#but i chose this scene bc it was the first time she saw the real paxton behind the popular jock mask

[unbotheredalwyn]

So obviously after the Joe breakup shit changed we had that ratty twatty and then suddenly travis. Like ratty twatty first of all made it seem like you know this person is like horrible yet you choose to be with him? Everyone called her (rightfully) out I feel like cause he is really a twat of a person and the whole ice spice collab to basically "save" Matty twattys image. I also felt like it was unfair of her fans to force her to break up with him I mean it's her life. And Joe during this time went through so much shit after the break up I remember he was papped and everyone made fun of how skinny he is and how horrible he looks (he had bags under his eyes on the photo) which is actually sad cause he lost his grandmother I think during that time and people were genuinely saying disgusting things and saying mother is looking so much better etc etc while Joe was having a downwards spiral. Again I understand no one knew his depression was that bad but fuck swifties can be more kind.

Exit ratty twatty enter travesty lord this man gives me the ick.

Swifties are blinded by their relationship but he is really not a good dude. I mean that video live of him pushing his coach and yelling? Videos online of him being openly racist, being a trump supporter (and also swifties are dumb they think bc he got vaccinated and bent the knee for black lives matter he is somehow Democrat?) honey trump is vaccinated as well. And just because he supported blm does not make him a good person. He was PAID to do all that performative shit.

I mean she has millions of fans, thousands of young girls thinking the blatant red flags of travesty is hot and shit. Tells me he can push her around too. (not to mention he supported his abusive friend that literally hit his wife.)

And it feels like she's forcing travesty tbh? Like girlie you wanted the art to be about you yet you let some man overshadow it. Because truly that's what's happening like swifties are more into him at this point and the relationship they made up in their head as Taylor.

This is where I got annoyed and took a step back. Each time they were seen Joe got thousands and thousands of hate just for what being introverted?

Then they attacked Emma (Joe's Co worker) for a cheating rumor THEY MADE UP and the shit they said were so genuinely disgusting she had to switch off her comments.

Then Ai audio dropped about Joe abusing Taylor and Ai videos circled making it seem like Joe is a cheater when he is NOT. fuck they even trended a sex scene with that Alison chick he worked with saying he said Alison (her real name) and not her character's name when he DID NOT. It was in the fucking series! This woman got slut shamed so bad she turned off comments too for literally WORKING with Joe. Swifties literally spread shit around that he cheated on Taylor with Emma and Alison when he didn't! And the fucking best of all Taylor was on the set while filming conversations with friends. She most likely saw it IN PERSON and they chose to say all this genuinely disgusting shit about Alison who I've learned is actually a pretty good person.

Here I got genuinely disgusted.

So okay again I understand that Taylor can't control all her fans but her silence while her cult mass harrases people?

Whats insane to me is Joe. Like the guy got so much hate because SHE CHOSE to lead fans on. When she announced ttpd everyone thought the title relates to Joe and Paul mescal

Joe got mass hate

Then the secret songs at eras being about cheating

Joe got death threats

ALL TO BE AN ALBUM ABOUT THE FUCKING SEWER RAT SHE CAN'T GET OVER?!

she literally took ALL the hate against Joe *knowing* she's releasing an album dissing her 6 weeks situationship is genuinely disgusting. I cannot fathom it.

And AND the only thing she could say about Joe is dude did not want to marry her bc he was severely depressed WHICH IS NOT HER PLACE TO TALK ABOUT HIS STRUGGLES?

like I am SORRY this man wants to d word next to her and she just didn't care and wanted to fuck Matty?

Her partner, that got her through her darkest times BTW, did not deserve this.

She let all this mass harrasment just happen to market ttpd. Like genuinely what the actual fuck. 2 innocent women Emma and Alison were attacked and called sluts for genuinely existing and breathing the same air as Joe. And the proof he did not cheat is in her OWN lyrics. (which swifties cannot seem to fucking read bc they'd rather attack Joe than admit this album is about a sewer nazi rat)

The hate Joe got made me cry. The disgusting things they said about him. Swifties literally threatening to bash his head in with a hammer or that he needs to hang himself and they'd enjoy seeing his body swinging from the roof.

Genuinely why would any person say this to anyone at any time?

And they made fun of depression like. What. The. Fuck. Just because Joe might not see it does not mean other people with crippling depression won't.

Oh and a side note she's still bringing up Kim on albums? Not just Kim Kim's CHILD?! leave the kid alone.

Genuinely feel like the most honest Taylor we got was during lover (a time which Joe helped her voice her political opinions and shit) and idk I just feel cheated on?

My whole life I've defended Taylor against everyone and I genuinely feel like she's showing her true colors now being with travesty and ratty and I cannot fathom how this is the same Taylor I'm seeing now as she was like a few years ago.

And it's not just Joe that got death threats BTW. When midnights came out and everyone gave honest reviews cause that evil Jack antonof little gay man ruined the production there were journalists literally getting so much death threats its insane.

Taylor gets (rightfully) called out and fans can't handle it.

She needs to address them ASAP. All these parasocial freaks. The people harrasing Joe. The people literally only seeing Taylor as a breeder for travestys children.

I can't genuinely I can't this is not how I want to feel about Taylor I mean I gave her my youth I looked up to her so much I feel so disappointed in the way she's acting yk?

Yes maybe she can't do jack shit about swifties but she can try.

And her staying quiet over Palestine? Her voice her one post about a ceasefire could change EVERYTHING.

idk at this point I can't stand to be around Taylor.

#anti taylor swift #free joe alwyn #joe alwyn #Swifties dni #anti travis kelce

[chirpsythismorning]

There isn't much discourse about how Mike went from saying that El was a weapon in s1, even encouraging the others to use El's powers when she was still recuperating after finding Will in the void, to then in s3 accusing the others of being reckless with her powers, saying she's risking her life for no reason.

Now, I want to make clear that I'm not bashing Mike here, this has less to do with what he's doing being right or wrong. What this is about is how Mike went from doing something himself, to calling out other people for doing it, without acknowledging that fact and why the writers chose to frame it all this way.

You might think it's insignificant, but these two following scenes are clearly being paralleled to each other. And so the fact that Mike himself is acknowledging this as something to be critical of, makes me wonder what exactly is going on in his mind...

I want to preface this scene from s1 by saying that Mike is giving very off vibes here. I know that I certainly viewed this scene as romantic the first time I saw it, but since rewatching it recently, I was getting completely different vibes.

They literally make a point to focus on Mike being distracted, on the verge of impatience. Then, the way El reacts upon Mike getting up abruptly, gives this feeling of uncertainty about Mike's consideration for her in this moment, as she's clearly not what's on the top of his mind right now. And it just makes you wonder, are we truly supposed to be feeling peak romance rn?

I never realized how out of place this scene was until now (or is it...). It's just such an odd choice to have El resting her head on Mike's shoulder for comfort, only for Mike to cut it short with him being distracted, and with Dustin and El looking awkwardly at Mike like "Okay?...", then followed by a scene where he's trying to convince the others to use El's powers to help.

Here we have s1 Mike displaying behavior that s3 Mike was calling out the others for displaying:

Here we have Lucas, who was very, very critical of El being dangerous ALL of s1, and yet now in complete contrast to that, he is showing more consideration and common sense for El's well being than Mike, the supposed love (at first sight) interest ...

'That's the most important thing, remember?'

A question, followed by Mike just standing there in silence, like he's only just now really thinking about El being safe as their main priority... This is something that combined with everything else unfolding over the course of this season and the seasons after, that makes Mike's behavior a whole lot easier to understand.

I'll have to make several other posts about this, because there are a lot of aspects to it, but for now I'm just going to focus on these two parallels.

Here we have what happens in s3, with Mike being critical of the others doing something he himself literally did in s1:

In fact, how careless all of you are.

THIS. When Mike makes it a big deal to call out everyone for doing something he himself has already done, he's outright admitting that it's something that he believes is wrong, and by not even slightly acknowledging his role in doing something similar in the past, it's very likely that he feels guilty about it.

This was probably his way of trying to make it right, by standing up for El in a way that he didn't before because he was treating her like some superhero and not a real person back then.

It's just that the word love slipped out, in the heat of the moment. And El, upon overhearing this, is seeing this development of Mike herself, with s1 Mike going from, yes being more kind and considerate than the other 2 boys in the beginning, but still sort of expecting stuff from her without her being able to verbally agree to it, to now having developed and changed to saying that one of his big priorities is her safety.

El is taking this as being evidence he went from not loving her, to loving her. Another reason why it's pretty obvious El didn't believe Mike's monologue, bc she herself witnessed Mike develop his apparent romantic feelings for her over time, and so him saying it was love at first sight, was probably the catalyst that made it abundantly clear to her that he wasn't being truthful, bc she knows it's not the truth. She's not stupid.

Again this isn't about Mike doing this back then or even the others doing it now as being bad vs. good, this is about the writers going about it this way, sending a message that Mike feels guilt, enough to try to make things right, but is apparently not ready to unpack the actual guilt that is beneath the surface which lead him to this point.

And then there's this scene, which... it's actually terrifying how obvious it is they instructed Sadie and Caleb to lean out of that shot with Will and Mike reacting to El entering the room... Like... It's SOO obvious when you watch it now what they're trying to hint at without saying it.

Not only are they hinting at Will's feelings, because that is part of it, they're also hinting at Mike's internal struggle. Will is always on the back of his mind whether he's willing to address it or not. And all while that is happening, he is feeling unaddressed guilt about how he treated El when they first met and spent that one week together helping her run away from the bad guys while also looking for Will, something Mike viewed as being worthy of El using her powers...

I'll have to make the other posts regarding this soon, because it all starts to click what's going on with Mike when you look at all of these things together.

While Mike is just a kid like pretty much everyone else in this story, and while he didn't mean any harm by asking El to help them find Will (none of them did), I think that's kind of the whole point?

I think that he got lucky superman landed on his doorstep, who just so happened to be in danger herself, giving him his own purpose to help her too, with her needing him as well, and so it became a situation where they both needed each other.

But because El could literally not speak, it's not like she could really voice her feelings about things they were doing, beyond yes and no. She had Lucas sort of being critical of her, with Mike encouraging El to do things that would make the others see her as being worthy of sticking around so they can find Will. It goes without saying she felt obligated to do these things, even if they didn't outright tell her she had to or else. We literally see almost all of these scenes with her doing stuff for the others being instantly juxtaposed with scenes of Brenner doing the same. It's not the same scale of severity, but it is an acknowledgment that although she is outside of the lab, she still feels like her powers are what define her and it's all people want from her.

I think what it comes down to, is that in that moment when she is sacrificing herself to the demogorgan at the end of s1, we are seeing in real time Mike realizing what he and the other's have been asking of her this whole time, without outright asking her.

And you can literally see the retaliation and devastation hit him all at once. The instant regret, where he's backtracking and El stops him from even trying.

'Goodbye Mike' singles him out, because while he was the one out of the three that showed her the most kindness from the start, he was also the one who at the end of it all, was still expecting her to risk her life for them...

And that just makes it hit so much harder when you think about how that made Mike feel in that moment.

And then in s2 how that impacts Mike and his journey going forward.

His breakdown at the end of s2 upon her return.

His behavior in s3-4, in relation to him juggling his relationship with Will and El, now that they are both in his life at the same time.

It all starts to make sense.

I won't go too much into it because those other posts are bound to be long with a bunch of pictures too!

But on that note, there's at least one thing Mike isn't acknowledging, and it's literally what led up to the unintentional love confession that then led us to 10 more episodes of miscommunication because of it...

It's going to be important for him to address this guilt for him to fulfill his arc and to also close off his expectations that he has to have a romantic relationship with El in order to keep her in his life at all.

The audience themselves seeing this and being forced to face it is also going to make it a lot easier for them understand why Mike did what he did, not only because he's a queer kid in the 80's who has every reason to doubt and repress, but also because he understandably feels sort of indebted to El after everything.

It's more complex than him just falling out of love with her and falling in love with Will because of XYZ.

I think there is a lot of guilt and shame and trauma connected to their meeting and the events that followed. And addressing that is going to give a lot of closure to the ending of the story and also the beginning.

