. But heaven's most violent child was not done evolving, whether he liked it or not.

Char bodied him in a souped up Zaku II at the start, a machine objectively inferior to the Gundam. Amuro more or less one-sidedly beats the shit out of Char when he's in a custom Commander-type Gelgoog that you could consider to be equal spec-wise to the Gundam. Amuro is the embodiment of Finding Out. He is Consequences. You tell him he better make it hurt, better make it count, better kill you in one shot, buddy, he needs half a fucking shot. The complete transformation. One could consider the central 75% of the show as long drawn out training montage turning a kid into the Geese Howard of giant robots.

[accio-victuuri]

i’m sure we can slice and dice this video and analyze every frame to fit the cpf narrative. and maybe i will do that at a later time but let’s be real here. i mean. this part of the vlog.

who. did. it. remind. you. of.

all the vibing. all the chill dancing like he’s just feeling himself and the music. the hand movements. the fuck.

it’s so wang laoshi. i’m sorry. i know he (xz) is not the only person in the world who can get caught up in the moment/music and move his body to it but this is just too familiar. it’s like how wyb starts his freestyles when he is loosening up his body. i’ve watched him enough times to recognize it.

and add the music and what it potentially means. it’s another layer, like it’s okay, i’ll just dance and think of the love of my life and everything is gonna be alright.

plus the question again! that question, did you figure it out? this is not the first time it happened. and we are reminded of what wwx asked lwj, "Lan Zhan, next time we meet, you have to think of a name for this song. I've already thought of one." 😭😭😭😭

oh wait i’m not done. what a wonderful world. yep, a nice song that’s all about appreciating what’s around you and it’s beauty. but the coincidence in the lyrics.

I see trees of green. red roses too. I see them bloom . For me and you. And I think to myself. What a wonderful world

literally the first part. green and red combo. 🔴🟢

….I see skies of blue and clouds of white

…..The colors of the rainbow

blue sky & white clouds which is a cpn we love to interpret and of course the 🌈. dude, it’s a bjyx song. lol. xz found it. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

finally, are they clowning us? they saw us editing past vlogs with the bgm of bystander. so they did a lovely montage of sorts at the start of the video that would be a perfect music video for bobo’s song! well, thank you!

anyway, that’s all for me now. happy clowning ^^

[chaifootsteps]

Oh my god

No way

Viv

She just liked a fucking nasty ass frame of Angel *smiling* during the Poison montage while in Val's arms.

What the fuck

Okay, every Stan who went into that fanfic and argued that Viv was capable of handling SA never can speak on SA ever again

The chains, leashes, BDSM, borderline porn/fetish art are one (very big thing) but *that*

Uhhhhh... yeah. Can we just admit she gets off on Angel's abuse like Raph? Cuz... yeah. Also the stan who posted that is *very* into Valentino and has made comments on Raph's posts. 💀

It says something that she could have avoided a lot of trouble for herself by just outright saying that it was always a sex thing for her and Raph, or at the very least not pretending it was anything deeper.

[pencildragons]

excerpt from the (hopefully) soon-to-be-posted 2nd chapter of my foxquin fic the silver is white, red is the gold (quinlan is the guard's general and also has another padawan); cw ahead for mentions of body horror/corpse desecration, mind control, and memory issues

This is the sixteenth time this has happened, this vanishing without a trace, for hours or days on end. No one knows where he goes; the SecFeed vids show nothing out of the ordinary, the tracker in his armour says that he’s in his office, and not a single vod sees him come or go. In the end, it had been the SecFeed that had tipped them off to something being wrong. One of the original squad members that had been deployed from Kamino with him—a slicer, Imantu—had spent most of his time watching the ‘Feed, and eventually had come to Fox and quietly told him that, every fortnight since their deployment ten weeks beforehand, the vids would loop twice for five minutes. Fox had known better than to suggest it was simply a glitch; ten weeks had been more than enough time to establish that nothing ever happened by coincidence on Coruscant. Imantu had sliced through the encryption that wasn’t supposed to be sliced, and—found things that weren’t meant to be found. He had come knocking on Fox’s office door late one night, had brought Thorn with him, and presented his evidence: Fox was the one looping the ‘Feed. Fox had sat there for a very long time, scrutinised by his slicer and his commander, and told them shakily that he hadn’t done it. He had clearly been rattled enough that Thorn and Imantu had taken him at his word, and that had seemed to be that. Except that that night had been the last time anyone saw Imantu alive. They found his body nineteen days later, rotting in some mid-levels rubbish pile, eyes gouged out messily, every finger broken. Worst had been his tongue, ripped from the root and found a few metres away. The medic on duty said that it had been removed while he was still alive, same as his eyes, which—well. He doesn’t blame them for throwing up on his floor while giving their report. The next day, Thorn had inserted himself into Fox’s beat, had made him crawl down a manhole into a sewerage tunnel, stripped them both of their armour, then dragged him half a kilometre through stinking, knee-deep waste before he would answer Fox’s demands to tell him what the fuck was going on. Finally, when they stopped, Thorn had produced a holoprojector from his blacks and wordlessly handed it to him. The truth of it was undeniable: shot from an oblique angle—Thorn refused to tell him, but he guessed some sort of hidden recorded—was Fox, doing something at the main ‘Feed monitors, dated to twelve minutes after Imantu had last been seen. He had been wearing full trooper armour, but black instead of shiny-white or Corrie-Guard-Red, face hidden, but the tell-tale flexing of fingers and stretching of the neck and the roll of his gait as he limped out of frame were perhaps more telling than even his face. Thorn had clearly prepared for the uncertainty, though, because a montage of vids began after that. Most of them were from helmet-cams, all focused on Fox, flexing his fingers, stretching his neck, limping away. When you’re identical in every way to a billion other beings, reading body language becomes very important, and this could not have been more damning than if Fox had stood in front of his Commanders and announced that it was he, Commander Fox, who killed Imantu in cold blood.

