#literally fighting my seasonal depression with this i'm not even kidding

[sga-owns-my-soul]

i've found a foolproof way to battle my seasonal depression

country music

so hard to feel depressed when a Funky Little Guy is singing to you about the pretty lady with the ruby red lips blonde hair blue eyes and he's about to bid his heart goodbye

[therantsofawriterrr]

The Umbrella Academy Final Season: My Version.

Part One: We Also See Each Other At Birthday Parties

Overview: After getting back to a normal world with no powers, we see the Hargreeves trying to adjust to normal lives which somehow seems a lot harder to navigate. TW: uhh, emo discussions and stuff, mature language, sad people overall, some storyline changes because I'm writing it as the characters are playing it in my head, also long ass fic, I'm sorry. Pairings: Luther×Sloane, Diego×Lila, Allison×Raymond, Klaus×Dave, Five×OC, Ben×Jennifer A/N: Sooo, the fourth season made me want to forget it. Like I was literally thinking that I wanted Sir Reggie to use his memory-erase thing on me. This is for me and many others who wanted to see a happy ending, so uhh, here goes. I'm sorry if any of my imagination goes against fan canon, just think of them of my own hcs. also, im kind of using this to practice third person omniscient, so constructive criticism is appreciated. Btw, THIS HAS SPOILERS (potentially) because I'm also using some of the scenes from the season, stuff that I liked and all that. So, here goes ig.

Masterlist

What happens when you put seven superheroes into a normal world and strip them of their powers? It's an interesting question, a loaded question to be precise.

Well, that's what has happened now, with the Hargreeves siblings living their respective lives, trying to deal with the fact that they just had to live without their powers. They felt good about it, yes, but in some ways, it also posed a few difficulties.

Six years later, they were pretty well-adjusted. Or so it seemed.

Let's go to Number One, shall we? Luther Hargreeves, the self-proclaimed peacemaker of the family. At the moment, Luther was snoring in bed, drooling onto the sheets as he dreamed of a different life. A life with his wife, Sloane. A white picket fence, two dogs, and maybe even kids? But then, the scene changed. The kugelblitz appeared, taking his wife and world away, waking him up in a frenzy.

As soon as he did, he sat up, reaching out for her instinctively, only to find nothing but cold sheets. Tears started welling up in his eyes as a lump lodged itself in his throat, his hands going up to his face and his shoulders started shaking as he sobbed. This was pretty much like a morning routine, wake up, cry because of overwhelming grief, then get up and have some coffee.

The goofball of the family had turned into a depressed lover looking for his lost love.

As for Number Two, Diego Hargreeves and his wife, Lila Hargreeves, were quite literally living Luther's dream, with three kids and a wonderful house. But, suddenly going from crime-fighting and assassinations to dealing with kids, in-laws, a shitty boss, and the housewife life would be hard for anyone, don't you think?

Every day, Diego went out to work as a mailman, trying to get the mail to their owners with perfect precision. But, he failed, for his power was the reason for his perfect aim. And every single time, he felt insecure about himself. Now, he could get out of the truck and just deliver mail like a normal person, but then, this is Diego we're talking about.

Lila, on the other hand, has book club every other week. What the family didn't know, is that there is no book

They were a cute family, but they did need to talk to each other about some things.

Number Three, Allison Hargreeves was living with her husband and daughter, Raymond Chestnut and Claire Hargreeves Chestnut. While Raymond was happy living in a world where racism was a lot less than before and worked in a 9-5 job, Allison was struggling as an actor, trying to make time for family and land a good role. She also didn't really talk to the family except Klaus because she was afraid that they wouldn't want her, but she did regret her actions and felt lonely in that aspect of life.

Number Four was Klaus Hargreeves, the weirdest out of the group. It's those weird antics that also made him the most adorable in the group. Granted, he was a bit of a faint heart now that his immortality was gone, but the vibes were still there. But there was still the fact that he was three years sober, a fact that enabled him to wake up every morning with pride. Staying in Allison's basement, he had bubble-wrapped whatever surface he could, but being in charge of taking care of Claire finally made him feel useful in a way, so in short, he didn't really have any complaints.

And now, with his favourite brother Benerino coming out of jail, he could finally make him realise that he has a family as well!

Number Five, who was fine with being called Five, was working in the CIA, mainly investigating a cult that dealt with memories of another timeline. He used to dress up as a man named Jerome, putting on a fake mustache and a generic outfit to fit in. He clocked in early and left late, making people think that he was just another workaholic who didn't have anything to do at home.

But, there was a different reason. A reason that he wouldn't even tell his family. The PTSD of the previous many years, that he'd decided to ignore had finally started getting to him. He couldn't sleep without having nightmares of another apocalypse. The only way he could sleep without dreams was if he tired himself out to the point of passing out. Which is what he did.

Number Six, Ben Hargreeves was getting out of jail for being embroiled in a crypto scam. Granted, he had pretty much scammed too many people into losing too much money, but then why do people get involved in these markets if they don't keep in mind that it's risky? He could never understand people, really.

Now that he was out, he was free again, and he already had a plan to get away from the family once and for all. He didn't think he deserved to stay in a family full of love.

And finally there was Number Seven. Viktor Hargreeves, who was pretty much the strongest out of the group. But now, he just saw himself as an emo fuck-up who couldn't have a proper relationship, neither with his family nor with his partners. Building a life for himself in Nova Scotia had been hard, getting his bar business to take off had been harder, but what was hardest, was to actually commit to a person.

But then, could anybody blame him? He had lost too many people that he loved. There was Sissy, there was Harlan and there was the whole thing with Harold Jenkins. He was starting to think he needed to stay single for a while so that he could process his feelings and then put himself out there again.

But, even though they would do anything else, they did think that they needed to be there for Diego's first daughter, Grace's birthday party. So there they were, with smiles pasted on their faces in an arcade, where the children screamed while Diego and Lila yelled at each other.

"Diego! What are you doing?" She yelled into his ear, making him cringe.

"Getting the cake ready!" He yelled back.

"Piñata before cake! Go hang it!"

Diego went ahead and hung the fake horse with all the love he could muster and more. Though, Lila couldn't help but stare at him as he did, wondering how he knew that she had forgotten the piñata. She had called Diego up at the last moment in a panic, telling him about how she forgot to buy the West End one, and instead bought the East End one. Diego had just assured her and told her to breathe, telling her he'd handle it. He'd shown up with a vibrant horse, pretty much like the one she'd bought, but still different.

"What the hell are we going to do with two piñatas?" she'd asked, starting to panic again.

"We'll give the other one to Luther, babe. We both know he needs to get some of that anger out. Don't worry too much."

Diego stalked over to Luther carefully, handing him a bottle of beer and leaning back against the bar of some game, children shrieking with happiness.

"Hey, big guy," he said, internally wincing at Luther's answering grunt. "Where have you been these days? It's been what, a month since you'd called?"

"Just been busy," he said, taking a swig of the beer. They both knew how he'd been busy, but neither had the will nor the strength to discuss it. Diego missed him, but he sort of understood where he was coming from. He knew he'd go crazy if it had been Lila who had gotten lost after everything. He was pretty sure he would have been the reason for the world ending a fourth time.

Whereas Luther was mentally checking the wool-stringed map hanging in his house again and again in his mind, trying to figure out just where Sloane could be. He was hell-bent on finding her, to have the happy ending that they both deserved. He couldn't bear the thought of him living on while she died.

Elsewhere, Klaus had just entered the place with Claire and Raymond, with gloves on his hand and every other precaution he could think of.

"It's just a kid's party, Klaus. What's the worst that could happen here?"

"Oh, too many things. You of all people should know how dirty children can get, Raymond," he drawled in the typical Klaus fashion. Raymond only chuckled, shaking his head as Klaus cooed in excitement at the various candy stalls and selfie booths that were placed around the place. He had definitely been a weird addition to the family three years prior, but also an adorable one. His quirks made the house livelier for sure.

Allison, on the other hand, was sitting in her car, with her white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. She was trying to convince herself to start the fucking car, to get home and practice her lines, but her eyes kept flitting to the rearview mirror, where the neon sign was glowing brightly. A sudden knock made her jump in her seat, and she turned to see Viktor, who she thought would be the last person to approach her.

She rolled the tinted window down to meet Viktor's cold but warm eyes.

"You aren't coming in?" He asked, voice frosty, but with a tinge of sadness in it.

"No, not really," Allison said, guiltiness lacing her voice. "I probably shouldn't ruin the party."

"Grace is your niece, too, you know," he said, looking at her firmly. "It's her birthday, and she deserves to see her aunt. Plus, the others care about her just as much you and I do, so they won't make a fuss."

Immediately, when she entered the place, she regretted it. Because while Diego and Lila were a bit warm towards her, Luther's gaze turned stony before he turned away. She wanted to run away and hide, but Raymond's comforting hand in hers gave her a little strength.

On the other side of the room, Ben was talking to Five, the one Umbrella sibling that he could tolerate to some extent.

"What was it, again? Ponzi scheme? White-collar fraud?" Five asked him with a smirk.

"Crypto exchange. Web 3.0, baby. Feds only went after because I'm an outsider. A fucking maverick like Elon.

"Well, that and you bankrupted a 100,000 people."

"The whole thing was like a witch hunt. I think I'm just gonna stay home now that I'm out."

"Yeah, well, say what you will," Five said with a small appreciative smile. "It's still good to have you back."

Klaus seemed to spawn beside them suddenly, putting an arm around Ben's shoulders. "Hello, Benjamin."

"Get your hand off of me, I don't know where it's been," he said with irritation lacing his voice, but Klaus was unconvinced. Even if he wasn't their Ben, he was Ben, and there was no one else that knew him better.

The party went on with the same vibes; somehow, it was the only Hargreeves party that's been normal. Usually, it ended up getting very chaotic and weird.

But then, all of them knew that they actually had fun in those parties.

Another A/N: I originally planned for this to have ten chapters, but nvm every chapter will get too long, so ig we'll just see how many parts this thing will have. Likes, reblogs and feedback is highly appreciated, please tell me if the transition from one character to other was too confusing or hard to process, I do that sometimes. Also, I do have a lot of changes, according to what I've seen on the tua tag, so I'll try to make stuff up too haha. Anyway, tell me if y'all like this or not, and tysm for reading

[natsumebookss]

Tragic Yuri or Tragic Yuri: On Female Autonomy, Reclaiming the Narrative, and 2011's Moodiest Magical Girls

(contains spoilers for Madoka Magica and Heartcatch Precure, very slight spoilers for Winx Club, topics of loss and depression, and the author screaming into the void about anime bullshit that happened over a decade ago)

If you've spent any amount of time in the Precure or PMMM fandoms, you've probably come across this quote. It's natural in many ways for Urobuchi to feel the way he does--imposter syndrome is intensely common for artists and I'd imagine attempting to write a subversion of a common genre while a piece of media from that genre is wrapping up a super successful run is challenging. While I won't pretend Heartcatch reached the levels of popularity that PMMM ended up at, it was the highest-selling season for years in terms of toy sales and many still remember it very fondly. (I'm a bit more critical of it, personally, but more on that later.) And so much was made of Urobuchi confessing he hadn't seen Heartcatch at the time of writing his own show, with PMMM antis saying that meant he had no real appreciation for the genre.

But what if I were to tell you that not only would PMMM have been significantly worse if he'd made it more like Heartcatch, but Heartcatch would've been better off if it had been more like Madoka?

A disclaimer before we go any further: I am not suggesting that Heartcatch should've retooled into a darker series, or that it even had the ability to since the shows were made pretty much in tandem. The damage done to Heartcatch, in my opinion, was already done before Madoka's finale even aired. This is purely an exercise in comparing two magical girls from roughly the same anime season (one ending about when the other was starting) and seeing what they could learn from each other. Also note that my title on my main blog is literally "Heartcatch Precure finale anti," so there will be some bias involved. With that out of the way, let us proceed.

Context

Pictured: a completely normal Facebook discussion about a kid's anime character from almost 15 years ago.

For those unfamiliar, Cure Moonlight has essentially built up a reputation for being the Leafpool of Precure. For those unfamiliar with Warrior Cats, this is one of the worst things you can be called in fandom--someone with legions of fans who got screwed over so badly that those fans will never shut up about it. Being a Leafpool is not merely being a tragic character, but being actively fucked over by the narrative at every possible turn.

Let's explore Cure Moonlight in a bit more detail before comparing her to Homura and how, I argue, Homura did a similar story path to hers better. Like Homura, Cure Moonlight is first seen fighting a massive threat to humanity inside our pink magical girl Tsubomi's dream. The dream cuts off before we learn her fate, but all we can see on her face is pure sorrow before it does. The minute she is introduced, she already knows loss.

