#so I want a good s5 one that I can hang up instead LOL

[reikunrei]

I really hope the group poster for s5 is good. s1 is a classic, but I’ve always been really indifferent to s2 and s3. I do really like the s4 one tho! it’s well balanced and nice to look at

[kmze]

So idk if I quite remembered just how close steroline's mouths got in 4x19 during the prom dance after Caroline tells Stefan he'll fall in love again... but I saw a gifset and it's making me need to rant about how I think Stefan fell harder way before he allowed himself to!

We know this 4x19 moment in particular meant enough to him that he wrote about it in his wedding vows, right? And at this point it’s quickly becoming canonically undeniable that Stefan’s feelings for Caroline aren't *completely* platonic— just a few episodes prior in 4x16, Stefan made it glaringly obvious that he was sexually attracted to her when he chose her as the “single hot girl” to dance with. (Something that could have been platonic if it weren't for Elena herself pointing out that it very much didn't look that way)

And of course he's not going to want to admit it. She's in love with Tyler still and even if she wasn't, she still has Klaus trying to win her affections. He's respectful of her relationship just like she was of his and Elena's.

But... I think some of that is also because he is just as insecure as Caroline is, if not more. 

I'm sure that Stefan figures Caroline’s old high school girl crush is long gone— they wouldn’t have been such good friends when he was still dating and in love with Elena if he didn’t. He has seen guy after guy fall for her (Tyler broke every bone in his body repeatedly for her!) and I think to some extent that must scare him.

The previous girls— I’m excluding Rebekah because he was in his Ripper state then and it wasn’t a long relationship— he has dated have both been equally desirable which ended up becoming an issue when they fell for the other guys wanting them. I think that Stefan is just as insecure as Caroline about never being the one that people choose in the end. Katherine was in love with Elijah and often just using him. Elena ended up choosing Damon. What if Caroline decided to still choose Tyler or instead choose Klaus in the end?

He's seen how compassionate Caroline can be to almost everyone, so it would make sense if he brushes off her obvious affection for him as typical Caroline bubbliness.... but just for *one tiny second* while they're dancing, you can see him almost crack and consider it.

So yeah I always felt like Stefan's "more than friendship" feelings started in S4 whereas Caroline's didn't realize S5 it's just that Caroline accepted hers more willingly because she had that crush on him when they first met. I mean the biggest proof we have that Stefan's feelings came about in S4 is that Lexi friggin' pointed it out! Lexi his best friend for over 100 years who knew him better than anyone knew right away he did not look at Caroline the way he looked at her, she knew there was something growing there and she only knew it from Stefan's perspective. I think Lexi saw that moment at prom, she saw how he almost leaned in and kissed her and she saw that breath he let out after she told him he's fall in love again thinking in that moment maybe she meant him.

I find it kind of funny that people don't think Stefan had any insecurity when it came to Caroline lol, because when he found out she had a think for him his first reaction was literally "why" LMFAO. He was completely shocked, like me, why would you like me? He's seen all these guys throwing themselves at her, he's seen she's got Klaus wrapped around her finger, he sees Tyler still hanging around, he sees Enzo calling her gorgeous and taking road trips with her, why would he think she saw him as anything but her friend. I think it's why he was so hellbent on everything being perfect with Caroline, he had so much insecurity she'd find happiness with someone else or just like Elena and Katherine he wouldn't be enough for her "hero never gets the girl."

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

when do you think theyll make hawkdemetri canon; in s4 or later (assuming it goes to 6 seasons)? i think the romantic aspects of their relationship will be empathized more clearly in s4 (hawk's jealousy of yasmime, their deep understanding and love for each other, etc) but they won't officially get together until the fifth season, leaving the last one to explore them figuring out how to go public and all that. or or i was thinking they do get together in s4 but due to the cobras threatening demetri or smth like that, they break up shortly after and don't get back together until the s5 or 6 finale. i feel like i'm being bold bc nothings set in stone but w what jon and hayden liked/rted im just ahhh!! so excited!!

Oh man, are we actually doing this now??? Are we actually discussing when Hawkmetri would hypothetically go canon???

EH, FUCK IT

IF SHE-RA WENT THROUGH WITH IT MAYBE IT ISN’T A MERE GAY KARATE PIPE DREAM

I personally see them making Hawk/Demetri an endgame pairing, so they wouldn’t officially get together until close to the end of the series--maybe even IN the series finale (which, as I believe I mentioned in one of my other posts, I would strongly prefer to be the kids’ senior prom, where a giant karate fight breaks out and everyone has to battle in tuxes and dresses because it would be HILARIOUSLY AWESOME). I think they might do it like She-Ra did Catradora, where they don’t confess their love and get together until the last (or close to the last) episode (Ah, She-Ra spoilers, I guess...but anyone who doesn’t know by now that Catra and Adora end up together has been living under a rock XD) but there’s LOTS of ship tease prior and maybe even a stolen kiss/hand-hold or two leading up to that moment. Either way, if they decide to go the Hawkmetri route, it definitely has Endgame Ship vibes to me, which means...good news is, we’re gonna win this bitch, and bad news is, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Hawkmetri proper anytime soon, especially if the show goes on for 6+ seasons D: But hey, we sure as hell have something to look forward to, if our hope isn’t totally misplaced!

I think most likely Demetri and Yasmine will date throughout Season 4, and I can see the writers using this to give Hawk a “green-eyed epiphany” of sorts, where he realizes he’s jealous of Yasmine in slightly more than a you’re-hanging-out-with-my-best-friend-more-than-me kind of way, and he’s just like “...oh fuck, am I gay? Shit shit SHIT” and cue Big Boi Angst! Probably by Season 5 Dem and Yaz will be broken up (because ain’t no one telling me a relationship founded on wedgies lasts more than one goddamn season), and that’s when we’ll start getting a lot more ship tease with Demetri and Hawk--subtle touches, a bit of hand-holding (but, of course, they’d find a way to do it in contexts where they can get away with it lol), “friendship teasing” that’s basically flirting, longing gazes when the other isn’t looking, getting a little TOO contact-happy when they spar--that kinda deal. Maybe at the end of Season 5, they’ll share a kiss, but they won’t want to address it or it’ll come with some complication. Like they’re both drunk, or maybe one kisses the other and then doesn’t want to talk about it afterwards because they’re too embarrassed, etc etc. And they’re both trying to figure out if everyone’s even going to be cool with them being gay anyways.

Season 6 I see as being more or less the same thing, with lots of ship tease and mutual pining and such, but it’s a bit more intense now and kinda complicated by the fact that they’re more directly aware of their affection for each other being romantic and they’re both trying to come to terms with the fact that they’re definitely probably not straight. They’re also slowly realizing they’re full-on in love with each other too, and they’re both trying to work up the courage to just ask the other to be with them. And then at the end of the season they finally do it, and then go to Karate Prom together!!! The madlads!!!

GRANTED, I’m REALLY trying not to get my own hopes up about all this, BUT the fact that one of the show creators liked someone’s tweet asking if Hawk and Demetri were gonna be the LGBT rep and another creator straight-up RETWEETING Hawk x Demetri fanart is...admittedly very promising!!! I’m really really hoping beyond hope that this ship happens!!! But Korrasami happened, Catradora happened...so anything is possible!!! It’s certainly easier to make a gay ship with semi-major characters canon than it used to be. I just hope the homophobic side of the Cobra Kai fanbase doesn’t mess this up for us by bitching about “PC” LGBT representation to the showrunners or something :/ Man...it’s honestly kind of alarming to see the amount of people who seem against shipping Hawk and Demetri solely because...they’re both guys??? Like people really be like “UGH these two guys are PLATONIC FRIENDS why must you make it GAY???” As if anyone in the history of EVER has said “UGH this guy and this girl are PLATONIC FRIENDS why must you make it STRAIGHT???” because...they’re already “defaulted” to be straight :/ Sigh...this is the depressing world we live in, I guess.

Fingers still crossed for Hawk x Demetri, though!!! Let’s make it canon through the Power of Karate!!!

Man I am on a ROLL tonight, I can’t fuckin sleep so instead I’m in my askbox shitposting about the binary boyfriends nonstop XD 3 asks in one night, babeyyyyy!

[mashi-sims]

Ranking AHW's S5 Episodes

I know that ranting about how bad some of the episodes this season were isn’t going to change the fact that they were, in fact, bad, but I still wanted to do an overview of this season in my opinion, and I love ranking stuff, so here it goes:

Also, I should mention that, yes, this is Cooliver biased, although I did take other plotlines into consideration, but mostly Cooliver. Also, lol, I could only add 10 photos so the #13, #12 and #11 don't get one, also they don't deserve it.

Tier 1: I wish they could be un-written, please.

13. 5x12 How Oliver Got His Groove Back

I’ll start with my least favorite episode, and the one we all wish we could unsee. This is the episode where Oliver is feeling down because the girl WE, THE AUDIENCE, just realized he liked, doesn’t like him back (which is a whole other thing), so Katie gets him a date with this girl that’s never been introduced in the show before. Oliver doesn’t want to see her, but he still does, and then he realizes she’s nice, and just like that, he’s happy again. I feel like this plot would not have been that bad if it hadn’t been so out of character, unexplained, and utterly designed to be filler for the season. Worst episode from my perspective, wouldn’t watch it again, barely watched it the first time, ugh, next-

12. 5x11 The Guardian

Same thing with this one, very uneventful episode that talks nonsense, introduces the idea of Oliver liking Lindsay and thinking they’d been dating, but nobody knew about it! How convenient! And again, doesn’t progress into anything, and it just feels out of character, forced, and like they didn’t even try to hide that it was a filler episode. Wouldn’t watch it again, I don’t even think about it, I’ve erased it from my mind. The only reason why this episode is ahead of 5x12 is because of Kathryn and Anna-Kat, and JD trying to find his egg donor, other than that, still pretty ugh.

Tier 2: Did the writers really look at their script and think; “ah, well done”?!

11. 5x07 Under Pressure

I kinda enjoyed this episode even if it didn’t include any Cooliver. I liked Anna-Kat’s storyline about not feeling her popularity and sticking to Franklin, I really really love these two together! So cute! Also, Taylor helping Oliver relax and not stress out that much was nice, although not amazing. Katie and Greg’s double date that led to a city council rivalry, I don’t care for it. Overall, I don’t know if this was intended to be a filler episode, but it totally felt like one to me; a nice episode but not one I’d watch again.

10. 5x05 Kids These Days

Eh, pretty uneventful. Katie wants Franklin and Anna-Kat to be more edgy and to take more risks, ends up in completely nothing. Oliver wants Boosterin and he accidentally drugs Greg, also ends up doing nothing for the storyline. The only thing I liked about this episode was seeing how Cooper cared about Oliver and how Oliver said “Your boy is doing both”, the Cooliver content was still good; other than that, eh. Also, the strange order in episodes this season really threw me off.

9. 5x04 Homeschool Sweet Homeschool

Nice episode, but not one of the best. Mommy blog, Cooliver moves to the basement, Andre shows up and it’s all weird now, eh. I enjoyed this episode because of the Cooliver’s interactions more than anything, but it’s not the greatest in my opinion.

Tier 3: *Sits down on the couch with popcorn and a blanket*

8. 5x06 Mother’s Little Helper

I also enjoyed Cooliver this episode. Although their drinking arc was pretty pointless and, again, ended up being nothing!!, I liked seeing them together, and that shaking they gave each other was funny. This is the episode where Tami was introduced, and I really liked her from the beginning, although I do wish they would’ve given Katie’s original second breakfast club some sort of closure so I wouldn’t feel so guilty about liking Tami and JD, eventually.

7. 5x02 Psych

This episode always made me feel stupid because I never understood what was going on with Taylor, why she didn’t take her gap year, why she never told Katie and Greg that she had gotten in, or at least make something out of it, why she decided to go to another college or if Greg got her in just so she didn’t have to take a gap year, bUT THEN I realized they didn’t actually talk about it, so I’m not the stupid one, I think.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this episode. I like Katie’s storyline of getting involved in other people’s lives after she sells her lasagna business (again, did they ever talk about that or am I stupid?)

This is the episode where we can see the change in Cooliver’s dynamic (a good thing), and the iconic line “stop bothering our boyfriends” saved my life. Having Taylor And Trip with Cooper and Oliver hanging out in the same frame is one of my favorite things and adds a few days to my life.

Franklin and Anna-Kat’s relationship also picks up in this season, and I really enjoy them in this episode. Also, Greg was very funny here, and I am grateful lol.

6. 5x08 Encourage, Discourage

I really liked how this was a Cooper-centered episode, really diving deep into his character instead of keeping him as a shallow side-character. By the way, how did Cooper get so much development and Oliver lost most of his? What was that? Anyway, Cooper saved this episode. I would’ve liked for Oliver to be a more supportive friend in this episode, but he was still there, at least.

Also, Cooper doesn’t think he’s too good for Oliver! Bless his heart.

5. 5x10 Getting Frank with The Ottos

I liked this episode very much! Again, Anna-Kat and Franklin melted my heart, but Oliver and Cooper squeezed it with Cooper’s realization of not wanting to go to Harvard, but Oliver eventually understanding and supporting him? Please, get married. Also, Oliver saying “We’re Cooliver”, and Trevor asking them if they were breaking up made my day. Could’ve been better and a bit more eventful, but it was good nonetheless.

4. 5x13 The Election

I really liked the finale, despite not having any Cooliver at all, the ending was pretty awesome, and I believe it really sets the tone for what could potentially be a great S6, that is if that’s actually happening AND if the writers stop it with the bullshit. Franklin and Anna-Kat getting engaged was very sweet, I adore them! Taylor and Trip getting really engaged was a bit cringe, but still adorable, and I love it! I just wish they had paid more attention to Oliver in this episode, but well, I guess his bang is not here yet and not every episode can be a banger. I hope that whatever comes next will be good enough that the wait will be worth it.

Tier 4: *Chef’s kiss, no pun intended*

3. 5x01 Graduation

Although this episode doesn’t really belong to this season, and it doesn’t share the same 〜vibe〜 with the rest of the episodes, since it has more of a S3-S4 energy, it’s still in S5 and I wanted to include it, too.

Not my favorite, but it’s one of the good ones imo. So much stuff happens in this episode that it almost feels cramped and overwhelming to me, with the graduation and the wedding, but I get that it was necessary to set the scene for S5 and close S4 even if it didn’t turn out the way they’d originally planned, and it came out fine considering the situation the producers were in, which can’t be said for every episode this season lol.

Taylor and Trip were adorable in this episode, Cooper was amazing, Oliver moping around was something I didn’t know I needed in my life, and Lonnie’s speech about not wanting his relationship with Greg to end, even if I never cared for his storyline, was really nice.

This episode made me think that S5 was headed toward amazing things, but not everything was good.

2. 5x09 The Heist

I love this episode because of Cooper’s development. Again, why couldn’t Oliver get that too? However, I did like how they made Oliver seem like he might’ve been a bit thirsty for his fellow Cooper over there, telling him multiple times that he’s good looking? Come on, tell us what you really mean.