[byneddiedingo]

25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)

Cast: Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin, Tony Siragusa. Screenplay: David Benioff, based on his novel. Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto. Production design: James Chinlund. Film editing: Barry Alexander Brown. Music: Terence Blanchard. 

Spike Lee's 25th Hour is a "day in the life" movie, and a very good one. The day is the last one of freedom for Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) before he goes to prison for seven years. He spends it with his girlfriend, Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), his friends Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Frank (Barry Pepper), and his father (Brian Cox), and also makes a visit to the Russian mobsters who got him into the business of pushing drugs. It's also one of Lee's best films, less celebrated than Do the Right Thing (1982) or Malcolm X (1992), but worthy of being mentioned in their company. The only reservation I have about the movie is that Lee doesn't let his powerhouse cast bring their solidly written characters to life without indulging in a few distracting cinematic tricks. He and his longtime editor, Barry Alexander Brown, can't seem to resist techniques like freeze frames and moments in which the action is repeated from a different angle. There are showy montages and tour de force episodes, some of which work, like the "fuck you" episode in which the embittered Monty anathematizes almost every racial, social, and economic group in New York City. And the film ends with a beautifully realized sequence in which Monty's father proposes to help him escape and imagines the life he might live. But other episodes don't quite work, like the long take in which Jacob and Frank talk about their friendship with Monty, a scene that must have involved careful preparation on the part of Pepper and Hoffman, But it's staged in front of a window in Frank's apartment, which somewhat improbably overlooks Ground Zero, where crews are clearing away the rubble of the World Trade Center. I couldn't help being distracted by the scene outside the window instead of concentrating on their dialogue. Still, the movie, which was planned before the 9/11 attack and completed and released afterward, beautifully integrates that event into the theme and tone of the film, which deserves to find the audience it never quite did when it was released. 

[charcubed]

Hi. I tend to forget that tumblr exists and just shout all my thoughts about The Winchesters on Twitter @CharCubed, which is a problem, but for once in my life I'm posting something here!

Here are some broad Thoughts on where I've landed of what this season 1 finale of The Winchesters offered–

• I very much want season 2 of this show SO badly. I want to see how they all continue to build their lives now that we know tragedy need not be their end! THIS IS THE HEALING SHOW. That whole cast gets to write their own story... "the only thing that's worse than how it starts for a hunter is how it ends" is no longer the case, as Carlos already said... and Dean helped to free them? That fucks.

• In regards to those possibilities: now that Dean would no longer be framing the prequel as a story he's telling, it frees the prequel up to no longer be doubling as Dean's story through revealing mirroring–which is very much what it's been doing for 12 episodes. Now the monster plots and the storylines for those characters in The Winchesters can also be diversified, so every episode no longer has to include, for example... [checks notes] a situation where a character is literally and/or metaphorically trapped and has to confront their trauma, break cycles of violence, and speak truths to be freed. It's been very Loud and very much Like This Constantly because it's Dean's story, but now it won't have to be anymore, which is an interesting thing to contemplate! (To be clear, for those unaware of my history of yelling about this show: I love that it was Like This. This show is fucking genius.)

• Initially, this finale had some alarm bells pinging in my brain but then I parsed the Reasons for those things. Mary told John she had "Something to say," right? And then she never says it. That's a Chekhov's gun that's never fired and it's of course paralleling how Dean has "something to say" to Cas too. Them not speaking that truth is a problem. In addition, we also got a montage eerily akin to the 15x19 one. But these callbacks / parallels to s15 all loudly indicate something very specific: The Winchesters is an unfinished story, and this finale (like the rest of this show) is mirroring and revealing truths about the prime narrative of SPN. For one thing, with the prequel they originally expected to have 22 or so episodes and ended up having 13 to work with. For another... this is the START of their story, not the end. So along those lines, what can we deduce about the end of season 15? (Hint: that finale is not an ending either.)

• Speaking of which: We learn that everything Dean was just doing takes place in the ~heavenly~ time period before Sam “dies." This all functionally happened right after Dean died as he drove down that road. He is restless, unmoored, grieving, and–this is key–considers his "ending" to be an unhappy happy one. He's fucking around and finding out, looking for and unpacking (through his narration) what he needs and wants for HIS happy ending to look like. He found out about the Akrida being a failsafe from Chuck and couldn't resist meddling to save everyone. It's also worth noting that Dean says to Jack something like, "If you have to kick me out of Heaven then that's fine." Between the lines is the thought of "please kick me out of Heaven, I'm causing problems because I'm grieving and I'm not done, I don't want this 'peace' but would rather have freedom." That in itself is a massive subversion of the SPN finale, to say nothing of the previous 12 episodes we've received.

Anyway. So in terms of Dean's story, we now know that this all takes place smack in the middle of 15x20 timeline-wise. This checks out because Bobby's presence connects to him being the only one we saw in 15x20. And... what I personally consider to be Jack's incredibly fucked up or ~potentially taken over by Chuck~ vibes are, in that sense, consistent with 15x19 as well. (I'm so sorry but please let me drop this cursed "Alex Calvert playing Chuck" joke by Jensen from August 2022 which haunts me.)

So: nothing about the concept that @chuckwon at the end of season 15 has been confirmed or denied in canon at this point. The idea that Chuck LOST, as Dean says here, is simply what Dean may still be thinking (which makes sense). But nothing has fundamentally changed about the state of how season 15 left things in the prime narrative yet... largely because that's not what this story is / was about.

