#can we talk about how the show just got funnier and funnier as every season passed

[showtoonzfan]

You know ever since Velma came out, I’ve noticed how so many people online shared their disgust for Meta humor in general and how it was just never funny, being the lowest form of comedy, and I was about to honestly agree until I realized…..oh yeah…..The Amazing World of Gumball exists. I don’t even know how to explain it but somehow that show was able to make the funniest meta humor I’ve ever seen, ESPECIALLY for a kids show that didn’t even start out that way. It’s honestly just Meta humor but done RIGHT.

#the amazing world of gumball #Cartoon Network #gumball #gumball show #gumball movie #cartoons #can we talk about how the show just got funnier and funnier as every season passed #these writers were something esle #velma the series #hbo velma #meta humor #unrelated

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I enjoyed that latest Taskmaster episode a lot. I don’t know why I’ve hardly written any posts about this season since it started, as it’s been really good. Here’s a brief summary of my updates opinions four episodes in:

- The main thing I wanted for Nick was a chance to show off his magician-related skills. He got that chance in the tension task… it did not go as I’d predicted. However, he has made up for breaking my predictions by turning out to be the sweetest person in the world. It’s been a while since we’ve had a proper cinnamon roll on Taskmaster. I think his gentle banter with Greg continues to be the funniest thing he brings, it’s delightful every time.

- Steve Pemberton won me over in the first couple of episodes, but then lost me pretty hard by admitting he broke that egg on purpose, I must admit I am now pretty focused on hoping he loses specifically as punishment for that. I got mad at him then for sacrificing the task in order to play to the TV edit/try too hard to be funny – he’s done similar things several times since, like imposing extra rules in the Mr. Blobby task and writing puns in the hand task. It is not in the spirit of Taskmaster! He’s probably basically fine but I want him to lose so that future Taskmaster contestants understand you do not come here to perform, you come here to play. I don’t even just hold that belief because of how competitive I am, I also think it’s much funnier if you let you and throw yourself right into the game, which he’s not quite doing, and it disproportionately annoys me.

- I find Sophie Willan’s unpredictability entertaining. Usually she’s shit at the tasks, and every once in a while she’ll be great. She has no idea what’s going on almost ever but apparently has a good eye for art. She talks to horses. She nearly drowns in a river that only goes up to her waist. She demonstrates sexy dances that literally no one asked her to do? She has never seen this show before. You never know what she’s going to bring to the table next.

- All right, Joanne McNally’s won me around. She went in with a significant deficit in my opinion of her because I say some quite shitty things on a different TV show once, but four episodes in, she’s been entertaining enough for me to forgive it (I mean… I don’t actually forgive the sentiment expressed, but I can decide I like her enough to choose to assume it was just a misguided attempt to be funny). She’s breathing life into tense situations and tension into situations where the task explicitly requests it. She’s also never seen the show before but she’s throwing herself all the way into it. She’s consistently funny. She’s sharp and knows what’s going on, task-wise, almost all the time, while making it look fairly effortless. She didn’t do the prep work but I respect that she still showed up to play.

- Well, we haven’t had the full-on meltdowns from Robins, but I kind of knew that would happen, as they caught him just as he was moving into his “sober and more enlightened” era. It will always be a loss that Taskmaster never cast Farthinggate-era Robins when they had the chance, but I’m actually surprised at how much I’m enjoying “on his best behaviour Robins”. Mainly because it is visibly incredibly difficult for him to not have competitive meltdowns and to play it as chill as he is (which still isn’t very chill, it’s just chill compared to what he used to be), and the tension of that difficulty can be very funny. Maybe it’s like how people trying to avoid swearing on the radio is funnier than just hearing them swear. I’ve heard John Robins have plenty of proper competitive meltdowns – it is a new and uniquely entertaining thing to watch him sit there and try to physically force every nerve in his body to not do that. A whole new level of the pointless intensity. Those team tasks especially have potential for it. Also, they’ve used the same joke several times now, but I don’t mind at all. They could keep implying that John’s fucked up a task and giving him time to panic before saying it’s fine – that might get old after 100 or so episodes, but 10 episodes wouldn’t be nearly enough for that to stop being funny. I’d be fine if they keep it up all season. I desperately hope he wins but I also hope they torture him.

I have to admit I may have got too into the competition too early in this season, because normally it isn’t until the last few episodes, if the scores are tight, when I start to get really concerned about whether it’ll end up going my way. But yesterday, while watching episode four, I found myself genuinely stressed during every task because of how much I want John Robins to beat Steve Pemberton. I mean, I want him to win, but I specifically want him to beat Steve Pemberton, because I do not want someone to get away with being smugly too good to throw himself entirely into Taskmaster. I’m too invested. I knew John had gone in one point ahead of both Steve and Joanne, and I was keeping score in my head throughout the episode, of how far each score led him to extend his lead over both of them. I don’t usually count points as the episode goes along until episodes 9 or 10.

Most tasks I’m less interested in John’s total score and more interested in his score relative to Steve. I realize Joanne is also competitive and a threat to win and I want him to beat her too, but I don’t think she’s as likely to win overall, she’s not as competitive in general and the only reason she’s so close to the top right now is she got a lucky 5-0 that’s not likely to repeat itself. Also, if she wins I’ll be disappointed, but not nearly as disappointed as I’ll be if Steve does.

Anyway, I thought episode 4 was great fun. It does feel a bit more “simmering” than some other Taskmaster seasons – I almost wrote “gentle” but I don’t think that’s quite true, because there seems to be a lot going on. It’s just not all being shouted the way it is in some seasons. I like it, I enjoy the unpredictable mystery of Sophie Willan and the incomprehensible charm of Nick Mohammed and the understated arrogance of Steve Pemberton (in a “fuck this guy but he makes a good villain” way) and the simmering anger of John Robins. Also Joanne McNally is there, cheerfully shouting whatever thoughts occur to her, and they’re almost always funny.

One note I do have to mention in writing a post about Taskmaster s17e04 – if you have a good friend who’s recently quit drinking due to quite a severe and life-ruining alcohol addiction, with rum as his drink of choice for a number of years, you should maybe not trick him into drinking rum on national television even if it’s non-alcoholic? Ed Gamble said on the podcast that he thinks the rest of them got regular rum and only John got special non-alcoholic rum, and I think/hope Ed was wrong about that, because you really shouldn’t trick people into drinking hard liquor at work even if they’re not alcoholics in recovery. Especially since any of those people could have gone all in and drank the whole glove for a laugh. Going out of their way to procure special non-alcoholic rum is a pretty weird thing to do when Ribena has been used on the show before and has to be cheaper/easier to find/avoids the thorny issue of alcohol altogether. I found it funny that they threw pickled onions in there, because anyone who’s listened to John Robins on the radio will know he’s obsessed with pickled onions; I figured Alex added that as a sort of in-joke with his friend, to the point where it’s almost unfair that by being friends with Alex, John gets an item on the task tailored to things he’s most likely to recognize. But Alex will also know that rum was John Robins’ drink of choice for a long time (I mean, I know it, so I'm pretty sure his real-life drinking buddy Alex Horne does), which sort of makes putting rum in the task look like an incredibly twisted and fucked up version of that joke. I'm sure it was just an oversight, but still, pretty big oversight. Even if they didn’t have an alcoholic in the cast, why bring alcohol into it at all when you could just use some other drink that starts with R?

Having said that, does anyone know if non-alcoholic whiskey can replicate the burning sensation of the real thing, or does it just try for the taste? Asking for a friend who's trying to give up whiskey but really misses it and specifically misses its burning qualities and that friend is me. I actually hadn't thought about non-alcoholic hard liquor until Alex mentioned it on the show, I just knew about non-alcoholic beer and wine. I might look into that. But anyway, they probably shouldn't feed it to people who are at work without warning.

[billyherringtonjr]

Seeing people talking about how IWtV famdom treat black characters and white characters differntly that in those fanworks black characters are always more violent and dominant or vicious and white ones are always softer and submissive especially with Louis and Lestat. Idk, it's definitely true(like a lot of other fandoms with interracial couples), but maybe because I'm a cruel person and I' m neither white nor black that I don't have any sympathy towards either race, I don't feel anything other than "that’s so funny" for the whole "Lestat is THE MOTHER and THE BOTTOM of the show you can't convince me otherwise" arguement because I just can't treat this stupidity seriously, it's even funnier to me especially when IWtV is a show that clearly shows:

·Louis got dominated in his whole life by a lot of things especially his relationship with Lestat, to the extent that he got trapped like being in a small box. Hell, it’s even kinda the theme of season 1. ·Louis acted "masculine" yes because that was his disguise to present as a strong bussiness man to survive in that envirement, and he was never comfortable about this armour. When his social identity got peeled out he became that soft and even meek "housewife" in the family. I can't say only that is the true Louis because diguise is a part of yourself too, but the "masculine" Louis is definitely not the whole picture of him either. And based on the show it's safe to say he's soft inside I think. ·The show actually doesn't contain a lot of explicit gay sex scenes, the most explicit one is the "anywhere sounds like nowhere"scene from EP6, a lot of people even have argued it was not a sex scene either, I mean...come on it's a very TYPICAL TV sex scene, what, you expect actual genital images in every show? (there was even a bed——i found that quite funny too.) And in that scene, Lestat tops and he's dominant like he always is.

Don't get me wrong, I know that fanworks are not real, it's free and doesn't have to follow canon, and the whole "the dominant one has to be the top, the submissive one has to be the bottom" thing is quite stupid to begin with, I don't even care if you're a racist or not we are always "discriminating" something because admit it human beings are stupid. I'm talking about those comments like "let me explain how Lestat is canonilly the MOTHER and he should be the BOTTOM" and people anylizing the show content based on this kind of theory. No one tried to "convince you" honey, you can ship a ship however you like, you can treat every white man your soft babygirl and other people around him his dom and should be his protector just don't ignore the show content and try to creat a whole different new one WHEN STATING YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT THE SHOW, come on we're not blind.

#interview with the vampire #amc iwtv #louis de pointe du lac #lestat de lioncourt #amc interview with the vampire

[taikoturtle]

Thoughts on WN S2

Heavy spoilers, as I have no self control and ended up just clicking ‘next’ until I ended up finishing the whole thing. 

A SUPER long post below the cut

So, I can’t tell if it’s the extreme fatigue that I’m experiencing due to lack of sleep (which I’m sure plays a part in it) but I have mixed feelings on season 2. I’ll just ramble some points off

Avatrice

I will get straight to it, I thought it was pretty great content, they really fed us this season. Straight off the bat, they knew who was the main ship and they really leaned into it for S2 and we were rewarded with so many good scenes. From the build up of jealousy (not just from Bea, but also bits from Ava), to the fact that they shared so much screen time together (probably moreso together than apart), it really was a bonanza of Avatrice in literally almost every episode. 

Bea not getting drunk before and Ava like “oh hell yes, lets get you effed up! shots shots shots!” was pretty fun, but it was even funnier how Beatrice didn’t even seem that drunk after the whole bar scene ended. Like, girl, if you never drink more than a couple sips of wine, how did you not get at least a little sick or dizzy after all those shots and then proceeded to kick butt like nothing happened? 

but also, that bar scene!! 

and also oh my god, they were roommates. 

When did Ava learn to bartend? (random thought)

So, so many moments between these two. Ava falling and hitting the floor and Beatrice cradling her in her arms, it was almost like true love brought her back (lol) but eh, it’s the halo. They’re unstoppable together! 

Beatrice constantly worried for Ava’s training and battle-readiness, because Warrior Nuns don’t get to live long lives and this thought probably weighs heavy on her mind constantly.

Beatrice really struggling with her own convictions for the first time and telling Ava to run and hide so that she can just be safe, because Bea would rather be apart than see Ava fall in battle. It’s about keeping the halo safe, yes, but it’s moreso about keeping Ava safe.

Camila having her talk with Beatrice about being terrible at lying. Lol, Camila knows, she’s always known.

We got a kiss!! 

Their goodbyes by the portal was so sad, and they both got to say I love you, but Ava didn’t hear it back. Ava is now floating for who knows how many years in the beyond, not having actually heard Beatrice return her words. And yeah I know, she already knows how Bea feels since they kissed, but still, that hurts.

Action scenes were awesome. I really enjoyed the choreography for the fights, and the episodes that had those extended shots felt very dynamic and exciting. There was also a lot more gore and dismemberment this season (or at least it feels that way) and I don’t remember S1 being like that, but honestly I like the level of violence in this season, as the stakes felt higher and tone of the show overall darker and more urgent.

Back to the tone, I like how this season felt darker and more sinister. The fear in the cemetery legitimately scared me for a sec when Michael’s face changed. I was not expecting that. and then Camila’s hallucinations with Adriel felt very unnerving. And the uncertainty of not knowing who was siding with Adriel created a truly anxious atmosphere. Great stuff. 

Sweet, sweet Camila going from rookie to coming into her own. I was worried for a bit that Adriel would capitalize on her insecurity of constantly being the young one, but she fought back and weaponized it against him, which was awesome. Her transforming into somewhat of a mentor to Yasmine was also great to see. Plus I mean c’mon, Camila with a gun? Camila with a wrist-mounted crossbow? Sign me up!

Mother Superion! We got more backstory! We got that psyche out (honestly if she didn’t make it, I was going to riot). I’m glad she got that moment with the halo bringing her back after enduring so much burden and regret over her past actions. She also had some super badass fight scenes and overall Sylvia De Fanti’s acting was very standout for me.

Now here begins my rant

Now, I will say, the one thing that really, really bothered me was how they handled Shotgun Mary, and this particular point really left a sour taste in my mouth to the point that I almost didn’t even enjoy the Avatrice payoff at the end.

If she really is truly gone, they glossed over her death so POORLY. If that was the direction they were going to take, I would rather they have ended S1 with her heroically sacrificing herself and the sisters teleporting away so that we didn’t have to wait 2 FREAKING YEARS just to have a brief scene saying she’s gone?!? It was like dangling her fate in front of us and it was so cruel, with them knowing she was not returning for S2. 

And like, the reactions of the sisters upon learning her downfall, the scenes were emotional, and heart wrenching, but then the next episode it was like NOTHING EVEN HAPPENED??? Ava was cracking jokes about going SIGHTSEEING??? Like, wtf??? I thought it would have had more impact, but all we got really was a line from Mother Superion about how they don’t have time to mourn the fallen??? It just, the handling of all that really rubbed me the wrong way.

and then the random introduction of Sister Dora at the end? Like they basically just replaced Shotgun Mary with another POC as if to say “oh it’s fine, here’s filling the quota with another person”. I don’t know. I just, it felt so tone deaf?? to me. 

And then Lilith, I understand that her character in the comics (granted, I did not read very far) is not meant to necessarily be a hero, but just her going from hunting down Father Vincent, distraught over Mary, to then going to Adriel’s side? The side of the guy WHO WAS THE REASON MARY DIED? And to justify this decision, I get that Lilith is a complex character dealing with the expectations of her mom and not becoming the halo-bearer, but like, that scene with her mom was so brief, and I felt like it wasn’t new information that her parents were overbearing. It just felt like a throwaway scene to explain why Lilith would end up siding with Adriel. (also that kiss? I saw it coming a mile away and it still made me want to throw my phone). Lilith in general is one of my favorite characters, and for her to flip flop and end up siding with the enemy feels like a step back from where her trajectory was going in season 1 after she returned. 

And then Adriel’s death???? DEATH BY TARASK STABBING? He was so powerful and yet he got surrounded by a handful of tarasks and couldn’t teleport away or something? Why didn’t Ava do this earlier? Did Reya give her the idea? Even if she didn’t, why try exploding the divinium bomb first before just summoning the tarasks?? I have so many questions, his death just felt so... undeserved. 

Also how did the portal stay open after the cross was destroyed?

If Reya had been chasing the damn halo for CENTURIES, if it was right there in front of her, why did she let Ava keep it? The tarasks have been hunting that shit for forever, and Reya just... let her have it? maybe this plays a part in the future seasons, but like, right now it looked like a “thank you for saving me and destroying Adriel, you can keep it” kind of gesture, which is super wild to me.

WHEW.

Anyways, that was a lot more than I intended, but I just had a hard time sleeping because there were so many thoughts running through my head. 

I want to like this season, and in many ways I did (the Avatrice content yo!!) but like, it just felt like there was a cloud hanging over it the whole time for me so I’m conflicted.

#long post #sorry for the rant #warrior nun #warrior nun spoilers #spoilers #wn spoilers #there are so many more things I left out #but I have work right now #and I'm tired #and struggling to focus hahahha

[popculturebuffet]

Quick Thoughts: Scott Adams Does It Again, More Removals, ReBoot and Halloween Schedule

Hello all you happy ghouls and goblins. It's almost spooky season so that means it's time for the most haunting thing of all.. an old man yelling at the world in a comic strip. Also my halloween schedule

Halloween Schedule:

I've decided to shift in how I reveal my review schedule. I used to keep it on the blog but the combination of how long it takes to edit when this has to change frequently (as I don't book most comission slots in advance), and the fact Tumblr has made it so hard to access that even Kev, my most loyal reader, barely uses it, i'm just going to put them out here every month. As always schedule slippage and what not may apply.

October: 10/2: Garfield's Halloween Monthly Muppets: Muppets Haunted Mansion The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals 10/9: Watchmen: Two Riders Approaching Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes The Owl House: Thanks to Them 10/16: More Than Meets The Eye #2 Paranorman Mission HIll: One Bang for Two Brothers 10/23: Evil Dead 2: Beyond Dead by Dawn Emma Patreon Scooby Doo Poll Winner!

As you can see this year's halloween is less focused but as a result is giving you more spooky goodness for your buck with an all time classic halloween special, the start of a look at the spooktacular hatchetfield series (moved up to concide with Starkid's ongoing campign to hopefully drum up some numbers for stretch goals), more Evil Dead as we take a look at two of Ash's comics, the LONG delayed fan voted on look at paranorman and another poll this time for SCOOBY DOOBY DOO! I watched every movie with my good friend @jess-the-vampire and now you fine folks get to pick from the ones my patreons and jess pick out for you. Poll will be forthcoming.

In non horror news, we have the begining of the end for Owl House, my annual look at mission hill for the keviversary, and more transformers and watchmen. Pretty spooky huh folks?

Scott Adams VS the Environment

So yeah for those who didn't know, and i'm sad to inform you, Scott Adams who created the comic strip Dilbert and highly influenced a medium I love, comic strips.. ended up becoming, or maybe always was and just got more obvious with it in the trump era right wing maga loving douchecanoe. I already disowned him and got rid of all my dilbert when previously the man tried to use a school shooting to promote his side hustle. It's very sad to me a strip I genuinely used to love is now dead to me because it's creator is such a dick.

That being said I can still get some laughs from his behaviors as this morning I read an article. Apparently in recent dilbert strips Scotty talked about ESG's, essentially a way to get corporations to stop being captain planet villians and start being captain planet. Understadanbly being rightwing talking points given shape, form and a popular comic strip, Scott Adams thinks this is stupid and ranted about it in his comic strip

Yeah not only is that as far as I can tell not how they work, and an unfunny shot at necessary diversity, but the second strip is just baffling. Apparently Scott introduced a black man who identifies as white, which is not only very much not a thing, but also clearly designed with the same good faith arguging as my dad saying he could marry his cat if gay marriage passed. It's dumb

But the article, which I highly recommend, shows it SOMEHOW gets dumber. Yest shooting himself in the foot on gay sterotyping, gender queer sterotyping, trans sterotyping and just plain being a decent human wasn't enough. No he also encourages employees to send their employers these strips. The article even mentions wanting to see that because it'd be geninely funnier than either of these

I have my own two cents: Since when has ANY boss ever listened to a dilbert strip. Scott himself pre going off a cliff while yelling MAGA!, menteioned in a collection how bosses would ask employees to take strips down. Big Corpos aren't going to listen to the right thing for GOOD reasons. WHy would they listen to their employees? "Oh wow the guy who draws dilbert is mad at us better get rid of these tax breaks for doing the bare minimum of basic human decency so we don't offend the mighty Scott Adams"

Scott Adams fall is just.. pathetic at this stage. It's shame he's sunk this low but boy is it fun to watch

HBO Max and Netflix remove shows

Whelp SOMEHOW HBO Max isn't done, as it's removing both Tigtone and Lazer Wulf. Both shows I hadn't seen and really wasn't intrested in, but both shows that don't deserve this. It appears nothing is safe. The only possibly GOOD news is that CN shows are popping up on hulu as of late, meaning we MIGHT see some of the abandoned shows pop up elsewhere and they MIGHT be pivoting from Tax Writeoff to just selling their ip's for parts, which isn't GREAT, but it's still better as it least it means Close Enough might land eleswhere along with everything else they threw away.

