#maybe I want to see the meta that were there when the show aired

[ginette-de-gallifrey]

We should have a "Randomize" option when looking at a tag. I don't want to see the same Populars posts and I have already consume everything in the last year of it so the Recents option isn't good. Please let me just get posts from ten years ago mix with posts from yesterday. I want to see more contents ! TˆT

[inawickedlittletown]

No Queerbaiting Here

A long time ago…I’m talking May of 2021, I wrote a meta post about queerbaiting. Essentially an essay. I wrote it right before the S4 finale of 9-1-1 aired because I was frustrated by Buddie fans calling Queerbait entirely like the boy that cried wolf. I still stand by it. Sort of. 

Now, even back then I was pretty clear about how 50/50 I was on Buddie ever going canon. (Maybe not in that post but certainly elsewhere) But, I shipped Buddie then and wrote a lot of fic and meta and participated in fandom. I never said it couldn’t happen…I just would never be bothered if it didn’t.

Where we stand now: It’s not going to happen. 

And where I stand now: fully immersed in Bucktommy. And what’s more, I am more than perfectly happy about Buck and Tommy staying together and going the long-run. Although I can still look at Buddie and think it’s a cute ship, I just don’t want it in canon. I would not be satisfied if the show went that way. But what’s more if Buck and Tommy don’t work out, that would be disappointing, but I’d be okay as long as they got to be happy. There is, after all, always fanfiction. 

So, I wanted to revisit this concept a bit now that Buck has been confirmed as Bisexual and now that he is in a relationship with a man. Not Eddie. Tommy. And somehow, some Buddie fans are still crying queerbait because their ship is not canon. That’s not how it works. Also…shipping works outside of canon, that’s the whole point of shipping. 

To reiterate from my original post on queerbaiting, here’s the definition from wikipedia:

“Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ representation. They do so to attract a queer or straight ally audience with the suggestion of relationships or characters that appeal to them, while at the same time attempting to avoid alienating other consumers.” 

Here’s where I stand: Buddie was abandoned a long time ago. If it was ever a real possibility, we won’t ever know. What we do know is that Oliver was aware that at one point he had given them the go-ahead to make Buck Bi. Whether this was by putting Buck and Eddie together or having Buck realize this another way, we just don’t know that. We don’t have that information and nor will it probably ever be provided to us. Narratively, I know that a lot of fans figured the timing of it fit with S4 and that particular finale but we really just don’t know despite what happened in the finale.

I found that interesting looking back at my own post from back then and the discussion that followed where some fans felt that the way the finale went would determine if Buddie would be another queerbait ship. (I think most people agreed after the will scene that it wasn’t queerbait because it did leave a kernel of hope that Buddie might still happen). 

And yeah, I guess you could argue that the network deciding not to go the route of a queer storyline points to missed opportunity. That doesn’t then mean that any queerbaiting occurred or that any fans are owed anything just because something that was set up or that the writers were writing towards was then scrapped by the network. Is it a shame that it didn’t happen in whatever way they wanted to play it out, sure, but only because Buck would have been confirmed queer earlier. In the same vein isn’t it nice that we have a confirmed Bisexual Buck now? That the show managed to bring it back to that.

A Buck that is happy and free and that has realized something so monumental about himself? Isn’t it nice that all the queer coding that Buck as a character has received since the start of the show is actually finally not just queer coding but full on character development? That we can look back at the show and see all the things Buck did around other men for exactly what they were. 

When Tommy first returned to 9-1-1 in S7, I think a lot of us were excited by the spoilers about Buck and Tommy because of Bi Buck, but also because this was the thing that could lead to Buddie. 

And then…then Tommy was actually on my screen and I doubted it. I actually thought maybe the spoilers were wrong and this was about Eddie and Tommy? That episode flipped things in such an expertly way that by the time Tommy and Buck were sharing a kiss for the first time I was right there with Buck. On a second watch, it is all there. Buck was never jealous because his friend was ignoring him. He was jealous because his best friend had the attention of the guy whose attention he wanted for himself. The writing on that was perfect and no amount of twisting it can change what happened on screen. 

Buck was not jealous because of Eddie. Tommy was never interested in more than friendship with Eddie. And Buck and Tommy have nothing to do with Buddie. Tommy is not a stepping stone, a way for Buck to be ready to then embark on a relationship with Eddie. That’s both disrespectful to Tommy and Buck, but just not what the story being told on the show is doing. 

The storyline is monumental. Having a big strong guy, a firefighter, figure out his sexuality in his thirties is such good storytelling and add to that Tommy. Someone that we already know, who already works as a first responder, and who can show up and wow Buck in such a way that he realizes something about himself? This is what I’ve always wanted. Because guess what, Buck never questioned his sexuality before this. Not when he met Eddie and not when he met anyone else, not until Tommy. 

Going into the new season we know a few things and one of those is that Buck and Tommy are thriving. The media coverage talks about them as a solid couple, it talks about Buck having someone to turn to and complain to. It talks about how they are still in the getting to know each other phase and I love that for them. I love how they are being treated and described and I can’t wait to see what plays out for them and how much of the build up of their relationship we may get to actually see. 

Do you know what the media and the show never talked about outwardly like this? Buddie. Whenever it came up it was always brushed aside in a way that was respectful to fans and what they saw, but without ever confirming or hinting that the show would ever go there. They never queerbaited anyone with Buddie, what they have done is say “yeah…we know what you see” and then turned around and given us a Buck and Eddie friendship and Buck kissing Tommy, going on a date with Tommy, and thriving with Tommy. 

So, no queerbaiting here on the show where half of the major canon pairings are queer. It’s actually more like some fans baiting other fans with theories and headcanons that just don’t fit.

[terresdebrume]

I think I want to point at the elephant in the room today

The problem when we have the ever more frequent conversation of how to keep a fandom alive after the show it's based on stops airing is that we tend talk about it in a way that ignores the very real differences between the juggernauts of old fandoms like Star Trek and newer shows like Dead Boy Detectives, namely:

1. The difference in amount of material

2. The accessibility of said material

Part of the reason why Star Trek or The X-Files still have active fans so long after they aired is because those shows had multiple seasons with an average of 20 episodes each. For the X-Files' 11 seasons that's about 200 episodes each with their own storylines, themes, interesting ideas and frustrating mistakes right there to inspire Fanart, fic, meta, and any number of fanwork. I'm not even going to do the math on Star Trek: this show got about a bazillion shows

Dead Boy Detectives, and a lot of genre shows nowadays have like... Eight episodes. Ten, if we're lucky. Fandoms for procedurals or more broadly appealing shows fare better (Lone Star comes to mind, or sitcoms for example) because networks tend to keep them online longer, but genre series get ever shorter with ever fewer opportunities to really grow an audience... Think of all the shows that got popular on Tumblr in the past few years and tell me how many got a proper season? Shadow and Bones was cancelled. My Lady Jane: one season. Gentleman Jack, two (three?). Good Omens: maybe 3, depending on how the network handle the Gaiman situation. The Umbrella Academy got four seasons. Stranger Things, with 5 seasons and 42 episodes managed to equate roughly 2 seasons of the X-Files (probably not even that if you account for episode length). The Witcher currently has 3 seasons for 24 episodes.

Contrast this to shows like Dead Boy Detectives with, again, eight episodes. Maybe 16 if we get really lucky, but I'm not holding my breath. This is just materially WAY LESS soil for a fandom to grow in. It's not that people aren't motivated, it's that as much as you want to keep it going, there's only so much to say about 8 episodes! George Rexstrew, who plays one of the leads, even recently admitted that he's running out of things to say about his performance, and who can blame him? So after a while, you gotta turn to AU which by definition are always going to be potential hits and misses, since they diverge from what brought people to the show in the first place.

I know we're all real good at spinning yarn but sometimes it gets really hard not to run out of fiber.

As for accessibility: the Big Olds benefitted from two things. One, they were broadcast on much wider-reaching channels, if not from the start, then when they eventually made it on public networks. They had a regular play time, and you could stumble onto them by accident, this getting interested and picking it up. And two: the popular shows had a decent chance of getting tape or DVD sets, which made them easier to own and show to your friends so they could binge the story and join you in the fandom

By comparison, look at the barrier of access for Dead Boy Detectives:

Need to have a Netflix account

Need to see it somewhere in your recommendation (good luck if you come in more than a month after it released)

Need to see people talk about it as they binge (need to be in the right place at the right time, and by that I mean where fandom happens since Netflix has a habit of doing zero advertising for new shows)

Need to keep paying for a Netflix account if you wanna rewatch, or figure out how to do a piracy, which is getting more difficult and riskier every year

Need to be willing to get invested in a forever unfinished story

And when on top of that the writing in the first episode is, let's say it frankly, far from the best, that is a LOT of obstacle to overcome for a pretty small sandbox

So like, yeah, sure, we should be willing to keep making a fandom happen after a show ends, but at some point we can't ignore that the effort it takes to keep fandoms alive is getting way more intense than it used to be

[airenyah]

A LOOK AT STYLE'S JOURNEY | Ep 3

(Overview |Ep1+2 | Ep4 | Ep5)

I really wanted to drop this before Episode 4, but the thing is I really really really struggled with this episode. The first two episode were very clear to me, so clear even that I managed binge-write my first post within a single night after having spent the previous night rewatching the episodes and taking notes. I kept asking myself the question "Style does this and acts like this, but why?" and quickly found my answers. But looking at episode 3? I really struggled with the "but why".

