#if my post ends up getting proved wrong or something with the later episodes ill rb this saying 'well i was a clown'

[aq2003]

i feel like ten and martha's friendship is kind of doomed from the start because like. ten kind of needs a friend to be around him lest he go insane (even if he's in semi denial about it). and martha likes and admires him in return. and they both inherently trust and rely each other, because how could they not. but also ten is very much not in a great place at all. he just lost rose and refuses to talk about her with anyone. the guilt is eating him alive and he's trying so hard to ignore it and it's resulting in him becoming more and more reckless and self-sacrificing. and he (unintentionally) puts it all on martha. he trusts her to save him and he also trusts her to sacrifice him in the name of saving people. and at the same time every time he finds himself getting closer to or more vulnerable with her he stops and pushes her away (see: his guilt over rose). and that is so unfair. that is so much to put on one person, especially someone that is in a spot of mutual care and trust. like i wish martha had met ten when he was more stable/healthy/not haunted by his extremely fresh grief but she didn't, and i think they will save each other over and over until one of them comes apart at the seams. basically

#dr who #ten and martha #if my post ends up getting proved wrong or something with the later episodes ill rb this saying 'well i was a clown' #but like atp it's like they are toxic doomed friendship to me. and it's insane #ten does contain 95% of the insanities but also i think martha being a doctor-in-training and driven by helping and saving people #and here's a guy that simultaneously needs saving all the time but also refuses to be saved in the ways that matter. #is definitely contributing to the insanity. #idk. i'm crazy. #there are some very strong issues w how martha is written or treated by the narrative esp in th shakespeare ep #but i think at their core their dynamic is so crunchy . if doomed and set to explode #10 era

[modgirlyreposts-revamped]

Thank you, I’ve been so down and he’s such a comfort character gjdhf-

Michael is the absolute gayest mf out there prove me wrong

He’s like Will Byers as I’ve heard in later seasons of Stranger Things in that he’s extremely gay but even though he doesn’t like girls girls like him. How does this sad grungecore possum man get bitches? I dunno, ask the sheer amount of simps in the fandom. So much x reader content is female directed don’t ask how I know that don’t ask how I know that

His favorite animal is in fact possums. Fun fact: possums are omnivores and, while they’re not common prey, will hunt and kill rabbits if they need to. Interesting.

Surprisingly he loves slasher movies. He enjoys horror (in moderation because he’s prone to paranoid episodes) but he really likes the campy shit and that especially extends to slasher films.

He once broke a girl’s nose for making a snarky comment about him being an only child following his siblings’ deaths.

Even if his whole tough guy facade fell apart after the bite and he was just totally broken down he kept a bit of an edge. He’s real damaged from the shit he went through.

William quite liked dogs, and had always intended to get a Saint Bernard. Michael has always wanted a pet as well. He probably had a rat or something as a teen tbh

Honestly I think a lot about some of the stuff I saw on this one blog I followed, like, Michael being a lowkey menace, he goes a bit off the deep end after getting scooped, but not in a William way, it’s difficult to explain. He’s the kind of person who’d get described as eccentric because freak is an insult, an old soul because there’s no way to phrase “severely mentally ill” as a good thing, and “resilient” because his choices were either that or dead, also like what’s gonna change if he’s dead now? He’s gonna have a few feet of dirt to crawl through. That’s about it.

Also on that blog was Michael adopting a cat post-scooping so he doesn’t have to be alone. I’ve loved that one since I saw it. Maybe he’ll clean up his goddamn house now. I’ve been thinking for so long about giving my Michael a cat.

He’s actually a little scared of the fnaf 1 animatronics. Not just because they’re trying to kill him, but because Fredbear killed his brother in the most disgusting and gruesome way possible, and he knows now that the other animatronics were involved in the other children’s deaths.

As opposed to just possessing the animatronics, the ghost situation is more of a haunting- think Five Nights at Jr’s or The Walten Files, Battington, uhhhh

Basically the ghosts are most connected to the animatronic present at their death, and they cannot leave the animatronic, but they’re not really just living inside them. They haunt every other part of the restaurant too, and have even been rumored by ex-patrons to appear on videotaping of the pizzeria and on the Freddy & Friends cartoon episodes.

How this plays into Michael I forgot. He takes a lot of video of the restaurant though, hoping to catch the ghosts whenever he can to try and figure out how the hell to stop the hauntings and his father’s experimentation.

He still has serious anger issues, but now they’re topped with a guilt complex. He hates when he gets mad enough to freak out at people and tries as hard as he can to regulate his temper to prevent it.

He kinda hates both of his parents, like William is a given for the extreme and irreversible amount of trauma he caused, but he holds some animosity toward Amalie as well for just up and leaving the family, which caused William to kill Charlie in a reach for control. He doesn’t blame her for Charlie’s death or the following events, but he hates her for leaving and leaving them in that mess.

I think so much all the time constantly every second of every day about novel!charlie and game!mike meeting they would be best friends and mlm/wlw solidarity prove me wrong. This constantly, constantly lives rent free in my head. They’re so similar and yet so distinct and the timelines would never add up unless I found a convoluted way to make both plotlines coexist but this is so self indulgent. This concept has been a massive comfort since I got into FNaF in, what, 2020? I haven’t even read the novels but they’re just like Gregory and Cassidy But More to me. This is so stupid 💀

He spends his free time drawing, watching campy horror flicks and soap operas, and in general he’s honestly just a huge dork.

He still really loves mechanical stuff and loves to doodle concept blueprints for small things, eventually leading to him developing one that’s sort of like a Fazbear animatronic, but smaller and more kind. It keeps the silliness the animatronics have in shows, but it works with a call-and-response type of AI (again, like Siri.) Being this small, it also has the proper center of gravity to emote with its body. He made it first to just be a companion for when he was lonely or bored (the cat would love it) but it eventually became a helper/support AI. He hadn’t called it anything before, but once its purpose was built up like that, he decided to at least try and name it-

Before giving up and calling it Helpy.

Warning: this next one is actually pretty dark.

At the time of the events of Sister Location, Michael was in a really bad place. It took place seven years after Liz’s disappearance, meaning she had recently been declared dead when William sent Michael to go find her, meaning he had not only been more susceptible to William’s manipulation due to his trauma being stirred up, but also just already in a lot of pain. He was extremely depressed during the time around SL, and he kept working there after the kidnapping and all of that shit because he… didn’t really care if he died. He knew he was being tricked into something on night 5, but followed anyway. If Lizzie killed him for her own benefit, he didn’t mind. He didn’t want to live. He came here to be with her again. When Lizzie realized it was him and not William, she was devastated and wanted him to survive. He didn’t want that.

Ok that’s the dark and sad one out of the way.

He’s extremely stressed all the time and basically just uses stupid jokes to break the tension a little bit.

He’s super introverted and has a huge emotional wall. Seems totally chill and stoic but he’s always screaming internally.

Due to necrosis and blood decay post-scooping, when Michael blushes, his cheeks turn black, and it’s weirdly adorable.

His hair is like half-grey for no reason other than that he wouldn’t be bald cause hair doesn’t decompose for a long time but the grey makes him look more decomposed.

He listens to gothic/dark rock change my mind you can’t

Y’know ppl on discord servers who hang around but don’t talk much aside from occasionally reacting to messages with emojis? Mike is like that irl.

Swagless boy swag

MICHAEL WITH A CAT, I remember that I had a concept similar to that in one of my very old AUs, that was later changed to Sammy's dog in an older rewrite of Foolish Parallels

And as someone who tends to do that in Discord, that's the perfect way to describe Mike

#asks #answered #valleyfthdolls

[mircallablue]

After being made aware of the most recent Mighty Nein animated recap, which depicts Yasha as being the one who comforted Beau in Kamordah, @stomp-that-ho-regard​ brought up this old post of mine:

Posted February 22nd 2021. Once again, BeauJes shippers prove to be clairvoyant 💙 Anyway, vindicated ramblings under the cut. 

Honestly, at this point, the entire ~BeauJester Situation~ is just fascinating to me. Not just what happened with that relationship, but what happened with the entirety of campaign 2 post hiatus. How and why the entire thing ended the way it did. Why there were literally hundreds of people, as late as episode 140, saying “Don’t worry, the campaign is nowhere near over, they have so many loose threads to tie up.” Meanwhile, BeauJes shippers were like “Oh yeah, we’ve known this was the last arc for like 30 episodes. We tried to warn you”. I just think it’s fascinating. 

So, to me at least, it’s pretty obvious what went down and why:-

1.Critical Role made the decision to retcon Beaus feelings for Jester over the hiatus. 

2.They did this so that Yasha could get together with Beau, and Fjord could get together with Jester. 

3.Those things needed to happen to give Yasha and Fjords stories anything close to a satisfying conclusion. 

4.Which they knew they didn’t have time for, because they wanted campaign 3 to start around the time that TLOVM came out. 

What’s interesting about this is that, to some people, all of this will seem so crazy and insane, that you’d have to be delusional or mentally-ill to believe it. But to other people, it was all so obvious, even at the time, that you could use this information to correctly predict decisions that CR would make about an animated recap over a year later.  

And look, I know it’s ~in vogue~ to say that BeauJes shippers who point out the retcon are mentally-ill, but like, looking at this animated recap, how were we wrong? They literally create retroactive continuity to downplay BJ and play up BY. In canon, when the M9 were in Kamordah, Jester was the main person supporting and comforting Beau, both with her dad and with the hag, and Marisha said as much out of game. Meanwhile, in canon, Yasha spoke to Beau the least out of anyone in the M9 while they were in Kamordah. But in the animated recap, Yasha is the only one that comforts Beau.

What is that if not a retcon? They are acting like things that didn’t happen, did happen, and vice versa. They imagine a new continuity in the past, and act like it’s true in the present. Retroactive Continuity. A Retcon. The reason BeauJes shippers could predict that this would happen over a year in advance is that they were doing it during the campaign. 

That’s what “I fell in love with you in Kamordah” actually was. That’s what “I guess my feelings just kind of transferred (from Jester to Yasha over hiatus)” actually was. That’s what “There’s just always been something about you” actually was. That’s why Beau went from “I like her because she’s complicated and layered” to “Jester is just easy to lust after because she’s sparkly”. That’s why Veth never said “Hey Beau you just told me you had feelings for Jester, why are you throwing yourself at Yasha all of a sudden?”. That’s why the entire cast started giggling and singing love songs whenever Beau and Yasha so much as looked at each other, when they had never done that before. 

That’s why the explicit, in-universe purpose for Beau and Yashas big date was to rewrite their own history. Yasha never stayed with Beau at the Nestled Nook, Jester did, so they pretend it was Yasha. Yasha never had black-moss cupcakes in Uthodurn with Beau, Jester did, so they pretend it was Yasha. Yasha never comforted Beau in Kamordah, Jester did, so they pretend it was Yasha. 

If you're a BY shipper, aren't you at least a little insulted by this? The tacit admission from CR that canon BY is still so shit that it needs to outright steal and parody moments from another ship that CR actively spent 41 episodes killing?

Ok, I think I’m done. But I’ll end this with a screenshot of one of the other posts I made a few months before the one above.

#beaujester

[chalkrevelations]

Back, finally, with Word of Honor, Episode 11, which involved a lot of waving my hands around over precious button Zhang Chengling and his concern about whatever ridiculous argument between his Murder Dads left his shifu in a snit and must be solved right this minute. I really think if he could’ve just pushed their heads together like two Ken dolls to make them kiss and make up, he would have. Didi, I could eat you up with a spoon, although not in the creepy way that Du Pusa threatens. I promise.

First, though, due diligence: Spoilers, possibly likely for the entire show, not just this ep, so scroll away and come back later if you are still, at this point in the game, trying to watch the whole 36.5 eps unspoiled. Also, this is hella long. Strap in. Hashtag long post (remorseful).

First thing I actually want to do is point out a couple of scenes that I found particularly striking for various reasons. The first one is not quite the opening scene - which is super-brief and involves Yueyang’s prep for the Heroes Conference, Gao Shan (AKA Chengling’s bully-in-chief) being smug about Yueyang’s upcoming ascendance (oh boy, are you in for a surprise, you little schmuck), and Gao Chong’s extreme weariness at the idea of Yueyang’s upcoming ascendance. Gao Chong is very tired, y’all. It’s been a long 20 years. There’s also a ginormous sword on display, like Yueyang is now having a dick-measuring contest with who they think is the disciple of the Changming Sword Immortal (and oh boy, are you guys in for another surprise. I’m not sure what part of “immortal” y’all don’t understand). But I digress - as I said, this is a very brief scene, and then we cut back to Luo Mansion, where we left Ghost Valley and Lunatic Wen at the end of the last ep. Everyone is gone except for Wen Kexing, who’s still plotting, Beauty Ghost, who’s trying to stay tf out of this current shitshow as much as possible (good luck with that), and Tragicomic Ghost, who is totally and completely Done With This Shit. She berates WKX for acting crazy, he gets snappy back – I feel like their relationship is maybe a little bit fraught at this point – and Beauty Ghost attempts to soothe the waters, leading to an eyeroll from Tragicomic Ghost with a directive to stand the hell up and stop being scared of this idiot child throwing his weight around. WKX dismisses Tragicomic Ghost so he can plan a Very Secret Mission for Beauty Ghost in secret. WKX is … he is super-tired at this point. Painfully, achingly tired. I would almost say weary. We can see it in Gong Jun’s face. It’s a nice subtle bit of acting, and it definitely says something about WKX’s relationship with these women that he’s willing and able to show it in front of them, even as he’s still throwing his weight around.

Anyway, Liu Qianqiao proves her smarts by showing her hand just enough for WKX and us to see that she’s seen through the Lunatic Wen act to the utility of chokin’ out a dude as a warning, to try keeping Changing Ghost in line (good luck with that), but she also assures all of us that she only wants to serve the Ghost Valley Master and has no agenda of her own. WKX assures her that he has everything under control (Uh … huh. OK, my dude) and tells her he has a task for her, before detouring into a quiz about her disguise technique (learned from Qin Huaizhang, Zhou Zishu’s shifu at Siji Manor, and this is probably a tipoff that the Very Secret Mission will involve disguising herself), about Siji Manor, and about why she never visited there. We get some interesting vague hints about her past, including the fact that she met Qin Huaizhang when she was “little” and he took pity on her “disfigurement,” according to both the Youku and Netflix English subs. @coralcoloratura pulled out 童年时 (tóngnián shí) from the Chinese subs for me, which does mean “childhood.” Given that the going story is Yu Qiufeng’s wife threw acid in LQQ’s face over their affair, this opens up some questions about how old LQQ actually was when all that happened. Viki subs, per @janedrewfinally, add that she says she treated Qin Huaizhang to a meal, so she couldn’t have been too young. But Qin Huaizhang dies when ZZS is just 16, and LQQ can’t be any older than ZZS, and is likely younger (good lord, I just checked actor ages, and Ke Naiyu is 7 years younger than ZZH, so that’s probably not a good age gap to port over to the show, because just. No.). All this leads me to place LQQ at somewhere between Zhang Chengling’s age and Gu Xiang’s age (at most) when this whole tragic backstory happened, which is still pretty freakin’ young, and I can see why she would consider herself a child, at least metaphorically, in terms of naïvete, if not literally. I don’t know how much exploration has been done about this, on the fannish side of things, but it seems like an area rich for exploration. Also, I CANNOT TELL YOU how much I now want to read the AU of WKX and LQQ both actually being brought to Siji Manor at various times by Qin Huaizhang and staying there. I suspect that with those two shidi backing him, ZZS might never have had to go to Prince Jin in the first place. (Clearly this makes some things problematic, including A-Xiang, but I keep thinking about ZZS, WKX and LQQ growing up together … And anyway, I’m ALSO willing to read the AU(s) where WKX’s storyline stays the same, but LQQ does come to Siji Manor – both the AU where she and ZZS together manage to save the sect, and the AU where she goes with them to Jin, and the kind of weapon she could be for ZZS there, as he runs Tian Chuang. Who’s writing all this? Anyone? Anyone?) Anyway, when WKX asks why she didn’t visit Siji Manor, LQQ tells WKX that she’s a ghost now and doesn’t want to think about the living world anymore, which is probably a way of saying she wishes she had gone there and doesn’t want to talk about her many and varied bad decisions back in the day; it also acts as an unknowing reinforcement of that bright line WKX is desperately trying to maintain for himself between the world of ghosts and the world of humans. Plus it gives him the chance to speak the very portentous line that “Yes, we’re ghosts, and ghosts disappear in the light,” pulling the theme of light back in, again and giving us all kinds of foreshadowing. Cut away as he leans in to whisper her mission to her.

The other really striking scene, for me, happens near the end of the ep, when Gao Chong visits the shrine room, with the memorial tablets of his various brothers and friends. This hit me not just because of Hei Zi’s acting (which is great, don’t get me wrong) but also because this is a scene that reflects both backward and forward in the show - back to ZZS in Ep 1 and forward to the two scenes that Zhao Jing will have in this same room – as well as giving us all sorts of subtle clues about relationships throughout the show. So first of all, we see, in a shot that will mean more the deeper we get into the show, tablets for Zhen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao (or, “his wife,” as the Youku subs call her, and this is me, rolling my eyes), who were apparently close enough to Gao Chong that he keeps memorial tablets for them on his home altar - which helps explain why WKX is so incensed that none of these Five Lakes Alliance assholes helped his parents when they were turned out of the Healer’s Valley, although that’s not something we would have known yet on a first watch through the show. Gao Chong lights some incense and apologizes to the tablet of Zhang Yusen for letting Zhang Chengling get kidnapped. He talks about waiting 20 years to learn the truth – which is kind of cryptic, but probably means the truth about who poisoned his sword before the spar with Rong Xuan, which we hear about in a later scene this ep – and gets a little bit salty about the fact that it doesn’t matter if everyone else doesn’t believe him, but why didn’t Zhang Yusen believe him? Again, I’m assuming this is about Gao Chong’s protestations that he’s not the one who put poison on his sword. We also learn in this same ep – from Chengling – that Zhang Yusen’s break with the Five Lakes Alliance seems to have at least started that far back, and that Yusen would have been at Mount Qingya to stand with Rong Xuan against his other Alliance brothers, if Yusen’s shifu hadn’t broken his legs so that he couldn’t travel there. (Yusen clearly had some strong feelings about this, if that’s what it took to get him to sit still for it. Also, it makes me wonder how Ye Baiyi’s feelings about Chengling might change if he ever learned that Chengling’s father intended to defend and stand with a guy who Ye Baiyi considered his own child, as well as his disciple.)

Gao Chong then proceeds to have a little crisis of faith – he’s very tired, y’all, it’s been a long 20 years – and talks about how no one understands him, and he’s old, and everyone’s dead. He also yells at Rong Xuan’s tablet, calling Rong Xuan da-ge but also saying he’s sorry he ever met him, but then there’s this brief little moment after, when he seems a little bit shocked at himself for saying it out loud, which reminds me, honestly, of the moment in CQL (we’ve all seen The Untamed, right, I don’t have to put spoiler warnings for it, right?) when Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are in the Yunmeng Jiang memorial hall and Wei Wuxian talks about Yu Ziyuan’s punishments back in the day, then pats his own mouth and says “My fault, my fault, my fault” before bowing to her tablet. Like, yes, their relationship was multiple levels of fucked-up, and his reaction is not out of place given some of his continuing neuroses, but also, this is just not a thing you do, speaking ill of the dead to their faces. I’m sure Gao Chong does regret ever meeting Rong Xuan, and the way that led to the building of the Armory and the Five Lakes Alliance to guard it, and the position that ultimately put Gao Chong in - not to mention that if he never met Rong Xuan he never would have accidentally killed him. But you can’t say things like that OUT LOUD to the MEMORIAL TABLET. Then contrast this to Zhao Jing, who literally takes a piss on the tablet in one of the later episodes. Because he’s the worst. And THEN, Gao Chong kneels and talks to the tablets of Zhang Yusen and Lu Taichong, his dead Five Lakes Alliance brothers, saying they must have met again in the netherworld, and that they’re probably swearing about him right now, and this is the point when I sit straight up and exclaim, out loud, “Fuck. Me. This is Zhou Zishu’s breakdown at the mirror in Episode 1.” When he talks to Jiuxiao about how Jiuxiao and Jing’An must have met again in the afterlife by now and are probably discussing what an awful shixiong ZZS is, right? And then Gao Chong even laughs bitterly like ZZS, and cries like ZZS, and I just. OK. FINE, show. I’ll try to go a little easier on Gao Chong, because you’re clearly linking him to ZZS, here, and I’m willing to forgive ZZS for anything. I suppose I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t try to extend just a little bit of the same grace to Gao Chong.

So, that’s a lot of verbiage, and I haven’t even gotten to Wenzhou yet, but trust me, I have some things to say about them. While WKX has been terrorizing the troops, ZZS left Han Ying’s place and immediately started drinking again, because that continues to be the best way – in combo with his Nails – he knows to kill himself by increments, but so sad, he’s run out of wine as he wanders the marketplace, alone and zhiji-less. Inside Yueyang, Chengling finds a note purporting to be from “Xu,” instructing him to meet at the North Gate that night, and like the little idiot they keep calling him (he really is too pure for this world), he takes it at face value. On his way that night, he runs into Gao Shan, who inadvertently almost saves him by interrupting his sneaking around to try to bully him back to his room. Something something food as bonding, because the lie Zhang Chengling comes up with is that he’s hungry (he’s not eating Yueyang’s food, and it’s not nourishing him), and he’s on his way to find something to eat (because he and his Murder Dads are in a mutually nourishing relationship, and that’s who he wants to be with). Also, no, he would prefer going to find something to eat for himself and not eating whatever Gao Shan will bring back to Chengling’s room. (A little bit, I’m sad there’s never any place to fit in some canon-complicit long-form enemies to failboats to lovers fic for these two. I have to admit, I would read it. Someone should do something with the tension between them, although I don’t really want it to be anything that will make Best Boy permanently sad.) Anyway, A-Xiang shows up just as Gao Shan is about to frog-march Chengling back to his room, and Gao Shan never sees her coming before he’s knocked out on the ground. A-Xiang is confused about the note but nevertheless helps Chengling get to where he’s supposed to meet “Xu,” whereupon she gets beat up and gets her didi took by the Scorpions. (There’s an interesting moment here where Pretty Arhat is fighting with A-Xiang and asks what her relationship is to Beauty Ghost, which whaaaaaat? THERE’S some backstory I need more on. I’m assuming this is based on A-Xiang’s hand-to-hand fighting style, which I think is the only thing Pretty Arhat has seen at this point, and exactly WHEN has she gotten so familiar with Beauty Ghost’s fighting style? Also, I like the apparent nod to Beauty Ghost’s influence in raising A-Xiang (and we’ll see more of this).) Meanwhile, ZZS has been inexorably drawn to the place he left his child disciple child and is moping right outside of Yueyang, so he sees Pretty Arhat fly away with Chengling. Murder Dad 1 springs into action.

Yueyang disciples run around like ants whose hill has been kicked over, looking for Chengling in town, and two of them encounter Wen Kexing, out for a midnight stroll in a fetching pastel blue and green combo. They ask him about seeing a guy. With a pipa. Or maybe without a pipa. So maybe just a guy. Wen Kexing correctly deduces they’re asking about Phantom Musician Qin Song, who covered Pretty Arhat’s getaway by incapacitating everyone with his magic music. YY disciples are excited and tell WKX yes, this dude was involved in kidnapping Zhang Chengling! Y’all. WKX’s face when he hears that. He is not happy. Almost immediately, he spots Qin Song on a rooftop. Murder Dad 2 springs into action.

So, WKX the Ghost Valley Master finds Qin Song, asks him where Chengling is, crushes his playing hand, threatens to break every single bone in his body one at a time (meanwhile dropping the tidbit that he learned the number of bones in the human body from his dad), and tells him a little story about a time when – apparently – he asked another guy the same question (about WHO? has A-Xiang been kidnapped in the past, because that’s about the only other person I can imagine him being like this about?) and only had to break 80 bones before he got an answer. Meanwhile, ZZS actually finds Chengling, in the Scorpion lair where Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat have variously been molesting him (srsly, I feel like I should probably say something to a trusted adult Murder Dad), torturing him with unpleasant magic pixie dust, smacking him around (he loses a tooth, y’all), and waterboarding him. During all this, Pretty Arhat says she’s yet to meet a man who can stand up to waterboarding, and I’m kind of reminded of WKX’s scene threatening Qin Song, and I don’t know if that’s on purpose or not. Chengling literally spits in her face and proclaims that he’s the son of Zhang Yusen, none of whose sons are cowards, and about then, ZZS busts down the door like he’s WKX (by throwing Monster Jiang through it), tells the Scorpions he’s their daddy, and gets into a big fucking fight with all three of them. He flags a little bit somewhere in here as he starts having some Nail pangs (which, yeah, it must be getting about midnight, which is when that’s supposed to happen) and spits some blood, but he reassures Chengling and then tells the Scorpions no one can stop him from killing who he wants and getting what he wants (OK, Wei Wuxian …). Then he shoots some projectiles from some little contraption up his sleeve that we get a quick look at that I did not remember AT ALL from my first watch of the show but is literally like the gun hanging over the mantel in the first act. Huh. Anyway, he kills Monster Jiang, and Du Pusa (who didn’t give a shit about Monster Jiang OR Qin Song earlier), wants to capture him alive, supposedly so she can get revenge for them by teaching him how it feels “to want to die more than live.” Joke’s on you, lady – too late! That’s literally his constant state of being!

About this time, Qin Song comes flying through the doors – or what’s left of them – gasping his last breath as WKX makes his dramatic entrance. Chengling not only calls him “Wen-shu” but also has already figured out exactly how to manipulate Murder Dad 2 and tells him that in addition to kidnapping him, they also hurt ZZS. WKX is predictably murderous, and Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat run away and hide behind the skirts of Xie Wang’s robes as the Zombie Drug Man Army approaches. WKX tells ZZS to take Chengling and leave, ZZS refuses, and Xie Wang LITERALLY SAYS “IN LIFE AND DEATH YOU WILL NEVER PART. WHAT A TOUCHING MOMENT.” and I am DYING. Also, this will not be the last time ZZS/WKX will exhibit what Xie’er wants from his Awful Yifu. Anyway, Xie’er calls ZZS “Leader Zhou,” then tells WKX that he’ll tell them who he (Xie Wang) is if WKX tells them all who he is first. ZZS is Very Done with all of this and smoke bombs the Scorpions to escape. Xie’er shows he actually does know who both of them are – even though each of them doesn’t know everything about the other’s identity yet, and won’t for a while – by telling Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat that they’re the leader of Tian Chuang and the leader of the Ghost Valley and wondering “How did these two devils end up together?” Like calls to like, I guess.

