#or as the episode notes puts it

[tyunningcore]

if it’s 2012 in chapter 40 of midnight burger ( romney for america) why is the song ‘we are young’ by the band fun. not mentioned Even Once. ?

fake 2012ers all of u.

[cataclysmcrows]

goddd the episode's premise does such a good job of setting up potential "justifications" for lindy's micro-agressions.

she immediately blocks the doctor? well, he wasn't on her friends list, of course she would! she's shocked that the doctor is in the same room as ruby? of course she would be, everyone here communicates through the bubble, not face-to-face!

her racism ISNT subtle, the episode just guides you (ESPECIALLY if youre white) to overlook it up until the reveal at the end! it SHOULDNT be a surprise, but for some people watching, it IS, because theyve been unknowingly making excuses for her the entire time!

[killjoy-prince]

House M.D. but it's when Wilson says House's name

[theperksofbeingaworm]

"SUCK IT ETHO- SUCK ON EVERY INCH OF IT" ??? bdoubleo why...

[owlheartt]

Something I really like about timebomb is that Ekko actually knows what he's getting into.

I'm not really seeing it get talked about but in season 1 they mention that Ekko and the firelights help people addicted to shimmer get off it and lead more fulfilling lives within the community. I should probably rewatch the scene for the exact wording (might be misremembering tbh) but that comment implies A LOT.

First: Ekko's mission is helping people where he can, he would probably try and help Jinx even if he wasn't in love with her

Second: He has experience dealing with severe mental illness as that often goes hand in hand with drug abuse, namely depression/suicidal ideation like what Jinx was exhibiting

Third: He's probably mapped out best course of action FOR dealing with this and has already figured out his own limits/boundaries. Meaning he knew what he was getting into trying to talk Jinx out of suicide, and was thus more equipped to deal with the aftermath

Fourth: He's probably helped ex members of Silco's gang. The firelights seem to have a theme of healing and repairing and recovering, so they've probably also learned to forgive. If they're mission is to rebuild the lanes into a safe space, they can't exclude people they don't like, they have to make room for them. I think they fought Silco out of necessity, and I doubt Jinx would be the first person they help who's killed one of them.

These all might be a bit of a stretch but I think it really fits. Beyond that, it shows that Ekko can ACTUALLY help Jinx. As much as unconditional love can do, Ekko has the tools for Jinx's recovery and a path ready for her. He also probably knows that her "healthy" will look different from AU Powder's "healthy." On top of that, I expect he knows how to respect her even in the middle of psychotic breaks and won't agitate her already frail mental state

[super-lupus]

The way Mulder says "and my report will reflect that, in case you're worried." to Scully in 7x7 makes my brain fuzz out. Like it's so obvious. Like how could she be scared about that. Like 'of COURSE I'm going to lie on an official FBI document about you killing someone in order to protect you, silly. Don't even worry abt it.'

And her reaction is perfect too because she almost looks like she wants to chide him, tell him that that's against policy (and probably a crime??) and it's not the right thing to do. But she knows she would do the same thing for him and that she has before. So who is she to talk?

[swan2swan]

I had an epiphany about ships today.

[iidsch]

also more codelyokoposting but I really really dig XANA as a villain. It's not a person with a complex background that led them down the path of evil, it's not a morally grey character you sympathize with but condemn. It's a powerful AI capable of controlling almost anything in the real world. It doesn't have a face or a body, we only know it for its symbol and for the monsters it controls in the virtual world. It's willing not just to kill people through various methods (poisoning, drowning, car crash, fucking space lasers too?) but also Earth as a whole (it tried to blow up a NUCLEAR PLANT and crash two trains with toxic chemicals in them). And we don't even know why it does this, at least not for now. It may not even have a particular reason, just some sort of virus or malware in the form of an AI that seeks nothing but destruction without any goals in mind. This "pure evil" characteristic doesn't come off as childish, like in some children cartoons, it's just kind of scary to think that such an incomprehensible and destructive force exists, almost feels like a natural disaster

[amelikos]

Kind of curious that they specifically showed Amethio and Onyx's main Pokemon lines in this episode (or at least their first stages). It always stood out a bit to me that they are the only ones in the Explorers who have gen 9 Pokemon as their main partners. Kyojiohn and Soublades are even next to each other in the Pokedex (Kyojiohn's line is listed first, before Soublades's).

Raifort and Friede mentioned the past in regards to these Pokemon, which also made me think about how Onyx's second Pokemon is a Ptera (who is a prehistoric Pokemon).

