#these people need YEARS of therapy

[ispyspookymansion]

BOO!

oh sorry….come in…..hello…welcome to my halloween party ^_^ feel free to take a piece of candy and a goodie bag before you go okay? have a fun (and nostalgic) halloween season!!

#seems like many people related to this i hope some of yall click the og post now <3 #originally this post said i dont need therapy i need to be 8 years old at halloween again #kora.txt #gritting my teeth white knuckle gripping the edge of the table. Yeah No Its Fine. #the things i will never experience again haunt me… #8 is arbitrary. anything before like. 15. would work.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

*tries to organize my thoughts*

*remembers i'm not in school and therefore beholden to neither heaven nor hell nor any man's grading system*

*joyously shredding & tossing all my carefully arranged 3x5 mental notecards into the air like so much beige confetti. raising my arms in victory, cheering raucously until i accidentally inhale bits of homemade confetti*

(*coughing up itty bits of paper like a cat evicting a hairball with a firm understanding of tenants' rights*) wait wat happens next

#i marie kondoed my thoughts and *i* feel great. but now my stream-of-consciousness has escaped containment #so many innocent bystanders at stake #every time i try to organize my thoughts i run out of plastic bins and have to make a trip to the container store where i get even more dis #racted so. you can't just hand me THIS brain and NO catalogue OR library classification system #and expect me to single-handedly sort through all this nonsense? bad form but fucking form not in my job description #aNYways. formal education sure did a FUCKING NUMBER on us huh #(a number i measure not in gpa or dollars of student debt. #but in the number of therapy sessions & medical debt it will take to recover.) #seriously folks. our education systems are...innately traumatizing for a huge number of students. and we NEED to address this. #the fact that it is culturally common for adults to have anxiety nightmares about school/exams...even decades later? #that is not cute. it is Alarming. #no one--much less entire generations--should be spending their developmental years in an environment of chronic stress & pressure & strain #and yet that is the reality for millions and millions of pre-teen and teenage and young adult students #this isn't healthy and it serves and empowers NO ONE #...except of course the many exploitative educational & financial & debt-collecting institutions thriving from the current balance of power #and of course it's a nefarious and powerful way to sabotage/erase the middle class #which billionaires and the wealth-inequality creators they finance couldn't possibly have any noteworthy interest in whatsoever #it's not like there's an elite group of people with huge financial incentives to drain/steal resources from the masses... #anyways sorry for going all Conspiracy Theory on you. #obviously the billionaires who control the vast majority of our resources and news and political campaign funding #are not tied to every single itty bitty social issue and i'm a silly billy to imply it #please tell elon musk to ignore this tweet i am so subservient and acquiescent #mr musky u r so good at inheriting slavery-built mining fortunes & buying other people's companies #& building rocket ships & fancy cars that do NOT explode/catch fire & also NOT running billion dollar companies into the ground #mr musky u r so talented genius billionaire playboy with 10 kids and ex-wives who find you creepy af babe u r basically iron man

[hajihiko]

back off our boy!

#Yes yes you're in love with Hajime. Bitch we all are!! Play nice or ELSE #Sdr2 #Super danganronpa 2 #Danganronpa 2 #Danganronpa #danganronpa 2 goodbye despair #Hajime hinata #nagito komaeda #Sonia nevermind #Akane owari #Kazuichi Souda #Fuyuhiko kuzuryu #Their endless weird unhealthy flirting game is ended by the power of : #Friends Who Want What's Best For You (And May Be A Bit Overprotective) #Once again I feel u must clarify. I'm not like a vicious hater of the ship or anything #I think they (and chiaki) make the most sense as love interests #I just also believe they're very unhealthy for one another and need like t years of therapy before they should ethically try dating at all #Sometimes people can have feelings and be back for each other and that's a fun thing to roll around and analyze imo!

[wellthebardsdead]

Halsin: My precious star. How old were you when you were taken from the light?

Astarion: ugh don’t be so poetic about it dear, I was 40 if you must know.