OK, this is getting super-long, so I’m going to attempt to wrap up with the actual Wenzhou material. We cut to Murder Dads and Chengling sitting in the forest, around a campfire, and Chengling is in heaven, back with his family. He’s super-emotional, and ZZS is all, come on, be a man, don’t cry (OK, crybaby). WKX gives some campfire-cooked rabbit? maybe? to ZZS, who starts a precedent by passing it to Chengling. Please, A-Xu. WKX wants to feed his laopo, will you eat something, ffs? Chengling, still emotional, tells them that he knows they’re the only ones who are sincerely kind to him, that Five Lakes Alliance has all kinds of agendas and none of them care about him, and nobody has asked him what he wants. (I know, bb, they were awful.) ZZS asks what he wants, and Chengling says he wants to learn martial arts, to get revenge, and to not be a useless child anymore. Oh god, the cut to WKX here. His face, y’all. He is not cool with the fact that Chengling thinks he can’t be a child anymore, and probably with whatever role he (WKX) had in it. He is so sad. It’s killing me. However, it’s not as if WKX has lost his edge, and he also pounces, asking Chengling if something happened that made him suspicious of the Alliance. Chengling spills that his dad already didn’t trust them and also told him not to trust anyone ever, but he trusts his Murder Dads! This kid, I tell you. He tells them that his dad hid the Mirror Lake Glazed Armor in his stomach and starts getting ready to cut it out for them before ZZS stops him. He tells them Yusen gave him a letter for the Changming Sword Immortal detailing Rong Xuan’s injury (and we get our first iteration of the story of the battle between the Five Lakes Alliance brothers and Rong Xuan, the poison on the sword, and how that turned Rong Xuan evil). Per Chengling, the original argument was about the Combined Six Cultivation Method. Also per Chengling, the Alliance bothers should have been responsible for Rong Xuan after that, but no one stood up for him – I mean, Zhang Yusen would have, but his legs were broken. We learn that the poisoned sword that injured Rong Xuan belonged to Gao Chong. ZZS looks taken aback, but this all just CONFIRMS WKX’s SUSPICIONS.

Cut away for another scene. Cut back. ZZS has suddenly remembered that he’s pissed off and that someone (else, not him) is sleeping on the couch tonight. Earlier, they were sat in order of Chengling, ZZS, WKX. Now Chengling has been put between them. WKX asks for wine, A-Xu is being passive-aggressive and ignoring him before finally handing the wine gourd to Chengling to pass to WKX. He won’t even look at WKX. It is hilarious, particularly as he only remembered he was mad after they’d all eaten dinner, which WKX cooked, and the pair of them made sure their child was OK. Chengling wants to know if they fought and tells them there’s nothing confidants can’t resolve. He’s in full puppy mode. He tells WKX to hurry up and comfort ZZS, because you know he looks tough on the surface but he’s got the softest heart! Didn’t you teach me that tough women can’t resist clingy men? ZZS’s indignant little face at this is a picture. Chengling offers to apologize for WKX. WKX’s face is all fondness for Chengling, except for the eyebrows, which are doing the Tragic Sadness Eyebrows at ZZS. ZZS is all, OK, fine, although he immediately changes the subject and starts talking about the kidnapping attempt. He tells Chengling that the world is dangerous right now, and the safest place for him is Yueyang Sect. ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS? Chengling sadly nods. My little dude, c’mon. ZZS’s Nails are bothering him and WKX takes the chance to feed him qi, which ZZS accepts – might I note - without complaint. WKX waxes rhapsodic about A-Xu’s shoulder blades, and says he once saw a dead body with beautiful shoulder blades. Smashcut to a flashback of two people who we don’t yet know are Zhen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao dead on the ground. Although this takes place immediately after the scene of Gao Chong at the altar, when the first tablets we see are Zhen Ruyu’s and Gu Maiomiao’s, we also don’t know yet to connect those names to these bodies. Tricksy, show. We see Zhen Yan place his hand on Gu Miaomiao’s back, and WKX’s voiceover talks about how he could tell she was a beauty despite the blood everywhere. ZZS interrupts this morbid tale to say they should let the past stay in the past, and then tells WKX, “My condolences,” even though WKX hasn’t actually mentioned anywhere in the story about this dead body that it was even anyone he knew, let alone someone he was related to. Because A-Xu isn’t stupid. Immediately after this - after saying they should leave the past in the past - ZZS asks WKX who he is. WKX goes into his Philanthropist Wen evasion spiel. ZZS shakes his head, visibly steels himself, and apparently comes to the decision to model the behavior he’s trying to encourage by coming clean about his real name, his relationship to Siji Manor, all of his bad decisions, his choking guilt over the deaths of all the Siji Manor disciples, and his reign of state-sanctioned terror as founder and leader of Tian Chuang. Notably, the very first word Chengling speaks to ZZS after hearing this rundown of supposed and actual crimes is to call him “Shifu” again to get his attention before asking for more info about the Scorpions. THIS CHILD. MY HEART.

ZZS tells them both, “I spent half my life alone, doing things I didn’t want to do and killing people I didn’t want to kill,” and I literally want to reach into the screen and shake WKX, because OMG LAO WEN. You are reflections of each other, and he’s baring his soul, and you’re going to continue to be so afraid that he’s not going to accept every part of you that it’s going to be episodes and episodes before you open up, and even then, only after he figures it out on his own. :hands: To make things even more OBVIOUS, ZZS then asks Chengling if he still wants ZZS to be his shifu after learning all of this, and Chengling doesn’t even hesitate, he says “Of course,” and ZZS and I are both about to cry. UGH. Zhang Zhehan, your face. It’s killing me. This is a man seeing the hope of resurrection for the sect he was convinced he had ground into dust. ZZS and Chengling are both so busy being emotional at each other that WKX has to take matters into his own hands, encouraging Chengling to bow, and we get a real bow to shifu this time, in a scene that once again mirrors the later scene when Zhen Yan makes his bow to Qin Huaizhang to become a Siji Manor disciple.

ZZS tells Chengling, all right, then. You are the first disciple of the sixth generation. (SHIXIONG. NO PRESSURE.)

End ep.

#zhou zishu #wen kexing #zhang chengling #beauty ghost #liu qianqiao #gao chong #gao shan #du pusa #pretty arhat #qin song #gu xiang #xie wang #tragicomic ghost #luo fumeng #qin huaizhang #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

[sometipsygnostalgic]

adventure time wizard city liveblog

 well here we go

my last adventure time liveblog, i havent actually done one of these in MANY years... probably not since 2014

this takes place at the same time as obsidian?

DID-- DID CHOOSE GOOSE JUST DIE

DID BUFO JUST KILL CHOOSE GOOSE

yeah i know that’s bufo, they only made it enormously obvious, tsk tsk

@spaceacepearl​ joked about us seeing choose goose get sent to hell but i diDNT EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN

This music is i assume by one of the many musical artists Adam Muto listed on twitter, it rocks. It’s not as hardcore as Obsidian’s intro, but it’s suitably chill for the scene. 

“get offa my bus kid”

Those wizards in the left and far right groups appear to be new! 

OH MY GOD--

HELP?????? NEW PROFILE PIC TIME

HAHAHAHAH

THE MUSICAL CON DID ME GOOD, I DID REALLY LOUD AUDIBLE LAUGHTER

i bet hanna and co had fun making these signs

my favourite is the cat with “FAMILIARS HAVE RIGHTS”

cadorka..... wow

We’re not even four minutes into the ep and peppermint butler has already killed someone in front of a large group of witnesses

“this smells of DARK MAGIC” “yall kids know thats illegal right” peps watches the other kids nod before later joining in, LOL

i cant believe pep started the great gum wars and got killed by golb

SOMEONE has been playing Overwatch... 

i-- i still cant believe choose goose is fucking dead

how long was he stuck in hell for, or was that recent to together again after new death showed up 

i have to admit im not a big fan of spader, too perfect, and not in that funny way either. i hope they give him some characteristics that make him stand out. 

im getting flashbacks to OK KO and Owl House here...

Cadebra using music is a reference to Abracadaniel’s love of interpretetive dance in Play Date. 

“they only laugh because youre different” “i know” “SO STOP BEING DIFFERENT” oh my god it’s like talking to my own parents cadebra is actually... a LOT like me, less in her hyperactivity but more in her nonchalant enthusiasm and almost acceptance of the inevitable bullying because it means more time in people’s consciousness

ahhh - it’s quietly revealed here that she is responsible and a skilled magician, she is just bored of magic! i like that she parents abracadaniel instead of being downtrodden by his ramblings. 

PEP NO--- oh i see the problem, he hasn’t got his Bug Milk... sorry Martin Olsen fans, no Hunson today. At least we get one more Phil Face for the road! 

candy people in their natural habitat

Ahhh that’s Doctor Calidoneus! The voice actor was at the recent Distant Lands panel alongside Pep and Blaine’s actors. 

“pretty sure hes just trashcandy” - i like you, sassy antler lady

the mystery of how he gets clothes

and once again spader is proving to be the most irritating distant lands character of the lot, there is no subversion here. where is the subversion?  

NANI

what is going on here? are pep and peppermint the same person or not? im sure they must be, but there is something going on here with peppermint butler’s soul being trapped in the body of his child self who hasn’t got the same memories. 

OH, HYNDEN WALCH DID A NEW LINE yes this is what im here for, special over 

peppermint butler cursed himself... of course he did - Shado was correct!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUCK

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

ROCK STUDENT, BLESSED ROCK STUDENT, WAS THAT POOR GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE A JAWBREAKER

love the reference to astral plane, of course pep cant astrally project because cursed pep is still inside of him 

wow, blaine, wow

they have a crush

LITTLE DUDE! COLE SANCHEZ!

i love the dynamic between cadebra and abracadaniel, imo so far it’s the heart of the special. im not really gripped by peppermint butler’s school troubles. i imagine someone else probably will be but i want to run past that shit as far as possible. 

TRDGFYGHJH

WE

WE MADE  A PREDICTION THAT WAS JUST LIKE THIS

PEPPERMINT BUTLER GETTING TURNED INTO THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF PEPPER MINT BUTT LURE WAS IN THE WIZARD CITY PREDICTIONS ART DRAW THAT HASNT BEEN POSTED YET

ILL SHOW YOU WHEN NICK POSTS THE VIDEO and then ill tell you who made the prediction because i... think it was nick himself, insanity 

who plagiarized finn’s signature???

turns out pep really DID take over wizard city!!!!

i love this band

i understand your pain peps

you probably have a bit too much in common with your mother, and i imagine it isn’t easy being turned into a kid and not being able to do stuff that came so easy. you’re disappointing yourself! (he’s literally disappointing himself)

I’m less than halfway through the special, what the fuck. I wasn’t wrong when I said Wizard City had a lot on its plate. It’s noit that I’ve been particularly gripped up to this point, though to be fair I didn’t pause at all during the other specials barring Obsidian. 

that... that poor kid is still a rock

and then the preview happened and bufo casually revealed to the audience that, yes, he killed choose goose

i dont know whats happening with pep but it seems he needs to be exorcised of... pep. which is a shame. i hope they learn to coexist. 

i have to say the background work in this special is really good! like, really damn good. 

WH

WHAT

DID SPADER JUST DIE

IS THIS WHY PEOPLE THINK PEPBUT KILLED HIM 

oh thats right - abracadaniel is cadebra’s uncle! this must be abracadniels sister. sorry, folks, he doesn’t fuck. 

Where are they? Is this anywhere near Wizard City? It’s an unpopulated prewar wasteland. 

THESE ARE JUST HUMANS

OF COURSE SHE WANTS TO PERFORM TO MILQUETOAST HUMANS

my child

is this an art style choice or did they get the people from that one studio to make this

HANNA FINALLY GETS TO FULFIL HER DREAM OF INSERTING KANEDA INTO ADVENTURE TIME

the red jacket he wears and his head pill shape is a big kaneda reference actually, which i suppose makes sense considering he’s a rival to our protagonist, but it’s a bit on the nose

bufo killed one of his own students? but why????

“MY UNCLE’S A COP”

“no one likes a rat”

i actually really like blaine, though im confused. did their VA change halfway through the special?

HOW NATURAL, NO WASTE, IT IS AN ENDLESS CHAIN

did doctor caledonius steal the trophy,,,? 

EVIL SNAIL EVIL SNAIL

MONMSTER HUNJTER DISCOVERY NOISE, this time it’s a tetsucabra

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I HAVE QUESTIONS

god i wish this is what this special was about, i miss adventure time

these remind me of the comics with their art style :) i wonder who designed them? the one on the right with pb and pep, in particular, very comics-y. 

fdgfhgf because he’s like 500

“pep can be kind of a jerk but he wouldn’t kill anyone”

sorry, cadebra, i have news for you

is doctor calednoius the true villain? if bufo’s out of the picture, she MUST be, 

ANTS

oh no, he might gbe stuck in wizard city :( 

HELP

the writing on the wall...

SPADER LITERALLY FUCKING DIED OH YM JESUS CHRIST

PEPPERMINT BUTLER’S OWN CULT????

THIS IS JUST OK KO NOW

okay im not surprised all the teachers at wizard city are cultists in worship of peps, maybe they killed spader and bufo because they bullied peps T_T

wait no, they thought spader had the potential, but sadly not

HE FUCKING KILLED HIMSELF

sorry, i was distracted by the pretty dope fight sequence and now the special is over????

fucking jesse, hes probably at least partly responsible for the cult nonsense

This credits art is by Maya Petersen!!!! Holy shit it’s adorable!

LRETGFDRGTFGMHGFHFG

LEAF MAN

DO YOU THINK THEY PUT HIM IN RETROSPECTIVELY

DO YOU THINK MAYA PETERSEN DREW THIS AND ADAM PUT IT IN THE EP RETROSPECTIVELY

HE LIVES

MAYBE THIS IS WHY CHOOSE GOOSE WENT TO HELL

okay, it’s over :) 

first thoughts out of the way: not a big fan of this special. it’s like watching a completely different show. it’s not got the PZSHAHH of the normal wizard city stuff and there weren’t a lot of funny jokes or even hearty moments in the thing. 

it suffers from a lack of invested character interactions, much like BMO did. there was not a single main cast member in the whole thing! and like i said before, much of peppermint butler’s character in the show is based on his very sweet relationship to his mother, princess bubblegum, so when they showed a single (hilarious) photo of them together it made me sad we didn’t get any scenes with them together. it would have STOLEN this episode. and they teased the hunson golf photo, and death!!! and jake appeared in a photo T_T last jake appearance. 

it also suffers because Peppermint Butler is clearly not himself, imo he was way more entertaining in the Together Again special, where we seem him back to his “normal” self. 

i dont think peps being a dark wizard was something to “kill off” exactly. i wonder what was going on there? was that actually peps, or was that a spirit he cursed himself with based on himself? we at least know in the future he does become a dark wizard again, and even princess :) this special didn’t answer those questions but lol. 

THE GOOD STUFF, because yes, there was a lot of good stuff! 

God, I’m with Aracle and Maya on this - I LOVE Cadebra and her relationship to Pep. I wish she was even in more of this - I would love to watch the adventures of Cadebra and Pepbut in their first year of school, like in the end credits.

That, imo, is where the heart of the special lay - Peppermint Butler’s attempts to impress himself, versus Cadebra’s self acceptance and desire to follow her dreams of being a goofy goober, no matter what other people thought of her. 

It turned out that Cadebra is a responsible student and family member. I really liked that. Her scenes with Abracadaniel were, somehow, my favourite in the entire special! 

I like that theres a lot of cool magic towards the end of this special, and a lot of HORRIFYING DEATH. It wouldn’t be adventure time if you didn’t randomly kill off child characters. Poor Spader, I hated you but damn, what a grim fate. 

I like that Bufo and Caledonius had this crush/hatred thing going on, but they were part of the same cult in the end. 

I didn’t like the giant peps scene at the end, the monster was extremely milquetoast compared to the madness we usually get in AT. Obsidian, for example, had the awesome Larvo design. Nemesis had some INSANE dark magic!!!!  I wish they drew more from that episode. 

Considering how much Steve Little appears in this special, I do feel bad for Mace (little Peps). He said he would have really benefitted from coaching, but recieved none. He had to re-record his lines 3 times! Judging from his description of events, Wizard City was a hard time for him. 

The wizard school did remind me, heavily, of both The Owl House and OK KO. Personally I was hoping AT would offer me something more insane, but I do love both of those shows, and I know Wizard City was on a really tight schedule. 

I think they should have spent less time on the school bullying plot, and skipped straight to MURDER. 

We did have a cold opening, not on par with Together Again’s at all, but damn!

I am wondering where I would put this in the watch list? I do think it should sit after Obsidian as the third special. The intro scene makes it clear this takes place at the same time as Obsidian!!!

Well, that was it, the last ep of AT for the next few years at least T_T

i think together again was the better finale, definitely. but wizard city feels pretty detached from AT for me, despite the familiar characters it tonally isn’t like the show other than the awesome brutal death scenes. I thought the last 11 minutes was easily the best in the special! Which, honestly, is how it should be, though I do wish it gripped me more. Maybe I’m just not the target audience for Wizard City? It feels like something I would find very compelling if I was a bit younger! 

#adventure time #wizard city #atimers

[ryukyuan-sunflower]

Major Symbolism in Episode 20+21 (Another MugenxFuu Post)

Episodes 20 and 21’s series of images has been going through my head a lot recently, and I think that it is about time I rant about it.

I’ve written before, how Sara is a symbol of a maternal figure for Mugen. But today, I’m gonna go into something else…

Episode 20’s series of images alludes to Mugen and Fuu not only having feelings for each other, but also the concept of marriage, parentage and the idea of being abandoned. A lot of these details bridge and connect with multiple parts of the episode.

The Sad Bride

The woman upon the boat is dressed in a traditional uchikake wedding kimono. What is happening is “Yomeiri-bune”: a traditional Japanese bridal procession on a robune rowboat.

The robune boat carries the bride’s household possessions at the front of the boat. The bride sits behind the possessions. Behind her, the bride’s two parents sit, wearing black. This boat carries the bride across the canal, to her husband. This traditional procession is still held in one place in Japan: Ibaraki during “Suigo Itako Ayame Matsuri”, or the “Iris Festival”

Here is a video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApIeJ384oDo

There are some key details about the bride in the scene of Samurai Champloo. While I think it could be a tale of Sara’s life...I think this is more related to Fuu’s future.

1.The bride has no household possessions. Fuu also has no household possessions of her own. The two women are incredibly poor.

2. The bride has no parents seated behind her. Fuu also has no parents to send her off and celebrate her marriage someday, as her father abandoned her, and her mother died of illness

3. There is a willow tree to the left of the scene. This one may not be major, but willows are symbols of grief, and in Japanese culture, are thought to attract ghosts. For such a sad symbol to be shown in a composition of a marriage seems intentional.

4. The bride is not smiling. Should a bride not be smiling upon her wedding day? It is supposed to be one of the most joyous moments of a woman’s life. She must be unhappy about the arrangement. This exact composition of Fuu’s unhappy face can be seen later, where Fuu is shown in front of glittering blue water. She must contemplate which of her bodyguards she will give up. But I’ll get more into that later.

Notice also, in the composition of the scene, how Fuu is on the far left, where the bride is. Sara and Jin are standing close together, where the parents ought to be seated. Mugen however, is a far distance from them all.

Sara is clearly a maternal figure in the episode, as her entire story concerns her child. Jin also has some parallels to the Sunflower Samurai, and plays a very fatherly role for Fuu throughout the series. I wonder if this position is intentional.

At the end of the robune procession, the boat delivers the bride to her husband. When a woman is given away to her husband, she is also saying goodbye to her father and mother.

There seems to even be a symbol of this.

But it is not to say Fuu wanted to give up Jin. It is clear that after Jin leaves with Sara, how upsetting it is for Fuu. She breaks down into tears. Though, it is important to note how childish these tears are. It is a comical scene, where Mugen gets frustrated and stomps off. It is nothing like the painful moments that Fuu cries when she thinks Mugen is in danger/dying (In episodes 14, 21, 25 and 26).

This seems to be Fuu clinging childishly to the closest thing she has to a father figure (Jin), similar to how this whole journey is her trying to find her father: the last remnant of her past.

The Mother and Child

While walking, the four travelers pass a mother carrying a child. The father is nowhere in sight. Again, this is an allusion to Sara and her son. But it is noteworthy that the only character to look back at the mother and child is Fuu.

The mother has light brown hair, like Fuu. The son has black, wild and unruly hair and orange clothes. More on the orange later.

The next symbol shows how this is not only about Sara...but about Fuu contemplating a future: the fear of being abandoned by a husband and left with a child alone, the same as her mother was.

The fear of being abandoned by Mugen.

The Pinwheel

The mother and child have a yellow pinwheel.

I’ve talked in other posts how pinwheels seem to be a symbol of childhood innocence, and of rebirth. However, we have seen a pinwheel in only one other scene in the series. And it is almost the exact same color. They could have chosen any color for the pinwheel, but I cannot help but feel this color choice is deliberate. Mugen flicks the pinwheel in Episode 1, just moments before meeting Fuu for the first time. 

Rather than childhood innocence, this pinwheel flick could have another meaning entirely. In Chinese culture, the flicking of a pinwheel means to “turn one’s luck around”. Why this is notable, is, in Episode 1, we find out Mugen is not Japanese at all, but Ryukyuan. The Ryukyu Kingdom was a tributary state of China, before being invaded by the Satsuma Domain. For that reason, there is a blend of both Chinese and Japanese culture in the Ryukyuan Islands.

Perhaps Mugen flicked the pinwheel, as a way to wish himself good luck in getting some food. Little did he know, this meeting would greatly change his life.

Furthermore, the pinwheels start to shift into sunflowers. Fuu’s face pans across the scene, as if a symbol that she has come to a realization, or is pondering something important.

This could be a symbol of Fuu coming to a realization of her feelings for Mugen, her fear of the future, and the fear of being abandoned by him, the same as her father abandoned her mother. 

This fear and realization is reinforced throughout the rest of the episode.

The Boy with the Monkey Mask

During the festival, Sara asks Mugen and Jin to pick out a gift for her son. Mugen proceeds to grab a small child, and asks what he wants.

1. The child responds that he wants Mugen’s sword. He’s a little fighter.

2. The child is wearing a monkey mask. This is important because in the previous scene, Mugen, Fuu and Sara bathe in the hot spring. When Sara asks Fuu what Mugen looks like, she gets extremely flustered and proceeds to say: “Honestly, he’s less than human. He’s more like a monkey or a gorilla.”

However, we know Fuu is lying, because when Sara asks, “What?” Fuu sinks into the water and blows bubbles.

The fact that the line and the mask is a scene apart, seems intentional yet again.

3. The boy is wearing orange, similar to the orange of the boy on the woman’s back earlier that only Fuu looked at. Also, Fuu in her childhood, is seen wearing orange...and was abandoned by her father.

This boy is a symbol of Mugen and Fuu having a child together. To reinforce this is the thoughts going through Fuu’s head, Mugen asks Fuu what they should get for a boy. Fuu remembers Sara’s request of taking one of them with her. It is at Mugen’s words and her own thoughts, that Fuu suddenly runs away in tears.

We know that she is pondering the choice Sara gave her: Mugen or Jin. We know that she knows Mugen will willingly leave her. We also know that she chooses Mugen to stay, despite this.

And this is where we see that previously shown picture of Fuu’s sad face, emulating the face of the sad bride. Fuu is afraid Mugen will either abandon her, or will not love her.

Jin is the one to chase after Fuu and appears behind her, not Mugen. He is far more reliable, and would seem to be a better husband. Fuu could very easily marry a man someday that she does not want to be with, because Mugen is not the type to marry. But  despite all of this, Fuu still chooses Mugen to stay and complete her journey.

The two episodes’ composition largely features Mugen and Fuu, while Jin plays a more minor role.

Not only does she give up Jin, but also the entire Episode 21 barely features Jin. It becomes about Mugen facing Sara twice...and it also becomes about how Fuu’s love for Mugen stops Sara from killing him,

Sara’s words to Fuu

She chooses Mugen.

Sara’s Words to Mugen

Sara tells Mugen they are alike, and mentions the closest she came to happiness was having a child. It also zooms in on Mugen’s face here. 

Having a child with Fuu could be his first shot at happiness.

This dialogue completely emulates Mugen’s dialogue with another woman: Koza in Episode 14, in which she asked Mugen if he is happy now. He tells her he hasn’t thought about it. Koza then went on to say “Fuu is happy because she gets to be with you. I want to be with you, like she is.”

A Distance in Episode 20. A Closeness in Episode 21.

Throughout the episode, Mugen and Fuu are barely shown next to, or across from each other. They are always near Sara or Jin instead.

There is is a sense of a distance forming between Mugen and Fuu. But by the end of Episode 20, Fuu still chooses Mugen to stay with her. And Episode 21, they are finally close again, stuck alone together.

She throws herself on top of him to save his life and tends to his wounds which are close, intimate acts.

Other Blatant Hints

Aside from the visual symbolism in the episode, there are other clear indications of the character’s developing feelings for each other during these two Sara episodes, but not expressing them.

Fuu and Mugen see each other naked in the hot spring. This is a painfully common romantic anime trope.

Fuu gets jealous of Mugen’s attention to Sara.

Mugen gets jealous of Fuu crying over Jin and comically stomps away. He agrees to stay with Fuu, even though he clearly could’ve abandoned her, and only claimed to stay to fight Jin. Now with Jin gone, he has no excuse as to why he’s sticking around.

Fuu’s Declaration of Love

Fuu throws herself in the way of Sara’s blade, in order to save Mugen’s life. This action was committed only mere seconds after Sara’s haunting words to Mugen: “It’s as if you’ve never been loved by anyone.”

Fuu throwing herself in the way is proving Sara’s words wrong. Mugen is loved. This is why Sara gasps and stays her blade. Like her previous words, she is unable to read people’s feelings.

Throwing her own life in the way for Mugen’s life to be spared could have easily gotten her killed too. To me, this seems to be an allusion to “Shinju” or “Double Suicide”. Lovers’ suicide was surprisingly common in Japanese history, and there have been famous Tokugawa plays written about the subject such as “Love Suicide at Sonezaki” and “Love Suicide at Amijima”. 

