#so many ben feels :(((

[ryzanecrow]

I'm cackling bruh this is why I became an artist

I will never forget Ben's necrofriggian babies

just two single dads who can turn into giant dudes

[foolsocracy]

I can't help but notice you haven't posted any angst in a while and I'm suspicious

whipped this one up just for u anon

[dariusaurs]

wait i just realized that the ending didnt actually make it clear what the nublar 5 will be up to in s3..

[fist-of-vengeance]

thinking about how essentially every relationship john locke formed in the early seasons of lost has completely disintegrated by the time of his death.

of course there's his relationship with jack, which starts tense but manageable and culminates in jack pointing a gun at john's head and pulling the trigger. but even his smaller, less narratively prominent relationships either implode or drift apart. he bonds with walt in season one but then walt leaves the island, which is itself a severing of their bond since it was mainly based on being the only two people who wanted to stay. still, he goes and visits walt off the island so this is probably john's most successful relationship. I dont think i need to explain how he fucked up with boone, "the sacrifice that the island demanded." charlie viewed john as a mentor and claimed to trust him more than anyone on the island, but after the events of fire and water, that trust is destroyed and charlie despises him. at the same time we get john bonding with claire and having a pseudo-paternal dynamic with her, but their closeness basically drops off the face of the earth as he gets less and less involved with the other survivors.

his arc in the series is essentially a gradual distancing from everyone around him. it starts when he abandons hunting (providing for the others) in favor of trying to get the hatch open (it's extremely clear his primary motive isn't any survival applications but getting answers to the mystery). when they do open the hatch, he spends more and more time inside, underground, cut off from other people. he spends more and more time interacting with ben, a human mystery box that he's obsessed with cracking even if it gets him killed. he follows the proverbial white rabbit deeper down the hole and leaves his connection to humanity behind. the island and its mysteries become more important to john than anything or anyone else.

then in season three we get him claiming to go undercover with the others only to unceremoniously tell sawyer that he's actually going to join them. and it doesn't feel shocking, it feels inevitable. because john has spent the entire series becoming less and less connected with the people he arrived with. in that sense he actually makes a fascinating foil to juliet, who is introduced as one of the others and yet never really fits, she's increasingly sympathetic and kind in a way the rest of them aren't, her redemption arc feels so natural that she actually starts referring to her old people as "the others" like she's been one of the crash survivors from the beginning. her and john basically have inverse arcs, which is probably accidental but very neat.

in season five john tries to convince everyone to go back to the island, and fails spectacularly. and of course he does, because he was so consumed by obsession that he stopped maintaining his relationships, and in many cases actively alienated people (this is also basically what happened with helen) and now he can't wrap his head around why they're all so hostile to him. i am forever obsessed with the scene where he confronts kate and she brutally calls him out for wanting to return to the island because he doesn't love anyone. it actually struck me on rewatch how well the two of them got along in season one, and how badly their relationship has degraded by this point. john repeatedly casts aside interpersonal relationships in favor of his obsession with destiny, so when said destiny actually involves persuading the people he once shunned, he's at a loss. this is because john treats purpose as a supplement for connection, destiny as an alternative to love.

as an aside, this aspect of john's character kinda ties into my opinion that several lost characters can be read as allegorically neurdivergent under a certain lens. i know this was absolutely not intended, but as an adhd former gifted kid who struggles socially, there is something uncomfortably familiar about a character who allows their relationships to burn around them because of a single-minded obsession, especially as a result of being promised the fickle status of "special."

tl/dr: john locke is a doomed idiot and i love him

[greenpidge101]

I just know the losers club 4th of July party is wild

Like it’s at Ben and Bevs beach house and every loser is drunk or high (minus Ben, sober king) and they blast stupid American music and just have a good time grilling and dancing and swimming

[sleazyjanet]

getting insecure about liking a character is so stupid. one moment i'll be like "i get this character and love them so much" and then think "oh my god people are going to drop kick me for how i perceive this character and hate me"

[periodcostumefantasylover]

The Darkling in every episode 2x05 Shadow and Bone

[afinestoutlove]

things i love about heartstopper 6/?

Characters that would be stereotypes in other stories are whole human beings.

Imogen and Isaac are the best examples I think. Imogen would just be the cool girl in another story, a bit ditzy, kind of fun, mostly there for the laughs. Here she is all those things, but she's also a deeply empathetic character, with understandable motivations. Even if you don't love her, you can understand her and sympathise with her. When Nick asks her "Do you ever feel like you're just doing things because everyone else is?", you can see the recognition in her face. That's her whole story across 3 seasons. And you care about her, you empathise with her, and you love her (well, I do), even though (because) she's a walking disaster a lot of the time.