In terms of what this finale presented to us, I think "Chuck won" potential was all deliberately left open. And I continue to Call Bullshit on the finale accordingly. A Chuck won plot line COULD be used in a future sequel to great affect, or it could NOT be used in a future sequel. That will be totally up to the future authors / team behind that potential sequel to see what story they choose to tell, and where it all may or may not go. But until then (on that front) right now it's the same shit, different show, and deliberately literally nothing about that potential has changed.

• I LOVE all of the above now that I've parsed it all in my brain. It makes perfect sense. Much like we were never going see the gay angel pop up in this show and kiss Dean (with apologies to anyone who somehow thought otherwise?)... leaving other things open like this is fantastic and the objectively correct call. Dean's story is HIS story to be furthered elsewhere, whereas this show belonged and continues to belong to its cast of characters who must take center stage. But through this story within a story narrated by Dean himself, we learned a hell of a lot about his state of mind as it actively stands in 15x20. Or more accurately: the entire show reinforces and reiterates comprehensively and repeatedly that the SPN finale was wrong and bad and not the end of the story at all, and now canonically and openly and in no uncertain terms that that's how Dean feels too.

• AND THUS: season 1 of The Winchesters works as deeply clever and layered commentary on Supernatural's ending and presents the stepping stone for a sequel continuation for Dean and his family. It's also the beginning of a new chapter with endless potential for The Winchesters' cast of characters who are not tied to fate or main timeline.

I fucking love it here.

Truly, madly, deeply: ALL HAIL ROBBIE THOMPSON.

And seriously, I really hope we get a season 2 because I adore all of the prequel's characters on their own merit and I want to see what their story can become :')

[lavenderarts]

Full of rage and grief having gone to see that fucking godawful Ronald Reagan biopic with my parents yesterday (purely for morbid curiosity and not wanting to argue with them about why I didn’t want to go) so you get to hear about it

The movie includes this: A whopping 4 seconds total of footage referencing ACT UP/the AIDS crisis. Four seconds. Of protest footage. Sandwiched within an 80s MTV-themed montage of people burning Reagan in effigy clearly intended to make you angry and dismissive. No acknowledgment of how many of us dragged our bodies to the gates to die in front of him. About 2 seconds’ mention of his war on drugs, similarly designed to make Black people look hysterical. Only the briefest of touches upon Iran-Contra, strongly implying that he didn’t authorize anything and was innocent, someone under him simply betrayed him and he had to take the fall for their moral failing because he was a stand-up guy who admitted his mistakes and looked the American people in the eye. If you couldn’t remember Iran-Contra, as I couldn’t when I was watching, you would genuinely not even understand what the controversy was about. It’s contextless. The movie ends with him honest to God riding off into the sunset to the tune of Country Roads, Take Me Home and reading a letter thanking America for the honor of letting him be President.

It’s genuinely one of the most foul things I’ve ever seen. The utter refusal to engage with criticism of that man, to view the lives of my people or anyone in the Middle East, Cuba, or anywhere else as important or worthy of preservation. The pointed framing of anyone who said he was “an actor, not a politician” as hysterical and elitist, clearly gesturing at Trump. Like. I can’t say enough about how vile it is.

My parents said that he was one of the last Presidents who could make you feel good about being an American and that feeling is basically gone today, and they weren’t dismissive of that lack of pride but I don’t think they fully understand where it comes from or how people who feel that way really feel. I don’t really… Hate America in the way they mean. I think this country has no right to exist, I think its history is full of shame and atrocity so violent and imperialist it should disqualify us from having any illusions of moral authority over anyone. The ultimate justice would be the dissolution of all empires and the return of the land to Native stewardship and governance. But I and I think a lot of other people would like to be able to love their countries. I’d like to feel proud to be American and for that to symbolize something good and kind, I’d like to love my country, but it doesn’t love me back. Every day, as someone disabled, trans, gay, a “woman,” leftist, I’m bombarded by reminders that my country would rather see me dead than have me as a part of it. I’d like for that to change. But I can’t be proud of my country until/unless we admit our failings and our crimes and make reparations for them, and until we truly change how we interact with the rest of the world. The Reagan “Gee isn’t it nice to be American, we’re all in this together and we’re gonna make it because we’re the greatest country in the world” shit rings hollow when you’ve seen firsthand that we’ve never been the greatest at anything except maybe monstrous and inhuman cruelty and greed on an industrial scale. It’s a lie, and I can’t love that lie.

I love my home, I love my state, I love its people, I love its local culture and history and I love that it is my home, but I don’t love my country because it has never loved people like me. And as we come up on a year of funding genocides at home and abroad, the least helpful thing in the world is a movie produced by Evangelical zealots about how you used to be able to say you were proud to be American and we need to return to that time because today’s world is so full of hate and division on account of the Democrats or whatever. I said it in the group chat but I’ll say it again, I honestly think that if I had wrapped the movie screen around my dick and jerked off for 2 hours it would have been less egregiously masturbatory propaganda than this. I wish deep evil and suffering upon everyone involved in its production

[josephquinnswhore]

Confessions

Pairing: Javier Peña x female reader.

Summary: Javier leaves you heartbroken, you go on a blind date and things go wrong, javier saves you and you reconcile.

Word count: 2.6k

Warnings: men in general, readers date is creepy as hell.

You couldn’t pinpoint one exact moment when you knew you had fallen in love with him, it was like a montage on repeat in your mind, a hundred tiny moments or things that he did that made you swoon, tripping you again and again until you fell for him, and you fell hard. At work he consumed you, often times you’d be throwing down your pen onto your ever growing pile of paperwork in frustration at your sheer lack of concentration, needing a cigarette break to regroup your thoughts, trying to push him out of the front of your brain and failing, miserably every time. You barely knew anything about him, didn’t know his family, what he did for work, hobbies or anything of importance to his life. You knew only how to fuck him; to make his toes curl and throw his head back, to make him bite his lips so you never head his moans escape his mouth, to make him cum the fastest and hardest he ever had in his life; yet you wanted more, needed more, something with substance, something meaningful.

