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harringtonstilinski · 6 months

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Always The Babysitter - Chapter Twenty: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Steve Harrington x Olivia Henderson(OC) Word Count: 2,060 Warnings: fluff, Smut: no | yes; A/N: Hi, friends! If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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As always, I went to Steve’s house for the night after dropping Dustin off back home. I had changed into my pajamas when I got to his house.

Standing at the bathroom sink now, I was brushing my teeth when I watched Steve come into view, wrapping his arms around my middle before resting his chin on my shoulder.

“Yes?” I mumbled, mouth full of toothpaste.

“Can’t I just watch my beautiful girlfriend brush her teeth?” he asked.

I leaned my head back against his shoulder, continuing my brushing. Once I felt my teeth were cleaned enough, I leaned forward to spit the foam from my mouth before rinsing, Steve brushing his when I moved out of the way.

When he was through, we walked back to his room, where we crawled into bed. I sighed, placing my head on his chest. “I’m so tired.” I looked up at him, eyebrows furrowed. “Steve?”

His eyes were closed, mouth slightly ajar, light snores coming from him. I smiled a little to myself, placing my head back down on his chest, closing my own eyes and falling fast asleep.

~~~

I didn’t need to rush to get dressed and back to the house since Steve followed me and Dustin back home last night, where I dropped off our mom’s car before getting into Steve’s. I went with Steve to the mall so that he could open the store, Robin coming in a few minutes later.

Dustin also came back to Scoops. I guess he biked his way here. What confused me about seeing Dustin was the fact that he had his binoculars with him. I mean… what? He’d asked me to come with him and Steve on a stakeout, looking for a Russian dude.

“This is stupid,” I said, squatting behind a plant by the Chinese place in the food court. Looking back at it for a moment before turning my sights back to Steve and Dustin, I whined, “This is making me hungry!”

Ignoring me, Dustin asked Steve, “You see anything?”

“Uh, I guess I don’t totally know what I’m looking for,” Steve said, looking around through the binoculars.

“Evil Russians,” Dustin said matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, exactly, I don’t know what an evil Russian looks like.”

“Tall, blond, not smiling.”

“Mhmmm,” I said, sitting on my knees between them. “Look for earpieces, too.”

“Camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing,” Dustin added.

“Right, okay, duffel bags,” Steve noted, still looking through those damn binoculars for a moment before he whispered, “Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Baby, look at this.”

He handed me the binoculars, the neck strap still around his neck as I put them to my face and said, “Oh, my gosh.”

“What?” Dustin asked.

“Anna Jacobi’s talking to that freaking meathead Mark Lewinsky,” I said.

“Liv, if you’re not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars.”

“Whatever fucking happened to damn standards?”

“Lewinsky never even came off the bench,” Steve added.

“You two are the worst spies in history, ya’know that?” Dustin said.

I was watching Lewinsky miming a shot for a basket when the binoculars were pulled from my hands, Steve saying, “Stop. Hey, stop.”

“Besides, I don’t even get why you’re looking for girls,” Dustin said. “You’ve got one right beside you.”

“Thanks, Dustin,” I deadpanned.

“Your sister just so happens to be in the ballpark of where my type is,” Steve said.

“Oh, you mean, funny, anti-social, clumsy, bit of a bitch at times–”

“You’re not–”

“Awww, thanks,” I said, sarcastically.

Gesturing towards me, Steve said, “Sarcastic.”

“Will you two get a room?” Dustin asked. “But, now that you’re both out of high school, which means you’re both technically adults, don’t you think it’s time you both moved on from the primitive construct such as popularity?”

“Oh, primitive constructs?” Steve said. “That some stupid shit you learned at Camp… Know… Nothing?”

“Camp Know Where, actually,” Dustin said. “And, no, it’s shit I learned from life.”

“You telling Steve to stop caring about his popularity is like telling me to quit graphic tees and Converses,” I said. “It just won’t happen. You can’t fix something that isn’t broken.”

“Yeah, uh-huh. Liv, instead of dating somebody you think is gonna make you cooler, why not date someone you actually like being around?”

I opened my mouth in shock. “You little asshole! I do like being around Steve!”

“I was using that as an example.”

“Oh.”

“Like me and Suzie.”

“Oh, Suzie,” Steve and I said. “You mean, hotter than Phoebe Cates.”

“Yeah, that Suzie,” Steve continued. “And, uh, let’s think about how exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend? Oh, yeah. With my advice. Because that’s how this works, Henderson.”

I looked at him like please, continue.

“I give you the advice, you follow through. Not the other way around, pea-brain.”

“Watch it, Harrington,” I said. “No one calls him names except for me.”

~~~

Dustin was still trying to find his evil Russian, so I decided to treat myself to the Chinese food behind us. I had just walked back to him and Steve when he said, “Target acquired.”

“Where?” Steve asked, taking the takeout box from my hand.

“Hey!” I exclaimed as he took a bite of my chow mein.

“Ten o’clock, Sam Goody’s,” Dustin said.

“Give me that,” Steve said, taking Dustin’s binoculars. “Shit. Duffel bag.”

I looked around, seeing the person they acquired. Snickering, I said, “Oh, no.”

They looked at each other, both saying, “Evil Russian,” before they both stood up, Steve grabbing my elbow gently to guide me along.

We climbed the escalators, people dodging us as I said, “Excuse us. Sorry.” When we made it to the landing, Steve tried booking it to stay as close as possible to this dude, dodging in between crowds of people.

“Babe, slow down,” I said, taking a small bite of food.

“We’re losing him,” Steve said.

“You’re getting too close,” Dustin said.

Since I had looked down at my noodles to take another bite, I felt myself being moved out of the way, a “Watch it, dickwad,” following.

