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xerith-42 · 8 months ago

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Why Blaze is MyStreet's Most Failed Character

Blame the big bang discord for this post, I wasn't gonna write it until those fucks encouraged me.

Anyways here's an entire essay about why Blaze is the most wasted character in the entirety of MyStreet and I will literally fight Jessica and Jason Bravura with my bare hands.

To get us started on our harrowing tale of wasted potential and the best improviser Jessica ever hired, we need to go back a little. Back to Phoenix Drop High Season 2. We won't stay here long, I promise, I hate it more than you can possibly know. But the single saving grace of this absolute mess of a season is ya boi, Blaze. Introduced in the 18th episode of the season, airing on April 12, 2017, with the airing of Phoenix Drop High Season 2 Episode 18, Blaze was a character who started his brief tenure series with a bang!

Literally dude showed up and the first thing he ever did on screen as a character in a piece of media we can engage with is throw someone out of a window. We do not know this mans name yet and he's already left a lasting impression. Sure throwing people out of a window is common in werewolf culture, which I don't care what you say that's objectively funny, but it is bold to start a characters entire introduction with that. Blaze comes out of the gate swinging before he's said a single line.

And then after introducing himself he throws a dead bird at Aphmau to show off his hunting skills?? Okay so he's just that fucking weird and overly enthusiastic about things I guess! That's amazing! MyStreet always shines when it just lets it's characters be fucking weird without making a big deal out of it or talking them down for it. Dottie even says that it's romantic which is again just a great showing of Blaze's enthusiasm and lack of what might appear to be common social decorum because of said enthusiasm.

This is all punctuated and brought to a hilarious breaking point when Blaze's final showing of why he should be the new top dog at his school is when the crazy mother fucker rips his shirt off to literally flex about how he's one of the hottest guys in the school. And I'm going to be real with you, given Blaze's later characterization as a himbo, I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually care about this. He just says it because he thinks it'll boost his chances. Blaze is later shown to be a character willing to throw away his reputation for the things he cares about, but he does get a rather sincere moment with Aphmau, even if she's blushing the entire time.

It shows that Blaze is not only physically affectionate, but also weirdly comfortable with his shirt off. Because this is purely objective character analysis I will not be shoving my Blaze is autistic and has sensory problems with things touching his chest propaganda down your throats, but now that I've mentioned it once you won't stop thinking about it when this comes up.

The show admittedly fumbles the bag a little by having Blaze say in his internal monologue that he thinks Aphmau is cute and acts kind of like a tsundere, but this is Jesson writing so there's always bound to be a bit of That Shit. But in spite of that, Blaze is a character who has an instant impression that leaves a lot of room for comedy potential, and just good ol' fashion silliness. And while the werewolf plot of Season 2 is... bad, Blaze and the Werewolf Pups are stand out characters in the sense that their characterization leaves a lot of potential if they're in a different, better written story.

And even if the arc is bad, Blaze still is a quality part of it. His shallow but hilarious initial characterization gets built on in some really solid ways. Namely in how he acts as a force for good in Aphmau's life even if she doesn't realize or give him permission to do it. This entire season is about how the different men in Aphmau's life handle helping her in a crisis, and funnily enough, in a season centered around Aaron literally overthrowing Aphmau's new love interest, Blaze is the one who was consistently doing what was best for Aphmau.

Aaron fumbles the ball more than a few times, Ein is shown to be actively malicious, and Kai gets hate crimed. But Blaze, who's barely even a contender in this ship war, is constantly working to actually make things better while everyone else is pulling Aphmau away from what actively matters about her position. While Ein is manipulating her and Aaron is trying to prove that, Blaze throws caution to the wind and just does what he thinks is best to restore order.

But more important than that end conclusion is his true goal of standing up for Daniel. A wolf it is established he barely knew before this year, that Blaze is willing to throw his reputation and standing in a bull shit hierarchy because he's seeing how this hierarchy is hurting someone who doesn't deserve it. Blaze is the one who is baring his fangs and willing to throw hands when Daniel cowers away from bullies. By the end of the season Blaze has been given adequate screen time to not only show off his fun and maybe a tad out of touch side, but he's been given a real level of sincerity that's tied into the things he's enthusiastic about. He loves being a werewolf, and he extends that love to all the werewolves around him, until they start being dicks to other werewolves who are literally just sitting there.

At the center of Blaze is that inherent goofiness though. He's always cracking jokes, or the joke when he's on screen, and in a series that was originally pitched as a light hearted slice of life comedy in contrast to MCD's general misery, that sort of character is needed to keep the tone. Such is show in episode 22 when Blaze is reading a book on the Scientific Method to just learn more about science, but realizes the book is upside down.

But he actually understood it enough to properly apply the scientific method to this situation?? Iconic. It's played off as a joke of Blaze exploiting a loophole to get out of class, but even that's pretty smart honestly. Blaze may be a dumb ass but he's always willing to cheat an unfair system.

Episode 22 is basically a Blaze centric episode, which I did not expect, but now that I'm rewatching it for this post it might be the reason I love this character so dearly. It's not only the episode where Blaze manages to learn the Scientific Method upside down, but also stands up for Daniel in a really substantial way. Blaze is loud, enthusiastic, and strong, all traits that are celebrated by werewolf culture, and whether he realizes it or not, him just being around Daniel can do a lot to get bullies to back off. Everyone has seen Blaze toss a mother fucker through a window, they do not want to be on the receiving end of that.

He spends the rest of the episode trying to figure out what Ein's deal is when he hears that Ein went behind Aphmau's back on werewolf matters, landing Daniel in this situation. He hears Ein actively plotting against Daniel, but that is normal werewolf behavior. He concludes that he'll keep an eye on Ein. And this through line of "normal werewolf behavior" informs a lot of Blaze's decisions once he comes to the conclusion that Ein sucks and deserves to be undermined. He resorts to letting his actions speak louder than words and goes to violence after realizing that the wolves aren't listening to reason, they're listening to instinct.

He fights fire with fire, and while Aphmau might not approve, it's more effective than her soft rhetoric has been in getting people to be less of jackasses. This eventually lands him in hot water where he steps in for Daniel after Ein tries to get his goons to beat him up, and even if Blaze is fighting in a five v one, he still goes down swinging. And I'll say it, I think it's sweet that he calls Aaron after this happens. While it's clearly meant to be a thing of Blaze calling the last alpha because he's probably the only person who anyone will listen to, there's an important detail I think is easily overlooked.

He has Aaron's number.

He says he got it from the werewolf pups, but that means that Blaze went out of his way to make sure he could contact Aaron. He's the reason that Aaron even realizes Ein is playing all of them. Blaze is the catalyst for his undoing because unlike Aaron who's nearly imprisoned, heartbroken, and been hesitant to act in the plot as a result, Blaze doesn't actually care that much if Aphmau currently likes him because he's more worried about her physical and mental well being than whether she wants to kiss him or someone else.

How many Aphmau love interests can say that?

Can any of them say that?

Blaze can.

Blaze actually consistently shows a level of selflessness that's unfitting of how I've seen some people characterize him. He gives up his real chance to be Alpha because Daniel is so compassionate and earnest and genuinely deserves it. Blaze wants to believe in a future lead by people like Daniel and Aphmau where he might not have to keep fighting people to keep things sane. Blaze constantly gives up his pride, his power, his safety just to make sure that his friends are taken care of, or to effect real change in a school he's about to leave.

It wouldn't be long after Phoenix Drop High Season 2 ended that Blaze would make his debut in the main series My Street in the second episode of Season 5, airing only a few days after the end of Phoenix Drop High Season 2. Just like before he really shows up with a bang, literally throwing himself through the air between Lucinda and Kim just to catch a frisbee because Blaze is the most extra mother fucker ever, and then immediately proceeds to flirt with them. Iconic as ever. Short but sweet.

It's in episode 3 that it's revealed that Blaze and the werewolf pups kept Aaron company during his rehabilitation year. But from the way it's worded it sounds like Blaze was called in before anyone else by Aaron's parents. Based on the way they talked and actively planned together before, I wouldn't be surprised if Blaze was the first person who came to his mind when Aaron thought of a werewolf friend.

I think Aaron reached out to Blaze when he needed it.

And even though I've previously stated that I don't think Aaron's parents initially liked Blaze because by this era he's old enough to fully take on his persona as the cool stoner friend who's also a little insane in the most charming way possible, he has a good impact on Aaron. Aaron likes being around him, and maybe they smoke weed to help Aaron relieve some of the lasting pain when no one's looking.

Regardless of his methods, Blaze does an ultimate good in Aaron's life as a result of being there for him when he needed it. So much so that he was invited out to Starlight and is shown to be one of Aaron's main pillars of support. We are given scarcely little of this actual friendship, which is where the problem lies. While before Blaze was a surprisingly engaging part of an other wise terrible story, at least in season 5 the story is a lot slower and character focused. And Blaze can work in these moments, we saw him have real moments of sincerity before.

He gets some of it, but the issue is that Blaze isn't allowed to be alone anymore. The cast of MyStreet is huge, and Blaze is a character who is making his second major appearance, while some characters in the cast have been present since literally episode one. It's hard to justify giving him solo screen time when he's been in the series for such little time and we barely have enough time for certain significant characters to really have arcs (Lucinda). Most of Blaze's scenes are scenes with at least four other characters on screen, he's never allowed screen time without at least two other werewolf characters attached to him.

I don't object to Blaze hanging out with his friends, or even making new ones though out the season but... Would it kill the writers to let him have a scene with Aaron? Like. A single scene. Where it's just Blaze and Aaron. I mean just Blaze and Aaron without Aphmau there. They've done this before. They did it in the season Blaze showed up in. Just one scene where the two of them get to talk about literally anything would do so much. Even if they talk about Aphmau, it's better than nothing. It would strengthen both of their characters so much to be able to get a scene where they talk to each other not as conspirators who kinda know each other, but as real friends supporting one another.

Show that even though Blaze said Daniel was more compassionate than he was, Blaze still is a compassionate and even empathetic person. Show why Aaron was grateful to have him during his recovery. They have those scenes of Aaron at physical therapy, right? Why not have Blaze take him one time and just show how they interact then? The possibilities with this unrealized idea are endless, and that's genuinely upsetting. Opportunities like this present themselves every time Blaze makes an appearance, they even tease me by giving me scenes where Aaron is alone with a character he has little to no connection with, Maria.

Maria was a foil for Aphmau. And Ein was a foil for Aaron. And Blaze was a foil for Ein. There is no reason for Maria to really have a rapor that matters with Aaron. He doesn't really know her that well, she's clearly a friend by association, and it seems like an odd thing to focus on when Blaze is LITERALLY RIGHT THERE IN THE BACKGROUND OF THIS SCENE.

Why won't they let Blaze talk to Aaron? It's so infuriating. The closest we get is in episode 7 when Blaze attempts to calm down Aaron, but he's shown to be ineffective and it comes down to, of course, Aphmau being the one to talk him down. I swear to Hatsune the writers are making fun of me at this point. They're going "Oooooh you want Blaze to be an actually helpful and supportive figure in Aaron's life soooo bad." AND I DO!

I'm serious when I say the show is teasing me. I've been skimming through Season 5 and only watching the episodes when Blaze is on screen, and so far he has never been in a scene with less than 4 people in it. Never. And even in scenes where he gets to be at least a focal point, he's always limited because he has to share that moment in the spotlight with FOUR OTHER CHARACTERS.

Episode 14 is a great example of this. When the werewolf gang gets told they aren't allowed to eat at a restaurant because they're werewolves, Blaze makes it abundantly obvious that he's put up with this before and really doesn't feel like being hate crimed on his vacation. And he knows that actions speak louder than words and therefore joins Maria in saying they should "teach this establishment a lesson." Personally I think Blaze would've just thrown the manager through a window only to realize it's an outdoor establishment and throw him into the ocean. Which would be objectively funny and deserved because that owner was being cringe and racist.

I love the conversation that happens because it shows the unique way that Aaron sees things from passing as a human for most of his life. This has never happened, but he knows that further acts of violence as a result will only make it happen again. This is a great scene for Aaron. Not really good for Blaze, and the next scene makes him worse. I love the detail that Blaze is an instinctual person more than a planner, but it feels wrong that he doesn't even let Aaron consider planning. I know he wants Aaron to be more spontaneous but he should have more awareness of his friend and his habits and be able to accommodate it, not talk over it.

But it's Jesson, so misunderstanding even their simplest character is par for the course. At least episode 15 gives me Garroth and Blaze talking in the background, and I'm starved for good Blaze content, so I was eating this shit up. The problem with watching MyStreet this way is that Blaze... Just doesn't get a lot of moments... At all. There are some episodes where he doesn't even speak at all, and when he does get to talk in episodes, he gets a few lines in one giant ensemble scene.

I don't object to a show having an ensemble cast, or even a lot of characters with a few central ones, but it really is a detriment to the show that Aaron never gets a scene alone with any werewolf he isn't related to. Nana gets to talk to Blaze when she's having a crisis of her relationship history and experience, but it's just so Blaze can tell her the opposite of what she wants to hear. It's not a scene that feels like it was written for Blaze, because it wasn't. It was written for Nana.

And before some jack ass says it "Blaze is a side character he's not supposed to get a lot of focus" and I'm not asking for a lot. I watched every scene he's in in PDH to prove that it works

BECAUSE IT DID.