Anyway, Cooliver really shone this episode, round of applause.

1. 5x03 Coupling

This episode is superior, bite me. I love everything about this episode, not only Cooliver. Katie and Greg trying to be supportive of their kids having sex with their boyfriends? Yes! Parallels between all four couples? Yes, please! Cooper and Oliver having their first married couple fight, Cooper feeling like he’s being replaced, but Oliver is doing it for the both of them and their future together? Yes! Masterpiece of an episode. I have no more to say.

Hands down, my favorite episode this season. Too bad mostly everything went downhill after that. I hope we do get a season 6 and that things pick up. This series deserves redemption, and Cooper and Oliver deserve to be happily in love together. Thank you.

[dreamerandcrazy]

Ok, so I haven't been able to comment much on my Riverdale rewatch mostly bc i'm watching it with my boyfriend and we have an agreement of no cell phones when we're watching, otherwise we can't pay proper attention to it. But I wrote down some notes about the episodes I did watch (I watched up until ep 6, which is very ironic bc apparently today is its anniversary, so yay for my perfect timing). I actually remember most of the stuff that happened in s1, so here's mostly a few things I paid more attention to or noticed about the characters and the ships, or things i'm able to look at through a different view now that i've watched all the seasons. Strap in if you want to see my notes, if not just scroll please, no ship or character hate here please. Also, feel free to ignore, this is really just a personal look in some stuff I didn't notice in my first watch.

- Betty's character used to be much happier and lighter in season 1. I know we're introduced to "Dark Betty" right in episode 3, but still, I feel like the way Lili played Betty in season 1 did not hold the same "darkness" as it does in the following seasons. The scene where she is dancing happily in her bedroom because she's going to homecoming with the boy she likes? The scene where she introduces Jughead to the Blue & Gold and gets him to work with her? Her genuine innocent happiness at seeing her sister again after so much time? The way she interacted with Kevin and Veronica? Those were all chef's kiss because she actually feels like a teenager in them. In all her girly glory, she radiates youth energy and it's a thing that was sadly lacking after s1. Btw this is not a critique at Lili's acting at all, I blame it entirely on Ras and his obsession with dark Betty.

- There's actually so many indications of Cheryl being a lgbt character in the first episodes that I have no idea how I missed it the first time. But then again, there were many indications with Veronica as well, and sadly that's not the path Ras chose for her.

- Jughead in s1 is truly so superior in so many ways that it's not hard to see why he quickly became such a fan favorite. I think even if he wasn't played by Cole Sprouse, he still would have conquered many fans' hearts. Sadly, the things that made Jughead such a loving and interesting character for me also fizzled out in s2 when the writing team decided to make him a woke serpent leader instead of allowing him to sticking to his true personality as a passionate mystery lover, a dedicated friend and very nerdy, which was very cute. I feel that we got some of that back for him in s4, which was good, but sadly s1 is where my love for him really stayed to stay. But I still care for him, and s5 has a promising storyline for him which i'm excited about, so let's see if s5 Jughead can become better than s1 Jughead.

- Going back again to Cheryl for a sec, I just noticed that the red lipstick actually wasn't that common for her in s1? At least not in the first five. I wonder when did it start becoming her trademark? Anyways, it's actually a really good look her and allows you to appreciate Madelaine's natural beauty even more.

- Also, did anybody notice how Alice lowkey figured out who killed Jason in ep 2 lmao, like... in episode two she legit says she wouldn't be surprised if the Blossoms themselves had killed Jason, which... is what happened LMAO, considering we know it was his father. And even more hilarious and tragically ironic note, in ep 6 she's laughing at Betty suggesting that Hal killed Jason because "do you think your father has the stomach for it?!"... Ma'am... i'm-.... 😂😂😂😂.

- This rewatch has reminded me of how much I adored and how I much I miss Josie and the Pussycats. The girls were such a nice addition to the cast, and their songs were so beautiful. I truly wish we get to see them again someday, but at the same time I also think the actresses deserve to be at a work place where they're given the treatment they deserve and not completely ignored and treated like extras.

- Archie/Valerie was super cute and is very underrated in the fandom, but i'm glad Valerie stood up for herself and didn't take any of Archie's or Cheryl's sh*t. Still sucks because they were really good together, though.

- Why was Jason not allowed to talk, lmao? Like, i'm sure it's become a running joke in the show at this point, but back when season one was airing what was the excuse for it? He appeared in so many flashbacks and scenes and we still never heard a single word ☠️☠️☠️☠️. I just want to know what was the reason lol.

- I liked s1 Reggie, but I feel like Charles Melton's Reggie is better because he actually feels like a douche with good intentions lol, and he has more of a personality. Most of the time I even forgot about Reggie in s1, but after s2 he definitely made me more aware of him. So for that, I like Charles Melton's Reggie more. But the actor from s1 still did a good job with what he was given.

From now on I will be talking about the ships, so bear with me, and know that I am a multishipper. Yes, I have my preferences. No, my word is not law, it's just an opinion, so please respect it.

- Bughead is still super cute in s1. I feel like from s1 they will always be my otp, even if I no longer feel as strongly about them now and have a different insight as to where I would like their story to go, and now I definitely see the problem others had mentioned before of how they kind of took over the show, which is something I kind of closed my eyes to before... But I really loved them in s1. It felt like a very juvenile teenage relationship, they didn't give much thought on why and if they should be together, they just went for it like teenagers usually do, and they were very very cute together.

- I feel like if you don't count Beronica (because they really were the best no matter what you say or ship), if there's a ship that deserves "best chemistry" award for s1 is probably Varchie. I lost my interest in them years ago, but this rewatch reminded me of why I actually loved them once. They never really became an otp for me, but Kj and Camila's chemistry in s1 was VERY GOOD, and I really liked them. Their kiss in the pilot was electric and the s&xual tension was OOF, and that chemistry carries on through the season. You can easily tell something will happen between them eventually. It makes me sad bc I don't know what happened after s1, but their chemistry from s2 onwards was just... not there for me. Which is ironic bc it's the season they truly started dating and they got a lot of smexy scenes, but I just... didn't feel it. But I'll leave that comment to my s2 rewatch. For now just let me enjoy Varchie's chemistry in s1 while it lasts because it was really good.

- Now we get to Barchie, who I made clear was the reason for my rewatch, so let's get to it. I LOVED the way Barchie was written in s1. I remember when I first watched Riverdale, I was curious about their dynamic but didn't put much thought into it because I loved Bughead too much and wanted them to be together, and I thought Barchie would be the traditional "first og ship" thing and wouldn't have a big follow up, but boy was I WRONG and am I GLAD for it. I'll talk more about their development in the next seasons when I get there, so for now let's focus a bit on s1. Just in like the first two episodes, there is so much Barchie foreshadowing, like, it's legit insane how it was right there in my face and I missed it the first time! "I have never felt what i'm supposed to feel with betty", "it's not my fault he doesn't like you", "I can't give you the answer you want"... Omg, those are obvious eyebrow raising "this will come back to bite you in the a$$" moments and it's incredible how they actually DO! I would call it clever writing, but like... it's Riverdale lol. So I really am just glad that the ship was done this way, i'm glad Barchie has the back story that they do, they've really come a LONG way and i'm happy I get to experience their whole growing storyline. It's also especially good because s1 actually provides you with scenes that show you their friendship and how they're so close, you see them hanging out, talking, their pictures together, everything was just really done well with them. Still have a bit of critique with the way Archie contradicted himself sometimes regardinf his feelings for Betty, but let's be honest, we've watched enough Riverdale to know that's just a problem with the writing.

- Kevin/Joaquin is still my favorite Kevin ship, i'm sad it's completely impossible to go back to them someday so for now i'll just be really glad it existed and that I got to see them even if it was short-lived. They had great chemistry and their kiss scenes always outsold.

- Beronica... sigh. Beronica. The most wasted chemistry i've ever seen on CW and I've watched a LOT of CW shows. There was so much potential there, s1 was practically overflowing with them and it's one of the reasons it became some popular. I remember when the Beronica fandom was the biggest one, ah, good times. Veronica and Betty were easily the best part of season 1, their friendship, their lowkey romantic moments, they were just superior in every way. This ship deserved better, not even just as a ship, but as a friendship.

- Veronica's s1 hair >>> Veronica's hair in seasons 2-4. I loved the side part and I am glad it's back in season 5, it looks so much better like that.

- Cheryl, as always, deserves better. Can't wait for her to meet Toni so I can watch again Cheryl finally get to love someone and be loved back, which is exactly what she deserves.

For now, that is all! I will probably make another post soon when i'm done with season one and from season two on I will be live-blogging the episodes since I will be watching it alone. Once again, pls, no hate, my thoughts are my thoughts. Peace.

[yellowocaballero]

Oh, wow, your last post about Tim!!! Anyway, not necessarily on a related note, ⭐?

I’m gonna pull a really obscure move on you all and use a line from something I just wrote a few days ago. It’s a side story of The Crow’s Funeral (which is really the peak of ‘this is for me but yall can read it if you want’) posted on Tumblr right here. 

Agnes sat down on her knees, rubbing her forehead, and Gerry cautiously sat down next to her. “He’s the monster who sold the world. The most dangerous man ever made.”

“The most dangerous man in the world gets bossed around by his dog?” Gerry asked, before the words sunk in. “Wait, I thought that was Jonah Magnus!”

“Jonah Magnus doesn’t kill people because they annoy him!” Agnes snapped, before she groaned into her hands again. “And I set him on fire…Diego is going to kill me!”

I’ve recently started getting really interested in using alternative POVs to help increase understanding of the POV character. I’ve started doing it recently and it’s severely really helped for character motivations and arcs. This story is long since done, but it sometimes personally satisfies me to flesh stuff out. And, like, y’all can read it if you want lol! But this short story is very illuminating of something that you kind of already got in TCF, that Jon is (like Melanie) a very unreliable narrator. Breaking down what this story establishes:

1) That the reason why Gerry integrated so successfully into the apocalypse is because Gerry’s entire world has always been the apocalypse, and that he doesn’t see too much of a difference between the old world and new. (I keep on writing Gerry POVs and then NEVER FINISHING THEM -)

2) That Agnes’ relationship with Gerry was born out of a kind of fascination and curiosity on her part (a human who’s not scared of me?!) but it quickly veers into the category of two very lonely kids finally finding someone else who cares about them. They’re cute as fuck. 

3) That Jon, no matter how much of a lowkey dick he is in TCF, used to be a lot worse before he met Gerry. Daisy is clearly the only link to morality he has, which is terrible, because it’s fucking Daisy. As he grows up and gets older, and he grows closer to Gerry, he’s internalized her half-hearted lessons and he grows more fascinated by humans than completely ambivalent. But at this point, Jon has never been forced to think critically or hold empathy for anyone. A point I was making in TCF is that Jon in canon is kind and moral because he knows suffering and pain, and he is determined not to cause suffering to anyone else because he knows how it feels. Jon, without that...

4) Jon, in TCF, is loosely aware that everyone’s scared of him. He doesn’t care about it except when he can leverage it to get something he wants. Basically, he’s too powerful to have to play dominance or power games. He’s not very interested into how or why people are scared of him, and he gets annoyed when they act in self-preservation against him (crushed like a grape). It’s only through Agnes’ POV that we see the real way that others see Jon, even people like Agnes who are basically the 1%ers of monsters: that he’s completely fucking terrifying. 

Everybody knows that Jon ended the world. Everyone knows that Jon has complete control over all of it. Most importantly, everyone knows that Jon really (mostly) isn’t malicious or mean or cruel. He has no agenda or anything he wants. He’s just hanging out, having a good time, pretending he isn’t a demigod. He’s hardly Jonah Magnus. The most he does is sometimes throw tantrums when he doesn’t get his way (because he almost always gets his way, because he’s a demigod who everyone’s afraid of). But as Agnes states in this story, the fact that he’s more terrifying than Jonah Magnus is because he is completely fucking unpredictable. He does not care about anybody. He is perfectly nice, perfectly unassuming and casual, until you do something - and it’s hard to tell what - that sets him off, at which point he kills you. Agnes is terrified because there’s no rules for Jon - setting him on fire mildly pisses him off, but then his dog yells at him and then he apologizes for trying to eat someone. Then he says that next time you do that he’ll kill you, or maybe everyone you love instead. He makes no sense to anyone. Of course, Jon makes more sense if you realize that he’s highly defensive of both his own comfort and the safety and lives of his loved ones, but that probably isn’t evident. 

As Annabelle states in the story, Jon really is a toddler with a gun, who can be mostly managed if you know him well enough. Jon is someone who the other Avatars push around a bit because they know he won’t really push back. Helen teases him a lot, everybody plays pretty dumb, and you’ll see here that Jon will kind of laugh off a sixteen year old setting him on fire. He’ll laugh it off, then then obliquely make clear that if she ever does it again he’ll crush her and probably her entire cult too. Jon’s not purposefully cruel (because he’s still Jon), but he reacts to perceived slights with extreme prejudice. Emphasis on perceived. 

Writing TCF for me was just a major exercise in thinking about: “wow, what would S5!Jon look like without any morality or ethics whatsoever!”. And even if he’s still Jon and thus inherently good-intentioned and kind, if you place anyone who is both very immature and who’s never known any different in position of extreme power, he’s going to end up the least empathetic person alive. If I ever write an AU of this AU where he doesn’t even have Daisy...that’s what I like to call a supervillain, folks. 

Thanks for the q! 

