#s2 did ruin me btw how is everyone doing

[ed3lsgard]

My two cents on Silco + him and Jinx

Uhh I have a lot of thoughts and feelings after s2 and I wanna get this off my chest lol. Seeing Silco appear as a hallucination in Jinx’s cell like activated something in me. This will be kinda long.

I’ve always found Silco’s character fascinating, he’s one of my favorite arcane characters. He’s set up to be the antagonist but there’s more to it than that, it’s not black and white. The whole point of arcane is that every character has a reason to do what they do, they are supposed to be morally grey. If you had to pick a villain for reason one, yes it would obviously be Silco. But again, everyone has a reason to do what they do.

Silco’s ultimate goal was to establish the independent nation of zaun. He wanted to free his people from their ties with piltover, to get rid of their control. Now, did the way he go about that was ethical or humane? No, he caused many people to die, he spread shimmer to the public, causing them irreversible damage. Silco, though he had his reasons to do what he did, “for a greater cause”, regardless was still not a good man.

But his relationship with jinx if you ask me, somewhat redeems him, or at least makes him much more likable. It’s adds a depth to his character. In all honesty, his relationship with jinx was mostly of a toxic and manipulative nature. He enabled her behaviors, manipulated her for his cause, and is a huge part of the reason why jinx grew up to be so unhinged and unstable. Was he a good man? No. Was he a good father? No not really. But there is one undeniable fact. He loved jinx unconditionally as his daughter. Everything he did for the future of zaun, he did with her at mind. With the context of season two, we find that Felicia tells him and vander to figure out this zaun thing for her, and especially for her kids. This information sheds a new layer of light into Silco’s motivations.

This is highlighted by the fact that when he went to negotiate with jayce, when Jayce asked for jinx in return for the independent nation of zaun, the one singular goal he dedicated a massive chunk of life to achieve, for the first time he hesitated. The one topic he never would have thought to be unsure of pursuing. Because he was doing all of this for jinx, as he tells her himself. But if he had to give up his daughter for it, the nation he was trying to secure not just for everyone, but for her, what good will that do? Just as he tells the statue of vander, “is there anything so undoing as a daughter?”. This is when everything falls into place for him. How he presumably started from using her and manipulating her for his cause when he first took her in, to then truly seeing her as his daughter, loving her enough to choose her over his dream. He finds himself finally understanding vander, why he was so reluctant to fight in order to protect his kids. Again, as he says: “oh it all makes sense now brother. Is there anything so undoing, as a daughter?”

Silco was not a good father, because he was too traumatized and too damaged to know how to be one. This is not meant as an excuse for him, it is just a fact. The traumas he endured (fallout with vander, losing Felicia, the oppression of zaun etc) probably rendered him incapable of being the proper, stable father figure jinx needed. But he still loved her, truly saw her as his daughter. If the circumstances were different, if he was normal or if they both were, he probably would have been a good father.

There is a distinct difference between him and vander as being jinx’s fathers. Vander saw himself in vi, as he was once like her, understood her wanting to fight for their city, for family, against piltover ect. Him and vi were more similar and alike. But silco saw himself in jinx. It is the reason why he was quick to take her in. Because he had been in the exact place she was, abandoned by the older sibling, left all alone. He empathized with her.

In the end, despite how manipulative he might have been, how he only enabled her decline, it wasn’t done on purpose, it was just how it was. he still loved her unconditionally. Loved her enough to give up his dream for her, to take her bullets and to die for her. His dying words to her was telling her she was perfect. Not as jinx, as he had said before in the river “jinx is perfect”. As he was dying, he didn’t know if she would choose to be powder or jinx, (since she had pulled out both of the chairs with the names on it, whichever one she would sit on would be who she would be). But instead he said she was perfect, insinuating as whoever she chose to be. His dying words to his daughter were to validate her.

Do I think they had a healthy normal father and daughter relationship? No. But I love the complexity of it, how both of these individuals are so broken and traumatized due to what they have been through, but can take comfort in each other due to a mutual understanding.

[nyx5133106]

The second I think I am safe from Adolf Caitler apologists they come at me swinging. I need to vent but I am also sick of people calling me "mentally deficient" or "fascist pig" on Twitter for calling them out on their bullshit arguments. Both are real quotes btw.

People really love bringing Jinx up in these arguments so I want to start there. Caitlyn stans find it hypocritical that so many people love Jinx but hate Caitlyn completely missing how one was a product of the oppressive system that had ruined her life multiple times leaving her with lifelong trauma and mental issues while the other is a ignorant person with privilege turned a FASCIST oppressor.

We all could see that Jinx's actions in S1 weren't right but were also a result of trauma and grooming (not in the sexual sense) and I think that most fans could see that she needed therapy and a support system, not prison or some other form of punishment. On the other hand, Caitlyn's arc in S1 was about learning to see beyond her own prejudice, privilege and ignorance and making a step to help the people. This was her goal - to help the people, this is the reason she became an enforcer in the first place, but in S1 she sees with her own eyes that they don't really help the ones that need it and were corrupt.

I personally believed that in S2 she would either change the enforcers for the better or leave them and fight for Zaun against the oppression. Boy, did it hurt to be wrong. S2 put her whole arc in s1 in a completely different perspective. One where Caitlyn cared for Zaun and what happened to the people there on a very surface level. It was more of a pity project than anything. All that while we see Jinx change for the better and have better character development than Cait or Vi combined making the contrast between the two even more striking.

At the end of the day, I will forever and ever find it easier to feel sympathy and forgiveness for characters (and actual human beings for that matter) who are products of a corrupt broken system but are anything but perfect victims and 100% harder for people who grew up with privilege and the second they were hurt sought revenge on the masses even if they weren't at fault for what happened. So arguments like "Jinx killed her mother" and "Cait was justified in wanting revenge" don't resonate with me in the slightest.

"But, in season two, she lost her mother bcs of Jinx, she just blew a blaze like Jinx broke one when she accidentally killed Silco, why want more of Caitlyn and keep defending Jinx constantly? Jinx did a lot of harm around her and everyone eats her hand as if she were a saint...."

...This is a real comment a person wrote to me. Some people are in fact mad that people see Jinx as a product of her environment and as someone who at the end of the day did more to break the cycle and change than the one that gassed people with a chemical weapon which can cause life-threatening long-term effects. I could say more but in the end, this person was just an annoying hypocrite who given a real-life example (Luigi vs corrupt ceo) could say which side was wrong but couldn't do the same for the show just because they liked the character. (People can like any character but arguing that every wrong they make is either justified or non-existent is wrong and annoying. Stand up with your cancelled wife and be proud of it or like them privately and quietly if you are too embarrassed to support them and their wrongs.)

Another one of their arguments that just makes the hair on my arms stand up is about the gassing. There are 3 types of arguments on this topic and they get progressively worse.

"Yeah, it was bad but it was better than going gun blazing like the annoying blond wanted." Here I am simply not sure. Would it have been as bad as when Vi and Powder's parents were killed, would even that have been better than making people live through what that gas causes, only to die young and in pain? I don't know much about the gas except that it is what caused Viktor's condition and the little we saw from the notes of Cait's mom. What are the chances of long-term negative effects? Maybe even if they are high, better painful short life than a quick death there and then. Who knows?

"The gas is not dangerous. It's like tear gas, stop overreacting!" I would understand missing how dangerous it is if we didn't have Viktor as a main character this whole time but come on

"They only gassed criminals and they deserve it" This one truly makes me sick. I once argued with someone about whether this was a war crime or not and if it even mattered because it's a show and not real life. Anyone who tries to justify gassing people and thinks that it's ok bc they are criminals (especially ones who were forced on this path by the broken system) should question where the line is for them. When do people deserve rights and when not? Also, Cait's fans will in one breath justify it saying that it was for the good of all especially the children forced to work in the factories and then say that no one innocent was harmed. Which one is it? Are there children there or only adult criminals?

Then comes the topic of Caitlyn's redemption...Minute for silent scream bc we all have neighbors. I can't say how I would have felt if she was given redemption because...I really liked her in S1 and I was Caitvi's shipper to my core. In S1 it was the only ship that mattered to me bc the others were either not my cup of coffee or I saw them as cute crack ships so maybe I would have been sold on her redemption arc... The problem is that there wasn't anything even remotely close to that. I didn't even hear her apologizing in this whole fucking season and people left and right are "she did all of that (imagine here are dumb examples of what they think her redemption arc was) but you all are just misogynistic/homophobic/racist and just want her to suffer". No, I just wanted the writers to admit that Piltover was the oppressor and they weren't just equally bad.

I am mad that Caitlyn never apologizes for what happened with Vi. "She betrayed Ambessa" Yes, she did but I think we really needed her to apologize to Vi or at least admit she was in the wrong but I don't remember a scene like that. Also even if she had done it it would have been a step towards making things with Vi right not - redemption for everything she did to her or playing a dictator and terrorizing Zaun.

"She fought Ambessa in the end" ...yes but Ambessa was attacking her city and the end-goal would have been the end to them all so what is your point? If Ambessa was going only after Zaun I am not sure Caitlyn would have lifted a finger.

"She freed Jinx" - this again was towards repairing her relationship with Vi not about suffering consequences or working towards undoing everything she did to Zaun.

Now this one actually make me sooo mad. "She gave her seat to Sevika". I hate that from every angle. First of all if she did, that brings a larger problem with the writing this season for me - forgetting or brushing over the very real issue between Piltover and Zaun and minimizing Piltover's fault in the suffering and hardships of the Zaunites. Zaun not being independent by the end of the series makes me want to scream but if the writers' ending to the Zaun-Piltover conflict was Caitlyn giving ONE seat out of 7 in the council to Sevika letting her be surrounded and outnumbered 6 to 1 by people who see her as nothing more than dirt on their shoes I want a refund. If the council wouldn't have done anything for Zaun after the war and it was only Caitlyn... fuck me. I myself question whether she even had the power to give the seat because which dumbass would give a seat on the council to a person who until recently was playing dictator stripping them of their power and working with the very same woman that they were just fighting?

If you read until here I have to apologize for all my rambling and admit that it is only coffee and spite that kept me going. There are probably more things but this is on the top of my mind. If we weren't living in times like these I would look at all these people defending her, her actions and Piltover as a whole and have a good life but now it just makes me mad.

To end this on a positive note (said the person who wrote a whole fucking rant post) the songs from Arcane S2 are so connected to specific scenes and characters in my mind that seeing a sisterly Jinx and Vi eddit on Fantastic permanently traumatized me.

[sweetmariihs2]

I think not enough people talk about Cedric's heartbreak during the "Enchanted Feast" episode (Sofia The First E2 S2)

That's a small character analysis btw, only in this episode

He was so in love by Sasha (yeah, I mean, it wasn't really love since he just saw her once, but he had a big crush and it's the first time we ever see him canonically having one), he thought that everything she did was amazing and her spells worked so well, I mean, he could only fall in love for a sorceress as powerful as he is, probably he was impressed because she could do her spells in front of the royal family without making any mistakes (something that he couldn't do)

And I think mentally he must have saw her as beautiful, polite, talented and had the same interests and magic knowledge as him, so he was really impressed and was even obviously giving her a first chance when he introduced himself, he was obviously flirting with her 😭

When Sofia comes to him and tries to warn him about having a weird feeling about Sasha, it didn't even cross Cedric's mind that she could be a cruel person, because I mean, she was perfect in every way

And everything gets worse when you realize that while he was saying this, she was throwing magic powder on his wand to ruin the show he would put on during the feast. I mean, he was even praising her the moment she arrived, it was impossible that she hadn't heard, but she didn't feel any remorse when she ignored him and did him harm anyway.

If Sasha's plan was to trap everyone inside the dining room, she could have easily just ruined Cedric's wand and then he couldn't do magic against her anymore. But no, after his show was ruined she still cleaned up the mess right away while Cedric was all embarrassed, showing him and everyone else that she knew how to fix the mess he made, and even offered to do the show, knowing that he was doing it first, on purpose. AND THAT WAS FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON, that didn't change a thing in her plan, because the plan was to leave Cedric without magic, not to humiliate him. She didn't need to humiliate him to achieve this, so like????

She knew that he was liking her, because his flirts were obvious, "I'm Cedric the sorcerer, at your service" and bowing himself in front of her, OF COURSE SHE KNEW he was all giggly she's not dumb

SHE HUMILIATED HIM BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO AND SHE KNEW THAT HE LIKED HER 💥💥🔊‼️🔊💥🔊💥💥🔊🔊🔊🔊💥💥💥‼️🔊‼️🔊‼️‼️

In the scene where Sasha offers to do the show, look at Cedric's expression of someone who felt completely betrayed, "how could you do something like that to me"

I don't know if that's just me but I think that she was trying to show the king that she was better than Cedric and that it was worth replacing him with her, because then it would be easier for her to constantly stay close to the amulet.

And so the expression of Cedric's feelings of betrayal was to be angry and treat her as a possible enemy/threat like "if you want it that way, so be it", but of course very hurt that the royal family replaced him so easily, and that the girl he thought was perfect actually did this to him, even though he didn't do anything to her to deserve that treatment

(I can't help but sing Olivia Rodrigo's song "you betraaaaayed me and I know that you'll never feel soooorry for the way I hurt" 😭😭😭)

When Sofia goes to his workshop to tell him the truth he's just so defeated and so sad, it breaks my heart. That scene just show us that he wasn't just angry like he tried to show everyone, he felt betrayed and humiliated, because of everything that happened and because of his feelings for her too. It's like Sasha was so perfect that she was even better than him for everyone else, including himself. He could never get to her level or even dream about having something with her because she was way out of his league. He was just showing everyone a mask, showing that he didn't like what happened and that he was angry, but the truth is that he wasn't just mad, deep inside he felt really betrayed.

When Sofia tells him who Sasha really was, he becomes a lot angrier because he was having a crush on a lie, and worse, she was a very bad person and was still trying to achieve the goal he had been trying to achieve for decades, which was to get Sofia's amulet. Maybe he even understood that she was trying to take his place as a royal sorcerer too, indirectly.

Notice how he tells Sofia that he "doesn't need any help", because at that point it was already a personal anger he had with Miss Nettle, she deceived him, played with his feelings (don't tell me she didn't, she obviously knew about it) and made him go through all that. He doesn't want Sofia to get involved in this, because it's a problem HE has to resolve with Miss Nettle, and he is very angry.