Blaze showed up officially in episode 18 out of 30, and he wasn't in every episode after his introduction. But the writers gave him a solid introduction, one good episode that spent most of its run time with him, and really good moments throughout the rest of his time in the series. All I'm asking is that Season 5 at least give me one of those things. Either a good episode where he and his relationship with Aaron is brought into focus, even if it's used as a vector to study Aaron's character, or just more sincere moments for him.

It feels like Blaze is a joke character now when he previously made it very clear he's far more than that.

And then they just forget about him. During the first part of the 3 part finale Blaze is there. He's the one who got everyone to gather at the docks because an mf wants to eat some scrumptious food. But when Aaron sees Ein and starts freaking out, Blaze is literally just not in the scene. At all. Not even as like a throwaway of someone who could've helped but failed, he just is not in the scene at all. It legitimately feels like the writers forgot about him entirely.

Blaze the minute the plot shows up:

He's there after Garroth gets turned and was apparently at Garroth's bedside trying to calm him down which I will be thinking about. A lot. I'll be thinking about how we deserved to see or at least hear some of it, about how the writers continue to tease me with an interesting scene that involves my favorite little fucker, about how heartbreaking it would have been to see Blaze and Melissa try to calm Garroth only for him to scream in pain and try to push them away only to reveal that Zane and Nana are able to hear the entire ordeal downstairs and Zane is panicking when he hears his brother screaming in pain. Just thinking about what we could've had if the writers actually cared about any of these characters.

And then after that he dies.

I'm not watching any of When Angels Fall because I know what's good for my health. I know what happens in Season 6 Episode 9 and that's all I need to know. It doesn't matter if the writers may have finally given Blaze an emotional scene, it doesn't matter if they finally gave him even a hint of character development, it doesn't matter if he made a connection in a real way. Because no matter what he did the result is the same. No matter what quality the writers might've pulled out of their ass, it would ultimately be in service of one end. From the start of this season these writers knew what they wanted to do. They wanted to up the stakes and add more drama to the show, and they wanted to do it by killing Blaze.

And I think I know why.

This is 100% a limited view, but I was on Aphmau Instagram at the time that this season was airing. And I ran a Blaze fan account. I talked to a lot of MyStreet fans during this time and I was constantly upset and disappointed that people didn't understand Blaze's character, or just didn't appreciate it as much as I do. Most people liked Blaze on a very surface level, or because he was attached to another character they liked. I found very few people who genuinely cared about him as an individual, probably because Blaze stopped getting scenes alone by the end of PDH, and because the Aphmau fandom (at the time) had more of a focus on shipping than character work and quality. Blaze was easily shippable with a number of characters, canonically shipped with Dottie a little, and had enough characterization that people cared about him, but not enough to get a large dedicated fanbase.

He was the perfect one to kill.

Enough people liked him because he was hard to hate, he was stapled onto Aaron's character with little regard for a story of his own, and his death could be eventually inconsequential. And it was! Blaze's method of dying is so bad it makes me physically angry!

I know the whole story for the last few seasons has been all about Forever Potions and turning people against each other, but just mind controlling Blaze and having him die while under mind control is such such a missed opportunity. There's been a disappointing lack of proper Aaron and Blaze friendship content, but they could have made up for it in this scene with just a few tweaks. Just have Blaze not be mind controlled at the end. He can still go on that rant about Aaron being the cause of all the bad that's happened, but then the words start to become... disjointed. Jilted. As if Blaze is struggling to say them because he knows that they're wrong. Aaron's his friend, there's no way he'd say that about him.

Have it break.

Have him look at his friend in a worse state than he's ever been in, and instead of approaching him with intent to harm, it's intent to heal. A final attempt at getting through to Aaron. And like the times before, it doesn't work. Aaron's angrier than ever and he isn't seeing or thinking straight thanks to Ein's bull shit. All he can see is an enemy in his way. Maybe he sees Blaze's eyes but Blaze's green eye is still Emerald Green, even if the control broke for a moment. Whatever reason, Aaron still attacks.

He doesn't realize that Blaze wasn't trying to hurt him until it's too late. Aaron's anger already ruined a friend's life, it already pulled all of them into the hell they're in, and now it's killed one of his best friends.

ONE CHANGE. THAT'S ALL IT TOOK. ONE SINGLE CHANGE TO MAKE BLAZE'S DEATH ACTUALLY MEAN SOMETHING.

Ideally I'd like it Blaze just didn't die at all, least of all before the finale, but if you're going to kill him off unceremoniously at least make it have some emotional weight. You've been neglecting him for an entire season and now you just kill him off? Just like that? Oh he gets to show up in heaven? How nice. Is it a scene where he gets to express regrets, remorse, or even give any insight into his feelings?

Of course it fucking isn't! Are you kidding me, that's not even close to what happens. I said i wouldn't watch When Angels Fall but

I LIED!!

I watched Blaze's death scene and his scene in heaven to make sure I knew well and good how badly they failed to kill off my favorite character! And man, the scene in heaven is just the worst! Blaze does a genuinely kind thing for Aphmau and decides to stay with her when she's alone because he doesn't want her to hurt. He saw how much pain Aaron was in without her. He just wants to fucking help her.

But Aphmau's too self absorbed to realize that and instead goes on a whole rant about how she always needs other people to take care of or protect her and how everyone else would be better off yadda yadda. What she doesn't realize and what Blaze eventually gets to tell her is that people were around her and took care of her because they just wanted to. Because she was nice to be around. And they never expected anything else, and never saw her as a burden.

And that's actually a really nice moment. Sort of. There's two major problems. First, Blaze gets cut off from telling Aphmau this at first because Irene has to go on a whole rant about Aphmau being selfish. And she is right in everything that she says, but it feels weird for Irene, who literally doesn't know her, to be making this judgement. This scene should have been Irene observing a conversation between Blaze and Aphmau were Blaze just tries to make her feel better.

And that would hopefully solve problem number two. Which is that what Blaze says is very genuine and heartfelt, but severely handicapped by the fact that he and Aphmau were only friends for a short period of time in High School, and an equally short period of time within the last few months. What Blaze says about why he likes being around her is true, but it would have a lot more weight if there was a chance for Blaze to have been around her as a friend more.

Fuck it, if you need Blaze to be on screen with at least two other characters, why was there never a scene of Blaze, Aaron and Aphmau just talking? Would a single scene of that fucking killed you? Just one scene would have made their friendships a lot more solid and therefore heartbreaking to lose when it gets torn apart.

Third problem, the scene ends with a focus on Irene. Blaze's words echo in her ears, and remind her of her friends. And I like that idea because I'm an absolute sucker for MCD, but it takes the scene away from the focus. This should be a scene about one of Aphmau's friends encouraging her to not give up even if it all seems lost. At least don't let her death be in vain by saying such awful things about her friends while they may be grieving. But Irene is brought into focus again because the show isn't about Blaze, or Aphmau apparently, I guess her Aphmau Main Character Powers overrides Aphmau's. She has more experience with them.

Blaze and Aphmau's very heartfelt dialogue is brought down by the fact that these two characters lives didn't intersect very directly out of high school. Through the course of Season 5 I never got the idea that Blaze was Aphmau's friend. Not to say they weren't friendly, I think Blaze adored her just as much as he did in high school, but as a viewer I was never shown that they cared particularly for one another. I believe that Blaze sincerely cared about her even after all this time, but that's not because of anything the writers did with him in these seasons. It's just because that's the kind of person Blaze is.

But their friendship not being strong really weakens the scene. This is a scene that I know for a fact worked as intended when I watched it as it was coming out. I was an overemotional mess of a 15 year old who hated how this series was going but kept watching it because it was almost over and I might as well get it done with. It pulled on my heartstrings and they sang and I cried. I cried a lot. This scene made me incredibly emotional, and it still got to me as an adult, but the devil is in the details.

Blaze and his arc might work on the surface. They work if you don't pay that close of attention to it. They work if you care more about the characters he's constantly around more than Blaze. And when I first watched Seasons 5&6, I still had a very deep attachment to a lot of these characters, especially Melissa, who he shares a lot of scenes with. So I felt... satisfied? I would've liked more, but I probably wouldn't have complained about what I got (his death scene not withstanding I always thought that was bad).

My my, how the times have changed.

If it wasn't obvious from the four thousand or so words you just read, Blaze is a rather unique case of these writers failing as writers. A rather unique case where the perfect character to fix a lot of problems with their show practically jumped up in the air waving his arms around and they still brushed past him to focus on a predetermined story he was shoved into. I don't think the writers ever really had a plan for where Blaze would go or what he would do.

A lot of Blaze's best character moments are when he isn't being written by Jesson. The reason I love the minigames so much is because there, Blaze's incredibly talented voice actor Jason Lord is actually really funny and pretty good at improv. Obviously some bits of the mini games are scripted, but a lot of them are just seeing how much voice actors can get into their characters, which he's fantastic at. A lot of Blaze's funniest moments come from this too, which is great when the writers turn him into a comedy character but the characters voice actor is funnier than they both are and is only a funny character when they don't have direct control of him. Lord is able to bring life to a character who may have been lacking it due to the simultaneously focused and unfocused way the series was written.

Blaze is proof of what happens when writers don't bother to develop their characters beyond the outline. The draft notes for PDH Season 2 said "there's going to be a wolf character who tries to become Alpha and instead stands up for Daniel when he's bullied." and then Blaze was born. The writers gave him some characterization as a treat to make the story work better, and then were done with it then and there. We fleshed him out enough, good character, time to put him in season 5 so people stop criticizing us for not giving Aaron enough friends.

But the problem wasn't a lack of quantity in friends, it was a lack of quality. It was a lack of scenes that let Aaron interact with other characters without Aphmau present. It was a lack of characters to point to that were real emotional connections Aaron had that weren't his last minute family or his girlfriend. It was a lack of attention given to the few characters that could've filled that role. Dante almost filled it in season 2, and Aaron and Garroth could have arguably become closer after everything in season 4, but at that point Aaron's entire arc became centered around Aphmau.

It was the fact that Blaze was one of the few people who ever directly reached out to Aaron and then was never given a scene alone again. It was because the writers wrote too many characters, tried to give the series a more direct focus, and then failed to account for the characters that were dragged along even if they didn't necessarily know what to do with them.

So when Season 6 came around and they decided to make the show super serious no really stop laughing, they needed characters to kill off to up the stakes. It's not like Blaze's character was going anywhere. It's not like they had a plan for him. Nothing was really being lost.

It's not like Blaze was one of the most sincere and dedicated characters in the series. It's not like he had one of the biggest potentials in regards to his relationship with Aphmau or Aaron. It's not like there was time spent proving that he could be a solid pillar of support in both of their lives even under dire circumstances. It's not like he was set up that way through individual scenes where he got to talk to each of them on a personal level. That definitely didn't happen.

TLDR: MyStreet peaked at season 2 and they fumbled the bag with the best chance to make it peak even higher and I'm forever bitter about it. Now get out of my house.

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drgrlfriend · 6 months ago

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Author Ask Meme

I was tagged by @bittercape.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

61 works

2. What is your AO3 wordcount?

1,124,553 (June 2, 2024)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I am a serial OTP-er. I started with Wolverine/Rogue (X-Men), jumped to Johnlock (BBC Sherlock), to Sterek (Teen Wolf), to 00Q (James Bond), and am currently in Winterhawk (Marvel). Usually I get sucked into a new fandom by following a favorite author. I also read quite a lot in The Witcher fandom but haven't made the jump to writing (yet?).

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Windows (Sterek), Layover (Sterek), Quriosity (00Q), Hide (Sterek), and I'm Game (A Very Craigslist Thanksgiving) (Sterek). Sterek is just a huge fandom, but interestingly one of my X-Men fic used to be one of the most popular fics on FFN, so that has given me perspective about how it's not necessarily all about the fic but rather some magic combination of fandom and tropes and web audience and luck as to which fics really catch fire.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to, but if I'm actively writing a fic I get behind because if I'm on the computer with spare time I want to be writing instead. Then it gets overwhelming. :-(

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Happy endings always! I guess the closest would be My Heart Will Be Your Home because the epilogue / last scene is less about the Winterhawk happy ending and more about Clint coming to terms with the failure of his first marriage and Phil Coulson's death. [insert "growth gif" here]

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Again, I really only have happy endings. Hmmm. In this time of trouble, I'll put in a plug for For Everything There Is a Season, my Four Seasons Total Landscaping fic, because it ends with the world being safe from Trum-- I mean Pierce. ;-)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

For how much I write some sensitive stuff I surprisingly don't! In particular the Four Seasons Total Landscaping fic I was worried would attract some rabid Trump fans to hate on me but so far so good. I have had people be really rude about my characterizations at times, or occasional plot decisions, but I've been getting better about deleting and forgetting (after I vent to a fandom friend or two of course).

9. Do you write smut? If so, which kind?

I write smut for sure! All kinds, kinda, except not maybe what would be considered hard kink. In particular pain or knifeplay or whatever holds no attraction.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest crossover you’ve ever written?

I just wrote my first crossover! Jason Todd has crept into our hearts thanks largely to @thepartyresponsible and I just wrote two Winterhawkhood fics -- one extremely smutty (Finders Keepers) and one that's T-rated with just OTP3 implied (First Glance) so something for everyone. :-)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, although I wouldn't be surprised, especially for my one Sterek fic that's gone "viral." I did weirdly have someone reach out and ask if they could copy a whole section of my fic into theirs (I had a very well-researched series of deductions from Sherlock as to how John was injured in Afghanistan). Nice that they asked, I guess, but I was like -- "... no?"

