#the only way they could get more obvious is making it a christmas episode

[haven-of-dusk]

They really had no reason to write Buck into the middle of a Hallmark Movie style love triangle if they aren't planning on doing something with Buddie.

[haloreigns]

Subtle and not so subtle Clues/Hints that both Cell and Freeza are gay AND that Freeza has a crush on Cell🔽

- In ep 1, Cell and Zarbon have a "moment."

- When Freeza is choking Cell with his tail, he says, "You've awakened something I think.." Alluding to the fact that he may be into choking.

- In ep 3, the obvious, "I choose tails." "So you're giving me head?" Line is obvious.

- Before Freeza throws the ball at Cell, he calls him a "comely cockroach." Comely means pleasant to look at or attractive.

- "No Freeza, fuck ME."👀

- In ep 4, Freeza's response to Dodoria saying Cell's being topped by Froginyu is to instantly, without hesitation say, "Who hasn't?"

- When Froginyu lunges at Cell at the recycle and trash bins, Cell says in the background, "Do not lick me there! I do not know you enough to lick me there!"

- In ep 6, Freeza was watching Cell from his window the whole time.

- In the Christmas special, Freeza's eyes lit up when he saw Cell's gift, but I also think his heart lit up, if you know what I mean.

- Seeing them both sitting next to each other peacefully listening to King Cold's story brings a tear to my eye.

- In ep 8, Freeza is constantly needing to talk to his dad, it screamed coming out to me.

- Freeza's eye roll and tail whip when Cell came up behind him REEKED of sass.

- When Freeza sees Cell and King Cold talking, he says, "What if he hasn't talked about me all day?" Who is talking about? Cell? Or King Cold? I think Cell.

- Freeza says Cell has gotten him down in the dumps because he's been stealing all the attention, but I think there's more to it than that.

- Dodoria implied that Freeza's feelings of abandonment were coming from within. "Maybe it's not about Cell, maybe it's about you."

- When Freeza is having trouble sleeping, he says, "Damn you, you Chartreuse Charlatan!" And at first I thought Chartreuse was the color purple so I assumed he was talking about his dad, but after looking it up, Chartreuse is the color of Yellow and Green, so he was actually talking about Cell, meaning that he couldn't sleep because Cell was on his mind.👀

- In ep 9, when Cell finds Freeza trying to break into his garage, he assumes he's is having a midnight fling with Super Kami Guru.

- I can't lie, when I first watched this episode, I thought Freeza and Cell were going to start making out after they both slapped each other.

- The amount of times Freeza says "shut up" to Cell in this episode (Not in a mean way, but in a somewhat endearing way) is definitely a testament to Freeza's crush.

- "I dressed as your father so I could lure you into here and have you all to myself in the dark." "So you admit it!" Need I say more.

- "What do you do in your free time?" Cell was actually attempting to try and get to know Freeza😍

- Cell tried to understand why Freeza is so damn bitter about being dead. "Why do you even bother now?!"

- Freeza's tone changed when he said, "You really think you're going to get out of here?" It felt like a wall was coming down between the two of them.

- Seeing them both finally have a decent conversation and ask each other, "Do really believe that you can do good and go to heaven?" Is really refreshing, they should talk more like this in the future.

- Cell being able to pick up on Freeza's daddy's issues within 2 episodes.

- "Goodnight, Lord Freeza." Cell has never once called him Lord Freeza until this moment??

- Even though Cell ended the argument, Freeza is obviously unsatisfied and wanted to argue more.🤡

- Their sleeping positions before they go to sleep and right when they wake up is a DEAD giveaway.

- FREEZA WRAPPING HIS TAIL AROUND CELL DURING THE NIGHT??

- Also in ep 8, Freeza was having trouble sleeping ALONE in his bed, because he couldn't stop thinking about Cell, but he's able to sleep without discomfort on the hard concrete floor with Guru's annoying snoring in the background, but he's cuddling CELL that's the only main difference. There's no WAY this is a coincidence.

- In ep 10, Cell has a problem with Bojack being in his "personal bubble" but he sure didn't mind Freeza's tail wrapped around both of his legs in the previous ep.👀

- Freeza's neck roll when he says, "The basic bitch holiday." This man is FRUITY.

- Cell's line, "Top me, Zarbon." He knew what he was doing idc.

- Cooler's expression when he saw Freeza looking after Cell when he went to pee👀 he KNOWS.

- Their miscommunication when they think they're both talking about Cooler and Bojack never gets old.

- Cell mistakes Cooler for Freeza's ex, and Freeza doesn't say anything like, "I don't even swing that way!" He just simply corrects Cell and says, "My brother!" TFS is planting seeds I'm dead serious.

- "So he seems to hate everyone, what's his deal?" "Don't act like you care!" Oh really Freeza? Don't act like you're JEALOUS.

That's all! For now..

[deathsbestgirl]

My jet lagged braincell is reaching for something irresistible/redux ii linked. Probably my two favourite episodes. Do you see it?

i think i have thoughts!!

as i'm rewatching irresistible, i keep thinking of elegy and the way scully tries to handle everything on her own, the visions she has (seeing herself in the dead women, seeing the dead woman before they get the call). which obviously also reminds me of christmas carol/emily, all souls & orison. christmas carol/emily scully is getting phone calls from melissa and only calls mulder once she learns emily is biological daughter. in the end, she asks mulder for time alone with emily and she stands alone at her casket, with mulder waiting behind her. in all souls, she's working a case as a favor and initially only asks him for help finding the girls in danger. he stays on when he becomes worried about her. and the whole time, she's seeing emily. it starts & ends with scully at confession. and in orison, she's hearing that song. which she heard when her sunday school teacher was murdered, and it's that song that gets mulder to her apartment in time. scully leaned on mulder more in orison than she did in the others. in irresistible, she's trying very hard to be okay with the case. she peppers mulder with questions but handles her emotions about it on her own, as mulder tries to tell her it's okay to have a hard time. he lets her know he's there and she can take a step back, and she goes back to d.c. and meets with karen kosseff, afterwards ready to come back and help people. but in the end, it's her that needs help, she fights hard against donnie pfaster, and in the end she falls into mulder's arms. the consistency of mulder trying to support her and respect her boundaries, worrying when she believes or sees signs is consistent throughout the series. and every time, she lets him to an extent and he gives whatever she accepts. it also reminds me of patient x/the red and the black, maybe one father/two sons but that one is more of a struggle for them and yet, she still calls him when jeffrey spender calls her about cassandra.

i think these are the maybe more obvious connections my mind makes. like they are consistent thoughts i have whenever i watch these episodes, and i'm sure i've talked about it some before.

as i'm watching irresistible, what i think of in reduxes is how mulder tries to be strong for scully & support her. mulder lifts her chin and hugs her at the end, in reduxes, he's holding her hands, kissing her hands cheek forehead. when she turns to her faith, he accepts that. she tells him 'i'll be praying for you' and he jokes 'say a few hail mulder's for me' but so sincerely. i love that when they think she's about to die, her faith is not an issue at all. they'll struggle with it when it comes up a bit longer, but to me, this helps him get to where he is in season seven (all things) and the revival (nothing lasts forever)...and when they eventually work out a lot of their issues through season six lol

there's a very particular vulnerability in all of these episodes, things scully shouldn't handle alone. but because of who she is, she tries. so she goes to therapy, she denies, she closes up but can't hide how she's feeling. especially not from mulder, so she slowly lets him in more & more. even as they struggle, this stays consistent. they're still taking steps forward. she trusts mulder and relies on him, his strength. she relies on the work. (she's a workaholic just like him, especially when it becomes personal and not "just" because she believes in him.)

there's something specific in mulder's tenderness with scully when she's hurting, feeling more vulnerable.

i also keep thinking about 'because i knew you'd talk me out of it if i was making a mistake.' the way they rely on each other, him saying she could change his mind if it was right. she wants him to blame her for the man killed but he won't, and he won't name skinner as the responsible conspirator either.

something about the grace she shows everyone in these horrible situations (mulder, bill, maggie, the victims).

okay. so now i'm watching gethsemane/reduxes and i feel like my brain is on fire!! i'm still not connecting it to irresistible, so i think you need to share your thoughts!

but my mind is connecting it to pine bluff variant and fight the future. the start of redux, where mulder is talking about treason — how he can't let it persist directly connected to scully's confusion & worry in pbv. because mulder would not commit treason.

something about his voice when he tells her the dod agent died from a gsw to the face, that he can't go to the fbi, that someone in the fbi is part of it...reminds me of e.b.e. they create this whole plot to get answers. scully has to lie. they can't communicate this time. the worry & pain & grief (also at the end of gethsemane) is so reminiscent of her abduction, a uselessness & inadequacy that consumes him. but this time they can do something. (similar feeling to the red and the black, when if he could give scully her memories & prove it to her, he would. his determination to stop it from happening to her or anyone else again.)

mulder is always so careful with scully. scully believing her cancer was given to her to make him believe, because of him...he never wants her to be hurt and yet he can't protect her. all of this turns into saving her. (directly to the revival even where he has to be the rational one, support her through her grief & hope.)

redux ii: the thing that makes me crazy is mulder getting to the hospital, making a scene so similar to one breath. (obviously this is my first thought!) he's not as violent until skinner tries to stop him going in to see her. and my god, mulder's face when he sees her lying there. it's almost worse than later in the episode when he sobs silently next to her. it's the way that in one breath, he has no idea what's wrong with her. here he does but he still doesn't know why she's in the icu. he doesn't know that her cancer metastasized.

there's something about the way mulder is fighting so hard for scully that reminds me of lazarus & one breath & irresistible. withdrawn, worried, angry. at a complete loss without her but he does everything he can. lies to the government, breaks into the dod? the pentagon. the affection is next level compared to those. it's the same gentleness & support, but there's hand holding & kisses & caresses. she begs him to let her help him, save him. to not protect her. like scully telling him she was fine all through irresistible (telling him she's back & not going anywhere in firewalker) but she can't tell him that this time. all she can do is beg him not to protect her, to let her give her death meaning, but that wouldn't be something he could live with. tarnishing her name, hurting her family on top of losing her. something here about beyond the sea too. the first time mulder uses her first name, touches her cheek in comfort. gets angry at her for endangering herself. the second time she's shown him inclination to believe, and it scares him this time. because she's vulnerable. the start of physical affection beyond touching her lower back, the hug in the pilot. in season one, tooms, he goes on about her record. later in requiem, he'll talk about family & living and everything she's lost. leaving her behind while he goes back to oregon. (i used to wonder how he convinced her to stay, but i think she couldn't take the risk of leaving him behind again.)

this is worse than colony/end game with samantha. the cruelty. before it was clones, trying to fight their creators and save themselves, hopefully others. ultimately willing to die to protect the original samantha clone. this time, his sister is calling csm her father. and he's trying to expose csm's lies and she flees. dangling his sister this way, with another painful story. "please don't, fox!" fucking CRUEL.

mulder saves scully but he's bearing even more scars from this. this is another reason i don't know if he could have kept going without scully. samantha rejecting him...mulder's vulnerability to csm is almost too much. he could so easily fall for it, like he does with diana in one son. but everything csm tries, only makes him more obstinate. csm has given him nothing and taken everything. mulder is so close to losing the only person he has. the only person he trusts, the only person who trusts him, follows him, loves him.

"maybe they are miracles, but i don't dare call them that." scully's faith is something so special. she's been struggling with it, and turns back to it when she has nothing else. when she has no idea of the chip or treatment will work. and she's talking to her doctor about medicine & miracles. to scully, ultimately, they are the same.

something else that does remind me of irresistible is how hard scully fights too. she tries the chip, she accepts her doctor's treatment, she opens up to her mom and tries to return to her faith. she does everything she can (she always does). scully tries so hard to put up a strong front for mulder, for her family all throughout the series. and like she did in irresistible, it falls away when she just can't do it anymore. she fought donnie pfaster, she got her gun despite her injuries from the crash & falling down the stairs. she crumbles when mulder lifts her chin to look her in the eyes. she crumbles when she feels a miracle is all she has left and she can't turn to mulder in the moment. but she can turn to maggie & religion. she only turns to others when she has no other choice. and ultimately, i think we know it's the chip that saves her. she chose to listen to mulder and tells him "you'll be in my prayers."

i wish i could figure out why exactly "because i knew you'd talk me out of it if i was making a mistake" hits so hard. it's like a preface to fight the future hallway scene.

something about the way mulder doesn't care what happens to him and scully can't do anything and what's more important than his own life is holding someone responsible for what was done to her, without her knowledge or consent and now she's dying. and he gets at least one of them, even if he wasn't at the top. blevins & csm dead. scully in remission and alive. mulder not being prosecuted. this is one of the best endings mulder & scully have. (skinner having not betrayed them and not getting wrongly accused.)

okay i can't keep ruminating on this. please share your thoughts !!!

[twochildreninamoteldemo]

Hi Maven!! Same q to everyone this week: what are your top 3 wincest episodes, and why?

ok im gonna cheat and do this in 2 ways hehe

a) top 3 sam/dean episodes

3. A Very Supernatural Christmas: has the samulet (their engagement ring, obviously!), you can palpably feel the isolation, the neglect, it's very two-children-in-a-motel-esque. and of course, the final scene, where i think, if there was any point in the series aside from the barn scene in which they would have said "i love you," it would have been there. the deep long stare, the watery eyes, the fact that they both know dean will be gone within the year, and then... "do you feel like watching the game?" ahhhhhhh drives me nuts

2. Swan Song: their love literally!!!!! saves the world, i mean come on. it has the whole wincest montage that you could literally set a richard siken poem to, or a taylor swift song to (look i know those are vastly different things but. bear with me), and it would just feel right. dean finally lets sam do things on his own. he lives because sam tells him to. sam manages to revoke his possession consent because of how much he's in love with dean, even as his fist is smashing dean's face into a pulp. ok i have to stop or i'm going to start crying in this goddamn airport.