We got a glimpse of Kojio and Carbou's personalities, which also reveals a lot about both Amethio and Onyx imo. Carbou is a Pokemon who accompanied nobility and knights, which is self-explanatory when it comes to Amethio since his character is very much knightly. His two Pokemon are associated with knights and Amethio himself is chivalrous and always tries to be honorable when it comes to battles.

Kojio was also interesting. The small scene he was featured in showed that Kojio is kind (easily approachable and not scared of humans, let Liko pat him) and helpful and protective (used to help humans perform rituals such as exorcism). Kind, helpful and protective are adjectives which really fit Onyx imo. We've seen Onyx protect others (mostly Sango) multiple times by now. His recent battle against Chili in HZ055 also showed that he has values as he didn't want to sacrifice his teammate for a victory, and went down protecting his tag partner's Pokemon.

Also, the part about Kojio helping humans perform exorcism rituals makes me wonder if it has to do with the fact that Kojio's line is known as the Rock Salt Pokemon and how salt is believed to have purifying powers and to keep evil spirits away in Japanese culture. Which, in turn, gives an additional layer of depth to Sango and Onyx's dynamics since Sango's main Pokemon is Onigohri (who is based on oni, demon). Sango and Onyx's Pokemon fit each other on a thematic level too.

[5-turtleducks-in-a-trenchcoat]

I was thinking about episode 174 again. I'm absolutely fine in case you can’t tell.

[dyed-indigo]

How many wives did Luo Bingge have?

I see quite a lot of debate over this within the fandom, and this excerpt has been passed around quite a bit:

But I felt like I remembered Bingge being mentioned as having more wives within the text, so I decided to skim the books (CTRL + F on the Internet Archive PDFs worked wonders) to find as many references to Bingge's wife count as I could.

I was right that he was mentioned as having more wives (hundreds to be exact), on the back of the very first book in the series even. However, the backs of books are the domain of the publisher rather than the author, so this isn't really trustworthy info to go off of for canon purposes. Still, it made me curious to see if more wives were mentioned somewhere else within the series.

He is mentioned as theoretically marrying at least 100 women at once here, however this was purely speculation on what would have happened in Proud Immortal Demon Way if Luo Binghe truly aspired for marriage. He did marry many women in PIDW, however it's never made clear whether these marriages were out of love or were political (and for horny reasons, the stallion protagonist can never escape his libido).

613 is also mentioned as a number of wives, and seems oddly specific unless there's some Chinese number symbolism I'm missing here, however this is just an example of something that Madame Meiyin could predict with her fortune telling abilities. Her fortunes are mentioned to typically be about romance, so this could be Shen Qingqiu remembering an actual prediction she made in canon, however even if that were the case (which there doesn't seem to be evidence to support) it could simply be that Luo Binghe never got those wives within the novel, and was just implied to get them afterwards (cue Peerless Cucumber rant about Airplane's lazy writing).

There's mentioned to be dozens of women "barely glimpsed" within the harem, presumably in addition to wives like Ning Yingying and Liu Mingyan who were more significant, but that still doesn't give us an exact count. If the initial harem count is accurate, it does imply that most of the women within it were just written to fluff the numbers a bit.

Bingge is mentioned to have "never refused" any requests to join his harem. RIP Bingge's understanding of boundaries, but, again, we have no clue how many women even asked to join. Demon Emperors are powerful, but also scary, and Shen Qingqiu is... perhaps an unreliable narrator when it comes to any version of Luo Binghe's appeal factor.

Bingge is mentioned multiple times to have had sex with hundreds of women, however, not all of the bedded were wedded. Madame Meiyin, for example, is mentioned as someone that Bingge slept with but never married, and there's no evidence that i could find that she was the sole exception in a sea of wives.

In conclusion, while manwhore Bingge is real, his count of actual wives is more than likely less than 100, as originally specified. (Though I wouldn't blame you if you thought otherwise, the emphasis on the harem size being "innumerable" and "uncountable" in the narration is quite a lot, and historically many Chinese emperors had a larger harem than Bingge.)

At least, he had less than 100 wives in the novel. In the donghua, on the other hand...

Well. That's a fairly definite amount.

[fanaticallyfleeky]

Hear me out

If Tim ever decides to get Tommy and Buck back together (and that’s a gigantic ‘if’ because at this point I don’t expect anything) imagine they use God Only Knows from The Beach Boys

[the-words-we-sung]

Season 3 ending

So... It's been almost a week since the last episode, almost a week trying to wrap my head around the end of the show, trying to manage my feelings about it all.

