#the season opener and finale being by far the worst of the lot is just. lol. lmao even.

[faeleven]

made some tierlists because it's fun. one for the episodes of s14 and one for new who seasons.

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

I just remembered the "Please. I don't want to see another human life destroyed by this place” line, and honestly did they have scenes of Luz starting to wonder if Belos' had a point and going into the island did destroy her life? If not, they should have had.

No, they did not have Luz ever wonder how the isles affected Belos--except in the storyboards:

Luz still calls him out for trying to destroy the isles and being a hypocrite but there's still that moment of empathy in which she asks point blank: "What do you think they DID to you?!" She briefly contemplates just why someone would go so far to destroy an entire population and what his mindset might be. Unfortunately, this was not included in the final version and Belos' expression is blank instead of pleading.

Then there's this storyboard from For the Future in which Luz, Eda, and King explain to the Collector how people like Amity and Lilith became their friends:

Luz's line about "people being complicated" is in the episode but the entire exchange between her and the Collector is not even though it opens up a lot of interesting ideas and themes. Without it though, the show becomes straight up hypocritical when it states that people are complicated but reduces its villains to generic archetypes and its hero characters as being simply misguided or victims of the villains.

And no, this doesn't mean that the show should have excused Belos' actions or even forgiven him; but they could have and should have acknowledged the complexity of his character by keeping this nuance in and how the characters react to it. By doing so, the message of "people are complicated" becomes clear and strengthens the other characters as well. Luz gets to self-reflect on how she sees other people and learn that even the worst people among us are incredibly complex and have driving forces that are uncomfortably close to our own, thus making it much harder to demonize them. The Collector--instead of being a Giant Star Baby--keeps both his childlike bluntness and keen observational skills that he had in season 2, thus fleshing out the character instead of devolving him.

Regrettably, that nuance is absent from the show and we have a rather black-and-white narrative about Good vs. Evil; people are only ever really "bad" if someone tricked them or if there was a misunderstanding and all the Real Bad People are just selfish jerks who are power hungry and controlling.

This is not compelling storytelling; this is a tale as old as time. And the worst part is that there was a great story in The Owl House but it was left in the rough drafts.

Storyboards by Yasmin Khudari and King Pecora

[curi0us-gh0st]

Seasons (Bada Lee)

pairings: Bada Lee x Fem!Reader

word count: 1.887

genre: fluffy, angst

summary: You think there are no feelings in your relationship with Bada, because you are distant, but you are completely mistaken.

warnings: nothing too big, insecure reader, distancing yourself, crying, I think that’s all? [no review]

a/n: Yes, I just wrote this and god, I've had this in my head for a long time, ignore the mistakes and if it's too confusing.

Your relationship was something you loved, especially because of the person you were with. The beginning was so magical and the chemistry you had made your heart swell with love and your mind thought it was in a book you read.

The romance with Bada began when you accompanied your friend to a practice class to test out new hobbies, and well, you couldn't help but notice the tall and sexy choreographer everyone was talking about before, during, and after the class.

The class itself was energetic and caused a lot of excitement for you and your friend. You continued going to dance classes but in the end, your friend gave up to pay attention to something else and you focused on something that was finally good, dancing.

You weren't the best or the worst, but you had a lot of fun practicing the choreographies and steps that you saw and were assigned during practices.

Until the day he was changing classes, in his rush to get to the next class, he ended up bumping into someone, his hands on the person's abdomen, on the person's waist for support, his eyes opening and looking at the familiar shirt, his eyes going up and meeting the playful gaze of her dance teacher.

“I think you can let me go now.” She giggled, removing the hand that held her from her shoulder, her cheeks burning with embarrassment, walking away quickly.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” You bowed in embarrassment.

"All good." She ruffled her hair a little. “You must be late for something, so go carefully and don’t fall there.” Bada joked and left.

Since that day, when she saw you, she joked about the incident that occurred, resulting in you being as red as a tomato and a giggling Bada.

At the end of one of the classes with Bada, it was just you and her left to tidy the room, a pleasant silence until she brought up the subject, playing with you again and praising your red cheeks, after stopping laughing, she sighed and looked at you, your eyes met, a mixture of joy and confusion, until you asked what she was looking at and she asked if you would like to go out with her, of course her red cheeks became visible.

Bada Lee, your dance teacher who everyone wanted and praised your performances asking you out? Of course he caused a short circuit in his brain, accepting the invitation in a friendly way.

The meeting evolved into several other meetings, visiting and getting to know cafes, going to cinemas, the beach, festivals, dance events and many others. One of these meetings took them to the Han River, on an October night, the cold wind that blew leaving their lips, noses and ears red, their bodies warmed by the laughter and conversations they shared, their eyes meeting at different times and shining. one to another, even the atmosphere thickens to the point where their lips touch, a passionate and slow kiss, transmitting unspoken and hidden feelings.

The moment they pulled away, they looked at each other, shy and nervous now, thinking about what would happen now.

“Well… I, uh… I think I have more than friendly feelings for you, Y/N.” Bada confessed, looking shyly at her own feet. “I would like to test how far this can take me, actually us.”

She finally looked you in the eyes, their hearts beating in sync, a smile appeared on her face, honored by the confession, causing Bada anxiety for her response.

“I would also like to test how far these feelings can take us, Bada Lee.” You smiled, before the choreographer's arms pulled you into a tight hug and a kiss that made your stomach bubble.

These feelings took you to distant places, the relationship brought you to the present, your relationship with Bada had lasted more than four years, always together and supporting each other, comforting and encouraging in your times of need. Bada and you grew up as dancers, doing duets together and small appearances in some groups' music videos, Bada became famous over the course of her talent and her beauty, especially among girls, which you don't mind so much, since In the end, it was you she would sleep cuddling with after a long day. And you focused on your career as a teacher, teaching at the academy as Bada.

This was shown when Bada accepted the invitation to be a street woman fighter, to show the world her skills with the BEBE team. Bada even asked if you would like to participate with them, so you denied, you didn't like so much attention and you certainly didn't want to appear on television out of embarrassment.

From the first episode, in fact, since she received and started preparing for the program, you encouraged her to do her best, praising her effort and congratulating her because she deserved it in addition to all the stress she suffered along the way.

You watched each episode, rooting for the team and even feeling a little jealous with the battles and interactions you had and had with your girlfriend. Every time she arrived at the shared apartment, you greeted her with compliments and your playful opinions about what happened episodes always make her laugh.

But since then, it started to slow down, Bada's free time decreased, her focus on the program's missions increased, making her always arrive home late at night, spending a little bit of her free time with her team or surrounded by friends. new fans that she obtained during the episodes for her dances and her masculine and feminine aura that she had.

And your insecurity awakened, the number of Bada's followers increased, every day more people found her, complimented her and flirted with her, the thought of you disappearing and her not noticing caused nightmares and a fear grew in you, your thoughts were consuming , making you insecure and unhappy because you seemed so distant from your girlfriend, you were falling apart and no one was noticing.

Perhaps such thoughts were too trivial because it was you she would hug after a tiring day, even if you had fallen asleep, she would smell your shampoo and kiss your cheek before leaving for another day.

Little did you know that Bada was in bad shape too, she knew that you valued her privacy and her success during the program made her afraid of people invading her personal space and messing up her relationship. That's why she thought that by moving away from you, you wouldn't feel suffocated by the crowd that was behind her, she was always thinking about you, all the missions she couldn't tell you and made her cry, she wanted to run from the room practice and run to you, hug you and cry until everything is okay, because your hug was her safe haven, it always was.

When Bada heard from you that you were going to travel, fear settled in her, she thought she couldn't be without you, just as you thought you couldn't be without her, but it would leave her freer to practice and focus on the program.

The short time spent with her parents, Bada made sure she would receive notes accompanied by daisies, her favorite flower, until you returned home to her.

When you arrived at her apartment, it was almost half past midnight, nervousness taking over you, you had the plan to talk to Bada and review her feelings, if they were there.

Upon entering the room, you were greeted with Bada's tight hug involving you, saying that she missed you and that she missed you, there were only a few days left until the end of the program, she was so nervous lately that she was barely sleeping and when she heard you coming in she ran to see you.

After the long hug, you were nervous about saying something and Bada took the initiative, asking how your visit to your parents was and you responded by saying how the past few days had been. Silence took over soon after and it was you who started this time .

“Bada… I think we need to talk.” You said, looking at her sitting with her legs crossed as you shared the same couch.

"Of course dear." She adjusted herself to look at you better, she was nervous. “Is there something bothering you? Anything I can help with?”

The nickname she used reminded you of the moments together, the beginning and everything before all this snowball suffocated you.

“Do you… Do you still have feelings for me?”

The question made Bada confused, of course she was, but the confusion came because of the lack of confidence you appeared with the question.

“Why this question? Of course I do, I love you. What made you think not?” She grabbed his shaking hands.

“We seem so far away... I love you, but I feel like I don't have you anymore... I don't know, I'm feeling so confused. There are so many people complimenting you and flirting with you, of course forever, but this has intensified and I... I'm so insecure that you don't like me anymore.” The confession made Bada squeeze his hands to comfort him.

“Ah princess…” She pulled him into a hug. “Forgive me for that, I thought you would like privacy so I stayed away for the sake of the program. I didn't want to make you insecure or uncomfortable through any of these things, I thought I was keeping you safe but I think I ended up moving away from you, I'm sorry.” Bada spoke during the hug.

“I didn't want this to happen... I was praying for you, that you could be by my side, but I got caught up in it all.” She continued, pulling back to look at you.

Her eyes were teary, bright with unshed tears, realizing that she was so bad seeing only the negative side that she didn't realize Bada's intention to protect her.

“Sorry, now I feel so selfish for not seeing your point.” The tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Oh, darling. Don’t cry, don’t blame yourself for it.” Bada tried to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “I love you so much, I would give my life for you, you are my safe haven, my season, I would never do anything to hurt you on purpose.” She whispered to you, tears threatening to fall more.

"I love you so much much much." You said as you wrapped your arms around her neck to hug her. “You are my everything, Bada. You are my favorite person and the one I love most, I’m sorry.” You asked through tears.

Bada held your face with her hands, kissing your face while whispering statements and compliments to you, after an intense session of kisses and hugs, she helped you take a shower and made you wear comfortable clothes to sleep, hugging you under the blanket, kissing your cheeks and lips, holding you close to her, as if she would lose you if she let go.

"I love you my love." She whispered, kissing his nose.

“I love you too, Bada.” You hugged her tightly, hiding in her neck, smelling her, this woman was yours, just like you were hers.

a/n: in my head, this woman is in love and doesn't know what to do lol

[ladyluscinia]

Izzy, Bottles, and Apologies

Izzy's arc in S2 has been a wild ride.

The S1 Izzy enjoyers are feeling vindicated as hell, many people are fully revising their opinion of him, and the people still hating him have a new criticism or off the wall theory daily. David Jenkins LOVES Izzy and is having the time of his life trying to make sure everyone else does too. They had Con O'Neill sing in drag!

And naturally I have thoughts.

This is gonna be a two part post, I think. First, as much as people are celebrating Izzy having realized his arc and come into his own - from the singing to the apparent BlackBonnet shipping - there are some threads they could pull on that might reveal more arc to come. And I am really hoping they pull them, so I'm gonna tell you why you should too!

And second, I have some minor points I dislike and concerns that this might be the end of the arc. Which would be disappointing but I think I get why, so I'm gonna discuss that too.

To start...

---

"How are you handling all this so well?"

Here's the thing about S2 Izzy - while I need to be clear his behavior is not OOC or inconsistent with S1, it is happening rather fast. I'm pretty sure that has a lot to do with out of universe reasons I'll get into later, but in-universe it stands out. Now, he's hardly the only one operating on an accelerated schedule - the timeline for this season is an insanely fast not-even-two-weeks - but Izzy's defining struggle in S1 was fear of change. That was the cause of his friction with Edward, and what made him an antagonist in the first place.

In S2 he's gone through a lot of trauma, yes, but that fear is noticeably less present than I would expect.

Izzy in 2x06 has been cleaned up from his sobbing mess phase for just over 48 hours and he faces Edward with a joke, and then that night sings a moving French serenade to the crew. The next morning he's teasing them about finally hooking up and spends the day offering both Stede and Edward relationship advice.

He's a newly realized man... shedding repression and embracing who he could be. Accepting his breakup with Edward and trying to openly support the relationship that's better for him.

It's fun!

It's also, potentially, a bit of a flag. Maybe not a red one, not yet, but... pink-ish? A bit orange?

Let's look a little closer at those frayed edges.

---

"Well, you see, I have a system..."

There's an exchange from right at the start of the Pilot episode that has echoed through the entire series so far:

"Bottle it up?" -> "No, Frenchie! No, that's the worst thing you could do!"

Not talking to other people, not addressing your traumas... that's the kind of shit that just builds and builds inside you. When the cork eventually pops, the resulting damage can be a lot. Look at the finale of S1, where all of Stede's bottled up guilt and insecurities laid waste to his relationship with Edward, and then inadvertently became the first domino in the Kraken.

S2 is quick to bring this scene back into the forefront. The first time we see the Breakup Boat crew talking in 2x01, Frenchie reveals that "Bottle it up?" wasn't just a random comment he made, but a philosophy of his:

"Ah - well, you see, I have a system for dealing with all the terrible things I've seen. There's a box, in my mind, and I put the things in the box, I lock the box, and then I don't open it again. Works like a charm."

Apparently, Frenchie is the only one it actually seems to be working for.

Now, the show has been drawing some interesting lines between Frenchie and Izzy. From both serving as Blackbeard's First Mate to being frequently shown as a duo - tormenting Navy guys together on Sunday's raid, Frenchie holding Izzy's hand, Frenchie leaning on Izzy's leg in the cell, Frenchie behind him raising the flag in 2x05 - it's fitting that Izzy echoes Frenchie's preferred coping method. First he frames the non-acknowledgement of harm from Edward as just... part of piracy. He's a pirate, so he's fine with it.

And then we get Izzy's little whittled shark reveal and the conversation with Lucius about his leg:

"I don't know what you're talking about. Shark did this... dangling my legs over the side of the ship. Served me right, too."

