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jamisonwritestf2trash · 7 months

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what would the mercs' favourite shows/anime be? You might have done the 'shows' part before so im giving you the 'anime' option as a fresh twist ^w^ (No im not battling a double-hyperfixation of tf2 and jjba and seeking validation through mutuals why would you even think that-)

What Are The TF2 Mercs Favortie Animes?

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Oh boy it's been a hot minute since I've watched an Anime, I used to be so feral for any anime 😭

Mutual appreciation comment!!! Thank you for your asks! I love seeing them pop up, you always have really good prompts 🫶🏻

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POSSIBLE SPOILER FOR DEATH NOTE?

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Demo- Kakegurui

Did I ever mention that this man loves to gamble? Also, you cannot convince me that this man isn't super expressive when he does so. Literally is the anime. Loves how batshit insane it is. Loves getting whiplash from one episode to the next. Wasn't a fan of season two, but adores season one. Bindges, and re-bindges the show at least once a month. Just loves feeling insane when he watches an anime.

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Engie- One Punch Man.

Saw Genos and immediately went "I could build that." And doesn't elaborate. He's not gonna lie, he may or may not have tried to follow Saitama's training routine once, but threw up when he got to the running part. Don't get me wrong this man isn't weak or anything but I genuinely don't think anyone on this team can run besides Scout. Loves watching OPM because he loves how unbothered Saitama is and wishes he could be like that, and also wishes he could be as strong.

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Heavy- Your Lie In April

Loves the mix of a slice of life and melodrama. Doesn't care too much about how slow the show is. Just enjoys watching everything play out and being along for the ride. This man sobbed at the end. Couldn't believe it, well he could but he also couldn't? Even though it breaks him everytime he sees the ending, he still loves rewatching it.

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Medic- Japanese Tales of The Macabre/Parasyte

HE. LOVES. JUNJI. ITO. It'd be so wrong not to think so. He has genuinely wondered about the logistics of Layers Of Terror... be afraid of this man if he gets a curious look in his eye over any episode of this anime. He likes the books more but also loves the anime. I added Parasyte too because this man is a sucker for all types of body horror and I think Parasyte should always be mentioned. Just lord help us after this man's mind starts working when watching his favorite body horror animes. You'll here a mix of screams from the poor characters and Yippees! From Medic as he watches the horror.

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Scout- Death Note

I think this is everyone's starter anime, but it just happens to also be Scout's favorite. I can't tell if he'd think Light is a genius or insanely stupid. But that's not super important. Loves Ryuk! He'd want a death note just to have Ryuk hanging around the base. This man would be a menace if he had the death note honestly. He'd probably write his name down first just to label it, forgetting he'd die.

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Sniper- The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Man has never related to a fictional character so hard until now. Also wishes he could be perfectly average in the public eye and also has inhuman natural talents. It's not even funny how much I can imagine Sniper in this anime. He watched every season and loved them all (likes season one best though) and regularly rewatches the show when things get to stressful around him. It's his comfort show.

(Not that anyone asked but, I fucking love this anime, it's not even funny how much I love this anime I'm going feral.)

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Spy- Black Butler

Can a fictional character have a kin? Well in my mind yes. Spy kins Sebastian so fucking hard. Picked up the trait of taking his gloves off like that. Definitely share the same annoyances, living with incompetent coworkers, an annoying child, a criminally insane friend or two, you know the normal stuff! Was severely disappointed by season two. Loved everything else though.

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Soldier- Attack On Titan

I think he likes AOT because of all the Gore, blood, and fighting. I can imagine him kicking his legs and smiling all goofy while watching this. This man bindged the entire show, no doubt. Like the other mercs were genuinely worried about him. He's a mix of devastated and happy that the show hasn't ended permanently.

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Pyro- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

The insane person loves insane anime, who would have guessed? No, but genuinely, you'd think they'd have a short attention span, wouldn't be able to understand what's going on, and lose interest. Nope! Absolutely love this anime. Has probably rewatched it a million times already. Has made Engie watch this with him and utterly confused the poor Texan. Feverishly waiting for part nine.

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I hope you like this! I had to pull out my list of animes I've watched, and oh boy it made me realize how weird. Maybe? That my taste in anime is.

Also sorry its not super long or super indepth I was going off some very vague memories for a few of these!

I love you guys!

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #tf2 headcanons #team fortress headcanons #tf2 hcs #tf2 demoman #tf2 engineer #tf2 heavy #tf2 medic #tf2 scout #tf2 sniper #tf2 spy #tf2 soldier #tf2 pyro

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poemsforparker · 2 years

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ticket to ride - arvin russel | 18+ oneshot

(not my gif)

“I think I’m gonna be sad

I think is today, yeah

The girl that’s driving me mad

Is goin’ away”

pairing: arvin russel x f!reader

summary: there’s nothing holding you in this city.

content warning: 18+, smut right bellow the cut, unprotected sex, angst, bad words, mentions of suicide, mentions of murder, toxic relationship, movie spoilers.

a.n: first Arvin fic! (rewatching this movie really woke something in me). dark fics aren’t really my thing but Arvin Russel is not exactly a role model of mental health so I think this fits best.

song inspiration

Arvin’s breath was totally pathless, his dick pumping hard into you while his grip on your waist got stronger every second, like he was trying to get you impossibly close to his body. If someone could see his car from the outside, the weird way it was moving could definitely denounce the activities in the back seat.

"I'm so close, baby. You're taking my cock so well." Arvin says breathlessly on your ears, knowing exactly how to get you worked up. He needs no verbal answer that it had an effect in you when feels you tight around him right after his words. "That's right, honey. Keep going like that. Shit, I love you so much."

"I love you." You kiss him deeply like life depends on it and feel the knot on your stomach getting harder to hold, finally releasing on his dick. Letting your body rest on his.

"Come with me." You say after a long moment of silence, touching the subject you both been avoiding, feeling like the air around you was unbearably heavy holding this question in. You move your body up to get him out of you and sitting by his side, still waiting for an answer, that came after a heavy sigh from the boy.

"You know I can't, baby. Not after Lenora, I can't leave my family, not now that they need me the most." You sigh. He was right, you did know that, it has been like that for months now. You had your mind made that you were leaving, then it came to going say your goodbyes to Arvin, you give it to temptation, you both end up in bed or the back of his car.

You wanted to leave this town, more than anything, this place felt like poison, taking away all your hopes to forget the past and move on with Arvin. Like living here costed all your rights to be happy, or free. What you wished that was different, was the cost that such decision had implied to you. Arvin had people who needed him, he had a family. All you had was him.

Flashbacks come to you, at high school Arvin protected you quite literally with his own damn life. Threatening anyone who dared to touch a finger his girl to loose that very finger, or they ugly damn heads. At the time, you made plans with him to run away together when you grew up. Back then, it would just be another case of kids who ran away to try life on a near town, you’d come back to visit, send letters after settled wherever. It was the perfect plan to live a perfect life.

But perfect things do not exist.

It all started to go to shit (even more) when Teagardin showed up in town. You had a bad feeling about him since the start. Lenora, in her place, she had faith in people, specially if that person was the reverend, dear lord, why would she suspect they meant any harm?

But she should.

The man had the worst of the intentions. Of course, as a figure of respect in the city, who would be crazy enough to question anything that he said or did? But again, they should’ve.

After Arvin lost her, you were fundamental for him not to break down, although you were close to an attack yourself, you knew Arvin would need all support he could get, so you provided him that. You stopped him from crossing the line when he couldn't hold it together, but now, you now selfishly wished you didn’t.

If you had killed the bastard he’d have no choice but to run away with you.

“Let’s do it,” you say to him, hovering over his warm body again “let’s put a bullet in that motherfucker’s head and then we get the hell out of here.” you grin at him facing an expression on Arvin’s face that for the first time on years you couldn’t read. “C’mon, Arvin, you almost did it before.”

“Yeah... Almost, but you yourself talked me out of it. What changed?” you chuckle, rolling your eyes.

“Everything.” you kiss his jaw and cup his face to stare him deep in the eyes. “If you’re stuck here, honey, so am I. If you say no, that’s fine, I’ll stay here, with you, as much as try my fucking best I can’t go without you.” you fix yourself to sit comfortably on his lap and continue. “But if you say yes,” you start kissing down his neck between words “we get our justice and get the fuck out, just me and you, baby,” you peck his lips “what do you say?”

You can see Arvin put up a fight with himself behind his eyes, trying to still find some moral left on his brain, deep down, he knew the only thing holding him back from doing justice with his own hands was the fear he had of letting you down, now, seeing you like this, Arvin couldn’t find a single crumble of a reason not to, the offer was too inviting.

“I say I’m with you to the end...let’s do this.” You grin proudly at your boyfriend and kiss him with passion, knowing once in for all once your plan was complete you would never step on these cursed grounds ever again.

#the devil all the time #arvin russell x reader #arvin russell fanfiction #arvin russel fanfic #tom holland #tom holland fanfiction #arvin russel x you #arvin russel x y/n #arvin russel x reader #arvin russel fic #arvin russel angst #arvin russel #dark fanfiction #dark fic

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kannagms · 5 days

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As someone who has been a fan of the boys since the beginning of Buzzfeed Unsolved when Ryan was doing his little PowerPoint presentations and reading from a single sheet of printer paper, this entire Watcher fiasco is insane and was definitely not on my 2024 bingo card.

Back when Ryan and Shane announced that they were leaving Buzzfeed to start their own entertainment company with Steven, I was excited! I wanted to see what new, fun, interesting, and creative content they would put out without Buzzfeed holding them back. I'm a huge fan of Mystery and Ghost Files, Puppet History, Are You Scared?, Too Many Spirits, Top 5 Beatdown. Loved Spooky Small Talk before it was scrapped. I watched every new ep that came out, even the ones I didn't like that much like Steven's food ones, and liked and commented because I wanted to support them as much as possible. I rewatch all my favorite episodes. I have a dedicated playlist of Ryan and Shane content because it helps me fall asleep at night. When I didn't have much I at least had Watcher to keep my smile on my face and continuous laughter going when I didn't feel much like going on.