#byler #stranger things #mike wheeler #i feel like mikes arc always comes off as convoluted to most viewers bc they’re missing the whole picture #like this is literally canon #Mike went from doing something to saying other people doing it was wrong without acknowledging his role in that from the beginning #and so ppl using that development as aww he loves her now… #doesn’t even work when apparently he loved her since the moment he saw her… #not being willing to pay attention to how they are building up mikes arc #dancing around all of his actions with #everyone makes mistakes bc they’re children and that’s okay #and just leave it at that… #bc yes obviously all of the characters should be able to make mistakes and be forgiven #but were ignoring the elephant in the room here #it’s canon Mike feels guilt for how he treated el in s1 yet he hasn’t acknowledged it… #instead of acknowledging his history of doing something similar #he’s pointed out everyone else doing it as if they’re doing something wrong he himself would never do… #as if he doesn’t have first hand experience #they could have actually made this moment romantic and genuine IF they wanted to #they could have had mike open up about how he used to do that #but after getting to know el and realize she is her own person #it made him think differently and he wants to do better by her #then maybe when she confronted him in front of everyone he could have said it again or asked to be alone to say it to her directly #and to apologize for how he acted in the past by expecting stuff of her #and THATS why he is extra cautious now #and then got her reaction #instead they give fans the impression Mike is the ideal male love interest #who is perfect for el #with this moment being one of their top reasons #and it’s a scene where he avoids confronting series long built up guilt…

[howtobecomeadragon]

Mike got upset at Hopper in s2 bc Hopper was keeping El hidden... when she could've been helping Will and preventing Will's situation from getting so bad

Obviously there are other reasons too, he was mourning and missed her, it was a shock to see her, etc. I'm just saying I think this is the bigger reason.

This also ties into Mike viewing El as a superhero and how this puts their relationship in a weird space. If someone is a superhero, you're not missing them as a person, you're missing them for their powers and what they can do for you.

Obviously we saw that Mike was missing El in 2x01 and 2x02. But at the end of 2x02, we saw Mike having a new concern about what was going on with Will and that he was seeing something from the UD. Mike is confronted with the reality that he doesn't know much about the UD and doesn't know how to help. He doesn't know if this is real or just visions. He doesn't understand (although he does his best to help), the others wouldn't understand, but Eleven would. She would know, she'd be able to help, she'd know how to stop this.

Because, after all, Mike has said it before: she's a weapon. He viewed her as a way to get Will back before (partly, not claiming this was his only motivation in his relationship with El) and now in s2, Mike is missing her for what she could have done here: helped Will.

Mike does what he can to put positive spins on the situation and he provides that emotional support, which probably helped more than he knew.

But that didn't exactly stop the bad things from happening. Mike still doesn't know how to fix this thing happening to Will. He does everything he can, he comes up with the idea to spy back and to put Will to sleep, but it's still a very upsetting day or two.

When El returns, he greets her happily but as soon as he hears that she's been out there, listening to his calls, his face drops. He wanted to know she was out there. And then very quickly his anger moves to Hopper. El didn't know that Will was in trouble. She stayed away bc Hopper told her to, but she didn't know what was going on. Hopper knew. Hopper knew that El was probably one of the only people who might know enough to help, so he gets mad about Hopper hiding her, when she could've been there, she could've stepped in as soon as Will saw the Mind Flayer the first time.

Moving onto the fight scene:

Mike and Hopper both look and gesture towards this wall a lot (EDIT: credit to @runninguplenorahills for pointing this out, this is also in Will's bedroom, similar to the s3 kiss with El in the finale. just another thing pointing to this being more to do with Will than the GA might thing), and I get that it's probably the direction of where El is in the kitchen, but just like always, Will is there symbolically too. He's there in the drawings that are on the wall between them in the dead center of the shot. It's a symbol of just how bad things got with Will.

Mike looks at the drawings and says he doesn't understand how Hopper let it go on so long with El there but hidden.

Again, looking and gesturing at the walls. And there's this talk of blame here. "Don't blame her, she's already upset." "I don't blame her, I blame you."

Blame El for... just staying hidden? When Mike can tell she wasn't allowed to talk to him? That doesn't really fit perfectly with the word "blame." What Hopper might mean, instead, is for Mike to not blame El for how bad it got with Will. "Don't blame El for not coming to help sooner, don't blame her for everything that has happened the past couple days." And Mike doesn't, he says he's blaming Hopper.

Another couple things from the full fight scene:

"Protecting her?" Mike sees what happened. Hopper chose to protect El over protecting Will this season (in a way, balancing out his actions from s1, selling out El's location to Brenner to save Will).

"So I should be thanking you?" Along that same line: Mike isn't thinking about his or his family's safety. Brenner is gone, and it sounds like Hopper kept El hidden for reasons he doesn't understand or care about at the cost of Will's safety.

"Nothing about this is okay." There's so many things he's upset and overwhelmed and scared about right now. It's multifaceted, just like so many of Mike's scenes. He's not just mad bc he missed El, there's more there.

After the scene with Hopper, Mike and El are standing away from each other. He even seems to be avoiding eye contact with her? Maybe from embarrassment over his outburst, maybe he just feels weird and conflicted already, feeling the strain of having his attention split when he's already so worried about Will. But either way, the shots are framed with Mike and Hopper together and everyone else with El. He didn't rush out from that fight to stick with El, be close, hold her hand, talk with her more.

And the first time he speaks in this scene it feels a lot like another "I'm the only one who cares about Will" moment. He's put the pieces together and was considering Will's part in all of this. He's not voicing concern about El being in danger again or leaving again, his mind is on Will.

And I think this all goes to the goodbye scene between El and Mike. Mike is concerned about losing people close to him. He can't say goodbye to Will, but he says goodbye to El. She tries to kiss him, he leaves his eyes open and doesn't move closer at all. A car with Will drives away and a car with El drives away, both headed towards danger. He stares after both, scared.

GA viewers assume he's just focused on El as he watches the cars drive away, but he spent most of the season just focused on Will. GA viewers assume Mike's outburst just has to do with loving El, but he spent most of the season trying to help Will, just like s1, except this time he didn't have El, his helpful link to the UD, to make the supernatural mysteries a little bit easier.

#byler

[bewilderedbuck]

Devi vs. David: aka a comprehensive list of every single time ben gross has referred to devi as one or the other (season two edition)

first and foremost: if you missed it, please go check out part one where i talk about devi vs. david in season one. i also want to refer you to these posts: x, x by @catty-words, because they are very well-worded and also very relevant to what i'm about to talk about. i will be referencing some of what cori said in those two posts as well. once again, this is a list of every single time in season two that ben has called her either devi or david, with context + insight, and i am creating this post for myself more than anyone else. expect a season 3 edition in the future; likely sometime next week.

anyways. here goes.

"Devi, I'm all-in."

the first time in season 2 that he refers to her at all,  he calls her devi — he’s opening up to her, telling her that what they have is real and that she makes him better, literally tells her that he stood up to his parents for the first time in his life because of her. he is all-in, even if it means long distance. he wants to be with her, but he is also giving her time to think about it. the use of devi as opposed to david here shows that he’s being vulnerable, that he is serious about her. 

obv we don’t see much of his short-lived relationship with devi, and while i personally believe he did still throw around the david nickname with her (teasingly, lovingly), it does make sense that he wouldn’t use it with her friends while she isn’t present. so, devi.

the way his eyes light up when he sees her. his whole body language changes. he perks right up the second his eyes land on her and the “come here” motion he makes i still have not gotten over and it has been over a year since i saw this scene for the first time. anyways. i mentioned in part one that david belongs to ben and devi and no one else. and here i feel like that shines in a new light. he calls her devi here because they’re in front of people, but more importantly in front of paxton. the last time ben referred to devi in front of him, he called her david (in 1x08, if you were wondering). he was jealous back then, crushing hard and knowing she’s got a thing for pax. but here? he’s secure in their relationship (haha just wait like…ten minutes ben lol then you’re going to be shattered). he thinks she is his. he doesn’t need to take control of the situation by calling her david here.

okay, so obv he’s calling her devi here bc 1) he’s talking to paxton and 2) paxton also just referred to her as devi. but i wanna talk about his tone here. his voice goes up like…three octaves. cracks at the end when he says her name. because as opposed to the last instance he called her devi, he’s nervous here. knows that pax is this ladies man that had caught devi’s eye before, and he’s worried that he’s going to catch her eye again (give it literally two minutes, ben, and then you’ll find out, lol). being around paxton without devi present pulls on his insecurities, because he can’t look over at her and think, “she chose me. she chose me.” (again, she didn’t, but that’s beside the point right now)

“There should only be one choice..."

oof. this stings, tbh. cori mentions it in her posts as well, but here you can see him using her real name as a way to distance himself from her. he says it like it’s a curse, like it’s the most vile thing that could come out of his mouth. he’s hurt, obviously. he was all-in for her! and i think this here helps prove my theory that he’s had feelings for her for far longer than we’re made to assume — like yes, obviously you’re going to be hurt if your significant other cheats on you regardless for how long you’ve been together or how long you’ve really, truly cared about them, but ben is absolutely devastated. i’m not saying paxton isn’t upset, because he is! this is during paxton’s pov episode, so we do hear from miss hadid here that he was upset about the whole two-timing thing. but ben? it absolutely crushed him, because he was that much more invested in devi than pax was. we aren’t sure of the exact timeline, of course, but since they’re still in the first semester of school at this point it’s safe to assume that it’s likely been maybe a month or so since ben and devi started actually being friends. ben’s reaction runs so much more deep than someone who’s only had romantic feelings for that short a time period. (i also want to point out that the scene immediately following this one is where paxton coins the term “crazy devi,” though that’s not particularly relevant to this post.)

"...At the party, you followed him, and you left me behind.”

OUCH. if the last one stung, this one is a punch straight to the gut. using her real name to hold her accountable for her own actions. to show her that she hurt him and that they aren’t okay. i mean, his exact words: “We’re not even. We’re not even close to even.” back in 1x06 he uses david as an attempt to return to their version of normalcy, and here he uses devi to show that they can’t return to that.

okay, obviously i’m going to be referencing this post by cori because she talks specifically of this instance. this is the first use of david we see in season 2, and we are already halfway through the season. while i don’t believe for a single second that ben has moved on from the two-timing incident, he is trying to move on from devi at the very least. as cori says in her post, we only see him refer to her as david after he and aneesa start flirting with each other. i really like how she worded it in her post: “it’s a relic from their rivalry, which makes it both an insult and a way to preserve their years of shared history.” he’s not ready to be best buds just yet, obviously, but he still cares about her.

once again linking cori’s other post that dives into this episode’s use of devi vs. david as well as 2x08’s. here, he’s obviously defaulting to devi because they’re in front of her family, but there’s also the way he says her name in this scene. like he’s using it to hold her accountable for her own actions. his tone after she tries to be lighthearted with, “I don’t know. She could spin that into a pretty good essay,” is disappointed because she keeps messing up. he wants to believe in her, but she isn't giving him any reason to.

 just like cori says in her post, he goes back to david when her family isn’t around. while he is using the nickname as some form of familiarity & closeness, he is still so disappointed in her, because he wants to believe that she’s capable of doing right by aneesa. the wording of “use your brain” here comes off as their usual banter if you don’t take into account ben’s tone, sober and serious. he wants her to do better, not just for him, and not just for aneesa, but for devi, herself, too.

aaand here we are back with another term of endearment david! he’s genuinely pleased with her that she managed to pull off not only the apology, but in securing aneesa’s spot at sherman oaks — not just so he can ask her out, obviously, but because it means 1) aneesa doesn’t have to go through transferring schools again, because ben does care about her well-being and mental health, but also 2) it means devi is capabale of doing good and righting her wrongs. obviously, he doesn’t know that her main motivation was getting ben back, but still, in his eyes, she was able to hold herself accountable and fix her mistakes. not only that, but we are reverting back to banter here! this is such a huge turning point for them this season, giving a good headstart to what i am affectionately going to be referring to as their “besties era” in season 3.

not much to say here, really; just his use of david being an indicator of friendship. however what is interesting is…

"She's, like, super flighty and unstable, and throws away a good man for no reason."

okay, first off, obviously, this is a huge dig at her for the events of 2x02, which i can’t blame ben for, but it’s also so snarky that it comes across like their season 1 pre-friendship banter which is an era of their relationship i genuinely love (mostly bc it all comes across as thinly veiled flirting, but i digress). what is really interesting to me is that he doesn’t call her david in front of aneesa. he doesn’t do it even once. i have said it once and i will say it a million fucking times: david belongs to ben and devi and no one else. he uses it to both 1) take back control of situations when he is feeling uncomfortable or insecure, and 2) when he wants to establish a closeness to devi. the former isn’t relevant here, and he can’t exactly refer to his ex-girlfriend with their version of a fucking pet name in front of his current girlfriend. yeah, you can argue that maybe he just doesn’t want to explain the whole david thing to aneesa, but i think it’s deeper than that. he doesn’t want to establish that closeness with devi while aneesa is present because it starts blurring lines and crossing boundaries in his head.

the next time they’re together, aneesa isn’t around, and he reverts back to david. not even two whole seconds later he opens up a serious conversation, asking about devi’s feelings in regards to working with ben and aneesa. despite the fact that devi was the one to hurt ben! david here, once again, being used to establish closeness, familiarity, friendship. this is also just one of my favorite scenes of theirs, ever, because their smiles are so sweet and so genuine. you can tell how much they care for each other, despite the the events from earlier in the season.