Lucius calls him out on the unhealthy behavior, and Izzy concedes his point:

"O-kay, that seems healthy. Using a bit of fiction to help cover up your trauma." -> "Yeah, well... not moving on is worse. Twatty."

And to give him credit, he's right in his advice to Lucius. Filling his sketchbook with pages and pages of Blackbeard trauma is Lucius's form of bottling it up - thinking in endless recursive circles about his tumble off the ship and everything that followed. We already know chasing revenge instead of living is bad - Jim and Spanish Jackie established it last season, and Pete just echoed them. When Izzy advises Lucius to move on, that's what Lucius does.

But what Izzy is doing with the shark? That's not the same thing at all. He's lost a leg, grazed a bullet off his own head, and was snarling drunken accusations at himself in the mirror... he's not moving on from that. He's bottling it up with a nice dose of self-blame.

Cutting the legs off the unicorn for not doing it's job right and saying "served me right" about his fictional shark? There's a real dark knot of emotions there.

(Recall, too, that Edward deflected his hurt from Stede's abandonment into a "fictional character" during his chats with Lucius, and that delayed the explosion but couldn't stop it.)

So... Izzy's definitely coping with trauma in a way the show does not advise and often circles back to. Can we see any signs in 2x06 and 2x07?

---

The Weight of Things Unsaid

At the very start of 2x06, Izzy gets the thing he spent all of 2x05 mentally bracing himself to never hear - an apology from Edward for his leg. He walks up to initiate conversation and begins talking like nothing has changed. Edward is back in his leathers. Appropriate, given that his penance onesie was nothing genuine, just "how long do I have to wear this fucking thing for?" And Izzy is ready for them not to address the obvious hurt, to just smooth over a few jabs and go back to normal... but even Edward's mumbled little "Sorry about your leg" is so significant and difficult he flees as soon as he gets it out, leaving Izzy to sit, incredulous, with the acknowledgement.

It's still almost definitely not enough.

There was so much between them in 2x01 - 2x03. The writers literally did BlackHands love confessions on both sides. An apology from Edward Teach - a man who historically does not apologize - is a huge first step but still only the first step. The real things unsaid are so much bigger than a leg.

We get something else, too... Edward commenting on Izzy's drinking.

"Jesus. Really putting that away, aren't ya?"

Izzy has had booze a lot this season. He lost a leg and pain meds aren't really an option, so not surprising, but notable. Edward, advocating for substance abuse to deal with bad feelings, calls him a lightweight in 2x01. When they are found with the dead seabird in 2x03, Izzy takes a pointed drink from his bottle, and then 2x04 he spends the entire episode completely plastered. He seemingly sobered up for 2x05 - probably to focus on sword training and his whittling project - but now the bottle is back again before Izzy disappears for several hours.

And a little liquid courage might explain his going all in for the Calypso's Birthday performance.

I do appreciate that the performance on it's face is something completely unexpected for Izzy, but when thinking about it... it does make sense.

We already know music and performance were available on Blackbeard's ship even before Stede. Edward learned to play shanties on the piano somewhere, and singing is a common and encouraged part of sailing culture. Izzy's choice of song to perform is something a lot more emotional, but this is probably not his first performance for a crew.

Makeup, too, is in fashion for men and women at this time, and OFMD has shown it as such before. Izzy has never worn fashion makeup, or tried to be beautiful, but the concept wouldn't be alien to him. Wee John's description of a dramatic party look might even have intrigued him specifically because Izzy has actually done "looks" before - of the terrifying "theatre of fear" kind. The Kraken did have his whole crew in makeup for their raids. Taking the opportunity to embody something a bit more vulnerable and try to bring joy to this crew that took care of him is meaningful as fuck.

And it's still a drag performance!

It's a good pair of moments - before and after Ned. Proof that all this isn't just coping method - that's not what I'm arguing here - and even if Izzy's still bottling up a lot of feelings he's not doing the same full pressure bomb thing as he did in S1. There's been growth!

(This is why the flags are only pink-ish / orange-ish right now.)

Episode 2x07 though... I'm not so sure he's doing good as much as pretending it's all good.

Showing up to make his joke in the morning is a fun moment. I especially enjoy Edward's little "fuck off" with no bite to it 🤣🤣🤣 Reminder they do live together on a ship, so this is likely not even close to the first morning-after that Izzy has gotten front row seats to. But, at least to me, there's also a very performative feeling about it. Izzy being very Look how normal I can be about you fucking your boyfriend, Ed - and Edward picks up on it too. That's why he turns to Stede and whispers "He's jealous" as Izzy walks away.

Izzy continues to make jokes and give advice through the day to our main couple, but he's... subdued. I think his fake chill also disguises that he and Edward aren't on the same page about what they discuss at the docks, hence his poor advice to "listen to it" when the "it" in question is Edward's immediate desire to run away from Stede and become a fisherman. They are talking again, but haven't resumed communicating.

I also think it's relevant that Izzy goes to try and support Stede after Edward dumps him, because we're still waiting for Stede to stop bottling things up. He doesn't talk about Badminton or feelings of inadequacy or even the babiest little olive branch to Edward about "hey my dad kinda sucked too." Edward's two exes are sitting in the bar corner together, thinking about all the shit they won't talk to him about until it kills all three of them. Exciting!

The pressure is building. It has to circle back to Stede in S3. I'm hoping at the same time, it circles back to Izzy, too.

Hoping we get to explore some of his anxiety, and his internalizing negative self-image and blame. At the moment, I think Izzy might have less gotten over his anxieties and more just let go of the wheel of his life entirely, and fortunately had people around to steer him in okay directions. It would be really interesting to explore that more.

(Even if I have some concerns they may not.)

---

Subtle as a Cannonball to the Face

Izzy's character arc was always going to be a long journey - not because he was somehow morally worse than everyone else, or required particularly painstaking growth, or even because there was going to be some great need to "hold him accountable" for S1. No, it was going to be a long journey from an antagonist start for the same reason I mentioned earlier: Izzy's core struggle is fear of change.

OFMD opens with two protagonists recklessly pursuing change in ways that harm themselves, their relationships, and others, and a primary onscreen antagonist resisting change in a way that harms himself, his relationships, and others. There's no easy morality here - they all fuck up. And they all require the entire show to actually figure out the correct balance of change and growth and facing the past.

"I think the three of them are on an arc together that's pretty inseparable." - David Jenkins (Source, 9 Oct 2023)

So... why is there a chance that everything I've mentioned above is going absolutely nowhere and Izzy's arc has been wrapped up with a bow in S2?

Well.

It's late March 2022, the fandom's age is still only countable in weeks, I personally haven't even watched the pilot yet, had only even heard of the show 3 days before... and one of David Jenkins first post-finale statements is telling people to pay attention to Izzy's POV and his and Edward's love story on rewatches (Source, 25 Mar 2022), and then soon after comparing Stede to a homewrecker in Edward and Izzy's toxic marriage (Source, 15 Apr 2022). Lots of links because this stuff was available to the fandom from the start.

By the first half of May 2022 (while poor Mr. Jenkins is still anxiously trying to get his series renewed for S2, since the confirmation won't come until June 1) the takes on Izzy have soured a lot. It's not a "homophobic gay" joke anymore. Now it's "Izzy is the embodiment of colonialism who enforces a racist and homophobic ideal of Blackbeard on Edward" and "pretending Izzy could be canonically gay is homophobic" and "Izzy bought Edward as a slave from the British". Harassing anons have already started on tumblr. No first hand experience with Twitter but I've heard horror stories. These takes are spreading like wildfire through the fandom, with a heavy backing of white fans accepting and spreading anything that sounds vaguely racially-conscious as something they just missed in their privilege and need to listen to POC about. Or listen to other white fans that say they've been listening to POC.

The anchor hoist in 1x09 (that was a complete directing coincidence, as the crew confirmed in late May) is being taken as incontrovertible proof that Izzy is a violent racist, and the relatively small Izzy fandom pushing back against any of these reads is being likened to toxic fangirls declaring Kylo Ren a poor widdle victim because they think violent white guys are so hot their brains fall out. This is happening loudly and in the public forums of social media.

Can you imagine being David Jenkins right then?

This is one of your favorite little guys, who you wrote a silly little homoerotic pirate jealousy arc for. He's kinda cringefail and tends to be a dick, but you cast a guy who you think embodies him with so much sympathy and genuine emotion. You're so excited to explore his direct relationship to the main couple of your series even more. Unfortunately, you and a lot of the cast and crew are also engaging maybe a bit too much in fandom spaces, which very few of you have much familiarity with navigating as creators. AND there's still renewal stress!

If I were him, I too would consider that perhaps my intended Izzy arc was a bit too nuanced and drawn out, and maybe I needed to clear up some misconceptions as soon as I got the opportunity.

Enter S2.

MAX reduced the budget for the season significantly and it shows - particularly in the whole thing having to squeeze into 8 episodes - and I wouldn't be surprised at all if worries over a S3 renewal / S3 budget impacted S2 writing as well. Character arcs got pinched, goals had to be prioritized... and from the looks of the season, "make sure everyone knows Izzy is not a homophobic villain tormenting Edward as fast as possible" came out as a big goal.

I mean they open with a dream sequence that literally mocks the idea of a heroic Stede rescuing Edward from the dastardly Izzy. It's not subtle.

And the lack of subtlety is kind of what's concerning me.

Izzy's arc is (I think) leaving enough threads that they can extend it into S3 with the reveal he's not actually fine and done developing, but they also seem to want his S2 arc to end in a place where maybe he is. Lots of giant signs pointing to him and saying "Look! Everyone likes him!" or "Look! He's also gay!" at the expense of some of his cringefail or dickish charm. My guy had anxiety he dealt with poorly in S1, and I do think they are trying to frontload or adjust the arc so he's basically (or at least seemingly) over that before the next hiatus.

The best way I've seen it described is that the show no longer trusts the audience to pick up what they are putting down, and so they feel the need to really hammer it in. Not necessarily OOC, but definitely de-emphasizing any of his rough edges that were originally just written to not be any worse than the other characters.

This is why Izzy gets shot by Edward in the very first episode for a bunch of complicated reasons that are really good character work and not super hard to discern, but then later they have Izzy point out to Stede why he got shot twice. It's all very "look into the camera and say the themes", because to some degree they are afraid everyone is going to get easily convinced Edward shot him for calling him a namby-pamby that one time.

It makes me worried they are too afraid of misinterpretation to commit to the arc they originally conceived of, even with the finish line in sight in S3.

And, again, I get it, Mr. Jenkins. In October 2022 he made a funny quip and a boner joke on a tweet about Edward's blanket fort and the hordes descended to scream victoriously about how he was cutting down the Izzy stans for their racist infantilization crimes of thinking Izzy would *checks notes* help hold up a blanket. It's a very reasonable conclusion that this fandom cannot read and needs to be spoonfed Izzy's arc.

It just sucks that a toxic section of fandom's misinterpretations appear to have undercut a strong - and, honestly, not that complicated - character arc so much that S2's BlackBonnet arc can be about fuck ups and backsliding, but Izzy needs at least the illusion of having no flaws left come hiatus time.

[lovecolibri]

hi just wanted to say a big thank you for being positive and excited for s8 and the buddie of it all bc a lot of my dash has been doom and gloom since the trailer dropped 🫶🏻 i think you’re right! we might not get buddie in s8 but knowing the actors and writers are aware and support it is everything, i don’t think this is another supernatural situation (hopefully)

So sorry this is a couple days late! This is incredibly sweet, but also hilarious to me personally because I felt like I was being WAY less positive than everyone else about the season as a whole because I am a mustache hater to my CORE, and I thought the bees thing sounded like it could be dumb and just a distraction like the escaped zoo animals for season 5, and my worst case scenario was that it was actually going to turn in to a big cop storyline like season 5 instead of focusing on the firefam saving people from a big disaster like we used to get. AND OH, FUCKING LOOK 🙄🙄🙄

ANYWAY, I was being way less fun than everyone else, so I'm truly sorry for what your dash must have looked like if I was a beacon of positivity! As far as Buddie though like, I am trying not to get my hopes up too high (lying) because season 4 burned me HARD when I had convinced myself that tay kay being awful to Buck and flat out calling him "needy", especially after seeing Buck Begins and knowing how that would hurt him, was the show telling us she was not a good fit and I wasn't even concerned about them getting together! I was *shook* when they turned Eddie's shooting into a whole thing about her instead of the firefam and EDDIE. So like. I am not the best judge, although knowing that Tim WANTED to do something else and FOX shut it down, maybe I was more right about all that mess than the show gaslighted me into believing back then 🤷🏻‍♀️

I had to roll my eyes about tay kay for a whole fucking season and sit on that bottle of champagne I bought for BT bones for like, MONTHS. Over winter hiatus and everything! Because they drug that shit out for no reason all season to give Buck something to do. And that's not even touching what I had to survive with other shows (*cough cough* Roswell NM *cough*). So if I have to roll my eyes through BT 2: Return of the Plot Device To Give Buck Something To Do, I can. But I am absolutely gonna complain the whole time.

I think it's important to take the wins where we can and there's a lot to be happy about! Everything about BT has been the vague responses they give about every nothing relationship ever time. We are not fighting the showrunner OR the actors for this, it's a battle with the network, and we got bi Buck within 4 episodes of moving to ABC and the early renewal caused them to push storylines back knowing they had a whole season to do them. And honestly? Knowing they may not get another season? (especially if the opener is unsatisfying AGAIN??) I'm actually not pushing it out past season 8. I think we're getting something this season because they have no guarantees of renewal especially with the kind of budget the show requires, and they finally have a network that isn't holding them back. I'm all about managing expectations (I try very hard and fail a lot), but that means being open to good things too, and I think we're getting good things for Buddie.

[mymreaderlibrary]

I need more old man yoai. Its just, it's good soup, ya know. I want them to get a house and adopt a teenage kid. Just family stuff ya know. Its good soup, ya know.

SORRY THE SOUP TOOK SO LONG, but I did my best to try and fulfill this ask. There were some changes to your idea but I hope it still works 😭

Old man yaoi pt 3 here we go

[long distance, weird fucky timeline, use of y/n, mention of the soap-cident except he’s fine because I said so, minor homophobia, some angst, an original character, and my adamance to be slow as fuck with romance].