Conclusion

The symbols of a sad bride, a pinwheel, a child with a monkey mask, Fuu’s choice and Fuu’s sacrifice all allude to her feelings for Mugen, and her fear of an uncertain future with him.

Now, combine this giant list of symbols, with the numerous amounts of far more major MugenxFuu scenes, blatant dialogue, interviews of the voice actors and Shinichiro Watanabe, etc...and what you have is a canon subtle romance. 

#samurai champloo #Fuugen #mugen and fuu #Mugen Samurai Champloo #fuu samurai champloo #shinichiro watanabe

[ginkgomoon]

Victor’s Aura- A Character Aura Study

This post is my take on Victor’s aura, taken from my knowledge and intuition to depict what kind of aura he has! I did one on Gavin, as well as Gavin’s astrological birth chart so if you haven’t seen them, you can read them after this post!

What is an Aura? “Aura” by the dictionary is “the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place”. 

It’s essentially the electromagnetic energy field that surrounds all living things. It’s the magnetic field of vibration like how a lighted candle is lit and how a scent or perfume surrounds a flower. In fact, it’s correctly described as an extension of the body. It’s a part of every cell. Your aura can be affected by anything, including traumas, memories and emotions. It can tell us a lot about a person’s mental, physical, emotional state, vitality and path of life. Habitual thoughts, emotions and even illnesses can be clearly revealed. If a person changes their long standing thoughts and emotions, the aura will too reflect that. 

Victor’s Aura There are many layers to the aura but let’s start off with the “ground” colour. This is the main colour that dominates the aura both in size and intensity. It’s arguably the most important colour as it shows what the person should be doing in their life. 

Victor’s main ground colour is dark yellow (keep in mind this is not defined as “murky”- when someone is lost and muddled in their life). People with dark yellow as their ground are confident, well adjusted and analytical. As a result, they take life one step at a time, one goal at a time, ensuring every project is seen through properly to completion to avoid problems and setbacks later. They are patient people, setting their worthwhile goals in no hurry to reach them, as they know without a doubt that they will obtain their deserved reward in the end. They prefer to do things rationally and in a logical manner, especially at work where they are required to make use of their good memory and love for detail. As they are ambitious and persistent, they often take up roles of leadership, responsibility and of importance. From his corrections on MC’s reports to the food he makes at Souvenir (that is insisted to be cooked according to certain temperatures), Victor is no doubt a detail-oriented leader even whether if the goal he wants to achieve is related to work or not. 

MC: It’s a sort of mark that can be left in literature or in a photograph… and I can feel it. Victor’s eyes are lowered. In his clear and tranquil eyes, there are ripples of light and shadows. Victor: Such as? The smile tugging at the corner of his mouth is clear, and I ponder this seriously. MC: For example, the way I write proposals has changed. The format of my proposals has changed. The indent of the first line, font size 15, 1.5 spacing between lines… it’s the format you find most pleasing to the eye! Victor’s eyebrow quirks. Victor: That’s all? MC: There’s more! I’ve become so much more picky with food. I never used to complain that food tastes bad, but eating at Souvenir has cultivated my palate. Now, when I eat even Michelin meals, I feel as if something’s lacking… -CN Exhibition Date 

“What happened with SE is just an example. We’re from different businesses and different fields. There’s no need to compare yourself with me. Also, I’m older than you. When you’ve reached my age, you might attain the achievements I have today.” -CN Night Meeting Date

“Slow and steady wins the race” is the moral that they live by, but sometimes adhering to this credo may frustrate others as they can be so analytical and detail oriented at times- usually at great lengths. A cute little add from the Tender Regards Date around the concept of snail mail, time (Victor’s evol!) and the goal of always reaching your destination in the end demonstrate this this motif in Victor’s relationship with MC.

“Looks like you should have received this Future Mail. Apart from supporting your event, I’m only going to do this once. This will not be repeated. The things I want to say to you are all in this videotape. It only belongs to you.” -CN Tender Regards Date 

“When will you finally understand? It’s all right. I’m patient. I’ll wait for you to see the light slowly.” -Rooftop Date

Although they have feelings, they only ever reveal it to people close to them. They enjoy the detail and technicality of conversations and find it hard to talk about their emotions. Victor’s Exhibition and Tender Regards Date are very useful sources of information in relation to these topics, as it displays Victor’s deep emotions of affection to MC and highlights the importance of expressing emotions to those you love. Dark yellow aura peoples’ greatest lesson in life is to be more emotionally open, and when do they do, it usually occurs later in life. 

“The writer wrote it down herself - “The time I spent loving someone, not a single second of it was wasted.” I rarely hear such words leave Victor’s mouth, and it makes me feel a little surreal. In my memory, we very rarely talk about the topic of ‘love’. Maybe it’s because he rarely says what’s in his heart. Maybe it’s because I’m used to being thick-skinned. We never have the opportunity to seriously understand the meaning in these words. -CN Exhibition Date 

“Do you still remember the special episode on “Feelings” from before? Actually, this theme was inspired by that episode. Giving gifts is a common way to express how one feels. But it’s not that easy to send a gift to the future. With Future Mail, the sender can convey their feelings and surprises in this gift to the other party across time.” -CN Tender Regards date 

People with dark yellow as their ground enjoy system and order such as routines at work and in their home life. This is applied to Victor’s strict schedules in his day to day life, such as taking on what time he sleeps and when he gets up to go on his morning jogs. They need to consider new ideas before grudgingly accepting them. This is especially applied to when Victor always says “just this once” to MC when he’s being “childish” with her (but we really know that isn’t the case, he knows this all too well, too). 

“Because a certain greedy cat always says she wants to eat something sweet after dinner, I made pudding before leaving the house. Do you think this is a mark of how I’ve been changed?” -CN Exhibition Date 

Next is Victor’s “radiating” colour. This represents his interests and motivations. It adds strength to the ground colour. They can work well in harmony, some can conflict. 

I would take Victor’s radiating as violet. Violet is a very highly spiritual colour, as people with this colour as their radiating will have a very spiritual take on life, as they are deep thinkers who like to analyse everything and think matters though logically. They are also naturally intuitive. Violet radiatings have the ability to come up with unique and unusual solutions to problems. As they enjoy learning, they have the potential to become experts in their field of endeavour- which is no surprise for Victor as he’s basically an “on top of the world tyrant” in the industry of finances. In addition, they feel things deeply, but rather operate things on an emotionally free level- again with the ground aura traits to enhance this! However, Victor too, has a high EQ despite this.

“I’m no different from you. There are many things I cannot do or force to make happen. It’s okay to not be strong, it’s okay to not do well. You don’t have to bottle up your emotions.” … “I won’t tell you to keep holding on no matter what difficulties you face. That isn’t realistic. There will come a time when you will become an even better version of yourself who will have enough courage and experience to deal with all of this.” -CN Colours of Rain Date 

Overall, Victor’s aura of darker yellow and violet depict him as more of a straightforward kind of person, hardworking and articulate, however soon we realise there’s more to what we see of Victor, like how MC thinks that Victor comes off as a “heartless CEO” throughout the main story chapters but he slowly warms up to her whilst determining to prove her wrong. Victor is wise, and doesn’t bother to put in his personal efforts to where it’s not needed, but when it’s up to him- he strives to go all the way for perfection and with the best of his ability. He spends a lot of time in deep contemplation to determine his plans of attack which allows him to execute them well. His values and worth ethics will always in the end allow him to make time for MC, no matter how busy he is :) 

And lastly…

Victor leans against the window, his face still written with distaste, but he does not attempt to remove that childish-looking blanket. He brings the red cup to his lips and gently blows on it. The warm light encases him, softening the aura surrounding him. His outline also appears gentler. He doesn’t look as impossible to get close to. My eyes land on Victor, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He puts down the cup in his hands, lowering his eyes, as though deep in thought. This is a Victor I have never seen before… In this moment, he seems to have put down his stubbornness and distant aura - becoming someone within reach. Only now does Victor finally feel my gaze. He raises his head to look at me. -CN Warm Date 

All of a sudden, he lifts his other hand gently. A water droplet pelts onto his palm, as though pulling him into the pattering rain. Seeing this, I find myself subconsciously frozen in place. Because of the enshrouding misty rain, the Victor before me appears warmer and more tender than usual. -CN Tender Regards Date 

It always has and always will be MC to see this side of him- the tenderness and the willingness of how he opens up to her- his aura willingly to embrace hers too. Fun fact- auras can deflect off one another if you’re with someone you dislike. But when it’s with two people in love, their auras connect, combine and produce an even brighter and bigger accommodating aura for the both of them. He’s certainly living working towards to achieve his greatest life goals- both in his businesses and being with MC, striving together to make great changes and milestones in their respective industries. Without a doubt, she has helped Victor’s aura grow, expand and shine the many rays through his doubts, allowing a light from within to burn brighter and evolve him into more of the brilliant, hardworking and tender man we know today.

#victor #li zeyan #mlqc translation #mlqc analysis #mlqc victor #恋与制作人 #mr love queens choice #love and producer #mlqc cn #mlqc en #aura reading #aura

[mc-critical]

Valide: "You once asked me what's the difference between you and Hürrem. I'll tell you the most important one - Hürrem acts with her own mind, but you act with other people's minds."

I'm sorry, guys, I know it's a badass scene, I know it's an epic smackdown, I can only guess how much people have been waiting for this one moment perhaps since the beginning, but narratively, the whole thing grinds my gears.

Now, I'm not saying that what Valide says here is entirely wrong: in fact, I think given which portion of the series this is in, she hit the nail on the head. Seeking help from people in need is one of the core traits of Mahidevran's character in S01/2. When she feels she's losing, when she's powerless against the circumstances, going to Valide, Ibrahim or Hatice is her first (and often only) resort. Because she has to face the loss of something so remarkable and so important in her life, someone she thought loved her, someone who she's spent so much of her time with. It's hard, and it took her very long to completely burn the bridge. And in this struggle, she sought help, she thought she couldn't do it alone. And for the core of the statement, there indeed have been times where Mahidevran used the influence of others to achieve her own goal (telling Valide for Hürrem's crown, telling Hatice to marry Nigar to Matrakçi etc.) and it is a fitting statement for this part of her S02B arc: she has gotten her utmost, here even overbearing confidence from Mustafa (E46: "When I left, I thought everything was over, that I was defeated. But now when I came back with Mustafa, I feel like I was reborn."; her behavior the entire episode; E50: "I won't do anything that endangers Mustafa's future.") and she is more than willing to use the power she gets from being his mother (E48: "I'll destroy you with the power I get from my prince!"), now that he's already grown, she's willing to destroy them all, to finally get what she deserves, be where she belongs.

However, this scene, or rather the content of it, lacks the narrative and thematic context necessary for it to be serviceable and it only looks like forced fanservice as a result.

- There is no scene in the entire show where Mahidevran ever asks what's the difference between her and Hürrem. It takes away from the impact, because if they put a scene like this, in say, E45 (but honestly, any other episode will work.), despite of the complaint I'll make in a while, they would get the golden chance to call it back and make a decent connection between the two scenes. But unfortunately, this isn't the case and they have nothing to call back to, which is why it makes all this look like something the writers pulled out of their sleeves all of the sudden, out of absolutely nowhere.

- It is totally OOC for Mahidevran to ask something like this in the first place. She knows very well what's different with Hürrem, she herself makes a difference between both of them from the very beggining to the very end. She considers herself superior to her (E08: "Who are you? I'm a Haseki. Haseki Sultana. You'll show me respect.", E10: "How dare you compare an upstart concubine with a Sultana?", E11: "How do you even call yourself a Sultana? Know your place!", E44: "Who do you think you're kicking out?", E55: "I would be careful of my words if I were you. Because your fate is now in my hands."- by memory), taking her a long while to even admit she was a Sultana (she started doing so by.. S02B? and began to openly call her such only by S03); better than her (constantly calling her a snake, a devil, E53: "This woman is a devil! What things get into her head?" or something like that), and most importantly, acknowledges very well how she breaks the tradition and treats it as unprecedented and rogue. (E40 when Hü said she was freed: "How can that be?"; E45: "How dare she speak to me about tradition?") Even if she could've wondered what was so special to her in the beginning of the show, no, she didn't, she asked Hatice how can that be in E02, but not how Hürrem got into his heart exactly, it was rather how could Süleiman do this when Mahidevran loved only him. She was sad he was replacing her with "a russian slave". She from the beginning and Valide by E45 were even sure that Hürrem had bewitched Süleiman. Mahi, not even once, began to wonder what is it about Hürrem. She had a clear answer on her mind from day one and she always considered her imprudent and fierce and later, an active danger for her son. So, Mahidevran asking such a question in any point of the series, even offscreen, is.. not like her.

- Valide had no reason to bring the "you act with other people's minds" up in the context of the episode. Valide was mad at Mahidevran for her declaring herself a Valide Sultana and being ready kill Hürrem's kids. Her blaming Aybige for her affair with Bali Bey was only the last straw, not the entire reason. And what Mahidevran did in the episode, wasn't dictated by someone else. She didn't even use anyone else to say and do it, either. These words were all hers, the actions were all hers. She proposed to Mustafa, as well as Ibrahim to be with her in that path, but none of them agreed. The only one who wanted to move on was her. She was alone here. She detached herself from everyone else. So that whole quote falls flat. And even if Valide meant to say this to Mahidevran because of her blaming Aybige, she saw and witnessed by herself Aybige's conversation with Bali Bey and she had enough evidence to drive the conclusion that there is something between them. And yes, she had the right to interrogate her, because she is Mustafa's mother and has to know what is going on. As both Valide and Mahidevran (and even Süleiman) have said: The suspicion only is venomous.

- It loses all weight in retrospect, due to biased narrative voice. (warning: SPOILERS!) I've talked about how I dislike Valide's flanderization in S02 a lot, but what I dislike even more, is how they de-flanderized her. This scene strives to be presented as this huge and important realization of Valide Sultan's character, but it is only the voice of the narrative, also thanks to all the problems I listed above. Look at this scene's composition for starters: when Valide arrives, the atmosphere suddenly changes, the triumphant music, which sets us up for something epic and badass, but we still don't know what exactly, until these lines of dialogue are uttered, almost like a plot twist. It only looks like a moment of triumph and a character realization, it looks much more like the narrative directly calling out Mahidevran. That Valide was wrong for ever supporting her. The themes break their impartial point of view and deliver something out of absolutely nowhere to prove a point. (ironically, the scene in E56 where Valide says that Mahidevran deserved everything she endured, does a much better job in somewhat being a character realization moment, because it fit the context, wasn't put there just for.. reasons and you could actually believe the character would say that.) The worst thing is that, despite of it all, nothing mattered in the end. The post-E55 truce between Hürrem and Valide is conveniently forgotten by the themes of the next arc, due to having the power of tradition "fight" with its last forces (Valide falling ill, Mahidevran and Gülfem ruling the harem) and Hürrem having to forever burn the bridges that stand between them and her. This is reflected best in Hürrem's last encounter with Valide Sultan.

#this turned out.. fine I guess #but gosh it definetly felt good #I wanted to rant about this scene for SO long #sorry everyone #magnificent century #ayse hafsa sultan #hurrem sultan #mahidevran sultan

[justseveralowls]

I’ve spent over 16 hours in two different ERs and I’d like to vent

CW: Doctors hospitals, chronic illness, incompetence, female hysteria, humiliation, mental health stigma,

What follows is my original post made on Thursday, there is a update as of today at the end and the news is not all bad. This is made to spread awareness talk about an issue I feel is way too often ignored and most importantly let other people feeling this they aren’t alone.

So. I have ehler danlos syndrome, celiac, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, and an (so far) otherwise specified seizure disorder. So basically I am a medical dumpster fire. Getting a or in my case several diagnosis has been a long terrifying and grueling for both me and my partner. We have enountered many doctors and nurses who were kind attentive willing to listen and knowledgeable about my Miriad of admiditally uncommon diagnosis. But today I am so incredibly hurt, frustrated, angry and scared and I want to put this out there because this is part of the many problems that chronically ill and disabled people face everytime they walk into a doctors office, emergency room or even out in public.

So I look sick, it’s obvious and it’s been obvious for a long time. I sit at around a six to seven on a pain scale most of my life, which sucks. I have chronic nausea and weight loss that makes me weak and thin in a sick way, which also sucks. But by far the hardest thing is hoe many people refuse to take my seriously. So today after three months on a waiting list I saw a gastroenterologist. I was scared, underweight, sick and tired. I wanted answers like always and let my partner drag me into a beige fluorescent room to try and make some sense. Overall the doctor was nice, but put heavy emphasis on my past of CPTSD from repeated abuse, and implied that my weight loss and severe gastrointestinal problems could be “just a side effect of my anxiety”. That was dehumanizing to say the least. Because I know I’m traumatized, I’ve sat in therapists offices and cried, I’ve pulled myself together, fought addiction and anorexia and I know that I’m healing. I know it’s his job to look between the lines but I also want to just have a chance to be understood, and not dismissed as a psych case.

Later today I had an episode of vomiting and loss of consciousness, over all not great stuff. So my partner in their amazing sense of love and compassion took me to th ER. Because that’s where you’re supposed to go when you’re scared, sick, hurt, in danger and don’t know what to do.

My experience there was by far the worst I’ve ever had. My vitals were highly abnormal (high pulse at rest, low BP, and low pulse ox). I was having neurological symptoms related to my seizure disorder and instead was given a barrage of tests that had nothing to do with why I was there, the condition I repeatedly told them I had, or the worrying vitals. So after two hours a head CT and useless blood work the ER doctor looked at me and my partner (who was forced to wait in the car in 94 degree weather) and told me I was fine and dehydrated.

I’m a nursing student, I’m new, I’m a novice at the most, and I have a lot to learn. But never could I imagine having a chronically patient, with abnormal labs and vitals with numerological involvement be given saline and discharged. My partner and I were terrified because we didn’t know what else to do. I needed help. I needed answers. I needed them to hear me. After me panicking my partner told me that we should try again. Because doctors are here to help us, and if your scared and there’s something wrong they took an oath to help.

So I called the nurse who was awesome, he went and got the doctor and I was ready to make my case. My partner at this point as well as me were terrified frustrated and close to tears. And this ER doctor after hearing our concerns, my history (with chronic illness and anorexia) proceeded to throw up her hand and as’ my partner “what they her to do”. This was shocking but sadly it doesn’t end here. The doctor proceeded to insist that I was fine and the situation was both non emergent and out of her hands. I responded in a passive way because at that point I was scared triggered and exausted. And I asked what she thought I should do”. And the words that came of her mouth hurt me and made more angry than any four syllables ever has.

“Psych referral”

Now let me something straight. I am a survivor, I am working in me healing, I am growing and changing for the better. I take my meds go to therapy and work everyday to get a little better. But this woman who obviously hadn’t read my chart which denotes not only my diagnosis, psychological history, and notEs from speacialists on the severity of my physical condition has just implied that I’m crazy. This was horrible but 8 could see how it would seem that I am overreacting but, due years of gaslighting, medication being forced on me to cover abuse and trauma, I hate being called that. It’s not a real term, nor does it help anyone, nor does it doing anything but make me remember the nights I spent wondering if that word was me.

In one visit, one person managed to dehumanize, humiliate dismiss me and maybe risk my life based on the fact that 8 wasn’t worth the time it took to read my chart.

It so incredibly weird to have to say this but I as a queer, gay, chronically ill, Latin person am in fact still a human being WHOS painand concerns deserve as much respect as anyone else. We all deserve to be helped and heard and people like this are one of the many reasons that I and so many others are scared to ge5 help, scared to tell the full story, or scared to speak up. This kills people. This is killing people. And this is why I in all my chronically glory and working so hard to advocate and move forward in medicine as a whole. Because nobody deserves that. Because I didn’t deserve to sit in an ER terrified and be told I was crazy. Because my partner doesn’t deserve to be dismissed and mocked for being scared. Because I nor anyone else have to prove I am sick enough or disabled enough to be worth someone’s time.

I hope anyone who reads this and understands even a little. Who’s been through it, whose family and partners have been through it know that this is not okay, that this not your fault, and that you are by no means crazy. That the people who make feel like burden or an annoyance are the problem. Because you deserve to be heard. I m hoping everybody’s doing okay, I’m hoping your journeys are treating you well. Because as always no matter who are, where you are and what you’re feeling you are not alone, you are worthy and I believe you.

***Update**

I later went to a larger hospital not in my home town, and through a long stay in the ER got a formal epilepsy diagnosis, given a anti convulsants drug, and overall treated like a human being. I now have contact with their epilepsy unit and have the tool and education I need to start this part of my chronic illness journey. I’m exhausted and getting used to knew meds but am highly grateful for the good doctors out there, the nurses who listen and the partner who was angelic enough to be with me through it all.

#mental health #mine #system speaks #personal #chronic illness #spoonie #recovery #coping #rant #vent #medical struggles #mental health support #ehlers danlos syndrome #actually epileptic

[alittleemo]

I wanna hear your the wilds theories please 💜💜💜💜

audreyyyy i have no good response to this except :DDDDD

oh wow i have no idea whats going on with this show. I’m so intrigued and so lost and ive just been reading through theory posts going oooooooh yeah omg maybe but here’s my questions at least (im gonna try to put a read more bc its kind of a lot) (and check the tw at the end and please lmk if i missed smth)

I mean mainly, where are Martha and Nora? I feel like Nora has to be alive or Rachel would be more obviously devastated than she is, and sort of along the same lines with Toni / Martha. I wouldn’t think either of them could be so calm if the other girls weren’t alive.

however, i was definitely intrigued by the post saying Martha could have actually died after not getting the medicine, and they’ve been hallucinating her since then. it definitely bothered me that the fact she was almost dying was resolved without saying anything the next episode, which took place (i think) a few days later. one theory i really dont like is the insinuation that instead of the goat they were eating Martha in the last ep bc thats wayyy too fucked up for me and also like Martha was (at least in Shelby/Toni’s mind) on that walk with them to find food so although i suppose they could have hallucinated her i just dont think so

my personal theory for Martha is that she’s just incapacitated somewhere—maybe she was injured in the final moments and had to be taken to a hospital or smth, and shes unable to give an interview. I gotta say tho, the bit with the box of all her stuff definitely makes it seem like she either died or went missing—another theory i had was that Alex (p sure that was his name) had something to do with her disappearance and maybe brought her to that other island with all the boys on it. like its also improbable but like isn’t every theory to be taken loosely 🤪

I’ve seen theories saying oh, Shelby had her allergic reaction bc she put her retainer down on the table where dot had put her seafood but like that seems kinda like a stretch to me. how could they possibly have planned something like that out? unless Nora had some tell all before whatever happened to get them off the island, i dont know how they possibly could have planned that. the possibility they would be in the same room, the exact spot on the table, even the fact dot had access to seafood at all seems too much of a stretch. so in that case, was she faking it? how could she know the right time to do it? a lot of my questions have to do with the logistics of their plans lmao

one theory ive definitely latched on to it that more time has passed on the island than they thought. its possible that it was just an editing mistake having rachel’s amputated hand look so healed, especially while their faces were all still healing from the sunburns, bc while sun burns do take awhile to heal in my experience (like 2 or 3 weeks even sometimes) and also idrk how amputations work but it seems unlikely it could look so healed so quickly. I do think that it’s possible the girls have been drugged again at least once since being taken off the island—its clearly been shown Gretchen has the capability to drug them, so it’s definitely possible she did it again.

what i really want to know is if the girls know what is going on. does Nora tell them? I think one thing they’d really want to know is what happened to Jeanette—that was likely extremely traumatic for them and they deserve to know what happened to her. do they tell her family? obviously her and Alex were close, is he gonna betray Gretchen in some way? he obviously blames himself for her death (which makes sense since like he almost saved her but didnt)

I’d also like to see the boys island storyline resolved—like quite honestly wtf is going on there? is it the same island or a different one? are they as in the dark as the girls were or do at least some of them know what’s happening? do they go all lord of the flies or are they able to operate in relative harmony too? i hated lord of the flies so i hope that asshole is proved wrong. 

there’s much more than this but it’s getting pretty long and rambly so ill end it here!! I’d love to hear your theories too, other people’s thoughts are always v interesting to me since i have no idea whats happening <3

#asks #audrey 🎞💛 #lunawedlers #the wilds #the wilds spoilers #tw death #tw amputation #tw injury detail #tw drug mention #tw cannibalism #(ask to tag) #tw plane crash

[starbuck]

Terror Notes: “Go For Broke”

well… I guess I’m really doing this! Some proper, bullet-pointed notes for each episode of The Terror, starting with ep 1: Go For Broke!

I wrote these out last night (and edited them this morning to make them readable - you’re welcome!) so I hope that y’all enjoy my thoughts and assorted nonsense! I tried to save my comments for points I actually wanted to make because I feel like they bring something to the table but I still ended up writing A Lot lol

I love that Crozier couldn’t even be bothered to be present in welcoming Sir John and Fitzjames onto Terror, making Little and Hodgson do it by themselves. One could argue that he had important captain-y things to be doing at that time or something but I’m not 100% sure that wasn’t the case. 

idk if it’s just the angle, but I paused the episode just as the shot of the officer’s mess is coming in from above and Hodgson’s hands make me so uncomfortable. They look so bone-y and weird. (Just what you came here for, I know. Hand commentary.)

Cannot tell you how uncomfortable it is, after many rewatches, to listen to Fitzjames recounting in a casual, lighthearted manner 1) shooting people 2) people catching fire (and burning to death), and 3) their burning flesh smelling “like roast duck” (so, like something edible) and it’s even more uncomfortable to have the closeup be on Hodgson’s face as he laughs at the ‘roast duck’ comparison.

On a lighter note: I love that Fitzjames felt the need to remind everyone what size cherries are by illustrating it with his fingers. In case they forgot, I guess? As someone who occasionally speaks unnecessarily with my hands, big mood tbh.

I LOVE it when Fitzjames gives Little that affirmative tap on the arm after he compares Fitzjames’s injury to Lord Nelson’s. My friend Eli and I refer to it as The Fitzjames Arm Tap. I would like a Fitzjames Arm Tap, pretty please.

God, Sir John loudly setting his hands on the table to try to dispel the tension from the ‘birdshit island’ debacle as he attempts to change the subject is so funny. I’m gonna stop just pointing out things I find funny soon, I swear, but I just cannot handle this scene.

Between Hodgson looking horrifically embarrassed by Crozier’s outburst at Fitzjames and Little looking nervous when Crozier shoots him a look as Sir John says that there’s no reason to be concerned about the ice, it really does seem that they were having to ‘manage’ him even back in ep 1 when his alcoholism wasn’t completely out of hand.