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! People have been amazing with translations. I can't imagine the dedication it takes to translate some of my longer fics. A lot of times people start and then life happens and they don't finish, so I'm not always sure which ones make it to the end, but I know I've had requests to translate into Spanish, Mandarin, Russian,

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I did a Winterhawk Round Robin thing {You and Me (Telepathy)} where each of us wrote our parts in a serial fashion. I wouldn't call it co-writing, though because it was deliberately kind of non-collaborative (e.g. an "exquisite corpse" exercise). Probably the closest I've come to that is when my amazing beta, @kangofu-cb bails me out with an awesome suggestion!

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Whoa, ask me to pick a favorite child why doncha? ;-) I will put a plug in for 00Q, though -- I wasn't in that ship for a very long time but there is so much latitude to play with Q, who at the time I was in the fandom only had like ten minutes total of screentime, as well re-imagining some of the James Bond toxic masculinity tropes. And Quriosity is still one of my all-time favorite fics, and the first fic I think in which I really abandoned the "big bad is defeated in the third act" structure and made it purely about relationship development.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I usually write one fic at a time start-to-finish so my "WIPs" are more daydreams than actual fics-in-progress. I did write a few chapters of a fic with night-shift homicide detective Derek and magical Stiles that had more of an Enemies to Friends to Lovers structure but I don't think it will see the light of day.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Hmmm. I have the patience to persist with a long fic even if most of them take me a year or more each with the limited free time I have -- I don't typically lose interest or give up (please don't let me jinx myself).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Probably a lot, but keeping things short and evocative is definitely one of them. Sometimes I'll read a fic that seems like a longfic crammed into 2000 words and I don't know *how* people do it. I have a lot of trouble with timeskipping or skipping unnecessary actions/conversations. Getting better at it, I hope. At least I'm not making sure my characters eat three meals a day on the page anymore. ;-)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Hell on earth. I have one fic where German readers are arguing endlessly in the comments about my word choice for endearments and insults and every time I changed it one way the next person would tell me to change it the other way. I finally gave up on reaching a consensus. I feel more comfortable writing ASL, because I have some background in that, as well as French, Spanish, and Italian which I learned at various points in school.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

X-Men (Wolverine/Rogue). Was sucked in by a fic that ended in a very ambivalent point and (extremely rudely) wrote my own ending to it and sent it to the author. Geez, I am so lucky they responded kindly! I was so new to fandom I had no clue.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Again like asking me to pick a child, but I'll put a plug in for Freedom's Reach. It's a Winterhawk set in the American West post-Civil War (e.g. the real American Civil War, not the Marvel one). It took a lot of research and that younger, more naive Clint (I call him Gosh!Clint Barton) holds a special place in my heart. It also let me explore something I'm realizing is a bit of a "this better not awaken anything in me" scenario, which is setting up a relationship dynamic that is inherently uneven and then making sure the person in the position of power is scrupulous about not taking advantage of that dynamic. Weirdly specific, but you learn something about yourself all the time!

Tagging -- oh, shoot, I don't remember who bitter tagged so I'll throw in @kangofu-cb, @pantstomatch, @noxnthea, and anyone else who wants to do this!

#bucky barnes #the winter soldier #clint barton #hawkeye #marvel #mcu #winterhawk #teen wolf #stiles stilinski #derek hale #sterek #fanfiction #00q #james bond #quartermaster #x-men #rogan #wolverine #rogue

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ectonurites · 2 years ago

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Do you think there's a way Jason and Tim can ever truly make amends in a meaningful way?

complicated question imo because there's two primary different ways my brain is trying to interpret it, and they have different answers:

Do I think in current comics canon there's a way to do this?

No, I really don't, because the window for that has passed. The opportunity for a meaningful reconciliation in canon was wasted by Scott Lobdell deciding they'd just suddenly be besties now in RHATO (2011) and while later writers (since the New 52 era ended) haven't depicted them as quite that close, Jason's relationships with the batkids as a general thing are in such drastically more positive places that it doesn’t really... make sense to try to do any sort of meaningful amends making, ya know? It wouldn't seem warranted with the current state of things, and to get to a state where it would seem warranted would require actions I just do not foresee current DC editorial wanting to embark upon, considering the general directions they've got going for Jason and Tim right now. And even if they were to try to... I just don't feel like it'd really come off as meaningful at this point because of how much time has been spent with the current state of things- I don't see a natural way to build to it being necessary without some serious characterization issues for one (or both) of them. (Honestly I do think there was a tiny new window to approach this sort of thing when Infinite Frontier first happened thus everyone remembered more things from pre-reboot, because 'hey i now remember more about these incidents and tensions between us from before thus have new thoughts/feelings coming to play here' could have sparked the sort of thing I mean to get their relationship to a point that needed amends again without feeling shoehorned in/like it's regressing anything... but considering how many interactions they've had since then where nothing seems to have really changed between them, that opportunity has also passed)

Do I think there would have been a way to do this had the New 52 not gone the way it did?

Sure, I think that'd have been possible. I've talked about my views/interpretations of Jason & Tim's pre-reboot relationship here, and towards the end of that post discuss why I don't think a reconciliation between them is something that would happen unless one of them made compromises around killing (Either Tim being okay with it, or Jason stopping doing it)- which I personally don't think the pre-reboot versions of either of them would do. Post-reboot Jason however (particularly in the Rebirth era and beyond) has made the choice at some points to prioritize being part of the Batfamily/having a relationship with the other Bats over using lethal methods, and so I think if Jason were to have had that sort of development/come to that stance in a scenario where he & Tim's 'making amends' wasn't rushed and glossed over, then sure yeah, something more meaningful could have absolutely been made out of it! Just unfortunately a scenario like that would only exist in like, fanfics or AU stories- because main canon squandered the opportunity. But like, I guess my point here is that I do definitely think it could have been possible to explore 'making amends' between them in a meaningful way without just being entirely ooc and rushed.

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outoftheframework · 4 years ago

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my proposal for tropes we as a fandom should adopt in all fanworks going forward: Duke Thomas edition

So every fandom has tropes and characterization quirks that have been generally accepted into fanon and, like, maybe? they were originally based on some obscure comic panel from the 80s or something but it doesn’t really matter because we’re all just,,, cool with it? Like for example- in the dc comics fandom, an art piece could show 3 of the bats that look virtually identical except one of them is holding a box of cereal so that one is obviously Dick Grayson. . . Y’know?

Anyway, these things usually come up naturally I guess but I’ve been here a while and it’s finally time to put my foot down. It’s high time for Duke Thomas to be more in fanon than “the sane one.” Because he might be the relatively new guy but he is certainly fears no gods or laws of the land just as much as the other bats, lemme tell ya.

TL;DR here are character quirks (”canon-based” or otherwise) that we should all really latch onto seriously I’m begging y’all to make at least one of these happen-

Duke “Habitually Jumping Out of Moving Vehicles” Thomas

This one’s actually based in canon y’all; Duke did indeed yeet himself out of the back of a cop car and off of a bridge (in We Are... Robin). Normalize Duke’s wearing knee and elbow pads as Signal because jumping out of a car turns out relatively fine once and then suddenly Batman’s rooftop disappearing act seems mellow compared to the amount of times Gordon has whipped his head around to see a now Signal-less backseat.

Like, he’s going 60 mph?? And he didn’t even hear the door open?? and tHE DOORS ARE STILL LOCKED??

Imagine this leaking into civilian life and Bruce waking up to a blurry photo of Duke mid-escape from a limousine on the front page of the Gotham Gazette.

(more under cut)

Duke “Puzzles are my Passion” Thomas

Duke is ~canonically~ very skilled at both solving and concocting riddles (as a child during that time where The Riddler just,,, controlled Gotham, he worked non-stop on riddles, trying to make the perfect one). Please y’all- let Duke solve puzzles. Have the other bats ask him for help after 36 hours straight of brooding over some brainteaser that Duke works out within the half-hour. He texts a picture of the solution scribbled out on loose leaf in the margins of his pre-calc homework because this boy shows his work.

My guy is a word-cross FIEND. A mind-sweeper speed-runner. That guy who mails into the Gazette to correct a solution in the “fun & games” section and also ps that photo is not of me I am simply a polite young man who is much too busy writing into the paper in the year 2021 to jump out of limos-

I also would love to see this integrated into the type of cases he investigates / runs into on his daytime patrol. Like, obviously the criminal activity is going to dramatically differ before and after sundown, but that doesn’t make Duke’s work any easier or less important. It’s a different skillset; he has to work differently. Instead of jumping into fights, halting mob meetings, saving civilians in dark allies, etc. Duke has to sort through all of the moving pieces before they all converge into something catastrophic.

It’s a known fact that criminal organizations in Gotham make and execute a lot of behind-the-scenes plans during the day specifically not to run into the bats. And Duke knows and monitors this shit all by himself; his work is crucial to logistics and information gathering for the bats as a whole. Now criminals have like, a 2 hour gap between bat-shifts to try and get stuff done. But Duke would 100% set traps on timers or lead them on this pre-set convoluted goose chase to distract them until the night bats come out and to let himself enjoy the whole thing playing out on the news while he finishes homework that’s due at midnight.

Duke “I Know a Guy” Thomas

So in going off of the basic concept for the “We Are. . . Robin” run in combination to his general likability, Duke has a lot of friends all around Gotham. Okay, sure, he doesn’t have a Super best friend or a Speedster on speed dial, but he does know this guy who details cars up on West 35th and will tell them all about the new mods on Black Mask’s transport vans if they come through the third floor window and bring takeout.

Bruce and Tim will be waiting for the facial recognition software to identify at least a partial match off of security cam footage when Duke pulls into the cave, takes one look at the screen, and says “Oh, that’s <insert name, address, abridged life story, and known associates here>.” This also brings in the opportunity for Duke to have some sort of perfect recall for faces, voices, names, etc. which I think could be a really cool element for his position as the batfamily member who has a lot more personal interaction with the people of Gotham.

I’m also into the idea of a lot of people knowing/telling stories about Duke. Not to reference the Chuck Norris meme but almost like the Chuck Norris meme lmao. Think about Jason mentioning his brother to someone and she replies, “Duke Thomas? Like that Duke Thomas? The one who swam across the harbor because he said it’d be faster than the subway and it actually was?” These stories have varying levels of truth to them but Duke will never confirm nor deny when he gets random calls from family members yelling “you dID WHAT”

So those are my top three, and the following is a little speed-round of headcanons :)

Duke has a super expressive face. Like when he’s relaxed around family, you can tell exactly what he’s thinking and how he’s feeling by his visual reactions to things

Duke rotates through picking up new and revisiting old hobbies at a pretty rapid pace. Some hobbies include: bullet journaling, origami, viola, cello, synth, conversational basics in multiple languages, up-cycling and embroidering clothes

Duke has a really fucking adorable smile. He can’t help it. He’ll try to grin sarcastically or smug to be annoying but his smile just cannot be anything other than endearing. He also has a very specific booming laugh that’s an absolute treasure to hear, because it’s the most genuinely happy thing ever.

Duke unironically enjoys Signal by Twice even though the first time he heard it was after Steph had set it as his morning alarm.

So.

Come and get your food, I guess.

Feel free to add on if you’d like! I’d love to see anything you guys write/draw/etc. based on anything from here if you feel compelled to do so!

Stay safe and be well :)

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stxleslyds · 3 years ago

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NIGHTWING #81

UMM... HOW ABOUT NO.

Ever since Tom Taylor took over Nightwing I have only made a post about one issue of his (I will leave it here Nightwing #78), that issue was beautiful, it was a solid start and the little things that made me feel a bit icky were not mentioned in the post because the issue was good.

Then the issues felt like connectors or just very bland story wise. I had problems with the book also feeling like a Nightwing and (fake) Oracle book instead of just Nightwing. There were many instances where Dick alone could have gotten himself out of situations without Barbara, but because she was there the opportunity to show that he can do things was taken from him. I guess what I am trying to say is that the book has disappointed me but I didn’t feel like making a post because it was too early and this is an ongoing book that Taylor said he planned on continuing for a while, but now I can’t not make a post.

A few days ago, I finally read the Red Hood story in Urban Legends (I have a review for that one too I will link it here Red Hood part 4) and I couldn’t stand how OOC and disappointing the story/characterization has been. I am saying this because I am only reading these two books at the moment, ONLY these two, and all I have gotten from them is shit.

I know it’s still early to say that the Nightwing book is bad but…I hated this issue, I hated it with all of my heart. But now that I am a bit calmer, I have come up with some ideas of what is truly going on with the Melinda situation.

Anyway, let me give you my thoughts.

There are big Wilson Fisk vibes coming from both Blockbuster and Melinda Zucco. Those two will lie, manipulate and be evil every chance they get. They are working together to make Nightwing disappear. I know it. The whole “make us all much wealthier and to extend your power beyond the city” idea does not include Nightwing.

Melinda might not want to burn anything down but she sure isn’t a hero. This woman accepted the position of Mayor after watching Blockbuster kill the former mayor. I understand that talking with the BHPD isn’t the best idea but this woman feels way too comfortable in the presence of a killer.

She is cunning and she has plans, I strongly believe that she might be a villain and that she will betray Blockbuster and take all the power (if it reaches that point) to herself.

Heartless is just another weirdo, he tricks both Nightwing and the reader into thinking that he has a soft spot for kids but surprise! He doesn’t. There isn’t much to say about him, he just has very complex gadgets and doesn’t know how to fight. I don’t even have any ideas about who he might be.

