#the emotional whiplash im experiencing right now

[ahli-stuff]

So the new ep of justified huh

[hingefreelester]

hi ron i feel crazy. i dont even know how to form thoughts on what emotions im experiencing right now in a post dan birthday stream universe

Hi jennifer yeah i feel… something for sure idk what but its a lot. What the fuck is coming and how do we recover from this before that??? I’m so lucky i watched it at my parents house alone with only our dogs here because the amount of screaming i did would have me out of home if i had been at my apartment💀 why are we having so many monumental events in such a short period of time im having whiplash

Also i wish we had goth lesbian lester just a bit longer

[manicgoblin]

picked up some ❄️ last night and hung with squad. watched scary movies and cackled together all night. ended up staying over with Elliott and watching lilo and stitch together in bed. we had v vulnerable convo after sex about new fantasies and things to explore in the bedroom together, how life is going for us in general, how we've both been feeling low and mentally off our game lately, how we crave community and new and exciting adventures in our daily lives. it was very tender and endearing. im glad we can talk the way we do. we told each other new childhood stories. I opened up about my sadness for the holidays and my birthday tmrw and he rubbed my back while I talked. he gave me the tightest hug after and told me we'll plan a friends day for Christmas. Said that I should stay the night on the 24th and spend time with everyone who's still home. hes good to me, but he's not always good to himself, and that hurts us both sometimes. Its the same with me. we're both a bit (a big bit) of a work in progress, but still our friendship continues to grow. our connection is deeply important to us both, especially at this time of our lives. I'm very grateful for him. he told me that his life here in Maine would look very different if I wasn't here that I really help him feel more at home and cared for at a time in his life where he's struggling to feel connected to the people who love him. he thanked me and reiterated that he's got my back too. we are planning to rent out a pottery studio together so he can teach me how to work with clay, and he can get back into his artistic grind, and we also are planning some volunteer days at a soup kitchen downtown. we both have been struggling w execution lately, so I said why not try it together? I told him my biggest hurdle tends to be going it alone, not that I can't, just that it feels scary and also sad to not have anyone around to share new things with. he understood. he was excited and appreciative for the suggestion. he just dropped me off at home, but he'll pick me up in the am to make breakfast and start the day with squad. we're gonna venture to a new lighthouse as a lil unit, which makes my heart v full. I love lighthouses. I've seen all the landlocked ones in this area already, so this will be another added to the list. then we're squading back up at the boys house, drinking/partying, playing the new we are not really strangers deck I bought, probably some other card games, and dancing all night. ru's meeting us at squad house after work, and I'm bringing my polaroids, so I can add new ones to my fridge. I think this time I'll let some other people take some pictures, so I can be in them too haha. I want to remember this birthday. I always let them go by so fast. I don't want to think about them. I tell myself I hate celebrating, but fuck I'm 25 now. I want this one to feel good and warm, and I want tangible proof of the love I witness with the people in my life this time around. I'm v grateful to be spending it with all of them. I do wish deeply that cherise and sunmi could be here, but I'll see them again soon. Makes my heart ache to not be near them. It would be so nice if Sam could come down from Acadia too, but I'm sure I'll see them all again soon. For now, I'll make the best of what I've got, and cherish the day with my friends that can be here. The emotional whiplash will be heavy tmrw, I know this. I warned squad I'll probably be emotional and moody throughout the day, but I'm very appreciative of them being there with me anyways, just witnessing and experiencing it with me. allowing me to grieve and celebrate in the ways that come up. Here's to making it another year I didn't think possible. To being as sad and grateful as I've ever been. To having all the freedom I've ever dreamed of in the palm of my hands, and simultaneously the most roadblocks right in front of me. To forging on anyway. To love, to love, to love.

[sonicenvy]

adhd is like constantly playing the wikipedia game

[sadgirlautumn]

CRIMINAL MINDS IS LEAVING NETFLIX.... THE EMOTIONAL WHIPLASH IM EXPERIENCING RIGHT NOW IS HORRIBLE

[forthisone]

Shadow and Bone Trilogy Book Review

Long, rambling, sometimes-capslock thoughts on the Shadow and Bone trilogy, having just a couple of hours ago finished reading the trilogy of Shadow and Bone, Seige and Storm and Ruin and Rising.

MALYEN ORETSEV IS TOO PURE FOR THIS WORLD AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL.

Fair warning: Major spoilers for the whole series and ending, entire focus on Mal/Alina 😅 I apologise for nothing.

I THINK THIS MIGHT BE THE FIRST TIME I’VE EXPERIENCED A SHIP I REALLY LOVE HAVE A HAPPY ENDING. Hooooooly shit. It feels good.

😭😭😭

Leigh Bardugo really served up everything I want to see! Give me all the tropes! All the angst! All the longing! AND with a happy ending?! *chef’s kiss*

I’m shook.

It feels amazing that for once in my life, something I ship has finally finished front and centre and I am absolutely here for it!

So let’s first clarify that I went in to the books just after finishing S1 of the Netflix show, already head over heels in love with Mal/Alina and rooting for them the whole way through. They are the reason I read the books. In the stories that I enjoy, I value love above all other aspects of the story; it’s just who I am.

The Pain of Siege and Storm

I admit, about 50% of this trilogy and the majority of Book 2 and early Book 3 was me in pain just wondering why they couldn’t be together and why they kept pushing each other away. Book 2 was an emotional rollercoaster ngl. I was frustrated that they spent so much time being miserable around eachother but were never allowed to be happy or give in to their feelings? They are best friends. Mal wants to support her. LET HIM SUPPORT HER. Let her confide in him and find comfort in him.

Endgame? Not Endgame?

This went on in a similar vein for some time and towards the end of Book 3, I was getting increasingly worried they weren’t endgame and this was indeed all leading up to Mal ultimately sacrificing himself... which obviously did happen...

But when Alina says “Bring him back to me.”, I just thought “THANK YOU. VINDICATION. THIS IS WHAT HAPPINESS FEELS LIKE.” and I knew we were home and dry and my god it felt good.

But I was so happy with the ending. It’s exactly what I wanted to happen, though I didn’t expect it... AND THEN IT HAPPENED. For them to go back to how they were and live the rest of their days in quiet happiness. Neither of them asked for this. They just belonged with eachother.

The last line of the book:

They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things - if love can ever be called that.

HAPPY SIGH. YES.

More on this below.

People hate Mal?!?

I... don’t understand why so many fans apparently don’t like Mal. ?!?!????!? I had heard this before reading and went in to the books with trepidation. I was waiting for him to do something awful to justify the hate and... it just never happened. Is it just the way he behaves in Siege and Storm? Because I do accept he is slightly more problematic in the books than the show but Y’ALL KNOW HE WAS ONLY IN THAT PIT OF DESPAIR BECAUSE HE FELT LIKE HE WAS LOSING HER. She never really reassured him that much, if anything she confirmed his fears (from his pov anyway). And he was right to doubt her, because she was doubting her feelings too in secret, and he could feel it.

BUT. But he accepts it in Ruin and Rising. He grows into it. He accepts they can’t be together as they are. And he still stays, only to protect her, to keep her safe. He never asks for more than that. “You are my flag. You are my nation.” Roast me over a slow fire.

You will never, ever convince me not to root for the childhood best friend who loves her unconditionally and knows her better than anyone else and will die for her and will spend the rest of his days just being close to her, to protect her, even if that’s all he ever gets. This is the hill I will die on.

And then she comes back to him. 🤧🤧🤧

The Love Square

So, in terms of love interests for Alina:

Mal >>> Nikolai >>>>>>>>>>>>> Darkling

Wasn’t a fan of the love square here. I understand if she has feelings for different people, I respect everyone’s right to ship what they want, but I honestly had whiplash. One second she’s “in physical pain” missing Mal, next she is “drawn to” the Darkling, then wants to kiss Nikolai. I’m extremely monogamous and that’s probably why all this chopping and changing just felt really jarring to me.

I liked Nikolai as a character but I valued their friendship and I just wanted their relationship to remain platonic. I’m happy with how his storyline ended too. I hope he’s okay!

Mainly I did not understand why she was still drawn to the Darkling after all the loved ones he slaughtered in front of her. Fuck him, honestly (Ben Barnes I still love you though).

But this line near the end kind of summed it up for me, I guess:

Merzost. Darkness. You could hate it and hunger for it at the same time.

But I no longer care about any of this because my ship was endgame, baby! 😭😭😭

The Finale

I am glad Mal become more “important” in the end. That there was a magical bond between them. (I feel a little dumb I didn’t see it coming that he was an amplifier, because I did clock on to the jolts of light that happened when he grabbed her wrist and thought it was foreshadowing something).

I like even more that they agreed they would have found each other despite it.

“Maybe that brought us together, but it didn’t make us who we are. It didn’t make you the girl who could get me to laugh when I had nothing. It sure as hell didn’t make me the idiot that took that for granted. Whatever there is between us, we forged it. It belongs to us."

I was waiting for the scene in the conservatory the entire time and it was so perfect! Worth the wait! I can’t wait to see the aesthetics of it in the show. The flowers, the greenery... the lanterns. It was so pretty in my head!

I could pretend I wasn’t a saviour or a Saint, that I could simply choose him, have a life, be in love. That we wouldn’t have one night, we would have thousands.

It was a perfect ending for me really because I got both the angsty hero-sacrifices-himself-for-protagonist-and-greater-good scene AND the happy ending. I’ve honestly been spoilt 😂 My shipper heart has never been so satisfied.

The actual plot of the ending was a complete blur and I have no idea what happened other than Alina lost her power and the Darkling died and... some other people became light summoners? I think? I was so focused on whether Mal would live or not I couldn’t really process the rest! I will have to reread.

It’s a shame that Alina no longer has her power and that Mal lost some of his tracking skill in the end, but... I’ll take it for a happy ending where they spend the rest of their lives together as equals. It’s not like Mal stole her power from her. They both made sacrifices and in the end, they still won.

The shrieks of the volcra erupted around me as the Fold began to unravel. It was a miracle. And I didn’t care. The Saints could keep their miracles. The Grisha could keep their long lives and their lessons. Mal was dead.

I love that most of the book is all about her feeling the pull of her powers, feeling changed by it, drifting from Mal… but in the end, when it’s all done and over, she doesn’t care. She wants none of it. She chooses him. She wants him back. This is what I was waiting the whole series to read, honestly. Love conquers all, baby.

I just love that there were all these passages about their love not being possible because “they weren’t the same people any more” and the boy and girl from the orphanage were gone... and yet, it ends with the boy and the girl at the orphanage. Just like how it started. It's so obvious to me now that the whole story was about THE BOY AND THE GIRL. Every Before and After. It was right there all along.

THANK YOU, LEIGH BARDUGO.

My soul can now die happy.

I thought it was a really beautiful story.

Would happily reread. Will happily reread.

Im definitely going to continue with the other Grishaverse books too.

Can’t wait for more of the show because I’m honestly in love with the casting and this pairing and this series. Please, please, God, let it be renewed, and with the same cast, and covering the whole trilogy!

[lovemesickly]

plastic hearts - prologue

plastic hearts masterlist

a/n : this is my first ever fanfiction that i’ve written on tumblr, so i hope that most of you if not all of you enjoy reading my story. also quick side note if you didn’t know before but during this book (much later) i plan for the main character to have a love interest. based on what you’ll know about the mc, please feel free to share your opinion on who you think her love interest should be.

chapter warning(s) : none so far

prologue : job hunting

song : sunlight by hozier

It was days like today that made it hard to get up, the woman’s body, who was laying in her bed, ached with every breath she took. She was tired, exhausted and if she had it her way she’d go back to sleep, but it seemed that every time she closed her eyes she was plagued with the feeling of terror. Stretching her arms out, she pulled the warm covers off of her just to rest her feet on the stinging cold hardwood. Trying to wake herself up she took a moment, running her palms over her eyes trying her hardest to rub the sleep out of them.

