#old relationship drama/

[disgruntleddemon]

unironically i think post cannon fiddauthor works pretty well with the tone of tbe show, cause they work well as a mix of sincere and comedic.

Like, they have all their messed up history together of course. But also, Ford comes across as a put together guy (even if he's not rly) with some moments of goofiness or weirdness, meanwhile McGucket's still very much old man McGucket, even if he's recovered a lot.

I can absolutely Ford walking around town with Fiddleford just chilling out on him backpack style. Or maybe McGucket says something incomprehensible and Ford's just like "you are so right"

Idk, they're just silly and fun to me

[pharawee]

Joe, no matter whose body you're in, you're still you.

[tomurakii]

I like bloodweave. Okay. But I DON'T like the version of them in fanfic where Astarion is a dick and Gale is like. Whining and pleading for him to be emotionally vulnerable (or just. Nice to him) prior to the relationship being established. Because that is just not accurate. Gale needs the player to express interest in him during his weave-teaching scene before he even considers hitting on them properly. Gale is entirely resigned to his fate and needs someone else to pull him away from it. Gale only starts being sweet and romantic and devoted after you accept his love confession and give him hope for the future. Gale says fuck all and then slinks away to cry privately if you break up with him.

Like he isn't chasing after people lmao. He isn't dropping to his knees and crying about anything much less this dickhead he met a week ago. He is overwhelmingly passive about literally everything personal to him up to and including his own death (provided there are no casualties/there is a good reason) until after the player expresses that they care about him. Astarion is not doing that in any of these fics.

Like Gale is friendly and a dork and doesn't wanna get murdered but he fully has a suicide plan. He thought the artefacts would help him survive but he didn't believe he'd ever truly live again. If Gale confessed and Astarion said/did like one (1) mean thing afterward Gale's romance is closed off forever. He's wandering into the forest to cry. He's killing himself immediately. His fragile ego and self worth can't take it. You have to understand that when we joke about him being pathetic it's not bc he's like. Sopping wet and chasing people down and begging for a scrap of attention. It's because he craves affection but would literally rather die than ask or even hope for it until someone else forces that hope back into his serotonin-deficient tadpole brain.

[vaguely-concerned]

lucanis truly has a near terminal case of burned out golden child syndrome. caterina fucked both of these kids over so incredibly bad with the dynamic she enforced there, with illario being labled the perpetual fuckup kid where lucanis 'could do no (would never be allowed to do) wrong'. the way he admits in the first coffee date scene that the only thing that happened when he showed he could carry the weight of expectation was that more weight was added makes me so sad. you can hear it in caterina's voice in his intro mission that she's incredibly proud of him, but this is clearly a leandra and hawke situation where that pride never translates into relief or resolution or unconditional warmth or understanding or anything that really helps.

[coconutcows]

For real though what is up with the people currently doing media for Gen 1??? Can they really not think of any kind of teenage drama other than breakups to put the ghouls through???

Haunt Couture Cleo’s diary had her pointlessly break up with Deuce

The new book whatever it’s called broke up a bunch of couples Except Cleo and Deuce (most notably Draculaura and Clawd)

And now they established Clawdeen and Toralei as a couple for pride only for them to seemingly be broken up in the next issue

Like please give these characters a break and have them worry about midterms or outfits for the next big dance or the upcoming big sports game or racism again I beg you

[camellia-thea]

okay. just rambling here, but, i think armand took more than just the end of the interview away from daniel.

we got that little moment about that night, saying 'you asked me to' to louis. 'you asked me to take this from you, you could not live with it,' leading into, 'i look after you when you cannot look after yourself, i make those choices for you.'

we know that during the chase and devil's minion era, daniel was an addict, who was, by his own admission, slowly killing himself. he was also addicted to blood.

it's really not too far to make the jump, if devil's minion occurred, that armand made the choice to step in, in his own mind, for daniel's best interests. i know this isn't a unique jump to make, but; again with armand's "i look after him when he cannot look after himself" continual reiteration, i think it's a fair assumption.

he can also replace and blur memories, which makes the discussion of alice and paris -- why the dessert from that night? -- and how immediate and sincere his answer of "she wanted to say yes, but she didn't trust you. you hadn't given her a reason to." this could be the night he took them away, replaced himself with alice, planted something similar for her to start the relationship, then step back and watch it fall. and i think the thing that stands out there is just how tender he is while saying it. there's an undercurrent of something else entirely underneath, it isn't a dig at daniel in the moment, despite the pushing earlier in the scene.

and then in s1, when louis say to daniel, "i'd give it to you now." and the cut to armand, still in disguise, and his micro-expression of horror, the way he stiffens and looks away... and the little moment of what i read as conflict when daniel says no. his jump to "may i be excused?" i can't tell in the moment, if he's horrified about the offer itself, the fact that it is louis offering to turn daniel rather than himself, or the fact that daniel denies it. because i don't think armand could actually let daniel die if this was the case.

