#since that seemed to be a problem for what was implied to be the storyline they were planning relating to her past

[stelladess]

Medicmiya and W-alter operator profiles/voicelines both mentioning Blaze what did they mean by this.

[escapingrealtiylovinginsanity]

[Not] Guilty Part 2

Part 1 

A few people expressed interest in this becoming a series. I had a storyline for it when I made the first ‘chapter’. I do warn you guys though I will probably be slow to post. I have a hard time when I feel like I have to write the next chapter of something. Not to mention I am currently packing (and procrastinating packing by writing) to move from Michigan to Tennessee for my new post-grad job!  

This is not a spoiler because I hinted heavily (told you really) at it at the end of the first chapter, but I did want to warn everyone- this has the ACCIDENTAL PREGNANCY TROPE. For those of you who do not like those stories, you have been warned. The case is mentioned in this story but is not its main focus, but what will become of the reader and Sonny’s relationship. (I may change the name because it implies otherwise.)  

Warnings- mentions of sex abuse, physical abuse, prison violence, suicide and accidental pregnancy trope (just in case you missed it ^)

Thank you for reading that really long author's note <3

The breakup should be harder on you. It was the longest relationship you had been in. The nervousness you had felt when you had crept up to the six-month marker and the kiss of death to every relationship you had ever had. It had come in like a lion, with you causing fights waiting for the inevitable, and out like a lamb when Sonny realized what the problem was. He had maturely communicated that he had no intent in letting you go. It had been smooth sailing for the most part after that. The relief you had felt when it all just seemed to work out. You guys were just a few weeks away from the year mark.  

The end was as abrupt as your cousin Randy’s arrest. The betrayal of Sonny going after him without any regard to you. Then the attempted railroading from him to you of Randy’s guilt. The whole thing had left you cold and numb.  

You knew Dominick Carisi was a good lawyer and now he could be the one to put Randy away for life. On a charge you were sure he didn’t commit. You hadn’t seen him much since the day you refused to let him into your apartment. You only saw him during court proceedings or meetings with him and Randy’s defense lawyer. Not that he hadn’t tried. He had called, texted, and stopped by your apartment frequently during the first few weeks. You were sure he thought that you were just overacting and that you would come to see the light of your cousin’s misdoings. Process and then accept what was going on. The only difference was you knew deep in your soul that your cousin wasn’t guilty. You wouldn't let anyone railroad you into thinking anything differently.  

Not even a man you loved. 

You had been actively avoiding him and any emotion that he provoked. You tried to ignore that you were a hot mess. The stress and emotional strain caused constant fatigue and churning in your stomach which had a tendency to make you sick. You had been trying to take care of everything for the case and still work overtime to continue paying your bills and for Randy’s pricy lawyer. You had even tried to get the money to bail Randy out, but Sonny had asked for an outrageous bond that even combined your working-class family couldn’t afford. You had tried to make up for it by putting money in his commissary and visiting once a week. Randy assured you he was okay, but it didn’t help make you feel better. Especially, when you saw the black eye and cut lip on your last visit.  

Today was court and it was Randy’s turn to testify. You sat there in support of him and tried not to wince or shift uncomfortably as years of family secrets were let loose in open court. It was to help show Randy’s character the lawyer had explained. It was smart but you didn’t have to like listening to it.  

Randy testified to his mental health issues. His bipolar that left him manic and on top of the world one day and then so depressed he couldn’t get out of bed the next. He went on to talk about the sexual and physical abuse he had received at the hands of his own father. How he had used substance to numb himself. He was in tears when he talked about how he could never hurt someone like he had been hurt. He would rather put a bullet in his head.  

He had tried to skirt around the question about his uncle. But when he was pressed, he talked about how he had witnessed the brutal murder of his father at his uncle's hands when he had found out and then watched his uncle be arrested and put in prison. How he had been put on multiple 72-hour psych holds in the years following. Listening to it all was hard and made you want to curl up in a corner and sob. It was heartbreaking to listen to. Randy looked and sounded believable- like a victim himself who deserved empathy.  

Sonny turned in his seat to look at you. You were only able to maintain eye contact for only a few seconds. It had been long enough to see the understanding in his eyes. The almost audible clicking of all the puzzle pieces of your life that you dodged around or refused to talk about when you were together were finally coming together for him. You could also see the frustration at you not being honest with him and him being blindsided in open court. 

When recess was called until Monday you had to keep yourself from running out of the courthouse and instead force yourself to walk at a normal pace. You couldn’t face any of the SVU detectives that you were once close to. You hear your name called and your body freezes without your permission. A Staten Island accent thickened with emotion. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

You can’t even turn back to look at him. You feel exhausted as you say. “You didn’t want to listen.” 

≪ °❈° ≫ 

You return to court four days later, and there is something strange brewing in the courtroom. You can feel it in the air. You can see it. There is no jury and the courtroom is empty. The rest happens in a blur. ADA Dominick Carisi stands up and tells the judge they had found further evidence over the weekend and they wanted to drop all charges, except for possession. They offered a deal on time served. You felt the tears rush down your face in disbelief. 

You find yourself in the hallway and a hand touches your shoulder from behind. You turn around to see Olivia Benson. “For what it is worth, I’m sorry.” Her face is sincere but all you could hear in your mind was the echoing of her words to you of his guilt and how it was normal to be in denial. It could take a while for your mind to be able to comprehend that someone you know, and love is capable of such malicious intent. “For all the trouble and for all this has cost you.” Even in your haze, you knew she wasn’t talking about the money you had put into Randy’s defense. “With his DNA in her apartment and on that blunt we really thought-” 

“Sharing weed with a woman doesn’t mean you're going to rape and kill her.” Your words are bitter and distant even to your own ears. 

“Of course not,” Olivia paused gathering her thoughts. 

“What happened? What did you guys find?”  

“Well, we went back over the timeline. We had a hard time believing Randy because when we interviewed him, he didn’t even know where he had been for most of the night.” You knew he had been hopped up on some pretty strong stuff that night. “Do you know the cemetery a couple of blocks from where we arrested him?” You felt like a bolt of lightning had struck through you. You did in fact know it. It was where his older brother had been buried after he committed suicide at twenty. “There was a security camera there that had been installed because of some teenager destroying headstones. It shows Randy there hours before Mary Moore’s death to hours after it. He slept there all night actually.” 

You huff out a laugh. Thomas was Randy’s older brother by almost ten years. He, out of the three sons, had taken the worst of the abuse from their father. He had protected Randy and the youngest David until the moment he had ended it all, but it seemed even death couldn’t stop him from protecting his younger brother. 

You see Randy getting released, a bag of belongings in his hand and you start to head over to him completely forgetting that you had been in a conversation with the detective. You are only reminded when you hear her voice raise slightly as she says, “You know, Carisi is the one that started looking back at the timeline. He is the reason this case was dropped.” You freeze feeling something twist in your stomach. An emotion that you don’t want to deal with in this happy moment. 

“It doesn’t change anything.”  

You stride to Randy’s side and hug. You weren’t allowed to touch him when you were visiting him in lockup. He clings to you burying his face into your neck and you can feel the hot tears against your neck. “Thank you. Thank you so much for never giving up on me.” You hug him tighter feeling your own tears roll down your cheeks.  

≪ °❈° ≫ 

You were sitting back at the apartment curled up on the couch wrapped in a blanket as Randy was spending an ungodly amount of time in the bathroom. You smiled to yourself, just happy that he was home. Even if he was back to crashing on your couch. He joined on the couch, hair still wet from his shower. He leaned back into the cushions with a sigh. The two of you sat in silence processing all that had happened in the last four months.  

“I found a rehab program when I was locked up. It focuses on people with mental health issues like my bipolar. I called and they said they had a spot open for me. Someone ran out. Good luck, huh?” You laugh shaking your head.  

“Good to know you still have your positivity streak.” You lay back feeling absolutely exhausted. You had been having a fatigue that just wouldn’t go away. “I think it's a good idea though. It would be good for you to get that settled. Your being off and on your meds hasn't been helping. I just want you to be happy, and have a real chance at the life you deserve.”  

“Yeah, I know. I hope you know I appreciate everything you have done for me. Everything that you have had to sacrifice.” You say his name, but he cuts you off, “No, really Chickadee. All these years, you didn’t have to do any of it. Without you, I would have been dead or locked up three times over by now.” You reach out and start running your finger through his hair. “It’ll probably be good for you to have to space anyways.” 

“I don’t mind you sleeping on my couch.” You assure him. 

“I know, but with you being pregnant and all. I’m sure you-” 

“I’m sorry about me being what?” Randy doesn’t miss a beat. 

“Oh, come on Chickadee. I know you were trying not to make a big deal out of it because of everything that was going on but-” You shake your head at him, laughing. 