Though she ended up taking more than a moment as she got lost in her thoughts, lost in the feeling of the coldness that enveloped her in a hug. Finally after trial and tribulation, she managed to stand up on her feet. Some how her body caring for itself as she was dressed and ready to go about her day. Stepping out into her hallway, she ended up shutting her front door with her wallet and keys in hand. Double checking that her apartment was in fact locked, she looked down at her watch covered wrist only to see that it was fifteen minutes to two.

Racking her brain she calculated the time in her head, estimating that she should be back home at the latest by six thirty. Tucking her hands in the pockets of her jean jacket, she started her journey of trying to get outside, her feet themselves carrying her down the stairs. Once making her way outside, she started to trek to her destination. She had one objective today and that was to find a job. And with the rate she was going she honestly wouldn’t be able to survive off of the money she had left in her bank account.

By now an hour had passed and she hadn’t had any luck with jobs. Continuing to search the streets of Washington D.C. to find help wanted signs, the corner of her eyes seemed to catch a blur of black. Sharply turning her head, the woman got whiplash as she looked down the street only to see a black suv with tinted windows pointed in her direction entirely. She wanted to get a closer look as she couldn’t see who was in the car but knew someone was as the engine was running.

Trying to not look into it too much, she started to walk again turning her head back to it’s original position only to take a quick glance back at the suv. Though the moment she did, she was filled with surprise as the spot it previously occupied was now vacant. Huffing under her breath, the woman received weird looks as she spoke to herself silently but not as silent as she had though, “it’s nothing Alek, it’s nothing.”

Continuing with her task for the day, (the now named woman) Alek walked down every street of the metropolitan area. With that, her luck had gotten better as she managed to score a couple of interviews on the spot. Though, with every interview she was only told that they would call her in the next couple of days with the news if she got the job or not. And to be honest with how everything has been going lately she’d be surprised if she actually somehow got hired.

Furthering her quest, the sun had now set as it was close to six pm, the city of Washington D.C. busier then it had been before. By now Alek just wanted to get back to her apartment and take a blistering hot shower as her whole body was numb from the frigid cold weather. Trying to get some feeling back in her feet, she started trekking back to her apartment.

About to cross the street, Alek looked towards her right and left to make sure no cars were near by and that it was safe to cross. Looking around it was clear to the naked eye that the street was safe to cross but only to that of the naked eye. For a second she too had thought it was safe until she saw something reflect in the darkness of the night.

As her eyes couldn’t depict what exactly she had seen her feet started to carry her towards the reflective object. Alek had only taken about 3 steps when all of a sudden she seemed to realize that the reflective object wasn’t an object at all but it was actually a car. The black suv that she had seen earlier in the day to be exact. Usually, she wouldn’t be so concerned about the suv but having seen the exact same one more times this week than she really has with any other cars, it bothered her greatly.

Shaking her head, she knew exactly what the source, causing the suv to follow her every move, was. Knowing that it wasn’t going to stop until she put an end to it, she ended up turning around changing her destination to that of a bus stop instead of her apartment. Alek honestly couldn’t believe that it had to result in this, at first when she noticed the black suv she wasn’t at all worried. It was pretty normal to see suvs all around Washington D.C. it was a sight everyone sees everyday.

Though, to have seen the same suv multiple days in a row and to see it almost everywhere she went, irked her in more ways than one. Reaching the bus stop, Alek was fortunate enough to have arrived right as a bus pulled up. As the doors opened, she climbed on in only to see more than a dozen people occupying the seats.

“Where to”, a voice called out causing her to snap her head towards the direction the voice came from. Her eyes stumbled across the face that went with the voice, recognizing them as the bus driver.

Pulling a five dollar bill out from her right back pocket, Alek handed it to the burly looking man. “Virginia”, she said but she could tell that wasn’t enough from the look on that of the man now holding her once five dollar bill. Swallowing hard, she set her shoulders back while looking the driver in the eyes with a look that could only be described as blank. Though it was hard to tell as her eyes were covered by that of a baseball cap but that didn’t matter as she finished her sentence, “Quantico, Virginia”.

Just as she had uttered her sole destination, the driver closed the doors and started driving again. Seeing that almost all of the seats were taken, Alek ended up heading towards the back and taking a seat that was up against the window. As soon as she sat down she closed her eyes, taking a second to just relax and let everything soak in.

It wasn’t that she was feeling overwhelmed it was just the fact that she still wasn’t use to this life. The life of an everyday normal United States citizen, where people have real 9 to 5 jobs and don’t have to worry about the enemy. Overall, it was too much sensory overload for her body, it wasn’t just the change in environment but the people along with it. Going about their day as if everything was fine and dandy, they had families that they could go home to, people that would miss them.

Just thinking about it she got a little jealous, it was an emotion that Alek haven’t experienced that much in her life until she moved to the D.C. area. Trying to shake it out of her body, she opened her eyes and scoped around the bus. Casting her eyes to the left of her she could see that there was a middle aged man who kept tapping his foot on the floor of the bus.

By the looks of it, he had just gotten off work as he was covered in a grey tailored suit with his briefcase resting at his feet. To everyone else he might look well off that of a wealthy man and he probably was. But upon seeing his left ring finger Alek seemed to notice that there was a slight tan line accompanying it. That in and of itself was enough to tell her that he use to probably be wealthy, but all his wealth was taken away in the divorce.

Hence the tailored suit, the leather oxfords obtaining his feet, the bright silver diamond watch on the inside of his left wrist, along with his sleek black suede briefcase. It seemed that whomever he was married to, had gotten to keep everything including his car because it wasn’t everyday you saw a man like that on a bus like the one both the man and Alek were occupying.

Having glanced at the man long enough, she turned her attention back towards the window that occupied the right side of her body. She sighed as she watched the streets of D.C. wiz on by, though it turned into a blur as she was now lost in thought. She hadn’t even realized what was going on until the bus stopped and out yelled the bus driver, “we’re here”.

Slowly she lifted her head, expecting to be met with many faces only to be met with one and that being the driver of the bus. Getting up, she made her way to the front, thanking the burly looking man as she made her way down the steps and out into the crisp cold air. Taking a deep breath, she looked at her watch for the third time only to see it was closer to eight pm than it was to seven. Wow, a total of about two hours and she still didn’t even realized how long she had been on that bus for.

Pulling her denim jacket tighter around her body, Alek started her journey to her now almost reached destination. It took about 15 minutes to arrive, but once she had she couldn’t pull the door open any sooner. Stepping into the building she was met with warmth, the one thing her body had been lacking all day. Making her way towards the elevator she was quickly stopped short, “excuse me miss, but where are you going”.

Pivoting on a foot of hers, she looked at the woman who stopped her. “I was told to just make my way up, I’m here for a meeting”, Alek lied to the woman in front of her causing the unknown woman to bunch her eyebrows in confusion.

“Meeting with who? Im sorry but that can’t be visiting hours are over”, the small statute of the woman was now just getting on Aleks’ nerves.

Hearing the elevators open Alek started to walk backwards towards them. “My meeting”, Alek said just before taking a step back into the elevator, “is with SES Erin Strauss”. With that, she watched as the other woman’s face turned bright red. Whether it was from the fact that Alek was now standing in the elevator or the fact that Alek had a meeting with Strauss, she had no idea. And she didn’t stick around to find out as the elevator doors closed and she was now headed up towards the floor of the BAU.

Honestly, she couldn’t remember the last time she was in the FBI headquarters, but she knew that it was long ago. If her memory serves her right she hadn’t stepped foot in the building since she was in middle school. All in all it’s been almost two whole decades since Alek has seen the inside of the building and she wasn’t unhappy about it either. Before she knew it the doors to the elevator slid back open and she was now one step closer to her destination.

Walking towards the glass doors that led to the bullpen of the BAU, Alek swung it open only to be greeted by the stares of strangers. Minding no business to it, she continued her journey up the steps of the bullpen and walked down one of the long corridors that led to Strauss’ office. Stopping in front of her office, Alek raised her hand and knocked on the door lightly only to be met with a, “Come in”.

Opening the door, she shoved her body into Strauss’ office. As she was now in, Alek watched as Strauss looked up from her paperwork and pointed to the door behind Alek, “please shut the door and take a seat”.

Doing as told, she shut the door and sat herself down in one of the chairs opposite of the SES herself. “So to what do I owe the pleasure of you being here”, Alek could just see the cocky smirk Strauss had on her face the moment she got done asking Alek that question.

Shrugging her shoulders, Alek clasped her hands in front of her. “I don’t know, you tell me”, she wasn’t going to play Strauss’ game if that’s what she thought, “first the phone calls now the suv, what do you want from me Strauss”.

Taking her reading glasses off, the once cocky smirk on the SES’ face was now wiped off clean. “I didn’t want it to go that far, but how else was I suppose to get your attention? I tried calling bu-“.

Right as Erin mentioned the phone calls Alek cut her off, “The phone calls should have been enough of a clue that I didn’t want to talk, that I just wanted to be left alone”.

“Well you should have known that I wouldn’t stop just there”, by now Strauss had a pointed look on her face her eyebrows raised all the way to her hairline. Both of the woman were now just staring each other down while sitting in silence until Strauss let out a deep breath and continued from where she left off, “I want you to join the team”.

Shocked would be a pathetic word to describe the emotion that passed over Alek. She was more so bewildered, why on earth would Strauss say such a thing. “What, why”, where the only words that Alek could get out of her mouth at the moment.

“You’d be a great asset to the team, we could use someone like you especially with your background”, by now Alek still didn’t know how to process this all. As she still had yet to say anything Strauss decided it would be best to ask the woman opposite of her a question, “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it?”

The moment that question left her mouth, Alek was all too quick to respond, “I haven’t”. That seemed to shut the SES right up as she now looked flabbergasted. Shaking her head Alek stood up, her heart was racing through her chest almost caught in her throat, “I can’t do this”. Making her way towards the office door, Alek ended up practically slamming it open and hurrying down the corridor as she could feel the walls closing in on her.

Just as she was about to step on the floor of the BAU bullpen Alek was pulled back into reality as the voice of the person she was just speaking with rung out behind her, “Miss. Vultaggio, I understand that you’re going through some things right now but please give it one day, that’s all I ask”.

At this point Alek was fuming with anger, clenching her fist so tight she cut off the blood circulation only to turn around looking SES Erin Strauss point blank in the eyes. “I mean no disrespect ma’am, but going through some things?”, Alek all but spat out at the woman. “You have no idea what I’ve been through, the things I’ve seen, the things I’ve....done”, Alek had uttered that last word with what some could think was disgust. At that Alek closed her eyes trying to calm herself down before opening them up again, now calm Alek took a deep breath, “But, I’ll think about it”.

With that, Alek didn’t have the time to see the look on Strauss’ face as she just wanted to get the hell out of there. Turning back around Alek made her way towards the doors of the BAU only to catch out of the corner of her eye the stares of four people.

From the looks on their faces it seemed clear to Alek that they had caught the conversation or I guess the banter she just had with Strauss and to say that they were pleased would be an understatement. They probably have never heard anyone talk to Erin that way before as she was their superior, one that they weren’t very pleased with.

Though just as Alek was about to turn her attention back to getting out of there, she ended up catching the eye of the youngest one in the group. She could feel him profiling her as soon as their eyes met, though he wouldn’t be able to profile much as he probably had no idea where to start. Having been through enough during the day, Alek ticked her jaw in agitation and set her eyes forward again just to walk out of the BAU and back into the elevator.