It was no surprise when you heard a knock on the door at 12:40am, the routine the two of you shared was like clockwork. He would lie awake after work and would need some release, his stressful day seeping into his body and needing some relief, that form of relief became you, your body, your pleasure. But you couldn’t do it anymore; the casualness. You wanted more, which was impossible, you knew his reputation. Half of the town had slept with him, it was truly any wonder he hadn’t contracted anything. You shuffle out of bed, putting on a pair of slippers to avoid the coldness of the tiles on your warm feet, your arms wrapping around your body as it slightly trembles from anxiety, you were scared to cut it off, put it all to an end knowing you wouldn’t ever see him again, but it was the only way to stop you from breaking your own heart, or him breaking it.

You flick on a light and open the front door to see Javier in a white button up shirt, black leather jacket and tight blue jeans, yellow tinted sunglasses framed his face beautifully. His arm drops from the outside doorframe when he sees you dresses in pyjamas, being so used to meeting you in sexy lingerie for your secret meetings. He shifts on his feet uncomfortably, “I can go if you’re not feeling well.” He mutters, unsure of what to say as his eyes meet your own after minutes of avoiding them. “I think you better come in actually, we need to talk.” Although your voice is quiet, it travels through the distance between you loudly, the anxiety causing your lips to shake. You open the door and step back to make room for him, he accepts the offer and walks into your apartment, taking a seat on the dining room table in the living room as you lock the door behind you.

He lights a cigarette and offers you one to which you accept, he brings the lighter up to the cigarette that hangs lazily out of your mouth, inhaling simultaneously and within seconds your mind is hazy from the nicotine and you’re starting to second guess yourself. “Talk.” He pries, your right hand finds the cigarette, the left is on your leg, trying to stop the anxiety-included bouncing of your legs. “We can’t fuck anymore.” He looks up at you for the first time tonight, removing the glasses from his face and tucking them into his leather jacket. The grip on his cigarette was desperate, “did you find someone?” The question makes you frown, mainly in confusion because you know no one can compare to him. “No.” You bring the cigarette back to your lips and inhale for a few seconds, the burn in your lungs aching before exhaling the smoke, trying to disintegrate your stress before it snaps. “Then what’s the problem hm?” You scoff, standing from the table, pushing the chair backwards sending it screeching along the cold tiles. “Why do I need a reason, why can’t I just be done?” He scoffs loudly, crushing the cigarette butt into the ashtray as he stands, eyes stalking your pacing movements. “Because you’ll never find someone who’ll ever make me feel as good as I do.” He approaches you, stopping your body from pacing, his large hands feel warm as they find a place on your waist, his moustache tickling your cheek as he whispers in your ear, “you’ll never replace me, baby.” The nickname makes you shiver for the wrong reasons, your heart aching a sit beats too quick for it’s intended use, the blood pumping through your body makes you dizzy in his grasp. “Don’t Javier, please.” You mutter weakly, his lips meet your neck as he assaults them, leaving purple marks along your skin. “Give me one good reason not to.” He teases. “Because I love you.”

Your voice was quiet, barely a hair louder than a whisper, your voice sent goosebumps up his spine and on his arms under his jacket. It sent his insides spiralling so fast he felt sick, nauseous. He had to get away from it, from you. Which is why he pulls away from you and without another word unlocks the door and slams it on the way out, leaving you to sulk inside your apartment as you sob through the realisation of losing Javier forever.

It had been a month after Javier had left you rejected and alone after you confessed your love, leaving you completely heartbroken in the process.

Blind dates were not your thing. Your friend from work, Rosita had claimed she knew a sweet guy, her husbands friend, Zach. Sure, he was nice, he was a sweetheart even. But Javier had left you totally heartbroken and you weren’t sure you were ready to mend the pieces back together, let alone start seeing someone else.

“How’s your tea?” Zach asks, his piercing blue eyes watching you with a mix of nervousness and adoration. His blonde hair combed neatly, he was handsome, but definitely not your type. Maybe he should be, he probably wouldn’t take your heart and fucking stomp on it. “Yeah, it’s good, just how I like it. Thanks.” You say kindly, mustering the softest smile you can. He takes your hand and rubs it, his fingers felt nothing like Javier’s, everything about Zach you felt yourself comparing to Javier, it was toxic. You decide to let yourself at the very least enjoy this date. “I’m so glad. I was thinking, maybe we could take things a step further. I think we connect great and I’d love to take you back to mine.” You have to stop yourself from physically recoiling at the bizarre statement.

You can’t help but notice the back of a familiar man, sitting across from you in the small cafe. Feeling petty and upset, you mindlessly accept. “I’d like that but I’ve got work early tomorrow, let’s go back to my place instead.” You offer a lie, excitedly he nods in agreement and puts down some money for the drinks and tip, his soft hands caress your lower back as he leads you to his car, missing the burning eyes of Javier into the back of your and Zach’s head. Envy and jealousy enrage him.

“So this is my place, what do you think?” You chuckle nervously, the realisation setting that you’d practically bought a stranger into your home, you were regretting accepting his proposition, and inviting him to your sacred space, pettiness was to blame for this mess. “It’s nice, very nice. Could use some of my things in here.” He laughs, but you knew he wasn’t joking. “Why don’t we watch a movie?” You offer, gesturing to the old box television that rested atop of your dingy tv stand, held together by a few screws. Zach caresses your face, your skin jumping in a way that makes your skin crawl. “Let’s move things to the bedroom huh, pretty girl?” Your neck tingles and you feel bile rising in your throat at his pet name for you, feeling too exposed with what you’re wearing, fingers desperately trying to pull down the sides of your thigh length dress to make it longer.