Halsin: *brain short circuiting knowing as an elf himself they don’t fully mature until they reach 100 in age* … *tenderly hugs him close and strokes his hair* So I’m going to introduce you to this thing called, therapy-

#halstarion #Halsin x astarion #astarion baldurs gate #halsin baldur's gate 3 #and just to clarify Halsin is freaking out because of how much trauma astarion experienced at a young age for elves #even more so because he didn’t have a safe space to process any of it for 200 years #yes astarion is well and truely a mature elf but he’s a mature elf with a lot of trauma that needs addressing with care #trauma that has greatly skewed his views and outlook on the world and the people in it #astarion needs a lot of therapy

[houseswife]

find it sooo funny that foreman is cuddy now and chase is house because although cuddy was an enabler she at least had some semblance of what you’re meant to do as a doctor. so she could hold up the facade a tiny bit. chase is gonna walk in like “I need approval to amputate this guy’s perfectly working legs and then re-attach them using dental floss. without anaesthesia btw. and we’re gonna hypnotise his medical proxy to get consent. we think he has a mild mint allergy and I need the answer” and foreman isn’t even gonna look up from his paperwork before responding “k lol”

#ignore the fact that foreman is canonically stricter than cuddy with his punishments bc he’s still resisting his internal house-ness #I choose to believe that at some point he’s either 1) so blinded by the years of malpractice that his ethical judgement is genuinely #compromised #or 2) he just stops giving a fuck #but I admit I did enjoy seeing him say ‘you lied to a patient?!’ as if that’s the worst thing their department has ever done #babygirl. you covered up a murder. you have tortured people on multiple occasions. #this has turned into me needing to sit in on one of foreman’s nonexistent therapy seshes #house md #hatecrimes md #eric foreman #robert chase #lisa cuddy #greg house #choreman #<- I don’t even ship them within the show but I like them in a ‘doomed to repeat the narrative’ kinda way

[adhd-merlin]

#the way she brainwashed two of the people arthur loved and trusted the most and tried to get them to kill him. TWICE #girl do you think maybe we should talk about your unresolved trauma #do you think being betrayed by your father and by the only friend who knew about your magic #and your resentment towards your brother for sharing some of uther's beliefs #do you think maybe that has something to do with. why you're like this #honestly she's fascinating #you poisoned me so I'll poison you!! #I spent two years trapped in a well so I will seal you in a cave!! see how you like it #the funny thing is I don't think she realises why she's doing all this #she needed therapy so badly #* #merlin memes #morgana pendragon

[sluckythewizard]

these are A BIT OLD but uhhh here check out these aggio doodles i did forever ago. still VERY happy w my colors :3

#this was back in uhhhh jan 2023!! hot dog!! and its still perfeclty good to eat! #i think kian and chip would get along. they could talk about feelings. kian could give chip the therapy he needs. maybe kiss? who said that #jay and rand could also get along i think. smoke buddies. cigarette fans. i bet they could play dnd together. or build a contraption togeth #also WAUHG the way i colored in kira here is SO PERFECT.. SHES SO SPARKLY N PRETTY. ALSO THAT HOOORNN i remember bleeding for that #shading is HARD lighting is HARD drawing a crazy unicorn is HARD but SOOOO WORTH IT I SITLL LOVE HOW IT LOOKES..... #waht else is there. oh yes the prime defender doodles #i love mark so much.... i miss being crazy and strange abt mark winters... i need to draw him killing more people someday #anyway i gotta go to bed soon to keep my sleep schedul on track but I DONT WAANNA!!!! recently relistened to bitb. that might release spore #im also chippin away at that am i in heaven animatic between workin on commissions. I GOT RLY FAR!! i think that i could finish it within #like. 3 or 4 more inspo waves. it wont be unfinished forevcer..... its so close... just 4 more full scenes to rly fleshh out #so basically another 2 years. YEAH BABy. in the meantime i have a backlog of things i can poast. i got plenty o drawings and doodles to sha #alrigh thats all the ramblin im gonna do for now. sleep well everyone hope shool or work goes easy on u in the coming week

[goldkirk]

I'm so proud of myself about finances in the past couple months. I still struggle with money but I did enough meditation and journaling and practicing about it to make myself able to actually face my loans and credit cards and savings and bills and start really truly organizing and addressing them for the first time in years instead of just flying by the seat of my pants.

Like. This is a huge deal for me. I've felt like I'm in deadly danger every time I've tried to think about money for years and years. I'm finally able to look it in the face and stare it down and start to organize and plan on purpose instead of just keeping up with the minimum to stay afloat. I'm so proud of myself.