“Devi, when are you going to realize that that dick doesn’t deserve you?”

(okay, i know it doesn’t show him saying devi in the captions, but he does.) BATHROOM SCENE MY BELOVED. this is my number one duo scene of theirs for so many reasons oh my god. the use of devi here, when it’s just them is so significant because during their friendship era, he has consistently referred to her as david when they’re alone. but not here. here she is devi. because he needs her to know what she is worth. he needs her to listen when he tells her that she deserves better than paxton, and he gets her to listen with the use of devi.

#long post #devi vishwakumar #ben gross #benvi #ben x devi #devi x ben #never have i ever #nhie #never have i ever meta #nhie meta #meta #devi vs david

[messymindofmine]

I've been rewatching s2 and I can honestly say it is the messiest season in the entire show. I suppose it's kind of understandable since a) the show was still kind of finding it's footing with expanding on characters and plotlines and b) the pandemic really changed a lot of plans. The messiest thing they did though was the entire storyline revolving around Gwyn and Owen.

As much as I liked Gwyn, I never got the feeling even when the season first aired that she was meant to stick around for good and rewatching has reinforced that for me. Considering we barely even got a mention of her on s1, it seems very strange that they would suddenly have her moving in with Owen in s2. I suspect that the real reason she was even brought in is bc both the actress who played Zoe and Liv Tyler decided to leave and bc heaven forbid Owen have one season without a love interest or at least some female character that he has sexual tension with, they decided to bring Gwyn in. I do like that they chose Lisa Edelstein bc her and Rob Lowe obviously have great chemistry and it's a really cool nod to their time on the West Wing. It's actually really cool bc if you watch their scenes in the West Wing, you can kind of imagine them as a young Owen and Gwyn when they first got together. But then they introduced the whole baby thing. And the whole surprise baby storyline has always been my most despised trope in any show bc it is so narratively lazy and 99% of the time adds absolutely nothing to the show. It certainly didn't add anything to this one. There was literally no reason to bring that in especially considering that the plan was pretty obviously to always have Gwn and Owen break up again.

All this storyline did was make both Gwyn and Owen look pretty bad as parents. I usually defend Owen quite a bit (and will continue to do so bc the hate this man gets is truly ridiculous) but I do understand why people were so upset with him in s2. The Owen we saw in s2 was almost unrecognizable than the one we saw in s1. The version we got in s3 was better than what we got in early s2. It's like he literally forgot that he had a son during that time. And the same goes for Gwyn too. Not once did either Gwyn or Owen think about how they were hurting their son with the way they were behaving. The storyline also made no sense from a realistic perspective. Gwyn would've been in her 50s in s2 and at the very least pre-menopausal yet somehow she gets accidentally pregnant? And then the same Gwyn who is shown to be very pragmatic and reasonable doesn't once consider the very large risk factors involved with pregnancy at such an advanced age? Not to mention how that would affect her career at that point in her life? Instead Owen is shown to be the one who's struggling with the idea. Tbh as much as I commend the show for usually dealing with sensitive topics really well, this whole storyline gave me some real "written by men who have no idea how women even work" vibes. It made zero sense to have the storyline at all considering they have Owen and Gwyn break up anyway.

It made even less sense after they decided to kill Gwyn off. And tbh I wasn't even surprised that they decided to do that bc like I said, it was pretty obvious that Gwyn was never meant to be brought into the show to begin with. Even when they brought her back in s3, it was obviously done to fuel Owen's s3 mid-life crisis. In fact, this point is literally stated by Mateo. As sad as her death was bc I did like Gwyn, at least it contributed something to the show itself as well as allow a deeper look into TK's character. The same can not be said for the baby storyline at all.

I know some people have been upset that we don't see or hear any mention of Jonah or Enzo and I do understand why. It does seem really weird. But at the same time, I'm actually not upset bc I never liked that whole storyline to begin with and I'm glad to just forget about it lol. Besides, I feel that the baby storyline is similar to the Iris storyline but in the opposite direction. As in, with Iris they may well have planned something for her in s2 but bc Liv Tyler left they decided to scrap those plans. That's understandable but then by bringing her back in s4, they ended up creating all these plotholes for the previous seasons. But ok, at least Iris's storyline contributed something and we got introduced to an interesting new character. As I said before, I would be down for seeing Iris again. But with the baby thing, it was created pretty obviously for the sole purpose of drama, it clearly wasn't all that popular even at the time and I think the writers probably regretted creating it to begin with. Not that they'd ever admit it since they couldn't even admit that the Iris storyline was not something that they'd been planning the whole time even though it's super obvious. It genuinely feels like they started regretting it very early on but bc it's a procedural show on cable TV didn't feel comfortable really taking the plunge to maybe find a way to get rid of the storyline in a realistic way (eg miscarriage or abortion) and so just ended up going along with it in the messiest way possible. Any mention we got of the baby pretty much from the beginning felt so forced. As if the writers kept thinking "oh shoot we brought this in and now we have to follow it through." But now they have no reason to do so and I suspect that they're perfectly happy to effectively retcon the whole thing and act like it never happened. And you know what? I'm not even upset about it. All things considered, retconning it actually makes more sense that having had it in the first place. At least, they're still including Gwyn and remembering her. To me, that matters more. I'm not gonna tell anybody else what to do but I feel like it might just be better to go with the flow and erase the baby thing from our minds for our own sanity. It's not like the show makes it hard.

Anyway, I just needed to get these thoughts out bc rewatching the first couple of seasons with the hindsight that we have now is truly an experience

#911 on fox #911 lone star #911 lone star s1 #911 lone star s2 #911 lone star s3 #911 lone star s4 #tk strand #carlos reyes #tarlos #owen strand #gwyn morgan #michelle blake #iris blake

[loserchildhotpants]

4, 21 and 27 for Three Princes from the Ask Game ☆

skdfhjksjdhf hello friend!

4] What detail in Three Princes are you really proud of?

There are a lot of little details in Three Princes I'm really proud of! Mostly because they were 'mistakes' that I caught in time and then worked into the story.

So, because of the time period, I'd have to stop and re-evaluate basically every line I wrote, like 'does this make sense?? did [x] exist in 1912??' and most of the time, the answer was 'no' lol such as Dean's wrist watch - I wrote him as just wearing a wrist watch for a while bc I wanted to give him something that sort of personified his limited time to pursue his freedom, something on him that would be a constant reminder (and meaningful when it's on him versus when it's off and left in his room) - it was just gonna be a little easter egg (of which there are many in that fic), and then as I was writing, I was like '... wait did wrist watches exist? People only use pocket watches in the movie, I think' and i checked, and lo and behold, no, wrist watches for men did not exist at the time. Men used pocket watches, but wrist watches were a hot, new commodity for upper class ladies by 1912.

So, Dean likely wouldn't have one for himself, but it wasn't impossible that his mother wouldn't have had one in that universe based on the background I gave her, so i was like 'omg wait it can be a symbol for the limited time he has to let Cas rescue him, to rescue himself, but ALSO it can be a wink wink nudge nudge at him being queer, and the limited time he has to accept himself!'

There's lots of other little things; when picking character names, I chose Temesras for Amara by just researching what variations of the word 'darkness,' existed in proto-english, as a small easter egg to 'she's ancient, she's Thee Darkness,' and then there's Drozdov, which means 'blackbird' - an allusion to Cas' black wings/being a many feathered thing, but also of being something of a wounded outcast.

I had the Moon calendar for 1912 pulled up, there are details in that fic that no one will ever notice or care abt but *i* know skldhjf lmao

21] If you wrote a "missing scene" in Three Princes, what would it be?

The first thing that comes to mind is Sam and Rowena at the end (I'm gonna speak vaguely so as not to spoil it for anyone that hasn't read it yet) - the last scene w them is meant to spark doubt, in a way, bc you don't hear from either of them again, but that was a decision I'd made later on - there WAS a scene after Rowena leads Sam away, but I decided to cut it bc when it's Dean's POV, i wanted the reader to also feel sort of stressed out abt what Sam's fate ultimately had been. But the first 'missing scene' that comes to mind is that - in the chaos, out on the water, Sam and Rowena.

27] How long did it take to write Three Princes? Describe the process.

So, this was a long process! I first made the doc the day after my birthday last year, so October 24th 2022. I didn't start writing in it much until late November, though.

Now, @atomicteaparty really badly wanted a Titanic Destiel AU that was well-researched, and, bless her <3, she likes my writing and wanted it to be of that quality/voice. So, the process first started w me figuring out how much Real Life Event can I tastefully include without it feeling like... idk, like I was making light of a horrible tragedy, then how much of the movie's formula am I going to use, then how am I going to transmute the spn characters into OUR universe, into 1912, and make them recognizably themselves while still having completely different backstories.

I decided that no matter what I did w the real life event aspects, I wouldn't name real people. I don't begrudge folks that do that, i know it happened over a century ago, but something abt it for me personally felt icky, so i decided that ALL the characters i used had to be from spn or made up. Then I watched the movie. I watched the movie several times lmao and I saw that, the existing Titanic AUs for destiel always allot Cas as the Rose-insert, but I was like '... but Cas is the one that initially rescues DEAN! Dean should be the one trapped!' - I decided the suicide rescue was going to stay, and Dean would be my Rose-insert, but he'd still need to be *Dean.* And a young!Dean, too, this is pre-Stanford era Dean. This is early 20's Dean. So, not so hardened, but very disenchanted, loyal to his father - I built him a backstory that would make his personality make sense, and I kept key elements of his persona; he loves cars and car maintenance, he loves cowboys, he is v pretty and is aware of that, etc etc.

Tbh the hardest part of writing any of the characters was Dean. Dean, canonically, was raised by motel televisions - he's all pop-culture and quips. I had to allude to the 1912 equivalent of that, which is why I have him sing a song to himself (if you look up the song he sings when he has his first anxiety attack, you'll find that it was sort of the 1912 equivalent of being in the top 40 lol) and he calls Sam 'kid,' and you might notice that his formal language relaxes around Benny and Cas and Meg, like, once he's in the lower decks and he's allowed to be more himself, he uses lots of turns of phrases and is a little more crass or flirtatious, bc that's truer to who he actually is - so, he needed to use slang, but he also was not a complete street kid either, he's somewhere in between, and bc he really got to KNOW Mary before she died (bc in Three Princes, she dies when he's ~14), he's not AS hardened a soldier. He doesn't question John (at first), he's miserable like he is, and Mary's death still had to be the weight-bearing pillar that brings the whole castle down.

Making Dean still *sound* like Dean would sound in that time period was REALLY difficult. Lots of dialogue re-writes for that. Other than that, building Cas' backstory and making it make historical sense was the next biggest challenge. I needed him to be a soldier, but the only war that he would've possibly fought in was the Russian revolution, so Dean wasn't gonna be his first rebellion, which begged the question, what would Dean BE to him, then.

In the text of Titanic, the movie, Rose represents the upperclass, really, but the best of them - the well-intentioned, kind, unassuming/perhaps slightly ignorant be well-meaning upperclass, which Jack is the equal and opposite to; he represents all of the lower class, the less fortunate, the daring and selfish (by which i mean, he put pleasure before duty), the adventurous and free - which is why he's doomed to die.

