#s5 better fix this immediately

[cringengl]

When I first saw the s4 promo that talked about how s4 was going to take place outside of Hawkins idk what I expected but it wasn't The Gayest Road Trip of 1986, El in Hawkins lab 2.0 and whatever the Russia plotline was.

[dennisboobs]

talking to macdennis shippers makes me realize how much more i enjoy charden lmfao

[mysticmonkeybusiness]

Prompt: post s5, Mac goes to find Wukong and find him he does, along with a broken mirror; given by @visionaryscribe

-

He never knew the world could get more obnoxiously loud. The change was slow, but at this point Macaque’s certain it’s a side effect of shattering the five stones of creation. Now he can hardly step foot off Flower Fruit Mountain without reducing his hearing to human levels. Human. At least at demon levels he can still hear magic, but he’s practically crippled like this.

But it’s like the kid can’t go one day without getting into trouble, so Macaque sucks it up, deafens himself, and finds time to check in on him regularly. Wouldn’t want another world ending disaster to go unnoticed until it’s too late to do anything about it.

It becomes routine. A boring, straightforward task with little to no surprises outside of the mundane shenanigans MK and the dragon girl get up to. After a few weeks of this, Macaque makes the mistake of letting his guard down.

He lingers a little longer in the shadows of MK’s room, watching the kid draw. This is the most relaxed he’s seen the kid since the pillar. It relaxes him in turn, something within him unwinding and feeling a little less like the world is actually out to get him. The moment he hears the pig come up though, he makes his exit. The kid is getting better and better at spotting him and without a distraction keeping him from looking up, Macaque doesn’t like his chances of remaining unnoticed.

Returning to Flower Fruit Mountain is simple. Removing the deafening spell takes barely a thought.

Or it should.

It’s still too quiet and he wonders how he could have messed up a spell he could cast with his hands tied behind his back. Recasting the spell does nothing to fix things. Frustrated and assured he’s alone, he rips the glamour on his ears off as well to no change. His breathing hitches as he clutches at his ears and reflexively expands his range.

To his surprise, it works. It only takes a second for the thought to hit him with all the force of a certain red and gold staff.

Wukong’s not on the mountain.

With more panic than he’d ever admit to anyone – only because if Wukong’s missing, he must be getting into trouble – Macaque scrambles to locate peaches-for-brains and has to stop himself from slumping in relief at finding the white noise of Wukong’s magic at the temple on the mainland.

He tells himself it’s a reasonable response at finding out Wukong hasn’t brought some world ending disaster down on their heads.

Macaque finds it a bit strange though. Wukong’s been spending most of his time split between his hut and the noodle shop. If he wasn’t being an overprotective mother hen, he was lazing around in his hut and gorging himself on fruit.

Lingering adrenaline and piqued curiosity is enough to have him shadow portal to the temple. He grimaces as he adjusts to the noise volume, suppressing his hearing as best as he can without magic.

The sharp tang of copper lingers in the air and sends his adrenaline spiking yet again. When he finds Wukong he’s going to punch him in his stupid face for giving him this much stress.

He follows the smell of blood to the bathroom and immediately zeros in on the Great Pain of Heaven. He found Wukong alright, along with a shattered mirror.

Curled in on himself, Wukong’s claws are digging into his skull and his heartbeat so rapid that it’s likely without the immortalities he would have given himself a heart condition.

Glass crunches underneath his boots as he steps closer, but Wukong doesn’t even flinch. Worry breaks through his denial and he crouches barely a handspan away, eyes catching on the pinprick pupils, the glittering glass sprinkled amidst sunset orange fur, and the already healing scratches on Wukong’s face. Almost entirely hidden beneath his curled hands, a long, shallow slice on his temple tells him exactly what set this off.

A slow wave in front of his face doesn’t even make him blink. Wukong’s clearly not registering anything he’s seeing.

“Wukong,” he murmurs softly, trying to snap him out of it without touching him and possibly setting him off further.

Macaque should have expected something like this to happen, but with the damn circlet long gone, he thought they managed to get past it without an incident. Figures Wukong wouldn’t deign to have his breakdown when he is around someone that could help him.

MK would be better for this. Even out of his mind, Wukong would never hurt the kid. His instincts wouldn’t let him.

Macaque doesn’t have that assurance.

Claws twitch and dig further until there’s the distinct crack of hitting bone. Before he even registers the lump in his throat, Macaque is reaching over and ripping Wukong’s hands away from his head. Any damage he could do removing them would be nothing close to what Wukong could do to himself.

Like he has nothing better to do than cause Macaque problems, Wukong immediately begins thrashing, mouth open in a silent scream. He’s thrown off, but picks himself up, hurls himself at Wukong, and sends them both through a shadow portal back to Wukong’s nest.

As he had hoped, the change of location sends Wukong off balance. It’s enough to let Macaque pin Wukong to the nest and reinforce the hold with his shadows. Wukong still struggles, but slowly, that resistance fades away as the differences in his surroundings start trickling in. Familiar scents instead of blood. Comforting fabrics instead of sharp glass.

Capitalizing on the opening, Macaque thinks to himself, Can’t believe I’m doing this, and makes a low, rumbling purr. It almost hurts at first, having been centuries since he’s worked these particular muscles, but it gets easier as he keeps it up.

Beneath him, he can feel the gradual way Wukong relaxes. With his hands occupied he has to use his head to nudge the side of Wukong’s in encouragement, keeping the purr up all the while.

He’s not sure how long they stay like that, but by the time he feels safe enough to let go of the restraints, he feels exhausted. Wukong, the prissy princess, tensed up again every single time he so much as let up on the pacifying gestures. He leans back just enough to see Wukong’s face and has to fight the urge to strangle him when he sees the idiot is asleep.

Faintly, he considers portaling back to his own bed, but frankly, even that’s too much effort right now. Besides, after what Wukong put him through, he can deal with waking up next to Macaque. He lowers himself back down, this time on the side and gets the source of all his problems curling into his chest for his efforts.

He contents himself with the fantasy of kicking Wukong away and wraps an arm around him because Wukong might as well make himself useful as a blanket. His eyes slide shut and he takes a deep breath as a scent that never fails to register as safe despite everything that screams otherwise fills his nose.

Macaque never sees the way eyes peek open a sliver before falling closed once more.

[a-random-whovian7]

*LONG POST WARNING*

What your favourite New Who Companion says about you (absolutely no offence meant towards anyone, this is just for fun):

Rose: Either the most vanilla person alive, or an RTD era purist. Has spent years fighting for the honor of the RTD era. Ships Ten and Rose to the degree that they shudder at the thought of the Doctor having a relationship with someone else. Is constantly at war with Amy stans. Part of the reason for the RTD enjoyer vs Moffat fan civil war. Usually nice in real life, and quite nostalgic for the Tennant era, so usually OK to be friends with. Unless they say Mickey was treated fairly, at which point, you should run.

Mickey: One of the most kind-hearted, empathetic people, who saw how Mickey was mistreated by Rose in S2 and immediately just wanted to check if he was OK. Is able to hold decent relations with Rose stans due to Mickey's character development after the relationship, and has a surprisingly strong alliance with Rory fans. Was gutted when they heard about Noel Clarke's horrible behaviour and actions.

Adam: Let's be real, we all forgot this guy existed and for good reason.

Captain Jack: Every night, they lie in bed, haunted by the ghost of Torchwood. Loved seeing Jack again in S12, but felt disappointed after his lack of presence in Revolution of the Daleks. Has modelled several aspects of their personality on the Captain, and has the dating life (or lack thereof) to prove it. Cried at the deaths of Ianto and John Barrowman's career.

Martha: Basically Rose fans, except with slightly more indie music taste. Either that, or a person who knows how integral Martha is to 10's character arc. Has attempted to defend the "Space Jesus" scene a couple of times, and cried with happiness when Harbo Wholmes said that it worked in his review. Has a bit of a patchy relationship with Rose stans due to the Doctor's rebound arc, gets along better with Donna stans due to the fact that S4 acknowledged that 10 mistreated Martha. Generally has good taste and is nice to be around, just don't mention how undeveloped her relationship with Tom was.

Donna: Either a child of the late 90s/early 2000s who had the joy of watching New Who at it's peak in 2008, a person who really appreciates great character writing and an excellent series, or someone who just wanted a break from the companion having a romantic subplot. Often gets into heated arguments with Amy stans by (correctly) saying that Series 4 was better than Series 5. Uses Donna's funny dialogue and quips to hide the fact they are still recovering from one of the cruellest companion exits in the show. Generally nice, but very defensive of The Doctor's Daughter.