Playthings: obviously. gothic horror episode of all time. picture-perfect family in the outside, secret sibling hidden upstairs. the way sam and dean's codependency is paired with that of the grandmother and her ghostly sister. the face-stroking. the almost kiss. god i swear it always looks like they're gonna kiss. sam writhing on the bed. dean staring at him like that. the subtext was about to bust through the screen, what with the acting and the way the plot and the meta-plot fit together perfectly. catherine tosenberger said it much better than i can, go read her article in TWC about wincest if you haven't!

b) top 3 family-horror-what-the-incestuous-freudian-fuck-is-going-on-here episodes

2. Devil's Trap: azazel uses john's body in a sexual manner against both sam and dean--primarily the latter but sam gets it, too. it's a chilling scene and really cements that this is what spn is about: never being able to escape the family. sam learns partly of azazel's plot, dean gets his daddy issues flayed onto him, and all through the eyes of the father. it's so well done.

3. Skin: imo the most damning thing the shifter says is, "i will be sorry to lose this skin. your brother's got a lot of great qualities. you should appreciate him more than you do." uh...what? the way he ties up sam and plans on torturing him also aligns with the shifter's pattern of turning into the husband and beating up the wife. another HMM moment actually comes from dean himself, when he tells sam that none of his friends will ever understand him and that dean's the only one who can...it's very isolating, kind of abuser tactics, and just. whew. this was episode SIX!!

In the Beginning: come on you knew i was gonna say this. aside from the obvious moments of "mom is a babe" (and remember, dean invokes sam into this moment as well..."sammy, wherever you are..."), samuel!azazel leaning over dean and smelling him, and samuel!azazel kissing mary--passionately returned(?), may i add, the plot itself sets up the winchester family as this enclosed, inbred unit. mary's kiss with her possessed father seal's sam's fate as part of azazel's army. the sexuality she shares with her father makes her son's blood diseased and cursed. the family line is tainted by incest. her kiss is what allows sam and dean to grow up that way, to become so codependent, what allows the moments of avsc, swan song, and playthings to happen! in the beginning. this begins the cycle of selling and saving souls--mary for john, john for dean, dean for sam. it's literally THEE spn episode, perhaps even more than playthings. even though sam's barely in it, his fate hangs over the whole episode, and this is full house of wincest at its finest.

[o-uncle-newt]

Cabin Pressure Advent Day 13: Molokai

(Or shall I say, for some reason, Moloquai?)

It's always fun to listen to a holiday episode during the holidays! By which I mean Chanukah, of course (I listened to Molokai on an hour-plus car trip between two Chanukah parties). Now, as someone who is not a Christmas person I always judge a Christmas episode by how well I'm able to enjoy it despite not being a Christmas person. For the record, most episodes pass pretty easily. But Molokai is an interesting one, because it passes despite being very, very, very Christmassy.

Why does it pass? Well, first of all, it helps that it's on a British show, which means that some stuff I genuinely can't tell whether it's a Christmas thing I don't know about or a British thing I don't know about (what the hell is a sugar mouse?), and the latter is something I basically have to be okay with to listen to the rest of Cabin Pressure to begin with (I'm still not sure what a Wimpy is over a decade after first listening to this episode, after all). So it's just kind of immersing in another culture, except it's really two cultures, English culture and Christmas culture (as, of course, epitomized by The Auspicious Pig and Whistle of Tokyo).

The second (and bear with me, it gets a bit involved) is that it might be very specifically about Christmas, but it's also just about happiness, community, and, best of all for me, ritual and the way that that can make holidays even better. To a certain extent, that's something that I know is subjective- I grew up in a religious culture which values religious and holiday ritual very strongly, and so that's something that I'll always find to be meaningful, even if sometimes that comes from creating your own meaning or emphasizing the parts that mean most for you. But at the same time- lots of the "ritual" that I prize on various holidays isn't religious at all, but just the product of family tradition in ways that bring us all together. Particularly as an adult, I've found that holidays make only as much of an impact as you WANT them to- and including ritual makes that impact stronger, because it forces you to DO something that separates this day from other days, and that, incidentally, keeps you busy and absorbed.

It's why I found Martin's disliking Christmas in this episode, only to get really into it when it comes to creating the rituals of Christmas for Arthur, so interesting. I don't recall any real REASON being given for Martin disliking Christmas- it could be an affectation along the lines of Arthur's attempt at sounding grown-up by calling Christmas over-commercialized, but it sounds more like, as an adult living in shitty circumstances (we don't really KNOW what kind of shitty circumstances yet because we haven't heard Qikiqtarjuaq yet, but still) who isn't super close with his family and for whom any Christmas he has, he'll have to make for himself, he doesn't have much reason to like it! What, indeed, WOULD make Christmas different than a typical day for him? But as soon as he's given a reason to cling to the trappings and rituals of Christmas, he gets into it, and I really do love that.

Now of course, Arthur is really the poster child for the whole above concept. But- I was going to say that that's almost too obvious, but that's not really it. It's that Arthur is the one who does this ALL THE TIME. We know already that he's the heart of this show, and what it seems to really come down to is that a large part of that is creating a life around rituals or practices that bring joy. On the most basic level we have that list of events and holidays that he likes, all of which are defined by ritual in some way (I admit to not knowing much about Lent). But I think it goes beyond that- first of all, he CREATES ritual: while it's unclear who exactly invented the name Birling Day, he's the first one to use it in Edinburgh and he's the one who creates a "Happy Birling Day" song in Paris. Even more than that, though, we know his life philosophy from Fitton- create meaning and happiness from things that you DO (sinking into a bath at just the right temperature) rather than from things that happen to you (happening to be in the moonlight with the love of your life). In so many ways, that's what ritual is- rather than treating a time of year or a life cycle event as a thing that happens to you, you create your own meaning through your own actions. You're active and in control of your own joy.

So anyway, all this to say, Molokai continues the Arthurian tradition of Cabin Pressure which is that we have power over our joy by creating and expressing it, and just so happens to apply it to Christmas as a specific example. Gah. I have no idea if that makes sense written out- it does in my head.

And I've barely gotten to the actual episode!

One thing I'd forgotten til I turned it on- Molokai is the first post-Sherlock episode to be recorded. I'd heard a lot from people that the laughter gets louder as a result, which leads to the show seeming funnier as you laugh with the audience. I was skeptical- and I was SORT OF wrong. I do think that the show gets funnier in no small part because JF becomes a better and better writer, but at the same time... the laughter DEFINITELY gets louder. Oh my gosh. I'm not sure how I'd never noticed it. Like, it's loud in Limerick, but this is another level. And what's nice is you can kind of hear the actors feeding off the crowd energy, which is yet a third reason why S3-4 might seem even better.

(On that note, I don't know how much JF pre-planned his rendition of Get Dressed, but it is note perfect. It would have just been normal-funny if he'd sung it, but the Chri-i-i-i-i-stmas/Chri-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-histmas Days took it up another level. Kudos to him- and his "you'd better not pout, you'd better not cry" is just as great. Incidentally, as a non-Christmas celebrator I didn't get that joke until way later, but his performance is so funny that honestly it didn't matter.)

Of the two plot lines (each with its own set of Chekhov's Guns) in this episode, I vastly preferred the Secret Santa plot. Not that there's anything wrong with the Mr Alyakhin plot- but the resolution, however clever, is just a LITTLE bit too unlikely and over the top. Which, again, sounds weird to say about Cabin Pressure, a show where in a few episodes they'll be dragging a piano to a pub in Devon, but I do still believe that it's all about proportionality- a crazy antagonist justifies a crazy resolution, and this resolution was just a trifle too crazy for the antagonist (and relies a little too much on him missing some major red flags). But it genuinely doesn't matter, because it's still hilarious and sweet, and ends on just the right outrageous note- in particular, the note in Roger Allam's voice (playing to the audience beautifully) as, after an almost-too-long pause, he says "mulled it." Just beautiful- all of the setup and the pitch-perfect payoff.

There's probably other stuff, but please excuse me, I have some latkes to eat. Tomorrow, we're off to Newcastle, one that I haven't listened to in AGES- and I'm dying to know what I'll think!

[thetargaryenbride]

Nail To The Coffin - S3 - Chapter 3

Warnings: none

Pairing: Steve Harrington x f!Byers!Reader

Word Count: 6469

A.N: Hello, dearest readers. This chapter is a bit different than the rest because there is no Y/N. Instead, we'll be focusing on Eddie and the others going on a goose chase. From this chapter on, Eddie plays a big role and you'll see him much more. I hope that's compensation for his absence in the season 2 plotline haha Also, I've tweaked the canon a bit regarding Eddie's knowledge and you'll find out what I mean soon enough. As always, please do make me know if I’ve written certain characters OOC and if you think there is something that can be corrected within the story. Thank you for reading. Hope you like it! 🖤 🥀

Masterlist || Chapter 2 || Chapter 4

Early Next Morning

“Harrington!” yelled Eddie as he pushed his way through the group of kids to get to the counter, eliciting all kinds of looks and reactions.

“Hey! There’s a line, you stinky jerk!” snapped Erika and he whirled to send her a nasty look before focusing back on Robin who was looking weirdly at him.

“Where’s Harrington?” he asked urgently and she shrugged.

“Somewhere in the mall,” she answered. “Why are you looking for-“

Before she could finish the sentence, Eddie was already sprinting away, leaving her and the group of kids confused as they looked after his retreating form.

He darted from one place to another, checking every store, every restroom, the escalators, and the benches, but he couldn’t find Steve anywhere, and his nerves were pulled as tight as guitar strings on the verge of snapping.

And then they did snap.

“Steve Harrington!” he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at the top of his lungs, making people around him cease what they were doing and look at him oddly. He heaved as he lifted a hand apologetically.

“Jesus, what is wrong with you?” sounded Steve’s voice from behind him and he turned to see the boy he had been desperately searching for since stepping into the mall come from behind a big potted plant.

The people had resumed whatever they were doing prior to Eddie’s unhinged episode and he had to make his way through the crowd, with everyone throwing him looks to which he could only respond with a tight awkward smile, as he bypassed them while marching over to Steve.

“We need to talk,” grit out the boy as he grabbed Steve by the arm and began dragging him away.

“Hey, wait for me!” called Dustin as he followed them and Eddie turned to look at him and then back at Steve.

“Who was this kid again?”

“Uh, don’t you remember? It’s Henderson. He’s a friend of mine and Y/N’s,” reminded him Steve as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and Eddie let out an ‘aha’ as his mind went back to before Christmas when you had hosted that gathering and he had gotten to meet your friends.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Eddie hadn’t gotten the chance to hang out with the middle-schoolers after that because he had been busy with his own things but he did remember Dustin and how they had talked about Dungeons and Dragons. He thought that maybe he could recruit him into Hellfire Club once the kid gets to high school.

“Yes! So whatever you have to say to him, you’re saying it to me too,” added the boy and Eddie had to physically slap his cheeks to get off this train of thought and get back on the main topic at hand which elicited weird looks from Dustin and Steve.

“Alright. Alright, fine,” he let out a sharp exhale, nodding in agreement.

“Is it-is it something important? Is it about Y/N?” asked Steve quietly and Eddie hummed.

“Mmhm.”

Steve gulped before wriggling himself out of Eddie’s grasp and taking the lead. “Then follow me back to Scoops Ahoy. We can talk there.”

The trio walked briskly towards the ice cream parlor and ignored the questioning looks Robin threw them as they walked past her and into the staff room at the back.

“What is it? What’s wrong with Y/N?” stammered out Steve nervously and Eddie rubbed his face.

“I think she, uh,” cleared his throat the boy as he looked between Dustin and Steve a couple of times, evidently contemplating on whether he should speak his mind or not. “I think she went to…my drug dealer’s house,” he stuttered, “and stole all of his stash,” he blurted out and Steve and Dustin’s eyes widened in shock.

“What?”

“D-drugs!” stammered Dustin as he looked at Eddie in disbelief. “Holy-“

“He called me yesterday evening and told me someone broke into his house. They didn’t steal any money. Just the drugs,” explained Eddie. “Mind you, there are some people who know about him but none of them have disappeared mysteriously a-and Y/N hasn’t shown up since the other night, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s weird,” said Steve as he put his hands on his hips and Eddie lifted a quizzical brow. “I went to her house yesterday morning and yes, she was still gone and I was mad worried but Mrs. Byers said that apparently she got a call from a friend the night before and went to help them. It was an emergency, she said. So how could she be the one to have broken into your dealer’s house and stolen his stash?”

“I don’t know, Steve, maybe that was just an excuse,” offered Eddie and Steve glared at him.

“Okay, hold on for a moment there Munson, are you kidding me right now? Do you seriously believe that Y/N, our Y/N, is someone who would break into a person’s house and steal from them? Much less drugs!?” Steve exclaimed scandalously.

“I’m just trying to see things from all sides, alright!?” snapped the boy as he lifted his hands in surrender and the other sighed in exasperation. Dustin looked between the teens, still in utter bewilderment, as he tried to process the whole situation – particularly the drug part. “And you didn’t think to go check again after work yesterday, Steve?” asked Eddie with an accusatory tone and Steve looked at him in distress.

“First of all, Mrs. Byers promised to call me if Y/N came back home so I decided to come back to work. Second of all,” he gesticulated with one hand. “She didn’t call me for the rest of the day and of course, I got worried and went to the Byers after work! But Y/N was still not there. I spoke to Mrs. Byers, to Jonathan, to Will. We’re all concerned, ok? We decided to go look for her if she doesn’t appear today. Why-why are you blaming this on me!?” bit out the boy as he pointed to himself. “Where were you yesterday evening, huh? Why didn’t you come tell me about this immediately after you got the call?”

“Because I was this close to becoming dead meat!” barked out Eddie. “I had to go to Rick and convince him I had nothing to do with the stolen drugs. Do you’ve any idea how long it took me to deal with this jackass?”

“Alright, you two, calm down! Jesus!” exclaimed Dustin while he extended his arms towards the two older boys as if he was trying to placate two aggressive animals. “I have a plan,” he said and the two looked down at him. “Why don’t you, and I mean Eddie,” he turned to look and point at the boy in question, “go to the Byers and check if Y/N hasn’t returned by any chance? Did it occur to you that maybe you’re just overreacting and jumping to stupid conclusions and maybe she just had to do something important and simply forgot to call you? Shit like that happens, okay?” he shrugged and gesticulated, scrunching up his face, as if stating the most obvious thing. “Calm the f down! Go look for her and call us here,” suggested the boy and Steve whirled to fully face him.