I had to decide what Cas and Dean were going to personify here, so that the themes were clear, and then I needed to decide how Sam and Rowena would mirror that, so you could glean some foreshadowing abt what was to become of either couple by interactions had by both.

Ultimately, I decided that Dean personified Faith-In-People, while Cas personified Faith-In-The-Divine, and their narrative purposes would be to rekindle the missing faith in one another; Cas would restore Dean's faith in a higher power (which is why, ultimately, Dean is able to pray again), and Dean would restore Cas' faith in people.

Sam is Faith-In-Self, he's sure of what he wants, who he is, what he's capable of, that he understands everything he's seeing, and he's right! He's observant and self-assured, but he plays it safe; Rowena is his equal and opposite. She lacks faith in herself, she is NOT self-assured when they meet, but she plays the socialite game more dangerously. By the end, Rowena is self-assured, and Sam is humbled, but willing to play more dangerously.

Then ofc the dreaded time of picking a title skldjfhskf lmao strangely enough, this was one of the last Hard Decisions i needed to make; i had a few titles picked out, but i kept coming back to the conversation Cas carries at The Fancy Dinner, where he talks about the etymology of serendipity, which, ofc is a running theme throughout the fic. I decided on Three Princes bc, as Cas explains, in the original story, three princes keep finding things they weren't originally in search of - this is also why the POV switches are limited to Cas, Dean, and Sam (they're our three princes). Cas, Dean, and Sam operate as our unassuming princes that continue to find things they weren't originally in quest of.

Sam has simple, short-term goals; he wants to pet the fancy dogs, he wants to go on the tours, see the libraries - have an adventure. Dean is there to follow orders and do what he must as deemed by John. Cas has long-term goals to get to America, escape old demons, shake off his old life somehow and become someone new by virtue of being in a new place.

Sam instead finds a long-term goal; Rowena. He was just hanging out, having a good time, and then he sees a goddess walk in and is like 'oohhh the odds are NOT in my favor but i GOTTA.' Dean finds cause to deny orders and pursue his own happiness which was NOT in the script handed to him, and Cas experiences attraction and love for the first time completely unexpectedly, which ofc inherently changes him (something he acknowledges he's scared of, during the Friday Morning Breakfast he follows Dean to, when he first realizes he's Changing).

In the midst of writing Three Princes, my friend got really sick, so i flew out of state to help take care of her, and then ANOTHER friend had a crisis and i drove over multiple other states to fetch HER and get her to my other friend's place and keep everyone under the same roof where i could account for them lol launching two rescues was not a simple task, and it ate up 3 weeks i was SUPPOSED to be writing slkjdfhsjkdfh which is why the fic was MOSTLY completed by April 10th, when i started posting, but i couldn't finish editing and polishing before the 14th ; _ ; i lost nearly a month i had allotted for that sdkfjskdjh

And ofc the entire fic was beta'd by @pockypuck (Megh) who helped me keep everything tonally consistent, and historically accurate (to a degree, ofc, it's fic skdjhfkdsjf it's accurate enough that you'd have to be a REAL fuckin stickler to take issue w something in there).

I drafted the fic w Megh in bullet points, then inserted that into my Titanic AU Google Doc, used Outline Mode to keep track of everything, and just ran w it. So. This is an insanely long answer and tbh there's still even more that went into it skdfhskldhfd lmao it was a long process and it's a fic im ultimately really, really proud of so thank you so much for asking me abt it ; __ ; <3 it means so much to me!

asks for fic writers

#izupie #melanie answers stuff #destiel #deancas #samwena #Three Princes #melanie writes #my stuff #u talking to me abt this fic has genuinely been such a rewarding highlight of this journey im not even kidding #i was SO quiet abt the process and writing it for SO long and im still getting comments from folks that refuse to read the epilogue #or refuse to open the fic altogether bc of the no warnings which i Get but also ; n ; #i worked so hard!!!! #anyway #thank u for asking me stuff <3 #long post

[aerislei]

rwby volume 9 spoilers / conclusion / thoughts. seriously there are spoilers below the cut I warned you.

First I want to say if you're looking for hard criticism you're in the wrong place. I also want to say I will 100% just block anyone who wants to bash rwby/the volume/etc.

That out of the way, I will concede that there are things I wish we'd seen that we didn't, etc, but this was a Really good volume in my opinion, and I genuinely think people who are calling it filler weren't paying attention.

This volume was a much needed breath of fresh air - for us, and for the girls (+jaune). It gave us a little space from Salem, room to confront some interpersonal issues and come back stronger.

This volume is equivalent to that arc in most anime where the protag spends a shitload of time training bc they got their ass beat, only the "training" wasn't exactly physical.

Ruby finally breaking under the Weight!? Incredible. Loved it. Tore my heart out. And the horror I felt when neo!jabberwalker just had her pinned down and she saw all those horrible things??? -chefs kiss- her explosion? completely understandable! like did they deserve it, no but like neither did Ruby.

The pain was so real, so visceral, the moment between the sisters. Yang's older sister "hey" as in "hey you're going too far" was perfect. Jaune blowing up at Ruby! I wasn't so sure about it at the time, bc I was frustrated about him taking center stage from ruby, given how often that happens. But it was an IMPORTANT moment!

God I loved it so much, and then Ruby bolting off, because she Knows in her heart that Jaune was right, neo was after her, and staying puts them in danger but also she was so angry and hurt and she knew if she stayed it wouldn't get better??? man. MAN.

I will, however, be seeking emotional damages from RT over the Neo fight because Holy Shit. No right, there was no right! Them all taunting her! And saying those horrible things! And beating the shit out of her- I just. I was like, sick, through the entire episode. It hurt so much. But it was also so well done??? As in, the perfect series of knives to break her down.

Also loved the touch of like the illusions changing shapes after Ruby cuts down oscar while trying to defend herself from oz. I just- god. Clover becoming Qrow? Reminding us that Ruby doesn't really know what happened to him? Nvm Jaune and her team and- god.

And her team gets there, and god ruby may not even realize they're *real* and not more illusions. But it doesn't matter. The quietly defeated look she gives them while basically maintaining eye contact and drinking was just. horrifying. The discovery that the cat was doing this all along? That Jaune was right? maaan.

Every time Ruby started to talk about things, Something Else happened. Every time her team tried to ask her if she was okay. Something happened. They tried, I'm not going to say they didn't. But it was so well orchestrated. I had to rewatch to see all the little bits of the cat deliberately pulling attention. And like the only reasons he rly saved them from the caterpillar was to make sure ruby didn't actually ascend??

Also that scene. W/ the herbalist. Was so beautiful. Like, getting to see how far her teammates have come and how strongly they feel about their answers, compared to when they were originally asked a similar question all the way back in mountain glen. They could have had anything they wanted and they chose themselves as they were without hesitation. In contrast to Ruby, who knew back in mountain glen what she was and what she wanted, but now unable to fully accept that she can still be those things because she has 'failed'.

The grappling with their choices in Atlas, and how it had to mean something that they got all those people out, but not really knowing what awaited them in Vacuo.

I know there's a lot of criticism about the suicide allegory and i can... understand why. But I also think that the way it was handled is better than most people have given it credit for. Ruby chose herself. Given the option to set down everything that hurt, everything that was too much. She chose to pick up her burden and carry it herself.

Which brings me to why. To summer. To what she saw. The blacksmith had asked her to imagine the woman who might wield a weapon, and asked if ruby could feel the weight of her. But then Ruby sees summers weapon and reaches for it, and for just a moment, she sees the last night her mother was home.

And at first she is (rightfully!) angry and upset, because what she saw doesn't line up with what she'd been told. Summer lied! Raven knows something she never told them! Maybe the lesson is that she should just give up.

But it isn't, and after a moment Ruby realizes that too. The lesson is that no one is perfect. That the ideal she was setting herself against wasn't real. And it never could be! Because she (and her mother!) are human and people make mistakes.

And it was so, so good to see Ruby piece that together and choose herself. To find her feet. To be able to help her team in their 11th hour fight against the cat so that they could all go home, together.

And like RWBY has done a good job in the past of having a character have this moment of things looking up, and stepping forward, but it's never actually been the end of the arc, and I'm confident that when we get volume 10 we'll still see Ruby grappling with the issues that brought her to her knees in volume 9. She still needs to talk about things. She still need to learn to ask for help. But we saw that with Yang - when she finally left home to rejoin the fight she wasn't perfect yet, she wasn't back to 100%. She was better, but she wasn't back to her old self.

We'll see the same with Ruby, I'm sure of it. (and Jaune too!) We'll see them keep struggling and growing. This season was the beginning, was their first steps on the road to some semblance of recovery. It wasn't the end of the journey.

There are still a thousand things I want to say, including SO much about summer but I think im going to post this and write that separately. Ahahaha.

#rwby #rwby volume 9 spoilers #I have been almost completely unable to think about anything else since this volume ended #holy shit

[archivehotties]

immaculate - 3.5/5

i decided i'm gonna do more in depth movie reviews here (let's see how long that lasts LMAO), i used to do longer reviews on my letterboxd but idk doesn't seem as fitting? i can insert other photo stuff here so i'd rather here then. also spoilers ahead fucking duh

i watched immaculate tonight! my thoughts before this movie were 1, i love sydney sweeney but for a hot minute right now i felt like she wasn't being taken seriously. euphoria was one of my favorite shows and i loved her in the first season, but since then it felt like people were overly sexualizing her and not taking her seriously as an actor which blows bc she's honestly talented! and can show real emotional depth!!! so i really wanted her to hone that into a full blown artsy kind of horror movie because, as i saw in the movie, she's very scream-queen worthy.

i will admit i am very biased to religious horror. is it because i was raised catholic Yes. is it because i like looking at the pretty gold colors because catholicism is really good at making things look badass Yes as well. have i rewatched wendigoon's long video explanation of dante's inferno over and over Yes absolutely. Regardless!!!! this is just a bias i need to address to the readers beforehand before any of u fucking yank my chain

i did not expect to be as into this movie as i thought i was gonna be, honest to god i went in thinking this was probably gonna be disappointing and sydney probably didn't get a good enough writer and it was gonna be as boring as idk the nun movie in the conjuring franchise. just jumpscares. the writing was honestly not that bad though, though i will say that sydney kind of fell off her mark sometimes. especially at the start it kind of didn't feel as authentic as i wanted, but maybe that's because it felt weird to hear her euphoria high american accent while she was surrounded by italian nuns and priests. some of the creepy elements felt kinda cheesy like oh wow the creepy patient says she can never leave womp womp. like find something more interesting to say.

cinematography soooo good. really liked it, also i am again biased to italy because i love italy and it's my dream vacation place. there were some shots that were framed sooo good like when she goes to confession, the ending scene in particular was really good. i really like the choice of it not being filmed from the usual third person pov and it being from the baby's (?) or just it being right below sydney and she is just yelling her fucking heart out with blood all over her face. so good. i was smiling and clapping good for u girl!!!!!!!!!!

i also liked that it was done in chapters so they went like per trimester of the baby, it was really fun to see in that way. i liked the themes, it didn't feel like a Fake church u know? again i compare it to the nun movie from the conjuring series where it's like ... it doesn't feel like they got dressed up in nun outfits. they're just ... nuns. doesn't feel like a set, which is good.

a concern again i had for this movie was that it was gonna be too jumpscare-y-- at some times it was, but honestly that's too be expected. i really liked the idea of her having to escape from the convent over and over again and just how creepy the other people in the church were, though i will admit the "we tried to make the next savior and i'm a mad scientist" bit was a little ... meh. i'd prefer if they leaned into that whole secret cult thing they had going on. or if it was a carrie/rosemary's baby moment where she was carrying the devil's baby.

another concern i had was, looping back to what i said about sydney, i had watched the trailer beforehand and i was scared it was gonna oversexualize her because soo many of the shots they chose were like centered around her body? which i mean makes sense now that i know the plot, but it didn't feel sexualized at all, which makes me happy :) sydney has lots of potential !

thematically and in cinematography sense, it reminded me a lot of the vvitch. just like eerie and creepy and dark. and the endings too were shot in similar ways. additionally i also like that she killed every one of the major leaders in the end, that was fun.

overall was it the best horror movie i've ever seen? no. definitely not. was it a fun watch yes! would i watch it again, sure. though i do look away when the gory bits happen, but that's normal with horror. i hope sydney sweeney does more horror, and i mean like a24 style. i'd love for her to be in a movie with mia goth or anya taylor joy or something.