Isaac deserves a whole post to himself (I LOVE HIM) so I'll save most of what I could say about him for that. But the sweet, book-loving, nerdy friend character could so easily be a caricature, and Isaac isn't. He's closer to that in S1, maybe because he was filling the place of Aled who has a whole backstory of his own and they hadn't quite figured out his role yet? But even in S1, his personality is never just book-loving nerd. He's funny and sassy and kind and insightful, and then over the seasons he becomes so much more than that. You can see why his friends love him. You also get a sort of feel for why he's so book-obsessed, when most similar characters "just are" with no real thought beyond "well they're a nerd". I think one of the things I love about his story is that his friends sort of accidentally pigeon-hole him, too, the way other stories often do. And part of his arc is pushing back against that, and them realising they need to do better (and then they do, which is so fucking good, I love them all so much!).

You can see this humanising process with the “villains” of the show, too.

Ben Hope, the worst person in the story (imo), has his main humanising moment in 'Sorry' (I think it was done better in the show than the comic, pls don't come for me). It breaks my heart every time, when that rainbow ocean gets close to his toes and he turns and walks away I wanna cry. Because it's so clear he could have been different, he could have chosen something better for himself and everyone around him. He could have chosen not to be entitled and cruel, and to not inflict his own pain and shame onto others. And he could have chosen this moment to do that too, but he doesn't. He cuts himself off from the possibility of freedom, which means he'll keep hurting other people and himself for who knows how long. (Sebastian Croft did such a good job with this character, he's so believably awful.) It's such a perfect moment. Even though I do feel real empathy and sadness for him, that doesn't make what he did okay and the show is always clear that he's wrong and he needs to be held accountable. Yes, we see that his family and environment led him here, but he could have made a different choice. He could have learnt from Charlie the way Nick did, but instead he tried to destroy all the parts of Charlie that would have helped him. We see Darcy struggling with similar pressures throughout S2, and they make a very different choice from Ben at the end of this same episode. We see how Ben got there, we see him as a full person, and we're never asked to approve of him or minimise the hurt he caused - it's basically spelled out in Ben and Nick's conversation in 'Family':

"I was going through some personal stuff." "I don't care, you hurt him!"

Probably the weakest characters in terms of being humanised are David and Harry. David has the most punchable face, but as the show progresses you can see a little bit of what’s underneath. It doesn’t make you like him and it’s not supposed to. But he’s not just a cardboard cutout. He’s a hurt little boy who, unlike Nick, leaned into the shittiest form of masculinity to try and get the validation he desperately wanted from his dad, and then everyone else. And it shows up irl for so many families. The older sibling who was just that bit older when their parents separated often has a much harder time adjusting, and often compensates in some shitty ways - especially if one of their parents is neglectful/toxic. On first glance, it's wild that Sarah managed to raise such different sons, but the context we get makes so much sense. Yeah, the "my parents are divorced/dad is a dickhead" manchild is a stereotype still, but there is an actual person there.

Harry is similar to David in terms of character, but probably gets the least humanising attention. He and David both like to poke at people until they get a reaction that they can be angry about. Harry gets a little bit of an arc of his own, but he never really gets far from the stereotypical bully - as Tao says, a "rich bellend". There are a couple of moments where you can see a human face underneath, though, if you're looking for it. His face when Nick stands up to him, there's more than just anger there. Or, perhaps, you can see when the anger hits and what's underneath it. You can see what drives his constant poking at people to get a reaction (especially if you've had to deal with assholes like that irl). There's insecurity, and sometimes a weird sense of shock when people snap at him, as though he didn't expect it - that's so true to life as well, and often something that gets left out of this stereotype in other stories. But later on, when he tells Ben he shouldn't call Imogen a bitch, you can also see something else there, the potential to be better, even if it's just for people like Imogen who he's friends with. (Maybe we'll see more of that in S4?) Props to Cormac Hyde-Corrin for those little moments, he did them really well.

I think what’s so valuable about the humanising moments for the “bad guys” of the show, even the tiny ones you have to look for, is that you are supposed to empathise with them to some extent, but you’re never asked to forgive them or absolve them. You understand more about who they are and sometimes why, but they’re still responsible for their choices. That's how people change, right? When we see their humanity and then expect better of them. It’s so important.

[canirove]

Aston Villa Vs. Chelsea | FA Cup | Post-match interview | 07.02.2024

[elmendea]

he is so perfect in this role, I cannot--

like. look, you don't understand. I've had Sam Neill as my Círdan in my head since like...'03, '04? I was that bitch who was whining on Livejournal and moaning when the super popular LotR websites were painting the Shipwright as basically Draco Malfoy's father with silver hair (no, no kidding, I cannot tell you how many blends/photomanips I saw of beardless Círdan who looked as cold as ice, and that was like, accepted as the canon. Go straight to hell, damn). Like. I was so ready to panic about who they cast as this astounding, beautiful elf that I have loved for the longest time. Who could do better than who I casted in my head?