[mikiruma]

I'M CLOSING TWITTER FOR THE NIGHT JESUS CHRIST ANYWAY I'M JUST GONNA INFODUMP UNDER THE CUT BECAUSE I'M GOING APE

HI I SPENT ALL DAY WANTING TO/STARTING TO WATCH TOTAL DRAMA SEASONS 4 AND 5 BECAUSE I WANTED TO SEE MIKE&.... AND MOOMOO DECIDED TO WATCH WITH ME BECAUSE THEY BINGED TDI SOMEWHAT RECENTLY..... AND IT TURNED INTO ME PERIODICALLY PAUSING TO TALK ABOUT OUR OWN SYSTEM AND COMPARING MIKE&'S WITH OURS SO AN 8 HOUR EVENT TURNED INTO AN ALMOST (CHECKS TIME) 12 HOUR ONE..... they went to bed a while ago so i'm finishing s5 by myself.... and it was cool because i know now they're wanting to get to know the others and ask questions and be involved(!!!!) BUT ALSO i know mike& in general is a controversial character.... but as someone who sort of relates to the internal conflict in a weird way or has this being our first time witnessing someone with DID have their alters identities respected and not being treated like a complete weirdo for being plural... i mean there's the mistreatment a la chris and scott triggering a switch intentionally to help himself in a competition.... but other than that!!! and the ending to s5 which i have not reached but spoiled myself with because i wanted to know what i was getting into before i started!!!! i'm legit falling in love with these guys and want to see them go places and it makes me appreciate the one fanwork i've seen rewriting them a bit even MORE...... also i know mal is the most stereotypical/worst rep of anything, for having a persecutor and knowing their roles i SHOULD be saying it's a little singlet bait-y and knowing they added him in the story as the main villain because they knew that's what people would have wanted to see instead of a system achieving healthy functional plurality.... but he reminds me a lot of our persecutor and how they acted back in the day, we haven't entirely patched up and they still have stumbling blocks sometimes but after getting to know them and realizing they're acting in good faith (even if the good faith is spelled out with self-sabotage), i just have a feeling maybe i need to psychoanalyze mal. ESPECIALLY because of mike (and to an extent the show) treating his headmates like EXTRAS instead as other fully fleshed people (at least in s4, though they got their moments to talk to each other and cooperate) and taking control/acting like the others were getting in his way of *his life*.... and mal being the host before but being locked away and having to force his way out and rule with an iron fist before he was given any mind.... that guy needs a hug. and everyone else (MIKE ESPECIALLY) may need to learn how to communicate better. mal just needs to feel important and get attention when he's doing things that AREN'T being mean or acting out.... also i think i just want to give mal a hug in general. not saying mike is the real villain of s5 but i AM saying when he was working with everyone to overthrow mal, they were very clear that mike being in charge, while better, was still not the best because they get pushed aside and not taken seriously.... so i think if they just went to therapy or TALKED TO EACH OTHER (I KNOW THEY CAN!!!! THEY HAVE A HEADSPACE THEY HANG OUT IN!!!!! IF MIKE WAS ONLY ABLE TO ACCESS IT BY THE COMPETITION NOW'S A GOOD TIME TO GET YOUR WORDS IN!!!!!) then it would have been a MILES better solution than. PERMANENT INTEGRATION AND CHOOSING TO CURE THEIR OWN DISORDER ALL BY THEMSELVES WITH NO HELP BY PUSHING A BUTTON IN THEIR BRAIN JUST TO GET RID OF ONE GUY THEY DIDN'T WANT TO TALK TO!!!!!!!!!!!! oh my god also i just want to mention i know svetlana was trying to be nice and encouraging saying they needed mike because he's better at some things than some of the other headmates but..... that coupling with the integration...... kind of hammers it in that everyone sees themselves as "extra" :( it makes me want to be more conscious of how i think/talk about OUR headmates because i want to try and make everyone feel welcome and valid.....

anyway sorry for the text wall i just love these guys so much but i HATE THE WRITING and i'm stalling finishing the s5 finale because i know they're going to do it and it's going to piss me off so much and i love ALL of them and want them to be ok..... it's hard for me to criticize much else because i can see us a lot in these guys and how things run.... and i'm disappointed they didn't show much else of mike& purely because i was watching the seasons just for them so everything else felt like filler.... IT WAS ENTERTAINING I JUST.... want to see more of them but WITH THE CORRECT DIAGNOSTIC NAME AND SEVERAL THERAPY TRIPS LATER LOL.....

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edit: finished!!! SO! mal admitting he was pushing people away so they didn't have the chance to hurt them first. the others saying integration wasnt getting RID of anyone, just making them a fuller singular person. GUYS I'M SOBBING.... i KNEW mal was doing the typical persecutor song and dance but with the way he even threw around his baggage like it was NOTHING. still upset at the integration since everyone was more willing to cease existing as they were altogether just so mal wouldn't be the host.... it breaks my heart.... ALSO I'M STILL OVER THE MOON ABOUT GIVING THEM A HEADSPACE AND THE LITTLE DETAILS IN THERE!!!! i legit don't know any other media featuring systems that INCLUDED that!!!!! god y'all the end of the system era was pretty disappointing but it just made me think of the guys i'm living with. i know i wasn't a perfect host and was definitely a control freak when i first discovered i was part of them, and every day i try to make that right.... so this just reminded me of those times in awareness infancy where i was like. ok but i'm the one who fronts the most so i must be the real one!!! obviously not true anymore because julian's the host now, i mean i'm still real but knowing that logic is pretty busted... hehehe.... even realizing i was only the host for a handful of years up to that point was a shock!!! but retroactively trying to work things through with everyone and getting us to a functional place despite not being able to see a therapist about it yet... this was weirdly heartwarming in a way? seeing the headmates in their natural habitat, just chilling. seeing them get into internal conflict. dissociation periods used as windows into their mind. mike starting as insisting he was the one in control and who SHOULD be in control, even willing to abandon everyone for zoey, but going to being the least willing to integrate because he would miss everyone and valued their existence.... i know they can only fit so much development in 20 min episodes of a show thats supposed to focus on multiple people (non-systems at least) so i think their story was cramped in that aspect, but if it were a more serious non-reality show focusing more on mike& in general it would have been WAY smoother. but like. i understand the shorthand and can see the allusions and whatnot. i know what they were trying to do. and i LOVE it. it's not perfect but this is the first time i watched something in a good while that felt like it encapsulated ANYTHING close to my personal experiences being in a system and being the disgruntled host, and seeing a little bit of my closest comrades in mike's headmates was just icing on the cake. :) i think the only thing i would have liked better was if instead of an integration they either agreed to work together and be more functional/rehabilitate mal, or if someone new split entirely to act as the mediator.. idk total drama is pretty stressful!! it's the right environment for it!!! and especially the inner system conflict!!! i don't know i think after all that, they needed someone to be the impartial third party to help settle conflicts and junk... just my onion though

[captainshazamerica]

The redhood nightwing fight scenes look like they're gonna be dope af like thats all I'm thinking about how awesome the fight scenes are (hopefully) gonna be (I'm already finding it difficult to see this jason as redhood cuz he's like literally a child but I dunno what age he redhooded in the comics so??)

I had no idea tim was even gonna be in it !?! Can I please get some kind of recognition from the batboys that they actually view each other as brothers and family! 😢

Someone needs to kill the joker It'd be kinda interesting if old bruce killed joker and it'd be nice if that was the last thing he did as batman buuuttt then again it'd be a nice touch if dick killed joker for jason, it would personally be disappointing if joker was just let live not gonna lie i really want bruce to kill him and that be the reason he gives up being batman because he failed to protect jason and then he broke his no killing thing so he just hangs up the cape

we are getting FEAR TOXIN yassssss cue awesome nightmare ish fearscapes (no idea if that's an actual word but that's what I call when you get to see everyone's fear hallucination)

Kory I love you, I do ship dickkory however I feel like she's too good for dick and should marry me instead lol I wanna see how donna is still alive? and I know there's people who are like ughh hank dawn go away already but I really freakin like hank and dawn as characters even though their suits are ridiculous did they break up last season I can't remember? Hank needs a break poor man someone give him a blanket and a hug and let him sit the fuck down everybody leave hank alone

That line where babs is like don't try be your father and dick is like excuse me what you saying there Commissioner Gordon, that will never not be funny 😅😅😅

I ain't in love with this show it has so much potential it could be so lit but I do like it anndd they got suits now whoop!

Wait is this my previous Titans anon? (The one where we ranted about Jason, or the one thinking they hadn’t seen S2 but went to watch it and realized they had? Or are you the same person? xD )And if so are you the same one who asked for the comic and fic recs? Just wondering in terms of if I’m talking to one person or not hahaha

But ahh I got so excited when I saw I got an ask about this 😍

Omg the nightwing red hood fight already got me so stressed lol. It looks great but ahh angst! But I think Jason is like 19ish in most versions when he comes back? Though tbh I forgot what age Jason is in this , I’ll have to see when i rewatch it soon. Curran, the actor, is actually 23, he just looks super young/short. He got pretty buff though. But yeah, that is an unfortunate thing wi the them rushing it already but also, I’d rather have it like this than if they were gonna spread it out through the seasons then it gets cancelled or something (poor Gotham s5, RIP). I think he was the PERFECT robin jason Todd though. Like I love his acting and portrayal of Jason(“Titans are back bitches!” classic Jason), he just is young looking and short. Gosh I still wanna know if they are going with the Lazarus pit for Jason or not! But like that also begs the question of whether they are doing a time skip cause normally Jason is dead for like 2-3ish years, but it doesn’t look like it from the trailer.

And yes, I’ve been looking forwards to Tim!!! While the trailer didn’t show it, the actor was on set a lot over these last couple of months (I’ve been keeping up with their instagrams xD) and seemed super close with the cast! I can’t believe the first look we got if Tim was him nearly crying, though that look already won me over, I love him and he is my son now. But RIGHT! That’s all I want, is the bat bros platonic love, gosh dang it😭 that’s all we want DC😭

BRO! OLD MAN BRUCE KILLING JOKER WOULD BE FREAKING PERFECT. Dang it! Now I’m gonna be so disappointed if that doesn’t happen 🤣gosh it would be perfect, and normally I would be like it’s Bruce, they would never do that, BUT, this show does that kind of “edgy” stuff anyway so if it’s ever gonna happen(without the Batman who Laughs plot line happening(which would make a perfect dc animated movie btw)), it would happen in this show, especially with what was shown in the trailer with him giving Batman up. Man, now my hopes are up for that xD though I wouldn’t mind if Dick killed him. I would be shocked though if they had the balls to actually kill off joker though, dc seems to refuse to do that :/

Omg I squealed at the scarecrow part omg. Dr freaking Crane is a big reason I spiraled down this entire fandom tbh. Like literally a year ago I got obsessed with him for some reason and that led into the Bat hole where I am currently WAY deeper than I ever would have thought 😂 and while I’m not hyper fixated on him anymore, I still love him so much and is my 2nd fav rogue, and it mainly started with Jonathan 🥺 we barely even see his face and I am already in love with the casting, the voice is perfect. And I LOVE when villains have to help the heroes, that is like one of my fav tropes ever omg, I was really hoping they were gonna do that to him. I hope he is in it for more than one episode tho. And oh lordy, like those poor Titans need even more trauma in their lives and now fear gas is in the equation. Oh no, I bet poor Gar is gonna get hit cause they just love to torture that poor boy. And tbh I hope the fearscapes(perfect word for it) will be better than most of the Gotham ones, those seemed a tad cheesy tbh

Lmao about you and kory😂 she is too good for him, but also, this Dick needs someone who can kick his ass and get his head out of his martyr butt 😂 tho tbh, I’m still not fully sold on Dickkory, Like I don’t hate it but I don’t LOVE it in many versions, like they can be cute but no strong feelings, the Original Teen Titans cartoon is like the only exception, I def ship those 2

Omg I low key forgot Donna “died”😂🤦🏻‍♀️ I feel like I knew it wouldn’t last so it didn’t have a big impact on me lol. Like I had/have a feel raven is gonna bring her back. I wanna know what happened to Rose/Joey! Like are they not gonna be in it at all? Especially with Jason going off the deep end?!

Lmao, hawk and dove’s suits😂 I think they did break up, I’ve only seen the series once through tbh, planning to rewatch before S3 tho(and try to force my mom to watch it tho she is convinced everything DC is too dark for her lmao), yeah, I don’t mind them, like I don’t want the focus on them but like they deserve to be happy/need a break, omg yes! That boy needs to be wrapped in a blanket and given a break, that grumpy boy is TIRED. Let him rest!

Lmao! That babs line is so great😂

I’m just so excited for all this live action Batfam content, considering the live action movies NEVER give us Batfam 😭(we aren’t talking about the 80’s/90’s live action robin lmao)

Also so sorry this was so long 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️

[thevioletjones]

The Ian & Mickey Show

Week 9

Timestamps

3:33-4:54 - Ian wakes up hugging a pillow, presumably missing Mickey’s absent body. There’s a loud rumbling and an embarrassingly clown car-ish honking outside the house waking everybody up. It’s Mickey making a grand entrance on that sweet mint green Vespa scooter, and (very horribly and stiffly) “making out” with this unfortunate looking tiny twink named Byron (they def picked the most pretentious name possible for this interloper). Mickey is for sure putting on a big show for Ian that’s like 30% revenge, 70% pettiness. At first, you would think Mickey just paid some rando to act a part for a little while, but I guess Mickey is just conning this lil guy. Mickey grabs his ass in front of Ian, boasts about the guy’s “super tight asshole,” and casually strolls past him to get into the Gallagher house, because I guess he’s still staying there. And also, Ian’s leg is broken, but we knew that, cuz Cam. {For a better scene, keep the video rolling past the 4:54 mark and ogle Jeremy Allen White naked in the shower. It was his turn this week I guess. You’re safe, Cam.}

6:37-8:20 - Ian eats breakfast with Liam & Carl, and they discuss Mickey’s being off with the other dude, and it’s clear that Ian thinks Mickey is just lashing out and once it’s out of his system, he’ll just come back. Lip and his baby mama and her crazy Trumper aunt are in the scene as well. They all concur that in Lip’s words, “Ian left Mickey at the altar,” but Ian doesn’t see it that way. He honestly thinks they were gonna get married for the wrong reason. His contradiction and ambivalence is honestly the only thing that feels realistic about all of this mess. 

13:30-14:36 - Mickey continues needling Ian very broadly and obviously about how great this Byron kid is and how much sex they’ve been having, and even implies he’s a Koch, which is silly. Mickey goes so far as to claim he’s in love with this guy (they met last night) and says he’s moving in with him. It’s dumb-o. 

18:35-20:58 - Ian somehow just now discovers that 50% of all marriages end in divorce????? That’s been true for so long now, even someone the show is now painting as kind of an idiot (but not half as big of one as Mickey is) would know that stat. It’s just more EXPOSITION. Anyway, he’s hanging out with Liam in the kitchen, and Debbie comes in. Ian tells her that: “Mickey’s a punk, and he’s decided he’s gonna fuck other people if I don’t marry him.” She says Ian’s just scared, and he should marry Mickey to make him happy, even if it does end in divorce eventually. Ian’s all, “I’m not scared,” but not even Liam believes him. Ian invites Liam to go run an errand, and they steal Trumpy Aunt’s wallet on the way out.

28:06-28:54 - OMG, small Byron has that bright Disco Overlook Hotel area rug from Ikea that I really wanted to buy some years back adorning the floor of his tiny loft. Sad face. Anyway, Mickey barges in and throws his garbage bag of crap everywhere and says he won’t share the bed, Byron needs to sleep on the floor. Says some lines about when he wants his dinner served, and how they’ll only have sex when Mickey wants to, and obviously he’ll top cuz this dude’s “basically a chick,” which is a funny line, tbh. ALSO, this pretty much proves they haven’t even actually banged, since they haven’t even discussed preferences. Lol. So yeah, Mickey is using this kid for anything and everything he can, cuz he found a big ol’ sweetie pie pushover (that’s maybe a little bit afraid of him). 

33:50-34:36 - Ian makes Liam try on engagement man-rings, because: “Mickey has freakishly small hands.” They’re at the Alibi and combing through the jewelry a shady hawker is selling. Ian buys two rings on Trumpy Aunt’s credit card. 

42:53-44:52 - I really miss Ian & Lip scenes, tbh. I used to love their brotherly friendship. Some of the old magic feels back in this scene, idk. Ian tells Lip he’s gonna go propose to Mickey. Lip asks him why, and Ian says it’s cuz he loves him, but then after a pause says that Debbie told him to. Even though Ian wants Mickey back, he also clearly wants Lip to talk him out of marriage, which he kind of does (for now). Lip says he should do it one day, after he figures out why he doesn’t want to now. 