“Randy, I’m not pregnant.” The finality in your voice makes him turn his position to face you more fully. He quirks an eyebrow at you. 

“Are you sure about that?” His tone is one of disbelief as he eyes your form. You smack his shoulder saying his name loudly. “Well, I would check into that, anyhow. You know with the fatigue, upset stomach, morning sickness, and with how big those things have gotten.” He gestures to your breast with a wave of his hand.  

You look down at them and feel your mind starting to spiral as you try to think of the last time you had a period. You bite your thumb as you realize it was before the case had started. While it wasn’t uncommon for you to skip when you were stressed out, that was a considerable amount of time. “Alright, I’m kicking you out of my bed. I haven’t had a good night's sleep in almost four months.” Randy didn’t seem to notice your mind spinning. He thought that you were still just messing around with him. He had no idea the can of worms he had just opened in your head. 

You stood up numbly as he started making the couch his makeshift bed. Then flopping onto it with a content sigh. You say nothing as you go to grab your purse and head toward the drug store a block over.   

[rebouks]

It's been a while since I read your story and sadly I come here today as a hater: I'm afraid you're not cooking with this romance storyline with Robin. Seeing him kiss Aster was the weirdest thing because he's the most asexual character I've seen in a while. You joked how people didn't believe Robin would get a smooch but it's still not believable, at least not to me. Sorry, but I'm not eating what you're serving. I hope you don't take this badly. But if you do, you have the right to kill me.

There's also something that gave me pause: the reveal that Penny cheated on Levi once and will likely do it again, and probably with Jacob since she has a crush on him.

I just can't see Jacob entertaining Penny. First, Jacob would never accept Levi's sloppy seconds. And second, I think Jacob has an arrogant side that would clash with Penny's attitude of thinking highly of herself. "I'm too good for you" is what I see coming from him regarding her. He's a womaniser but he has taste, and Penny is rotten to the bone like Victoria. And because they're teenagers, Jacob ridiculing Penny as an indirect jab towards Levi would be so realistically petty. There's nothing quite like hitting your enemies from all angles. I'm sure Bruno taught him that. And with Levi being such a doormat, it seems it'll take somebody else to put that girl in her place and knock her down a few pegs.

And Penny's reaction to being rejected for the first time would be a sight. It's what she deserves.

And speaking of Bruno, he must come back! Ivan and Francesca are cute I guess but Brivan is still the 5-star dish and I like the spice Bruno brings to your story. Imagine if Francesca's crazy ex turns out to be an actual problem and Ivan had the bright idea of hitting up Bruno when he realised he couldn't handle the guy? "We split because I wanted to return to this life and you didn't, but now you come here asking the mafia to get involved in your life again so we can help you sort out a guy...? You've lost your mind. You and your woman just need to go to the police like everyone else with an abusive partner. Now get out." but then think twice when he meets the guy in question when he contacts Bruno's family to buy an illegal firearm from them, babbling how he's going to "fix" his ex's new boyfriend and get her and his son back. Initially, he'd be hurt Ivan only sought him for the sake of his new girlfriend, but Bruno will be damned if anything happened to the man who owns his heart and their little daughter. And we know he doesn't mind getting his hands dirty, huh? :3c

Hmmmm maybe you're not wrong to refuse what I'm serving! Maybe it was made in a shitty diner by a jaded cook who didn't wash their hands and thought rat droppings were sprinkles?? FFFFFFF.. no but I get it, Robin and Levi's plan kinda sucked from the get go and him kissing Aster like that was pretty uncharacteristic.. but alas he is a teenage boy with bad decision making skills and false bravado from his little gift, so here we are.

I will say that he's definitely not asexual tho and if I have, I didn't mean to give off that vibe for him.. believe me, most of these teens, including Robin, are thinking and (sometimes) acting on thoughts right now, wink wonk (hell, I know I was at that age) but it's not something I particularly feel like being too graphic about since they're still teens y'know? I've mostly just implied or alluded to such things when necessary, so my bad if that's not coming off too well, but rather that than be too crass.

I may have joked about Penny cheating on Levi with Jacob, and she definitely would if given the chance, but I think you're right that Jacob wouldn't be interested in her, she's far too high maintenance for him and he'd totally be against the idea of touching Levi's seconds like.. no thx! 🫣 I would love to see her try and get shot down for sure tho, that'd be hilarious!! Someone needs to take her down a peg or two one day! Part of me hopes it IS Levi who does so, but we'll have to see.

Hmmm hmmm hm.. Bruno! As much as I still love Brivan I don't think there's even a slight chance Ivan would ever go to him for help, especially since he went back to that life, even if he thought it'd help. He's so against everything it stands for.. it almost took his life, Oscar's in a roundabout way, Cookie's?! and it DID suck Bruno back in, he's waaay too stubborn and proud as well like, Bruno fucking left him for THAT? Are you kidding??? Fuck crawling back to him for ANYTHING, nope. he'd never! Now, that's not to say Bruno wouldn't jump in without Ivan's permission but (and I'll let you off for this cos we don't know Lee too well) he's way too much of a coward to take matters into his own hands like that. He's just not dealing with losing Frankie/Sawyer in a very healthy way, hence the bullshit spewing from his mouth. He's probably asleep on the job or some shit atm, not buying firearms from Kaden n' co. in Oasis Springs, however exciting that may be.

All that being said, I hope you still like the direction I go with all these threads, because they ARE all going somewhere. We're just dealing with people who don't always make the best decisions at the end of the day and that's what makes this stuff interesting to me! We don't always have to like the path or the choices these guys make but hopefully they all learn something along the way! Or not, I guess? That's also fun sometimes lmao 🤸‍♀️

[lonelier-version-of-you]

I feel like Dylan's autism diagnosis storyline is the perfect example of what Casualty's idea of "being progressive" seems to be lately.

Which is to say: it's taking a subject (Dylan's autism) that the show has already covered before and covered well, and ignoring the fact it had been covered before like "Oh, look at this New and Groundbreaking topic Casualty has never covered before (except all the times it did!)".

Dylan has been canonically autistic since 2011, and he was getting along fine as a canonically autistic character until Casualty suddenly retconned practically all of his character development - because a lot of that development was built on him being autistic and knowing it - just for a weirdly handled "Dylan finds out he's autistic" storyline.

Dylan has been well aware he's autistic since before work at Holby was even a twinkle in his eye! He's made clear statements on it himself (not to mention that Sam obviously knew - how could she know if Dylan didn't? Am I meant to believe she time travelled to 2024 to see Dylan get diagnosed?!). I'd even go so far as to say the show implied Dylan was into disability activism, considering things like terminology he used, his repeatedly forming friendships with other disabled people, his general tendency to be the most passionate character about disability rights, etc... and all of that goes back to long before his OCD diagnosis, so it can't be explained with "well he knew he was neurodivergent, just not that he was autistic" either.

Of course, I don't have a problem with the idea of a "finding out you're autistic in adulthood" storyline. It would have been great for Henrik or Eli or Ruby. It's an important story to tell. Dylan would have had his own realisation in adulthood... just the part of it before Holby.

I don't even mind a story about Dylan getting an autism diagnosis. I can't think of anything that wouldn't work with a "Dylan has assumed he's autistic since the 2000s, but never got officially diagnosed until now" setup. What I have a problem with is rewriting history just to do a "this is how Dylan realises he's autistic" story.

It's made all the more annoying by the fact that Casualty just recently had a character who would have worked really well for an adulthood autism realisation story: Sah! It would make so much sense for Sah to be autistic, and be sadly realistic for it to have gone unrecognised because of them being nonbinary. Why not give the story to Sah instead?

It's such a shame: what a waste of Dylan's characterisation and of the great idea of an adulthood autism realisation storyline.

[sometimesraven]

I would like to mention I don’t give a fuck about canon. There’s no such thing in this show. What I care about is respect.

I saw someone say that this move by RTD cements Ten as one of the “best doctors” and that it’s a huge show of respect to Tennant.

But that is so disrespectful to the other Doctors?? That point exemplifies exactly what’s wrong with it in my opinion.

Yes, the episode paid lip service to the 15 years of writing since RTD and Ten left and a little more lip service to the eras before.

Yes, the idea was that an entire regeneration cycle has ended and been given closure, hell I’m even willing to headcanon that this happens to the Timeless Child after every cycle as a way to cleanse the trauma or something idk. I don’t care about the bigeneration, it literally means nothing to me as a concept.

But.