Looking at her watch for what should be the last time that day, Alek slightly chuckled under her breath. How wrong she was about the time she would make it back to her apartment only just seemed to annoy her more than ever.

[fanguuuhhhrl]

Im kinda obsessed with I-Land right now. I love 23 boys and if possible i would like them all to debut but the elimination is in 30 minutes so im going to post my top 12 picks before it airs (kind of in order, kind of not, im biased, this is based on an unsure mixture of skill and personality, could change but most likely not):

1. Sunoo- BITCH!!! WTH!!! I JUST LOOK AT HIM AND MY SEROTONIN LEVELS BURST THROUGH THE ROOF!! He is a puppy!! He is amazing. If you didnt know anyone yet and you put all 23 boys in a line up. He will draw your attention with his sunshine smile :)))) he is so heartwarming. Most people be like "i have no filter" but they just be mean, but this guy is different, he literally has no ability to hide what he thinks but it never comes off as anything negative. He says "Me! I can do it!" but it's just endearing and never comes across as trying to show off. He says "there was a little bit of friction" and when the members look at himshocked, he looks at them shocked too.... theres no dull moment when he's in frame. It's so amazing how pure a person can be. But know that i am not just rooting for personality but for talent. his voice... His Voice!!! Vocally geonu and heeseung really slayed the butterfly performance but if you ask me, "save me" had a more emotional attack. His facial expression is just brimming of feelings. His voice is so raw. Also You know that part in save me where he transitions from head voice into chest voice really smooth??? You'll know what im saying if you see it. thats so fucking satisfying that i had to replay it so much. I definitely replayed the save me performance more times honeslty. And the way he dances!!! It might not be That refined yet but that's the charm... it's so raw and full of emotions... so like him. I can see myself stanning this group long term if he debuts with them.

2. Jungwon- tf i love this boy so much. his visuals already stood out to me when they were entering i-land, then his voice stood out to me in the first challenge... he did that hard ass choreography without any audible changes to his voice that i had to rewind that multiple times (more than the editor already did) then the moment i saw him dance the center in episode 4??? BOY???? BOY!!!! that was my breaking point... i can't believe im saying this about men but i already knew i would die for him... plus he is so sweet :((( his eyes are just so naturally cute but i was so shocked in the last challenge when he was able to pull off that fierce ass look.... i am devastated... im about the same age but my parental instincts are at work here. plus SPOILER ALERT to those who plan to watch he won first place in both the first and last challenge can everybody say jungwon ace

3. Geonu- my feelings for him are much like jungwon :((( except theres more parental instincts... and i say this despite being younger than him but whatever age is just a vibe... HE IS SO LIDDOL :((( i want to be his mom :(( at first, personality wise, it's hard to notice him bc he's a little calm and laidback... but its the little things that draw you to him :((( his glasses and hoodies just seem a little bit big on him and that just makes me smile for some reason... he cries silently when people are sent to the ground and he gets along well with the people... i noticed him first together with jungwon in the first i land challenge because they had the most stable performance. but i've never been more attached to him than when he sang butterfly (favorite bts song anyone??)... i honestly thought they could debut then and there and i wouldnt bat an eye... also it's so funny that the one thing i identified him with during the early episodes was the fact that whenever the camera pans to him, he just has the dead eye stare and parted lips (think: pokerface but confused) especially with the huge ass glasses but in the end the poker face thing that stuck to me became the thing that worked against him i cri

4. Jay- hold on folks this is going to be a long one. Jay has such a powerful personality that at first made me hesitant about liking him... idk he just seemed like the guy i would not vibe with in real life, but the longer time passed, the more he became one of my favorites and i root for him now like crazy. at first it was funny when they kept rejecting him for the vocal parts, but the more it went on, i was so sure that if it was me, i would have cried and dropped then and there, but it was so amazing watching him push through that and he didnt even lie about how he felt. his unique determination is such a breath of fresh air, a little heartwarming and oh so inspiring. i honestly learned a lot from just watching him. the time he went to the ground was so crucial to his development as a person, leader and performer. it was so mindblowing when he became the leader at the ground and even adapted heeseung's teaching methods. you know that meme "improvise, adapt, overcome?" he is the exact personification of that. what i loved about him the most is that even with his steely determination, he didnt enforce or project that on the other grounders, he just shared it with them. he understands when they need rest, encouragement or massages. he was such a caring leader. Skill wise- i can't say anything. He already proved himself so many times. Great dancer and potential vocalist. The mnet specials also show how much sweeter he is than the show shows him to be. He takes care of everyone, and has more of mother duck than street gang vibes (and he knows how to cook!!). And at the end, while he seems to be mostly self- oriented about debuting, he ends up spending most of his time teaching others and helping them improve. I just love him. Debut Jay 2k20!!!

5. Sunghoon- tf this guy is so cool and laidback that i didnt even pay much attention to him during the early parts but he just keeps crawling into my heart because so many members love him so damn much??? and he just goes along with them?? they want me to do triple axel while average people can't even do a single axel on a trampoline?? ok imma give them a double axel tho. jake is challenging me to arm flexing? yeah why not? k wants me to dance?? yeah lemme just spin 50 times. jay wants to shower together?? weird but im not strongly against the idea. ej wants to scare people? count me in. someone needs a hand to hold?? ok here's my warm hand to the rescue... everyone just wants to be his friend that he birthed my favorite sunoo scene "im cuter than him [jake]" and he was just like "yeah ok i guess so" sksjsk sunoo is that how you ask someone to be your friend jshdk??? and can i just say? as a figure skating fan, he has automatic +52536 points... and when the judges said he's the most natural performer out of them??? i vibed with that hard.. he dances well so naturally and he takes your attention without even seeming like he's trying to. that dance performance with k and jungwon?? i thought at first that his energy wouldnt catch up but damn boy my eyes were just trackingnhim the entire time unintentionallu that i had to rewind and he was just as great as all of them... with the additional benefit of being a stunt boy!! and though it might seem effortless, we saw that he practiced so hard for it. overall a 100/100 boy with a naturally charismatic personality that bleeds into his performance... as a fellow 02 liner i would also like to apply as his bestfriend thank you

6. Heesung- what can i say except he's a perfect boy ok thats it why are you still reading... jk... ok lets talk about him... skill wise?? I cried during the butterfly performance. i marvel at his vocal stability. his voice is so crystal clear. his dancing is so clean. his skills are superb but most of all, theyre already so refined. there's nothing more i could ask for. personaloty wise... i also have a lot to say... despite his celebrity status, it's awesome how he can make the other trainees comfortable with him. he's kind and soft and lovely.

but because i am me, i have to overanalyze people so idk skip this if you dont like that. for someone who's experienced being an academic achiever... i sure do vibe with his personality a lot... you know when there's a group activity and you're so sure you can lead it well but you don't want to? half because you dont want to come off as a show off and half bc you genuinely still have self-doubts, and you're scared of falling short of expectations. Also, you feel that if it all fails, you'll be responsible so you have to feel that everyone approves you before you can take leadership and show your entire thing. And the moment you feel validated and take the reins, you start unconsciously projecting your perfectionist attitude on people??? yeah... i love that despite being an almost perfect person he still has issues most people can find relatable and that, in addition to the talent makes me want to root from him. (im also going to take a stab and guess that his mbti is probs ixxp) i'll be honest tho, because its like 100 percent sure now that he'll debut, im not super attached to him??? i love him tho but he's just not in any danger so i can just let my support for him chill. i think amidst this, bc most of the trainees depend a lot on him, i mostly hope for him to take care of his mental health

7. Daniel- awww danielll... i went into i-land not knowing anyone's ages so i had a brief whiplash feeling when someone said daniel is 15... it's because he's so emotionally mature?? like he's such a supportive and caring person that it barely struck me the that he might be the youngest?? he already caught my attention when they performed "any song" bc they just seemed like they were having fun and doing their best without the pressure of whether they would win ir not, and for me that attitude is something you'd see from more experienced performers. and during the second ep when he just felt the need to comfort everyone bc he's got such a high score?? i loved that an i was so bummed out when they eliminated him. the save me performance was definitely a cherry on top that i just had to love him more than i already do... he may be young but he's as ready to debut as everyone else.

8. Jake- jake is just one of the people who showcased so much growth between ep 1 and ep 2. he already had the right attitude when they performed crown and he just had to improve skills and stage presence, and improved he did. despite being one of the trainees with the shortest training time, he was the one teaching the others by the end it just supports my theory that he might have been an ace as well if he just had the same amount of training as everyone else. im also truly in love with his mischievous antics. he seemed like an introvert to me at first but he came out of his shell and i love that. also i just crave more moments of him and sunghoon's friendship (they both seemed like introverts who found someone they could be extroverts with in each other) i am 👌this close to storming i land and demand that they let me join their merry little band of 2002 children

9. Niki- dance skills= 100 he's just so good it's unreal... it's insane... everytime he's on screen i hear boss musicand i cant even imagine him being younger than anyone, let alone taki. i get why some people dislike him but honestly i think it's just because they don't see him as a child... but he is. i was honestly a bit mad for him when they kept guilt tripping him into leading all of them, and i understood his tjought process when he thought he just kept failing everyone and when he thought things just kept backfiring on him. he is held on such a high pedestal and i dont think he deserves that kind of burden. as for me, it would just be a waste of talent to let him go. his attitude could still improve, as we'd seen when he eventually volunteered to help everyone. i also felt bad when he said that he's scared he might not be voted bc some people dont base on skills and i love him and i just want him to kmow that he's loved

10. Taki- what the hell can i even say?? he's the kindest softest boy ever. he tries to see the good in people and is very hardworking... he listens to people well and actually follow them, so he improves a lot... he knows people think he's cute and he tries and tries and tries to look fierce if the song calls for it... he is amazing

11. K- i really can't say anything, he really stands out during performances. also very pro at dancing. his choreography??? *chef's kiss* and i think the younger trainees depend a lot on him, besides heesung and so he's good at keeping the team together.

12. EJ- im really hesitant about the last person to be the twelfth i lander because it could almost be anyone and i wouldnt be too bummed out bc theyre almost all equally talented... the thing with ej tho is he already gets along well with the i landers and has harmony with other members. (plus see above: im a sucker for the 2002 line) i think its a tiny bit unfair to base it on this bc the others didnt even get a chance to show what they can bring to the group so im torn.

bonus: i wouldnt feel too bad if it were jaebeom (he has great voice, the producers think he's not too stand out bc he's weak at dance, but the i land is already so full of people whose expertise is dancing, so i think there should be someone who's specialty is singing), kyungmin (i really appreciated how hard he worked during the last test and it actually paid off, i honestly noticed him there even if he was always at the back. i also loved his determination and i was so touched when he and jaebeom were talking and he said "there's really nothing to do but believe in the impossible right?" it's just that the i landers were already ahead of him in terms of skills so he failed the votings) and hanbin (i've watched his cover videos and he's really good at dancing and stage projection. like i was honestly wondering why it wasnt showing in the performances :((( and he hadnt even had too much screentime to actually See what he's capable of.

[rosieengel]

the beauty and the terror

I’ve been contemplating starting a blog for a long time now, but felt paralyzed with terror because I couldn’t find a great opening post topic. This week, the topic found me. I’ve had the draft saved with my finger hovering over the “post now” button for a few days. So, here it goes. 