I got the notification 3 days ago about a new Watcher video and was stunned at what I saw. Sure I can watch episode 1 of new shows and watch some trailers, but I'm gonna have to sub to yet another streaming service to watch anything more. A streaming service that doesn't even have an app, so if I want to add anything to my sleep playlist, I'm gonna have to leave my phone on all night.

Anyways, I immediately went and checked the boys' socials and see what they posted for any additional info. Thousands upon thousands of negative comments all saying basically the same thing:

I can't afford $6/month/not everyone has $6 laying around, and it can really make or break someone financially.

Been a fan since Unsolved, guess I'm not a watcher anymore.

This is a bad move.

From what I've seen across reddit, Twitter, tiktok, Instagram, and Tumblr, the negative far outweigh the positive. The only "positive" comments I've seen haven't really been "oh this is a great idea! I'm gonna go sub right now!!" It's really been more, "well it's their business, they can do what they want with it." Or simply bashing other people because they cannot afford $6 a month or $60 a year, which really comes off as boomer ideology. You know, the old "if millennials would stop eating avocado toast or buying Starbucks maybe they can afford a house!" While completely ignoring the global economic crisis we are all facing. It's completely out of check with the fact that there's so many of us not just in America, but in the world who are barely living paycheck to paycheck. That there are so many people who WISH they could get a Starbucks coffee in the morning but often times have to skip meals because they cannot afford food if they want to keep a roof over their heads, you know the ridiculous amount of money that we spend to rent a small space. Never gonna forget the one apartment I looked at that was $800 a month, no utilities included, no parking, no pets allowed, and I could lay flat on the ground and have my 5'4" length reach comfortably in every single room. Wasn't even a kitchen or room for a single size bed (mild tangent rant, I now pay $1300 for a 2 bedroom apartment, most utilities included, but bad parking)

And for Steven to say that anyone can afford $6 is just so factually wrong. Has anyone checked the foreign exchange rate for $6? Some threads I've seen on Reddit are insane. For some people 6 USD translates to someone's entire rent or a week's worth of food. If I recall the comment correctly, one person said that in their country, Netflix comes out to $2 USD, and is considered a luxury item that only the upper class/wealthy have.

Maybe I'm just being bitter. Maybe I'm just overreacting to a piece of content I loved and cherished being pushed behind a paywall. It just feels like a slap in the face to fans who have spent countless hours soaking in their content, recommending them to friends, making new friends over a shared interest, and now feeling like they didn't matter at all. That we were just dollar signs. To hear them going from thanking dedicated fans for helping them get to where they are to but now you gotta give us more money if you want to keep being fans and now we are going to ignore your backlash just feels disingenuous and heartbreaking.

#watcher #i dont know #not to be parasocial on main #but this month has just been so difficult #and to get hit with this just really broke me.#made me think what if all the people i watch on yt make this same move #i want them to succeed but at the same i dont want them to be an example to others yk?

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reidslovely · 1 year

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idk My maladaptive daydream scenarios have been thinking about Toxic! Peter and whatnot.

Like him being like that bc of Gwendy’s death (but before he was like that too- with there on and off relationship 😒). So him and reader have an on and off thing going on and reader is tired of his shit and finally breaks up w/ him . And at first he’s like “pssh yeah whatever” but a few months to a year go by and he realizes how bad he fucked up. Maybe he gets Spider-man to woo her over or maybe jus regular old peter.

Sorry this was so long, like I said it was a maladaptive day dream scenario so its been on reply in my mind. I really love your writing by the way and hope you’re back for our Spider-boy like you said in your post 🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷

hi friend!! i am back for our spider-boy and i'm so sooo happy to be back thank you guys for welcoming me back 🩶🩶🩶. and honestly...toxic peter has been on my mind too recently especially after rewatching tasm 2 because what the fuck peter???

he dumps gwen after graduation and he's so pathetically lonely and yeah he follows gwen around but it doesn't really do anything for him. so he wonders off and finds some fucked up solace in his next door neighbor who had always had a thing for him. he just shows up on her doorstep playing the role of kicked puppy so well, she can't help but to let him back in and let it be how it was before Gwen came in senior year and she got all of his attention. Peter takes her on romantic dates, sweet long kisses, fun jokes one week but the next it's like she doesn't exist to him (definitely slips up calling her gwen on occasion.) especially after he and Gwen start talking again, but Peter still has her on the side.

One night he's ready to sneak in her window, that she usually leave unlocked for him, ready to make up being gone for so many weeks. But it's locked. He knocks on the door, his eyebrows furrowed motioning to the lock pulling it, but not hard enough because he could easily break that lock if he really wanted. "baby open the window come on." he teases. "I said I was sorry, come on."

he's playing kicked puppy again, and she almost lets him in. "Come on she doesn't want me, you do." "that's the reason you want me. you don't love me peter, you don't even know me anymore." "you're being fucking ridiculous" he laughs waiting for a moment seeing her not even budging from her spot on the bed. "open the window (y/n)" he says his voice loosing its humor. "go home peter, im over it." she said closing the curtains on him. and he doesn't care. at least he convinces himself he doesn't care. it was her loss, he was a fucking catch. all he did this whole time was respect her and she was blowing this up. except till the one person he had outside of her dies right in front of him. he lost gwen completely this time, there is no comeback there is no way to redeem himself. and he actually starts to see the monster he's become. he hurt gwen multiple times and she was still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt every time. he even thinks of (y/n) time to time and how badly he treated her because he was wrapped up in himself and what was best for him. he watched her a lot in his six months of bedroom grieving, like how he would with gwen. he watched her sit out on her roof writing or doing work, he watched her leave for work and come home at night. they locked eyes one night when he was standing on his roof, about to change into the suit for the first time in months. he thought he even saw her smile at him like she used too. it definitely take a toll on him because though this alone time was needed to help him process, but he missed being cradled by her. missed the way her hands tangled in his hair, missed when she'd laugh to make him smile. he did miss her, but she'd never accept that. it takes three weeks to the day, till he is on her window again, sweat clung to his forehead, his mask torn and exposing crucial parts of his face. he didn't even get to knock on the window before she's helping him in, sitting him on the floor pulling the mask off his face. he's crying from pain and regret, apologies spewing out of his mouth. she gets the mask off his face, asking him what he needs. He shakes his head holding her hand that's on applying pressure to his bleeding ribs. "need you." "god even in times like this all you wan.." "-to forgive me. 'm sorry so sorry. I do..do care about you. you're the only person I wanted..wanted to see-" "you're gonna wind yourself peter, we can talk about this later. what do you need?" "like fifteen tylenol, my body will heal it's self." she, though argues him not needing to take that many tylenol, gets him what he asks for and helps him change while wrapping his ribs. they end the night with heartfelt conversations, and peter swearing he'll spend the rest of his life making this up to her, and showing her what he really deserves.

yeah..this has been brewing. so sorry if you were not asking me to write, I started and couldn't stop lmao thank you for sharing your daydream with me friend and trust me no worries about the length I'm also longwinded 🫶🏼

#tasm andrew garfield #tasm peter #tasm peter parker x reader #tasm peter x reader #bambi writes #bambi rambles #bambi answers asks

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lou-iz-stat · 13 days

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4 more weeks or 1 month left until the new season starts and I feel like we are currently in the calm before the storm and I am definitely nervous. 😬

This is my rewatch for episode 4 of season 1 and I absolutely adore this episode as shit pretty much hits the fan after this relatively sweet episode. I have a feeling that we won’t have an episode as happy as this one in season 2 so it’s best to enjoy it as much as possible. 😭

Also spoilers for everything!

IWTV S1 E4: The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood With All a Child’s Demanding

This episode starts out with Daniel talking on his phone to I assume his agent for the book he is going to write about this messy vamps. I wonder if this will be important later?

And of course the sleep paralysis demon that is Armand/ Rashid is just standing there.

Some of the lines he says to Daniel are so archaic it’s crazy people didn’t think he was Armand.

But he has the important job of bringing Daniel to Claudia’s old diaries.

Daniel makes a remark about the tree and Armand says something about an architect which I wonder if that will also be someone from the book that we did not know yet.

And he tells Daniel where to start with the dairies but of course he doesn’t listen and starts reading one towards the end. 😂

Now we are finally starting Claudia’s pov

“You were ready to abandon our home. Now you want a third” Lestat was so hurt by Louis leaving :(

In this version it’s Louis that wants Lestat to turn Claudia instead of Lestat just out right baby trapping him. But that doesn’t mean that Lestat turned Claudia without selfish intentions. He knows if he does this for Louis that he will no longer want to abandon him.

God that look on Lestat’s face when he thinks he’s getting a family. ☺️

Also! No secrets my ass!!!

“A funny way of being nice to each other.” They’re gay dear.

When I first watched the pleated skirt line it took me out! They are everything!!! 🤣

Claudia is Lestat’s daughter alright. Claudia said ACAB and that is why she is an icon.

This episode is comedic genius!

I LOVE when Lestat sneaks in Louis’s coffin. It’s so sweet and since it’s from Claudia’s pov we can more objectively see the good parts of their relationship. I’m sure if Louis was telling this part of the story that he might have not mentioned their coffin-sharing almost every night.

I also really adore the scene with Louis and Claudia in the boat. In the book Claudia doesn’t actually know why or how she was made but in the show Louis tells her the truth that it was because of him that she was hurt so bad in the fire. I like that he just tells her outright for how she was made. I also really love that when Claudia asks Louis how love works between two men and Louis makes that adorable face. It gives me butterflies!