What I know though is that there was absolutely no need for Dick to think that he had “underestimated” Heartless, my love you threw your stick at him while he was looking directly at you, there was a 50/50 chance of him catching it. I swear I don’t understand the need to write him thinking that mostly because Taylor then has Dick swiping the floor with the guy, not only is it a simple fight (for Dick) but it’s also boring for him. Taylor’s writing is so annoying sometimes, he just loves to write extra things that are out of place like the “Tim Drake. Thought of by many as the best Robin” why the fuck did he put that there? Honestly, what was the point of having Dick say that, I don’t read a Nightwing book to have Tim Drake praise. If it doesn’t offer anything to the story that is being told then keep the thought to yourself Tom...

Moving forward the scene in the pier was quite nice, mostly because it’s Dick’s quick thinking that gets everyone to safety, he knows exactly what to do and how to contact the Maritime distress channel.

He has hope for his city, he knows there is good in it and he believes help will show up when lives are about to be lost. I loved that, just like Heartless said, Nightwing IS Bludhaven’s Guardian Angel. Once again, I am having Daredevil vibes from Dick (like from the show)

After the fight we get to see consequences of Dick not healing properly from a shot to the head. He loses his consciousness which is extremely dangerous but luckily Tim is at arm’s reach to help him out of the pier.

There are many things I want to talk about from the scenes that happen after Dick wakes up in his apartment so here we go.

First of all, Bitewing is adorable, she loves Dick the most and was happy to see him awake once more, what a good girl!

Secondly, Barbara, honey, you do not have three names, you aren’t Batgirl anymore, you are a grown woman that needs to move on from a mantle that has other people that can do something else/better with it. And we all know that this Oracle is just the ableist version of Oracle. So yeah…all I ask is for Barbara to move on from Batgirl, Cass and Stephanie are right there, enough is enough.

In these panels we have Dick, Tim and Barbara being kinda dismissive about the homeless kids, and it has been happening for so many issues, what is the point, Taylor? You made Dick a millionaire and you just can’t have him say or think for a second that he will monetarily help those kids and make sure they are put somewhere safe? You are really going to wait up until you have Dick running for Mayor or something to help the kids? I just don’t get it. Kids living on the streets and each time they are mentioned the three heroes of the book act like it’s normal and doesn’t need fixing. What the fuck.

Then we have the gang finding out that Melinda Zucco is the new mayor, the woman has an FBI file and a redacted one! This makes me think two things, either things are like I thought in the beginning of the post (she is evil and very good at it) or this woman is actually FBI and she is undercover (this one is less likely because of what happens at the end of the issue).

What we can see from the file that Barbara found is very little, but in these two pictures we can see that maybe she was put in foster care and x age? Also, she was apparently investigated in April of 20xx, the investigation must have been recent, why would the FBI investigate a minor or college student? What if these files were implanted by Melinda for someone to find them, and for her to have some sort of proof of her lies? If the file is about her being left in foster care or something while would the file be redacted? I don’t know, everything about her is shady and I don’t trust anything from or about her.

This could be a complex and very interesting character but Tom Taylor and DC really love to do stupid shit for shock value (more of this later).

All the new information (the Maroni, Blockbuster and now this very shady Mayor) has Dick saying that it is a bit too much for him and yeah, it is too much, you know who could help? Red Hood. I am of course not talking about current DC comics Red Hood, I am talking about the Red Hood that I would love to see, just yesterday I had an ask about who would I like to see working with Jason and I said Nightwing because Dick puts a lot of responsibility on his shoulders so it would be nice if they negotiated and each could work on different crime areas in Bludhaven, if only DC would hear me…

Anyway, now that we come to the end of the scene let’s talk about Barbara’s shirt.

That was unnecessary and not funny. That’s all it was. Yeah, I know it’s a meme and I know it was included for funny ha-ha purposes but I am not laughing. Bruce has been written as abusive towards his kids for so long, Jason, Tim and Dick have been physically harmed by Bruce and writers use it as just something that happens, there are never repercussions for the Bat. And this shirt sucks because Dick was Robin there and he was a kid, so having Barbara or anyone wearing a shirt with Batman hitting Robin!Dick right in front of Dick is just disgusting. What if someone wore a shirt that had Joker beating Jason with a crowbar in front of Jason, would that be a funny ha-ha too? What about Dick wearing a shirt with the Joker shooting Barbara, is that a funny ha-ha? The answer to those questions is no, it’s not funny.

The idea of that shirt shouldn’t have been pitched, drawn or included after the editor took a look at it.

The picture is a meme in our world, not in theirs. And the readers aren’t laughing.

Back to the issue, Dick is left alone in his apartment to rest (seriously? You think the man that showed up to help Bruce in Gotham with a knee brace is going to rest?) but he can’t, he just found out that Mayor Zucco might be trouble for Bludhaven and might be working with not only Blockbuster but the Maroni family. He is not waiting one more second to have a chat with her.

Dick is obviously still concussed so of course he grabs a mask that has a camera that Oracle can view, and of course he enters yet another window without being careful.

Melinda and Audre were obviously waiting for him.

But here is where the real bullshit begins. Dick is unmasked.

I am so mad; it’s been four issues and Dick gets his ass in a trap and is unmasked by a villain? Are you kidding me right now?

But that’s not all, after Dick breaks free and accuses Melinda of being the daughter of the man that killed his parents, she pulls out a uno reverse card and says that her actual father is John Grayson, and that she is his sister.

How about no. Absolutely not. Go away.

Let’s re-visit Melinda’s appearances in the book so far so we can start theorizing about her real intentions or if she could be saying the truth.

Back in issue #78 where she is first introduced to us, after Melinda watches Blockbuster kill the mayor, she goes home and tells her Audre that she is now mayor because Blockbuster did what he does, so she knows that this guy is trash and a killer. But that’s not all, Audre asks her if she came across Dick Grayson to which Melinda answers “I am not ready for him yet”. Audre suggests she talks to him sooner rather than later because she might not have “another chance”, and the issue ends with Melinda agreeing with her while she is looking at a Flying Graysons poster with a red circle framing Dick’s face.

That whole thing? Shady. Melinda, obviously, wanted to talk to Dick Grayson, probably to tell him that she is his sister, but why is there a time limit, why is Audre telling Melinda that she can’t wait too long? Is it because her undercover work is ending soon? Is it because it’s not real at all and she needs to tell that lie in order to move forward with some sort of plan? I don’t know…

In issue #79 Melinda (and Audre) are out in the open with Maroni and they are talking about her becoming the next Mayor, Nightwing was watching from afar so this is his first contact with her. And it might be the first time that Melinda and her friend see Nightwing in action too. I cannot tell if she is aware that Nightwing/Dick Grayson are the same person here.

In #80 she doesn’t make an appearance.

But now in #81 she is taking her place as Mayor of Bludhaven, there Commissioner McClean takes her somewhere she didn’t expect to go (she is shown not knowing that Maroni and Blockbuster were in the next room over). Once in the room she refuses to take the cash from McClean but she will take the money as a transaction (for a second I thought she wouldn’t take the money but she did because she is very corrupt) and talks to Maroni once more. Before I talk about what happens with Blockbuster let me say this, she acts so distant to Maroni, she calls him Mr. Maroni every single time and she comes off as cold and feeling no type of way while talking with someone that is part of the family that actually raised her, and this is not because she is in a room full of other people, she did it too in #79. It seems weird that she acts that way with someone that took her under his wing since she was eight years old.

When she sits with Blockbuster he says “tell us your plan for my city” to which she says all of this: “My plan, Blockbuster, is to make us all much wealthier and to extend your power beyond the city. But to do so in a way that builds on the good work you’ve already done I have no interest in burning anything down.”

At the start of the post I said she gave me big Wilson Fisk vibes and that right there is why. She is shady, she has plans on top of plans, she calls Roland Desmond Blockbuster to his face but says that he has done good work for Bludhaven, which is weird because Blockbuster destroys Bludhaven a couple of times a year…

As I said before whatever she has planned does not include Nightwing, and here is where I kinda start theorizing a bit more, what if Blockbuster told Melinda Nightwing’s real name, he used to know who he was once upon a time…

Later in this issue when Nightwing is going to Melinda’s place Audre is already waiting for him right next to the window (with a sword), so, was he making an insane amount of noise or were they told to be ready for him?

Melinda traps him and takes his mask off, she barely seems surprised about Nightwing being Dick, she barely reacts when he jumps at her. She is in complete control of the situation and proves that by disarming Dick, as fast as he accuses her of being Zucco’s daughter she tells him that her real father is John Grayson.

She is in complete control. She has to be lying, she put a stop to whatever Dick had to say and do in seconds. This woman is trained and she is manipulative as fuck!

And if she isn’t lying then fuck DC and fuck Tom Taylor, this woman is either younger or the same age as Dick, John Grayson was not a cheater, the man is dead, has been dead for so long, don’t throw dirt on his name at this point. I refuse to believe this is true.

I honestly think that she is evil, and knows more than we are aware of, her first appearance was shady as fuck, let's suppose that she didn’t truly know that Dick was Nightwing, why on earth did she have a Flying Graysons poster with a red circle on top of Dick’s face? That doesn’t seem like something a sister would do! And why would this be information that is so important that she NEEDS to tell him in a certain amount of time?

It’s fucking insane. Tom Taylor, if she is actually Dick's sister then shame on you. Disgusting, what is with writers and cheating, what the hell is going on? Dick doesn’t need to think back to his parents and see a cheater in one of them. This better be Melinda being a cruel and vile human being that is trying to emotionally hurt Dick/Nightwing so she and Blockbuster can do whatever its they want to do.

That’s all I have to say.

#dick grayson #nightwing #nightwing 81 #dc comics #dc infinite frontier #melinda zucco #nightwing and bitewing #bitewing #blockbuster

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stonerbughead · 5 years ago

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Maria watches friday night lights (#10)

Ahhh this season is so good, I’m not ready for it to end! This post covers the penultimate episodes: 3x11 - 3x12

-oh boyyy Lyla’s getting drunk to deal with her daddy issues. Real! Tho it is nice seeing Billy, Lyla, Tim, and Mindy getting along I guess? Sigh.

-HAHAHA poor Tyra being forced to throw Mindy a “tea party” bridal shower.

-let’s maybe NOT call your son’s 15 year old girlfriend a “minx” or a “plague,” Joe McCoy?!?!

-oh Matt :( taking out his anger and emotions about his grandma’s deteriorating health on his mom :( this is so hard

-oooooh this redistricting plotline is such an interesting shake up!! Holy shit these fully grown men standing around a table redrawing the redistricting line to “keep the Dillon Panthers intact” is truly wild.

-I really like this scene where Lyla breaks down to Tim about letting her mom and siblings move to California without her and feeling like she has no family now that Buddy has hurt her. I feel like too many teen dramas have a teen character’s family move away and never show it affecting them which feels wholly unrealistic.

-I have to believe Texas weather around semifinals time actually lends itself to dramatic pouring rain?? Bc I mean, it WORKS but this happened in S1 too right?

“He’s got to do what the coach tells him to do!” Thank you Katie McCoy. You need to get away from your terrible, controlling husband. Like, even when they win this dude isn’t happy bc it didn’t happen the WAY he thought it should.

-omfg I just gasped when JD’s dad called Madison a “tramp.” WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU

-and of course Tami and Eric are seated in the window of Applebee’s seeing the abuse happen and run out to help. You know who Tami and Eric remind me of (except they’re better): Kirsten and Sandy Cohen of the OC. It’s that “parents of everyone, moral compass of the community” trope. Honestly like, the only good teen drama parent trope. (To a similar extent I guess Mary and Fred Andrews’ play/ed that role on Riverdale)

“I think I’m okay here, hanging with my gal” - Tim Riggins is such a romantic boy wow. His pep talk for Lyla about going to college despite her dad’s bullshit was so precious.

“He hit my baby.” Oh pooor Katie McCoy, you need to get yourself and your boy away from your husband.

-lol when’s the last time we saw Gracie? Julie’s been absent this ep, she babysitting? Hahaha

-oh yes Tyra deserves this beautiful pep talk from her mom!!

-good on this show for naming what Joe McCoy did as “child abuse” bc YEP. Tami and Eric feeling awful about calling CPS (but being mandated to do so as educators) is such a real and well done conflict.

-omg Matt’s art portfolio!! He wants to go to Chicago for art! I just love the image of Tami, Julie, and Matt flipping through his portfolio ugh yes. Soft.

“It reads like a five page needlepoint pillow.” Lmao Landry and yeah, writing the college essay sucks.

“They have the biggest Van Gogh collection.” Saracen’s a man after my own heart.

FYI I left and Jeff gave me a dab that hit hard (I dramatically said it “killed me”) so the rest of 3x12 and the post was composed whilst I’m even more stoned than usual.

-wow Landry missing the bus the ONE time he drinks damn

-hey I’ve never seen this coach leading the chants on the bus before. Is this like his whole job

-awww Lorraine asking Julie if Matt likes art and she’s like, yeah he loves it! And he’s amazing at it. So cute. Oh wow both of them agreeing they don’t want to “hold him back from anything.”

-My heart! This show does such a good job of showing so many heartwarming dynamics of all kinds.

-ooookay Katie I get why you don’t want to be friends with Tami anymore....but like y’all need parenting classes, your husband is straight up abusive to your child. Also I’m scared for you, please leave that man

-OMFG Tyra lost her virginity at THIRTEEN? That’s so heartbreaking. Also everything she’s screaming about in the car needs to start going into this college essay. Omg is she gonna write about Jason Street getting paralyzed? Real. How many people in this town do you think used that in their college essay?

