#van scene discourse

[chirpsythismorning]

I get your point on Mike not noticing what Will is going through but there really is no indication of him noticing things about Will all the time. Like... S3 exists. And even in S4, he's not aware of what Will is going through and we also should take into consideration that Mike and Will have not spoken to each other for months, how the heck would he even know about Will's sexuality or his feelings for him? And he did not notice Will's sensing Vecna and what was going on until Will told him that Vecna's still alive and he can sense him. Will's also the first one to sense the Upside Down acting on (him touching his neck scene) and Mike did not realize that moment, I mean, he basically is not even in the focus of that shot, the kid is basically hugging Hopper behind the scene, lol.

Also there really is a difference btwn him noticing Will just acts annoyed at the roller rink versus why Will acted that way which... he didn't realize what Will really acted that way anyways.

I am keeping an open mind and speculating here because there are signs that it's not as simple as the show is presenting it as.

Though, I do want to make it clear that I don't think it's ever been as simple as Mike fully understanding Will, specifically in the van scene.

I think all these moments between them over the years, that read as romantic coded to us, could arguably feel that way to them, deep down at least. They've confirmed that was the case for Will since s1, though they have yet to even imply that could be a possibility for Mike, despite it being the obvious direction that they're going with in the story.

Honestly, I think at least deep down, Will AND Mike are in a constant back and forth of he loves me/he loves me not, which just hits a lot different as a queer person. They're also best friends and so they're having to worry that they'll make the other person uncomfortable after realizing they misunderstood things. It's also why they (especially Mike) doubles down and ends up hurting Will, because he's so focused on not making his feelings obvious, that he basically implies him and Will aren't friends anymore (instant regret jpg.).

Yes, Mike can't know Will's every thought and emotion at all times, especially when he's not even looking in Will's direction at all. And yet I think that he's still able to sense that at least something is wrong when he is in a situation where Will is right there in front of him.

For example, we're barely shown Mike looking at Will at all at Rink-O-Mania despite them being like 3 ft away from each other most of the day, and yet he ends the night giving us a play by play of Will's emotions. We even get a shot in the van on the way back to the Byers, with Mike looking over at Will who is upset, but not El. They make a point to parallel these shots directly. And so Mike didn't look at El crying, but he did look at Will upset here AND also Will crying in the van scene at the end of the season... Okay...

There was also a post recently that really makes this concept of Mike noticing Will crying even more plausible, because it's a scene of Lucas literally noticing Max upset in the backseat, and yet he doesn't push her any further...

It's sort of a time and place situation on a basic level. Like is now really the time to confront Will crying, and talk about it, all the while they've been framing byler all season as being interrupted constantly and rarely getting a moment of privacy? Meaning a moment truly acknowledging this properly, might very well warrant no one around...

Like I said, I go back and forth on this all the time. Because I think the easiest way to write off the van scene as Mike being totally oblivious, is that Will is lying. And Will doesn't lie to Mike and so no wonder it was so easy to believe him. And so that could explain it right?

Still, I think that it's unlikely to be as simple as Mike understanding Will in the van vs. being oblivious. The main thing I get out of Mike in the van scene is hope.

Arguably, most of the GA thinks that Mike picked up on Will's feelings in the van scene, though they also assume he doesn't feel the same. So what they assume occurred, is Mike letting Will down gently. They think it's obvious Mike noticed and that he doesn't feel the same, and so that's why he's not comforting Will. Most viewers with common sense picked up on Will's behavior in the van scene as him confessing his feelings to Mike through El. Most people went damn, welp that's tragic. After all, this is the moment that finally allowed Noah to finally say It's 100% obvious Will is gay and in love with Mike. After years of them denying and gaslighting fans over speculation in regards to Will's sexuality, THIS is the moment they chose to make it clear to the audience. Just because he never said it outright himself up to this point (and still technically hasn't), doesn't mean he hasn't felt those feelings deep down the whole time? I don't see why we should completely rule out Mike also being somewhat aware, but just having doubts and is just in general scared, because that's understandable. (Sometimes, I think it's just scary to open up like that, to say how you really feel--).

I think the van scene is truly in a league of its own, separate from every moment before it because it is the moment that finally gave them the confidence to reveal the hidden (half) truth that's been going on in this show the whole time in regards to Mike and Will. And yet the Duffers STILL aren't willing to admit that there's more to it... Or are they?

That's the thing about what the Duffer's said, because if you remember what they mentioned about the van scene, it was, While, Mike doesn't fully pick up on it-- So they are basically alluding that it's not as simple as Mike understanding/not understanding. This is obviously because if Mike understood Will and yet he looked super happy, how exactly could the Duffers work around answering that without giving things away?

And so, what if it's only slightly the opposite of that GA assumption? What if the van scene is Mike picking up on Will's words being about himself (like the GA largely assumes), but it's not Mike letting Will down, it's him being relived (upon realizing the painting Will made for his crush is for Mike), confused, while also being somewhat hopeful? What if it's Mike also feeling the responsibility to wait, bc at the moment, he is still technically in a relationship with El. What if it's Mike holding back because comforting Will in this moment, who is now currently sobbing, would cause Mike to cry...? I think them blurring out Mike's reaction beside Will, as he stares at the painting is sus in terms of the possibility Mike could also be emotional in this moment, though holding back those emotions in the same way Will is, just a lot more successfully (Smalltown boy agenda is alive and well...). I mean, why else have both Mike and Will give each other the most heartfelt smiles we've ever seen them give to anyone, only to both look away with their smile dropping... Why?

I also think it's going to be a lot of mental gymnastics to have to make the GA go from thinking Mike understood Will in the van scene, but was letting him down gently, to then reveal Mike didn't understand Will, but still likes Will, but is also hearing all these things fully believing they're El's feelings, and he's smiling and looks super happy with that information? Having only one of those facts wrong feels a little more reasonable in subscribing to this classic miscommunication/unreliable narrator domino effect approach they're going for.

This reminds me of a TikTok that I saw a while back, which pointed out a specific reaction shot from Mike that I think a lot of us overlook. Even though I've been a Mike is clueless in the van scene truther mostly up until recently (I still flip-flop), what I realized after watching this was that, subconsciously, I do feel like Mike is indeed reacting to Will's emotions in this moment, and in his reaction shots he looks emotional and almost sympathetic specifically for Will's emotions in particular. Without actually breaking down what this implies, I've always felt this watching this shot and I still feel it:

And so here Will is, word for word, describing what him and Mike went through over the last year. He even uses words Mike himself used only a few episodes before, when they made up back in Lenora. We know El hasn't been pushing Mike away for the last year. Mike knows this more than Will does. It's just that Will is assuming El is in love with Mike, at least equal to how much Will loves Mike (how could she not be, that's Will's assumption here), and so he's just playing it off like that's something El is doing, when really the whole problem is that El has been doing the opposite of pushing Mike away for the last year, and yet Mike still couldn't commit with a simple four letter word.

And so my difficulty following along with the argument that Mike is clueless is that Will is clearly talking about them in this scene and at times Mike looks relieved and emotional and awestruck while hearing Will say all of this, things that fit their situation, while looking confused whenever Will mentions El's name...

I don't think it's as simple as Mike fully picking up on it, because there are contradictions at play here, and there's also the events leading up to this and what follows that could also impact what Mike thinks about this moment, over time.

But I also can't rule out Mike being hopeful. I think that's more so what it's about for me in terms of analyzing this scene. It's not that I think Mike is fully picking up on Will's feelings, or that he has ever done so at any point genuinely, but more so that I think he's partially picking up on it, and he's hoping.

I think there are certainly doubts that any average person would have in this moment, which I also think mirrors moments of hope and doubt that Mike has experienced in the past in regards to his relationship with Will.

While I know some fans think the end of s2 was the moment Mike realized his feelings, or the end of s3, I just don't think it's that simple.

I think that those moments represent the experience of slowly realizing something, but also being too scared to look too closely at it because of what it could mean, aka looking behind the curtain.

It also makes the expression Mike makes between El and Will at Nina a little more impactful. Because what we see is El and Mike reuniting, and Mike leaning in, but not as close as he could. It's quite visible he's pulling back and not meeting her halfway.

Like, Will literally spent ALL season encouraging him nonstop to tell El how he feels, and the dude can't even kiss her during this super auspicious moment? Dude literally keeps his mouth as far away as possible? Every other movie/show would have them kiss and say I love you during this reunion. Instead they make a point to emphasis Mike looking relieved that El doesn't hate him and that she wants him in her life still, followed by Mike seeking out Will almost instantly.

Also the whole, I didn't say it/You didn't have to moment was kind of unnecessary to drop in the scene where Mike poured his feelings out to Will earlier in the season (where he also said he felt like he lost Will), if it wasn't meant to allude to something deeper that will have a follow up to it. Why even have that exchange at all on the show, if not to hint at something deeper? If you're going to make a ship endgame, and have one of them noticing 9/10 when the other is upset and having them comfort them, then there's gotta be some follow through there. That line was toooo iconic for it to not be.

That's all I can think about when I see Mike smiling the brightest and most heartwarming we've ever seen him smile in the entire show, as he's hearing Will say these things. To me, at the very least, it looks like hope.

And the face he makes at Surfer Boy when Will tells him he's the heart and encourages him to confess to El essentially... that looks to me like devastation and heartbreak. It looks like Mike experiencing the worst possible case of 'he loves me not' one could ever experience (maybe Will's got it worse, I would argue that the same face he makes in response in that moment hits even harder...)

