#this is getting too meta lmao

[greer-morgan]

"I... dunno," she answered honestly. It was a grim thought, but it was also a realistic one— something that maybe she was going to have to start coming to terms with in order to move forward. "He's gettin' little things back, but they're jus' details. S'all random an' outta order. Not a lot that he can actually string together." It wasn't enough to really see the big picture. "Startin' to figure that if it was gonna happen, it would'a happened by now."

"You're relegatin' Cade to snack boy? Ain't even lettin' him play? That's cold," she laughed. "If I ever suddenly get the urge to get to know Cain, then I need help, 'cause I'm bein' blackmailed." Mostly, Cain had committed the crime of being thirteen when Greer first met him, but even now, he seemed about as interesting and as spoiled as a long forgotten jug of milk.

"You think it might never come back?" Everett asked, a frown in his expression. He couldn't imagine how hard that would be for Greer. To have a baby with someone who didn't remember anything about his past, anything about your past.

"Cade's bringing us snacks." He laughed. "Cain's got no blackmail, he's different once you get to know him, I swear."

[juniemunie]

[Abandoned by the Lightners, his heart became cracked with hatred.]

Hitting a lil' too close to home?

[nenoname]

Details in Stan's letter that still haunt me

(how long will I continue thinking about a two page letter that's technically not even that long because Stan's handwriting is fricking large? .....you don't need to worry about that.)

The bro code only shows up in the Lost Journal pages, and to me Stan's message feels like it purposely echoes Ford's "miss you" in the college photo (and for some reason the message doesn't appear in the website version of the photo?) ....or alternatively Stan simply noticed how distressed Ford was about this entire thing and wanted to support him in a way so he can be sappy but without the kids knowing, or both!

Stan's claim about the Oregon lottery contradicts what the Lost Legends website said about Tate McGucket's ability to predict the winning numbers!! ...but also breaking into the Lottery HQ is definitely a very Stan thing to do and it's not the first time small gags have been retconned

Despite spending most of his letter nonchalantly destroying him, the taunt about ripping a dollar bill in half is the only part where Stan is directly responding to Bill. Maybe it's the two of them having similar ways of thinking but it's rather specific considering Bill taunts the reader about it...

And after Bill spends an entire book calling Ford Sixer despite normally using a pretty wide range of nicknames for him, Stan then spends his letter mainly referring to Ford as Sixer, even though post-Weirdmageddon he tends to use a mix of nicknames. And it's not like he'd gotten to see Bill himself for long, let alone see him steal that childhood nickname (that is only used twice in the actual show btw!). Did Ford tell him what happened or...?

With all this and the website's "still on your mind" message, what I'm getting at is my tinfoil hat theory of Stan somehow seeing some of the pages the irl readers saw, even when it should be personalised to the specific reader, and he's been lying about it for some reason. Considering that the book flat out doesn't make an attempt at convincing Soos, I find it a stretch that whatever Bill was telling Stan via the book was an attempt to convince him either.

Wouldn't be the first time Stan's skimmed through a book and lied about what it meant to him.

(...Now I kinda wanna see a story about the family reading their versions of the book and making fun of it while Stan is improvising every single one of his pages and blatantly ignoring Bill's attempts to mock and taunt him)

But also I'm fascinated by the letters that only showed up on the website (aka the Soos+Wendy+McGucket+Pacifica ones). I'm assuming that Mabel had stuck them on after Stan's letter... but they were basically eaten by the book itself because seeing Stan's letter kick-started Bill's breakdown which takes up the rest of the book

[florenzismind]

People have been baffled by Great immediately trusting Thyme over his brother but it makes sense to me (in the context of Thyme's "mission" at least)?

One of the first things we get to see as an audience is Great sitting far away from his family when they're eating dinner. It's a visual symbol in itself - Korn sits with his father, Great isolates himself from them.

Yes, Great seems to be closer to his brother, he clearly trusted him enough to seek him out when he had his first "vision" (or however you want to call them lmao) but Korn immediately dismissed it as Great being high or drunk and didn't take him seriously (I can't exactly fault him for that to be fair but to Great, it was pretty traumatic experience).

Then he meets Thyme at the hospital and sees them having intimate and loving sex. He doesn't see the cold, clinical version of Thyme, not for long anyway. Honestly, I think this vision is the only reason why Great even indulged any of Thyme's awkward flirting in the first place.