The guy went to turn around as Steve turned me in front of a plant, kissing me as he did so. It was just a simple kiss, but I wanted it to last longer than what it did. He turned his head away from me as he said, “We’ll finish that later,” before grabbing my hand to pull me along behind him and Dustin.

We hid behind a mall map, a smile on my face as I was finally able to get to eat some of my food. I stood next to them, watching the dude walk into the Jazzercise store, a small grin on my face as he did so.

“Alright, everyone, listen up!” the guy said, unzipping his duffle bag, revealing a boom box. “I just have one question for you.” He took off his sunglasses before dragging the big box out of the bag, asking, “Who… is ready to sweat?”, the women in the store cheering.

“That’s right! Okay, let’s start it nice and easy,” the guy added, taking off his black windbreaker jacket.

I looked over at the boys, trying not to laugh as they looked at the ladies doing Jazzercise; Steve gawking, and Dustin looking horrified.

My little brother looked at me, asking, “You find this amusing?”

“Heck yes! You two were tailing a Jazzercise instructor,” I chuckled.

“Wait, you knew?”

I nodded, chewing my bite of food. “I took a few classes when the mall first opened.”

Steve turned his head towards my direction, my eyes shifting up to meet his. “And you didn’t tell me?”

I shrugged. “You were working.” I took my last bite of food as I turned back in the direction we came, heading back to Scoops, the two of them having a conversation as we walked back.

Once we actually made it back, Steve said, “Yo, Robin, you’re not gonna believe who Dustin thought was a Russian.”

“You did, too,” Dustin said.

“No, I did not.”

Robin ran in between me and Dustin, an “excuse me, Liv,” coming from her as she did.

Curious, I ran after her, wanting to know if everything was okay. When I saw her in the middle of the food court, I said, “Robin, you okay?”

“What are you doing?” Steve asked.

“I cracked it,” she said.

“Cracked what?”

She hoped down from her stand on the ledge. “I cracked the code.”

I was so freaking happy, I squealed and gave her a hug, pulling away as I laughed. “I can’t believe you did it!”

~~~

I looked over at Steve, raincoat on my back with the hood on my head. “I’m going to murder you.”

“Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes,” Robin said over the rain.

I watched Steve push his hair back some out of his face, wet in all its glory. “You look good wet,” I whispered.

Have I ever been turned on by Steve? Yes. Have I or we done anything about it? Partially. Seeing Steve wet from the rain was doing things to me that I didn’t want to act upon with Dustin sitting next to him.

“They’re with that whistling guy, ten o’clock,” Dustin said. He was looking through his binoculars.

Turning my head to look away from my handsomely good-looking boyfriend, I saw a couple boxes with a panda on it. The same panda that was on my takeout box from earlier.

“What do you think’s in there?” Steve asked.

“Guns, bombs,” Dustin and I said.

“Chemical weapons?” Robin added.

“Whatever it is, they’re armed to the teeth,” Dustin said.

I winced and moved closer to Steve as a loud thunderclap sounded above us, watching as he rubbed his eyes with his fingers before putting his arm around me as he said, “Great. That’s great.”

Two doors opened, a shit ton more boxes being shown.

“Hey,” Robin said. “What’s in there?”

“It’s just more boxes,” Dustin said.

I felt Steve move as he said, “Let me check it out.”

“No, I’m still looking.”

I guess they were fighting over the binoculars as Steve said, “Lemme see it,” before he stood slightly, Dustin saying, “Hang on!” before a very loud thud sounded.

Not wanting to get caught, I quickly turned around, pressing my back to the top of the building, the back of my head against the ledge we were just leaning on.

Both of my hands were being held; my left by Steve, and my right by Robin.

“We need to get off this roof before we die,” I said, turning my head back and forth to Steve and Robin.

We quietly went to the roof access door, surprisingly opening it quietly before heading down the steps, somehow dodging the Russian.

Walking down the hallway, Robin said, “Well, I think we found your Russians.”

~~~

When Steve and I got back to his house, we took a shower… together. There wasn’t anything sexual about it, more… intimate and romantic, I guess would be the words. We took turns washing each other’s hair before I washed his chest and back, letting him wash his own legs. I turned around so that he could wash my back before he let me wash my own legs.

When we were both done, we dried off and got dressed before we started brushing our teeth. Grabbing my brush, I went to start brushing my hair, but Steve stopped me, grabbing the brush from my hand and doing it for me.

“Wow, Harrington,” I mused. “This is a different side of you I’ve never seen before.”

“What?” he asked.

“All… domestic and shit.” I smiled. “It’s nice. I like it.”

“A side for only you to see.” He kissed my shoulder, continuing the strokes on my hair.

We stayed up for a little while longer to let my hair fully dry. I was reading a book when I noticed Steve looking at me from the corner of my eye. Turning to look at him, I asked, “What?”

Putting his own book down, he looked at me after removing his glasses and said in the softest voice, “Read to me.”

I smiled as I turned my back to him a little, relaxing on his side, his arm around me. As I started reading, I couldn’t help but feel that four letter word even more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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~~~

A/N 2: hi, friends! pls be kind and reblog! it really helps us content creators out <3

Additional Note:

~~~

Forever / Everything Taglist: @stiles-o-dylan24 @stixnstripesworld @fandom-princess-forevermore @quanticobae @mischiefandi @kellyashcroft @lauren-novak

Steve Harrington Taglist: @madaboutjoe

If you’re tagged and didn’t want to be, please let me know.

~~~

*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski.

All characters, story lines, and plot aside from y/n and her storyline & plot, are all of the work of The Duffer Brothers.