When he goes to confront Miss Nettle he didn't said "you are trying to take over the kingdom?!", he said "so you aren't a sorcerer after all", like, it was the start of an obvious argument. He was going to confront her for lying about her identity to everyone, not because she was betraying the kingdom. Which leads me to believe that even if he managed to confront her about it, he wouldn't go so far as to say out loud that he liked her and felt betrayed by her, he would probably say it in general, involving the rest of the people, because talking about your own feelings is difficult, even more so in a situation like this, where you cannot demonstrate fragility. Basically what he meant by all of this was "you deceived me with your looks and played with my feelings, I can't believe you did this to me, you should be ashamed of yourself"

And then she proceeds to be mean again and responds with "I guess that makes two of us" and laughs like GIRL PLEASE CALM DOWN YOU ALREADY DESTROYED THIS MAN'S HEART, THAT'S NOT ENOUGH YOU REALLY WANT HIM MISERABLE

And when she tells him about the cristals she sprinkled on his wand to affect his magic he feels betrayed again, because now he understood that everything that happened was her fault, even his show going wrong. AND THEN SHE OFFERED HERSELF TO BE IN HIS PLACE INSTEAD, THAT WAS SO MEAN, he finally got what really happened

When she leaves him tied up and unable to do anything, he also seems very sad. When Sofia arrives, you can hear the sadness in his tone of voice, even though he appears angry. They look for a way to get to Cecric's tower to get a new wand, but all the passages have been blocked by Miss Nettle, and he doesn't just seem angry, but again, hurt, because now he can't do anything to stop her either (or unmask her, or make her pay for what she did).

and while they are in the hall not knowing what to do to stop her, Cedric is sitting on the stairs with his hands over his face, this for me is the peak of his sadness, because now that Miss Nettle is away and they don't need to react all the time, he can stop and think about his (constant) feelings. He looks absolutely defeated :( he's not even talking to Sofia, he's just very, very sad and hopeless. He can't do anything about what she did or what she's doing, just understand that he was played with and that's all.

When he gets a new wand he gets "happy" again because now he can have his revenge, and make her pay for what she did to him (and everyone, but mostly him). He's so determined that he doesn't think about making a plan, he just wants to get to her alone and resolve everything on his own, because of the torment Miss Nettle put him through.

And yeah in the end everything went well but I just wanted to analyze Cedric's feelings more deeply because in this episode everything is very implicit, and people don't pay much attention to the drama that happened. They talk at most about him being in love at the beginning of the episode, but HELLO HE WAS ALSO DELUDED AND HURT, ABOUT TO CONFRONT HER FOR PLAYING WITH HIM, IT'S THE BEST PART OF THE DRAMA

If you could react to those specific scenes paying attention to what I said, you can see that it makes a lot of sense, but I truly beleieve that was what really happened, I don't see this episode in any other way

I tried to add my own gifs to the post but it was hard to find the content + when I put into the gif app the quality was so low that I just gave up

[cats-mayhem]

Ein MyStreet isn't a compelling villain to me.

Please note how I said ME in the title. This is just how I feel. You're entitled to your own opinions. Also this isn't the most professional analysis, I am just saying what's on my mind in the moment. Anyway, let's get into it.

OK so basically: Ein had a lot of potential. In the first half of season 1 he was a cute "bad" boy who just wanted to not be the Omega of the school whilst also having a crush on Aphmau. Then Aphmau made him Alpha Male and then he stopped being a character.

It's framed that everything he did with Aphmau was just a ploy to get the position of Alpha but like... He was so genuine so many times? He was blushing and all, he helped her out with the hair dye. He was a good boy who actually had a thing for Aph.

But ok, let's just ignore his characterization up until the twist because ooohhh he's actually really mean and manipulative. Maybe it's because of the power he now has after being bullied for so long but it's SUCH a jarring shift in character for him.

I guess Jessica wanted to make an actual Villain character since Gene and Balto weren't the most threatening and evil but like... They're in high school? They're not gonna be evil masterminds like what she was trying to do with Ein.

Gene and Balto were just bullies and that fit for PDH S1. Ein being evil is to shut down any romantic progression he would have with Aphmau since Kai got character assassinated and was a dick to her on a date (+ Ein's meddling)

All so that Aaron can come "save the day" and beat up Ein and save Aphmau from an evil man that she never figured out was evil. The most Evil things Ein did was pick an Omega without Aph and also ruin her date.

Ein didn't want to be the omega anymore since he was sick of being seen as weak and being bullied and ignored, and the teacher WANTED him to take that title willingly, even after everything he's gone through with it. And he KNOWS that Aph would try and convince him To take it on as well, so that's why he picked one by himself. And the date thing... Yeah idk why he did that maybe he was just jealous idk i forgor.

OH YEAH and he beat the shit out of Kasey so that Katelyn can have a reason to be racist towards werewolves when the Ultima Reveal. Completely forgot about that.

I honestly think PDH S2 had an interesting set up with the love triangle. Kai has Aaron's personality whilst Ein has Aaron's attitude. (Aph & Aaron's romance is awful but i'm just pointing out symbolism).

Ein was also racist towards Humans since he is a werewolf supremacist and he wanted to make Aphmau a werewolf so that she'd be perfect. Also werewolves are a minority that's discriminated against so this character trait is a bit uh... Yikes!

Also I just remembered this but Ein was working with Gene to get close to Aphmau and Gene wanted pictures of Aphmau for some fucking reason?? What was that about. We get no context on this other than 1 scene btw.

So the next time we see Ein is in Emerald Secret! Oh boy, I got some words.

So about 15 years pass since PDH S2 and everyone is an adult in their late 20s. What has Ein been doing in all that time? Obsessing over a girl he met in high school, researching heavily into a folk lore in order to turn her into a werewolf. Also he's been doing illegal potion making and used one of those potions to turn an actual wolf, human, so that he can be the alpha of her wolf pack.

Also he's working with the biggest bad of them all, Micheal! But we don't meet him until Season 6 or something. He also may or may not be mind controlling Ein during Emerald Secret we don't know.

So what else does Ein do this season now that he's the big bad again? Other than the wolf thing, he also brainwashes Aphmau's friends into thinking he's their brother, makes Aphmau obey his every word and love him whilst also despising Aaron.

And makes her attempt to kill Aaron. Despite the fact that he needs Aaron to turn her into a werewolf first, after he denies when he's asked, Ein was like "Ok well. Aph kill him lmao."

He also "dies" in the end by getting mauled by the pack of wolves he made himself Alpha of.

I don't think it takes that much brainpower to see why this is an awful twist (he was also a twist villain btw we didn't know it was him until midway). His motivation is stupid, why are you still obsessed with some girl from high school, you're 28.

Why does he even still have those pictures of her in high school? Like if you're gonna be obsessed with her, at least stalk her so you can get the modern update???

Also, his werewolf supremacy is played up big time here to the point it makes you question why he wasn't obsessing over Aaron like Xavier was. Maybe Jessica didn't wanna repeat motivation? But Ein & Xavier are very different characters, you could make it work.

He was just a mess of a villain once you think about his motivation for 2 seconds. And then he shows up in When Angels Fall!! This one is shorter I promise.

So in WAF Ein uses another illegal potion to make werewolves (who were in hiding since the Government is taking every single one of them and interrogating them because they might be some ancient folklore beast). And makes them all obey his every word and call him Alpha.

It's confirmed that after High School, werewolf packs and Alphas don't matter in the real world so it's weird that he was obsessed with it in Emerald Secret.

Anyway after that, he kidnaps Aphmau to hold Aaron ransom and when he gets his werewolf ears back (Aaron took them away in ES) he kills Aphmau because he was being mind controlled by Micheal.

And then Aaron and Ein fight on a bridge, Aaron kills his mind controlled friends, and then kills Ein. So let's talk about it.

the thing with this is that... It just shows that Ein COULD'VE been written well if he was mind controlled by Micheal with the illegal potions. Since Micheal had 100% access to Ein at any time and Ein played a major role in Micheal's plan to trauma trigger Aaron.

And honestly it would've made Ein a much more compelling character if he just... Didn't have control over his actions. One theme with the main group is that they decide what to do with their lives and how to move forward.

But that wouldn't apply to someone who was controlled, now, would it? And since we know that the person under the effects of a forever potion still have a conscious, and can see all the acts that they don't have control over, it would've made Ein a tragic villain.

And if he was mind controlled by Micheal during Emerald Secret it would explain why Ein was obessed with Aphmau despite it being so weird. Because guess what, Ein & Aphmau are half siblings! So that re-contextualizes every interaction they ever had.

I think that Ein should've had an actual character instead of being a cartoon villain like Micheal was. Ein is the only character to have so much DIRECT action towards the main cast. Why would you make him so messy and one dimensional?

And the whole Mind Control thing is something that can be easily done. Ein uses forever potions to make people Obey Him, and since Micheal doesn't have enough power to mind control Ein 24/7, him using a potion like that on Ein would make so much sense.

Since Ein is shown to be decent at potion making and magic by the time we meet him. Micheal is the only one who could've taught him all of that. And the thing is: IT'S CANNON ONLY IN WAH. They met before ES but it's left so vague on what their relationship was that you could say Ein did everything in Emerald Secret by his own volition and you'd be right since nothing is confirmed.

If Jessica wanted to make this a serious story, WHY WOULD YOU STOP AT THE MOST RELEVANT VILLAIN??? He's literally related to Aphmau and was apart of the experimentation in some way but we don't know because he's not a character enough for him to be lore relevant other than him being a plot device. I'm so upset on the way Jessica wrote him since he could've been so much more than he actually was.

I wanna add something: The mind controlled by Micheal thing is only one possibility with his character. You can do a whole lot of other things. The reason why I focused on the mind-control thing is that it's an easy cop-out Jessica could do in order to make Ein an actual character.

Jessica isn't the best writer and loves tropes & cop-outs so it very well could've been done in story. But instead she let Ein be vague as hell and also tying him so closely into the lore.

I just want Ein to be a coherent character with understandable motivations behind his actions. There is no excuse for him to be this important and yet so messily written.

And now he's dead. RIP Ein MyStreet. You could've been one of the greatest.

[art-i-know-yes]

I have feelings and I have to talk about them.

in my head only thoughts about the sheriff.

a lot of thoughts btw. this is loooooong.

Spoilers for Jimmy's Empire S2 recent eps.

*breaks down into tears*

anyway. poor pathetic man is (hopefully) getting a villain arc and i think he needs it. he deserves to snap and hurt and use Lore on the others. so *so* badly i want them to listen to him but i know it's unlikely. and *gem* being the one to kill him. one of the few, few people who at least pitied him.

and then *the past sheriff.* let me tell ya, my brain is riddled with angst by him.

because the moment i saw him, after getting excited about it being martyn, i was like 'oh. oh. Jimmy is going to *idolize* him.' and i was like i can see where he could end up like a positive figure but then. *but then* he started explaining how he was the most respected sheriff so my brain took a curve to be like 'oh, he's going to be like Jimmy. lying to people about respect.' and then he explained that "people were so in awe of me that they'd run inside and shut their doors." and i don't know if my brain has ever taken a sharp turn so quickly. generally, i try to see the fluffy things and those are my comfort, but when i tell you my next thoughts were 'oh no. he was feared. people respected him bc he was scary.'

and it *kept going* with the alcoholic tendencies, people trying to keep him away, R.E.S.P.E.C.T, *ricky*. bc in the stream (i only watched a little) he says that ricky was his ex-deputy that did nothing but cause trouble. my next few thoughts went like this;

'he was a corrupt sheriff for sure.'

'they trapped him on purpose. they wanted him to be gone.'

'he's going to ruin Jimmy.'

and for the life of me, i couldn't stop thinking about how the past sheriff would probably be super manipulative in that nice way so that Jimmy could only rely on him for any positive reinforcement, Jimmy is willing to do *anything* so someone will *just stay*, and in the end, i genuinely think the past sheriff is going to try and take his spot. bc Jimmy already is listening to everything he says and of course, everyone already likes the past sheriff more, just to mess with Jimmy.

and, of course, the sheriff likes other people more too.

bc tumble town is empty. what do you mean it's empty? he's got villagers, yeah but he doesn't interact with them. he, in general, probably forgets they're there. but like that literally broke my heart bc he's alone. and people only visit him to taunt him.

so yeah i think Jimmy deserves to be a little bit mean. he probably won't be. he'll probably be manipulated and ignored and we're all going to go crazy. he's probably going to end up like how pearl was in double life.

[sidenote: it sucked to type on mobile and try the italics. so the asterisks are italics for the parts it didn't work. except that first sentence. i am in tears. i spent like 20 minutes faffing with the italics. and i can't get rid of them otherwise the entire paragraph changes so. yeah. it looks ugly.]

(i do want to mention that i nearly died laughing at the beginning of the stream where fwhip just chases the past sheriff around asking if he needs a deputy.)

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

the mandalorian, for the fandom asks 🥰

Two birds, one stone! Let's start with Star Wars the entire franchise.

The first character I first fell in love with: Finn

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Cassian Andor. I liked his character in Rogue One. Love his character even more in his show.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: This is an endless list but I nominate Rian Johnson, who is not a character but sure ruined a fuckton of characters for me in a movie that so many people think is the Best Of All Time. okay.

The character I love that everyone else hates: Genuinely have no idea. Pretty sure this would also be an endless list.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: I could be real funny and say JJ Abrams, whose handful of movies I watched used to fall under the "mindless summer fun" category, but I think this would be Rey. She stopped being interesting after the TLJ/TROS fiasco and I just don't care enough to pay attention about her future. How do I know Disney Lusasfilm isn't going to waste it like they wasted so many other characters' futures?

The character I would totally smooch: Din Djarin but only because I just need to tap his helmet. No kissing involved, success!

The character I’d want to be like: Cinta. maybe. Her clarity of purpose is inspiring.

The character I’d slap: Sure does come down to between the mass murderer and his mass murdering grandson. I got two hands.

A pairing that I love: Finn/Poe by a country mile and then some.

A pairing that I despise: Reylo.

And now for The Mandalorian/Mandoverse edition.

The first character I first fell in love with: lol. lmao. rofl. roflmao. roflcopter. it's Din Djarin btw.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Luke Skywalker actually. yes, he's Mister Star Wars, but The Mandalorian was the show that actually made me sit and think about his post-ROTJ life. we don't talk about the ST.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: Post-S2 Bo-Katan and every single character that showed up in the Ahsoka show. I didn't see TCW/Rebels and while it would've been nice to watch them, I shouldn't have to in order to understand who these people are in the live-action sequel to Rebels. And what I saw did not make me interested in going back to watch.

The character I love that everyone else hates: Cara. I loved what she represented as a burned out veteran living in the lawless Outer Rim. Fucking shame her actor turned out to be a trash fire. What a shame Cara was just written out instead of recast. Disney Lucasfilm is full of COWARDS.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Peli. She got overused and I got tired.

The character I would totally smooch: *points to the Star Wars version* But I would also smooch Grogu on the forehead, my Force baby gremlin child.

The character I’d want to be like: Fennec 100%

The character I’d slap: Gideon, because his S3 endgame is ridiculous. Sir, what the fuck was that? I expected so much better from you.

A pairing that I love: lol. lmao. rofl. roflmao. roflcopter. it's Din/Luke btw.

A pairing that I despise: Din/Bo

Play ask games, win ask prizes!