My first post is about my most recent brush with beauty and terror, best encapsulated, I think, in the mystical words of the poet Ranier Maria Rilke: 

Let everything happen to you Beauty and terror Just keep going No feeling is final

In one of my favorite books of all time, Awareness, Anthony de Mello ponders and unpacks those non-final, fleeting moments in life - he points to the fact that our cells live and die so often that we have to wonder, who am “I” after all? Was I the same person I was in the past? No. Not physically, at least, but isn’t our “consciousness” also comprised of a neural network made up of cells? So we are also not our feelings or our emotions. As a matter of fact, we have to liberate ourselves from our experiences altogether if we are to be fully present in the here and now, or we become hijacked by the filters that create our reality. This becomes even more interesting when we consider how many of our memories may be false or fabricated. How much of my past did I dream? How much did I experience in consciousness? “Don’t carry over experiences from the past... don’t carry over good experiences from the past either. Learn what it means to experience something fully, then drop it and move on to the next moment, uninfluenced by the previous one.... You’d know what eternal life is, because eternal life is now, in the timeless now.” In this book, de Mello suggests, no demands, that the reader, “Wake up”.  Wake up to how we filter reality. Wake up to our excuses. Wake up and be aware. 

I’ve always taken this book very seriously, but it became more important to me when I experienced my first pregnancy loss. The week before Christmas 2017, we experienced major emotional and physical whiplash; we were excited about the possibilities of the new life I was growing. We had told our family and friends, and like a lot of mothers-to-be, I was already dreaming about all of the amazing and absolutely terrifying ways our lives would change. I had spent my 20s and most of my 30s focused on my teaching and playing career, my health, and music. It was time to take care of someone else and I was looking forward to a new chapter (that I thought about my life then in terms of chapters is preposterous and that is worth another blog post). But the Universal Creator had different plans for us, as He typically does. At 12 weeks into my pregnancy and three days before Christmas, I had a miscarriage on the other side of the country and felt a tremendous sense of loss and confusion. In the ER, I could only hold tightly to E’s hand and eeck out, “Our little kumquat...” I was really shocked. I felt as if no one understood - I was grateful for the kindness of everyone around me, but at the same time, I felt as if they were too afraid to give me any comfort or love. Now I know that that is no one else’s responsibility but my own. 

Much to my surprise (and other women who have lost babies or children probably grok this), many ordinary and mundane things in life became very difficult. Particularly because it was Christmas. I found I couldn’t really think about the future at all. Holiday traditions and cheer seemed trite and fabricated. I fought back breakdowns whenever I was around children of any age. Drops would well up in my eyes whenever anyone started talking about their dreams of getting pregnant or starting families. I sat amidst the glee and celebration screaming inside, “HEY!!! CAN’T YOU SEE THAT I’M STILL HERE AND DONT YOU KNOW WHAT IM FEELING!?!??!?!” I would go to the bathroom bleeding, cramping, and sad as I waited for the miscarriage to finish playing out to its gruesome end. I was ashamed to burden others with my uncomfortable tears. I will never forget how I reached into the toilet to touch, pick up, and say goodbye to what I believe was the last of the tissue that remained.

In the days afterward, I came across what would become a well-loved piece by Brian Andreas:

This is how I came to see that first baby - as an angel who was with me so briefly, but made such a terrific impact on my life. An angel, who most certainly prodded me to “wake up” in a de Mello sense. Immediately upon my return home, I said my goodbye to her and started healing (and it’s still happening). I felt an enormous calling to help and to heal others too; in the process of healing with Craniosacral Therapy (CST), I decided to study it myself and enrolled in massage therapy school.  CST helped me to fully experience that pain and grief, down to the mitochondria of my cells, through my fascia, through my very center.  When my inner spirit sensed the healing presence of Erin, my therapist, emotions bubbled up through my solar plexus, through my left hip, my ribs, my sternum. They still do, even today. As an additional part of my healing, I dragged myself to talk therapy for a whole year. My counselor recommended EMDR, using vibration and aural cues because I’m a musician. Through this therapy I finally fully experienced some trauma that I had hidden, buried in my tissues. I came to realize and acknowledge that I had not held proper space for myself and my loss. I had been remiss in thinking that life should go according to my plans, that the world owes me certain things, that I have even a tiny bit of control over my path. The worst is that I held so much shame for all of the things I thought I had failed at in my life. I couldn’t live my pop rocks life because I was looking externally for validation that I was worthy in this world - I was looking everywhere but inside my own spirit. I believe this is what also attracted me to academia, a field where accolades, accomplishments, and the correct lines on your vitae become a measure of your life’s work. That was a tough pill to swallow, but I’ve come to terms with that realization. I’m still healing today in other ways and I probably always will be.

This week, I was gifted a second angel. Even though she is gone now, I will always think of her as Eliza Jane. We conceived her without really intending to around New Years in New Orleans. I love walking down Magazine Street toward the Quarter. When we would walk by the hotel, I would admire its historic, embossed vertical sign. I offhandedly told E that I would love to name a hypothetical daughter Eliza Jane. Two weeks later, I would learn that she was already there.

Early miscarriage is very common. Statistically speaking, 1 in 4 confirmed pregnancies end (that they know of). So - why don’t we talk about it? Why do I feel embarrassed and ashamed that I am part of this statistic? The answer explains why this post stayed in draft form for so long. 

I drove myself to the ER this week, in pain and bleeding. My midwife suggested that I go if I was concerned and if I wanted a quick answer. The answer was not good, but.... I knew the answer already.  I had felt the absence in my body, the little tug at my heart when her life left me. I won’t say that it was easier this time, but I knew what to expect. I knew what the pain would feel like; I would not be taken off-guard by the waves of grief and sadness, the emptiness, and in some ways, the feelings of loneliness and alienation. I was able to hold space for myself this time, to sit in silence, to be in my own home, my own bathroom. I didn’t have to speak to anyone. E was with me and we were together. These two losses have brought us closer together. As I laid in the ultrasound room, unable to see the images that the silent technician kept from my view, I renewed the gratitude in my heart that the Universe brought E and me together.  It may sound like a sappy cliche, but this is the only way I can put my love for him into words right now: the threads of grief in our souls are so "bare” when they are left alone, but when weaved together, make us inseparable and stronger than ever before.

When I got home from the hospital, I planted myself in bed to mentally prepare for the night ahead. Our scrappy, stray cat, Tikky, crawled into bed with me. She rarely does that. As I writhed in bed and moaned in pain, she planted herself next to me. Sprawled out against my belly, she stayed. Although I thrashed about, she remained, wide awake and concerned. Even in that moment, I was so present and grateful for her healing energy. She reminded me that the sick and pained don’t have to crawl into the corner, to lick their wounds alone. The strongest survive with the help and love of others. She sent me light in her own way, without saying anything at all. This is one of the many things I have learned from cats.

I’m sharing this story with the hope that it reaches others who have been through a similar experience. To you - you are not alone. Would this be different if I had a stillborn or if I lost an infant? No. Not according to my belief system. After the worst was over, I woke up before dawn to hear a robin trilling outside my window. In my world, nothing is a coincidence.

If you have not had this experience, open your eyes to those around you who are suffering in silence. Wake up. Just as someone communicates joy and celebration with new life and new possibilities, there is also someone who is crying and mourning the loss of a life. There are also those who did not want to create life and decide to end it (or they don’t). This isn’t just confined to miscarriage - there are people struggling around you. You must assume they are doing their best and it is not their responsibility to make you feel happy with your life.  If you find yourself riled up or offended because of someone else’s struggle, or what you feel to be their failures or incompetencies, just ask yourself - am I taking this personally? I ask myself that question often - that is part of the process of waking up. It’s the process of leading a more compassionate life. Death surrounds us and it is part of a cycle that is repeating. There’s something comforting to me about the cycles of life. My cycle, that of the earth and moon, and the seasons.  Your cells die, they shed, they turn over. It does not happen to us, it is us.

Of course, we should be happy. We should experience bliss and joy and scream it from the mountaintops, all others be damned! But can’t we also show our heartbreak, sadness, grief, and despair? Instead of turning and running from the pain, what if we leaned into the uncomfortable and said something. ANYTHING. Say you’re sorry. Ask if they are okay. Say that you don’t know what to say, but you are here to talk. Be there in silence. Be a shoulder or a hug. Hold space for them in your heart. Reach out. That’s something. Let yourself see the terror and the beauty, because if you don’t, your life will consist only of coincidences and you may miss the angels who are helping you along the way to wake up so that you do not miss your life.

Tikky didn’t leave me to lick my wounds alone. She nestled in and hunkered down right next to the pain. She leaned into it and sat there patiently through my tears and gibberish. Just as I am here to do for you, my friend.

[spotlightonmringenue]

NO WAIT I DIDNT READ IT RIGHT IM SORRY U AINT DUMB Paulkins miscellaneous 17

This sucks buddy I’m sorry.

—

 Emma watched in horror as the man in front of her began to sing. Sing. The one goddamn thing he’d never done, the thing he said he hated more than anything else, and he was fucking doing it. She didn’t know what to do now, the hive was bigger and especially more terrifying to be around with no one else to help get away. But despite this, she knew she had to get away before she ended up like everyone else.

 The rest of the hive had begun a dance break, and Emma took this as her chance to climb out of a nearby window and take off as best as she could with a messed up leg, crossing the parking lot and diving behind a line of bushes. As she tried to catch her breath, she found it incredibly difficult. How could Paul be one of them? There’s no possible way he was telling the truth, that this was the life that he chose.

 She realized after several minutes of calming down that she couldn’t think about things like that anymore. She needed to get the fuck out of Clivesdale, and get to Colorado. How she was gonna do that, she had no fucking clue. Regardless, it was the last time she’d ever see Paul.

 And that’s when someone suddenly jumped over the bushes and placed their hand over her mouth, keeping her from screaming.

 Paul.

 “Shh, don’t scream, or they’ll hear you.”

 Emma looked at the man in front of her with horrified confusion. He wasn’t singing. He wasn’t dancing. He didn’t have that unsettling smile. He was…Paul. The Paul she knew. When he finally move his hand from her mouth, she took a few breaths to settle her nerves, then scooted backward to distance herself from him. “…How-”

 “I don’t get it either. The spores in the air when I went to destroy the meteor…they infected me, but I guess not enough to totally get me. I know what they’re gonna sing, and how to dance. I can still live, and they’ll never know it’s still me.”

 She was having a very hard time understanding this. Paul looked like himself, acted like himself, but could blend in with the hive. Just as he said, he had to sing to survive. “Okay…I didn’t see that coming.”

 Paul smiled, but it quickly faded when he looked back in the direction that they had both just come from. “We need to go. Right now, Emma,” he said, standing and reaching out to help her stand.

 They walked back to the center of the parking lot, hopping into the car given to them by PEIP to head for Colorado and driving out onto a nearby road. In the short span of twenty minutes, Emma had experienced grief at Paul’s death, relief from seeing him again, confusion when he began to sing, terror from the rest of the hive arriving, and more confusion and relief when Paul turned out to be himself. Truly a whiplash of emotions.

 And when they stopped at a red light a few miles down the road and Paul leaned in to kiss her, those emotions were completely tossed out the window, because fuck any other emotion that could screw this one up.

 “…Okay, so maybe I didn’t see that coming,” she said slowly, earning a laugh from Paul and yet another kiss. Sure, the apocalypse was rapidly approaching, and there was no way to stop it now, but if Professor Hidgens taught her anything, it was to be prepared for what lie ahead. And, with Paul there with her, Emma was definitely prepared to fuck some aliens up.

  FIN.

[cometsweepandleonidsfly]

David Sims: “ As a fan of the TV show, I felt battered into submission. This season has been the same story over and over again: a lot of tin-eared writing trying to justify some of the most drastic story developments imaginable, as quickly as possible....[T]ime and time again in recent years, Benioff and Weiss have opted for grand cinematic gestures over granular world building, and Drogon burning the Throne to sludge was their last big mic drop.