Throughout the show's run, we get to know her as Yuri Tsukikage, a veteran magical girl forced into retirement after her transformation item has been shattered. She has half of the broken Heart Seed that remains, and her foil Dark Precure, who broke the seed, has the other. Yuri is intensely depressed for this exact reason: she has lost her powers, her duties to the world, her fairy companion (who died in the battle with Dark Precure), and her father has also mysteriously vanished. The audience first sees her as a friend of one of the lead's older sisters, a senpai who excels at both sports and academics, before revealing her to be a broken person inside. The goal of Yuri's narrative, seemingly, is to restore her Precure powers, allow her to confide in new friends, and find her missing father.

The first two are accomplished in a pretty straightforward but heartwarming manner--Yuri begins to find a new purpose in training her Precure kohais and eventually regains her powers through hard work and determination. Typical kid's show stuff, even if seeing Cure Moonlight reappear for the first time is indisputably badass. It's the third one, however, that I have the most problems with.

Frequent followers of my main blog @curemoonliite may be familiar with a term I have called "moonbitching." This is what I call it when I rant at length about the Heartcatch finale and what it did to Cure Moonlight's character, or even just allude to it in the tags. Since this post will already be long enough without it, I'll go light on the moonbitching, but do just enough of it to give you the facts.

In the last few episodes of the series, Yuri learns that her father was brainwashed by the main villain of the series, Dune, and that Dark Precure was cloned from her genetic material while he was brainwashed. This is legitimately a fascinating plot point that, by itself, I have no problems with. However, soon after learning about this, both Dark Precure and her father are killed off in the final battle and all Yuri can do is watch.

Her father sacrificed himself for her in a moment of clarity, she didn't even get time to really process that she's been fighting her sister all along, and she's lost everyone all over again. She started the show with just her and her mother, and the second she sees hope at having a family again, it's taken away from her.

Her kohai Tsubomi, upon seeing this, begs Yuri not to take revenge on the Big Bad that's stolen everything from her. This isn't the Yuri I know, she shouts. But somewhere along the line, we've lost the Yuri we know. All her development, all her growth, has been torn away the minute she's forced to lose everything again. Her path as a character is now uncertain, the narrative deciding it won't allow her to pursue even the slightest act of revenge.

And all Yuri can do is watch alongside us.

Homura and Yuri

The minute I saw this finale for the first time, I was reminded of how a classic piece of children's/family media handled a similar plot point. Allow me to be cliched for a moment, but if we look at someone like Inigo Montoya, we can see that his decision to pursue revenge is never really questioned by the narrative. This is something that's always bothered me about female characters in media, especially magical girl stories--a magical girl can never just say "give me my father back, you son of a bitch." They may want to, but due to sexist notions about women and violence, they're always expected to take the high road.

Oftentimes, this is done by using the magical girl leader as a mouthpiece to directly dismiss their teammate's desires--Bloom and Aisha go through something very similar in S4 of Winx Club when Aisha's fiancee is killed. Neither Bloom nor Tsubomi are naturally dismissive people, and the narrative tends to characterize them as kind, but they are briefly mischaracterized in moments like this to give the typical "revenge is bad" message that kid's shows tend to have. A message that is often distinctly missing from boy's cartoons, but I digress.

Aisha is at least allowed the dignity of separating from the main team for a few episodes to join some extremists, but Yuri doesn't even get that.

And Homura gets so much more.

I'll admit, I still have mixed feelings about Rebellion to this day, but what I do appreciate about it is that it isn't hampered by these restraints that magical girl media made for children seem to have. That villain arc the Facebook commenter from before said Yuri should've had? It was too late for her by the time the finale ended, but it wasn't too late for Homura.

Homura is, in many ways, an anti-Yuri, and a lot of that comes from her having autonomy within the narrative. Female autonomy is something we see discussed in the social justice sphere a lot, but not quite as much in the storytelling sense. Probably the main difference between the two is that Homura, as a time traveler, can stop the ones she loves from ever being killed. In fact, that's also her greatest weakness, as she wears herself down with the timelines so much that she can barely bring herself to care for anything else sometimes.

Homura's depression comes from the idea that she Can Stop The Thing, but can't figure out precisely how to. Yuri's depression comes from the fact that she Can't Stop The Thing, thinks she knows how to, and gets herself into more trouble along the way. One of these makes for an intensely more active character that doesn't feel unfairly dunked on by the narrative, and oddly enough, it's not the kid's show character.

Yuri, as a children's character, is kept from doing certain things by what that entails. Homura, however, has no such restrictions. She can travel through time and repeat everything over literally until she breaks herself. And that she very, very much does.

Homura doesn't have to be convinced in the finale to let Madoka go, she just peacefully comes to terms with it herself. That alone gives her more autonomy than Yuri had, even if we recall that Rebellion's ending was not the original one that Urobuchi had planned. However, Rebellion's ending serves as an ultimate rebuttal to the narrative that a magical girl must simply allow hardship and loss to happen to her. If the world isn't fair to her, if not even time travel works out, why not just remake it?

This action comes at the cost of stripping Madoka of a lot of her autonomy, sure. But it is, in a way, the natural conclusion of how magical girl leaders are often made to strip their "angsty" team members of theirs. Homura's fall from grace is a flipping of this script in every way possible, and even if it's far from the best decision for her to make, we can see that it's 100% fully her own.

The revenge is complete. No one is there to stop her. Even the writers don't really know what to do with her now. Homura has now transcended the fate of the purple magical girl, and that's the best thing that could've ever happened to her.

A girl who seeks revenge is a devil. A girl who cannot become a princess is doomed to become a witch. But ask yourself, is the fear of becoming these things worth becoming a spectator in your own story?

And, if that's the case, is it truly better to reign in hell than serve in heaven?

[ellena-asg]

I know that this scene in 2x01 is called romantic or sexy. And it is romantic and sexy, agree. Danny without a tie. Steve liking it. Yeah.

But sometimes when I watch it I can't stop thinking about the previous episode, about Danny choosing Steve, Danny not leaving with Rachel, Danny being like "Don't feel sorry about it, Steve. It's ok. It's ok, babe".

When I watch it I think about Danny's life now with Steve and his old life with Rachel (and Hollander family in general).

And I don't see "just a tie/no tie".

To me the tie and Danny not wearing it here... It's a symbol.

By "to me" I mean someone who finds Danny damn relatable. Anxiety, depression, other issues. Some of character traits. And a past that was like a hell.

I know that many of you like and defend Rachel and the idea of her co-parenting with Danny. And I respect that. I just think differently. And huh, I'm that salty cause I know such people like Rachel and her mother. I had my own Hollanders, in my own family, in my circle of friends. Destructive, toxic, manipulative, entitled, narcissistic people who will never change, will never stop hurt you. Who will ruin your life, all what you love, your passions, your heart, your mind. Believe me, when you're anxious and sensitive inside and you have to live (you think that you have to) with such destructive people... It sucks. (No matter if you chose these people or not). You're not anxious anymore, you're mega anxious. And many times you hate/blame yourself. All what Rachel and her mother have done to Danny (and Gracie) before and after divorce - it was a hell. To me it was a hell. A hell he never deserved.

So yes, in my eyes Danny was a victim in that cursed marriage (I swear, I'll make separate stuff about it one day). In my eyes after divorce Rachel tried to make him her marionette. After divorce she ruined him even more. And he let her again - for Gracie (all Danny's pain was for Gracie and geez, that poor girl deserves to know this).

This marriage was like a tie. A tie-noose tightening around Danny's neck. Danny couldn't breathe (well, literally too - anxiety can give you such a panic attacks). He was like a bird in a cage.

But he met Steve. He liked him. He loved him. For the first time in his life he felt genuine romantic love. And such a strong friendship. For the first time in his life he felt safe. He saw himself in Steve's eyes. He saw that they're two poor birds who still could fly - together. Danny can escape. He can leave his old life. He can escape AND have Gracie. (He wants Steve too).

All is possible, you should fight, do what you want - that's what Danny sees when he looks at Steve. What he sees in Steve's eyes in the last episode of season 1. That's what deep down Danny feels in his own heart. And to think that Danny calls Steve crazy. This, this new "crazy" life, full of dangerous cases, bombs, grenades, Steve's "goofy" actions, sharks, adventures... Maybe it's funny but this life, it's a life where Danny is safe, calm and happy. It's a life where he can heal. (Where he sees himself and Grace). Whereas his old life: easy, cosy, quiet, lovely and so normal... was calm and normal only on surface. His old life was a battlefield.

His old life was like Danny's outfit - elegant, pretty on surface but not always comfortable. And now, Danny has no tie. In this scene above he laughs. He touches his neck and makes a face like "Hanged man no more". Something is over. He's really happy. Still worried about Gracie, about Steve, yes - but not about Rachel anymore. He doesn't regret. He doesn't cry over Rachel and "lost chance". Nah. Leaving Steve - that would be a lost chance. His real chance is Steve.

He's free. He's a free bird. A free bird looking now at his lovebird. Saying "it will be okay".

Soon Danny wears more and more comfortable clothes. We can see it in many episodes. Jeans, t-shirts, shorts. Danny breathes. Danny is Hawaiian now. Steve's. He's like a kid trying to have fun again. Of course sometimes Danny still wears his ties and pretty shirts. Yeah. But he's with Steve. And when he's with him all is always comfortable. All is Danny-ish. All is good. There's no abuse. No lies. No using you as a tool. No using your passion (job) against you. No playing with your free will. No "you're not good enough", no "prove that you're worthy" and no "you're the bad one", "it's your fault", "bad, bad, bad Danny".

There is love.

And when I see Danny wearing a tie when he's with Stevie - then I see a nice tie, I see Danny being glamorous for Steve. THEN I see just a tie. No noose anymore.

@chaosrising451 Babe, sorry for tagging you (I hope you're feeling better) but I remember our talk about Steve suffering from abuse so I thought that maybe you would be interested in Danny's case too.

[zee-has-commitment-issues]

My Favorite Out Of Context Notes From My First Watch Through Of Season 3: *most of these will be spoiler free without context but they are, of course, notes from my first watch through so be aware*

Despite how long this list might seem, this is quite literally only the tip of the iceberg. My initial notes doc is eight pages long and it is entirely gibberish at the moment. You'll get the full list later lol. Enjoy:

WHERE THE FUCK IS WALTER?

THEY X’D ANETTE OH HELL NO

my candle just blew out and I don’t think that’s a good thing.

These came in rapid succession: - Are they about to have phone sex?  - Oh my god they’re having phone sex  - Jk  - Oh homophobia 

I am once again asking where the hell Walter is

Fredrika being so depressed because she doesn’t have a cellphone is peak comedy

NO LET THEM FIGHT MORE PLEASE I'M BEGGING

I'm gonna murder someone actually

FIRST WALTER SIGHTING

Malte’s ability to shapeshift into this shitbag needs to be studied

Linda I am begging you to read the room.

BESTIE I AM BEGGING YOU TO FIND ANOTHER HOBBY ANY OTHER HOBBY

OH DAMN OH DAMN ON THEY'RE ON THEIR KNEES FOR EACH OTHER OK THEN

they're nakey

VINCENT SHUT UP

poor dude shaved his head for no reason

Vincent I'm so mad at you but that was kind of a slay

They really said “we might give up because we don’t have dinner” and that is the most privileged accurate thing that could have happened

No ERIK I TRUSTED YOU ERIK I BELIEVED IN YOU ERIK I WROTE A BOOK ABOUT YOU OMG PLEASE I CAN'T OMG NO ERIK PLEASE ERIK

This red, bolded point is the point in which I began to fall into the worst madness of my life because wtf erik

Vincent you can’t be mean and gay and homophobic and racist. I need you to pick a struggle.

NO WILHELM PLEASE FIND ANOTHER HOBBY

The music room is homophobic I can’t take this anymore they couldn’t even get off in there like please

Wilhelm got one good dick and suddenly started liking kids

WHY WOULD YOU TALK ABOUT POISON RIGHT NOW?

on a chair

I hate this I hate this I hate this

I’m convinced they’re reading fanfic at this point I’m not able to think of any other explanation for some of this

OH

THAT'S THE END WTF?!