Then those following things happen: Thyme saves him, awkwardly flirts with him again. Worries about him and seeks him out and while he's joking about the visions at first he does take Great seriously and talks to his doctor friend immediately. They have a cute date and Great even allows himself to be vulnerable again. He gets visions of them holding hands, gently kissing.

Great is clearly very lonely and there's this person that cares about him in this awkward yet gentle way AND he even has visions of the future confirming that they'll be together in one way or another? What is there not to trust?

In the last week's episode he called Thyme first after his hospital vision, not Korn. He only called Korn after he couldn't reach Thyme which honestly was the first indicator on who he depends on NOW.

Now still people rightfully say "well that's his brother, why trust this man he's known for like a month?".

I think it has everything to do with Korn falling deeper and deeper into the shady part of the family business. Korn is literally moving further away from Great's (and Thyme's) shades of grey to his father's "darkness". Korn IS new to this. He' not comfortable with violence at all though he seems to further lose himself in this task to please his father and Great SEES that.

Korn doesn't have time for him anymore. He doesn't smile. He's doing some unknown business for his father that he can't say anything about. And he tells Great directly, this is important. He can't mess this up. But Great already knows by then what he's talking about. He's talking about holding another person hostage. Pleasing his father is more important to Korn than another person's life.

And Great's been forced by the universe (or maybe his own brain we don't know yet lmao) to actually make THE decision he wants to make. To not let the woman die. To protect Dome. He used his chances to do the right thing. He's witnessed people in his life being capable of killing someone else. People who maybe were a little bit shitty but he never thought they were capable of that.

Now there's this man who saves people for a living, who makes him feel loved, protected and cared for, telling Great that his parents are the reason for his parents dying. Great's parents that mean nothing but pain and loneliness to him. And he sees his brother trying to painfully please his father to the point of completely abandoning his moral compass.

The universe is constantly telling him to trust Thyme. Thyme will bring you love, the feeling you're seeking. Your brother, meanwhile, only tries to become this perfect puppet for their parents.

Great asked Korn to explain what kind of business he's doing. Korn answered him: it's incredibly important and he can't mess up. Great could've made Korn choose between him and his dad's business but he didn't. Yes, he "messed" it up but he didn't force Korn to choose.

Not yet anyway. This will become much more painful when Korn will actually have to choose and either fall deeper into the worst version of himself or try to become the man that Tonkla once idolized and Great once trusted.

[evilkitten3]

i have a theory about shinji, gin, and aizen, but i'm not really sure how to word it.

we never really see shinji and gin interact all that much, which makes sense bc both of them have significantly more important relationships with aizen, but at the same time it's a little odd how much there isn't.

like. gin cut hiyori in half. shinji is understandably pissed about that, but he aims that anger at aizen - and this seems to be one of the very few things in the bleach world that honestly isn't on him bc he never told gin to do that, he never even implied it. hiyori was never a threat to him. hell, we don't even know if she was charging in the right direction; if anything, attacking her implies that she was which is a really stupid thing to do when you're surrounded by a bunch of people who super want you dead and would kill you if they could be sure you weren't tricking them into stabbing each other (ofc it could also be a fakeout but still)

but i don't remember shinji's beef ever really being with gin, even tho he didn't seem to anticipate that gin was working with aizen the whole time during tbtp. so like does he feel responsibility there? cuz gin went straight from academy to 3rd seat and shinji could plausibly feel like that sent him right to aizen bc he doesn't know that gin was always aiming for that. did he blame himself? does he feel like he should've seen it coming? does he still see him as some weird genius kid? does he just view gin as an extension of aizen, which is both dehumanizing to an extent but also entirely fair bc gin did that to himself?

the thing is, since we never really see them interact much, it's kind of only interesting on shinji's side of things, bc gin doesn't really care about much outside of whatever the fuck he thought he was doing and the version of rangiku that he has in his head who needs back something that the real one doesn't ever seem to have realized she lost to begin with. gin's so disconnected with basically everybody that most of the time you can usually assume his thoughts are just "lol. lmao" and there's no reason to think that doesn't extend to shinji as well (gin has deep thoughts on: aizen, ichigo, and matsumoto (massive asterisk on that one ofc) and i think everyone else is kinda set dressing to him lmao the guy is Fucked Up)

anyway i think it's interesting to toy around with that relationship as it was in reality as well as how it might've been perceived, but also in the sense of both of them being sort of opposite ends of the manchild spectrum - shinji leans into his childish side but still has a fairly adult worldview, and gin is able to pull off maturity to an extent but was never able to escape a deeply childish mindset