[length: 2227 words]

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Getting to finally kiss each other didn't open the floodgates per say but it did give them enough respite that their "tenseness" subsided. The rest of the 141 were relieved that the pair had somehow righted their differences, even if they still didn't know what those differences were, and Soap congratulated them on "making up".

It was awkward for a bit and while it was nice knowing the feelings were recuperated neither knew what was too much or too little so they rarely made any advances. When they did finally feel confident enough, usually in complete privacy and far late into the night, it would be a lot of soft touches. Thumbs running over knuckles, shoulders bumping lightly together, maybe even a hug if they were feeling bold (though it was more like just leaning on each other as they never raised their arms higher than the hip). They kissed a good few times again but it was like a rare treat. 

Despite everything neither had actually been with another man before, y/n got close at a gay bar a while ago but a light shined directly into his eyes and he got a migraine that forced him to leave. The unfortunate side effect of previous head injuries. Meanwhile Price had casual relationships with women in the past but not men, however it's not like they lasted for too long anyways as his devotion to his work spared little room for it. So sue them if they didn't know what to do, this was all brand new and definitely badly timed.

They kept up in a pattern; mission, meetings, and then downtime. Complete a good weeks worth of work, discuss their next steps (and start on them), then pull out a drink and chat. Consider it just their luck that the night things finally felt like they were heating up, privacy was near guaranteed, and tomorrow posed no urgent challenge that Soap decided knocking wasn't necessary and stood there bewildered by the doorway till he caught their attention. Johnny was incredibly apologetic and promised not to tell anyone but the two older men decided it would be better to just come clean before something like that happened again. Laswell of course wasn't surprised, but Gaz and Ghost had a momentary pause that they quickly reassured wasn't from judging just surprise. Overall it went over smoothly and it had the added bonus of giving Price and y/n more alone time. 

(Note: however, the second it was clear to Soap he could freely chat about Price and y/n's relationship it became open season for the worst jokes imaginable. When Soap wasn't instantly flayed, the other guys would join in with a particular "dad joke collector" Ghost staking his claim in the torment). 

-

By the time y/n's work was over Price was hesitant to let him go, knowing they would not have this closeness again unless one of them gave up their current lifestyle. It was honestly a bit tempting, Price had spent about his whole life in the military and it wasn't like anyone could really judge a well seasoned man for retiring. But instead y/n gave him his phone number and the two split ways no matter how badly they yearned otherwise.

And that's how they stayed for the next couple of years, Price always calling from a burner and y/n being left to wait for him by the landline. Bi-monthly they would chat, y/n giving life updates and Price venting about how the 141 were going to give him a damn heart attack. Y/n got service dog, a great dane named Lucy who he couldn't help but boast about to the point the others wanted updates on her too. Price could sometimes hear her sniffing at the phone and was dying to see her in person. It relieved him to know y/n had someone (or something) there with him as the other man had admitted to feeling lonely at home. Still a big part of Price wished that someone could've been him. 

Over time Price reconsidered his stance on retirement with a series of back to back events being his solidifying his choice. It started off with a call from y/n, his family had come into town to visit after years of radio silence and at first it seemed to be going well. That was until his parents asked about his relationship. They sewed a lot of seeds of doubt, not privy to their son dating a male but also not believing it was serious enough to be real considering they never saw Price. His parents were happy to grind their heel into any anxieties their son had which ended up in a full blow up during his mother's birthday. Y/n ended up storming out after his mom made a show of mocking his relationship in front of extended family. He was humiliated that his parents could still get a rise out of him even in his old age. Price had gotten a call from y/n afterwards who sounded completely exhausted. Price desperately wanted to be there to comfort his lover but ultimately the only thing he could do was verbally console him. 

Within the same week Price began noticing a small shake to his hands. Nothing serious but still not something you'd want to see, especially as a sniper. He couldn't tell if it was age, an injury, or stress but it left him with an odd feeing in his stomach. Like his body was trying to tell him something. 

And a little while after that it seemed Soap decided to deliver on that heart attack joke. Out cold in a hospital bed with a list of injuries too long to name, the scotsman had everyone in a panic. Ghost in particular didn't take it well and, while he was good at being outwardly calm, anyone who knew the man proper could tell he was terrified. He just had this vague vacant look in his eye, it wasn't hard to determine he was probably disassociating. Gaz on the other hand tried to keep some semblance of positivity even if he was running on empty. Not the kind of peppy “everything is gonna be okay!” positivity but a rather light kind. The type where you try not to let your own doubt eat you upside by never verbally stating reality. He didn't want this to be the end so he wasn't about to act like it, but he was undoubtedly scared shitless.

Price had called y/n after the incident and it became his turn to be consoled. He wasn't a crier but he imagined if he was there would've been at least a few. He had dealt with shit like this before, but the secret was it never got easier you just got better at being quiet about it. He knew y/n understood that.

-

However by some grace of god Soap woke up. The man was shockingly resilient and not about to let himself get felled by just anything. The asshole was even joking within the first few minutes of consciousness much to Price's chagrin but Ghost and Gaz couldn't have been happier. Those two stayed with Soap for a while and Price was certain he heard scot getting bitched out from across the hall. Make no mistake, even while mad at him for being reckless they were glad to be ranting to his face rather than a casket. 

Y/n got another call after that, the bi-monthly quota quickly exceeded, to deliver the good news. The call was admittedly shorter than their usual but it left them both feeling far more hopeful than the last. When Price closed his burner he couldn't help but think about being there with y/n in person, getting to say these things to his face, even getting to hold him. He hadn't been kissed in years now and he yearned for a moment of peace like that especially after all that stress. A silent decision was made, a bit impulsively, but it was a long time coming. 

After Soap was back up and running the man started taking missions again, this time with an extra watchful eye from the team. But to everyone's surprise one person wouldn't be joining them. In an uncommonly personal meeting, Price announced his retirement to the rest of the 141. Soap had opposed in a panic thinking this was due to his accident, and while it might've inspired part of it, Price assured him this was something he had been thinking about for a while. He felt it was time and well... he had someone he knew was waiting for him. 

The meeting, while bittersweet, left off on a note of pride. Not everyone can say they retired by will and especially not a man of Price's caliber. The team were happy for him but also demanded he try to stay in touch even if only slightly. With a hug from everyone (a shoulder pat from Gaz, a crushing squeeze from Soap, a light hold from Ghost, and a rather sentimental one from Laswell) he said his goodbyes and gave y/n another call.

Y/n sounded a little frazzled upon picking up and confusingly Price noted the sound of another voice in the background, distinctly female. As it turns out it was one of y/n's cousins who, after the birthday disaster, decided to get in contact with him. She felt bad for how the rest of their family had treated him and wanted to make sure he was doing alright. Apparently Ying, as she turned out to be named, was absolutely enamored with Lucy and was giving the dane the play session of a lifetime hence the sounds of chaos. Price instantly eased, especially with how relaxed y/n began to sound as he had settled in to his cousins presence.

They chatted like usual but y/n could hear a strong sense of sappiness to Price's voice as he closed the phone. 

It took about 3 days for Price to make his way over to y/n apartment and to say he got a warm welcome would be an understatement. The ex-captain hadn't actually told his lover about the retirement or his planned arrival so the other man was completely surprised, but overjoyed. It had taken years but they were finally here together again. Holding back felt unnecessary, they kissed right in the doorway as they clutched at each others bodies. The sensation made everything so much more real and they likely would've stood there for way longer if Lucy hadn't poked her nose into them. Price was was thrilled to finally see the big mutt in person and she took a quick shine to him.

-

Within a couple weeks later Price had tried to settle in but it wasn't working. The apartment was just too damn small especially with two grown men and a giant dog in it. Lucy often had to be taken out to the local dog park for exercise and Ying came in to visit from time to time which only cramped the space more. It was practically inevitable that they were going to search for a bigger home so they eventually started a search. Originally they looked into more apartments, but just one peek at their current set up (and into Lucy's big brown eyes) they knew they needed something much bigger.

 The search took a while but they eventually settled on simple cabin with a good two acres. It was remote enough that they didn't have neighbors, but also close enough to civilization that they could keep in touch with Ying. Plus there was a lake not too far from it which made for a great fishing spot. Price did most of the packing but they didn't have too many items anyways so one small u-haul was all they needed.

The cabin had a strong musky scent from the wood, the floorboards would creek with each, and the whole place was perfect. Settling into this was much easier, something about it just felt natural. Maybe it was the amount of room, maybe it was the peaceful location, or maybe it was they were together. Whatever the reason, Price felt he had made the right choice. 

-

Come half a year later, they've accumulated a few things to decorate their house, had their fair share of fishing days out by the lake, and maybe made a good couple of messes or two. Ying was an active visitor and even brought her husband along with her from time to time. Seeing her car pull up into the driveway was a common sight but this time she walked with a nervous excitement which was practically suffocating. Y/n let her in and she asked if she could have a talk with him. The two went over to the couch to chat as Price went into the kitchen to make a quick coffee. He could hear a series of spikes in tone, serious, excited, antsy, all forming together until he finally popped into the room to see a smile on his love and his cousins face.

Ying was pregnant with her first child and wanted to know if they could be the godfathers.