[sarah-cam]

This is the same anon that just messaged about Jeremiah/Conrad! I forgot to add sort of in the analysis Jelly/Bonrad and why you think one is "better" analysis-wise or even personal-preference-wise 😊

alright i’m going to start this with just my personal preference and then get into an analytical side. a lot of my opinions on the ships revolve around my opinions of conrad vs jeremiah, because a lot of the reasons i don't like jere have to do with jelly (that post is here)

again, i want to start this by saying that if you ship jelly that’s awesome for you but to be blunt lbr y’all are delulu if you genuinely believe that bonrad won’t be endgame 😂

jenny han spent several years and three books building the relationship between belly and conrad, and now two seasons of a show where not only are belly and conrad ALWAYS the underlying relationship, but conrad is imo clearly the lead male over jeremiah. he continuously has storylines outside of his relationship with belly, vs jere's focus pretty much only revolving around that so far. she’s not going to change the endgame… she’s just not 🤷🏻‍♀️

first things first — i don’t choose the ship, the ships choose me 🙏🏼 it’s pretty simple and probably is for a lot of people, i just get all the tingly feelings and that’s that

from that first slow motion walk up, the chemistry was CHEM👏🏼IS👏🏼TRY👏🏼ING👏🏼!!! lola and chris have such amazing chemistry in every single scene, even when they don’t even say anything, and that chemistry is romantic straight from that very first scene

and i will admit, lola and gavin have good chemistry too!! (lola honestly has such great, unique chemistry with every other actor) even though i have my issues with it, the scene between belly and jeremiah on the side of the road DID hit me in the feels. the issue for me though is that the vibes i get are just not romantic in the same way as it is with conrad, its bestie vibes. at the very least, they start the show with bestie vibes and romantic vibes "develop". it just feels forced in a way, especially since belly and conrad is just always there.

i should be able to see it - you shouldn't have to tell me. most notably, when trusky goes on that weird rant about their "vibes" when they were literally just standing next to each other, worrying about conrad, and jere was rolling his eyes about conrad being depressed over belly. they constantly talk about their "ESP" but when it comes time to show how well he knows her, it's not even just that he doesn't know her favorite candy is sour patch kids - he literally doesn't know that she hates swedish fish

taking some points from my conrad/jeremiah analysis, i don't like the way jeremiah is manipulative and constantly makes belly feel guilty for being happy or simply just existing next to conrad. rolling his eyes when she seems a little jealous of sophie and when she has a little smile when she learns conrad was staring at pictures of her, constantly eyeing them when belly worries about conrad in "love fool", interrupts them with an angry look when they talk in the store in "love fest", brings her up in his fight with conrad also in "love fest", keeps giving nasty looks in "love triangle" when conrad gives her his sweatshirt, the stuff with the candy, and when their hands BARELY touch at the motel. in that same lane, i just feel like he invalidates her feelings a lot, shames her for loving conrad, and dismisses/shuts her down when she tries to talk about it (which was funny when lola said in an interview that jere made belly feel more heard 😂 she's fighting for her life out there)

the episode with his narration was PAINFUL. i'm sorry but he gave off the biggest incel vibes. everything he said revolved around hating on conrad or victimizing himself, like "doesn't she know i would treat her so much better?? doesn't she know how much i want to be sitting next to her?? conrad had no right to date her after ignoring her for years." IT WAS GROSS. and also, not true. jere said himself that he started liking her after she 'turned pretty' which... i don't even believe. he only started liking her after he saw her almost kiss conrad. he is supportive of cam cameron and encourages their relationship. he's only jealous of conrad.

to conrad, this isn't a competition or a game. and if it was, he would voluntarily lose if it meant belly would be happy.

and in case you were still doubting the iconic soulmatism that only occurs in the ultimate endgames - here ya go!!

tropes: i found an amazing list laid out here and picked out some of the best ones

all girls want bad boys

anguished declaration of love (more so the 3rd book so it hasn't happened yet)

childhood friends/best friends to lovers (yes because conrad is ALSO her best friend)

childhood crush

everyone can see it

first love/first guy wins

i want my beloved to be happy

settle for sibling

single-target sexuality (conrad only ever loves belly and lbr she only ever truly loves him)

unrequited/secretly-requited love

music: like... come on... it's pretty clear (and before you bring up delicate, don't: "this ain't for the best" "we can't make any promises")

lover, "can we always be this close forever and ever?"

the way i loved you, "and i never knew i could feel that much"

this love, "these hands had to let it go free and this love came back to me"

false god, "we'd still worship this love"

august, "for me, it was enough to live for the hope of it all"

back to december, "it turns out freedom ain’t nothing but missing you"

last kiss, "i never thought we'd have a last kiss"

invisible string, "all along there was some invisible string tying you to me"

sweet nothing, "i find myself running home to your sweet nothings"

snow on the beach, "time can't stop me quite like you did"

exile, "we always walked a very thin line"

when the party's over, "i've learned to lose you, can't afford to"

drivers license, "how could i ever love someone else?

deja vu, "she thinks it's special but it's all reused"

never really over, "just because it's over doesn't mean it's really over"

steal my girl, "we want the same things we dream the same dreams"

i'm kissing you, "but watching stars without you my soul cried"

little things:

conrad was the only one growing up that ever included her

they have their own handshake in the volleyball game (vs belly teaching jere her and taylor’s)

he gets her meaningful presents (junior mint, glass unicorn, infinity necklace, bouquet of candy)

he always knows and gets her favorite things (muffins, candy)

they call each other all the time

he gives her his sweaters even when she says she's not cold, because he knows she doesn't mind the cold but likes being cozy

pictures of the two of them are constantly showed (belly's phone, her room, the polaroid)

conrad is the leader but they also look to belly as a leader too (deciding to throw the party, boardwalk, team belly/team conrad)

conrad cheers for steven to fight milo but breaks it up as soon as belly tells him to

always worrying about each other (conrad jumps in to defend laurel from adam when belly gets upset, she always looks to him first when something bad happens)

he can tell that she's awake in the motel because she isn't snoring

they have the same dream of the future (coming back to cousins)

and most of all, susannah, laurel, AND steven ship it 👑

parallels:

first off, the flashbacks typically mirror what's going on in present day and almost every flashback is of something important with conrad

the pool scenes with belly swimming while conrad has his feet in

she dreams of him kissing her in the beginning of s2 in the same way he kisses her when they are in front of the fireplace

they continuously have important scenes on the beach

he picks her up the same way the last time they were on the beach as a couple and the first time since their breakup

her wearing his cousins rowing shirt and then still having it, wearing his sweater/sweatshirt, wearing his t-shirt even when broken up

she brings up how he helped her with trig during 'shoot your shot'

he always plays with her hair/brushes it from her face

the infinity necklace and junior mint always being there

constant parallels to staylor (i made a post about them here), jenny has literally said that steven is taylor's conrad

quotes:

conrad - "i'm glad that it was me" "i do want you" "you're it for me" "my chest physically hurts to not be able to tell her that i'm in love with her" "i don't think i could ever get over you" "[you're cold-hearted] for everyone else maybe, not for you"

belly - "you were great" "being with you is all i'ver ever wanted" "i want it to be with you" "there's only you, there's only ever been you" "i was in love, steven, like, out of my mind in love" "he made it so hard not to love him" "i loved conrad longer and truer than anyone in my whole life" "i'll probably never love anyone like that again" "i would've fought for you" "i don't regret any of the times we were together"

laurel - "for belly, conrad is the sun, and when the sun comes out, the stars disappear", saying that a cozy campfire (jeremiah) is not enough compared to fireworks (conrad)

steven - "conrad's her soulmate"

susannah - "i knew it" "take care of him", the letters she's writing in her last scene

foreshadowing:

most obviously, infinity - like it's pretty hard to argue with. also, when conrad explains infinity he compares it to a racetrack, and at the boardwalk him and belly cross the finish line of the racetrack together

dancing - all of the times belly dances, it's with conrad. the deb ball dance especially foreshadows a first dance at a wedding

venus - it is an evening star before it disappears, and then it returns as a morning star. conrad disappears from her life before returning

belly flops - conrad is always holding her under the arms, by her heart

rollerblades - belly talks about her feelings for conrad being tucked away like her rollerblades, which came out of storage in s2

staylor - belly and taylor's conversation about forgetting first loves and then taylor immediately ignoring that and getting with steven... she's so real

deja vu - belly constantly sees things that remind her of conrad, especially when she is with jeremiah. the song literally plays while she's in the car with him. like again... "it's all reused" 😂

names- isabel susannah conklin and conrad beck fisher... talk about fate amirite

lighting - the motel scene... enough said

[midnight-rice]

@lildoodlecat answering this on my sideblog so as not to confuse the tales fans on my main 😅

--

aaaaaa i'm being invited to go off about a random fixation???? thank youuuuu that's so sweet ;_;

OK SO i feel like I should preface by saying I'm probably not the prototypical fan of this show? I watched it more recently when I was older so my nostalgia isn't based off of childhood memories, I just found a really fun show during a kind of depressing time of my life (2020 lol need I say more?). Also a lot of the fans seem into the shipping scene which is fine i guess but i think they're all sleeping on the potential of the adorkable found family of superpowered teenagers who all live together unsupervised and don't even know each other's real names (seriously they're in costume 24/7 and call each other their work names 😂).

I'll guess I'll start this pitch by listing my favorite things about the show in descending order… which means starting with the animation of all things 😅 There are so many well-animated movies and shows out there but I have yet to encounter one so visually appealing to me personally than Teen Titans (2003). I'm a cartoonist at heart, I generally love exaggerated facial expressions for comedic purposes but Teen Titans really hits for me because it's deliberately styled after anime, with familiar visual language like the red blush lines of embarrassment or the large sweatdrop of anxiety. IIRC Teen Titans was produced by Warner Bros, aired on Cartoon Network, and largely outsourced the animation to Korea, but the homage to Japan is so strong that not only is there a variant of the opening theme performed in Japanese but also the one (1) movie they made is set in Tokyo.

But on top of the silliness of the visual gags the rest of the show is also super well animated, especially the fight scenes!!! Sure some sequences are a little stiff but you can tell that's because they were saving the budget for something like a 360 rotation of the entire group mid-battle (something that seriously impresses me in 2D animation) or a hand-to-hand death match that was almost certainly mo-capped of professional martial artists. Robin in particular is my favorite to watch because he is canonically skilled as an acrobat AND a martial artist and the animators Understood That!! The squash and stretch! The swipes! The smears! I'm swooning 😍 He is a skrunkly rubber band and I love him. (also random side note but i love how much their team's strategies involve yeeting each other at the enemy 😂 like "there is a problem, i'm gonna solve it by throwing my friends at it. i'm sure it's fine BeastBoy will probably turn into an elephant by the time he gets there and not go splat against the monster literally made of concrete")

Moving on from the gorgeous and creatively choreographed fight scenes, I'll try to capture the overall vibes I love about it the most. I'm someone who's always down for a story that's character-driven, balanced between comedy and angst, and above all is genuine and true to itself. In other words, I really respect the tone and way a show handles itself, and Teen Titans (2003) really delivers here. Some episodes are the wackiest nonsense you can imagine (every season has one episode I dub the "pink elephant episode" because its whole purpose is to flex the East coast animation influences in purely abstract sequences often accompanied by music). Some episodes are alarmingly dark and edgy (as an angst and whump lover, my favorite episode is S3 ep31 Haunted in which Robin has a mental breakdown and violent delusions so intense they're worried he's going to go into cardiac arrest… in a kid's show 😅) But what matters most is that both types of episodes are presented with as much gusto and geniuine effort as it is possible to cram into a 23 minute runtime.

They don't hold back with the visuals (so many unique POVs and I love the sponge-like texture in the backgrounds), or the acting (all of the voice actors are top-notch though I can't unhear Lloyd Irving as Robin 😅), or even the score (seriously this time around I was marveling at how well the music accents the emotions of the scene as well as the content, like supervillain Billy Numerous having a repeating banjo motif to represent his duplication powers and Southern US origins). I actually think the worst part of the show is the content itself 😅 this is where it becomes clear it's a kid's show, through cliched tropes, ham-fisted morals, and predictable dialogue, but as someone who's still obsessed with Tales of Graces you can probably guess that cliches aren't something that bother me too much, not when they're being performed with whole-pussy effort 😂

When I first watched the show I watched every episode (all 5 seasons, the movie, and even the lost episode) and made a list of ones that I felt like I enjoyed the most. That's what I've been using to guide my current rewatch, because there are episodes that are a little too childish or moralized or weird to me. If you want me to forward you the list I'd be happy to, but I will admit my selection is very biased toward my own tastes that you might not agree with, and that even my least favorite episodes still have decent entertainment value… with the exception of season 5 😅 idk if this is a controversial opinion in the fandom but I do not care for the last season of Teen Titans at all, you can skip it. I don't know the exact details but there were clearly some developmental and probably networking issues at this point in the series' life, and it shows in the drastic drop in quality (especially in the animation, going from glorious sakuga to powerpoint slides hurts my soul 😭). The content also suffers a bit, going from 4 seasons purely focused on the main 5 with some side characters along the way, to expanding those side characters into the main focus which, although I like them, means that none of the characters feel quite as developed since the focus is spread across too many.

