#this episode is literally so deranged

[incesthemes]

so meg is out here suggesting that she and sam are the same: they're acting out of love and loyalty. it's an interesting line with a lot of layers.

first of all, what is sam doing? i imagine the obvious answer is that he's pursuing revenge—meg brings up mary and jessica here to cement that conclusion. but when you think about it, that's not what he's doing at this point in time. after scarecrow, sam admits that while he still wants revenge, he's willing to run the marathon so long as it means staying with dean.

after scarecrow, revenge is an afterthought, and with nightmare and the benders, the suggestion that revenge will make a monster out of sam is glaring and sobering. after his run-in with max during nightmare in particular, sam begins to divert his attention toward saving people over everything else. and at the beginning of shadow, too, sam and dean are just checking out a regular case—they only stumble into meg's trap for them by accident.

the point is, sam is not pursuing revenge right now. it's not off his mind completely, but it's certainly not what he's doing. what he's doing, rather, is hunting small-scale with his brother.

with this understanding, meg's statement takes on a new meaning: sam his hunting with dean out of loyalty and love.

and then meg declares that this "love" sam is acting on is like the love he feels for mary and for jessica.

so here's another layer. jessica and mary are paralleled, and meg is implying that the love sam feels for both of them are the same. there's an interesting pause here: that em dash says a lot. mary is mentioned first in meg's list because she, too, is acting out of devotion for her father.

so it makes sense to compare azazel and mary—they're both parental figures. but then meg extends this by including jess. meg therefore implies that her own relationship with azazel is not just that of a father and daughter, but also an incestuous, sexual one. her feelings for azazel resemble sam's feelings for jessica. she becomes a manifestation of incestuous desire by her own admittance.

and sam is just like her.

so meg is implying that sam is acting out of the same kind of incestuous love that meg is—they're the same after all, and on a narrative level meg functions as an allegory for sam's fate.

the conclusion, then, is that sam is hunting with dean out of a love that is simultaneously like his love for mary and like his love for jessica—an ambiguous love that blurs the lines between the familial and the romantic and the sexual, blends them all together.

it's an interesting line. on the surface it's rather innocuous, but when you give any amount of thought to the meaning behind it, the implications really start to pile up. meg is loyal to her father and helps him with his plans because she loves him. sam is loyal to his brother and hunts alongside him because he loves him.

like the love he has for mommy—and jess.

[rusty-gloinks]

im sos;sorry I’ve never drawn many kisses ever.consider this a forehead kissy….thing or whatever. SOB

[lorephobic]

[heavy mota spoilers]

if the rumors are true (the rumors being facts that people know about curt’s fate because he was a real life human being who lived and uh. died.) and curt’s death is happening this early on in the series, then literally the only thing that will get me to keep watching is if episode three ends with bucky realizing that curt is dead and staring off into space with the same empty longing that he stared at curt with when he rode away in the back of that truck, which is the same stare that he gave him when he first saw him alive after the mission, and will now be the stare that he gives whenever curt’s name is mentioned and he’s reminded that he’s lost the only person in the world that could get him to feel something.

and then, and this is important, i need episode four in its entirety to be a flashback of their time at bootcamp in walla walla. for curt’s death to matter, i need to see whatever earned curt such a tender spot in bucky’s heart. i need to see their shenanigans and get to know their inside jokes and i need to see all of their time spent together (how many other times have they snuck off on their own? when was the first?)

if they want to give curt’s death the weight that it deserves, i need to watch bucky fall in love with him. and then i need to see it brought to the present. show us the kiss they shared after curt threw that punch and knocked feeling back into bucky. show us the lighthearted drunken kisses that bucky left on curt’s cheek after giving those british bastards what they asked for. show us the tiny moment of intimacy that they got to share before this final mission. show us a last kiss that they don’t know is their last kiss, softened by curt joking, always joking, that he’ll be bucky’s guardian angel when this is all over.

and then, and only then, we can return to bucky in the present, learning what it means for it to be all over.