Wilf: I love these guys. Knows that a) Wilf is the single best character in the entirety of New Who and b) he counts as a companion. Has the best possible taste, and is an absolute joy to be around as a result of it. An emotional wreck after every single rewatch of The End of Time, especially now that the legendary Bernard Cribbins has left us. Has excellent relations with Donna stans, and was similarly overjoyed when they heard about the 60th. Refuses to admit that The End of Time would have possibly worked better as a 90 minute special.

Amy: Definitely has followed the eons-old teaching of "gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss" at some point. Refuses to admit A Good Man Goes to War was mid and that Amy really badly mistreated our sweet prince Rory in a large chunk of S5. Is really happy that Karen Gillan made it big in Hollywood. Friendly unless you say you prefer Rose to Amy. Could not be comforted after that cameo in Time of the Doctor.

Rory: Their favourite episode is usually The Girl Who Waited. Loyal, friendly, introverted and lovable, they of course identify with Rory's slightly long-suffering but accepting and funny character. Understandably annoyed at how Amy mistreated Rory in S5, but happy that S6 & 7A fixed that marriage. Thanks to Rory waiting for 2000 years, their bar for any personal relationship has been set insanely high. Celebrated when the BBC actually allowed Arthur Darvill to style his hair in S7A. Had to check Rory was definitely dead at the end of Angels Take Manhattan due to Moffat killing him whenever more tension was needed in a story.

River Song: Divided into two groups. Those who like River Song's more nuanced appearances in Silence in the Library, A Good Man Goes to War and The Husbands of River Song are awesome. Those who prefer the episodes that Moffat wrote with one hand, less so. Was overjpyed to see the Moffat Era reappraisal of 2020, only to be slightly disappointed when people said S6 was his weakest series. Wierdly enough, gets along nicely with all other companion stans. Has definitely said "Hello sweetie" to their partner/partners/friends/pets. If they prefer 12 and River to 11 and River, pass them the aux on a long journey (trust me on this one).

Clara: From my personal experience, there is a 60% chance that they are a closeted bisexual. Doesn't get why Clara was so overhated, especially in S9. Is wierdly OK with admitting that Victorian Clara was slightly more interesting to begin with, but knows that the character worked so well in 12's era. If they ship 11 and Clara, keep an eye on them. They haven't fully earned your trust yet.

Bill: Heterosexuality was never an option. Gets along well with Clara stans, as they both know how much the 12th Doctor's era s l a p p e d. Had their emotions mangled during the S10 finale, but fortunately came out intact thanks to that puddle and a happy-ish ending. Loved that Bill called 12 out on his bullshit and asked all the trivial questions we were all thinking. Singlehandedly drove the Moffat Era reappraisal over quarantine. Has the best fashion sense out of all the stans.

Nardole: A terrifying enigma. Looked at all the companions with complex stories, interesting arcs and major development, but instead went with the comic relief. Yes, Nardole is funny and a great support character, but... er... how? They can be nice. They can also be fans of Little Britain, which is a red flag. It's a roll of the dice.

Graham: Bradley Walsh was the highlight of the slightly undervalued S11, and they know it. Definitely has the vibe of being 10+ years older than they actually are in terms of attitude, but in the best way. Has definitely owned a pair of cords in their life. Goes into Doctor Who just looking for a fun hour of entertainment rather than lore. Great to hang out with. They always bring snacks.

Ryan: Tries to ignore the fact that Ryan has the most fucking insulting depiction of dyspraxia in any form of media (sorry, I have dyspraxia, and the way it was treated in S11 & 12 just really rubbed me the wrong way), but is also helpful and really in favour of spreading awareness. We're cool for now.

Yaz: One of the nicest, most well-intentioned people you will ever meet, always defending the underdog, supporting others and just being sweeter than a tea with six sugars, but also a master of illusion. Has read so many fan fictions, seen so much fan art and shipped Thasmin so much that they have tricked themselves into thinking Yaz is a three-dimensional, well-written character whose story was not completely made up on the go by Chibnall. Little more than a defeated husk after Power of the Doctor, being rewarded for all those years of fanfics, shipping and defending the era with a couple of longing stares and some hastily written "will they/won't they" scenes before 13 unceremoniously booted Yaz out of the TARDIS. Thinks Demons of the Punjab is the best 13 episode when it is really The Haunting of Villa Diodati.

Dan: Is more of a fan of John Bishop and his charisma than they are a fan of Dan, or is a terminally online person who thinks quoting "Evil Dan" videos makes them the funniest human alive (it really doesn't).

Want more of this for some reason? Try your Favourite Doctor or Favourite Master

[fictionalcharactersaremypassion]

Oneshots I wanna do (and we'll see how many of them I do) in no particular order:

AU. Ian has internalized homophobia instead of Mickey, who has made peace with being gay early on

(Not my prompt) after Mickey gets angry over the rules in their apartment complex, he runs for head of the residents association

Ian calls Mickey baby who then lashes out initially but then realizes he kinda likes being called baby. Now he's gotta get Ian to do it again without letting his bf know he likes it

While out running errands, Mickey and Ian run into Brooks and he's, of course, horrified to see Mickey again

AU where Mickey and Ian are dating early on and Mandy knows. Ian comes over to the Milkovich residence close to Christmas so he can get help from Mickey and Mandy to decorate cookies for his ROTC group so they can hand them out to children that are in the hospital. Meanwhile, Mickey wants to kiss Ian but he's nervous

Fake dating AU where they didn't hook up, Ian was just Mandy's friend. For Mandy's wedding, she wants Mickey there but he doesn't want to because Terry and one of their cousins will be there (she's resigned to the fact that they'll probably crash anyway so she's letting them come) so she comes up with the idea of him bringing a boyfriend to rub in Terry's face and that bf just so happens to be Ian Gallagher, the guy Mickey had a crush on during his teenage years

Post-s11. Mickey and Ian get into a fight and it's their worst one yet. Ian storms out while Mickey tries to get some sleep, when he wakes up, he's back in his s1 body but that's not all. Something's up because Ian's not his Ian. He has a crush on someone else and doesn't have any interest in Mickey whatsoever

Post-s11. Ian and Mickey wind up in their s1 bodies (and their s1 selves end up in their post-s11 bodies) and now they all have to figure out what's going on and how to get back to their correct time

4 times Liam annoys Mickey by calling him "Ickey" and the one time it doesn't

5 times the Milkovich are there for Ian and the one time he's there for them

5 times people secretly witnessed Mickey being soft with Ian and the one time he does it out in the open

A 5.12 fix-it

Another 5.12 fix it but in this one, Ian dreams of certain events (like dating Trevor/Caleb, breaking up with Mickey, etc) and it makes him realize he wants to get better for both of them

Protective Milkovich brothers! The Milkovich's and Ian are all living in the house (AU, s5 but no Svetlana or Yevgeny) when a cousin of theirs (Joey) comes to stay after getting out of jail

Fix it for 5.12 that involves a reading/watching fanfiction of them seeing (or reading ) about their future together

An AU where the Gallaghers/Milkovich's read or watch a fanfiction of their future (I really wanna do this one but I have no idea what they would be watching or reading)

Northside!Rich! Mickey and Mandy. AU for s3. When the kids get taken into foster care, Ian is hauled off to the Northside and placed with a nice couple. But he misses his siblings and wants to go back. Although it might not all be bad, he makes friends with the neighbors and might have developed a huge crush on Mickey

Northside!Rich! Mickey and Mandy. The two youngest Milkovich's find a true friend in Ian Gallagher after a lifetime of dealing with people who were only interested in them for their money

When a Milkovich relative abruptly comes into the picture. Ian is immediately suspicious. Something doesn't seem right. But the four siblings don't share his concern. But when a secret plot comes to light, Ian sets out to save the Milkovich's

A fire breaks out at the Milkovich residence so Ian begs Fiona to let them stay at the Gallagher house. She allows it but there's one small problem: No one knows that he and Mickey are dating

An autistic Ian fic which I'm still trying to think up a plot for

A long oneshot of Colin and Fiona getting closer starting in HS

Mickey bonding with the Gallaghers

S1. Ian is working at Kash and Grab and Mickey's there. There's a severe storm brewing outside but neither are worried about it. But when it gets worse and the saftest thing seems to be to get the hell out of there, they venture out in it and it might just be the thing that pushes them together

Yev curses for the first time (as a toddler)

Mickey doesn't care about the kid. But when Yev says "dada" and it's said to Ian, it stirs up this horrible feeling that makes him feel sick. He sets out to try and bond with his kid