He chose Ten’s face; he explicitly chose the face of one particular Doctor (the Doctor HE WROTE and gave the least graceful regeneration) rather than just giving this storyline to the current Doctor as a way to pass the torch and acknowledge the sheer amount of pain and growth the Doctor has been through. By specifically choosing to go back to the most marketable Doctor between two of the hardest to market Doctors (due to bigotry and the fear of change that HE CONTRIBUTED TO FIFTEEN YEARS AGO), RTD has implied that Ten deserved more time and more closure than any other Doctor.

He’s undercut Ncuti’s debut for some fanwank over his own literally dead creation. He’s disrespected everything that regeneration has come to represent. That is why I have a problem with it, not because it “breaks canon”. Fuck, I was even warming up to the Timeless Child idea because whatever, who cares, it is what it is.

Literally, if the 60th had followed the same storyline but with Jodie instead I would accept it. I might even love it. I still wouldn’t particularly feel the anniversary vibes but I have no problem with the episodes in theory, but the decision to make it Ten feels cowardly at best, almost malicious at worst. I don’t think it was actually malicious, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think RTD thinks ahead enough for that and I think he genuinely loves what he does. But intention and impact are very different things and RTD does not adequately consider the impact of his actions as a writer in my opinion.

I just. Y’all were down Moffat’s throat every time he seemed even slightly self congratulatory but this is what y’all allow? Arigh’ then

[butterflydm]

Minor WoT Odds & Ends, with some s3 speculation

None of this is really big enough for a post of its own, so I'm just posting a few thoughts

Another Rand & Egwene parallel this season just came to mind:

In 2x3, Logain demands wine before he'll teach Rand anything and Rand goes out of his way to get him the wine he asks for, only to have Logain pour it out and waste it, because it was never about the wine but about seeing what he could get Rand to do for him.

In 2x6, Renna demands that Egwene pour her a glass of water, and after Egwene breaks enough that she's able to do it without picturing herself hitting Renna with the pitcher, Renna pours out the water on the floor and wastes it, because it was never about the water but about what she could force Egwene to do.

And we have the purity of water (saidar) vs a pleasant intoxicant in wine, something that damages the body but makes the person who drinks it feel good (corrupted saidin).

...

Also, a note about Nynaeve not healing Rand in 2x8:

“Moiraine says Nynaeve must have done something, or you wouldn’t have lived till we carried you to Verin, but Nynaeve says she was too frightened to light a candle. There is . . . something wrong with your wound. You will have to wait for it to heal naturally.” (from The Great Hunt)

It's clear that the show was leaning on that part of Nynaeve's issue when she was in Falme, imo. Because her block needs to be a problem so that she has a very strong reason to want to break it.

...

re: Lan Investigating Moiraine's stilling issue, the Amrylin that Verin wanted to look up a passage about was Tetsuan, an Amyrlin from the Red Ajah and one who was stripped of her stole and stilled -- might have ended up being part of Lan's investigations into stilling, since he did note Tower records, and it seems like the journey he went on was:

2x1: Tifan's Well (in Arafel) with Moiraine, Verin, Adealas, & Tomas

2x2: Traveling south with Moiraine & co, and then handed off to Alanna & co

2x3-2x4: hanging with Alanna, Ihvon, & Maksim at her family's place, which is in Arafel but sounds closer to Tar Valon

2x5: confrontation with Alanna & her Warders on the road to Tar Valon

2x6: meeting up with Siuan on the road; at first I assumed that they went back to the White Tower before going to Cairhien but Liandrin states in this episode that they were 'called' to Cairhien to meet up with Siuan, which implies to me that Siuan and Lan DIDN'T go back to the Tower first

Which makes me think about Verin, doing investigations in the Tower about the Black Ajah, sure, but she was also investigating at least one person in history who had been stilled. Did she sneak some Tower records to Lan? From 2x7, we know that he's the one who basically hooked Verin and Alanna both in on the plan (Alanna and her Warders are talking about how Lan has said that Verin can be trusted).

2x7: completes his investigation when he speaks with Logain & confirms the weave on Moiraine

...

And then there was an official Amazon press release back on the 15th, which did confirm that part of The Fires of Heaven will be covered in s3, which... I'm still leaning towards that being the doorway encounter. "[at NYCC] Judkins revealed that Season Three of The Wheel of Time will focus primarily on the storylines from Book Four, with elements of Book Five".

But Rand & Aviendha's romance also seems likely to be one of the elements from book 5 that's brought forward into s3 (if Lanfear is going to crack at the end of s3 over the idea of Rand loving someone else, then Rand/Avi would kinda need to be somewhat accelerated). If they still want to start Aviendha off as somewhat resentful/wary of Rand, they might tie it into the fact that he had Moiraine lie to everyone about him being dead (so she's offended on Perrin's behalf, essentially, instead of on Elayne's) and it takes him proving that he's going to do his duty to the Aiel people that makes her soften towards him.

I'm feeling pretty good about my early speculation of 3x3 being Rhuidean, because of the casting of Maigran being for director Thomas Knapper, who is filming/filmed 3x3 & 3x4, so it'll definitely be either 3 or 4. Rafe also talked about how Rand & Perrin are going to have 'focus' episodes in s3, like how Nynaeve had 2x3 and Egwene had 2x6.

My guess is that Mat would get that kind of focus episode in s4 (probably the formation of the Band of the Red Hand); and maybe Elayne would get one in s4 as well, which would have meant all six of our main younger cast would have gotten a big focus episode by the end of s4.

I do think/hope that it's very unlikely that we won't get s4, but I'm definitely hoping that we get all 8 seasons that Rafe wants. But I can see a path to finishing the show in s5 and still hitting all the main beats (won't go into details here for spoiler reasons! but they've set up a lot of the foreshadowing and puzzle pieces that they would need), as long as Rafe knows going into the final season that it's the last one.

The big wildcard for me right now is Rand/Elayne. Their introduction felt very much like a promise that their romance is 100% happening*, but they are also destined to have separated storylines for most of s3 (and if they follow the books, the entirety of s4 (!), though I feel like it would be very easy for them to let Elayne be part of Rand's storyline that season because her plotline in TFoH is literally just wandering the continent in a sidequest while Nynaeve tries to remember a word; it's a fun sidequest but 100% a sidequest).

So my most generous to Rand & Elayne's development outline for s3 would be:

episodes 1&2 are in Falme for Rand's group, and our team isn't going to Caemlyn at all (Caemlyn is reserved for introducing Elaida & co to the audience, in this case). Episode 1 would be Rand & Egwene's final breakup, and then episode 2 would be Elayne having sparks with Rand (and maybe also Aviendha?) but nothing solidly romantic happening. Just some ~vibes~.

episodes 3-6 feature them being separated into their own plotlines, with Elayne and Nynaeve staying behind on the west coast while everyone else goes east (through the Ways?). Rand and Aviendha grow closer together while Rand deals with his stalker ex-girlfriend (Lanfear) who keeps bringing him gifts (Asmodean).

episodes 7&8 has Elayne & Nynaeve rejoining Rand's group (which also would give Nynaeve & Lan more time together, which Daniel has implied that we'll get -- he said in that one s3 teaser interview that the show would be going further along in the relationship than the books had at this point and if that's the case, then a lot needs to happen in s3), in Tear or maybe in Cairhien. And that would be half the season of Elayne and Rand getting to be in the same place. If they get to spend half the season together, that does give considerable time for relationship growth, especially with that separation in the middle to give them time to miss each other.

If in Perrin's storyline in 3-6, we have a subplot about Bain, Chiad, & Gaul, then this could also be more subconscious priming of the audience towards not being weirded out if s3 ends with Elayne, Rand, and Aviendha all having some feelings for each other.

That being said, I do kinda lean towards the idea that s3 is gonna be Rand & Aviendha's season, and the show will make some plot adjustments so that Elayne will actually get to be in the same place as Rand in s4 and so s4 will be either Rand/Elayne or Aviendha/Rand/Elayne. And if we don't get any kind of reunion at the end of s3, then I'm guessing that would happen near the beginning of s4 instead.

(* Though Rafe talks about Rand and Elayne's first meeting in his collider interview:

"We really wanted to flag for the audience that this is a relationship to pay attention to. So having her heal him of this wound that can’t be healed is a way to cement right away for the audience, 'These two have a connection to each other, and I’m paying attention to what’s going on with the two of them.' The way he sees her, the way that she comes into the scene, it all hopefully is signaling to an audience that’s not familiar with the books that there’s something to really pay attention to there — because there is." (from https://collider[dot]com/wheel-of-time-season-2-finale-rafe-judkins-interview/)

Which kinda implies they're going to follow up on it sooner rather than later. But who knows!)

