#the 2 I had of Sam from s2 were so different from each other it was this angsty one or one of him smiling his arse off as they did magic

[drummer-from-down-under]

Small towns and their influx of magical teens, as they do...

[bcacstuff]

Day 2 Highlanders 7 con 20 July 2024 at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham

Fan Meet with Richard:

If he's a betting man there will be Rebus 2 (with a wink)

Hasn't read more than 4.5 books (of OL) couldn't get through the Gathering in Fiery Cross

Everyone's really sad about it ending

Doesn't like the stickers chosen for the Rebus books but the author did so he was outvoted

Charles & David Q&A

As part of training for the roles, they were taught them how to stand and sit using the "Alexander Technique" Demonstrating the "Alexander Technique" of how to stand up straight 18th-century style 👇

Question: if you could play another character who would it be: David - BJR; Charles - didn't know - fusion of LJG and Jamie

What won't you miss after OL ends - David travel; Charles didn't answer the question but said he'll miss his friends in Glasgow

Who would you go to a convention to see - Charles Eddie Vedder & Robin Kimmerer (author); David couldn't name anyone

Richard, Charles and Jamie Roy play Magic the Gathering (red: a card game) together almost every day when not working

When asked about a LJG series, David said if people want it he'd be up for it and people need to speak up about it

David and Charles singing O Canada 👍

Charles can walk on his hands - went back and forth 3x

Richard & Sophie Q&A

What song would describe your relationship on the show: Sophie - Lover (Richard joked Tolerater)

What role would you like to play: Sophie - Black Swan; Richard - Wolverine or Iron Man

Richard & Sam made different animal noises each take during the birthing scene

Hardest scene they had to film: Sophie - physically the ones with the horses; Richard - one where Brianna tells Roger Jemmy might not be his

If you could take a character ahead in time to see something - Sophie BJR to see Frank; Richard Jamie Fraser into the modern world - Richard loves Sam's reactions to modern things

What are you binge watching? Sophie - The Bear; Richard - Queen of the South and BBT

Sophie spoiler: Joey and I were in a tent (Richard adds "in the 80s")

Who would you go to a convention to see? Richard - BBT, Peaky Blinders: Sophie - Friends

They don't really get recognized in the UK but yes in the US "people in England don't really watch Outlander" (Sophie) - when they started in S2/3 it wasn't really "present", especially in Scotland.

Taken anything from set? Sophie very tempted to take the pearls but hasn't taken anything yet; Richard not yet either (made a joke about the musket balls and Lallybroch in the 80s trying not to spoil anything)

What song represents your character - Sophie "Girl on Fire" because she powers through things

Ed Speleers & Steven Cree

Favourite role so far - Jack Crusher (Ed)

Cree - best part of Outlander is the conventions

Favourite scene was when Bonnet kidnaps Brianna and they explain how he became what he is

Ed read for LJG and they came back to him the next year with Bonnett

Cree auditioned for Dougal (who's the guy who raised $250K for a film then never made the film? - ouch!!). Then they cast Sam and had to make Dougal age appropriate

What era would you time travel to: Ed - 60s: Steven - his early 20s

Sam created MPC and whisky "unlike the guy who embezzled $250K" (ouch again!! Cree used the word "embezzled")

Cree to Sean - how does it feel to be a millionaire? Sean - pass me your phone I'll call Sam and ask him

Cree was offered roles in Bridgerton 1 & 2 and said no after he read the scripts

Cree went on for 5 minutes about how Claire brought Jamie back to life in Monsters & Heroes - it was hilarious

Seems that the 2 of them (Cree and Ed) go way back and are good friends (Ed said Cree was the most excited when he landed the star trek role. They wouldn't ever have crossed paths on OL. They know each other's families too.)

Caitriona

Funniest lines she couldn't get through - where she asks BPC if the bite was from a monkey and when Ian offers to go looking for Jamie and Claire says "but you don't have a leg"

Prefers to be called Caitriona

They talked about the ending of the books and someone yelled "Sam knows" then she said Sam THINKS he knows

Will be odd knowing they're not going back to Scotland when they finish filming. Couldn't say if they're staying but her husband is from Scotland and her in-laws live there so they will be there in some capacity

Costumes in S8 are her favourite since S2 Paris

Thanked everyone and said how much doing the show has meant to her

Asked if she and Tony share the same musical taste. She thought they said Sam and Steve said "no, your real husband" (she does with Tony, "definitely not" with Sam)

To prepare for Claire & Frank since they had a history, she and Tobias wrote each other letters. Tobias would redact his because he was in MI6. They didn't do anything to prepare for Claire & BJR because she didn't know him

During the rapid-fire someone asked "Sam's whisky or Graham's bourbon". She said Sam's whisky but hasn't tried the bourbon (she doesn't really like bourbon it's too sweet)

All credits to my reporter at the con (who chose to remain anonymous), including the pics.

[murkystarlight]

Okay something more to the

MCSM BTS AU

Or that's what I think I called it-

The link leads to the first part :]

1-1. Stella tried to bribe the screenwriter so that she wouldn't have to call her cousin "handsome"

0. (I missed to mention this on the previous part) Lukas has lost many hats. It fell off, was blown by the wind, damaged, a lot of things. He has used up about... 15 hats. He found about 4 in his house.

0-1. He alone spent pretty much all the money they had on costumes, so they just decided to change his design.

0-2. They didn't retake the trailer since they already took it. But they had to start over with any of the scenes they already filmed that had Lukas in it.

1. The 'actors' for the role Lukas and Stella are cousins. Bet they're like really close. They were like best friends when they were younger. So they joke around a lot

1-2. Lukas brings it up constantly to mess with her

2. "Who improvised the most?" (I probably have to think on this a bit more but)

2-1. "Ivor." Most the time it's Ivor

3. All the names for the weapons or armor(or any other object) was named by the 'actors' themselves

4. All Jesse's are different people. They were all casted separately, though some of them knew each other from filming other shows together(already known for how similar they seem)

4-1. They don't look identical. Just similar. But they are total strangers. They do their makeup and hair in the Sam style though when filming

4-2. And- yes. Every 'actor' for Jesse different names.

4-3. They all became friends instantly. The first 6 was thrilled to know there were additional Jesse's in s2

5. Reuben. He's like a class pet. Everyone loves the animals on set.

5-1. There are a few other pigs that look like Reuben in case something happens to the first one-

5-2. No animals were harmed while filming! Except for the chickens who failed to fall slowly. They- they needed some help

6. There weren't any lines planned for anyone while Jesse is waiting for the choice to be made. They were all(well- most of the time) improvised by the 'actors'

7. The game is still a interactive game. But instead of it being made digitally, for them, it's actors filming the same thing over and over again with small differences.

8. The cast has no idea where the staff managed to get a llama from

9. For the staff... I feel like if they ever get mentioned of has to show up for whatever reason... I could maybe just throw in some OC's that belong to different people.

10. (I said this in the first one but I think I might say this in every part if I make more) I know these kinds of concepts are already thought of and made by other people. I was based off this idea when I saw the Netflix version and the bts on YouTube. I just wanted to write out my own version of this and share some HC's and all that.

Thank you for reading 👍

[canonicallysoulmates]

Jacob was on the Graham Norton Show yesterday- I will say I had never seen a full episode of this show, I'd only ever seen clips, the vibe is very different from the US late-night programs I'm used to and I don't know if it was just the lineup for this ep or if this is the norm for this show but I found myself laughing through almost the whole thing it is very entertaining that being said I wish the time among the guests had been divided better because, at least to me, Jacob is the one who got the least amount of attention and talking time which was really disappointing. I wish he had gotten asked more questions and had the opportunity to talk more about the show, and just gotten more focus/attention in general.

Nonetheless, I'm glad I watched it, if you didn't get the chance to watch it live somebody uploaded it online I'll leave a link at the bottom of this post just in case anyone wants to check it out but if you're in the US you will need a VPN to access it. It will also be up eventually on AMC+ so if you're willing to wait just keep an eye out for when it's loaded. He doesn't talk about s2 but he does talk about iwtv in general. He mentioned how the last time he was on the show he was there as the musical guest and one of the regular guests was Kirsten Dunst who played Claudia in the IWTV movie!

He says that Rolin Jones was able to adapt all of the books so he could bring things in from later on so Lestat on the show is bad but there's a little bit more pathos in him while Louis has a bit more backbone.

On the Loustat relationship, he says: "They fall very much in love but they sort of hate each other and love each other at the same time. They have this like really intense love affair that destroys both of their lives. And they decide to have a child!" He understands them so well.

They show a clip of iwtv it's of the moment Louis kills the alderman's attorney in ep 2. Jacob comments that the line "it was both random and unfortunate the man picked that night to dabble in fuckery" is probably one of his favorite lines he's ever said.

He also reveals the sound when he shows the vampire fangs was not intentional. When they were shooting they were trying to figure it out how to reveal teeth in a good way and he figured out one day the best way to do it was to do like a cat sound, to hiss so they did it and everybody else got on board except for Sam who was a little more reticent and wanted it to be taken seriously which is hilarious to me but at the same time I would expect nothing less from Sam 'actual vampire' Reid. So now vampires hiss!

He also talks a bit about Louis accent, he initially worked with a dialect coach who wanted him to do a French Creole accent which was apparently popular at the time but he didn't think he could do it so he just listened to people in cabs and shops.

And he says there were a lot of different variations of blood some of which were just for aesthetic purposes like the human blood which is dark, the vampire one is sparkly, but they made him a drinkable "blood" that was made of hibiscus tea, and raspberry but it was awful, it was like sour patch kids. Somebody from the iwtv crew drop the recipe cause I love Sour Patch Kids.

As a random note, this man is so cute, I wanna hug him.