[strawberryteabunny]

from a swap meet with my friends last weekend ૮꒰ྀི⊃⸝ ⸝ ⸝⊂꒱ྀིა♡

[blu-ish]

✨Late Night Flight🌙

[killugon-truther]

“illumi loves killua, it’s just toxic/twisted.”

illumi literally views killua as his property that is his to control as he pleases. all he ever does is abuse & manipulate killua, so how about we stop calling it “love” and start calling it what it ACTUALLY is?

wanting to constantly control, manipulate, hurt, & abusive someone is NOT fucking love, pls learn that, and fast. it’s a bit concerning and incredibly disappointing that some of you don’t know that already, seriously. 💀

genuinely, get some help if you think that shit is “love”.

[puppetmaster13u]

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and basically Danny is Beelzebub from Hellva boss with his own casino performs and the entrance defies reality and all his ghost rouges come in and go as they please and some humans and or mortals stumble in and think it’s just some place where metas party their fucking asses off which wouldn’t be that bad if this wasn’t FUCKING GOTHAM. Danny doesn’t know how they got in Gotham but they just want to party but unfortunately for him the bats hear a rumor some meta trafficking ring has been planning a big raid on a certain casino that’s new ish and they have to stop it so they go in disguise and they get to witness Danny and his rouges beat the every loving snot out of some traffickers

maybe Danny is a clone, maybes he’s reincarnated, maybe he lost a bet, maybe he moved to Gotham for fun, maybe he got tossed across the universe into Gotham

who knows certainly not Danny

but to add even more maybe he travels around the casino on trapezes and circus rings that he just flips around it and has a pole it the middle that reaches the ceiling and at the top there’s this disco ball thing that he can activate to make a small nebula or stars surround the casino and make it pretty

oh oh and maybe with him having the title of beelzebub is like gotten after he beat them as in right of conquest, or maybe beelzebub is kinda like a shared name so Danny fuels them and they go around getting mortal action without having to do work, or maybe it was given to him as a present with a bow on top idk

I have no words for this and just had to draw because the idea of a casino or whatever with like, everywhere looking like galaxies and auroras that shift to the music was such an amazing visualization lol

[formereldestdaughter]

ok wait i need to hear more of your thoughts on peeta owning a bakery....

This is one of those rare times where I’m pretty sure this anon isn’t someone I know personally bc I’ve subjected anyone who will listen to my rant about the Peeta Bakery Headcanon. Anyway, you’re gonna regret asking this anon bc there are fucking Layers here.

I know this is probably a controversial take based on the number of fics where I’ve seen it, but I simply do not think that Peeta would open a commercial bakery after Mockingjay!! Like on a metatextual level, I don’t think it really fits with the point of the ending of the series. It actually sort of fascinates me that it’s just such a common headcanon because the ending of Mockingjay is exceedingly vague. I think that vagueness invites us, as readers, to imagine a better world post-revolution. A world where Katniss would feel confident that her children would be safe from injustice, where she’d feel confident that her children would never know want the way she did as a child. A just world. A kinder world. Can a capitalist society ever be just? Is a capitalist society where a disabled teenager has no other means to subsist himself (or feels like there’s no other way he can be a contributing member of his community) really the post-revolution world we dream of? Is that really the best we can imagine?

(This got so insanely long I’m adding a read more lmao)

I get that showing a better world is not always the point of post-mockingjay headcanons/fics. Like there are plenty of really great post-mockingjay fics I’ve seen where, yeah, part of the fic is that society like ISN’T all that different or all that much better. I’ve seen that really well done! Hell, I’ve written them myself! It’s easy to imagine how a lot of aspects of society would not get an overhaul, a lot of the same structural inequalities would continue to exist. One headcanon that really stuck with me (I can’t remember which fic it was from) was that Peeta sells basically mail order baked goods to people on the Capitol, sending them iced cakes and pastries by train, because there are still people who were “fans” of theirs during the Games. And idk this doesn’t actually have much to do with my point lol but I liked it because it’s kind of fucked up and like! Yeah! It makes sense! If he needed money that would be a good way to make it! War often makes people rich, often for horrible reasons, and often it’s people who already have capital in the first place.

