#josie saltzman meta

[josiesaltzmanstyle]

Malivore

This marks the first (and quite possibly the only) time Josie spends the whole episode in the same outfit, which makes sense, as the events of the plot seem to take place over one day.

She's kept her hair pretty similarly styled to the episode before, and I still think it's a great style on her!

And we have another Modcloth sweater, this time in navy! This is par for the course for season one Josie, but cute all the same. The bell sleeves we'll see below are a continuation from the last episode (a detail of that red cropped sweater I totally forgot to mention), but the zigzagged stripes (again—somewhat hard to see due to lighting) are new.

And, of course, she accessorizes by attaching an isolated white ruffle collar and a yellow shoe-string tie we'll shortly see matches her skirt. As of now, she can be very predictable when it comes to her accessory choices. Though I don't think it's the same one she wore in the last episode. The idea that she owns multiple is both telling and adorable.

It also looks like she's wearing these pearl-hook Angara earrings she wore in the first episode! I've been very pleasantly surprised by how the costuming department has been incorporating pieces multiple times, and I'm excited to see if it continues on. Also notable because Lizzie's rocking pearl earrings of her own, though there are two and they seem slightly bigger. #twingoals

Later on, we see she's paired the sweater with this yellow fringe skirt with a row of buttons at three sides! I was surprised to learn this skirt is part of a set that goes with a matching crop top. It's interesting that she chooses not to wear it directly after the first episode we saw her wear one in. I wonder if she wore it under her sweater? I would guess not, but I can't tell for sure one way or another.

She's also got another pair of gold earrings set above them. I can't quite make out the shape (they're somewhat jagged, like an arrow, but I'm not sure).

She also wears bright red tights under the skirt. Primary colors galore! The color palette reminds me a bit of the palette from 1.04, as both coordinate blue, yellow, and red, but it's a little more of a traditionally studious look.

I couldn't get a good shot of her shoes, but they're strappy black platform heels. While I'm not sure, I believe they could be these Aldo heels wornontv lists her wearing in 3.03. It's possible they had them that early, and that was just the first time they were able to be identified. But who knows!

This is definitely another solid look for Josie, so I'm definitely happy to choose it as my favorite look of the episode (even if there ARE no other looks, lmao). Here she is:

[buffyspeak]

one of my favorite scenes/details that really informs the dynamic between the saltzman twins in season one is the scene where josie is helping lizzie get ready for their big sweet sixteen party. it's such an innocuous scene (this is a normal thing people who care about each other sometimes do for one another!) until lizzie turns and complains that josie isn't even dressed yet, sounding almost angry and despairing that she doesn't want to be late for her own party, essentially implying she doesn't want to have to wait for josie.

and while i agree with penelope (not on her general execution throughout most of the season, lmao, but in this instance) that it sucks that josie is not dressed/about to be late for the party because she was helping lizzie, that's not even... really the issue? like, it's an issue, but the thing i always find more concerning is lizzie's reaction to it. she wants josie to help her and yet she also treats at as a failing on josie's part for not being ready, as though she either can't see or doesn't care that that happened specifically because josie was helping her, and instead of offering to help Josie in turn so that it will go more quickly, she leaves for the party without her. to be clear: i am not saying this makes her evil or that i don't get it (i hate being late). josie told her she would catch up with her there and didn't seem overtly bothered that lizzie was leaving without her. but it's just one of those moments that really conveys how much, at this point in time, lizzie expects from josie without much reciprocity or consideration.

and it really adds a certain sting to that moment when we learn that josie has been taken and buried alive and mg, hope, and penelope are all out frantically searcing for her, and the show then cuts to the scene where rafael rejects lizzie and lizzie looking around frantically as she cries while they dance, wondering where her sister is.

here's the thing: it's obviously not lizzie's fault josie got buried alive. it's also her not her fault that she's not out there helping her, because she doesn't know. but josie had been missing from the party long enough that penelope was asking multiple people if they'd seen her. and as much as my heart goes out for lizzie in this scene, it's also really significant that the first time lizzie thinks to wonder where josie is because she needs something from her.

none of this is intended as lizzie hate or slander for the record; i love both saltzman twins and think they have an endlessly complicated relationship that i don't think can be done justice by deciding one of them is the 'villain' in it. they are both flawed and also i love them both (and they love each other) very much. at the same time, i do think that (possibly due to some narrative bias admittedly leaning toward josie at the time of airing), people tend to unfairly assume that lizzie was never actually out of line or taking for granted/treating josie unfairly and that's like... demonstrably false.

[andreal831]

What do you think about the relationship between the Saltzman twins and Hope?

I've only seen the first 10 episodes of Legacies and then spoiled most of it with tik tok edits. So I generally know what happens and the dynamics but can't form a full opinion.

From what I've seen, I really like that Legacies seemed to choose to focus on the friendships of the three main characters rather than on ships. Yes, I know everyone still ships them and I kind of like both Hosie and Hizzie. But I like that at the end of the day, it was the three of them above anything. It's one of the things that will probably push me to give the show another chance.

I also really like the idea of them working together as witches. Throughout TVDU, we are told how important covens are, yet we really don't get to see it. In TVD, Bonnie is on her own 99% of the time and in TO, the coven and ancestors spend more time infighting than anything. This is the first time we really get to see three powerful witches learn and grow together.

I think the show does a better job keeping the characters the right age. They are teenagers dealing with supernatural issues, but also regular high school drama. They fight like most sisters who are close in age would. If anything, I blame Caroline and Alaric for their issues. I've seen discourse on who is right, Josie, Lizzie, or Hope. But again, they are teenagers. It was up to Alaric and Caroline, as parents and school teachers, to teach them how to discuss and handle mental illness. I'm not surprised the show didn't do a great job considering how they treated it in their other shows.

Without even watching the show, I was sad when Josie left because it felt like the trio was the heart of the show. But again, I only know the general plotlines and characters, so it's hard for me to have a full formed discussion.

Thanks for the ask! I promise I will eventually watch Legacies!