Like I said I'll leave a link here for anybody who is interested in watching the full thing, a reminder if you're in the US you'll need a VPN or alternatively you can download it to watch:

Jacob Anderson on the Graham Norton Show

[macchiatosdumptruck]

(More on the domestic shenanigans side but...) In the A/B/O universe where Daniel has kids with each of the Cobras, how were you imagining their gaggle of children? Robby, Sam, and Anthony are givens, but for the remaining 2 (or more), do you think any other canon characters would fit there or would OCs work better for them? Personally I think it would be really funny for Demetri to be one, since he and Sam and Robby already had that sibling-like friendship dynamic in S2. Also the idea of the Cobras, peak 80s movie bullies, having to parent their nerd children (I remember you Science Camp!Sam...) makes me laugh. Make Johnny Lawrence have to help with algebra homework. I didn't imagine Eli as one though, mostly because I find it more interesting for him to grow up overhearing rumors about his classmates and their "unconventional" parental set up. The other adults make it seem like they live in a den of sin* and all the kids are feral backyard children who have to fend for themselves. How else could it possibly be when there was that straight decade of Daniel constantly being pregnant? But then Demetri asks him to come over and play Minecraft and their house is just like, aggressively normal. It's just that there's always at least 2 parents at home at any given time.

(*The rumors and background whispering would be like the dick billboard weirdness, except spread out for basically all of the kids' school lives and also correctly identified as sexual harassment, whoops. I'd imagine Daniel wouldn't be thrilled if his kids got into fights trying to protect his "honor," especially since I don't think the Cobras would have the same view either. They'd say "nice" behind Daniel's back and take the kid out for ice cream.)

Oh, I haven't thought of that verse in a while. What a pleasant blast from the past.

I know people usually headcanon Robby as Daniel and Johnny's kid, and I do see why, but do to my faceapp adventures I honestly see him more as Daniel's child with Kreese. But for the sake of the universe it fits that he's the first born.

Sam is Jimmy's baby, and Anthony is Dutches', since they are the only two cobras with dark hair.

For the rest of them I honestly think I envisioned oc's, but I hadn't put that much thought into it.

I usually headcanon Dimitri as Terry and Daniel's child because he's tall, smart, and has dark hair. (While also being skinny and charmingly goofy like Daniel.)

I could see him in this universe as more of one of their school friends who comes over often and serves as a straight man to the rest of their sitcom shenanigans.

I envision Daniel making some sort of quip once though, in the midst of all the chaos, and Dimitri is running around trying to be helpful, bless his heart , Daniel off handedly says "and that's why you're my favorite kid."

(the joke obviously being that he's around so much they practically share custody of him with his bio parents. )

Unfortunately Robby is always the sensitive one, and takes it to heart juuuuust a little bit and Daniel has to sit him down and explain.

'it was just a joke sweetheart, yes I know, it wasn't very funny. No, I'm not mad. I love you so much, never forget that "

Bless his heart, johnny is not good at helping with homework. He's better at doing things like setting up swing sets.

Tommy is a stay at home alpha, and does a lot of the day to day upkeep. I imagine Bobby helps a lot with the homework because he strikes me as studious, having gone to seminary school and all.

It does definitely confuse people, their set up. Because alphas are considered so territorial. Some people don't even understand how they could share. But for them the more the merrier and it is a lot of work raising all of their kids, but that's the good thing about having so many parents around, it does take a village after all.

They very much are not hands off parents, they all bring something different to the table.

Omg. Daniel, the milf. He's an enigma amongst the omega community. So many people secretly wish to be him. Or to live vicariously through him. While also confirming him for his "lifestyle."

People are confused as to how he even managed to juggle so many alphas. They expect he must do not much else than kay around with his legs open. Which is false, but, once the pups are grown they do know better than to walk into a room without knocking.

Also, Daniel likes to watch as the alphas play with each other.

Other omegas definitely talk trash bout them, and their alpha children take offense. Daniel doesn't like when they haul off and deck someone over it. Deep down he is secretly just a little please, because he is a hot head after all, but he makes sure to get the point across that violence is only a tool used by fools and cowards.

But yeah. Johnny and Dutch definitely high five them for it. It's probably Sam.

[change-the-rules]

for the otp asks, kate/lucy for 9 and 20?

9. Favorite aspect of them/their relationship dynamics?

this is hard to answer since s2 hadnt aired yet when i was first supposed to be answering this(sorry) but honestly probably just how much they fucking feel for each other, like i've said it before but i love the competent career life women turned absolute dumbass in love trope, these idiots are so in love and it made them so stupid sometimes and i love that and then when they finally got their shit together they're just so soft for each other while being general badasses and it makes me feeeel things

20. What made you decide to ship them?

I don't know that I decided to ship them as much as I saw a gifset with their height difference that grabbed me by the throat which had me promptly tuning into the 1st episode....and then lucy said 'whistler' utterly laden with history, that whole first scene blistering with Tension^TM

and i don't know if i was simply because it was a procedural or a blonde and a brunette or just the VIBES^TM but i remember my chest simply sparking as i was transported back to high school hunched over my family computer in the dark trawling through passion and perfection and live journal and personal webpages, message boards, reading full on manifestos and watching carefully pulled scene compilations, cabeson necklaces, and jj and emily clothes swapping, sara and cathrine vs sara/sofia, kelly and sabrina's 'blatant' flirting on charlie's angels, eagle eye frame by frame watches of sam and janet and scully and reyes, abby and kate from the flagship ncis {i stopped watching after kate died so i never got into ziva and abby) the list could go on forever but this is where my heart was when watching that first ep and then i got to the end of that first ncis hawai'i episode one minute lucy was apologizing and the next she and kate were full on Making.Out and I was stunned

so many years had passed since those subtext ships i mentioned with so much growth for queer rep but watching the pilot of an ncis end with 2 women who were romantically entangled front and center, main character main text fucking floored me anyway

and i was done, gone this ship had chosen me and there was no going back *snorts*

whatever the future holds for thempossiible the impacts of the strike and whatnot no one can take away the 2 glorious seasons we did get

[incesthemes]

final thoughts: supernatural season 2

finished season 2 this morning and it ended on a great note. i like the ending a lot more than i liked s1's, since it felt more natural and less contrived. the buildup to it was awesome, and the setup for season 3 is clear and motivating!

i think my biggest criticism of s2 is the pacing. it really wasn't bad, all things considered, but there were a few episodes i thought just didn't belong in the sequence they were. where s1 had this continual forward momentum going, s2 had occasional abrupt stops. example, the tonal difference between ep12 nightshifter and ep13 houses of the holy felt massive. nightshifter amps up the police subplot, ending with them worried about being implicated in another crime and therefore being on more police radars. houses of the holy kinda ignores that and has very little follow-up to them needing to lay low. it's only really brought up again when they're talking to henrickson and he mentions that they were flying under the radar up until now—which is all well and good, but that should have been felt after all of that happened. instead what we got felt more like a reset button where things went back to normal for them. a very "business as usual" case, as if they weren't being pursued by the law.

there were a few other negligible cases where i got a bit tired of binge-watching the series, which honestly didn't really happen in s1. so the pacing was a bit slower overall. nothing that was super obvious, but it did have its bumps.

but really, that's my only real criticism of it. i think the plots were strong this season, and the tension built really naturally over the course of it. if i had to wish for anything, it would have been development, of any kind, for sam's psychic powers—or otherwise the active rejection of that development. where the other psychics were growing their powers or gaining increasing command over them, sam remains oddly stagnant, which is something i wouldn't expect considering he's put into high-stress situations so often. if it's a matter of accepting the powers, then it would have been nice to see him struggle more with it. they just weren't very prevalent until they were relevant, which was fine in season 1 because they were still trying to figure out what the hell was going on, but now that they have an idea it felt more like things should be Happening with sam. maybe they will in season 3? honestly i can't remember, i watched it a decade ago.

the last 3 episodes of the season were honestly really great though. i love how all three of them play into each other, even though the A plot of ep20 is relatively unrelated to the season finale. it set dean up perfectly for his struggle in ep22 and gave weight to his wishing the world to burn without sam in it. hit right in the gut with all the context of who dean is as a person and what his wishes and desires are.

i still love the commitment to camp in this show and the way they use camp in a unique way that doesn't really come to mind when you think of camp. it gives the show its identity and the fact that the writers and actors don't shy away from it really makes it a great watch. there are some seriously funny episodes in this season, and it makes me even more excited for the funny episodes i know are coming up. gabriel/loki/whatever was especially a hit and i love the interesting storytelling format of that episode. the addition of new psychics was great, and i liked how different their personalities were and how they so clearly conveyed the ways they coped with their powers. they create a wonderful backdrop for sam, and it all came together well for the finale.

overall a great season—it had a few hiccups, but the tension and buildup was really good, and most of the episodes did a fine job at following up on the previous developments and keeping the momentum going. super excited to start on season 3 :)

[conveniencefloor]

A Quick Summary Of Our Thoughts On Supernatural (2 seasons in)

(I’m rewatching because I never finished it, and he’s never watched it at all)

- Our recurring issue is that SO MANY of these problems could be resolved if the hunters just had a goddamn Organization with different departments! Seriously, think about it. Have a department of Therapy and Recovery for your battered and traumatized hunters, because apart from their well-being it’s a good idea because theoretically you could minimize the likelihood of hunters becoming ghosts themselves. After all, they tend to die brutal and unfair deaths, it’s reasonable that they would want to come back to protect people or finish the job. “Sure, but that’s why hunters get burned at their funerals. No remains, no ghost.” Yeah we THOUGHT. Then S2E16 rolls around and we meet Molly the ghost who, despite her body being cremated, is still out and about, because she has a one sided attachment to something on earth still (her husband). Other benefits of an organization include: A GODDAMN CLEANUP TEAM FOR YOUR GODDAMN INCOMPETENT HUNTERS LEAVING BOOTPRINTS, HANDPRINTS, AND EVIDENCE LITERALLY EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME, YOU STUPID IDIOTS STOP MANHANDLING THE BODIES AND TOUCHING EVERYTHING. Also a fucking makeup department maybe??? I have only seen 9 seasons, and it’s been a long time, but I do not recall a single episode where Sam or Dean changed their hair or wore fake teeth or wigs or aged themselves with makeup for their disguises. “OoOo we’RE wAnTeD bY thE FBI, Let’S jUsT gO inTo eVerY mOteL aNd stOre wE PosSibLy cAn, weAriNg EXACTLY THE SAME FACES WITH ZERO CHANGES” occasionally they wear a different outfit but that’s the extent of keeping their identities secret. Not even a haircut or growing out a beard. You are BEGGING to be caught. You know why else you need an organization? Because you need a goddamn research department. You need a database with TESTED AND CONFIRMED data on these things so you don’t have to keep winging it.