the disguise itself-- why pretend to be rashid? i think part of it is to try and hide behind a human persona to keep those memories at bay; especially given the little moments of flashback that got triggered by little mannerisms. i can't decide whether they're intentional pushes or not, whether armand wanted/wants daniel to remember on his own, or wants to keep it under wraps. i think, even if he believes he doesn't want it to come forward, he truly does deep down.

and once he's revealed himself as armand, the way he gazes at daniel, his beautiful boy. the continued "our boy", from both he and louis, the "he's still in there, somewhere..."

and i think "our boy" is also really interesting, because why would daniel be armand's boy, based solely on the moments that louis initially remembered? armand didn't really have any emotional connection to daniel that night, sure, he saved him, but that doesn't really mean anything; he saved daniel for louis, not for daniel's sake.

and, jumping back "our boy,[...] he's still in there somewhere"... there's implication that louis might know about it? again, i don't think this is related to the original interview, or at least, limited to it? i don't have anything concrete here, just vibes, but again, why is armand's boy still in there somewhere?

and sure, some of these are reaches and i don't think i'm necessarily right, but god it would be deliciously awful if i was.

[afewproblems]

Psych Amnesia Ficlet continued.

Just how does a man with an eidetic memory cope when he can't remember who he is? You're can read part one here.

"Who the hell is Shawn?"

There is a moment of stunned silence that takes over the room as he shifts in the bed, stretching his stiff leg, he hisses as something twinges painfully under the blankets.

The man in the salmon button-up stares at him, at this distance he can now see that the shirt is actually white with thin salmon stripes. The blonde woman's mouth soundlessly opens and closes three times as though trying to find the words to respond.

Its the tall irritated man that finds his voice first.

"Knock it off Spencer," he grumbles, placing the chart back in the holder at the end of the bed, "this isn't a joke".

His head throbs suddenly as several images of the man in front of him flash across his vision.

The tall stranger sitting at a desk writing a report, pausing to look up at him with an amused smirk.

Blue eyes crinkling at the corners as the stranger barks out a sharp laugh and the thrill it fills him with to be the one to illicit that sound.

A large hand on his small of his back, moving him through a police station with much more gentle force than he would have expected.

He blinks rapidly against the onslaught, lifting the hand attached to the monitor up to cradle his head.

Shit, that hurt.

He opens his eyes just in time to see the woman smack the tall man in the stomach, he grunts at the impact but doesn't look at her.

His expression is decidedly more closed off. If it wasn't for the way his blue eyes follow...Shawn? Spencer?

Whatever his name is, this guy is definitely more concerned than he's letting on.

"I'm calling Henry," the other man in the salmon--striped shirt, says abruptly, he pats one of Shawn's knees awkwardly and moves away towards the curtain blocking his line of sight to the door and hallway beyond.

Oddly, he feels a little adrift without him here.

The woman takes a deep breath, her shoulders square slightly as she takes his hand in her own, "Shawn, you're in the hospital."

Well, that much is obvious he thinks a little bitterly, but he finds himself unable to hold it against her as she continues in a firm voice.

"I'm Juliet, we work together," she says slowly, as though carefully sifting through her words, what she wants to say verses what she should.

"You've been...unconscious. For ten days, they--the doctors didn't know if you, if there would be--"

"O'Hara, you can't possibly believe he doesn't know who he is," the grumpy one says bluntly as Shawn gets another flash, this time of a dog bounding through a field.

"Lassie?" He croaks, forcing their attention back on him.

Juliet squeezes his hand gently and smiles, though it's watery at the edges now, "yeah Shawn, Lassiter, Carlton Lassiter.

Shawn doesn't miss the way the other man steps closer to his bed, his brow pinched with surprise.

But of course Shawn would remember Lassie, or rather Carlton.

How could he forget someone clearly so important, someone he loved to make laugh, who touched him so gently and smiled like that when he dropped by unannounced.

"I'm okay, Lassie," he slurs, blinking sleepily as the wave of fatigue begins to break over him, "I promise I would never forget you."

Carlton blinks, his head tilts slightly as he and Juliet exchange a look with one another.

"Why is that Shawn?" She asks him as his eyes begin to flutter closed. He feels her tap the back of his hand and opens his eyes at half mast.

"Why is that Shawn," she asks again leaning in a little closer as he breathes in and out.

"Cuz he's my boyfriend of course".

His eyes flutter closed again, even as a chorus of startled, 'what the fuck?' and 'excuse me?' and the clatter of something hitting the floor rings out in the small room amid the beeps of the heart rate monitor.

Shawn lets himself be pulled back to a dreamless sleep, uncaring of the raised voices and sound of his name, repeated again and again.