It's hard to end up feeling the complete opposite of nearly everyone on my dash but I've come to terms with the fact that I didn't love the ending. I didn't love this last episode. (I shouldn't feel ashamed or weird for saying so but you guys loved it so much that I feel a bit like an outsider right now 😓)

I haven't been a fan of the show for as long as most of you, but it means so much to me. These characters carved a place in my heart and in my head, and they've made me happy for months now. They helped me get through some stuff, made me discover some amazing artists, meet even more amazing people through this fandom. And I loved the story. Even in its darkest, saddest parts, I loved it. I was invested.

I love Wilhelm and Simon, together and separately. They mean so much to me. And I loved season 1 and 2. It made me happy, and sad, and frustrated, and exalted. But overall, I trusted the show and I was not disappointed.

Season 3 was a lot. I liked the first 5 episodes. I can't say that I loved everything about them: I was not expecting things to get so hard for Simon, with no reprieve in sight. I was not worried about Wilmon being endgame (I know it was a big stress for the fandom but honestly I never doubted that they were endgame), but I was wondering how the show would go about tying all the knots it made (I should even say all the knots it added during this last season).

(Under a read more because it's a bit long and I don't want to bother those who don't wanna read more of my frustrated thoughts ^^')

And unfortunately the last episode was a huge let down for me. Yes, it's partly because nothing I was hoping for actually happened, but mostly, it's because the choices they made did not feel very satisfying to me: ⁕ Simon was barely there. We went from him being bullied online/offline non stop for 5 episodes to almost nothing. It makes 0 sense to me. ⁕ Kristina suddenly feeling better: she was having break down upon break down for an entire season, could barely look at her son or even just talk normally and all of a sudden she's back, smiling and agreeing to everything Wilhelm says? I'm sorry but I don't buy it? Where did this Kristina hid during the entire show? ⁕ Wilhelm deciding to not be king, talking for 3min to his parents about it, them agreeing and him running into the sunset with Simon. I'm sorry, what?? I love that they end up together of course, but it makes very little sense to me? It won't change any of the issues they had this season? They're still gonna be famous? And bullied online/offline? (Probably even more so now?). I'm not obviously saying that Wilhelm staying in line to become king was the only or the best solution, but I wanted more from this storyline. I wanted to believe it. And right now, what we got? It feels a bit cheap (and I feel bad for saying that because the ending was cute and romantic and all, but it felt too disconnected from the rest of the show for me ><)

And apart from these few points, the big issue I had with this episode was: The Angst. So that might be a me-problem, but it was too much for my poor little heart (I haven't rewatched the episode yet, and I'm not sure I'll be able to anytime soon ><). I spent like 40min of the episode with a huge knot in the stomach because the heartbreak between Simon and Wilhelm was too much to handle for me. I can see how it was beautifully made, that having lots of throwbacks to the previous seasons, the Wille song, all of that was great cinematography. But it was just too much for me. I got in the season spoiler-free but for this episode? During the lake scene I had to take a break and check online if they were actually endgame because it was starting to actually give me a stomachache. So yeah, this part might be me being too sensitive but I did not like that they made me see them fight for each other for 2 seasons and 5 episodes, but then just giving up for 40min before finally running back to each other during the last 10min. It was just too much sadness for me ><

So yeah, maybe my expectations were too high? But I feel sad, and kinda cheated. Too many things are left wide opened. Too many things make zero sense to me. And of course I'm happy we got our Wilmon endgame, but I'm less happy about how it happened.

It's a bit hard being on Tumblr right now and seeing everyone who thought it was the perfect episode >< And I don't want to "yuck anyone's yum" (as the saying goes), but I still wanna be able to share my thoughts! I probably won't write super angry/unhappy/complaining posts about the season/the finale, but I still wanna be able to chat about it. I did see some posts on my dash from people not being entirely satisfied with this ending so it's a bit comforting. And I hope we can share some nice headcanons, or just discussions about different plot points.