After that scene, Daniel takes a break and walks in on Rashid/ Armand praying and he notes that he spoke a language that is from the Crimea which is a call back to the book since Armand’s character is originally from that area in Europe. So I think that they will still incorporate that part of Armand’s background in the show too.

This makes Daniel sorta suspicious of Rashid also because of him referring to Dubai as a ‘child’ Also Daniel’s notes on ‘Rashid’ is so funny.

We go back to the unholy family and they are just having a grand old time just being hella cute~

I wonder if the marquis Lestat mentions at Claudia’s birthday is his dad or his oldest brother? It sucks either way because they got guillotined during the revolution.

Loustat dancing is so sweet~

Movie theatre scene 🥰

Oh shit Mama Du Lac is dead

They look so good in their formation as the leave the wake.

Lestat bringing Claudia to the lovers lane for some dinner isn’t… the best but he is trying to bond with her and he does treat her so sweetly in the scene.

This does awaken something inside her like her sudden need to grow up.

And in her need to grow up she finally meets Charlie as her first love.

In classic vampire fashion Claudia accidentally kills Charlie

And though I hate to admit it Lestat is right when tells his fledglings to stay out of human goings on. He should have just been more sensitive about it when she brought Charlie’s body home.

Louis finally shows back up in the interview! I wonder what was doing other than ‘resting’

Louis so sad about Claudia. 😢

This episode ends so sad and miserable… Poor Claudia 😔

Okay with that ends my s1 episode 4 rewatch.

I am definitely not looking forward to episode 5…. It’s a tough watch but I’ll try to do it next time.

Thanks for reading this! We have only a month left and between this show and another show that is coming out around the same time I am losing my mind but I would have it no other way.

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gallavichthings · 7 months

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Writer's Spotlight - Rita

This interview is long overdue and has been long in the making! I'm super pleased and excited to finally present a friend and my right arm on this blog, Rita aka @sickness-health-all-that-shit aka whatyouandihave on AO3, author of Lifeline, Possiblities, Short&sweet and several other fics, and some great gifs too!

R: I grew up in a small-ish town, dreaming about going to university, finding a job I loved, and living on my own with a cat as my companion. I'd say my 13-year-old self would be pretty happy with how my life turned out! I've always been into tv shows and films, plus languages and literature (that's what I mainly studied at uni) and I've managed to find a job that combines those things, which is the absolute dream! I translate and adapt lines into Italian so that dubbing actors can replace the original dialogues of movies, tv shows, documentaries and the like. Besides reading and writing and watching shows, I love travelling, enjoying good food and spending time with my family.

GT: Oh, that's a great job! It looks like you're living your dream, and I'm very happy for you! I assume you must watch all kinds of shows for your job, but what do you watch in your leisure time?

R: Yeah, for work I've had to watch plenty of children's cartoons, anime and lots of unscripted programs like reality television, cooking competitions and things like that. All stuff I would not watch in my spare time 😁 Some of my favourite shows are Btvs, Doctor Who, Breaking Bad, The Office, Outlander, Derry Girls, Peaky Blinders, Dexter and Shameless. I also watch a lot of British comedy panel shows (Taskmaster, QI, Big fat quiz of the year etc) and stand up comedy.

GT: Oh, some of my favorites on this list! Do you read/write fics for these other fandoms as well?

R: Nope! I actually came to fanfic pretty late, despite all the years spent lurking in fandom spaces. I only really started reading fics about 4 years ago, and that was after the Ian and Mickey prison reunion, having binged the first 8 seasons of Shameless a few months before that. I had read a couple fics for other fandoms over the years, but I honestly wasn't that interested. I was content with just rewatching the shows I loved and maybe making up my own headcanons, but nothing more. I guess you could say Ian and Mickey have made a fanfiction convert out of me!

GT: What was it about them that you think made you want to write your own fics, especially coming into the fandom late, as you said yourself, when there were already a lot of fics written.

R: Honestly, it just looked like so much fun to play around with them and all the themes you could explore through their story. When I first started reading fics, it opened so many avenues in my mind (I was so convinced I wouldn't be into AUs at first. Wrong!) and I was also reading tons of meta that had been posted on Tumblr over the years, which I had a lot of thoughts about. I think part of it was about needing a creative outlet at that point. I hadn't really written fiction before, and definitely not in English, but I think I'd always wanted to try and write stories. Building a world and creating characters from scratch would have been way too daunting, but playing around with my Ian and Mickey 'dolls' was instant, cathartic fun. There's just so much potential there, so much history and emotional depth to these characters and their love story that keep me coming back to them over and over.

GT: Do you tend to write more from Ian's or Mikey's pov?

R: I alternate a lot depending on the vibe of fic, but I guess maybe Ian's? The longest multichapter I have up is almost entirely written in Ian's pov, and one fic I'm writing at the moment that's gonna be longer than my usual is also from his pov. I have a lot of fun with Mickey's, but I really love exploring Ian's inner world in depth.

GT: What do you consider your forte when writing fic, the thing that comes to you more easily? And what do you struggle with sometimes?

R: I love writing dialogue the most, and I think I'm pretty good at making it sound in character for them and nailing their voice. I definitely struggle with descriptions and maybe pacing. I'd love to write a slow burn but I don't think they're for me. I get too impatient lol

GT: What kind of fics do you write the most?

R: I mostly write one-shots, but hope to work on more multichapters in the future. I've also posted a series of short ficlets. Lots of fluff, some angst, though always with a happy or at least hopeful ending. Maybe someday I'll try my hand at some smut? Who knows. A lot of my fics tend to be either canon compliant fill-ins that expand on canon scenes or different first meeting AUs, especially meet-uglies. I also like including Mandy and exploring her friendship with Ian and sibling relationship with Mickey. I love writing banter and sprinkling in humour in my fics.

GT: I'm a huge sucker for meet-uglies! Which of your fics are you the proudest of?

R: Oh, the one I'm most proud of has got to be The stranger in my brother's bed. It was my first stab at a multi-chapter, my first AU and a chance to play around with different POVs and an unfolding plot. It's also still my most popular fic to date. It's very sweet and fluffy and warm. When it comes to one-shots my favourite I've written is probably Unexpected, a dialog-heavy meet-ugly with lots of banter and flirting. And then there's Caught me by surprise, my second attempt at a multi-chapter that's still currently a WIP. I do hope to finish those last two chapters someday, but I'm proud of it all the same. It's the longest thing I've written and I got to have fun with tropes like Fake dating, Secret relationship and Bed sharing.

GT: Are there any tropes or ideas you haven't had a chance to explore yet but you'd like to someday?

R: I'd like to write some fill-ins for the early seasons, especially exploring Mickey's pov. Of course a lot of amazing fics like that exist already, but it'd be a chance to expand on my headcanons and do some interesting character studies. Other than that, I have a few ideas for plot-heavy stories that sometimes I think might be too ambitious for me but also can't get out of my head. If I ever write them, they may feature tropes such as Childhood friends, Soulmate AU, Private investigator AU, and even a Genie AU, though fantasy is definitely not my go-to genre. I'd also love to write an angsty Enemies to lovers or a classic Roommates AU. And maybe some canon divergent stuff.

GT: Where do you get inspiration from?

R: Movies and tv shows I watch, stories I read or random posts I see on Tumblr are all potential sources of inspiration for me. Sometimes I'll get particularly obsessed with a line a character said in canon or a certain scene and a story just forms in my head around it. And when all else fails, I go looking for a prompt that speaks to me to get things going.

GT:What about motivation? Do you force yourself to take time to write or do you wait for motivation to strike randomly?

R: I'm still trying to find a balance that works when it comes to motivation, to be honest. I've gone many months waiting for motivation to strike, and getting more and more frustrated and disappointed the longer I waited in vain for it to come. Other times I'll try to force it, but end up convincing myself I have lost any ability to write I once had 😅 I definitely work better with some sort of deadline and 'peer pressure'. That's why I'm trying to participate in as many fandom events as I can at the moment. I struggle with anxiety, so I used to think it would be too stressful for me, but I need some structure in order to be productive. And sometimes it is a matter of getting yourself to write a little bit (almost) every day, just to move things along and keep the momentum going.

GT: What's your writing process like?

R: If it's something long or plot heavy I'll prepare a bit of an outline first, but I'm not generally big on outlines. When I go to write, I'm usually sitting on my bed or couch with my laptop. I tried having music on or ambient sounds, but honestly I work better in silence. I think of the scene I want to describe and the thoughts and feelings I want to convey and watch it as a film in my head, hearing the characters voice the dialogue. Then I put it all into words, if they behave that day and just come to me 😁 I first do a rough draft, trying not to edit too much as I go but just keeping going until I reach either the end of the story (in the case of a short-ish one-shot) or a good stopping point. Then once it's done I start editing, filling in details I left out, double checking things online and making various changes until I'm reasonably satisfied with it. At that point I'll send it over to my beta reader.

GT: Do you write about other characters or ships as well? If not, would you someday?

R: No, not really. Even if I include other Shameless characters, the focus is always on Ian and Mickey and their relationship. And I don't think I'll ever write about anyone else. I have a bit of a one-track mind when it comes to ships and fandoms. I can only really focus on one at a time, and even if I love lots of other shows and media, I don't feel the need to create for them, or be all that involved. I think that, beyond my fascination with Ian and Mickey as characters and as my all-time favourite ship, this fandom space and the community I share this passion with has a lot to do with my continued participation in it. I don't think I'd be still writing and posting fic if it wasn't for all the wonderful people that create and enjoy fanworks about Ian and Mickey alongside me. They're a huge part of what inspires me and motivates me to keep creating.

GT: Definitely. It's incredible to me how much the fandom has grown and changed, while still being welcoming.

What about OCs, do you have any? Do you create them based on real people or just whatever you need them for?