*These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

No part of these works may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

Posted on March 11, 2024

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kat-and-their-cats · 6 months

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TMA Favourite Episode Polls

Poll challenge to work out the favourite episode from each season and finally the overall show, episodes will be separated into groups of 10 chronologically, the winner from each of these polls will then be put into a season poll, then the winner from each of those will be put into a favourite overall episode poll. Everyday a new poll will be released and be open for one week, after all of the episode polls, then the season polls until the final for favourite episode.

Final Poll : MAG 34: Anatomy Class

SEASON 1 : MAG 34: Anatomy Class

1-10 : MAG 2: Do Not Open

11-20 : MAG 15: Lost Johns' Cave

21-30 : MAG 26: A Distortion

31-40 : MAG 34: Anatomy Class

SEASON 2: MAG 65: Binary

41-50 : MAG 42: Grifter's Bone

51-60 : MAG 57: Personal Space

61-70 : MAG 65: Binary

71-80 : MAG 80: The Librarian

SEASON 3 : MAG 111: Family Business

81-90 : MAG 81: A Guest for Mr. Spider

91-100 : MAG 97: We All Ignore The Pit

101-110 : MAG 101: Another Twist

111-120 : MAG 111: Family Business

SEASON 4 : MAG 160: The Eye Opens

121-130 : MAG 126: Sculptor's Tools

131-140 : MAG 132: Entombed

141-150 : MAG 150: Cul-De-Sac

151-160 : MAG 160: The Eye Opens

SEASON 5 : MAG 177: Wonderland

161-170 : MAG 164: The Sick Village/MAG 168: Roots

171-180 : MAG 177: Wonderland

181-190 : MAG 187: Checking Out

191-200 : MAG 200: Last Words

#tma #the magnus archives #tma poll #tma season 1 #tma season 2 #tma season 3 #tma season one #tma season 4 #tma season 5 #tma season two #tma season three #tma season five #tma season four #favourite tma epsiode

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nostalgia-tblr · 11 months

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everyone has these thoughtful reasons and careful media analysis to make their point about why sylki will/won't "be endgame" and thus it's okay (or not) if they argue a bit first and i am slightly ashamed to admit that my entire thought process thus far has just been "well there's six episodes to fill, of course they'll drag the romance plot out as long as possible." :'(

#sylki #loki season 2 #i regret to inform the curious that i assume the dramatic tension will heighten before it is resolved at the end of the season #for what it's worth i think the easist 'get rid of the romance!' approach would have been to just ignore it completely which is obviously #not what's happening. this already seems like a lot of effort to split people up and (outside of a soap opera) who'd even bother?#i'd say i'm being cynical but i'm watching a show where the McDonalds (TM) tie-in is a plot point so...#btw: i feel like 'endgame ship' is a phrase that makes Star Trek: Voyager fans convulse in silent horror - am i right about that?#(to the shock of many the 'endgame ship' of voyager was not in fact 'endgame' in the final episode - which was called 'endgame')#to be clear i am enjoying all these analysis posts they are great! i've just failed to do such thoughtful thinkings myself (yet?)#i reckon there's like a 15% chance that this post will 'age badly' so feel free to screenshot it to use against me at a later date :)#'ha ha nos they fucked on-screen in epsiode three you stupid cow!!! now everyone is laughing at your foolish cynical nonsense!! ELL OH ELL!

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emeryhiro · 2 months

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Hi! Thanks so much for your epsiode breakdowns of the book of carol! I had a couple of questions for you about episode 1. No worries if you can't answer though!

1 - after watching, do you feel more or less confident about caryl going canon? Or about the same?

2- if you had to use three words to describe the ep, what would they be?

3- if you had to use three emojis to describe your fave scene, what would they be?

4- was there anything you didn't like about the ep?

5- do you think ep 6 is going to be the best episode of walking dead anything ever?

Thanks so much!!

Hey Anon!

You're so welcome 🩵 and thank you for the interesting questions 😊 I apologise in advance because my response for Q1 is going to be a little long and slightly ranty.

1 - When I compare how I felt about it in the last 10+ years to how I feel about it now after watching episode 1, I would say I definitely feel more confident that we're heading for Caryl canon. AMC indeed had plenty of opportunities to give us canon before (but obviously never did); however, the setup now is the best it's ever been. From a storytelling perspective, I believe the way Episode 1 set up Carol on her journey to find Daryl is the perfect lead-up for canon. And S02EP1 made 3 things very evident to me:

Finding Daryl is Carol's number one priority, and she'd do anything to get him back

Daryl would never be truly happy without her, and he can't stop thinking about her and how she's doing without him.

The longer they're apart, the more mentally and emotionally unstable they become.

I'm aware there are some people who think that after watching episode 1, the new season's story is not going to be the one we want for Caryl. To those people, I want to ask: Did we watch the same episode?🤣 'Cause I didn't see a single anti-Caryl thing in the episode I watched.

I'll dive into my opinion on the timing of canon a little more as well:

If Caryl had gone canon on the main show, I'm sure we would have all been so happy, but it's all going to be so much more rewarding after the tension that has now been built with Daryl after season one and Carol in season 2 (so far). With all the time they've spent apart, they have started to experience the real fear of never seeing each other again or knowing if the other is even alive.

I think this was the plan all along. The initial spin-off idea was for Carol and Daryl to leave the group and join everyone again later in the show. That opportunity to leave the group and what they experienced in that time away would have been their plan to get to that level of tension where canon was the most satisfying.

When it was decided that the TWD would end with s11, they knew they had to hold off on canon until the spinoff because there was no way they had enough screen time left to get through the character development they needed for Caryl or the opportunity to build tension the way they envisioned it.

I'm happy they waited because getting a rushed canon would've been led up to by moments that we've already seen and experienced by the characters many times before (and never previously led to canon) would not have done Caryl justice.