[howellslides]

.

i filtered out all the good omens posts from my dash but i just finished it last night and so i have no idea if this is an unpopular opinion buttttttttt i was not impressed with this season :(

(this is just gonna be me talking about my thoughts on it)

last season felt so tight! so snappy! we saw the puzzle pieces being laid out and then we saw them fit together!

this season i was shocked i was on episode five because i thought we were still in the exposition phase, because not much of note really... happened?

the twist at the end felt very rushed. there were not nearly enough hints to explain why gabriel and beeelzebub fell in love, it was literally just "oh btw here's the answer to the mystery, k bye".

also, this is my personal pet peeve, but i hate when characters get woobified, and literally all of hell got woobified SO BAD. everyone was just "oh dear oh no what do we doooooo", and it wasn't in a "we just got humiliated in front of heaven and satan himself" it was just, everyone was just kind of pathetic. i wasn't scared by any of the demons. and crowley got woobified too, a lil bit, but at least it wasn't too bad.

especially beelzebub. i felt like s1 beelzebub was actually evil. i felt like s2 beelzebub was just uwu i'm in a bad place teehee.

and honestly i feel like they could cut all the flashbacks in half. the job thing could've mostly stuck to the end bit where he got his children back, maybe a scene or two before that (the blue lizard thing was cute, though). the graverobbing was mostly alright, although crowley being drunk really dragged on. the magic show one was the worst specifically because it felt like it ruined the moment from last season :(

maggie and nina also could've been cut in half. or at least, their story could've been their own story, not just used as a mirror for crowley to realize he needed to make a move. especially when beelzebub and gabriel were also a mirror for him to make a move. i would've liked it better if they instead told the pair of them off for meddling with their personal lives and went their separate ways.

(also i didn't neeeeeed nina to talk about everything everything from before, but if they weren't even connect her to her past at least a little bit, why use the same actor)

(also? it would've been way cuter if, plot twist, the jane austen thing did nothing for nina and maggie, but did work on crowley. no "hey look at what these other people are doing", just "look at how special my angel is")

i did like aziraphale's ending, though. i know a lot of people were heartbroken by it (that much slipped past my filters) but as a story device, that was kinda cool. it did feel like it could've been more midseason than finale thing. it would've been cooler if his flashbacks to learning real world morals vs heavenly morals were juxtaposed with him actually having some say in heaven. you could still have him choosing to "make a difference" up there at the end of it, because the dude has spent thousands of years being told that that's the right thing to do.

and then it would be even more heartbreaking for crowley, feeling like he's lost him. as it was, i honestly wasn't really moved by the kiss at all. sorry. the way it was framed felt oddly fanservice-y.

anyway. i still enjoyed the show, the humour was still enchanting, and i love the way it critiques power structures and the idea of "good". but the overarching plot this season was. just not impressive to me.

[joshriku]

Bear s3 thoughts?

i have finally #seated to talk about this......

ok i think its like. in paper its really good. the impact the s2 finale has on carmy that makes him trigger this defensive coping mechanism he has where he just spirals into something Worse over growing and improving is to me a good choice tbh? as in, i personally enjoy characters with messy approaches to trauma who aren't Very Good At Handling It. i thought also syd was the Star of the season to me.. to me syd is a very special character bc in lots of ways she is the propeller for things to be set in motion. syd's belief in the restaurant, in others, the way her presence inspires others and makes them like her and respect her and try to change for her, i think it's all genuinely so good. and i think the fact she is such a loving and caring person shines through her personality so much and i love the little touches throughout the season.. her interactions with richie, syd bringing food for nat and the baby, the fact she was the 2nd call nat did in an emergency, of course tina and syd forever my highlight, syd being there for marcus' grieving time, and literally every interaction syd has with carmy even if he doesnt appreciate it its so good. idk. syd is the most solid character in the show and i did find it interesting that in s2 when carmy kind of pushes her up and brings out the best in her, s3 carmy is kind of the entire reason why she doesn't feel As Good about anything rn.

like. he refuses to cooperate. when people talk about the bear, it's carmy who takes all the credit, it's carmy running the menu, it's carmy taking the shots, it's carmy who's going to give her the star, etc etc. and i thought it was interesting how you could see episode by episode syd's resolve and self-esteem crumbling until she has a panic attack - and carmy isn't even Voluntarily causing this, its literally just a side effect of his own making because of how he acts and how he influences everyone around them and him not taking care of his mental health impacts Everyone Else.... i'll get you out of there donna btw if anyone cared... "where did he pick that up?" indeed..... but anyway this is why i think i was also curious about the set up to syd possibly leaving for the other restaurant or at least seriously considering it. bc i do think it'd be the best for her. even if she Shouldn't have to consider it yknow?

i also loved napkins. i think everyone loved napkins but omfg the way i cried over that episode.. tina my everything. i think its the best ep in this season! the writing + directing was stellar and it just means so much to me. i love when the bear is about loss and grief and finding your place in a world that keeps rejecting you but overall when its about Love. "do you know how much i loved him? a lot. i loved him a lot" haunting my every waking moment... ice cubes also ruined my day and made me sob for like 40 minutes i was crying while talking to my girlfriend it was a whole mess... nat .. Ohhh nat.......

but like . i didnt have fun watching it as i usually do w the bear 😭 idk... like i said on paper its fine. i thought the flashbacks to mikeys funeral and carmys life during his culinary studies and when they find out abt mikeys passing it was all really well done? but other than that it was like. some scenes were good. but napkins and ice cubes were the only good from start to finish esp napkins. idk i found it very.. i think it somewhat lacked a purpose. i also feel like it was just a lot of Showing things, like, after the 700th montage+quick cut in from a flashback+a close up of carmys eyes looking distressed i was like. Yeah i got it can I get some dialogue that isnt something that feels like word vomit pls and thank u... I thought the humor landed only sometimes and sometimes it kind of felt like a parody of itself. like if someone tried to do a sketch of the bear thats what itd be.i feel like it just lacked stronger narrative objectives.. the bear's objectives for seasons are usually very simple but executed nicely, but i think they fumbled the execution a lot.. which is a shame bc i dont think ill be rewatching s3 as much as i rewatch s1 and s2. i hope s4 is a lot better tho!

[viscountessevie]

I'm so sad about the possibility of Philoise' story being switched to Theloise.

Phillip sacrificed the chance for true love to help Marina and make up for his beother. Both are obviously content but not happy. And even though I'm don't like the idea of Marina dying, at least one of them would've at least gotten the chance to become happy with someone else.

Sure they can suddenly turn them into lovers but I feel like it still feels so wrong and maybe it wouldn't have been nessecary to introduce them in my opinion.

There were so many Philoise hints and now it could be for nothing.

[Shoutout to the Kanthypants GC and especially Lav @sweetestviscount, Dani @hella-sirius, Franzi @anthonykatebridgerton and Trivia @hptriviachamp for an amazing and fruitful discussion about the Phillip/Marina storyline and the Colin of it all in S1!]

Not going to lie anon I feel SUPER conflicted about the tone of your ask and what tone to respond in because while initially I was like Oh they seem nice and aren't calling Marina a hoe who deserves to die for once like most of the Philoises and Pelicans. But rereading this over the last few weeks, I'm going to take it as misplaced sympathy for Phillip that resulted in tearing down Marina. It also kinda reads passive aggressive ngl - feel free to correct me if I am wrong in the notes or a future ask if you'd like. But that's how I have taken it and will be responding as such.

Also I am going to be slightly harsh because you came to the wrong place for Philip/Philoise sympathy, ya non-binary pal here is Marina lover and will defend her til my dying days. 

First off, let me squash your worries and sadness, you’re fine. I’ve talked about it here but to reiterate: All the book canon couples will be fine on the show. No matter how many shitty love triangles they throw at us, the endgame couple wins. So the Philoise hints will come to a head at some point just chill out please. Just because they have an endgame doesn’t mean they are supposed to have a chastity belt on - not everyone needs to be a Daphne or Show!Colin lmao. Let them have some fun! 

As for the rest of your ask, let me turn this around: She would have found herself a fine husband or Colin would have changed his mind after the anger dissipated. See: Their scenes in S2 (minus the end where Marina magically turns into Penalty’s mouthpiece thank you idiot writers 🙄 ) & this scene in S1: 

[Btw yall rewatching this scene BROKE ME! HE SHOULD HAVE MARRIED HER!! They are so much better suited on the show than Penalty and him. Marina saw him as a real person and was realistic about her expectations, unlike someone who is obsessed and is willing to ruin everyone around her to get to him,,, anyways that’s for ANOTHER day and post]

Anyways I digress, she would have been fine tbh so Phillip didn’t HAVE to do anything neither did he ‘sacrifice’ anything lmao. They got married which back then were mainly transactional so they could have had an arrangement to take lovers. He didn’t go to war for her unlike her first love George so please calm down. He chose to it. Yes, he felt duty bound but no one put a gun to his head. Let’s grant the man some agency. 

On the other hand, let me ask you, didn’t Marina sacrifice too?? She had her love!! He died in the war and she barely got to mourn him before she was pregnant with the twins and Penalty was like Let’s make this grief worse and expose her <3 Like what the actual fuck is wrong with you Pen. So between the two, Marina actually lost the first love of her life, Philip still has time. 

Next, if I hear the word ‘content’ one more time, I am going throw something at the writer who wrote that shit S2 storyline for Marina. The biggest crime against Marina other than the one Penalty committed is not making her disgustingly happy in love with Phillip. Yeah, they are a little mismatched but both very practical people, caring parents and I’m sure Marina found his plant rambles cute - she was just very nervous with her ex and husband in the same room in S2. 

Why doesn’t the glitter and glamour of the Bridgerton world rub off on Marina?? Our main WoC in S1 who had substantial screen time and was a pretty big character. She deserves happiness too. (credits to Trivia for saying this in our GC discussions earlier!)

If you don’t like the idea of her dying then why should she be the one to die?? Why should Phillip be the one in your “at least one of them would've at least gotten the chance to become happy with someone else.” to be happy? What makes Marina less of a person deserving love and being happy with someone else? Think on that. Why does Philip man-pain Crane automatically get it in your eyes and the fandom? Book canon aside, genuinely. Why?? 

On that note, screw someone else! As I mentioned before Marina/Phillip should have just been a thing! You’re entitled to how you feel about it and your opinion but I have to strongly disagree. Marriage of convenience to lovers is TOP-TIER BABEY. We had a year time jump; they could have easily become a love match - that would have been iconic. Fuck this one or the other mentality; BOTH!! They both deserve happiness at least Show!Phillip gjdgfjsk

Despite all this and my salt in this ask, I do appreciate you feeling safe enough to send this to my blog but yeah think on why you place more importance on Show!Phillip over Marina. I’m not going to say it but you and most of the larger fandom know exactly why. 

[acerace]

...you have opened my eyes to a vast universe of VintageBeef lore that I was unaware of. I knew about the New Hermit Order, of course, and the UHC invention, and I've watched a few of his CTM things but -- I will take all the info and lore you feel like giving out because Beef is amazing and my knowledge is so small.

Vintagebeef my beloved <3

So the thing is, right, until about 2016 I only watched two (2) youtubers- Vintagebeef for Minecraft and aDrive for Pokemon (and funnily enough both of them are named Dan irl). So I've watched most of Beef's videos over the years and have a general knowledge of most of his stuff, except because it's been like a decade I don't remember where most of the lore comes from XD

The thing with him is that he doesn't do Lore tm the way other mcyters often do lore- he doesn't have an extensive RP series to draw from like Grian, doesn't have a solo world with steadily increasing amounts of lore like Etho or Zisteau, and while he's played on SMPs and been involved in storylines before it's not really the focus of his episodes unlike with Evo or Legacy or Empires

So where does that leave us?

IRL, Beef always has multiple series running at the same time. Often he's playing on an smp while doing a singleplayer, often modded, series as well as a CTM or modpack with a group of friends. For example, right now he's playing on Hermitcraft, doing weekly Pixelmon and Building a Zoo episodes, and a CTM map with Slip. And to me, this translates to one thing: Beef is an adventurer. He travels frequently- he explores a world and when he decides he's done, he leaves for the next one. That's the basis of my personal interpretation of his series and his character for my writing.

Ok so reading this back, this got extremely long and didn't explain much in the way of lore, somehow? If anyone has any additions to add please do so, I am very definitely leaving out a lot and would love to see what other lore people remember and are using for Beef! I didn’t include the Hermitcraft stuff since my memory of season 4 is blurry (his base was themed after the Martian, that much I know, and he and Iskall were buddies :D) and most of the s5 NHO lore is best watched from Bdub’s perspective from what I remember, and the only s6 stuff is a single line in Hermitgang and then the Area 77 arc with its possibility of an NHO reunion which we did not get rip. And s7 of course had the cloning machine and also the Podzol Party as the main lore. So all the original rambling is still below the cut though it is very long, and I'm gonna bullet point the main stuff here instead:

Actual canonical things:

Invented UHC and was the only survivor of the first ever uhc (Mindcrack UHC s1)

Married to an ender dragon (one of the UHCs I think), later father to a different dragon (Mindcrack season 3? I think?)

Might not have legs if you choose to take that joke as canon (Mindcrack s2)

Was a wizard (RAD)

is a zookeeper (Building a Zoo) 

Had a wife and kids (Sims in Minecraft)

Part of the Trial of the B Team court case (Mindcrack)

NHO founder, founder of the Podzol Party (Hermitcraft)

Created a cloning machine that sort of works (Hermitcraft)

Played the Forest which is I believe the first time he and Keralis played together (look up the trigger warnings for this one, it's a horror game)

Was the creator/owner of Sourceblock SMP (featuring some familiar faces if you know Legacy, Empires, or MCC) and there is literal magic from a mysterious sourceblock of water that teleports people and summons mobs and probably more stuff that I haven't seen yet since I'm still watching it myself

Things you can infer:

Good with animals (Life in the Woods, Pixelmon, Ark)

Is a car nerd (irl and all of the car games he's played)

Is a highly experienced adventurer who has traveled through dozens of worlds both vanilla and modded, across multiple dimensions (Twilight Forest, the Aether, the Betweenlands, Limbo), completed dozens of monuments, fought in blood sports, survived apocalypse after apocalypse, tamed dinosaurs, and played a lot of prop hunt and golf with your friends

If you're looking for what to watch for lore purposes, I'd say the Mindcrack UHCs and Team Canada's RAD series are pretty good, definitely Sourceblock and HC s5, plus the Diversity CTM maps and Ruins of the Mindcrackers maybe? And Mindcrack Prank Wars for the chaos and the origin of Team Canada. And if you can handle horror than the Forest is fun and if you don't do horror you can watch the Pojkband play golf or prop hunt they're hilarious I love them sm I want a Pojkband reunion So Bad 

Beef's first series was a singleplayer series in beta 1.4_01 though he had played the game extensively before that, and was a big fan of Guude, having watched his own Minecraft videos. The series was functionally a hardcore one where if he died Beef would delete the world and start again! I haven't actually Watched this series so idk if he died or how often lmao. When Guude made Mindcrack, which was btw one of the very first Minecraft SMPs, he also hosted a competition for people to join, and Beef submitted a video (which is still viewable on his channel I believe!) and won, and was added to Mindcrack in season 2 :D (fun fact, Guude said that even if Beef hadn’t won he would have added him anyway) 

Two running jokes emerged from Mindcrack- pulling a Vintagebeef and Beef doesn't have legs. The first is a reference to Beef dying of fall damage (I believe the exact instance was him trying to jump into his swimming pool and failing spectacularly) and after the incident, every time someone died of fall damage they were pulling a Vintagebeef. The second joke comes from Guude, who joked that the reason Beef wasn't going to a convention was because he didn't have legs, and then he pranked Beef's base by building a giant pair of legs at the entrance to his castle so you had to walk between them to get into the base. This joke has long since died and both Beef and Guude feel pretty bad about it iirc because there were people who genuinely thought Beef was disabled and were emailing him supportive messages and stuff oops. So if you go looking on the Salad or find old Mindcrack fics, you might see references to Beef having prosthetic legs!