Spencer Kornhaber: The penultimate episode of Game of Thrones gave us one of the most dramatic reversals in TV history, with the once-good queen going genocidal. The finale gave us yet another historic reversal, in that this drama turned into a sitcom. Not a slick HBO sitcom either, but a cheapo network affair, or maybe even a webisode of outtakes from one. Tonally odd, logically strained, and emotionally thin, “The Iron Throne” felt like the first draft of a finale.

When Dany torched King’s Landing last week, viewers were incensed, but I’d argue it was less because the onetime hero went bad than because it wasn’t clearwhy she did. Long-simmering madness? Sudden emotional break? Tough-minded strategy? A desire to implement an innovative new city grid? The answer to this would seem to help answer some of the show’s most fundamental inquiries about might and right, little people and greater goods, noble nature and cruel nurture. Thrones has been shaky quality-wise for some time now, but surely the show would be competent enough to hinge the finale around the mystery of Dany’s decision.

Nope. The first parts of the episode loaded up on ponderous scenes of the characters whose horror at the razing of King’s Landing had been made plenty clear during the course of the razing. Tyrion speculated a bit to Jon about what had happened—Dany truly believed she was out to save the world and could thus justify any means on the way to messianic ends—but it was, truly, just speculation. When Jon and Dany met up, he raged at her, and she gave some tyrannical talk knowing what “the good world” would need (shades of “I alone can fix it,” no?). But whether her total firebombing was premeditated, tactical, or a tantrum remained unclear. Whether she was always this deranged or just now became so determines what story Thrones was telling all along, and Benioff and Weiss have left it to be argued about in Facebook threads.

The Dany speechifying that we did get in this episode was, notably, not in the common tongue. Though conducted in Dothraki and Valaryian and not German, her victory rally was clearly meant to evoke Hitler in Triumph of the Will. It also visually recalled the white-cloaked Saruman rallying the orc armies in The Two Towers, another queasy echo. People talk about George R. R. Martin “subverting” Tolkien, but on the diciest element of Lord of the Rings—the capacity for it to be seen as a racist allegory, with Sauron’s horde of exotic brutes bearing down on an idyllic kingdom—this episode simply took the subtext and made it text. With the Northmen sitting out the march, the Dothraki and Unsullied were cast as bloodthirsty others eager to massacre a continent. Given all the baggage around Dany’s white-savior narrative from the start, going so heavy on the hooting and barking was a telling sign of the clumsiness to come.

Jon’s kiss-and-kill with Dany led to the one moment of sharp emotion—terror—I felt over the course of this bizarrely inert episode. That emotion came not from the assassination itself but rather from the suspense about what Drogon would do about it. For the dragon to roast the slayer of his mother would have been a fittingly awful but logical turn. Instead, Drogon turned his geyser toward the Iron Throne. Whether Aegon’s thousand swords were just a coincidental casualty of a dragon’s mourning or, rather, the chosen target of a beast with a higher purpose—R’hllor take the wheel?—is another key thing fans will be left to argue about.

Then came the epilogue, a parade of oofs. David, you say you were satisfied by where this finale moved all its game pieces, and if I step back … well, no, I’m not satisfied with Arya showing a sudden new interest in seafaring, but maybe I can be argued into it. What I can’t budge on is the parody-worthy crumminess of the execution. Take the council that decides the fate of Westeros. It appears that various lords gathered to force a confrontation with the Unsullied about the prisoners Tyrion and Jon Snow and the status of King’s Landing. But then one of those prisoners suggests they pick a ruler for the realm. They then … do just that. Right there and then. Huh?

It really undoes much of what we’ve learned about Westeros as a land of ruthlessly competing interests to see a group of far-flung factions unanimously agree to give the crown to the literal opposite of a “people person.” Yes, the council is dominated by protagonist types whom we know to be good-hearted and tired of war. But surely someone—hello, new prince of Dorne! What’s up, noted screamer Robin Arryn?—would make more of a case for another candidate than poor Edmure Tully did. Rather than hashing out the intrigue of it all as Thrones once would have done, we got Sam bringing up the concept of democracy and getting laughed down. The joke relied on the worst kind of anachronistic humor—breaking the fourth wall that had been so carefully mortared up over all these years—and much of the rest of the episode would coast on similarly wack moments.

It’s “nice” to see beloved characters ride off into various sunsets, but I balk at the notion that these endings even count as fan service. What true fan of Thronesthinks this show existed to deliver wish fulfillment? I’m not saying I wanted everyone to get gobbled up by a rogue zombie flank in the show’s final moments. Yet rather than honoring the complication and tough rules that made Thrones’ world so strangely lovable, Benioff and Weiss waved a wand and zapped away tension and consequence. You see this, for example, in the baffling arc of Bronn over the course of Season 8. What was the point of having him nearly kill Jaime and Tyrion if he was going to just be yada-yadaed onto the small council at the end?

One thing I can’t complain about: the hint that clean water will soon be coming to Westeros. Hopefully, someone will use it to give Ghost a bath. As the doggy and his dad rode north of the Wall with a band of men, women, and children, the message seemed to be that where death once ruled, life could begin. Winter Is Leaving. It’d seem like a hopeful takeaway for our own world, except that it’s not clear, even now, exactly how and why the realm of Thrones arrived at this happy outcome.

Lenika Cruz: Do I have answers? Who do you think I am—Bran the Broken? Before I get into this episode, I need to acknowledge how unfortunate it is that Tyrion decided to give the new ruler of the Six Kingdoms a name as horrifyingly ableist as Bran the Broken. You could, of course, argue that the moniker was intended as a reclamation of a slur or as a poignant callback to Season 1’s “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things,” when Tyrion and Bran first bonded. But given the “parade of oofs” this finale provided—including the troubling optics of Dany’s big speech—it’s hard to make excuses for the show.

Now that we’ve gotten our “the real Game of Thrones/Iron Throne/Song of Ice and Fire was the friends we made along the way” jokes out of our system, where to begin? I basically agree with Spencer’s scorched-earth take on “The Iron Throne.” I was already expecting the finale to be a disappointment, but I didn’t foresee the tonal and narrative whiplash that I experienced here. At one point during the small-council meeting, my mind stopped processing the dialogue because I was in such disbelief about the several enormous things that had happened within the span of 15 minutes: Jon stabs Dany. Instead of roasting Jon, Drogon symbolically melts the Iron Throne and carries the limp body of his mother off in his talons. A conclave of lords and ladies of Westeros is convened, and Tyrion is brought before them in chains, and they know Dany was murdered, and Tyrion argues for an entirely new system of government while being held prisoner by the Master of War of the person he just conspired to assassinate. Excuse me? (The way that Grey Worm huffed, “Make your choice, then,” at those assembled reminded me of an impatient father waiting for his children to pick which ice-cream flavor they want.)

David, Spencer—of the three of us, I’ve been the most stubborn about thinking this final season is bad and holding that badness against the show. I don’t fault viewers who’ve become inured to the shoddy writing and plotting, and who’ve been grading each episode on a curve as a result. But I personally haven’t been able to get into a mind-set where I can watch an episode and enjoy it for everything except stuff like pacing issues, rushed character development, tonal dissonance, the lack of attention to detail, unexplained reversals, and weak dialogue. All of those problems absolutely make the show less enjoyable for me, and I haven’t learned to compartmentalize them—even though I know how hard it must have been for Benioff and Weiss to piece together an airtight final act solely from Martin’s book notes.

...Much like with last week’s episode, I can actually see myself being on board with many of the plot points in the finale—if only they had been built up to properly and given the right sort of connective tissue. For all the episode’s earnest exhortations about the power of stories, “The Iron Throne” itself didn’t do much to model that value.

For example, I can’t be the only one who was let down, and at a loss for a larger takeaway, after seeing a high-stakes contest between two ambitious female rulers devolve after both became unhinged and got themselves killed. After all the intense discussion about gender politics that Thrones has spurred, and after seeing characters such as Sansa, Brienne, Cersei, Daenerys, and Yara reshape the patriarchal structures of Westeros, we’ve ended up with a male ruler (who once said, “I will never be lord of anything”) installed on the charismatic recommendation of another man and served by a small council composed almost entirely of … men.

Perhaps there’s no deeper meaning to any of this. Or perhaps this state of affairs is a commentary on the frustrating realities of incrementalism. I am, of course, beyond pleased that Sansa Stark has at least become the Queen in the North—a title that she, frankly, deserved from the beginning. But I haven’t forgotten that this show only recently had her articulate the silver lining of being raped and tortured. Nor am I waving away the fact that Brienne spent some of her last moments on-screen writing a fond tribute to a man who betrayed her and all but undid his entire character arc in one swoop. My sense is that the show’s writers didn’t think about Thrones resetting to the rule of men much at all, and that they were instead relishing having a gaggle of former misfits sitting on the small council. See? the show seemed to cry. Change!

At times, Thrones gestured more clearly to the ways in which the story was going a more circular route; this was especially true of the Starks. Jon headed up to Castle Black and became a kind of successor to Mance Rayder—someone leading not because of his last name or bloodline but because of the loyalty he’s earned. Arya’s seafaring didn’t feel out of character to me—it fit with her sense of adventure and reminded me of her voyage across the Narrow Sea to Braavos all those years ago. Sansa became Queen in the North in a scene that recalled the debut of “Dark Sansa” in the Vale, but that felt like a true acknowledgment of how much her character has transformed. I’ll admit, the crosscutting of the scenes showing the Starks finding their own, separate ways forward was beautifully done. It made me wish the episode as a whole had been more cohesive, less rushed, and more emotionally resonant.

Spencer, I think you smartly diagnosed so many of the big-picture problems with the finale—the sitcommy feel, the yada-yadaing of major points, the many attempts at fan service. So rather than elaborate even more, I’ll end this review by saying something sort of obvious: Viewers are perfectly entitled to feel about the ending of Game of Thrones however they want to. After eight seasons, they have earned the right to be as wrathful or blissed-out on this finale as they want; it’s been a long and stressful ride for us all. I’m genuinely happy that there are folks who don’t feel as though the hours and hours they’ve devoted to this show have been wasted. I know there are many others who wish they could say the same thing.” 

[little-forget-me-not]

according to mbti-notes, "What I have observed in people is that, when they cannot get over something, it means they haven’t fully processed their emotional reaction to it. They are resisting the hurt and the pain rather than confronting it head on" and im wondering what i did not ..right

...i cannot accept this reality i think. that is my struggle because Ni is so desperate to interpret this as doom. but i cant go beyond that because all i can feel from myself is deep oceans of grief

the BOC song "you were here" is now un-listenable for me. i'd hoped never to truly feel that song but now i am here

"In my Ode to Pain, you will see that I spent a lot of time beating back my Ti when I was in the thick of dealing with my emotional reaction. Generally speaking, the tertiary function is the preferred function for protecting oneself and avoiding the reality of a situation. As an INFJ, I can use Ti defensively to construct a wall of critical rationalizations to hide behind and then I can avoid experiencing the emotion fully, which will of course prolong my suffering. Thus, when you are upset about something, beware the tertiary function’s antics."

Bea asks if there’s something I’ve been resisting because she says she feels like there’s something I’m afraid to face.

My tert is Ni. Oh goddamn Ni. Your doom and gloom and desire to “protect” me by painting narratives to make sense of the bad things that happen.

Ni wants to interpret how everything last year didnt matter at all and only serves to give me vivid memories/sensations/feelings of what was and no longer is

im afraid to face that everything that has ever made me happy is now gone and it is a giant void where all that comfort, love, friendship, connection, companionship used to be

Bea says "I definitely think that's not true” ;;

i can't face how abruptly things happened and the whiplash still has me in shock and semi-denial

it's already gone. i shouldnt hold on to it. there is nothing to hold on to. but i guess im afraid letting go truly means everything that was so important to me... ending . that it is dead. that there is nothing to be done. i fear also that it is mocking my fears that i took faith in overcoming, coming back to haunt me. Ni wants to interpret this as a pattern, as an omen

I am so afraid of loss.