47:06-51:10 - A genuine FOUR MINUTE scene! Ian shows up at Byron’s place (where’d he get the address tho???) and Mickey’s been hanging out there for like a handful of hours maybe, but this lil dude just wants him GONE already. Lmao. He clearly knows who Ian is and practically runs into his arms in a grateful hug, saying, “Oh, thank god, PLEASE take him back!” Ian is like wtf, and waits as this guy calls Mickey “honey” and says he has a visitor. Mickey makes another big show implying impending sexy times, grabbing at a very not into it Byron as he retreats up the stairs. Mickey seriously greets Ian like, “What’s up, bro!” I meeeean... Anyway, Ian I guess decided in transit that he’s not gonna propose, he’s just gonna say these are “promise rings” and has some line about how: “Gallaghers and marriage don’t mix well, but a Gallagher keeps his promise.” Since... when??? Like... Frank??? And... what??? Lol... Mickey’s not buying that shit either. He makes a good point about Ian not even wearing his “promise ring” on his finger, but around his neck instead (someone caught a Sex & the City rerun where Carrie carries that rock on a necklace, cuz she’s def not sure about marrying Aidan), where no one can even see it. Ian says he’s not saying “never” to marriage, and Mickey counters that he’s actually saying that he doesn’t love Mickey enough right now. And then he says he’s got Barry anyway, and Ian has to correct the name, which is a nice touch, I’ll admit. And then comes Cam’s best bit of acting on this show in like Y-E-A-R-S. I always thought he did best when he was in depressed/manic mode, and that comes through here when Ian actually gets to the heart of his real fears about committing fully to Mickey, which are of course that he doesn’t trust himself and doesn’t think Mickey should be tied to him and all his crazy bullshit. He doesn’t understand how Mickey can know for sure that he loves him. All that internalized shit is stuff I can easily actually relate to, and this is really the first 100% truly honest moment we’ve had between IxM in all of season 10. I hope we get one or two more by the end. I don’t really completely buy Mickey’s reaction being, “When you get over the ‘I’m not worthy of being loved’ shit, gimme a call,” because he is the fucking KING of not thinking he’s worthy of being loved! That's always been a huge component of who he is, and how I always write him to be, personally (always struggling to think of himself as worthy of anything good, particularly love, among many many other internal struggles, obvs). He also knows exactly how low Ian can get on his down-swings, and since we know from s5 that Mickey likes taking care of Ian, I just don’t think he’d treat him this way. I’m not saying he would give in, but we would see some softness come through. A lighter touch. Anyway, Ian looks super sad as he walks away, but then he spots Barry’s Vespa in the alleyway and gets his own bit of petty revenge (on the wrong person) by pissing in his gas tank, cuz Shameless!

Episode Tally: 8 scenes. 13 mins 10 secs.

[jesslivesau]

jess au @iloveeverythingwaytoomuch

pre show jess: doesn't know anything except that sam told her some fucked up shit and she didn't really believe him much like amelia didn't believe jimmy but what's clear to her is that sam's upbringing was deeply fucked up in what might've been some kind of apocalypse doomsday cult and she can say "sam, it wasn't real" as much as she can til she's blue in the face but it isn't going to change the fact that sam is Deeply Fucked Up by Shit. and it upsets her and confuses her but he does a good job of setting it aside or knowing when to give in and he's such a sweet and Loving Dude otherwise so she just files it away in her bf trauma bank and keeps cheering him on

s1 jess: your bf's CRAZY brother shows up says he needs help finding your bf's CRAZY dad who may or may not have been part of a doomsday cult and you say, bitch i watched the heaven's gate documentary there is NO WAY i'm letting you leave with him, but he's not gonna Stay cuz he insists it's just for one night (and his brother DOES seem relatively stable, like, as a person), so jess insists she'll go too. while she's in the back seat sam tells dean he told her everything dean's like lol. sure. you believe in ghosts, sweetheart? and jess is like no but i do believe that i'll kick your ass if we don't get home in time for sam's interview tomorrow morning. and then the whole white woman thing happens and she's like oh fuck it's REAL but they DO GO HOME and instead of jess dying on the ceiling there's like idk ghost mary on the ceiling or some shit and they NARROWLY escape the fire together andddd idk they can't go back to stanford cuz it's not safe and their apartment complex literally went up in flames. there’s a more complex reason here but idk what it is. maybe it was brady (demon brady) who died or something IDK LISTEN ITS JUST AN AU

anyway all of season 1 when they’re trying to track down john jess is the voice of reason asking why do they need john in the first place? And eventually sam is like listen we don’t need HIM but if he’s got research on where yellow eyes is, that’s what we need. and dean is mad about that and he’s mad at jess and they bicker like crazy. and sam sleeps on the floor because dean is like dude cmon. don’t make me sleep in the same room as you and your gf together. maybe meg gets replaced by meg possessing jess, and she doesn’t get thrown out the window so when they exorcise her she just needs a hospital and then she’ll be ok. and that would explain why she’s in the hospital and not there for the finale, but can meet up with sam & john & dean in the hospital after

s2 jess: sam is so consumed by grief and fear that jess is actually the first one to notice that dean’s spirit might still be still Around. i’m imagining a scene where sam is asleep next to dean’s bed and jess is awake, and she slowly looks around towards dean and you see ghost!dean Connecting with her for the first time

obviously, all the grief episodes keep happening. maybe jess got seriously hurt as well tbh so she goes back to her parents house to recover; there’s an episode where the boys go meet her parents and dean and sam’s Daddy Issues come out in full force. eventually jess is back and kicking ass and slowly getting along more with dean, partially perhaps because of dean’s Grief Response to john’s death, which is that all the anger and hate comes bubbling up, and jess is like i don’t fucking know this dude, but from what sam’s told me, i hate him, which is not something that sam is in a position to Deal With right now. things proceed pretty much along the course

i am considering now if jess could also be a special child. she also has some kind of psychic abilities but i’d have to choose something cool for her. anyway if she IS then that gets her in the town with sam in all hell breaks loose which i think is the best place for her during that arc? i know all the other special children supposedly had to die but maybe her psychic power was to go inviisble or something lmfao i don’t fucking know. anyway dean has his sad monologue but jess either (a) fully shuts down or (b) just goes STRAIGHT to hunt down whatever the fuck his name is. jake? leverage man? that would be dope actually. and then actually dean, sam, bobby, and ellen actually meet her at the hell’s gate

s3 jess: truly does not understand why they’re hunting. gets into arguments with the boys all the time about how this is pointless, if you’re not gonna try and save yourself then why can’t you just put it down and let yourself have this year?? and dean’s a little bit like you know what jessica that makes a lot of damn sense. but it makes sam mad and they argue a lot about it and jess probably takes off halfway through the season. maybe after malleus maleficarum? partly cuz that’s the ep where ruby more or less becomes part of the team and also when she confirms that she can’t save dean from hell. and i just feel like jess would be like i cannot.... Sit Here.... and watch you both drive yourself into the ground. dean, if you’re gonna die, sam’s coming after you. you knew that. you just didn’t want him to go first.

maybe dean hits her lmfao and sam screams at him for it and jess just Walks Away, tearfully

s4 jess: so jess bailed midway through s3, but when dean wakes up and starts making calls in that phonebooth, he calls bobby and bobby hangs up, so he calls jess. and she comes and gets him.

jess and sam are obviously not together anymore, but jess is totally civil with sam and even with ruby. she’s like we can work together, it’s fine, whatever. and this is the season where dean and jess really bond and become a good Team. and cas is just usually confused why jess is Around but eventually gets used to her. i’ve toyed with jess being jewish which would lend a good and also funny perspective to all the heaven and hell stuff

jess heard about hell first from dean, but not the specifics of the stuff that dean told sam, not until after on the head of a pin. she’s their Lore Expert on seals and is trying to identify as many of them as possible so they can put in place safeguards, and maybe that bumps her up against angel priorities for an episode. maybe we get an episode where cas has to Threaten her 00 and he can say something like sam and dean are important..... you are not. remember that. and then [flappy wings vanish]

uhhhh jess’s siren in the siren episode....... is just like a carbon copy of sam lmfao. which is extremely funny and sam and jess will both kind of awkwardly clear their throats and not address that. i guess jess is just fucking stuck with bobby during the finale because the point of her presence is that she’s so USELESS to both demons and angels

s5 jess:  i’d probably add in an early episode where her parents are killed, probably by demons because the demons know they can’t touch the winchesters due to angel shit but they can fuck up jess as much as they want. then when sam and dean temporarily split up jess would go with dean cuz she’s a hunter now and has nowhere else to go and it doesn’t feel right to just sit around with sam. or maybe she also leaves and splits up and doesn’t stick with dean cuz she’s processing her own traumatic shit. at any rate, early in the season there’s a moment where sam is Gone and dean and jess are drinking together and talking about their feelings and they have a moment where they gaze at each other in the eyes and almost lean towards each other.... then jess goes you know what? this is fucking weird and dean is like oh thank god you said that absolutely this is too weird

in The End, it’s revealed that jess was killed and no one will tell dean more information or talk about her until he finds out that she was pregnant when she was killed (presumably with sammifer’s baby)

in changing channels they get put into a telenovela and sam and jess have an tearful emotionally charged confession scene in spanish. this is about when sam and jess finally get back together [cue cheering]

in the chuck eps it’s revealed chuck rewrote it so that jess died on the ceiling in the first book cuz he was like “i just didn’t think it made sense for her to be alive! it was literary symmetry that’s all!”

in sam, interrupted when sam is all high on meds that’s when he says lots of kooky sweet shit to jess about wanting to MARRY her and have a FAMILY together and it’s sweet and also dean throws up in his mouth a little bit having to hear it

in my bloody valentine the thing that jess is hungry for is Family but i do not know the logistics of how

in dark side of the moon jess does die with the boys but it takes a while to find her, tho they eventually do in one of sam’s favorite memories (probably from the first time they met or something). she’s like what the fuck i’m jewish

no, i have no clue how she factors into swan song. she just does, ok. lucifer can snap her neck along with bobby’s

s6 jess: she tried to check in with dean occasionally at the braedens, and actually had dinner with them once but started checking in less and less as the year went on, and it turns out she knew that sam was back and she’d been hunting with him + the campbells and a couple things

when dean finds out he is truly FURIOUS, but jess is like dean i saw you with lisa and ben! i saw you getting better! i saw you happy, i saw you ok, and hell i’ve only known you since you showed up in palo alto five years ago but it was the most at peace i’ve ever seen you, and i couldn’t take that away from you, and neither could sam.

she’s also like yes, dean, he’s different, he’s colder, it makes me sad but who was the one who put up with YOU when you were spiralling after your dad’s death? or when you were all buttoned up after you came back from hell? he did! so show him a god damn OUNCE of empathy, would you!

and when they find out he’s soulless jess is like. hm. and dean is like i TOLD you there was something wrong with him!!! and jess is like i mean.... yeah....... and maybe i didn’t really want to admit it... cuz.... the sex was So good.........

[soulless sam winks at her]

anyway, s6 happens the way it happens and that’s fine

s7: the only important thing that happens in s7 is that Season Seven, It’s Time For a Wedding! is actually about some sort of monster and the only way to kill it is to cast a spell but the spell must be cast by “two warriors joined before god” which means married and cas is awkward about it cuz he doesn’t want to Presume Anything 

and the whole episode is lots of sam and jess being like “i mean, of course, if you want to..... .like, but if you DON’T, that’s also totally fine, of course.... you know.... whatever you’re comfortable with” until finally they’re in the final battle and cas has to marry them the way barbossa does for will and elizabeth in potc and when dean is pinned against the wall by the monster he goes “DAMMIT JESS WILL YOU KISS MY BROTHER ALREADY” and then sam dips jess in a kiss and the monster is instantly obliterated [heart eyes]

i truly genuinely do not remember anything that happens in s7. anyway jess and sam are married now

s8: sam was with jess the whole year dean was in purgatory. they were struggling to get back to normal life after everything. dean is still fucking mad that sam didn’t go looking for him. i assume everything else goes pretty much according to whatever the fuck happened in s8 except jess at one point has to go to bat for benny cuz sam for some reason hates him so much

i’ve been toying with the idea of jess doing the trials not sam but i mean how can i take that away from my Boy

s9: i do not know anything that happened in this season ):

s10: see above

s11: see above

s12: now i never watched s12, but in this au there is no lucifer’s son jack. instead jess gets pregnant midway through the season; cas finds out first because he can sense it and he’s like why does it feel like there’s an extra being in the bunker, and then he spills to dean cuz he can’t keep a secret, and then dean is like “oh shit what are you gonna do” and jess is like well!!!! sam and i.... talked about this. we were.....open to the possibility. and dean is like wtf how could u possibly bring a child into this world that’s fucked up adn cas is like [wipes tear] that’s beautiful

anyway when they come back from some kind of hunt (probably something that involved claire) and sam and jess are in the bunker, sam goes “jess, seeing claire, seeing jody and the girls.... it makes me think.... i wanna have a family with you” and jess hugs him and then cas walks into the bunker with dean and is like “oh, have you told him about the baby?” and everyone SCREAMS at him

and cas uses his annual miracle allowance to just reverse time about 30 seconds so when he enters the bunker he just goes “i have nothing to say” and Fucking Leaves

the baby is born in the back of the impala in the s12 finale, on the way to the hospital. dean is devastated. he’ll have to reupholster the WHOLE THING. sam accidentally names the baby john but they don’t want to tell dean that so they decide to call him jack.

s13-15 gets to be mostly about how cute it is to have a wittle baby in the bunker. cas is the best babysitter because he loves babies and is very powerful so he can protect him. the occultum nonsense in s15 can be about finding a Safe Place for baby jack, no matter what happens to the rest of the world. sam tells jess, you go with him, you’ll be safe there. dean tells sam, you go with them, you’ll be safe there. all of that good good cute family stuff. was it the best idea to have a baby in the middle of constant apocalypses? maybe not, but like, they are ALWAYS in constant apocalypses, so at some point you just have to bite the bullet

anyway. please clap

[janiedean]

aaah, and I thought the throbb/theon fandom couldn’t disappoint me more than it already had

and yet.

okay, so, whatever, I’ve been made aware of a situation on twitter and honestly I’m tired, so let’s just have it out.

apologies for the long-ass post but I honestly am tired of being the uber-correct person who addresses everyone directly and properly and so on and all I get is finding out people trash talk behind your back anyway and don’t engage with me if they have a problem.

so, yesterday I’m minding my damned business, I see that @fleurdulys​ is apparently in some discussions with anti sansan people calling her names, I send her a message like ‘oh god they found you I’m so sorry’ because I have seen anti sansan takes back in the day, two people including someone that had stalked her for months start tagging me too and accusing me of the usual condoning That Horrible Problematic Ship and of being a pedo apologist blah blah blah, I block both of them, the day after another two show up in my mentions uninvited, I block both of them.

then someone who was monitoring the situation warns me that some anon is trash talking me and fleur in the curiouscat asks of some other person that I had absolutely no knowledge of until then. I went to block them, found out I had blocked them already because they were anti thr/amsay and shipped a theon show only ship I really don’t like so I went and blocked them in JULY before they changed nickname because I’m an adult and I like to think I can cut out of my life people I don’t want to risk interacting with because I know I don’t have anything to say to them. said person accused me of ‘using as a tactic calling everything calvinist’ which... well, when the problem is that antis are basically being that it’s not a tactic but whatever, I addressed it on twitter and changed my screen name as a joke because y’know what let’s embrace it, I don’t like calvinists anyway.