[moongothic]

[franeridan]

the only continuity i need from the lupin franchise is for jigen to keep on being the gayest motherfucker alive while still getting more women than any of the bi and het men around him combined

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

not to be a smug asshole but its kind of rich how if you say you dont like a thing on the internet everyone who likes that thing automatically assumes you just “don’t get it” and tries to explain to you why the thing is Good, Actually. like maybe i already understand why people like the thing. maybe i have reasons to not like the thing that YOU are refusing to entertain. maybe i used to like the thing because of the specific reasons that you’re writing essays to me about. but then i realized that the thing sucks shit and the reasons why people like it isn’t enough to make it good for me again. maybe my dislike of the thing isn’t because im a stupid idiot who couldn’t put two thoughts together to realize why the thing is good. and maybe i feel belittled and dare i say offended when 12 people condescendingly explain to me why it’s okay that i don’t like the thing, but also refuse to stop explaining the same 2 reasons why THEY like the thing, or even let me defend why i dislike the thing, until i agree with them that the thing is good. all because i dared to express mild disdain on the internet

[musical-chick-13]

"Only River Song gets to call me that" STOOOOOPPPP (<-positive)

[leupagus]

Guys I Might Have Three Nickels

I've been watching "Agatha Christie's Marple" for the past few days and it's pretty good! Marple adaptations all tend to have a better caliber of actors than a lot of bog-standard mystery shows (looking at you, "Madame Blanc"), and while Joan Hickson's Marple is right up there with David Suchet's Poirot and Jeremy Brett's Holmes as "literally can never be beaten, these are the best anyone's done it," both Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie do a fantastic job as Miss Marple.

Then I got to "The Secret of Chimneys," Season 5 episode 2

and guys

Guys

So there's a murder of a viscount, like there is, and this detective Finch rolls up and immediately spots Miss Marple (in her NIGHTIE! standing at the window like some kind of hussy, honestly Jane) and doffs his cap to her with that little smile that makes you go, "huh."

At this point I've watched a couple dozen Miss Marple episodes where she goes through detectives like wildfire and this guy's supposed to be a "*guru*" so I'm expecting some battle of the egos or something and like, Stephen Dillane is great! But bleh, I might have to skip this one.

Then my dude asks Miss Marple to SHOW HIM THE BODY, with a pleased little smile at her as she goes "uhhhhhhhh but my knitting?" (He even does that thing where you use someone's honorific and wait for them to give you their name, and that's when I was like "ohhh this bitch knows exactly who she is.") What follows is what I can only describe as a meet-cute in the secret passageway where the viscount was shot (and in fact the body is STILL THERE) and where Miss Marple literally asks the police equivalent of "is there a Mrs Finch" and he looks at her like this:

At which point I'm like "ohhh my dude not only knows who she is, he deliberately came here without a sergeant so he could draft her," and sure enough he just starts...handing her pieces of evidence like "hey babe can you decipher this note for me thanks love you" while Miss Marple is like, "this approval and camaraderie coming from a cop... not sure if want."

Next is a series of romantic strolls through the gardens while they discuss murder, during which Finch reveals his undying love I mean his research into Miss Marple and the "dozen case files" of her previous exploits that he's collected like some deranged fanboy. Miss Marple responds to this by BLUSHING LIKE A SCHOOLGIRL and stammering about how pish tosh it's nothing really, and I couldn't find a gif of it but he's staring at her like this:

Yeah I bet u r tempted

He also makes a half-hearted attempt at negging her "amateur sleuth" status, only to then immediately assure her that he makes like, so much money being a big fancy detective and can keep her in all the yarn and garden seed she could ever desire.

There's also a late-night tryst at the compost pile right after Finch has been (mildly) poisoned and Miss Marple is like "men are so weak" as she roots through the garbage for clues.

Not how he wanted their first date to go D:

The next morning there's another murder which: bummer, but also allows the two of them to read love letters together and for Finch to give Miss Marple the following look as she explains how secret assignations among lovers can "quicken the ardor":

Miss Marple then goes onto solve the murders and btw hands over the priceless diamond that's been literally missing for two literal decades that she found in her spare time. The entire scene features Finch looking at her like this:

After the dust settles, Finch and Miss Marple have a lovely moment where he calls himself "another one of your casualties," then super casually mentions that he's probably going to have to go on assignment to use the diamond in a daring international espionage case and I can't decide if he's asking Miss Marple to go with him or simply trying to show her that he is cool and smart and would make an excellent wife, but either way the episode ends with her turning him down and Jane, we need to talk about your priorities.

Anyway I've already written 2K about the subsequent 10-year epistolary romance these two have following this episode because I make poor choices.