[cienie-isengardu]

MK1's Lin Kuei

I’m trying to figure out something about the current Mortal Kombat, so bear with me here for a moment. Since the MK1 (2023) dropped, there is no doubt that Netherrealm Studio decided to make Lin Kuei the bad guys again, and between Lin Kuei brothers, Bi-Han got the short straw. He is the cold bastard while Kuai Liang the loyal supporter of Liu Kang. Only Tomas arguably could be said to be treated even worse than Bi-Han, as Sub-Zero at least gets his chapter and some focus, while Smoke is sidelined to the point Liu Kang doesn’t even once acknowledge him through story mode.

However, what intrigues me the most about the new version of Lin Kuei is… do the NRS have a fixed idea about the clan's nature or is it a flexible thing, depending on the needs of the storyline? Granted, the expansion story mode is still not released, so I’m basing my wondering mainly on Cyrax Gameplay Trailer here and her criticism about Lin Kuei under Sub-Zero (and Sektor)’s leadership. Those charges included an unseen attack from distance (to Sektor) and attacking Shirai Ryu at Kuai Liang’s wedding (to Sub-Zero)[1]. Cyrax even mentioned that “there are rules”, presumably rules in combat.

Now, Cyrax has a valid reason to question those tactics yet I wonder why the current timeline/characters put so much pressure on honor in regard to Lin Kuei in the first place, when the MK1 itself heavily implied this clan was not made for “honorable fight”.

Let me explain.

Mortal Kombat 1 established that:

Lin Kuei is a centuries old clan and its members were raised in secret to defend Earthrealm.

Members of said clan did not take part in Mortal Kombat, the official and honorable fight one on one - 10 000 years old Kitana asking Bi-Han about the reason for that is the best “evidence” Lin Kuei were excluded from Liu Kang’s Champion, as we can assume she witnessed many tournaments to attest that.

At the same time, Outworld’s prominent figures seem to be fully aware of Lin Kuei’s reputation and its role in protecting Earthrealm. So logically, if Lin Kuei was excluded from Mortal Kombat, those characters needed to either personally face Lin Kuei in battle/fight or heard about their skills.

Lin Kuei took part in battles against vampires and apparently tangled with Kenshi’s ancestors, suggesting Lin Kuei took part in both the external and internal affairs of Earthrealm without revealing themselves for centuries. Presumably on Liu Kang’s orders.

The latest game also gives us insight into Lin Kuei by showing us their missions. The first one was regulated by Liu Kang to test his Champions, thus Bi-Han, Kuai Liang and Tomas were forced to hold back. The second however presented the Lin Kuei infiltrating enemy’s hideout and none of brothers were bothered by attacking from behind (done by Sub-Zero who eliminated one of guards)

nor with killing defeated opponent (as would happen with Shang Tsung if General Shao and his men did now show up in time).

And here is the core of my problem. Why is Cyrax - a Lin Kuei herself - so angry and/or resentful about things that Lin Kuei was doing even as the good guys? Or why is everyone so set on “honor” and “honorable rules” if Lin Kuei weren’t made for that type of battles but to do the dirty job for Liu Kang and Earthrealm’s sake for centuries? Of course Bi-Han is prone to sneak attacks because this is how he was raised - to strike an enemy when the least expected, not to knock on the door and challenge to an honorable one on one duel (and he personally likes testing his skills against powerful opponents). Even Kuai Liang, the "good Lin Kuei" said in intro dialogues that stealth is the only tactic he needs[2].

It sucks that Bi-Han attacked his brother at the wedding and both Kuai Liang and Cyrax have a right to be angry about that, yet from a logical point, this is exactly the best moment to attack. When Bi-Han and Kuai Liang infiltrated the fortress, they did not challenge the sorcerers to fight until they were all alone in the same room. Until that moment, Lin Kuei Grandmaster and his younger brother were both fine to stay in their hidden spot, awaiting the right moment to strike. Same with killing the enemy from behind (guard) or defenseless opponent (as would happen with Shang Tsung). Kuai Liang and Tomas did not blink an eye when Bi-Han eliminated the guard. Scorpion did not protest when Sub-Zero was about to decapitate the unconscious sorcerer - even though Liu Kang told Lin Kuei to capture the man[3].

My point is, Cyrax’s criticism about ambush & sneak attack tactics feels a bit off, considering this is what Lin Kuei were doing as the good guys, presumably for centuries and with full approval of Liu Kang. Now, NRS claiming this is unhonorable and evil makes me wonder is this intentional choice on NRS’s part to bring an interesting nuance to the relationship between Lin Kuei and Liu Kang, or is it just the studio’s oversight and ignorance of their own lore? Because to me it feels ridiculous to establish Lin Kuei first as ninja clan (black ops) and then call them dishonorable for the same thing that benefited Liu Kang/Earthrealm before.

Granted, once the expansion story mode will drop, the fandom will be the most focused on the emotional impact of the conflict between brothers. I do, however, hope the game will include the reason for the flexible “morality” to which Lin Kuei is held.

SIDENOTES:

[1] Cyrax's criticism about attacking Kuai Liang during his wedding may not be about the method itself but the following consequence - not gaining the respect Lin Kuei wanted. So, does Cyrax cares about the sneak attack or more about Lin Kuei's reputation here? (Bi-Han's answer how it is better to be feared than respected also raises a question about NRS' choice, as Sub-Zero was estabilished in first game as someone wanting the recognization for his clan.)

[2] The full mentioned intro dialogue:

Shang Tsung: I could teach you the secrets of shapeshifting. Scorpion: Stealth is the only tactic I need.

[3] Considering Lin Kuei situation during the mission, I assume this is less about Sub-Zero ignoring Fire Lord’s orders and more about him understanding that leaving the fortress with Shang Tsung on his back may not be possible. Thus if he can’t capture the man, he decided to eliminate him for good.

[newpathwrites]

Arms Wide Open - Chapter 4

The coldness in that familiar voice stopped you in your tracks as you rounded the corner of the cabin.

Dread and even a bit of mild rage seized your heart.  

Was it all an act?  How could you have misread the situation so badly?  The force had never led you so far astray…

Main Masterlist Series Masterlist

Summary: Your budding relationship is cut off at the pass.  Can you recover from this misunderstanding?

Notes: We’re about halfway through, and there will be some mild, very temporary angst and misunderstanding in line with the movie storyline that inspired this fic.  But guess what will come once they’ve moved past it?  The good stuff… 😁  Stay tuned.

RIP Carl Weathers.

Warnings: Angst, misunderstandings, mild implied threats.

Word count: 1.6k

Read on AO3

________________________________________

Din awoke with momentary confusion.  Why was he sprawled on the couch instead of comfortably laying in his bed?  This did not bode well for his sore back.

Oh, yes…

He couldn’t help a boyish smile as he recalled last evening’s events.  Spending half the night talking… falling asleep with your head on his shoulder… your touch… your patient understanding…

You.  

He almost didn’t dare to dream that this could be something.  He hadn’t felt like this since he was a boy with his first crush.  

But could he really have this?

Besides the nature of his work, of which you were aware, there was also the issue of the creed.  You had been curious about it, asking a lot of pointed questions, but appeared otherwise unbothered and not the slightest bit judgemental.  Ultimately, though, would you really be interested in a relationship with a man who could never show you his face?

You’d left at some point, but he tried not to read into it.  It was late morning already, and you likely had places to be.  It wasn’t like he didn’t know how to find you.  In fact, your own cabin was only a short walk away.  

Maybe he could pay you a visit later and thank you for dinner and a pleasant evening - perhaps ask when he might see you again…

His musings were cut short by a rap at the door.  Probably Karga making his morning rounds.

But to his disappointment and great annoyance, it was instead a former guild colleague - one with a decades-long chip on his shoulder, who blamed the Mandalorian for his own shortcomings.  The humanoid was generally harmless, in line with his less-than-stellar bounty hunting skills, but Din had always kept a wary distance - the man seemed to be a loose canon at times.

“Mando.”

Din didn’t even bother greeting him by name.  He just wanted him off this property before Grogu woke up.  “Why are you here?”

“Nice to see you, too,” the man responded sarcastically.  “I saw a woman doing the walk of shame from your cabin this morning and thought I’d come by to offer some wisdom.”

Din didn’t respond.  The impassive visor would do the talking for him.

The awkward silence enticed the man to keep speaking.

“Anyway, you know as well as I that men like us don’t get to keep nice things.  A lady like that is a weak spot, even for you.”  He shrugged, adding, “You wouldn’t want anything to happen to her…”

Within a fraction of a second, the visor was not an inch from the man’s face.

“Do you have a habit of harming innocent women?  Because that would be a problem for me,” Din stated coldly.

“No, no, Mando, I…” the man shook his head wildly, panicking thanks to his own stupidity.  He was still smart enough to know what the Mandalorian could do to him.

“She is innocent.  She is nobody.  You leave her alone, or you answer to me.  Understand?”