Netflix is also getting in on it, removing one their first originals and a show I forgot existed and will probably again, Hemlock Grove. Hopefully this isn't the same nonsense and this trend dosen't continue. I mean I wouldn't be sad if I couldn't watch Rake the forgotten Will Arnett comedy you didn't know existed about a guy who gives adivce to people, but it's still weird to just throw out content you've already invested in at best and terrible at worst. It's not AS bad as HBO Max because unlike HBO Max netflix might NEED the tax writeoff as it tries to rebalance books and makes incresingly sketchy decisions, but it's still not great and I HOPE other streamers don't pick up on this.

Reboot early thoughts

Finally because this coudln't get any weirder, my thoughts on the recent Hulu sitcom Reboot which aired it's first three episodes this week. Which is a WEIRD model, as you'd think two would be enough.

Reboot is a sitcom starring the wonderful Rachel Bloom of Crazy Ex Girlfriend, a show I haven't watched but do know for it's charming musical numbers. LIke this one!

... why HAVEN'T I watched this through.

Anyways reboot follows Hannah, an indie darling whose latest film has given her the clout to do whatever she wants, so she pitches to Hulu a reboot of the old sitcom step right up about a couple marrying and dealing with both their precious son and the boys father.

So naturally they get everyone else back on board: Reed Sterling, played to pretentious perfectoin by Kegan Micheal Key whose finally found his second wind after a few failed shows post his best friend and former comedy partner becoming one of the greatest horror directors ever, a theater trained actor who left the show in a huff and now returns assured that original series creator Gordon is coming nowhere near it and leaving his equally pretentious girlfriend in new york, Clay Barber, the formerly drugged out mess, now a burnt out barely functioning but entirely jolly and likeable wreck of a man played by Johnny Knoxville being amazingly deadpan, Bree Marie Jensen played by a beautifulyl unhinged judy greer clearly channeling Cheryl, a primia donna actress turned duchess and Reed's ex with the chemistry naturally still being there, and Zack, a goofy awkward former child star who spent the rest of his career in awful teen films for what i'm assuming is disney channel. Naturally he's played by former Disney Channel star Calumn Worthy, who was on the terrible disney sitcom austin and ally which I reviewed. In the review I mentioned this show and that Calumn would likely do better. And I was right he was capable.. and suprised tha the ended up stealing the whole goddman show from a buffet of far more seasoned comedy actors. Don't get me wrong, EVERYONE here is great from Reed's up his own ass smuggery, to Bree frequently mockign reed to Clay freaked out talking about his Zack's mom gave him an orange slice after sex and called him a good boy and telling Zack not to punch him in the nose as "my septum's hanging on by a thread'

It's Calum who steals the show as he talks about "How cool is it we're all adults who have had sex?" has to constantly remind people who is is and awkardly treis to bond with Clay after Clay sleeps with his mom twice. Worthy is game to not only make fun of his own history but be the charming awkward goofus this series needs. Zack tends to have the best lines.

Of course this being hollywood, Gordon naturally comes back and Hannah nearly quits, as does Sterling. He ends up relenting on it as they ALL need this: Sterling hasn't worked a paid gig in a year (and it was for a hemroid commerical), Bree needs the gig as her divorce was under "kettle law" thus meaning she barely got anything, Clay need sit becaues "bad stuff finds me" when he's not working, and Zack needs it because shockingly teen movies don't like actors who need hairplugs playing teens. Weird given Disney hired a 30 year old once to play a 16 year old. Maybe it was a policy change

So they beg Hannah to come back, allowing the cast to maintain some dignity while still getting the money. That's when we get the big twist of episode 1 and the one that realy makes the show: Gordon, played by the legendary Paul Reiser playing peek douchebag, is Hannah's dad from the marriage before the one he based Step Right Up on and is introducing a new child in the pilot as the long lost child of Reed's character/Gordon's Self Insert to retake the story.

So now we get botht he intresting story of a father trying to come to terms with the crap he did while still being a huge old school douche, his daughter trying not to throttle him, and the rest of the crew dealing with all their shit including an inexperinced reality star gordon hires fresh off fuck buddy mountain (which if it wans't a show before this certainly will be now) , Reed and Bree's sexual tension and as I mentioned Clay nailing Zack's mom who creepily attends al lher sons performances. The cast has great chemistry, the jokes are high and this is set to be one of the best comedis of the season. Go check it out. And thanks for reading.

#team starkid #reboot #scott adams #hbo max #netflix #Youtube

[anendoandfriendo]

Okay, so we just made it to like episode s1e11 of JJBA and wanted to share this joy.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The way that Joseph pulls these fakeouts is hilarious!

Intense circling like there's going to be one hell of a fist fight.

Jojo: Fuck your martial arts. pulls out a tommy gun and unloads the whole thing

Evil vampire monk monologues about how unstoppable he is and is immune to hamon.

Jojo: Well how about grenade?

Evil vampire bats it away like its nothing.

Jojo: ssss. Grenades.

Boom

We were really confused getting into this show at first. When we first caught any of it I think we started in season 2? Idk, we watched some of it on toonami and got the impression it was the beginning of a brand new show. So we were utterly lost starting from the actual beginning lol. And it didnt help that we couldn't watch one of the episodes right when the action started happening with Johnathan.

Thanks again for getting us interested in this show!

-Foxy

Ooo, not a problem at all sobsibpsipbpus!!

We think we're talking about the same season* and yes, we agree we agree. The fakeouts are GLORIOUS.

We cannot wait to tell you that while it is not as blatant that Joseph* Joestar does, in fact, maintain his gremlin energy throughout his entire life sojbspjspjvp you will understand once you get through Stardust Crusaders if you haven't gotten there yet, Foxy.

Or, we can have you watch this Joseph Joestar Oh My God compilation that makes us laugh every time we watch it, and then you might get an idea. But the show is even funnier so, like, feel free to watch that and then you'll find this funnier with its context:

*We keep mixing these two names up? The compilation says Joseph, we're going with that. We could also be mixing up S1 with S2. ;×;

[moralesispunk]

How they react when you cry at a TV show/ Movie

For: Frankie Morales, Din Djarin, Marcus Moreno, Pero Tovar, Marcus Pike, Agent Whiskey, Dave York and Oberyn Martell

x Gn Reader (Pero x afab reader)

Summary: how the Pedro boys would react when you get upset watching your favourite TV show or movie (this may or may not be inspired after I watched the Flight episode of Greys)

Warnings: reader upset over their favourite character death/ one mention or pregnancy with Pero

Frankie

You had finally convinced Frankie to watch your favourite show with you, starting from the beginning again. You had only made it a few seasons in before starting again with Frankie so when one of your favourite characters died it was your first time watching this part. He was so engrossed in what was going on that he didn’t realise you had been crying until you were gasping for air and shaking next to him. At first he panicked thinking something had happened to you.

“Whats wrong, baby?” he turned to face you.

When you couldn’t talk through the tears but waved towards the TV he realised you were crying at the show and so he pulled you into his side, cradling your head and shoulders as he gently rocked and hushed you. He did have to bite back a smile, knowing he would definitely tease you later about this.

“It’s okay, let it out.”

When you tried to say you were sorry through the tears, that you were being silly and it was just a show he told you that you weren’t being silly at all and asked if you wanted to put on an episode of something funnier before bed. He gently held you against his side until the sniffling stopped, then he started to tickle your side to really make sure the tears stayed away.  

Din

The long journeys through hyperspace could be boring sometimes and so whenever you went into the bunk to relax you would put on an old show on your holo projector. Once Din had the ship settled in hyperspace, he climbed down the ladder to check on you and the kid. When the bunk door opened he saw the kid happily asleep in his hammock and then you curled up in the corner with a hand over your mouth trying to keep your tears in. He panicked thinking you had been hurt the last time you were off the ship and didn’t tell him but as soon as he seen you watching the show you had told him about he put his hand on his hip and beckoned you out the bunk. 

“I thought you were hurt,” he said, “come on, lets not wake the kid up.” 

He helped you up the ladder but as soon as you went to sit in your seat he gently gripped your arm to stop you, moving your bodies so he was on his seat and you were lying across his lap, curled into his chest. He let you mope around for a while, gently holding you against his chest, before distracting you as he spoke about the next planet you were going to.

Marcus M

You felt Missy was now old enough to watch one of your favourite shows with you and so started from the beginning for the third time to watch together. You knew one of the saddest episodes were coming but thought since this would be the third time watching it you would be fine. You were wrong. Missy was a little upset but no where near you so you managed to hold in the tears as you walked out her room and climbed into bed with Marcus. You let the tears flow and he chuckled quietly, putting down his book and taking off his glasses as he pulled you onto his chest. 

“Oh honey, still as sad as the first time?” he rubbed your back. 

“Sadder! How can it get sadder every time?” you cried, your tears now leaving a wet patch on his grey t-shirt, “I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be sorry, it is a sad episode. Remember I cried when I watched it too!”

“Oh yeah, you cried like a baby,” you laughed.

The both of you stayed curled up like that as he put on a funnier TV show for you both to have on in the background as you laughed at his reaction when he first watched the show.

Pero

Pero had never been to see a play before; mercenaries do not have that much downtime. Recently Pero decided to “hang up the sword” and take over the Blacksmith shop since he did not want to leave his wife for prolonged periods of times, especially since you were not carrying his child. As soon as you said you had to visit the nearby town for materials for your seamstress shop, he had the horse and cart packed for the journey. It was a short journey and easy enough to collect all the materials you needed. On the walk back to the cart, Pero saw you watch the people fill into the theatre to watch a play.

“Do you want to go watch as well, mi amor?”

“Its okay Pero, I know it is not how you would wish to spend your afternoon.”

“I wish to spend my afternoon with you, that is all,” Pero took your hand and walked you towards the theatre.

You hadn’t been to see a play since before you met Pero and were happy to be back in the excited atmosphere. It was a play you had never seen before, one that had you in tears by the end. Pero hadn’t noticed, his eyes half shut with sleep, until the play ended and he turned to face you. Your face was tear stained and eyes puffy.

“Mi amor?”

“It’s fine Pero, hormones,” you tried to laugh it off but it didn’t quite reach your eyes.

He gently took your hand, placing a kiss to the back of your knuckles and helping you out of the seat, wrapping an arm around your waist in an unusual public display of affection as he walked you back to the cart. He let you sleep against his shoulder the whole way home, tired from tears and carrying his child, pressing kisses to your head and squeezing your leg every so often.

Marcus P

This man will be crying with you. With your work lives quite hectic for now, the both of you decided to find a TV show to watch together when you got home to spend some time together after work, curled up on the couch with a takeaway. This night you watched a particularly sad episode as you lay between his legs, your back pressed against his chest. You tried to hide your tears, facing forwards and letting them run down your face, but when you heard Marcus sniffle from behind you decided to turn and face him. The both of you laughed hard at how puffy each others eyes were, his arms tightening around your waist as he pulled you tighter against him. 

“I’m glad I’m not the only one crying,” he spoke into your neck, his voice a little muffled.

“Me too,” you laughed, the tears still falling down your face.

“I think we should put something a little more lighthearted than this now, hm?”

“I think thats a good idea,” you laughed, turning your head to press a kiss to his cheek.

Whiskey

When Jack got home from his mission the last thing he expected was you curled up on the couch with a box of tissues and crying at the TV. 

“Sweetheart, whats wrong?” he walked over to you, placing his hat on the rack and sitting by your side.

“This show! Why do they make it so sad?”

“Well, I could ask why you keep watching it if it makes you this sad?” he teased.

When he saw that your lips didn’t move from their pout, he gently pulled you onto his lap, your legs straddling his waist as you pressed into his neck. He kissed down your neck until your breathing calmed down a little and he finally pulled you back to look at him.

“How ‘bout you let me make you forget all about that show, hm?”

Your face finally cracked into a smile, leaning forward and taking lips in yours. After a minute of breathless kissing he stood up and wrapped your legs around his waist, walking towards the bedroom.

“Hell, why don’t we see if ol’ Jack can make you forget your own name...”

Dave 

When Dave came home from work and noticed the light was still on in the living room he knew you would be watching your favourite show because you preferred watching it on the big TV. What he didn’t expect was to find you hysterically crying on the couch. He dropped his briefcase, quickly by your side and holding your face.

“What happened?”

“They-they-”

“Shhh, its okay deep breaths you can tell me,” he rubbed his thumbs back and forth over your cheeks.

“They killed him off!”

“Who did?”

“The show! They just- they just killed him off!”

“I thought you were hurt!” Dave’s suddenly worried face was covered in a grin as he let his back fall against the couch.

His hand came up to his chest, literally breathing out a sigh of relief as he laughed.

“Its not funny,” you sighed, letting yourself fall back next to him.

“Oh, honey,” he moved his arm around your shoulders, pulling you into his side and rubbing circles on your bare shoulder, “I’m sorry.”

He reached for the remote, clicking off the paused show you had been watching and putting something funnier on the TV as he let you curl up into his side, chuckling every so often but also pressing kisses into the top of your head.

Oberyn

He hadn’t expected you to cry so much at the play, almost regretting bringing you as he watched you wipe away the tears that were flowing down your cheeks. You turned to him, cheeks red and slightly embarrassed as you huffed a laugh. Oberyn reached out and wiped some of the tears with his hand before wrapping his arm around your waist and pulling you onto his lap. 

“It’s okay, my love, I’ve got you,” he whispered into your ear.

He sat back in his chair more comfortably, letting you curl into his chest as he rubbed your back while you watched the rest of the play.

Permanent tag // @phoenixhalliwell @asta-lily @hb8301 @princess76179 @sarahjkl82-blog @spideysimpossiblegirl @blackmarketmummy @bison-writes @dihra-vesa @evyiione

#frankie morales x you #frankie catfish morales x you #din djarin x you #marcus moreno x you #pero tovar x you #marcus pike x you #dave york x you #frankie morales x reader #frankie catfish morales x reader #din djarin x reader #marcus moreno x reader #pero tovar x reader #marcus pike x reader #dave york x reader #oberyn martell x you #oberyn martell x reader #agent whiskey x you #agent whiskey x reader #headcannon

[autoplaysdigimon]

So, let’s talk comics again.

Previously, I showed off the transition between seasons 1 and 2, and how it cut off about three quarters of 01 content. 

(Also, since that cover was scanned, it has come apart from the rest of the book, and now I have two halves of cover for this comic. Alas.)

The comic series for 02 must have been handled by different people, because it’s ever so slightly different to the anime. But, uh, the quality is about the same as before.

This is a cute detail to include, even if the scene that this is from didn’t appear in the comic. You can see that it’s the actual photo that was taken, with everyone staring at the egg! How nice.

TK, Kari and, weirdly, Izzy are missing from this. I’d chalk it up to all three of them showing up in this story, but Tai does too, so who fuckin knows.

This is their first appearance, no scene of TK and Davis or anything. Of note is that Kari doesn’t insult Davis, maybe he’s less of a douche in this version. Also: “football”, not soccer. Different markets, I suppose, but I know that we call it soccer here in New Zealand, so????

“YOUR BROTHER IS AWESOME AND I WANNA BE HIM”

Davis Motomiya: Disaster Bi.

Oooo, an almost swear? “Oh my God” seems a bit risky for a kid’s comic.

This art style is adorable! Much better than the 01 version, even though they appear in the SAME COMIC.

BELIEVEABLE DIALOGUE. Although hey, there’s a “damn” there! They must have had their big boy pants on for this translation or something?

I really like “UH OH” as a sound effect.

(...ignore that spot above Kari’s dialogue there, it doesn’t seem to be on the actual comic so it must have been a scanning oopsie.)

Here’s these guys’ introduction! Why is Cody there? Who knows!

Also I was wrong, this mention of Izzy is his only “appearance” in this one, so why didn’t he get to be in the age-up panel up there? How rude.

(He appears in the next one, so they weren’t going for any “ooo what does IZZY look like!” suspense kinda thing. They were just bullying the poor kid.)

Hey look, a panel from the show! I don’t think that one actually shows up in this episode, though, weirdly.

Yolei why are you reading someone else’s email? Rude.

The dialogue immediately before this is Kari saying “Not all of us can go!” and then this happens, immediately proving her wrong. This version of the story just utterly blitzes through the plot points, doesn’t it? No hesitation, just action. It kinda takes the charm out of it a bit?

Not entirely,

but a little bit.

Now, I say that, and then I have to present to you my absolute favourite panel from this mess.

...I

I’m so glad I took a break between the last comic and this, in retrospect, because it means that I got to have the last avatar up for a while before I changed it to this. IT’S TOO PERFECT I LOVE IT

The egg is just on a fucking path, I guess. Why not?!

...

Well, that’s another strong contender.

Davis inherently understanding this all notwithstanding, this sequence never fails to crack me up. What was your thought process here, Davis? Why the sassy? Why did fear not happen? Who are you???

Now, you may have noticed some sequence breaking here - by this point in the episode, we should have our little blue friend by now. This is the biggest difference between the two versions.

In the anime, they discuss the egg a bit, try to lift it, and Davis succeeds. Veemon is born, they throw around some introductions, and then Monochromon shows up and ruins their day. 

In this version...

...this happens, somehow.

I don’t understand

THERE HE IS I LOVE HIM

...and then his birthday is IMMEDIATELY RUINED.

HOW IS THIS THE FUNNIEST THING EVER

I just... I don’t know what to say that could add to this situation. This is the funniest damn thing to ever happen and there’s nothing that I can say that could make it funnier. Between every expression that Davis makes, the fact that they forget that they’re in mortal peril because a little blue man appeared, poor Veemon’s triumphant debut being interrupted and losing all of his momentum, the fact that you can hear the nonexistant music grind to a halt for this one moment, and the fact that even the Digimon Emperor and Monochromon are given pause... fucking hell this is my favourite moment.

“im 12 seconds old and what is this”

dshgkjhdjl Veemon you absolute fuckup. Never change.

There’s a minor plot hole in the dub, where Davis shouts “Digi-Armour Energise” without knowing that phrase, the second episode confirming that they have to shout that and Davis didn’t just make it up. In the original version, Veemon tells him to shout it, but his line was changed for the dub. Interestingly enough:

It’s preserved in this version! Along with the basics of the line that they changed it to in the dub! Weird. Were they going off the original script, or was there someone on the writing team who noticed that?

The fight goes slightly differently, but the basics are the same.

This panel is cool as fuck, tho.

You know what? I am ready for a new adventure. Let’s do it.

(Does Davis have a tear in his eye there? CUTE)

#digimon #davis motomiya #veemon #flamedramon #auto reads digimon #digimon anime #digimon adventure 02

[black-coffee-and-sugar]

God where do I even begin on 6x10? Random assortment of thoughts:

- I suppose it was Nia's turn to fuck up badly but she's so innocent about it I can't even be mad

- that PSA was hilarious but what's even funnier is the show trying to convince me that it's viewership is so high because of the message and not because of how awkward SG looked in it. Gen Z's are making TikToks out of that shit.

- also thinking about Nate from Legends screaming: I LIKE BROCCOLI!!!

- Kelly and Alex sparring? Give me that any day

- "get me on the ground" where was my chest to chest, panting in each other's faces and then full on macking and groping scene? Where was it?!?!?

- J'onn was pretty much useless in this episode

- Andrea made a 1 minute appearance but fuck did she imprint an image into my brain in that blouse. Holy shit

- can I just say that I'm actually digging the reporter colleague dynamic of William and Kara?

- but also I'm missing Kara being the wise sensei mentoring her student Nia. Like did the show forget that reporting was where Kara first started mentoring Nia? Not superhero shit!

- Orlando's speech was honestly the best part of this episode

- Nia's mom was so unhelpful. All that for what exactly? For her to point out how big Nia fucked up? We know goddammit. I'm glad the show is exploring Nia's hangups with her powers and her ability to make terrible choices but still.

- why is this show continuing to make Kara look like a complete idiot? That livechat was a trainwreck. Like the show does remember that Kara won a Pulitzer (tho for what idk because can't be the Lex expose this time)? A prize the likes of LOIS LANE has also won?

- citizen: *asks legitimate question*

kara: because....reasons!!!

- also kara acting like an expert on an issue she herself only became aware of five minutes ago? Sigh.

- does no one in this show have any level of general cynicism and suspicion? Or was that all used up on Lena in previous seasons?

- the Kelly screen time was down significantly in this episode and I'm not even sure why. What was it replaced with? I'll tell you: broccoli. They mention that fucking PSA every chance they get.