Anyway, more about the hypothetical bakery because alright. I bring up the fact that “yeah society not being all that different post-revolution and still being an unjust capitalist hellscape” could be a reason why Peeta re-opens a bakery because that’s actually never the types of fics where I see the bakery headcanon. Fics where Peeta opens a bakery are usually trying to make the exact opposite point. Like. Things are getting better, now he can open a bakery! Look at how much better the world is now, plus he’s got a bakery! Peeta is healing, that’s why he can open a bakery now! And I am so, so sorry to inform everyone who’s never had the grave misfortune of owning a family business, but there is truly nothing further from the truth lmao. Like just putting aside the immense amount of emotional baggage that Peeta has about his family, running a small business is an insane amount of work in any context and being a baker especially is physically grueling and involves early hours (and long hours) that aren’t really the best fit with the multiple ways that Peeta is disabled now. (I could go into this more because I have a lot of thoughts. But I will spare you.). I also think it’s seen throughout the books that Peeta is someone who needs time to pursue creative outlets to process his feelings and someone who values leisure and values quality time with his loved ones. And having grown up in his family’s bakery, I think he’d understand the reality that running a bakery wouldn’t leave much space of those pursuits and wouldn’t leave much space for him to have the things that keep him healthy and stable. I think he’d know that the way he is now— after two Games and the war and unspeakable torture at the hands of a dictator—isn’t compatible with the lifestyle necessary for running a commercial bakery.

And tbh with that in mind, I don’t think he’d push himself to re-open a business (one that would be a constant reminder of his dead family and his complicated relationships with them that got no closure) that would require him to sacrifice his physical and emotional well-being. Like I think he might look into the possibility, I think he might even start trying to open a bakery out of a sense of obligation/duty, maybe harboring some idea that this is who he was supposed to be, who he would've been without the Games, or that it’s this last piece of his family that can live on, or that it’s this last connection to his family so he can’t let it die too. But ultimately, I think any attempt to open a bakery wouldn’t get very far. Maybe he'd start wading into the logistical nightmare that is small business ownership and realize it's not for him (because it's probably also true that as much as him and his brothers were involved in the business, there's almost certainly parts they weren't involved with and didn't see, i.e., filing taxes). Or maybe looking into opening a bakery— how triggering it is, the stress of it— causes a downward spiral. Maybe he hates how much he's worrying everyone by unraveling. Maybe having a breakdown from the stress of just trying to open a bakery makes him realize, yeah, maybe in another life he would have ran his family’s bakery but the way he is now just doesn’t work with running a bakery, not without great sacrifices he's not willing to make. I just can’t see a bakery coming to fruition.

I know a lot of fics include Peeta deciding to reopen a bakery as a big step in his healing or include him rebuilding a bakery as part of his healing process but honestly, I think the opposite would be more true: I think Peeta either trying/failing to open a bakery or ultimately deciding not to open a bakery would be hugely healing for him. I think it would be a huge part of him accepting the way he is now as a person, his new limitations but also his strengths. I think it would be a huge part of him accepting the way his life his now and accepting that he likes his life the way it is, that he’s satisfied with his life without needing to own a bakery. I think it would be an important part of him coming to terms with the loss of his family. I think he knows he can never have things back as they were and I don’t think he would try to recreate them, especially because his family’s legacy isn’t a business. I think he’s emotionally intelligent enough and self reflective enough to realize that what mattered to him about the bakery— taking care of others by feeding them, being integrated into his community and being actively involved in it, brightening people’s days with delightful things whether that’s beautiful cakes or hearty food or delicious treats— and the things he learned from his family through the bakery, are things that he can carry on in other meaningful ways.

(Do you regret sending this ask yet, anon? Because if not, you will soon. I’m not done yet. There’s more.)

I wasn’t really sure where to put this next part in what is rapidly becoming an essay because it sort of combines the points about like “what do we imagine a post-mockingjay society to look like” with the practical difficulties of starting this bakery but here’s another thing: do people really think that the Mellarks owned the land the bakery was on?? Like, sure, the merchants are the petit bourgeois of Twelve but I still don’t imagine they really own anything. In a society where houses are assigned to people upon marriage, where property ownership and capital are so closely interconnected with citizenship (as shown by the Plinths who, by having immense capital, are able to leave their District and become citizens of the Capitol) do people really think the Mellarks would be allowed to own the land their bakery is on?? I always imagined it sort of like a tenant farming situation: the Capitol gives them the raw materials for the bakery and in return the bakery give them some absurdly high portion of their profits, or the Capitol sells them a year’s supply of raw materials at a premium on credit and at the end of the year the Mellarks have to use the money they made with those materials to pay it back, except it’s never enough to turn a profit so they always have to buy next year’s materials on credit and the cycle continues.