Mindcrack also brought about the creation of several Player groups- Team Nancy Drew, Team Canada, and GOB to name a few relevant to Beef. Team Nancy Drew consists of Beef, Pauseunpause, Guude, and Baj, who formed to investigate a prank on one of the members but I forget who. They're named Nancy Drew after the detective! Team Canada also formed in retaliation to pranks, with it consisting of Beef, Etho, and Pause, the three Canadian members on the server (not including Adlington who moved to Canada but never joined the group). There was also a Team America who pranked them with American flags everywhere. GOB is Guude, OMGChad, and Beef, who played stuff like the Ragecraft, Pantheon, and Monstrosity ctms together but that's way down the line lol

Team Nancy Drew is also notable for inventing UHC. It was Beef's brainchild but it was the four of them who first played it! The first UHC had the four of them working to kill the dragon with no natural regen, with everyone dying but Beef, who "won" the UHC. The second uhc was still dragon focused and iirc is where Beef married the dragon? Memories are hazy but they do kill the dragon in this one I think. UHC was then revamped as a pvp event and became a regular Mindcrack game every few months, featuring most of the Mindcrackers and several special guests, including Dinnerbone, who as we know Thanos-snapped Doc's arm out of existence as a result of Doc killing him in one of them

In one of the seasons of Mindcrack, Beef invited swedish Mindcracker and good friend Anderzel to go caving with him and invented ABBA Rules caving, where the winner takes it all. ABBA Rules is a game where each ore (and also dungeon loot like nametags) is assigned a point value and the person with the most points at the end wins and gets to keep all the stuff collected from the game.

In Mindcrack season 3?, Beef punched the ender dragon in an... awkward area, so when the dragon died and left the egg behind, Guude said Beef was the father of the egg XD I don't remember if I watched s3 so I have no idea if anything Happened with this concept but *history of the world voice* you could make lore out of this!

So Team Canada has played a Lot of CTM maps (which fun fact were pretty much invented by another Mindcrack member, Vechs, with his Super Hostile series! Super Hostile has a bunch of things called "Zistonian", which are references to another Mindcrack member Zisteau, who has a very wild singleplayer series with even wilder lore but I digress). In Ruins of the Mindcrackers, they had a running joke that Beef was Etho and Pause's mom, which is a joke we can leave in the past actually /lh. They also played all the Diversity maps, Sky Factory, Terra Restore, Uncharted Territory uhhh and a couple more ctms and adventure maps! Each map kinda has its own story so in Diversity 3 for example they were trapped in a simulation? I think? Team Canada also recently played the Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons modpack, aka RAD, in which Beef was a wizard with a magic staff that could do anything from summon lightning to control hostile mobs.

Sourceblock SMP is a vanilla survival 1.14 series that ran for one season and the series starts with each of the Players being drawn to a strange sparkling water source that, once they touch it, brings them to the Sourceblock world. It also summons a giant zombie at one point. There's probably more lore for this series but like I said I haven't watched it all the way through yet 

He has a Patreon server called VintageCraft and has done a series or two on there as well, and played a few UHCs with them, so lore that how you will! 

Beef also played a few popular mods, notably Pixelmon, Life in the Woods, and Feed the Beast, with LitW being singleplayer and the other multiplayer. He's also recently played the Zoo and Wild Animals mod a lot. He did a short series with the Minecraft Comes Alive mod where he married one of the villagers and had two children, so that's canon now :D he’s played a Lot of Pixelmon starting when the mod first came out iirc (he chose Turtwig in his first series and built a Grass gym, then made a Normal gym in another series in uhh 2016) and he still plays to this day. Quite a few Hermits played on his Pixelmon servers with him, like Wels, Etho, Iskall, Stress, Slip, Zueljin, and also Guude and Phedran (a Mindcrack adjacent player and creator of the LitW modpack) and a few Mindcrackers on the older servers 

Mindcrack and friends played a lot of other games too- 7 Days to Die, Ark Survival Evolved, Unturned, to name a few, so you can pull a lot of lore out of these as well. Speaking of friends and non-Minecraft games, Beef teamed up with Pause, Keralis, and Slip (a former Hermit) to play the horror game the Forest, which saw them stuck on an island trying to survive against terrifying mutated human... things. They played it a few times as the game updated but as afaik it's the first time Beef played with Keralis and possibly Slip and since the game starts with the Player's airplane crashing, that could totally be how Beef first met them in-universe 

I... think? that’s everything I mentioned in the tags? There is probably way more stuff I’ve forgotten that stems from inside jokes and things that happen within each series, but I hope that was a) helpful and b) at least somewhat comprehensible lmao 

[leahseclipse]

It’s always colder on your own

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

Category: Angst/ comfort

Warnings: SPOILERS OF S2 EP15-18, mentions of addiction, murder, kidnapping, rape (just in a sentence), drugs, traumatic experience, usual cm stuff

Summary: Old memories haunt the BAU's genius when a case involving addiction is handled by the team.

Requested by @imagining-in-the-margins​ ; based on this request:

Hurt/Comfort where there is a case involving addiction and the following happens: 

Reader: Are you alright? 

Spencer: Hm? Oh. Yeah, I-I'm fine. 

Reader: Okay. 

Reader: You know it's okay if you're not, right? 

Spencer: What? 

Reader: It's okay if you're not okay.

A/N: Its aaaaaaa I'm writing another request for imagining-in-the-margins— that's wowie- 

Oh and btw, for the mentions of the verse of the bible; I did some research about it based on the ones that Spencer recited, so I'm sorry if I accidentally made some mistakes, I unfortunately don't know much about it ^^

A/N (2); At some point of the story, when you’ll see text then [...] and text again, the “[...]” is the parts Spencer haven’t been listening to, he was distracted.

I hope you will like it, i tried lmaoo

Word count: 4.8k

__________________

It's just a little bit lonely in this home, it's always colder on your own, my darling I, I let the seasons change my mind. — Ricky Montgomery, This December

__________________

Spencer hasn’t felt that way for a long time, for way too long. 

That feeling seemed weird, but strangely familiar.

Although it had been a while since it had happened, he never really forgot about it; it stayed; buried deep inside his thoughts. 

He didn’t think that he’d have to deal with it again; well, he’s only dealing with his own problems, because it wasn’t about him this time; it was about the case, specifically, about the unsub.

Spencer had never thought the case would have turned out to be that way; it didn’t seem like it at all at first, he would have qualified it as normal- as the cases they had worked on before this one didn’t affect him personally in general- ,but none of the case the bureau works on are normal, you truly have to be mentally prepared for it because it never is normal, there always is a deeper meaning, and when the reason is discovered, it isn’t really pleasant most of the time, to the point everyone in the room had wished not to see it, but it isn’t very surprising anymore when you’ve been working there for more than ten years, you get used to it, eventually.

He wished that he could have said that he had moved on, but it never was the case, he didn’t forget these days, when he had thought that he wouldn’t make it out alive; and he almost didn’t. He had died there, probably for less than ten minutes as he didn’t suffer permanent brain damage from the lack of oxygen; but what had probably caused it was the dilaudid.

It had been injected into his veins, multiple times without his consent, for the only reason that it would make him feel better- which did not, considering what he had to go through after it happened.

He still regrets what he did after the incident; he snapped at Emily; thought of using dilaudid again: he clearly wasn’t himself, he didn’t even recognize himself whenever he was in front of a mirror.

Addiction stuff never goes away, and even though he didn’t forget, he didn’t think much about it daily, just when the subject would come up, or if he’d see or hear something that would remind him of it, but never the  thought of the matter had been that important until now. It never triggered him a lot when he thought of it, not until a case bringing it up was taken in by the team.

It had been exactly five days, four hours, and nine minutes since they had begun working on it, but if he’d be counting the time he had been working on it, it’d be less than that. He hasn’t been focusing well since the discovery of the addiction concerning the unsub had been brought up.

Why is it impacting me like that? It had never been that way before, so why did it stay since? I never brought much attention to it to the point of thinking of it non-stop. I always managed to distract myself, try to control my emotions, so why didn’t it work today? 

The only person who could- almost - make it go somehow go away was y/n. He’d look at her, and he’d be able to escape these thoughts for a moment as the only thing he thought about was her. 

Spencer could describe her as his guardian angel, he can't lie about it, she saved him.

He doesn't know what he'd be doing if she wasn't here; and now that he thinks about what happened with Hankel, he can't imagine that if he hadn't made it out alive, he wouldn't have met her, she wouldn't have met him; and the only way she could have known him was through memories, and pictures. 

Spencer would have been nothing but a frozen memory.

It sends chills to his spine whenever he thinks about it, the fact that he would have died at 25. 

He can’t keep thinking about it, as it isn’t good to remain in the past; but now he’s just stuck in them, he can’t really describe what he’s feeling, but he can definitely say that it's clearly not doing any good to his mental health; it’s ruining him.

But clearly he doesn't want to tell the others and add more problems on top of the ones they already have with the case, and eventually in their lives.

Spencer doesn’t want to feel like a burden to the others, it’s been more than 10 years since it happened and to him, he’s supposed to have left some of the tension that was crushing him, it had been supposed to at least go away, a bit, to the point it didn’t ruin his health; he doesn’t know if he should talk about it, or if he even wants to.

He knows that they’ll understand, he knows that they never judged him, and will never do it; but what if they don’t understand? He doesn’t even know why it appeared now, he doesn’t know what triggered him that much to the point of being in this state of mind. He always figures out everything, and now he can’t even solve his own problems.

Everyone says that no one knows you better than you do, but I guess that this time the ‘theory’ hasn’t proven itself to be true apparently.

Something refrains him from talking; but he doesn’t know why.

If he talks about it with y/n, it may or may not solve it, but it could release some pressure, perhaps. It’s not confirmed, but it could.

Now that he thought about it, were the thoughts that distractive to the point that he may have forgotten why he felt like that in the first place?

He remembers that stress can affect how memories are formed. When stressed, people have a more difficult time creating short-term memories and turning those short-term memories into long-term memories, meaning that it is more difficult to learn when stressed.

It could have been that, but how? He doesn’t forget stuff. 

He never does.

But, now that he thinks about it, is he looking at a reason when it is only right in front of his eyes? When it could only be his brain that reacted when the subject came up?

Spencer always figures out stuff, even what’s going on in his own mind; 

So why does he feel like he can’t do anything? 

Anything but watch himself sink down.

Is he trying to avoid it, doesn’t he want to solve it, or is he too afraid to face the truth?

Well, a part of him doesn't want to admit it, he could say that.

He doesn't want to face it, he doesn’t want to plunge the knife deeper than it already is. He doesn’t know, or can’t talk about it because he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to explain , make the person he’s talking to understand his feelings, or even manage to get the courage to talk about it, to not get stuck in a middle of sentence because he suddenly freaks out, or doesn’t know what to tell anymore.

He hoped that it’ll get better. 

It could;

Or it couldn’t.

He’ll try to think about it later. It already was late enough, he wouldn’t get much sleep, so he’d better go now.

Spencer made his way to the entrance of the hotel room he shared with y/n, wondering if she still was awake; as she liked to go over the cases sometimes before going to sleep; but she wasn’t this time, she was laying on her side, the white blanket on top of her legs.

He made his way in the room, carefully closing the door not to wake her up; as she must have been drained of all the energy after the long day they’ve had;

He understands her, it really is exhausting, especially when the case goes nowhere. They didn’t manage to get much today, except...the addiction stuff.

Spencer would have normally felt relieved to have found a lead, even the smallest, but that lead wasn’t the one he would have wanted to find. He did want to find something else, but they weren’t appropriate thoughts, you can’t wish to find out he was a rapist or a murderer either.

Either it’s addiction, murder, kidnapping or rape stuff, neither is acceptable to wish for it to happen instead of what happened.

Neither.

He wishes he could erase it from his mind, at least, not remember it fully; but with that eidetic memory of his, that isn’t possible.

His eidetic memory is a blessing and a curse at the same time.

The curse part of it isn’t the best, it even describes itself by the definition of curse.

It always makes you remember the memories you certainly don't want to think about; and for Spencer, it’s literally his whole life, so he does want to not have it anymore most of the time because of that.

Unfortunately, that isn’t possible either.

If only it could, that’d allow him to rest better, especially now.

He made his way to the bed to the side next to the window; y/n had remembered that Spencer preferred to be on the side of the window. 

Gosh, he loves her for that.

It’s a small detail, but still, he appreciated it that she thought of it.

Thinking about her, he wonders if she did notice or not; because even though they don’t profile each other, y/n always tries to make sure he’s okay without pressuring him. 

So, if she did notice that time, she may not be talking about it because she possibly wasn’t sure whether he would react well or not; she knows that it’s a sensitive subject, and she didn’t want to trigger him or be in bad terms, but only if she knew that he wouldn’t ever do that.

He couldn’t yell at her, she’s the reason he’s here, the reason he stayed for. If he knew that five years after his arrival she’d enter the bureau, he would have fought every single day to survive and meet her, especially when he was with Hankel. He wouldn’t have given it up if it was for her.

He appreciated the team too, they were a second family to him; but he also would have liked to have the love of his life to fight for that day.

Spencer was relieved that she had arrived a year after it happened, he wouldn’t have wanted her to see him like that, he knew that she couldn’t have managed to think about anything, her mind would be fuzzy, she wouldn’t have managed to separate the right thoughts from the bad ones. He would have been relieved that it didn’t happen in front of her eyes, not the actual thing. 

He wouldn’t have preferred that to happen at all, considering the problems that it caused after it, and still from that day. He still thinks that it was his fault, even if the team made him know it wasn’t at all; but he shouldn’t have split up.

Both JJ and him could have died; JJ could have been badly hurt because of the dogs, if they attacked her, and spencer could have died there if Tobias or whatever it was, didn’t chose to try to resuscitate him; if he would have made him go in his own grave he had dig, or if he has shot before he managed to get his gun to shoot him in the chest.

He still remembers the look on his face.

Even if he didn’t have an eidetic memory, he probably wouldn’t have forgotten it. It terrified him.

He had shot him before hankel managed to, and he fell to the floor, as Spencer kneeled beside him, looking at his terrified and disturbed eyes.

“You killed him."

“Tobias?” He asked, as he noticed the brightness of the flashlights from his peripheral view; and heard the distant voices, probably calling his name. He didn’t pay much attention, from the state and mindset, and his mind being...well, trying to focus on the man in front of him.

“Do you think I’ll get to see my mom again?” he slightly raised his voice, looking at Spencer. 

“I’m sorry.” Spencer had admitted.

And that was the last words he had probably heard, before his eyes froze as life left his body; his chest rising a final time, as his last breath dissolved itself in the cold air.

It wasn’t until several people had gathered around the area, Hotch lowering himself to Reid’s level in order to pick him up.

A feeling of relief had washed itself over him, he hadn’t realised that his living nightmare had- now that he thought about it- somehow came to an end.

He didn’t think he’d do it once, but he had hugged hotch; as Hotch gave him a pat after he had wrapped his arms around his upper back.