But let's get into it anyway. Not that I finish this post only when the final episode drops lol.

~~~ Spoiler warning for episode 4 ~~~

To recap: when we last saw Fadel and Style together in episode 2 Fadel ambushed Style in the locker room and basically declared war on Style. Style launched counterattacks. They did not part on the best of terms.

Pronoun situation: In my first meta post I kept up with their pronoun use on a scene by scene basis. This time I won't do that, because they consistently use the rude guu/mueng pronouns for each other throughout the entire episode without any significant pronoun changes.

No. 1: RAWR

The very first sequence at the heavy metal bar is where my first problem already arises: I am undecided on whether Style went there on purpose to find Fadel or if he went there of his own accord to have fun and just happened to run into Fadel completely by chance. Because you could make arguments both FOR and AGAINST Style showing up specifically for Fadel.

AGAINST: Style does look kinda surprised when walks up to Fadel. When they're chatting by the counter Style says he's here all the time (which is something he doesn't say about the running track or the gym – two spots that we know he only went to for Fadel). We also don't get to see Style looking at the notebook like we do before he bugs Fadel at the running track for the first time or later in the episode when he shows up at the support group meeting. What's more, Style doesn't really attempt to stick to Fadel no matter what until Fadel either physically gets rid of him or just walks away. Instead Style leaves of his own accord to have fun with people who aren't Fadel and also seems perfectly content to do so.

FOR: When Kant looks through the notebook in ep2 after Bison hands it to him we can see that the bar is in there. So Style should know this bar is one of Fadel's go-to spots. Style could be feigning surprise when he walks up to Fadel to make it look like a chance meeting and he could also be lying about being there all the time.

Whether or not Style came to the bar in order to seek out Fadel specifically or not, when he walks up to Fadel and sits down next to him it's all in a friendly manner. His behavior has an air of Oh hey there person that I know, let me say hello! to it.

Style is once again trying to involve Fadel in an amiable conversation despite their confrontation last time they saw each other. Or maybe he's trying to involve Fadel in an amiable conversation because of the confrontation last time they saw each other. Style's friendly approach makes it clear that he's not holding any grudges about it. Fadel is not up for a friendly conversation, though. In the scene by the counter he says a total amount of two sentences to Style (or even just one, if you don't count the "no" as a single sentence). Style tries to get Fadel to socialize, to get Fadel to come out of his grumpy shell and go dance with him a little bit, to loosen up and scream a little bit. Fadel won't budge. So Style gives him his space and walks off, but not without inviting Fadel to follow him just in case Fadel miraculously changes his mind. After Style clinks bottles with his (new?) friends he looks back at Fadel and nods at him before getting busy with his friends.

I want to talk about that nod for a quick moment. Because as an introvert who tends to be quiet and shy in a crowd (especially a crowd of strangers or people I don't know well) I have my fair share of experience of being alone in a crowd. And I adore that Style is making contact with Fadel again, even though he already walked away and their conversation is actually over. As I've mentioned in some tags before, some of Style's core personality traits really remind me of a dear old friend of mine. We had a time in our late (ish) teens where we'd hang out at our youth leader's flat every day. My friend and my youth leader would often play Magic: The Gathering, which is something that's really not my thing and so I'd be "left out" that is I'd be chilling next to them doing my own thing or just watching them, not understanding shit. They'd be in the middle of a game and my friend would sometimes randomly look up and nod at me like that or he would pull faces at me or do some other random shit to communicate with me for a second before focusing back on the game. These small gestures were something I always really appreciated because they made me feel included, even though I had no interest in the game and couldn't really be part of it. The way Style nods at Fadel reminds me of that. He's making contact with Fadel across the room, involving him, including him. It's a nod kind of like Hey, I see you. And yeah, Fadel doesn't really want to be seen, except deep down maybe he does.

Which brings me to the choking scene. Style is having fun with his friends (or random people he just met??). He spots Fadel, excuses himself and walks over. Almost as if he saw Fadel standing there all on his own and decided to talk to him because "You're supposed to have fun with your friends at a place like this". As if he doesn't want Fadel be all alone. So he walks up to him and starts another conversation. We get another confirmation that Style isn't holding any grudges about their confrontation in the locker room, because he actively teases Fadel about it. I'm not even sure Style is purposefully being flirty here, I think he really is going more for a playful callback to the locker room confrontation, mixed with a challenge of "So? Are you gonna go rough on me again? I dare you to do it again!"

What's more, I think at this point his brain is set to I must hit on him, so I must drop flirty shit whenever possible. So when he says Fadel looks sexy, while there sure is some truth to it and he certainly finds Fadel sexy in general, I don't think he really 100% means it in that specific moment. It's almost more as if he's saying it out of habit, just for the sake of dropping flirty shit and compliments at any given opportunity.

All in all, that night at the bar Style isn't really being annoying or flirting with Fadel on purpose. He spends the night trying to make friends with Fadel again, trying to make amiable conversation, trying to involve him in friendly banter, trying to genuinely connect with him. As if to get Fadel to open up and come out of the shell that he has deeply buried himself in. And I think what this interaction also shows is that Style is starting to have positive feelings towards Fadel. It's the beginning of Style genuinely liking Fadel more than he dislikes him. Style is slowly starting to worry and to care about him.

No. 2: The Best Way to Burn Calories

Now for this scene we know for a fact Style is here for Fadel specifically. Once again, Style blurts out flirty shit and once again it doesn't sound entirely genuine as if he actually means what he says. Kant has sent him on a mission to hit on Fadel, but Style still hasn't quite figured out how to get through to him. Fadel continuously ignores or even blocks Style's attempts to make friends with him or to genuinely connect to him and the flirting also doesn't seem to be working. (Oh, Style. If only you knew just how well your genuine flirting at the gym worked on Fadel 🤭)

Style knows very well that Fadel is annoyed by him (Fadel even explicitly tells him that it's a bad morning if he sees Style). And I think at this point Style has decided that if he can't be a positive presence in Fadel's life he'll simply just be a negative presence then. Since that will still bring him closer to his goal than being no presence in Fadel's life at all would bring him. So he just shows up, bugs Fadel to remind him of Style's existence and also drops flirty shit at any given opportunity while he's at it regardless of whether he genuinely means what he says in that moment or not. And while I'm sure there is some truth behind Style's words, I think a lot of the flirting really is more of a routine now, a habit. Since that is what he was hired to do after all.

Side quest: Body and Heart

One thing this scene touches on is that Style definitely isn't in it just for sex alone but that he desires an emotional component as well: he explicitly says he wants Fadel's body AND his heart. As I said, I don't think Style really meant the flirting here, but I do think there is some truth to his words, namely his desire to not just have meaningless sex but to also be in love.

I think, unlike Kant, Style actually isn't too big on casual one-night stands. I think he enjoys flirting around, because Style is an attention hoe, but if I had to guess I would say most of the time he doesn't end up actually sleeping with anyone. Style is charming and I think he has a lot of fun with flirty banter. And he definitely loves the attention: in episode 1 he clearly enjoys it when the girls are admiring his waist that he proudly shows off at the bowling alley, in episode 2 he gives Fadel permission to look at his naked body, and then later in episode 3 he also looks very happy and satisfied after those girls call him "hot" when he's dropping of the car keys at the host club.

Style loves the attention, he enjoys the flirty banter, but I think sleeping around no strings attached isn't truly his kind of thing. We get another hint of this in episode 1 when Kant claims "[Y]ou’re in no position to call me out when you’ve been playing around just the same". Style replies "I don’t know what you’re talking about" in a disapproving tone and with a skeptical face.

In fact, in Thai he says:

อะไรของมึงว่ะ [àrai - kŏng - mueng - wâ] what - of - you - [rude particle]

I haven't checked this phrase back with a native speaker yet, but I've often heard it in the sense of Wtf is your problem? or Wtf is up with you? or Wtf are you talking about? To me, the English subs sound almost more like Style is deflecting Kant's statement while in Thai to me it feels like Style is actively disagreeing with Kant's words (feel free to correct me on this if I'm wrong @happypotato48 🙏).

Like, Style clearly doesn't approve of Kant's accusations and immediately goes attention seeking to highlight that that is what he's all about:

Going with the crop top shot specifically because I'm SURE some of you will really appreciate it lol

The literal translation of what he says here is actually more like "I'm just checking my rating":

กูก็แค่เช็คเรตติ้งกูเฉยๆว่ะวะ [guu - gôr kâe - chék - ret-dting - guu - chŏiie chŏiie - wâ wá] I - only - check - rating - I/my - just - [rude particle]

Style wants eyes on him, not hands, and he wants to be rated the hottest person in town by everyone who takes just one single look at him, thank you very much.

What's more, right before this exchange he also tells Kant to quit his one-night stands and get a real lover, so we know Style is very much team "having a boyfriend is a good thing". Style not being too big on meaningless one-night stands will also be reflected later in episode 3 when Style tells Fadel " What kind of man do you take me for? I might look like I play around, but I’m damn devoted to love. I want to date*" when he complains about Fadel ditching him right after their hook-up as well as in episode 4 when Style tells him "I'm not just anyone. I need clarity" when Fadel points out "Some people [have sex] countless times and never called it anything" after Style asks what their relationship is now that they've hooked up twice. We see it also in the way how enraged and genuinely hurt Style is in episode 4 after the stunt Fadel pulls in the kitchen. For Style, sex isn't just sex and I think as impulsive as he can be he still makes very deliberate decisions about who he actually sleeps with.

Kant may claim Style plays around just like Kant does, but the thing is that night at the bowling alley? It's Kant who finds himself someone to spend a fun night with while we see Style leaving the bowling alley all by himself without his own hook-up. You could even make arguments about how Style doesn't actually like doing the pursuing and much rather prefers to be pursued. But more on that later.

*(Actually, literally he doesn't say "I want to date" but "I want a faen" -> confirming once again Style is Team Steady Boyfriend)

No. 3: Sweet Meat

Just like in the scene at the sports field right beforehand, Style continues to be an annoying presence in Fadel's life, if he can't manage to be a positive presence. For this scene he even turns up his annoyingness level a little more than at the running track. What's very interesting here compared to the meat stall scene from episode 2 is that here in episode 3? Style doesn't give a shit that Fadel turns away and walks off without buying anything. In episode 2 he was very quick to yield in order to keep Fadel from running away, but this time Style doesn't care that Fadel just ditches him. When Fadel has gone, Style immediately hurries after him. He's already got his next move planned.

No. 4: Burger Burger Burger Burger

I think Style tries out a different strategy here: maybe if he helps Fadel, Fadel will finally soften up to him. What's also interesting is that every word out of Style's mouth suddenly sounds a lot more genuine now compared to what he was spouting at the running track or at the market earlier that day. And I think it's because he (thinks he) is helping Fadel.

Style likes to help. We see this in the way he agrees to help his best friend by hitting on some weirdo guy (yes, of course he's also getting a car out of this deal, but I think part of the reason why he agrees to the deal is also because he genuinely wants to help Kant find love), we see this in the way he immediately takes orders from customers no questions asked in episode 2 right before he meets Bison, and we'll see this even later this episode when he throws himself into the fight despite having no fighting skills whatsoever, just because he thinks three against one is unfair and wants to help.

And if we go back to the thought that maybe, just maybe, Style actually doesn't like to pursue others then it's no surprise that his words here suddenly sound a lot more genuine now that he (thinks he) is helping Fadel compared to his half-assed attempts at flirting earlier that day on the sports field and at the market. Helping people is Style's thing. He's back in his comfort zone which means now he can be much more sincere in his words and his actions again, because there is less of a need to pretend to be a type of person that he just simply is not.

Which also results in Style being much more playful again rather than annoying. For example, when he calls Fadel a "good-looking chef" and shoves him with his his gigantic burger bun. Or when he teases Fadel about being shy. Or when he asks Fadel "You hungry?" after they end up on the ground. This time I actually believe Style's words. Where the flirting at the running track and the teasing at the market felt more like a task where Style was mostly just saying words to get the job done, now that he's back in his comfort zone it sounds like he actually means everything he says again.

There is also some sort of sincerity to Style's desire to help. Fadel, however, does not want Style's help and tries to send him away. Style reminds him that Fadel should probably be making burgers instead of wasting time arguing with him and also points out that Fadel's own brother, who is supposed to be here helping him, is nowhere to be found and that he, Style, is in fact right here by Fadel's side helping him, supporting him. I think Style is being a little overly dramatic when he says "All I ask from you is a little decency" in order to get Fadel to soften up at least a little bit and to get him to accept Style's help, but I also think Style does genuinely desire at least some form of recognition for his support as well. But Fadel won't budge and once again just abandons him.

No. 5: This Is A... kitchen

Trouble arises at the diner and once again we see that Style likes being helpful, because he rushes into the kitchen, immediately ready to help serve the customers. And this time his desire to help is real. It might also stem a little from his desire to fix things, because it is his own fault that the restaurant is overrun and so part of him might want to make up for that, too. What matters, though, is that it's not just another attempt at getting close to Fadel like earlier when he was promoting the restaurant. Fadel blocks him once again, but Style insists. And I think he really hits the nail on the head with this:

I haven't yet looked at Fadel as closely as I have at Style (oh how I wish I had the time, though *cries in university student*) but I do think that this is ultimately something Fadel will be forced to learn over the course of the series.

Anyway, Fadel tries to send Style away again, but Style refuses to go and lists a number of arguments as to why he should in fact go serve tables instead of going home. He ends his arguments by telling Fadel to learn to accept help and then then determinedly tells him that he'll go wait the tables himself. Once those words are out of his mouth he looks at Fadel almost with a bit of a defiant expression on his face as if he's waiting for Fadel to object again.

But this time Fadel says "Fine, you can wait the tables" and Style nods and raises an eyebrow in surprise and happiness, like Wait?? I can?? For real?? You're actually letting me?? I don't have to fight you some more?? You're not throwing me out again??

When Style goes to change into the uniform right there in the kitchen, I don't think he's doing it to be flirty or anything like that at first. I think in the heat of the moment he genuinely forgot that changing rooms (or in this case, bathrooms) exist. I think he wanted to follow Fadel's order as quickly as possible so that he could start helping as quickly as possible. That is, until Fadel tells him off and sends him to the bathroom. Style responds by playfully teasing Fadel about being shy. Style is in an excellent mood now because it's one of those rare occasions where Fadel accepts Style's presence rather than trying to get rid of him. And while I do think Style changes in the kitchen anyway in order to tease Fadel, I don't think he's necessarily doing it to tease Fadel for sexy reasons but rather for playfully petty reasons. Because Fadel keeps scolding him and yelling at him and when Fadel tells him off for changing clothes in the kitchen, Style does it out of spite. Like Oh, you don't want me to change in the kitchen? Well, in this case i DEFINITELY have to change in the kitchen, then. I will say, though, that there is definitely a little bit of an Oh, you're NOT shy? Well, prove it, then! in there as well. But I don't think that this thought is Style's main focus here, because apart from this one look that Style throws Fadel right after he's pulled his shirt over his head...

...from what the camera shows us he seems more focused on the clothes and the action of changing them rather than on Fadel's reaction to him getting naked:

We, the audience, were shown Fadel's reactions to Style getting undressed and I think if Style had taken note of these reactions, the series would have made a point in showing us that Style notices Fadel's crisis. And our chatty cat here would have 100000% teased Fadel about it. What's more, Style has no idea just how much of an effect his naked body had on Fadel back at the sauna. Style has absolutely no idea that Fadel went and fantasized about him afterwards. So Style does not (yet) know that his naked body is one of the strongest weapons he currently has in the fight for Fadel. So Style does not (yet) realize that he could be using his body in a much more deliberate manner. And I don't think he realized it in this scene either, because as I said we would have been shown his discovery. So Style leaves the scene none the wiser, but eager to help and absolutely stoked that Fadel actually lets him for once.

No. 6: Death by Spatula?

Unexpectedly, Fadel drops lore of himself and I think that piques Style's interest because Fadel almost NEVER drops lore of himself. Pretty much all the things Style knows about Fadel are things he got from other people (like all the information in the notebook) or things he found out by himself (either because he's picked up on them in all their interactions so far or because he actively did some research like when he looked up Fadel's name). There are only two other instances where Fadel himself revealed something about himself to Style:

When Style finds him at the gym, Fadel drops that he doesn't like it when it's crowded and that this is why he likes going to the gym at night.

When Fadel tells Style that he runs a burger joint in the "sensitive nipples" scene and also mentions that he does everything by himself. Although this incident barely counts, because Fadel didn't really give this information voluntarily but was instead kind of forced to since Style had found the pin of his restaurant.

Usually, Fadel refuses to reveal anything about himself. But now Fadel is overwhelmed by the many customers and in his stress he lets slip that he doesn't need money and that he only runs the restaurant for fun. When Fadel then also claims not to be rich, Style immediately finds it sus. Lucky for him, though, he won't make the right guess until later in the episode and so he manages to escape being prematurely murdered with a spatula. But Style doesn't know that.

Instead, Style just got a lot more intrigued by Fadel. This is one of those incidents that make Style want to get to know Fadel out of his own curiosity and not because he wants to help his friend and is getting his dream car as a reward. Style is starting to take a genuine interest in Fadel as a person and his positive feelings towards Fadel grow.

No. 7: First Bites

When Fadel wordlessly hands Style the burger it's the first time that Fadel is actively reaching out to him. Reaching out to him in a friendly manner that is, not to ambush him in a dark locker room and start a fight. And Style is absolutely delighted that Fadel is finally taking a step towards him instead of walking away from him like he usually does. And Style being Style, he of course has to immediately make a big deal out of it: "Are you finally folding? Was it because of how hard working I am? You like me now, don’t you?"

Actually, I wanna take a little detour to the language side of things again. The English translation has a question tag only on the last sentence, but in Thai Style actually uses question words that give a sense of "right?" or "isn't that so?" at the end of every single one of these questions.

นี่มึงเปิดใจให้กูแล้วใช่ป่ะ [nêe - mueng - bpèrt - jai - hâi - guu - láew - châi bpà] [interjection] - you - open - heart, mind - to, for - I/me - already - right?

I actually really like the expression he uses in Thai: he says เปิดใจ [bpèrt jai] which consists of the words "(to) open" (เปิด) and "heart, mind" (ใจ). To me, that gives me the feeling of Style not just asking Did I manage to win you over? but more of a feeling of You are finally opening (your heart) up to me, right? You are finally letting me in? which I think is a much nicer image in regard to Fadel's character and Fadel and Style's relationship.

มึงเห็นความขยันความตั้งใจกูแล้วใช่ไหมล่ะ [mueng - hĕn - kwaam kà-yăn - kwaam dtâng jai - guu - láew - châi măi - lâ] you - see - diligence - intention, determination - I/my - already - right? - [particle]

I don't know if others feel the same way, but in the English translation the "hard working" part mostly makes me think of Style working hard with helping at the restaurant before this conversation. A more literal translation of what he says in Thai would be "You've seen my diligence and determination, haven't you?" and I'm sure he's actually more referring to his determination and relentless efforts in getting close to Fadel.

I just really like the way Style phrases all his questions here in Thai. Fadel has enclosed his heart deep within him in very thick and high walls and no one gets access to it. And Style's task isn't that he has to get Fadel to simply just fold to him, surrender to him, but what he actually needs to do is to search for a way to reach Fadel's heart. His options are either to tear down Fadel's walls by sheer force or to somehow get Fadel to trust him so much that Fadel will willingly unlock and open up the doors leading to the depths of his heart. And it's like Style is asking You're finally letting me in, right? You're finally recognizing my diligent efforts to reach you, right? You no longer hate me, right? You like me now, don't you?

And I don't think Style is necessarily flirting here and means to ask if Fadel likes him romantically. On the surface, yes, he is definitely also asking if the flirting (attempts) have worked and if Fadel is starting to fall for him. But I think a lot of this is also about how he has on multiple occasion now tried to form a genuine connection with Fadel. Just in this episode alone we can see it in the way he asks Fadel if he likes heavy metal at the heavy metal bar and then tries to get him to socialize, tries to include him. We can see it the entire time at the restaurant just now where he's voluntarily helping because he genuinely cares. There are even more instances in the first two episodes, which I talk about in my first meta post of this meta series. Style has tried to bond with Fadel multiple times now but Fadel has always blocked his attempts and I think a big part of Style also wants to know if Fadel is finally starting to have at least friendly feelings towards Style. That Style is finally going from being an annoying presence in Fadel's life to being a pleasant presence in his life.

But Fadel shoots him down. "Don't get your hopes up. This is your wage." (Fun fact: in Thai Fadel actually tells Style not to เวอร์ [wer], which is a slang word coming from the English word "over" and, if I remember my Thai friend's explanation from a month ago correctly, is used to indicate that what someone is doing/saying is "too much", so what Fadel says here could be taken as "don't exaggerate" or "don't be so overly dramatic" or "don't be so hyped")

Style immediately complains that the burger is too little of a wage, but also won't let Fadel take it away from him again, insisting on eating it anyway. It might not be much of a wage, but that burger is important to Style. When Fadel sends him home, Style dramatically laments being exploited and thrown away. I think this is yet another one of Style's attempt to get some friendly banter out of Fadel. But Fadel isn't having it. Fadel makes it clear that he wants Style gone asap and Style is annoyed that Fadel keeps making him leave. I think Style is genuinely enjoying hanging out with Fadel at the burger joint and also genuinely wants to stay. His positive feelings continue to develop.

Special shout-out also to the way Style loudly goes "Mmh! Mmmh!!" while chomping down on the burger to make sure Fadel knows exactly how much he's enjoying Fadel's food. Which isn't just food in this instance, no, the burger also stands for an unspoken thank you for helping me and symbolizes the first time Fadel has actively reached out to Style on his own and done a nice thing for him. Style is making sure Fadel won't miss just how much he appreciates this gesture.

No. 8: A Fly on the Wall

Oh, how desperately I wish we knew at which point of the conversation between the brothers Style came in exactly! This is going to drive me insane, because I have no idea just how much of the conversation Style overheard, which unfortunately is important information for the interpretation of his interactions with Fadel from this point on. Most of all I really NEED to know if Style happened to hear this specific line:

Fun fact: in Thai he doesn't actually say "you wanted to rely on" but he says (ที่)มึงจะไปอยู่ด้วย [(thêe) - mueng - jà - bpai - yòo - dûuay] which should translate to something like "(that) you were gonna be with" or "were gonna live with" (disclaimer: I didn't double-check this with a native speaker) which sounds much more like a serious relationship to me rather than when phrased as "dude you wanted to rely on". And we'll get the confirmation of an ex-boyfriend later in the episode.

Now the question is: DOES STYLE KNOW ABOUT THE EX-BOYFRIEND NOW?? DOES HE KNOW FADEL WAS IN LOVE BEFORE?? PLEASEEE I NEED TO KNOW 😭😭😭

In my quest to find an answer to these questions I did come across a strange background noise that comes right after this line, though. A background noise that could very well be interpreted as Style sliding open the door. So for the sake of my own sanity I'll go with Style only having heard this part of the conversation for sure:

F: Why did you bring this up? K: I just want you to tell your brother how pipe dreams always end. In this line of profession, no one waits for you.

This is yet another incident that gets Style genuinely curious about Fadel, about who he is exactly. Style will certainly be wondering about what that profession is from now on. And he will certainly be wondering about what that profession could be after he watches Fadel beat up three grown men like it's nothing. And he won't know that he will have hit jackpot with his guess.

No. 9: Private Show

Where the masturbation scene from episode 2 confirms that Fadel feels genuine physical/sexual attraction to Style, this scene confirms that the feeling is mutual on Style's side of things as well. Style, too, finds Fadel's body hot. What's more, he never stops looking at Fadel. And not just at his body, but throughout his fantasy, Style is always searching for Fadel's eyes. In fact, he rarely takes his own eyes off of Fadel's face, and when Style does direct his eyes somewhere else it's always only for a very short moment. I think this once again shows that Style desires an emotional connection next to a physical one as well. Sex isn't just sex to Style, he wants more with it.

It is said that eyes are the windows to the soul, so another reason for the intense eye contact could be that Style also wants to stare deep into Fadel's soul to get to know him better in a quest to find answers to who this mysterious person really is. Because by now Style is genuinely curious. He has genuinely started to care.

Remember how I mentioned that arguments could be made for Style actually liking being pursued more than doing the pursuing and that I would get into this later? Later is now.

At this point I want to plug @clemelntine's extremely interesting perspective on the two sexual fantasies that we've gotten so far and what that means for the storage room hook-up. I'm not gonna reiterate everything, but I do want to pick up on what she says about Style specifically:

