#then the rest of the season can be like

[becausebuckley]

don't mind me i'm just thinking about the potential of episodes we could have in 8b. a ravi begins episode that has a split focus on him becoming a firefighter and returning to the 118, partially because he needs to fill in for eddie but ultimately leading to him becoming a permanent a-shift member. then the week after is el paso, focused entirely on eddie and christopher and the diaz family, ending with eddie and chris coming home to los angeles AND eddie realising his feelings for buck. leading right into an episode about eddie's first shift back, which gives us some form of buddie nde, a feelings confession, and their first kiss <3

[starjunkyard]

Obsessed with the degrees to which james wilson is a messy bitch. Primps and preens himself whenever he realises his boy best friend is stalking / sabotaging / psychological-warfare-ing him. Slept with his terminal patient. Immedicable people pleaser. Chronic adulterer. Three ex wives. PROPOSED TO HIS GIRLFRIEND AT SOMEONE ELSE'S WEDDING? Fuck you doin in the oncology wing my boy. Psychiatric ward is on the left corner

[gh0sdae]

I'm all for viktor manhandling jayce, but let's be real. Jayce is LUCKY viktor chose that path

Had viktor approached jayce in human form, hugged/cradled him, held his face, and soothed him with sweet nothings, that man would have FOLDED like a lawn chair

After months of torture? HIM??? He would not survive

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

[tackykachowch]

S2: hey guys! Look at these cool new characters! They will (allegedly) help Jinx, Sevika, Vander and Silco become even more complex and-

My humble missile:

[huggywuggysuppy]

Has Pearl Really Betrayed Gem?

Inspired by (this) recent transcript of Pearl talking about siding with Scar in SL and not believing she betrayed Gem at all.

It's interesting how Pearl always saw Murder Camel as a fun but temporary thing -- it was never a real alliance to her -- while EVERYONE ELSE clearly thought it meant something more. We're talking the Mounders discussing moving in with Gem & the Scotts level serious. Gem /definitely/ thought it was something more. Even in WL Scott was like "and you were like three steps away from betraying us and being your own thing with Pearl" (also him stressing that "no matter your other alliances, THIS is the top one" in SL). There's definitely something unequal here. And why is that?

Gem murdered Pearl. Like, twice. The second time while Pearl was actively BEGGING her to stop. For that red task to hit until she blocked with a shield.

So of course Pearl didn't see it as a real alliance. Both times she joined Gem were after Gem killed her! And to the other players who are veterans and used to self-sacrifice and murder, it's not that big a deal. But Pearl very rarely sacrifices herself -- off the top of my head she's only given lives to BigB back in Limited, which was much lower-stakes -- and definitely not by force. Pearl never really chose to ally with her. Working with Gem in the final session was almost entirely tactical: it was just a bonus that they got along.

And Gem? Gem doesn't notice. As far as she knows, sacrifice is not only normal but expected of a strong alliance. Thanks to Scott's immense self-sacrifice issues and Impulse's "yes and" tactical mind, she's literally responsible for two deaths apiece on her allies. Why wouldn't she lump Pearl in with that, who she's also taken two lives from? (Whew, does Gem murder a lot of people. love her). When she'd turned Pearl red, Pearl was angry and hurt, but Gem apologized. "I can't believe you still wanna be friends with me after this." Gem had said, and Pearl replied, "I can't believe it either. But I guess here we are."

That's why it's such a betrayal at the end. Gem thought they were okay. Scar's been public enemy #1 for so long, Pearl literally chose him as her target when she turned zombie. Meanwhile, Gem and Pearl have been working together for the past 2-3 sessions (plus or minus a couple times Gem murdered her). Pearl should've turned on Scar.

And that leads us to now. Gem, who was betrayed because she thought she was safe and Pearl was cool with it and was her ally. When the server thought they were so close they would team up together. When really, Pearl had never thought the same, because why should she? Gem had only ever hurt her and her allies. No, Pearl's only crime was not communicating clearly enough and denouncing Gem entirely. But against the whole server, the fandom's gaze too, all insisting Gem and her were in Life, for Life?

5 AM Pearl has a lot to work with.

Thank you so much for reading! I, too, fell into the trap and accused them both of betrayal. But I was blinded by wanting Shinyduo to stay together! I should never doubt you, Pearlescentmoon. Never let us sway you from your path.

[amoaxi]

Someone should make a fanfic out of this and call it Papercuts.

