#yes none of it is even

[aachria]

I forgot I can just post random shit on here without it being an ask.

Behold: a visual representation of me, just done doing random shit to my hair because I was bored and searching a quote trying to remember what it’s from, and the Microsoft AI spitting out this bullshit at me.

Like. Like why. Why did it do that. I was running on so little sleep. It was like 2 in the morning. This was Sunday night. Why did this happen. Microsoft Edge why are you built like this.

Anyway “You are both tinder and torchbearer” goes hard as FUCK and will be sticking with me for a very long time.

[wren-kitchens]

im annoyed and a little pedantic so can i just say as a blanket statement

queerbaiting is when the promotion for a FICTIONAL STORY intentionally hints towards two characters having a romantic relationship, without any intention to follow through in the show, in order to get queer people watching without discouraging the homophobic enjoyers of the show

queerbaiting is NOT:

a celebrity who you think is queer because theyre gnc or they have a 'vibe'. that is a real person and they cannot queerbait

two friends of the same gender pretending to flirt with each other for fun. those are real people and they cannot queerbait

a show with two characters of the same gender who are canonically friends that YOU PERSONALLY think would be better in a relationship. that's not bating, that's shipping, and subject to opinion

there are more but those are the main examples of people misunderstanding what queerbaiting is and being mad at something that isn't actually a problem

[technically-human]

Your art is so, so, so, so cute. If you ever were so inclined, I would love to see your take on Charles finally getting to eat a plate of spaghetti

Edwin wasn't too sure he liked it, but I think he's convinced now!

ko-fi

[aardvaark]

the leverage team would have had a games night… once. everyone cheated so much and in such increasingly extreme ways that all mentions of monopoly are banned in their headquarters (this makes talking about marks who monopolize the market very confusing)

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 344

(Slightly based off a previous Prompt in design) 

One Damian Al Ghul-Wayne is frustrated to say the least. 

It isn’t like he’s unused to kidnappings and hostage plots, it’s Gotham, but Father has rules about getting kidnapped in civilian identities. Which is what he’d gotten kidnapped as, alongside a few of his honestly idiotic classmates. (Genuinely there were a few he could tolerate, but no, the kidnappers had grabbed the most annoying and shrill-voiced of them all, and if he was alone he could deal with it as Robin but no. Ugh)

So here he is, stuck with annoying whining children who wouldn’t know a kukri from a dagger. He doesn’t even have to pretend to be upset by the time the idiots get around to whatever they needed a dozen children for. 

And look, he did halfheartedly struggle and even got a good stab in, but apparently the imbeciles weren’t completely idiotic. So here he is, stuck with several other idiots in the middle of some sort of ritual. Some sort of summoning if he’s not mistaken and damnit why is his family taking so long. 

The children are screaming and crying in the shrill ear-splitting way that he hates, and honestly he’d rather be surrounded by animals. Like cats, they were quiet! Or even a bird- 

The light turns blinding, the crackle of energy drowning out the chanting and- 

Huh. 

Huh. 

That didn’t look like any sort of eldritch deity or demon if he was being honest. Damian almost scoffed. Of course the imbeciles couldn’t even do a summoning properly. (The three feline-esque beings squished into the summoning circles didn’t look to pleased, and honestly he’s nowhere near surprised when they break out like Alfred the Cat when his siblings try to put him in a carrier)

[gale-force-storm]

Moment I'm obsessing over today:

This response when you ask Gale "What does our relationship mean to you?"

You must know, our relationship is the brightest spot in our otherwise bleak endeavour. To know you love me for the man I am, and not the magic I command... None have loved me so purely before. You are everything to me, and yet our relationship is only a nascent fraction of what it will become. You give me hope, and I've not had that in some time.

Breathtakingly romantic, a little heartbreaking, and full of warmth and hope. It gets me every single time

And his expressions!! From puppy eyes to that sweet smile to warm certainty... I love him so so so much 🥺

[beaulesbian]

ONE PIECE ep. 523 // ch. 603 || Luffy & Zoro really wanting to catch some fish while underwater on their way to Fishman Island

"As you can imagine, when there are too many holes at once, the bubble will break. For example, if we are bitten by a Sea King's fangs, it'll be trouble. So we have to be careful with creatures and obstacles in the sea. As long as we don't do anything foolish from inside, it’ll be fine."

[skull-turtle]

for the LAST TIME, what does "having a crush" even mean

[sienna-the-doe]

HOLY FUCKLE A DOE REF FINALLY. Huge huge huge thanks to fenergizer.bsky.social for this amazing amazing gift??? gods I'm like in love with this. they did so fucking amazing drawing me.

[helianthus21]

honestly if there's one change book to TV that I'm super grateful for it's ageing up Daniel Molloy. that wet sack of a boy needed to ripen to reach Bogosian!Daniel level of sass

[tyrianludaship]

Me seeing people on twitter talking about morally grey characters like they're completely irredeemable and makes them abusive rapists as a result even though the bad actions they've done is only comparable to a Wile E. Coyote cartoon skit but gorier:

[flufflecat]

do most people know that mcgucket was using the memory gun on random workers and on ford repeatedly during the late stages of the portal construction?