Anyway I guess that's the gist of my pitch 😁 thanks for lending me a platform from which to yell from, I have no idea why I fell back into this fixation rn but it's twice as satisfying when I get to talk about it with a willing audience 💜 thanks Jay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dorizardthewizard]

Galactik Football season 3 rewatch, eps 7 - 9

Episode 7:

AGAIN they put the Shadows logo instead of the Pirates...

Well at least Mei is trying to be civil with D'jok and have a normal conversation

D'jok claiming he doesn't miss the Snow Kids >:(

I mean idk why they're tossing Mei up and down like that like, what are they celebrating XD

Aarch: We're far from ready for tonight's match, even against the Pirates!

DON'T SLANDER THEM LIKE THAT

Kinda rude they only show D'jok depressed over/ missing Mei. Surely he must miss the rest of the Snow Kids even if he won't show it? He literally ditched Mei in season 1 because Mice left, saying he's his only family apart from Maya, but now he just doesn't give a shit?

Did D'jok seriously just kiss Nikki-4 because he was reminded of Mei? Get this man some therapy

I mean idk why you're upset Mei you are literally dating Sinedd. Although I wouldn't blame her if she assumed D'jok was only doing it to get back at her

ngl I prefer Artegor's hype speeches haha

STEVENS IT'S MY BOY STEVENS!!!

What's with all the matches in season 3 having a goal being scored IN THE FIRST FEW SECONDS

GOOOOAL PIRAAAAAATES

Sorry I'm a Snow Kids supporter I swear

ooo they have Cyclops players in the Pirates team. The only chance for the Pirates to have a flux with them and be on the same level as the other teams, and they get the Cyclops. lol.

Wait, if the reason the Pirates couldn't use flux was because they're from different planets, then couldn't they use it now in this tournament? Or is it because they're all from Shiloh and it doesn't have a flux? I once read an idea somewhere that they didn't use flux because it can be tracked so they couldn't train with it, or maaaybe the Flux Society only let them play on the condition they don't use it, as their doings are a bit too opaque for their liking? Many questions.

I love Artie ditching his team to support Micro-Ice. Get you a hypeman like Artie, king shit <3

Corso kicking Artie out for potentially disturbing Sonny, they're so 💖 and in the next shot Corso is watching the TV anyway with his hands crossed like a dad LOL

YESSSS MICRO-ICE GOT TO SCORE THE FIRST GOAL! THAT'S MY SON!!!

This is me btw

Why didn't Artie just go to the stadium from the start?

I love Rocket's penalty (free?) kicks so much <3 I'm sorry I don't actually know anything about football <333

Aaand Rocket's out. You guys should really have more subs. Or like, ANY subs

Gimme some Lun-Zeara action :( Y'know, just like the Rykers match, the match doesn't have to be a total wipeout to show that the winning team is good. I want the Wambas to at least put up more of a fight against Paradisia I mean, their flux is just a discount Breath anyway

I love the Pirate's acrobatic style of play, you just know these guys are parkour experts with all their running away from Technoid

Oooo that goal attempt was by red hair dude, nice to see someone else on the Pirates team strike. Hc he's twins with the goalkeeper, but where tf did their names in the wiki come from and why are they all so basic. Tbf they probably wouldn't reveal their real names anyway

Just realised there has been like zero development for Lun-Zia in terms of integrating with the team. She's from a completely different planet, they could have done so much with this but she just... fits in just like that? I know that later there's some stuff about her wanting to stay with the SK and learn the Breath but... it just feels weird to have none of that development when she actually joins the team

GO TIA GOOOO

Hahaha, that's not how physics works. The net is a loose material! At least in the previous seasons you could see it still spinning against the net and stretching it to its limits before falling

I love Callie accidentally showing her bias sometimes

Lun-Zia just doing cartwheels to celebrate, cute

DAN DAN DAAAAANNN... CYBORGS! Although the plot kind of treats them more like androids in the sense that they're not “real” humans

> be me > girlfriend broke up with me by going to a different team > said ex girlfriend immediately gets with my nemesis > I leave for a new team, they're all hot girls and really strong players > turns out they're cyborgs > find out my dad is seriously injured and clinging on to life right after our first victory > they suspect the very coach I literally just started playing for > fml

Episode 8:

The Red Tigers?? When did they qualify???

Maddox why would you turn down the only chance of your team ever winning a match. Give them a flux player! Also, good feeling about the match?? Against the XENONS??? come on he can't be that naive

woah is that a new Technodroid theme song? Kinda slaps tbh

This match should be like 20-0 honestly

Fuck the Red Tigers <3 Warren, destroy them

SINCE WHEN DID THE RED TIGERS HAVE THE BREATH???

Warren is just as surprised as I am, although honestly I have no idea how this development didn't get out to the press sooner. This is also so thrown in, you'd think there'd be more discussion or reaction on there being two Akillian teams in this tournament??

oooo seeing Warren's teleporting from his perspective is pretty cool

I was about to rant that there's no way Warren would be troubled by the Red Tigers, flux or not, but ok fair he has the resonance because of Netherball. He only played in one match though, and all the Lightnings are good players, the team doesn't just suddenly suck because Warren's having a bad day

The Xenons have a Cyclops? Ok then, would've been too OP otherwise haha

Y'know I feel like they could have done more with this whole mixed flux thing, like found more creative ways for the team members to work together. So far, nothing would change if the tournament was still single flux, well except Lun-Zia

HOW THE FUCK DID THE TECHNODROIDS EVEN SCORE A GOAL? Keeper must have gotten bored and taken a nap, fair enough

I like Warren's dignified little clap with the audience haha, he's a true champion

Not the Red Tiger's captain pushing WARREN. This is why no one likes you guys

I'm not actually sure if that player is Woowamboo because I don't think they mention him by name, but I like to think they're bros! It's nice to see the new flux player get the spotlight and score a goal

Oooo teams we've never heard of before

I want to be at this beach party :( LOL even the Pirates are here

Rocket and Tia are so cute

Oh come on Lun-Zia you didn't really think you had a chance with Rocket? Wish they'd drop this drama and let Tia and Lun-Zia bond over something else. Last season Tia's arc also mostly revolved around Rocket so can we give her something else this time?

I like Zo-Leen just hanging with them now

STFU D'JOK WHAT DID MICRO-ICE EVER DO TO YOU??!!

Love how only some teams get the privilege of getting animated with casual clothes and not their football kits haha

Artie, after jumping an old guy that looks like Vega: we thought you were a woman!

NOT HELPING YOURSELF THERE DUDE

idk is Simbai really the only expert they can call? I mean I guess she might be renown in the field since she cured Aarch and Artegor of the Smog poisoning, but still. Aahh well since it's Sonny they probably don't have many options without alerting Technoid, that's gotta hurt

Episode 9:

Sinedd saying the Shadows will win bc they've always been a mixed flux team – I mean I guess mixed species but not flux as Sinedd had to learn the Smog. But also I'm gonna take the chance to give the Shadows points for inclusivity because they seemed to have no problem mixing the team up even before this tournament

I wonder if there was a taboo against that due to the flux wars not being that long ago, I mean the teams are already like our national football teams so most would only want to play for their planet, but it's gotta be even weirder if you switch teams and there are still tensions between your people. So this mixed flux tournament could have been a big political moment if the show explored that side more.

Ok the shading on the characters is bothering me, was it always so dark in the previous seasons? They look like they're always standing infront of a bright light.

Mark I really wouldn't trash talk Luur if I were you

Go Lun Zia!!

Guys do you think Luur would be popular with the monsterfuckers if Galactik Football were a more well known show. I mean look at his figure- (someone throws a grenade through my window)

D'JOK WHAT THE HELL, FOULING WARREN?! FUCKING WARREN YOUR IDOL WHO YOU HAVE NO BEEF WITH CURRENTLY???!!!! why are they making him do stuff like this just to drive home that he's being an ass and will learn from it like, people can be nuanced. You don't have to have him lash out at literally everyone he interacts with.

Warren: Real shame that football has come to this.

Ok this supports my theory from the Netherball episodes that Warren is obsessed with football and the integrity of the sport

YYYYESSSSS GOOOOOAL TIA SLAAYYYY!!!! SHE STEPS UUUPPP!!!

wow that match ended quickly, considering how hyped up the Xenons were in the last season. I mean they played them in the finals! I wonder if season 3 split the matches like that so they wouldn't have to animate as much lol

oh I just realised D'jok is no longer number 9, he's 6. So his number upside down, heh, symbolism

Roasted by Warren, oof. This is the guy that got SINEDD to behave and work with D'jok in the All-Stars game last season, he commands that much respect from the young players but now D'jok is just being a jerk to him for no reason.

Artegor telling Aarch to try more warmth and less doom and gloom, that's hilarious

D'jok you're really gonna reveal that Sonny is your father to THE GUY SUSPECTED OF TRYING TO KILL HIM? WHO CAN EASILY KILL YOU?? AND INFRONT OF THIS TEAM YOU'VE ONLY KNOWN A FEW DAYS?

Vega's spy suit kinda slays tbh

Not Aarch realising he needs more of a social life outside of football 😭

“Last one back is a Cyclops!” THRAN THAT'S RACIST

OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE. FIRST MEI/D'JOK, THEN TIA/ROCKET, NOW FREAKING AARCH/ADIM HAVE A LOVE TRIANGLE PLOT? I know it's a misunderstanding but like, what the hell. The romance drama is so bad in this season and I have a pretty low tolerance for that compared to other things like plotholes and whatever

How the fuck did Micro-Ice hear them talking from underwater

OK I like that it's Micro-Ice who gets suspicious of Paradisia with all the weird stuff going on, cute he goes up to Tia about it and she's immediately down for some investigation work despite going on about how amazing the place is a few minutes ago.

[bellysoupset]

Hello, I wasn't sure if my request went through so I thought I'd resend it. If you already got it please ignore. I was wonder if you could write something where Leo gets really sick before a big game and keeps insisting he can play when he clearly can't. With Jonah and Luke taking care of him and having to force him back to bed. I love when Jonah goes all 'doctor mode' and is all sweet and protective of Leo. Those two are so cute. Thank you!

Hey Book! I hope this is what you had in mind! This is LONG. TW: Mention of depression and Leo's intrusive thoughts (including mild suicide ideation). It's nothing as harsh as the TW make it sound, but be warned.

-------

It was the last game of the season. Or better, his last game, period. With graduation rapidly approaching, Leo knew he couldn't miss this. Besides, it was at home. How fitting, the last game ever happening in his own town.

He was more than a little emotional, had been since waking up. Leo wasn't one to break into tears over anything, but he had pretty much spent the entirety of his shower that morning tear eyed as he mulled over the fact there would be no more bus trips, no more euphoria after the game, no more... None of that.

Jonah had eyed him weirdly as they drove together to campus, but he had been in a rush to get to class, so any questioning he had was pushed aside.

Leo hadn't been able to focus at all in his thesis, the one he needed to present by the end of the month in order to graduate. The one his entire future hinged on. Yeah, that one little paper - paper which was currently 76 pages and counting.

"Hey kiddo," Vince messed his hair as he passed by his table in the cafeteria, "too hot to sit with us?"

"I'm not kiddo..." Leo groaned, looking up from the sandwich he had been staring at for the past 20 minutes, unable to stomach another bite. Everything felt off.

"Well, stop sulking and come sit with us," Vince scoffed, waiting by the bench. His own plate was piled up with food, considering the campus cafeteria had an all-you-can-eat buffet, for a pretty reasonable sum. Leo eyed it and grimaced, it didn't look appetizing at all.

"Found this one sulking near the architecture nerds," Vince announced as he sat down next to Lucas, Leo's own spot clear to his right.

"What's with the face?" Mikey asked, while Aidan merely looked up from his plate. Leo shrugged, sitting down and tearing the crust out of his sandwich.

"Nothing, I'm fine."

This seemed enough for the rest of the team, they were hyped after all, but not to Lucas. His friend smiled at him.

"It sucks that's the last one, right?"

Leo nodded, glad that someone understood him. Much to his dismay Vince let out a scoff, but not before wrapping an arm around Leo's shoulders and tugging on him, basically forcing his face to meet his armpit in an overly affectionate headlock.

"It might be the last official one, but we're so not gonna stop playing. Or seeing each other, I literally have gym with you tomorrow, Leo."

"Let go off me!" Leo groaned, trying to fight him, "I said it's fine."

"Yeah, I heard you, kid," Vince ignored his complaints, chuckle rumbling in his chest and Leo punched his side in order to free himself. He was dizzy by the time he managed to sit up, but the guys were laughing and even starting to feel wretched... Leo couldn't help but feel a little better with Vin's words.