Unfortunately, the pattern that we consistently saw in the flagship show was that as soon the group settled somewhere (Prison, Alexandira, Commonwealth) and got into some sense of normalcy, Daryl and Carol were automatically pulled apart by circumstances and responsibilities, and barely end up getting any time together. Carol even spoke to Maggie about this in S11EP21. That's who Daryl and Carol are; they never put themselves or their wants/needs first. So, for canon to happen and to make sense, they needed to be taken away from everyone else, given their own journey and time together, without the distraction of their obligations to others.

Carol and Daryl are my favourite characters in all of fiction. I ultimately want them to be cared for and get the happiness they deserve. Some might strongly disagree with me on this, but I think if, after this point, they still don't give us canon, then it'd be because Norman and Melissa didn't want it. I'll stand by my previous comments on this; Norman and Melissa are being heard by the writers, and to me, their character arcs have their input written all over them. If they want Caryl to be canon (which I strongly believe they do), then it will be, and if they don't, then it won't be, because I don't think there's anything else holding that back anymore.

2 - EMOTIONAL, unhinged, and nostalgic

3 - 💥🛩️🌅 - I'm curious to know how you interpret these and if the people I attended the premiere with would agree ( @celtic-crossbow @maggie-atwood )

4 - I strongly disliked how the people at the nest (i.e. Isabelle & Losang) treated Daryl. We saw them constantly emotionally manipulate him in season 1, and I was still seeing that in S02EP1; however, what made it a little better this time was that Daryl was clearly sick of it all. He looked ready to wrap things up, resolve the Nest's conflicts as soon as possible, and start heading home.

5 - Idk... someone should ask Norman. I wish he'd share his thoughts on episode 6 🤣 (Yes, I do! To me, the whole season is gonna be the best season of twd anything ever because it's all about Carol and Daryl)

Thanks again for the interesting questions; they were a lot of fun for me to answer, and I hope I've answered them well. Please feel free to lmk if you have any others ♡♡♡

#caryl #caryl positivity #daryl dixon #carol peletier #the book of carol #the walking dead #twd spoilers #spoilers

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typicalopposite · 2 months

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(This will be my one and only dabble in anything drama 😮‍💨)

BUT I hope we don’t get one single drop of BuckTommy behind the scenes. Not a name drop a glimpse of Lou nothing….

And once those this ship angers are literally vibrating out of their skin with excitement that this is proof of the end.

We get the first three episodes. And it’s something B related like Bees (1) Broken (2) Bones (3) (which in itself would be like a parallel but shhhh we’re being negative here)

They are going WILD! *whoooop whoooop*

And then the three season episode arc is fully BuckTommy centered. The first episode is normal up until the last big call that involves bees and that’s how it ties Tommy in because Buck says yeah my boyfriend talks about getting a hive and harvesting honey.. or something

Then it cuts to a scene with Tommy before getting in the helicopter and a bee lands on his and he swats it off before climbing in and then there’s like a random ground view of the helicopter crash and Buck gets a call and his face falls.

Episode 2 (they’re still celebrating btw because… of course) and it’s Tommy in the hospital and we get his begins in flashback during stories being shared about him. Episode ends with him waking up and an I love you.

Epsiode 3 (Bones) this will be the worst because it was clearly written out for us to see. This is the end. Maybe Tommy’s just going to be a bad patient and will be mean to Buck so he will be told by the team screw that guy his pain isn’t worth your emotional abuse run far away 🙄 BUT it is just about Tommy recovering from the injuries he has… and ends with Buck deciding to move in to help with his recovery and they get a support dog.. and name him Bones.

(And that’s the last I’ll dabble publicly on this nonsense. Good day!)

#911 abc #bucktommy #evan buckley #tommy kinard #this is 98% a joke… but also I wake up with a headache and see drama and apparently the headache is giving me energy to partake this time #if I get hate I’ll take it with stride…🫡 straight to the delete button

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nothoughts-onlywomen · 5 months

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so, if we can assume these are at least somewhat legit, let's discuss!

Chapter One: The Crawl - Directed by the Duffers. Post-apocalyptic Hawkins. we check in on the gang and where we left off in season 4.

Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler - Directed by the Duffers. This is where the hospital filming comes in. The Wheelers (minus Ted) are at the hospital for some reason. I believe Robin and Vickie are there too.

Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap - Directed by Frank Darabont (excuse me, the Frank Darabont? Green Mile Frank Darabont? SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION FRANK DARABONT??) Now I'm not sure about the plot of this one. But I think it might have something to do with that fancy-ass mansion they've been filming at.

Chapter Four: Sorcerer: Directed by the Duffers. For sure this is going to be a Will-centric epsiode. And Vecna will be involved somehow.

Chapter Five: Shock Jock - Directed by Frank Darabont (again, FRANK DARABONT? HOW DID WE GET SO LUCKY?) I have a good feeling that the radio station and station van that we've been seeing are going to have a big role to play in this episode.

Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz - Directed by Shawn Levy. Aside from this title making my Wrinkle-In-Time nostalgia happy, I think this will be the episode where Max wakes up. Lucas and El are going to rescue her.

And chapters seven and eight are a complete mystery! Which is fine with me. It only heightens the intrigue.

#stranger things #st5 #st5 speculation #st5 spoilers #st5 production #st5 leaks #stranger things s5

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coraniaid · 3 months

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Who do you think tended to be consistently the strongest and weakest writers on the Buffy staff? [With the obvious caveat that TV writing is collaborative of course.]