Personal sidenote about this: My Pop-pop is often rude to workers in stores and restaurants (he doesn’t drink thank goodness but he has Alzheimer’s coming on which has worsened his temper) so I very much understand the feeling of being on-edge that an outburst is going to occur and trying to deal with the fallout when it does. Just going by my own experience, I can imagine Little apologizing to Fitzjames for Crozier’s rudeness as soon as they were out of Crozier’s earshot (not that anything Little could say would heal the deep psychological wound that Crozier created but hey, it’s something).

The way that Sir John brushes aside Dr. MacDonald’s and Crozier’s concerns about moving Young when he’s in such bad shape never fails to upset me but also ~foreshadowing for hauling the ill on boats oooohhh~

I said I was done pointing out random things that amuse me but the speed and agility with which Des Voeux pops out of the hatch and onto the deck after Orren falls into the water is just so funny. I could watch that two second clip on repeat all day. Might gif it so I actually can.

Is this a good time to point out that there’s also a scene in Moby-Dick where someone falls from high up on a mast and drowns? It’s in a chapter all about bad omens experienced by the crew of the Pequod and The Terror definitely has some similar vibes going on with the sun dogs displayed in the establishing shot of Erebus in that scene and David Young, a “warning of things to come,” on his way over.

The second(?) time I watched the part where Young tells Stanley that he didn’t think anything of getting headaches since he’s always gotten them, I had this thought pass through my head that was like “oh god, I had chronic migraines for years so I’d never have known if I had lead poisoning either!” but then I realized that this probably was not a relevant concern I should have.

Not sure I have any deep commentary on this but as Gore informs Sir John and Fitzjames about the blocked propeller, he’s standing in the same spot, in the same room as Goodsir will stand next episode to tell them about his death.

Also regarding this scene, I love how Gore waits for Fitzjames to give him the go-ahead to leave before actually going. I know that Fitzjames is his superior officer too but, since Sir John already dismissed him, it seems like waiting for Fitzjames’s approval isn’t really necessary, yet a nice thing to do. Perhaps this is a legitimate formality, but something similar happens later in this episode in the command meeting when Crozier asks Gore how many sun dogs he’s seen; he looks to Fitzjames and waits for his nod before answering Crozier. He doesn’t look to Sir John, he looks to Fitzjames. I know that we know essentially nothing about Gore but like.. underrated ship???? Just saying…

Ten nights ago, I was unable to get to sleep for at least an hour because I started thinking about David Young’s saying “I want to go to my grave as I am” and, of course, that ultimately doesn’t happen for him but also, this, like all things about him, is a “warning of things to come.” I’m pretty sure that no one else was properly buried until, arguably, Fitzjames and ironically, that was explicitly not what he wanted done with his body (and, since his grave was later looted by Hickey, similar to the way that Young’s autopsy ultimately achieved nothing, it didn’t really matter anyway).

I know that this happened exactly ten days ago because I forced myself to wake up and write it down in my notes app, lest I forget, which only prolonged my sleeplessness. I suffer for my analysis. 

Ah yesssss Tozer’s lesbian haircut. We love it! Why does my hair not look like that when I take a hat off? I’d like to file a complaint.

Was just thinking the other day about how Hartnell being the one to notice that there was something up with the ice in ep 1 is followed up on with Blanky complimenting Hartnell’s ability to read the ice to Crozier in ep 7. I wonder if Blanky ever gave him like. ice-reading lessons after becoming aware of his interest and natural talent at it in ep 1? That makes me happy to think about.

The two people who we’re shown awoken by Young’s screaming are Sgt. Bryant and Morfin and like. Do I even have to explain why that’s an Oof?

The way that Goodsir hesitates before knocking on Stanley’s door and Stanley irritatedly closing his book before answering the knock in an exasperated voice would be comedic in any other context. If I’m being honest, it still makes me laugh. As does Stanley’s “As if that weren’t plain.”

I’ve pointed this out before but mmmmm... that shot of Stanley in profile with the open candle flame in the background… the foreshadowing in this ep is thicker than the smoke at… Oh alright, I’ll stop. 

God, the autopsy/dive scene…. Collins being lowered down and entering the water paralleled with Goodsir’s initial cutting into Young’s corpse, the breaking up of the ice paralleled with the cutting of the bone-saw. But most significant to me is the parallel of what is seen/not seen and the long-term effect that this has. Collins sees Orren’s corpse (and then presumably never tells anyone about it), reinforcing his guilt over Orren’s death, the beginning of his mental health decline. Goodsir doesn’t see the cause of Young’s death in his autopsy and this not knowing about the lead poisoning until it’s too late to do anything about it is the cause of many of Goodsir’s later problems as well. And, to finish it all off, both the autopsy and Collins’ dive were ultimately for nothing (considering a spinning propeller is useless when your ships are frozen in). 

Crozier and Blanky’s simultaneous face journeys as Sir John rambles on about how there’s nothing to worry about and they’ll find the passage any day now are truly legendary.

I wrote some pretty extensive tags on this already but man… Crozier’s comment about how not all of Sir John’s men returned from one of his previous arctic expeditions is just so nasty and awful. Like, yes, Sir John is wrong to undersell the danger they’re in and Crozier is advocating for the correct position here, but that was completely uncalled for and horrible to say, particularly in a command meeting, in front of so many people. And Sir John looks legitimately upset by it too. He gets over it quickly, at least on the outside, but I still feel really bad for him (and I NEVER feel bad for Sir John so this is weird for me).

“But of course we will not be abandoning Erebus, or Terror…” Let’s check back in six episodes and see how that’s going! 

Crozier slamming his fist on the table to prove he’s not being melodramatic reminds me of this one post (that I sadly can’t find rn) about Jesus Christ Superstar that’s like “‘CUT OUT THE DRAMATICS’ Judas hollered dramatically.” It’s such an Overall Mood.

I don’t have a developed commentary on this at the moment but it’s an interesting reverse-parallel that Sir John had no concern for Young’s well-being when he was alive, ignoring Crozier’s concerns about moving him from ship-to-ship when he was in such poor health, yet now that he’s dead, Sir John is the one to recommend that Young be buried which Crozier is surprised by, and seems to feel is unnecessary.

There’s been so much amazing commentary already made about Young’s burial scene so I’ll skip it except to say that Hickey’s irritated sigh when he hears footsteps coming towards the grave is SO funny. That’s exactly how I feel when I know that someone is about to tell me something that will annoy me.

Goodsir was really getting into the emotion of Sir John’s “eulogy”/motivational speech before he remembered the promise he made about Young’s ring. Also, what triggered his memory was Sir John saying “We shall earn our loved one’s cheers and embraces,” so no doubt a reminder of the traumatic “Your loved ones will be there in Heaven to welcome you! :)” “I never knew my mother or father” exchange (or maybe just a reminder of the fact that he was supposed to get Young’s ring to his sister but just let me scrape a little humor out of this. God knows I need it).

The shot of Bryant praying in his hammock the night before they get completely frozen-in is honestly deeply upsetting to me. Especially considering he’s a marine so he Did Not Ask To Be Here, yet there he’ll die.

According to Melville, ship’s compasses occasionally spun round-and-round when a ship was caught in a severe storm and this was an incredibly upsetting thing to behold because of how disorienting it was. So, considering that, Fitzjames keeps his composure pretty well but he clearly has some reservations about how things are going and Sir John has no comforting-sounding remark about ‘Magnetic North’ to offer him now.

The bit where Sir John “sees” Crozier, on Terror, turn away from him with a half-smirk on his face is interesting because there’s no way he could have possibly seen Crozier’s expression at that distance and I’m doubtful that he’d even have been able to make out the identity of anyone he might have been able to see on Terror’s deck. So really, it speaks mostly to Sir John’s mental state; his seeing their getting frozen in as a loss against Crozier and imagining that Crozier would see it as a victory for himself.

Ugh the final shot is making me think about @catilinas’s post comparing a shot of the two ships stuck in to the shot of the ink drops from ep 3 and I am LOSING IT but I was losing it anyway because it’s 2AM now and my entire body feels like gelatin. 

THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT! 

SEE YOU NEXT TIME!

#the terror #i'm REALLY proud of these!! this was so fun to do! #i definitely intend to do this for each episode #no promises for the timing on that but i legitimately have nothing better to do so lol hopefully ep 2 will happen soon! #hope y'all enjoyyyyyyyy #feel free to add comments if you like or you don't have to! whatever is good - i just appreciate anybody slogging through this lol

[ordinaryfander]

The new video sure was something, uh

So, as usual I'm here to brag about the newest video. This time, I'm going to analyze "Dealing with INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS", and it's a long analysis/theory, so be patient with me.

This will majorly center around Remus and "the Others", so beware! (I'm so happy I don't have to call them Dark Sides anymore, it was never fair)

I wrote many points to consider, and each one will take quite a bit. With that, let's begin!

1) So:

[ 1) Remus: Who he is, what he does, why he's there ]

I think we can all agree that his debut was a surprise, especially because most of us were expecting the "Green Side" to be associated with something like Envy, or Greed, since dark green is sometimes associated with money.

However, we got Remus, aka Intrusive Thoughts, which I think is, in my opinion, the best option they could face.

So: he is Thomas' nasty thoughts, the evil, twisted fantasies, and he keeps Thomas' awake at night with dark ideas, he gives him the worst thoughts to deal with, things Thomas is deeply troubled to think of, because as Logan said, his catholic beliefs instilled in him that thought is the precursor of action.

Remus is there, and why is he there?

The fun thing is: I don't think he's there to be "useful". Later I'll explain where I think his Character Arc is going to go, but Remus really doesn't have any reason to be there except that intrusive thoughts are something absolutely everyone deals with. You all have to consider that, even if those are Thomas' Sides, they're also everyone's Sides. We all have Logic, Creativity, Morality, Anxiety, and we all lie (I'll return to that).

And this traits help us live with eveyday life?

But intrusive thoughts? They just majorly upset us, and worsen our view of ourselves, but we all still have them.

However, I'm really happy with this choice, because Thomas is starting to really show what I've been screaming since Deceit's debut: things are not black and white, and he is NOT a completely good person, because NO ONE is, not 100%. We can act like good people and sincerely mean to do good, but we're still gonna have dark, horrible thoughts. And, as Thomas' said, that's ok. Those thoughts don't make you a bad person if you don't act on them, but you should consider a therapist/psychiatrist if they bother you too much. There's no shame in that, too: please, reach out for help, if needed.

[ 2) Remus' relationships with: Roman, Deceit, and Virgil ]

- Remus' relationship with Roman

At 35:50, it's officially and definitely confirmed that Remus and Roman are brothers, probably even twins.

A moment after the Duke disappears, Roman says "I don't like him".

Thomas goes, at Roman: "So, you have a brother?"

And Roman clearly is uncomfortable with it: "Yeah... It's a little like looking into a fun-house mirror. But instead of a giant head, or, like, long legs or a tiny torso... It shows you everything you don't want to be."

Thomas answers: "That doesn't sound like a very funny house"

And Roman: "Yeah... Uhh, whatever, y'know-? (...)"

Roman and Remus obviously don't get along, but we understood that the moment Remus knocked out Roman with that weapon I don't know the name of (sorry rip, don't focus on this :'))

Roman considers himself a dashing Disney Prince, a knight in shining armor, an example of bravery and justice, while Remus is pure chaotic evil. He doesn't care what other people think and his idea of fun and fantasy is twisted, and he isn't afraid of Roman and his sword in the slightest. They're opposites.

Unluckily we didn't get much brotherly interactions or interactions at all, so there's no much to say, but those two have a whole damn lot to work through.

The question that many have been asking is: do Roman and Remus share a room?

The answer is: I honestly don't know. It would be a complete and utter mess that Roman would hate to have to share. Time will tell.

- Remus' relationship with Deceit

We haven't even seen them interacting on screen, but we already know so damn much about it.

WAY BACK in "Can LYING Be Good?", this was said about Deceit:

Roman: "If you really don't want to know something, he (Deceit) can keep our moutjs shut."

And Logan immediately goes "You don't want to believe it. That's where his (Deceit's) power comes from. Things that you want to believe. Things that you wish were true. And things that you wish weren't."

And later:

Deceit is able to shut up the Sides, but he's also able to hide them. That's what he did with Remus, he kept him locked away.

I've always been rooting for morally gray/sympathetic Deceit, but I'll try to stay neutral on this: though, I really believe that Deceit was trying to protect Thomas.

Remus is... A lot, to say the least. He's pure chaos, and isn't useful or helpful (for now) and doesn't even care to be. Deceit, on the other side, really cares about Thomas, and he showed that in many ways: he just cares about Thomas in his own way. Missing the callback of SVS still hurts Thomas after all this time, and I already explained why Deceit tried his best to do what was good for Thomas in court (https://ordinaryfander.tumblr.com/post/183871155711/thomas-shouldve-gone-to-do-the-callback-he).

I also said, tho, that in SVS Deceit was frustrated to no end because the other Sides weren't listening to him.

Look how confused he is at Patton's words.

You know why? Because Thomas thinks what he says. Thomas lies, and Deceit is there to prove it.

But they didn't listen to Deceit, but Deceit isn't like Virgil: Virgil waited lots of episodes to be listened to until he finally ducked out.

Deceit straight up released Thomas' worst thoughts because Thomas had to face in the most hard way that he is n o t a completely honest person. Deceit just got really pissed and went: "You know what? I'm useful, you need me and I'll prove it."

And he just did that. He straight up released Remus, Thomas' worst thoughts, on them. Deceit is the only one who could do that, and you know why he did?

Remus: "Thomas, speaking of knowledge; recently a snake offered me a morsel from the tree of knowledge. He said you're wanting to be more honest and be direct dealing with your issues, no longer will you deceive yourself about the ugliness within you, me!"

Deceit smacked in the face Thomas with Remus, so Thomas could get the point. I think he did. "If you don't want to lie to yourself, at least face who you really are"

About Remus and Deceit alone...

I don't think Deceit really likes Remus. Deceit is kinda goofy, but he's also sophisticated, charming, a silver-tongue. Remus is a stinky garbage man.

Deceit wants to protect Thomas' reputation, Remus would destroy it. Probably Remus likes Deceit (I think he likes everyone, he doesn't care), but Deceit doesn't really reciprocate the feeling. I could surely be proven wrong, those are just my points.

- Remus' relationship with Virgil

Boy oh boy.

Well, the video already said what I could'be said: Virgil dislikes Remus, he doesn't trust him, but he's also not as scared of him anymore like he used to be.

Virgil, at Remus (32:27): "I thought you were some... Horrible illness. Now I can see that you're just a common cold, a mild inconvenience that's gone before you know it."

And Remus looks at him like this:

That's not a evil look. He's soft, almost proud.

He isn't even offended. He just goes "Eheh, you tickle me, emo."

And Virgil has one blink-and-you-miss-it-moment when he genuinely smiles.

I think he did somehow used to like (platonically y'all) Remus, even if he was scared of him. They were still... Friends, maybe, at some point. Deceit and Virgil never had such a kind-of-sweet moment, even if just a few seconds long, and even if the Duke and Virgil still are not likely to get along in general and for the time being. The Duke's phrase about Old Times wasn't a welcomed one by Virgil.

I don't wanna dig in too much else, we already know that Virgil doesn't still trust the Duke. That was just some looks I noticed that stuck with me.

Also, I won't ignore the fragment revelead his name and said: "Of course (I told you, Thomas), I would never hide anything to you." And it cuts right off to Virgil. Eh. Busted.

- How Will His Character Arc Go?

That one is the most important question.

Everyone is gonna believe what they will, but I don't think he'll get... Sympathetic, even? He's just pure chaos.

Maybe his Arc will entangle with a Roman new one, maybe his Arc will entangle with Deceit's. I do hope that Thomas and co. will now value Deceit better, he really isn't that bad... At least, not compared to Remus.

Deceit shut up Logan guys, but Remus straight up murdered him. Even if they can't literally die, y'all really can't close a whole eye on that.

So I just think he's gonna stay around and do mischief, but will surely get some sort of development related to other characters. I'm almost sure he won't get a Solo Arc, surely not for now. However, I'm pretty sure they'll get back to talk how to manage him, and how he can become more useful.

- Conclusions and predictions for the next video

Honestly, sorry this was messier than my normal analysis/theory posts, but I don't fully know how to take Remus yet.

Y'all see, the moment I knew Deceit I made my mind up: he's morally gray, he has a purpose, he has to get credit for it.

Remus confused me in every possible way. He's chaos. I'm sure we won't see him in the next video, but I predict maybe Deceit will be in it, just to look how good of a job he's done.

And that's pretty much it. I hope you all have a good time :>

#ts spoilers #sanders sides spoilers #sanders sides #thomas sanders #sanders sides theory #sanders sides theories #sanders sides deceit #ts deceit #sanders sides virgil #virgil sanders #sanders sides patton #patton sanders #morality sanders #sanders sides logan #logan sanders #logic sanders #sanders sides roman #roman sanders #creativity sanders #sanders sides remus #remus sanders #the duke

[lostgirlrewatch]

1x06 - Food For Thought

Written by: Pamela Pinch

Directed by: John Fawcett

Original Air Date: October 24, 2010

Food for thought, indeed. I love this episode a lot. I think this is also the only episode written by Pamela Pinch in the entire series. Sad. Anyway, let’s begin.

Bo and Kenzi follow Lauren to make a house call for a Fae with food poisoning. Kenzi contracts the same illness--a fatal supernatural disease that will kill her within a day. The others do whatever they can to save her.

Side note.

I swear, I could make an entire blog just out of complaining about Lauren. But I will suppress my instincts. And I will not.

Kenzi hates Lauren for seemingly no reason (or at least, we can only guess at what the reason might be), and Bo tries to tell her that Lauren is more interesting than she seems. Is she?

“Just TRY not to break anything.” At what point have Lauren and Kenzi ever interacted enough such that Kenzi has revealed to her a propensity for breaking stuff and that Lauren is valid in being annoyed about? At WHAT POINT? Lauren is literally just saying this out of NOWHERE to be rude.

This is one of my favorite episodes in the first season. Not much moves in terms of the overarching plot, but character-wise, a couple things are happening. One, Kenzi’s family dynamic with other characters like Dyson and Trick becomes more solidified. Two, Bo and Lauren team up and deepen their bond. If you’ve read literally any of my previous posts it should not be hard to guess which of those things I care more about. (It’s the former.)

The premise of the episode is simple, which I like, if kinda gross. Kenzi gets sick, and the others must find a way to save her. Bo is the hero type, the kind of person who desperately needs to take action to solve her problems rather than be passive. As the protagonist, her actions need to move the story forward (or at least, the overarching story, though she needn’t be the protagonist of every individual episode). As the main character, the show often dictates that she be at the center of the action. As such, she immediately hits the pavement on a quest for the cure to Kenzi’s illness. 

Joining her in this quest is Lauren, whose science-y knowledge proves crucial to breaking into a facility and obtaining an antidote. Lauren is instrumental in helping Bo save her closest friend, and appears to do so selflessly, with no ulterior motives. As a result, Bo is deeply touched. They tag team, they go on a mission together, and they bond. Bo trusts her a bit more now. On top of that, Bo is finally able to stop from killing a human in the middle of one of her feeds, thanks in no small part to Lauren’s treatments. Since Lauren has been on that journey of recovery with her, they also bond a little more over that. All of this is a build up to show us that Bo and Lauren have established a bond of trust by this point, and to show us that Bo now has several compelling reasons to care about and be grateful to Lauren. This is build-up that will have a payoff several episodes down the line, and we’ll see about that when we get there.

But because Bo is the hero, the Fixer, the action-taker, the one stricken with main character syndrome…while she’s out desperately trying to find a way to save Kenzi, sick Kenzi is left without her and someone else needs to take care of her while she’s…you know…scared, suffering, and dying.

Dyson primarily fulfills this role. In previous episodes, we have seen Dyson and Kenzi slowly build a friendship. When we begin the show, Kenzi is totally alone. She has virtually no relationship with her biological family and no friends of note. In the first episode, she chooses Bo as her family, accepts her into her circle of caring. Next, expanding outwards from this, naturally, comes Dyson, Bo’s love interest. Kenzi accepts him because Bo accepts him. Then, in her mind, Dyson betrays her trust by hurting Bo, but Dyson proves to Kenzi that he is a friend to both her AND Bo, so they make up and are cool after all. That’s where we leave them off when we start episode 1x06.

Do I think it was wrong of Bo to abandon Kenzi’s bedside to go off and find the antidote? No, not at all. Obviously, the antidote was necessary to save Kenzi’s life, which ultimately takes precedence over her immediate emotional needs. And saving Kenzi’s life is what Bo cares the most about. But I do find it incredibly interesting that this happened, because it sort of establishes a pattern in their relationship. A deliciously not super fun one. When the chips are down, Bo will always go to the ends of the earth to make sure Kenzi is physically okay. But in Kenzi’s most vulnerable, desperate emotional moments, is Bo always there to comfort her? Is she even often there to comfort her? I’m excited to keep watching and find out.

The good thing is that Dyson and Kenzi get a fantastic opportunity to deepen their bond instead. We even get this little moment with Trick, where we use an earlier scene to establish that Trick has this ancient artifact that is more valuable to him than almost anything in his possession, only to later show us that he is instantly willing to give it up just for the chance to prolong Kenzi’s life by a few hours.

I think the gravity of this is easily overlooked, given how forgettable those Trick scenes are by themselves. But let’s remember that Trick is like this gajillion year old Fae grandpa in a universe where humans are viewed on the same level as like…pet fish…and he was willing to give up one of his most valuable possessions to barely prolong the life of a human girl he hasn’t even known for that long. Trick, also, proves in this episode that Kenzi means something to him, and it’s pretty cute because we see that Kenzi cares about him too. 

You often get the sense that while Kenzi cares deeply about the people around her, she isn’t sure if they return her feelings. There’s a vague mistrust. She’s a bit baffled by Trick’s caring about her as much as she is touched by it.

Kenzi is traumatized. Well, obviously. Specifically, she has trauma relating to hospitals, illness, and death. We don’t know why, at least not at this point. The show doesn’t bother giving us any flashbacks or tidbits of backstory as a way of explaining why Kenzi is freaked out by hospitals or why graveyards make her feel calm. I find this rather unique and refreshing. We don’t really need to know the details, at least not right now. What’s much more important is that we see the trauma that series Kenzi lives with in the present, and moreover, how she deals with it.

Her discomfort being in a hospital gradually turns to fear as she becomes trapped there herself, and we see her latch on to Dyson as the only beacon of safety and familiarity there. When she wakes up, she not only finds herself alone (the one thing that terrifies her the most), she witnesses a woman die before her eyes. 

This is clearly very triggering for her and culminates in a panic attack. Kenzi reverts to survival mode at this point. 

I find it poignant that she is aware that leaving the hospital may shorten the time she has left, but that she would literally rather die alone on the street than stay another second in there. Alone. Kenzi. Would rather die. Alone. She even says so. “I’d rather die in a ditch.” She’s that desperate to get out of there. What exactly did happen to her in a hospital way back when?

The graveyard scene is phenomenal. How does Dyson know to find her there, anyway? Did I miss that part, or just forget? It’s been some time between rewatching this episode and writing this, so maybe. 

Kenzi doesn’t say much about herself, as usual, just that she used to come here a lot when she was a kid because “sometimes you just need a place to think, you know?” Graveyards are usually quiet and, depending on how you feel about them, peaceful. Maybe Kenzi grew up in a large, hectic household. An abusive, loud, stressful household. Maybe she has dead family members and friends that meant more to her than the ones she was living with. Who knows? I like that Dyson just sits and listens to her. He doesn’t try to pry, he doesn’t try to tell her what to do or strongarm her back to the hospital. Instead, he offers her a safe alternative and leaves the decision up to her. Kenzi agrees and asks if they can stay there a while first, because it’s nice. “Unless,” she says, “you have somewhere to be?”

There’s no resentment or maliciousness in that question. It’s genuine. She’s kinda used to people having somewhere else to be and something better to be doing.

Of course, he doesn’t. He doesn’t have anywhere else to be but there with her, supporting her. It’s a great character and relationship moment for them both.

I don’t have much else to say about this episode, though that was quite a lot.

Back to the beginning, as far as why Lauren and Kenzi don’t like each other, I have a few ideas. Mainly, I think they don’t like each other because the other doesn’t like them. Though, of course, that brings up a chicken and egg scenario, and I’m sure they’d both assert that the other disliked them first. 

But beyond that, I think there’s something about Lauren’s air, her attitude, and her STEM academic background that doesn’t sit right with Kenzi. That and, of course, her general mistrust of doctors, which this episode establishes. Kenzi sniffs out Lauren’s elitism right away and it offends her to the core, since she grew up on the street and has no education except for the one she got there. In Kenzi’s defense, she has valid evidence for feeling this way about Lauren. If I remember correctly, “Just try not to break anything,” isn’t the first passive aggressive insult Lauren has lobbed at Kenzi’s intelligence, much less Bo’s, and it won’t be the last. Lauren’s dislike of Kenzi might be similarly rooted, if on the opposite end of the spectrum. Lauren is a careful, methodical person. Perhaps Kenzi’s seemingly off-the-hook, carefree attitude rubs her the wrong way for whatever reason. Or, gasp…maybe Lauren is bitter that Kenzi, a fellow human, enjoys such a relatively free existence and more equitable relationship with her Fae friends, while Lauren is, you know, no heavy spoilers, but, forced to bow to the whims of her Fae masters.

Love this episode. Next time, we have “ArachoFaebia,” another Andras episode, which I love slightly less, and probably won’t have much to say about.

