#just one scene in s5 of them getting to hang out pls

[in-deep]

If you could only pick one piece of Byler evidence to convince someone that Byler is endgame, what would you pick?

First off - I wrote this stream of consciousness style so please be kind aha.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this question and I think it’s simply the fact that if Mike is in fact straight, then what is his character arc?

Let me explain.

A lot of the GA view Mike as a glorified side character - sidelined after S2 to fulfil the role of El’s incompetent boyfriend whilst simultaneously leaving Will (his best friend) behind and treating him like a dick. The GA also view Mike as straight. For many GA viewers, the idea that Mike is gay/bi, let alone in love with Will, seems implausible and were it to happen, it would come out of nowhere.

Which leaves the question of: what is Mike’s character arc?

From this GA perspective, he doesn’t have one. He’s destined to make up with El in S5 and support her independence, and kindly turn Will down and go on with being besties like the supportive guy they remember him being in S1/S2. If anything, his character has regressed from the early seasons into a douchebag - a mouth breather. 

Not to mention that from this perspective, he has no real internal or external trauma to be unpacked. While this is obviously untrue as it has been made clear by the Duffer brothers and even within the show (Mike’s suicide attempt, Wheeler family discussion around his behaviour at school) that he is struggling with depression, that doesn’t seem to play into their predictions on his ending. If anything, many GA viewers don’t really view his character’s conclusion in S5 as something important because to them, (just to repeat my earlier point) he’s just a glorified side character.

Of course, if you watch the show carefully and focus on Mike, you’ll quickly realise that his character is dealing with a lot of the direct pressures of heteronormativity and internalised homophobia:

His family is your classic nuclear family, Nancy talks about the Wheeler family dynamic extensively in a heart-to-heart with Jonathan 

S1 has a lot of homophobia - all of it is about Will, but a lot of it is targeted and directed toward Mike

There are multiple times he is visually shown to come to realisations about his feelings toward El and Will, respectively. Now I won’t analyse those in this post because technically, none of the contents of those realisations have been made clear to the audience, it’s just my own interpretations. I’m sure this will come back in S5, though.

To show Mike’s queerness in S5 is not changing his sexuality, simply just revealing what has been shown to the audience the entire time. Stranger Things is brilliant at show vs. tell. They tell us something, and then show us something entirely different or even something that directly contradicts what we were told. Much of the GA don’t pick up on this (and tbf I don’t really expect them to, it’s intended to be subtle!).

To reveal concretely that Mike is queer and in love with Will would change everything. It would be shocking! The GA would lose their minds - and many people would, at first, struggle to believe it. But upon rewatching the show, it would all make sense. It would turn what many view as an unimportant character into one of the most well thought-out and planned queer stories in media history (definitely an exaggeration but bear with me aha, I’m not normal about these boys).

What people thought to be an incompetent boyfriend and an absolute dick to his best friend for two seasons in a row would turn out to actually be a deeply traumatised boy struggling to remain on the “normal” path (quote from Finn Wolfhard on Mike), within the bounds of heteronormativity. A boy who desperately wants to play DnD and Nintendo with his best friend, but realises that what he feels for him isn’t “normal”. It would reveal so much about Mike and all the things we never got to see from his perspective.

And in terms of my predictions, I’m absolutely a believer in Mike being Vecna’d, and we’ll finally see Mike’s point of view on all of this. Just imagine Vecna taunting him about how he failed to be normal. He failed to do the “right” thing. He’s been in love with Will since before he even realised it.

So yeah. Byler is real. Byler is endgame. And I’m 10000% certain that Mike is going to become an extremely popular character once we get his insight. He’ll also absolutely need a hug once all is said and done. I will be hysterical. 

But at least he’ll have his cleric <3.

A really good video on Mike's internalised homophobia that essentially sparked me to write this post in the first place, and I highly recommend if you haven't seen it yet, was this one (@lesbianmindflayer) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6IOlmBEEgE&t=80s&ab_channel=LesbianMindflayer

But yeah! What would you pick as your one piece of evidence?

[strawberrybyers]

if you’re interested pls read! i think everyone will find this post interesting! this is going to be one long post about time in stranger things and it’s relation to back to the future. also somewhat theorizing that will is going to get stuck in the upside down and how that could be time traveling?? or how the characters will time travel?? also mentions of pocketgate, birthdaygate, and the blue meets yellow in the west theory. anyways this will probably be a bit messy, but i have a lot of thoughts and i just want to write all of them down and i really feel like i’m onto something lmao

ok so i have been thinking about what the significance of time in stranger things is which led me to remember when robin was explaining to steve about why back to the future was called back to the future. she explained it as “he has to go back to the future because he’s in the past. so, the future is actually the present, which is his time”. i immediately thought back to when i have said in a couple of other posts how i think in s5 there will be time travel because the upside down is stuck on the day will went missing. so while trying to see what scene came after robin’s explanation, i found this article detailing all the parallels stranger things has to back in the future in s3. and that led me to two other articles. the last image is a screenshot from the article about the original pitch for stranger things which mentioned time travel.

so really the rest of this post is now going to focus more on the back to the future stuff. first i want to talk about this part of the vulture article i linked in the beginning of this post. i have seen all the back to the future movies, but a really long time ago, so i don’t remember much, but when i saw “save the clock tower” all i could think about were the clocks in stranger things.

i googled more info on the clock tower and idk i’m about to become a real crackhead theorist, but it makes sense to me considering all the parallels this show has. anyways let’s look at what is said about the clock tower in back to the future.

i started freaking out while reading this because s4 has a big emphasis on time and CLOCKS. vecna’s mind lair thing has clocks everywhere. when a character is about to get vecna’d they hear a clock and see a grandfather clock. also, the clock being struck by lightning?? there’s lightning in vecna’s mind lair thing AND in the final scene we see lightning in the sky!! so in back to the future, the clock got struck by lightning which caused it to be stuck for years at 10:04 (and this is probably just making something out of nothing but the clock being stuck on the 4th minute and vecna wanted to open up 4 gates and you hear 4 chimes symbolizing that). now guess what else is stuck in time? the upside down. the upside down is stuck on the day will went missing which is november 6, 1983. will was stuck in the upside down for a week. what is a week away from nov 6? november 13. the ‘save the clock tower’ flyer mentions the date november 13 on it. also, in back to the future, doc gets the idea for the delorean (the thing that helps him and marty time travel) when he was hanging up a clock and hit his head on november 5, 1955. this is also the day marty ends up traveling back in time to (marty’s present time takes place in 1985 and s3 of ST took place in 1985 lol).