He had understood what he had said when Hankel had asked him who he’d chose to kill, after he had chose Hotch,

"He’s a classic narcissist; he thinks he’s better than everyone else on the team.

Genesis 23:4; let him not deceive himself and trust in vanity, emptiness, falseness, and futility, for these shall be his recompense.

When he had said this; he had messed up on purpose; his memory didn't fail him; he had recited the verse 'job 15:31', not genesis 23:4. He had hoped for them to understand the "mistake" he had done, hoping that one of them would know the real verse.

I am a stranger and a sojourner with you. Give me property, forbear a place among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight “

Something had probably clicked in their minds, allowing them to discover the location Reid was at, or close to.

After that, he had gone to hug JJ, who had begun stepping towards him; before breaking the embrace as he reassured her that it wasn’t her fault after she had apologized.

That’s when he thinks that he messed up, what caused him to struggle even more. 

He had asked for a moment, to be alone; and shortly stepped towards Tobias’s cold, lifeless body, reaching out for his pocket to take the two dilaudid vials; shoving them in his pocket in a single move- possibly to not draw attention by taking his time if they were watching him-, before standing up, crossing his arms, each in the crook of the other.

He won’t lie to himself, the next days weren’t the best he had; the wound was fresh, so obviously he wasn’t in his right mind; he kept-

Spencer. 

Stop.

You’ve done enough damage to yourself.

He had put his hand on his forehead, before crashing on the bed, close to y/n to feel her warmth; hoping it could allow him to put his mind to rest.

Don’t think about it.

Just stop. It’ll be by constantly thinking about it that it’ll keep ruining you.

Spencer thought that it could- in a way- stop it, he didn’t really know what to do and think about at his point.

He closed his eyes, in an attempt to finish the rest of the night calmly.

-------

Spencer had woken up surprisingly early, way before the usual hour they'd go to work. 

The night wasn't awesome, but okay...ish.

He had taken a lot of time trying to get his thoughts away from his head, but when you're alone, the task isn't easy.

It's you, and your thoughts. 

Nothing else.

There wasn't anything to distract him as y/n was asleep; he wasn't going to wake her at 4am because he couldn't sleep, you certainly don't wake up someone for that.

He had woken up by exactly 5:45, not bothering to look at the window as he knew daylight wouldn't come at this time of the day, more around 7.

Obviously, he hadn't forgotten last night's subject, as much as he wished he could have.

But you know...eidetic memory stuff again.

As he looked as y/n lying next to him; Spencer had noticed that she hadn't apparently woken up yet; she was on her side, her face facing his. 

He had wondered if she managed to get a good night of sleep; she'd often get stressed because of the case, and as the case had contained something she knew concerned Spencer -in a way-, she must have been stressing about it.

She always put others before herself, if one of her friends wasn't feeling well, she'd abandon the activity she was up to, and focus on the person; no matter what, even if it meant staying for two hours to listen and help the one she was talking to.

She was amazingly caring.

Too caring to the point that Spencer would ask himself if he ever deserved her: he wouldn’t have thought that he’ll ever meet a person like that, acting so nicely with him, plus interested in a relationship, that is now going on for two years; that was...unimaginable. 

He liked being with her, a lot. She was a bit shorter than him, so he’d find it cute whenever she’d struggle reaching the top shelf; he didn’t know why he’d find it so cute: but it was like that. He’d go to help her, even if she wouldn’t ask, he’d do everything to make her happy, he’d never been in a relationship before her, so he didn’t really quite know what to do not to make her uncomfortable, not loved; he was so awkward and wouldn’t stop rambling or stuttering whenever he’d see y/n.  

But she never saw him this way. She saw him as a normal person, talked to him as she would to the rest of the team; and would often come to talk, even if she didn’t have a reason to. She apparently wanted to hear Spencer rambling about facts, or answer some of the questions she had; and it never bothered him, she could have come for anything, even if it was just to say hello or ask him to take a paper she had faxed. 

As long as he could see her, hear her voice, as long as she would be near him, it would be okay. 

He had hoped for a while to be more than just friends, but the introverted side he had made him keep his feelings stuck inside, with no possibility to let them go out as he didn’t even have the courage to. That decision would have been something he would have regretted for a while if Ihedidn’t choose to say it that day at the bureau.

Well, It all was in the moment, it wasn’t intentional, not at all, it slipped out, and he regretted it at first, as his first thought was her rejection due to her non-shared feelings towards him. 

“Hey Reid, you ready today? We don’t have any case for now, but we still have the paperwork from last day.”

“Oh- you’re talking to me? Sorry I- I thought of something. Could you repeat?”

“You? Distracted ? That isn’t surprising.”

“It’s rare, i’m paying attention most of the time.”

“Well you didn’t this time genius. Do you have a reason to defend yourself?” She said, in a playful tone.

“You.”

“...what?”

“I- I just, uh...it’s been a while since I wanted to tell uh…”

“...wanted to tell what?”

“That I- appreciate you; but not only in a…friendly way, it’s more than that. If you...get it. I...god, I’m probably making you feel uncomfortable right now.”

“Wait, you’re serious about this?”

“I’ve never been more serious than now.” Spencer said, not even stuttering, proving how serious he was in this moment.

“Then I feel the same, if that can answer your questions,.”

And that is how they began dating; with only eleven words; she had relieved him. He had been washed of all of his fears, now replaced with comforting thoughts. 

He had never forgotten this sentence. If he didn't have an eidetic memory, he would have immediately grabbed a post-it not to forget it.

The tiniest things that had set their relationship had been the biggest ones that he cherishes the most.

Spencer likes her so much that he's always afraid to lose her whenever they're on a case; he always has to go with her.. Although she always was with the others, he couldn't let anything happen to her without being able to be here to protect her.

She doesn't want her to see him getting hurt either; even though she insists to be with him; it's funny; the fact that they want to protect each other all the time.

But now, he did want to protect her, he didn't want her to worry about problems she has yet to worry about. 

We have enough problems.

I don't need to add more.

It won't do any good.

I'll solve it on my own.

Spencer crossed the door; as a group of officers and the team standing in the middle were. Hotch was walking through the room enunciating the profile of the unsub they were looking for, after managing to have enough information to form one.

Each word, each characteristic, would, or not, lead to the matter that had filled him for a week; he had tried for multiple times not to let the case reach him, it rarely did, and in that case, as it was mentioning a sensible matter, it wasn’t the most pleasant week at work, not really the kind of week he had imagine he’d had; especially not a one including a heavy mention of addiction with drugs that the victims had, and possibly the unsub as he knew specific types, and how to dose them enough to give a fatal dose. He either used them personally, or simply had knowledge of them: this fact couldn’t be confirmed yet.

“The unsub we’re looking for is most possibly a white male in his 30-40s, he [...] a stable situation, based on the frequency of the attacks, most of them being within working hours, and for a [...], killing people that don’t correspond to the type of victims he does his usual m.o; he’s perturbed, he knows people [...] ease in public, and probably may feel easily threatened and perturbed if someone [...], subjects that may trigger traumatism, causing him to become dangerous, and harm fatally other people if not controlled-”

Spencer hadn’t even listened to half of what he had just said, what he had been thinking about was taking more place in his mind than any other case would whenever he’d work to analyze it.

He had let himself get distracted, not daring to pay attention to his surroundings, to the point he hadn’t even seen y/n standing next to him, a worried expression plastered on her face. 

Is it that obvious?

Is it obvious to the point she could notice it without profiling me? Or has she…?

“Spence, I think that we should head out for a moment.” She quietly said, grabbing the sleeve of his cardigan. “You don’t look okay. Are you alright?”

Am I?

“Uh...yeah, I-I’m doing fine, just a bit tired.”

“Everyone is, but I can clearly see it isn’t the same type.” She tightened her grip on his sleeve, pulling him out of the room.

After she had managed to find an empty room, y/n had opened it, pulling Spencer inside as she closed the door, before closing the blinds that could allow someone from the exterior to see the room. She had noticed the lock on the door, not hesitating to pull it towards the right to lock the room. 

She looked at him, eyes tearing up. She placed a word before he had even gotten to.

“Spence, you know that...it’s okay if you’re...not okay, right?” She asked, hesitant.

“What...what do you mean?”

“You can tell me, it’s okay if you’re not okay. There is, no shame, to not be.” She said, as she sat on the seat next to her, Spencer following her action a second later. “..since when is it bothering you?” She placed a hand on his, rubbing circles with her thumb.

“When we...found out about the addiction matter, not long after we began working on the case. I don’t know why I stayed stuck on this.”

“Why didn’t you talk about it? If you had preferred to talk to someone else, I wouldn’t have been mad if you had gone to JJ, I know you guys have always been close.”

“I just thought that...I would bother everyone by adding my problems on top of the ones we already have. And I...didn’t know how to explain it.”

“And you didn’t want me to worry, right?” She asked, as he nodded. “I know that I worry about anything, but if it was about that, you know that I would have listened, and did my best to help, even though I wasn’t here when it had occurred. But I want you to know that I’m not mad about the fact you didn’t talk about it; I understand you.”

“I know you do. But, I was afraid you wouldn’t get it, or overstress because of it, because god knows that you stress about the tiniest thing,” He joked, earning a small chuckle from y/n. “But I just...kept thinking about it. The more I’d tell myself to stop thinking about it, the more it’d stay. I didn’t tell you everything about it, you just know about the livestream, and what the team had seen; and I...you know the next part, I had a problem with dilaudid; I had attempted to drug myself again, in the bathroom of an office, not long after. If Hotch hadn’t called me, I think that I would have done it.” 

“But you didn’t, you managed to get the strength to stop. And you still have it now. We’re also here to give you the strength you need, support, whatever includes helping you. We’ve always been here, it won’t ever change. And even if we have a case, we’ll find a minute to talk with you. You never, but never, bothered us.”

“You sure…?”

“Absolutely. So here’s what we’re gonna do, we’re going to go back to the room; and go through the case. I would have wished that I could tell you to completely stop working, but we have to catch him before he does more damage. But after it’s done, we’ll get back home; talk about it, stay together, whatever could make you feel better. Because it’s okay to ask for help when you really think you need it, there’s no shame. I know that it’s complicated for you to talk about your problems in general, but if you feel like you need to talk to someone, we’ll be there, all of us.”

“Yeah, I know. But, I feel like how I felt a few days after it happened, when I was in the room with him, every single word, what he did to me, and...when I shot him. I still can’t erase the look he had on his face; I just…” He inhaled, wiping a stray tear from his eye. He wasn’t the type to get emotional in front of other people, but when he was with y/n, it didn’t matter. “I...still think that I shouldn’t have split up with JJ, she could have gotten killed by these dogs if she didn’t have ammo. I still think that it’s all my fault.”

“It’s not Spencer. I know you still feel guilty, she felt guilty as well too when you got abducted; and even though I know you can’t erase what happened, everything is over, both of you are safe. I’m not a good talker, I know, but, to resume, I’m gonna help you with what you’re going through, you’re not alone. You’ll even take a week off if you need one, your health comes first; okay?” 

“Yeah. Okay.”

“Do you think you can go back, or do you need to go outside for a bit?”

“No, It’s ok, I can go back.”

“Okay, let’s go then.” She said, as she took his hand, their fingers interlocking: as Spencer felt the warmth of her hand against his skin. 

He liked feeling her warmth, it really was comforting, and would- somehow - chase the nightmares away, for a bit. 

He doesn’t believe that the pain will go away, his addiction problem never went away, even though he didn’t use any drugs anymore.

It won’t ever go fully, it’ll always stay, deep inside. 

But hopefully, her presence can possibly make it go away, make him forget, at least for while, 

So it won’t always be colder on his own.

__________________

Tags: @writing-in-april​ ; 

[deans-haunted-baby]

Curious. What do you mean by Dust till Dawn going against it's Characters? I know I have my own feelings, or confusion, with how they left Kate's story.

From Dusk Till Dawn effectively character assassinated every single character in the very last episode including Kate Fuller. No one is acting like themselves in that series finale it's like some deranged fanfic writer came aboard and hijacked the show while no one was looking. If you thought 15x18 & 15x19 of Supernatural were bad and believe me they really are; those episodes are minorly salvageable against the slaughterhouse that Dusk 3x10 was. It utterly contradicts and ignores everything the show put forward in all 3 seasons. I will never watch that episode again.

I'll first explain what that piece of shit did to the show's lead protagonists, the Gecko brothers. Regardless of how you or anyone else feels about Supernatural's series finale; that show was a saint to Sam and Dean's storyline beginning to end compared to how From Dusk Till Dawn definitively butchered Richie and Seth. I'm sad saying this because Zane Holtz and DJ Controna are outstanding as these characters. I freaking love their chemistry man, it's a great rival to J2! They're the badass dark clones of the Winchesters.  Their arc starts out fascinatingly complex because they went from cold-blooded criminals/bad guys and meanwhile during their escape over the Mexican border with this hostage family the audience is told pretty quick by Professor Aiden Tanner that the Geckos are destined to become these foresworn warriors The Mayan Hero Twins in an ancient prophecy (based on real Mesoamerican lore) who battle the Underworld. So right away the show is telling us ahead where Seth and Richie are suppose to end up in their journey and when you introduce a storyline this big I expect a satisfying payoff.

At the end of season 1, Richie Gecko is *SPOILER ALERT* transformed into a culebra (snake-vampire) while Seth Gecko remains human symbolizing their night and day Hero Twin counterparts from the legend. And they're separated in the first half of season 2 where both try to navigate this new supernatural world they've stumbled on individually. What they find, no different than the Winchesters, is that neither can function properly without the other making their destiny all the more valid. That season is practically constructed like their swan song to the criminal lifestyle since the brothers are meant to become more than crooks; and since Richie's a vampire they can't ever go back to basics. Their adopted father aka uncle Eddie actually says the line "this is my swan song" in 2x07 to Seth and Richie in reference to their final heist together which is not a coincidence. That's the writers telling us that the Gecko Brothers' role in the show is going to shift from anti-heroes to heroes very soon. Eddie and Kate Fuller's fates in S2 act as the primary catalysts for this transition taking shape in the finale.