- You guys literally know that there’s some kind of afterlife. You know there’s a hell. You hope there’s a heaven. You know things get out. So why has no one done an iota of research on those places? You have ways to find out. Yet no one cares to. Or maybe someone HAS found out and simply doesn’t feel like communicating. Again, ORGANIZATION.

- Very convenient how all these supernatural beings are in America. I mean you can read the lore of different countries and cultures and learn about their creatures, but if those creatures have been imported you’d think you’d find local lore about something of a different (or same) name describing the same attributes/effects. It’s very weird that your only source for something happening in present day America is an ancient source local to a country halfway across the world. (I think they are aware of that for some things, but certainly not others).

-2 seasons in and the three main characters have already died approximately once each.

-“Sure, most supernatural things are true. But Christianity is the default.” As if you haven’t seen enough gods to consider the Christian god as just another one. As if the word God hasn’t lost authority in all this context you’re wading around in. No reason given for treating it as more legitimate than any other religion or belief, yet still treating it as more legitimate.

-What in the everloving fuck was the Croatoan episode. First, the editors discovered slow motion for the first time and it shows. Second, everything prior would lead you to believe that both Sam and Dean would do whatever they could to try prevent someone from dying. But Dean is prepared to immediately kill someone on the bare minimum of knowledge about the situation? Just some dude? The entire time we were watching it we flabbergasted at the inconsistency of their characters. And the editing. An outlier in our minds for sure.

-although then in S2:E17 they kill Maddie the werewolf right away. Like dude. You already know you can contain her in a wooden room for a night. Contain her in a better room a couple more nights. Then spend the whole month before the next full moon researching a cure. If that doesn’t yield anything, fine, mercy kill, whatever. But we also were aghast at how easily they gave up. Like a couple phone calls?? That’s it??? One more time: ORGANIZATION. Your organization should have an iron/silver/blessed dungeon with safes to keep people like Maddie in so you can actually help them.

-currently confused why the yellow eyed demon wanted a leader for the demon soldiers if all the demons are just going to fuck right off the second they get out.

-also is there a proximity requirement for crossing salt lines? Or could a demon cross it if they just jumped really high? Because I feel like a beach counts as a salt line, and we know demons can go in planes, so what happens when they fly over a beach??

That’s all for now ❤️

(PS: I love Supernatural for the nostalgia and for the utter chaos that trails it. I just also really love complaining about it)

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

Honestly OP you're so real, your Miguel posts are god-tier. I have mad respect for you having the balls to say the main reason this fandom is so rabidly obsessed with Robby Keene (to the point of sidelining the actual non-white protagonist Miguel!!!) is because he's a conventionally attractive sad white boy 😭

I can't even blame you for getting confused about the Demetri-Robby situation because the fandom is also obsessed with pretending that Demetri and Robby were like...inseparable bffls. The fixation on their 2-month surface level acquaintance-friendship is baffling to me and always has been. I think a lot of it is people wishing they had been best friends (probably because they really like both characters individually) and then just kind of...making believe they actually were.

While I understand being nostalgic for the three OG miyagi dos being buddies, I think it wasn't feasible for them to ever be a close-knit trio again after Robby paralyzed Miguel. Sam loves both Robby and Miguel (in different ways, but still), so it makes sense she would give Robby the benefit of the doubt for his actions and believe it was an accident. Demetri, though? There is absolutely no reason for him to defend, trust, or even forgive the dude who kicked his best friend off a balcony, ran away so he wouldn't have to face the consequences, and then taunts said best friend about paralyzing him later on, in S4.

If anything, I actually like the differing ways the Sam & Demetri and Robby & Demetri relationships developed. They both started out as friendships based on proximity and convenience, but Sam and Demetri developed a deeper and more meaningful friendship over time, and have consistently stuck by each other and supported each other from S2 onwards. Robby, meanwhile, pretty openly betrayed Miyagi Do (the one thing he and Demetri had in common, lol), started dating a girl who has actively terrorized Demetri and his friends, and became besties with a guy who landed a cheap shot on Demetri's best friend that made it feel like Hawk was suffocating. He's done all of jack shit to earn and keep Demetri's loyalty from S3 onwards, lmao. (And then in S5 Robby has the NERVE to bring up Demetri's arm as proof of why Hawk is supposedly worse than him, right in front of Demetri. As if his fucking girlfriend didn't play a HUGE role in that -_____- Not to mention Demetri looks visibly uncomfortable/annoyed??? He's literally using Demetri's trauma to white knight himself and it icks me a lot. It's insensitive at BEST and straight up selfish at worst, and I wish more people talked about it.)

I also just can't ignore the racial undertones of people lauding the shit out of a casual friendship/acquaintanceship between two white boys while ignoring/underplaying a much deeper, healthier, and sturdier friendship between one of these white boys and a brown boy. Especially considering some of the racist bile hardcore Robby stans already throw at Miguel, it just does NOT seem like a coincidence that this fandom fixates on the Demetri-Robby relationship at the expense of the Demetri-Miguel one. I see takes like "why didn't Demetri stay in touch with Robby in S3??? Weren't they friends???" and it honestly just galls me. It's the flippant implication that Robby nearly killing one of Demetri's other friends (who, and I cannot emphasize this enough, happens not to be white) would make no difference whatsoever to Demetri in how he views and interacts with Robby. Like, if I were Miguel, and I saw my friend being buddy-buddy with the dude who punted me off a balcony after I apologized for attacking him and let him up, I would NOT trust my friend's ass anymore! There are plenty of things to criticize Demetri for, but I get HEATED at the implication that he would readily damage his relationship with Miguel and destroy his best friend's trust to pal around with his attacker.

And people see, like...nothing wrong with this scenario??? Because apparently Miguel's feelings don't matter. The love and loyalty people feel toward him don't matter. He's not important enough for his friend to cut off someone who hurt Miguel. All that matters is poor little meow meow Robby Keene, who deserved to have more friends to support him through this trying time where he almost killed someone and didn't want to face the consequences. Why wasn't Demetri there for him??? Why wasn't Demetri patting his back and saying it would be okay and that everyone and their mother should forgive him because he has a Sad Backstory™️ and made puppy dog eyes??? Why was Demetri off being there for Miguel instead, who actually got hurt and who has been 10x the friend to him Robby ever was???

Sorry to kind of go off on a tangent, but man...the icky aspects of people fixating on the Demetri-Robby dynamic lowkey go deep. I could honestly keep going, but I've subjected you to enough of a text wall as it is XD There's a lot of ways racism manifests in this fandom, (especially after the horrible way Part 2 wrote Kwon and Zara), and unfortunately Miguel being written off as unimportant to Demetri is just one of many.

But OP I am right there with you always, defending the honor of my boy Miguel Diaz until my dying breath. Best boy greatly beloved by all his friends, and I will NOT be quiet about it!

Shouldn’t Demetri have been team Robby lowkey?

Like yeah he and Miguel never had a real falling out (unlike him and Hawk), but he also didn’t really have one with Robby?

Like other than Sam he’s technically the one who knows Robby best / has known him the longest.

Yes, he’s known Miguel longer but it’s interesting that he wouldn’t even pretend to like Robby better than Miguel….or even attempt to be supportive

Everyone is dog piling Miguel for not supporting Robby, I’d argue Demetri is worse….

[mindibindi]

They are destroying Rebecca’s character this season and this Sam bullshit is the final nail in the coffin for her. What the f*** are they doing to their female lead ??

Well, I suppose this is the danger of offering resolution early in the piece and why so few television writers do it, particularly when it comes to romantic relationships. Because then there is the looming question of What Happens Next. So many writers prove that, while they may have the imaginative juice to create, they don't have what it takes to re-invent.

Whether you understand her as the protagonist or the antagonist of the first season of Ted Lasso, Rebecca's big revenge plot drove s1, gave it a clear narrative arc. This inaugural season likewise gave her character a clear and compelling arc. You could posit that, while Rebecca's pain drove season 1, Ted's pain is meant to be driving season 2...? But whatever Ted is going through does not have as clear-cut an objective so it is not giving the same sense of cohesion or direction. Within her s1 arc, we got to see Rebecca feel angry, frustrated, victorious, smug, thwarted, conflicted, heart-broken and vulnerable. Last season gave Hannah Waddingham so many opportunities to show the range of her skills as an actor and I still hope she wins an Emmy for this performance. But I doubt she will be winning any awards for her performance this season.

Most situation comedies stick to the same situation, snapping their characters back to where they were at the beginning of each episode. Certainly, this formula can become repetitive and dull after years. Ted Lasso received a great deal of praise when it broke this formula by offering resolution at the end of its first season no less. It broke the no-hugging-no-learning mantra of so many sitcoms when it allowed Rebecca to learn from her trauma, come clean and literally embrace Ted as a valuable part of her life. Since her character went on the biggest journey of the season, the question of What Happens Next was always going to be more significant for her than it was for any other character on the show.

Season 1 of Ted Lasso made me fall in love with Hannah Waddingham and the character of Rebecca Welton. But as much as it pains me to say it, in s2 she is nothing like the problematic powerhouse we met in s1. Her friendships with Keeley and Higgins continue on nicely enough. She's had some good moments with characters she had little interaction with in s1, like Roy and Nate. And it was great to meet her mother and god-daughter. But this fleshing out of the character is mostly work around her rather than work that propels her forward in any meaningful way. I understand that some people may be content just to watch Rebecca living her best life after the intensity of last season. But, for me, the pursuit of heterosexual romantic love by a woman to the exclusion of all else is a problematic aim since women have been told for centuries that securing a man is the single most important thing they can achieve in their lives.

Rebecca wants love and doesn't want to be alone. She's stated that, that's canon and that's fine. But romance seems to be Rebecca's ONLY aim, her single focus. We haven't seen her do anything in her role as club owner except make a phone call and look sharp, which I admit she does well. The woman looks INCREDIBLE. But if you are in your right mind (at least in my opinion), you are not expecting this amazing woman to end up with a pretentious windbag, a hot booty call or a wildly inappropriate youngster. So it all seems a bit aimless, purposeless. All of this dithering about with wrong dudes is just a waste of time when we have limited time with these beloved characters. We know we are only getting three short seasons of this show and I don't want to spend a full season watching a previously complex female character stare at her phone, only ever prompted into (questionable) action by her cute best friend. And I DEFINITELY don't want to watch...whatever the fuck they think this thing is with Sam.