[kassandrasdisciple]

~~~ batman CC spoilers ~~~

Honestly this is the best DC project in years and a return to everything that was good about the og animated series whilst including all the elements of DC cannon that have been created or expanded upon since.

Just a few of my favorite things:

- the SETTING, going back to the 40s noir vibe is a perfect choice, the fights are beautiful and not overcomplicated by gadgets and tech, also allows for some gratuitously beautiful shots that play with shadow.

- batman's age, I don't think Bruce is ever given an age in the show but he seems to be mid 20s early 30s and still an urban legend as the batman, we don't have to waste time with an origin episode/season but we still get to experience a Gotham who doesn't fully trust their vigilante.

- VILLIANS, for me the stand out was harley quinn, divorcing her from the joker allows her character to fully shine, she stays somewhere in the grey but still firmly an antagonist. It's one of the gripes I have with new harley that once she leaves the joker she always becomes more of an anti-hero/hero, keep my girl villainous. Also her psychological background is in full swing, I've always believed Harley is most dangerous when she's in your head and the show leans fully into it. Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss indeed.

- villians pt.2, keeping the theme of the animated series we have our villians for villainy antagonists like penguin and thorn who seem to live on in their counterparts, onomatopoeia and firebug, but we also get nuanced character arcs for 2-face, Natalia and clayface, echoing baby doll and calender woman.

- supporting cast, I'm only familiar with the comics in passing but if attorney Barbra is a new invention then whoever thought of it needs a raise. Also aging her up to be in her early 20s is an incredible change from the animated series where she floated around the freshly 18 mark. It makes her a hero in her own right even if she isn't batgirl (yet), and let's us see Gothams worst and how she's already fighting for change.

- Supporting cast pt.2, Montoya! My beloved, I'm not sure where her romance with harley is going but I can't wait, it's great to see such an archetypal noir cop, even more so than Jim, who speaking of I love as well, his want to protect the city but also butting heads with barbie on methods is perfect characterization in my option.

-baby bruce, horrifying, I love him. Alfred has personal beef with harley now, the second he saw an opportunity to throw that man in therapy she gives him valid paranoia of the entire profession just as he was thinking about trying it properly, I know it's on sight for him going forward.

- art, I've binged the animated series many times at this point and it's a running gag in the fandom that some frames are ... unique. Obviously the animators were working with what they had, but the step up in fight choreography and flow is spectacular, the whole show is a love letter to old batman with a new varnish of the animation productions of today.

Overall an amazing show that had me laugh and gasp in equal amounts, it took itself seriously in a way most superhero media won't do anymore, I distinctly thought in ep.9 when batman swings away from Montoya and Jim "wow they didn't put in a stupid snark about him being dramatic or having a nice ass ect" and it's like a breath of fresh air.

As far as nitpicks go I wished we had more of Bruce in isolation, or having real conversations, but I realize the focus of this season was his loneliness and how the final episode states he's opening up more to the 3 main supporting characters. I'm also worried for how important the joker might become but that's basically instinct at this point (please kill him off, i want to see the reactions).

Going forward I can't wait to see if we get any follow up on the Easter egg characters, killer croc, the 4 Robin's, king tut. I'd love to see the batman as a dad he's got a lot of kindness modern adaptations don't include, but still that overwhelmingly lonely nature. I'm hoping harley and the joker never cross paths in this universe but I won't hold my breath and I'd like to see if we will get a batgirl/oracle storyline as well.

Anyways looking forward to the confirmed second season, and if you read this without watching the show, start now.

[frostycatblr-fandom-files]

Hello! I was wondering if I could request Wrecker x reader where they sneak off really late at night for a cute little walk because they haven't been getting enough alone time. And it's a new relationship, so everything's still all cute and giggly. Maybe they think they are being quiet when they are sneaking back in, but something funny happens and reader is like dieing laughing and Hunter walks in like wtf is going on. Idk, feel free to ignore. Ily ♡

Warnings and Information: No real age warning for this one. 2nd person POV, undescribed Reader that can be read as gender neutral. Little sprinkling of Mando'a. Minor language (everyone say "thank you, Crosshair!"). It’s all the giddiness of a new(ish) relationship with the powerhouse of Clone Force 99 that is Wrecker. 🩷 Impromptu date late at night. Decided on a Modern!AU for this one where (most of) the Bad Batch work as a construction crew, and there's a few cameos of other Clones too. Hope you enjoy what I came up with! 

Word-count: 4,544

Setting your bag down on the welcome mat, you thread your house key into the lock with an eager sigh. You're pretty tired. You finally have a free night, thankfully, and you've been away from home all day. 

You're looking forward to just vegging out on the couch to catch the season finale of your favorite show for the next hour and crawling into bed as soon as you finish trawling the 'net for other people's impressions of the finale. There's a lot of speculation regarding the dashing rogue of the series, and whether or not they'll finally pluck up the courage to share this big secret the show writers have been dangling over the fans. You just hope some news article doesn't show up in your social media feed only to come along and spoil it in the headline. 

"People really need to learn to tag their kriffing spoilers… It's not that hard." 

You bump the door open and hoist the bag back over your shoulder just as someone calls out your name. 

"H-hey! Wait up!" 

You pause in the entryway, cheeks pinching with a large smile. "Hey Wrecker." The way he's doubled over, hands pressed into his knees while he pants for air, you can guess Wrecker had likely jogged over to your place from his. He lives not too far from you, and it's a jog he's made several times before, but it has been a slightly warmer than average day that has only just begun to cool off in the last few hours. Tech, one of Wrecker's brothers, calls the phenomenon the "heat island" something or other. Effect? (If that wasn't right that sounded close enough.) "You okay? Here, come on in. Would you like some water?" 

"B-but- Weren't you jus' leaving?" Wrecker manages between slowing pants. He used the edge of his sleeve to mop the sweat from his brow once he's upright, fixing you with a woozy smile when you hook your fingers around his own and lead him inside. "Oh, no, I just got home, actually. How come?" You fill a glass from the cold tap and rummage around the freezer for some ice to make it a little more refreshing. Wrecker just ran so hot sometimes you were surprised he didn't pass out on some of his job sites as a construction worker. 

"I- oh, thanks, cyare." Wrecker greedily gulps down a few mouthfuls of water to relieve himself of his thirst, careful not to spill down his front or all over your kitchen floor. 

The intimacy of the pet name makes your ears flush with warmth, and your cheeks pinch a little more with a tender smile. "You're welcome." 

The worst of his thirst now quelled, Wrecker could explain why he thought he had caught you leaving the house. "I, uh, I came over to ask if you wanted to go do something. Together. Jus' the two of us. Worried that I got off work too late or took too long to clean up a bit and I caught you about to leave. I know it's nearly eleven, but it's been a while since we had a moment to spend time together… just to ourselves." There was good reason for the emphasis on the last three words. In the infancy of your relationship with Wrecker, you have only had one date together that wasn't interrupted in some way by his job, or one of your day to day priorities, or one of his brothers. 

You liked his brothers well enough thus far, but sometimes they really needed to learn when to butt out. Or what was appropriate for company. 

"Wrecker, have you seen my live specimen?"

"Hunter! One of Tech's kriffing specimens got loose again! Can't find the damn thing!" 

"Oh Maker…"

"L-let's leave, cyare. It's not a dangerous specimen or nothing, but it's jus' creepy." 

You smiled at Wrecker, and to him, those smiles could have thawed out an ice planet like Hoth twelve times over. Smiles that could get Crosshair, even in his most sour of moods, to return the gesture even for a fleeting moment. "Time just to ourselves sounds very, very nice… What'd you have in mind? I'm down for anything." The minute you pulled him across the welcome mat you decided you wouldn't mind watching the final episode of the season another time. Wrecker was here, and by happy coincidence, your schedules were completely free for the weekend. You could stay up as late as you liked.

"You wanna go for a bite? Or maybe go take a walk?" Wrecker offers. You like the idea of a casual walk, now that it's cooler. You glance at your footwear, a pair of sandals, and think for a moment it'll be smart to put on a pair of closed-toed shoes. "A walk sounds nice," you reply brightly, "You wanna go… uh, how about by the lake in the park?" 

Wrecker grins at the idea. He's got such an infectious smile that gives you butterflies in the pit of your stomach and a booming, boisterous laugh that you just loved. "Sure, tha' sounds nice! Been meaning to go see it one'a these days, but I'm busy helpin' my brothers with work most of the week." He'd love to go check it out with you, he says. 

Going to the lake took you past Wrecker's house, all dark save for two windows. Tech's, of course, and you believe the second is another brother of Wrecker's who's moved in only recently. 

You haven't had the opportunity to meet him yet. You hope to, one day, when he's ready. 

"He's… been through a lot. One'a our other brothers thought it might be a good idea if he came and lived with us for a bit. Quieter. Less people." 

"How many brothers do you have, Wrecker?" 

He had laughed, scratching nervously around the back of his head with a great shrug. "I dunno, honestly. I have a lot of brothers. But, I get along best with Hunter, Tech and Cross… So I hope I get along with Echo too." 

"I'm sure you will, Wrecker. You're friendly and kind and sweet… a-and um…" Your mouth had gotten away from you, then. You had only been friends back then, and you'd slowly grown closer, grown feelings for this gentle giant. You were that close to blurting out that you thought he was handsome, cute even, down to the scar and replacement eye that was a result of an accident on one of his very first job sites. He had said your name with that same jovial laugh and winning smile and, jokingly, asked, "What? You gonna say I'm cute or somethin'?" 

That's all it took. Just a few months later, here the two of you were, playfully bumping into one another as you entered the park hand-in-hand, making jokes and laughing together. 

"No-no-no, that's not what the joke means!" you insisted, feeling the ache in your sides growing the more you laughed until you were nearly breathless. "You realize Cross is messing with you, right?" 

"Yeah, 'course I do!" he replies, "But so am I! It's jus' how the two'a us are. It's a lot of fun to purposely misunderstand a joke and see how long it takes before Tech can't take it anymore. Our record was two hours. Hunter even joined in!" 

"But I thought he hated it when you and Cross goofed off on your job sites." 

Wrecker grins through mischievous laughter. "Naaah. Hunter goofs off on job sites just as much as us when we can get away with it, but he's more… subtle about it. Unless he wants to show off to our older brother Cody. He's a contractor and the one who suggested the job to us; so we try an' behave a little more than usual when he comes to check on how construction is going." Wrecker explains. They've been part of the crew who initially came in to renovate some very old apartment buildings here in this little, growing city, but overnight the sign that had previously said "RENOVATIONS UNDERWAY" for the first few weeks became "DEMO AND REBUILD". Now you know why; Cody's the one who made the call on that, and you wonder why the sudden change. 

"Oh, huge infestation that went untreated for too long. I don't remember what Tech calls them or what they are, but Cody said it was gonna be better to scrap everything and build fresh. I ain't complaining!" 

That was something you appreciated Wrecker for. He complained about very little. He was often optimistic and in high spirits. Happy to do almost anything he was asked so long as he was with his brothers and didn't have a want of food. All that manual labor makes a person hungry, so it doesn't surprise you to find him snacking on something if he's left to his own devices and the thought comes over him. 

Actually, in fact, you hadn't just walked past his house on the way to the park: you briefly came inside so he could throw a few things into the cooler bag he takes to his job sites (he, Hunter and Cross bounced between at least two or three sites if Cody needed a few more hands for something on a particular day) and have a little picnic on the grass with you. You both took care to be quiet so as not to disturb his brothers. Wrecker did however bump into Crosshair in the kitchen, who took one look in the lunch bag and said "Unless you plan on drinking that kriffing disgusting lake water, I suggest you take something to drink, too." before he snatched a few slices of cold pizza from a box in the fridge and shuffled off. 

Not much of a talker, Crosshair. But that's okay. 

"How's this for a spot?" you ask, coming across a bench after walking roughly one half of the man-made lake. Walking and talking with Wrecker was enjoyable, the late-summer air carried by a gentle breeze across the water was cool and soothing here. Not too far from the water's edge, and you could hear some of the lake life, little frogs, croaking and singing in the reeds and lily pads from here. Wrecker nods approvingly, setting down the cooler bag. "Perfect! Here, made this for you. Sorry if it's a little smushed or if I forgot a condiment." 

He offers you a brown paper bag, and inside, you find your favorite sandwich you often throw together when you need a quick bite to eat. "Aww, you made this for me? Wrecker that's so sweet of you, thank you." You bite into it with eager anticipation, and it's definitely the way you like it. "Oh Maker," you moan blissfully, chewing slowly to savor it, "that's a good sandwich." Wrecker smiles bashfully as he takes a seat beside you on the bench, unwrapping his own sandwich. 

"Did I-?"

"No, not a single missing condiment." you tell him. Shyness and uncertainty turn to pride for the man beside you. 

"Oh, good! I made it kinda quick-like from memory so we could get goin' without bothering my brothers." He takes a bite of his own sandwich, and allows himself to chew thoroughly before he speaks again. "I, uh, I make everyone's lunch in the mornings. Except for Tech's sometimes, he's pretty particular about what he takes to his lab." 

You think back to what Tech's job is, but the proper name for it escapes you. "He works in the… preservation department at the local museum, right?" 

Wrecker bobs his head as he takes another bite of his sandwich, smaller this time. "Yeah. Works in at least three labs. Real smart. Like scary smart. He'd get bored if he worked in just one lab. And because I don't remember what lab he goes to on what days, he and I agreed it'd be best for him to make his own lunches most days. Oh, I almost forgot! Here!" He reaches into the cooler bag again and pulls out one of your favorite, non-alcoholic, bottled beverages. "That's for you. Can't have a proper picnic without something to drink." 

Wrecker's attention to detail, his memory of things he's learned about you only very recently, it all makes you feel giddy and warm inside that he's so incredibly attentive to your likes and dislikes. Other romantic partners, whether they had been potential or well and truly established, had not been quite so aware like Wrecker. What had taken others five months or more to remember that you did not like on your pizza, Wrecker had remembered in just five days. 

Hunter had called your name from the kitchen, ready to place an order from a little place new to town called Gregor's Grub-hub and asked what toppings you liked on your pizza, apologizing for not remembering what you had taken from the assortment of pizzas the crew offered to share with you when you stopped by Wrecker's job site to return the comically oversized jacket he loaned you. 

"That's okay, I remember!" Wrecker had declared from the couch as the two of you sat together, trying (and failing) to take this board game seriously. It was just so much more fun to bend the rules or try stacking all the game pieces. Whatever silly idea possessing the pair of you was swiftly entertained. 

It was just so easy to have fun with Wrecker. He found joy in the little things. And he cared so deeply about his brothers. He cared so deeply about you. 

You crack open the bottle, and together the two of you mock-toast to this late-night, lakeside summer picnic the pair of you took on a whim. You're so glad to be out here with him. Just the two of you in the light of the full, silver moon hung in the sky above this beautiful park, serenaded by the frogs and distant cicadas in the trees.

"Thanks Wrecker. Cheers!"

"Cheers!" Wrecker laughs brightly, the sound as bubbly as the lapping waves of water against the shore, and as distinct as the ping from the phone in your pocket as your phone begins to blow up with news about the final episode of the season you originally planned to watch tonight. (Damn. Maybe the dashing rogue will pluck up the courage next season.) You can't even be mad about the spoilers. 

You're enjoying this rare evening together with Wrecker far, far too much to be annoyed about that. 