#movies

[marrissacooper]

daxton playlist  → endgame by taylor swift (for @infinite-wanders)

Big reputation, big reputation Oh you and me would be a big conversation

#never have i ever #nhieedit #neverhaveieveredit #neverhaveievergiffed #devi x paxton #daxton #daxtonedit #mine #daxtonplaylist #the second to last gif might seem random #but i chose this scene bc it was the first time she saw the real paxton behind the popular jock mask #and that's when he realised he couldn't have casual sex with her #i feel like after this conversation they both know each other a little better

[amethystroselily]

Some people saw Koko get upset that the girl he was in love with died for a second and be reminded by and fondly reminisce about her when he was with a person who was close to both of them, and were like “Wow, he LITERALLY wishes Inupi was dead and only talks to him bc he LITERALLY thinks Inupi is his dead sister. Toxic.” What??? Yes, he said Akane’s name when he saved Inui, because he did think it was her, but he never once actually implied that he regretted saving Inupi. He was just sad that he didn’t save the girl he loved. Also Inupi was his best friend before any of this went down, he definitely cares about him as his own person. The only thing that Koko actually said that could actually be interpreted as him actually wishing that he’d saved Akane instead is in the Tenjiku arc when he’s like “Would Akane look at me with that angry expression?” or something while he was caressing Inui’s face. Which, like, yeah, probably a weird thing to say, but Inui did bring her up first and was the one who accused him of projecting her onto him. But maybe he was just reminiscing. Like, hey I wonder how this person that we both loved and were just talking about would feel about this situation if she was still here. Like, I kind of interpreted it as him feeling like he’d disappointed her in a some way. Maybe because he “let” her die. I think both Inui and Koko feel a lot of guilt relating to that situation. Also during that scene Koko was talking about how he felt like Inui was only using him for money and to recreate the black dragons, which if you ask me is giving Inupi a lot of agency in Koko’s brain and separating him from some vessel to project a dead girl onto. (I’m not quite sure if I phrased that in the way I meant it, but whatever) Like, Koko himself feels betrayed and hurt too. And the reason they both feel this way is because the other won’t stay with them. In this situation Akane is Inupi’s insecurity. That fight isn’t about Koko being this terrible person who can’t let go of his friend’s dead sister, it’s about two people who feel hurt after years of miscommunication and are lashing out. They’re finally airing their greviences, but not in a way that’s actually productive or understandable to one another.

Part of me feels like Inupi might remember the ending half of the kiss, interpreting it as Koko wishing he WAS Akane, and internalized it really badly. But we don’t really know what Koko was feeling in that moment. There’s like five different ways to interpret that, and I don’t think we’ll ever know what exactly it meant until Koko himself talks about it. Also people are always like “they no homo-d their relationship so hard”, but while yes, it may have been preferable for some if they were just romantically involved, paralleling a relationship between two characters of the same gender with a straight romantic relationship is a pretty common way to imply a gay romance without actually saying it’s a gay romance. Also you do have to take into account internalized homophobia with BOTH Koko and Inui and how that might affect the things they do. A lot of the time that’s a concept we leave out of content a lot, but considering the time and environment I think it’s definitely a factor here.

Also they pull similar shit in straight romance all of the time and no one even questions the validity of the relationship then. Oh wow, historical romance heroine #343566 is madly in love with her dead husband’s brother, how scandalous and romantic. But when KOKO DOES IT-

Also I know the money thing started with Akane, but I think it’s just a coping mechanism and perhaps compulsion that’s been divorced from any real original intention. I just don’t think Inui realizes that. And Koko doesn’t seem like the type who would ever want to talk about his mental health. I think in the tenjiku arc Inui felt like Koko was choosing Akane over him, but he was really choosing a bad habit over him. Inupi was the one who chose a dead person over him when he decided Shinichiro and the Black Dragons’ legacy was more important than his best friend. Which makes sense, those things meant a lot to him, and from his point of view Koko only cared about Akane. And Koko never properly explained himself because he’s allergic to doing so, apparently. A lot of their conversations feel like Inupi’s projecting (insecurities, his own feelings, etc.)and Koko’s absolutely refusing to talk about any of his actual feelings.

#this is nearly incoherent but when has anything I’ve ever posted made sense #I just have a lot of thoughts about them #I know it sounds like I’m making people up to get mad at but if you’ve ever been on tr tiktok you know I’m not #I would say analysis but this is more speculation #tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers manga #tokrev #tokyo revengers spoilers #kokonoi hajime #koko tokyo revengers #inupi #inui akane #inui seishu #kokonui #inukoko #koko x inupi

[scott-mccall-the-hot-girl]

my ultimate guide to thiam fic !!

( as a new teen wolf stan )

-

the classic post war, long ass (multi chapter) fic !!with great development that genuinely made me laugh out loud, they have the best friendship in this & i love it very much. ( like theo teaches liam to drive and i just *happy sobs* ) a fundamental in thiam fanfiction !! all stans have probably already read it but if you haven’t this is in fact a threat ,, go show this vv iconic story some love !!

Airplanes - Captainmintyfresh

Summary: After the Anuk-ite and the hunters are dealt with Liam needs a break. Cue Theo and a road trip that Liam should know better than to think will be peaceful.

Not Rated, No Archive Warnings Apply, Completed, 43/43 Chapters, Words: 236,875 (236k)

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okay okay so this one is also post 6B !! but ,, now we introduce fighting monroe & the hunters again ,, so we get the boys & a new mission !! so if you like an intresting plot 11/10 would recommend !! just to be clear this ISN’T complete ,, if that turns you off i understand but definitely give this one a read !! it litterally have theo doing crossword puzzles & fighting zombies

Vacancy Signs - LovelyLittleGrim

Summary: Theo and Liam are in Manhattan negotiating a pack allyship when the zombie apocalypse breaks out. Now, the two of them have to find their way back to Beacon Hills without getting eaten by zombies or killing one another.

Rated: Explicit, Graphic Description of Violence, Not Completed, 15/17 Chapters, Words: 89,605 (89k)

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Royalty AU !! I REPEAT ROYALTY AU !! a fantastic au where i stan their moms more than i stan them !! genuinely so good at the childhood rivals to lovers trope !! i’m genuinely obsessed with this one. has made me cry more than once ,, hurts in a good way <3 the ending is just *chefs kiss* also one of the tags is genuinely: # theo and liam make bad choices for over 130k straight !! if that doesn’t sound appealing i don’t know what does !!

Artificial Love - songbvrd

Summary: Prince Theo and Prince Liam are forced to spend every Summer together from age five onwards. They hate each other, and usually find ways to make each other miserable as much as possible in their six weeks together. But when they're reunited because of intended unions as adults, things change. They're both supposed to be married to noble women, but neither of them is as interested in anyone else as they are with their childhood rival.

Rated: Mature, No Archive Warnings Apply, Completed, Chapters: 32/32, Words: 172,935 (172k)

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so if you are in the mood for a crack fic that’s not explicitally a crack fic this is for you !! okay so i’m really hit or miss with AU’s ,, sometimes i feel like they don’t quite capture the characters right but this story have the BEST dramatic liam i have ever seen in my life !! basically they all live in the same apartment building & it’s fantastic !! i saw this one floating around a lot but the summary didn’t really unrest me until i have it a shot !! so go read it rn !! also nolan & brett are genuinely fantastic and make me wheeze ,, LIKE ACTUALLY VERBALLY LAUGHING !! all i’m gonna say is that my fav characters are scott & the beetles but that won’t make actual sense until you read it !!

The Neighbors Song - TheodoreR

Summary: “I always hear you singing on your balcony every morning, but suddenly you’ve stopped?”

Or the one where Theo annoys Liam every morning with his awful singing until he doesn’t anymore and Liam is even more annoyed. Liam hates every single thing about his mornings -the fact that they happen in the morning alone is enough. The thing Liam hates the most about his mornings though is the terrible voice of the guy who lives below him. He can’t sing for shit and Liam tried to politely let him understand that by throwing flour and water on his balcony, and also by shouting it to him, you can’t sing for shit!, and then by writing it into a note he proceeded to attach to his door, but this Raeken guy just keeps doing it, every single morning, like a fucking rooster. Liam did nothing to deserve this. He probably didn’t do anything to deserve better either to be fair, he doesn’t expect to open his window and be welcomed by some angelic voice singing him good morning, he’d just be happy with nothing. Silence. That’s something Liam can appreciate in mornings. Just some bark from his dog and the sound of his misery and that’s it. But no, god forbid the new guy lets him have that.

Rated: Explicit, Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Wanrings, Completed, 8/8 Chapters, Words: 42,814 (42k)

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me: i’m not a big fan of AU’s ,, proceeds to talk about ANOTHER au… OKAY BUT THIS ONE !! it’s not complete but the author has been updating regularly ,, vv slow burn !! but in a REALLY intresting way !! i lOVE LIAM IN THIS SO MUCH ,, he is such a diaster of a person and it’s wonderful !! they have a great dynamic & i’m sucker for general puppy pack content ( and erica reyes being a badass ) !! also theo plays lacrosse in this & i really like it ahhhhh ,, also liam is just being an artic monkeys stan the whole time & theo is like *que confused repressed gay noises*

Inglorious Roommates - honeyscape

Summary: A roommate is defined as “a person with whom one shares a room.”

Theo would say a roommate was more along the lines of, “The person who's the bane of his existence. The weirdo that sleeps for days. The spaz that exercises at 3am. The guy with a revolving door of annoying friends. An insufferable human being that Theo has no control over living in his room.”

Example: Theo hates his roommate Liam.

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okay okay i hate myself but i have another WIP for y’all !! this one is jUST FANTASTIC. i’m genuinely so upset it’s most likely not going to updated again *incoherent screaming ensues*. for this story ,, it’s very theo-centric bUT thats bc it ends right before liam becomes a concrete member of the story !! ANYWAY: basic plot = theo & acquiring not one but two children ,, so #dad theo but he is still crusty & homeless and i love him very much. it’s just so GOOD !! just read if you want to experience my fav theo coming out story & him etching high school musical

Look who's talking - Captainmintyfresh

Summary: Theo had been labeled many things in his life. Evil, failure, monster. He'd never thought Father would be one of those things but as he looked across the table to a six year old with blue smears of bubble gum icecream across her face trying to coax the first words out of her sister. Finger jabbing towards Theo's face as she repeated 'Daddy' again and again he couldn't bring himself to dispute the label.

(Theo accidentally adopts two young werewolves)

Not Rated, Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings, Not Completed, Chapters: 16/?, Words: 48740 ( 48k )

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so here me out: post-canon ( poetry like angst ) summer get away !! just the boys doing cute little domestic things together whilst pining !! theo’s guilt in this is just so powerful & aGjffkgkkfkvkdlv !! i think it’s so interesting to see how they interact in this one, it’s just very heart warming !! and it features one of my favorite niche teen wolf tropes of theo being great with like seven year old girls- it’s just so good ,, very much a wonderful little one shot that just makes your heart happy.

(next time i see you you'll show me) a hundred different ways to say the same things - cherrysprite

Summary: “...You deserve good things,” Liam says eventually. He makes sure not to look at Theo even though he can feel his eyes turn on him. Somehow he can already tell that Theo doesn’t believe him.

Liam instantly makes that the goal of this summer - making Theo believe him.