NOW what gets crazy is that on november 6, 1955, doc learns that because marty interacted with his parents which messed up his parents initial meeting, he is now telling marty that he needs to get his parents back together otherwise marty will be erased from existence. WILL GOES MISSING ON NOV 6 AND BECAUSE OF BIRTHDAYGATE WHAT DO WE THINK IS HAPPENING TO WILL?? THAT HE’S BEING ERASED/FORGOTTEN FROM THE TIMELINE!!! and throughout back to the future, the more time that is being prolonged of getting marty’s parents back together, the more him and his siblings disappearing from the timeline is becoming reality (he knows this because they start disappearing from a photo he has of his family). there’s also this post that was made that mentions how the memories that were mentioned in the shed in s2 could be altered or are being forgotten and if that’s the case then it makes sense those memories would be forgotten if it’s a sign something is happening to will. anyways because of the lightning strike that strikes the clock, it powered the delorean on november 12, 1955 and was able to send marty back to the future. marty was stuck in the past for a week. will was stuck in the upside down for a week. vecna begins his attacks on hawkins on march 21 and hawkins is split in half by the upside down on march 28 making that a week (a week that includes the day of will’s bday). that’s why there’s a 2 day time jump because the timeline of s4 needed to last a week. i’m just thinking about “the week is long” part of the blue meets yellow in the west code… and speaking of blue and yellow, the ‘save the clock tower’ flyers are in blue and yellow…

i’ll say one last thing about the flyer, so i can shift more into pocketgate and how mike has a letter written to will. so marty keeps the flyer because his girlfriend wrote her grandma’s number on it and “i love you” and he puts it in his pocket. because he kept the flyer it ends up helping him get back to the future because of the info it contains about the lightning strike. what do we think mike has in his pocket? a letter to will that says “love, mike”. something he couldn’t write to el. there’s been an emphasis in stranger things with letters and yes i know it’s the 80’s so that was one of the main forms of communication, but they’re also a part of the plot, so they mean something significant! like joyce receiving the letter from hopper which makes her go to russia to save him. hopper’s letter to el about not wanting things to change (i will write more on this). max writing letters to her friends for them to read in case something happens to her. max writing a letter to billy that expresses how she has been feeling since he passed. el being upset that mike can’t write “love,mike” in his letters. season 4 opening up with el’s letter to mike that mentions time travel. will and mike have an argument that mike didn’t write enough to will and that “el has a book of letters from him”. now back to the future also has letters play an important role in the storyline. for example, here’s info on the letter that marty gave to doc that he stuck in doc’s pocket in 1955 that saved doc’s life.

now in back to the future 3, doc in 1885 wrote a letter to marty to be delivered to him on november 12, 1955 which marty ends up showing the doc in 1955. the letter ends up helping them.

in the letter up above, doc writes how much marty means to him. obviously the relationship between doc and marty is NOT romantic at all, but if stranger things is paralleling back to the future the way it is, then isn’t it possible mike has a letter to will explaining his feelings? and considering in back to the future, the letters were helpful to the characters, could it be that mike’s letter will help will and save hawkins? could mike’s love for will be the motivation to help will survive the upside down if he gets stuck there again? i’m thinking it’s possible will gets stuck in the upside down, which would basically be him time traveling in a sense. i’m wondering if maybe will will be in possession of mike’s letter before he gets stuck in the upside down and will decides to read the letter while he’s stuck there (maybe paralleling back to the future when marty has the flyer that has “i love you” written on it from his girlfriend). OR do mike and will get stuck in the upside down together and mike decides to give his letter to will then (maybe somewhat paralleling back to the future 3 when 1955 marty gives 1955 doc the letter 1885 doc wrote 1955 marty in order to help them get 1985 doc back to 1985 from 1885). there’s also this tweet from the stranger things writers account. so could it mean that this is parts of the letter mike wrote to will that he will give to him on november 6, 1983 because they’re stuck in the upside down together???

now moving on. i said i’d talk more about hopper’s letter. here’s what the vulture article wrote about hopper’s letter:

the article is comparing the letter marty wrote doc to save his life to the letter hopper wrote to el. so couldn’t the other letters featured in the movies somehow foretell mike having a letter in his pocket? they paralleled a stranger things letter to a back to the future letter once they could do it again. here’s more of what the article wrote on hopper’s letter:

we know what hopper meant by telling el “to maybe stop that change. to turn back the clock. to make things go back to how they were.”. we also theorize because scenes of mike looking back at will’s house and hugging his mom while this part of the letter is being read, we think it relates to mike wanting things to go back to the way they were with will. we even think it could potentially be the moment mike realizes he loves will and doesn’t know what to do with that which leads to his weird behavior in s4. BUT couldn’t this part of hopper’s letter also have a 3rd meaning? s4 does deal with clocks. hopper mentions “to turn back the clock”. when nancy see’s henry’s backstory, there is a scene of henry changing time on the clock. is it possible that time travel has to occur where they are able “to turn back the clock” in order to save hawkins? and if will is stuck in the upside down maybe having to do that to save will? or maybe because he’s stuck there and it’s stuck on the day he went missing then that could be turning back the clock as well…

now for my final analysis of the vulture article and how it relates to back to the future, this part is going to do more with byler. let’s look at this part of the article:

first things first, it mentions back to the future wants to preserve the status quo and how that relates to stranger things. in s4, eddie mentions how forced conformity is killing the kids. finn said in an interview that mike is trying to stay as normal as possible. looking at these things, it makes me think about mike and how he’s trying appear as heterosexual which therefore would be “normal” and fitting the status quo. this also fits into hopper’s letter and the scenes of mike while the letter is being read. mike is losing will and if that moment when will moved is when he realizes he’s in love, then he knew that things would change and if he’s trying to fit in, then he’s going to do what he can to make sure nothing changes even though as we see that backfires throughout s4 because his relationship with el is on the rocks and things with will have been rocky as well. and we know will is being forced to conform as well as he mentioned feeling like a mistake and we can only assume he is afraid to come out as gay due to homophobia.

so back to the future is about marty going back in time to 1955 and having to fix the timeline where his parents fall in love and get married because when he went back to 1955 he messed up the initial meeting of his parents. if he fails to get them together, then he will cease to exist. marty is struggling at first to get his parents together because his mom has developed on crush on marty (weird i know but to me this shows how the right people need to be in a relationship in order for things to get resolved). if we think of how that could parallel to byler, then we know that mike’s love confession did not help el or save hawkins. we know el can defeat vecna and we know that what makes her powerful is love. she was able to banish vecna to the upside down when she remembered her mom saying “i love you”, but with mike it didn’t work— why? because it’s a lie. he doesn’t love her romantically like he says. hawkins isn’t in desolation because of mike, but i think if we want to make a parallel then we can say that mike being with el isn’t what’s supposed to happen because they aren’t right for each other. this also fits in to how mike and will’s love would save hawkins. just like marty’s parents falling in love preserved the timeline and allowed marty to continue to exist. now if we think that will is starting to cease to exist from the timeline due to birthdaygate and coincidentally marty learns he will cease to exist if his parents don’t get together on november 6— the same day will went missing— then could it be that mike’s love saves will?

like there’s just something about the upside down being stuck on the day will went missing… something about el’s letter mentioning time travel and time feeling like it speeds up or slows down based on emotion… something about the duffers saying they’re going back to s1 dynamics… something about vecna’s entire thing revolving around time… something about vecna making his victims visit their past traumatic memories… something about one of the ways to block vecna from getting to your mind is by thinking about past happy memories… something about vecna saying thinking about a past memory that makes him angry or sad makes him more powerful… something about hearing the sound of a clock being slowed down when a character is about to get vecna’d… something about “the week is long. the silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. a trip to china sounds nice, if you tread lightly”… something about spring break being a week long… something about will being in the upside down for a week… something about vecna saying “seconds. minutes. hours. days. weeks. months. years. decades. each life a faded lesser copy of the one before.”… something about will’s birthday being forgotten… something about will being sidelined from the plot or shall i say fading from it… something about the back to the future parallels such as marty starting to be erased from the timeline starting on nov 6 the same day will went missing…

anyways i know this was long AF, but there was so much to say! i could be grasping at straws, but this was fun to write and analyze! i love the back to the future movies, so seeing how all of this parallels and could potentially continue to parallel is cool. all in all i don’t think it’s far-fetched to think will is going to get stuck in the upside down, some form of time travel will occur considering that was a part of the original stranger things pitch, and that mike and will’s love for each other will save hawkins. if you made it this far, thank you for reading all of this <3

—

back to the future poster parallels x

back to the future november 21st parallel theory x

cars on set of stranger things vs the delorean x

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep6: Joey Wheeler is on Fire, Yet Again

Came down with a little sickness-not the biggie, just a little sly guy. But I took some meds, I’m a little floaty, I’ve only been listening to baroque music all morning for some reason? And I hate baroque music usually? But I’ll leave it to bro to tell me if this is fluid enough.