It's still a refrain of "GUILT (funny link)" every time I think about money but I'm able to actually make spreadsheets and face the numbers and monthly tracking again, and even make a new full budget which I haven't been able to do in ages.

still feel guilt, overwhelm, and helplessness, but no longer feel as much deep elemental shame and terror. that's progress baby

#we don't need to talk about how many months and months of therapy visits and doctor appointments I put on credit cards #among other things #but I had to put my foot down about it a couple months ago and shout at myself a little saying HEY #I AM SHAKING YOU BY THE SHOULDERS I AM SHOUTING FOR YOU TO HEAR #OF COURSE IT WAS A TERRIBLE FINANCIAL DECISION BUT YOU WEREN'T EVEN EXPECTING TO BE ALIVE #THE CREDIT CARD DEBT WAS NECESSARY TO KEEP YOU ALIVE AND IT DID AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS WAY LESS IMPORTANT THAN THAT #why the FUCK are you feeling SO ASHAMED for making the best decision you knew how to make at the time??? #just because you know NOW that you could have tried some other options doesn't mean you did THEN #you may have known enough to feel shame and guilt yes but you would never in a million years have gotten the help you needed fast enough #by attempting to go another route #you didn't trust anyone besides a very few handfuls of people and even them it wasn't fully #and the stress of running it through parental insurance was so terrifying to you bc you didn't know what that would do #and you never had cosigners for anything your whole adult life. it's OKAY #you fucking DID YOUR BEST #YOU HAVE LEARNED. YOU HAVE MADE CHANGES. YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE BETTER #YOU WILL CONTINUE TO LEARN AND IMPROVE OVER TIME #it is not the end of the world. even the utilities sending you to debt collections etc etc #YOU ARE FIGURING IT OUT ONE PIECE AT A TIME #MORE PEOPLE ARE ASHAMED AND AFRAID OF THEIR OWN FINANCES THAN YOU THINK #if the people who fought and argued with and shamed you for considering student loans much less taking them out #had wanted you to actually be financially safer and healthier #they could have just fucking helped out or cosigned your loans or actively helped you find other solutions #instead of spending months and months telling you it was the worst decision ever and would ruin you financially for decades and such #you made the best decisions you could with the level of terror and knowledge that you had. it was enough to keep you alive. #isn't that enough? #isn't it a victory to survive?? isn't that enough?????? #god i'm cringing at sharing this but if it's been this hard for me surely at LEAST one of you has also made financial mistakes or regrets #and seeing me be honest that I fucked it all up too and it's a mess and I'm just climbing back through it as best as I can as I go #will hopefully make at least one of you feel a tiny bit less alone

[cyborgcatboys]

-- TAKING A BREAK --

hewwo, im gonna be taking a break from tumblr for the next while.

ive come to realize that im on tumblr wayyyy too much bc of my (newly found) ocd so im leaving for a while to try and deal with it (+ other stuff in the op tags)

i'll be back once im satisfied w/ my progress, but there is a chance i won't be back for months, so if u want to stay in contact send me a DM w ur discord or smthn, i'll check them a couple of times in the next couple days, but after that no tumblr at all.

so yeah, byebyes & i'll see u people later hopefully <3

#cybernetic meows #im putting more reasons why under the cut in the tags #xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx #okay so ive found that i probably have ocd and the whole chronological dash is actually quite bad for me bc ive gotten obsessive over #seeing every single post from all the blogs im following and thats just not really worth it in terms of time and #plus im quite lonely atm so seeing people on the dash being friends and having fun together is honestly making me feel sick and #a bit dysphoric #which just sucks but its not really anyones fault (but mine ig) #this break is mainly just so i can sort out life #finish exams get a job #get some mf therapy cuz yeah i def need it #try and connect w my local queer community hopefully #maybe try and move out but thats probly years away yet #anyway if u read this far thanks i appreciate it alot <3

[francy-sketches]

Nothing lamer than a fictional character going to therapy and working through their issues in a healthy way. Bitch go kill someone

#.txt #I remember people used to get really mad when books didn't end with all the characters going to therapy lol #maybe they still do idk #and it was always with kids media 💀 'why didn't percy jackson end with everyone horribly traumatized and in need of extensive therapy' #not saying a kids book can't talk about trauma but. you're against it having an happy ending??? girl. #thank god asoiaf is in the fantasy middle ages so nobody can complain about that #medieval therapy is just like. ah you must rid yourself of these foul humours! not to worry my friend! a good leeching will surely help :) #with some asoiaf characters I would want them to get help if they were in the modern world but. depends on how funny their mental issues ar #I would never in a milion years want to fix whatever the fuck is wrong with joffrey. he's perfect just the way he is 🥰