"Nice night for a date…" you murmur fondly, leaning into Wrecker's side as you sit on the bench and eat some of the other snack foods out of the cooler bag now that the two of you have finished your sandwiches. "... thanks for the late, lakeside picnic, Wrecker." You giggle softly when he shyly asks if you're okay with a little kiss on the cheek. He kisses the top of your head for good measure as well, emboldened by the smiles and giggles. "Yer welcome. We should do this more often." he says, looking out over the glimmering water with you. 

You should do this more often. Maybe the next time you come here, you can take him here in the sunlight and come feed the waterfowl on a day that his brothers could get by without his help. Crosshair didn't need help the clambering up onto the scaffolding so he could do his job as a roofer, but he often let Wrecker help him because it eased his brother's fear of heights, or the fear that Cross was going to fall from the scaffolding again after a really nerve-wracking incident, more rather. 

A strong gust of wind had ripped through the construction site before the structure had been secured against the frameworks, and his brother had lost his balance. Wrecker had been there to catch him in the nick of time. 

"Maybe it gets under my skin a little that my brothers make fun of me for my fear of heights," Wrecker admitted somberly to you in private shortly after the scare. "But I'd never willingly let my brothers fall. I'll always be there to catch them… if I can." 

Once the two of you have finished most of the food from the cooler bag, you diligently pack away all of your trash until you pass by another trash can. "Let's finish walking around the rest of the lake. Then let's maybe call it a night." you suggest. It's too nice a night not to. You just hope the city police don't come along and spoil the moment by suggesting that you need to leave, since park lock-up happens at 12:30. It's only midnight, and the rest of the lake won't take long to walk at a decent pace. 

Common opinion is that some of the force can be overly stern, even how the chief of police is characterized as "heartless", but you've come to understand that these officers with red police cruisers (an unusual color choice) are decent men. They're just chronically overworked. You feel for them, now. They're only doing their jobs, however unpopular it might be. 

Thankfully, where you'll complete your full circuit of the lake with Wrecker is not too far from one of these entrance and exit gates that are found along the wall of the gated park. 

Joking and laughing with Wrecker once again puts a pep in your step, now that the two of you are comfortably full and content with the late-night meal. 

Wrecker suggests walking a little closer to the water, just before you leave. Give the lake a closer look, maybe see if he can't get a picture of one of the frogs for Tech. "He could probably tell us all about 'em! Tech loves that kinda stuff… sharing what he learns with people." Wrecker says with a grin as he quickly snaps a photo of a plump frog resting on a lilypad. He's carefully crouched on the edge of the bank in order to get it. You creep down closer to the waterline so you can take his phone for him so he can use both hands to pull himself back up the slightly steep bank. The water is deep here, and you're both hoping to avoid falling in.

"Here, I got it." you offer, holding out your hand. 

You slip on a slick patch of grass and mud as you collect his phone, and as luck would have it, the sandal slips off as you stumble and it falls into the lake with a splash.

Wrecker had caught you before you fell in as well. "Gotcha, cyare! Are you okay?" 

"I'm f-fine," you assure him with a tiny stammer, glad you hadn't dropped his phone or fallen in. "Just lost my shoe. Thanks for catching me." 

"Of course, cyare. Didn't think I'd only be there to catch just my brothers, didja?" He's teasing, of course, but the question makes you flush. No, of course you didn't think that. 

Wrecker peers down into the water, trying to see if he could spot your sandal. Man, why didn't you change into something with laces? You'd thought about it and everything, but you were just so excited about spending time with Wrecker that you dashed out the door without giving it a second thought… 

A car door closes in the distance. It sounds like it's from a car parked near the gate. Uh oh. What time is it? 

"Wrecker, we need to go, I think the-" 

He's up to his elbow in the lake water, carefully swishing his arm around while seeing if he can't find your shoe. "Just a second, I'll find your shoe and then we can go cyare." Wrecker promises, trying to settle your nerves. He's so focused on being sweet and helpful that he doesn't hear or notice the officer starting down the path. 

"Wrecker, c'mon, it's okay. It's just a cheap little sandal, we really should go!" 

The way Wrecker is hunched over the water on his hands and knees in the dim light of the moon, the officer mistakes the position for a starting dive and he calls out in warning. "Hey-! There's no swimming in the lake!" 

Wrecker falls in with a great splash, startled. He surfaces shortly, the water up to his chest. Okay, maybe the water wasn't as deep as you thought. "I'm okay!" Wrecker splutters, coughing up lake water. "I found your sandal!" 

You turn to the officer now standing on the edge of the lake, glowering down disappointedly at Wrecker. "I'm so sorry, sir," you say, "he was just trying to get my shoe and then I think you startled him an- O-oh, Officer Fox! I didn't realize it was you, I'm so sorry!" Fox didn't realize it was you, either, turns out. He speaks your name with great surprise, then takes another look at the sopping wet figure carefully climbing out of the water with your wet, muddy shoe in hand. "Wrecker?"

"Yup!" 

Officer Fox removes his peaked cap and scratches his salt-and-pepper hair with a weary sigh. "... I thought the two of you were a couple of kids or something. Got a call from a "concerned citizen" about some "hooligan youth" in the park. Some busybody of an old man who's constantly inventing problems for me because he has his mind made up that I don't have enough to do…" 

You grimace sympathetically. "Mr. Sheev, again?"

"That old bat's still alive?" Wrecker asks disbelievingly. No one's quite sure how old Mr. Sheev is, but he looks like he's been dodging the grim reaper longer than it should be natural. 

There's a mutter from Officer Fox that sounds a lot like the word unfortunately before the cap is replaced and he has to do his job. 

"C'mon… park's locking up for the night, soon. And since you're wet," he nods to Wrecker, "and you're half barefoot," Officer Fox nods to you this time, "I'll give you a lift in the cruiser." 

Officer Fox takes you both back to Wrecker's place, watching the two of you from the car as you're huddled on the porch, wrestling with the ring of house keys. Darn things seem to make themselves invisible or slippery when they get the slightest inkling that you might be in a hurry to get inside. 

Wrecker says he'll have to mop up the water in a second, trying and failing at threading his house key into the lock with shaky fingers. Lake water was cold and he was soaked to the bone trying to do a kind thing by retrieving your sandal for you. 

Fox, the chief of police for the city, calls from the cruiser that Wrecker better get into some dry clothes soon, and not to feel bad about getting the seats wet. "Shit like this happens more than you think. I gotta ask Cody if he's the guy I gotta talk to about getting a proper walking path around the lake… as soon as I'm done with all this other kriffing paperwork. Goodnight." You help Wrecker get the key into the door and thank him for the lift. "You too, Officer Fox! Thank you again!" 

As the two of you try to squeeze inside, someone knocks over the coatrack bearing three high-vis vests and a crisp lab coat. "Whoops!" Oh stars, that clatter was sure to wake someone up… It was nearly one in the morning now. 

Wrecker's foot slips in the growing puddle of water, and trying to help him, or make sure that he's okay, you yourself trip over the coat rack and fall on top of him with a yelp. Once again, he breaks your fall, and tries to break the nervous tension with a corny joke after you both frantically apologize to one another. 

"Guess we're a couple'a angels if we keep fallin' for one another, huh, cyar'ika?" 

You can't help it. The joke is so silly and undeniably sweet coming from someone like Wrecker that if the coat rack, and then the two of you falling over and on top of one another didn't wake Wrecker's brothers, your laugh certainly would have. Four pairs of feet plod down the stairs at varying speeds, Hunter the fastest. He's fresh out of bed in nothing but a pair of red and black boxers, face wracked with confusion. Wrecker is soaking wet and smells like algae. And you're now damp after having landed on top of him. Hunter was told the two of you were just going for a walk, how the hell did his brother and his date end up getting wet?

"The kriff are you two doing on the floor?" Crosshair yawns from up the stairs. 

"And why are you wet?" 

You smile apologetically up at Hunter, "Wrecker fell in the lake trying to get my shoe for me. I was trying to keep his phone dry after he took a picture of a frog for Tech and-" Your eyes dart further up the stairs when you hear Tech excitedly ask "A frog?" from behind Cross, and you spot the brother who must be Echo behind him. He's a little paler and his face is gaunt compared to the others. He looks rather disoriented and anxious after you probably woke him up so unexpectedly. 

"Oh… hello there; are you Echo?" 

He nods timidly. "I am. And you are…?" He seems surprised to hear you know his name, but he doesn't seem to recognize you. You wait as he carefully makes his way down the stairs, one step at a time. The horrible accident Echo had suffered from was some time ago, but three of his limbs haven't quite been the same since. Minor weakness and numbness, to your memory. You waited until he was closer to put out the appropriate hand to introduce yourself with a polite smile. "Nice to meet you. Officially." Echo manages apologetically. "Sorry, guess I didn't recognize you because I've only ever heard Wrecker talk about the person he's started dating." 

You smile reassuringly at Echo, and flash Wrecker a cheeky look when you hear he's been talking about you to his brothers. You're sure he would look just as flushed as you if the light from the kitchen wasn't so dim. 

"I'll get a mop and clean up the water," Wrecker promises Hunter when his brother takes a look at the floor by the front door after Wrecker picks up his cooler bag and dumps all the trash into the kitchen's garbage can. 

Hunter shrugs lazily. "Nah, don't bother. You two should go shower or something. I'll take care of it. Besides falling in the lake - apparently - was your walk nice?" 

"Oh yeah!" Wrecker says with a giant grin that you return when you share a look. "I think the two of us might do it again soon. This time without losing any shoes." 

You can only nod and laugh softly in agreement. The next time you go on one of these late-night walks with Wrecker, if this becomes a regular thing in your relationship, you are definitely going to start wearing better shoes with laces.

Note from Frost: The idea of Palpatine being a nosy cranky senior citizen who calls the police over "hooligan youths" having fun came out of nowhere but it tickled me too much not to include it lmao. (Poor Commander Fox...)

[Masterlist] [Requests: OPEN]

[jtl07]

jt (finally) watches warrior nun - s2 e1 (pt 1)

Slowly, slowly making my way through s2 e1 (finally!) so I think I’ll just post as I go because this is gonna take me a while. Plus it doesn’t help that it’s these avatrice scenes lol

So let’s talk about that first avatrice scene (I’ll be referencing this video clip throughout because making gifs and me don’t mix) - and wow, I did not expect that to be right at the start. They really weren’t messing around in building up avatrice for this season huh?

Anyway, three things that stuck out to me in this scene: 1) how tense Beatrice is, 2) conversely, how easily she bends to Ava, and 3) that was not the first time Ava has kissed Beatrice.

(Gonna make separate posts for each of these because oops, this got long)

First, Beatrice’s tension - I mean this both in an emotional and physical way. To start with the former: Bea scolds Ava for chatting up customers and talking about Adriel, but how did she know when she was upstairs?

As in: In order for Bea to have known this, she either has super-hearing and can hear from upstairs (or planted listening devices/spy bugs around the bar - that actually would’ve been interesting but still unlikely) or she went downstairs, witnessed the interaction - likely huffed a bit lol - then went back upstairs. And somewhere in that sequence, she asked Hans to get Ava for her.

That seems a lot, no?

It did make for a cute intro to Bea though, seeing her pop out like that and in civilian clothes, but idk, it just makes me amused at how … extra, how tense, how wary she is. Even after two months, she’s still wound up - though, perhaps if she’s aware of her feelings for Ava here, then this is her reaction to that awareness: to be more strict, more tense, more discreet.

Because I feel like to Beatrice, “discreet” is less about not attracting attention and more about being hidden. It fits how she’s functioned thus far - hiding her self behind being a sister warrior (remember what Beatrice said in s1 e8? “Pain is what made me a sister warrior” not, “Pain is what made me who I am”), hiding and hating her queerness.

So it makes sense that Beatrice would see Ava “chatting up customers” about Adriel and instead of engage Ava right there (or even be the one to ask her to talk instead of Hans), she instead chooses to hide herself away.

Huh. I just realized - hiding is Bea’s version of running away.

Okay this is kinda fascinating because all the talk about running has been about Ava, which has been deliberate and I’m looking forward to seeing that arc play out, but huh, I never thought about Beatrice running. She runs from her feelings - examples that are coming to my head are when she denies her jealousy, but we also have her physically running away from Ava when they have the balcony talk (i.e. the “I let my emotions blind me to the mission” scene).

But Ava doesn’t let her hide - Ava’s the worst at hiding, really. She’s too bright, too open, and, this is part of my second point (which I’ll make a separate post for because this is already getting long lol), that it’s Ava’s light that brings Beatrice out of the dark, that eventually gets Beatrice to bend and release that tension.

Okay, need to end this here, will be back with the other points ... sometime soon. Hopefully lol

[accirax]

Disventure Camp All Stars Power Ranking (Round 9)

Time to shoot my shot at nailing a perfect score for the next elimination. Something tells me that the power rankings game is about to change, though...

In case you haven't seen my previous power rankings ( 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 ), the Power Ranking Format is essentially a way of ranking how well each player is doing in the game. So, in essence, this is a long form way of predicting who I think will be eliminated from the competition in the next episode. There will be spoilers for last week's episode (obviously) and its power ranking, so make sure to read that first if you don't want to be spoiled on how I ranked our last boot. If you want more clarification on the rules, that first post will help you out as well. Furthermore, I'm going to be spoiling the preview for next episode, so if you want to go in TOTALLY blind, save this for later. Let's go!

Recap - Tess' Elimination

Current Point Total: 34 acquired/53 total

Um. Oops.

Needless to say, Tess wasn't the only one blindsided this episode. I guess putting Tess in the direct middle point of my rankings wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things, but I'm pretty sure it is my worst call of the season thus far. I had the right idea about Gabby being able to somehow eliminate one of the Cyan heroes, even if the "advantage" I was picturing was entirely different from the team-combining that wound up happening. Thanks a lot for throwing that one on me out of nowhere, Kristal.

Like I said in my initial thoughts, I do sort of wish that Aiden would have been the one to go home instead of Tess. However, I also feel like some opinions I've seen around have been... overestimating the extent to which Tess was a good character this season, in my opinion. I do think Tess' portrayal in All Stars is probably superior to S2, just because her arc wasn't solely hinging on Hunter. However, her portrayal this season was getting a little boring, at least to me. She was kind, patient, a good friend, super strong, great at claw games... what are her flaws supposed to be, again?

It was definitely supposed to be her indecisive nature; she needed to choose whether she should stick with her friends or do what's best for her game. Then again, that decision was kind of made for her by Ellie acting more villainously, such that Tess never needed to make a judgment call. (She got to stand by her friends and do what was better for her game.) I was starting to worry that she would just coast to the finale as a very likeable yet fairly bland hero-- sort of like what the show makes fun of S2 Aiden for being, but at least he wasn't solely solving others' problems as he went.

I don't want to make this sound like I'm some huge Tess anti. I like Tess! I'm sad she had to go! I found her indecision and commitment to kindness relatable, and I enjoyed her interactions with Ally and Ellie especially. I just don't fully understand all of the people bemoaning the fact that the DC writers sent some phenomenal, lynchpin character home ahead of her time when I think she served her purpose as a mid-game exit nicely. Even if you disagree, I hope you can respect me sharing my thoughts.

Trailer Analysis

Here's the big one out of the way-- it's finally the merge! Between the shared tent and everyone being present at tribal, there's really no way to argue around that. Finally, I don't have to try to anticipate when the merge is going to happen to predict where characters might go. Of course, this opens up the new can of worms that is trying to predict how everyone will act now that they're at the same camp. I feel like it should be easier, but... we'll see...?