Just so you know, these caps were kind of a hot mess for a while and some of them read like that Garfield in of hot eat the food comic until...today. So pls don’t judge me, Judge my damn DMV where no one was following Covid regulations because I’m pretty sure that’s where I got this damn cold.

We start off with Roland getting more attention than he ever has in his entire life. Like honestly, I don’t know what Roland’s job really is...but he’s got a very diverse set of very useless skills. One of which, is knowing how to announce sports games that aren’t really a sport, while those games he’s announcing slowly fall into chaos.

Anyway, Roland’s taking so long cherishing his sweet time before everything goes to hell, that he’s boring Joey, who’s kinda turned into a ball of stress in the waiting room.

A lot of this episode is us watching them watching Joey having a break down moment by moment, TBH.

(read more under the cut)

Yugi telling Joey to study his cards and straight up--what?

Like at this point they know what’s on the cards, right? Like there comes a point where even Yugioh cards have a finite amount of words and I’m just going to assume that like...Joey probably knows them all in his own deck, right?

(bro note: they have no limit on what they will put on a card)

Then again, maybe Yugi doesn’t know what “study” means?

Also, appreciate how some artist crosshatched the hell on Joey’s nose there and I zoomed out and ruined it.

Now for some reason every duelist is hanging out in the duel lodge, including our current arch-villain guy who’s brought a book. I want to know what book this guy even reads so no one could suspect he’s actually a hacker who uses computers. He’s reading romance, right? And I don’t think he’d even be into Twilight, I think he’s straight up into hard core Mom romance like a lame ass Nicholas Sparks over there reading “Dear John” for the millionth time because he is completely un-phased by anything else happening in this room.

Joey, our hero, just out there being an asshole for no reason.

After Tea is pushed into a locker or something screaming about her need for female friends (which she screamed in earshot of Rebecca again, who I figured was on friends terms with her after last episode...but I guess not) Leon hops up to remind us that we should be caring about the fact that his character exists.

And like, I love Leon’s hair color--that’s a good choice, and legit that is the color I tried to dye my hair at the beginning of the epidemic (it didn’t work PS, my hair cannot take dye for the life of it) but also like...he just kinda feels like a weak Rebecca as far as characters go. He’s young, he’s good at cards...I think he goes to a private school? That’s all I can think of about Leon.

He mostly just reminds us that the big prize of this tourney is to duel Yugi, who anyone could have dueled at any point even without the tournament.

On the way out of the...duel room? lounge? Area? Joey decides to like...make peace with Zigfried, and I gotta tell you, I kinda have to side with Zigfried, because Joey spent the last ten minutes being a freak in the dressing room/lounge/bathroom and at one point looked like he was going to hold the entire locker room in a stranglehold.

I would also want some space from Joey Wheeler, is what I’m saying.

After insulting Joey’s style (which honestly, Joey...has a style? He pops his collar, that’s his entire style.) Zigfried assures us that Joey’s gonna lose and like...

...probably, right? Just looking at the plausible direction this season will go.

Anyway, Joey is such a mess (which is the theme of the episode, that Joey needs to learn to chill in order to win at card games) that Rebecca is like “I understand if all of you leave me to go help our poor baby Joey.” And no one felt bad for her.

Mokuba comes over to tell everyone all of the Kaiba family secrets because Mokuba has no filter.

Seto has devoted himself to staring at a computer screen for the rest of this episode. I guess he’ll put their names into Google, realize that social media hasn’t been invented yet, and then just lie his head down on the desk and take a power nap until the tournament is over. Much like I did after taking Dayquil this afternoon.

I like how Seto dressed for success and then locked himself in the server room for most of this arc so far. Maybe he’s just...really tired, I dunno. I don’t really blame the guy, he’s had a hard time.

And then Yugi was like “DAMN IT MOKUBA, JUST ONCE CAN YOU NOT INVITE THE ILLUMINATI???”

And we had a weird scene where Yugi just started talking to the ghost and it was while he was talking to everyone else, and the show didn’t treat it like that’s a weird thing to do...but it was a weird thing to do.

This show does that sometimes, where I guess they imply that Yugi’s Pharaoh conversations are split second conversations but...they’re not, right?

Also this chick ain’t gone yet, and Mokuba is just failing at his entire job for not zeroing in on vibes coming off this chick like stinky cheeseman.

So listen.

Did the Kaibas make like 3 types of Blue Eyes Caboose to one up Noah? Because Noah made one choo choo dragon, and then Mokuba and Seto were like “how dare” and then made sure that everyone ride every single version of the blue eyes caboose just to see how proud of them they were.

How many months of troubleshooting was the train? Like how long in development did Seto and Mokuba spend on these? A lot right? Like most of the time?

I did not check the subs to see if Roland said Jumping or Champion but I like to believe that Roland thought it was a cool new name he gave him.

Then these guys all showed up.

Hey so...can we talk seating arrangements?

Tea decided not to sit next to Yugi after complaining about not spending time with him for like how many episodes? Or was it too awkward to sit on top of what was probably Pharaoh?

Or did Mokuba go like “please, Tea, I cannot sit next to the others because I’m pretty sure one is a mole that is about to go cray” and was Tea like “Good, I need female friends, these ones are driving me crazy!” and then was Mokuba like peering desperately over the edge of his self made dragon train prison realizing he has to listen to Tea complain about boys for the rest of his ride across molten lava?

Headcanons abound about this weird seating arrangement that the animators drew for the reasons they did...but reasons I cannot fully understand. That and the Dayquil is making me overfixate on random stuff.

And also, Tea is kind of the Kaiba’s security’s understudy. Just there to always protect Mokuba with her ass because she’s the strongest woman alive.

PS I missed the tumblr wars because at the time I was trying to like...run a proper business on blogger. When Blogger died and I jumped over here it was like a weird ruin where everyone was like “tumblr is the most toxic place alive” and...I’ve had a really nice time here, actually. Completely missed that civil war period and I have no regrets.

Now I was there for the Petz wars (warz, I guess) where people were very militant about Petz abuse (abuze?) where apparently people were using the spray bottle on their catz too much and people were very, very upset about it to the point that they were like campaigning about it on their angelfire websites with the most bizarre grassroots campaigns that I still recall, to this day because they were like...well they looked like this:

PLAPA. Not only am I 100% positive that only this one guy ever called this movement PLAPA, but I’m 100% positive that not only are Catz not real people, but also this wasn’t actually happening and we never had any proof that it was. Either way, if people knew or suspected that you hadn’t deleted the spray bottle from your game (which at the time I had no idea how to do because I was a wee child) they would basically assume you were on a one way road to being a mass murderer in real life.

In real life we were 7 years old so like...thanks?

But that’s the closest I got to toxicity and at the time I was too young to make an email account and actually converse with these people. I was just there to download their Petz hexes, and I already made a post about how wonderful and incredible Petz Hexing was.

And y’all, I heard, just now after a little deep dive into the Petz Abuse debacle (which yes, is on the wiki), that apparently, like gardening, Petz Hexing came back in a big way during the epidemic--and I have found an active Petz forum in this the year 2021. The only problem is that I no longer remember how to use old timey forums...and I think I’m locked out of seeing most of these threads (and like this forum is so old I think I have to send them a letter in the physical mail to apply). But, I’m pretty sure they’re hosting a picture contest for who’s dogz poses the best. And I’m pretty sure someone created a hexxed Pickle Rick. Or it’s a photoshop that was made to look like a hexxed Pickle Rick.