A fic where Mandy/Iggy/Colin/Fiona are at the wedding and instead of being chased off by singing kids (who won't be featured in this), Terry busts in there and tries to put a stop to it once and for all

A fic that features Yev with his uncles (and Gallavich)

These are just ideas off the top of my head. There could be others I do (probably will be) and like I said, idk how many of these I'll do but we'll see

Plus, as this is mostly Gallavich, there will be other ideas I'll have for Fiona/Colin or Fiona/Iggy that I haven't thought of yet

[louisferrignojr]

gotta say that i disagree that nobody fights for buck. in s5 taylor said it best: buck's life is full of meaningful relationships, actually. every person of the firefam would fight for and support buck. he is and will never be alone again in his life, especially during the hard times (which they reiterated in 8x05). meanwhile, we see thus being contrasted with tommy not having any kind if support system like that. the same seemed to be the case for taylor. i know people want tommy to fight for this, and i agree that i definitely need him to check his trauma and fears to work this out with buck. but buck is the main character that has had seasons of alleged development. he died and came back, got clarity, was supposed to finally feel good in his own skin, worked out his childhood trauma with his parents in therapy, formed a support system, now discovered he is bisexual and felt free with it. and now tommy is the only one who should grovel? i get the idea but. evan buckley is the character we have seen grow and learn. i want him to put in the work as well. look at how he fought for his job when he thought he would lose it forever. THAT is what i need from him rn. if he is just giving this up with a shrug, then i don't want bucktommy in canon. we have seen tommy taking care of buck and supporting him in all his shenanigans. i need to see that buck is absolutely serious about this and ready to fight for it. if he doesn't, he still hasn't found his true love or still doesn't know what he wants in life. i am bored by this. we have been here multiple times already. do something else with evan buckley finally or just allow him to be a bachelor forever.

okay yes buck has meaningful platonic and familial relationships.

no romantic partner has fought for him. abby ghosted him because of her own issues even though she's a fucking grown ass woman, ali got a reality check and broke up with him when he was in recovery after nearly dying, which okay, fair enough. and while i believe taylor did nothing wrong in reporting the jonah story, the narrative wants us to think she prioritised her work, and she did betray buck's trust which, again, buck wanted to protect his firehouse (which is his family) so he wasn't being objective. reporters exposing scandals within govt orgs that are supposed to protect the public is not a bad thing, actually. the only time he's broken up with someone first is natalia and we were told it's because she was obsessed with his died-and-came-back experience.

and listen. i love tommy more than anything. but buck is still the main character. we're going to see buck going through the breakup, not tommy. we're not going to get much about tommy's past. we're not going to get any scenes with tommy and another character if buck isn't also there. you remember karen going to chimney and them day drinking together because they thought hen was being unfaithful (again)? i wish we could see tommy and chimney talking about their buckleys. but the way the show got rid of all minor characters and consistently treats LIs as nothing more than LIs... i'm not hopeful. we'll get one scene with tommy's Explanation and i'm not even hopeful it's gonna be well written (but i'm sure lou will be serving. god. they wrote such a shitty break up scene and he fucking ATE.)

yeah, buck fucked up by jumping the gun and asking tommy to move in with him when he couldn't even say the i love you, and i hope this will be addressed in future eps. but tommy immediately ended the relationship because he Knows Better and left buck heartbroken. this is what happened on the show. the average viewer isn't doing ten layers of analysis to understand tommy's perspective, nor should they have to. i love the metas, i'm digging into tommy's headspace in my next fix it fic, but this is still the dumb weewoo show.

i don't think tommy needs to grovel, i don't think he's the Bad Guy in this story, i have a lot of empathy for tommy and so does the GA! they're not mad at tommy, they want him back! they want bucktommy back! and i want them both to fight for each other, to apologise and admit to their fuck ups and admit how much they care about each other and that they want to be each other's forever love! i want them to say i love you!

but buck is still the protagonist in this story and i don't want to see him running back to someone who broke up with him in such a way that had him asking "wait, did you just break up with me?" because again, this is what happened on our screens. i want tommy making the first move, opening the door for reconciliation, showing that he knows he made a mistake out of fear from his past trauma, for buck to then know he is wanted, that tommy came back for him, and then put in the effort to fight for them.

hope this makes sense. and as always, for people reading this - this is not the space for you to bash on buck's previous LIs, please take it elsewhere.

[wheel-of-misfortune]

you wanna know something i can't stop thinking about regarding the wwdits s5 finale???? how fucking SMART nandor was. about everything.

the narrative always painted him as not the brightest, specially when compared to the rest of the main cast. but when he couldn't find guillermo, going to his mom bc he knew that was the one way to make guillermo come out of hiding???? absolute genius move coming from the man who didn't even know there were multiple panera breads. (just how nandor even knows about guillermo's family and where they live is a whole other conversation on its own)

after only being caught up on the situation for a day, he immediately knew why guillermo's body was fighting the vampirism and how to fix it (which NOBODY could figure out for 10 episodes). and when he saw that being a vampire wasn't working for him, in an instant he came up with two different solutions for that (asking the djinn and killing derek). after a whole month of the whole cast failing to help guillermo, in just 24 hours nandor knew exactly how to make it all better.

JUST THE KNOWLEDGE OF WHY NANDOR NEVER TURNED GUILLERMO CHANGES EVERYTHING!!! for several seasons now we theorized why nandor was so dodgy about this subject. but it wasn't bc he didn't care, or to keep the status quo, or bc he was afraid guillermo would leave once he got what he wanted. IT WAS BC HE KNEW GUILLERMO WELL ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND HE WASN'T READY FOR EVERYTHING BEING A VAMPIRE ENTAILS!!!

this finale showed that even though nandor can usually be dense and a bit slow, he can also think really quickly once all the avaliable information is presented to him. and he's actually aware of the people around him and their feelings (specially guillermo's). even though he acts aloof all the time, nandor can be serious and collected when the situation calls for it.

the s5 finale legit completely changed how i view his character.

[justafriendofxanders]

truly believe angst about spike ats characterization would be solved if he'd just started a situationship with angel. i'm not saying that would have been good for the season or any other character's arc, i just think if the requirements are (1) spike's character must be as consistent as possible between btvs s7/ats s5 and (2) he can't fuck off and leave LA immediately to find buffy, the best solution is to throw him in a toxic relationship that involves fixating on someone who thinks they're better than him. i mean well actually he does already do this. i just think it would have been truer to the character if he did this for the promise of recognition from this person, and then eventually came around to realizing that it's worth doing the right thing because it's the right thing, and not for the promise of love or redemption that's going to "fix" him. for instance if he signed up for a hopeless mission to continually fight the good fight that he didn't have a chance of winning and saw himself as someone who could fight alongside others on the side of "good" despite their past misdeeds. ...huh.

[nicnacsnonsense]

Just finished “Lies My Parents Told Me” and woof, that was rough.

Spike & Buffy are just bizarrely flippant about the fact that Spike’s trigger is still active. Like I am pro-keeping Spike alive, but given that he can be forcibly turned into a bloodthirsty killer at literally any moment, some precautions need to be taken!

Giles meanwhile is the only person treating the trigger with the seriousness that it deserves and is actively trying to fix it, but when he isn’t able to immediately solve the problem, he just jumps straight to murder?

Giles is like, hmmm, I cannot trust Buffy’s judgement about Spike as I suspect she may be emotionally compromised, so instead I am going to ally with Robin, who has point-blank admitted to me that his judgement around Spike is emotionally compromised

The audacity of Giles telling Buffy she needs to be a general while making and helping to execute on a major fucking decision behind her back

Why is Giles on the Spike hate train this season? I feel like he trusts Spike and likes Buffy working with him less this season than he did in season 5. Except this season not only does Spike have a soul, which makes a huge fucking difference in how we treat Angel, Spike went and got his soul of his own accord because he wanted to be a better person for Buffy. And Giles gives him zero credit for any of that. (Honestly no one gives Spike enough credit for that this season, though Buffy does at least try.)

I don’t like Buffy saying she would sacrifice Dawn to save the world if she had to. Not even because it bothers me that Buffy the person would say that, but because it kind of undermines the overall narrative of the show. S3 Buffy kills Angel to save the world. Cool, powerful statement about the character. S5 Buffy refuses to kill Dawn to save the world, saying that she doesn’t know how to live in a world where these are the choices. Also a powerful statement, and all the more meaningful because she has changed her mind since the last time. S7 she says she would sacrifice Dawn to save the world actually, and now I no longer care. None of these statements are powerful any more because apparently Buffy’s just generally wishy-washy about the whole thing.