Rating: Teen and Up, No Archive Warnings Apply, Chapters: 1/1, Words: 28875 ( 28k )

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okay so this next section of fic recs is a bit different !!

two of my favorite authors !! and a compilation of fics i’ve read by them both !!

for context: these two have written some genuinely gorgeous fics, like pure poetry, they explore the real gritty & scary side of our boys relationship in such a wonderful way. they’ve both used some of my favorite tropes & i love them very much !!

whenever i need something soothing but so genuinely intresting & enticing these are my go to !! ( also they both write a lot of good nolan angst & some vv good fics with hayden )

go check out:

eneiryu

as well as fallingforboys

here are some of my favorite fics by them ~

darling i want you here in my arms (kiss the pain away, i know you can) - fallingforboys

even before you touched me, i belonged to you (all you had to do was look at me) - fallingforboys

memories linger like tattoo scars (but your touch on my skin is just as permanent) - fallingforboys

skin, bones, a stolen heart, and an ugly creature lurking underneath -fallingforboys

i don't know how to breathe in the place i called home - fallingforboys

whisper your gossamer truths into the shadow, maybe you'll find the answers you're searching for - fallingforboys

between the mountains and the valley we built a monument to our regret - eneiryu

cracked the hinges of the cage and waited for you - eneiryu

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okay and finally: since i am a self centered whore

my own fic: an rendition of the # elevator scene

it’s basically my version of post canon if we did get the kiss in the elevator. we got a classic liam pov in which he is has 12/10 for extreme bi diaster energy even whilst being shot at !! so go him ig…

Fuck Off, Fuck This & Fuck It! - nefelibata_peach

Summary: Liam thought to himself heart rate climbing, they were bound to be dead by morning. So he thought with everything but his brain and he kissed him.

Where Liam Dunbar is very confused, slightly traumatized, and just a bit scared but hey, aren't they all! Bad decisions ensue as two boys fight in a war they never did sign up for.

Rating: Teen and Up, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Chapters: 1/1, Words: 3558 ( 3k )

#this took me so long #please go read these or i’ll cry #fan fiction #fan fic recs #teen wolf fic recs #thiam fanfiction #thiam fic recs #thiam #theo raeken #liam dunbar #theo x liam #teen wolf fandom #teen wolf gay #teen wolf #ao3 #fuck you fuck this & fuck it #thiam fanfic rec #thiam fanfic #thiam is endgame

[miniyrds]

it’s time to talk about andrew’s syntax

(finally, I hear you scream. in reality, it is just me screaming)

so I answered this ask a few weeks ago and I've been sitting on talking about my other examples for a while because I am lazy

I also feel the need to say that I don’t think this is that deep, but more so Nora writing Andrew how people would talk in these situations. in my head, she gave Andrew such a distinct tone that I didn't fully realize until I read the physical copies. if you read these scenes out loud to yourself, I hope you can see where im coming from

example one: andrew’s attack on allison

in case you forgot, Aaron had just said “Seth was a one off then” to neil and Allison slapped Aaron which was a big no no. Andrew currently has Allison in a combo of a chokehold/arm grip (??? I don’t know fight moves)

“Andrew, it’s just Allison. Okay? It’s just Allison.”

“It is not ‘just’ anyone when she lays a hand on what’s mine.”

...

“You failed. You should have been faster.”

this is andrew’s near-rage talking. he’s losing control. a part of his brain knows that if he doesn’t keep some semblance of control, he’s going to lose it and seriously hurt Allison. he’d be taken away and couldn’t hold up his promises. in my head, the lack of contractions shows Andrew thinking through the things he’s saying. read andrew’s lines through gritted teeth and it adds to the effect.

“that’s enough, Andrew”

“you don’t get to decide that”

...

“I didn’t promise that”

...

Andrew's mouth gave a violent twitch, a grimace he forcibly repressed, and he finally looked up. The darkness in his stare almost took Neil's breath away.

then, neil steps up and interrupts Andrew’s flow. (this is important later too). this throw’s Andrew off and his rage subsides slightly. he’s distracted by neil. he’s still angry, as the description shares, but he is in control enough to not have to dedicate so much energy to keeping himself in check. neil is able to get through andrew’s rage just enough to distract him. ultimately, it is Aaron who speaks up and gets Andrew to let go

“you asshole. you could have seriously hurt her!”

“you do not have the right to act surprised. That is the second time in as many weeks one of you has forgotten yourself. You should have learned your lesson the first time. You do not get to take offense when you force my hand.”

must remain Scary Andrew even when his rage is eating at the last semblance of control that he has. it doesn’t help that the upperclassmen don’t know when to back down. at least neil has that intuition (wymack too, I believe)

Don't," Andrew said, with a calm Neil didn't believe for a second. Andrew tapped his finger to his lips twice, warning Matt to silence, and pointed at him. "A privileged child like you has never seen the real world. Don't speak of it like you understand.

this is actually the paragraph that got me to go back and look at andrew’s dialogue in the first place. you’d think he’d still be speaking in his contraction-less sentences, but now he’s mocking Matt. he knows what he’s doing and he doesn’t have any rage left. I suspect his adrenaline is fading fast and now he’s exhausted. you can see that in how easily he agrees to go with wymack

example two: aaron’s promise

incase you forgot: they’re all sitting around while Andrew is confessing to killing tilda and Aaron is being all defensive bc he didn’t realize what he was getting into

“She was nothing and no-one to me," Andrew said. "Why else would I have killed her?"

It took Aaron a minute to find his voice again. He still sounded angry, but there was a muted edge to his, "You wouldn't even look at me. You wouldn't say a word to me unless I said something first. I'm not psychic. How was I supposed to know?"

"Because I made you a promise," Andrew said. "I did not forget it just because you chose not to believe me. I did what I said I would do, and fuck you for expecting anything else.

neil picks up on andrew’s rage here as well. in the past I just brushed past this line but neil says that he saw a glimpse of andrew’s infinite anger at his core. he knows what Andrew is doing. how he’s forcing himself to keep it together and not lose it on Aaron. I personally think Andrew is really hurt to be confronting this truth here which is why it shows up as rage

Aaron’s line and andrew’s rage in response plays into people just not knowing how Andrew works which is a whole other topic

A heartbeat later Andrew's expression went dead. Neil regretted his intervention immediately. No one could let go of that much rage that easily; Andrew had simply buried it where it could hurt only him. It was too late to take it back, so Neil dropped his hand to his lap in defeat

distracting Andrew is a good way to give his brain something else to focus on to dull the extreme rage that is coming too close to the surface. however, as neil notices, it doesnt go away, it just gets re-buried which only does more damage to Andrew. I'll take unhealthy coping mechanisms for 200 pls

that got a little off track but you see how Andrew was near a breaking point in the way he was speaking, neil noticed and stepped in, and then learned a little more about how Andrew treats his emotions

#anyway Andrew talks so viciously sometimes that the only way to convey that is to drop contractions #it's fun to look at #this also doesnt apply to medicated andrew #mine #tfc #andrew minyard #aftg

[mariusroyale]

i physically cannot read a fic with first person pov. the way i retch n gag at it.. like. no.

yknow what while we’re at it ill talk abt my list of fanfic icks (fanficks) i get. i used to tolerate this stuff freely in like 2015-16 (when i had no taste smh) now i have zero patience lmao

- shit grammar: i cannot. like i can’t read fics with poor grammar and punctuation, it immediately renders the story unreadable (some exceptions are if im desperate and it’s like the only fic in this v obscure tag n fandom).

- no spacing in paragraphs: SEPARATE UR PARAGRAPHS PEOPLEEEE. tiptop!!! if you create an entire block of text it’s now INCOMPREHENSIBLE and you’ve wasted ur time writing it bc who’s going to read that????

- this also goes for not spacing dialogue properly like this,

“What do you mean?” He tilts his head while asking. She answers absentmindedly, “Like this. Marius can’t read if it’s formatted like this cos it’s supposed to be a new line when it’s a new person speaking.” He pauses in thought, recognising how unappealing it looked. “Oh.”

i can’t bruh it’ll make me stop reading- I MEAN LOOK AT IT. sometimes it’s fucking impossible to tell who’s speaking when! PLS. if a new character is speaking!!! ADD A NEW PARAGRAPH

- if it’s just. Out of character- like shit characterisation: people pls, most characters have dimensions to them! give them better dialogue and actions for the love my ass, you know DAMN well this character would never do that shit in canon

- first person pov (had to talk abt this one again i can’t describe how much it makes me BLEH) like!!! it’s so!! very rarely can i ever enjoy a story written in first person anyway! i don’t care what you think?? lmao?? no human would ever write their daily routine

“I noticed my [insert hair colour] hair possessed a sheen today, which meant I hadn’t washed it in a while.” like? no!

even then if u wrote it like a normal human

“My hair was way too greasy this morning. It’d been awhile since I washed it.”

i still hate it- like if i want details, i want it from an omnipotent, otherworldly being that doesn’t exist outside of narrating

frankly idk why i chose that as an example but you know what i mean: having details is great in third person but so meh in first

- shitty pacing within a brief interaction

i no longer have the patience anymore dude. had i read this in 2015, when i didn’t read well written fics, you’d have me hooked but

i don’t want to read a fic that takes forever to get through and by this i mean: the way you write paragraphs and insert dialogue in between

if there’s an important scene happening, i want to see it. wanna feel it.

if i see a wall of text in between the dialogue which shows Character A’s thoughts im leaving

like you can tell the author kinda just forgot what their original point was and started waffling? like u know??

i once read a fic in 2015-16 (im so sorry it was phan) where the fucking chunks of texts between dialogues were literal PARAGRAPHS. by that point i had forgotten what they were saying cos it was just

“Hey… are you alright?”

A looked at B worriedly. B didn’t know what to say. A had a lot on their plate already. Maybe it was best to not say anything for now. (Like here? This is a good place to stop and continue what B would say. But author just kept going.) B knew how A would react, he wasn’t good with emotions. After all, A had never been truly open with his emotions with people, how could B expect him to do it with him, of all people? He faintly recalled the time he saw A quietly sniffle during a movie and asked if he was alright, only to be met with a brief dismissal. A wouldn’t understand. (AND IT WOULD BE A BIGGER PARAGRAPH THAN THIS!! AND THERE WOULD BE TWO MORE AFTER IT!)

“I-I’m okay.”

Neither of them missed the way B stuttered, but-

AND IT JUST KEPT FUCKING GOING. THIS INTERACTION IN REAL LIFE WOULD HAPPEN IN TEN SECONDS. CANT THIS INTROSPECTION HAPPEN AFTER??? DO I ACTUALLY NEED TO KNOW EVERY DETAILED THOUGHT THAT HAPPENS IN THEIR HEAD IN THE TWO SECONDS THEY PAUSE TO THINK OF A RESPONSE???????

(to clarify, do this introspection in between dialogue, sure. but if you’re gonna make it huge and waffled and unnecessary stOPPP. MAKE IT SHORT. OR JUST PUT IT AFTER THEIR INTERACTION IDFK)

- when the summary has me at the edge of my seat and the first few words of the fic has me vomiting

like DAMMIT. you HAD ME

i was SO EXCITED for this premise it’s intriguing and i was gonna read and!!!

your grammar is shit!! DAMMIT

#getting all detaily in first person?? ew #text post #rant #beeg rant #fanfic dealbreakers #fanfic icks #fanficks #!

[redxblueihateloveyou]

I'm surprised people see Tadashi as the victim in his relationship with Ainosuke, when it's Tadashi the one who time and time again takes away Ainosuke's agency, without being able to see that he is throwing him unto unhappiness. I can't help but think that if Tadashi was not working at Shindo's house, Ainosuke would have maybe left or broke with the family. But he can't do that if he wants the relationship with Tadashi going on, seing how Tadashi is set on enforcing the family rules...

Hmm.. I def agree with the fact that Tadashi is not what most fandom makes out of him, my man (I mean, Adam’s man) is a 100% Slytherin. But I disagree with blaming him for this, after all the revealed info. The environment they were both raised in made their situation complicated.

I like Tadashi a lot, he’s probably my fav thing about this anime, bc he’s a dark horse, and I’m once again surprised, that so little ppl see him for who he really is, portraying him as an innocent puppy, which he is definitely not.

Now to why I think both Tadashi and Adam are victims of the dad and aunties in this situation. 

We can of course say “if only they told each other how they really feel...”, but like we can say it about any love story really. Every author knows it’s no fun. The truth is that yes, they both hurt each other, and yes, if they were honest about their feelings things would’ve been different, but as I’ve already wrote under that “toxic” commentary on YT, lets look at the whole situation from both of their point of views:

We know that Adam when he was little always treated Tadashi as an equal, he never ever thought of him as someone lower than him and after their fall out, the only reason for this “harsh” treatment (well, besides their confirmed kink) was that Adam tried to get a reaction out of him, so Tadashi would stand up for himself, bc Ainosuke got mad about Tadashi caving to his dad’s wishes and abandoning him, when he needed him the most. 