Dammit why did it have to be Pickle Rick? That’s not worth re-installing Petz and getting it to run on Windows 10...

Guys is this the Dayquil? Is this really happening? I feel like I’m losing my mind for so many reasons...

Anyway, speaking about useless hexing it’s about time that our villain did something that was actually dangerous, so Zigfried decided to install a new virus that does more than turn off the lights. (it still turns off lights)

the Spreadsheet Virus!

Confounded by the spreadsheet software, it...um...it does this:

Straight up how does Excel make a volcano erupt? Is that why I have to pay for Microsoft office now?

All this because Joey made fun of Zigfried’s naturally pink hair? Which is the most normal hair on this series outside of like...Tristan?

Hey guys...Joey’s fine, right? Like how many times has Joey been on fire? And once in an iron cage next to like...a Fire Golem?

Joey’s fine.

MAN I miss Fire Golem. He had a good mug.

And then we just kinda watch chaos go across the park, chaos that includes: Too many ghosts in the haunted mansion (which honestly--you’ll get your money’s worth, sounds great!), the Ferris wheel goes kinda fast and thus might accidentally be fun, the lights turn off at some concert stage that only had 2 people on it (so it might just be motion detector lights and not even a virus), and um...literal fire and magma are going to set Joey Wheeler on fire.

Just...one of these events does not seem like the others. In fact most of these things sound like good improvements to the park and they should just hire Zigfried at this point.

Roland puts down his microphone and jogs across the stage, about a mile through the audience bleachers, and into the staff lounge, to go and bother Seto Kaiba, who is in a room that has a hi-def classical painting copy-pasted on the wall and I can’t look away from it.

I almost did a Google search on this painting but then thought better about it. There’s like...a billion classical paintings that look exactly like this, and they wouldn’t use like a Monet, they would have to do something that’s harder to catch to avoid copyright issues (because yes, even old ass paintings have copyright issues, but no one tell NFT’s which are going to be so freakin screwed and was such a bad idea, that I can’t even start).

Anyway, I have no idea who it is and it is legitimately driving me up a wall, but I’m on too much meds to do the effort of putting it in a reverse google image search.

Plus, a reverse google image search would only pull up Seto Kaiba.

So Kaiba takes us on a little flashback to his weird ass past, a weird ass past that just...doesn’t follow any of the established timelines, but I assume was shortly after adoption but before Seto got into a phase where he wore his school outfit everywhere and tried to shove his MMO off onto his Dad as a business model.

Seto is like 8 for some reason. I don’t know why, they kinda drew him younger this season anyway, like maybe they got a lot of fan mail and realized “Hey I think we made the 16 yo boy too sexy?” And they just toned Seto the hell down. That, and it’s a different animation team, and maybe they looked at Seto’s character design and were like “we don’t get paid enough to draw this well.” So...since Seto actually looks like a teen again, I guess his 12 year old self has to look like he’s in Elementary school.

Also, I only recognized this, because at some point in S3 as I was roasting Noah Kaiba’s weird fashion:

I remember distinctly roasting that little bow tie. I don’t remember when I wrote it, I think there was a version of this outfit that was in color...but I don’t remember where.

Anyway, it’s not the same jacket...but man that’s kind of awkward, ya? Like the maid who dressed Mokuba deffo got fired?

He um.

Turned the lights off a little bit.

Guys this villain is like...

...why does he think lights are scary? Like look at little Seto here. The boy is already bored. Seto duels on the edges of cliffs...he doesn’t care about the freakin dark.

We had a guy who killed everyone on the planet last season, and this season we have a little fashion gremlin standing in the corner and flicking the light switch going  “wooooo you never catch me!” and it’s like...

...I’m starting to think this guy isn’t a witch.

Like we’re at Episode 6, there’s still time for this guy to be a witch...but I really am starting to think this guy is just...straight up not a witch. It’s everything Seto wanted, a rival who isn’t a freakin magic person...and sets Joey only fake on fire instead literally on fire like last time...

and Seto is just completely unhinged by it.

Anyway, I’m off to go drink a bowl of soup and pass out. If you’re new here, this is a link to read these in chrono order.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[dynamightsfave]

let’s all appreciate john murphy

hi, hello.

i’ve been watching the 100 on and off for a while now (like, i started the show before quarantine and i’m still on s5). and i wanted to come here and share my love for all the evolving that john murphy has done up to the point where i’m at. (spoilers of the 100 ahead)

i’ve liked the guy even when he was a motherfucking asshole bc i’m incapable of not falling for a broken asshole with a sarcastic and dark sense of humor, but his character development omg. i think it might be one of the best i’ve seen (this is my opinion, don’t come at me pls)

he starts the show being an asshole. i’m sorry, but he is. s1 murphy was a son of a bitch. he gets pardoned for a few things bc they hang him when he’s innocent, but still. can you please not try to kill a child? or slow tf down with those bigones?

then at the beginning of s2 i was like “oh, he’s an asshole with feelings and he’s been through a traumatic experience. that’s it, he’s my child now”. he tries to protect finn, even when people are also blaming him for the slaughter, and i really think this was a step into trying to help others, but these others just shut him down. and then he went with jaha and i got more of his sarcasm, and he met emori and at that point i was just watching the show like this “so my child is still a little shit, but he’s following a crazy man and he’s got a crush on this beautiful fierce lady. nice”

let’s go to s3. poor bby (bc he was baby by then) has been trapped in a bunker, after jaha left him to die and he’s gone nuts, and he fucking wanted to kill himself. not only does the boy use his brain when saying no to A.L.I.E., but he also saves emori, escapes with her and they get together. and he loves this girl. like, he’s being used as ontari’s bitch but still trying to protect her, even when she turns out to be in the city of light. also, he could’ve left her and the otehrs to fend for themselves in the tower at the final battle, but he stays and basically keeps clarke alive by pumping ontari’s heart with his fucking hands. he basically saved the world by doing that, just saying. (btw, i’d like to point how much i hate pike. the way he dictates arkadia, how he manipulates bellamy, and how he treats the grounders (like dude, i get that azgeda did some awful, unforgivable, shit to you, but not all of them are like that), and then when they make this flashback scene about the earth skills class and he beats the crap out of murphy to “try and show the students something”... not gonna lie, i was ready to throw hands with him at that moment. anyway, i really didn’t like the guy)

i feel like s4 murphy keeps s3 murphy’s track of development. slow but steady. he steals the meds for the kid, then he distracts the drone so that the others can run... one of the things i liked most about this murphy though was how they show that he’s regretting stuff. “see that limp she’s got. yeah, that was me”. like it’s obvious by now, i love love love, memori. and how he lives with emori, cooks for her, reassures her that he won’t let anything bad happen to her even if he has to turn against “his people”, the “please! i love her! clarke, don’t do this!”... i was like “omg, get married”. smth else, the others start to appreciate him and “reaccept” him, they even let him into the bunker, which basically proves he’s not the douchebag that he was in s1. and then he helps them go get raven (which he only does so that he and emori can survive, but still) and launch the rocket and stuff.

we’ve gotten to s5, and although i haven’t really seen much, 6 years in the ring have changed him for the better. he’s one of the group now, he jokes with raven, he stays with her after the others leave ( i absolutely adore their friendship) and he tries to keep them safe when they get back to the ground. (i’m sad bc memori ain’t a thing anymore, but have you seen their moment in the rocket?! so precious, my babies)

also, this place is full of spoilers and i’ve seen a gif of memori searching for madi (i’ve no idea what happened but i intend to find out, bc madi is also now my chid, like half the people in this show) and murphy saying that she’s just a child for whatever reason. he goes from trying to murder a kid (which i’m pretty sure he wouldn’t’ve done) to protecting kids.

in conclusion, john murphy has come a long way since s1 and everyone should appreciate that more. you already appreciate it? do it more, it’s never enough.