Frankly, I am still flabbergasted that they have chosen this path. They genuinely seem to think that their audience will enjoy this as some hot romantic adventure...? And hey, a small but vocal minority are. Some diehard fans are trying to hold onto their faith with white knuckles. And the rest of us are just over here in compete and utter shock at the suddenness of the decline in this show's quality and ethics. The latest justification some fans are rather desperately grasping at seems to be that Rebecca's actions stem from her trauma. Now...okay. Trauma can be responsible for many things. But not this. Trauma can make you act in v strange ways but I don't see the connection here. I can clearly see how Rebecca's trauma from her first marriage dictated her actions towards Ted in s1. That is a very clear line to draw. I can see how, after her disastrous marriage, her judgement may be off and she may go for someone like John Wingsnight: someone safe, solid and appropriate. Again, a clear line to draw. I can also see why she would indulge in fun, shallow sexual relationships with the waiter in Liverpool and her booty call from bantr. All normal, understandable behaviour for a woman in her situation. And a v clear narrative line for the writers to draw. No problems there. Her actions in each of these cases can be traced back to Rupert and his abuse. But I cannot for the life of me draw a line between Rupert and Sam. As a traumatic reaction, that does not make a shred of sense to me.

It's true that sometimes those who have been abused become abusers, not that I'm saying Rebecca is abusing Sam in this scenario. What I am saying is that most trauma survivors will go out of their way to avoid becoming anything like their abusers. Most survivors try their damnedest to break the cycle of abuse, not perpetuate it. Most victim-survivors will act, sometimes even to their own detriment, to spare others from being impacted by their pain and trauma. Trauma and abuse does not break your moral compass. If anything, it makes it stronger. Trauma and abuse heightens your sensitivity to what is right, just and honest. Having seen Rebecca ultimately unable to follow through in her trauma-inspired revenge plot on Ted, it does not make sense to me that she is blindly (without any of the nuanced inner conflict of s1 Rebecca) allowing her trauma and abuse to lead her into a situation that not only emulates her ex-husband's hurtful, unethical behaviour, but endangers what is now supposed to be so valuable to her.

All the press for s2 as spruiked Rebecca as a dating disaster but enthusiastically committed to her club. There is a huge difference, however, between charmingly, comedically 'messy' and inept to the point of self-destructive stupidity. I just don't buy her as this dumb. Yet here she is, after all her dealings with the savage British press last season, endangering the reputation of herself, her club and one of its most vulnerable players. Oddly enough, the Rebecca we saw in s1, with her many layers and nuances, seems to me to be a far more moral (not to mention interesting) rendering of this character. This Rebecca was motivated by injustice, she had an acute understanding of what was and wasn't right. It's why she conceived of her revenge plot and also why she ultimately dropped it. It is one thing for writers to propose that there are multiple steps on the way to healing. It is one thing for them to lead a character into a dark forest full of conflict and complication. But, from what I can tell, some people don't know the difference between a dark forest and straight-up bad writing. And it really fucking shows.

[quinnmorgendorffer]

okay but on the topic of glee fandom, since we seemed to be in different parts of that fandom (I was more on the femslash side) what was the craziest glee fandom drama that you personally witnessed

Part of me just wanted to say "Canniblaine" as a one word answer. But like the real answer is that it was never NOT crazy, honestly. But if I had to answer......well, let's talk about s2 in a nutshell.

(Don't worry, Canniblaine will be explained).

So, in summer of 2010, Puckurt (my beloved) was the most popular Kurt ship on ff.net, the fics then were all sweet and fun and normally had a lot of just pure Glee bonding. And Kurt fans were excited since Ryan Murphy promised repeatedly that Kurt would get a jock boyfriend and the two of them would be crowned Prom King and King. Eventually, Jane Lynch said in some interview that they casted a blond boy to play a kid named Sam who would be Kurt's love interest. I can't remember for sure if she was also the one who confirmed that there would be a love triangle with him, Kurt, and Quinn.

But RIB—Ryan, Ian, and Brad, the original and only screenwriters until s3—were NOT fans of their cast leaking spoilers. And eventually they say, no, that's not happening, Chord and Dianna have too much chemistry!!! We're not doing that plot anymore.

But they had been known to lie about certain plots happening when people guessed things correctly. When Idina Menzel was cast in s1, everyone was like "oh she's playing Rachel's mom". They denied it and, wouldn't you know it, she was cast to play Rachel's mom. So, keep that in mind.

Anyway, s2 premieres, we meet Sam. He seems fun, he's cute, there's even a gay joke in his very first scene where he gets actual lines. In the third episode, he gets injured at the football game, whatever.

Then the glorious episode 2x04 "Duets" happens. Truly a magnificent piece of television with some of the best performances. Santana and Mercedes doing "River Deep/Mountain High"? THE MOST FUCKING ICONIC THING. Kurt doing "Le Jazz Hot"? PERFECTION. Tina and Mike doing "Sing!" from A Chorus Line? THE BEST FIRST SONG MIKE COULD'VE BEEN GIVEN AND SO CUTE! Ending with Rachel and Kurt doing "Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy"? BEAUTIFUL. And, yeah, the Finchel verison of "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" is cute and I guess Sam and Quinn doing "Lucky", while not making sense in terms of their relationship, was sweet.

But, despite what RIB said, it was clear that "Duets" was meant to introduce this love triangle with Kurt, Sam, and Quinn. You canNOT tell me that this was NOT both of them flirting with each other. They have amazing chemistry, I'm sorry, you can't deny that. So, that means either RIB were lying about changing the plot, or they waited to change the plot after 2x04.

Then 2x05 happens and that's "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" and we don't talk about that mess.

Anyway, I joined tumblr for Glee fandom literally the day before episode 2x06 came out. And season 2, episode 6 was..... "Never Been Kissed".

And that's when all hell broke loose.

Because NBK, as fans called it, introduced us to Blaine fucking Anderson played by, of course, Darren Criss.

The. Heaviest. Of Sighs.

I remember I was so excited for that, though. I was a Klainer before the ep even aired because I lOVED him. It was only a 3 episode guest arc, but I was sure they'd keep him, and I believed RIB was telling the truth and they were really done with the Kurt/Sam plot. And, evne looking back at it, while I say "Duets" is the last GOOD episode of Glee…NBK is honestly a good episode. And in 2011 especially, it was kind of a big fucking deal.

But the thing about NBK was that, not only did it propel Klaine into existence, it also created Kurtofsky with one kiss in the locker room.

So, now there were THREE ship possibilities arguing all over the place. Klaine shippers who rejoiced as Darren got offered more episodes as a guest actor (his original version of "Teenage Dream" was and I think still IS their best selling single on iTunes, so of COURSE they wanted him around); Kurtofsky shippers who wanted to see this scared, tortured jock redeemed (some of these shippers I know for sure were Puckurt fans, since, yeah, some dynamics were similar enough); and Kurt/Sam shippers who believed RIB was lying as they had in the past (the whole Idina thing).

Btw, there were already arguments over the fucking name for Kurt/Sam because fuckyeahgleesecrets wouldn't let people submit secrets that said "Kum" because it was "obscene"—but having "fuck" in their blog url was fine. I can't find it but once someone sent in a weirdly worded secret that supported Klaine, but then you looked at the first letter of every sentence and it said like "Kum At Me" or something, which was hilarious and got deleted.

Anyway, there was a SHIT TON of fighting. Klainers would say it was the "Klaine Train" but Kummers, as they called themselves, would call it the Klaintanic, like Titanic, saying the ship would fail, and they'd be safe on the Kum canoe. I'll admit I was on that canoe eventually because I hated Klaine by the time it became canon lmao. And I also believed, like other Kummers, that it would still be canon. After all, Dianna and Chord having "too much chemistry" was obviously a lie and they even broke up Sam and Quinn a few episodes into the second half of the season! Oh, and Kurtofsky became pirates based off the sea/ocean thing. I accidentally created the Puckurt centaur, it's a long story.

Anyway, so s2 was wild, with those three mentioned ships constantly fighting. Klainers saying they'd be canon (we all been knew, honestly), Kurtofsky shippers excited over the "Prom Queen" episode being spoiled by an extra, and Kummers holding onto the hope that it would still happen. They'd say something I can't remember like.... "Kum quick on our tittsana faithfully" or something, basically the idea that the endgames were Kum, Quick (Quinn/Puck), Brittana, Finchel, and they'd also often mention Tartie.

Also, did I mention that b3achd3ath aka peyton, who wrote that terrible YA novel everyone was roasting recently, was one of the loudest Kum canoe members?

Did I mention that gr@ceebooks was, like, the Kummers' leader? As in the person who eventually created The JohnLock Conspiracy???? Also led people into believing that another slash ship would become canon????!!!! THOSE WHO DON'T LEARN HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO FUCKING REPEAT IT!

The funny part was that Grace admitted it wasn't going to happen before the s2 finale that was like everyone's final hope that Kum could possibly happen.

The not so funny part is that it's clear, imo, that Chord WAS hired to be Kurt's love interest and they cut it off since Darren made them a shit ton of money with "Teenage Dream" and the whole Warblers thing (I will NOT get into that, this post is long enough), and they clearly didn't know what to do with him after that. Hence why they got rid of him after s2 only to bring him back after enough backlash I guess idk why, and that's also why there's a gifset of Chord kissing every single original Glee girl because they LITERALLY did nOT know what to do with him once they took away the Kurt love interest thing. And it's a shame because the idea of Quinn and Kurt both going after the same guy sounds like SUCH a good plot. Dianna and Chris were two of the strongest actors, and Chord is actually really underrated as an actor, too—good on him for being the leading male against Lindsay Lohan in her comeback movie, I want him to have success after all the shit he went through on Glee. I want all of them to have good things, really (well, not L3a but lmao ya know, and obviously not fucking Bl@ke Jenner, I'm so mad he's still in that Merrily We Roll Along movie adaptation), since they all went through so much.