No matter how much he annoys Fadel in the day to day and how much he seems to take the upperhand in those interactions, when it comes to sex he likes in the idea of letting Fadel do what he does/wants.

In Style's own fantasy, Style is sitting back, he's letting Fadel take the reins, do the work. This is also in line with @secriden's excellent meta on Style's true desire being to be pursued, which I also really encourage you to read. Again, I won't repeat the entire post, but she highlights how Style will downright create opportunities for Fadel to lay his hands on him and how "every single time Fadel even shows a HINT of wanting Style, he immediately falls pliant, like he can't wait to let Fadel take the reins" (quoted from @secriden). And we see this desire in the fantasy too. Style imagines Fadel being the active one while Style gets to sit there and enjoy. Our little attention hoe here likes it when people are actively after him.

I was struggling to really make sense of Style this episode. In the first two episodes, whenever Style was being annoying there would be some sort of trigger for it. I was confused especially in the beginning of this episode, because I didn't understand how and why Style would go from trying to genuinely bond with Fadel at the heavy metal bar to being annoying at the running track and at the market when nothing seemed to have triggered it. I could tell Style was being annoying on the sports field and at the market, but I really couldn't figure out the "but why?" of it all. But if we look at his behavior through the lens of "Style actually prefers being pursued over doing the pursuing", I think it makes more sense. Style prefers for others to put in the effort of pursuing and now that he's forced to do the pursuing himself he doesn't really know how to go about it, especially when the person he's trying to woo has walls high up to the sky and continuously shoots him down. Style shows up and drops flirty lines but he doesn't even really mean them because he doesn't actually want to do the pursuing. The inauthenticity in his insistent approach is what makes him annoying in those scenes. And it's also not what works on Fadel – it's when Style is being genuine that he actually reaches Fadel, like when he was helping him wait tables (which Fadel recognizes by rewarding him with a burger) or when Style was being playfully flirty in the sauna (which results in Fadel fantasizing about him at night).

No. 10: Mark Style Down As Scared AND Horny

We will later learn that Style doesn't believe Fadel about needing more money for the restaurant and was just acting stupid to gain Fadel's trust, but when I first sat down to take notes for my meta I wasn't sure if Style was being entirely accurate/truthful when he said this, since he witnessed Fadel taking on three grown men only after that whole conversation about the restaurant. So why would he feel a need to gain Fadel's trust before that? At first I thought that maybe Style did believe Fadel for a moment there, especially also because he presented Fadel with an excuse as to why he was working there right away and then also sounded a bit too sincere when he offered support to Fadel. However, on second thought I'm now thinking that maybe he really does distrust Fadel's claims from the start.

Outside the host club Style approaches Fadel and I don't think it's with the motivation to flirt with him but rather to find out why exactly Fadel would be here stripping for some ladies. It's a bit odd that he immediately offers Fadel an out of "You need the money for your restaurant, right?" when he's trying to get answers, but maybe this clumsy approach at digging for answer is already part of Style playing dumb on purpose to gain Fadel's trust. But why would he need to gain Fadel's trust when he hasn't even seen yet what Fadel is really capable of?

While it is true that up until the "why are you working as a stripper" conversation Style hasn't witnessed the real danger that Fadel poses, there've still been enough incidents to make him suspicious of Fadel. It already starts right during their first meeting when Fadel won't let Style get near his car. That's weird, Style finds it weird. Next thing Style knows is that Fadel also doesn't have any papers for said car which is very odd again. In episode 2 Style gets a little hint of Fadel's dangerous side when Fadel ambushes him in the locker room. In episode 3 he learns that Fadel opened the burger place just for fun rather than to earn money and that apparently Fadel isn't rich and yet somehow still has the resources and the time to run a whole restaurant for fun. Shortly after that he (likely) overhears something about a "profession" which clearly can't refer to the profession of being a burger joint owner. Style has enough reasons to be suspicious of Fadel, even before he witnesses Fadel's badass fighting skills. Style has reasons to gain Fadel's trust and to stay on his good side, especially since Style himself is hiding ulterior motives and can't risk Fadel getting suspicious of his own true intentions. So Style plays dumb, offers Fadel an out, and when Fadel takes that out Style raises his eyebrows and hesitates for a moment like Oh, okay. We're going with the lie, then, before he offers Fadel support.

The conversation gets interrupted by those three men looking for a fight and for the first time Style gets to see just how dangerous Fadel can get when he wants to. This is where Style truly realizes that something really is very, very OFF about Fadel. It's no longer a joke or a gut feeling, no, this is confirmation that something here is incredibly shady. And Style wants to get to the bottom of it.

No. 11: Hit by Apollo's Ball of Prophecy

There've been a few incidents that got Style curious about who Fadel really is behind his thick walls and his tough exterior, a few incidents that got Style curious about Fadel's lore. But watching Fadel take on three grown man without any major problems and having them run away in fear was the last straw. Style's motivations officially change. Getting Kant's car is less important now than finding out the truth about Fadel. Style definitely exaggerates a bit when he says that Fadel must be some kind of hitman, is being dramatic as usual. It won't be much longer until Style finds out that Apollo has actually hit him with the gift of prophecy.

No. 12: Rise Up

Style is determined to find out more about Fadel's life and promptly shows up at yet another location he knows Fadel will be at. I'm not sure Style was aware this meeting was gonna be about grief and loss before he arrived and saw the sign. At least from the notebook it's hard to tell because the drawing only shows a group of people sitting in a circle of chairs with the caption "rise up". That could really be about anything. For me personally, my first association (especially in combination with the words "rise up") would be a Christian bible study group, although I doubt that Style, having been raised in a predominantly Buddhist country, would necessarily have this specific association with that image and those words, too. Point still stands that nothing about this image strictly points to loss specifically. (Technically we could say that since there's no address in the notebook, Style might have googled "rise up" in order to figure out where to go and seen on the website that it was a meeting for grief and loss. However, as we didn't actually get to see Style do any research and find this information, I'm just gonna run on the assumption that he genuinely didn't know and that maybe he got the address via Bison or something. Or maybe he actively stalked and followed Fadel, idk.)

Style stops in front of the sign, double-checks that he's at the right place, and then nods in determination, kinda like alright, let's do this, then, before he enters.

Another reason why I don't think Style was aware what this group meeting was gonna be about before he arrived is the way he's kinda confused when the group leader asks him to tell his story. The group leader elaborates ("Something you’ve lost, or the changing point in your life.") and Style, who was looking at the group leader while listening to his explanation, turns his head to look at Fadel right after the group leader says the word จุดเปลี่ยน [jùt bplìian] (= changing point). He stares at Fadel as if he's wondering Did he lose something? Was there a changing point in his life?

Style can't dwell on it for too long, though, because he has just been asked a question and now needs to come up with a cover story.

And this is where Style really starts to get out of line. He dishes out a story about some dog, which I don't really want to get into right now since at the point of me writing this we're only 4 episodes into the series and who knows, something might as well happen later down the line that could recontextualize Style's story (looking at you, Boonterm mention! 👀), but I think it's safe to say that Style isn't too involved in his story emotionally. When he cries, the crying is cringe and it's NOT because Dunk is a bad actor (far from it!!) but rather it's because Style the character isn't taking himself seriously here. This is also highlighted in the smug look and nod he shoots Fadel in the middle of his crying performance:

His behavior is very disrespectful, but I don't think he's being disrespectful on purpose. I think this is another one of his idiot boy moments where he is just really fucking stupid. Style is impulsive and doesn't think things through a lot and I think in this scene he is also so absorbed in his goal of getting to the bottom of Fadel and his mysteries that his tunnel vision on his goal prevents him from realizing the effect his actions can have on those around him, the consequences his behavior could bring. We saw it before that Style sometimes doesn't see things as much of a big deal as they actually are when he doesn't think much of texting while driving (as elaborated in my ep1 meta). Besides, his behavior has worked out pretty well for him all episode, with the worst consequence being Fadel simply just walking away from him, and Style even got to celebrate small victories like when Fadel made him a burger. So why would Style be changing his behavior now? There is no reason for Style to act differently, and so he continues to bug Fadel as usual and it genuinely doesn't occur to him that his behavior could be disrespectful or out of line.

Maybe if Style had had more time to dwell on the thought of Is Fadel here because he's lost someone? he might have realized that the situation was a lot more serious than he had originally thought and that his words/actions were gonna be out of line and that he shouldn't have been doing this, but alas that is not what happened. He didn't have the time and so he immediately gets distracted fabricating an elaborate story to answer the group leader's question and doesn't spend a single one of his brain cells thinking about his behavior and its consequences. He will soon learn about the consequences, though, because Fadel is seriously pissed now.

No. 13: Giving You What You Want (But Is It?)

Fadel is pissed and goes to confront Style in the privacy of a random storage room. Style is obviously lying to Fadel through his teeth. I do think there's some truth to it when Style says "I have my own problems. You’re not the only one" but whatever problems in life Style currently has (especially if there's anything connected to loss and grief), these problem's really aren't at the forefront of his mind right now. We know for a fact that Style is lying when he explains that he found the support group via the internet, that meeting Fadel was a coincidence and Fadel doesn't buy it either. What we, the audience, also know but what Fadel doesn't necessarily guess is that Style is also lying about how he is hitting on Fadel because he likes him and because he wants him. "Nothing more than that" he says, but as the audience we know that this is also bullshit because we know he was specifically sent by Kant and that a car is waiting for Style when he succeeds. What we also know, though, is that Style is definitely physically/sexually attracted to Fadel, so when Fadel offers to hook up with him, who is Style to say no?

I think this nc scene surprised a lot of us because it didn't go the way most of us were expecting it to go. As has already been pointed out in various posts by various people, Style is surprisingly passive during the entire act (at least, that we get to see). They have next to no eye contact, Style doesn't initiate a single kiss and barely touches Fadel except to hold him and to run his hand through Fadel's hair. But why is that?

Many a thing has already been said about this scene and about the characters' motivations and I don't think there is one specific interpretation that is the One Truth. I think many truths exist in this scene at the same time and there are many factors as to why the characters were acting the way they were acting. Emotions are complicated and sometimes you can have many of them simultaneously.

An interpretation that I haven't seen floating around yet is that part of Style's passiveness could also stem from the fact that he was caught off-guard. I don't think he was expecting Fadel to go Alright fine, have me, then. In fact, I think when Style told Fadel "I like you" and "I want you" those were mainly empty words again. Because this time he didn't seek out one of Fadel's usual places in order to to hit on him, but because he wants to find out the truth about Fadel, wants to figure out the reason why Fadel is so shady. But then he ended up pissing Fadel off who then promptly started a fight with him and Style needed to cover up his own intentions when he threw those words into Fadel's face. Style says "I want you", but he doesn't actually mean it in that moment and his actions do not reflect the I want to bang you sentiment at all either. We've all seen the sauna scene, we know how Style behaves when he actually wants to get into Fadel's towel pants. And this isn't it. So when Fadel suddenly and uncharacteristically does let Style get into his pants gets into Style's pants, I think that throws Style off and he momentarily doesn't know how to respond to the situation.

Plus, as @nnnn99999 writes in her meta, there is also the emotional disconnect. At this point of the story, neither of them is in love with the other just yet. Yes, there is mutual physical attraction and yes, by now Style has taken an interest in Fadel beyond the car, has started to develop positive feelings for Fadel and has at times actively enjoyed interacting with Fadel, but they still have their own motives and intentions and emotionally they simply just aren't quite on the same page yet. Style desires both body and heart, but both of their hearts simply aren't properly in it just yet. I don't think Style minds hooking up, he's definitely consenting to it and also enjoying it, but it's just not quite what Style dreams of, not like this. In a way, yes, it actually is what Style has dreamed of because his fantasies of Fadel doing things to him rather than him doing things to Fadel are now becoming reality, as @clemelntine beautifully explained in her meta, but in the real situation there's one important detail missing from Style's fantasy: the intense eye contact. In addition to Fadel's body, Style also wants that emotional connection. We've seen this times and times again whenever Style has tried to make friends as well as to genuinely bond with Fadel, and this desire extends also to the sex.

And lastly I want to leave you with @braceletofteeth's excellent tags on this post, which is something that I think also factors into why Style goes from being proactive to being passive in the blink of an eye:

#Fadel said he would give himself to Style #and Style let him do that #he barely touched Fadel except to hold him and caress his hair #he reciprocated the kisses but did not initiate them #he didn't try to take any more of Fadel than what Fadel willingly gave him #[head in hands]

During the entire nc part I kind of get the sense like Style is waiting. Waiting to see with a certain curiosity what Fadel will be doing next, what Fadel wants to do next, ready to happily take up whatever Fadel offers. Style is letting Fadel control the situation completely and doesn't push him once.

No. 14: Kiss or Slap?

Once again we see that Style isn't too much of a fan of casual hook-ups. And while I do think part of his motivations for saying the things he says and for trying to stop Fadel from abandoning him again is because making Fadel his boyfriend specifically rather than just hooking up with him is his goal here after all, but I do think that Style isn't lying this time. He's just a bit too annoyed when he asks "What kind of man do you take me for?" for it to be an act. I think he is genuinely offended that Fadel would think of him this way. And I think he's genuinely a little upset and hurt that Fadel is perfectly happy to sleep with him and to ditch him immediately after. We get foreshadowing to Style being very much Team Anti Hit-and-Run in episode 1 when he tells Fadel "It ain’t like me to hit and run" in the context of an actual car crash and earlier this episode when he laments "Oh, the nature of man. He will exploit you and then throw you away". Style is very much not happy with this turn of events and it's not purely because he hasn't yet completed the mission Kant has sent him on. We also get another hint of Style looking for a connection in his hook-ups in the way Style is looking at Fadel when they're getting dressed while in contrast Fadel has turned his back to Style completely, avoiding eye contact and avoiding any interaction:

Another thing that I want to point out is that Fadel says "I gave you what you wanted" and "We agreed on it" when Style tries to stop him from leaving. However, they didn't exactly agree on anything? Fadel started kissing Style before they could even come up with any terms and conditions and the thing is when Style said he wanted Fadel, he never said he wanted Fadel only once. And he also never said he wanted Fadel to run away immediately afterwards.

So Style puts up a fight. He firmly stands between Fadel and the door, blocking Fadel's way. Fadel threatens to punch Style if he doesn't move but Style refuses to stand down even though he knows very well from personally witnessing it that Fadel is perfectly capable of punching him if he wished to. Despite that, Style is not scared of Fadel. I think Style takes Fadel's sudden willingness to sleep with him as a sign that Fadel has finally developed some sort of positive feelings towards Style after all, too. And Style is confident enough about it that he trusts that Fadel wouldn't hurt him. When Style says "You like me" I don't think he necessarily means it in the sense of you're in love with me or you're crushing on me. I think he's calling out Fadel's change of heart (that is negative feelings turning into positive feelings) and is making it very clear just how confident he is about Fadel not hurting him. I'm not scared of you. I've become a positive presence in your life now. You wouldn't dare to injure me. It's a counterattack to Fadel's threat. But Fadel's trauma runs deep. And so he punches Style because giving him a bit of a beating is still better than risking to face the consequences of what might happen if he lets anyone get behind those thick high walls. And he punches Style also a little bit to put him in line for his cockiness.

And also, I may be a Style apologist and a Style enabler, but after that shit Style pulled at the group meeting that punch was totally deserved.

Please don't expect me to write a proper conclusion bc my brain is absolutely fried now bye <3

[rifari2037]

10. Do you have any other A:TLA ships?

Yes, I have another ships. Is not like I ship them like I ship Zutara, but they are my favourite. It would be long answer, but here my thought about them.

Sokka and Suki (Sukka)

In my opinion, Sukka is the best written canon couple. They have conflicts in their journey and resolved all of those very well.

When they met at the first time, Sokka was misogynistic and Suki taught him a lesson. Sokka finally understood his mistakes, learned from it, and throwed away his ego. After judging women badly, he humbly asked to be taught by a woman.

In the end, Sokka also said sorry after thinking she was 'just a woman'. Then she told him that she was a warrior but also a woman. It was very good way to resolve their conflict.

I'm not sure who Sokka's first love was, Suki or Yue? But, it doesn't matter, because Suki and Yue were important characters for Sokka.

When Sokka and Suki met again in The Serpent's Pass episode, Sokka still felt guilty and lost over Yue's sacrifice. Sokka became overprotective to Suki because of his guilt.

When they almost kissed in front of the moon, Sokka stopped it. That's as it should be because you shouldn't kiss someone when you're thinking about someone else. And again, in the end they resolve their conflict and kissed. Sokka could finally move on.

They not only looked good together, but also accept each other. Sokka was so funny that he could always cheer up Suki. Sokka always did efforts to Suki too - even it turned out very ugly - and Suki appreciated him. They show a healthy relationship more than other canon couples.

It really disappointed me that I didn't see Suki and Sokka together in TLOK. I read a headcanon that Suyin was Sokka's daughter, but then what happened with Sukka? Because, I really hope Sokka and Suki were actually happily together.

Also, even though I don't considering the comic ever exist, but I do know some people ship Suki with Zuko based on it. I got some of their moments, maybe there are more.

I don't mind with the shipper, but I don't understand the writers. Like why? I know the writers hate how well-written Zutara than their canon ship and they ruined Zutara potential in ATLA. But why the writers had to bother Sukka in the comic, the only well-written canon couple, to gave another love potential to Zuko?

But, well, whatever their relationship was, I don't read the comic anyway.

Toph and Aang (Taang)

Yes, I love Zutara, but it doesn't mean I hate Aang. I just don't think he's a good match for Katara for many reasons, there's a lot of meta and analysis about it - and it makes sense to me.

Meanwhile, Toph and Aang have more potential than canon. Their arc is actually interesting if only the author would dig deeper and not be too obsessed with 'the hero gets the girl'.

Just like fire and water, air and earth are the opposite element. They are different, but they need each other.

Air is the element of freedom. In fact, Aang was Toph's first friend and he was also the one who offered her freedom, something she really wanted and needed.

Earth people are persistent. Aang wasn't weak, he was strong, but he was too soft. While Katara kept Aang in his comfort zone, Toph was the one who taught him to be tougher and stand his ground.

Aang has a connection with Toph, because he saw a vision of her before they met in person. While Sokka and Katara saw visions of their past, Aang saw visions of his future.

What if at that time Aang was actually seeing a vision of his future and his past?

Because in his dream, he saw Toph had no face, it parallels with his past life (Avatar Kuruk) that lost his lover when Koh stole her face.

It wasn't my original thought, I read this meta from a fanfic and I was stunned with this potential!

I learned that earth was an element that Aang often used in battle after mastering it, even though it was a difficult element for him at first.

Not only that, earth was the element that re-opened his chakra and made him enter the Avatar State. Maybe it's a coincidence, but it still shows that Aang has a connection with his opposite element.

But I think I know why they didn't plan on making Aang and Toph canon even though it would've been a great arc.

Like, no way the writer's inserting-self end up with character who originally a muscular sixteen-years-old boy.

Zuko and Katara (Zutara forever)

I know the question is about ships other than Zutara, but I couldn't help myself to include them on the list.😅 Zutara is too addictive to be missed. 💙❤️

[gloomybadger4life]

Full Zutara meta and opinions.

Please no wars in the comments/reblogs. I'm only speaking from what I have read and my knowledge of the show. I'm largely ignoring the comics.

Any fic with Zutara as a mutually loving, long term relationship will obviously not be LoK canon compliant.

These are opinions subject to change as I further read and write stuff.

CW for mental health discussion. Heavy topics. Etc.

General considerations:

Please note I personally do not like cheating in my fics or IRL so I avoid reading and writing it. Some fics include it.

Iroh refusing to take the throne has always made me feel wary. While there are challenges to him taking it at least temporarily, the fact that he puts the whole task on Zuko is not something I take lightly. The show does not have him at the coronation. Arguments can be made about him not wanting to undermine Zuko's political sway, or him being a symbol of the war.

The treatment of Mai and Azula in some fics saddens me. Mai is wrongly depicted as frigid or mean spirited. Best case scenario their break is amicable. Or they never get back together post coronation.

I loathe when Mai is used as a jealous villain who hates Katara.

Aang's decision to spare Ozai is pivotal. I don't believe Aang should have killed him. If he wasn't the last air nomad maybe an argument could be made that he had a moral obligation to do so. Him killing Ozai would break him as a person, making him feel unworthy of his own heritage, more than he already does. As a sidenote: I want to see Aang deal with the fact that he probably indirectly killed many people in the war.

Ozai being alive is a catalyst for conflict and exploring themes of inadequacy and ideological deconstruction. Zuko could stumble by going to him for advice. He could be broken out and then rally followers to oppose Zuko.

Katara's trauma:

She has been parentified to hell and back, and in some ways Sokka has too. Her grief over her mother and the intentional sacrifice she made affects her deeply.

Her sense of justice and drive to help others may stem from wanting to make sure her mother's actions were not wasted.

She spent the whole war running on adrenaline and helping others, being equally strong and nurturing.

She overcame prejudice, sexism, and dealt with abandonment issues with her father leaving for war.

Katara's arc of sparing Yon Rah is more about her realizing she has the strength to overcome and heal. She needed to face her biggest fear and the biggest source of guilt. I believe on some level she always blames herself for her mother's death.

She deals with ptsd, and potentially burnout post war.

Zuko's trauma:

He has been abused and raised to blame himself for it.

Any successes were diminished, and compared to his sister.

If it wasn't for Iroh, who really should have tried harder to stop him from going to the war meeting, Zuko would be actively suicidal.

Overall he deals with massive anxiety, and possibly cptsd.

General Tropes and Themes:

- Aang as possessive or jealous: This is common and I interpret Aang differently. In any case he would be heartbroken about the relationship ending. Post war I see him realizing fully the weight of what rebuilding the air nation would be, that even fathering a ludicrous amount of children would not work per se.

- Katara post finale is largely free to pursue whatever she wants to do. She has no self imposed specific mission like either Aang or Zuko. In a lot of works she takes on the task of rebuilding the SWT, in other works she travels with Aang.

- Zuko is all alone dealing with being the firelord. He has to fend for himself in court, deal with Ozai loyalists, etc.

- Some works make a big deal out of Katara being a virgin and it becomes a major plot point. I don't like this being a whole thing, especially if it feels like it comes from purity culture.

- A central theme of some zutara fics is Zuko feeling a sort of devotion to Katara and striving to be better only for her. This can get unhealthy real quick.

- I dislike jealousy and controlling behavior for personal reasons. (History and Trauma) So I avoid fics with a significant amount of those.

Post Finale fics

- Ambassador Katara: I can see this happening a few years after the finale and even in non zutara fics it's a popular choice.

- Firelady Katara endgame: If it's Katara's choice and she is not being pressured I can see it.

- On the topic of steambabies: While I do see Katara as someone who would want kids, I believe she would not want them for heir and spare reasons. That's one of the biggest challenges for them as a couple if Zuko remains firelord.

On post Southern Raiders fics:

A number of fics have them getting together after this or after the last agni kai.

In my mind, this is not the right time. Their friendship is still being built, and ultimately what makes or breaks Zutara is their friendship. The stronger it is, the more I believe in the relationship.

AUs:

- Arranged marriage AUs are their own can of worms that I do not have the energy to unpack right now.

- No war AUs with no arranged marriage could work but I have nver seen one.

- Modern AUs are hard to generalize. Some are just for smut reasons and therefore concessions are made. Others tell good stories and have enjoyable romance. Using the modern world to explore Katara and Zuko's trauma can be great when done properly.

How the relationship would develop:

Best case scenario for me is six-ish years post finale.

Aang and Katara parted ways some years prior. His tendency to self isolate and the weight of his mission conflicted with Katara's motivation of wanting to help rebuild the southern water tribe.

I do not wish to portray the breakup as toxic, and would rather have them genuinely agree that they need to part ways.

Regarding Zuko and Mai: I believe they would reach an impasse where Mai cannot be the single source of emotional support for Zuko. And Zuko cannot place that task upon her. The two realize that they might have worked out if he was just a prince with no claim to the throne.

Zuko needs to learn to lean on his friends, the problem being they have been away and busy. He has probably exchanged correspondence and is in the process of opening up.