At the very least, I think Mike has been hoping, just like Will is. When it comes to growing up queer, all you have is hope and then the inevitable disappointment more often than not. Back in the 80s in a small town?? Like, it's no wonder they're both in denial they could have a chance despite getting signs there is a chance.

This is something that both Mike and Will are going through, circles of maybe this is real, only to be proven wrong. The tragedy of it all is that they both DO feel the same. And so their gut feeling is right, it's just that heteronormativity doesn't make it something they can really risk, in the case that they end up being wrong.

I will say, where I am up in the air at now is with what Mike is currently thinking about at the end of s4 as he stands by Will. If he is just realizing that El doesn't need him bc she is avoiding him, and that presumably the painting was a lie or at least not fully truthful, wouldn't Mike be upset? Instead he is very accepting of the fact that El doesn't need him and he is practically latching onto Will... And so does he know now that it's Will's feelings? Idk...

Like I said, I think that there are a lot of layers of reactions still in store, which is why it's not as simple as fans want it to be.

I am willing to guess that Mike at least hopes. I think it took a lot for Mike to stay beside Will instead of walking up further with El. I think that this is just the beginning of him accepting himself, which is why it follows directly after Mike and Hopper hug, who last hugged when Mike had a mental breakdown at the end of s2 over 'lying' in regards to his emotions about El being alive/will being possessed by the mindflayer, and who was also juxtaposed to Hoppers letter at the end of s3 also hinting at Mike's deeper feelings. They've been laying breadcrumbs so that once you have all the pieces it will be a lot more satisfying. Right now it's confusing, but that's okay because we're just along for the ride right now.

The problem I see us heading into in s5, is us now having all of these miscommunications coming to a head. Just because Mike hopes, doesn't mean he's certain. It means he's more than prepared to be bombarded with contradictions that will make both of them heartbroken and confused all over again.

The highly anticipated painting confrontation is one that I think could be crazy because Mike reacting upset in any way would obviously be a signal to Will that he doesn't feel the same... but we know that's not the case, and that it's actually quite the opposite.

At the moment I'm still on the fence, but I do think regardless what we have in store for s5 is a healthy dose of miscommunication and misunderstandings and revelations still to come (arguably the most gut wrenching bc they need to top the previous seasons), hopefully followed by more revelations and then the build up of that hope finally leading to something...

[ma1dita]

Hi Jo! So excited for your monster mash 🥰 Can I get one ticket for the graveyard mash starring Spencer Reid with a 🍫 and 🌭 please. Thank you!

freaks come out at night

[STARRING: SPENCER REID x reader ; “Really? Now? God, you have terrible timing.” “Please just play along.”] wc: 1.9k warnings: MDNI — afab!reader, semi-public van sex, choking with a belt, no protection p in v, totally against regulation, errrr i saw discourse that spencer doesn’t fuck but with the amount of smut on this hellsite… yeah right. anyways. that man is a freak. consent is sexy, enjoy. title from the whodini song

monster mash-terlist

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“Excuse me? Mr. Officer?”

Your heels clacking against the pavement catches Reid & Morgan’s attention. It’s dark on the street you’re on, the shadows of your face illuminated by the red and blue hues of light from the squad cars that surround the house where the unsub was apprehended. They've been on this case for a week, and everyone’s ready to shake hands and go home. And so are you, it seems; your confidence always gets you into difficult situations; however, asking cops for a ride home instead of staying with the creep at the club sounds like a better idea.

“Hi sweetheart, what’s wrong? This is a crime scene,” Morgan croons smoothly, leaning against the van as he looks you up and down, “you don’t look like you belong here.” It’s condescending almost, the suave tenor of his voice making you feel like you’re being talked down on.

All you want to do is go home, charge your phone, and go to bed. Spencer is too busy fidgeting with the buttons on his dress shirt as he rolls his sleeves back down to look more professional. But it’s hard to impress a pretty girl in a sparkly dress at three in the morning, especially when you don’t even glance his way.

“Yeah, there’s been this guy following me for a few blocks now. Can I get one of you to drive me home? It’s not too far,” you say dismissively, crossing your arms over your chest as the wind picks up. You shiver slightly, hands brushing the skirt of your dress down. Someone calls their attention from near the house, closing down the investigation and Morgan nods lightly with Spencer looking into the distance behind you, trying to find the person giving you trouble.

“Who’s giving you a problem? Want me to talk to him?”

He means it so earnestly, but nothing about Spencer Reid screams intimidating. Tweed blazer, clubmaster glasses, and Converse adorning his frame—-he looks like the kids you knew got bullied in middle school. It makes you giggle, “No offense, you’re not scary, Mr. Officer. Please just play along and let me ride it out.” Morgan hides a smile behind his shoulder and claps Reid on the back as if to say, all yours, pretty boy. You’re pointing at the black van, tapping it with your hand, “This one okay?” But you’ve already opened the door to the passenger seat and climbed in, dress riding up your thighs and giving them a view of your underwear. He swallows hard, looking at his friend who will surely never let him live this down, “Wanna come? I don’t like driving.”

Morgan rolls his eyes at how dumb the smartest man he knows can be when it comes to women, “Just get in the van and take her home, Reid. I’ll meet you back at the hotel.” The car keys are thrown (ie. fumbled) into Spencer’s hands as he sighs and walks around the front of the vehicle, mumbling, “Actually, I’m a doctor…”

“Your badge says you’re an agent,” you quip, watching him slide in and start the ignition. He turns the car lights on, looking your way as he pulls out onto the street, “I’m both.” 

Impressive.

Giving him the directions, you sit back and admire the profile of his face in the dark. He’s cute, you suppose—pushing his glasses up to avoid the glare of passing headlights, nose scrunched up in concentration as he tries to not let his mind wander while you tell him about your night.

“Yeah, and then after he was being nice to me, he groped me on the dancefloor. I mean, what a jerk! Can you imagine that, Doctor?”

“Spencer,” he mumbles, making you hum in acknowledgment. And no he cannot. He’s really trying not to. You’re expressive when you speak, hands flying in the air and touching everywhere from the dashboard, to his arm, and then his thigh. His hands clench around the steering wheel, wondering how you’re able to be so blunt with a complete stranger.

“You look like a Spencer.”

“Do I?”

Crossing your legs and leaning against the window to face him more, you look sinful in the passing shadows that blur behind your head. He blinks, reminding himself that he’s in control of the car, and redirects his focus on the road.

“Yeah. Too bad I’m not into nice guys,” you smirk, biting your lip, “Nice guys try to fuck me in public without even asking, apparently.” The car swerves the slightest bit, and neither of you says anything until he pulls into your apartment parking lot.

“Right here should be fine.”

He puts the car into park, lights flicking on as he unlocks the doors and the only thing you can see is his boner straining through the material of his slacks. The sheer sight of it and the hilarity of the situation make you bark out in laughter, “Really? Now? After I tell you about my shitshow of a night, you get hard after hearing that?” His cheeks redden in the dim light as he folds his hands in his lap, sputtering out a response, “I d-didn’t mean to… I’m sorry!”

“I’m not like him, I promise!” But you’re already getting out of the van and Spencer quickly files this into the section of his brain where he keeps suppressed memories because this is humiliating for him, actually— and then you’re opening the door to the backseat.

“Not like what, Spencer?”

His brows furrow as he watches you, frozen and calculating every possible way that tonight will go because it’s rare that Spencer Reid is surprised— “What?”

“Are you a nice guy, or are you a creep?”

And he pushes his glasses up, expression pressed into something you can’t read—maybe it’s something they’ve taught him in the FBI, you think, and he clears his throat, insisting, “I’m a nice guy. I’m one of the good guys.”

“You have terrible timing. Are you moving back here or not? I’m not fucking you in my apartment. I barely know you after all.”

So your confidence does put you into difficult situations. 

But you never thought it would get you bent over and fucked in the back seat of a cruiser with half your body sprawled over the center console. It’s a tight fit, your slick skin sliding against the leather and you don’t suppose a nice guy would do half the things Spencer is doing to you now, and his big hands are gripping the fat of your hips as he watches you bounce on his thick cock with bated breath.

The difference between him and other ‘nice guys’ you’ve encountered is that he’s verbal with his wants and makes sure that you’re enjoying yourself—and despite your eyes rolling to the back of your head and fervent moans, you’re still not sure he believes you.

“Ngh—fuck! Just like that…” you whine as he takes control, maneuvering you so that he can pull you up and down by his hold on your forearms. Spencer eagerly lifts his hips to meet yours, his length pistoning into your tight hole, the sound of skin and squelch echoing through the vehicle as he groans loudly, “This okay? Does this…feel good?”

“More! Mmm…harder, Spencer…I—”

“Not what I was asking, pretty,” he pants, thrusting into your soaked pussy with a jolt and stopping. Your cheek smacks against the gear shift and you cry, knees going weak at the sound of his voice, “I said, is this okay?”

“Yes! Stop asking!”

He slams into you again at the sound of your agreement, your belly hitting the console and squeezing around his cock as you lay there almost begging for him to do it again. But spit drips down the side of your mouth, along with the words you can’t string into a coherent sentence. The material of your dress is bunched around your torso, and his hands slither up your spine, feeling the way you breathe under his touch; you can’t see him from here but you know he’s smiling.

“I need to hear it, pretty girl,” he coos, tracing the letters of his name across your shoulder blades, and all you can do is laugh.