He nodded, too scared now to speak.

“Good.  Leave.”

Di’kut.

Din pushed the incident out of his mind as he woke Grogu and prepared for the day, thoughts again and again turning to you.  Gosh, you were really doing a number on him - and he was enjoying every second.

________________________________________

You were practically walking on air.  What a lovely feeling.  Whoever said romance was reserved for the young?  You might have thought so, too, had you not met Din yesterday.

He was so real and respectful and interesting.  He didn’t appear capable of leading you on, honest nearly to a fault, and it was him who slowed things down - wanting nothing more from you in this first rendezvous than a quiet evening of conversation.

And it was so refreshing.  Men pulling you in with pretty words and then leaving you high and dry once your clothes came off was the reason you’d given up some years ago on meeting people, getting by instead on romance novels and your own devices, resigned to a fate of perpetual solitude.

You did have one reservation, though.  And it wasn’t about his face - you honestly didn’t care about that.  But would his cultural and religious restrictions really allow him a relationship with an outsider?  That was something you’d need to seriously discuss if this went further.  

Maybe you were getting ahead of yourself here.

For now, it was best to focus on what you could control - a quick morning visit with a fresh pot of steaming caf and the promised reading material in tow and to perhaps set a date for another meeting.

“She is nobody…”

The coldness in that familiar voice stopped you in your tracks as you rounded the corner of the cabin.

Dread and even a bit of mild rage seized your heart.  

Was it all an act?  How could you have misread the situation so badly?  The force had never led you so far astray…

Maybe he was just like everyone else - playing the long game just to get you in his bed.

Without further thought, you turned on your heel and walked quickly back the way you came.  

Perhaps there was an explanation?  No - that was only wishful thinking.  You’d spare yourself the humiliation.

________________________________________

It was a hard pill to swallow, but it had become clear to Din after nearly a week of you turning the other direction each time you came into his line of sight.

You didn’t want to see him.

Was it the creed?  His work?  Did someone enlighten you about any of the many terrible things he had done in his past?

There was no way he had misread things between you quite so badly.  He wasn’t that oblivious.  And the mutual attraction had definitely been acknowledged, albeit not in so many words.

But he supposed he had no choice but to accept it.  It would be both disrespectful and rather creepy to continue any pursuit when you’d made your disdain so clear.

Fate would have other plans.

“You called for me, Greef?”  Din addressed his old friend as he stepped through the already open office door.

Greef was at that moment in a meeting with another party, but the man stood and welcomed Din in his typical booming manner, arms raised in the air ostentatiously.  “Mando!  You are just the man we need.  Do you think you could set up security for some greenhouses?  Here now, have you met our lovely plant doctor?”

He gestured to the human sitting across from him who swiveled their chair around.

________________________________________

“Flora…” Din addressed you in surprise.

“Mr. Djarin…” you returned cooly.  Kriff, you weren’t even using his name now.

Greef looked between you both quizzically.  “Do you two know each other?”

But his question was ignored.

“You left,” Din stated.  “And you’ve been avoiding me.”

You steeled yourself against the hurt manner in which he spoke - it was only part of the act.

“Why do you care?  I’m nobody.  And you’re a bounty hunter - you could have found me if you really wanted to…”

Din was silent for a moment.  Your entire demeanor was so angry - what had he done to foster such resentment?

“Well, I don’t use my skills to stalk women…”

Okay, he got you there.  But still, you owed this man nothing.  He was the one who deceived you.

Din turned toward Greef who was utterly confused at this point.  “I’ll take care of the greenhouses, if that’s what she still wants.  Send me the details later.”

Damn, this was awkward.

“Thanks,” you offered half-heartedly.  “I guess.”

He turned back toward you.  “Look, Flora… I won’t bother you again, but I don’t understand why you’re so angry with me.  Could we just talk?”

Well, kriffing damn it…  The hurt and confusion in his voice was breaking down your walls.  You didn’t want to trust him, but it sounded so genuine.

You sighed, resigned.  He would have this one chance to explain himself.  You were way too soft.  “Fine.  Meet me at the cafe in an hour.”

Din nodded gratefully and took his leave as you turned back around to face Karga.

“You’ve been holding out on me, doc,” he said, eyes twinkling with amusement.  “You got a little thing going with our resident Mandalorian?  It’s fitting, actually.  As soon as I met you I thought you two might get along.”

What did Greef think of you, then?

“I have no interest in cavorting with that womanizing liar,” you returned, voice stony.

But your simmering anger was cut off by Karga’s booming laugh.  “Womanizer??!!” he chuckled in delight.  “A word I never thought I’d hear associated with Din Djarin.  Oh, that’s hilarious!”

“I don’t understand…”

Karga calmed himself and grinned at you.  

“Flora… that man may have the emotional intelligence of a rock, but he is anything but a rake.  I reckon he’s got the worst case of blue balls in the entire parsec.”

He shook his head, smiling fondly as he continued.  “In the old days, when the other hunters would buy an hour with one of the workers, he’d head out directly on his next job.  And now that he’s settled, I’ve not seen him so much as socialize with another human being.  He’s refused my every offer to go to the twi’lek baths.  Even his few female colleagues are not ones to be interested in men if you know what I mean…”

Even as Greef poked fun at Din, he did so with great affection.  Apparently, he knew him well - and for a very long time.

“Oh,” you responded, a bit dumbstruck.  “Perhaps I’ve misjudged…”

“He’s a good man, Flora.  He’s protective to a fault, brutally honest… but he’s respectful and honorable.  I think you should give him another chance.”

In the short time you’d known Greef Karga, you’d come to greatly respect his opinion.  And so you gave in.  You hoped your impression would be proved wrong - because you’d really, really liked Din Djarin.

“Okay, okay.  I will.”

________________________________________

Next chapter

[dwellordream]

thoughts on HOTD, episode 6, season 2 (spoilers below)

Some people are not a fan of Aemond's acting in this episode but I think it's perfectly on point. Even the stupid anime villain voice. That's what he is. Aemond is three kids in a trenchcoat playacting at what he thinks power and intimidation. He's only genuinely frightening when he is at his most pathetic and ashamed, because that is what compels him to do depraved things- the thought of being mocked or pitied.

Aemond releases Alicent from the Small Council, IMO, not because he genuinely thinks her incompetent, but because, aside from his general misogyny, he sees his mother as a woman who pities him, and while he craves her affection, he can't stand being reduced to a sniveling little boy in her eyes again.

I truly DNGAF about the 'Aeriana Targaryen' shit. They had to show Rhaenyra actually trying to come up with a reasonable cover for why Rhaenyra would encourage others to try to claim dragons without her throwing the concept of Valyrian supremacy out the window. Yes, the writers could have just decided to randomly make, say, Viserra or Gael Targaryen have wed a Darklyn, but I'm not really bothered that they didn't. Rhaena the Black Bride's daughter Aeriana by Maegor. Sure.

The writers seem to be trying to walk a thin line between Alys manipulating Daemon for kicks by preying on his insecurities regarding who 'deserves' the Iron Throne in his family, but the suggestion that Viserys 'never sought the throne' is wild. He put himself forward as a contender for the Great Council! I genuinely can't tell if we're meant to believe Alys truly thinks Rhaenyra could be a better ruler than Aegon, or if this is all supposed to be taken as her playing mind games with Daemon sheerly out of spite.

The foreshadowing that Rhaena will claim Sheepstealer, rather than Nettles, seems pretty strong at this point. I get the writers' desire to have Rhaena claim a dragon in a more active and assertive manner than simply patiently waiting for an egg to hatch for her, especially since Morning in-canon was not at all capable of being flown to war during the Dance. However, I wish we could see both Rhaena and Nettles tame dragons here, rather than one Black female character (in a show that already has a problem with shoving its Black characters to the sidelines) simply taking over another's storyline. It is possible they will still include Nettles, and have her claim a different dragon instead, but I'm losing hope.

Gwayne is a snotty racist asshole, obviously, but I commend the show for displaying that he does genuinely love Alicent and Daeron, who he seems to view as akin to his own son. It's surprising that he specifically praises Daeron's kindness, and seems to view it as a strength of his nephew's, rather than a weakness. In the grand scheme of HoTD men, Gwayne is probably one of the better ones, at least in terms of how he treats his family.

I thought the smallfolk riot scene was well-done. Alicent and Helaena are clearly not the ones responsible for the food shortage- Alicent has been booted off the Small Council and Helaena has no real political power herself. Yet they- and most noblewomen in the series- will always be blamed more viciously than any of their husbands or sons for the suffering. It's also good to see the foreshadowing of a more ruthless side of Hugh- while he is motivated by love for his family, he will do anything in order to protect them, including stealing food from other starving peasants.