Oh, and many Klainers started to ship "Criss Colfer" (Darren and Chris, obvi), and claimed PR was keeping them from being openly a couple. As if they WOULDN'T WANT that PR????? Of their same sex couple falling in love on set like wtf PR would want that more than anything??? And, in classic fashion, that led to people sending death threats and harrassing Darren's then gf, now wife, on social media and them stalking any guy who got close to Chris. Chris has been dating the same guy since like at least 2012 I think, and, as said, Darren got married, and some people are still convinced they aren't real relationships, like they're more insane than the fake baby 1ders.

Oh, and of course, Canniblaine.

The Glee Kink Meme—gkm—is a place I wish I never went to, honestly. Like, I was 18 when I first found it, and it fucked me UP. I have said it before and I'll say it again, I'm so concerned for anyone hwo found it under 18. Not in a clutching pearls way, because, yeah, read smut, idc, but this stuff was FUCKED UP. People MADE UP TWINS just to write tw*ncest. Like, literally, there was a trend of Kurt having a twin named Cameron, and eventually people would use like, Chris' character in Struck By Lightning (the movie he wrote and starred in), as one. I remember finding another kink meme for another fandom and like braced myself only to find like…normal fucking smut prompts. No beastality, no gore, no mpreg, no boypussies—and, no, it wasn't that Kurt was a transman, it was that he just had a vagina for some reason, sometimes he WOULD have a cock, too, though, so…Idk.

And I definitely didn't see vore prompts.

And definitely not FILLED vore prompts.

But before Klaine had even sung "Baby It's Cold Outside", someone filled a vore prompt. Wherein Blaine ate Kurt alive.

…This was supposed to be a show the whole family could watch…

There were various memes of the 2010 variety, the best being, of course, the one of him saying, directly from their first duet, "Gosh, you lips ARE delicious". People were daring others to read it.

I made it about a sentence in, realized I was eating a pizza hot pocket (say you were a freshman in college without saying you're a freshman in college, am i right?), and put it down, closed that tab, and I have yet to eat a hot pocket since.

I have to admit this gif still cracks me up though:

So.....long answer, but I hope an enjoyable read on some fandom drama on the Kurt/slash side of fandom.

[drummer-from-down-under]

I kinda love the idea of Sam, Jake and Felix being told everything Andy went through in Negative Space, but neglecting to tell Andy about what they went through while he was gone.

Not because they can't be bothered or are worried about his reaction to things.

No, they just straight up forget to mention shit.

They understand that, with Andy being gone for 2 weeks, they have no idea what he was going through and are very focused on that to the point that they forget that, with Andy being gone for 2 weeks, he has no idea what they were going through.

He knows about Ellen finding out about magic and being a water element cause that's how they contacted him.

He knows about Sam and Roland swapping bodies (it's mentioned at their little bbq at the end of S2 and he has no reaction to it), which makes sense since that happened the day he got back. (Sam would have mentioned it immediately since he was in a 44 year old body not even 24 hours before) Meaning he would probably know about the police investigation fairly early on.

He would've found out about the lair pretty quick, especially with them finding it the same day.

But I can so easily imagine the others off-handedly mentioning things or Andy seeing something and questioning it.

Examples:

"Felix, did you always have a fish tank?"

"Huh? Oh yeah! We knicked that from school while you were gone."

"Right... Why?"

"To contact you, we tried with a different one at school, but that didn't work so Sam grabbed that one and we ran."

"...And nobody saw you guys, right?"

"...there might of been some kids in the schoolyard."

____

"Hopefully this won't end with someone almost dying, aye Jake?"

"...What do you mean 'almost dying'?"

"...Dude, did you not tell him?"

"No, I honestly forgot about it."

"How can you forget almost dying?"

"There was a lot going on, okay!"

____

"For some reason, people keep bringing up this mexican food truck that was here while I was gone. What's up with that?"

"Oh, Phoebe and Alice were running it, that's why it's no longer here."

"...She kidnapped me... and went on to run a mexican food truck?"

____

"When did the shack get reinforced?"

"Yeah Jake, when did that happen?"

"I already apologised for not telling you, Felix."

"Jake's dad did it."

"You let your dad come up here?"

"No, I took other Gary up here so he was away from everyone."

"How'd he get-"

"We went back to the other world to look for you."

"Right, and how did it go with your dad?"

"Demon possessed both versions of him and almost got them to cancel each other out."

"Oh."

"We saw you for the first time right after that, dude! And then the whole Saskia thing happened."

"Who?"

____

"Why does the talisman look different?"

"Can we just do the spell?"

"But it looks different."

"Andy, this isn't the time-"

"It used to be covered in glue, what happened to it?"

"Our one exploded, this one's from this universe, so if we could just get on with the spell-"

"How did the old one explode?"

"Alice destroyed it after I gave it to her-"

"Why would you do that?"

"She had Oscar up a tree."

"WHAT?"

____

Shit like that for a solid few months, purely because the other boys just straight up forget to tell him.

[kaypeace21]

I believe that byler is an endgame

but why would they spend 3 seasons winding up with mileven?

People REALLY need to pay attention to the shows the Duffers cited as huge inspirations to them. Cheers,dawsons creek, freak &geeks did exactly what the Duffers are doing (and the Duffers said these shows inspired them)

. Cheers for over 5 seasons built up the pairing of sam and Dianne- had them break up in the s5 finale and then in the last 2 eps of the 11th season have them get back together and once again break up explaining for the 100th time they were wrong for each other and brought out the worst in eachother . Cheers would build up multiple pairings (Frasier /Lilith (s4-11/broke up in s11) , sam/Dianne (s 1-11, broke up in s11 permanently) , rebecca /sam (s8-10) Rebecca/robin (s8-9) -these pairings lasted for multiple seasons and they all broke up! They built pairings up for multiple seasons but showed throughout the show why those pairing in cheers could never work out in the long term. The same Thing happened with almost every pairing in Dawson’s creek (they’d build up multiple pairings up -sometimes for multiple seasons- sprinkle in good but also dysfunctional aspects of those relationships- and then break them apart for good ).

Also in Dawson’s creek 2 characters (a rich girl and poor guy with daddy issues) date and breakup- but both of their gay brothers get together and are endgame instead of them (cough jancy vs byler). One of the gay guys (the rich one with the book smart sis) even dated the main girl (Joey) for a while before admitting he was gay and that he was in denial (while dating the main girl for more than a season ). In D.C even the main guy(Dawson) / girl (Joey) don’t end up being endgame (despite teasing it for all 5 seasons) . They did this with a lot of couples in the show. Honestly, the Duffers pretty much borrowed this idea of showing pairings with issues and breaking them up -but toned down how long they’d bait them . Like 11seasons of showing dysfunctional couples date -ick. And Dawson’s creek ... my god it had a literal love octogon/ love webs (so many love squares/pentagons/ and on and off relationships). The 1 adult couple broke up and I’m not exaggeration 4 times, and Dawson got back with 2 of his girlfriends like so many times. And ugh I’d say each (of the 4-5) main characters dated at least 4 people -and each of those relationships lasted for like 20+ eps each... and then after all that build up -break up ). That’s not even including the people the main 5 or so characters would date for like 5-6 eps . Thank god it was toned down compared to Dawson’s creek or cheers. i can’t imagine the frustration watching those shows during its airing 😂

Freaks & geeks (set in the 80s)was also inspo.14 y old Sam who is bullied and called “homo” “queer” etc throughout the whole series - he also obsesses over a cheerleader girl for the whole series and in the second to last ep of the series- they finally start dating  and he realizes they have nothing in common and says “it’s boring. all we ever do is makeout.She likes nothing i like. We can’t talk to eachother. We never have fun.” And he admits he only keeps dating her cause everyone would call him “crazy” to not date her. sam and her are also said to be “from different planets” and “different species”  just like mileven in s3 lol.  The gf of  sam also says before they dated she saw him ‘like a sister’ (like El asking mike if he’d be her brother in s1, before they date). And after this sibling comment various characters -encouraged the couple and said they would be good together (before they dated-like what we’ve seen in st with mileven and other ships ).Sam eventually decides to not cave to peer pressure- and breaks up with her. Meanwhile sam’s sis (is a straight A student, who is initially into a popular guy and starts hanging with the cool kids).  After getting over the first (popular) guy, she later dates another guy- a music-obsessed-stoner-guy  with a cruddy dad...and she breaks up with him (like jancy?). That couple was even called ‘romeo & juliet’ before they broke up-similar to mileven being called “romeo & juliet’ before their breakup. plus r&j were never in love... just like mileven.

All 3 shows had the main guy/girl date but not end up with eachother in the end . And both shows -would build up several pairings that looked like endgame but would show faults in those relationships and would have them breakup (because those pairings were never that healthy together). Which I believe is what they’re doing with jancy, jopper, mileven and lumax (explained in my analysis here all the evidence for why I don’t think they don’t end up together). I mean there’s many reasons I listed in the analysis but you think it’s a coincidence - jancy, lumax, mileven , and Steve/rando girl who rejected him in s3-all incorportated spying on their love interest ? you think the duffers think that’s good to have all these romantic pairings spy on eachother? When in the show they canonically have the us gov (villains) spy via phone taps, and hidden recorders, and cameras? Brenner used El as a spy for his own gain ? they even call the mf a ‘spy’ (which the characters perceive as the  main villain)... i don’t think the mf is  actually villainous but that’s off topic).The point is narratively equating spying as something ‘wrong’ by characters our main cast of heroes is against. But having that same cast of heroes partaking in spying themselves … specifically on to their romantic partners- and not also showing it as a negative. But romanticizing it? Would be quite hypocritical. And a HUGE narrative oversight.

Also build up?