Here's Gabby following after the villain's alliance. The fact that she's trailing behind them could imply that they aren't fully including Gabby in their proceedings, but... I genuinely don't know why they would do that? With 10 people at the merge, six votes is a majority, so it's super important for the villains to work with Gabby to have at least five in numbers. This is probably more that the former Yellow Team goes off to do something and Gabby follows behind them, making it obvious where her allegiances lie.

Tom and Jake are having a chat... again. Now that these two are on the same team again, this is gonna happen a lot, isn't it?

Looks like the merge color might be black, which makes sense as the K to their CMYK. Yul has some purple paint on his chin, which may be the result of Kristal demonstrating the paint gun on him. Or, the ammo might not be paint, but instead the blueberries we see throughout the trailer-- same point either way. Also, Ashley (and maybe Grett) is the only morning person. Tracks.

The challenge is something involving paint guns, not sure what. We don't see any footage of people covered in paint, which possibly means that shooting other people isn't part of the challenge? Or, maybe they're just trying to hide who doesn't win immunity. I imagine that, whatever it is, Ashley will be pretty good at it. Ally too. All of the guns and gear are the same color, so it seems like there aren't any inherent teams, but it is a challenge in which allies seem to be working together to some capacity.

Everyone at tribal! Very fun. Unlike Survivor, there's no immunity necklace, so we can't tell who may be immune at this vote. People are still sitting with their tribes, but I don't think that has any meaning beyond people sitting by those they're aligned with.

"Once the votes are read, the decision is final. The person voted out will have to leave for the Bus of Losers immediately!"

The dialogue is the standard thing that Kristal says before every vote reading, so nothing particularly special there. However, what I want to look at is who was shown reacting in the flashes before the votes are read. Can they give us hints as to who is in danger? Here's who was shown in every All Stars episode prior to this one:

(no votes)

Fiore + Hunter + Ashley/Jake

Gabby/Tom/Aiden + Tess/Lake/Ellie*

Riya/Grett/Alec + Miriam/Connor/Yul*

Ashley + Hunter/Ally + Fiore

Yul/Grett + Connor/Alec/Riya*

Fiore/Ally + Jake/Ashley*

Ellie + Tom + Gabby

Tess/Aiden/Tom + Riya/Yul/Alec/Grett + Gabby*

Okay, that wasn't actually as helpful as I thought, just because 5/8 rounds showed every person on the team, which guarantees 100% chance of showing the boot. Still, in the three cases that they didn't show everyone, 2/3 showed the boot, and 3/3 of them showed people who received votes. This could imply that some of Ally, Yul, Alec, and Jake could be major vote-getters, or the eliminated person, in the tribal council.

I hoped it would help me out more, because, with unofficial lines drawn between five heroes (Ashley, Ally, Jake, Tom, Aiden) and five villains (Alec, Riya, Yul, Grett, Gabby), I think this tribal could be fairly unpredictable. Will a villain ascend to heroism, or will a hero fall into villainy? Here are my thoughts.

Power Ranking

#1: Gabby

(I guess if the merge team's color is black, I just have to leave the name black.)

She finally did it! Gabby is #1 in my power rankings!!! What could be behind much a major shift in position?

Well, the merge, basically. Not from an edit position, though: this is a direct result of her swing-voting her way to safety. Gabby was the most recent addition to the decently tight villains alliance, so it stands to reason that, if the heroes are looking for a sixth to bring to their side, they would want to work with Gabby, not vote her out. Not to mention, the villains have no reason to target Gabby at the moment, because they desperately need her vote. Sounds like no votes will be cast in Gabby's name, eh?

As the cherry on top, Gabby was the merge boot in S1, and I would imagine that they wouldn't want to give her that exact same placement again. In my mind, there's basically no way that this episode will result in Gabby's elimination.

#2: Grett

My highest placed choices this time were chosen based on the logic, "which of the heroes would be the least likely for the villains to target, and which of the villains would be the least likely for the heroes to target?" Out of all the potential threats in the villains alliance, I see very little reason why the heroes would view Grett as the biggest.

While last challenge did prove that she is a baller, Grett isn't exactly known as being a huge challenge threat. (The one individual immunity she won in S1 was basically handed to her by Alec and Fiore.) She's not a strategic mastermind or leader, and most of the relationships she had coming out of S1 lean negative. The heroes would only target her to diminish the villains' numbers, but if you have the chance to diminish the villains' numbers, why wouldn't you target someone scarier?

Grett appears to still be in the middle of her character arc, and, at this point, I see her arc ending with Yul exiting the game before she does. That hasn't happened yet, so I imagine that Grett will be camping for a little while longer yet.

#3: Jake

Listen up, 'cause this next piece of reasoning is going to be important for the rest of my power rankings this week. I think that, if the villains are looking for a sixth vote to recruit, they're going to be looking to Jake as their most likely addition. Alec already manipulated Jake once this season to vote out James and save Fiore, so Jake would probably be at the forefront of Alec's mind when coming up with plans to eliminate heroes and save villains again. Jake is also... teetering on the edge of hero and villain this season, narratively speaking, so it would make sense if he had to face that music at some point.

Whether Jake flips on the heroes or not, if the villains want to work with him, he won't be their target. And, even if he isn't their object of recruitment, why Jake? The man is a hot mess! His mere presence causes conflict between the heroes, both on the Ashley/Ally end and the Tom/Aiden end. The villains should be trying to keep him around for as long as possible.

Despite my glowing(?) words, there is one way that I could see Jake going home. If Ally, Aiden, or whoever was so sick of Jake that they were willing to work with the villains just to take him out, the villains could exploit that and eliminate him on an "at least it's not me" basis. However, I don't think that would be the plan, because I don't think Ally or Aiden would really want to agree to it, and I don't think it makes much sense narratively. I don't think Jake will be eliminated. That's why he's #3.

#4: Alec

I believe that, if the heroes could somehow magically eliminate the villain of their choosing, Alec would be the smartest option for them to shoot for. He's their leader, and without them, the alliance might crumble (such as, if Yul and Riya start going for each other's throats again).

He's also proven to be pretty good at immunity challenges. Yes, he only actually won 1/5 individual immunity challenges in S1, which was the scorpions in the cave challenge. But, let's look at a breakdown of what actually happened. Alec had mastery of both the questions and cages challenge and the zombie apocalypse challenge, handing off the win to his teammates (Grett and Fiore) for strategic reasons. While it's not a guarantee, it's definitely possible he could have won the medals in the rain challenge if he didn't forfeit the win to Ellie. And, it took active sabotage on Ellie's part to prevent him from winning the final four paired challenge. Add all that together, and... there's a possibility that Alec could have won every individual immunity challenge based on pure skill if no strategy was involved. He's scary!

However, that's only what the heroes would do ideally. In reality, I have no idea how they would bring the votes together to land on Alec. I don't know if all five heroes could count on all five of their votes to coalesce on Alec, much less pulling in one of the villains, who all seem to respect him.

For these reasons, maybe I should have put Alec even higher up on the list. I don't think it would make much narrative sense for him to go home at this point, either. However, I do understand why people would want to attempt to vote him out, which I can't say for Gabby, Grett, or (for the most part) Jake. Thus, Alec lands in spot #4... just like in S1. Smh.

#5: Yul

Kind of similarly to Jake, I think that the main reason why Yul would be voted out would be if the heroes were able to convince the villains (Alec and Riya at least) to flip Yul because he's just that annoying. However, this would be an incredibly bold move to make when the heroes have very little information as to the inner workings of the former Yellow team. As far as they know, Yul and Grett are still a happy couple. I also see Alec willing to give up one of his numbers at this point even less than Ally or Ashley, so the whole plan seems unlikely. Not impossible, but unlikely.

Anyways, Yul is still obviously involved in a plotline with Grett and the rest of Yellow, but that could be resolved in one episode at any point now, imo. I just think that's probably still coming a few episodes down the line, to break up the villains then instead of now. Yul should be thanking his lucky stars that Yellow never went to tribal again after voting out Connor. I guess he probably thinks that he is his own lucky star. Yul should be thanking himself. Yeah, that tracks with Yul's thought process.

#6: Riya

With Riya being placed here, I think you can pretty clearly tell that I think the villains are going to win this round, sending a hero home. I just think it makes more sense with my projected arc for the rest of the season. The villains will stick with their alliance and kick out a hero or two, but just when all hope seems lost for the heroes (for instance, when there are three of them left) the villains will turn on each other and start cannibalizing themselves. Therefore, at the end, we can have a mix of surviving heroes and villains for the finale. That's what makes most sense to me at this point, although I acknowledge that I'm not factoring in the status quo shakeup of a returning player. Mostly because I don't know when they're coming back. Oops.

Anyways, in the case that I'm wrong, I think Riya would be the most likely villain to be eliminated. This is mostly because of Aiden's vendetta against her. I'm not saying that Aiden would necessarily be the hero alliance's leader or anything, but in the case that no one else has any strong opinions on who to take out, we know that Aiden has a strong preference for taking out Riya. Tom would probably back him up, too.

Riya is in a weird spot narratively because what she has right now is, "friends with Alec, enemies with Aiden, friends and enemies with Yul." She clearly has some important relationships, but... she isn't really undergoing any kind of character development, as far as I can tell? Like, they aren't delving as deep into her character as they are with Gabby, Grett, Ally, etc. It's possible that could spell mid-game boot for her? Still, I don't think that will be now, because the villains seem far less shakable than the fractured heroes at this point. I was pretty wrong about Tess last time though, so, there's certainly a possibility that I'll be cashing in 6 points for Riya at the end of this episode.

#7: Ashley

Now that we've reached the merge, Ashley doesn't have that same sort of shield that I felt she had pre-merge. It's definitely possible that the villains would choose to snipe Ashley for the same reasons that the heroes would love to snipe Alec: she's strong and tough, as well as a calming/uniting factor between Jake and Ally. She's the most heroic hero. Take Ashley away, and the prospects of the heroes mustering any kind of alliance grow even dimmer.

However, because Ashley is so well liked, it would be really hard for the villains to convince one of the heroes to vote with them to take her out. Like, no shot Ally takes that deal, and Aiden and Tom would have to realize that it'd be a bad move for their games to do so. There's a small chance that they could manipulate Jake's jealousy to convince him to do it, but 9 times out of 10 that manipulation would result in an Ally boot instead.

Furthermore, there's a high chance that Ashley will win immunity in this country-ass shooting challenge, rendering this entire train of thought pointless. Ashley is probably still fine, but I could see her role in the narrative no longer being necessary at this point as well. It's that that landed her down here, instead of higher on the list.

#8: Tom

These next three are the ones who I believe are seriously at risk of going home. Like I said, I think that Jake is going to (temporarily) continue his chain of character degradation by letting his jealousy land him on the villains team, taking out one of the players he's been complaining about these past few episodes. And, boy, has he been complaining about Tom...!

Tom is a decently big physical threat, so I see no reason why the villains wouldn't agree to take him out if that's what they managed to get Jake on board for. If Tom, say, decided to tell Jake that he was lying about having a boyfriend in their chat on that rock, Jake could grow so fed up with Tom that he just wants Tom out. That could lead to a Tom elimination, as a result of his lies.

However, part of me still believes that it's still too early to pull the trigger on sending Tom home. Both Tom and Jake have still privately admitted that they really care about the other, and if that's how Jake really feels, he might have a hard time actually putting pen to paper. They haven't been on the same team all season thus far. Couldn't Jake still feel guilty about idoling Tom out with his own totem last time, and not be able to write Tom's name down...? I feel like there are still other characters more expendable than Tom, but I wouldn't be shocked if Tom went here.

#9: Ally

Ally is one of the people that Jake could wind up targeting, for sure. Voting Aiden out might make Tom dislike him even more, whereas, theoretically, if Ally were gone, Ashley would have no choice but to make Jake her closest partner. That could be appealing for Jake.

Whether or not Ally would stick around in a narrative sense is... difficult. Now that Tess has been eliminated, I feel like the writers would want to keep Ally around as a representative of that relationship/plot point of S2. However, without Hunter or Tess still in the game, the potential for future Ally-centric plotlines has also been slightly kneecapped.

For whatever reasons, it seems to me like the writers didn't really like the HunTessAlly relationship in general? All three of them had pretty radical personality changes since S2, and Hunter and Tess were both eliminated somewhat randomly in favor of characters who made it further the first time (Fiore and Aiden). Out of the three, I think that changed-Ally both had the most care put into her and emanates the most potential. But, it could be that all three of them were brought back into the season with minor "improvements" (subject to viewer interpretation whether they are improvements-- I think Ally is better, Hunter is worse, and Tess is a draw) mostly as plot devices/stepping stools for other, more important characters.

(I don't hate Ally, either. I like Ally. I just think that the way the HunTessAlly relationship has been handled this season has been less than ideal. I get it, because the writers wanted to prioritize other relationships, all of which I've been enjoying, but I still wish they could have gotten more focus time for themselves and not just as props to other characters. Maybe I'm explaining too much. I don't like being negative :( )

However, I also think Ally could win this challenge with her pro gamer skillz. So, there's that. Besides, I can't help but feel like there's someone Jake wants out of the game even more than Ally or Tom...

#10: Aiden

Aiden makes the most sense as the next elimination for a lot of reasons. Or, namely, the lots of people who want him out may all come together to make him the next elimination. It's striking.

The villains alliance wants a sixth vote to establish the majority, for which they will probably turn to Jake. Jake wants Aiden out of the game because he kissed Tom and they now have a rivalry. That's one person pitching Aiden's name.

The villains alliance also wants to ensure that they keep Gabby on their side-- even if they can pull in Jake, it doesn't matter so much if Gabby flips back to the heroes because she, like, doesn't want to vote out Ally or whatever. Well, no matter. Gabby wants revenge on her former Cyan tribemates, Tom and Aiden. Gabby wants to vote Aiden out. That's a second person pitching Aiden's name.

But, what if the villains themselves don't actually want to vote Aiden out...? Haha, no. Riya very clearly wants to establish dominance over Aiden once again, and even already threw out his name last episode. And, even though Yul insisted that Aiden wasn't a threat last time, it's not like he likes Aiden, either. It was James' refusal to poison the man that got Yul eliminated and really sick in S2. I'm sure he'd be happy with Aiden leaving from a karma standpoint, if not a strategic one. That could be people three and four pitching Aiden's name.

If the villains want to remain united, throwing all their votes on Aiden makes the most sense. I don't think he would win this challenge, and, still, no totem has been announced, so if he gets six votes, I think he's just toast. This is my guess as to the dominant strategy of the episode, so we'll see if I'm on the mark.

Also, I want to acknowledge that I'm aware that it doesn't have to be a 6-4 (or even 5-5) vote at Tribal council. The villains could, for example, scheme to get Ashley, Ally, and Jake to vote out Aiden, and Aiden and Tom to vote out Ally, while the villains put four votes on Ashley (4-3-2 vote). However, due to the difficulty of executing that plan, I find it unlikely that that's what's going to happen. I feel like Disventure Camp usually sticks to pretty standard voting schemes (like a four person vote going 3-1 instead of 2-1-1 or whatever), so I'm working off of that assumption. I think they did some fancier stuff with Fiore in S1, though, so it's not totally off the table.