[hyperactivewhore]

In your opinion who is the best mother in the TVD universe? I think it has to be Hayley. She had made a lot of mistakes, but at the end of the day, Hope has never once doubted that her mother truly and unconditionally loved and supported her. Hayley practically raised Hope by herself. All Hayley wanted is for Hope to have a normal, happy childhood. And unlike many people I don’t think she ever abandoned Hope. Yes, she sent her away to the Salvatore school - but I think that’s because she knew that Hope couldn’t live a normal life in New Orleans and she thought that the best chance of Hope having a semi normal childhood is if no one knew who she was. And in legacies, it’s said that she still visited Hope at school frequently.

Hayley Marshall without a doubt was the best mother in tvdu, especially considering the events regarding her pregnancy, daughter and her daughter's family.

Hayley loved Hope from the very beginning, don't bring up how she tried to abort Hope because that's just rubbish: she wanted to do it because it would be better for both of them, but ultimately couldn't bring herself to do it. Claiming Elijah was the first person to care about Hope is so wrong, he didn't give a damn about the fetus but what it could mean to Klaus and his fucked up family at the beginning, he only saw his niece as her own person when she was fifteen years old.

Motherhood was forced upon Hayley and she had no other choice but to accept it, Klaus and Elijah made that very clear and it sickens me how people brush over Hayley herself saying how terrified and scared she was during this period of her life. She was barely an adult, thrown into the most dangerous family to ever live just because she happened to carry a baby and was killed twice because of that same family.

Saying Hayley was a bad mother is crazy, she loved Hope and put her above everyone almost always (I won't praise her for this, though, loving your child is the bare minium a decent parent should do) even if it was above people she cared about. People always bring up how she "stole" Hope in season two to try to put her in a bad light and it's embarrassing every time.

Was it a dangerous and risky choice? Obviously, yes, but Klaus, the father of her daughter, was jeopardizing Hope at the time with his paranoia and refusal to trust his family, and at the time everyone believed he had killed Aiden, a member of Hayley's pack, of course she would panick and run away with their kid. It was wrong nonetheless because she was putting in danger her whole pack, her husband, her daughter and herself, but I'll never blame her for it considering how much shit she went through only because of the Mikaelson.

Like Klaus, Hayley was scared too and this is often "forgotten" by the fandom: like him, she never had any good parent, but this didn't make her stop talking to Hope suddenly. The fandom often justifies Klaus abandoning Hope because he had daddy issues and because of The Hollow, but was it that hard to write letters, answer her phone calls? He ghosted his own daughter when she was nine because she saw him murdering someone, but somehow Klaus is the better parent in tvdu and the one Hope loved the most. Make it make sense.

Caroline was away too from her daughters, but she didn't ghost them the way Klaus did. Hayley was co-leading New Orleans, a whole city full of supernatural creatures, but she didn't abandon Hope either: as you said, Josie herself said she used to come to Mystic Falls frequently just for her daughter. Sending Hope away to school after nearly dying and losing her father was too soon, and while Legacies made everything they could to make these women look like bad mothers (Hope being basically depressed as a child, wanting to belong into the Saltzman family, her line in season three "my mom and dad will come back for me" - though I'm not sure if it should consider it proof, considering it was a weird Star Wars episode -, Lizzie feeling neglected by her mother, etc) they simply weren't.

Caroline and Hayley were both forced to be mothers and both proved to be better than everyone in the series. People should start criticizing the actual bad parents in this show instead of them.

[lovetold]

missed them <333

[unsiredtribrid]

I like all of these thoughts

I kind of wonder on the 'Penelope's groupie', bit. Because you make a valid point that Lizzie is possessive of Josie's attention and she almost soft controls Josie's decisions and actions, like we can see in early season one. A big chunk of Josie's actions on screen thus far (like with the honor council thing where she, completely on her own as if she knew already to do it, interviewed all of the witches to try and get them to vote for Lizzie and then reported back to Lizzie, or when she bargained with that one witch who didn't want to vote for Lizzie...) revolve around like...following Lizzie's lead, almost. And then she went and confessed to Lizzie about doing magic with Hope and instead of being like "oh hey this thing happened" she started it like an apology and Lizzie immediately tried to take control by being like "well, I don't want you to do that because xyz" and there's never any fighting back from Josie there. It's just an understood dynamic between them at this point

But when she's away from Lizzie, she is kind of rebellious in a sense? Like she still flirted with (and kissed) Raf. She lit Penelope on fire. She went to a party behind Lizzie's back while she was stuck inside with Ric (where she also busted Landon out of confinement). She even skipped going to Mystic Falls High to work on a curriculum to propose to her dad about including offensive spells in some of the magic classes. She does still have some kind of autonomy and drive around the school. So it makes me feel like, maybe when Lizzie isn't around, she hung out with the witches and maybe Penelope made her loosen up more and that's kind of what I mean by 'groupie'. Like you know how Hope hung out with the witches when she was possessed by the slug? And those witches followed Penelope when she walked off? I feel like Josie was hanging out with them and dating Penelope

I think also another thing that seems to be made obvious by the narrative is that Penelope probably also broke up with Josie because she kept getting put second place in priority to Lizzie. Like I can imagine that Lizzie shows up on the scene and Josie switches up her behavior instantly and she's no longer doing that 'autonomous/rebellious' Josie, but she defaults back to her state of following Lizzie around and almost instinctually doing things she assumes Lizzie would want. She probably drops plans, rearranges them, etc etc. And she probably does that at Penelope's expense when needed, and Pen realized that Josie didn't even like doing that when she did

But yeah, I guess we'll never know, so that's just speculation, lol

I don't know how I feel about the writers' decision for Josie to give Landon that speech about not knowing where she fits into his life if she's not fixing problems/being the caretaker... wasn't she in a relationship with Penelope, who really does not seem like she would let Josie play that role? Idkk

Maybe Penelope and Josie's relationship started because Josie was one of her groupies in a sense, kind of like the other witches? So maybe she felt like she was taking care of Penelope in that way? Trying to make sense of it