"Banks is coming for tonight's game, right?" Luke asked and it took Leo a whole second to understand he meant Jonah.

"Yeah, he switched shifts with Wendy."

"Wait, what?" Vince whined, pouting, "aw, c'mon, that's not fair, I thought she was coming..."

Leo shrugged, "maybe she switched with someone too? No idea." Not that he cared or wanted Wendy there, he thought viciously, then frowned at his own thought.

He didn't want to be a shitty person, even in his own head. Vince was grumpily stabbing his food with his fork and Leo moved so he wouldn't smell it.

The rest of lunch went by quicker than he would've liked. Leo knew they were trying to involve him in the conversation, Vince asking about his thesis and seeming genuinely interested, but he couldn't hold a conversation. His whole body felt heavy and achy... And he wanted to be in bed.

"Hey," Lucas circled him as they finished up, planting both hands on Leo's shoulders, seeing as he was still sitting down, "are you good, Leo?"

"Yeah, I'm fine-"

"So you keep saying, but I'm not sure if I buy it," Luke frowned, then before Leo could stop him, he moved a hand from his shoulder to his forehead, big paw covering most Leo's face.

"Lucas, stop being fucking weird!"

"I think you're feverish," Lucas sounded concerned, "a little bit, I'm not sure."

"I'm fine," Leo pushed his hand away, glaring at him. He immediately missed the touch, if for no other reason than the fact it helped sustain his heavy head, "stop being a weirdo, let go off me."

"Uhm," Luke squinted at him, but did step back so Leo could get up from the bench, "I'm gonna keep my eye on you."

"I'm not five," Leo deadpanned, rolling his eyes, "and I have to go, I have to finish scanning a bunch of internship documents if I want to make it in time for tonight."

He wasn't actually in any rush, he had used the copy machine earlier, but anything to get out from under Vince and Luke's worried gazes.

Once he was out of the cafeteria the slight queasiness he was feeling faded into the background and although he still felt exhausted and achy, at least he didn't have to keep any conversation going.

His plan worked out fine until it was 5 PM and Jonah was right outside his classroom door.

Normally just seeing him there would make Leo giddy. Jonah was a fucking sight to behold, especially when he wasn't paying attention, just leaning against the hallway right outside the lecture room, propped against the wall as he scrolled down his phone, wearing a black bomber jacket over the light button up he wore everyday. He had even shaved the side of his hair, in the fashion Leo liked, which suited him much better than the fluffy fro.

Today was not a normal day, though, so Leo almost groaned as he realized his boyfriend was out there and there was no chance now that he could go back to his own dorm, take his sleeping pills and crash until the game.

"Hi," Jonah smiled as Leo walked out of the classroom, the last student out. He pocketed his phone, "how was the day?"

Leo shrugged, "it sure was a day."

Jon's eyebrows shot up, "that good?" he leaned in, grabbing the neckline of Leo's sand colored sweater, "can I cheer you up?" Jonah smiled, bumping his nose over his, minty breath in his mouth.

Leo recoiled as the smell of gum made his stomach roll, "no- I mean, yeah, you can, just... Let's ease up on the PDA."

That was so widely out of character for him that Jonah simply gaped.

"Uh... Are you feeling okay?"

"Why is everyone asking me this today?" Leo grabbed Jon's hand, forcing him to walk down the hallway, "I'm fine, I'm just in a bad mood."

"Because of the game."

"Because of the game," Leo agreed, nodding, "I just... Don't take this the wrong way, I'm ready for college to be over, just..."

"I got you," Jonah squeezed his hand back, then leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek, "but I promise you it'll be a good change, not a bad one."

Leo sighed, leaning onto his touch. At least Jonah felt warm, a good change from the permanent chill that he had felt all day, "can we go home?"

Jonah shrugged, "the guys are all gonna be together before the game, are you sure you don't wanna go?"

He didn't want to miss out on that, since it'd be the last time ever, but... But he also just felt like he wanted to sleep and never wake up again, which normally shaped up to not having a good time.

"No, I wanna go home. I wanna sleep."

Jon frowned, but said nothing, intertwining their fingers.

Jonah wasn't like the others, he wasn't the chatty type and normally they could sit in silence for hours, but today he apparently had decided he really wanted to talk. For some fucking reason.

Leo stared at him, unimpressed, as Jonah rattled on and on about the hospital and the fact one of the interns had passed out seeing blood and Wendy this, Wendy that-

"Can you stop?"

"The car?" Jonah's eyebrows shot up, "why? Are you carsick-"

"No, stop talking," Leo grumbled, then regretted it, "I just have a headache, that's all..." he really didn't.

"Oh... Yeah, of course," Jonah nodded, sounding very confused.

Now that Jon had brought up being carsick, suddenly all that Leo could focus on was his stomach. The measly sandwich that he had forced himself to eat was just sitting there, heavy as a rock. Not digesting at all.

He placed a hand over his stomach, rubbing in small circles over his sweater. Thankfully they were already close to the apartment building, so the car came to a stop quickly.

Once again, the nausea faded, but this time it didn't vanish, just sat uncomfortably in his gut, annoying as hell.

"Leo?" Jonah called once he didn't get out after the car was parked. He circled the car and opened the door, "baby... Talk with me, what's wrong? This isn't you..."

"I don't know," Leo sighed, leaning in and planting his forehead to his shoulder, "I don't know, I don't feel well, my head-" he let out a little noise as Jonah combed his fingers through his hair. Leo didn't mean a headache, but he welcomed the soothing touch just the same, "I just wanna go to bed."

"Okay..." Jonah whispered, leaning in to plant a kiss on his temple, only to frown as he pulled back, "you're a little warm, baby."

"Jon," Leo groaned, "please, I just wanna go to bed."

He could tell that Jon wanted to argue, but for the moment, that could wait. They didn't talk as they went up to the apartment and Leo stripped by the door, paying Jonah no attention as he stomped to the bedroom and faceplanted the pillow.

"I got you some Tylenol," Jonah whispered, entering the room and sitting gingerly at the edge of the bed, "Leo."

"No," Leo shook his head, "no, I don't want that..."

"Well, I don't really care," Jonah ushered him to sit up, "take the meds."

Glaring at him, Leo took the pill dry, then promptly fell back down, "just let me sleep."

"You're welcome," Jonah said sardonically, then ran his fingers through Leo's hair, absentmindedly.

Next time Leo opened his eyes, he immediately knew something was wrong with him. His head felt like it was weighting a ton and he could barely sit up on the bed. Jonah wasn't in the room.

Leo all but crawled to the bathroom, splashing his face with water. He looked horrible, his face was all blotchy, pale in certain places and red where it had been pressed to the pillow, his eyes looked sunken in.

"Great," he mumbled, water dripping form his hair and causing him to shiver. To add insult to the injury, the tylenol he had had previously was sitting in his stomach just like the sandwich: like a fucking brick.

He pressed on his belly, forcing up a sick belch that tasted like acid, but nothing else happened. Leo groaned, his stomach felt disgusting, churning in rhythm with the pounding of his head.

Sure that nothing was going to come up, he walked out of the room. Jonah was sitting by the dining table, a bunch of papers spread around him.

"Hey..." Leo said tiredly, entering the kitchen area and filling up a glass of water, "what time is it?"

"a quarter to eight," Jonah looked up, "how are you feeling?"

"Great," Leo smiled. If he was honest he felt worse than before, but at least the overwhelming urge to walk into open traffic had gone to the backburner, as his body was much more interested now in the pounding of his head and the nausea bubbling in his belly. He'd take feeling sick any day over feeling depressed.

"You know, I don't believe you," Jonah rolled his eyes, jumping up and circling the table, "don't go anywhere, I need to get the thermometer."

"Jonah, I'm fine," Leo rolled his eyes, then squeezed the table under his hand, as the world took a minute too long to stop spinning, "you should've woken me up, now we're on a rush."

"I don't think you should play, you're looking... Awful, to say the least."

"Thank, Jonah, you always know how to charm me."

"I'm serious, Leo. You know better than to play with a fever."

"I don't have a fever anymore," Leo ignored him, walking back to the door so he could put the shoes he had previously ditched, "let's go."

Jonah glared at him, "you're so fucking stubborn."

"It's my last game ever, stop being a dick and let's go," Leo urged him, walking out without looking back.

It was clear Jonah did not agree with his decision, hence why Leo was driving and why his boyfriend had his arms crossed to his chest and looked ready to bite his head off.

"This is a very dumb idea. You're gonna crack your stupid head open. Again."

"Last time I did that we ended up dating," Leo shrugged, fighting to ignore the uneasy feeling that was spreading all over him. His mouth tasted weird, "maybe I'll land an even hotter doctor this time around."

"You're such a dick," Jonah snorted, but there was a ghost of a smile in his lips. He turned his head so Leo wouldn't see it.

The blonde smiled back, then gulped down nervously as his stomach clenched. His head felt woozy.

"Your parking skills are fucking atrocious," Jonah commented as they jumped out of the car and Leo rushed ahead of him to the locker rooms.

"You get so grumpy when things don't go your way," Leo rolled his eyes, entering the locker room and Jonah followed him in, as if he was still allowed there.

"There you are!" Vince shouted from across the room, "we thought you had died, I've been blowing up your phone."

"And you brought the deserter," Michael scoffed and Leo ignored the guy, moving to his locker in order to grab his clothes. Behind him, he could vaguely tell that Jonah was mouthing off Mikey.

"You," Lucas marched to him, "are not playing."

"What?" Leo scoffed, ignoring his captain and slipping on his jersey, "of course I am. You can't play without a cornerback."

"I'm aware. Alex is gonna replace you," he explained and Leo felt twice as nauseous as before. He gulped down, using the fact that his head was still inside the jersey to conceal it. Then he glared at Lucas.

"You can't bench me. I'm better than Alex and you know it, Luke."

"I... I'm not benching you, Leo. You're sick, I can tell you're running a fever from here and Jonah is hovering over you like a worried mom. You're super pale. I can't let you in the field."

"It's my last game," Leo forced his voice not to waver. Rationally he knew Lucas had a point... But it was his last game. He didn't want this memory to be him sitting in the bench, watching his friends enjoy themselves, outside of it all already. His head throbbed, "you can't bench me in my last game, Luke, please..."

Begging was weird, it made him feel off in a whole different manner. Six years before type of odd, begging-

"Leo?" Lucas frowned, his hands coming to cup the blonde's nape, "dude, are you alright-"

"Please don't bench me, please, I- I'll be better, I'll do better-" his stomach rolled and Leo's mouth filled up with bitter saliva. He swallowed in, almost gagging, "please-"

"Okay, okay..." Lucas looked panicked, then a new set of hands were on Leo. Jonah's delicate hands, coming to cup his cheeks, fingers dancing down to his neck.

"Leo, baby, take a deep breath."

"Luke's- Luke's gonna bench me, he's gonna replace me... Alex- He's going to replace me..." he said, heart in his throat, blood pumping in his ear. Lucas' shook his head.

"Leo, that's not what I meant! Leo, I- You just don't look well-"

"Lucas, shut up," Jonah snapped, without glancing back, "Leo, look at me? Hey, look at me."

With a lot of struggle Leo forced his eyes away from Lucas - who was replacing him with Alex, during his last game ever, who had made him beg just to be included-

"Leo!" Jonah shook him lightly, "look at me, baby."

He was looking at him, feeling his heart thumping in his ears, nauseous and shaky. His stomach sloshed uncomfortably with the anxiety running through him, rocketed up to his throat to stinge it with acid, but then settled back down, like a rough sea.

"Breathe, Leo."

He obeyed, or tried to, breathing in through his nose, then out through his mouth. In again... He wanted to throw up. Not even out of nausea, he just felt like he'd feel better if he did.

"Out, darling, you need to breathe out."

Slowly, very slowly, Leo felt like he was back in the locker room. Covered in cold sweat, shivering like crazy.

"Sorry..." he mumbled, feeling woozy and planting a hand inside the metal locker to support himself. Jonah looked concerned and Lucas looked frantic.

"I'm not benching you..." Luke said in the smallest of voices, "I'm- I'm sorry..."

"So I can play?" Leo asked, but he knew it was bad idea. He just couldn't bring himself to stop moving now, it was a snowball of bad decisions.

Lucas made a face, clearly he didn't want to agree, but then nodded.

Jonah frowned, "Leo..."

"I need this," he forced himself not to include the please at the end.

He was sure they were going to lose the minute they stepped on the field. Or better yet, he was going to lose it.

The lights were too bright and it was a really cold night, shivers running down his back, the wind clinging to the exposed part of his neck.