- the Nia scenes were so scattered and diluted, just like last week's

- NOBODY TOUCH MY CHAIR - god Brainy thank you for adding some gold to this episode

- since the tiger king looking people are back, does this mean that Kara remembers Nia and Brainy? Did anyone tell her about that time travel adventure? What info has and hasn't been shared?

- not that I want to see Lex but the way no one has even mentioned him in anyway since Kara's been back. Like does kara not want to know where this guy is so she can dangle him off a cliff and drop him?

- I guess we're done with the PZ trauma. The ice taking over the building would've been a perfect trigger for Kara since she talked about how the PZ literally felt like ice!!! How the fuck do you miss that opportunity???

- "only magic can defeat magic" so since Mxy obviously isn't sticking around until the end, I guess this really means Lena might be getting magic and I'm already tired

- but also, what I'm hearing is, Lena can protect Kara from pretty much everything she's vulnerable to and I think that's neat

- does Kelly not have military training tho? Even people not in the trenches have to go through training. They're acting like Kelly is some rando photojournalist with a flimsy blackbelt and no practical experience....oh wait

- Alex doesn't have powers, why do they talk as though she does? She has a shape shifting gaudy bracelet. That's it!

- Lena missing from this episode makes sense cuz she could've fixed the housing problem in 3 seconds flat

- Nia and Brainy in the same episode but no Brainia scenes? What even is this?

What can I say? The only positive here is that it continues from the previous episode and we got to see a little more Orlando. But everything else? The no Lena, the very little Andrea, the unsatisfactory Nia and her mom, that God awful PSA and even worse livechat, kara once again looking hella ignorant (you'd think after S4 she'd be so much more aware and skeptical)

Let's just say, I'm ready for Lena and doubles doubles and some random Newfie in what appears to be the same PZ cave Kara was in.

#supergirl #supercorp #dansen #nia nal #brainy #yet no brainia scenes #that's just get this witch lena thing over with yes?

[1d-discourseoftheday]

💙 Tues 5 Jan ‘21 💚

Is today's biggest story really a pair of socks I mean WHY NOT am I right, that may as well happen! With impeccable timing, as the fandom and the world went bananas about Ho-livia WildStyle (a drag queen name for the ages right there), the first of the limited edition TPWK socks that people ordered basically on blind faith (you fully couldn't tell what they were going to look like at all on the website, and now we know why lmao) have arrived with a bang: they seemed to come with either blue or pink hearts, but in fact it turns out you get one of two color combos, either pink and white or, uh: BLUE AND GREEN HEARTS. I'm not one to carry on about like jeans and a green shirt or what have you but this is a CHOICE, and if the antis don't have performative burnings of their evil larrie merch honestly WHAT is the POINT; the resale market of the limited edition socks is already booming though so there's always that option, if either side can bear to conduct business across the divide. My question is, did they really time it to play out this precisely on purpose? Unlikely tbh, but if that's a thing they're capable of I have some THOUGHTS about the way other Harry merch takes like 4 months to arrive...

Larrie socks aside however, the real discourse continues to be about you-know-what, with the players out there fanning the flames wildly. There's too much nonsense to bother with it all (the quoted sources in the articles directly contradicting each other's stories also makes it difficult) so let's just... *spins wheel*....okay I landed on 'tabloids say Harry's wedding speech talked about his girlfriend Olivia' here goes. Sjksdfjks WHY would you be talking about your girlfriend of three weeks in a speech for your close friends' wedding, OMG, how uncomfortable and inappropriate is that?? Imagine if any of this were real, that Harry ('I'd take my time and make sure a thing was serious before telling people about it', end quote, I mean that's ALSO a stunt quote (oh the layers) but just pointing out that it's contradictory) starts dating his co-worker who just got out of a huge relationship and is also a famous person with presumably an interest in privacy, and immediately the two of you get to work setting up a big reveal to happen right away (even in a weird fantasy world where any of this is real the possibility that JEFF AZOFF'S WEDDING had the paps present for any other reason than to do EXACTLY what they were told is flat impossible- what pap or celeb outlet can afford to be on Jeff's bad list?!) and then he casually writes her into his speech (a guy who's so anxious and shy about public speaking and what to say that he begs people to write speeches for him and practices endlessly) uh huh, sure Jan. There are so many things about this that are ludicrous, but more to the point, none of the things they're saying hold up to scrutiny any better than this. There just isn't any point in taking them that seriously though; Harry is a closeted artist and, just like the many queer artists that came before him who he repeatedly reminds us are his icons, he both lets us know all day every day in a million ways that he's queer, and also plays the industry game and winkingly gives the press their Straight Guy Harry fodder. You don't have to like it, or indeed anything at all in this world, but people do need to accept that whether they like it or not is neither the point nor anyone (including Harry)'s responsibility to respond to or do anything about.

Like I said I can't cover every detail but! I always have a little space for the absurd: today, our best entrant is the possibility that the whole wedding we saw was a sham– fans ask, was this public spectacle Jeff and Glenne's actual wedding? Listen if anyone would be up for it it would be this crew, and if they did stage it I'm sure they had a good laugh! Suspicion has been cast on Glenne's dress (allegedly an untailored 2018 off the rack number), the small guest list (wouldn't they just wait and have a huge event?), and the fact that they invited paps there at all. It would make the no explanation robe pics EVEN FUNNIER though if you imagine that was for our benefit but left totally unadressed (undressed). ANYWAY Don't Worry Darling filming is back in business and Harry was papped some more today, out for a casual not at all pap walk hike with a work associate and multiple items of his own merch (including an unreleased hoodie design.) On the topic of DWD, sometimes a different perspective can be interesting-- for example considering whether Harry is the point of all this at all? Or is he but a bit player in the real DWD publicity drama, an elaborate and very public dramatic reconciliation between Olivia and her ex husband? Either way, he's neither a clueless dupe, a helpless pawn, or anyone's 'boy toy', so please: can we rein in the hand wringing and pointless Olivia bashing a bit?

Let's talk about something else shall we? For example! Liam's setlist, just released for the upcoming LP Show Act 4. Look at that song selection! Fireproof! Strong!! Through The Dark!! More exciting 1D faves! Plus Slow and Home With You off his EP, NICE, singles and more, it looks awesome. The Hugo Man fragrance relaunch is less exciting, featuring the dopiest possible articles full of chat about his skin care routine (oh shucks I'm just  manly man, I don't have one at all... *names two products and refers to 'multiple moisturizers'*), trademark accidental candor (“I’m quite tired!”), and of course trying to describe a fragrance, always an entertaining gymnastics (“every time I spray it, it kind of takes me back to being on that rooftop in Berlin”), but also there are manly new pics of Lia.

A new song Niall co-wrote is coming out! The JC Stewart song, Break My Heart, will be out this Fri! Charlie Lightening posted pics from a year ago on the Walls music video set, featuring an intent Louis in the sun (and fashion voter underrated excellent Looks), and Louis commented on Dave Allen's post (“top man!”)-- the famous boxer is offering to help friends through lockdown by facetiming 3or 4 people a day for home workouts, damn, and also aww. That shitty Doncaster secondary school turned out some really sweet dudes, against all odds tbh. With Los Angeles experiencing some of the worst COVID surges we've seen since the beginning of the pandemic, Grammys organizers have elected to postpone the (already limited) ceremony. Originally scheduled for Jan 31 it is now TBA, tentatively for March. Harry's stalker, who menaced him in and near his London home in 2019, is being charged with violating his restraining order by attempting to contact Harry via social media, Global Fund for Women thanked Harry for donating, and HLDaily and other accounts were suspended for posting pap pics, always a risk, but one trick potato Jeff is on the job; HSD is back up and running, cause they can't have a proper stunt season without their most faithful mouthpieces. Niall continues to vote for himself on twitter threads about what to listen to in the New Year.

#1ddiscourseoftheday #everyone loves a powerful successful woman as long as she never ever visibly does anything to try to promote her interests #yes this is about extremely bad takes about Olivia Wilde and what she should or should not do #and what forms of publicity are okay and which are not for her to utilize to promote her film #you don't succeed in Hollywood by refusing to play the game! #Harry and Olivia are adult professionals doing something silly and not particularly time consuming #that has zero impact on their actual personal lives but is extremely effective for achieving their goals #it's just not that serious #hopefully he's tapping her professional relationship with John Frusciante to get Louis an intro lol #everyone freaking out about the reports that he already met her kids sjsjskaj I don't usually believe the Sun but like YES OFC HE DID #IT'S HARRY he probably had their names penciled in for tattooing by day two on set omg I'm sure they LOVE him #they'll be on his book subscription list forever now #but I do have something to say about the way people think buying Harry (or whoever's) merch or tickets or whatever #means they get a say in what that person should do because they're OWED something #and how it relates to the idea that sex workers sell their bodies rather than units of their time #both are wrong. You get what you pay for and nothing more- you get a show or a product but you don't get a controlling interest #in the case of Harry or of a sex worker part of what you purchase is the carefully crafted illusion of friendship and intimacy #but it isn't real #I realize this is terrible example to use because this fandom is virulently puritanical and anti-sex work and sex work adjacent jobs #see: 'eleanor doesn't have a job' 'beards don't work' 'get a real job' etc etc #but guess what that's THE WORST TAKE so I will continue to ignore it and act like I'm talking to people with better takes #until it's true #anyway I was personally favoring Wilde-Styles but that one's for you Amanda #long post

[koalatydm]

Hot Brown Morning Potion Podcast Episode 5 - The Deluxe Elf Interview with Devon Giehl and Iain Hendry

Transcription Part 1 of 2 (includes Wonderstorm questions and Kuno's questions)

[Transcriber's Notes: This took me SO LONG to transcribe, like multiple hours and I'm only halfway done... But I will make it through at least this one episode because I want fellow Moonfam enthusiasts to have a text source, not to mention make it easier for deaf/HoH people to follow along. I guess I'll tag @kuno-chan since she said it was OK at the beginning of the podcast, sorry if I'm bothering you!]

KUNO: Hi guys, so I have a personal request for this particular podcast episode if you guys could tweet, post, both at least one piece of information that you learned from this particular episode, that you love, that inspired you, that you thought was cute, whatever. Like, I really—one thing that really tends to happen is that people listen to the podcast and they kinda just go about their day. We don’t actually see the information circulate through the community, which we really try to have creative questions—questions that are fun and explore the characters in different situations. And it would just be really, really cool—it would mean a lot to me to see this actually circulate through the community, actually circulate through the fandom, and see, you know, it would be awesome to see it be inspired—to inspire fan works, fan fiction, fan art, especially fan art. I just—we talked like a solid hour at least—really like a solid hour about Runaan, Rayla, Ethari, that family, um, and Moonshadow elves a lot. We talked a lot about that. And I think this is information that a lot of people really wanted, even if it’s in largely headcanon form. But Devon and Iain were so gracious and we talked so much about that family, and including Ruthari, and of course some Rayllum in there. So if you guys could live tweet, or even just one tweet, at least one tweet. Tag us, tag me, tag Hailey, tag @HotPotion, even if you send it directly to me on Tumblr, that’d be awesome and we’d retweet, reblog all your stuff. It would be good for the podcast and I just really want to see this information circulate through the fandom, so at least one tweet. Alright, um, let’s get to the episode though. Thanks! Hope to see you guys on social media about this.

—————

KUNO: Alright, hey everyone, this is the Hot Brown Morning Potion Podcasts with your hosts Tamika and Hailey, and we are here with Devon Giehl and Iain Hendry, two writers on The Dragon Prince at Wonderstorm, and Devon being actually the recently announced lead writer at Wonderstorm, so say hi everyone!

DEVON: Hi!

IAIN: Hi, this is Iain…

DEVON: Hi, I’m Devon… (laughs)

KUNO: And so we have a ton of stuff to get through today, um, a lot of questions, so—but we’re going to ask Iain and Devon a little bit about themselves first, since I think—I’m not sure if this is the first interview they’ve really had, personally, so uh, Hailey do you want to start—head that?

HAILEY: Um, yeah, sure. Uh, could you tell us about your roles at Wonderstorm?

IAIN: Uh, sure, uh—I’m also a writer at—official title “Senior Writer” at Wonderstorm. I was one of the writing team on the show, not quite as early as Devon, who was basically employee 1 after the founders but um, I joined sort of, end of 2016 when season 1 writing was really starting to get rolling, and was you know part of the process all the way through all the seasons. Uh, and since this—it’s such a small start up company, all the writers take a bunch of other, like, production roles on the show. Like, throughout all three seasons we’ve done, like, continuity notes work, we’ve given feedback on like every step of the production process. And then the other kind of side things we have, like you know, very top secret game that we’re making in here. And like, kind of straddle the line between the show writing and the game so that that’s all kind of on point and feels like it’s in the same universe with the same characters as The Dragon Prince, but ah, can’t say too much about that just yet.

DEVON: Iain does a lot of—a lot of secret work (laughs). Um, yeah as for me, I’m also a writer on The Dragon Prince and my—I was a Senior Writer until very recently, and now I’ve been made into a Lead Writer, which means I just get to flex a lot. Um, but I started in, I think the very, very end of 2015 when Wonderstorm was first getting off the ground as like a tiny, tiny startup. And we were basically four people in a room about, I don’t know, like 20 ft by 10 ft. It was really, really awful—

IAIN: Really smelly.

DEVON: Really smelly, really tiny, like only a skylight for a window, it was great. And I—so I was involved in like the earliest of brainstorming for the show. I helped sort of like put together a lot of the pitch deck when we you know took it around to studios and like, I named like most of the characters—is like my most self-indulgent claim on the show cause I got to do a lot of really silly stuff. Um, but yeah, and then I like help out on a million other fronts at Wonderstorm too because we’re a small company and—yeah, the funny thing about the—the small tasks we have, like you mentioned continuity checks. Um, we often had to make sure that Callum’s backpack and book and Rayla’s bindings were always correct, and that was kind of, the funniest and most intense, like, stage of production ever. Cause you would, you know, watch one shot and then the next shot would come up and Callum’s backpack would have disappeared. So we had to be like, “OK, let’s give Callum backpack back on.”

IAIN: Yeah, and it’s not just for accuracy, but like, the way fandoms operate, like, we just knew if Rayla’s binding reappeared sometime, it wouldn’t be viewed as an error. People would be like “WHAT DID THE KING GET UNKILLED WHAT HAPPENED OVER HERE”.

DEVON: No it was just the—

KUNO: Oh, yeah.

IAIN: Woo!

DEVON: —continuity’s way harder than anyone thinks it is (laughs). It’s a lot.

KUNO: Oh bless you guys for knowing that though cause we—we totally would. Like, think, there was a point I remember saying that they changed Viren’s eye color because they didn’t want too much continuity with Rayla’s eye color and I feel like we were really that close to having a ‘Viren is Rayla’s real father’ issue. We really were. Somebody had to have thought about that issue (laughs).

DEVON: I actually think there is—there’s still at least one shot in the show where Viren has the wrong eye color and if you can find it, congratulations (laughter in background). That’s where we missed—missed it. So it’s in there somewhere.

KUNO: Xadia CSI (IAIN laughs). So you two are married, um, can you tell us what it’s like being married writing partners?

IAIN: You wanna go?

DEVON: Um, yeah, I mean it’s—we actually knew each other professionally before we dated, so it wasn’t like we—it’s sort of like, it was easy for us to—to remain work partners because that was how we existed in the first place. Like I met Iain when I interviewed him for a job and I—he was great (IAIN laughs), he was fun, he was all right.

IAIN: Apparently I passed.

DEVON: But um, so yeah we had a professional relationship before we had a dating—‘dating’ relationship. Um, so it’s strange because a lot of people will say like, “Oh, that’s probably terrible. You probably, like, become absolutely sick of each other” but somehow we’ve managed to—to have like, two relationship patterns where when we’re at work and we’re working on writing stuff we have this very professional thing going on and then at home, we’re just married idiots and we have a lot of fun. So like, I don’t know, I’m never tired of you, personally.

IAIN: No, (DEVON laughs) yeah I mean when we’re writing it’s generally like, Devon’s the one on the keys uh, you know, putting the words in and so on, and it will kind of bounce back and forth between like, I’ll have the idea for the—how the scene should flow and I’ll kinda narrate bits and then we’ll go back and smooth things over. But I mean, I could imagine that with some people it would get tense, but I think Devon and I, we’re just absolutely the most comfortable with each other and neither of us takes it personally when it’s like, “that line that you pitched isn’t working” or “this joke could be funnier”, anything like that.

DEVON: It’s usually Iain who’s—cause I usually type cause I type really too fast.

IAIN: She’s really too proud of her typing (laughs).

DEVON: I type super fast, it’s my only real talent, but—like I’ll just sort of go off on some sort of like incredibly unnecessary, long description of something and Iain will sort of let me get about like four or five lines into this unnecessary nonsense and he’ll just sort start going like, “OK so like, do we really—do we need that? I mean, you know, could we sort of parse this down a little, a little less, a little less”. And then I, just like, “Ugh, fine” (laughs).

IAIN: But um, every word she writes is great.

DEVON: Mmm (skeptically)

IAIN: It’s perfect.

DEVON: Completely not true. Also in our scripts I think like—

KUNO: Aw.

DEVON: —in terms of the way that we work professionally, I think like a lot of my strengths are in—in really almost self indulgent levels of drama and he can kind of pull me back from being too indulgent on those fronts. And then I think that Iain is objectively absurdly funny and so when you kind of look at our episodes usually everything that’s pretty funny and lighthearted and like the sense of levity often comes from you and then if there’s anything that just feels really painfully sad it’s probably me?

IAIN: I’m the funny one.

DEVON: (laughs) It’s true.

KUNO: Aw, I feel such a connection to you Devon, because I’m actually, episode 3 was actually one of my favorite ones because I love all that like domestic stuff. I love just kind of like—oh, I don’t know what you call the trope, like a safe house trope where you go somewhere, you’re still kind of in the adventure but we’re in a space right now, a narrative space where people are safe, if that makes any sense. Like you—if you’ve ever seen How To Train Your Dragon, like (T/N I don’t know what was said here, sorry!), the base is the safe place, that kind of thing. So, I totally get that, I actually see—episode 3 was one of my favorites outside of pretty much every episode where Rayllum was a thing. (laughter from multiple people)

HAILEY: The whole season basically (laughs).

KUNO: Pretty much the whole season, um. I think there was one more question about two.

HAILEY: Yeah sooo.

KUNO: Before we get to the elves.

HAILEY: Yeah, definitely. Uh so it was mentioned that you’re now lead writer, Devon, and can you tell a little bit more about what that entails if you can, and how that’s been going?

DEVON: Yeah, I mean… I actually don’t know what I can say about it, um… I think it—it means that uh, for future Dragon Prince stuff I’ll sort of like take a bit more of an active role in leading the—the development and the storylines and things like that. It also means that from a company perspective um I’ve been kind of involved in some other side stuff that Wonderstorm is quietly looking into developing and um I help a lot with other IPs that we would love to make a real thing someday and that’s kind of all I can say about it I think or I’ll get in trouble.

HAILEY: All right, that’s great, that’s good to know, thank you.

KUNO: The Dragon Prince 2 (laughter from multiple people). I’m totally joking everyone that’s not a thing so don’t take that for—

HAILEY: Wow.

KUNO: I’m joking.

IAIN: Two dragons.

DEVON: The Dragon 2 Prince.

KUNO: Yeah. OK also if there’s anything that you guys say that you want redacted this is probably not going up for another week because I have to get our reaction episode out. So anything you guys think about that you’re like, “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that” just message us and we’ll redact that. Yeah, cause we know that—

HAILEY: Or just say it. Just tell us, like, what’s—

DEVON: Hopefully we have some self-control but—

KUNO: Okay, so we are going to get really indulgent here and I think this is going to be really in Devon’s wheelhouse. We have a lot of questions and a bunch of the scenarios so try to get through as much of it as possible. Um so the first question is can you tell us more about the Silvergrove? What is the government system like in Silvergrove? Who runs it? If you could tell us that is that the only—at least like the leadership role? Um, is that the only Moonshadow elf village? And also do they actually get any real daylight because I noticed when the illusion thing happened it just got shady and I’m like, “They might be taking this Moonshadow thing too far”. Like the elves—do they really like that much? So like tell us about the Silvergrove and where Rayla grew up.

IAIN: So I guess it’s probably worth just starting off with a kind of blanket like, ‘if it hasn’t been in the show, we can’t say it’s 100% fact. A lot of this is just gonna be what kind of we thought, rough shape of things happen in our heads—‘

KUNO: Yeah, absolutely.