R: I only occasionally create OCs for specific purposes, though most often I try to cast other Shameless characters in the roles I need if possible. I had fun with Mr. Binckley in my most recent fic for GGE, The Ghost of Christmas Fuck You, and last year, again for GGE, I created two OC children for How I met your dad. I don't see myself using them for other fics in the future, though I really admire writers who can create fully fleshed out OCs and have them recur in more than one of their stories.

GT: What about reading fics, what makes you choose something to read (and what would make you give up on reading something)?

R: I usually trust authors I already know and love, and who tend to write the sort of fics I go for anyway. But I'll give any story a chance if the premise sounds intriguing. So a good summary will draw me in, for sure. I love any kind of meet-cute or meet-ugly, and enemies or friends-to-lovers. I'll read fluff, smut or angst depending on my mood, but always with a happy ending. I like any sort of AU, but I steer away from fantasy in general, and prefer things set in the present day (though I do enjoy science fiction as a genre so space, time travel, etc. might attract me to a fic). I don't read a/b/o, mpreg or mcd. I'll give up on reading something if it's just a wall of text or riddled (and I do mean riddled) with typos. Also if I feel that something is written way too out of character to the point where I barely recognise them as Ian and Mickey.

GT: Can you name some of those authors you already know and love?

R: Sure! @goodkwuestion, @beckyharvey29, @damnnmilkovich, @gallavichy, @jellovich, devovitsuasartes and @crazynadine are some of my all-time favourites.

GT: What about some favorite fics?

R: You can bite me by Shamelessquestions, all comes down to you by BeckyHarvey29, Bad Date by @thevioletjones, the Southside Forever series by proval, You make me feel human by Dragona, Two of your earth minutes by @the-rat-wins, So Sleeping fucking Beauty, right? by @cjmarlowe, sideways by @whaticameherefor, Maintenance by devovitsuasartes, Love is a ballfield by and_i_take_it. There are many others, but these are some of the ones that have really stayed with me.

GT: Do you ever reread fics?

R: Oh yeah, I've definitely reread some of the ones above. I've been in a reading slump for a long while now though, which is why the fics I've mentioned are almost all older ones, and a lot of those writers aren't active anymore. There are so many amazing new authors writing brilliant fics at the moment, but often I end up just reading snippets of their work or their drabbles on Tumblr, so that's why I haven't mentioned them here. I've got so many incredible fics to catch up on! But brains are weird like that, you know?

GT: Oh, I totally get that! What about your own, do you reread those?

R: Not often. I tend to publish something and then not look at it again, focusing on the next project instead. There's a little bit of a cringey feeling for me when I think about rereading my own fics, but then when I do happen to read a bit of one I'm like 'Hey. This is good, actually. I do not remember writing this, but wow. Good job, me.' 😆

GT: You make gifs too, right? Have you ever made a gifset for a fic, yours or someone else's?

R: Yep! I've made a single gif for my most recent fic, The Ghost of Christmas Fuck You, and also for an older one, Ready to do this. I really want to make gifs/graphics for my fics more often in the future, actually. And I once made a gifset inspired by a quote from Cooperative gameplay by grayola.

GT: Do you make moodboards or playlists when planning a fic?

R: Hmm not really. I sometimes look up images to help me visualise a particular scene, but it's not a regular habit of mine.

GT: Let's talk about Shameless. You said you binged the first 8 seasons? That must have been a wild ride.

R: Haha oh, yeah. I remember watching the first 5 seasons in just one week, then slowing down considerably for s6 and s7, and I think season 8 took me a full month to get through. At that point s9 was a couple of months away, and I alternated between a faint hope for some kind of reunion between Ian and Mickey and just bitter disappointment for the state of the show such as it was at that stage. I absolutely died when the prison reunion happened. I watched that scene on a loop for days, and when I came back up for air I went looking for all the fics I could find. Especially ones set in prison or detailing their life after prison, since I was so convinced they were off the show for good. But of course that's not how it went. What a wild ride indeed! Those days were so crazy for me lol

GT: How did it feel to come into such a large, albeit somewhat asleep at the time, fandom?

R: It was weird because I wasn't on Tumblr at the time. I'd had a blog before but then left for a few years and once I got into Shameless I didn't immediately come back to it. I looked up news about the show on Reddit of all places. Then around the time I started reading fic, I found a little blog called gallavichthings ❤️ where I caught up on all the meta that had been written over the years (and gifsets and art and everything else). I only made my new blog when s10 was about to start, right around the time I posted my first fic on AO3. And at that point the fandom was being revived by I&M being on the show again and by the news that they'd be getting married by the end of season 10. It was my first real experience of being active in a fandom like this, so it was pretty wild for me. It was definitely not as nice and chill as it is nowadays, that's for sure.

GT: Awn, I'm glad to be part of your Gallavich journey.

Are you able to select a favorite season, seeing as you saw them kind of all together?

R: Oof the earlier seasons are all so special in their own ways. But when I got to season 4, the grip this show had on me had reached the highest levels. Despite Ian being gone for so much of it, or maybe because of it, since his absence was so deeply felt and instrumental for us to see sides of Mickey we hadn't seen before. I'm a sucker for some good pining. And then the second half of the season was such a rollercoaster of emotions... Ugh. Plus it was also an amazing season for the other characters (Fiona especially, who I love so much). So dark and intense, and it felt like a more 'adult' season than previous ones. It just hurt so good.

GT: What's your favorite episode overall?

R: It's hard to choose a favourite, but I think ep 4x11, Emily.

GT: Oh, that's a fantastic one! What about a favorite scene?

R: Maybe the s5 dugouts scene in 5x10. The way it's filmed, the lighting, the music, the rawness of the emotions... it hurts like hell to watch them hurt each other, but then there's that sense of release, and of new hope when they're finally on the same page again and happy... and then it gets taken away from them, because we can't have nice things. But that scene is such a little gem, and it never fails to make me feel all the feels.

GT: If you could go back and change only one thing about the show, what would you change?

R: The quality drop in the later seasons? lol. Honestly, as happy as I am that we got to see Ian and Mickey get married and be husbands, the show was just unrecognisable by the end. So I'd have it end sooner. Have the s7 finale be the final episode of the show, but with a happy ending for Ian and Mickey, obviously.

GT: Speaking of, what did you think of the ending?

R: I wish I could say I was satisfied with it, but yeah, no. It was way too open ended, I only liked where they left things for Ian and Mickey, and I should count myself lucky for that, really. The parallels they tried to do with the pilot and season 1 mostly fell flat for me, but then, like I said, the show was a shadow of its former self by that point. There was too little left to enjoy for me. I don't think I would've watched s10 and 11 at all if it wasn't for Ian and Mickey.

GT: How do you headcanon Ian and Mickey's life together after the ending?

R: I think they live in that apartment for a couple years, then get a house closer to where they grew up. They keep in touch with family and spend holidays with the other Gallaghers. They get a pet or two, and eventually adopt or foster kids, a few years down the line. Mickey takes over the security business, while Ian finds a way to use his medical training again to help the community. They'll be happy, safe and in love for the rest of their lives. ❤️

The happily ever after they deserve.

GT: Well, that's it from me. Thank you so much for your time! Now leave a message to those reading this.

R: This was great, thank you! And thanks to everyone in this little corner of the Internet. Whether you create or simply enjoy creations and support them, you are a vital part of something really special. Thank you for being on this ride with me, and here's to another year full of ideas, events, collaborations, and lots and lots of fun!

#Gallavich #Ian x Mickey #Shameless #Shameless US #Gallavich fanfiction #Ian Gallagher #Mickey Milkovich #Writer's Spotlight #sickness-health-all-that-shit #mod post

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o-chunks-appreciation · 2 months

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I would like to hear your in-depth thoughts on O'Chunks, Count Bleck, and Super Paper Mario as a whole!

Woah this is just gonna be a big ramble on how much I love the game and why.

I’m gonna start with Super Paper Mario as a whole, I’m a really big fan and I have been since maybe around 2016 or so. I was vaguely aware of it as a kid but after watching a cosplay chess (its where you get a bunch of cosplayers to roleplay and they’re on a big chessboard and they act out in character to defeat each other until there’s a winner or sometimes even a subversion of plot) video that had a Dimentio cosplayer in it I decided to look into the game. By that point I was no stranger to jester characters, I used to rewatch the Marx fight from Kirby Super Star Ultra all of the time so I was immediately going through SPM play throughs, fanfic, fanart. It’s a game I seem to be thinking about all of the time for months and years on end without a break lol. It admittedly catches my attention more than the other Paper Mario games, I’m not sure why, perhaps because it’s so visually different in aesthetic and character design. I enjoy its silly moments and it’s dramatic lore, but I also have a very specific issue with some parts of the lore being vague in Carson’s stories specifically. He’s always ending his stories in a question or talking about how much of a mystery these stories are. Maybe it’s on purpose and maybe this is also wishful thinking on my end, but sometimes I theorize that maybe they were going to reuse some of SPM’s lore for another game. I uhhh can’t say much about the game play because I’ve been enjoying SPM through play throughs.

On to O’ Chunks!

I think he’s in last place in terms of fandom popularity in terms of the Castle Bleck cast. Honestly I sort of get it, he’s not conventionally attractive and most artists sort of struggle with drawing older, bald, and bearded characters. Especially back in 2007 when the game was released when the anime art style was very popular on Deviantart. You could turn everyone else in castle bleck into a cutesy attractive anime character since their designs are just vaguely human enough for you to make your own little interpretations but with O’ Chunks you can clearly see he has a very human design so you can’t really make a Gijinka of him like you could the others. I think there’s something cool yet funny about that though, like he’s some unchanging force throughout everyone’s interpretation of the cast. (But I think it would be really cool as well to see people stray from his main design and interpret his design in the same way people would the rest of castle bleck)

He’s played off as sort of a joke character and then you read up on Carson’s stories of him and then it’s all like Woahh this is the same dude we’re talking about?? Funny characters that are secretly tragic is a trope I really like.