[jessmalia]

someday I’m gonna write a long ass tvd meta post about siphons as an analogy for neurodivergency you just wait

[brionysea]

hosie stream of consciousness

as with any mikaelson, family means everything to hope. while most characters have been very insensitive about it (alaric, lizzie, rafael and landon, off the top of my head), josie is respectful and considerate of hope's feelings when it comes to her grief for her parents; she even managed to make hope smile when they were talking about hayley while landon doing the same made her blow up and yell at him. josie also reunited hope with her family after meeting freya and bringing back everyone's memories despite knowing the pain it would bring herself, and hope then returned that selflessness by not making the decision to come back to school until josie said she was okay with it. they were both willing to completely uproot their lives to spare the other any pain even if it made them miserable in the process.

although in legacies hope has forgiven roman for his role in hayley's death, she took a while to get there in the originals. while under the hollow's influence she chained him up in her family's dungeon and tortured him (as you do). this is why her reaction to landon lying and using romance to manipulate her in the first few episodes of legacies was Like That, the last time it worked on her it resulted in her mother's death and she hadn't processed that trauma yet. when it came out that josie drove lizzie and hope apart and set hope's room on fire and destroyed the only painting she made with klaus in the process, hope's knee-jerk reaction was betrayal and anger. she thought their entire friendship up to that point was a lie. but when she found out it was because josie was young and stupid and crushing on her she forgave it all so quickly; she'd seen how the twins operate when it came to romance and she was charmed by josie having a crush on her (which also validated the crush we later found out hope had on josie at around the same time). hope has blown up at people for much less, but because it's josie, all she had to say was "you had a crush on me?" with this infatuated little smile. josie is quite literally the exception when it comes to hope.

when josie was consumed by dark magic, no one had faith in her. most of the school was scared of her and wanted to stop her by fighting back and possibly killing her (just like any other monster of the week), alaric wanted to lock her away where she'd be safe and he could solve the problem himself, and lizzie just ran away because she knew she couldn't beat josie in the merge when she was like this. even mg, josie's best friend, couldn't get through to her. hope was the only one who had faith in josie; she refused to put her full strength into fighting josie because she didn't want to hurt her and josie, interestingly, was doing the same thing up until hope appealed to josie's selflessness and strength and kindness and actually got the real josie to come to the surface for a second, despite what kaleb said about NO ONE being able to get through to her. (hope being josie's exception here also reminds me of when josie felt something when hope threw herself into malivore.) hope knew from the start, without a doubt, that josie's strength and perseverance was the key to getting the real her back, and she was right. hope was also instrumental in the closing of the dark josie plotline, as hope's coexisting strength and goodness was what made josie realise she could be both; that kindness isn't weakness and strength isn't hurting others. hope believed in josie beyond reason and josie was inspired by hope.

in conclusion: hosie endgame

[halfthealphabet]

legacies ot3s rated by me, very biased and completely accurate

for @acelandonkirby ❤

lizzie x mg x sebastian- love triangles always have a lot of potential but the lizzie and sebastian dynamic always felt toxic to me and mg and sebastian were fun to watch and had a little more balance but sebastian is one of my least favorite characters

lizzie x mg x raf- lizzie and raf are fantastic characters but they bring out the worst in each other. mg and raf never got much development besides when mg killed landon

alyssa x hope x lizzie- too much of a past for these three, they could develop it further and turn it around but right now,,,, the tension they all share 👀👀👀

kym x lizzie x mg- if kym had stayed longer and had more than a 2 second interaction with lizzie, this could have had some meat to this. however between the wonderful mizzie dynamic and mg and kym's flirtiness, it makes me smile

alyssa x jed x kaleb- these are the first romantic plot lines we have gotten for any of these characters and I'm not super invested but I'm intrigued. we have seen very little of any of the dynamics but I do like what we have seen.

josie x mg x penelope- if things had been set up slightly differently, I'd really be rooting for these three. they are sweet and all quite protective of each other. however penelope is implied to be a lesbian post ep 1 (although ambiguous 🙄) so I feel uncomfortable putting them higher. not to mention mg's adoration for lizzie

hope x lizzie x mg- hope and mg don't have much romantic chemistry but I adore their dynamic and mizzie and hizzie are two of my favorite ships and both very well developed post s2. and we even get a few scenes

landon x kaleb x mg-

hope x josie x penelope- this is a throwback to season one but it was ripe with potential. just think of the bug or zombie episode,,,, so much chemistry. hosie is fantastic and posie is so lovely and angsty and hope and penelope. . .we love to see it.

lizzie x mg x nia- I'll always be mad nia was only here for one episode, she made quite the impression. she and mg were adorable and mixed with mg and lizzie, oh it would be so good. unfortunately we never got nia and lizzie but I like to imagine they would have gotten along in their own special way.

hope x josie x raf- I have yet to gush about hafael this post but in an alternate universe, they would be one of my otps (but that would break Landon's heart so they aren't). but god the chemistry!!! the way hope helps out raf and the honesty they share. so good. and then raf and josie!!! we almost had this in canon and I'm mad. they are so soft!! and supportive!!! and it was only for one episode!! mixed with hosie and hafael, dynamite. if only we got all three of them together, alas.

josie x landon x raf- why do so few people appreciate the fantasticness of jandon? unexpected and glorious. soft and cute. I love rewatching their scenes. and landon and raf get more romantically charged the longer the show goes on. I adore them. and josie and raf have been covered and it could be sooooo cuteeee, let me have canon ot3s!!!

hope x landon x raf- *vibrates* this would just be so good cause they are all so in love and fantastic. we have handon here, softest and sweetest canon couple. the way they sacrifice for each other and have learned to communicate is fantastic to me. we have hafael, which as discussed, is amazing. and than landon and raf is just,,, best friends to lovers asking to happen. and all my concerns about hope and raf are solved if landon is there too. your honor 😥😥😥 I love them

hope x josie x landon- all three of these dynamics are golden!!! so well developed, so adorable, just the perfect amount of angst!! established feelings all around, even if some are in the past (supposedly). and we get to see them together, all caring about each other,,,,, god, golden, just golden.