Going into season 3 it's business as usual for the boys until the prophecy of the twins officially rips a hole in the damn universe via demon queen Amaru. Who's now possessing Kate. Throughout that season Seth and Richie embark on a journey of heroism; find themselves battling monsters, actually saving civilians and dealing with their own personal demons (guilt and remorse over past sins). That year is presented as their redemption arc and final phase into their new role. No one ever tells them about their destiny (despite most of the other characters knowing) but we as the audience are already aware as we watch the brothers in action. The best episode is without a doubt 3x06 the crown jewel of From Dusk Till Dawn because it's about overcoming the darkness inside. And who best represents that than Richie; the show's most important central character whom began the series as a deadly clairvoyant criminal into the tortured vampire hero struggling with his own humanity. Now I won't spoil the whole episode for anyone who hasn't seen it or the show in general but it's an incredible moment of character development for both the Gecko brothers. Not only does it cement their powerful bond it's the episode that defines who these two are once and for all. The ones who lead the battle between good and evil; keep the balance of light and darkness. One day I plan to do an entire analysis of that episode because it's so fucking brilliant and shot so incredibly eerie at the same time 😁

You want to know what 3x10 does to these characters? It shits all over their entire storyline and pisses away THREE FUCKING SEASONS of character development. Just flushes it all down the toilet rendering everything they've ever done up to that point completely pointless! Their destiny which is the WHOLE POINT OF THE SHOW is suddenly dropped last minute and the Geckos hit reset on their former criminal escapades; dragging Kate along with them. I hate that finale with the fire of a thousand suns for what it does to Richie and Seth 😡

Moving on to Carlos Madrigal. He is the best villain character in the history of show villains hands down. I can actually say that without blinking. Wilmer Valderama is phenomenal, he steals the show as Carlos. He's is so freaking awesome, evil and badass! I just want to keep seeing this man tear things apart while being the sexy asshole he is 😈For all intents and purposes I don't want to spoil his whole storyline on the show for those following me in case they're interested. But what I will say is 3x10 destroys this character; so don't watch it if you want to keep the memory of who he was alive. I'm actually depressed over what was done to him as much as I feel sorry for Wilmer having to perform that shitty script. It's laughable in a very bad way. Gotta hand it to the writers and showrunners of FDTD they certainly knew how to humiliate their best characters in this series. Carlos basically goes from charismatic yet lethal Hannibal Lecter to a very captain obvious Gandolf caricature. Yah you heard that right, it's really fucking sad.

Next we have Freddie Gonzalez; the audience's avatar into the series. This character is connected to everyone on the show for a reason because of the crucial part he plays in this universe. The "Peacekeeper" destined to police the line between the supernatural world from the human world. In the beginning he's a Texas deputy on a quest to avenge the murder of his father figure/partner Earl McGraw via the Gecko Brothers. But once he steps in that territory of monsters there's no going back. And FDTD repeatedly tells him and the audience this in the first 2 seasons. But then 3x10 pulls the ultimate fuckery by giving him the most cliched, nonsensical hallmark ending effectively cancelling out his entire purpose in the series. He instantly forgets that he ever cared about Kate, watching her bleed out on the ground, then leaves the Geckos high and dry rushing his family (who isn't injured) to the hospital. And he stays there while the battle continues 😣

Kate and Scott Fuller OMG words cannot describe my anger over what was done to them so I'll make it fast. I'll begin with Kate the bright light and heart of the series. Her arc in the first two seasons is excellent. It's emotionally driven because she begins as an ordinary girl in broken yet seemingly-happy family to a young woman finding her way around the supernatural world maintaining her faith and moral compos while trying to help her brother after he's *SPOILER ALERT* been turned into a vampire; paralleling the Geckos's situation. Scott being only a 16 year old kid, like Richie, struggles immensely after his transformation; searching for meaning as a cursed individual and coping with his duality. He was already different to begin with so being a vampire adds some interesting layers to his character.

Btw Kate plays a vital role in Richie and Seth's lives, though in my opinion is more strongly connected to Richie. The show even goes as far as developing the early glimpses of a romantic arc between Kate and Richie (seeing as they kiss twice) with angst at the end of season 2 that is never resolved. You want to know why it wasn't? Not only does season 3 mute Kate's voice and agency but 3x10 ruins her character and demolishes her whole arc with Richie (who spent all of season 3 trying to save her) at the last second due to fan pressure of those who shipped her with Seth. They don't exchange one word nor barely look at one another it's like seasons 1&2 never happened. This is the biggest fuck you to fans of these characters I've ever witnessed in a series and they did my boys Adam and Michael so dirty in Supernatural. Poor Scott whom the show enjoyed kicking around all season barely gets a thing to do in that series finale either than listening to his sister and Seth gab about prom lol. Yah you heard me I'm not making this shit up I swear. Then he gets abandoned by Kate while she goes off to be a bank robber with the character assassinated versions of Seth and Richie. How extraordinary 😖

Santanico Pandemonium is really the only character in the series who manages to get out unscathed. HOWEVER her arc is handled very poorly beginning to end. They set up an arc between her and Seth that also goes absolutely nowhere. Give her zero closure with Richie whom she sired, dated and used in S2. And randomly throw her in a scene with Kate that makes no fucking sense after these two had nothing to do with one another all series. On top of that Santanico is barely in season 3 so by the time the show wraps her arc feels incomplete.

Other characters go missing that no one notices, the new bad guy whom they've set up at the end is just left hanging. And Richie Gecko, you know the show’s other lead, is horribly sidelined after 3x06 to make way for the Seth Gecko solo show. When I say FDTD series finale is bad I mean it's really fucking terrible and blasphemous.

[wincore]

AGREEEE, WORKING OVER THE WEEKEND IS THE WORST esp since im in uni full time and i work 9-5 on the weekends which means... no breaks for me ever.. 🥲

MASSIVE CRUSH ON OIKAWA OMGGG I SUPPORT THIS!!!!! but i am unfortunately much older than 15 and still enamored by 2d men 😔 life’s rough like that HDJWKDJ YES ATSUMU CAUSES PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE.. HES THE WORST!! btw.. ive heard that the oikawa to atsumu stan pipeline is very real... so if u get to s4.. u may develop atsumu brain rot like me 👁_👁

OOO alright run on, extracurricular, vincenzo, true beauty, love alarm, & perfect crime. NOTED!! ive actually been meaning to watch extracurricular for a while now, it looks so interesting!! now that it has the wincore seal of approval i must watch 😤 OMGG SAKURADA DORI I SAW HIM IN ALICE IN BORDERLAND!! super good show but really gore heavy at some points 👁

ahh ok thank u for the reccs, ive been thinking about starting demon slayer too!! shoplifters sounds really interesting :oo crime??? i havent watched a full movie in a while so i will def check it out!! THESE R ALL GOING IN MY NOTES APP.

NEXT YEARRR omg it sounds far away but i know time passes so quickly nowadays so I WILL WISH U LUCK ONCE AGAIN 💛 i hope u update us when the time comes!!

UGHWHHD EVEN THIS SYNOPSIS IS MAKING ME MISS UR WRITING?!? I LOVE THE WAY U WORD IT... “given a choice to pretend, you find that jaehyun is the lesser of the two burdens to bear” AHHHHHHH omg “he’s in a relationship and doesn’t rlly care about the soulmate system” THIS IS ALWAYS SUCH A PAINFUL SCENARIO IN SOULMATE AUS PLSS!!! Wait is the soulmate of yn gonna be an oc/vague character or another member :O EITHER WAY... PAIN! THIS IS GETTING ME SO EXCITED AND U HAVENT EVEN MENTIONED ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT JAEHYUN’S LIKE IN THIS FIC YET

RUNWAY CHARACTER CAMEOOOS YESS I LOVE RUNWAY YN!!!! i actually reread it last night and ugh i was reminded how much i love yns personality... just the process of experiencing all tht self doubt with them!!! so real & makes u root for them :’)

“if jeno plays edward i need him to that apple scene like taemin did” WHHHHHWJDJJWJDBW THIS MADE ME CHOKE ON THE WATER I WAS DRINKING LMFAO

GODDDD THESE TROPE/MEMBER PAIRINGS, HARD AGREE HARD AGREE!!! HAECHAN AND RENJUN ARE E2L 100%!!!! i think bc the ppl in the bff2l category cant convincingly hate yn back LOL

“gets complimented on his lyricism often but like every song’s about you” STOPPPPP HES SO PERFDCT FOR THIS TROPE!!!!!

OMG I SEE EXACTLY WHAT U MEAN ABT SICHENG IN ROYALTY/CHAEBOL AUS... i think like u said it’s because of his poise & the way ppl are generally in awe of him but also bc of his reluctance to open up!! more reserved until he trusts u... funny and kind but sometimes perceived as aloof... those r some prince tendencies! “what are corporate businesses but modern day kingdoms” LMFAOOWJDJ SERIOUSLY THO

“mans really said i will not give you any onscreen idol personality to work with” HDJWJDJWJSJ LITERALLYYYY this is why i have trouble reading jaehyun fics sometimes bc sometimes they can feel “inaccurate” but its mostly just bc there’s no Standard Personality Stereotype to go off of. but a random & uncommon trope i think he’d pair well with is exes to lovers!! Yes im basically just a jaehyun + angst advocate.

“i think most of them would pair well with bff2l??” FACTTTTTTT and no im not just saying this bc its one of my favorite tropes.. heh... i think i told u this before?? but ur like the main reason i started enjoying e2l!!! i didnt like it before bc i love the PINING in bff2l but then i started reading ur works n was like OH SHIT! THERES LOADS OF PINING HERE TOO...

i think yangyang is not bff2l or e2l, he is in his own category which is Annoyer2Lover HDJWKDJ ex: troublemaker, wasted nights

OMGGGG I DID NOT EXPECT ROYALTY AU TO HAVE SUCH A LARGE LEAD IN THE SURVEY??? and cryptids is so low 😔😔 cmon guys, vampires r fun!!!

WE R LITERALLY WRITING ESSAYS TO EACH OTHER RN BUT I LOVE IT 🥺🥺 its a such a nice break to read ur response when im burnt out from studying!!

OMG IM GOING THROUGH #moonwrites AND IM LITERALLY AN IDIOTTTT IVE BEEN OFF TUMBLR FOR SO LONG I DIDNT REALIZE THAT ROMEO ROULETTE HAD A PREVIEW OUT????

“And I get what out of this?” “Me?” IM IN LOVE WITH THIS CHARACTERS PERSONALITY ALREADY LMFAOO

“—and when this whole game you’re playing is over, you’re going to say I rejected you.” ?!?!???? THE WAY JAEHYUN IS A LITTLE SHIT! THEIR PERSONALITIES ARE BOTH SO FUN PLSJWJDJEJ IM MORE EXCITED NOW!!

pls disregard the part in my last ask where i asked abt romeo roulette.... i had no idea all of the information i needed was sitting right in front of me 😔😔

- tata

WHAT 9 TO 5 ON EVERY WEEKEND???? the system has failed you this honestly feels like a villain origin story 😭 when does it get better???

ALSO let me answer the other asks separately for better readability lol we really out here writing essays GOOD THING i have practice writing but like. this is infinitely better to write 🥰

PLSSS SOMETIMES I WILL SEE AN EDIT/TIKTOK OF OIKAWA AND BE LIKE DAMN I REALLY NEED TO CATCH UP I MISS THIS MF also are you daring me to ruin my life for 2d men bc i will do it without hesitation. wait till i watch hq again and get that atsumu brainrot with you he seems annoying enough for me to like ^_^

AND YES PLS I WAS SO ABSORBED IN IT!! extracurricular was the most gripping show i’ve watched in a while like yes enough teen romance give me two unhinged teenagers doing crime 🤩 AND OMG??? THAT’S WHERE WE SAW HIM TOO and although niragi was literally vomit-inducing human trash, sakurada dori is like. a good actor. except i hated coffee&vanilla which starred him it was literally so cringe i couldn’t 😭 i blame the writers for that though. IM EXCITED FOR S2 OF ALICE IN BORDERLAND THO i really like horror (and i can tolerate gore if ive been desensitized enough) and like i read the manga too!!! the games were really interesting (although morbid).

😭😭 MY NOTES APP IS FULL OF RECS FROM FRIENDS ALL OF THEM HATE ME FOR NOT WATCHING THE SHOWS BUT LIKE. i binge 3 or 4 at a time and strike them off and then go 6 months without watching a single tv series hhh.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I SURE WILL UPDATE !!! it’s so exciting to think about grad school sometimes :33

AHHH IM SO GLAD YOU LIKE IT AND THE PREVIEW TOO SGSDJKDS there’s a few differences in the actual fic i think bc i changed up the language (and i dont remember what else bc i refuse to look at my writing) JAEHYUN RLLY IS A LITTLE SHIT he’ll be like hm yeah im pretty chill :) and then proceed to beat yn at her own game at times. (she wins mostly dw) the fact that i made her soulmate cha eunwoo like girl if i were you i’d crash their relationship 🥱 (jk) but like. jaehyun too is 🤩 despite being dry af

ASDKDSKDS YOU REREAD ALL (ALMOST) 19K WORDS ??? IM SO GLAD YOU LIKE THAT FIC SM AAAAHHH IM FEELING LIKE AN ACTUAL AUTHOR 🥰 i loved runway yn too they were like boss attitude with 20% anxiety.

LOOK JENO BETTER BE PULLING MOVES LIKE THAT TO IMPRESS THE GIRLS 😤 if he hits himself in the forehead with the apple, bonus points bc that was true comedy (as invented by taemin)

AND YES. LIKE I KNOW MARK HATED DONGHYUCK SO MUCH HE WANTED TO LEAVE SM BUT LIKE HE’S TOO NICE WITH EVERYONE ELSE 😭😭😭 i cannot picture him pissed off apart from that summer fight </3

thinking about dejun getting rejected by a girl he wrote a song for. rip brother.

IM GLAD YOU PUT THAT INTO WORDS BC THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT IT IS!!! he’s got all of these regal qualities but he’s still human ykyk so it makes for the most amiable person on earth 😌 i love this characterization of him!!

oof exes to lovers with jaehyun... i had a similar idea a while ago (with theme song sincerity is scary by the 1975) that i discarded bc i don’t think i’m cut out to write that 😭 (YET) so i will keep this is mind. u r so right about jaehyun feeling inaccurate bc it’s like he’s very mild in personality onscreen sometimes?? so him having strong personality traits makes me go 🤔🤔 that man is overreacting. (jkjk but like you get the idea)

WAIT RLLY OMG BC OF ME???? i would never enjoy e2l irl bc irl dudes are 🤢🤢 and if they annoy me i will end them. but in fiction the mutual pining and initial disgust at yourself for liking the other??? helllooo 🤩🤩🤩 especially if it’s in a romcom style <3 bff2l is also better in fiction bc if the relationship doesnt work out irl and the person become uncomfortable with me i will just get annoyed jskshdl

LMAO YOU ARE SO RIGHT ABOUT YANGYANG HE’S JUST THAT™ DUDE skgkhs he feels like someone fun to hang out with but he would annoy you the whole time. also he is cute 🥰

AND EXACTLY!!!! IM HAPPY FOR ROYALTY AUS BUT CMON. LOOK AT THOSE VAMPIRE TEETH. feel like media ruined vampires for people 😔 

THIS IS SUCH A NICE BREAK FROM STUDYING HONESTLY!!!! im like working on two semi-large projects AND studying course and out-of-course material simultaneously so my brain is a little fried. thank u for this 😘

[thethirdwheel404]

Med Rewatch Series (#1)

Right, monkey brain said no sleep no rest, only suffering at the hands of med.

I am going to start with the first episode of S2: Soul Care. Reasoning? I need to check if Latham references Ava in his first interaction with Connor.

If my memory serves me right, when Connor is passed over to Latham for his fellowship, Latham says that he was not his first choice. In fact, his first choice was a brilliant surgeon from South Africa. In the first episode of S2, a season where Ava Bekker is only introduced with one line at the end of the last episode.

If I remember correctly and Latham does actually say that in the first ep of s2, it will be huge for the continuity (and my theory that I came up with today, if you’re interested in following this you should really read that really long post that came a little before this where the basis of the theory is laid out). 

Also in rewatching this I see more of Sarah which, again, I have not seen in two years, and she was the reason I became invested in the show, and the reason I stopped watching after she left.