“No way! I’m not staying here. I’m going with him!”

“Steve, you have to help us with the Russians! You can’t just bail!” he yelled in disbelief and Eddie’s eyebrows shot to his hairline.

“Russians?”  

“Dude, Y/N is my girlfriend!” snapped Steve. “I’m not gonna stay here while he goes out there to look for her!”

“Hold on, care to tell me what Russians are you guys talking about?” asked Eddie in utter confusion and Dustin let out a sigh.

“We intercepted a secret, coded Russian communication, and now we’re trying to crack said code because we believe they are right here and are planning to do who knows what that will definitely, potentially harm everyone in Hawkins, and who knows, maybe in the whole damn country! So maybe, just maybe, you can go out there, find Y/N, bring her in here, so we can all go stop the evil commies!“ Dustin hit one hand against the other aggressively as he shouted the last words and the two teens could only look at him, frozen on their spots with Steve shaking his head lightly, face distorting into one of displeasure at the way Dustin had revealed everything.

Eddie was the first who snapped out of the stupor as he turned to face Steve. “Care to tell me just what the hell-“

“It’s all true, dude. Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe but, here we are,” exhaled heavily the boy as he threw his arm in the air before dropping it down in defeat.

“Okay, this is officially the strangest summer I’ve ever had in my life,” Eddie’s hand went down his face, rubbing his chin as he took a minute to think everything through and let it all sink in and process in his brain.

“Tell me about it,” muttered Steve as he looked at the tiled floor, hands on hips.

The three spent some time dwelling in silence and thinking before Eddie grabbed Steve by the arm and pulled him forward. “Come with me,” he said, now a bit more calmly, and began dragging the boy a bit further away from Dustin. “Look, stay with the kid, ok? You know better than anyone what’s going on here and… you’re good with that kinda hero stuff. I’ll just…I’ll just freak out and run away, okay? I’m not good at all that,” admitted the boy ashamedly and Steve looked at him with sympathy. “Besides, he doesn’t know me that well and… now he knows I deal with drugs. He’s not gonna trust me. But you two seem close. You can’t leave him all alone.”

“But Y/N-“

“I’ll go to the Byers. I’ll go check if she’s there and I’ll call you, ok?” he placed a hand on Steve’s shoulder and squeezed. “Maybe Dustin is right and we’re just overreacting and jumping to conclusions. Let’s not panic… Trust me.”

The boy didn’t look convinced at all, his eyes darting between Eddie’s and the wall before he finally nodded.

“Alright…I trust you.”

As much as it pained him and as much as he wanted to bolt out of the mall and go look for you, Eddie and Dustin had a point. So he chose to put his trust in the boy.

But he silently made a promise that if you were indeed missing, he’d abandon everything he was doing to help you because you mattered to him more than any country or person in the world did.  

A bit after Eddie leaves

“Hey, kid,” called out Robin and Dustin turned to look at her, taking a few steps closer. “What’s wrong with dingus over there?” she asked as she nodded in Steve’s direction who was sitting at one of the tables, leg bouncing nervously, fingers drumming against the wooden surface while the binoculars were abandoned on the table, away from him.

“He’s just worried about Y/N.”

“Why? Did something happen to her?” she furrowed her brows in concern and Dustin shrugged.

“We honestly have no idea. She stood Steve up the other night and hasn’t appeared since. I mean it’s been a day and a half so I get why he and Eddie are freaking out.”

“Jesus, you guys really think you’re the center of the world, don’t you?” she rolled her eyes and Steve looked at her over his shoulder, scrunching up his face in a “seriously?” manner and she lifted a brow at that. “You do realize that the world does not revolve around men, as much as you want it to, right? She may have wanted to spend some alone time, do some self-care, away from everyone.”

“No, I understand if she wants to do that but she’d tell her close people first,” said Steve as he stood up and approached the two. “After everything that her family went through with Will vanishing and the attacks, she always tells her mom if she’d be going somewhere for a longer period of time. Otherwise, there’s chaos, I’m telling you,” sighed the boy as he put a hand on his hip while the other ran through his hair, and Robin folded her lips, not knowing what to say to this.

“You know what, I’m going after Eddie,” Steve said suddenly before heading for the staff backroom to change out of his uniform and Robin and Dustin shared an incredulous look before following the boy.

“You can’t just abandon us like that!” exclaimed Dustin and Robin crossed her arms.

“You’re the one who started this whole investigation. You can’t back out and leave all the work to us two,” she reprimanded him and he furrowed his eyebrows.

“Well I’m sorry to break it to you but if you haven’t understood yet, Y/N is most probably missing and I’m not sitting here while Munson is out there looking for her alone. I don’t care about the Russians or whatever plans they may have! Okay!? All I care about right now is that my girlfriend is somewhere out there, missing, and I’m sitting here playing spy when I should be looking for her! Do you understand?” he yelled which silenced the two and sent them into a stupor as they stared at the boy who was breathing heavily, eyes filled with mad panic, face twisted in a sorrowful expression as stress oozed off him in waves.

They have never seen him in such a distressed state. He lifted a hand, tightening his lips, before dropping it back down in defeat as he looked at the two in utter despair and shame. Shame because he should have gone to look for you much earlier. “I should have gone out there immediately after-“

The ringing of a phone cut him off mid-sentence and Steve darted towards it like a lightning bolt, yanking the device and putting it to his ear.

“Eddie, what did you-”

“Steve?”

“…Y/N?”

Eddie was pissed and worried beyond belief.

He had gone to your house but not only did he not find you, he did not find anyone. It was empty and your whole family was nowhere to be found. He had gone to a phone booth immediately after and had called Scoops Ahoy but nobody had picked up.

“Damn it!” he slammed the phone shut as he ran his hands through his hair and let out a sharp sigh of frustration before rushing back into his van and driving away.

He checked every friend’s house he could think of.

He went to Tina’s, to Lorelei’s, to Margot’s, he visited each cheerleader’s house in search of you, and he even went to check the homes of his own friends – Gareth and Jeff – but there was no sign of you. It’s like you got swallowed by quicksand.

He grumbled under his breath as he parked at the last house he could think of – the Hargroves.

Now, he wasn’t sure if he could call you and Billy the best of friends. But he had seen you hang out at school and at the diner you worked at, and he had seen the way you put effort into communicating with the boy. He had seen you hang out with Billy’s sister on many occasions so the siblings were the last idea of connection to you he could think of.

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, however, when he saw two girls walking to the front door, one of which he recognized as Billy’s sister. He quickly got out of the van and yelled at them to wait up, making them stop in their tracks and turn to see who was calling them. He ran to them and greeted them awkwardly.

“Uh, hey there. My name’s-“

“Eddie?” Max’s face lit up with recognition. “You are… one of Y/N’s best friends,” she snapped her fingers and the other girl let out a prolonged, quiet ‘Oh’.

“Yes, that’s right! And you are…Max,” he pointed and she nodded, making him look at the other girl. “And you?”

“Uhm, El. My name’s El,” she smiled.

“Nice to meet you! Um, I have a question that’s probably gonna sound like, super weird, but,” he drawled. “Have you seen Y/N, by any chance?”

“Y/N? I haven’t seen her since the other day when we went to see Dustin,” said Max with furrowed eyebrows as she and Eleven shared a look of confusion.

“Why are you looking for her?”

“Because no one has seen her since the other day. Not me, not Steve, not even her family,” he finally revealed and the two girls frowned in concern, eyes widening.

“You don’t think he-“ gasped Max quietly as she snapped to look at El, her heartbeat increasing rapidly.

“But what if he did,” the girls talked hushed amongst themselves and Eddie tightened his lips before snapping his fingers.

“Hey! Care to share with the class?” he asked as he crossed his arms.

“Hold on!” exclaimed Eleven before taking Max by the hand and dragging her away, leaving the boy to sink in confusion, patience wearing thin as he began pacing in front of the entrance of the house, untangling one arm and propping it on top of the other so his fingers could take a strand of hair and play with it nervously as anxiety gnawed on him.

“What do we do?” asked Max quietly and El gulped. “Should we tell him to leave? That we know nothing?”

“Maybe we should tell him about Billy.”

“Tell him what exactly? That we somehow suspect Billy might have done something to this girl and Y/N?” whisper-shouted the redhead.

“This is not a coincidence, Max. Maybe Billy really did hurt this girl and Y/N. Maybe Eddie can help. We need help,” stated Eleven worriedly and Max sighed, rubbing her forehead in frustration and worry.

“Well, I… guess we can…trust him. He’s one of Y/N’s best friends. And he’s older so…maybe he can be of use,” she admitted after a minute of contemplating and El nodded.  

“Yes.”

“But what do we say? How do we explain our suspicions? We can’t tell him we found out because of your powers,” scowled Max.

“We’ll just say,” drawled El. “That Billy was acting weird, then he disappeared, and then the girls went missing right after, so we suspect him.”

“Ok…ok, sounds like a plan,” nodded Max in agreement but deep inside she felt a horrible, unsettling feeling suffocate her. Her gut twisted and cramped as if someone continuously delivered punches to it.

It didn’t sit well with her that she and Eleven were suspecting Billy of something so horrible. He was a jerk, yes, but he wasn’t a kidnapper and a murderer.

On the contrary, he was beginning to change and it was visible. If she had to be honest, she really appreciated his efforts and she was beginning to fill with hope for the future – that maybe he could really become a better person and that the two of them could build a good brother-sister relationship.

She didn‘t want to believe in what El had seen last night. She refused to believe that Billy has reverted into something so low and horrible. She really wanted to convince herself that it was just some misunderstanding. But even she had to admit that there was something off to the whole story because Billy did sort of disappear. She hadn’t seen him at all in the past two days. Then Eleven had seen him standing above a wailing girl, and just now they found out that you had disappeared out of the blue two days ago.

It was too strange to be just a coincidence.

So at least for now, she decided to believe in Eleven and choose to put her brother as the main suspect even if it pained her to do so.

“We need to tell you something,” let out Eleven unsurely, interrupting Eddie’s pacing and getting his full attention.

“So, the great council did decide to fill me in,” he joked a bit, hoping to diffuse the tension and the two girls shared a look before leading him inside the house and telling him about their suspicions.

“Look, Mayfield, if your brother really ends up having something to do with the disappearance of Y/N and this other girl, I’m gonna enjoy watching Harrington beat his ass, ok? I might even join and lend him a hand,” commented Eddie offhandedly as Max opened the door of Billy’s room.

“Yeah, and I won’t stop you,” she muttered as she and the others entered the room and looked around. “Why do I get the feeling we’re gonna find all kinds of wrong in here?”

“Well, at least he has good taste in music,” Eddie let out a breathy chuckle as his eyes shot to the stereo which was playing metal, nodding impressed.

“Ugh! Gag me with a spoon!” exclaimed Max in disgust after opening a drawer filled with adult magazines and Eddie strolled to look over her shoulder, eyebrows shooting to his hairline as a smirk grew on his face. It faltered when Max’s disgusted, unimpressed look shifted onto him and he cleared his throat, moving away awkwardly.

Everyone moved to the bathroom then, taking notice of all the packs of ice in the bathtub after El had pulled the curtain.

“Max?”

“Ice. It’s just ice,” she said as she grabbed and lifted one of the floating, empty packages. “Probably for his muscles or something. He works out like a maniac.”

“Does he get hurt often?” inquired Eddie which drew the girls’ attention and they looked around to see him pointing at the cabinet under the sink which had blood smeared on it.

Eddie didn’t hesitate to yank open the cabinet and rummage through it, taking out the bin and slamming it on the counter, aggressively pulling out a couple of scrunched-up papers, a bloodied lifeguard whistle, and a fanny bag.

Eleven and Max’s blood ran cold.

Eddie left the objects on the counter and returned to Billy’s room, breathing heavily through his nose as he tried to contain his anger and growing worry while opening all kinds of drawers, cabinets, and doors to look for any other evidence. While he was rummaging through one of the bedside cabinets, he noticed a pair of jeans thrown haphazardly on the bed, with something in them that was shining on the light. He lifted the piece of clothing and inspected it, at first thinking the glint he saw was just the metal buttons and zipper but then he noticed that something was dangling from the pocket.

“What’s this?” he asked and Max furrowed her brows.

“His jeans?”

“No…this?” he clarified when he pulled out the glinting object and dangled it in front of the girls, their eyes widening. “Look familiar?” he asked but the question was rhetorical, leaving the girls to simmer in speechless silence and disbelief.

Because it was your necklace.

“I’m gonna kill him!” snapped Eddie as he threw the jeans away and bolted towards the door, clutching the necklace tightly in his fist as hot rage built up inside him.

“No! Wait! Eddie, wait!” yelled Max as she blocked his way and put her hands against his chest in an attempt at stopping him from going further. “Let’s be rational! We can’t jump to conclusions!”

“Rational? Conclusions!? What are you, blind? What more evidence do you need?” he bit out as he grabbed her by the arm. “I’m going to find the son of a bitch and I’m gonna bust his face.”

“Eddie!”

And suddenly, he couldn’t move. He tried his best to pull all his muscles and take a step but it felt like an invisible power was keeping him in place. He was barely able to shift his head, eyes widening when they landed on Eleven who was looking at him with panic in her eyes and a bleeding nose.

“What the hell?”

Eddie had fallen into a state of complete and utter shock when the girls had to begrudgingly tell him all about Eleven’s powers, Hawkins Lab, The Upside Down, and everything that had happened during the last two years.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” is what he had said after they had finished the whole story but then Eleven had used her powers to lift a can of coke in the air and crush it, causing some of the liquid to sprinkle onto Eddie. He sputtered as he wiped it off his face and looked on with wide eyes. “Alright, maybe I’m just high,” he had lifted his hands in defeat, eyes wide and brain going haywire, but then he had remembered that he hadn’t taken any drugs in the past twenty-four hours or so.

All in all, it had been quite the experience learning all this.

He thought he was going crazy at first or that the girls were just pulling a massive prank on him but at one point, things began making too much sense.