We (understandably) get a really skewed view of the merchant class through Katniss’s perspective so I can see why people come to the conclusion that his family owned the property and, as the last surviving member, he would’ve inherited it. I’ve seen the inheritance thing in fics a lot or a hand wavey “well Twelve was decimated to no one owns anything anymore so it can be his” or even like an almost sort of reparations type situation where he’s entitled to the land as a surviving refugee of Twelve. But I don’t know. I guess I don’t think it fits with everything else we know about Panem that the Mellarks would’ve owned that land and I think the question of whether the government would’ve let him take ownership of the land post-revolution brings up a lot of issues about the structure of society post-Mockingjay that I find more interesting to explore in other ways, especially when, from an emotional perspective, 1) I find the idea of Peeta not opening a bakery more compelling and 2) I don’t think it really fits his character arc by the end of Mockingjay to reopen a bakery, as I went on about at length above lol.

On the flip side: literally who cares!! Do whatever you want!! Headcanon whatever you want!! I get why people go for the bakery!! It’s fun, it’s wholesome, it’s a built in bakery AU that isn’t even an AU. It doesn’t matter if it’s practical or realistic!! It doesn’t need to be practical or realistic!! It’s fanfic of a dystopian YA series!! My unfortunate affliction is that I grew up in a family that owned a restaurant and that I have multiple degrees in the social sciences so I can’t see the bakery without being like “What about the overheard? What about the start up costs? Who’s spending long nights balancing the books? Is Peeta covering shifts when an employee calls in sick? Is Peeta the sole person working there until the bakery is open long enough (often a year or more) to start turning a profit? How does that sleep schedule work with his nightmares? How does that work with Katniss’s nightmares? What happens when he has an episode and suddenly needs to take the day off before he has any employees? Does the bakery just remain closed for the day? Can the profit margins withstand regular unexpected closures? Can the supplies withstand regular unexpected closures?” And if the answer is “Elliott none of those things matter he’s not doing the bakery because he needs the money but because he wants to”, then my question is why does he want to? Does he not get the same sort of satisfaction out of feeding his loved ones? Doesn’t Peeta seem like someone who would rather give away baked goods than sell them?? Doesn’t Peeta seem like someone who would prefer to make cakes for people’s special occasions upon and then when they insist on paying him for it, he only lets them “pay for the ingredients” which actually cost significantly more than he says they did??

So yeah my point is that it’s a matter of personal taste! It doesn’t fit the way I see the series but that doesn’t mean it’s like wrong, I’m not an authority on Peeta lmao.

It’s also a matter of personal taste in the sense that I find the themes that most resonate with me at the end of Mockingjay (and the end of Peeta’s arc specifically) more interesting to explore in other ways. Grief, living with loss, relearning yourself, finding hope, figuring out your place in a dramatically different world when you don’t even know who you are anymore, healing, building a new life after such complete and total destruction of your old life— those are all things I find compelling about the end of Mockingjay but for me the bakery isn’t the most compelling way to explore them.

Not to say I find the concept of the bakery totally uninteresting. I have this fic about Johanna that I’ll probably never finish where the point sort of is that, yeah, her life really isn’t all that much better after the war. It’s been years at this point and she’s still miserable and she doesn’t know how to be a person but by the end she’s trying to figure it out. And towards the end, Peeta tells her that he’s spent years sort of passively, half-heartedly trying to figure out how to inherit the land his family’s bakery was on, only to find out it was never theirs in the first place. They’d been renting it the whole time and he’d never even known as a kid. So he sort of passively, half-heartedly went on another wild goose chase to find the owner and now, finally, after years of writing to various government agencies and being sent in circles and things being barely functional, he’s managed to track down the owner. Now it’s owned by the daughter of the man who owned it when he was a kid because the original owner (who was likely up to some sketchy war crime shit) died during the war and she inherited it (the irony…). He got in contact with her and asked how much it would take for her to sell it and she told him she’s not interested in selling but in light of the situation, in light of the fact that he’d have to build a new building in order to operate a bakery, that she’d cut him a deal— she’d only require 50% of the bakery’s profits as rent instead of the 80% his family used to pay. And of course Johanna is outraged, that’s not right, the owner shouldn’t be allowed to do that, they should do something about it, they should fight back. And Peeta is like. Not interested. He was actually sort of relieved that opening wasn’t very feasible. Getting the answer was a lightbulb moment where he saw that over the years of trying to look into this, he’s built a life that he likes— one where he’s stable, where his loved ones are stable, where he’s cared for and can care for others— and he doesn’t really want to change it drastically by opening a bakery anyway. He just needed an answer, one way or another, before he could get some closure and move on. (And the point of the conversation is Johanna is having her own lightbulb moment that it’s okay to move on, it’s okay to change, it’s not a betrayal of the people and things she’s lost but that’s not my point here!!).