I see both Katara and Sokka being ambassadors, with the latter being more on the road and taking over trade. While Katara focuses on policy and diplomatic relations.

Their friendship grows stronger as they both realize their common flaws: Overworking, neglecting self care, etc.

They find comfort and support in each other and have the kind of 3 am deep conversations you have with lifelong friends.

Katara's perspective and work informs Zuko's beliefs and he goes further into deconstructing what he was taught.

A potential plot point would be Zuko becoming increasingly jaded with the nobility and apparent caste system within the fire nation. Having seen the consequences of imperialism outside and inside the nation.

I also see him wrestling with the idea of how much direct use of authority and or force can be justified in the name of removing nobles who block his more progressive ideas.

Katara would in turn become more aware of the material conditions around the fire nation. Poverty. Unemployment due to demobilization. She would feel the drive to help even if her position stipulated no obligation to do so.

Navigating politics and diplomacy might similarly have her jaded with the current system. She would continue to see the flaws and parallels between monarchies of different countries.

Together they would feel safe to have these discussions and be not-alone in these thoughts.

Somewhere along the line they start hugging more, holding hands, etc.

One of them confesses first, fearing that they might ruin things but not wanting or being able to hide it.

A tentative relationship starts and because they are already having the difficult conversations, talking about what it means to be together is a little easier.

They are not perfect and they will stumble, but thanks to their friendship and trust they will listen to each other.

In an ideal scenario I believe Zuko would work towards any partner being free of the obligation of heirs and marriage.

In all forms they fight side by side and empower each other.

I believe in this scenario:

- Katara keeps and celebrates her culture.

- Zuko grows as a person realistically.

- Mai and Azula find happiness. (With or without partners)

- Aang overcomes the trauma of the war and keeps being an advocate for peace.

- The possibilities for side plots and other pairings are still there.

In (scattered) summary:

I can see why zutara works and why it doesn't. It can be cute and sweet. (And deliciously smutty).

I headcanon both as bisexual.

You can write a serious exploration of what it means to transition from war to peace without leaving the nation in shambles. Or how Katara carries her culture everywhere and wants to share it.

I feel guilty about how positive and optimistic some of this is, while simultaneously feeling equally guilty for the dark and heavy themes for a fic I have not finished yet.

Or you can write them being awful at feelings and almost tearing each other apart. (I don't like this but it is popular.)

Katara's bloodbending is a popular theme and it is its own can of worms.

Thank you for reading!

@wingchunwaterbender @krista-kritical @ikuzeminna

[anxiety-pickle]

Jade and Aventurine analysis pt 2

bc I have chronic can't shut the fuck up disease

I’ve been seeing a lot of rhetoric floating around that we can’t judge (or even get a good idea of) Jade’s character because she hasn’t had her character’s release yet, which I want to address, and I’m going to do so by comparing Aventurine’s 2.0 appearance and Jade’s 2.1 appearance and related context, and why I don’t think it’s going to be a ‘switch up’ situation

This might also count as a Jade + Aventurine design analysis / theory?? I’ll leave that up to the jury

For some context, I started hsr because of Aventurine in 2.0. I started maybe a week or so before 2.1 came out specifically because I was so interested in his character, and by that point I had already made my determination about his character. And let me tell you I clocked him right off the bat. Not a single part of 2.1 was actually surprising to me (as terribly awful as much of his backstory is) and here’s why:

Aventurine’s first official appearance was his debut in “White Night” which turned out to be a direct parallel to his character arc as well as 2.1’s story, with lyrics such as “you’re hosting / a magic show I cannot escape / there’s nothin’ else left for me to do / goin’ to the other side”. This directly references both Sunday’s use of Order on him as well as him traveling through the Nihility to find Dreamflux reef

More importantly for his character however are the following lyrics “There’s no one else left for me to lose / goin’ to the other side, other side / I don’t want to be alone tonight / I’ll bring to you my best disguise / ‘cause you don’t need, don’t need to know the truth”

It tells us BLATANTLY what Aventurine’s character is - we know everything about him right from the beginning, even if it wasn’t clear that the song was about him

Now let’s move onto his design: This is an even more meta discussion of his character, but Aventurine’s design does a great job of telling us everything we need to know about him. 

Let’s start with the general card motif. The first thing I noticed was the recurring Spade design which is all over his outfit (and later turned out to be the suit that he applies to himself with his shield). In the Tarot deck, Spades are associated with intellect, action, air, and death, so already we have some morbid connotations with his imagery

Next is his general outfit: it’s very extravagant and superfluous; there’s obviously an element of seduction to his design (both with the choker and the chest window), which is likely a reflection of Aventurine’s views towards using himself as a chip (which I’ll get to later). This immediately illustrates to me that he has no problem using whatever means he has at his disposal to do what he needs to, even at risk to himself (which was later confirmed by his language towards himself in 2.0)

Finally onto the choker and the bracelets. Both are inherently restrictive pieces of clothing. The choker particularly calls reference to a collar (you might notice that Topaz, an indentured servant, also has a choker in her design, whereas Jade’s neck is bare). In Aventurine’s case, the bracelets and choker were particularly noticeable to me after Ratio and Aventurine’s staged 2.0 conversation wherein he’s called a “doomed Sigonian thrall” or openly called a “slave” in the Chinese dub

All this is to say, every element of these character designs are thought out and we can glean relevant information from them

Now let’s talk about Aventurine in 2.0

Initially, he deliberately antagonizes himself by playing up his frustration at the Astral Express taking up time when correcting a room-booking issue, and establishes a point of negotiation between himself and Himeko, who he perceives to be the leader

He ends up giving the Trailblazer his room (which he went to great lengths to get) at no benefit to himself - in fact, it’s a very large inconvenience

Multiple times he emphasizes that we, the player, should feel free to “use” him, once again showing he has no regard for his own life at all

The most damning piece of evidence, however, is that Acheron straight up clocks him the second she lays eyes upon him, “There are people who possess unwavering resolution and faith, even unto death, and they do not wield such conviction for good. One who wears a blade must use it to cut eventually. And when a gambler has nothing to lose on the table, he will surely go for broke and bet it all on a final hand.” (The Youths Who Chase Dreams)

In the ten minutes we see Aventurine on screen, he’s already 1) given up his room (to his detriment), 2) used dehumanizing language towards himself and 3) someone else who’s seen him for 2 seconds went wow that bitch looks suicidal (and she was right)

My suspicions were then confirmed by the following conversation with Ratio and Aventurine (which we now know to be scripted)

When Ratio says “doomed Sigonian thrall” we see the camera pan down to the brand on his neck while also showing the discomfort on his face → and to be honest, the sheer amount of people who weren’t immediately aware that the brand represented something dehumanizing at the least was a little surprising to me, because there were no positive connotations (or even neutral ones) in that scene. It made it very clear that it was something bad, maybe something done against his will / was outside of his control

The last important scene in establishing Aventurine’s character foundation is with his conversation with Sparkle (again, the reception to that conversation made me… a little uncomfortable. The way her comments were received freaked me out a little I’m ngl)

She first makes comments about his eyes, so we immediately know that they’re uncommon

She then tells him that Sigonians belong in the sewers (which is a crazy thing to say) and essentially says all of them are liars and thieves, so now we have real in-world prejudice against the planet that Aventurine comes from. Now we can identify the even more specific prejudice that Aventurine’s ethnic group, the Avgin, experience. Sparkle makes it clear that his eyes are distinctive and can be used to identify him as Avgin, immediately thereafter telling him that he and his “thieving people” belong in the gutters

Aventurine also says that the Dreamscape is “frivolous, vain, and flashy - and that suits me just fine” (Gentleness, the Name of Nocturne)

The worst part imo was when she mocks him, “Did you strip yourself naked, apologize to him on your knees, and promise that IPC would never harm Penacony?” (Gentleness, the Name of Nocturne). This remark is exponentially worse now considering his full circumstances, but it was already bad just as it was stated. A lot of people just took this as a joke, but I can read so I didn’t. There is a very clear power dynamic being established here - between Sunday and Aventurine (which ends up becoming relevant in 2.1), but it also establishes that there’s a power imbalance between Aventurine and the rest of the world. It doesn’t help that Aventurine doesn’t say anything to that - he doesn’t even appear offended. I assume that’s hardly the worst thing he’s ever heard said about him. The backdrop of “all Sigonians being liars, thieves, and social manipulators” definitely doesn’t help that either - playing on the assumption that because he’s Sigonian he must also be a whore

So this is yet another instance of someone (Aventurine or other) making a remark about Aventurine using himself as a tool to get what he wants → so, both internal and external instances of people using dehumanizing language towards him

This informs us that both Aventurine, and the world around him, do not value him

All this is to say it should have been abundantly clear to anyone who was paying attention what Aventurine’s character would turn out to look like: he is very clearly posturing through the entirety of the quest, he is very clearly self-destructive, and his self-esteem certainly can’t be very high

And I was right! I was exactly on the money. So now, using what we’ve seen of Jade, I’ll analyze why I don’t think Jade is in a similar situation as Aventurine (or even Topaz)

Now we don’t have nearly as much Jade content as we had Aventurine content at the time I made my determination about his character, but I feel I have enough material to make an educated guess as to what Jade and her motivations actually are. Let’s start with character design

First thing’s first: the snake. This is very clearly a Biblical allusion to the snake and the Garden of Eden. Broadly, snakes are already symbols of trickery, deception, lies, and sin (all of these having culturally to do with the christian hegemony). 

So basically, Jade has THE symbol of sin and temptation

Now, this COULD be a red herring, but so far her actions match up to her motifs - if anything, the snake is a reflection of herself rather than some kind of disembodied act / third-party-manipulation

In her splash art, the snake has an apple in its mouth (representing “sin”) that literally bleeds onto a contract she’s signing. So already we’re not painting a pretty picture here

Back to the jewelry around her neck: her necklaces are in no way as restrictive as Aventurine or Topaz’s chokers. I believe this was an intentional design choice, especially when comparing the “openness” of her outfit to Aventurine’s. Despite his attitude and posturing, he spends much of the quest making defensive gestures (such as crossing his arms or holding his arm behind his back, and largely keeps space between himself and others). He is also almost entirely covered up, aside from the chest window. This could just be due to hyv being weird about women, but I do think there’s something to be said about the relative flowy, open gestures of her outfit - Jade doesn’t dress like a woman who’s afraid

In her splash art, we can see her standing at the bough of a tree (perhaps representing the garden of Eden) and a man crawling towards her, offering jewelry and other valuable items. This man does not seem well, and the audience can extrapolate that he is not doing this of his own free will / there is coercion of some sort at play

Another comparison I’ve seen made of her clothing, and one I have to agree with, is that of a Southern Belle, and given the whip, animations, and the context in which we see her for the first time… let’s just say she’s not beating the allegations

This is a more minor character design choice, but note that her nails are sharp and pointed in her splash art. This is usually done to appear “animalistic” in some way; prescribing nonhuman traits to human characters so that they’re associated with a particular trait. In this case, the pointed nails are likely a reference to either the snake or the “demonic” connotations of “sin”

Her stone itself, jade, has different meanings in different cultures. In Chinese culture it is commonly used to symbolize success, good fortune, and prosperities. In ancient culture it was also believed to connect humans to the divine realm. I find this interesting because Jade herself works as a symbolic “connection” between the rest of the world and Diamond, who might be considered “divine” in some senses as he is an emanator. She says that she is the only person working directly with diamond, so I wonder if her stone was chosen accordingly?

‘Jade’, as in the stone itself, is also a ‘catch all’ term for both nephrite AND jadeite… so, Jade isn’t even an actual ‘designation’ of stone, referring rather to a spectrum of stones. Nephrite and Jadeite can be distinguished by their toughness and translucency. 

It’s somewhat ironic that aventurine (stone) is considered a cheap counterfeit (and Aventurine refers to himself similarly throughout 2.1) meanwhile Jade isn’t even its own individual category of stone. 

Next let’s look at her in the 2.1 plot

The first time we see her, she’s acting as a JUDGE. That is important to emphasize because people consistently downplay her role in his sentencing. I’m not sure why she was acting as a judge in this case (it might have something to do with the massive amount of money and infamy the case caused, or maybe there just wasn’t anyone else with high-enough clearance to take the case, or maybe she expressed personal interest in Aventurine and wanted to hear his piece in person), but she was literally the SOLE acting authority

I’ve already discussed Aventurine’s suspicious lack of legal options, so we know that Jade is basically the only thing that stands between him and literally dying

Immediately, she’s the first thing we see on screen, and she takes up the entire screen - domineering, pushing Kakavasha into the corner even in his own memory. This establishes another very clear power dynamic between them. Jade is sitting above him in her perfectly styled clothing while he stands beneath her in chains. The first thing she says to him is to assign material worth to his body, and goes on to admonish him for killing a slave owner - so, we know whose side she’s on, basically

Granted that Kakavasha basically just “exchanged hands” within the IPC, that’s not surprising that she’d have such a blase attitude

Here, we also see the shift in Kakavasha’s voice - I’m not sure when the change happened, but I do think he ends up mimicking her (both with the hat and the manner of speech). We already know Aventurine has the unfortunate habit of picking things up from the people who’ve hurt him (eg “all or nothing”)

I think it’s honestly a shame that people aren’t willing to engage with Jade’s character as it’s presented because that incredibly unhealthy mentor/mentee relationship is much more narratively complex and imo worth exploring than whatever it is they’re doing over there

Jade clearly has all the power over this transaction - Aventurine makes her an offer, and she accepts, but it was her choice to do so. She could have just as easily sentenced him to death, but she figured that she could get something out of him - notice how her tone sharpened after Aventurine made his wager. As soon as money was on the table, her attitude changed.

So, again, my opinion has been thoroughly substantiated by the way she acts: I think she is sinister and cunning, like Aventurine, but in the opposite way - Aventurine makes himself out to be an incompetent fool to trick others into underestimating him, whereas Jade uses a soft, kind voice to lure others into a false sense of security.

We can’t say for sure how Jade perceives herself, but I think that’s irrelevant to the discussion of her character analysis. By this I mean her motives for doing this seem entirely geared by profit, but the reason she seeks that profit is unknown. Regardless, I don’t think there’s a backstory in the world that could make me “switch up” on her. Now I’m gonna move on to 2.3 leaks so if you don’t want to see those be warned

*leaks start here

I’ve already gone through her eidolons (the clearest reflection of her soul) and they all pretty much just reference her position as a loan shark. So, predatory and exploitative in nature

Jade’s kit sucks HP from her teammates

Being a capitalist parasite is literally baked into her kit that is SO funny

Her skill drains 5% of any ally affected by Debt Collector → if Debt Collector is applied to herself, she does not lose HP but she does not receive the associated buff. So, the opposite of the self-destructive behavior we see Aventurine show (who, in his kit, literally applies a higher taunt to himself so that he’ll get hit more often than his teammates)

She may affect enemies with “blind fealty” which prevents them from attacking

She quite literally profits off of her teammate’s suffering. This is so incredibly funny

As for her light cone: THEY DELETED THE LEAKS I FOUND

If anyone knows where to find them. Please lmk. Everything I could find on tumblr, tiktok, twitter, and reddit is literally gone. I had a post saved from 2 days ago that got deleted. Idk where the crackdown is coming from (especially since Firefly’s animations are completely untouched). Maybe they’re fixing her unrendered-ass animations 

Anyways, from what I remember I think the light cone is called “Hope is Priceless” or something along those lines, which SEEMS like it should have a positive implication about her character, but if anything it feels… ironic? Maybe even mocking? When compared to the names of all of her talents and eidolons. I’m going to interpret that as “hope is a good investment because I pay nothing to achieve it”. We’ll see how that interpretation goes in the next couple of weeks I guess

Anyways, comparing that to Aventurine’s kit, which literally focuses around protection (once again showing the division between his carefree mask and his actual character), Jade straight up stealing her allies’ HP is just. So funny. Like yeah that makes sense. She’s a debt collector. Taking people’s shit is her whole job and she takes that gig seriously

From what I remember reading on her light cone, she was fixing an orphanage (or something like that? A place with a bunch of small children), and I was getting a menacing sort of vibe to it. Maybe take that with a grain of salt because I literally cannot find it to quote right now. And if/when I do I will edit this but it’s literally nowhere

**leaks end here

Notably, we have no leaks pertaining to Jade’s past or anything like that, which implies that it has no bearing on the plot of 2.3. Especially compared to Aventurine’s pre-2.1 leaks. I’m going to go out on a limb here and wager that Jade’s backstory isn’t particularly important to her character - at least, not the way Aventurine’s backstory is important to his character. At the moment, I don’t think her character or the overarching narrative would have anything to gain from trying to make her seem sympathetic, as they’ve done a pretty good job of painting the IPC workers as a morally gray entity between the IP3. You have Topaz, who is happily complicit in colonization - but an indentured servant to the IPC all the same, and Aventurine, who is unhappily complicit (note also that Aventurine was specifically assigned to the Penacony case because his methods are significantly more peaceful than whatever Opal had planned) and who is property of the IPC. From that alone we have a pretty broad gray-space of morality to work from, so I’d prefer if they went even darker with Jade (as far as motivations go).

Basically, you can’t build a villainous corporate entity off of sad backstories alone, and since the IPC references so many real irl corporations, I think it would be kind of strange if they decided to sob-story everything they’re doing away. 

If they were to go down the path which attempts to absolve Jade of her guilt by giving her some tragic backstory, or otherwise shifts the blame of her actions up the chain of command (which also doesn’t really make sense, since that would take away a lot of her autonomy and also the only person above her is DIAMOND), I feel that it would… cheapen her character as well as the story. Gray morality =/= sad backstory!!

I was also a bit confused about why Jade is becoming playable now. Like, we’ve seen maybe 30 cumulative seconds of her onscreen, and we don’t really have many story-relevant leaks right now like we did with Boothill. But Jade actually has a lot of Christian symbolism, which is significant to me because Ena has been associated with Christianity throughout the entirety of Penacony. Now, the snake alone might not have been able to convince me that this was intentional, but the tree/apple/garden of Eden imagery makes it almost impossible that it’s a coincidence. Now, does that mean Jade has connections with the Order? I have no idea, but I do think it’s interesting that she has such strong Biblical imagery right as we’re getting to leave Penacony (and with the Order, an allusion to Christianity and the Christian god)... Maybe she’s intended to be another parallel to Sunday, I can’t be sure yet. I’ll revisit that after her release.

In conclusion critical thinking is a skill and too many people haven’t practiced it

(Sorry for typos/errors/whatever I started drinking halfway through writing this)

[waitmyturtles]

I was supposed to finally have a quiet moment this week, my first of 2024, to catch up on all the dramas I’m behind on, but alas — real life has gotten in the way, and it’ll still be a little bit before I have time to write big meta again. I’m way behind on thoughts for last week’s episodes of Playboyy, Last Twilight, and Cherry Magic Thailand, but I do very much want to write about them, so some quick notes on these three as follows:

1) I owe @poetry-protest-pornography and @chaos0pikachu my thoughts on camp and Playboyy. I intended to pen this post last week after last week’s episode, but said life (ha) has gotten in the way. Friends, please note that I still SO want to write this, because I think deconstructing why camp as a style works in art will be a wonderful conversation, regardless of the narrative success (or not) of Playboyy.

So, speaking of the narrative success of Playboyy — and the upcoming debate (maybe?) about a balance of style and storytelling in dramas, I watched last week’s episode of Playboyy with this post about The Sign in mind, because I think this post gets at a thing that I want to write more about re: Playboyy, which is, like — what makes a story/narrative contextually coherent, and what responsibilities do the artists behind a show have to viewers to make a story coherent?

I think one thing we were coming to in the conversation on camp at the end of last year was whether or not Playboyy could be considered a good, a successful, or maybe even a complete story by way of its various elements. At least for now, leaving camp aside, I still don’t think this show is working narratively at all. That Captain/Keen storyline had my head spinning — uh, your coach gave you one difficult practice, and you revenge on him by filming a sex tape without consent? How…..did we get there? Porsche now has feelings for Jump? I’m still not grabbing the whole Aob/Puen feelings debacle? The Nant/Nuth storyline has gotten momentum, but not enough to fill the majority of an episode, which is a shame, because it’s the only storyline element giving this show any context at the moment. And as @lurkingshan noted, the only real compelling moment in this episode was between Teena and Zouey about how they’d transcend reality to love better versions of each other. It was lovely to watch! But I’m still not sure why we’re watching all of these storylines and if, ever, they’ll come together in a coherent arc.

So, yeah man. I was so intrigued by the premise of this show. It ain’t workin’. I’ll have more to think on this regarding style. But the stories aren’t coming together — and I TRULY think that’s a shame, considering the important themes of the show.

2) From the little ability I had to poke around Tumblr last week after the last Last Twilight episode, I think (I think!) a general feeling was that the episode wasn’t as depth-y as it could have been for the MANY heavy moments of parental interventions that took place. I believe that’s right. I think there were too many gaps in the contextual flow of the show that left Day’s mom looking more like an enemy (like, even on Pran’s mom’s level) that could have been addressed with a touch more context coming from her.

Let me explain. When I see single moms in Aof Noppharnach shows, I first go to He’s Coming To Me. HCTM has the best BL mom ever — a single mom absolutely ready to embrace her son as he’s coming out.

We know Aof loves depicting moms; he wrote as much about it last year after Moonlight Chicken aired. He’s got some legendary moms — of course, Pran’s mom; Tian’s controlling mom (who I posit is actually a front for patriarchy in A Tale of Thousand Stars); Pat’s passive mom, who is actually way more down with reality than Pat’s dad; Kao’s mom that Kao is so fearful of by way of disappointment. (Special shout-out to Pete’s dad in Dark Blue Kiss as the best BL dad.)

In other words, we know Aof has the goods when it comes to commentary on parenting. We know from episode 9 that Day’s mom (Mhon) went through tremendous hardship to raise her boys, including begging for food. She’s a famous and successful chef by the time we meet her, a workaholic. She’s a single mom, a working single mom, and Porjai is about to be on the same cusp. Night happens to be the bridge to those two.

Mhon’s willingness to keep Day in his room….her ignoring Night to start the Christmas dinner. The taking away of Day’s phone, oof. Saying that Mhok crossed a line — all while she was aware that Day previously had a crush on August. These small points create quite the enemy storyline on Mhon.

This is unfortunate, because I actually felt, watching the episode, that there was a lot about Asian parenting that was being left on the table. Valuing work and the safety of one’s kids OVER their happiness is quite the social phenomenon in Asian parenting. A good bit of Day’s mom’s actions could actually be seen as appropriate by certain-minded parents in Asia.

Yet, to have Day’s mom then ignore Night during the dinner, to have Day’s mom take Day’s phone away without explaining why he can’t be in a relationship — even for an Asian viewer like myself, well used to a particular amount of conditional brutality in Asian parenting — those storytelling decisions seemed a little harsh without more context as to how Day’s mom was driven to be the way she is now.

We had plenty of context into Dissaya in episode 10 of Bad Buddy. That moment opened doors for us to get what the hell was going on. I would love to have a similar contextual moment for Mhon, words by her about her story, that tell us how she got to where she is by way of raising her boys and becoming successful. Despite her behavior to her sons — we know she worked damn hard to provide for them. A badass lies within, and I know a successful Aof show would show us that. I hope we get it.

3) Cherry Magic Thailand, episode 5! I LOVE what’s happening with Rock/Min against the Rokkaku/Minato storyline — I love this expansion, and how Rock is less clueless and much more emotionally vulnerable than Rokkaku. I love feisty Pai. I LOVE Junior’s Jinta! I have to continue covering my mouth as I cackle.

As compared to Adachi at this point in the storyline — I wonder if CMT is offering Achi a bit more of the clueless hand than he deserves. I love the embellishments to the jealousy storyline between Karan and Kurosawa — Achi and Rock pushing off in the boat alone was particularly poignant — but Achi is well aware of Karan’s heart now, and I’m a little surprised that he seems a dash clueless that his interactions with others would make Karan jealous.

This is a minor quibble, though. Achi and Adachi are two dudes unfamiliar with love. But I wonder slightly if this vibe I’m feeling is perhaps a result of the original Cherry Magic Japan story being literally doubled in time in Thailand.

Again — MINOR quibble. This show is a refreshing delight. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the next part of the storyline. I love that they found a similar place in Thailand to shoot Karan’s drunk flashback scene as Kurosawa’s in Japan. Will Achi offer us Thailand’s version of a classic JBL run? I sure damn hope so!

That’s it! I think I’ll be able to catch up on all of this week’s shows in real time, bless up!

[liquid-luck-00]

Marks of Magic

Day 8 Familiar of Maribat Spooktober 2023

First *** Previous *** Next

Language and cursing is used

2230 Words