IAIN: —going into the writing and so on. So you know, don’t come after me with any, uh, fandom lawyers, anyone. But um yeah, I guess like it’s sort of—it’s most useful for us to think about it in comparison to how the Sunfire elves, like clearly they have very structured society. They have a queen, obviously, and they have large cities and so on whereas we think Moonshadow elves live in, as you saw, much smaller communities. And I think the Silvergrove is not the only one of those, it might be one of the better known ones where clearly the best assassins come from. But uh, I think are other ones out there, um, and maybe even Moonshadow elf people do not know where all the other ones are. Obviously the Silvergrove is hidden and maybe they don’t even have access to all the other ones. So I think there’s a sort of community run vibe to things. I think you know when they decided to—to ghost Rayla, and before that Rayla’s parents, I think that was probably a ‘let’s all come to a consensus before we make a decision about something like this’. I think, Devon, if you want to talk about the kind of like sunlight vibes things, because that was a big part of your driving force behind how this episode looked and felt.

DEVON: Um… well… first, I will say that it was potentially from the top down a complicated visual decision to have episode 3 take place in a Moonshadow elf shady forest grove and also the kingdom of sunlight.

IAIN: Yup.

DEVON: It created a couple production problems in terms of like the way we wanted the Silvergrove to look was very like evening themed and cool colors and you know shaded. And I had this really sort of self indulgent thing where I really wanted it to be as close to night time as possible and yet the story line in Lux Aurea was clearly taking place in the middle of the day. So we came to this sort of compromise that you know it is technically daytime through the whole day and there is enough tree cover that it’s already pretty shadowy but also I think there is some magic at play that’s sort of like generally um shrouds the whole thing in more of like a night time vibe. And my inspiration for that was I’m a big World of Warcraft player, or was I don’t super play a ton anymore but I really loved Ashenvale and some of the night elf regions and they had that similar thing that no matter what time of day it was it always felt like at least dusk or like this sort of like ever—ever shaded feeling. And I indulgently kind of wanted that to be where Rayla came from. So that’s what that’s about.

IAIN: Yeah and I think they’re magical beings. They don’t need vitamin D from the sunlight or anything like that. They’re totally fine if they just get moonlight every so often.

DEVON: But yeah, don’t write a script that has, you know, moon themed place and sun themed place at the same time. It was a… questionable choice (laughs). But I think it turned out—

KUNO: Yeah, ‘cause I was wondering—I was wondering—I was like “Okay” because a lot of the stuff you run through—you run the okay, if I were to write a fanfiction how do I use this. So it’s like, do they just never like—if they like—if Callum were to say live in the Silvergrove would he just have to get used to the fact that like it’s just never totally bright daylight or unless you leave the Silvergrove in the forest, uh, and like—that type of—is that what’s kind of like going on, they just like their shade?

DEVON: I think they like their shade. It’s like Scotland in the winter.

IAIN: Oh yeah, except we all get miserable by around about February when we haven’t seen sunlight in several months. But um yeah, I think it’s kind of like yeah, a combination of ‘oooh, magic’ and also just extremely, like, thick tree cover in the deepest parts of the forest. But I don’t think you have to travel too far. But uh, I think there’s a reason why everyone in that town was a Moonshadow elf and there were no Sunfire elves or random humans just like, chilling and living there. I think only the most goth of kids would be able to live in the Silvergrove without going a little bit mad.

DEVON: I mean you only have to go as far as the adoraburr field which clearly still gets a significant amount of daylight.

IAIN: Yeah.

KUNO: And you said there’s not really like a leader. They do as a community, but is there anyone that like makes decisions, like is there anybody that like if they were to go to somebody, like if they have like village leadership decisions. And obviously, um, blanket statement that all this we assume is kind a little bit of headcanon so it doesn’t have to be like for gospel, but you know for purposes of writing stuff.

DEVON: Um the way I thought about it—well, to back up a tiny bit, there was actually a version of the story where there might have—this was super, super early on, we were thinking about how the story might play out and we talked about there being potentially another Moonshadow elf leader type character that they would meet who, you know, was the one who ultimately called for the Ghosting decision. But that didn’t really fit the sort of, like, very personal nature of the story we wanted to play out with Rayla specifically. Um but thinking about that and the way that we were, you know, trying to shape it—I would imagine that like the assassins are sort of like a specific group that live in the Silvergrove which is otherwise—it’s not all assassins, like, not everybody there is an assassin. And I think that means that like you know Runaan was the leader of the assassins so he might consult with the leader of the blacksmiths who may be someone over Ethari but maybe it’s him now who might consult with the other general leaders—I don’t know. Like I think it’s more of a counsel of different groups than one single authority. It just seems like that would be a better fit for Moonshadow elves than the sort of like very, very strong-army, structured, high-and-mighty feeling that the Sunfire elves have, so, does that make sense?

KUNO: That totally makes sense, a little bit like an oligarchy, I think I had the idea that like they sound like they like a counsel. Like it sounds like a elven conciliatory.

DEVON: Yeah I think like someone might say, like obviously something horrible has happened and Rayla is exactly the person we thought she was. I’m calling for a—a ghost vote. And then you know—

IAIN: With a cooler name than that.

DEVON: No I think it’s canonically, I’m sorry—

IAIN: Ghost vote?

DEVON: The canon is “ghost vote” now.

IAIN: Okay.

DEVON: But yeah, they would all sort of like weight in kind of like a town hall scenario about of like why this is obviously the correct call and they would all sort of like have to come to some sort of agreement about what to do versus the Sunfire queen just being like “mph, time for the light, light decides!”

IAIN: Yeah.

KUNO: Okay um the next question being almost a little on that, does Ethari regret, um, what does he—does Ethari regret doing the banishing spell now that he knows the truth about Rayla?

DEVON: Oh absolutely 100%. But I don’t think he would have the power to—to reverse it. Like I think he could do a quick charm to help reverse it in the moment just to speak with her but ultimately it would take a lot for him to undo it and I’m not—we haven’t talked about what he’ll get up to in the meantime, but I don’t know he would be able to pursue it so directly—I’d have to talk about it, I think it would be an interesting side thought to think about how he might pursue redeeming her in the eyes of her people knowing what he knows, but—

IAIN: Yeah I think given that we said it would take everyone to do it collectively and make an agreed decision it would similarly everyone would have to understand the truth and go back on it and ‘oh I saw her one time and she said she didn’t do anything wrong probably isn’t enough to overturn that. But yeah I think he probably felt some regret even at the moment, but you know he’s in some of the worst grief of his entire life and he’s not going to make perfect rational decisions. And I’ve seen you know some people were slightly upset that he got so angry with Rayla in the moment of seeing her but I think like when you first see the person that you’ve tried to convince yourself sort of took the most important person in your life away from you, you’re gonna feel a big mess of feelings and it will bring up some grief that maybe you thought you were just—just starting to get over, so ah. Yeah I think hopefully he can turn that around in the years to come but they’ve all had a rough time. They’re at war. It sucks (DEVON laughs). Don’t go to war, kids.

KUNO: Hailey did you want to ask the next one or did you want me to?

HAILEY: Sure I can ask it. Could you—so I mean—you mentioned a stuff—a couple things about their government system and whatnot, but is there anything else you could tell us about Moonshadow culture, like what their day to day is like, and what it means to be a Moonshadow elf?

DEVON: Um I do think that a lot of the fandom I’ve been pleased to see has picked up on this sort of idea of a fairly rigid culture and you know there’s a lot of importance placed on things like honor, loyalty, and the ability to commit to things. And um I think that could come off as pretty strict but I actually think it comes from the place of valuing a close knit community. And I think, like, to the idea that we said like they probably have some kind of counsel instead of some single authority kind of ruler. It’s—I think their day to day would be very much going about their business in ways that support each other you know? Like does that make sense? It’s—you go to the blacksmith and he does work for you and it’s friendly and conversational but it’s productive—it’s all very for the good of the community.

IAIN: Yeah I think early on in season 1 even Rayla says that you know they’re not really meant to show their feelings. So I think everyone kind of commits to doing their task for the good of the village and doesn’t gripe about their day to day until something bad happens as the entire series to this point has been driven by. But um yeah I think they uh—they’re just committed to having a good, small, close knit village life and all supporting each other the best they can. And then occasionally the dragon queen tells you to go kill someone and that’s your job so you better go do that without complaining about it.

DEVON: I think we use the words “reclusive yet intimate” in the article we put up about the two moon creatures, the moonstrider and the shadowpaw. And I liked that a lot because I think they’re reclusive in the sense that they’re a little bit shut off from the wider world and they’re um isolationist in their preservation of their own culture but they are very close to each other and that is something that they hold at such an—like a preciousness level but it’s also a bit extreme, like if you betray that in any capacity like obviously they take that very seriously. And so it’s a double edged sword if you will, to have a community that supportive and that close but also your ability to perform all of yourself for the good of that community can be your undoing so—

KUNO: No I actually kinda get that um ‘cause I’m Pacific Islander so I think we’d call that what you’d call a collectivist society where it’s like the needs of the group supercede needs of the individual so I kinda like I—it’s not the extreme I think that they are because they’re very like reclusive but um I kinda live like that in a little bit of way. It’s what I grew up with. So I actually totally get that which might be why I like that so much (multiple people laugh). Um so the next question would be how does the banishing spell work that, um, that was used on Rayla politically and magically? I think we’ve talked a little bit about politically already but magically is—I’m assuming it’s a collective decision or does each person, like, opt in? Like could Ethari have opted out of doing it or did we—did they all have to agree?

DEVON: I think everybody have to agree?

KUNO: And how is it broken?

DEVON: I don’t think you can opt out?

IAIN: Um I think ‘how is it broken’ is something we definitely want to save for—for the future uh we really hope that Rayla manages to undo that. In terms of I think that it’s just culturally ingrained that you wouldn’t opt out. Um I think they would probably just argue forever until they manage to come to an agreement. So I—yeah I don’t think there’s you know half the elves in that village who are seeing Rayla and were like “Oh hey Rayla how’s it going?” I think uh they all came to the collective decision. That’s kind of the political angle. Um sorry, what was the other part? Magically how it works?

KUNO: Yeah? How would you do it?

IAIN: I—again, you know if it’s not in the show it’s not canon, but I sort of inspired by how the entrance spell works where they do a dance and there’s a ritual and I imagine it’s kind of similar. Like I think there’s a lot of that kind of like ritualistic style of magic and it’s kind of like what you see when they put the flowers out onto the water as well. There’s you know a collective dance probably involving a lot more people, a lot more cool intricate runes that happen only with a much more somber mood than the fun, happy times of Callum and Rayla dancing around in the forest. Um so yeah it’s probably—I would imagine it’s probably tied to some whatever the saddest phase of the moon is and that’s when they all get together and really somberly and really sadly uh commit to never seeing this person again. At least that’s the part of the plan. An interesting question that I think could be something that fanfiction writers such as yourself could get into is has any one of these ever been broken before or have they all been pretty sure that they would never need to go back on it? Is that going to be something that Rayla is going to figure out for the first time ever or is there a precedent for this happening. And we don’t have an answer right now but I think that would be a cool story to think about and write.

DEVON: Oh man I love the saddest phase of the moon idea. Imagine if they do it at the new moon because it’s like the moon’s face is hidden forever. Whoo.

IAIN: Whoo.

DEVON: Sad.

KUNO: Maybe we’re birthing things while we’re doing this interview. I actually think it would be like Callum does the Historia Viventum thing and it would be so—cause now I’m just imagining this whole village doing this sad dance which is the Banish Rayla dance essentially. And like that would be so sad for Rayla to witness that just for the drama of seeing her entire village decide to just not see her ever again. And that’s like wow, I’m so sad now.

DEVON: I love sadness.

IAIN: Yeah Callum just crushing a series of Moon Opals to show such a clip show of all of Rayla’s saddest history moments (laughs).

DEVON: Oh god.

IAIN: That’d be great.

DEVON: Thanks Callum.

KUNO: Thanks Callum. Um, she’d love him anyway. But um okay so some of my favorite stuff, what was it like for Rayla when her parents had to leave her to live with Runaan and Ethari and what was that transition like for them all? How old was like Rayla too?

DEVON: This was one that we’ve had a couple different ideas about so this is another one that’s like heavy not quite canon bubble. Like if we actually end up doing a story that involves some of these details it’s likely to change and be slightly different but the versions that I’ve liked have involved her being pretty young. And because honor is such a you know key part of Moonshadow culture I think like overall it was something that she felt you know sad about because she knew that she wasn’t going to be directly seeing her parents very often anymore. And—but it was uh such a huge honor that she felt you know pride in what her parents were being selected to go do. You know, act as Dragonguard and serve as these sort of like honorific, um, warriors that left the collective of the Silvergrove to go represent Moonshadow elves in the service of the Dragon Queen. And I think she had—she grew up being told what an honor that was and how much pride she should have in her parents because that is such a special thing. And then I think like it speaks a lot to how proud she was when she believed that they ran away and abandoned that duty because you know, how could they? If that was their reason for leaving her when she was a child and then they ran away from that job, like, how important could it have really been? And then you know, I’m sure that makes her feel very, very small. It made her feel so hurt that she told Callum at first that they were dead so she took it pretty hard.

KUNO: Yeah.

DEVON: But I think the other thing about it that we’ve sort of kicked around is that like, Runaan and Ethari were Rayla’s parents’ close friends and I think she was familiar with them enough that she didn’t feel like she was being you know left with two strangers. It’s sort of just like, you’re going to be under the care of people who are already very, very close to you and care about you quite a bit.

IAIN: Yeah I think with like Moonshadow elves in general the thing I think about a lot is like the good and evil that comes from suppressing your true emotions to show a different face to the world and I think we see a lot of that in Rayla. Like I think she probably committed pretty hard to Ghosting her parents because she had this like big mess of like sadness that she’d left but at least the soft landing of Runaan and Ethari to live with and so on. But believing like this sadness is worth it because they’re doing something so noble and then the betrayal of that—it just came out in kind of a messy like toxic way, right, where now she’s committed to becoming an assassin at a really young age in a way Ethari doesn’t agree with and so on. But I mean on the other side I think having a strong handle on your emotions is often one of Rayla’s strengths right? Like we saw in episode 5 of this season after she’s going through a whole lot of stuff, both her family situation and this new development with Callum, she’s just able to like operate as a cool badass extremely cool assassin without letting any of that affect her. But you know I think there’s balance in how you handle your feelings and how you externalize them in a good way that people can learn from, but sometimes you gotta—you gotta work (laughs).

KUNO: That makes sense. Oh well yeah I always had this personal headcanon which I kind of like incorporated into my fanfictions where she felt abandoned by her parents so in a way it’s kinda like slightly—kinda like that except it was all those feelings that have been repressed from years and years basically came out when she felt like—like the abandonment came to like the head when she felt like they had left because they had ran away—they kind of like ran away like from her.

DEVON: Oh yeah, absolutely.

KUNO: In a way—their duty to—

DEVON: I think that validates the suppressed feeling, you know.

KUNO: Yeah, since their duty to the Dragonguard was in it’s own way more important and that’s something that was like okay because it was an honor but since they ran away it’s like obviously it was more important in a terrible way, if that makes any sense?

IAIN: Yeah I mean I think it’s like she did her best and she’s trying to be a grown up but it’s hard at a young age to accept that you know there are meant to be higher callings than a bond between parents and children, right? Like that’s hard for her to grasp and she probably didn’t express that openly ever really. But I think it really did help that she had two genuine loving father figures ready to accept her with open arms even if one of them did train her to become the best assassin of her generation, which again I wouldn’t advise to—to most parents out there.

DEVON: I do think like even that was considered, you know, honorable. It was you know, you’re going to—not only are you going to get to live with Runaan and Ethari, like Runaan is the leader of the assassins, or at least maybe at that point in time he wasn’t the leader but he was very up and coming. I don’t know, it could be either or, but that I think was probably something that she fully embraced and fully wanted, like you know, ‘this is my purpose in life, this is my calling, my parents have gone off to do their calling and it’s a great honor for them, and this is my path and what I’m going to do with myself’. And that didn’t end up being true but it was probably a comfort to her at the time.

IAIN: Yeah.

KUNO: That makes a lot of sense. Moving on, okay, this, we’re getting real indulgent now—do you know what Ethari and Runaan’s wedding was like and what are Moonshadow elf weddings are like in general?

DEVON: Um, I have a, so a lot of the dancing stuff is because I have an enormous soft spot for tropes involving cute dances, like, just a huge, huge soft spot. And the thing that comes to mind is, if you’ve seen the movie Prince of Egypt, which is such a weird reference—

KUNO: Yeah, I love that.

DEVON: —the scene where he and the girl, I forget her name, they do the thing—

KUNO: Tzipporah.

DEVON: —with the ribbon and they do the cute little dance with the ribbon. For some reason that’s what I think of when I imagine what a moment in their wedding would look like would be a dance with a ribbon that they sort of use to—you know, Moonshadow elves love ribbons, I guess, but this is a good ribbon! It’s a love ribbon. But anyway, that’s just my idea. I love that specific—that song that, “Through Heaven’s Eyes”, it’s during that sequence but that—

KUNO: Yeah.

DEVON: —would be my go-to inspiration for like, it’s like that and then you know, everybody dances with them because Moonshadow elves like to dance.

IAIN: Yeah, I kind of like the idea of the—there’s a lot of these symbols that are sometimes extremely sinister. I mean I think Ethari even kinda calls this out when he shoots the—the Shadowhawk arrow to inform the queen that her son is in fact alive. But like, Moonshadow elves believe that death and life are not good and evil, they’re mirrors of each other and an important part of the cycle. And you know, the moon has cycles and that’s an important part. So I think thinking about all the rituals and stuff that they have, which initially you’re introduced to as ‘let’s go murder someone party’, like if that was—there was a kind of inverse to that that was a big part of their wedding ceremony I think that would make a lot of sense to Moonshadow elves because this is two people binding their lives together forever. Binding for a shared purpose in a good way and not the grim ‘let’s go kill Prince Ezran’ kind of way.

KUNO: Yeah. Cause naturally this is involving like several ships so I’m like, I had to ask that. And on the piggyback of that, as detailed as possible, can you describe courtship customs for Moonshadow elves?

DEVON: Oh man.

KUNO: I mean like dating—dating customs, like a headcanon even if it’s just headcanons.

IAIN: Devon is deep in thought (laughs).

DEVON: I’ve never—like for some reason the—the headcanons that I’ve thought about are more specific to like, Runaan and Ethari than I’ve really sort of like branched out into thinking about how Moonshadow elves do this in general. So I imagine there’s intended—there’s some formality to it, I would imagine, in that like, because they’re so, you know, purposeful and thoughtful with how they express their feelings if at all, I think it would be, you know, exchange of gifts like small favors and making your purpose known in a way that starts small but has purpose. So I think like, there’s versions where Ethari would put extra detail into the work he was doing for Runaan which you know, could be perceived as a sign of affection or Runaan was coming to Ethari asking him to work on his weapons or metalcraft stuff a little bit more than was necessary and—stuff like that, where it’s a bit stiff and difficult but I think like once—once there is clear reciprocation I think there can be more of an open discussion about it, does that make sense? But I think Runaan probably struggled with this a whole lot, like, ‘cause he’s—did I, it might have been you who I responded to on Twitter but someone asked me something along these lines and I think Runaan had a really hard time even with this first sort of like simple offerings of affection because that’s just him. Like he sort of takes that aspect to an extreme. Like he has a hard time being like “here is the way I wish to express myself in a soft way and not with a—a sharp object. So I think Ethari had an easier time because he’s just more naturally soft (laughs).

IAIN: Yeah I sometimes think that Runaan is the most Moonshadow elf of all Moonshadow elves, but like, you know, it’s—

KUNO: I was gonna say that.

IAIN: Yeah, um, you know when they have such a hard time showing their feelings and they sometimes feel like they’re not supposed to and so on, and so Runaan is trying to pick up on the tiniest possible hints through professional exchanges and so on. And I think when it’s actually time to confess that there’s a feeling there you would, I think especially Runaan would have to be 100% sure and then do it entirely in private, the most private situation possible where there could be no possible spies who could see this if it was going to go wrong because that would just be the end of his entire life, obviously.

DEVON: Yeah he would bind himself to his own death (laughs).

IAIN: Yeah, that’s it. Gonna assassinate myself because I confessed love and it didn’t get reciprocated. That’s that.

DEVON: It’s over.

IAIN: So yeah, lot of—lots of awkward advances where they’re trying—trying to have the escape hatch of “Oh I didn’t really try to suggest that I liked you, this was just me asking you for a professional favor by let’s never speak again”.