Spike says he doesn’t feel bad for killing Nikki because he’s a vampire and she was the Slayer and that’s how the game is played; she chose it. No she did not! Like that’s the whole thing, the huge running conflict throughout the whole show, not to mention the big Shadow Men reveal just two episodes ago. The Slayer is *chosen*. One girl in all the world is chosen without her consent to have all this power just thrust upon her and then be forced to fight evil and protect the world.

In general just not a fan of the condescension dripping off Spike in that interaction, like oh my mom loved me but yours didn’t love you.

Oh my god, Spike, that’s his dead mother’s coat. You stole that coat off the body of a woman you had just murdered. Just let him fucking keep the coat.

[fadingdaggerr]

home bound

part one | part two | part three | part four

pairing: brienne of tarth x gn!reader

summary: perhaps the era of searching for one another is over

warnings: s5-6 spoilers, got stuff, so much mutual pining, useless lesbian disorder

note: sorry for the late ass update, i’ve had a lot going on in my personal life, esp in the financial area. not thriving. anyways we’ve got one chapter left after this one!!

ps. posting this at work, i’ll proof better later :) (update: the layout got horribly fucked up after posting and paragraphs got deleted but i fixed it hopefully)

you’re quite beautiful…

these words played in brienne’s head every night. a vision of your eyes looking into hers, your hand laced with her own. her chest grows warms at just the memory of you, but soon the cracks grow larger. only a memory, and a fading one at that.

…perhaps handsome even.

brienne’s eyes shoot open, stone ceiling of castle black staring back at her. she sighs deeply, turning over and shoving her face into her pillow. how could someone miss another so much? she barely knew you, at least that’s what she told herself. in reality, she felt your souls had met millennia ago.

leaving her quarters, she finds her place beside lady sansa. she hears the boisterous laughter of the fellow free-folk, but quickly avoids them, not in the mood to deal with tormund’s ‘compliments.’ she would never admit she misses yours, at least not aloud. she further refuses to admit that if tormund’s words were said by you, they’d have worked long ago.

“you and podrick will go to riverrun, deliver this letter to brynden tully. he’s my uncle, i expect he’ll agree to my terms,” sansa speaks, breaking brienne’s thoughts.

“yes, my lady,” brienne states coolly, she hides her distraction well.

riverrun was fully surrounded by the king’s army, an army of tommen’s name was under cersei’s control, jaime leading it by her every word. her heart raced just knowing he was there, knowing they sat on opposite sides just as she always feared. she had considered him a friend at one point in time, but he was lost in a maze of his sister’s design.

in short, everything went to shit, at least in brienne’s books. the blackfish denied sansa’s request to aid them in taking back winterfell. the lannisters and freys laid siege to riverrun, jaime and brienne now on opposite ends of a coming war. the boat ride was silent.

after getting off the boat they escaped riverrun with, brienne and podrick both look to each other, hearing whistles from above. at first they both dismiss it, probably a bird. as they continued walking, the whistles grew longer, song-like, but they remained faint. brienne and podrick were sure there was no bird now, they stared at each other with twisted faces.

realization spreads across their faces, a wide grin forming on podrick’s lips, brienne’s eyes widening. the both look up into the trees, following the whistles. a branch drops from a pine tree in the distance, brienne’s feet immediately carry her to it. the branch had been hollowed towards one of the ends, a rolled sheet of parchment nestled inside. podrick mutters a little, how clever! to himself as her hands scrambled to free the correspondance.

brienne of tarth-

i hear twin lions are circling riverrun, do you often walk so freely into trouble all by your lonesome? please tell me you have the bloody horn. tell podrick to stop looking at the ground when he walks.

- no name of tarth

reading it aloud, brienne can feel herself smiling, she sees podrick is as well. she reads it over and over again, you’ve been insistent. she’s been too proud to use the horn, not wanting to look like she needs you, misses you, cares for you.

“two questions, my lady. first, do i really look at my feet that much when i walk? second, what horn?” podrick asks, head looking straight up to avoid his boots.

“yes, and a horn that was conveniently put in my stores without me knowing until i had already left the camp. that was four years ago, when i first met the skyforth with ser jaime,” she says his name bitterly, but podrick notes the small smile at the mention of the horn.

“you’ve had a horn to contact an entire hoard of fighters, and you’ve just… not used it? why not?”

she sighs, “i only agreed to answering two questions.”

podrick decides to aim low, “wait until lady sansa finds out you have… i don’t know… three, four hundred skilled fighters whose commander is your friend. and you’ve said nothing.”

brienne pushed him against the tree, sword against his throat, “are you suggesting i’m failing at my duties? that i have forsaken lady sansa?” her jaw is set, eyes boring into podrick’s, nostrils flaring with anger.

“no, no, no… just wondering why you hadn’t mentioned it. can you take that away now?” his eyes only left brienne’s to look at oathkeeper.

she drops her offensive state, “no more talking until the sun rises.”

—

the calm of the night had always been soothing. most nights you found yourself alone by the fire, staring into the flames or tracing constellations above. sometimes you’d glance to your right in hopes you’d gone crazy and could at least hallucinate to have her presence. only so much ale can be drank by one person. admittedly, you’ve also never lasted long enough to get to the ‘psychotic break’ level of drunk, usually tapping out after singing with the men.

singing with everyone once made you feel carefree, no one can really hear each other, just everyone together. the songs of loving women in far away lands sounded joyous, but after the third one you could only stare at the flames. songs that once brought you joy now made you bitter. she wasn’t far, she just wouldn’t reach too.

your stream of insecure thoughts came to a halt, hearing something. you scan around, realizing everyone had retired for the evening. you stood alone, only a few cups left around for companions. guess i’m going crazy now, you think to yourself with a huffed laugh.

but there is it again, a sound in the distance. a horn. your legs move before you brain takes in everything, and you’re sprinting like your life depends on it. immediately unwrapping the lead from the post, you mount your horse, and have her head northwest quickly. if you could hear the horn this clearly she had to be close, she reached out. gods you hope it’s her, or else you’re are potentially, royally screwed.

your horse continues her faster pace, you reach into the saddle pouch for your own horn. waiting til you get further away to call with your horn, you slow the mare to listen closer. the approaching of a horse behind you switches the horn from one hand to the other, dominant hand holding a dagger.

“commander!” a whisper yell calls out.

gods you almost threw the knife in anger, “larkin, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“i heard the horn too. you can’t seriously think i’m going to let you go into the forest, alone, at night. even if it’s lady brienne,” the boy was completely unfazed by your outburst, having grown used to it at this point. he’d known you all his life, your threats were about as scary as a rabbit to him.

“fuck, i can’t even be mad at you. next time don’t scare the shit out of me,” you nod to each other before continuing your journey.

“are you sure it’s her?” larkin asks after a few minutes, concern in his voice for the pending disappointment he’ll face if it’s not lady brienne.

you share the same feeling. there’s only a slim chance it is, but you have to try, hoping your silent prayers had worked. “not at all, but i hope so,” you say truthfully.

—

the fire soothed the chill that had crept into brienne and podrick’s bones. both sets of armor were taken off to allow the warmth to flood their bodies. podrick was poking the fire every few minutes, desperately trying to feel awkward in the silence.

brienne, however, had yet to take her eyes off the flames. her mind was doing arithmetic and backflips thinking about the horn. had it even worked, would she even know? how would you know it’s her? she wished she hadn’t used it, knowing that she had gotten her hopes up.

“my lady… my lady… my lady!” pod yells.

her head whips in his direction, “i said no talking until sunrise.”

“i know what you said, but there’s approaching horses in the distance. we need to smother this and go, it could be the lannisters or freys.”

she immediately rises and moves to grab her armor, podrick following. over the last couple of years they had fallen into a rhythm, all the armor put on quickly and campsite set to abandon. they moved to find a hiding place, hoping they could avoid any conflict, but their hands both sat on their swords. the horses’ steps got closer, indistinct voices now joining. she closed her eyes, gods she really did not need this right now.

the voices became clearer, a male voice spoke first, “are you gonna use that or are you just going to look at it like it just called you ugly?”

brienne sees podrick almost laugh, she hits him with her elbow. she hears an ow! don’t throw shit at me that brings her back to the moment.

a voice that was all too familiar spoke next. one that had been in dreams during slumber and during the waking hours, the very same that called her beautiful. she thought her mind was playing tricks on her, cruel tricks at that.

“we haven’t gotten anything in a while,” brienne’s heart is beating so fast she thinks she might pass out.

“maybe it’s not one of ours then?” the male voice responds. she hears one of you dismount your horse, then leaves moving around.