[dreamerandcrazy]

Ok, so I haven't been able to comment much on my Riverdale rewatch mostly bc i'm watching it with my boyfriend and we have an agreement of no cell phones when we're watching, otherwise we can't pay proper attention to it. But I wrote down some notes about the episodes I did watch (I watched up until ep 6, which is very ironic bc apparently today is its anniversary, so yay for my perfect timing). I actually remember most of the stuff that happened in s1, so here's mostly a few things I paid more attention to or noticed about the characters and the ships, or things i'm able to look at through a different view now that i've watched all the seasons. Strap in if you want to see my notes, if not just scroll please, no ship or character hate here please. Also, feel free to ignore, this is really just a personal look in some stuff I didn't notice in my first watch.

- Betty's character used to be much happier and lighter in season 1. I know we're introduced to "Dark Betty" right in episode 3, but still, I feel like the way Lili played Betty in season 1 did not hold the same "darkness" as it does in the following seasons. The scene where she is dancing happily in her bedroom because she's going to homecoming with the boy she likes? The scene where she introduces Jughead to the Blue & Gold and gets him to work with her? Her genuine innocent happiness at seeing her sister again after so much time? The way she interacted with Kevin and Veronica? Those were all chef's kiss because she actually feels like a teenager in them. In all her girly glory, she radiates youth energy and it's a thing that was sadly lacking after s1. Btw this is not a critique at Lili's acting at all, I blame it entirely on Ras and his obsession with dark Betty.

- There's actually so many indications of Cheryl being a lgbt character in the first episodes that I have no idea how I missed it the first time. But then again, there were many indications with Veronica as well, and sadly that's not the path Ras chose for her.

- Jughead in s1 is truly so superior in so many ways that it's not hard to see why he quickly became such a fan favorite. I think even if he wasn't played by Cole Sprouse, he still would have conquered many fans' hearts. Sadly, the things that made Jughead such a loving and interesting character for me also fizzled out in s2 when the writing team decided to make him a woke serpent leader instead of allowing him to sticking to his true personality as a passionate mystery lover, a dedicated friend and very nerdy, which was very cute. I feel that we got some of that back for him in s4, which was good, but sadly s1 is where my love for him really stayed to stay. But I still care for him, and s5 has a promising storyline for him which i'm excited about, so let's see if s5 Jughead can become better than s1 Jughead.

- Going back again to Cheryl for a sec, I just noticed that the red lipstick actually wasn't that common for her in s1? At least not in the first five. I wonder when did it start becoming her trademark? Anyways, it's actually a really good look her and allows you to appreciate Madelaine's natural beauty even more.

- Also, did anybody notice how Alice lowkey figured out who killed Jason in ep 2 lmao, like... in episode two she legit says she wouldn't be surprised if the Blossoms themselves had killed Jason, which... is what happened LMAO, considering we know it was his father. And even more hilarious and tragically ironic note, in ep 6 she's laughing at Betty suggesting that Hal killed Jason because "do you think your father has the stomach for it?!"... Ma'am... i'm-.... 😂😂😂😂.

- This rewatch has reminded me of how much I adored and how I much I miss Josie and the Pussycats. The girls were such a nice addition to the cast, and their songs were so beautiful. I truly wish we get to see them again someday, but at the same time I also think the actresses deserve to be at a work place where they're given the treatment they deserve and not completely ignored and treated like extras.

- Archie/Valerie was super cute and is very underrated in the fandom, but i'm glad Valerie stood up for herself and didn't take any of Archie's or Cheryl's sh*t. Still sucks because they were really good together, though.

- Why was Jason not allowed to talk, lmao? Like, i'm sure it's become a running joke in the show at this point, but back when season one was airing what was the excuse for it? He appeared in so many flashbacks and scenes and we still never heard a single word ☠️☠️☠️☠️. I just want to know what was the reason lol.

- I liked s1 Reggie, but I feel like Charles Melton's Reggie is better because he actually feels like a douche with good intentions lol, and he has more of a personality. Most of the time I even forgot about Reggie in s1, but after s2 he definitely made me more aware of him. So for that, I like Charles Melton's Reggie more. But the actor from s1 still did a good job with what he was given.

From now on I will be talking about the ships, so bear with me, and know that I am a multishipper. Yes, I have my preferences. No, my word is not law, it's just an opinion, so please respect it.

- Bughead is still super cute in s1. I feel like from s1 they will always be my otp, even if I no longer feel as strongly about them now and have a different insight as to where I would like their story to go, and now I definitely see the problem others had mentioned before of how they kind of took over the show, which is something I kind of closed my eyes to before... But I really loved them in s1. It felt like a very juvenile teenage relationship, they didn't give much thought on why and if they should be together, they just went for it like teenagers usually do, and they were very very cute together.

- I feel like if you don't count Beronica (because they really were the best no matter what you say or ship), if there's a ship that deserves "best chemistry" award for s1 is probably Varchie. I lost my interest in them years ago, but this rewatch reminded me of why I actually loved them once. They never really became an otp for me, but Kj and Camila's chemistry in s1 was VERY GOOD, and I really liked them. Their kiss in the pilot was electric and the s&xual tension was OOF, and that chemistry carries on through the season. You can easily tell something will happen between them eventually. It makes me sad bc I don't know what happened after s1, but their chemistry from s2 onwards was just... not there for me. Which is ironic bc it's the season they truly started dating and they got a lot of smexy scenes, but I just... didn't feel it. But I'll leave that comment to my s2 rewatch. For now just let me enjoy Varchie's chemistry in s1 while it lasts because it was really good.

- Now we get to Barchie, who I made clear was the reason for my rewatch, so let's get to it. I LOVED the way Barchie was written in s1. I remember when I first watched Riverdale, I was curious about their dynamic but didn't put much thought into it because I loved Bughead too much and wanted them to be together, and I thought Barchie would be the traditional "first og ship" thing and wouldn't have a big follow up, but boy was I WRONG and am I GLAD for it. I'll talk more about their development in the next seasons when I get there, so for now let's focus a bit on s1. Just in like the first two episodes, there is so much Barchie foreshadowing, like, it's legit insane how it was right there in my face and I missed it the first time! "I have never felt what i'm supposed to feel with betty", "it's not my fault he doesn't like you", "I can't give you the answer you want"... Omg, those are obvious eyebrow raising "this will come back to bite you in the a$$" moments and it's incredible how they actually DO! I would call it clever writing, but like... it's Riverdale lol. So I really am just glad that the ship was done this way, i'm glad Barchie has the back story that they do, they've really come a LONG way and i'm happy I get to experience their whole growing storyline. It's also especially good because s1 actually provides you with scenes that show you their friendship and how they're so close, you see them hanging out, talking, their pictures together, everything was just really done well with them. Still have a bit of critique with the way Archie contradicted himself sometimes regardinf his feelings for Betty, but let's be honest, we've watched enough Riverdale to know that's just a problem with the writing.

- Kevin/Joaquin is still my favorite Kevin ship, i'm sad it's completely impossible to go back to them someday so for now i'll just be really glad it existed and that I got to see them even if it was short-lived. They had great chemistry and their kiss scenes always outsold.