“Yes, your cock feels really good,” you hum, looking back at him and biting your lip, “In fact, you could go harder. You’ddo that for me, wouldn’t you, Mr. Nice Guy?”

“Doctor Reid…” 

He’s breathing heavily at your stare, noting the streaks of mascara down your cheeks and how your eyes seem to glint at him in the moonlight. So he yanks you up into the backseat with him, pressing you into the same position; ass up and face down and you shiver at the sound of his belt buckle clinking in the dark, “What are you doing?” you mumble, catchingyour breath while you can.

“M’gonna choke you if that’s okay.” 

It sounds so innocent coming out of his mouth and you’re grinning at the feeling of leather wrapping around your neck, fastened tight but not so much so that you’ll asphyxiate. You know he’ll be taking your breath away regardless, and he’s whispering into the shell of your ear, asking if you’re comfortable and pressing a soft kiss that feels incandescent against your skin.

One of Spencer’s hands spreads your cheeks open for his dick to make its way through your warm flesh, arching your back into his hold as the other hand tugs on the belt to pull you up. The choked sound that leaves your lungs is so filthy he has to try not to cum right then and there. 

“Please,” you whine, wiggling your hips as your hand slips down the glass pane, “Need you to fuck me.” Every inch that slides in has you moaning louder, and Spencer’s the one laughing now, “Should I still ask if you’re doing okay?”

“Oh…Just fuck me already Spencer!”

His jaw clenches as he starts fucking himself into your warmth, one hand on your shoulder and the other wrapped around his belt making you wheeze. Your ass shakes with the car, the force of his cock pounding into you with vigor, and Spencer moans, “F-fuck! You’re shaking…” His balls clap against the plump of your body as your throat feels the pressure of his efforts, and big hands pull you into a seated position so he can get a better look at your face. It’s puffed up with the lack of air and your pupils are unfocused, fucked stupid, and happy at the feeling of his rigid cock against the soft of your walls, mumbling incoherently as your eyes connect.

“Yes, yes, yes…So fucking deep…”

Spencer slides his hand around your torso, putting his fingers beneath sweaty fabric so he can touch your skin, thumb rubbing against your belly button and tongue licking up the side of your collarbone, still rocking into you as he loses it, finally letting go of the belt. You fall over with a shaking gasp and hear him groan, hot spurts of cum painting your motionless back. Noticing the car windows are foggy, you smile to yourself. What the fuck have you gotten yourself into? Reaching down to grab your underwear, you stop when you feel Spencer delicately wiping his cum off you with a handkerchief.

“Mmm. You really are a nice guy.”

He helps you readjust your clothes first before his, “I told you that.” It’s quiet in the car again, and you’re not sure what to say, but there’s no point in being shy now.

“You wanna see my apartment?” you muse, smiling sweetly at him, and he quirks his brow, “I thought you didn’t let strangers into your apartment.”

“I think we’re past that, don’t you?”

Spencer doesn't make it back to the hotel until right before check out the next morning.

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ma1dita's monster mash is closed for requests but ongoing for the rest of october!

[sailingfireshipz]

Ok so this is my discourse in response to @stellariders post a while back. Linked at the end.

1. Kelly should have been captain 3-4 seasons ago and I'm tired of them using the excuses of paperwork or being behind a desk because I've seen Van Meter behind a desk & talking about about how backed up they are on cases which is PAPERWORK. When he is in the field, it's after all the "action" that they speak so highly of has already taken place & it's more so like solving a puzzle rather than running into a fire. Atp I'd respect it more if they said Kelly can't be captain because he can't be Stella's commanding officer at the same house.

2. I'm sorry. I love Hermann however I'm struggling with seeing how the hell I'm supposed to take him seriously as captain on a scene or call when they've NEVER shown him in that light. The last time I saw him really fired up regarding a call was the factory fire. Also they haven't shown an ounce of Hermann actually preparing or studying for the exam. So we're supposed to believe that the same Hermann that failed the LT exam how many times passes the captain test on the first try? OK...

3. Mouch doing more has at least been foreshadowed now for a while. The episode in which he saved that kid & Casey talked about the retirement age going up. Also, Mouch has at least been acknowledged by the CFD with a commendation back in S9 & helped out with Paramedicine. We've seen his journey & arc build a little bit more than Hermann, so even if it wasn't for a potential Stella pregnancy on the horizon, I could still rationalize Mouch wanting to do more. We've never seen that same arc for Hermann, so it makes it hard for me to get behind it.

4. The disparity in storytelling amongst the cast is starting to become problematic for me. Stella & Ritter are the main two that stand out to me in this moment, but I'm sure there are more examples. Ritter has been on this show in some capacity since season 7... there is absolutely no reason why he has been treated like a background player all this time & is just now starting to get an inch of more screen time when Carver has had MULTIPLE arcs of the course of his FIRST season & now this one. Hell Novak is in her first season as a series regular & we already know a little bit about her past & what makes her tick. Not even about to start in on Stella because yall already know how I feel about it however what I will say is Stella Kidd deserves more than 1 GOF episode a season & 1 episode where she's fighting for the underdog. All of her other stories are directly or indirectly associated with Kelly/Stellaride/ white men, causing her unnecessary grief.... Casey never had this many damn personnel issues in the 10 years he was on T81. I'll leave it at that.

5. I'd love for Squad 3 to get some new blood. Not saying I want anyone to go anywhere, but I'd love to see Kelly Severide have to navigate teaching & training someone new. Add another man or woman to the crew & let's really see how Kelly's leadership comes through.

Same for Engine 51... like i find it interesting that they gave Ritter up to Truck yet won't commit to Kylie joining Engine full-time. Like outside of Hermann, who the hell else do we now know on engine? No one..

6. I'm confused by how close Kelly & Pascal have gotten in such a short amount of time. Historically, Kelly has always been very reserved when it comes to change, especially change in power dynamics. I also find it interesting that they continue to isolate him for the other members that he's worked alongside for much longer yet have planted this Pascal & Severide relationship dynamic. We've been asking for Kelly & Violet since S11... hell the Kelly & Mouch episode we got in S11 was adorable. I'd take him, Ritter & Carver, yet we're getting him & Pascal who clearly has an issue with Stella, his wife. Feels intentional

7. If they are committed to not actually giving Stella an appropriate backstory, then they should at least commit to strengthening her bonds in the house. They did that really well in earlier seasons, like mentioned about her relationship with Enily Foster. Same can be said with Casey, Otis, Gallo, Boden & Kylie but none of those people outside of Kylie are on the show anymore. Felt like when Stellaride got married, they were like alright no more family dynamics with anyone else except for Kelly & thats so not fair to her character. She mentioned it to Boden that her real family is the house. OK, so let her actually build out more relationships with the people that are there now.

8. I know I'm a vocal Newman critic, but I also like to think I give credit where credit is due. I made a few posts ranting & raving about how S12 for what it was (short, needed to be executed quickly) was a REALLY good season. It's why I was so excited for S13, but we're 8 episodes in & i fear we've lost the plot. Like, i go into these episodes with such high hopes because the meat is THERE yet walk away from some of them wondering wtf was that. Like, I'm almost wondering if S12 was so good for her because it was shorter, so there wasn't much room for filler because it honestly fills like she doesn't know what to do with 22 episodes. Grant it, we have an entire back half of the season to go, so I could be speaking too soon. However, I don't know what to even anticipate for the rest of S13.. like i have concepts & my own personal wants, but I don't have actual faith that it'll come to life because everything she's teased thus far has been so far from expectations.

Damon had so much more potential. As a firefighter, brother, & brother in law. That baby convo could have touched on so much more of Stella's fear & what the actual cause of that dread she spoke about could be coming from. Violet could have actually apologized to Carver & explained her grief/ why that caused her to ice him out. Even if they didn't make up right away, it would have set the groundwork for what they'd work towards if they're actually endgame(sometimes i don't know). Ritter getting blown out of a window could have been dug into a little deeper. Even the blood program that Novak proposed a call linking to why it is so important would have just driven the messaging home.

I saw a tweet a while back that basically said it's not character or plot development if it happens off screen & we never see it. It feels as if recently a lot is playing in the background or off the pages that we're somehow supposed to know is going on without ever seeing or hearing it. I love this show, this cast & think if shows like the Law & Order franchise or Grey's can be on air for decades, then so can Fire. I really hope the back half of S13 kicks it into high gear & starts connecting dots for me because I want to get renewed for 3-5 more seasons! I'm simply not ready to let them go, especially when there's so much left in the tank they just need to have the right pieces in the right places to execute effectively. 😫

As always, thanks for coming to my rant session. Let me know your thoughts & opinions below. I'm always up for a healthy debate or yap session. Check out @stellariders original post here.