I go and forget about it and then the same someone monitoring the situation informs me that these lovely people had this other exchange - I’m not mentioning who it is but they’ll know and at this point I’m honestly done:

now.

sorry but what the hell.

first of all, going in order:

I blocked receiver of the CC ages ago because she ships a thing that for me is an absolute no and I have very good reasons to not like it, and I have zero interest in talking to people who ship that AND are th/ramsay antis, which is a thing that I have zero patience for whichever side of the fence you’re on - saying it as someone who doesn’t like th/ramsay but ffs I don’t agree with anti-ing stuff, if you hate it blacklist and move on with your life;

also, I wasn't lurking on her anons because I didn’t even know she was involved but someone else monitoring the situation told me I was the subject of one of them and I went and checked for myself, so like... sorry I’m not unblocking because I never searched for her, I never talked to her, I never wanted contact with her and she and the anon are there trash talking me and fleur for shipping a fictional ship so what are we even talking here;

and that’s the premise, but: I had gotten my 'bitch ass away from throbb' in 2011, the amount of fics that fandom has would Not Exist At All because *I* was the sole steady contributor (ie the only person who kept on posting it) 2011-18 (and fandom drove out the only other steady contributor in 2015-8 lmao), *I* was the one organizing most theon-based fandom events (which were opened to all ships, including the ones I hated, and if I could handle posting th/ramsay fanart/reading th/ramsay prompts/assigning them when the exchange was anonymous and I had to post all the contributions when looking at th/ramsay art made me sick back in the day I think OP can tolerate people existing and shipping stuff she don't like), *I* was the one periodically coming up with ways to make the tag less filled with hate, *I* called out every single anti shaming anyone for their ships - from thramsay to theonsa because there were theonsa antis back in S5 but she wouldn't know I suppose -, so like she can pay me the favor to not even going there because if it wasn't for me she wouldn't have throbb fic to read *period* (not to brag but check, before I started spamming the tag and helped bringing in people along with someone else who's not in fandom anymore there were literally six), so how about she check what are her contributions to the fandom (less than mine probably) other than creating drama? thanks.

also ‘theon and robb would beat pedos up’ please check your facts, theon/jeynep is going to most likely be canon and she’s like thirteen and he’s twenty-two, which is a nine year age gap, which is not even that far from sansan. also your favorite theon ship has an eight years age gap in the books too so just stop. you ain’t coherent. at least be coherent. but you can’t, because every single asoiaf ship is problematic for some reason. ;)

and that was it for OP.

now, for the anon, who honestly... the entitlement, I swear to god, but in order: if you’re that pressed because I haven’t written throbb in months also thanks to people like you you could have like, come and talked to me on tumblr because regardless from what you assume I don’t bite. also I see that you’re a throbb shipper and you’re calling me THROBB CONTENT GENERATOR?

CONTENT GENERATOR?

ARE YOU COMPLETELY OUT OF IT?

I’M A HUMAN BEING, I’M NOT YOUR DAMNED CONTENT GENERATOR.

I DON’T GENERATE CONTENT FOR YOUR SATISFACTION, I WRITE FIC FOR SHIPS I LIKE. throbb is my otp (still, even if y’all really are trying to drive me out lol) and I wrote novels of it for years for free because I love it, BUT NOT BECAUSE I’M YOUR DAMNED CONTENT GENERATOR. 

content generator.

I’m just. actually you know what, if I write throbb again after this, you can be 100% sure there’s gonna be full-on blown canon sansan in it for a very long time and I’m absolutely not going to make it avoidable if you don’t scroll half of the fic. also ‘I could ask her to write it but she’d put sansan in it so I won’t’ who the hell do you think you are?

who the hell do you think you are?

I take prompts when I can because I want to and because once in a while I enjoy the idea of writing stuff for people because other than being something I love, I like the idea that I can make someone’s day nicer by filling them a prompt if they like my writing, I don’t do that just because you ask.

what the hell? so you’d ask and me, a poor idiot, not knowing it was you, would put it on a to-write list of prompts that’s like ten pages of notebook long because that’s how long my goddamned list is, while you’re here laughing that someone whose writing you like but whose personality you obviously despise has written you your favorite ship for free not knowing that it’s for someone that doesn’t like her all that much?

jesus christ.

like, I thought this fandom couldn’t get lower than the let’s plagiarize fics deal last july, but this is honestly rich.

and then you wonder why whenever I think about finishing sfbd or writing a ship that used to make me happy to write now I go like ‘f* this noise why should I bother I’m writing any other damned pairing instead’.

and I have to read this shit from someone who, when I blocked them the moment I got the fandom twitter account, who I never searched for, who I never talked to and who is friends with people who happily accuse others of being pedo apologists because they ship sansan which is, oh, wait, an almost-canon ship with canon text supporting it and that grrm himself certainly doesn’t hate and has admitted to have been leading up to, and now wants me to unblock her to talk??? when their friends showed up in my mentions absolutely uninvited because I sent support to someone who was arguing with them because we both ship sansan and I’ve done it for longer so I know how’s the deal?

and from some kind of anon who sure as hell reads my fics enough that they know I’m still the most prolific throbb contributor to the tag even if I haven’t written throbb in a year and some who calls me content generator and not even contributor as if I was some kind of juke box machine where you put in prompts and get out 5k minimum fics for free? and who still would like to read them enough to throw that shade but has no issues trashing me because I’m pointing out that antis think exactly like 17th century calvinists, which is a thing that can 100% be proved the moment you look up how the aforementioned calvinists thought?

like, I’d like to kindly tell the both of them to find a hobby that’s not trying to fele better harassing people they don’t know for fictional ships and remind everyone on here (because I’m sure anon is on tumblr as it’s where I hang out most of the time anyway) including the few anons who have asked me if I’d consider writing throbb again in the last months and who asked me if I’d run theonexchange again at some point that fic writers are human beings, not jukeboxes, and that being assholes has, as a usual consequence, driving the content creators out. I’m not a content generator, I’m not here to get laughed at because I fill prompts and I generally like to put content in the tags and not drama and because I think that being a fandom contributor should mean spreading positivity instead of shaming people for what they ship.

anyway: as a conclusion to this rant, I’m definitely not writing throbb that doesn’t have sansan in it anytime soon and if I run theonexchange again at some point (which I would like to but with these premises you’ll see that finding the force of will when I have a life is kind of a problem) if I find out that OP or any of her friends want to participate they’re kindly welcomed not to because I’m banning them on sight.

wow, get my bitch ass away from a fandom I kind of helped make and contributed 10% of the ao3 content to.

congrats, you just made sure I really won’t when I was taking a break but I was planning to come back at some point even if right now it’s quite tempting.

thanks for reading this if you got to this point and sorry for the rant but I’m tired.

I’m really tired.

also I’ve always said I shipped sansan from the moment I was in this fandom, I tag it also for blacklisting purposes and I don’t even put it as a side in fics that much because it doesn’t come up, so if anyone is so disgusted by it they’re welcome to learn to coexist with people who ship stuff they don’t like.

again: I’m really tired.

[rachelannc]

Gilmore Girls (Credit: Warner Brothers).

Call me late to the game, but I have joined the world of Stars Hollow and fallen in love with the girls we know as the Gilmore Girls, twenty years after it first debuted, and I’m not even mad about it.

Mind you, I had no intention of binging or even finishing the entire show, but as I casually watched one episode on Netflix and found how easily-digestible it was, one episode turned into three, and then it turned into every other day, and then it became a nightly ritual and, well, you know how it goes.

So grew my uncanny obsession with mother-daughter Lorelai and Rory Gilmore’s witty banter, exceptionally close relationship and charming small town, that I became so invested in their world and was able to finish the show in the two months I have returned and been quarantined in my own little small town. (A surprise for me, as someone who hardly ever watches or keeps up with a show, let alone ever binged a show. Seven seasons? Where do I even start, I thought?!)

Twenty years ago, I was just a seven-year-old girl listening to Hilary Duff and the Backstreet Boys while watching teeny-bopper shows and everything on the Disney Channel. I never really got into soapy teen dramas until (obviously) later in my life when I became a proper teenager.

My first reaction to watching Gilmore Girls? Wow. This Rory girl seems a lot like me.

Rory, the shy and introverted goody two-shoes and bookworm who loves school and always hangs out with her single mother and lives and grows up in a small town where everyone knows each other and loves her; and me, a girl who grew up in a town called Pleasant Hill. And if those Chilton uniforms didn’t remind me more of my own private school uniform? Ha, well I don’t really know what to say.

But really, the resemblances are uncanny and watching the show made me think: What would have happened if I had watched this as a girl growing up? Would I have handled situations with boys differently or treasured my girl time and female friendships a whole lot more, if I had seen Rory and Lorelai grow up, interact, and handle regular growing pains alongside me, as well?

As a first-time viewer, the writing and pacing of the show immediately stuck out. It’s incredibly quick and entertaining, witty through and through. I appreciate all of Lorelai’s references to eighties pop culture and Rory finding refuge in classic literature and the strong female characters and feminists I had so long been inspired by, too.

Moreover, it was incredibly comforting to find another person I could see myself reflected in, onscreen, growing up and making mistakes and always trying to do the right thing, but still staying true to who she was all along.

Her experience was so similar to how my adolescence had felt and been: my mom, who had given me all I ever needed to grow up, and me, just wanting to do right by her, was always responsible and loved at school, receiving attention from boys but never really ever cared for it because I was just happy reading a book or playing my guitar, ha.

And if that scene between Dean and Jess getting into a fight over Rory at a party couldn’t feel even more familiar to my high school days — when I was caught in a love triangle with boys who confessed their feelings to me on the same night, pressured me to make a decision, only for me to see their friendships fall apart right in front of me at school. Wow, that was high school in a nutshell, ha! And it was funny to see moments like that played back onscreen, happening to Rory as she had wished for none of it to happen, yet couldn’t really do anything about these boys’ feelings for her at the same time. (I feel you girl.)

The fact Rory wants to travel and pursue journalism as well couldn’t hit it home for me any more. Her university days reminded me of my own writing articles and chasing stories for my school newspaper. And when her and Paris wanted to experience “all the college experiences,” embarking on a cliche spring break trip trying to do “spring break right,” I couldn’t help but giggle as I found myself in college as well, very well knowing I am not the party type, but decided to get “all the college experience” as well, embarking on a Vegas trip with friends which, I do have to say, was a hell of a time.

There are so many moments from the show that have stuck with me, but here are a few memorable thoughts and moments I’ve had:

When Rory said, “I cannot do this alone. I need my mommy and damn it, I don’t care who knows it!” (s3 e13) I think she was speaking for all of us.

“I don’t want to be that kind of girl. That kind of girl who just falls apart because she doesn’t have a boyfriend.” (s1 e17) Yup. Yup, yup Rory. That was me.

Lane and the Kims and their lifelong friendship was just charming, and I couldn’t help but feel for the Asian best friend and strict mom who means well.

Rory and Paris and their ongoing escapades. Man, you can’t help but love them. Their spring break trip was all too relatable: Rory drinking and drunk-calling Dean for the first time and them doing spring break even if they never want to do it again because they realize they just aren’t the partying type. “It’s a college memory. I intend on having as many college memories as possible.” (s4 e17) Yeah, all too relatable. Ha.

Also Paris being that one friend we all know who is a little too much, too bossy, too aggressive, can turn people off but is also one of our very best friends? It was also incredible to see how their “hatred” (and Paris seeming to pop up everywhere Rory was, lol) turned into a real friendship over the years. I loved seeing that.

Rory’s graduation speech: “My mother never gave me any idea that I couldn’t do whatever I wanted to do or be whomever I wanted to be. She filled our house with love and fun and books and music, unflagging in her efforts to give me role models from Jane Austen to Eudora Welty to Patti Smith. As she guided me through these incredible eighteen years, I don’t know if she ever realized that the person I most wanted to be was her.” (s3 e22) That was a moment that made me just cry and tear up, for being a grateful kid myself, but also feeling just how mushy Lorelai must have been feeling as a mother, raising a good kid, all on her own. Ugh. 😭

Oh, Dean and Jess. They represent the boys we all meet and fall in love with when we’re young: Dean, the dependable boyfriend who is ready to give you everything, support you, be there for you, and may always love you even when you might take him for granted; and Jess, the said “bad boy” and mysterious romantic who leaves you hanging onto every single word that makes you fall head over heels for him, even if you know it might be bad for you.

When Rory has sex for the first time (s4 e22): It was such a big, telling, and coming-of-age moment. And you could feel that. I could feel and know exactly how she was feeling: how excited she was, how dumb it was, how one’s feelings get the best of you even when you normally think every action through and make reasons to justify it. God. I was also afraid to see how the show would handle the situation, especially Lorelai. I’m glad she was never quite overbearing to Rory and trusts her and lets her grow as her own individual, but I’m glad she put her foot down and told her how it was not okay for her to sleep with Dean, who was still a married man. #greatmothermoment

When Rory drops out of Yale and takes some time for herself:

I couldn’t have felt more seen. Going back home, bored at home all over again, finding things to preoccupy myself with until I got bored of it and wanted to move on to the next thing, because I genuinely wanted to… that feels very familiar. And it was heartwarming to see her have this moment and want it for herself. I know it may have been a controversial choice for many, but Rory’s quitting school let her evaluate her own choices, have the space and time to figure herself out — who she was beyond what everyone expects her to be — only to realize that she really does want to be a journalist. Her whole life had been predetermined by her surroundings, and we see just how hard of a worker she is, that to have this “slip-up” is actually the best thing she can do for herself — she realizes she can be and is responsible for her own actions. To experience that in college, rather than many years later down the road, is admirable.

And moreover, I appreciate how Lorelai handled the situation. She never forced Rory to do anything or made her feel bad about her decision. Rather, she let Rory have the space and time to want to go back to Yale and school to be a journalist. She realizes that no one can make that decision for her, but her. And I loved that. Another #greatmothermoment.