- Beronica... sigh. Beronica. The most wasted chemistry i've ever seen on CW and I've watched a LOT of CW shows. There was so much potential there, s1 was practically overflowing with them and it's one of the reasons it became some popular. I remember when the Beronica fandom was the biggest one, ah, good times. Veronica and Betty were easily the best part of season 1, their friendship, their lowkey romantic moments, they were just superior in every way. This ship deserved better, not even just as a ship, but as a friendship.

- Veronica's s1 hair >>> Veronica's hair in seasons 2-4. I loved the side part and I am glad it's back in season 5, it looks so much better like that.

- Cheryl, as always, deserves better. Can't wait for her to meet Toni so I can watch again Cheryl finally get to love someone and be loved back, which is exactly what she deserves.

For now, that is all! I will probably make another post soon when i'm done with season one and from season two on I will be live-blogging the episodes since I will be watching it alone. Once again, pls, no hate, my thoughts are my thoughts. Peace.

[staliasjeronica]

Riverdale S5 Ep3 Thoughts *Spoilers*

Thoughts on the episode under the cut! I literally can’t wait for us to all be free of Bughead. And I heard there were some Jeronica crumbs AHHHHHHH SCREAMING!!!

- OMG THE CALLBACK TO THE FIRST EPISODE. THE FIRST VOICE OVER. Beautiful. I love that so much.

- FP having to leave </3 I’m not ready to not see Falice

- Hiram looks good roughed up tbh

- Reinstating Sheriff Keller?! YESS. They were sleeping under the boxing ring??

- FRED NO PLEASE 💔💔💔 MY HEART. He really did miss graduation just like he said before 😭😭

- Also not Riverdale but why is there always an ad literally five minutes into the ep??? But at least the Joe Keery Taco Bell ad came on so… it’s okay!

- My family was so excited when I got my cap and gown and seeing Mary just… messing with it brings me back.

- The callbacks to s1 are gonna fuck me up aren’t they 😭😭 Cheryl crying is always so beautiful

- I had to miss most of Alice and Betty’s convo because my mom’s trach came out but Betty saying that thanksgiving would be the two of them LOL as if Betty cares about her mom’s feelings…

- I was thinking that the senior’s pictures in the capsule was gonna be someone’s relative so we could find out a little bit about Sweet Pea or Fangs’ families smh

- THE “SECONDARY” GROUP HANGING OUT TOGETHER YESS. THERE’S A SERPENT PAGE AHHH

- So Weatherbee can join a cult but when Archie is wrongfully accused of murder and then placed into an illegal boxing ring, no one gives him a break… irl they probably would have lol

- Sweet Pea and Reggie hugging idc they’re step bros. The Kangs kiss was kinda cute ngl WHY DIDN’T CHONI KISS? Veronica going up to Archie unsure what to do :(

- Veronica bringing back Archie’s stuff :((( why does VA have to break up first smh they’re the hotter couple.

- Them making out was so weird… like knowing Archie doesn’t want to be with her and Veronica doesn’t either… like I get it but still it looked so forced. I think it was on purpose which bodes well for their acting skills but-

- The entire idea of break up sex is so weird esp when it comest to cheating/lost feelings like why would you want to do that… BUT VERONICA LOOKS CUTE AF RN

- Jughead’s VO on V’s face, and Jughead looks good….

- TONI’S GRANDMOTHER. AND SWANGS, glad they remember their friendship exists. “including my girlfriend.” “We’re so proud of you, Toni.” AHH

- Archie watching everyone he cares about with their parents :(

- Still wondering how Betty is valedictorian… makes little sense. But her speech is good so I’ll let this fanservice slide I guess

- ARCHIE SINGING THE SONG MY CHOIR SANG FOR GRADUATION OH MY FUCKING GOD MY HEART

- Everyone looks so cute in their cap and gown!! Alice’s gaze at FP how sweet 🥺🥺

- Swangs! Reggie!! SP’s reaction to Reggie makes me again hc them as step bros and friends that is all.

- So sad but I feel so… enlightened. Like I did when I graduated.

- NOT PENELOPE… wait she’s giving herself in for Cheryl??? Since when has she ever cared about Cheryl… but she’s doing good so-

- JB in the fucking side car lmao

- Falice 💔 “îs this is? the end of our story?” STOP HEER SWIPING GHERE FINGERS OVER HIS LIPS FUCKKKK when they have the most romantic and passionate kisses over everybody, rivaling Barchie as they should!

- FP GETTING A RIDE ALONG WITH THE SERPENTS PLS

- It’s so annoying that there’s absolutely no Barchie whatsoever like they cheat and then give NOTHING???

- Veronica’s outfit is so fucking sexy

- Veronica handing over full ownership of Pop’s to Pop 🥺❤️ I love the most selfless woman in Riverdale. GOD. The way Pop’s is both her and Jughead’s home though.

- A bobby pin why-

- Josie’s cat ears 🥺❤️

- Keeping her serpent jacket and knowing she’ll be queen later yess.

- Cheryl is all of us “finally” NOW LET THE UGLY BEANIE STAY GONE.

- I think Jeronica is on the same step mmhm

- So all V’s reaction but not Betty’s…? The woman he loves? The woman who loves him? Betty supporting him no matter what though 🥺🥺

- Veronica being worried for Archie though I totally understand.

- Why isn’t Cheryl going to Highsmith? IF YOU DON’T GO, I WON’T GO.  It’s amazing Cheryl is fixing the Blossom family name but couldn’t she also go to college…? NANA TOPAZ WANTING TO SEND CHONI CARE PACKAGES 😭😭 “Toni, you know I love you with every ounce of my soul.” I HATE THIS. “Don’t say it.” STOP STOP STOP “Then you never shall.”

- JUGHEAD ASKING ABOUT VERONICA MUAH TAKING MY CRUMBS

- JUGHEAD REALIZING TTHAT V DIDN’T KNOW WHAT ARCHIE WAS PLANNING.

- OMG IS BETTY FINALLY TELLING JUGHEAD YESS and he’s in her bed LMAO

- Betty you always say you should tell Jugheead when shit happens but you never do until you’re forced to. (aka Jughhead finding out) BUT LOL HIM NOT KISSING HER BACK. Nvm take us back to the VA sex scene…. it’s so dumb like at least break up sex makes sense for them but bh???

- So… they had Jeronica not care about being cheated on?????? lol ok

- Betty saying she should be with V so she wouldn’t have to say “Archie” after her revealing Barcheating

- V slap the fuck out of B now. WHY AREN’T YOU MAD AT BETTY? SHE LITERALLY—

- So what was the point of having Barchie cheat if no one was going to care or have any fallout… NORMAL HIGHSCHOOL ANGST? CHEATING ISN’T—

- Veronica looks so good though when she’s crying ugh we love a queen

- “I wish I had said goodbye to him” so they said that its would be someone you wouldn’t expect her to say it to and it was towards ARCHIE? What kind of actual bullshit???

- Not Archie’s main memories being with Veronica. He literally doesn’t love her anymore. This fucking show really did nothing with Barchie how fucked up is that. BUT HER WAVING TO HIM THAT WAS SO CUTE PLS

- “Barchie cheated and Archie doesn’t love V anymore.” “I LOVE YOU” literally… what the fuck is this show?

- “Don’t bro me.” ???

- They’re literally acting like Barchie never cheated. WHAT WAS THE POINT THEN??? God I wish the writers knew how to write.

- Jeronica wearing blue colors though muah

- BH IN THE SAME BED ALL SPLIT APART LMAOOOO. AND THE COUCH LOL bh break up say the words now

- Of course you’ll always love Betty, Jughead, she’s gonna be your step sister <3 for real this time

- THE COOPER’S ANYMORE…. when it was literally the Jones’ and the Cooper’s literally moved in with them. THE ANDREWS? The Bunker of course “honey I’m home” sjdkfahsjlfkak

- This is actually quite sad though. A little weird, but sad.