[itty-bitty-sunshine]

Oooooooh do you have any more lore for your immortal au? It sounds so cool agh

I do! So much! So glad people seem to like the concept this au has been rotating in my brain for such a long time <3

This is gonna be a bit of rambling but thank you so much for helping me organize this enough to explain

So! Our little immortal, Perkeo (could be your yn, at this point this is more a nickname they choose to go by than the legal name they are using) has been around for a good while, few centuries at least

They lived a lot, laughed a lot, loved a lot

Suffered a lot

They are the can't age can't die type of immortal. Cut them to tiny pieces and you'll see them back in one piece somehow

They are a very social creature and are always happy to mingle with people, liking to make people happy because the world is rotten enough as it is

However, as the years go by, they've grown tired of seeing close people come and go — even if someone spends their entire life next to them, they will be gone one day. Perkeo is ultimately lonely

So, as technology advances, they decide to give it all a last shot

Which is how they end up working at the pizzaplex at it's very beginning, home of a few of the most advanced robots and artificial intelligence there is

What's a decade of wait for someone who has centuries?

They could, but do not want to build something to love them. That would be forced, that is not love — so, why not befriend an already built robot instead? They are basically like people at this point, besides, fazbear entertainment is not known for caring that much about their animatronics, so if the place closes down they will eventually be left to rot anyway, isn't that a win? Just gotta wait around for the plex to shut down and eventually have a new life with your friends if they want to go with you

It's not stealing company property if said property is abandoned. And also if you have enough time to transfer the property ownership to you by messing with some papers

Especially if it's the chance you've been longing for all along: to have someone able to be there with you forever as long as they wish to

Robots can last a very, very long time as long as well maintained, can't they?

(Perkeo has a whole background too which is a whole other story. Jobs they've had, people they've known, how they've affected them, there's so much)

#boxofcreampuffs #ask #so so SO happy people like my au #i could ramble on it for hours i swear #this ask made my night thank you so much <3 #i had wait to answer this after posting the doodles but I've been staring at this for hours #i made this au a year ago solely because i hate the idea of. y'now #robot makes friends with human but outlives them #so i decided hey. why not make the human immortal #what was meant to be a saving from the angst turned out to be even angstier obdiebwiwjk #love Perky with all my heart but by GOD they need therapy #immortal au #immortal au ask #its 3am i need to go to bed

[carefulfears]

And my girl Scully figured out that Diana and Phoebe were abusive to him and that’s why she was ready to disintegrate them with whenever they breathed Mulder’s air iktr. (Also to me that’s part of the reason Mulder was oblivious and defended them, people who are in abusive relationships are not always aware of it)

YUPP you’re literally dead right, anon, in my opinion. it really bugs me when people talk shit about mulder for “trusting” both phoebe and diana, as though that’s not like…the only thing he’s been taught to do.

i’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between scully’s reactions to phoebe vs. diana. when phoebe showed up, scully had only known mulder for a few weeks. and still she knew almost instantly that something wasn’t right.

i didn’t notice until i rewatched fire the way that she never leaves him alone with her. if mulder and phoebe are working on something, you can see scully. against the wall, peeking around the door, pacing in the hallway. he tells her that she’s “off the hook,” that he’s not going to “put her through this” with “phoebe’s little mind games,” and she takes it upon herself to investigate phoebe’s case herself, until she solves it and phoebe can go the fuck home.

girlbosses catch serial murderers singlehandedly to get their best friend’s shitty ex away from them.

when phoebe was around, scully is passive aggressive as hell. constantly hanging around and making little quips and mocking her accent.

when diana shows up? five years later? she’s just aggressive.

she said nah, we aren’t doing this again 😭😭

(one of my favorite scully moments is when she snaps “and not just because i think that woman is a….well, you know what i think that woman is” and mulder is just like “no you hide your feelings sooo well” lmfao)

i really do think meeting phoebe so early in their partnership informs a lot about the way scully reacts to his exposure and relationship to other people throughout the series. she really doesn’t trust a soul around him.

i always think of this line from madness by kittenscully (a post-syzygy fic, addressing the detective white incident):

“A surge of righteous indignation at the notion makes her sit up straighter, and she bites her tongue to avoid a very unpleasant comment from slipping out. As always, she thinks of Phoebe, of his wide, trusting eyes.”