#lost girl #bo dennis #kenzi malikov #bo and kenzi #lauren lewis #1x06 #doccubus #dyson and kenzi #lauren and kenzi

[tfw-no-tennis]

hhhhhhxh

more abt hxh bc my last post was too long n i had to split it off holla

so i left off talking abt when gon woke up....i love how polite gon is to pretty much everyone - hes such a good lad all the time. s/o to his aunt for raising him right (tho i think hes also just a rlly good boy inherently too)

also is he named gon bc ging was like ha ha im boutta be GONe lol seeya kid!!!! like ????

i find it interesting that kurapika and hisoka fought....we really havent seen them interact at all yet. also hisoka is so smirk-y i hate that bitch...what did he say to kurapika?????? 

this poor red shirt old guy lmao hisoka is SO clearly uninterested in fighting him and then he fucking dies. rip mdude

what did hisoka whisper to HIM??? guess we’ll never know #RIPLegend

oh mannnn if killua had just won against pokkle then he wouldnt have had to deal with illumi doing That to him :( my smug son......

leorio is such a good dude....also its so funny to me how tall and lanky leorio is, espec compared to the other 3 main characters lmaoooo

or maybe those 3 are just rlly short??? i mean gon and killua are literally 12, but whats kurapikas excuse

GODDDD I HATE THIS BIIIIITCH. FUCK OFFFFFFF tho the evil piano music slaps. but jeeeeesus illumi is so creepy and awful, and seeing him take off his disguise is not any better a second time...he and hisoka truly deserve each other wrow

does illumi have hair powers??? cause it kinda looks like it. or maybe hes just gay and dramatic 

ok but the sick electric guitar riff (?) that played when illumis face was revealed was lowkey kinda hilarious

man i was so wrong abt killua knowing that that was illumi :( poor kid

killua is immediately freaking out and meanwhile illumi looks bored as hell. dude ur the worst 

killua: [freaking out] illumi, completely blank-faced: hey 

I HATE HIMMMM even tho his catman design is regrettably kinda cute

why do illumi and hisoka both have such snatched waists i hate this

wtf so killua has another different brother??? i assumed he attacked illumi....how many fuckgin zoldyk sibling are there?????

leorio ur too normie for this conversation lmao. also wow fucked up family huh

killua looks so like...small and helpless, which is so at odds from what we’ve seen of him so far :( this poor kid

illumi totally has some weird brain powers man callin it now 

gon: wow killuas family sounds wack...  satotz: oh lmao you havent even heard the rest 

KILLUA ;_; 

this poor baby assassin :( :( :(

IMMM INCONSOLABLE. HE WANTS TO BE FRIENDS W/GON.......ARE YOU KIDDING....AUGHHHHHHHH

meanwhile gon decided he and killua are BEST FRIENDS like 10 mins after they met. GOD 

like in the recap ep he called killua his best friend ;_; and meanwhile killua doesnt even think they ARE friends god destroy me 

this calming classical music is throwing me off vbhjfjhbsdkgndks

i sense that leorio and kurapika are rapidly acquiring a new son

DAMN THIS IS SO FUUUUCKEDDDDD illumi is such a crusty bitch wow. leave killua alone asshole 

all that stuff abt killua like, only thinking he wants to befriend gon but really wanting to kill him....that sure sounds like some ‘worst fears’ type of shit for someone like killua....illumi is such a classic abuser wow

i have 2 know is satotz like, repeating this entire conversation verbatim in a calming monotone to gon rn. like....

LEORIOOOOO I LOVE UUUUUUUU AUGHHHH him telling killua it doesnt matter if illumi is his brother, fuck that guy, beat him up as usual and leave.....ooooughhhh leorio is such a good dude ;_; 

and the OF COURSE him saying the obvious - that gon and killua are ALREADY friends....i love this, i feel like leorio said all the exact things the audience is thinking...yet it still didnt get thru to killua bc hes so rattled by illumi appearing, and the abuse in general 

i think if gon were there things wouldve gone much differently 

of COURSE crusty bitch illumi is like oh ok now i have to kill gon.....biiiiitch i hate uuuuu 

also that just shows that hes lying to killua (which we already knew obvs), bc if it were inevitable that killua would kill gon to like, test himself or w/e, then why not just wait for that to happen? that would have a much bigger impact on killua than illumi killing gon....its obvious that illumi is just manipulating him, but killua is too BSOD to be able to tell (also, hes 12)

ok bitch illumi is preaching abt not needing friends but he and hisoka are definitely fucking and theyve been teamed up for the entire hunter exam it seems.....what a hypocrite. hate this guy

god im so glad we didnt rlly get to see whatever the fuck illumi did to that random hunter examiner guy’s face. jeeeeesus. also i cant tell but i wonder if him forcing that info out of the guy was the result of his freaky mind powers or if the guy was just like oof ouch pins in me face

LEORIO AND KURAPIKAAAA THE PROTECT GON SQUAD!! and joined by new member hanzo!!! who ironically beat gon up for 3 hours str8 like, a very short amount of time ago lmao. but still i love that sm

illumi u dumb bitch.....tho i dont buy for a minute that he didnt already realize that killing gon would disqualify him...he defs just wanted to get under killuas skin even more :^( 

KILLUAAAA ;_; when he goes to step back from illumi but illumi tells him not to....ughhh HATE this guy, leave this poor kid alone. no wonder he wanted to leave

illumi saying theres only 1 way that killua can stop him - does he mean by killing him, or something more specific, like some forbidden zoldyk murder technique? 

‘your beloved gon’ wow gay. theyre 12 and theyre dating ok. killua is literally that kid whos like wow i wonder if gon likes me...and meanwhile gon is like wow cant believe me and killua have been dating for 3 months now

leorio saying ‘we wont let him kill you or gon’ ;_; leorio ily sm...thats like the exact right thing to say - hes offering protection and reassurance as an adult figure...unfortunately killua is clearly too freaked out to even process anything outside of illumis gaslighting and abuse 

also illumi is defs doing something to killua w/his eyes via his freaky mind powers. js

illumi i hate you stop being weirdly cute. augh 

classic abuse tactics, being like ha ha nvm i wasnt gonna kill gon! jk!

killua just shutting down completely after that :( :( noooo

and then he kills that old guy and leaves, ‘proving’ that illumi is right....noooooOOOO

and now we boutta see gon go FULL shounen protag for the first time, oh FUCKKKKKK yesssss

this is the first time we’ve seen gon angry oooh man and of COURSE its on killuas behalf,....im so fuckign emo already looooord

god ok the episode preview where its gon saying ‘do leorio and i look alike?’ YES U DO LOL youre father and son so jot that down 

oof, gon and illumi have such fundamentally different POVs on like, family and life and morals, and you can tell by their 4-line exchange before gon does the ICONIC one-handed grab’n’fling

AUGHHHH gon saying hes gonna rescue killua....SO good...he recognizes that killuas family is wack as hell and killua shouldnt be w/them - the classic ingrained ‘found family is more important than blood family’ stuff

tho thats an interesting contrast to gon himself, whos looking for his deadbeat dad

‘but it wasnt his choice’ that so good ily gon BEST boy, hes so perceptive and good......he knows that killuas hand was forced and that he needs to be RESCUED (love that word choice) from his shitty abusive family

of course kurapika and leorio voiced complaints ;_; best parents 

kurapika should be a lawyer tbh 

leorioooo ;_; such a good dude, saying he should be disqualified instead 

HOW is leorio a stronger combatant than that old dude hvbajufjbsja that guy had some moves it seemed, and leorio has,....a knife? a briefcase? the classic premed attitude of ‘fuck it, i could die anytime, lets do this’? like.....cmon vhabjdfjbhsf i refuse to believe this man is of any use in a fight. ill believe it when i see it

pokkle pls ur not plot-important enough to be jumping into this convo rn

tho i am curious abt what hisoka said to kurapika. tho i agree that thats irrelevant to the discussion 

gon repeating satotz’s wisdom :’) and saying that killua will definitely pass if he takes the exam again...ough

gon is SO GOOD i cant get over it !!!!!!!!! AUGHHHH....recusing killua from his abusive family and making it so killua never has to see them again is like...so good. what a good good perfect boy.

also thats like, the perfect response to this. killing illumi would just start a ton of drama, and killua would be conflicted abt that....but removing killua from his situation is perfect 

ok ive ranted a lot ill talk abt the rest later woohoo

PREDICTIONS: 

i predict that hisoka will show up in this upcoming zoldyk arc somewhere bc illumis gonna be in it (i assume) and theyre dating. also hisoka is a central character so itd make sense for him to show up in the second major arc. tho tbh this could end up being completely false and i wouldnt be that shocked lmao

i think leorio is gonna get Big Sad someday bc hes like, so normal compared to the other MCs, and also hes suuuuch a bleeding heart (i love him....) so i feel like thats gonna lead to some sadness for him once his friends start doing crazy shit or w/e 

also i predict that if he gets nen itll be like healing nen or st. does that even exist??? idk jack shit abt nen lmao 

i think that illumi has hypnosis powers or something, even just based on design alone. it could defs be for aesthetic (character design in hxh is wild), but his eyes look noticeably different from any other characters. also he was doing some freaky shit to killua. also i held this prediction before seeing the part where this is brought up so we’ll see if its right lmao 

as for this upcoming arc -  ruth and i are wondering if itll be similar to the vinsmoke drama in one piece - character goes back to abusive family, squad goes to rescue them...and then character refuses to be recused. w/sanji it was partially bc the vinsmokes threatened to kill zeff, his TRUE dad, but i predict in this case it could be more like the zoldyks saying ‘look killua these 3 weirdos showed up looking for you, convince them to leave or we’ll kill them’ and killua will be like, oh shit bc like.....think abt it. the vinsmokes targeted zeff (and not the strawhats) bc they knew they could easily kill him. same goes here, i assume - a family of trained assassins vs Good Good Fishing Rod Smell-Power Boy (who hasnt thrown a single punch yet), Lanky Dr Man With A Switchblade We Havent Seen Him Use Onscreen, and Mx 2 Wooden Sticks, Bloodlust, and Arachnophobia - 3 For 1 Deal! its a no-contest. so thats one thing i could see happening, potentially 

im way too tired to remember my other predictions rip lmao

#excited 2 see moreeee #lj watches hxh #hxh

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Things I Liked About RWBY Volume 6

(Top 5 Dislikes)

Holy Hell, I actually made it. Twelve… err,  eleven posts in one week. I somehow did it! It’d been super fun to go back over Volume 1-6. Some of them I haven’t rewatched all the way through in years. It was a super fun ride, but it’s time to wrap things up. Volume 6 is my favorite volume, and now I get to talk about hey. So let’s conclude this series of Like/Dislikes posts with my Top 5 Things I Liked About RWBY Volume 6!

#5. Maria Calavera

Back in V5, they had to cut out a plotline where, during his search for Huntsmen to recruit, Qrow met an elderly woman. This character, however, had to be cut out due to timing. But they didn’t throw her out. They just her back into this volume. That character was Maria Calavera, and she is awesome.

Maria brought so much levity into the volume honestly. She’s funny and really charming, but also sharp and intelligent. Her ass towards Yang and Qrow always got a giggle out of me. It also helped when the flashback ended, since she wasn’t feeling crushing hopelessness and was able to get everyone to at least start looking for shelter. We didn’t know anything about her, but with how she chose to stay on the train after it de-railed and her going through Barlaby’s journals, it speaks a lot to her mindset and definitely hint at her experience.

Most everyone figured this out by the time of the reveal, but Maria was a former Silver Eyed Warrior. Which while I wish that they did some more foreshadowing about her legacy before, the flashback with Maria was freakin’ awesome and showed how much of a badass that she was in her prime. She agrees to mentor Ruby, and honestly? Maria is exactly what Ruby needs. She’s experienced and an overall nice person who gan give Ruby proper guidance, but also stern enough to give her a good bonk on the head when necessary.  Which proved valuable for when we got to the end.

Maria came in at exactly the right time, and she was a big part of what made V6 so enjoyable. She was hilarious, like the “Maybe she’s dead!” line still cracks me up. SHe’s wise and can get everyone to focus on what matters. She’s been through the same hopelessness and sense of loss that they are… well okay not the exact same way, but she gets it. She wants to do something to make up for when she gave up and finds it in guiding Ruby. Someone who has the same gift and the same drive as she did in her youth. If Chapter 12 was any indication, Ruby may very well be on her way to being the next Grimm Reaper, and that’s all because of Maria. I love that old woman~

#4. Ozma and Salem Backstory

I have been watching RWBY since V1. I started just as the volume wrapped up, so I have more or less been around since the beginning. I have been following every plotline since 2013. I’ve had so many questions for so many years. One of the big ones was the connection between Oz and Salem, and why they have a conflict to begin with. I had waited since the end of V3 to get an answer. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when we finally got it, I’d say that it had been very well worth the wait.

The Lost Fable was everything that I had been hoping for. We found out about Salem. We found out about Ozma and why he keeps reincarnating the way that he doe. We found out about the Gods. We found out the history of Remnant and what exactly happened to cause the world to be what it is now. We finally found out about why the moon is broken! There were so many answers to so many questions and even stuff that I wasn’t expecting. I had guessed that Oz and Salem were former lovers, but them having actually formed a family? Making themselves God and that being the beginning of their downfall? Damn man…

The backstory was very well done. I feel so bad for these people. Al that Salme wanted was her lover back after he gave her the happiness and love that she never received before. But she was also selfish, trying to turn the Gods against each other and then driving the world to war But the GOds also made her immortal and wiped out humanity, treating them more like objects than anything else. But the biggest victim here is Ozma. He did nothing wrong except die of an illness. He accepted a deal to be with his wife again, but still had to do what was right for the world. He didn’t do that, and by the time that he realized how twisted Salem had become, it was too late. He lost his love. He lost his children. He lost his life and had to start all over again, doomed to never die until he’s united the world. Otherwise, when the Relics unite and the Gods return, everything and everyone will die.

It all makes sense. Why Ozpin acts like he does and why he keeps reincarnated. Why Salem is so Hellbent on destroying all of humanity and making Oz suffer. Sure there are some unanswered questions, like how humanity came back after their demise, but that’ not that big a deal. This was several years in the making, and I can still remember the utter shock that I felt after the first viewing. I was so happy to have this at last, and again, the wait was very much worth it.

#3. The Brunswick Arc

As much as I wished that we had more varied reactions to the Ozpin stuff, we did get a very good arc due to the hopelessness that everyone felt. These two episodes were really great. It had this horror tone, and the snow setting certianly gave it a cold feeling. There were some good bits. Yang’s PTSD still affecting her and Blake trying to comfort her but saying the wrong words. Weiss being afraid to go back to Atlas after just escaping and her terror after finding the corpses. We have RUby’s concern of Qrow drinking if he finds the storeroom of alcohol and her trying to get him to talk to her, but he’s just closed himself off completely. RUby’s trying to be optimistic, but you can just see how much everyone is weighed down.

Then we get to Chapter 6. Things aren’t going well and everyone’s on the verge of just giving up. Yang’s tired. Blake is tired. Weiss is tired. They’re all doubtful of why they’re doing any of this and why they’re going to Atlas. Ruby tries to remind them that they have to… and that’s when we get Yang asking why. We see her blank anime eyes, and we just know that something is very, very wrong. They all try to get Ruby to drop the lamp in the well, and even she begins to say how tired she is. She goes to the well, her hands trembling as she holds the lamp over the well. Her eyes are blank, but she sighs, pulls back… and a pair of red eyes make her drop ti. She refuses to leave without it, so RWBY all go down and while they find the lamp, they also find something much, much worse: The Apathy.

These embodiments of nightmare fuel are Miles’ favorite Grimm. They’re essentially zombies, using their power to weigh you down until all that you feel is apathy. You feel nothing. You don’t care about anything. You just lay there, and you either die from that or the Apathy get to you first. They are horrifying. You can’t just shoot them dead either. The girls barely get away, only being saved by Ruby’s Silver Eyes. It ends with Weiss burning everything tot he ground as they escape. We find out that Bartleby brought the Apathy tot he farm in hopes of using it to ward off enemies since they can’t keep affording a Huntsmen. Instead, the whole horde found their way there, and no one cared. They felt nothing, except for tired. 

This arc is short, but dark. There’s this bleakness all the way through. It feels like you’re the one standing out there in a blizzard with no warmth to push away the bitter cold. They did such a great job of nailing the tone. The Apathy are horrifying, but such a great concept and I can see why these are Miles’ favorite. You feel for all fo the characters and know that they are not acting right and there’s just so much relief when they snap out of it and drive away. On the upside, this gets them to apologize for their words and regain their resolve in getting the lamp to Atlas. It did a lot of good for Ruby, but we’ll get to that later. For now, this was a highlight of the volume, and I enjoyed it immensely.

#2. Bumblebee Storyline

Ho boy, this one has been controversial. And by controversial, I mean this has been hated on for stupid reasons. Like… really stupid. Bt I’m getting ahead of myself.

We all knew that when Blake came back, she and Yang would have things to work out. Which I think that they handled very well. Weiss’ talk with Yang helped her realize why Blake did what she did and let her back in. She still needed time, but she was just happy to have her back. Blake clearly still felt horrible for running away, trying to help Yang with her bag. I don’t think that Yang needed to be more angry towards Blake. Like I said, she had time to cool down and Weiss helped her with that. Blake was genuine in trying to make things right, especially when she saw that Yang was having a PTSD flashback. She talks about Adam’s tactics of making others feel powerless and tries to comfort Yang. But she ways the wrong words and Yang pushes the whole thing back as a result. Still, Yang pulled Blake out of the house after they got away from The Apathy after Blake, in particular, came close to death, so clearly Yang still cared.

But now, we get to the end of the volume, and as such the controversial bit. So int he final arc, Blake goes to take down the city’s radar, but as it turns out Adam stalked her. At this point, he’s lost everything. The White Fang. His power. His standing. At that point, all that mattered to him was making the one that he saw responsible suffer, and that was Blake. She fought back as Adam kept calling her a coward and a traitor. Unfortunately for him, Blake wasn’t alone. Yang entered the fray, and she held her own against him. Adam tried to intimidate her over what happened last time, and it’s enough to make Yang’s arm tremble. But Blake grabbed it, telling Adam that she isn’t protecting Yang. Nor is Yang protecting her. They’re protecting each other.

Adam was an abuser. While seeing his scar certainly leaves an impact, it doesn’t justify all that he had done. He only cared about control and power, and anyone who got in the way of that would earn his spite. He became a monster who emotionally abused Blake and frequently gaslighted her into making her stand at his side. That is until Blake decided that enough was enough, and she left him and the WF behind. Since then, he wanted her to suffer, as well as anyone else that she cared about. It’s why he dismembered Yang. Imo, Blake had no romantic feelings for Yang at that time, but she was still her partner. And because of it, Yang had to suffer at Adam’s hand. Which caused Blake to run, and for Yang to be traumatized and broken. In that moment, Adam made his choice, and there was no redeeming him nor did he want it.

Fortunately, the two girls recovered and got back together. But there was still one obstacle in their way before they could truly move forward, and it was Adam. They gave him the chance to eave. He refused. They fought him. It was either fight back or die. It ended with Yang managing to stop Adam’s Semblance by using her own, getting rid of his sword in the process. Adam lunged at Blake’s broken weapon ut as Blake did, and had he gotten it first then he’d keep trying to kill them. As such when Blake grabbed it and when Yang grabbed the other half, they did the only thing that they could to save themselves: shove the blades forward through Adam. It ended with him falling over the cliff, and to his watery grave.

Adam’s death caused a lot of controversies, but considering that this is a Likes post, you can probably guess where I stand. Adam wasn’t ruined by the CRWBY whatsoever and he led himself to his end and this was the right time to do it. But really? That’s not important. What’s important is what happens after, when Blake breaks down. Yang hugs her and Blake tearfully swears that she’s not going to run again. Yang answers that she knows. These two girls went through so much Hell, and it was together that they were able to set themselves free. This is what finally got me to subscribe to the bumblebee ship. Before. I was indifferent and at times angered by how many people used it to attack the writers. But this was when I saw the value of it. That sense of mutual support that they both needed. How they freed each other. How they can now move forward, and do so together as equals. This showed how great that bond is. How great that their characters are. How far that they have come, and how they can now move on. I loved this arc. It was well written, well-acted by Barbara and Arryn, and was just a super satisfying ride from beginning to end. I loved it.

But alas, there was one thing that I loved even more. Which is a big deal because this was the one thing that I was hoping for above else in this volume. What was that thing? Well...

#1. Ruby Character Arc

In my Volume 5 Dislikes post, I said that Ruby’s lack of development was the thing I hated most. It was the only real thing in the volume that I hated. When V6 was about to start, my one hope was that they would give RUby something. I didn’t care what, as long as it was something that would develop her character and have a payoff, I could live with it. And… well… they did it. They absolutely did it.

This was everything that I had been hoping for. In this volume, Ruby has to take the reigns of leadership. She’s the one who reminds them about the innocents on Argus when the truth about the Relic came out. When Oz tried to make her give the lamp back, she refused and questioned if he lied about protecting humanity. She made her own choices and was the only one aside form Maria to keep her sense and keep moving. At Brunswick, she had every reason to be frustrated and hopeless. But she kept it together and tried to do things like find food or get Qrow to talk to her. This girl was trying her best.

Then we get to Alone in the Woods. I went over this a bit int he Brunswick section, but Ruby here was fantastic. We do see that she can get frustrated and that she can’t always kepe up her optimistic facade. She almost gives in to being tired, but he fights it back, This was what she signed up for. She had a duty, and she was going to carry it out to protect everyone. She managed to fight back against the Apathy’s influence to save Blake, and then with Maria’s help was able to tap into the Silver Eyes enough to blast a huge number of them into dust. And because of it, we finally, finally have Ruby question about the Silver Eyes and ask Maria to teach her to use them.

So much good for Ruby was in here. She has to harden herself a little. It never gets to the point of brooding or angsting, but she and the others are left with no true guidance. The closest thing that she has is Maria, but she’s a new arrival in the conflict. Ruby’s used to Ozpin or Qrow having the answers, but they both have given up. But Ruby hasn’t. And when Qrow refuses ot hear Jaune’d plan out and tells everyone to just give up now, what does Ruby do? She turns to her uncle, her mentor, and tells him that she’s going to hear Jaune out. THat she doesn’t care what Qrow thinks. He may have given up, but it doesn’t mean that she has to. This was where she truly became the leader of not just her team, but the entire group. It took a second talk, but she restored Qrow’s hope. She refused to give up because they can’t. This was what she chose to do, and she was going to do it. With or without anyone to guide her.

It all ends when, after the plan went array, RUby faced Cordo. All that she has is her scythe, but this teenaged girl tells Cordo to either let them through or else. Cordo refuses, so Ruby carries out her threat by gumming up the canon arm to the point of disrepair. But that’s not the end. The Grimm attack, and they all decide to stay. RUby calls the Argus base, telling them that she is a Huntress. This isn’t the same wide-eyed girl who fangirled at Glynda and asked her for an autograph because she was a Huntress. No, this time Ruby is that Huntress. Her resolve is stronger than ever. She’s going to save Argus, and she has the one thing that can do the job: the Silver Eyes.

This was RUby’s trial by fire, and she passed it. It isn’t easy as her happy memories get tainted by the bad ones. But she’s able to use her wits and summon Jinn to buy herself time. Yes, she used the Relic despite not having a question, and she got away with it. It’s enough to let her recollect her happy memories, and ended with the first shot of her mother, Summer Rose. That image is the last thing that RUby needed to, for the first time by her own choice, use the Silver Eyes. while she’s only able to briefly freeze the Leviathan, it’s enough time to let Cordo recover and kill it for good. She lets them through due to this, and RUby not only guaranteed Argus’ safety, but them successfully making it to Atlas.

Ruby is often derided as a flat and under-developed character. I disagree. It’s not easy to move forward. It’s not easy to stay strong when so much is falling apart. Giving up is easy. Hating is easy. But RUby refused to take the easy way. She made a choice, and she has stood by that choice over and over again. She began as a naive girl with a childish dream and major anxiety. She surpassed it. She went from being afraid to make friends to befriending everyone that she meets. She went form charging at a Nevermore to prove herself, to channeling that recklessness into insane but brilliant plans. She went form questioning Oz if he was right to choose her to be leader, to effortlessly leading her team and encouraging others. Her dreams went from a childish fantasy to true dedication and understanding of what she’s fighting for. Bad things happen, and she wants to make people’s lives better as much as possible. She has a stronger understanding of the world and used it to better herself. Now here? She’s taking matters into her own hands and pushing everyone forward along with her. She’s holding on to her hope, and that is what makes her strong. 

Ruby is an amazing character. She is my favorite character. And this volume shows why that is. This corrected all of the mistakes that I felt that V5 made. She actively develops and it’s never dropped. She questions things and starts to learn from them. She learns to use her Silver Eyes. But most of all? All of this got a payoff wth her facing the Leviathan. Yes, she’s still suppressing so much and that’ll come back to haunt her. But for right now, this is what she needed. She needed to take this step, and they executed it wonderfully. As such, ti si is without a shadow of a doubt my favorite thing about RWBY Volume 6.

And with that, we are done! It’s been one Hell of a trip going back down memory lane, but I enjoyed it! Thank you, everyone, who read this as well as the previous posts. I’m not likely going to do any other LikesDislikes for RWBY until V8 starts. But I’m not done reviewing. V7 starts tomorrow, and I plan to do my episode reviews for it. I hope that you all will check those out. V7 is on the horizon my friends, and I am ready for it! I hope that you are to. But for now, thank you again, and I’ll catch you later~!

#rwby #rwby reviews #top likes/dislikes

[charminglatina]

THIS IS AN EXTRA LONG POST!

I have written two previous posts about why Bughead is one of the worst ships on television right now (check the Anti-Bughead tag on this site and you will be able to see them). Like I stated in my previous posts, there are many reasons to dislike Bughead as a couple. Every time I say that I’m done listing my reasons for disliking this couple, more reasons just continue to pop up in my mind. Here’s another 10+ reasons why I don’t ship Bughead and why they are currently one of the worst written couples on television.