And all of this even before I start the episode.

There are so many emotions and thoughts running through my brain it literally hurts. I think i’m getting a headache. I’m already really regretting this, this cannot be healthy for me.

(btw, this will basically be a train of thought type thing, I’ll do my best to keep it coherent)

- omg its starting

- i completely forgot how s1 ended but its not importnat in anyway

- just, why are they in a helicopter

- how fast does the episode move ive forgotten and i need to know

-JESUS CHRIST SO DRAMATIC

- THE BEGINNING WITH WILL WHY

- it is at this point where I apologize to all those who made it this far bc we’re literally not even 30 seconds in yet

- i just have a lot of med thoughts

- oh god save me

- i am laughing hysterically

- JESUS CHRIST THE APRIL TB STORYLINE AND TATE WTF

- god that feels like a lifetime ago it was relevant holyshit

-remember when she was pregnant?

- literally what have I missed

- side note, i really like the cup april drinks out of.

-THERE SHE IS

-SARAH

-SHE’S HERE

-and she’s a barista

-literally wtf is this show

-and the dramatic music is still going literally chill man god

-THE WAY SARAH SMILES HOLY SHITTTT come on man there was literally no way i’d survive this but fuck not even a minute in...

- okay but i never understood charles’ family scenario but this is already too fucking long for a minute in so i hope we can just skip past that

-hahahah sharon’s fucking divorce? holy shit, this is too dramatic for the first ep literally save me (at least she acts well)

-yeah the one thing I will say about med (thats a lie ive already said a hundred but yk) is that for the crap storylines and all, the actors take what they’re given and give it their all and i appreciate it so much

-the helicopter’s number is N365UCC and just... succ

-ethans bird (!)

-also the fact that’s so big for ethan to be chief resident is so weird to me. like the last medical drama I watched was greys and they are all like grizzled veterans and have been doing that stuff for actual decades and i tend to put med and greys on like the same level bc they are the only medical dramas ive watched but.. holy crap the people on med are so young?? half their main cast is med students and residents. when nearly every main character on greys is a department head. its wild.

-proud of ethan. proud of my boy (did you know that adam jacobs who played aladdin on broadway was in a s3 episode? fun facts) (fun fact: did you know that ava is the only main character on the show who’s status is now deceased? I’ll shut up now.)

-oh my god i say roland buck III’s name and GOD noah jesus

- i find noah incredibly annoying, especially bc he tries to overshadow reese (my fav) but also just bc hes spoiled [that thing that said that one of the biggest mistakes med made was not having sarah get the emergency med residency at the end of s1 comes to mine, and the fact that noah got his residency easy peasy] - but, i will say that the moment at the end of this season where noah and reese dance together at the party is very adorable. (pre reesker brain showing lmao I really did love sarah with my whole heart) (moreover my snapchat memories were filled with just recordings of reese scenes lmaooooo)

-okay at this point I need to stop once i get to the potential ava thing bc what is happening we’re not even two minutes in why is this so long. (so many thoughts)

- i find will annoying but,,, he is kind of nice to look at. and what i mean is like facial acting (i am a lesbian). like. just. don’t speak. and when he’s being a good character he’s fine. it’s very few and very far between ig

-natalie annoys me so much and shes only had one line, and it wasn’t even a character line, it was mainly exposition.

-EW

-FUCKING EW

-ITS CONNOR HE’S HERE. god i forgot what he looked like in red scrubs and his poofy hair. child compared to s3 and s4. hopefully we see latham soon so we all don’t have to suffer through this. and he looks so angsty. he definetly glowed up in the later seasons.

- i have no clue how to spell definetly. I am guessing literally everytime.

-latham please come and end this all.

-oh haha there’s downey hes dead.

-okay so i actually watched s1 after i watched s2 which is so weird to think about. like that means that i liked s2 so much that i BOUGHT THE DVD FOR S1. yeah. I liked it that much (it really only means I was that much of a simp for sarah). but it also means that technically i watched s1 after i met ava?? like i honestly had NO CLUE what was in my future. did young me ever think she was going to stay up late at night, avoiding history hw while analyzing a defunct character from this show on a whim? a character i was super annoyed with at the beginning? who has no become a huge part of my personality? honestly? no. no she did not.

-and the story with downey was so jarring. and the story with zanetti. like i think i first started watching with the first ep of s2 (the one im talking about rn) and i was a bit lost. so going back and watch s1 to like connect the dots. but i never expected the dots to look like that. its like each season of this show is a completely different show from all the other seasons. like i’ve said before, this show is a headache. but literally latham please come and end this for now.

-GOD CONNOR LOOKS SO YOUNG WHAT THE HELL thats so weird lmaooooo

- like i had absolutely no clue who downey was going into this. and they they started talking like ‘oh yeah he killed his attending’ and i was just like ‘damn bro ill cheers to that’

- that’s literally ava’s first line actually. “i heard your girlfriend went insane and you murdered your attending.” - which was why she was hated at first. that was literally her first line to connor which is like, so hilariously rude that it was instantly iconic.

-also HAHAHAHAH CUE FUCKING ANGST ABOUT CONNOR HURTING EVERYONE AROUND HIM WTF BRO THE EFFECT YOU HAVE ON PEOPLE

- but i’m also sad now. --- “I heard your girlfriend went insane.” Oh. Oh, sweetie. Ava... No. --- but why does s2 ava (all two lines) foreshadow s4 ava in so many ways. like literally what were the writers on.

-baghdad.

-ah yes. the return of baghdad. been a long time since i heard that one, but it is easily one of my favorite running things about med. its just a little detail but the nick name is like perfect. (when i read fanfic where the chars are actually doing doctor stuff in the hospital it makes me light up) the WORLD BUILDINGGGGG. but whatever

-this is the girl who has the fake baby right? that was a really good ep (bc sarah content. can you see my favorites? for the same reason the one where the girl has split personalities easily ranks high with me.) oh wait this is the one where the dad like dies but then comes back for a split second to see his grand child. there’s not really a lot I can say about that, but the fact that i remember it vividly is... weird.

-okay but I actually love the ED in this show. I love how the show is centered around the ED and not the OR like greys. its fast paced, you see a lot about the characters really quickly (one of the reason’s connor’s intro to the hospital in the pilot is certified iconic in my mind [his interactions with will are gold]). the team works well together (usually, when things are good. - which is another reason I hated the show more as time went on. The personal lives interfered more and more and more with their work as time went on. it got so annoying). but like right here will just calls maggies name and maggie is just On It. I love it. I love the fast pace. it’s why this show got me to come back. so many things happen, it overloads my brain, like the way a video game works y occupying all of your attention.

-when is the dad gonna pass out i’m just waiting

-AHAHAHAHAHA JEFF NOOOOO. what even was the deal with jeff that storyline annoyed me so much I never got it. he was friends with nat’s husband (who died) and they were both named Jeff? and she actually ended up getting with Jeff a few times?

- the more you watch med and see how the characters get with each other, the more jaded you become

-omg they’re transferring the girl to the bed i love it when they count

-maggie was great but from what i heard/read they ruined her character too??? just not the same

-lmao only real g’s remember the chicago fire backdoor med pilot (if you want an explanation ask me lmao it was a ride)

- i was a real med simp bc I bought that episode on apple video.

-ahahaha this is so stupid. Jeff tries to do things and Will (being a fucking asshole and jealous, doesnt’ let him). he’s a med student let him fucking learn. also i remember why i hated will

-okay but if you look at greys vs. med, greys literally gives their med students no rights. scratch that. they give they’re interns little to no rights. (i only watched the last three seasons bc lesbian, but in those seasons they introduce the bottom of the totem pole, the sub I’s, who are a step ahead of med students, yet they are jokes on the show.) its just a weird juxtaposition is all.

-”lungs are wet.” dramatic music intensifies.

-OKAY BUT I LITERALLY FORGOT NATALIE SPECIALIZED IN PEDS. LIKE I COMPLETELY 100% FORGOT. HOLY SHIT THATS SO FUNNY i can’t believe in my mass hyperfixation i forgot, just more proof that she doesn’t deserve anything.

-why did will make nat do that call? also idk why but is it weird to anyone else when the characters call each other but just.. their names.

-ahahahah i laugh literally everytime i remember that will is supposed to be in charge like he is threatened by anything that MOVES. (also more juxtapositon to greys bc here the attendings are treated as a joke!)

- hly shit i just remember monday mourning and god damn the angst literally never takes a day off but whatever.

- i dont usually get like this but the dad’s acting here is actually making me sad lol. Usually i get annoyed when family members get emotional (im weird uhhhh)

-why did we have to watch the tube being put in for so long - med is so dramatic this fucking show whyyyy

- i bet u the dad is gonna pass out

-oh ig not oops

-OKAY FUCK ME THAT LITERALLY ONLY TOOK US TO THE TITLES HOW DO I HAVE THESE MANY FUCKING THOUGHTS.

-wait latham introduction we may just be able to call it here.

-haha i fucking hate him (connor). he just... comes off so fake-charming its annoying. i cant get over it lmao

-okay but literally every gives connor shit and I am here for it. Latham: “did you kill him?”

- it is literally so funny but annoy how connor throws hands with literally everyone in his path (like dude just chill come onnn)

-okay. okay. okay. finally the part i was waiting for.

- Latham: I preferred a young woman from Groote Schuur, but I was outvoted.

That’s an actual quote, from Latham. For those who are wondering, Groote Schuur is a famous hospital in, you guessed it, South Africa. This is where I’m calling the episode. This is all I needed.

I just want to restate. This is the first episode of season 2. Ava Bekker is introduced to the show in the last episode of season 2. What does this mean, my friends? It means everything.

For those of you who stuck through to the end, I am very thankful. Here we have probably the first piece of evidence to my theory, at least chronologically.

I, personally, think it’s absurd I remembered this point, but I did. That point, that line, presently, watching this episode with no idea of what the future holds, is only there to tell us that Latham and Connor are not going to agree. But this is the single greatest piece of foreshadowing med has ever done.

Med has never planned anything. I feel confident when I say that. Look at their storylines. They are literally on fire, and every decision the characters make reads like the writers going ‘we have no idea how we made it this far, we thought we would get stopped like ten steps ago.’

When has med ever planned things more than a few episodes in advanced, honestly? Almost never, and going a full season sitting on a plot point, that’s major. This was the first time med has ever planned something miles in advance.

In all honestly, yes I am probably giving the med writers a lot more credit than they deserve. It’s quite possible that as the season progressed they just decided connor needed a new love interest or at least a new dynamic, so they could have just easily looked back and thought ‘oh, hey, here’s a fun little thing we said earlier in the season, wouldn’t it be fun if it paid off?’ That could be true.

Here’s why it probably isn’t. The med writers have no respect for their own continuity. you really think that, in order to come up with a whole new character, they went back to the first episode of the season and paid off a line that is said in less than 2 seconds? no way. Bull. Shit.

honestly, it is probably equally unlikely that either of these things happened. The med writers don’t look back at their story. It’s true, but they also don’t plan things in advance either.

here’s the thing, the more i write, the more absurd it starts to sound. Yeah. Sure. the med writers sat on a character for an entire season, that’s totally a thing that happened and not sarcasm. When pigs fly. everyone knows med is impulsive and messy. But what I am saying is that they planned one thing. One thing.

Ava has an accent. That was a commitment. A pretty uncommon one too. South Africa is such an out of the box choice that god its barely on the map. It asks a lot of someone to act hard while also doing an uncommon accent. If the med writers just decided they needed to give connor a new dynamic, they could have made it a n y o n e. Yeah, sure it would have been nice to have the latham dynamic with the new character, but it would have been so much easier to just create a new character that doesn’t have such a commitment. We all know people who play opposite of Connor Rhodes do not stay around that long.

There is absolutely no reason Connor’s s3 love interest had to be the girl from South Africa. It could have literally been anyone. They could have kept Robin on. They could have made the new character not have so many specific requirements.

At this point, I’m pushing this really hard. Yeah, obviously Ava was planned from the beginning of s2. She had to be. It’s way too specific to be anything else.

What I’m pointing out here is med has never done that before. (at least to my knowledge, if i’m wrong please tell me i don’t want to be a fool) They have never had such a concrete plan for a character, so much as to tease them a full season before they were introduced.

I’m saying, that Ava was special. She was the only character who was teased ahead of her arrival. The one who they knew they wanted, other than the originals, and honestly saying the ‘knew what they wanted to do with the originals’ is being generous. But Ava was different. They had big plans for Ava.

It’s undeniable. Ava was the only character who was planned and teased ahead of her arrival. Ava has such a different style and character than anyone else on the show. She was always planned to be, even when she was just being teased, a rival to connor, meaning she could stand her own against him (or without him).

Now of course, the med writers forgot this when writing s4 and s5. But for the purposes of the important things, all that really matters are the two mentions in s2, and what happens in s3. (for the theory at least).

In conclusion: think about how odd it is that Ava was the only character that was planned over the course of the show. Like sure the characters are planned, but never this far in advance. Med writers don’t really plan anything. I would be shocked if they did anything but through a dart at a spinning wheel. But they had plans for Ava, and they had plans for s3, when she was good.

Think about how odd it is that the med writers had a character planned from the start of s2, that they sat on for a whole season. They never, ever did something so slow and deliberate. Never. It goes against their formula. Like a fucking shark, they have to be moving or they die, at least in their heads. But Ava was always a change to the formula. They had a plan for s3.

that’s it for now. we will see what happens when i watch the last episode of s2.

read the next parts:

Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11 / Part 12 / Extra

[whydidntyoushoot]

shadowhunters s1 is terrble, how to make it better, one thing that deserves more attention, MY opinion & perspective

This is a LOOOOOONG post.

I only watched shadowhunters months ago and now I’m rewatching it (don’t ask me why). I shall say s1 story is just terrible. The writers ruined Clary’s character and got Jace’s motives so wrong (and that’s what made him “an ass”). The build-up of Clace is not convincing. Parabatais fought each other for superficial reasons. People’s different views towards the Clave should have served the plot better. I blame show writers 100% for these. They missed the point, and made what they cared about the most—romantic relationships, go in the wrong direction.

Upon finishing this post I find it to be Jace centric, so no tags for other characters. In case you’re reading, hope you can understand my English :p

Notice that all potential criticism here is meant to be directed at writers. You may consider quitting reading if this post makes you feel uncomfortable. But don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate any of the characters.

Hate is such a strong word for me to use. I do hate the Clave tho

I don’t want to spend too much time on Clary. I’ll just put it like this: after losing her mom, she has the right to feel shocked, scared, lost and helpless. She can sit down and cry, she can ask for others’ help. She was supposed to be traumatized, but I don’t see that. The script made her someone selfish, impulsive and thinks she knew better than anyone around her although she had become a shadowhunter only for days. Others were offering free help but she didn’t show gratitude and was always like “I have to find my mom I don’t care this I don’t care that I only care about my mom you must help me with this you have to listen to me blah blah blah.” To me it looks like an everyday style, so I can’t take her misfortune seriously. And, for so many times, I see no consistency in her emotions. One example is her kiss with Jace before she set out for Simon in ep09. She was worried about Simon, but all of a sudden she became all flirtatious and was kissing and talking about “us” with Jace. Maybe “a kiss from your lover makes you strong”, but no, I can’t see that in that scene. I just can’t.