Seasmoke chasing Addam Velaryon down like an over-eager puppy was pretty entertaining. Whether or not this implies Laenor is actually dead, I have no idea.

It's interesting that they have Mysaria confide about her own incestual abuse- her clearly viewing her father as a predator who horribly violated her- compared to Rhaenyra, who while openly critical of Daemon's behavior as a husband, and who does acknowledge that Daemon took advantage of her as a teenager- doesn't seem to see him as a monster. I don't really feel any type of way about Rhaenyra/Mysaria- obviously I do think Rhaenyra is bisexual, given everything about her and Alicent- but I don't think Mysaria has been used that well as a character by the show, and I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be a one-off moment of passion, or if they will actually have her and Mysaria in an illicit relationship moving forward.

Overall, I think this was one of the weaker episodes this season. It felt like a lot of wheel spinning because the writers were unsure of how to build up to the end of the season. Probably a 6.5 out of 10 for me.

[thestobingirlie]

i read this post that said robin was written to show steve wasn't homophobic anymore but "that doesn’t mean I’m just going to forget how he implied that Will deserved to die because he’s gay, so what now? Steve is growing and changing but that doesn’t just take away everything he’s said, especially since he has yet to apologize to Jonathan. There’s a reason why Will and Steve have zero scenes together!" like it makes no sense firstly bc robin wasn't even originally written as a lesbian so that just doesn't line up. then steve also never said will deserved to die bc he's gay; he never actually said anything about will's sexuality, his comment about will is about the byers family being full of "screw-ups" which steve actually classified as separate from gay ppl at the start of his mini monologue lol (by saying he thought jonathan was queer but he's actually a screw up like his dad). sometimes i think certain ppl have never actually watched that scene bc they just use it as a Steve Said Bad Things free space where they get to invent what he said. he did apologize to jonathan, it was literally the only reason he was at the byers' house, but it was interrupted which led to steve both saving jonathan's life and buying him a new camera. the thing about will and steve not having scenes together is baffling to me. their storylines just never intersected like s1 will is gone, s2 will is possessed while steve is helping junkyard trio, s3 steve is held captive in an underground russian bunker, and s4 will is literally in a different state on the other side of the country.

yeah, i saw that post lmao, real fucking stupid. it’s just so funny to me that these people accuse us of reducing robin to just being steve’s friend, and then can’t see past her sexuality in regards to her character? they’re the ones making robin just a lesbian bff, not us.

and saying that steve hasn’t had an impact on her character?? rewatch the show! steve’s the reason that robin feels comfortable in who she is, that she rambles and jokes around instead of fronting her stony facade from s3. i honestly think these people only care about robin in regards to a certain character they ship her with. because they seem to know nothing about her.

thank you!!! he never implies will is gay. at all. why would steve know or care about the sexuality of some random 12 year old?

and, 100%, people take that scene and mold it into anything they want just to rag on steve, and it’s super telling, because they’re constantly getting it wrong. some people decided that steve called jonathan a fag, which is the most annoying to me, because at least get the slur right lmao.

steve fucked up, absolutely. but he did apologise, and he did save their lives, and virtually sacrifice his own when he decided to run back into that house. had steve not done that, jonathan and nancy would be dead. just a fact.

and the will and steve sharing scenes thing is especially funny to me, because they’re just part of different plots. they have shared scenes, and will clearly has no problem using steve to get free movies like the rest of the kids, so there’s no animosity there.

[highladyluck]

Season 2, Episode 8 Post-blog:

So I did not liveblog this episode since I had friends over to do a watch party, but here's everything I remembered that I wanted to talk about!

As far as I can tell, the two Seanchan sul'dam that got collared are not going to be found with the collar on them. (Not sure if Renna is dead or if Egwene chose to uncollar her, but either way she's not chained up in a basement with the collar on waiting to be discovered by her peers.) I was thinking at first that this had major implications for the rest of the Seanchan storyline. But really, it only has implications for Suroth, since in the books Suroth (and Alwhin, who is already her Voice in the show) sit on the information until Egeanin discovers it separately. Egeanin can still be the first Seanchan to know and do anything about it. I do think this lack of a dangling thread, Suroth's ship being blown up, and the way it's hard to get actors to come back seasons later make it more likely we've seen the last of Suroth. I would be happy to eat my words, though! Also, Egwene, Nyneave, and Elayne all know you can collar a sul'dam, and possibly Mat, Rand, and Perrin will soon as well if anyone remembers to communicate this information, so any one of them could spill the beans.

Major props to whoever hypothesized that Uno would be a Hero of the Horn; not sure if he's implied to be Gaidal Cain or not (possibly not? there was a blink-and-I-missed it moment of PDA between Birgitte and somebody but I am not sure if it was Uno or not).

I did not anticipate Mat making an ashandarai out of household objects and the dagger and I am EXTREMELY PROUD of him. Also proud of him for escaping traps! My boy is really coming into his own! I also really appreciate the classic blunder of doing the same thing to Mat again but worse- the Dark does not understand that my boy thrives when you do that. He solves his problems by escalating them in intensity or magnitude. You can only put him in a room with drugs once, if you put him in a room with drugs again he will use them in an unconventional manner to escape and also destroy his enemies.

Also props to whoever guessed that the Horn would trigger memories for Mat- I'm intrigued by where they are going with this. I hope it's not precluding the Aelfinn and Eelfinn, but given all the hanging foreshadowing, the makeshift ashandarai, and Lanfear yeeting Moiraine out of the waygate doorway, I don't really think they'd cut the Eelfinn. It's the Aelfinn that seem slightly less like a sure thing, and I'm going to be a little on edge until Mat gets the DotNM prophecy somehow. I don't think they'd cut the problematic fave; it's a juicy part, idk what Mat would even do if he weren't babysitting the Seanchan in the later plot, and they've been doing great with the 'you're wrong but I see where you're coming from' characters. But they've either cut or significantly changed the Moiraine/Thom relationship in the show, and the two relationships are kind of linked in my head for thematic reasons. I'm probably overthinking it though.

HOPPER T_T

Dain looked like a boy band member who fell off the stage and got trampled in the mosh pit.

Loved that Egwene got to face off against Ishamael! Loved Egwene all the time forever actually. I was also entertained that Egwene had like one semester of Magic College and used it to school the Seanchan on linking mechanics. She's right that the sul'dam don't know how to link properly and are weak little babies when it comes to channeling, and she should say it.

Nyneave and Elayne were great, as usual- very impressed with Elayne, who is finally living all her Battle Queen fantasies and is being very brave about how much they suck, actually. Nyneave is in for some self-loathing next season though, I'm afraid. I love that Rand and Elayne still get to have a meet-cute when she's treating his wounds. :P

I was very happy for Tumblr User Moghedien that we got to see Forsaken Moghedien. She's offputting and very gay, just like I imagined!

[spicyrottingbrains]

Technically, without Tommy, Buck would not be bisexual. Let me explain, Tim, the current showrunner, wanted Buck and Natalia to continue this season, but the actress who played them wasn't available. And Lucy was supposed to be the one who flew 118 to rescue the cruise ship, but the actress who played her got her pilot picked up by Fox. So Tim got Lou, who played Tommy, to come back instead and remember Tommy is gay and went with a bisexual storyline for Buck.

Sorry if there any grammar error.

I think i get what you mean anon and that's what I'm saying as well. The way I'm understanding your response is you're talking storyline wise how tommy was brought in which helped facilitate the bi buck storyline. Tommy helped buck discover he was bisexual. He didn't make buck bisexual. My posts was directed at the influx of ppl trying to push the agenda that he made buck bi and that he is the one sole reason buck's bi and so on. My problem is the fact that they keep treating it as if buck wasn't bisexual this whole time. He has been bi, is bi and will always be bi regardless of who he does or doesn't date. And I repeat tommy helped buck in his discovery but Buck isn't bi BECAUSE of tommy. You get me???

And also of it wasn't tommy then they wouldve had someone else help buck discover he was bi since there goal was to explicitly have buck discover he's bi. Couldve been eddie, could've been a new dude they wrote into the story or it could even have been buck just realizing one day or through a series of events that had nothing to do with him kissing a dude. If they wanted to write buck as canonicaly bi so that there was no other possible intrpretation instead of the multiple throwaway comments and implied subtext we've had so far then they could've done that with or without tommy. So it's not BECAUSE of tommy it just happened to be him and the way ppl are making it seem like he's the only reason makes it sound very weird to me.

And also this isn't about Lou or any actor for that matter. I generally don't like associating actors to the story universe too much especially when analyzing. And I tend to stay away from the actors as a rule. I am talking about the characters and them alone. It's based solely on the 911 universe and nothing outside of it.