[eddiegettingshot]

i will litigate this forever. 7x04 is not really ambiguous and if it’s a bait and switch it’s a bad one. yes buck has a crush on tommy but this is a separate issue from whose attention he wanted. to buck it appears that eddie is developing a special relationship with this guy (he perceives it and approaches it as romantic, and everyone else also sort of teasingly hints at it being romantic, this is what drives buck insane in addition to the fact that he simply cannot relate). he spends the entire episode trying to get eddie’s attention. no it’s not that every instance of him trying to get eddie’s attention is actually him trying to get tommy’s attention—he is quite literally trying, actively, consciously, to get eddie to pay attention to him the entire time. this culminates in him hurting eddie. he tells maddie about hurting eddie and faces her disappointment on top of his guilt. he decides that he wanted tommy’s attention the whole time BECAUSE of the fact that he hurt eddie, BECAUSE of his conversation with maddie, not because it’s something he’s been keeping a secret the entire time. and because he also is actually interested in tommy he can channel all of the confusing feelings about being replaced in eddie’s life into that crush. but his feelings for tommy and his feelings about eddie are distinct and apparent the entire episode. his feelings about tommy have been resolved. it was a crush. his feelings about eddie have not!!! he still doesn’t know why he became deranged!! and he’s putting the derangement into the tommy box so he doesn’t have to think about it!

[chuuzmii]

its dogshit takes like "Eddie is white-passing so he would help gerrard terrorize the 118" that make me wanna go outside and eat dirt. like some of u guys are so internally racist it makes me start scratching at my walls. Like yeah EDMUNDO DIAZ is definitely passing as white with a name like that. are you guys dumb? do u really think a captain wouldn't read the paperwork on his employee's? not to mention that eddie is not even close to white passing like u can look at that man and see he is a POC so fast.. deranged.

But lets just say hypothetically Eddie was white-passing.. he still grew up with a mexican father, grandma, aunt, cousin, etc. like i think u guys sometimes forget eddie has a life outside of the 118. We literally see ONLY his mexican family. Theyve showed pepa and isabel in multiple episodes. do you really honestly think he would let some random decaying white man speak bad about his family like that? like the way yall are acting towards Eddie is BLOWING me... Just say u hate biracials and want to use poc to prop up your favorite white guy of the week.

[lunarriviera]

Big Dumb Hot Cop & Effete Possibly Sociopathic Genius Consultant: A Manifesto

So it has recently come to my attention that this, my archetypal pairing formulation, has broken containment, probably because I've been flinging these terms around like a deranged person wielding a blunt instrument. Therefore it behooves me to explain what the hell I mean by all these adjectives, and who are some classic and contemporary examples of the idiots under discussion—who are by the way extremely in love with one another whether they realize it or not. (Don't you say "bromance." Don't you dare SAY that word to me.) I will use blorbo from my shows to illustrate.

I first realized that I am in fact a Big Dumb Hot Cop whisperer thanks to Chinese police procedural 猎罪图鉴 | Under the Skin (2022). Right away, it's very important to note that Big Dumb Hot Cop is NOT in fact all that dumb. He's only less intelligent IN COMPARISON to his Effete Slightly Sociopathic Genius Consultant, who is, as already stated, a genius. Big Dumb Hot Cop is in fact ruthlessly good at his job. He's driven, he obsesses about cases, he can walk into a crime scene and pick up on the one thing everyone else has missed. There is no suspect he cannot intimidate upon investigation. And he's even better when he's working with (or against, depending on what stage they're at) the genius consultant. They need each other, whether they're fighting or collaborating. They can only clear cases together.

Here are, then, police captain Du Cheng and his genius consultant, sketch artist Shen Yi, eyeing each other significantly as some witness is, I think, lying his face off? Honestly I can't even remember what's happening because the important thing here is their nonverbal communication. This is crucial for this pairing. They can think circles around each other without saying a word. Love that for them.

Effete Possibly Sociopathic Genius Consultant has two levels of Possibly Sociopathic. Most maddeningly of all, he has secrets. Sometimes many secrets. So at first, Big Dumb Hot Cop is going to think he's the criminal, or in some way involved in the wrongdoing. The second level is that he'll find Genius Consultant just worryingly, disturbingly good at predicting criminal behavior. And he will continue to be suspicious of him for exactly one or at most two episodes, until he's then swept off his big dumb feet by the rapidity and correctness of Effete Genius's deductions. There's nothing Big Dumb Hot Cop loves more than solving cases. Well, maybe beer. He also loves beer. Once he sees that Effete Consultant is useful, he'll do a 180º and stop complaining to his chief of police, and instead start demanding that Effete Consultant be his forever. He'll start hanging out in his office. He'll literally drag him to crime scenes by the wrist.

(And did I mention Effete Consultant must be very pretty? Did I mention that? He is lovely. Long, thin fingers to steeple while he thinks. Delicate features. Haunted dark eyes. Never sleeps. Shocking self-neglect. You may see where I am going with this.)

