#the neuroticism™

[x1968]

[ominous-horse-noises]

final finale thoughts!!

things i loved about the finale

QUEER GODDESS PATHEON YEAAAAAAH!!! i thought it was such a good way to find a happy medium between kristen committing to a worldview that felt authentic and nuanced without being catholic™ about it

everything to do with the scene of Ankarna trying to offer retribution to each of the bad kids, and each of them making peace with past wrongs instead of continuing to stew in it. i love growth!!!

FIG AND KRISTEN MIRRORING ANKARNA AND CASSANDRA

everything to do with mazey and fabian. of all the fantasy high couples aside from fidayda, these two feel the most like they make sense together- they have similar interests, they have similar values, fabian had a crush on her even when she was being 'uncool' (eg. twister) and how mazey actually picked up on that and appreciated the way he used his perceived coolness to extend it to others who might be picked on otherwise. this is the couple i most hope go the distance even post aguefort adventuring academy (again, aside from figayda ofc but i literally cannot imagine those girls breaking up over anything)

fabian's fetus sibling outnemesising him despite fabian building an animosity towards them the whole season before they were even conceived. peak fantasy high insanity

controversial but i thought the maryann/gorgug being introduced and canonised in all of 15 minutes was hilarious. it was very teen of them in a way that felt authentic. my ideal scenario for them is an end of year fling that becomes amicable exes bc they truly have nothing in common beyond thinking the other is hot (real of them) but i dont have a strong opinion on whether they should break up or not

also maybe controversial but i like that kalina is straight up bloodthirsty. she felt like an equal opposite to bakur- rather than being a devoted servant who became corrupted by proxy, she was trying to corrupt her deity into a form she preferred. thematically it extends to the complementary opposites thing ankarna and cassandra have going on (though i get it might be a reach).

"... thats a four. you know what it's for we don't have to talk about it"

squeem

riz coming in clutch with the character arc right at the last moment. i joked ab his neuroticism being part of his natural swag, but im glad murph not only made sure riz FINALLY addressed the way he was burning himself out, but also that by extension, he was burning out both fig and kristen bc riz has a very calculated idea of 'success' and while he had the best intentions, those two dont fit neatly into it

THE HOLD PERSON OVER THE LAVA??? RIZ'S 'very good on paper, but no practical application."??? i screamed

a second blimey-related divine intervention roll by K2 leading her to getting pinnochioed into a real straight british girl, in real non-dnd britain, is the best thing thats ever happened in fantasy high. a simulacrum was so powerful brennan had to do the dnd equivalent of sending her to a barn upstate.

adaine and aelwyn talking about killing their mother over icecream can be something that is so personal...

siobhan's incredible play with the earworm??? phenomenal, i gasped out loud

fig maybe moving into fabian's house even after she drops out so fabian won't be alone again... what if i threw up blood actually

i liked kipperlilly copperkettle being confirmed to be rotten to the core. 'the ritual looks very different when one accepts rage willingly' GOOD!!! i like evil ambitious teenage girls who try to burn the world down to get what they want. i get why they didnt bring her back, that detail definitely cemented her as in the zayne/penelope category of 'past villains who could possibly be redeemed'

FIG AND AYDA MY LOVES!!! sorry but not even the lesbian goddesses are doing it like these two. brennan put his whole pussy into creating ayda aguefort and my life has been changed forever

zac once again dming K2's alternate universe campaign

things i hated

ik it was payoff to the running bit and it made me cackle when it was revealed, but the implications of hallariel and gilear having a baby are so bad to me. fig talks up gilear a lot, and sure, he came around to being a good dad to her, but gilear has objectively been a shit stepdad to fabian and hallariel... is hallariel. its got to sting was watch your mom be basically catatonic for your entire life, and then suddenly prove that she was capable of being an present mother the whole time- just not for you. im hopeful that senior year will address this though!! lou has always been so good giving his characters' weighty emotional arcs that feel satisfying

i dont like the implication of trackerbees getting back together. i never thought bladebees was good beyond a realistic rebound, but trackerbees was SO codependent together, i dont think its a coincidence that kristen had her best emotional intelligence moments when forced to think things through on her own. tracker always struck me as kind of a 'fixer' type, like she feels most comfortable with someone she can act caretaker-y to (hence bouncing off kristen to another girl who had similar issues). i really reaaaally hope they dont regress back into their s2 dynamic

ruben's memory wipe. i thiiink the implication is that those who were the most willing to follow through on porter's orders maintained more of their memories bc they were in control of themselves and those who didn't were compelled into obedience (which might be why ivy and oisin remember more), but it wouldve been nice to actually see the lucy/ruben close friendship brennan said they had with him sobbing and apologising to her

it felt very weird that kristen didnt get some kind of resolution to her yearlong gentle prodding at bucky?? i think ally got sidetracked with the possibility of kristen getting back together with her ex that it kind of slipped from their mind (maybe bc to them the ankarna vision of her upbringing was kristen resolving her feelings towards her family but still), but considering all of elmville was coming apart, i feel like bucky's faith could've been swaying into doubt pretty easily. idk maybe bc ive become a trackerbees hater over the season but it felt annoying that that was what ally focused in on and not their character's more meaningful relationship with her little brother

[unclefathersantateddy]

Fresh Meat: Big 'Bert Belcher (Big Bob)

I really enjoy imagining the toxic parallels between Fresh Meat and canon Bob's but I do worry about how it may come across online. I don't want FM to come off as needlessly toxic and abusive - that's cheap. I enjoy the complex nuance of what "toxicity" truly is (and how it ties into the fallacy of morality). Like,, fm!Bob still loves and adores his family exactly like canon, but he's a shithouse to "foodie" trend followers/hipsters (whatever term is used these days).