Anyways! Those are my power rankings for this week. This episode is going to be really important for establishing the key characters and plotlines moving forward in the post-merge, so I'll surely be keeping my eyes out.

Also, this week is the season finale of the actual Survivor 46! Not really related to DC, but I'm really excited about it, so I'm mentioning it here. I'm gonna be swimming in exciting game show content this week >:) I hope you all have a nice week, too! Bye!

[danpuff-ao3]

Rest, Recovery, Worry

My therapist tells me that writing is who I am. She stated at our last appointment that I light up when I talk about writing. She was glad to hear I'd been writing again, since it's been so long since I have.

Life has been pretty rough for months now. Right now is not the worst of it, but things still aren't great. I'm pretty permanently exhausted. I feel stuck where I am. My anxiety is bad.

So for the past few months I've just...given myself grace? In a way, anyway. I let myself laze around in my off time. My partner and I have been having horror movie marathons every weekend. I finished season 2 of Our Flag Means Death (finally!), and we started season 2 of Wheel of Time, and I plan on nudging him to start season 2 of Good Omens soon. Oh, we also started watching the Chucky TV series (we finished season 1 last weekend!)

It feels like a whole lot of nothing. It's been nice. I also feel a bit...off. Like I'm just floating through life. I miss creating. Even if it's not writing...Bookbinding or scrapbooking or...jewelry making, even. Even reading again would feel more real to me. I need to "do" something, and I worry that if this keeps up, I might never be able to "do" anything again.

My recent poking at Scrivener has felt so useless, but I think it's a step in the right direction, even if I don't finish anything anytime soon. "Progress is progress", as I like to say.

A lot of my recent struggles are related to ongoing issues of...People expect so much from me, in my life. When they know me and see what I can do, they expect so much, and so rarely appreciate any of it. And now especially I'm so close to another anniversary of leaving the Bad Fandom Space, and being so aware of those old wounds. The same wound opened over and over again.

My everlasting need to be productive...I really need to untie my creativity from my productivity. Maybe I'd enjoy it more, and maybe it would heal me more, if I could manage that. Instead, I look at my pitiful word counts, and see how far I am from the end, and feel defeated all over again.

But I do feel more "me" since I've been at least trying to write. And I invested in a new Cricut Maker that will, hopefully, encourage me to craft more. And I have plenty of future appointments scheduled out with my therapist.

Anyway, I've felt so absent lately, and I'm trying to find my way again, so I figured I'd come chat into the void for a bit. And maybe someone out there will listen 💛

[juminsswife]

my thoughts on Netflix's ATLA live action

As an adult who watched this show growing up and was there for the countdown to the comet (iykyk!!) I have thoughts!

Best: Zuko. angsty, teenage boy depression, father issues, determined to a self-destructive degree. The actor is great at capturing all these facets of Zuko's conflicting, complex character. Really great with the choreography/martial arts too. Its not easy to pull off Zuko's mostly shaven but with a ponytail haircut, but this actor manages it. And yes, the opening scene with him seeing the beam of light from the iceberg and saying, "Finally." did give me some chills. Honestly the actor just captures Zuko really well. Great casting.

Worst: Katara. has the personality of an elegant yet unassuming well watered house plant. Its more because of the writing than the actress… she's doing her best with this depressing egg whites version of Katara she's had thrusted upon her. It's not going to be convincing when Toph comes along next season and calls her sugar queen.

Aang: never has any fun. spends every episode staring into the distance being sorrowful and melancholic. *teardrop rolls down cheek* he is a depressed 40 year old in the body of a 12 year old. He has no fun side to him anymore- an important side for a 12 year old kid to have! Also spends the entirety of season one (you know, titled "water"!) and doesn't learn a lick of waterbending, not even from Katara, who spends a lot of it learning from the waterbending scroll!! Why??? However the actor is doing a great job and I think he captures Aang's essence really well. He is young and I think next season he will improve a lot.

Sokka: I almost forgot to write thoughts down for him, which I think says more than anything else. He's essentially been boiled down to the same old overprotective big brother, but now he comes complete with daddy issues. It's a little hilarious that Katara's worst memory is watching her mom get burned alive by a firebender soldier while Sokka's is hearing his dad say he's disappointed with him. Kind of ruins the moment tbh. They really took all the fun aspects of the main Gaang and dulled them down completely, its sad. At least he's cute though- and imo, the chemistry with Suki's actress was there.

The previous avatars: every single one meets Aang just to berate & yell at him and tell him he shouldn't have friends and where has he been for the past 100 years without giving him a second to speak. What?? Sadly it seems any dignity, grace, or wisdom the previous avatars had in the original, has been completely wiped out in this live action. Also, this idea of them telling Aang about things that are going to happen makes no sense. Did no previous avatar tell Roku his friend was going to betray him, let him die on the island, and start a 100 year long war? Also the idea of Aang being able to communicate ONLY if he's in one of their temples is stupid. What is the point of the avatar state, then? Will Roku be able to teach him anything at all?

Princess Yue: yes I wrote an entire paragraph about her lol. She is one of my favorite minor characters. I think they wanted her to look so accurate to her original counterpart that she just looks too much like a cosplayer, with such a stiff and lifeless looking wig. This is the one and only time I will concede I prefer M. Night's version of Yue as far as costuming goes, though both funnily enough forget her eyebrows shouldn't be dark. The actress was fine. But this version of Yue is quite a different person from og Yue, I can't really compare. Plus, it feels like we see her for a good 10 minutes before she dies for the moon spirit. I couldn't buy into her and Sokka having feelings for each other because it felt like they knew each other for a good 2 hours at most. Ideally, I think these two versions kind of fused together would be perfect.

Azula/Mai/Ty Lee: Grouping them together because. Azula is the most unconvincing out of the characters for me. I don't buy that this girl is supposed to be the princess Azula for a second. I'm neither intrigued nor intimidated, and that's pretty bad as Azula was one of my top favorite characters from the original. The costume is fine, the wig feels cheap, her dialogue is horrendous, the actress can't convince me. Azula isn't smart or cunning, sharp, or collected, and her "working with Zhao" just made her look dumb when the entire plan flopped. She is a whiny, petulant little girl stamping her feet in every other scene. It's not for me. Also, the way her relationship with Ozai is depicted here makes Ozai look like a loser, too. It's like they want us to not be afraid of either of them.

As for Mai and Ty Lee. Ty Lee is fine. She looks okay, the actress is fine for how little we see her. On Mai, the wig is just so bad I don't get what happened. It's like they're struggling on the line of being realistic with the styling, or leaning completely in cartoon-character-came-to-life. I don't think the actress for Mai here was a good choice.

Dialogue: the worst part of this show. When they're not completely quoting word for word from the original, it's.. just bad. Everything is always exposition and thats not good. The few moments that aren't are just... idk.

CGI: not bad. I was expecting worse. Fire, earth, and air all look great. Water feels a little slow, mostly when its just water and not ice but that can be improved I assume. Koh was pretty cool, as was Wan Shi Tong.

Settings: Beautiful!! Omashu looked great. South and North water tribes looked great. Ozai's throne room looked incredible and I was annoyed every time we see it, he is just standing around and not sitting on his throne. It just reminded me how amazing the buildup to Ozai and Azula's reveals were in og season 1.

Costume: Its either a hit or a miss. There's strangley not much in between. Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko, Iroh, June, Ozai, Jet, Suki, the Kyoshi warriors, all look pretty great. Then you have characters like Azula, Mai, or Yue, who just look like half decent cosplayers. It kind of takes you out of the moment when it looks like the person is a cartoon character, rather than just a normal person. For example, compare how Katara looks compared to Azula.

Music: of course it was fantastic. A lot of it (I think most) was from the original show, which has one of the greatest soundtracks an animated show has ever had imo.

Final thoughts: Ultimately, it was kind of what I was expecting. You can't condense 20+ episodes worth of development into 8 and expect it all to flow perfectly. However, there are also a lot of changes that really don't make sense to me. I am very curious to know how on earth they will do seasons 2 and 3, as season 1 is the slowest in pace compared to the next two seasons. The original's finale was split into four episodes! Unless they add more episodes for next season, it's going to be a big jumbled mess of lore being shoved into our faces. I am also concerned about Toph. The Gaang so far has been stripped of their fun/unique personality traits. Is Toph going to be the same?

[emotionallychargedtowel]

Utsukushii Kare S2E1 thoughts

I’ve never watched a BL that was still on the air, unless it was almost finished when I started. I just hate waiting between episodes, especially in a genre where episodes are often super short. But I can’t wait four weeks to see Utsukushii Kare season two (anyway, I’d get so many spoilers on here, it would be useless). I’ve also never posted about a BL episode by episode, since I never watched one that way. But I’m going to try doing it this time.

There is such a marked difference between season 2 and season 1. Season 1 was so packed with voice-over narration, but didn’t have that much dialogue. There’s still quite a bit of voice-over stuff in season 2 but the dialogue has increased by leaps and bounds. Since I was fascinated by the ways in which Hira’s and Kiyoi’s weirdnesses interacted with one another in the first season, all of this direct interaction gave me so much more to work with in my conceptualization of the characters. Not to mention so much more being communicated nonverbally.

There’s a sense in which the viewer gets to have their cake and eat it too with season 2, and that is that in many respects we get to enjoy Hira and Kiyoi finally being together, but they’re also still struggling with a lot of the same issues they did in season 1, so that engine that drove the story is still in operation. So far, if this season was a fanfic, it would be labeled as both “angst” and “fluff.” And fluffy angst is really enjoyable! From another angle, this combination is the worst of both worlds. Every sweet moment between these characters is suspended from this tenuous thread of their relationship. Both of them fear losing that relationship so intensely, despite the other wanting so badly to hold on, but it’s that very insecurity that threatens it the most. And it’s always in the background, undercutting all of cute stuff that would feel like rank fan service otherwise (heaven forbid!).

There were a few particular highlights for me.

1) Kiyoi’s new habit of giving Hira a significant look while opening his mouth, which is Hira’s cue to feed him. The fact that this happened on two different occasions in just one short episode? What a weird combination of demanding and endearing.

2) The scene where Kiyoi walks in on Hira being hit on by a girl. I particularly enjoyed this as a kabedon appreciator. She backs him into a door with one arm out in a very kabedon-like way (she doesn’t whack it, though), and then when Kiyoi arrives he does a full kabedon on Hira out of jealousy (but without the usual confession and/or kiss). There’s also an interesting role reversal happening here. And it’s a great illustration of how naive and dense Hira really is.

3) The exchange about “doing it.” This, to me, is a really good illustration of the lovable weirdness of these characters. Well, lovable to some of us. I expect that some people might find it off-putting or icky. It’s definitely not entirely healthy. It seems like the way things go in this scene is typical for them. Basically, intimacy happens when Kiyoi decides it will, and it’s just assumed that of course Hira will be down for it. It isn’t even presented as a question, more as an announcement: “we’re going to do it today.” Which isn’t the best consent practice ever, but it seemingly works because apparently (in a way that’s very consistent for the character), Hira really is always interested in “doing it” with Kiyoi. The fact that this only happens when Kiyoi chooses is also very consistent with his guardedness. But a more surprising aspect is Kiyoi’s shyness. He’s tentative, even bashful here. Not that he was ever portrayed as particularly assertive sexually, far from it, but he’s so assertive, even domineering, in other areas of his life, particularly with Hira, that this almost demure quality is really striking. In the end it seems these two deeply weird people have come up with a system that basically works for them and, particularly after all of the pining in season 1, it’s kind of adorable seeing them navigate it.

4) The acknowledgement that Hira is actually pretty attractive. One jarring thing about season 1 is that it’s often treated as a foregone conclusion that Hira is repulsive (possibly because we spend so much time inside his head) but Hagiwara Riku is, of course, quite nice-looking (even with Hira’s unflattering hairdo). It also doesn’t add up that Kiyoi would be so attracted to Hira if he was really as unappealing as he thinks. So it was nice to have that acknowledged and played around with in an interesting way.

Second seasons of BLs are inherently risky. And it’s still rather early to assume this one will avoid the potential risks. But so far I think it shows a lot of potential to be as worthwhile as the first season. Honestly, I could imagine liking it even more. I guess we’ll see.

[empyreanromantic]

Suuuper long rant about The Cleaning Lady and armony because I'm sorry, but I'm just really disappointed with the energy this season had. But hey, if you enjoyed season 2, then that's amazing! I'm genuinely happy for you and I hope you can continue to enjoy the show!! These are just my thoughts:

So I haven't watch episodes 2x10-12 because 1) I wanted to focus on finals, and 2) after 2x09 I just wasn't feeling it anymore. And after seeing the mixed reactions to the finale, I'm not sure I want to catch up on the show after all. I tried to enjoy this season, I really did. I normally hate love triangles with a passion but I thought hey, if the writers are having a fun back-and-forth seesaw motion with it as they put it, maybe I can have fun with it too.

The thing about season 1 that really got me hooked was that it was SO DIFFERENT. The story, the characters, the entire atmosphere and aesthetic was so unique compared to other shows I had seen. And most of all, it had SPICE to it. A mother who will risk it all for her son and a gangster who learns to open up his heart and falls hard for this woman. Incredible concept. Classic beauty and the beast story and enemies-to-lovers trope that I will never get tired of.

Thony and Arman's chemistry was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. There was a passion and fire there since the very beginning, and the fact that these two went through all those different stages of "please don't kill me" to "maybe you're not so bad" to "you're not the man I thought you were" to "how could you betray me" to "I trust you with my life" and finally "we're in this together" was just ugh. It was so good!!

I rewatched armony scenes from season 1 so many times, I listened to Thony singing "Someone to Watch Over Me" on repeat. I'm sure it was the same for a lot of viewers as well. I loved the soundtrack composed by Mark Isham.

I loved the progression of looks Arman gave Thony throughout the season. I loved their teamwork. I loved them finessing the FBI. I loved that Arman cried in 1x05 because he thought Thony betrayed him and in 1x06 when he cried FOR her. I loved that 1x07 opened with a freaking musical number. I never expected that from this kind of show and it surprised me in the best way! I loved the vulnerable and earnest dance scene in 1x08. I loved Arman tapping out the numbers in 1x10. The tension was palpable. This show had me hooked. It made me feel things and I was so happy to have found something new to obsess over. I LOVED season 1.

And went it comes to sequels, of course it's never going to be the exact same because the writers have had a lot more time to work on the first installment, to really polish it up and make it the best version it can be before it even gets pitched to a company who will invest in their idea. So I understand that for season 2, the showrunners didn't have as much time to develop it. That being said, it is no excuse for the mediocrity that was season 2.

Whereas season 1 was unique and fresh and spicy and heartfelt, season 2 was monotonous at best and downright stressful at worst. The fast-pacing was them trying something different. I get it. But I stopped enjoying it because it got real old real fast.

I've seen a lot of criticisms that the passion between Thony and Arman doesn't seem to be there anymore, and I agree to some extent. I wasn't expecting them to kiss and have sex or confess their love for each other, because there were still a lot of obstacles in their way and that's realistic! But the pacing of their relationship was so odd that at times I was wondering why they even tolerated each other's presence. There were moments where you could still sense the chemistry, but those moments were few and far in between. Where did all of that magic from season 1 go?