“buried the fire. they probably heard us coming, the wood’s still warm, they have to be clo-”

“PODRICK!” the male yells out.

brienne grasps pod’s arm to stop him, but he shoots up anyways, “LARKIN?!” he immediately starts running back towards the camp, brienne grumbles and follows.

“aye!” larkin exclaims, hopping off his horse to greet his friend. they were the same height now, larkin now a teenager who was quite capable with a sword. the boys shake arms, pulling each other in with pats on the back.

brienne catches up, and slides to a halt when she sees you. your serious expression drops, eyes now wide and focused on her. you start moving towards her, and out of the corner of your eye you see podrick hold larkin back from running to brienne.

“lady brienne,” she thinks your voice is like honey, rich and sweet.

“commander,” your heart is shaking just hearing her voice.

you clear your throat, “finally used that horn, i see. it’s only been what… four years?”

brienne ignores her shaking voice, “i was busy.”

you smile lightly, “i’m sure you were, my lady. dinner then travel to castle black when the sun rises?”

“i’m starting to wonder if you’re a witch.”

you laugh heartily, “i’m not foolish enough to meddle with the gods,” a deep breath escapes your lungs, “on the horse now, back to camp.”

larkin assists podrick onto his horse to make traveling easier. brienne hardly thought you’d propose the same for you and her. she watched you quickly get settled on the mare, petting her neck gently, before rounding over to brienne.

your arm reaches out to her, “my lady?”

brienne decided against speaking and just grabs your arm and hoists herself up onto the horse. she decides to grip the saddle instead of your waist, but to both your, and hers, displeasure. she thinks she would have if larkin and podrick weren’t riding beside you two.

—

brienne arrives at you tent after receiving a change of clothes and taking a warm-ish bath. she knocks on the post, and hears you mumble for her to enter. you’re facing away from her, arms holding you above the table so you could look at the map. she just watches you for a moment, taking you in fully now.

“are you going to speak or just stare?”

brienne clears her throat, “i’m sorry.” her words held more weight than an apology for staring, you knew this.

“why should you be? you were doing what you were set out to do. i apologize for my selfish behavior, expecting you to use the horn at all,” your disgust with yourself ran through heavily.

“turn around.”

you turn your head towards her, “what?”

“turn around,” you’re about to counter but she cuts you off, “all the way not just your face.”

you do, “happy?”

she looks around, double checking that no one will see her, you follow her gaze. she suddenly grabs your shoulders and pulls you closer. she squeezes you tightly, “very.”

you’re surprised by her actions, but it doesn’t show. your eyes close immediately as to let you relish in the moment. she moves to let go, doubt filling her head when you don’t reciprocate her embrace. the second her grip lessens, your arms go around her waist, squeezing just as tight, “i’m glad. me too.”

“so you’re coming with us to castle black?”

“if lady sansa wants more help taking back winterfell, i might just stay a while too,” you fight the smile that begs to grow on your face, the sparkle in her eyes not helping.

she pulls back with her hands on your shoulders looking at you sweetly. you fight back the giant smile that comes naturally upon looking in her eyes, she was so strong yet the most careful and gentle person you’d ever met. she made you feel like you were made of glass and wildflowers, and not the steel and rot that life had so graciously given you.

—

castle black, as ragnall put it, was ‘one hell of a fucker.’ the large gates and towers had the entire company’s head staring up, but yours stay straight ahead. your eyes focus on the entrance, desperately trying to ignore brienne’s hands resting gently on your hips. larkin was talking away next to you, having the attention of podrick, brienne, and a few others as he tells his story. a squeeze on your hip brings you to reality, your head shoot up and dart around.

“we’re here,” her voice is so close, warm breath caressing your ear. she dismounts the horse to talked to the guards at the gate, podrick following. you turn the horse around to speak to your men.

“start building the town, no stables, extra target set up. ragnall, dorin, larkin, you’re with me. full respect men, this is the night’s watch, and there’s free-folk as well. the proper lady of winterfell is here too, so best behavior,” your met with a collective groan, “thank you for your enthusiasm.”

you turn back around at brienne’s voice calling to you, trailing towards her with your companions behind you. she grabs the lead of your horse, despite knowing you’re fully capable of riding in by yourself. thankfully for them, you miss the three behind you sharing knowing looks between them.

“my woman, you’ve returned to me,” a boisterous voice says. brienne sighs heavily, podrick snickering next to you. you turn around to look at the source of the voice, seeing the most red-haired man you’d ever met. his? by the sound of her reaction, this was thankfully not the case.

“hello tormund,” she says without much personality.

“who’s your friend?” he nods your way, eyes scanning behind you, “and your friend’s friends?”

“her friend and these three are capable of hearing and speaking on their own,” you dismount your horse, and extend your arm, “commander of the skyforth, at your service.”

“so you’re the big shot in charge of 400 men? sure.”

“the one and only,” your eyes don’t leave his, boring into him so hard brienne thinks you might kill him.

just as tormund is about to speak again, brienne cuts in, “tormund, you’ll lose any game you try to play right now, trust me,” she turns to you, “how about we go meet with lady sansa?”

walking in to face lady sansa surprisingly had you nervous, but it didn’t show. you bowed to her, the men following your move. sansa is weary of you, and you show no signs of being upset by this. you carefully and truthfully speak about the history of skyforth, how you’d been supporters of the north for a long time. you left out tarth and your previous encounters with brienne, mostly for privacy but also with a fear of making a fool of yourself.

“and you trust the skyforth, brienne?”

“i do, my lady.”

“you’d fight beside them, beside their commander?”

“i would,” her voice is the most serious you’d ever heard her. her voice was stone, her confidence in you alone was enough make anyone cower. it was enough to make you feel fuzzy inside.

“and you? will you and your men really lay your lives down for the north?” sansa’s state could rip you in half if you answered wrong.

“it would be the most honorable death to die fighting for the north, for winterfell, for the stark name.”

sansa seems please with your answer, she dismisses everyone. brienne moves back to her side, while you turn to leave. your three companions follow, all three of us feeling the weight of the north’s eyes on you. the northmen are a loyal people, and you understand that you are outsiders brought by over outsiders, you ignore their looks. when you exit, you send dorin, larkin, and ragnall away, needing to think on your own.

the crunching of snow behind you alerts you that you’re not alone anymore. you wrap you dark cloak around yourself, you don’t have to look, you know it’s her. she stands next to you, looking across the horizon with you. she can sense that you’re not fully there, but she doesn’t say anything. she just stands next to you, soaking in your presence.

“you didn’t mention your super fan,” is all you say, continuing to stare at the trees ahead.

she chuckles, “at first i thought he was just trying to make fun of me, but now i think he’s just gone insane.”

“at least we know he’s not blind,” you mutter, “but still, already quite low on my list.”

she looks at you now, fighting the smile already on her lips, “and why would that be commander?”

you smile and shake your head, "i think we both know the answer to that question, my lady."

tag list: @lord6-6fandom @fishyikes @soulflame29 @machi-avelli @thoroughly--confused @the-bagel24 @one-pining-queer @naraly0808 @camilapc08 @senzafine6 @slightlymalicedme @another-unoriginal-username @eliscannotdance @jodie-in-a-box @yuilesbn

[xa176]

Here are some of my fav LIs from each season of litg (we all have different and similar opinions, please be respectful)

•S1: Jake and Talia. Jake was a slow burn but really did care for Mc and was just afraid to show it until last minute, coupled up with him the moment I had a chance, plus when Cherrygate happened… Jake put a protective arm around you as you walked away from your current partner. Talia is so gorgeous and thoughtful, when my Mc was coupled up with Mason, him and Levi started getting into it and Talia told them to stop swinging their dicks and made sure my Mc was ok. I of course replayed it and took the Talia route 😊 have not regretted it.

•S2: BOBBY!! No words can explain when my s2 Mc and him just meshed together. Literally so thoughtful, kind, loving and funny. He really was head over heels for Mc in the end and really cared for his friends! When drama would happen, he would be the first to try fix things together.

•S3: Harry and AJ. Harry is cute looking and I love his backstory of his family basically saying he is adopted and he has two other siblings (I think, it’s been awhile and I of course am not able to replay it) he explains he such a good brother and his old t-shirt looked kind of cute on my Mc. AJ gives off golden retriever energy and she’s so beautiful! Her style is beyond stunning and playing her route was heart warming for me.