[moltengoldveins]

so, I am already Adoring the discourse on The Creator, the new sci fi AI film that came out recently, but I’ve yet to see anyone talk about the fascinating religious undertones to the whole movie? Like, I’m Christian. I’ll be the first to admit my bias here: I tend to look for faith and spiritual undertones when consuming media because it’s an integral part of the way I see the world. but this movie was SO COOL?? Like, the Complete Lack of any sort of faith shown in the American characters in contrast with the AI and the Asian characters, a total shift from the modern cultural idea that religion and AI are incompatible. There are monks that are droids and simulants. The kid uses her technology powers by making a “praying” motion. There’s a robot preaching a pretty classic Judeo-Christian Messiah narrative to a bunch of kiddos. There’s only ONE American character given any sort of obvious religious identity and it’s that One Trooper Lady when she mentions Valhalla. This is such an interesting decision and I’m fascinated to know what y’all think of it. NOT TO MENTION (and this is by FAR my favorite part) the fact that the religion and the AI conflict and the treatment of human life are all implicitly bound up together. The Americans believe that the AI are ‘just programming,’ that they aren’t real, that they don’t have souls. The New Asians don’t. And that seems to bleed into the way they treat Humans as well? The kind girl near the beginning of the film, clearing the blast zone with Taylor, panics when she sees an AI online for the first time because she recognizes that he behaves like a person, while Taylor is cold, unresponsive, and insists that it’s just programming. The Americans SAY they value human life because humans are really people and AI aren’t, but they treat civilians and combatants, AI and Humans, Exactly the Same. Almost like, if you reduce one thing with a soul to ‘just programming, not of value’ that starts messing with the way you treat Everything Else. The New Asians, as far as the narrative tells us, don’t plan on retribution for the war. They’re careful with civilians, to a certain extent (I don’t love the van scene with the kiddos tbh :( feel like that was out of place? And the AI lady, the girlfriend of Taylor’s friend who was killed as well, interesting nuances there) and they treat one another like people ought. There’s very little distinction given between the more android and more human AI, which I think is awesome, and the climax of the arc of Taylor’s character happens In A Temple. The end of the story is a message of hope for reunification in heaven AND hope for reunification on earth. That’s. That’s so cool. Like. I think that’s the coolest thing I’ve seen in Ages. I can’t Ever remember seeing that kind of message done in a story that isn’t painfully preachy. One thing that often bothers me about modern film and media is the idea that religion and spirituality has to be handled in one of three ways: entirely unmentioned, preachy to the absurd, or blatantly disrespected. It’s not a universal problem, but it’s pretty widespread. I couldn’t tell what faith the directors ascribed to in this film, but I could tell they were discussing it intelligently and I LIKED THAT. I liked it a lot. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, my tastes, and beliefs: I’m willing to bet a lot of Christians won’t like this movie because they’re hung up on the lack of a blatantly Christian or preachy narrative. I’m willing to bet a lot of other people won’t like it because it tackled spirituality at all. But I liked it, because it looked at the world we live in and spoke of what it saw. It wrestled with the topics of death and life and souls and heaven and national pride and racism and capitalism and love and what it means to be a good person and it did it really well, and I admire that.

please please let me know what y’all thought of the movie? I’m really interested in knowing what people picked up on or thought the movie was saying. God bless y’all, and have an excellent weekend :) 💜

[faelorelia]

Will’s Romantic Options: Mike and Beyond

I’ve seen some discourse about whether it would be a good idea for Will to have another (temporary) love interest in S5 besides Mike (based on the rumors going around), and I’d like to share my thoughts on this matter.

While I understand that dating a boy who isn’t Mike could potentially develop Will’s arc further and reinforce his sexuality, I don’t think it’s strictly necessary.

Some say his devotion to Mike makes him “Mikesexual,” hindering his maturation and preventing him from moving on and exploring other romantic opportunities.

I agree with this idea to some extent. In real life, it’s unhealthy to be obsessed with someone who doesn’t seem to return your feelings. (And Will tried to move on in the van scene, to “rip off the band-aid,” but couldn’t because of his deep love for Mike.)

But let’s not forget that we’re discussing a work of fiction. Here’s why it’s not necessary for Will to have another love interest in S5 (assuming Byler is endgame, of course):

1. Time Constraints

Romance isn’t the main focus of “Stranger Things,” even though it’s an important part of the show. Developing a real alternative love interest for Will isn’t feasible given the limited screen time. Including a brief interaction with another boy might serve a purpose, like showing that Will has options or making Mike jealous. But with Will’s central role in the supernatural plot next season, there isn’t enough time to explore a new, long-term love triangle (especially considering they’re already in a love triangle).

2. Acceptance and Self-Love

Will’s love for Mike helps him accept his sexuality. Mike makes Will feel “like he’s not a mistake at all, like he’s better for being different.” It’s beautiful how loving Mike helps Will accept himself. Loving Mike lifts him up rather than brings him down.

3. One True Love

There’s nothing wrong with loving one person your whole life. This idea that you must have multiple romantic experiences to be fulfilled isn’t the only path to happiness. Will loving only Mike doesn’t make him less gay or undermine his sexuality. In fact, it underscores the depth and purity of his feelings. It may sound too cheesy, unrealistic, and romanticized, but that doesn’t make it bad. The fact that Mike is the only one for Will is really touching and beautiful.

It’s not a bad idea for Will to entertain other options. But it isn’t the only way. It’s not strictly necessary for Will’s arc as it wouldn’t make him less gay, wouldn’t weaken his identity, and wouldn’t make him incomplete for only having his eyes for Mike.

And given the way Byler’s story is written, it’s natural for us to root for Mike and Mike only. It’s already a slow-burn love story, so introducing another obstacle in their path may be redundant.

Whatever happens, I hope the show does justice to Will’s character and gives him the happy ending he deserves, which obviously includes getting together with Mike – his best friend and true love.

P.S. This is my personal opinion that you are free to disagree with. :)

[ineffable-opinions]

Dear ineffable opinions,

In one of your posts, you had discussed Bad Buddy claiming that the show was making fun of queer people's appropriation of the word wife. Can you explain why you think so?

Dear anon, I have decided to answer this one only and not the other ones. Sorry to have worried you. I have gone through the posts you mentioned and am not offended. I appreciate corrections and critiques. I believe in discourse and that's why I haven't blocked anyone. The delay in answering was for me to be sure about what I wanted to say on top of what I had already said.

For context, anon here discussed my comments about Bad Buddy with @lurkingshan which generated a discussion (linked here and here) that I can't take part in thanks to me being on the block list.

I will first reiterate the points I have raised previously and then discuss something broader that may be slightly off-topic while trying to address the criticism. I deeply appreciate comments and corrections, so please mention me so that I can learn too.

I discussed Aof Noppharnach and Bad Buddy as well as the use of the term เมีย ‘wife’ twice: in Part 1 and Part 3 of my meta series MAME & BL Literacies. The discussion with lurkingshan was without the proper context as most of the responses were going off anon’s ask alone.

The use of that term “wife” (เมีย) by Thai queer men is well documented. Narupon Duangwises and Peter A. Jackson in their 2021 paper Effeminacy and Masculinity in Thai Gay Culture: Language, Contextuality and the Enactment of Gender Plurality note insertive partner or fai ruk being called “husband” (phua) and receptive partner or fai rap being called a “wife” or mia in Thai gay culture. In the book Male Homosexuality in 21st-Century Thailand based on the longitudinal ethnographic study of Thai queer men, JWL van Wijngaarden highlights the difference between referring to one’s partner as “wife” (mia) and simply as “boyfriend” (faen) and how much more the former is valued. The Kothi-Panthi queer culture in India/South Asia also use such forms of endearment. The perception that the term is a pejorative is popular in English-language discourse thanks to ethnocentric perspectives. Also, the way Aof Noppharnach shamed the use of the term เมีย ‘wife’ in Bad Buddy in spite of its usage by queer people, especially the little people among them, is evidence enough of the contempt and disregard he can bring in through his positionality as an “auteur”, which is very unfortunate.

The issue is not the rejection of the term itself. Any creator can do as they please. But the term in question is one used by the little people (ordinary people who do not have much power) among the queers in Thailand, as is evident from the academic sources mentioned above. This is where Aof as a creator and Bad Buddy as a popular media product stand out as a sour thumb for me.

Here is the scene that is being discussed:

There are plenty of Thai viewers endorsing the scene on YouTube, highlighting the incongruence between the term mia and the LGBTQ+ model of queerness, as in case of the top comment (screenshot and machine translation attached).

The incongruence is not random.

It is in part related to the origins and adoption of different models of queerness and what is considered appropriate in each. Thailand's ‘indigenous’ (for a lack of a better term) conceptions of queerness, that has existed long before the LGBTQ+ model was formed, are now interacting with the latter. Not to mention the performance of genders including masculinities in Thailand and elsewhere.

This is not a phenomenon unique to Thailand in any way. I have highlighted many similar interactions such as those in present-day India (with clear schism between those who subscribe to different models on the lines of class, caste, location, language, migrant status, ethnicity, and religion, opportunities for intermingling, intermixing, and creation of glocal variations) and 20th century Japan (where the glocalized version of LGBTQ+ model replaced pre-existing model after a process that took decades) [more on it here and here]. There is an undeniable hegemony of the model that emerged in the West for reasons well known.

As is the case anywhere, the ones to get marginalized within a marginalized community are those who wield lesser power. These are the queer folk who are not privileged enough to air their grievances through the products of one of the most popular media companies in Thailand. These are queer folk who are passive recipients of not only this type of media but also the culture which produces it.

BL as a genre predates LGBTQ+ model and is in extricable linked to Japanese indigenous conception of male-male sexuality. (I have discussed this in length here and here.)

BL in Thailand is a space where different models of queerness – indigenous models of queerness in Thailand, that which was borrowed from historical Japan via BL, and the LGBTQ+ model that is gaining universality - interact. That is why, from Japan, we simultaneously have a ‘kathoey’ main character in I'm the Most Beautiful Count (which has a historical setting) as well as contemporary-setting characters that may embrace terms from the LGBTQ+ model and also those who embrace, reject, or are neutral about mia (เมีย ) and phua  (��ัว). This is where BL literacy or lack thereof might interfere, as is the case with Bad Buddy. That's the point of the meta series and source of discussion in the first place.