Looking only at writers who are credited with at least five episodes so that we've got a decent sized sample of their writing (and, as you say, pretending for the sake of the argument that each episode was written entirely by the writer named in its credits), our long list is:

Dean Batali and Rob Des Hotel co-wrote five episodes together, starting with Season 1's Never Kill A Boy On The First Date and ending with Season 2's Killed By Death

Jane Espenson wrote twenty-three episodes, starting with Season 3's Band Candy and ending with Season 7's End Of Days (co-written with Doug Petrie)

David Fury wrote seventeen episodes, starting with Season 2's Go Fish (co-written with Elin Hampton) and ending with Season 7's Lies My Parents Told Me (co-written with Drew Goddard)

Drew Goddard wrote or co-wrote five episodes, all in Season 7, starting with Selfless and ending with Dirty Girls.

Drew Z. Greenberg wrote six episodes, starting with Season 6's Smashed and ending with Season 7's Empty Places

David Greenwalt wrote eight episodes, starting with Season 1's Teacher's Pet and ending with Season 3's Homecoming

Rebecca Rand Kirshner wrote eight episodes, starting with Season 5's Out Of My Mind and ending with Season 7's Touched

Steven S. Knight wrote five episodes, starting with Season 5's Blood Ties and ending with Season 6's Seeing Red

Marti Noxon wrote twenty-three episodes, starting with Season 2's What's My Line? (Part 1) (co-written with Howard Gordon) and ending with Season 7's Bring On The Night (co-written with Doug Petrie)

Doug Petrie wrote seventeen episodes, starting with Season 3's Revelations and ending with Season 7's End Of Days (co-written with Jane Espenson)

Joss Whedon wrote twenty-seven episodes, starting with Season 1's Welcome to the Hellmouth and ending with Season 7's Chosen

Unfortunately for people who like to claim that being a good person and being a good artist are correlated, I think it's pretty much indisputable that Joss Whedon was consistently the best Buffy writer. As well as every season opener and season finale except for Season 5's Buffy vs Dracula and both Season 6's Bargaining and Grave, Whedon-written episodes include Lie To Me, Innocence, Doppelgangland, Hush, Who Are You?, Family, The Body and Once More With Feeling. You could easily make a plausible top ten of Buffy episodes without picking episodes written by anybody else.

It's true that Whedon has a very particular style, that his characters all tend to default to speaking in a certain way and that he is a lot better at mood and metaphor than tight, multi-layed plotting. I'm not sure this is an approach that necessarily works well outside of the show (as well as easy targets like Avengers 2 or Whedon's bizarre Wonder Woman script or whatever was going on in the post-Chosen comics, I should admit I don't think fan-favorite Firefly is very good either), and by all accounts he's a pretty terrible human being as well, but as a writer on Buffy I think his work is consistently very good. The worst Whedon-written episodes are probably the opening two parter, Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest, Season 1's Nightmares and Season 3's Amends, and I think it's a stretch to call any of them bad episodes.

Of the other good Buffy writers ... well, I wouldn't be much of a Faith fan if I didn't mention Doug Petrie (whose best episodes include Revelations, This Year's Girl, No Place Like Home and Fool For Love), but I think his Season 6 and Season 7 episodes are quite a bit weaker. I'm not a huge fan of Season 4's The Initiative either.

Marti Noxon had as big an influence as anyone on the show other than Whedon, but 'consistent' is not the word I'd use to describe her. Her best epsiodes (I Only Have Eyes For You, Consequences, The Prom, Forever, Bargaining) are fantastic, her worst ... well, she wrote the worst two episodes of Season 3 (Dead Man's Party and Beauty and the Beasts), she wrote Buffy vs Dracula (which I know some people love but I can't stand at all) and she wrote (or cowrote) Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered and Doomed and Into the Woods (all three of which, I think, would be in the running for a list of the show's worst ten episodes).

I think Petrie and Noxon are probably the show's best two writers after Whedon. I know a lot of people really rate Jane Espenson's work, and I do like a lot of her episodes (Earshot and Band Candy are both very good), but she also wrote some real stinkers (Pangs, A New Man and ... again, Doomed). She doesn't quite have any real knockout episodes, for my money.

Worst writer is a more hotly contested category.

David Fury wrote (or co-wrote) Lies My Parents Told Me and Go Fish (and, not to keep banging on about it, Doomed) which is a pretty good claim to the title of "worst writer", but he also wrote Helpless, Choices, Fear Itself and Real Me and at least co-wrote Bargaining. So I don't think, hand on heart, that he can possibly be the worst Buffy writer. Certainly not consistently so.

David Greenwalt wrote (or co-wrote, with Whedon) School Hard and Ted and Faith, Hope & Trick and Homecoming, all very good episodes. But he also wrote Teacher's Pet, which .... uh.

Probably the consistently weakest writers are the ones who didn't really write anything dreadful but also never wrote anything particular amazing.

Dean Batali and Rob des Hotel's worst episode is the forgetable Killed By Death, and I'm not sure I could tell you what their best episode is. Never Kill A Boy On The First Date, maybe? I think I like that one more than most people do.

From the other end of the show's run, there's Drew Z Greenberg, whose worst episode is probably a tie between Him and Empty Places and whose best episode is ... uh. Entropy, maybe? And David Goddard, who only wrote for the show's worst season and who managed to cowrite Lies My Parents Told Me, easily the show's worst ever episode (and I am not as much of a fan of Selfless as many people, although I'd agree it's certainly his best work).

It's no secret that Season 7 is my least favorite season, and while I don't think Season 1 is objectively great, it -- and the early parts of Season 2 -- have a certain nostalgic charm I don't really get from the rest of the show. So I guess I'd pick one of the Drews, either Greenberg or Goddard, if I had to pick a single worst writer. Or fail to pick one, as it happens, because I can't pick between them.