I think it’s really silly how everyone plays into his “chunking” catchphrases like Count Bleck saying: "Very well, O'Chunks. I'll leave the hero-chunking to you. Do not fail Count Bleck." Or Dimentio saying: "Mmm... I do enjoy a good chunking...", it’s really fun that the other characters are willing to hype up O’ Chunk’s catchphrases.

Also I think everyone sort of just glossed over the fact O’ Chunks was begging to die because he didn’t want to go back to Count Bleck and tell him he got defeated for the second time and only changed his mind after Dimentio shows up and talks a bit and afterwards he’s all like: “yeah I wouldn’t kill myself unless the count told me to.”

In conclusion he’s a really cool and underrated character and I like him a lot!! (If you couldn’t already tell by the blog theme and name lol)

Finally on to Count Bleck!

Wahhhh I love his lore and story it’s sooo bittersweet I want to fall to my knees dramatically anytime I think of it. He definitely seems like the type of guy that thought he didn’t care about his crew and everything they’re all doing was purely business because he’s just so caught up in his whole depressive world ending shenanigans that by chapter 8 he’s sort of surprised that he likes his minions as much as they do.

He’s still very much a bad guy, wiping out whole worlds and also lying to his very loyal group about making a way cooler world afterwards, and also on top of that even manipulating some of his minions unfortunate circumstances to get them on his team. (I.E: O’ Chunks) but I will let it slide this time because he’s a cool character to me.

All the memory sections of the game are so cute until it hits chapter six and then it’s like….ouch my feelings. He was mourning her so bad he would’ve unknowingly killed her if he’d succeeded, damn. But he didn’t so they got their nice little happy ending, and they’re just so cute together yaayyy!! (I’m in love with the picture of them under the tree at the end of the credits and I totally start to tear up when I see it with the credits music)

He’s a really interesting character and I can’t find myself finding another Mario character that inflicts this same emotions his lore gave me.

#super paper mario #thanks for the ask!#I uh didn’t proof read this so hopefully it’s readable #my last thought is that I wish this game had actual merch #but I guess all paper Mario games have some obscure merch usually stationary or cards merch

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neuronary · 10 months

Text

IN LIEU OF THE STRIKES

(which i am technically participating in but also i hadn’t had a writing job in like eighteen months before this and i was planning on breaking for the entirety of my degree anyways)

currently neither unions are calling for a boycott but if this goes on long enough, production will start grinding to a halt. personally, i am hoping this lasts long enough to get the tech crews, directors, and animators/cg artists/effects people also striking, because i am really hoping that that will get more of these fields unionised too and really scare the bosses into doing what we want. this industry makes hundreds of billions of dollars a year and those profits go directly into the pockets of shareholders that don’t fucking deserve them.

the point being: now if ever is the time to start catching up on the old shit. by which i mean anything you missed when it came out.

so my contribution here is sharing my current watchlists and also giving some recommendations for my favourite films and tv shows.

without further ado,

FILMS - HORROR

FILMS - COMEDY

FILMS - DOCUMENTARY

(there are in fact many more films but i wanna also cover my tv watchlist plus recs for film and tv)

if anyone has any more recs for film or tv based on my current watchlists please let me know! these don’t even cover everything but i don’t want this post to be megalong.

as for my own recs:

in terms of horror, i will always rec everything jordan peele. he is one of my favourite filmmakers of this century and he has yet to miss. although personally i would advise grabbing some friends and keeping the lights on for us. another favourite of mine is the original scream. i’m not so big on the sequels personally, but i’d advise giving them ago because many people love the entire franchise and i have heard excellent things about the one with jenna ortega. thoroughbreds is technically a thriller but my god was it one of the most underrated and gripping films i’ve seen in years. 5/5 stars. check it out.

in terms of comedy, i will never not recommend pride (2014) it is a heartwarming film about solidarity between different marginalised communities, based on a real organisation of queer people that raised money for the striking miners in the uk in 1984. it was also my gay awakening in more ways than one and despite the somewhat bittersweet ending gave me a lot of hope for my future. i also highly recommend my cousin vinny which not only has marisa tomei giving the greatest comedic performance i’ve ever seen (which she deserved best actress for, by the way, she carried that fucking film) but also amazingly accurate legal dialogue. another favourite of mine is the spy who dumped me which has me actual pissing myself every time i watch it. also, the first kingsman film is a masterclass in successful parody and cinematic proof that the only good parodies are made by the lovers of a genre, not the haters.

in terms of documentary, now is a great time to revisit david attenborough’s work (we stan that man on this blog i won’t hear a word against him) and be reminded of what exactly it is that our conservationists are trying to save. particularly a life on this planet is a fascinating documentary about his own journey and beautifully scored. the elephant whisperers won best short doc at the oscars this year for a reason. although i have my issues with my octopus teacher’s philosophy in certain places, it is still one of the most incredible documentaries i’ve ever seen. lewis capaldi: how i’m feeling now is not what you think but is definitely worth a watch. (also mandatory watching for any american that calls shrek’s accent scottish.) chasing coral on netflix is something i rewatch whenever i need reminding of why i’m doing what i’m doing.

finally in terms of tv, this is my daily reminder to everyone to subscribe to dropout it is well worth the money and for today what i actually want to recommend is total forgiveness which legitimately broke me as a person and is also one of the most candid and grounded depictions of the impact of student debt i have ever seen. i would also, however, like to put some people on some limited series/complete tv shows that absolutely fuck. firstly, maid came into my life at the worst time possible and sent me into multiple meltdowns and panic attacks but remains one of my top tv shows of the year. the last of us is actually worth the hype, as much as it frustrates my science brain. la revolution is the best thing to come out of france since pain aux abricots but also comes with about four hundred content warnings so check yourself before you wreck yourself with that one. alien worlds is not quite what i’d consider a documentary but is one of the most creative things i’ve ever watched and a really accessible show about ecology and exobiology, which i love. russian doll is a show that tore me into pieces and stitched me back together again laughing and crying the whole way. don’t do yourself the disservice of not watching it. the ethos of the good place is too good not to put on here. yes it’s been memed to hell and back but it’s genuinely one of the greatest tv shows of the century so far and found and carried such a fundamentally good message that i rewatch at least once every couple years.

anyways, please include your own recs in the notes, yell about tv/films you love and show some appreciation for the people that brought them into existence. also note that they don’t have to be considered ‘great works’, i am just a wanker when it comes to this stuff. i want all your recs, good and ‘bad’.

#wga sag strike #recs

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waldensblog · 2 years

Text

So I’m on season 3 of my the 100 rewatch, and I have some ThoughtsTM.

So I definitely think Bellamy started developing romantic feelings for Clarke during the events of Day Trip. He’s showing her how to work a gun, and then he feels something:

Of course, it isn’t the time for him to deal with these feelings, they’re in a life or death situation - so he compartmentalizes them. Locks them away in a little “to deal with with later” box. It’s no big deal, just a crush.

Over the course of season 2 though, the feelings grow. Still not the time to deal with them, he locks them away in the little “for later” box. Of course, by the end of season 2, Clarke walks away. She can’t deal with the grief of “bearing it so they don’t have to” and walks away.

3 months of relative peace ensue for Skaikru, and they’re going out on missions to find where the other Ark stations landed. In that time period, Bellamy moves on. At some point, he starts dating Gina. And of course, he likes Gina - he cares about her. Clarke’s gone, and it wasn’t like they dated, he just never opened that box to deal with those feelings.

Then he hears that Clarke is in danger, and... he goes just a wee bit off the wall for her. Now some of that is just Bellamy, but he really shows just how much he cares in Wanheda Part 2. The second he spots Clarke in the tall grass, he has only one braincell and it’s entirely devoted to rescuing Clarke.

The second he sees her face, his smile and the way he strokes her hair... As an audience member, to me this says “He’s in love with her” - I don’t know when that happened, but this is when I, personally, see that it’s definitely shifted from the Day Trip just-a-crush to something deeper. But I don’t think he’s even realized the depth yet. He’s so happy to see her, alive - the whole angry-at-her-for-leaving thing being completely forgotten in this moment.

But then, just as he’s about to rescue her... he fails. And he desperately tries to follow. The one braincell refuses any logic. The others catch up and try to tell him he’s being completely illogical, and then he just... bursts:

Per the script “it echoes. The lengths he’s willing to go to save her surprises even him. The realization that he can’t crushes him.”

It’s this moment, I think, when even Bellamy is surprised by his own outburst - that the box burst open. He is completely in love with her, and he just realized it.

Now of course, he’s still dating Gina, and I think he probably wasn’t even thinking about that in this moment, he probably wouldn’t really think about it until they got back to camp and Abby was treating his wound. Then there’s the questions - what to do about those feelings, this realization? Stay with Gina or break things off? Confess to Clarke when she returns home after the Summit (which in 3x03 Skaikru has every expectation to happen) and see if she feels the same?

If he decided something, internally, we don’t know, because as soon as Echo tells them the summit is a trap - he races off to do his “stupid and heroic” thing. Gina dies, and Clarke refuses to come back, so now he’s grieving the loss of Gina, and is pissed-as-hell at Clarke.