[timeladyjamie]

The Battle of Self-Love with Josie & Dark Josie in Legacies 2x16

Welcome to another one of my meta’s, but the first one I’ve done for the Legacies fandom. 

I felt this one really had to be covered because the symbolism of what happens to Josie in this episode speaks not only to me, but many other people who struggle with self-love and their inner battles with themselves. So enjoy my ramblings. 

This is a very personal and deep one for me so I’m shedding my skin with this one and laying demons to rest. This meta also includes helpful tips to resources concerning the topic of Self-Love and Inner Mean Girls. 

Trigger warnings may be present. 

Dark Josie is Josie. They are the same person and as the Queen of Mean™ points out in previous episodes, she was created to help Josie survive. She was in a tough situation and had to help save her family/friends. Of course, as always, Josie makes the tough call and breaks the clock, taking all the Dark Magic into her. Sure, it makes her more powerful, but it also awakens all the darkness she keeps locked away inside her, pushing into a trunk, afraid to face it. At least everyone is safe though...or so they think. This is where the line “Don’t let it break” comes into play because the beast she held within is finally free, even if it seems things are finally back to normal. There is no running from the darkness within. 

Dark Josie points out multiple times that if it wasn’t for her, Josie wouldn’t survive. It all makes sense since she was created to help her do that exact thing...but the only way that Dark Josie thinks she can achieve this goal is by killing Josie herself (which is contradictory, but this is what our Inner Mean Girl’s do.) They tell you all the negative things about yourself. They try to drain you down, make you depressed, and convince you of their lies until you give up because they think it is the only way to help you survive. I know this from personal experience. I thought if I kept telling myself all these negative things that it would shield me and make me stronger...but it didn’t. All it did was start to destroy myself. I just didn’t realize it at first.

Dark Josie with her convincing lies and ways to win the battle makes Josie think she is stronger and invincible this way. Even when others point out that this isn’t Jo, she tells them to get use to it and accept it because this is who she is now; An entity full of nothing but rage, jealously, and bitterness that isn’t going to let anyone use her or abuse her ever again. If this is who she needs to be to protect herself, then so be it. Dark Josie even says she finds everything clearer now and breaks free from her prison. It’s the high of the lies. 

She is determined to go after her next target that makes her weak: Lizzie. With plans to overcome the trial of the merge and defeat her sister, nothing is going to stop Dark Josie, especially not MJ’s kindness or Hope Mikaelson who asks for the real Josie. 

Hope: Where’s Josie?

Dark Josie: I’m right here, silly.

Hope: The real Josie, our Josie.

Dark Josie: So you mean weak Josie. She’s gone. I thought I made that very clear.

Dark Josie doesn’t want them to have anything to do with Josie because what would they want to do with a weak, helpless, powerless girl that kept letting herself get hurt and used by others? Josie is gone and they need to deal with it, right? This is who she is now. While she is determined to prove to everyone that she is better and more powerful this way, Hope is determined to prove to Josie that she was strong all along. And this is one of the important moments because while our views of ourselves are obstructed and skewed, sometimes we need the reminder of who we truly are from someone else who knows us and won’t give up on us. This is Hope for Josie.

Hope: I know you think she is weak. But I know the truth: she’s strong. You’re strong! And you’re always there for your friends when they need you. So, please Jo, we really need you right now.

Dark Josie: Shut up! Everyone shut up!

Obviously this determination to not give up on the good inside her effects the hold Dark Josie has. For a moment the real Josie pops through before hiding back as Dark Josie takes control again. No, she can’t believe this because Josie doesn’t believe she was ever strong. She’s only strong as Dark Josie. The merge happens and Dark Josie thinks she has won...but there is someone who isn’t giving up on her, even if she has already given up on herself.

Hope goes into her subconscious which is a fairytale land produced by the simple black and white fairytales her mother would tell her of battles between good guys and bad guys. In this world Josie is a princess who sealed herself away with a sleeping spell to keep away the darkness, but she is also the said Darkness that is out to kill the Princess and destroy the kingdom. Once Josie is awakened and Dark Josie is aware, she confronts the girls.

Feeling she is unable to defeat the Evil Queen, Josie has a meaningful talk with Hope who gives her a wakeup call. 

Hope: We have to keep moving.

Josie: It doesn’t matter. We’re never going to get away from her.

Hope: Jo. While you’ve been trapped in here, she’s been rampaging in the real world. She even tried to Merge with Lizzie. 

Josie: Oh my god, is she okay?

Hope: For now. That’s why we have to stop her. 

Josie: She’s more powerful than I am. 

Hope: Jo, she is you- some part of you. You can control her somehow. Pretty messed up subconscious you got here by the way.

Josie: Are we surprised? My mom used to read us fairytales for bedtime stories. They were so calming. There was Good Guys and Bad Guys; very clear rules that you had to follow. It all made sense unlike my life. 

Hope: Well, this fairytale sucks.

Josie: It’s accurate. I’m either the powerful, petty bitch or the good, weak victim. 

Hope: That’s a story that you’re telling yourself. I mean, your subconscious made a fairytale that the good you is weak and the powerful you is evil. Tell yourself a different story.

Dark Josie shows up once again and Hope tries to tell her to change the story before being turned to stone. Josie runs for her life from herself, but realizes at this point there is no where else she can go.

The only thing she can do now is confront herself and the darkness within her that she kept trying to avoid. Cue that quote; “You can’t run from yourself.” Now, Josie must face the monster within her.

Dark Josie instantly takes to calling out Josie’s insecurities, pointing out all her flaws because she KNOWS how much it eats away at Josie. These are all the inner thoughts and feelings she’s kept buried inside her like a hurricane. 

She reminds Josie of her place and the reason why Dark Josie is here. 