Though I think the absolute best sign that an episode is likely to be a stinker is if it's credited to more than one writer, especially writers who don't normally write as a team. There are a handful of exceptions -- Conversations With Dead People comes to mind -- but on the hand you've got 'classics' like The Pack and Go Fish and Flooded and Life Serial and Sleeper and Bring On The Night and Lies My Parents Told Me and End Of Days. That's a pretty consistent list of dubious to terrible episodes right there.

Oh, and don't forget Doomed, the only episode of the show officially credited to three different writers. Have I mentioned that I don't like Doomed? Because I really don't like Doomed.

#btvs #thanks!#sorry this sat in my inbox for so long #for context I got to Doomed in my latest Buffy rewatch then gave up #apparently Doug Petrie was meant to write it but he went to get married that week instead

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iamnotathornbird · 3 months

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i watched season one of bridgerton because simon basset is 🥵.

i couldn't get past the first epsiode of season two because i find anthony bridgerton insufferable.

i love nicola coughlin and seeing all the polin girlies 💀 has me wondering...

#colin x penelope #penelope x colin #colin bridgerton #penelope featherington #bridgerton #bridgerton polls #simon basset #anthony bridgerton #tumblr polls #polls #kate sharma #bridgerton season 1 #bridgerton season 2 #bridgerton season 3 #kate x anthony #anthony x kate

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sahara-solaris-solace · 13 days

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Analysis ( Spin off Rookie Season Epsiode 11: Iron Tanker ) RANT!!!!!!

This is ONE of the reason I consider the rookie season is bunkers!

Twisting Tiger, North Shaw and Big Bo are total assholes!!!!

Now, I am not the type of person that expects someone to be a ‘holier than thou’ attitude. Even I will be cringe out but damn, they made these three so damn unlikable!!

Twisting Tiger is supposed to be wiser! Yes, he made a valid point not to show aggression by not bringing up the spy episode but he supposed to know Skarra screams red flag instead of blaming Shakes for luring him to the tank!

Big Bo with his pretentious noble attitude. He guilt trip Shakes and gaslight him from the Hydra episode ( Still Rookie Episode ) about letting go and treat Shakes like he’s the damn instigator!!!

I hate how they make it as thought Shakes was a sinner by him recalling Big Bo’s gaslights ( not advice ) about his hatred for Skarra!

North Shaw, yeah, he’s kind of an asshole at times so I didn’t expect him that much but still he’s a Supa Strikas, who preached about brotherhood but now, yeah, look sus.

Wanna know something?? I expect these reactions from Cool Joe and El Matador! But from the last few episodes, they treat Shakes much tamer and formed much healthier bond with Shakes!

Automatic, yeahhh screw him. Sure it sucks that Supa Strikas Higher Ups considered replacing him but he treat like Shakes have a say in it. He’s a total asshole but I will greyrock him because we ALL EXPECT him to treat Shakes like shit but not these three!

I gotta say, Shakes is much forgiving than I will give credit but if it were to really happen to any complex and flaw individual, they will reconsider rejoining next season or just straight out analyzing who you like or you least like.

#supa strikas #sports #super league #supablr #supa strikas headcanons

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star-trek-fandom-confessions · 7 months

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#475

"I have only seen Season 2 (and a few epsiodes of S3) of Discovery, and have not seen any Strange New Worlds. I have seen all three Kelvin timeline movies. Perhaps it is the nostalgia talking, but I prefer Quinto Spock to Peck Spock. Is this so wrong... ?"

#absolutely not wrong anon!#confession 475 #star-trek-fandom-confessions #star trek #alternate original series #kelvin timeline #spock #zachary quinto

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tempestaurora · 6 months

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heyooo, haven't been able to check out 911 season 7 yet because of life stuff happening too much lol. did they set up any interesting plot lines this time?

here's what i've got for you

potentially delusional bisexual buck arc, but we say that every season

almost certainly a buck jealousy/disliking being replaced arc with eddie when eddie makes a new friend (which is what people think will lead to bisexual buck)

hen interim captain -> full captain perhaps? i think that's the direction we're headed, people keep complimenting her on her captaining

brief athena/bobby marriage worries but they fixed that real fast, though i would've actually liked to see the two of them genuinely struggle for a longer period of time

christopher diaz is a player. which. i don't know if its plot but it was funny

eddie is not over his dead wife divorcing him/dying, even though it's been 5 seasons

literally nothing has happened with maddie or chimney yet

the first three epsiodes were taken up with the cruise ship disaster (which i actually didn't find very interesting at all, and all three episodes are probably some of my least favourite of the show so far) so nothing much has been set up at all??

hen and karen adopting has not come back up yet, nor has chimney and maddie's wedding. eddie and buck's season 6 relationships are footnotes so far this season

#911 #anon #talk #the show feels slightly different now its on abc but i cant pinpoint what it is #i just know that the vibe is slightly different and i like it less #to be fair other than the earthquake and tsunami i have never been big on the major disaster episodes #so hopefully its just part of that trend #911 spoilers

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chaifootsteps · 1 year

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(Patreon anon) Here's the last of what I have of my QnA archive, I don't plan to repledge so cheers to whoever uses their money to snitch like me.

-HB season 1 takes place within one year

-Wally Wackford won't appear much in season 2 but will be important in the future.

-Vivzie would love more Wally merch but her merch lead doesn't feel confident in it selling well.

-Vivzie hasn't consider making pride merch because "It's the kind of thing that big corporations to try to appeal to a generation they're not normally involved in."

-Vivzie claims the whole show is a celebration of pride and doesn't feel the need to make pride merch but would be down to making if there's a demand for it. (With the amount of fan merch I've seen, there is)

-She claims to do general research for the HH character time period but doesn't integrate the history into their backstories as of now.