Even more so, when Jess surprisingly came back and tells her he’s written a book and reminds her that “this isn’t you,” (s6 e8) that moment almost broke my heart. It reminded me of a time I felt so lost myself and a boy who once knew me would be tough on me, because he cared for me and knew who I was and always have been, and wanted me to do “better” because I was better… I think we’ve all had those people who know us very well who tell us hard truths about ourselves. And we don’t really want to listen, but a part of us knows that maybe they’re actually right. 💔

I actually really liked Logan and Rory’s relationship and the sense of trust and maturity they had built since that infamous “You Jump, I Jack” life-and-death brigade episode (s5 e7). Beyond that, Rory and Logan were completely smitten with each other the whole time. They came from worlds that were incredibly similar, yet wanted to be different. I appreciate how Logan knew and acknowledged his privilege and mistakes. I appreciate how Rory made herself clear that she is a “relationship kind of girl” instead of an “every girl” and gets a boy like Logan to stop his ways. (If I had to be honest, I was never that kind of girl, either.) When they said they’d “factor each other in,” they showed ultimate support for each other. And it’s clear that they were each other’s biggest fans. (When Logan took Rory, Lorelai and Luke out for a Valentine’s Day weekend getaway? Wow.) It’s clear they have a lot of chemistry and fun together. And Logan’s smile to Rory. Ugh.

On Lorelai:

I thought Lolelai and Jason were actually kind of cute. A part of me wanted it to work out, but I knew it never would.

Oh man, I had a fat crush on Max Medina too.

I loved seeing Chris and Lorelai stick by each other throughout all those years, and actually try to make it work. He’s a good guy who means well, and it’s clear how comfortable they are with each other, but timing was never on their side.

The letter Lorelai wrote to Luke’s defense to have custody over his daughter legit brought me to tears. Luke really was there for Lorelai and saw Rory grow up. You can’t ever take that back. Ever. Ugh.

What happened between Lorelai and Chris was bound to happen, and I was actually so happy for Lorelai to be with him. I’m incredibly impressed at how the show was able to show such a raw, real and complicated feeling of never really being “in love,” so well.

Emily and Richard: what a hoot of grandparents. I loved all their comic banter. All those Friday night dinners and the show they always put on. Richard’s relationship with Rory was so warm and comforting, and Emily’s incessant complaining and nitpicking was great. But when Emily actually had a moment towards the end explaining to Lorelai how Lorelai was able to be a single mother, independent and all on her own, while she herself has always been a wife, not knowing how to be independent, couldn’t be a more self-aware moment.

After all of this, it’s incredibly refreshing to see a show like Gilmore Girls let its characters be who they are: wholeheartedly immature and charming, unabashedly flawed yet real. And while these characters could be problematic — Lorelai is at times immature and inappropriate, yet means well; her relationship with Rory may be too codependent that Rory ends up dropping everything to tend to her mom; Rory is part of an elite society that comes from wealth and privilege; Emily constantly hates on the help; etc.

As much as the above is true, it’s still inspiring to see how Lorelai and Rory take on — and maybe even take down — their given worlds. They bicker and laugh, whine and moan, lust, laze around and criticize, but they are also incredibly real. Just as we humans can often be short-sighted in our lives, Rory and Lorelai are too. Too often we are given female characters who are either a saint or a sinner, a wife or a girlfriend, a prude or a prostitute, that with Rory and Lorelai, we get both. I think we all are at times a little annoying, yet incredibly fascinating the next. And that’s probably what has made the Gilmore Girls so beloved and such a cult-classic since its debut in 2000: Its heroines are flawed, yet deeply human, just like us all.

https://twitter.com/rachelannc/status/1295641850913501185?s=20

https://twitter.com/rachelannc/status/1292361621071790091

Thoughts I Had While Watching Seven Seasons of ‘Gilmore Girls’ for the First Time, Ever Call me late to the game, but I have joined the world of Stars Hollow and fallen in love with the girls we know as the 

[sailorchips]

Destiny Dads AU

Good-ish!Morro and Kai are Lloyd's substitute parents!! To go along with my many doodles tagged #destiny dads au (i used the ship name for the alliteration lol)

NOTE: this is lowkey crackhead energy btw, don't take it seriously LOL

This au is basically AU where Morro doesn't die lmao

Instead, he just kind of gives up on finding the first Spinjitzu master's tomb

He's salty he couldn't find it and very salty Wu made him believe he would be the green ninja

Eventually, he hears that Lord Garmadon, the evil brother of his former sensei, has an evil(ish) son, and goes off to find said son

He finds Lloyd at Darkly's and basically adopts him lol

They bond over evil and not being appreciated by their dads (bc Wu was kind of Morro's dad) and since he's a natural trickster they bond over tricks lmao

Since Lloyd has to stay at Darkly's bc his mom abandoned him and his dad is out being evil, Morro says he can hang out with him when he wants to

So basically Morro takes him around the city when the teachers allow him to lol

But one day a certain...ghost whispers to Morro that they can help him find the tomb

He ends up disappearing to find Yang's haunted temple

Lloyd gets mad when Morro disappears on him like everyone else

He chooses to find him but eventually chooses to forget him, finding Pythor instead

Morro turns into a ghost bc of Yang and S5 still happens bc the ghost generals manipulate him by promising he can be the green ninja

Which btw Morro is salty because his former son/brother/cousin is the green ninja

Lloyd is able to fight off Morro in his head so easily because he thinks about when they were still friends, family even

And in the finale, instead of disappearing with the Preeminent, they somehow save Morro, who's allowed to stay if he promises to make up for his actions and help Cole master being a ghost

So yeah he and Cole bond a bit too bc they understand each other uwu

During the Day of the Departed special, he wanders off when they get to the museum, so Yang didn't have a reason to target him

Aw wait what if he tries to possessed his mannequin anyway to try and feel stuff :')

He stays behind and realizes Cole stole the Yin blade, but hears the villains possess the mannequins and joins them to hear their plan (also to try and keep them away from Master Wu)

When they find Cole, Morro realizes he's not strong enough to stop the wind to land the Bounty, so instead, he goes down to help Cole himself

cue some banter between the 3 of them bc Yang turned them both into ghosts

But in the end, they both get turned back into humans

...and that's when Kai is like shitshitshitshitshitHE'S HOT

In the time that he's gone, Kai bonded with Lloyd and promised to look out for him

So when Lloyd and Morro reconcile, Lloyd and Morro head out to the city like old times!

But Kai is suspicious and follows them bc he doesn't really know their past

Morro gets kinda flirty as a joke lmao but then actually gets soft for fire boy MISSION ABORT MISSION ABORT

Kai visits Skylor at her noodle house to be like "SKYLOR WHAT DO I DO I DIDN'T KNOW I LIKED GUYS"

And during Skybound, Nadakhan hints to a distracted Morro that uhhh hey did you know he has feelings for you?

Morro: "I wish... Kai liked me back"

Nadakhan: "...okay u wasted a wish"

Morro: "wait why"

Nadakhan: "can't wish for love, also I can't really make smth happen if it's already happening"

And then sometime afterwards, Kai finally breaks and yells at Morro bc he took Lloyd out to dinner to chat w/o telling the others and Kai is kinda jealous too

And when they both finally apologize, Kai confesses he's jealous

Morro: oh thank GOD I thought Nadakhan played me

Then they start being a sorta chill couple bc Morro is chill as heck bc he's so TIRED of being evil and doing stuff, so his bf's hotheadedness is balanced out lmao

Honestly Skylor and Nya are like “FINALLY that boy is getting himself under control”

I drew this already but idk I just love the idea of Lloyd like. Introducing them to Harumi or smth so they can approve of her (Morro does NOT btw he smells smth fishy but he wants Lloyd to be happy so he lies)

And then Lloyd's like "this is my cousin Morro and this is Morro's boyfriend Kai"

Someone: Didn't Morro try to curse Ninjago tho?

Morro: *sheds a single tear*

Kai: LEAVE MY BOYFRIEND ALONE HE'S HAVING HIS REDEMPTION ARC OK

So yeah y'all can send headcanons and I'll draw them lol

[wild-aloof-rebel]

y’all asked for a recap of the austin up close and personal shows, so i’m gonna do my best to give that to you. it was pretty similar to the other shows (which already are similar to things you can find in other interviews) so there isn’t a ton of new info here, but here it is anyway. under a cut because it’s gonna be long (and my immense apologies to people on mobile for whom we all know this won’t actually include a cut):

the show begins with the recap clip package from before s5 aired. i was a little sad to see they hadn’t updated it to include any new stuff, but it’s understandable i guess. even though i’d seen it before, did i start crying as soon as it started playing anyway? absolutely. was it amazing to be in a room full of people cheering for david and patrick’s first kiss? fuck yes.

dan and eugene come out on stage first for some father and son shenanigans. eugene jokes that dan is a big longhorns fan, to which dan replies that he doesn’t know what that is. they laugh at both shows about various sections of empty seats, even though the theater is supposed to be sold out. eugene jokes that he came up with the idea for the show while dan makes Dan Faces at him. dan says that they’ve been drinking frosé at the hotel all afternoon. eugene talks briefly about how proud he is of dan, and during one of the two shows you can basically see dan trying to shrink back into his leather jacket and hide--it’s so fucking cute how badly he takes compliments. (also, inserted side note that dan looks incredible, as usual, and i have to commend his commitment to his aesthetic for wearing a leather jacket in 80+ degree weather). and then they introduce the cast--noah, emily, annie, and finally catherine, who for good and obvious reasons gets a standing ovation at both shows.

the discussion starts with eugene and catherine talking about filming waiting for guffman because it was filmed in lockhart, texas, which is part of the austin metro area. they talk about eating a lot of barbecue during filming, and catherine says that that restaurant had a huge mural of like, bloody butchers on the wall, which was of course horribly unappetizing. from there they move into talking about all the couples they’ve played. dan asks if they have a favorite aside from johnny and moira, and they both agree it’s gerry and cookie from best in show. during one show, eugene tells the story of how he and christopher guest came up with the two left feet gag, and catherine jokes that moira’s backstory is similar to cookie’s, in that she has a trail of ex-lovers who consider their time with her to be the best sex of their lives. then they sing “god loves a terrier”

next they move into audition stories from annie, emily, and noah. annie talks about the bad spot she was in before the audition (during which emily cracked up, as is tradition for telling this story)--house burned down, $500 in the bank, blown her first screen test, and considering changing careers--how she read and tested for both alexis and stevie, and how it took 2 1/2 weeks for dan to call her back after her screen test, during which time she of course came to the conclusion she didn’t get either part. and dan when he called, of course was... well, dan, and left her hanging for as long as possible before asking finally asking if she wanted to play his sister. (he defends himself by saying punk’d was popular at the time, and he thought it would be funny.) emily talks about her similarly bad spot before her audition--divorce, no jobs, $800 in the bank--and the rumor that she took her top off during it. dan jumps in to clarify that in reality, she had a great audition and instead of saying thanks and leaving the room at the end, she sat down on the sofa, pulled the collar of her sweatshirt up over her head, and began rocking back and forth saying “that was awful, that was so bad, oh god...” dan also points out that her taking her top off would have done absolutely nothing for him, lmao, which then leads to noah joking that the first thing he did in his audition was take his top off. (I LOVE THEM) dan says noah was “underprepared” for his audition, to which noah argues that he prepared a lot--learned his lines, thought a lot about the character, etc.--but he didn’t watch any of the show, for which dan apparently still holds a grudge against him. he says dan also gives him shit for not having seen paddington 2, and dan reveals the ultimate travesty that noah has also not seen pretty woman.

for the next segment, each actor talks about their character. eugene talks about playing the straight man for once and how that differs from all the other roles he’s played. emily, during the second show, feels the need to clarify what he means by “straight man” since there are other connotations to that phrase, lol. 

there’s a brief moira clip package, and catherine talks about the origins of moira’s voice/pronunciation/vocabulary, dropping into the voice to refer to it as “mementos of her world travels” that she “bestows as a gift on the less travelled and less educated [which has about sixteen syllables in it]” as “an amuse bouche of what it’s like to walk in her givenchy shoes.” she also jokes during the second show that it’s a good thing dan didn’t make her audition to play moira because if she had come in with that voice/inflection, they would have thought she was having a stroke. dan asks her if she has a favorite wig--she doesn’t because it would be like asking her to choose her favorite “bébé”--but she does talk about how much fun it is to wear them in ways they weren’t intended, including as a hat, a look she refers to as her “director’s beret.”

annie talks about the influences of the kardashians, lindsay lohan, and the olsen twins on alexis’s speech and mannerisms. she talks about her vocal fry and how it’s essentially such a “lazy fucking way” of talking, as well as the origin of the alexis hands and how it came from the way they all hold their handbags. (her thought process: what if there was no handbag? and what if i turned my hand over? and what if i added another hand?) she also mentions that someone recently contacted her on instagram very concerned for her health because apparently her wrists being like that could be a symptom of some terrible disease. (she clarified that she doesn’t have any of the other symptoms lol). dan says it looks more like she was in a horrific accident, broke both wrists, and just decided not to get them fixed. annie insists that it’s actually very relaxing and that we should all try it before we fall asleep at night, lol. then there’s a whole conversation about the popularity of “ew david” and all the places it’s popped up--lapel pins, doormats, needlepoint, license plates--and annie says someone pointed out on twitter recently that she only actually says it twice in the show. [that’s actually wrong, she says it three times plus an “ew, no, david,” but the point still stands that she says it far less than people think she does.] dan jokes about how he didn’t realize when they wrote that line that people would someday be yelling “ew” at him when he walks by on the street.

emily talks about her similarities to stevie, starting with how they dress, and how much she loves just getting to sit behind the desk playing sudoku and solitaire all day. she says sometimes directors will be like, what if stevie was dusting in this scene? “why?!” maybe she wants to make coffee. “not that coffee!” and so emily stays happy and comfy behind the desk all the time, calling it the best job she’s ever had, and eugene confirms that hanging out behind the desk is indeed pretty nice.

dan asks noah about what it’s like to play basically the only sane person on the show. he talks about how interacting with the roses is a bit like watching a tv show or a family of aliens--it’s entertaining and you’re always waiting for what reference is gonna pop up next to what celebrity they did what with. he says that the day david walked into ray’s, for patrick it was like “discovering a unicorn.” he also mentions that one of his all-time favorite lines from the show is “it’s a general store, but it’s also a very specific store.”

they cover some fan creations, including the taxidermied rats that dan talked about on james corden, a couple of dogs dressed up like the roses, a planter with eugene’s face drawn on it, a little crocheted david and patrick, and a romance novel cover-style manip of david and stevie “behind the scenes” of the turkey shoot.

they talk a bit about cabaret, which is the only part of s5 that really gets discussed anywhere. noah and emily talk about how difficult the dancing was for the “money” scene (dan jokes that it was particularly difficult for emily since it didn’t consist of sitting behind a desk), how they both watched the video of the professionals doing it and thought it looked easy but that it was not. they talk about dan sending them for vitamin drips, and noah demonstrates a bit of the dance that they had particular trouble getting and that led to the choreographer trying to get emily even to just walk rather than doing the move and she still struggled. (here’s a brief video of that bit.) annie also joins in the discussion to talk about “willkommen” and how the choreographer was always so upset that they weren’t nailing the moves the way he wanted them to (her kick toward the end of the routine gets a special mention there), and they would just use the excuse of “well my character wouldn’t be a great dancer” to cover up for the fact that they couldn’t really do it lol. dan laughs about the fact that he wrote himself out of alla that mess.