Another important attribute of Big Dumb Hot Cop: he's big. Or anyway strong, or a gifted fighter. Let's face it, he has to be, because Genius Consultant is going to be reckless with his own personal safety to the point of stupidity (now who's dumb, huh?). For example, consider another Chinese procedural, S.C.I. 谜案集 | S.C.I. Mystery (2018). Captain Bai Yutong is sort of impossibly physically talented (former fighter pilot! national sandu champion! runs over moving cars and then shoots at them, like some kind of weird urban biathlon!) and, like all good Big Dumb Hot Cops, his entire life is thrown upside down because he now has to drop everything to protect his effete consultant, criminal psychologist Dr. Zhan Yao, who's so careless with himself that in any another drama he would probably be driving Bai Yutong to drink. Thanks to the danmei on which SCI Mystery is based, however, we can safely assume Bai Yutong is taking it out on Zhan Yao in blow jobs.

Note that Bai Yutong is the cook, even though he's the gong, and that he moves in with Zhao Yan to "protect" him from...something, I can't ever remember what, and then just sort of forgets to move out again. For the length of the entire series.

I would argue that 镇魂 | Guardian (2018) is a procedural, even if it also has ghosts, a talking cat, snake lady, eerie dark energy that gets flung around like paintball splatters, and a whole bunch of other supernatural stuff that was not approved of by Big Red (it's based on a danmei of the same title by Priest, a novel which has been pulled from circulation for censorship). Further confusing matters, Zhao Yunlan isn't particularly Big or Dumb, nor is he even really a Cop, technically; but I'm claiming him for this genre not least because of his Effete (drop-dead gorgeous) Possibly Sociopathic (Chief Zhao thinks he's a suspect for a good third of the story) and Definitely Genius, Later Gangpressed into being a Consultant, chock-full of secrets Professor Shen Wei.

Once they finally team up, though, they do this genre/pairing proud. Why, there's nothing they can't solve except how to stay alive. Look at them here enjoying some fine nonverbal communication: "Oh my god, you're just like me—you too will fling yourself directly into bodily harm in order to save a clueless civilian. Okay this could be inconvenient for both of us. Also wow for a genetics professor you're really fucking built, do you lift my bro." (Yes. Yes he does lift.)

A final example: the cruelly short-lived 光渊 | Justice in the Dark (2023), which like Guardian is based on a danmei by Priest, 默读 | Silent Reading. I got baited into watching the eight (8) existing episodes by seeing a cut of Captain Luo Wenzhou taking on like forty guys with a champagne bottle, a pair of curtains, an axe handle, and a birthday cake, like some kind of cultivator. He's so big and hot, and he's so very dumb. He's also a cop, and ACAB (which is sort of the plot of Silent Reading); and Fei Du is possibly using him for his own nefarious ends (cf. possibly sociopathic and secretive). But underneath all of Fei Du's "I am the abyss, fear me, rawr!" scary posturing, like a puffed-up kitten, he's just a very pretty tender-hearted effete genius, and you can watch Luo Wenzhou melting, and practically pinpoint the exact moment when his whole heart flies out of his eyes and he decides: Yeah, okay, that's it for me. That one. The annoying little traumatized fuerdai with some kind of a death wish that I do not understand. I'll be throwing myself in front of bullets for him and/or cooking him dinner for the foreseeable future, thanks.

Priest is gonna mess with this dynamic of gong/shou caregiving and safeguarding, because that's what she does; but the fundamental beats are still there. Look at these ninnyhammers, just this second figuring out they're actually kind people who belong to each other.

Here they are confronting a suspect together. (You will notice the large butcher knife wavering in the foreground.) Luo Wenzhou, highly trained, nonetheless cannot de-escalate the situation. It takes a pretty playboy in an arm sling to come wandering into the room, and then, using his superb personal knowledge of what it's like to be traumatized to the point of insanity, getting the suspect to disarm. I just love the way they look at each other, incredulous (Luo Wenzhou) and mock-fascinated (Fei Du). If I ever meet the person who directed this scene I'm going to need to kiss them on the mouth.

Once you accept the gospel of Big Dumb Hot Cop and Effete Possibly Sociopathic Genius Consultant into your media-based life, you'll find it has many applications, not all of which have to be procedurals. Consider: characters from the Daomu Biji franchise, possibly (Hei Xiazi is the biggest dumbest hottest not-a-cop I've ever met). Leverage, in a weird OT3 way. Assorted combinations of Avengers. Teen Wolf fic, absolutely. Various Stargate incarnations. Several other Priest danmei, not only procedurals. Definitely Mysterious Lotus Casebook. Et cetera. (You're on your own with MXTX, though.)