~~~~~~~~~~

Six years had passed and Marinette decided it was time to go back to Gotham.

She was taking a break from her designs for a bit and Luka and Jagged asked if she wanted to tour with them for a bit.

And who was she to say no. She loved them both, one was her boyfriend, while the other was his dad (and her pseudo crazy uncle). Gotham was Jagged’s hometown so it made sense for him to stop there on his North American Tour.

So here she was after six years, the cold autumn air was chilly but not too cold yet. The sky just starting to shift into dusk, casting more shadows than usual. She and Luka were walking hand in hand under the giant white oak when she noticed it. The stage, the cannons, the man standing in that horridly tacky green and purple three piece suit.

“Well that’s a familiar sight.” She sighed watching the progression make its way to the park entrance. “Come on. From what I’ve seen the Riddler has toned it down a lot ever since that new guy came in.”

“And how are we to help?” He grinned at her knowingly.

“Please riddles are child’s play.” She waved pulling him along.

“Let’s see, let’s see. You their black and red dye. Answer 3 riddles and the city goes free.”

“Why not.” She shrugged at the rogue.

“Why do zombies never win…”

“At poker?” She finished the riddle. “It’s because they have a tell-tale heart.”

She grinned remembering the grin that was erased from this timeline.

“How did you?” He looked at her quizzically. “Never mind. Walk on the living, they don't even mumble, step on the dead…”

“They mutter and grumble.” She finished again, the familiarity of the situation making her smile. “Leaves, of course. So are you going to give out some new riddles or at least cut the theatrics.”

“You’re a meta aren’t you.” He accused.

“Nope. I’ve just heard them before.” She popped the ‘p’ while tilting her head to the side.

“Here’s the next one.” He started but didn’t get to start it before she interrupted him.

“While some spring forward, I choose to fall back. Come and join me while you sit on a haystack. I may show a movie with a crazed maniac, I will for sure host a festival to give you a heart attack.” She started to laugh as the rogue stood shocked. “Do you only have a limited autumn library, or did I just get the only repeat performance.”

“You’re that little girl.” He stood shocked at this little revelation.

“And I can knock you on your ass again if you’d like.” She smiled.

“It’s not nice to tease him, he is a villain after all.” Luka murmured hugging her.

“Please if I knock him down it would be far softer than if it was the bat.” She pouted loud enough for those who gathered could hear.

“Want to test that theory?” Speak of the devil and he shall appear, Batman.

She tensed slightly, resisting the urge to glare at the ‘hero’ that stood just behind the Riddler. “I wouldn’t want to overstep.”

“Besides we have somewhere to be, Melody, we wouldn’t want to show up after a fight do we.”

She crossed her arms and pouted, puffing out her cheeks.

“I don’t care, but your dad does…” She huffed.

“Are you really that girl?” Riddler still gawked at the two of them, before seeming to make up his mind.

Just like all those years ago he charged her. And just like before she punched him in the nose. Luka let her go and jumped back, knowing she was going to throw him over her shoulder.

“Yup…” The riddler breathed out. “You’re that same girl. But you’re right softer than Bats.”

He laid on his back, not even trying to move.

“Wow!” A new voice shouted from behind her. “You’re tiny! I didn’t think you could actually do it.”

She turned and saw a young boy, maybe 14 or 15. He was in a mask, in a variation of the classic boy wonder suit, a new Robin. Her breath caught and she doesn’t remember how to breathe for a moment.

How could he?!

How could Batman let another child take up the mantle.

She couldn’t believe it, she was horrified, but more so she was livid. She wanted to march up to him and slap him. She turned and there was a tug on her wrist.

“He isn’t worth your anger, love.” Luka hummed, calming her enough that she remembered to breathe.

“Your right.” She shrugged. “Besides if I ever get arrested it isn’t going to be for this.”

She laughed, which he joined into.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we need a quick statement.” A gentleman, drew their attention, the coat, glasses, and the now salted chestnut hair.

“Commissioner Gordon, right?” She smiled at the officer. Sure she ran into him once but that day is in the forefront of her mind at the moment.

“Yes. How did you know?” He blinked.

“An event eerily similar to this one, a few years ago. You drove…” Her eyes started to tear, but she blinked them away quickly.“Jay and I home after.”

A light seemed to blink on and she thinks he recognized her, just as quickly his eyes turned somber.

“You’ve gotten big.” He seemed to sniffle, but she isn’t sure if it was because of the cold or if he knows what happened to Jay. But he shook his head before getting back to his duty. “Right, a statement…”

They gave a statement before turning, well Luka turned her, she assumes it’s because of Batman. She feels his stare on her and it really was starting to fucking piss her off.

•••

“You don’t have to go, Marinette. “

“I know I don’t have to, but it’s important to Jagged.” She sighed before waving a hand. “Besides I only met them once, I doubt they remember.”

“If your sure.” Luka asked her again, to which she nodded.

They grabbed their jackets and walked down to the lobby of their hotel.

“You ready to meet and old friend of mine, you two?” Jagged slung an arm around each of their necks the moment they stepped off the elevator.

“As much as we can be.” She smiled as she and Luka linked their hands, while Penny ushered them outside.

“So how are you liking Gotham, Mari?” Jagged asked her after she was staring out of the window a while.

“I’ve been here before. Everything is familiar but different, you know.” She sighed.

“I get it it’s been too long since I was back here.” Jagged tried to get her to talk but dropped it soon enough.

She never forgot her promise and she is living it. She became one of the newest and popular fashion houses in not just Paris but was starting to gain even more traction internationally. Her personal client list was populated by some of the biggest A-listers including Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, Prince Ali, the Tsurugi Family, the Graham de Vanily family, and even the Queen family. She travelled the world to find inspiration, and if she helped s few people with her magical abilities she smiled at their faces. Hell she was named one of the twenty under twenty, the year before for her work with environmental textiles.

Before she knew it the gates of Wayne manor were opening before them. The same intricate iron work she remembered opened into perfectly manicured lawns on either side of the long driveway.

“Jared it’s good to see you.” A cheerful voice called from the doorway, Bruce Wayne.