-Tim and Matt scene THANK YOU I am blessed

-omfg Tyra reading her essay out loud to Landry overlaying Tami and Eric on the field; Julie with baby grace; Saracen and Tim throwing the frisbee; the raucous Colette-riggins family in the car. Beautiful!!! Perfection.

-lol I saw the year 2008 on the game board and realized if this was fall 2008...I was a freshman in high school. JD is my peer.

-omg Joe McCoy has THE douchebag glasses. Classic child abuser am I right

-JD throwing a fit on the field is good fucking characterization bc you mimic what your parents do, especially when you’re a 15 year old kid

-OH SHIT SARACEN’S GOING IN AS QUARTERBACK FOR HIS LAST HALF EVER AS A HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER??? The drama! The writing!

-YALL I am out here white knuckling it through this state game and I barely understand football and yet...I’m like wow really all you need to do to get me interested in a sport is make me care about the characters playing. Saracen and riggins are working so well together I cry

-damn what a way to go down. They actually turned the game around and a field goal is what made them lose :(

“I wanted everyone’s friends and families to be here tonight when I say this: I have never been more proud of a team than I am right now” oh Eric Taylor what a man

“There’s not a single person in this room who’s ever gonna be the same”’ wow I felt that

-Riggins always seems more contemplative in a Sherpa

#maria watches friday night lights #mine #friday night lights 3x11 #friday night lights 3x12

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a-third-attempt · 5 years ago

Text

Raising Bell (pt. 1)

* * *

Defamation, Libel. 8 cts: First Presbyterian, Chittenden County &c. (see Appendix C)

* * *

“We’ve got her”, I said.

“Jason. I’ve told you a million times not to barge in here after— Who?”

The boss’s desk is big, but he makes it look small. Tall and fat, he always wears a dark brown coat that somehow makes him an even more imposing presence. You'd never catch him during working hours without a cigar in his mouth, and even then you’d never catch him for more than a couple seconds at a time. He wasn't the easiest guy to get along with, but the only reason this operation was still in the black was because that man worked around the clock to make it go. At the moment he was busy with paperwork, a task that he never started until 7:00 at the earliest, because “the real work goes on when the sun is up, kid!”

“Dorothy,” I said.

“Dorothy McAdams?”

“Dorothy McAdams.”

His eyebrows raise and he offers a breathless “Dorothy McAdams...” in reply. “How the hell did you manage that?”

“She came to town because of her brother, and the word on the street is that she’s sticking around for a year or two. Besides that,” I smile broadly, “I suppose it’s just to your credit for hiring such a charming talent agent, that got her to call you back before St. Anthony.”

He grunts. That was a little too showy for any other day, but with Dorothy in my pocket he’d damn well better cut me some slack.

“How much did it cost me?”

“Well, sir...”

“Snap it out Jason, I haven’t got all night.”

“Sorry, sir. Salary isn’t worth writing home about, double what the other four-in-handers get. And no signing bonus, just a condition.” I pause. He removes the cigar from his mouth and waves it in a circle, annoyed that I'm talking so slow. “We have to take on a kid named Timothy Courtson.”

“Who the hell is Timothy Courtson?”

“Does it matter?” I say, confidently.

“It might,” he snaps back. I guess he's right. Could be an arsonist, he always says. That sure would be bad for business, you know. I glance down at the file in my hand, and swallow hard.

“It doesn’t.”

“He any good?”

I’m sure the millisecond of silence was answer enough, but I answered him. “He can play C and D4.”

He puts the cigar back in his mouth and smirks. “So, no.”

“Positively dire, sir. But it’s no bonus with the kid; 2.5 without.” A second of silence is all it takes to get the words spilling out of my mouth. I spent too much money on her and if I lost the cash back… “Look, we just double up Karen and shift down the bass. The kid can sound like a dying cat and nobody’s going to know the difference down there. Garrett can teach him to mart properly and he’ll get the rest in the extra lessons from Tanya.”

He waves away my explanation. “Yeah, yeah, Jason. You made the right call. Good work.”

I bow my head, and take the opportunity to collect myself, knowing that the goodwill won’t last long. “There— sorry, there’s another thing. Louis told me to give you this.”

I hold the file out to him, and he recoils. “Does it look like I've got the time to read this thing?”

“Please, boss. It's important.”

He snatches the file in one hand, and with the other he grabs a pair of comically undersized glasses. Plopping them on his nose, he opens it and starts reading. It takes about three seconds for the color to drain from his face and his mouth to twist into a bitter scowl.

“What the SAM HELL is this, Jason?” I shrug. Could have been worse, if we're being honest.

“Just a list of notes that Louis kept when he had her, and everything he could find about her past behavior.”

He starts to shout at me again, but thinks better of it and rubs his temples. “Jesus Christ.”

“Language.” It’s instinct, but I know it’s a bad idea from the instant the word comes out of my mouth.

“Jesus Christ have mercy on this woman’s soul,” he snaps back. “But judging by this rap sheet, there’s not much chance of that.”

“She’s a genius. Every genius has some quirks.”

“Hell with quirks, Jason. This is a problem.”

The words hang silently in the smokey air of his office. He tosses the folder to the side and turns away from me, looking out the window at the view of nothing, just a few yellow streetlamps and the broad side of the next concrete building.

“You still want her, though, right?”

He’s quiet, still facing away from me, but there’s no hesitation. “Yes.”

“We’ll just have to keep a tighter leash than Louis did.”

“Take your good-for-nothing file and get out of here,” he grunts softly, and I oblige. As frightening as Boss can be when he’s a swirling rage, I know he’s much scarier when he gets that quiet.

* * *

A/N: As usual, you can see the entire writing process below the break.

==========

Second Draft

See savefile-1 for suggested edits. I don’t think we need to do a full rewrite of this, but if you get inspired, this would be the draft to do it. I think the original was pretty inspired, though, and it went though a lot of revision with all the retellings.

* * *

Okay, I’m just going to let this one go through on the second draft. It’s fine and I’m too drunk to do real edits. Maybe if I can stay sober for a whole night I’ll make it work, but fuck Coronavirus, amirite?

==========

First Thoughts

Okay, let’s do the first person thing.

What does Jason notice in their narration? They notice Boss, first and foremost. Boss is tempermental and demanding, so this is a survival mechanism. And with such sensitive information that he’s bringing, he needs to be hypervigilant.

What does he miss? Emotions, for anyone except Boss— and even then, only as they’re written in his face and serve as tells toward his behavior in the immediate future, or things that he does(n’t) want to hear.

Also, it’s not that he misses it, but he’s not going to wax too poetic about the office; he works there, and he works long hours too.

From all these outbursts, especially with Boss— forgivable because of the situation, but not ideal— we can tell that Jason doesn’t have much impulse control. Even though I don’t like the ‘not even for’ line, this characterization might not quite come through without it. Play around.

Dropping the F bomb feels just a little off. It's not about the “Language” outbust (that's part of what makes the joke); it's just that Boss is someone who commands enough respect that they don’t have to lash out to get what they want. And yes, this McAdams’ rap sheet is pretty wild but it just seems like he would say it a tad more eloquently.

You should probably, at some point, actually draft this rap sheet. For the extended version I can easily see each chapter starting with an item from the sheet, when the chapter is about shenanigans in that regard.

If we’re going to call this Chap 1 instead of Prologue, I could easily see the line item here being:

Defamation, Libel. 8 cts: First Presbyterian, Chittenden County &c. (see Appendix C)

I mean obviously I’m making this citation style up wholesale, which is okay because the real citations are in the appendix, duhhhhh. Also obviously I don’t need it to be Chittenden County, Vermont; but wherever it is, is presumably where Louis runs his empire.

==========

First Draft (written over multiple sessions)

“We’ve got her”, I said.

“Jason I’ve told you a million times not to barge in here with— Who?”

[Exposition]

“Dorothy,” I said.

“Dorothy McAdams?”

“Dorothy McAdams.”

His eyebrows raise and he offers a breathless “Dorothy McAdams...” in reply. He looks up at nothing in particular, visions of fame and fortune surely filling his head. “How the hell did you manage that?”

He grunts. That was a little too showy for any other day, but with Dorothy in my pocket he’d damn well better cut me some slack.

“How much did it cost me?”

“Well, sir...”

“Snap it out Jason, I haven’t got all night.”

“Not even for Dorothy McAdams?” Probably shouldn’t have said that; my wit got the better of me. He glares.

“No.”

“Sorry, sir. Salary isn’t worth writing home about, double what the other 4-in-handers get. And no signing bonus, just a condition.” I pause. He removes the cigar from his mouth with his hand, that he then waves in a circle, annoyed at my slowness. “We have to take on a kid named Timothy Courtson.”

“Who the hell is Timothy Courtson?”

“Does it matter?” I say, knowingly.

“It might,” he snaps back. I guess he’s right. He always is.

“It doesn’t.”

“He any good?”

I’m sure the millisecond of silence was answer enough, but he’s clearly not in the mood for games. “He can play C and D4.”

He puts the cigar back in his mouth and smirks. “So, no.”

“Positively dire, sir. But it’s either 0 bucks with the kid, or 2.5 without.” He doesn’t answer, and my words start spilling out. “Look, we just double up Karen and shift down the bass. The kid can sound like a cat on meth and nobody’s going to know the difference down there. Garrett can teach him to mart properly and he’ll get the rest in the extra lessons from Tanya.”

He waves away my explanation. “Yeah, yeah, Jason. You made the right call. Good work.”

I swallow, knowing that the goodwill won’t last long. “There—there’s another thing. Louis told me to give you this.”

I pass over the file. He grabs a pair of comically undersized glasses, glaring sarcastically at me. Putting them on, he opens it and starts reading. It takes about three seconds for the color to drain from his face and his mouth to twist into a bitter scowl.

“What the SAM HELL is this, Jason?”

“Just a list of notes that Louis kept when he had her, and everything he could find about her past behavior.”

He starts to shout at me again, but thinks better of it and rubs his temples. “Jesus Christ.”

“Language.” It’s instinct, but I know it’s a bad idea from the instant I say it.

“Jesus Christ have mercy on this woman’s soul,” he snaps back. “But judging by this rap sheet, there’s not much chance of that.”

“She’s a genius. Every genius has some quirks.”

“These aren’t some fucking quirks, Jason.”

“You still want her, though, right?”

He’s quiet, but there’s no hesitation. “Yes.”

“We’ll just have to keep a tighter leash than Louis did.”

“Get the hell out of here,” he grunts softly, and I oblige. As frightening as Boss can be when he’s a swirling rage, I know he’s much scarier when he gets that quiet.

==========

Who needs Brainstorming or Freewriting?

What actually is happening here is that I wrote this almost four months ago so the writing process looks a lot different than I’m trying to do now. But I really wanted to get this polished up a bit, so I committed to posting it soon.

#bells #handbells #music #handbell choir #noir #i think?#cornering the handbell noir market #fiction #prompt response #from a real life friend #the pt. 1 in the title is what we call... aspirational #still not really in the mood to do longform fiction #but this absolutely needs a continuation #not sure about the title #i really want it to just be like the name of the church #or one of those cheesy band names #'Dorothy and the Carillons'#i have literally no idea how long it took to write this #it's been on and off for like four months

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thirdeyes-world · 6 years ago

Text

How long is forever?