Bughead is a rebound relationship: The fundamental truth is that Bughead’s relationship is a rebound relationship. Are we just going to conveniently forget about the fact that for over ten memorable years, Betty was entirely in overwhelming love with Archie and had planned on wanting to be with him in a romantic relationship in 1x01? Are we just going to brush aside that Betty finally developed the guts to tell Archie how she felt for him after secretly pining away for him since they were kids? Are we just going to completely neglect or erase the fact that Betty made a love confession to Archie and informed him how she felt for him and that she has always cherished him? Betty has loved Archie for years. She genuinely wanted to be with him romantically. It was invariably the boy that she considered as her true love and soulmate since she was a little girl. It was the boy that she assuredly had this extraordinary deep connection with, stronger than anything that she has experienced. How am I to sincerely believe that Betty could move on from Archie so quickly just like that and then jump into another complex relationship with Jughead when it’s blatantly apparent that Bughead is undoubtedly a rebound relationship? Betty has never loved anyone other than Archie in her life. Then suddenly, it’s like she just forgot about her genuine feelings for Archie and then declares Jughead as this epic love?? It makes zero sense whatsoever. Betty jumped into a passionate relationship with Jug so fast after confessing how she felt for Archie. How can people not believe that it is a rebound relationship? Nobody moves on like that after being undoubtedly in ardent love with someone so intensely for so long. One specific episode, Betty is eagerly telling Archie she doted on him her whole life and then four episodes later, she is impulsively kissing Jughead like Betty admittedly having emotional feelings for Archie never happened in just the previous chapters before? Because of Bughead being undoubtedly a rebound relationship, their relationship looks instantly rushed and seems naturally forced. The undeniable fact that the writers refused to indeed develop Bughead into a proper romantic relationship with a personal journey and emotional development makes Bughead look even more like a rebound relationship. It’s like the writers merely randomly threw Jughead and Betty together in a link because they instantly wanted to abundantly prove that Betty was over Archie and had promptly put her romantic feelings for him behind her, but I’m sorry, that is undoubtedly horrible writing. Bughead looks like a rebound relationship for two fundamental reasons: 1.) Betty nonetheless harbors unresolved feelings for Archie. We didn't see her get over Archie throughout considerable time. We never essentially witnessed her have any specific kind of profound reflection on what her complicated feelings for Archie meant for her and how it undoubtedly changed her. She candidly confessed how she felt passionately for him in the first episode, and after 1x02, it’s like it was conveniently forgotten and never spoken about again. 2.) Bughead is too rushed, and Betty moved on too quickly after promptly telling Archie how she ultimately felt for him. I understand it’s normal to want to move on when the object of your affection doesn’t reciprocate your affections, but this was just way too fast. I understand this is fiction and all, but if Betty is going to move on and jump into another relationship with Jughead, at least make it look realistic and make it make sense. At least execute Betty and Jughead to have some proper development and make their relationship grow before they start fervently kissing each other and tearfully confessing to each other that they are epic love and soulmates and blah, blah, blah. There are so many unresolved things about Bughead that make them look like an apparent rebound relationship. Because of this, I’m uncertain if Betty is just merely projecting her love/genuine feelings for Archie onto Jughead and her relationship with him. It causes me to wonder if Betty is living her dream relationship with Archie through the current relationship she’s in with Jughead. BUGHEAD IS UNDOUBTEDLY A REBOUND RELATIONSHIP, PLAIN AND SIMPLE. 

Bughead is the worst ship or portmanteau name: The ship name “Bughead” is one of the ugliest ship names I have ever heard. I mean, who on earth could ship a couple with the portmanteau name “Bughead”? The ship name sounds like a couple that typically has nasty ass hygiene and undoubtedly has head lice regularly. I mean, couldn’t they be termed something else? Aren’t there better ship names for this couple instead of something that is named after head lice? I know precisely it’s an entirely absurd and shallow reason for me to hate Bughead positively, but the ship name is ridiculous on so many appropriate levels. But, on the other hand, I'm unsurprised that Bughead invariably has such a hideous ship name. It’s fitting that such a gross, mediocre and boring couple like them possess such an ugly ship name.

Bughead is first love: In my candid opinion, Bughead isn’t true love or great love. It’s first love. Bughead reeks of the typical high school first love relationship. Now, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with first love. Many of us have experienced first love at some point in our lives. We likely experienced it during our teenaged hormonal years where we thought that the person we were in a passionate romance with at the time was going to be with us forever and we were going to get married and live happily eternally after. Uh, newsflash. The majority of people rarely, if ever, end up with their first love or high school sweetheart. First loves are first loves for a specific reason. Bughead is the epitome and standard definition of a relationship that is first love. Their codependent relationship is based on passionate impulses and a distinct lack of proper planning. Bughead instantly rushed into their relationship without any conceivable kind of accomplished journey. That’s what first love is. Bughead is based precisely on puppy love and foolish infatuation. It isn't true love. True love is so much stronger and deeper than Bughead could ever possibly comprehend. Allow me to properly break down the fundamental differences between first love and true/great love: First love is typically cliche and high school. True love is mature and evolving. First love is based on infatuation and youthful idealism. True love is based on deep love/meaningful connection and emotional realism. First love is based on violent impulse. True love is based on sustainable development. First love is based on uncontrolled lust/consuming passion. True love is based on deep love and social bonding. First love is based on committing ill-advised and foolish decisions in the name of love. True love is based on being rational, planning and thinking carefully before executing key decisions. First love is based on a noticeable lack of personal trust and dishonesty in a problematic relationship. True love is based on trust, straightforward honesty and effective communication between two people. Do you undoubtedly see where I’m going here? Bughead provides all of the essential qualities of a first love relationship. First love relationships are careless, reckless, and impulsive. First love relationships lack the unbreakable bond of love and deep connection of love required for a long-lasting romantic union. It is precisely why I genuinely believe that Bughead won’t last and why they aren’t endgame; because Bughead isn’t a true love/great love, it’s the first love. Bughead naturally lacks the substantial connection and deep, everlasting love of a true romance. They lack the maturity that is required to make a long-lasting romantic union. They lack mutual trust and uncompromising honesty in their complex relationship. Betty and Jughead are constantly concealing secrets from each other, lying to each other, not communicating with each other. These are all qualities that don’t exist in a relationship that is one of the true loves. First love is also incredibly toxic and problematic. They constantly fight with each other. There is much tension in this kind of relationship. Everything is based on impulsive feelings. It is what Bughead stands for. Bughead is toxic because it’s naturally a first love, not true love. If Bughead were true love, their fraught relationship wouldn’t be as problematic as it is respectively. They wouldn’t have so many problems and issues in their relationship on a non-stop basis. Bughead appears to be a first love relationship because of the significant lack of organic chemistry and mutual passion. Many first love relationships don’t necessarily have palpable chemistry and passion. It’s like a lifelong friendship but with gentle hints of romanticism in it. It is pure Bughead. Now, I’m not declaring anything negative about being in first love relationships. I admittedly had a first love too. And I genuinely believed I was going to be with my first love for the rest of my life and I would live happily ever. But that’s merely not reality. The fact is statistics have shown that the majority of people DO NOT end up with their first love or high school sweetheart. It’s because we as genuine people are constantly changing and evolving tremendously and growing abundantly with considerable time. And that includes growing out of our first loves and high school sweethearts. Bughead is typically the first love and therefore, I don’t think they will be a long-lasting union. Jughead and Betty are going to mature, they are going to change, and they are going to grow up and realize their relationship isn’t something that is meant to last forever. Even now, their stable relationship is naturally starting to grow stale and distant because of how impulsively they got together in the first place. Eventually, first love fades instantly. However, true love never fades. That’s why I reasonably believe that Barchie is true love. Because unlike Bughead, Barchie essentially has gradual development and a unique journey. True love takes time to develop; it’s not something that is rushed into. First love is a sprint, and true love is a marathon. And Bughead = Sprint, Barchie = Marathon.

Barchie has more history in comparison to Bughead: We all popularly know that Archie and Betty have known each other since they were innocent kids. They have history and have a powerful, deep bond unlike any other two characters on this show. Archie and Betty grew up next door to each other as they were next door neighbors. They recognize each other better than anyone, and they intuitively understand each other better than anyone. Betty has been in unconditional love with Archie since childhood. Those are the kind of feelings that don’t go away. Also, Jughead has been friends with Betty and Archie since they were kids. But Betty was always way closer to Archie than she was to Jughead. The fact that Betty didn’t know when Jughead’s birthday was or has never met Jughead’s father before merely proves that Betty didn’t have that same history with Jughead than she did with Archie. Barchie having a more authentic history and a more inseparable bond than Bughead definitely establishes them as superior and instantly puts them on a level above Bughead. Affirmative, Bughead knew each other as kids, and they invariably have some history, but it’s nowhere near as strong as Barchie’s history. Barchie secures a lifelong bond and meaningful connection that is so much stronger, undeniable and deeper than anything Bughead ever has. Betty knows Archie way more and much more in-depth than she knows Jughead. Betty can read Archie like a book, and she comprehends him the most out of anyone, including Jughead. And the same is believed the other way around. Archie correctly understands and knows Betty way better than Jughead intimately. He perceives how she operates, how she ticks. He knows how to make her happy naturally, or how to make her mad or how to make her upset. Archie encourages all of Betty’s buttons, whether they be positive or negative. There’s just so much about Barchie’s superior connection to Bughead’s. You can tell by looking at Archie and Betty and when they interact with each other in scenes that there is so much history, companionship and genuine love there. But when I watch key Bughead scenes, I don’t feel there’s the same depth or history that Barchie have. It is one of the key reasons why I genuinely think Barchie is superior to Bughead. Because of that strong friendship and kinship that Archie and Betty have, they have a substantial basis and foundation for an epic romance in the future. 

Betty loves Archie + has unresolved romantic feelings for him: Come on guys. There’s undoubtedly no possible way that Betty doesn’t have some unresolved romantic feelings for Archie after all this time. It is the girl that spent the majority of her life loving Archie in secret, fearful that if she told him the truth about how she felt for him that it would change everything between them. Betty most likely felt that if she expressed to Archie her genuine feelings about him and that she cherished him romantically that it would end up destroying her friendship and relationship with him. Going by what happened in the pilot episode, she was somewhat precise. When Betty finally gained the courage to tell Archie how she felt for him, Archie freaked out. Archie didn't expect the girl that had been his best friend since childhood, the girl that he had been next door neighbors with since the tender age of 4 years old, would ever have felt so deeply for him. When Archie told Betty that he couldn’t be with her and he adamantly rejected her after her love confession, Archie stated that his apparent reason for being unable to be with her at that key moment in time was because he felt he wasn’t good enough for someone as perfect and amazing as her. Betty was heartbroken by Archie’s conscious rejection, and she didn’t take it too well at first. On top of it, she was seriously envious of Archie and his attraction to Veronica. Here’s the key thing: there is undoubtedly no possible way that Betty Cooper has stopped loving Archie Andrews. THERE IS JUST NO WAY. Nobody loves someone for that long and so deeply and merely forgets about that person or about appreciating that person. You don’t just stop loving someone like that especially when you treasured them so much for so long and have been naturally through everything together with them. There is no doubt in my critical mind that Betty still has overwhelming feelings for Archie, but she has allegedly placed them on the backburner for Archie’s sake. Betty moved on from Archie so fast, and she moved on with Jughead, but that doesn't mean she has stopped loving Archie because she hasn’t. Do you understand how I know? Because every important time that Betty is in Archie’s vicinity and presence, Betty cannot stop smiling and beaming with happiness. Whenever Betty is around Archie, she glows. She beams with genuine love and fierce pride when she looks wistfully at him. She inevitably delivers him this different sort of smile that’s for him and nobody else. Now, that’s not to say that Betty doesn’t love Jughead. Of course, she does (and I say that as someone who hates them as a couple and doesn’t ship them at all.). But, it doesn’t alter facts. Betty is still in love with Archie. She hasn’t dealt with those unresolved feelings for Archie that she has felt since she was a child. You can’t completely expect me to believe that Betty has lost all the romantic feelings that she had for Archie and has entirely moved on with Jughead, because I don’t buy it. The reason why I nevertheless think that Betty is in love with Archie is because of the lack of chemistry, romanticism and passion between Jughead and Betty. Bughead is together, but something is undoubtedly missing. I feel like Betty is solely using Jughead as a replacement or placeholder for Archie. She is projecting the kind of passionate romance and relationship that she genuinely wanted with Archie onto her relationship with Jughead and it shows. Do I genuinely think that Betty loves Jughead? Sure. But I don’t necessarily think it’s a passionate, romantic love. I think Betty wants what she feels for Jughead to be romantic love, but it isn’t. Whatever she feels for Jughead is a comforting illusion. She’s in love with the fundamental idea of Jughead and loving him. She doesn’t love him the way she loves Archie unconditionally at all. As long as Archie is nearby, Betty will inevitably have those lingering feelings for him. That’s never going away. Betty can attempt all she wants to abandon whatever she felt for Archie, but a love like that never fades. And I think deep down, Jughead sees it. Otherwise, why would Jughead always act so insecure regarding Betty and Archie? Why is he always suspicious and self-conscious? Why did Jughead tell Betty that he knows she is with him until Archie realizes his feelings for Betty to which Betty would have no issue discharging him for Archie? Because it’s an essential truth. Betty would throw Jughead in front of a Mack Truck if Archie reciprocated even 5%-10% of Betty’s romantic feelings. I can never accept Bughead for this particular reason, and I can never ship them for this very reason. I can’t just brush aside 10+ years of complex history between Betty and Archie. I can’t just brush aside the fundamental fact that Archie and Betty naturally have this strong, deep and undeniable bond and established a connection that has been formed and developed since their childhood. I can’t just brush aside the fact that for 10+ years, Betty loved Archie so much and wanted to be with him. How am I to willingly accept Bughead when all these harsh facts remain a genuine reality? I can’t just accept Betty loves Jughead more than she does Archie because it’s just not the case. She doesn’t, plain and simple. She thinks she does, but that’s because as of now, Betty is settling for Jughead because Betty knows she can’t have Archie. Archie is currently emotionally unavailable because he’s been in a relationship with Veronica for two seasons now. And the objective truth is, Archie genuinely loves Betty deep down too. He doesn’t acknowledge it or wants to comprehend it yet. He doesn’t want to accept the fact that he loves Betty because he has such a strong sense of self-doubt and self-hatred. He thinks himself as imperfect and indecent, not good enough for the suitable girl next door Betty. But what Archie doesn't realize is that loving Betty and accepting that he loves Betty is his journey and path to self-acceptance and most importantly, to self-love. Archie won’t learn to appreciate and accept himself until he sufficiently learns to love and willingly accept Betty. And this is precisely why Barchie will happen naturally and why I sincerely believe they will end up together in the ultimate end. Case in point, Betty still loves Archie, and that will never change, no matter how hard the writers try to revise history to rewrite things. 

Bughead is a cliche relationship: Bughead is typically such a cliche type of relationship. Ordinary girl next door falls for the edgy boy from the criminal side of the tracks? The reasonably popular girl falls for the loner boy who is anti-social and doesn’t fit in with the norm? Cheerleader falls for the weirdo? Their relationship is the epitome of a cliche. Bughead’s relationship is nothing new. I have seen this type of relationship many times in fiction, and it’s nothing exciting or unusual. Now, I’m not saying that any of the other relationships on Riverdale aren’t cliche in their way. Barchie could equally be considered to be cliche as well. The girl next door (Betty) falling passionately for the boy next door (Archie)? Cliche. The cheerleader (Veronica) undoubtedly falling for the popular football player (Archie)? That’s equally cliche. The industrious poor, loner boy (Jughead) gradually falling in love with the beautiful, popular rich princess (Veronica)? Yep, that’s cliche too. It’s not about the critical fact that Bughead is a cliche; it’s how they are written that bothers me. Bughead is written as a cliche teenage love. It lacks considerable depth and profound significance. I feel like Jughead and Betty just jumped into a relationship out of desperation. Many high school relationships typically happen on impulse, and Bughead’s relationship represents impulse. Bughead is a cliche relationship because it lacks excitement. Their specific dynamic is nothing original. They are from opposing sides of the spectrum socially and economically. Betty is the wholesome, cheery, upbeat girl next door and Jughead is the intense, brooding, melancholic loner. To me, Bughead reeks of the second coming of Dan/Serena (Derena) from Gossip Girl. Dan was traditionally a loner and social outcast from Brooklyn. But he craved to be romantically involved with Serena, the lovely, popular girl from the Upper East Side of Manhattan, from afar. It’s a similar situation with Jughead and Betty. Jughead is the loner outcast from the Southside who experienced an infatuation towards Betty, the sweet, girl next door from the Northside. Boring. Not only is the fundamental dynamic between Bughead been seen in many forms of modern media over the established decades, but the substance (or lack thereof) of Bughead’s relationship is what causes them to be incredibly cliche. Their relationship is extraordinarily shallow and hollow. They are acting out a typical high school teenage mini-drama. They are consistently fighting, then breaking up, then fighting again, then breaking up again, and then getting back together. Now that Bughead is seemingly past that specific stage of competing with each other and breaking up and then getting back together in a vicious cycle, their complicated relationship has presently become a cliche bore and dullard. In season 3, the writers have written themselves into an obscure corner where Bughead is concerned. It’s like they don’t recognize what to do with this couple anymore except continue composing them as the same, cliche, dull investigative couple/duo that they’ve been for the past two seasons now. Bughead is cliche and is a typical high school relationship because their relationship is based precisely on puppy love and foolish infatuation. Bughead is already acting like they are going to be together forever and are going to get married and it’s all great rainbows and unicorns. EH, WRONG. Bughead naturally has the same mentality that the considerable majority of all first love relationships and high school relationships have in common. They retain this sense of idealism in their minds when it comes to their relationship. Bughead is not based on realism and reality. It’s base on an elaborate fantasy. Jughead and Betty are only 16 years old, yet they are acting as though they are 40 and married. They are moving too much like an elderly married couple. Jughead and Betty seem to think they are set in The Notebook. They seem to lost in their world, and they don’t realize everything else around them. That is what traditionally makes Bughead an unrealistic, shallow, typical teenage high school relationship. It is why Bughead won’t endure or make it as a long-lasting romantic union. Because like I said in a previous point, Bughead is a first love, but it’s not a true love. Bughead and their relationship are nothing special, outstanding, epic or extraordinary. To me, they’re just another cliche good girl/edgy boy couple that many young females within society like to live out fantasies. They are just another accurate representation of what high school love, first love, and teenage relationships are. Bughead is cliche as hell.

FP & Alice (Falice) had romantic + sexual history: Are we just going to overlook the fact that FP and Alice had a romantic fling back in high school? Are we just going to brush aside the fact that FP and Alice not only hooked up in high school but they, also, produced a long lost son together? It appears as though history is replicating itself with regards to the Jones men hooking up with the Cooper women. In the present. For all one knows it’s merely me, but I find that history is repeating itself romantically and sexually between the Jones and the Coopers very unsettling, bizarre, gross, and weird. It naturally makes Bughead look borderline incestuous. Because of FP and Alice’s fling back in high school, they had a son together, which means that Jughead and Betty share a half-sibling. That traditionally makes the whole web between the Jones men and Cooper women even grosser and disgusting. It’s indeed strange, and it doesn’t sit comfortably with me that Jughead's father and Betty’s mother experienced an affair with each other back in high school and now, the kids are emulating their parents. I don’t know about you, but if I found out that my mother and my boyfriend’s father were hooking up in high school and it resulted in a teen pregnancy where my boyfriend and I share a long-lost sibling, I don’t know if I would want to continue having a romantic relationship with my boyfriend. It would just creep and weird me out. It’s not an ordinary circumstance at all. Then again, we have traditionally seen this same story play out on another famous teen drama show, Gossip Girl. Dan and Serena were conventionally dating each other, but it was revealed that Dan’s father Rufus and Serena’s mother Lily were in genuine love back in the day and that they allegedly had a complex affair. Like FP and Alice, Rufus and Lily had a long-lost son together whom they gave up for adoption. It’s like RAS, and the contributing Riverdale writers just stole that storyline straight out of Gossip Girl and implanted it right into Riverdale. It’s unoriginal. It is one of the biggest reasons why I’m turned off from Bughead. The fact that Jughead and Betty’s parents have an intimate and romantic history, I can’t get past that because it makes Bughead and their relationship weird. To make matters worse, FP and Alice were seemingly hooking up and dating each other in the present while their kids are also currently hooking up and dating in the present. Weird, weird, weird. Did I mention weird? The writers went as far as to sufficiently emphasize and highlight the direct parallels between Falice and Bughead and that history was replicating itself during a season 3 episode (3x03). The writers and the show purposely showed FP/Alice in bed together in one scene and then switching to the following scene with Jughead/Betty together in bed. IT’S GROSS! It made me feel very uncomfortable, and I know plenty of other viewers who mentioned that they felt just as weirded out, disgusted, and embarrassed as I did with the way those scenes were shot. Bughead is pretty much incestuous and taboo for me. Yes, Bughead isn’t blood-related at all, but it doesn’t change that they look and act like step-siblings who are forcing an intimate connection between them. Now, if I had to choose between Falice or Bughead existing or continuing their romantic relationship in the present, I would indeed rather see Falice stay together romantically than Bughead. After all, Falice was undoubtedly canon first, and Bughead is merely trying to be an inferior imitation and knockoff of their parents. Bughead is emulating Falice so hard, but they are desperately failing miserably. Bughead doesn’t have anywhere near the complex history, essential development, or passionate chemistry to be anything remotely comparable to Falice and their complicated relationship, past and present. 

Bughead erases Jughead’s sexuality: Honestly, this reason doesn’t bother me that much, and it’s not a huge reason why I don’t ship or like Bughead. But I know there’s a small yet vocal part of the fandom that it does bother greatly. According to quite a few vocal people, Jughead is asexual in the classic comics. Now, I’ve read the comics since childhood, and I can confirm and attest that in the older version of the comics, Jughead isn't asexual. In many of the past comic book storylines, Jughead has shown a romantic interest in some girls, and he has been fascinated with women at various points throughout the history of Archie Comics. He was merely written as misogynistic and as someone who didn’t think highly of women in general, but that didn’t make him asexual or aromantic. Jughead’s first love was traditionally considered to be food, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have some romantic interest in girls because he most definitely did. There have been numerous storylines of Jughead showing romantic interest in girls and even being written in romantic relationships with female characters, like Ethel and Veronica for example. The exclusive version of Jughead that is canonically confirmed to be asexual is in the recent Archie Comics 2015 reboot. I know some people who hate Bughead are upset that the show writers of Riverdale erased Jughead’s sexuality from the current version of Archie Comics. But I can suggest the argument as to why RAS and the writers wrote this. Jughead Jones is thoroughly known to represent a popular, well-liked, beloved character within the Archie Comics franchise. Carefully add to the fact that Cole Sprouse, a well-known, famous teen heartthrob for many juvenile girls and young adult women, is portraying him. As a direct result, the female viewing audience who eagerly watch Riverdale want to see the “heartthrob” who they crush on, adorn, fawn over and heartily admire, be in romantic relationships with a female character(s) on the show. That way, these adolescent girls and young adult women can live their erotic and sexual fantasies vicariously through that particular relationship. That relationship currently happens to be Bughead. Why do you genuinely think that Bughead is (or used to be, shall I say politely) popular and well-liked in a fandom primarily dominated by young teenage girls and young adult women? Because they assuredly find Cole Sprouse attractive, hot, sexy, cute and appealing and they want to witness him get romantic or sexual with a female on-screen. I recognize why the writers changed Jughead’s sexuality from that point of view. But at the same time, I understand why a vocal part of the Riverdale fandom is greatly disappointed, angry or upset that the writers chose to neglect asexual and aromantic representation on a popular teen television show. Originally, Cole Sprouse argued for his distinctive character of Jughead to be canonically asexual on the show, and he genuinely wanted Asexual!Jughead to remain a reality. He argued for it because he required representation, but that was at the beginning of the series. Right now, Cole supports Straight!Jughead and his specific character being in complex relationships with attractive girls. Cole likely changed his mind about this key topic, because he is “dating” Lili Reinhart off-screen and his character Jughead is dating Betty onscreen. Jughead not being written as the same sexuality as he was in the recent version of the comics doesn’t bother me too much. That may be a controversial thing for me to admit, but for me, that’s my opinion. Sure, it would have been tremendous to have some representation for that group because there is accurately zero of it in modern media. But the erasure of Jughead’ sexuality from the comics isn’t my most fundamental issue or concern regarding this ship. I don’t hate Bughead because it erases 2015 Comic!Jughead’s sexuality. I’m okay with the modern Riverdale version of Jughead being heterosexual and straight and into girls. Jughead’s unique character is prolifically and accurately described as an "emo heartthrob", so he is bound to be attracted to girls and have girls be attracted to him. The principal reason I hate Bughead is because it naturally lacks organic chemistry, proper development and creative originality. I hate Bughead because it’s poorly composed and usually forced. I hate Bughead because it’s a toxic piece of waste. Not because it erases accurate representation. But at the same time, I’m compassionate and understanding to those who hate Bughead because it does delete adequate representation and that’s okay too. It’s just not my reason for disliking this ship.