This has gotten long and there are still so many nuances and features and wrinkles and problems with the theory that should be ironed out, but it'll have to do for now. I'll simply close by saying: yes, there is also a classic example and you already know exactly who it is.

[thearkman360]

How Batman: Caped Crusader wasted Firebug

(MAJOR SPOILERS for Batman: Caped Crusader & Batman #318)

Hoo-boy, this is gonna be a long one...

When I heard that Firebug was going to be used in Batman: Caped Crusader I didn't pay it any mind outside of "Oh, using an obscure Batman villain that's like Firefly who isn't Firefly" and when I watched the episode with Firebug I found him to be a funny little goober villain played by Tom Kenny, that might as well have been Firefly, and nothing more. I was a bit shocked by his death since it was very sudden but other than that I didn't care.

After this I decided to look up Firebug and discovered that he has this whole backstory and motive not used in the show. In the comics, Firebug is a veteran named Joey Rigger that targets and burns down apartment buildings in Gotham City not out of rabid pyromania but out of a sympathetic cause; the buildings are deathtraps! (well at least the first two, the third was just bad luck)

His baby sister was killed after ingesting lead paint chips from the walls of the apartment the Rigger family lived in, his father was killed after falling through some stairs and breaking his neck in a different building they moved into after Rigger's sister died, and his mother had a heart attack when the elevator she was in got stuck.

Joey was serving the military at the time when all of this happened, leaving him with a strong sense of guilt. After coming back home, now with demolitions expertise, he decided to ensure that nobody would ever be harmed by the apartment buildings again and that's why he burns them down as Firebug. His plan is to just destroy the buildings that killed his family and then go back to normal. He even sends anonymous tips to the police so that people can evacuate in time, though he first encountered Batman when he was saving people that were still stuck in the building. Not saying his actions are morally correct, the third building was literally just a bad elevator, but you can't really blame him.

Eventually, Batman foils Firebug from destroying the skyscraper that killed his mother and Firebug tries to suicide bomb himself, Batman, and the skyscraper but jumps at Batman, who dodges, and Firebug falls out of the skyscraper and explodes.

Firebug is a really interesting and sympathetic character. In a way he's a dark parallel to Batman; their families were killed by a part of Gotham City, they have expert training in their field, and put on a silly animal costume and try to enact vengeance on the part of Gotham that killed their families.

In Caped Crusader, he's Firefly with a name change. They have Flass and Bullock mistakenly call him "Firefly", he's a deranged pyromaniac, and he has nothing more than that. Why?! Why not just have him be Firefly? Firebug has had two successors, Harlan Combs (a suburban father that murdered his kid's babysitter) and the third Firebug was some asshole that bought Joe Rigger's shit from an auction.

In the Caped Crusader episode "The Night of the Hunters", Firebug targets the slums of Gotham and tries to burn them down. Why not incorporate his backstory and have these slums be where his family died? In the comics, Joey Rigger was depicted as African-American in his first appearance and then white from then on. I'm surprised they didn't have that be part of the plot. Joey's neighborhood was a slum overlooked due to its African-American population and that resulted in poor living conditions that killed his family. But nah, they just had him be bootleg Firefly.

TV show screenshot: Batman: Caped Crusader

Comic screenshot: Batman #318

[snorlaxlovesme]

alright everybody, it's time we talked about Hostage. (buckle up because this is going to be long, but it'll be worth it)

season 2 episode 8 of Link Click was one of the most confounding episodes in the entire season while airing. starting with Lu Guang's insane boat crash/martial arts smackdown rescue of Cheng Xiaoshi and ending with Cheng Xiaoshi diving into a photo to possess Lu Guang to get answers for his actions, from start to finish it was a wild ass ride where we, the fandom, AND the characters spent the whole time questioning Lu Guang and his motives

and...puzzlingly... didn't really get an answers by the end of the season

Lu Guang wasn't granted any post-climax time to explain what happened that day from his perspective, and while Cheng Xiaoshi was possessing him he didn't get any answers because he literally WAS Lu Guang, just doing whatever the hell he thought he needed to do.

the thing about Hostage that has always felt extremely off to me, is that we DO get explanations for Lu Guang's actions during the episode, but they're from people wholly unqualified to be giving them.