It is not a neutral rejection of the term mia that we get in Bad Buddy. It is loaded with explicit mention of triumph as a sentiment (GMMTV used the same in the title of the video and the screenshotted top comment points it out too) attributed to calling someone one’s mia and consequently subjugation implied in Pat’s admission of unease.

As @isaksbestpillow has rightly pointed out and I have discussed earlier (in the context of Malayalam descriptor for androphilic men ‘kundan’ which is the equivalent of the Japanese term wakashu, meaning 'young male’ in its dialect of origin in Kozhikode), not everyone uses the same words in the same way. There is significant spatial, social and temporal variation in the popularity of terms like mia among queer community in Thailand. This I learned from the academic sources mentioned above.

Regarding the very valid issue @happypotato48 raised, I am reminded of what Alan Williams wrote (quoted below) in his 2015 article titled ‘Rethinking Yaoi on the Regional and Global Scale’

As an observation of yaoi's 'post/modern' form, consider how a common utterance in the genre—when a character claims that he is 'not gay, but just in love with a man'—has both homophobic (or modern) temporal undertones but also non-identitarian (postmodern) ones. Consider too how yaoi fans often identify as 'straight/gay/lesbian' and so on, due to the preponderance of such labels in their societies, but also have an attraction to yaoi that crosses identitarian borders. Following Mizoguchi Akiko [another BL scholar] who identifies as both an 'out lesbian' and a 'person of yaoi sexuality,' I too identify as 'gay' out of habit, but the label has a rather dated feel to it when compared to the circulation of desire in yaoi fandoms.

I think that while acknowledging that Kongpop’s declaration (in Sotus 1 episode 10 iirc) sure has heterosexist implications that might be detrimental under the identitarian model that is furthering queer liberation at the moment, there are queer possibilities cutting across sex, sexuality and sexual orientation that are neither new nor obsolete. Also, whether it is embracing of one model over another or going through them as one ages or as the trends change, queer plurality should always be welcome, especially when they are contradictory – our queer dialectical, so to speak.

To conclude, I am grateful to anon for bringing this discussion to my attention and I am sorry for delaying and causing you to worry. Ad hominem (dismissing my argument based on my nationality and sexuality, both of which are beyond the point) attack aside, to borrow @lurkingshan's words, I have not made any ‘claims about how queer people in Thailand may feel about this term or Bad Buddy's intentional rejection of it’. It is precisely because ‘Bad Buddy was in fact made by a queer Thai man… Aof Noppharnach speaking directly to his own community and commenting on the tropes of the genre that he does not find helpful to queer men’ I thought it was worth addressing.

To make things clearer, let me give a completely different example: RRR (2022) [hopefully familiar to my readers] was not problematic for having the themes it had in the movie, instead it was so because of their handling along with the positionality of its creator when compared to the little people who could only consume RRR and its casteist, anti-Adivasi, and communalist effects.

I am always happy to be criticized.

and for maintaining the veneer: All scholarly works that I have referenced

[respectthepetty]

I know you've been getting a bunch of asks about your favourite qls, but I'm specifically curious about what your favourite *chaotic* qls are.

Off the top of my head, some chaotic qls I enjoyed were Chains of Heart (THE GLOVE DISCOURSE, THE SUBTITLES, etc) and Big Dragon (asshole4asshole? no. clown4clown), while also enjoying the way that the shows were shot.

@kayatoasted, I'm re-reading this ask to make sure I don't answer it with my favorite *trashy* qls, like Hit Bite Love and Together With Me.

You want *chaotic* and they had to be beautifully shot, so although I love the chaos known as Love Mechanics and Dangerous Romance, both had beautiful shots but weren't consistently beautifully shot.

And I had to have enjoyed not only how it was shot but the show itself, so shows like Vice Versa and Only Friends are out.

No, you want my favorite beautifully shot *chaotic* qls that stayed chaotic which significantly reduces the list, but I can give it to you!

My Favorite Beautifully Shot Chaotic BLs

given in no particular order, and much like this subject, this list is chaos

Dee Hup House - Yes, the entire house

I'm not coming for Director Tee or Cinematography Jim. Their shows are beautiful and more adult. I have loved every single one of them. But the endings . . . ? The endings wobble in Step by Step, Something in My Room, Hidden Agenda, and I Feel You Linger in the Air. Yes, I'm including the last one because Tee & Co seem to pick long ass novels that should be multiple seasons, yet a lot of nothing gets shoved into each over-an-hour-long episode, which causes chaos. Even Lovely Writer, which I love the ending, had a moment with the dad's reveal that didn't have time to get fleshed out. Look at Step by Step. We had an entire baby happen in three episodes when the side couple fizzled. I will watch every show from this company and gush about it, but I know it's going to be beautiful chaos.

Big Dragon - Duh!

I'm not going to defend this show. Y'all already know I love this show. It was beautiful. It was chaotic. It was the moment. Period.

Chains of Heart - It's a given

You mentioned it in your ask with reasons why: It was beauty. It was grace. Then, it kicked us in the face. The plot itself was hard to grasp, but the subs only made it worse! Who was who? Why were there so many Men in Black? How did they all fit into the plot? Why would Din volunteer for an entire face transplant only to reappear, never tell Ken it was actually him, then disappear again?! And yet the cinematography was selling this wonderful vision to me each and every episode. I hated it there, and I need more of it immediately. WHERE IS MY SPECIAL EPISODE?!

Not Me - Think about it

We all need to be very honest with ourselves, and really reflect on the premise of this show. Todd put Black in the hospital, proceeds to call his twin, White, to act as him. White says yes even though he has absolutely no idea about Black's life, but he gets a big ass tattoo and his ass kicked multiple times by Sean (because he can't fight). While that is happening, we have Yok chasing around a rouge artist who is actually a cop named Dan who killed [spoilers] dad and Gram is apparently straight the entire time. Then, Papang is in it. Oh, and let's not forget being held hostage in a black van that protestors beat on until the kidnappers, just, let, them, go. Sure, Jan. And I didn't even mention Sean's leap across buildings! It was a good show. It's in my tops. I love it. The rainbow flag scene is embedded in my heart with the other beautifully shot protest scenes. But it was chaos! Let's hold space for that truth.

609 Bedtime Story - Messed up TWICE!

I enjoyed this show until I didn't, and that was when we got TWO endings, yet neither made sense. The colors in the show were immaculate. The plot though? Chaos. One character was traveling back in time and the other was traveling forward, but they weren't even in the same dimension. Then, the sister could not take a fucking hint and ruined the central love story by being a dramatic heterosexual. The point of the time travel was useless because one of the characters still died, but it didn't matter since that character was still alive in the other dimension and . . . MAKE IT MAKE SENSE, MARY!

Cupid's Last Wish - It was the mom for me!

EarthMix have gotten Director Aof twice, so maybe this is why this series, which isn't Aof, feels like chaos. It has such amazingly gorgeous outdoor shots, that I wonder if Thailand's Ministry of Tourism sponsored some part of this show. The series is a great advertisement for Thailand's beautiful landscape and cuisine, but then we have that plot. Body-swapping isn't the issue, at least not for me. The issue is the timeline. For a man who wanted to get out of his sister's body as quickly as possible, Win was doing the most to hold up the process. Oh, AND THE DAMN MOTHER! She was the true villain of the show, which got glossed over in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment. I'll never get over that reveal even though the show wanted me to by the next scene. She really did that shit and kept it a whole ass secret until the very last damn moment. *looks into the distance at a baby cow* AHHHHHHH!

The Director Who Buys Me Dinner - In short

I'm going to quit picking on Thailand for two seconds to pick on Korea instead. Like all the others on this list, I like this show, and I've actually rewatched it a few times because I think it's pretty and it's so short. But there lies the problem - It's too short. The math was not mathing and the plot was not plotting. It skipped over information that was pivotal to the story. I still have no idea what that idol business was really about. From what the kind folks of Tumblr gathered, the idol was apparently supposed to get the guy in their past lives, but the other guy stole him and that's why he was crazy. How hard would that have been to explain to the audience? I did it in less than a sentence, but apparently the show spent its budget on lighting and not screenwriting or editing.

#1 - Mood Indigo - A masterpiece!

I wrote that these weren't ranked, yet here is number one in "My Favorite Beautifully Shot Chaotic BLs" list. The other shows on this list are child's play in comparison to the second installment that serves as the prequel in The Pornographer/The Novelist series. Regardless if it's a BL or not, leave it to Japan to offer me this deliciously beautiful chaos. Unlike all the other shows, the plot of this show is not what makes it chaotic, but . . . it is. It's not chaotic in the sense that it's disorganized or doesn't make sense. It makes perfect sense, and that's why it is chaos. It's supposed to be.

One character is depressed and has no fucks to give, so if something stirs an emotion in him, he does it without question (including giving the other character a bj in front of the older man who demanded it for another novel). Then, we have the other character who should be the more logical of the two, but somehow he is worse. I. Love. It. Everything that happens in this series makes everything we saw in the first season click into place including why these two toxic assholes are 1) toxic, 2) assholes, and 3) STILL FRIENDS!

God, they're awful.