Bughead is too codependent: For all one knows it’s just me, but I find Bughead’s relationship codependent, especially in season 1 and 2. I feel like they lack an identity apart from each other and that’s not a good thing. An essential part of what makes them unhealthy and toxic is that Betty has become so dependent on Jughead, especially after Archie rejected her. It’s like she turned to the next boy that gave her attention and just fell hard and fast. And Jughead was just a lonely outcast who was desperate to be loved and accepted. Here comes the first person outside of Archie to give him any genuine affection and considerable attention and Jughead got too attached. Bughead’s complex relationship became significantly codependent in season 2. Betty wanted to be with Jughead so much that she was ready to willingly give up her identity and her individuality to be a part of Jughead’s cruel world as a Serpent. Jughead told Betty about entering his world and how dangerous and unpredictable it could be, but Betty was still persistent in wanting to be a Serpent. To prove how much she wanted to be with Jughead and be a part of his world, she got undressed in front of an entire bar full of adult and older Serpents AS AN UNDERAGED GIRL. Jughead was horrified when Betty carried this act out that he reluctantly decided to break up with her. Jughead didn't want Betty to be an active part of his chaotic world, and he informed her many times. But Betty’s codependence and neediness towards Jughead undoubtedly caused her to lack logical thinking. And now at the end of season 2, Betty becomes Serpent Queen and integrates herself into Jughead’s world of being a Serpent when it doesn’t flatter her whatsoever. Betty is not a Serpent. She’s not born into that unpredictable life. By becoming Serpent Queen, she essentially gave up her individuality and her identity to be with Jughead. Betty is a Northsider through and through. She will never under no circumstances be a Southsider. The fact of the matter is that Betty only joined the Serpents because she is Jughead’s girlfriend. Betty doesn’t genuinely care about the well being of the Serpents. She hasn’t achieved anything great for the well being of the Serpents. She only associated with them because of nepotism and her boyfriend Jughead being the Serpent King. Betty has no place in the Southside Serpents, and it’s abundantly apparent. It is what makes their relationship codependent. Without Jughead, who is Betty Cooper? Who would she be if Jughead broke up with Betty for good? Who would she be without him? A key reason for Betty’s strong codependence on Jughead naturally has to do with the fact that Betty isn’t mentally healthy. Betty suffers from an undiagnosed mental illness that has yet to be candidly acknowledged and adequately addressed on this show. My guess is Betty has undiagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Those who suffer from BPD have serious abandonment issues and attachment issues. They latch onto anyone who will willingly give them love and devoted attention because they are so needy and starved for attention and enthusiastic approval from others. And Jughead happens to be Betty’s effective drug for her BPD. Instead of seeking specialized help for her mental illness, Betty used Jughead as an emotional crutch to cope. Toxic, toxic, toxic. Let’s not forget that Jughead is equally using Betty as an emotional crutch as well. Jughead has consistently been the lonely, outlasted loner who never fit in. He was bullied growing up and constantly picked on. Jughead is dependent on Betty as a way to undoubtedly make him feel accepted into the social norm especially because of the complex environment he grew up in which was a toxic one. For Jughead, Betty is a form of escapism. Escapism from his dysfunctional life and the negative environment that he has with his family at home. In an undeniable fact, I argue persuasively that Jughead and Betty’s relationship is all about escapism. They are using each other to escape from their reality, but they want to escape for different reasons. Betty is using Jughead to escape from her mental illness, her troubled family life and the pressure of having to remain the perfect faithful daughter all the time. Jughead is using Betty to escape his unhealthy, toxic, dysfunctional home life and his insecurities that he feels about not being good enough. It makes Bughead’s relationship codependent and needy in essential nature, and that’s why they are problematic. Not merely does the fact that Bughead’s relationship being based on escapism causes them to be an unhealthy, codependent relationship but also that both of them constantly break up and then get back together so fast. It genuinely seems that they don’t take time away from each other to be by themselves. They consistently have to be together and getting involved in things that could coax them into a boatload of trouble. If Betty gets prominently involved with something, then Jughead typically has to get involved. If Jughead gets involved in something, then Betty naturally has to get involved. And all that undoubtedly does is lead to more frequent problems. I feel because of their codependent relationship, Jughead and Betty have either grown stagnant as characters or have regressed as characters. They haven’t changed for the positive, and they haven’t evolved in a way that is beneficial for both of them. Their codependent attachment to each other has ceased them from exploring other relationships with people and branching out by communicating with other people besides each other. It’s like Jughead and Betty live in their little world, their little bubble and that is unhealthy. Outside of Archie, Veronica and Betty, who does Jughead undoubtedly have to consider a friend? The Serpents aren’t his friends. They are his subordinates. He is their leader, not their friend. Outside of Betty and the Serpents, Jughead doesn’t have much of an identity, and that is a problem. It's the same for Betty. Outside of Jughead and occasionally Veronica (not in season 3), Betty is barely seen communicating with anyone else. It’s like her friendships with notable people like Kevin, Veronica, and even Archie (Archie for God’s dear sake, the boy she has cherished and known intimately since childhood, has been next door neighbors with, and has been best friends with since she was a child!) have ceased to exist. Jughead is all that matters to her now. It’s depressing. Betty is lonely, and she doesn’t realize it because she doesn’t acknowledge anything or anyone else besides Jughead and her relationship with him. Bughead and their relationship are incredibly isolating. Jughead and Betty have secluded themselves away from others and the potential for generating wonderfully new bonds and enduring friendships outside of each other. Does Betty possess any friends outside of Jughead right now? I mean, seriously, her budding friendship with Veronica has grown so distant as of season 3. She barely acknowledges her anymore. At least Jughead willingly spent some decent time with Archie during this season and aided him in the running away from a demolished town of Riverdale and escaping the wrath of Hiram Lodge. And Jughead is gradually but surely starting to develop a bond and friendship with Veronica. But Betty? She willingly has no one. She’s so isolated and lonely outside of Jughead that the sole person that she is turning to other than Jughead is her serial killer father, Hal! And that’s just a grim reality. For Betty and Jughead to grow tremendously and evolve organically as complex characters, the two of them need to break up and invariably find themselves on their own. Because right now, Bughead’s codependent relationship has caused Jughead and Betty to become severely stagnant.

Bughead is an emotionally abusive relationship: This may be considered to be a controversial opinion, but I genuinely think that Bughead is an emotionally abusive relationship. I undoubtedly noticed visible traces of emotional abuse within Bughead’s relationship throughout season 1 and season 2. Whenever Jughead and Betty would argue fiercely and fight doggedly, Jughead would habitually be the likely one always to take personal digs/attacks and make nasty insults about Betty. He would berate her and insult her all the time like sarcastically calling her the “perfect girl next door” (as if it’s something that is so horrible). Jughead would yell at her for doing nice things for him (like throwing him a birthday party). He would throw her feelings for Archie in her face. It made her feel guilty for loving Archie because he’s insecure regarding Archie and Betty’s relationship. Jughead and Betty would constantly harbor secrets and lie to each other for God knows what reason (this shows a huge lack of trust and honesty in the relationship). These represent unmistakable signs of an emotionally abusive relationship yet for some strange reason, and fandom never addresses it. Most of the fandom is “Awww, BUGHEAD FEELS!” when they see Jughead and Betty in any scene together, but they don’t realize the toxic and unhealthy aspects of their relationship. They believe that because Jughead and Betty look “cute” together and act all lovey-dovey and couple-like that all is healthy and okay with their relationship, But they divert a sightless eye to how much underlying emotional abuse and unacceptable toxicity exist in the Bughead relationship. 

Bughead look + act like siblings: I can’t get over how much Bughead look and act like brother and sister. Conceivably it’s because that is their relationship in the comics. But they don’t appear as a romantic couple to me. When they get intimate and sexual, it looks very incestuous. Jughead and Betty’s parents experiencing a romantic history emphasizes the incestuous aspect of the Bughead relationship. Let me gently remind you that if FP and Alice ever got married in the foreseeable future, Jughead and Betty would be step-siblings who are in brotherly love and dating each other. It is just shameful and bizarre and cringe-worthy. Let’s not forget that in real life, Cole and Lili look like they could be related or that they could be brother and sister. I know Cole has dyed his hair black for his role as Jughead, but Cole is a natural born blond. Lili is, also, a natural born blonde. Jughead and Betty would appear to be more like siblings than they do if Cole kept his original hair color of blond. If you don’t believe me that Cole and Lili legitimately look like they could pass as brother and sister, then just put a candid photo of Blond!Cole next to Lili and see how much they indeed physically resemble each other. Jughead and Betty’s relationship is just way too platonic and sibling-like for me to believe they have any romantic chemistry. Bughead’s sex scenes look like a brother and sister getting it on. For example, the first time when Bughead got physical in 1x13, it was just so awkward and non-sexual. It looked extremely sibling-like and incestuous, and it looked like two siblings having a secret affair in their trailer park. Yuck. The second considerable time that Bughead gets physical in 2x12, it appeared non-sexual and incestuous. Again, there was no sexual and romantic chemistry during their first time. The distinct lack of fierce passion and romanticism in Bughead’s relationship is the most substantial reason why I genuinely feel Bughead acts like a brother/sister type of relationship rather than a romantic, intimate one. Falice having sexual and romantic history plus Bughead sharing a long-lost sibling doesn’t help Bughead look any less like an incestuous brother/sister relationship.

Bughead is constantly trying to fix each other: I hate how Jughead and Betty are repeatedly trying to solve and fix each other’s problems. That’s not how healthy relationships work. In season 1 alone, I unquestionably felt that Betty was intentionally trying to fix Jughead properly. I felt like she was trying to mold Jughead into who she wanted him to be. I don’t feel like she fully accepted him for whom he was. Much of her relationship with Jughead in season 1 was her projecting her profound feelings for Archie onto Jughead. Jughead comes from a highly dysfunctional family and unfavorable environment. Betty saw Jughead as a project that could be fixed so she could feel better about herself. That’s exactly how I see Betty’s relationship with Jughead. I feel like she is constantly mothering him instead of being an actual supportive girlfriend. And Jughead genuinely seems to enable this mother type attitude in Betty because Jughead has serious unresolved mommy issues. After all, Jughead’s mother Gladys up and left and abandoned him to an extremely troubled household with an alcoholic deadbeat father. Betty, being the perfectionist and fixer that she is naturally, obviously fell for Jughead because she identifies with someone that is emotionally unstable due to his horrible upbringing. She knows he is poor and has serious family issues. For Betty, fixing Jughead is undoubtedly an effective way for her to feel better about herself because she battles serious self-esteem issues. She constantly experienced the standard pressure to be the faithful daughter, an excellent student, and a beloved sister, and this was the pressure that was eagerly pushed upon her by both of her willing parents Hal and Alice. I feel like since Betty constantly tries to fix Jughead’s fundamental problems, she promptly loses her independent identity to him in the process. In season 2, Betty fixing Jughead’s problems is even more obvious than in season 1. Betty is so adamant on fixing Jughead and earnestly trying to get him to overcome his difficult issues that she is intent on joining the Serpents and being passionately involved in the gang lifestyle. Betty’s reasoning for wanting to be a Serpent was so she can be with Jughead and watch out for him. I understand that she wants to be a so-called supportive girlfriend, but her wanting to be part of a gang lifestyle, something that she never grew up in and a life that is so unpredictable and dangerous, was just such a stupid and reckless reason. Even Jughead had to push back at Betty and inform her that the Serpent life wasn’t meant for her. The reason why Betty is always trying to fix Jughead and his problems is that she’s not satisfied with the person that Jughead is. If she loved and accepted Jughead for who he is, then she wouldn’t be trying to change him and solve his issues all the time. The other notable time when Betty tried to fix Jughead’s longstanding problems was when Betty decided to blackmail and manipulate Cheryl into lying under sacred oath about FP covering up the murder of her deceased twin brother Jason. Betty was so desperate to clear her boyfriend’s convicted father so that he would receive a lighter prison sentence and punishment for his crime. Betty did such a horrible, sinister and devious act by blackmailing a traumatized girl for her gain just so that she can be seen as a super good girlfriend who’d do anything for her boyfriend. On the reverse, Jughead also tries fixing Betty’s issues as well. Such as the case when Betty and her family found themselves in a crisis when Imposter Chic murdered someone right in the middle of the Cooper House. Jughead ended up committing a punishable crime by covering up murder evidence that belonged to the dead man so that the local authorities wouldn't catch Betty and her family for their crime. Not only that but because Jughead was trying so hard to fix Betty’s problems, he got his criminal parole father involved in the mess. I don’t know about you, but if I were Betty, the last thing I would want is for my longtime boyfriend’s father who had scarcely got out of prison, is for him to be involved in covering up a second dead body. I wouldn't want to involve my boyfriend's parole father so that he risks being arrested and going to jail once again for knowingly committing the same crime that burdened him in prison in the first place. Though Jughead has intentionally tried to solve Betty’s problems, there is one important issue in which Jughead has completely neglected when it comes to Betty: her mental health. For some reason, Jughead can fix and solve all of Betty’s obvious issues, but he can’t even convince her to get the mental help that she needs. Alternatively, he chooses to either brush it under the rug or enable it by advising her that everything is going to be okay because he’ll be there to support her. I’m not asking for Jughead to directly fix Betty’s mental health or cure her mental illness, because nobody is capable of doing such a thing. But what he should be doing, as any good boyfriend would typically do, is convincing her to get mental help for herself. I don’t want Jughead to fix Betty’s mental health because no one reasonable person can fix people’s mental illness. But what he can undoubtedly do is adequately communicate with her and talk intimately to her about her mental health issues. What he can do is demonstrate to her some tough love and sincerely convince her to stand up for herself and voluntarily seek the valuable help that she dearly needs. But Jughead hasn’t done that at all. He’s merely nudged Betty’s mental health to the side as if it signifies nothing. Jughead and Betty can fix each other’s external problems, but the one thing they consistently fail at doing is being a healthy and proper support system for each other without the need to fix and mold one another into who they want each other to be. That is conditional love, not unconditional love. 

Bughead has too much jealousy and insecurities: I genuinely think that Betty and Jughead undoubtedly have too much jealousy and insecurities in their relationship. These key issues with jealousy are highlighted in season 1 and season 2. Jughead is constantly insecure about Betty’s relationship and mutual feelings for Archie. It’s like it was habitually in the back of his mind. When Betty and Jughead get into a fight in 1x10, Jughead even lashes out at Betty about her ambiguous relationship with Archie. He notifies her that she is only with him till Archie reciprocates her feelings romantically. The fact that Jughead assumes this shows that he has some serious insecurity issues concerning Archie and Betty’s relationship. Jughead also showed jealousy when Betty and Archie exchanged Christmas gifts with each other in 2x09. He could see that Betty and Archie had that special connection that he didn’t have with Betty because Betty was so sure that the present she received was from Archie. Jughead knows deep down that Archie and Betty naturally have this powerful and deep connection yet he intentionally tries to conceal it and conveniently ignore it as much as possible. That is until Betty and Archie share moments right in front of him and then he allows his jealous and insecure side to come out. When Jughead finds out that Archie and Betty exchanged a kiss from Cheryl, Jughead doesn’t take it too well. He gets so upset and resentful over it that he possesses a desire to get back at Betty and Archie by kissing Veronica. The fact that he was willing to get back at Barchie for kissing each other showcased his insecurities regarding Archie and Betty’s relationship. If he were secure in his relationship with Betty, he wouldn’t require the need to resort to such a petty move. The fact of the matter is he wanted to get revenge against Archie and Betty, and he even admitted it as much. He told Betty that he enjoyed seeing the look on Archie’s face when he was kissing Veronica to get back at him. Pure jealousy and pettiness because he’s uncertain about Archie and Betty kissing, even when the two of them were broken up at the time. Jughead revealed some jealousy in a recent season 3 episode (3x10).  Archie told the rest of the core four at Pop’s that he would have a hard time studying for the SAT’s because he may have to repeat his academic Junior year due to having been through so much that year. Betty supported Archie and advised him that she would happily help him study and promptly let him catch up. Jughead had a bitterly jealous look on his face when Archie and Betty were talking about investing time together, and Betty was talking about tutoring Archie as she did for him back in grade 2. Jughead is desperately insecure with Archie and Betty just being friends and helping each other. That is how much he knows that he is in Archie’s constant shadow where Betty is concerned and he has been so since childhood. The fact is Jughead has always been jealous of Archie deep down because Betty has always loved Archie and showed him more attention than him. It’s stated as much by the writers who recently confirmed it (though I’m skeptical because I genuinely feel like much of Bughead’s relationship is retcon and a revision of history.). Jughead has always felt second best to Archie especially in regards to his friendship and emotional bond with Betty, and it’s been repeatedly sprinkled throughout the show so far. I think deep down, Jughead knows that Archie and Betty have such a deep and intimate connection and that with time, they will eventually consummate that connection. It’s only a matter of time. Jughead can see that Archie and Betty share this unique bond that he will never share with Betty and that brings out Jughead’s insecurities. Jughead can deny it deep down all he desires, but he completely knows. He knows by heart that what Archie and Betty naturally have is special and that one day, Archie is eventually going to open his eyes and realize that Betty is the chosen one for him. But for now, Jughead tries turning a blind eye to it because he wants to have faith that his relationship with Betty will survive through it all. But with considerable time, Bughead will founder, and nothing will stop Barchie from getting together down the continuous line. At this specific point, it is inevitable, and Jughead even said as much in 2x08 when he narrated the memorable Barchie scene with the both of them looking wistfully at each other through each other’s windows. But not only does Jughead battle jealousy issues in their relationship. Betty has shown some jealousy issues where Jughead is concerned. The times when Betty had demonstrated jealousy and insecurity regarding Jughead was when Jughead was acting genuinely friendly with Toni. In 2x11, Jughead and Toni were working collaboratively on a school project together, and when she instantly saw Jughead and Toni together, she immediately got suspicious. It is part of the reason why Betty was so hostile towards Toni at first because she was self-conscious about Jughead’s friendship and bond with Toni. Betty harbored insecurities where Jughead and Toni were concerned because Toni, unlike Betty, was from the same world as Jughead. Both Jughead and Toni were undoubtedly kindred spirits because they were both from the Southside, both poor and both have a direct Serpent lineage. These striking similarities between Jughead and Toni automatically made them compatible and right for each other (this was before Toni got with Cheryl and confirmed that she liked both guys and girls). Betty naturally viewed Toni as a potential threat to her relationship with Jughead because Toni was traditionally from Jughead’s complex world and Betty was not. That is where Betty’s fierce jealousy regarding Toni and Jughead exists. Generally speaking, Bughead merely possesses too many insecurities regarding their relationship. The fact that Jughead and Betty get so easily insecure and jealous when someone of the opposite sex develops some mutual bond or meaningful relationship with either of them shows a distinct lack of mutual security in their relationship. 

Bughead lack solid communication: A fundamental problem that I naturally have with Bughead’s relationship is precisely the fundamental lack of effective communication in their relationship. They are always lying to each other and keeping secrets from each other, especially dangerous secrets that are critically important. Bughead has issues opening up to each other when it is most significant for them to do so. The remarkable lack of direct communication between both of them is one of the most substantial reasons why their relationship is so toxic, especially in season 1. Betty has knowingly lied to Jughead numerous times and has deliberately concealed valuable secrets from him. Some of the necessary things that Betty has knowingly lied to Jughead about or kept from him prominently include her struggling with mental illness. She steadfastly refused to tell Jughead that she passionately kissed Archie. Betty didn't tell Jughead that she was webcamming online with unusual men. She didn't tell Jughead or let him know she had every intention of joining the Serpents and going through the Serpent initiation of stripping on stage (Jughead ended up completely blindsided when Betty stripteased on stage). Betty didn't inform Jughead about her presumed long lost brother Chic and how dangerous and suspicious he was. She didn't notify Jughead that the Black Hood was threatening and blackmailing her into hurting her loved ones against her will intentionally. Betty refused to tell Jughead that she was privately working with the Black Hood and assisting him in causing destruction and chaos in Riverdale (She told Archie and Veronica about her working with the Black Hood before she confessed to her boyfriend!). Additionally, she didn't tell Jughead that she was a direct accomplice to murder when she sent Imposter Chic to his death by luring him to the Black Hood so that he could personally assassinate and murder him (This means Betty was okay with someone being killed in cold blood even if they were a bad or evil person.). In contrast, Jughead isn’t always honest with Betty either. He didn’t tell Betty that he kissed Toni and sort of hooked up with her after they broke up. He withheld the critical fact that his father was a Southside Serpent from her which would have introduced much unnecessary drama to Betty’s life. He hasn’t told Betty about the vital fact that he kidnapped and tortured Tall Boy and then covered up his murder after Fangs accidentally shot him dead. He wasn't upfront with Betty about him playing Gryphons & Gargoyles at first. He was willing to steadfastly maintain his active involvement in the complex game a well-kept secret from her. There’s way too many unnecessary lies and deep secrets between the two of them. Secrets and extremely detrimental and terrible lies in nature. The fundamental fact that Jughead and Betty constantly feel they can’t talk about the critically significant things or gloss over their key issues is a red flag for the longevity of their romance. A beneficial and stable intimate relationship typically involves effective communication, trust, and straightforward honesty when it matters most, and unfortunately, Jughead and Betty fail spectacularly to perform all of those critical things properly. In this season (season 3), I find they are slowly growing removed from each other which is naturally causing them to lack communication even more. Periodically, I don’t feel that Bughead communicate enough that I conveniently forget they are a couple or are in a relationship. They are acting like two distinguished strangers who don’t recognize each other. That’s how separate their relationship has undoubtedly become this season. Season 2 had them continually lying to each other and keeping secrets from each other, but season 3 typically has them barely talking or properly communicating at all. When they have communicated this season, it usually results in a climactic fight or a possible argument of some sort. I genuinely think the fundamental fact that Jughead and Betty’s social communication is weak is a visible sign that their relationship is on borrowed time. 

Bughead shares a long-lost sibling: This key reason merely makes Bughead look like a disgusting and gross relationship. Are we just going to forget that FP (Jughead’s father) and Alice (Betty’s mother) gave birth to a long-lost child together in high school? It means that Jughead and Betty share a half-sibling/half-brother. It immediately makes their relationship very awkward and weird. Bughead is already incestuous enough as it because they act suspiciously like brother and sister and don’t have romantic chemistry/sexual chemistry, to begin. But the fact that Falice experienced intimate history together and had a child together makes Bughead even weirder. Falice’s illegitimate deceased son and Bughead’s half-brother Charles is supposedly dead because Imposter Chic allegedly murdered him. Even if Charles happens to be dead, it doesn’t change that Jughead and Betty still share a brother and that it nevertheless makes their relationship borderline incestuous. I’m sorry, but if I found out that my longtime boyfriend and I shared in common a half-sibling, I don’t know if I could maintain a romantic relationship with my boyfriend. I would be disgusted if I acknowledged my parents and my boyfriend's parents were hooking up! Jughead and Betty’s father and mother hooking up and having a sexual history and currently revisiting that romantic and sexual history is bad enough. But the fact that Bughead shares a sibling makes it so much worse, and it doesn’t sit right with me at all. If Falice gets appropriately married in the possible future, Bughead would be traditionally step-siblings who share in common a half-deceased brother and are in a romantic relationship. That’s just odd.

Bughead doesn’t exist in the comics: Bughead has never been in the source material of Archie Comics. It is a significant reason why I hate this couple. There has under no circumstances been any romantic implications between Jughead and Betty in the comics. Jughead and Betty experience a strictly platonic relationship in the comics, and he's never shown any romantic interest in her whatsoever. Alternatively, Jughead has proved to be typically a generous supporter of Archie and Betty being together. Yes, that’s accurate. Jughead is undoubtedly the most prominent Barchie supporter in the classic comics, and that’s the proper way it should be typically. Jughead continually provides Betty kindly advice on how to win Archie over and persuade him to select Betty over Veronica. Jughead constantly encourages Betty to pursue Archie doggedly and has never had any interest in considering a romantic move on Betty whatsoever. Bughead as a romantic relationship does not and never has existed in the Archies Comic universe from what I recognize. And for that exact reason, this is why Bughead is considered to be unquestionably a fanservice ship. Jughead has traditionally had more romantic moments with Veronica in the classic comics than he has had with Betty! For some apparent reason, the prominent writers of Riverdale persistently refuse to have Jeronica experience more meaningful interaction and scenes together, despite their relationship being way more emphasized and iconic in the classic comics than Jughead and Betty’s. Bughead being canon on the show is utterly disrespectful to the source material of Archie Comics and even more insulting that the contributing writers voluntarily chose to erase the classic and iconic love triangle between Archie/Betty/Veronica just so that they can typically force Bughead on us. Just nope.

Jughead becomes unlikeable because of Betty: In season 1, I loved Jughead’s unique character. But as soon as he instantly got with Betty, he typically started to slowly become one of the most unlikeable characters on the show. I instantly saw rare glimpses of his unlikeability in season 1 when he was typical with Betty. When Betty threw Jughead a birthday party, Jughead lashed out and acted like a complete jerk. Affirmative, Betty should have told him beforehand that she wanted to arrange him a party instead of blindsiding him, but he still shouldn’t have reacted so harshly towards her. Despite Jughead’s periodic outbursts towards Betty and generally acting cold, icy and aloof towards most people, I sincerely liked Jughead and undoubtedly found him a decent character. Come season 2, and Jughead’s distinctive character became increasingly annoying and intolerable. I’m not going to instantly put all of the blame on Betty and Jughead’s relationship with her for him becoming increasingly annoying and unlikeable, but she is partly to blame for his fundamental change in personality. In season 1, Jughead demanded nothing to do with the Serpents. He proclaimed he wanted nothing to do with the Serpents so much that he didn’t have a good relationship with his father. Jughead would have rather been homeless than be undoubtedly like his alcoholic father. But then suddenly. Jughead genuinely wants to be a Serpent so bad and enthusiastically embrace his family legacy. It was like a polar night and day switch in personality. He went from being someone who was repulsed and turned off by the Serpents to genuinely wanting to be an active part of the Serpents and advocating for them so hard. And the remarkable thing is, I genuinely feel like Betty fed into Jughead’s negative Serpent addiction. She enabled his earnest desire to all of a sudden be a Serpent. Initially, Betty would be against Jughead being a Serpent but turns out that she wasn’t against it at all. By contrast, she was fine with her longtime boyfriend being undoubtedly in an organized gang and endangering himself even further. She was fine with Jughead eagerly embracing his historical Serpent legacy that Betty herself wanted to be a part of the complex Serpent world. She enabled Jughead becoming a Serpent. Jughead choosing to join the active gang voluntarily was precisely his informed decision, but Betty helped to influence him even more and enable him to become a Serpent. Essentially, Betty enabled Jughead to experience a dangerous lifestyle that could cause him so much trouble and danger instead of advocating for him to live a much safer crime-free lifestyle. It is possible it’s just me, but since Jughead has become a Serpent and even more, a Serpent King, Jughead has become very unlikeable and irritating as a character. Throughout the second half of season 2, I found Jughead increasingly annoying. He came across as very aggressive, intentionally mean and a cowardly bully. I especially hated his treatment of Veronica and how he talked down to her and mistreated her for her family’s crimes. Jughead was always the one who would proclaim the kids are not their parents. Adequately, if that were the case, why didn’t he give Veronica the benefit of the doubt and apply that same philosophy to her? He's becoming more aggressive, volatile and confrontational. In season 3 as Serpent King, he has become drunk and eagerly consumed with power. He has let being Serpent King and being an elected leader make his ego grow out of excessive control, and now he’s resorted to ill-treating his subordinate Serpents. He’s been a horrible leader so far and has proven he’s not meant to be King. Jughead had no issue with voluntarily leaving the Serpents high and dry and struggling financially. I genuinely understand that Jughead was helping his best friend Archie escape from Riverdale and the wrath of Hiram Lodge. But he doesn’t enjoy the luxury of doing stuff like that now that he’s Serpent King. He has responsibilities that he must tend to and dependent people to protect. That is precisely the whole point of being an effective leader and a King of a gang: caring about your needed people and subordinates. Season 3 has proven that Jughead is two types of leaders. Either he's a brutal, tyrannical, dictatorial, power-hungry, aggressive, and controlling Serpent King towards his subordinates and treats his underlings with disrespect and unfairness. Or he’s a weak, wimpy, irresponsible, spineless, and careless Serpent King who doesn’t take his responsibilities seriously enough and doesn’t seem to give a shit about his subordinates. Jughead, so far, has proven he is unlikeable as a Serpent and even more unlikeable as a Serpent King. With regards to Betty, Jughead humbly asking Betty to be his beloved Serpent Queen is undoubtedly just all distinct kinds of ridiculous. She does not deserve that honorary title. She is there because she is Jughead’s longtime girlfriend. She isn't earning that title through what she has done for the Serpents. It’s sheer nepotism because she is dating the Serpent King. The fact that Jughead allowed her to become the Serpent Queen is pathetic and sickening. If anyone should be given the title of Serpent Queen, it’s Toni Topaz. After all, the Southside Serpents are her family, and her family was the one who originated and founded the gang in the first place. It's Toni's legacy, and it's in her blood, even more than Jughead.  In addition to proving to be a horrible friend, boyfriend,  and leader, Jughead has showcased high key hypocritical behavior. He constantly criticizes Hiram Lodge and the Lodge family for being a family of petty criminals when his family is also criminals similar to the Lodges. As Serpent King, he declared there would be no crime tolerated as long as he is King. He had no issue with promptly kicking Toni and Cheryl out for doing something as harmless and stupid as stealing a Glamerge Egg stealthily from someone who has intentionally tried to destroy the Serpents lives (Hiram Lodge) wantonly. But then Jughead commits multiple crimes when he kidnaps and tortures Tall Boy and then covers up the murder of Tall Boy after Fangs accidentally assassinates him. He has allowed the executive power as Serpent King to get to his head and he has become more and more egotistical and full of himself. And Betty being with him surely hasn’t helped matters. She hasn’t been capable of snapping him out of these horrible moments that he’s been having throughout this season. Jughead has been playing Gryphons & Gargoyles, and he has allowed the game to consume him, and he has started to act crazy and brainwashed. But even Betty forewarning him hasn’t snapped him out of it. Jughead has become power hungry, and a tyrannical authoritarian leader of the Serpents and Betty hasn’t been able to temper his ego and his overwhelming power-hungry attitude. He has grown extremely distant from Betty, and it doesn’t even seem like they are even a couple anymore. There are just so many things that have negatively changed in Jughead’s character that I’m certain that the only way to repair Jughead’s character is to break him up with Betty and for him to be single for a while so that he can grow as a person. Jughead’s relationship with Betty has knowingly caused Jughead to become a stagnant character with bad character development. Jughead has regressed as a unique character and hasn’t experienced any positive growth, and at least 80% of the reason for Jughead’s distinct lack of personal growth is overwhelmingly his relationship with Betty. 