But now, knowing the fact that Tadashi was his dad’s secretary and was under his control, let’s see it from his perspective: Tadashi wanted to stay by Adam’s side, Adam’s dad implied that if Tadashi did say smth, he’s gonna be.. well, dismissed and they won’t see each other ever again. That’s what caused Tadashi to stay silent in that moment. Ainosuke instead saw this as a “he’s not on my side” thing, well, because. Tadashi won’t tell him his problem, bc dad and aunties control everything, so even if he does tell him, what a teen would do really? He didn’t have any powers back then to make his dad do anything. 

And that’s when it all gone to shit, since they both were hurt for their own reasons. It’s easy to say leave the family, but 1stly nobody explained to Adam still that he’s physically and psychologically abused by his family, he sees it as them “loving him” and sadly also loves them, bc nobody told him, that love wasn’t supposed to be like that really. He definitely feels that smth is not right and feels emotionally exhausted there bc of this treatment, but did he ever consider leaving? I really don’t think so. He feels obligated to be worthy of a family, who “loves” him.

Do you think, for example, that Akashi Seijuro hates his dad for what he did to him? No. Does he understand that he wasn’t at fault for what happened to him and that his dad instead of comforting his child after his mother’s death, who was his only safe haven, made everything worse? I don’t think he does. Like his mom gave him basketball, an escape from all that family’s obligations and strictness. After her death, it was the only thing left that brought him joy, but his dad ruined even that, saying that if he’s gonna be bad at it/lose, he’d take it away from him too. Does Akashi see this as emotional abuse? No, he sees it like “well, I have to be the best bc I was born in such powerful family, so if my dad says that I must be best at everything, then I must.”

I personally hate such parents a lot. To me it doesn’t matter if Adam’s dad didn’t know about aunties hitting his child. Like if he was too busy to notice this and have no time for his kid and made his childhood miserable, it doesn’t make it any better really. 

Same as with Akashi’s dad. Some are like “he was probably also grieving about his wife”. Emm? He was like this from the beginning, bc he treated Akashi not as his son, but as his heir. And yes, that’s different things. Same with Endeavor and Todoroki. Your child is not your post production thing.

2ndly they were too young, even if they knew about each others feelings and he didn’t feel obligated and told everyone to fuck off, they’d be on the streets now, but also Adam’s dad doesn’t seem like a guy who’d leave them alone really. Also eloping seems very romantic, but I don’t think it is, esp when you’re teens. Did you want him to sell some expensive watch and go live on Hawaii or smth? Bc finding a decent job there would be difficult at this age, esp with everyone knowing who your dad is. Chen Ke from “Antidote” survived bc he was 27 and had connections and some great friends. Adam was in high school, where would he go exactly?

Now let’s go back to now. Obviously all this time it didn’t even cross Tadashi’s mind that for Ainosuke he comes first and that he would throw everyone under the bus to make Tadashi stay with him. As we see at the end, he legit believed that Adam was planning to send him to jail and didn’t get that he said it just to shaken he up and that he knew who he’d set up for this from the beginning. 

To Adam obviously it doesn’t matter whether they’re in a quarrel or not, he would never him go. Yes, he’s mad at him, he’s angry and hurt, but Tadashi’s still the person he needs the most, he’s still the person who brightens his days, even tho he deliberately behaves like he annoys him. He always looks at him and looks at him and looks at him, but then hisses smth to hurt him. Bc he knows that he needs him, but he also hates that he needs him, bc he thinks it’s unrequited.

And that’s how their classic romance goes in hellish circles. No one wants to talk as usual. Adam is mad Tadashi is like that bc his dad turned him into a slave with no opinion, while Tadashi is scared that Adam would be taken away from him bc of his ugly family. 

Now I still think that no one and I mean no one can take Tadashi from Adam now, he is his precious. So my plan is... if Tadashi made aunties do smth against him or to get rid of him, aunties will go for sure. The problem is Tadashi still doesn’t get that he comes first, so we’re stuck in this hell still.

So anyways, my point is Adam’s heart basically sings “you got a hold of me, don’t even know your power” to Tadashi, but he doesn’t hear it, bc of his insecurities, the way he was raised and his status. But yes, he holds all the power. He’s both Adam’s sanity and insanity. No matter how cheesy it sounds he was basically his only ray of sunshine in the darkness, if you take it away, that’s what it leads to, that’s why Ainosuke-sama needs more ppl who care for him. I don’t want anyone to die next time, just cause Tadashi and Adam fought about where to put their new couch lmao. I’m kidding, but you know what I mean. And kill the aunties, pls seriously, we need to be free.

Also ppl need to remember that like lots of animes/characters are parcially inspired by some other animes/characters, also the chosen seiyuus are also very important, there are lots of stuff like jokes and references, that creators use, from characters being fully inspired by smth like “Assassination classroom” characters based on KNB, to little stuff like Levi dressed in Akashi’s uniform in chibi AOT bc Hiroshi Kamiya. Utsumi already said before stuff like she sometimes think of a perfect voice for the character and then fully forms him, we also know her clear love for sports animes. So yes, I doubt Tadashi/Kuroko thing is a coincidence and even tho someone was like “zone? is this knb or smth?” I was like no, zone is actually a common thing in sports, even tho most associate it with KNB including me, it’s not like its their invention, but there were things inspired by this for sure, and from other sports animes too and no, I don’t mean the basic sports anime tropes, I mean, like way too specific things, some character designes, too. And yes, Langa appearence and personality wise is a rinharu child for real, I can literally split his scenes in “that’s Haru”, “that’s Rin”.

That’s why I’ve said that this situation in fandom reminds me of Kuroko/Akashi situation a lot, bc same as here in KNB ppl for some reason automatically thought that Kuroko is this innocent sheep and Akashi is the wolf (but also like it was Akashi who chose to dress as red riding hood, while Kuroko was a wolf lmao), not even seeing who is in reality more dangerous and who can easily control who. It just buffles me bc it’s not some deep analisys really. I mean once again there’s a reason for the saying that the sub holds all the power over the dom. 

And like just bc someone yells or threatens ppl constantly doesn’t necessarily mean he is a psycopatic killer, and just bc someone is quiet and doe-eyed, doesn’t mean he isn’t. I didn’t think we needed to explain this to someone, but aparently we do?

And it honestly kills me just how superficially ppl are watching things these days. It really gives me war flashbacks to stuff like the last mdzs s1 episode, where ppl started to comment things like “how LZ can be so heartless” lmao. Or that anonymous ask “do you think haru misses rin?”. Like you don’t see thing at all? Grey substance no needed, while watching things?

P.S. I also would die to see Adam vs Tadashi race just bc I for some reason can bet all my money, that it’s the same situation as with Akashi refusing to ankle break Kuroko, no matter how mad he is. I just can’t imagine Ainosuke hitting Tadashi in the face with a board. Like 100% sure he wouldn’t even try tbh.

#answered #anonymous #tadaai #tadashi kikuchi #shindo ainosuke #adam x tadashi #sk8 #sk8 the infinity #anime #this is what i think about these two at least

[harveyscape]

IM BORED. my top three farscape eps from each season::::::: looking at these i think season two has the best EPISODE concepts (it was hard choosing faves from that season bc i love so many) but season 4 is my favorite for just,,,,,,, the hecking Yearning + domestication in each episode but i dont particularly favor the episodes themselves 

Season 1:

through the looking glass - i always saw this ep as being the first completely filler ep that really felt like farscape with the crew all working together and having a VERY CUTE little laugh about it at the end. i love the vagueness of it, it’s not annoying or cliche??? and i’m particularly fond of the yellow moya scenes like rygel’s like “shall i disrobe so it will be memorable” is one of my fave lines from him.

a human reaction - mY TRASH. MYYYY TRASH. just one of those farscape eps that are so Abstract in concept, they are just Default Faves for me like Always haha. so many good little j/a crumbs, the kiss in this ep is one of my BIG FAVES, i love everything about that scene and the ones leading up to it. LOVE THE RAIN SCENE. it’s probably the very first time john is like ‘maybe Earth bad’ and,,, ‘maybe space girl Good’ and i love that thruline of the show. this ep stands soooooo far apart from the majority of season 1 for me.

nerve: the hidden memory - “THE RADIANT AERYN SUN.” stark isn’t unbearable in his debut episodes woah! i like him as a sad boy who isnt a plot device! love gilina, love her death (rip), love seeing how far john and aeryn have come since they’d last seen her, love aeryn and crais’s interaction in this episode like YES GIRL SLAY, love whenever aeryn has to juggle with feeling WEAK and having to put her big girl pants on to save her himbo, love any interaction between d’argo and aeryn LOVE THAT.

Season 2:

crackers don't matter - the DIALOGUE in this episode is Insane and i LOVE IT i think there are so many line deliveries in this ep that are so memorable and Iconic they all just live in my mind rent FREE. i wish the commentary for this episode wasn’t about the more practical aspects of it because UUUHUUH i genuinely would love to just Absorb the mindset behind it. GOD TIER FILLER. 

out of their minds - i am such a whore for body swap tropes it’s humiliating. another ep with a lot of iconic line deliveries! i love cb playing as john! love that for her! bb as rygel too is amazing i love all their stupid accent switching SO MUCH. love the skeksis love that they joke about them looking like skeksis because it’s jim henson and they can DO THAT. 

won't get fooled again - any time i think about this ep im like man how Opened Third Eye was it to have john just immediately be like “haha ok this is fake lmao” like it’s so SUBVERSIVE in what it does pretty much right off the bat in introducing the moya crew as “normal” humans. eps like these are just ALWAYS my faves in tv series because of how crazy they can get and this one does and i love it so much for that.

Season 3: 

scratch n' sniff - any time i get the moya crew on a pleasure planet or at a rave im like HELLO. :) I LOVE RAXIL she’s such a funky little freak. describing this ep is so weird its like Oh Yeah The Boob Juice Sucking One. JUST JOHN AND D’ARGO BEING BACHELORS, WHAT BLISS. i wish i got more john + d’argo shenanigans in this show ‘cause they are like such a fave together dynamically mwah mwah mwah. <3 

into the lion's den: wolf in sheep's clothing - its a little crazy how much i Hate the first half of this two-parter which is super PANDERY AND BAD and then the last half is like so Insane and such a good close for the season. EVERYONE’S SO MISERABLE. the scorp shots with the imploding ship and the water UGHGUGHUGH <33333 love aeryn in this love her trying to save the Peacekeepers, love JOHN, love the little scientist nerd who works under Scorp i forget his name WHOOPS he has a nice design. THE CRAIS + TALYN DEATH IS SO GOOD;;;; LOVE THAT FOR THEM;;;;; <3333

 dog with two bones - i think the fact that literally no other tv show has pulled THIS MESS off really speaks to the uniqueness of farscape and its ABILITY TO TELL ROMANCE??? theres so much in this that is just like WOWOWOWOW THIS EP IS SO GOOD. the part where they kill the rogue leviathan and rygel is celebrating on the comms and it transitions to aeryn Going Insane in her prowler over everything that’s happening. FIRE. the dog with two bones analogy UGHGUGHGUGH <333333 I LOVE THE AERYN > EARTH THRULINE WITH JOHN SO MUCH ITS JUST AT ITS PEAK HERE WHICH MAKES IT GREAT BY DEFAULT. the coin scene is SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD THE ENDING SCENE OF THIS EPISODE IS SOOOO GOOOOOD.

Season 4: 

john quixote - MY FAVE EP OF THE SERIES LOL. love the COSTUMING love the POP CULTURE REFERENCES love that its SEASON 4 love that we GET A ZHAAN CRAIS JOOL AND STARK CAMEO. another conceptually abstract episode so of course i love it lol. love the scene in the end with john and zhaan where he’s kinda a sad boy!!!!! actually funny story about this ep the first time i watched this i was in elementary school still, i grew up on this show this is my Nostalgia Baby series, and did not know what the word “porn” was so like for a very concerning amount of time i always assumed “porn” was an Alien Word and not a real word. BECAUSE LIKE, in context you see chiana holding up a Gooey Boy and going “and this? porn!” and that was all i had to go by the end.

crichton kicks - I LOOOOVE SAD JOHN. I LOVE HIM. I love the character beats we get out of a john that CHOSE THE GIRL over his home and instead of GETTING HER he is punished for it, losing his chance at BOTH OUTCOMES like mentioned in “dog with two bones” despite him having chosen One of the options and not both. love the introduction to 1812 whenever john gets a named thing i am like Yes. :~) my boy, my little man. he’s a little crazy and a little sad.

terra firma - the YEARNING in this ep man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this ep waters my CROPS one of my Biggest Fave scenes is when Aeryn and Jack are in her prowler talking about john and he’s like Do You Wish You Were Human and she doesnt answer and im like LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! more of that John Not Vibing With Earth Anymore trope which I LOVE. literally all fics surrounding this episode i will SNORT LIKE CRACK. 