diana was scary levels of manipulative and violating. but diana loved mulder, scully knew that and used that to plead with her in the end.

phoebe didn’t care about anything but playing with fire. she got off on scaring him, crossed state lines just to fuck with his head and hurt him, just like in their relationship a decade earlier. mulder knew this, he knew from the start what she was doing and what she wanted, and he helped her anyway. he praised her anyway. he connected with her and invested in her anyway.

y’all know i’m always thinking about the script note about phoebe’s coldness “eliciting some old need in him to have her affection.”

by the time diana came back around, scully had sat on the floor of a hotel and watched phoebe smile and shake hands with bureaucrats while mulder couldn’t breathe.

scully had stood in the next room when his questions to his mother got him little more than a slap to the face.

it’s different with diana because there’s a lot more history and connection there, and because at that point there is heartbreak and jealousy on scully’s side (when phoebe was in town, she hung around in doorways. when diana reaches for mulder’s hand, she turns around and holds back tears in the car.)

it’s a difficult position for both of them. he doesn’t know how to do anything but appease and trust and be loyal, to help whoever asks. he doesn’t care if it hurts him, he’s been groomed his whole life for that, to feel like he deserves it.

it makes scully crazy. he’s her best friend. she can’t believe anyone would look at that kind of softhearted hope and want to exploit it or crush it, rather than look up to it, follow it, nurture it.

and it hurts!! it hurts to watch him fall back into these traps, and especially with diana, it hurts to feel that your input and relationship doesn’t matter enough to have influence. to not be listened to, to feel like you’re not being chosen.

she doesn’t know that he went to search diana’s apartment after she told him not to trust her. she just heard, “i know her. you don’t. scully, you’re reaching.” and watched him leave.

it’s just this perfect crossroads of each of their most vulnerable spots. scully wants to protect him, always, and she also wants to be chosen.

mulder has to stand by his allegiances, to seek ‘affection’ in cruelty, to play his role in the larger scheme. this is what CSM knew when he recruited diana into the conspiracy, and he knows because he “created” it.

you can’t judge either of them, they’re both following their natures, and furthering the narrative they were chosen for.

(until scully stands in front of diana and begs, “i just want you to think…stand there in front of me, look me in the eye”…and breaks the whole thing down.)

#TLDR children weaned on poison etc etc #LOVE WON IN THE END!! always. scully’s ferocious devotion won in the end #asks #scully baby i hope you got your bubble baths that year #it’s hard. because he Does listen to her and internalize her input #but he also Needs to not lose these last connections and these last people who ‘cared’ about him and to please them and to be what they want #i mean he was like 18 when he met phoebe. ‘she was brilliant. i got in over my head.’ #he and diana were together (married) (to Me) for like 5 years #during one of the most vulnerable periods of his life. and his transition into discovering the files and doing therapy and leaving the VCU #Sigh #i know scully would zip him safely in her pocket if she could but like she also feels so insecure and disregarded when diana is around #so it’s like both her Constant protectiveness and her own intimate emotional response. it’s just a lot. #i love season 6 #‘bum a cigarette agent fowley?’ #👌👌👌 #Diana

[nashvillethotchicken]

Ldpdl need some friends he ain't fuckin or kin with and bad. Like real bad

#he need a 9-5 so he can make an 73 year old friend named otis #interview with the vampire #smth about having a real old ass work friend just make you normal in the head in a way that therapy dont #je also dont need to work cus hes the disordered peoples princess but i digress #he need a secretary job so he dont start biting walls and talking about metaphors #louis de pointe du lac #iwtv #amc iwtv #ldpdl #like its crazy he really aint got no friends he not like me fr #like he got lestat but that nigga crazy in a bad way #and armand is crazy in a neutral way. a Neurodivergent way #he need to go be a cashier at the walmart a couple miles out that would fix him #i genuinely think if ldpdl worked an office job or night shift at a wendys hed be 87% less like that cus the fumes from regular hoes #would make him immediately less self absorbed #itd be like smelling salts but for rich redbones #like i need him to hear from a chatty but ultimately well meaning office gossip in a break room so bad #like he need to know that people got problems #also i think hed like the human interactions. itd be like cat videos to him #he need to go to night school #he need a trade. he need to go to electrician school. truly anything that aint hanging with them crazy ass people #he need to be like every black woman i know and get so many advanced degrees

[mustangs-flames]

Hey guys, I'm going to be taking a break for a little while. I'll pop in from time to time to check the hail true body au tag and will still be uploading the next chapter of Good Samaritan once it's done, but I feel I need to step back for a bit. If you need me/want to ask something/want me to see something you can still tag me or send an ask, but I can't promise to answer it quickly. I will see it eventually though!