Your mysterious injuries every year for example.

Will’s vanishing.

You telling him “Once Will comes back home, we’ll spend more time together” right after you had buried ‘him’.

He had begun putting two and two together and their story had become more and more plausible by the second.

“Understand? We can’t go running like headless chicken and jump everyone we suspect. We have to be careful about this,” said Max and he nodded.

“Y-yeah.”

And now the trio found themselves at Hawkins’ pool. It was pouring rain outside and the sound of thunder rumbled throughout the darkening, cloudy sky. Max and Eleven pulled down the hoods of their raincoats while Eddie used his leather jacket to cover his head. He shook the clothing off the water droplets and tied it around his hips before his hands flew to muss up his hair to get rid of the moisture and then straighten it out.

“Excuse me.”

“No one in the water until thirty minutes after the last strike,” said one of the lifeguards casually as he chewed on his gum and browsed through a magazine, not even sparing them a look. “And don’t try and argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree.”

“Yeah, we don’t care. We’re not here to swim,” sassed Max. “Or get electrocuted.”

“We found this,” added Eleven as she pulled out the lifeguard first aid kit fanny bag which finally made the guy look up.

“Does that belong to anybody here?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s Heather’s. I’ll get it back to her.”

“We could give it back to her.”

“You could, ‘cept she’s not here. Bailed on me today,” drawled the boy and the trio shared a look. “What is this? You guys want a reward or something?”

“No. We’re just being good Samaritans,” smiled Max tightly and the girl lifeguard shot her a look that made her scrunch up her face while Eddie curled up his lip.

The two’s attention shifted onto Eleven, however, when they noticed she wasn’t standing by their side anymore, and they followed her to the staff board where pictures of all lifeguards were hung on.

“Heather…Do you think you could find her and Y/N?” asked Max and Eddie’s eyes widened.

“She can do that too!?” he asked excitedly and Max hummed. “That’s soo cool! You’re like, a real-life Jean Gray!”

“So you’re saying she needs some kinda static sound to get her into this state?” asked Eddie after he and Max had turned on all the showers in the dressing room and she nodded. “Ok, then why not just go outside? I mean it’s raining and all.”

“Because she needs to focus properly and there are cars and people passing by outside, causing extra noise.”

“So-“

“Please, be quiet,” sighed sharply Eleven, and Eddie made a zipper motion with his hand over his mouth and plopped on the ground, crossing his legs and propping his elbows on his thighs, using his palms to rest his chin on.

She tied a cloth around her eyes and concentrated, easily falling into a meditative state and sooner rather than later she found herself in the familiar Void, looking for clues about the missing girl.

“What do you see?” asked Max after some time passed.

“A door… a red door.”

There was silence for a while as the two watched Eleven intently, perking up when her breathing began increasing.

“What is it?” asked Max tensely.

“She disappeared! She-she…was pulled underwater,” whined the girl and Max put a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s ok. We’re here. You’re ok… Try to focus on Y/N now,” encouraged her the redhead and Eleven tried to calm herself, taking a few deep breaths, before painting your image in her head.

And then you appeared in front of her.

You were sitting on the ground, rocking back and forth, creamy dress stained with dirt, hair a bit damp and messy.

She gulped as she took a few steps forward and circled you, coming to stand in front of you and get a better look. Her eyes widened when she saw how pale you were and how bloodshot your eyes were, holding heavy bags and dark circles. Your hand trembled a bit as you scratched the crook of your arm. She heard shuffling and whimpering and watched you turn your head to look at the source, lifting a finger to your mouth.

El furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before crouching next to you and reaching out for you, touching your shoulder.

Suddenly, your head snapped to look at her and she almost fell back in shock.

“El?” you breathed out and she gulped, eyes widening in stupor. “El!” you shouted as you crawled towards her but just like Heather, something pulled you under the watery surface and she could only watch you scream as you got dragged further and further down while pointlessly trying to grab your hand and pull you out.

“Y/N!” she yelled as she tried to reach for you but you were long gone and she let out a sharp gasp when she exited the Void and harshly pulled the blindfold down, making Max and Eddie stand on edge.

“What happened? El! What did you see?”

She could only pant as she tried regaining her bearings and fight back the welling of tears.

“I-I saw Y/N on the floor,” she stuttered out after she calmed a bit a minute later. “She…didn’t look well…She was…dirty and shaking and scared.”

“Where was she?” asked Eddie urgently and she shook her head.

“I don’t know…I couldn’t see…But there were some other voices I could hear. And…it looked like she was telling the people to keep quiet,” gulped the girl unsettled and Max and Eddie shared a look.

It felt like this left them with more questions than answers.

By the time they left the pool, it was already dark as evening had descended upon them.

Eddie had tried dialing Scoops Ahoy one more time but once again nobody picked up and he was going to pull out his hair from the way stress was escalating.

They had absolutely no idea where to begin looking for you so they decided to go to the place El had seen, hoping to find clues there before informing anyone else of their discoveries.

“Is this it?” asked Max as they looked through the windows of Eddie’s van and El nodded.

“Yes…It’s the same number I saw.”

“C’mon, c’mon!” ushered them Eddie as he got out of the vehicle and held his leather jacket above his head, the trio quickly running to the porch of the house.

The door was locked so Eleven had to use her powers and unlock it from the inside, letting it creak open and allowing them to enter. They slowly walked down the hallway, eyes widening when they saw multiple portraits of Heather and who they supposed were her parents.

“This is her house…It’s Heather’s house.”

They had expected to find an empty, dark house but instead were greeted by the sound of light music, laughter, chatter, and the shocking scene of no other than Billy himself, sitting at the table alongside Heather’s parents.    

“Isn’t that cute, huh?” they heard the boy laugh and they approached a bit more, drawing the attention of the occupants. “Max?” Billy’s grin faltered a bit when he saw her and the others and they looked awkwardly at each of the adults.

“We didn’t mean to…barge in,” she tried to explain. “We tried to knock but… maybe you didn’t hear us over the storm.”

“I’m sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?” asked Tom agitated and Billy finished chewing his bite before letting out a charming chuckle.

“I’m sorry. Janet, Tom, this is my sister, Maxine,” he introduced her before standing up and nearing the girl. “What on Earth are you doing here? Is something wrong?” he asked and maybe for the first time ever he sounded genuine, making Max blink and look in confusion.

“We just wanted to make sure everything was ok.”

“Ok? Why wouldn’t it be ok?” asked the boy with furrowed eyebrows and Eddie snorted.

“C’mon, man, don’t play around. Where are they?” he bit out and Billy glared at him.

“I’m sorry? Where is who?”

“Well, they’re a little burnt, I’m sorry,” came in Heather’s voice and everyone snapped to look at her in shock. She appeared to be perfectly normal as she entered the room, happily carrying a tray of cookies. She halted in her words and steps once she saw the trio.

“Heather! This is my sister, Maxine,” he introduced once again as he pointed at the girl before tucking his hands in front of him. “And, I’m sorry but I didn’t quite catch your name,” he turned to the other girl as he spoke but there was something biting in his tone that one could catch onto only if they listened close enough.

“El,” she responded flatly.

“El,” he repeated, eyes not leaving hers until Eddie stood in front of her, gaining his attention. “And you were…the Munson boy…Care to tell me just what are you doing with these two? They don’t look like the typical people you surround yourself with,” he asked with a tight smile and Eddie returned the hostile energy.

“I don’t know, man, maybe I happened to stumble upon your sister and El who were dead worried about our mutual best friend going M.I.A,” he said tersely. “And Max just happened to find her necklace in your room,” he whispered the last part and Billy’s expression fell.

“You went through my stuff?” he asked quietly as he looked at Max and she paled, eyes darting between Eddie and Billy. She was put in a tight spot and she wanted to gut Eddie for throwing her under the bus like that but she understood why he said what he said because it would’ve been even worse if Billy learned that all three of them had snooped through his stuff.

“I just wanted to turn off the music because you had forgotten the stereo on and it was distracting,” she stammered out a plausible reason. “I just saw it on the floor and we were wondering if you had seen her because we haven’t in the past days and we got worried.”

“Yes, I did see her,” Billy’s smile melted back into a charming one instead of a menacing one as he looked at each of the trio. “We met two days ago to discuss something. I can’t tell you much other than she’s planning a big surprise for everyone. She had to skip to Indianapolis to get some stuff and yes, she did drop her necklace and I picked it up,” he explained way too easily and crafted, making Eddie narrow his eyes unbelievingly.

“Oh…I see,” muttered Max as she sent him an awkward smile.

“And why didn’t she tell any of us that she was leaving town for a while?” snorted Eddie and Billy’s charming smile faltered, eyes hardening.

“I don’t know,” he accentuated every word as he stared unblinkingly at Eddie. “I don’t believe that I’m the person you should be asking this. Why don’t you ask her once she comes back?”

“Yeah…yeah, we’ll do that,” interrupted Max after picking on the rising tension and grabbed Eddie’s wrist warningly. “We’re sorry to bother you,” she apologized as she tried to take a step backward but Eleven moved from behind her and Eddie and came to stand between them, looking at Heather.

“But, I thought I saw-“

“-your manager. At the pool,” Max was quick to fill in the sentence with a smile. “He said you guys didn’t come in to work today so we got worried about you too,” she wormed her way through the situation and Billy hummed.

“Heather wasn’t feeling so hot today, so we thought we’d take the day off to nurse her back to health,” explained the boy with a tight grin. “But you’re feeling just fine right now, aren’t you Heather?” he asked as he turned to look at her and she nodded enthusiastically.

“I’m feeling so much better! Do you guys want a cookie? They’re fresh out of the oven,” she smiled as she offered them a treat and they all shook their heads simultaneously.

“Nope! No, thanks,” exclaimed Eddie as he waved and threw his hands in the air. “We, should keep our figures in check! Hah,” he let out a laugh as his lips twitched into a fake grin as he pointed at his body and put a hand over his stomach before he waved at the family and whirled around, walking briskly out of the house. He had seen too many horror movies and he was accepting no cookies from strangers ever in his life.

The girls apologized once again before bidding the others goodbye and following Eddie out of the house and into the van.

“I don’t know about you but I’m not very convinced,” grunted Eddie as he struggled to put on his belt and turn on the vehicle.

“I don’t know…it seemed plausible to me,” muttered Max as she stared out the window at the house.

“But then what was it that El saw? Y/N? The people with her? And did you see Hargrove’s expression and the way he spoke?” growled Eddie.

“He’s always like that. He has an asshole voice and intimidating expressions,” tried to explain Max.  

Everything seemed to fit and everything Billy had said seemed very reasonable.

But somehow Eddie wasn’t fully convinced.

[jokers-ghoul]

Next Episode is going to make me sad, I just know it.

Yai is going out of his way to invite Jom to things he enjoys and hopes that Jom will also enjoy - the Christmas party. However, Yai doesn't take into account which o t h e r people will be at this party.

Which we can see here when Yai realizes just how much he didn't expect to see James. See James or see Jom smiling at him so nicely when he's always only shown Yai that smile (I kind of blurred out the smile for Yai's reaction;;; my bad).

James has shown his interest in Jom from the beginning. He was very intrigued with the servant who spoke fluent English as that was how Jom spoke to him the first time they met. Since then, whenever James is in the area (i.e. visiting Yai's BIL), he seeks out Jom. Each time, Yai has stepped between them, but it doesn't seem like he will do the same this time. Maybe he's worried that, after seeing Jom interact with James, Jom might actually return James' feelings.

Which brings us to petty Yai claiming he doesn't need Jom.

That he can continue to do everything himself as he was doing before Jom came into his life and house. This is probably his attempt to brush Jom off so he doesn't feel he has to stay with Yai; even if Yai clearly would like him to stay. This all comes to a head, however, when Jom questions why Yai has been acting that way since the party.

I feel like Yai has long since forgotten his title when he's around Jom. As Yai's servant, Jom walks a very thin line anytime Yai shows him any kind of affection. It's a double-edged sword of sorts. Jom knows he likes men, but he's smart enough to realize the gravity of this time that he's been brought to. Jom is already pushing the line by requesting that Yai go and help out servants -- something no other 'master' would bother to do.

The more Yai shows favor for Jom, the more his father wants to squash Jom beneath his feet (I feel his mother is the same way). Neither parent probably expected a servant to play such a big part is getting their son to take charge of his role as the next master of the house. Jom's requests are also hurting Yai, but he's willing to do them for Jom.

This is obvious from a viewer's POV as to how Yai regards Jom. In the moment, however, Jom needs to survive if he's not able to return; even if he does like Yai.

It seems that Yai spells out his feelings for Jom another night (different shirt), but Jom's reaction is very guarded. As I said, Jom has to play this smart if he wants to survive.

We know from his dreams, however, that Jom does eventually give into his feelings for Yai. They were very comfortable sharing a bed and having small banter when Yai didn't want Jom to leave him.

I'm just curious how long Jom will be willing to walk that thin line.

Well, this is all just my thoughts. It could be totally wrong.

[jeffannieftw]

If you had to pick an episode for Jeff and Annie to get together, which one would it be?

Hmmm excellent question

I think that, because it’s community and the focus has never been on relationships too much, I would’ve liked them doing relationship stuff on the sidelines. Like—

Maybe have them just hook up in season 4

add a scene at the end of the Christmas episode where everyone else has gone home and they are laughing about the day and Annie is helping clean.

She says something like “sorry if I made that get out of hand. I know I can be… dramatic… and too much”

And Jeff can say something like “cmon Annie. You’re never too much. You’re a perfect amount and make every situation better even when you make it worse”

He goes to move into the kitchen, or tries to ruffle her hair but she catches his hand, looking gobsmacked, and they look at each other

End episode

Then the next episode is the body switching episode (a lot of people say the best ep of season 4 and that’s fair, except troy treats poor Britta like crap)

Start it with Annie waking up in Jeff’s bed and sneaking out

Maybe they are kind of avoiding eye contact that day

When Jeff has his speech to Troy about how he wishes he was brave enough to commit to a relationship, maybe a line about how knowing troy makes him feel braver? Implied he’s thinking about Annie

At the end of the episode he goes to talk to Annie and it’s obvious he’s going to suggest they actually date but before he gets there she cuts him off and says:

“Jeff, knowing you has really helped me relax. I love that I don’t always have to be thinking of the future! I can just live my life and see where things go. I guess I’m more mature now!”