- But see how normal Jughead acts when he and Betty break up? I’ve been saying it!

- THE COUPLE LITERALLY BEING WHAT BARCHIE SHOULD HAVE BEEN!?  Mmmhhm

- ADULT BARCHIE SLAPSSSSSSSS.  Can’t wait for my Jeronica crumbs… can’t believe I’m actually saying Betty being FBI doesn’t seem that awful (yet, until it’s in every line and shoved down our throats)

[tvshowsyespls]

It’s not just their interaction that matters, it’s seeing their actions whilst fully aware of their pasts to identify growth/change and how others can see their love even when they are not physically together: it’s in how Josie says ‘my father is a fool, one look at you and he should’ve known how this would end’, it’s in how Bellamy seems to ‘care about her more’ than everyone else he cares about (according to J, who is apparently great at reading people est. ep7). It’s how Russell says to Josie ‘have you become so callous to the feelings of others that you don’t remember what it’s like to lose someone you love?’ when canonically she has only expressed loss with Gabriel. She talks about how G has been trying to kill her for 70 years and says ‘relationships, yknow?’ As if B was gonna be like ‘lol tru’, then she takes a walk down memory lane, saying ‘besties’ before claiming how BC is ‘weird’. You’re right Josie, louder!

It’s weird because in s1, the script says Bellamy was thrown by the intimacy then said that for a moment Clarke wanted to run away with him as she held his face in her hands? platonically?What even?? I know, so glad we got this 131 year old slow burn instead. It’s weird because they flirted and C invited B to get a drink with her but B turned her down, choosing to be the responsible boy that will have his fun when the grounders come... It’s weird because there was a Lexa-Clarke-Bellamy love triangle according to Alycia (Do I even need to go on?)

It’s weird because Clarke jumped on Niylah after putting her hand on top of hers that were on her shoulders, it’s her mating ritual for when she wants to get laid. Observe: she pulled the same shit on Bellamy in the list scene only for him to tell her ‘get some sleep’ (LOL awks - who told her to platonically smush her face on top of their hands that rested on her shoulder for 10+ seconds - maybe B was thrown by the intimacy again bc he was like ‘gtg’ lol) and she ended up in Niylah’s bed the next morning.

It’s weird because Clarke was willing to sacrifice her mother in s3 (Abby was literally hanging when B came in right on time) but gave into Roan’s blackmail with B and Kane in s4 - WELL of course because Kane is her stepdad!!! but...she was willing to let her mum die and that’s exactly what she reminds Roan and the viewers before it becomes canon that Bellamy is THAT pal ™ that is more important than your mother + 50 skykru lives that were dropped from the list just like that even though the whole season Clarke had been all for her people first. Remember when he was about to open the bunker and Clarke fully thought she was saving the human race by locking skykru in but let B open it anyway, crying as she couldn’t even shoot him in the leg or something? Talk about WEAK! Bellamy somehow convinced her to let everyone in?👀 Clexa coalition parallels anyone? No? Ok.

Remember how she looked as she volunteers to go with B to get Raven even tho 5 secs ago, she was ok leaving her and every other friend and human out to die? (Sidenote: ‘I never meant to hurt you’ like CLARKE PLS, you were about let around 600 people die and ur talking about Bellamy? Check urself, he’s pissed too - until he isn’t because Clarke says ‘nothing is okay, no matter what I choose, somebody always dies’ which makes B make light of it (bc he always understands) with ‘not shooting me was the right choice’ leading to it being canon that BC staring at each other causes them to run over someone and crash their very necessary life-saving vehicle... Who tf wrote this???) Throwback to TondC (‘I did it to save Bellamy’ followed ‘what if I sent him in there to die’ which followed ‘you should go, I was being weak’ - the LENgths she was willing to go to progressed with her worry for him that it was truly tragic for the grounder villagers (but tbf Lexa did convince her so Heda is right, they totally couldn’t have created a fire diversion as Clarke suggested) and that worry turned into literal platonic love as, for a moment, it was tragic for everyone outside the bunker too that second times C had to make a similar choice. The narrative really made Clarke say and do those things in that order huh? Wow) Remember how she was ready to let O die and keep B in the bunker, have him hate her to parallel kabby that season? HOW is B still alive? He was all like ‘I’m not gonna be in the bunker’ and Clarke’s like ‘you WILL’ before he even finishes his sentence lol. He did say ‘people die when you’re in charge’ and yet... it’s almost like idk, Clarke never wants to lose him ever.

Platonically of course because their attraction to each other has disappeared since s1... because you see that person and you’re like ‘lol nvm, ur not as hot as I remember 6 years ago when we were giving each other the looks™’ right? So you just watch them make out with their SO twice in canon to drive that point home. Especially when it’s your bff that you talked to everyday for 2199 days according to Flame!Madi who strutted right up to Bellamy, demanded he forgive C (lexa, is that you fighting in Clarke’s corner? 😭) before telling him something she ‘SHOULDN’t’ tell him?? Sorry Clarke, was this a private thing that Madi was privy to that she felt she shouldn’t expose or did you tell her not to mention it?? Madi said ‘she called YOU’ lol, like when is Madi gonna expose Clarke’s radio calls to Raven pls, I need the platonic princess mechanic relationship instantly restored like that! The radio call elixir: makes you soft for you bff and invite her to decide the fate of the human race as you always do (we genuinely love a platonic team!) despite the fact she left you to die 2 days ago for endangering her kid in the name of stopping the war, which she herself decided to later do after Lexa, her romantic soulmate, tells her not to make the same mistake she did because it would be her biggest regret. Lexa tells C don’t abandon your platonic pal™, love is not weakness and life should be about more than just surviving. Did Lexa say Bellarke rights, Clarke be happy and let yourself love him? No, Lexa wants BC to live like her and Clarke did in her bed? No, no, Lexa said ‘live like Clexa, but don’t have sex’? Yup that’s what happened. And C has the audacity to say ‘save him’ after giving her child permission to walk into a war zone and endanger her life like.. I prayed Lexa protects Madi yes pls.

Either way, let your bff know you love him! Say ‘bro, you kept me sane and I love you for that’- it’s easy gsjsjah why you making it so hard, girl?? Hug and move on, let’s go! There was a perfect opportunity around that fire where you instead wasted time saying ‘all of me for all of us’ to just B? (All of u is for all two of you huh? Jk jk lol this is the most platonic thing in s5, I digress) before giving him ur bread lmao y so dramatic, we love extra af jokester pals (I do really like the platonic bad jokes fr tho 😂👌🏾)

(All is fun and games until the joy of reuniting with Madi is gone the second she sees becho. Like SMILE, Clarke, your soulmate pal ™ found his romantic soulmate like you found yours, remember?)

EVERY DAY for 2199 days huh?: It’s canon that Clarke Griffin after getting radiation roasted, decided to pick up her radio from the floor with her blistered hand that first day to try to call Bellamy, wanting to find out asap if he were alive... He didn’t respond and C had two choices they were alive or they were dead? Either way she said fuck it, Imma hope he’s alive and imma call Bellamy every day like the pal™ that I am, not even thinking like this: ‘imma talk to lexa bc she’s the love of my life and it’s literally just been 2-3 months since she got put in the flame and the flame is on Earth with me so I’m at peace.’ Like why wasn’t that canon instead?? Instead we got ‘I still have hope’ @ B 2199 days later.