I love them.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

I think we have brush that subject once when rwrb came out. From my casual film watching i came to understand that when a book is adapted into a movie that the director actually purchased the right from the author(i might be completely wrong). Every single time a movie is made from a book it bring the question how true does the director have to stay from the book? Do they just get the overall topic of the book and go from there? How do they choose what to cut Nd keep from the book? Films are such a complex topics to me

I think with the baldoni/lively things also comes from the fact that he wants to shine the light on DV while she wants to makes it look like a woman empowerment movement which people are saying can take away from the real issues discussed in the book.

Thanks @5813 for giving me the opportunity to talk about adaptation. I remember some of the talks that took place about this when RWRB came out and I think my position was that we should be able to look at the film as a work of its own, hence my criticism of it shouldn't automatically offend the fans of the book that it had been adapted from.

I'll try to keep this brief and not turn it into a lesson. My knowledge is only slightly refreshed anyway as I've briefly looked through the notes I had on adaption from many years ago. They're mostly a summary of the major theories regarding the topic.

But first of all, let's establish what is an adaption? It's the transfer of a work of art into another medium, different from the one in which it was originally created: from literature to film, literature to music, theater plays to film, a painting into a film/theater play, etc. Adaption is not only a product, but also a process. I find the latter a more interesting frame to analyze and understand a work, beyond judgement of values of whether it is a good adaption or not.

Adaption also has an original text as a source which often is seen as having authority over the end result of the adaption. This leads to the principle of fidelity and one that is still considered as the most relevant and important to this day in certain circles, despite the huge amount of scholarly research that has brought forth the numerous ways in which what can be determined as a good adaption doesn't need to be only the one that fully respects the original source.

Going back to the principle of fidelity, you'll find its definition familiar, because it is the main discourse. In this case, an adaptation has to not only capture the artistic and ideological features, but also to reproduce the contents and the structure of the story. A lot of the times, the more an adapted work is as close as possible to the original text, the better it is considered to be (Think of the BBC adaptions of the works of Jane Austen). That is because from that perspective, the original text (often time coming from literature) is considered superior while the second medium will never be able to fully capture the complexity of the book. Hence, for those who use this argument, the cinema and the process of adaptation it engages with is not seen as its own separate art form, with its own grammar through which the transformation of a story can take a new life and create a separate work of art that can stand on its own and be just as valuable.

In contrast, I want to offer some other examples of type of adaptation just so you can get an idea.

Homage adaption – a re-adaption of a former adaption. For example, Gus van Sant's Psycho is an homage to Hitchcock's Psycho which in turn was a story adapted from a book.

There's the adaptation that focuses on romanticizing a past, without investigating it, the focus is on nostalgia – The Great Gatsby from 1974.

An adaptation can be compressed (a 500 page book needs to become a 2-hour movie, there will definitely be cuts) or extended (a short story like John Cheever's The Swimmer had to be extended with other scenes added to it in order to turn it into into a 1h30min film. (extension also applies to films based on music albums)

A favorite of mine is the process through which a text is transformed in order to reflect the ideology of the present, hence also showing its thematic universality. A famous example of this is 10 Things I Hate About You which is an adaption of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The action takes place in the present, all the stylistical elements are contemporary, the dialogue is changed as well, but the essence and the skeleton of the story remains the same.

There's more to this and also grouped based on various schools of thought, but for the purpose of your ask, I think I've answered your question a little bit.

[aces-come-in-spades]

obligatory "meet my freaks" post

mod introduction

MONA

your incredibly charming mod! spends way too much time wasting her time when she should be doing other things. prone to disappearing in the middle of conversations.

has an ao3 account (traversety) and draws all her own characters (drew the blog icon, too! say hi to paris), but would also go INSANE WITH DELIGHT if someone drew them too......... ;>

(she/her, aroace, 17, autism & adhd. birthday april 19.)

likes: bunnies, music, writing, drawing hates: tornadoes, being ignored fun fact: mona's main blog is @traversety!

emergency character color guide

ROMAN KEITH NILSEN

LOGAN VAILE

JAZZ VAN JANSEN

ALAN HARPER

ALTAIR SANDLER-MCBRIDE

JAMIE WINCHESTER-SOMERSET

ELLIOT ROUSSEAU

CAL PHYLLIS

PARIS

STAR

HARLEY

AWSTEN KNIGHT (he's technically not an oc but he's in the opening band au and can answer asks and stuff)

DAL WEEKES (also technically not an oc)

oc masterlists

FROM THE LIBRARY OF AN ACE OF SPADES MASTERLIST

NOBODY LIKES THE OPENING BAND! MASTERLIST

DO NOT, FOR ANY REASON, DO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:

send nsfw asks! your mod is aroace, underaged, and very much disgusted by that sort of content, so stay away, thank you!

use any kind of slurs or degrading language! this should be obvious, but be nice to me and the gang!

send any asks regarding religion! alan is a catholic and so is your mod, but online religious discourse triggers a lot of anxiety and paranoia for your mod, so please don't talk about it!

ask about the political beliefs of any characters! your mod isn't very up-to-date on the political scene and finds it all to be objectively important but subjectively a bore! also that shit is controversial and this is supposed to be a peaceful place. no politics here, thank you very much!

tags masterlist & other misc things

#mona speaks: out of character posts from your mod. #the librarians speak: general tag for posts/answered asks done by any of the ftloaaos (from the library of an ace of spades) characters. this will be used alongside character name tags and the tag #from the library of an ace of spades. #the band members speak: general tag for posts/answered asks done by any of the opening band (nobody likes the opening band!) characters. this will be used alongside character name tags and the tag #nobody likes the opening band!.

CLAIMED ANONS: currently none

[cloudie-skay]

Rewatching Corpse Bride, didn't realise I only ever remembered it in fragments but here are some thoughts! None of them are particularly hot takes really, I just have words to say

Victor Van Dort is my OG favourite cringefail of a man

Never thought about how Emily could have possibly known that Scraps was Victor's childhood dog but I don't mind brushing past that

Maturing is realising that as much I really wanted to see Emily and Victor together, Emily severely needed to move away from squishing herself down to just being "the Corpse Bride". And more importantly, she needed closure.

And well yeah, she's dead and he's alive but personally that wouldn't deter me.

The reason I really wanted to see Emily and Victor together when I was younger was because Emily got to act delulu and speedrun the marriage process and Victor really just rolled with it to the best of his abilities. And they almost did get married!

And I want that!!! I was obviously projecting as a child!!!

Also the piano scene, still positively sweet

Lord Bakfuck or whatever his name is still sucks don't think my opinion changed about that

Is there fanfic out there where Emily becomes a cool aunt to Victor and Victoria's child/ren

Ok but there was still chemistry between Victor and Emily so I wasn't completely unfounded in wanting to see them together

The bleeding heart romantic in me still wants to see Emily get married to someone tho, I feel like she deserves it on top of getting her revenge on Lord Buttish

Yes, I know she goes off into lepidoptera and the whole point is that she doesn't need to be married to be happy

But as previously mentioned, I heavily projected on her as a child and evidently I still do

Still absolutely love the disparity between the wedding prep of the dead and the reception of the living. With the dead being so colorful and vibrant and the living being colorless and dreary

You know what? fuck the whole Emily/Victor vs Victoria/Victor discourse I'm all for Gertrude and Alfred as the movie's OTP

Victor you say those vows I'm so proud of you baby

The parallel between Victor seeing Emily from behind Victoria and holding her face to keep her from looking behind and Emily doing the exact same when she sees Victoria behind him... Both done during their proclamations of love

Well there's something to be said there but I'm not smart enough to point it out right now

"I love you, Victor but you're not mine" still hurts me to this day

All of the dead are one big found family and I'm here for it

"Always the bridesmaid but never the bride" also hurts but differently

Overall, I still love the movie, despite only remembering it in chunks.

[lunar-years]

it is a very heavy burden, but like roy, i have been cursed with the responsibility of leadership. -thigh anon

2. I think Jamie's shorts are the same as all the other players. If you look at him standing next to Van Damme on the pitch during training, you see how Jamie's shorts are all bunched up. He definitely did that on purpose and I was definitely not staring at his thighs for too long... 👀

3. I would love to know if the shorts thing was something they mentioned to Phil, like "everyone wants to look at your arse and thighs, you're in the short shorts", or if he just got his costume and is looking around at the other guys like "hang on a second"

so much shorts discourse lmao. first anon I appreciate you carrying this burden <3

3rd anon: I may be remembering wrong but I'm pretty sure Phil was the one to suggest Jamie's eyebrow slit in s2? I have no doubt he is fully on board the Jamie short shorts agenda, lol.

Soooo on the left we have the string scene in which his shorts look the same as everyone else's (he's just got thick thighs, bless). On the right we have the other training scene where the nike symbol does appear closer to the hem. Hard to tell if they are bunched up/Jamie has hiked them up/they are actually hemmed. Perhaps a combo of all of the above? Regardless, enjoy looking at this man's thighs and reaching your own conclusions everyone xx

[jellieland]

Ok, so I haven't really done this before, but with the level and quality and effort put into this thing I would very much like to give it a proper read through. So.

Hotguyzine liveblog under the cut, starting with:

The Most Epic and Heartwrenching and Harrowing Battle of the Turn of the Century

I mean, literally from the first page this is all just so incredibly well presented. It looks so good.

And it's Joel and Lizzie with cat ears. I love it already.

"You can be average guy. Mediocre guy." Mean to him. Probably warranted! But also. Mean to him.

Wait, are Joel and Lizzie just known as Guy and Gal? That's great.

"I'M GAL!"

("and i'm. guy.")

I love them.

Oh, Scar is SUCH a reliable narrator. For sure.