;;; i feel so blindsided

i cant stop feeling how everything that was truly wonderful and good and happy has been ripped from me, just like that

Bea says “I'm sorry that it happened so suddenly and awfully ;; Aww... It doesn't mean that you can't have it again or it was never meant to be or it was fake”

it makes me so afraid of life after i tried so hard to face it. im so afraid of my own judgement? im so afraid of people. im so afraid of trusting of believing of vulnerability

i'm so afraid of all these things that are so important to me now

I have been resisting. I have been resisting loss. I didn’t even know I have been resisting it.

If you're resisting loss and fearing it greatly, it makes sense to be so afraid of all that. I suppose it's important to keep in mind that it's less about all these abstract meanings and more about how we relate to the feelings that arise within us

I suppose how I saw it was that: 1) you were quite powerfully and unconsciously driven by unresolved issues (ie. fear of loss/abandonment that resulted in you acting as if absolute loss was a reality already even if it is not?) Your fear of loss caused you to see loss everywhere. I am not saying that the loss of your relationship is a small thing. It is a big blow, but just that I don't see it as the end of everything nor that it means that you aren't destined to have anything again? I don't know if I am only seeing a small piece of the picture, but I feel that you could still have a fulfilling and loving connection to hereven now when you are not girlfriends. What I meant about interpretation vs feelings was simply to say that -- beware the tert function right? This means, beware how we interpret something that happens to us. We tell ourselves narratives. For me, when someone doesn't care for me, my mind goes to the default narrative of, "it's never about me, I always have to be there for other people". For you, a loss happens (your trigger), and the narrative is that narrative about loss shadowing your every step your entire life. It's all in our heads. It's very difficult, but very important to ignore all the noise and hasty interpretation and judgments (I'm not good enough, I will never feel happy again) and focus instead on how we relate to the feelings that rise up within us when a trigger happens. For me, I feel hurt and alone and it's so buried from my consciousness because Ti jumps in to interpret that no one ever cares about me and I always have to care about others. For you, I am not sure of your core feelings, maybe hurt/sadness/helplessness. Ni then jumps in to take attention away to focus on the narrative. When this happens, we resist the original feelings (what you quoted me from mbti notes). We get trapped in our interpretation of the event. We feel prolonged pain and suffering that doesn't stop. Nothing can fix how we feel about the situation except maybe the impossible (for you, going back in time, for me, changing the other person). When this kind of desperation and emotional hunger happens, it's a sign we are resisting our feelings.I would say that your fear and resistance of loss makes you see loss everywhere and makes it difficult for you to see that loss is a type of change and good things can still happen out of change; like how plants can still grow from a razed garden 2) She is avoidant. I feel that the best way to rebuild a healthy connection with her again is to give her space and reach out to her consistently with kindness and love. As you have said, she can't even be vulnerable with herself, so it's impossible she will be vulnerable with you. It's likely that if you hold space for her to hold space for herself, you will be able to connect. I feel that right now the problem is less about the loss and more about other issues, such as rebuilding trusting communication, kindness, vulnerability and trust again. I don't know if it is presumptuous of me to say so, but perhaps it might be helpful to focus less on the status of your relationship (ie together or not) and more about how to connect as individual people. Your intimacy meant a lot to you and I don't mean to diminish that. I am suggesting this bc I think there may be a bit more space in the r/s without being laden with the connotations that come with being in a relationship and now being out of one If you want my honest opinion, I think the real problem is that she takes your feelings personally and you take her issues personally, which unfortunately creates this vicious cycle where you're both trapped in your own heads and feelings and unable to be connected with the truth of the relationship anymore...

I think for me, I also see that Ni is a problem, so it's important to beware Ni's antics. I have used the analogy of Ni fearing the match before it is even struck, and Ni focusing on the shadows of the wall rather than the fire on the ground - I still think that is the case here. You're looking at the gigantic shadows on the wall caused by the fire on the ground and interpreting every flicker of the fire, and even the existence of the shadow itself, to mean that you will die. It's like seeing a fire into a forest fire

So yeah, it's important to be aware of how Ni is interpreting things for you. I suppose I see that you're not in touch with the reality of the relationship or situation anymore and are instead very caught up in the internal feelings, interpretations, past wounds, fears and unresolved issues - I'm not trying to criticise, but just trying to raise awareness

I do feel that you're not seeing her clearly and rather seeing your own issues within her (ie. projection)... I would beware comparing to the past, for the simple fact that people change, you change, relationships change. It doesn't have to be a bad thing

I think I want the same affection, the same interest and eagerness and gentleness she'd shown in the beginning when she was wanting to know me. I think I want that all from before, even before we were together, that openness and willingness and that effort to...be there the way she did. .....but ...but as I say it I know it's not ...reasonable. Things have changed. Everything has changed. And I cannot accept that change because all I'm thinking of is what it means. That she is no longer "as interested/as attracted/as eager/as willing" because (self-interpretation) "I'm no longer as special/important/worthy in her eyes"

I am resistant to the change because...what was before made me feel so..loved. So wanted. So important. So happy. I...was made to feel like I truly mattered and I could rest easy in that...knowledge because of how she treated me. To...accept...change, means to accept...all this is lost. And I know loss isn't everything. But I guess it does feel like everything. I don't ..want to accept the possibility that I might mean less to her now; that all of that is gone in a blink of an eye and I had no real power to stop it..?

I'm not sure what will help you make peace with this. I don't intend to diminish what you had and what you treasure. But I don't see that this will be the last time you will ever experience this. I don't think that your r/s being different will mean this will be lost. I think it's possible to feel like this except in a different way - she might act differently or show it differently, or it may be a totally different situation or different person. Love comes in many forms and faces

I definitely think its possible to heal and feel joy again! But I always think we must allow ourselves to feel happy 😂 like allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and to let go of shaming, critical and doom-prophesising narratives in our heads...

...i really did see her. She approached me at the start of everything because she wanted to make a change for herself too. I've seen her grow through the months we've been together. I know it's not for naught. ...but like... can I know that? I just feel very confused and uncertain about my own judgement sometime. When I see her through compassion and empathy, it's so easy to give an outpouring of light. I don't want to make the same mistakes I did with Oda though.

I just...miss her too. Just our companionship. I dont know if that's still a thing we can have. I miss telling her everything and anything and spending time together. But I have...i think I have to ...reset realistic expectations for myself? I dont know. It's so fucking hard.

Thank you for being willing to be vulnerable with yourself. It is quite painful as your friend watching you twist in pretzels trying to avoid yourself, lol

I asked her to call me out in a week if I was still avoiding myself. I’m so shocked by myself tbh. Between the lack of empathy and being blinded by pain to this...

it seems i have a lot of difficulties with being objective when it comes to feeling hurt that triggers my fear of loss and then loss itself

i almost feel like i want a tattoo. to remind me nothing truly ends and that there are always new beginnings worth living for

...I care a lot for myself. I don't want to see myself stuck. If I'm blind I'm grateful for sight to guide me through. It's painful to see myself suffer too ;;

also i remembered why exactly i keep looking back: I do so for perspective. I've been looking at my past years and seeing how in one year I may have lost so much but I also grow a lot? It makes me see how you really cannot predict anything in life; especially the good things. I see how much I gain in the same year I experience loss. 4 years ago I was only starting to be more tolerant and understanding towards myself. Now I can sympathise with myself and know I am not..wrong to want the things I do. It does make me sad that the consistent thing seems to be loss though. ...that part frightens me a little because Ni is like "PATTERN!!!! PATTERN!!!!!!!!!" like an excitable, screeching parrot

it's not true right. these "patterns" are skewed and...how Ni tries to build a doom-loss narrative? (It’s not true!)

i think one thing i really want for myself this year is to really get a good grip on Se ;;; I'm so tired of being stuck on the bottom end.

Part of self-work is learning to see what is our core belief that makes us automatically interpret things in an excessively negative way. And the step even before that is learning to see that the way we see things is not in touch with reality... 

This is quite comforting in its own way. I am more than happy to have my negative tendencies being called out and simply marked as "not true". It's like OH GOD THANK GOD ITS NOT TRUE IT JUST MEANS IM WRONG. I would so much rather be wrong so hope may exist than to be right and suck out all the joy that I may have.

One thing I've learnt through this period is that....with such deep pain, I am compelled with empathy to be able to be equipped with the skills I need so I may be there for people who seek help, so they won't feel so terribly alone. I've been so blessed with friends like Bea whom I can talk to, friends like A and S who feel for me and support me in their own ways of camaraderie and care, to K who willingly holds space for me to give me an outlet to vent and to be heard when there is no one around, to mbti-notes with all their wisdom, to all the instagram posts Bea has shared... To feel how supported I've been... I want that to carry on. That in the dark of this loss and grief, there is hope.

I want to be able to do more than to listen. I want to know what to say. I want to see things more objectively.

And I don't know how to be anything other than real like this. I struggle so much with most work because of this. I just want geuninity, even if it comes with hurt.

I know I say this but I'm also really irritated with people 80% of the time and I want to smack them. I think it's ironic I want connections and am capable of feeling like that but also have a shit tolerance for people and I feel like cutting a lot of people out of my life. ...but for now it...I feel more for this than drawing. It's actually something useful.

...oof it's so hard still, though. I really hope I can..walk myself through the end of everything right now. The pang of loss is still so painful. So much. So, so, deep I'm honestly afraid of it. Afraid of never having it again, more specifically, what I had and my experience of it. "Where one thing falls, another grows. Maybe not what was there before, but something new and wonderful all the same." Right now i cannot...fully accept that because I don't want to lose what was there before ;;

....loss is a hard thing for me to grasp.

if this is how i feel for someone's lost love toward me....well, i been reading a lot of articles about grief and loss and those words are usually used for death. ........I don't know how I will cope with that at all. I just don't think about it. Idk if I might end up one of the people who die from heartbreak when their SO passes away.

ive listened to a few TED talks where people talk about their passed lovers and my heart just breaks when i hear them speak. the human condition handles so much pain.

[tumblunni]

Man the manga makes it look so fun to be a Nobody!

I really marvel at how they captured the uncanny nature of the enemy Nobodies?? Cos seriously the whole point of them is that they look humanoid but move in really inhuman ways. And each individual enemy type has its own unique mannerisms for this, but in general its like..slugs? I'm pretty sure its slugs?? They stretch and squish and wiggle around and its like pretty much EXACTLY how medicinal leeches move, but thats a very underrated animal so its probably more likely it was slugs or worms. Like 'hey lets exaggerate slugs' but BELIEVE IT OR NOT THAT FATEFUL WIGGLIER SLUG DOES TRULY EXIST. And i love their cutie patoot lil faces. And the world needs to appreciate them more!

...ok im getting offtopic but you get the gist of what i mean. The basic Dusk enemies are vaguely humanoid things with their arms and legs tapering off into sticklike points, and they either wiggle them around like leech heads or hold their arms behind them naruto run style and use their entire body as a leech! Like its more likely that they pick up stuff by wrapping around it like a snake, rather than just using hands?? And also they can fly and stick to ceilings and just generally have loads of fun?? And look really pretty?? And some of the other more complex nobodies look even cooler doing their weird wiggle flying. Like the Assassin type have these weird big metal petal shapes on their arms that flutter like feathers and make them look like winged snakes crossed with.. Kites...? Kites made of kimonos? Being worn by a man with no face..?