Ben goddamn Daniels is who.

He is so absolutely, utterly Círdan I can hardly believe it. He is this paragraph come to life: "Very tall he was, and his beard was long, and he was grey and old, save that his eyes were keen as stars", and the way he plays him, oh goodness. I can see all his wisdom and kindness and age and longing and steadfastness.

I mean. Just. Goddamn. Like, do you have any idea how much this elf has denied his own happiness and longing to make sure his divinely appointed task wasn't just done, but done well? And his longing was like a sunset that never passed into dusk, no less -- and Ben Daniels communicated that in his performance. And took my breath away wholly.

I have fallen in love with this character ten times harder than I already was, and that, my friends, is utterly unheard of. This actor is a delight and this show is a Silmaril in the sunset. ♥

[penciltopbear]

After one million years... I finally have pictures of my full Guy Gardner cosplay :)

The vest, gloves, boots, and belts are all crocheted and the ring is 3D printed and hand painted. It did not win the cosplay contest, but the judges had a lot of good things to say about my work and I got a lot of really great feedback! I love this cosplay sooooo much and it felt so good walking around the con in it :) I am very proud of this!!!

[forlouren]

I am honestly partial to the idea of Darth Plagueis' being Qimir's Sith Master─although I could understand that had it been confirmed in an interview instead of revealed in the show itself, that could be disappointing─It doesn't worsen, or better Qimir's chance of survival. Plagueis is going to crash in on their [ Osha and Qimir ] party either way, seeing as they are all on the same planet, and he has interest in the concept of life created by the Force.

Qimir is evidently a practitioner of Darth Bane's teachings, even if loosely so, seeing he recites the Sith code to Mae. He lives beneath a cortosis mine in an unknown planet, which I could only assume is a callback/reference to Darth Tenebrous' ( Plagueis' master ) who owned a claim of cortosis in a planet named Bal'demnic in the EU. Plagueis having a former apprentice before Palpatine doesn't ruin anything important either. Nor do I think it contradicts any of Qimir's unorthodox-sith characterization, or my earlier reading of such.

If Qimir is the apprentice of Plagueis; it would re-contextualize his want for an acolyte somewhat, I suppose. But there is poetry in that in the rejection from the mother, he ran into the teeth of the beast to feel held, and even in that, he didn't find absolution. So naturally, he'll seek another path.

[little-bit-obsessed]

He's God's favourite,,, he's my favourite

[miss-galaxy-turtle]

Sparrow Ben would absolutely be the type of person to say that Orpheus was an idiot for turning around and that he could've done it if it was him

Then he meets Jennifer

And he realizes that if she were his Euridyce, he'd look back, too

[captainsavre]

I hate being alone. Carina DeLuca || Station 19 (4.02 Wild World)

[thisisntreaver]

Aurora must be absolutely horrific for Ben.

Leading up to this, his long time best friend dies in front of him, something he likely should have expected but didn't simply because of how lucky Jammy is. Not long after his father figure is branded a traitor and murdered in a public execution. All he really has left is Page who hes only beginning to know, HOBW, who would arguably be his best friend at this time, and Walter, their father figure and a man he respects.

He leaves with two of them, their ship is attacked and when he wakes up he is alone.

He asks for help, to find two of the only people left in his life, because while anyone else would think they're dead, he can't accept that. He won't, not until he's given proof but he'd sooner search all of Aurora and the surrounding lands than do that.

And he ends up being right they are alive.

Just barely.

HOBW who was the only one not to fall when Lt. Simmons' came back, who -with Pages help- decimated Reavers Wheel of Misfortune, who he saw kill dozens of Logans soilders before boarding their ill-fated ship, is half dead. They're in the middle of the desert, injured, weapons dropped beside them, and alone. Hes found them but he doesn’t know if in their current state that they'll make it through the night. His only real comfort is that Kalin says they're strong.

They wake up and Ben teases them, of course he does, they're showing signs of life, hes relieved to see that they're still fighting. And then they ask for Walter and immediately without question he says "We'll find him."

Not just to comfort them, but to comfort himself, because this gives him hope that they were together, but also imagine the fear over the fact that they're separated now? These two who have traveld throughout Albion together, separated seemingly against their will?

So he searches, an they do find him and hes in a worse state than HOBW. Alone, blinded, hanging on by a thread. While Kalins words calling HOBW strong are a comfort, her words aren't as optimistic for Walter.

Ben has them back, and HOBW is back on their feet near immediately, but imagine the fear? Hes already lost one friend, and he nearly lost two more. He's lost his father figure, and he doesn’t want HOBW to lose theirs. Walter recovers, but as their leaving he's still not back too top shape, but that doesn’t matter because they want to, need to leave.

Aurora has left its marks on HOBW and Walter physically, but theres a a headty mental toll put onto Bens shoulders that he is alone in.