Dark Josie: “This is what being strong looks like.” 

Hope: “That's a story that you're telling yourself. I mean, your subconscious made a fairytale that the good you is weak and the powerful you is evil. Tell yourself a different story.

Echoing back to Hope’s words, this is when the self-realization and awakening in Josie begins to play out. 

She realizes her mindset, Dark Josie’s mindset, is wrong. Josie begins to accept and face her own actions, knowing she was wrong, not only about her mindset on things, but especially her view towards herself. 

Josie didn’t need to become this dark version of herself in order to survive and be strong. There was never anything weak or powerless about Josie to begin with. She was always strong and incredible the way she was- others like Hope could see it, but Josie couldn’t. 

Dark Josie tries to silence this because she doesn’t want Josie having any power. She doesn’t want her waking up to the realization about herself because once you begin to awaken to the truth about your inner mean girl, that’s when she loses her hold over you - and she doesn’t want that happening.

Josie: I’m not afraid of you anymore...because I’m holding the axe.

Dark Josie: ((scoffs before realizing the axe is gone from her hands and now in Josies.))

Josie: ((smiles, holding the axe))

Dark Josie: I just bound you to this cabin. You’re trapped here forever.

Josie: I’m not trapped...because we’re not in the cabin anymore. ((They are now in the forest outside the castle.)) And if you use your magic against me, it hurts you too. ((Dark Josie is stripped of her magic.)) And most importantly, you’re not wearing armor anymore.

Josie begins to take her control over her inner mean girl, but I think one of the most important parts of when she does this is the kiss Josie gives her inner mean girl. BUT WHY? Granted, Josie has put an axe in her, but why should she be kind to the darkness within her after all it was doing to everyone, especially herself?

First off, you need to remember- your inner mean girl is you. Once you accept she is a problem that needs to be addressed, then you must address it. But not with ignoring her, or booting her away...but with kindness. She is a part of you that came into fruition in order to protect you from some sort of trauma or hurt. Honestly, she had the best intentions for you but took it completely overboard. This doesn’t mean you should give her any sliver of control, but it also doesn’t mean you should treat her without compassion. 

After all, compassion is what helps heal. 

And this is the step Josie takes next: laying her inner mean girl down with TLC

Josie: It’s over.

Dark Josie: *chuckles* It’ll never be over. As long as you have Black Magic in you, I will always find a way back.

Josie: We’ll see. *lays a kiss upon her forehead as Dark Josie falls asleep*

You’re inner mean girl will always be a part of you. She will always be inside you, ready to take to defense when you least expect it. There is no gettin rid of her...but you can at least control her by remembering her ways and knowing you always have the power to change the story despite what she may say. 

Another lovely thing I must point out before I get to the conclusion of this post is not only how important it is for you to realize the power you have over your inner mean girl and her ways to affect you, but the people around you who support you and never give up on you, even when you’ve given up on yourself.

Those people are absolute blessings and you can be one of them towards yourself and others too. 

I love the scene where after all of this, Alaric speaks to his daughter about what happened and they have this conversation:

Josie: Thank you for not giving up on me, even though I didn’t deserve it.

Alaric: You know, one of the many joys of being a father is getting to see you slowly figure out how much deserve, and one day you realize that what you deserve is to never be given up on. 

When we go through something traumatic or overwhelming, whether it be a friend that hurt you, a family member that rejected you, you feel used or abused, or something didn’t turn out the way you planned, we usually tend to be hard on ourselves for it. All these insecurities deep inside us begin to eat away and make a home for themselves, especially if we tend to avoid them or don’t acknowledge it. We start to turn into our own worst enemies because we believe we deserve all the shit we get in return. Then we start to lose sight of ourselves and who we are; what we’re capable. Sometimes we can become the very thing we swore to never become. 

The Battle between Dark Josie & Josie is an example of this.

 And you know what the moral of this story is? 

It’s okay. We are all human and we’ve all been through this or are currently going through it with our inner mean selves. 

But you can change the story because you have the power. So, tell yourself a different story.

Accept you have a inner mean self.

Figure out how they work and what type of inner meany they are

And realize you have the power to tell yourself a different story. 

It won’t be easy. It’s never easy, but you are capable of it. 

________________________________________________________________

A special thank you to my sources on this matter down below.:

And the Reform your Inner Mean Girl book by Amy Ahlers & Christine Arlyo. You can check out their website here and order the book which has a lot of helpful tips and helps you have more insight on how our Inner Mean Girls work. 

From another person facing the battle of Self-Love against my Inner Mean girl, I leave you this reminder. Till the next meta! 

- Jamie

[josiesaltzmanstyle]

Hope Is Not the Goal

Episode 4 features one of my favorite Josie outfits in the entire show, so yay!

Also, hi. It's been forever. Whoops!

First off, accessories, since they're the most visible in her first appearances. These gold, threaded earrings with gold bars hanging down are some of my favorite we've seen Josie in so far! Unfortunately, I can't find the original pair, but these are a handmade pair on Poshmark, and they seem like a close approximation.

I find this pair especially notable because this is the first time Josie's wearing dangling earrings, which, so far, have been more of Lizzie's thing. This episode is one of firsts, though. More on that later.

Josie, as she is wont to do, is also sporting a detachable, white, ruffled collar. While it's not an accessory I would normally pick, I think it works well to show off Josie's somewhat preppy and reserved nature, even as she's experimenting a little more with style this episode.

I love her hair this episode, too! It's still stylistically curled, but just a shade looser than it has been. It's giving princess waves, instead of studious coils. Pictured above, we can see on her right, she's pinned part of it back, following the trend this early first season has established of Josie pulling her hair from her forehead. Interestingly, though, she keeps the other side unpinned and lets it fall to frame her face. I like this look a lot more than what she has been doing with her hair, and Kaylee Kaneshiro pulls it off really well.

Honestly, one reason it took me so long to update was because I was so frustrated I couldn’t find this Fifth the Label top. I can mostly move on when I can’t find something, but I love this outfit so much. As I was diving back into this project, I was about to give up when I finally found it? I feel like I am on drugs.