[luvbug724]

i'm telling you. kevin day divorced girl dad. gray hair by 28. reading glasses.

[front-facing-pokemon]

[essektheylyss]

It remains so funny to me that Caleb's idea of 'settled' is definitely "stirring up revolutionary talk in the capital like a 19th century philosophy professor while his wanted criminal boyfriend shows up on his front porch once a week in the flimsiest disguise imaginable." Icon shit.

[nachosncheezies]

In defense of late-canon x files (including the revivals)

I was thinking about this poll after I commented on it, and I kinda want to be brave and say more.

Short answer to the poll's question before I go any further: If you're a new fan and a sensitive sort who thinks you'll struggle with your blorbos Really Going Through It and you really need a happy ending, I suggest you stop at the end of season 8. Do not pass go, do not look at spoilers. Disregard this post entirely, close the internet, and go look at something that makes you happy. (Also fuck every part of society that characterizes sensitivity as inherently weak and bad and some kind of personal failing, you are valid.)

That said, "quality" as a concept is entirely subjective, and the question of whether or not there's a decline in quality for any story is wholly subjective, too. In the case of x files? I'm not convinced there is a decline. I am going to be upfront that I haven't yet watched past season 8, though I am almost completely spoiled on events after that - and the reason I haven't watched yet is not because of how I know events are going to unfold, but simply because I don't want it to end!!! Ohh, the tension between "I CAN'T WAIT!!!" and "Nooo don't be over D:"

When I first came to txf fandom on tumblr and gradually became spoiled about what happens in late canon though, I was often left uncomfortable and tbh kinda queasy about it. As I said in my comment on the poll, the hate for especially the revival and IWTB, or to a lesser extent even seasons 8 & 9, is very well documented. But! There are other takes to be found here on tumblr if you figure out where to look, and my feelings have changed!

The thing is, I have yet to find myself in any fandom where there isn't a vocal subset of fans who dislike the story after a certain point. I am not joking when I say that no one hates the things they love as passionately as sci-fi and fantasy fans. In my experience, it often hinges on the extent to which a viewer has strong notions on where they would like the characters to end up. In particular with series where shipping is a dominant component for the bulk of a fandom, I have almost universally found that there comes some turning point in the story where "let them be happy you cowards" is the dominant view, and things that compromise the attainment of a degree of romantic stability and/or domesticity are, to many fans, annoying at best and despicable at worst. But! As one tagset on the linked poll said:

and I think for any fandom, that last tag especially is so so so important. (I think that's harder for people watching a weekly series live, bc you have so much time to analyze and speculate and dream before the next breadcrumb drops, but I digress.)

So why am I saying this and how do I apply it to x files? Well, I eventually found that there are also a subset of fans who find redeeming things right up to the very end and actually quite like the whole thing! The things that I had seen people rage and ventpost so much about honestly never quite sounded to me as "out of character" or "untrue to the story" etc as those same ventposts made them sound. And I've discovered I'm not the only one who felt that way. Do I love that the spooky squad had to go through all of those things? No, those poor guys D: Life is hard and they have been through so much trauma. But do those events and their choices make sense to me in light of everything that came before? Yes! And I honestly can't wait to see them fight to overcome those things, breaking, healing, always learning, always growing, always getting better.

So if you're wondering "where does it go wrong"... well, I'm a completionist, as many people who've answered that post are, but also my personal opinion is that I don't think it does go wrong. If you're new and interested in exploring why I've gone from "vaguely queasy" to "excited" about the whole thing, or want to maybe balance out the impressions you're getting about the later seasons before deciding whether or not you want to see the whole thing, I'll put a few blog names in the comments.

Final admission: even once I started feeling a little more confident in the possibility that "actually ok maybe I'm not crazy, maybe this all kind of is in character and does make sense", there was one big plot point that I was NOT looking forward to and I thought I would never be comfortable about. In hindsight, I think my discomfort came from the negative responses being SO seemingly universal that I hadn't stopped to let myself truly consider other possible interpretations on that point. (I mean my initial instinct when I first read about it was, why are we mad about this?? CSM is literally the most unreliable narrator in history???? it's obviously fake news?????? this must be either a fever dream someone's having or it's a misdirection ploy against whatever shadowy forces might still be lurking?????????????? but for whatever reason I guess I had halfway written that off.) Happily, just last month there's a new post-s11 novel out, and although reviews for the book as a whole are mixed, it seems to have laid the groundwork for resolving that plot issue in a way I think most fans would be broadly happy with. If you're interested in being spoiled about that and seeing how, I recommend searching #perihelion on @agent-troi who liveblogged reading it with receipts, scroll back chronological-style to the first post on the subject and see how it unfolded. (And never forget that Dana Katherine Scully is the queen of denial as a coping mechanism lol)

Everyone's mileage will vary. Each person can feel however they want! But for anyone new, I wanted you to know that the very many ventposts you might be seeing are not all there is to this show or its fandom. Some of us love it despite - or even because of - all the things that went "wrong". I think we just don't talk about it as much.