#the 100 #bellarke

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bourbon-ontherocks · 11 months

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… il était bizarre ce chapitre de PQENCEL… (as far as I’m concerned the newbie’s full name is timothée daniel paul guichard, now. also I think he has grounds to get morgane fired for sexual harassment) but jarring similarities aside, I barely have anything to say about 303, tbh? it was ok. the blorbos didn’t break me this time, I won’t need 5-10 business days to recover 😅 the most emotion I felt was when gilles expressed his hurt, moh 🥲 though roxane clearly was the star of the show this time (and I’m glad it inspired you fic-wise, hehe). I wonder when she’s gonna pull the "your colleague kissed you and you forgot to mention it?" card 😏 by the way… anyone else felt something in the air when she saved morgane’s life? no? just me? 👀

star #2 was SOFIANE 💓😍💖💘🥰 our prayers have been answered!!!!! 🫶 he managed to be snarky in a total of 2 lines. hope he comes back for much more! glad they brought bonnemain back too 😄 in a way the cast-related excitement made up for the lukewarm plot. speaking of, what’s more unlikely: a teenager channeling early 00’s energy by choosing "bledigirl" for a stage name, or the fact she didn’t figure out "princesse" was autobiographical because the name of her cousin is literally the title of the song? je veux bien qu’elle ait pas la réf à un film des années 1970 mais le coup du prénom, quoi 😭

gotta say I loved the beard running gag, lol. there’s something terribly wrong with le commandant’s face, mais quoi… 😂 (+ it has a tiny backstory! unexpected) love daphné’s inability to hide her digust. as well as her willingness to lend her new responsibilities to morgane’s scheming. AND (she was so good in this ep) "on peut mieux faire" re: women murderers… daph, never change 🤣💛 she must be so proud of their own statistics!

surprised adam was the one saying the episode title this time. ushering in a new trend, perhaps? it was entertaining to see him bear with morgane’s passive-agressivity. (now that I think about it, the tension throughout this ep probs felt surface-level because we didn’t get a glimpse into the characters’ feelings… et qu’est-ce qu’un chapitre de PQENCEL sans débrief ?) did like the phone cord thread; look at morgane letting him back into her life by stealing his charger! oui j’ai décidé que c’était symbolique. 😂 thank you for your patience and see you on thursday! 👻❣️

Oh my gosh, anon!! So let me just start by saying that I felt TOUT PAREIL the first time I watched that ep! It was even one of my least faves ever. But full disclaimer: this episode grew on me A LOT through the rewatches.

And the more I've thought about it, the more I believe that this ep isn't odd in itself, but it definitely feels so when lined up with the previous two. There's a real and quite unexplained tone shift here, which I think is tied with the whole comedy/dramedy switch and the fact that eps 1 and 2 were shot in July so probs still in the spirit of season 2 (due to the early shooting date, we can assume they were written at the same time as late S2 eps, and the writing of the rest of S3 probs resumed a couple of months later) while ep 3 inaugurates a darker mood for the season. Now let's dive into the specifics.

I wasn't joking when I said that Parce qu'entre nous predicted the season. Targeted home attack? Subsequent police protection? Banging the said protection barely two nights in? I SCREAMED (although while I'm all for Morgane getting some good time this season bc she clearly deserved it, couldn't they at least give her somebody enticing to look at? My guy Paul/Daniel/whatever his name emotes like wet bread. Ew.)(also yeah, I'm kinda bummed with the obvious lack of consent here, not in itself since it narratively and character-wise makes sense, but in the fact that the whole thing is filmed under a ~comedy angle while it would have been completely inappropriate to do so had the genders been reversed. Something something equality works both ways you know? Yikes)

Gilles expressing his hurt and preaching for forgiving to the people who hurt you has to be one of my favourite scenes in the ep and the season (don't get me started on it because I'll start to tear up and word-vomit a non-coherent rant), but I'm surprised it was the most emotion you got from ep 3? I'll get back to the other emotional scenes that I found worth noticing later though, otherwise this post is gonna be all over the place. So Gilles. GILLES, my baby, my love. The thing is, I love Morgane, but she tends to be extremely toxic to everyone around her, she uses people, she doesn't apologize, she ghosts them, she doesn't care about their feelings. And the fact that someone gets to tell her exactly that, that she HURTS people, the people who actually love her and care about her enough to get her out of jail, and the fact that of all people it's Gilles who gets to tell her that, well it made my heart swell. Because Gilles is the nicest person who has ever lived and that makes his speech way more impactful than if it had been Céline's or Adam's.

Also his words are literally the reason why Morgane finally reopens the door to Adam a little at the end of the episode, but again, I'll get to that later.

Let me just tell you that I absolutely love Roxane's arc this season and the way she no longer takes bullshit from anyone. I personally don't think that she bought Morgane's lies on who kissed who, and I do believe she already knows it was entirely Adam's initiative, although that's a personal headcanon of course. Not sure I felt any vibe between her and Morgane though but you know, I can get onboard that train pretty easily!

Now as for Sofiane, I must say I was glad he's back, and true he manages to be snarky in two lines, but my problem is that he ONLY got two lines?? Like... What was the point of calling him back just for this???? 😭 I need moar. Also Bonnemain wasn't gone, he was here in 301 if I remember correctly?

The implausible parts of the case didn't particularly hit me but also I haven't been a teenager in a looooong time now, so I didn't exactly notice the vintage vibes of bledigirl although it's quite obvious now that you pointed it out (I'm having skyblogs war flashbacks now, thank you very much 😂). And as for Sarah's name I'm not sure to see where you're heading at? Cause if it's Princess Sarah then I wouldn't have had the ref either (while I did get the Peau d'Âne one lol), but again, my teenage years are far ago.

Now Daphné. I juste LOVE how we get to see more of her in the season (not saying more but... yea) and the unexpected development of having her as the new workplace discrimination referee was a GENIUS move. The "on peut mieux faire" line has to be one of my absolute faves in the ENTIRE show (je crois qu'elle a même détrôné "excusez-moi de m'intéresser" c'est dire), and her reaction to Adam's glabre face was priceless (as was the whole shaved-his-beard thread, at least we got a consolation prize for losing beardie 🥲).

I actually never noticed that it was Morgane who'd usually say out loud the eps titles? Wasn't it Bonnemain who said Phyllobates Terribilis? Or Gilles who said 55 kilos first? To me the titles always refer to one of the clues that get Morgane to solve the puzzle but it never occurred to me she was the one saying them haha.

Mais bon en vrai on s'en fout parce que c'était juste pour introduire la partie sur Adam et... Okay.

"the tension throughout this ep probs felt surface-level because we didn’t get a glimpse into the characters’ feelings"

So this is exactly the part that grew on me with subsequent rewatches. I guess I was perhaps expecting too much, or was too used to writing myself what was happening in the blorbos' heads, to really get into what happens here on my first watch. But there's actually so much going on, blorbos-wise it is now one of my fave eps in the season!! (There's also some mildly annoying borderline ooc stuff happening but I'll get to that). Morgane is hurting so badly in this episode it's honestly heart-wrenching.

Obviously she's not going to show it eagerly, but it's visible at first in the way she flinches when Théa asks her if she's ready to work with Adam again (which also makes me wonder how much exactly Théa knows about what happened but that's a topic for another day). Then she goes full-on passive-aggressive mode with Adam, which says a lot, it all culminates in the cringiest song ever (I pasted the full lyrics in the end if you're curious), and then Adam does what??

He confronts her! Il essaye de communiquer !! Il veut crever l'abcès 🥹 And she cannot say it. She's the one who always comes up with angry punchlines but right now she's hurting so much she doesn't even have it in her to SAY IT 😭😭😭 and storms out instead. cue my first death in this episode.

BUT. She might be hurting and angry, she'll still lie to Roxane to protect his relationship. While she could very understandably retaliate by tanking it. 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 Cue my second death, obviously.

Now we're getting to the part I honestly didn't like so much, because Morgane just got out of prison, and then she escapes a murder attempt, and nobody gives a shit about it? They can be mad at her all they want, and Adam can be shocked to find Roxane at Morgane's place, what happened to "je tiens à vous" huh? I didn't write "j'ai droit à un câlin à chaque fois que je frôle la mort ?" for nothing, and also I need to check that bingo box, thank you very much 😠😭 So I get that Adam is in the quite delicate situation of "oh shit, looks like wifey and mistress are hanging out behind my back", mais franchement ça lui arracherait une molaire de demander à Morgane comment elle va ?

Biggest OOC move from him as far as I'm concerned. 🔪🔪🔪

Now...

Actually wait no, I'm still angry, give me a minute.

...

Where was I? The show sort of made up for it after that because Adam being in charge of her protection!! While he's mad at her because he's thinking she ratted him out to Roxane!! And she's mad at him because, well, you know!! She physically cannot stand to be in the same room as he is and they are forced to hang out?? And he gets it? And he tries to talk to her but then the pressure explodes? And she FINALLY says it out loud? And exposes her feelings in a clearer way than she's ever done before? Because what else putting Adam at the same level as [redacted] means but "I was in love with you too"???? Cue my third and final death right here.

And finally, for me the phone charger thread as a symbol is not a theory, it's a fact! The way they insisted on how she refuses to use it at first to not owe him anything, for her to eventually steal it after Gilles' speech about forgiveness is pretty transparent, and so is her final joke about his beard. And the way she delivers this final line? This was absolutely not what she intended to tell him. She just didn't master the courage to say out loud "I forgive you", so she settled for something much safer but the meaning remains. Cue my undefined stare at the ceiling 🥹🥹🥹🥹

Honorable mentions to:

Jérôme's burnout? How? When? I need answers 😂

Céline yelling TIMOTHÉE ?! in the precinct

The cats

THE ELEVATOR STARE 😱😱😱😱😱😱 I didn't include it to the blorbos' emotional journey because it wasn't painful but my! God! the! absolute! tension! here!!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Cue my actual death

And the lyrics to Morgane's song if anyone's interested:

C'est l'histoire d'un amant Qui s'est pris pour un Don Juan T'as cru qu'il était ti-gen Parce que le gars mettait ses gants Il t'a fait nan-nan-nan Chérie tu te méprends

C'est l'histoire d'un condé Qu'a voulu jouer les BG Il s'est pris pour Superman Mais il bouffe trop de kouign amann J'ai fait miam miam miam Par ici le croque-madame

J'fais monter la mayo (x3) Pour le poulet... (suite incompréhensible)

T'as cru qu'il était gentil Parce qu'il portait un képi Mais c'était que du mépris Il t'a tej comme un débris