S1- mileven kiss right after el asks if he’ll be her “friend” or “brother”. Has others compare el to mike’s sibling /cousin. Hint Will is gay . Have hints mike is queer too/ and cares deeply about Will. Constantly mention how el physically resembles Will/a boy. Parallel mileven to ted/Karen who were “never in love”. Have Nancy and mike verbally compare the jancy/stancy love triangle to mileven/byler . And at the end of the season mike writes a story for Will that likens the 2 to han/leia. Flo says about jancy/Jon “ only love makes you that crazy and that damn stupid”. (Which flo wasn’t entirely right about since jon punched Steve for insulting his family- for Jon it was familial love -not romantic love. But put a pin in that phrase)

S2- was pretty much byler season (and mileven barely interact that season). Byler say they’d go “crazy together”. But el’s new catchphrase is she’s “not stupid.” They Compare mileven to luke/leia (siblings that kissed) . Ref ghostbusters and parallel byler to the romantic pairing of Dana /venkman (but have el just be a ghost and mike a ghost buster which isn’t romantic but the opposite) .parallel mileven to hopper/el. Have el spy on mike, el hurt a stranger cause of unhealthy jealousy, have mileven dance to a song about a possessive spying/Stalking ex gf . Throw in mileven burns like “they’re not in love they’re not even from the same planet.” (El being et ref) . Have mike say annoyed “a bond ?! (Scoff) cause you shared nougat?! “ (egos like s1 ) “. Mike saying after knowing max for a week “hate you? I don’t even know you?” (He knew el for a week too so no way he loves her -cause he doesn’t know el , just like max ) . mike even criticizes his friends’ instant attraction to max saying “you haven’t even spoken a word to her.”Dustin saying “ I don’t have to . I mean -look at her.” Which makes it even more suspicious that mike was into a girl who multiple characters said looked like a boy (specifically Will) in s1. Have El watch a soap opera (all my children) and mimic the scene of  erica kane and her love interest michael. Which in the soap opera-isn’t endgame, and ended with some stalking after their breakup.

S3- mileven is finally dating : multiple characters (lucas, Will, Hopper, dustin,Max, etc) in the show dislike and verbally complain about them together . In cheers all of sam’s friends hated him dating Dianne and would vocally complain about it (similar to joyce they even clapped/cheered after 1 of their many breakups) . Mike is horrified by the spying(that mileven fans romanticized in s2) , el is happier single and neither is heartbroken over the breakup. They date for 2 eps and then breakup . Mileven being together inhibits El’s character arc from s2 (aka she went from wanting to explore the world and leave the cabin in s2 to see her friends, to ignoring her friends and cutting herself off from the world in order to stay in the cabin all day to make out with mike for 6 months - she would literally lie to her friends about curfew to return to the cabin and kiss mike -going against her ‘friends don’t lie’ mantra from the past 2 seasons too ). Mike canonically doesn’t trust her / doesn’t believe in her ability to make decisions and lies to her and never apologizes for lying. And el doesn’t apologize for spying . They throw in more gay hints of mike & Will. Mileven is called “bullshit” like s2 stancy . And Both pairings in the show kissed a bunch and said “I love you” (but they weren’t endgame). They also contrast s3 mileven scenes to s2 byler scenes and have byler win out. And once again parallel mileven to hopper/el and Karen/ted. As well as paralleling and likening Mileven to stancy in numerous other ways (besides the “bullshit “ line) . They also parallel mileven to stobin (both are straight baits) .They parallel the stobin confession to the mileven one -both confessions have them sitting on the floor, both girls have bandages on their legs, and both confessions are interrupted by dustin. Also both Steve/mike use the terms “crazy & stupid ” to confess to robin/el. But unlike Will who agrees to be “crazy “ with mike .El confused , asks “ what makes you crazy?” And robin says she didn’t have a crush on his “stupid hair”. el even says in reference to mike “there’s more to life than stupid boys.” Showing how el/robin don’t have romantic feelings for the boys-like the flo phrase of s1. Unlike Will who after fighting with mike calls himself “stupid” over and over and rips up the photo of him and mike where they promised to go “crazy together.” Even Steve says in s2 stancy should should “pretend to be stupid teenagers” in love. Emphasis on “pretend”. And when el says she loves mike “the first I love you” plays -the only other time that song plays in s3 is when robin rejects Steve (cause she’s gay.) cough cause mike is gay too.

There’s a lot more in each season (that illustrates mileven was built up -but not as a positive couple but a problematic one that was never was in love to begin with ). But I’m trying to keep this short . You can read this post here where I go in more depth about all of this .

S1-2 builds up the problematic ships (but showed good and bad aspects of their dynamic) . like the spying of jancy, lumax, and mileven or the jealousy. of Hopper in s2. In the s2 finalie they have them kiss or hug/exchange romantic glances. And in S3 we see the after math of this with all the couples officially dating - and they show all the couples issues at the forefront . I already talked about mileven. But, Lumax broke up 6 times (they dated for 6 months- and every month they dated max dumped him ). Jancy fight in the opening of ep 1 and don’t understand each others issues (sexism/poverty-and Jon’s issues with his dad) . And neither supports the other in their passions of journalism & photography.Nancy is also called “nancy drew” who in 1986 (year of s4) before going to college dumps her long term highschool bf (who helped her in many of her past mysteries/novels ). Their relationship was also shown as complex and somewhat dysfunctional because of both parties -before nancy drew dumps him. And (even if not dating like the other pairings) jopper almost go on a date in s3. Joyce was trying to hide the fact she was moving, Hopper was horribly jealous, and all they did was yell and argue.Murray says to joyce regarding hopper “he’s a brute... probably reminds you of a bad relationship” (aka lonnie/Joyce) . They even have Joyce watch a cheers ep- which directly compares jopper to (dianne/Frasier) who weren’t endgame in cheers but a rebound .  Hopper /fraiser both drink chianti . Fraiser asks dianne to marry him/Hopper asks Joyce on a date-both women stand them up. Or when Joyce asks Hopper out she calls her self ‘detective byers ‘and Hopper name drops miami vice. Which had an on and off again relationship for several seasons- of the male /female detectives.The relationship faded out as Gina realized they mainly got together when one or both needed someone. Crockett was very protective of Gina, and had some jealousy when Gina was involved in relationships , but was the first one to be there for her when things went wrong. And they realized it was better to not be together romantically. Heck seems like all these couples have negative film/tv parallels... lucas in s2 mentions not liking winston in ghost busters cause he came ‘super late’ (like Max). in s1 disses michael myers (which Max dressed as). And at the end of s3- lumax dress identically to eric/donna from a ep of that 70s shows (in the ep  eric/donna were broken up).

 (s3 was marketed as the “summer of love” and “summer love” is a euphemism for flings that don’t last.) s4-5 Will probably show good healthy ships/break up the problematic ones from past seasons .

So first 2 seasons focus on the unhealthy ships / and the last 2 seasons focus on healthy ships. S3 the middle season would be considered the turning point -and why none of the popular ships (assumed to be endgame) came off looking that great (compared to how they were presented in s1-2) .

[inmyarmswrappedin]

So, because Fatou’s season ends today and, as far as we know, Druck hasn’t been renewed yet, I want to go over the things I feel the team did well in this season and the things I hope they take with them when they sit down to write the next season (which I’m manifesting will be Ava’s).

I think that s5 and, perhaps to a bigger extent, s6, were the team’s attempt to address fan feedback for and criticisms of s3 and s4. So I have hopes that, after possibly the most scrutinized season of any Skams, they are still willing to read even more feedback and sit down once again to craft a couple more seasons (possibly even 3 or 4 more seasons!).

So, without further ado, things that were done well! (Do I have to add “in my opinion”? Do I??)

I liked that for both s5 and s6, the thorough-line for the season wasn’t made obvious or shared in a press release, but rather it was up to fans to connect the story threads for themselves.

I loved that the team sought to address one of the biggest criticisms of s3, that is, that Matteo was given so many symptoms of a mental illness, but it ultimately went unaddressed in the narrative. They did this by giving Nora a dissociative disorder, and Fatou dyscalculia. (Matteo has been headcanoned as being mentally ill and having a disability.) It allowed the teams to develop both fan theories into full-blown seasons and give each of them the importance they deserved.

I have said this already, but I really appreciate that the team chose misunderstood, misrepresented and underrepresented mental illnesses and disabilities. I feel like s5 and s6 will be referents for many years, because they really took the time to portray a dissociative disorder and dyscalculia in a down-to-earth, unhurried way that isn’t meant to shock and awe, but simply allow us to understand why and when Nora and Fatou will struggle. Druck got the viewers to anticipate when Nora and Fatou would struggle, and that’s the first step in being able to anticipate and accommodate the needs of the Noras and Fatous of the world. I really can’t overstate how important this is and what a difference it makes in a real, tangible way. These seasons aren’t meant to be enjoyed for voyeuristic reasons, but they will legitimately help people.

One of the biggest criticisms of s4 was that Amira and Sam didn’t connect as women of color. In fact, it seemed like in s4 Sam was treated as another white friend, when in s2 both she and Amira were the victims of Kiki’s racism. The team addressed this by giving us Ava and Fatou’s friendship, which I want to say might be the first friendship between main characters of color where their race is a substantial reason for their bond. (There are the Sanas with their Jamillas, but the Jamillas aren’t main characters, and then there are friendships like Jo and Megan and Zoya, or Imaan and Liv, or Luca and Yasmina, but iirc in every case their bond as women of color isn’t made explicit.)

Another criticism of s4 was the way Kiki turned into the world’s most understanding white friend offscreen. The team addressed this with the Ava and Mailin storyline, which I think was wonderfully and subtly set up in s5, then built on with the biology test leaked answers.

On the topic of race, I think a major criticism of s3 was that David’s ethnicity wasn’t acknowledged (to the point where a white actress was cast to play his sister gvhvhv). The team has made up for this with Josh (more in the s6 sm than in s5, but I still count it) and with Kieu My. Fatou and Kieu My bonded over being first/second gen children of immigrants, and in doing so, they acknowledged that these characters aren’t white and have different experiences than white Germans.  

The first 6 episodes of this season were some of the finest writing in the Skams. The storylines all connected and built on each other. The motifs were just so good and beautiful and fitting. The themes were all clearly defined and easy to follow.

The tortoise plot was one of the most fun and imaginative storylines in any Skams, it connected Fatou and Ismail in a believable way. And not to rave about a fucking tortoise, but animals can be really uncooperative and that tortoise delivered every fucking clip. Druck has a reputation for being one of the most depressive versions of Skam, but the Maike/Burger plot was just plain fun.