As she wanders off, it’s clear that Jeff is devastated

Then never address it again in season 4

In season 5, maybe one glance in the first episode that makes it clear that they aren’t sure where they left off

In the polygraph episode just add a line where pierce conveys to the gang

“did you know Mr. Winger and Ms. Edison have been seeing each other since they got back to greendale?”

Everyone is shocked

Jeff cries out “how could he know that”

Annie is like “pierce promised our monthly coffee catch ups were confidential!” Or something

Then when questioned, both insist “we’re casual! It’s casual!”

The rest of the season, their interactions are a bit different. They hold hands when people aren’t looking, he’s shown holding her food or bringing her coffee.

Season 5 finale

in the show has the Jeff-Britta engagement. If we really need to keep that we can have Jeff/Annie say they’ve ended things at the start of the episode.

But I say we get rid of the subplot.

Maybe instead he and Annie are talking about ending things in their casual relationship since it’s ~casual~ and they are going to have to separate when the school is closed.

And maybe she’s like “it works out; Abed wants to downsize to a cheaper place anyway; I’m going to transfer out of the city because city college doesn’t have forensics so I guess I’m moving.”

Both are sad

After Jeff’s burst of emotion that opens the door, Jeff stops Annie at the end of the episode

He says “I’m tired of pretending not to have emotions. I don’t want us to be casual, we saved the school so you can stay” and she’s like “but abed already found a one bedroom”

He’s like “move in with me.” She agrees.

Then in season 6, they just are together but it’s only shown in a few throwaway lines an episode

She can even still leave him for her job in the finale if they want it to be sad, but I’d prefer if in their last scene together, he’s like “I’ve never left Colorado but I’ve always wanted to travel, can I come with you?”

Because I hated that Jeff never got to go anywhere in his life

I think this way would lead to minimal changes, like max one subplot would need changing and like one minute’s worth of scenes for every episode I mentioned.

In conclusion:

hook up in season 4 Christmas ep; get outed in the polygraph episode; make it official in season 5 finale

[ratguy-nico]

2# Father of the Bob

And this is a perfect example of a great episode beyond a holiday special episode (I didn’t even realized that it was a christmas special until I read the series wiki)

The episode gets me since minute one. Since the very first scene I knew this episode would be it. And is just that this first scene is devastating, seeing how Big Bob demerit Bob’s efforts and ideas, he doesn’t even take a moment to think about how this hurts Bob, it’s not important, is not a moment that would mark Bob for life, is just another day. It makes me sick.

Then I saw the 15 minutes rule, and it reminded me so much of my own relationship with my grandma that Big Bob became immediately a villain in my head, some hurtful man who didn’t care about his son, but oh boy if I was wrong.

Big Bob is not a villain, is not a bad man, he’s just a very imperfect dad. Because yeah (for me) Big Bob is not a good dad, not a bad dad either, and I get this for others episodes as well.

Big Bob wasn’t a great dad, he loves Bob of course, but he also hurt him deeply over the years and since a young age, but how the serie deal with this is what amazed me. Big Bob in this moment of his life, where he thinks he already lost his son, is still trying to change, which is huge for me.

Big Bob, even if at first didn't wanted to admit it, understand why Junior go, why they couldn’t work together and finally recognize that he made things in the wrong way, and he is indeed trying to change and be more accesible and communicative, we see more of this in further episodes. But he doesn’t do this expecting for Bob to go back, he does it because is the right thing to do, is what needs to be done.

I’m not trying to say Bob wasn’t also in the wrong, cause he was, but he’s the one to extend the branch of olive and he does it in the best way possible.

Who knew this man could actually communicate his feelings in such an on point way. Damn.

And know that we are in this scene and I have to clarify this next part is my brain looking too deep into things. (pls bare with me)

For me this whole scene in Pete’s Gay Bar alludes not only to Bob’s burgers ideas or him running away from Big Bob's Dinner, but is also about his sexuality (and maybe even his autism).

Bob can not believe his father is just so comfortable in this kind of place, surrounding by people that are just like Bob, this parts that Bob always thought his father couldn’t accept, this parts of him he couldn’t even voice out loud himself. Cause in this scene is obvious they both know, but they just don't talk about it. Bob assumes Big Bob will never accept it and Big Bob try to not mention it cause he doesn’t get it, but he wants to get it, want to understand, but he doesn’t tell Junior any of this, maybe under the assumption that Junior doesn’t even care cause it just too late.

The line “You have weird and happy kids” broke me. Big Bob knows as well as Bob that the kids are different, neurodivergent, but don’t have the knowledge to refer properly about it. Big Bob accepting the fact that the kids are weird but still amazing and, most important, happy as they are, close the circle of him rejecting his son in the past for being weird and ungrateful (not happy) and for the cherish on the top he says “You are a good dad” cause yeah Bob is certainly doing it better than him at the past.

I really love this episode so much, maybe even more that the actual Top 1 but for now here it is. Is a complex episode, that I could see over and over and still think more about it.

EXTRAS

I love how passive-aggressive Linda is with Big Bob, she really wants for him and Bob to have a good relationship and she forced as she does with her own parents. But in this and other episodes is clear that she doesn't forgive Big Bob for all the things he put Bob trough.

The kids are the glue on the episode. With their innocence and naivety in the matter they get to bring the family together. They don’t get why their dad doesn't like Pop Pop but they don’t really care, they like their Grandpa and that’s what matters.

I kind of ship Big Bob and Pete, there it is I said it. Leave me alone. This destroy all my discourse but I just love the idea of Big Bob finding love again and in this man that obviously support him and like him the way he is, they get each other. Shut Up! leave alone.

Oh and "Baby You Can Chive My Car Burger" is so special to me, I'm just waiting for the right moment to cook it, is like one of my dreams in real life.

[outrunningthedark]

I’m not new to the 911 fandom, this is my third, if we don’t count 2020 winter hiatus, and it was never so calm, just think about last year the billions ff, and fan videos about eddie leaving, or the multitude of buddie Christmas ff, now everything is almost silent. We can say 911 it’s not the buddie show, and it’s true, but buddie was a very strong driving force to watch it, with the almost 0 scenes of 6a, a lot of people re just leaving

Yep. It's not the Buddie show (but Tim wants to make LS the T-rlos show, LOL), but there's no denying that the Buddie fandom is what keeps the conversation going on social media - and Tim knows that, because after s4 he admitted he wanted the shooting scene to be something fans couldn't stop talking about. There's only so much speculation that can be done when we're given so little to work with, and personally, I think it's gotten to a point where people (even the ones who tried to stay optimistic) are tired of reading/hearing about how a story line *could* play out when we've seen time and again that the show very rarely devotes the kind of attention to Buddie we expect in the aftermath of something important for those two as friends and potential romantic partners. Idk what the show is doing with Buddie right now, but it's still not a slow burn. Two characters not speaking to each other unless it's necessary and not about anything personal is not the recipe for romance in the fifth season. Had those guys spoken to others/been called out by others for obvious "issues" with their dynamic, there would be cause to celebrate because at least we're in the know on why they're acting different, but opting not to do even that tells me the plan (if there is one) isn't up to the level of fandom's expectations. The way this show operates...we're more likely to get two or three episodes "hinting at" something more and then, oh, hey, look who's dating now.

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: December 2023

And so the year draws to a close! Big movie month and hoping to carry that over into the new year.

……….FILM……….

Turning Red (2022) Late to the game on this but it’s so great! When they talk about the ritual and that the words to the music don’t matter, I knew it was gonna lead to 4*Town playing a key role, but what they did on top of that was a genuine surprise and what takes this to the next level: they embrace the obvious setups but add an extra twist to the payoffs. So great.

The Fate of the Furious (2017) Okay I really love the idea of evil Dom so this movie moooooostly works. I’m still getting caught up on the series but even knowing that Han is alive, it’s still baffling that Shaw is embraced by the crew. He killed that whole hospital wing! 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) These are of course Christmas films and I’ve noticed a transition in myself having not seen them for many years. I once liked the earlier movies for how faithful they were to recreating the books, but I now see how that the accuracy is at the expense of the movie’s pacing. Still really impressed with how well cast the core trio is even at this age.

The Santa Clause (1994) Nostalgia overwhelms my perspective on this but, as far as I can tell, this holds up pretty well. Starting Scott off as just...kinda the worst makes his transition all the better and I think is where Tim Allen is at his best. Plus a lot of really great sight gags which I don’t really see anymore (like the Denny’s full of sad dads).

Confess, Fletch (2022) Fun and the sort of movie I wish got made more often. Not all of the humour really landed but the characters were engaging and the mystery lead to a lot of fun. Perfectly decent rainy day watch.

The Night Before (2015) A lot of ups and downs with this one. At it’s best it’s very funny but when it slows down it really grinds to a halt. I wonder if the hangover movies have the same challenge. Also 100% thought the steroid injection was insulin.

Frosty the Snowman (1969) and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1970) Two Rankin Bass classics that really highlight the best that this production company could do.

No Hard Feelings (2023) and Easy A (2010) The former was a pretty fun comedy that didn’t have a lot of comedy and the later was a comedy that I remember loving when it came out but not really connecting upon rewatch. Would I still recommend both? I think so, but only lightly.

……….TELEVISION……….

Blue Eye Samurai (Episode 1.01 to 1.04) A good chunk into the season and really digging it. The characters are rich and layered and the show is doing a good job of exploring those layers in an engaging story. Plus the setting/time period allows for a lot of really great visuals. Definitely making the most out of the premise and stoked for the rest of the season.

Poker Face (Episode 1.08 to 1.10) Such a satisfying series. The majority of the episodes stand on their own but the bigger picture occasionally pops up, until the end of the season where it becomes the main focus. Just like TV used to be! Really beautiful wardrobe and set design, all the actors seem to be having a great time, and each episode feels thoroughly realized. Big fan can’t recommend enough. 

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Episode 1.07 to 1.08) Came into it expecting something else and it’s gonna take some time to adjust to what it was. Gotta rewatch but really no complaints! 

……….YOUTUBE……….

Plagiarism and You(Tube) by hbomberguy Yes I did watch a 4 hour video on plagiarism and you should too. VIDEO

when the director is overqualified for the job by CinemaStix I never really considered how similar the early Harry Potter movies but it all makes sense. VIDEO

Stop Taking ANY Advice From TikTok by Extranet Shaquille A quick and light reminder that social media isn’t worried about truth or accuracy in any way. VIDEO

The Marvelization of Cinema by Stories of Old This succinctly explains (to me, at least) why some modern remakes/sequels/reimaginings land and some don’t. In short you gotta ask if it’s purpose is to tell a story or maintain a brand. VIDEO

……….READING……….

There is a Tide aka Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie (Page 122 of 224) Picked up a bunch of old Agatha Christie books at a thrift store (partly because of the cool covers, partly cause I like mystery as a genre but never read it). Turns out this is EXACTLY what I needed right now. It’s been a while since I was this stoked to keep going with a story and this specific story feels like a great influence on the first Knives Out movie in that it’s centred around a lot of family drama vying for control of a deceased benefactor’s money. So stoked and gonna grab more of these when I can. Hey do you have old DELL copies of Christie novels you don’t want? Lemme know.

Tiger in the Stars by Zach Hughes (Complete) Okay so I picked this up while thrifting. There were DOZENS of these Laser Books and figured I’d try one and see what they were like. Turns out...not that great. Some fun ideas but moved at a snail’s pace and felt like there was a lot of padding. Something like this feels like a Goosebumps book (short, quick output, somewhat formulaic) but in comparison, I think I’d prefer R. L. Stein.

Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 2 by Ryoko Kui (Complete) Again rereading as the series draws to a close and it’s still such a joy. These characters are fully formed right from the beginning and it’s such a good study in dramatic escalation as right now it still feels light and fun and I love it.

The Michael Moorcock Library: The Chronicles of Corum Vol. 1: The Knight of Swords by Mike Baron, Mike Mignola, Rick Burchett, & Kelly Jones (Complete) Love these illustrated retellings of the old pulp fantasy novels. Sometimes the limited page count leads to pacing that feels rushed and a scale that feels smaller than the grandiosity of the subject matter, but every adaptation requires sacrifice. Gonna keep going with this series and also try to find the original books!

……….AUDIO……….

Cold & Blue All Over (Demo) by Blue Freezie (2023) A little punk, a little surf rock, a little rockabilly, and all a good time. Big fan of this album and hoping there’s more to come.

……….GAMING……….

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The Tuesday D&D crew is back in Neverland and sorting out this Elf problem! They’ve killed one and are on their way to killing some more. It’s more nuanced than that and you can read all about it here.

Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The Mof1 D&D crew just robbed a funeral and started a riot! Who knows what’s gonna happen next.

And that’s it. See you in January!

[roseposts-stuff]

hello folks!!! it is time for doctor who series 9 rankings!!!

1. Heaven Sent (9x11) - peak. fucking. doctor who. one of my (and many other's) favourite episodes of ALL TIME and for a REASON!!!! it's so clever and well written and well acted and it's visually GORGEOUS like!!! peter capaldi is so good and i firmly believe he's the only actor who could've pulled this off, basically a 50 minute monologue come on man!!! i wish i could watch it for the first time again it's brilliant

2. Face the Raven (9x10) - SO GOOD!!! i love rigsy and i'm so glad he came back haha. clara's death is actually so heartbreaking and SJSJSJ the conversation between her and the doctor omg THE WAY SHE USES HER LAST MOMENTS TO MAKE SURE HE WON'T SEEK REVENGE OR ANYTHING OMG i love that!!! and it's also like visually so so so beautiful like visuals are a big part of how much i enjoy an episode as you might have noticed if you've seen my rankings before, like honestly i don't care too much about if the cgi is good or not etc. but them colours and lights and stuff need to be right!!!!!