It was inevitable, the roads, no matter what they were, drove us indifferent to the same end. We fought against it for years but in the end, destiny always wins. - Ready. - It is almost depressing the fact that years lived fit so easily in a couple of boxes and suitcases. So many memories, good, bad, all locked up now. I feel nervous in a way that I can’t explain, this was my first home, and now they are just empty walls, I remember how impossible it seemed to take separate paths when we were younger and naive. I tried, tried with all my strength to be the glue that kept us together. I worked so hard, I gave everything I could give and even then it was not enough. So exhausted of them, I just let go of the rope that held us and let us fall, I already knew, I had seen it with my own eyes years ago during a mission. The future could not be changed. I could not change it. I should have noticed before, I guess I was blinded by optimism. I should have noticed when Victor was invited to join the League. He was the first to leave. I try to keep in touch for a few months, the messages just stopped being frequent and then they just stopped. I foolishly hoped it was something temporary or casual, too much work to communicate. It was difficult to adapt to not see him more by the Tower, Garfield was definitely the one who had the worst, quietest, most static, he was no longer who he used to be. Shortly after he left the Tower, the Doomed Patrol needed him or that said "I trusted you, you can handle it without me around here" and only then, he left. Of course, He was lying. He would never admit that he was running from her. Of the words she said before breaking up with him. Raven, who was more a sister than my own blood. Always trying not to feel, even when the relationship between the two began. She was scared, I know. She was always afraid of losing control if she risked expressing and letting her emotions free. Gar stayed by his side, months, years; but it did not work, it did not work. He wore out and left when he had the chance. A year later, she also left following the road to Nueva Azarath where the purified souls of the old monks lived again, "I need to find the guide to keep out the influence of my father, only in New Azarath I will be able to do it" and that was all. Only Richard and I are left. But it was not like that for a long time, eventually we moved away. He went from mission to mission in different cities. I did not know how to feel about it, I loved him of course. However, Does he loved me? The barrier that he built throughout his life was difficult to destroy. It took time for him to open up to me. I remember it as if it had been yesterday. Oh X'hal, how I wish it had been yesterday and still was ... It was a few weeks after returning from the mission in Tokyo. I watched the sunset next to him. We talked about unimportant things, admiring the panorama, holding hands. He kissed me, "Robin" whispered. "It's Richard" he said. I did not understand at the beginning, of course. "My real name is Richard, but my family called me Dick”. He smiled as he said it, remembering good old times maybe. "Oh." I smiled too. "It's a pretty name, Dick." Then he kissed me again. It was the beginning, the real beginning of "us". We speak for nights in a row of our pasts, of happy times, of painful ones. Of the losses that we had to live, we shared the past pain and we were able to heal each other. He talked about his life with Bruce, the relationship between the two was not simple, I still think it is not. Despite the ups and downs he knew, and he told me a long time ago, that Bruce saw him as a son, even if he did not show it in the most obvious way, he was always there, vigilant in case he needed it, even when He left Gotham. He also spoke of his "brothers" so different from each other, almost always in disagreement, but still being the closest thing to a family. Jason, the black sheep, rebellious to the bone. Tim, the detective who loves books, technology and coffee, who needs more hours of rest. Damian, calculating and sarcastic as only he can be. Months later I could see it when I met them at a special dinner. They were good moments, they will always live in my mind and my heart. I talked about my family too, my parents whom I loved too much and losing them destroyed me, my sister, that although she hated me and betrayed me more than once, she was still my family and I loved her in spite of everything. My little brother the spoiled who I could not see grow up. I missed them too much, I still miss them. Despite that, it was with the Titans that I really understood what it was like to be part of a family. - It's already getting dark. - Did I really spend so much time?? I got lost in my mind and memories and it's already late. I should go now. The boxes are not so heavy when lifted. "How sad". He must have left already, he had a job in Bludhaven or maybe it was in Steel City, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter anymore. My last tour of the corridors, darkened, empty so cold. Have they always been like this? The main hall is deserted, Oh X'hal, I will miss this place. Oh X'hal please make me stop sobbing like a girl. I'm not a girl anymore after all. I will never forget the first real friends I had. Garfield always trying to cheer everyone up even when he was in pieces. Raven so kind and empathetic putting others first, condemned to not be able to express her emotions in freedom. Victor noble and protective, sacrificing his humanity for the common good. "Richard ..." The first one I loved, maybe the last one too. My people are characterized by loving deeply for a long time. I loved him for a long time without saying a word, deep down I was afraid he would not feel the same. I was afraid to take a false step and lose such a precious friendship. And when it finally happened, years ago in Tokyo, I felt like I was exploding, flying, floating like never before. "I want to be more than just a hero" he said and I believed him. However, in the end, he could only be a hero, there was no room for anything or anyone else. I must not delay the inevitable anymore. It's my turn after all. "It's cold" I did not think it was so cold outside. The wind is ruthless today, I don’t think I can fly like that. It will have to be in the traditional way. Walking. I cann’t avoid turning for the last time, the Tower lies implacable and gray, it looks almost desolate, even without having damage to its structure. "Oh ... He’'s still there ..." His silhouette in front of his bedroom window is the last thing I see before leaving. Somehow it is correct; He was the one I saw first when I arrived on Earth, it makes sense that he is the one I last saw before I left. "Goodbye Dick" It's ... it's time to move on, wherever that is. Hey there this is the first time that I publish one of my fics here. I usually publish in fanfiction. I hope you like it, any comments or suggestions at well received ☺😊 P.s. 1. I haven't write in a long time so I hope I still have the spark hehe 😅. P.s. 2: English is not my first language so if there is a mistake please tell me hehe

#Teentitans #Starfire #Robin #how long is forever #drama #idk why it turn so sad #sorry not sorry

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floggingink · 7 years ago

Text

Riverdale, “Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine”

Jughead has seen more “mob movies” than I have, so I can’t verify his “classic trope,” but he’s speaking my language

I found Archie’s Devil Wears Prada errand-montage zippy and playful, much like Hiram Lodge himself

especially the direction of the construction guy’s arm clapping Archie’s shoulder to add movement to the swerving transition (not a technical term) as he steps into the trailer

Hiram’s soft V-neck sweater is, I assume, cashmere

Veronica’s look is so inseparable from collars and pearls that she has a collar made of pearls sewn into her dress

RAS wanted a Veronica-confirmation episode, so by God, he is getting one, and Veronica’s age be damned! Hiram and Hermione wanted “the same monsignor” from Veronica’s baptism, who I guess has been on leave at the Vatican for five years okay!

Archie wants to know if Veronica will have “to memorize stuff”

Veronica’s confirmation sponsor is her grandmother, which is par for the course, as is volunteering at a soup kitchen for her like 8 hours of required community service. I also had to write a report on Saint Lucy and pray a rosary in front of an abortion clinic. Veronica probably won’t have to do that, since you can’t say abortion on Riverdale

do soup kitchens have any actual paid employees, or are they all stocked with kids who just need volunteer hours/Matthew Goode’s character from The Good Wife in his spare time wearing that blue sweatshirt to characterize him as being “just that nice”?

Hiram is such a fucking soap opera star when he says Veronica has made him “the happiest father ALIVE.” like, alive?

“ISN’T SHE A MIRACLE?”

on FP’s kitchen table is the same kind of half-gallon of milk that Jughead was drinking from the morning after his birthday party. the Andrewses kept a spare half-gallon of skim milk just for Jughead in their fridge? the nicest thing Fred ever did for him

Jughead doubts it: Jughead is VERY sassy with Sheriff Keller and FP loves it!!!! because Jughead can have an anti-authoritarian ’tude WITHOUT NECESSARILY being “a gang member” at that particular moment!

FP is so crisp and put together! FP looks GREAT! what up though, Gladys?

wow I can’t believe Jughead’s article wielded so much political power that its legal ramifications echo throughout the entire episode, as if Jughead were Nellie Bly

“CAN I GET A QUOTE?” this is the Jughead that FP plainly adores

Jughead and Betty both drink skim milk, so, their wedding will be soon

are men on webcams actually fool enough to ask the webcam girls if they can MEET IN REAL LIFE? I have no knowledge about this world, but I would imagine the answer would be “Have you ever seen a film, ever?”

50 Shades of Betty: Betty looks pretty great in that severe black fucking wig and I still want an apology from Chuck specifically about dissing the wig

“Catholic chic” means veils optional, like the stole in black tie

What damn high school in America: Jughead doesn’t have to wear the preppy Lodge uniform, I see? shame

Best costume bit: Betty’s heart sweater is possibly my favorite thing she’s ever worn. I want it BADLY

ARE YOU TELLING ME HIRAM LODGE WANTS TO SUE A HIGH SCHOOL NEWSPAPER?

“DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER”? IS THERE SOMETHING HE WROTE THAT WASN’T TRUE? ARE YOU ~NOT~ BUILDING BOWLING ALLEYS ON NATIVE AMERICAN LAND? I will fucking suit up and be Jughead’s lawyer on this. as has been demonstrated, I have seen every episode of The Good Wife and can probably practice law in Illinois (for instance I know that in Illinois you only need one-person consent to secretly record a conversation)

I love Betty and Jughead being in the same room, of course, but Betty’s gentle, poking “And...did you?” is EXCEPTIONALLY cute. Betty is so cute. and sometimes scary

Jughead’s least clueless moment of the season so far is him looking back knowingly at Betty when she says maybe he would do it to “avenge Toni’s grandfather”

“WE’RE PALS.”

Jughead kind of looks great leaning against the window. like the lighting or something. God, please let me one day see the two of them making out with Betty in her cheerleading uniform

okay, I thought Betty and Jughead, IT WAS IMPLIED, had already had sex, because I was shown them waking up together after they had slept together in the trailer. apparently they LITERALLY slept together. APPARENTLY THEY HAVE NOT HAD SEX YET. I should have known, from the sleeper biceps, that Jughead was still pining IN THIS WAY, FOR THAT! I should have KNOWN Betty had not RIDDEN JUGHEAD INTO THE SUNSET YET. fuck! what am I doing!

Every triangle has three corners, every triangle has three sides: I also emotionally defend Betty’s ecru lie about not having “done anything” with anyone since the breakup since, as one will recall, immediately after her and Archie’s kiss they stared in horror at each other and have not talked about it since, thus cancelling it out as a real kiss (this is also a statute of Illinois law)

Hermione Lodge has some sort of skinny gold Lothlórien belt on over her deep merlot blazer

Archie > Dawson: Archie is sweet when he apologizes for making Pop double-check the order: “It’s more to make sure I get everything right.”

Archie hears Pop’s slip about Hiram being “the boss,” but other things happen and he FORGETS! at what inopportune time will he remember? when he’s physically embracing Jughead Jones?

although couldn’t Pop just play it off like Hiram is Archie’s boss? think on your feet, Pop

for the record I love Agent Adams and his whole deal. his plan is so insane that it might be brilliant. I just do still wish he were being played by either Sterling K. Brown or Max Greenfield

he doesn’t appreciate Archie’s attitude: “Is there a problem?” yeah, uh, Archie’s like twelve years old and not a trained undercover field agent? I love this stupid shit

oh, everyone’s being evicted from Sunnyside? if only Jughead hadn’t driven the southside’s only lawyer out of town with Kenickie Murdoch’s switchblade

OH MY GOD HERMIONE’S PANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

according to everyone’s facial expressions, Veronica is under the impression she is doing good political maneuvering inviting the McCoys to her confirmation, Hermione is stunned she did so, Veronica really wanted to sing a solo, and Josie doesn’t know why she has to fucking apologize for anything

Josie being Veronica’s “gift” from Mayor McCoy is horrifying

Sixth period is Intro to Film: Cruel Intentions is a fantastic Catholic standard, containing as it does cocaine, “experimental” girl-on-girl French kissing, Ryan Phillippe’s ass, the line “I'm the Marcia fucking Brady of the Upper East Side and sometimes I want to kill myself,” and implied step-sibling fucking, all of which I think Riverdale should include more of

the blue and red lighting inside the Wyrm is still nice. does the Wyrm even count as a dive? strippers probably wouldn’t waste their time at dives

wow there are some true beards in this crowd

okay…..the idea that Tall Boy is a better suspect than Jughead…...because he’s physically taller…..is singularly the most fantastic thing…..I have ever heard…..

I’ve seen Brick like thirty times: the sound of Archie shifting on the leather of Hiram’s couch is real good

“I RESPECT A MAN WHO WOULD GO TO SUCH EXTREMES.” HIRAM PLEASE!!!!! ARCHIE IS TOO DUMB FOR THIS!!!!!!

Gay?!: Ben? who the fuck is Ben? who is BEN? who the fuck?

OH MY GOD Jughead got in to see the mayor AGAIN! is Ethel Muggs her secretary???

Jughead interrupted Mayor McCoy eating her salad at her desk

for like the third time in the series she says she’s “always liked” Jughead, which, fat lot of good that’s done him

in Riverdale there is a red uniform at the soup kitchen, because even THE POOR must abide by aesthetics

Archie doesn’t know what cutting cigars means

Archie’s shoulders are nice under that polo

Betty’s plan about “treat it like a missing person’s case” and making it like this snooping Blue and Gold intrigue thing is of course welcome as a pretense for the two of them working together (on the show’s part), but in reality it’s just the fucking bare minimum that THE AUTHORITIES should ALREADY BE FUCKING DOING THEMSELVES

at this point I went to bed and had a very gripping, sexy dream about Veronica and Jughead. Veronica and Jughead

“Damn good coffee”: Hiram floating having to “bring Archie in” on the Lodge Family Tammany Hall is only slightly less absurd than the Federal Bureau of Investigation having already done so. what does Archie need to be brought in on, exactly? he’s just Veronica’s arm candy. he barely knows what a cigar is

while it is STILL ODD that Veronica has done a 180 on her accepting her father’s criminality, she still holds Archie up as a beacon of goodness, because, like I said, shoulders, polos

Jughead’s “order of the Ophidians” as he tapes up the Missing poster is either, so far as I can tell, an extremely obscure MMORPG reference or he’s just calling them snakes, but like, in Latin

Penny didn’t die of gangrene from her blistering wound like on the Oregon trail? probably a plus

FP is in some deep pain here. this is so far beyond his worst fears about Jughead joining the Serpents that he like never even fucking considered—I NEVER FUCKING CONSIDERED IT, IT WAS FUCKING RIDICULOUS

I certainly don’t think Penny’s terms are like, PARTICULARLY OUT OF LINE

ooooh Jughead’s little snipe at his father for fridging Jason!

I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH “YOU WILL BE THE DEATH OF US,” THE ANGUISHED REALIZATION IN FP’S EYES, GLADYS STAY AWAY!!!!!

I can’t believe the sixth season of The Wire takes place in Riverdale and doesn’t even have Sonja Sohn playing Agent Adams

Alice’s angel wing-white Founding Father blouse and Betty’s textured peach sweater

Hal is REALLY skittish about Chic, considering that HE’S HIS SON, SO FAR AS WE KNOW. but Hal hordes important information until the bitter end, so he probably just knows some shit

The Blossom Whoever the fuck’s spawn: “He’s a stranger. That’s my beef.”

“It’s been ~some time~ since my last confession” is usually the most accurate clocking I could give as well

I love the very dangerous clusters of candles inside the confessional

These students are legally children: NO ONE is helping Veronica. Veronica is trying to “find her thing” like, in the dark, lit by votive candles

I loved the circle of beautiful mob wives drinking wine and talking about how praying to “the Almighty” for “forgiveness” makes them feel better #aspirational

Hiram isn’t fucking around with Mr. Man “disrespecting Pop Tate.” Pop Tate is an angel, doing his best out here in a chaotic world. his poutine is probably great!