#sorry this got VERY long 😅#well that's what you get for making me debrief a whole episode in one ask lol #ask #anon #julia's adventures with the hpi anon #hpi #hpi analysis #hpi season 3 #hpi tf1 #tf1 hpi

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evevoli · 2 years

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toh theory: luz’s palisman will hatch into a swan

so a few months ago (see: “before luz carving her palisman aired” months ago) i rewatched Yesterday’s Lie and started to have some thoughts on what luz’s palisman will be; namely, that it’ll be a swan when it hatches.

instead of actually delving into canon like a normal person, i first want to point out the parallels between luz and the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Ugly Duckling.

for those unaware, The Ugly Duckling is a story about, well. an ugly duckling. every animal he encounters mercilessly bullies and berates him for being “ugly” and different from the other ducklings, so he runs away to do some wandering. after some time, the now adult duck approaches a flock of swans, expecting them to kill him and end his miserable life. however, the swans accept him with open arms. he looks down at his reflection and realizes he’s grown into a swan himself, something far more beautiful than any of his peers. his egg had merely been mixed up in a clutch of duck eggs; he’d been a swan the whole time.

this is absolutely a reach and i’m well aware of it, but i think you can definitely draw parallels between luz and the duckling. luz was mistreated by her peers for being an outcast because she had been born into an environment not suited for her, that being the human realm. she then found witches who accepted her for who she is and has come to feel that she belongs with them rather than the world she was raised in. it’s a bit of a stretch to claim dana terrace definitely absolutely had this old fairy tale in mind when writing TOH, but i find the parallels interesting nonetheless.

now speaking about canon itself, my strongest point here for Swan Palisman is that bird palismen have been clearly established as a clawthorne thing, as every member of the clawthorne family we’ve met so far has had one. going into emo found family symbolism territory here, but i think luz having a bird would fully cement her place as eda’s child and as an undeniable part of the clawthorne family.

additionally, king had his big moment in season 2 when he changed his name to King Clawthorne and effectively adopted himself. eda has canonically referred to both luz and king as her kids multiple times in the show now, so personally i think it would only be right for luz to have a similar moment that fully establishes and unites her as part of eda’s family. what better way to do that than by having the palisman she and eda carved together be the ultimate symbol of a clawthorne, a family well-known for its carving tradition?

(plus, if we take the blatant bird motifs seen in the emperor’s coven’s aesthetics into account—the coven scout and golden guard masks, and the wings seen on the coven sigil and belos’s portal, namely—it’s clear the show’s designs and identity as a whole center heavily around birds. personally, i think it’d be flat-out weird if the main character of The Owl House just didn’t have a bird palisman. how out of place would that be if she just had like a rat or something i mean come on.)

though i have to say, real quick, that my one counterpoint to this entire scheme would be this fella from Hunting Palismen:

it’s the only bird palisman we’ve seen besides flapjack (who is his own can of worms) that doesn’t belong to a clawthorne, resembling a goose or perhaps a swan.

...i have nothing of note to say on this though tbh i just thought it was worth pointing out for the sake of integrity or whatever. i imagine it’s too late in the story for these orphaned palismen to be relevant again, so i will say that i highly doubt this guy is of any real significance, and so am more or less electing to ignore him. sorry bell swan.

BUT onto my next point: birds themselves are all fine and good, of course, but the strongest, most tinfoil hat-iest point of evidence i’d like to bring to your attention is camila’s already established connection to swans.

it’s this quick line in Yesterday’s Lie that made me break out the conspiracy board to begin with; luz liked to make camila tinfoil swans! if that isn’t the most damming undeniable blatant piece of confirmation on earth (yes i am playing this up for comedy i promise i’m not insane) then maybe this additional jpeg will convince you:

her calendar in Reaching Out—an episode with a heavy focus on luz’s relationship with her parents—has an adult and baby swan on it, directly below a photo of camila and luz, mind you. yes i absolutely noticed this on a rewatch at some point or another and went

im right and that’s the end.

/j ANYWAY, as i said earlier, birds are extremely important to luz’s family in the boiling isles, and swans specifically represent her family in the human realm. i would like to point out that much of luz’s inner conflict in season 2b centers on her fear of having to choose between two worlds—between her two families—when she returns home.

this is James and the Giant Reach territory again, but i have a feeling that if this palisman were to hatch when the kids are still stuck in the human realm, regardless of what kind of animal it winds up being, it will come to symbolize this very conflict; a mark of luz’s family in the boiling isles, trapped with her family in the human realm.

no matter how the series ends, i feel that this palisman—the animal representing camila that was carved with eda—will serve to symbolically unite the nocedas and clawthornes and cement them both as fundamental and undeniable parts of who luz is as a person.

#yes i have been meaning to write this post for literal months and yes im only doing it now because im panicking to get it out before s3 #if i end up being wrong on this idk what i'll do. deactivate and throw my phone in a lake ig #the owl house #toh #luz noceda #toh season 3 #toh meta #toh theory #long post #ev.post

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fukuwatchesbl · 8 months

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OFTS Ep2 - Stringed throughts

As last time, I already watch the episode yesterday. These are my thoughts on rewatch. I know it may be weird to process this way, but I want to actually watch this series and not focus on analysis first. It also allows me to connect elements better and perceive things I hadn't.

Under the cut.

I thought mew was our narrator, but with more characters showing in the confessional, it's now obvious he isn't. Interesting way to borrow from reality tv format to get insight in characters thoughts. Also, it gets very noticeable that nick has not been shown in the confessional (yet), but every character introduced in the first bar scene of Ep1 has. Is nick set as an outsider of the main group?

[had to take a short break, because my partner is cutting onions]

love to have Jennie and her partner in a stable relationship

cheum is the most romantic of the group, to the extent of being a bit too cheesy/naive for me

boston: it'll last 3 months - mew: watch me

mew, why are you taking top's time limit as a challenge ? also, please reassure me, and tell me your plan to resist top's advances is a joke... that's not a good way to handle any relationship

boston is the worst judge of character. He's convinced himself top is exactly like him (he's wrong), he thinks he and nick are on the same page (they're not)

ray starting to drink in daylight because mew's in a relationship now... ouch, my heart. I appreciate their friendship dynamic though, it's not fully honest, but there's true care

is Top the possessive kind? weird how this doesn't match with the dynamic he and mew have when it's just the two of them... maybe he just doesn't like to share (his toys)

Was wondering how Nick would end up crying in Sand's arms, now I know. I love how Sand looks like he hit the jackpot just because he won't have to move out

I liked that the public confession and the uneasiness it creates for the person on the receiving hand were mentioned.

Top will have ticked 2 of Mew's 3 conditions by the end of this episode

Ray stalker era

whoever guessed sand's weird bottles were plum wine was right

the "favorite"... this felt so manipulative. Nick, run!

the way ray empty his glass in one go, while sand takes his time.

2 characters with past traumas. Is there more?

that shower scene made me so uneasy. it felt like top didn't know if he wanted to go on or to stop

mew is such a tease

boston using a nickname Nick specifically said he didn't like. I would have been pissed if someone had done that to me

see, as much as I don't trust top not to cheat on mew, he, at the very least, doesn't push the boundaries mew clearly sets (the ending of the shower scene is an exception, but it feels like there were more to it). I don't trust boston to do that with anyone

ray stalker era part 2

boston definitely knows about ray's feelings for mew. will he try to use this to drive top away from mew? (this is me clowning, i'm just wondering as to how it'll play out)

so sand is not a hooker, only accumulating odd jobs

back to the confessional: we opened the episode with perspectives on romantic relationships, and we're closing with perspectives on sex relationships

the closing credits have each character alone (mew in ep1, ray in ep2)... will we see characters in pairs later on?

I really like how each character handles relationships in different ways, how we get different views on romance, sex, and even friendship to some extent.

#only friends the series #fuku watches ofts

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veilchenjaeger · 1 year

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Okay. After over a goddamn year, I have finally finished Couple of Mirrors. Consider me wrecked.

I don't even know where to start with this show? It's everything I've ever wanted, save for the censorship issue. (But I think I can read the manhua to soothe that particular ache.) It's so damn good. I watched this with month-long breaks between episodes, so I don't remember everything, but I still want to try to write up my initial thoughts bc it's fun to reread that kind of thing after a rewatch or some time of brainrot.

First, without getting into spoilers: I adore this show. The plot is incredible - dense without being overwhelming, unpredictable without nonsensical plot twists. Nearly every episode had me on the edge of my metaphorical seat. At the same time, the characters were given time to shine and develop. Especially Xu Youyi is just one of the characters of all time, I'm obsessed with her, but I definitely got attached to side characters as well. (Which is dangerous, considering the body count this show has.) I really appreciate the pacing, the little moments of downtime between the imo impeccably paced rush of revelations and developments. There are some things that could be seen as... soap opera-esque, in a way? Just because of the amount of family drama, but I think it all worked really well bc the show immediately tells you what kind of show it is and what the stakes are. None of the drama is out of place, is what I'm saying. There's a lot of murder.

There are complaints about Xu Youyi and Yan Wei not having a lot of screentime together, and while this is in some way true, I... didn't mind? They're both set up well enough as individual characters for their interactions to be meaninful, and it was more than enough for me to get invested in them. (Not to mention that there's a whole episode of domestic Yiwei in the end.) But mostly, and I think I've said this before somewhere, I came for the lesbians and stayed for the plot. Xu Youyi's story is about so many things, and it's important that each of these things was given the space it deserves. This is a murder mystery/thriller first and a romance second, and I honestly prefer it that way. The pacing felt right, and the central relationship still came across well.

Final non-spoilery verdict: PLEASE watch this show if you haven't seen it yet. It's so, so, so good. You can watch the whole thing on Youtube for free, and the subtitles are actually decent.

Spoilers under the cut.

There are approximately fifty separate things I'm obsessed with, but I'll only name a few.