He sleeps and dreams of warm hands and blue eyes.

[hatchetation]

the way teenage bounty hunters DESERVED a second season. like what a tightly written, quippy, funny little show with so much heart. there’s so much good going on in it but things I particularly love:

Twin themes!! There’s so much good foreshadowing surrounding the big reveal (iykyk) and there’s also so much DOUBLING. Double lives especially is a big theme. Like, Debbie hiding Dana; sterling and Blair hiding their bounty hunting; the (functional) froyo shop being bowser’s bounty hunting lair; Terrance the lone wolf bounty hunter and bowser with his little “teen white savior” teammates; Yolanda’s sister who is a perfect foil for her; miles hiding Blair from his family; sterling hiding april from Blair…and then april hiding sterling period.

And I guess the doubling is kind of showing like, here are all the possibilities and here’s what happens when we let love in and here’s what happens when we shut it out

so much good stuff about being from the American south. As someone who grew up in the south and who grew up visiting close family in Atlanta…it is cool as fuck the way the south is portrayed in all of its complexity. The show does not shy away from issues of race, religion, SES, etc SPECFICALLY in Atlanta and manages to do it in a way that doesn’t come across as heavy handed. This show could ONLY be set in the south—it would be a fundamentally different show in any other setting

Also, like I said with the doubling points above, this show is full of secrets and secret keeping!!! But yet a fundamental point of the show is that being silenced is one of the worst things that can happen to a human being. There’s a scene where Blair is telling sterling that her dad yelled at her and that the worst part of all is that he told her to Be Quiet! And like in some ways that scene highlights what a loving household Blair has grown up in that the one of the worst things her Dad has ever said to her is be quiet (not even shut up)…but it really made me be like wow being told to stop questioning and be quiet IS something terrible. It’s a denial and a violation of our right to use our voices

and like it’s not a coincidence that in the final ep Dana gags sterling. Because the way sterling is talking to her is powerful and you can tell it is making her hesitate and question her whole life

so yeah anyway watch teenage bounty hunters! Or if you haven’t in a while, it’s definitely worth a rewatch

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

the reason why c//a stans find lumity "boring" is because the writers of toh actually portray luz and amity as children.

[rooolt]

rattling the bars of my cage, cobra kai’s “too many characters” disease simultaneously invites speculation on a wide variety of possibly interesting character dynamics between characters who don’t frequently interact while also making it impossible for there to be any room or time in the story to even properly handle established character dynamics, let alone explore new ones

[oldbutchdanielcraig]

AITA for getting angry because I wrongly guessed the identity of my companion’s boyfriend?

I (2000-ishM-ish) have been traveling with my companion (28F) for ages now. We’ll call her Claire. She’s been there for me through some big changes in my life, and I’ve improved her life a lot. We used to have a sort of thing, but I was married at the time, and now I think I’m too old for her. Anyway, onto the story.

Claire started dating her boyfriend (29M) at some point. I honestly don’t remember when and honestly can’t be bothered to. His name is Dave. He works at the same school as Claire does. I recently took on a temporary job at their school as a caretaker. I met several of the teachers there, including a very handsome young man who likes literature (Claire loves literature) and reminds me a great deal of my younger self. I didn’t know anything about the man Claire was seeing, so I assumed it was this man. It would make sense, I think, considering our past feelings for each other. As it turns out, however, this man is not Claire’s boyfriend, but instead she’s dating a former soldier who now teaches P.E. at the school!

I hate soldiers, and Claire knows this. I thought she hated soldiers, too. She told me so herself. She was very clearly lying to me all this time about this fact, and she was lying to him about me, too, presumably so we would never meet and I would never find out the truth. For a while, Dave believed I was Claire’s father, which I don’t mind, but she didn’t say anything to correct him. Dave mockingly saluted me and called me “sir,” and claimed I’m an officer. He implied very heavily that I’m dangerous to be around, which is complete nonsense, because I’m always saving Claire from dangerous situations. She never says no to traveling with me, even once leaving in the middle of dinner with Dave to go on a trip. I shouted at Dave for his blatant disrespect, but now Claire is upset with me for making things difficult between her and Dave — he’s angry with her for lying to him about how she was spending her time the past however long of their relationship. I don’t regret shouting at Dave, though. I really hate soldiers, and he’s no better than any of them.

I don’t know. It would be different if Claire was dating this lovely bowtie-wearing gentleman, who really looks so much like a younger me it’s uncanny, but you would think she wouldn’t date a soldier when she knows just how much I hate them?

EDIT: Many incessant commenters were asking, so I’ll clarify. Yes, I was a soldier centuries ago. Yes, I watched thousands of people die, and I believed for several centuries that I was responsible for the death of the entire planet. I don’t like to talk about it.