3. Under the Lake/Before the Flood (9x3/9x4) - this is, again, SO good, i LOVE timey wimeyness doctor who should do WAY MORE timey wimeyness like you're a time travel show, USE IT!!!! i like the side characters and the beginning of before the flood with 12 explaining bootstrap paradox to the audience is so great and THE FADE FROM 12'S GUITAR TO THE THEME!!! it makes me so happy

4. Hell Bent (9x12) - is it a perfect episode? no. but i think it gets SO MUCH undeserved hate. i love love love clara in this, and the scene where her or the doctor have to forget everything is so good imo. i'm really interested in gallifrey and i haven't seen much of classic who yet so i take every scene in new who very gratefully and with great interest. i THINK people criticise the episode for having 12 suddenly be so ready to kill and stuff, and in any other episode i'd agree, but after heaven sent and the way his and clara's relationship is so codependent and toxic, it makes complete sense in my opinion. i loved when the doctor and me met at the end of the universe it was interesting imo, and i LOVEEEE that clara and me's TARDIS is the same one 11, river and the ponds were in series 6!!! and i like the way first you think clara has forgotten stuff but then you find out it's 12 who did (idk if it was obvious to everyone else but me, you can fool me so so so easily it's not even funny i believe almost anything the plot wants me to believe. which probably greatly affects the fact that i can enjoy doctor who so easily.) yeah i really really enjoy this episode

5. Last Christmas (9x0) - honestly why don't people talk about this episode more?? like it's SO interesting and just a bit scary, i love love love the idea of dreams inside dreams, like i don't really have complaints about this episode tbh it's really great and has a fascinating concept

6. The Husbands of River Song (9x0) - this is peak comedy i was laughing half of the duration of the episode probably, i love river obviously, and i liked her and 12 together. gotta love nardole as well lmao. i don't have much to say except SLAY socialist 12 and this is so funny like 80% of the run time, which is how a christmas special should be

7. The Girl Who Died (9x5) - i like this one!! 12 acting like he's a norse god and then the guy appearing in the sky and 12 tries to impress everyone with a yoyo was absolutely hilarious to me, that's peak humour in my mind. me was a bit annoying in this one can't lie like this is my least favourite me appearance, because HOW was she so stupid like girl i know those random guys you live with would've started fighting without a second thought but you're so much cleverer than them come on, but whatever, i forgive her i did care about her in the end. i loved the 12th doctor realising why he chose the face like YASSS GIRL!!!! and them making the video was so funny and random i ADORE 12 and clara in this, and i love the theme of immortality it's very interesting and i love when it's explored in doctor who

8. The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion (9x7/9x8) - i think it's. good. i love clara controlling the zygon it was sooo interesting and the sort of space she's in felt so weird and interesting i loved it, and obviously the doctor's speech is fantastic and peter capaldi delivers it perfectly. however, i do think it's not that well paced or something, like sometimes it feels really slow and sometimes everything is happening at once, and basically reasons to watch it would be 12's speech and jenna coleman. i did like osgood as well tho and obviously i'm the biggest kate lethbridge-stewart stan i take anything with her even if she's in it for 2 seconds

9. The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar (9x1/9x2) - i LOVE the doctor and davros' interactions and missy and clara are brilliant together. i love missy. the opening is brilliantly funny, i adore 12 SO MUCH, i love that he plays his guitar god knows in what century and teached the people the word "dude" i LOVE that, and how he just appeared in his davros chair and had tea what an icon i'm his biggest fan, i don't care if it makes no sense i'm here for the entertainment and that's what i got. but like i mentioned in the last series ranking... steven moffat does NOT understand the daleks. i respect him a lot as a writer, but he can't for the life of him write the daleks. "Into the Dalek" i can excuse because it's fun enough and the radiation is probably affecting the creature's biology, but this episode acting like the cases or armour or whatever are the ones controlling how the daleks act is just bullshit, the daleks are a genetically engineered race full of hate, not just some random squid aliens inside propaganda cases for god's sake. funny how the daleks of this dalek episode are the worst thing in it

10. The Woman Who Lived (9x6) - i enjoy this episode, i don't think it's bad, but it's not good enough to deserve to be higher on this list. me is an interesting enough character and i like that she doesn't remember everything, it's really fascinating. i also like how she's pretty much morally grey, a bit like the doctor. yeah, it's enjoyable but nothing special imo, and sometimes i just. didn't get the plot, which i understand and can excuse because it focuses on me and the doctor but i dislike the plot and the lion alien

11. Sleep No More (9x9) - it is a bit boring isn't it? i don't actively hate it, and i really appreciate the way it's filmed, i think it's really cool. i LOVE that we're kinda the monsters there and that it's a sort of video, but it doesn't save it from the fact that it's utterly tedious

[asherlockstudy]

just a new fan of rhett and link coming through😄… i want you to know that i've become obsessed with reading you'r posts about them.. btw i think you can't watch and know their story and NOT ship them.. i'm sorry, i mean LOOK at them. every thing they've gone through together, all the changes.. but the only constant is them, together every step of the way….i just- agghhhhh it drives me crazy.

But anyway i was reading one of you'r posts where you said something about their cutest phase being arond 2013- 2014. you also talked about it with an anon a couple of days ago, so i had to share my thoghts on that. and i completely agree, going back and watching that period you can really see it. rhett was being so cute and giggly, all the time about anything link would say, and he could BERELY take his EYES off of link.. and the eye contact was wild… I just.. i love it so much😳 But do you think that same feelings is as strong today? I wonder.. some times i feel like now when they would get a bit.. intimate it's a bit… performative…idk i might be wrong.. i just loved the stoling glanses, soaked with love, that i feel like there were so many of them back then.. but please till me if you think i'm just reading the whole situation wrong😌..

Hello! I am glad you have been enjoying the posts!

I don't think you read the situation wrongly, in fact I believe you are totally correct. There are several potential reasons for this change however and I find perhaps all of them reasonable and normal.

Like I wrote in that post you mentioned, according to the theory 🤷🏻‍♀️ their affair must have started some time in 2014 or early 2015 at most. Their situation back then was critically different than it is now:

The time they really started being romantic was also the time they started getting shipped. Incidentally. Or maybe not. However they were still very new at this game at the time, both how to handle their audience and how to behave with each other under their new status were completely new tasks. They didn't have a good understanding of how they appeared to their viewers and they were completely oblivious to how obvious they were. This is why they were more candid in the past. Now they are painfully aware, especially Rhett, so much so that they even maximise various interactions in their minds. It was a lesson slowly learned and still not perfected - have you seen their constant look of horror every time they watch back episode favourites with Rhink moments every christmas?

Then it's also the natural flow of time. Back then everything was new to them. Their decades long friendship was becoming something new, something even more intense. They were exploring their sexualities anew in ways they were once determined not to, in ways that until then they considered sinful and damning. At the time there wasn't any thought of getting open about it (even now this is a challenge). All this was very fresh and even though Link seems to believe that they started hopelessly late, let's not forget that at the time they were still young men at their mid thirties and given all the emotional, circumstantial and physical parameters the excitement and passion they felt must have been on the extremes. They once had a moment between them on GMM when Rhett said "You know how early in the relationship you behave like rabbits?" and Link agreed with a knowing look. This is also supported by their scripted videos; Link says in Digging A Hole that the reason they failed so bad at making a medium sized hole was that they succeeded so much at digging that they made a huge one instead. In short, these years and the ones to come up to 2019-2020 they were at their sex crazed phase, which is typical of most couples at first, let alone them who are way beyond your average couple in love.

If you notice, they are indeed sweet and soft in late 2013 till early 2016 and then from 2016 to 2021 they are straight out horny. I mean, they are always both but at first sweetness was more overpowering and then it was the horniness. This is also explained in their lore as their sexual affair went through a lot of trial and error, so you can see when sex started getting awesome and also when they finally could start setting aside their inhibitions, guilt (especially Link) and religious concerns and enjoy more unapologetically each other.

From 2020-2021 onwards, since the purchase of the creative house, I believe we have entered a new era, more mature, more contained. Things change; they are in their mid forties now, they have been together for quite a bit and also they have decided to come out, which casts the shadow of fear and severe anxiety in their relationship. Furthermore, they are not exactly on the same page (Rhett wouldn't mind not ever coming out had it not been for Link) and this wears them down and their interactions. All the fear of the future and the unknown must consume a considerable amount of their private time together. Age, getting used to each other and critical challenges are what makes them appear less lovestruck than they used to. They still do though, much more than your average 45 year old in a relationship does. I mean, it was only a year ago when Link sexily said he would FIGURATIVELY feed Rhett with words for a word game and Rhett stupidly opened his mouth to actually swallow the plastic piece with the word that Link was holding, like the proper solitary horny braincell that he is. It's just that such unbelievable levels of thoughtless horniness and love have become more sparse now that they have aged a bit and have a better understanding of how they are perceived publically. But I am happily firm in my belief that they remain extraordinarily ridiculous.

On the other hand, sometimes when they do something gay, it indeed is performative at this point. Maybe even most of the times. This is because of what they are planning to do, this has killed the spontaneity between them a great deal. Now it's more likely that they will consciously throw hints here and there than that they will slip badly due to their excessive romantic enthusiasm.

[variousqueerthings]

FISH FINGERS AND CUSTARD

doing an obvious title to get into the Eleven Era Masterpost:

Obviously I did an individual episode rundown (not counting the James Corden ones, which aren't bad but do have pre-talkshow James Corden in them, so it's at your own patience level), which I called The Measurement

Secondly I put together a google sheet via a great template by @fabiansociety with every episode of the era, the first tab of which just goes through the ratings for every individual episode, with a total score and a means per season

the second tab looks deeper at each episode, with pros, cons, recommendation, important plot points, and watching importance, as well as the suggested watch I made for my partner and doesn't need to be followed

ON TO THE RUNDOWN:

season five has an average score of 61 out of 100 (not counting the eleventh hour, which at the time was only rated on nine points), a highscore of 71, and a lowscore of 42. The season rated highest on respect for past Doctor Who and relative clarity of episodes, and lowest on companion relevancy and general politics

(highest rated the hungry earth/cold blood, lowest rated the pandorica opens)

season six has an average score of 62 out of 100, a highscore of 86 (shared by two episodes, and a lowscore of 37. The season rated highest on not objectifying women and not making the Doctor too Godlike/overly important, and lowest on companion relevancy, female emotional interiority, and politics

(highest rated the girl who waited and the god complex, lowest rated the marriage of river song)

season seven (including the 5oth anniversary special and final episode) has an average score of 58 out of 100, a highscore of 82, and a lowscore of 36. The season rated highest on not being too annoyingly "sexy" all the time and not objectifying women, and lowest on politics and world-building

(highest rated cold war lowest rated the time of the doctor)

overall the seasons rated low on every season finale and Christmas Special. the writer who overwhelmingly scored lowest was Steven Moffat. Mark Gatiss scores from very low to very high. Chris Chibnall is mostly reliable (with the exception of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, which I'm willing to give him benefit of the doubt on some of that dialogue being... him)

and now we've gotten some vaguely statistical stuff out of the way (see the rest on the google sheet) I can say how I feel about this era

1 I think watching it the way that I did gave me much more goodwill towards the parts that I very much enjoyed, as well as more words to go through why I didn't like what I didn't. the problem with Steven M*ffat's first run is that it takes some of the worse impulses of RTD's era (the Doctor being presented as overly Super-Powery With A Tragic Past As Trope), went way harder on them, patted himself on the back the whole way, and was incredibly, inordinately sexist and misogynist in treatment of women and worldview of women's roles

2. the interesting thing looking through my ratings is that I don't, on the whole, remember the politics sticking out that much, but that's because M*ffat was attempting to be apolitical with Eleven, which is a way of bringing out some of ones more conservative "unquestioned" inner politics

for M*ffat this looked like a glorification of military, monarchy, and Institutional Powers that aren't beholden to the people, alongside an ableist strand that simplified characters to words like "psychopath," and -- like in RTD's era -- a sort of colourblind approach to character that could often either lead to there simply being less people of colour around or casting people of colour in roles that were quite thankless. there are very very great people of colour in various roles, in The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, The God Complex, Hide to an extent... but it's way too few and too far between. Correct me if I'm wrong also but Lucian Msamati in Vampires of Venice is the single Black guy we've got who's in a main episode role and isn't presented as villainous, cowardly, or stupid? (do nooot come at me with Journey to the Centre...)

(note that this seems to be much more self-aware going into RTD2, but I want to be clear that not everything in M*ffat's era was only in M*ffat's era, but I do think it was made worse... and the sexism though, oh boy)

3. Now for the more contentious bits: I think Matt Smith is the weakest actor to play the Doctor. that's not to say he's bad, but I don't buy his deep weariness, his anger, his intelligence, or his compassion-born-from-pain. I do buy his playfulness, his childishness, his flightiness, his stubborness, his meanness, and his sadness, but in the end I don't think he could grasp the full 3D complexity of this role, which to me led to a depiction that I could best describe as "that petulant fuckboy you met at a party one time with mommy and tantrum issues who thinks he's smart about the world because he's good at economics." that's a tad unfair, there's definitely more going on than just that, but when the Doctor makes me feel uncomfortably like I'm watching guys I've known at times that I never want to meet again, that's going to make it impossible for me to suspend my disbelief.. you've got to be able to sell that this silly creature is incredibly powerful without that seeming... a bit, well, silly and/or cruel

in episodes that play to his strengths, or in which he plays more of a supporting role, he does a great job, and I particularly think he does well on the extreme rambles while also making some sense, but the second he made a grand speech I was lost. this wasn't helped by M*ffat deciding to once again... up some of the worse impulses of RTD's era (many of these which came from him) and make Doctor Who ostensibly even sexier. Matt Smith very much tried to lean into some of that dialogue, but as M*ffat had River Song say in his own episode, he's got the face of a twelve-year-old

it's also hard to unsee that Karen Gillan was cast for her looks, and how the writing plays into that rather than character building and I think a lot of her acting (possibly directed to be as such) tries to "prettify" her rather than is... good

and lastly, with all that sexism and at-best centrist politics, the childishness of the seasons also makes me uncomfortable at times -- not that this isn't for kids, but when the tone veers wildly from "wow Dinosaurs on a Spaceship!!!" to "I'm going to put this woman over my knee and spank her," I'm going to say that that's jarring (and yes, I'm constantly bringing up that episode, but it happens in many ways in many places throughout the run, more or less obviously)

4. that being said, I really like the overarching plot of Eleven's run being surprisingly simple underneath all the flash:

Ten regenerates under bad circumstances into Eleven, who crashes into a little girl called Amy's garden, and due to the nature that we learn Eleven has -- the most Peter Pan syndrome out of all of them -- constantly lets her down, while trying to outrun the past, and eventually, although she loves him, she grows out of him and goes to live her life

Eleven then steps away from people entirely, becoming sullen, uncommunicative, and unhelpful, until very quickly sucked back into trying to help a woman called Clara who's stuck in some kind of eternally recreating across different times life. after losing her twice, he commits to helping her, and they become quite casually very very good friends, without a lot of the baggage that was around with the Doctor's relationship with Amy

I don't hate this story. I frequently hate how it's presented, how Amy and Clara are depicted, and I am not a fan of River Song's writing in practically every one of her appearances. but if I imagine this Doctor as trying to escape from deep personal connection and therefore eschewing "the average person" in favour of presenting themself as the most impressive being of all time... I can make that work on a meta narrative

if I strip out the very worst episodes and muddle through some of the middly ones, this era isn't bad, and is frequently very very good and works well in tandem with what came before (with Nine and Ten) and what comes after

but boy am I happy it's done with I'm not going to lie, some of that was like pulling teeth!