•S4: Youcef. Now towards the end of the season I realized I’m a sucker for slow burns. At first I thought he and Bruno were ugly when they showed up in the hot tub date. But as we got to see more of his personality somewhere in between… I had to make my Mc couple up with him. But seriously… fusebox did him REALLY dirty. I remember someone saying this… every time he smiles he looks like he’s in pain. He kind of does tbh. I love his personality but he could have looked better. Also playing his route is the sweetest and the only time you are on track with his route is when you say honesty is the best policy when talking with Tiffany, Bruno and him.

•S5: now f*ck this season! My Mc coupled up with Suresh and took her f*cking money because screw that season. Worst season ever.

•S6: Lewie, Bella and Andy. Lewie is major Golden Retriever energy, I just find him so attractive that I made my Mc immediately coupled with him right away, he just wants everyone to get along and when things go south I think his Captain instincts kick in and try to keep the vibes going. Bella is the most patient woman ever in all the seasons, she literally waited for Mc. She’s just so out of this world too! Her smile is just… UGHHH I WAS SO IN LOVE THAT I HAD TO DO HER ROUTE TOO!! WORTH IT! Now Andy, he was the most popular casa boy this season, I mean look at him! How can anyone resist his smile? And his little prank you see if you brought him back to the main villa on movie night and his little dance, ugh my heart. (I had to play the Ryan route so I wouldn’t have felt guilty for leaving Lewie to be dumped) and he works with animals, I love animals!!

•S7: Joyo. This season wasn’t really worth it since it lost all its excitement after Mc went into the main villa. Joyo immediately caught my eye so I stayed loyal and now I’m replaying for a Raphael route.

•S8: Claudia, Bea and Max. Claudia is so gorgeous AND SHE DESERVED MY MC MORE THAN THEO. My opinion on Theo was that he was still a playboy and disrespected Claudia by trying to flirt with my Mc, like Theo I don’t want you, I want your girl you are not treating correctly. Bea is so gorgeous and if you aren’t on her route, she’s literally your best friend and you get the option to have a little date with her when you guys are in casa together. As I am writing this, I notice that I’m a huge sucker for golden retriever vibes. Max’s color yellow def suits him! Adorable and I found it funny when he pied off your last LI (in my case, it was Jin) and basically showed he wouldn’t back down just because Mc and the last LI had history.

•S9: I have no opinions so far on my favorites but Natasha be looking like she could be a bit of me. She’s beautiful. I just hope Fusebox brings back people from later seasons and people we weren’t able to romance at all. Like being Eddie back, he did not deserve to go and how he experienced love island. I want him to have a chance with my Mc this season.

[votederpycausemufins]

I have been bitten by the Gemcyt bug caused by @chrisrin

I thus present to you Zedaph as Poudretteite as well as Worm Man as 'Pink Chalcedony' and a fusion of WM with @sweetest-honeybee 's Evil Xisuma design. (Mainly bc i had a better idea of a fusion btwn the two rather than with chrisrin's tango and impulse, but i might figure it out) Thanks for letting me use your design! It let me make Covelite!

And while there's some notes in the drawings, there shall be more below the cut!

Okay so I immediately jumped to Zed being a pink colored gem and stumbled upon a few options. I knew I wanted to pick 2, one to be Zed's gem and the other to be WM's supposed gem, and almost swapped their gem types before learning that there was a chalcedony on the show.

I think it is a fun thing to have Zed and WM insist they are totally not the same person (or gem in this case), and here we see that WM is shapeshifting the gem position around, and that could have worked... if it weren't blatantly obvious that he looks nothing like a chalcedony. I mean look at how close the different colored Pearls look, or Sapphire and Padparacha.

The base form I used for Zed is from a gem silhouette from 'The Answer', which was the only one to have those lil ball hands as the others had at least some semblance of regular hands. So I kept that detail and even made a joke about how Zed can still just pick stuff up, and that even carries over to the fusion

speaking of the fusion.

Other than a ZIT(S) fusion, the most obvious one is w/ Evil X. And I absolutely love Bee's design and brain went nyoom with it, expecially the fact that he's corrupted??? Hello???!??! We saw in the show w/ Jasper and one of the corrupted Jaspers fusing that it left remnants of the other's corruption on Jasper herself. I loved the idea that Zed could get lil sheep like horns post-first fusion with Evil X, so boom, it now exists.

(Also the lil spots carrying over makes it even more obvious Zed/WM are the same gem so haha lol)

As for the fusion itself, I saw that Evil X seemed to have dragon elements, and that fits perfectly w/ my personal headcanons of them being an ender dragon (hybrid), and then we have sheep hybrid zedaph, and what is a fluffy dragon? luck dragon!!!

The front legs are more dragon like, back legs more sheep like (claws and then hooves respectively) and then there is fluffy luck dragon tail! oh! and I had fun with making the mane of hair work as Evil X's fancy collar thing.

Their head is based a lot on Alexandrite's, with the two mouth thing going on. I thought it would go nicely with their concept and i think it works well.

And then other details! I used the distance models style to show off the past reformations of Zed and WM. Also slight drawing mistake, in the lil comic of WM showing off his new corruption marks, he should be in his 'Early s5' design (I'll prolly go back and fix it in the morning fixed 'n added Covelite's colors). I picture the first fusion btwn the two being an adaption of when EX trapped WM in prison, then reappeared being good now to help him escape, but they needed to fuse to do so. (Oh i also used the distance models to do a lil size comparison)

[purpleheartskies]

I recently rewatched Stranger Things, and some scenes in s1 made me think of Cobra Kai.

The scene in s1 when Lonnie showed up for Will's "funeral" and how he talked to Jonathan reminded me of the scene in Cobra Kai of Johnny showing up to lecture Robby after the school called Johnny in s1e4. These deadbeat dads showing up acting like they give a shit about their kids and throwing their weight around.

Then, there's the scene where Joyce was confronting Lonnie for coming just to sue the owners of the quarry, and he claimed that they can use the money they get from the lawsuit for good things like sending Jonathan to college. Joyce asked Lonnie if he even knew where Jonathan wants to go to college. Of course, Lonnie didn't know. Joyce kicked him out cause he'd come for his own selfish reasons. This reminded me of Johnny's scene with Shannon in s1e4. At one point, Shannon commented that Johnny actually knew where his son was for once.

The contexts are very different, but what's the same about Lonnie and Johnny is (1) they came when it benefitted them to / when they felt like it, (2) they're so out of touch with their kids' lives by choice, (3) they have defensive, self-righteous attitudes about it to their kids and their kids' moms, (4) they expected their kids to just do what they say and to trust them, and (5) neither came back to try to do better.

The fact that Johnny never went back in s1e4 showed that he was never committed to doing better for Robby but was just there for himself. Johnny went on a whim and decided to "try" but gave up after some push back and went to the kid who is easy to "try" with and who makes him feel better about himself.

Johnny keeps chasing that kid even more now, while actively endangering and abusing Robby. Johnny in s5 has the same motivations as Johnny in s1, but Johnny in s5 is worse in a lot of ways.

Whereas Johnny in s1 didn't approve when Miguel exploited Robby's injury during the avt, Johnny in s5 didn't disapprove when Miguel made Robby bleed after Johnny had encouraged them to fight harder. After all, the goal was to have them "fight it out" non-tournament style. Johnny made it clear that he doesn't care about what happened between the boys and just wanted things solved on his timeline. Johnny never cared to understand who had started the rivalry and what had happened that led up to the end of the school fight in s2. He didn't care about what had actually happened in the waterpark parking lot in s5e4. In s3, when Johnny saw the bruise on Robby's face, Johnny immediately accused Robby of starting fights. In s4, when Robby told Johnny that Miguel had been the one to attack him in school, Johnny brushed him off with an "I wasn't there... but I know Cobra Kai", projecting his own history with Kreese onto Robby. Johnny has been projecting his view of himself onto Robby since Daniel's comment "maybe he just has a little too much of you in him" comment in s3e2.

In s5e1, Johnny gaslit Robby about looking for him when he went on the run. Then, Johnny minimized his failures with Robby (lying and tricking Robby into the trip was one of those countless failures), projected his own guilt for his own supposed "failures" with Miguel onto Robby, and wanted Robby to follow how he himself deals with his own guilt:

"I know I haven't been there for you, Robby. More times than I can count. But I've also failed Miguel. Hell, I'm the reason he ran off in the first place. I'm out here trying to fix my mistakes so I don't have to live with the regret of making them. If you're serious about making things right, you can start by helping Miguel. I know you have your fair share of regrets when it comes to him... I'm gonna call Carmen. I'll be right back. Finish taking these off."

Johnny walked away, leaving Robby to take care of one of Johnny's own screw ups (the flat tire) while he prioritized yet another Diaz over Robby.