SERIOUSLY WHO DESIGNED THESE FUNKY THINGS THEYRE SO UNIQUELY GENIUS

And aaa the Days manga has a REALLY good panel showing a big swarm of them in flight and it just looks SO MAGICAL AND SPOOKY! this is the exact kind of Aesthetically Nutso Ghost Monster Person i wish i could be! The manga is so cool at iimplying the same sense of inhuman motion by drawing them like motion tweens? Like theyre warped into wildly different body shapes in every panel and its just SO CREEPY and SO BADASS and SOMETIMES KINDA MAJESTIC AND ENDEARING EVEN! And this big flight scene has EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL ONE drawn with its own different pose and mannerisms and like man every one of these weird squiggle flights looks like a world of fun to do!! God i love when superpowers actually look FUN, yo! It fuckin sucks that theyre just low level enemies and not ever playable. The only Nobodies that are playable or even get a big amount of screentime in cutscenes are the ones that ACTUALLY look humanoid and also move humanoid and BOOOO have zero traits of the monster theyre supposed to be. Like man just give me a whole game playing a lil bebby Nobody flying around! They remind me of the wanderers in Journey, they'd be so well suited to a chilled out exploration game like that.

And AAAAAA i get so sad thinking about how they're like bebbys!!! Noooo! Why do we not have more sympathy for them?? Like the particular way they write their 'bumbling weak enemy' scenes just comes off more like..well..sad thoughts about what happens when you lose your heart. Cos i mean the series really doesnt dwell much on the implications of the fact every single one of them used to be human! And whenever they're not being given orders by the higher ups in the organization, theyre just shown wiggling around flying in circles for fun, like a shoal of fish. They're so inhuman now, aside from vague resembelance in their appearances. They'd be seen as the cute wpodland critters in a disney princess musical number if they werent designated as monsters! Like they're not just 'dumb', they friggin dont remember how to talk anymore. And in their most memorable scene they dont understand the order "find this person" and can be easily tricked by photos of him. "Yes boss here is roxas he's a little more flatter than usual but here he is!" And they just keep gathering hundreds of the same person and never once cotton on to anything being wrong. Its so cute and also scary?? Cos seriously they are such eldritch monstrosities of fragmented soul that they move on to STEALING THE WORD PHOTOGRAPH. Just plucking it right out of the language! Failing so hard that you warp the laws of reality! I feel sorry for the poor lil guys, you definately cant say they didnt try as hard as possible!

AND SERIOUSLY THATS ALSO A COMMON TRAIT IN THE MANGA

I'm just so happy that they gave a bit more sympathy to the low level enemies because seriously WHO GIVES SUCH A GOOD DESIGN TO A LOW LEVEL ENEMY AND THEN BARELY EVER USES THEM FOR ANY SCENES

They actually give some sorts of pseudo dialogue to them?? Like during the kh2 prologue they show roxas being able to psychically perceive their thoughts while theyre trying to kidnap him. And its just so sympathetic and sad in retrospect?? They did a great job amplifying everything about this sequence because they made the Nobodies look so much scarier, made Roxas's life with his friends look even more heartwarming, and made it all super tense so you overlook all these little hints and just cheer for roxas in defeating these guys. But they left so many things that actually foreshadow that Roxas is a Nobody too, so reading this a second time is so sadddddd. I almost wish this was the first time i experienced the story, i think it does basically everything better than the original game version. Like seriously THAT ONE LINE OF WHAT THE WEAK ENEMIES ARE THINKING! "We've found you, my leige". THEY WERE JUST TRYING TO SAVE THEIR BOSS AND DIDNT KNOW WHY HE DIDNT RECOGNISE THEM. AND THEN HE ATTACKS THEM AND THEY DONT KNOW WHY!! aaa theyre just BABIES god theyre just ghost demon thingies that are like the larval stage compared to the main character versions. They dont remember who they were as humans, they just know they love their boss!! and he's apparantly been kidnapped by scary humans!! THEY WERE TRYING SO HARD TO SAVE HIM!! they got so damn close to taking over the town and they were swarming everywhere searching for him and Axel was trying so hard too and Diz just kept interrupting him before he cpuld explain or lying to roxas to manipulate them against each other! And axel even brought cake and icecream with him!! He was just trying to rescue his lil bro!!! Auuuugh seriously it was such a good twist that the Scary Monster Dudes were objectively in the right throughout this entire intro, and they just wanted to save Roxas's goddamn life. And he didnt even get to remember his peaceful days as a family with his fellow monster boyos until like five seconds before dying :(

Did anyone else just.. Not want to play kingdom hearts 2 after the prologue?

Like i couldnt stand the mood whiplash of going back to happy go lucky disney worlds with sora and having no more deep sad intriguing plot points for like ten hours of gameplay. And i could never take Organization 13 seriously as villains when the entire damn prologue was them being SUPER FUCKING SYMPATHETIC and the 'good guy' trying to murder a child in order to bring sora back. Like why am i supposed to be happy that he succeeded when i know sora himself would say no if he was told what sacrifice had to happen to bring him back? I would have been way more interested in this sequel having me play as roxas and try and take on the legacy of sora as the next hero and try and find a way to bring sora back without anyone having to die. Like the whole story could be people being all 'blah blah youre worthless youre not human your only purpose is to die for the sacrifice' and we explore all different sorts of 'heroes' doing horrible acts and justifying it to themselves because some people are just 'born evil' and its okay to do whatever you want to them. And Roxas is always struggling with almost believing that shit about himself, but in the end he does succeed to find a happy ending for everyone without a need for 'sacrifices'. And he learns to have self confidence and form his own identity and have more friendship scenes with Axel and co and also redeem all the other Nobodies please and also hug the tiny enemy childrens ones. I just did not feel much for the plot of kh2 at all except for the Nobodies!! Its just not sympathetic to have your 'heroes' arguing that 'oh they dont have hearts theyre not human they dont feel anything so theyre all evil and its all fine'. The game acts like this is true despite giving sympathetic backstories to half of them and the other half all die crying that they want to live!! What the fuck!! Like the only consolation is that they clearly cottoned on to the Org being RIDICULOUSLY POPULAR and later games literally bring all the most fan-loved ones back from the dead and add EVEN MORE sympathetic backstories and also here have a bigger villain who was really responsible and also he lied to them and theyre NOT really empty hearted and incapable of love. THEY ARE CONSTANTLY SHOWN HAVING THAT, EVEN THE WEAK LIL ENEMY DUDES HAVE ALL THAT LOYALTY TO ROXAS AAAAGH THEY DIED IN DROVES TRYING IN VAIN TO SAVE HIMMMMM

And god theyre so cute and so well designed and so sad and im sorry but AGGHHHH

I Forgot I Had So Many Emotions For The Emotionless Bebs :(

...also i really wish i cpuld get this pic of thos one panel to upload cos it looks real cool. I didnt think anything could make me love them more!!! Theyte just innocent weird snake bird worm person mannequin origami things. They just want to flutter around like messed up butterflies! And adorably poke at things they're curious about, and hold brooms awkwardly with their squiggle hands! The manga shows them doing lil chores around the house!! I LOVE THEMMMMMMM

[twobrokenwyngs]

OKAY ALL IM GONNA FUCKIN SAY RIGHT NOW

IS THAT I HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED SUCH INTENSE EMOTIONAL WHIPLASH IN MY ENTIRE LIFE

I WENT FROM “fuck this fuck everything i hate everything im numb with rage” TO “MY ENTIRE BODY IS ENGULFED IN FLAMES” AT THE SPEED OF FUCKING LIGHT

THAT FINALE GOT ME TRULY TRULY SHOOK

[nanyoky]

AWWW YEAH KIDS. I am HYPED. I woke up stupidly early for zero reason, Infinity War trailer came out, I talked to my leasing agent, steamed some tablecloths at work, came home, shotgunned one on an empty stomach and now i’m READY WITH SUSHI AND CIDER

oh my god we have a fucking saw/blair witch/every shitty horror movie from the 90s and 00s “this is REAL people” intro i’ve only had one piece of sushi i’m not PREPARED for this

i’m assuming these pairs are all just people who have just boned. bughead. varchie. josyle. ....mackler?

jughead’s like “don’t blame yourself babe let me offer emotional comfort in this trying time” and betty’s just “shut up i’m solving a MYSTERY.”

((this is the exact point i paused to jump over to tumblr and type that last i’d like to thank not only god but jesus))

he just called her poirot they definitely banged. changing from cute nicknames that imply your gf is a fresh faced young lady detective to “lol babe you’re such a mustachioed old man” is def one of those comfortable, intimate signs you’ve touched each other’s business 

me, @ penny’s bangs: you again

“messed up that pretty face of his” fp jones was the town bicycle and worked his way through literally everyone in his age demographic before 30, confirmed

jughead is such a sweet bean. so sweet. such a bean. fully realizes that violence is a regular part of his dad’s life. has experienced some of this violence himself (the gauntlet). still spirals into a panic at hearing his dad got beat up.

penny peabody is the shadiest person on this show and that is SAYING something. she is just- LOVING the powertrip. she LIVES for this. jughead- wide eyed, panicked, offering all he has and anything else she can think of- her black little heart is beating out a samba

i can’t fucking WAIT to find out that fp is fine and hasn’t been hassled one bit but the goulies in jail and penny just came up with this story for the  LEVERAGE

cheryl pushes her way between jarchie with josie in her wake because they have gay things to do that require the full span of the hallway

there is a CHAIN on this box

archie’s fantasy for their future is the gayest thing i’ve ever heard is he about to propose

“where are betty and veronica in this?” because jughead knows he’s about to get a marraige proposal and fully intends to say yes but doesn’t want the core four to get weird. “they’re roommates” because archie supports beronica

of course the tire goes out and the old guy from every horror flick of the 80s pulls over to offer some folksy yet sinister help

“you’re not seriously going to go with this guy alone, are you?” archie keeps whiplashing from “pretty but dumb” to “only person with any fucking sense in this town” so fast i have a headache

“you’ve come this far. we’re all good. okay?” oh my god. oh my god. jughead is REASSURING archie that he hasn’t failed him in this favor. now. as he is about to drive off into the night with ol man smithers who definitely has a suspicious amount of rope and knives in his glovebox. this what he takes the time to communicate. i am feeling DELICATE.

“don’t look under that tarp boy” DON’T LOOK UNDER THAT TARP BOY? DON’T LOOK UNDER THAT TARP BOY?? DON’T LOOK UNDER THAT TARP BOY??? DON’T LOOK UNDER THAT TARP BOY????

YASSSSSS. what did i say a few months ago huh??? what did i say? i said “god i hope season 2 doesn’t abandon the mega creepy trend of people comparing archie to jason.” and lo. the creepy dude on the road delivers. my savior.

oh fuck me sideways was that the title card i’ve been drinking on an empty stomach don’t judge me

there is so much about this episode that’s giving me a heavy Jeepers Creepers vibe

jesus christ riverdale has had MULTIPLE SERIAL KILLERS in this guys lifespan. the town with pep. has had two serial killers. currently has two active gangs. HOW MANY PEOPLE EVEN LIVE HERE?!

whut the fuck why is archie seeing good trip bambi

honestly jughead i feel like if someone says “don’t look under that tarp boy” and you’re SURPRISED when you see blood leaking out of the tarp at least like 20% of this is on you

i feel like jughead probably went from “oh phew it’s a deer” to “nope definitely a sicko” in the second it took for this guy to assure him that his hunting does not make him comparable to a serial killer

jughead perks up at “slaughtered family” because he’s read in cold blood 50 times and can’t wait to bring it up again

archie came back for his boi i’m so proud right now my heart is so full

teh crate says “wiscatonic ((as in whiskey-tonic)) university via h.p. lovecraft” and “polar expedition january 13 1923″ because this show loves me and wants me to be happy

PENNY IS MAKING A POWER GRAB WITH THE KING IN JAIL HELP I’M SO ALIVE

great soundtrack choice

these boys are just being so TENDER rn this is what i signed up for i need to lie down

fucking told you fp’s fine

“or raise your voice to me ever again” HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT. PENNY. FUCKING PEABODY.