I feel like some of the old gen’s instas were a bit self-indulgent. I’m thinking specifically of Matteo’s memes and how they they weren’t necessarily the kind of memes a gay dude born in 2001 would pick, but someone a decade older. I think this is much better done with new gen. Fatou’s memes reflect her age and her sexuality, and not just that, but Ava, Mailin, Kieu My, Josh, etc. all pick memes and even focus on different aspects of recent news, based on their gender, race, personalities, interests, etc.

I appreciate that the team found a way to fit a sex scene between Fatou and Kieu My to add to the small catalogue of wlw sex scenes on Skams (I’m including the scene in lovleg or we’d only have two lol). While I understood the reasons eskam opted not to include one, I thought there were ways to feature a sex scene that didn’t sexualize the actresses and didn’t require nudity. Cases in point: the lovleg scene, and this scene in Druck.

And it also needs to be said. This is the first original season with a main of color, and the third season overall (after Liv and Imane) where 10 episodes are given to a character of color and no one else. Of the three, it’s certainly the season that loved and respected its main the most. The bar is so low it’s in hell, but Druck did clear that bar!

With all that said, let’s talk about the things I would really want the team to address in following seasons:

The thing I most want them to fix might be small or unimportant for a lot of people, but I think it’s at the core of why the season has been unenjoyable or certain plot points haven’t come across the way the team wanted, for many people. I am talking about the overly expositional nature of the writing.  It appears as if the team approached the writing of the clips with the intention of hitting each beat as noted in their agreed upon outline, and absolutely nothing else was to be added. This is an issue both in s5 and s6. It’s just less noticeable in s5, because s5 is setting up stuff for Fatou’s season, and possibly even seasons that haven’t been written yet. The fact that absolutely every second counts makes for a stressful watching experience for me, because the narrative tension is always heightened. Whereas with Skam, the narrative tension would build throughout the clip. Take the Pride scene in Skam, for instance. The clip allows for Isak and Eskild to get increasingly more agitated as they butt heads. I feel like if this Druck team had done the Pride scene in s5 or s6, the clip would’ve started with both Isak and Eskild already on edge, and cut much of the dialogue that got them there.

On the topic of naturalistic dialogue, this season doesn’t have it. Here is an example from ep 10 clip 2, Wieder vereint/Reunited 11:37.

Fatou: I’ll get a certificate too and bring it over to you. And I checked it, I only have to change one course and my schedule will work.

Teacher: Miss Jallow, you are not the first one to come to me with an epiphany. We could fill entire school weeks with the lessons you missed. In addition, Doctor Steinberg told me about your, well… activities. You don’t have a lot of arguments on your side. 

Fatou: But I’ve spoken to all of the teachers and they said they are okay with it. 

Teacher: You seem to have friends among the teaching staff. Mrs Pavlovic put in a word for you. Okay then, do it and go before I change my mind. [translated by @kieu-tou! Thank you!] 

Like. This is the bare bones version of a dialogue. This should be the first draft, not the final version. The coordinator goes from absolute no to yes, with just one line from Fatou. The coordinator gives reasons that would necessitate more than one sentence of counterargument, like Fatou’s absences and the Biology test leaked answers. The coordinator even says Fatou doesn’t have a lot of arguments on her side, and yet it takes Fatou one line to change her mind!

And of course we viewers don’t want or need a lot of time with the coordinator. And particularly at this point in the season, no one would enjoy a naturalistic dialogue with the coordinator of all people.  But my point is that this is an issue with the dialogue all this season (and last season as well, but this season has been more scrutinized), the reason I picked this example is because of how easy it is to see here.

Which brings us to the pacing of the clips, and specifically the Friday clips. Because the script goes straight to the information the team wants to convey to the viewers, skipping the build up to it, many Friday clips have fallen flat, felt abrupt, and have been, tbh, unsatisfying. Again, I had this issue in s5, but as that season went on, I felt like the team had a better grip on Friday clips. But then they did it again in the first Friday clip this season, and so I think this is something the writers really should work on. The first Friday clip in Isak’s season closes on Isak being sandwiched by Emma and Even on a bench, visually setting up the love triangle, or more accurately, the personifications of who Isak should want to hook up with and who he really wants. But in order to get there, we’re shown a good amount of info, from the way Vilde, Eva and Sana are handling Noora’s absence, to Chris and Kasper, Even hovering around Isak, Emma trying to impress Isak, Isak escaping and, like, draping himself on the walls because he’s so over it all. Isak playing a game on the bathroom to stall for time. The paper towel maneuver to immediately give us a sense of what a weirdo Even is. A conversation between Isak and Even that gives us some clues about Even’s shame, as well as establish interests in common (like weed), and this is all before Emma even joins them! Just think of all the stuff we learn about who Isak, Even, Emma, Eva, Vilde or Sana are as people, before we get to the point of the clip! Fatou’s season simply didn’t have that. Compare it with the first Friday clip of Fatou’s season where the cashqueens quickly talk about the leaked answers, one of the major storylines this season that only gets a couple lines, before Fatou says she doesn’t want to talk about school (Fatou’s struggles with school, another major storyline), and then we’re onto the point of the clip, which is that Kieu My likes girls too. AND FADE TO BLACK. When people say they want longer clips, what they mean isn’t artificially inflate the clip length or add more plot stuff. Just let us watch the characters interact with each other so that we get a feel for how they relate to each other. I know I wish we’d have gotten more of Ava and Fatou interacting with each other before things turned to shit, and Ava with the other girls, so that I know why they all like and value Ava so much. I wish we’d have gotten more of Kieu My talking to the cashqueens about, like, why she didn’t make use of the biology test answers, instead of getting it on a chat. Or food combos they don’t like. So it makes more sense that later on Kieu My actually thinks she and Fatou are friends.  And every line doesn’t have to count. In Skam España, the characters are constantly talking and not everything they ever talked about ended up being relevant. When one of the characters lied about her house undergoing renovations to hide the fact that she was poor, the characters joked about Italian marble and put on bad Italian accents and made that Italian hand gesture. None of this was important to the plot because those renovations weren’t real to begin with, but they made viewers feel like these were real friends joking around, instead of characters needing to hit every storyline beat in a clip.

I have this joke with my friends about Druck always going 🤪🤪 in the last third of every season, in which a season that was very tightly written and cohesive suddenly pulls something inexplicable and pretty much impossible to resolve in 1-3 episodes. Hanna’s season suddenly switching to Mia, Björn creeping on Mia in episode 9! of a total 10, David getting outed in episode 8 and then disappearing for a whole week, Amira’s season pivoting to Mia and Hanna. It has happened in every season except Nora’s, so I thought the team had learned its lesson, but then the forgotten date with Ava happened. To be clear. It really makes no sense that Nora would have hung out with Ava several times since Tuesday, and the topic of the cashqueens being officially introduced to Kieu My wouldn’t have come up. it’s just not realistic.gif I feel like at that point the writing for the rest of the reason became super contrived to keep Fatou miserable and apart from Kieu My and Ava to artificially delay the reunions until episode 9 and 10. Why add a cheating insinuation and the main checking her partner’s messages in episode 8 if you know you won’t be able to properly resolve it? Why make Kieu My mock Fatou’s “uhm” if it’s not going to be addressed in their reunion clip? Kieu My had taken the initiative for a lot of the relationship, so it’s okay for Fatou to take the initiative when it comes to making up. You don’t have to add things that can only be resolved through an expositional info dump. (Please no more exposition than it’s necessary! I think we’ve established that at this point lol.) In the case of Fatou’s season, this is even sadder because I feel like Kieu My’s intimacy issues could’ve been the reason to drive them apart for two weeks, rather than the Maya/uhm stuff. This could’ve also been resolved through Fatou and Kieu My explicitly negotiating their boundaries and how they want to be comforted and how they want to comfort each other, which I thought was the issue with Fatou rejecting Kieu My’s attempts to help while wanting physical touch, while Kieu My didn’t want to be touched but rather seen.  

There are going to be many thinkpieces on why a myriad of stuff didn’t work for people, so I’m going to keep this simple and address one last thing. I think that choosing to focus on Nora’s mental illness and Fatou’s disability is a great choice that doesn’t complicate the themes too much, but Druck (and all the Skams, but I’m invested only in Druck succeeding at this point) still struggles with being intersectional. This is the major reason why the Ava/Mailin storyline ended not with a bang, but a whimper. There just wasn’t enough work done to connect Fatou’s struggles not just to her disability, but also to her race (and even her sexuality). I think that if people really want (and lbr, it’ll be mostly poc who will put in that effort and work), they can see how Fatou’s race affected the way other people and especially adults reacted to her, but this wasn’t made explicit. If Ava and Mailin are going to argue about racism all season, why not connect that with Karin firing Fatou from Aquarius? As it stands, Karin fired Fatou because of a disability neither of them knew Fatou has, and that was the resolution to that storyline. Why not make it explicit that the Physics teacher had preconceived ideas about Fatou because Fatou is black? Why wasn’t Fatou’s disability addressed in the meeting with the coordinator? Why didn’t Fatou express to Mailin that Fatou, too, had issues with how Mailin was acting wrt racism? It felt like, with the way the season was putting so much emphasis on racism, all these threads were going to be connected. In the end though, it almost felt as if only Ava is affected by racism (aside from Mailin mentioning Fatou in the last episode). It’s not like talking about how racism affects Fatou is going to make the topic redundant for Ava’s or Ismail’s season. As a light-skinned black lesbian with a disability, Fatou’s life is going to be impacted by racism in a different way than Ava’s will, as a dark-skinned black fat straight cis girl, or Ismail’s, as a Turkish-German possibly Muslim possibly non binary person. All these experiences are specific enough, and different enough, that they can be touched upon in different seasons without becoming redundant. The fact that Fatou’s season almost seemed to forget at times that she is a black lesbian, doesn’t bode well for Ava’s and Ismail’s season to acknowledge all their struggles.

The bottom line is that this season really was great and did a lot of good, and I feel like the writing just needs to be tweaked a bit for further seasons to be even better and more enjoyable overall. I am very pleasantly surprised by how the team took s1-s4 fan feedback to heart and worked to implement suggestions, and so I really trust them and hope they keep working on the show. It’d be a shame if Druck wasn’t renewed, with this team at the helm.    

[deadlyglacier]

20 Questions tag~

I was tagged by @mythicamagic thank you senpai~<3

How many works do you have on AO3?