It's the first, though certainly not the last, crop top we see Josie in! So far, this season, she's been pretty buttoned up. Crop tops won't be unusual fare for Josie down the line, but in season one, it certainly stands out. She's clearly experimenting in this episode, maybe a little because Rafael is back, maybe a little because this episode is one of the first about Josie coming into her own as she stands up to her father at the end with regards to her perspective that the school needs to teach defensive magic. Josie's whole arc is threaded with this theme of Josie coming into her own and learning (messily) to advocate what she needs and believes in. Maybe it seems small, but I personally don't think the show is shy about using style to build character, perhaps especially with Josie, who, IMHO, uses it to perform quite a lot.

The cropped sweater is a bright red and looks extremely soft in that Depop picture (alas, the only place I could find it), with yellow trim above the end of the sleeves and at the hem. Both are also almost scalloped? But the valleys are slightly deeper and longer and sharper, like teeth.

It’s paired, of course, with a plaid, navy skirt—but I don’t believe it’s her regular school skirt? It’s a little more high-waisted, has a little more volume, and has some sort of zipper/buckle accessory attached? The closest thing I can find is this French Toast skirt, though it doesn't look like it would sit as high as it does on Josie.

Regardless, it’s a Whole Look (TM.)

I belieeeve she’s wearing the same yellow Aldos she wore with her yellow sweater in 1.01! Now, they're in conversation with the yellow trim on her sweater. Love a repeat item, proving her closet is more relatable than meets the eye. It also shows her skill, once again, in coordinating color very well! It reminds me a bit of how she coordinated her first outfit in 1.01, though this look is notably less buttoned-up and preppy. She does pair it with black knee-high socks, though, so that's not to say there's no preppy involved.

Red and yellow, so far, are definitely stacking up as her colors this season.

This outfit manages to be well-coordinated, trendy if a little quirky, and still lets her polished style shine through. It's certainly my favorite outfit we've seen her in so far, and it's probably in my top 5 Josie looks altogether.

We see so little of this look, I fully forgot about it until I was scanning through the episode. Yet I am pretty positive the top is this light blue cable-knit J. Crew sweater, and I think we might get some more appearances of it later on? It's pretty simple and works well with what we've seen Josie in already, as sweaters are her bread and butter this season. It's a relatively simple look in comparison to a lot of her other outfits this season, but that actually makes sense, as it's what she's changed into after she, Hope, and Lizzie get monster goop exploded all over them.

I couldn't get a good shot of them, but she also opted for simple black shorts. I can't be sure, but I think they might be the shorts she wore while serving volunteer detention in 1.03! We don't get a super great look at them, though. Her earrings are also still present, so they must have remained goop-free.

Pretty sure she’s sporting this red and white J. Crew pajama set, though the lighting makes it skew a bit blue/green. The collar (and sleeves and hem of the shorts, though those were harder to snap a picture of it) has a red trim, paralleling the yellow trim of her day sweater. We love a girl who's on theme. (She's also so busy working on her offensive magic proposal and then lightly telling her father off that she hasn't taken her earrings out for bed yet. #ambitious queen.) For some reason, I'm also noticing her makeup more than I have been so far. Maybe her eyeshadow is a bit darker, her lips a bit fuller? Hm. Much to think on.

It should come as no surprise that this was my favorite outfit:

It's very experimental, thus far, for Josie, yet still incorporates all the things that have marked her style so far! Definitely an iconic look.

[buffyspeak]

finally doing a f\ull legacies rewatch and getting to mid season 2 (on 2.07 right now) and i’m not saying josie isn’t responsible for her own actions but GOD it is not hard to see how she falls into the dark josie arc based on the events of last season and ESPECIALLY this seven episodes like. she and her family have been put in danger a lot more than has ever been an issue and then she finds out that she and her sister are cursed with an expiration date because one of them is going to have to ‘absorb’ the other one by the age of 22, the ex that she has a complicated relationship with but seems to be one of the only people who really knows/cares what she wants (not saying that’s true but probably feels like it for a little while at least), being told by her new headmaster that her father doesn’t have her best interest at heart and being manipulated, feeling he’s the only one she can turn to when the effects of dark magic are taking their toll, and finding comfort in her new relationship with landon only to feel used (even though of course it’s no one’s fault) and like a second choice once everyone remembers hope and it becomes clear he’s still in love with her, and having to do something she’s established to be extremely afraid of (break the sand clock and absorb all that dark magic) just to save her family and get back home and out of the prison world? like... it’s clear that she simply reached her emotional breaking point and combined with the variable of immense amounts of dark magic, it had disastrous results. i’m not saying her actions as dark!josie were justified or that she’s not responsible for them, but it’s NOT hard to see how she got there.

[deifiedstars]

anonymous asked:  talk about josie's relationship and feelings towards her sister? // send me a topic to meta about

     the first and most important thing to note is that josie loves her sister. josie loves lizzie with her whole heart. but that comes from josie, josie loves everyone with her whole heart it’s kind of a problem. so yeah, josie loves lizzie. she adores her. they’ve grown up together and it’s always been one way. lizzie needs help and josie provides it. time and time again in canon we have seen josie give up on something she wants because lizzie wants it too. and people have told her that it’s bad and that she shouldn’t do it and on some level she knows that. of course she does. she shouldn’t have to give up things she wants just to keep lizzie happy. 

it leads to the breakdown of their relationship in season one, right? when uninhibited josie tells lizzie she’s a terrible sister and it just kind of all comes to a head, where josie makes her feelings known. she doesn’t want to play second fiddle, she doesn’t want to have to give up things she loves for her sister. this doesn’t mean that she doesn’t love lizzie, but it means that she sees the flaws. she sees the codependency- they need each other to the point of causing problems in their other relationships or personal lives. 

josie is angry, she’s had enough, she swears off sacrificing any more of her happiness for lizzie. and then she goes and takes a literal bullet for her. the cycle continues, over and over and over. until even in the last episode josie’s simulation escape word comes after she decides to sign the confession, to take the hit, to sacrifice herself for lizzie. she will go so far as to die so her sister won’t. 

whether it’s taking a murder charge or the merge, josie- the real honest josie- would die for lizzie. there’s no other way around it. she loves her. she would die for her. and almost has done. she wouldn’t even hesitate. this is love in its most extreme form, it’s the world burning, death defying kind of true love. 

tldr; their relationship is unhealthy and codependent and skewed in one direction and they want to work on changing it, but it’s incredibly difficult to rewrite sixteen years of personality. so it’s going to take time. in the meantime, josie loves her sister, would do anything for her even if she’s angry at her. and that’s all there is to it. 