Archie’s stuck using the wrong kind of plunger

Poppa Poutine says Hiram lost his “mojo” in “the joint”

is Poppa right? is Hiram weak? if you subtract the Andrews boys, he doesn’t seem to have any problems

The 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie was a masterpiece: Josie is back with killer witchy earrings, a lovely dress, and a fierce hold on the remainder of her personal agency

of course it’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” but with harps. you know the Verve doesn’t get any royalties from that song? are the Rolling Stones the worst band in the world?

I LIKE THE SWOOSH FROM LARRY OR WHOEVER AND POPPA BACK TO ARCHIE WATCHING THEM

the back of the church is bathed in purple, the altar is yellow, the monsignor is in BRIGHT PALM SUNDAY RED, and this is what church should have always been like

Fwoopy hair is the best hair: Hermione’s strong-shouldered structured white jacket is amazing and Jughead forgoed his hat, to be respectful

Cheryl’s a chaos angel from hell: slightly strangely, Cheryl isn’t there at all this episode, but what we are truly robbed of is seeing what she would have worn to the confirmation

Veronica has a SUPER-SWEET very light pink/purple manicure!

Summer + Blair = Veronica: you better believe when Veronica was asked if she renounced Satan I was like, IS SHE GOING TO LOOK AT HER FATHER AND STORM OUT OF THAT CHURCH????? I THOUGHT SHE MIGHT!!!!!

instead I got an amazing thematic light show about Veronica choosing to believe in Archie’s unflagging internal compass and following his light (“the light of the Lord”!)

HE GIVES HER A TINY HAPPY NOD WHILE SHE’S THINKING, LIKE “YEAH BABE I KNOW YOU RENOUNCE SATAN!!!!!”

Veronica was rich: Veronica does look like a fucking angel up there

wow, Dilton isn’t DJing the afterparty? weird

why are Betty and Archie standing together AT ALL?

Abuelita is 100% right about pinching Archie’s cheek and Archie goes with it because he is respectful

Jughead eats: Jughead is so tormented he neglects the buffet!!!!!!

Jughead’s suit is very nice. I like the progression of his wearing better and better suits

Betty takes the news of Jughead’s CONFESSION that he “cut” Penny pretty stoically, as she did boil a guy once

POOR JUG IS RIGHT, IT DIDN’T EVEN MATTER!

Closed Captioning tells me the junkyard guy’s name is “JUNKYARD STEVE,” MY MAN

“If only we lived in a town where the answer could be no.”

Sexy, aesthetic Southside: Jughead in his leather jacket OVER HIS SUIT JACKET is pretty good!

“BY ANY CHANCE WAS THIS GENTLEMAN TALL?” OH MY GOD!!!! CASE FUCKING CLOSED BOYS!!!!!!!

Hermione hauling Veronica back for the photographer

Archie looking up from behind the closing art deco elevator doors

The female gaze: Archie is of course so handsome and perfectly proportioned in his suit. his handsomeness is such a given that I take it wholly for granted, like how when not suffering an allergy attack I can breathe from both nostrils but when one hits and I’m sneezing up my guts I’m like, air coming in from both nostrils? true bliss, I’ll never forget it again

God, did he get rid of his tailored cranberry Blossom suit? not the WORST crime committed in Riverdale, but probably worthy of eviction

Fifth period is AP English: as @hangingonyourwords noted, Archie knowing the word “coup” is VERY surprising! GOOD, ARCHIE

Hiram Lodge is, I think, listening to that song from Carmen while pouring himself a stiff drink, the massive Rory Gilmore portrait of Veronica over one shoulder and the blue light of an antipodean sea streaming in over the other, using a rotary phone to call in A MURDER

Tall Boy having to suffer interrogation by Jughead, whom he surely must have always despised, is his final indignity

Jughead calls Betty “one of us,” which has not been given enough fanfare by ANYONE in the show! Betty is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT as much a Serpent as Jughead, unless Jughead’s mother is a Serpent, except that she hasn’t had to shout their stupid rules into someone’s face yet

I’m writing a scene where it’s gay.: “YOU HAVEN’T ANSWERED MY SON’S QUESTION.”

the poor Serpents have been twisted around rich northsiders’ fingers for so long that they don’t have any fucking idea what to be doing when NOT at the behest of a blackmailer or bribery. I don’t know what it means to be a Serpent except that it means you’re poor and comely. and VERY civic-minded

“You’re a Judas, Tall Boy. And an idiot.”

Gay.: Sweet Pea raises both his arms to vote

FP’s gonna run Tall Boy out of town. a word of advice: one town over is not far enough

hell, Archie’s seen all those mob movies too! he and Jughead must’ve watched them together while Jughead was sleeping in his bedroom

Archie’s speech to Veronica is GOOD, ARCHIE, and what Veronica gets out just reinforces my thought that Hiram is literally starting a second town under Mayor McCoy’s nose, which would concern me expect that it has been definitely shown that even after things are executed on Riverdale I confuse myself and am invariably exactly wrong

I would probably kiss Archie too if he looked at me like that and said “I’m with you,” which I think explains Betty

HAHAAAAAAAAAAA OKAY!!!!!! SOMETHING IN THE WATER IN FP’S TRAILER

Jughead’s suspenders? a startling plus!

I like the quietness of “Maybe we can ask Veronica on Monday.” it reminded me of Archie’s face-saving some-other-time-definitely promise to go to the library with Jughead

“Maybe we should just investigate quietly until we know more.”

BLESSED BE THE CHILDREN and Jughead’s brusque scoff at himself for saying “my darkness”

in a move that the last few episodes haven’t shown him as having enough sense to make, Jughead puts his hand, not on Betty’s hand, but directly on the skirt of her dress

also Jughead knows that dress zippers have a point where you think it’s gone all the way down but really you’ve got a little further to go otherwise you can’t get the waistline over the hips? Jug’s got a little bit of game going on!

I like the silhouette of Jughead’s Adam’s apple

while Jughead is doing an excellent job delicately checking in with Betty’s sacral chakra, with his bare hand, I don’t want to overlook either his own gently crossed ankles as he holds her or his AMAZING SOCKS

when Betty tells him she needs to tell him something, he EXHALES a “What?” before he says “What is it?” WHOOP

she is missing a pretty sick meatloaf or pork of some more at her mother’s dinner table

I didn’t think there was a physiognomically scarier white guy around than Chic himself, but I was wrong!!!! it’s definitely that guy at the door!!!!!!

oh shit, Archie sort of got somebody (else) killed. this is like when Jughead didn’t mean to but definitely got somebody’s face beaten in by Tall Boy and Serpent Baby—holy shit what happened to that kid!!!! where did Serpent Baby go???

Certified pedigree: OKAY SENDING THE STATUE HEAD TO HIRAM LODGE VIA A CONFIRMATION “PRESENT” TO HIS DAUGHTER IS A PRETTY GREAT MOVE. I ASSUME THIS WAS YOU, FP JONES. FP IS REALLY GOOD AT PUTTING WORDLESS THREATENING MESSAGES INTO BOXES

in the shot bingo of Riverdale, the middle box would have to be Betty coming through her front door and pausing because she hears something suspicious

Mädchen Amick, MÄDCHEN AMICK: the squishy sound effect of the rags on the wet floor? her perfect hair? her bright blue turtleneck? “Elizabeth, did you lock the front door?” Alice is already three steps ahead!!! Alice Alice Alice!!!!!

Alice and FP have now both cleaned up somebody else’s murder’s cranial blood (I’m assuming Chic clocked this guy, which means it was probably Melody), further proof they belong together

Please protect Betty: Betty fucking Jughead probably saved her life

Next week: Cheryl shoots a bow and arrow!!! into my heart!!!!!!!!!

#i say #commentary #riverdale #tropes

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floggingink · 8 years ago

Text

Riverdale: “Chapter Eight: The Outsiders”

have you ever felt pastels to be sadistic? lime-sherbet green nail polish? Grace’s incredible cover of Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me,” both produced by Quincy Jones? ...the Coopers

Alice raises Betty’s chin

“beautiful daughters”

I am intrigued by the emotional politics of Betty wearing her hair in a ponytail vs. down. she seems to prefer it up for everyday wear, down for social functions. but would Alice allow it up for a semi-formal family picture, different from Polly’s hair?

the Blossom corpse: I continue to love how Flashback Jason looks more like an eerie ginger Ken doll, too pale and coiffed to be a real person. of course, it’s not really “Actual Footage of Flashback Jason” so much as it’s “Jughead’s Imaginatory Flashback of Jason,” and Jughead puts everyone in like an exaggerated hyper-characterized limbo

Cheryl’s “Bitchy” baseball tee, red leather heart clutch

Nana Rose met Jason and Polly out in the woods to give them her ring, in her wheelchair, she ships them so hard

“Damn good coffee”: INTERESTING insertion of Jughead at Pop’s in the background watching J&P planning to run away? actually watching, or putting himself there as if he had watched them, imagining some more? he is lounging pretty brazenly, like he’s watching a TV show

Jughead eats: WITH his burger

please tell me Nana’s heirloom ring is going to mysteriously return

Hermione graciously rises and pats Sheriff Keller’s shoulder until he leaves Polly alone

Veronica was rich: the plants and decor around the Lodge apartment are pretty bland, except there’s a very sweet purple and white flower arrangement behind Polly

“Gooooootta stop blowing me up. You’re doing it. What’re you doing—”

certainly it is Archie who “keeps killing” Jughead, not the other way around, themes and such

Jughead would be the guy who falls in love with No Man Sky and Archie would be the guy who’s like, “It takes TEN MINUTES to fly to the other planet?” also consider: Until Dawn, and the new Zelda

Fifth period is AP English: “No, Archie. Hell is other people.”

does Archie know Sartre? he laughs, but maybe it was a Veronica’s-Capote-references laugh. does this poor boy understand a word out of anyone’s mouth?

“It’s like Archie and I are just roommates in a college dorm.” absolutely: the floor and the bed are a mess, bags of chips, so many blankets it’s where they forgot whose is whose, kicking their socks off without putting them in the laundry, staying up too late playing Witness, watching Monster Factory, practicing kissing

Fred is thoroughly decent to acknowledge that it might be hard for Jughead to have the construction job brought up

Jughead’s only half-facetious “As long as you build something beautiful in its place.”

Archie’s bright blue Henley, Veronica’s little grey textured sheath, Betty’s powder blue ribbed pullover, Cheryl’s red and black criss-crossed sweater

Cheryl is sitting with them! fascinating! presumably after helping Polly escape Penelope, she got hugged by Veronica and that was that

does Archie know what a Gordian knot is?

Veronica has been “percolating” on the Polly problem and comes up with a “hellishly” simple solution

Jughead’s “Am I expected to come to this thing?” is a gentle joke for Betty and the room at large, Your Honor, acknowledging that he does not like casual gatherings but will most definitely be attending because he “has to.” Veronica takes the reins of the conversation back by telling him soberly that he will be because he’s Betty’s boyfriend

the look Betty and Jughead share at the first public drop of the word “boyfriend” between them is precious, little smiles

Every triangle has three corners, every triangle has three sides: Archie continues to feel strange about them, which is fine as he does not do anything strange about them

although Valerie is sitting right next to him. are they dating? just making out? Archie, get your shit together

Betty’s spit take: “Mom?”

how is a construction team made up? crews can just pick up and leave? Fred hires a foreman who comes with his own crew? the foreman speaks for the crew? are they like a union? Hermione?

Alice interrogates the girls in the Spanish classroom

Best costume bit: Alice’s amazing wool trench, beige-on-beige-on-brown, the puffy sleeves

all three ladies end up with their arms crossed

Alice was not ready to be called a grandmother

apparently Archie and Val went out and got pizza, are actually dating. okay Archie, continue to mind your own dating business. Jughead got his girl. you got yours. eyes forward. eyes on your own test.

I LOVE the Andrews’ kitchen! I think there’re string lights behind the window curtains!

oh these two Andrews men. Fred is so stressed and quiet and trying to hold himself together. Jughead is I guess at Pop’s, splitting a milkshake with Betty, two straws, fingers intertwined

the Lodge breakfast seems to consist largely of orange juice and croissants

Betty and Veronica hoping against hope that “the Blossoms” just means “...Cheryl’s. On the guest list.” “Yeah, Cheryl.”

Polly’s Grecian Vestal Virgin headband

“Mother-to-mother?” “Oh, yeah. No.”

Fred screeches his Ford pickup to a stop but feet from Clifford’s Bentley coupe

how he got his truck past the gates in the first place is probably a good cocktail party story

Clifford is so rich that he can buy off Fred’s crew to have them actually work on a real, second construction site so that he can buy back the first construction site that he actually wants

Clifford Blossom is undeniably a “pompous ass,” but I agree with him in the sense that I have no idea what Fred’s revenge against him would likely be, am forcibly reminded of Jughead’s “What? What are you gonna do?”