The platonicness of Madi looking at Bellamy only and going ‘Clarke knew you would come’ and grabbing him by the hand like she’s his BFF? (that’s Clarke’s BFF Madi, get your own!) sorry but Madi has never met him in her life but she’s like ‘Clarke’s in trouble’ and suddenly B has been kidnapped by a kid. The rest of spacekru left alone in the forest to figure out their own shit bc B said ‘gtg save my bestie brb’ - NOT EVEN, he straight up left them stranded LMAO. (S6 in a nutshell tbh) Then Clarke in s6 has the audacity to look caught ™ when B casually brings radio calls up as friends would, he says it’s a lil pathetic and Clarke becomes the literal sun and B becomes the moon, shining all the laughs right back at her. Meanwhile, Clarke’s large ass pupils are drinking in all this HAPPINESS - not to reach but was that an example of life being more than just surviving? We actually have time for jokes and banter now? Fck Yeah ✨✨

What’s funny is the fact that Jordan knew about the head and the heart convo from s4 because B must’ve told Monty/Harper somewhere between being on the ring and before going into cryo. Since s5 was canon of what happened between returning to earth and going into cryo, logic leads me to believe Bellamy talked to marper about the head and the heart on the ring. It’s funny how Bellamy still got emotional when she’s brought up 6 years after ‘her death’ (Clexa parallels anyone?) and funny how determined he is to honour Clarke’s last words (be the head so their friends survive) only to say ‘I don’t need you anymore’ under psychosis, is that a trauma I see? 👀 soz, did I miss the season Bellamy said he needed Clarke? Only Clarke says the word need (‘I need you’, ‘we need each other, Bellamy’) unless that’s what he meant when he said ‘you got it backwards’ (@ Jaha saying you keep her centered)or when he whispered ‘I’ve got you for that’ or when he shouted ‘I CAN’T lose Clarke... we can’t lose her’. Either way, I love platonic soulmates that need each other.

(Randomly just remembered when B had that nice pal talk with Wells about how Clarke never sees him when Finn’s around, lolll what?? Weirdo. BC parallels with Wells and Clarke? Yes pls)

Tell your bff you love them challenge ft. Clarke who said ‘u look fine today, sad boy so I’mma look you over from the tips of ur toes to the top of ur head platonically then tell you you’re special and that your sis will come around’ and B who canonically says ‘Clarke, if I don’t see you again-‘ only for Clarke to be like ‘you WILL’ before B even finished his sentence - it’s rude to interrupt your friends when they’re talking Clarke! He was only gonna say ‘may we meet again’ anyway bc for some reason y’all bffs don’t canonically say ‘I love you [bro]’ and maybe B knows it’s because you hate I love yous and don’t say it unless you think it’s goodbye forever.

It’s in how Clarke puts Bellamy at the same level as Madi and cannot face Bellamy in her mind space, despite him being alive, because she thinks that he thinks she’s a monster - she cannot see her platonic pal’s love, I love that trope. It’s in how Clarke says ‘I’m not leaving you’ because her biggest regret was leaving B in the pits (but also the time she left him after MW) and it’s in how Bellamy says ‘I won’t let you die’ after letting her die twice now, I call that growth. So J mocks their weird relationship and B is like ‘lols I know’. He has a girlfriend who lied to him about her past during the 6 uninterrupted years they spent on the ring and he starts an argument with her seemingly out of nowhere (after watching Clarke dance with the doctor) and lying that at the last party he was at, he couldn’t protect his sister when we damn well know that the last party he was at was Jasper’s, does echo not know about Jasper? Did no one (Bellamy) tell her? He didn’t have to say ‘the last party I was at’ he could’ve easily said ‘at the party on Ark’. The way he even said this sounded like he was telling Echo for the first time what happened to his sister... they didn’t talk about the reason he ended up on the ground whilst on the ring huh? When Echo says something reasonable, he snaps that this is about feelings and that he never knows how she feels about anything... sounds like he’s projecting but I’m not going to tell you how to interpret it. Then when Echo opens up about her past, B says ‘you told me you didn’t remember your parents’. I love watching becho development because it’s clear how becho are not as compatible as we would’ve thought. (My headcanon up until s6 for them was that they connected over their similar childhoods and responsibility to their people and share the burden of the sins they’ve committed to live and grow together whilst finding peace in each other)

(This is just a snippet of how I see BC and I have no reason to be biased towards it. In fact, during s2-3 I actively made myself ship Clexa more than I shipped BC because I wanted that win for lgbt rep - yes, my mind is that extra that even without social media influence on my binge viewing experience, I felt that Clexa deserved E V E R Y T H I N G so believe me when I say I didn’t want this blarke life 🙃)

Everyone is agreed that they have an awesome non-sexual soulmate love? Yes? I admit, they COULD be platonic, depending on your definition of sexuality. Platonic is defined as ‘love or friendship that is affectionate/intimate but not sexual’.

If Clarke died next ep, bellarke will be remembered as platonic by those that believe sexual acts are what make a relationship romantic and remembered as romantic by those that infer sexual chemistry/feelings/thoughts in certain bellarke scenes.

Imo, it’s not logical to believe sexuality is only physical: it goes against basic common sense in that people would only be considered straight/gay/bi etc. at the point of their first sexual encounter and dating relationships would be platonic until the first sexual act within it.

Personally, I think romantic relationships arise with intention: the shared understanding of what you are offering each other (sexual acts included) and how you prioritise your person over all other humans.

It’s not crude to appreciate the intricacy of physical attraction or understand the implications of it driving the need to be as intimate as possible with someone. And the problem with bellarke is that there IS sexual chemistry and attraction. It’s established in season 1 and it’s made headlines - not that you should care- but both types of people (that would now consider bellarke platonic and those that wouldn’t) probably picked up on it because this aspect of their relationship was planned and written into the story. Longing and pining to just BE with someone is the pinnacle of romance and not only is it canon that bellarke look at each other with humongous pupils, it is also canon (through writing, direction and music) that bellarke prioritise each other, are extremely vulnerable to each other, always want to be ‘together’ do things ‘together’ no matter what. So I’m failing to understand why people don’t want to look at all the evidence and draw the clear conclusion: Bellarke tick every box for a romantic relationship except sexual acts and I think it’s a disservice to not recognise the reality of them as the epic love story that they are. Let’s not even mention the possibility that the reason they haven’t ticked that box is because they have given themselves over to their people in selfless duty or continued trauma from lost lovers.

I’m gonna conclude by saying I ship Clexa and Bellarke but with what’s going on in the story rn, bellarke are it for me. I’d say endgame but it could all change if there’s narrative to suggest otherwise. What I see happening by the end of the series is lexa being back (in what capacity idk) and either Clexa or Bellarke being party to the ‘I will love you forever but I will learn to love someone else so that we can chersish the relationship we have for what it is, not what it has been or what it could be, and be happy together forever’ while the other is canon endgame. Or maybe be by the series finale we’ll get endgame polygamy? - Now that’s edgy af! But those are best case scenarios lol.

Realistically, atleast one of BC are gonna die, Lexa will be brought back as Alycia but not into the real world (unless we get plot that finally exposes the mental space realm??? That sounds fucking dope tbh - they’ve been teasing alternate realities this whole damn show and what is more sci-fi than that? It would also incorporate the flame and Jason loves the flame and Clexa love the flame so??? Anyone wanna hire me as a writer?) and there’s endless possibilities really so I’m conflicted between hoping that Book 2 is less about tragedy/survival and more about happiness/life and knowing that hope for the 100 is offbrand and too much of a reach, with the evidence that we have but the writers could easily get us all there, man. I’m excited!