But anyway. That’s obviously not about running the bakery— it’s about the choice to not run one.

Anyway!! Anyway… are you satisfied anon? Is this what you wanted?

Lastly, here is my most important qualm with the bakery headcanon: must Peeta be gainfully employed? Is it not enough for him to be Katniss’s boytoy? Can’t he just paint and garden and bake and hang out with his girlfriend all day? Is that really too much to ask?

[misspermitted]

Not to randomly appear in this fandom and rant, but it’s like missing the whole point of Obi-Wan’s character arc to blame Anakin solely for screwing up that relationship. It takes two to tango. Anakin was selfish and immature, but so was Obi-Wan! He:

Never told anakin he cared, or any of his emotions. Thus screwing any possible emotional connection

Never expressed in any way that he was proud of him and instead repeatedly complained about him

Brushed off or mocked all of Anakin’s attempts at affection

Like Obi-Wan really didn’t give Anakin many reasons to believe he’d support him. Anakin was self conscious and desperate for affection, which made him easily feel unloved and alone. But Obi-Wan did not help by hiding any love he had for Anakin due to his fear of attachments.

Why did Obi fear attachments?

Obi-Wan had no family and Qui-Gon was the opposite of affectionate. He didn’t know how to show love, and he didn’t want to fail. A Jedi doesn’t fail. They do or do not. So he did not.

Obi-Wan had to let go of Satine, his first relationship, and it broke his heart. Because Obi-Wan loves devotedly. Anakin loves passionately like a fire, but Obi-Wan loves like a worshiper. He keeps promises and quietly worships the ground the person walks on. And he had to let the object of his worship go. Unlike Anakin, Obi-Wan can let go, but he doesn’t forget. Obi-Wan never wants to lose anyone. It feels like failure. He is terrified of losing his attachments.

Before Qui-Gon Obi-Wan has this encompassing desire for approval which, from Qui-Gon’s constant abandonment throughout their relationship (he’s such a deadbeat), sharpens into a fear of rejection. Obi-Wan doesn’t want to be rejected by the Jedi Order, so he becomes the perfect Jedi. He doesn’t want to be rejected by Anakin, so he makes himself necessary. He’s so terrified of rejection, that he never puts himself out there to be rejected. So he deflects and deflects.

Then of course there’s the Jedi Order forebading attachment. It’s very per-Jedi how that is defined, Qui-Gon commits to this by being very ungrounded and “going with the force”. This does not work for Obi-Wan. He is a stressed little Jedi. He is so unbelievably grounded. He cares about everything. He can’t not. So he represses and pretends to be this very strict person he isn’t. And you can tell this looms over Obi-Wan. His inability to meet this expectation. His inability to be indifferent. Because Obi-Wan doesn’t like failing.

And by the time he figures out that he can be himself and show affection, and finds his middle ground of loving and caring altruistically, it’s too late. Anakin already feels too alone. And because of all the other fears we’ve addressed, Obi-Wan is too afraid of rejection and loss to actually reach out really clearly.

“He’ll be fine.” He thinks. Except he’s not fine. Anakin is not fine. And all of Obi-Wan’s fears happen because he puts his head in the sand and pretends he’s not attached. It’s so counterintuitive. Like just talk to him!! Admit you care!!! Oh my gooood!!!! It’s Shakespeare level miscommunication.

But by Luke Obi-Wan has learned from his mistakes, he’s so affectionate and nice to Luke when he trains him. So “I’m proud of you.” So positive reinforcement.

It takes him comedically long to come to the basic realisation that if you want your younger sibling to know how much you care for him just, like, tell him?? Miscommunication and you taking on everything and feeling unappreciated isn’t an inevitable fact of life. You can just communicate?? And show affection?? The Jedi Order isn’t stopping you???

But hey I wouldn’t love Obi-Wan if he wasn’t a mess.