Take care! (further explanation of things on my end in the tags but tw: mental health, just in case)

#i am genuinely getting very bad at overthinking things like interactions from years ago and spiralling into bad anxiety attacks lately- #and i just #idk. i think i need to step back and away from things? i'll still be writing and posting to ao3 but i think a break could do me some good #i keep catching myself right on the edge of panic attacks and then feeling terrible afterwards #might need medication and therapy again to get stuff back under some semblance of order #i keep having genuine intrusive thoughts too that make me terrified that i am hurting people i care about or random strangers and i just.. #yeah. it's freaking me out really bad. #yeah. a break sounds good. #sorry for the vent

[spacecrows]

me (diagnosed with ADHD): *talks about little funny/annoying things my brain does (because of the ADHD)* my mom (not diagnosed with anything): wow that's so funny, the exact same thing happens to me too! i've never heard anyone else describe that. so random that you get that too. genetics, huh? :))

#sure mom. funny. funny coincidence. #this happens every time i see her #it happened like 6 times today alone #meanwhile my dad and my sister are staring at us like 'your brains do WHAT now???' #she doesn't really know much about adhd #i only got diagnosed a few years ago and she wasn't part of that process at all because she was living in another country back then #and like. i've gently mentioned to her before that genetics seem to play a big role in adhd too #and that actually many people get a late diagnosis when their child gets diagnosed #and it's fine. i won't pressure her to look into it more because she's doing well! #i don't think she needs meds or therapy or whatever at this point #but i just feel like it might help with how she sees herself? because it's so deeply engrained into her that she is Not Smart??? #because she flunked out of school as a teenager??? #due to bad grades #and like. oh i wish i could talk to that girl #things turned out well for her and she's generally a happy person #but still. i know part of her think she's stupid. and i fucking hate that #anyway i mainly just think this is really funny when it happens #adhd #nd

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

Feeling very violent rn so here's a very controversial opinion:

Everything after season one of Young Justice sucked.

Look, I know I'm obsessed with the show but that doesn't mean it's good, it means that I'm too deep into it at this point to get out. There are good moments within the other seasons but in general? They were not good.

I'm sorry. I understand that they wanted to be creative and have a neat narrative and deep lore and all that. And they do! The narrative and lore is extremely deep.

But the plot? The characters??

Season one was an actual functional show that balanced character development, plot and dialogue with world building, lore and messaging.

The other seasons do not do that.

Season two bounced back and forth between like 16 characters. We got some development for some characters but even that was minimal compared to the character development in S1. And this isn't me complaining that the og group wasn't in S2 enough. That's not my issue. I would've loved to focus on a new group and I think that Jaime, Bart, Ed and Gar would've been super cool to focus on. I loved what character development they did have and I craved more.

But the problem? The problem is when you have 16 fucking characters that you are trying to develop and shove into a coherent plot and have actual meaningful scenes. There just wasn't enough focus on S2. Imo, S2 was meh because the characters got left by the wayside. The plot, dialogue, world building, lore and messaging was fine, there just seemed to be a lack of heart/warmth in the show because of the characters. It's hard to get invested.

Then holy shit. S3 introduced more characters. And the plot got more contrived and 'big picture' to the point that it started to abstract. It felt like nothing mattered. There were no stakes, you were just watching things happen. There was 50 fucking things happening an episode and 80% of it was lore/world building. It felt like I was studying for a fictional history exam.

I'm pretty sure the main character in S3 was earth 16. Just the entire universe. Because goddamn. We checked in on almost every living being and EVERYTHING was a plot point. Most of it wasn't even relevant to anything happening in the season. Man it was.... it was bad.

And at that point it just wasn't enjoyable at all to watch. I probably should've stopped watching but at that point the sunk cost fallacy had already kicked in. I knew it could be good. Maybe it could be good again. And people were constantly praising it as cinematic genius so I was like 'okay well maybe I'm missing the point? Maybe you aren't supposed to enjoy shows? Maybe this is fine?'

But season four broke me.