[dearweirdme]

https://www.tumblr.com/dearweirdme/764430002909577216/httpswwwtumblrcomdearweirdme7644038966166814?source=share

of all the dynamics that op could find issue with within the group, this one of kinda wild to me because there's literally so much they've both said and done to prove the opposite. You're not even picking one with a blank field to play on😄

Like I do think that the groups success is primarily down to how well they vibe with each other but they're also as close as family at this point so there's going to be times when shit gets rocky and they've been fairly open in admitting that but there's a reason why nobody really looks at vmon side eye down 💀💀💀 besides maybe JK and Jin, Monnie and Tae are probably the most big bro/lil bro outta that group (for better and worse)

If op wants to believe that Namjoon and Tae are just selling a narrative that's their sad interpretation---and they can try to put all the blame for that on tae all they like but in implying a false narrative they're making rm complicit in pushing it too since he's made his fondness too obvious to let him slide if people wanna get all accusatory about storylines and narratives---so if all the praise, admiration, fond looks and general implications that they actually do like and admire each other is just a story being sold then why is taehyung the only one getting all the smoke from op? 🤨

Y'all end up showing your asses, O.P

😏 I see you haters trying to be slick and more creative since using ships to shit on tae gets your ass chewed up and out and shown the door but y'all are never as clever as you think you are. Hatin' ass. Everytime you comment YOUR 'narrative' gets clearer.

There's a reason why you only seem to have a problem with one half of this [apparently] 'Greatest Story Ever Sold' even while, the way you frame it, BOTH of them would have been shovelling shit and lies at us for the duration of their friendship.

But you wanna know what shows your hatin ass straight off the bat? The fact that despite seeming to have a problem with taekook and seeming to have a problem with taehyung, your sad lil ass managed to find THIS tumblr outta all of them for you to share your bullshit on because y'all somehow seem to 'accidentally' get lost on your way to places where you'll find content about ppl you actually like and stuff you'll actually enjoy. Funny how that happens with so many of y'all in the asks box, isn't it? 🤔 So if you got a problem with Tae and a problem with Taekook then please explain to us all what brought your ass here in the first place, op?🙂

There's literally ppl here parodying your old hatin asses but y'all still never get a clue 💀

I hear cross-stitch is a relaxing hobby for a bitter individual, op 🙂

Hi anon!

😂… I kinda doubt that other anon’s need for drama will be met by cross stitching.

There’s people, especially these days, that go with the ‘it’s all fake’, ‘they’re not real friends’ idea. I don’t believe that. I’m a good judge of people in general, and though there’s obviously a part that’s either exaggerated or edited or even rehearsed and fake, I still believe that all members are actually close. I believe the way they play off each other is real. You can’t fake friendships as consistently as they have for more than ten years imo. I also think their reactions to each other aren’t studied and often come without the hesitation faking it would bring.

I’ve been blogging long enough to catch the Tae haters by now. Anon can talk all they want about my response having been unfair, it’s their own words that showed where they came from.

[thestrangestthing89]

I like that the main couples have followed a similar trajectory.

Jopper works well together from the beginning and they have some conflict in the middle. In S2 it was that Joyce was dating Bob and Hopper is clearly jealous. In S3 they aren't on the same page because Hopper is ready to have a normal life and Joyce is grieving. But they are on the same page now at the end of S4 and together. It's implied they will be working together again like they were in the earlier seasons while being a couple. It also seems to be a foregone conclusion that they will be a family and raise their kids together.

Lumax works well together once Lucas tells Max what's been going on in Hawkins with the lab in S2. They have some conflict in S3 with juvenile breakups. They are broken up in season 4 for more serious reasons - because Max is depressed and isolated herself. But they are now on the same page again and it seems like they will be working well together again once Max is awake.

Jancy always worked well together for the the first two seasons. They have some minor conflict in S2 similar to Jopper - Nancy is with Steve and Jonathan doesn't like it. But they are a couple by the end of the season. They have some conflict in S3 and S4 where they aren't on the same page. In S3 it's because they aren't understanding each others perspectives about how to handle their hostile workplace. In S4 it's because Jonathan is holding back about why he didn't apply to college. But the college thing isn't solely about Nancy, it's about him feeling obligated to his family. And Jonathan and Nancy have always worked well together so them working through this too makes sense. I think it's possible they may breakup for a bit and go to separate colleges but I think they will still talk to each other about their families and Hawkins during this time. Once the drama starts building up at the end of the season it makes sense that they would work well together again like always. Continuing to follow the same trajectory as the other couples.

Byler is separated in the beginning because of Will's disappearance but Mike's entire storyline revolves around him and it's clear he cares about Will. They work well together throughout S2. There is conflict in S3 and Will calls Mike out for not acting like himself. In S4 Mike acknowledges Will was right and they spend the whole season problem solving their situation about how to get back to El and Hawkins together. It seems very likely that with the drama early on in the season that they will be working well together again since they always do. It makes sense that Mike would be protective of Will again since we have seen this established in S1 and S2. And also a bit in S3 - Mike notices something is wrong with Will at the movie theater and by the end of the season when they know something is wrong Mike listens to Will and helps to create a plan.

So the endgame couples follow a pattern. Work as a team -> conflict -> reunite/resolve conflict -> work as a team.

Then there is Mileven and Stancy.

Mileven meets and fights a lot through S1. They are also separated twice through the season - once when Mike leaves her on the side of the road when Will's fake body is found, and once when El runs off after she hurts Lucas and Mike yells at her. They also end up separated at the end of S1 and only reunite at the end of S2. They don't work well together in S1. There is a lot of fighting and their teamwork isn't as a couple (they aren't a couple at this point, but they also aren't a duo). It involves Lucas and Dustin too. They don't interact much in season one and even though El comes back at the end to help, it's not her and Mike teaming up to save Will. They both help Will separately. In fact, Mike is supposed to wait at the Byers house while El goes off to close the gate. But Mike goes off to help Will in a way that he saw earlier in the season - he knows the fire in the tunnels will help draw out the MF from Will because he watched it happen. It had nothing to do with something El told him. They didn't discuss this. S3 we see more conflict. They are together in the beginning and it causes conflict with the rest of the group - their friends and Hopper are not happy about this relationship. They breakup and are apart for a lot of the season. When they reunite to problem solve it's again, not as a duo but with the whole group. They are sort of a couple at the end? I guess. El decides they are back together so... In S4 we see more conflict. Their relationship isn't doing great. They breakup again (yes, the From El letter was her dumping his ass) and she runs off back to the lab. They are separated most of the season while Mike spends his season working as A TEAM (a thing that was stated directly) with Will. They reunite and still aren't discussing their problems but aren't even speaking at the end of the season.

They aren't following the pattern.

Stancy doesn't either. They are together in S1 but it's clear Nancy has reservations about it. They aren't on the same page. It results in her neglecting Barb and Barb disappearing. Steve doesn't care about this which results in Nancy finding someone who does - Jonathan. Steve and Nancy are a couple at the end of the season but it feels forced and random considering everything that happened this season. They are together in S2 but are still having problems and breakup (yes, the alley conversation was a breakup). Nancy spends all season with Jonathan and her and Steve are officially over at the end. They don't interact one-on-one in S3 and the teamwork here has to do with the whole group.

S4 has them working together, but again it's with the whole group. Nancy and Steve don't exactly work well together. Nancy holds back from him at first about her suspicious about the Creels because he's dismissed her before. Nancy works better with Robin and pairs herself off with her a couple times. When the group comes up with the plan at the end it's a bad plan. Max dies, the town is destroyed and multiple people die, Vecna isn't killed. They aren't a great team.

They don't followed the pattern either.

Mike/El and Nancy/Steve don't ever work one-on-one together the way the other couples do. Jopper, Jancy, Lumax, and Byler are always paired off together. Even though we haven't seen Lumax and Byler alone exactly, this is more because of their ages. They still manage to have moments where they are clearly communicating and working together though. In S2, Byler had their crazy together conversation and Mike is able to find a way to help Will with his possession because he listened to Will. So he's able to communicate to Joyce and Hopper what's wrong and help him. Lucas talks to Max about her depression and helps come up with a plan to help her with Kate Bush.

Both Byler and Lumax have scenes where they are talking through their problems. Since they are older now, I think we may see scenes next season where they are off together without a group around. I think Mike is tied into the story with Henry and he will be helping Will like he always has since the start of the series. And Lucas is very supportive and protective of Max and will want to keep helping her through everything. It makes sense narratively for Mike to be with Will next season and for Lucas to be with Max.

But I cannot think of any reason why Mike would need to suddenly out of nowhere learn to work as a team with El. Are they supposed to magically learn to communicate overnight? Will they suddenly be on the same page, again out of nowhere? They have never been a team. They have always worked separately and this benefits the group. They don't support each other the way they need to be supported.