[purgaytorysupremacy]

oh nuts. a life experience has given me a new layer of perspective on Cas's homosexual declaration of love to Dean.

recently I had occasion to tell a person I had feelings for them knowing full well they didn't feel even a twinge of the same thing for me. while the whole thing was a decidedly unpleasant experience, I kept laughing at myself internally bc I didn't want to say "the happiness is just in saying it" like fucking Castiel over here. (we don't need to talk about it, it's fine.) (I am happier having said it and it's kind of bullshit, but I digress.)

because the thing is, the happiness isn't in just saying it, right? the happiness is in the having. I made a whole TikTok "proving" that the Empty didn't come for Cas when he confessed his love, but rather when he realized Dean loved him back. even for Cas, the happiness was in the having, not in the saying, however brief it was.

and I've always been one of those people who rolled their eyes at the whole concept. why would the happiness be in just being, in just saying it, if it's right there in front of you to have. and then it hit me like a tonne of bricks (as I was washing my kitchen counters).

Cas really didn't think he could have Dean.

at all. in any capacity. he really, truly, and honestly felt to the depths of himself that Dean did not have any twinge of similar feelings, that this really was a Hail Mary shot-in-the-dark. and I think me, personally, really didn't understand that about Cas. that his belief in his love being unrequited was that unshakable.

something else I've been pondering is how audiences have so much more empathy for fictional characters who share traits that IRL they find objectionable and unappealing. but the thing is about fictional characters is that we follow them around in their most private, vulnerable moments. we see Dean mourning Cas when he dies, literally killing himself because he can't live without him, but it's so easy to forget that we're the omniscient ones here.

Cas never knew.

Dean's whole thing was pushing him away, keeping him at arm's length, making it seem like whatever heroic thing he does for Cas he'd do for anyone. he downplays how important it is for Dean to share the Deancave with him, to show him his favourite movies, share his favourite songs. he acts like the things Cas does for him don't mean that much to hide how much they do mean. he uses "we" whenever he even gets in the vicinity of expressing a feeling. "We were worried." "We're glad you're back." "We needed a win." "You're our brother." The audience knew the difference. We saw how he'd clench his jaw or swallow hard or make a face that said "God, I'm being such an idiot". Because we saw him in those little moments. We got to see the cracks in the mask.

but Cas never knew.

the self-hating angel of Thursday was never going to think it was all a way for Dean to protect himself. obviously, that's the delicious tragedy of it all, but what I think I realized at the end of all that is Cas confessing his love to a Dean who didn't love him back wouldn't have worked. Because the happiness really is in the having. If happiness was just in saying it, then The Empty would have come before Cas even finished getting the words out of his mouth.

so Cas's plan wouldn't have worked if Dean didn't love him back.

this is just me yapping on about my own nonsense, but I do think it's really interesting. there's contentment in "just saying it". there's freedom and relief and an unburdening. I think one can argue that it makes being happy in the being easier. there is certainly some joy in telling a person you think that highly of them. but true happiness?

nah.

true happiness is always going to only be in the having. Cas didn't understand the difference until he experienced it, and by then, it was too late.

[velvet-games]

this was probably obvious to everyone else, but I just realized alastor probably hates vaggie because she gets in the way of him taking advantage of charlie's (perceived) naivete. vaggie's onto his bullshit constantly and he immediately pounces as soon as they have a conflict (charlie finding out about vaggie being an angel); if charlie's too upset at vaggie to care about her judgment, then a deal can be made.

[soullessjack]

another offshoot of jack being infantilized is that it’s leeched into the popular mischaracterization of jack as some soft sensitive crybaby who hates violence, hates scary things and is super nice and sweet and cutesy all the time and of course he’s used to accessorize Claire as a big mean lesbian sister who always gets them in trouble, and what makes it so unbearable besides the ableist rooting, is that it’s just canonically utterly wrong. like go back and watch 13x02 & 03. go back and watch 14x06 when they convince Dean to go on a case behind Sam’s back. or look at any time they’re defiant to Cas (and for the love of god do not look at it as “lol sassy baby dean is a bad influence bad dad 😂” or so help me I am throwing multiple rocks at you). like you can say he’s a bitch. you can say he’s a cunt even. it won’t kill you.

in fact, I implore you to, because it is a step away from infantilizing his every action as silly baby behavior and ergo a step in the right direction. look at the entire apocalypse world arc where he decides he has to personally kill Michael when the plan was only ever to escape through the rift. remember the scene where they’re crying in the woods and it got ran with as hashtag poor baby boy whump and nobody noticed that he’d literally almost strangled someone because of their impulsive temper?? or when they made the decision to brutally torture a man by snapping and twisting his skeleton and burning him so intensely his shirt fabric blackened?? and somehow that gets turned into shit like “daddy hold my sippy cup” because for some fucking reason you guys are so intent on making him out to be a child and infantilizing his canon traits to be more palatable to that idea of him.