“Brucie! Ah, your right mate!” Jagged slung an arm around his old friend.

“These must be your boys!”

“This is Dick and Tim.” Bruce smiled placing a hand on each of the two he mentioned. “And are they yours, Jared?”

“My son, Luka, and his sweetheart and my future daughter in law, Marinette.” He waved towards both of them.

“Jagged!” She yelped in embarrassment, but it fell on deaf ears.

“Alfred good to see ya!” Jagged bounce right past the two men and child, towards the eldest gentleman.

Marinette however could feel three sets of eyes on her, and she wanted to scream. Luka tugged on her hand and squeezed, centering her.

“Dinner is ready.” Alfred commanded everyone’s attention, so they made their way to the dining room. They sat down and she tried to avoid eye contact, not really paying attention to the conversation. That is until…

“You look so familiar, we must have met before. Now I remember, Nettie!” Her head snapped up and directly at Dick. “So what have you been up to, Nettie.”

“Please… Please don’t call me that.” She tried to keep her voice level but she knows it is shaking. Her knuckles were turning white as she gripped the napkin in her lap.

“Why not? It’s cute.” The younger boy, Tim, she recalled answered trying to break the tension.

“Because the only person who can call me that is dead.” She got up and started walking out of the room.

“Give her space.” She heard Luka say, probably to Jagged or maybe even the Wayne’s, she isn’t sure.

She was originally going to walk out side but at the last minute she decided to climb the stairs. She only walked this way twice, once when she dumped half of her life’s trauma on this family and the second the morning after.

She turned the handle and it was as if time had frozen. Books piled on the bedside tables. A backpack thrown haphazardly on the desk, notebooks had spilled from it onto the floor. She walked in and sat at the foot of the bed. Model cars, motorcycles, and even engine parts littered the bookshelves. She knows dinner has probably ended but she didn’t move, she wanted to cry, but that feels as if it might be insulting at the moment.

Knock.

Her head snapped from the window, a crescent moon floated low over the trees, towards the door. She doesn’t know who she expected, but it wasn’t Dick, maybe Alfred if she’s honest.

“Room for one more?” He asked quietly. She nodded and walked in, instead of sitting next to her he sat on the ground in front of her. “Im sorry. How? How did you know?”

“It wasn’t like him.” She sighed. “Did you know?”

“Yeah.” He leaned back. “I was so angry with Bruce, he didn’t even tell me I had to find out through the paper.”

She stared at him now. “His death wasn’t in the paper, I was looking for it but it never came. Oh kwamii, please no.”

She covered her mouth, Robin’s death was made public not Jason’s. So if she knows and he knows, the two of them stared at one another.

“Marinette?”

“If Jay was… are you… were you… that means Tim is… so is Bruce… no never mind don’t answer that.” She stood. “Nope. Nope. Nuh-uh!”

She looked at him and he was just staring at her.

“Marinette, how do you know?” He stood and placed a hand on each of her shoulders stopping her from pacing.

“I was there.” Her voice was resolute, staring right at the person who called himself Jay’s brother.

“You saw…” He couldn’t finish his sentence.

“I was angry at you for not telling me, but you didn’t know.”

“Two months, Bruce wouldn’t tell me for two months, and then I snapped.” His eyes turned dark.

“Live.”

“What?” He watched her, pleadingly, as she seemed to pull him from his dark thoughts.

“Live. That was the last thing he said. We were trapped in that warehouse, the bomb, once we noticed it was almost over.” He listened, his grip on her shoulders lessening. “I tried to get us out but the door was stuck, I held him until it exploded. The next second I was back in my apartment before I passed out. I didn’t have enough magic to save us both.”

Tears finally flowed from her, Dick was also crying at this point. They just cried for a while, that is until everyone decided to try and find them. Luka and Alfred were the ones who did.

“I didn’t know.” Dick finally spoke, his voice hoarse, from his tears.

“How could you?” She wiped the last of her tears away.

“We should have said something to you. You were his only friend.”

“Master Dick.” Alfred handed him a handkerchief.

“You truly a Paon, Alfred.” She smiled.

“Tell Jagged I’ll meet you guys back at the hotel, Luka.”

“You better not be planning anything.”

“Me.” She smiled, a glimmer in her eyes. “Never.”

•••

A portal appeared under her and she disappeared.

“Melody.” He called out but he knew she didn’t hear, so he shook his head, a laugh that turned into a grumble. “I better not read about this tomorrow.”

The two others looked at him as if he could explain, but really he doesn’t think he should.

The fact that this man has a miraculous means he can be trusted, but with what he knows he is wary.

She seems to trust both if her song was any indication and they don’t mean to hurt her. But it’s not his secret to tell.