[thegoldenheiress]

meta + 'normal life' (rather normal school instead of salvatore boarding school?)       /   @anon

So we see that Hope in the episode where they are going to Mystic Falls High for the day that she can slide right into the popular crowd with ease.  I truly believe that even though she was different that she’d at least have herself a small group of friends.

Hope would have gone to say Mystic Falls High and then later onto Whitmore College.  Hope still would have hidden herself away from the world with the name Hope Labonair.  Since we are only changing the school in this instead of everything.  Hope would likely go home to a small home   (small to her but still likely large of a 5 bedroom place)  at the end of every night growing up. Not sure who she’d be going home to as both Freya and Hayley are in New Orleans and neither can completely leave so that is still up for debate in my brain.

The tribrid would be good in school with likely a very high average grade wise  (although screwing the average up every so often so that it isn’t seeming like she is too smart).  Hope would be into sports but wouldn’t do them in teams at school. Hope is into dance, karate, football, and more. These are things that she’d do with the kids in the bayou growing up as a collective where there isn’t a fear of outing her.  Since Hope has a werewolf nature though,  Hope likely did get into a decent chunk of fights that Hayley would have to come down to take care of since you can’t outrun the nature of the beast. 

The best thing though about this idea is there is NO ALARIC SALTZMAN.  There is no one treating her like she knows a lot one moment and then the next telling her that she needs to step back the next. There isn’t the twins bullying her from when the twins are 13 and above either. In fact,  Josie and Lizzie are likely friends with Hope.  Hope likely enjoys sharing SPELLBOOKS and EATING ICE CREAM on MOVIE NIGHTS. 

So the best way to explain it is to picture the version of Hope that was in wishworld number 2.  How Hope was flirting with Josie and seemed to be very much growing into herself better.

[cursedbcrn]

META ABOUT HOPE’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TWINS

Hope’s #1 relationship when it comes to people outside of her family is absolutely her relationship with the twins. Note that is twins, plural, as in BOTH of them. In a verse where Hope ends up with Josie, Lizzie is her best friend, and in a verse where Hope ends up with Lizzie, Josie is her best friend. In a verse where she ends up with neither, both of them are equally her best friend and she won’t tolerate any misunderstandings about that.

Hope has wanted to be a part of the Saltzmans’ dynamic ever since she first arrived at Salvatore, and while it’s taken them over ten years to reach that, once she has it, she is unwilling to let it go. As a young child who was homesick and missed her family, the Forbes-Saltzman family was what she imagined to be a real, unbroken family. Mother and father both present, a twin to be her other half who could understand her without a word. Of course, as she grew older, she learned that things were not all as they seemed, but to a seven year old Hope, it was everything.

Then things started getting rocky. By the time she was nine, Alaric deemed her ready to start training, though it was never exactly clear what he was training her for. At first, Hope was excited to spend time with the former vampire hunter, as this was shortly after her fallout with Klaus, and she clung to whatever male father figure there was in her life. Alaric was the closest, but with that relationship came the struggles with her and the twins, particularly Lizzie, who was jealous of all the attention that Hope received from their father while he seemingly neglected his own daughters. Coupled with her fears about the Hollow and her own fractured family, Hope didn’t quite understand why Lizzie (and Josie as well) seemed to turn against her, and only understood that they did. They made fun of her with their friends and only pushed Hope further away. It didn’t help that no one knew her true identity, and she had to keep so many secrets to herself, without a soul to confide in other than Alaric.

As they grew older, both the twins and Hope grew more prickly, needling at each other back and forth until it seemed like her dreams of having a coven with Josie and Lizzie were all but futile. The relationship grew tense because of things like Lizzie making Hope the evil villain in her diary, Josie lying to Hope and Lizzie about the fire and the subsequent fallout, Hope continuing to keep them at arms length by acting like she was better than them. Then Hope’s parents died, her true identity was revealed, and she began to shut everyone out. What puts Josie and Lizzie in a unique situation compared to everyone else was that they already had ten years of understanding Hope’s broody nature, so even while they might not have been friends at the time, they knew her well enough to see the signs.

The relationship that Hope has with Josie is not at all the same as the one she has with Lizzie. Both are equally important to her, but they both fill different functions in Hope’s life. Hope sees Josie as the protector, a product of growing up and watching how Josie has spent most of their childhood looking after Lizzie and making sure that she’s okay. Rather than seeing Josie as Lizzie’s servant or shadow like many others do, she sees in Josie what Hope has always imagined to be the core of a sibling relationship: protecting each other. Always and forever, even when it hurts. It’s a skewed version of what her child brain remembers of their family vow, how her father and his siblings had dysfunctional relationships, but always came together in the end. But she takes that feeling into the present day. Josie is always the one to come through for her friends in the end, and it is why she fights just as hard to come through for Josie when she needs it. Hope doesn’t always succeed in that, considering she is flawed herself, but when she needs to let the weight of the world down, it’s Josie she often turns to for help.