But Big Bob. Robert. Rob. Bert. Is a WHOLE other concept. I've really been enjoying mapping fm!Rob (thinking of calling Big Rob or Big 'Bert - to further highlight that Bob does not want to be like his dad) as a Traditionally Toxic™ kinda guy. Similar to canon, but more realistic/extreme and actually unpacking that grim shit and not just glossing over it as a "different time".

Big Bob canonically comes from a generation where the only emotions men were allowed to express were arousal or anger. He also strikes me as a man that isn't ready for therapy. So, with that, Big Bert's anger transferred into everything he did - including every interaction he had with his son. Like canon, Teen Bob worked in Big Rob's / Big Bert's diner. Thus, also like canon, fm!Bob faced endless scrutiny from his father, but not just for his creativity. For everything. Incessantly drumming into his son that you need the very best meat, and that you must cook it perfectly, but also showing his son reckless disregard for herbs, spices, and anything flavourful.

So like canon, Bob's father heavily influences Bob's career path, but because Bob wants to be nothing like his dad. So Bob journeys to reconceptualize food and people's relationship with it. It's not just a flavourless Farm Meat purely for energy and sustenance. It's an experience; a story to be told, heard, and honoured.

Unfortunately, like Real Life trauma, which implements itself in the least expected corners of your mind (whether we consent to it or not). It becomes a part of us, who we are. Bob ironically, and subconsciously, becomes more like his father than he could possibly imagine. Big Bert's ways are ingrained into Bob whether he's aware of it or not. And it is this which causes fm!Bob to lash out at novice customers, rookie foodies or just general trend followers (similar to his canon sweet potato fries meltdown). But it is this very neuroticism that makes his burgers what they are.

But unlike Big Bert, fm!Bob has never, and will never, be abusive/toxic to his family or loved ones (except teddy, but that's a whole other dynamic analysis for another time - but dw, it's partly healthy/consensual).

If the layout of my sentences is a bit scrambled/ non-linear my apologies, I'm not a writer I'm an abstract notes jotter👉😎👉 but I tried my best to make it readable to someone who doesn't live in my brain.

[tony-the-tigers-juicy-armpit]

thanks for giving an explanation about astrology :] i was honestly genuinely confused because i'm not at all a spiritual or religious person, so i'm confused about topics like these. people who are religious automatically scare me, and i'm starting to realise that that's Really not a cool thing to do, like at all. astrology gave me "the ick" as the kids say because i really really hate when people assume things about me, and people Have done that (throwback to my mom's friend the tarot reader who has talked to her about me and then the first sentence he told me is that i was a female warrior in my past life who killed men. and that's why i'm trans™) and i also, personally, consider it to be pushing one's beliefs on someone else if they ask about star signs the first thing when they find out about my birthday. i dunno. just have many thoughts and i'm sorry if i came off as mean or anything, i would still jerk you off in a public bathroom, even if you like scorpios p.s. you're 23 and that makes you a zoomer xoxo bye

I totally feel you, for me personally any iconography or presence of Christianity (just in general) give me the ick. I actually have like some kind of mental neuroticism about it: I can't even think about Pizzus Chrust or his dad or read a Bible without getting a nasty burning headache, but I don't get that with the shit that I do.

All that's to say I understand, and I think that tarot reader your mom went to is kind of a charlatan. "Female warrior who kills men" like Mulan? Joan of Arc? Just some random warrior? Random knightesse? And it's weird to do a reading about something so personal and internal to you.

And finally You didn't come off as mean at all, you've been perfectly kind to me

[lizbethborden]

Misty's an interesting example of the lesbian monster to me because she's coded the way a more vintage lesbian villain would be coded--obsession and Rancid Vibes™ being classic hallmarks of implicitly lesbian characters prior to explicit lesbianism being acceptable onscreen. This ties also to the classic idea of lesbianism as a form of neuroticism and arrested development, a childish fixation on an inappropriate love object that transcends and overrides normal, acceptable adult attachments and social relationships.

[peppernine]

I got new hearing aid molds and tubes, but the vents are fucked up so my hearing is Bad™ . But only on one side of course. And i likely can’t get it fixed until I see my regular audiologist in two weeks. As if my inherent neuroticism about sound wasn’t bad enough…… this might actually be the death of me.