“Sorry, I’m just not feeling well you know, that time of the month and everything!” You try to seem sincere through your lie, but he catches on to how you start fidgeting with your necklace, an obvious tell of when you’re lying. “Are you lying to me?” He questions, stupidly, you fidget with your necklace again as you deny his accusation, “no of course not.” He grunts angrily as he shoves past you, “you’re still thinking about that guy aren’t you! Rosita told me you were in love with some guy. He’ll never love you, you’re sad and pathetic you’re lucky I even gave you my attention, all you had to do was let me have you!” Your body trembles as his rant continues, adrenaline pumping through your blood as he raises his voice with every sentence, his face as red as a tomato as his anger toward you builds, you back up to the kitchen as he paces, you lean back and pull a medium sized knife out of your knife block. He hears the ‘shink’ noise as the knife is pulled out, his eyes are on you and they’re furious, you hold the knife in front of you as he storms towards you, he snickers at your reaction, cowering from him like a wounded animal.

“You think that will stop me! What are you going to stab me? Do it then! Stab me little girl! Stab me! Do it now!!!” You’re crying in fear as you blindly swing the knife in front of you, scared of what will happen if you don’t react. The knife clatters to the tile as his arm connects with your forearm, the force makes you wince as his comes into contact. You’re cowering below him, your hip digging into the kitchen basin as he stares you down. “You were really gonna stab me, huh?” He taunts, voice too calm for you to feel safe. “Why don’t you tell me how it feels huh princess?” He spits as he chuckles, bending down to retrieve the abandoned knife on the cool tiles. You don’t react, too scared and frozen in place as you realise this crazy fucking man is going to stab you in your own home for not having sex with him, this is insane.

Your body is tense as it waits for the blade to come in contact, you wait and wait, your eyes clenched shut not daring to open them as you fear of what you’re going to see when you open them. A pair of arms are wrapped around you, your body jolting out of its disorientated state and back to reality, you shake and thrash yourself around trying to free yourself, your body is spun around and you see him; Javier. “Hey, hey. I’m here. You’re safe.” Everything comes crashing down at once, the hurt and rejection from him and the fear settling of what happened tonight, what could’ve happened. You’re sobbing so hard your body is shaking, trying to push Javier away, his hands lowering their grip from your wet cheeks. “I don’t need fucking saving Javier! Just go. Get out.” Your voice cracks as you point to the door, Zach gone from your apartment, thankfully. “I’m not leaving you here after that fucking creep was here, he’ll come back for you the second I leave!” The strain in his voice just makes you fight harder, “then let him! I don’t fucking care anymore, don’t you get it!” You take a step forward and like his chest looking up to meet his gaze, “I don’t fucking care anymore Javier! You broke me.” The adrenaline starts to wear off and you start to ache, your body using too much energy for this fiasco. “Baby don’t do this.” His hands are on your shoulders, thumbs tickling the sensitive spot on your ears and you shake your head, “don’t call me that Javier, please just go.” Weakly and tiredly you sigh. “I’m not going. I’ll stay on the couch.” You grumble and set off to find a pillow and warm blanket, making the bed on the couch for him, trying to make it as comfortable as possible. He mutters a “thanks,” as he lies down, still fully dressed. You’re about to turn the light off and go to bed when you turn around, finger still in the light switch. “Why do you care what he does to me Javier?” Javier, in his half asleep conscious mumbles, “ cause I love you.” Your heart is erratic as you lie in bed, you know you would have to confront him in the morning if he really meant it or if he was just overtired.

“Morning.” You greet as he walks through the kitchen rubbing sleep from his eyes, brushing his hair from his forehead. “Morning. How are you?” The question almost has you shocked, but you continue as if everything were normal, “yeah, fine. Eat.” You point to the food on the table and he takes a seat, you pour some coffee and offer some which he accepts, and you learn he drinks black.

You were just going to rip the Band-Aid off. “You said you love me last night.” He coughs loudly, the food getting caught in his throat at the words that leave your mouth. He swallows. “Excuse me?” You slam your napkin down onto the plate, “you heard me.” Your eyes met his own and he leaned back into his chair, throwing his head back as he knew he fucked up, there was no coming back from that delusion-sleep deprived admission. “Yeah, guess I did.” You frown, wanting to hear more. “So?” You question, pushing him for more. “So I love you. Is that what you wanted to hear?” He huffs and you laugh dryly, catching his attention. “No, I don’t want to fucking hear it. You rejected me and broke my heart for you to come back and say you love me? What’s wrong with you?” His face contorts to one of confusion, crows feet showing boldly. “I’ve loved you since I met you.” He admits, eyes watching yours in hopes to read your reaction. “You can’t be fucking serious. Why didn’t you ever say anything?” You snap, furious that he broke your heart for nothing. He stands from his chair, “I work for the fucking DEA, we’re going after Escobar. The last thing I need is you getting caught up in the middle of this fucking shit and ending up dead.” He runs his hands frantically though his hair and you stand from your chair, walking over to him, “I want you Javier. I’ll take the risk that comes with your job, please don’t leave me again.” You beg, his heart racing at the thought of how much he’s hurt you. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you.” You lean up and caress his face, “I promise I’ll be safe. I’m here and I love you.” You kiss him softly, his lips sweeter and more addictive than you remember. “Okay.” He states once you pull away. “I love you.” His chest feels lighter after he says those words to you, for the first time ever he gives himself freely, he gives into love, to you.