I liked that Thony and Arman didn't get together at the end of season 1, because even when you put the whole infidelity part aside (which never bothered me because come on this is fiction), despite the chemistry, attraction and tension between the two of them, there was still a power imbalance there. Arman was Thony's boss, and Thony was very much dependent on him, most obviously financially. Their conversations were mostly about money and Luca. I feel that 1x02 and 1x03 did the best job in exploring Arman's past and his relationship with Thony as a man rather than as her savior. And yes Arman came to rely on Thony and trust her as well, but I never got the sense that they were truly equals until the end of the season.

Season 2 came around, and Arman was at his lowest point, working for Kamdar who treated him like dirt, and he was more and more ashamed of who he was becoming. I thought, "ah I can see where they're going with this! Arman and Thony are now on the same level and they're going to build each other back up!" But no. They just end up running drugs and spend the entire season trying to pay off Kamdar. Maybe I was just interpreting it all wrong and was picking up on the wrong things, but hey, the viewers picked up on the concept back in season 1 that maybe Nadia and Arman never truly loved each other, which would have been really interesting to explore and we could see how their marriage starts to fall apart. But it turns out they do love each other and they have problems because... *squints at smudged writing on hand* Nadia's possessive ex suddenly wants her back??

And despite the showrunners insisting that Arman and Thony's relationship is never going to be a full on romance, I call bullshit. You cannot deny that people were watching the show for the romance, filled with all the angst and sexual tension. Whenever I see the showrunners talking about how armony is platonic or that their bond is deeper than love, I cannot help but think that they feel bitter that people are not watching their show for anything else besides armony. Like Jesus Christ it's okay that people started watching because of the romance. It means you were doing at least one thing right, you should take it as a compliment.

I'm getting way too heated about this lol, but if this show ends up getting greenlit for season 3, I'm not even worried about Thony and Arman getting together at this point. I don't think I even care anymore. Who knows if the writers are actually going for a slow burn, because they seem to have a different idea of their relationship than the viewers do.

What I'm worried about is the writers getting into their heads thinking that their storytelling is amazing and the choices they made in season 2 were justified, therefore they're on the right track for a third season. Because honestly that is the impression I'm getting from them. I have only read snippets from interviews that people have been posting online, because I personally don't care to read interviews. If the writers need to explain OUTSIDE THE SHOW the decisions they made, that's a big red flag to me. I've seen it before too many times from my favorite media. I really hoped The Cleaning Lady showrunners would be different.

And it just boggles my mind that they're patting themselves on the back and thinking they've delivered the most mind-blowing season with all their twists and turns and high stakes, because they haven't. Season 1 to me was mind-blowing. Season 2 turned into your average crime drama with drug trafficking and using the same plot elements over and over again. Every week I just ended up rolling my eyes thinking "oh boy, Luca is in trouble AGAIN. Thony is asking Arman for help AGAIN. Marriage problems AGAIN. Working with the FBI AGAIN."

Naveen Andrews and Eva De Dominici were both really charismatic and brought a lot of fun energy to the season, and I'm happy that Eva De Dominici got more screen time because Nadia is just a really fun and interesting character. No hate to Elodie Yung and Adan Canto in the slightest. But only a few episodes into the season and I ended up watching the show for Nadia and for Kamdar. How can that be? When in season 1 I was on the edge my seat, glued to the screen, watching the show solely for the two main leads? I'm sorry but I'm just not feeling it anymore.

Again, if you liked this season, I am super happy for you that you were able to get joy out of it! I sincerely hope you will continue to feel that joy if they announce season 3. Maybe my opinion will change over time, maybe the writers will get back on track. In the meantime, I'll probably just stick to rewatching season 1 and make up my own story of what happens after in my head.

[whatkeepsmeafloat]

All right, now that all the promotional material is out there (as far as we know), here are my season 2 timeline predictions/expectations. Putting it behind a cut because this is a long one - I just need to get my thoughts out.

Before we jump into my proposed timeline, a note on the character arcs: Stede is free of his past, but now has to wrestle with the present and his romantic expectations vs. the reality of the situation. I think he enters the season full of hope that the worst is behind him and now he’s going to reunite with his love and his crew and they’ll all sail off into the sunset together. Not so much. He is going to have to put in the work - a lot of it. As for Ed, he will go through a ton of emotional turmoil this season around the theme of acceptance and self-actualisation. I think he initially blames everything on Stede, but has some realisations of his own and finds a way to let go of Blackbeard and his own troubled past at last. This is necessary for him to arrive at any kind of forgiveness when it comes to Stede.

It’s only after Ed lets go of some of his baggage and Stede has proven himself that they truly reunite - on equal footing. They may meet up again early on, but no smooches until after some serious character development.

So what do I think the order of events is going to be?

Bearded Stede running down the beach in leather trousers at sunset is absolutely a dream sequence, and my money is on Stede. He's going to have this fantasy about being a dashing rogue swashbuckling his way back into Ed's heart - maybe in slow-motion set to a great song - only for it to cut to him and his crew sleeping on a floor somewhere like a group of miserable wet dogs. Classic gag - it’ll be great. If Blackbeard interrupting the wedding isn't the opening scene, it'll still be in the first episode of the season. Izzy hates how it's all going and tries to talk to Ed about it, but Ed throws a knife at his head and locks himself into the auxiliary closet with the cake figurines. The crew eats the wedding cake and talks about how things are Not Going Well. Stede stares at the wanted poster, Ed stares at the figurine (music plays, of course). Ed has given up - Stede has only become more determined. Somewhere around here is when Stede meets the Prince Ricky character. More on him later. Also, and I’m not sure if this will happen this early on, but after almost getting eaten by Buttons and Roach, the Swede leaves the crew and joins Spanish Jackie’s harem of husbands. She finds herself drawn to his awkward vibe and he likes getting bossed around by a strong woman - we already know that Jackie is the dominant partner in her relationships.

Stede and crew befriend what they think are a group of Chinese merchants, but end up being a band of pirates who have a bone to pick with Blackbeard and want to find him just as badly as Stede does.They’re using Stede to find Blackbeard’s ship, but somehow it all works out. Don’t ask me how. Meanwhile, Jim is bonding with the cool new lady pirate, but still looking for a way to escape and get back to Olu. Fang and Frenchie are concerned as Ed’s behaviour escalates and Izzy loses his leg - whether it's the severed toe or that rogue gunshot, I don't know. When Stede finally catches up with their ship, they use the crossbow to make a zip line between them - finally, the gang is reunited. Perhaps all of this takes place after the storm that we see Ed standing in. He is reckless and gets himself knocked out. Stede insists on bringing him onto their ship as well, even though everyone thinks Blackbeard is going to kill him. Ed wakes up, headbutts Stede, and things are Tense. Stede is his smiling cherub self and assumes they’ll just go back to the way things were. He says all the wrong things, and Ed is having none of it. He tells Stede that he never wants to see him again once they’re back on land. Stede sighs that he should have just told Ed how he felt instead of whatever came out of his mouth - we all cry. The Chinese pirates forget about whatever they wanted from Ed because he is clearly a broken man and there’s nothing to gain here. Maybe Stede’s crew grew on them, like when we see Buttons doing tai chi with them on deck.

Back on land, Ed tries to leave Stede behind, but Stede keeps following him around and popping up all over the place - like at Spanish Jackie’s place and Anne Bonny and Mary Read’s… antique shop? That look on Ed’s face in the trailer reads as “oh god, he’s back again” to me, not like a first meeting. Anne Bonny and Mary Read either gleefully enjoy the drama of it all or have something more nefarious in mind in revenge of Calico Jack. Izzy absolutely loses his leg because of Ed and is patched up by Stede's crew. Roach uses the ship’s unicorn to create a peg leg. It’s humiliating for Izzy, but he has no choice but to accept. He is vulnerable in a way he has never been before, and instead of casting him out the crew is supportive and tries to help him back onto his feet (well, foot and hoof). This makes him reevaluate not only himself but the group and piracy as a whole - think Long John Silver's arc on Black Sails. He will also have to relearn how to fight and handle himself with the peg leg, so I fully expect a Rocky-style training montage including that shirtless candle slicing scene. This newfound sense of community and purpose combined with the knowledge that Ed really was better with Stede drives Izzy to train Stede in the ways of being a pirate. They both grow to respect each other, the fans cry - give me the montage. There might be a storyline where Olu and Jim have to rediscover their relationship after their separation and Jim growing close to the new crew member. I don’t see them breaking up in any way though - just figuring out where they stand now and how they want to move forward. At the end of the episode someone appears on the ship in English navy clothes, and it turns out to be our boy Lucius. Roll credits.

We learn that Lucius was picked up by the English at the end of season one and has integrated himself into the navy, growing a beard and keeping his head down. He has heard some things and has been looking for a way to rejoin the crew and share this knowledge - maybe their new Prince Ricky fan was an undercover English officer this whole time or something. Black Pete is overjoyed and so are we. Meanwhile, Ed tries to find ways to move on and figure out who he is without a crew and without Stede. He finds himself in an isolated location - maybe after washing ashore after a storm, but this is the part that I can’t figure out - where he talks to a rabbit and starts seeing the ghost of Hornigold. Whether he is using drugs, seriously dehydrated, or just lonely and emotionally unstable, I don’t know. Maybe it’s all of the above. Regardless, he has to face his past and deal with his Blackbeard identity. This is his lowest point, and he ends up throwing himself off the cliff with the rock tied around his middle. Maybe he believes it is a way to pay for what he’s done, maybe he can’t imagine a future for himself without Blackbeard looming over him. Either way, he survives somehow and finds a way to work through the trauma and start over - an ocean baptism, if you will. At the end of all of this is when Ed is finally ready to forgive and move forward with Stede. Perhaps he’s just in time to jump into the fray as Stede is battling the English navy.

I don’t know who this Prince Ricky character is, but it seems like he initially meets Stede’s crew while down and out (or pretending to be), gets his nose cut off along the way (presumably by Jackie), and then leads the English in their battle against the pirates. I do know that there is a historical figure who was an English sailor turned pirate who had the nickname “Prince of Pirates” and used to sail with Hornigold and Blackbeard. However, his name was Samuel Bellamy a.k.a. Black Sam. They may play fast and loose with history though and move some things around. It was actually Hornigold who became a pirate hunter for the English in the end, but maybe they’re going to give that storyline to this guy. I’m really curious to see how it’s going to play out. Fighting back is where Lucius really comes in - he has insider information that the crew can use to form a plan.

The torture ship? Drag show? Earring? I have no clue.

Thank you for letting me vent. Place your bets now on how wrong I’ll end up being!

[variousqueerthings]

@brilliantfantasticgeronimo (whenever I type out your name, tumblr refuses to acknowledge your blog's existence RIP)

SO the thing about the Doctor as power fantasy. that thing that is at the centre of a lot of M*ffat writing, and is first absolutely encapsulated in The Pandorica Opens and continues getting worse throughout his tenure

so the Doctor as apparent power fantasy to me is several things

1.when RTD rebooted the show, he was very explicit about wanting to centre the companion characters and have them be the POV, allowing their lives to be important to the stories. And so you got Rose choosing to become The Bad Wolf (amongst other things), Martha wandering the earth for a year (amongst other things), Donna in Turn Left (amongst other things), and all those recurring characters who each have important plot and emotional Stuff that is at the core of the narrative

the Doctor almost dies numerous times, but for these characters saving them, including single episode characters, so this idea that the Doctor lands someplace and ruins everyone's day by being so Badass and Awestriking isn't really a Thing in Nu!Who outside of some of the Doctor's worst fears of hurting everyone they touch and is specifically brought up in order to be shut down... until M*ffat

2. but what about Classic!Who? I've only seen episodes across various random seasons, and then mooost of the way up until Tom Baker so far, but Classic!Who also did not do this from what I've seen. While the companions (the women) were often more assistant-based and in miniskirts (like Amy P- *gets sniped*), I've actually found they do a heck of a lot more than I think someone (M*ffat) gave them credit for when he first started his showrunner tenure. reminds me of when he did his version of the First Doctor and made him way more sexist than the show did in 1963...

and also the Doctor in the classics, crucially, is still just some guy. kind of like Mad Max, drops into places and is dragged into events (but overall with less Action Man than someone like Max). a lot of the time the Doctor is doing the sciencey stuff, and the Companion is doing some other part of the story (Jo Grant in The Mutants my beloved)

3. So the Doctor doesn't really exist like this usually -- tellingly the Doctor in fact fails to be this in Waters of Mars, because of one human woman, so... anyway. It's incorrect characterisation of the Doctor's role in the story

4. and it removes the power fantasy from the Companions, who are after all the ones who are experiencing a story that we can step into. the near-immortal alien that's apparently now The Most Important Powerful Dangerous Awe-Inspiring being in the Universe is not someone who's able to really inhabit that role, but that girl from the estate who never completed her A-levels? the medical student who's always fixing her family's drama? the woman in her 30s whose life hasn't come together like she hoped? for them to be powerful, to have the ability to change the Universe? Yeah, that's cool, that's a great power fantasy

5. it makes me think of that clip from that one guy who was in some way in charge of some part of the show in like. late 70s I think. who was talking about how he definitely wasn't sexist for saying that the Companion was really a bit of something for the Dads, rather than, idk... an interesting character

to people like that it's all about the Doctor, and I can theorise why. I can theorise that they want to be this dude who can fix everything, solve everything, and for M*ffat, who's so badass that people run from his very word... but Amy is right there, and where is she during this sequence, where the Doctor is telling every alien species to fucking try it, because he's so cool?

she's unconscious somewhere in the catacombs beneath. not like. dream badassery in the writing of the near-finale there, and although on the surface it's not too dissimilar from second-last episodes in previous seasons (Rose is captured by the Daleks, Martha is alone and friendless, Donna is hanging around in the Tardis for the Doctor to know what to do next), it's all in what happens next-

and now I've seen the following episode, Amy basically runs around after the Doctor and then gets married, and then remembers the Doctor, and it's... it's fine... it's like. it's fine, I don't hate it, but it's really just her doing exactly what the Doctor told her to do. Amy has things done to her, and does what she's told most of the time (not all the time, but most of the time), and certainly that's her role in s5

the Doctor, by contrast, is now this massive presence that shifts the whole Universe. it's this massive shift from everything that's come before, and make me wonder whose narrative are we watching? we're not the Doctor, we are the companions, and in this era, as companions we... wait around for the Doctor... to do.... something.....

6. also one you've watched a couple of M*ffat things, which sadly I have, you notice he does this all the damn time. the most obvious comparison is Sherlock is also the most important interesting specialist guy ever, (who therefore has licence to be a dick). everyone orbits around him, especially the hot sexually confident women who wish they could be with him

we're there to be In Awe Of The Special People

also Steven M*ffat thinks he is the Special People