In the bleachers, Jonah was standing right next to Wendy, arms crossed to his chest, both dark heads together as they talked. Wendy looking at Leo worriedly, leaning in to whisper something to Jon.

"Leo!" Lucas snapped at him, in full captain voice, no longer his best friend.

Leo realized he had blanked a good full minute of the game, only to realize he had just allowed the wide-receiver of the opposite team to grab the ball. Well fuck.

He tackled the guy, attempting to minimize damage or stop the pass, but the wide-receiver was huge, Vince sized at least and next thing he knew he was receiving a sharp throw on his chest as the man quickly burled past him, throwing the ball to the next player of his team.

Leo didn't even feel the jab, he was already backpedaling to face the wide-receiver again, adamant he wouldn't do the same mistake twice.

By the time they reached the halftime break, he wasn't sure which way was up. The whole game felt fuzzy and Leo was aware he should be more in pain, considering the amount of times he had body tackled the wide receiver, but he couldn't really focus on anything.

"Wagner!" Coach Eric yelled after them as they slipped into the locker room, just as the cheerleaders took over the field. Leo stumbled forward bracing a hand on Spencer's back and the man jerked a little at the touch, before relaxing as he realized the heavy touch was just Leo.

"Wagner! Get out of my way Monacelli- Wagner!"

Leo stopped, bracing against a tiled wall, wheezing. Everything felt weird as hell, he felt like he was in a rollercoaster, as the world twirled around him, in and out of focus.

"What the fuck was that!? You were out of yourself, you got warned and if you don't behave you're getting disqua-"

Leo interrupted him by removing his helmet and promptly bending in half, throwing up his measly lunch all over the coach's shoes.

There was a general groan of discontent, some gasps, the coach himself shouting-

Leo stayed bent in half, hands on his thighs, his belly churning. He gagged again, spitting into the mess. He wasn't even nauseous, not really... Just really really weird and -

"I got you," Lucas grabbed his arm and stopped Leo from tipping to the side and collapsing, "I got you, c'mon, let's wash your face."

"I don't... I don't feel well..." Leo groaned and Lucas scoffed, dabbing his chin with a wet paper towel. He wasn't wearing the helmet anymore either and his dark brown hair was glued down with sweat, green eyes sparkling with worry.

"I can't tell if you have a fever, I'm too hot," Lucas said, but rested his warm hand on Leo's forehead anyway, their skin damp and clingy, "but I think you do."

"Okay..." Leo leaned onto his touch, wanting to collapse in a bed. He was starting to feel completely detached from his body, which was never a good thing, "where's Jon?"

"Vince went to get him," Lucas grabbed his arm, "let's move here..."

He led Leo to the opposite side of the locker room, sitting him down on the wooden bench.

"Water!" Lucas shouted and Leo almost laughed hysterically as he watched half the team scramble to meet the demand.

"You're such a spoiled-" he cringed as another wave of nausea hit him, "spoiled brat."

"My counselor calls it leadership," Lucas scoffed, crouching before him and patting his elbow, "arms up, you're cooking inside the uniform."

"Bossy as fuck," Leo groaned, but obeyed and allowed Luke to strip him, including from his protective undershirt. He shuddered with the sudden cold, but immediately felt a lot more alert, "Luke."

"Yeah?" Lucas was hardly listening, raising his hand to catch the water bottle Mikey threw him from across the room, "little sips."

"Luke," Leo grabbed the bottle, but didn't drink, "you have to get back on the field. Break's almost over."

"I don't-"

"It's fine. I'm okay, I'll just wait for Jon," Leo smiled, "go captain."

Lucas looked like he was choosing between which family member to shoot, much to Leo's amusement, "I'm fine, it's just a bug. I'll live. Go."

"I don't think-"

"ATWOOD!" Coach Eric yelled from across the room, "GET BACK IN THERE!"

"Go," Leo smiled, "go" and then, much to his relief and Lucas' too, Jonah entered the locker's room, alongside Vince.

Vin sped past them, offering Leo a concerned smile, but already slipping on his helmet. Jonah lingered behind, waiting until the last player was out before sighing loudly.

"Just say it already," Leo grumbled, staring at a spot between his feet and grimacing as his belly continued to roll. He waited for the inevitable I-told-you-so.

"How are you feeling, baby?"

Leo looked up, surprised and Jonah rolled his eyes at his shocked face, "I'm not going to scold you when you feel like crap and look worse."

He let out a chuckle, lowering his head back down, "thank you, Jon..." his stomach gurgled again, interrupting the good mood and making his mouth taste even more bitter, "pass me the bin?"

Jonah said something, moving the large trashcan of the locker room's closer and Leo turned his face away from it, briefly glancing at his boyfriend, "get out of here, Jon," he mumbled, his voice thick. He leaned over the garbage bin, spitting the awful taste.

"I'm not going anywhere," Jonah scoffed, sitting on the bench too and carefully planting a hand on Leo's forehead, aiding with the aim and support.

Leo groaned, bracing against the large bin. His stomach hurt, all the nausea he had been avoiding all day crashing onto him at once. He gagged, once, and then leaned forward, all but diving into the bin as everything he had ever eaten rushed out of his mouth.

He attempted to breathe, but his throat was burning and his nose too, it felt like he was drowning. There was a thump on his back, forcing up another burp and even more bitter liquid and Leo gasped for air, both hands white knuckling the trash.

"Fuck, Leo..." Jonah mumbled behind him, rubbing his back. He was applying pressure enough to dislodge another burp and Leo gagged as even more vomit splashed out of his mouth, now without him even having to heave.

He panted, feeling dizzy and empty, his stomach still churning uneasily, "I think..." a burp forced another gush of bile and he spat, clearing his throat forcefully to get rid of the sick taste, "I think I'm done."

"Uhm," was all that Jonah said, handing him a bunch of paper towels that Leo had no idea from where he had manifested them. The blonde's hand was shaking as he took them, cleaning the puke that had ran down his chin and blowing his nose.

Jonah squeezed his shoulder, "done?"

"Think... Think so," Leo nodded, throwing the paper towels in the large trash and pushing it away from him. He turned to look at Jon, just in time for his boyfriend to bolt up and brace against the sinks, gagging harshly.

Leo groaned, "Jon..."

"I'm fine," Jonah mumbled, before another heave wrecked through him, sending up a small stream of pink colored puke. He gagged again, closing his eyes and breathing through it, "I'm fine."

"Yeah, you look great," Leo sighed. He wanted to get up and help him, but his head was swimming and he didn't want to make Jonah's life even harder by crumpling to a pile on the ground, "I'm sor-"

"Not your fault," Jonah washed the basin and his mouth, splashing cold water on his face and then turning to look at him, "see? I lived."

It caused Leo to snort, in an amused way. Jonah's dark rich skin was a sickly shade of grey, but at least he retained the good humor. Whenever Jon was actually feeling sick, Leo had learned by now, his temper flared up.

"Yeah, you lived," he nodded, pressing a hand to his forehead, elbow to his knee as he folded in half, "I fucked up the game, should've let Alex-"

"Alex can choke for all I care, it was your night," Jonah scoffed, walking back to the bench and rubbing his back, "and you got to go out in style, hurling all over coach Eric's shoes."

Leo huffed, smiling, "I guess... I'm going to miss college, Jon."

The man opened a sympathetic smile and moved his hand up, squeezing his nape, "I know, baby-"

"No, you don't," Leo straightened up, voice strong, "I don't think... I know I wasn't happy until I came to college. Until I met you and joined the team and everything else... I'm terrified of this being over."

Jonah frowned, forcing their eyes to meet, "it's not over, Leo. I promise you, I'm not- I'm not just saying this so you'll calm down. I do get what you mean, I love my life now. I love my life with you, baby."

Leo let out a little sob, tearing up and then he slumped forward, melting against Jonah's chest. He felt a kiss pressed on the top of his head, Jon squeezing him tightly.

"There are greater and better things waiting for you, Leo," he promised, "and you're never gonna be alone like before."

[rayar32]

I'm so normal about your OCs I haven't finished the series yet so I don't understand some limited things, but that will change soon! Anyways your OCs are fucking awesome and I would love an info dump on them if you have time

oh boy, an opportunity to not shut up about about my OCs! is it already Christmas??? (not but actually thank you for being interested in my dumb kids)

there's a lot to say about them, since I can't stop myself from thinking about em', so I'll do a bunch of fun facts:

- Luiza's main inspiration is Denji from Chainsaw Man; it's very telling with her feral smiles and uh, vulgar way of speech let's say (there's also the constant search for love by literally anyone but the funnies are more important)

- Luiza has self-taught herself in martial arts: her speciality is the Open Hand Technique, a fighting style that incorporates strong and fast slaps using the whole body.

(also yes she can slap so hard it creates a pressure wave)

- Luiza's favorite musical genre is rock in any variation, her favorites being popular songs from the 2010's. She is a certified MCR head and isn't ashamed to admit it.

- Luiza and Helena are twins: their birthday is on June 1st and they're both Geminis (which was totally intentional and not a happy coincidence thanks to a random number generator)

- Luiza is a flaming bisexual, Helena is trans and aroace, Milia is a lesbian and Rebeca is the token straight friend of the group while Six is Six (genderfluid and extremely pan)

(there's a lot more below but I'm hiding it as to not flood people's dashboards!)

- I have a pretty clear character arc for Luiza planned in a (completely delusional) season 1: Luiza starts out as a doormat due to years of having to take care of Helena during her depressive episodes and constantly failing to argue her down from very self-destructive and hateful thoughts; all of this makes Luiza consistently disregard her own opinions and thoughts for whatever her family thinks. She very much starts the "show" off being someone that burns herself for others and that has a very low opinion of herself. That of course changes when she finds Milia, someone that grows to unabashedly care for her and everything she stands for, making Luiza finally realize that yes, she has an innate worth as an individual even if she can't be useful to people. Also she finally grows a backbone specifically to stand up for herself and Milia.

- I think I already told this through a comic, but the reason they both have white locks of hair is trauma, though the irl reason for it is because white/grey are colors associated with wolves and I felt the need to be extremely obvious they're lycanthropes.

- Helena was the second sister to be made irl, but honestly both of their designs and Kallas' just, came to me suddenly one day. Their final designs are quite literally their first iteration, with a few changes over the months because that just happens when you draw the same characters over and over again-

- on the topic of Helena, she doesn't have a main inspiration as much as she is loosely based on the "mean goth girl" archetype; I say loosely based because Helena is also a theater kid in spirit and a huge nerdy loser under all that black leather-

- Helena's arc for season 1 starts out rough: she believes herself to be a monster and will do anything to keep her family safe. While Luiza wants to cure herself of her curse and interact with people, Helena wants to harness it further and never ever feel pain again. Whenever Luiza brings up her dreams of having friends and going to school, Helena shuts it down by saying it's unrealistic and she should stop thinking about it because they're monsters and it's all they'll ever be. Of course all of this vitriol comes from the sister's years of trying and failing to integrate in society, coupled with Helena's own mental issues warping her view of herself. By the end of season 1, through meeting Milia and Luiza finally having the guts to stand against her sister's ideas while still understanding why she thinks that way, Helena abandons her idea of harnessing her curse and starts to open up more to her family.

- Milia's main inspiration is very obviously Suletta Mercury from the Witch from Mercury; if the round eyebrows and generally anxious personality wasn't enough, like Suletta she grows to be confident and lead the charge for her friends (there's even more parallels but I would be spoiling the shit out of WfM-)

- Milia's birthday is on November 5th, making her a Scorpio (which is mildly funny if you're into astrology)

- her vampire form ripping away human skin to reveal a bat-like monster below it comes from an old concept I had involving vampires. I think it actually comes from somewhere else but I literally can't remember it-

- Milia is cold to the touch and barely feels pain; when first learning to cook Milia constantly cut herself and did not realize she did until she saw blood pouring out of her wounds

- Milia's season 1 arc is considerably simple compared to the twins: she starts out scared and alone and, through the Petroniuses compassion, learns to love and be loved. She learns to value herself, stand up for herself and let go of being scared of everything and everyone. She not only mirrors the sister's arcs, but also inspires them into developing through her honest and kind nature. For that reason in post season 1 Milia grows to be the leader of the Bootleg Gear Gang.

- The Angrvadall, Rati and Ukonvasara were all based on the Babr-e Bayan, Milia's relic. The three Symphogears are actually a testbed for a mass produced type of phonic armor development through alchemy; while they can reach the same insane power level that the canon girls do, the Bootleg Gear Gang aren't put in world ending situations and thus don't reach a power level higher than somewhere around GX and AXZ (though they get XV style Gears because I think they're neat-)

- Rebeca and Six are very much like siblings; though they were forced together into a single body, after years of working through it they became nearly inseparable. They both care for and respect each other's autonomy and personal limits, which is why they both wear gender neutral clothes (since Six is uncomfortable wearing traditionally feminine clothing)

- Rebeca was born August 25th making her a Virgo. Six can't remember his birthday, so they make their implant date, July 14th, their birthday. That makes Six's sign Cancer.