Betty becomes annoying because of Jughead: Similar to the previous point, Bughead has also caused Betty’s complex character to be impacted negatively as well. Since getting involved with Jughead, Betty has come to be one of the most annoying and irritating characters. She had been a much better character before she got into a rebound relationship with Jughead. Betty was a decent character in season 1, but she slowly descended into annoying character territory as soon as she jumped into a relationship with Jughead. The fundamental truth is that part of what traditionally made Betty more and more annoying was how much of her unique identity was dependent on Jughead. In season 2, it became pronounced that Betty was starting losing her identity through her relationship with Jughead. Her moral compass also started to become blurred, and she was willing to bend the rules and her morals for Jughead, something that is not okay. Such a prime example of Betty doing something immoral in the name of Jughead is when she severely threatened Cheryl and blackmailed her into lying under oath at FP’s criminal trial about FP covering up Jason’s brutal murder so that he would improperly receive a lighter prison sentence than he deserved. Betty blackmailed Cheryl to commit deceit or else she would expose the video of her father Clifford murdering her beloved twin brother Jason on the internet and everyone would know about it. The fact that Betty was willing to efficiently conduct such an evil, sinister and immoral deed all in the name of saving Jughead’s convicted father from receiving the prison sentence that he deserved for committing a crime of covering up murder showcased that Jughead is merely such a bad influence on Betty. As we all know, Betty battles a sinister side and suffers severe mental health issues that she has repeatedly ignored and refused to face and acknowledge. Jughead possesses a habit of bringing out Betty’s darkness and enabling her mental illness. When Betty was misbehaving and dressing up in BDSM clothing during a foreplay session with Jughead in 2x14, Jughead didn’t even flinch or show concern. He indeed enjoyed it and relished in it, and it was just beyond disturbing. Another key thing that bothered me was how Betty was so desperate to be with Jughead that she was willing to give up her established identity as a Northsider and promptly become a Southside Serpent. Jughead had informed her that he didn’t want him involved in that life because of how dangerous it is yet she persistently refused to listen attentively to him and his legitimate concerns. Betty got on a grand stage and started stripping in front of a local bar of old men as an underaged girl. It was just so inappropriate, and this was when I started to dislike Betty and realize just how much of a toxic influence Jughead and his environment have on Betty. Also, since getting with Jughead, Betty has become increasingly mean spirited and self-righteous. She adopts a terrible attitude and feels like she can merely talk down ton people whenever she wants. The unreasonable way Betty treats Veronica and talks down to her is downright disgusting and unacceptable. She has gone out of her way to humiliate Veronica repeatedly publicly, and I feel like Jughead plays a part in that because Jughead has always had a grudge against Veronica and her family. Jughead’s self-righteous and arrogant attitude, especially throughout season 2, strongly rubbed off on Betty and it showed in how Betty talked to people and treated others. Jughead and Betty together were highly annoying and unlikeable throughout season 2, and I couldn’t stand them and how they acted up. With Jughead, Betty seems to have a superiority complex which causes me to want to punch her in the face. She thinks she has the moral high ground when in reality, Betty has become one of the most morally compromised characters in the show since she got with Jughead. Betty has showcased that she is also very hypocritical. She is willing to commit immoral, illegal and criminal activity herself knowingly and is perfectly okay with Jughead committing immoral and criminal activity because they naturally think they are doing it for the right thing. But God forbid someone else does something wrong or something traditionally considered to be illegal, and all eternal hell breaks loose, and Jughead and Betty suddenly have something to declare about it. Betty called Veronica out for being a spoiled wealthy girl with corrupt daddy issues. Also, she called Veronica, a bad girl because of the harmful things her wealthy family does. It makes Betty pathetic and hypocritical. When she made those offensive comments to humiliate Veronica publically, she lacked self-awareness in addition to being a hypocrite. Because the truth is, Betty is also a spoiled, privileged girl with serious daddy issues and with a serial killer father and a cruel mother. Not to mention that Betty has committed more crimes and broken the law way more than Veronica ever has. Therefore no, Betty doesn’t claim any right or moral high ground to criticize Veronica and humiliate her constantly for things that her criminal family commits. Because Betty is more morally compromised than Veronica and it’s not even close. Not only do I believe that Jughead exercises a profoundly negative influence on Betty’s personality and he enables her darkness, but he also isolates Betty. It genuinely seems that since getting with Jughead, Betty has isolated herself from her other friends. We barely witness her communicate with anyone else other than Jughead. To Betty, it seems that Jughead is all that matters to her. That causes Betty to appear as unfriendly, aloof, unapproachable and unlikeable. Like Jughead, Betty has morphed into a loner, and it’s very unhealthy. Betty was way more sociable and friendly before she got with Jughead and it’s just sad that her relationship with Jughead has knowingly caused her social life to take a serious hit and deteriorate so badly. Betty has inevitably lost her likability and her identity because of her relationship with Jughead. Jughead has made Betty very unlikeable, and that is why it’s so hard for me even to support her or like her anymore. Like I mentioned above, the sole way for Betty’s character to be redeemed is for the writers to break Betty and Jughead up. Betty needs to be single for a while and to undergo some character development on her own without the urgent need of a boyfriend. I do ultimately desire her to develop a romantic relationship with Archie sufficiently but truthfully; she doesn’t deserve Archie with who she currently is. She’s way too screwed up to be with anyone in a relationship right now. Betty needs to be getting help for her mental health. She needs to be resolving her family issues. She needs to get some self-esteem because I honestly don’t think she has any. And most of all, she needs to get the hell away from Jughead. He is just bad for her on so many levels. Betty would be way more likeable, and a more admirable character without Jughead and that is the truth. Jughead is a major influence and apparent reason for Betty’s ultimate downfall as a decent character. Simply disappointing. 

Jughead is second best to Archie (when it concerns Betty): Let’s confront the facts here. Betty has been in unconditional love with Archie, and she always will be. That will never change. I don’t care how much she proclaims that Jughead is this impressive boyfriend and epic love (which he’s not). Betty loved Archie for so long and for her to merely disregard her feelings for him makes absolutely no logical sense to the storyline. We at present know that Jughead has felt second best to Archie since they were kids. Jughead felt that Archie was typically the more brilliant kid, the more popular kid, and Betty cherished him. Jughead has always felt second best to Archie, and honestly, that will never change. In the back of Jughead’s conscious mind, he feels insecure next to Archie and even more now than when they were kids growing up together. Archie has everything favoring him. He’s well-liked, he’s a natural-born leader, good-looking, charismatic, get all the attractive girls, he’s a talented athlete and a local star. Plus there’s inevitably going to be that critical fact that since childhood, Betty loved Archie before she barely looked Jughead’s way. Despite receiving the girl, Jughead must know that deep down, the most significant reason why he indeed got the girl in the first place is that Archie rejected her because he didn’t think he was competent enough to be with someone like her. It’s not like Betty naturally chose Jughead over Archie because she didn’t. Betty never got the chance or the ample opportunity to do so. Betty loved Archie for years, Betty told Archie how she genuinely felt, Archie totally freaked out and instantly rejected her, Betty was naturally forced to move on no matter how much Archie’s rejection hurt her. Allow me to spell it out one more time: Betty Cooper never chose Jughead Jones over Archie Andrews. Alternatively, Betty Cooper settled for Jughead Jones because she couldn’t have Archie Andrews. Archie has consistently been Betty’s first choice period. Do you genuinely think that is somehow going to change even though Jughead and Betty are currently in a relationship? Nah. One memorable day, Betty will willfully choose Archie over Jughead. It’s only a critical matter of time. Because deep down, Betty loves Archie and constantly has and always will. Betty will uncover her eyes once again and realize that Archie is the one that she belongs with and that she was merely projecting what she desired to possess with Archie into her relationship with Jughead. And yes, as a direct result of Betty’s unresolved feelings, Jughead will end up feeling second best to Archie once again just like he typically did when they were kids. Jughead will end up undoubtedly hurt and left behind like he did when Betty, Archie, and Jughead used to hang out during their childhood. The truth is Betty is settling for Jughead because Archie was unavailable to her. Poor Jughead. 

The classic, iconic love triangle (between Archie/Betty/Veronica) needs to be explored: The classic, iconic love triangle between Archie, Veronica and Betty is the most important storyline of Archie Comics. The fact that the writers believed it would be a brilliant idea to erase this aspect of the comics on their show adaptation is one of the worst writing decisions ever. If you’re going to make a show off an adaptation from a novel or comic book, at least make sure that you include the most compelling storylines and plot from the source material. Otherwise, what is the point of making a TV adaptation if you’re not going to respect the source material? The classic love triangle between Archie, Veronica and Betty is undoubtedly the whole point of Archie Comics. For the prominent writers to erase this key aspect and force Bughead as the main couple on the successful show, an odd couple that doesn’t indeed exist in the classic comics in the first place, a huge insult to the Archie Comics franchise. One of the fundamental reasons why I began watching this show in the first place is to see the iconic love triangle unfold between Archie, Veronica, and Betty. When I initially saw the show and the Pilot, I genuinely thought that was what we were allegedly going to receive throughout the series. But it proved to be a massive disappointment. They erased the triangle and forced Jughead and Betty into an unusual relationship. It merely makes no sense for the plot and the show. The sole reason why Jughead and Betty got together and for pure fan service reasons. Jughead and Betty are undoubtedly in no proper way romantically involved in the Archie Comics. They are strictly platonic friends, and I expected them to have the same dynamic on the show. Betty has always been in love with Archie and has never expressed a romantic interest in Jughead in the source material. Betty not being in passionate love with Archie and pining for him goes willingly against everything that Betty Cooper is popular as a unique character in the classic comics. Archie’s primary storyline is constantly being torn between Betty and Veronica, especially in the Archie Comics (2015) reboot. That is typically Archie Comics. The love triangle between Archie, Veronica and Betty are so timeless and classic and iconic that it’s the first key thing I naturally think of when I think of Archie Comics. This love triangle is one of the classic and oldest love triangles in modern media. This ongoing love triangle between Archie, Veronica and Betty and the compelling storyline of who is Archie inevitably going to choose: Betty or Veronica? has been going on for nearly 100 years! How do you produce a show based on Archie Comics and erase such a crucial plot point and storyline from the source material that you are adapting? It doesn’t generate any sense. It is why I don’t like or properly respect Bughead. Bughead should have never happened romantically on the show. It ruined or lowered the chances of the classic love triangle from being explored. Before being a Riverdale fan, I’m undoubtedly an Archie Comics fan. The contributing writers completely shit all over Archie Comics by not including the love triangle. Hopefully, the writers stop writing fan service and produce the show the way it’s supposed to be written. I sincerely hope that eventually, the writers diligently pursue the love triangle between Archie, Veronica, and Betty. Otherwise, what was typically the essential point in creating Riverdale in the first place? RAS and the Riverdale writers screwed up big time and merely made a critical writing and administrative error. And because of that, it’s no wonder the show has gone sideways, and the plot and storylines and characterizations of the comic characters are completely over the place. They neglected the one crucial piece of the Archie Comics material, and that is the classic love triangle. Shame on the contributing writers for reluctantly forcing Bughead, a useless ship that is undoubtedly non-existent in the classic comics, and shamefully neglecting and conveniently ignoring the love triangle between Archie, Betty, and Veronica. I don’t want to watch two boring, stale couples of Bughead and Varchie (AKA the Core Four) be all happy and lovey-dovey and act like they are elderly wed couples in high school. NO. I want complex drama. I require the exploration of creative relationships. I want fun and wild excitement. I want breathless suspense. The forced pairings of Varchie and Bughead do not provide me that, and it has strongly diverted me as a loyal viewer of Riverdale. Without that iconic love triangle from the classic comics, the show is going to become stale and boring very quickly. We’re in season 3, and the show already has become stale because of the boring, forced chemistry-lacking couples of Bughead and Varchie being constantly shoved in our grave faces and screaming hysterically “We’re endgame!” so early in the series. Where is the genuine excitement and legitimate interest in that when couples are already declaring their endgame and meant to be together so early in the series? That’s a huge executive writing mistake to put together those kinds of lines and dialogue in a show that’s a teen drama with romance. People are getting bored, and it’s showing in the ratings and in the reviews. Promptly give me the classic love triangle which is supposed to be traditionally established canon on the show and quit writing fan serviced garbage that is forced AKA Bughead and Varchie!

Bughead lacks sexual attraction and romanticism: Bughead doesn't appear to be a romantic enough couple because I find they lack sexual attraction and romanticism in their relationship. I know they have had romantic scenes and sex scenes on the show, but for some reason, there is no spark there. I feel whenever I'm viewing Bughead having a romantic scene or sexual scenes, it’s forced and they act like platonic friends who are intentionally trying to push a romantic connection that isn’t there at all. It is possible it’s the lack of chemistry between the two characters or even more, the two actors (Cole and Lili) but something is entirely missing. With the way that Jughead and Betty look at each other or act around each other, I don’t feel the sense that they are sexually or physically attracted to each other. They never gave each other those kinds of intriguing and passionate looks or glances. They don't have looks where there is complete and total desire or aching or desperate longing to be with each other. I’m uncertain if Jughead is physically or sexually attracted to Betty whatsoever. Affirmative, Betty is an attractive girl, but I don’t think he’s romantically attracted to her as he wants her. I think Jughead loves Betty, but I don’t think he lusts for her. If I accurately compare the way Jughead looks at Betty to the way he looked at Toni or especially Veronica, you can tell the difference. I see the physical and irresistible attraction between Jughead and Veronica. Jughead even admits he is physically and sexually attracted to Veronica in a recent season 3 episode (3x12). Jughead comments on Veronica’s physical beauty and her good looks, calling her “a hell of a good looking one” and “pretty girl.” It is an indication that Jughead holds an attraction towards Veronica. I haven’t heard Jughead express how beautiful or hot he thinks Betty is. I haven’t seen the desire that Jughead is supposed to have for Betty. At this moment in time, I’m not asking for Bughead to be a lustful, all sexual relationship. But the fact that there is little to no sexual or romantic attraction in their relationship leads me to believe there isn’t any sexual tension there. Not only do I think that Jughead isn’t sexually attracted to Betty, but I don’t think that Betty is sexually attracted to Jughead either. I do believe Betty is physically/romantically/sexually attracted to Archie in a notable addition to harboring an emotional attraction to him. That’s where Barchie is superior to Bughead: they have sexual attraction, romantic attraction, and emotional attraction. Bughead is dearly missing the romantic and sexual attraction aspects of their relationship, and that is why they lack organic chemistry. Sure they may have an emotional attraction, but that’s not enough to keep the relationship going. With Bughead, I merely don’t feel like they represent an amorous couple because they lack that romantic spark and desire. It produces an incredibly dull, non-romantic relationship. 

Bughead acts too much like an old married couple: The indisputable fact that Jughead and Betty are already working as though they are a wedded stable couple is pathetic. They are only 16 years old, yet they are acting as though they have been married for 30 or 40 years! They are just teenagers, and I don’t find it realistic for a couple to be that serious so fast at such a young age. Technically speaking, Bughead is typically the first love, teenage relationship yet they intentionally try to act like they represent a mature adult relationship. it doesn’t make sense, and it’s unrealistic. A romantic couple of 16-year-olds pretending they are lawfully married is not what teenage romance is and it’s not what typically happens in the real world. Jughead and Betty need to act accordingly like teenagers in a relationship, not two 50-year-olds who have been married for decades. Because of Bughead acting so mature for their age and acting like an elderly couple already, their relationship is very dull, stale and dry. There is little excitement and enthusiasm in the relationship. When you’re 16, and in a relationship, there is drama, there’s chaos, and there are ups and downs. A typical teenage romantic relationship doesn’t act as though they have been wed for 30 years, have a lively bunch of kids with a beloved dog, and a beautiful big house and white picket fence. It’s unrealistic, and it instantly makes Bughead look like a practical joke. The writers made a dreadful mistake making Bughead look like some old, mature couple because it just doesn’t suit two 16-year-old adolescents. For this reason, I can't take Bughead seriously.

Sprousehart is a PR or publicity couple: My final reason for disliking Bughead undoubtedly has to do with Sprousehart AKA the real-life “relationship” between Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart who portrays Jughead and Betty (Bughead). Therefore, it is recognizable for a while now that Cole and Lili are dating off-screen and they are invariably a couple. I know many fans in the Riverdale fandom are convinced that these two are the real deal and that they are in love and blah, blah, blah. But for me? I genuinely think they represent a fake PR couple. My specific reason for genuinely thinking this is because Cole and Lili have consistently failed to have any romantic or sexual on-screen chemistry as Bughead. If Cole and Lili are dating in real life and are undoubtedly in passionate love, then how come when they are portraying Bughead, they don’t have any personal chemistry at all? Shouldn’t a longtime couple that is dating off-screen be able to play a convincing romantic couple on-screen? Like I mentioned in my previous post, I critically compared Sprousehart to Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) and discussed the considerable differences between the two couples. I argued Brangelina were able to showcase their strong off-screen chemistry and their off-screen romance on the screen while they were playing a couple in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. However, Sprousehart can’t achieve the same thing as Bughead. This fact has ushered me to believe that Brangelina signifies a real couple while Sprousehart signifies a fake PR couple. Let’s not forget that the CW Network genuinely seems to specialize in aggressively pushing PR couples to reap buzz and dedicated attention and impressive ratings for their ambitious projects. Remember Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev from The Vampire Diaries? They were, also, a fake CW Network couple. Many attractive CW Network couples seem to last three to five years because it’s in their business contract and part of the deal with their management. Once the business contract is over, and the CW Network has successfully received enough buzz, earnest attention and satisfactory ratings for their specific project, then the two principal actors in the CW Network PR couple break up. That is what happened organically with Nina and Ian on TVD. They precisely dated each other for three years and then suddenly, they broke up and undoubtedly had a strange animosity towards each other. I also believe that Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush who portrayed Lucas Scott and Brooke Davis on One Tree Hill embodied a fake PR couple and were pushed simultaneously together by the WB/CW Network. That is why their marriage didn’t last because it was a business contract and their characters Lucas Scott and Brooke Davis were dating on their show. Sprousehart is falling into the same category as Nian and Chophia, two popular couples that were passionately loved and adored by longtime devoted fans of TVD and OTH respectively. Also, I have compared Sprousehart to Robsten (Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart) from the successful Twilight film franchise. Many people still believe Robsten were a real couple and that they were in love in real life. But the reality is they weren’t. Robsten represents a PR couple, and they were forced together by their executive management. Rob and Kristen’s rumored romance was to generate attention, buzz, and money for the Twilight franchise and it was abundantly obvious. Once the Twilight movie franchise was over, Kristen was captured cheating with her movie producer, and there were paparazzi photos of her cheating and canoodling with her movie producer which generated a massive scandal. But here’s the thing. Those Kristen iconic cheating photos were all staged. Kristen had those photos taken on purpose so that she could completely “break up” with Robert and get out of her business contract with him. Now that the Twilight movies were over and Rob and Kristen no longer needed to promote their movies, they could do whatever they wanted after getting out of the contract. Once Kristen and Robert were out of the PR contract, Robert immediately moved on with another attractive girl (the British rapper Twigs), and Kristen came out as bisexual and started courting other women. Another comparable couple to Sprousehart? The royal Disney Network couple, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens AKA Zanessa. They were, also, an exceedingly popular couple during the days of High School Musical. Everyone in the media was talking about them, and there was much buzz and attention generated around their off-screen romance. I believe Zanessa was a PR couple that was pushed together by the Disney Network. Zanessa dating each other screen and being seen together as a couple in genuine life was about attention, money, and ratings for HSM. Interestingly enough, there is a strong parallel between Zanessa and Sprousehart, and that is both of these “couples” had paparazzi photos of them taken while they were walking together on the beach. Nobody can tell me the photos of Sprousehart on the beach in Hawaii from last year were not staged because they were. They are practically identical to the pap photos of Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens when they were on the beach together. I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but there have been too many similarities between Sprousehart and other PR couples like Robsten, Zanessa and Nian. If you don’t believe me about the possibility of Sprousehart being a fake PR/publicity couple, please refer to these articles and they will enlighten you about PR/publicity couples in Hollywood and show business: 1.) https://www.thetalko.com/15-celebrity-relationships-that-were-fake-and-we-believed-them/ 2.) https://www.nickiswift.com/2203/hollywood-relationships-completely-fake/ 3.) https://stars.topix.com/slideshow/15764 4.) https://www.slice.ca/love/photos/celebrity-relationships-that-might-not-have-been-real/#!staged-tom-taylor 5.) https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/gqy9dy/taylor-swift-tom-hiddleston-pr-relationships-promances 6.) https://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/slideshows/12-celebrity-relationships-were-pretty-sure-are-fake/. The fundamental problem is that so many people fall for these fake PR couples because they can look pretty convincing. Therefore though a  couple may be PR and fake, so many naive people, predominantly young fans of the couple, can’t tell they aren’t a true romance and that they are only together for other purposes that traditionally have nothing to do with genuine love and romance. Now, as to why Cole and Lili are in a possibly fake PR romance? I think Cole is in the romance with Lili because it gives him attention and reignites his fame and recognition amongst the media and the public. Cole is pretty famous already due to his legendary past as an established Disney star/ child star in which he grew up in the limelight. However, being on a popular teen drama (Riverdale) and trying to get his foot back into the acting world and possibly the photography world, being in a romantic relationship with one of his co-stars is a sure way to ignite tons of media buzz along with fan attention towards him. Now, just because I believe Cole is in a PR relationship with Lili for his benefit doesn’t mean I think he’s some super cold, ruthless,  ambitious snake that is merely using Lili for his gain. It’s not to say I don’t think Cole likes Lili as a person but do I think he’s romantically involved with her? No, I don’t. At best, I would say Cole is friends with benefits with Lili, but moreover, I sincerely believe Cole is close friends and co-stars with Lili more than anything else. In contrast, I fervently believe that Lili’s key reasons for being in the PR relationship with Cole are much more ruthless and ambitious than Cole's reasons for being in the relationship with Lili. I genuinely think Lili is dating Cole for considerable publicity, established fame and generous recognition. She's undoubtedly a reasonably new and up and coming actress, and by dating Cole, who is already rather famous already, she undoubtedly gains significant attention and extraordinary popularity through her relationship with Cole. Much of the attention that Lili typically gets in the modern media and amongst the Riverdale fandom is because she is dating Cole off-screen, let’s be honest here. Sure, she commands active support herself, and there are loyal fans who like her for her acting and her personality, but it’s her “alleged relationship” with Cole that delivers that extra bit of attention in her favor. I think Lili sees money and fame where her relationship with Cole is concerned. I don’t necessarily think it's about real love and genuine romance, but more about what Cole can do for her future acting or successful Hollywood career. I harbor a distinct feeling that once Riverdale starts to wind down and comes to a close, Sprousehart is likely to break up and go their separate ways, similar to how Nian on TVD did. That’s because I  think Sprousehart is a contracted PR romance that is being used as an iconic brand to efficiently generate social attention and media buzz for Riverdale to help increase its ratings and earn money. The sad thing is many fans of Sprousehart are naive, teenaged girls who believe that life faithfully imitates cinematic art and that like Bughead, Sprousehart are true love and are traditionally the modern-day epic romance. But grievously, they couldn’t be more incorrect. Now, what I’m stating could all be untrue, but I’m only going by what I’ve observed so far with Sprousehart. It is possible I’m mistaken, and they are genuine, but there hasn’t been enough proof or evidence for me to believe otherwise. I also believe that Sprousehart is severely overexposed and overrated, and they are too exposed to modern media. They are too exposed for an odd couple that scarcely has any unique chemistry. Sprousehart is no Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall or Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor. Hell, Sprousehart isn’t even Brangelina. As a result, I can’t understand for the life of me why this “couple” is so overexposed in the media. Sprousehart is overhyped, and because of them, the prominent writers have voluntarily chosen to cater to them and Bughead by writing fan service. The sole reason why Bughead is still together on the successful show is because of Sprousehart, the fake PR celebrity couple. The network and the writers know that they have a huge naive fanbase of teenage girls who worship them, and they know that if they break them up, all hell will break loose on the internet. Bughead and Sprousehart by possible extension will represent the imminent downfall of Riverdale, and it will be undoubtedly those two odd couples that will ultimately be this shows demise. 

Those are all of my reasons for hating Bughead. Now that I have listed all my reasons, you can understand why I believe this couple is the worst thing to happen to Riverdale and why I think that this ship needs to sink fast. Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk. ☮️

#anti bughead #barchie #jeronica #riverdale