[kimberlyannharts]

misc thoughts on #122 -

= Billy's actions do get framed as wrong I THINK but he still does that awful "yeah I'm sorry I guess but YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY I DID IT YOU'LL UNDERSTAND EVENTUALLY" bullshit that's been so prevalent in these comics and pisses me off every time. Oh was it ~hurtful~ for Aisha to call you a traitor? It probably hurt when Kiya and Alt-Trini kicked her ass and knocked her out because of what YOU told them to do, asshole

= Also if shattering the Grid really gets fixed as easily as "oh well the last remaining Egg will fix it" then Necessary Evil and the Omegas truly were giant wastes of time, weren't they

= Though while we're talking about it I have no idea of what the consequences of Billy shattering the Grid were besides everyone being pissed off at him (and Kiya and Alt-Trini might be out of the picture now; they don't show up in this issue and no one talks about them). Taking what was the foundation of an entire event - really, the foundation of the entire SERIES after Shattered Grid ended - and reducing it to two issues at the end of this one is definitely going to be a major part of my writeup

= We really didn't need the whole "Slayer and Ari fight" thing considering how fast it gets wrapped up

= Where the fuck was Kim. Tommy, Rocky, and Adam get one panel. good god the finale is going to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting of "actually feature the goddamn MMPRs"

= Jason gets weird over seeing Zack/Trini are together now. Make them a polycule you cowards

= Bulk calls Taylor hot??????? why do we need this??????

= obligatory Shattered Grid "everyone is here" scene is finally here but also kind of a shame that the guys they picked up in the montage were apparently the....ONLY guys they picked up lol

= Related to that we got further confirmation of characters who were previously just captured like Shelby and Danny are corrupted so truly what was the point of them just being captured

= Terona gets weirdly angry over Kendall....asking about Grace? "WHO TOLD YOU ABOUT HER??" Is this. like. a problem? That Kendall wants to know about Grace? Grace was the head of Promethea, why WOULDN'T Kendall know about her?

= I did like the memorial for the 1969 Rangers though, that was nice

= Same with how the issue didn't really give us any Salum/Maxie scenes, but them playing with Ari's kid in the bg was cute

= So was the "shocking cliffhanger that will leave you stunned" just......Ari opening the Void? Because that's not shocking. That's just what....needed to be done lol

[gayemeralds]

sonic prime: 5/10

admittedly im just tired of multiverse stories. spiderverse did it first everything everywhere all at once did it best. so this show wasn’t probably likely going to be getting a good review anyway. but many they really half assed this story.

first of all there’s just way too many flashbacks and repeating footage. i get being limited by budget but that was so distracting. i promise you i remember what happened last episode you don’t need a three minute montage to remind me. the multiverse was also a really big disappointment- the bosco cage and pirate world was really boring. the only interesting universe was new yoke city. also why the fuck did new yoke city have five different aged eggman ????? and the other universes didn’t seem to have any eggmen? before i watched this i had assumed that the eggmen of the different universes teamed up and conquered the universes in this show but that’s not the case. ????

anyway this was an AWFUL sonic characterization can you believe they tried to pass this off as game sonic. firstly sonic was treated like a moron by every character and the narrative and even himself, which is just… disappointing. Sonic’s never been eggman or tails sort of smart by christ he’s not fucking stupid. he’s impulsive yes but he’s not an idiot. second having sonic learn to appreciate his friends is just a really stupid storyline in my opinion but they did such a bad job trying to do that in this show. Sonic DID appreciate his friends in this show all the way since the beginning it just sort of felt like 1) “he didn’t listen” because no one was actually explaining things that well to him? like tails and the whole “it’s a trap!” thing… and then tails didn’t explain anything about how the battle was a trap or that eggman wasnt actually there 2) it comes across more that sonic just isn't used to working with a team, not that he doesn't value his friends. And i actually thinm that could have been a way more compelling story, if it wad framed as "oh sonic's used to adventuring alone and now that hes made all these friends hes having a difficult time leading them in fights and doing things together instead of rushing off by himself" and maybe they could have done an arc where he learns to be a proper team player and/or leader. but no sonic's just a idiot who ignores his friends. awful. also this characterization is like if they took the worst aspects of 2010 and onward sonic and dialed it up go an 11. He was SO obnoxious but i also just hate "excessively chatty, loudmouth, impulsive" sonic as a characterization anyway. Sighs.

shadow was utterly useless 95% of this show and i think they could have written out his character entirely. He was definutelt jyst there because sega likes to milk his charactee, not because je was relevant to the plot. AAlso they VERY much tried to make him come across as cooler & better than sonic which i despise. also jis whple thing was trying to get sonic to listen to him which like. 1) why would sonic tjink shadow knows anything about the prism or whats going on in general 2) shadow is "trying to get him to listen" while also attmepting to give sonic a concussion dhring their fights so like. I donf know what hes expecting.

ok if im honest here i also didnt like nine. I think they should have done a better job explaining his motivations. He also just came across as kind of annoying to me, probably because he took up so much screen time and they didnt really develop him much further than Edgy Tails. i think the idea of a variant of tails becoming the main antagonist id actually really interesting but they missed the mark on him.

i think despite really only having five main characters (sonic, tails, amy, knuckles, rouge) + eggman & shadow they did an awful job balancing them all out. sonic seemed to care about tails & amy way more than knuckles & rouge and had much more screen time connecting to their variants than knuckles or rouge. Rouge didn't get her own shatterspace (tails & new yoke, amy & boscage, knuckles & no mans land) which seemed odd? also her variants were VERY boring they were basically straight-man (responsible/leader) every time which sucked :( the only interesting one was rebel from new yoke because it was interesting to see her take up an actual hero position instead of an anti-hero and coordinate an entire rebellion as opposed to perhaps joining the eggman empire for her own benefit. But new yoke was dedicated to tails so that wasnt explored super well.