"Give me all your cats[h!]" Sooo reliable. Also is that Gem with the animal control van or just someone with red hair?

Right. Right yeah of course he has a camera crew. Why wouldn't he?

I love watching Scar and Lizzie talk about their OCs together.

Wait. Is being an unreliable narrator literally his superpower? Is this is a representation of post-production editorialising, or literally what's happening? Because those have quite different implications.

HUH.

"Knocked both of the dangerous villains to ground in one hit!" What do you mean BOTH Scar, you just erased Joel from the narrative.

Ok! This is quite alarming!!

"With great hotness comes greater guy?" I'm going to choose to ignore everything else that's happening and say yes, you should definitely go with this one, Scar, for sure.

---

Meet Cute

Now first of all, I see that pun in the title. I see it, and I appreciate it!

"I should've figured it was you." I really love the visual representation of the phrase "dripping with malice", there. I also love the Cuteguy design!

"That was kinda rude" Ok that. That's way less extreme than I was expecting from the initial reaction.

"Anyway byeeeee!!!" Oh so they're BOTH annoying weirdos. Perfect.

---

King for a Day

Oh hello Bdubs. This should be fun.

Ren: "You're

Hotguy?"

Bdubs: "How did you do that with your mouth."

"Yeah. What if." Oh Bdubs is TIRED tired huh.

I love how Ren is just immediately fully on board. Like. Yeah he would be like that wouldn't he. He's so enthusiastic it's great.

I-85 box??? Iskall crumbs???? Ooh, and Cub! And... maybe Doc?

Hey there Grian. Have some flowers (and also some dangerous paperwork but don't worry about that part)!

"I'm not joining your little king's court." Oooh, I see. I see. Hey, at least he kept the flowers, right, Scar?

Getting Pearl to publish a hit piece immediately is maybe a little extreme, but fair enough I guess!

"They're gonna throw TOMATOES at me in the town square, man!" Don't worry, Ren. In another life, they already did.

---

Mumblr. Incredible.

Shoutout to teeth dog. My new favourite superhero.

Oh no. The discourse. The discourse. It's too real.

Maple Prince. Etho is a cryptid. Amazing.

"so if heroes are showing crafted personas to the public, don’t you think hotguy and cuteguy having matching names and outfits at least verges on queerbaiting?" I don't. Really have anything to say about this. But I feel like I have to include something that dealt me this amount of psychic damage in the liveblog.

---

G-Team

"I'm off to visibily protect the public." Yeah, that sounds about right.

Oh, the gala was hosted by Doc! And he even made sure to specify that there were DEFINITELY NO ulterior motives! Well I don't see how anything could possibly have gone wrong then!

"wearing his lab coat to a gala?? sus af." No I think that's just Cub, Grian. Although to be fair, "sus af" is maybe his default state now that I think about it.

Ah, it's Sherlock Grian! I love it.

Oh is this conversation taking place in Grian's mind palace? That's great.

Eyy, Permit Manager Grian coming in with all his considerable power, that being opaque bureaucratic processes and hold music! It seems pretty effective.

This is such a good chase scene. The broken heart symbol on the jacket is interesting!

And there's some sculk leaking into the drain. That seems. Fine. That definitely won't come back later to cause problems, I'm sure.

---

The Case of the Missing Cub

Oh, I'm sure this isn't going to be related to the sculk at all. There's definitely nothing on the very first page that would suggest otherwise. (I'm very excited about this one, I always love sculk related stories.)

The sculk snail is actually so cute, I love it.

Uh oh, there's Cub! And he looks like he's maybe having a bad time.

Oh dear, and Grian immediately gets sculked. That's slightly concerning.

"This fight fucking sucks." You know what, that's fair, Grian.

Yay, mutually agreed upon arson! And they both looks so happy about it!

Grian. GRIAN. WHY.

The realistic notes app t-shirt with Scar's actual minecraft face, followed by the deadpan "I want this." It's perfect. It's incredible. It's definitely how Cub would react to being shown that image upon waking up in front his burning house after being possessed. It literally made me laugh out loud.

"Oh, that reminds me. Why is my house on fire?" How. How did that remind you of your house being on fire.

"I used it to season my pizza." ...Yeah. Yeah that sounds about right.

I loved this one a lot. All of the stories have been great, but I especially enjoyed this.

---

Hotguy! Has One New Mail

Oh we get the one sided Bdubs and Cub rivalry from season 7! Excellent!

All the character voices are just so perfect. Bdubs' "Founding Principles" followed by Cub's "Yeah man cool this all sounds great" are just so perfectly in character for both of them.

I want some of Cub's cool space facts, and honestly if I emailed a celebrity/superhero and they sent me a link to cool space facts in return, I would be ecstatic.

Scar sold Doc a none existent bridge. Amazing. Sorry, Beef's proxy, but the list of things you're saying Scar shouldn't have been doing certainly isn't going to convince Cub, of all people, that anything needs to change.

"why have you sent me a list of top supernovas!" WOW, Grian, ungrateful much? Enjoy your supernovas.

"he is rescuing kittens from tragically falling into rivers, an activity that has fully occupied him for the past eighteen months." To be fair I feel like if Scar could do this, he would.

"everything is completely under control" Yeah, Special Officer #49, everything I've seen about this city so far really suggests that you've got it all under control. For sure.

"Hotguy is currently in Canada fighting smallpox by shooting individual bacteria with a special crossbow, for which he has received a commendation from their Prime Minister." I love Cub's excuses for Hotguy, they're all great. Also love how Pearl's main problem with this one is apparently the lack of smallpox in Canada, when obviously the actual main problem is that Scar is banned for Canada.

"casting_directors_bdubs_is_not_feuding_with" Well I'm glad there's at least one. And of course Scar's recording a snack commercial while all this is going on.

NOOO, GRIAN'S PIZZA! This is so sad.

---

The 30 part thread by Doc is amazing. As are Bdubs' ill-advised replies.

Ooh, a good old classic Doc disproportionate twitter threat! Always love those!

Carol the zombie mention! AND she's a movie star! Let go!!

Jellie... I love her the picture is perfect. She deserves that quarter of a million likes and more.

---

Ok, this is 100 pages into the zine and has got fairly long, so I'll probably continue this in another post!

[kazeiia]

this is just a lot of rambling, so bear with me for a second. i only got into the social media side of st after s4 when i couldn’t wait to get more of the story, and byler was one of the first ships i ever got into because i was getting edits and theories left-and-right. there were people that had byler theories for every single little thing, including stuff like lighting, the use of color, metaphors, analogies, etc to show how it was going to be cannon, but i took it all with a grain of salt because no matter how much i wanted gay representation (without the kill the gays trope) in one of the biggest shows in the world, the creators are still mostly middle aged white men.

BUT,,,, i recently rewatched s3 and things don’t add up. mike was so adamant about his feelings for el. he said he loved her to the whole extended party, and spend the entire summer trying to tell her that he loved her through his usual rambling, but it took will’s “not possible” to realize will was the only one who wasn’t willing to grow away from their party, even if they were going to be a thousand miles apart. when el finally said i love you back (even if mike never told her that directly btw), he looked confused and shocked—not the catharsis you would expect from someone whose partner finally said the Big Three Words.

there is a part in hopper’s letter to el that talks about not wanting to move on, and the scene focuses only on mike, looking back to the empty byer’s house on his bike. he goes back to his own house and hugs his mom (like he did after the quarry incident) looking just as lost and confused as he did when el kisses him goodbye. then he spends a hundred-and-something days giving will the cold shoulder??? like, why??? it’s not like mike to NOT be glue-trapped to the rest of the party. at this point, he still hasn’t said i love you to el. he can’t even say it when el brings it up directly, and he deflects by asking her what she the hell she was talking about. it might be chalked up to his family ties and how the wheelers don’t seem the type to show affection naturally, but i also think it could be a little bit of his aversion to lying to people he cares about. mike genuinely cares about el, but it’s a little bit like idol-worship, like this ideal in his head of superman el needing her own lois lane.

will is different because, to mike, he isn’t superman. he puts mike on the helm of the ship as the heart of the party. he looks up to him. he believes be understands him and he genuinely needs him. he believes he is smart, strategic and funny. he’s his best friend. so mike has the option to take on this responsibility, or to conform to what everyone around believes he will do—love el and be in love with her like a good boyfriend would be.

the only time mike genuinely smiles around el in s4 is when he gets the chance to help and save her from the whole owens-brenner lab thing. so it’s kind of obvious which choice he prefers. mike wheeler seems like the type of person that desperately wants to be needed because he hates it when people treat him like a good-for-nothing kid (his parents, steve, hopper etc). he even tells will that he’s scared of not being needed in the van scene, and will shuts him down by telling him about his role in the party. he spends all this time missing will (he goes back to dnd), and then when he finally sees him again, he pulls back because he doesn’t want to miss him. he doesn’t want to lie to him by not telling him how much he missed him. in s5, i really hope that the writers realize it makes the most sense plot-wise and theme-wise to get them together, but that’s a whole another theory and lots of people have discoursed about it before me.

anyways, i know no one really cares because i’m just one of many, but i wanted to let it out that now i’m fully convinced that mike wheeler is canonically a little fruity. let the delusions commence!