-Viv's open to oversea convention appearances and has been trying to get a booking agent to travel more for European conventions.

-Paimon's a big shapeshifter and is only an owl because that's what he needs to be.

-There was a time where Vivzie hated Zoophobia, saying if something doesn't work out, keep trying new projects that excite you.

-One hell year equals a lot of Earth years, so stolas existed well before 1985.

-Vivzie actually loves Mammon's design, she conceptualized it and had someone else finalize it. Sort of like how Oz was designed by someone on the team with Vivzie finalizing it.

-Vivzie wanted to show men can be abused too with Stolas

-Jeremy Jordan might join be cast by Vivzie since she knows him

-Stella may not want Stolas dead right away anymore, just at a later time. (This was asked pre-Western Energy)

-It's currently unclear when we'll get HH merch with their full series designs since they're owned by A24. (This was months before the recall of that Sir Pentious keychain that used the full series design)

-At the time, they were aiming for a three month wait period between HB episodes for season 2.

-Unlike HH, HB isn't considered a musical to Vivzie but will have elements to it in season 2.

-Vivzie doesn't remember what the golden feathers in epsiode 6 meant. Adam saids the artist come up with a bunch of ideas.

-Sinners technically don't need food and water to live, it's mostly out of habit and indulgence. Electronic sinners like Vox find a way through cartoon logic.

-Because of how long episode 8 was taking, Vivzie and Adam have started making HB comics of what happens between the episodes. They're still figuring it out with HH.

-If Oz ever met Valentino, he would hate him. The team jokes that Val would be very "notice me senpai" with him.

-Stolas is confirmed to be 8ft tall with Blitz at 5ft.

-Fights between an overlord and a goetia would barely happen so Vivzie wouldn't know which one would win.

-Tilla was removed as a sibling because Blitz's family was still in the early works, she's going to be renamed.

-Vivzie doesn't have a specific favorite villain archetypes, she enjoys ruthless mean girls and dramatic, and theatrical messed up villains like The Joker.

-Episode 6's collaboration was fun for Vivzie but complicated because she had to manage an entire second team, There were file issues and they had to go back and forth to make sure they were correct.

-Vivzie's interested in making more Zoophobia merch but doesn't wish to for other older projects. She mentions it'd be hard to convince her merch lead that anyone would want to buy anything from her older works.

-Stolas does have guilt with his affair and he has a lot of turmoil related to it.

-Leviathan will have a cameo in season 2

-Vivzie can't give specifics but Stolas doesn't have many friends who we might see them in the future. Stella has two friends who at the moment of that QnA don't have names.

-White marks on Imps are scars, and can be added for aesthetics (Unsure if she means design wise or in-universe cosmetics, possibly both with how Barbie looks)

-Stolas's job is to look into the skies of Earth and find prophecies in them and inform Hell of what's to come in the future, he doesn't do much other than that.

-Oz has a broad range of powers, there were too many to list in the timespan of the QnA.

-Octavia takes after Stolas in that she's socially unaware, Vivzie claims she also unaware of her parents's relationship because of Stolas trying hard to make it seem things are fine and does that to a "good extent".

-we'll see what Octavia and Stella's relationship is like later.

-Vivzie would like to release an artbook bigger than their con-exclusive one for HB after season 2 and when the team is free to organize the production art, she's unable to do one for HH at the moment.

-DHORK will return

-She's still figuring out the sins but don't want them to be fallen angels since it doesn't matter in HB, but it will for HH. So she wants to wait until HH to decide. (Possible they figured it out with HH season 1 done)

-She finds people saying the childhood friends trope with Stolitz being fanservice frustrating. (As seen with her recent rant of the overall story)

-Vivzie adopted Pixel a year and a half after she graduated SVA. She didn't explain how she got Honeybee and Nugget.

-full quote "There would be demons from the ring of Lust who would be asexual, and they will get to that in the future. But she generally imagines that lust demons wouldn't think it'd that much of a taboo. Lust demons would generally be confused by the concept, but they wouldn't have any hate.

Asmodeus would be an example of someone who wouldn't understand asexuality"

-She would like region-free dvds of HB but it would require re-negotiations with everyone who was involved with the show, if they do release it, it'll be difficult to make it region-free.

-Stolitz didn't interact at all between the 25 years apart.

-She put a lot of her life into Loo Loo Land, and yes...Viv's dad was openly horny in front of her and her sisters growing up, Viv found it funny but like I told Lemon...There was no mention of how her sisters felt about it.

-Viv put aspects of herself into Octavia but claims to not be a self-insert. Fizz has an aspect that is directly from Viv that we'll see in season 2 that she feels needs to be shown.

-HB was spun off because IMP was originally for HH, with Vivzie thinking they were better off as their own thing. HB's also about exploring Vivzie's hell like the demons that possess people.

-HB/HH was inspired by Batman and various musicals with the idea that she wanted a worlds with nothing but villains.

-The fan interpretations of Andrealphus were pretty close to what she's written for him.

-Vivzie's interpretation of Stolas's "I used to think that I was bold, I used to think that love was for fun" is meant that he's never gotten the chance to experience true love with him being gay and he had an arranged marriage.

-She wants Stolas and Stella's relationship to be something that's debated.

-The Von Eldritches will not appear in HH season 1

-question "How did Viv get to where she was? How did she get Hazbin and Helluva produced?"

answer: "She has reps who set her up with people very interested in her show. It was the producers who pitched their interest in her. This is what happened with Hazbin in that production companies showed what they would do for that show. When A24 showed interest in Hazbin, that's when she started pitching it to others (No mention of that those others are)"

-The certificate on Loona's adoption paper was signed by Beelzebub.