DEVON: And then he comes back the next day (DEVON and IAIN laugh).

KUNO: Oh my goodness. Uh I felt—I—I kinda like headcanoning now that Ethari tells Rayla all this “how I met, you know, your surrogate dad” kind of stuff. Like, and that’s how she—she’s like, this is how you do love apparently.

DEVON: I do think that like, yeah, he had a much easier time and probably picked up on stuff. And to me there’s a side of Ethari that you don’t really get to see in the episode because he’s very sad. I think he’s a—he does have a playful side and I like to imagine that while Runaan was doing his, like, really just not-the-best attempts to display affection early on, like Ethari would pick up on them but not necessarily give the full signal back. And he played a little bit oblivious but he absolutely was—he’s just more emotionally in tune. So I think, “Oh hey, you’re back again, wow. I thought I did fantastic work on your blades last time. I cannot believe they’re already dull!” Like and he just sort of like, he knows—he knows there’s something there.

IAIN: I think like this kind of gets echoed in Rayla, like where Callum in an effort to pick her up and be honest about how he feels that she’s just an incredible person. Like to her that’s like, ‘person being entirely open with their feelings in a positive way? That’s a love connection!’ And then it goes wrong for one entire episode and then it turns out that Callum was also not fully aware of how he was feeling and so on. But I think like, yeah, I think that’s why she was like immediately “Wow, this is clearly meant to be romantic and this is—this is going exactly the way I want!” and then it didn’t. But then it did! So we’re all happy.

DEVON: Aww.

KUNO: I am! I’m certainly happy. Um—uh let’s see—the next one is—okay. What was Rayla like as a child growing up in a household she did—household? Um, she mentioned going to school and we’d love to know how baby Rayla fared as a student and just a child growing up in the Silvergrove and what that experience is like for a Moonshadow elf child?

DEVON: You want—you want me to do this one?

IAIN: Go for it.

DEVON: Yeah, um, I think Rayla was feisty (laughs) in a word. I think she—for some reason there’s a scene in the beginning of Korra where she’s already mastered like, three elements and she like comes out punching. I kind of think about that when I think about baby Rayla. She knows she’s—there’s that end credit scene where she’s got the two sticks and she’s posing with them and Runaan’s sort of lifting one of them up and I’m thinking like, okay so sheg’s like, from a tiny, tiny age thinking like, “I’m gonna be the coolest assassin the Moonshadow elves have ever seen!” and she’s like rambunctious about that almost, because you know, as a child you don’t really understand what the ramifications of that are but it’s considered like a highly, highly valued, honored position and so she’s obviously like, “Yeah I’m gonna do that and I’m going to be the best at it and there will never be any complications whatsoever!” In terms of Moonshadow elf childhood, I think with the way that I would think about it is—we talked about the sort of community aspect. I imagine Moonshadow elves have pretty, like, what’s the word, like, a lot of general education, sort of, like, “this is what weaponsmithing is like and this is gardening and raising crops and things to provide for the community” and so I think they would have a lot of ‘school’ that covers a lot of just like, life basics because you are expect to find a place that contributes to the collective whole. Does that like—?

IAIN: Yeah, I think like it’s also lucky for Rayla that a big part of Moonshadow elf culture is what we would call PE. Like I think she excelled at striving to be an assassin warrior and so on. Especially like, she’s trying to live up to her parents who at first were honored Dragonguard and you know, Runaan as well. I think in terms of like, more academic stuff like if there was Moonshadow elf history lessons and “let’s go out and understand the, you know, ecology of the Moonshadow forest” and stuff I think she was probably a bit kinda like, rambunctious and not super paying attention and running off and not really giving it her all and so on. Um, you kind of get that impression from early on where she knows what Primal sources are and she’ll explain that to Callum but like, when she’s talking about ‘how do you do that Moonshadow form thing’ she’s like “I don’t know, it just feels right”. Like I think that’s—she did everything very intuitively and focused on the things she cared about and understood and kinda did what she—did what she could on the other subjects, I guess, but didn’t care as much.

DEVON: Yeah I feel like if you imagine the kid that is going to grow up to be an artist is doing doodles on their math homework and just sort of like doing the math homework but—but you know, clearly the effort is being placed elsewhere. I think it’s that but she was excelling at PE and assassin training and therefore fell very, very easily into her supposed path.

KUNO: The—this isn’t on the thing, but did—did she ever—did she ever really have any friends? ‘Cause she doesn’t really mention—ever mention friends. I—maybe that has to do with the whole assassin thing where if she wasn’t learning being at school she would probably doing assassin stuff with Runaan or assassin training stuff—I guess not really assassinating. But um did she have really friends growing up?

IAIN: I think if she had friends they were not super close. And I think she valued her alone time. There’s a sweet moment early in—well end of season 1 where she like tries to cheer up Ezran by saying that fitting in is overated and I think she felt that a little bit. Um and you know I think there’s some amount of when you’re being trained in the art of an assassin like you’re probably somewhat taught to—to keep people at arm’s length a little bit, right? And I think she—she took that to heart. So I think that’s a big part of why when she was first traveling with Callum and Ezran there wasn’t that much trust between then and it was kinda like, it was Ezran honestly that bridged the gap being most empathetic number 1 child. And yeah, I think having a close friend is relatively new to her.

KUNO: Makes sense. Like just few, not the many. Um okay then next question before we get to Hailey’s batch of them are um, what are Runaan’s feelings toward Rayla as of right now and everything that’s happened since season 1? I understand he’s in a coin, he’s in a finacial crisis, he’s probably not thinking about it too hard—

DEVON: Oh my god (laughs).

KUNO: But you know, like he’s gotta be—you know he’s not doing anything right now, I’m assuming, so like what would be his feelings about her at the moment?

DEVON: I mean he’s got a lot of time to think, wherever he is. I think like—I got into this a little bit on Twitter in a self-indulgent rant at one point where I think he went through a lot very quietly during the first few episodes of the show where he very, very much wanted Rayla to succeed, even if he wasn’t necessarily like being the dad on the sideline of the soccer game, like, cheering for her. But he thought this was her moment, this was her time to prove that she really was more dedicated to you know, her cause and her people than her parents were because they had, you know, been the subject of such shame. And then ah, everything goes the way it does, I think he has a brief crisis of, “Is this my fault? Did I fail to train her well enough? Like, was Ethari right?” Because he always thought she had, you know, a softer heart. And I think like those are the types of things that he’s still stewing on, um like did—”did he overstep? Was it something—was he so eager to give her the opportunity to prove herself that he, you know, ultimately put her in a position where she could not succeed?” I think like, the other thing that I mentioned on Twitter was I think he took her off the mission both because he very, very much wanted to give himself and the others a chance to complete the mission even if it meant their deaths. But it also meant that Rayla had the chance to survive even if it was potentially going to be misinterpreted and she’d get slapped with the Ghosting, I think he believed that her alive was better than everybody being dead. So I think like, he’s got a lot—a lot to work through and I think like—I think he feels guilty. I think there’s the smallest part of him that he has the—again, a lot of time to potentially stew on and reflect on is he does feel like he put her in a position that was, you know, not fully taking into account the type of person she was and more projecting onto her the type of person he wanted her to be and gift he wanted to give her of redeeming herself in the eyes of her people for her parents. And I think he’s gonna have to work through that. Poor dude.

KUNO: That’s so sadly heartfelt. That’s so sadly heartfelt. Here I am thinking that he’d be, like, maybe a little angry with her, ‘cause obvious reason, but now it’s like, oh he feels guilty. Like, “Oh, okay, let’s just slap the angst on, okay”.

DEVON: I mean, I think like—

KUNO: Yeah, mm-hm.

DEVON: Sure he’d have some anger, like, “Awgh, I gave her everything. I gave her the exact opportunity she needed”. But I think like the guilt and the reflection leads to the “Maybe I—maybe it was me who stepped too far here”.

IAIN: Yeah, I mean another part of it is like, we don’t know what it’s like being trapped in the hell coin dimension, right?

DEVON: Oh I do. I—I mean—

IAIN: Oh you do?

DEVON: It sucks.

IAIN: Oh it sucks?

DEVON: When it happens to me on the reg (IAIN laughs).

IAIN: But you know, does it feel like an eternity is passing? Does it feel like no time has passed? Is he in eternal pain? Because if it’s like real bad—

KUNO: Oh my god.

IAIN: —in there I can imagine that like yeah there’s definitely some of those kind of anger feelings that you don’t want to feel in but you do sometimes, right? Like it’s like, if he has a snap moment of “I wouldn’t be in here if she hadn’t gone off and disobeyed our orders and, like, lied to me and so on”. So if he ever comes out uh don’t know what side of the emotional coin he’s gonna land on.

DEVON: Ohhh, please leave.

KUNO: Oh my god.

DEVON: Get out, oof, ouch.

IAIN: Finger guns.

DEVON: I do think like that sort of complex—

KUNO: It sounds—

DEVON: —emotion is just, I don’t want to give any time to that pun, we’re moving on. Like that sort of complexity of emotion and relationships is something that I really like in the show overall. Like you said earlier, you saw some people that were a little bit upset that Ethari was so willing to lash out at Rayla at first and I think like to me that was always part of the big, big thematic of the show, which is this sort of endless cycle of people being willing to hurt each other and not forgive each other and not, you know, accept that you can choose peace. It’s, you know, it’s—Runaan having that impulse to anger is a very natural thing and it doesn’t—I don’t think it necessarily makes him a bad person for feeling that. And I don’t necessarily think that Ethari having his moments of grief lead him to actions that are ultimately like, regretful, like I don’t think he would want that to define him in the long run. Like those are very human things but those are the things as we acknowledge them and as are—so long as we are capable of recognizing how flawed we are and how violent and…

KUNO: Messy.

DEVON: Messy! Thank you, that’s like, I was going to say like churning, messy is good. Like messy emotions can be and how they can like, dictate the way we treat each other, um, but forgiveness and patience and acceptance are ultimately just so much more powerful than those negative perpetuating lashing outs. That was an inelegant way of ending that screed, but yes.

KUNO: I actually really love that um ‘cause I from the beginning I’ve loved their father-daughter relationship so I love how complicated it is, ‘cause the truth is you know every parent-child relationship is a little complicated, except theirs is a little more complicated with assassination going on in the works, the family trade. So I love that it is this complicated ‘cause I know I remember in the beginning where people were like you know—you know she does have a dad. And it’s like I know she has a biological dad but until I am told otherwise that’s her father. I don’t care and I love their relationship so I love that that really reflects that. Another—the next question out of me before we get to, um, Hailey’s, which are all about different elves, is um, course I have to ask, my policy is one Rayllum question per interview. Um what are Runaan’s feelings—whah, no, whoop, how would Ruthari and Runaan react to Rayla’s relationship with Callum considering he’s not only a human but a human prince? ‘Cause as far as we know Runaan really hates, um, humans and I’d love to see that story later, both individually and as a couple. Because as far as I know, Ethari probably doesn’t know that their in a relationship unless he sensed it?

DEVON: Oh man, I—I think you should take this one, but I do want to say that I saw one comment on Tumblr at one point where someone said that they wished that Ethari had said something to Callum along the lines of like, “Take care of her”. And I want to travel back in time and pretend that was in the script ‘cause I think that would have been really, really nice. And I do think like, he picked up on the fact that Callum was important to her even if it—he didn’t necessarily read it as romantic right off the bat. I think he mostly was like, “Oh this guy is kind of like a cute—he’s a human but he’s, you know, a friend to someone I care about and that in and of itself is valuable and there’s something there”. So I think—pretend that was in the script. I wish I had thought about something like that but—

KUNO: I will (DEVON laughs).

IAIN: Yeah.

KUNO: That’s canon as far—as far as I’m concerned that’s canon.

IAIN: I think uh it would be best for everyone involved if they found out together, uh, because I think Runaan’s impulse would not be good immediately. I think like, when you spend so much time as an assassin and you drill into your head that the people that you’re meant to kill are not people, they’re the enemy right? Like I think that’s—sometimes that’s a thing he turns on to do the job and so on, but I do think that’s gonna bleed into his personality and it’s—you know, especially given his extremely recent history he’s not got the best feelings about humans. So I think it would inspire an immediate negative reaction in him that would not be pleasant for Callum and Rayla, but I think Ethari just has a much softer heart and that is where Rayla kind of got that side from. So I mean I’m not going to say that he would immediately—you know, they’ve been at war for hundreds and hundreds of years with humans and they’ve been told all through their history that humans committed the original sin of dark magic, et cetera et cetera, but like, I think it would take not that much time of seeing Rayla and Callum together for Ethari to see that there’s something there and then I think Ethari would have the ability to ah, to talk Runaan down pretty quick. But I also think that like, Runaan might not even show any of this, there might just be a kind of seething resentment that he’s not really talking about inside. Um unless it was like on the battlefield or something and he was like, “That’s a prince that I’m meant to kill” or something like that. But overall I think Ethari would sense that Runaan was not like—was not taking this well and they would be able to talk it through. At least that’s my gut.

DEVON: No, that sounds right (DEVON and IAIN laugh).

KUNO: I feel like poor Callum is just always on the edge of “Am I going to die tonight?” while he’s there, “Is this gonna be it?” Just gonna be like, “Oops sorry I had an accident—hey I had an accident in the middle of the night, you know, just a knife to the throat, that’s all”.

IAIN: I mean, he’s doing pretty well, like he said as they were about to meet Ethari and Rayla was like, “Remember Runaan?” He was like “Oh yeah, that guy who tried to kill me as soon as he met me? Cool guy”. Callum’s doing pretty well on the acceptance front these days.

DEVON: I do—

KUNO: Yeah.

DEVON: I do want to say that I think Ethari and Callum would get along really well because I think they both have sort of like a soft hearted friendliness to them that they would have a fun rapport. And that’s the sort of like “Trees to meet you” line is definitely supposed to be like—they’d you know, crack some goofy back and forths and I think that would soften Runaan too because he couldn’t ever hate someone that Ethari liked.

IAIN: Yeah, I think it’s a weird—

KUNO: Aww.

IAIN: —reversal where like Callum’s the one doing the dad jokes and Ethari’s like humoring them and Runaan’s like, “I don’t understand. Trees do not meet.”

DEVON: “Please stop saying ‘trees to meet you’.”

KUNO: Aw it never gets old. I love that. Um alright, Hailey, take it away. Your turn.

#The Dragon Prince #Hot Brown Morning Potion Podcast #HBMP Podcast #TDP #Ruthari #Moonfam #HBMP Podcast transcription #TDP interview transcription #my posts

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New Girl Hogwarts AU Chapter 3: Ginny’s Visit

A/N: I don’t love this chapter, it’s more to show some of the pairings and get George and the reader closer. Also, this is based off of a New Girl episode. Most of this fic will be based off of the first two seasons. I’ll try to combine multiple episodes in the next chapter if you guys don’t mind it feeling a bit rushed? Otherwise I can write them out individually. 

Pairing: George Weasley x (Fem!)reader

Warning: Cursing, sexually suggestive? Idk we’re still PG-13 for now

Word Count: ~3.5k

Series Masterlist

“Hey can you come pick me up? I don’t think I’m sober enough to apparate right now.” Ginny asked immediately after Y/N picked up the phone.

“What about that guy you were seeing? The one that takes his shirt off too much, whatever his name is. Why can’t he take you home?” Y/N asked, getting out of bed and slipping shoes on quickly. She figured she might already know the answer.

“He’s an ASSHOLE that keeps flirting with other girls. I just caught him making out with some bitch in the club-”

“No other bitch, just you! You’re my bitch!”

“Viktor, that doesn’t mean what you think it means, you absolute blubbering idiot.” Y/N could hear the two of them arguing through the speaker of her slightly cracked iPhone 4. She rolled her eyes as she grabbed her keys for the loft.

“Where are you? I’m coming.”

“The Golden Snitch. That new one in diagon.” Y/N rolled her eyes. All of those lame ass quidditch lovers ended up at that club. She knew her best friend played professionally, but she couldn’t help but think about the fact that some of those quidditch players didn’t have a personality outside of the sport.

“I’ll be there in two shakes,” before Y/N could finish her old phrase, she was cut off by George entering her room and speaking.

“You bloody American, would you please stop using old farmer’s phrases?”

“Do you mind, like, knocking?” Y/N rolled her eyes as she turned his way.

“Oh you mean like how you totally DIDN’T a few weeks ago?”

“Oh my god, I DID knock, it’s not my fault you BLAST your music!”

“Will you two shut the fuck up and get a room?” Ginny interrupted the bickering.

“Actually we’re in a room, sister dear.”

“I don’t think that’s the quip you think it is.” Ginny laughed, definitely better at teasing her brother than a decade ago.

“Whatever, what the fuck do you want anyway?” George asked, getting closer to Y/N and her phone.

“See, this is why I NEVER call you for help,” Ginny grunted.

“I’m picking her up from the Golden Snitch and taking her home.” Y/N interrupted the argument just waiting to happen between the siblings.

“Actually, can I stay at your place? Viktor’s shit is at my place and I’d really rather not see him.”

“Yeah that’s fine,” Y/N said at the same time George spoke.

“Absolutely not.”

“George, give your sister a break. Can you please go make sure the couch is made up for her and that the guys aren’t naked when I’m back?” Y/N asked George.

“No promises,” George winked before exiting the room.

“God I swear I can HEAR the sexual tension between you two.” Ginny mumbled.

“Gross, Gin, that’s your brother you’re talking about. Anyway, I’ll be there in like three minutes.” Y/N hung up, and in the blink of an eye she was in diagon alley, walking quickly toward the club playing the Weird Sisters. It was a matter of minutes before Y/N found her way towards the DJ’s booth where Ginny was arguing with Viktor. She was about ready to hex him, or the DJ he had apparently made out with, when Y/N decided to intervene.

“Ginerva darling, I’m here, let’s go home.” Y/N grabbed Ginny’s hand, ready to drag her out of the club. As they walked away Y/N could hear Ginny whisper a hex, and the ensuing shriek from Viktor. Soon they made it to the apparition spot where Ginny side-alonged Y/N to just outside the loft door.

“Why do you guys have protection charms again? What year is this, 1886?”

“I literally live with the chosen one. I feel like that’s justification enough.” Y/N rolled her eyes, mumbling a few spells to disarm the hexes as she unlocked the door with her key. They stumbled into the loft, where, unsurprisingly, Draco stood in just his underwear, Harry without a shirt, George sat on the couch with a beer in hand, and Neville sat with a plant in his lap.

“GEORGE!” Y/N yelled over the argument Draco and Harry were having. He looked over at her and shrugged.

“What can you really do with these guys, ya know?” Y/N flipped him off before pulling the grown men apart.

“Get a room lovers.” Y/N rolled her eyes pushing them apart as she shooed George and Neville off the couch and started making a bed for Ginny.

“LOVERS? God, it’s like you don’t even know us.” Draco shouted, clearly fuming at Harry for...reasons unknown.

“Draco, babe, it’s called sarcasm.” Y/N said as she tucked a sheet around the couch cushions.

“Hey Gin,” Harry pulled her in for a side hug as Ginny turned pink. A childhood crush that never seemed to go anywhere still seemed to bother Ginny. Ginny returned the side hug, and then started taking off her shoes.

“I feel like you’re about half naked every time I see you.” Draco remarked to Ginny, who had a black minidress on, as he sat down on the side of the couch Y/N wasn’t making into a bed. Y/N smacked him.

“Awfully bold of you to say when you’re only in your knickers.” Ginny quipped, rolling her eyes.

“Potter, control your girlfriend.”

“PARDON?” Ginny yelled as Y/N hit his chest again.

“Malfoy, I will actually sectumsempra your ass again.” Harry said, coming up behind Draco to smack the side of his head.

“ANYWAY...you’re making me sleep on the couch?” Ginny asked, plopping down on the unfinished bed Y/N had been in the middle of making.

“Um, yeah, Gin. You steal the covers and we live in a loft. You could say it’s a bit,” Y/N giggled to herself before finishing the joke. “Lofty in here.”

“I hate it here.” Said Harry.

“Literally get out.” Unsurprisingly, from Draco.

“Oh, Merlin, yeah that was pretty bad Y/N.” Neville spoke gently.

“George, oh my god, are you laughing at that?” Ginny accused.

“What? No! Puns are the bane of my existence.” George said, clearly trying to stifle his giggles.

“Bad jokes aside, I hate this couch. It’s got a permanent dip in it from when George didn’t get up off of it for like, a week, when you showed him that one muggle show.” Ginny said

“Friends is so much more than a muggle show.” George hissed.

“George, every year without your far funnier twin your sense of humor gets significantly worse.” Draco said without looking up from his phone. George tensed as Y/N once again smacked Draco on the chest.