Next

~~~~~~~~~~

Taglist:

@jennifer-rose123 @toodaloo-kangaroo @joydone07 @mizzy-pop

[februaryfic]

Honey, You're Familiar: Chapter Four

(AO3) (Masterpost) (4260 Words)

A Steve Harrington x meta!Reader slowburn multichapter fic.

TW:  Canon typical violence, guns, guns pointed at kids in a school

Summary: You make a sensory deprivation pool, protect some kids, and fight the government.

------

You’re sat inbetween Joyce and Barb, watching Eleven as she floats in the kiddie pool. The lights flicker and flash as she uses her powers, connecting to the upside down. It reminds you of the demogorgon, of your flashlights sputtering out one by one, and you feel your hands begin to shake. 

It’s just El, it’s not the demogorgon. It’s just El, it’s not the demogorgon.

A hand slips into your own and you make eye contact with Barb, who is equally tense. Right. You’re not alone in this fear. You squeeze her hand in support and receive a squeeze back. You’re not alone. 

“Castle Byers…” El mumbles.

Everyone holds their breath, waiting for what she’ll say next. 

“No… run. Go!” she shouts, starting to thrash in the pool. Joyce and Hopper grab her hands and try to calm her down. 

You’re frozen. It’s different. It’s different from the show. 

Was Will being attacked? What if by saving Barb, you’ve killed Will? Your vision collapses to a single point as you stare at the thrashing water in the pool. All you can hear is Joyce murmuring comforts to El. Please don’t let Will be dead, please-

“Jonathan…” El whispers. 

You cling onto every word like the rest of them, desperate to hear if Will is safe. 

“Hiding,” she whispers next, and you exhale in relief. If Will is hiding, then he isn’t dead.

The walkie-talkie crackles to life, and you hear Will’s mumbled rendition of ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ start playing through it. 

Joyce gasps like she’s coming up for air. As if she’s been holding her breath ever since Will was lost. “You… you tell him I’m coming, Mom is coming.”

“...hurry.” Will mumbles through the walkie.

“Okay, listen, you tell him to- to stay where he is. We’re coming, okay? We’re coming honey.” Joyce says frantically.

You see El start to twitch and thrash again, and you know what has happened. She’s lost the connection. She swoops up out of the water and scrambles to get her black-out mask off her eyes; you reach over and ease it off her head. 

Joyce gathers the girl in her arms, “It’s okay. I’ve got you, I’ve got you honey, you did so good,”

You’re the first in the group to recover from what you all just witnessed, standing to fetch El one of the towels that had stacked beside the pool. Joyce bundles her into it while Mike steps up next, taking El’s hand and leading her over to sit on the bleachers, quickly trailed by Lucas and Dustin.

“So, Will’s hiding, but where?” Hopper says to the remaining group of adults and teenagers.

“In the version I know, he says he’s at Castle Byers but is captured, and you find him at the library.” you say.

“But he was able to hide this time, right?” Nancy says.

“She said my name…” Jonathan murmurs. “Why did she say my name?”

“Maybe Will was thinking of you?” you say, trying desperately to decipher the girl’s words. Now that you’d changed things, you were just as lost as the rest of them. 

“He was singing that song you showed him,” Joyce says. “And he must have gone somewhere he felt safe, right?”

“We were in my bedroom when I showed him the song.” Jonathan adds, puzzle pieces connecting. 

“He wants to feel close to his brother.” Barb says.

“So maybe he’s as close as he can get in that place… Is there places he could hide in your bedroom?” Hopper questions, turning to Jonathan.

“We used to crawl under the bed when- when mom and dad were fighting.” Jonathan says, trailing off in awkwardness at the end. 

“So maybe he’s there. Close to Castle Byers, close to Jonathan, a place where he used to take refuge.” Hopper concludes, looking to Joyce for confirmation.

“We check the library first, then there.” She confirms.

Hopper immediately strides out the doors of the gym, leaving Joyce and Jonathan to hastily jog after him. You remember this argument. Nancy and Barb stay with you, clearly feeling ill at ease. You pull them over to the bleachers and sit them down. 

“You want to kill that thing, right?” you turn to Nancy. Clearly surprised, she doesn’t answer you immediately.

“I do,” Barb cuts in, a hard expression on her face. “That thing tried to kill me. I don’t want to be afraid anymore. I want it dead.”

Nancy holds onto her friends arm. “Agreed. Someone needs to distract it so Mrs Byers and the Chief can get downtown.”

“Good. Jonathan is going to come back in here, pissed because his Mom won’t let him go save Will. But you guys are still important.” you say. 

Right on cue, Jonathan bursts back into the gym and stomps through to the hallway to sit alone. You give Nancy a nod to follow after him, making her look at you in confusion.

“What? He’s got a plan. You guys don’t need my help with this,” You say with a shrug. “Oh! But when Steve shows up, please don’t point the gun at him? You can trust him, you don’t need to threaten him.”

“Steve’s going to show up?” Nancy exclaims.

“Yeah. He comes to apologise to Jonathan. Just let him in, he’ll make the right choices on his own.”

“You have a lot of faith in Steve Harrington.” Barb says, giving you a confused glance.

You desperately try not to fluster. “Future knowledge, remember? Now come on, if we leave Jonathan much longer, he’s going to break into the police station without you,” you say, dragging them both by the hands now. 

When you get them both into the Hallway, you practically shove the two girls at Jonathan. “Right, now don’t forget to grab the fire extinguisher from the station, you don’t want the fire to get out of hand. You’re not going to be able to kill it, but if you can draw it elsewhere, you’ll give Mrs Byers and the Chief chance to sneak in and grab Will.”

“You’re not coming?” Jonathan asks carefully.

Visions of 4 young kids facing down government agents, alone, fill your mind. “Someone’s gotta babysit those idiots,” you say, gesturing back into the gym. 

There’s a fire axe mounted in a glass case just next to the group; you smash into it with your jacket-covered elbow and grab the weapon.

“What’s going to happen here?” Nancy asks anxiously, gaze bouncing between the axe and her baby brother sat in the gym.

You wince. “Nothing that you should let distract you right now. The kids will be okay, I swear. I’m going to make sure of it.”

Nancy looks close to protesting, but Jonathan places a hand on her shoulder. “C’mon, we need to go,”

Her eyes stare into yours beseechingly. You give a firm nod- you will protect these kids with your life. Eventually, Nancy gives you a nod back, and the three other teens walk out of the middle school.

—

“Where are they going?” Mike asks suspiciously as you head back to the kids. 

“You all need to listen to me, okay? We don’t have a lot of time. Right now, there are three teams in play. Team Search and Rescue, that’s the Chief and Mrs Byers. Team Monster Hunt, that’s Nancy, Jonathan, and Barb.”

“What team are we?” Lucas asks, looking hesitantly at the fire axe still in your hand. 

“We are Team Hide-and-Seek,” you finish. “The bad men will be here pretty damn soon, and we need to keep this one-” you place a hand on El’s shoulder, “-as far away from them as we can, for as long as we can.”

“So we’re just hiding?” Mike asks, with an air of frustration.

“You become bulletproof when I wasn’t looking, Wheeler? Yes, we’re hiding. This isn’t a joke, or a game. We stay quiet and hidden.”

“Then why the axe?” Lucas questions.

“I’m the last line of defense. If they find us, you all keep your heads down and let me go in front, okay? Don’t be heroes,”

The fear in your voice seems to sober the boys, making them all nod at you solemnly. 

“So, where’s the best place to hide in the middle school?” you ask, making them all perk up a little more.

—

You can hear the agents’ footsteps echoing through the air ducts of the school as you lead the kids through an upstairs corridor, stepping as softly as you can. The show doesn’t make it clear how or where they get caught, but glancing out a window at the cars parked out front, you’re vastly outnumbered. 

You doubt you have much time left before you’re caught, with only the boys’ knowledge of the school corridors saving you. You seem to have given them a headstart by warning them.

Dustin frantically taps on your arm, gesturing behind the group in a panic. You see shadows coming round the corner behind you. Your heart seizes in your chest.

“Go, go!” you hiss, hurrying the kids up past you to try and get them round the corner into the next corridor. They bustle past, but quickly freeze, and as you follow, you realise why. 

The agents have cut you off, closing in from every angle. Guns aimed on both sides. Dr Brenner approaches from the front, towards El, and Mike lunges forward to stop him.

You see an agents gun twitch downward. Almost the perfect angle to shoot a meddling 12 year old kid in the head— 

You throw yourself forward. 

Your mind fully whites-out for a split second as the bullet rips straight through your left shoulder, rending the flesh asunder.

When your mind comes back to you, you’re on the ground, leaned hard against a wall. Tears are blocking out your vision but you try to focus, you have to stay focused. 

The boys are being restrained behind you, trying desperately to get to both you and El. The girl herself is being held by Brenner, who seems unaware or just uncaring of her distress. 

You hear her mumble Mike’s name, and that’s when the lights start to flicker. 

Oh. 

That’s right. You’re losing a lot of blood. 

The wall in front of you stretches as it is torn from the inside out, and the creature from your nightmares tumbles out, screeching in hunger. It grabs the nearest agent and closes its flower-head around his skull, viscera spraying out from the gaps between its teeth. 

Brenner and the agents open fire on the beast, and you use their momentary distraction to haul yourself up. Mike pulls El up off the floor, while Lucas grabs your good arm and starts dragging you along too. 

You follow as fast as your legs can manage, letting the boy lead you and just focusing on not falling over, as you rapidly get more dizzy.

The group stops, and you’re pushed into a corner, sat on the floor against some cabinets. Fuck. You’re in the science classroom. 

“Guys, we need- we need to leave. It can find us here.” You mumble, trying to get their attention.

“You can’t run anymore!” Lucas shouts. “There’s first aid stuff here, Dustin’s grabbing it.”

“No! Guys! This is where the monster finds you,” You say. “If El kills the monster, she’ll-”

You cut yourself off with a strangled cry as Dustin presses a gauze pad hard into your shoulder. 

“I can do it.” El says, quietly, determinedly. You barely hear her over your own panting for breath. 

“No, kiddo, don’t-” you start to beg. “If you four just run, the monster won’t chase you, it’s following me. Me and the agents will- we’ll kill it.”

“We’re not leaving you, Y/n.” Dustin says harshly from his post at your side. 

“You took a bullet for me!” Mike shouts, “We’re not going to just leave now!”

“Mike, Eleven will go to to the upside down if she fights that thing. Please! Listen to me-”

Your appeal dies on your lips as the door bursts open. You’ve ran out of time. 

You try and get off the floor, pushing away Lucas and Dustin’s grasping hands, but find yourself pinned down anyway by an invisible force. You look over to Mike and see him struggling against the same. 

El spares you a look, sorrow and determination in her eyes, before pinning the demogorgon to the blackboard. She raises her hand. The lights start to flicker and spark, the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. You can feel an enormous pressure building in your head, pounding behind your eyes in sync with the lights. 

Eleven starts to scream. 

You and the boys watch in horror and awe as the demogorgon starts to break, starts to flake apart before your very eyes. The pressure in the room is close to unbearable now, the lights strobing and making you dizzy. 

You can feel Dustin holding on tight to your left shoulder. A small hand slips into yours as Lucas grabs onto you too. Mike doesn’t take his eyes off Eleven as she also starts to disintegrate alongside the monster. Everything reaches a crescendo and you can’t help but squeeze your eyes close in fear.

When you open them, both El and the demogorgon have vanished. The pressure dissipates, the lights return to normal. All that is left of El is a faint scorchmark on the floor where she once stood. 

“El!” Mike screams, scrambling up and running over to where she was. “Eleven!”

But she is gone.

—

The Hawkins Memorial Hospital is a tall, bland building with magnolia-cream walls and faded tiles. You were herded in here an hour ago; at this point all you can smell is blood (your own), and the harsh chemical scent of the antiseptic they have been endlessly wiping your wound with. 

“You’re lucky,” the paramedic chatters to you. “It’s small calibre, through-and-through. Your back is pretty torn up, but at least we won’t have to worry about bullet fragments!” 

You take a very deep breath and stop yourself from screaming at him. Lucky. Right. He finishes bandaging your shoulder and sends you off with a list of meds, telling you to get back to your parents. If only.

You’re desperate to curl into a ball somewhere and sleep, but instead you traipse down the hall to the waiting room where you last saw the others. You needed to speak to Hopper, now.

You call the man out into the hallway before dragging him to a quiet corner.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

“What did you promise them?” you ask, barely keeping a lid on your anger. “To get Joyce and you through the gate, what did you promise them?”

“I told them we’d keep quiet about what we’d seen.” Hopper says, meeting your gaze head on. 

“Really? So you didn’t sell out Eleven and tell those bastards exactly where they could find her?” you hiss.

“I- Look, kid-”

“Don’t you ‘look, kid’ me! That girl has been treated like a damned lab experiment her whole life. We promised, I promised, to keep her safe from the bad men meanwhile you-” you shove at his chest with your good arm “-sell her out the first chance you get.”

“We had to get Will, okay! I made them promise they wouldn’t hurt the boys-”

“And how well did that work out, huh?” you gesture to your bandaged shoulder, seething. “I had to intercept a bullet intended for Mike Wheeler’s head, Hopper. I had to herd those kids around while we were hunted down by those agents like fucking animals, and now an innocent kid who has never had a chance to be normal in her life is trapped in the upside down because she fought to save her friends. So tell me, how well did that work out?”

You’re practically gritting your teeth in anger, as Hopper watches you carefully. 

“I promised Joyce Byers that I would get her son out of that place. And that’s what I did,” He says carefully. You go to start yelling at him again before he continues. “That doesn’t mean that I did everything right. I’m sorry, kid.”

His apology takes the wind out of your sails and you sag. The anger that has been keeping you upright for the last hour and a half fades away as its root, grief, makes its presence known.

“I—” you start, taking very deep breaths, “—am incredibly disappointed in you. You should have known better than to trust those bastards, and your actions put those kids’ lives at risk.”

“You’re right,” Hopper acquiesces, and leads you over to a set of chairs now that you’re calmer. You practically fall into one. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. I put your life at risk too. I’m sorry/”

“Apologise to Eleven when she gets back.” you mutter.

“She’s coming back then?” 

“You still have that cabin out in the woods?”

—

After your long discussion with Hopper, you head back to the waiting room, which was currently empty other than Nancy and Barb, who are having a quiet conversation, and Steve. He’s clearly confused to see you, and you give a half-hearted wave as you slump down into a seat next to him.

“Jesus, what happened to you?” he asks, looking at your shoulder.

“Brought an axe to a gun fight.” you say, exhaustion starting to get its claws into you. 

“Brought a— you were shot?” Steve exclaims, now sitting straight up in his chair. 

“Yeah. Did y’ fight go well?” you mutter tiredly, glancing between him and the two girls. No major injuries, that you can see. 

Steve looks between you and the girls in hesitation. “You… know about that?”

“I know everything. Don’t worry, I’ll catch you up later,” You can’t talk for much longer, words starting to slur as your eyes beg to close. “Now go see a doctor,” you push Steve’s shoulder, “Make sure y’not brain damaged, from J’nathan,”

You hear a quiet chuckle as your eyes drift shut. 

—

You’re woken up by an excited shout and the sound of multiple feet running across the hall. Ah, Will’s awake then. 

Opening your eyes, you see Jonathan at the door of the waiting room as the boys rush past him, Nancy standing up to follow. 

“Did they just wake you up?” you hear Steve’s voice on your right. He’s still sat by your side, and you have to fight back a smile at the thought.

“Ugh, unfortunately.” you reply, making him laugh. You go to stretch but the vicious pain in your shoulder cuts you short, making you gasp.

“Shit, you alright?” Steve asks, leaning close to you in concern. 

“It’s fine, just the bullet wound.” you say sarcastically. 

He plays along, “Oh good, I was worried something else was wrong with you.” He smiles. “I got cleared by the nurse while you were asleep. My brain’s not damaged, she said. Well- no more than usual.”

“Hey!” you punch him in the arm, “Don’t be mean to my friend Steve.”

“What, I’m not even allowed to be an asshole to myself?”

“That’s right,” you say with conviction. 

He’s quiet for a moment, like he’s thinking something over.  “So, we’re friends now?”

“Oh— I mean—.”

“It’s just, you said ‘your friend Steve’.”

“...Do you want to be friends?”

The moment feels a little bit too heavy to be casual, a little too sincere to be a joke. You both look into each others eyes for a brief second before glancing away. You wonder if he feels as flustered as you do.

“I mean, I do recall someone saying that I should make better friends.” he jokes, breaking the tension.

“Damn, who said that? She sounds real smart, you should listen to her.”

He shoves you gently and you both laugh. Shuffling his chair even closer to yours, he lowers his voice.

“Was someone really going to shoot the kids?” He whispers.

“Yeah,” you respond soberly. “Who told you?”

“Are you kidding? They won’t shut up about it. According to them, you faced down a bunch of government agents with an axe and took a bullet aimed at Mike’s head.” he says, with just enough levity in his tone that he could play it off as a joke if he was wrong. 

“No, that— that’s true.” you sigh, feeling the weight of the day come creeping back onto you. 

“Holy shit,” he whispers. “Like the government? Like, our government?”

Oh fuck, of course. This isn’t over. 

“Hey Steve, your dad is rich, right? And like, decently powerful?”

He seems confused at the change of topic but rolls with it. “Yeah, he works with a load of Wall Street guys.”

“Okay good. What’s his name?”

“Richard? Why are you asking?”

“Because the government is going to want to clean all of this up,” you mutter back. “And we need to make sure that they don’t ‘clean us up’ as well, understand?”

“Clean as in…” he gestures a line across his throat.

You nod. 

He collapses back into his chair and buries his head in his arms. “This is crazy,”

He looks young as he sits there panicking, and you remember that you’re only a year and a half or so older than him. You’ve never felt like more of a stupid kid than you do now, but you’re the only one with the knowledge to do what needs to be done. So you’ll have to do it. 

—

The government agents start sniffing around your group shortly after Will opens his eyes. They smile and cajole and start trying to push contracts into people’s hands before you loudly instruct them all not to sign until you’ve looked at it. The agents seem surprised when everyone listens. 

Frankly, so are you. 

It seems they all think this is something you have future knowledge about, rather than you flying by the seat of your pants, but you don’t mind if that assumption keeps them out of your way.

You spend 2 hours sat in that hospital waiting room, going through the contract as carefully as you can, slowly noting down a list of changes in your notebook. Eventually, you approach an agent and request a meeting. It’s time to go try and convince the government not to kill you.

You’re led into a room to sit across from a government representative in a crisp shirt. He’s giving you a smile that you can tell is meant to be reassuring, but is reading more as condescending. 

“So, you have a problem with the contract?” he simpers.

“Problems, plural. Shall we go over them? First—” you pull out your notebook and flip to your list of demands. The agent cuts you off.

“Miss, this isn’t really a situation where you can make requests,” he says, turning that condescending smile onto you once more.

“I disagree,” you reply, voice like ice. “You see, a large group of American citizens had their lives put in danger, both passively and actively, by Hawkins National Lab. A lab that is sanctioned by the US Government. Despite this, the US Government has made no efforts at restitution or protections for its harmed citizens and is in fact threatening them into silence,”

The agent stares at you.

“Now, I understand the need for silence. Imagine what would happen if this story got to the press? To America’s enemies, even?”

The agent’s eyes narrow.

“What I don’t understand, is why the US Government is not making a greater effort to ensure the protection of its harmed citizens. All these threats to stay quiet, yet no thanks? No thanks for cleaning up the mess that a government sanctioned laboratory created?”

The agent sighs, stretching his hands out before him.

“The government needs the cooperation of these people, especially seeing as simply getting rid of them isn’t an option,”

At this, the agent stills, watching you carefully again. 

“I mean, after all, these people are well integrated into their community. People would notice if the Chief of Police mysteriously died of an overdose, for example, shortly after a suspicious community upheaval. People would talk. Even outside of Hawkins, do you think nobody would notice if Richard Harrington’s kid went missing?”

The agent is starting to get twitchy now, looking over at the mirrored panel you know his colleagues wait behind. 

“The United States Government has a duty to its citizens. A duty that is not being fulfilled. And furthermore-”

“What do you want?” the agent finally blurts, frustratedly.

“I’m glad you asked,” You say, pushing over the piece of paper with your list.

The agent takes it and leaves the room, all but slamming the door behind him. 

You try not to sag in your seat, knowing full well that you are still being watched. You’re playing a game of chicken with the US Government, and you don’t want to consider what will happen to you if you lose. 

Your list wasn’t too unreasonable, you think. The removal of a few of the more predatory clauses in the NDA, fancy healthcare for everyone, college funds, a lump sum of cash, and paying off the mortgage on the Byers’ house. And of course, not killing you all to keep you quiet. That too. 

The agent walks back into the room and you try to read his body language. 

“We… accept your conditions,” he says, through gritted teeth. 

You try not to sigh in relief. 

[sevensoulmates]

As always it's a delight to get to read your posts and meta, it's just as satisfactory and fun as it is watching the show. You're just awesome ❤️

You know after watching the last episode (and now that we know little bit more about Marisol) it made me feel really sorry for her, because I just know she'll be collateral damage while Eddie figures himself out and that's just so sad. And I wasn't really sure why those comments Eddie made about him/Marisol when they encountered Buck and Tommy at the restaurant and after having sex with her made me feel so uncomfortable, but then you pointed it out and I was like yeah that was kinda like locker room talk, Eddie was overcompensating here like trying to be a big macho man and that's why it felt so weird.

I'm baffled about Eddie's situation the most because I'm sure it's gonna be hell for him for a while since he will have to work through a lot of issues to finally be at peace with himself. And until stated otherwise my headcanon is the same as yours. I'm sure he is a gay repressed man (and not no get into the gay Eddie vs demisexual  Eddie discourse but I'm sure he may be both) I grew up in a Mexican household, I was raised catholic and although I wasn't in the army my dad was and he raised me and my siblings with an iron fist. So Eddie's background/storyline has always hit too close to home for me. I'm just dreading all the issues he's going to have to face.

Which brings me to this. To show his coming out arc and make it into completion do you think they will have to show us more about his childhood and upbringing, not just having Eddie talking about it but to have scenes like we did with Buck's childhood?

And why do you think the scene about Buck apologizing to Eddie for hurting him at the basketball court had to happen off screen?

Btw thanks for always replying to my questions.

Hi there!!! No problem!!! You always have super interesting questions to ask, so I am always delighted to answer them!

We all know how Eddie feels about "performance". I just feel like why would Eddie feel like the performance stops once he's actually made it past the dating phase and into the relationship phase? Maybe the external pressure from others is off (none of his family or the firefam questioning him, etc) but in order to KEEP the relationship, it really would require MORE performing.

It's fascinating to me, because we don't see Eddie acting this way with Shannon. You could make some arguments that their relationship was pretty fractured from the get-go and we didn't really see their dating/"honeymoon" phase but even when they were ~slightly~ back together in season 2b, Eddie wasn't acting like that with Shannon. Even when they were sleeping together, he wasn't. The most he did was make a couple of cringe comments about his "dashing good looks" or something, but that was more poking fun at himself. Even when Eddie was telling Buck about how "sex complicates things" with Shannon, he wasn't out here smirking or making comments about how good it feels to finally get some after two years of (apparent) celibacy. Say what you want about their relationship, but at least Eddie respected Shannon enough as a person to not start speaking about her that way. Their relationship was far too serious for that.

With Ana, it was so incredibly hard to watch because even though the storyline ITSELF wasn't about sex, a lot of their scenes had that edge to it? Like the sex-scene fake out in season 4, "grade me on a curve", "you really like to see me dressed up" "and the other thing" it was so ODD and FORCED. At the time of s4/5 airing you could maybe chalk it up to Eddie overcorrecting since it's his first real relationship after Shannon, but then he goes and does the same thing with Marisol which now makes it a pattern.

Once it clicked in my brain that the reason his relationships with women feel so fake is that he is literally putting on a show of hyper-heterosexuality (idk if that's a real term or not but roll with me here) it all made sense. I think seeing him "in a relationship" with Marisol for real was the final puzzle piece to seal this deal for me.

His extreme performances with these women, combined with their purposeful lack of development into full characters, all points to the fact that none of these relationships are going to work out. Eddie is not going to be able to actually settle down with his "endgame" partner until he actually finds someone he can be his true, real self with and "doesn't have to pretend with them" ;)

Is it bad that I actually enjoyed getting to know Marisol a little? Putting aside the actress, Marisol, the character, is interesting, because we're actually getting to know her a little bit more, far more than we got to with Ana. But I find both of these love interests fascinating in one mutual way: the fact that they put up with Eddie. Like I think about other characters and if they would've been okay being treated by their partners the way Eddie treats his girlfriends and I'm like.....hell no!