“fp made me a promise he didn’t keep” oh my goodness. oh my golly. oh my goshdarnit.

JOSIE SIDEPLOT

again it’s really hard to remember that these characters are kids cuz none of the actors look like teenagers but a mom being like “honey there is a serial killer on the loose and yo’re the mayor’s daughter can you maybe not go walking alone after dark” is a pretty fucking reasonable request. get a walking buddy jos come on.

oh yes that is not a remotely sinister gift tag “i’ll be watching you” is a totally normal harmless crush thing to say

“are you the one putting things in my locker” “well i can be” “ew.” ICONIC EXCHANGE.

“i don’t date” yes my love for josie just increased

“Chuck asked me out” “im assuming you said no” “of course.” “good because our wedding is next year and i’ve already got way too many deposits out”

no the supporting cats are back only to break things off with alpha kitty nooooo

oof chuck’s turnin a new leaf OR IS HE

also this begs an interesting question about loyalties because clearly josie is all about supporting other women, and season one cheryl is very much okay with aligning herself with season one chuck, but cheryl and josie are very tight from day one so do they talk about these kinds of things? did season one cheryl downplay her combativeness and full ability to step on every woman around herself to lift herself up around josie because she wanted kisses?  i need answers.

okay so chuck is trying to be a better person and i guess this is sweet but last episode i was half committed to hitching my wagon to josie/reggie???? what am i supposed to do now?! i’m not fickle! but this is getting more time and development and i’m so tired of fighting the tides of canon. my life is HARD okay guys.

“You’re in here doing THE TWIST” this woman deserves an oscar for saying that with a straight face

okay but WHY keep this from people. unless she’s getting further communication. unless she’s being threatened. GOD I FEEL LIKE PEOPLE ARE BEING TOLD TO HUSH UP BUT WE’RE NOT SEEING IT ON SCREEN I CAN’T WAIT IF THAT GETS REVEALED

josie has the exact same hairdo three days in a row because it’s the same SUBPLOT

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT IT LOOKS LIKE A DAMNED SHOULDER PAD PENNY IS THAT YOU

OMG PARALLEL PLOTS THAT’S WHAT’S GOING ON WOW I’M DRUNK THAT TOOK ME AWHILE TO CATCH UP

okay so now cheryl is all about condemning misogyny- i mean it makes sense with her season 2 subplot but like kinda some 180 here no?

like why why is she so quick to say it’s him when it doesn’t fit. what gain. other than a smokescreen because she’s being threatened by the real perpetrator to throw suspicion I AM SO TIRED BUT I NEED ANSWERS

“there’s no evidence” “well keep looking” mayor mackers is such a sleeper shady person in this town

WHAT THE FLYING FUCK CHERYL

CHERYL CHERYL CHERYL

WHAT THE FUCK

Kevin: “my dad’s been acting shady” beronica: “SUSPECT. TUMBLR WAS RIGHT.”

“he’s the black hood” “he’s having an affair” “Maybe he’s having an affair AND he’s the black hood” JESUS CHRIST

oh no what are you going to do veronica please don’t try to seduce your friends dad i don’t think i can handle that

sheriff k seems REAL ready to share details of an ongoing investigation with the school newspaper. maybe betty has just worn him down

KEVIN IS A CLOSET TABLETOP NERD HELP ME I NEED TO KNOW MORE HOW DID HE GET INTO THIS DO HE AND BETTY PLAY THIS DID HE MAKE JOAQUIN PLAY THIS I NEED ANSWERS PEOPLE

why is THIS the comedic subplot of the episode i mean i love it but HONESTLY!?

oh god please don’t tell me these are sex grunts stop grunting sheriff k

he is so uncomfortable veronica stop

OOOOOOHHHHHHH kevin’s mom is miliatary. gotcha. that had been nagging at me.

oh frick oh dang. it’s too early in the season for this but DANG SHERIFF K GOT SOME SPLAININ TO DO

“i’m in. for kevin’s sake. and also to keep you in check” every friendgroup needs a veronica I desperately need a veronica

oh god no this is a trainwreck betty stop this

FUCKIN CALLED IT  MACKLER SAILS YASS

GAAAAHHHHHHHHH

Episode Scorecard:

# of sick beat drop editing sequences: none that i counted- nice use of retro tho.

do i still miss joaquin: yes. even moreso now that i’m reminded of the missed opportunity of he and the sheriff meeting. can you fucking imagine how awkward? IMAGINE IT. also i miss polly. either bring them back or write me a fic where they’re chillin together safe from harm.

episode hair mvp: Melody’s confrontation afro

episode outfit mvp: cheryl’s very bisexual romper. honorable mention to veronica’s very veronica pjs

cast and crew mvp: editing. some really nice throwbacks and genre motifs as well as use of comedic editing style. it all felt natural too which is hard to pull off. well done in the cutting room. also whoever made the stamps for that drug crate. and gave the shady truck dude that hat.

[things-we-used-tc-share]

'When you've fallen in the forest and there's nobody around, do you ever really crash or even make a sound?' with Analogical? You don't have to of course!!

Warnings: Anxiety, heartbreak, breakups 

Ship: Analogical

Plot: There’s something off with everyone lately, and Logan can’t quite place what, but when Virgil goes disappearing off into the imagination for a few days, he thinks the answer might lie with the anxious man and sets off to find him.

“You’ve had a lot of bad ideas, Logan, this might be on that list,” Roman sighs, waving a hand “but I’m also too tired to protest, if you find Virgil ask him to stop stealing my keys, that door stays locked for a reason,” The logical side nods and steps towards it “just remember that the imagination fluctuates, who you are on this side of the door won’t be who you are on the other side and neither will Virgil, it changes people and perspectives, you can’t really use logic in that world,”

Logan nods, “Thank you, Roman,” The prince nods and watches Logan go through the door with a sigh before he collapses onto the bed, his head hurts and so does his heart. Patton’s been asleep for most of the day too. As usual in these situations, Logan remains unmoved they can’t even tell if he’s noticed. 

Roman was right when he said people change on the other side of the door, but Logan had not expected him to mean physically. He felt as though his body was rewriting itself, and with a gasp, he collapsed to his knees in pain. His glasses slid off his nose and he caught them just in time before they hit against the rocky floor. 

Logan slides his glasses back onto his face, feeling a small pain in his head as he stood up. Fear shot through him so fast he feared he might have emotional whiplash. It’s then he realizes, he’s feeling emotions. Heightened emotions and intense emotions and all of them at once. 

He chokes on his own breath for a moment, trying to gather himself. Virgil. He needs to find Virgil. He puts one foot in front of another and hurries along the path, where would he be? Somewhere quiet, he suspected, somewhere hidden or somewhere peaceful or...somewhere like sat right in front of him at the top of a small hill. 

“Virgil?” He calls out, his throat feels rougher than he’d quite remembered like he was trying to swallow something rather painful. 

“Logan?” The questioning voice calls back, turning back. This was Virgil, somehow, with his hair longer than Logan remembers and his eyes much darker. As he approaches he realizes his eyes have gone grey, the fear keeps growing in himself. “Jesus you shouldn’t be here dude, this place is not good for someone like you,” 

“I’m fine,” he doesn’t sound fine “What...exactly is happening to me?”

“I’m guessing Roman didn’t give you the fine print to read,” He pats the grassy land next to him and looks up at the perpetual sunset “The imagination is Roman’s doing, he created it as a way to keep himself entertained and as a way to escape, but it’s built by him and in case you haven’t noticed Roman is ninety percent emotion, and this place kind of brings out your emotions and heightens them, sometimes it changes physical aspects too which I know we can do ourselves but I guess it’s kind of like a test,” Virgil plucks two daisies from the ground and begins to knot them together “You can’t lie to yourself in this place, it will always tell you the truth,” He looks at Logan “Your eyes are black,”

“Your eyes are grey,”

“Yeah, it means I’m anxious,” He blinks “Nothing new there,” Virgil sounds bitter, angry, Logan notices his hands shake as he tries to tie the two daisies together “In here, Thomas can’t feel us so much, so I guess I’m sort of quarantining myself in a sense from the seven panic attacks I’ve had today alone,” He chuckles humorlessly “If you’ve fallen in a forest and there’s nobody around do you ever really crash or even make a sound?”

“What does black mean?” Logan asks quietly, unsure of what else to say. 

“Fear,” The two sit in silence “I think I know where the dark sides are you know, I think this is where Roman put the worst ones,” Sometimes they both forget how powerful creative outlet can be, and more importantly how powerful the man they both view as a dramatized version of an idiot can be.  “But I’ve never seen them if they do even exist, sometimes I can just feel them like they’re hovering,”

“What’s happening?” Logan finally asks because he hates not knowing more than he hates admitting he doesn’t know. “Everyone’s been acting strange lately, Patton’s been asleep since yesterday afternoon and Roman looked like he was about to pass out and you’re experiencing heightened anxiety, am I the last to know about something?”

“Do you really not pay that much attention?” Virgil chuckles darkly, shaking his head “Jesus christ Logan,” He blinks tiredly “Thomas broke up with his boyfriend, it was pretty messy, Patton’s not holding up so well, Roman barely feels like he can function and I’m sat here thinking it’s all my fault,” 

“It’s not your fault, it wouldn’t be your fault,” Logan’s eyes flashed a different color just briefly, too briefly for Virgil to identify, and Virgil’s tint a little lighter shade of grey as he offers a small smile. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize sooner,” He offers an arm out and the younger’s face mirrored surprise before he laughs in disbelief, shuffling closer to lean his head on Logan’s chest, the elder’s arm around his shoulders. He gives a firm squeeze and Virgil worries he might burst into tears. 

“What if it is my fault, Lo? What if it’s all my fault and I couldn’t make him stop panicking and...”

“I couldn’t convince you if I tried,” Logan replies warmly “but perhaps you should speak to Patton or Thomas about why Thomas broke up with him, instead of jumping to a conclusion,” Virgil inhales slowly nodding “We’ve had this discussion before if I remember correctly, there is no evidence that suggests you are the cause or even a factor in the problem, it could be a simple case of Thomas no longer having a romantic attraction to his partner and although willing to continue with his life, has to adjust to a new routine without him, which takes time,”

“That explains why you’re the only one still functioning,” Virgil smiles tearily “Someones gotta build that routine,” 

“That or because Logic isn’t particularly rooted in romance, there are logical steps in relationships but matters of the heart aren’t exactly my area of expertise, I’m more of a mind-only sort of side,” He pauses “That and biology but that’s unlikely to be a conversation you want,”

“Ew specs,” Virgil pokes Logan’s side with a look of disgust, shifting up to wipe his eyes, Logan notes with some sort of calm that they’re returning to their normal color. “You keep your biology lessons out of my good Christian neighborhood,”

“Virgil, you have pentagrams stuck all over your bedroom,” The younger laughs, properly this time and nods. “I hope this conversation has been beneficial?”

“It has,” 

“Shall we get out of this place now?”

“Dear God, yes,” 

@analogical-mess // @unikornavenger // @mycatshuman // @creativity-killed-thekitten//@theresneverenoughfandoms//@charmingprincey//@aclickonapostwillchangeyourlife//@heck-im-lost // @k9cat//@stilljittery//@romansleftshoulderpad//@sanderssideslibrary // @max-is-tired//@therealmoshar//@punsterterry//@trashypansexual//@miserykillme//@demigodnamedathena//@sevencrashing //@misunderstood-shadow//@aphriteblack//@jemthebookworm//@sandersandthesides//@penguinkool // @georganabanana//@importantrunawaystudentstuff // @ao-koshka