dan asks noah to talk about his version of “the best.” noah says he knew how much the song meant to dan (they joke in one show about how dan is the kind of person who would hear the original in a club somewhere and beg everyone around him like “okay, but actually listen to the lyrics...”) and how difficult it was to figure out how to take something that’s so poppy and far from his usual style and transform it into something that would work for him. he talks about how dan finally texted him to ask if he could hear it, and he played it in his bedroom 17 or 18 times before finally sending dan one run of it and then didn’t hear anything back for like 4 hours. he jokes that at that point he basically is assuming he’s been fired. and dan jumps in to say that in reality he’d just been sobbing alone in the dark after listening to it and that you shouldn’t just spring that song on someone when they’re sitting at home alone marathoning downton abbey. noah says that what he thinks makes the scene particularly great on the show, however, is dan’s performance as david reacting to the song. dan then talks about the moment when moira reaches out to touch david’s arm and how that wasn’t scripted but was such a beautiful and important moment of support from a parent for their queer child. eugene then jokes that the scene would have been even more poignant if johnny had been included in it, and they argue over why he couldn’t have been there (he was back at the motel with stevie. eugene: “he could have slipped out for ten minutes.”)

dan asks everyone about their most memorable day on set. emily (along with contributions from noah and annie) talks in both shows about filming the cabaret scenes and how it was so great because it was the last day of shooting for s5 and they were in an actual theater with a whole audience to watch them and so it felt like a real, actual theater performance. they were rehearsing it up until the last possible minute, and they only got three takes at it.

in both shows, they talk about the junebugs from the filming of “surprise party” and dan a) not initially knowing what a junebug actually was and b) having a fear of flying bugs. (per dan, “so does nicole kidman. sue us both.”) they talk about all the takes that were ruined because there were so many flying around and how eventually one flew down dan’s shirt and he freaked out, which leads to eugene doing a reenactment of dan freaking out, complete with “fuck this fucking shit!” (the actual version of which you can of course watch in the s1 bloopers) eugene says he wanted to get t-shirts made that said fuck this fucking shit.

in the first show, eugene brings up the golf scene with johnny and roland and talks about the director yelling at them because they couldn’t stop laughing, take after take (which you can watch in the s3 bloopers). he jokes about how it ultimately didn’t even matter because “it’s my show.”

in the second show, catherine brings up the scene of moira and david trying to sell the allez vous products to everyone and how she couldn’t stop laughing because dan looked “insane” with all his tanner and his [intentionally] bad acting (again, s1 bloopers are your friend).

after all that, they play the multi-season blooper reel (which is great because i do always enjoy watching dan say “i never said i was bright, guys, just really fucking pretty” lmao). during both shows, annie and emily sit on the floor to watch it, which is super cute.

then there’s the audience vs cast trivia game. annie picks five audience members to come on stage and compete against the cast. i don’t remember all the questions dan asked, but between the two shows there was at least what’s alexis’s middle name? what does alexis call the mennonites who they get the peanut butter things from on the way to heather’s farm? what was the gift that patrick gave david on their first date? who was the person moira decided to perform a show about for asbestos fest (and a bonus point for the actual name of the show)? what does twyla put in glasses of champagne? what was moira’s character’s name on sunrise bay? and my personal favorite since i got the acknowledgement from dan for knowing the answer, what was the name of alexis and david’s nanny when they were kids? emily hands out t-shirts to the five audience members who played, and the prize for the audience “winning” is of course noah playing “simply the best” and he jokes beforehand that he’s been working on an acoustic arrangement of “a little bit alexis,” which noah, please, actually do the thing. (here’s a tiny video of him performing.)

the show ends with just a few quick words of thanks from dan. in the first show, he mentions that they’re filming the “sixth and final season,” which uhhhhhhhh does not get the warmest of reactions, which is probably why he doesn’t really mention it in the second show.

aside from the discussion of cabaret, there was very little discussion of s5. i think they’re basically still running the script from the shows they were doing at the start of the season, so i guess that makes sense, but it would have been nice to see a little more talk about it. in one of the shows, dan does briefly bring up annie having done both the song and the choreography for “a little bit alexis” herself, and he says they have more footage of her dancing and that maybe they might release some of it as a treat. and then he kind of realizes what he said and goes, “well i guess now that i said it we actually are gonna have to do it...” so maybe we have that to look forward to?

also since there was no discussion of the engagement in the first show, i submitted a few questions for the second show to try to get them to talk about it (some questions more direct than others), and dan did somehow manage to pick one of mine to read, which was asking noah what it was like having dan carry him up a mountain repeatedly. (i know we’ve heard him talk about it already in some of the bts videos, but like i said, some questions were more direct than others, and that was my indirect way of being like, binch let’s talk about what happened on that mountain lolol.) i actually missed the first several seconds of noah’s response because i was too busy dying about dan reading my question (if someone else who was there wants to fill me in, please do, lmao), but i think he made a joke about dan actually carrying him allllll the way up the mountain, and then more seriously he did specifically say that it was impressive for dan to do it take after take because “i’m not a light man.” he also talked about how they got up there and started filming them looking out at the scenery, and that turkey vulture just swooped so nicely right into the shot and circled back out again and how auspicious that seemed. (there you go, @jcams88, confirmation just for you, straight from noah’s mouth, that that they did not edit in the turkey vulture flying around back there.) unfortunately there was no further discussion of the proposal from there, but hey it’s at least a bit more s5 talk than we would have had if i hadn’t asked lol. all the thanks to dan for picking my question and at least giving us this much.

one other random thing that happens throughout the show and made me laugh a lot is that when annie or noah talks about something dan has said to them, they say it in their best impersonation of dan’s voice, and after they’re done, dan’s immediate response is, “okay, first of all, i don’t sound like that,” in the exact same tone of voice they were impersonating. as a running gag, it was solidly funny every single time. i love them all SO much.

[sometimesrosy]

You said you were sure they were telling a 2 season story so we will get canon Bellarke in s6 but you are already talking about s7 and ‘established Bellarke’ lol which means they won’t be canon in s6. And when we see s7 to see ‘established Bellarke’ you will say they are giving us a satisfying love story so we will see established Bellarke in s8. There’s no end to this and it’s so funny that you don’t even notice your choice of words you already know you are wrong you just can’t admit it i think

I should block you but you’re polite at least, so I’m going to answer this.

I don’t think you understand what it means to be “wrong” about a speculation or interpretation of a story.

If you speculate, you aren’t wrong until it happens in canon differently how you said it would. I cannot be wrong about s6 before s6 starts. It’s still just speculation.

My interpretation that we are getting a two season story for a lot of the current story lines is also not wrong yet. But it is based on the mutliple s5 storylines that were not concluded in s5, but stopped in the middle, without conclusion, but with significant set up for how they might conclude.

I cannot KNOW if they will finish each story. But I do know that they left Bellarke, the blake siblings, madi being commander, raven’s character arc and princess mechanic, kabby, and B/E all with major elements waiting to be told, so that we don’t feel like we know what is happening. Clarke hasn’t even reunited with Raven and Murphy yet. They have two big secrets hanging over us, which will affect two main relationships. The Flame is still a mystery but Madi has a teacher, raven didn’t get the character arc she usually gets in half a season, Abby is still struggling with addiction, Kabby is still on edge, and Kane still might die. And B/E is being set up to break up. All those story elements are in place, but unrelated to the main concluded storyline. 

This is story structure. I cannot TELL what story structure the writers will choose for the next season, but I CAN look at last season’s story structure and see how they have left the audience hanging. Now, if you don’t understand story structure, and can’t see the story from an outside perspective, but only from within the narrative and how the characters and actions make you feel, you might only come away with the feeling that the story is UNFINISHED. Wanting. LIke you’re being cheated of your deserved outcome.

When people say, “THEY BETTER FIX MY FAVORITE RELATIONSHIPS OR I’M GONNA SUE,” that’s how it feels when a story has been left unresolved. If you don’t understand how stories work and you don’t trust the writers, you think the story is just jerking you around and the writers are ruining your favorite characters/ships.

But I am a literal professional. I write and analyze and teach and I have degrees and I have national certifications to authorize me in explaining to people how the stories are made. I’m not making it up. It is not delusional to analyze a story. It IS possible to understand a story being told and figure out which tropes are being you and there are official, academic ways to understand these narrative. Which, I might add, JR ALSO studied when he was learning how to tell stories. At the same time that I was learning how to tell stories. I think I have a particular insight into JRs stories because we are essentially both scifi geeks growing up at about the same time and studying writing at about the same time. Same background. Same language. He was raised on the same pop-culture I was. So I recognize his references. 

Can I be wrong. YOU BET. OF COURSE. I was wrong about them kissing in s5. When I was wrong, I asked myself why I went wrong. Ok. I’ll tell you. Because I was shipping. I wanted them to kiss. Also because I was diminishing the element of romance within the Bellarke story (because it’s scifi, so there’s a bit of scifi bias there,) I didn’t see why they needed to delay it or have ANOTHER obstacle. I wanted to rush it. I was being #teamfuckingkissalready. My bad. JR rushed other romances, I didn’t see why he couldn’t rush Bellarke. And I have never considered B/E to be a real danger, but always the romantic obstacle. This is because I know the trope and the stakes of the love triangle are not high enough for me, because I know Bellamy will pick Clarke and I don’t need to know how. (But HOW is the romance genre story. See? More scifi bias. I diminished the romance story because it wasn’t as important to me.)

So that’s WHY I was wrong. My bias. Lack of patience. So I went back to examine my theories about s5. More rushing. When I realized they were doing B/E I immediately recognized the love triangle trope. And because I immediately recognized it, I jumped over the story in my head. I knew how it would turn out, so I was like “okay that’s done, let’s go.” When I heard the first four episodes only portrayed about one day, something in my head went, “uh oh, you’re theory’s off. this is going much slower than you thought and there’s no time for the love triangle to resolve.” But because I was shipping, I said, “PISH POSH BRING ON THE BELLARKE!” and I ignored the understanding that the narrative required me to slow down. I ignored my own understanding of story structure so I could get what I wanted.

When I look at my speculation WITHOUT the rushing though, it’s like a path, where it hits certain benchmarks so that it can get to the next one. WhenI look at the narrative of season 5, it is hitting a lot of those benchmarks that I said would happen, but it only got half way. It didn’t take a different path than I said it would. It is telling the same story that I said it was going to tell, but it is only half way on the story. It did do something, however, that I did not expect, because I was being impatient. It SET UP the story. 

I don’t need the set up, because I can see the story without having it spelled out for me. YOU, apparently, need the story drawn out and the colors numbered and little pots of paint so you know what goes where before you can see what the picture is showing. Fair enough. I’m not actually the general audience. I have inside information on story and narrative and scifi. I know the story before he tells it because I know what conventions he’s using, because if I were writing it, I would be making sure I hit those benchmarks. And, just so you know, I know he is actively working on those benchmarks, because he keeps hitting them. And he also, in season 5, went back and addressed some major issues with OLD storylines so that we could have closure on them. Which tells me more about the NON-romantic storyline, and gives me faith that romantic storyline is indeed a slow burn, intentional story that coincides with these moral, philosophical, thematic storylines that he is wrapping up.

Let me tell you something. This story is almost over. The characters are becoming the heroes they were meant to be. We have Bellamy for evidence, and Clarke is finally coming out of her “love is weakness” cloud. The grounders are gone. The earth is gone. Bellarke are together. The phase of the story that is ended is the one where Clarke and Bellamy have to fight to survive. They’ve broken the cycle of violence and the new story is…. now this is speculation but I think there’s textual evidence for it…. Clarke and Bellamy fighting to LIVE. This is a theme that we had in season 1 but the characters could never get to because they were always fighting to survive. NOW they have actively turned to wanting to live well, to deserving to survive, and to LOVING. The people who have lost faith are finding it again. The people who never believed are now The Good Guys.

Now that I’ve gone exhaustively through how I was wrong in season 5, why I was wrong, and what I do when I am wrong, I could make a long list of all the ways I have been right about this show, but I won’t. I find I am less interested in proving myself right than I am in showing you how to think about things, even when you are wrong. How you can UNDERSTAND things and evaluate your own thinking and double check your own interpretations. So I am instead going to turn to where YOU are wrong. :) 

First you don’t understand what it means to be wrong. Or in what ways I was wrong. You can be wrong about some of your interpretation, and right about other parts. Also, being doesn’t mean you are no good. Also my interpretations aren’t really about being right or wrong, but about ways to think about story and evidence. Also, it’s not a big deal if you’re wrong about an interpretation of a tv show because it’s just a tv show, and having a wrong interpretation doesn’t mean you don’t or can’t understand, you are delusional, or your whole career and academic discipline is a fake. It’s a discipline, a way to understand things. Being off track just means that you find a different path to understanding. You also learn from when you are wrong by saying, “Oh well I was wrong, let me look at that differently and see what I can learn from it.” So where I was wrong can actually teach me more about what’s happening in the story than being right. Like way back in season 3 I was wrong to say L was NO kind of hero (because I didn’t like her) so I looked at what the other person was saying and asked myself. Okay then. Maybe she IS a hero. Let me check her against the heroic conventions. And fucking GOOGLED heroic conventions and I said. OH HOLY HECK SHE’S A CLASSIC TRAGIC HERO. Like Hamlet or Macbeth. Her part in the story painted her as the tragic hero of a tragedy. While Clarke was still the hero of the main story. Being wrong helped me to understand the story MUCH better. :)

Y’all should stop being so afraid of being wrong. That’s how you learn and grow and get better and understand the world. 

Also. You are confused about some terms.

There are different ways to understand a romance. And fandom has come up with changing definitions of what a Canon Romance is. That doesn’t mean the story isn’t a romance or a love story. That means fandom is changing the benchmark every time Bellarke hits it. Which means fandom definitions are wrong. Because a definitions helps us understand something, and if you change it every time it is correct, you are no longer using the word correctly and it becomes meaningless. Yes, language is fluid. No that does not mean you can just stop words from meaning what they mean, you are not Donald Trump. 

Fandom tends to use the words “canon romance” to be one of three things. Kiss/Confession/Sex. Fandom does not believe that a romance is canon unless it has those things. Sometimes ONE of those things will be enough. Sometimes ALL of them need to be present. They also require the word “Love” to be used. HOWEVER, that word seems to change. Because Octavia told Bellamy that Clarke was a “traitor who you love,” and has fandom has since been trying to bend over backwards to prove that it was platonic, despite being a comparison to his completely non platonic girlfriend. So Bellarke actually hit a slant benchmark with the declaration of love, but fandom refuses to accept that as proof of a canon love. Despite it being canon. About how Bellamy loves clarke romantically. IDK. 