Captain Xiao finds Lu Guang's phone, hidden in a folded towel, and concludes that Lu Guang had left them clues. Qiao Ling, after seeing that Lu Guang had taken a photo that night, came to the conclusion that Cheng Xiaoshi must have been the one possessing Lu Guang during his deranged rescue plan at the pier, seeing as Lu Guang wasn't an adept fighter at the dojo and he was acting extremely impulsive. She even goes so far to say, later in the episode, that Cheng Xiaoshi HAS to dive into the photo, because it's already happened, and needs to follow Lu Guang's words to not change the timeline.

all of these assumptions, to me, are horseshit

I refuse to listen to ANYTHING Captain Xiao says. one, because he simply does not know these kids and should not be making assumptions about them, and two he is in fact the worst cop in the world. and Qiao Ling, bless her heart, has only found out how their powers work mere DAYS ago and doesn't understand the nuances of them at all

so I'm gonna debunk all that nonsense and explain to you what Lu Guang's REAL actions were that night, and what was up with that cryptic photo he took

now you might be thinking, Kelly, you're not even starting in the right place, because those weren't Lu Guang's actions, they were always Cheng Xiaoshi's, just in Lu Guang's body!

FALSE. on two counts! we have evidence of Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi performing the act of escaping the hospital differently. Lu Guang does not use the kettle to break the window to distract the cops. we're not sure what he uses, but that kettle is still there.

Lu Guang also places his phone face down in the towel

while Cheng Xiaoshi places it faceup

so by the end of the episode we have literal, physical evidence that these two performed this timeline differently, and therefore it was not "Cheng Xiaoshi the whole time" like Qiao Ling tried to misinform us to believe. i also have another Big Brain post [x] that explains why Lu Guang being an impulsive, supposedly "good" fighter during that pier rescue scene are both in-character for him.

(and if we wanna get really nitpicky about how an injured Lu Guang could have raced across town in his condition, i simply believe that Lu Guang was smarter about it that Cheng Xiaoshi, and probably took a bus or cab. Cheng Xiaoshi, pure of heart and dumb of ass, ran because HE physically could while inhabiting Lu Guang's body. our injured catboy did not sprint across town while holding his organs in place)

so if we already have all this cold, hard evidence stating that Lu Guang really is THAT bitch and did all that shit on his own, what the hell is my problem? why can I not let this episode go?

BECAUSE I WANNA KNOW WHY LU GUANG TOOK THAT PHOTO

Captain Useless seems to think that Lu Guang took that photo as some sort of helpful clue left behind for the gang

but what, pray tell, was this photo supposed to tell us without someone with Lu Guang's powers there to interpret it? without Lu Guang to tell him what to do, Cheng Xiaoshi left to his own devices knows just as much as himself as he does possessing Lu Guang

and, the bigger question, is if this was supposed to be some sort of almighty clue for the gang, why did he not text this photo to either Qiao Ling or Cheng Xiaoshi before escaping the hospital? he took the time to text Qiao Ling the location of the boat, did he not? why not the photo too? seems like a crappy way to clue someone in, to take a photo and save it on your password protected phone that you just went out of your way to hide from plain sight

because that's the thing! after the season finale we discover that Lu Guang's password is literally a reminder of his dive, or even more specifically, a reminder of his trauma. we KNOW that he didn't share his password with Cheng Xiaoshi, he just just happened to figure it out on his own

so tell me how Lu Guang expected this trauma-password protected phone, with it's one singular picture, to get in the hands of Cheng Xiaoshi, hmm? riddle me THAT

so we've established by now that 1. Lu Guang's actions in the beginning of episode 8 were indeed his own and 2. that photo was never meant to be seen by Cheng Xiaoshi, who shouldn't have known Lu Guang's passcode

given the trauma-passcode, we have to believe that the only person ever meant to see this photo was Lu Guang. i've made ANOTHER post previously [x] stating that Lu Guang might have used his powers in a way we haven't known possible, by taking a photo and using his Blue Eyes White Dragon powers to see 12 hours into the immediate future

plausible, but not what i'm about to propose now.

because I think Lu Guang took that photo as a contingency plan

listen, the only person who had ANY credentials to theorize what Lu Guang was up to that night was his trusted partner. while Qiao Ling and Captain Xiao spouted their nonsense theories, Cheng Xiaoshi said the only smart thing that entire brainstorming session

and I think Cheng Xiaoshi was right. he wasn't wrong in assuming this photo was a Save Point of sorts, the only thing he was wrong about was who would be using it

the only other person in this show capable of diving into a photo, we find out during the finale, is Lu Guang

we also find out in the finale that powers are transferrable, and it looks like they transfer when the owner of that power dies in someone else's arms

Lu Guang took that photo that night NOT for Cheng Xiaoshi to find and use, but for LU GUANG himself to use. i believe Lu Guang firmly believed that Cheng Xiaoshi was to die that night, and he would do everything in his power to make sure he had a chance to change it again if he needed to.

that meant:

1.taking a photo on his phone as a Save Point.