[popculturebuffet]

Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space Retrospective: Moai Better Blues (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy freelance police and welcome back to my look at the sam and max telltale games! We're onto season 2 episode 2. After a little christmas in august we're having a science fiction double feature for halloween as this review ended up behind due to a new member of the family.

This is Maddie. She's 5, she's precious, she's very loud , and she's very attached to me.

But even new fluffy good girls with spangly collars can't stop the march of sam and max.

Following up from our heroes adventures in the north pole, this ep finds our heroes dealing with an adventure that's weird even by sam and max standards. And I want to let that sink in because we spent last season stopping a child star hynosis crime ring, starring in a one episode sitcom with a british chicken don knotts, inflitrating a mafia chuck e cheese, running for president against a horny lincoln memorial, murdering the internet and finally facing down with a sentient plankton colony via psychic powers and magic tricks on the moon. And that's not even getting into that guy who would never put his hands down. What was his deal?

So what lies in the greatest mountain of sam and max madness? Stoned Moai, triangular portals, sea monkeys, ghost godlfish, baby jimmy hoffa and horny statue love triangles. So join me under the cut for the madness.

We open with our heroes returning from the North Pole a month after the previous game, with it now snowing, providing a nice atmosphere to things. Before they can get back to the usual banter some fresh nonsense comes in: A triangle chasing their beloved friend Sybil.

It has a neat design too, red, pulsating with lines... it's an excellent triangle all things considered. B+

At any rate we need to stop it, so we go to the wisest sage for weird shit there is: Bosco. It's a nice way to keep him still useful while not having him be one of your item guys. Bosco is getting ready to bunker down from T.H.E.M.

But tells our hero their new foe is a bermuda triangle, an eldtirch shape that sucks people up to another place, and can only be stopped with most of the shapes. Most.. never come into play and are just for a good joke, like blue polyheadrons making them really want to roll them dice and maybe start a live play with a dungeon master with long hair and the voice of god.

The important one is red hexagons stop them.. and the game was REALLY unhelpful with this one. I did have my hints flavor blasted up to the maximum max could do without bursting a kidney.. but he just kept saying the shape and outright told me to go back to the office.. where it entirely wasn't. WE do have a new trophy though, boxing betty. So.. that's nice?

The solution lies in Stinky's diner, where i'd gone earlier since the Cops can't do buisness over the sound of screaming. Amateurs. Stinky can though even with the racket outisde and gives us a granite sandwitch that i'm pretty sure just.. sat in my inventory all chapter. Seriously you don't relaly use it for anything even when you think it'd be obvious like replacing a stone max's ear, and it's more just to set up getting a basalt sandwich from her later. It's on the kid's menu only though.

She is useful in that she has a stop sign for you and with some spray paint from your headquaters, you can make it deep red. Before we go though another beloved supporting character makes a cameo: Flint Paper. I just love how despite being grizzly and willing to beat up random strangers for money, as are we, Flint just.. cheerfully greets our heroes with a hey fellas every time. He's just so happy to see our heroes and they have a deep genuine admiration for him. Like with Sybil in the first episodes, it's nice to see someone our heroes actually like and unlike Sybil, it's nice to see there's at least one person they haven't traumtized. Yet. He's watching Bosco for Bosco's Mom who'se understandably worried about her son because you know, his whole deal.

For now though we go to stop the triangle in the name of love... only for hilariously this all to be mostly pointless as once Sybil stops, Abe shows up , gets sucked in and she goes after him. It's off to Easter Island!

Turns out Sybil and Lincoln are fine and are just enjoying the nice weather. Once again.. this is a dead end puzzle wise as the two are just there to move their subplot along. Unlike the sandwich though, it's at least entertaning.. and mildly creepy as Abe perves on one of the moai present.

Why the bermuda triangle lead to easter island.. is not something we'll be getting into here. What matters is the moai see sam and max as their savior. Well the middle one, a kindly lady moai abe's creeping ion, is. The left one has half his face buried and is contstantly upset, projecting storm clouds when pissed off that are naturally useful, and the right one is

And is largely useless, mostly just sniping at you.

Each has a power of the elements: Rain for the buried one, wind for the nice one and earth for the pedantic douchebag. The fire one was sadly was scattered to the winds long ago, but he did leave behind a son at least to carry on his legacy

At any rate before we can use the powers of nature itself for fun and profit, we have some problems: As it turns out the nearbye volcano is about to erupt and murder them all due to some understandable but tragic errors

Problem is someone's guarding his lair... and if you haven't played the game yourself, I warn you: You are not remotely ready. I sure wasn't. So whose in our heroes way? Why it's Jimmy HOffa in the body of a baby!

Yeah... look I love Sam and Max for being so gloriously weird. Weird as hell is one of my faviorite kinds of humor as long as their's direction behind the chaos. But It's still easily the biggest what the fuck moment the franchise has thrown me so far and that's with this happening last chapter

Granted I got spoiled there is some sort of payoff to the Mariachis via a thumbnail, and there is some actual logic behind this.. but even for this franchise "Jimmy Hoffa whose in the body of an infant because he drank too much from the fountain of youth pointing a gun at yoU" is a bit much. And more to the point they NEVER explain why he's working for the episodes big bad.

I.. can't help but love it though BECAUSE it's such a uniquely stupid swing: they had this idea, found a way to have it logically make sense and then put it in the game in full, all while giving us a ton of great jokes as Sam cannot ressit teasing him on the fact he's a baby.

We'll deal with this teamster later, for now we meet the other rugrats on this island: Amelia Earheart, DB Cooper, and The LIndburgh Baby... .

Their mostly here to set up a surfboarding mini game which frustrated me. It's not the game itself, it's a fun enough little distraction if fairly hard to get the analogue controls down on my switch version. It felt like the kind of browser game i'd play as a kid.

My annoyance.. is that the game dosne't tell you that you get nothing for it until you've triggered the right story event. So I went through the whole thing for nothing. Thankfully I also enabled mini game skipping.... I still will TRY not to use it often as these are part of the game and thus need to be evaluated as much as the point and click parts, but in this case i'd already done the actual task so when it asked me to again. As for why again, the trick to getting rid of our little friend involves serving him a drink, using a tiki glass you can pick up at the bar those dumb babies are at. But he'll only take union waitstaff, so you have to play the game to get cerfitied by him. IT makes about as much sense as it sounds. Ah back to normal for this franchise.

To actually do anything though we need some fountain of youth water unfortunately there's something in it

So to take care of them we have to complete a few other tasks

First is the COPS. As i'm guessing is standard for every chapter,we have another driving VR Game from them, this time a fun rythum based one with the beats going as you drive on them. THey thought it'd change the world.. those poor dumb bastards. It's clearly a jab at guitar hero, but it's a decent challenge while still being a lot of fun.

With that we get a car horn and that's the key to our next puzzle: We need to help Glenn Miller, a wwII era band leader whose also now a baby, stage his comback by giving him that new sound he's been looking for. Since the horn plays i've been workin on the railroad, it's just the ticket. He just needs a whistle sound, which you easily get by dumping some gasoline disguised as a drink into a nearbye fire, setting off a tea kettle. He gives you a conch with the single recorded on it. Apparently The Bermuda Triangles also visited skypeia.

Using the dial, we can finally solve our pirahana puzzle.. in theory. In practice it's utterly frustrating if you can't figure out the trick, not helped by Max CONSITENTLY telling me to use the thunder storm moai.

Breaking it down: using the glen miller dial conch, you play it for the nice moai, which gets her whistling. Now when you tick off her half buried friend next to you, which naturally max does with ease and maybe too much glee.. in fact i'm starting a " Going to Hell For This" counter, for each time we ruin someone's life, torture them or what have you to progress, or just for funzies, as we did it a LOT last season and so far have done it a lot. Now I"ll make acceptions for say outright villians or people who deserve it. And even then it'/s about proportions. For example, pelting the soda poppers with urine and bleach? Acceptable, their the soda poppers. Need I say more. But even if Jimmy Two Teeth sucks a LOTTT, nearly driving him to unalive himself is a bit much, not helped by Max's reaction essentially being

He certainly thought it hard enough. So we'll count that one, still keeping leonard hostage after almost a year, sending santa to hell (even if he was possesed), and not bothering to actually help save christmas. So going into this episode we have

Things We're Going To To Hell For: 4 And we can add from this episode taunting that poor moai.

Things We're Going to Hell Fort: 5

So I assumed both from the hint ONLY mentoing the moai , who creates a little storm cloud when uspet and the wind we were supposed to blow it at jimmy hoffa. Instead... it does nothing. It just dissipates if blown too far and never gets near him. Instead we use the portals, which are frustrating as the game makes it clear the two near the entrance are connected.. but dosen't make it clear EVERY portal is connected this way.

The solution is to open one by the fountain of youth, then open another next to the underground moai, have the good moai blow the cloud and boom, a LOT of dead pirhanas and a free fountain of youth. Also

Things We're Going To Hell For: 6

And with that we can use the glass to scoop some up, give it to hoffa... and blink him out of existance. THings We're Going To Hell For: Still 6 (He Deserved It Yo) It's REALLY sad when killing someone by making them age themselves out of existance isn't the worst thing we've done today. Or even this month.

This event also moves along Sybil's subplot for the season and who boy. Strap yourselves in because I haven't seen a character nosedive this fast in many moons. So the whole episode, Abe and Sybil have been picnicking, only doing that on Abe's suggestion.. and only so he can oggle the middle good moai. Yeah after several episodes of at worst being out of touch and mildly annoying.. abe's somehow lept straight to the bottom and is perving on someone right in front of his girlfriend and THEN asks her to have plastic surgery to look more like the moai.

Sybil runs off in tears.. and SOMEHOW, SOMEHOW, this gets worse... as Abe THEN tries to hit on the moai. To her credit she shoots him down fast and we get a great response out of him, a casual "that's fair". So he's still funny he's just WAY more of an asshat. I mean granted we just committed two murders in a row, so i'd SAY we can't judge.. but those murders were to save a LOT of lives from death and were of a bunch of fish and a murderous infant man.

Anyways with this we enter our final puzzle set, continuing from the formula laid out last time. Sadly.. they also fall into a fairly trite, terrible stereotype. It's forgivable enough for the time.. but it's still pretty tone deaf. I can't blame them for fixing it as unlike the various lines corrected for save the world, this is a large part of the plot and thus really coudn't be futzed with.. but it's still not great.

Okay so for our final stretch our heroes run into your standard tone deaf "the natives are stupid and belivie anything is their god" plot only this time it's sea monkeys.

Yeah.. they.. really coudl've thought this one out a bit more. We have to convince them max is their god/chosen one/whatever instead, in order to replace an old advesary: Mr. Spatula, sam and max's goldfish whose mad he's died and thus is willing to take an island with him. Now you may recall, even if I didn't name him last time, he died. And he did. THIS IS HIS GHOST.

So to prove ourselves we have to do three tasks. The first is easy and I stumbled into accidently: We have to make the water into BANANG!, an energy drink powder bosco happens to have a lot of.

To get it away from him, we have to torment him.. again. This time we simply radio in, claim to be THEM

And Bosco goes deeper underground, there's too much panic in this town. So we got the powder.. but we also traumtized a friend for life so

Things We're Going To Hell For: 7

Next is adding an ear to a rock formation that looks like max. Once again the sandwitch is useless.. except as a clue. We finally need that basalt sandwitch for kidz, so it's time to use the fountain of youth water on ourselves.. and ONCE AGAIN the game gets frustrating as you transform back very fast from drinking it. The trick is to use a gong I honestly forgot about in Stinky's diner max reminded me of. I can't tell if I just suck at adventure games or this is poor level design.

Anyways we get the Basalt and get a really funnys equence with douchecanoe moai as it turns out dude just needed to blaze it and basalt gets moai REALLY good and fucked up. With that he casually laughs and dislodges a stalctite we use to finish the max.

We then finish this section. The stone feet of the buried moai are needed to anoit us. Also yes they have hands and arms stuck in there. We simply use the shell again, this time on a portal next to the best moai , she whistles, he taps his toes and we win. Kinda.

Problem is the island's still errupting with Mr Spatula planning to take us with it. The only way to stop it? Some clever puzzlery. We get a high preist medallion from the Sea Monkeys, dip it in some red slime, then shoot the triangle, using the portals to send the red triangle through it , eating the lava.. and presumibly murdering someone but we won't worry about that. Our ride home is gone though but Abe offers a lift while the moai celebrate.. before being sad they can't move. Then their abducted by what seems to be aliens!