[fluffypotatey]

y’all help i’ve got two hangster x twister aus haunting my brain and one is mostly silly and fun while the other is angsty Bradley character study

[nyan-bynary]

modern au sukugo sukuna should be like 50 (or older!!!!!!) and gojo should stay 28/29

[borgialucrezia]

“We did love our children, did we not, my dear?”

[seraheart]

I kinda wish that the DetCo canon would do more with the fact that the relationship (I don't mean this in the shipping sense) between Conan and Haibara has been, or at least logically should have been, really strained for a long time.

Originally, they had this development where Haibara was really messed up, overly cautious and trying to force her maladaptive survival psychological issues onto other people, and generally not good at positive interactions. Then, slowly, Conan and the others started gaining her trust (not entirely though), and also her general mental health improved (never completely though).

But then it turned around, and started getting significantly worse. Haibara isn't really in a healing arc anymore. If Aoyama still took her seriously as a character (which, to be fair, I don't think is the case), she would be in a retraumatization arc. Conan and his allies are limiting Haibara's agency, invading her privacy, dismissing her concerns about all this, and pretending that this isn't happening while she can obviously tell that it is happening.

I think the really obvious turning point was the Mystery Train arc. Haibara even called Conan and Agasa out on it and stated that she wouldn't forgive if she were to be treated like that again. Instead of taking her hurt seriously, they just told her she should "be thankful", and dismissed her hurt as "tsundere", refusing to take her trauma seriously after using it and using her as a mere chess piece in their plans (and Akai even triggering her more by gloating about it).

Since then, Haibara has been trapped under the constant, violating supervision of these people who have demonstrated that they don't respect her, and also refuse to acknowledge that the problem even exists. It's not a situation where her recover arc could realistically continue. By all logic, she should be spiraling, getting worse again.

And maybe this is on purpose; Aoyama definitely didn't plan the manga to get this long when he introduced Haibara, and originally the slow-burn of her recovery was a good way to postpone a scenario where Haibara could actually trust Conan enough to give him the kind of information that would lead to the finale arc. But... eventually, even with the extreme slow burn of DetCo, Haibara's recovery arc and relationship development with Conan would have gotten to the point where her continued withholding of crucial information would no longer make sense... and, I guess, rather than start concluding the story at a humanly reasonable rate, Aoyama just opted to nuke Haibara's whole recovery arc and character and relationship development (not only with Conan but also Agasa).

Which could have been tragic but realistic (albeit kind of a major downer out of tune with the manga's usual tone, and upsetting to anyone who had been invested in the slow-burn mental health improvement arc), but then Aoyama can't even be arsed to take it seriously, and is now just pretending that the situation with Haibara and her relationships with Conan and Agasa are still "normal" instead of FUBAR.

It's regrettable and really shows how much everyone dragging out this franchise to milk it for more money just... doesn't actually care about the story anymore, hasn't in a long time. They'll eventually just kill central, fan-favorite, long-running story arcs rather than actually letting them conclude or evolve in a satisfying manner if that would mean risking their precious status quo (which has warped beyond all recognition anyway, so I'm not sure why they bother).

[the-dragon-hearted]

A lil... advice for us old DSMP fans

So... shit's happening and if it's reached MY fyp after all this time, I know it's reaching others. As someone who isn't exactly old but has been around a block or two, I just want to remind y'all that you don't owe entertainers anything.

I first became interested in and followed content creators during that era five years ago. I can understand why some people feel the need to be loyal, but it was never an expectation. I know it sounds cold or heartless but in a capitalistic exchange, where entertainers and viewers have a mutually beneficial relationship, it's important to stress that you do not owe anyone with a subscribe button your loyalty.

It's an exchange. They entertain you, and you pay them. As soon as they no longer entertain you, you no longer owe them attention.

I hardly have enough patience for conflict from people I actually care about, so personally, watching conflict content is not my cup of tea BUT if you're out there, tearing yourself apart because you don't want to give up on the person who made you laugh all those years ago when you needed it - It's okay.

I get it, I do. You feel that they got you through a dark time and you'd be a shit person to leave them in theirs. Except... they didn't. They didn't get you through, their content did.

They don't know you. They don't know you. They won't ever know you, and so you don't owe them anything. It was not a personal connection, and so you owe them no personal loyalty.

Unfortunately, even with real people, this shit happens. With real personal relationships, the only thing you owe them then is a goodbye (it doesn't even have to be good but I digress -). People who brightened your life in one season can tear you down the next. It's important to recognize when to let go to help yourself. It's important to recognize that staying will not fix things, it'll only hurt you. You. Do not. Owe. Content Creators. Anything.

Especially your attention. So unfollow or unsubscribe or do what you need to do to separate yourself from anything that brings you more anxiety than entertainment. Remember, it's quite literally their job to provide entertainment. They get paid for it.

If you no longer enjoy them, leave.

It's not cold or heartless, it's fair.