-HH will have the same level of NSFW and dark as HB is at the time of season 2's beginning, (I'm not sure why people are thinking it'll be even more if she has to obey S&P with a TV show) she admits to not having a good gauge of what's too extreme as she just does what she wants to do to tell her story. HH is new territory since it's more story based than HB.

-YT doesn't allow the use of the word "cunt" so Mammon will be heavily censored with the amount of time he saids it. There's also a scene in HB that a storyboard artist went too extreme on and Vivzie was afraid it would be rejected but turned out to be okay. (This ask was in September 2022, she didn't mention which scene but if I had to guess it might have been the dildo room)

-Oz is aware of Fizz being an imp, but Vivzie doesn't know if it's an open fact and she might use it as a story element someday.

-Rosie is an overlord, that's all Vivzie can say when asked what kind of demon she is.

-At the time Vivzie was still figuring out how time works in hell, Sinners are stuck at the age they died as while Hellborns do age.

-Stolas would have thought of Blitz a lot after their day together and has a problem separating fantasy from reality, Blitz would have never thought of him.

-Blitz's horse obsession started as an inside joke among the team

-Vivzie can't say if season 2 will have a Stolitz kiss

-Episode 6's collab started 4-5 months before the episode came out, There's no plans for season 2 to have one but Vivzie would love to do it again.

-When asked if any new characters will join IMP in season 2 Vivzie said "Not this season!"

-Stolas can transform into other things, but Vivzie is still deciding if it's something he can do on his own or needs the grimoire for it.

-Vivzie uses Google sheets to write and takes the complete draft to something called Final Draft to finish it

-That white cyclops guy that shows up in Cherri Bomb's segment of Addict is likely to change but that's all Vivzie can say.

-Striker was confirmed to be a hybrid hellborn.

-The client giving birth button in episode 1 was an oversight on Vivzie's part but did say that IMP had hellborn clients before

-Any remaining reveals of HH characters will be minor characters from the pilot, the final reveal will be a brand new character. (This was before the Adam reveal, so he could have been the final one)

-The thing about the sins being a pseudo-family with "nice and asshole" ones were accurate to what's been told to you, same with them technically being goetias, they're just in a different category.

-We'll see Oz and Mammon's relationship in the middle of season 2.

-A lot of material things have been made in the greed ring, it's very industrial, full of banks, smoggy and crime ridden like that was seen in the Chaz episode.

-HH and HB are planned out but said that there's "wiggle room' in that they figure out as the show goes by how they get to the events.

-Vivzie's still deciding what special powers Striker would have as a hybrid.

-If Vivzie had unlimited funds, she would love to make a movie for HH and HB and to speed up her production pipeline. she had issues in 2022 with her working more on HH.

-Claims that HH will definitely come out in 2023, but she also mentioned season 2 of HB will have a more consistent release schedule at the same time.

-Vivzie would like to make a height chart for the HB characters but claims the team doesn't need one because they know the size of them already.

> Vivzie hasn't consider making pride merch because "It's the kind of thing that big corporations to try to appeal to a generation they're not normally involved in."

Says Vivzie as she can't put out Sallie Mae merchandise fast enough, despite her having one speaking line and about five seconds of screen time.

> -HH and HB are planned out but said that there's "wiggle room' in that they figure out as the show goes by how they get to the events.

She's flip-flopped on how planned out the show is so many times it's not even funny anymore.

> Stolas does have guilt with his affair and he has a lot of turmoil related to it.

Figures this was before both scenes where he says he has zero guilt and would feel bad if he thought he did something wrong but doesn't.

> -Stolas would have thought of Blitz a lot after their day together and has a problem separating fantasy from reality, Blitz would have never thought of him.

What a fascinating character trait that we were all looking forward to seeing more of after Blitzo told him off in Ozzie's and popped his delusional bubble! What a shame it was downgraded to "Stolas, as always, did nothing wrong."

> -She wants Stolas and Stella's relationship to be something that's debated.

Liar.

> -She put a lot of her life into Loo Loo Land, and yes...Viv's dad was openly horny in front of her and her sisters growing up, Viv found it funny but like I told Lemon...There was no mention of how her sisters felt about it.

> -Vivzie doesn't remember what the golden feathers in epsiode 6 meant. Adam saids the artist come up with a bunch of ideas.

Remember when we all thought that was important? Oh Vivzie, you fucking hack.

Thank you so much for all of these, Patreon Anon. Hopefully someone else will step into your shoes but for now know that you're braver than any Marine.

#Anonymous #Helluva Boss #vivziepop critical #helluva boss critical #actual blog post #Patreon anon

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lampmanliveblogs · 4 months

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Attention!

My liveblog of The Owl House season three, epsiode 3, Watching and Dreaming will begin shortly!

#the owl house #the owl house liveblog #liveblog #toh s3e3 #watching and dreaming

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blackbird-brewster · 1 year

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CM Fanfiction on AO3

I'm a bit of a stats nerd, and I've been wanting to put this together for ages. The following are some statistics regarding Criminal Minds fanfiction of AO3. Do with this what you will, but if ever someone tries to tell me this fandom isn't misogynistic -- I will just point to this post.

I spent an abhorrent amount of time putting this together, hope it's interesting to other people. Please don't send me hate mail for my opinions.

Base Statistics

Total Fics Tagged Criminal Minds: 34,561

These stats were compiled by me on 20/06/23 via AO3's filtering system.

Note: These were taken at face value, meaning these numbers may not be exact. In order to get exact statistics, I'd have to stringently filter out things like mislabelled fics, spam, fics with multiple categories (to find pure slash, femslash fics), etc.

Tumblr will destroy the resolution of the graphs, just click to see full res :)

Fanfic statistics gathered from AO3, episode totals gathered from IMDB.

CM Fanfiction by Category