It's ironic that Johnny said, "but I know Cobra Kai" when Robby told him that Miguel had attacked Robby in school, but Johnny has never considered Miguel's fault in all of this. Johnny (like the fandom) doesn't want to destroy the pristine image he has of Miguel. Miguel's motivations to hurt Robby in s5 were still the same as in s1. Now, he just uses the school fight as validation and gaslights Robby in s5e5 about his own actions in the school fight, "Last time we fought like this, how come you didn't hold back?" Maybe try not attacking and baiting someone like a psycho, huh Miguel? Of course, the lesson Johnny had given Miguel since the avt is "strike first, strike hard, show mercy sometimes". So essentially it's "attack and beat my kid up as much as you want, just show him mercy in the end", which Miguel followed through with in s2 and in s5. At least, Robby was allowed to fight back when Johnny told them to fight it out. Regardless, Robby is Miyagi-Do and had told Johnny that he wants his space, but Johnny cornered him with Miguel. This was despite Robby's admission after the avt that Cobra Kai had made everything worse for Robby. This fight was Cobra Kai (Johnny and Miguel) vs Miyagi-Do (Robby), just like the school fight had been and just like Silver and Daniel's fight was later in that episode. In s5e4, Johnny had questioned Shannon if Robby would be safe with her over the summer, but after Johnny got to keep Robby, Johnny proceeded to have him beaten into submission for his own purposes. Johnny himself called it "submission".

In Stranger Things, Joyce is portrayed as an imperfect parent that's a realistic mess but no doubt loves her sons and even went into another dimension to rescue one of them. Joyce has her flaws. For example, when they first realized that Will wasn't at home, Joyce got upset with Jonathan for working instead of making sure Will got home. Jonathan is parentified because of these responsibilities, but there's never a doubt throughout s1 or later if Joyce cares about her sons. She never gave up on Will, and she cares about Jonathan. Later, when Jonathan wanted to go into dangerous situations to save Will, Joyce refused to let him. Joyce is the kind of parent that you can say, "she tries her best with what she has".

Johnny doesn't deserve the claim that he tries their best with what he has. Not in s1 nor later. In s5, Johnny just used Robby as a thing to feel better about himself and continued to prioritize other people over Robby, neglecting and abusing Robby in the process.

At the end of s5, Silver told the audience what to expect if the baby plotline continues:

Johnny's just gonna screw up another kid.

Nothing throughout s5 contradicted this statement.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

I'm not a catra stan-stan and definitely not an apologist but I really like her character. Her redemption arc was botched and it's a shame because she had a really interesting character, and she had perspective on abuse that I'd never seen portrayed before.

I live in a relatively abusive home with (gross generalisation here) me as a scapegoat and my brother as the golden child. I'm not proud of it but i've been abusive like catra (even if not to this extent because ??????? She did reallyfucked up things ?????????). And seeing that on screen, it was freeing in a way, like staring in a really dark mirror, and it felt good to have a character to relate too in this aspect.

And then came the redemption arc 🤡 honestly Catra's point of view is not badly written from what I remember. Like trying your best to be a better person and stop being abusive, but the other person doing something that sets you off and falling back on those patterns on instincts ? I've been there, and it's somewhat nice to have the scene with mealog to relate to for example. Having to take responsibility for your actions and your reactions, but every sorry feels awful and has to be torn out of you because you feel guilty as fuck and you know apologies aren't gonna change anything, and you know there will be other instances when your abusive tendencies will take over despite your best efforts? It was freeing to see those sorts of moments on screen.

But adora shouldn't have forgiven her. The others shouldn't have forgiven her. Maybe they could be forgiven, but not trusted. It doesn't make sense, it's rushed, it's stupid, I hate it. Also catra stops feeling guilty really fucking early for what she's done, like ma'am show a bit more remorse you tried to kill her ? Stop complaining when frosta punches you in the face, it's explainable and you deserve it. In her redemption, she lashed at Adora once or twice, got told it's okay I forgive you please don't do it anymore and suddenly she was "fixed". That's not how it works and it sucks, it hurts, that's not how it works. We never saw a broken catra post redemption, and it lacked.

So, yeah. I'm pissed about her redemption arc, and it's a shame because i really wanted to see it work.

(I didn't even mention catradora because that's not the point but the amatonormativity of it all? You're broken but your true love's kiss has fixed you so it's okay)

this is exactly how i feel too! i didn't start off hating catra because she was a really compelling villain and a scarily accurate version of an abuse victim who started adopting those abusive tendencies themselves. i didn't relate to her entirely but i could definitely relate to some aspects of her, especially her anger that sometimes got best of her.

but it feels like the creators forgot that she was supposed to be redeemed and kept making her do the most heinous things with no remorse, only to remember in s5 that she needs to be redeemed, and shoving a hasty redemption arc where she ultimately does not change at all.

i don't think even catra's perspective was that good because she only changed for adora. she didn't redeem herself because she knew what she was doing was wrong or because she regretted taking part in the war. she did it because she wanted adora back and also because she was of no use to horde prime.

and after getting saved by adora, catra honestly does not try much to actually correct her mistakes. she keeps lashing out at adora and abusing her, she's snarky with the other princesses and keeps falling back into her old habits. and no one ever calls her out for it. healing is not linear, sure, but there should have been someone who would keep catra in check and call her out when she starts acting shitty again.

but no, the only instance of her trying that we got was when she admitted that she was working on her anger issues, and then immediately proceeded to guilt trip adora by saying that adora was giving her a hard time.

catra really had a lot of potential but it's a shame the creators valued a rushed toxic romance more than actual character development and good storytelling.

[charmixpower]

Final thoughts on season 6 despite my better judgment

Okay so this piece of shit has a few good things in it so we'll start with that. It's going to be a very short list, so it won't take too long before we get into the meat and potatoes

Things I liked about S6:

Icy's, Darcy's, and Stormy's dynamic in this season is actually peek. After s5 I was extremely hesitant to see how these three would be written, but it's actually great! They are extremely sibling towards each other, and the way they bully each other after failures is super cute

While I don't like the fashion in this season, tying it all back to Stella's love of fashion and having her passion come though is really cute and makes me wish that the winx were allowed to pursue their interests independently

The Legendarum in concept. I like the idea of stories in a book being animated with magic and going into pocket dimensions. I just like that, it was a fun way to immediately get into a new set piece

The dark witch forms. They had a very Salem energy that I absolutely loved

The specialists new outfits. They are finally wearing armor, Godspeed

The specialist's new weapons. They have weapons that can be relevant in a fight, they're not, but like they could be. Tbh they're already using magic weapons, having magic effects on the weapons was a long time coming

Miele. She's cute and she gets to be a badass and save Flora and be saved by Flora they are so cute 🥺🥰

How Flora got her Bloomix. Is it derivative of s3? Yes, this entire season is a worse season 3 except they don't have the balls to do anything half as cool as the Enchantix sacrifice. Is it cute to see Flora save Miele without her powers??? Yes!

Getting to see other magic schools do indeed exist, that was definitely fun

How the Musa/Riven arc ended. Like literally just the final episode of it where Riven left. That's the only good part of that arc and BOY IS IT GOOD. S4 gave me poisoning and this episode fixed it. Riven fear of not being able to help Musa against enemies, and him doing introspection without being smacked into it (I'm looking at you s3-4, he can do it on his own) is everything to me

Diaspro not being plot integral this season thank God, s5 was enough late season Diaspro. She's the fairy of the dragon flame, therefore fire is good for her was also a hysterical ass line

The trix disguising themselves as freshmen and going on trips with the Winx was funny, though why the fuck were they're only there freshmen I hate it here

Selina poisoning Flora has got to be the Selina and Bloom highlight, very cunning on Selina's end, and Blooms look of horror was peek

The vampires are really funny, but the zombie pirates were hilarious

The fun way they twirl the mythix wands sometimes, mythix can get so silly sometimes and it's super cute

Aisha and Nebula, they are so cute

Tecna and Timmy's fun raft adventure

Helia struggling with Flora's evil plants

Riven howling like a wolf, now bark like a dog boy

The werewolf fight in general was funny and entertaining

Icy vs Flora was emotional and action packed and very good! I loved that nature itself helped Flora recover

The elite girlies of CT fighting eachother and training was always cute

Timmy impressing Tecna's parents was cute

Stormy going mad with power in the Legendarum as Frankenstein's bride

Musa getting voice spells

Things I disliked about S6:

Daphne was characterized so badly here. She's nothing. She might as well have been sleeping beauty of the winx world and her personality would have been the same. There's absolutely no hint of the all powerful Nymph that's literally chiseled into the walls of buildings to commemorate her achievements. Now she's just clumsy, not as strong as the Winx, and is good at history. That's nothing. You could literally replace her with an entirely different character in this season and that would probably make more sense

Special mention to how Daphne is condescended in the beginning of this season. Why'd they do that to her

The beast of the depths. You literally made that one up for this season. It's very obvious that none of this was planned ahead of time nor are they even pretending that they give a shit about the timeline. Set it on fire.