2. hiding his phone in the hospital bathroom so it could not be taken from him or busted later in the night. and

3. racing to where he knew Cheng Xiaoshi would be, so he could either

4. a.) rescue him, or b.) ensure that during CXS's death, the diving power was transferred back to him so he could do the night over again.

Lu Guang took that photo as contingency plan to save Cheng Xiaoshi's life should he get killed that night.

but that plan was botched when Cheng Xiaoshi used it instead to possess Lu Guang, because each photo can only be used once.

which might also explain why Lu Guang was SO DISTRAUGHT when Cheng Xiaoshi was shot

they had deleted all their photos earlier that week to prevent the twins from possessing them remotely

that was the last photo Lu Guang had taken. the ONLY photo on his phone. if Cheng Xiaoshi died that night, there would have been no Save Point to return to

[nightmarewolf937]

Runaway!Reader with their trio of Deathgrippers meet the Betrothed

Gn!Reader X Dagur The Deranged

Part 1

Author Note: I'll be trying to write more often and even if I don't write a chapter, I'll try and atleast write a headcannon or short preview of the next chapter. Anyway the story is finally beginning and this takes place in Defenders of Berk (episode 3, i think), I'll be trying to stick to the script and not drift too far from cannon than I already have. I hope you enjoy and I really enjoyed writing this. ❤️❤️❤️

Summary: [Y/n] has been traveling with their trio of dragons for a few weeks now and has started flying the largest dragon, DeathStrike. The other two, recently named Gravetail and Gorewing (credit to whoever made those names, I found them online but couldn't find the username or account) follow after on one of the daily flights. Thankfully they did because our Reader finds herself in trouble when the young Chief of the Berserker Tribe finds her again.

It was midday, the sun was slowly dipping further down in the sky but it wouldn't be dark for another few hours, the growls and rumbles made by the beast that carried you was comforting. You still weren't quite used to being so high up in the air, the other two of your companions were following and sometimes bumping into the other which caused a series of snaps and roars.

The smallest Deathgripper, Gorewing, would often glide beside his larger brother and nuzzle against your hand whenever he sensed your fear. Gravetail was much more reluctant to show any concern for their new human packmate, often giving low growls when he heard you take a sharp breath every time DeathStrike would glide higher or dive down lower.

It was all quite peaceful, despite the dragons that could literally rip you limb from limb, but you knew they wouldn't.

This peace however was quickly unsettled when you landed on an island, Dragon Island. It was getting late and you wanted to find shelter before dark, you could feel the stares of your companions and sighed. GoreWing was quick to saunter up next to you and purred deeply as you rested a hand on his head crest.

DeathStrike gave a low growl as he stalked up to your other side and nudged you gently, giving a narrowed glare at the youngest dragon when you placed your other hand on his head crest. He too purred, but much deeper and rougher than GoreWing.

GraveTail gave a snort with a shake of his body and walked passed you all, but you didn't miss the dragon's warning snarl to his brothers. He could try and hide it or pretend he didn't, but you could see he cared about you comfort and safety.

These dragons cared about you more than any viking ever did, your own family had given you up to protect themselves instead of trying to find another solution. They had very quickly given in to Oswald's demand and signed your life away on a treaty with dragon blood. The memory made you frown and glare at the ground, your sudden anger caused your dragon friends to pause and look at you.

It was only when DeathStrike growled worriedly did you relax your expression and shake off the past.

"Sorry guys," you murmured an apology, GraveTail snorted again in exhaustion before stalking towards you and pressing his head crest against your forehead quickly.

It was a comforting gesture that wasn't often given to you by the deathgripper, but you appreciated it whenever he did. You smiled at the feeling of rough scales against your skin and you felt your body relax, GraveTail pulled away and took the lead of finding shelter.

GoreWing whined as he was now at the back of the pack, you were kept in the middle as always and you had a deathgripper on either side of you, aswell as behind you. It was like a protective barrier formed around you and you felt safe, even though you knew what these three could do.

A growl from GraveTail caught your attention and you looked to see smoke, not from a forest fire or dragon, but most likely from a campfire. You found that rather odd as not many vikings were keen to set up camps on Dragon Island, considering the large amount of flying beasts that called it home.

"Okay, we're not going that way. Oh you're kidding me," you groaned, you would have to pass by that camp if you wanted to reach one of the caves you remembered on this island.