The pacing in this series was utterly abysmal. there were fights that lasted MULTIPLE EPISODES and the fights themselves were extremely repetative. I LIKE action i like fights but they need to have purpose and uniqueness otherwise it gets really boring to watch. sonic going back and forth between dimensions was also kind of odd to me? I think it would have been nice if he stayed in a dimension for a couple of epsiodes and really explored the characters and dynamics within that dimension before hoping to the next one. i did kind of like the nonlinear storytelling they did but the excessive repetition of scenes got old fast.

also it’s a crime they didn’t actually have blaze in this series. she totally should have replaced shadow in the idea of like, oh sonic fucking up his dimension fucked up other dimensions or something, so blaze had to come in to help. actual dimension hopping as a plot point and they don’t have “iconic dimensional doppelgänger” blaze the cat. insane. they had some reoccurring background character that was very clearly a bootleg version of her and that actually made me more angry than if they just ignored the idea of blaze altogether.

i think its a shame this show sucked so bad because it could have been pretty cool. The paradox prism held a lot of potential, sonic meeting other versions of his friends that perhaps had a part of gheir peesobality more exagerated than the other would have been interestibf. but i think the only good thing this series had was the really cool abimation and the sheer potential for acrual good storylines. i wouldnt want to watch this again it was kinf of a slog to get through all 24 epusodes it really should have only been like 16 ti mayyyyyybe 20.

[bengiyo]

Tokyo in April is... Ep 4 Stray Thoughts

Last week, Kazuma and Ren began their FWB relationship. It has strict rules about how they interact. Ren doesn't face him during sex, the lights stay off, and Kazuma leaves after. They stay friendly at work with no mention of it. They also hook up every day. Kazuma seems to recognize that there's something huge holding Ren back, and decides to be patient and present for now. Meanwhile, Ren put the whole company on his back to save an ad campaign after their actor was caught up in a scandal.

Trigger Warnings for this episode: Striking a minor, discussion of sexual assault, implied harm and suicide attempt, aftermath of implied sexual assault.

One of the fun things about a show where the characters are in an active sexual relationship, is any time you're present for the sex you immediately know that there are emotional stakes in play.

I love Kazuma. I like that he can feel that Ren was tired and needed closeness. I love that he turns that into an opportunity for Ren to do something for him instead.

I'm expecting the color gays to say something about this orange shirt matching the shelves later.

I'd be overwhelmed if I was Ren, too. He has fairly-valid reasons to believe that his feelings were one-sided. He's been protecting his heart in this arrangement, but now he's forced to see how real Kazuma's feelings (which have been expressed clearly since they met again) are.

See, and I totally get Ren misunderstanding Kazuma as teens. This feels a little like Lee Wan and Shin Ki Tae in Our Dating Sim, where Wan just could not comprehend that Ki Tae could also like him.

I don't have the words to convey how sad I am that Ren believed he coerced Kazuma into sex, and felt he needed to say that to their parents because he needed to be honest about all of the events that transpired to ensure that Kazuma received effective care for his condition.

It's awful to watch, but I appreciate a mom striking the self-proclaimed assailant of her son.

An exacto knife? Fuck me.

That was intense. I like delivering the history Ren has kept to himself as he breaks over the answer he's always wanted. That Ryunosuke guy had clearly heard of Kazuma before.

Kazuma is such a boy. They got the jock-turned-diligent-office-worker energy correct.

A home cooked meal shot from the side with the kitchen available in the back. I know that this is probably a fairly standard Japanese apartment layout in Tokyo, but this is sending me all the way to What Did You Eat Yesterday? I like this shift after such a heavy sequence.

Finally, a show for the quiet gays like me. I'm not surprised the same director as Our Dining Table is involved. Those boys were also Quiet Gays (Yes, I know Minoru is bi. Let me have fun). After a rough week or two at work, just taking a day to lazily enjoy each other's company is so nice compared to some date at a sponsored location.

Ren is staying over and we're getting a domestic gay montage. I am living!!

It's hard not to notice that Ren never removes that wristband now.

Oh, timing Kazuma saying that the only thing that matters to him is Ren as Ren strokes Kazuma's sleeping face is the most touching "it's mutual" thing I've seen in a while that also reflects the characters. Kazuma will say it. Ren will show it.

The framing around a coworker leaving, ominous energy about Sanada, warnings from the pissed former employee, the info in the past, and now the actor facing over 1300 sexual harassment charges.... Implications unpleasant about Sanada and that management may already know.

Yes, please dry his hair. You are a BL boy who almost died from being soaked in the rain ten years ago. We cannot repeat our mistakes.

This conversation about just taking a bath was refreshingly gay for me. I like the tacit acknowledgement about mess.

Ah, and there's the overt confirmation about Sanada. That women looked out of it.

DRAMA NEXT WEEK WITH WORK.

This was simultaneously an incredibly sad and heavy episode, but also one of the softest and most domestic things we've had in a while. The Japanese teams are really good at that balance. You can feel Ren finally softening and letting Kazuma in. The rapport between them is solid. They feel older than a lot of the pairings we've had in Japan despite just being in their mid-20s. This is really such a fantastic show.

[greatbigbellies]

Hear me out - regular pregnancy experienced as a rapid one

For whatever reason, the pregnant person is only aware of their body and surroundings for a few moments every week

Just. Blinking and you're in a new place with new clothes and you have no memory of any of it but gosh why does your body feel so *weird*?