[anderperrylover]

A Study of Buddy and Some Other Notes on Baby Driver - 2017

I watched Baby Driver a while ago. It is the type of film that is a feast for the eyes. But I couldn't help but look at the masterpiece for its symbolism. I've seen a lot of discourse on how the color palettes are symbolic of internal conflicts of characters and their fates. I want to use this vlog to specifically talk about a number of thing pertaining to the character of Buddy (played by Jon Hamm)

I did not expect him to become the man he was at the end of the film. But I think there were clues just scattered all around the film that foreshadowed his fate. So, here's my take on the symbolism that is associated with this specific character. I'll also introduce the color palette as I go along the way.

For context, Jason 'Buddy' van Horn used to work in Wall Street as a banker. He becomes a thief and when we meet him he is married to Monica 'Darling' Costello

I'll be discussing the symbolism in relation to the following, 1) The Name 2) The Color Palette 3) The parallel scene with Baby

THE NAME - I loved how we had aliases for all the characters. The names were always cover ups for who they truly were. Darling for instance was fierce, feminine and very much a fem fatale. I always thought that Buddy was a take on the buddy cop trope. At first it sounded absurd in my head but I think a lot of the things we see later on contributes to this interpretation. Initially, he is friendly towards Baby and he warms up to him and shares a lot about himself with him (taste in music - his obvious likes and dislikes). Buddy uses this trust to keep things going. Later on, we see this peel away. We get to see what's lurking behind the name Buddy.

THE COLOR PALETTE - Buddy is associated with one color at the beginning of the film. The color is blue and it juxtaposes Darling's pink hues. The color portrays him as a cool yet masculine character, who comes with a partner (Darling - Blue and Pink as opposites attract).

But Darling points out the significance of another color. Red. Blue and Red immediately reminded me of the colors we associate with the police. Also I feel like the significance of all of that was kept at bay by Darling. Red is never out of the picture, it's always lurking behind and in front of him.

And at the end of the day there is literally no blue for him. Darling is out of the picture and the red that has boiled over everything erupts, giving us the truth that has been hiding beneath the cool blues.

I also made the connection between Buddy being a literal Buddy cop. There's something beyond the cool and collected personality. I think it was all triggered when Darling was killed off - she was the one who helped him to keep the balance - she guided him in many scenes and they shared a dynamic. Yes, they were unhinged and Darling was unrealistic but they kept each other in balance. When she is gone, we get a lot of closeups of Buddy, and many of the lights on him are red.

Red is his truth and something that was boiling beneath the blue and the name 'Buddy'. But it was kept in check.

Here are some other uses of red in the film and my takes on the purposes.

A color love Foreshadows fates. Red as something and new beginnings. that boils around

Red as Buddy's truth. Now blue is in the background (the façade is put aside) and he fully encapsulates the color that boiled around them. From cool blues to deep red (a fragile lie that was cracked to reveal the impact of trauma)

I also think that it's really cool that you can almost see hints of pinks before the full red. He still remembers Darling but soon everything is taken over by the one thing Darling warned Baby about.

[saymoretv]

I read something recently that suggested the idea of 'selling out' doesn't exist in culture today. My first thought was, 'I'm not sure about that'. You can still see people having some of the same debates that connect with this idea; whether that's in people 'gatekeeping' genres, artists watering down or changing their sound, or bands getting getting backlash for working with big corporate sponsors. However, from my vantage point at least, 'selling out' certainly does seems to be a much lesser point consideration or judgement when it comes to conversations around music, art, commerce, identity, etc. and that certainly is to do with the new ways we consume and access music, art, as well as the re-formation of the music industry in the streaming era.

It got me thinking also about a book I about Jawbreaker read recently. The format of the book and the series its published as part of, is notionally a long-form close read / deep listen on a culturally important album by a band, but in actual fact it's basically a biography that takes 24 Hour Revenge Therapy as its central focus by which to tell the story of the band. So even though I would have been happy with someone waxing very lyrical about why they love each element of each song on the record, in hindsight a wider story about who the band where, and their journey along the way probably did make for a better read overall.

Perhaps the most interesting theme within the book is the idea of 'selling out' and how this coloured so much of the bands' legacy and story. Internally it seemed to it seemed central to the decisions and the arc of the 'career' of the band, Such as their initial refuting of the possibility of ever 'selling out' to a major label, and then eventually doing so. And externally, it seemed to colour so much of how they were viewed by their fans and the punk / underground or DIY music communities the band had its roots in, such as the band going from the admiration and adoration they got for being underground heroes of the Gilman Scene, and then the backlash that followed for supporting Nirvana and then signing to Geffen. Boxcar, like no other song in the Jawbreaker discography best encapsulates the way this discourse around 'selling out' is attached to the band.

It's hard not to hear "I was passing out when you were you were passing out your rules" and not regard it as one of the punkest lyrics of all time, but the rules aren't societies rules that say UK82 punks were railing against but the scene politics of the day, and who or what does and doesn't get to be ascribed or as 'punk'. Jawbreaker and Blake are pretty unequivocal: "I never was one". So, maybe fans shouldn't have been so surprised when they signed to a major after all.

That said, for all the bands protestations about not being punks - the visuals tell a different story. Gritty Super 8 B+W footage, gear being loaded into tour vans, and candid band footage shot in and out of the tour bus. I mean all it's missing is some gnarly live footage and a stage dive and all the punk music video boxes are ticked!

Also, it's interesting to note that the band only have two music videos, to my knowledge. The raw, B+W Boxcar video and the glossy Fireman video where they appear in yellow suits (!). Both great songs, but again it definitely highlight this idea of the band Pre and Post 'selling out'.

For me, as much as I love their music, I get a certain 'cakeism' when it came to their relationship with the punk / DIY scene. They got so much affirmation and a sense of community from it, whilst also feeling held back by it's conformity and the policing of behaviours and practice. They both needed the scene and wanted to transcend above it. A song like Boxcar is emblematic of this in that: it takes being part of or close to the punk scene to have the context to reject or even reference what Blake is rejecting. It's the things that are closest to home that often wind us up the most after all.

But this is all to say that these considerations of selling out which were so central to the story of Jawbreaker feel somewhat anachronistic in today's world. Maybe this is because the importance or regard people in bands and fans give to 'selling out' has lessened over the years due to the fact that the stakes are a lot lower. There's less money to go around. Jawbreaker may not have been in line for millions when they released Dear You but they might have gotten rich, but now only a select few (and not many guitar bands I would imagine) will ever get 'rich' by virtue of their music. It's hard to sell out if no one's buying I suppose.

[castlebyersafterdark]

my cousin watched ST for the first time recently and she's a huge m/leven shipper. she said that she liked them better in s1-2 but she still likes them now. I watched final episode with her and she literally squealed over mike's monologue. when mike said, "you were wearing that yellow benny's burgers T-shirt", she was like, "awww he remembers everything 🥹"

she actually explained to me that she likes m/leven so much because she always roots for the main couple. with byler, she picked up on will liking mike during the desert scene in 4x05 and she feels really sorry for him. she wants will to find love and move on from mike in season 5. she believes that mike's aware of will's feelings and that's why they "lost their connection".

I wonder if this is the way GA usually perceive m/leven/byler situation. but also, I have another cousin who watched ST4 last year and she didn't pick up on will being gay at all. she asked me, "why was will crying in the van scene?" and when I said that will's in love with mike, she was shocked (she rewatched the whole show later and told me, "will really is in love with mike. but mike loves el")

it's just, I think it's funny that we discuss the possibility of an implied sex scene in season 5 while there is a huge number of people who believe that will's love is unrequited or don't even realise that will's gay. so my question is, do you think duffers should have made it more obvious that mike has feelings for will? I'm afraid a lot of people will be saying that byler came out of nowhere.

Being exposed to different perspectives like this is so jarring, like I can barely comprehend loving Mike's speech? Truly baffling to me but I know so many people ate that up!! Tough to even sit through it on a rewatch! That's so odd that the mindset is to just root for the main couple no matter what, just because they're on screen? Weird! But is that how most casual watchers of movies/tv consume media? Consume is the key word. Maybe it's a lack of deeper thinking or caring to dive deeper into what's happening on screen. And of course there are people who in no way ever look for the underlying truth, even well-intentioned their mind never jumps to thinking anyone is gay. Straight as default. Not even straight as default, actually, just a non-thought at all.

That's why it's such nonsense that within fandom there's infighting and discourse over head canons and theory interpretation and arguing whether it's ok to even imply anything sexual about characters etc. Because there's a big broad world out there watching the show that watches passively to the point of non-retention. Like the people who've sat through all four seasons and don't retain character names!? How!? I know I get hyper invested in stuff more than the average person but... come on.

I'm conflicted on how I think the show should have gone, because I love it so much and I'll admit part of me bristles when too much criticism is posed towards it, and I know that makes me a little naive or annoying and sensitive, but it is what it is. I think that in an ideal world, maybe this show would have flourished with more time. As in, more episodes per season. I've seen people say that's a bad idea, because storylines could be ruined or the lore could be over complicated and I've seen other people point out that television traditionally for years followed the longer format. The binge limited episode model is modern. But, advanced effects and more expenses over time - less episodes and runtime overall. Look at something like Lost with the characters and lore and supernatural and timelines. Imagine what we could have had with a format like that with Stranger Things. So, I think we're getting what we're getting based on the runtime we have. I think the Mike arc and Byler arc is being treated as part of a twist, part of a big reveal for the most impact the final season. I think looking back it'll be more obvious for people who care to rewatch to see the Mike journey play out. But not everyone cares to rewatch shows. And so be it, that's not who the shows are made for. In the immediate - the show is for everyone. In the long term - the shows are made for people like us.