There were other caves, but that one had some of your supplies stored in it and you couldn't exactly go the night without them. You hadn't eaten all day and hunger was tempting you, you could almost smell the food you left in that cave from here. It should be okay if you snuck around whoever else was on the island, hopefully.

"DeathStrike, GoreWing, GraveTail," you called, getting a reaction immediately as the pack of deathgrippers now sat infront of you. "Um- I think we should sneak passed whoever that is, flying would catch their attention and besides we've been flying the entire day. I'm sure your wings need a rest, but that means you guys can't just kill whoever it is."

DeathStrike growled, GraveTail snorted and GoreWing whined.

They were like three toddlers who couldn't get their way, but with the nervous frown on your face they relented and gave low agreeing chuffs. You smiled and gave each dragon a quick pat, even GraveTail let you give him a quick pat on the head.

Now all you had to do was be quiet and sneak passed the potential stranger, not so bad....right?

[let-roman-bite-someone]

so remember that gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss post i made about the dark sides? a lot of people said i should swap Janus and Remus because Janus fit the gaslighting part a lot more. and you know me, i love to overanalyze things so let me just talk about this.

yes, Janus is the liar. he is the embodiment of deceit. and with the usage of “gaslight” spreading on the internet, a lot of people don’t seem to know its exact meaning and they just misuse it. nowadays, the general consensus is that any type of lying is automatically gaslighting. your friend told you that she was at home when really she was out all night partying? gaslighting. the cashier at your local coffee shop told you that they don’t accept cash? gaslighting. some guy in the street looked at you? GASLIGHTING.

as a psych student, this trend is driving me crazy. gaslighting isn’t just lying. it’s the act of intentionally making another person question their reality or sanity.

gaslighting: psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, and uncertainty of one's emotional or mental stability.

it is a form of manipulation that doesn’t necessarily involve lying. yes, in most cases, gaslighting involves lying or greatly exaggerating the truth. but even though lying is associated with gaslighting, they are not the same thing.

and in Thomas’ case specifically, Janus never makes Thomas question his own sanity. he makes Thomas question the morals he believes in and his idea of selflessness, and that was a good thing.

REMUS however. HOO BOY.

in just ONE episode, Remus manages to make Thomas think that he is mentally unstable and capable of being a serial criminal. Virgil quite literally decides that Thomas is in complete control of his thoughts and is therefore mentally deranged and dangerous.

this was quite literally the entire plot of DWIT, the fact that Thomas begins questioning his sanity because of the intrusive thoughts that Remus put into his head. Remus keeps telling Thomas that his intrusive thoughts were an indicator of his morals and his sanity. i think it’s safe to say that Remus is indeed the gaslighter among all the sides.

of course, that’s only if you view the sides as individual characters and not parts of Thomas himself. practically speaking, you cannot gaslight yourself, even if social media says that you can. and at the end of the day, Remus does have a purpose as one of Thomas’ sides and i’m not making a statement on whether he’s good or evil.

i guess you could put it this way: Remus is the product of gaslighting.

in a way, at least. Thomas’ religious views fed him lies about actions being a precursor to thought, and that is what brought about this whole conflict.

so yeah, Remus is a better candidate for gaslighting than Janus is. i rest my case.

[inluvwcaitvi]

okay but hear me out:

i kinda hope vi starts showing a more brutal and savagely angry side to herself, more than in s1, reminiscent of the way she was during her time in prison (suffocating ppl w dumbbells, breaking wrists/hands by stomping on them, possibly multiple accs of attempted murder, etc.)

and you can find more abt that from here from either of these videos if u haven't seen it alr:

i feel like it would make sense. i don't think vi has properly or healthily dealt w/processed p much ANY of her life-long trauma (MAYBE her parents dying? but even then, idk), esp her stay at stillwater.

maybe she'll just start to sink and lose herself more and more into that anger that's been built up for years, but i feel like esp bc of the last few episodes of s1.

21-23 isn't old or a long time to be alive at all, but it is when you have been traumatized for ur entire life.

and yeah, ik that arcane characters are going to start becoming the opposite of themselves in s1, but i do want to bring attention to the fact that vi is someone who often relies on what's familiar and what is "safe", and unfortunately, that happens to be violence and anger.

i can def see her becoming more and more violent and more and more angry until she rly begins that process of changing.

edit: when i say angry, i mean ANGRY. deranged. so angry that she's borderline, if not literally, being fucking delusional. i want her to start acting more and more like s1 jinx, and less and less like vi. like a shell of her former self, driven only by hollow anger (and other unhealthy coping mechanisms, prob) and all the pain after having no one and nothing left.

so angry bc there is nothing else left to be.