The parties. The parties. The parties. Oh my god the parties. Anytime literally anything happens there's a completely useless party attached to it. Instead of developing literally ANY of the EXTREMELY underdeveloped subplots, they write in two billion fucking parties. I am tired

The fashion in this season is ugly, out of character, and has zero personality. Like. I feel like they were dressed by an AI, fucking randomly generated ass outfits. Terrible layering, over use of colors, and it's like they're always wearing outfits in the same fashion line. They never look like they own their own damn clothes, everything they wear is matching. It's like there's a hive mind, while yes I appreciate the incorporation of Stella's desire to be a fashion designer having them never wear their own clothes just makes them feel flat, like they don't exist outside of eachother

The pixies were more redundant and annoying than ever

Cloud tower being taken over in s1 was cool, it was meh in s3, and it's just plain boring and nothing in s6. Stop doing this over and over again I stopped caring the second time. "Oh well this time we'll make the school flying AND invisible." I hate you

The Legendarum as it was written. I swear to God it could have just been called the plot device machine, it just does whatever the writers want it to do

I just realized how did the pixies survive in the Legendarum that long???? Griffin literally flip flops her morals in this season again too, are you okay with tormenting sentient creatures or not please pick one

Why on earth did the witches of Cloud Tower support the Trix???? Why make witches in this show even more one dimensional. As well as the Trix's elite students weren't even memorable, this was more interesting when s3 did it with the mind controlled witches because they had to find why they were acting like that

Nex

NEX

Thoren

Did you remember that Roxy was in this season because I fucking didn't. She's so aggressively sidelined it's not even funny

The trix just show up where ever the winx are... On accident. Sure, they just have the most insane coincidences. God what even

What is a paladin anyways?? Still unclear on this

Okay I should probably say something more on Nex and Thoren. Thoren is literally a nothing character and the only thing we'd lose if he was removed is Sky being a bit pissy, Diaspro manipulating him specifically and not like... Nex or Roy or whatever. Nex is like. A bitch. He acts like s1 Riven but with less self esteem and paranoia issues. Like Riven is a self absorbed asshole who hates himself and who had an arc realizing that punishing everyone away was bad and that he needed to learn to trust, Nex is just a self obsessed asshole with a desire to embarrass and put people down, even being willing to actually injure them over stupid ass contests. Even when being manipulated by Darcy Riven was never that aggressive, he mostly just gossiped and did dragon fighting. Nex is literally a more dickish, aggressive, self obsessed, competitive, and uncaring, Riven. And you want to convince me that AISHA, AISHA "who said you were driving?" WOULD PUT UP WITH THAT SHIT ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

Literally everyone and their mom can steal powers in this season, it's so fucking easy it means nothing

Remember how in s2 there was a large amount of focus on the not Bloom main character because the main characters of Winx were the WINX CLUB and not Bloom, remember how s3 had a lot of focus on the not Bloom characters. S6 wants you to remember that Bloom is the most important specialest baby in the world and doesn't care that there's other main characters. Fuck narrative balance and giving the cast a chance to shine outside of Bloom I guess, Bloomix is a thing

How literally everyone got their Bloomix power except Flora. Triple back flip I'm going to hurl

What stated the Riven/Musa arc this season, like at the beginning he's just dismissive and overly competitive, it's only towards the end he says hes doing this because he wants to be able to help Musa. They should have written him like that the entire time

How quickly they rushed everyone getting their Bloomix, it was giving me charmix flashbacks

DIASPRO WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE???? STOP SHOWING UP!!!

Bloom getting her Bloomix last in her own episode is trying to be s3 so bad. Okay Nick writers please sit down. That was so good and impactful because Bloom didn't have a home planet, this time Bloom should have gotten Bloomix first and you could have done something with Aisha's magic rejecting the dragon flame or something. Stop trying to be s3

Thoren/Daphne is underdeveloped, Riven(/Musa) is underdeveloped, Roy v Nex is under developed, Selina is underdeveloped, these are all season long arcs and they suck ass. Please, spend more time on your subplots over PARTIES

Allowing the pixies to have combat spells midagated how annoying and intolerable they are but it was also extremely weird. No Piff cannot attack people your making that up

Eldora's diary

Saying that Bloom had friends on earth, s4 did that too and look how that garbage turned out

Selina's lack of motivation and lack of consequences for her actions

S6 wastes so many episodes showing us places on earth when we could be going to new planets, I wanna see Romeula

Eldora's personality is the most annoying thing I've ever had to deal with

Eldora not noticing the FAIRY OF THE DRAGON FLAME IN FRONT OF HER

Eldora and Selina knowing Bloom, this literally makes no sense. And she was also an Alfea teacher because of course she was

You'd think Bloom would grow out of running to earth whenever she's upset, but no

The girls get into so many arguments this season over bullshit. Like yes I don't want them to be perfect friends but this is a bit much

Why is everything important in gardina?? The winx world conspires to make Bloom the only narratively relevant one

The extremely annoying amount of "Wow!" "Cool!" "Awesome!" The girls do constantly

Eldora can summon counter myths to fight the Legendarum, she does this once and never again

The entire mother's day thing, like they didn't do anything interesting with it, got rid of the day of the rose, and did another stupid party

The mythix wands, they are about as thin as paper, they're excessively pink, and why do they already match the Winx that makes no sense

The way the Winx need to keep proving themselves, like you can bring in conflict other ways. I would love to see a choosey artifact just once be like "oh the winx, go ahead ma'am's" that would be so funny

The 3d in this season is so ugly and I hate everything to do with it. Mythix is extremely ugly and bland and WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FLOWERS ITS SO FLOWERY I HATE IT

The time limit on the Legendarum world only exists for fake stakes, the pixies were in there for how long??

The spell "friendship flame" Bloom just being allowed to make people Faries makes me irrationally angry

The two things used to make the Legendarum key are so arbitrary it pains me

Magic just came back to earth but everyone is acting like it's been around forever

Stella being stupid and self centered again. Like Stella was full of herself but she was also usually aware of people's feelings and only accidentally hurt people by not thinking, she also is the glue that holds Winx together!!! She's the one who gets them all together!!!! You don't get it!!! She'd never act like that she does have a brain!!!

God I hate the entire thing around Stella being queen for a day except how Stella looked in a crown, it was all awful

The music cafe was nonsensical and stupid and I STILL DON'T KNOW HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT ALFEA

RUMPELSTILTSKIN IS THE MOST ANNOYING AND STUPID CHARACTER IN THIS SEASON AND THE FINAL BATTLE HINGES ON THIS DUMBASS CHARACTER AHHHHHHHHH

Musa not having any spells in Mythix

Acheron feels like discount wizard of the black circle and Valtor with the worst pacing and battle out of all the finale's I've seen thus far it's so bad

Daphne why are you getting married

In conclusion I hate it here

[sophsun1]

I’m currently rewatching qaf (you are partially to blame for it because of your gifs) and I finished S4 like two days ago. And now I’m trying to convince myself to start s5. Just because I want see the ily and proposal. I hate it so much because s4 is such a beauty (if we ignore the posse storyline). Honestly if they ended it there, I’d be okay ngl, I’m just not ready to break my heart by seeing Brian literally end up alone almost worse as in s1, especially because he had so much growth as a person. Why did the writers have to hate us and the cast and give us such a horrible last season/finale? I already know I’ll immediately go back to the beginning of s2 and second part of s3 to fix the bitter feelings.

Hey anon!

I'm glad my gifs are doing their job!

That's the million dollar question anon? Why did Cowlip write the final season that way?

To be honest it's very rare I watch S5 and if I do it's mostly 5.10 onwards, I avoid the final scene of Brian dancing on the podium to Proud like the plague because it always makes me cry that they ended his story arc that way. There's so much more joy and story telling richness to watching a character evolve and grow into someone better, someone they thought they could never be, finally finding peace, facing their fears and mistakes. Brian was barrelling towards that at the end of S4 he came so far both individually after the cancer/liberty ride arc and with his relationship with Justin. I just think Cowlip had a hard time letting go of the fuck boy Brian Kinney they crafted in S1.

I adore all of S3 it speaks to my angst loving heart so much and it will always be the superior season of qaf.