- Rebeca/Six were originally planned to be Milia's older siblings; this is still technically true since Six was part of the same undeath experiments that birthed Milia so... yeah! The idea of them inhabiting the same body came from a shower thought that simply stuck around because I really liked it (and also because it's a Gundam 00 reference-)

- also, they're both the strongest Symphogear wielders of the group; Luiza and Helena are stronger when singing in unison, but Rebeca/Six have a unique advantage with being able to switch from two completely different fighting styles on the fly. Additionally Rebeca's brain is simply built different and she constantly pushes her side of Ukonvasara to do increasingly stupid shit like calling down lighting, throwing thunder and eventually using magnetism and electrokinesis. She's very Maria-like when it comes to having an extremely versatile Symphogear and constantly pulling shit out of her ass-

[theowritesfiction]

'City of Walls and Secrets'

I remember my first viewing of ATLA and getting a look at proper Ba Sing Se inside the inner wall and going... oh fuck that is astonishing. BSS isn't the beating heart of Earth Kingdom. It literally IS the Earth Kingdom. Everything else just feels like backwater - and I suspect that is the attitude in Upper and Middle Rings of the capital.

Joo Dee's faraway smile remains the stuff of nightmares. There's no war in Ba Sing Se, indeed. It was interesting to see Aang and the Water Tribe kids getting their first good look at what inequality truly means. Giving the Avatar and his friends a posh Upper Ring mansion to butter them up makes so much sense. Honestly, the political situation in Ba Sing Se is set up so fascinatingly, and also realistically. There's something very chilling about the Dai Li stranglehold on information.

Jet's obsession with Zuko just fascinates me. Smellerbee and Longshot: dude, we were supposed to be starting over here. Jet: shut up, I have entered stalker mode. <3 And boy, does Jet become obsessed with Zuko and Iroh. I just love how earlier I praised Jet for his plans both to destroy the village (obviously horrible, but it was an efficient plan!) and stealing the food for refugees. Here he's just... I'm done being clever! It's gay sword fight time! But watching Jet get dragged away was more depressing than I thought it would be...

I enjoyed the plan of sneaking in on the king during a party. I had to laugh at Toph writing Aang and Sokka off as nothing more than busboys. Katara and Toph made for very fetching young ladies, though. After the rocky start to their relationship, we're seeing more instances of Katara and Toph working together very well... even if they ended up soliciting the help of someone they really shouldn't have asked. Long Feng is the kind of opponent that the group have never faced before. The Gaang don't think like Azula and don't have the tools to beat Long Feng at his own game.

I know that the party for the bear is supposed to be cute and funny, but to me it's illustrative of the neglect that Kuei is showing for his subjects, living in a bubble and indulging in excesses. This reminds me so much of the apocryphal story of Caligula making his favorite horse a consul for the year. Kuei gets 50 Jerk Points before we've even seen him.

Sokka's plan of sneaking into the party is so dumb that even Aang shuts it down right away. Sokka is now 1 from 2 for plans this season.

Lastly, Long Feng telling the Gaang how things work in Ba Sing Se while in the meantime, Jet is being brainwashed by the Dai Li... that was very chilling. Also, using Appa to threaten Aang and keep him in line is a major dick move. Welcome to the Jerk Points contest, Long Feng, you have been awarded 60 points.

Jerk Points for Book 2:

Iroh - 550 Azulon - 300 Ursa, General Fong  - 200 Aang - 160 Zuko - 120 Ozai, Toph Beifong - 100 Sokka - 70 Long Feng - 60 Bumi, Lao Beifong, King Kuei - 50 Pakku - 30

[cheesythicdoritolegz]

Wow, this is pretty good criticism for the show. Something has been bothering me about season 2 for quite awhile now.

When I watched it the first time, I'm gonna be honest... I had fun with those recent episodes. They were a lot more action packed and I was ecstatic when I saw some of the legacy characters made more appearances. However, in the last 4 episodes, I felt conflicted with how they went more into this dark direction. Especially when it's supposed to be directed towards a young audience (13+). When I saw this post today, the internal conflict I have towards this direction increased quite a bit.

For the last couple hours, I have been having this question linger in my head: Who is this show really for?

It's like this show is trying to do this "have cake and eat it too" route. Where there's one part where it goes pretty wholesome and sweet, and it goes into this other part where it acts all serious and dark.

When it comes to going towards the dark direction, I think it worked well in TFP since it had some mature themes at the very start of the show. However, when it comes to Earthspark....I don't know. It just doesn't work out well at times.

Especially when they're literally displaying scenes of Robby getting seriously ill and later on possibly dying in some form of alternate scenario. This was a way to prove to Mo how she's that needed for such heavy responsibility, which is fucking crazy looking back at it.

What's even worse is that she had to fight Mandroid ALL BY HERSELF!!!!!

A little girl had to fight a robo hating maniac (who doesn't even mind hurting her and her brother too) , and her parents just watch being all proud of her. LIKE BRUH!!!!

If that was my kid, I would have been mad at Quintus Prime for giving my kid such a responsibility and doubling down on that. I would kick both him and Mandroid's ass, and find some way that my kid doesn't have to go through this heavy burden anymore. She and her brother are already going through so much, and they're freaking kids. And, I don't care if Optimus Prime tries to stop me. I'm going to swing REAL hard on these assholes.

Along with that, the fact that they even shown the possibility of Dorothy and Alex dying in front of their kids, and Mandroid almost succeeding in committing GENOCIDE...I don't know, it's freaking crazy. I don't know how they even thought it would be a good idea showcasing this to kids when these themes are kinda pretty dark.

Also, the idea that throughout show is that they want to enforce to these kids that they are THAT deeply important in the powers they possess...I don't know. It makes me somewhat depressed. It's even worse when you have to think about the Terrans for a second. The idea that they were just created not too long ago, and they're constantly put on this pedestal that it's their responsibility in re-establishing and preserving relations between other OLDER cybertronians. They're all kids and seeing all of them having to act more like adults to fix actual adults kinda breaks my heart.

They shouldn't be exposed to the dark realities of the world so quickly. They shouldn't be given and enforce a great amount of responsibility. They shouldn't be the ones to manage how actual adults act towards one another. They should be kids by maintaining their childhood and have fun with the limit amount of time they have.

Just for ONCE, let these kids be kids and stop making them be the adults. FFS.

The fact that people are more concerned about a Nonbinary character...I don't know, I feel a bit pissed off. If people are worried about this show's direction, it SHOULD be about THIS!!!

I had a lot more criticism with the storyboards being revealed and how some parts of these episodes didn't have more screentime/context with how certain things turned out. It's something I could talk about for another day, but my brain is all fried from rambling.

What do you feel is more concerning for children with what is in the EarthSpark series; all of the clear terror and death, or having a they/them pronouned character?

Because the terror and death is seemingly entirely looked over but the ONE CHARACTER going by different pronouns is apparently nothing short of outrage.

Anon, I Am Nonbinary.

I’ll put a more thought out response under the cut

Earthspark drinking game take a sip every time an extremely young child has to emotionally support an adult or is put in life-threatening danger.

1. Steven Universe really ruined a generation of children’s media by making showrunners think they had to tackle issues like PTSD and trauma.

However, to give SU some credit, Steven was not 9 years old at the start of the show. It’s a really jarring choice that was probably made to capitalise on a more marketable demographic for TF and to keep the children’s play more lighthearted, but you get some really weird moments like (checks notes) a nine year old giving advice to an adult on how to handle trauma.

The issue with this is no nine year old should ever have to do this for an adult. They do not need to be wise beyond their years. They do not need to be a therapist for their caretakers. Grimlocks PTSD episode is one of the most egregious examples of this, where (not only is this depiction extremely one-note and weird) the narrative punishes Jawbreaker for not realising Grimlock is having a panic attack in the middle of their play.

As a framing device in a kids movie, what is a nine year old viewer supposed to take from this? The child brain is going to think ‘the adult lashed out and hurt Jawbreaker, it was his fault for being too rowdy.’ LIKE YOU WOULDNT SEE THIS IN PEPPA PIG.

And you do need to consider this when you’re writing children that young in your media, because kids are going to watch shows that have other kids the same age as them in it. There’s an almost instinctive camaraderie in seeing a fellow nine-year-old on TV when you’re at that age. So, the show is very likely going to be watched by 8-15 year olds which brings us to

2. JESUS CHRIST. THIS SHOW NEEDS TO CALM DOWN.

This show is way way way too interested in putting children in extreme danger. Constantly, towards the end of the series.

I’ll make a note first that it’s okay if kids shows have fun play-violence; kids like action. Children like low-stakes explosions. It’s not super serious and most TF media does this well, even if it’s tonally a bit more serious. This is not really an issue in a show like TFP or TFA which also had young kids.

Earthspark does not make its action low-stakes. Earthspark treats its violence extremely seriously; children cry, they scream, they get bruised, their parents wail when they see them in danger. Violence has a lasting impact, it has to because the show constantly wants to talk about trauma, so they can’t have video game rules. If they get hurt it has to impact them. Robbie and Mo are in consistent, life-threatening danger. They’re always being shot at or dropped off cliffs or almost killed and it always harrows them.

And kids can pick up on this. They’re going to realise that this is something that’s Serious, and Scary, and they’re going to be FREAKED out.

They’re also going to be freaked out when the children are fuckin. Tied into the bio-wall with tubes by Mandroid, or when Robbie has alien leukaemia and his parents are so so scared and has to rush him to the hospital and Mo is crying so much, or when their parents are seemingly killed and the kids are screaming and punching the ground and blaming themselves.

And that last part is important, because on several occasions the narrative reinforces this. The narrative. Of a children’s show. Says yes; Robbie and Mo have powers, and this makes them responsible for the well-being of the adults around them. Mo literally gets told this. By GOD. Before her parents proudly watch on without interfering as she fights in hand to hand combat with the villain (WHO IS, AS WE HAVE SEEN, FUCKING DERANGED AND WOULD LOVE TO KILL A TEENAGER JUST ONCE PLEASE PLEASE)

In conclusion, what this tells me is the showrunners are inexperienced. They didn’t consider what is appropriate for the subject matter of a children’s cartoon. They wanted to write about trauma, and war, and think kids are cute! And didn’t want their TF fanfiction to be narratively compromised by having to ‘dumb it down’ for kids.

The result is this is never a show I would ever put on for a 4th grade class in break time, at the risk of severely upsetting a lot of them. And it’s also a show I can’t enjoy as an adult, because it uses the language of a children’s cartoon to make nuanced topics more binarised and soppy.

[fkevin073]

Ever been slightly disappointed by a series ending? Like I wasn't impressed by BBC Merlin.

OMG this is literally my time to shine my apologies for the essay that I'm about to write-

spoilers for Jane the Virgin, Merlin, The Vampire Diaries, The 100 and Game of Thrones!!

okay so we've already talked a bit about Jane the Virgin so my disappointment in the series finale was because Jane and Rafael ended up getting married and I didn't buy that they were right for each other. I liked Rafael best in season 3 B when he wasn't an entitled jealous asshole. I'm rewatching parts of the show now, and I still enjoy it, but yeah. If Michael had stayed dead I wouldn't have minded it so much. I digress.

I watched BBC Merlin too! That's one of my favourite shows ever! I mean the ending depressed the shit out of me not gonna lie. Like I like the acting a lot, but a lot of the writing choices don't make sense. Like why didn't Merlin call the dragon sooner before Arthur died? And why did Arthur die so soon? Like he was king for five years, he didn't unite Albion at all. I think Merlin's magic should have been unveiled in the season 4 finale during the fight with Morgana and then the rest of season 5 should have been Arthur dealing with it. Oh, the angst! there's a really great video about it here I watched ages ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCepGCDjhBc

The ending makes me cry, but it doesn't ruin my overall enjoyment of the show, you know? (also, this might be controversial, but if Gaius and Kilgarrah hadn't pushed Merlin so hard into hiding the truth from Morgana, she wouldn't have turned evil)

The Vampire Diaries is the absolute opposite for me. I don't know if you've watched it, but this show was the first tv show I was genuinely obsessed with as like a preteen. I loved it. But everything from season 4 onwards infuriates me. This is an unpopular opinion I know, but I was always Team Stefan. Like I never wavered once and I didn't get why people loved Damon so much, especially Damon and Elena. When Stefan and Elena broke up in season 4 some essential part of the show just got lost for me. And I really hated Elena with Damon. I mean I dislike Damon in general because I think he's selfish and his relationship with Elena is toxic, but yeah. In the ending Stefan dies saving Damon and the town and he tells Damon he's the better man and everything and I was like?? No?? Stefan was 100% the better brother and I will always be bitter that Nina Dobrev didn't come back for the entire 8th season because then stolen would have been endgame. I could talk about this for ages.