“Go park somewhere else.”

the sheer number of flannels on Fred’s construction site, breathtaking

anytime Jughead wants to stand with his hip cocked to the side, holding a toolbox, jacket open, I endorse

What damn high school in America: are these boys missing school right now? Jughead already took an absence for running around the Catholic asylum with Betty

God bless Moose: “We’re bruiser studs, Mr. Andrews.” I don’t know what that is, but it’s adorable

Moose does not think Jughead counts as a “bruiser stud.” clearly Jughead’s fleece lapels are blocking the view of his pecs from Moose’s peripheral vision

Bulldog #1, the not-Moose, tells Keller he looks “buff” without caveat, nice guy

Gay.: “I prefer my contact sports one-on-one. Like. Boxing.”

LOVING the appreciative laughs from the bros. Kevin is simply funny and gay and has gay sex(ual moments) and it’s awesome. no no-homos from his friends. Moose smiles. big grin from Jughead

the female gaze: speaking of, what the fuck?

presumably this is why Jughead wears so many shirts, so he can walk down the hallway and not get attacked

the reversal of Archie and Jughead’s typical wardrobes, Archie now in the multiple layers and Jughead just in an hourglass tank top, a button-down tied low on his hips to play up his tiny waist. although Archie’s T-shirt definitely falls into the Chris Evans school around the chestal region

“He works his ass off for me, bro.”

truly Jughead does not have an ounce of fat on his body. Jughead. Jughead. BETTY.

if Riverdale were on HBO, Moose would be beaten to within an inch of his life and they would have to wait until he came out of his coma to tell them about the crowbar dudes

the truck they speed away in has a “Don’t Tread on Me” bumper sticker, so you know they’re some bullshit

oh great, Sheriff Keller is here. he’ll fucking figure it out.

Archie is probably right in that Sheriff Keller is disproportionately effective towards the Blossoms, but Fred is the most right when he tells Archie to just cut it out

Polly’s pink top with the flower decals!

Summer + Blair = Veronica: Veronica never thought she would live to see the day when something would make her as soft inside as Polly asking Betty to be the baby’s godmother

is not Polly’s line of “if anything were to happen to me, I only trust YOU with my baby” EXTREMELY foreboding? isn’t this the moment we knew Remus Lupin would die?

poor Valerie telling Archie to slow down had no chance against Archie setting his mind to do something stupid to assuage his own anxiety

Valerie’s boots??

“Dude, what the hell? I’ve been texting you.” Jughead has been ignoring Archie’s texts because he knows some dumb shit is coming

Jughead nods at the Serpents being “dangerous” but is like, affronted that Betty calls them drug dealers? Jughead, you sweet, gentle, down-soft baby-faced spider, what do you think the Serpents do?

Jughead doubts it: he sums up everything succinctly, though, with just, “Archie, going into that bar is a bad idea.” no shit! it’s a fucking biker gang bar! has Archie completely forgotten Rust Cohle’s undercover stint in True Detective?

Archie’s pissy “Thanks for having my back” is such a dick move. such a dick move. everyone at the table is like, Jesus.

Red shows up in his effing letterman jacket? Christ Almighty.

HELLOOOO, JOAQUIN!

Fwoopy hair is the best hair: JOAQUIN!!!

Moose looks at Kevin and nods at Archie’s plan to call Kevin’s dad. is Moose fucking in love with Kevin Keller? right here, in front of Kevin’s pretty-boy bf who’s so cool he’s in a non-racist biker gang (my edit)? does Moose PINE? MOOSE?

the bar is so cool that it has a banana python in a tank

These students are legally children: would they have all been allowed IN? maybe Joaquin could’ve gotten Kevin in, but three underage non-members?

I would’ve been fine in there, for the record, because I would’ve worn my Slytherin pin on my checkered Charlotte Russe blazer lapel, as badasses do

“We’re all gonna die.”

Moose SAID he couldn’t remember what the guys looked like, so Archie MUST HAVE convinced him he MIGHT if he just came along to this bar and LOOKED AROUND. Archie is like, a danger to others???

to kill time, Joaquin hustles Kevin at the pool tables

Mustang could take a few lessons about how to wear beanies from his boss’s son

Archie...was not expecting to see FP

FP looks familially disappointed at Archie being so irresponsible on Fred’s behalf

“Man, you got a bigger imagination than Jughead. And that’s saying something.” how much can I love FP’s thing about Jughead’s storytelling

the job Fred is doing on his truck’s brakes

“I called him. The second you walked into the bar.” FP dad points!!

the 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie was a masterpiece: Valerie, in a velvet top, and Melody come to the baby shower because they’re fantastic

this cover of “Our House” is perfect

Jughead absolutely ditched Archie to help the girls put the baby shower together, and he loved it. Betty in her little skirt? he loved it.

Veronica, gently buzzed on mimosas in the back of the Lodge driver car: I’m registering Polly at Tiffany’s. Would Baby Cooper rather have the ironstone ceramic three-piece dining set with the dancing chicks detail or the little polka dot earthenware piggy bank except it’s an elephant?

Betty, opposite, head in Jughead’s lap, playing with the lowest buttonhole on his shirt: Sweetie, you know you don’t have to help put all this together. You can just come when it starts.

Jughead, brushing her hair: I am ORGANIZING the baby shower.

Betty: Oh! Oh okay!

Jughead: I will GET the BALLOONS.

he plops the cupcake tier down with such a look on his face. his whole thing this whole time is like a beautiful meta-joke about how he and Betty are obviously a socially mismatched couple and he must be lolling behind her not wanting to go to her fancy parties because that’s his whole constructed persona but in actuality he’s fucking just LOOK at how he looks at her. I’M CALM

Betty cups his elbow and kisses him because she is also calm

“You’re sweet to be here. I know this isn’t exactly your scene.” “What?”

and his soft red sweater?

Alice Cooper wore a pink coat in a gesture of neutrality towards Hermione, affection towards her daughters, and contrition towards Polly

“WE’RE HERE!!!”

the vintage Victorian pram Cheryl bequeaths on Jay-Jay’s baby

Cheryl’s sheaths: her baby-pink 50’s skirt, with a slit!, her bosomy black top, gold bag, her sparkly sparkle-necklace

Cheryl’s hair: GOD I LOVE CHERYL WITH HER HAIR DOWN

oh my god Penelope wheeling in Nana Rose

Cheryl owning Nana Rose: “Let’s get you a good spot by the food.”

Please protect Betty: Betty to Alice: “Think happy thoughts.”

Cheryl’s pins: okay Penelope AND Alice are BOTH wearing flower pins, dueling flower pins

FP is like, I’m an alcoholic whose personal life has imploded and I’ve gone back to the gang that I left after I couldn’t work anymore but I’m not PETTY

Fred and FP are both in charge in their own worlds, both bosses. both have “guys”

Lord, PLEASE do not let this happen to Archie and Jug. PLEASE let Jughead be okay.

Nana Rose dangles a crystal over Polly’s palm, reading the baby’s aura. Cheryl: “Nana has dementia. And gypsy blood.”

Penelope’s red short-sleeved dress is very Cheryl. is she trying to look less threatening?

Polly is genuinely surprised at the idea that she might be having twins? has this woman not had a damn sonogram yet? does Riverdale have a Planned Parenthood?

“This is occultism at its most ludicrous,” says the woman who burned sage in Betty’s room after Cheryl Blossom was there for three hours

I WANT the baby lambs mobile.

Archie fucking SERIOUSLY hauls in there and doesn’t even wait for the conversation to start back up before—he SERIOUSLY—

God bless Jughead was just standing off to the side, eating cupcakes, minding his own damn business, like, That’s a good mobile. Aw. The lambs. Look at that. fuck’s sake!

he takes a fraction a moment to be horrified that Archie knows about his dad and the rest of the moment to have a DAMN HEART ATTACK that now Betty knows. Archie said this not to him, but TO BETTY, right in front of him. “Did you know Jughead’s dad is a Serpent?” isn’t a dig at Jughead’s father. it’s a dig at Jughead. Archie. Archie.

Betty’s isn’t grossed out or anything, but she knows the Serpents are such bad news that she’s proportionately uncomfortable for a hot second

Veronica tells them to shut up

Cheryl’s a psychopath: Cheryl’s “Oh, Polly! Come live with us at Thornhill!” is SO perky, sitting next to her mother, it must be fake. although I infinitely love Cheryl consistently, constantly, consciously putting on a show

bit tacky, ALL AWESOME to pitch Polly moving in with the Blossoms in front of Alice

“a bedbug-infested Trojan horse”

Alice didn’t “send me away” so much as she had grown men haul her into a VAN like she’d reneged on a ransom

apparently we can’t say “abortion” on the CW?

Fred is sitting alone in his kitchen with a cutting board full of like, arugula

Certified pedigree: his voice shakes as he tries to explain to Archie how their lives are about to fall apart

Archie > Dawson: ugh I guess Archie makes his dad feel a little better, which is nice, I guess

Jughead genuinely went off and sat in a room by himself, temporarily traumatized at being outed and yelled at in front of strangers, his delicately-new girlfriend, #introvertproblems

Betty’s clacky heels on the hard floor, #asmr

Betty is already over FP being a Serpent, wants to ask him about Jason. “I want to know who you are. All of it.” Jughead can’t believe his fucking luck. this fucking girl.

he cups her back at they walk out

whoa, is that Fred’s truck? is Jughead driving Fred’s truck?

FP is SO chill at his house on the weekends. he’s not out cavorting with the gang, he’s watching like, playoffs

okay, he is drinking, which is in direct violation of the tearful promise he made to Jughead, which everyone knows as soon as they see each other

I am very fond of the slightly accented way Cole Sprouse keeps saying the short A in “dad”

Jug’s proper introduction of “Betty Cooper” to his father, with an expression like, Guess this is happening now

he is thoroughly unimpressed at there being shenanigans between his dad and Jason Blossom

WTF, why was Jason like HOARDING drugs? did he WANT them?

FP has the teensiest smile on his face at Betty and Jughead, the pair, coming to him, together, thinking they’re going to get the slightest bit of anything from him, his son and “Is that your girlfriend?”, bring it on at this poker face

very cool, now Jughead and Betty have each asked their fathers if they’ve killed Jason. cool! cool dads!

“I believe you, Jughead.” Betty doesn’t buy FP’s denial of involvement. Betty is still thinking

hold on because she’s holding Jughead’s face. oh you know what this means

Jughead looks from her lips to her eyes to her lips to her eyes to her lips

Betty and Jug have graduated to kissing while holding EACH OTHER’S faces SIMULTANEOUSLY

oh god all of their kisses should be strongly backlit, in a penthouse or a trailer park or like, Betty’s bedroom (remember when he was in her bedroom?), but here, out in the cold air with the archangel Raphael apparently descending behind them, misting them in Chanel Mademoiselle and illuminating the silhouettes of their long eyelashes

it also seems like they’re kissing to the music from Titanic

seriously, does Betty know about the biceps?

the best part, this is a great kiss, but the best part is the thing at the end when Jughead isn’t quiiite done and leans in for a little more

@milakuniis

and the soft wet mouth kiss-noises? Betty’s heart earrings? JUGHEAD’S THUMB ON HER CHEEK?

oooooohhhh Hal Cooper is watching the same baseball game as FP, also drinking a finger of whiskey

UH ALICE BREAKING THE REMOTE?

SHOVING HIM IN THE THROAT?

Hal made Alice get an abortion?

“overreact”

“BLOSSOM BLOOD”

Mädchen Amick, MÄDCHEN AMICK: “GET. OUT.”

what is Alice capable of? what isn’t she capable of?

holy moly Alice. Alice is tender and comes apart easily with a fork. Alice is done.

why the FUCK is JUGHEAD the one apologizing to ARCHIBALD.

...why are they still sharing a room? there has to be a third bedroom in that house. could they...just not bear...being apart...

I’m writing a scene where it’s gay.: “There’s no excuse.” [rubs hands] ah but there is tension.

I want Jughead’s reluctance to share stuff about his father with Archie to come less from a place of embarrassment and more from a down-to-earth place about knowing Archie doesn’t have a lot of sense and can’t keep secrets

at least Archie’s doofusness isn’t coming from a gross sabotaging Jug-and-Betty thing, unless it’s unconscious

Gay?!: Jughead sees your earnestness, calls it out, and raises it. “You’re like. You’re like my brother.” “Nice bro whisper, Archie. You are my brother.”

how is Jason’s jacket insurance??

I’ve seen Brick like thirty times: FP’s epic coldness with Joaquin’s hesitancy about Kevin’s feelings is the first time, and it’s really good, he’s looked like a Scary Gang Guy In Charge Of Shit, Obey Him

WHAT is the part FP is playing! oh my god! is it just lying to Betty and Jughead, which makes sense, or some other shit??? is it with Fred??? oh my god FP is like fascinating to me GOD.

for the record, “Greendale” is where Sabrina Spellman lives, nbd

HE’S WAITING FOR FRED WITH A CREW OH MY GOD IS THIS HIS PART? BEING A FRIEND?

“You’ve never had a better foreman than me. I won’t leave you hanging this time.” Fred is…..so proud…..

“Who ratted you out?” VERONICA?

honestly tbh poor Polly has probably lost all nostalgic affection for “coming home” and I don’t like, blame her for not caring enough about the concept to go back there

although surely she has a plan, going to the Blossoms?

“You’ll be safe here.” is Cheryl going to freak out (privately) that Polly came to them after all?? CHERYL IS COMING.

remember in Hannibal when Mason Verger surgically removed Margot Verger’s pregnant womb and it turned out he’d kept the fetus gestating inside a sow so he could use it to inherit his father’s fortune without her? something about this is just reminding me of that. Hannibal was kind of fucked up!

next week: a really good hug

#riverdale #tropes #commentary #i say

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