“You’re awfully moody tonight, yeah?” Y/N whispered angrily at Draco.

“Sorry, just shit going on at work.”

“You mean how your work wife is engaged?” “Shut the fuck-”

“You know you could just...tell her how you feel?” Y/N suggested as she plopped down in between George and Draco.

“He’s a man, he’ll never do that. I bet he’ll do something dramatic like sabotage the wedding instead.” At that, Draco looked up from his phone and over to Ginny with a grin.

“Maybe one of the Weasley’s are intelligent afterall.” Draco smirked.

“Don’t do that.” Y/N said, hoping that Draco wouldn’t ruin the only other friendship she had outside of the people in the loft.

“No promises. Anyway, I still have time to break them up.” Which made everyone in the loft groan.

“Can I complain about sleeping on the couch again? When is someone going to offer me their bed?” Ginny said, glaring Y/N down.

“You can sleep in my bed.” Harry said, sitting on the floor staring at his phone. Ginny turned pink.

“In my own house? Oh my,” George giggled, but stopped after Ginny glared at him. Harry looked up.

“We practically grew up together. It’s fine.” He shrugged, although Y/N noticed a hint of a blush in his cheeks as well. Y/N found herself smirking. “Yeah George, they’re grown ups. Grown ups can share a bed platonically.” She said, hinting at him to drop it. He smirked as well, nodding.

--

The next morning, Y/N arose to hear rushed whispers in the living room. She cracked her door, knowing that if she entered the conversation would likely stop.

“I’m IN!!”

“Dude, holding her hand is not ‘in.’”

“Whatever, you’re just mad because you’ve never held H-”

“Don’t finish that.” Draco warned.

Y/N tip-toed out to the kitchen where the two were chatting.

“You DO like her!! You big idiot!!” Y/N whispered, scaring Harry at the sudden appearance.

“How am I a big idiot? We shared a bed last night, I made a move!”

“That girl has had a crush on you since she was like ten! You call sharing a bed making a move? The right move to make would be, like, confessing your love for her or something.” Y/N sighed, moving over to the coffee pot of which only she used.

“Whatever, at least I can pick up on signals.” Harry mumbled.

“What is THAT supposed to mean?” Y/N said, turning around to face him quickly.

“Oh nothing, other than that George totally likes you.” Draco chipped in.

“He does not! Did he say that to you?” Y/N stopped, her heart dropping. Her stomach had a weird feeling she couldn’t quite place.

“No, but he doesn’t need to. It’s in the body language. Besides, puns really used to be the absolute bane of his existence. He and Fred were quite high and mighty with their senses of humor.” Harry shrugged.

“I’m sorry, do you call pranking high and mighty?”

“What about pranking?” George said, strolling into the room, his hair a mess and wearing the same clothes from yesterday.

“Nothing.” Draco, Harry, and Y/N unisoned.

“Good morning sunshine.” Y/N grinned as Ginny walked into the room looking an even bigger mess than George.

“Sleeping beauty.” Draco chimed.

“Shut the fuck up. You, don’t.” Ginny said, stopping Harry before he could join in the teasing.

“Well George, it must be nice to know the messy sleeping runs in the family.” Y/N said, gesturing to his hair.

“What? What are you talking about?” George furrowed his brow, reaching up to fix his hair and making it worse.

--

“Do you think my ass looks good in leggings?”

“Are you joking? Of course it does, I wish my ass looked like yours.” Y/N replied to Ginny. She sighed, thinking about what Harry and Draco said to her earlier. “Do you think George…” Y/N drifted off, deciding she didn’t really want to ask anymore.

“Has a crush on you? Absolutely.”

“See, what the fuck? I don’t see it.”

“That’s because you’re absolutely terrible at picking up signals. Remember that last time we went to the club and a guy kept buying you drinks and then you were SURPRISED when he asked you to dance with him?”

“That’s different. I don’t like dancing with strangers!” “Sure, but you were surprised, Y/N.” Ginny gave Y/N a pointed look, to which Y/N sighed.

“Anyway, no one will ever known, because George doesn’t share his feelings with anyone ever.”

“Just try and pick up on his body language. You know, if he points his feet to you or whatever.” Ginny said, staring at her phone with a furrowed brow. “Thank God, Viktor is moving his shit out of my place as we speak. I might be out of here by tomorrow.” Ginny turned and grinned at Y/N. 

“Hey,” George said, once again walking right into Y/N’s room and plopping down on her bed.

“Seriously, do we just not knock here anymore?”

“Well, we’ve seen each other naked, so honestly what’s the point?” George offered, to which Y/N rolled her eyes.

“I’m sorry, what? What did I miss?” Ginny said, tossing her phone onto the bed next to George.

“One time-”

“No, it’s not important, it wasn’t in a sexual way, it’s loft shit. We don’t talk about loft shit to outsiders.” Y/N said, not wanting to recount the story.

“Outsiders? I’m your best friend!”

“Well, you don’t live here.” George shrugged.

“I’m literally your sister!”

“I’m sorry, what does that have to do with the loft? You still don’t live here.” George smirked at her. She screamed and stormed out of Y/N’s room. “Anyway, want to go to the market with me? I need a few things and I’m quite tired of going on my own.” He perched himself up on his elbows to look at Y/N and something about the position he was in on her bed made her feel...some type of way.

“I-- I don't need anything, though.” Y/N said, now wanting to avoid George.

“Can you go and pick me up some tampons? I think you’re out.” Ginny poked her head back into the room, smirking at Y/N.

“You bitch.” Y/N mouthed at Ginny. “Yeah. Okay, I’ll go with.” Y/N announced, looking quickly over at George.

--

Ginny walked around the loft with just her bra and leggings on, as she would in her own apartment.

“Merlin, woman, put some clothes on.” Neville said, covering his eyes with one hand from the couch, covering a leaf on his plant with his other hand.

“Or don’t, I’m starting to appreciate the divine femme energy you’ve got going on.” Draco smirked, practically staring right at Ginny’s boobs.

“Malfoy, I swear to-”

“What, Potter? Don’t like me hitting on your girlfriend?”

“If you don’t shut up, I’ll kiss you.”

“You’ll wha-” before Draco could finish his question, Harry grabbed the back of Draco’s head and left a wet kissed on his lips.”You know, I could’ve gone my whole life without doing that.” Draco mumbled, rubbing his lips on his arm. Ginny stared at the three men in the apartment, rather confused.

“I’m confused,” Ginny said.

“Why?” Harry said, looking over at her.

“Are you guys actually gay?” Ginny whispered, as if it was offensive to ask.

“No, it’s just loft shit. You wouldn’t get it.” Harry shrugged.

“Yeah you wouldn’t get it.” Draco grinned at her. Ginny, in confusion, looked to Neville for an explanation.

“No offense Ginny, but you wouldn’t. It’s just kind of weird here.” Neville shrugged at her.

--

Y/N found herself staring at George’s feet the entire time they were shopping for groceries. He did point his feet at her a lot. But did that actually mean anything?

“Hey, I asked you a question! Where are you today?” George furrowed his brow, waving a hand in front of Y/N’s face.

“Sorry, what?” She kept glancing between George’s face and his feet. She moved around, and his feet would follow her as he continued to face her no matter where she moved.

“You’re acting weird. Anyway didn’t Ginny need something?”

“Oh yeah, I’ll just go get the tampons. I’ll find you later.” Y/N sighed in relief as she was able to quickly get away from George. Why was she so uncomfortable suddenly? She couldn’t decide how she would feel if George did have feelings for her. Her stomach had a weird feeling again. She hadn’t really ever felt this way. She was warm.

“Oh my god.” She said, staring at the tampon boxes. “Am I blushing?” She raised her hands to her face, feeling how warm her cheeks were. “Oh my god.” She whispered to herself. She grabbed a random box from in front of her and stormed off to where George was. She tossed the box angrily into the basket.

“Woah, sassy pants. What’s got your knickers in a twist?” George asked.

“Nothing.” She furrowed his brow at him. “They were just out of the brand I usually get.” She felt herself staring him down. He looked down at the basket to escape her pointed look.

“Super max?”

“I have wide set hips.”

“I believe they call those birthing hips.”

“Who is ‘they?’”

“I don’t know. It was a joke.”

“I know, I’m pointing out the flaw in your joke.”

“Ouch?”

--

“Can one of you make me a sandwich?” Ginny was staring at her phone, now wearing spandex shorts with her bra. It was like the boys had turned on the heat so she would strip (which they had, but she didn’t need to know that). 

“On it.” Draco said, quickly stopping what he was doing (drooling over her legs) as he rushed off to the kitchen.

“No, you know I’m a better cook than you.” Harry rushed off after Draco. Ginny giggled to herself. She liked having men chasing after her, and thought this game was kind of fun. It was like a game of who needed to get laid more.

“You know, what you’re doing isn’t very nice, Gin.”

“Neville, when did anyone ever use the word ‘nice’ to describe me?”

--

“Flowers for sale! Two for one dollar!”

“Oh that’s so cute, here, do you want a flower?” George offered, not waiting for an answer from Y/N as she crossed her arms and started shaking her legs as she did when she was uncomfortable. She started to spiral when he handed her the roses. She stared at them, wondering what they meant.

“You didn’t need to do that.”

“I know, but I like to support small businesses.” He shrugged, his feet weren’t pointed towards hers anymore. Maybe he didn’t like her like that. Maybe she was overthinking this.

“Oh, good point, I guess.” He giggled and pointed his toe.

“Good POINTE, right?”

“I--what?”

“You’re a dancer, right? I’m on pointe.” He giggled, continuing to walk towards the apartment. Y/N felt uncomfortable again. She mentioned it once in passing that she did ballet as a kid. Her stomach hurt again. She felt tears start to well in her eyes.

“I-I...I’ve gotta go!” She said suddenly, running off in the opposite direction of their apartment. George furrowed his brow, confused at Y/N’s odd behavior.

--

“Ginny,” Y/N burst into the door, out of breath. She had clearly been running. “I’m confused.” She looked up and became more confused when she saw Ginny was getting pampered by Draco and Harry. “I...what did I miss?”

“There you are! I looked for you everywhere! You can’t just run off like that, what are you, insane?” George stormed into the apartment. He noticed dried tear trails on Y/N’s face and dropped what he was saying. He looked towards Ginny and the guys and furrowed his brow. “What the fuck, guys?”

“How did this happen?” Y/N asked, gesturing to Draco who seemed to be giving Ginny a facial as Harry rubbed her feet.

“I don’t really remember.” Harry sighed.

“Ginny, get up.” Y/N was ready to lecture her. Ginny sighed and stood up.

“Thanks mum and dad, you two really have to ruin everything.” She sassed. George and Y/N looked at each other with wide eyes. George smirked suddenly.

“Ginny, don’t I recall hearing that Viktor is moving out? Why don’t you give him a call and see if he’s done.” George grinned, trying to expedite the process of getting Ginny out of the loft. Y/N giggled, looking at George’s side profile. He looked back over and nodded his head back towards his room. Or maybe her room, she couldn’t tell, their rooms too close together.

She followed him into his bedroom. He sat down on the bed as she closed the door and stood right by it.

“You were a bit weird today.”

“The guys and Gin were messing with me and...I don’t know. I had my knickers in a twist.”

“Oh finally, a british phrase. There we go, America.” He smiled at her. She offered a half smile. “I’d like to think that I’m your best friend next to Ginny, so you don’t have to be so weird around me.” Y/N’s heart sank. Best friends, that’s what they were.

“Yeah, you’re right. I was just surprised when you mentioned the dance thing, I guess. I’m not used to anyone other than Ginny remembering things about me.”

“Yikes, you must have awfully bad taste in men, and friends.” George pointed his head towards the direction of their living room, laughing.

“Yeah, you could say that.” She rolled her eyes, laughing, too. “I’m glad I have you. I guess. Don’t let that get to your head.”

“I would never.” George smiled.

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[dtrhwithalex]

TV | Leverage (Season 1, Rewatch)

Rewatch of the first season of TNT's LEVERAGE (2008-2012), created by John Rogers and Chris Downey together with Dean Devlin and his production company Electric Entertainment.

In anticipation of the show's reboot / revival / sequel LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION coming to IMDbTV on 09 July this year, I am rewatching the original 77 episodes and writing about my favourite moments and things from each episode, season by season.

(Just a note, this first season was aired out of order, so the dates won't actually form a chronology, since I'm going with the intended order rather than the one they were aired in.)

101: THE NIGERIAN JOB

D: DEAN DEVLIN. W: JOHN ROGERS & CHRIS DOWNEY. Original Air Date: 07 December 2008.

I have lost count of how many times I have seen this episode (or any episodes of this show to be completely honest), but it holds up every single time. It is one of my favourite, if not the favourite TV pilot episode I have ever seen.

The way this pilot sets up who the main characters are and what the core of this show is, is simply perfect. The introduction of Nate at the bar being approached by Dubenich, then the intercut between him convincing Nate to do the job and the actual job happening -- just wonderful. The same goes for the individual introductions of the other players. Nate's comment about Parker ("no, but Parker is insane") which plants a thread for the rest of the show already, the flashbacks of each character to exemplify who they and what their talents are, combined with the episode then showing you those talents and what Nate can do with them -- which is, of course, his talent -- sets up this whole show so well.

So many seeds that come to fruition throughout the show are already planted right here. Nate's mentoring of Parker to become his eventual successor as Mastermind ("Haircuts, Parker, count the haircuts" -- "I would've missed that"), Eliot's role as protector, the iconic overhead shots and the gloating, the alternate revenue streams, "Hardison dies in Plan M" -- it's all already right here in this episode. A brilliant piece of writing. Hats off to Rogers and Downey, no questions asked.

Rewatching this episode made me think of what this show is about, in its essence. Yes, it is about standing up for those who can't do so themselves, taking on the bigger bad, showing how corrupt and terrible the world can be, but also how much good there is to still find in the world. But also, this show is about a lonely man being actively bullied into the family he didn't know he needed or wanted, but will eventually come to realise is the one thing, the only thing that is keeping him alive. LEVERAGE is the story of a man and his crusade to avenge the death of his child, but is is very much also the story of a man who finds a reason to keep getting up every morning in the four people who are on this crusade with him. And this pilot episode already holds the seed and the potential of all of that. And that is why this show is to this day still my favourite show of all time, because it is utterly perfect in every way.

102: THE HOMECOMING JOB

D: DEAN DEVLIN. W: JOHN ROGERS. Original Air Date: 09 December 2008.

I absolutely love how John Rogers was like okay first episode, some greedy asshole who does whatever he wants for his own gain, we'll take him down a notch. Episode two? Hmm, oh yeah, the government is completely corrupt, filled with rich greedy assholes who do whatever they want for their own gain and always get away with it. Not on my watch (I love him very much, thank you).

This episode, once again, so good. The re-introduction of every character in this new reality of Nate's crusade is just as brilliantly done as the original introduction of them all. Sophie at an audition (love the John Rogers cameo here) completely butchering it once again, Eliot beating up some thug, Parker stealing valuable art, and Hardison doing what he does best: creating a beautiful office-slash-home space for the team, putting his all into their backstories, the equipment, the behind-the-scenes workings of what they need to get the job done. My man.

The message of this particular episode is also just something I am very fond of. The rehab facility doctor's words in the beginning, and then in the end again -- "people don't just show up to help. that's not the way the world works" -- as well as Nate's ultimate answer to her, "so change the world." That right here is the message of this show. It's already right here, all up in your face, episode two.

I completely adore what this episode does for the character dynamics already. The detail Hardison puts into the other's backstories, the interactions around the conference table, Eliot sharing his knowledge, Nate explaining the money laundering scam, the whole thing about laws being in a wooden box, Sophie elaborating why she knew Congressman Jenkins was lying to her -- they don't just work together, they already start giving the others insight into their talents and their knowledge and share that. It's beautiful. I especially adore the shot of them at the end, everyone leaning against the car while watching Corporal Perry and the other veterans debating what to do with the money. They are already so comfortable and at ease with each other, leaning into each other's spaces. They're family. You can see it here already.

Absolutely fantastic episode. For a long time, whenever I thought about The Homecoming Job, I somehow associated a more negative emotion with it than with other episodes, but I don't quite know why, because this is a brilliant episode and I love watching it.

103: THE WEDDING JOB

D: JONATHAN FRAKES. W: CHRIS DOWNEY. Original Air Date: 13 January 2009.

We love Jonathan Frakes in this house and every single time his name shows up with the director tag on this show, I know that I will enjoy every last second of the episode I am about to watch. Frakes directed the hell outta this thing. The Wedding Job is an absolutely excellent episode. Dan Lauria as our main baddie Nicky Moscone is perfect casting and there are so many great comedic beats in the scenes with him and Nate. Everyone, generally, is so weirded out by Priest!Nate, but Moscone just takes the weirdness in stride. This episode holds a very special place in my heart because it contains the introduction of my favourite FBI duo -- McSweeten (McSweetheart, as we call him) and Taggert. I adore these two bumbling fools so much, and I am so glad they kept being brought back, because they are both just so lovely. McSweetheart especially is very dear to me because of the D.B. Cooper Job from the last season (where, I ask, do I start my McSweetheart for Leverage: Redemption campaign?). Overall just such an excellent episode, really. So many great moments between our main characters--Sophie and Nate and their little "relationship" problem, Hardison and Eliot talking about marriage, Parker pretending she was waiting in the screening room to have sex with Hardison, Hardison appreciating Eliot's cooking. I also absolutely adore the beginning, the four of them convincing Nate that Teresa is definitely the type of client they take on. And Nate's resigned "Yeah, okay, yeah. Let's go rob Nicky Moscone. A guy who kills people and lives in our city. Yeah, let's go do that" as if they weren't going to go above and beyond any of that in the five years they will spend together on this crusade of his. You're so precious, Nathan. Of course, the ending of this episode is beyond brilliant, and lives both in my heart and my head rent free. It is such a magnificent found family moment. Getting Teresa the restaurant back, the news footage regarding Ray's appeal, and of course, Eliot cooking for them all, and them celebrating together, all of them. It is such a beautiful moment.

104: THE SNOW JOB

D: TONY BILL. W: ALBERT KIM. Original Air Date: 27 January 2009.

I adore what the client says to Nate in the beginning of the episode: "You work hard, you play by the rules, but when you need help, you really need help? They let you hang. They let you hang and it's your kid who pays the price." This show hammers home its message so many times in such great character moments and it makes watching these brilliant people take on these greedy bastards and robbing them for all they've got that much sweeter. It is such a satisfying thing to watch. Especially because they're all so damn good at this.

This is a great episode but it is infinitely funnier if you know and speak German, because it makes the scenes between Sophie and Eliot absolutely hysterical. And the delivery of the line that Ute Ausgartner says when she discovers they replaced her with Sophie is just wrong enough to crack you up.

Again some wonderfully brilliant comedic beats -- the Frakes cameo in the hospital waiting room, Parker casually hanging off the ski lift, Hardison and Eliot arguing over who puts dye in the dead body, Eliot carrying off a pissed of Parker, and so many more.

This episode also, for the first time, really gives insight into Nate's drinking problem. We had the one moment in The Homecoming Job, but this episode starts to explore it more in depths. And something that I've always appreciated about this show is that it never glorifies the drinking, but Nate is also never vilified for it. It is a fact of Nate's life and they explore different aspects of it, and everything is done with such care (which does not surprise me one bit since this is John Rogers' show).

The ending of this episode is also, once again, so beautiful and nicely done. It is just so incredibly satisfying to watch these greedy bastards get what's coming to them, and to see the clients be compensated beyond anything they'd ask for.

105: THE MILE HIGH JOB

D: ROB MINKOFF. W: AMY BERG. Original Air Date: 20 January 2009.

Another fantastic episode (you will realise that I will say this about every single of the 77 episodes this show has)! Amy Berg wrote some excellent stuff for this show, and this episode is one of them. Always a lot of great character relationship moments, and absolutely brilliant comedic beats.

I am very fond of the fact that here, in the early days, we have the whole team present around the table during the client meeting. We see all their reactions and inputs here already, and not later when Nate or Hardison (usually) relays the information of their next job to the rest of the gang. It's a very lovely moment.

I am also very fond of the entire recon bit at the GenoGrow office. Sophie's French rave-girl act, the others having to climb stairs, Hardison's absence, the cut from Parker's bomb to the microwave at the HQ, Nate, Eliot and Parker yelling "Oh it's right behind us, it's chasing us!" and grabbing Sophie on the way out, meanwhile the security guys completely buying it. Absolutely brilliant, all the way through.