First of all, the whole Thing between Zhou Heng and Xu Youyi, and especially Zhou Heng's character. Holy shit, this is well done. Zhou Heng is never portrayed as the good guy, but the sheer extent of his unhingedness is revealed so gradually that you're pretty much bound to underestimate him. He starts out as a bad husband who cheats on Xu Youyi, but for what it's worth, it seems like he does love her and wants to try to be better for the first episodes. He defends her from his family, he supports her, and while Xu Youyi is right not to let him get away with that after he broke her heart like that, he's sympathetic. He's not a cartoon villain or a cardboard cutout of an evil abusive husband. And he still isn't that when it's revealed that he fucking tried to kill her. That caught me off guard so hard! I didn't expect that at all, and then it just fucking kept going. It's in episode 10, during the dinner he has with Xu Youyi, that I realised that he's not only an utter dickhead, he's batshit insane. And it's the very fact that he was built up as a sympathetic character that makes this reveal as creepy as it is. Gods, what an asshole! Gives me chills of the worst kind! A superbly done antagonist.

(The same is true for Zhang Wan, too. She's a lot more obviously mean, but the extent of that isn't revealed all at once, and the relationship she had with Xu Youyi before is still meaningful. Zhou Heng's father, too - he acts according to his motivations, and whether he's with Xu Youyi or against her depends on the way she fits into his plans. Just, good antagonists all around.)

Second of all, I adore the characters so, so much?! Xu Youyi's development, her sunny personality, her heartbreak, and the way she gets more and more tired of being nice, are so [chef's kiss]. Detective Jiang was right, actually - she is someone who'd happily live with a murderer. She's so genuinely kind, she doesn't mean harm, but after everything she's been put through, she's ruthless deep down. I love how cold and collected she is when she demands the divorce, when she signs the papers, when she's in court, and especially when she finds out that Yan Wei is indeed the murderer of Zhang Wan and doesn't even hesitate to lie to the police to help her. Xu Youyi has had it and she will not be taking any prisoners.

It took me a little longer to get fully attached to Yan Wei, simply because she's not the main character, but the last episode really sealed the deal for me. She's grown so much because of Xu Youyi! She's started to live a life that isn't ruled by her past, she's capable of joking with Xu Youyi and she's a good mother and she's happy, which she didn't know how to be before! She even gets along with other people; she's on good terms with Mr Wang and has a bit of a teasing relationship going on with Detective Jiang. (Big fan of that, btw. I think they should be bros.) And yet, she's also presumably doing some very shady stuff to get money, and we haven't seen her find actual closure yet. I get why the last few minutes aren't the most popular ones - they're a bit of a shock, for one, and the pacing of the show fails here, although I assume that's all a set up for the next season - but they make sense. Again, Detective Jiang is right! Xu Youyi doesn't know anything about Yan Wei's past, and it's a past that's pretty important for who Yan Wei is! That's the one thing I was worried about throughout the show: that Yan Wei's past would just stay unaddressed, and that Xu Youyi wouldn't find out. So, yeah, I do like that they made that into a (future?) plot point. It's such a strong beat for Yan Wei's arc, I really hope we do get that second season and get to find out what she's been doing behind Xu Youyi's back and what those flowers mean. Yan Wei deserves some more development!

(That being said, I still think that season finale cliffhangers are bad writing and shouldn't be done, especially with the state of queer entertainment in China being what it currently is. Looking at you, Scum Villain season 2.)

And last but not least, I'll be listening to the opening song on repeat for the next lifetime, thanks.

#[talk less smile more]#couple of mirrors #/I LOVE THIS SHOW #/oh also zhang nan hot

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itsclydebitches · 9 months

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I'm on season four of my Walking Dead rewatch and it kinda baffles me that Carl isn't the one to kill Karen and David.

Obviously this would require reworking later episodes/seasons (Carol would no longer get kicked out, this would be a huge blow to Rick, etc.) but imo it makes way more sense for their character arcs, Carl in particular. We've just come off of a season where Carl shoots someone, a kid (by Hershel's standards) while he was lowering his weapon, then strongly defends himself to Rick. This isn't a moment where Carl considers shooting someone to eliminate a potential, future threat—which could have been a nice parallel to Rick nearly giving the Governor Michonne—or a case of him only wounding the kid on accident and essentially getting a reprieve. You didn't kill him, so now you have to chance to consider whether you'd have been okay with the fact that you had. No, Carl murders this guy and then displays no remorse for it, speaking with complete conviction that they must eliminate anyone who crosses them to keep their family safe. That's a hell of a set-up for the next season.

So Rick takes Carl's gun away and, given that he needs a break from the pressures of leadership himself, tries to rehabilitate Carl by redirecting his care-for-the-family energy into gardening. Okay, so far, so good. The problem is that nothing happens during "Infected" to change Carl's moral stance. He's forced to pick up a gun to defend Michonne from a walker and Rick accepts the necessity of that, giving Carl his own weapon back at the same time Rick takes his. The message is far more, "I recognize that you need a way to defend yourself in this new world and I trust you to use this responsibly"—growth Carl already went through back in the second season—rather than, "I can trust that you'll use this on walkers and immediate threats only, not the people surrendering who might later become allies, friends, and family like so many others have." There's a vague reference to how Carl has been "trying" lately (AKA over the course of a month given the time skip) and that Rick is proud of him for that, but it's merely implied that Carl has changed his mind on this incredibly fraught issue. Worse, that this monumental change happened off-screen between seasons.

So why not get rid of that lackluster, non-redemption by really leaning into Carl's flawed perspective for a while? Season three gave no indication that he was backing down about this, so... he doesn't. Rick takes his gun, makes him farm, and all the while Carl is chaffing at the kid treatment and what he's coming to see as his father's "weak" approach to contribution. Why are you farming when you could be out there defending us? Cue arguments about the necessity and worth of keeping a home running, even when yes, physical safety is a major priority. (That's something I always thought was missing from the Andrea vs. Lori kitchen argument in season two. Lori is wrong for the misogynistic, "Let the men do it" attitude, but Andrea is equally wrong to devalue the "laundry" Lori does—AKA, everything that ensures the fighters are fed, clothed, clean, have a roof over their head, and have something to come home to after all that horror.) Rather than Carol, I can easily picture Carl realizing that no one is going to stop treating him like the kid he is, so he uses that to his advantage by starting story time. Yes, Dad, I'm doing exactly what you want and taking time away from the horrors of this world, acting my age by enjoying some good books with my friends. I'm definitely not teaching them about knives and stuff :) When the sickness hits Carl again has that need to do something, to protect everyone, but no one is letting him near a gun. Alright. That's fine. He's resourceful. He's still allowed a knife and there's no one guarding the gasoline. Taking out a sick Karen and David in their sleep is easy.

I can better buy into someone Carl's age thinking that killing the people showing symptoms will fix the problem, as opposed to Carol, an adult on the council who knows more about how disease works and that they're pretty much all already infected. (And yes, obviously for this post I'm working under the belief that Carol did kill David and Karen, rather than engaging with the Lizzie theories.) I can better buy into the character who just killed someone in the name of safety a month ago executing sick friends than I can one of the most nurturing members of the original group. Which brings me to Carol's rather rapid, mostly off-screen development. Don't get me wrong, I ADORE badass!Carol—she's one of my favorites in the whole show—but binging the series has really highlighted how quickly this hardened Carol came about. It might have worked better if she'd become colder after loosing Sophie, but she remains the softer, caring group member all the way through season three. We're told that she's made huge strides—she's a "good shot" now whereas before she'd always cower during an attack—but that's not exactly the same thing as becoming someone willing to murder preemptively to keep others safe. I can't even quite reconcile the end of season three Carol with the shady Carol at the start of season four, the one who teaches self-defense behind Rick's back. While it's definitely well-established that she's often used Rick as a convenient target for her frustration and grief, questioning his leadership in the process, they seem to have come to a better understanding by season three. Basically, Carol has changed, undoubtedly, but not this much in this short a time. Merle comments that she's not the same woman anymore, but that's in the context of her being able to put him in his place; she's no longer terrified of the Eds of the world. Roughly a month before the sickness goes down, she's still the same Carol who talks gently to Daryl and reminds him that just because you love someone doesn't mean they're good for you. That's a wildly different Carol from the one giving clandestine knife lessons, telling a little girl she's "weak" for not stabbing her dad, and burning two friends on the off chance that this will keep others safe.

So give all that to the character who has actually been focused on learning to defend himself, is adamant that kids (like him) need to be tough, and has just established that he's willing to kill in the name of future protection. Let Carl go through all that and let Rick grapple with it. Meanwhile, I'd hold off on hardened!Carol for another season or two, rather taking her through that development via Lizzie. She's more confident now, better at defending herself, but still fundamentally the Carol we met back at the quarry when separated from Ed; the one who cheekily admits she misses her vibrator. She's made huge strides, but she's still grieving Sophia—obviously—and now suddenly this man is charging her with loving two girls roughly her daughter's age "like her own." Carol promises, but not with the obviously-of-course-why-wouldn't-I? vibe of the original scene. She doesn't know if she can love them like that, or protect them better than she did Sophia, but how can she deny him his final wish? Let Carol struggle with motherhood again (perhaps paralleling Michonne with Judith), how to navigate it, and juuuuuust as she thinks she's starting to make some headway...

Lizzie kills Mika.

That, alongside killing Lizzie herself, could introduce the Carol we come across at the beginning of season four. She once let Lizzie try to put down her father and when she couldn't do it, Carol comforted her and tried to protect her. Of course she did. Now she puts down Lizzie and realizes that she can't be "weak" anymore. Not if she's going to protect any more little girls. She's going to learn more, train harder, cease hesitating, and god help anything that gets in her way.

#The Walking Dead #TWD #mymetas #nothing to see here folks #just lots of Thoughts about a decade-old season of television #you know #normal Friday night stuff

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