Oddly enough the only person I could see putting up with it was Buck before he finally started realizing that he doesn't have to be in a relationship with someone just because they want him. Only someone who also has deep insecurities, abandonment issues, and a general lack of self-respect would put up with Eddie's BS to his girlfriends. That's not to say that Eddie's a horrible person or abuses his partners or anything, but it's basically indisputable that he does not ever put in any emotional work to actually create meaningful relationships with his girlfriends. So why were Ana and now Marisol, so willing to accept that?

Ana resisted the break-up even though she could feel Eddie's whole heart wasn't in it. She was willing to keep trying in a dead relationship just in the hopes that something would work out. The same goes for Marisol. Idk about you, but if I was in a relationship with a man for going on 4-6 months and he knew NOTHING about me? I'd feel unloved, uncared for, and unappreciated, and I'd LEAVE.

We know that Marisol was scared of Eddie rejecting her or fetishizing her and that's why she didn't tell him about the nun thing, and I understand her reasoning and fear there. But gworlie, what else do we know about you? Can Eddie name a single hobby you have outside of loving Jesus and DIYing houses? Does Eddie even know your last name? It really makes me think that Marisol is unfortunately the type to just let things like this slide in the hopes that some man will accept her, any man. Since they rarely do because of the nun thing. And boy, do I understand that feeling, but that's NOT real love. I bet you anything once we get to the Eddiemarisol breakup she's gonna be very similar to Ana in that she knew Eddie's heart wasn't fully in it, but she just didn't want to be alone again.

I think that like attracts like, and Eddie's clutching onto this relationship for the same reason Marisol's clutching onto this relationship: because it's easier than being alone and being judged for it.

This is a tangent but I also want to point out that one thing that Eddie found uncomfortable about Marisol being a nun was the fact that nuns used to be his teachers....but was Ana also not a teacher? Just because she wasn't a nun, doesn't mean she couldn't have also been in a position of power that Eddie could've found uncomfortable. I find it interesting that even though Marisol's not a teacher, the show found a way to connect her to teachers and therefore to Ana.

As for Eddie's coming out arc, while I don't think it's entirely a necessity to have flashbacks to how he grew up, I certainly think it would help a lot of people who can't read between the lines if they had some. I especially would like to see scenes of young him + Shannon. Maybe seeing how the pressure from his family and church led him to believe men have to be a certain way, potentially microaggressions about being lgbt that he might've seen from his family/church (I don't necessarily mean full-on homophobia but possibly like little ways in which he was shown that there was no other "acceptable" option from his church other than heterosexuality. I think seeing scenes of how he and Shannon got together could be enlightening too, how their community reacted to them getting pregnant, etc. I think all of this, combined with a mirrored storyline in the present (similar to Buck Begins) would really drive home the point the show is trying to make, especially if they can finally be overt about Eddie's queerness. BUT all of this can still be done present day without the need for flashbacks either. I just think it would be a way to make the storytelling more rich and to spell it out more obviously for the people in the back.

As for Buck apologizing to Eddie for the basketball scene...I would've liked to see it too, but at the end of the day, it's like Ryan said in his interview...Eddie was always going to forgive Buck because he loves him to his core, because he knew Buck didn't come at it from a place of truly wanting to hurt Eddie. All of it was a manifestation of Buck's own issues, and by this point (especially after the lawsuit arc and the deadbrother arc) Eddie is aware of that. We did see plenty of scenes where Buck was scolded and demonstrated he was aware his actions were shitty, and Eddie probably assumed that letting Buck stew in his own guilt was atonement enough. And so I think likely the writers felt that in the end, the sentiment got across. Separately--given all the switcheroo stuff that happened with 7x04 and 7x05, I wouldn't be surprised if there WAS an apology scene and it got cut for time.

[headspacedad]

so you're ready to socialize

You've got your blog set up. You've posted or reblogged something. Your icon isn't a faceless orange shape. You're no longer in danger of being blocked on sight as a bot.

Now what?

I recently got an ask in my inbox for help with this whole 'tumblr' thing. The person that asked me had a lot of the basics down so I focused on expanding your social circle - except it took me so long to write that I saved it in my drafts to add to and only then found out that once its in your drafts you can't reply privately.

so - Imma post it here without the actual ask so if the person didn't want to be mentioned they won't. Let's go!

First off, doing what you're doing right now by sending me an ask is a great way to get the ball rolling. Reaching out to other people and engaging them is a big part of how you can build a circle on tumblr.

You can do that with inbox messages.

You can do that with DM/PMs (the box that pops up to the side where you can have real time text conversations).

You can do that by reblogging other people's posts and leaving notes in the tags commenting about the post (most posters read these, though they're more for your followers to get your thoughts on a matter, like whispering in a movie theater except without the dirty looks)

reblog their post and add your own comments in the body of the post, basically chaining a response to their post, usually used when you've got something that adds to the original post like a continuation of the joke or more facts, etc.

and you can comment on the posts via the little speech bubble next to the reblog button, which is kind of like replying personally to the post (interacting with the poster themselves).

Not everyone will automatically engage in response. Some people are just here to chill and don't want to be social (some days I know I don't have the brainpower for it). A lot of people do want to be social though and so the more you comment outward the higher your chances of finding other people you can jive with. A good way to make your chances better at finding someone that will back and forth with you is over shared interests. We're a very interest based site. So find something you're excited about - maybe its a hobby like knitting, maybe its a streaming series like Good Omens, maybe its hamsters, maybe its Elizabethan neck ruffs! Whatever it is that you're interested in punch the words that will get those kinds of results into tumblr's search bar and look at the posts that come up. I tend to search by 'newest' instead of 'most popular' because it guarantees me people that are currently interested in whatever I am, who are actively putting their posts out there for others to find. Often if you start reblogging someone's posts, they'll see it and check out your blog. If you really want interaction though, the best way to go is one of the above bullet points, especially inbox or speech bubble commenting. It shows you want to talk about something they want to talk about too. A lot of times this is a great way to get more interaction with others and widen your circle (as well as find new stuff about something you enjoy). It might be slow going, I still haven't figured out what the magic is that gets someone a blow up of followers overnight, especially not the all important holy grail of Interactive followers but slow and steady still builds a good group of people you can enjoy sharing things everyone's interested in and it keeps growing over time.

This also works in reverse. A good chunk of my followers (friends honestly) come from my days in the Voltron fandom. I was VERY active making posts while the show was airing. Lots of fanfiction, lots of meta, lots of speculation, just lots of being loud and excited (and then loud and not excited). A lot of other people were interested in VLD too at the time and they found me and bounced off my ideas with ideas of their own and things really ballooned. To this day, a huge hard core of my social group are ex-VLD fans who have moved on to other things (mostly) but still hang around because we built that core and we enjoy seeing what the others in the group have moved onto and found to share with the team. So, again, find your interests and make posts about them so that other people with the same interests can find you. The more popular something is the more attention its going to get - but also the easier it is to get lost in the shuffle of everyone talking about a thing. Not every post is going to get responses. Sometimes I'll post something I think people will enjoy and get crickets. Sometimes everyone and their cousin jumps onboard. Don't get discouraged. DO use the tags. tumblr sucks when it comes to finding things in the tags but its still worth doing because sometimes, randomly and with no pattern, it doesn't suck. The first five tags are the really important ones. Make sure you put the biggest details there. For instance if you're making a post about the One Piece live action from Netflix your first five tags should be something like: one piece, opla, netflix, zoro, swords are cool. You want people looking for One Piece posts about Zoro and his swords to be able to find you easily. And, once they find you, hopefully to engage you about Zoro and his swords.

There are a lot of ways to find other people to interact with on tumblr. One of the pleasures of the site is you get to take things, for the most part, at your own pace and level of comfort. Just remember, the more active you are interacting with other people and their posts, the wider your circle will grow. Its not a 100% success rate, like I said, a lot of people are just here to vibe after a long day of having to be socially 'on' all day, but a lot of people are happy to find other people to get to natter about interests with. Do what you're comfortable with and before you know it, you'll have a group of people that interact with your posts, and you, regularly!

[riddle-me-ri]

How would the Riddlers be with an S/O who has cartoon physics powers?

A/N: Ohohohoho hell yeah!!! As an animation nerd there's nothing I love more than wacky ass cartoon physics! This would probably be one of my powers not even gonna lie

Riddlers with A Reader That Possesses Cartoon Physics Powers

Arkhamverse Riddler:

- Oh please, you're insulting him for thinking he would even believe for a moment that you– 

- Wait, wait you just painted that tunnel! 

- Yet when he went up to it Ed ended up hitting a wall…whereas you went through it…

- Why...how does he hear a train??

- Edward pinches his nose. Just how…it didn't make sense…

- Yet, he also lived in a world of meta humans, aliens, and gods...maybe he shouldn't be so surprised. 

- Once the initial shock is over, he's definitely going to use your cartoon physics to his full advantage. 

- Especially your ability to patch him up. 

Reevesverse/Dano Riddler:

- He rolls his eyes at first. 

- It's a really cute idea in theory…

- Although when he saw you balancing yourself on a ledge…

- Only to continue to balance on thin air. 

- You scared the living daylights out of him. 

- It takes a while for him to get used to it, but it still keeps him on edge. 

- He’s glad you’re able to protect yourself to some degrees

- But he would appreciate it if you wouldn’t raise his blood pressure for unnecessary reasons. 

Gotham Riddler:

- Oh please..

- Listen a lot of weird things have happened in Gotham...but there's no way…

- Are...are you walking on thin air after walking off the roof? 

- How? How? Omg please don't look down–AH 

- As interesting as this development is, his stress levels for your safety goes up to 11. 

- Just because you have a higher chance of coming out of situations unscathed…

- Doesn't mean he won't worry.

- He will also be adamant that no one else finds out about these abilities of yours. 

- He can think of a handful of people who would love to take advantage of it.

BTAS Riddler: 

- Cartoon physics, you say?

- Like going through painted black holes?

- Being flattened but coming out unscathed? 

- Yep, all that and more. 

- He's intrigued from the start 

- When you show him all the basics; teleporting black holes, painting tunnels, walking on air, plugging guns the usual suspects.

- He's in awe, you…you're amazing!

- Eddie is super impressed and feels even luckier to have you on his side.

- You're as strong as Batman! 

- He feels so lucky to have you

- And he's relieved you have a way to defend yourself. 

- It is Gotham after all. 

Zero Year/Capullo Riddler:

- He's going to be highly skeptical at first. 

- So he will make you prove him wrong.

- What do you mean you don't want to? You got too!

- He won't leave you alone unless you walk on clouds without falling down, if you can go through painted walls or if you can straighten out a flattened limb!

- He will preemptively shoot a gun at you, of course expecting you to plug the barrel with your finger. 

- When you do and the barrel inevitably explodes on itself. You wipe away the gun powder with no hesitation. 

- Meanwhile Ed is speechless (for once)

- But he's stupid excited now.

- He is going to take full advantage of this. 

Twojar Riddler:

- He chuckles begrudgingly, you and your extremely imaginative ideas…

- That is until he saw your physics save your life in real time. 

- You two were out on a date and you went to cross the street. 

- Edward had a heart attack when that car struck you 

- Yet your body just contoured to the car's silhouette…

- It was slightly unnerving to see but…you were alive somehow! 

- You were pretty embarrassed that that was how he saw your physics in action. 

- At first he was in disbelief but now he's grateful for them, if they are a means to keep you safe in Gotham. 

- Also fully expect him to reuse those teleporting black holes when he needs a quick get away. 

Gotham City Sirens Riddler:

- He really shouldn't be surprised. 

- If it was anyone else, he probably wouldn't bat an eye.

- But his own s/o? Well that's different. 

- He'll be skeptical but intrigued..

- You grab a bucket of black paint, yet when painted on the wall it turns into a scenery of Gotham Park.

- When you two walk through it, Eddie's pretty stunned. 

- However, nothing moved him more than when you grabbed another bomb straight from the air to keep him from being hit…

- Yet when it exploded you were just covered in soot with spiky and smoked hair.

- He is still not used to you defying gravity or your lack of pain recognition but…as long as you're okay…in the end.

- It's all that matters…even if it drives him bonkers sometimes. 

Telltale Riddler: 

- Much like Arkham Riddler, he'll think you're just messing with him. 

- Please just stop wasting his time, if you want his attention oh so badly, grab him that tool.

- Before he knows it you hand that exact tool to him. 

- At first, this Edward doesn't take notice. 

- Albeit after the next couple of requests…and you not moving an inch away from his side…

- Edward is irritated. How are you doing that?

- He's speechless when he sees you just pulling something from behind your back. 

- He told you to turn around so your hack faced him and yet, you only pulled something from your front. 

- Maybe there is something to your…claim of possessing the ability of cartoon physics.

Young Justice Riddler:

- You mean…those silly Saturday morning cartoons? 

- He's hesitant to believe, but like other Riddlers, he lives among meta-humans, aliens, and gods so…it really shouldn’t be that hard to believe. 

- If anything he thinks its pretty fascinating all around. 

- The way your body contorts to whatever it impacts. 

- How you can defy gravity as long as you don’t look down.

- Your limbs stretch, shrink, and twist as if there were no bones. 

- He’s also grateful for your powers. 

- You’ll be able to protect yourself, even if it’s in a comedic way. 

- It’s very impressive to pull an impactful punch and a punchline at the same time. 

Hush (DCAU) Riddler: 

- Similar to Dano Riddler, he thinks it's cute when you first mention it. 

- However, his heart leapt into his throat when you plugged your finger into a barrel of a gun to protect him one night. 

- Only to have the gun implode on itself.

- Or whenever it seemed like you broke a bone or a joint you just cracked it back together. 

- He's stunned but amazed. 

- Like other Riddlers he is assured to know that you have a way to defend yourself if he's not there. 

- But please just stop walking on air like that

- It unsettles him and he doesn't not want to be there in case you do look down.

[oddlydrawnpuppets]

HEY YALL IM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING YOU EARLIER BUT

The chapter is almost finished I SWEAR I’m SO SORRY it a been taking so long but yk Christmas happened then new years and I got super sick AND on top of that I work a full time job it’s just been so much. SO as an apology I wanted to give you guys a sneak-peek of what to expect from this chapterl!

Excerpt from Turning Shadows into shapes

Chapter 2, Embrace the Unknown

Tim made his way up the staircase and went to Damian’s room. He found that the brat had left his door open, and he peeked his head inside, looking for traps. Damian was at his desk, sharpening and carefully inspecting one of the many swords that he usually hung on his walls.

“What do you want, Drake? Surely you did not come to my room just to stand in the doorway.” Damian called out, still sharpening his blade.

“Are you busy right now? I wanted to ask a favor.”

“Does it look like I’m busy, Drake?” He cleaned and oiled the blade, cut his thumb purposefully and put it back in its scabbard before hanging it back on the wall.

“Um, yes?”

“Good to know your eyes are working. Now leave my room.” He grabbed another sword from the wall and unsheathed it, glaring at Tim.

“It’s important, there are unknown metas in Gotham, it could be trouble.” Tim called the brats bluff, keeping half of himself in Damian’s room. There’s no way he would stab him… again… right?

“Last chance Drake, I have not yet cleaned this blade, so I have no qualms with dirtying it. Leave.” He pointed the blade threateningly at Tim, unblinking. Okay so maybe he wasn’t bluffing. He needed to get Damian interested in this fast, or else this was going to be like when the brat first showed up all over again.

“You know, I thought one of them was one of your clones at first, he looked exactly like you.” That caught the brats attention. He lowered his blade slightly as Tim continued. “I think he’s somewhere around your age too, only reason I knew he definitely wasn’t you is because was he was smiling, oh and his eyes were blue.”

If Tim blinked, he wouldn’t have been able to see how quickly Damian sheathed his blade. Something he said had caught the demon brats attention, and he wasn’t going to question it as long as all his blood stayed on the inside.

“What do you want me to do Drake?” Tim took that as permission to enter the room, ignoring the glare that was still pointed in his direction.

“I’m directing a debrief on the situation, as I have the most information on the two of them. I haven’t been able to get any photos of their faces, though, and I know you’re an artist, so I was thinking you could maybe help me out?” The question hung in the air for what seemed like forever, Damian glaring at Tim, and Tim ready to book it if things go wrong.

“Your share of Alfred’s cookies. For a month.” That… wasn’t too unreasonable, especially for the brat. Something was up.

“That’s it?” The question was met with silence. Everyone would kill for Alfred’s cookies, including Tim, but if he could get Damian to actually work with him on something, maybe the cookies were worth it. “Deal.”

[gillianthecat]

🔥BL Hot Take🔥 (maybe? I don’t know what counts as Hot around here.)

I think Zee Pruk was better at acting against Saint than against Nunew. And I think the character of Fighter suited his skills better than Lian.

I feel like the difference comes across even in these two publicity shots in similar poses, just in the way Zee is looking at his costar (Saint in Why R U? on the left, Nunew in Cutie Pie on the right.) To me, he looks fully absorbed in Saint/Tutor, whereas he looks likes he's posing and working at looking dominant with Nunew/Kuea. It's subtle though, so others may interpret it differently.

Zee just doesn’t quite work for me when he tries to play dominant. He comes across as a bit flat and one-note (though the heavy makeup and/or digital face-smoothing did him no favors in that regard). The fascinating thing about Fighter was that he tried to pretend he was dominating, but really he was a flustered mess at all times, clutching tightly to his insecurities and internalized homophobia, desperately trying to mask it with an air of being unaffected by anything. Even in their relationship, he was nominally the seme, pursuing Tutor, but Tutor kept flipping the script on him. And anytime Tutor took control, Fighter gave it up, basically instantly.

The relationship really did feel to me like Tutor was the actually dominant partner, and not just in the way where the submissive in a d/s dynamic is always ultimately in control because their desires/boundaries must be respected, but that Fighter really was fully submitting to him. Sexually was where it was most obvious, because Saint and Zee were insanely good at their sex scenes, but in everything really. I don’t know enough about kink to know if this would be considered a kinky relationship (my suspicion is not really), but I do know that Fighter was not in charge. And Zee portrayed these layers very well, his anger, his urge to be the big dog, his complete and utter submission to Tutor, and everything in between.

Whereas Lian really was dominant at all times. Sure, he might agree to what Kuea wanted, but it always felt like he merely acquiescing, not giving up control. (Caveat, I still have not finished the series so maybe this changes, but from all the gifs and meta I’ve seen I suspect not. Let me know if I’m wrong though!) And while I think it is possible to play unquestioned dominance in an interesting way, I don’t think quite Lian managed it. It always felt like me a mask he was putting on.

And this part is complete and total speculation, but I wonder how much difference his acting partners made. Saint is obviously very talented and, if I remember correctly, already fairly experienced when they shot Why R U? And so I’m guessing that that allowed Zee to relax into the part and find all the nuances and vulnerabilities of the character while trusting Saint to both take care of himself and to meet him in the emotions of the scene. And perhaps trying to meet Saint at his level of acting made Zee push himself to do more.

Whereas Nunew was much less experienced actor, as well as much younger, and from the chatter I’ve seen Zee took on a protective/mentor role. Which I’m speculating inhibited his performance as Lian because he did not feel as free to let go into the character and trust that Nunew could catch him. And I think Nunew did great as Kuea! It wasn’t that his ability wasn’t up to the role, just that maybe he didn’t challenge Zee as an actor in the way that Saint did.

Again, total speculation! And perhaps it’s just that I find completely dominant characters boring; I like seeing them challenged and pushed off balance. (Maybe that happens more to Lian in the last few episodes, but I suspect it still wouldn’t be enough to make him compelling to me.) But I don’t think it’s just my taste in characters, I do think there’s something that changed in his acting from show to show, whether the character was less of a good fit, or his the environment inhibited his work in some way.

I'm not at all saying that Zee is a bad actor. He's quite talented, and I still haven't seen anyone portray desire in the way he does. And he and Nunew had amazing chemistry in their sex scenes; I really admire their willingness to be vulnerable there.

I would love to see him in a role that really leans into the way he can play vulnerability.

Why am I writing about this now? The comparison has been on my mind for a while, and then today the powerfully vulnerable way that Kwon Hyuk portrayed desire and arousal in The New Employee reminded me of Zee.

[violivs]

NMTDaily: And So It Begins

- Beatrice’s first vlog! What an opening line, I love it lol. I remembered the hand wave on “hello, people of the Internet” having a wider arc across the screen than it actually does, funny enough! Glad I didn’t specify the wide wave when I referenced this line in MARRIED, the fic I posted on the 25th.

- “I’m not too old for Halloween”, girl after my own heart!

- Always thought it was interesting that Bea’s mother is American. I wonder how/why they decided that. It’s the kind of super specific detail that makes Bea feel so real, because who would make that up? It’s also interesting that it means Bea and Ben’s families are both somewhat international. Another parallel for them, another thing they have in common.

- I bet the Aunties’ wedding was the cutest thing ever, imagine Hero and Leo standing up with them! That’s probably the last time all of the Dukes were together before the story starts.

- I’m surprised Bea’s parents moved because her dad got a promotion. I would have assumed her mom did, because we get the impression of her as the high-powered businesswoman. But good for Bea’s dad. Is it canon that he’s a university professor? (Promotion = tenure?) Or did I make that up for fanfic and/or confuse him with Ben’s parents being professors in canon? Listening for that. Maybe Bea’s dad was actually also a business person all along and that’s how her parents met. Who knows.

- Bea says Australia like I say Indiana, lol (no hate to anyone from Indiana though! Just another of those inborn rivalries with the neighbor, like the Oz/NZ one.)

- “A great science program” I forgot Bea was a science person!

- I always loved the set decoration in this room, I remember it’s Hero’s room, and it’s so artsy and cozy and pretty. Love the wall art.

- “Leo and I are in charge of the house for the next six months” Excuse me, does this series really only take place over six months? Well, it ends in the first week of November, so that’s seven full months. I think it felt like it lasted a whole year when it was airing though. Time slowed down during a certain arc for sure.

- “in-joke with myself!” Classic. I kind of love that the text on screen saying “good one Beatrice” is Bea talking to herself again in-world, but out-of-world it’s kind of the Candle Wasters talking, interacting both with their own main character and with the audience. Meta.

- “Sorry my life is so boring” are like, THE famous last words for an LIW protagonist. Honey, you got a big storm coming!

- I was always so incredibly impressed with Beatrice’s independence, her comfort with leaving her parents and essentially being on her own before she even finished high school. I was alone in a college dorm hours away from home when I first watched this, second semester of freshman year if I’m not mistaken, and I could barely believe I’d managed it. I couldn’t imagine doing that any earlier than I had. I thought she was so brave and cool. I think Bea actually shows more hesitation and nervousness than I realized she did in this episode, both because she’s not used to vlogging yet and because being in a new place is nerve-wracking, but I still think she’s so brave.

- It’s so interesting that in a reversal of the play, it’s our Beatrice who comes from away to Messina to start the story, instead of Benedick and the other men returning from war. Of course, we’ll see how the boys’ arrival on the scene is modernized soon enough!

- Harriett does such a great job making you care about Bea and like her right from the start. You just want to keep listening to her talk. I can’t wait to do just that over the next seven months.

- The Benedict Cumberbatch crush is a stroke of genius, but what are the odds that there happens to be a super famous guy named Benedict that you can reference who is at peak relevance in the exact year your MAAN modernization premieres? Truly, this series as it exists could only have happened in 2014. It was the perfect time and the perfect people. What luck.

- Oh, this is the wider arc hand wave I was remembering! It’s just at the end of the video and not the beginning. Funny!

- Covering the camera with her hand and ducking out of frame at the end of her first video is a direct parallel to what Bea and Hero do in their final NMTD video, sliding out of frame and all. Love that.

- I can’t believe how much there is to talk about even with these early episodes. These posts are gonna get so long they’ll have to go under a cut for the later episodes!

💖🦩🥭