#rock bottom for him

[cordycepspog]

Love love LOVE the focus on Joel’s boots during his rampage in the hospital. Because it’s not in a fit of rage, or desperation. Joel’s face is blank. He’s not thinking about consequences of his actions. He’s thinking “you took away my daughter and now I’m getting her back.” It’s a skill he picked up from Tess. He knows what’s coming. There’s no need to get emotional about it. It’s the simplest thing in the world to him: “You don’t get to take her away from me. Not again.” Hell, he doesn’t even look at the doctor when he shoots him! He’s looking right at Ellie, his entire focus and purpose laying in front of him! Mans is straight up on autopilot!

Joel is a unstoppable force in his grief. And Ellie is the immovable object that keeps him from walking straight over the ledge.

[brainrotcharacters]

The thing that gets me giddy is the fact that Logan goes from "Do I know you, bub?" to "WADE! You don't have to do this!"

[hyunpic]

[not-a-snowman]

Malevolent sometimes has me feeling like I'm insane, in part because I cannot view Arthur as pathetic even remotely. Like I see the vision but also at some point a part of my brain snapped and now I am unable to be anything other than Arthur's hype man. "Have you SEEN this guy!?" I shout, gesturing towards a bedraggled miserable little man curled up in a ball on the floor who is out of breath and in visible pain. "THIS IS THE FACE OF A MAN NOT TO BE FUCKED WITH"

[sunclown]

Opgotchi: zoro (and sanji) visit an island

[serpentface]

This was going to be a panel of a little comic but I got too invested in drawing minute background details so, here.

[decarbry]

[vickyvicarious]

Oh yes, the feeling that you have to rely to the creeper who you loathe so much that you have come to hate even the rooms he resides in, that he's not the scariest thing in your life, that you have to run to his arms for safety. Horror! Dracula claiming him was the high point of the entry (than the almost-bite)

Honestly, yeah. The dynamics between Dracula and Jonathan are so scary, to the point that all the supernatural events are the cherry on top rather than the main course, as far as the horror of this section goes.

Dracula does so much manipulation here, holds so many different kinds of power over Jonathan, and multiple levels of each too. He's got physical power - both in the sense of the castle being a prison, and in the sense of his incredible strength. He's got social power - as a noble, and as a client/boss. He's got monetary power over Jonathan too, able to potentially make or ruin his career. He has so much control over Jonathan's ability to express himself - he's the only company available to him, he's forcing him to keep up a pretense of friendship, he's limiting and controlling his communication with others. Jonathan has no escape: he can't go out of the castle because he's locked in, he can't go many places inside the castle because he's locked out of them, and now he can't leave the rooms Dracula wants him in because otherwise the vampire ladies will get him, and within those rooms there is nowhere safe from Dracula himself. Jonathan has seemingly no action he can take: if he sneaks around behind Dracula's back, a greater threat awaits. If he acts openly, Dracula's own threat may become realized. If he doesn't act at all, he's doomed. If he acts at all, he's doomed. If he trusts Dracula, he's doomed. If he doesn't trust Dracula, he's doomed.

Of course, the supernatural elements are the mechanics by which Dracula increases the stakes, the threats underlying the charming veneer. Specifically, the introduction of the vampire women is what puts Jonathan in this seemingly inescapable box, and one with potential threats to something even greater than his life.

But Dracula's playing this Bluebeard role and could have done so with some more mundane threat as well, without changing too terribly much about his own actions. Where he's scariest (at least to me) is in these interactions with Jonathan, in these manipulative webs and traps he lays out in his words, in the way he pushes so many boundaries until they're forced to collapse or warp under the pressure. Jonathan's privacy keeps getting worn away. Dracula's speech and touch get more familiar and more possessive. He started out the first night blaming Jonathan for the things he did himself ('oh, why did you make your conversation so interesting we had to stay up all night?') and escalates until now he's making Jonathan be the one to act, and to suffer the consequences: whether in forcing him to lie to his loved ones, or in dangling the bait of sleeping outside his room and then only barely saving him when he does. And Jonathan has no real choice but to act. To fail to do so, in one way or another, would mean giving up all hope at escape or likely even survival. But because he has to act, he winds up feeling complicit. He ends up in situations where Dracula thanks him, forgives him, saves him. It keeps putting them on seemingly the same side, with Jonathan in a lesser/reliant role. And that's all a huge lie, at its core. But in a very real way, it's true too, to an extent. More and more, he's getting layers of resistance scraped away, and having to seek safety from Dracula now is so, so horrifying. In many ways all he truly has left is his will to live, his internal determination to resist - and now he's been given powerful incentive not to trust in that latter part too much. It's absolutely brutal.

He's walking a wire that just keeps getting thinner and thinner. All he can possibly do is try to keep this balancing act going, and hope for something to change that will give him more options down the line.

[jeanmoreaue]

the fact that Riko has drilled it into Jean’s head that Jean’s not only worthless, but that he’s like a bad and violent person at his core. but then despite whatever Jean’s inner monologue is saying throughout TSC, his actions show time and time again that his first instinct is usually kindness. absolutely upsetting

[fisheito]

omg where'd you get your top it looks like it would fall apart after one cycle in the wash

[doydoune]

disbarment era... yeah

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Market based mistakes.

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[turtleblogatlast]

There’s a very sad lack of Señor Hueso & Leo bonding fics out there and I will never stop craving them. Big love to Reluctant Uncle Boneman and his Annoying But Unfortunately Endearing Not Nephew.

[nenoname]

"The red screwdriver that Grunkle Stan just made reference to has a lot of importance in Season Two. That's the screwdriver that Soos returns to the Mystery Shack that gets him a job at the Mystery Shack." - The Time Traveler's Pig Commentary

[saltpepperbeard]

getting so emotional over the fact that ed was fully ready to give up, and was entirely convinced that there was no point of continuing on anymore, and now he's peacefully residing in a little seaside inn with the love of his life.

[willowser]

anyway, outside of hsr stuff, on my mind heavy today is:

rockstar touya that hits fame dangerously fast in his early twenties, crashes hard before he's thirty, has to take a few years to recover, and meets you while trying to piece himself and his career back together 🥹