And writers forced this Clace thing on me. No hate, I’m not interested in romantic relationships, I accept them as canons, although I don’t see why. Sometimes I can appreciate ones that are well-depicted, but unfortunately Clace isn’t a good one to me. not in s1. When I got to s03e22 for the first time however, I remember I was genuinely pissed when seeing that Clary had to lose her memory of the shadow world. I mean they love each other so much why can’t writers just let them be happy

Next it’s Jace, the Clave, Alec, etc. It’s mainly Jace, to be honest. 

a common remark on Jace: 

“JACE IS AN ASS. HE CHOSE CLARY OVER THE OTHERS TREAT ALEC LIKE AN LAPDOG PUT IZZY’S LIFE IN DANGER AND RUINED THE NAME OF THE LIGHTWOODS OH HE ISN’T A LIGHTWOOD AFTERALL“

The script is such a mess, but I really can’t deny that he chose Clary over anyone else and mistreated Alec. I love you buddy, but you could have done better. If only the writers had put less emphasis on his feelings for Clary, he shouldn’t have been that annoying. But all this “he put Izzy’s life in danger and ruined the name of the Lightwoods” thing is just the script being way too misleading. Will talk about these ones by one.

For s1 it’s basically the Clave, who represent the interests of the majority of shadowhunters, fought the Circle/Valentine. But on the Clave’s side, people hold different views. Alec was the type of person who played by the book and paid his unconditional loyalty to the Clave (they don’t deserve it btw) to the point that he lost his judgment. I can’t blame him since he’s the eldest son of the Lightwoods the royal family, he had to sacrifice himself for his family and the authority. Jace, on the other hand, didn’t have such a burden. He would fight the Circle, but he NEVER trusted the Clave. However, the reason why he fought the Circle seemed to be and only be his feelings for Clary. Well, he could have had better reasons.

I thought you knew it, writers

But you didn’t.

In the books I remember Jace was convinced that Michael Wayland was murdered by two circle members, this made a desire for revenge reasonable. But in the show, they put things vaguely at the beginning. Watching ep02 alone, I don’t know if /Michael died in a revolt as a circle member and Jace accepted it as some sort of sacrifice/ or /Michael died in a revolt of the Circle as an innocent shadowhunter/. It was not until ep10 did Jace say “Valentine killed you” and Michael was confirmed a circle member. So it’s neither the case, Michael was a circle member and Jace believed Valentine killed him, that’s still a good reason for revenge. But wouldn’t it be better if they made it clear from the start and let it be Jace’s primary motive, instead of telling us how he was willing to do everything for a girl he had just met? He felt for Clary, wanted to protect her, help her, fight the Circle/Valentine for her AND himself (Don’t tell me losing a dear parent is something trivial). If the writers did this, Jace’s failure to kill Valentine in ep11 would also be more understandable (I’m not going to elaborate on it). Revenge > empathy/love at first sight is a more appropriate way to address Jace’s motive. He could have been a protagonist who fights the villain + avenges the death of his father + protects the one he loves. But the writers made him an arrogant ass who was blinded by his feelings for Clary. 

Also I have to mention the famous line in the books “to love is to destroy” here. In s1 it’s nowhere to be found, writers used “emotions cloud judgment” as a substitution. They brought it back in s2, which I think would have been better if they introduced it in s1. The falcon story is supposed to be a painful lesson Valentine taught Jace that shaped his worldview, Jace is supposed to be confused about love, there should have been an inner struggle. He couldn’t have fallen in love so easily, not to say being all noisy about it. s1 botched that concept. 

How the writers vaguely dealt with Michael Wayland’s cause of death:

Is he even talking about Michael here? I thought the revolt is the Uprising? It should be. But Michael died ten years ago, the Uprising was like, 20 years ago? or maybe he just didn’t want to talk about details? I have no idea. 

How they made Clary the only reason Jace stole the Cup:

I have no words.

Alec was with the Clave, Jace was not and had never been. This is mentioned, but not stressed enough. They weren’t on the same side from the start. I can’t deny that “Clary risked everything to find it”, but using it as an excuse to betray your brother is just lame. Letting Clary hand over the Cup to the Clave is still a valid request tho, since Meliorn said Clary had the Cup. But Jace didn’t really need to distract Alec with her here, he could have used “we” instead of “she”.

Despite that he did’t trust the Clave, strangely, he was somewhat loyal to the Accords. He wouldn’t let the Clave imprison Meliorn for no reason and rescued him from Alec’s hands. He never wanted to hurt downworlders, not until Imogen made him head of the institute in s2 where he blindly followed his only relative Grandmother for a short period. Notice that this had nothing to do with him stealing the Cup. I don't think these two things happening at the same time are related. He could rescue Meliorn without stealing the Cup. Talk more about Jace’s view about the Clave, will you, writers? He’d rather die than hand over the Soul Sword to them in s2, how much do you think he despises them?

The Clave themselves had the intention of break the Accords lol what kind of regime is this. They were just so useless and hypocritical. In ep08 they didn’t even care about what Valentine was doing but only believed that the institute was at risk, so they blame the Lightwoods... I just can’t bear with the fact that such a regime was still in power.

This is when the Clave decided to imprison Meliorn and shadowhunters were taking different sides:

Then the Clave arrested Izzy because she had THE relationship with Meliorn, which made her the suspect. But do you remember what the Clave’s real motive was? They wanted the Cup. Arresting Izzy was extortion. Jace had no choice but hand over the Cup to the Clave. He did so.

I mean, before Jace stole the Cup, who knew the Clave would do that to Izzy? And what did Izzy thought of the situation? SHE WANTED TO PRESERVE THE ACCORDS AND SAVE MELIORN. Not relevant, but Izzy and Jace were both on scene trying to persuade Alec and Lydia. Alec was on the Clave’s side, he had no choice. But he blamed Jace for risking Izzy’s life was totally uncalled for. Just because a character is annoying doesn’t mean that whatever he does is wrong or the character who opposes him is always right. In fact, you trust or distrust someone is not something right or wrong. The writers made Alec think that Jace risked Izzy’s life to stole the Cup is the most ridiculous thing I can think of in s1. Why was everyone so blinded?

Just, fuck the Clave first, then fight the Circle. 

And Mr. and Mrs. Lightwood used to be members of the Circle. They betrayed the Circle prior to the Uprising so the Clave absolved them. When the Circle made a comeback, however, they were again a pain in the Clave’s ass. If anyone ever ruined the name of the Lightwoods, it starts with Robert and Maryse. The Clave was just finding excuses to trap them. 

I would say different positions people take in s1 worths more attention. But writers just keep distracting viewers with the unbearable love of Clace. 

Also the parabatai fight. They fought because of a girl, which doesn’t make any sense to me. I thought it was clear that they were’t on the same side and that should be the main reason, but writers kept inserting “Clary” here and there. Clary was important to Jace, but Alec didn’t seem to be in s1, that’s the problem. How can viewers like a character who treated his brother terribly while putting his heart into a girl he knew only for days? I mean who doesn’t have “selfish” moments at some point, but if you go too far it’s a problem.

Actually, I think writers had 1 moment of excellence:

Yet in the fighting scene, parabatais were talking about Clary. Alec blamed Clary, and Jace wasn’t happy about it, so he pointed out that Alec used political marriage to cover his “true feelings”... really Jace? really Alec? is that what you think? You don’t have better reasons?

Their reconciliation is also rushed. AND THEY WERE STILL TALKING ABOUT CLARY FFS. For one brief moment, writers made Jace aware that he and Alec fight because they took different positions, but they never do the same to Alec. Alec always believed that Jace was simply risking everyone everything for Clary, from ep01 to ep11. All I could see is that he didn’t even know why they were fighting. They didn’t really talk things out. I don’t know how Alec just accepted Jace’s apology and everything went back to normal. What is “what I thought is right”? Writers never bother explaining it.

By far that’s all I can think of.  In conclusion,

Jace could fall in love, but love shouldn’t have been his only reason for everything. Because first impression is too important, no matter how much you reveal his dark past and make him suffer in s2s3, it will be hard for viewers to acknowledge his struggles, making it even harder for him to be a generally liked character. 

some irrelevant opinions 

Personally I think s1 is absolutely the worst of all 3 seasons. it focused toooo much on romance, and the main couple wasn’t that likable. I heard a LOT of viewers here on Chinese online communities said they didn’t even finish s1 because they thought shadowhunters was a badly-written Mary Sue love story lol and they only watch Malec cuts. lolololol

[zenosanalytic]

THE SACRED TEXTS!! EPISODE 2

So I finished Season 2 of Clone Wars(2008) ~the end of last week and, while it def improves on some of the problems of s1, it then has all sorts of OTHER problems of its own, so I kinda consider it A Wash, in general :T

the highlights:

Season to Season, there’s a lot more F U N in s2. I just LOVE how Crunchy and Genre it is. The stand outs, to me, were the zombies/bodysnatchers in the Brain Invader arc, the King Kong Kaiju story in the Zillo Beast arc(complete with an origin in environmental devastation), and, of course, the loving homage to/mashup of Die Hard&Lassie that is R2 Come Home, which basically had me laughing from start to finish. The other attempts at genre eps generally fell flat(though Holocron Heist has one very good moment with the unsuspecting droid-bomb, and the specific submarine bits of the submarine ep, Cat and Mouse, were well done).

They really nailed the “Ahsoka’s problems are because of Anakin’s influence” bit in this season. There aren’t a LOT of eps that touch on this(I can only really think of one, really, Cargo of Doom) but they absolutely bullseye it in that one. They also do a better job of fleshing out Anakin and Ahsoka’s dynamic&how that can act as both a strength and a weakness, though I do feel they could have done a better job with it(for instance, the last 3rd or 4th of Weapons Factory, where Ahsoka and Bariss are trapped within the ruins of the factory, should have been a whole episode on its own; this would have been a great opportunity to focus on this&do some character work)

This season repeatedly contrasts Anakin and Mace, which was Gr8 and Interesting. I wish they’d done more of that.

It continues season one’s excellent handling of the Clones. While there aren’t as many clone-centric episodes, you still get both a good sense of their individuality and humanity(espcl with The Deserter), and also their Awful and Grotesque disposability to everyone with responsibility over them, even the ones who “care” about them like Anakin, who’s constantly throwing their lives away on ill-conceived assaults. Like: this season REALLY forefronts Clone deaths in a way that is inescapable without being over-wrought, belabored, or distractingly self-aware. It really highlights the Jedis’ hypocrisy, both re: their ideology reifying “life”/“soul”/”naturalness” and in how it leads to their general disdain/disinterest for droids.

I liked the relationship they built btw Boba and Aurra Sing, though I think they could have done more with it than they did.

the Spider-Assassin droids in Voyage of Temptation are Hot-As-Shit, but the whole premise which allows their utility, of a luxury-liner with crappy lighting in the cargo-hold&soldiers without flipping flashlights, was kinda dumb.

as for the stuff I didnt like:

WOW the racism sure is awful in this season! Just... non-humanoid aliens being called monsters, portrayed as untrustworthy, stupid, and needlessly violent, and killed off in a series that goes extravagantly out of its way NOT to kill non-clone humanoids left-and-right. And the Mandalorians all looking... EXACTLY THE SAME and... BEING TALL BLONDE AND SUPER PALE... when the only mandalorian we’ve encountered before this was MAURI and when the CANON on Mandalorians is that being “A follower of Mandalore” is very much a culture and ethos rather than an ethnic group...

I feel like the Mandalorian part of this, specifically, could have been done in a way that was actl interesting and explicit about Star Wars’s antifascist politics given the obvs parallels btw fascism and a bunch of supremacist, war-mongering nordics like Death Watch, but obvsl it wasnt.

Most of the eps just really didnt land with me? Like all the spy, macguffin, kidnapping, and police stuff was just boring&poorly executed(also, what kid is going to get the old noir character-type and actor that the Coruscant inspector is referencing? A completely perplexing choice when making him, instead, a sendup of the Law&Order/CSI type US media was saturated with at the time is RIGHT THERE).

While I liked one aspect of the Heist episode, the rest of it was bad & bad heist episodes are Just Unforgivable unu

SO MUCH BAD, STILTED, NONSENSICAL, AND REPETITIVE DIALOGUE

The primary plot-device of this season is The Idiot Ball, and I Hate The Idiot Ball. Cad Bane is legit written as smart, and Aurra Sing is legit written as dangerous and indefatigable, but they mostly succeed because of how fucking dumb the Jedi, clones, and senate security are being at any one moment.

The IDEA and BACKGROUND for Duchess Satine is good, but the execution of her as a dedicated pacifist and engaged, activist ruler is Bad and Inconsistent(and, on the ruler part, mostly not even there). Also, while the idea of unrealized romantic angst btw Satine and Obi Wan isnt NECESSARILY a bad idea given their history, I think making it mutual rather than one-side on Satine’s part was a bad idea(could have done LOTS of interesting stuff btw Anakin and Obi Wan on this), and I think making Satine’s initial frostiness towards Obi Wan Really be a RESULT of THAT rejection(it’s resolved completely by him telling her he shared those feelings at the time), rather than her seeing him(and the Jedi by extension) as having abandoned their peaceful ideals, was Really Bad. And, frankly, she watched her whole family be murdered in political in-fighting and then spent years on the run, being hunted herself, under the protection of the Jedi Order, before negotiating a peaceful settlement with the ppl who murdered her family; I’d have liked SOME evidence of the trauma she’s canonically suffered in her reactions to violence, and also of the absolute steel-spine, endurance, and dedication it took to make peace in those circumstances. Her pacifism isnt just an ideal to her; it ought to be deeply, deeply personal, and viciously hard-won.

The ep, Bounty Hunters completely misunderstands the point of The Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven. The whole POINT is that these two bands of highly-trained, deeply mercenary killers decide to protect absolutely destitute villagers who have nothing but the food they themselves need to survive, some out of a sense of their own wickedness, and others out of a sense of loyalty to the former. To apply that premise to a cash-crop plantation(despite the com’s leader’s protestations of poverty later in the ep, Obi Wan straight-up says “this is the most important, and profitable, medical herb in the galaxy” when they first arrive, and obvsl they’re able to hire off-world bounty hunters to protect them) completely perverts it. The Bounty Hunters and Jedi are defending the equivalent of a cotton plantation; they’re defending capitalists. If you remade The Magnificent Seven to have them defend a plantation-owner against, say, a Northern requisition team during the Civil War, the mercs would be the BAD GUYS. Just... shaking my head this whole episode, honestly. At LEAST it was a communal plantation, presumably with profit-sharing.

So yeah, a definite mixed-bag. So far I’d say there’ve been probably 3-5 episodes in this series I’ve really enjoyed but, while there’s a lot that I grumble at, it isnt so bad that I dread watching it(like, for instance, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina X| X| X|). I repeat my observation from the last one of these that it really does a good job of being just interesting enough that you spend A LOT of time thinking abt how to fix the parts you dont like :p tbh I’ve already started watching s3, but I’ll share my views on that one once I’ve finished it. If you did, thanks for reading ^u^