And for Game of Thrones - well, I feel like the entire internet has gone on rants about that. It was just so rushed. Such a shame. Like seasons 1-6 were perfection. Even season 7 was relatively passable. But season 8? Besides those first 2 episodes? A complete clusterfuck. If they'd pushed the season to 10 episodes I think it would have been mildly better. Possibly. Who knows?

And then for The 100. I loved the first two seasons of this show. Like they're so good, especially for a CW tv show. But season 3 disappointed me for many reasons, so I didn't keep up with the show fully, just enough to understand what was going on. Some people in my family watched the other seasons so it was easy to watch in passing with them. But then I really liked season 6. Bellamy/Clarke (the two leads of the show and probably the most popular ship in the series) were hinted at being in love, something that I and many other fans were waiting for. I was really psyched for season 7, the last season.

And I shit you not, it was the worst season of television I've ever watched in my life. The series leads are barely in the episodes (like Bellamy, the male lead, is in 5 of 16 episodes?maybe? ) and his character is killed by Clarke (when they're best friends and she literally implied she loved him more than her mom at one point for the dumbest reason on the planet. And no one cares. I'm not kidding. Clarke kills Bellamy because he believed in something (I don't even remember what I tried to block it from my mind the show was so awful by that point) and then it turns out he was right. Ughh. It was so stupid. I can't even try and rewatch the seasons I actually enjoyed because the ending infuriates me so much.

Anyway, those are my main ones. Idk if you've watched any of the shows beside JTV and Merlin but I'd love to discuss it! apologies for the essay again.

[nibwhipdragon]

Now that you've done Joseph for the blorbo game, you get struck by the uno reverse wild card! Curious to see who you'd do :)

YIPPEE! Starting off with probably one of my most tragic blorbos:

The Dragon/Demon King from The Cruel King and The Great Hero. It's a very underrated game I absolutely recommend, the release trailer appeared in my YouTube feed and was completely sold on it from that alone.

Just. AUGH. He used to be evil until he was defeated and the hero that defeated him spared his life and wanted him to become a better person instead of atoning for his sins by being killed. And then they both became friends and then the hero fucking died and gave The Dragon King his baby daughter and begged him to look after her and make sure she grew up safe and strong and AUFJGJGJFJJJJJHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

And then the hero's daughter (Yuu, her name is) ends up wanting to be a hero just like her human father and so to help her achieve her dream The Dragon King decides to train her. To eventually kill him. Because he's a big bad monster and if he's slain by her she'll be loved by the humans and all that and 😭😭😭😭 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I honestly think he's one of the best redeemed villains I've seen in media (apart from Zuko), even though he has become good and strives to do good things, the bad stuff he has already done hasn't magically fixed itself or is ignored, it's still very much there.

we do not talk about the boss fight against him (crying really really hard, that defense lowering was uncalled for)

Next up is the original blorbo: Cheval

Like genuinely I can't think of any other character that would've been a blorbo to me before him.

Can you tell I like redemption arcs from depressing and messed up characters

He got so much hate when mhs1 first released and it makes me so mad. "He's so edgy" HE WATCHED HIS MOTHER GET CRUSHED TO DEATH AT AROUND 12/13 I DON'T THINK A KID WITH UNADDRESSED TRAUMA AND ACCESS TO WEAPONS AND A FIRE BREATHING MONSTER WOULD ACT MATURE

As much as I like game Cheval, anime Cheval takes the cake for me. It's probably because the game had to start in media res because...you know. Game. But I love how anime Cheval slowly gets more unhinged as the show goes on it's beautiful, just. The golden gargwa egg episode. I absolutely LOVE how that shows a more negative side of him, something that becomes more prominent as the show continues and he begins to veer off into the path of iffy moral actions, just YES!!!!! YES!!!!!

Also you see the point in the anime where he reaches that "tipping point" where in the game you don't. That episode where he gets a nargacuga monstie after abandoning Rathi, only to leave it to LITERALLY DIE OF EXHAUSTION IN THE DESERT because it wasn't powerful enough for him...makes me so sad every time (I'm happy they reconcile in season 2 though!)

i hate mhs2 Cheval. He feels so off putting and wrong it feels like it's not him. You get me? Like it's something pretending to be him than actual Cheval. I love him anyways though. I can both love and hate him. Cheval is Cheval.

So many late-night thoughts for this man. I have a whole theory on how he was infected with the black blight I sent to a friend like 2/3 years back, maybe I'll post it on here one day. He means so much to me <3

Go to therapy Cheval <3

Jotaro. He is so like me fr <3

I want to put him in a microwave. Not maniacally like with Joseph but I just wanna see him rotate. Such a man. He means so much to me like damn bro you like fishies? Sea? Damn bro you're beefy and look naturally aggressive? Damn do you mind if I exist in the same room as you

The fish thing is especially funny imo because to write him for Breadcrust Crusaders I had to know about marine life. I knew absolutely jack about marine life. So, like any normal person would, I borrowed not one, not two, but three absolutely massive encyclopedias on marine life. Two of them were specifically for sharks and whales. And I read all of them. And now I'm normal about marine life the same way I'm normal about Joseph Joestar. Thanks, Jotaro. The blorbo who fundamentally changed me as a person.

He has autism. I have decided to make this canon. Araki cannot stop me I will make this canon mark my words

He was kinda bland in part 3. Tbh. His PTSD makes his character spicier, as well as thethe. The. The divorce I fucking love divorce every character should aspire to be like Jotaro and divorce

[thebreakfastgenie]

☕ Toby's end arc

hmm? what arc? what are you talking about? isn't it weird how he just stopped getting storylines?

okay denial mode temporarily deactivated

There are. No words. For how much I fucking hate that arc. My relationship with this show (which I should have mentioned when I got that ask the other day) is I delusionally believe I could have done it better even though I was literally in elementary school when it ended so when it comes to the last three seasons the stuff I don't like I tend to sort of... de-emphasize. I acknowledge it happened but sort of gloss over it into my Santos administration headcanons that make me happy. The one single thing that simply does not exist in my brain and just never happened is Toby's goddamn arc.

Let's start from the beginning. I hate the entire concept. The ISS thing is stupid. One of the strengths of The West Wing, early on, was how grounded it was, and most of Sorkin's storylines were based with varying degrees of directness on real events. He said he was getting a lot his stories from page 5 of the newspaper (although some of them were headlines, just a few years old) and I guess John Wells and company either didn't notice or didn't care, because they did a lot more... wild stuff. The ISS thing is just... so television. And a secret military space shuttle?? Even if that's real, I don't find it believable on television. If they wanted to do a space crisis they should have just had a shuttle lost (nice parallel to the s1 finale btw!), but I guess maybe Columbia was recent enough (2003) that it felt wrong. I noticed the artificially inflated TV drama stakes when it's completely unnecessary in ER too so I think it's a John Wells thing and I hate it.

Then there's the leak and the whole mystery of it which again... just feels tonally wrong for the show. They did leak storylines in the earlier seasons that were good! The later season' obsession with pitting the characters against each other sucks and it's why I'm lukewarm on them! Anyway!

I don't know if they planned it as Toby from the beginning, but CJ was definitely planned as a red herring. The entire thing was designed for cheap shock value and it's terrible. I don't care how grieving Toby was, he would never, ever do that. They already butchered Toby's character by making him a deadbeat dad and the whole fight with Josh and man I watched a clip the other day of Vinick accepting the nomination and Toby's reaction to it was so bad... it felt like someone trying to write Toby based on the stereotypes of him without understanding the nuances of the character. Toby at his core is depressed because he's an idealist and the world constantly disappoints him. Late seasons Toby sometimes just sounds vindictive and mean. Anyway!!! It sucked!!!!!!!

The only way I can imagine it would be worse was if it actually was CJ, so I hate that one of the popular "fixes" is saying Toby took the fall for her. The only way I can rationalize it in my mind is that Toby did take the fall: for his sister-in-law. It's conceivable (at least, on the level of this goddamn nonsense storyline) that David would have known about the military shuttle and told his wife, maybe to reassure her. Heck, we don't know what she does, maybe she has a background in space travel too and knows about it! She and David had kids who had just lost their father; Toby took the fall because his kids will still have one parent if he goes to jail.

I like that Toby ends up out of the election cycle but helping Josh behind the scenes and I actually love that he's teaching in the flash forward. And by the way, there's actually no way in hell they planned the ending to the leak storyline ahead of time because everyone is on good terms with Bartlet in that flash forward!! God!!!!!!

It's just such bad writing. I'm so annoyed about it.

[cellsshapedlikestars]

So what are your thoughts on s2 of love is blind? And what are we all gonna have to do to convince you to watch too hot to handle?

ANON!

I have watched Too Hot to Handle! I watched season 1 with Chloe, aka my fave from the Circle as well. (I thought I had posts about it, but Tumblr is terrible and nothing really comes up in my searches so who knows)

As for Love is Blind, I'll put my thoughts under the cut cause it's gonna be long.

We'll start by saying I didn't watch season 1, I jumped straight into season 2 cause I NEEDED to see what was up with the guy I kept seeing all over TikTok

So my thoughts:

GENERAL SHOW STUFF:

-the pacing was wild. I did not expect the "blind" part to be less than a third of the season. The fact that a proposal happened in the first episode THREW me.

-I get why they have a show past the pods, but I sort of hated it. It felt a lot like Bachelor hometowns, which are always my least favorite episodes. And I feel like I just simply don't care about watching these people go through regular relationship drama. I don't watch reality tv for that, it's why I don't watch like... I guess 90 day fiancee is the closest?

-I disliked every couple except Iyanna & Jarrette.

(I just love them. UGH)

-the fact that actual marriage is a thing makes me very uncomfortable. They have to have some sort of cash incentive to actually get married, right? Otherwise, why wouldn't you just choose to not get married and then keep dating once the show is over?? I haven't dug into this. Like on the bachelor, they get "engaged" but at this point it's essentially agreeing to date and getting a free ring out of it.

SPECIFIC PEOPLE/COUPLES:

-again, Iyanna and Jarrette were the only ones who felt like a real couple who actually liked each other

-Mal & Sal: Sal was boring and I swear if he ever tried to sing to me I'd smash his ukelele. Also, I just don't think Mal was into him at all but felt like she should be (again, cash incentive???)

-Danielle & Nick: YIKES. I'm trying to keep an open mind because it sounds like Danielle has a lot of anxiety & depression and some traumas she didn't share on the show, but holy shit. She picked a fight in every single scene and half the time it felt like it was pulled out of thin air. Even Nick seemed baffled by half of it. And I feel bad for her cause she admits that she projects her anxiety onto others and apparently some of it was edited weird, but still. Her getting mad at him for him being like "can you and your friends not dance on & break my table" was WILD. I don't think they should have gotten married AT ALL. Maybe dated & gone to couples therapy like they are post show, but don't get married! (again, CASH INCENTIVE???)

-Shayne & Natalie: oof. Shayne scares me tbh. He seems to have some really terrible self esteem (he literally cannot handle anytime Natalie jokes around about him, even in the slightest) and he seems to have an explosive temper. We didn't see their night before the wedding fight, but we did see him when he couldn't hit a baseball and he got absolutely furious and started shitting on Sal for wearing dress shoes?? Also he gaslit Natalie pretty hard in the pods by telling her it would be "weird" if she got upset when he thought she was Shaina.

-speaking of. Shaina & Kyle: Shaina sucks. I think she agreed to the proposal because of the cash incentive I've now convinced myself exists, even though she knew they wouldn't make it and she was clearly not attracted to him. BUT I also sort of think Kyle is... I dunno, how do you say you believe in science but want to marry a woman who doesn't believe in evolution? That's who you want raising your kids?? And he just keeps pursuing her even after she straight up ditched him in Mexico. Take a hint, my dude.

-Deepti & Shake: what can be said that hasn't already been said? I think Shake was faking every single thing. I think he wanted to be on TV (and the cash incentive) and used Deepti to do it. I think his whole "she's like an aunt" rhetoric was his get out of jail free card. Deepti is a queen and her leaving him at the altar was incredible and I love her. AND SO PRETTY. not sexually attracted to her my ass. I do think Shake was so upset she dumped him first lmao

Anyway, that's all I can remember of my thoughts for right now.