So that’s a problem with the kiss/confess/sex definition of canon. Another problem is that we have canon kiss/confess/sex from CL Kabby, Linctavia, Marper, Memori and from Flarke, and those are considered canon romances. We have canon kiss/sex, with no confess from Br/aven and Niylarke, and those are both considered canon romances, despite br/aven being actually platonic since then and niylarke just being friends, while canon kiss/sex, still with no actual confession B/E is being moved into the “endgame” category by MUCH of fandom.  We have canon kiss/confess for Maya and Jasper (one sided) and for Mackson, which is established for SIX YEARS. And then we have all Bellamy’s season 1 conquests which could be just kissing or simply laying in bed together. Now ALL of those are considered canon romances, despite having MANY different meanings, from nothing but a fuck, to actual life long many decades committed endgame. But they are all accepted as a canon romance. 

But the couple who has been declared and shown to be the ACTUAL CENTRAL RELATIONSHIP ON THE SHOW is not good enough for you to consider canon.

They love each other romantically, and that is CANON. Which makes it a Canon Romance. NOT platonic, no matter how many times fandom throws that word around. Because platonic love is not allowed to have romantic feelings. And feelings of jealousy and longing and pining and love like your girlfriend are expressing romantic interest. 

ALSO, a canon romance is a romance story that is being told in the canon. One of the really odd definition of canon romance fandom gives actually excludes the hero and heroine of an actual love story from being canon. Why? Because a love story is ABOUT two people falling in love and getting together. And, depending on the story being told, that means that while there should be moments where they get closer and the interest or possibility is revealed, the story is ACTUALLY ABOUT THEM NOT BEING TOGETHER. AND HOW THEY FIND EACH OTHER. AND GET PAST THE OBSTACLES IN THEIR WAY.

A love story that does not have obstacles or separations is not a love story. Because love stories are how they go from not being in love to being in love. If the story starts with being in love and they stay in love, it’s not a love story, it’s an established relationships story. If a story starts with being in love and ends with them not being in love, it’s a break up story. If a story starts with a couple being in love and discovers another person whom one of the partners falls in love with, whether that partner chooses the original love or the new love, that’s a LOVE TRIANGLE. If they choose the first partner, it’s an affair story that overcomes odds. If they choose the second partner, it’s a love story. Because it goes from them not being together to the being together. SO one defining characteristic of a love story is that for at least PART of the time of the story, the lovers are NOT TOGETHER. That means that being NOT TOGETHER is part of ANY canon love story. And for SOME stories, that means that the lovers are not together all the way until the climax of the action. Because the climax of the action IS THEM GETTING TOGETHER.

You would NEVER say that Elizebeth and Darcy is not a canon love story. But by fandom definitions, until the end, there is no love story AT ALL, and Elizabeth and Darcy are not canon. And it just makes me FURIOUS that all you supposed shippers are going around IGNORING the story of deepening love, because they haven’t boinked. THAT IS NOT WHAT A LOVE STORY IS.

Go back over that crowd of fandom approved canon ships. Most of them were two ships passing in the night. Some of them were real love but over. Some of them are background relationships that get no story development. And meanwhile, we have BELLARKE, which is given FIVE SEASONS of growth and development and ever intensifying feelings, and you’re like, nope. It’s not romantic. You’re all fake shippers. Shippers look for the love. But the more love you get on screen between Bellarke, the more you’re like, nope, it’s not happening. 

NOW. Let’s talk about what you say I said.

As established, a canon romance can mean many things. When I talk to fandom, I generally mean a kiss/confession/sex. Because that seems to be the definition for those of you who don’t understand what love is.  Despite a kiss meaning very little, sex being, in this world, quite likely to just be scratching an itch not proof of love at all, and the word “love” being just a word. Finn said he loved Clarke and Raven, but how did that show up in his actions or how he treated them? IDK man. Y’all are looking for the cheap show without any depth. but okay. That’s what you want. So when I say CANON, I say I think Bellamy and Clarke will kiss, confess and/or have sex in season 6.

None of that makes a relationship established, bunny rabbit. Established relationships are: Marper, Kabby, Linctavia, Bellina, B/E, Finn and Raven, Mackson, Briller, Memori, Jake and Abby. An established relationship is one that is acknowledged IN CANON as romantic and committed couple. That’s boyfriend/girlfriend, girlfriend/girlfriend, boyfriend/boyfriend, husband/wife etc. 

CL and Flarke were NEVER established relationships. Both were secret. They were not public about it. They were not committed. They were more than one night stands, but they were NEVER declared a relationship by ANY of the characters involved. They were a physical expression of feeling and THEN a break up, because he was cheating in Flarke’s case, and because she was trying to kill Clarke’s people in CLs case (she then died which ensured that Clarke was traumatized and they never got to see if it ever COULD work out. But before that they never made an attempt. That was a goodbye.)

Established relationships =/= as fandom definition of canon relationship. Which is silly. Fandom wants the definition that doesn’t actual define love or romance or commitment. And they will accept canon porn as a more valid love story than an actual love story where the heroes have not kissed yet. :/

So here is what I am saying about Bellarke that you don’t understand.

Bellarke is a love story: Bellarke is the central love story of The 100. It IS a love story that has been CONSISTENTLY developed for 5 seasons and is being pushed into romantic NOW at the end of s4 and all of s5. Bellarke is a love story. Whether or not they have kiss/confess/sex yet. It is a love story like Pride and Prejudice in which the development of feelings grows without physical contact or verbal acknowledgement until nearer the end. To me, as a writer, I know that the main relationship in a love story is a CANON ROMANCE, because it is ABOUT how they fall in love, even if they are not always IN a relationship. They are the love story. But that is not how fandom thinks of canon romance.

Bellarke currently have unstated but returned canon romantic feelings: It is CURRENTLY a canon ROMANCE, because there is a love triangle between Clarke, Bellamy, and Echo. We have canon feelings on all three sides. Bellamy returns romantic feelings for BOTH Clarke AND Echo. It has been revealed with CANON dialogue, action, narrative, and visuals. A love triangle means it is canon romance. If someone WANTS to ship them, that is enough to count as a canon romance, but if someone wants to be an anti, they will dispute and say it’s not canon until kiss/confess/sex.

I speculate there will be fandom approved canon Bellarke ( a kiss/confession/sex scene) next season: This is speculation. But I know it’s a love story and Belarke are in love and everyone knows except Echo and Bellarke. The love triangle will be resolved next season because it has been set up that way. And that is the next step. Bellamy will break up with echo and however long it takes, begin a romantic relationship expressed physically with Clarke. 

I speculate that season 7 will be an ESTABLISHED Bellarke relationship: That means that when it goes physical in season 6, it might take some time to sort out what it means, but their feelings are so deep that they will commit to each other by announcing their relationship to their community. They’re already “married” now they will get to kiss in public. Their deep soulmate relationship will be recognized not just as girlfriend and boyfriend but something closer to husband and wife. 

You are complaining that I’m confused and wrong, when you don’t realize that Love story, canon romance, established relationship are all different things. You complain about my word choice without realizing that I am saying different things. I guess you think I’m not being specific? No. I’m being quite specific and delineating different kinds of and levels of romantic relationships in stories. You think these are vague terms because fandom doesn’t think past boinking.

I also believe that The 100 will end at season 7. I could definitely be wrong about that. It’s not about story, it’s about hollywood and I don’t understand hollywood and how they make their choices, or I’m not interested in understanding or something? 

But I see the story winding down. I said it could end in season 5… and it did. With the end of book 1, but there was still story to be told. And we still have more show. Hurrah. JR has said that he could end the show in five or seven seasons or he could go on forever. So I can see the end of season 7, because a lot of the storylines we have been going through are wrapping up. A main one is Bellarke. JR has brought them back together, as soulmates, aligned together to be the good guys. That is the 1-5 season story. It has set Bellarke up to now REDEEM humanity, not just save them from destruction, but build a better world because they are now choosing to be the good guys. It has ALSO set up Bellarke to become romantic finally, by putting their non-romantic relationship into a romantic love triangle with Echo between them, and by having Monty tell them to live life and be as happy as he and Harper (endgame romance.) Can Echo be SATISFIED with Bellamy loving his “non-romantic” partner more than he loves her? You know what? If you think thats a good story, you keep on thinking that’s gonna happen. I think the better story is that the hero and heroine who have spent five seasons FIGHTING to be together ACTUALLY get together and get to show their actual romantic feelings for each other. 

I think JR gave us a whole season of Bellarke reuniting and sorting out their romantic feelings for each other, and will give us a whole season of them trying to figure out how to ACT on their feelings for each other, ending the season with a commitment to be together, ROMANTICALLY and in public (along with saving/redeeming their people) and that in season 7, that commitment and acknowledgment will result in full established relationship as they FINALLY get to be TOGETHER while they’re together, without the doubts and fears and insecurity. As mature adults who love each other and know each other and support each other and make each other stronger. So that they can create the new world and START the new cycle without violence, war or abuse, but rather love, unity and growth. And we will end with Clarke and Bellamy being the matched pair, the king and queen, nomon and nontu, Mother and father of a new age of humanity. It’s an origin story for a future mythology. 

But I don’t know. I guess you think JR is just fucking with us because he’s a bastard. You’re real good at storytelling. Thanks for the insight. 

[themostrandomfandom]

i know you've done a post about what all the ND kids think about brittana but what do brittany and santana think about each of the new directions kids? also, do you think that while bram dated santana thought that maybe they were gonna be "endgame"? (i literally could not think of a better word lol) (i'm so sorry i always ask like 30 questions at once but) also, do you think santana knew about the fake wedding? do you think that britt ever told her? thanks and sry for my terrible phrasing!

Hey, @letmerebloginpeace​​!

So my answer to your first question turned into A Thing™ and has gotten long enough to warrant its own post. I’m still working on it, but I’ll put it up sometime in the next few days.

As for your other questions, I’ve got them after the cut.

_______

Does Santana ever worry that Bram might be “endgame”?

Santana is a huge worrywart, so of course she does.

To recall, Santana’s whole reason for breaking up with Brittany is not because she doesn’t love her but because she loves her so much. She sees Brittany suffering through their long distance relationship—and, hell, she’s suffering through it herself—and she knows there’s nothing she can do to rectify the situation considering that she’s living in another state and Brittany is still stuck in high school and there is no way for them to physically be together for the foreseeable future.

Since Santana values Brittany’s happiness above her own, she tries to do the right thing by “setting Brittany free,” affording Brittany the liberty to take comfort in someone else if she so chooses.

Of course, even as Santana takes this action, she is hoping against hope that the situation will be temporary and that she and Brittany will eventually find their ways back to each other because they’re destined to be together, right? She feels torn because part of her knows that if Brittany does eventually end up dating someone else, it’s going to kill her, but at the same time, she does want Brittany to be happy even if she has to herself be miserable to make that happen.

For a few weeks following their breakup, Brittany doesn’t date anyone else and in fact goes out of her way to try to win Santana back. While Santana isn’t necessarily thrilled that Brittany is pining over her, she can’t help but feel at least somewhat reassured by what Brittany says to her backstage in episode 4x06. She wants Brittany to be happy, but it’s good to know that she hasn’t lost Brittany’s love. Santana holds onto that reassurance going forward.

—but then a few weeks later, Tina blindsides her with the news that not only is Brittany now dating someone else, but that someone is Sam, and things between Brittany and Sam seem to be pretty serious.

The fact that Brittany never told Santana she was dating Sam totally fucks with Santana’s head. From her perspective, Brittany’s behavior lends credence to the idea that Sam might indeed be legitimate competition. After all, why actively conceal the relationship if it were just some silly little fling? Maybe there is something really there.

The mere possibility is enough to send Santana into a panic.

I’m sure that during her three and a half hour drive from Louisville to Lima, Santana entertains all sorts of despairing thoughts about Bram, including the possibility that they might be endgame.

It’s not that Santana believes that Sam is a better match for Brittany than she is. It’s just that she has always feared rejection and worried that maybe, somehow, she is unlovable. Wouldn’t staying with Sam in many ways be easier for Brittany? Isn’t Sam in some ways a nicer person than she is?

In her heart of hearts, Santana knows that she and Brittany belong together, but she also has the hardest time in the world believing that good things can happen to a person like her. Maybe she ruined everything by breaking up with Brittany. Maybe she threw away her one chance to be happy, and Brittany will never forgive her.

Of course, as I discuss here, I think Santana focuses less on the “Sam of it all” than she does on the possibility that Brittany could be with basically anybody else other than herself. It’s not that Sam Evans is especially worrisome or noxious to Santana. In fact, she would be just as upset about Brittany dating and concealing her relationship status with Mike Chang or Marley Rose or a stranger. Santana’s is a mind that is always going to run wild with worst case scenarios and no-win situations, so in her view, even if Bram doesn’t last, there is still a chance that Brittany will nevertheless never return to her. Maybe Brittany will date someone else after Sam. Maybe she’ll end up marrying that person and being with them forever.

What Santana is really freaking out about is that there are no guarantees that Brittany will return to her once everything is said and done. She wants to believe that they’re destined to be together, but who’s to say if she’s right? She’s got that old maxim playing through her mind, “If you love someone, let them go, and if it’s meant to be, they’ll come back to you someday,” and she’s wondering how it applies to her and Brittany. She can only hold her breath and pray that one day Brittany will come back to her. Otherwise, the situation is really out of her hands.

Do you think Santana knew about the fake [Bram] wedding? 

Most likely. My sense is that either Tina tells her about it in episode 4x13 or Brittany tells her about it at some later point.

Concerning the first option, even though Tina tries to drop the Bram bomb and then hang up the phone quickly, one can easily imagine that Santana immediately calls her back and demands to know what the hell she’s talking about. 

Since Tina’s original call wasn’t really for courtesy—she is trying to get Santana angry at Brittany to get revenge on Brittana for repeatedly stealing her spotlight throughout S4—she’s probably all too happy to tell Santana all about how close Brittany and Sam are and how, oh yeah, over Christmas they got married, and the marriage was only eventually “annulled” because there is no such thing as a Mayan Church.

If that’s how the big reveal goes down, then, to me, that adds another layer of meaning to Santana’s actions throughout episode 4x13 and would perhaps even better explain why she is so agitated and defensive when she comes back to Lima (see here).

I mean, following the breakup, she kind of maybe expected Brittany to perhaps date someone else, but there’s no way she would have emotionally prepared herself for Brittany to marry Sam “Trouty Mouth” Evans and not even tell her about it. 

Getting the news secondhand from Tina Cohen-Chang would feel like a kick in the gut, and Santana would have plenty of time to work herself into a full-fledged “Oh my god. How could Brittany do this to me? I thought she understood that even though we’re not together right now, the plan has always been for us to get back together in the end. Did I ruin us? Have I lost her forever?” frenzy on the long drive from Kentucky up to Ohio.

Of course, that said, it is also possible that Tina doesn’t give Santana the dirt and Santana instead learns about the wedding directly from Brittany, perhaps at the end of S4 or once Brittana get back together in S5. 

In either case, I imagine that once Santana has the chance to finally talk to Brittany about the whole situation, the conversation plays out something like the one I’ve described in this post.

Thanks for the questions! I’ll tag you in the Brittana New Directions post once I’m finished with it.