Same with Steve and Nancy. They get people killed whenever they are together because they aren't on the same page. Mike and El killed Max too, in the same way Steve and Nancy killed Barb. Nancy and Mike weren't being honest and it resulted in the loss of a friend. Steve was not ok with the plan at the end of the season and tried to stop it at first. He gave in pretty quickly. He doesn't challenge her when she is wrong and he dismisses her feelings often (with regard to Barb and when she is upset about the Vecna vision). They are not a team and never have been.

Mileven and Stancy don't follow any clear path. They are a mess. Whereas all the other couples have a trajectory that from a writing standpoint, makes a lot of sense. You can understand the formula they are following and it doesn't feel like it's a roller coaster ride that is all over the place. Which is why I'm always exhausted by both of those relationships. The constant back and forth and breaking up and getting back together and endless conflict is so tiring to watch. If they wanted them to be endgame they would have written them to be a team. But instead they stress how they don't work as a team. And it stands out in comparison to the couples that do work well together.

[quibbs126]

I feel like the more we see the Ancients and Dark Enchantress Cookie, the more the prologue doesn’t make sense

Like, from what the prologue tells us, the Five Heroes fought against Dark Enchantress Cookie, then Dark Enchantress takes the five Soul Jams and they’re shattered, and in the wake of her and Pure Vanilla’s spell clashing, the five heroes, Dark Enchantress Cookie, and the Vanilla Kingdom all disappear (also the rest of their kingdoms are supposed to essentially crumble over time, but that’s less important)

And the game seems to go for the most part with this up until the reveal of Dark Enchantress Cookie’s true identity as White Lily Cookie. But honestly, I think that’s fine. Honestly I think it does work with what the prologue shows of her. Yes there’s now the confusion of why there’s essentially two White Lilies, but there’s also been evidence to show that there’s more to this story that we don’t know, and that there will be an explanation. Everything else however seems to be as we were told

In Pure Vanilla’s storyline, things seem to still line up. Now that Dark Enchantress Cookie has been freed, so have Pure Vanilla Cookie and the Vanilla Kingdom, and while we don’t see it, you could assume so have the others, but perhaps they were just scattered to other corders of Earthbread, hence why we don’t see them. Nothing contradicts that they disappeared too. Pomegranate also mentions how the Soul Jams are in shattered pieces across Earthbread, which we also know from the prologue. She also says that the spell going wrong between him and DE cursed the other Ancients, and yes, he calls it lies initially, the following dialogue implies that it’s true and that he was just telling himself that he didn’t

There is the question of how he suddenly has his whole Soul Jam back, but that’s like the only major contradiction, and it’s not one that’s really touched on. But overall things generally hold up

It’s at Hollyberry’s story that things start to get confusing. Now it does still use the “Soul Jam is shattered” thing (and is frankly the only one to keep that fact, aside from at the end where the Soul Jam suddenly becomes whole again but shush), with her shield’s pieces having been reconstructed over the years, but it’s the other things that start to contradict. For starters, Hollyberry didn’t seem to disappear as a result of the Dark Flour War, rather her disappearance seems to be that she left of her own accord, presumably sometime after the Dark Flour War, implying that she did not disappear. Also her memory problems aren’t like Pure Vanilla’s, since she seems to remember who she is, at least to some degree (I feel like it was very selective what she did and didn’t know, and the whole thing confuses me), but I suppose that doesn’t really matter as Pure Vanilla’s amnesia may just have been some sort of trauma defense thing, and thus just personal to him. I mean, Dark Enchantress remembers who she is

…I felt like I had more contradictions for her, but now I feel like the only major one here is that it’s implied that she didn’t disappear, but she stayed and went back to her kingdom

Oh wait, there’s also the fact that the Hollyberry Kingdom is fine and prospering, other than the whole dragon thing but no one seems too bothered by that. The whole idea that the world is suffering without the Ancients, specifically their own kingdoms, or that they were ever absent, just doesn’t feel like it’s there

But now let’s move on to Dark Cacao’s storyline, which I feel has the most contradictions

Hollyberry’s story feels a bit ambiguous whether the Ancients disappeared, but in Dark Cacao’s it outright says no they did not. Dark Cacao has been here and nothing implies he ever left, at least not for a significant period of time. Also, he has his whole Soul Jam, and again, nothing implies that he lost that or had to reconstruct it. He’s just had it the whole time. Both of these directly contradict the prologue

And while yes, his kingdom is suffering, and it’s partially because he lost his way, it wasn’t because of the Dark Flour War, rather this seems to have been a much more recent development with Affogato Cookie and particularly Dark Choco’s betrayal and exile. While some evidence may suggest things got worse for them after the Dark Flour War (in Dark Choco’s memories, his younger self seems to imply that the kingdom is isolating itself and is worse off for it), but things didn’t reach that breaking point until after Dark Choco’s banishment

Maybe that’s why the Dark Cacao storyline feels weird to me, because the conflict didn’t start because of things that happened in the Dark Flour War, nor does that seem to have had much effect on Dark Cacao or the kingdom, but rather it was because of something entirely separate

But yeah, going back to how things are presented to us now, the Ancients, other than Pure Vanilla alongside Dark Enchantress Cookie, never disappeared, their Soul Jams might have remained whole and with the heroes, and all the kingdoms seem to be doing fine (Dark Cacao’s not so much, but that’s due to external forces). So basically, pretty much all the points we see in the prologue don’t add up

Honestly at some point I start to feel like what happened in the prologue didn’t actually happen and rather that was just a fabricated story, and that we end up seeing what really happened

[clamsjams]

If you’re chill with people in your ask box sharing theories /if not you can ignore this ^^/. My personal theory about Maximus is that he’s not secretly working for the federation or anything, the federation just needed him to either 1: cause unrest and distrust among the order group since he was one of the forming members of it 2: they needed to test a small experiment with him, 3 he could’ve also became a sleeper agent but I doubt it.

I don’t think the code attacks people who are with the federation, I think it attacks people because the federation needs them for something or to take them in private, making the code seem worse and more threatening to the residents just helps the cause since it takes the heat off the federation a little bit.

dude i’m chill with people in my ask box just to say hi or something pls pls pls talk to me i am normal i swear i am not foaming at the mouth i can talk to ppl

anyways yeah i absolutely agree with ur first thing, bc of how trumps death affected max and the way he’s been so so focused on finding answers, founding the ordo theoritas, and basically constantly trying to figure out the federation, there’s basically no way he would ever be a part of the federation willingly imo. unlike fit, who seemed to stay more neutral, which makes sense if he was planning on being a traitor for a different organization, and he had to have been planning that for a while, if not since the start, which makes his neutrality seem like a planned move.

however, max is extremely paranoid and gets tunnel vision when it comes to the federation, which makes it extremely easy to manipulate him if u know what ur doing. and look, i hate to have to take the ass camera seriously, especially bc the ass camera thing was like improv that they came up with on the spot, so if you’ll excuse me for being meta for a sec, there’s no way the people who put together the story could’ve planned for that or factored it into the lore. BUT hehe butt implanting some kind of monitoring device into someone does seem like a classic federation move, even though i think it’s main goal was to gather info, and the sowing of dissent was kind of a secondary bonus

and as for the code thing, that’s def an interesting point. i like the idea that the code is a red herring, something planted by the federation to serve its goals. and i think that would be interesting if the codes real goal is to give the players an enemy to unite against, to make them feel like theyre doing something and to take the heat off of the federation for a sec. bc most players seem to agree that between the feds and the code, the feds are the lower priority threat, the lesser of two evils. bc the feds don’t resort to violence as much as the code, and their agents can be reasoned with, in a way, even tho that reasoning and logic seems pretty warped to anyone with a functioning understanding of how emotions work. the code, on the other hand, just shows up, attacks, and leaves, there’s no way to talk to them or try to negotiate, bc you’ll just get killed if you try. so yeah def a possibility

but that’s the thing about the codes. when u theorize u go off of the info that u can gain from the source material, things that are explicitly stated, things that are implied, and things that u can extrapolate based on the data u have and logical thinking. the problem with codes is that they’ve given me basically nothing to work with. all i know is that they attack without mercy, they have some form of admin powers, allowing them to fly and summon mobs, they target the eggs for some reason, and the federation won’t admit they exist. that’s basically it. which means that all of my thoughts on them is just baseless speculation. when i theorize about them, it’s mostly just me speculating on a direction i think the code storyline could possibly go in and how it might affect the storyline, but i have nothing to back that up.

anyways that was basically a long winded way to say, i don’t fuckin know what’s going on with the codes at all but it’s a fun thing to think about and i think ur idea is def plausible and would have interesting implications