#its so funny having to decide a third choice for season 3 i was like #ugh............. i dont like any of these....................................... #sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #the question is do i do a Least Favorite ep list and potentially get BLASTED #honorable mentions????? #love A Clockwork Nebari :) #love the What Was Lost eps theyre some of my most frequently watched COULDNT TELL U WHY I JUST REALLY ENJOY THEM #also Lava's a Many Splendored Thing

[maccreadysimp]

breaking down this anti-ian article bc it bothers me ( from the child of a bipolar mother and a male teen with same sex attraction ) while also providing valid reasons ian sucks ( from someone who likes ian )

ive had this drafted for a while so i dont think i cover anything from season 11

tw for i^cest and r^pe

he was with a married man

in this point it points out that he was with kash and he continued his relationship with kash even after linda put cameras in the store

“Ian didn't seem to care about how wrong his affair with Kash was or how much it could hurt Kash's wife Linda, whom he saw at the store regularly. “

that is a quote from that part.

ian gallagher was fifteen in season one, kash was an older man who bought him gifts and payed attention to ian ,, that was not on ian , none of that was ian fault because he was a child

ian wasnt open with lip

“ Ian didn't tell Lip about his preferences and forced Lip to figure it out on his own. Lip was instantly accepting of his brother's truth and even offered to help him figure out any confusion he might be harboring, so it's really strange that Ian wasn't just upfront with his closest confidant from the start.”

no , lip wasnt forced to figure it out on his own and he also wasn’t instantly accepting.

in this point it mentions that ‘they’re extremely close ( bestfriends and brothers ) so its strange ian didnt tell him’

like point 1 , ian is a fifteen year old boy, growing up on the southside , and thoughout the show it has mentioned multiple times that the southside isnt that accepting

back to lip -- lip wasnt accepting, sure he was fine but ‘helping your younger brother figure it out’ by having a (female) classmate give him a blowjob isnt helping

he secretly dated his best friends brother

“Most friends have an unspoken rule about not dating each other's siblings, but Ian broke this rule by secretly entering into a relationship with Mandy's closeted brother Mickey.”

the only thing i have to say about this is , he was still with kash and mickey was a boy in his age group who was gay , growing up in the southside ian probably thought he was the token gay so of course hes going to chase after mickey

he stood by as kash attacked mickey

“Ian didn't do anything to stop Kash from shooting his new lover, and didn't even tell the police about his boss' over-the-top display of jealous action so proper justice could be served.”

okay. because two men he had fallen for had gotten into a fight, there was a gun involved and he panicked, in the end after mickey got shot he went to him

now to address the quote, he didnt say anything to the police because he probably knew that that would bring shame onto kash and his family, along with mickey and his family who are very homophobic

oh yeah and it was like 2011 and cops suck and THEY LIVE ON THE SOUTHSIDE

he and lip tried framing terry milkovich

oh the homophobic and racist dad of his boyfriend and bestfriend who tried to kill him and r*ped his daughter ?

yeah , shit man , that was real bad they shouldn’t have done that /s

he dated jimmy-steves married father

“Ian didn't bother telling Jimmy the truth about his father and didn't end his relationship with Lloyd upon finding out that he had a secret wife and family, either.”

at this point ian is probably sixteen but that doesnt matter bc i wont even address that

he met him at a club and then used his relationship with ned to make mickey jealous which was one of the reasons he kept seeing him, he didnt tell jimmy-steve about the relationship or his father bc he shouldnt find out from him he should find out from his father , again like kash, ned was an older man who payed attention to ian and ned later did develop feelings feelings for ian

he stole lips identity to enlist in the army

he enlisted because he didnt know what to do with himself, its implied/stated that the army timeline was the start of his bipolar

“While impersonating Lip, Ian had tried to steal a helicopter and then proceeded to go AWOL.”

this is because of the bipolar he suffers from, it is referenced later in the series after he gets back and hes manic

ian refused to accept being bipolar

of course he didnt accept it, it is made very clear that his family thinks lowly of monica so of course if hes the lucky duck to get what his siblings demonize her for, of course he’ll not want to be it

“He refused to take medications that could alter his personality or mood.”

okay. this is why im making this whole post, this goes along with part 15 ( or so idk ) ,,

my mother , my dear mother, who is bipolar and doesnt take her meds because they are mood altering , my mom doesnt take med because she told me once that they make her feel like shit, she told me that a little after i was born she started taking them but realized she felt nothing, she felt nothing for my dad or for i ( making her numb )

she told me anti deppresents dont help either because when shes on them and manic it pushes her past productive and into angry

my dad told me that when my mom was on bi polar medication she would seem angry most of the time

he wasnt faitful to mickey

“Ian's bipolar disorder made him very reckless and impulsive and led him to be unfaithful.”

lets break that down.

ians. bipolar. disorder.

this plot point i actually didnt like, mainly bc ian never addresses it so ill give the article a point. but then i take away 2 because they have more of a problem with his bipolar messing with him rather than the fact he never apologized and they never worked it out

ian stole yevgeny

before i start quoting i should mention because his boyfriend, who has supported and helped him is suddenly telling him he needs help, he was helping raise yev so he’ll see yev as his own

“Ian failed to recognize just how crazy he was acting...”

cuting you off right there , he was in a bipolar state, he wasnt ‘crazy’ and isnt ‘crazy’

he cant even keep count of his number of partners

just slutshaming i see

he helped throw frank off a bridge

“His relationship with Frank was understandably never the same after that, as Frank struggled to get over this act of betrayal and cruelty.”

‘was never the same after that’ frank never liked ian, ian was probably his least favorite and that point is very apparent

also , it wasnt just ian , his siblings and his boyfriend caleb

he left a healthy relationship to be with mickey

he fell in love with mickey at 15 , mickey was a comfort and always someone to fall back on, when mickey was taken away and no longer in the picture his heart still obviously was with mickey and when mickey came back he didnt know what to do

he told mickey he had a boyfriend but because mickey has been such a constant in his life he finally has back of course he couldnt resist

he liked trevor, i could tell he did but trevor wasnt the one he watched get r^ped by a russian prostitute, he wasnt the one ian was secretly dating bc it would be a death wish other wise, he wasnt the one there when ian was manic or depressive ( at the start )

he tried blackmailing an old client for money

“Instead of raising the money in an honest manner, Ian chose to visit an old client from his time working at the Fairy Tail and blackmail him into funding the shelter.”

because he felt indebted to trevor and wanted to make it up to him, it would have taken longer to do it in ‘an honest manner’ when his sister would have gotten it instead, he knew how much gay youths like he once was needed a safe place

“He grew up wanting to be nothing like his father, but this whole money-making scheme was straight out of the Frank playbook”

because thats all he knows, he grew up with that ‘playbook’ so of course hes going to take a page out of it, he is nothing like frank , franks money making schemes are selfish and for his own greed while ian wanted the money to help build a safe space for lgbt youth

he let fame inflate his ego

of course he did, hes a southside kid who was destined to fail

also it is very apparent that during the gay jesus era he went off his medication which didnt help

“Before long, he just completely forgot about his ex and focused solely on being a deity”

as much as yes, he did let it mess with his head, he was trying to still help lgbt youth and was going against anti gay churchs , in the end it didnt work out for him because he was off his meds and went over board

he stopped taking his meds

see previous point and ‘ian refused to accept being bipolar’

he actually wanted to stay in prison

because he was doing good in there

ian was helping others and was spreading awareness about lgbt with in the prison , and as him and jail scenes go , we can see people were listening to him and he was trying to make it safe sane and consensual

he let down his army of followers

“Ian admitted that most of his actions were completely irrational and the mere results of his bipolar disorder.”

he didnt want to, we can see this, because he knew he would let down everyone, his family were the only ones to ever ground him and they knew it would be the best option for his own mental health

during the gallavich wedding we can see that a lot of his supporters still have his back because they must know how hard it was for him to put all of that success on something he can’t control

he constantly wasted his potential

this is actually the only point in this article i actually agree with , so only 1/20 i agree with

his relationship with mickey wasn’t actually great

“Mickey spent the first several years of their relationship denying his feelings for Ian.”

he was raised by a homophobic and racist father who he knew would react the way he did when terry had caught the two that one day

“Even after he finally embraced his true self, Ian's bipolar disorder kept them from becoming truly happy together.”

yes but mickey was there for him the entire time and helped him through it, he told him he loved him which was really big for him and did his best to care for him

“They couldn't seem to remain faithful to each other for more than a few weeks.”

back to the point about ians bipolar but for mickey he wanted monogamy , now that scene in s11 may say otherwise but it is very clear that he wants a monogamous relationship with ian and ian ( after getting help ) wants one too, and in the later seasons they are monogamous

“When Mickey asked Ian to run away to Mexico with him, Ian refused.”

he wanted to, it’s obvious, but ian has his family and didnt want to abandon them again, i think part of him knew he would see mickey again because they always find eachother, he gave mickey all of his money and wanted mickey to have a good life

“Their relationship was simply never healthy.”

no it wasnt, but thats why the ship is great in its own way, the gay closet kid raised by a homophobic man is obviously going to have a lot of baggage , and ian who is bipolar and struggling with himself will also have a lot of baggage , but in the end they love eachother and that really shows in season five and season seven specifically

that is all lol ,,, this is long sorry

now, i am not a ian apologist , i love ian but hes a dumbass sometimes

actual valid reasons ian sucks

genuinely believes frank is worse than terry

yes frank was definitely abusive but terry is definitely worse ,,

mentally/physically/sexually abusive , the whole nine yards

terry hired a prostitute to r^pe his son , threatened to kill him and ian on multiple occasions , r^ped his daughter who ended up pregnant and is actively racist

frank on the other hand will make gay jokes but in the end doesnt give enough of a shit , he has attacked his children on multiple occasions but not to the brutality that terry has ( this isnt me excusing it )

sorry ian , terry is worse

never apologized

he never apologized for all the shit he put mickey and his family through, never apologized to mickey for cheating on him , never apologized for all the manic and depressive episodes mickey endured with him

never apologized for walking away when he couldn’t handle it, in hall of shame mickey actually acknowledges this saying ‘its youre whole MO’

debbies sexuality

he has constantly made statements saying debbie isnt gay and that bothers me because , why does it care ? as a gay man and as a gay man who soent time with a lot of lgbt youth wouldnt he support his sister even if shes just ‘experimenting’?

in the recent season he doesnt seem to care and doesn’t say anything but it still bothers me

mickey only getting like 80% of his heart

okay look , i get what ian means when he says this , everyones hes been with has made him who he is but fucking hell dude ,, shut up , thats your husband , thats the love of your life you shouldnt be saying shit like that , especially to him

and then this man had the audacity to say mickey probably feels the same about past flings when he knows that ian is the only one hes probably ever been with/serious about

obviously there is probably more but those are the main ones that come to mind

—

before anyone brings up the trans or bi thing im going to explain my thought process for him

like ive probably mentioned multiple times he grew up southside and obviously only ever grew up with lgb and not t ,, trevor did inform him a lot and ian became supre accepting of everyone,, sexual preference isnt transphobic but i do think he approached the matter badly

now the bi thing , legit all i think is that he doesnt hate bisexual people its just that the man he really liked slept with a woman and never expressed any heterosexual attraction so it probably just suprised him and pissed him off because caleb did cheat on ian

—

if you read this far HOLY SHIT THANKS LOL ,, im not adding things that i think are pro about ian this was just me breaking down that article and giving my two cents :)

feel free to message me and talk to me or send me articles like this about any other character/relationship and i will totally break that one down too lol

thanks for letting me rant

#mine #shameless #ian gallgher #gallavich #mickey milkovich #text post