40 right now, plus 1 that is still hidden because of the SOFA Exchange event.  (I’m still a lil fish.)

What’s your total AO3 word count?

486,920!  That’s so amazing to me!

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

InuYasha - A Feudal Fairytale (18)

FullMetal Alchemist (18)

Mass Effect Trilogy (3)

Let’s Play (Webtoon) (1)

Kingdom Hearts (1) But I hope to write for many more fandoms in the future!  I have ideas for fics for Castlevania, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Last of Us Part II, and more!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

#1.  Stardust FemShep/Garrus, Mass Effect Trilogy, Rated Explicit. A retelling of the Shepard/Vakarian love story, with lots (and LOTS) of sexiness, from Garrus' point of view. Starts from before the Omega-4 and will end sometime after the end of ME3. Trying to stay as true to the game as possible, while adding some things happening off camera and a new ending.

#2.  Flamingo Sess/Kag, Inuyasha, Rated Explicit Kagome's method of beating the summer heat attracts a certain demon lord...

#3.  Hawk Sess/Kag, Inuyasha, Rated Explicit Kagome and Sesshomaru discover they have a mutual attraction for each other after a battle and a slight comedic incident brings them together. At first their relationship seems entirely sexual, but eventually evolves into something real. What will this romance mean for Naraku? Or even the future?  *TRIGGER WARNING FOR CHAPTER 6! MAJOR VIOLENCE AND TRAGEDY* Very, very loosely based on "A Mere Digression" by elle6778

#4.  Daisy Sam/Charles, Let’s Play, Rated Mature Sam wakes up somewhere unfamiliar with a splitting headache with no memory of the night before. Takes place right after the S2 finale.  First chapter was my prediction for what would happen next, and then three other “wishful thinking” chapters happened, lol.

#5.  Chemistry Ed/Winry, FullMetal Alchemist, Rated Mature A look at how the relationship between Ed and Winry developed after Brotherhood ended.  Cute, sweet, funny, and hot (eventually—y'all that know me know I gotta have some NSFW in there).

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to respond to everyone, especially when a fic of mine has just been posted, but sometimes I just forget.  If I haven’t responded to your comment, please know it’s just because I’m a big dumb and forgot!  I love getting comments, and I reread them all the time!  I just feel like there’s a time limit to when I can respond to them--if I let too much go by, it’s awkward if I reply.  Gah, but that’s just me getting in my own head, I guess.  I’ll do better!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oof, definitely Psychology, a fic I wrote for RoyEdOTPoly this year.  The prompt I got was dark, and I didn’t see any way around an angsty ending.  Read at your own risk!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Well, aside from the last fic, I try to write happy endings for all my fics!  But, if I have to name names, I’m torn between Zoology (another FullMetal Alchemist fic, RoyEd, for RoyEdOTPoly this year) and Stardust (my Mass Effect fic, which is long, but so worth it, in my opinion).  Both are very fluffy in the end!

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Argh...  I don’t really like crossovers, to be honest.  I actively avoid them when looking for fics to read.  But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought of writing them myself.  (I’m a total hypocrite, I know.)  I had an idea for an Inuyasha x The Sims fic, years ago, that I never did anything with.  The premise was basically Inuyasha and Kagome would get trapped in the game somehow (via the jewel or magic or something), and they’d be controlled by Souta, Kagome’s friends, Hojo--all sorts of different people who think the fact that Kagome and Inuyasha are in the game is just some kind of silly mod.  I probably won’t write it, so if anyone is interested in that crazy idea, have at it!  You have my blessing. <3 I also have a crazy crossover idea for what I call an “Ultimate OT3″ of mine that I’ve mentioned to my friends, but I haven’t actually written down yet:  Sesshomaru/Alucard/Sebastian Michaelis.  So be on the lookout for that!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I wouldn’t call it “hate” so much as “mansplaining,” but I have gotten a couple of comments that made my eyebrow twitch on Stardust--both on AO3 and FFN.  Just dudes (and I’m fairly certain they were dudes, just from their tone) trying to explain why a certain plot twist wouldn’t work, or tell me how to save Sidonis in the actual game (which I already knew, that person just didn’t read what I wrote). I’ve also gotten a comment on one of my more controversial fics, Hippology, on FFN, where the person asked me if I thought my summary was K-Rated (which, admittedly, it does need to be for the site, and mine wasn’t--because of a single word).  I changed it and messaged them saying it was fixed.  Going to that commenter’s profile, however, proved to be fairly enlightening...  They’re nuts.  They have another profile, too.  Read at your own risk.  Yikes. There’s also a team of people on FFN who make it their life’s mission to report stories with rule violations.  I’ve gotten a comment from one of them as well.  These people are not mods, they just like to pretend they are--one of them even made their name look official!  “CU Administration,” gtfo dude. I also recently got one of my fics removed from FFN.  It wasn’t even one of my sexiest ones!  They put me in timeout for 48 hours, and when I was finally able to publish something new on the site again, I posted Hippology (my centaur smut), and it’s still up as I type this.  (Wonder how long it’ll take them to notice?)  And since the fic that got taken down was a SessKag fic, I’m thinking it might have been a petty SessRinner who reported it to the “authorities” of FFN, because another friend of mine got hers taken down not long after mine, and it was also SessKag.  Just my tinfoil theory, anyway!

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes, yes, yes.  It’s practically all I write.  I do all sorts of smut, from romantic, sensual stuff, to specific kinks, to monsterfucking--all that good stuff.  Can’t change me~<3

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

God, I hope not!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don’t think so.  No one has asked me if they can translate one, anyway.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet!  I’m open to the idea, and I’ve had little discussions with my fic-writing buddies about it, but nothing’s come out of it just yet.  Keep your eyes peeled!

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Oh, now come on!  I can’t pick just one!  But I’ll give you a top 3 (in no particular order, because they change places a lot, depending on how obsessed I am with them at the moment). Inuyasha:  Sess/Kag FullMetal Alchemist:  Roy/Ed Mass Effect:  Garrus/FemShep

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I have a couple of stories that I deleted from my original FFN account that I’d like to re-write and re-post on AO3, but I don’t think I’ll ever get around to it.  There were a couple of Inu/Kag fics I had in-progress, and then a Koug/Kag fic.  I recently rewrote and reposted my SessKag fic from years ago, Hawk, on FFN, AO3, and Dokuga!  So maybe all hope isn’t lost.  I’m even writing a sequel for Hawk! All the stories I have in-progress right now I plan on finishing.  At some point, lol.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, without a doubt.  It’s my favorite thing to write, aside from smut, of course--which is another strength of mine.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions, ugh.  I try to do them well, but I always feel like they get stale.  So I keep them somewhat vague, because in my mind, I think readers will fill in the gaps themselves whether you describe something immaculately or not--they’ll see what they want to see, and that is totally fine in my book!  Or maybe I’m just making excuses, lol.  I’ll only describe something in a lot of detail if I want the reader to focus on that--usually an outfit, accessory, or weapon--otherwise, I leave it up to their imagination (I don’t want manipulate it too much, I suppose).

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Wildly unnecessary unless that author speaks the language as well, or if certain words already exist in the fandom’s translations (ex. “youkai,” “alkahestry,” etc).

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Inuyasha, and the fic(s) I wrote in the beginning were terrible.  I want to burn all traces of them off the face of the earth.  I was in middle school.  I was young and stupid.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I gotta go with Stardust.  It’s the longest fic I’ve ever completed at more than 160k words.  I was so immensely proud when I typed “The End,” and I was able to say to myself “I did it.”

I tag: @glassesmcfancyhair @willowsrain 

[lemme-obsess-for-a-minute]

let me start with marvel’s tv shows

1. the falcon and the winter soldier

boring as hell. i’m sorry, if i wanted a spy thriller i would’ve watched mission impossible, though calling this show a thriller is a stretch. the only things i liked were the commentary on race, which were actually rather well done imo and the dynamic between bucky and sam which was the best part of the show. the new captain america made me wanna vomit since the very first half second he showed up on screen wearing my man steve’s outfit. just…the blatant disrespect. YOULL NEVER BE HIM!!!!!

edit: LMAO SOMEONE THOUGHT I MEANT SAM WHEN I SAID THE NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA NAURRRRRR!!! I MEANT JOHN NOT MY BROTHER SAM OMFG

ps. the dora are here and they’re GIVING. it was nice to see sharon again. i’m glad marvel is giving her character another chance after the rabid fans ran her off screen after civil war. also, surprisingly, i really liked zemo. i’m glad he wasn’t killed. john walker should’ve stayed a villain. he was way more interesting than the actual one we got.

2. wandavision

it had me for a second i was like this is the ONE!!! but towards the end it tapered off, i felt. like it started feeling a bit rushed?? i think they could’ve used one more episode. vision and wanda get some much needed character development- though i’d always been kinda interested in them even before, like i found their dynamic in civil war to be quite promising. wandavision really delivered on that end and i appreciate it. agatha was hilarious, and a great villain, and i hope the mcu isn’t done with her quite yet i wish to see her again. also monica needed more screentime she was great. i hope in s2 they explore her connection with wanda a bit more. i want them to be friends.

ps. what is going on with white vision…..where did he go….what crimes will he commit…

3. loki

loki is That Bitch. do i mean the show or the character? yes. this shit was captivating from the jump, and it’s not even over yet. the tva was sus the entire time i saw the twist coming- tho i will say…robots????? like i knew it wouldn’t be THAT easy but that threw me. i’m in love with sylvie. im a little conflicted on the budding….romance? between her and loki like they’re not the same people, really. they are completely different people. but like…on principle they are technically just different versions of each other. idk. i find it cute when i turn my brain off and don’t think about it for too long. mobius was someone i thought was gonna turn into a villain. glad to see he hasn’t (so far…a lot can happen in one episode). the judge lady i forget her name i wish she would’ve teamed up with sylvie since obviously she wants to find out who started the tva as much as she and loki do. but ig our heroes need incentive to be quick so. and hunter b-15? need more of her NEEEEEOOOOWWWW!!!!

so for rn my ranking is:

1. loki (excellent…so far)

2. wandavision (A for effort can do better)

3. falcon and the winter soldier (needs work)