Both Hardison's adventure at GenoGrow as well as the others on the plane contain so many great comedic moments. Hardison's Spanish maintenance guy act, his interactions with both Cheryl and Steve (talking into the cupboard? His fake meeting and getting Steve to take a dive? The whole birthday thing? A+ all around. Amy Berg, everyone) and of course the reaction he has to the plane safely landing on the highway ("lord I was so scared, I wanna cry and call my momma" I love him so much, y'all). I also have big feelings about Nate's pep talk to Hardison, "you can do this, I trust you ... the only guy I can count on in a situation like this." Sir, I am experiencing an emotion alright.

The sequences on the plane are of course also absolutely fantastic. Nate and Sophie's domestic, Parker's day job and her interactions with Marissa, Eliot being a big softie who holds Marissa's hand all the way up to the in-flight bar and hugs the woman he sat down next to when they safely land (womaniser, big softie. tomayto, tomahto). Also big shoutout to the fake names Nate and Sophie have. We love our DOCTOR WHO references in this show. I love these nerds very much, thank you.

106: THE TWO HORSE JOB

D: CRAIG R. BAXLEY. W: MELISSA GLENN & JESSICA RIEDER (GRASL). Original Air Date: 16 December 2008.

This episode also holds a very special place in my heart because it contains the introduction of our dearly beloved antagonist, Mr Jim Sterling, the absolutely amazing Mark Sheppard. We love Sterling in this house, yessir (again, where do I have to address my Jim Sterling For Leverage: Redemption campaign to?). Every moment he is in is fantastic, but I especially adore the conversation he has with Nate at the race track (especially the "Nathan Ford is a common criminal" -- "Common. That's just hurtful" bit of it).

This, of course, is an episode by our wonder twins, Glenn and Rieder (now Grasl), which they ended up naming the in-universe safe company after. Always fantastic work when the two of them are involved. Some amazing character moments again here.

We get to see some of Eliot's backstory with Aimee which in turn gives us two fantastic moments with him and the women of the team. I love his interaction with Sophie at the racetrack: "I like Aimee, I do. I mean it, I like you both, Eliot. I just, I don't know what comes of chasing the past, you know." -- "Well Sophie, sweetie, I don't think you and Nate get to serve me that particular meal." Just fantastic moment between these two, who I like to call The Conference of Mom Friends whenever they are in scenes together. The other interaction is with Parker in the car: "We need you to do this. I need you to do this." I adore Eliot and Parker's relationship and this already is a very early glimpse at the dynamic they develop which will eventually lead to beautiful moments like that in the ice cave in The Long Way Down Job in season four.

I also love how it is Hardison and Parker's discussion about horses that ultimately reminds Nate of the Lost Heir con. Aldis' delivery of "Wilbur loved Mr Ed! He loved him like a second cousin twice removed" is absolutely brilliant. Unsurprisingly, however, my favourite interaction of this episode is the one Eliot has with Aimee at the end: "You're never gonna be the kind to settle down, but I'm glad you found a family." -- "Th-those guys?" Yes, Eliot, those guys. You might not know it just yet, but that is absolutely your family, and the fact that an outsider already comments on it this early is simply perfect. My deepest gratitude to you, wonder twins.

107: THE BANK SHOT JOB

D: DEAN DEVLIN. W: AMY BERG. Original Air Date: 30 December 2008.

Amy Berg on the typewriter once again (typewriter? Alex what are you talking about this was 2008...)! I really like this episode a whole lot. An excellent one for Nate/Sophie, as well as Hardison/Parker. I have a huge soft spot for my crime children pretending to be law enforcement. Any combination of them is good, but Parker and Hardison as FBI agents especially is just exquisite.

This episode is also just fantastic for illustrating some of the small town criminal activity that happens from the top down. Judge Roy's entire bit about how "these little people" will do and say whatever he tells them to do and that, because he is the law in the town, he gets to decide what is actually true and what is not. To then have Hardison fake security footage and them turning the story against Judge Roy is of course poetic justice. I adore the moment when the bank manager Frank decides that sticking with the false facts these random people have come up with is the better choice than having the judge remain in charge.

I also really love the interaction Derrick has with Sophie and then later with Parker, as well as the moment of uncertainty in-between. His "I don't know what to do with that" when Sophie tells him she's a thief is so funny and so good. The turn of "but they're criminals....then again" when he looks out of the window on the way to Parker is also just a nice moment to illustrate exactly what Parker then later says, "sometimes bad guys are the only good guys you get." Ethics and justice are such muddy concepts and especially in situations like Derrick is currently in, there is no way of knowing who is actually good, who is bad, and who is just trying their best. It is a lovely moment and once again, one of those great instances of "important message within character moment" that this show does so well.

Of course, I am also very fond of Hardison's mention of DOCTOR WHO, his "Geek power baby, stay strong" line, Eliot's fight scene with the crack dealers ("stay in the car!"), Hardison's bullshitting the demands at the bank (Hall & Oates!) and, of course, last but not least, the return of my favourite FBI fools, McSweetheart and Taggert, getting yet another win laid in their lap by the Leverage crew. This episode is filled to the brim with greatness.

108: THE MIRACLE JOB

D: ARVIN BROWN. W: CHRISTINE BOYLAN. Original Air Date: 23 December 2008.

An absolutely excellent Nate-centric episode! We finally get a bit more of a view into Nate's past, aside from the ever-present flashback to Sam's death at the hospital. I really like the relationship of Nate and Father Paul, which I think is very interesting and so well done. Through Paul we get another side of Nate, which may have stayed hidden otherwise. I am also very fond of how Maggie is introduced here. She doesn't get a voice yet, but we learn about her through Nate, Sophie and also Paul, and I quite like that. It sets up expectations for her appearance in the finale, which is really intriguing.

This episode has so many great comedic beats as well, and I barely even know where to begin. From the team's inability to deal with Sophie's acting talents (or lack thereof) to the whole "It's not Santa" gag, the amazing faces Sophie pulls when the mark tells her about Bibletopia, Hardison's "God will smite us" thing -- there is just too much good stuff in this episode.

One of my favourite interactions in this episode was on the construction site, after Grant takes what he thinks are his meds.

Sophie: What is that you just took? Grant: Xanax. For my nerves. Parker: Actually caffeine. With a dash of dextroamphetamine. Eliot: You have him speed? Hardison, shrugging: He beat up a priest!

The look Eliot gives them then with a half-shrug, an expression which cannot be described as anything but "aight, fair enough" -- just absolutely excellent.

What I also really loved about this episode, is that we get to see more of the HQ than just the conference room. We have the team meeting in Nate's office, we see Sophie picking through her mail, Hardison making space so he can build fake Saint Nick statues. Added to that, the team is setting into such a nice familiarity with each other. Eliot brings Sophie a cup of coffee to the meeting in Nate's office. The fact that they all do get mail at the office. This is their space. I love it so much.

What this episode also gives us, is a first instance of the con possibly going side-ways because of how convincing it is. I adore that their possible downfall will never be incompetence, but rather over-competence. They are so good at what they do that sometimes their talent comes to bite them in the ass. We see this again, a bit different, in The Juror #6 Job.

The ending of this episode is very dear to me. It is a very lovely moment between Nate and Paul, but also Nate and the team. It creates such a beautiful moment of intimacy between these characters, which I think is done with extreme care, and it shows. This episode also very nicely sets up a nice sort of grounded-ness for the next episode, which I think the subject matter really deserves and needs.

109: THE STORK JOB

D: MARC ROSKIN. W: ALBERT KIM. Original Air Date: 06 January 2009.

This one and the next episode are excellent Parker-centric plots and this one in particular also has some wonderful Parker/Hardison content. Nate, also, is just very good in this episode as well. Keeping the tone the last episode established especially toward the end, this episode has such a nice grounded-ness to it. Nate's first meeting with the client is so careful in a way, and we don't always see that. Generally, Nate is careful and considerate in this episode, I think. Even when Parker goes rogue, he is so good with Parker (I attribute the brashness entirely to his director role here). It meant so much that he doesn't shoot down the idea of coming back for the other orphans, he knows how important this is to Parker (and Hardison).

With this episode we learn that both Parker and Hardison have grown up in the foster system. I really adore the conversation they have at the van after they find out about the orphanage -- Hardison telling Parker about his Nana, Parker's fear that foster system will be cruel to those children, Hardison's "I like how you turned out" -- it is such a lovely and meaningful moment. This and the "we're a team" / "a little more than a team" moments are such great instances that highlight the importance of these characters and their relationships in this show. It isn't just some crime procedural where every characters is replaceable at any given moment -- this show is about people, and about these specific people.

On a lighter note, I also really adore Nate and Sophie's dynamic in this. How they coach Parker and Eliot individually but at the same time, while also arguing about Sophie conning Nate back in the day, is just brilliant. Their "delightful banter" as Hardison calls it, is so good, and I absolutely love that Nate figures out the way to con Irina is the same way he would have to con Sophie. It's just too good.

David S. Lee as Nicholas is also incredibly good, although since watching THE LIBRARIANS I always expect him to swoon over a blonde and call her Duchess any minute.

110: THE JUROR #6 JOB

D: JONATHAN FRAKES. W: REBECCA KIRSCH. Original Air Date: 10 February 2009.

The lighter of the two Parker-centric episodes, but a brilliant one nonetheless. This episode also brings us the introduction of Peggy played by the lovely Lisa Schurga. We love Peggy in this house and, once again, I ask: where do I address my Peggy For Leverage: Redemption campaign to?

This episode is great for many different reasons, one of course being that Hardison is so good at what he does, that Parker's alias has to go to jury duty. What a talent, we absolutely have no choice but to stan. I love him so much. Other fantastic things that make this episode absolutely excellent are

- Nate's "there is not some evil conspiracy lurking behind the curtain of every routine civic activity" speech which he then has to retract,

- Sophie teaching Parker about persuasion with the help of Eliot who is absolutely precious in this interaction,

- Eliot's friend Donnie, who poses as another employee from the company Sophie pretends to be from, who then turns out to be Scottish,

- Nate and Sophie sending the kids off to work at the door, with a briefcase and handshake for Hardison and a snack and high-five for Parker,

and Hardison's entire act as a lawyer. He is so good. Of course his stalling is brilliant, but the turn-around once he has to actually try and win the trial? A masterpiece. I love how he tears the doctor apart for his drunken airplane misconducts, but what takes the cake by miles is of course his closing statement. He is just, so good, and such a goodhearted, wonderful person. I love how he directly addressed Parker. Hardison is full of sunshine and I love. him. so. much.

And I would be remiss not to mention how incredibly fond I am of the rest of the team watching the feed of the jury room from the HQ with such proud looks on their faces as Parker leads the other jury members and they vote in favour of the plaintiff. This is their girl and she's done so well. What a brilliant episode. My love to Becky Kirsch, honestly.

111: THE 12-STEP JOB

D: ROD HARDY. W: AMY BERG & CHRIS DOWNEY. Original Air Date: 03 February 2009.

Another episode, another instance of me asking the question: Where do I address my Hurley for Leverage: Redemption campaign to? We love Hurley! Drew Powell is absolutely fantastic, I adore him. Also huge shoutout to Joseph LoDuca for that absolute banger of a song that plays during the intro and the credits.

This episode has some fantastic Eliot/Hardison moments that are very dear to me. The two of them looking for Hurley and fighting over Hardison's slushy spill is just lovely. The whole car bomb sequence is also just completely brilliant. It's such a step in their relationship and I love it so much. The moment of "D'you want me to kick it?" / "God, I'm gon' die" is a wonderful comedic beat in this tense situation, but it is the bit after that I really adore. Hardison figuring out how to trick the bomb and then,

Eliot: What's our margin of error here? Hardison: 'bout half a second. Eliot: Run the ba-bag of bricks by me again? Hardison: Are you ready? Eliot: No.

I am just, so fond of these two. Also the fact that Eliot's hand shakes when he reaches for the cables and waits for Hardison's signal always puts me all up in my feelings about him. I also of course adore the scene at the rehab facility with Hardison's "I'm with him. No, I am with him. See, he thinks the flirting makes me jealous, but it doesn't. But if you was like Brad Pitt or Denzel or somebody, oh girl it would be on." It love it so much.

Nate, of course, is also just great in this episode. His entire experience in rehab is another wonderful insight into his character, his issues, how he sees himself and so on. The hallucination of Sterling says so much about him. I think this also very nicely sets up how Nate behaves in the finale double episode.

I also really want to mention Parker here, because Parker in rehab is also something I am very fond of. I love the moment where she pickpockets the Koreans searching for Hurley and then so innocently comes to Nate to confess what she's done and tells him in this tiny voice "I didn't meant to, it was just instinct." I love her so much. And her, at the end of the episode, skipping along and then running toward her people, jumping on Eliot while tossing her stuff at Nate, and then going to hug Hardison, is such a lovely moment. I love how the three of them then walk toward the car arm in arm, too. I love these kids.

112: THE FIRST DAVID JOB

D: DEAN DEVLIN. W: JOHN ROGERS. Original Air Date: 17 February 2009.

First half of the first finale! I gotta say I really love the David Jobs very much. It is such a fantastic first finale. I really adore how the opening of this episode is mirrored in the opening of the second half.

Given the set-up of the previous episode, I really like how for a first time watcher, this opening sequence very much looks like Nate is completely off the rails doing his own thing getting revenge on the man who, basically, killed his son. It isn't until Blackpoole introduces Nate to 'Portia' and we see Sophie turn around that it becomes clear that we're on the con, which I think is done very nicely. Only then giving the viewer the "how we got here" part is just great.

This episode of course also brings us, finally, Maggie (yes, I'll ask again: where do I address my Maggie For Leverage: Redemption campaign to?). I absolutely love how she is introduced here as Eliot's date. I also love how absolutely terrified Eliot looks once he realises that she isn't just anyone, but Nate's ex-wife. Maggie is such an excellent character, and I adore her. I also am very appreciative that this episode holds the singular moment of jealousy Sophie has toward Maggie. After her momentary outburst as Maggie tells Nate she hasn't stopped caring about him, we never see it again. Even better, once Maggie learns about Nate's crew, Sophie and her even become friends. And it is lovely.

We also have some great Parker/Hardison moments in this episode as well. I adore Parker and her enthusiasm for their "little naked man" and Hardison being weirded out about it (and turning the little David around so Parker can change in private). I, of course, absolutely love the kiss (and Eliot's grinning question at Sophie who of the two of them Parker had kissed) and then the theft of the First David. Hardison is so in awe of Parker and it is a sight to behold.

I also quite enjoy the "downfall" in this episode. Sterling showing up (we love the bastard), the fight between Eliot and Mr Quinn, the conversation about Sophie conning them on the roof, and then of course the final confrontations on that same roof as well as the HQ. This whole thing of "and then I asked myself, what would Parker do?" / "but then I thought, what would Hardison do?" is just brilliant and lovely. It shows how far they have all come throughout this first season and how much they have learned from each other already. I am very fond of it.

I am sad about the offices being blown up, though. As much as I love both McRory's pub and Nate's apartment in Boston, as well as the Brewpub in Portland, I've always really liked the LA offices as well. It was their first home and it was lovely. I am however very happy that Old Nate made it out unscathed.

113: THE SECOND DAVID JOB

D: DEAN DEVLIN. W: JOHN ROGERS & CHRIS DOWNEY. Original Air Date: 24 February 2009.

And the last episode! As I've said above, I adore how this opening sequence mirrors that of The First David Job. Similarly, I also love how until Sophie notices Parker's laser pointer and Eliot sees Hardison, as a viewer you assume they are on the job together, which is again the reversal of the first half of the finale. Just lovely storytelling, I adore it. Speaking of mirrors, the scene in the MC Hammer mansion where Nate inconspicuously manages to get them all thinking about the con together and putting their differences aside once more, also mirrors one of my favourite scenes from the first episode of season two, where the team does the same to Nate.

This episode on the whole I also just marvellous. Eliot's awkward date with Maggie, Nate finally telling Maggie about Blackpoole's involvement (or lack thereof) in Sam's death, the team involving Maggie in the planning of the con and her, precious as she is, questioning Nate's ability to just get people to do what he wants -- it is all just so good. I love Maggie on the con, too. Sophie coaching her, how good Maggie is at it immediately. Just lovely.

Then, of course, the entirety of the con from the moment Nate shows up at the museum. Sterling hurrying all over the place trying to figure out what Nate's plan is, finding out about the mummy, the release of the gas, the evacuation, the David statue replicas, them finally getting in and finding Nate alone in the exhibit room. I adore that shot of him leaning against the display case with the two Davids still inside, only highlighted from the open hatch in the roof. It is such a beautiful shot. I really enjoy Nate and Sterling's dynamic here, too. And I am very happy that Maggie gets to punch Blackpoole just like Nate got to in the episode before. They both deserve to give this man hell.

The ending of this episode and therefore this season always has me in all of my emotions. If I didn't know there would be more after this, I would just go lie down and weep for a while after watching it. The trademark overhead walkaway shot is of course a must, but the fact that they stop, that all of them hesitate, thinking about turning around, thinking about changing their minds. And then it cuts to black, and if this had been it, we would've never known! Ah, what a show, what a first season. I am completely in love with this show, as pretty much everyone knows, but I just -- this show is so damn good. It gets me every single time. Every time.

[image taken from the electricnow website]

#tv blogging #rewatch blogging #leverage #leverage tnt #nate ford #tim hutton #sophie devereaux #gina bellman #eliot spencer #christian kane #alec hardison #aldis hodge #parker #beth riesgraf #john rogers #chris downey #dean devlin #the nigerian job #the homecoming job #the wedding job #the snow job #the mile high job #the miracle job #the two horse job #the bank shot job #the stork job #the juror 6 job #the 12 step job #the first david job #the second david job

[pluviophile-bookworm]

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Rewatch pt.3

Ok, full disclosure: I should not be doing this right now. But I've been thinking about it since yesterday and, well, I reckon I can go over 1x4 and 5, and then move on to my actual work. So here we are. I'm really, really excited for these two, so without further ado, I'll dive right into:

1x4: It's hard to believe that I couldn't see... the majority of what happens in this episode when I first watched it

Why is Nini such a pro at making a scene with whoever her current boyfriend is in the middle of a public place? I mean, I get it that she's upset about EJ going through her phone — who wouldn't be — but maybe - and this is just a friendly suggestion — she could try and discuss that in private, not start a shouting match within view of all their classmates. Just saying.

'Ricky would never steal my phone' — well, perhaps not, but he's not quite above deleting stuff from it, either... I wonder if whoever is writing this show knows that there are many other ways to make a relationship unhealthy... it's not funny anymore. Just repetitive.

Ahhh Natalie and her emotional support hamster! At least there's one good thing about this scene.

Sure, Ricky, blame Big Red for the fact that you misplace your stuff... a very nice best friend he's got, indeed.

Gosh, everything is so awkward and there is just so much tension all over the place — Ricky's parents, then EJ and Nini, and then Carlos just being oblivious to the fact that they just broke up... you know, that last part just made me laugh. And then Ricky's reaction to his parents legally separating just broke my heart. That boy's been through too much.

Big Red being completely clueless about theatre terms is super funny and endearing, but let me just put myself in his shoes for a sec. He's followed his best friend into a badly thought-out scheme to get back together with his ex, got dragged into joining the crew, and is now expected to know what everything is. I would not put up with that... ok, who are we kidding, I'm a massive pushover and would put up with anything, but my point is... he shouldn't have to. At least people are doing the bare minimum to help him learn and nobody's laughed at him for not knowing. That's the good thing about this crew.

Ok, so I have posted about my thoughts of their take on What I've Been Looking For before, back when the episode was brand new, so I won't go into detail about that. In short, I think they've got the arrangement all wrong considering that it is a plot point in the original movie, but... the execution is funny. The scene is about Nini and EJ's post-breakup tension and it shows. I just kind of wish now Miss Jenn had pulled Nini out and put Gina in, even just for this rehearsal — and I might or might not be saying this as a Portwell shipper.

Miss Jenn is done with the students' personal drama and honestly, I'm right behind her. These kids are being completely unprofessional — and well, I realise that we can't expect them to be professional at this stage, but... they could at least try to concentrate on rehearsal and not their personal lives for a second.

Ricky hugging a cushion is my spirit animal. That's it, that's the comment.

Ahhh the tension between EJ and Gina though... 'around here seniors don't follow sophomores' — well, we'll see how it goes, Mr. Senior.

What gives Nini the right to shout at strangers about their relationship? I am honestly so frustrated with her these days. Wonder why I never was during season 1. The reasons are all there.