But yeah, I guess that's why I haven't really been active this week! Trying to get over the double heartbreak of the end of the show + being disappointed with the ending! I'm gonna come back though! I miss hanging out here, I just need to strengthen my heart a little bit more :p Gonna get back to writing about my thoughts episode by episode for this season (I can't promise I can rewatch the last one though 😖 It might take me a bit of time to get there). And I want to continue my song analysis of the show!! I'm not even done with season 2 yet, I have some work to do there ^^

So see you back here very soon 😘

[monicaeidolith]

my OLBA MC, Sunny Last ☀️

(his backstory + close ups below)

Step 1 -

Sunny is a very shy and nervous boy, who's easily afraid of strangers (when he first saw Cliff, he ran away) and easily worried. Sunny hates getting in the middle of a conflict and will avoid taking a side if he can. He loves spending time at the beach, collecting seashells, reading books and going to the library, things that will never die down growing up.

When he met Cove, Sunny was initially worried about him, as Cove was crying all alone. Sunny gets fond of Cove and befriends him quickly. As "selfish" as it may sound, Sunny did wish Cove would never go away from Sunset Bird and stay with him.

Sunny doesn't have any romantic feelings towards Cove during that Step though, he only starts developing a crush on him some time before Step 2.

Step 2 -

Sunny remains a nervous person, in fact, it seems he has social anxiety, though he developed a more teasing and snarky side growing up. Whenever he is openly snarky depends on how close you are with him... or how pissed he is at you (side looking at Jeremy), otherwise he keeps whatever he's thinking for himself, like he often does for what he's truly feeling actually (unless your name is Cove Holden (doesn't apply to the subject of romance)). Ironically, he struggles to understand when a stranger is being sarcastic or not. Despite all that, he's someone you can rely on if you need.

His love for literature grew and he kinda wishes to be a writer. In fact, he writes some things sometimes, such as poems or songs that his cousin Lee could sing. While he isn't particularly a sporty guy, he loves surfing, swimming and playing volleyball. At 13, he started getting interested in jewellery specifically, to Lee's greatest joy.

During Step 2, Sunny starts feeling insecure about his physical appearance and doesn't like showing his body that much (but summer is kind of the "worst" season for that specific part). He thinks he's too "scrawny". Also doesn't he look weird for blushing for anything?

He's also conflicted about his feelings towards Cove: during this gap of 5 years, Sunny's feelings for Cove grew into something different than friendship and he doesn't know what to do about it. He never felt this way before, not with anyone else either. He's too scared to say a word about it to Cove directly, he doesn't want to mess up their friendship (classic.).

When it comes to romance in general, concepts like "love at first sight" don't really make sense to him. How can you fall for someone you barely know? Sounds like a myth.

Step 3 -

At 18, Sunny manages a bit more with his social anxiety, though he's still a bit uneasy around people he doesn't know. His snarkiness hasn't tone downed growing up... and sadly for him, his insecurities about his body haven't that much either.

18 years old is probably the age where the contrast between his clothing style and his name is the most ironic and the object of many jokes (none of them are ill-intended of course). But wearing black clothes won't change the fact he's his moms' little sunshine!

His interest for jewellery turned into the hobby of making hand-made jewellery, mainly with seashells, sea glass or pearls.

During Step 3, Sunny is now afraid of the future. He does have some projects for the future: going to college, specifically for studying literature and hopefully working in the writing industry (not necessarily as a writer like he wanted to at 13, just as long as he can write). And he was happy to find a part time job in the library he always loved. However, all of that means leaving Sunset Bird one day, and he's scared of that. He always lived in the same place, with his moms, with Cove as his next door neighbor, ... And Elizabeth leaving for college was already something... How much will things change?

About his relationship with Cove: Sunny knows for certain he's in love with him. But God forbid he actually tells him how he actually feels.

He also figured out his sexuality: he's gay and demiromantic (oooh so that's why love at first sight felt like a complete myth...)!

Step 4 -

His personality hasn't changed that much since Step 3 but one thing that changed is that he managed to outgrow a little bit his habit to hide his negative feelings from others, at least to a less extreme level. His social anxiety is still present of course, but he learned to live with it. He also learned how to love himself and feel comfortable with his body! It was hard but he did it!

Living away from Sunset Bird was also hard, very hard at first, especially since Cove confessed his love for Sunny at the end of the summer and then they had to be separated for long times. But it seems nothing could break their bond.

Sunny got a 4 years English literature degree and works pretty much on freelance writing now. (I'm not sure myself yet tbh, that may change in the future.)

the close ups!

listen the fact Sunny is kind of similar to Athena (my OLNF MC) is completely involuntary lmao

this is what happen when you keep on projecting bits of yourself onto your OCs

[morallygay]

Just watched and finished the shougun assassination arc fucking HELLO????!!!

[burningarchitecture]

Cringetober day 4: Angel x Demon