[rainebownerd]

You guys he was being so plain because he knew!!!! He knew that if he went all out all the time like Aabriya, we wouldn't survive it

[the-crooked-library]

what I learned from season 2 of IWTV is that a distressingly large amount of people cannot tell the difference between a consensual BDSM dynamic and assault/abuse, nor do they know anything about how kink actually works

it’s not unhealthy for Armand to be submissive or delve into maître/slave kink dynamics. in fact it’s something people do to explore and get past their traumas all the time irl. additionally, he is like five times older and more powerful than Louis, he wasn’t being forced to do anything, nor could Louis ever actually force him. the kink was probably the healthiest aspect of their relationship, what fucked them over was a jumble of commitment issues, a lack of trust, and eventual murder - which is something that would cause problems in any relationship ever, no matter how vanilla.

the Point of the tragedy is that they were on the precipice of something happy, but Louis hesitated for too long and Armand couldn’t recognize when he was loved, and the kink had nothing to do with it, for fuck’s sake. Louis wasn’t abusive and it’s not bad or wrong for Armand to want to be a sub -

[blueskittlesart]

Would love to hear more about what you dislike in Arcane?

Not to be rude everyone can have their own interpretation but just curious because I felt the majority of the women were treaty well by the narrative.

it's about the focus of the narrative as a whole. in season 1 we were primed for a story centered entirely around vi and jinx and their relationship. for the first two episodes in there entirety, jayce doesn't exist beyond one background line--we don't even see his FACE. he and viktor are, in season 1, essentially set dressing. they exist to explain the magic system of the world and the class struggle that exists within it, and while they may have had their own secondary narrative it was SECONDARY to the MAIN CHARACTERS OF THE SHOW, jinx and vi. (and to a lesser extent cait and mel.) by season 2, though, jinx and vi are afterthoughts in their own story. they become the secondary narrative to jayce and viktor's insane magical cult thing. the final episode dedicates about 5 minutes total to the two of them and ends with jinx implicitly dying off-screen. can you see how insane of a writing choice that is. to spend a full 10-episode season setting up the central relationship between two female characters and then dedicating MAYBE 5 minutes to resolving it by KILLING ONE OF THEM in the last 10 minutes of the very last episode of your show. not to mention mel, who by the end of the series functions basically purely as a deus ex machina and whose growth as a mage happens entirely off-screen while her own mother exists purely to be a villain in jayce and viktor's story. it's just so abundantly clear to me that the writers decided that what they'd written jinx and vi into was going to be really complicated to resolve, and so rather than taking the time to make an interesting resolution out of it they threw it out and poured all their energy into their male faves. what we're left with is a story that doesn't feel FINISHED, let alone cohesive, because the writers literally threw out the buildup of season one in favor of their male side characters.

[el-cheung]

[ the way he looks at him ]

[ryllen]

i thought / m a n / these girls are quite heartless 🤣 when i accepted the quest at /clearly/ inconvenient time to swim & dive

[columboscreens]

[gunpowder-gemini]

My heart goes out to everyone finally figuring out that we aren't getting the death worm this season, I am really excited to see it animated too. But tbh there was never any way it would fit

Like think about everything that happens in the cursed house arc. There is SO MUCH there that I personally think just the death worm stuff is going to be 5-6 episodes on it's own to get through it. They didn't have enough episodes left even if they completely skipped the serpo arc.

Personally I've always figured the episodes are gonna shake out like this:

Ep 8 - shenanigans with Okarun/Aira and getting in to empty space (I was right! though I wasn't sure we'd get to Acro Aira but in hindsight that's a perfect cliffhanger cut point)

Ep 9 - the fight, probably ending with the big final blow

Ep 10 - public humiliation and mr. shrimp joins the team, Jiji appears at the end!

Ep 11 - Jiji is actually introduced and goes to school with them, ending with Taro appearing "chasing" Okarun

Ep 12 - anatomical dummies shenanigans and a sort of cliffhanger teasing the cursed house arc next season

I think people forget that it takes seconds to read a fight scene when it's just a few sequential images but several MINUTES to show that same fight scene animated. The Serpo arc is largely action, so it's no suprise it's taking a couple episodes. Also dialogue! Dialogue takes longer to voice act than it does to read. There's only so much you can fit into like, 25 mins

[governmentmandatedryujinstan420]

releasing this from the hj discord dungeon because the public populace was in agreement also i'm chronically offline on tumblr and need to fix that for my chronically online ahh

[grantmentis]

An article by Jane Sartwell I really enjoyed

PWHL New York Assistant Coach Laura Brennan scored her first job in professional women’s hockey thanks to the launch of the PWHL. But to her dismay, her salary does not cover her expenses: “I’m still in a position where like I need to have something else besides just the coaching,” lamented Brennan. So if the entire point of the PWHL was to allow players and athletes to dedicate themselves wholly to the game, it has failed.