'He loves you' — yeah, like a little sister, he does. Also, Ash is so precious, always trying to see the good in other people. EJ 1.0 is so lucky he had her as an example.

Ok, I'm not going to go into what an amazing best friend Big Red is because we all know that (plus I'm saving it for a certain scene in 1x5), but this must be so hard for him. I mean, he's trying his absolute best to help Ricky feel better and distract him from his problems, and Ricky is turning everything down. I mean, I guess I understand where he's coming from too, but I'm unable to look at things through the lead-centric lens alone anymore. I'm more aware of non-lead characters now (some more so than others) and this is putting a whole new spin on my perception of everything that happens.

I've got no idea how Big Red can sleep with all this noise, though. I could never. But to each their own.

'perfect on paper' — that's EJ 1.0 to a T. I've got to give Nini that.

Ricky wearing the pride t-shirt... we love to see it.

See, this is why I keep forgetting why I ever shipped Rini and then remembering again... their chemistry is just so on-again-off-again, and here it's definitely present, but I just need a couple with consistent chemistry, you know. Hey, isn't that kind of what All I Want is about? Kind of. I don't know. I've been unable to listen to that song ever since it got big irl. I have this... problem with media that becomes popular and mainstream... I mean, I never hold a grudge against things just for being popular, but I just... relate to underrated stuff much easier. Not because it's underrated, but it just so happens that nearly everything I like and relate to is underrated in some capacity. Even HSMTMTS itself — it's practically unheard of here in Bulgaria, so I would not have found it if I hadn't been looking for it specifically. Ok, this comment got derailed several times. I guess I'll just stop here and move right on to 1x5 at this point.

1x5: A bedazzled tablecloth, a perfectly balanced unicycle and bad reception at the barn... not the perfect ingredients, but they can still... Work This Out

'Miss Jenn says that's a life in the arts... well, that and almost constant unemployment' — alright, I know this line is not supposed to be funny, and that it's a painful reality for a lot of people, but... maybe it's the delivery. I just laugh every time.

See, this is what I mean when I say I want to see consistent chemistry — Seblos have it. I mean, I really don't want to jinx things, but... they do.

Big Red seems to be in a more... outspoken mood today, I guess you could say. Too bad Ricky is still shutting everything he says down. Seriously, Big Red and Seb should start a club for people who try their best to be there for their loved ones and still keep being shushed.

I might be super frustrated with nearly everything Nini says and does (can somebody please tell me why that is?), but... flushing her dress down the toilet? Major mood.

Listen, I love Miss Jenn and that she's close to her students, but... emerging from a toilet cubicle and inviting herself to Kourtney and Nini's girls' night was... Will Shuester level of questionable.

Ricky being the mature one about his parents separation is... I mean, it's admirable, but how did he move past the impending depression of last episode and towards being the one who tells his dad to get up and move on? Well, I mean, good for him. But I think the issue is far from buried yet.

'Friend of the year'? Ricky? I don't think so. First of all, if he were, he'd know that Big Red does not have two left feet. Wasn't it you, Ricky, who was stumbling over the steps in HSM a couple of weeks ago? You're one to talk. Plus Big Red's been listening and trying to help while you've just been spouting off about your personal problems for... how long has it been now? I get it, Ricky has issues that he needs to work through, but he's almost legally blind in both eyes when it comes to Big Red.

Ok, but Ricky is the epitome of 'cannot solve his own problems but has a suggestion on how everybody else should solve theirs' in this episode. Maybe take a step back and listen to your own advice?

'My parents think I'm bonding with the livestock' — I've got no idea why I find this line so funny, but I do. And I've got so much love for this entire scene. Carlos' reaction to Seb's response to his invitation is just... the most adorable thing ever! My heart might just burst. Especially given what we're about to go through tomorrow in 2x10... I am. Not. Ready.

The entire karaoke scene just reminds me of... pretty much every extended family reunion on my mum's side. Her cousins love karaoke and are also completely tone-deaf. I love it that they're able to have fun with it, but my ears are still recovering from my great aunt's birthday party two years ago.

'When did you become Nini?' — Why does Mr. Mazzara know so much about his students' dating lives? I mean, Miss Jenn does, too, but he doesn't strike me as someone as invested in them as her. Idk, it just struck me as kind of weird.

'I didn't agree to photos' — please, EJ, I'm sure you'll want memories from your first fake-dating gig with Gina... once you're no longer fake-dating, you know. Boy, these two are going to have stories to tell to their grandchildren.

I've said some stuff about Nini, but... 'a bedazzled tablecloth' is the funniest description I've heard for Gina's homecoming dress.

'Maybe it's not actually about you at all.' Yeah, you tell him, Reddy! Ricky needs to get over himself.

The way Big Red sniffs out the drama, though... I was not-so-randomly reminded of that moment in 2x9 where Seb was like Carlos. and Big Red was like, 'Are you guys fighting?'...

Big Red doing a comedic lip-reading of Gina and EJ's dramatic scene is absolutely hilarious. I might or might not have sold my heart and soul to him after seeing that scene for the first time. But I just remembered how he said earlier that maybe he can't read lips and that just makes this 100% funnier — he was basically like a child who can't read yet making up a story based on the pictures in a book, and I mean it in the best way possible. He's a theatre dark horse, this one, and they should all be intimidated — or inspired, whatever they choose — by his hidden talents. Gosh, I love this guy. But can you blame me?

'You think I'm actually going to confide in you?' — Absolutely. You can't bully someone from your position of authority over them and then act like you're their friend. I do know now that Mr. Mazzara has hidden depths, but he had no right to be as rude to Carlos as he was in 1x3. He was right about one thing, though — Carlos doesn't need a dance partner to dance.

Ricky saying he was going to apologise to Gina and counting that as an apology is giving me major TJ/ Buffy flashbacks. I wonder why that is... * sarcasm *

Nini feeling like a fraud makes me actually sympathise with her for a second. But I feel like Nini's flaw of defining herself through boys and Ricky in particular has been addressed one time too many now, since it was first addressed here in this episode. If they make her and Ricky get back together again in season 2, I will riot. [side note: I feel like the Born to Be Brave scene says a lot about both Rini and Seblos as couples. Nini and Carlos both feel, in the moments leading up to the song, like they are incomplete without their partners. Ricky, too, has built his personality entirely around Nini at that time (and is still not completely over that in s2). And then the song comes in to remind them that they don't need a partner to be happy. I'm just thinking of Big Red's 'perfectly balanced unicycle' comment from the promotional materials, and of how he and Ashlyn, even when they're dating in s2, are never portrayed as being incomplete without each other. I guess there's a reason why they're the Beta Couple of the show — their relationship drama is nearly non-existent, and when it does exist, it's just caused by them caring too much about each other. Every other couple on the show should learn from them.]

Everybody supporting Carlos during the Born to Be Brave number just warms my heart so much... I am actually crying real tears. And then the end, when Seb finally shows up, right in time for the slow dance... I have a lot of feelings about this scene.

Seblos' dialogue here still kind of makes me cringe a little... but like, in a good way.

Yikes... Miss Jenn's getting into trouble... I mean, it was bound to happen sooner or later. But she's lucky she's had enough time with her students for them to love her enough to fight for her. Still, this is a topic for another episode, and so I won't expand on it in this post.

Well, that's it. That was 1x4 and 5. Those were pretty much my favourite episodes when season 1 was airing. And I can definitely see why, even if my views on some things have changed due to stuff that happens later. But, as I constantly say, that's what rewatches are for. In other words, 'once more, with feeling this time' as my choir director used to say.

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts: the rewatch #nini salazar-roberts #ricky bowen #gina porter #ej caswell #ashlyn caswell #ashlyn moon caswell #big red redonovich #carlos rodriguez #seb matthew smith #kourtney greene #hsmtmts miss jenn #hsmtmts mr mazzara #rini #seblos #redlyn #portwell #jnk

[eunsoyi]

Could you do a Bokuto scenario of him telling/celebrating with his high school sweetheart that he made pro?

this one’s a bit long so im sorry for that

we made it

“you’ll never make it.”

those words were the first words you and your boyfriend, bokuto koutarou, heard as you accepted your diplomas. it was no secret that you were expected to take over the family business, and that koutarou would pursue volleyball, but because of those two different career choices, everyone around you thought that you’d never last long.

you just had to prove them wrong.

during high school graduation, each and every couple you knew was crying a waterfall of tears. that was probably what they called the “break up season”, since everyone’s going on their own way, it was obviously very difficult for people your age to pursue a relationship when you’re busy working on your own future. you saw koutarou holding back his tears as he looked at you. “are we.. through?”

“nope.” you smiled and squeezed his hand. “i’ll stay with you forever.”

he grinned and pecked your cheek.

one year after high school graduation, and koutarou was on the verge of breaking.

he walked in your family’s restaurant late at night while you were wiping plates and groggily dropped his sports bag on the floor.

“hey.” you smiled and handed him a cup of water. “you hungry?”

he took the cup and gulped its contents down. “yes.”

“give me five minutes.”

you were well aware that the road to being a professional volleyball player wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns. you didn’t need to do your research, the man in front of you was living proof that it was very difficult. everyday, he’d go to the restaurant, most of the times after you closed, and he’d ask for you to feed him his favorite food: meat. if he had the strength, he’d tell you about his day. if not, he’d just gulf down the food on his plate and take you home with him.

you finally handed him his food and he did not hesitate to start eating. you propped your chin on to your hand in an observing pose. “how’s your day?” you asked, as usual. he pouted and sighed. “i’m so exhausted.”

ah, he’s in the mood to talk.

“what happened?”

he sighed as he gulped down his last spoon of rice and meat and proceeded to talk about how it was borderline exhausting for him to adjust to being teammates with crazy people, how little he had the time to eat, how his injuries were on the brink of getting worse, etc.

you then leaned forward and gave his forehead a kiss. “you’re doing great, koutarou.” he blushed and covered his face in his hands in response, making you giggle. you shuffled to the kitchen, and cleaned the remaining dishes before finally closing up for the day.

“let’s go home, y/n.” koutarou said in a husky and tired voice, holding your hand as both of you exit the restaurant.

a year later, you found yourself worrying over koutarou more often than usual.

his habit of going home late at night turned into not showing up for a whole week because of training. at first, you let him do his thing for a while since you wanted to support him as much as possible, but you had to make him stop after you got the call from the hospital saying he had collapsed from fatigue.

during the drive home, he did not utter a word and just looked at the car window instead. “you had me worried there.” you attempted to break the silence, but he did not respond.

when you got home, you made him promise to rest for at least three days before going back to vigorous training and he begrudgingly agreed. he also took this as a promise to not strain his body further for it not to hinder with his training.

until he collapsed once more. but he kept that a secret from you.

then once more.

then another.

then another, but that’s when you found out that his body almost gave up on him.

this time, you were fuming. you basically dragged him back to your house and yelled at him for god knows how long. he wasn’t listening, he wasn’t in the mood to. he knew you were saying something along the lines of ‘i was worried’ or ‘i don’t want you getting hurt’, but in that moment, koutarou was near past his breaking point. he was so exhausted, so tired, he could barely even look at you in the eye. when you finally stopped yelling, he said something he regretted saying, and he wished he shouldn’t have said that at all.

“let’s break up.”

silence. he still couldn’t lift his head to look at your reaction, but he was shocked at his own words. perhaps, this was the right thing to do. he did not want to worry you any further, and it hurts for him as well when you see him in such a fragile state.

“no.” you finally managed to speak out.

“what?” he said, finally looking at you.

“i am not breaking up with you, bokuto koutarou.” you said firmly. he tried his best to suppress a sigh of relief. “um, why? i only cause you worry and you’re probably getting distracted with your business because of me-“

“i promised you, didn’t i? i’ll be with you forever.” you cut him off. that sigh he was suppressing finally came out of his mouth and he found himself hugging you and crying.

“thank you, y/n. i love you, so so much.” he sniffled while his head was buried on your shoulder.

“i love you, too, koutarou.”

you could tell he was improving as time passed by.

he invited you to his practice games, and you were shocked as to how this ace still had something up his sleeve. you smiled to yourself whenever he would make that iconic straight shoot, and his reactions were even funnier. his fangirls were wildly cheering for him and at the same time adjusting to his weird tactics.

he’s so different when he’s on the court, you thought to yourself, admiring him once more.

after the game, he ran up towards you past the screaming female teenagers and gave you a hug, eyes beaming. “so? whaddya think?”

“you’re amazing, as usual.” you replied, ignoring the looks his fans gave you.

he grinned and noisily cheered for himself, much to your dismay. you tried to shush his loud whooing but ultimately failed.

“i hope i get picked.” you heard him whisper as the two of you were walking back home. you looked at his face and realized the beam on his eyes were now faint and was replaced with worry. you sighed, thinking at how different koutarou acts when he’s with you. you were beyond thankful that he decided to share his weaknesses and worries with you, but of course, the lingering doubt of whether can you handle the pressure or not remained.

“i want you to be proud of me.” he said once more, brushing his thumb on your knuckle.

but thankfully, koutarou knew how to wipe those feelings of doubt away.

“i’m already proud of you.” you giggled.

“i want you to be prouder!”

you thought it was impossible for you to even be prouder. you were the proudest you’ve ever been for him.

or at least, that’s what you thought.

you were so busy with the restaurant that you couldn’t watch koutarou’s practice game, much to his dismay. you did promise that you’d cook him dinner once he got home, and he hesitantly accepted the offer.

customers kept flowing in and out of your family’s restaurant that it made you feel so tired for the first time in a while. you loved the rush, but you did not love the fatigue that came with it.

when night fell, you sighed in relief as you flipped the sign from ‘open’ to ‘closed’. now, the only thing you had to do was clean up and wait for koutarou to arrive.

you were basically done with everything when he finally showed up, his hands bandaged, his knees swollen, and he was holding an ice pack. you were about to ask what happened to him that made him look so beat up when he suddenly crushed you into a bear hug.

“koutarou? what’s wrong?” you frantically asked as his warm tears soaked your sleeve.

he mumbled something incoherent, so you asked him once more.

“i made pro.”

you widened your eyes and hugged him back. “wait, really?”

“yup. msby black jackals. i’m a professional volleyball player now, y/n.” he replied, pulling away but his tear-stained orbs gazed into your eyes, making you well up in tears as well.

“you made it. i’m so, so proud of you, koutarou.” you sobbed. he smiled and gave you a kiss. you knew he had a lot of struggles, and seeing him succeed was enough to make you the happiest person in the planet.

“nope, we made it.”

yea im in love with bokuto so much pls 😔

#haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu headcanon #haikyuu hcs #haikyuu hc #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu scenario #hq #hq x reader #hq fluff #hq headcanons #hq hcs #bokuto imagines #bokuto #bokuto headcanons #bokuto koutarou #bokuto fluff #bokuto x reader #bokuto scenarios #bokuto hcs

[lovelypadfct]

jealousy - fred weasley x y/n

-

pairing: fred weasley x reader

description: fred gets jealous that you haven’t been giving him as much attention as you used to, so you have to remind him how much you love him.

warnings: it gets a little steamy, but nothing more than kissing :)

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       One of my favorite things about Hogwarts is how beautiful the grounds are. It'd just finished snowing, so a thin sheet of fresh, undisturbed snow covered every inch of the courtyard. In the great hall, there stood a beautifully lit Christmas tree, decked from head to toe with shiny golden ornaments. Hogwarts during the winter season is absolutely breathtaking, there's not doubt about it.

       As I sat in my common room, looking out the window and up into the night sky, I couldn't help but smile at the beauty of the world. It was late, around 1:00am, and I was in my pajamas.

       My brief moment of silence was cut off when I heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind me.

       "Hey," I'm greeted by a familiar voice. I turned around to face the tall, red-headed man child. He was shirtless, only in his pajama pants. His hair was disheveled and his voice was laced with an emotion I couldn't quite pick out.

       "Hi," I sighed. Fred raised an eyebrow at me, clearly wondering what's got me so down. I turned back to face the window, focusing my gaze on the stars once again. I heard his footsteps approach the alcove where I was sitting, and watched out of the corner of my eye as he sat down next to me. I could feel his gaze on the side of my face.

       "Are you mad at me? You look mad," he questioned, still staring intently at the side of my face.

       "I'm not mad," I replied, my eyes never leaving the stars.

       "Your face is screwed up like your mad."

       "I'm perturbed, not mad," I persisted. We sat in silence for a while, him staring at me while I stared at the moon. As much as I appreciate having a boyfriend who cares, he always seems to think I'm mad at him.

       "You still look mad," He prodded, breaking the silence that had filled the room.

       "I'm not mad Freddie," I sighed turning to face him. He still didn't look convinced. He reached his hand up to caress my cheek, his eyes were full of worry and concern.

       "But you've barley talked to me all day, and you keep on rejecting me when I try to love you," He looked intently into my eyes, searching for any emotion I wasn't outwardly expressing.

       Oh, I thought, So that's what this is about.

       Fred is and has always been an amazing boyfriend, no question. His love language? Touch, touch, touch. Sometimes I forget how sensitive he can be when I don't give him as much attention as I normally do.

       "Fred, you know that I love you," I reached for his hand that was touching my face, and held it in my own, pulling it off of my face and intertwining our fingers.

       "I know that, I just get..." He struggled a minute to find a word.

       "Jealous?"

       "Well... um... I guess I uh..." He looked down at our connected hands, "yeah I can get jealous. B-But I have good reason to be! Like today when you were talking to Oliver and I came up behind you and tried to hug you. You didn't hug me back, and you didn't even look at me. You just kept talking to Wood like I wasn't even there."

       He looked up at me, sadly, and I could tell that this was actually really upsetting him. He actually thought that I was choosing Oliver Wood over him? I decided to save my evening alone for another day, and focus on Fred. I grabbed his hand and pulled him with me towards the couch. He sat down, and I sat next to him. I leaned my head onto his shoulder and used my hand to put his arm around me. He stiffened a little bit under my touch. I could tell he was super distraught. Honestly, it made me feel guilty.

       "Freddie," I began, looking up at him, "of all of the people in the world, you don't have to be jealous of Oliver." His face contorted into one of confusion.

       "Why not. He's good looking, and he's nice, and funny, and tall, and-"

       "Why don't you date him then?" I laughed. He didn't laugh, he just kept looking at my face. Wow, he was really jealous.

       "Explain to me why I don't need to be jealous of Wood," He continued to look at me with his beautiful eyes. I sat up looked around the common room to make sure no one was there.

       "You really want to know why?" I questioned, focusing my gaze back onto him. He nodded, so I continued, "well for starters, you are much better looking, much nicer, much funnier, and much taller than him," I smiled softly, tracing my fingers along his collarbone. I inwardly smirked when his breathing started to pick up, "Secondly, I have no romantic feelings for Oliver at all. If he were to kiss me, I wouldn't feel anything. But when I kiss you, it feels like a firework show is going off inside of my stomach," His heartbeat picked up rapidly at that.

       "But recently you've been talking to him a lot more, you just haven't been loving me as much as you used to," he shakily responded. I moved over him so that I was straddling his waist, "and... I um... I miss... how... um... you used to.... um..." he stuttered as I began to lightly peck all over his face. His hands moved down to grip onto my thighs, holding my impossibly closer to him.

       "Fred listen to me," I looked into his eyes, "I love you, more than anything. I need you to know that. Sometimes I'm not going to give you as much attention as I normally do, but it's not because I love you any less. You have to understand that." He looked back at me, his eyes filled with a fire and passion that I'd never seen in him before. It caused an eruption of butterflies in my stomach.

      I leaned my forehead against his. My hands roamed his back and neck, and I leaned in even closer to him. He leaned in so our lips were almost touching, "I should be jealous more often," he smirked, and merlin, that smirk sent me off the edge.

       I slowly attached my lips onto his, and pulled him closer to me. I wanted to kiss him over and over, something about that smirk he has makes him so incredibly irresistible. The kiss was slow and passionate, his hands feeling out every inch of my waist. My hands found their way to his hair, and I gently ran my fingers through it. He moaned into the kiss, I could tell that he wanted more by the way he grabbed onto the material of my shirt and pulled me closer.

        "Well, if it isn't Freddie and his girlfriend," I heard an all too familiar voice coming from behind me. I practically jumped off of Fred, falling onto the floor. He groaned at the loss of contact, and at the interruption.

        "Go away George, can't you see we're busy?" Fred growled at his twin, helping me up from the floor and sitting me next to him.

        "But it's so much more fun here with you," George smirked, leaning against the wall and taking a sip out of his mug.

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a/n: hey guys! this is literally the first thing i’ve ever written and i’m just starting this account so thank you for reading! i hope you have an amazing day :)

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