Hope’s relationship with Lizzie on the other hand seems more surface at a glance, but she sees Lizzie more like a foil. As children, their constant poking at each other was little more than childish jealousy or mean-spirited comments, but as their relationship has grown, Hope has actually come to appreciate the way Lizzie pushes her. Their tendency to butt heads and banter pushes Hope to get out of her head and see things in a different light. Lizzie is lightning quick and sharp-witted, a combination that forces Hope to keep up and actually look at things from different angles. By pushing at her ideas, Lizzie challenges Hope to defend what she’s putting forth, testing the limitations and boundaries of it to make sure it is the right move, the smart move. She knows Lizzie is so much smarter than she holds herself out to be, and she sees it every time the blonde makes a sarcastic comment. She also loves that Lizzie doesn’t see her as the TRIBRID™. Lizzie has only ever seen Hope as Hope, despite knowing who and what she is, she was the one always asking what was so special about Hope. She treats Hope just like she treats everyone else, and it’s refreshing for Hope, to not feel like she’s got a spotlight constantly on her. She’s not so big that a well-placed snarky comment can’t bring her back down to earth, and Lizzie has no shortage of those, especially for her.

Hope loves Josie and Lizzie just as much as she loves her family. To her, they are her family, and in her mind, “Always and Forever” extends to them too. And this is not to say that I view them in a sisterly manner, but rather they share the kind of bond that Hope has been dreaming about since she was seven. She is so grateful to them, to all of the Squad, but particularly to them because they have made it, despite all of their struggles, and they’ve finally become that little coven she’s always wanted.

[cursedbcrn-a]

META ABOUT HOPE’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TWINS

Hope’s #1 relationship when it comes to people outside of her family is absolutely her relationship with the twins. Note that is twins, plural, as in both of them. In a verse where Hope ends up with Josie, Lizzie is her best friend, and in a verse where Hope ends up with Lizzie, Josie is her best friend. In a verse where she ends up with neither, both of them are equally her best friend and she won’t tolerate any misunderstandings about that. 

Hope has wanted to be a part of the Saltzmans’ dynamic ever since she first arrived at Salvatore, and while it’s taken them over ten years to reach that, once she has it, she is unwilling to let it go. As a young child who was homesick and missed her family, the Forbes-Saltzman family was what she imagined to be a real, unbroken family. Mother and father both present, a twin to be her other half who could understand her without a word. Of course, as she grew older, she learned that things were not all as they seemed, but to a seven year old Hope, it was everything. 

Then things started getting rocky. By the time she was nine, Alaric deemed her ready to start training, though it was never exactly clear what he was training her for. At first, Hope was excited to spend time with the former vampire hunter, as this was shortly after her fallout with Klaus, and she clung to whatever male father figure there was in her life. Alaric was the closest, but with that relationship came the struggles with her and the twins, particularly Lizzie, who was jealous of all the attention that Hope received from their father while he seemingly neglected his own daughters. Coupled with her fears about the Hollow and her own fractured family, Hope didn’t quite understand why Lizzie (and Josie as well) seemed to turn against her, and only understood that they did. They made fun of her with their friends and only pushed Hope further away. It didn’t help that no one knew her true identity, and she had to keep so many secrets to herself, without a soul to confide in other than Alaric. 

As they grew older, both the twins and Hope grew more prickly, needling at each other back and forth until it seemed like her dreams of having a coven with Josie and Lizzie were all but futile. The relationship grew tense because of things like Lizzie making Hope the evil villain in her diary, Josie lying to Hope and Lizzie about the fire and the subsequent fallout, Hope continuing to keep them at arms length by acting like she was better than them. Then Hope’s parents died, her true identity was revealed, and she began to shut everyone out. What puts Josie and Lizzie in a unique situation compared to everyone else was that they already had ten years of understanding Hope’s broody nature, so even while they might not have been friends at the time, they knew her well enough to see the signs. 

The relationship that Hope has with Josie is not at all the same as the one she has with Lizzie. Both are equally important to her, but they both fill different functions in Hope’s life. Hope sees Josie as the protector, a product of growing up and watching how Josie has spent most of their childhood looking after Lizzie and making sure that she’s okay. Rather than seeing Josie as Lizzie’s servant or shadow like many others do, she sees in Josie what Hope has always imagined to be the core of a sibling relationship: protecting each other. Always and forever, even when it hurts. It’s a skewed version of what her child brain remembers of their family vow, how her father and his siblings had dysfunctional relationships, but always came together in the end. But she takes that feeling into the present day. Josie is always the one to come through for her friends in the end, and it is why she fights just as hard to come through for Josie when she needs it. Hope doesn’t always succeed in that, considering she is flawed herself, but when she needs to let the weight of the world down, it’s Josie she often turns to for help.

Hope’s relationship with Lizzie on the other hand seems more surface at a glance, but she sees Lizzie more like a foil. As children, their constant poking at each other was little more than childish jealousy or mean-spirited comments, but as their relationship has grown, Hope has actually come to appreciate the way Lizzie pushes her. Their tendency to butt heads and banter pushes Hope to get out of her head and see things in a different light. Lizzie is lightning quick and sharp-witted, a combination that forces Hope to keep up and actually look at things from different angles. By pushing at her ideas, Lizzie challenges Hope to defend what she’s putting forth, testing the limitations and boundaries of it to make sure it is the right move, the smart move. She knows Lizzie is so much smarter than she holds herself out to be, and she sees it every time the blonde makes a sarcastic comment. She also loves that Lizzie doesn’t see her as the Tribrid(TM). Lizzie has only ever seen Hope as Hope, despite knowing who and what she is, she was the one always asking what was so special about Hope. She treats Hope just like she treats everyone else, and it’s refreshing for her, to not feel like she’s got a spotlight constantly on her. She’s not so big that a well-placed snarky comment can’t bring her back down to earth, and Lizzie has no shortage of those, especially for her. 

Hope loves Josie and Lizzie just as much as she loves her family. To her, they are her family, and in her mind, “Always and Forever” extends to them too. And this is not to say that I view them in a sisterly manner, but rather they share the kind of bond that Hope has been dreaming about since she was seven. She is so grateful to them, to all of the Squad, but particularly to them because they have made it, despite all of their struggles, and they’ve finally become that little coven she’s always wanted.