And you blink again and its all different once more but you swear you feel bigger?? And if you glance down at your tummy, gosh, yeah, just a moment ago that was smaller... and by the time that thought really occurs to you, you're already bigger again still

This growing sense of distant alarm at what the fuck is happening but also?? It feels. Good...? Real good.

...idk if this makes any sense but I want so bad for this to happen to me

Like a pregnancy time lapse montage, but you're living it! I get it!

I feel like that's a veeeery acquired taste, but not inherently a bad one. Clocking in and out, swelling up between each instance. You're growing noticeably each time, but it really ramps up for the last 3 "months" as you reach full term.

I've never seen rapid preg framed that way but it's really unique!

[technicallyverycowboy]

kinnporsche heyyy ep 8

shit i love about ep 8:

- one of the things that really helps to sell kinn and porsche being bonkers into each other is that so much of this opening sex montage is goofy. lady and the tramping a piece of bread isn't inherently or objectively hot, but they clearly think it's hot as fuck and that makes it work. 

i just love how kinnporsche's sex scenes are another element of drawing out characters and their relationships. they don't feel shoehorned in because where and when and how and why characters have sex is deeply rooted in who they are. and i love that shit. 

- YOK THE WINGWOMAN. tem got his heart broken by tae and time i will not be taking further questions at this time. 

- THIS DATE! AHHH! first, kinn wearing porsche's outfit is dummy romantic shit. second, porsche turning into an instagram girlfriend is very gay nerves relatable. third, i'm just always a sucker for a good "i'm sorry this thing i planned was so terrible"/"idk what you're talking about i had a GREAT night" exchange. 

- so yes, the fact that porsche has never gone on a single date before made my soul fully exit my body. what i particularly like about this is, again, the delicate balance this show has in terms of Why Porsche Is Nervous About This Date. i really love that his nerves aren't coming from being seen as queer, but because he's never dated another dude and he doesn't really know what he's doing. but then surprise! he wouldn't know what he was doing if kinn was a girl. it's such a good way to let porsche have some nerves about this without it being rooted in homophobia. 

- given the "i didn't know you were such a slut," comment in ep 7, kinn having his own second slut behavior phone is funny as shit to me. 

- pete dipping the moment it looks like they might get caught. a wingman, yes, but a survivor first and foremost. you gotta use your forearms to block those neck strikes, porsche!!

- every agonized, smitten expression that crosses kim's face when porchay is playing for him. 

- porsche's fear of ghosts + that he always goes running to kinn to protect him about it. (also the shot of kinn popping back into frame with the fucking dick in his mouth is comedy gold) 

- finally, justice 4 porsche's forensic artist sketch.

[suchacomet]

Okay, I don't have a tumblr but I saw your post about Lupe taking signs and it is something that has bothered me the whole show. It makes absolutely no sense for a picture not to take any signs from a catcher, they are just asking for a passed ball. Not to mention it makes it impossible for Carson to frame the plate well. Genuinely, how are they supposed to be a good battery without Carson knowing what is coming?

okay the thing is you’re SO right about everything you just said but it only makes me love that moment even more. you’re exactly right that from a baseball perspective no self-respecting catcher, much less a catcher who’s also the coach for fuck’s sake, would ever ask a pitcher to pitch without signs—but from a story and character development perspective… i am kissing that scene with tongue.

because it’s all about trust and their developing relationship! by telling lupe to pitch without signs, carson is saying that she’s willing to take the blame for all of the bad pitches. every ball that gets past her, every pitch that could have been a strike if carson had framed it right but is called as a ball instead, every base and run that those errors cost the team—carson is telling lupe that’s on her, not lupe. especially given that this is lupe’s first game post-injury, that means even more. carson is putting her ass on the line to cover for any rustiness/adjustment time lupe may have in this game.

not only that, but it really explicitly gives lupe a lot of power in their relationship on the diamond. given the context of the episode and lupe’s (JUSTIFIED!!!!) frustration with the coaching power struggle and carson’s appointment as coach, carson is apologizing and attempting to make it right by telling lupe she gets to run the game, giving her the power to decide what pitches are thrown. yes, pitchers always get the final say, but carson is doing away with even the symbolic notion of telling lupe what to do in this game.

frankly, lupe could have chosen to pitch terribly and intentionally throw passed balls and frame carson as an incompetent catcher and coach here. carson knows that—she’s a professional catcher, she has to know that—but she trusts lupe not to abuse that power.

and lupe doesn’t. she pitches a fucking killer game, and after a few innings (i would guess, time gets a little wonky in gameplay montages), lupe forces carson to give her a sign. to me, that represents the moment lupe forgives carson and that they start to rebuild their relationship (which gets complicated by the getting traded/gay bar plot in the next ep, but the betrayal carson feels there is only possible because of this moment). lupe acknowledges and accepts the apology from carson and asks to return to the usual pitcher/catcher dynamic.

and carson offers a one. she calls for a fastball. and lupe smirks, and nods, and hurtles a comet of a third strike straight down home fucking plate.

remember what carson said to lupe before she says “you lead, i catch, no signs”? she says, “the forkball was dove’s pitch. what’s yours?”

it’s the fastball. carson knows it. lupe knows it. and in this moment lupe makes sure carson knows it’s not just her pitch—it’s their pitch. lupe explicitly invites carson to be a part of this third strike, this last out, this winning play.

so in other words yes, for sure, my jock brain scoffs at the idea that a catcher would ever fuck themselves over like that in a game, especially one so important. but for that exact reason, my writer filmmaker brain LOVES it as a symbol of lupe and carson’s relationship development. it’s a beautiful expression of trust between these two characters who want and need to trust each other but haven’t been able to due to outside influences. it’s the turning point where they start to become real friends, and i fucking love it.