The creators heard that people were frustrated by the lack of character focus and the episodes following 72 characters and the episodes switching between 50 different subplots every episode and their solution? Their solution was to take allllllll the different unconnected plots and, instead of evenly spreading them throughout the season, jam them all into 'arcs'. So you had a bunch of mini seasons consisting of 3-5 episodes dedicated to a cast of ~5-8 characters (some of them new). And each of these episodes had unconnected a plots, b plots and c plots.

THAT IS NOT A SOLUTION

Holy shit that is not a solution.

Not to mention the overarching plot of the season, in which we had no fucking clue what was happening until the final episodes where everything became a speedrun to wrap everything up. We literally had no idea what the main plot was until it was ending.

Good god it was bad. It's bad writing!

I know people liked it and good for them. You should like what you like and you don't have to justify it. But for me it was insanity. I'm sorry I actually don't want a season long subplot where Beast Boy is depressed and sleeps all day. I would be cool with it if it had anything to do with the larger story but, surprisingly, spending five minutes watching Beast Boy sleep every episode didn't make for compelling storytelling.

I'm still not over how we didn't even know who the main villain was until the end of the season. And then all of a sudden he does a villain monologue to tell everyone his evil plan and his motives. Super cool actually. I love it when I have no idea what the stakes are for the majority of a show. It's incredibly good storytelling when you leave the audience in the dark about a major player in the plot for all of the plot. And then doing an info dump evil monologue in the final episodes to rush through the explanation??? Fucking fantastic and not a sign of terrible pacing at all.

I'm just so frustrated. The show isn't about being a show anymore. The show is an entire cinematic universe shoved into 20 something episodes. It's desperate to tell every single story at once, audience, pacing and good writing be damned.

I'm so tired of the constant praising of Greg. His whole 'i don't write endings because life doesn't have endings' and 'i don't write cliffhangers, I just leave things open ended' thing is pretentious bullshit. I'm tired of pretending it's not. A good story has an ending. Stories are not life! Some of the best shows I've ever watched had planned endings. And oh my god. The cliffhanger thing... that's just semantics my guy. Greg you write cliffhangers. You can insist they aren't but I'm going to call a spade a spade.

It's also.... I'm fine with explaining things, in fact I love it because it's an excuse to talk about the stuff I love, and I have a fairly decent knowledge of comic book lore. So, I could not only understand what was happening in the show but I was also super enthusiastic about explaining it to people. But hey Greg? Hey buddy? If 90% of your audience doesn't know what the fuck is going on and needs to be familiar with super specific obscure comic characters from the 70's then you might have a problem.

I think I realized halfway through s4 that the most enjoyment I got from an episode was when an obscure comic character would cameo in it. But then I realized that a) they generally weren't explained at all and b) 50% of the time they weren't just hanging out in the background and they were vital to the plot. So to understand who the fuck they were and what the fuck was happening you had to be familiar with... well all of DC comics actually.

Anyway this rant is getting long and unhinged and I don't think there's a point so I'm going to cut myself off even though I have so much more to say on the topic. I think my general point is just that I didn't enjoy watching the later seasons and it's chill if you did and we should all respect each other's opinions ✌️

#rant #oh also the messaging sucked #the messages itself were fine. like 'you should go to therapy if you are depressed' and 'respect people's religions' and #'figuring out your gender/sexual identity is chill af' #those are great messages. the content is great and i don't disagree #BUT HOLY FUCK #yo Zatara ranting about his religion to Fate for 15 minutes is not how you get a message across #messages are supposed to be like themes and subtle points of the narrative #it's not supposed to be a fucking psa where the characters just talk for half the episode and say the message verbatim to the audience #itd be like if in season one M'gann stood up and spent ten minutes talking about the damaging psychological effects of body image issues #and everyone else just sat there and nothing happened and M'gann just kinda spoke about it #or if Artemis was just like 'im going to do a presentation on why child abuse is bad' #its just. thats not. thats not how messages in a plot work #but they didn't develop the characters enough. so instead of s1 where the messages were blatantly obvious #we just had side character zatara who we know nothing about talk about religion like he was doing a PSA for kindergartners #because we don't know his character and he had zero focus so that was literally the only way to get the message across #and im sorry but that's bad writing. if you are sacrificing character plot and narrative for a message then maybe scrap the message #or you know actually have a developed character do the message. like write the message through a developed character so it doesn't #need to be spoonfed to the audience like we're five year olds learning different shapes from a teacher