TLDR please can we actually recognize how bitchy and violent and rebellious jack is. can you guys realize that his entire behavioral pattern of saying hi and waving hello is him masking and repressing because his emotions literally are nuclear charged and he doesn’t want to be a threat. can we please.

[moongothic]

I keep on seeing people mention how they want to see another Davy Back Fight during the Final Saga, and while I'm 10000% sure we won't see another Davy Back Fight

Unironically

I think a Davy Back Fight between the Strawhats and Cross Guild could be fucking hysterical

Especially because like. Buggy could totally challenge Luffy intentionally, desperately hoping that either Luffy will save HIM from Crocodile and Mihawk, OR that Luffy ends up taking Croc and Hawk into his crew if he wins

(Sidenote, DBF is normally only about exchanging crewmates and stealing pirate flags, but could you imagine if Buggy could demand to have Luffy's copies of the Road Poneglyphs if he won? Hell, I imagine Buggy could probably get away with innitiating the challenge regardless because once it's on, it's on, and surely his men would be so riled up Croc and Hawk would know there'd be no way to stop it anymore even though Buggy's not the true boss. But just to keep Croc and Hawk from trying to murder him on the spot Buggy could maybe suggest taking the Poneglyph copies as if it were a part of his plan from the begining)

And you know if Buggy challenged Luffy into a DBF Luffy might just accept??? Because it could be fun (in Luffy's mind)??? And it could be kind of on-brand for him to jump in on a challenge like that???

And yes

The idea of Luffy winning against Cross Guild in a DBF, resulting in fucking Mihawk and Sir Crocodile joining the Strawhats would be fucking hysterical man, and that alone makes me kinda want it

[leverage-ot3]

since it's my birthday I'm sharing what I have (ROUGHLY) written down so far for my ot3 video analysis' section on the long way down job (if you haven't been able to figure it out yet, that's one of my favorite episodes)

Here we are seeing the aftereffects of the San Lorenzo Job in real time in the relationships between the characters. It seems as though Hardison is feeling off-balance in his relationship dynamic with Parker, who we we remember confessed her feelings and willingness to pursue a relationship with Hardison at the end of the Big Bang Job (note, there weren’t many relationship developments that happened between them in the San Lorenzo Job for obvious reasons- i.e. they were actively trying not to die). Hardison, who has been living that slow-burn life for the past three years is obviously ecstatic that this is happening, but it seems as though there is a disconnect between his expectations and reality of the relationship. NOTE: One of the wonderful things about Hardison is that he doesn’t expect anything from Parker- he wants her as she is in whatever way he can have her. When I’m talking about expectations, I’m saying that he doesn’t know how to act with this new relationship development- he doesn’t know where the ‘lines’ are of Parker’s comfortability and what she is ready for, which is leaving him a bit confused and unsure of how to act. 

For example, he goes in to hug her but she either doesn’t notice, doesn’t compute what he’s trying to do, or isn’t up for that level of physical affection at the current moment. She high-fives him instead

[significance of eliot 'don't touch me bro' spencer not only giving hardison a hug but INITIATING IT because parker didn't take his open arms as an invitation. talk about how much lighter he looks after the events of the san lorenzo job- it's almost like a literal weight has been lifted off his chest]

It’s easy to see the Parker-Hardison dynamics in this episode, but don’t miss how there is also significant development in the relationship between Parker and Eliot. Parker and Eliot are paired off for most of this episode climbing the mountain to try to recover the incriminating notebook from the dead mountaineer. They work efficiently in tandem, literally keeping even pace with one another.

[talk about heart-wrenching cave scenes here]

And when they’re free, this closeness and ability to be on the same wavelength is displayed when they are confronted by the gunman looking to destroy the evidence. He grabs Parker and points a gun to her head, demanding that Eliot hand over the notebook. She yells at him to not hand it over, but in actuality, she is distracting the gunman from noticing her sliding the dead man’s cellphone with an incriminating video into his pocket. Eliot plays along and into the bit, throwing the notebook over to get Parker back.

[talk about hardison being so happy to hear parker (and eliot) over the comms. talk about how he isn't expecting a hug and is resigned (if not content) to do a high five and is floored when parker practically jumps into his arms. where she knows it's safe and warm.]