Moai Better Blues... is a very mixed bag. The writing as usual is hilarious, and while it's a very

Sort of chapter, it's a FUNNY sort of what the fuck is this, from the various babies, to the black comedy shenanigans as usual, to our heroes riding out on Lincoln's head. It continues episode 1's mean streak, but the weirder setting and more over the top weird black comedy bits like unexistinsing hoffa help it feel far less opressive than last time. The deaths and what we do to bosco are way more over the top. Even abe and sybil's breakup, acompained by the mysterious maraichi's, is more funny than genuinely sad. I DO feel bad for Sybil, but abe is such a dick and he gets karmically punished for it as the moai lady SHARPLY rejects him, multiple times if you want, and he looses Sybil.

Gameplay wise.. it's a lot more obtuse. A lot more relying either on memory (Which isn't good for me but is at least fair) or hoping you figure it out and with most of the max clues being way less helpful. It's a pretty meh chapter all things considered and hopefully as we get spooky next time, we also get back to our quality. Speaking of which

Next Time: VAMPIRES! Just in time for the season. And since it's the 2000's their angsty emo eurotrash vampires! Oh BoY! Thanks for reading!

[theinsanecrayonbox]

FOP: A New Wish ep1-4

alright, lets do this

long time watchers will know that i live for FOP lore, i die for FOP lore, and even in it's worst examples i try to find something of value...and then run away screaming like a lunatic to make it my own and a million times better lol

so New Wish. this is the...3rd sequel attempt (after the Live Action movies, and Fairly Odder) and could be considered the 5th continuation (if you count Sparky season and Chloe season as separate continuation attempts)

as a quick reminder, like s3-5 were my jam, Superverse is my baby forever, i hated 99% of the Sparky season, love Chloe but the season was heavily flawed, the LA movies suck (Christmas is the best only because it's a holiday special), and Fairly Odder was a huge hot mess that was very questionable

so again, lets do this

Episode 1: Fly Part 1 and 2

uhg ok first just going by the title, we are doing the stupid and counting half episodes (15 min segments) as separate full episodes again huh? i hate this, it makes keeping track of the chronology harder, and makes it so the TV Guide won't always register new episodes because they'll split a previously aired with an unaired but he guide says 'has already aired" so you miss the other new half. OR you get duplicate recordings of the same episode half because they keep pairing it with a new one and your DVR fills up and just urgh. it's terrible, 30 min blocks should be the norm again. please fix all animation peoples.

anywhos, onto the episode proper

i had seen the opening theme before this, and yes i approve of the completely revamped/brand new opening song. it's got the right vibe, but is it's own thing. they tried it with Chloe...but that just felt like a copy/paste clip show element. this is it's own thing, it evokes the original but is still itself unique.

and i guess i could do it now; the art style. i'm...eh? it's hard to explain. there's times when i'm getting an eerie uncanny valley effect where my brain says that they're like flat puppets (you know the kind you made in grade school out of construction paper and brass tabs so the joints would work) and that's not right. this isn't stop motion, but sometimes it looks it and i can't process that. it's...eh? maybe i'll be more used to it by the end of the 4th episode, and if not i'm sure over time i'll be used to it. it's not bad by any means, LEAGUES above the CGI in Fairly Odder. but it's...uncanny.

the title card being 2d while the episode isn't though is slightly jarring. HOWEVER i do appreciate having a 2d model for Hazel that is easy to see and not a blink and you'll miss is thing like in Fairly Odder (she also looks far better duh lol). it's just slightly odd to do it this way, idk maybe that's just me. it's fine.

not immediately recognizing any of the staff credits aside from the obvious...that could be good or bad...

the style is looking more stop motion clay now...weird...

but i cannot get over how many Chloe elements Hazel has to her. you've got the tooth gap, the voice is similar, the enthusiasm over learning things, collecting things. as i said above, i actually LOVE Chloe, it's just the writers didn't really use her to her full potential. it feels like Hazel is a doo-over to do it right. idk if that's a good or bad thing, because i want Hazel to stand on her own, but i also want Chloe to not just get swept up and hidden away in shame like Sparky; he deserves it, she doesn't. but back to the episode...

it is also a nice changeup that Hazel is in a more urban setting; it's still more west than east sure, but Dimmsdale was suburbia, so this is a new setting with different problems to tackle. and her being a younger child is also a new and exciting development. there is so much potential here, it is exciting!

are they going to explain why Cosmo and Wanda are pretending to be humans again? i know descriptions mentioned retirement...but why would the retain their magic...or unlimited magic at least.

is Hazel's dad the new Crocker?

Dev Dimmadome is the bully id ok...wait your dad is Dale Dimmadome?? HOLY COW! we have a spot on the timeline here folks!!! Dale was 16-18 when freed from Vicky's basement, and Dev here is a 10 year old, so this is at minimum 10 years in the future from the main series, if not more (because teen marriage/pregnancy bad, probably safe to assume Dale didn't have a kid that early). but how cool! and it makes sense that dale would move out of Dimmsdale given his history, and that his dad would give him control of stuff. ok Dev, i like you, you can be the new Remy with some Trixie and Tad and Chad blended in there.

ok that was a nice and easy and fast introduction of our supporting cast with a brief character trope to each. i like it.

heh ghost, gotta have a DP joke don't we

zomr the screencaps of Cosmo's times in space, pfftt. great continuity nod and visual gag. Totally/Spaced Out caps are obvious, the white asteroid one i don't recognize off the top of my head, but...that's an Oh Yeah! Darth Cosmo...idt they were in space for that one? how weird that they pulled s0 for this and Odder

i love it. Hazel's problems are realistic and plausible, and she's trying to deal with them in a way that makes sense. things suck, so yeah she'd need fairies. again, the element that a lot of later FOP lacked was the fact that these were mundane problems that just needed a little help to get through....and using magic usually made them worse and at the end of the day it was the lack of magic that made it better actually. i think that might be a reason why App Trap wasn't *as terrible* as the rest of the Sparky episodes, because it kinda did that...then again it had Missy and i think i focused on that way more. but conversely, that's why a lot of Chloe's episodes didn't work as well as they could've, because the situations weren't believable to start with. yes we got magic, we gonna be crazy and zany and fun and magical, but...this is also a storyline about kids learning to grow up and deal with things at their own pace. Timmy wasn't allowed to grow up after a certain point, the writers regressed him and kept him in a permanent absurd level, and that's why the series started to fail.

and i need to get back to the episode in progress, because i've already spent 40 min to get 12 min into the FIRST episode of 4 ^^; (maybe doing everything at once was a bad idea after all ^^;;;;;; )

ADULT TIMMY! ok, ok, slow it down! gah i can't spend hours untangling the timelines right now to figure this one out. because that's adult Timmy from The Big Problem (why do we keep referencing this episode suddenly?? i swear Odder did it too), as in he was aged up from 10 to this form instantly. compared that to the OTHER adult versions we've had (Channel Chaser 1, Channel Chasers 2, Channel Chasers college aged, LA, and Odder (we're not counting the grandpa 10 year old from the stupid "i paused time for 20 years" trial episode) ) who appeared to age naturally. this Timmy was guesstimated to be middle-aged, which is 45-65. SO if we go for 45, that's 35 years from the original series, making Dale Dimmadome like 50s...he did not look in his 50s. now i KNOW nothing says that that IS Timmy (though his vest did have T on it...but he is an actor...)

also "Chin-finity War". yes, that's mine now. idk how or when i'll use it, but i'm taking it, no takebacks. thank you FOP team, you know how to feed me well, i appreciate it.

they aren't assigned to her yet, why would saying "I wish" revert their disguises? i mean, i guess since they *wanted* to come out of retirement, their own desires could've triggered it, but still...they could hang around people who said "I wish" before and not be compelled to grant them. are they compelled because they're unattached? is that why genies work the way they do? does attaching oneself to a human limit their capabilities? or protect them more like it?? what lore ramifications does this have on the fae social and power structures?? also she's turned into a fly...that sounds like a genie's monkey paw wish granted and not a fairy's. again, is this because they are unattached to her? are they granting wishes "rule-less" so they are unfocused and more chaotic? are genie wishes twisted because they do it on purpose, or because they are unbound and unfocused?

O.o!!! i did not have Cosmo and Wanda body horror on my FOP bingo card...i applaud you writers, that surprised me

ok a carousel of timeline events...not referencing anything in the past canon...but is dating it for this time frame...eh i'll let it slide (because i missed it the first time because of the shock at the body horror)

wait their welcome gift was a Seemingly Harmless Plant? how did i miss that earlier? lol

dawww Hazel learns the lesson of the day from an ant that's going to be dead in 5 minutes. so sweet. see, using magic to fix mundane problems.

oh that's cool, their front door is an interdimensional portal. so they aren't living as humans in the human world. but oh boy, 2d flashback time again...oh no, but wait canonical confirmation that they were with Timmy for 7 years???? (pft 20, yeah that's real time i know, stilly funny). that...makes sense in both the you age out of fairies thing, but also that it was s8 where things started to loose proper focus what with only 5 episodes that you could fold into s7...and that's where the stupid Timmy's Secret Wish thing was. but also...s9 was Sparky, and s10 was Chloe; if we go back to the alternate timelines thing, ten that means it was after s7 (s8 folded in or not) that each continuation branched off from. best example being that Poof didn't speak until s9, but in the LA movies he only started to speak, so obviously those 2 are separate branches. now, this doesn't explain the lack of Poof in Odder or here (so far) i know, OR how there's a few connective episodes between s9 and s10 (very few) but DOES explain the absence of Sparky from Chloe's season since they could be considered different timelines, and why they both were not in the LA or Odder. this is fascinating, and i eagerly await more of New Wish to see if anything from s9 or s10 show up to disprove this theory

ALSO if they were with Timmy for 7 years, and we assume that 1 season = 1 year (not exactly right but roll with it), then since Dale Dimmadome first appeared in s2 (and last appeared s4) and Dev is 10...wait i lost my math train of thought and my tv went to screensaver i'm taking so long on this gah! well it's not the 35 years that adult Timmy woudl suggest. c'mon i gotta finish this episode before i hit the 90 min mark

oh i had a minute left lol. ahhhhh but the production? drawings on the credits with the instrumental of the opening theme, my heart! i love these latest sequel-reboots that know what they're doing.

so to sum it up; this is a yes. this series is looking good so far. i know, still got 3 more episodes to go. but hopefully it won't take me 3 times the length of the episode to get through them too ^^;;;;

Episode 2: The Department of Magical Violations

ok so this description says something about the fairies reupping their magical permits. makes sense, seeing as they've been retired for who knows how long (and we'll just ignore the magical build up implications of that since they do reside in Fairy World still so do regularly use magic) AND the old lore does have them having to redo their certifications like...twice i think in the canon? i know Temporary Fairy was one, but i think there was at least one other instance. so yeah, i'm on board for the premise, let's go

Jorgen what happened? you're in a sweater vest and you haven't shaved. did you retire too?

ok cool Hazel was already on the list to be assigned a fairy. Cookie though....already not vibing with them (which is the point i know, we want our OG pair tp be best after all)

Jorgen you're in cargo shorts and tall socks. did...did you become a dad?

Wish Fart...eh...i can forgive it

because this trial thing sounds very much like something they've done before too! Wishing Well, Wish Fixers, there's another one idr...oh but this is something different, cool. also nice that Hazel has performance anxiety; i guess that's our lesson for the week.

does this dance off date this...i'm not sure...the dabbing though does pretty sure

ahhhh Cookie's so proficient because she does whatever whether that makes her kids happy or not. she must annoy them so much that they willingly give up their fairy rights too early. thus leading to her productivity levels being "many jobs completed" but not because they were done properly.

oh look Da Rules!

Hazel hates chocolate chip cookies? hmmm...i guess i can still like you

huh just now noticed that the fairies are scaled smaller than Hazel.

mk, so yeah lesson of the week was communication and standing up for yourself. nice, sweet, simple. onto the next half!

Episode 3: Teacher's Pal

this description says she's lonely and wants to make friends. mk, that's a good lesson of the week, and very relatable. the title card even reminds me of A Wish Too Far...well in vibes, not in matching title card art obviously

"Dimmadelphia Enrichment Center" is the name of the school

oh wow that's interesting; Cosmo and Wanda took up her pop-it keychains but weren't them, they were overlaid on them.

"Dimmy Shimmy"...yeah...i don't get tiktok dances either

hm maybe the principal is the new Crocker...

wait does ASMR boy have a d20 on his shirt???

yup that's your lesson Hazel. see, a mundane problem made worse by magic and fixed in the end by the MC growing up and taking responsibility. good story telling

and was really a breeze to watch *shrugs* not every story is action packed or dripping in lore. as i said, some of the best stories are t he mundane and in the end are about growing up on your own terms at your own pace.

Episode 4: A Dinosaur in Dimmadelphia

it's the last aired thing my Xfinity On Demand is giving me, since this isn't on Paramount+ yet. weird that they list the previous 2 as a full ep2, yet the wiki has the half episodes (save for the pilot) being individual numbers. so for the sake of me not complaining, and simplicity, i'll just use the wiki as an episode guide from now on

(also Robby Daymond is part of the cast??? hurray! ok you just scored points with me. thanks wiki for telling me) (oh wait this is supposed to be on Netflix...but not yet...ok, so Xfinity we remain on)

so this description says dinosaurs. should be fun!

"Dimmsonian Museum" lol

"Obtuse Rubber Goose from 2001 BC" pffffft cute

classic wish train going on. get a dino, talk to him, get people to not care, don't send him back, make him fit into modern society.

convolute dover the top parade thing? lol sure

black vans huh? oh it's the mayor, not MERF, hm

but hey day is saved. and i guess a dinosaur just...is around now...mk

so this was a little less mundane, but you know that's ok too. it is a cartoon, we are silly and out there, not everything is a lesson of the week. (though one would argue that having a dinosaur around would lead to the magic reveal...but eh...)

so after 4 episodes...yeah the style was grown on me, it's less off putting. and yes, the writing here is doing very well. the team seems to know what they're doing, and they're paying attention to the past canon lore BUT they have the advantage of having a new main cast so they can be a bit looser with it. the easter eggs are fun, the energy is high, it's all good. i am looking forward to more of this series (and trying to detangle the timelines XD)